Bengaluru, Aug 9 (IANS): The admission module to be followed under National Education Policy (NEP) which will be implemented from the current academic year (2021-2021) in Karnataka would be launched through the Unified University & College Management System (UUCMS) on August 23, Dr C.N. Ashwatha Narayana, the minister of Higher Education, stated on Monday.

Addressing a press conference after holding a meeting with Vice-Chancellors of universities with regard to the preparation of curriculum as per NEP-2020, he said, all the institutions including private, aided, and government colleges will be able to make use of the admission module that will be launched.

All the information regarding major subjects, minor subjects, core electives, open electives, vocational training will be provided in this module, Narayana informed.

In all, 32 subject-wise and faculty-wise committees have been constituted to prepare the curriculum as per the NEP principles. For the current year, the curriculum has to be prepared for 1st year of degree courses and 1st year of post-graduation courses before the commencement of classes by the 1st week of October, he said.

The Central government has set a time limit of 15 years for the complete implementation of NEP. However, it has been decided in the meeting to completely implement it within 10 years in the state, he added.

Listing out the merits of the new policy, he claimed, "The NEP will bring in flexibility in teaching-learning process by eliminating the rigidities and it will allow students to design their own courses based on their interest. Further, it will also provide scope for blended learning by allowing to make use of online content. This policy focuses on conceptual learning, critical thinking, and analytical thinking rather than rote learning,"

The regional languages including Kannada will be strengthened by adopting this policy. For, instance, in Karnataka, earlier, learning in Degree courses was not mandatory. However, under this policy, learning Kannada is mandatory, and in addition to this, students will have to learn one more language of their choice in the first two years of degree courses, Narayana explained.

Some persons are criticizing the NEP, saying that consultations were not carried out before the roll-out. But this is not true. Before drafting NEP, wider consultations were done for a period of 5 years and leaders of the Congress party, which was in power earlier in the state, was also consulted by the drafting committee, he justified.

Prof Thimmegowda, Deputy Chairman, State Higher Education Council, P. Pradeep, Commissioner, Dept of Collegiate Education were present.