'Education system must be interaction oriented'

Knowledge is a tool, product and promoter, says Vice-Chancellor

Inaugurating the students-scientists interaction programme organised by Karnataka State Science and Technology Vision Group, Government of Karnataka and Karnataka Vijnana Parishat Bangalore on Wednesday at Silver Jubilee auditorium of National Institute of Technology-Karnataka, Prof Ahmed said that lots of development in terms of new ideas have taken place in various fields, more so in science and technology and changes in this particular field has shifted our nation from agriculture based economy to technology and knowledge driven economy.
In a knowledge driven economy, he said knowledge is the product, the tool and the promoter.

Prof Ahmed said that over the last 60 years of independence, only 10 per cent of the total population could get access to higher education.
The 11th five year plan has an ambitious programme of taking this minimal percentage to 50 per cent, which means that about 50 million students need to be added to the existing number who have access to higher education. Consequently, he opined this increasing access to higher education should not happen at the cost of quality of education.

“There is a need to transform human resources into human capital and human capital into intellectual capital. For this transformation to happen the conventional teaching should shift from passive faculty (mere classroom, teacher-student teaching) to active teaching (interactive and practical oriented education) as it is believed that passive faculty can not produce intellectual and human capital,” he said and opined that students study faithfully, regurgitating it on answer sheets sincerely and forget all that after examination obediently. This practice should change and education system must be made more vibrant and interaction oriented.
NITK Surathkal Director Prof Sandeep Sancheti presided over the programme. He said that a nation is considered as a developing nation or a developed nation depending on its scientific might.

 “Scientific development of the country reflects its status and hence young students should take up pure science as their stream of studies to strengthen the scientific might of India,” he said.
NITK Dean (Academics) Prof Sriniketha, Zilla Panchayat CEO P Shivashankar, Pilikula Regional Science Centre Director Prof K V Rao were present at the programme.