Educational Initiatives Taken By The Government In The Year 2018

Education is one of the most important sectors in India. If the citizens of a nation are not educated, then growth and development for that nation becomes an immensely difficult task. Just like responsible governments all around the world, the Indian government also takes effective measures and steps in order to bring about an improvement in the education sector. In the year 2018, the Indian government took many initiatives and brought about numerous reforms in India’s education sector. These are as follows:

1. Introduction of happiness, cleanliness and special curriculum by Delhi Government

Happiness Curriculum: The AAM Aadmi Party in July took the initiative to introduce happy curriculum in schools. The curriculum includes holistic education consisting of activities such as meditation, value education and mental exercises along with the usual school curriculum. This shall apply to all classes from Nursery to grade 8 in all government schools, effective from July 12, 2018. In an effort to bring about this change in curriculum, the new subject has been developed and designed by government teachers, educators and volunteers. This exercise took a period of 6 months altogether.

Cleanliness Curriculum: The cleanliness curriculum shall be introduced by way of activities in the usual curriculum. There will not be any specific books or period allocated to this subject.

Special Curriculum: Shri Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi stated that the government schools will soon introduce entrepreneurship as a subject for students. HE further elaborated that entrepreneurship is not just about business, rather it also teaches basic life skills, behavioral skills etc.

 

2. Availability of board exam results on Google

Google has entered into collaboration with CBSE and has allowed the students to check their result on Google directly without making the effort to navigate to CBSE websites. This way the students will be able to check their result easily on a smartphone or a desktop.

 

3. Weight of school bags reduced

Heavy school bags are a big threat to a student’s health. Lately, the Delhi government has reduced the weight of school bags of young children. (Class 1- 10).

 

4. No detention policy

Students will not be detained in case if they fail in an examination upto class 8. In case if a student fails, he shall be given an opportunity to re appear in the next two months.

 

5. NTA replaces CBSE

Earlier CBSE used to conduct exams such as NET, NEET, JEE (Mains). From now on, the National Testing Agency (NTA) would conduct these examinations.

 

6. PhD must for university teachers from 2021

From the year 2021, the entry level qualification required by University professors shall be Ph.D. Until then, the minimum qualification will be Masters degree with NET qualification.

7. PM's Research Fellowship

The cabinet had approved in Feb, 2018, the implementation of the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship (PMRF).The scheme shall attract the talent pool of the country to doctoral (PhD) programmes of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in order to carry out research in cutting- edge science and technology domains, by focusing on national priorities.

8. Original certificates not required for college admission

The UGC had issued a warning in the month of October, 2018 instructing the colleges for not submitting original marksheets of students at the time of admission. Also, they directed that refund of fees must be done if the admission is withdrawn within one month.

9. Institutes of Eminence

The HRD Ministry has granted the status of institutes of eminence to IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore in the public sectors and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, BITS Pilani and Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation from the private sector.

10. Aadhaar not needed for CBSE, NEET, UGC exam and school admissions

The Supreme Court has lately held the Aadhaar Scheme as constitutionally valid but stated that it is not a necessary document for school admissions from now on.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/education-today/news/story/12-education-initiatives-taken-by-the-govt-in-2018-to-strengthen-india-s-education-sector-1420340-2018-12-31