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Towards better education in India- 17-Sep-2014
Education comprises of multiple facets, especially in a diverse country like India. To bring all these facets together is no ordinary means. But, Chandramouli, CEO, Trust Research Advisory suggests that if an multi-dimensional and proactive approach is carried out, education system in India could go long way towards a better tomorrow.
These four, help individuals and groups acquire Self-Esteem, Social Inclusion, Social Worth and Goal Achievement, making them better contributors to societies unwritten goal of human, social and environmental well-being.
Broadly speaking, education is the only basis which helps build and align these four essentials, in almost a direct sense also making education the basis for all human behaviour. Hence, it is not surprising therefore that education is given much importance in bringing about individual, social or environmental change.
Focus on education is also imperative because it has a direct bearing on several aspects of a country - its ability to create wealth, to create new opportunities, to create jobs, social development, urban development, civic sense and duty, health, research and innovation and even governance.
In India, education is a solution that fits many problems and the proportion of its potential impact may be seen by the fact that India has 315 million students, nearly the population of some countries, like USA. Not only does this make the task of education enormous in the country, but the size also reveals the immense possibilities if the education system were to be improved significantly.
We live in a country that is faced with complex challenges, and it is not an easy task to make education better received and effectively delivered.
The 2011 census report suggests that the biggest bulk of students, approximately 283 million, are between 0 to 19 years. But, there is also a large number, nearly 10.5 million, in pre-nursery, crche and play schools, who are below the age of 4. Working students constitute 9.5 million and about 1.5 million are above the age of sixty. The varied mix, with equally varied needs calls for micro-planning and micro-implementation.
Education is a fundamental component of society, and quite naturally the quality of an educational institute determines the quality of the students it creates. Unfortunately, however, no study provides a universal metric for all institutes, one that compares them across specialities, that includes all important aspects like support education services like pre-primary, prep-test or coaching classes, along with mainline institutes. While several reports do exist, they are limited to paying sectors like management or engineering, and there too the evaluation is usually done only on the basis of functional parameters. This, though important, is but one facet of an education institutes attributes that helps students decide who invest their future with it. It is this acute awareness that led us to map the entire education sector topography, hoping to give the students and their parents a universal basis of information and choice in education.
Good education is not only dependent on the functional and tangible aspects of the institute but also on its intangible aspects, e.g. How competent or caring is the institute? Or, Does the institute have strength of character and a strong moral standing? More than acreage of the institute or number of faculty, it is such intangible information that helps students find better fit with the institute, one that would be best suited to the individuals specific needs. And we must be painfully aware that a large bulk of Indian students who go into institutions, reach there because of no defining characteristic of the institute or the popularity of the course. Often a large section of students follow their friends and family, highly influenced by word-of-mouth voodoo. In fact, it is not uncommon to see students from the same colony or area crowding the same institute due to this zombie phenomenon. More than anything, such directionless herding results from a lack of any available comparison between institutes.
Sociologists, anthropologists, marketers and leaders have long held that Trust is an integral part of any transaction, but the limited focus given to this trait does not befit its importance. In our personal and public life we often act on the basis of incomplete information, and without the bridge of Trust, all our decisions would, at the very least, take more time and effort. Trust is the crux of all social engagement, especially when life-changing decisions like choice of an education institute are being made. Trust is also not a simple topic to understand and we evolve socially, technologically and psychologically, Trust has become even more difficult to decipher, and its deficit exists for several reasons known and unknown. In the case of educational institutes, the trust is even tougher to decipher due to the lack of a neutral measurement of institutes at one end, and active misinformation at the other.
Finally, Trust Research Advisory has brought forth seven steps that can help education be better connected to people and their lives. (1) Industry participation in course design to make it relevant and applied (2) Increasing the effectiveness of the RTE implementation and ensuring the fundamental right of education (3) Improving quality of education at all levels by giving latest technology, tools and teacher training (4) Vocational skill enhancement for all after the age of 15, making at least two vocational skills as a part of the curriculum (5) Encouraging completion of education for all girls till the age of 16 (6) Retraining for active professionals on a periodic basis for upgradation of skills (7) Measuring of all educational institutes on intangible and tangible aspects on a periodic basis to give institutes basis for improving themselves.
