Learning of technology & Work remotely are two things that should be adopted: Vijay K Thadani

BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder and Executive Chairman, Cyient and Vijay K Thadani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, NIIT, talks about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on the education sector and what is the new normal among others during an interview with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business. Edited Excerpts:

Q: Entire education system, including the teachers and students, is facing a problem amid COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. What is your view on it and elaborate on the steps that are being taken to ensure minimal disruptions in imparting education so that things can continue as seamless as before?

Vijay K Thadani: Corona has caused severe disruptions and everyone knows this. This disruption has come at the very mid of the examination and stressed many people because students were prepared to give the exam but it didn’t happen and were also thinking of doing something after the exams but it never happened. Everyone is aware of these factors and that’s why I would not like to talk much about it. However, I would like to highlight its positive side that it had on digital learning. There was a time when there were people who were worried about the future of digital learning that whether it will work or not as well as Nay Sayers, non-believers who said that will work only in the classroom.               

But in this situation has locked everyone and had made us sit at the home. The amazing thing is that the entire educational system has responded with such a speed, I would like to thank them, as there was no preparation for it, as everything occurred suddenly. Institutions, now, have started digital offline classes. They would have faced certain difficulties in the process but the response time was excellent. This has increased the speed of work on technology, new features are coming out. It seems that the faith of those who had less faith in the future of digital learning has increased. It is a very positive thing.

Different educational institutions and universities have, now, taken good steps. Timely intervention and announcements have been made by the government. They have left flexibility in which universities and educational institutions can decide their future, based on the local situation, which I think is a very-very positive step. Thus, there is a worry but there is a lot of optimism. 

Q: What is the big challenge for the schools and educational institutions where internet facilities are not available, the majority part of the country, and what steps should be taken to bring them on the same track on which the urban set-up is moving?

BVR Mohan Reddy: You asked me a good question. You were talking about the availability of internet but device speed should be added to it because they are the school-going children. Many of them come from a very small family and do not have access to many devices or there is a shortage of device at their homes. Together it potentially becomes a very large problem. The only way we can solve this problem, at this point of time, is to find ways by which we can still teach these kids using digital learning but at lower bandwidth as well as less number of devices. One thing can be done that we can run classes in the community centres, we have common community centres (CCI) in villages of every Mandal, and they have internet access. So, the students can be taken to the community centres, where they can be taught as per the physical ability of the school itself. This is one thing that potentially we can do. Still maintaining the social distancing and following all processes that are required. There are no other choices. Secondly, when we think about digital learning than the biggest thing that comes in the mind is a very big video file, which will be played. Not, necessarily all can be video, some of them can be text documents, some of them also can be in the form of telephone support. So, the child may have a question and he can get it solved through phone or online support. When you require such online support of that nature you don’t require a bandwidth. There is a need to find a local innovation on a low cost and that is what I think that we should definitely look forward to and certainly, we are seeing some of those things happening. It is no denying, it is challenging, it is not like the western world where homes have optical fibre connectivity and everybody has a device of their own. Here it has to be something which we will have to find the solution for our local conditions. 

Q: The government has said that the mobile internet penetration will reach out up to 85% by 2024 and that is a good sign as we are heading on a way where internet connection will be better. But secondary education is a big concern as a lot of students of India would typically go to many nations abroad like the US, China, Australia, the UK among others but they will not be able to do so, now. So, people who are stuck at this juncture and were supposed to go abroad for further education should deal with the situation? What they should be doing as this is a very important part of their career growth? 

BVR Mohan Reddy: Let’s look at the secondary if you call it, but I will call it as higher education as what the challenges the students have. We segregate them into three different groups altogether. (i) A group of students who are graduating this year and you referred to those who are likely to go abroad like the US and the UK or wherever it is and are supposed to join then what will happen. So the lockdown started on March 23, 2020, but many educational institutions made sure by April 1, 2020, that we are in a position to get into the digital form to make sure that the students learn. I am also a Chairman of IIT, Hyderabad, which was in a position to start teaching our final year students online from April 1 and we made it mandatory for all our faculties to finish off their teaching before April 30, 2020. We also gave them the directions to them that between May 1, 2020, and May 15, 2020, all exams should be done and by May 31, 202o, we will make sure that they will get all their grades and provisional certificates. So, we are in the position, not only the IITs but also some other institutions, to do that. You also have to recognize that there is a delay in another side too, in the sense; the US is not starting their academic year right on the date as per the schedule as past. They are also getting delayed because this is not a problem confined to India but it is a universal problem that we have at this point. Therefore, I think that we can adjust ourselves and students must not be worried about graduating classes and that they will lose an academic year that is the assurance that we want to provide them. Associated with that is also a fact that most of the foreign universities, right now, at least for a short term are talking in terms of online education. They are also giving an option to people to start learning from native countries and postpone their travels. As travel is the other issue that we have. So, there are two things that we are trying to do and they are (a) making sure that the students graduate and (b) they can probably register themselves for online education for at least one term and then they can go there in the next term. 

(ii) The second set of students is the existing students who have just passed one year into the second year. They go from the first year to the second year and second year to their year and so on. For those students also we are making sure that they get taught but not necessarily we have a tight schedule as I described for the final year students. We are trying to start the academic year for these students from August 1, 2020. They will lose some time but will make it up because probably they have one more year to go or two more years to go and so on.  

(iii) The third segment is the fresher students who will be coming into the university system and for them, I think yesterday itself the minister also announced that joint entrance exams will be held at the end of July and probably we will have the results in August and so. 

So, many things are being done at this point of time and my assurance to students is that don’t get nervous about what is happening, we will make it happen somehow.

Q: New normal will be created and we will seek education in a new way, which will seek a new educational package in terms of skill sets and programmes. As your company is into this so I would like to know about your future outlook and strategy to bring in new programming and packages for students who will get an education in a new format? What new skill sets will be required for the students as well as the teachers?

Vijay K Thadani: ‘Digital learning is the new norm’ is a term that is being used widely. Now there should be no debate in it because everyone has shown that we have the readiness to learn that way. But, do we have readiness at the infrastructure level. Initially, it was done based on an enthusiasm because a class was visible and everyone thought that they can learn things in that format. But think yourself that is the availability of a class and a teacher is enough to learn. There are labs, exams, discussions, projects, assignments and chit-chat between themselves, students. For this, we need a larger system which is integrated and provide analytics and other things. So, digital learning platforms are required in it. In the process, online classrooms have been started and virtual labs are launched by some of the companies and universities and exams gets automated and one can give it in distance format from their home itself as an artificial intelligence-based blocking is done. All these things are done but it will require speedy work, which should be adopted at the universities, schools and other setups. So, considering that things will improve as more work should be done on it, if we want to adopt the new normal. At the same time, we will have to remember that the percentage of digital learning will go up from here. 

Besides, the digital technologies which were coming earlier like digital transformation, which is a reality now. Digital transformation was for the future of work. Now, a new dimension is created, ‘the future of workplace’. Thus, we have to start working on the future of the workplace instead of the future of work, where what is done in the office and what is available in the office was standardized earlier. Now, it is time to reinvent and reconfigure the same and it will require flexibility in learning, education, education policy and people should upgrade their skills. Many of the students will graduate from the colleges and their joining dates will be decided by the industry. So, they, who don’t know, should use this period to develop some new skills of transformation, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Technology learning will become a very important element, not technology-based learning. Learning of technology will become a very very important element of everybody’s skill set. How to work remotely, I think, will be the second issue and how to collaborate remotely. So, lot many courses around this is available and they will become available. 

Q: Cyient is a hi-tech involved company that is involved in technology and education and you have mentioned about low-cost innovation in technology. So are you into talks with some startup and are trying to collaborate and integrate to come up with a solution? What steps are you taking as a company and what opportunities are visible for the business to grow here in the new norm?

BVR Mohan Reddy: I am in a silent period at this point of time because we have our annual results and that’s why I can’t speak about various strategies. Our exposure to education is very limited. We are high technology, engineering services and manufacturing company. Our engineers, currently, are on ‘work from home’. But he is facing several challenges in doing work from home because it is just not having internet connectivity or having a device but there is a need to change the processes and coordination is required. All have social infrastructural issues also in this country. Therefore it is a challenging process. On one hand, we say work from home enablement in which hardware, software and dongle is provided but it doesn’t mean that we are working from home at this point of time. The second thing is the ability of the engineer to absorb all these equipment and then he has to have the social infrastructure. Our engineers with 0 to 3 years of experience are mainly bachelors who share his room with some other person. When two people are residing together than the question arises how he handles his conference calls, which is disturbing the other person. So, there are many challenges we have and we are working through all these things at this point. That is the reason saying that we can do 100% through the work from home is not possible. I am very clearly and categorically saying this. Over some time, I think, this country will graduate itself for work from home. 

When it comes to education than two things have been allowed and they are internet connectivity and devices. But you have to think about the way in7/ which teaching is done is different when you say digital learning has to happen. Apart from this, you will also have to think about the laboratories and process of examination because after all, they will be doing exams also from home. So, it is not a very easy thing, it is a complicated thing. So, my message to my teachers is to work on these issues that we have to resolve all them so that we can move forward with this digital teaching in the coming years. 

When it comes to the future of education than I believe that the future is in digital technology. And, Mr Thadani was talking about things like artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D printing and virtual reality among others. This is a brilliant opportunity for our students and they can learn all these things. They have enough time. Secondly, we are talking about new/ future technology and can say that it can help you when you will go-ahead for a job. These are the technologies which are readily available for you online at this point of time. So, I can say that please learn these technologies. Secondly, we are seeing a big transformation at this point of time and these technologies are not limited to any one area. When computers were manufactured than it was termed as information technology because the information was provided through them and was involved in making management information systems. It was used for inventory control, P&L and payroll. But the technology has changed and is being used even in agriculture, precision agriculture, how much output the farm will give you, what are the types of pests in the farm, the stress of the soil and the kind of watering that is needed in which part of the farm. So, technology is becoming all-pervasive. So, my request to my good young boys and girls is that please learn technology and look at this as an opportunity and make good use of the same. Become more disciplined as you are going to school and college every day. Make sure that you are ready by 8:30 am and make sure that you are learning in the school or the college. 

Q: The government is working on the new education policy. So, is it the right time to incorporate certain things on the policy front and what are the important things that the sector is looking out from the policy?

A: First of all, I would like to talk about the visuals on the TV in which students are sitting in classrooms is visible is the last time that you are seeing. Further such things will be seen only in films. It is an important fact that we are facing at present and our policymakers should have a look at it and I expect that they are doing so. This means we will have to look at education with a different pair of glasses. The most important thing in it will be flexibility and allowing multiple experiments to happen, which will come up with the best possible model which will be the new standard. You were asking what new normal is then the new normal is digital learning. The new standard is not the classroom and lab that is being displayed on the TV. It is something different and it will be decided through a lot of experiments, which should be conducted at a very fast pace. I think India is the largest education lab in the world because we have the largest number of students, schools, colleges and active private sector participation. So, all this should be used to come up with models which will become standard for the rest of the world. I think this is the need of the hour. 

When it comes to policy than the most important thing that I would like to say is flexibility and faith in the institutions to experiment and come up with a better model. They should give chances to experiment, let them try out new things, some will fail, some will be better than the others but eventually, we have to come with the best one. I think that is my singular message, which I would add. Otherwise, the national education policy has come out well, of course, spend on education should increase. Faculty development is very important.

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Students’ stake to digital learning is fish to water but the conventional faculty members are fish out of water. If we want to handle it than we will have to work with the faculties and condition them, it is not so that they can’t do that because they have been into this since a long time. That’s why there is a need to manage the transition and change management.