Lesson 1: Rebooting the Education System
Almost
85% of Indian youth are not employable! That was an observation made by the
high priest of India’s tech industry, NR Narayana Murthy, some four months ago.
The
number may sound a bit exaggerated, but the reality is that the Indian
education system is dated and needs an urgent overhaul. Consider this: A study
conducted by EY for industry lobby group Ficci found that a majority of our
managers and engineers is not equipped to deal with the challenges at work.
Cut
to primary education, the situation is completely different. Government data
suggests that the country has made some big strides on enrollments in schools,
thanks to the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. Be it gender parity or the dropout rate,
there is a marked improvement, with the numbers inching closer to the 100%
mark.
But
why is there such a yawning gap between primary and higher education. As the
nation celebrated Teacher’s Day on Wednesday, educationalists and former
administrators discussed ways to revamp the education system on a special
edition of the India Development Debate. Here are some key takeaways:
PANEL VIEW
ANIL
SWARUP
FORMER
EDUCATION SECRETARY
We
have managed to get children to school. What has not happened is quality
education. India is an extremely diverse country. In Kerala, if a teacher
doesn’t go to school he will be lynched. In Bihar and UP, they take it for
granted. We are making policies in Delhi for Delhi. We have just come to know the
‘why’ of the problem. There are not many answers emerging. Unless you have the
threat of detention, children will stop learning.
DR
URVASHI SAHNI
FOUNDING
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE, STUDYHALL EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION & NON
RESIDENT FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION, USA
States
need to evolve their own solutions. Unless the government shoulders the
responsibility and shows that it cares, individual school efforts will have
limited effect. Students should become good thinkers. Several individual
schools have developed curriculum and shown the way. What we teach in schools
is very important. We need to make a huge shift from fact-based education
system to a process-based one where asking questions is given more importance.
We need to develop critical social and political thinking.
COL
GOPAL KARUNAKARAN
CEO,
SHIV NADAR SCHOOL
The
real crisis is the lack of faith in the government school system. Are we
putting good money in the wrong place? We need to see where we put the money.
It is not going to government schools. We have fallen into the trap since
Independence that there will only be formal education. We have missed the boat
when it comes to vocational training. We must address the problem of teachers’
education. Our teachers’ training colleges are obsolete.
MEETA
SENGUPTA
EDUCATION
STRATEGIST
The
achievements should inspire us to do better. India is not a homogenous unit. We
should not be seeking a homogenous solution. Not one of the successes has been
scalable to 100%. Are we trying to standardise or raise standards? We need a
shift in the way teachers tend to teach. We seem to place learning outcome at
the end of the cycle. Are we engaging learning for the sake of joy,
conversations? We need to be completely away from the ‘fear’ approach to
school.
ATISHI
MARLENA
FORMER
EDUCATION ADVISOR TO EDUCATION MINISTER OF DELHI
Children
are not learning anything. Why would a child keep coming to school if he is not
learning anything? Right to Education has not focused on the outcome. The
no-detention policy is not the cause of the problem. The central issue that
needs to be addressed is that even if children are coming to school why are
they not learning anything? We have to evolve our teacher training practices.
Technology needs to be used to connect teachers with teacher-training methods.
ET
NOW
6SEP18
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