NEP 2020 will change teaching pedagogy in India, says Tamil Nadu guv

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 will transform teaching pedagogy in India, said Governor R N Ravi while inaugurating a two-day conference of vice-chancellors of state and private universities at Raj Bhavan in Udhagamandalam on Monday.

The BJP-led central government’s NEP is among the many contestants between the Governor and Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK government. The state has been against the NEP and a committee was formed to draft a State Education Policy which is yet to be released.

Chancellor of state universities of Tamil Nadu RN Ravi said that when he came to Tamil Nadu two-and-half years back, he noticed that the state universities were working in isolation and facing challenges in improving their standards due to lack of communication and coordination among them. “To overcome this situation and provide a forum where the eminent leaders of higher education can learn from each other, this conference is being organized,” he said. “Bharatiya Knowledge System” (Indian Knowledge System) is not static but keeps improving standards to meet the challenges of technologies,” the Governor said and quoted a couplet from Tamil saint Thiruvalluvar.

“The Kural (couplet) is the inspiration for our New Education Policy 2020 which talks about a transformative education system. Education is empowerment and we have to make a concrete platform to ensure that students come out with the confidence to live with dignity by exploring their true potentials,” he said.

In the era of artificial Intelligence, there is a need for transformation in the approach of teaching pedagogy, which is one of the core focus of NEP, which would usher in a new higher education system for India, he added.

The leaders from various universities from across the state, faculty experts and educational scholars from across the country are participatign in the two-day conference. University Grants Commission chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar spoke on the importance of addressing concerns related to sustainability on factors such as meeting the increasing requirements of a growing population, respecting societal and cultural values, considering the human-built environment, and respecting the boundaries of the earth’s systems.

The conference comes amid the ongoing standoff between the Raj Bhavan and the state government on the appointment of vice chancellors to three universities. This issue began last September 6, when the governor announced that three search-cum-selection committees will appoint the vice-chancellors to the University of Madras, Bharathiar University in Coimbatore and the Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University in Chennai. He also introduced a fourth member in the committee by nominating a person on behalf of the chairman of the UGC. Hitherto, the process was that the governor, government and the university would appoint a nominee each to form a three-member search-cum-selection committee.

On September 13 last year, the higher education department under the minister K Ponmudy issued a notification for a search-cum-selection committee by excluding the nominee of the UGC chairman. This angered the governor, who called the government’s actions an “act of impropriety” and demanded the state to withdraw their notification. As a result of this standoff, the three universities have been headless for months which prompted the state to move the Supreme Court on the matter. The governor earlier this year in January withdrew the three notifications he had issued on the matter.