Principle 1: Ensure Equality / Equity in Access to Quality Education

This principle shall guide all activities undertaken by NETF to consolidate and expand public digital infrastructure so as to ensure that all learners irrespective of background or circumstance have the access to digital resources for learning and upgrading their skills. This shall promote strategies that reach underserved groups such as Children with Special Needs (CWSN), Learners in remote underserved and tribal areas etc.

Additionally, this principle shall also guide efforts to ensure that teachers and administrators across all levels of education and skilling have the necessary access to digital teaching and monitoring solutions that can augment the teaching-learning and policy formulation processes.

Activities relevant to fulfilling this principle shall entail harnessing technologies and ecosystem collaboration for ensuring affordable connectivity and digital devices, Multi-modal delivery of education to ensure universal coverage and leveraging remote learning as a medium for reaching out-of-school / college dropouts and provide lifelong learning opportunities.

Principle 2: Create a Thriving Education Ecosystem

This principle is aligned to the ethos of NETF fulfilling the role of an ‘Enabler’ in the education and skilling ecosystem by ensuring that the interests of all ecosystem actors are incorporated and the benefits of initiatives reach every stakeholder in the education process – K-12 students, Higher Education Students, CWSN, Skilling and Vocational Training, Teachers, Parents & Administrators and Community Members.

This shall involve driving innovation mindset change in the ecosystem for education and skilling and establish enabling policies and initiatives that,

• Inspire Co-Creation through development of shared collaborative spaces that can attract motivated and talented entrepreneurs
• Catalyze ecosystem interaction and innovation through co-ownership and nurturing the practice of distributed leadership that co-create solutions while engaging with the system as a whole.

For achieving this end, NETF will undertake the following activities at the ecosystem level:-

• Leverage existing technology investments and adhere to concepts of reusability
• Establish standardized frameworks for technology deployment and sharing of best practices
• Utilize ecosystem partners including private sector innovation and agility in research and innovation and content creation subject to overall minimum rules and guidelines prescribed by NETF
• Establishing framework for capacity building of teachers for effective and seamless use of technology in education.
• Capacity Building of Governance Capabilities to better equip Administrators and Institutional Leaders with the knowledge necessary to drive technology adoption in education and skilling
• Capacity Building of Institutions by promoting technology adoption in improving aspects related to Infrastructure and its maintenance through dedicated and trained support staff as well as establishing a culture of technology creation in institutions through dedicated Innovation Labs.

Principle 3: Ensure Mobility in Education

This principle is aligned to the NDEAR principle of interoperability and cultivating an ecosystem that in addition to ‘Help Learn’ also focuses on the aspect of ‘Manage Learn’. This shall be achieved by building an enabling ecosystem to leverage digital platforms for transformative impact and through a user centric approach to design.

This principle of mobility shall allow students and learners the freedom of choice and flexibility to select their courses or content/assessment provider depending on their learning needs. This implies the promotion of lifelong learning across all education levels and mobility across data sources shall ensure a 360 degree view at the individual, institution, discipline etc. levels.

This principle shall also guide the approach prescribed and followed by NETF using Agile practices in order to drive stakeholder consultation, adoption of technologies and ultimately enhance implementation speed.

Principle 4: Leverage & Integrate Emerging Technologies

The NETF will play a critical role in leveraging and integrating emerging technology. This may range across the following:

• Identifying and nurturing new technology
• Making existing technology more affordable
• Blending physical with digital; helping the last mile benefit from phygital models of delivery
• Nurturing constructs such as open source to be able to invent and evolve existing solutions and drive adaptation to education in a decentralized, replicable, and sustainable manner
• Betting on scale in the long term, but demonstrating value in the short term
• Universalizing and democratizing education technology

Principle 5: Self Sustaining

NETF would always aspire to be self-sustaining and create opportunities for itself through PPP or similar collaboration to ensure that it is self-reliant for execution and planning of current and potential resources or initiatives