The 5th APAC Global Education & Skills Conclave on Februrary 10 in Bengaluru featured a phalanx of academicians and educators from both HEI and K-12, education policymakers, global diplomats and industry leaders. The one-day Conclave resonated the theme of where top education leaders converge to catalyze transformation. The inaugural session discussed on building partnerships between policymakers, global communities and industry with the academia through a slew of initiatives.
While presenting a perspective on the overall skills scenario, Dr. Anju Sharma, IAS, Principal Secretary, Labour, Skill Development and Employment Department, Government of Gujarat illustrated her points with examples from Gujarat. “For the next 10 years, 68 million jobs will be lost every year but 93 million new jobs will be created with new skill roles. Therefore we need to redefine our education systems in conjunction with technology and give students experiential education.”
“NEP provides enough provisions to integrate skills with education. That is precisely the reason why we have come up with the Kaushalya Skill University. We are also working on mega ITIs at the top offering skills certificates and Mini ITIs at the bottom where local youths in industrial zones are provided localized skills,” informed Dr. Sharma.
Dr. Basavaraju R Shreshta, Executive Director, Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement emphasized on how the pandemic has impacted education and children’s rights most. He informed that as per a study conducted, only 38.2% Class 5 students can read Class 2 texts. While exhorting the industry to support academia more, he highlighted examples from Karanataka too. “Corporates are requested to invest in novel models over proven models in educations. They should invest in innovation, in experimentation.” “Sughama Siksha is practiced in Karnataka schools and the Children’s Parliament is organized by us where students speak directly,” he added.
“We are training 1 lakh students every year and we are looking after the overall training ecosystem working for all the government education projects. We have also set up 7 state of the art English labs in districts to help government schools and institutions,” informed Satish B K, Head – SANKALP, Karnataka Skill Development Corporation.
Diplomats from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweeden and Cambodia brought forward the global perspective. “India has embraced Education 4.0 and this will establish its position as Vishwa Guru or Universal teacher. Some of the Dutch universities are looking at collaborating with Indian counterparts. The NESO office in Bangalore is also looking at this collaboration,” informed Ewout-Jan de Wit, Consul General, Consulate of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Bengaluru.
“There is a political wish on both India and Denmark’s parts to work together on education…in addition there are lots of institutional initiatives at collaboration too,” reiterated Soren Tranberg Hansen, Consul – Deputy Head of Mission (Science & Innovation), Consulate General of Denmark in Bengaluru. “An elite robotic school and a sustainability school in Denmark are looking at collaborating with Indian educational institutions at the moment. The political momentum to collaborate has never been higher,” he added.
“In 2021-22, the number of Indian students in Sweden were over 2000, an increase of 300% of the number 10 years back. We can have a joint skills program now relevant for both countries,” offered Dr Per-Arne Wilkstrom, Head, Science & Innovation, Embassy of Sweden in India. “Cambodia and India have lots of common history including Angkor Vat and this can extend to education as well,” added Karthik Tallam, Honorary Consul, Cambodian Honorary Consulate in Bengaluru.
Dr P. Balakrishna Shetty, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Dr Rupa Vasudevan, Founder & Chancellor, Bharatiya Engineering Science and Technology Innovation University, Dr Jamshed Bharucha, Founding Vice Chancellor, Sai University, Chennai, Vishal Khurma, CEO, Woxsen University, Hrridaysh Deshpande, Vice Chancellor, Ajeenkya D Y Patil University, Pune, Dr Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, Vice Chancellor, NITTE University, Mangalore, Prof. G P S Varma, Vice Chancellor, K L Deemed to be University, Guntur and Yashwanth Shivaprakash, CEO, Audiolife School of Sound Engineering, Bengaluru discussed on outlining the digital roadmap in the new education model. The discussion centered around how the NEP provisions will get successfully incorporated and integrated with the current academic curricula and how are HEIs looking at synergizing NEP provisions with current pedagogical conventions.
Christopher Short, Managing Director, Nord Anglia Education, N Nagarajan, National Head Academics India, Global Indian International School, Bangalore, Dr Sami Ulla, CEO, Manipal Academy of Health & Education, Bangalore, Hardeep Bakshi, Chairman, Seedling Group of Schools, Shazia Ahmed, Director, Aryan Presidency School, Bengaluru, Pritam Kumar Agrawal, Founder, Hello Kids Chain of Preschools & Riverstone Schools VP & Core Committee Member, ECA – India, Dr Hemalatha S Murthy, Principal Director, White Petals Group of Schools, Bengaluru, Chirag Agarwal, Founder Director, EarlyVentions – Chain of Preschools, Bangalore and Godhuli Coomar, Business Head – BNPL, Fibe discussed the Convergence of Digital & Physical Education and Emergence of a Hyflex Model. What are the key requirements in building a robust technology infrastructure that can support a digital campus and what are going to be the key challenges in the hyflex (hybrid model) in democratizing education amongst all socioeconomic sections of society were some of the questions deliberated.
Dr Madhu Chitkara, Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University, Dr Kuldeep Kumar Raina, Vice Chancellor, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, Prof Srikanta Murthy, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Satya Sai University for Human Excellence, Dr P. Balakrishna Shetty, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur, Dr B Sendilkumar, Dean & Director – Health Sciences Vinayaka Missions Research Foundation-Deemed to be University, Salem and R Janardhan, Pro Vice Chancellor, Dayananda Sagar University, Bengaluru were hot on identifying the next milestones in the industry-academia collaboration journey. What is the role being played by incubators and CoEs in academic institutions that are being run by the industry, how can academia and industry collaborate more on experiential learning through internships and practical sessions and what is preventing us from reaching the level of Ivy League colleges in this respect where they have a much deeper engagement between industry and academia were deliberated upon.
Dr Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, Pro Vice Chancellor, RV University, Bangalore, Dr Vidya Shankar Shetty, Pro Vice Chancellor, REVA University, Bengaluru, Dr Muddu Vinay, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Presidency University, Bengaluru, Prof. S K Prasad, Dean, Srinivas University, Bangalore, Dr K Karunakaran, CEO, Hindusthan Educational Institutions, Coimbatore, Sridhara Murthi, Director, Jain University, Bangalore and Dr Sahana Madan, Professor & HOD- MBA, Dayananda Sagar Academy of Technology and Management discussed on leveraging Innovation to augment the admissions process. The outcome was outlining some of the best practices that have emerged in the admission process (especially online) during the pandemic. They also discussed on how most academic institutions have moved towards a all-in-one end-to-end admission system.
Prof. Vijaya Bhaskar Raju, Vice Chancellor, Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research, Chennai, Dr K Sundararaman, CEO, Sri Krishna Institutions, Coimbatore, Prof Nagendra Rao, Director, GITAM School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bengaluru, Dr H. C. Nagaraj, Principal, Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bangalore and Sai Gopala Krishnan, Head-Placements and Campus Relations, Adarsh AIMIT, Bengaluru deliberated on how technology can facilitate cognitive and independent learning. How can technologies like gamification or augmented reality be better leveraged to develop cognitive skills of students, what are the basic techniques being used in cognitive learning and how can colleges and universities ensure uniform availability of devices and connectivity to all sections of students in a blended learning model so that they are better able to leverage technology were some of the points deliberated and discussed.
Fibe, Ruckus Commscope, Knauf Ceiling Solutions, Propelld and Jnanamarga Technologies were some of the industry partners supporting the 5th APAC Global Education &Skills Conclave. Sandeep Ragurajan, Systems Engineer, Enterprise solutions, Ruckus Networks, highlighted, “There are too many networks on campuses nowadays, and unfortunately all are siloed networks. Connected campuses need converged network and Ruckus Comnscope solutions can help in this.”
“Fibe is the biggest digital lender for salaried Indians. Ed tech is one of our top performing sectors. We are trying to bridge the gap between institutions & parents when it comes to education fee financing,” informed Prashant Ranjan, Education Vertical Lead, Fibe. “Propelld looking to democratize access to education…We focus on education only and no other segments,” added Victor Senapaty, Co-founder, Propelld. “Acoustics is one thing everyone misses when building infrastructure for education,” informed .Kiran Kumar, Head – South Zone Knauf Ceiling Solutions.
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