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
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Director, MGI – Dr Koonjal
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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
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Prof R Ramdhony
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Associate Professors, Heads of
Schools, Heads of Departments
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Prof Sam Mohan Lal, Prof Pillai, Mr
Younus, Prof Sandhya Singh – resource persons from India
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Resource persons from Mauritius
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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.
