VP Venkaiah Naidu virtually inaugurates national VCs conference

Shilpa P | NT

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu has said that recent United Nation’s reports indicate that the progress achieved in its agenda on sustainable development comprising 17 goals that was signed by most countries over seven years ago, is “uneven”, and more needs to be done. According to the 2021 SDG Index, India is at the 120th position. “Implementation of National Education Policy-2020 will help us achieve the SDG agenda. The contribution of educational institutions is of critical importance in this regard,” he said.

He was speaking after virtually inaugurating the 96th annual meet and three-day national conference of vice chancellors hosted by University of Mysore in collaboration with Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and United Nations, on ‘Realising all 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the UN’ through higher education institutions, which began at the Crawford Hall of the UoM in Mysuru on Wednesday.

Venkaiah Naidu said, “Saving the planet ought to be a collective effort of all countries. Poverty and illiteracy are challenges we need to surmount as a society in our quest to achieve SDGs. Other factors that are hindering our march to progress include child malnutrition, gender inequality, equitable access to safe water and environmental pollution. Thus, there is a long road ahead that India needs to traverse to achieve the SDG Agenda 2030. In India, NITI Aayog has created a national framework to work towards achieving these SDGs. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is assisting NITI Aayog in interacting with other ministries and developing indicators on SDG goals and targets. Achieving the SDGs is not the responsibility of any particular organisation, ministry, or government. It needs a concerted effort of all stakeholders including civil society, industries, NGOs and most importantly, our educational institutions.”

India’s higher education sector is the third-largest in the world. It is a thriving educational hub with around 1,050 universities, more than 10,000 professional technical institutes, and 42,343 colleges, in both the public and private sectors. They can contribute in several ways such as research, policy development and engagement with societies for creating awareness and effective implementation of sustainable development strategies, apart from preparing students for challenges of the 21st century. If all our higher education institutions come forward to contribute to the accomplishment of the goals, our achievement will be very significant and it will make a major impact on the overall world scenario. Unfortunately, so far, most of the higher educational institutions have remained almost disconnected from the SDG Agenda 2030, he said.

He noted that, today, “India stands poised on the threshold of a world of historic possibilities and opportunities. It is now one of the emerging superpowers with improved education, development of resources and jobs, better infrastructure and healthcare, among others. The new National Education Policy-2020 is a farsighted document that is bound to transform the educational landscape of the country. Its recommendations are aligned with the SDG and its scope and vision encompass complete overhauling of the Indian educational system from pre-primary to higher education along with curricular reform to institutional reform in a phased manner. Implementation of the NEP will help us achieve the SDG agenda.”

G ove r n o r T h a aw a r Chand Gehlot went on to add that the VCs should discuss strengthening the National Education Policy-2020, and imparting quality and value-based education, to keep up the name of India as “Vishwa Guru”.

AIU President Colonel Dr G Thiruvasagam, Secretary General of AIU Dr Pankaj Mittal, Vice Chancellor of University of Mysuru Prof G Hemanth Kumar and others were present. Among 870 member universities of the AIU including those abroad, at least 150 are within the conference in Mysuru, while another 150 are attending the conference virtually.