Narayana Murthy said that education should focus on observation, analysis, and hypothesis-testing skills needed to solve real-world challenges (PTI file photo)
It is the responsibility of parents to create a disciplined environment for children’s studies, they can’t sit and watch movies and ask children to study, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said while attending an event in Bengaluru on Tuesday
Children do not need to go to coaching classes, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy said while attending the launch of the 13th edition of Paul Hewitt’s book Conceptual Physics in Bengaluru on Tuesday. He further added that only those children who do not pay full attention to what the teacher says in class need coaching. Murthy also added that taking help from coaching to pass the exam is the wrong way.
Murthy directly answered the question of whether coaching institutes are important for getting a place in prestigious institutes like IIT and NIT. He said, “Most of the people who go to coaching classes do not listen carefully to their teachers in school. And parents, who are often unable to help their children academically, see coaching centres as the only solution.”
He stressed that education should focus on observation, analysis, and hypothesis-testing skills needed to solve real-world challenges. Murthy said, “The goal of education is to learn how to learn.” He emphasized that understanding and critical thinking should be the basis of a child’s education instead of rote learning.
Narayana Murthy said that he and his wife Sudha Murthy used to teach their children for three hours every day. They did this to create a study environment at home during Akshata and Rohan Murthy’s school days. He said that the time for teaching the children at home was from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. There was no TV during this time. After this, the whole family used to study again from 9 pm to 11 pm.
It is the responsibility of parents to create a disciplined environment for children’s studies, he said adding that parents can’t sit and watch movies and ask children to study.
While we are working on strengthening STEM education in India, it is important that our students have world-class resources, he said. ‘Conceptual Physics’ written by Paul G Hewitt is a great example of this, which emphasizes conceptual understanding and real-world applications to make physics more relevant,” he added.
