The Nobel Prize shows that humanity can change the world for the better, Nobel Media CEO Laura Sprechmann said as she praised Nobel peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi for motivating children to realise their dreams.
Sprechmann, who is in India for the 'Nobel Prize Series 2019', the third such series in the country, said that investing in education is investing in the future.
An exhibition, as part of the world premiere of the third edition of 'Nobel Prize Series India 2019' highlighting how Nobel laureates made the world a better place, was inaugurated in Mohali on Wednesday.
Serge Haroche, the winner of Nobel Prize for Physics in 2012; Kailash Satyarthi, recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize; Sprechmann; Rahul Mehta, founder of the philanthripic organisation Mehta Family Foundation which is focused on education, children, and healthcare, interacted with students as part of the programme.
"Education enables us to become active citizens and reach new insights in our quest. The Nobel Prize shows that humanity can change the world for the better and it starts with education," she said.
"Education enables us to become active citizens and reach new insights in our quest to understanding ourselves and our universe. By making education accessible to everyone, we can make sure that human potential does not get wasted," she added.
The Nobel Prize Series inspires people to seek knowledge, ask questions and contribute to improving the world, Sprechmann said.
By sharing achievements and stories of Nobel Laureates with a global audience, 'Nobel Prize Series 2019' encourages engagement in science, literature and peace in line with Alfred Nobel's vision, she said.
About her visit to India, she said it was overwhelming to see the interests of the students, teachers, faculty and university.
"Satyarthhi is very charismatic, he engages with the audience so well during interactive sessions. The young people responded enthusiastically. It was fantastic," Sprechmann said.
She said that when it comes to learning, it is important to ignite the interests of the people.
"Through the Nobel Prize Series, I hope we can give more students the opportunity to interact with laureates and other speakers," she said.
The role of media is also huge in reaching out to the people and spread the importance of learning and education, she said.
The purpose of Nobel Prize Series is to shed light on learning and emphasize how learning is such an important investment and how learning affects people'e lives so much.
"Improving a system takes a long time. In today's time, it is very important to foster critical thinking and creativity because our societies change very fast and so it is important for students to learn because what we know for sure that there will be lots of change so we will have to be prepared to learn throughout our life," Sprechmann said.
It is important to think critically and to question what you have been told, she said.
"It is important for students to have the freedom to fail. Learn from your mistakes you have to know that in the environment it is okay to fail because as you learn a lot you cannot always make the right things, she said.
During their interaction with Indian students, both Kailash and Serge told them that anybody can be a future Nobel laureate, she said, adding that to think like that gives one a lot of motivation.
She said that the Mehta Family foundation is supporting the work of Nobel Prize Series.
"The collaboration with the Mehta Family foundation is based on our interest in education and learning, and the values we share. We are very committed to learning and to also inspiring student and teachers, she added.
Mehta told PTI that the foundation is going to launch new degree programmes in India that do not exist like data science and Artificial Intelligence machine learning programmes.
"We are going to make a lot of investments in the field of education in India in the next five years. Those investments will be in research and higher education. We will create new programmes for the younger generations that they don't have opportunity to pursue in the country," he said.
Earlier, many people left India in the absence of opportunities. However, India is a very different country now and the goal of the foundation is to give back to the country.
"Data science is one of the programmes we will be funding. We will also introduce AI machine learning programmes in India," Mehta said.
There is a need to create educational programmes that solve India's problems in the country itself. There is no doubt that India has got one of the best education systems but there is a lot more do be done, he said.
"We have enormous talent coming out of higher institutions. If we don't give them right opportunity, their talent may go be wasted. In the next five years, we will create 5-10 educational institutions with the fundamental goal to inspire and educate, he added.
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