Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Education Minister, and education ministers from states and union territories arrived in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, on Wednesday, June 1, for the two-day National Education Ministers' Conference. While the conference will be held on Thursday at Gandhinagar's Mahatma Mandir, an official release claimed that Pradhan, along with education ministers from several states and UTs, including Delhi's Manish Sisodia, will tour various institutions during the day.
Following their arrival, Pradhan and colleagues, headed by Gujarat Minister Jitu Vaghani, visited Gandhinagar's Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK), a command and control centre for monitoring school operations. VSK is a surveillance system that maintains track of enrolment, attendance and drop-out rates in schools, as well as the actions and performance of instructors and their supervisory personnel.
According to a PTI report, the ministers next went to the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG), a state-level body that provides services and solutions for establishing map-based GeoSpatial Information Systems, which is situated in the city. The state government, among other things, uses BISAG's satellite communication network to provide online education, according to the announcement. Later in the day, the delegation will visit the campuses of the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) and the International Automobile Centre of Excellence (IACE), it was stated.
The two-day National Conference of School Education Ministers aims to focus on strengthening the education ecosystem in the country with a focus on the implementation of National Education Policy 2020, skilling in schools, and digital initiatives like NDEAR, NETF, etc. The aim of the conference is to leverage technology to minimise non-academic work of teachers, strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy skills, and ensure holistic evaluation of students, teachers, and schools is cultivating and ensuring a more vibrant teaching and learning environment in Gujarat.
