Routes 2 Roots Holds Conference on Merging Culture & STEM for a Better India
Routes 2 Roots in association with IRobokid organised and hosted a one of its kind program
to create a confluence between culture, technology and the new education policy of India
through a program that was informative and enriching. Numerous conferences have been
held across the country to discuss NEP 2020. However, this was the first ever which was held to discuss the “A” that has been added to STEM, making it STEAM. A
lot of emphasis was also laid on discussing the methodologies to be adopted to successfully incorporate “A” which, besides denoting Art and Culture also stands for Assessment and
Counselling and to integrate the same into the implementation of the National Education
policy through the use of technology.
As an organisation which has done path-breaking work on promoting Indian culture and
performing arts across the world and created the country’s largest cultural education
program for over 2 crore children in schools completely free of cost, this event was yet
another ground-breaking effort by the NGO to further strengthen its objective and the
movement.
The stupendously successful program was attended by Honourable Minister of State for
Defence & Tourism, Govt of India, Shri Ajay Bhatt, who was the Chief Guest. His words of
encouragement and appreciation for the work done by Routes 2 Roots were humbling.
The
Special Guest of Honour Mr R K Sinha, former Member of Parliament and Advisor to
Ministry of Education, Government of India also graced the occasion. Various experts in the
field of technology as well as education and leading educators from bodies including NCERT,
IGNOU, Kendriya Vidyala Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, NIOS, CBSE, DTU and other
government and private institutions participated in the program.The invitees for the
program were Principals and administrators of Public and Private schools of Delhi NCR.
Keynote speaker Mr U N Khaware, former Additional Commissioner of Kendriya Vidyalaya
Sangathan set the tone of the program as he highlighted the need for integrating art and
culture into regular education and the role Routes 2 Roots has played over the years in
providing this service free of cost to students across the country.
The program not only focussed on panels such as School Education & Technology and
STEAM, which emphasises the integration of performing Arts and culture into the existing
education policy as a mainstream subject, besides Science and Maths, but
also had a special one on Aptitude Mapping and Counselling.
This session shed light on the need for introducing assessment and counselling into the
education system through technology and live practical experience. The panel was joined by
Dr Nand Kumar, Department Head – Psychiatry, AIIMS and Educator Ms Shivani Kansal, who
has committed her work to bringing innovation in Education.
The panels were convened by Professor NK Ambasht, Former Chairman, NIOS and
moderated by ER Anand Prakash, former Chief Quality Officer, HCL. Luminaries such as
Urmila Arya, Joint Secretary CBSE & S Vijaya Kumar, Director (SSS), NIOS, Dhananjay Joshi,
Vice Chancellor Delhi Teachers University and Dr Satyakam, Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU led
the panel discussions.
