Did the teacher who is in-charge of a classroom full of students choose teaching because that was his/ her first preference or the last option?
Ketki Angre sat down with Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Vice Chairman, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini to understand what can be done to improve teaching and teacher quality and how he views education in an increasingly disruptive world of AI (artificial intelligence).
It’s not uncommon to find that teaching often becomes a profession chosen “because there was no other option,” leaving the nation’s next generation shaped by people who may not have entered the field with passion or preparation. India takes great pride in its world-class engineering and management institutions, yet the country has never created similarly aspirational centres for teacher education. Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe calls this “a very sorry state of affairs,” and argues that the National Education Policy’s renewed focus on teacher training is a much-needed correction. The introduction of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), he notes, is vital because “passing a B.Ed cannot qualify you for life.” Continuous evaluation must become the norm.
But for India to transform education meaningfully, he believes it must go further. Dr. Sahasrabuddhe proposes the creation of an Indian Education Service (IES) on the lines of the IAS, staffed by professionals trained specifically to build and administer educational institutions. “Management is one thing,” he says, “institution-building is different.” A Vice Chancellor cannot be expected to be an academic and an administrator simultaneously, and India must invest in a full-length course that teaches how to create and sustain great institutions. Even non-teaching staff, he argues, need structured human-resource development instead of being dismissed as “non-learning” contributors.
On the question of artificial intelligence reshaping learning, Dr. Sahasrabuddhe draws a striking parallel with Rabindranath Tagore’s open-book examinations at Shantiniketan. Whether with books or AI, the real test lies in comprehension. “If you haven’t read the book, no number of books will help,” he says. Similarly, AI is useful only when a student knows how to ask the right prompts. Protocols are essential, but genuine learning still demands “homework, groundwork, insight-gathering” and one’s own analytical thinking.
Ultimately, Dr. Sahasrabuddhe insists that India’s education system must remain rooted in Indian values even as it modernises. Technology may dominate classrooms, but education remains a human relationship. The timeless teacher-student bond, the guru-shishya parampara, continues to hold relevance. He points to the popularity of London’s Swaminarayan school among British families as proof that “sanskar happens more effectively in an environment with Indian values.” In a globalised world, he argues, India must not lose sight of what makes its educational culture unique.
(This is the first in a series of articles where we speak to thought leaders to understand their views on education and ideas that will help shape India’s future)