Pune (Maharashtra) [India], November 25 (ANI/SRV): Symbiosis Law School, Pune - one of the elite institutions catering to teachers and students of the country is all set to spearhead the reconstruction of the Indian educational system by infusing 21st-century life skills.

This innovative pedagogy is indeed the need of the hour, which will be in concord with the National Educational Policy 2020 and the ultimate fourth goal of sustainable development, inscribed by the United Nations.

SLS Pune, a constituent of Symbiosis International (Deemed University), has taken a remarkable step towards skill development and enhancement as a part of the fundamental curriculum. Powered by a systematic and well-researched team of experts from all over the world, the idea of 21st-century life skills is anticipated to leave a huge impact on the nation's educational vista. At the same time, creating a bold change will leave a lasting impact that will change the lives of millions. the SLS Pune team has become the torchbearer and partnered with the Erasmus CBHE project to trigger and carry forward the 21st-century life skills concept.

The SLS Pune team aims to achieve this huge milestone by manifesting the possibilities of internationalization. The institute has joined hands with Erasmus CBHE Project, an ambitious initiative by European Union titled 'Teachers training with specialization on life and information technology skills.'The project is led by Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Project Manager, Director, Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Dean Faculty of Law SIU and team comprising Dr. Bindu Ronald, Dr. Aparajita Mohanty, Dr. Sophia Gaikwad, Prof. Raj Anjanikumar Varma and Prof. Ujwal Nandekar.

Simply put, this project intends to revolutionize the outdated pedagogy followed in the system and modify it to make it more relevant and adaptive at a global level. Imparting critical thinking skills and popularising the emerging concept of Digital Quotient Balance are only some of the priorities of the project, which shares an insightful vision and potential to make a huge impact.

Digital Quotient is a measure of how much aware and updated an individual is about the actual and upcoming technologies. This futuristic quotient is superseded by the importance of critical thinking skills, which is and will be one of the greatest determinants in the forthcoming job markets.

The project is facilitated by the Symbiosis Centre for European Studies, (SCES) of SIU. Dr. Katerina Plakitsi, University of Ioannina is the International Project Coordinator. Exceptional professionalism and expertise are evident as the project has already partnered up with some of the most reputed institutions from all around the globe.

The SIU, Banasthali Vidyapeeth, Klaipeda University, Novel Group Sarl, Southwest University and Shenzhen Polytechnic of China, Royal University, and University of Battabang of Cambodia are the partners of this project consortium.

A study was conducted prior to the launch of the project, and the revelations were startling. The survey to determine the need and gap brought out the fact that except IT skills and collaboration, the pedagogy followed in tutoring general and 21st-century life skills are unsystematic and highly unstructured.

Out of the schools surveyed, only 10% of them have well-equipped labs and education and research centres. This gains a lot of attention towards what needs to be done, especially when the youths of the nation are underprivileged to gain access to necessary critical thinking skills and other 21st-century life skills, depriving their eligibility to be part of a stable job market.

In concern to the results of the survey, a kick-off meeting was organized by the University of Ioannina, where the partnering members underwent rigid training to design the project modules.

As a result, four modules were designed to cater to this issue - Critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills, Education technology skills, Authentic learning tasks and practical implementation of these skills in classrooms, and Optimising assessment for 21st-century life skills. This step further escalated to the establishment of 21st century teaching skills lab, that too for the first time in a law school. The lab is equipped with all the necessary high-end apparatus like smart boards, 3Doodlers Pro, Video conferencing system, and much more.

SLS Pune, with the aid of other global level institutions, is striving to fulfill those goals that will be a pathbreaker for the whole nation in the near future. The idea of 21st-century life skills, as aforementioned, is indeed the need of the hour. The most professional and qualified hands of SLS Pune won the Excellence in Internationalisation of Education award at the 7th FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards 2021.

By upgrading the skills and quality of the lecturers and pedagogy, the project will impact and benefit a large number of students and even teachers, academicians, and policymakers. With such staggering numbers in front, the project is highly expected to propel the careers of more than 50,000 students in India and more than 100,000 students of Asia in its initial phase.

By improving the quality of higher education and lifelong learning, making the pedagogy more relevant to the job market trends, encouraging innovations, and adding practical skills to the students' profile rather than paper skills, the project has an outstanding vision and potential to change the lives of millions.

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