Learning Today: Mobile, Virtual, Interactive

With the growing demand of technology in education, it is imperative that technology is playing a big role in transforming the way education is imparted. There is a growing affinity by the Indian youth for new technologies and products such as tablets, notebooks, LMS and IWB, educational institutes and schools as there is a huge potential for technology to be integrated into education industry. The session ‘Learning Today: Mobile, Virtual, Interactive’ highlights expert opinion on the effective methods of learning

DR. P BALAKRISHNA SHETTY, Vice Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur

We lay too much emphasis on effective methods of teaching, whereas we should concentrate on effective methods of learning, says Dr P Balakrishna Shetty, Vice Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur

How can the classrooms be made better? Through answer first and discuss next approach – in each class instead of giving a lecture, we should involve each student in an assessment form. In this technique, faculty members question the students first and then start taking the class as per the students’ knowledge and the responses given in the answer sheet, making the class interactive. Advanced technology is another tool which helps in complete understanding of the subject to the student. Mechanically imposing data and overwhelming amount of information will not help students in decision making or making them wiser. Students can learn only by stimulating intellectual energy and striving for all-round development of the students by involving them in various social projects.

The Indian automotive industry today is the fourth largest automotive market by volume and it contributes to seven per cent of the country’s GDP, with more than six million vehicles to be sold by 2020.This has led to strong human resource requirement in the industry, where at present we have 19 million people directly or indirectly employed in the automotive sector in India today, according to the Make in India website. This number is expected to touch 40 million by 2022, pointing to a huge requirement of automotive professionals to keep the booming Indian market sustainable in terms of human resource. There is an alarming skills gap in the auto ready industry professionals in the country that needs immediate attention. The last impact which is very strongly felt is the influence of consumer electronics and the gamification of learning concepts.

Today’s generation is driven by aspiration and ambition but with certain other features. The purchasing power of people has gone up because of increasing opportunities and better welfare of parents. And the availability is dependent on the demand, which drives the supply. Besides, there are lots of business models available nowadays with the support of technologies.

POINTS TO PONDER:

• Answer first and discuss next- an effective method of learning
• Usage of advanced technology
• Involvement of social projects necessary
• Human resource requirement in automotive industry
• 40 million automotive professionals required by 2022
• Gap in auto-ready industry professionals
• Quality of research output falling down
• Focus on the course, learning of the student and the outcome of the course
• Important drivers of learning are utility, desire, availability and cost

Education should not be treated as a profit-making business, rather it has to be a medium that helps the next generation contribute meaningfully to the nation’s growth, says, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Delhi, in an interview with Prathiba Raju and Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN)

What are the initiatives undertaken by the Delhi Government in education sector?

The Delhi Government has doubled the education budget in the State. This indicates our intention that we are serious about improving the standard of education in the national capital. We want to make education career-oriented and skill education is our priority. Our focus is to make people better citizens through education. A larger chunk in India is still following the age-old trends in education; and is yet to adopt innovations. To overcome such issues, the first and foremost job done by the Government was increasing the budget for education. Our idea was to give emphasis on good education, while other policies can be framed later. We have not doubled the budget just for the sake of doing it, but we have actually done a micro-level planning to implement it. We intend to make both the Government and private schools up to the mark.

We must invest more and more in education sector and produce more Homi K Bhabha and C V Raman-like crusaders. Also, it is needless to say that invention of zero in India was a great achievement, and we keep innovating. We need to learn from progressive countries where Newton invented the law of gravity centuries ago, and then they have Mark Zuckerberg today who introduced Facebook in keeping with the changing trends. Twitter has also occupied sizeable virtual space, we should also do something like that.

What is the skill education plan of the Government and roadmap to implement it?

We are including skill education as a part of the main curriculum in over 1000+ government schools run by us. We will reduce the curricula of Class IX-XII by 25 per cent and add innovative elements in it. We will focus more on job skills and vocational skills. We are working on it and have prepared a very comprehensive plan for that. We will take forward the vocational education and skill development in a planned manner. The robotic classes and innovation cubes will be seen in government schools positively in the next one to two years and incubation centres will be established in colleges.

We are also setting up a Skill University for building career of students and opening future prospects for them as per the requirement of job market. We have been running a Skill Development Centre in Delhi in collaboration with the Government of Singapore to train the students in various trades.

In schools, there should be freedom to educate and freedom to innovate. However, they cannot be allowed to loot. The government will keep a check on and record of it. By and large, government schools in Delhi have become a comfort zone for employees, and private players see schools as a profit-making business. This has to be curbed.

How do you encourage teachers in government schools and is there any scope for volunteer teachers?

Teachers in government schools are very talented. As a pilot project to encourage them, we have started changing the ambience of 54 government schools. We are training our teachers and fixing their responsibilities. We are giving all kinds of facilities at these 54 schools in the first phase, and later all schools will be covered. Besides, we are all set to start ‘Be the Teacher’ programme and will invite interested people, who can educate children. If anyone has the time to spare, he can come to our schools and teach students. To begin with the programme, we requested the President of India to be the first such teacher for a day and he happily agreed. We want classrooms to be a place of revolution where all people who think they are fit to teach can contribute to the cause.

We have started a Twitter account @ Minister_Edu for posting updates and sharing information. Interested candidates can also drop me an e-mail at msisodia@gmail.com for engagementrelated queries.

Do you think technology can be a game changer in the education sector?

Over the years, science and technology have changed the dimensions of the education sector. The entire world is revolving around technology-based applications today, and most of them are designed and developed by youngsters of 18-25 years in other countries. Our country too has innovative brains and capable people, but our schools have not been able to exploit their potential. Moreover, Government schools in Delhi are still deprived of high-tech education. This depicts the ground reality and we are trying to bridge the gap. Therefore, we have deiced to empower our schools and educational institutions through technology so that they drive students the right way.

Actually we need to shift the entire paradigm, and it is not possible without proper education. The Government invites all the stakeholders to join us in our endeavour, as without their participation, the desired goals cannot be achieved. It is not the Government’s job alone, but the society as a whole has a responsibility towards it. We have to understand our responsibilities towards education.

How can your initiatives help generate employment and be a model to emulate?

Every year around 2.5 lakh students pass out 10+2 from the government and private schools of Delhi, but it is an irony that there are not adequate arrangements for even one lakh students to accommodate for higher and professional studies. This needs to be rectified. To provide education to all, the incumbent Government has decided to help poor students get education loan even for pursuing ITI and polytechnic courses. This facility was earlier available to only 10+2 pass-out students who opt for premier institutes to pursue higher studies. We have to expedite this initiative.

We are also planning to connect skill development with the tourism sector to eradicate unemployment at tourist spots in the country. This model is quite popular in other countries.

Skill Development in School Education

The wave of skilling the young minds of the nation is taken up as the most crucial agenda keeping in mind the motto of National Skill Development Mission of the current government. But the point to ponder is how much feasible is the concept, stating that skills need to be incorporated into a structure where academic learning is more popular, is an upheaval task for the government to form a better educational structure especially for skill development sector comprising of industry-oriented training. Jessy Iype of Elets News Network (ENN) writes about the plan of action to making the youth skill-enabled

The national skill policy, among others, devised in 2009 had set a target to impart skill development training to 500 million by 2022. The nation’s educational infrastructure offers a concrete system comprising of primary, secondary and higher education. The constitution of India had made education a fundamental right, provisioning free and compulsory education for children between the age group of 5 to 14 years. But as a developing country we need to build more skilled employees than academic ones.

Holistic Learning, More Skilled than Academic

The supply of public education is inefficient and leaves a significant shortfall which is being filled by private education institutions. The working age group between 15 to 59 years is the largest bulk, constituting more than 65 per cent of total population. In such a backdrop, 29 per cent of children are enrolled in private schools. In higher education sector, private institutions, colleges and universities are playing a pivotal role in the education landscape.

Sagar Sanghvi, Chief Executive Officer, Robokidz said, “Why isn’t education result oriented? I don’t think it’s the right decision they take, right from primary to technical education. Be it various aspects of skills, I am focusing on technical skills. Students who are employable are decreasing day-by-day. When a company comes to hire in campuses, they inform students to forget what they learnt in their graduation and focus on what in the three months of training will be taught by the company. Nobody is skilled enough to work in core areas of development. We have to skill students in higher education, who can run a machinery plan in a factory.”

Potentially the target group for skill development comprises of all those in the labour force, including those entering the labour market for the first time. The current capacity of the skill development programmes is 3.1 million.

According to a survey, two per cent of the country’s workforce is skilled which is much lower when compared to the developing nations. There is a dual challenge of developing skills and utilising them in a proper way.

Need for Strategic Roadmap

Skill development is associated more to the context of industry oriented training that fetch immediate employment and earning. In India, education and skill development sector is structured under two independent ministries.

“Skilling India, Skilling Youth, it starts with skilling the little one. It’s the vision of our Prime Minister to skill the youth, and its possible as two thirds of population is young and good amount of educators are basically involved in skilling the kids. We all know skilling is the need of the hour to get employment. Do the boards like CBSE or ICSE, have strategic roadmap to skilling children is the question raised,” feels Vittal Bhandary, CEO, Little Elly.

About 1.3 million schools operate in India where over 227 million students are enrolled. The figure indicates the state of regular enrolment in primary and secondary education levels. In contrast, the private sector has a much larger role in the education scenario of the country. Apart from primary education sector, private colleges, universities and institutes are contributing substantially to higher education.

Chinmaya Krishnamurthy, Principal, International Residential School, Coimbatore, opines, “Personally I feel skills can’t be taught. For example: An eight-year old girl goes to a new school. The child is asked to draw and colour a particular pattern. But the student uses her creativity and made a new drawing. The teacher scolds her because she tried to break away from copying the drawing. The moral is that we are just killing the art skill in the child. Tutoring can never bring out the skill in children. We don’t allow them to take risks at all. Education means going to good school, getting good marks and not skills. It’s high time for us to evaluate as to what is missing, and we need to shift from tutoring to intuitive teaching. The divinity in a child knows it all. Let them do what they want to do.”

At the end of the day, teachers are concerned about just running the schools, skilling for industry is not our problem is what most teachers think. We all say about skilling India, but, in reality it’s just lip service. The roadmap with regards to higher education is not there in the real sense because the government has started the wave so all are talking about it. It is necessary to strengthen a child with emotional and social skills

To Know it Right

Initiatives for skill development should be oriented towards both catering to the demand and creating the demand. Skill development is strongly related to the market and industry. Efficient skill development programmes will add value across wide sections of workers creating rich human resource. The need of skill development for employability is across every section of the workforce. From operators and technician level workers to highly skilled labour comprising of college graduates, there is a need for an effective platform for skill development. The initiatives taken by government for skill development are massive. However, the extent to which they operate is inadequate to bring effective progress to the lackadaisical nature of current scenario. This calls in for pervasive initiative by private entities through collaborated as well as independent works.

“At the end of the day, teachers are concerned about just running the schools, skilling for industry is not our problem is what most teachers think. We all say about skilling India, but, in reality it’s just lip service. The road map with regards to higher education is not there in the real sense because the government has started the wave so all are talking about it. It is necessary to strengthen a child with emotional and social skills. I have seen a boy who had lost his mother and his fellow students didn’t know how to talk to that boy or console him. They just said all the best in the end of the conversation over the phone. We need to equip social skills among the children in terms of life skills,” Lt Col (Retd) A Sekhar, Atul Vidyalaya, Valsad says.

Scope in Skilling

There is massive scope of development in education sector in India. Although a number of institutes are successful to be among top 100 in global ranking, deficiency is quite apparent. India should focus on a holistic approach to hone the human resource of the nation by implementing better solutions to reach out to thousands of villages in rural landscape. Leveraging private sector is beneficial since a competitive sense to provide service is inductive in this domain.

Harwinder Singh from EduPro Learning feels that it is necessary to have clarity of the skills learnt and taught. “Do we even know what skills to be given to the students to make them prepare for the industry seven years from now? We impart academic skills by default in the schools. Take for example, Does an eighth grade child knows what career will he chose when he grows up or for that matter let us take our own examples, what jobs are we doing? As teachers, we should congratulate ourselves for trying to impart those skills to children nowadays without a certainty of how they shall utilise it in their jobs in future.”

Bijoya Baksi, Principal, Navrachana School, Vadodara says, “We have a lot of clubs in our school. One of them is called ‘Tod Phod Jod’ club, where we enable students to recreate their mechanical creativity by engaging them in new machinery. Through their innovations, we try to find out how these measures give us a pool of talent, for which social, analytical, critical skills are necessary. As a school, we need to bridge the gap. Most schools have everything demarcated but we go beyond things as we give our students skill exposure. I think learning should be what makes them ready for industry, like communication skills,” he adds.

To realise the importance of skilling youth, the government has to put efforts to form better educational structure comprising of the industry-oriented training. It is the need of the hour to bring a change in the education format so as to impart skill development to the millions awaited skilled employees.

Innovative practices in assessment, accreditation, evaluation and quality standard in higher education at an affordable cost is a cause of concern for the developing countries. The session highlights the discussions with various stakeholders across the country to understand and nd out innovative practices in this sector

Rajeev Menon, Head of Assessments, MeritTrac Services

In 2025, India will have the largest population in the age group of 25-30, which means we have a talented pool of young people if they are properly nurtured and given proper education

There is a lot of focus on learning as well as learning platforms. Over the years, assessment practices have evolved and with reference to India, the last 10 years have seen extreme growth. From OMR scanning, result processing to completely moving, most of the exams to the computer- based mode delivery have been a significant progress. Things like transparency, security among others have achieved great amount of success under the computer-based delivery mode. Further, the practice of digital evaluation has been adopted by many universities like Sikkim Manipal University and many others. That apart, many schools today also use innovative devices to engage students’ responses and understand various concepts. However, we have moved from a paper-based mode to a computerbased mode. Have we really leveraged the technology to create an impact in assessments is a question that we need to ask ourselves. Also, we need to change the way the output is transmitted back to the student. Beyond grades and marks, there is hardly anything that reaches the student to help him improve his performance. RAJEEV MENON, Head ofAssessments, MeriTrac Services

Education sector today is facing various challenges in terms of fake degrees, marksheets, etc. The reason behind it is that verification of these certificates, degrees or marksheets is extremely cumbersome and a time-taking process. Moreover, this comes out when a student goes to the market and applies for a job. Some of the recruiting agencies say that one out of five resume is fake in some respect, either a person shows fake qualification or a fake experience. Now, the question is how do we really solve this challenge? Though many steps can be taken to escape this, the problem is that the moment a person gets a document photocopied, the whole content becomes diluted and it’s more or less reserved to the photocopy only. Moreover, there is nobody who can verify the authenticity of the photo copy. So, this is the area we can work into providing document security. Also, with all the technology in place, identifying fake certificates and degrees is still a challenge. We have to create a platform of secure evidencing ensuring that the data is recorded in a secured way and it is strictly verifiable without the originator’s interference.   HEMANT GAUR, Innovation Architect, Pitney Bowe

We have some of the accreditations by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the professional courses by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). In an institute, it is not just about the distribution of degrees, but the overall personality development of the students. So, once we impart education to the students, there is also a need to monitor institutes and universities keeping in mind how they are performing and impart learning. There is a need to stress on teaching, learning, consultancies, extend services, co-curricular activities, whether they are maintaining ethical and moral values and so on. Hence, for any educational institute, accreditation is must. There must be unbiased checking of the papers, which will enhance the competitive spirit among the universities. So, accreditation is a must for education institutions, universities, and it must be done by an independent, autonomous body. If there is an accreditation, the government bodies also come forward to see that recruitment is done as often as possible so that the teaching-learning process can be synced in. PROF GSN RAJU, Vice Chancellor, Andhra University

If we see the scenario of higher education in India, it is quite alarming despite a number of efforts being put in by the government, educational institutions, universities and affiliating agencies, etc. In 2025, India will have the largest population in the age group of 25-30, which means that we have a talented pool of young people if they are properly nurtured and given proper education. Nevertheless, no one can dare at present to start engineering colleges because the admission rates are going down. Some of the institutions which are not performing very well are on the verge of closing. We talk of the quality education but when we talk of quality there are certain parameters. Earlier, our approach was completely input-based measurement. For instance, if a university has 10,000 students and the other has the intake of 2,000 students, then the university with the larger intake was considered good. However, today the time has changed as the education is output-based. All our assessments are qualitative rather than quantitative. So, we need to do the assessment of those parameters which define quality. Prof P K GARG, Vice Chancellor, Uttarakhand Technical University

POINTS TO PONDER:

• Education moving from paper-based mode to computer-based mode
• Identifying fake certificates and degrees is still a challenge
• Unbiased checking of papers to enhance competitive spirit
• Education is output-based, and more qualitative than quantitative

National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is making its learners ready not only for the Indian market but for the global market as well while offering programmes keeping in mind the global requirements. Prof Chandra Bhushan Sharma, Chairman, NIOS tells Vishwas Dass of Elets News Network (ENN) about NIOS’ initiatives and courses

Please throw some light on the education initiatives undertaken by NIOS and the priorities for the betterment of quality of education.

NIOS has been offering courses for nearly 25 years from now. We have also been offering a large number of vocational and skill development courses. Somehow, skill development courses have not been very popular. Primarily, we have banked upon the printed text. We have two things in mind at the moment. One is to shift from the print based to the online courses. Hopefully, by the end of this year, all of our courses would be made online for the secondary and senior secondary students.

The students can study online and assess themselves online. When they have completed all the components of a course and are convinced enough that they are ready for certification, they can fill the form and write their exams. As far as skilling is concerned, we are trying to skill up and update our programmes, developed five years back, as per the demand of the society. We have 160 million youth who have to be skilled to serve the world. Perhaps, we would not be able to employ all of them in India, they have to find opportunities abroad also.

We are trying to update our programmes keeping in mind the global requirements. We would be offering +2 vocational courses. Presently, in India, we have +2 Arts, Science and Commerce streams. NIOS would be the first board of India to offer +2 vocational courses and if students do not want to continue with higher education, they can have a certificate which will qualify them to work as qualified technical workforce. We want to prepare our learners for the global market. Currently, NIOS is not considered at par with the traditional boards but we are trying to bring it at par with the board exams and give it a global certification.

When we are talking about technology we do find that the teachers lack in training. Are there any provisions to train your teachers?

We have a parallel system, we do not have our own teachers. We pick up teachers from traditional institutions and re-train them for our jobs because our learners are not completely depended on the teachers. They are independent learners and want only to be helped where they are having any problems. We do not do complete teacher training but a part of it. We also utilise people who are not exactly in full time jobs. In our country, there are hundreds of well educated women, who are housewives, who do not want full time jobs. So, we pick up such workforce. We bring them to help our learners. We have tailor-made our vocational programmes for mothers so that would qualify them to become 12th pass. Instead of forcing them to study particular subjects like history, geography or economics, we give them courses in managing their own house.

What is the pass percentage of students?

Around 75 per cent of students who appear, qualify their exams. The distance mode is a very tender method of education because we are not in regular touch with learners so they come as motivated learners. We follow the national curriculum framework so we don’t follow any particular board as such. In fact, we had done study where our questions were found to be more difficult than the traditional boards like CBSE, ICSE, etc. The traditional boards’ learners are age learners but our students are normally more experienced. When we compared with CBSE question papers, ours’ appeared to be more difficult.

How WES platform benefi ts NIOS and what are the takeaways that you are looking forward?

We never advertised ourselves. Although we must do it because now that has become a norm for educational institutes. If learners do not know about our programmes, courses and methods, how would they come to us. I believe this platform would take us to more learners. WES was indeed a very good opportunity for us to promote NIOS among the youth.

Need for Greater Role of Industry in Higher Education

There is a need for greater participation from the industry to support the academia in the country. While many corporations invest heavily in ongoing education and skills training of employees, they still depend on the solid foundation taught during primary, secondary and tertiary education. The session throws light on building a strong public-private partnership to strengthen the skills gamut

PROF VIJAY KANT VERMA, Vice Chancellor, AISECT University

Indian higher education is facing powerful dilemmas and deficit choices, public-private access equity, research quality, industry participation, overregulation and establishment support that needs meaningful expansion in education

We want our youth to come forward and take initiative and be skilled to take on the responsibility of the nation. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a 49 per cent government entity under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and 51 per cent representation from industries like FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII among others. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very keen on skill development and this is precisely what he has been talking about in most of his addresses to the nation that we are a youthful nation and our youth are our strength. The world and India need a skilled workforce. Let youth get skills which can contribute towards a strong India. By 2020 India will have 49 per cent of its workforce which would be youth. In order to inculcate and develop their skills, everybody has potential. We keep hearing the data almost on a regular basis that two per cent of workforce are vocationally trained, the rest are not. We have 85 per cent of the engineers who are unemployable. We have a huge responsibility of bridging the gap between industry and academia but we need to find a solution. We have to integrate skill development into the curriculum for the benefits of the students.

We represent various technology companies like Bentley, Autodesk among others. As on date we have some 15,000 odd customers in the industry and there is one common requirement which comes from most of them that is manpower and skill development training. Besides, we also have some 500 customers from academic space (higher education) and for most of the institutions that we represent and give solutions to them the primary challenge is to place students coming out from those institutions. Definitely there is a big role which is there for the industry to play to go and engage with the academia and vice versa. Based on that primary to bridge the gap between industry and academia we have come up with the concept of Mindbox. So, taking this as an initiative, we are trying our best to bring both together and ensure the gap can actually be reduced. We have 11 branch offices, 150 plus professionals in 21 cities. We also work in a model of distribution and our channel partners cover over 300 cities in India.

It is really important to understand the importance of the need for greater role of industry in higher education. Today’s youth need skill and development to make India the best. Without linking academia with industry it’s not possible to bring development and nation building. The AP Goyal University is located in a very tough terrain. In Shimla, there is no industry but we would be making efforts to link industry spread across the nation with our university to bring to our campus. Our promoters also industrialists, understand the importance of academia with industry. India with such a huge population, higher education in the whole of India is extremely important for global economy. If we really want to make skilling youth, skilled India, we need to link the said streams.

Indian higher education is facing powerful dilemmas and deficit choices, public-private access equity, research quality, industry participation, overregulation, establishment support that needs meaningful expansion in education. The whole report precipitates down to the need for greater role of industry collaboration in higher education. The critical areas if we look at with relation to employability gap which has been put by various surveys are almost around 70-80 per cent skill deficiency, entrepreneurship, research and innovation quality and quantity of faculty, funds crunch and overregulation of various kinds of institutes through difference in policies and regulatory bodies. If we look at the recent efforts, there has been a lot of endeavour in bridging the gap between industry and institute and to develop a good industry – institute interface, the Ministry of Human Resources has set up three task forces – research innovation, education, skill and employability and foster academic-industry tie-ups.

n 350 BC, Aristotle had remarked that education is an ornament for the prosperous and a refuse for the poor. The problem now with us is: are we really disseminating and making the youth ready for taking the jobs which are available? Whether the output we give is functional or really workable? So many committees have been formed and came with numerous suggestions but to no avail. Unless and until the skill is integrated, industry platforms like FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII would not be able to offer jobs. Importantly, the existing curriculum should be remodeled and revised and should be examined. The solution of the problem is that it has to be industry-integrated, skill-based and vocation training that it matches with the industry requirements. It has been noticed many times that students coming out of the universities are not employable. But why is it happening? If all the universities can give enough exposure of industry to the youth, the problem can be solved.

POINTS TO PONDER:

• Existing curriculum to be remodeled
• Industry – academia linkages to be strong
• Integration of skill development into curriculum

Beyond Traditional Frameworks

The shift in the focus of imparting knowledge, and with a growing dependence on technology has initiated a need for changing the role of assessment in the country. Bhawna Satsangi, of Elets News Network (ENN) nds out how the changing pedagogy towards the competency-based education will make a difference for the learners in the job market

The competency-based education prepares the learners more effectively for a real workplace environment, which means that the acquisition of competencies takes into account the requirements of companies and the industry. Skill is a transferable competency

The empowerment of technology will change the classroom learning and make it more appealing for students. It is necessary to make the skills of the teachers and the student technologically suitable. Today, technology is available to even a three-year-old child. But for using the technology efficiently and effectively, necessary directions have to be given to leverage the benefits. Nowadays in schools an efficient person is missing who can guide the children on the usage of technology and make them skilled.

There is no single right way for competency learning education. Even with the constraints in operating in the traditional time-based policy context, there is a great variation in design choices that a particular district and its schools are making.

Competency-based learning begins by identification of a specific capability or skill, and then enabling learners to develop the mastery of it at their own pace. The digital age is going to help in making the skill competent over the period of time. Learners can develop the competencies they feel they need or can combine a whole set of competencies into a full qualification with certificate, diploma or degree.

Learning Traditional Paradigms

Sanjay Datta, Principal, Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur

The traditional framework showcases the knowledge and teaching of a traditional classroom. The system uses agebased grades to create allies of students that flow through the system. Schools are generally organised into 6-12 standard and post secondary groups. Soft skills, social skills and debating skills are a part of school education. Competency learning is required to break away the traditional methods of learning. The learning objectives act as modules which have suggested resources to obtain the objective, guidance and feedback from a mentor.

The competency-based education prepares learners more effectively for real workplaces, which means that the acquisition of competencies takes into account the requirements of companies and industry. Skill is a transferable competency. Competency-based education encompasses many useful components, making it appealing. A comprehensive plan has several components and can impact multiple levels of schooling. Heemal H Bhat, Principal, Hansraj Model School, New Delhi feels that digital technology comes in handy.

“Digital learning by its very nature has a wide reach. So once the problem of skills is over, which is identified and accepted to be developed, I think the digital age will be started,” says Sanjay Datta, Principal, Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur.

Looking forward to make ties with the Indian education sector, Andrew Taggart, Acting Vice Chancellor, Murdoch University, is keen to begin research tie-ups in the field of agriculture, education and engineering. In tete-a-tete with Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN), Taggart talks about the scope for Indian students in Murdoch University for higher studies

Please throw light on the ties between Murdoch University and India.

Most of our ties with India have begun with research in agriculture, infectious diseases, with some in education and in engineering. We are trying to make those research activities broaden as long as we get partnerships with Indian universities around research. We then look to broadening these partnerships to include the potential of jointly great programmes, PHD programmes, and post graduate programmes.

What kind of new courses are offered?

We have strengthened film study and cinematography from a long time. We’ve researched that area and have our potential partners here in India.

Can you please elaborate on the type of research Murdoch University conducts where Indian students can participate?

One of the on going research on Nanotechnology is looking at bone regrowth and facial reconstruction and the experimental work is also happening here. So, we are looking at generating new bone growth for facial reconstruction for road trauma and other accidents. The biotechnology is related to growing algae to produce energy. The partnership is looking at how flourishing algae fuels can be used to produce energy in a sustainable manner with no pollutions and no bad emissions.

Why do you think that more Indian students are coming to Australia for studies?

We have had a long history of Indian students coming to eastern side of Australia. We would like to encourage them to come to Murdoch University in Perth, the only city on the west coast facing the Indian Ocean. Australia is a very safe and environmentally conscious society, and the Australian dollar is very cheap to come and study in Australia. There are lots of other good reasons as well like high quality education, welcoming people and safe environment.

Which are the popular subjects among Indian stdudents in Australian Universities?

Most of the students in Murdoch study engineering and IT. We would also like to diversify into food, food production, energy studies, and the creative arts.

What are the takeaways you are looking for from the World Education Summit?

I think we are recognised as an international nature of education with the fact that education is a global industry and it doesn’t matter if it is secondary education, vocational education or university education. It’s a global enterprise that we need to learn.

We can learn a lot from India around engineering, IT, cultural studies and valuing culture as a part of history, wonderful tradition of languages within this country. So, it’s a global village and Murdoch is a global university and we want to be positioned that way. That’s the reason why I have come here to learn more about Indian education through this spectrum at the World Education Summit.

By 2020 how many Indian students will Murdoch University give admissions to and what type of courses will be introduced?

Murdoch University is a global university and wants to grow its global partnerships. So, we want to have more international students coming to our university and spend more time overseas. We have our intensive 10 weeks or a short course of intensive two weeks that is required to support and help students coming to Australia. We have many more international students coming to Murdoch University.

Early Childhood Learning

Preschool education is just making a child social in the society. It’s a first step towards the society. Preschool education helps in developing skills like socio-emotional skills, aesthetic skills, and physical development skills. The session on ‘Early Childhood Learning’ dwells into laying the foundation of an illustrious and receptive mind. The early education of a child plays a major role in dening the path of development of a child’s mind, writes Bhawna Satsangi, of Elets News Network (ENN)

Hazel Siromoni, Managing Director, Maple Bear

In a preschool segment, parents believe customer is the king and therefore believes in negotiations. Where in a K-12 school, parents know that there is a limitation. As preschool providers, we play a very critical role in shaping the future of the child. As preschool providers, we feel confident to have a support of our peers. The expectation of the parent is supreme and there is lot of comparison.

POINTS TO PONDER:

• Parent communication necessary
• Responsible for nourishing childhood
• Preschool important for nuclear families
• Introduction of a topic for parents on weekly basis to connect to them regularly
• Preschool teaches basic skills to a child

There is a tremendous shift seen in the learning capabilities with the changing times. In the early childhood, education learning becomes faster. If we spend quality time with the child, it will help in developing the skills and for that we as a teacher have to be a good educator.

My understanding towards the pre primary education is ‘Bachpan’. We must take the responsibility towards the education of child. We have that knowledge and it is our duty to impart that knowledge to parents also. We cannot push the responsibility to government. We are responsible for nourishing the childhood.

Highlighting the innovative steps to improve the overall education sector of the state of Punjab, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Minister, Department of School Education, Government of Punjab, lists out the efforts, revamp models made by the state for the sector, while in conversation with Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN)

Why is Primary education more important than higher education?

Primary education is the most important aspect in the whole pyramid of education system. But in India, in government- run schools and most of the private schools, the primary education is not upto the mark. The students of Class V can’t read or study even class two lessons. In government schools, the admission is made at the age of six, as per Right To Education (RTE) Act, while in private sector, the child is admitted in primary schools at the age of three. Now, most of the education ministers from various states want primary classes in government schools at the age of three. Many states opine that as picking up of language skills is at an early stage of a child, it would be an apt age to cover the gap. To improve the primary education, emphasis should be given on teacher training. All the institutes which are providing teacher training courses should be more vigilant and strict guidelines should be issued so that we have better teachers in times to come.

ICT enabled education how important is it, what are the initiatives taken by Punjab?

ICT is given prime importance in Punjab. We have started computer labs in all the secondary and higher secondary government schools. The State also has 3,800 educational institutions included in the EDUSAT programme. We are going to expand it further, as the classes taken via this programme has helped many students in the State.

What are the new innovations brought by Punjab in the primary education system?

We have done an on ground study. First of all, we are striving for quality education in Punjab and to ensure this, we are starting teacher training at all levels: primary, secondary and higher secondary. Other important and innovative step to improve the quality of education in the state is ‘The Meritorious School Project’ for Class 10 pass outs. We will be accommodating students from government schools who have secured 80 per cent and above marks and are from weaker economical background. They will be given accommodation, education, and food absolutely free of cost in six residential schools. The students will be prepared for the entrance examinations of prestigious institutes of engineering, management, law, and medicine. It will be very helpful for the people in the rural areas and those students coming from the EWS.

What is your view on the emphasise given on skill education under a programme called ‘Skill India’ initiative by the Central Government?

Skill development is the need of the hour as there are many skilled people in our country but they don’t undergo a proper training. Our country hardly has three to four per cent who are skilled or trained workforce. In other countries like Japan and Germany, more than 70 per cent are trained workforce. So, this initiative will go a long way. Chief Minister of Punjab, Prakash Singh Badal, is heading the team of chief ministers who have been deputed to frame the policy for the Skill India initiative. As for the state of Punjab, we have started vocational courses in 400 plus schools this year. We will add more. There is a gap between what students are taught in professional, engineering and polytechnic colleges and what the industry needs. To bridge this gap, vocational courses are necessary. The courses should be such that the students get employment soon after they are out of college.

How does the WES platform compliment the education sector?

I must complement the work of Elets for organising such a great summit. The 5th edition of World Education Summit is one of its kind and it has got a plethora of people right from policy makers, industry experts, bureaucrats, eminent educationists come under one platform and deliberate upon the issues faced in the education sector. The conference session had a free and fair discussion. If things are discussed in such an honest way, some fruitful solutions would definitely come out, which would help the education sector