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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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The price of learning Future classrooms would require
no teachers
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The price of learning THE day we adopted the Constitution of India, we started swearing by equality in all respects. Actually, our Constitutional provisions posed a serious challenge to the planners and policy makers who were supposed to translate the principle of equality to all citizens, irrespective of their gender, caste, religion, income and location. Education was assumed to be the most effective tool to achieve this goal, especially because in the modern context it was supposed to inculcate a critical, objective and rational attitude in students. Having adopted the modern system of education, it was expected that equality and secularism would automatically flow. After 65 years of Independence, however, one finds an unbridgeable gulf between the rural and urban India, as also between the rich and the poor. Where have we faltered? The sooner we analyse and correct it, the better it would be. Taking the rural and urban disparity first, the fact is that the quality of education varies substantially between the two locales, with the best calibre going to the urban, that too the large metropolises. The latest Census data shows that Class I cities in India and the metropolitan among them have been growing fastest in terms of population. While there is a huge longing among the jobseekers to get government jobs, priority invariably lies on cities and towns. In case of rural posting, it is treated with an absolute indifference, with hardly any ‘need’ to go to work everyday. There is ample data on teacher absenteeism in rural schools. Thanks to privatisation, a large number of private colleges have come up in rural areas all over India. But are they able to attract competent teachers? Certainly not, because of several reasons, and a major one relates to the location. While in the West, the first fallout of industrial development was a reduced gap between the rural and urban worlds, we have failed to experience that. A rural posting is still considered a punishment. Not to talk of private institutions, many of even the State and Central universities in remote rural areas have failed to attract good faculty mainly due to their location. As a result, the rural-urban disparity in secondary as well as higher education continues to expand. Only those in villages who can afford to spend on the transportation and hostel accommodation of their wards manage to educate their children, and the girl child naturally happens to be the worst sufferer in such cases. Within the cities and towns too there are huge disparities in the type of schools and colleges, resulting in diverse categories of students with varying competence, confidence and marketability. Some schools carry a brand for which parents are prepared to spend any amount. Children in such schools compete with each other not only in getting marks but more in displaying expensive school bags, lunch boxes, cars, parents’ positions and so on. There is competition over the places visited by them during vacations, which generally tend to be out of the country. While the social studies teacher keeps explaining the principles of equality and inclusion as the basic structure of the Constitution, these schools act as a perfect locale for an exclusivist attitude among their fortunate consumers, brimming with a superiority complex. While celebrating their birthdays in expensive hotels, these children get so engrossed in their own world that they are totally ignorant of a large number of other children of their age who cannot afford even a neat school uniform and books. These two categories of children speak different languages, visit different places, use different modes of travel, and the result is that they hardly ever encounter each other. As the level of education goes up, the sifting takes place further. Children whose parents can afford or manage to afford, spend huge sums on coaching classes and even buy paid seats in professional courses, making it easier for them to secure the best of jobs, again fetching high incomes. On achieving success, parents often reward them with expensive gifts such as mobile phones, cars, motorbikes, laptops, etc. On the other hand, their counterparts in rural, or even urban government schools, surrounded by unmotivated parents and teachers, drop out of the race automatically. Interestingly, both of them tend to go off the track — one due to excess of luxuries and the other due to frustrations. Is it then a question of calibre/IQ or competence? Of course not; it is the inequalities inherent in the system of education, which themselves create disparities between children whose parents could purchase education (good or bad) and others who could not. Since the quality of teachers is directly proportionate to the quality of students produced, it is but natural that such unequal systems of education can only create disparities, making a mockery of our wonderful Constitution, by which we all swear! The writer is Chairperson,Departments of Sociology and Women’s Studies, Panjab
University, Chandigarh |
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Future classrooms would require no teachers TEACHERLESS classrooms are the way of the future. US futurologist Dr Thomas Frey told News Ltd that technology would play a greater role in the teaching arena. “The sheer volume of experimentation that is happening right now, just that volume and calibre of the technologies of improving education and the frequency with which it is coming out is creating this crescendo effect that will break down castle walls,” Courier Mail quoted Dr Frey as saying. He said that within the next decade there would be a fundamental shift away from a “sage on stage” model with a teacher at the front of a class imparting knowledge, to a model where teachers were more like coaches. Dr Frey said this was a logical transition but that there would still be areas where teachers were necessary, but maybe not quite as many as already exist today. At the rate education technology is advancing, most developed countries were not equipping teachers with the skills they needed to survive the changes to education syllabuses over the next decade, Dr Frey said. “The fact that people are going to have to shift careers more than ever before in all history indicates we’re going to have get used to being in this constant changing mode,” he said. New kinds of “rapid learning” programmes are being developed all over the world that are designed to cut in half the time students need to spend at school. US engineer and entrepreneur, Nolan Bushnell, is one of thousands of educators developing “speed learning” courses designed to cut in half the amount of time children spend at school. Benghali-American educator Salmon Kahn founded his own online academy that provides more than 3,000 free online mini-courses on topics ranging from physics to art history, computer science to medicine. The micro-lectures are designed to teach students everything they would learn at school in half the time. Dr Frey is also developing his own education competition that will run around most colleges, where people from all disciplines from video game developers to film-makers are challenged to create engaging educational programmes that take less time than existing syllabuses.
—ANI
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Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak Lecture on globalisation A special lecture on “Globalisation and Indian Society” was organised by the Department of Political Science of Maharshi Dayanand University on the campus recently. While delivering the lecture, Dr Yogender Singh, an eminent sociologist and Professor Emeritus, JNU, Delhi, said globalisation is not only technology-driven but has a multi-dimensional character, and it would require a comprehensive multi-disciplinary approach to understand it and no society can insulate itself from this process. It is an irreversible process touching every part of society and thus has become an integral part of the modern life, he dadded. Dr Singh also touched upon the technological, social, cultural, economic and political aspects of globalisation. He said the explosion of information and communication technology (ICT) has fuelled the process of globalisation and 'virtual communities' have come into existence owing to the communication-technology aspect of globalisation. Dr Singh said economic inter-dependency has increased manifold because the process of globalisation and economic liberation are interlinked. He, however, added that overall economic effects of globalisation are a mixed bag. Analysing the cultural aspects, he said a common universal cultural has evolved on account of globalisation. Dr Singh said questions of socio-cultural, identity, nationality too are raising their heads due to the impact of globalisation.
Hospitality summit Hospitality and tourism industries offer enormous career possibilities in India. However, need of the hour is to train and prepare students as per the needs of the industry, so that they can find gainful employment. Appropriate measures, including increased industry-academia interface, is required in this regard. This view emerged at a one-day hospitality summit, “Shaping Youth for Hospitality and Tourism’, organised by the Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management (IHTM) of the university here recently to mark the Haryana Tourism Day. Dr R. N. Pandey, Additional Director-General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, highlighted the tourism potential of India. He said though the government has taken several measures to promote tourism, it is the academic institutions that must focus on skills development of students for employment in this sector. Dr Vinnie Jauhari, Director, IIMT, Oxford Brookes University, Gurgaon, said conceptual, creative, leadership, interpersonal, administrative, technical, communication skill as well as critical thinking process must be honed for success in this industry. Prof. Mahender Chand of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, talked about value-based services in the hospitality and tourism sector. Prof. R. K. Bhandari, principal, BCIHMT, New Delhi, advocated knowledge transfer from the industry to academics as well as providing motivational and behavioural training to career aspirants of this sector.
Induction programme Developing passion, dedication and commitment towards work, sharpening communication skills, cultivating a positive mindset, and creating personal branding can help students in achieving corporate and personal success. These views were expressed by expert speakers during a one-day induction-cum-orientation programme organised for the newly admitted students of the Department of Computer Science and Applications of the university recently. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Daleep Singh, Dean, College Development Council, MDU, said along with technical skills, students need to develop managerial skills as well. He said students must work on developing a futuristic vision. The guest of honour and Head of the Department of Mathematics, Prof. Renu Chugh, said only passion and determination differentiate winners.
Term extended The university has extended the term of the standing committee responsible for checking the menace of sexual harassment and violence against women at workplace for one more year. Dr Sunita Malhotra, Professor, Department of Psychology, will be the Chairperson of the committee, while Prof. Pushpa Dahiya (Department of Botany), Prof. Preet Singh (Department of Law), Raj Bala Sangwan, warden, Girls Hostel No. 2, topper student, faculty and Head of the Department concerned or branch officer(s) will be member(s) of the committee. —
Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat |
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