NDTV : Wipro’s billionaire promoter Azim Premji said schools in India should be opened after vaccinating all teachers quickly as the loss of the last one and a half years is too big to ignore for school-going children. “One needs time to recover from the loss of learning. If you keep promoting children to the next class, you are creating an enormous deficit that cannot be filled up,” he said at an event organised by the Bombay Chartered Accountants Society. Schools across the country have been closed due to the pandemic and state governments have been wary of re-opening them, fearing for the safety of children. Premji said that children should be exposed to the real world of India – inequitable distribution of income, injustice and indignity of millions – to help grow a sense of humanness within them. “Go out and engage with the real world. Get your hands dirty, see the problems all live with, and that will move you to do whatever you can,” he said. The Wipro promoter added people needed to start giving back to society early. “Just like you need to work on your physical fitness now rather than later, similarly, start work on your social fitness early. I wish I had started it much earlier.” Premji’s Foundation, set up in 2000, has been working with the elementary education system in rural government schools. He said that to ensure maximum reach, it was necessary to partner with the government and public systems. Public officials, he said, by and large have the right intention, incredible reach and unmatched resources, though they are often handicapped by lack of domain capability and bureaucratic processes.