‘Public-private cooperation must in education system’

Anil Swarup, secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, speaking at the AVPN summit.

Mumbai: The Centre, using its human and material resources, can lead the education initiative, and the public-private cooperation is the need of the hour, said Anil Swarup, secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, government of India. He was speaking at the India Summit 2017 conducted by Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) recently.

“The AVPN summit is the first effort towards establishing a platform for mutual understanding and cooperation of all key players in the education system: the government, education foundations, investors, and pedagogues,” said AVPN chief executive officer Naina Subberwal Batra.

Elizabeth Mehta, founder director of Muktangan, said, “On this platform, we can establish a dialogue that is comprehensive and inclusive.” Two hundred and fifty participants, including leaders and innovators, CEOs of educational foundations, social purpose organisations, NGOs, philanthropic and investment foundations discussed the prospects and challenges, shared their experiences, and debated on the role of technology. They opined that the government must lead the education drive with involvement of private players.

Sessions devoted to integrating technology for positive learning outcomes, talked about how students can benefit from adaptive learning platforms, and warned against seeing technology as a panacea.

“The technology can help us do more in terms of education, in providing real-time feedback and evaluation, but it can not serve as a substitute for teachers – the role of teacher remains central in the process of education,” said Sandeep Bapna, head, Khan Academy.

Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation,

said, it is neither money nor technologies that the sector is lacking. “The modern policies are framed on every scale, but the implementation lags. Comprehensive schemes must be worked out because delivering education is the biggest challenge.”

Lisa Green, vice-president for corporate citizenship APAC, Credit Suisse, said the key to success is to have the government’s support. “The maturity of funders does not know geographic borders.”

“Early childhood is the time to invest in education,” said Monika Mehta, director, investments, Omidyar Network.

The AVPN released a report highlighting major gaps in the education system.