India Education Summit 2022 Highlights: ‘Ed-tech’s responsibility to make education accessible and affordable’

"Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching the four C's -- critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. More broadly, schools should downplay technical skills and emphasise general purpose life skills," said J Phillip, Chairman, XIME

Discussing on ' Road to employability', panelist Kirit Seth, CEO of IT-ITES Sector Skill Council, NASSCOM said, "We're seeing this demand coming up of IoT and digital skills becoming a horizontal so that's really what we will need to do. And the push is going to come to academic institutions. A total of 35% of the graduates are employable in the tech sector. But what do educational institutions need to do about that? They need to first and foremost look at how to improve the foundational skills and the core domain that they provide. Because it's only on top of that, that you can put all these skills and build upon it because you simply cannot do artificial intelligence if you don't understand maths or stats. You can't go into a factory and suddenly start applying IoT or AI when you don't understand mechanical engineering."

In the panel discussion on ‘Upskilling the skiller’, Shekhar Bhattacharjee, Founder and CEO, Dalham Learning said, “Teachers need to be more equipped with ed-tech platforms which give them unlimited access to information knowledge, modules, curriculum which already made plugin prop into the classroom. that they go in and operate more as a facilitator and a researcher. You can facilitate your research you can curate information, and rather than becoming the old model, which was about that Guru is on the top. Guru has to be on the top all the time, but you have to be a lifelong learner at the same time. It is important to train teachers on 21st century skills that focus on collaboration, problem solving, design thinking with each other.”

We have a few initiatives that were testing on 21st century skills on no tech, low tech and high tech. It's just not one way it's not just about access to education system, whereas can they get these opportunities and work around it? And we're also looking at really marginalised populations the need to contextualise support as well. The need of a tribal girl in Odisha is quite a bit different from a need of a young person with disability which is going to be different from a child living an institutional care or refugee population. These are categories of young people. so when we talk about digital education, we do the breadth and scale of it, but at the same time, we need to look at the type of thing that is needed And what are these intersections for various vulnerable groups. as well, based on the three categories I talked about enabling ecosystem. We are working with government will economy photo mechanic sector partners, the supply of the devices in activity, then working at the society level as wellple. 

In the panel discussion on ‘Professional aka problem solving thinkers’, Dhuwarakha Sriram, Chief, Generation Unlimited (YuWaah), UNICEF said that we really need to look at 21st century skills not as an external thing, but as part of the curriculum as part of every subject matter that goes.

“We strive to understand the aspirations of young people and their learning, leadership employment on entrepreneurial journeys and and then support them in terms of what's relevant for them. Are they really work with jobs that are not created for technology's not yet invented, or the problems not yet and we need to really equip them with these essential skills such as collaboration, problem solving, effective communication, decision making, financial literacy, as well as your curiosity, imagination, resilience and self regulation. As the second workplace is transformed, the skills required of its young people must also report This accentuates the need to invest in building the necessary 21st century skills and competences," she adds.

“We have to remove learning from our system and have to be more inclined towards project based learning more inclusive digital learning, and the teachers, students and the parents need to be comfortable. “We need to be multidisciplinary in our homes a bit less focused stereotype or a profile. Student choices are very, very important. We must think of them at the code, and then the assessment systems around that. We should be able to remove anxiousness on saying you score ones and you're in or out, and we should be able to develop our students in a way that they can follow passion. It's not about just saying it's actually working. Let let there be more choices rather than an engineer or a doctor,” Bani Dhawan, Head of Education, India and South Asia Google Cloud India said

"Although we are all considering technology to be front, right, or centre, in reality, technology is not the end goal. It is the teachers it's the humans and how we make them adapt to the world. So teacher training is not only going to be required in the future, but that was exactly the requirement before the pandemic started. Google classroom has been existing for a longer time so much downtime, Google meet was available for such a long time. But the question arose that if you could use the right partners, like the ones we have like Martha, and one of the trainers, who's partnered with Google, then obviously the adoption at school level becomes so easy. I'm so happy to see that adoption is happening and what we can do in a country like India.” Naman Jain, Director, Silverline Prestige School said.

Talking on 'Creating a hybrid world', all the panelists unanimously agreed that the hybrid mode of education is here to stay for many years in the future. 

Tim Oates, Director, Assessment Research and Development Cambridge Assessment (University of Cambridge said, “I think digital is here to stay. I've seen some remarkable schools that have integrated the use of hybrid mode, integrated these other technology into the pedagogy and didactic approaches.Digital is here to stay the form of hybrid working which we've seen in pandemic has been so varied, has been driven by so many different levels, some of them good, some of them very problematic, that I don't think we can simply say that what we did pandemic during pandemic is what we should be doing in the future. We have to quite critically review what's happening. Look at the outcomes, look at who's been included and excluded, what the achievement has been, and then make very deliberate decisions about what approach digitally supported approaches we're going to take forward into the future.”

In the panel discussion on ‘India and the Ed-tech growth story’, Teachmint’s CEO Mihir Gupta said that even even while we go global, and tackle the problem of this big software and product gap in the emerging markets, localization from a vernacular perspective remains very important. “For the adoption, what we'll see is just the platform being present in 20 plus Indian and international languages, has made this adoption very, very easy. And another aspect has been just it being mobile first which has been a gap in education technology largely is that software and technology has been varied keeping a developed market in mind. Traditionally, and especially in education software, the products haven't been built with a mobile first mindset. and that is what is radically different in how we are seeing the spread as of today in India and emerging markets,” he added. 

"Technology is the only way to bridge the gap between access and quality learning. The physical iniquities of access to education are far far more difficult to solve than the inequities that exist in the digital world. The sector has made so much progress in enabling better learning outcomes. And as technology continues to advance and its integration in education expands the scope to affect you change, if anything in one word, that scope is limited. The World Economic Forum estimates that 85 million jobs will be displaced, redefine into changing skills 50% of all existing employees are going to need some sort of urgent upside. Technology is the only way to do that," Divya Gokulnath said in her session. 

“We all know that educational quality directly affects individual earnings. For an economy, education can actually increase human capital in the labour force. This increases productivity and that actually leads to a higher equilibrium level of output. Each uneducated youth are much more unlikely to have a living wage for themselves, they always have. So it is this convergence of education of technology of innovation, which is a cornerstone to any growing economy and will play a part in nation building. It will prepare our future generations for the unseen jobs of an uncertain tomorrow. In fact, so many jobs of tomorrow are not even defined," Divya Gokulnath, Co-founder, BYJU’s in her standalone session on the role of education in enhancing human potential.

While talking on ‘Technology as core of education, knowledge and Learning’, upGrad Chairperson Ronnie Screvala said that education can be for profit but main take is solving problems at scale. whereas the particular institution brick and mortar will not be as good as edtech platforms in terms of scalability. 

“However, outcomes is very, very important. In any aspect of education, you're part of the government. And you know exactly, because without outcomes, or ROI there isn't really anything else. So I wouldn't endeavour the ed tech. It is everyone's responsibility to make whatever we're doing much more accessible, much more affordable. We need to also focus on outcomes rather than just the value,” he added  

Today, India Education Summit will have  Ronnie Screwvala, Chairperson and Co-founder, upGrad, a discussion on 'Technology as core of education, knowledge and learning'. Another major highlight of the day will be a special address by Divya Gokulnath, Co-founder, BYJU’s followed by a panel discussion on 'TIndia and the Ed-tech growth story'. 

To attend the India Education Summit 2022, one needs to register for it. You can get the registration link from the top right corner of indianexpress.com website or via indiaeducationsummit.in. One can also watch the live-streaming event at Indian Express's YouTube Channel. For insights, detailed analysis, and key takeaways, keep watching this space.

Welcome to the second day of the India Education Summit (IES) 2022! After the inaugural address from the Union Education Minister and in-depth discussions on the implementation of education, National Education Policy, among other key issues, today's theme is 'Education’s Digital Revolution'. Ronnie Screwvala, Chairperson and Co-founder, upGrad will be the first to join today at 10 am for a discussion on 'Technology as core of education, knowledge and learning. 

This was just day one of the two-day-summit. Join us tomorrow at 10 am. We have many sessions that include eminent personalities and leaders from all spheres of education domain who will talk about the education, teaching, learning, and employment opportunities throughout the sessions. 

To encourage students to pursue skill-based courses, we launched skill university in Delhi. However, the mindset towards these courses needs to change. It might take time, but the Delhi Skill University will help students as well as parents to change their ideology towards these courses and consider them at par with other professional degrees.

"After conducting tracing of students who did not conduct school in either online or offline classes brought back 1700 students back to schools. Most of the students belonged to margianilised families who either shifted back to their village in Covid or could not attend due to parents unawareness. There is still a large number of students who are untraceable and we will find them to bring back to schools," said Manish Sisodia

"It is important that parents consciously use their smartphones are the children. Parents are best role models and it makes it our responsibility to be aware of our habits around them. The way we swipe, the images we use, the selfies we take. It is important that we set right examples for them to follow," Meenakshi Uberoi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, De Pedagogics said

"In this last few years, kids are coming out so positively doing such wonderful activities. So it is our responsibility as in real life and as parents and educators we protect our children. We take care of how they eat whom they play with what are they eating, whether it is hygienic or not. The similar effort is really needed for online space which is not happening and which is causing all the issues and the negative issues which you keep on hearing," Saikat Mitra, Senior Director - Head of Trust and Safety, Google said

(Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)

In the panel disuccion on 'Breaking the Berlin wall: Ed-tech meets education', panelist Alexander Jesudasan,the Pro-VC of Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science said, 'One area that needs concentration is with regard to the youth in the rural areas is internet connectivity, availability of gadgets. Tp bridge this gap, government has to come up with schemes and even CSR activities to embrace this. I think we'll be able to reach the every nook and corner of India through digital education and by which you will be able to do the massification of education. Even in our own university, we have the Centre for open and digital security.'

In the panel discussion on 'Enabling foundational literacy using technology',  panelist Nitin Kashyap of Google's Read along initiative said,'Technology really brings along better and more engaging experiences. It can really enhance the efficacy of the intervention that you want and opens up the possibilities especially in foundational reading for using speech to text and text to speech to actually deliver experiences which make reading a joyful time.'

"UGC is working on coming out with a regulation that will facilitate the foreign universities to come and establish campuses in the country. Hopefully in another two months or so, we would come out with a draft regulation and put it out for the stakeholders feedback. We are also working on preparing a regulation to enable our Indian Institutes, whether they are state funded universities, private universities, central universities, to be able to go and open our own campuses. abroad," UGC Chairman informed.

'Today we have permitted the students to do up to 40% of their credits, anywhere outside their own institution, and parallel to this we have also created the academic bank of credit. Sooner we are also going to come up with modifications which will enable some of the top universities in our country to offer online programmes without even any permission from UGC.'

"As a regulator, we would like to keep away from the freedom that the Institute should have in customising the education for their students. So both the availability of intellectual resources and also the technology that is already present to us should enable the institute to design multidisciplinary education," UGC Chairman said.

Talking on ‘One year into NEP', Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE said “We have allowed engineering colleges to start programmes in respective regional languages and about 20 colleges in 10 states now teach engineering in six different languages. Similarly, there are lots of courses that are available on SWAYAM web platform. We are translating all those courses which are relevant to the curriculum of the engineering schools, and 136 or such courses are relevant for different disciplines of engineering are getting translated into core language partly done by IIT Madras.”

(Image credits: Gajendra Yadav)

In the panel discussion on ‘Taking Education to the next Billion’, Andrew Thangaraj, Professor, IIT Madras pointed out, “Taking education to all the next million, along with quality and rigour and no large scale operation, I think cost is a vital, vital, vital point. I think we never spoke about it that much. The average cost of government arts and science college today is Rs 6000 per semester and people get a degree for 30,000 total. So when large public institutions like IITs get into online delivery and large scale operations, we are able to really offer it at lower cost because there is a public investment here we're able to do it at lower costs and Bittle exam by like Rs 1000 or even that would CSR support. we offer it for Rs 500 for everybody,

Joseph Linson Director - Government and Education Business, Intel talks about Technology intervention in Government education

"At Coursera is we're addressing three constituents --  students learning on campus, students who now are willing to come and learn fully online and it aligns with the NEP's big push on fully online degrees. IIT-Madras has a very successful programme. And then the third element is working professionals. And what we've seen and this is something that we believe at Coursera is that talent is available everywhere. Opportunities are what the challenge which needs to be addressed," Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC,
Coursera said

In the panel discussion on The School Story in Covid-19', all the panelists unanimously agreed on the importance of ight techniques and pedagogies of assessment. The focus should not be laid on scoring high marks but on better learning. Assessment system needs to change to actually measure the skills of critical thinking creativity, collaboration, resilience, ability to open, limited resources. All of those are the skills that we need to measure the NDP talks about but the question is how our education system the way it's set up, the panelists suggested. 

"The way pandemic went on two years, so it was a journey where the teachers were thrown in into the deep end of the ocean and then told now you have to learn to swim. And I must say that they rose up to the occasion and really performed very well because it's the teachers who had to face not only the difficulty of teaching students online, but had to face a lot of parental involvement while they were teaching online. So you have a lot of parents who are there in the background, giving them their inputs of how you should be teaching, the lesson and all of that. So a time of introspection, a time of breaking that glass ceiling and realising that we are capable then so much more than we give ourselves credit for," said Raghav Podar, Chairman, Podar Education in the panel discussion on 'The School Story in Covid-19'

"Some of the big differences I see now from before is really just the receptiveness of how education institutions, teachers, and everyone close that using tools and other products especially online. Youtube is like a library and plays an important role in student’s education journey. The ed-tech ecosystem is providing right platform and accessibility to students in any area of the world," Shantanu Sinha, Director, Product Management, Google said

While day one will began with Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s address. It will be followed by a panel discussion on 'Redifining Education for all'. This will be moderated by Anushree Bhattacharyya, Editor - Education, Brand and Marketing, FE Digital. The third session of the day will be another discussion on 'The School Story in Covid-19'. This will be followed by a discussion on ‘Technology intervention in Government education’

English should be learnt as a business language, it is important for entrepreneurial and diplomatic relations internationally. NEP promotes all regional languages to promote the development of critical thinking skills in the students.

“Our potential is the 53 crore youth. If they study to become employees it won’t help, they need to study to become employers,” Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at #IES2022

Talking about the highly talented youth in the tier-II and III cities as well as in rural areas, education minister highlighted the need for skill development to help these students fly high. "We want to encourage these students to pursue their dreams of entrepreneurship, scientist, engineers by guiding and providing global solutions through NEP 2020," he said.

Approximately 35 crore Indians are under formal or informal education. To make India a superpower, it is important to skill this population involved in the education sector. Technology plays an important role in bridging the education gap.

The pandemic has drastically affected the lives of students who will be making important decisions for the country in the next 20 years. It is important to address these challenges and find the right ways to help them cover this gap. 

Stakeholders from different domains of the education sector will hold discussions on the most pressing issues in the space. Day 1 will have a discussion on the National Education Policy, its impacts, and implementation plan. Through the event, participants will also have a chance to learn and implement blended education, meet educators of the new world and interact on a real-time basis wuth speakers as well as fellow attendees.

Interested can register themselves by clicking at the top right button 'Indian Education Sumit' on the indianexpress.com homepage. One can also visit indianeducationsummit.in to catch the updates and participate in the event. The event will also be live-streamed at the Youtube Channel of Indian Express Online. For more updates keep watching this space.

Indian Education Summit (IES) 2022 is a dialogue platform hosted by the Indian Express Online media where stakeholders from different spheres of the education domain will discuss the 'future of education’. Beginning on March 6, it is a three-day event. On the first day, Education Minister will talk about India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the vision of an educated India. The discussion starts at 10 am.