Holistic education is the way forward: Navin Mittal

IndiGlobal Bureau

Hyderabad: “It is our firm belief that education should be holistic and that is the reason why we included a session on sports and games. A holistic education alone can explore the contours of education,” said Shri Navin Mittal, IAS, Commissioner, Collegiate and Technical Education Department, Government of Telangana and Programme Chair for the 2 nd IndiGlobal Education Festival that concluded here recently.

Implementation of NEP 2020 is the key

Speaking in the inaugural session on the opening day of the two-day education festival, Mr Navin Mittal said that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is brilliant but the key lies in proper implementation. NEP 2020 is the outcome after through stake holder analysis and has come after 34 years which proposes a multidisciplinary approach, flexibility in curriculum and courses and the regulation is light but tight.

He further added that it provides for a new dimension to early childhood education. In the past it was handled informally. The policy will help transform Indian education system.

Telangana focuses on reforms in education

Addressing a jam packed Kohinoor hall, Mr Navin drew the attention of the gathering to the efforts taken by the Telangana Government and the Education Department in particular. He said, “Telangana State was focussed on bringing reforms to be in tune with the changing times so that students can take full advantage and grab opportunities not just in the state but at a global level.”

Flexibility in choice of courses

With the introduction of flexibility in the choice of courses, students have benefitted to a great extent. He cited an example of Government Degree College, Begumpet in Hyderabad was able to come to the limelight after providing the students 50 combinations by just rejigging the overall architecture of courses. “Subjects were placed in buckets with multiple choices by reorganising the course curriculum. This resulted in students with a wide variety of subjects to choose from.”

Watch on IndiGlobal TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUAp97wst8M

Focus on life skills

In what can be termed as a major paradigm shift, the extra and co-curricular activities were integrated within the course. In the past the students were left to fend for themselves. Mr Navin said, “Every student in the government colleges now learns basic computer, management and life skills.” He went on to add, “We redesigned the language programme. There was 20 credits of English language but was loaded with literature, the programme was redesigned and communication skills were brought in. Literature is equally important but by doing so, the placements have gone up and students are being benefitted.”

The need of the hour is make students learn and make them learn ‘how to learn’. He also exhorted the participants in the conference to talk to each other. There is a need for a dialogue by both the school and higher education leaders to engage.

Watch on IndiGlobal TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUAp97wst8M

On Technology

Covid-19 accelerated the need to adopt technology and it also resulted in a lot of learning. It has dawned on all that both online as physical classes are important. Technology enables the student to learn from any place, at any time and at his or her own pace. The teacher cannot be replaced at the same time. The biggest question in the next few years would be to balance both.

This blend of offline and online would differ from place to place depending on the location. The same model may have to be tweaked in a remote corner of the country. At the moment we do not have a formula and it would vary from one place to another.

Technology helped the administrative process in a big way. All the departments in Telangana State are on e-office. There is no paper based communication.

DOST- a boon to students

If technology has paved the way for easy administration, through the Degree Online Services Telangana (DOST) an online admission platform has made it so easy for students that they gained admission by just accessing their mobile phones. Mr Navin said that 83% of students got admission by using a mobile phone by authenticating themselves.

In the past, a student would have to go physically to a college and apply after obtaining an application which was time consuming and also expensive. With the introduction of DOST, it is now possible to get an admission in any government college of their choice through DOST.

Watch on IndiGlobal TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUAp97wst8M

India shining

Mr Navin said that India is going to be a major economic power. “India overtook UK economy and this year it is close to a 3.5 trillion economy in dollars. Gone are the days when India was a back office for processing basic software services. Today, large corporates are setting up Research and Development centres in India.