The beating heart of democracy is debate. We talk of change, we loathe the system, we are waiting to criticize and we are always planning change. So we argue ceaselessly, in drawing rooms, in coffee shops and on social media feeds, however and whenever we the need to share our opinion. But how much of that debate leads to anything? At The New Indian Express and EventXpress, we felt that most opinions are inflating themselves for attention. With the belief that the right kind of debate happens when the state and civil society come together with an open mind, the ThinkEdu Conclave was conceptualized. For its fourth edition held last week, the theme was Indianisation of the Indian education system.
By choosing the HRD Minister Smriti Irani to deliver the opening address, we wanted the conclave to begin by outlining the broadest issues in education today, most importantly, the need for politicians and administrators to think like academics. In close succession, the session on the role of politicians in formulating education policy was planned and the same discussion proliferated with young politicians like Praniti Shinde and Poonam Mahajan throwing back to their childhoods. To tell us if Indianisation does mean saffronisation, we brought to the stage BJP’s Ram Madhav and former Union Minister Farooq Abdullah to agree or disagree. A small fragment of those who want to, make it to IIMs and IITs, so are the rest any lesser in terms of skills? The biggest man for skill development in India, Rajiv Pratap Rudy was brought in into one panel to restore faith in developing country’s marketable skills. The two issues that are left largely unaddressed are, firstly, the lack of women doing scientific research and secondly, the intellectual wealth undiscovered in India’s villages. Only veteran women scientists could have explained the situation best and social reformers doing groundwork can highlight the fact that villages aren’t museums or statistical cesspools, they’re real places. We identified propagators of alternative histories and creative learning. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s session was conducted to reinstate the need for sharing wisdom and promoting spiritual harmony.
We are not saffron, we aren’t green either, we aspire to be white; so white that not just these two colours, but every shade in this diverse democracy can be seen on it. The canvas is ours and we want to see what its best minds come up with.