Cheap devices with unique applications should be brought out for rural youth and focus should be on developing language-enabled devices with a higher bandwidth for the latter to become digital stakeholders, said S. Ramadorai, former TCS boss and chairman, National Skill Development Agency (NSDA).
Pitching for the use of latest technology, including robotics, in agriculture, he said: “Our agriculture yield is the lowest when compared to smaller countries like Netherlands. Crop productivity can only be improved by using modern techniques. Robotics can also be used in the farms in India to take on challenges of environment degradation, water conservation and others,” said Mr. Ramadorai. He was the chief guest at the convocation ceremony of the graduating students of 2014 of IIIT.
Raji Reddy, chairman, IIIT (International Institute of Information Technology), said the Indian education system should prepare students for ‘teacher-less’ learning in the future and focus on self learning methods.
In the last century, what is being taught has remained the same and it is time to take the next step forward.
Internet-aided teaching“For a seven-year-old, everything is already available on the Internet. In school, teach these students about Algorithm computation and how to browse the Internet.
They need to discover everything they want to without the help of a teacher,” he said and called for a national dialogue to examine every aspect of education in the country.
“There should be a complete revamp of the education system. Emphasis should be on Internet-aided teaching. IT enabled self learning methods are needed including online tutorials and testing centres.”
Mr. Reddy said the education system should be made scalable and affordable to harness the intellectual capacities of rural youth.
IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao who was the guest of honour encouraged the students to work towards the development of the country and find solutions to various issues. P.J. Narayanan, director of the institute, informed that by January 2017, a full-fledged Telangana incubator would come up in their campus with world class facilities.
He also shared various initiatives and research projects of the institute.
A total of 452 students belonging to various undergraduate and postgraduate courses graduated in this year from the institute.
