HTLS 2020: Ex-ISRO chairman on future of education post Covid-19 crisis
Besides Dhawan and Dr Kasturirangan, Thursday’s session saw Michelin Star chefs and restaurateurs Gaggan Anand and Massimo Bottura in participation.
The firth day of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS) 2020 saw Ashish Dhawan, founder and CEO, Central Square Foundation and Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, former chairman, ISRO and NEPC, in conversation with HT’s editor-in-chief, Sukumar Ranganathan.
Dr Kasturirangan talked about the future of education post-pandemic and emphasised the need to address the use of technology with regards to the problems faced by the country. He hailed the use of the online medium to impart education across the country but also called for a strict evaluation of the current system to further improve it.
“We have established a new forum, the National Educational Technology Forum. This forum should debate the futuristic aspects of technology. There are many disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence... their evaluation, their suitability for this country, adoptability should be evaluated,” he said.
Dr Kasturirangan called for identification and evaluation of technologies and their coupling with education in the country.
He also brought to attention, the need for further research and understanding into the social aspects of online education. “ What are the problems arising out of online classes? Man is a social animal, a student needs to interact with teachers, see them... we need more research into these aspects with respect to the online access of education for youngsters,” he added.
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“Are we doing the right thing with respect to the way they would like to interact and learn with their teachers? The early phases of education is also an interactive process, we need to keep that in mind,” he said.
Besides Dhawan and Kasturirangan, Thursday’s session saw Michelin Star chefs and restaurateurs Gaggan Anand and Massimo Bottura.
AIIMS director Randeep Guleria, Brown University School of Public Health dean Dr Ashish K Jha, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla, veteran cricketer Kapil Dev, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, defence minister Rajnath Singh, State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Ajay Bijli, chairman & MD at PVR Ltd., and Uday Shankar, chairman of Star and Disney India in conversation were the esteemed guests who participated in the previous sessions of the virtual summit in the previous weeks.