Anantapur: Unfetter creativity in varsity education

Anantapur: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has proposed 10 skills that candidates vying for jobs should possess to be able to compete in the market of 2020 - and creativity tops this list.

Referring to this requirement, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur principal Prof. K. Prahlada Rao said a recent survey of 5,891 respondents reported 73 per cent of them saying that creativity was currently being restricted by the education system in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

Prof Prahlada Rao was speaking to the university’s post graduate students of engineering on the occasion of World Creative Week, which was observed for the first time in the state in the third week of April.

Creativity had to be seen broadly as the ability to bring something new into being — be it an idea, a solution, an activity, an object, a perspective or a representation of something. It was present in everyone, not just ‘geniuses’, Prof Prahlada Rao said.

He added, “And we don't have to be born with any inherent qualities or raised in special circumstances to be creative.” The current system of education is neglecting creativity and students are failing to reach the rich standards that varsity education can and does uphold in other parts, he said.

The WEF wanted universities to encourage students to improve this and other skills, but the majority of them, including the IITs, were not taking serious steps to do so, he added.

Naming some of the world’s top 10 innovators, he mentioned Leonardo Da Vinci, who stood at the top, followed by William Shakespeare, the pyramid builders, Chimmaya Suri’s Panchatantra stories that showed people how to think creatively.

Prof Prahlada Rao said he wanted to encourage his M.Tech students in ‘creating engineering design’.