Bhubaneswar: To discuss education, India Today held panel discussions on various topics at the State of the State Conclave Odisha 2022, on Friday.
The Conclave was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The CM unveiled the State of State report 2022 and presented awards to departments and officials who have brought about a prolific change in the State.
The panel discussion was moderated by Kaushik Deka, Executive Editor, India Today. During the discussion, Chairperson, SAI International Education Group, Dr Silpi Sahoo along with Prof Ashok Das, former Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University gave their views on the topic – “Odisha: A new hub of higher education”.
While answering to a question on, how difficult it is to take private education to every part of Odisha, Sahoo remarked that Schools of Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangthan is spread across Odisha from urban to rural and there are almost 314 CBSE Schools of OAVS running is the State and people should take advantage of it and study in those schools.
While in the other question which focused on NEP 2020 emphasising on education in mother tongue Dr Sahoo remarked that learning mother tongue is pivotal and praised the Govt. of India for coming up with this clause in the NEP 2020. She added, “Odia should be given priority as a mother tongue but yes English as a language is also important and NEP 2020 has given a great opportunity to enhance mother tongue.”
On the digital mode of learning and habit of book reading and its importance, Dr Sahoo firmly said that technology can never replace a teacher and talked about the pandemic and digital intervention; it was easy for SAI to migrate to online mode of learning because of the digital infrastructure was already in place since 2008. She also quoted Founder Chairman SAI International Education Group Late Dr Bijaya Kumar Sahoo’s slogan which was during the pandemic, “Buildings are closed but the School is open”, which received a huge applause from the audience.
