Karnataka to scrap NEP from next academic year, announces CM Siddaramaiah

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Karnataka will scrap the National Education Policy (NEP) from the next academic year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on Monday, setting off a debate about the pros and cons of the Congress regime’s decision. The NEP came into effect on July 29, 2020, promising a meaningful change in the education system. Karnataka was the first state to switch to the NEP from the old education policy of 1986.

The chief minister’s announcement to roll back the NEP came while addressing a general body meeting of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in Bengaluru. Siddaramaiah blamed the previous BJP regime for implementing the NEP and said he could not do much to reverse it as the academic year had already commenced by the time the new Congress regime took over. The new government did not wish to change things midway and disrupt things, he added.

The NEP, the CM insisted, had been resisted by students, parents, and teachers. The BJP did not implement it all over the country but did so in Karnataka and sacrificed the interests of state’s students. BJP leader and former higher education minister CN Ashwath Narayan warned the chief minister that any ill-advised move on NEP will take Karnataka backward by decades as it is a product of years of research and consultations.

“This decision of the government is going to be anti-students and anti-youth. As head of the State, the CM should be progressive in his thinking, and see NEP apolitically in the backdrop of the way the world is moving forward,” he told ET, while seeking to caution the CM that it was not like changing the syllabus of a course. On reports of Karnataka’s moves, a Twitter user commented: “This could potentially make our students less competitive compared to their