New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): To make the New Education Policy (NEP) more effective, the Education ministry should join hands with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), senior officials of Ministry of Education have said.

Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, School Education, and Literacy, Ministry of Education, underlined the need for higher budget allocation for the education space. During the FICCI Arise Fifth Annual Flagship Conference, Kumar said that NEP 2020 (New Education Policy) envisages that at least 6 per cent of the GDP should be spent on education. "Currently, we are spending only 4.6 per cent of our GDP on education. It is imperative that while the economy is growing, we need to invest more on," he added.

There are around 260 million students from classes 1 to 12 in the country who are attending 1.48 million schools of which 1.05 million are government schools. According to the Central Edudction ministry, there are around 9.6 million teachers who are part of these schools, and hence it is crucial to address their training and infrastructure requirements.

Aiming for the effective implementation of the NEP, FICCI Arise organised its Fifth Annual Flagship Conference that served as a strategic platform for industry veterans to comprehensively discuss the way forward for the Indian education landscape.

Shishir Jaipuria, Chairperson, FICCI Arise and Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Institutions stated that FICCI Arise has grown significantly in the last six years, covering 1500 schools across 23 states and benefitting 15 lakh students. The industry body extensively focuses on research in education and has travelled across multiple countries to learn the best practices in education.

Jaipuria also mentioned that it is important for the government, industry, and society to build a robust and student-centric education system in India to address the challenges and unlock the potential of emerging opportunities.

The industry body also highlights the crucial role of the private sector in enhancing the quality of education and has advocated policy-driven transformation of the Indian education system.

Subhra Kant Panda, President Elect FICCI, said, it is important to have the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn at every stage of life. FICCI will be happy to collaborate with the government in working towards developing an effective implementation framework of the National Education Policy, Panda added.

They also released three knowledge reports that cut across diverse aspects of education including- - EY Parthenon School Quality Assessment and Accreditation (SQAA) Framework, - EY Parthenon Report on 'K-12 Education in India: Vision 2047' and Report on 'School Safety and Child Protection'.

Furthermore, to recognise the contribution of eminent personalities in the education domain, "FICCI ARISE Excellence Awards" were announced along with the launch of mobile application.