Dr. Archana Mantri participates in panel discussion at the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam
Dr. Archana Mantri, Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University participated in a panel discussion on ‘Internationalisation of Education’ at the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam on July 9th, 2022 at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. The Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam was organized by the education ministry to discuss the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The event was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Hon’ble Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Hon’ble Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh addressed the audience on the occasion. NEP 2020 provides a path to decolonize education, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in his concluding remarks. “This Shiksha Samagam is a step towards establishing India as a knowledge-based superpower,” he said.
Nine theme-based sessions, including two on sharing best practises and success stories for implementing NEP 2020, were held during the summit. The organisers strongly advocated making university multidisciplinary and for them to provide space to industries in campus to establish research and development centres. “This is about both encouraging universities to establish start-up companies and also establish more collaborations with industries to make the education imparted in universities more application and practical experience based,” said M Jagadesh Kumar, chairperson of the University Grants Commission, India’s higher education regulator. “In fact, such efforts would make our students more employable, since their skill and knowledge base would be more relevant to emerging job opportunities.”
The summit, which was attended by over 300 heads of institutions, provided an opportunity to work out solutions to implement NEP 2020. The key takeaways from the summit was to promote land to lab and lab to land, meaning that there should be more consultations between educational institutions and stakeholders and that there is a great deal of learning that can happen from each other. The educators also discussed how to preserve and strengthen the rich cultural heritage of India and Indian languages. It was suggested to incorporate the Indian knowledge system into the curriculum at all levels.
Accredited universities were encouraged to attract more overseas students in order to advance domestic internationalisation. The higher education watchdog will now prepare a report of the summit and share it with all universities to guide them regarding the implementation of NEP 2020.
