New Delhi, March 13: Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh Monday said that the “National Education Policy (NEP) 2020” offers enabling opportunities to aspiring StartUps.
Addressing the Inaugural Session of the 5- National Seminar on “Innovation In Education Through Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) Model in Higher Education” at Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC), Delhi University, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the NEP 2020 accommodates the aspirations of potential StartUps at various stages of their growth.
The new avenues of StartUp initiatives should be determined based on the requirements of the Industry and the market dynamics to make them sustainable, he said.
The Minister said that the National Education Policy 2020 is something that India was waiting for several decades. “The biggest harm that has been done to the country by the education policy that we followed for 65 years is that we created a new genre of population called educated unemployed”, he added.
Dr Singh further said that unless we correct some of the bottom- line misconceptions, we cannot move forward. “This National Education Policy 2020 has given us a clue to realise where we were and to work on accordingly”.
The minister also said that one of the most beautiful provisions in the National Education Policy 2020 is the exit and entry provision. “You are actually given full potential to your aptitude, capacity and also to the opportunities. In the earlier policy every passing year made you more and more captive just like you have entry exit provision for students, you could have that for the teachers as well”, he added.
The Minister said that the other part is the earlier education system also gave us a kind of perverted entitlement. “The New Education Policy will eliminate the nomenclature of dropouts and that gives students an opportunity to try their hand at the skill, innovation or idea that they want to try right now”.
Dr Jitendra Singh added that a change of mindset is needed from obsession with government jobs. “Universities can play an important role here also to liberate the mindset by making people realise that there are avenues that are much more lucrative than a government job and that will draw them”.
The Minister further added that the next is to liberate from the mindset that the educated should be given more entitlement.
“We have huge potential in this country of Agri tech start-ups. Most of their founders are not even graduates. Innovation can be independent of science, of education and degree”.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that the National education policy 2020 has liberated us from all the superfluous entitlements and then made it a tool of not only livelihood but also of ease of living.
