The 4th Asia Pacific Education and Technology Awards & Summit (APETA) 2022 was jointly organized by Education Post, PHP Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry on November 25th at 10.00 am at Hotel Vivanta, Panaji. Besides the awards, APETA had a panel discussion about key challenges of education with technology during NEP implementation.
The inaugural function started at 10.00 am with a welcome address by Dr. Nasir Jamal, Secretary, PHP Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Dr. Jamal spoke about the impact of the pandemic on the education sector and how in future the technology will have a greater impact on education.
The first session commenced at 10.30 am by first speaker Dr. Sanjay B. Chordiya, Founder President and Chairman of Suryadatta Group of Institutes, Pune. He highlighted about the importance of NEP and explained in detail that with latest technology there will be easy access and equal opportunity for all. Dr. Chordiya also emphasized the importance of internship in students’ life.
The next speaker Mr. Mangurish Pai Raikar, Ex-GCCI president said that Vocational Education will play a very important role in NEP. He said that regular training should be provided to students for enhancing their skills and knowledge. He further added that a proper analysis of students has to be done to identify their skills.
The Chief Guest for the session was Mr. Sarpreet Singh Gill, IAS, Secretary, Department of Education, Government of Goa. He discussed a variety of points related to the education sector, firstly he pointed out that there is lack of connect between entrepreneurship mind and industry and there should be a strong foundation for the same in college education. He further said that school education can be improved by introducing the concept of buddy education, wherein college students will help school students to grow and achieve their goals. He was also of the opinion that education curriculum has to change on regular basis and new concepts like AI, Coding etc. has to be introduced in the syllabus. He said that the mindset of students should be changed from Job seekers to Job givers. The inaugural session concluded at 12.30 p.m.
The panel discussion started at 1.00 pm. The moderator of the discussion was Mr. Vishal Khurma, CEO, Woxsen University, Hyderabad. The other panelists were Dr. Ram Karan Singh, VC, ICFAI Dehradun, Dr. S V Ramana Rao, Director, Siva Sivani Institute of Management, Secunderabad, Dr. Suresh DS, Director, CIT, Gubbi and Dr. Venu Gopal Rao, Professor. The session started with the question on how technology can have an interplay in HE and NEP. Dr. Ram Karan Singh said that since India is a vast country we need to integrate and have an interdisciplinary approach and have University industry linkage; also education should move towards sustainability. Dr. Suresh DS said that physical infrastructure requirement will be greatly reduced however individuals have to be tech-savvy, GER will increase with use of technology. He further added that the best practices of their institute are to have all journals on single platform online for all students to browse, setting up of virtual labs. Dr. Venugopal said that the soul of NEP is to bring the best of potential in all students, however the challenge lies in change management, adapting to technology, frequently changing curriculum etc. Dr. Ramana Rao said we need to find the weak and bright students and try to bridge the gap between them, give grades based on their participation in class. The panel discussion ended at around 2.30 p.m.
The APETA Summit was attended by Dr. Anjali Sajilal, Mr. Gajanan Haldankar, Ms. Rama Borkar and Ms. Annette Santimano.
