India has a rich tradition of Imparting Knowledge, Not Trading It: Dharmendra Pradhan

New Delhi, Dec 14: Knowledge is not traded in India but distributed as per the country's rich tradition. To promote school education, we have to take forward the tradition of social change mooted under the Sarba Siksha Abhiyan introduced by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on the occasion "Arise School Education Conference -24" in New Delhi today.

Teachers, intellectuals and students attended the conference.

"We need to further improve the quality of education in government schools. Children and parents should have more faith in public school education than private schools and coaching. A forum like Arise School can play a big role in finding a solution to this problem. Along with this, Arise can be a catalyst in enhancing our school's strong efforts at the national and international level," said the Union Minister.

Stating that the 21st century is the century of knowledge, Pradhan said, "The technology is growing very fast. Our children should have passion and interest in technology, innovation, AI, and ML. The desire to find a job and become an employer should be increased among them. Schoolteachers have a huge responsibility to strengthen their mental health. We have to think about it."
He advised the stakeholders to make education affordable and to stop dummy schools from every corner of the country. "We all have to work responsibly and emphasize turning it into a social movement," he said.

Our school education system has to play a leading role in setting new benchmarks in implementing the National Education Policy, developing teacher capacity, promoting innovation on a large scale, creating textbooks and learning materials and teaching in Indian languages, contended the Minister.