Pradhan Urges Academic Experts, Officials To ‘Create Roadmap To Strengthen School Education’

Last Updated:January 09, 2026, 5:45 PM IST

The meeting aimed to create a strategic, consultative, and implementable roadmap for Samagra Shiksha through collaborative discussions with States, UTs, and sectoral stakeholders.

News18

Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, led a consultation meeting with stakeholders on Samagra Shiksha 3.0, titled ‘Reimagining Samagra Shiksha’, at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi, today.

The meeting aimed to create a strategic, consultative, and implementable roadmap for Samagra Shiksha 3.0 through collaborative discussions with States, UTs, and sectoral stakeholders. The focus was on addressing emerging challenges, sharing best practices, and identifying priority interventions to enhance governance, infrastructure, teacher training, and student entitlements in the scheme’s next phase.

The meeting was attended by Shri Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Education; Shri Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, School Education and Literacy; Dr. Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Higher Education; Additional and Joint Secretaries of the Ministry; State Education Secretaries and State Project Directors (SPDs) of Samagra Shiksha from 11 States and Union Territories; representatives from various Ministries; and eminent experts from the education sector.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has envisioned Viksit Bharat by 2047, achievable only if every child in India has access to quality education, and the country achieves 100 per cent enrolment up to Class XII. He emphasised that bridging learning gaps, reducing dropouts, improving learning and nutrition outcomes, strengthening teacher capacity, fostering critical skills, and moving the ‘Amrit Peedhi’ beyond the Macaulay mindset are collective responsibilities for building strong human capital.

The Union Education Minister added that the collaborative deliberations and pioneering ideas shared at the forum would help create a clear roadmap for strengthening the school education ecosystem and reimagining Samagra Shiksha to make it outcome-oriented, globally competitive, rooted in Bharatiyata, and responsive to the diverse needs of students. Shri Pradhan stressed that to promote holistic development and expand access to knowledge through meaningful integration of technology, it is essential to once again entrust schools to society.

Referring to the next phase of Samagra Shiksha, Shri Pradhan noted that five years after NEP 2020’s implementation, we are entering a new phase of educational reform aligned with national development goals. He called on all stakeholders to collaborate in preparing a robust and holistic annual plan for the academic year 2026–27 and advance it as a nationwide movement, highlighting that the convergence of ideas will strengthen collective capacity. Shri Pradhan also commended the enthusiastic participation and valuable suggestions of academic experts, senior officials from sectoral Ministries, and representatives from the 11 participating States and Union Territories.

During his address, Shri Jayant Chaudhary stated that schemes are most successful when developed through a bottom-up approach, grounded in the realities of schools and States. He further added that Samagra Shiksha 3.0 embodies this spirit as the operational expression of the National Education Policy, where schools act as agents of change. By integrating skilling, vocational pathways, digital learning, and inclusion within a multidisciplinary education framework, Samagra Shiksha moves beyond reform to prepare students for work, life, and a rapidly changing economy, he noted.

A detailed presentation by Shri Dheeraj Sahu, Addl. Secretary, School Education & Literacy, highlighted significant progress under Samagra Shiksha and NEP 2020, outlining a framework and milestones for the coming years. Key focus areas mentioned included access, equity, quality, teacher capacity building, digital education, and outcome-based learning, among others.

Samagra Shiksha is an integrated, centrally sponsored scheme for school education that marks a paradigm shift by adopting a holistic approach to school education, covering the entire continuum from pre-primary to senior secondary level without segmentation.

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