Sajeev Karuthody, Director, Edutech India, talks about the importance of STEM education and Edutech’s STEM solutions

With our rote learning based on memorisation technique, we get students to clear examinations but not to make them employable or solve problems of the industry, government or the community.

STEM education is a welcome development in India where we focus on applying what we learn. The experience students gain through hands on learning and simulations bring them closer to real world challenges.

STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy, and enables the next generation of innovators. STEM is, potentially, the next generation educational powerhouse, and when applied properly, it can make a big difference in how our future leaders see the world and solve problems.

Tool to Get Measurable Outcomes

STEM platforms are a better way to get true measurable outcomes. The objective or theory-based exams only evaluates the understanding of a concept, while STEM goes a step further and ensure that students can understand the concept and apply the same. It can be a great tool to get measurable outcomes, be it inquiry based learning through various sensors and data logging tools, Robotics or visual and applied mathematics through math labs.

The project-based activities can power up elementary, middle or secondary school learning. The lessons are developed to enable students’ skills and understanding in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as language and literacy. Each activity produces explicit learning outcomes and matches specific graderelated math and science concepts and standards. With some focus on project-based approach, aligning curriculum with STEM activities and platforms, observational assessments and competitions measureable outcomes can be achieved.

One of the innovative and effective methods of teaching the STEM disciplines is through Robotics. Through Robotics, Edutech provides an exciting hands-on/ exploratory learning experience to the students and at the same time help to improve their fundamental science, analytical and problem-solving skills.

Edutech’s STEM Solutions

Edutech offers complete range of STEM products and services covering: world class STEM platforms in the form of hands on tools, hardware based kits etc; activities, project and curriculum aligned content; teacher training and delivery services.

To create awareness and handholding towards these concepts, Edutech STEM+ Studio is first of its kind in India, designed to provide hands on education in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Language Arts along with other areas of the curriculum. The studio is aimed to bring together schools, students, teachers, parents, corporates and STEM enthusiasts to provide education based on ‘learning by doing’ that will lasts a lifetime.

Edutech India represent some of the world leading STEM platforms like LEGO Education, Vernier, PITSCO, Makerbot 3D printing, etc that are aligned with various learning outcome standards across the world like Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Concepts of STEM are imparted through projects and activities covering fundamentals of science and maths through hands-on learning, Robotics, Aeromodelling, Electricity and Renewable Energy, Programming and Electronics, Language Arts and Storytelling, Makerspace and Fablabs, Game design and Apps development 3D printing and many more. STEM Studio programmes are delivered in flexible formats designed to meet students and school convenience of: after school programme, weekend Programme, in school programme, competition training and teachers training and train the trainer programmes.

For students to remain in competition in the 21st century, educators and industry experts must continue to increase their understanding of STEM education. They must also realise the need to establish support systems for diverse learners as they relate to STEM education. Aamir H Kaki of Elets News Network (ENN) analyses about the relevance of STEM in today’s scenario and how it can catalyse learning experience

STEM education includes every stream under the umbrella of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math—from chemistry to physics, and software design to trigonometry. From a purely economic standpoint, students would benefit from better STEM education because the fields are expanding more quickly than any other besides the healthcare industry. By 2018, one in 20 global jobs will be STEM-related.

STEM forms the basis of a solid education that enables those who benefit from it to enjoy those benefits throughout their life. These benefits include being able to keep up personally and professionally with the tremendous and transformative developments that science and technology are bringing to our societies. A good STEM education helps students to find jobs and develop interesting careers.

It is true that STEM courses are typically more academi-cally rigorous than the social sciences and humanities, but as any educator knows, students can achieve tremendous boosts of confidence when they meet such challenges. Greater opportunities to study the STEM fields mean more opportunities for students to learn skills they may not even know they have.

The main resources include lab simulations, games, tutorials, podcasts—anything that can supplement students’ learning or offer them new opportunities. These also include professional development products, for teachers and administrators looking to increase their technological knowledge and their mastery of advance STEM subjects.

In implementing STEM offerings, there are some obstacles too such as budget restrictions, lack of resources, inadequate teacher qualifications, and lack of professional development, for schools looking to include more high-level STEM courses in their curriculum. However, partnerships with content providers can help schools in expanding their STEM offerings. The potential collaborators include virtual schools, curriculum vendors, and STEM-specific organisations. These are typically comprehensive and can help educational institutions add dozens of courses for students with proven STEM  interest and skills.

The STEM labs, coupled with a supporting, robust curriculum, expose students to science, math, and other subjects, in ways that are fun and engaging. The STEM education helps build the life skills necessary for success in the 21st century.

In STEM labs, students experience subjects by ‘doing,’ which increases understanding and retention of core academic concepts. Students’ cognition and sensory skills are engaged through the STEM experience, that enable students to connect core content knowledge with tactile experience and learn collaboration and critical thinking along the way of learning experience.

Nowadays, the STEM labs are designed to ignite and stimulate the intellectual curiosity and creativity possessed by all students. By encouraging and promoting student engagement and autonomy over their own learning, the STEM experience helps students become lifelong learners.

STEM Labs are comprised of tools designed to integrate science, technology, engineering and math into the education system. The labs provide hands-on, inquiry based learning solutions that will prepare the workforce of tomorrow for the high tech careers of the today. The content providers are offering STEM solutions to provide educational communities a cost effective learning solution that improves teaching efficiency while engaging students with hands on technology.

To delve into the core aspect of STEM labs and how these are catalysing hands-on learning for measurable outcome, we take views from experts from content and STEM solution providers that bring out a holistic picture about this much discussed subject.

Creating Borderless Learning

Rishi Khemka, Founder and CEO, Mindbox writes how STEM is catalysing hands-on learning for measurable outcome

Stem is not just a subject which explains the property of waves, calculate square root of 25 or encompass technology to contrive devise but it is a powerful weapon which can be used to design, innovate and build an approach to understand, explore and engage with the 21st century skills by not only ‘What You Know’ but by ‘What You Can Do With What You Know’.

As educators, when we provide a platform like STEM Lab to students to solve real-world problem in context, students grasp a deeper understanding of the content and to apply their knowledge in a meaningful way. We leverage technology to create an engaging and personalised environment to meet the emerging educational needs of this generation. Students master content while producing, synthesising, and evaluating information from a wide variety of subjects and resources with an understanding of and respect for diverse cultures. Virtual tools and open-source software create borderless learning territories for students of all ages, anytime and anywhere.MindBox acts as a catalyst to evolving education. We empower students with 21st century skills with an output method of developing creativity and life skills of students by using Visual Communication as a Language, Design Thinking and STEAM as a Subject. The delivery happens using ‘Technology as a Tool’ inside the school campus through project and design-based learning methodology for class I-XII students.

MindBox provides content, kits, worksheet, industry expert sessions and software’s along with qualified faculty to conduct these sessions and a four-way assessment system for school and students. We also provide national and international level competition for students to demonstrate and showcase their skills.

STEM represents a paradigm shift from traditional education philosophy based on standardised test scores to a modern idea to focus on valuing the learning based on reality and exploratory learning environment. Through MindBox, students get hands-on experience through analysis and application of knowledge.

MindBox Creativity & Design Lab (MCDL) is designed to facilitate creative possibilities in school education that will nurture the creative mindset of children. The complete setup of MCDL includes computers, projectors, Chroma screens, cameras, lights, all kits, furniture, interiors, etc, which are developed by MindBox team.

MCDL provides student to develop:

• Motor skills (hand eye coordination)
• Develops programming and logical reasoning skills;
• Enable students to invent and explore multiple solutions to a problem;
• Strong tools to build foundation of engineering and design;
• Improves number and shape recognition, grouping and counting;
• Develops sense of visual perception and colour recognition;
• Exposure to digital imaging process;
• Learn how to use mobile/digital cameras effectively; Ignite creative potential of students.

When Knowledge becomes NOWledge

Steven McKee, President and Founder, Labtech International Ltd. speaks about the importance of just-intime knowledge and tools and digital resources in facilitating the same

In a recent work with educational technology around the world, we have started to use a new term that help to think about the issues surrounding about how younger digital age learners are participating in the teaching and learning process. I would like to put forth that our relationship with knowledge and information is also changing and that this should also eventually change how we teach, learn and work. In the past, we ‘owned’ knowledge. It was to be acquired, remembered and retained. In school, this of course manifests itself in the classic lecture or reading activities followed by some exercises and a test to see if the ‘knowledge’ was retained (memorised).

Access to information is shared and no longer restricted just to library repositories, physical locations, or with learned individuals. It is now simply available 24/7 anywhere that you can get online, and is increasingly almost everywhere. In businesses, access to information is essential to many jobs for utilising and keeping track of information, adding value, communication, collaboration, production and for enhancing activities as well as jobs. A good analogy to consider is that of just-in-time manufacturing.

This is where the parts show up just before a manufactured item is assembled or produced. Many factories today do not need large warehouses anymore to store parts in advance; instead the parts arrive at the time of assembly or use and go directly to the production fl oor. I would like to put forth the concept of “Just-in-Time Information”. Education in the past treated the mind to some extent like a warehouse; it was to be fi lled with information and knowledge in preparation for some future use. However, much like the hard drive on our computers, it seems that this function is shifting to cloud or information networks where it is always available and accessible when and where you need it.

Today’s youth are not interested in remembering or retaining information or facts in the old manner or to be asked to digest information according to some outdated curriculum and learning methodology. They are comfortable with the fact that information is literally at their fi ngertips, they know it is there when they need it and will always be so. They think it is useless to spend time remembering things that are commonly available; they are motivated to seek out information when they need it, in other words NOW and not before.

So when the need arises the youth of today will search and locate the information, bookmark it, organise it, digest it, analyse and manipulate it, put it to use to accomplish the task. Then they will fi le it or store it away for future use and reference and fi nally share it. The digital skills associated with these tasks are what we need to include in our teaching and learning programmes so that they can become better at this. I have come up with a new term to express and defi ne this use of just in time information: NOWledge.

The Oxford dictionary defi nes knowledge as “information and skills acquired through experience or education. It is the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject”.

In updating this for the digital age, I propose that we alter this word to become NOWledge which we can defi ne as just in time acquisition and use of information and/or skills facilitated and augmented by digital resources and networks. It is the theoretical or practical application of digital resources (information and software applications skills) to a problem at hand.

In this concept, the digital domain constitutes or represents a signifi cant factor in a person’s extended memory, resources and potential capabilities. It is in some ways a substitution for memory and even learning. This alters the way that information and its associated ideas and understanding are treated in that they do not have to be retained in the same way as in the pre-ubiquitous-internet age. The younger generations are starting to rely on technology for retaining information, you do not need to ‘know’ and retain it in the old sense of fi lling the warehouse. Nowadays, you need to only know how and where to fi nd it, ‘bookmark’ it and acquire the skills to use it. In this new age, the information is always there and growing, so access and navigation are what is important, as well as perhaps contributing to it and in a way becoming part of the information community.

I find the new term of ‘NOWledge’ to be a useful reference concept in refl ecting on how the structure and activities of teaching and learning can or should change. How can we use NOWledge in the learning process? What skills should we teach to use this more effectively? What tools and applications should we introduce to the students to make this effective? How can this concept be infused into the curriculum and importantly how should it be assessed? These are interesting points to ponder for our future forward thinking.

Puneet Jhingan, CEO & MD, Attain Education – part of Vidyamandir Classes (VMC), in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN) shares about VMC’s unique proposition, major initiatives, future vision and much more

The name of Vidyamandir Classes (VMC) has become synonymous with success in IITJEE. What factors went into making of this success?

VMC has been creating success for students in IIT preparation for over 25 years now. Our success is founded in the success of our students. While there can be many different ways, one way to paraphrase the mantra of success can be Aptitude, Attitude and Hard Work. We have to identify, encourage, nurture and sharpen each one of these attributes in our students and in ourselves.

At the outset, we ensure that we attract, engage, prepare and retain the best faculties. VMC was founded and is still being hands-on operated by the Gupta brothers: Brij Mohan, Shyam Mohan and ManMohan, all IIT Delhi Alumnus, and the principles of their success, which then became the foundation of success for thousands of aspirants after them, are still assiduously followed at VMC.

Our students are a part of us. We are mindful that they have come to us with lots of hopes and aspirations. We ensure that the environment of the institute and the treatment to our students is as if they are a part of our family.

We have a rigorous admission process for aspirants. Our National Admission Test is carefully designed to attract and fi lter the right aptitude for IIT. For many, success and ranking in this test has become a reliable indicator of eventual success.

The right Attitude-of-Success is important. After admission, students go through an induction process, which spells out the principles of success for them and lays out the direction and path to success. The students are explained the desired values and culture they should inculcate, and how they should structure their goals, intervening milestones and daily routines.

VMC’s study material, method of teaching, assessment and corrective follow-up are crucial factors. Our study material, assessment pattern and analysis system are known to be among the best in the industry. The resultant student ranking is a fairly good indicator of eventual success for the students.

The education paradigms are changing. How has Vidyamandir adapted to the changing times?

IIT graduates are among the best in the world. They will be looked up to, to solve the problems of the world of tomorrow. As nobody cannot imagine the world of tomorrow, those problems also will be very different. Therefore, the students must learn to be agile in their thinking, innovative in their approach, dexterous in their treatment and intense in their focus. The evolving paradigm of selection endeavours to refl ect the same. That is why, teaching and learning for IIT and other competitive exams is a different ball-game altogether.

We are mindful of ourselves as well as our conduct and are constantly scanning the environment for cues and clues to improve our ecosystem (environment, faculty, study material, course-coverage, teaching-standards, assessments, analysis, remediation, feedback-mechanism etc) to equip our students to face the challenges – not only of the exams but also of the world of tomorrow.

Attain Education is the part of VMC that has established 50+ VSAT centers as part of their outreach programme. We have doubled the number of centers in the last two years

What are the major initiatives in IT and education technology undertaken by Vidyamandir to enhance the learning experience?

in education delivery, especially to students with constraints of time and travel. Vidyamandir has been using VSAT technology for over fi ve years now, to spread the fruits of its labour to students, even in the remotest corners of India. Attain Education is the part of VMC that has established 50+ VSAT centers as part of their outreach programme. We have doubled the number of centers in the last two years.

What is your vision for the institution for next three years?

Our mission is PCM: Prepare-Connect- Mentor. Foremost, is to prepare students for success. Success has to become a habit, and be pursued like a habit. The sooner this is ingrained into student’s mind and every-day conduct, the easier it becomes for them to achieve their long-term potential. For this, we have to start early like the Gurukuls of earlier times, and challenge students to direct and channelise themselves. With the right goals, right desires and right direction, they start choosing the right behaviours and habits all by themselves.

As we double our presence in the next two years, we will partner with schools. In fact, be inside schools.

Through our VSAT system, we can bring country’s best faculty inside the school classroom, within the school time and deliver the best teaching, in a live and interactive manner. The sessions are auto-recorded and schools can review them whenever they want.

Our LMS-enabled pre-learning modules and pre-learning assessments allow the child to get prepared beforehand for the sessions, real-time quizzes during sessions keep the sessions alive; and timely post-work assessments help in review, feedback and remediation. All of this is carefully recorded and reported to the school teachers.

In all, we seek to develop our teaching methodology such that it fi ts the student’s needs like a glove, so that the entire process becomes simple, lucid and effortless.

How do you compare the education scenario in India with that of other countries (especially the UAE)?

Indian education system is quite rigorous and challenging. Many UAE students desire to pursue higher studies in India, and to that extent they should be clued into the patterns and behaviour of Indian education system and Indian students. Technology and telecom have effectively eliminated geographical barriers in many ways and even in this case it is possible for UAE students to study and prepare with and alongside the best minds in India. For instance, it is possible to partner with schools to establish InSchool or AfterSchool centers for students to be a part of the same sessions that are being delivered to students in India. In this way, they can get the same facilities and treatment as if they would in India. Our test series and correspondence programmes are in any case available globally.

Good English language labs are able to meet all the necessary parameters for effective language learning, says Jasvinder Singh, CEO, Words Worth

cademics have always been seen as the gateway to good career opportunities and professional growth. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects are invariably the more sought after for the same reason, with a lot of emphasis being laid on these subjects by schools, teachers, students and the parents themselves. The scenario is gradually changing now with the importance of language and other humanities subjects being recognised by the academicians and the industry at large.

English as a skill has been identified as the hallmark of personal and professional success and this realisation has brought its teaching to the fore. The result being, STEM is giving way to the new acronym STEEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, English and Mathematics.

English, an important component of the STEEM subjects, when seen beyond being just a subject and with the focus being brought more to its aspect as an important skill that a candidate must possess invariably has come to be imparted differently, now. It is now the prerogative of the institutes to ensure that the learners go beyond the learning of reading and writing, and enhance their listening and speaking skills.

Their proficiency in listening and speaking is after all a ga me changer as far as the success of a candidate is concerned.

A conscious teaching of English as a skill is thus the need of the day. A curriculum catering to all the language learning skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing needs to be available to the learners, focusing more on enhancing their communication skills. The advantages of technology in language teaching when leveraged for this purpose make the teaching-learning experience more effective.

Good English language labs are able to meet all the necessary parameters to effective language learning. While acting as catalysts, they bring about tremendous yet positive changes in learners. The self-paced learning and secure environment provided to learning English by such labs lets the learners acquire the language at a better pace than they otherwise would.

At Words Worth English Language Lab, we feel that, the use of the blended methodology for the execution of lessons using language labs adds value to the teaching experience. Our experience as the creators of this lab is that the human touch brought in through the involvement of the teacher in the class while making use of technology makes a phenomenal difference in the learning of the language. Various aspects of pronunciation, like rate of speech, intonation and voice modulation can be mastered well using technology in teaching English. The inhibitions shed by the learners while working at the individual level in the lab paves way for learning the language faster, while interactive activities in the class with the teacher and peer, allow them to practise and learn in near real life conditions.

With Words Worth English Language Lab running in more than 3,000 schools and colleges in the country, and with over a million users accessing it annually, the success rate of the implementation of English labs can be gauged. Added to this is the attraction that this lab can run on both Thin and Thick clients, using either Windows or Linux OS. This cost effective installation makes great economic sense to the institutes.

The language labs and technology have a positive impact on teaching-learning experiences that can be safely acknowledged. Many of our user institutes have acknowledged the benefi ts accrued from the use of our language lab. They have felt that the change in the English language skills of their students is palpable and the positive difference becomes evident over a period of time.

The modern learner, when allowed, with this facility does surely benefi t and adds value to his skill base and future employability.

The author can be reached at jasvinders@wordsworthelt.com and for more information on the Words Worth English language lab please visit www.wordsworthelt.com

Are We Addressing the Right Problems?

Education technology should be guided by pedagogical considerations, learning sciences and the phenomenon of social learning in the context of schools, says Anil Mammen, Chief – Learning Design and Social Impact, Tata ClassEdge

Imagine two villages separated by a lake; the only way anyone could get from one village to the other is by swimming across the lake. Free travel between the villages is not easy. How do you solve this? You could start a boat service or you could build a simple wooden bridge. You could even build a concrete bridge so that vehicles could ply easily between the villages, encouraging more trade in the process. But how about an ornamental, architectural splendour of a bridge? Why not? It could bring in some tourism revenue for both the villages in addition to making transport more efficient (if you set aside the question of short-term cost-benefit).

On the other hand, imagine someone trying to install a fixed size bridge between multiple villages regardless of whether they are separated by wide lakes or narrow rivulets. Such an act is neither a response nor a solution.

The use of technology in education is somewhat like the use of bridges in these scenarios. It could be an effective response to some fundamental problems or it could be just an object that can be placed anywhere without any tangible benefit.

So what are some of the problems plaguing our education systems? To begin with, the schools run by the government (except Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas) have almost been reduced to ‘low income’ schools. With the weakening of public education system, we see schools being divided across economic hierarchies—from international schools for the very rich to government schools and budget private schools for the poor.

In fact, research studies on the social benefits of education mostly confirm what we intuitively know—that education can not only bring about economic improvements in people’s lives but also improve their awareness about health, civic sense and social rights. There is no doubt that educational inequity hurts our economy. But how do we respond to this problem?

Before jumping to conclusions, it might be wiser to pay
closer attention to what Andreas Schleicher, Director for Educa-tion and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, says. He says that technology seems of little help in bridging the skills divide between advantaged and disadvantaged students. And that, according to him, is the most disappointing finding in the latest OECD report on the use of technology in education. He couldn’t have put it better when he says, “Technology can amplify great teaching but it seems technology cannot replace poor teaching.”

That brings us to the question on pedagogical practices, both in government run schools and private schools. Are our practices in synch with the way children interact with the world outside? Are we able to engage our students and kindle in them some passion for the subjects we deal with in classrooms?

Can technology enhance engagement and make learning more interactive? Animations, simulations, and virtual laboratories are all fairly stimulating ways to engage the students. Therefore, technology can help address the problem of engagement, but with the caveat that it should be used in the right measure by an involved teacher. That is to say, a teacher who not only guides learners to discover the concept she is dealing with but also demands that students think about it, question it and articulate what they make of it.

Education technology should be guided by pedagogical considerations, learning sciences and the phenomenon of social learning in school contexts. Blending technology with chalk and talk is not the answer. Active economic and social agents of tomorrow (why tomorrow, even today) require deep conceptual understanding, critical thinking skills and the ability to innovate. For this, we need more intensive student-teacher interactions, multiple learning experiences and a genuine research orientation— not standardisation, conformity and an over-reliance on textbooks. If intellectual interactions in the outside world cannot progress without technology any more, you cannot keep technology away from schools either. But it is not yet time to close the door on the question of how.

Sumit Shukla, Senior VP, MS Dynamics Practice Head, Apar Technologies Pvt Ltd, tells Elets News Network (ENN) about the changing education landscape in India, USP of Apar Technologies and its future vision.

How technological transformations and innovative learning tools are changing the education landscape in India?

We are in the 21st century now and technology is emerging faster than ever before. It takes a blink of an eye for any information to travel the whole world, and people want to be aware about every bit happening all around. India is also in the race and education sector is all where it starts from. What you learn from your school or college is what you take forward and use in the practical world. Today’s students want everything on the tip of their fi ngers. Be it concept of smart classes or automation tools for the educational institutions, IT is empowering every hand to implement the innovation they require and aspire for.

With numerous companies in IT and consulting services, what makes Apar Technologies different?

It has been a long journey till here. We have learned and improved with every hurdle we overcame. eLite SIS was a concept that evolved during my college days. I had thought of this name then, it has been over a decade now. The idea was to enable a channel where everyone is heard and information is used in a way to benefit students largely. The core of the system is ‘Student Relationship Management’ and with time, the vision added cores like:

The core of the system is ‘Student Relationship Management’ and with time, the vision added cores like:

• Construction of knowledge
•  Social integration
•  Compliance and planning
•  Analyse and deliver
•  Social transformation

What is different about us is that we are not in the competition, but to provide the quality and stick to what we dreamt about.

“Our prime focus is Digital Media. I aspire that our product can be used as a smart solution in an institute… Biometric attendance and bar code reader are old concepts now. I am trying an innovation where as soon as a student puts his thumb on a device, one can see his whole activity in a single screen”

How your solutions are benefi cial for organisations?

It is an ERP, based on the concept of Student Relationship Management. It is meant to benefi t both educational institutes as well as every individual related to the institute. It is a one-stop solution, which gives a holistic approach or solution to all the activities happening around an institution.

We don’t want to just store the data and make it available; the system is planned to be intelligent enough to suggest, based on the data present. If I have to name two top things as example, it will be Predictive Analysis and Compliance Management. As per the recent studies and our market research, Compliance Management in education vertical ERP is not a part of any solution, but eLite SIS is.

Please share the vision of your company for next fi ve years.

Vision in terms of business and vision in terms of evolution are two different aspects. If we talk about business, I certainly see eLite SIS being used in every fi fth college and university in India and has at least over 100 case studies in regions, focusing right now internationally (ASPAC and MENA).

But I would like to share my aspiration about the evolution of our product as a platform, which enables all possible integrations and can truly be used as a Smart Solution in an institute. Anything you can possibly think of like biometric attendance and bar code reader are old concepts now. I want to turn it into an innovation where student puts his thumb on a device and you can see his whole activity in a single screen and the analytics suggest you what to pin-point and where to appreciate student’s efforts.

“We have learned and improved with every hurdle we overcame. eLite SIS was a concept that evolved during my college days. I had thought of this name then. The idea was to enable a channel where everyone is heard and information is used in a way to benefi t students. I visualise eLite SIS being used in every fi fth college and university in India and has at least over 100 case studies in ASPAC and MENA regions”

What are the methods you are using to increase the visibility of your organisation?

“My work will take me forward” is an old saying but still stands true. We are trying to involve more with the marketing activities happening around the regions we are targeting for education verticals.

Microsoft is giving us a good helping hand to get us the visibility we require. Physical campaigns, door-opening meetings and other mediums are certainly the channels we are utilising, but our prime focus is on Digital Media. What I would like to add here is, one successful case study in one institute opens doors to fi ve new institutes. Relationship Marketing is never outdated.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, governments are actively investing considerable capital to reform and improve education systems. In an interaction with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN), Ross Barfoot, Partner & Head of Education at the global law firm, Clyde & Co, gives some insights about the emerging education market in the region

Setting up an educational institution of global magnitude calls for a diverse expertise. How does Clyde & Co support setting up of greenfi eld projects in education?

Clyde & Co has a leading, diverse education practice based across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region comprising specialist lawyers from a range of legal disciplines across the fi rm, including corporate, commercial, regulatory, dispute resolution, employment, intellectual property, construction and real estate. We provide commercial, pragmatic and innovative advice to education sector clients on all aspects of their business. Our depth of understanding of the education sector means that we understand our clients’ operating environment and commercial needs, and is a direct result of a long-standing track record of advising clients in this sector.

We are also connected to education practices and education-focused lawyers from across our network of 45 offi ces across six continents, including the UK and Europe, North and South America, and Asia and Australia. Our education clients include public and private sector players, operators and investors specialising in education investments as well as primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions, local education authorities, educational administrative organisations and professional bodies.

We are committed to helping our clients succeed in the markets in which they operate, adapt their businesses to changing market developments and guide them through new territories as they plan for future growth. Our lawyers have extensive experience of advising on complex corporate structures that meet our clients’ specifi c requirements and are in keeping with the laws and practices of the jurisdictions in which they operate.

A lot of Indian edu-preneurs are keen to set up institutions in the Middle East. What are some of the key differentiating elements of this market which makes it attractive?

The Middle East has one of the fastest growing education markets in the world. Recent reports have demonstrated signifi cant growth in demand, enrolment rates and fees available in the sector. These have been fuelled not only by private investment but also increasingly by regional governments.

Across MENA, governments are actively investing considerable capital to reform and improve education systems, enhance human capital and promote themselves as knowledgebased economies. Growth in this market is being largely driven by favourable demographics, increasing demand for better standards of education and growing private participation as a result of signifi cant investment opportunities.

Around 35 per cent of the Middle East region’s population is under the age of 25 and UNESCO has estimated that there will be an additional 9.5 million students by 2030 across the GCC.

There are simply not enough schools, colleges and universities, either public or private, for them. Governments in the region, particularly in the GCC, have the money to invest in the sector and are increasingly doing so. Government expenditure on education in the GCC now accounts for around a quarter of all total public expenditure. A shortage in the K12 private education sector also makes the region attractive to investors.

“We are connected to education practices and education-focused lawyers from across our network of 45 offi ces across six continents, including the UK and Europe, North and South America, and Asia and Australia”

Parents in the region are ready to invest in their children’s education; rather than the fees, it is mostly the quality of teaching and the reputation of the institution that play a part in parent’s decision-making. They just need the schools to be able to do so. The demand for private schools is across the expat and local population, with an increase in the number of UAE nationals moving their children from state-operated schools to private schools, because of a perception that they offer a better quality education. We have seen a greater number of “premium quality” schools entering the market because parents will pay high fees if they feel their children are getting premium quality education. However, we now see greater opportunities for Indian curriculum schools, and those schools coming in at the mid-level fee bracket.

Your fi rm is connected to education practices across the globe. What’s your understanding of the education market? What are the key trends that will dominate the educational landscape in the years to come?

A key trend we are seeing across our MENA and Asia offi ces is a drive by Indian and Western institutions to expand internationally. As their home markets remain fl at, schools and universities are looking to establish themselves across these regions where demand for places continues to grow. The investors are keen to partner with established education brands to take advantage of that growth. This is in line with the current trend globally on the use of private capital to fund development of education, particularly in developing countries.

Education for long has been seen as a social good. However, there is a shift to make it market driven. What are the key regulatory challenges or pitfalls of an entirely market-driven model?

I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. The UAE education sector is heavily regulated, with both KHDA and ADEC enforcing caps on school fees linked to performance, and day-today regulatory compliance increasing. However, we are seeing an increase in private for-profi t schools and that trend will continue as long as investors see opportunities. Regulation should always refl ect the lifecycle of the education sector. Currently in the region a shortage in schools means that fee caps are needed to ensure parents can afford to send their children to school and employers can afford to recruit staff with school-age children. As the number of school places increases, we will see an increase in competition for admissions, and then we will naturally see the market taking over to regulate the school fees.

Out of your vast experience, what do you think are the key hallmarks of a globally-acclaimed educational operating ecosystem?

Regulators need to make it as attractive and as easy as possible for new quality institutions to be established and attractive to private capital, while at the same time ensuring high educational standards and access to education for all children. An unenviable task for any regulator!

Onkar Parmar, Founder and Managing Director, EduLabs, speaks to Elets News Network (ENN) on the contribution of EduLabs in education space, its unique proposition, future plans and the role of technology in education and much more

What exactly does EduLabs do in the Education space?

EduLabs is an education consulting fi rm that helps schools adopt ‘Technologies and Methods’ for supporting their differentiated, learning needs. We have engineered a stunningly effective educational support model that wins over the apparently insurmountable challenges related to ICT implementation and its optimal use value.

There are several learning solutions available in the market. What sets you apart from the rest?

Our fl agship solution, known as iTOP, is unique in many ways. It is a rich blend of best practices in Education and Cognitive Psychology. The existing school curriculum is remodelled as per ‘Reconstructed Bloom’s Taxonomy’ and is delivered in the form of ‘interactive digital assessments’. We use a unique technological model that allows us to deliver ‘an episode of content’ at school, followed by highly connected episodes at home, in the form of assignments. By virtue of its unique artifi cial intellect, iTOP also measures cognitive development in every student separately and builds a learning environment that is highly differentiated and personalised.

Use of technology in teaching and learning has had its own downside. How well do you think you’re placed from that perspective?

Probably, the biggest change in education over the last few decades has been the introduction of new technologies. Our schools, teachers and students have witnessed regular induction and presence of various ICT solutions in various ways. The technology is there to stay.

From the perspective of EduLabs, I strongly believe that technology should be adopted only when it increases the effi ciency and effectiveness in teachinglearning. It is essential to investigate the real impact of technology on an improved learning state. Having seen the initial phase of pilot studies and rigorous market testing, our technological model now fi nds home in 100+ Indian schools and proves to be nothing less than a major pedagogical breakthrough. National and international, urban and rural, rich and community, or large and small — this model has proved reliable, valid and consistent at schools in diverse environments. Through its unique nature, it has circumvented the effects of limited infrastructural and network resources, lack of usage, and also conquered the technical challenges of volume requirement at schools.

What is the ‘one major change’ that EduLabs would like to bring in the education space that can really transform the learning-teaching experience?

To help establish a strong connect between the ‘imparted knowledge’ and ‘cognitive development’ of every single learner… We follow a simple mantra: make learning experience highly personalised with effective cognitive development metrics.

What are company’s future plans? Any new products or solutions in the pipeline?

I think there is a lot of ground that we’d like to cover through this business vertical (iTOP). New and more enhanced versions of iTOP will be released with time. Apart from expansion in Indian metropolitan cities and in the UAE, we plan to start operations in farther parts of the globe within next two to three years.

Within the Education LOB (Line of Business), we’re also operating on another vertical (LiveOlympiad), which happens to be the only ‘Tablet-driven Olympiad’ in India. Another innovative platform is where we use our ‘tablet-lab on wheels’ to conduct Math, Science and Technology Olympiads within school premises. From a student base of 50,000 last year, we intend to scale the size of student base to 3 lakh by year 2017 and 10 lakh by the end of 2018 (within India).

In addition to the education domain, we also plan to expand our business with Corporates. Currently partnered with MNCs like BT (British Telecom) and NSN, we use our ‘Tablet-lab on wheels’ to meet their testing needs in hiring process. We’ll be increasing the client-base. We also look forward to enhance this product portfolio and make additional contribution to address regular training needs of employees.