Only reforming the way we teach will ensure that we don't end up with demographic disaster
With
half of the country's population younger than 25, we need to
fundamentally change our education system to produce human capital
suitable for the emerging knowledge-driven global economy. If that is
not done, it is only a matter of time that the demographic advantage
will metamorphose into a fullblown demographic disaster. Mere allocation
of more resources to make up for the yesteryears' deficit in the
education sector is not enough to address the problem. India also needs
to reform teaching in schools and colleges.
Individuals learn differently due to their different learning
styles. As per Howard Gardener's seven-intelligences model, if some
people rely more on auditory input for learning, then many others rely
on visual, kinaesthetic, musical, logical, interpersonal or
intrapersonal styles. An education system is most effective when
teaching methodologies match the learning styles of individual students.
For ensuring better results from the teaching-learning process, every
lesson plan must have variations to suit individual learning styles.
Harvard University's Clayton Christensen in his book, Disrupting Class,
has suggested different schools for students with similar learning
styles.
Currently, in our schools, teachers decide how the learning has to
take place and everybody learns and gets evaluated the same way. The
schools generally follow the logical or mathematical teaching approach
that is most suited for those who have the ability to recognise patterns
to work with geometric shapes and who are good at reasoning, logic and
problem solving. The system is less effective for those whose brains are
not 'configured' for this learning style. As a result, many students
barely manage to scrape through the process or drop out of the system.
To unlock all the talents of all of the people - essential for deriving
maximum benefits from our demographic advantage - India cannot follow a
wasteful education system that is suitable for only one dominant style
of learning.
The boys and girls who are alienated from the school because of the
mismatch between individual learning styles and schools' teaching
methods are vulnerable to options that are competing with the schools to
lure these students away from the classrooms. Extrinsic motivations
like providing midday meal or cash incentive - the latest 'innovative'
initiative of the government of Tamil Nadu - are considered by some
policymakers as effective countermeasures to compete with those
alternatives. Even if such incentives are able to bring everyone to the
schools, can it guarantee learning?
Rapid progress in educational technology and its plummeting costs
have opened up real possibilities to make education customised to suit
each student's learning style. Probably for the first time in the
history of mankind, now there is a possibility for the schools to create
exciting learning environments that can successfully compete with all
other attractive alternatives that are trying to keep students out of
school. In such an environment, any extrinsic motivation can only work
as a double whammy for the students.
Christensen' s data shows that such alternatives are already making
inroads in the US. As per his projection, by 2020, the majority of US
schools will be radically transformed and will introduce online teaching
into their core teaching programmes. It is not mere superimposition of
online or distance learning courses on a traditional model. Unlike
traditional distance learning programmes where students generally learn
on their own at a distance, here students are able to learn the courses
offered by the most effective teachers in a tutorsupervised environment
of the school. In this new environment, the schools are actually
redefining their value propositions, or to use C K Prahalad's
expression, 'co-creating value' with other stakeholders: students,
parents, policymakers and technology providers. Most importantly, the
emerging student-centric education system is based on a fundamental
belief that every student enjoys success, loves fun and is wired
differently to learn the same thing most effectively in different ways.
Similar to the most innovative firms of today whose major
initiatives are centred around external network resources instead of
internal ones, the schools now also have a unique opportunity to
innovatively utilise the best teaching resources available elsewhere to
substantially improve the teachinglearning processes. Today, a student
even in a village school should be able to enrol for a subject that is
not taught in the school and offered elsewhere in the country. There is
also no reason why the classes of our national awardwinning teachers
shouldn't be conducted in schools across the country. This needs to be
done with extensive use of computer-based learning that supports
individualised learning path for every student. The teacher becomes more
of a tutor in such a class.
In our daily life, we frequently observe how disruptive innovations
are increasingly wiping out businesses by fundamentally replacing
expensive and complicated technologies with affordable and convenient
alternatives. Now, such innovations in education are set to decimate the
present teachingcentric system. In this year's World Innovation Forum
in New York, some leading technology providers demonstrated the amazing
possibilities that are transforming the way world learns.
To
exploit India's demographic advantage, till it lasts, we need to
urgently undertake bold reforms and introduce newer types of schools
with a much broader variety of teaching-learning and evaluation
processes. Otherwise, our perceived demographic advantage will slowly
slip away to make way for a demographic nightmare.
(The author is director of Centre for Entrepreneurship &
Innovation at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business,
University of West Indies)
No comments:
Post a Comment