To discuss the consultative process for formulation of New Education Policy (NEP), the Ministry of Human Resource Development organised a meeting of State Education Ministers and State School / Higher Education Secretaries here today.

Smt. Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Human Resource Development in her keynote address congratulated the State Education Ministers for the success that the Government was able to achieve in the preceding ten months due to the cooperative federalism and by practicing minimum government and maximum governance. The main objective of the meeting was to initiate discussion on the consultation process for the New Education Policy and seek views, comments and suggestions of different States.

The Minister highlighted that for the first time in the history of education policy making, every citizen is given an opportunity to express his/her views. The consultation process involves participation from the grassroot level to the state, regional and national levels in bringing out a comprehensive policy which will reflect the aspirations and needs of the country. It will also seek to meet the inherent needs of stakeholders, students and their parents whose goal is to make their children a better human being and a better citizen. The Minister stressed the point that the meeting is for open consultation and the way forward for cooperative federalism.

The MHRD presentation also explained the grassroot consultation process which was followed by a presentation by the MyGov portal team on the ICT enablement to make this process work at the grassroot level through the state machinery.

There was an active participation from the State Governments both with regard to the content that needs to go into the policy and the processes involved.

The meeting was attended by 22 State/UT Education Ministers along-with Education Secretaries and other senior officers including State Information Officers (SIOs). Both the Secretaries of School Education & Literacy and Higher Education addressed the august gathering and gave an overview of the identified themes. Senior officers of both the Department of Higher Education and Department & Literacy of Ministry of Human Resource Development also participated in the meeting.

Source: PIB