Smartphone type of education system needed, says Rahul Gandhi

Students from Bangalore and all over the country share their ideas on education and charting out India's future with Gandhi

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today called for transforming the education system by making it open and connected and centred around the students.

Interacting with students at Bangalore University, here today Gandhi shared his vision on education and nation building with students gathered at the campus and thousands connected virtually from different locations across the country through video conferencing.

Holding an old black telephone in front of the audience Rahul Gandhi illustrated how the telecom revolution led by his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda opened the system and brought the world at our finger tips. “The revolution that opened up the communication sector, took power out of the hands of 500 MPs and put it into the hands of people. This revolution decentralized the phone. We need to do the same for the education sector. We need a smartphone type of education system – open and connected,” he said.

He added that India’s education system was more certification oriented rather than knowledge oriented. “The education system should develop your dream. We need to create an ecosystem that is student centric and an ecosystem where the teachers are supported through extensive training,” he said.

Stressing the importance of education he said it was the single most important system to change because it changes the mind. The other system that needs to be transformed he said was the political system.

“I want to see the faces in this room, especially the women, in the Vidhan Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Only then can our politics change,” Gandhi said.