President Pranab Mukherjee has mooted the ideas of a technology-led model in the education and skill delivery landscape and modified massive open online courses (MOOC) with rich course content and flexible programmes to suit the Indian requirement.
Delivering the convocation address of the Central University of Karnataka at the ESIC Medical Education Complex auditorium here on Tuesday, he said that modified MOOC would work well in India where students were diverse in terms of educational attainment, socio-economic background and location. Interactive MOOCs could power vocational training and improve delivery of skills knowledge, Mr. Mukherjee said.
He pointed out that with the country setting itself a target of training 30 crore youth in skills by 2022, the tasks of educationists and planners had become more challenging. MOOCs had grown since 2008 when they were first started. Leading universities in the world had applied the technology model to provide quality education to a large number of education seekers. Similarly, mobile phone technology could also act as an enabler for formal and vocational education.
The President said that the universities should align their research priorities to meet the challenges and find solutions to issues in renewable energy, climate change, drinking water, sanitation and urbanisation. ICT tools such as the National Knowledge Network would have to be used extensively for collaboration of ideas, knowledge and academic resources.
India, which once attracted both the academic and intellectual minds to its higher centres of learning at Nalanda, Takshashila, Vikramshila, Valabhi and Odantapuri, did not have a university or centre of excellence in the list of 100 top universities in the world. The destruction of the Nalanda was the beginning of the decline of India’s position as a knowledge centre.
However, the President said it was heartening to note that for the first time two institutions had found a place among the top 200 universities in the world. “I hope other Indian institutions too will follow suit. With sustained effort and better academic management, it can be achieved.”
