DAY 1 – Session Report
Inaugural session
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Prof. Dr. R.M Chitnis
Dean, Faculty of Management, MIT WPU – presenting the welcome address
“As the emergence of 4.0, knowledge and population explosion, prior need to frame necessary changes is needed for higher education. Deliberating on these issues, Leapfrogging is the solution. As teachers, we need to create a route map for future students”
Prof.Dr. Jay Gore
Reilly University Chair Professor of Engineering Purdue University & Global Convener, National Teacher’s Congress
“Speaking for the next 2 mins is my challenge, but for the teachers the challenge would be the next few years. Future is defined by the time scale. In the given time-scale, the teachers need to train the students to be able to discuss on a problem. Global employees when hiring, would they consider our students future ready? What jobs would these future ready students get? What percentage of students will not be future ready? How many would want to be become future teachers?”
“When the whistle blows, we must start the race we may leapfrog or jump. We must jump high and run fast and win the race.”
Shri. Nandkumar Nikam
Former President, Maharashtra State Principal’s Federation
“Unlike any other event, NTC provides a platform for discussion with teachers and amongst teachers coming from different parts of the world and from a myriad of branches”. “The Teacher-to-teacher (T2T) discussions provide a forum for the confinement of solutions and issues for the referral of the UGC and AICTE after which it is on them to take the opportunity and make it a success.”
Prof. Dr. I. K Bhat
The Vice Chancellor of MIT World Peace University
“Each teacher aspires for his/her student to be the best professional, a good human and have a positive attitude that will help them in improving quality of life to the world. The teachers of today must look for the next best practices instead of using the current best practices to facilitate creative problem solving, critical thinking, digital literacy, information and media literacy among the future nation builders.”
“The values that the students must learn today must be global ones and not local ones.”
Shri. Rahul V Karad
Founder Convener National Teachers’ Congress, Executive President MIT WPU, Vice President MAEER’s MIT Group of Institutions, Founder MIT School of Government, Bhartiya ChhatraSansad, National Women’s Parliament (NWP), Sarpanch Sansad
“The need of the hour is a platform for an interdisciplinary discussion among teachers so that they can train their students to creatively solve the problems of societal issues. The industry and the technology along with students are faster than the teacher. Technology has exposed the students so much to be able to learn from the best of the world that the constant questions is; What next?”
“Idea of one person becomes the world’s idea.” - vision of the conference.
Dr. Anand Sudarshan
Founder and Director, Sylvant Advisors Private Limited
“We are at a time in history where there lies an opportunity to make a dramatic difference to the youth of today who are going to be the global citizens of the future. Future ready really means it’s one reality. Becoming future ready should be the one desire and therefore, inculcating in ourselves the mindset to be future ready, it is the one destination we should aspire for.”
“We live in a world of disruption and it is the duty of the teachers to ensure the students are future ready.”
“Is it possible for us to stop being teachers of content and become teachers of context? Is it possible for us to stop teaching formulae, and start teaching values? Is it possible for us to move away from teaching students how to do things to start asking students to start thinking about why we are doing this?”. “Asking ourselves these three questions constantly will help to dramatically transform the higher education landscape as it exists today to one, that is aligned to the changes that will happen tomorrow.”
Dr.Sachchidanand Joshi
Noted Author & Member Secretary, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA – Autonomous Institution under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India)
“Teacher is the first role model of a child but in their house, they don’t encourage a child to become a teacher. While addressing another gathering of teachers i was once asked that, why is it that everything is expected from the teachers and not everybody else? All of them do many mistakes in their life but nobody questions. Why you want us to be an idol of the society? I was clueless, but then I said if you were in some other profession, nobody would come and touch your feet. It is only teachers’ feet that are touched by society, by students, everywhere. Only teachers command such respect in the society. I feel no society can flourish, progress, prosper until and unless they respect and regard teachers in the society.”
Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar
Padma Bhushan, Father of PARAM Super Computer of India, Educationist and Chancellor, Nalanda University
“The future of a society and the country is created by its teachers. Do we have such teachers and are we able to nurture such teachers? I think that this is the platform where this subject should be discussed. When we talk about tomorrow, we aren't talking about something that will happen after 10 years but we are talking about what's going to happen after 1 year. In this world we are talking about leapfrogging in to the future which is not what we need today.”
“Future belongs to Asia”-Swami Vivekanand
“And we can witness that happening today in China and very soon India will play a crucial part in it and will also shape the world.”
Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar
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Prof. Dr. P. C. Shejwalkar
Professor Emeritus, Commerce & Management Sciences, SavitribaiPhule Pune University, President, Adarsha ShikshanMandali (ASM),Founder, Institute of Management Development and Research (IMDR) &Father of Management Education in Maharashtra
“I am privileged and honoured to receive this award. It will remind me of what I owe to my students and to the society at large. As a society, we face a lot of problems – unrest in public and in family and public life. Teachers today must remember to give service not only to their student but also to the society at large.”
Prof. Dr. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe
Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
“I was initially in two minds about accepting this award. The reason I finally decided to accept it and come here is that NTC involves teachers felicitating teachers which is a good motivation for others. This is an important initiative that had to be taken sooner or later. We focus a lot on communication skills but people have forgotten the importance of listening skills that diminish with higher designations and increasing age. There’s more to learn than to preach. Self-learning, life-long learning and ability to change are the three things that will help us be ready for the future”
Dr. S. J. Chopra
Hon’ble Chancellor, The University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES)
“This is very humbling experience for me as I had not expected to receive this award in the presence of such eminent people. It is with great humility that I accept this award as a good teacher must always strive to be better. The reason why we could make UPES a success was partly because of the freedom we had in terms of a lot of things such as faculty, syllabus, courses etc. along with the vision and mission. A good university must strive to be a great university. It must set a benchmark so that others look upto it.”
Dr. Parag Diwan
Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, Great Lakes International University, Sri City,Andhra Pradesh, President & CEO, Greats Lakes College & Founder and Former Vice Chancellor, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies(UPES), New Delhi
“I am most humbled as I accept this outstanding award granted to me this afternoon. First of all,I would like to salute Mr.VishwanathKarad; from one founder to another founder. As an educationist one should always look ahead and be ready for the future. I believe we have 20-25 years of runway where all this transformation will take place. Our generation has seen the evolution of technology from transistors to smart phones.”
Prof. Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan
Vice Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, India
“Leapfrogging to future ready higher education is a great theme which is chosen by NTC. Congratulation to Mr. RahulKarad, Mr. VishwanathKarad and VijayBhatkar for conceptualising this whole event and bringing up the university in a way where we see the fusion of science and spirituality. Change is the only constant. Students are much smarter than what we are. In the world of virtual reality and artificial intelligence our education system is going through a very interesting phase wherein knowledge and technology are coming together to chart a new path. The country should be driven by the knowledge engine of steam education i.e. science, technology, education, agriculture and management.”
Prof. Dr.Vishwanath D. Karad
President of NTC UNESCO Chair Holder Founder President, MIT World Peace University, Founder Executive President, MAEER’s MIT Group of Institutions
“It is for the first time that all the great saints, philosophers and scientists have come under one roof and it seems as if they are conversing with each other. This platform acts as a message that Indian education system is catching up with the world. He quoted Swami Vivekananda “Remember, union of science and religion alone will help bring peace to mankind. This is a small step for India to gain prominence in the 21st century.”'
SESSION 1: Future Ready Higher Education
Prof. Dr. Jay Gore
Reilly University Chair Professor of Engineering of Perdue University & Global Convener, National Teachers’ Congress
“Although this may be true, students these days are raised in the lap of technology and knowledge. Productivity needs to be given priority for outcome is a function of time and efficiency. We need to focus on subjects that are relevant to India and at the same time make, higher education global.”
Prof. Dr. Anu A. Gokhale
Professor& Coordinator, Computer Systems Technology Program, Illinois State University, Normal, USA
“The teachers, employers and students are not on the same page in most criteria. Most education facilitators felt that the students were living up to the expectations of the job market whereas students and employers greatly disagreed. This led to a huge skill gap except for when it came to digital technology. Students now need to prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet. In conclusion, the doctorate professor said that our education system needs to be more realistic than theoretical.”
Prof. Dr. Gaurav Sant
Associate Professor and Henry Samueli Fellow in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
“Success and leadership lie at the confluence of asking questions. In the real world what turns out more often than not is a situation where you have to ask ‘If I have this information what will I do with it?’. People who ask the right questions are going to become more important in an economy where computers and artificial intelligence impact how we fulfil jobs, as the idea of answering questions is increasingly going to be delegated to computers. If this is not understood and worked on now, this will increase the gap between the requirement and hiring, thus increasing unemployment.”
Prof. Dr. Makarand Hastak
Professor & Head of the Division, Construction Engineering and Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
“The three features of an economy- Digitization, Decentralization and Electrification; make a country competitive on a global scale. However, it is a long way to go to be competitive in the education industry and leapfrogging is one way to achieve that objective”
“The objective is not only to catch up with global competition but to leapfrog to a future ready higher education”.
“The aim of leapfrogging should not be to imitate but to innovate. This offers several opportunities some of which include benchmarking with target countries and identifying and innovating solutions that are feasible to leapfrog”
Dr. Gajanan Sabnis
Emeritus Professor, Howard University & Owner, Sabnis Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, USA
“Teachers need to think for years to come”. “There is a big difference between a good teacher and a good professional. The education industry does not stand alone. Things in the industry are multi-disciplinary”. “Unlike earlier days the flow of information in a classroom today is not one-way. Classrooms today echo with more of discussions and interactive sessions than mere lectures by the teacher.” “Life gives you opportunities and you have to make the most of it – ‘Publish or Perish!’”
Dr.Uthayasankar Sivarajah
Reader, Technology Management and Circular Economy & Head of Logistics, Supply Chain and Technology Research Centre, School of Management, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
“The best way to predict the future is to create it”. “School and primary education is important in a student’s life; it forms the foundation of their basics”. “The designing of the curriculum should be according to what students want, teaching them soft skills which are important for job ready graduates.”
Prof. Dr. Srihari Honward
Provost, MIT World Peace University & Former Vice Chancellor G. D. Goenka University, Gurgaon, Haryana
“ We should now move over to collaborative learning and asking questions more importantly what we do with the information, single minded leadership for example discipline and expertisearesome aspect we need to focus on. Dr.Hastak sir here rightly said that digitization, electrification and decentralization are going to lead us to the future and it’s a fantastic observation. Our objective is not to catch-up with the global leaders but to jump ahead of them.”