Leading international academics, policy makers, educationists, development experts and NGOs got together in Panaji last week for the Difficult Dialogues 2019 summit where they debated several key issues related to the Indian education sector. The theme of the summit this year was “Education: Illuminating The Myriad Facets”. IT was aimed at coming out with suggestion to bridge the gap between policy formulation and on-ground implementation in the education sector.
The policy recommendations arrived at the summit will be collated into actionable Rs white papers’ that would be taken up with the relevant policy makers and authorities.
The discussions focussed on several issues facing the education sector including low levels of public spending; challenges in access to education for ethnic minorities and girls/women; quality; poor administration and management; and inadequate concern towards education at the state level and often at the national level as well.
This year the Knowledge Partners for Difficult Dialogues 2019 were Oxford Centre For Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPS), UK, Brookings India, the Goa University (GU) and the International Centre Goa (ICG) who had identified eminent academics and international experts who joined hands with local education practitioners and policy makers to grapple with critical issues related to the education sector.
Commenting at the conclusion of the three day summit, Surina Narula, Founder & CEO of Difficult Dialogues said, “Debating the myriad issues facing the education sector in the country so that it can be brought back on the path of excellence is a key agenda for India and for the South Asian region as a whole. I am delighted at the range and quality of the discussions that we had on several issues, and the fact that we were able to identify the problem areas and recommend possible solutions.”
Special panels were curated by the Knowledge Partners and these included topics like Education for All, Primary Education, Building World Class Universities, Value Education, The Role of Technology inReshaping Education, Curriculum and Pedagogy, New Threats to Academic Freedom, Financing ofEducation, and Role of Religion in Education amongst others.
To capture the voice of students, the summit opened up the debate to India’s universities through Daring Debates, an intensive college debate series on the educational sector in India. The regional winners were invited for the grand finale on the last day of the summit. The topic for the finals was “Is the Indian curriculum and its teaching methods redundant?” and the debate was moderated by actor Pooja Bedi. After the end of a keenly contested session Anmol Kang from Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences in Gangtok Sikkim, and P. Lokeshwari from Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences were declared the winners.
The final panel discussion, moderated by prominent TV journalist Barkha Dutt, questioned “Should Religion Be a Part of Education?? which led to a very engaging conversation between additional solicitor general of India Pinky Anand, former cabinet minister Arif Mohammed Khan, Clifford W DeSilva, Director, Goa Institute of Counseling and Dr. Neelam Kaur, of the Akal Academy. The panel agreed that concepts like Wisdom, Values, Humanism and Spirituality were different from Religion and religious practice, and these could and should find a place in the Education system.
