E-school of Thought
Online education can be the
biggest disruptor for India. University education will have to be reimagined as
a digital-first medium
Everyone seems to be
talking about dis ruption. Like “startup“ and “fund ing“, “disruption“ has
become a part of our daily parlance and evinces a strong sentiment among the
entrepre neurial enthusiasts.
We are seeing disruption
across sec tors and levels, all of which is helping us in reimagining the world
around us.
Education, meanwhile, is
crying out for disruption, but is going unheard. It is a sector that is
brimming with opportuni ties and waiting to be tapped with an in novative
approach.
Need of the Hour
The question is, are our
institutions and universities imparting knowledge for a world that does not
exist anymore in its old avatar? And are all of us, specially our youth,
becoming smarter learners?
The answer for both these questions is a resounding “yes“.
The answer for both these questions is a resounding “yes“.
India has the largest
college-age population in the world -close to a staggering 125 million -but it
is startling to know that less than one in five of them is doing their
post-secondary education. This means only 20% of college-age youngsters are
doing their higher education as opposed to 90% in the US. Will India be able to
achieve its gross domestic prod uct (GDP) growth targets at this rate? No. Will
we need to double our participation rates in higher education the next fiveten
years? Yes Can pure offline, brick-and-mortar college and university models
fill this massive gap? Again, the answer is obvious. Look at the challenges.
One, it takes four-eight years to set up one campusuniversity and at its peak
it could cater to 5,000-10,000 students.Two, we need to have enough trainers
and teachers to feed into these facilities, many of them in remote areas or
away from cities. Three, the cumulative outlay at scale for private or
public-private partnership (PPP) models to cater to the entire college-going
population will be nothing short of $100 billion. Four, over half of this 125
million youngsters, I believe, will have compulsions to take up a job very
early in life for socio-economic reasons and may not have the flexibility to go
back to college after that.
In this scenario, online
education can be the big disruptor for India. Of course, there will be myriad
challenges, but it offers exponential solutions: it can reach the remotest
parts of India, aggregate the best faculty as everyone from the offline world
can participate with much less demand on their time and lastly our youth can
stay in their jobs while continuing to learn.
Disruption in online
education can be the answer to the gigantic challenge that India, called the
youngest nation in the world, is facing. If we do not create equal
opportunities and access to the best learningupskillingupgrading centres for
our ambitious and aspiring youth, our demographic dividend can turn into a
demographic debt. Skill India too has a goal to train over 400 million people
by 2022 and this audacious outreach can be achieved only by radical dis ruptive
thinking and bold execution.
However, online will not
succeed if it simply copies traditional teaching methodology. Online education
should be more focused on professional education and post-graduation as those
demographics look for flexibility and augmentation. For early years and K-12,
brick-and-mortar schools will continue to play a big role in the holistic de
velopment of the child and online education will only be a supplement.
Five-Year Plans
For online education to be
disruptive and for it to succeed, education will have to be thought through as
a digitalfirst medium. Technology will have to be integrated to create a
superior learning experience on the online platform. Online education has to
move away from being a glorified content library; it has to involve peer-topeer
discussions, alumni chats, group studies and more. It has to shed its
reputation of providing isolated, individual learning platforms and evolve into
a social platform where you are not learning alone but studying together with a
lot of individuals.
Let's come to terms with a
few things. In the 21st century, what we learn will have less and less
relevance after five years and hence there is a need for constant upgrade.
Convergence of new forms of learning will be the fuel for and engine of
economic growth. Universities need to develop programmes that are linked
closely with employer demands. Otherwise, the results will be disastrous: while
job seekers overspend on education programmes that are less likely to result in
ideal employment opportunities, employers will be hiring poor fits.
We need to change the
mindsets of multiple stakeholders -academia, companies, students, young
professionals and, most important, families -because how we learn and who we
learn from have transformed. Our dependence on experts and figures of authority
has diminished while our ability to learn from each other has spiralled
dramatically. All I can say is, I wish I was back in college today.
Ronnie Screwvala
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ETM6MAR16
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