Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for the need to make the youth future-ready through continuous skilling, reskilling, and upskilling and aligning their competencies with evolving work profiles and practices.
“...We are undertaking skill mapping...the education, skill, and labour ministries are working in tandem on this initiative,” said Modi in his virtual inaugural address to a meeting of G20 education ministers in Pune.
The meeting is the latest in a series of over 200 meetings India is hosting across 50 cities after taking over the year-long rotational presidency in December of the grouping of the world’s largest 19 largest economies and the European Union, representing around 85% of the world’s GDP.
Modi, who is on a state visit to the United States, called education not only the foundation upon which Indian civilisation has been built but also the architect of humanity’s future.
He called digital technology an equaliser that promotes inclusivity. Modi said it is also a force multiplier in increasing access to education and adapting to future needs.
He referred to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and said that it offers great potential in the field of learning, skilling, and education. Modi underlined with opportunities, technology also poses challenges while calling for the need to strike the right balance. “G20 can play an important role in this.”
{{/usCountry}}He referred to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and said that it offers great potential in the field of learning, skilling, and education. Modi underlined with opportunities, technology also poses challenges while calling for the need to strike the right balance. “G20 can play an important role in this.”
{{/usCountry}}Modi stressed the need to adapt and use new e-learning innovatively and said the objective must be to provide quality education with better governance.
He highlighted initiatives his government has taken in the field of e-learning. Modi referred to Study Webs of Active-learning for Young Aspiring Minds, or Swayam, an online platform that hosts courses from Class 9 to the post-graduate level and enables students to learn remotely, and Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (Diksha Portal) for distance school education.
“With over 34 million enrolments and more than 9000 courses, Swayam has become a very effective learning tool. Diksha portal is supporting learning in 29 Indian and seven foreign languages...[there have been] over 137 million course completions so far. India would be happy to share these experiences and resources, particularly with those in the Global South.”
Modi said that foundational literacy forms a strong base for the youth and India is combining it with technology. He referred to the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy or Nipun Bharat initiative and said foundational literacy and numeracy have been identified as a priority by G20 as well.
Modi underlined the importance of research and innovation and said India has set up 10000 Atal Tinkering Labs across the country as research and innovation nurseries for schoolchildren. “More than 7.5 million students are working on more than 1.2 million innovative projects in these labs. The G20 countries with their respective strengths can play a crucial role in promoting research and innovation, especially in the Global South,” he said. He called for the need to increase research collaborations among G20 member states.
He appreciated the grouping for identifying green transition, digital transformations, and women’s empowerment as accelerators for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. “Education is at the root of all these efforts”, he said.
He hoped the outcome of the Pune meeting will be an inclusive, action-oriented, and future-ready education agenda.