BENGALURU: National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) director Dr SC Sharma said that, when asked to investigate digital divide in India as part of the National Education Policy (NEP), he was shocked to find out that many gram panchayats across the country do not have even basic internet facilities.
Speaking at a national conference on NEP Readiness, organised by the Centre for Educational and Social Studies, he said, “Assignment and transportation theories must be used to solve problems at micro level. When I was asked by the Centre to evaluate the digital divide, I found that there are 421 gram panchayats without internet,” he said.
The NEP, though well-thought out, has many issues which could lead to appointment of wrong persons as heads of institutions, he said. “We currently have a heterogeneous, pluralistic system, but each institution has its own problems. In terms of governance, when the wrong person is appointed as the head of an institution, how can anything good be expected?” he said.
IIT Guwahati director Dr TG Sitharam said, “More and more IIT graduates are choosing to stay back in India, and there is a golden opportunity to involve them. Even retired IIT professors can be used for accreditation. A new accreditation system for successful reengineering of higher education system can be created.”
Meanwhile, Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education chairman Dr WG Prasanna Kumar said that the education system must make students competent and skilled by the end of first year of college, and criticised the education system for being more teacher-centric.