Key takeaways from PM Modi's speech at School Education in 21st Century concalve

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the New Education Policy (NEP) will sow the seeds for starting a new era and it will give new direction to the 21st century India.

While addressing a conclave on School Education in 21st Century, PM Modi stated that the MyGov portal received more than 15 lakh suggestions from teachers on NEP implementation within a week of seeking their views. He assured that these suggestions would be taken into consideration.

Here are the key takeaways from his address:

* PM Modi said that holistic development through Nature and learning amidst Nature is necessary.

* He stated that the New age learning: engaging, exploring, experiencing and then expressing – is the key to excellence.

* "NEP is based on integrated, interdisciplinary, fun-based experiences," PM said.

* Praising the new forward-looking curriculum, the prime minister said that with the help of NEP the students will step towards a new future.

* The prime minister also listed the key skills that NEP will enhance -- critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, curiosity, communication. "Coding, understanding AI, IoT, cloud, data science, robotics will be key areas of the NEP curriculum," he said.

* "Currently, the education is restricting. This is the main reason for dropouts, hence, the NEP would allow students the independence to choose what they like," PM Modi said.

* NEP also addresses the issue of learning-driven education being replaced by marks and marksheet, he said. "Marksheets ultimately turn out to be pressure sheets for children, prestige sheets for families," he added. Self-assessment, peer-to-peer assessment along with holistic report card will replace marksheets, he said.

* Speaking about teaching primary school students in mother tongue, PM said other PISA countries would also follow this trend. So that children do not use most of their energy in translating it to their mother tongue before understanding and learning their lessons. This creates a gap between their parents and schools too. So, at least till Class 5 the medium of studies will be the regional languages or the students’ mother tongues.

NEP will entail teachers learning new things and unlearning too. So he urges everyone along with the teaches to cooperate in this national mission

Lastly, he reiterated to the teachers of India, the importance of them instilling social distancing norms, Covid-19 precautionary methods in students to combat these trying times.