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Flash Back 2017: Digital Learning Revisits Innovations in Education

By
Akash
-

The 2017 has been an eventful year for the education sector, as the Governments have been infusing a variety of things through innovations in the education sector to make it more relevant for the student fraternity in the contemporary world.

Having played role of a lighthouse on the key developments, the digitalLearning magazine brings to you a flashback of the year gone as captured and observed through each of our monthly issues.

It is pertinent to mention this magazine also played a key role in bringing together world’s eduleaders at one platform through its print and web edition along with the premeir knowledge conferences. Let’s have a glance at the highlights of our different issues and conferences as observed by Elets News Network (ENN).

January Issue: KALOREX Nurturing 21st Century Learners

The first issue of January 2017 showcased the best education practices and teaching methodologies followed by Kalorex schools for the holistic development of its students. “The motive of Kalorex is to develop global learners equipped with 21st century learning skills,” stated Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD & CEO, Kalorex Group, in the cover interview. She explained their strategies and methodologies. She also threw light on the various philanthropic activities of the group. The interview also comprises the details of awards won by the group for its best educational practices and philanthropic work.

 

 

February-March Issue: Rediscovering Bahrain

This was a special issue which revolved around World Education Summit (WES) 2017 Bahrain and  recognised the global education ecosystem’s best practices. The summit was inaugurated by H E Dr Majid Bin Ali Al-Nuaimi, Minister of Education, Kingdom of Bahrain. The cover story of the February and March 2017 issue covered the improvements in formal education sector of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Governments across the region have invested heavily in the education sector and over the past 25 years witnessed a rapid expansion in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Despite all the development in the education space, the region has a lot of scope to grow in terms of bridging the gap between skill development and job market.

April Issue: Private Engineering Colleges Ranking and Annual Resource Guide

Finding out the most suitable institute or college as per one’s academic prowess and financial means most often proves a Herculean task, especially in engineering stream. Considering the complications of zeroing-in on the most suitable option, we decided to devote our Digital Learning magazine’s April issue to “State-wise Ranking of Private Engineering Institutes and Colleges -2017”, conducted by a perception-based methodology by a jury involving experts.

In addition, our cover story – “Annual Resource Guide: Sourcing Educational Prerequisites” – was a step towards furthering Digital Learning legacy providing better insights, enabling consumers to take an informed decision.

The issue also comprised the glimpses of “elets 8th World Education Summit Bahrain 2017” that witnessed a grand congregation of leading speakers and hundreds of delegates from as many as 12 countries from across the world.

May-June Issue: Transforming School Education Practices Trough Innovation

With a large number of schools adopting finest teaching-learning practices from across the world, our May-June issue tried to find out the practices that are improving and enriching educational experiences in the Indian schools through the cover story “Rehashing School Education Practices through Innovation”.

Through our three special stories “Ensuring Holistic Development of Children”, “ICT in Higher Education Taking Learning Process to the Next Level”, and “Sports-Key to Character Building of Schoolchildren”, the magazine attempted to touch upon some latent dimensions of the existing education scenario of the country.

Another prominent interview was of Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, who talked about the council’s various steps undertaken to improve technical and higher education in the country.

July-August Issue: Rajasthan Higher Education Souvenir

The July-August issue of Digital Learning magazine was published in association with Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan. The Souvenir carried a number of prominent and distinguished who’s who of Rajasthan whose presence has brought remarkable changes in the Rajasthan education system.

An important feature of this issue of the magazine was congratulatory messages from the President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

With Rajasthan, one of most vibrant and progressive States of the country, focusing on its education sector in a big way, the Digital Learning magazine’s Cover Story — Rajasthan Higher Education Embracing Change for New Era of Opportunities — highlighted the growing charm for higher education among youngsters as an important prerequisite to grab highly rewarding jobs.

WES Delhi Special Issue

In this issue, we highlighted how a growing role of innovation and technology in education sector is becoming too overwhelming for members of any progressive society to ignore it. We stated how it is serving as a useful tool to help our schools, colleges and universities deliver the information and knowledge effectively.

Our cover story — WES Legacy: Bringing the Brightest Minds Together — was an attempt to explain and revisit the World Education Summit over the years and celebrate its 10th edition.

This special issue also contained insightful interviews of Kiran Maheshwari, Minister of Higher Education, Government of Rajasthan; Anil Swarup, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ashok Jain, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan among others.

September Issue: India’s Top Preschool Ranking

In the light of rapid growth of the preschool segment, the September issue of the magazine came up with India’s Top Preschools’ ranking for the second time.

Through “India’s Top Preschool Ranking 2017”, we endeavoured to explore various dimensions of the preschool segment. This year’s ranking was also intended to create an integrated and comprehensive database of diverse, high quality early childhood education and care services.

Our special interview on Sanfort — a pioneer partner of “Trinity College London” — was about bridging the learning gap in the early years of learning. The brand has around 150 preschools in 22 States of India and two abroad.

 

October Issue (Part I): Nurturing innovation encouraging Startups: The Gujarat Way

In the wake of a large number of highly impressive thesis and innovative ideas emerging every year, the cover story of our magazine’s October issue explored how the Student Startup and Innovation Policy (SSIP) transformed these innovations into new products and services.

A Hackathon Report also featured in this issue which showcased how a group of people recently tried to solve public problems through intellectual prowess away from any discrimination.

We also tried to explore the perspective of various distinguished stakeholders including Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary, Higher and Technical Education, Government of Gujarat, Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and K K Nirala as Director of Technical Education, Gandhinagar and others.

October Issue (Special Issue): Top Schools of India Ranking 2017

This issue published the Top School Ranking-2017, a concise list of the best of schools across India which have been ranked in order of their performance on six parameters handpicked carefully. The benchmarks achieved by the schools in our ranking was done separately for five zones – North, South, West, East and Central.

When choosing a school, security of the campus is high on the priority list of most parents given the rising number of violent incidents against students. Our cover story, ‘Are Schools Safe for Children?’ in this issu, highlighted the various aspects of security at schools, and the measures that can be taken by the management to check the incidents of violence against the innocent kids.

November issue: Happy Education: Dubai Inspires the World

As the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has embarked on a unique journey not many countries have treaded in the world, it’s steadfastly acquiring a distinction of being a global education hub with a difference. We endeavoured to highlight how the UAE’s new policies are focused on giving back to the world by making happiness and well-being the focal point of everything they do to improve quality of the education through the November Issue.

Our cover story in this issue, “Happy Education: Dubai Inspires the World”, explored the three key pillars of the UAE’s ‘Year of Giving’ – Corporate Social Responsibility, Volunteering, and Serving the Nation – to develop a knowledge-based economy as the best in the world.

December Issue: Rajasthan BuildingHigher Education Capital with Higher Education

Rajasthan is among the top states in India in terms of number of institutions of higher learning. Given the high number of graduates and post-graduate students being churned out of these colleges and universities, providing meaningful employment through industry-academia partnership is of utmost priority for the State.

Our cover story “Rajasthan Govt All Set to Bridge Students-Industry Gulf” in this special Higher Education and Human Resource Conclave, Rajasthan issue covered various initiatives and achievements of the Government of Rajasthan in facilitating direct employment of students.

This issue also carried the B-School Ranking to help aspiring students to choose the right B-school for their education. The Top B-school Ranking 2017, being published for a second time, is a perception based ranking of over 300 B-schools in the country under various parameters.

Union Budget 2018 – 19: Edu-experts’ reactions

By
Akash
-

The Union Budget of 2018-19 presented by Finance minister Arun Jaitley is focussed on education along with agriculture and healthcare for the poor. Jaitley announced a new funding scheme for infrastructural development in Centrally Funded Institutions (CFIs) and Universities. Setting up 24 new government medical colleges and “Eklavya” schools in tribal areas of the country are the other important highlights of the Budget 2018.

The education industry has welcomed the Union Budget 2018-19 and few are calling it a holistic budget. In its laudable move, the government is emphasising more on teachers’ training and allocated one lakh crore for educational research.

Here are reactions to the Union Budget 2018-19 from education people belonging to education sector:

Utpal Ghosh, CEO and President, UPES Dehradun:

“The budget has a strong focus on emerging technologies and the education sector. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, quantum communication etc. are going to drive future jobs and hence a national programme catering to these disciplines is a welcome initiative. District Wise Strategy to improve the quality of education and achieving standard learning outcomes based on the results of the National Achievement Survey is a path-breaking announcement. New medical colleges, planning & architecture schools and a special railway university are steps in the right direction.”

Professor C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, O P Jindal University:

“The initiative – Revitalizing of Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022 with a total investment of one lakh crore in the next four years is to be lauded as it definitely portrays the importance and prioritization of education in this country. Similarly, with emphasis being laid on digitization sector, the benefits will reach the needy students.”

Sivaramakrishnan V, Managing Director, Oxford University Press India:

“Integrated Education is a worthy mention in the budget and we hope that it leads to a teaching-learning process that combines print, digital, assessments and teacher training. The focus on teacher training continues from last year’s budget announcement and it exemplifies the renewed focus on this noble profession given that teachers are the principle pivot in the learning eco-system.”

Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO and Co-founder, Next Education:

“The Union Budget 2018–19 looks promising for the education sector. The government has earmarked Rs 1 lakh crore for a new scheme called Revitalising Infrastructure in School Education (RISE) fulfilling his promise of developing infrastructure in schools. The government has also realised the importance of improving the quality of teachers to enhance the quality of education in our country.”

Vijay Thadani, VC and MD, NIIT Ltd:

“It is a progressive budget with the right emphasis on training of teachers, use of technology and funding for research. Increase in digital intensity in education and envisaging move from ‘‘black board’’ to ‘‘digital board’’; using technology to upgrade the skills of teachers through a digital portal “Diksha”; national program on artificial intelligence under the aegis of Niti Aayog; mission on Cyber Physical Systems and a test bed for 5G technology at IIT Chennai were among the other encouraging initiatives.”

Vandana Arora, Principal of Nahar International School:

“We are glad that the 2018 Budget has a forward looking vision with benefits for the sectors that needit the most. As announced, specifically for the education sector, having an integrated B.Ed. programme, with teacher-training as its main focus, will boost the workforce towards being more aware and skilled. I am glad to hear that Rs. 1 lakh crore are to be invested over the next 4 years into a new drive to boost Research and Development.”

Zishaan Hayath, CEO & Co-founder, Toppr.com:

“Capitalising on digital influence for quality education is a welcome move. We sincerely believe that technology has a very important role in education and we are glad that the government aligns with it. Education is critical to the future of India and any relaxations in taxes on education and technology would have been an added benefit. Recognising the importance of teacher training is another significant step to boost quality education in the country. We eagerly await the details and plan of action from the government following the announcements.”

Minal Anand, Founder and CEO, GuruQ:

“The 2018 budget will provide an important thrust for established firms as well as start-ups in the ed-tech sector. Mr. Jaitley’s increased emphasis on digital forms, over traditional forms of learning, is a major boon for the industry. This paradigm shift will increase literacy rates, across the country, ensuring that quality education is available for all. This budget’s focus is on higher quality of teacher training and development which aims at equipping educators with latest teaching techniques, skill training and content.”

Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON:

“The Government in the budget has clearly acknowledged the need to improve the quality and scale of education across the country, through a continued digital push.  A significant population within India has been deprived of access to quality education and infrastructure in the past and the Government’s introduction of Eklavya schools for tribal children will help bring them into the ambit of the formal education model and empower them to explore a bright future. The Ministry’s announcement on giving formal training to teachers through the recently launched ‘DIKSHA’, will definitely boost the quality of teachers, a key pivot to improve the quality of education.

Rohit Manglik,CEO, EduGorilla:

“The Union Budget (2018), which has showcased government’s plan to transform India’s educational scenario by leveraging technology in education is commendable. The 1-day registration of a company will surely provide a boost to startups. The re-skilling of teachers through the portal Diksha will not only improve the quality of education but will be a game changer for the entire education ecosystem.”

Ashish P Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India Pvt Ltd:

India’s overall allocation to the education sector in the last decade has hovered between 3.5-4 per cent of total expenditure. Last year, the figure was 3.7 per cent. The government proposed to launch ‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022’ with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in next four years, to step up investments in research and related infrastructure in premier educational institutions, including health institutions. A modest 3.84 per cent increase compared to last year can be seen in the education sector allotment. This is a positive development for the security industry.

Union Budget 2018-19 likely to boost the education sector

By
Akash
-

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented the most awaited budget which started with a positive note on how the Indian economy has reversed course with GDP at 6.3% signalling a turnaround of the economy.

The country is now on track to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world with increased digitalization on the back of reforms such as demonetisation, the quantum of cash currency in circulation and increased tax base.

It is commendable that the government has given a significant focus on education and digitalization.  We whole-heartedly welcome the Government’s plan and focus to move classroom black boards to digital boards. This will help immensely in standardizing and ensuring teaching content and quality and increasing outreach particularly in rural areas where there are impediments such as teacher availability and teaching materials.

The Government also proposed ‘Eklavya’ school, at par with Navodaya Vidayalas, for every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people by 2022 in a bid to make education accessible to all.

In a laudable move, Arun Jaitley also allocated Rs 1 trillion to a new scheme called Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education (RISE) to integrate its school education sector—from pre-school to class 12—implying merger of several school schemes in the near future to revitalize the infrastructure of schools in the country.

The new scheme to identify bright students pursuing B Tech in premier engineering institutes, and providing them higher-education opportunities in IITs and IISc Bengaluru will give the desired impetus to research and development in India. Plans to set up two new full-fledged schools of planning and architecture, 18 new schools of planning and architecture in the IITs and NITs and investment of Rs. 1 lakh crore in four years for higher educational premier institutes are a shot in the arm for the sector and will further the Government’s agenda of education for all.

We also welcome the emphasis to be given to training of untrained teachers and allocation of 1 lakh crore for education research. It’s also very commendable about the plans of coming up with 24 new Medical colleges. Also, praise-worthy is the plan of at least one medical college in every three constituencies. However, government further increased the education cess by 1 per cent which will be a blow to the middle class.

It is encouraging to note the focus on new generation technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, analytics etc. as far as skill building initiatives go with . The FM’s stance on embracing technology is progressive with Amitabh Kant-led Niti Aayog to establish a National Programme to direct efforts in the area of Artificial Intelligence towards national development focused on research & development and its applications. It remains to be seen how partners from the private sector eco-system with knowledge & expertise in these areas get involved in this initiative.

In line with the expected thrust on rural India, Modi government has rightfully focused on palliating the stress on agrarian economy and overall rural development including construction of toilets, rural electrification and housing for poor. Significant focus on healthcare with a massive health cover programme for 10 crore poor households has been announced, claimed to be the largest in the world is much appreciated.

“While this was a balanced budget and we congratulate the Government on putting India on a growth trajectory on track to achieve 8% GDP growth and announcement of strong fundamental initiatives, we look forward to the expected outcomes as implementation will be the key in achieving the desired results.” said a press note by the Association of Publishers in India (API).

Budget 2018: A futuristic one with focus on better educational infrastructure

By
Akash
-

The push to education sector in the budget has been hailed by the industry. The budget has its focus on skilling youth and to promote higher education and encourage research among the graduates of the country.

Reacting on the budget, Mindler CEO Prateek Bhargava said, “The Government is coming good on its promise of putting education outcomes and skilling upfront. The allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore for improvement of education infra is one of the highlights of this budget. A medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies is a path breaking initiative and one that will give a huge boost to medicine as a career.”

“FM’s plan to identify 1,000 B.Tech students each year and providing means to pursue PHDs in IITs and IISCs is again a great initiative to drive focus towards research and is in sync with the massive investment of almost 1 lakh crores towards education research. FM’s focus on teacher training and digital education is welcomed and was much needed,” he added.

The Managing Director of Cambridge University Press -South Asia, Ratnesh Jha called it a balanced budget for education sector of the country. He welcomed the government’s move of treating education holistically along with focus on improving educational infrastructure in the country and to strengthen capacity building through improvement in teacher training.

He said, “With focus on increasing digital intensity in education, the budget is quite futuristic as it looks to address the needs of today’s India emerging as a powerful knowledge economy.”

One of the commonly asked questions from the leaders in the current Government is about generating employment for the youth of the nation. The Government in this budget has focused on the issue and tries to address it.

Associate Professor of Finance at MDI Gurugram Ashutosh Dash said, “The budget speech indicates government to focus on the rural sector to create more jobs by 2020. This will require more fund allocation towards the education sector and human resource development sector. The government should also continue creating the environment that ensures ‘ease of doing business’. This will lead to more investments by the private sector and create further jobs for the students completing their formal education.”

Budget 2018: New funding mechanism for infrastructural development in higher education institute

By
Akash
-

IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and other centrally funded institutions (CFIs) universities will receive their grants for expanding and building new infrastructure in form of loan through Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA).

HEFA was set up by the government last year to mobilise funds from the market and offer 10-year loans to CFIs.

Earlier, the total grant to all the CFIs from the Government was around Rs 10,000 crore every year but under the new funding model – Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE), the central universities and institutions will now be able borrow up to Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next four years.

A senior official of Ministry of Human Resource Development said, “In terms of funds availability, it is a 250% jump. The idea is to move away from lump sum grants to outcome-based approach and project-based funding. RISE will remove financial constraints imposed by budget availability and bring in greater accountability on part of the educational institutions.”

Loans borrowed by the institutions under RISE initiative can be paid back in 10 years. The loan repayments modes will vary from institutions to institutions based on their internal revenues. For instance, the central varsities will be granted loan in 90:10 window. It means that these universities will have to pitch in 10% of the actual principal amount to be repaid whereas the Government will repay the remaining amount and interest accrued on the loan to HEFA. On the other hand, IITs and IIMs may avail loans through the 75:25 window.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced to set up two new Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPA) in Guwahati and Pune this year and another 18 SPAs will also be established as autonomous Schools within IITs and NITs.

Vidyasaarathi with TATA Housing to offer scholarship for girl students

By
Akash
-

Vidyasaarathi, a unique education scholarship portal powered by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) has announced its partnership with TATA Housing who will be offering scholarships to girl students. Through this partnership, TATA Housing aims to recognize, promote and financially assist the deserving girl students belonging to economically weaker sections of the society. This partnership will open up new avenues for Vidyasaarathi to expand its portfolio in the educational scholarships space; thus catering to a number of underprivileged students.

The scholarship is relevant to students pursuing civil engineering (B.E/ B.Tech.), Bachelors in Architecture (B.Arch) and MBA in Construction Project Management (CPM). The eligibility criteria for  B.E / B.Tech scholarship is that the student needs to be pursing the courses and must have an overall minimum percentage of 50% right from SSC and above.  The student applying for the MBA scholarship must have completed graduation with an overall percentage of 50%.

Commenting on the collaboration, Gagan Rai, CEO and MD, NSDL e-Gov, said, “We are delighted to partner with TATA Housing as we continue to revolutionize the education scholarship sector.  Along with offering a helping hand to the girl child in the education domain, we are also supporting them to gain necessary skills and expertise to be a part of the flourishing construction industry. Vidyasaarathi follows a transparent route in a controlled environment enabling students across India to pursue higher education and become architects of the future, continuously reinventing themselves”.

“At Tata Housing, it is our constant endeavor to contribute towards the society in a positive way. This partnership with NSDL e-Gov will enable us to efficiently identify, promote and financially assist meritorious girl students belonging to economically weaker sections, so that they are able to complete their education and contribute towards the growth of Real Estate industry” said Brotin Banerjee, MD and CEO of Tata Housing.

Having benefited a number of students in the pilot phase, NSDL e-Gov has already empaneled a number of educational institutes on board to collaborate for the Vidyasaarathi program. Vidyasaarathi envisions simplifying the process of scholarship attainment in the country by shifting the entire process to the digital world, thereby reducing administrative challenges faced by organizations to support education funding.

The scholarships facilitated by TATA Housing will be disbursed across educational institutions and will be available for girl students from across the country. Up to INR 60,000 per student will be covered per scheme under the scholarships.

Altair to set up Centre of Excellence in association with Govt’s Science & Tech Park

By
Akash
-

Altair Engineering, a US based product design and development company, has announced to support the advancement of the Government of India’s Skill India programme.

AltairThe organisation in its initiative will work collaboratively with its Indian partner, DesignTech Systems, and the Science and Technology Park, an institute supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

The Government supported programme is supposed to inculcate industry-relevant product design skills among a large number of Indian youths and enable them to secure better livelihood. The agreement is supposed to benefit a large community of students, academic institutes and Industry by establishing an Engineering Centre of Excellence (CoE) for research, innovation and skill building.

President of Science and Technology Park, Pune, Dilip Band said, “This CoE is expected to complement current courses undertaken by the state institutions, aiming at bridging the gap between quality of vocational engineering skills of students and skill level expected of them by the industry. This would enable students to be industry ready.”

The CoE will also encompass a Product Design Lab, an Additive Manufacturing Lab, a Design Validation Lab, a Manufacturing Assessment Lab, a Flow and Thermal Lab, a Communication lab for IoT, a Signal Processing and Communication lab for IoT and a Control Systems and Mechatronics lab for IoT.

“These initiatives are designed to use technological solutions and resources to better align technical institutes with industry requirements – by getting diploma and graduate students who are industry ready, and boost entrepreneurship in these budding engineers,” said Pavan Kumar, Vice President South Asia & Managing Director, Altair India.

Union budget to encourage entrepreneurship and research: Rohit Manglik

By
Akash
-

With 2018 Budget just about to knock our doors, the educators expect the government to bring in educational reforms harmonised by the likes of Digital India. Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla, explores some of the aspects in education sector which need government’s attention for the fund allocation.

The outlay for education in last year’s budget was Rs 79,686 crores, with an increase of about 10% when compared to the last year’s outlay. It is most likely that one of the key priorities for Government’s budget will be an increase in the fund allocation to education this year.

Skill Development

Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla
Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla

Earlier, the Government was focussing on graduate and post-graduate students for skill development. Now is the time, Government should formulate policies and allocate sufficient budget to develop life-skills among children. By teaching computing, communication, and numerical skills, they would be more prepared to adjust to the rapidly changing world.

Teachers’ Training and Incentives

We lack quality teachers in primary as well as higher education. Now is the time when the government should allocate separate funds for teachers’ incentives. These incentives, like perks will act as a motivating force for them to perform their duties well. Plus, it should be made mandatory to keep them abreast of the latest developments in the education sector. Lastly, emphasis should also be laid to upgrade their technological skills, by training them and conducting assessmentsessions to measure their skills.

Standardization of Curriculum for all Boards

The Government should allocate more funds and resources to standardise all the competitive examinations. To fulfill this task, there should be a standard curriculum for all boards to avoid situations like NEET-scenario (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) where the students were confused about the syllabus to be referred, the CBSE or the respective States.

Improvement in Technology

It has been a dire need to improve our education ecosystem through the latest technological means. What India needs with the upcoming budget is the allocation of adequate funds for implementation of technological infrastructure.

Nurturing Job-Creators

The government should make things easy for new entrepreneurs. Educational startups should be given more encouragement in terms of investments and ease of doing business. These startups are job-creators, especially for women. There are also thousands of women holding various technical degrees who may help in setting up small startups.

Special Funds for Improvement in Research

According to a joint study of industry body ASSOCHAM and Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences, any of the country’s most famous and prestigious engineering schools (including IITs) has failed to produce a single Nobel Laureate despite the huge Government funding. It was also a major concern for the Government as none of the IITs could figure in the top 200-list of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2016-17. Hence, improving the quality of research in these institutions should be a key focus area with the increase of funds allocated to the improvement in research.

Fostering Teaching Innovation by Sponsoring Independent Researchers

The Union Budget should allocate funds to set up research centres that can encourage research on teaching or pedagogical innovations. It would help entrepreneurs or edupreneurs in learning from their researches or investigations. The government bodies should also impart suggestions that can help the educators in designing educational solutions. There should also be sponsorships for independent researchers to improve teaching methodologies tailored to meet the needs or requirements of students.

Education sector’s budget wish list: Technology reforms, tax reduction

By
Akash
-

The education system is too formal and competitive nowadays with a plethora of opportunities for students. With largest youth population in the world, India needs to have one of the best education systems. Avi Keswani, Director, CREO Valley and LISAA School of Design, observes the various areas require government’s focus in the Union Budget of 2018-19 for Elets News Netwrk (ENN).

Avi Keswani, Director, CREO Valley and LISAA School of Design
Avi Keswani, Director, CREO Valley and LISAA School of Design

Just like at home, we spend money on food, housing, schools, medicine etc, the Government also has expenses for the country in sectors like Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, Infrastructure, etc. The expenses are around Rs seven lakh crore. Whether it is a common man or the government, the expenses are the same only their scale is different. Last year, the education sector was allocated Rs 79,685.95 crore in the union budget which is accounted around 10 per cent of the total budget. Of this Rs 46,356.25 crore was allocated for schools and the remaining for higher education.

With Government’s focus on good quality education to the nation, higher educational institutes are expecting a rise of 14 percent in budget allocation. Education has always been one of the key areas for government to focus on. Along with the Government, private players are also investing significantly in technology upgradation required for the education landscape. Along with smart learning, the focus is on smart teaching and making teachers adequately trained for that.

Another important aspect in this year’s budget is to allocate fund for reducing the dorp out rate in schools. Lack of facilities is one of the major reasons for high dropout rates across state-run schools. The Central Government in its budget 2018 is expected to encourage State Governments to by allocating funds for public schools. The funding should be released on the basis of achievement metrics and it should be uniform for all schools. Along with it, learning outcomes should also be measured through assessments which will help the Governments to allocate funds for deserving schools. However, to avoid schools’ dependency on government investments, Public Private Partnerships can be encouraged. Public-Private Partnership is an innovative method to draw the resources of a private school to assist the government-run schools.

 A well-educated population is a key driver for economic growth thus learning outcomes is a practice that aims at monitoring a student’s performance and development periodically. Better assessments methodologies help students to enhance their capabilities and lead them to be future leaders. A strong assessment model for learning outcomes needs to be formulised by the government.

Another area in Education sector which needs high priority is to solve the improve student-teacher ratio. The Government should also enhance the quality of primary education as it is the base for better higher education. Learning outcomes at the primary stages have consistently declined over past years which is likely to contribute to low enrolment and learning levels at higher stages. A premeditated budget for Higher education would certainly fuel up the Government’s well-intended initiatives like Make in India, Skill India & Digital India but it is always important to have a good base for a great edifice.

One of the biggest expectations from the budget allocation this year is to relieve tax for higher education under GST.

India has seen a huge surge in Education startups which are trying to contribute towards better quality and reach of education across the globe. Like any other institute in India who has International tie-ups for Global Certification, LISAA too has a mission to empower the students with a tool which enables them to design their career and a mission to bridge the gap between the industry and design graduates, by elevating the level of design education to global standards. For such an ecosystem, to reduce the tax burdens, especially GST on education services and teachers will be very helpful.

Leveraging technology in higher education space is a major task and will ease life in schools, colleges, and institutions. Technology will definitely be a key driver in fulfilling India’s education for all. Technology should be integrated into three major areas- higher education space, setting up of standards and in the accreditation area. Technology must be promoted to aid in learning and should also be included in the curriculum to make learning more relevant and students more employable.

Experiential Learning – Helping young minds learn better

By
Akash
-

Today imparting education has a different meaning as compared to the traditional method of imparting knowledge. With various options available, it gets difficult to confine students’ interest within just classrooms, writes Rishi Khemka, Chief Enjoyment Officer (CEO), ARK Infosolutions/ MindBox India for Elets News Network (ENN).

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” – David Kolbe

Rishi Khemka, Chief Enjoyment Officer (CEO), ARK Infosolutions/ MindBox India
Rishi Khemka, Chief Enjoyment Officer (CEO), ARK Infosolutions/ MindBox India

Experiential learning along with appropriate mentoring and right exposureplays an important role to help students pursue a career of their choice and passion. This concept was not that popular until a few years ago when options for experiential learning were neither easily available nor widely used by schools. But now, technology is transforming the education industry like never before and experiential learning has become a crucial part of a child’s growing-up process. It is arguably the most natural and powerful form of learning.

Experiential Learning leads to “Observation and Reflection”, where the learner has the scope to analyze the situation which helps to improvise. Every new attempt forms a recurring pattern of previous experience, thoughts, and reflection.

This cyclical pattern of experience, reviewing and reflecting on the experience, thinking new ways of problem-solving,  and again experimenting with the learned lessons creates what David Kolb says in his book Experiential Learning as 4-step Experiential Learning Model (ELM).

David Kolbe’s Experiential Learning Model (ELM):  

Why Experience matters – Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning

Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience is a perfect model to understand the importance of action to reinforce knowledgerather than reading alone, which is bookish. It is a visual model composed of active involvements at the bottom and the passive involvements at the top. The active engagements include activities like doing practicals, performing dramatized demonstrations, giving a talk or participating in a discussion. The passive involvements include activities like reading, listening, watching movies, and looking at pictures.

The learning process which involves active engagement has more senses contributing to the process than passive engagements in learning.

According to one of the principles of Selection and Use of Teaching Strategies, the more senses that are involved in learning, the more efficient will be the learning. The information retention rate is much higher with active experience, approximately 80% more than passive experience where the information retention rate is somewhere between 10%-40%. However, this doesn’t imply that active engagements are the only effective way to impart knowledge to the learner. To foster meaningful learning, the stages in the Edgar Dale Cone of Experience can be mixed, and cross-connected. A balance must be achieved between the active and passive experiences to aptly cater to the learners’ need and thereby facilitateholistic development.

Experiential Learning in Education – Project based learning (PBL)

Project-based learning is a teacher-facilitated learning process where students gain knowledge and develop skills by investigating, and responding to a real-world, engaging and complex questioning or handling a challenge. The projects are centered around students’ learning where they take ownership of their learning and develop21st-centuryskills like Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Collaboration,and Communication.

In PBL, projects are framed around a meaningful challenge which is to be solved or explore answers to the questions. This leads to long inquiry sessions, where relevant questions are framed to be answered, searching resources and learning applications. The projects carry authenticity of the real-world context, which helps in empathy building. Students are the decision makers about their project, in terms of how they work and what they create. They reflect on their learning, and the project is assessed by teachers by the effectiveness of inquiry, project activities, quality of work and the methods used to solve the challenge or answering of the questions. Students review their peer’s work and use feedback to improvise on their process and products.

Project Based Learning – Students take ownership of their learning

This classroom applicable project will give a better insight into the HOW of PBL. Since the local lake is a source of much income and many jobs, the quality of the water running into the lake is extremely important. Students working in teams of 3 or 4, will examine the water for microorganisms/bacteria/virusesthat can enhance or deter water quality.

They will then investigate and explore the local watershed and select “interesting” places they think might be the point source of these harmful bacteria and viruses. They will regularly sample and test those places for various types of microbes.

The data will be compiled and communicated to the Water Department at the end of the study. Teams will also contribute to a class book on how to test for various bacteria and viruses and their functions, as well as a class video on running the various tests.

In the above project, students…

  • Got hands-on experience while researching about bacteria/viruses/microbes in the water
  • Practiced the 4 Cs of 21st-centuryskills i.e. Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Collaboration and Communication
  • Actively took charge of their learning by engaging in discussions, asking questions, exploring and investigating
  • Became the center of the process, where learning wasn’t about memorization

With PBL the teacher…

  • Guided students’ problem-solvingabilities
  • Supported their Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Communication
  • Provided themwith achoice in their demonstrations of learning
  • Empowered them to realize that their contributions to the community make a noticeable difference
  • Let students take ownership of their learning

Need of the Hour

Leveraging the benefits of Experiential Learning in classrooms through Project and Design-Based Learning will help students to connect with real-world challenges. Apart from cognitive skills, students develop 21st-centuryskills fordecision-making, reasoning, reflection and interpretation that will help them to thrive in the future. Experiential Learning will help bridge the gap between the skills taught and skills required for being a part of the future workforce.

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