Education sector facing various challenges, says minister

Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka Dr C N Ashwath Narayan on Monday said the education sector was facing various challenges in fulfilling the needs and demands of youth in the wake of rapidly changing technologies.

"It is the need of the hour and a requirement, particularly for the education sector, to address a lot of challenges to fulfill the needs and demands of youth across the globe because they are facing various challenges, dreams and aspirations," he said at the sixth edition of Asian Summit on Education and Skills (ASES).

The three-day event, which got underway here, has been jointly organised by the India Didactics Association with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, NITI Ayog and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Ministers and ministerial delegations from over 15 countries are taking part in the event.

Stressing on empowering the youth to grab every opportunity they get, Narayan said challenges such as caste, creed, region and finances should not hurt their aspirations.

He said merely enabling youth to be successful was not enough as they should be imparted the right education to build the future of society and work in the interest of humanity.

Whatever we learn, it is ultimately for the humanity.That has to be conveyed very strongly," said Narayan.

During a session on 'What should we do with what we know?', Anju Sharma, the principal secretary for education, Government of Gujarat, stressed on thinking out the box as Artificial Intelligence would soon replace the traditional work humans have been doing so far.

"A robot may come, sit, listen and later retrieve whatever information is provided to it. It can do the job which human beings have been doing.

Hence we have to think out-of-the-box because machines will be able to do all that human beings have been doing on a routine basis," she pointed out.

On the transformation education sector may require in the wake of emerging technologies, Sharma said teachers have to be mentors rather than imparting unilateral teaching.

The education sector has to understand the dynamics of industry too and hence there should be constant interaction between the two, Sharma pointed out.