once there was this ordinary-looking
village boy who thought that he can
never be a good speaker and the reason
was because his mother would often tell
him sighting someone that the intensity
and the frequency of crying in the
childhood his prediction for superior
speech and intelligence later and she
also told that he was generally a calm
and quiet child he was born in a
farmer’s family didn’t have electricity
in his village and would see the
newspaper for the first time in his high
school but as he grew certain triggers
would influence him and change his
thought process at the age of 16 and
half he was traveling from his small
village in South Haryana to India yes I
said India because he had not seen India
before except in the books so he’s
travelling to India during the journey
he was ridiculed and humiliated by his
hello friends by mocking at the way he
spoke then he had this typical things of
local dialect so at the end of the
journey when he reached Chennai at that
time Madras the demographic and cultural
diversity of the place and the
humiliation he had undergone during the
journey triggered him and motivated him
to learn spoken English a better
communication he would study alongside
he would earn some degrees masters and
doctoral degrees in finance and
economics and after about 15 years would
teach in a business school at the time
one of the recent pass outs of the same
Business School came to him and said
that have turned into a skill
but I’m sorry the professors do not know
how to teach he was very very hurt but
this statement from the student made him
realize that how teaching of the
concepts of first Industrial Age during
the third Industrial Revolution which
was then made students literally suffer
the professor’s later on he would be
known as someone who design some of the
most interesting and innovative
education delivery systems and without
going to a regular college even for a
day he would become vice-chancellor of
some of the finest universities in the
country thirty-six years after he
travelled to India this boy feels
extremely blessed when he stands before
you on this stage today with all
humility may I submit that we all get
riggers we must get inspired by the fact
that the power of triggers turned
Narendra into some American and Mohandas
into Mahatma Gandhi and Agnes into
Mother Teresa
and in a very little way it inspired me
to think to introspect but most
importantly to act and when I say act I
would try to break some of the myths of
the education system which prevails in
this country today in 2014 with the help
of my family I started a school in rural
Rajasthan and I remember one of the
parents coming and telling my three and
half year old kid hasn’t learned
anything in last two months oh my god he
has been around this world for last
forty two months he is wasting his time
and I remember telling him that let this
child live his childhood at least in
pre-primary school another parent was
screaming of the principal and said how
can your teachers expect everyone to
think differently
how will I compare my son’s answer with
that of another because everyone has
given different answers for this parent
what was more important was to be
correct and not innovative and different
when I say different I am reminded of
something which I’ll ask you tell me how
many of you have two or more siblings
okay how many feel friends would have
that number well rest of you must have
seen that we are seven of us I remember
her or dad would come and ask which
class you are in and this had happened
with most of us of my age you know
Buse have large families I have four
children including my daughter-in-law
can you imagine if they are labeled or
color coded or bar coded that you need
to use barcode reader and say oh no no
no you are not my sibling oh let me let
me check with this guy are you my
sibling it didn’t happen that way
certainly not because the nature has
made each one different look different
think different and be different and if
that we saw and it is so that why our
education system is linear is rigid and
it is conforming to the standard formats
during the today’s talks have heard some
of the issues let me try to answer some
of them if not all of them the education
system today needs to be reformed and to
indicate the sense of urgency let me
read this beautiful lines of
rabindranath tagore after the warnings
and knocks at the door by the messenger
there was a voice in the dead of the
night some said this was sound of the
wheels we said in a drowsy murmur no it
must be the rumbling of clouds the night
was still dark there was sound of drums
the voice came
wake up delay not we pressed our hands
against the heart shuddered with fear
some said lo that the Kings flag we
stood on our feet and cried there is no
time for delay yes the sense of urgency
that we need to reform our education
system and reform it faster there is
indeed no time for delay today I’ll
broadly talk about three scenarios of
Education and first of them is
technological advancements I really
remember when a schoolboy my teacher
would stand before me with two books in
his hand wrapped into old cover and we
thought it all came from him he’s a
genius without realizing that one book
had the questions and the second book
had the answers written by somebody else
well it was fine at that time but
today’s children could accept it today’s
student says email me the list of books
for self reading you generate new
knowledge and give me new perspectives
who take me beyond the books and this is
what we see every day happening we live
in an age where Facebook and smartphones
have entered the class you know on
smartphone students can listen to the
books they don’t have to read it in 10
to 15 minutes you can listen to the book
summary and understand everything I am
NOT saying this should be promoted and
the reading habits should be lost the 3d
printer technology 3d printing
technology which was mentioned by one of
the previous speakers you have machines
which can produce ready-to-wear
government’s in a matter of few minutes
stand in front of it using imaging
technologies what comes out in few
minutes is a relatively our government
without in it cities without knee joints
now what will happen to the teaching of
fashion designers and tailors
what will happen to these professions
gone are the days when the tailor used
to influence our decision on when should
we are very dividing did you know my
father-in-law has been rented a suit
length that needs to be stitched and
have to be at the time of bidding they
will say in India most often come for
the trial and after the trial will
execute the order
remember machines execute without trial
the second issue we need to analyze and
talk about is interdisciplinary learning
environment the boundaries between and
among the subjects are now getting
increasingly blurred we live in an age
which is called the age of designer
babies yes with advanced technologies
like genetic editing and the DNA
technology we can design a baby before
it is conceived can you imagine if some
of us were designed by our parents
looking at the catalogs kept in the
doctor’s clinic and they say well look
at this baby oh no no no no show me
something else okay look at this one yes
seems fine butts to expensive okay then
look at this one yet that seam is fine
let’s finalize this and this is how they
finalize our design we came to this
world and set in this auditorium this
afternoon pollution Paris talks yes we
are in that age the innovations in times
to come will come out of
interdisciplinary studies and research
remember the research converts money
into knowledge but it’s the innovations
that convert knowledge back into money
and unless we do that the research will
not make much sense to us I suggest that
what I’ve experimented in my career
there are excellent pedagogical tools
which could be used and that no rocket
science you could engage students of
different disciplines different schools
if required and that is possible in
university setting
to work on projects like design a green
building design social systems for
ageing society what we will be 40 to 50
years hence you know we are called at
the young nation as per average age but
after 50 years we will be a nation of
aged people and the needs will be
different
can we ask our students to think of that
world and design the systems for that
aging Society think of engaging them in
projects on the genetic editing on
artificial intelligence as or the
cognitive or intelligence as you call it
by one of the company this name has been
given good in all them on social media
or simply improving the website where
students from different disciplines work
together and contribute to innovative
ideas I think that’s what the the need
of the are is rather than making our
students stick to a single disciplines
and not allow them to look here and
there at this stage I would like to
mention about with all due apologies and
unholy Nexus which has evolved in our
country and this Nexus has held a school
system hostage let me cite some figures
in 2015 alone there is 7% of primary
school kids and 92% of high school kids
took private tuitions and contributed to
a forty billion dollar industry and
these coaching centers were often run by
half educated or half qualified people
yes I mean what I say if our mainstream
education system is such that it doesn’t
need those so-called skills why should
we need this shadow system of watching a
similar kind of for Nexus has evolved in
eleventh and twelfth classes I’ve been
going around looking for admissions from
a daughter and believe me I don’t find
classes being held in large number of
schools and they’re conveniently running
as non attending regular schools
what a concept it amuses me in higher
education this nexus has raised is head
in the form of skill based courses
leading to employability my personal
belief and experience says that you
cannot beat skills by teaching them
through separate subjects these subjects
have to be overarching courses running
through the curriculum they have to be
like common thread which connects the
mainstream courses or the specialization
courses we have to come together all
stakeholders including parents above all
to break this nexus the third scenario
going to discuss is how do we link
learning to emotions being different
every child thinks differently and in a
different state of mind at a given point
of time
the teachers behavior motivation respect
and empathy are now unavoidable
ingredients of teaching learning process
you just can’t avoid it I remember in
one of my workshop for teachers a young
teacher coming up to me and saying that
my students get affected by the way I
get dressed and shared the story of a
little girl walked up to her in class
and says you’re wearing very expensive
shoes today what am i afraid they’re not
going well with your lovely dress and
thus gave her double pain double pain
off what reminding that it was an
expensive shoes and the second that it’s
not being liked these kind of emotions
play still like Kubrick one of the
thinkers on education says the problem
of education is that we teach children
anything with fear as the only basic
motivation and fear of what fear of
getting a failed grade fear of not
remaining with your classmates and so on
and he says interest and produce
learning on a scale compared to fear if
you compare a nuclear explosion to a
firecracker it is in poor empirically
that a positive approach
to discipline cases and empathetic
approach to discipline cases have
resulted in reduced suspensions and this
emotional connect is what is going to
bring the learnings that has required in
the change environment according to
institute of human education there are
four key elements of quality and these
are providing accurate information for
us to know the challenges of our times
foster creativity curiosity and critical
thinking instill reverence respect and
responsibility and finally provide
positive choices and tools to solve the
problems our education system has had a
glorious past when Nalanda and tequila
attracted the entire world I find no
reason why it should be questioned for
quality today if I give you the examples
of education when I discuss about
education I talk about about one and
half in schools 300 million children 760
universities more than 42,000 colleges
32 million students enroll in education
that represents about 22 to 23 enrolment
ratio from schools about half a million
going abroad for studies a lot of
unfilled seats and big question marks on
the quality and employability of the
graduates it is that scenario were
talking about education so with these
four ingredients and the fact that we
have had a glorious past as we move into
the future if we shift from linear
thinking to divergent thinking if you
shift from rigidity to flexibility if
you believe that every child has talents
and should not be weeded out based on
all the age evaluation concepts and I
must share one experience here that in
one of the projects students were given
the task of how to make a 3d printer and
fascinating a very well research report
was awarded a plus by the professors and
students who actually made a 3d printer
what about it only B+ naturally those
students who made a 3d printer came to
me and kept this beautiful machine on my
table and started printing a chocolate
for me and said sir what flavor you want
you know listening to that question I
had to improve in and that will lead to
entire change in the evaluation system
of the university because in the new era
we are trying to push learning to the
level of making it so if we believe that
every child has talents and need not be
weeded out if we believe in the
mainstream education system rather than
in the shadow system of tuitions if we
become academically honest and if we
make our education system humane I have
absolutely no doubts that it’s lost
glory will be regained thank you very
much
[Applause]
village boy who thought that he can
never be a good speaker and the reason
was because his mother would often tell
him sighting someone that the intensity
and the frequency of crying in the
childhood his prediction for superior
speech and intelligence later and she
also told that he was generally a calm
and quiet child he was born in a
farmer’s family didn’t have electricity
in his village and would see the
newspaper for the first time in his high
school but as he grew certain triggers
would influence him and change his
thought process at the age of 16 and
half he was traveling from his small
village in South Haryana to India yes I
said India because he had not seen India
before except in the books so he’s
travelling to India during the journey
he was ridiculed and humiliated by his
hello friends by mocking at the way he
spoke then he had this typical things of
local dialect so at the end of the
journey when he reached Chennai at that
time Madras the demographic and cultural
diversity of the place and the
humiliation he had undergone during the
journey triggered him and motivated him
to learn spoken English a better
communication he would study alongside
he would earn some degrees masters and
doctoral degrees in finance and
economics and after about 15 years would
teach in a business school at the time
one of the recent pass outs of the same
Business School came to him and said
that have turned into a skill
but I’m sorry the professors do not know
how to teach he was very very hurt but
this statement from the student made him
realize that how teaching of the
concepts of first Industrial Age during
the third Industrial Revolution which
was then made students literally suffer
the professor’s later on he would be
known as someone who design some of the
most interesting and innovative
education delivery systems and without
going to a regular college even for a
day he would become vice-chancellor of
some of the finest universities in the
country thirty-six years after he
travelled to India this boy feels
extremely blessed when he stands before
you on this stage today with all
humility may I submit that we all get
riggers we must get inspired by the fact
that the power of triggers turned
Narendra into some American and Mohandas
into Mahatma Gandhi and Agnes into
Mother Teresa
and in a very little way it inspired me
to think to introspect but most
importantly to act and when I say act I
would try to break some of the myths of
the education system which prevails in
this country today in 2014 with the help
of my family I started a school in rural
Rajasthan and I remember one of the
parents coming and telling my three and
half year old kid hasn’t learned
anything in last two months oh my god he
has been around this world for last
forty two months he is wasting his time
and I remember telling him that let this
child live his childhood at least in
pre-primary school another parent was
screaming of the principal and said how
can your teachers expect everyone to
think differently
how will I compare my son’s answer with
that of another because everyone has
given different answers for this parent
what was more important was to be
correct and not innovative and different
when I say different I am reminded of
something which I’ll ask you tell me how
many of you have two or more siblings
okay how many feel friends would have
that number well rest of you must have
seen that we are seven of us I remember
her or dad would come and ask which
class you are in and this had happened
with most of us of my age you know
Buse have large families I have four
children including my daughter-in-law
can you imagine if they are labeled or
color coded or bar coded that you need
to use barcode reader and say oh no no
no you are not my sibling oh let me let
me check with this guy are you my
sibling it didn’t happen that way
certainly not because the nature has
made each one different look different
think different and be different and if
that we saw and it is so that why our
education system is linear is rigid and
it is conforming to the standard formats
during the today’s talks have heard some
of the issues let me try to answer some
of them if not all of them the education
system today needs to be reformed and to
indicate the sense of urgency let me
read this beautiful lines of
rabindranath tagore after the warnings
and knocks at the door by the messenger
there was a voice in the dead of the
night some said this was sound of the
wheels we said in a drowsy murmur no it
must be the rumbling of clouds the night
was still dark there was sound of drums
the voice came
wake up delay not we pressed our hands
against the heart shuddered with fear
some said lo that the Kings flag we
stood on our feet and cried there is no
time for delay yes the sense of urgency
that we need to reform our education
system and reform it faster there is
indeed no time for delay today I’ll
broadly talk about three scenarios of
Education and first of them is
technological advancements I really
remember when a schoolboy my teacher
would stand before me with two books in
his hand wrapped into old cover and we
thought it all came from him he’s a
genius without realizing that one book
had the questions and the second book
had the answers written by somebody else
well it was fine at that time but
today’s children could accept it today’s
student says email me the list of books
for self reading you generate new
knowledge and give me new perspectives
who take me beyond the books and this is
what we see every day happening we live
in an age where Facebook and smartphones
have entered the class you know on
smartphone students can listen to the
books they don’t have to read it in 10
to 15 minutes you can listen to the book
summary and understand everything I am
NOT saying this should be promoted and
the reading habits should be lost the 3d
printer technology 3d printing
technology which was mentioned by one of
the previous speakers you have machines
which can produce ready-to-wear
government’s in a matter of few minutes
stand in front of it using imaging
technologies what comes out in few
minutes is a relatively our government
without in it cities without knee joints
now what will happen to the teaching of
fashion designers and tailors
what will happen to these professions
gone are the days when the tailor used
to influence our decision on when should
we are very dividing did you know my
father-in-law has been rented a suit
length that needs to be stitched and
have to be at the time of bidding they
will say in India most often come for
the trial and after the trial will
execute the order
remember machines execute without trial
the second issue we need to analyze and
talk about is interdisciplinary learning
environment the boundaries between and
among the subjects are now getting
increasingly blurred we live in an age
which is called the age of designer
babies yes with advanced technologies
like genetic editing and the DNA
technology we can design a baby before
it is conceived can you imagine if some
of us were designed by our parents
looking at the catalogs kept in the
doctor’s clinic and they say well look
at this baby oh no no no no show me
something else okay look at this one yes
seems fine butts to expensive okay then
look at this one yet that seam is fine
let’s finalize this and this is how they
finalize our design we came to this
world and set in this auditorium this
afternoon pollution Paris talks yes we
are in that age the innovations in times
to come will come out of
interdisciplinary studies and research
remember the research converts money
into knowledge but it’s the innovations
that convert knowledge back into money
and unless we do that the research will
not make much sense to us I suggest that
what I’ve experimented in my career
there are excellent pedagogical tools
which could be used and that no rocket
science you could engage students of
different disciplines different schools
if required and that is possible in
university setting
to work on projects like design a green
building design social systems for
ageing society what we will be 40 to 50
years hence you know we are called at
the young nation as per average age but
after 50 years we will be a nation of
aged people and the needs will be
different
can we ask our students to think of that
world and design the systems for that
aging Society think of engaging them in
projects on the genetic editing on
artificial intelligence as or the
cognitive or intelligence as you call it
by one of the company this name has been
given good in all them on social media
or simply improving the website where
students from different disciplines work
together and contribute to innovative
ideas I think that’s what the the need
of the are is rather than making our
students stick to a single disciplines
and not allow them to look here and
there at this stage I would like to
mention about with all due apologies and
unholy Nexus which has evolved in our
country and this Nexus has held a school
system hostage let me cite some figures
in 2015 alone there is 7% of primary
school kids and 92% of high school kids
took private tuitions and contributed to
a forty billion dollar industry and
these coaching centers were often run by
half educated or half qualified people
yes I mean what I say if our mainstream
education system is such that it doesn’t
need those so-called skills why should
we need this shadow system of watching a
similar kind of for Nexus has evolved in
eleventh and twelfth classes I’ve been
going around looking for admissions from
a daughter and believe me I don’t find
classes being held in large number of
schools and they’re conveniently running
as non attending regular schools
what a concept it amuses me in higher
education this nexus has raised is head
in the form of skill based courses
leading to employability my personal
belief and experience says that you
cannot beat skills by teaching them
through separate subjects these subjects
have to be overarching courses running
through the curriculum they have to be
like common thread which connects the
mainstream courses or the specialization
courses we have to come together all
stakeholders including parents above all
to break this nexus the third scenario
going to discuss is how do we link
learning to emotions being different
every child thinks differently and in a
different state of mind at a given point
of time
the teachers behavior motivation respect
and empathy are now unavoidable
ingredients of teaching learning process
you just can’t avoid it I remember in
one of my workshop for teachers a young
teacher coming up to me and saying that
my students get affected by the way I
get dressed and shared the story of a
little girl walked up to her in class
and says you’re wearing very expensive
shoes today what am i afraid they’re not
going well with your lovely dress and
thus gave her double pain double pain
off what reminding that it was an
expensive shoes and the second that it’s
not being liked these kind of emotions
play still like Kubrick one of the
thinkers on education says the problem
of education is that we teach children
anything with fear as the only basic
motivation and fear of what fear of
getting a failed grade fear of not
remaining with your classmates and so on
and he says interest and produce
learning on a scale compared to fear if
you compare a nuclear explosion to a
firecracker it is in poor empirically
that a positive approach
to discipline cases and empathetic
approach to discipline cases have
resulted in reduced suspensions and this
emotional connect is what is going to
bring the learnings that has required in
the change environment according to
institute of human education there are
four key elements of quality and these
are providing accurate information for
us to know the challenges of our times
foster creativity curiosity and critical
thinking instill reverence respect and
responsibility and finally provide
positive choices and tools to solve the
problems our education system has had a
glorious past when Nalanda and tequila
attracted the entire world I find no
reason why it should be questioned for
quality today if I give you the examples
of education when I discuss about
education I talk about about one and
half in schools 300 million children 760
universities more than 42,000 colleges
32 million students enroll in education
that represents about 22 to 23 enrolment
ratio from schools about half a million
going abroad for studies a lot of
unfilled seats and big question marks on
the quality and employability of the
graduates it is that scenario were
talking about education so with these
four ingredients and the fact that we
have had a glorious past as we move into
the future if we shift from linear
thinking to divergent thinking if you
shift from rigidity to flexibility if
you believe that every child has talents
and should not be weeded out based on
all the age evaluation concepts and I
must share one experience here that in
one of the projects students were given
the task of how to make a 3d printer and
fascinating a very well research report
was awarded a plus by the professors and
students who actually made a 3d printer
what about it only B+ naturally those
students who made a 3d printer came to
me and kept this beautiful machine on my
table and started printing a chocolate
for me and said sir what flavor you want
you know listening to that question I
had to improve in and that will lead to
entire change in the evaluation system
of the university because in the new era
we are trying to push learning to the
level of making it so if we believe that
every child has talents and need not be
weeded out if we believe in the
mainstream education system rather than
in the shadow system of tuitions if we
become academically honest and if we
make our education system humane I have
absolutely no doubts that it’s lost
glory will be regained thank you very
much
[Applause]
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