JKLU’s International Conference ICSFIE 2022 begins today; highlights importance of student-centric educational practices
Leading technical university JK Lakshmipat University (JKLU), Jaipur, in collaboration with St. Cloud State University, USA and AIC-JKLU today commenced their two-day International Conference on “Sustainable Future: Innovations in Education” (ICSFIE 2022). The event put a special impetus on how education has become an important tool for creating a better world.
Prof Dheeraj Sanghi, Chairman of Conference Steering Committee & Vice Chancellor, JKLU welcomed Chief Guest Shri Anil Kakodkar, Guest of Honour Prof Sudhir Jain, other dignitaries, guests and participants. “Every year, for the past 10 years, we have taken one goal from the SDG of UN and, this year, we have chosen ‘Quality Education for All’. During the pandemic, education has been one of the most affected sectors. More than 1 billion students were out of the classrooms. But the education sector really worked hard to get things back on track. We have lots of sessions, panel discussions and other activities in this two-day conference and we are looking forward to adopt the best education practices from across the globe. This will enable us to become better teachers and a better university”, said Prof Sanghi.
Prof Sudhir Jain, Padmashri and Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University, highlighted how Information Technology (IT) has become an integral part of today’s education process and the role of universities in imparting the education. “Our country is going through a crisis both economically as well as strategically. In good old days, wars were fought with soldiers and guns. But, now wars are fought with using missiles and IT. The entire IT section is university driven. In today’s time, student is getting left out as the focus is on faculty, infrastructure and curriculum. We need to see student as the focal point. Our education needs to have three important things—gives good aspirations to young students, motivation to achieve those aspirations and capacity to meet their aspirations,” he said.
Echoing similar sentiments, Shri Anil Kakodkar, Padma Vibhushan and Nuclear Scientist, listed out three points to make education sustainable and student-centric. He said, “Student-centric education has become a common buzzword in Indian education system. But if the students are not our focus, then we cannot achieve our objective”. He stressed upon capacity building of humans at multiple levels, strengthening human values to eliminate exploitation of all kinds and connecting education at all levels to end exploitation and inculcate egalitarian values in educational institutions. “In order to achieve education for all, students should be made capable to build newer technologies and entrepreneurship so that they can contribute to the economy of the country and the world. We need to bring in all the procedural professional knowledge. I believe that the gap between the best in the world and us is growing and we need to catch up,” he mentioned.
On its Opening Day, the conference aimed to bring all stakeholders on a single platform to collectively discuss and deliberate on different aspects of education. The event had keynote and technical sessions, paper presentations and panel discussions on ‘Education for Creating Better World’, ‘Tools for Teaching and Learning Effectiveness’, ‘Educational Practices for Special Needs’ and ‘Educational Policy and Governance’. During the special session on Special Needs, Prof Vladan Devedzic, Professor at FON – School of Business Administration, University of Belgrade, Serbia stressed on how we all are learners with special needs when it comes to artificial intelligence and other modern technologies.
The conference, which is co-sponsored by BSE, Institution’s Innovation Council and Turnitin and has IIT Roorkee, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Jammu, IIT Bhilai, MNIT Jaipur and Central University of Rajasthan as JKLU’s Academic Partners, started with a Souvenir release and ended with Poster presentations.