recently, i had an opportunity to visit a couple of educational institutions in a tier 2 city in tamilnadu.
one of the visits was for an assessment for business excellence and the other was more of a courtesy visit.
it was a good revelation on the business of education.
i was pleasantly surprised by the number of highly qualified persons who have taken to teaching and continue their research interests.
i had been under the impression that research was only at the IITs, IISc and IIMs.
the topics of research were also very contemporary and relevant to the present times.
the investments made by some of the institutions in infrastructure - with hig end technical equipment etc., was also very good to see.
over informal interactions, also came to know how many private institutions have come to the education field, with the intention of making fast money.
with minimal facilities, mostly part time staff etc - they collect a lot of cash with minimal investments,
i have seen the products of all kinds of institutions, as they get into the working world. and had wondered how come there is so much variation in the quality of the output.
these few days gave me more insight into the business of education.
how the ratings / rankings games are played, how the positioning with the campus recruitment teams is well planned etc.
these revelations only reinforced by belief that we need to do something in a large scale at the primary eduction level to bring about a consistent change in the attitudes in our children's view of the world.
with things like the current economic crisis raising basic questions on the soundness of the decisions of the 'adults', i get some simple questions that have no clear answers.
the children should not lose faith in the human systems.
let us start with primary education.
1 comment:
Interesting observations!
Education has been an area that has always interested me, though I have very little direct exposure. My thoughts are based on my observations of young professionals who join the company I work for immediately after completion of their academic education. My observations have more often been when such young people don’t perform where I thought they would and less when they exceed my expectations. So, it tends to be more critical. I, myself, have not been fully convinced about my observations, nor do I have some concrete suggestions. However, one thing is becoming clearer to me as I analyze such youngsters in a more mature fashion. Over the years, the school system has been revising the curricula / syllabus to keep the content up to date with what is happening in the world. However, the way the world has changed and how one is expected to use one’s knowledge in this world to contribute meaningfully is also undergoing (and has undergone) some major change. Our education system seems to ignore this aspect. As a simple illustration, in today’s world, applying your knowledge to provide a solution based on available resources is more important than even possessing a vast resource. So, knowing something by itself is not as valuable as applying that knowledge to find a solution.
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