Sir,

The article on National Education Policy (NEP) by Prof. G.L. Shekar (SOM dated Aug.31) has given an excellent overview of the new education policy. In all of the areas proposed, the effective implementation across the board, at the same rate of progress, is very important. Governance has always been a challenge, so ensuring proper implementation becomes all the more important.

In addition to policy development and regulations, Governments should either include an enforcement wing, or impose legally binding obligations on designated professional institutions to self-police the initial implementation and ongoing monitoring of quality in a transparent manner.

The community commitment is a very interesting issue. In a society with thousands of years of civilisational knowledge, community involvement is a positive, obviously. However, given the diversity of the nation (or even regions), and some elements of cultural mores at a family level, I am not clear how community involvement can be consistent throughout. In some aspects, different foundational upbringing will safeguard cultural traditions and should be encouraged. However, in other aspects — such as gender equality, a concept that is not openly accepted yet in some communities — the community involvement becomes a hindrance. Once again, implementation details will address all this, I hope.

NEP, I believe, is a once-in-several-generations initiative in India and should not be squandered!

– B.R. (Ravi) Ravishankar, Senior Project Advisor, UN Environment, Ottawa, Canada, 1.9 2020

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