🔊 Take a moment and listen

We have seen the education policies evolving over the last 70-80 years. The 1950s saw the emergence of IITs and ITIs. IITs for producing world-class engineers and ITIs for technicians. We were the best in education before independence and post independence, our initiatives were towards regaining that lost glory.” This was stated by Sri Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India. He was delivering the inaugural address of the 22nd Elets World Education Summit, organised by Elets Technomedia at New Delhi recently.

Agarwal started his address talking about India’s glorious past. “Many centuries ago, India was the world’s number one nation by any standards, in terms of GDP, exports, education and skills. We had the world famous Nalanda and Takshila universities. We had Ajanta paintings and sculptures, mining and minerals. Our craftsmanship in Textiles was extremely famous across the world. We were the best in education and skills,” Agarwal said.

Commenting on the growth of Indian infrastructure, Agarwal said, “We had to build the roads, dams, power plants, pharma plants, steel plants, and aeronautic plants. That’s how all public sector units came up. We always had a very good philanthropic streak in the country, right from 1000s of years ago.” He further added, “We have now set sector skill councils across the country in multiple sectors. We have the best people in the industry, guiding the councils, creating syllabus and curriculum.”

Agarwal added that for more employability, the syllabus needs to be prepared by employers. “Our education system and skill system are not producing kids or graduates who are employable. They require training. Hence our courses have to be dynamic. We have to join hands with the industry and the syllabus has to be prepared by the employers themselves.”

Commenting on NEP, he said it focuses on employability. “The new education policy talks a lot about entrepreneurship, the relevance of job roles, dynamism in the syllabus, and how it should be flexible. Everything has been put in a concrete framework in this policy.” He concluded the address by mentioning the new additions in the skill sector. “Soon you will see a credit transfer framework and before the next academic session, you will see courses for carpentry, electrician, or AI. In the skill sector, we are attracting a lot of new philanthropic money. Our skill university is setting up labs and doing a lot more. And I am happy to be a part of this change.

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