Google cannot replace the guru in education, says Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu

Visakhapatnam: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said Google can never replace ‘guru’ (teacher), emphasising on the importance of teachers and education. He also asked students not to get influenced by the anti-social elements who try to create unrest in universities. [caption id=“attachment_4191835” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu. PTI[/caption] Google has been quite popular as the search engine provides answers to people’s all queries, from the most random to the most meaningful. “Google can never replace Guru. A guru gives not mere academics, but gives insights as well,” Naidu said on Saturday at the alumni meet of the Andhra University (AU) in Visakhapatnam. The vice-president, who is himself an alumni of the university, spent some time in his classroom at the AU College of Law and shared his memories with students on the campus. A few sections of the society have been fuelling unrest in universities for their selfish plans, Naidu said, and asked students not to get influenced by the ideas of such anti-social elements. He asked the Andhra University to focus on research and improve its academic standard. Andhra University got NAAC ‘A’ grade but it has to improve its quality in terms of teaching, research, among other things, to achieve A++ grade, Naidu said. He also inaugurated the convention centre building of the university, which was built at a cost of Rs 13.5 crore. The auditorium, with five levels of seating, has a fixed capacity of 1,600 seats and can also accommodate 200 extra chairs in its gallery. “The built-up area is around 40,000 sqft and the total area is around 4.5 acres with landscaped gardens and two parking areas that can accommodate 400 cars,” the university’s vice chancellor, Prof G Nageswara Rao, said. Naidu also visited the Chepalauppda village on Visakha-Bheemil beach road which was adopted by him and launched several development programmes there.