Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the need to progress towards education models that are flexible, seamless and able to provide learning opportunities as per the requirements of the learners. He said that access, affordability, equity and quality should be the core values of such education models. Mr. Modi stated this while interacting with Directors of Centrally Funded Technical Institutions through video conferencing today. He said, there is a need to adapt higher education and technical education to keep in tune with the changing environment and emerging challenges. The Prime Minister added that this requires the institutions to reinvent and re-evaluate themselves, develop alternative and innovative models in accordance with the present and future needs of the country and society. He emphasized that the country’s higher educational and technical institutions need to prepare youth for continuous disruptions and changes, keeping in mind the fourth industrial revolution.
Appreciating the improvement in the Gross-Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education in the past few years, the Prime Minister emphasized that digitization of higher education can play a big role in increasing GER and students will have easier access to good quality and affordable education. He also lauded the various initiatives taken by the institutions to increase digitization and stressed the need to develop an ecosystem of technological education in Indian languages and translate global journals into regional languages.
The Prime Minister said that Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan will form the basis of dreams and aspirations of India in the coming 25 years when the country celebrates 100 years of Independence. He added that technological, R&D institutions will play a major role in the upcoming decade, which is also being called as India’s Techade. He highlighted that it is important there is good quality infrastructure in higher educational institutions to ensure that products associated with Artificial Intelligence, smart wearables, augmented reality systems and digital assistants reach the common man. He asked to focus on affordable, personalized and AI-driven education.
More than 100 Heads of Institutions joined the Prime Minister for this interaction. During the interaction, Prof Govindan Rangarajan of IISc Bangalore, Prof Subhasis Chaudhuri of IIT, Bombay, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi of IIT, Madras, and Prof Abhay Karandikar of IIT, Kanpur, gave presentations to the Prime Minister and highlighted various ongoing projects, academic work, and new research being done in the country. He was also apprised about the COVID-related research.
WhatsApp us