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NT Staff Reporter Panaji April 30: The professor at the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Prof D B Phatak said the Internet has now replaced the library which was a place where maximum knowledge could be accessed by the students during the last century. Prof Phatak, who was delivering the inaugural lecture on the topic 'Education - Indian action agenda', during the day-long workshop on 'Quality IT Education - Challenges Ahead', held in the city, today, observed that a good quality Internet bandwidth is necessary for any educational institution. The event was organised by the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI). Speaking further, he lamented that the conventional education system is not working and a complementary arrangement would be of great help, as changing the conventional education set-up will require long time. Prof Phatak also bemoaned that nothing is being done to increase the number of students undergoing post-graduation as well as undertaking research, pointing out that even the students being trained in one discipline of engineering are not exposed to the other engineering departments, in the same institution. The speaker stressed on the need to recognise that the quality faculty is getting scarce in the educational institutions and pulling the best faculty together, building distribution infrastructure as well as developing an eco-system are the requirements of the day. "In a globalised world, the individual competence of a teacher should be allowed to find its own level," he added. Prof Phatak also observed that the growth of the IT industry is exponential; the industry professionals having a limited exposure and expertise to technology, methodology and software skills. "The education is all about thinking and applying mind, and the 21st century definitely belongs to the people who are innovative," he remarked. The lecture observed that there is no encouragement for the students to express thoughts, attempt to solve difficult problems, imbibe social discipline, undertake creative thinking and innovate. The head of the Continuous Learning Programmes, TCS, Mr Vidyut Navelkar spoke on 'Gap Analysis', while Dr V V Kamat from Goa University talked about 'Current problems'. Earlier, Mr Anil Seth welcomed the gathering. The event also included a question and answer session as well as a panel discussion on the issues raised. Those present for the workshop included end users of the education products, select industry representatives and scientific organisation members. 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 The Internet is GOOD for YOU ! =========================rene barreto ===================================