- 26 minutes ago
Speaking at India Today Conclave 2026, South, in Kochi, education experts discussed how AI, campus unrest and job uncertainty are reshaping education. They called for flexible curricula, stronger industry partnerships and better teacher support to prepare students for future careers.
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00:00We are starting this session on a note. It's kind of political because the campuses in the country, they're on
00:11fire.
00:11From IITs to institutes in Punjab to other places, we are seeing there have been protests on multiple issues.
00:22And our team today also talks about the connect of campuses with the job market in future.
00:30So I'll start with Ms. Biswanathan, because you had an institute where there are multiple campuses.
00:39So why this unrest? Are there some political reasons or the inherent causes because that uncertainty that students now face,
00:49that once they are out of the campuses, the future or the jobs are not probably that welcoming,
00:57or the degrees or the learning that they have in campuses may not be that effective.
01:02Of course, with AI coming in, the problems have multiplied.
01:06So how do you see this unrest?
01:09Good afternoon, everyone. I thank India today for giving me this platform to express my thoughts.
01:15That's quite a big question. I'll take a little time.
01:19So I think in the past year or so, we've seen a lot of campus protests, dissatisfaction among students.
01:26There are a lot of inherent reasons and also political.
01:29Before I go touch those political points, I think it is also our responsibility to introspect where we have gone
01:36wrong or what we have to do better.
01:39Like we always talk about a skill set mismatch, I think there is also an expectation mismatch.
01:45The institutions, I'm not just saying as the universities and colleges, but also the bigger institutions that are the regulating
01:51authorities, accreditation authorities.
01:53All of us will have to take cognizance of the current generation's aspirations and expectations.
01:59We are no longer tied with this basic formula of these many students, you have to have this many laptops
02:04or computers, these many toilets, these many books.
02:08We should also see, do we have enough mental health personnel for per capita student population?
02:14Do we have enough clubs and chapters to represent the diversity and inclusivity of campus?
02:20Do we have enough virtual labs so even if the student is away from the campus, they'll be able to
02:24connect to them?
02:24So there are a lot of parameters that we should also introspect among ourselves.
02:29And AI has caused a very big disruption.
02:32It has basically challenged the very notion of a teacher and of an education institution because at the touch of
02:38a button or even just by asking your mobile phone, you're getting all the data.
02:41So definitely the authority of a teacher or the institution is where the primary source of knowledge is being challenged.
02:49And when the challenge is pushed beyond boundaries, students do face that, oh, do we really have to respect this
02:56authority?
02:57Probably it is not an authoritative body anymore.
02:59So that kind of a mindset also comes in the students.
03:02And this AI has also caused this confusion about, will I have jobs?
03:07Will I be completely replaced?
03:08So that has put a lot of uncertainty among them.
03:11And we need to address, there is a prevalent mental health crisis among adolescents, mostly attributed to heavy social media
03:19usage and screen time.
03:20And the lack of physical fitness and where they're not very physically involved.
03:25Or our learning systems are such that you only memorize and there is only rote memory.
03:30Only one part of your brain is being used.
03:32You don't do anything by hand.
03:33You don't get to travel like earlier children used to cycle, but now it is, you know, it is not
03:38very pedestrian or cycle friendly.
03:40So they're always caged inside a bus, inside a car, inside a classroom, inside a hostel room.
03:45So there is a lot of burnout.
03:47If you see when earlier generations, when they arrived at a BIT or an IIT, they think they have arrived.
03:52Then they realize there is more work to be done and they get on with it.
03:55Probably a semester they will think, oh, my God, there is not much fun.
03:59But I think students are really burned out by the time they arrive in college.
04:02They are excessive workload, extracurricular, they're training for coaching exams.
04:09And there is a severe burnout.
04:11That's why you see these protests are even happening at premier institutions.
04:15Because the students are, by the time they reach, they're like, what have I done with my life?
04:20Some people even regret it.
04:22Some people drop out, which is something you don't hear of in those days.
04:26So it's a combination of factors.
04:29And I think as institutions, we have to, VIT being in the forefront as a leading private institution,
04:34we should take the initiative to show others how we can handle this set of challenges.
04:40And also this, we need to work with the students.
04:43And the students should also, at the end of the day, acknowledge that we are really there to help them.
04:47There is somehow, there is a lack in that trust.
04:49I would credit it to a lot of disinformation being spread.
04:53It's not misinformation.
04:53I would call it, it is being wantedly spread.
04:56A lot of trolls, online communication, WhatsApp messages that are rampantly being spread.
05:03So all this disinformation places a lot of mistrust in the institution.
05:07But I think at the end of the day, we have to agree that we trust each other.
05:11And we work towards solving these problems together.
05:13It can never be done by just one part.
05:15The students cannot solve it or not, we can do it on ourselves.
05:19There has to be a point where both the parties trust each other that we will better the institutions to
05:25face the challenges of the future.
05:27So I think I've taken quite a lot of time.
05:30Yeah, but you have explained it very nicely.
05:32But you talked about burnout.
05:35That's a major issue.
05:36We were going to discuss about the skill set.
05:38But before that, there is another issue whether mentally ready for that or not.
05:42Now, Ms. Agrae, you work with students.
05:47You are into education.
05:49So where do we make the change?
05:51Means in the current form of classrooms.
05:54You also talk about that colleges or institutes are not only place where you can learn skills.
05:59Rather radical idea.
06:03But in the current form, if we have to change, make one fundamental change in the classroom or the way
06:09we teach our students, what would that be?
06:12Because the pipeline is broken much earlier.
06:14We thought in the colleges, but it's broken in the schools.
06:17I would say, good afternoon to everybody present here.
06:21Thank you to India today.
06:22But I would say what's missing in our education system, which was better before and is getting worse day by
06:28day, is actually clarity of communication.
06:30Clarity of communication in classrooms is missing.
06:33Clarity of communication of what problem are we solving is missing.
06:36Today, it's not just solving a problem.
06:39Identifying the problem has also become a big task.
06:43And I don't think we've prepared our students or graduates to understand it enough.
06:49Schools and colleges are still running on the agenda that you give a problem to someone and they are solving
06:54it.
06:54Life doesn't work like that.
06:56And I think that's the big mismatch that's happening in our system.
06:59Life works in identifying the problem first and then solving.
07:03Where is the startup ecosystem going?
07:05Where are graduates expected?
07:06Even at an industry level today, gone are those days where you would give instructions to your employees and say,
07:13this is what has to be done.
07:14You expect the employee to come and say, this is what we have to do.
07:18And that's what expectations, like ma'am really said, expectation mismatch is happening in the system.
07:23So I think clarity of communication, having many more communication channels is what will make a big difference in the
07:30education system, which is somewhat missing.
07:33Right?
07:34Even ma'am was saying about mental health.
07:35Why is mental health such a big problem in our institutes?
07:38Because there is no channel of communication.
07:42So communicating things, clarity of communication, where how you should not just become AI experts, but become AI literates.
07:51AI literacy is very different from AI expertise.
07:54Everyone is assuming that you need to become an AI expert to actually grow in life.
07:59No, you just have to be literate with AI where you have deep sense of knowledge about something, but you
08:04use AI to amplify it to the next level.
08:07That no one is giving us clarity of thought.
08:09Even communication, when the teacher is there to inspire or motivate their students much more in institutions is missing.
08:18Before colleges and schools were places where knowledge was probably given to the students, but they are not places like
08:25that.
08:25They are places of experience now.
08:27The role of a teacher has moved much ahead of time from just being a transmitter of knowledge to a
08:34facilitator of an experience of knowledge.
08:36Are we preparing our teachers enough for something like this is a question and a change that we need to
08:41ask.
08:42The teacher community is not as trained right now in the system in order to cater to the expectation of
08:49the student community that's coming in.
08:51Again, I would say that's a communication gap because teachers still expect it to communicate in a certain way.
08:56Students are not expecting the same thing of communication from our teachers today.
09:01So I think if you ask me what should change, I think modes, clarity of communication, process of communication, allowing
09:09the student to also communicate physically is very important.
09:12Even if you do a project and if you say life skill is very important, it's not a project where
09:17you just put up a presentation.
09:19How are you able to explain that presentation?
09:21How are you explained to pitch that idea back to the community is very important, right?
09:26Today we're talking about AI.
09:27I keep saying this, I'm in the best era of education because it's not about answering all the questions, but
09:32it's asking the right questions.
09:34How will you ask those right questions?
09:36By having the clarity of thought to communicate to the technology in front of you to ask what is the
09:41outcome that you want.
09:43So you spoke to me about skill.
09:46I think the most important skill that you need is to communicate.
09:49If you are a storyteller, you're an achiever in today's world.
09:53And what is storytelling?
09:54Storytelling is right form of communication.
09:58Where do you start then?
09:59Who will make that fundamental change?
10:02We have a new education policy.
10:04Yes, it doesn't directly talk about storytelling or communication, but there are multiple ways where it indicates that communication is
10:14important.
10:16Learning by hand is important.
10:20I think there's a lot that the national education policy frameworks actually provides to you.
10:27But the scale of our country is so huge that we are only looking at it as a framework and
10:31not looking at it as an implementation plan.
10:33For example, national education policy talks about interdisciplinary learning.
10:38It's one of the big highlights.
10:39Where are we creating interdisciplinary learning in our society today?
10:44AI is not a technological problem.
10:46Medicine or medical health problem is not a medical problem.
10:49It's also an interdisciplinary problem.
10:51How many universities have the freedom to include industries to be partners with our system and recreate the curriculum every
10:59time?
11:00Right?
11:00Agility and flexibility given to institutions.
11:03Ma'am spoke about trust.
11:04Are we trusting our institutions enough to actually create and recreate content every time to actually produce better talent outside
11:13of the market?
11:13It's not there.
11:14Most of us as institution owners are running behind accreditation, running behind seat allotment, running behind fire certificates and building
11:23certificates to sustain in the market rather than actually trying and collaborate with the best universities,
11:29the best, you know, industries to come back and recreate the content for us where we can actually produce better
11:35talent for them.
11:36So I think little more flexibility in curriculum, little more flexibility in change, changing the way structures work.
11:44For example, we are still stuck on to two years, three years degree.
11:47I'm not questioning the amount of years we are spending on it.
11:50But what are we doing?
11:52Why is it a rule that you only have to get in an industry in a sixth semester and engineering
11:57college?
11:58Why can't you introduce the child to an industry in the first semester so that he already starts looking at
12:04what problem he has to solve as an industry and prepare for it for the next four years?
12:09And I think industries also need to invest a lot more of time in colleges because at the end of
12:15the day, if they don't invest time, they won't get good talent.
12:23So from your experience, what have you noticed, do students go for that and prepare themselves better for the job
12:34market with more industry exposure?
12:37Or they still like to have that safe route of having a degree quickly and then get into the job
12:44market?
12:45What is VIT's experience?
12:47So VIT in 2008, we first introduced a fully flexible credit system in our Velo campus.
12:53At that time, it was just a single campus institution.
12:55Now, across all our four institutions in Chennai, Bhopal, and Amravati, we have implemented it.
13:00And only in the NEP that the concept of choice-based credit system itself is being discussed.
13:07So we have pioneered it about now nearly two decades ago.
13:11So this gives the students the option to even finish their coursework in three years or even pace themselves out
13:17to do it in a five-year period.
13:19So they can prioritize and customize according to their life needs and their learning abilities and so forth.
13:26I see a lot of students utilize it in a way that they complete everything in the third year.
13:30And by final year, they're free to go and try a year-long internship.
13:34Because a lot of companies, if you say you're available for eight or nine months internship,
13:38they're much more willing to take because you're giving them the extra time commitment.
13:42So they think training you is not really down the drain.
13:46And I'd like to share it on stage.
13:49So last January, so a girl came and left.
13:52I was not in office.
13:53I was traveling.
13:54So she had left a Ferraro chocolate box for me, saying that she had completed her coursework in three years.
14:00And she's an American citizen.
14:02So she got an internship in New Jersey.
14:04And I was mentoring her.
14:06So she thanked me and left a Ferraro chocolate box in my...
14:08So it really made my day.
14:09To see that a policy, and this is something everywhere we travel, I have a lot of students come up
14:14and tell,
14:15I was able to finish it in three years.
14:17Or somebody had a medical issue, so they said they took a break and they came and did it in
14:21the fifth year.
14:21But they had absolutely nothing to lose.
14:24They still...
14:25Because it's fully flexible, so you can still go take your classes with your friends.
14:28Though they will be a year up, if they have not done the course, you can still go be with
14:32your friends.
14:32So I think this personalization of education and how you take the credits will be a key in the future.
14:40I think all institutions will have to go that way.
14:43Now all these...
14:44A lot of discussions are now coming about academia in the mainstream.
14:48It is a very thoroughly academic process, but it is now being discussed in the mainstream.
14:52And I think this will gain traction as it goes forward.
14:55And I am very glad that BIT pioneered it about two decades back.
14:58And so we have the experience taking it forward.
15:02Now, Ms. Agri, you mentioned about that industry role.
15:06That industry demands that we need job-ready students.
15:11And the educational institutes are not giving that...
15:16Or teaching the skill sets required for new jobs.
15:20But industry is also not actively participating in helping the institutes groom students.
15:27Or letting the institutes...
15:29Sorry, educational institutes know what exactly...
15:34As you mentioned that many a time the problem...
15:37It's not what the solution is.
15:40It's the finding the right problem.
15:41So they are not helping institutes to understand the skill sets required for future.
15:47How do you think the industry can participate more actively...
15:52In a more pragmatic way...
15:54To work in collaboration with educational institutes.
15:58Right from school level, I believe.
16:00I think the job of the industry is to definitely give real world challenges...
16:05And changes that they are going through to institutions to actually think.
16:08Because education institutions cannot just merely be examinations and memory game.
16:14Right?
16:14It has to be a problem-solving game.
16:16So if you are going to again reinvent the wheel and say...
16:19Okay, the problem where the industry is already solved...
16:22You again re-solve it in four years and go join.
16:24That it's not going to work.
16:25Where are we going to find the real world problems?
16:27From these industries who are trying to solve it.
16:29So coming and making the students a part of your problem-solving journey...
16:33I think is very important.
16:34How are you going to do it?
16:36Probably a 360 degree way of doing it...
16:39Where students obviously go for internships through these institutions.
16:42And I think the government of India is also allowing us...
16:45By saying one million internships have to be recognized by 2027...
16:49In the coming few years.
16:50So you have to get into this internship role.
16:53Also allowing faculty of institutions also to go back to industry...
16:57And work with them for a bit.
16:58Because I understand it's going to be hard for industries to keep sending their people...
17:03To come and teach in schools or something like that for long terms.
17:07You can do guest lectures like that.
17:08But long term association might be difficult.
17:11But allowing actually institution faculties to be a part of the industry...
17:16And understand the problem and come back with all that awareness...
17:20That they have to be imparting to the students I think is the future.
17:24Also I want to make a point saying that I think institutions have become a lot about knowledge and skills.
17:30But with the world of technology and AI today...
17:33I think values also play a very important role.
17:35You don't want a manager who doesn't have empathy and able to run a team.
17:39You don't want an employee who won't be loyal to your company...
17:43And make sure the security of your company is intact.
17:46So I think institutions need to bring in that value system also into the individuals...
17:51That they are going to make future ready.
17:53And they are not creating people only for employability.
17:57Employability is definitely a big part of the outcome of an institution...
18:00But it is not the only outcome.
18:02The outcome is also to be able to live a better world...
18:07And navigate through the world in a more courageous way.
18:10Because today it is not about where you leave that institution and join the first job.
18:14No one has to...
18:15An institution cannot prepare an individual for its first job.
18:19It probably has to prepare the individual for its fifth job.
18:21How are you going to take that criticism?
18:24How are you going to take that change?
18:26How are you going to keep learning?
18:28I think the main outcome of an institution-industry partnership...
18:32Is to make sure the student becomes a lifelong learner.
18:35They need to start teaching students how to learn.
18:38And how to learn without being taught.
18:41You are always focusing on someone coming to teach you.
18:45Doing a course to teach you.
18:46But if you are a CEO of a company today...
18:48There are so many business people sitting in the room today.
18:51If you want to keep doing well in your company...
18:54You have to keep learning the new trends.
18:56And becoming a lifelong learner...
18:58I think is a very important outcome of the industry or an institution.
19:02So how do we bring that...
19:04Is what industry and institution should combinedly think and come up to an organization...
19:09And help them probably design a structure or design a way of learning for the students.
19:15Which I think is the future of our country.
19:18The NEP actually talks about this collaboration that Ms. Agri is mentioning.
19:24From the experience of not just running VIT...
19:28But looking around university and college ecosystem...
19:31Do you see that increasingly happening or it's stagnant?
19:35Not moving much.
19:37There are things like professor of practice...
19:41And other forms of collaborations also.
19:43But is it still happening or...
19:45Stuck somewhere?
19:47My honest opinion would be it is stuck somewhere.
19:51There was a momentum that was taken post-2000s.
19:56And in 2010 it really picked up momentum.
19:58And there was a lot of investment from the companies.
20:01Because when we see they have come and invested in a VIT or IIT...
20:05It doesn't matter.
20:06The top tier they definitely would want.
20:07But I have seen a lot of the companies go out and engage...
20:11Tier 2 colleges, Tier 3 colleges.
20:13Do skill training based on the requirements...
20:15Of those students.
20:16So it was happening.
20:17But to the level of having co-opting professors...
20:21What Ms. Aishwara said was a very valid point.
20:23You know, our teachers have to go into the industry and come.
20:26When we keep talking about lifelong learning...
20:28The last person you would expect to be a lifelong learner is your teacher.
20:32Because they are very much satisfied with the presentation that they created for your parents.
20:37And because, of course, the fundamentals are not going to change.
20:40But you will have to, you know, remix it to today's generation.
20:44So, to that level, I would not say it has gone.
20:47And, of course, Indian policy, how we Indians think, and this co-opting, would it work?
20:54There are a lot of questions about it.
20:55But at least we should have a training program of sorts.
20:59At least spend a few weeks, if not months or years together.
21:02At least spend a few weeks in industries.
21:06The big companies can probably come up.
21:08You know, people who recruit a lot of fresh talent, at least.
21:11Such companies should come up with initiatives where they are able to train or mentor the faculty.
21:18Actually, my heart goes out to the teachers.
21:20Because I think they are the most burdened people in our country today.
21:24Because anything goes wrong, you blame the teacher.
21:27But unfortunately, AI came in when the teacher was a teacher and the student was a student.
21:31So both got equal access to it.
21:33You are not giving the time to the teacher to actually equip themselves with the right kind of systems to
21:38actually impart that knowledge.
21:40But the students are blaming, saying what the teachers are doing.
21:43You are not paying the teachers, right?
21:45You are not giving them the dignity and the self-confidence, right?
21:48They don't have the time or the energy to re-look and learn something new outside their campuses in order
21:54to make that.
21:55Because teaching is also a secondary job in our country.
21:58If you are good at something, you don't find anything else, you become a teacher.
22:01It's unfortunate, but it's true.
22:04How do we change that?
22:05How can we increase the dignity of a teacher?
22:08How can we empathize with them?
22:09How can the government or the institution put in more resources to train them better?
22:14Because you need faculty.
22:16The whole debate is about nothing can replace a teacher in the classroom.
22:20Because she gives that empathy.
22:22She gives that clarity.
22:23She gives that experience, right?
22:24But are we doing enough for them?
22:27So, if you are saying rethinking the classroom, I think we should rethink the role of the teacher.
22:32We should rethink on how we look at a teacher and how are we helping the teacher to actually become
22:37a better person.
22:38Because they are the ones who are creating the individuals at the end of the day.
22:42Okay, we are left with two minutes.
22:45So, CJP has been doing a nationwide campaign, School Thikkaru.
22:50And their School Thikkaru is they are looking at the infrastructure from toilets to benches to computer labs.
22:58But if I am asking this question, both of you, if you have to make one fundamental change to school
23:05Thikkaru,
23:06that to fix a school, what would that first fundamental change would be?
23:10Ms. Agree?
23:13I would say give the best teacher.
23:15Because you can have a school without the best, you know, benches.
23:19You can sit down and study.
23:20You can have a school without probably 10 computers and have only one computer.
23:25But if you don't have that human touch and an individual who is going to motivate that rural child there
23:30and say you can be that better child for our country, so do it, you can't do anything.
23:35I have been working in this space for a long time, working with, you know, rural school children.
23:40What they need is not courage.
23:42What they need is motivation and that self-belief that they can also do more.
23:46And who is going to do that?
23:47Not the infrastructure, not anything else.
23:49And bench, I think the system is choosing wrong benchmarks to say what to do in school Thikkaru.
23:56It cannot be benches, it cannot be just buildings.
24:00It has to be human touch.
24:02It has to be the number of teachers and the outcome of every student coming out of that school.
24:07So, the way they are looking at it itself is different is what I feel.
24:12Heshwish Vanathan?
24:13I fully concur with her.
24:15It should first be the priority to fill teaching positions that are vacant.
24:18And I know a lot of the government school near my own home, it still doesn't have teachers in for
24:25their senior secondary where students are going in for competitive exams and their board exams.
24:30So, that would be the most important priority.
24:32And if we can upskill the existing ones to meet the demands of this AI age, that would be my
24:39second priority.
24:41That's why I'm saying this, you know, you have a lot of these sponsors.
24:43I know every CSR going in and putting a big board and saying, I donated so many classrooms, I cleaned
24:49up this washroom.
24:50What is it helping?
24:51I call it charity and not capacity building.
24:54So, if you really want to do that, put all your research to better and say, I will pay three
24:58good teachers who would probably teach in a private institution to go teach in my rural institution for the next
25:0410 years.
25:04I'll produce a thousand good students, I think that is more capacity building and that's what we need in our
25:10Indian school system and not infrastructure.
25:14Thank you so much.
25:15So, the capacity building must start with the teachers.
25:18Thanks for your time.
25:19Our time is up.
25:20It was quite an engaging session.
25:22I had many more questions, but somewhere we have to wrap up.
25:25Thank you so much.
25:26Thank you, everyone.