From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Aug 17: As part of the new National Education Policy (NEP) and the objectives set out to reach the goals by the year 2030, Karnataka has taken up ambitious plans to establish six research centred universities, 10 teaching-centred universities and 34 autonomous education institutions in three years.

Karnataka’s deputy chief minister Dr C N Ashwatha Narayana, who is also the minister for higher education, made the announcement in Bengaluru on Monday.

Briefing reporters after his discussions with state’s primary and secondary education minister S Suresh Kumar and also participating in the meeting of the task force, which is being constituted for the implementation of the national education policy, he said the task force will submit a draft report to the state government on the NEP in the next four to five days.

The task force will suggest a road map for the implementation of NEP by August 29.

The state government firmly believes that education as the solution to problems of society, he said.

The changes that need to be brought in the primary, secondary and higher education levels have been listed out in the NEP. Accordingly, steps will be taken by conducting deliberations with the task force.

After the submission of road map by the task force, Dr Narayan said the issue would be discussed with chief minister B S Yediyurappa along with minister Suresh Kumar and others.

Amendment to the laws, administrative reforms, and consolidation of the resources which are required for the implementation of the policy would be done in an expeditious manner, the deputy chief minister said.

The state government has decided to achieve all the goals mentioned in the policy in a time frame of 10 years and this has been termed as 'Target- 2030,' he said adding: "The expected results should be visible by then.’’

State-wide movement:

The deputy chief minister said deliberations and discussions need to be held about the policy all across the state. This should last for a minimum of a one-year duration starting from now.

The policy will be implemented by taking into confidence all the leaders who are in the political arena, associations-organizations and all other stakeholders, he said.

The members of the task force who interacted in the meeting felt more efficient and qualitative multi-disciplinary educational systems institutions need to be established.

The existing institutions should be upgraded to meet this expectation. The system should be equipped to enable qualitative research and teaching methodology.

Arun Shahapura, MLA, Kattimani, member, National Education Policy the committee, S V Ranganath, president, the task force for implementation of NEP, members of the task force Prof B Thimmegowda, Prof Anurag Behar of Azim Premji University, Prof Venugopal, Bengaluru University vice-chancellor, Dr Geetha Narayan of Srishti Organisation and V Pradeep, commissioner of Collegiate Education and others participated in the meeting.

Dr E V Ramana Reddy, additional chief secretary, Department of Higher Education, attended the meeting through an online media platform.

The deputy chief minister also honoured Prof M K Sridhar on his nomination to the UGC and Prof S N Kori, who has been appointed as the vice-chancellor for the Central University of Ananthapur.