News

The Indian Business School in partnership with the U.S Consulate General - Hyderabad organised the second edition of the U.S.-India International Dialogue Series on National Education Policy 2020 on the broad theme of ‘States leading the Way’.

The objective of this session was to understand the overall approach required by the State Governments to implement the National Education Policy 2020. Education being part of concurrent list requires the States to play a vital role at each stage - enacting framework and legislation for public universities, rolling-out actual policy, remaining active partners in regulation, financing and governance. The complex and mammoth exercise of implementing NEP has to be navigated through a cooperative and decentralized framework. In this context, the session deliberated on certain key questions like – State approach towards NEP, infrastructure, financing models amongst others.

The Second US-India International Dialogue on Education Policy focused on how the Indian States could implement NEP and panellists stressed on strong State Leadership and Cultural Values as critical aspects of implementation.

Panellists focused on the following aspects:

• Shri J M Balamurugan, IAS, Principal Secretary to Governor of Punjab talked about the importance of developing cultural values of institutions which are critical for proper implementation of policies, especially the vision envisaged by the National Education Policy 2020. He said: “The NEP cannot be implemented only through technological advancements. It will need a progressive work culture and leadership at the State level”.
• Ms Leena Chandran Wadia, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and a Draft NEP Committee member, opined that the sharing of infrastructure, as envisaged by NEP, will be very crucial for implementation at the state level, especially when the vocational education is seen as a part of the larger education system. “dismantling of some of the regulations may be required to implement NEP by the States, for example, professor of practice can be accepted in the UGC norms” she said.
• Professor Nandu Nandkishore, Practice Professor of Marketing, Indian School of Business emphasised that the future of jobs are the jobs which computers cannot do. “Educational administrators and leaders at the state level will look for ease of access, infrastructure, existing network of institutions and industry connect for a stronger implementation of NEP at the state level”, he said.
• Professor V Venkata Ramana, Vice Chairman, Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) opined that working closely with industry and getting Artificial Intelligence to every classroom are key for successful implementation of NEP. “Government of Telangana declared the year 2020 as the year of AI and I am sure this will create a good platform for implementing NEP in the State”, he said.
• Ms Meeta Sengupta, FRSA, Founder of Centre for Education Strategy moderated the session.
• DNV Kumara Guru and David Moyer, Public Affairs Officer at U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad also participated in the discussions and delivered welcome and concluding remarks respectively.

The session was well received as we had around 200 participants representing various segments of the education sector. The feedback received from the participants was positive. As part of this series, there is one more session planned in the last week of October, details will be announced soon on our website www.isb.edu.