Excellence In Education Awards 2022: An Event Of Learning and Recognition
Intelligent Minds Trust, a non-profit organization committed to reinforcing quality education in schools, hosted the Excellence in Education Awards 2022, in collaboration with the Government of Mauritius on the 6th of October. The event was graced by the presence of eminent dignitaries including His Excellency Mr Prithvirajsing Roopun, President of the Republic of Mauritius and Honourable Vice Prime MinisterLeela Devi DookhunLuchoomun. While the first part of the day was devoted to professional grooming on the fifth education Revolution, the second part of the day celebrated educationists who excelled in their endeavours of honing the pedagogy of knowledge.
IMT Trustee Mr. Rajesh Bajaj inaugurated the event with a fitting welcome address and felicitated Mr. Alan Ganoo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mauritius, The Regional Integration and International Trade, Minister of Light, Transport & Light Rail, Professor Dr. Saroj Sahrma, Chair Person of NIOS India and Prof. MM Pant, Former Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, faculty of IIT Kanpur.
With extensive and inspiring contributions to educating young minds in IGNOU, IIT Kanpur and the University of WesternOntario amongst many others, Professor Madan Mohan Pant has been a notable academician for over 52 years. During his 5th education revolution session on Coding, Metaverse and Quantum Computing, he discussed the role played by educators through changing times, technology in new education, electronic publishing, and personalization of learning in extensive detail. "Educators will be the most important people in the coming decade," said Professor Pant. "The reason is, an expert can demonstrate expertise but an educator can make an expert out of an ignorant person" he added.
Speaking about the Sustainable goals of 2030, Professor Dr. Saroj Sharma mentioned that today's education system requires the sustainability of timeless relevance offered by various religious scriptures. She went on to give a glimpse of the sustainable models of our National Education Policy and National Digital Architecture that are underway. Honourable Minister Alan Ganoo addressed delegates on the diplomatic ties shared between Mauritius and India on various fronts and discussed the state of education in Mauritius.
The award ceremony began with Dr. Vinod Ramachandra Rao IAS, the Secretary of Education for the Government of Gujarat presenting his thoughts on the technology-driven transformation of the school education system in Gujarat. He elucidated the challenges in ensuring grade-appropriate learning outcomes, the online command and control centre of schools in the state, data-driven initiatives to optimise learning and the results they yielded followed by the Transformation Mission For School Education with mind-boggling statistics. While Ms Leela Devi Dookun thanked the Government of India for the support provided to Mauritius in the setting up of their early Digital Learning Program and congratulated Dr. Rao's work in Gujarat as " the thing to be done in this new world", His Excellency Mr. Prithvirajsing Roopun GCSK, referred to India as a "Global Educational Power House" while addressing the delegates.
Our Managing Trustee Mr. Chunibhai Gajera accepted the Stellar Educationist award from the Honourable Vice Prime Minister of Mauritius Ms Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun GCSK and His Excellency Mr. Prithvirajsing Roopun, President of the Republic of Mauritius. To be recognised for our efforts toward social empowerment and quality education amongst an illustrious set of awardees is an overwhelming honour and made every little step we took towards making education matter more rewarding, in retrospect.
Mr. Chunibhai Gajera and everyone associated with the Gajera Trust have been taking one step forward towards enabling well-educated citizens. Our innovative approach of integrating learning, unlearning, and relearning leaves room for new-age values including sustainability and technology enablement, putting us ahead on the map of the academic revolution. The stupendous effort of our educators, the diligence of our students, the involvement of parents and the resourceful contribution of countless stakeholders have led us to become the educationists we are today. We are humbled, overjoyed and inspired to keep moving one step forward.