Andhra education minister claims CM's views reflected in NEP

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], July 31 (ANI): Affirming that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has carried many of the recommendations made by the State Government, Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh claimed that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been ahead of times to visualize a level playing field to all students and termed the news published in a section of press as opinionated.
"The Chief Minister wanted education to be accessible, affordable, have equity, quality and accountability and all these reflect in the NEP 2020. He has been advocating that poverty should not be a barrier to higher education and 12 .1 of the Policy says that no one should be deprived of education," said Suresh.
Minister Suresh said that "Amma Vodi" scheme has been launched incentivising mothers to send their children to school and the NEP in 6.4 talks about incentivising parents by cash transfers to bring down the dropout rate.
"Our Government has brought in legislation to monitor and regulate education incorporate education institutions and the NEP clearly states that education is not a commercial activity," said Suresh.
Lambasting the previous TDP government, Suresh said, "The earlier government has behaved like a brand ambassador to corporate education and went about closing down government schools, while our government has revived them and under 'Nadu Nedu' scheme, our government is bringing in the infrastructure and ambience. The State has earmarked Rs 12,000 crores for educational institutions."
The minister continued saying that the Chief Minister was the first to say that the Degree course should be of four years and announced the pre-primary 1 and pre-primary 2 which was echoed in the new policy, which also spoke about bilingual approach, he added.
The nomenclature of the Ministry of Human Resources Development was changed to the Ministry of Education by this government while the previous government dilly-dallied of its entire term.
We have thoroughly discussed the NEP 2020 and will apprise the Chief Minister about the outcome, he said adding that there was a review on the quality improvement in the education system. Digitalization of education was also a feature of our policy which found its place in the new policy. (ANI)