ITIHAAS organizes the 7th Edition of the annual ITIHAAS SUMMIT “My City in Me”

ITIHAAS organizes the 7th Edition of the annual ITIHAAS SUMMIT

“My City in Me”

The summit brings together leading heritage enthusiasts, senior academicians, teachers and teacher educators

The 7th edition of the annual ITIHAAS SUMMIT was held in New Delhi. Focused on the heritage of the cities that we grow up in, ITIHAAS Summit 2015 dealt with the very personal debate on how cities meld our personalities under the title “My City in Me”. Attended by over 125 leading educationists from across the city, the Summit propagated the message of our culture and heritage and how this can be best promoted through our future – the students.

The ITIHAAS Summit is a platform for innovators in education and heritage, to showcase breakthroughs in creative learning methodologies that attempt to take education beyond the classroom and enable experiences that last a lifetime. The outcome of the summit was the creation of synergy between various ingredients that make the “connection” between the cities that we reside in and our personalities. The annual teachers’ and educators’ summit takes the “heritage” debate to a higher level each time and nurtures the ecosystem for heritage education.  

At ITIHAAS SUMMIT this year, there was a celebration of 4 cities – Delhi, Lucknow, Agra & Gwalior. Each participant and speaker shared how living in their cities moulded their personas and enriched their lives.  

“Our focus is on beginning a dialogue on heritage. We firmly believe that an education that is seeped in our traditions, culture and heritage will only better the students understanding of our society and help them appreciate it more. The cities go a long way in building the personality of an individual and we hope that our 7th edition of Summit will only help in developing this understanding further”, says Smita Vats, Founder Director, ITIHAAS.  

Ms. Sadia Dehlvi, an eminent media person, activist and columnist, who is a prominent part of the Delhi social circle, spoke about Delhi's cultural, historical and spiritual legacies and the need to preserve, understand and promote them. She firmly stated that Delhi has a shared heritage, and there is a need to sensitise students on Delhi's composite culture, the "ganga jamuni tehzeeb" as it is called.

Other speakers included Dr. Amrita Dass, a leading Educationist and Career-Consultant of the country; Mr. Jayant Krishna, Principal Consultant with TCS, Lucknow; Dr. R.K Dixit, Senior conservator withArcheological Survey of India, in-charge of the Taj Mahal complex in Agra; Ms. Amita Baig, a leading heritage consultant and the former DG of the Architectural Heritage Division of National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage; Mr. Paul Abraham, COO IndusInd Bank and works closely withHeritage and restoration segment and some of the most respected teachers and select students.  

Ms. Amrita Dass spoke on how her growing up in Lucknow shaped her personality and how she as the Director of Career Studies thinks that heritage education impacts the child’s development, global understanding and career options. Her focus was on the Educational outlook.

Mr. Jayant Krishnan discussed how his growing up in Lucknow shaped his personality. Healso described his personalstruggle on how he dealt with professional issues and progress after choosing to stay back in his home-city of Lucknow. He also reiterated the importance of having cultural rootedness as one grows and chooses a career. His talk focused on the corporate out look and heritage.  

Mr. R.K Dixit, a well known specialist on Agra, especially on Taj, has undertaken a lot of research on the city and discussed how Agra grew on him and his learnings from its rich heritage.  

Ms. Amita Baig focused on the global need for children to be rooted in their culture,heritage and traditions andshared many interesting studies and anecdotes.

Mr. Paul Abraham talked about hisinitiatives with ITIHAAS to popularize museums andmuseum based understanding across the country.

3 teachers from ITIHAAS Partner schools and 2 students also spoke on the occasion.  

About ITIHAAS (Indian Traditions and Heritage Society)

ITIHAAS (Indian Traditions and Heritage Society) began its operations in 2004 to connect the Indian children to their heritage by embedding heritage into mainstream curriculum so that it becomes an essential part of their learning and assessment and thereby their knowledgebase and understanding.  

As it enters its Eleventh year ofpioneering work in Heritage Education, ITIHAAS has the support of over 700 schools all across the country with, its Head office and resource centre inDelhi.  ITIHAAS runs ITIHAAS Learning Modules in Delhi, Lucknow, Gwalior and Bhopal and walks more than 50,000 children each year.    

The Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education,Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), National Museum, NGMA, UNESCO, and several other organisations support ITIHAAS to enhance its outreach.

ITIHAAS also develops curriculum for schools, conducts teacher training workshops, runs leadership camps, conducts exchange programmes within the SAARC countries, etc., all aimed at heritage sensitization, leadership and enriching education and education.

For more information, please contact:

Sunil Kumar Singh / Raj Kumar

Finese PR

+91 11 43056200(30 lines)

[email protected] / [email protected]