Only going ahead with NEP 2020’s 4-yr degree course programme: Bratya Basu

MP  |  1 Aug 2023  |: Kolkata: Education minister Bratya Basu said on Tuesday that the state is not abiding by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, except for the introduction of the four-year degree course programme. The minister added that seven lakh odd students studying degree courses would not have been able to compete at the national level if the state would not have implemented the four-year programme. 

“We have implemented the four-year degree course programme as per NEP 2020. If we had not done so, then around seven lakh students would not have been able to compete at the national level and the tendency of moving to other states would have increased. The students who hail from poor economic backgrounds would have fallen into serious trouble. So, considering students’ interest at large, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has directed us to go ahead with the four-year programme,” Basu said in response to a query from TMC MLA Humayun Kabir at the state Assembly. 

He argued that if the state government would have stuck to the three-year degree course, then it would have been an anti-student decision similar to the move by the erstwhile Left Front government’s lifting of English from class I and introduction of bridge course for compensating the education gap. 

The state government will be coming up with a separate State Education Policy (SEP) with some good sides of the NEP and the best practices followed by some foreign countries. The guidelines for SEP are expected to be laid out by Banerjee in detail soon. 

The minister said that the state has raised its inhibitions about certain aspects of NEP 2020 like the introduction of 5+3+3+4 class format at the school level and additional centralisation of the higher education institutions. 

“The NEP 2020 is a detailed policy and we have felt that only the four-year degree course programme should be implemented and it has already been done from this academic year,” Basu said. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/only-going-ahead-with-nep-2020s-4-yr-degree-course-programme-bratya-basu-527777