4th Digital Learning World Education Summit

By Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: The 4th Digital Learning World Education Summit with the theme, “Minority Education: Let’s Walk the Talk”, was held on August 7 and 8. President of the Mumbai based Anjuman-I-Islam Dr Zahir Kazi said there is a case for better representation of minorities in decision-making bodies. “Competent leaders from the minority community should be engaged, and their inputs should be taken into account by the government while designing policies and schemes,” he added. Lauding the contribution of minority institutions in spreading the light of literacy, noted educationist K S Narayanan said, successive governments since Independence have vowed in the name of minority education and their educational institutions, but little meets the eye. “Unfortunately, the media focus in terms of covering minority communities is limited to the events and politics surrounding victimisation, persecution or communal flare-ups, and seldom highlights the positives like the significant role played by their educational institutions,” he averred. Mysore- based Taj Mohammad Khan, who is also Chairman of the Federation of Minority Educational Institutions, stated problems in setting up and running a modern educational institution. ” Talking to Islamic Voice, Dr Shabistan Ghaffar, chairperson of the Committee on Girls Education, NCMEI, said one of the objectives of the Summit was to highlight the contribution of Muslim educational institutions as during the last two decades, the community has established a number of higher studies institutions. The fourth edition of the World Education Summit was jointly organized by Elets Technomedia and NCMEI, in order to highlight the issues facing the education sector, minority institutions in particular. A special issue of the magazine ‘Digital Learning’ on ‘Minority Education: Let’s Walk the Talk’ was released during the conference. Editor of the magazine, Dr Ravi Gupta dedicated this issue of digital Learning magazine to minority educational institutions across the country .Najma Heptulla, Union Minister for Minority Affairs, who inaugurated the Summit, said the government would bring minority students’ scholarship at par with SCs and STs students.