13th World Education Summit (WES), two-day educational extravaganza organised by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, concluded Saturday in Mumbai.
Inaugurated by Meeta Rajivlochan, Principal Secretary & State Project Director, State Project Directorate – RUSA, Government of Maharashtra; Lt. Col. Kailash Bansal, Director, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE); Major Harsh Kumar, Secretary, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and Nitin Kumar R Toprani, District Planning Officer, Government of Gujarat, the grand congregation served as a platform for numerous distinguished edu-leaders and stakeholders of the education sector to discuss and deliberate upon latest innovative practices in the education sector.
“Nurturing entrepreneurial skills along with inculcating cutting-edge skills related to digital technology such as AI among students is very important and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) Maharashtra is laying focus on this aspect,” said Meeta Rajiv Lochan, Principal Secretary & State Project Director, State Project Directorate – RUSA, Maharashtra, as a chief guest at the education conclave.
“New India calls for an intelligent application of technology and with such a focus, we are employing all our resources to nurture country's youth, said Dr Archana Thakur, Joint Secretary, University Grants Commission (UGC). Describing the rich educational heritage of India, Major Harsh Kumar, Secretary, NCERT, said, “It is important to know about our past to move confidently in the future and in India, we used to have an excellent schooling system known as ‘Gurukul’ which helped children in their holistic development.”
Highlighting the role of latest IT innovations in promoting startup culture across the country and nurturing entrepreneurship among students, Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director – Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Atal Tinkering Lab, said, “Industrial revolution 4.0 offers great opportunities for the educational ecosystem of India. It can help India become a knowledge economy soon.”
Mentioning key projects being envisioned by Atal Tinkering Lab projects under its future template to encourage start-ups across the country, Ramanathan said, “In recent times, a number of projects,unique to the needs of the country’s youth have been initiated across the country and many more are in the offing.”
Navin Mittal, Commissioner, Department of College & Technical Education, Government of Telangana, said, “While on one hand extracurricular activities help students to develop holistically, on the other, it is important for the present education system to collaborate with edu-tech industry for bringing innovation in teaching-learning processes.”
Dr Ravi Gupta, Founder Publisher, CEO and Editor-in-Chief Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, the premier technology and media research organisation of Asia and the Middle East, having a legacy of facilitating the most versatile knowledge-sharing platform through its flagship ‘World Education Summit’ (WES) initiative, said, “Education has an important role to play in nation-building and one important aim of ‘World Education Summits’, organised annually since 2011 –– has been to serve as a platform for industry-academia-government partnership to help better showcase innovations and initiatives that are playing an enabler role for this purpose.”
“All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is involved in a number of initiatives to enhancevocational and entrepreneurial knowledge base of students, especially those in far-flung areas, which require customized solutions”, said Lt Col Kailash Bansal, Director, AICTE. Highlighting the role of public-private partnership in education, Anil Swarup, CEO, Jharkhand Skill Development Council, and former Union School Education Secretary, said, “There are good people in both sectors –– private and public and both are required to enhance the educational ecosystem of the
country and hence I am a great believer of PPP model in education.”
“The solutions to our educational woes will not come from the US, the UK or Finland but from our motherland, meaning — enough indigenous educational models exist across the country that require handholding now. There are success stories in states such as Rajasthan, MP etc, which were earlier considered to be among the lowest performing regions but the status quo has now been changed,” added Swarup.
On the occasion, a special issue of the digitalLearning magazine, highlighting various facets, prospects and challenges of industrial revolution 4.0 as applicable in the education sector was also launched.
As part of the mega event, a galaxy of Edu-experts brainstormed over various prominent issues affecting the education sector.
Stressing on the need for bridging trust-deficit between educators and students, Mark Parkinson, Investment Director, International Schools Partnership Limited (UK), said, “We need to create an educational ecosystem in which students trust educators, this is relevant across the globe.”
“We want to encourage experiential learning in our schools so that students remain passionate all the times, said, Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan Group of Institution, while participating in the ‘CEO Panel discussion on Industrial Revolution 4.0’ held during the summit.
Advocating for increased thrust by educators on producing “better human beings”, Pinto added that Siri, Google and Facebook will not be able to tell us how to be a good person, so this limitation of the present IT-led times needs to be addressed too. On a similar note, Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD and CEO, Kalorex Group, added, “In today’s digital age, the mental strength of students needs to be nurtured because machines can do everything except being emotional.”
The educational extravaganza witnessed participation from eminent key stakeholders of Government, preschool, school, higher education, skills, vocational training, edu-tech, and start-ups sector. Thoughts shared by leaders were aimed at bringing innovations in education sector and adopting the best and latest pedagogical practices being followed across the globe.
The notable edu-leaders participated in the summit included: Dr A. Ashok, Secretary and Commissioner, Board of Intermediate Education, Govt. of Telangana; Amol Arora, Managing Director, Shemrock Group Of Schools; Shreevats Jaipuria, Vice Chairman, Seth M R Jaipuria Schools and Jaipuria Institute of Management; Debshankar Mukhopadhyay, CEO, Zee Learn Limited; Raghav Podar, Chairman, Podar Education; Anil Mammen, Chief of Learning, Design and Social Impact,Tata ClassEdge; Anirudh Gupta, CEO, DCM Group of Schools; Lakshmi Rao, Academic Director, Jain Group of Schools; Reekrit Serai, Director and Dean, Satluj Group of Schools; Mahesh Shetty, Whole Time Director, MT Educare, and Divya Lal, MD, Ebix Smartclass Educational, among others.
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