A two-day Conclave on “School Education in 21^st Century” organised by Ministry of Education as part of Shikshak Parv 2020 virtually commenced today. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will be addressing the Conclave under the National Education Policy- 2020 (NEP-2020) at 11 AM tomorrow through video conferencing. Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Minister of State for Education Shri Sanjay Dhotre will also be present on the occasion. Shikshak Parv is being celebrated from 8th September- 25th September, 2020 to felicitate the Teachers and to take New Education Policy 2020 forward.

Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy Smt Anita Karwal inaugurated the Conclave today. The discussions were held in two technical sessions on six subjects of New Education Policy 2020. The Principal and Teacher practitioners discussed how they have already implemented certain themes of the NEP in creative ways.

The first technical session started with a discussion on the subject of ‘Foundational Literacy and Numeracy’ from the perspective of practitioner’s was held from 1000 hrs today. ShriRakesh Gupta, IAS, Nodal Officer-Saksham Haryana; Shri Satinder Kumar Sorat, Principal, Govt. Sr. Secondary School, Faridabad, Haryana and Shri Sarvesh Kumar, Principal, Basti, UP, (Winner of National Awards for Teachers 2018) were the key speakers in the session.

The discussion started with opening remarks of Shri Rakesh Gupta emphasizing the importance of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy as also stressed upon in NEP: 2020. He summarized the experiences of both the states, UP and Haryana urged to make whole hearted efforts to make children creative, confident and equipped to face the challenges of the 21^st century.

Shri Sorat informed that Saksham Haryana is an initiative by the Government of Haryana to improve the learning levels of Haryana Government school students. He emphasized the need of competency based learning instead of rote learning. He also spoke about the need of learning enhancement programs and third party assessment of foundational skills.

Shri Sarvesh Kumar informed about Mission Prerna which is the flagship program of the Uttar Pradesh government to improve the quality of education in 1.6 lakh schools under the Basic Shiksha Department across the state. Under initiatives for pedagogy, ‘PrernaSoochi’ a list of all learning outcomes mapped with competencies  across grades 1-5 for Hindi and Maths has been created to provide clarity to teacher on outcomes associated with curriculum in each grade. These outcomes are assessed quarterly and reported to parents through a student report card.Sh. Kumar also spoke about the need of change in assessment patterns, he said that assessment should not only be based on academic knowledge but also include cognitive, psychomotor abilities of the students.

The discussion on the subject ‘Art Integrated and Toy Integrated Pedagogy’from the perspective of practitioner’s was held from 1050hrs today. The Session was coordinated by Dr. PawanSudhir from NCERT. The two speakers were Ms. Sunitha S. Rao, Principal, Delhi Public School, Secunderabad and DrAnjuKauwrChazot, founder of the Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS), Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat.

In her introductory remarks, Dr. Pawan Sudhir stated that the new National Educational Policy, (NEP) 2020 stresses the need for holistic, integrated, enjoyable, experiential and engaging learning. She particularly referred to the provisions of Chapters 4 and 22 of the NEP, which provide that in all stages, experiential learning will be adopted, including arts-integrated based pedagogy, among others, as standard pedagogy within each subject, and with explorations of relations among different subjects.  As a part of the thrust on experiential learning, art-integrated education will be embedded in classroom transactions not only for creating joyful classrooms, but also for imbibing the Indian ethos through integration of Indian art and culture in the teaching and learning process at every level. This art-integrated approach will strengthen the linkages between education and culture.           

Ms. Sunitha S. Rao, gave a presentation on Art Integrated learning. She said that Art Integration learning gives a true way for experiential and joyful learning development of enquiry and aesthetic skills. Art Integrated learning helps in numeracy, learning the basic shapes, learning logical skills, environmental awareness, develops creative thinking, develops fine motor skills imagination and improves cognitive skills and linguistic understanding, etc. She also informed that the NCF 2005 has recommended Art as a subject at all stages covering all four major spheres, music, Dance, Visual arts and Theatre and CBSE board has made Art integration with education mandatory to spread awareness of India’s vast and diverse art and culture.

Dr Anju Kauwr Chazot gave a presentation on Toy integrated pedagogy. She stressed on the importance of co-creative experiential learning with Toys. She indicated that there are four stages of learning with toys, these are (i) exploration & discovery of existing indigenous toys (ii) pedagogical use (iii) making new toys (physical & digital) and (iv) Using the new toys for self & others.She explained a museum project done by the students of 4^th standard, wherein they collected the toys used by their grandparents and categories them on the basis of the material used, their shapes and sizes, etc. It helped them in developing their history and geography knowledge, data collections, material classification, aesthetic senses, etc.

The discussion on the subject ‘Early Childhood Care and Education’ was held at 1150 hrs today. The session on ECCE was moderated by Dr. Vinita Kaul, the subject Expert.Duringthe session two speakers - Mrs. Nisha Sharma, Teacher, Kotkhai, Shimla and Mrs. KalpanaChaudhry, Principal, N H Goel World School, Raipur spoke about the subject & made their individual presentations.

In the opening remarks, Dr Kaul, Coordinator of the session stated that ECCE has been well covered in the New Education Policy 2020framed by Ministry of Education which will go a long way in strengthening the ECCE.The main thrust of the session was to acknowledge the ideas, aims and recommendations of ECCE in the New Education Policy 2020. Based on their personal experiences, the speakers dwelt upon the various significant issues regarding the subject. The importance of Quality ECCE in school education to improve learning outcomes among children was elaborated by the two worthy speakers.The importance of maximum brain development in the early years and how appropriate pedagogy can be used in the learning processes was explained in a comprehensive manner.

It was also emphasized during the discussion to develop school readiness among children, work needs to be done on all three dimensions of readiness namely school readiness, children readiness and family readiness. The role of families, parents and community as a whole in the smooth transition of children from pre-school to primary education was also discussed. The session ended with the highlighting of the importance of delivering ECCE by using holistic approach, so that overall development of child can be ensured.  The session was very useful and educative especially with regard to early education and nurturing children in a complete manner. The session was highly appreciated in the social media.

The second technical session started with a discussion on Holistic Report Card. Smt Anju Kauwr Chazot chaired the session and Dr. Hannah Yonzan, Principal Govt Sr Sec School, Rangpo, Duga, Sikkim and Shri Chenraj Roychand, Chairman Jain International School, Bengaluru were the speaker for the session.  

Smt Anju Kauwr Chazot welcomed all the participants and mentioned that assessment is key to the quality education.  Evaluation is a very important factor in our learning process and appreciated the way assessment has taken vital part in the new Education Policy 2020.

Dr. Hannah Yonzan made a presentation on Holistic Report Card. She explained on transforming assessment for student development, 21^st century skills, 360 degree holistic progress card, assessment reforms, restructuring of board exams and also described performance chart which has been implemented in her school. She mention about importance of how peer-assessment, self-assessment and teacher assessment will be helpful. She also gave recommendations which include class size to be made 25 students per class and to 20 students per class in Grade 1 & 2, development of resources for Self, Peer to peer & Teacher assessment, blended learning / integrated teaching-learning to be made mandatory, pre-service basic computer knowledge and in-service basic computer training should be made mandatory. Chenraj Roychand quickly brief about the nine important parameters he named as ‘navratna’ which includes inclusiveness, equity, quality, life-long learning, sensitivity, synergy, interdisciplinary, rootedness and flexibility.

The discussion on the subject ‘Teaching in Mother Tongue’ was coordinated by Dr. Shakeela T. Shamsu. The two speakers were Dr. Ashok Kumar Pandey, Director Ahlcon Group of Schools and Smt. Sandhya Pradhan, I/C Headmistress, MS Adityapur Jharkhand.

Dr Ashok Kumar Pandey welcomed the policy decision to impart education on students at primary level in home language/mother tongue/local/regional language as the children learn and grasp concepts more quickly in their home language/mother tongue. He added that while it may be implemented smoothly in government schools, some problems may be encountered in private schools, for which a decision needs to be taken before this recommendation is taken up for implementation.

Smt. Sandhya Pradhan said that in Tribal areas, the first two years of schooling should be in their local tribal language. She added that there are States having more than one local language.  Therefore, we should go for multilingualism for promotion of other Indian languages listed in the VIII Schedule of the Constitution. She further said that the initial schooling must be done in mother tongue/local language with smooth transition to English/other languages in the later years.

The discussion on ‘No hard separation’ was coordinated by Prof. Manjul Bhargava. The two speakers were Ms. Manu Gulati, Teacher, Delhi and Ms. Remya Parameswar Iyer, PGT, KV, IIT Guwahati.

The speakers made the some observations like the flexibility of curriculum and subjects allowed in the Policy is a very good move as it allows development of creative potential in each individual. They said that the Policy lays emphasis on flexibility on choosing subjects and courses not at school level but at college level also.  There will be no rigid separation of steams, subjects, curricular and co-curricular activities and Students will be given wide range of choices for choosing subjects of their choice, need and passion. It was also highlighted that the concept of allowing two attempts at the Board examination would reduce the stress level to a great extent.

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