Symposium on Ethics, Opportunities & Challenges in the light of National Education Policy- 2019

A national level symposium on ethics, opportunities, and challenges in light of the draft National Education Policy 2019, was jointly organized by Department of Social Work, St Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Globe Ethics.net, and Journal of Dharma, on the 27^thJuly 2019 at Xavier Hall, PG Block, St Joseph’s College. The aim of this symposium was to gather experts in different fields, understand the impact of draft NEP 2019 in their respective fields, deliberate on the policy, and arrive at resolutions to be sent to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Experts from various fields such as education, ethics, philosophy, minority rights, fact finders, organisations working for the differently abled, and teachers and students participated in this symposium. Dr. Alan Godfrey, Assistant Professor and PG Coordinator welcomed the gathering. Post welcome address by the PG coordinator, the programme was inaugurated by lighting of lamp by the dignitaries. 

In the first session, Dr. Sripad Bhatt, a Social activist and writer, explained the history of education in the country from a policy perspective with references to thoughts of Jyothibha Phule and Savitri bhai Phule, Kothari Commission report of 1968, NEP 1968, NEP 1986, effect of globalisation on education, the Subramanian Committee report, which paved way for the new draft NEP, prepared by the Kasturirangan Committee in 2018. He highlighted 5 challenges in the report – He stated that constitutional values were absent from the draft policy, there was an absence of adequate collection and use of primary data while preparing the policy, the policy’s consideration of education field as a ‘sector’, the lack of sufficient consultation with stakeholders of education, and saffronisation. The second session was handled by Fr. Dr. Jose Nandhikkara, CMI, on the Ethical challenges and Opportunities in context of draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019. Fr. Jose is the national director of the organization, Globe Ethics.net and a professor of philosophy at Dharmaram Vidya Kshethra, Bangalore. Father Nandhikkara explained about the philosophy of education, relevance of ethics and moral values in education as well as in day to day life. The third session was headed by Dr. John Mohan Raju, a faculty at United Theology College, Bengaluru and a political writer and thinker. He explained the transformative power of education as envisioned by Paulo Frairie in his Pedagogy of the oppressed and the shortcomings of the current education field where innovation is not given importance. He urged the audience to be interdisciplinary rather than being stuck with only one’s own field. In the fourth session, Fr. Joseph Xavier SJ explained the ground realities of education in rural areas and the impact of draft NEP 2019 on the lower class communities. He highlighted the dangers of the new draft policy such as school complex, exclusion of people from the system etc. and inspired the audience to respond and fight against this injustice. This was followed by a question and answer session and then the lunch break.   

In the afternoon session, a panel discussion was convened with the panelists Ms. Shukla Bose, Babu Khan, Siva Manindran, Dr. John Mohan Raju, and Fr. Joseph Xavier. The moderator of the discussion was Dr. Etienne Rassendren, a faculty at St. Joseph’s College. The panelists shared their views and highlighted the positive and negative impact of the draft policy. A question and answer session cum discussion was curated by the moderator where individuals from various walks of life such as students, teachers, and experts participated in the discussion. The resolution of the symposium was passed under the initiative of Prof. Y J Rajendra, Department of Social Work. The Head of the Department, Lt. Akshay D. Mandlik extended his vote of thanks to all the resource persons, participants, and organisers who helped make the symposium possible.