Union Education Minister Inaugurates Two-Day Virtual International Akhand Conference ‘EDUCON 2020’

Union Education Minister, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank,’ on Dec 7, inaugurated the two-day Virtual International Akhand Conference ‘EDUCON 2020’ through video conferencing. This two-day International Conference is being organized by Central University of Punjab, Bathinda (CUPB) in collaboration with the Global Educational Research Association (GERA) under the patronage of Prof. (Dr.) Raghavendra P. Tiwari, Vice-Chancellor, CUPB & Padma Shri Dr. Mahendra Sodha (Patron, GERA). The focal theme of EDUCON-2020 is Envisioning Education for Transforming Youth to Restore Global Peace.

Dr. Pokhriyal appreciated CUPB for choosing the appropriate and relevant theme for the conference. He stated that this two-day Akhand Conference will pass on the message to the researchers and students across the globe that the research is a 24X7 exercise and requires strong perseverance. He opined that this international conference will help the prospective teachers to become familiar with different technologies and their functioning to bring transformational change in the field of education. He expressed hope that deliberations made during EDUCON 2020 by internationally-acclaimed speakers & young researchers will certainly prove to be significant in preparing a roadmap for effective implementation of NEP-2020 and developing necessary skill-set among youngsters to enable them to contribute towards building an AtmaNirbhar Bharat.

Dr. Pokhriyal emphasized that the National Education Policy 2020 is revolutionary in all aspect, as it focuses on multiple aspects of promoting mother language at primary level education, imparting vocational skills training for students at the secondary level & other innovative reforms. He further stated that NEP emphasizes on the interdisciplinary studies & integrated course curriculum in higher education for wider learning opportunities, with an aim to provide value-based holistic education, development of scientific temper and imparting skill training to youngsters. He further added that this policy also considers the need to design framework for extended use of technology in the teaching-learning process, development of online course contents, the introduction of Academic Bank of Credits and establishment of National Research Foundation (NRF) and National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), which would benefit the Indian scholars to compete at the global level. He gave the mantra of ‘Perform, Reform and Transform’ for successfully implementing all new imperatives of NEP-2020 essential for changing the society and transforming the lives of youth for evolving global peace.

In his opening remarks Prof. Raghavendra P. Tiwari, Vice-Chancellor, CUPB said that CUPB is committed to quality higher education and cutting-edge research, this Conference will provide a platform to researchers and educationists to share their views on drawing strategic-plan for implementing the recommendations of the student-centric National Education Policy-2020, which is rooted in our Indian Culture and Value System. He informed that the Conference will focus, from the global perspectives, on various paradigms of NEP-2020, intended to transform the ‘learning system of our nation’ to meet world standard by empowering youth with the global competencies- thereby realizing the vision of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He said that deliberations of the conference would bridge out the connection between our past heritage and future education system to re-establish Bharat as the Vishwa Guru in the field of education. 

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In this International Conference, scholars from the United Kingdom, Canada, Thailand, USA, Australia, Bhutan and India would be continuously discussing on the ten subthemes of the focal theme ‘Envisioning Education for Transforming Youth to Realize Global Peace’ for 31 hours. This conference is the first of its kind in India where scholars across the world would be continuously having a non-stop marathon dialogue sessions for 31 hours exploring the possibilities of the use of ICT in the higher education to promote the equitable quality education in India. Further, the conference will also provide a platform for discussions on emerging trends in education viz., likely scenario of higher education and school education by 2050, developing disruptive technologies for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Education, training youth for strategic future jobs in Universities, a skill training programme for future graduates and relevance of ancient education system in 21st century.