An Appeal from President, National Teachers' Congress
We are at the ‘Cusp’ of Social Transformation worldwide, where Virtual World is increasingly deciding what happens in the Real World. The advent of Technology and Disruptive Innovations has led to transformation & evolution in Learning Mechanisms and Creation of New Jobs through Mobile Internet, Internet of Things, Big-Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Augmented Reality among many other unpredictable dynamic changes occurring almost daily world over.
In an Indian context, there is a need for policy measures by the government, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the Industry to prepare a Learning & Academic delivery model that equips the youth to create a Global Impact. There are some fundamental changes required in Indian System to bring in Originality & Innovation at the forefront that are applicable to Indian Education system-The first is the issue of our cultural inheritance that inhibits questioning. If India has the dream of becoming a ‘start-up’ nation, its youth should be encouraged to question & challenge, as these are critical characteristics of an Entrepreneurial Culture. Second, our education system suffocates originality. There is a need for innovation in our education systems – getting rid of the rigid unimaginative curricula, replacing ‘learning by rote’ by ‘learning by doing’, and phasing out examination systems based on single correct answers. The third is bureaucracy, where paper becomes more important than people,
where ‘appearing to be right’ takes a precedence over ‘being right’, where rule book dominates over the objectives and where decision-making time cycles are larger than product life cycles. A fourth fundamental of subcritical Indian R&D funding demands urgent attention.
The National Teachers’ Congress (NTC-2019) is a step towards attainment of this very Goal and this year’s edition will focus on the theme ‘Leapfrogging to Future Ready Higher Education’. The 3rd NTC aims at empowering the Teachers & Researchers to master the mechanisms of Future Ready Higher Education and equip their students with the skills for Future Jobs. I invite you to register as Delegate/Paper Presenter at NTC-2019.
Dr. Raghunath. A Mashelkar
President- National Teachers’ Congress-2019
President - Global Research Alliance
Chairperson - National Innovation Foundation of India