Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal held a high-level meeting on the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP). Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare, School Education Secretary Anita Karwal, and other senior officials also attended the meeting. After the meeting, an indicative and suggestive implementation plan for school education called “Students and Teachers Holistic Advancement through Quality Education” or SARTHAQ was released by Pokhriyal.

“SARTHAQ was launched in pursuance of the goals of NEP2020 and to assist states and union territories in this task,” Pokhriyal said. He added that the plan will “pave the way for children to meet the diverse national and global challenges” and help them “imbibe 21st-century skills along with India’s tradition, culture and value system as envisioned in NEP 2020.” SARTHAQ would benefit all stakeholders including 25 crore students, 15 lakh schools, 94 lakh teachers, he added.

As per an official statement from the ministry, the plan has been framed keeping in mind the concurrent nature of education, and as such states and UTs are given the flexibility to adapt and modify it to the local context as per their needs and requirements. “This implementation plan delineates the roadmap and way forward for implementation of NEP, 2020 for the next 10 years, which is very important for its smooth and effective implementation,” it added.
“Like the policy, the plan is also interactive, flexible, and inclusive. The major focus of SARTHAQ is to define activities in such a manner that clearly delineates goals, outcomes, and timeframe i.e., it links the recommendation of NEP with 297 tasks along with responsible agencies, timelines, and 304 outputs of these tasks”, Pokhriyal stated.