Kasargod: On Thursday, 17th of June, 2021, the VidyaDaan Foundation organised a historic session on Unlocking Education in India: Post Covid-19. Given the humongous catastrophe brought about by the pandemic, has engulfed the polity in its octopus-like grip. Small wonder then, in view of the uncertainty emveloping all of us today, especially the students community, the very objective of the Webinar assumed a special significance.
What next? This question appears to perturb every single guardian and the student today. Hence in this backdrop, the panel for brain storming on this delicate issue has to be requisitioned from different fields of specialisation. No wonder the panel of intellectuals comprised of: Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, the former judge of Supreme Court, Dr J. N. Singh, a senior IAS officer, the longest serving Chief Secretary of Gujarat, CA Rajiv Singh, Business Valuer Asia, Dr Raman Kumar Jha, the Vice Chancellor of Amity University, Dr U. K. Chaudhury, the former professor of IIT(BHU).Dr Sharma, an educationist who represented India in the United Nations twice. Even though, we had invited two more eminent academicians who, despite confirming their participation, failed to participate on their personal issues.
The panelists deliberated on the myriad issues pertaining to the plethora of problems confronting education sector and their remedies, especially in the wake of the post Covid 19. Remarkably, the panelists were almost unanimous in their opinions that there should be a public-private partnership in bailing out the vast section of people, especially the children, of their stupendous problem afflicting them. In fact, there should be a collective participation of all the stakeholders of the society to ameliorate the state of condition of vast section of people who have already gone down below the poverty line.
The financial, technological and developmental challenges assume a monstrous proportion, in view of the students substituting their class room studies at virtual platforms. The panelists rued over the lack of internet facilities in the rural hinterland, which, they felt, hobbled the online education across India.
The collaboration among different universities, colleges and schools were considered to be the template upon which the technological knowledge is sought to be promoted.
The panelists agreed to emphasise on the nature, especially rivers like Mother Ganga, to form part of curriculum. The integration of nature with curriculum, was construed to be the important part of the pedagogy.
The panelists agreed that post Covid 19 was a daunting challenge for one and all. Therefore, there should be a collective endeavour to deal with this crisis. The panelists demanded a higher budgetary allocation for education and research to deal with the emerging grave crisis. Even the recommendation was made to prescribe some sort of military training for the children to inculcate in them.
The moderator Shri Vivekanand Jha thanked all the panelists and the participants. He highlighted the VidyaDaan Foundation for its valuable contribution to the field of education. The participants immensely appreciated the webinar, huge congratulations followed. The overall gravity and magnitude of the Webinar can be guaged from the torrent of comments that followed.
“The VidyaDaan Foundation offers In-service Skills Enhancement programmes (ISEP) for Teachers and Principals of CBSE, ICSE and State Board Schools across India. After successful completion of free training sessions for over 5,000 teachers and principals across India, VidyaDaan has hosted this national webinar with international implementations. We’re able to accomplish this success only with the help of many educational experts and their voluntary service to this organization.”
