Philanthropist Tycoon shares ideal POST-COVID action plan for Indian education
Mumbai, 06th July 2021: “The worst thing we can do is to ignore the last one and half years and just keep promoting children to the next grade, without helping them to learn what they should have learned and also anything grey is black when it comes to ethics.”, said WIPRO Founder Chairman Azim Premji at the BCAS virtual conference on Tuesday, July 6.
The 75-year-old business tycoon, who has remained the Founder Chairman for WIPRO, apart from running the Azim Premji Foundation, had delivered the Founding Day speech at the 73rd Founding Day for the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society (BCAS). Through his address and subsequent Q&A session, Premji stressed the importance of high-quality public education (to college level) and public health to rebuild the loss of income since COVID-19.
“Ethics, in the context of a professional, is keeping in mind the spirit of law and not just letter. Any conflict on that front should be governed by what is the right thing to do considering the spirit of law. And on those matters, anything grey is black. We would expect the CAs and auditors to stand up for values while being sensitive to the legitimate needs of the business.” Premji also talked about business ethics in the corporate world.
Premji’s donations to the endowment of Azim Premji Foundation (valued as on June 2021 at Rs. 2,62,000 crores or $35 billion) make it one of the largest foundations in the world committed to social good. In addition, the body has committed more than 2,125 crores for COVID relief measures across the pandemic.
Premji discussed a three-fold strategy – neighbourhood classes, vaccination for teachers, and acknowledging the sheer loss of learning for his education action plan. He said, “First, we need to go into the neighbourhoods and set up classes in open spaces. These classes, which carry no risk of infection, are the most effective way to continue education when schools are closed. Second, we must get all our teachers vaccinated and then open the schools. Third, let us recognise that we cannot ignore the loss of schooling for more than one and a half years. We need to give time for the recovery of this loss of learning. We need to provide support to the teachers and re-engineer our programs as the children go forward.”
Naushad Panjwani, Past President, BCAS and the moderator for the session, applauded the focused approach showcased by Premji. “We might have the resources and intentions but are fumbling over a clear direction here”, he said.
Premji also spoke about what guided his foundation’s approach through their COVID-19 relief measures. “We had to do everything that we possibly could. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit us last year, we drew up a comprehensive set of plans in humanitarian and healthcare aspects. In addition, we organised grassroots teams comprising 1600 full-time employees, 55,000 employees from our partners, 10,000 teachers, and 2500 alumni of our university. We also committed 1125 crore for COVID relief. (However), as our work and situation evolved, we realised that universal vaccination was just as important and committed an additional 1000 crores for it”, he added.
He also spoke about the need to partner with the government to rebuild health, education, livelihoods and society in a post-COVID world. “It is important for us to partner with the government and public systems. In our experience, officials of the public system have the right intentions, in-depth, incredible reach and unmatched resources. However, they are often handicapped by the absence of domain capability or the challenges of the bureaucratic machinery. Partnering with the government and complimenting each other’s capability, we have the best chance of maximising impact and institutionalising change.”
CA Suhas Paranjpe, President of the Bombay Chartered Association Society, thanked Premji for his insightful remarks. He said, “You will be a role model for generations and generations. As a WIPRO-ite, you are the technology face for humanity, and as a philanthropist, you are the human face of technology. We are grateful that you have shared this well-drafted education action plan through our platform.”
Azim Premji also released electronic versions of the society’s two journals – the BCA Journal, published for the 53rd straight year and the BCA referencer. While the first remained a special anniversary issue to coincide with the foundation day, the second was a set of six booklets containing domain-specific information for every CA’s day-to-day activities.
