Express Adda: Smriti Irani Discussing Educational Policy & Her Journey

so thank you very much for being here and every evening and welcome to express our da and thank you very much for waiting for a lot of them have been here since 6:00 but I think traffic and things held mrs. irani but thank you so much for your time ma'am at a difficult time on a working evening it's a privilege to host you at the Express Center odd-eyes you all know a lot of you have been with Ida before it's exactly that we want to just celebrate conversation we don't want to get into a hectoring Q&A and sort of trap you in 40 seconds and then you say something which seems to be a lot of the conversation that's happening whereas there's not much conversation happening so we hope we're sort of just determined to enjoy ourselves and do some GUP share some things and ask mrs. irani things about her life her journey politics as an actor as various things I mean I have with me the youngest member of parliament of the house of elders and she's also a youngest cabinet minister she's the first woman Human Resource Development Minister so and of course you all know her for many years before that starting her career on primetime TV and she's she's had a very interesting journey into politics and into one of the most powerful people in the union cabinet in India's first majority government in 30 years so there's a lot of weight on her shoulders of higher education of interacting and before that also of course she was a very feisty spokesperson on television which is a role which unfortunately we don't see her in now because she is a minister so we would want to talk to you about yourself work things stuff that's been coming up so it's it's about all of that and we'd like you to share as much as you can little stories and all that and our guests here will also get a chance to interact with you at some point so let me first ask you mrs. irani who is your favorite spokesman on TV today I don't get to watch a lot of TV given the kind of work I have and I am late here because I ran straight from Greater Noida hopped into the office met around five to six batches of people held , Kapoor hostage to one of those meetings and arrived here I don't get to watch much of it but I'm sure that whoever's on it is doing a splendid job that she's also a diplomat other than being excellent all of the above thing okay so mrs. granny there is a tendency I mean we're all everybody's looking for slots for everyone else you're an actor politician spokesperson handling higher education so I leave the burden of school at San yeah and and you're a mom you're you're a wife you have to do all of that as well so tell me you start with slotting you tell me a little bit about your journey if I don't slot me we don't start with yourself they take me down you're I don't think that a human being can be looked upon in silos or only through the prism of a particular relationship or dynamic I think that whatever you are is an amalgamation of your circumstances of your journey of your experiences so if you ask me I think that in terms of my journey I was a very introverted kind of a child who spent most of her time with her books and imagined the world to be like the books that she read and my parents would often caution me that things don't go as well or or not as dramatic as they are made out to be in books and now I tell my parents you wish they were not as dramatic because they are and I think from from that to a point in life where I wanted to take a decision as to where I was headed in my family I'm one of the first girls to ever work have a profession and I believed that when my parents decided particularly my father that everybody tends to end up you know you get out of school and you get engaged and get married and I said well I have lived my entire life being your daughter and that of my mother's I live my rest of my life as someone's wife but I need to find a space where I know how to live for myself now that I'm a parent and I look back it was very scary I'm sure of my parents to let me go I think they were pretty brave doing it and I wanted to do it in a city where nobody knew nobody and where make is ki beti Hui Abeyta who does not end up getting your job and media was the only business where my parents had absolutely no connections no interactions people and I came to Mumbai to get into a profession where I could carve out my own niche I had absolutely no dreams of being either you know a big film star or a very well-known actor I only wanted to carve out a niche for myself insofar as a paycheck goes so I I came to the city wanting one of my first jobs before I left Delhi apart from trying and selling some cosmetics on anjaan path I also dropped in an application form to one of today's India's most recognized television production houses which runs the news channel and I was rejected so I'm glad that I got so many rejections in life because somewhere I was asked once ki what makes you think you succeed and I think the question was posed to me when somebody was really exasperated by the fact that every time you'd knock me down I'll stand back up and say let me give it one more shot and I think I exasperate people even now because I tend keeping getting up every time I take a hit at me great tell mrs. Rani you know you started in in primetime TV for an incredibly young person you really punched to being the sauce and the bahu you know which was a you know there's time when women do not women you know with your talent etc with that opportunity would not even play buddy behind etc they're hesitant to do that you took that on and I was told no I think that it was a very it was a thing that needed to be done I knew that I had built up a character with the help of a production house which was historic from many a perspectives and I wanted to deliver it to the best of my capacity I did not anyways pursue a glamorous career per se I wanted to be the best actor I could possibly be if that meant that the role needed to graduate to a certain age level I was okay with it because for me my personality was never linked to a bindi or or a saree type or or for that matter the length of the Mongols who thrive or for me what linked me to my audience was the emotion that I portrayed on screen and as long as you are very very confident of that relationship with as an actor with your audience it doesn't mind it doesn't matter whether you play sauce or bahu as long as people connect with you emotionally at some level no I mean that was a good thing I thought a Nana meant that as a bowl thing and even in politics you know you there very few people would be cabinet minister in the first time that their ministers so do you think as you said you know that the the knocking that that you ended the first question with is could that be I because I because I said there is a difference between the two you can't compare the two because you become an actor by choice you get to be a cabinet minister after your carefully selected and that selection is not something which you control so there is a difference between the two I became an actor or I graduated from sussed from bahu to sauce out of your choice but from a political activist or a caricature to an MP to a cabinet minister was not out of choice because I fulfilled certain truck given to me implemented them well had a lot of work experience in the field of going from state to state and in every step of the way I was measured for my work then I was taken forward so it is not out of choice it is when you are senior sit together and select a path field okay so just a little bit on education if you can move away a little bit you put it very well that you were selected for the part and a higher education in India is a particular thing and it seems that most Indians have decided that that's the way to be you know this it's a passport out of everything out of poverty out of so what is when mr. Modi gave you the job of being the HRD minister I mean this was something that narsimha Rao is HRD minister there's Arjun saying Murli Manohar Joshi ji mananas odd was the first Education Minister so what was the brief or the vision he set out for you which you're I think one of the first things that the government got a vote on was good governance one of the first issues which mr. Modi highlighted and pressed for was transparency and one of the BET issues that he in terms of my viewing of his leadership in the government was that he wanted policies to have a people connect and not have a discourse where a select few decide the destiny of the country and the rest of them have to adhere to the norms set and because of that need to continuously engage with the citizen when I first took responsibility within this ministry I saw that your question itself is directed at higher education but education begins fundamentally from a school perspective or from the school background and I found that the school education and higher education departments were working in silos and you cannot compartmentalize education in that manner I made both the departments sit together and say we need to have that bridge and those artificial barriers to be struck down so that people have this comprehensive and cohesive look at education so when I speak about engaging with people directly we have not had an education policy which has been refurbished or which now meets the needs of present India or crafts out a future vision for India in over two decades now so when I looked at all the Education Commission's and all the policy decisions that had taken place before I took office I realized that a few academic experts few bureaucrats a few politicians would sit together and tell the entire nation this is what you should study and for a nation as complex as you know having such diverse cultures needs to say one size fits all was not correct so we have devised an entire 33 themes for education school and higher education put it up on my gov dot in and I said every citizen in this country should have a voice in what kind of education you want for yourself or for your children or your family or society at large additionally what I have done is I've had a meeting with every Education Minister and secretary in this country invited them for workshops wherein we have said that education policy will be decided in two lakh 75 thousand village education councils each and every councils view towards education needs related to education will be mapped by us then we go on to six thousand six hundred blocks in the country all stakeholders will be invited including parents including academic experts which might not have a national base who might not have you know any kind of features written about them but who have very very rooted experience in education they will have a voice we will do similar stakeholder meetings at the district level at the state level regional level additionally we will have a top-down approach that we will have hematocrit a shion's from academia people with administrative experience to come together and give us their views and will compile all of this together in order to formulate the new policy so this is an exhaustive experience seems never very good I'm before do you want us to be done now do you anticipate problems because education being a state subject No do you have a parallel mechanism below my state's appearance in the past 10 months has been that on the issue of education I have managed to create political consensus education per se in terms of the ministry became the fulcrum for political friction and anybody who takes charge of this particular division in the government of India needs to understand that children cannot be vote banks and ultimately if we are to serve the interest of students and children and parents who work so hard to put their children through the education system we need to work together and I'm glad to say that I have met absolutely no opposition no friction from any state in these past 10 months so is it I mean I would imagine and I'm very interesting to hear you say that there is been no friction etc but isn't the thought industry can be sometimes tricky I mean did you run into those things with you know everybody thinking that they are how do you deal with sort of people who think they are the thoughts ours or the gurus I think that everybody can be left to their own dispensation to their own judgement of themselves I think my responsibility as a minister is to give each individual a platform so that everybody has a voice that voice might not agree with mine but at least on this democracy they have a reason and the right to address certain issues from their perspective and administratively whatever is in the nation's interest shall we and we are trying to formulate even an administrative structure so that all these policy related issues when they come to the fore we also have an implementation structure along with it because just to have thoughts curtail to a paper will do the nation no good so you you think you're good with people who disagree with you have you ever take me tell me a story in its respective of the horror story somebody writes I am good with people who disagree with me in fact just note just a little anecdote I had this you officer who's coming to my department and I was having one of these review meetings and he looked absolutely petrified obviously I'd read a lot of reviews and reports and heard a lot of rumors and I just looked at him and suddenly he said no I'm new so I said so have you heard horror stories about me he did not have the courage to say no he just sat there I said don't worry they're all true I think that a narrative is created a myth is built around it but ultimately the ideas to keep focusing on the job I I don't think that my image as a need arises hard does most I don't know but yeah I have read a few references of anita who terrorizes but i think that that holds me in good stead because well-meaning people perform irrespective and those who might have a little bit of some coach might feel okay let me work because ultimately what counts is not what political inclination or affiliation you personally believe in or belong to what matters is people have given us this responsibility to deliver on issues of good governance and as long as we deliver a lot of your ministry i mean a lot of ministries deal with institutions but I think HRD particularly is constantly dealing with these towering institutions you have the IITs you have the IMS you have universities do you think sometimes you know you run into sort of heavy weather or violence no because we've confused individuals with institutions so do you becomes you know it's not finished thing is that you know at variance I love my compliments to that but I normally don't fall into those traps I will only say this one needs to understand that the institution what am i first directive to my officers was when I became Minister I knew that they will be added focus because of my own personal background as an actor possibly as a BJP spokesperson and I told the officers very clearly I said that if it is anything pertaining to the ministry we will answer I said if there is anything political or personal I said nobody needs to take responsibility to answer on behalf of the minister defend the minister I say separate the individual from the institution because the institution should not be harmed for it earlier what was happening with a lot of bills related to HR d pending in the parliament there was a feeling that got developed that institution of Education was getting hampered because of personality clashes and I did one I did not want to continue that legacy so I was very clear similarly today my focus is only fundamentally that an institution through the funds of Government of India has been made out of the taxpayers money and it needs to adhere to law because the idea before formulating such institutions or making putting them on the ground was that our children our students get good education and in some way contribute to the country so my fundamental focus has always been that if you are a teacher ensure that you come to work that you ensure that your children get that lecture or get that lesson with you if you're a lab assistant you make sure that when the student comes to the lab and you know you facilitate that students study I have always said that the biggest stakeholder in my ministry is not people who own universities but children who go to them right while on this Khan you know you spoke about a lot of consultation that the ministry has done in White Castle tations at various levels there's been a lot of open talk about consulting also with members of the Rs who have suggestions to offer they work on leaves and various groups take us through some of those sessions and I'm here today on the other platform let me clarify and this is with all due respect to the editor may I just see where the editor is hi sorry sir this might sting a bit but you know the rule and my family is if it's in the express ignore it it might be cooked up I'm sorry I'm saying it because a lot of these things were printed by presumably sources and somehow those sources could not pinpoint the exact thing which happened are you an example there was a big brouhaha made about the good governance day all schools are open on Christmas Day my god the heavens descended on me and bashed me up but when you look at the reality what happens that there is an online essay competition which is done and voluntarily students are told if you'd like to participate in it you can there's a big brouhaha made oh she's chained in the name of teachers day to Guru itself what happens there's an online essay competition which is called guru observe and somebody has just mixed the two and possibly thought there have been renamed teachers day there is another controversy about dr. ANILCA cooker which was started oh my god she is rubbing prominent eminent academicians the wrong way and somebody came up to me and said he quit I said no he stood on the board in fact he's going to IIT Indore to do the next round of selections of Directors there and I have video graphic evidence that he has done group conversations with all the iit nominees who are to be selected for the next round now can you imagine a cabinet minister of Government of India has to carry video graphic evidence to prove their I'm sorry there was a wrong report printed so you're not consulting the RSS coming back to me no I'm very clear I have said it in Parliament you can check back the records I have said steadfastly that the curriculum issue on which there was a big Hungama made curriculum will be formulated on the basis and within the constitutional framework only and I can't add to that I mean you can't see that whatever is said in Parliament is also not to be taken seriously and should be not given that much of a tidge unless you're sweet irani I mean I'm talking about curriculums we've had there was this other thing not just Express but everybody has written about it commented about yes about mr. Dinanath betras books particularly came under focus and live in me know I'm I'm coming I'm not about your ministry but yes but as a parent as you know as you know we know people our children are you know nobody is reading them in my house you wouldn't want as a parent I'm just talking about the sharing of my children read the books my parent my children's books as prescribed by the Delhi government because they're in a Delhi school no you see one needs to understand that every state government has the constitutional right to formulate certain educational structures academic structures within the state are you to deny the state the right to a particular formulation because you don't believe in that ideology and are you expecting a cabinet minister to cross that federal jurisdiction and say well I'm sorry man it's it's a thought about them so the drives because I have read a book read a history book which said look man Attila is an extremist my child who reads a newspaper which says Osama bin Laden is an extremist goes to class and reads well Dilek is an extremist and he is asking me how is that extremist different from this extremist that's a good question so one needs to understand that there are many a challenges which will only be addressed when you have a comprehensive education policy that looks at all these issues as to we have children today who have access not only to books but also the internet where they can go and get some information and compare the two and say well maybe what my book is saying is not right and you have to as a parent or as a teacher being gauged with them and tell them what is right but can you imagine as a parent been put in a fix and going on to explain to your child how Delacour Bhagat Singh is not an extremist Hwang Osama bin Laden the horror of it can you imagine what are the sort of good history books that you think should be taught and read I mean if my usability and my job is not to make academic decisions for students that is why we have autonomous institutions in this country and that is why I said that you have to make sure that the individual is separated from the institution and autonomy cannot be you know compromised upon or selective if I say that the ncert has the autonomy to decide and work on curriculum I can't tell NCERT how to write its books my view as Minister today might give an indication to an institution oh maybe this is what the minister wants I do not bring my personal views and my personal ideology into my ministry and you're committed to ensuring that that autonomy steels I have ensured it that it stays ad at the at the you know at the cost of having myself battered I have ensured it because like I said you cannot say that I will have autonomy only if this happens and this pleases me but if this doesn't please me well your autonomy can be breached that does not happen I've had a university student call for a Students Union meeting while I am Minister a Central University under my jurisdiction and said if sweetie ronnie turns into this university turns up I will go out your eyes out did I go calling up the VC and say via people threatening me to kill me or gouge my eyes out in your in your university I don't because freedom of speech is freedom of speech so if a student has the right to say I will God's with irani XY's out then maybe others have a right to say this is my kind of history this is my version of history you can't say you don't have a right to speak but somebody I give her you know a certificate to can only speak that doesn't happen I'm just coming back from university to a small just cropped up in my head the Vaishali images of the cheating which was made a lot of you know and it was a very powerful image because everybody seemed complicit in it the parents the teachers others what did you feel about it as no I think Minister no I think that one needs to understand where is that push given to children that that's certificate that paper is so important that you will break all boundaries or laws to ensure that that paper becomes your identity one needs to fundament I mean it's very easy to comment on a picture in a newspaper and say oh this is bad that is a very straight-laced political answer but if you look at the depth of the problem why is it that parents who are supposed to give children values and teach them the difference between good and bad are helping them doing something bad because they know that the rest of the child's future will depend on that one paper so while you have to make corrective changes to teach the child from right from wrong you also need to institutionally give people the impetus to say that your destiny cannot be written by one certificate so in the in the month of November last year we did something called a skill-based credit framework in which if you become a carpenter after the 8th standard Prime Minister spoke about this in the first session of Parliament under his leadership and he said why can't those people have a future and if they want to come back in the education system why can't we help them so we started a skill frame framework wherein if you become a carpenter for five years you come back we have identified 80 sector skill councils within the HRD in which the skill component will count for 60% if that person wants to get back into the education system and we have given now mobility up to the graduation and post-graduation level that has never happened before a question I mean we throw the floor open to our guests here but I have a question I've been thinking about for a while and I wonder if you may wish to answer that it's semi personal so may I may I ask if you're so hesitant you should not know I'm going to ask which is you know I know a lot of people like you and a lot about us here I'm married you're married to somebody who's not of your cars my manager is not up for discussion and I would ask you about love jihad but my office is not my mom okay all right so and I don't ask you what the chisti behind you see mommy you don't get you asking about which is okay no no I wanted to ask you about it's not I mean I'm sorry I prefaced it like that no you have so since you've done that you should let it go stop my question yes all right so up Shree we just throw the floor open then I come back with my other question good evening ma'am you you mentioned the National Skills qualification framework yes which you are in the process of implementing it's being rolled out in 2,000 schools I know about it because I am on the International steering committee in fact I I was actually chaired the task force for the ministry which wrote that document my question is how are these children going to get jobs if employers and the private sector are not engaged in the design of the curricula in the certification process then the last meeting is there chatting on the last meeting of the skills qualification my this under my chairmanship in my ministry indeed there's been only one meeting of the skills qualification so I had two of them within my ministry were you there I think I might have missed the last one but but anyway so we engaged industry to write the curriculum that's already been done the skills qualifications but that's the issue the children are going to learn my job was to educate them and I'm sure the rest of the government machinery is ensuring that the manufacturing sector is so strengthened in India that the jobs that we desire are given to them I have admired your demonstrating that degrees are not prerequisite to education I'm talking about the millions of Hahnemann's gurus those thoughts the craftspeople who also do not have degrees and who have been sidetracked from the mainstream of education in any way not recognized not part of it are you like I tracked don't know no generally yeah I'm just asking whether in contemporary pedagogy are you thinking of integrating traditional knowledge systems and exactly how would you do that you mentioned the word industry and you said that we've asked industry to write a curriculum the creative and cultural industries is probably the larger sector much bigger than the industry that is addressing the issues that we're talking about how have they been referred to for creating a curriculum a mainstream curriculum that meets traditional knowledge sector within the curricula of the education this is a part of the new education policy discussions that we are having but one of the biggest challenges that I have seen artisans face is there are less and less people who appreciate the distinction between various arts and crafts and parallely while curriculum issues or policy issues are being drafted or pondered over within the ministry what we are also doing is start a program called kala would survey have you seen it in Kerala color would serve is something which has been going on for decades in Kerala Barun in every district in every school yes they basically encouraged students to compete with each other on the basis of local craft art song dance and then have a state level competition of the same so that there is an appreciation and understanding of local art and craft we have signed off cholatse for this particular year as well so that we directly engage our children in arts and crafts which are local which are different not something which is possibly possibly something which is called very established art and crafts but no not hobby class but actually competition with children on all these issues in January we will ensure that a national level competition takes place workshops takes place so that is something that we have already rolled out while new curriculum is being device but our interest is also to ensure that within the school education system apart from Callao itself we also engage with communities for our children every week so I am in discussions within the ministry let's presume there in a village I would want to know what a farmer does I will want to know what a fireman does I would want to know what a doctor does and we will have these live examples that is what I am proposing within the ministry that they come and interact with children so that children know who are those people who contribute to the society as a whole what are the other career options that they can have because when when I interact with artisans children for instance I went to somebody who makes in in Gujarat the one who makes that patroller sorry they said well they said that well I'm one of the last members and the family who's doing it because nobody wants to marry my son so my son says that I cannot make the Petula I would rather get a job in a farm because that's how I get to marry someone so we are engaging with people at different levels so that from the childhood itself we engrained in a sense of pride and artisanship in kala in sanskrit ii and at the same time they are also talking to people to devise curriculum for the same i'm deepak Pentel I used to be vice-chancellor I know University I also believe we went to the president no idea he hasn't asked me to see me yet okay what is your vision of what a university in India should be are we interested in global competition or we are only going to set our own parameters about what a university so you would rather we be judged by global standards and not holders of zero I would even have you studied how we are ranked sir well we are not ranked very well no but have you studied the pattern on which they ranked us well let how they come to our Vice Chancellor than RIT this way ma'am this is I'm still speaking this is an escape route yes you have been no I'm not saying for you we have been adopting it because a good university so let me say only this much that with consultation with all Central Universities and the IIT I am systems we are devising a new national ranking system which we have presented to the Honourable president within the ministers meeting with all vice chancellors so that apart from global standards at we seek to aspire to we also have national standards because all our Vice Chancellors all our IT directors say that we need a some kind of a measuring tool for ourselves because we know our demography better we know our needs better so while everybody is free to aspire for global standards at the same time we are devising a national ranking system in conjunction with all a vice chancellors all our IIT and I am directors yes and I'm sure that you'll agree with me being an ex vice-chancellor that the men that we pick or women that we pick to lead these academic institutions know that knowledge is universal how have you perfected the art of articulation my husband a lot I practiced on him what's a typical day like for smithy irani ah typical day wouldn't you love to know not something that I can talk about specially being married to an irani and having the mad kids that I do but let me just say this the typical day begins with hugs and kisses and ends with it I for one very happy to see a woman HRD minister and young one at that so congratulations that's wonderful my question is really related to gender you know the whole issue of how do we bring young girls I know we have a program going on beti bachao beti / how and that but there has to be something you know more realistic which is done at the grassroots level perhaps as an incentive scheme for parents to ensure that children don't also drop out of school you know they may start going to school they drop out and then we have a large number of illiterate women and the statistics as you know are shocking we have the largest number of illiterate women in the world so is there something which will be done for that as well the beauty / how aspect Kishori from the beti bachao beti / our program actually addresses this particular issue school management committees in us in our schools are to comprise 75% of only of those children who are going to that particular school and we have said that we in hundred districts that we have earmarked the first phase we have said that school management committees will get up to five lakhs of cash incentive and extra support if you ensure that all the girls in one class let's say from primary school go on to middle school and from middle school go on to higher school I think with that cash incentive flow a lot of communities will be engaged and want to ensure that the daughters go ahead we started a project called Iran if you notice the board results you will find that the girls outdo the boys but when it comes to technical education we see only 22% of girls they go from other higher educational institutions to technical institutions under Iran what we did was we uploaded all the competitive exams for technical education entrance on to a particular device we gave that device to select 1000 girls from across the country who excelled in their board exams the beauty of it was that three hundred and five girls belong to families that don't even earn one lakh rupees in a year collectively we gave them that resource additionally we gave them a 24/7 helpline number on which whatever course material they read they call up if there are stuck somewhere they can get a response on the weekend we've given each child a mentor mentors are either IIT professors or professors from universities or from technical institutions who mentor these girls and the various tests that these girls gives let's presume that she gets 60% that is the amount of money we put in as fees into the institution that the girl goes into which is unique one of its kind that we have done so we are trying these various methods to ensure that we encourage girl child education at various levels we have a project called Balika Chabert lesson we do it in low concern in Rajasthan where we do you know the girls they have a lot of problem to both school and even for little things like a washroom and stuff like that what we do we have a severe you know for a camp kind of a thing for two three months and there we give them accelerated education in all kind of coaching's and all and we have received very successful result on that I mean how about having something like this you can show me the the work that you've done in until I have somebody from my office who's here they can connect you in come to my office we'll discuss the problem my name is Mallika ahluwalia I also want to congratulate you on being a strong women minister and you know like you said fighting against this is a lot of research that shows that women leaders especially face very strong resistance and there's this thing called a double bind where if you're competent you have a very hard time also being perceived as nice apparently for women so it's a big problem a lot of research around this my question to you is actually on the political front on the in the last elections there was a lot of talk around interesting campaigns that people ran both under in the more the arvind kejriwal there was a lot of talk about innovative things that have been done in recent elections when you look reflect on your own election experience what for some of the innovative things that you think the jus manage to do that got you a lot of praise within the party I got a woman leading my social network she is sitting behind you she's yeah she's watching very quietly and typing away furiously nobody knows who she is and I got a law student helping me combine all the data that we could get I think many a times would I have seen that that prejudice that comes with the fact that oh if you're a woman then possibly you need to be handheld to do things that is not something that I have seen in the volunteers that I worked with like this like I said the law student who worked with me my biggest lost was when he said ma'am I now need to go and get a real job he's a lawyer now he's standing there behind somewhere I'm sure he's embarrassed and I think these are the people who made a big difference it was ordinary people fighting an extraordinary battle and we had no money we had about 1,200 booths to cover we physically went to 900 and around 950 of them yeah yeah they're all yeah so I physically went to each of those villages I think in 25 days we did that 25 days we did that so I think that when people tell you it's an impossible fight it is sometimes the most ordinary people who can actually mount the most extraordinary fight and that's the that's the secret behind the fight in a meeting my name is sate I'm the father of three girls all of who you might be a proud man I'm a proud they're wonderful girls if I had a boy suppose the whole equation is that yeah about that but they already brought by the way they already brought the study which is a shame well as while you're talking to do a calculation must have cost about eight hundred thousand dollars to send them there there's a lot of money and just as a matter of throwing it out there you know that a lot of of countries India Australia I know for a fact that they are given a target that you must get so many students from India to go there so so much money and resources god I wish I had occasion system can take care of that you know by we aren't actually trying something unique the Prime Minister had a flagship you know idea and a project that he wanted us to undertake which we called Eon it's the Global Initiative of academic networks he said can we have foreign academicians and professors come and teach our children because most of the time a child or a student seeks education overseas for the facilities of the kind of professors they have or the new knowledge avenues that they can possibly have access to so undergone what we have done is that we are inviting up to 1000 professors over the next two to three years from across the world in conjunction with all our Central Universities IITs IIM s Government of India will pay these professors at no extra cost to the student they will come and teach our students for example you speak of Australia they are very good in in knowledge Vasavi mining now the indian school of mining in done bad would love an interface from the various professors that they can who have the latest technologies ornate as avenues of knowledge with regards to mining for that particular school so we are now in talks with the australians to have those professors come and visit us in this academic year additionally one of the biggest challenges we have in the country is people say that we don't have access to quality education we are now formulating an online platform of MOOCs called swayam in which all our institutions are Central Universities IITs AIIMS ni T's Isis all of them have are coming up with close to 80 degrees diploma and certificate courses of various kinds and this will be available for the first time in the history of our country free of cost for every Indian citizen we are mapping close to 500 centers across the country wherein you can go to that Center give an exam for this subject that you studied and the course that you studied and get a certification after that exam for somewhere in the range of only 500 rupees so this is quality education which is accessible to our people I have to ask my question good that was an observation I got a barrage I have actually two questions what is that you are the minister not for education of HRD human resource development and I find it I mean I'm not doing that I think that skill development should be part of your industry I know I'm just saying I'm just making it because you know actually overlapping Rudy has no work to do here's nobodies no nothing so he's trying to do I'm telling you but then I can say that you at least I talk to they tell me that your skill development we have all budget what I'm saying is what I've tried to make a point is that you know human resource development is not only about education you are being targeted we are talking only about education higher education is that I'm glad to know about something to do with culture because this is all part is the whole develop meant of the child that has developments has also become a part of my secondary education that they should after class ten spoken to all the states and said that you have it in secondary education you have it in middle school so that an introduction to skills can happen earlier on rather than saying that you pass out right beyond high school and anything of skills one last question what are you doing about a medium it's about time I mean you are there you know about MIT yes I mean you know it's about time that you took that place over and it can't be a fiefdom I'll come work with you there but the point because I have not been there I know people there but I know that it is a shame that it is really underdeveloped I mean to be you know a constituency of of the kadhi family and not to have a developed is the absolute shape so you you you are there to take it over so you have to besides everything you doing you have to get elected is making me take over ministries and constituency's you're a nice man to me absolutely even now I have people from a mate if they have any work even with railway ticket booking this is DD caridina so I do that so from railway ticket booking to but joka admission to if somebody falls sick and has to be even airlifted they go to Lucknow then I get them in Delhi we get them treated we get them back ma'am yeah my name is Prashant Salomon I have a son and I have two daughters my son has special needs and as a parent of a child who has special needs you know we've seen the whole the whole process of how to go about getting a child admission and education luckily we were lucky enough to get him into a good school into Sanskrit II now I just want to ask you a question about in particular about special needs education because you know it is something that there are lot of children who have special needs and they may not really fit into the you know the mainstream category in what we consider as an education but yet they are talented in their own ways they have other kind of skills so my question is - one is what are the plans that you have of improving and expanding as you get a special needs education across India secondly another question you know there's a big debate and special needs about integration and non integration but sometimes children who are special needs they need to be integrated into the mainstream but at the same time sometimes because they're there they don't match up to the other children in academically it kind of has a deterrent effect also so how would you how do you balance that and how do you plan to increase special needs education and training for special needs teachers firstly let me just say that it might be easy for a many of people who meet you to say that they support you or they applaud you for your effort but I'm sure as a parent it must be a day-to-day struggle to look after your child and balance your time with the rest of the two girls in the family let me see as a parent or not as a minister I appreciate that effort that you put in every day I will also say this that last year we gave special focus to teaching methodology for special needs children we did that with over twenty seven lakh teachers in the country we have a national mission for teachers and training which the Honorable Prime Minister he started it on the 25th of December in Banaras and in that we have now made it mandatory for every teacher to learn how to educate a special-needs child earlier they used to be specializations only with regards to few teachers I said no does not matter which teacher goes where everybody should be trained enough to know how to handle the needs of a special child so that we have done fundamentally that's a big big change we have changed the NCT regulation which regulates how teachers are trained in the country we have earlier it was a one-year course where you get degree and you come out and you teach now what we have done is within the NCAA regulation we have said that for 20 weeks a person who wants to be a teacher has to physically teach in a classroom get evaluated on that and only then will they get the degree to become teachers now that means that your teacher then has real-time experience with all kinds of challenges with regards to education and teaching can be mentored while they are performing that activity and what we get at the end is a person genuinely ready to take on the responsibilities of a teacher and in the national mission as well the Institute's of excellence that we are setting up or the Interuniversity centers that we are setting up for teacher training we are taking special care to ensure that children with special needs the training themes for these teachers is additionally looked after and for that in my consultation within the ministry is a lady who has worked for years in this particular sector so it's not as if we are engaged with people who do not know the fundamental challenges of children with special needs we are taking people with experience to tell us how to implement it on the ground and we have already begun that work from last year itself but this MOOC start from that I'm talking about swayam I have also requested people to devise something specially for specially abled kids apart from the degree diploma and certificate courses in higher classes you see from class 1 to 8 we've given free education but I'm also saying we put on class 9 10 11 12 also on the MOOCs platform so those who leave their education behind have this platform to get online education and it needs to be mobile friendly is also a directive I have given given the penetration of the mobile phone in the country I wanted to make sure that this platform is available and accessible to almost every Indian citizen who has a mobile phone in their hand as a little aside add what mrs. Ronnie's ministry didn't I think you hand-wrote that I mean you sign that letter they sent letters to all differently abled children who cleared class 12 successfully it was a really moving wonderful letter which schools kept and children really happy to see it so it was one of those things that I mean a lot of people didn't really discuss but that was really nice my name is manish tunisia hi your ministry has a department called National Commission for minorities educational institutions my questions is do you have any plans of doing away with this segregation of giving a special treatment to a particular educational institution just because they bringing everybody on the same platform when it comes to government funding instead of distinguished eating basis any business I think that a commission was formulated by an act of law and I have very honestly speaking I have no intention of breaking the law but at the same time I have the intention to ensure that there is no discrimination on the basis of caste creed or religion or region in so far as government funding goes I really like and appreciate your focus on the girl child education what would be important things in your view to also get women to work in India I thought more women to work I think if you look at the ANA when I sector 90% of it comprises of women I think in the organized sectors in boardrooms they are few and far between but in the media sector they rule the roost so I believe that more and more women are engaged with as you call economically productive activity but I do remember a study which showed how much a housewife's contribution also contributes to the economy what I honestly love about my country is that we still are in a place in time in our history where women are not judged whether they are boss in somebody's office or somebody's employee or somebody's housewife I would rather as a woman be equally appreciated as a mother and as a wife as I am as a minister for me that is my whole and not a part of me hi mrs. Ronnie my name is Imran Khan you've been away from television and acting for a long time is there any specific role that you you know you or any movie that you've seen in your life or yep I wish if I had to do this I could have done it better no why you sure - sure they're not allowed you know III I have never lived my life saying oh I wish I have always done what I wished suppo I have never lived my life in what-ifs what now I have lived life as it comes which is which is which is the role or the character which you've seen recently and you loved it have you seen any film reason do I must bow you know there's no I have to the maximum I can catch up with my West Wing reruns that's it you must watch house of cards - it's kind of nice yeah I guess because I've had my share of vishna services no but you know on following up from Breen's questions I mean a lot of films on women there's men tejani and there's been queen any thoughts on any of those this is I haven't seen them I wouldn't be able to speak about your set yeah but I'm of the opinion that I'm very proud as a as an actor the legacy at least that I have left behind before I became that particular character on screen even women were not considered to be the leaders in terms of the primetime game and by the time I left it we were at the top we yeah we are at the top of it so I think that as a female from the media business I'm extremely thrilled when I not only I mean we get thrilled and Parliament when we see a photographer and I kind of nudge my male colleagues and tell them who she is there's another lady who who accompanies how I was very very senior and she had once given me a photograph she actually stood in an operation I think a heart transplant and she stood there and she waited for the first drop of water which was squirted out of a new heart to have that patience and stand in a transplant and to click that photograph I think spoke a lot about the kind of workshop that she does and I'm I mean I might have had a past in the media business but I'm very proud of the girls that I work with now I mean I call I'd not only work with MPs I work with them

Channel: The Indian Express

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Keywords: Smriti Irani, Smriti Irani at Express adda, Smriti Irani Express Adda, Narendra Modi, Delhi University, national ranking system, central universities, Universities vice chancellors, vice chancellors, IIT, IIM directors, modi government, BJP government, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Indian Express Express adda, Dinanath Batra, education, higher education, university education, Smriti Irani education, school education, india news, indian express, indian express newspaper

Id: IbVT4nZP7ZY

Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2016