Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC in the UGC Western Zone Conference for Autonomous Colleges hosted by IIM Nagpur, with a primary focus on the "Implementation of the National Education Policy 2020," shared his insights on the importance of implementing the National Education Policy, its potential impact on the education system and students and more.   

The people of our country are highly aspirational and they are very optimistic about making India a fully developed country by 2047. It is this kind of optimism that acts as a driving force of our country. If you recall, this year’s Nobel Prize in economics was given to three economists for their work on how institutions are formed and how these institutions affect the prosperity of Nations. All of us can proudly say that our country has a very strong institutions we have a great Constitution and the parliamentary system. We have a very strong democratic system in our country. We are not only the biggest Democratic country in the world but the Democratic Values are inbuilt in our culture.

A leader in various fields

Recently, we conducted the largest electoral process in the world driven by technology and we have a very strong judicial system. India is leading in many fields and we have the biggest digital public infrastructure in our country, today. We have become the first country in the world to launch a spacecraft on the southern part of the Moon. More than 10% of the Fortune 500 companies are headed by our Indians. We have become the third largest ecosystem for startup companies and the highlight is majority of the startup companies are from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns which clearly indicates that we have enormous talent coming from educational institutions across the country. However, we are still faced with numerous challenges. We have more than 60% of Indians who still live in villages and small towns and they are mostly dependent on agricultural activities.

Therefore, if we would want to become the third largest economy in the world we have to ensure that every Indian has the opportunity to participate in diverse economic activities, if not we will not be able to make our country the third largest economy. And, this is where education plays a major role. Also, as leaders in higher education we have a huge responsibility on our shoulders to ensure that we provide high-quality education to our students on a mass scale because as at present there are about 4.3 Crore students in higher education but in the next 10 years this number will increase and would become 10 Crore and these students would knock our doors asking for high quality education. Hence, are we ready to meet this challenge?

What are the plans for ensuring that every student and every learner should have the opportunity to have the access to high quality education? And, this is where the National Education policy plays a critical role in making sure that we realize this dream.

A visionary plan

NEP 2020 is a great Visionary plan that we have in front of us. If we do not grab this opportunity and implement it successfully we will be missing the bus and that is the reason why I say that as Leaders of higher educational institutions you need to be in the running mode, you need to be constantly thinking about how implementing NEP 2020 and the various reforms that are coming out of NEP 2020 at a rapid pace and on a mass scale.

When we provide high-quality education on a mass scale it enhances the average competencies in the society. When the average competencies go up, the productivity levels will be enhanced, and that will enhance the per capita income of individuals the overall economic system will become stronger and then we will be able to put in more and more Public Funding in higher education.

Therefore, we will be able to reach out to even larger number of students and hence, it is a positive regenerative cycle when you provide high quality education to large number of students. We have been arranging programs like this across the country for creating awareness about NEP 2020 and the various facets of NEP 2020, also to understand the challenges.

Changing challenges into opportunities

It is important to understand about the challenges that we have and convert those into opportunities. Also, it is important for finding solutions to the challenges that we have and Implement NEP 2020 at a rapid pace. I would like to remind you about a phenomenon known as mouse trap syndrome.  All of us have used Mouse traps - a small wooden box with a spring-loaded door used for trapping mice. It was invented in the 19th century and after which more than 70,000 patents have been filed on improved versions of this mousetrap. However, today people still go to the local market and purchase the old version of the mouse trap instead of buying those advanced version. This is because there is not much information about these new mouse traps among people. Therefore, they continue to use the old system. Similarly, we should not fall into this mouse trap syndrome while implementing NEP 2020 we should create awareness among students, among faculty members as well as the leaders of higher education institutions for implementing NEP2020 at a very rapid pace.

Designing the education system to meet both academic & career goals

Conferences like this will help us to understand the challenges that we have and also the best practices. Also, there are many reforms that are coming up today. One of the important factors that I would like to bring to your notice is that out of 4.3 CR students that we have in our country nearly 2/3rd of them they pursue BA, BSc and B.Com and such similar degree programs. Hence, after completion of their degree programs what is that they can do further? Hence, it is our responsibility to ensure that they are provided with appropriate skills as part of their regular education so that when they come out of the institutions they will become either self-employed or can take up the newer opportunities that are coming up. We should design our education system to meet both the academic goals as well as the career goals of our students.

Just few days ago Dr Avichal Raj Kapoor and his team at UGC worked with the help of the experts in the last 6 months and the guidelines on the apprenticeship embedded degree program were announced. You have to grab this opportunity, work with your local industry, sign MOUs and design this apprenticeship-embedded degree program so that there is greater industry-academia interaction and you empower your students to acquire appropriate skills and in turn their employment opportunities will be enhanced. We have a big goal in front of us to make our country Viksit Bharat by 2047 and all of us as educationists should be taking the lead role in shaping the future of our country.