Don’t see “Slumdog Millionaire”. It sucks!

ON THIS 47th ANNIVERSARY OF IIPM & FIRST DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF MY FATHER, DR. MALAY CHAUDHURI, THE FOUNDER DIRECTOR OF IIPM HERE'S HOW ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT NEP - THE NEW EDUCATION POLICY - 2020 IS WHAT IIPM STOOD FOR THE LAST 47 YEARS!

At IIPM our motto and punch line below all our ads has always been:

WHAT WE TEACH TODAY OTHERS ADOPT TOMORROW.

We saw every B- School in the country blindly copying everything that we pioneered in this country. But today it gives me immense pleasure to say, not only did B-Schools of the country copy us blindly, but the entire New Education Policy will be about what IIPM TAUGHT YESTERDAY.

A year back to coincide with IIPM's 46TH Anniversary, the Honorable Supreme Court of India's three judge bench headed by the then CJI, Ranjan Gogoi dismissed all cases of AICTE against IIPM bringing to conclusion at 12 year battle in favour of IIPM.

This year it feels so amazing to celebrate another year of IIPM with the Government's announcement of the the NEW EDUCATION POLICY 2020. It's almost another victory for what IIPM had stood for, for almost the last 5 decades.

It just seems too uncanny how everything that IIPM stood for and propagated is what is written in the NEP 2020 document.

So needless to say, IIPM cheers the NEP 2020.

HERE ARE 11 REASONS FOR THE SAME:

1. IIPM stood for freedom from AICTE & UGC. They will now cease to exist! Now there will be one body - the HECI - which will give far more autonomy to institutes. I mean do we even need to say why we are happy?

2. IIPM fought tooth and nail against the power of AICTE & UGC officials to come and do inspection (the key reason why IIPM never applied for recognition) , which basically gave them power to come take endless under the table bribes, year after year... and led to creation of a compeletely corrupt system (that's on record with officials even getting caught red handed). Now there will be no inspection. Everything will be online so that there is no way that corrupt officials drunk on power can have blackmailing powers over institutions.

3. It is well documented that IIPM through its alternate budgets, for more than two decades, kept lobbying for 6% of GDP for education. And that's the NEP 2020 says exactly the same.

4. For over 4 decades, IIPM's entire focus was on a self reliant India by creating entrepreneurs, through its Planning & Entrepreneurship programs. The entire focus is NEP 2020 is on the same.

5. IIPM's suggestions for a new schooling system for more than two decades, always kept the focus on practical aspects of education instead of a system where students studied only at the end of the year for marks. That's the focus of the NEP 2020.

6. IIPM's entire philosophy has been against branding of students as science, commerce or arts students, and the New Education Policy thankfully blurs that distinction.

7. IIPM's entire approach to education has always been to allow students to chase their passion based on EQ instead of IQ, and the entire pattern of exams, focus on vocational expertise of the NEP 2020 is based on that.

8. Read IIPM Think Tank's annual alternate budgets and see how year after year, we lobbied for free hostel accommodation for economically weak students because they don't have conducive environment at home to study. The same has been highlighted in the landmark best-seller of IIPM in 2003 - The Great Indian Dream - that me and my father co-authored. The NEP 2020 plans to do exactly the same.

9. At IIPM from the very beginning there was an attempt to give every student a certificate for what he was good at. So while IIPM programs were 200 credits, students clearing 66 credits got a different certificate, students clearing 80 credits got a different certificate and so on; Quite like the NEP 2020 where students who clear the first year of college will be eligible for a different certification than the students clearing the second year, third year etc. The idea is to give everyone credit for what he has done instead of punishing him for not doing something.

10. IIPM's 'Give back Childhood to Your Children' initiative has been all about children going to school to enjoy without a school bag that weighed heavier than them. The NEP2020 exclusively focuses on a bag less schooling.

11. People are critical about the mother tongue policy of education in schools. IIPM however has always believed that students learn best in their mother tongue and that is the smoothest way to start education. That was the approach of IIPM's Rural Development Programs since the year 1984. English can be very easily and smoothly incorporated in later stages once students have been inducted into the schooling system. An education policy of the nation can't look at what urban elite want. It has to take care of India's real requirements. At IIPM's experimental programs with 100% scholarship to poor students we observed that any student could be taught to become a great communicator in English through extra classes even later in life. In any case I think it will only be an added choice and not be a hindrance to those who want to be educated in English medium from the very beginning.

YES, there are many other things that IIPM has stood for in terms of reforms in the education sector. For example not forcing children to study too early in life. But the NEP 2020 expects children to start going for pre-primary education from the age of 3. We are very sure those things will also change with time.

But in a nutshell, when I look at the NEP 2020, I again realize what we always knew and I began with (and what scores of ex IIPM students have been messaging me on various platforms),

WHAT WE TEACH TODAY OTHERS ADOPT TOMORROW

OR THIS TIME SHOULD WE SAY,

WHAT WE TEACH TODAY THE NATION ADOPTS TOMORROW.

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