The 48thedition of the prestigious annual COBSE Conference was hosted by Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC), USA in New Delhi from 10thto 12th October, 2019. The Conference was based on the central theme of ‘De-stressing Examination’ and was inaugurated by the chief guest, Professor Ved Prakash. The conference was a platform for eminent authorities in the field of education, including Chairpersons, Secretaries & Directors of State Boards in India, to discuss and deliberate upon the possible ideas, measures and strategies to de-stress examinations, in coherence with the prescriptions of Draft National Education Policy 2019. Over 100 delegates from USA, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Singapore attended the event, representing National and International school examination Boards.
Dr. Annette Bohling, Chief Certification Officer, NWAC (Cognia), Dr. Kem Hussain, Senior Vice President, NWAC (Cognia), Dr. Ludwig van Broekhuizen, Vice President, NWAC (Cognia), Mrs. Asano Sekhose, President COBSE & Chairman- Nagaland Board of School Education and Professor Siddharth Pandey, Chairman Organizing Committee (IIT Mains 2020) grace the event with their presence and views.
Dr. Ved Prakash in his inaugural speech emphasized upon the challenges that the educators face today and laid special emphasis on the need to design a curriculum that is engaging and futuristic. “Students must not be educated on age-old patterns rather they should be made future-ready,” added Dr. Ved Prakash. Mr. Vineet Joshi, Director General of National Testing Agency (NTA) also attended the conference as a special guest of honour and spoke about the importance of coordination among all the boards and NTA, to enable proper verification of students at the application stage of exams conducted by NTA.
Dr. Annette Bohling spoke about how NWAC (Cognia) addresses multiple disciplines including teaching & learning, technology and value-creation. She also broadly touched upon how NWAC (Cognia) accreditation is opening new horizons for schools, students and parents. Dr. Ludwig Ludy van Broekhuizen, Vice President- Global Development NWAC-Cognia emphasized on the 7 different areas that ELEOT- Effective Learning Environment Observation Tool, one of the proprietary mechanisms of Cognia that captures the efficacy of learning in school environment, and how it can be deployed by schools to create a roadmap to improvement.
Northwest Accreditation Commission has a Regional Office in India that supports schools in their quest for securing NWAC (Cognia) accreditation and in preparation to offer the NWAC American High School Program. Association of Indian Universities, AIU has already accorded equivalence to the NWAC Grade 12 qualification and equated it with the Senior Secondary level qualification of CBSE and other valid boards in India.
Professor Furqan Qamar, former Secretary-General of AIU also graced the event and presented his views on many challenges that the educators and students face in today’s context. He urged upon the need to utilize such forums to come up with practical and relevant action plans for school-educational reforms.
NWAC (Cognia) has a 100 plus years of history in bringing standards of educational excellence to schools. They are present across over 40,000 schools in 80 plus countries.
Many other eminent dignitaries and authorities in the world of school education including Secretary of AP Board of Intermediate Education Shri Kantilal Dande(IAS), Chairman of CISCE Dr G. Immanuel, CBSEController of Examinations Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Chairman of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board Shri A.J.Shah (IAS), Secretary of Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education Dr A. Ashok (IAS), Dr Arvind C. Ranade from Vigyan Prasar and Asstt. Vice President, National Academic Depository, NSDL, Mr Ankur Mittal, attended the 3-day conference.
