Bhopal: Certification by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for all colleges should be done by 2022. More agencies will be included to conduct the accreditation work. This and several other points came up during sessions held under a three-day seminar, Sarthak EduVision, organised by the Bharatiya Shiksha Mandal and Rajeev Gandhi Technical University.
At the round-table conference, UGC chairman Prof. DP Singh and AICTE chairman Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe put up presentations and initiatives being taken up for implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP).
Prof. Singh said NAAC certification would be done for all colleges by 2022. He said that the UGC had prepared a quality mandate draft and prepared several programmes, including Gurudiksha and community engagement and evaluation work. Special focus is being given on teachers’ training programmes.
Prof. Sahasrabudhe underscored the need of Indianness in education. He said that the Indian knowledge system had been incorporated in the NEP and a special room had been allotted to the ministry for it. More than 800 experts of the Indian knowledge system have registered so far. Research should be done on the Granths, he emphasised. Constitution and environment subjects would be made mandatory in all AICTE courses, he added.
‘Invited Talks’ in EduVision, 2021
Nobel laureate Prof. Mohammed Yunus joined the session online and said that the new and alternative education system would decide the directions for the future in the world. In ‘Invited Talks’ in EduVision, 2021, Prof. Yunus said education was producing only job-seekers today and this trend must change.
Vice-chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Rajiv Kumar said an agriculture-related industry model was not according to their requirement. Around 86 per cent farmers have less than one hectare land. He suggested that universities promote agriculture-based research.
‘Challenges in Online Education’
In the session on ‘Challenges in Online Education’, director of the Consortium of Educational Communication (CEC) JB Nadda detailed the facilities available for online education and digitisation and shared the success of Massive Open Online Classes (MOOC). NCERT secretary Harsh Kumar shared the information and activities of online education and the NCERT. Vice-chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University Dr Nageshwar Rao spoke on the limitations of, and need for, online education.
‘Education in Indian Languages’
In the expert session on ‘Education in Indian Languages’, Prof. Shriniwas Varakhedi called upon educationists to promote Indian languages. Chancellor of Dr CV Raman University Dr Santosh Chobey said language had been connected with music, poetry and arts from the ancient times, but now, we had limited languages only to literature.
