Five educationists and social entrepreneurs represented West Bengal at ‘Education Conference 2022: Education and Nation-building — The Way Forward’, which was held at the Hamdard Convention Centre in New Delhi on July 2 and 3.
Hosted by the Alliance for Economic and Educational Development of the Underprivileged in association with Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, the conference had Venkaiah Naidu, vice-president of India, as chief guest.
Lt Gen. Zameeruddin Shah, former vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University; Najeeb Jung, former Lt Governor of Delhi; S.Y. Qureshi, former chief election commissioner; Afshar Alam, vice-chancellor of Jamia Hamdard; and Shahid Siddiqui, senior journalist, were among the speakers.
The delegates from West Bengal were Capt. Ashraf Ali, who runs an NGO school and chairs Five Star Group; Imran Zaki, president, Friends of Alumni/ae of Colleges, Educational Institutes and Schools (FACES); Ghazala Yasmin, head of the mass communication department, Aliah University; Sudha Jaiswal, senior school teacher, St Xavier’s Collegiate School; and Hena Ahmed, coordinator for FACES.
They spoke about how to make quality education accessible to members of the minority community. They also brainstormed about the need to reduce the growing economic disparity and to develop a model of education for West Bengal to bring about a change in the education scenario for Muslims.
“The conclave was unique because it’s the first time that all the NGOs and people working in the education sector had come together to form an umbrella body. It was an opportunity to exchange ideas for think tanks, intellectuals and others in the same fold," Zaki said.
“The idea is to network and constitute an umbrella body to work together towards a common goal. The future depends on education — if you want to change the nation, you need to provide education to the next generation,” he said.
Referring to south India’s comparative success in educational ventures, Zaki said, “Northern and eastern parts of India need more development. We’re trying to get a detailed roadmap of the methods and techniques used in the south. People spearheading this initiative are also trying to lend their expertise to achieve that goal.”
“The same vision will be replicated in all the states. We represented West Bengal at the conclave and will try to replicate the ideas, vision and process that are being followed in the education sector in south India,” he added.
Apart from these, topics like primary and higher education, challenges and issues faced by women in education and how to overcome them, madrasah education and its future, vocational and entrepreneurial education were also discussed at the conference.
