NEP will help increase employability levels of candidates: Minister Ashwath Narayan

Bengaluru: Effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) will help increase the employability levels of candidates, which is currently at around just 20 per cent, Karnataka Minister for Higher Education Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said on Saturday.

Inaugurating the state’s first NEP conclave on the theme “Strategising the Future of Higher Education”, jointly organised by the Karnataka government and the International Skill Development Corporation (ISDC), he said the future of the country depends on making students skill ready, along with imparting knowledge to them.

Seeking to allay doubts about the NEP, Narayan said “It is a false notion to say that implementation of NEP will lead to commercialisation of education.

Students from the disadvantaged sections of society who are mainly in government institutions, will be the first beneficiaries of this policy and it makes way for creating equality in society.”

NEP removes existing barriers in the current education system and brings both curricular and extracurricular into a single fold and thus is very much inclusive, Narayan said.

Speaking at the conclave, Tom M Joseph, Executive Director, Strategy and Development, ISDC, UK, said, “The recently announced National Education Policy 2020 can lead an orbital shift with its focus on transforming the education sector through investments into various areas of skill development including project-based learning, experiential learning, service-learning, and vocational training.”