As part of the ongoing e-course on ‘The Practice of Public Policy and Administration’ being offered by St Stephen’s College in Delhi, Kerala Health Minister K.K. Shailaja will deliver one of the key lectures on May 19 between 2pm and 3pm.
The health minister’s talk is part of a six-day certificate course to understand public policy and its implementation by St Stephen’s Centre for Advanced Learning (SCAL) which was set up in February this year. The aim of SCAL is to promote learning outside the boundaries of the regular classroom for young graduates seeking to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The lectures are usually delivered by policy makers, administrators and other active practitioners in their domain. The inaugural course under the centre was a six-week executive programme in Public Policy and International Relations. SCAL has now gone online, given the current COVID-19 situation.
In the six-day intensive e-course, the emphasis is on health: policy, administration and implementation. “To find out about COVID-19 in particular and how certain health policies are being implemented, we thought there is no better person than the health minister of Kerala who is doing an excellent job. One of the takeaways will be to understand how a policy can be successfully implemented and to see what a difference it can make to the lives of people,” says John Varghese, principal of St Stephen’s College.
K.K. Shailaja, popularly known as Shailaja teacher in Kerala, has been widely praised for her efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve in the state. On May 20, a three-member panel of doctors will discuss health, policy and implementation at 2 pm. Other speakers in the course include retired IAS officer J.K. Dadoo, K.P. Krishnan, former secretary of skill development and entrepreneurship (GoI), Sanjay Sahay, former ADGP with Karnataka Police, and Gayathri Kalia, formerly with the ministry of rural development.
The COVID-19 situation will encourage a model of blended learning from here on, says Varghese on the future of online education. “We will have the face-to-face mode, plus we will have a little more of online access, teaching and materials being put there. COVID-19 is not altogether a tragedy because it has opened up so many other ways of looking at things, including education,” says Varghese.
The talk by K.K. Shailaja will be broadcast on YouTube.
