Govt’s Mantra For Education: Invest, Innovate, Implement

With an investment of Rs 15 lakh crores through the Skill India program, the government has cemented that for them, the priority lies in enhancing the education system and providing students with technological innovations that transform learning in an effective manner. Private institutions too have been utilizing these innovations to move away from a pen and paper to AR/VR, Cloud based learning, artificial intelligence and many more.

Providing deeper insight into the investment made by the government in promoting skill education in India, Shruti Arora, President, Confederation of Education Excellence says, “Almost Rs 2000 crores were spend for skilling youth  under STAR Scheme, which was rated very low placement outcome. In 2015 another outlay of approximately Rs 1500 Crores was done in STAR Scheme which was again poorly implemented. However, now the government has increased the funding for the Make in India program where the major thrust and focus is on Skill Education.”

While government owned institutions are still working towards building stronger and effective system, private institutions are progressing towards adopting edutech innovations. “We are observing the increasing pervasiveness of technology in our working and individual lives. It is absolutely vital that education, particularly higher education, embeds appropriate levels of technology in the way teaching is designed, executed and assessed, explains Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool.

Nandita Abraham, CEO, Pearl Academy discusses the types of technologies that the need to be harnessed. According to Abraham, technology is a great tools that continues to play a key role in taking India’s education to the next level. “There is a dire need for educators and institutions to emphasize more on imparting education through personalized and adaptive learning techniques, mobile and video-based learning and also focus on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to offer real time learning experiences,” she says.

“By 2020, the government aims to raise gross enrollment ratio to 30 per cent. The current educational infrastructure in not equipped to meet this requirement. Educational institutes are therefore adapting to online learning modules to supplement their existing conventional ones. Government’s SWAYAM further augments the need for continuing education, especially with the UGC Regulation allowing for credit transfer,” says Aditya Malik, CEO, Talentedge while discussing the Indian government’s contributions in enhancing edutech in the country. 

It is important to understand that with the constant evolution of technology, educators equally need to evolve and learn the latest learning techniques. The institutions that do not adapt technology and keep pace with the digital world would be left lagging behind. Technology that predicts, builds trends, technology that make things, that makes processes easier, that connects people around the world that simulates the world, that informs and that communicates. “We should not use technology for the sake of it. Technology is an integral part of our lives and should blend in seamlessly into the classroom,” concludes Abraham.

Bhaktvatsal Sharma

BW Reporters The author is a journalist with BW Businessworld