Flexibility in education tops Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam agenda
India/July 10, 2022/HT Correspondent/Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/
The Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam was organized by the education ministry to discuss implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The event was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
NEP 2020 provides a path to decolonize education, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in his concluding remarks. “This Shiksha Samagam is a step towards establishing India as a knowledge-based superpower,” he said.
The summit saw nine theme-based sessions and two sessions on sharing success stories and best practices of NEP 2020 implementation. The organisers strongly advocated making university multidisciplinary and for them to provide space to industries in campus to establish research and development centres.
“This is about both encouraging universities to establish start-up companies and also establish more collaborations with industries to make the education imparted in universities more application and practical experience based,” said M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson of the University Grants Commission, India’s higher education regulator. “In fact, such efforts would make our students more employable, since their skill and knowledge base would be more relevant to emerging job opportunities.”
The summit, which was attended by over 300 heads of institutions, provided an opportunity to work out solutions to implement NEP 2020, Kumar said.
“The key takeaways from the summit was to promote land to lab and lab to land, meaning that there should be more consultations between educational institutions and stakeholders, and that there is a great deal of learning that can happen from each other,” Kumar said. “Our educational system should help our students become job creators and not job seekers.”
Teachers should be provided the opportunity to come up with new courses every year to provide better choices to students, summit participants said. “Teachers should be provided an opportunity to work on a patent, and if the product is sustainable in the market, then the university would also support the startup and, if required, the teacher can come back to the academic career,” an official said, seeking anonymity.
The educators also discussed how to preserve and strengthen the rich cultural heritage of India and Indian languages. It was suggested to incorporate the Indian knowledge system into the curriculum at all levels.
“A multipronged approach will be needed to rejuvenate Indian knowledge systems. A strong focus on capacity building at the institutional, individual, research and student levels is needed,” the official said.
Accredited universities were also asked to attract greater numbers of international students, and achieve the goal of internationalization at home. “They have been encouraged to create provisions for supernumerary seats for foreign students in universities so as to increase their enrolment,” an education ministry official said, declining to be named.
The higher education watchdog will now prepare a report of the summit and share it with all universities to guide them regarding the implementation of NEP 2020.
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