Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank',
Minister of Human Resource Development
Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' instructed officials of his ministry to develop the syllabus on artificial intelligence introduced by the CBSE for Class 9 students according to the needs of the industrial sector. The Central Board of Secondary Education introduced artificial intelligence as an optional subject for Class 9 from this academic session. IIT Kharagpur too began a six-month course on it recently, the minister said. "The courses of Artificial Intelligence, from school education to higher education level should be designed according to the needs of the industrial sector. There is no dearth of talent among our students. Surely the best results will come out," Nishank said at the launch of two initiatives under the Department of Higher Education at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra here. He also appealed to all teachers to be part of these programmes not only to further their own careers but also to help students. He noted that in 2018 under the ARPIT programme, while there were 51,000 enrolments, only 6,411 faculty registered and only 3,807 of them managed to qualify. There are around 15 lakh teachers teaching higher education in the country, he said, and rued the fact that despite availability of such programmes not many are coming forward. "I urge more and more teachers to come forward. ARPIT is a great platform for teachers to learn about latest developments in their field and
develop their teaching qualities," he said. He said that for better results we need to increase the participation of teachers in this programme. As on date, the enrolment for ARPIT 2019 is around 48,000. As part of popularising ARPIT, NIC has sent bulk mails and SMS to all faculties in the relevant disciplines, which covers around 10 lakh faculty in higher educational institutions. A national initiative -- Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) -- was launched by the minister to build higher managerial capabilities of existing higher education leaders and administrators and to draw fresh talent into the management of higher education systems. LEAP is a three-week leadership development training programme (two weeks domestic and one week foreign training) for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions. The main objective is to prepare second tier academic heads that are potentially likely to assume leadership roles in the future, the minister said.
HRD minister launches draft 'Industry Guidelines on Digital Learning'
NEW DELHI: Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal on Friday launched the draft "Industry Guidelines on Digital Learning" at a ministerial roundtable in Paris. The draft guidelines have been developed by UNESCO and Delhi-based MGIEP in response to the Vizag Declaration on digital learning adopted at TECH 2018. The 2018 event was an international conference organised by the UNESCO, the Mahatma Gandhi
Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) and the Andhra Pradesh government. On the occasion of the 40th UNESCO general conference in Paris, the roundtable was jointly organised by the governments of Finland and India, in partnership with UNESCO and MGIEP. The roundtable was on 'Media and Information Literacy and Games in the Digital World'. "MGIEP is India's contribution to transforming the educational landscape globally, with key work areas including digital pedagogies for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for K-12. “Samsung and MGIEP are working on a research study called My Dream to enhance learning outcomes for middle school students in India and to study how their curriculum stress can be reduced," MGIEP Director Anantha Duraiappah said. UNESCO and MGIEP will also deliver 200 hours of course curriculum that is being developed for the Andhra Pradesh government under "Teaching Teachers for Technology" for smart classes being set up at 14 government colleges in the state which offer B.Ed and D.Ed degrees.
Government plans one national test for university admissions
I am hopeful of a progressive and completely India-centric education policy. We will announce it soon after getting the nod from the PM,” HRD minister Pokhriyal said. NEW DELHI: The New Education Policy is set to propose a single test of subject-specific aptitude for admission to colleges and universities across the country, to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said. NEP-2020 is likely to suggest an aptitude test and tests in specific subjects that can be taken multiple times in a year. The minister said analysis of over 2 lakh suggestions had been completed and “we will be soon ready with the final NEP (2020) draft”. TOI had reported on the plan for a common entrance test for colleges on June 17, 2019. “We are at the final stage of finalising the new policy. We set up an office in Bangalore to analyse suggestions for higher education, while for school education, a committee under CBSE chief Anita Karwal finalised the report. Five days ago, I met education secretaries and a CBSE team with the analysis,” Pokhriyal told TOI. ‘Common test expected to reduce burden on students’ I am hopeful of a progressive and completely India-centric education policy. We will announce it soon after getting the nod from the Prime Minister,” HRD minister Pokhriyal told TOI. At present, an aspirant has to sit for multiple entrance tests or register multiple times for admission to colleges and universities. He said apart from reducing the burden on aspirants, the common tests are also expected to help the universities and colleges. “This is very much a part of NEP. When it is part of the policy, it is important to implement it in the right spirit,” he added. The minister said success of the common modular entrance test will lie with the top universities. “They need to come forward on a mission mode to make this a success.”