Vice President releases ‘The Future of Higher Education’ book by ICT Academy

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday released a book on “Future of Higher Education – Nine Mega Trends” published by ICT Academy which is an initiative of the government of India in collaboration with the state governments and Industries and established to train the higher education teachers and students thereby exercises on developing the next generation teachers and industry-ready students.

The Virtual event, hosted by ICT Academy has also featured notable industry leaders such as CA T N Manoharan Chairman Canara Bank & Padma Shri Awardee, Lakshmi Narayanan Chairman ICT Academy, CA Pattabhi Ram V Author, M Sivakumar CEO of ICT Academy and with the launch hosted by Dr. B Anbuthambi, President ICT Academy. Around 5000 Educators from across India participated in the launch.

The book authored by CA V Pattabhi Ram, public speaker, and teacher, is based on a survey of around 5000 educators across India, who were part of ICT Academy’s “SkyCampus” Digital Knowledge Series. The book will cover the new norms in the key areas of higher education such as Student-Teacher relationship, Learning methods, Laboratories, Examinations, etc; all taking a paradigm shift during this COVID pandemic.

Addressing the book launch, Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu called for bridging the digital divide to achieve universal primary education and ensure equitable secondary and higher education. Releasing the book. “Technology opens up new possibilities but also makes us realize the big digital divide in our society”.

Stressing the need to make technology accessible and affordable, the Vice President pointed out that there were many children who did not have access to digital devices. “We will have to address the issue of this wide gap”, the Vice President added.

Naidu said that a large number of students were impacted due to the lockdown as they find it hard to study online. Many of them need hand holding to shift from offline to online and require proper training to pursue education through online modes. Stating that many parents in India still cannot afford digital devices, he said that bridging the digital divide was too big and complex for the government alone to accomplish the task and urged the private sector, especially educational technology firms to contextualize the products at affordable prices as per the needs of learners. “This is your time to make a momentous contribution to nation building and to securing a bright future for all our children”, he added.