Today, the teachers are not good enough to teach our children: Prof. C. N. R. Rao
Today, the teachers are not good enough to teach our children: Prof. C. N. R. RaoPress Release

Professor CNR Rao, the head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister on Monday said at a press conference that the current crop of teachers in India is "not good enough" to teach the children of the country.

Rao said the future generations would need good teachers and the country might not be able to give these students the teachers they need.

"Most teachers today don't know enough science and they are teaching class 11 and class 12 students," Rao said. "The quality of teachers and their teaching ability has to drastically improve."

According to Rao, the infrastructure for teachers needs to improve and a lot of money needs to be invested for this.

"The previous government had declared 10 years as the 'Decade for teachers and teaching'," Rao said. "I don't know what the present government is going to do."

Rao was speaking on the sidelines of the Bangalore India Nano 2016 curtain raiser.

The Bangalore India Nano 2016—delayed by three months—is scheduled to be held between March 3 and March 5.

The previous seven editions have brought about great innovations, especially in the area of clean water, Rao said.

"With the help of nanotechnology, we have been able to solve the problem of arsenic-contaminated water in many parts of Bengal," Rao said.

V Manjula, principal secretary of Karnataka's Department of Information Technology, Bio-Technology and Science and Technology, said at the press conference the global nanotechnology industry was growing at 17.5 percent CAGR.

"The industry is expected to breach the $75.8-billion mark by 2020," Manjula said. "The vision group on science and technology has been supporting research and development in this field and last year about Rs 2.7 crore was released for various projects in this sector."

A new addition to this year's event will be the Nano Sparks segment.

"The Nano Sparks segment will showcase emerging business ideas by start-ups and young researchers," Manjula said.

The 2016 chapter of the event will reportedly see representation from nine countries and the participation of over 500 delegates.