Says, Bikram Dasgupta, Founder & Executive Chairman, Globsyn Group

According to the India Labour Report 2009, 1.4 billion youth is expected to enter the country’s labour force by 2026. Around three million students are added to Indian work force every year. Despite deceleration in the broader economy, India is set to create more than a million jobs across various sectors. Though this sounds a promising figure, the industry perspective differs.Only 10-15 percent of them are considered employable by the industry.

With the growth rate expected to hita record low figure in a decade, India is in the middle of a crippling economics lowdown. But, it is unlikely to hit thehiring pattern. Companies are on the constant look out for skilled man power so as to cut down their training costs.Multi-skilled people are given more preference in all fields.

It is a sorry fact that around 53 percentof the Indian youth faces a serious problem of skill deprivation, thus leading to the industry academic gap. With globalisation providing huge opportunities to the Indian youth, Indian youth need to up their employability quotient to meet the growing demands of the industry.With government allowing FDIin multi-brand retail, we expect that there will be huge demand for workforce for that particular sector. As reflected through the figures, availability of labour will not be a major problem. What is of concern is the absence of skills to meet the global standards. There is a need to groom the students with specific add on training so as to refine their existing skills.

To combat this issue, there is amajor debate on how to bridge the industry— academic demand and supply gap. One of the approaches is the shift of the Indian education system from the current teacher-centric system,to the more holistic and robust learner-centere instructional methodology. Further to this, emphasis should be given to vocational education in colleges.

Colleges today should pay equal importance to life and work skills along with regular academics.

One of the breakthrough ideas would be to integrate skill labs in the various district level colleges so as to include the rural and semi-urban youth in the skills movement. This will help the industry to address this skill gap by up-skilling and cross-skilling the students. The objective is to complement the existing curriculum followed by the colleges and groom the student to meet all the professional demand at the workplace right from day one of his office life.

The Indian government too, has gauged the potential of skilled manpower.Therefore, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was formedas a part of the coordinated approach to skill development to synergise and enhance industry and employer participationin skill development. As a part ofthis, NSDC has taken up the mandate of skilling 500 million people by 2022.Considering the present scenario,collaboration of the skill training institutes with the industry is extremely essential. The corporates need to recognize the importance of certified skilled workers. The industry at this hour needs innovative solutions from the academia to meet their business needs of higher productivity and lower costs without compromising on efficiency.

Bharathy Bharadwaj, Founder & CEO of Concept Learning Technologies Pvt Ltd/Math Buddy LLC

How are Math labs making students fall in love with the subject?

Mathematics is a subject which is learnt best through exploration. It is not a subject where a student can just watch a video or an animation and understand the concepts. Towards this end, we believe that a Math lab should be an integral part of every educational institution so that students can learn the concepts through interactive hands-on as well as virtual activities. When students learn Math this way, they explore, experience, and enjoy the subject, and many a times, they are made to figure out the formulae by themselves by making them observe patterns.

Once the children explore concepts with traditional instruments under the supervision of the teacher, they can practice the concepts using similar instruments in virtual space. The advantage in digital labs is that the teacher does not have to be present to see if the children are modeling correctly. The system will provide feedback to the children and the teachers can monitor their progress through detailed reports. In higher classes, digital labs can help children visualise and understand difficult concepts and help eliminate the need for rote learning. Lastly, digital labs can help bring about consistency in the teaching process especially when new teachers come in.

How do you see the adoption of Math labs across India?

We believe there is a huge potential for Math labs. Many of the schools have been using Math lab instruments for sometime to illustrate concepts. However, when we talk about a Math lab, the instruments are not to be used just for illustrating concepts, but to get students
to explore by themselves sitting in groups of four or five. More and more schools are warming up to this, and are showing interest in setting up dedicated rooms for Math labs with seven to eight sets of instruments for students to do hands-on activities.

In addition, schools are beginning to realise the benefits of virtual software based math labs where students sit in front of the computers and interactively play with activities and learn the concepts. We believe the combination of handson and virtual Math labs provides a lot of benefits and with newer technologies offering the ability to access virtual activities from desktops, tablets and even phones, the future looks very bright.

With Internet access becoming more affordable and more people going online, there is a tremendous opportunity for products that allow students to access from home as well.

We have more than a hundred schools across India including Lawrence School, Sanawar, Podar International Schools, Global Indian International Schools, Navrachana group of schools, Chennai Public Schools and many more using our solutions.

Do the schools understand the concept of teaching Math with new ways over traditional ones? Most of the schools are familiar with traditional Math labs with hands-on instruments.

However, very few have actually set up a dedicated room for a Math lab and the penetration of digital components is even lesser.  However, in the past year or two, schools are beginning to see the val-ue of a complete Math lab with hands-on instruments and software, and the adoption rate is increasing. As we go forward, there is a tremendous opportunity since the penetration, even at this time, is less than one percent of the private schools, let alone government schools.

What are the innovative Math lab solutions that you offer to educational institutions?

We develop a complete range of Math lab solutions. Our flagship product is Math Buddy Digital Plus Math Lab, which is a unique combination of hands-on kits to help children explore concepts using hands-on instruments and a digital lab with more than 1,200 interactive activities to help reinforce the concepts from grades 1 to 10.

The digital lab can be accessed from classrooms for teachers to illustrate concepts as well as from a computer lab for children to interactively practice the concepts. We also have our product online to enable children to continue learning from their homes.

This year, we are also introducing Math Buddy for tablets and smartphones, which should bring down the cost of setting up a virtual Math lab tremendously and make Math learning even more enjoyable for students.

With Mathematics playing a dynamic role in our lives, it is evident that applications of Mathematics are advancing at a spectacular rate. However, often students are found struggling with mathematical concepts. When teaching relies on generic formulae, theorems and concepts, students lose interest and find Mathematics dull and boring. This results in lower grades, eventually leading to a ‘Math phobia’ among students. The use of boards, notebooks and instructional learning often do not address the Math needs of a class of diverse students. For those students who require experimentation and visualisation, a variety of interactive teaching methods are needed.

Next Education, with an aim to cater to the needs has come up with an innovative platform, MathsLab, which allows students to develop deep insights into various mathematical concepts by experiential learning. MathsLab is a zone created with projectors, computers and various handson kits where children do various activities, projects and simulations to discover mathematical ideas and validate formulas.

What is MathsLab?

Next Education’s MathsLab is an innovative platform that allows students to develop deep insights into various mathematical concepts by experiential learning. Based on the ideology of Learn-Analyse-Build, MathsLab features pedagogically appropriate content, where students can learn through activities and perform simulations to discover mathematical ideas. The aim is to merge the three dimensions of understanding Mathematics: teacher sessions, student practice and hands-on activities.

Complying with the NCERT and NCF guidelines and catering to all school boards such as CBSE and ICSE in India, Next Education’s MathsLab aims to fill the gap between learning and practice.

Key features

Next Education’s MathsLab is a complete and comprehensive solution that encompasses all classes from KG to 10. One of the key differentiating aspects is the pedagogically- appropriate content based on the class and age of the students. It not only helps the students develop higher order thinking skills, but also gain holistic understanding.

• Classes KG to 3 are taught Maths using a story-based approach with engrossing visuals that ensure the kids are focussed on the lesson.
• For the higher classes (grade 4 to 10), Next Education has built Mathematical understanding by relating Maths to real-life applications. For example, MathsLab helps students understand how Maths can be applied to organise a school fete or how pictographs can be used to collate data.
• Maths Lab also features numerous simulations, where a child can create various scenarios, perform multiple trials and thereby observe the results.

Next Education’s MathsLab’s comprehensive approach of incorporating activities with hands-on models provides avenues to cover Math topics by doing a teacher-led activity or hands-on activity. With the exhaustive list of physical models called Manipulative, teachers and students can perform hundreds of activities.

Next Education MathsLab’s learning laboratory presents an opportunity for teachers to reinforce concepts through thousands of exercise questions. On one side, the exercises provide personalised learning environment for students and on the other, they can also be used by teachers as formative assessments.

For easy integration into a school’s system and structuring lab classes, MathsLab comes with a ready-to-use lab plan. Additionally, the teachers and the management of the school can gain performance insights using the student and teacher usage reports. For instance, the ‘Individual Student Performance Report’ automatically generates and tracks each student’s progress in every chapter. The ‘Teacher and Student Usage Reports’, used by the management, tracks usage by teachers and students.

Jasvinder Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Words Worth shares his insight on how English language Labs breaking learning barriers

Why is English learning considered difficult by Indians?

It is a myth that English is a difficult language to muster by Indian students although it may be difficult to do away with the clutches of regional language and its common use at home that serves as the convenient medium in daily life. All languages have the same natural
learning cycle and it is important that training a child in English language skills aptly uses a similar paradigm. The child should be exposed to role plays and participating activities that bring meaning to the context. The teacher plays an important role in being the guide and mentor, however, the teacher should be supported with convenient tools to present the language aspects and demonstrate their use. Learning begins with listening. Listening to pronunciations, expressions, and meaning rather than rules which evolve as the child goes along to speak by themselves. Spellings, reading and writing come way after. An important observation made by most researchers on the subject is that foreign language learning lends itself naturally to the use of media. Linguists emphasise on the importance of speech over writing in language: children can listen and speak before they learn to read and write. All languages of the world are spoken, but not all have a writing system. Language labs are solutions that use the natural pattern for learning the language.

Why is English considered a vital skill?

The realisation for the need of English skills has dawned in the wake of the new world order where the Internet and telecommunicationshave undone the bordersand equal opportunities are nowavailable to all. It did start with the citiesand has been progressively reaching theremotest villages of India.

Employability and prospects are themost significant keys to the prominenceof English. The world is now a smallplace and everything is accessible. Englishis the global communications platformfor businesses. Ample opportunitiesare available for people competentlyskilled in their profession and Englishlanguage.

Employability and prospects are the most significant keys to the prominence of English

How, in your opinion, do English language labs help do the push?

Language labs have enormously benefited by technology, however, many have failed to satisfactorily address the learning outcomes. Words Worth English language labs include a progressive graded learning curriculum, ample practice time for each individual learner, several audio visual tools for the teacher to demonstrate listening and comprehension, pronunciation, syllable break and stress, intonation, removal of mother tongue influences, phonetics, and more. A teacher’s dashboard helps them to collaborate with students by text and voice, view remote screen, set up tasks and tests for students, and review comprehensive progress reports on several parameters. Academic support is provided to the teacher through an in-depth training on the product usage, supplemented with training manuals and flash cards.

How many institutions in the country have benefitted from English language labs?

Words Worth English language labs is installed in more than 2,000 institutions across the country catering to the language enhancement needs of over one million learners. Besides schools and colleges, Words Worth products are instrumental in the capacity
building projects of the governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka. Words Worth Papyrus is a special paper-based lab that is used in the rural sector where infrastructure including computers, electricity, etc, is a challenge. Words Worth also has adult learning besides self-learning solutions.

Vivek Agarwal, CEO, Liqvid

Good teachers can make good students. How are English language labs helping teachers address students’ phobia of language?
The prime benefit of language labs is empowering the teacher. The use of technology allows the teacher to engage learners in a way that is not possible otherwise. In English Edge Language Lab, every student is able to record his own conversation into the tablet. There is no other way any teacher will be able to get 40 students to speak, because of sheer lack of time.

Are these labs addressing the issue?
I expect that there are at least 50,000 private schools that have or will have language lab solutions in the near future. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of government schools. English is the language of business and a key driver of professional and social success. We will see a billion people learn and speak English in India with these labs.

Please tell us about the adoption of language labs among Indian schools and higher education institutions.
Most schools and institutions do some form of English learning. But now, the use of technology is rapidly spreading. One big driver is the tablets, which have unique benefits when used as a learning device. I expect that tablets will replace computer labs rapidly over the next few years.

What solution do you offer to educational institutions?
English Edge has a great portable language lab solution consisting of tablets and a customised trolley. It is found to be highly effective and a great aid to the teacher.

Please comment on your tie-ups with educational institutions.
Our software and hardware products are being used across the most prestigious institutions like IIT Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Shemford Schools, and Delhi Public School.