Dr. Madhav Chavan Delivers Keynote at India Today School Summit

Leaders in education from all over India came together for the India Today School Summit held in New Delhi. In his keynote speech, Dr. Madhav Chavan, co-founder of Pratham, spoke about the disconnect that has evolved between traditional and digital learning. Computers and television are more exciting to students than the chalkboard these days, and Indian schools need to embrace this non-linear access to knowledge in addition to traditional linear methods.

“The education ministry should set up stage-wise basic learning goals and not grade-wise,” urges Dr. Chavan. “With a broken social fabric, it is difficult to make more and more children attend the schools. Through the PPP model, the amenities of both public and private schools could be open for the students where they have space to explore themselves.”

Similarly, Chancellor of VIT University, Dr. G. Viswanathan, talked about the quality of education in India compared to other countries.

“We have the second largest education system in the world. But we are happy with the quantity and not the quality,” Viswanathan says. “In my regular interactions with the rural schools, the school headmasters tell me that they want basic infrastructure for their schools. This requirement comes at a time when they should move beyond the regular infrastructure of the school and ask for access to new tools for education and technology being used in the schools.”

Read the full article.