ha"These days BA, BCom degrees have become useless because graduates are applying for sweeper and peon posts because there is no value added to the degrees. Universities are not upgrading their curriculum and so most degrees are not valuable now," said Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Human Resources, at the ThinkEdu Conclave 18.
Over the past few years, the Government of India through the Ministry of Human Resource Development has helped over 24 lakh students with student loans and subsidies, incurring a cost of around Rs 7000 crore per year. "We have also increased scholarships and funding for education. But still, good news is also expected from the budget. We want to ensure that no student has to give up his education or his dreams because he cannot afford it," he said, delivering the keynote address at TNIE's ThinkEdu Conclave.
Explaining how they were using technology and smart practices to reach young India, "We have identified districts which are 'aspiring' for more education accessibility and we are ensuring that more is done to make these districts more educated," he added.
Javadekar spoke about a renewed focus on online learning, "We know what is ATM (Any Time Money), but we are working towards ATL (Any Time Learning). Just like Coursera and other online learning initiatives, the government has now launched 'Swayam' where over 600 courses are made available for students and almost 17 lakh students have already registered for it," he explained. The minister also threw light on the new National Digital Library where over 1.30 lakh books are available free of cost.
With regard to school education, Javadekar said that he was completely against the idea of scrapping examinations for school students. "The previous governments have taken decisions that allow students to not attempt any major examinations till the 8th standard. Even 10th standard students did not have to attempt exams. I think that without accountability and without assessment, there can be no learning. Students need to have deadlines, need to have tests to measure their learning outcome," he said, reflecting on how they had enforced the Xth standard exam for CBSE students from this year on.
The Minister stressed on the need for more innovation on our campuses and the importance of creating conducive environments for the same, "We are importing so many products from outside, we are not creating on our own. Many big projects have Indians on their teams but we don't have the patents. We have to concentrate on creating more research labs so students can innovate and help the country prosper. We are always talking about how IT is flourishing in our country, but where is all the innovation. We strive to provide the best ecosystems and labs for the students to realise Indian's innovation dreams," he concluded.
