Antaram - A Meaningful Pause for Solutions in Education.

Organized by the joint efforts of Vision India Foundation (VIF) and Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), a two-day conference on education, Antaram - A Meaningful Pause for Solutions in Education – was conducted at IIT Delhi on the 9th and 10th June 2018. The aim of the conference was to:

• Understand the true meanings of education.
• Reflect on the challenges and problems of education in India and the world.
• Share innovative interventions and models of both, successes and failures of individuals and institutions kindling change in education in India.
• Find simple and implementable solutions for meaningful education in India and the world through active youth engagement.

The conference was attended by 250+ delegates from all across the country which included students from institutes such as IITs, NITs, and other leading colleges and universities of India and abroad, professionals working in the space of education such as teachers, representatives from various NGOs and organizations such as Central Square Foundation, SBI Youth for India, Teach for India, Gandhi Fellowship, etc., representatives from various State Governments such as those of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Delhi, and various other leading educationists and entrepreneurs.

The conference started during the early hours of 9th June with a lamp-lighting ceremony followed by the welcome address by Prof. Nomesh Bolia, faculty member at IIT Delhi. Prof VK Vijay, Head of CRDT at IIT Delhi then introduced about Unnat Bharat Abhiyan followed by a very inspiring address by Prof. Rajendra Prasad, Emiretus Professor at IIT Delhi, on the topic of ‘Evolution of the Indian Education System in the present century.’

As the inauguration ceremony concluded, the conference welcomed its first speakers Shri Shivakumar ji and Shri Atul Kothari ji who spoke on the topic of ‘Understanding Education’, basically discussing the philosophy and the true meanings of education. It was followed by a talk by Shri Sandeep Sharma ji who shared his inspirational life story as part of the topic ‘Education for life vs. Education for livelihood’ where he shared how he dropped out of three degree colleges in search of a meaningful education and how he eventually found it in the villages of Chattisgarh where he started his social enterprise ‘FarmDirect.’

From the philosophy of education to an individual’s inspirational life story that received standing ovation from the audience, the conference also saw various visionary schools and organizations from all across the country sharing how they are doing education differently. These organizations included: Sardar Patel School, New Delhi; Isha Home School, Coimbatore; Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education (SAICE), Puducherry; Muni International School, New Delhi; Vidya Bharti Schools and Vayam, Maharashtra.

Post witnessing the contemporary models of education in the forms of visionary schools and organizations, it was time to understand what the future of Indian education looks like. Shri Mukul Kanitkar Ji from Bhartiya Shiksha Mandal, who was the keynote speaker for the day, spoke on the topic, ‘The Present and Future of Indian Education: Societal and Policy Imperatives’ and left the entire audience energised and inspired with his thought provoking, bold and transformational ideas. The day ended with three leading fellowships in education - SBI Youth for India, Teach for India and Gandhi Fellowship - sharing how they are creating the future change agents in the field of education and the role each of them can play in nation-building through education.

The next day saw Vande Mataram Foundation sharing its very unique self-learning education model where students are the little leaders followed by Naman Bansal sharing the origin and evolution of ‘School Plus’, a set of 11 interventions currently undergoing across government schools of Vrindavan ( Mathura).

The conference then witnessed Shri Naresh Pal Gangwar ji and Shri Nand Kumar Ji, Principal Secretaries (Education) of Rajasthan and Maharashtra respectively, sharing the innovations brought out into school education as part of various initiatives in their respective states. After Rajasthan and Maharashtra, another high-performing state on educational standards, Delhi, was represented by Smt. Saumya Gupta ji, who shared the transformational journey of the Delhi government schools over the last few years. The conference then concluded with an activity to find the ‘true source of happiness’ within all of us followed by the concluding remarks of Prof. Nomesh Bolia, who inspired the entire audience to undertake a more action-oriented approach towards problem solving in education.