‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Education Summit 2022’, organized by Summit India in association with Tech Avant-Garde (TAG), successfully completed phase-1 of its event. The 3-day inaugural conference of the 3-month long summit came to a closure with some insightful debates, discussions and deliberations. More than 10000 people including educationalists, teachers, parents attended the conference over these 3 days.

The 3-day inaugural conference started with a message from the Hon’ble President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, followed by a recorded speech by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, on NEP2020. The congratulatory message was given by the Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka, Shri Thawar Chand Gehlot.

The 3-day inaugural conference saw policymakers, leaders, educationists, bureaucrats, education body heads and industry players speak, discuss, deliberate on the future of learning and what should we do to ensure that our Indian Education System stays robust and relevant. Some of the speakers included names like Smt. Annapurna Devi, Minister of State for Education India, Shri. Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Minister of  State for Skill Devp. Entrepreneurship, Electronic & IT., Smt. Renuka Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Shri. M K Sridhar, member of the NEP 2020 Drafting Committee, Prof. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman AICTE, Prof. Sridhar Shrivastava, Director NCERT, Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director Skill & Training CBSE, Mr. K V Vincent, National Secretary ASISC, Shri. Atul Kothari, National Secretary, Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan, Dr. Vinnie Jauhari, Director – Education Advocacy, Microsoft India, Ms. Kirti Seth, CEO, IT-ITES Sector Skill Council, NASSCOM, Mr. Rahul Tandon, Design Head, BBP and Ms Roshini Kumar, President, Lycee Corp.

Some of the key outcomes from these discussions were:

• India needs to reimagine its education system. The model that served us well till today is outdated and will not help prepare our children for the new future, NEP 2020 should be adopted in day to day educational practices.
• We are at the end of the information era and entering the knowledge era. An education system that is based on information accumulation will be highly inadequate
• Both educators and parents are concerned about the changing social, economic, technological landscape and need help and support to navigate the digitally transformed, post-pandemic education ecosystem
• We need to make our children multidimensional in their capability. Acquiring tangible skills, physical and digital, will be key
• The challenges and opportunities of a digitally transformed world are immense. An education system that is inclusive, future-ready, and technology-enabled will be key to facing those challenges and transforming India into a global superpower of the Knowledge Age.
• The summit organizers have contacted Examination Boards, Universities, Schools, Colleges, Members of Management, Principals, Teachers, Parents and Vendors. The vision is to reach out to 10 million educators and parents of 250 million students to sensitize them on NEP2020 and the new genre of learning, Hybrid Learning.
• The Summit is being supported by NCERT, AICTE, ASISC, NIELIT, Canara Bank, Universal Sompo General Insurance, Tech Avant-Garde, Maha Learning Tab, and   The summit is conducted on the Knowledge L’avenir Conclave platform.

Speaking at the event Annapurna Devi, Minister of State for Education India, said “India has always been a seeker of knowledge. We should take inspiration from our past while preparing for our future. The education system that served us so well to date has its limitations and might not be ready to tackle the needs of the future. NEP 2020 is prepared to keep future needs in mind as it incorporates feedback from different and prominent people from the education sector. It is framed keeping the changing landscape of education and learning and will help in taking India to greater heights.”

Addressing the parents at the event and emphasising the importance of equipping students with the right skills, Shri Rajeev Chandrashekar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Skill Devp, Entrepreneurship, Elec & IT. said, “I encourage all parents to ensure that children are acquiring multi-dimensional skills to prepare them for the future. Be it traditional skills or carpentry, carpet making, whatever it is. Children should learn digital skills, not just be digitally savvy. Parents should now know that the future of India and the future of our children for the next 10-20 years will be totally different. Globalization will bring a lot of opportunities and most of these will be digital in nature. It is going to be very different, very positive and very digital. Every parent should be aware of that and every parent should prepare their children for that.”

Speaking at the inaugural event, Smt Renuka Singh, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, said, “This education summit will have large participation from the tribal, rural and urban sectors of our nation. Including government and private centres, schools and institutions of higher education. Knowledge L’avenir has emerged at the forefront of the quest to create a more educated, meaningful, purposeful, harmonious and compassionate society. The summit will comprise varied sessions with a focus on digital transformation and holistic learning along with NEP 2022.”

The inaugural event also featured Shri Audimulapu Suresh, Education Minister, Andhra Pradesh who spoke about the need for upskilling students with the right resources. He said, “Our students need to be market-ready. and prepared to face challenges when they pass out of school in the coming years. Industries are constantly changing with technology like artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality etc. Hence, our institutions should no longer be just specialised ones. As NEP2020 envisions, institutions should evolve to be multi-disciplined.”

Speaking on the new education model, Sridhar Shrivastava, Director, NCERT, said, “Education, going forward, needs to be adaptive. It needs to have three key elements – flexibility, accessibility and customizability. A child should have the flexibility to learn what s/he wants to, have access to good teachers, content and eco-system and the learning pace and modules should be customised to his or her individual needs and temperament. We are focused to build the right digital technologies combined with well-trained teachers to deliver these elements in the new education model.”

The event also had thought leaders including Swami Mitrananda, Chinmaya Mission who spoke about the concept of the event. He said, “The very title Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam inspires us. We, the people of Bharat, were the first to ever claim that not just our world, but the whole universe is our family. That was the education Bharat had – the oneness or Ek Atma Bhava. This education is very important for us to live harmoniously, and we the people of Bharat are custodians of this knowledge.”

Several educationists also were in attendance, both as speakers and attendees. Speaking at the event Dr. A Chhalamayi Reddy, Principal – Shri Aurobindo International School said, “Sri Aurobindo establishes that, and I quote – It is an education that is proper to the Indian soul, deed, temperament and culture, that we are in quest of. Not indeed, something faithful merely to the past, but to the developing soul of India, to her future need, to the greatness of her coming self-creation and to her eternal spirit.”

Speaking about the format of the summit, Shri Shyam Jaju, Chairman – Summit India said, “This fact that this milestone event had to be done virtually due to Omicron indicates the impact of the pandemic. However, the summit being virtual is helping it reach a much larger audience, indicating the power of NEP 2020. I thank all our dignitaries, education experts, vice-chancellors, who have taken the time out and participated in this event and made it a big success.”

Shri Mahesh Verma, Secretary – Summit India, further added, “The vision of NEP2020 is apt for the changes we are seeing happening in the education sector. The impact will truly be felt when we reach the maximum number of people in a minimum time period and develop awareness. We hope that this 3-month long summit will help us achieve that.”

Because of popular demand from several educational institutes, educationists, teachers and parents, the 3-day inaugural conference will be re-webcasted again between January 27, 28, 29 and will be open to all. Following the three-day conference, there will be weekly panel discussions held from February 5^th till April 9, 2022. These discussions will delve deeper into the various challenges and opportunities in the education world arising from a digitally transformed, post-pandemic world. The three-month-long summit will focus on the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), Digital Transformation and Holistic Learning (DTHL) and the role of Hybrid Learning in enabling the Indian Education System to re-invent itself and evolve into a robust framework that is in tune with the needs of the digital-native student.

Talking about hybrid learning and the role of technology, Ali Sait, Summit India Chairman South & CEO, Tech Avant-Garde, said, “Communities have only begun to tap the potential of technology for learning.  In a world in which knowledge is the number one asset, the benefits of this information-rich, technology-enhanced, collaborative learning environment must be extended even further to empower students, teachers, schools and entire communities to learn without limits. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – Education Summit 2022 is one such initiative which will spread the awareness on Hybrid Learning and NEP 2020 which help reimagine education and make our society – Future Ready.”

The 3-month long ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Education Summit 2022’ will open dialogues between thought leaders, bureaucrats, policymakers, industry players and educationists. With the pandemic-induced turmoil, there is a lack of clarity about the best way forward. These events have been designed to offer educationists guidance in a collaborative yet flexible manner.

For registering for the summit and attend to these discussions or for more information, visit https://vasudhaivakutumbakam.live/