Mathematics and IT industry

 

शीक्षामा लगानी नगरि सूचना प्रविधि दशक घोषणा गरेर मात्र केही हुने वाला छैन।

Challenges of IT industry
1. Shortage of highly skilled IT professionals. Many graduates lack the practical skills required by the industry, leading to a skills gap.
2. For Local IT companies serving the Local Clients; it is difficult to retain skilled professionals with high expectation. Talents migrate abroad for better career opportunities and higher salaries.
3. The IT sector in Nepal suffers from low investment in innovation and research. Startups and tech companies often struggle to access sufficient capital to develop new innovative products/ solutions and scale their businesses.
4. The IT curriculum in many educational institutions in Nepal is not updated to meet the needs of modern industry practices. This results in a mismatch between what students are taught and what employers need.
5. Due to inadequate global exposure and poor marketing strategies, many Nepalese IT companies struggle to compete internationally, missing out on opportunities for expansion and revenue generation.
6. Many industries in Nepal, such as agriculture and manufacturing have been slow to adopt IT solutions, limiting the potential for tech-driven productivity improvements. Most of the innovations talks adopting AI and Machine Learning are useless for the end users who don’t even have ideas about Internet or basics of existence of computers in the rural mass. 

With the help of AI  all perspectives can be considered in shaping an inclusive and equitable educational framework integrating technology. The Nepal's AI act is a major step in regulating AI. It is urgent that the law has to be passed and laws are inevitable. Nepal needs to sort out priority areas of AI implementation in public sector. AI adoption in SMEs and business houses should be encouraged. The stakeholders roles need to be defined with  the support of relevant stakeholders, including the government, in integrating AI into education, emphasizing the need for inclusivity and accessibility, as well as the importance of robust policies and regulations. These insights will help develop strategic action plans in partnership with the Ministry of Education to foster an inclusive, AI-enhanced educational framework in Nepal. Strategies have to be worked out for integrating AI in education, promoting inclusivity, and developing policies to regulate AI use which will transform Nepal’s education system, preparing students for a rapidly evolving digital world.

TU being a regulator has to rethink about Human Capital Development including remodeling current curriculum to match with implementation of AI in education sector. Government of Nepal is committed to implementing AI in various sectors including education sector. 

In the era of AI it is high time Tribhuvan University started rethinking the education model focusing on high revenue sectors like IT. TU has to open vacancy in IT and Computer Engineering field for professors, readers and lecturers in order to catch up with the international demand. These careers upgrade program should be dealt with fast track speed in order to align with the international standards of faculty requirements and maintain the education quality.

School of Mathematical Sciences under TU lack budget and other supporting resources. The concerned authorities have been struggling to get land for physical infrastructure and till this date the concerned authority prompting “IT decade” hasn’t bothered to allocate land. Courses like Computational Mathematics should also be promoted to strengthen IT industry.

There should be nationwide intervention in rethinking Science, Technology, Education, Arts and Technology (STEAM) at school level with special focus on mathematics. Students should be graduating with multi domain knowledge. These programs should be well funded and be driven by professionals.

There is a need for a special ACT under the banner of “Institutions of special importance” backed by a special budget for generating talents in all sectors through Human capital building program specially in high revenue generating sectors like IT industries. Institute of National Importance (INI) is a status that may be conferred on a premier public higher education institution by an act of Parliament of Nepal for such institution which "serves as a pivotal player in developing highly skilled personnel within the specified region of the country/state". Institutes of National Importance should receive special recognition, higher autonomy, and funding from the Government of Nepal.

Mathematics is the backbone of IT industry which’s the high revenue generation sector for Nepal.

Following are the Stakeholders who need to be ingegrated with stakeholders who are initiating policies on AI and implementation of AI in various sectors. 
1) Nepal mathematical society
2) Nepal mathematics center
3) Council for mathematics education
4) Women of Nepal in Mathematical Sciences.
(WoNiMS)
5) Mathematical Sciences Trust Nepal (MSTN) -an organization working towards promoting mathematics education in school and higher levels. 6) NAST is also contributing in such promotional activities of Mathematics 
7) Mathematics Association of Nepal
All these stakeholders should be supported by substantial budget in order to ensure that they are driving the agenda of promoting Mathematics at grass-root levels among the guardians of school children. In the era of Artificial Intelligence this sector has to be strengthened aggressively.

University Grant Commission UGC is also not giving top priority to technical education, may be due to lack of IT industry knowledge by the decision makers.

UGC should be pumping adequate funding resources for faculty development and infrastructure development to strengthen their academic requirements to catch up with international competition .

 Education ministry, UGC's role as a regulator should be upgrading the teachers for generation of competent students meeting the international standards.

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