The process in India education needs to change to empower the academician to validate everything. Currently, it is the clerks and bureaucrats who are empowered, opines K S Muralidhar, CEO, Learnsmart India
How do you visualise modern education? What is the way ahead with the help of digital tools?
For many reasons, education in this era can only happen with digital tools. One is the lack of training the teachers. Digitisation of learning is required to learn or assess or learn through assessment.
We learn through assessments. So how do you assess what you have learnt? You learn, but you don’t know how much you have learnt. That’s why our tagline is: ‘Do you know how much you know?’ If I know how much I know, I can take the next step forward.
How can we rectify ourselves through the learning process?
You need to know where you are going wrong at every stage and what the shortfall in the learning mechanism is. The online system that we have developed tells you on the spot the mistake you’ve made and the way forward. So there will be no backlogs.
In the Indian education system, there are many backlogs. For example, if you’ve been taught a chapter, before you understand that chapter completely, you’re already being taught the third or fourth chapter. The aim of the teachers is to complete the syllabus. There should be no delay or spoon-feeding.
Today, if the teachers are at 1.0, the students have reached 3.0. How do you think this gap can be bridged?
Today’s generation is computer-savvy and much more advanced than the teachers when it comes to technology. But, the teachers who graduated years back will have to change their mindsets and logic to understand the challenges ahead of them.
How has the model you have created resolved the problem of power in India?
Necessity is the mother of invention. We analysed that even the best content and self-analysis reports would be futile if we did not reach to a school. Even today, most of the schools do not have power. We branded our product as 24X7guru.com, aiming at giving green labs with clean and green energy to schools 24X7. And for students, it’s a full cycle of learning on alternate power.
If you are waiting for power to be generated, it will take about 15-20 years. Solar and wind power are recognised worldwide. We only need to have a standalone system. One kV power is enough for a school with 10 computers and lights. That would need a bare minimum investment, and can go on for at least 10-15 years.
Please tell us a little more about the model.
In the project, we will have energy efficient computers. The computers that we generally have consume because they consume up to 150 watt, whereas the energy-efficient computers will take only 25 watt. And using LED lights means saving more power. If we don’t use energy-efficient computers and lights, the energy consumption will go up to at least 5 kV. To generate more power, the capital cost will increase.
What is the cost of implementation?
We should be able to generate 1 kV power in `7-8 lakh. This is enough to power at least 4-5 computers, LED lights and fans.
Please tell us about your ongoing pilot projects.
We visited Navodaya School in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, to test the project. It is completely green and has 20 energy-efficient computers. Today, the school is not paying a single rupee for its power consumption. The government of Assam has also asked us to do this as a pilot project in 10 schools in the state. If this model is successful, all the panchayats will be connected properly and e-Governance will happen.
Which state governments have you approached for this?
We have approached the government of Andhra Pradesh and they have shown a positive response. They have also sent a proposal to the government of India for fund sanction. If our project in Assam is successful, the project will be implemented in at least 400 schools.We are approaching other state governments also.
There are e-Labs in the NKN model of exchanging knowledge. What is your opinion on that?
Technology is moving at a very fast pace and the level of collaborative learning has come up. 24X7guru.com will be on that platform.
