New National Education Policy accepted by all, whole country working to implement it: Amit Shah

The new National Education Policy (NEP) has been accepted by all and the whole country is working to implement it, unlike the NEPs in the past which created controversies owing to ideological links, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said. Addressing graduating students at the 4th convocation of the Central University of Gujarat on Sunday, Shah said the NEP 2020 will work to bring education out of the scope of narrow thinking, and teachers must read it "between the lines" to understand its implications.

"Normally, education policies have a history of being mired in controversies. There were two NEPs in the past and were always surrounded by controversies. Many commissions were also formed in between for the implementation of educational reforms, but they were always surrounded by controversies," Shah said.

Referring to controversies, he said, unfortunately, we had a tradition of linking education policy with ideology and turning it into the mould of that ideology.

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"But nobody could protest or make allegations against the education policy bought by Narendra Modiji in 2022. In a way, the entire society has accepted it and the whole country is moving forward to implement it," he said.

Shah appealed to teachers to especially study the New Education Policy, because only when they read it "between the lines", could they understand its implications.

He said the education policy is going to bring Indian education out of the scope of narrow thinking and offer a platform to the students right from their childhood till the end of their education.

"The aim of education is to (make a student) a complete human, and this NEP gives you a choice to become so. The task of the new education policy is to create such a citizen who is imbued with the feelings of national pride as well as the world welfare," he said.

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Shah also asked graduating students to take at least one pledge regarding their contribution to the country when it celebrates its centenary 25 years later.

"If 130 crore people take a pledge each, then it will be enough to make the country great. If each of 130 crore people walks one step, the country will walk 130 crore steps," the home minister said.

He said the Modi government has also worked towards job creation, and its start-up policy has seen their number jump from 724 in 2016-17 to more than 70,000 in 2022.

As many as 107 Indian start-ups have become unicorns, he said, adding the number of patent applications also rose from 3,000 in 2014 to 1.5 lakh in 2021-22.

"Of the 24,000 patents granted, 23,000 are individual patents," Shah added.