Saturday 14 July 2018

“ACADEMIC SPIRITUALITY: KEY TO MICRO-NANO THINKING, FOUNTAIN OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND TEACHING”

“ACADEMIC SPIRITUALITY: KEY TO MICRO-NANO THINKING, FOUNTAIN OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND TEACHING”

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Students in most situations are generally not satisfied with the teaching methodology and evaluation system followed currently and faculty quite often has to face situations where it becomes practically impossible to satisfy the students. The level of dissatisfaction amongst the students from various academic institutes has reached a stage where some students are able to manage courage to openly express “The quality of teaching is so poor that we have lost interest in learning. Please give us degree and we want to say goodbye to the Institute / University”.

This is where an exercise was undertaken for identifying the limitations & bottlenecks of the existing system of higher education with an objective of REKINDLING the interest in the minds of the students for attending classes. The analysis of responses of various students helped in designing a system which by and large is fair and is the choice of my students for the last twenty years.

This system can safely be termed as “Students friendly ZERO complaint system”. The system has following characteristics:


  1. This system is student friendly and doesn’t sacrifice even an iota of academic discipline.
  2. Ensures brainstorming for growth, wisdom & self-confidence of the students.
  3. Attendance concept becomes redundant since it encroaches on the mental freedom of an individual. Please understand that students attending classes without the compulsion of attendance is the endorsement of the quality of a Teaching & Faculty both. No further feedback will be necessary.
  4. Marking of proxy therefore will have no place in the system. This will save time. Please understand that students having right to elect Government can very well decide to attend or not to attend classes. 
  5. The invigilation system during examination should be done away with. Let us treat every human as honest until proved otherwise. However students may be asked to sign the oath of integrity before taking the examination.
  6. Concept of "Open Book Test" may be encouraged. This will reinforce the above statement at 5.
  7. Students must have full confidence in the quality & fairness of the evaluation process. A ‘zero complaint’ system has been developed where most such issues have been addressed. I am using this technique successfully for the last 19 years in my subjects. 
  8. Students are able to discover their capability. They will be able to “Stop looking towards West”.
  9. Students are motivated to plan start-ups rather than running after the placement. Introduce the concept of “Be the Employer rather than an Employee”
  10. Students take pride in pursuing “Honest, need based innovative research and product designs”. Concept should be “Be the leader rather than a follower”.
  11. Strengthen the system of “Discovering faculty for the subject rather than discovering a SUBJECT for the Faculty”. The current practice has devastated our education system and hence the country.
  12. Research topics and the research supervisors are not imposed on the research students. The current practice has completely throttled the freedom of research but it is practiced only to build the CV of the faculty. This is done at the expense of the Research Scholars and the Nation. There is hardly any freedom given to the PG students to choose the Project Topic of their choice. They are rather threatened to accept. Therefore most projects don’t reach a stage of logical conclusion.
  13. There is IMMEDIATE need for a ‘Watchdog Agency’ to identify institutions which have and are still misusing the “Academic Autonomy” and be able to fix the accountability without any hesitation. Most programmes have lost their utility due to the gross misuse of Academic Autonomy. Students are wasted and the Nation not able to progress.
  14. NAAC and NBA are not able to bless universities / institutions not having basic infrastructure as prescribed by UGC / AICTE. Such blessed universities / institutions only end up wasting the human resource (Students). 

I have revolutionised the education system in the last 19 years and have implemented it successfully in my courses at IITD. I have also implemented a “Seamless multi-entry and multi-exit most flexible academic structure for technical education at SLIET, where I had the opportunity to implement.

I deliver interactive motivational talk of around 2~3 hours duration, jointly for students and faculty from all the departments. The sole intention is to recharge them to deliver positively. I love interacting with large audience. The topic of my talk is:

“ACADEMIC SPIRITUALITY: KEY TO MICRO-NANO THINKING, FOUNTAIN OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND TEACHING”

The talk integrates six modules:

1. Glorious past of India
2. Current challenges
3. Causes including Lord Macaulay’s system of education
4. Brainstorming through classroom teaching
5. Innovative research leading to independence from Mental Slavery
6. Impact of Brainstorming: Discover own talent & capability and mental freedom

Brainstormed students will make responsible citizens and contribute in building “FORMIDABLE INDIA”

“Dynamic and healthy education system can make India a “World Power with relentless belief in peaceful coexistence where no one shall dare to have evil designs against us, not even in dreams”