nagpur a century and half back lord macaulay developed a an education system in india to help the british government administer the empire sadly the same system still continues with minor changes focusing on theoretical methodology rather than practical approach every year universities churn out millions of degree holders who are not ready for taking up a job now as india dreams of becoming a super power it needs revolutionary changes in education system a citybased teacher has developed a unique model based on gurushishya tradition to change the approach without overhauling the existing system sachin mandavgane associate professor at visvesvaraya national institute of technology vnit presented his model titled pedagogy shift from what to think to how to think at federation of indian chambers of commerce and industrys fihigher education summit in delhi on november 1214 where it bagged the first prize over 750 delegates including 80 from abroad participated in the event inaugurated by union hrd minister smriti irani sachin was guided by former vnit director sadanand gokhale and assisted by his daughter avanti who is assistant professor at emory university in the united states the new model stresses on making education unstructured the thick walls of examination pattern assessment schemes framed course curriculum and all such rigid structures should be demolished instead let student be taught fundamentals and made to explore the course on their own he said sachin has proposed and implemented innovative practices in technical education which according to him were a blend of projectbased participatory and evolutionary learning in current structure assessment is based on known challenges it neither presents any mental challenge nor promotes creativity also there is no implementation of what is learnt under my model assessment is based on the response to unknown challenges than correctness in solving known ones he explained sachins system is in fact a hybrid of classroom teaching massive online open courses moocs effective use of information and computer technology ict and social media facebook and whatsapp sachin also the head of vnits chemical engineering department said current systems approach was fill the bucket it smothers innovation kills independent thinking limits risk taking our model stresses fire the forest approach where we focus on indepth analysis arguments reasoning and countering and subjective creative and userspecific learning all these result in expansion of knowledge he added according to him teamwork and communication skills were essential for industrial and professional life but both were missing from education system he suggested national exit test based on fundamentals of respective courses just like entrance exams for equivalency overall his system inculcated confidence in students about the application of fundamentals to real life situations how the shift from what to think to how to think works handholding system it contains three layers that give students basic support throughout the course while promoting independent thinking and application of fundamentals cabin meeting students will get guidance from the faculty course student mentor senior toppers from the course voluntarily