30.1.2022
Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector-36-B, Chandigarh with the collaboration of CTEF Punjab and Chandigarh organized 35th Annual Conference and National Webinar on 29th and 30th January, 2022 under the able guidance of Shriman Nirmal Singh Dhillon, Chairman and Dr. (Mrs.) Agnese Dhillon, Principal Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector- 36 B, Chandigarh. Dr. Agnese Dhillon in her welcome address highlighted the vision and mission of Dev Samaj Society. She described that the Dev Samaj is a religious society devoted to the cause of serving humanity along with social, educational, moral and higher life-building lines, irrespective of caste, creed, colour or country. Dr. Khushvinder Kumar while giving theme exposition discussed about two things that has been emerged with the New Education Policy-2020, firstly, the policy has given us the vision for next two or three decades and it has enumerated a number of restructured and reorganized starting from early childhood to higher education and the research arena. Professor B.S Rajput former, Vice Chancellor HNB Garhwal Central Univeristy, Vice-Chancellor of Kumaun University. He said the knowledge our students possess is mostly traditional in nature. We should also prepare the students for global competition on the parts of academic and skill development.
Technical Session- I started with the theme of Self-directed Learning and De-schooling. Dr. Sandeep Sawhney raised the voice in the favour of the proposed themes and described as trends are changing, teachers, students and every system is also under certain change. Dr. Sandhya Milind Khedekar presented her presentation with regards to self-directed learning/de-schooling highlighted that no teacher was given training to handle online classes. She defined de-schooling as a term invented by Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich. Today, the word is mainly used by homeschoolers, especially unschoolers, to refer to the transition process that children and parents go through when they leave the school system in order to start homeschooling. Dr. M.S Geetha explored her views about self-directed learning which she said is equal to lifelong learning and students should become aware of their own needs. Students should also understand nature of knowledge rather than memorizing. She perceived self-directed learning as based on intrinsic motivation.
Technical Session- II started with the theme of Competency Based Learning. Dr. Pargat Garcha exposed the second theme of the webinar which is competency based learning for deliberation, he emphasized that there are major changes occurring at national and global level. Prof. Arbind Kumar Jha began his address highlighted that he felt that the theme according to him was more linked with Competence Based Education where skill is the core area of education. He said that higher education should impart knowledge and secondary/college/diploma level education should impart and provide expertise in skill. Prof. R.G. Kothari highlighted the research papers with regards to the competence were linked with what the teacher does on job that is quoted as performance. The job analysis needs to be done before competence or performance.
The third memorial lecture was delivered by Dr. V. Reghu in which he thoroughly described the life and active roles of Dr. K.S. Pillai for the contribution in CTEF. He used to say that the backbone of a country includes some contributing factors in socio-cultural, economic and intellectual development. The educational research in India has major focus on academic and studies conducted having very limited policy implications. Dr. Pillai worked towards teacher empowerment programmes which consists of research projects, innovations in teaching and application in ICT. He played an active role in Kerala Library Movement which was honoured by Krpskya Mention by UNESCO.
The last memorial lecture was delivered by Ms. Rashmi Khurana in which he thoroughly described the life and active roles of Dr. D.R. Vij for the contribution in CTEF. He was an activist of human rights education and worked as a right hand of Dr. Gulab Chaursiya. His motto with regards to the education was that excellence has no limits. He was having one dream for human kind that we should remain as one and united for all the activities of the society.
The presidential remarks were given by Prof. B.S. Ghuman, Former V.C. Punjabi University, Patiala. He advised that people from all disciplines should work together, as they are related with same system of education which is knowledge sector. There is need to constituent knowledge cluster of all the system that would automatically work towards the nation building. The valedictory session of the webinar was proposed by Dr. Neeru Malik who gave credit to all the dignitaries, guests, teachers and research scholars participating. Dr. ( Mrs.) Agnese Dhillon, Principal, Dev Samaj College of Education congratulated the organizing committee for thinking beyond the usual and organizing a national conference on a subject which is so pertinent today.
