Bengaluru: Gov't proposed several changes to be brought under "Brand Bengaluru for Education"

In an educational seminar organised at Bengaluru under the banner Brand Bengaluru for Education, several experts present at the event recommended various reforms including the introduction of cluster schools and colleges, promoting the Kannada language in primary classes, free education, strengthening alumni network, digitisation of classrooms, and technical upskilling of teachers, to bring a change in the existing module, reports The New Indian Express.

Changes to be implemented 

Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, Venugopal KR, supported the need to develop virtual schools and universities. He emphasised the need for digitisation and said that Bengaluru schools will not be able to scale if physical and online classes do not go hand in hand, be it for primary, secondary, or collegiate education.

He further added that skill centres across the schools should be encouraged, as well as digital libraries and internet connections in all universities, and teachers need to be trained constantly in order to keep up with the changing mode of teaching.

Speaking on having focus areas to concentrate on, educationist KE Radhakrishna said, "We need to combine tradition and modernity. There is an increasing need to teach students multiple languages including mother tongue and foreign languages to make them global citizens." He further added that schools and colleges must promote culture and sports and make the curriculum more multidisciplinary

Another educationist, Geetha Ramanujam, said that the priority should be first given to basic infrastructure along with brief sessions for parents to understand the changes. Other experts present at the seminar requested the government to take note of the fee disparity between public and private educational institutions and welcomed the three Board exams system.

The seminar was spearheaded by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar at the townhall and he took heed of the feedback from over 700 stakeholders, including students, teachers, and principals. The feedback was collected to be included in seven categories under the Brand Bengaluru initiative.