As part of his address on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he looks at the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as a significant part of creating a developed India. He also stated that NEP will play an important role in making India a fully developed nation by the time the country reaches its 100th Independence Day.

• Students of classes 2 to 8 from across 22 Indian states struggled to learn in the Covid-19 years, with Maths and English learning levels suffering significantly. A recent survey by Smile Foundation highlighted that over 50% of students in these classes were unable to keep up and exhibited severe learning deficiencies.
• Ministers of the Delhi Government highlighted how the state has been working towards development of foundational skills for many years, at a recent event in the capital. They further spoke about the importance of Mission Buniyaad as well as the Happiness Curriculum introduced by the state. 
• The Karnataka Government announced the signing of an MOU to ensure quality early childhood care and development among children up to 6 years of age in Karnataka. The effort aims at improving quality services across Anganwadi Centers in the state.

• Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that school textbooks will now include stories highlighting the valor and bravery of Indian soldiers. This will be done to instill among students a “sense of responsibility” towards the nation. 
• The Ministry of Education announced the decision to make 75 Indian games like ‘Kho Kho', 'Gilli Danda', 'Langdi', etc. a part of the school sports curriculum. The objective of including these sports at the school level is to promote physical education and establish a more inclusive sports culture for students.
• The Central Government informed the Lok Sabha that the school drop-out rate is continuously decreasing in the country at all levels of education, including primary, upper primary, and secondary. This information was shared as a response to a question by Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani. 
• Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched ‘Vidya Rath - School on Wheels’, a project dedicated to empower economically-challenged children academically. The project will provide access to elementary education to children for 10 months, after which they will be integrated into the conventional system of education. 

• Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal said that 5 lakh tablets were purchased for the students of Classes 10 to 12 studying in government schools. Each tablet would be equipped with Personalised and Adaptive Learning (PAL) software for English, Hindi and Social Science subjects. He also added that children will get free internet facilities with a usage of 2 GB data per day. 

• Education Minister Annpurna Devi highlighted in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that various steps have been taken up for improving the quality of teacher education in the country. These include introduction of the four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) and the NISHTHA Integrated Training Programme versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, which have been introduced for different stages of school education for teachers, head teachers/principals and other stakeholders in educational management.

• With the sudden rise of Covid-19 cases in Delhi, school managements look at introducing measures such as sending recorded lectures to students who are ill, allowing online classes for those in isolation and putting study tours on hold. 
• Odisha Government schools to soon have a gender equity curriculum to encourage adolescent boys and girls to reflect on culturally-embedded gender norms and roles. The objective of the initiative is to include interactive classroom discussions on the topic in the social studies curriculum for students in classes 6 to 10 in more than 18,000 elementary and 5,000 secondary institutions.