New Education Policy a Creative Step Forward: Former VC of DU

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bharadwaj

Former Vice Chancellor of Delhi University, Dinesh Singh warmly welcomed the New Education Policy 2020, saying the policy did away with a lot of methods that burdened the students and disarmed them to think analytically.

‘A Creative Step’

Praising the work by the NEP drafting committee, chairpersoned by Dr Kasturirangan, Singh said he was a critic of the policy initially. He noted that India’s education system was in much need of a reform and he himself had made such efforts at the time when he was the Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi.

“School education is like the foundation of a structure. If that is not strengthened then higher education won’t be as strong. So, we need to work on making school education strong and the NEP includes appreciable steps for that purpose.”

Professor Dinesh Singh, Former Vice Chancellor, DU

Core Measures in NEP 2020

• The Policy discourages rote learning. Mugging things up exhausts the students and makes them unable to think.
• The Policy encourages the initial education to be in the student’s mother tongue or local language and the student later masters languages like English. Even Gandhi stressed on that.
• The Policy includes extra-curricular activities and sports within school education.
• The Policy inculcates practical knowledge in school education.
• The Policy also seeks to reinforce testing in an enlightened way and will constitute an agency for the purpose.

Professor Singh says the exam pattern in place now prevents the students’ brains from evolving, the system has no practical usage in the long run and students indulge in rote learning without thinking.

NEP 2020 in Higher Education

As the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University 6-7 years back, professor Singh witnessed that each year about 30 percent of DU students dropped out mid year, without any certification of their education.

So, they had taken steps to give the drop outs a diploma degree and the chance for them to finish their degree within 10 years of dropping out. Similarly, the New Education Policy provides the drop outs with a certificate just so their education so far does not go to a waste.

He commends the introduction of a holistic and multidisciplinary education system that promotes practical skills over anything else. Singh says this will help the students associate with the needs and the challenges faced by society.

“NEP has redefined education in India. India can become a knowledge economy. The only challenge is to reinforce the policy smartly.”

Professor Dinesh Singh, Former Vice Chancellor, DU