Publishers should work towards NEP objective of making India a knowledge society: Chairman, NBT

Mar 06, 2021

NEW DELHI, 06 March 2021: Prof Govind Prasad Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust, India, Ministry of Education, Govt of India today urged the publishers to work towards the objective of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in order to make India a knowledge-based society.

Addressing the virtual session 'CEO Speak - a forum for publishing' on the theme NEP 2020: Role & Opportunities for Publishers & Content Creators, organized by FICCI, jointly with NBT India, Prof Sharma said that books play an important role in education and without books it is not possible to get modern education. "Books are needed in today's education. To create a global citizen with knowledge we need to have books designed in that format. It is time for quality education," he asserted.

Speaking on the vision of NEP, Prof Sharma said that it clearly says that Indian education system should be designed on Indian values. NEP also envisages India to become the knowledge hub. "We need to create content for creating a knowledge-based economy and NEP will have to be kept in mind while creating the content," he added.

The NEP 2020, Prof Sharma said also includes structural changes and pre-school education is now under the ambit of the policy. "Publishers will now have to design content and books, even for the pre-school students. This is a new opportunity for the industry. We will have to design content for almost 1 crore new students," he said.

Prof Sharma also stated that the NEP 2020 also focuses on regional languages which is also an opportunity for the industry to tap. Publishers will get a new opportunity to create content in different languages for students.

Speaking on the quality of education, Prof Sharma said, "Average is over. It is now time for quality education." To achieve this, we all stakeholders must design the content keeping quality as the base and it should be independent.

He further urged the industry to come forward and take advantage of the immense opportunities arising in the sector. We must work to make India a capable nation with knowledgeable society along with good citizen, noted Prof Sharma.

Mr Ratnesh Jha, Chair, FICCI Publishing Committee said that as we start the new academic session this year, we see the learnings of digital side along with other innovative ways of publishing segment will help us create a more holistic ecosystem. "We need to see publishing as an industry a part of the larger ecosystem. We need to be integrated with NEP 2020. While framing policy is one thing but executing policy is an area where we play a very important role," he added.

Mr Yuvraj Malik, Director, National Book Trust, India, Ministry of Education, Govt of India said that CEOSpeak is a classic model of collaboration and cooperation with all stakeholders related to publishing sector. "NEP 2020 has come after four decades. The education system is a complete eco-system where publication is the backbone of the system. NEP 2020 aims at universalization of education which means every child will be part of the education eco-system," he added.

Mr Malik further said that the policy also focuses on linguistic demand of various states and it is a new area which the industry should capture.