Jagpreet Singh,
Principal, The Punjab Public School, Patiala, Punjab

We cannot go about preparing children, when the teachers themselves are not prepared, and the management is undecided about having a change in the school

A young child coming to school is under tremendous pressure, there is pressure from teachers, parents and peer groups. We talk of providing space for learning to a child.
But what type of space are we talking about? Are we talking about physical space, virtual space,  or the space in which he can think on his own?
The modern schools have to apply innovative methods while educating the children. We need to ensure that the children are prepared  enough for making the transition from traditional thinking schools to personalised creative schools. A child cannot be granted space overnight; it has to be done through a slow and gradual process. If we try to rush through this, we will not have the right kind of outcome.
Today’s child is also supposed to be an original thinker; he cannot only live on the thought provided by the teacher. He gains his knowledge from many different sources. Teacher is not the only provider of knowledge. Nowadays we are seeing a huge impact of IT in the schools. What we really need to figure out is whether the space can be utilised to support learning and meet the needs of a range of learners.
We need to prepare the school management, the staff, and then children. We cannot go about preparing children, when the teachers  themselves are not prepared, and the management is undecided about having a change in the school.

Janajit Ray,
Principal, Yadavindra Public School, Mohali, Punjab

We need a student-centred, skills-based, enquiry-oriented personalised mode of learning

During the last few years, the world has witnessed many new advances in Science and Technology. Today’s children are not expected  to do their learning by the same process through which we were taught; today the classrooms are more technology oriented. New approaches towards education have been taken.
The gravest challenge in Indian education system is that education in India is adult-centred. We are following a rather content-based,  exam-oriented one sided model of teaching. We need a student-centred, skills-based, enquiryoriented personalised model of learning.
Technology is nothing but a tool. It delivers within the confines of the learning space, be it personalised learning or holistic learning. For maximum benefits, the entire school has to be space for personalised learning. You can’t just segregate one area as the space of personalised learning.
We have tradition of learning in this country. The word, Gyan, which means knowledge, is derived from the term Jigyasa, or curiosity.  We have to start with a question. But what are we doing in schools? We are programming answers into kids. We are expecting the kids  to go and parrot the knowledge. We are not  doing anything to turn them into creative thinkers. The human personality is the most basic thing for personalised learning. We must understand that whether something is being verbalised today or not, learning has  always been a personal process. It has never been anything else.
There are various aspects, or dimensions of the body, mind and the spirit. In order to achieve effective learning outcomes, we have to  develop a system of moulding the entire personality of the child. The child has to be fully engaged in the learning process. His or her  mind, body and spirit must be able to empathise with the learning. To ensure a comfort zone for students, there should be one teacher  for 10 to 15 students. This can only be done, if we have a proper tutorial system.

A N Jha,
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

Free laptops for each child is useless in areas where there is no electricity and internet connectivity

A substantial chunk of India’s population comprises of young folks, who are in need of quality education. Teachers in India have to be patient in their approach as they are the potters who mould our future generation. India is a fast developing superpower, but 69  percent schools do not have uninterrupted power supply, many schools do not even have tables and chairs.
In education, we talk of critical thinking, branding, solution providers and much else. Even in modern schools in urban areas, where the smart boards have been installed, we are not having the desired educational outcomes. This is because the smart boards are preprogrammed and they leave no scope for creativity.
Today’s children are unable to develop their intellect as they are over endowed with technology and they are obsessed with scoring grades in their examinations. A case can surely be made out for the government to intervene and enact some measures to reform our  education system.

Dr Mala Mehra,
Principal, Hoerner College, Lucknow, UP

Train the students, teach them technologies, they will be quicker, they will be faster and they will be with the world

To quote an Indian mother staying abroad, “As parents, we are living in their world; they are not living in ours.” We need to understand that a child’s world is full of technology. We have to accept the child’s world as it is. We cannot expect them to adapt to our world.
To understand the real meaning of the term ‘space,’ and also to have a better insight into the world of a technology obsessed child, I  paid a visit to the Zurich International School. It is an IB school in Zurich. It is a ‘green’ school that does not use paper; everything is  online including the home work.
After interacting with the Principals, students, teachers and parents there, I realised that in India, we are neither ready, nor we do  have infrastructure, and we certainly lack the mindset to fully accept this personalised space concept. At primary level, teachers and  students maintain blogs. Teachers constantly update their blogs with their plan for the day. Students have their homework on blogs.
At senior or middle schools abroad, the main focus was on mastering and not on achievement. In India, we simply tell him what to  learn and how to learn it and how to re-produce it in the examination. CBSE has mandated one smart class for every school affiliated to the board. All applications in Higher Education would  have to go online. In fact, they did their pilot this year. To increase the reach in  rural areas, CBSE made hubs where people can go and do their stuffs online.
Indian students have the space, they just do not know of how to use it. Educa-tors need to train students on time and space management. I personally feel that once they have access to the right kind of education, the children of today will be able to grow up  into great assets for society.

Shweta Khurana,
Head K12 Education, Corporate Affairs Group, South Asia, Intel

e-Pedagogy is a concept to which most teachers are still resistant

When we look at the implementation of personalised learning in our schools, one thing becomes crystal clear – there are far too many  challenges in the path of implementing digital teaching techniques in our classrooms.
Everybody is trying to find their own unique solution for personalised learning. Some of these solutions include teaching concepts like  flip classroom and inverted classroom. Attempt is also being made to ensure that every child studies at his/her own pace with his/her  own device.
In order to gain a better insight into the present scenario in education we need to discover the answers to few important questions.
The first question is – with personalised learning will our schools look any different from how they look today? The second question is – What are the ways by which teachers can bring about the much needed change in the way they teach and in  the way students learn? The third question is – Will the teaching-learning process change by itself ? After all, e-Pedagogy is a term to which most teachers are still resistant, so how can they be vehicles for creation of a personalised learning atmosphere at the  institutions.
What role does ICT really play in the concept of personalised learning and how effective can it be as a tool to ensuring that you have a perfect learning environment at schools. We also need to ask ourselves about the best ways of transforming learning environment at schools?
It is the quest to find the right answers to this questions that will enable us to see the light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully a better system of education will come into being.

Avnita Bir,
Principal, R N Podar School, Mumbai

Teachers, parents and students have to be made equal partners in personalised learning

In India, where classrooms have 50 children, providing personalised and differentiated learning is a huge challenge for the teachers.  For personalised learning to happen, the child’s needs and aspirations have to be considered. Learning has to be made relevant,  meaningful and authentic for the learner. The ownership of learning has to shift from teachers and parents to the children.
In R N Podar School, we have implemented differentiated learning by using flipped classrooms. We have collaborated with Khan Academy and the students can watch free videos at their own space  and time. The students then engage in interaction, discussion and  activities pertaining to the concept in the classroom. The performance of the teachers and students is monitored through the dashboard. In flipped classrooms, the teacher engages herself in meaningful, relevant and authentic activities with the students.
The challenges faced in flipped classrooms is that teachers do not trust the children to come prepared with the lessons and teachers are also not used to being questioned in the classrooms. A different approach of holding discussions and planning activities has to be done before hand. The children have to be made equal partners in this learning process where they come prepared by going through the videos.
ICT plays a major role in the new learning process as teachers are now making their own videos and sharing them with the children. A  major paradigm shift has to happen in the way of teaching and teachers, parents and students have to be made equal partners in the  learning process. This pilot project is a proof of the fact that we have been successful in making our students responsible and mature with high order thinking.