Narayana Murthy proposes setting up 'train the teacher' colleges for STEM educators

Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy has proposed training STEM educators by starting 2,500 'train the teacher' colleges across various states and union territories of India, according to a report by 'The Hindu'.

Delivering a lecture on the theme 'Laying a strong foundation for India's prosperity' during the Infosys Prize announcement in Bengaluru, he stated that schools should teach students independent, critical, and analytical thinking. To accelerate this process, 10,000 experienced retired STEM teachers should be invited from India and developed countries. He explained that the habit of Socratic questioning and connecting principles to the real world is the key to education. He also expressed joy that the National Education Policy has initiated this process.

He presented a model for the implementation of this proposal. A team of four teachers can train 100 primary and 100 secondary school teachers every year, which will produce 5,00,000 teachers annually. In the next five years, these trained teachers will themselves become trainers. For this, an annual cost of $1 billion or $20 billion in 20 years will be incurred at an annual rate of $1,00,000 per teacher. For a country aiming for a $5 trillion economy, this expenditure is affordable. Referencing Harvard's Derek Bok, he said that if you think education is expensive, check the cost of ignorance.

Murthy further added that merely providing training is not enough; we must respect our teachers and researchers, provide them with better salaries, equip them with proper tools, and honour them, as they are role models for the youth.

Speaking in detail about the four stages of a country's economic progress, he stated that in the first stage, a country neither discovers anything nor innovates, nor improves people's lives by using others' ideas. In the second stage, the country uses others' research and innovations without any modification. In the third stage, those ideas are improved through higher education and research. He gave the example that South Korea progressed in this way in storage devices and televisions, while India used this stage in software services through the 'global delivery model'. In the fourth stage, the country itself innovates, as has been done by America, Western Europe, China, and Japan, from the printing press to solar cells.

Regarding India's current status, he said that in fields such as nuclear energy, space, vaccines, the green revolution, and genomic medicines, India is mostly in the second stage, while in the field of the global delivery model, India is in the third stage. He said India should aim to reach the fourth stage in every field that touches the lives of the poorest citizens in villages. For this, better research and education are needed that can generate good ideas and maintain speed and quality in their implementation. For this, along with high aspiration, an open mind, a curious mind, global-standard productivity, discipline, and hard work, the humility to learn from other great cultures is also necessary.

Finally, he expressed concern that according to livability indices, India is still in the first stage. In terms of making cities livable, pollution-free, traffic-free, and providing clean and safe water, India is still in the early stages of progress.

Narayana Murthy was the co-founder of Infosys.