The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies (TIIGS) is organizing the National Geography Youth Summit – 2014 (NGYS-2014), 9-11 June 2014, in Bangalore.
TIIGS was set up in response to a dire need in India’s geography education – the need to make it relevant, interesting, exciting, and fun! The current frameworks and curricula are not delivering the kind of geography education that can truly empower young citizens of India to be geographically aware and skilled leaders of sustainable and equitable development in India, and to strengthen India’s global role. For over a decade now, TIIGS has been striving to help make a difference in this situation.
Now, we have a group of undergraduate geography students based in Pune who are working hard to organize the NGYS-2014 – youth empowering youth! The theme is: “Envisioning Geography Education for 21st Century India.”
We are particularly interested in getting students (from class 9 to PhD), school teachers (especially those teaching geography and environmental sciences), home-schooling parents, professional geographers, NGOs (in the development and social justice sectors), Government agencies, and the general public to participate.
The Summit will also hold open consultations with stakeholders on the vision of what a 21st century geography education ought to be in India and suggest ways in which this vision may be actualized. We plan to publish a monograph on this vision based on the consultations.
Several aspects of the Summit are very innovative in the Indian academic space. Please explore the web site to know more about these.
As of now, the Association of American Geographers, OS Geo (an open-source GIS consortium), Central University of Karnataka (a federal university), and the Army Public School (our host institution) are partners in this effort.
More information about NGYS-2014 is available at http://tiigs.org/ngys/
Please feel free to email us with any queries at: ngys@tiigs.org.
We are also looking for partners to support this effort. If you personally, or your organization, are interested in partnering with us, please contact us at ngys@tiigs.org.
Chandra Shekhar Balachandran, PhD
Founder & Director, The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies
