I believe school is a place where tomorrow lives and thus the concept of inclusive education should start right from schools. Also, from Ayurvedic era i.e. the Shruti (listen) and Smriti (remember), we have come to the new dimension now i.e. technology, so we need to expand it across the country to attain inclusivity.

Dr Gautam Bose

A knowledgeable population can play a better role in the democratic process and economic progress of the country. The government has some definite policies for inclusiveness like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Sakhshar Bharat, EFA goals, etc as far as school education is concerned. We try to include every child into the school system, but in higher education many things still need to be done.
It should not be limited to social or economic inclusion only, but the differently-abled population should also be included. It should be part of our national as well as state policy to include everyone. In addition to this, all the services rolled out by the government should be accessible to all and people should be aware about various schemes or services and how can they be availed.
seWe do have reservation policies or admission criteria but as more and more private institutions or universities are coming up, they should have some definite policies as far as their admission criteria are concerned so that they become all inclusive. The fees in these private institutions are very high, so there must be large number of scholarships to include the students from economically weaker sections of the society.
Inclusion should also be devoid of any discrimination like separate classrooms, as there must not be a feeling of inadequacy among the students who are being included. There has to be a right curriculum, examination system and appropriate teaching methodologies. There must be specialised tuition and coaching like some of the IITs do, but such practices need to become more popular and that’s part of the policy. Proper examination and evaluation systems should be made for the differently-abled people and other weaker sections of the society.

With the aim of expanding inclusive education to the states that hitherto did not have a central university, a common Omnivous Act was introduced in the parliament and 12 new universities came up in different parts of the country and Tamil Nadu was one of them. The first dimension of the policy of the Government of India towards expanding inclusivity has been achieved by setting up of these new universities.
Similarly, IT policies should also look at the country as a whole and have an inclusive expansion of its resources so that every corner of the country gets integrated into what we call the national knowledge grid. Unless our country becomes inclusive with regard to expansion of the ICT sector on a broad and an equitable basis, the goals of inclusive education are not going to be achieved.
Moreover, there has to be an inclusive perception of higher education. For instance, people in Tamil Nadu and southern states have a parental and aspirational perception that higher education means engineering and medicine courses. The number of such institutions in these states is evidence enough to understand that there is a skewed perception. But in this context it is important to make the aspiration more inclusive by having many other disciplines so that a university is set up in a liberal framework.
By the end of next year the number of private universities is going to surpass the number of state and central universities. There may be criticism for corporatisation of education, but I think it also helps in increasing inclusivity because it provides opportunities for those who are willing to pay.

Prof G L Datta

We have students from different languages, communication skills, barriers, diverse academic preparations, etc. More importantly there are students with different motivational levels, intellectual calibers and learning styles that makes the whole thing very complex and hence inclusive education has a meaning in this particular aspect as well. To cater to students with low level of academic preparations, we have bridge courses at first year level. We have remedial classes because we have a system that monitors progress of the students, their academic performance, and participation in the classes, etc, regularly. Again at the end of the year we have summer quarter organised for those students who otherwise find it difficulties during the course. To identify students for these courses we have student councils and mentors and we have a system where these mentors identify the students who require special attention.
We find that inclusive education at university level especially in professional courses has a very different relevance and this has to be done with respect to integrating the entire community of students into one level

Prof K Lal Kishore

We have had a history of educational institutes like Takshashila and Nalanda where the spirit of inquiry was encouraged. Even though we expanded education as such, the spirit of inquiry is not being encouraged so that’s why we find the quality is not satisfactory at the higher education level. India has the largest higher education system in the world in terms of the number of institutions as compared to the USA and China. The numbers are attractive but it is not proportionate as per the population and there are some state-wise anomalies and progress is not uniform. A lot needs to be done to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). The undergraduate enrolment is highest at 86 percent followed by post graduate which is only 12 percent, but it is less than one percent for research or PhD programmes.
Thus, the quality also depends on this particular factor particularly the postgraduate education and PhD programmes. The numbers are less even in terms of faculty i.e. the studentstaff ratio. Potential faculty should be attracted and existing institutions with active research programmes should be supported by the government. Updating faculty members through workshops, courses or teacher training in the industry should be encouraged.
Financial innovation is also one of the important aspects because when we say a large number of institutions have to be established then the government alone cannot do it. Therefore, the private sector has to be encouraged, but with certain restrictions so that degrees are not sold or it will not become a commodity. The government spend on higher education is very less as compared to the other countries and we must increase it.

Chandrashekhar Kumar,

The whole system of higher education stands on the edifice of school education. We cannot suddenly talk about quality at higher education level. If good quality is maintained through the school or senior level then probably we will have better quality at this level, but if there is a huge gap then that is a matter of concern. Also, we have to educate in such a manner that a student is employable after next four to five years of college. These are the two biggest challenges. Another big challenge is that we have to create teachers for future, for both in higher as well as school education

If you go to a campus hiring manager of any big company, they point out that the students are good technically, but they lack communication or soft skills like conversing in English, ability to present themselves, teamwork skills or are unable to adapt to the company culture. So these skills should ideally come right from the school. Today, that can change only when the success measure of the school changes. Another important factor is the faculty in engineering colleges. Nobody checks where the teachers are coming from. There are certain teacher training institutes but it is not compulsory and many new teachers are last year pass outs from the same or other colleges without any prior training.
So the solution to the problem of skill development will have to start from schools and the problems of good teachers can be addressed through one or two week training programme where they can be taught classroom and pedagogy techniques.
The student life will depend upon his faculty around whom he is going to be for the next four years and faculty will only make the difference in engineering education where we are facing a big problem of the skill-gap between industry and academia.

Dr K Sarukesi,

There should be inspiring teachers in technical education because only 25 percent of the technical content is imparted under classroom teaching and the rest of the 75 percent the student has to learn on his own. So we need to impart a different type of training to the teachers so that they make lectures interesting and inspiring.
Today, the faculty development programmes are needed in all the fields and not just IT and the conceptual understanding has to be imparted. For this, the universities and the technical institutions need to have improved industry-institute interaction and the student must visit industries.
The teacher should go to the industry first, come back and share the experience with students and tell them about the relevant matter as per their subjects. The net result of this exercise is reflected in the campus placements. Another positive impact of sending the faculty to the industry is that industry gets to know that there is potential in the institutes and they start giving consultancy projects. Thus, the interaction grows into research partnerships between industry and the institutes.

Information technology has evolved much in the past 25 years. It is very important that technology must be cheap and affordable. It should be within the reach of common man and must change their life. For a government, it is very essential that any citizen of the state must get government services which he requires in an easy, accessible and corruption free manner. The concept of Mee Seva was initiated in a review meeting where I expressed the need for a system which could deliver services to the citizens in just 15 minutes.

Youth is the biggest power and asset of India. Talent has wiped out the barriers between the rich and the poor. I want to make Hyderabad a synonym for letter H. We want to make Hyderabad a global leader in Information Technology. World Bank rated Hyderabad as the best metro city in India.