Isha Vidhya in a novel effort to better the country’s education scenario conducted the first annual conference on education titled Innovating India’s Schooling. In this conference many eminent people participated to discuss the future of education in the country. The day-long event was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar along with Jaggi Vasudev, Founder of Isha Foundation.
Speaking during the event, Javadekar said that on Teachers’ Day this year, he had felicitated around 60 reputed teachers and professors within the Parliament. “Yes, politicians are underrated, we do have 60 teachers and professors as MPs in the Parliament. So I made it a point to felicitate all of them,” he said. He also advocated that the change is possible only when all the stakeholders come together to work out the education policy. “The main challenge that we face is quality. We have expanded to reach all the people as well as have a huge number of schools and so what is the need of the hour is to make it world class. Columbus found America when he went in search of India. Why? Because of universities like Takshashila, Nalanda, etc. If there was the QS rankings in place then we would have been ranked number one,” he said.
He also said that the learning outcomes have been mentioned in the Right to Education Act, but have not been defined. So he said that he is trying to define the learning outcomes and create an inclusive education environment. He added that a uniform education system is useless. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said that teachers’ evolution is a must at a time of information explosion, so teachers instead of being information givers, must transform themselves into inspirations to motivate students. He also said that the responsibility is on everyone and what we teach now will bear fruit after 25 years.
Isha Foundation also celebrated the 10th anniversary of Isha Vidhya — Isha’s education initiative aimed at transforming the educational landscape of rural India. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar also felicitated Isha Vidhya students and teachers for their extraordinary performance and achievements. A gathering of over thousand students and teachers was addressed by a unique and diverse panel of speakers consisting of educationists, policy makers, bureaucrats and corporates, teachers, school heads, CSR managers and NGO representatives among others. Some of the speakers at the conference were Prof JS Rajput, Former Director, National Council of Educational Research and Training; Dr RS Praveen Kumar, IPS. Secretary, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society; Prof H Devaraj, Former Vice Chairman, University Grants Commission and K Jayakumar, Vice Chancellor, Malayalam University, Kerala.
Isha Vidhya is running nine rural schools, supporting 7,100 students. Most of these students are first generation learners and 61% of the students are covered through scholarships. They actively promote education of female children (46% are girls) by visiting villages and counselling parents of girls to send their children to school and by providing proper toilet facilities for girls. Isha Vidhya is currently supporting 516 government schools across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, benefitting 72,000 underprivileged students. In Andhra Pradesh, a project for direct intervention in 460 government schools in Kuppam, Chittoor district is also benefiting over 38,000 children and 2,000 government teachers. They also conduct plenty of outreach activities for the benefit of children across India.
Reach Out: www.ishayoga.org