India needs to increase its gross enrollment ratio: Union Education Minister

NEW DELHI: India Education Summit 2022 was organised on April 6^th and 7^th, in New Delhi. The two-day conference was dedicated to discussing the future of education. On Day one, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education, Government of India delivered the keynote address, and said that 53 crore youth are the future of India and they need to become employers to make India an entrepreneurial economy.

Pradhan mentioned in his speech how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of children who will be the decision-makers in the next 25 years. He added that their foundational journey have been severely impacted by the pandemic. He said that the challenge is to empower the next 500 million students. He mentioned that about 35 crore Indians fall under formal or informal education, and for India to become a superpower in the 21^st century, it will need to increase its gross enrollment ratio. The nation will have to develop more aspirational vocational and skilling network, he added.

The summit included discussions on technology interventions in government education, personalised education, keeping kids safe online, upskilling and reskilling, future of ed-tech and more. A discussion was held on one year into the National Education Policy, its impacts, and the implementation report on day once. In a session, M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC), talked about how the UGC is working on coming out with a regulation that will facilitate the foreign countries to come and establish campuses in the country. He added that the institution is also working on preparing a regulation to enable Indian institutes, whether they are state funded universities, central universities, private universities, to be able to go and open their own campuses abroad.