Mysuru: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy said a pay-for-performance system should be implemented in every school for appraising teachers and deciding their salary and promotions.
Delivering his address at the 96th annual convocation of the University of Mysore (UoM) at the Crowford Hall on Monday, Murthy proposed radical ways to improve the quality of education. He said each school should have a regulatory body represented by teachers, administrators, academicians and parents who aspire for global standards. There should be a system under which students can vote on the competence of teachers, based on the parameters set by the regulatory body. The observations of the panel and the students should be used while taking decisions on salaries and promotions, Murthy pointed out.
Murthy, who began his speech in Kannada garnering a thunderous applause, said the syllabi and examination system should be validated by a committee of experts from India and abroad once in five years. "Youngsters have to take active part in improving the standards of education if India has to redeem the pledge of its founding fathers," he said.
Speaking on his vision for primary and secondary school education, Murthy said education is extracting generic inferences from specific instances and using them in new, unstructured situations. "The purpose of education is to create a civilized society where everyone has equal opportunities, food, shelter, healthcare and education," he said.
Murthy said he wants India (which ranked 130th in the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2015) to be among the top 10. "I want every child to receive the best help from teachers to rise to his or her best potential without being hindered by financial constraints. High-quality education should not be restricted to the elite but should be available to the poorest of the poor. I want our children to focus on problem-solving to improve the context rather than rote learning", he said.
Honorary doctorate for MurthyGovernor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, who inugurated the ceremony, conferred honorary doctorates on Murthy and Niti Aayog member Vijay Kumar Saraswat. An alumnus of the university, Murthy said his dream of receiving the honour from his alma mater has been fulfilled.
Egalitarianism has no room in pursuit of excellenceMany people think that education is expensive and call for democratization of excellence in education. This is obviously a much-needed thing but it doesn't exist since excellence is rising above the normal. Calls for democratization are given by those who abhor excellence, those who have not achieved or been touched by excellence. Nowhere in the world does egalitarianism have any place in the pursuit of excellence. While every citizen has a role to play, his or her contribution and recognition of the contribution will be purely based on what capacity one has for hard work, innovation, honesty, ambition, discipline and commitment. | Narayana Murthy, Infosys founder