Chandigarh May 16, 2021
The office of Dean International Students in collaboration with Department of Sociology ,Panjab University ,Chandigarh organized an international webinar on “The Culture of Learning and Teaching : The Case of India and Hungary ” by Professor Janos Gyori, Professor of Education at Faculty of Education and Psychology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary, as part of the 75th celebration of India’s Independence ‘Amrut Mahotsav ‘.
Prof Anju Suri, Dean International Students , welcomed the guests and highlighted the significance of education and learning in an independent India and how good learning can bring a positive change in our society.
Prof Rani Mehta, Chairperson, Department of Sociology , introduced the Vice Chancellor Prof Raj Kumar and the key speaker Prof Janos Gyori who has an illustrious career in formal education, multi and intercultural education and knowledge management .
Prof Raj Kumar in his inaugural address focused on the significance of culture of learning through cultural values and how cultural uniqueness of each country can strengthen humanity especially during these critical pandemic times by solving the psychological issues of the academic fraternity.
Professor Janos Gyori elaborated on the importance of culture in understanding the outside physical, social environment as well as the inner cognitive psychological environment. He emphasized that the customs, behaviour, ideas and beliefs are able to shape the cultural teaching of individuals and illustrated the concept of cultural acquisition by giving examples of countries like Japan and Canada. He also mentioned the differences in educational set up between India and Hungary such as India being multicultural in nature while Hungary having more western traditions and comparatively being less traditional in approach. India is also a multi Linguistic society with influence of various languages on the culture of education while Hungary has one common language spoken by everybody. He also elaborated on the system of education given by Tagore and Gandhi in India which is based on the spirit of freedom in choice of subjects and teachers .
The vote of Thanks was given by Prof Rani Mehta, Chairperson, Sociology Department in which she mentioned in concluding remarks about the sayings of Swami Vivekananda and Swami Sivananda on true education which emphasized on character building ,morality and expanded intellect.
