Recently a prominent academician
of Bhopal asked what should be done about the complaint of industry that the students being provided for a job are not
suitable and it is extremely difficult to find suitable candidates for any
given position, the reference point being IT /ITES sector. We discussed briefly
about the mushrooming of an industry around this need called “Finishing school”
and their providing of services like polishing the presentation of the
candidate. The discussion then veered towards different topic.
However, what could be the way out? This is a
serious issue facing the nation and I am sure there are fine intellectuals who
are pondering over this issue. Here is my two
pennies worth opinion about the same
Today we teach modern technology subjects using basically the same same technology as this 14th century classroom in the painting below. Note the textbook the teacher on the stage and the sleeping guy in the back.
The modern technologies available to us today should be utilized better.
A
better way of getting the course designed, at least for IT, is to do away with the
books completely. The topics must be converted into small videos – followed by
a set of quiz questions where the student has to answer before proceeding to
the next video. The videos should be available to them always – and they can
watch as many as they want. However at the end of the week there would be
evaluation which they have to clear before moving on to the next level. There
should be forums - online or offline –where the students can share their ideas
and understandings with each other. These forums can become the peer instruction
blocks – where students can clear each other’s doubts – which can become an invaluable
learning, team building and leadership enabling tool. These are course materials that the student can carry any where, and access from there hand held devices like android mobile sets.
The
initial “objective of the day” in our conventional schools in India is usually
to finish off the chapter or the topic given. This usually means having a book
published with the name of the subject written on top of the book (like
“Windows 2007”) and asking the students to go through the course contents, like
start menu, applications (Ms Office) and so on and so forth. This target has to
be reoriented. The target of any course in IT should be to enable the student
find out relevant information from the search engine. The ever changing landscape of IT cannot be
fathomed by any given course, nor a courseware designed up to date enough to
cater to industry needs. As the proverb
goes “Give the man a fish and feed him
for a day, teach the man to fish and feed him for his life”. The long term
objective of any IT course should be to find out relevant information quickly
from the web and moreover checking them for their accuracy by using them.
3 There
are great resources available on the net about the right way of thinking. A
fresh mind just entering the job market can benefit greatly by using the thoughts
recorded, for example at TED Education.
However one major stumbling point in this, especially for the students from
smaller cities of India is the language. English levels are generally poor in
the non metro semi urban populace which might be a major hindrance. The
education institutes here can play a major role here, by hand holding the
students for the initial period and enabling them to understand the talks and
overcoming their inhibitions of English. This could potentially serve a dual
purpose, one of teaching them the language and secondly teaching them to learn
new concepts. Moreover it would be nice to have classes recorded in Hindi and
other Indian languages uploaded.
I am sure there are
better things happening and better ideas shaping the future of the education
industry, I would love to know about them.
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