Budget 2021 | 'Should give guidelines on NEP implementation plan'

By Ramananda SG,

The education sector in India is at the cusp of a deeper transformational shift to realize and utilize young India’s capabilities. The foundation and vision set by the government, through NEP 2020 will be vital in achieving the objectives of an effective and inclusive education system.

The Union budget 2021 should give guidelines on the ‘NEP implementation plan’ and further strengthen the focus and investment in Edu-tech to enhance experiential and immersive learning and reinforce the skill development process at par with the global education standards. The year 2021 will be significant as Indian schools step up their preparations to participate in the PISA test in 2022.

India will be part of the assessment for the second time after 2009, where it ranked 72 out of 73 countries. The improvement in ranking will help boost India's confidence amongst OECD members and help us showcase our goal to achieve an effective and inclusive education system.

The need of the hour is to build a transparent and progressive ecosystem, that makes learning technologically advance, create room for training and development for educators, and conceives an increased focus on assessments.

Hence, the allocation of budgets to promote holistic and scalable teacher training with a clear focus on digital learning to redefine teaching pedagogy, concentrated focus on vocational training in schools, and filling the learning vacuum created by Covid-19 in 2020 through blended learning will be monumental in driving the vision of making India a global knowledge superpower.

We at Pearson are also equally aligned with the progressive vision charted out by the government with a host of digitally enabled assessment tools that can empower educators at large.

(The author is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Pearson India)