Karnataka Higher Education Minister urges Union government to relook at NEP 2020

Countering the convocation address of Deepak Kumar Srivastava, vice-chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC), at the 59th annual convocation of Bangalore University on Tuesday, Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar expressed his displeasure about the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and urged the Union government to re-look at the whole scenario, including multidisciplinary courses, entry and exit option, and credit-based education system.

Countering the convocation address of Deepak Kumar Srivastava, vice-chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC), at the 59th annual convocation of Bangalore University on Tuesday, Higher Education Minister M.C. Sudhakar expressed his displeasure about the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and urged the Union government to re-look at the whole scenario, including multidisciplinary courses, entry and exit option, and credit-based education system.

He alleged that when universities are facing a lack of teaching staff and other problems, the Union government is trying to impose things from the United States of America and education models from other western countries.

In his convocation address, Mr. Srivastava said that with NEP, there is a spectacular change in the landscape of the Indian education system. “The Minister of Education and the UGC have taken several path-breaking initiatives that will be game changers for the quality of higher education in the country,” he said, and also praised the multiple entry and exit systems and other aspects of the policy.

Dr. Sudhakar said it is practically impossible to implement multidisciplinary courses according to the NEP and said the policy may be suitable for private universities or private educational institutes that have all the departments under one roof, but it is impossible in State universities which offer specific courses such as Agriculture, Law, Engineering, and Medicine.

“We have 440 degree colleges in Karnataka for arts, science and commerce. According to the NEP, if somebody wants to do Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an open elective, where do we get the staff?,” he questioned. “Already, collegiate and technical education in Karnataka have about 14,000 guest faculty members. All universities lack staff. I was told there are more that 20% vacancies in IITs. In this scenario, the Union government is trying to impose the western countries’ model of education through the NEP in India,” he added.

The State government has opposed the NEP and decided to implement the State Education Policy (SEP) instead. The SEP Commission has submitted a preliminary report and it has been implemented from the academic year of 2024-25. “We brought back three core subjects pattern, along with open elective option and credit based system,” he said, adding that the final report will also be received soon.