Closing Ceremony - Multi-disciplinary Workshop on Emerging Trends in Education: Technology, Research & Curriculum (9-22 July 2014)

 

 

 

Speech - Closing Ceremony - Multi-disciplinary Workshop on Emerging Trends in Education: Technology, Research & Curriculum (9-22 July 2014)

Mon 21 July 2014

Protocol

Ø  His Excellency Shri AnupKumarMudgal, High Commissioner of India

Ø  DG, MGI/RTI – Mr BijayeMadhou

Ø  Director, MGI – Dr Koonjal

Ø  Head, School of Indian Studies – Dr Sornum

Ø  Head, Language Resource Centre – Mr K Goodary

Ø  Acting Secretary General, World Hindi Secretariat – Mr G Sooklall

Ø  Registrar, MGI – Mrs Kowlesser

Ø  Prof R Ramdhony

Ø  Associate Professors, Heads of Schools, Heads of Departments

Ø  Prof Sam Mohan Lal, Prof Pillai, Mr Younus, Prof Sandhya Singh – resource persons from India

Ø  Resource persons from Mauritius

Ø  Eminent personalities and guests

Good afternoon.

It gives me much pleasure to be among you all in the closing ceremony of the Multi-disciplinary workshop on Emerging Trends in Education: Technology, Research & Curriculum organised by the Language Resource Centre, MGI from 9 to 22 July 2014 where besides 5 experts from India, local resource persons have conducted the workshop.

When I launched the ICT Handbooks in Asian Languages in the beginning of this important workshop on 9 July 2014, I expressed my satisfaction in the adoption of emerging technologies in the teaching and learning of Asian Languages by the MGI. Today, I shall extend my feelings and views in this same line.

Being the Minister responsible for Tertiary Education, Science & Research, I firmly believe that research and incorporation of emerging technologies teaching and learning of languages has become crucial in this world.  May I remind you that there are 6000 languages are spoken in the world at present and 90% of them are going to disappear in the coming decades.  But one thing is certain that the communication revolution will guarantee that these languages are not lost.  To-day a handful of languages lead the world to-day.  On the world wide web, 29 % log is in English, 22% in Chinese, 8% in Spanish, 6% in Japanese and 5% in French. You are all probably aware of the various challenges tertiary education is facing on the global front. It is high time for Mauritius to move ahead with modern technologies, high quality research and techno-pedagogical strategies in education and the teaching of languages. This is why my ministry, following our Government’s vision, is democratising tertiary education through the creation of multi universities in order to give access to all Mauritians and even foreign students to tertiary education. Not only this, but we are also focusing on high quality education too. A good example is the MGI Specialised Library for Culture and Education which I inaugurated some time back.

I am happy to note that this fruitful workshop has benefitted not only academics of the MGI but also those of other tertiary institutions. And as I am told, today and tomorrow, this workshop is being extended specifically to educators of the MGI schooling. I congratulate the LRC for coming up with this laudable initiative where the workshop has been a real sharing platform of the experiences of UOM, VCILT, OUM, MES, MIE and TEC and MGI. All these TEIs have their own areas of specialisation and bringing all their experiences through this workshop in itself is a very commendable task successfully done by the MGI. I congratulate Mr B Madhou for this “multi-sectoral” vision of giving MGI a new boost and restoring its value and identity in the tertiary education context of Mauritius.

I happened to meet Prof Lal, Prof Pillai, Prof Sandhya Singh, Mr Yoonus – the eminent resource persons from India in my office last week and I am impressed by their expertise and their commitment to share their expertise with us. I understand that there is anMoU between MGI and Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, India which resulted in the creation of the Language Resource Centre at the MGI. I believe that the LRC has a vital role to play in the propagation of Asian Languages through technology in Mauritius. Our country being a multi-lingual one, has the potential to act as a tremplin in the dissemination of Indian languages to Francophone and Anglophone countries. MGI, being a centre par excellence in this field has a huge responsibility now in carrying this vision ahead.

 As far as the workshop is concerned, I feel that you all have benefitted a lot from the expertise of the resource persons. MGI is moving ahead on the distance education and open learning mode adopting e-learning educational structure. Now challenges are even bigger for all academics as the role of a lecturer is certainly going to change. In this regard, I feel we all have to be prepared fully for this transformation and this workshop must have met all these objectives in empowering you all for this change.

With this, I again congratulate the LRC, MGI and all those involved in making this workshop a successful one including resource persons. It is time now to bring the change your institution is envisaging and contribute to the progress of Asian Languages through modern technologies.

Thank you.