NEP Envisions Major Progressive And Futuristic Reforms: Dr T G Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati

The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020, on July 29th. It aims for bringing major reforms in higher education including a target of 50 per cent Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) by 2035 and provision for multiple entry and exits.

It’s been around three months since then. To understand the way forward on its implementation, BW Education hosted another episode of its Wednesday Wisdom Webinar Series on “National Education Policy And It’s Implementation,” in association with BW Businessworld. Dr T G Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati was the guest for the day and he shared some very insightful information on the subject. 

Sharing his initial thoughts, Prof T G Sitharam, said, “The National Education Policy which was launched on 29th of July, 2020 is a long-waited reform in the education sector which has envisioned major progressive and futuristic reforms in the education sector, with an aim to transform India into a knowledge hub and leap-frogging the country towards a modern 21st century society.” He admired the document for including many game-changing suggestions/recommendations. 

On the implementation front of the National Education Policy, Prof Sitharam stated that whatever is there in the NEP, has already been implemented by most of the IITs, around 2 years back. “The NEP talks about multi-disciplinary education and for several years, we at IITs have Humanities Department, Design Department and Science Department. In addition to that we have Centre for Energy, Centre for Environment and Centre for Nano-Science & technology. So it isn’t only an Engineering institution.” 

He further asserted, “Many innovative ideas of credit transfers are made possible and we have empowered our faculties on the curriculum side. They can decide the curriculum, we don’t dictate from the top. So, these are some of the changes that have been planned in the NEP very elegantly and IITs are already in the forefront.”