North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) has directed all affiliated colleges to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 from the new academic year, which will begin on August 1.
Addressing a press conference here today, NEHU Vice-Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla said that his main objective is to implement the NEP for the benefit of Meghalaya’s youth.
“After my joining as the VC here, I have already made rigorous efforts to implement the NEP in the university and the NEP has already been implemented for postgraduate students for the 2022-23 academic session,” he said.
NEHU has circulated letters to all affiliated colleges instructing them to adhere to the NEP from August 1 at the undergraduate level. One of the biggest consequences of this is that college degrees will now be of four years’ duration.
However, colleges that find it “extremely difficult” to introduce the four-year programme can approach NEHU for deferment by one year “at the most”.
Meghalaya has been somewhat slow to introduce the NEP. Earlier this month, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan that the state was not ready to implement it at the school level as it is not equipped with adequate infrastructure and other logistic support that will require additional funds for appointment of teachers, construction of additional classrooms, development of pedagogy resource training, etc.
Shukla informed that Prof SM Sungoh, who was recently appointed as the chairperson of the State Education Committee by the government, led a team of professors in framing the new syllabus for undergraduate courses and this has been approved by the Academic Council and Executive Council.
Meghalaya can ill afford to further delay the implementation of the NEP as other central universities (like NEHU) in other states have already done so, the VC added.
“When our students compete with the students from the rest of the country in postgraduate or PhDs, they will find it difficult to compete with those students (from NEP states). So that is why it is very necessary that we train our students and prepare them to compete with those from the rest of the country,” Shukla said.
Meanwhile, he also said that NEHU plans on expanding employment opportunities for its students and those of affiliated colleges. In this regard, NEHU has signed agreements with several companies to develop relationships between academia and industry.
“We will create more than 6,000 positions for the younger generation of Meghalaya, including graduate students, some in specific areas like tourism, chemistry, BTech, MBA students,” Shukal said, adding that he also wants to reduce the NEHU dropout rate of 9 per cent.
