India Education Summit Day 3 HIGHLIGHTS: From work from home to data science – this is what future of jobs looks like

As per a quick poll done during the India Education Summit, 54% of people said that laptop is their preferred for e-learning, followed by 31% votes to a smartphone, 13% preferred tablet, only 4% ranked desktop as their preferred mode of e-learning.

3.5 lakh CBSE teachers across 22,000 schools helped in creating a blended classroom approach. It would be necessary for academicians, administrators, and mentors to work together, said Sapna Chadha, Senior Director of Marketing Southeast Asia and India, Google

More than five lakh teachers have benefitted from Google's education tools. When we started it we was apprehensive but we started receiving positive feedback within the first week. Most of the teachers wanted to acquire new skills. More than 60% of teachers reported that Google for education tool helped them be more creative and students gained more interest. 60% of teachers feel more comfortable in using tech-tools post-training, said Sapna Chadha, Senior Director of Marketing Southeast Asia and India, Google.

320 million students affected by COVID-led schools and colleges shut-down in India. Many educators started virtual education for the first time, said Sapna Chadha, Senior Director of Marketing Southeast Asia and India, Google

The last session by Sapna Chadha, Senior Director of Marketing Southeast Asia and India, Google. She would talk about future of education, leveraging technology.

The world is facing many issues and one of the main issues is job creation. We need a million more jobs. Technology is accelerating and bringing in AI, IoT etc  - many jobs will be lost and many will be created. But what worries me is will people who lose jobs will be reskilled and retrained to take up the new jobs or will we have a generation of people who are unable to be skilled in to doing things new ways, asked Shiv Khemka, Founder and Chairman of tGELF

Shiv Khemka, Founder and Chairman of tGELF delivers an address on 'building leaders of tomorrow'

General employability is not the need of the hours. Top companies started hiring BSc graduates and trained them for 6 months. The buzz word is not the right approach. Today it can be data analytics, tomorrow it will be something else. Running after buzzword is not going to help. That's the child mentality. We should let a child decide what is good for them, said Pratik Mehta, Google Cloud Public Sector Lead

The health sector has emerged as a big recruiter during the pandemic, a virtual dietitian is too in huge demand. Also, social media experts are among the new jobs. New designations and titles coming in but, however, data is leading the trend these are some of the recent jobs, said Anjali Raghuvanshi, Chief People Officer, Randstad India 

As an IITian I was told by recruiters that we come to hire at your campus because we know that students from here are very hardworking. We pardon whatever you do in the past four years because we anyway have to train you again, told Pulkit Jain, Product Head & Co-founder, Vedantu highlighting the gap between industry and academia.

We are lagging in thinking skills. Even though we have introduced AI courses, the students are missing their application because these students are not aware where to use these skills as they have not seen the social issues, said Manoj Khaladkar, Training & Placement Head, Army Institute of technology.

The last session of the day where panelists will discuss "from education to employment". The panel is being moderated by Neeti Nigam, Assistant Editor, IE Online. The panels include Pulkit Jain, Product Head & Co-founder, Vedantu, Pratik Mehta, Google Cloud Public Sector Lead, Manoj Khaladkar, Training & Placement Head, Army Institute of technology, and Anjali Raghuvanshi, Chief People Officer, Randstad India

When we were learning it was a teaching-based system but now we need to make it a student-driven system where rather than defining students in terms of slow learners or fast learners we need to make go to their point and give them their own learning and reflection time. We need to build thinking and rethinking practices in the teaching-learning system, said Prof. Udaykumar R Yaragatti - Director, MNIT Jaipur

It's not about the world of design but the design of the world, said Prof. Udaykumar R Yaragatti - Director, MNIT Jaipur. The mindset of teaching theory and practice in different lectures is old. We need to teach it simultaneously. With the new world of skill India, startup India, the student is given free space to think what is it that he wants.

We cannot wait to introduce entrepreneurship as a subject to students in their final year and expect them to learn the skill. Every project a student takes on from school level to final-year university classes needs to be industry-driven and case study base. For this even teachers will have to upskill themselves and learn newer relevant things, as well as the campuses, need to be a tech-led structure. When I say tech-led I do not mean high-end coding but using basic tech as and where necessary and being comfortable with it, Prof (Dr.) Preeti Bajaj, VC, Galgotias University

The second panel for the day begins. Members to talk about ways to create modern thinkers. The panel is being moderated by Supreeth Nagaraju - Head Education, Digital Media - India & South Asia, Adobe. The panelists include Prof. Saikat Maitra, VC, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT), Prof (Dr.) Preeti Bajaj, VC, Galgotias University, Dr. Sanjay Gupta (Vice-Chancellor, World University of Design, Prof DR Kiran Bala, Dean SJMC, KR Mangalam University, Prof. Udaykumar R Yaragatti - Director, MNIT Jaipur

People want to send their kids for foreign collaboration but we need to send a map credit system first. The subjects available, the credits we take in, the course curriculum in India, and that country need to match for a tie-up. Credit mapping is a nightmare for Indian students sometimes kids have to do more credit work after returning from a semester in foreign collaboration. We need to take a look at what is the process of defining credit in India and abroad. There are so many who want to come and study in India but cant because of the way we credit our system, said Sudhanshu Varma, COO, Bennett University.

With the set-up of NRF, the disbalance in fund allocation for research for public and private institutions for research will change. Indian institutes have the capability to become a research destination for the world, said Navin Mittal, Commissioner, Collegiate Education & Technical Education at Government of Telangana. Stakeholders from the government, private institutes, and administration discuss what impact would NEP's proposal of setting up Indian institutes abroad and foreign institutes in India and how will it impact education.

There is a resource crunch even in international universities, much more output can happen in India for the amount of India. We can be a hub in this space and produce the bulk of global research. We also do have some excellent international level education institutions including IITs, IIMs. These institutes can lead the way in research as well, said Navin Mittal, Commissioner, Collegiate Education & Technical Education at Government of Telangana. He also highlighted that Indian institutes need more collaboration within institutes and fund allocation.

At the undergraduate level, the Indian education system is far better and we miss out on the postgraduate level. We miss out because the funding in India is very limited in India as compared to foreign institutes, said Sudhanshu Varma, COO, Bennett University.

When a student goes out of the country, the kind of environment, consumers, their purchasing habits and how the market operates - a student is able to see all these business aspects. A lot of new ideas get implemented there first and then in India. If students work there, they will study things which are contemporary. Further, many students take-up jobs abroad and such collaborations help them to be prepared as they get accustomed to such international culture, said Prof Sanjay Verma, IIM-Ahmedabad

MoU with a foreign university, collaborate with universities abroad and we can enable student exchange, short-stay programmes, semester exchange programme are possible under such MoUs. Faculty members were allowed to visit and deliver lectures, the cost of faculties coming and delivering lectures has come down and the number of such lectures has increased as a result of the pandemic, said Ramakrishnan Raman, Director - SIBM Pune & Dean, Symbiosis International

The first session of the day 'coming together of two worlds' begins. The session is being moderated by Ritika Chopra, senior assistant editor, Indian Express. It is joined by Ramakrishnan Raman, Director - SIBM Pune & Dean, Symbiosis International, Sudhanshu Varma, COO, Bennett University, Prof Sanjay Verma, IIM Ahmedabad, Navin Mittal, Commissioner, Collegiate Education & Technical Education at Government of Telangana. The panel will discuss collaborations between Indian and foreign education institutes.

Industry skills in demands include digital and creative skills are on their priority skills. There are 43+ new skills in demand which will shape the Indian economy at large. We at industry leaders focus on product creators, VR and AR is a critical skill in this journey for these creators across the industry. One of the biggest areas is the web. The web is a critical aspect of every business. In this area, design of various aspects of web technology like user interface etc. There is a very short supply of talent pool in this space. Research done in India needs to be done at international standards and conveying messages in a technical way is critical and technical writers are in huge demand. The need for digital imaging is also very critical. As a number of mobile applications are being more and more cohesive, there is a necessity for mobile application developers. As we move forward, converting cities into superpowers is needed and hence digital architecture is an important skills. Communication and journalism is very critical and publishing is a key skill. Gaming as an industry is also needed. It is backed by ML and AI which also has opportunity of creating historical landmarks, said Nagaraju.

Digital is a quintessential yatra of learning. Constant learning, unlearning, and re-learning become integral parts, said Supreeth Nagaraju - Head Education, Digital Media - India & South Asia, Adobe. When I speak to industry leaders and hiring managers, the constant problem they like to address is transformation across boardrooms. Digital and creativity are here to solve all kinds of problems, he added.

The third and final day has begun with a virtual address by Supreeth Nagaraju - Head Education, Digital Media - India & South Asia, Adobe. He is highlighting about digital proficiency and how India can reach its targets in this sphere.

On the second day, the NTI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant highlighted several issues in the Indian education system. He said, "We need to be cautious of not building a digital divide, as we move towards digital education". He also highlighted that "India needs additional 33 million seats in higher education to achieve the 50% GER aim set by NEP 2020. This cannot be fulfilled only through the bricks and mortar model cannot achieve this task alone."

Another major highlight from day 1 was the discussion on change in the way CBSE board exams are held. "If questions are more fact-based the meaning of assessment is superficial. If we pose open-ended questions where the child implies his/her concepts where a child focuses on thinking, the assessment will change," said Sumeeta Ghosh, Head - Ed-tech, Enlearn Xperiential Learning System, Heritage School. By 2025 there will be a completely different type of Board questions as under NEP the govt has asked to add 10% application-based questions every year, added Ashutosh Batta, Chairman, Bloom Public School. CBSE is changing the way questions are asked in the exam. Last year, the board has introduced multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in the board exams. The number of MCQs will be increased by 10 per cent every year, the Education Ministry had informed earlier

On the day one of the summit, Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had talked about the National Education Policy 2020. He said,“By connecting students with the internships, vocational training as a student reaches class 6, we will imbibe atmanirbharta (self-reliance) in a student. By the time these students will complete school education, they will be warriors who can take on any task.” India will be the first country to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) at the school level, he informed... read more

The theme of the day is 'journey towards a new world'. The day will begin with an address by Supreeth Nagaraju - Head Education, Digital Media - India & South Asia, Adobe on gaining digital proficiency. There will be three different panels discussing the future of education, students, and industry. The first panel will talk about 'coming together of two worlds', while the second will discuss ways of 'creating modern thinkers', and the last panel of the day will talk about the journey of students 'from education to employment'. Towards the end, Shiv Khemka, Founder and Chairman of tGELF will talk about building leaders of tomorrow. The day and the sumit will close with remarks from Sapna Chadha, Senior Director of Marketing Southeast Asia and India, Google

The Summit will be live-streamed at the youtube channel of Indian Express Online. While we bring you to live updates, highlights, and insights here. You can also join the discussions by registering for the event at indianexpress.com or at indiaeducationsummit.in. 

Welcome to the third and final day of the summit. The India Education Summit presented by Indian Express Online, Google for Education, and co-presented by Adobe is a platform to discuss ideas, issues, and roadmaps for the future of education. Starting from February 9, the event saw participation from stakeholders including private, public, and edtech space, investors, students, and academicians have also joined the event.