NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, said on Nov 15 that India must invest $1 billion per year for the next 20 years to train teachers in order to accelerate the National Education Policy (NEP). Murthy was speaking at the Infosys Prize 2023 ceremony, which was hosted by the Infosys Science Foundation.
He explained that it will not be a financial burden on the country, saying, "Our nation, which is targeting a GDP of $5 trillion soon, will not find it a big financial burden." Murthy said, quoting former Harvard University President Derek Bok, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
Batting for better salaries to researchers and teachers, he also said that “we must also provide better facilities to our researchers. We must honour them”.
Murthy added: “One possible way to accelerate NEP’s outcome is to invite 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from the developed world and from India in STEM areas (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to create 2,500 “Train the Teacher” colleges in our 28 states and 8 union territories.”
He claims that each group of four trainers can train 100 primary and 100 secondary school teachers per year. "Using this method, we will be able to train 250,000 primary school teachers and 250,000 secondary school teachers each year." Over a five-year period, these trained teachers can become trainers themselves. "For each of these retired teachers, we should pay about $100,000 per year," Murthy said.
