IUCAA - Khagol # 129 - Oct 2022 - English

| KHAG L | No. 129 - OCTOBER 2022 | 15 SeminarsonEducation The Astronomy Centre for Educators started a new seminar series titled “Seminars on Education” to discuss a wide variety of topics related to education with some emphasis on science and astronomy education. The third talk in this series was delivered by Professor N V Varghese, Professor and Vice-Chancellor, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, on “Higher education and equity”. He discussed a wide range of themes during his presentation, including inequalities in higher education and how higher education contributes to inequalities, the importance of social trust as a necessary condition for success of any democracy and how more equal societies have higher social trust, and the close linkages between levels of education and wages. Equity, inclusion and embracing of diversity are ideas emboldened in all democratic institutions. He outlined the demographic changes in the student population due to both affirmative action and massification of higher education, and the challenges that students from disadvantaged groups face in many of our higher educational institutions. He stressed the importance of an institutional culture that needs to respect diversity and students from diverse backgrounds, and the importance of training and sensitizing teachers to embrace this diversity. Outreach Activities The Union Cabinet Minister of Educa t i on , Shr i . Dha rmendr a Pradhan visited IUCAA on May 27, 2022. SummerSchool Program2022: The 'Astronomy Summer School 2022' was held offline with the winners of the IUCAA National Science Day competitions as participants. All seven participants worked on their own projects in Astronomy with IUCAA researchers as their mentors. On the last day of the program, they presented their work in front of IUCAA academics and got encouraging feedback.