Ready for NEP reforms? UGC Chairman's poser to teachers

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 19

UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar has said teachers in the Indian higher education system need to change their attitudes for the National Education Policy-2020 reforms to be implemented.

Lack of flexibility

Most teachers have come from a system where there is a lack of flexibility, communicating with each other is unheard of. M Jagadesh Kumar

Addressing “Gyanotsav”, an event on the challenges for NEP implementation, being organised in the Capital by RSS affiliate Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, Kumar said most teachers came from a system that lacked flexibility and that was a challenge.

Noting that implementing the NEP was like scaling Mount Everest, which required preparation and mental conditioning, Kumar said, “We need to bring about a change in our attitudes to implement the NEP. There are 15 lakh teachers in our higher education system. Are they prepared to implement the reforms we are suggesting in the NEP?”

“Most teachers have come from a system where there is a lack of flexibility. They come from a system where working in teams is unheard of, communicating with each other is unheard of. We work as individuals in silos and that is what we need to break,” the UGC chief said, urging the teachers to prepare students to challenge authority, be it their own or of textbooks or established theorems.

That is the only way to create new knowledge, he said at the event which was also addressed by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and MoS for Electronics Rajeev Chandrashekhar.

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