Rapid adoption of mobile and tablet technology will play a major role in the way the entire digital learning experience is valued and consumed, believes S N Rai, Co-Founder & Director, LAVA International. In conversation with ENN, he says there is need for collaboration among content development companies, network providers and device manufacturers to build an ecosystem of mobile learning to propel the industry forward

What has been the genesis of Lava Communications?

Lava was born with a vision to empower people to do more and be more. Lava continues to do that at every touch point consistently – consumers, employees, commercial partners and shareholders. The entire value chain is working with ownership to become a global consumer from India. Over the last five years, Lava has invested in setting up a strong foundation in distribution, R&D, processes and people and continues to do so. On the back of this structure, we have been very successful with entry level phones. Our focus now is to acquire a larger pie of the mid segment and premium smartphones market in India.

What are the various fields you are venturing into in the education space and how?

Tablets offer immense potential, particularly in the field of education. The market for tablet PCs in the education sector is growing extremely well as a result of government initiatives to adopt e-learning in schools. We are collaborating with several state governments to provide tablets with customised educational content. Last year, Lava spearheaded the education initiative in Meghalaya, where eleven thousand tablets were delivered to students under the government’s Student Digital Learning Scheme. The tablet was customised with an inbuilt education app – Digital Library – that enables students to access the content. With our tablet offerings, we are committed to facilitate customised products to harness the potential of digital learning in India. Apart from this, we are tying up with several content providers as well as mobile app development companies in the education space to provide a complete solution to several educational institutions in higher education.

How do you plan to capitalise on the increasing demand of tablets in the enterprise space?

Lava is focussing aggressively on the enterprise space this year and is building up a dedicated sales and service team for our enterprise customers. In the education domain, we have tied up with several content development companies who provide content for senior secondary classes, engineering and medical preparation. This year, we will launch tablets on Windows platform apart from Android as the enterprise segment has shown affinity towards Windows-based devices due to better user interface.

How do you see the evolution of the tablet PC market in the education sector?

The market for tablet PCs in the education sector is growing as a result of government initiatives aimed at providing affordable tablets to students in schools and educational institutes. Many early adopter schools are using tablets to conduct electronic tests via tablets. This enables teachers to devote more time on teaching students without the hassle of correcting a number of test papers. As tablets are also coming up with pre-loaded reference material, audio and video books, they are being used as primary study material. Tablets also enable students to get additional information through the Internet which compliments their studies. With increasing penetration of 3G and introduction of 4G services in India, tablets will be in huge demand due to their portability, ease of use and ability to provide con nectivity, content consumption and entertainment on the go.

The government has the mandate of providing affordable tablets to students in educational institutes. How big is this opportunity for the private sector?

At present, the Indian higher education sector witnesses spends of more than `46,200 crore which is estimated to grow over `2,32,500 crore in 10 years. Strong government initiatives to push student enrollments in primary, higher education and distance learning will keep propelling market expansion. The rapid adoption of mobile and tablet technology is going to play a major role in the way the entire digital learning experience is valued and consumed. Not long ago, the government aided many college students to get a tablet at subsidised rates for quality education as part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). Several state governments are providing affordable tablets to students at schools and educational institutions and the opportunity for the private sector is huge.

Which segment in the education sector can drive the market for tablet PC over the coming years?

The major thrust in the education sector will come from the K12 segment. There has been an increased adoption of tablets for e-learning by private schools and government for the students in secondary classes and could introduce this scheme for students studying in middle and lower standards as well. Schools will also start focussing on co-scholastic learning that includes imparting life skills like creativity, critical thinking etc. The life skills are very important to a child’s development and have been mandated in CBSE schools. Digital learning will play an important role in skill development as this involves a lot of multimedia content consumption. Tablets are best suited to serve these needs.

“Through partnerships, we are focussing on solutions specifically for sectors like education, healthcare and retail. The product portfolio will comprise the mix of affordable Wi-FI only and 3G calling tablets at different price points”

What are your future plans for expansion and which areas you would focus on?

There is a strong focus on the enterprise space for providing an end-to-end customised solution to their commercial needs. Through partnerships, we are focussing on solutions specifically for sectors like education, healthcare, retail, etc. The product portfolio will comprise the mix of affordable Wi-fi only and 3G calling tablets at different price points. Tablets in the `5000 to `7000 price bracket mostly offer Wi-fi only and there is a huge demand for such products in the education sector. On the other hand, enterprises prefer to equip their team with a portable device catering to computing and voice-cum-data connectiv

ity needs at an affordable price; thereby bringing products with 2G/3G capability into the picture.

What is the percentage revenue growth of your tablet business in the education sector for 2012- 13 and 2013-14? What are your expectations for 2014-15?

Overall in 2014-15, we are looking for over 100 per cent growth from 2013- 14 revenues and we will achieve this through a strong focus on the enterprise and education domain along with expansion of the retail distribution channel. Although majority of our revenues will come from consumer retail channel, we are looking at nearly 30-40 per cent contribution from the education and enterprise domain combined. This is keeping in view the increasing demand of tablets as a substitute to laptop PCs from organisations.

Tarun Malik, Director, Media Solutions Center – South West Asia, Samsung Electronics, speaks to ENN on the South Korean giant’s debut in digital learning solutions in the Indian market

How do you see Samsung’s foray into smart learning?

Samsung is a leader in technological innovation and we are well-known in the hardware side. Smart Learning is the first in software services innovation by Samsung. At the end of day, we are looking at converging all the technology devices and continue to innovate. This is the first step in this space. You will see more offerings in the coming weeks.

What is the potential for Smart Learning?

India is a huge market. The solutions will supplement the educational needs of over 60-70 million students studying in classes 1 to 12 for CBSE board. There is a gap between learning and getting educated. There is a gap in imbibing the pedagogy. We have taken a step forward by working with the best academicians in the country and with feedback from teachers and students. The solutions will be augmented to include other school boards, higher education and skill building content in due course.

How long did Samsung work on the education solution?

We worked for eight months.

How will it transform learning?

Samsung Smart Learning provides indepth subject-wise content with elaborate multimedia tutorials, interactive lesson-based exercises and practice tests. The solution is designed to ensure maximum impact-based learning through proven techniques like conceptual videos and collaborative learning methods.

What is the response for Smart Learning both from metros and tier II cities?

We have got good response from across the country. Actually, the need is the same both in metros and tier II cities. What changes is bandwidth need. Solution and response is the same.

Is Smart Learning affordable?

It is as low as `2,600 for class X per year for science and mathematics. For class XI onwards, it is in the range of `7,800 to `10,400 for science and mathematics. Students have to buy the entire course which will remain valid for a year. On an average, a student who goes to dinner spends `3,000. This content is licensed. We have to pay license fee to content creators.

How do we access the solution?

Our target is to reach over 30 million school children. The enterprise team is approaching schools for tie-ups. It is a cloud-based service. It can also be accessed via offline access points. There are approximately 7,000 Samsung stores across. India has been equipped to sell education content on the Samsung Galaxy tab. This will be gradually extended to 10,000 stores.

What is the investment in Smart Learning?

It is a highly complex investment to be in. We are investing constantly.

So is enterprise mobility looking up for education?

Enterprise mobility is a big word. As I see it, education and health has to converge on a device. Most of the things will go on a decent screen size of 5 plus on a smart phone. Education, particularly the content, is deep and has to be on TV as well.

Will the Smart Learning content come in other languages?

We are looking at nine to ten languages in the next few months.

Will the software put teachers out of work or supplement their efforts?

We are closely working with teachers and spending on teachers’ training in the schools we go. Schools and parents are excited as students are learning and understanding concepts better. This is critical as these are the formative years for students. It makes them skilled for future decisions.

Transforming talent is possible only if quality education is provided to students who aspire to improve their employability in the global marketplace. Through their innovative learning solutions, Globarena Technologies strives to transform India’s learning landscape, institutions of higher education, skill India and create better manpower

The Globarena Technologies have come up with e-learning solutions namely eLSDM (e-Learning Solutions and Two-Way HD Delivery Mechanism for Teachers & Students) and CoEeRD (Centre of Excellence for e- Resource Development & Deployment). Globarena Technologies is delivering these solutions through its Centre of Ex- cellence (CoE) solutions, which is a fine blend of approved engineering eLearning courseware and modern day ICT that is designed to effectively address the challenges faced by the colleges in their teaching and learning.
JNTUH (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad) and JN- TUK (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada) have taken up the initiative to implement eLSDM and CoEeRD respectively to achieve academic excellence through course standardi- sation and collaboration.

“Both JNTUH and JNTUK initiated eLSDM and CoEeRD respectively to achieve academic excellence through course standardization and collaboration”

Gamut of the Solution

• Conduct Live Sessions: Expert Faculty | HR Talk | Eminent Personality
• Interactive Bi-directional Video Conferencing
• Recording and Archiving Sessions
• Engineering Content for 4 years of B.E./B.Tech: ECE | EEE | Civil | Mech. | CSE | IT Faculty & Student Content
• Faculty & Student Content with Images, Animations and Quiz
• Add Content and Quiz
• Online/Offline Content Deployment
• 24×7 access to content
• Multimode Delivery: PC | Laptop | TAB
• Leverage the Interactive Bidirectional Video Conferencing to conduct Distance Learning Programs, Industry-endorsed Certification Programs, and International University Certificate Programs etc.

These learning solutions aim to create and disseminate knowledge to all the takeholders to enhance the teaching- learning effectiveness and channelise various sources of knowledge.
The engineering e-Learning courseware for faculty and students is installed in the college LAN and also hosted on a portal to access anytime, anywhere through the Internet. Faculty can use the content with animations, images, quiz etc., in their classroom deliveries and students can access the content in LAN or through Internet. The courseware is adaptable to the bi-directional video conference system to beam in live interactive sessions whenever required.
A bi-directional video conferencing system is established at the University headquarters or any central location identified by the University, from where live lecture sessions can be beamed to all the endpoints, i.e. to the colleges or from any college in the network to all other colleges. Students from any college can interact with expert faculty and clarify their doubts. Bi-directional video conferencing provides an awesome learning experience and broadens the stu- dents’ thinking horizon; and will help the institutions with a tool to develop their own knowledge repository.
The same platform can be leveraged to connect to industry experts, leading academicians, HR experts, and eminent personalities to make the students aware of changing industry trends, percolate the recruitment parameters of companies and other programmes that will help the institution in shaping a student’s career.

Higher education In India is today faced with challenges in terms of access, equity and quality. The role of Information Technology and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in this context is today being seen as that of an enabler and a catalyst that can fuel the growth of higher education in colleges and universities

The rate at which Information Technology (IT) is growing to- day is evident from the fact that it has invaded almost every part of our lives. The central government has implement- ed several national as well as state-specific schemes that run concurrent to a large num- ber of privately-led IT initiatives at school and higher education levels. Keen to use techno- logical resources in helping its mission to make higher education accessible to all students, the government has launched its National Mission on Education through Information and Com- munication Technology (NMEICT).
Use of ICT for promoting education and development has for long been a part of policy and plan documents on education. At the mo- ment, decision-makers at both the central and state levels are in favour of inclusion of new computer and Internet-based IT/ICT tools in education. This includes adopting cloud-based virtual classrooms, universities and mLearn- ing initiatives.

Deliberating upon this vision and the way ahead, Pradeep Kaul, Senior Consultant, NMEICT, noted that India was the first country to have used satellite in a big way for delivering education to 2,400 villages in six states, for which it signed an MOU with NASA as early as September 20, 1969. The programme was called Satellite In- structional Television Experiment (SITE) and was launched jointly by ISRO and Doordarshan from August 1, 1975 to July 31, 1996.
Unfortunately, as a developing na- tion, we got left behind somewhere in pursuing the use of satellite and ICT for education. “It is obvious that em- phasis on ICT is a crying need as it acts as a multiplier for capacity-building ef- forts of educational institutions with- out compromising the quality,” said Kaul. A modest budget allocation of `4,612 crore has been made in 2009 for NMEICT. Under this mission, a proper balance between content generation, research in critical areas relating to im- parting education and connectivity for integrating our knowledge with the ad- vancements in other countries is being attempted. “For this, what is needed is a critical mass of experts in every field working in a networked manner with dedication. Although disjointed efforts have been made in this area by various institutions and organisations, and iso- lated success stories are also available, a holistic approach is the need of the hour. This mission seeks to support such initiatives and build upon the synergies between various efforts by adopting a holistic approach,” Kaul noted.

Kaul further pointed to the ICT Devel- opment Index (IDI) – an index published by the United Nations ITU based on the most important indicators for measur- ing the information society and combin- ing 11 indicators related to Access, Use and Skills. Amongst 155 countries, In- dia ranked 119th in 2011, with South Korea ranking at 1 and China at 78. “Our current Gross Enrolment Ratio is still at around 20 per cent as compared to an average of 45 per cent in developed countries. It shows that there is strong need in the country to use ICT for educa- tion,” he added.

Acting upon the urgent need felt for connecting institutions, the MHRD has so far connected about 403 universities with 1 Gbps fiber optical connectivity and has also decided to make all such university campuses Wi-Fi enabled. Further, around 26,000 colleges have also been connected with 10 Mbps. The colleges connected are associated to central, state and private universities located across the country. The MHRD has also strongly pursued the develop- ment of e-content in several engineering and non-engineering subjects taught in colleges and universities. “About 1,200 courses are being developed by 7 IITs and the IISc under the NPTEL pro- gramme. As on date, more than 9,000 hours of NPTEL videos are available on YouTube and these are the most viewed educational programmes in the world with over 125 million hits so far,” Kaul informed. The MHRD is also procuring e-books and making them available to students across the country without charge. So far, more than 97,000 e- books and 6,350 e-journals have been procured and students from thousands of colleges are benefiting from them.

NMEICT is also undertaking an initiative to set up a national library for visually challenged students. “MHRD has got 175 books converted to DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format in 6 languages and they are all avail- able online,” Kaul informed. Yet another programme ‘Interactive Quality Educa- tion Delivery to masses through 50 DTH channels’ is going to be launched by MHRD. It is designed to carry curricu- lum-based content in almost all subjects of higher education to be delivered on TV sets at home and at institutions free of cost using set top boxes with a one-time cost of `2,000. “The DTH programme of MHRD is a cost-effective and people-cen- tric programme and makes use of tech- nology-enabled products that students of the country can afford for long distance education,” Kaul said.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this programme is that content can also be viewed on IP devices and students shall be able to interact live on each channel and ask questions to teachers in studios and seek instanta- neous reply through video conferenc- ing, mobile/land line, SMS, e-mail etc. The content shall also be converted into e-content into four quadrants using a template and made available to view- ers on demand through MHRD’s cloud servers. Total fresh content generation and delivery is going to be to the tune of 1,46,000 hours a year, equivalent to 3,650 courses of 40 hours each.
Around 2004, the need was felt for making use of technology to reach out to large number of students as there was dearth of sufficient number of qualified teachers. There were several instances where senior undergraduate teachers were teaching the next batch. This prompted a good number of IITs and the IISC to come together to decide upon the kind of cours- es that were required as prescribed by the AICTE and other universities. They decided to create a resource of whatever is taught to an engineering student. Prof. Kushal Sen, Department of Textile Technology, IIT- Delhi, talked about the development being brought about by National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). “When we started, bandwidth in the coun- try was not that good. We wanted web- based instruction material. However, some thought that video mode would be better due to limitations of Internet availability. But as Youtube became very popular, we started uploading videos, and the students preferred these video over traditional meth- ods. Then we went for Phase II, where we are providing web-based and video-based instructional material to whichever institu- tion requires it, besides IITs and associated universities,” said Sen.

Education through technology also needs to be interactive. The issue here is with answering queries. With several students opting for web and video-based material, it is no good if questions can’t be answered. “For this purpose, we de- veloped FAQ material where we provide links to detailed analysis of that topic. We also have highly qualified people willing to help with queries.

“We provide massive online learning. Anywhere in the world, you get an hon- ours certificate for participating in it. We thought that in the country, we can de- velop online programmes where students can take an exam and get certificates. In one case, out of 65000 who appeared, 25,000 took the online exam. We are yet to see if students clearing these ex- ams can become employable,” Sen noted. Virtual online universities is another idea that MHRD has in mind. “Self-learning is of utmost importance when it comes to ICT in education. It is also required that people from industry are involved as they are aware of what the industry wants. We still have miles to go,” Sen observed.

Prof. Ranjan Bose, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi, stressed upon the Virtual Labs project which comprises 12 partners with IIT Delhi leading in terms of coordination. The study of engineering is pointless without a laboratory. However, physical labs come with their own requirements such as costly equipment etc. “We looked at these problems and realised that we can have a proper ICT based solution,” said Bose. Here, there can be an actual physical lab with several users accessing it remotely through the Internet. “The problem is that if I am accentuating a real lab experiment, I cannot scale up this model. I cannot have several people tinker with the same equipment in a dif- ferent manner,” Bose noted.
Thus, the need was felt to scale up the project big time. This led to the idea of simulation based labs which don’t of- fer anything less in terms of learning. The first step here was defining the target group. This was followed by major objec- tives being devised into a four-fold model. “With the idea to provide remote access to labs, we are catering to UG, PG and even research scholars and we would like stu- dents to learn at their own pace. We want to arouse their curiosity. The big question is whether we can build a complete learn- ing management system around this vir- tual lab experience, which we don’t have even today,” Bose observed.

Today under NPTEL, there are over 100 labs at IIT Delhi and plans are to scale it up now. Phase I is over and Phase II talks about proliferation and outreach. Till date, 150 workshops around 125 colleges have been conducted and two lakh students have tried these labs and provided feedback. “We have a restricted number but now we will go all out and will be doing workshops and training. Moreover, we have been monitoring the usage of these labs. These labs are being used late into the night and weekends, which is a great advantage,” said Bose.

When we talk about ICT-enabled learning, it also has the potential to pro- vide solutions to issues such as shortage of qualified faculty. Shyama Iyer, Project Manager at The Spoken Tutorial Project, MHRD, believes people need to get com- fortable with technology. If a teacher runs away from technology, students run away from them. “The attention span of today’s generation is less. Using open source software is the smart thing to do,” she says.

Spoken tutorial is an audio-video tool used to teach open source software where students learn a software in short simple steps in an interactive manner. They can replicate the instructions, build and run the highly manageable programmes. “What is remarkable is that we have conducted 2,500 workshops across the country,” Shyama informed. Talking of the various advantages of the initia- tive, she said, “In programming, there is nothing like writing your own program, compiling and running it. It helps that instead of reading theory, you see the concept in a small programme, do it, practice it and understand it hands-on”. Over 4 lakh students have been trained in colleges, polytechnics and ITIs in the past three years. For each software, the training consists of a first session of two hours, followed by self revision of the remaining topics and a one hour long online assessment test after a month or so. The two-hour session or workshop can be accommodated in the lab hours of the related course being taught. Once it is downloaded from the website and installed in the systems, learning can be offline and Internet is not needed.
The course content includes the soft- ware, 10-minute long video tutorials to cover the topics, assignment questions and an instruction sheet. It is suited for individual self-learning without the need of an expert teacher. Students do not need to leave the campus but learn in their own labs and guidance is pro- vided by team at IIT Bombay.

There are questions all around and the essence lies in whether we can con- vert the question into a great tool to teach, said Rahul Deshmukh, Techni- cal Officer, IIT Bombay. “With this aim, IIT Mumbai has started a project. Ask a question (AAQ) is a unique question and answer series in the field of engineering and science which offers open access to the responses of IIT Mumbai faculty. One has to just give a missed call to the number and get the information of the next session by SMS,” he informed.

“CEC has one of the largest repository which includes more than 23,886 educational video programmes, more than 8,086 e-content modules and 1,500 short learning objects”

Here is how it works. The online vid- eo courses portal “Courses on view” has an AAQ question bar. The AAQ applica- tion programme interface (API) is made available and can be embedded to any website to directly post questions. The question and answer collection is also available on DVD.
“Recently AAQ has started in the faculty of Physics and we are in the pro- cess of starting AAQ in design as well. There is an Online Live Interactive Ses- sion,” Deshmukh elaborated. Under the programme, every Thursday at 4 p.m., an expert is available to answer all the queries. In three and a half years since this programme took off, today there are over 81 remote centres, more than 1,600 questions have been answered, and the number of beneficiaries is ap- proximately 36,000.

Nageshwar Nath, Maintenance Engi- neer, Consortium for Educational Com- munication (CEC), New Delhi, informed how its centres comprising about 500 trained manpower and state-of-the-art equipment, are engaged in production of video and multimedia-based pro- grammes for the past 28 years. CEC has one of the largest repository which in- cludes more than 23,886 educational video programmes, more than 8,086 e-content modules and 1,500 short learning objects. Over 2,500 video programmes, e-contents, LOR etc., are added to the repository annually. “The MHRD vide its communication dated March 31, 2009, has approved a project proposal for e-content development to CEC in under graduate subjects. CEC, along with me- dia centres, has developed an e-content template in four quadrants following in- structional design methodology, which has been accepted as a model template by MHRD,” Nath informed.
Apprising the gathering of other ini- tiatives that are being undertaken for use of ICT in education, Nath further talked about their programmes with Centre for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC), Pune, starting skill based and languages e-courses in col- laboration with Universities and creat- ing local storage at University /Colleges where entire content can be stored for viewing by students.
Viewed as a powerful means to build a knowledge-based society, higher edu- cation plays a pivotal role in the develop- ment of any country. The will from the government to promote use of technology in education is visible. The programmes initiated a few years ago have finally start- ed to take shape. Monitoring the imple- mentation of these technologies at institu- tions in the boondocks and addressing the infrastructure related issues therein is the next step forward. One hopes that these ef- forts multiply and find greater acceptance at all levels so that one can find the right mix of teaching and learning methods for the larger good of education in India.

Children are the future of this country and how we treat them in their early days determines the future and the development of our society. It is for this reason that schools have such an integral role to play. Leaders in the field of school education got together at the World Education Summit 2014 to discuss the changing contours of education and the challenges that come along with it

Education is the prerequisite for sustainable development of any society or economy. The purpose of education, therefore, should not limit to building careers but also envisage developing a generation of vibrant minds that has the potential to develop a vision and contribute to nationbuilding. Despite political parties and governments at the state and central levels having vowed in the name of improving the scenario of education in the country – and have succeeded at it to some extent –conditions in India remain dismal.
The trend in India suggests that government policies alone cannot improve the current status. Besides the issues of access to education in rural areas, there are several social factors such as discrimination on the basis of caste and gender that need to be addressed for education to become a reality. It is for these reasons that the Right to Education Act, 2009, lays down that schooling is free and compulsory for all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. However, what it fails to address is the quality of education that will be provided in the process.
The complexities and opportunities in the field of school education are numerous and exist across the public and private sectors. It was with this backdrop that experts from across the country came together at the World Education Summit 2014 to discuss various issues and the road ahead for taking school education to the next level.

WES 2014 : School Education Track

Intelligent Classrooms: The Future

World over, educators are looking at the use of the latest tools of technology in education for enhancing the teaching-learning experience and making it more interactive. Looking into the possibilities and opportunities that the digital learning mode presents for India, Prachi Joshi Johar, Program Director, Smartur 3D, focussed on how augmented reality can repurpose learning. “We need to put technology in each student and teacher’s hand as it is the pen and paper of today’s time,” she said. Speaking of the importance of technological tools for classrooms which can make teaching much more relevant, she said, “Software companies are also aware of the fact that we need to create technology that is simple enough to be used in areas and by people who have either not been introduced to technology or are not comfortable with it.”

The recognition of technology as a potent tool for change has been there for quite some time now. The use of technology in education too has started gaining acceptance in schools. “About 50 per cent of projectors sold globally go to classrooms, and in any technically-enabled classroom, 25 per cent of the budget goes in projectors,” informed Ganesh S, Business Development Manager, DLP Product, Texas Instrument India Ltd.

Technology, as a tool, is often contradicted with the view that it does not have the potential to replace the existence of teachers in the education system. Stressing that tools don’t alone have the power to change education and it is the teacher who has to finally bring that change in the teaching process with technology, Shalini Nambiar, Deputy Director – Education, Gems Education, wondered why mobiles and Facebook etc are banned in schools. “Why are children still carrying heavy bags? With such fascinating stuff happening and market players existing, why is it that just 10 per cent of schools are taking the leap with technology? Children today should not be carrying those heavy bags when we have e- books,” she exclaimed.

Shanti Krishnamurthy, Principal, Chinmaya International Residential School, Coimbatore, also had a similar take on the technology versus human interface debate. “Even if the tools are there, students still say they need a teacher. For smarter classrooms, you need smarter teachers,” she pointed out. However, schools that don’t absorb the change will be left behind, she add- ed. “The objective is not to replace your current teaching learning process, only enhance and complement it,” said Rishi Karan, Founder & Director, Tabkids. Tabkids is intended as an activity start- ing from (Pre) Nursery/KG till the second standard varying between 20-45 minutes as per schools’ convenience and timetable.

With the advent of technology in education also comes the challenge for teachers to remain relevant and updated. Ratnesh Kumar Jha, Manag- ing Director, South Asia, Cambridge University Press, put forth an interesting viewpoint. “Economy is changing and also bringing changes to adjacent things – education is one. Students today have more than 20 technology tools to gain information from. So, when they come back to teachers who have the same book, they are not too interested,” he observed.

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) worldwide has seen a huge spurt in recent years. However, India still has a long road to travel to match global standards. “When I visited various countries in Asia in the 1980’s, I realised that they had classrooms with technology that we don’t have even today in schools,” said D R Saini, Principal, Delhi Public School, RK Puram. “Today, we have introduced ICT in a big way and this year, 720 of our students have qualified in the best colleges across the globe, including the Ivy League, earning total scholarships and financial aid worth `178 crore and Rs 65 lakh respectively from foreign countries,” he added.

Role of Technology in Changing Dynamics of Education

Learning is not about cramming textbooks anymore and technological tools have made critical inroads into education. The ways through which technology can be used to enhance critical thinking and literacy skills is a key focus area. “The population of India in the 0-24 age bracket is twice the population of US. When will we have the ultimate technology which will revolutionise education? Maybe this will never happen,” said Rakesh Rathi, Head – Education Vertical, RICOH India Ltd. Technology predictions can be very hard to make, he observed. “So how do we customise our teaching to a group of children completely different in their style? Technology is on its way to achieving that,” added Rakesh.

With changing times, students and their attitude towards learning have also become different. “Today’s child is global and we remain in our cocoons,” observed Manju Gupta, Principal, Kothari International School, Noida. “Even if I want to reduce the curriculum in the interest of the children, we are not able to do that,” she added, citing civil society pressure on performance and achievement.

Emerging Trends in School Education

The younger generation is today more well-versed in technology than you and I were at their age. Apart from technology, the demands of today’s world are also not limited to academic excellence alone. In this rapidly changing scenario, we need to take a look at some of the emerging trends and practices in school education and what educators in India need to look at to keep them abreast with the rest of the world. Different industry experts had different trends to discuss.

Sports as a module integrated into formal education has gained prominence for the past few years. Sports have the power to unite people, says Arun K Khetan, CEO, Sports Education Development India Limited (SEDIL). Commenting upon the need to encourage sports in schools, he said, “Out of the 48 Olympics held till now, we have participated in just 32, but won only less than 1 per cent of prizes. The scene is not better in other international sports events as well.” Another trend that is fast catching up with schools in India is mainstreaming. “Students with disabilities have been kept in different schools. Today, every second child has some problems and therefore this aspect has to be looked into. Special Education Needs cells are required in schools,” said Neeta Bali, Principal, GD Goenka World School, Gurgaon.

In the coming decades, India is poised to be sitting on a huge demographic dividend and this, many believe, could be the golden period for this country. However, there is a huge amount of concern when it comes to the quality of manpower that we produce to reap the benefits of this ad- vantage that we have. “So much churning is happening in the world of education. The big debate is unemployment versus unemployability, one-size-fits-all versus differentiative learning, creativity versus programming and content-heavy curriculum versus skill development,” observed Sudha Sahay, Principal, The Shri Ram School, Aravali. “The world seeks job givers besides job seekers,” she said underlining the importance of skill development in schools.

A P Sharma, Principal, Apeejay School, New Delhi, said, “We need design thinking. Every child needs an education that is child-centric. We have collaborations with Willem De Kooning University, Netherlands, for special programmes. How do we have a teaching programme that is open-ended? Thematic teaching is what is required.”

With rapid technological advancements, it becomes important to ensure that moral values and traditional teachings are not left behind. “Today, we are lacking in values. We need to bring in technology along with values,” observed Rajeev Chauhan, Principal, Sir Padampat Singhania Education, Kanpur. In this mad rush for technology, education too tends to take a backseat sometimes. “Nowadays, schools are infrastructure based and education-based schools have taken a backseat. The human connect is getting lost,” said Arup Mukhopadhyay, Principal, Royal Global School, Guwahati. “Technology cannot connect you. Information anxiety makes you lost when you don’t know how to organise matter from the number of pages that Google opens before us. Human capacity to think, create and innovate has been badly affected by technology,” Arup fur- ther observed.

New trends and technological advancements need our attention and understanding, more so to ensure the right balance between technological and traditional methods of education.

Students today are well-versed with technology and can adapt to it much faster than earlier generations. “The digital student has arrived at school and there is no generation gap, but digital divide when it comes to students and teachers,” said Kaisar Dopaishi, Principal, Singapore International School. “When we look at the dynamics of edu- cation, we stand on certain premises. We have the 19th century curriculum, 20th century teachers and 21st century students. Piecemeal approach will not help,” he added. Not just students but teachers too need to be adept with the changing contours. “Teachers need to be up to date,” said Archna Jain, Princi- pal, DPS, Panipat City. “Technology has brought in an ocean of knowledge learn- ing and information to all of us. We have to be futuristic and tomorrow, virtual classes will be the buzzword,” she added.

Technology as a tool comes with its own set of challenges, more so for the education sector. Talking about technology from a different perspective, Vivek Atray, Director, Secondary Education, Haryana, noted how technology can also become a disabler. “More than often, technology controls us, when we should be controlling it,” he said, adding that not enough stress was being laid on developing leadership in teach- ers to develop school leadership. “Under the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) programme in Haryana, we have not only stressed on school leadership, but also developed a class readiness pro- gramme,” he added.

Perhaps the biggest advantage that technology brings to education is in reaching students and geographies that have not been brought into the fold yet. Rajesh U Purohit, Director, GCERT, Education Department, Gujarat, talked about their example in the state of Gujarat. “We have 26 District Institutes of Education Training (DIETs) and eight Colleges for Teacher Education (CTEs). Presently, the main function of all 27 DIETs is to impart training to teachers of primary as well as secondary in their respective districts. We have started a satellite-based education system. We have provided computers and TV sets to all schools in Gujarat,” he informed. Schools now decide a timetable accord- ing to these satellite-based telecasts. Fur- thermore, students in rural areas that do not have good teachers benefit from it.

No doubt that technology-enabled learning is going to be the buzz in coming times and the biggest requirement therein is to bring a change in mindsets. This change is not solely limited to its acceptance but will have to be extended to a deep sense of its understanding. This will be crucial as it is the teachers who will be responsible for the correct use of these technologies both within and outside the classroom.

Education Leaders Conclave: Are Schools More Than Business?

The role of a school in the formative years of a child’s life extends to several crucial functions that help shape a student’s future. It is important that educational institutions understand the role they need to play so that they mean business rather than just being one. However, in times where rising costs have not spared any sector, things are certainly not easy for schools as well.

“Every business industry is affected with inflation. In today’s time, it takes `20 crore to `100 crore to set up a school and the ROI (Return On Investment) takes a minimum of seven to 10 years,” said Raj Grover, Chief Mentor, Kangaroo Kids Education Limited. “Today, people are struggling in the industry and this is frightening news. This is more so for the private sector in the crème league as they are keen to bring in technology and their sincerity towards bridging the digital divide is much more,” he added.

While that may hold true in some cases, there is a general perception that schools today are increasingly shifting from their duties of providing education to making profits. “There are questions of survival with rising real estate cost etc. However, some institutes have very smartly separated academic delivery from business angle. There are separate teams for each,” informed Chandrashekar D P, COO, The JGI Group. “We do require a business model. But a profiteering model is what I have issues with. If we allow profiteering, we will have schools only in urban areas,” he pointed out.

While schools are expected to fulfill societal obligations, at the end of the day they are businesses and need to be treated as such. “It is very volatile when we see business only as money. We have to broaden our horizon about what business is. It creates employment,” said Manjula Pooja Shroff, Founder-Director, Calorx Foundation. “Business is an ecosystem and productivity is the underlining factor. We know that as educationists, if we don’t give good results, there will be no productivity. We definitely require a business model for the sustainable running of educational institutes,” she observed. “Education is definitely more than business. Business is a repeatable process that makes money,” said Unni Krishnan Korotha CEO, Foradian Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

The question of running a school with decent facilities is not based upon an institution’s choice to opt for a profiteering model or not. At the end of the day, schools are businesses and can continue to deliver quality education only if they are profitable. This is something that we, as a society, will have to accept.

Eduleaders: Bringing the Change in Education

Education is said to be the most effective tool in bringing about a change in society. Given its potential, education needs to change too in order to cater to the various needs of a multi-faceted and pluralistic society such as ours. How can educators and the leaders in the edu- cation sector bring about the change that education needs?

“There is a difference between Eduleaders and educators. Eduleaders are those who make policies and educators are the ones who imple- ment it. But there is a link,” said Kush Kulshreshtha, Principal, Central Academy School, Gwalior. “Today, many principals don’t support CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation). We have the technology but who will handle it? First we have to work on the quality of teachers,” he said. Agreed C V Singh, Principal, Rawal International School, Faridabad. “Change must be for betterment and not just for bringing about change. As principals we have to work with our teachers and on the quality of teachers,” he said.

If there is one unanimous view regarding the factors that can bring the change to education, it is on the need of quality teachers. Lack of teachers training is something that has led to a drastic fall in the quality of students. Other countries have set some good examples we could learn from. Elaborating upon one such experience, Jhansi Premanand, Founder, Greenwood Kindergarten, Hyderabad, spoke about how during her visit to Russia, she learnt that kindergarten teachers there are trained for 3 and a half years. “Although we are a very small school, I train my kindergarten teachers on a day-to-day basis. Teachers training programmes have to be improved in India,” she observed. Similar concerns were also aired by Shounak Lahiri, Principal, Banyan International School, Jammu. “We are not focussing on solutions for teachers as much as we should. We all know the problems. We should brainstorm and find ideas,” Shounak noted.

In contrast, the importance of teachers and the traditional methods of teaching couldn’t have been underlined better than Ravi Kumar Bhardwaj, Principal, Department of Secondary Education, Rajasthan. Despite the challenging state of affairs in his village, teachers have worked hard to ensure success for stu- dents. The village had an ICT lab which has been closed for two years and the school has hardly any teachers. However, the few teachers that remain in school have faced all odds to produce good re- sults. “The school has given us 28 Indian Administrative Service officers and 10 of- ficers of the Indian Police Service,” Bha- radwaj informed. This experience should act as a reminder for all that change can- not be brought with introduction of tech- nology alone. The dedication of teachers and their ability to draw students towards learning is perhaps more important than the benefits that any technological tool can provide.

Role of New Pedagogy in Internet Age and Personalised Learning

In this age of free access to unlimited information over the Internet and the focus on personalised learning gaining momentum, schools too need to devise new methods and techniques that can enhance the experience and the outcome for stu- dents. Educators need to delve into the challenges that schools face on this front and the ways through which they can overcome them.

Learning in today’s world is not limited to the realms of academics. According to Arun Khaitan, CEO, Sports Education Development India Limited (SEDIL), with academic compulsions of schools pushing sports behind, physical activities receive scant attention. While pushing students towards physical activities may be one challenge for schools today, there are other issues too. Colonel Atul Sekhar, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya, Valsad, be- lieves that the life of an urban child today is saturated with media.

“For me, pedagogy is the biggest challenge for today’s teachers and it is the innovative teaching techniques and the child-centric techniques that we have to take into account,” suggested Dr Vandana Lulla, Principal, Podar International School, Mumbai. “Pedagogy is teaching techniques. We were one of the first schools to intro- duce I-pads for learning. A teacher has to be a facilitator today. She has to pass on the charge to the students. It has to be research-based learning,” she explained further.

The balance between human interface and use of technology is extremely crucial and is pointed out by the academia time and again. “It is true that we have to balance the human aspect and technology in the Internet age,” said Nirmal Mahna, Director Academics, DCM Public School, Jammu. “As a principal, I visited several secondary and higher secondary schools in rural areas of India, and realised how they are lagging behind. They did not even know about CCEs and there were no records for it,” he added.

These instances and experiences go on to show how important it is to address issues pertaining to education in the rural areas of the country. If the scenario of education is to improve in India, the change needs to begin with the villages and small towns.

Early Childhood Education and Care: Keeping the Child in the Centre of it All

Early childhood education and care can lay the foundations for later success in life in terms of education, well-being, employability and social integration, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. For institutions, it becomes all the more crucial to keep the focus on the child and his needs.

Brain development in the early years of a child should be encouraged through innovative measures, believes Swati Popat, President, Early Childhood Association and Director, Podar Jumbo Kids. “Reggio Emilia, as a philosophy, is taking the world by storm. It is superseding Montessori, which is sad as both should be used together,” she observed.

The scenario in India in terms of chil- dren’s education is far from ideal. “Children are not at the centre. Parents put pressure on what a child has to do, and children mostly don’t follow their talents, abilities and passions,” observed Rajeev Gupta, Director, Golden Bells Pre School. There is too much importance attached to IQ though it constitutes only 25 per cent of one’s existence, he says. “Why can’t we focus on Adversity Quotient (AQ), Creativity Quotient (CQ) and Emo- tional Quotient (EQ)?” he asks.

Experts also suggest that brain research can tell a lot about a child’s inclinations. “We should be child centric. We must look at brain research and what that tells us about how children work and then translate that theory into actual practice in our classrooms,” said Anshul Arora, Founder and CEO, Edvance Group. While discussing ways to keep the child at the centre of developments related to him/her, it is essential that teachers and parents understand that each child is different from the other and their needs too differ accordingly. “The more they are exposed to sensory experience, the more enriched they are,” said Hazel Siromoni, Managing Director, Maple Bear. “Also, we look at skill development at a later stage in life. We forget that skills develop right at the early years,” she added.

Parents and teachers have a crucial role to play when it comes to the child’s overall development. The process, however, is not temporary. “It takes every minute of your working life to keep the child at the centre of it all,” said Pooja Goyal, Director, Intellitots. “You have to take parents and teachers along to keep the child at the centre of it all. We have to take the teachers along to implement the strategies,” she added.

From `1.2 trillion in 2010 to `2.3 trillion in 2015, the pre-school industry is growing at a fast pace. “In 2010, it was a `1.2 trillion industry and will be worth `2.3 trillion by 2015, which means over 15 per cent growth. The demand is growing in tier II and III cities and investment from private players is increasing,” A S Ganesh, Founder & Managing Director, Smartkidz Educare India Pvt. Ltd informed. “Education is useless without values. We need to keep young age in mind where the ability to absorb is very high,” he added.

With such a fast pace of growth reg- istered in this industry, it becomes all the more crucial that the child’s needs are understood and discussed in detail between teachers and parents. Understanding a child’s individual needs and acting upon it will go a long way in shaping the future of the child and his ability to contribute to the society and the nation at large.

Universal Education: Assistive and Learning Designs for All

Every child has different needs and adapts to things differently. Education leaders to- day have to realise the need for adopting universal designs of learning, its benefits and the impact it can have on a child’s learning in today’s shrinking world.

John Shackleton, Senior Training Consultant, The British Council, New Delhi, and the experts together concluded that educationists need to have attributes like being self-driven and committed, aware of the teacher learning process, have good interpersonal skills, and be open to change. “We have to realise the fact that we can’t train everybody at the same level,” said John.

With the advent of technology, the world is getting smaller with every passing day. Traditional methods of teaching have their own advantages but teachers too need to understand the chang- ing contours and demands of the new age. “Don’t concentrate on how to teach, but also teach how to learn,” said Anil Anantrao Dhumkekar, President, Narayana’s Kids Primary English School.
“Inclusiveness brings strength and better results in a society,” noted Prafulla Mani Pradhan, Principal, Confluence World School, Rudrapur. “Education needs designs that take into account slow learners and children with disabilities,” he added.

It was drawn that both teachers and students need to be life-long learners, and there should always be innovation happening at each stage. The process of adapting to progress and technology is never-ending and through the right examples, leaders and institutions need to ingrain it in the minds of students and teachers. Education, at the end of the day, needs to be multi-faceted and changing with the times is wise and will be fruitful for the future of individuals, institutions and the nation alike.

Cultivating Innovation in School Education

Innovation is crucial for society as well as the economy. There is need for cultivating and encouraging innovation at the school level. Schools need to cultivate interest towards innovation among its students. There needs to be a clear understanding of the ways that it can be done and the impact that it can have in the long run.

William Bickerdike, Regional Director, South Asia at Cambridge International Examinations asked the participants to discuss the innova- tive measures being taken by various schools to introduce innovation in their school. In response, a plethora of such initiatives came up. From imparting values right from the age of two to health foods and concentrating on human excellence, participants discussed various efforts undertaken in order to create an environment for teachers to innovate and not to force it upon them. The educators agreed that learning should increase but teaching should decrease. “The Principal has an important role to play in innovation and leadership. Make innovation an explicit core value of your school and give that space for innovation,” said Yasmin Contractor, Principal, Summerfield School, Gurgaon. “There will be risks and failures but don’t let that affect you,” she stressed.

“We have to reach beyond our schools. We have a community outreach programme where our students choose the groups they will work with,” said Kavita. C. Das, Principal, St.John’s High School, Chandigarh. Speaking of innovation, Ritu Gupta, Principal, Indraprastha Global School, Noida, informed that they begin meetings with the new things teachers have introduced in their classes.

An excellent example came from Satyabrata Minaketan, Principal, ODM Public School, Bhubaneswar, whose students, while working with victims of Orissa floods, were left in a situation where there was no electricity. Driven by the need to stay connected with technology, one of the students invented the Walk a Mile mobile charger, which is a pair of shoes that can charge your mobile device depending upon the distance you cover walking.

Several survey reports point to the lack of innovation and research in our educational programmes. It is initiatives such as these that can provide a muchneeded boost to bring the desired changes. This does not require just smart brains, but also an understanding and encouragement of a child’s interests on part of teachers, parents and schools.