Chief minister Yogi Adityanath asked the educational institutions to promote technology and innovation in education with a focus on quality while chairing a department-wise review meeting of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 late on Tuesday evening. He said along with teaching-learning, universities should fulfil their responsibility towards society.

The chief minister said that inter-disciplinary research on local problems should be encouraged in universities. The research topics should be social, national and globally relevant.

Emphasising the need for quality research, the chief minister said that 77.7% of the total population of Uttar Pradesh lives in rural areas. Therefore, under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme (UBA), educational institutions should be connected to rural areas with an emphasis on conducting courses related to rural development.

The CM said there is a need to encourage private investment in school education, and the education system should be compatible with the global ecosystem. Adityanath said the best practices of many educational institutions in the private sector, which are doing commendable work, should be implemented in government institutions.

Ministers and officers of the basic, secondary, higher, technical, agriculture and vocational education departments were present at the meeting. Former chairman of the University Grants Commission, Prof DP Singh, was also present at the meeting.

The CM also asked all eligible institutes in the state to get NAAC grading. He said that after the implementation of NEP at the graduation level from the current session, it should be implemented at the post-graduate level from the next session.

Chief Minister said more than ₹6200 crore has been invested for the development of infrastructure facilities in 1.33 lakh schools, and a proxy teacher in a school was unacceptable. Under the Nipun Bharat Abhiyan, innovative schemes like weekly education schemes, libraries in schools and school leadership programmes etc have been implemented, the CM added.

CM also directed that 5,000 ‘Abhyudaya Composite Schools’ should be established in the next four years.

Expressing happiness over 58 agreements signed by 11 state universities with local industries, handloom, handicrafts, khadi, and ODOP so far, the chief minister expressed the need to continue such efforts.

Prof Singh, who has been the vice-chancellor of various central universities also gave a presentation on the topic ‘Education in Uttar Pradesh: Towards a new horizon’.