PUAA and Swayam Cell organized webinar “National Education Policy 2020: Joining the Dots”

Chandigarh: Panjab University Alumni Association in collaboration with Swayam Cell, Panjab University, organized a webinar “National Education Policy 2020: Joining the Dots” on 23 October.

Dr. Vishal Sharma, Coordinator Swayam Cell, Panjab University, welcomed the speakers and moderated the event. The honorable speakers for the event were Ms Vinita Arora, Dr. Rajiv Khosla and Mr. Sanjiv Gupta.
 
Ms. Vinita Arora,   Senior Principal, Bhavan Vidhyala since 2016 explained the change from 10+2 to 5+3+3+4 system of the NEP 2020 in school education and its benefits. She spoke about vocational education and 36 degree assessment of students where the student will be assessed by his peers, self and teachers now. During interaction with the participants Ms. Arora agreed that the teachers should be trained before the implementation of NEP and a change in their mindset is also required so that they give equal importance to academics as well as sports or other areas like music and dance.
 
Dr. Rajiv Khosla,  Associate Professor in DAV Institute of Management, Chandigarh discussed various other countries like England, Canada, Singapore etc. where our students looked up to for higher education. He discussed interesting facts about their education policies and said they have very strategically defined their educational objectives. He said that NEP 2020 is a very timely policy, the best brains have been used and lakhs of suggestions have been considered before making it. What is left is implementation of this policy. Dr Khosla also discussed the positive points and challenges of the policy.
 
Mr. Sanjiv Gupta, Chief GM –Manufacturing, SML ISUZU LTD, former Business Head, Swaraj Automotive Ltd. and Plant Head at M & M (Swaraj Division) prior to joining SML Isuzu Ltd. discussed the industry academia aspect of the policy. He said the good part of the policy is that students will gain numeric skills and critical thinking from a very young age now which will help them in their careers. He also said that the multiple entry and exit option available to students, innovation centres and entrepreneur cells available to students will be for their benefit. He also suggested that there should be a mix of industry experts and academicians in training and teaching. Mr Gupta concluded by saying that if there is a policy that helps in the proper collaboration of the industry and academics and proper teacher training then NEP 2020 will be unstoppable.
 
Next was an interesting round of interaction between the participants and the speakers where many questions were answered by all the speakers. Prof. Shashi Chowdhry said that it was a very informative session and she was glad that she could attend it. Ms. Sonia Chandel from PUAA proposed a vote of thanks.