SPHE 2019 – The First Annual Principal’s Conclave at CMR University
Bangalore: The first Principal’s Annual Conclave organized by CMR University on 12th April 2019 focused on “Students’ Preparedness for Higher Education and challenge and way forward.” This venture was much appreciated as it is the first of its kind in the state.
The conclave witnessed participation of more than sixty delegates who were Heads of Higher Secondary Schools, Pre University Colleges, Heads of affiliated colleges of Universities, Management representatives, Directors and Deans of Universities.
The Chief Guest for the Inaugural Program, Dr. H A Ranganath, Former Vice Chancellor, Bangalore University and Former Director, NAAC addressed the gathering and delivered the keynote address with an inspiring talk. The eye opening session threw light on the awareness and need for clarity regarding one’s vision and mission statement. He also laid emphasis on the impact and influence we educators can be as we are dealing with more than 4 lakh students at the PU level.
The session was then followed by a very thought provoking session by Prof Dr. Venkata Rao, Vice Chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He reiterated that Bangalore is outstanding as it is the Intellectual Capital and therefore there is an immense responsibility on the educators. Quoting Abdul Kalam, he also alluded to Bangalore being a land of ideas.
He encouraged us as educators that we influence eternity and stated that “Academic excellence without human excellence is disastrous.” He concluded the session by warning educators not to become complacent and to constantly be a learner as in the race for excellence there is no finish line”.
The afternoon session of the Conclave began with the first round of panel discussion, which was chaired by Dr. M.S. Shivakumar, Vice-Chancellor, CMR University. He raised his concerns regarding the dipping employability among the youngsters, which was to be addressed by the succeeding panel members.
The dignitaries on the dias for the panel discussion were :
• Dr. M.P. Ravindra, Former Vice-Chancellor, Manipal International University
• Dr. Ashok H.S.,Professor, Department of Psychology, Bangalore University
• Dr. R. Rajaram, Professor & Head, Department of English, St. Joseph College of Commerce
• Dr. S. Ramesh, Professor & Dean, Management Studies, Mount Carmel College
They called for an attempt from the educational institutions for improving the ways of imparting education to the students by equipping them with efficient interpersonal and creative communication, problem solving skills, crisis management abilities and emotional and spiritual intelligence. They unanimously opined that kindling the curiosity of the students would draw them towards self-learning. Education should aim at a holistic development of the students in terms of honesty and integrity, prompting them to be critical thinkers and acquire the ability to collect information and process them. Orienting parents was another suggestion observed by them.
The second round of panel discussion was chaired by Dr. R. Ravi Kumar, Professor, IIM Bangalore
The dignitaries on the dias for the panel discussion were:
• Dr. Manjula Raman, CEO, Academics and Innovations, Royal Concorde International Group of Institutions
• Prof. Devaraju R. , Professor, Govt. PU College, KR Puram
• Prof. N. Srinivas, Professor, MES PU College
They observed that attentiveness by the students should be demanded by the faculties by generating excitement and curiosity among the students and improving learnability among learners and teachability among teachers. The panel members unanimously pointed at the importance of teachers becoming constant learners and the necessity of infrastructure to support the initiatives by the teachers in their effort to impart quality education through innovative ways, which includes the use of technology pointed out by
Dr. R. Ravi Kumar, Professor, IIM Bangalore, Chief Guest for the Valedictory program presented the concluding remarks.