During a day-long conference on NEP-2020, themed, “Empowering Education Leaders for Holistic Education,” Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah said that as the New Education Policy is now five years old, need is to evaluate where we have succeeded, where we have fallen short, and what more can be done to implement it better because a policy is only as effective as its application and understanding. He said the future of Jammu and Kashmir will be shaped significantly by the educators, policymakers, and institutional leaders who guide the younger generation and they are the ones who will decide how capable our children will be in contributing to the development of J&K and the country at large.
For any society to progress on all fronts, proper education to its children is the key. It is the education that helps a child to become a responsible, creative, innovative and productive citizen who can lead her/his society and nation to a developed future. The schools are a perfect medium to ignite the engine of J&K’s overall development and economic growth and thus the administration should ensure that all the schools are maintaining academic standards, empowering young students to develop experimental skills, exposing them to exciting innovations. The schools in far flung and remote areas need to get special attention and the administration should ensure that these schools too have well trained and dedicated staff available.
As rightly pointed out by the CM, there is persistent gaps in subject availability and staffing and many government schools and colleges are unable to offer a wide range of subjects due to faculty shortages. All the existing schools need to have sufficient staff as suggested in NEP-2020 besides the infrastructure. NEP-2020 has laid down certain innovative procedures and if the same are utilized properly, our younger generation will undoubtedly come out of schools well educated and skilled as well. The success of any policy depends on the efforts of those who have to execute the same on the ground and in this case, it is the teacher who has to play a pivotal role. It is the teacher who has to ensure the over all development of the students. Teachers need to rededicate themselves to the profession which is noblest of the all. It is the teacher who has the potential to make or break the future of her/his students. The concerned department should ensure that the teachers get regular training and are equipped with all types of modern technologies to implement NEP-2020.