2,500 online courses in two years, a record feat by 51-year-old Srikakulam man

51-year-old social activist completes over 2,500 online courses in two years, breaking records and proving age is no barrier.

A 51-year-old social activist has done over 2,500 online certificate courses within a span of two years, proving age is no bar for academic pursuits, even in fields as diverse as IT, psychology and business management.

A member of Gandhi Mandir Committee here, M.V.S.S. Sastry completed courses and secured certificates from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Facebook, Meta, UK Academy, University of Leads, British Council, European University, World Health Organisation, and UNICEF among others.

He did courses in skill development, business management, psychology, journalism, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and many other areas. 

It all started two years ago, when he began searching for information on cyber security to help his daughter, Gayatri, who is currently pursuing engineering first year in IIT Madras.

Mr. Sastry soon realised that many organisations were providing courses free of cost or with a small fee to enable students to improve their knowledge. He then started doing the courses one by one with the support of his academic friends who helped him to understand difficult subjects.

“In the era of competition, every student should acquire more knowledge, which is possible through certificate courses. In order to highlight this, I did these many courses,” Mr. Sastry tells The Hindu.

Gandhi Mandir Committee members Jami Bhimasankar, Konkyana Venugopal, Natukula Mohan and others have felicitated Mr. Sastry for completing the highest number of online courses, a feat recently recognised by International Book of Records, India Book of Records, India Achiever Record, and Telugu Book of Records. Mr. Sastry has applied for the Guinness World Records.