Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, on January 20 (Saturday), said while contributing to the betterment of the educational system, educationists and others sometimes become engrossed with the day-to-day challenges and lose track of the bigger objective of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020).
Delivering the keynote at a national seminar on ‘Insights into education system in Andhra Pradesh during pre and post-colonial era: The road ahead for holistic education system’, jointly organised by the Center for Andhra Pradesh Studies (CAPS) and Potti Sriramulu Chadalawada Mallikarjun Rao (PSCMR) College of Engineering and Technology, Mr. Jagadesh Kumar said, “Workshops like these nudge us to keep that bigger objective in mind while working on the nuts and bolts of fixing the educational system.”
He said India has one of the biggest educational systems in the world, with 30 crore students, 26 crore in the school education sector and about 4.1 crore in the higher education segment. “This number will double in the coming years, and we need to prepare ourselves to face the challenge. Our youngsters have immense potential,” he said, adding that despite shortcomings in the past, India had produced outstanding achievers and cited the examples of the heads of international companies like Microsoft, Google and the World Bank. “Today’s youth are highly aspirational; they are not risk-averse,” he said, citing the robust start-up culture prevailing in the country.
He said in contrast to the disturbances witnessed in several parts of the world, “Many positive things are happening in India. One of the most important things the global financial organisations have recognised is that the Indian economic system is very robust, and it is not affected by the fluctuations that happen elsewhere in the world,” he said, adding, “we are one of the fastest growing economies in the world today.”
He said the Centre had set a goal of making India a developed country by 2047. “In order to achieve it, we need to provide holistic education to our young generation,” he said.
Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) Chairman K. Hemachandra Reddy spoke elaborately about the Gurukul system of education and the historic approach to emphasise character-building and ethical values.
President of CAPS, K. Rama Reddy, secretary and correspondent of PSCMR College P. Lakshmana Swamy, former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University G. Nageswara Rao, organising secretary of the seminar G. Ranganatham and others participated.
