“Why India needs a new education policy? As history is replete with examples of a broken education system and if we wish to achieve sustainable development, we need to transform the education system,” said Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Member, National Education Policy Committee, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

He was speaking at the World Education Summit organised in November 2017 in Dubai. The Summit was organised in partnership with the Knowledge and Human Development Agency (KHDA), Dubai. It brought together top decision-makers from government and public sector for exchange of ideas on best practices, trends, challenges and growth opportunity in education ecosystem.

Describing about the importance of education in a nation’s development, Dr Gupta said, “Some of the policymakers believe that education and health are the areas where we will focus on only after the country becomes developed. It is not like that. If the public is neither healthy nor educated, it is very difficult to imagine development of any country. Economic growth without improvement in education and health cannot facilitate development.”

Citing the examples of Singapore and Medellin — A city in Colombia, Dr Gupta stated that the one of the major reasons behind the 180 degree transformation of the aforesaid places is the good quality education.

Describing about the flaws of the education system, Dr Gupta referred Charles Darwin and Gregor Johann Mendel who used to be sailor and priest respectively. He said, “If the two eminent scientists have to follow the education system of bachelors’ degree and ahead, they will never be to achieve that they had.”

Explaining about the growing demand of technology across the world, Dr Gupta stated, “Digitisation and Automation will drastically change the education and employment scenario.” In this context, he also referred a study by McKinsey Global Institute that suggests that in coming future  few occupations will be fully automated whereas the 60% of all the occupations across the world have a chance of 30% automation.

“We need to understand the importance of technology and also need to leverage the same through our education policy so that we can generate more job opportunities for our students,” he added.

Our first National Education Policy (NEP) was in 1968. 18 years later, we implemented the second education policy which got revised in 1992. 25 years later to that we are taking about drafting a new education policy.

Describing about the changes that have been witnessed and that India as a country needs to focus on, he said, “Since the last National Education Policy, India has liberalised its economy, India’s population has witnessed a massive growth of 65%, there is a paradigm shift in every sector globally, Signing of the Washington Accord, and most India needs to add one million jobs every month. These all are the factors that need to be focused on in the National Education Policy (NEP).”

As the New Education Policy of India is likely to be implemented in few months, Dr Gupta’s above speech was quite a bit relevant in today’s scenario. There are only speculations about the various norms that may or may not be the part of the education policy.

The education policy must include three very important aspects: Incorporating processes to be in sync with the global trends, effective skill training to boost employability and effective implementation of technology to improve teaching-learning processes.

The draft NEP was submitted to the new HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on May 31, following which it was made public for feedback and suggestion.

With the Government of Maharashtra laying stress upon developing the State as an education hub, the education landscape of the State has got a huge boost. Be it Pune, Nagpur or other key cities drawing a huge number of youngsters to study here, the evolution of the State as an education hub makes an interesting study, writes Sandeep Datta of Elets News Network (ENN).

The last few years have witnessed a major push to develop Maharashtra as an education hub for which an array of efforts are being made.

The Vision

The State Government is working on a proposal to make the State an “Education Hub” by encouraging setting up of private universities, the State Education Minister Vinod Tawde revealed while talking to a reporter in 2015. Stating that a well-designed mapping of universities is needed to transform Maharashtra into an educational hub, the Education Minister said: “Our aim is to set up 25 to 30 universities in different parts of Maharashtra. I would also like to have a private sports university and a full-fledged university of arts and culture.”

CM Advocates Autonomy to Education Sector

Towards giving a boost to the big dream of Maharashtra as an education hub, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis while drawing a correlation between quality of education and autonomy enjoyed by educational institutes, announced in 2017 that the State would ensure more freedom to the educational sector.

Stating many institutes abroad could only make their mark, because they had autonomy, the Chief Minister said: “This can be replicated in the state too. But there have to be strict guidelines for running these academies, so that the high quality of education is maintained.”

Underling the significance of proper education, the Chief Minister said dreams of “new nation building“ could turn into a reality only when trained manpower was available. Stating that the need of the hour is to “convert the young population into useful human resource”, he said: “Only good educational institutes and teachers can make this happen. But commercialisation of the education sector is a worry”.

“The state will have to keep a check on private academies and government-run education institutes, so poor students too have access to education from institutes of academic excellence,“ the Chief Minister added. Fadnavis also revealed that his government has plans to use IT for ensuring that high- quality education also gets available in rural areas. In this view, the Chief Minister said, over 35,000 schools in villages have been digitised and skilled teachers in cities can share their knowledge with these students using IT.

“Our aim is to make Maharashtra’s education system the top ranker in the country… We will gain the top position in the years to come,” the Chief Minister said, adding that schools in the State have also shown improvement in baseline learning assessment tests.

A look at the ongoing efforts in cities like Nagpur and Pune offers a bird’ view of the vision being brought into reality with a focused and well-laid out approach.

Pune – From Education Hub to IT Hub

The wonderful city of Pune in Maharashtra is today known for some of India’s best institutes. Hundreds of students from other cities and states of India adapt Pune as their real home away from home for education. Not many may have observed but Pune has transformed from being an educational hub to an IT hub following arrival of big IT companies came in. This has also led to even massive increase in property rates in Pune.

A Glance at Pune’s Transformation into IT Hub

Infrastructure System: With improved roads, transportation has become safer for pedestrians, cyclists and differently-abled. All this is a reflection of how Pune has experienced tremendous developments related to physical infrastructure. Additionally, BRT corridor is an integral component of Pune’s strategy to tackle long-term mobility problems.

Development of Residential and Commercial Sector: With more IT companies entering the country, Pune became one of the major cities for the rise of commercial as well as residential sectors. Today, Pune is also known for the presence of top IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Dell, Cognizant, and TCL. These companies are located in various IT parks around the city, some of the Pune’s famous IT parks are- the Rajiv Gandhi -Hinjewadi IT Park, Magarpatta IT Park in Hadapsar, Eon Cluster IT Park in Kharadi and more.

Nagpur – An Education Hub in Maharashtra

There was a time when Nagpur was famously known as one of the education hubs in Maharashtra. But call it technology, innovation or the new initiatives at other places, Nagpur fell way behind Mumbai and Pune as far as quality education institutions were concerned. But thanks to change of guard both at the Centre and State, with Narendra Modi of the BJP becoming Prime Minister and the same party’s government taking charge of the Maharashtra state, things changed dramatically. Hardly anyone would have thought the same city of Nagpur would get prestigious institution like IIM and NIPER, leaving other top cities behind. It is said it came due to the pursuance of top leaders like Chief Minister Fadnavis and Union Minister for Highways and Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari.

Meanwhile, it is also true that just political will power is not adequate to see these premier institutions through. It also needed ground support like a place for starting temporary campus, making arrangements for erecting infrastructure like furniture, equipment, classrooms, computers, and library among others.

Why Maharashtra is a State to Watch out For?

A Powerhouse of Indian Economy

Maharashtra, also described as the powerhouse of Indian economy, is home to the financial capital of Mumbai. The State attracts highest foreign investment and is best placed to become the next global financial, commercial and cultural hub for future design, innovation and creativity-led entrepreneurship opportunities.

Maharashtra Set to Play Big Role in Young India by 2020

With India all set to become the youngest nation by 2020 with an estimated working-age population of 962 million, Maharashtra, which accounts for over 9% of the population, will be a major beneficiary. There are valid reasons behind it too. The State will benefit because of the availability of human capital in a period of soaring demand in industries such as construction, retail, BFSI, IT & ITeS, and manufacturing among others. The endeavours in the State are also driven by the vision of equipping 45 million people with employable skills by 2022, Maharashtra is marching on the path of convergence of human capital and employment opportunities.

Most especially, there is an equal focus on skill development initiatives for job- creators. It will augur well for creation of a sustainable ecosystem of talent pool and job opportunities. It should also be remembered that Maharashtra’s development is centred on innovation, infrastructure, culture, tourism and sustainability.

Infrastructure Offering Hope for Employment

When you talk of overall infrastructure, Maharashtra is among better placed states. There are some key steps that can be undertaken to achieve global standards. Recent efforts by the government such as development of Aurangabad Industrial City, the greenfield smart industrial city, can be observed as a progressive step towards establishing a sustainable infrastructure for industrial advancement in the region.

Education Scenario in Maharashtra

Having a huge population strength, the scope of education and other important things has also got increased. Apart from Pune, there are many other districts that are good platforms of education such as Aurangabad, Kolahpur, Mumbai, Ahmednagar, among others.

There are a lot of tourist spots in Maharashtra which needs to be explored by many tourists of the particular nation. Education in Maharashtra is also required to run in a perfect order. Each of the 35 districts of the State hold a hug scope for providing excellent education. The world class training institutes as well as several schools associated in the state provide excellent scope of education. Education in Maharashtra is really wonderful in comparison to other regions of the country.

Primary Education System in Maharashtra

The primary education system in Maharashtra is similar to the system of education existing in other parts of the country. There are several preparatory that provide ample scope of education. Education in Maharashtra at primary level emphasises on child development techniques. From age-three, each child is expected to have proper training under the particular education system. And, every kid is provided with care and affection by the primary teachers to ensure a focus on their development part.

Higher Education

There are universities both owned by the State as well as Private Ownership under which education in Maharashtra is carried forward. A proper attempt of benefit under higher standard of education reflects in higher education institutions that is associated with the education system in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education

There are about 21,000 schools (SSC) and 7,000 (HSC) Higher Sec. Schools / Jr. colleges in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education (HSC), Pune exists as an autonomous body established under the provisions of the Maharashtra Act No. 41 of 1965.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education, conducts the HSC and SSC Examinations in the state of Maharashtra through its nine Divisional Boards located at Pune, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Nasik, Kolhapur, Amravati, Latur, Nagpur and Ratnagiri. The Board conducts examination twice a year and the number of students appearing for the main examination is around 14 lakhs for HSC and 17 lakhs SSC, for the supplementary examination around 6 lakh students are expected HSC and SSC together.