Jun 02-2020
On June 28, New Delhi’s Oberoi Hotel played host to the India Today Education Conclave 2022, an event that brought together several senior academicians, school and college administrators, edtech entrepreneurs and members of the political class. Following an awards ceremony for the top-ranked institutions in the 2022 India Today Group-MDRA Best Colleges survey, the discussions at the Conclave examined some of the most substantive changes the country’s education sector has seen in recent years. These included the benefits of blended learning and online education, India’s potential to become a global edtech hub and the sustainability of digital education.
The introductory remarks by Raj Chengappa, India Today Group Editorial Director (Publishing), highlighted the several challenges facing the sector, including the disruption caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the consequent steady shift toward online learning and the changes called for by the Centre’s new National Education Policy (NEP). This was followed by an address by Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan. Noting the importance of access to quality education, Pradhan touched upon the many issues yet to be addressed—for one, the huge gap between supply and demand. “Our [total student] population is about 523 million,” he said. “If I put together [all enrolled students], including those in aanganwadis, schools, higher education institutions, and those in skill education, the number will be about 320 million. That means another 200 million are outside the education net.” He also addressed a somewhat background issue in the Indian education sector—the question of language. “In India, employability is a major challenge,” he said. “For employability, you have to learn English. But if I analyse major developed economies, there are examples of countries that are not doing their R&D, their research, not doing their high-end jobs in English. There is China. There is Japan. They don’t depend on English as a medium of communication. Yes, English is a global language, the language of business, the language of trade—no doubt about that. But if I analyse the major languages across the globe, two of the top 10 are from India... If we have to grow, we have to think about our local languages.”
The minister’s remarks were followed by a lively Q&A session. On budgetary support for education—still just about three per cent of GDP—the minister said meeting India’s academic targets would require massive funding but highlighted the investments already received, saying, “The government has invested more than Rs 1 lakh crore [in education]. The respective state governments are also spending. Private institutions are also spending. Philanthropic investment is coming also.” Pradhan also said his ministry was in the early stages of formalising the framework for a Higher Education Commission: “We are prepared with the document for the Higher Education Commission bill. Very soon, we will be taking it to the Cabinet,” he said. “We should be able to table the bill in the next session of Parliament.” When asked about regulations for the edtech sector, he walked the line between cheering on the free market and arguing for a rules-based system: “We don’t want to have restrictive regulations. Innovators are creative people—let them innovate. But we expect some adherence to moral guidelines. Edtech should not be exploitative.”
