One of the great regrets of my life is that two decades ago, I didn’t sign up for a part-time computer learning course with NIIT. At that time I was employed with the Datamatics Group, Mumbai, for whom I had launched the country’s largest direct mail databases (names and addresses) marketing company under the name and style of Datamatics Direct. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of sounding some techies about the advisability of signing up with NIIT, which had recently introduced its basic computer training programs. All of them advised against it on the grounds that the company’s rudimentary computer learning programs were nothing to write home about.
Looking back, I should have known that they were evaluating the training programs offered by the company from the perspective of making a career in the IT industry, whereas I was in the market to learn elementary IT usage and programs which would raise office and journalism productivity. In the event I took their advice and taught myself programs like Wordstar and Word Perfect. But in retrospect I believe I missed a great opportunity to develop IT usage skills and learn programs such as PowerPoint and Pagemaker, which could have improved my operational productivity manifold.
These sentiments of regret for missed opportunities were reinforced when I visited the Delhi offices of NIIT to write this month’s cover story for EducationWorld. During my investigation of this pioneer IT training company, I became aware of the huge productivity improvement contribution it has made to the Indian economy by providing IT training to 16 million bank clerks, shopgirls, secretaries, shopfloor supervisors, managers etc in the past 27 years since it was promoted by three IIT-Delhi grads with modest ambitions. According to my calculation, the company has trained and upskilled one-third of the entire organised sector workforce of the country. Therefore a significant share of the credit for hauling the Indian economy out of the rut of 3.5 percent per year GDP growth since the 1980s, must be given to NIIT and its visionary promoters.
Since then, the company has metamorphosed into a multi-business conglomerate providing sophisticated ICT (instructional communication technologies)-driven, curriculum-mapped supplementary programs to 9,000 government and private schools, and new technologies enabled, domain specific banking, finance and insurance, and business management programs to working professionals. And this autumn NIIT University, sited on a 100 acre ergonomically designed campus in Neemrana, Rajasthan, will admit its first batch of B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph D students. Clearly this company, which now has operations in 40 countries worldwide, has come a long way. To learn how long a way it’s come and where it’s headed, read this month’s cover story.
But although NIIT and its professionals exemplify what can be done to raise teaching-learning standards in Indian education, our special report feature highlights how much remains to be done to educate and enable the world’s largest child population. As assistant editor Summiya Yasmeen highlights, the overwhelming majority of India’s 450 million children are denied their natural and constitutional rights with routine insouciance, in a society which has minimal awareness of children’s right to food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare.
