Digital learning should not lead to digital divide: Vice President
Author: BI Bureau
Chennai: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has stressed that while Central and State governments are taking measures to promote digital learning, it is important to ensure that there is no digital divide. To ensure this, he called for increased access to the internet especially in rural areas and remote places and to ‘keep inclusivity at the heart of the educational experience.’
Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the Sports Centre at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) in Chennai on Tuesday, Naidu expressed concerns about the impact of the pandemic on education, and said that school closures affected girls, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, those living in rural areas, children with disabilities and children from ethnic minorities more than their peers.
Calling for corrective action from the governments, Naidu suggested that one of the important measures is to upgrade the skills of teachers in e-learning. Emphasising the importance of quality teacher training in India, he said that ‘teachers constitute the intellectual lifeline of a nation and play a critical role in charting its development’. He further stressed the need to create teachers who are ‘learners and creators of knowledge — teachers who touch lives and seek to uplift the human condition.’
Talking about India’s demographic dividend, he said that teachers have greater responsibility in moulding India’s huge youth population into responsible citizens. “Education does not mean just degrees,” he said and opined that the true purpose of education is enlightenment, empowerment and wisdom. The Vice President also called upon the institutes to focus on developing a constructive and positive attitude among the students.
Referring to the National Education Policy 2020 as a visionary document, the Vice President said that it seeks to transform the education ecosystem in our country and underlines the importance of energising and motivating young faculty members. He urged teachers to adopt innovative strategies to address important national and global challenges and opportunities in an intellectually vibrant, collaborative environment.
Stressing the need for de-colonisation of India’s education system, the Vice President called for taking inspiration from India’s ancient knowledge systems and great sages who had made our country a Vishwa Guru – a knowledge giver. Calling for regaining that position, he underscored the need to make society free from the divisions based on caste, religion, region and language.
Emphasizing the need to promote and preserve Indian languages, Shri Naidu appreciated AICTE for starting technical courses in Indian languages. Reiterating that no languages should be imposed or opposed, he opined that one must learn as many languages as possible but primacy should be given to mother tongue.
Advising teachers to impart ‘experiential learning’ to students, Shri Naidu observed that such a learning methodology helps in promoting creativity and innovative outcomes. He called for taking teaching from a one way mode of communication to a two-way mode where activities need to be connected from content to context.
Calling upon NITTTR to take the lead in producing outstanding teachers through well-structured and scientifically designed training programmes, he appreciated its efforts in training more than 60,000 learners in the past two years. He complimented the institute for training international participants as well under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of External Affairs. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
