Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Tuesday said it is time the government seriously thought of reinventing education.
“Quality of education has to be brought up... no purpose in opening IITs and IIMs unless I have the right quality of faculty and education,” he said.
Rewarding experience
The Governor, inaugurating TalentSprint’s SmartCampus in Gachibowli here, said this referring to how several students passing out of universities were unemployable. “Mere education today is no longer a rewarding experience. We have come to a stage where engineers come for jobs which are very, very pedestrian,” he said. “It is time to think about what has gone wrong with our education system. The capacity to think, innovate, ask questions or the intuitive mind has completely collapsed,” Mr. Narasimhan said. “India is known for its rich heritage... memory has been our biggest asset [with] Vedas, Upanishads passed down word of mouth,” he said adding that initial education should focus on developing memory skills.
“Technology is very good, but [it] cannot be a substitute to brains. Human intelligence has to be nurtured,” he said to applause from the gathering.
A digital, 500-seater facility providing industry-oriented learning for young job seekers, the SmartCampus also houses digital studios and cloud platform to webcast learning programmes developed by TalentSprint. The company also launched Tia (Test Improvement Advisor), an artificial intelligence bot to analyse skill gaps and performance challenges at an individual job seeker level.
TalentSprint CEO Santanu Paul said the 30,000 sq ft facility could train 4,000 students a year, while about 50,000 people are expected to benefit from the online programmes intially. The courses will prepare graduates and engineers to clear examinations leading to jobs in government and private sector. The company had invested ₹ 5 crore on the facility. It also signed a LoI with TASK to initiate career seminars and youth scholarships in Telangana.
NSDC CEO and MD Manish Kumar said scale is important in skill development programmes, while NPCI chairman M. Balachandran said TalentSprint should also foray into upgrading and re-skilling existing personnel in several fields. IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan and former chairman of Nasscom B.V.R. Mohan Reddy highlighted the significance of skill development.
