CUK’s SoE Organises Seminar On ‘NEP-2020 With Special Reference To School Education’

Ganderbal: School of Education, Central University of Kashmir (CUK) Tuesday organised a one day national seminar on “National Education Policy (NEP 2020) With Special Reference to School Education”, at varsity’s Green Campus here.

Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir, presided over the function which was attended by Registrar, Prof. M Afzal Zargar, Controller of Examinations, Prof. Parveen Pandit, Director IQAC, Prof. Farooq A Shah, Dean and Head School of Education, Dr. Syed Zahoor Geelani, Director, MPRC, Prof. (Dr.) Shahid Rasool, former Dean and Head SoE, Prof. Nighat Basu and research scholars.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mehraj ud Din Mir said that schools, colleges and universities need to come together for materializing the goals of NEP-2020. He stated that, “quality of higher education students depends upon the benchmarks set for students at the grass root levels.” He said that CUK is always ready to provide support and cooperation to the grass root level educational institutions in terms of providing the required human resource whenever the need arises. He also suggested that, SoE should convene meetings, on regular basis, with the representatives from school-level institutions so that effective means of addressing the issues, related to school education, can be developed. He asked the principals to inform students about the supernumerary seats made available by the university in different departments for the residents of the Ganderbal, so that they would compete for them in the upcoming Central Universities Common Entrance Test.

Registrar, Prof. M. Afzal Zargar, in his remarks, stated that, “university cannot live and work in isolation but has to develop meaningful linkages with schools, industries and other job-providing institutions. There has to be a meaningful and working integration between these institutions.” He suggested that CUK has the potential of adopting more schools, functioning in its vicinity, thereby giving some air to the objectives set for Unnat Bharat Abhiyaan.

Addressing the participants, Director IQAC, Prof. Farooq A Shah, observed that implementation of any policy is a real test and challenge for its stakeholders and NEP-2020 is no exception in this regard. He further commented that various aspects of this policy like Vocationalization of Education at grass root level, Early Childhood Care and Education, Role of NGO’s in achieving the objectives of this policy, School Complexes and Mother Tongue, are good ideas and, if implemented in letter and spirit, can do wonders in education system in India.

Controller of Examinations, Prof. Parveen Pandit, deliberated upon the competence and caliber of Anganwadi workers associated with professional care taking of pre-school children and stated that, there is a dire need for improvement in their professional education and training.

Prof. Nighat Basu, former Dean, spoke about the achievements of B.Ed. Pupil Teachers who were teaching at Free Winter Coaching Centres for three and a half months during the winter.

Dean School of Education, Dr. Syed Zahoor Geelani, spelt out the objectives of holding the seminar and said the primary objective for conducting the event was to discuss the ways and means by which the tertiary level educational institutions, like CUK, will improve the quality aspects of schooling at grass root level and vice-versa. He said that to realize said objective, Chief Education Officer, Ganderbal, Principal, DIET, Ganderbal and Principals/Heads of the Lab. schools—wherein our B.Ed. Pupil Teachers were running Free Winter Coaching Centres—were invited. He revealed that, SoE successfully run Free Winter Coaching cum Practice of Teaching Centres at 14 Lab Schools in Jammu and Kashmir wherein almost 1000 children, from downtrodden sections of the society, were taught and mentored for three and a half months, during this winter, by our B.Ed. trainees.

The programme proceedings were conducted by Asst. Professor, Dr. Gawhar Ahmad Bhat and vote of thanks was proposed by Asst. Professor, Dr. Firdous Ahmad Sofal.