Instead of following the trends developed elsewhere in the world, weneed to start creating educational products that others can use
By Dr Akshai Aggarwal, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technological University | www.gtu.ac.in
In Gujarat, the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) has a major role to play in the education space. GTU owns 95 percent of the total technology related seats in the state’s education sector. Hence any improvement in the quality of technology education being offered in the state must begin with GTU.
Speaking about the entire country, there is no doubt that in the field of education we have failed to keep up with many other parts of the world. Till 1985 we were nearly at the same level as China, but we were far behind Japan. Now even China has raced ahead. Other Asian countries like Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea are also ahead of us. If other Asian countries can be home to many top universities, then why cannot we?
It is not as if we are not capable of being at the top of the educational space. There is no dearth of talent in the country. Finances for setting up of educational infrastructure are also not that big a problem. Our students are quite intelligent. They often prove their intelligence when excel in foreign universities, and even in Indian universities.
The quality of our faculty is also quite good. However, it is true that the number of teachers is not enough to take care of the education necessities of all our students. In fact, in many western universities faculty of Indian origin is doing a remarkably good job. Indians are being prized as teachers. Perhaps the problem exists in the Indian educational system as a whole. In our education system, it is not possible for the teachers to carve a niche for themselves and grow on their job.
It is also possible that we have lost our desire to innovate in the educational space. The Indian civilisation is one of the oldest. We have a long tradition of excellence in education. But now we have lost track. After independence we have had the green revolution, the white revolution and many other interesting developments. Unfortunately a similarly beneficent revolution has eluded us in the education space.
This needs to change. We need to focus more on education. We need to bring in innovation and focus on using modern digital tools. It is education that serves as the foundation for every other sector in the country.
