Dr Ashwath Narayan delivers keynote address on NEP at ISDC powered Commonwealth Education Conference in London
London : Bridge India, a progressive non-profit think tank dedicated to discourse on public policy, organised the Commonwealth Education Conference on May 19 in London. The conference was powered by ISDC (International Skill Development Corporation). The conference witnessed 150+ attendees from UK, India, Australia, New Zealand, and more.
Dr Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Higher Education, IT, BT, Skill Development and Livelihood, and Government of Karnataka, attended the conference as a keynote speaker. While addressing an exciting session on ‘How to Build a National Higher Education System in the 21st Century’, Dr Ashwath Narayan provided an overview of the Government’s ambitious National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) and said, “The method of teaching, pedagogy and the learning systems have a great significance. Our learners should not only have the freedom to choose their preferred core subjects but also need to be familiarized with skill enhancement as well as ethics related courses. We believe, it is necessary to bring ethics and human constitutional values in the curriculum for the betterment and advancement of the societies.”
“As part of our New Education Policy, the approach is to include life skill courses to curriculum. We have strived to achieve this goal and have been successful to a great extent. Karnataka has more than two-third of the community colleges in India. There are more than 1,000 vocational training institutions in the state and high-end institutions where upskilling programs are given priority. We are planning to increase these numbers within next one year. We will also ensure that each district will have a public university. We are encouraging private universities, deemed universities and every other such institution to become autonomous by upgrading themselves into a university. We are emphasizing more on multilingual programs and aligning them with the national skill qualification framework under NEP,” Dr Ashwath added.
Mr Tom Joseph, Executive Director, Strategy & Development, ISDC, said, “It is a privilege to be associated with Bridge India to organise the Commonwealth Education Conference and join the discussion on the post-covid realignment in the education sector. I strongly feel the realignment is all about the influence of technology and working collaboratively. At ISDC, our motto is to build skills for tomorrow. We will leave no stone unturned to persistently supply the skills needed for learners in the future. Pandemic and a global lockdown didn’t stop us in ensuring that we deliver what we believe in. We have successfully been able to cope up with the pandemic as we embarked on a digital journey proactively even before the pandemic hit us.”
Over the last few years, ISDC has teamed up with Indian universities to address the skill gap in a range of sectors. This new and student-centric partnership was established to provide quality education and skill development programs and training designed to equip students with future-ready career skills and expertise. Leading innovators from higher education, edtech, and other fields attended the Commonwealth Education Conference.
The conference saw very insightful sessions and panel discussions such as -What is my vision for a post-Covid realignment of education?; ‘Beyond branch campuses’; Exploring diverse and innovative partnerships’ and Case study: Micro incentives to reward achievement.