Indian Education Summit 2021 begins today.Indian Education Summit 2021 HIGHLIGHTS: Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank began his inaugural address on the day 1 of Indian Education Summit 2021. The three-day virtual conference dedicated to discussing the future of education begins today. From schools and colleges shut down due to the pandemic to the launch of the National Education Policy 2020 – the sector has undergone a complete overhaul in the past year.
Under NEP 2020, students will be taught self-reliance right from the school level. There are several overhauls including learning vocational courses from class 6, the introduction of artificial intelligence from the school level, freedom of choosing one’s own subjects at the college level, and setting up of Academic Credit Bank where students who have drop-out can resume education from where they left, said Pokhriyal.
Talking about the debate on teaching in the regional language, the Education Minister said, no language will be imposed on any student and they will have the freedom to chose.
The further sessions included discussion on asynchronous learning, and content and the game of accessibility. During one of the discussions between academicians, they discussed how NEP will change the board exams systems which in-turn will impact heavily what and how the schools teach. Talking about the NEP’s vision to make the board exams low-stake, one of the stakeholders reiterated, how CBSE has been asked to increase the number of application-based questions by 10% every year and eventually by 2025, the entire board exam systems is set to be changed.
Education Summit 2021 begins today (Express Photo/ Representational)
This was just day one of the three-day-summit. Join us tomorrow at 10 am. We have many sessions that include eminent personalities including Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi who also holds education portfolio Manish Sisodia, CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant -- leaders from all spheres of education domain will talk about the education, teaching, learning, and employment opportunities throughout the sessions. Day 2 will focus on 'building a strong foundation', infrastructure play, educators of the new world, and a special address by Manish Sisodia, deputy CM.
Knowledge is available at a click of a button. Creativity and critical thinking in children are going to be the role of schools in the future. We require an extremely good level of content as it is available so much the idea is to curate best-suited content, said Rajnish Kumar, Director (Digital Education), Dept of School Education & Literacy Ministry of Education (Diksha PoV)
Student management for employability, fee management, faculty management, and the change in mindset fo parents and students in selecting are the key challenges which are bringing changes in the education space, says Raghav Gupta, Managing Director - India & APAC, Coursera
You can get great content anywhere but education also comes with cognitive load and for that, we need human intervention, says Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder & MD, upGrad.
The last session of the day on 'Content and the game of accessibility' begins. It is being moderated by Shruti Dhapola, Assistant Editor, Indian Express Online. The participants include Raghav Gupta, Managing Director - India & APAC, Coursera, Satya Raghavan, Director, Content Partnerships, YouTube India, Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder & MD, upGrad, and Rajnish Kumar, Director (Digital Education), Dept of School Education & Literacy Ministry of Education (Diksha PoV)
CBSE exams are changing the way questions are asked in the exam. Last year, the board has introduced multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in the board exams. The number of MCQs will be increased by 10 per cent every year, the Education Ministry had informed earlier.
If questions are more fact-based the meaning of assessment is superficial. If we pose open-ended questions where the child implies his/her concepts where a child focuses on thinking, the assessment will change, said Sumeeta Ghosh, Head - Ed-tech, Enlearn Xperiential Learning System, Heritage School. By 2025 there will be a completely different type of Board questions as under NEP the govt has asked to add 10% application-based questions every year, added Ashutosh Batta, Chairman, Bloom Public School
You cannot replicate the offline day online. We came up with models where synchronous teaching, independent work etc worked for different sections of schools. It implied students do not have to be online all the time. We spent time working on the emotional well-being of students as well. Learning is more than just passing the exams, said Sumeeta Ghosh, Head - Ed-tech, Enlearn Xperiential Learning System, Heritage School
We need to change the way we think about it. While during COVID we were forced to do it but moving forward, we need to make people comfortable using technology. It has given us cross-campus proxy settings in case a teacher is absent. We can hire experts for 10 hours and all campus students can join and learn certain topics. Technology and teachers' experience have to blend for blending learning to be the future of learning, said Pramod Tripathi Director Academics, Global Indian International School, Singapore.
Pandemic has been a virtual climb for teachers too. We as a school had to figure out an online model. We were not only figuring out tools but also the right screentime for the right age-group. Online learning is not a new avatar but an extension of what we do, says Sowmya Narayanan, Head Centre of Excellence, Inventure Academy
The second session of the day titled 'Asynchronous Learning: a driving force post the pandemic' moderated by Roshun Povaiah, Editor, FE Digital. The session will have Sowmya Narayanan, Head Centre of Excellence, Inventure Academy, Ashutosh Batta, Chairman, Bloom Public School, Pramod Tripathi Director Academics, Global Indian International School, Singapore, and Sumeeta Ghosh, Head - Ed-tech, Enlearn Xperiential Learning System, Heritage School
We have realised that there is a gap in teachers' knowledge in impacting design thinking. Mentors have voluntered to work at Atal Tinker Labs to fill in this gap, said Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog
Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham said that NEP puts forth the right direction and articulates the goals well. Highlighting that students across the country lack foundation skills, she said that a focused approach is needed. she highlighted that over the two decades of her work with the ASER report, she has seen improvement when teachers "keep curriculum aside and focus on foundation skills" but highlights that this needs to be made a high priority more so in 2021 because of the impact of the pandemic on education.
I am excited about the direction and articulation of goals, says Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham. The basic levels are worrying low, if we don't fix it early it will be very difficult to fix it later. For more than 10 years we are working on a fruitful, low-coast solution. We need to start where the child is and move where we need to be. Over the last two years, the results when you work with partners with school systems, one can see that when you allow teachers to work on the foundation skills, there can be 20-25% increase. We know how to do things but we need to put it on high-priority. It is more critical this year because of (pandemic) last year, said Banerji.
Model schools can act as a basis to spread best practices from one school to others. There has been an emphasis on national professional standards for teachers. There has to be standardisation for the training of teachers. An organisation has been set-up regarding the same, said Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog.
Bani Paintal Dhawan, Head of Education India and South Asia, Google Cloud India is moderating the panel where Rukmini Banerji, CEO, Pratham, Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog, and Ashish Dhawan, Founder and Chairman, Central Square Foundation discuss about the policy, its impact, and implementation.
Education institutes will be given access to devices and connectivity to ensure students who do not have access to devices at home have access at least at school. Students who do not have devices will be given a one-time grant for devices such as tablets, etc, said former ISRO chief.
Education of the future needs to be reconfigured, says former ISRO chief while addressing the education summit. He said that the new education policy replaces a three-decade-old policy. He said that the new policy integrates ICT in teaching learning methods. It streamlines education planning, education, and management.
We have already asked the top 100 universities under the NIRF ranking to impart online education. IITs, IIMs. KVs, IISERs have worked in this direction. We are creating a base for the future where regardless of the situation, India will continue its education. The online and offline preparations are simultaneously being carried out, said Pokhriyal.