SRINAGAR, MAY 21: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today reiterated the commitment of the administration to effective policies and reforms in the education sector.
He was chairing the meeting of J&K Higher Education Council, at Raj Bhawan.
The meeting was attended by Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor; Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary; Prof. Dinesh Singh, Vice Chairman, J&K Higher Education Council; Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary Higher Education Department; Prof. Umesh Rai, VC, University of Jammu; Prof. Nilofer Khan, VC Kashmir University; Prof. Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, VC, IUST; Sh Pragati Kumar, VC SMVDU; Prof. Akbar Masood, VC BGSBU; Prof. Qayyum Husain, VC Cluster University Srinagar; Dr BN Tripathi, VC SKUAST Jammu; Dr Nazir Ahmed Ganai, VC SKUAST Kashmir and other members.
The Council headed by the Lt Governor discussed the comprehensive and holistic transformation of the education sector in the UT of J&K.
The Lt Governor called upon all stakeholders to focus on actualizing human potential in service of the society. He emphasized the need for assessing the values of each course of higher education to ensure they meet the expectations of students and employers.
“One of the objectives of higher education is to prepare future leaders. Under Higher Education Council, we will do an honest assessment of the effectiveness of subjects and whether the return on investment by Universities is satisfactory,” the Lt Governor said.
The meeting discussed the important matters about the status of NEP 2020 implementation across J&K Universities, updates, sustainability, and expansion roadmap for the Design Your Degree (DYD) Program, initiatives to promote entrepreneurship, start-ups, and tangible skill Programs, and proposals for new joint programs and initiatives for 2024-25.
He lauded the contribution of all the members of the council and stakeholders in driving the transformation in the higher education landscape of Jammu Kashmir.
The Lt Governor impressed upon the higher education institutions for the implementation of innovative programs like Design Your Degree in a time-bound manner.
Curriculum and classroom learning should be innovative and it must encourage problem-solving skills among the students. We have to make higher education institutions of UT capable of nurturing future entrepreneurs, he said.
Prof. Dinesh Singh, Vice Chairman, JKHEC called for putting a special focus on grasping the spirit of the Design Your Degree program in the larger context of National Education Policy. As an educational institution, we must recognize our strengths and weaknesses and empower the students to take the lead in redefining classroom learning, he said.
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor; Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary; Vice Chancellors and members of the Council shared their views and thoughts on the implementation of NEP 2020 and sustainability and expansion of Design Your Degree (DYD) Program in the UT.
The Council also discussed various facets of the DYD program including ideas on greater inter-institutional cooperation for sharing of credit and sharing of resources.
Santosh D Vaidya, Principal Secretary, Finance Department; Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Vikramjit Singh, Commissioner Secretary, Department of I&C; Prof Kavi Arya from IIT Bombay; Shobha Bagai, Director, Cluster Innovation Centre Delhi University and Prof Sheikh Ajaz Bashir, Principal Amar Singh College also attended the meeting.
