“We must show much respect and pay better salaries to our teachers and researchers. We must also provide better facilities to our researchers. We must honour them. They are role models for our youngsters,” he said at a press conference where the Infosys Science Foundation announced the Infosys Prize 2023 in six categories on Wednesday.

The programme to train teachers will cost around $ 20 billion for twenty years. Comparing the cost on teachers with India’s USD five trillion GDP, Narayana Murthy said that cost of 20 years training program will not be a big financial burden for the country.

If you think this is expensive, you may recall the words of Derek Bok, a former President of Harvard University, who said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance,” he noted.

‘Train the Teacher’ colleges

India’s software icon Murthy, on Wednesday, advocated for the creation of 2,500 ‘Train the teacher’ colleges. He suggested of inviting 10,000 retired, highly accomplished teachers from developed world and India in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to join these colleges to increase the impact of ‘National Education Policy’.

Training of teachers under this programme will ensure preparing 250,000 primary school teachers and 250,000 secondary school teachers every year for the upcoming challenges of school education. Teachers who will be trained under this programme can become trainers over a period of five years.

“Experts tell me that each set of four trainers can train 100 primary school teachers and 100 secondary school teachers a year. We will be able to train 250,000 primary school teachers and 250,000 secondary school teachers every year by this method,” the founder of Infosys said.

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Updated: 15 Nov 2023, 05:16 PM IST