A discussion on New Education Policy Draft was organized by Modi College
Gurjit Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Patiala
A discussion on New Education Policy Draft was organized by Multani Mal Modi College in collaboration with the Council of Teacher Education Forum on June 14, 2019. The purpose of this discussion was to highlight the various pros and cons of the new education policy. The penal of speakers comprised Dr. Kuldip Puri, Dr. Bawa Singh, Dr. Tarsem Bahia, Dr. Kulwinder Singh and Dr. Kuldeep Singh.
Dr. Khushvinder Kumar, Principal Multani Mal Modi College welcomed the delegates. Deliberating on the school education area, he stated that this policy has recommended establishment of schools complex, removal of hard division between humanities and science vocational and academic streams, emphasized on first language as medium, provision of transportation and mid-day meals etc.
Dr. Kuldip Puri, Professor of Education University School of Open Learning Punjab University, Chandigarh gave an overview of the higher education area in the policy. He shared that it calls for the introduction of multidisciplinary liberal Art Education, Four-year undergraduate courses, vocational Education Commission, and merit-based tenured appointments of teachers. He also revealed the policy’s insistence on Faculty Development Programmes to hone the skills of teachers.
Dr. Kulwinder Singh, Department of Education, Punjabi University, Patiala focused on the aspect of Teacher Education. He stressed that the skill based learning shall lead to the erosion of Education for creative learning. Also, emphasis on internet based online education shall cause reduction in human interaction between teacher and student.
Dr. Kuldeep Singh, Department of Education, Punjabi University, Patiala focused on the technical and vocational aspects of this policy. It plans to make vocational courses an internal and integral component of mainstream education. He opined that this endeavour requires a partnership between public and private sector of education which shall work on de-associating vocational courses from concepts of social status and hierarchy.
Dr. Tarsem Bahia, Former Principal, Called this a ‘silent policy’ for it does ot provde clarity on training teachers with reference to this scenario, inadequate distribution of funds for education between the state and the central government, lack of inclusion of marginalized sections of society etc.
Dr. Bawa Singh, Former Vice Chairman, Minorities commission, Govt. of India, gave a vote of thanks on behalf of Alumni association Modi College. He stated that such discussions are instrumental in making education more accessible, affordable and qualitative.
The discussion session was moderated by Dr. Bharat Bhushan Singla, Punjabi University, Patiala and Dr. Ganesh K. Sethi, Professor, Multani Mal Modi College. Dr. Gurmeet Singh, PMN College, Rajpura; Dr. M. P. Singh, Principal, KRMG College, Bhagomajra; Dr. Meena Kumari, Principal Jain College, Malerkotla; Dr. Amandeep Kaur, Principal, Bhai Gurdas College, Sangrur, and Dr. Lakhveer Singh, Principal, University College, Ghanaur and delegates from about 20 institutes shred their views as well as reservations about the New Education Policy.
