The pandemic has been an unprecedented situation leaving us to rethink everything in an unpredictable world. The virus, medicines, technologies, human behaviour, food habits, living styles, as well as consumer behaviour are fast changing. The science and technology are the transformers of their own fundamentals. Indian languages, including tribal languages, imbibe many words from other languages, losing many of their own indigenous glossaries in the process.
The skills of today and tomorrow, the job training, and working hours are dynamic. Subjects such as chemistry, physics, botany, and biology are being taught in institutions of higher learning under the highest pressure of growing demands of industries. The fundamentals of these natural sciences are flexible and proactive too. We educators need to learn futuristic skills, technology, science, medicines, food, lifestyle, psychology and business avenues too. The goal of education must be to enable us to earn our livelihood, make us capable of extending our possibilities of knowledge and power. If we accept that education is for knowledge creation, this knowledge has to harness the futuristic economies too. The futuristic challenges have to be addressed by today’s students. If their syllabus and textbooks are flexible and capable to understand the dynamics of futuristic challenges, then only education and training in turn will enable to make the future of the students. To address this gigantic task of imagination of tomorrow can be achievedby innovative teacher communityonly. To make it happen, the teacher has to be adopt the changes in teaching and research too. When the world is unpredictable, our syllabus and classroom deliberations must focus on the flexibility of science and technology.
The R&D of industries and science institutions should always keep themselves open for change. So, academicians have to connote their silos and learn the expectations of the industries and society. Definitely, academia will become part of the changing dynamics of the world. We academicians have to unlearn many things, which we have learned years ago and learn how to cope up with the expectations of the job world. If we start new learning, this will open a world of hands-on experience, work experience, make the lab to address the challenges of the land, make the land opportunities to be scientifically tested and proved by the labs. Then academic institutions will become makers’ asylum where the young generation can work for their ideas and dreams. We know building a country requires everybody’s participation. The potter, blacksmith, carpenter and trained engineers and social scientists, linguists can work together for the making the futuristic society. When the whole country is suffering from lack of pure drinking water, administrators are tirelessly working for supply of water to the habitats, academia has to work on the rainwater harvesting and work for the development of economically feasible purification and preservation systems. The low-cost water purification and preservation technology must be studied by the scientists and academicians. Study on traditional methods followed by Indian tribal communities are to be tested on a global scale and based on the current scenario, such as, Bamboo Drip Irrigation system followed in Meghalaya, the Zabo system of water conservation practised in Nagaland, Johad system, adapted by locals of Rajasthan could be classical examples of methods used since ancient times for water conservation and harvesting which could make India self-sufficient in drinking water sector. If we are successful in creating a low-cost technology in rainwater harvesting, we are going to save electricity, expenditure on distribution channels and the water of the river which is meant for agricultural irrigation.
It is only possible if academia understands these endless opportunities in process of water harvesting. Solar power is another field where we need to work and introduce the concepts of solar power, its harvesting and usage into textbooks and academic deliberations. Further, this will be a great change in the Indian academic sector. Today’s major challenge for the global automotive industry and energy security is the increasing effect of greenhouse gas, particulate emissions affecting climate, increasing air pollution and rapid depletion of crude oils. The only method that immediately strikes is the form of decarbonising transportation by the use of alternate fuel technologies such as the use of electric vehicles and vehicles that run on hydrogen. Manufacture of electric vehicles which use lithium ion and lithium phosphate batteries are slowly gaining hands on experience and also market value. Similarly, the concept of using hydrogen as an alternate fuel is also an important aspect to be considered and to be brought into the academia in the form of syllabus to the younger generation. Surprisingly, we always encounter a general statement that only these achievements can be possible doing research in science and technology. The fundamental question all of us forget to ask is: “Why only science and technology should work on rainwater harvesting and the generation of solar power or other issues mentioned above? Even social science departments, language departments, departments of performing arts can also work in collaboration with technology and work in support of the mentioned issues in their own way. For example, the department of performing arts can make small advertisements of awareness in the form of short films or ads with can say the importance of harmful effects of use of fossil fuels and benefits of using EV technology. Similarly, the language departments can translate the information about the latest and alternate technologies which are for good practices into different languages and create awareness and spread the knowledge. The departments of social sciences can make field visits and make demos of the new science and technology green projects and the projects of good practices which are beneficial for mankind and create awareness. In short, to conclude, we should work together and create an atmosphere where solutions will be provided continuously.
We should work on quality education through an open syllabus model where students, parents, industries, and society contribute to making the learning process one of creation, building, and making the future.
Prof T.V. Kattimani is Vice-Chancellor, Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh.