Dr Parag Kalkar,
Director, Singhad Institute

Major areas of Indian economy have been liberalised during the post 1991 period, but education has not seen any major liberalisation.  Government policies for the education sector continue to be quite rigid. The regulatory structure is too cumbersome and universities find it difficult to navigate.
In spite of capacity building in technical education, still there is a 20 to 30 percent shortage of students. There are no takers so there  are enrolment related challenges in front of institutions. Therefore, understanding the gap is critical. Institute should be created such that they cater to the need of students of today.

Suman Bose,
Country Managing Director & VP, Siemens Industry Software India Pvt Ltd

In India, Siemens has over 25-27 thousand people, but it still finds it difficult to hire the right set of resources that are important for  growth and development. The challenge is missed opportunity: the missed opportunity of forming capital. If China can be the  manufacturing hub of the world, nothing stops India from being the knowledge hub. It is necessary that the education that is being provided in our academic circles should be relevant to the industry.
Localisation of education is important. But at the same time, the globalisation of education cannot be ignored; we can always draw  important inferences from the educational initiatives that are being implemented in advanced countries. However, advanced  countries are facing the issue of ageing population, whereas India has a very large young population. The Indian youth should be given  advanced skills in global context to make India a knowledge economy.

Dr A S Vasudev,
Executive Director, Indian Academy of Pediatrics

Due to heavy school bags children suffer from backache

Health is not only absence of disease; rather it is also a state of complete physical, mental and social well being. The health of the  preschools children should include monitoring of physical growth and also a process of continuous health check-ups through a  qualified paediatrician.
Hygiene is another important concept. Children have to be inculcated the values of hand washing, clean uniforms, clean nails, etc.
Vaccination is another preventive measure in healthcare. Eye check up once in the first five years helps to pick up many abnormalities  which hamper the performance of the child. De-worming of children has to be done, as it reduces the problem of anaemia in children. The child should not be burdened with writing at an early stage as the hand muscles have yet not developed and it causes permanent  handwriting problems.
Today’s child has to go through overburdened school bags, congested school buses, enormous amount of homework and sometimes  physical punishments too. Lighter bags can be achieved by segregating the books and using sheets, which can be compiled at home so  that books don’t have to be carried. There should be a system of no homework and examinations for students till class 5 and no second  languages.
Due to heavy school bags children suffer from backache. Children have to be taught the proper technique of carrying bags with both  straps at proper centre. Proper transportation is also needed. Safety of children is of utmost importance has to be looked into.
Classrooms should be illuminated and ventilated for the child to read and write without difficulty. Proper playgrounds, verandas before classes and enough doors and windows in the classrooms should be made mandatory. Schools have about one urinal for 60  students and these are unclean and unhygienic to use. Schools should have separate toilets for both genders and also ensure daily  toilet cleaning to be made compulsory.
Teachers, parents, regulatory authorities and school management have to work together to find child friendly school initiatives to ensure that the child gets great school learning experience where he wants to come even on holidays.

Amol Arora,
MD, Shemrock Group of Schools

Pre-schools: from being a centre for rote learning to being a place for a child to be happy

Shemrock Pre-schools have been around for 23 years and have seen 2 lakh children graduate. Good playschools play the important  role of shaping the today’s children into good adult citizens of tomorrow.
When the first Shemrock preschool was opened, the classroom concept was swapped with open areas for different play activities and  storytelling. The children were free to explore and learn with colourful interiors and rote learning was abjured. The formal school  admissions have gone through a paradigm shift in 20 years and no written test is now taken which helps the child to be free from the  clutches of written work at such a tender age. Colourful interiors and hassle free learning has helped children be happy and burden  free.
The perceptions of parents have also gone through a change and pre schools are now considered necessary for providing the child with  a happy environment for his holistic development. Pre-schools also help the child in social development and peer learning. Language  skills are picked up from peers at a faster rate in schools.
With increasing awareness among parents and availability of better technologies, the infrastructure of Pre-schools has seen a positive  shift. Better teaching aids, interactive white boards and child centric approach has revolutionised the concept of pre schools. The  smaller towns are now ready for new concept in playschools, so now is the time to revise the core curriculum.
With more quality Pre-schools opening their doors to children, the role of a preschool will change. It will turn into a place that is more  social and community centric as opposed to a knowledge provider.

Sharbari Purkayastha,
Head of Products, Rumi Education (P) Ltd

In order to achieve stress free environment for children, continuous interaction between parents and teachers is a must

Rumi Education is an Organisation that cares deeply about teaching and learning and has created wonderful Pre- Primary Curriculums  for schools. For all those who are associated with Rumi, the experience of building and implementing these programmes has been a  rather joyful one. A number of new ideas have been uncovered in this journey.
The most important idea uncovered is that we need to teach certain specific things to the children. We do serious disservice to children by focussing purely on academics rather than on the process through which learning is delivered at schools. With increased  aspirations and continuous competition to outperform, the child cannot be given stress free environment to blossom. We need series  of interactions between parents and teachers for bringing maximum possible value to the child.
The direct impact of well adjusted and productive adults on society and economy is well documented. As educators we have to consciously create opportunities to generate feeling of well being in the children through the designing of child centric curriculum.  The process can only be facilitated through the active participation of parents and teachers in the process. There is a need of  continuous excellence in teaching learning process.
Teachers have to be thoroughly trained in delivering materials in a consistent and  standardised manner to insure better learning outcomes.The content has to be internalised, it must be thoroughly understood by the  teachers to enable them to properly deliver the same to the students.Schools and teachers must also include activity based learning as much possible while delivering the curriculum.

Jitender Nagpal,
Programme Director- Expression India, Institute of Child Development & Adolescent Mental Health, Moolchand  Medicity

Children need to be healthy not just physically, but also mentally

India has a high percentage of children who do not have access to basic facilities. According to some estimates 42 percent of children,  that is about 200 million children, go to bed without having two square meals a day. Due to our weak infrastructure we are far behind  than some of the South African countries when it comes to child welfare. It is time our paediatricians realised the gravity of the  situation. They need to develop new systems for enhancing the welfare of children.
Our children need to be healthy not just physically, but also mentally. They should be given access to quality education. Everything  must be done to ensure the all round development of our youngsters who are the future of the country.

Rohit Sahu,
Chairman, Sapphire International School

Children have to be taught the basic tenets of culture and religion from the pre-school stage

The child’s basic need to be happy in life is not understood by pre schools, as they are unable to comprehend the nature of a child’s  mind. There is a big discrepancy between what is taught by parents at home and what gets taught by the teachers. This gap between  home-education and school-education is meant to be bridged in the pre-schools.
Children who go through pre-schools have higher literacy and good grades. They are able to get better livelihood, commit lesser crimes according to the survey that has been conducted. So investment in good pre-schools is a sound economic investment in the  future of the society. In India good play schools have now started opening in all the big and small cities and towns. A good play school  is expected to teach help the child in developing good motor skill, language, social interactions, spiritual awareness and much else.
The curriculum of a play school is different  from what we have in usual schools. Because play schools are focussed on helping the child develop basic life skills like running, jumping, calling etc.
Today the children are socially aware because of internet, mobiles, HD and 3- D. We have to make our children aware of our culture. The most important thing to teach a child in pre-school is religion. With religious knowledge, the child will become capable of differentiating between good and bad. Children have to be taught the basic tenets of culture and religion from the preschool stage.
A playschool is mostly about keeping a child happy. A major study shows that pre-schools have become regimented. The truth is that regimented preschools are not that conducive for a child’s overall growth and  development.

Ujjwal Singh,
Partner, Indus Balaji Private Equity Education Fund

Indus Balaji is the second education fund in the country. The partners in the company are from different domains of education.  Therefore, we understand education in a complete manner. We have done five investments. Our investments’ priorities revolve around three Ps. The first P is People. The next P is about Product. Third important P is Process. Most of the small companies struggle  to find best manpower in the country. We are the costliest country in the world in terms of cost of manpower. Entrepreneurs are  struggling to hire right kind of manpower at right price.

Seema Jhingan,
Partner, Lex Counsel

There are lots of challenges in finding investors in education. In India, Education considered as a non-profit making sector. For profit  entities like partners firm, cooperative, private limited companies investments is not a challenge. But with Education which is formed  under entities like society, trusts and sec-25 companies finding investor is a real challenge. Investor or VC funds can not invest in trust  or society because they cannot reap out benefits out of them.