Lok Sabha Question No. 466 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-06
Subject: NEP and MERU
Ministry: Education
Asked by: K. Muraleedharan, Rajmohan Unnithan, T.N. Prathapan, Behanan Benny, Balubhau (Alias Suresh Narayan) Dhanorkar, Kumbakudi Sudhakaran, Adoor Prakash

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-466

ANSWERED ON 06/02/2023

## NEP and MERU

466.     SHRI K. MURALEEDHARAN:

SHRI RAJMOHAN UNNITHAN:

SHRI T.N. PRATHAPAN:

SHRI BENNY BEHANAN:

SHRI BALUBHAU ALIAS SURESH NARAYAN DHANORKAR:

SHRI KUMBAKUDI SUDHAKARAN:

ADV. ADOOR PRAKASH:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020 is consistent with the Right to Education Act and the fundamental right to compulsory education for children aged 6 to 14 years;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether the Government has taken/proposes to take steps to implement the Multidisciplinary  Education  and  Research  Universities  (MERU)  in  accordance  with  NEP recommendations;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (e) the rationale for not expanding education spending from 1.2 percent of GDP to 6 percent in the policy documents?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

(SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

- (a) & (b): The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 provides every  child  of  the  age  of  6-14  years,  the  right  to  free  and  compulsory  education  in  a neighbourhood  school  till  the  completion  of  his  or  her  elementary  education.  National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 aims at a concerted national effort to ensure universal access and afford the opportunity to all children of the country to obtain quality holistic educationincluding  vocational  education  from  pre-school  to  Grade  12.  The  Department  of  School Education  and  Literacy  with  effect  from  2018-19  has  launched  an  Integrated  Centrally

Sponsored Scheme for School Education Samagra Shiksha. The scheme has now been aligned with  the  recommendations  of  NEP  2020  to  ensure  that  all  children  have  access  to  quality education with an equitable and inclusive classroom environment which should take care of their diverse background, multilingual needs, different academic abilities and make them active participants in the learning process.

(c) & (d): The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, regarding Institutional Restructuring and Consolidation, states that the main thrust of the policy is to end the fragmentation of higher education by transforming higher education institutions into large multidisciplinary universities, colleges, and HEI clusters/Knowledge Hubs, each of which aims to have 3,000 or more students. The NEP, 2020 further states that moving to large multidisciplinary universities and HEI clusters is thus the highest recommendation of this policy regarding the structure of higher education.

On 02.09.2022 the University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued guidelines for Transforming Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) into multidisciplinary institutions. The objectives of these guidelines are to transform single-stream institutions into large multidisciplinary universities and autonomous degree-awarding HEIs, and strengthen institutional  infrastructure  necessary  for  multidisciplinary  education  and  research.  These guidelines  also  inter-alia  state  that  capacity-building  for  faculty  to  teach,  train  and  to  do research  in  multidisciplinary  academic  programmes  need  adequate  focus  and  visualize establishment of Department of Education in multidisciplinary institutions. The guidelines are available at https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5599305\_Guidelines-for-Transforming-HigherEducation-Institutions-into-Multidisciplinary-Institutions.pdf

(e):    NEP  2020  unequivocally  endorses  and  envisions  a  substantial  increase  in  public investment in education both by the Central government and all State Governments. It states that the Centre and States work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

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