India must invest $20 billion in 20 years to train school teachers: Narayana Murthy

Investment in education: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy while talking at the Infosys Prize ceremony said that India must invest at least $1 billion annually for the next 20 years to train primary and secondary school teachers for better outcomes.

New Education Policy

While talking about the New Education Policy (NEP) that was introduced by the Modi government, he said that steps should be taken to accelerate its outcome. He further suggested that the country has to invite 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from the developed world and from India in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas to create 2,500 “Train the Teacher” colleges.

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As per Murthy each set of 4 trainers can train 100 primary and 100 secondary school teachers a year.

"One possible way of accelerating NEP’s outcome is to invite 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from the developed world and from India in STEM areas to create 2,500 “Train the Teacher” colleges in our 28 states and 8 union territories. The training programme should be year-long", Murthy said.

The Infosys founder also mentioned that these trained teachers can become trainers over a period of 5 years.

"We will be able to train 250,000 primary school teachers and 250,000 secondary school teachers every year by this method. These trained Indian teachers can themselves become trainers over a period of 5 years", Murthy said

As India will have to spend only $20,000 in 20 years, it will not be a big financial burden for the country with its aim to achieve $5 trillion GDP soon.

Invention & Innovation Lifecycle of a Nation

Narayana Murthy further emphasised on showing respect and paying the teacher community better salaries. He also added that India must aspire for Stage 4 in innovation and invention. Stage 4 pushes countries to be inventors of of new processes, products, and services, mirroring the success of countries such as the US, most EU nations, Japan, and Australia.

Murthy also explained the different stages of innovation and invention.

Stage 1: A nation generally does not innovate or invent in stage one.

Stage 2: Nation begins producing products and services using the inventions and innovations of other countries

Stage 3: Nation leverages higher education and research to innovate and improve upon those from other nations, aiming for better productivity, quality, cost, and comfort

Stage 4: A nation becomes an inventor of new processes, products, and services.

"We are still in stage 01 in some important areas like design of livable cities, pollution management, traffic management, and providing clean and safe water. India must aspire to move to stage 04 in every area that affects the lives of our poorest citizens in the remotest part of the country," Murthy said while speaking at the Infosys Prize 2023 awards in Bengaluru