Bhubaneswar: Noting that technology is dominating every bit of our life and every part of society, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said the focus must be on reshaping technology education for the changing needs of the 21st century.
He was speaking at an Academic Session organised by Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT at the Convention Centre in Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar. The theme was Transformation of Technical and Professional Education in Line With New Education Policy – 2020.
Stating that the future of civilisation banks solely on the quality and direction of our education, Naveen said our future depends on how successfully we prepare our children for the future.
“Higher education is critical for societal aspirations, developmental priorities and social values, all of which must be assessed, nurtured and refined regularly,” he said.
Appreciating the BPUT for the meet, he said the National Education Policy 2020 is a meaningful attempt to bring about relevance, and set the tone and the direction at all levels of education.
Drafted by eminent scientist K. Kasturirangan, the policy aims at transforming our education system. He said this meet will help bring awareness among the education community on the new policy and deliberate on the challenges and opportunities for its implementation.
He hoped the deliberations will be meaningful and come out with clear proposals and suggestions for effective implementation of the New Education Policy-2020. The state government is ready to provide all necessary support in the endeavour for transformation of our technological education, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Skill Development and Technical Education Minister Priti Ranjan Ghadai appreciated the vision of the Chief Minister in promotion of technical education in state. He spoke about the transformation of state in various fields by the application of a unique governance model 5T.
BPUT VC Prof Banshdhar Majhi gave the welcome address. BPUT Registrar offered vote of thanks.
Among others, Secretary to Chief Minister (5T) V K Pandian, Principal Secretary SDTE Usha Padhi attended the inaugural session.
It may be mentioned that the University has plans for implementation of the new policy and discussion on various aspects of it such as introduction of multi-disciplinary courses, bringing improvement in research, innovation, and rankings, capacity building, creation of broad framework for technical institutions, promotion of local language in engineering education, faculty development and many other issues.
Among others, Director IIT Bhubaneswar Prof Shreepad Karmalkar, former professor at IISC Bengaluru Prof N C Shivprakash, Ravenshaw University VC Prof SK Nayak, CEO of Perry Enterprises RR Mohapatra will attend the expert session.
