President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said the new National Education Policy (NEP) aims to reorient the education system towards meeting the needs of the 21st century by achieving the twin objectives of inclusion and excellence and will also restore India’s glory as a learning centre.

Speaking at the inaugural address of Visitors’ Conference on ‘Implementation of NEP in Higher Education’, Kovind said the policy sets the vision of developing an equitable and vibrant knowledge society by providing quality education to all.

Vice Chancellors of all Central Universities and Directors of IITs, NITs, SPAs etc were present on the occasion besides the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and top Ministry officials.

He drew inspiration from Bhagvad Gita and the Krishna-Arjun dialogue while reiterating the concept of free communication and discussion between the teacher and the student. “Effective implementation of the NEP 2020 is likely to restore India’s glory as a great centre of learning as during the times of Takshashila and Nalanda,” Kovind added.

The President said according to the All India Survey of Higher Education for 2018-19, GER for females is slightly higher than that for males. However, the share of female students is extremely low in Institutions of National Importance and particularly low in technical education. Emphasising that NEP has focus on equity and inclusion, he said that such gender disparity in higher education should be corrected.

Union Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said the NEP has given access to foreign universities to open campuses in India and vice-versa which will be instrumental in the process of making India a soft power, the Minister added.