A must read for all the Teachers

This is purported to be a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to his Son's Teacher. Irrespective of whether he actually wrote this or not, this is a must read for any teacher, especially in today's world where the teacher-student relationship has taken a turn for the worse, and students don't seem to be getting the right value system from the teacher.

He will have to learn, I know,
that all men are not just,
all men are not true.

But teach him also that
for every scoundrel there is a hero;
that for every selfish Politician,
there is a dedicated leader…

Teach him for every enemy there is a friend,
Steer him away from envy,
if you can,
teach him the secret of
quiet laughter.

Let him learn early that
the bullies are the easiest to lick…
Teach him, if you can,
the wonder of books…

But also give him quiet time
to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky,
bees in the sun,
and the flowers on a green hillside.

In the school teach him
it is far honourable to fail
than to cheat…

Teach him to have faith
in his own ideas,
even if everyone tells him
they are wrong…

Teach him to be gentle
with gentle people,
and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son
the strength not to follow the crowd
when everyone is getting on the band wagon…
Teach him to listen to all men…

but teach him also to filter
all he hears on a screen of truth,
and take only the good
that comes through.
Teach him if you can,
how to laugh when he is sad…

Teach him there is no shame in tears,
Teach him to scoff at cynics
and to beware of too much sweetness…
 
Teach him to sell his brawn
and brain to the highest bidders
but never to put a price-tag
on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears
o a howling mob
and to stand and fight
if he thinks he's right.
Treat him gently,
but do not cuddle him,
because only the test
of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage
to be impatient…
let him have the patience to be brave.

Teach him always
to have sublime faith in himself,
because then he will have
sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order,
but see what you can do…

He is such a fine little fellow,
my son!
                                    - Abraham Lincoln

Creating leaders for tomorrow

One of the understated features of Gurukulavasa based education was the judgement and care shown by the Guru before upgrading the skills of his students. Special skills that can be used to harm others, like advanced archery or swordsmanship, was imparted only after ensuring that the student has attained sufficient maturity and responsibility to use it only for the good of others and not otherwise. Thus an Arjuna was trained in special asthras which was denied to a Dussasana. Thus, there was a clear incentive for the student to be ethical.

This is lacking in our educational system. In schools and colleges, all the students are treated alike, irrespective of their ethical standards. The knowledge imparted is same. I cannot understand why schools cannot recognise good students showing great promise both on the character front and on the education front, by grouping them into one section and put under the best teachers or even perhaps expose them to eminent people from various walks of life. This way, the best students are motivated, others have someting to aspire for, and the school helps create a generation of future leaders, who not only have special skills but greater exposure, are ethical and ensured to put their knowledge to the betterment of the fellow countrymen.

Where is the next Gandhi to liberate our bright young students?

Despite all the noise made by the Education Minister, Kapil Sibal, on overhauling the education system in the country, the vested interests have ensured that he didnt make much headway.

The higher education is in such a mess, what with the UGC proving to be highly ineffectual and corrupt. The problem with our higher education is not just that it is far too rigid and structured, but it just does not provide an opportunity for the student to explore different areas of knowledge. That it fails to provide the necessary soft skills required for the student to be employable is another major lacunae.

Let me give you an example. Let us assume that a student wishes to enroll for B Sc Mathematics. He has very limited option other than to opt for the combination of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, with English and a Regional Language. In some colleges they offer Statistics instead of Chemistry. I did B Sc Physics, with Maths and Chemistry as subsidiaries. I can understand the logic of tying Maths with Physics, but to date dont know why I was burdened with Chemistry, which I hated. I could have and would have opted for Accountancy or even Statistics. Or for that matter, why couldnt I have studied Psychology?.

The above is possible if the Universities were to go by the Credit System. In such a system, the student shall have the freedom to get a Bachelors or Masters by adopting any combination that gives him the total credit required for a course, as it should be.

Why Indian Universities opted for the rigid system long long ago was to basically support the nascent Colleges that have limited seats, and fewer students. Hence, the University was forced to adopt the rigid structure so that the Colleges are able to have sufficient occupancy levels for each class.

But in todays scenario where the Colleges are overflowing with students, any College can easily have an academic calender that can schedule lecture for varying subjects, with the students being given the option to choose the topic and the lecturer of his choice.

The British had a vested interest in cloning our bright young minds. They did not want to encourage creativity and individuality, but rather wanted a sea of youngsters who are obedient, rigid and ideally suited to work as subordinates of the highly structured British Administrative System.

It is a pity that 64 years after independence, we have not yet liberated our students from the shackles imposed by the British, whose strategic objectives were totally different, and who never had the students and India's interests in mind.

But then we have replaced White Sahibs with Brown Sahibs!!!

Where is the next Gandhi to lead a movement that shall liberate our bright young students?

Dont follow advice,traditions blindly...................

I had blogged about how one should acquire knowledge.

Achaaryaath paadam aadatthe

Paadam sishya swamedhayaa

Paadam sa brahmachaaribhya

Sesham kaala kramena cha

This is from smruthies. A loose translation is as follows,

A person can get one quarter of knowledge from Achaarya – the teacher, Another quarter by analyzing self,

One quarter by discussing with others and the last quarter during the process of living by method -addition, deletion, correction, and modification of already known aachaaraas or new aachaaraas.

Aacharaas have to be followed based on their merits available from self experience. One should not follow an aacharaa just because a teacher or elder taught you without giving a reason for it.

I have seen numerous cases of people blindly following a tradition or aachara or belief just because they were told to by elders and they never questioned why it has to be done. 

I still recall many in Tamil Nadu not venturing out to do anything on Ashtami and Navami without ever knowing why. I have seen people look at the watch to move to exactly 9 am on Monday so that they can leave the house as the inauspicious Rahukalam (7.30 -9 am on Mondays) gets over by then, without realizing the rider -Rahukalam 7.30-9 am is applicable only when the day has 12 hours, sun rises at 6 am and sets at 6 pm. The actual Rahukalam has to be adjusted pro rata depending on the actual time of sun rise and the number of hours in a day. For example, if the sun rises at 6.30 am and sets at 5.30 pm (as can happen during winter), then the Rahukalam for monday will be from 7.52 am - 9.14 am!!!

So dont follow advice, traditions blindly. Find out the real reasons and meaning of each tradition/aacharas by questioning, form your own opinion and then act accordingly.

What we teach and What is needed!

ADDENDUM

My good friend Srinivas Rao has his own interpretation of the above diagram, which he was kind enough to share with me through e-mail. I am reproducing his mail and his version of the picture below,

Sir,

What we need is "Balance Sate" between RED & GREEN (ref: Picture Posted by Raja's World at 08:05).

When there is equilibrium state between these two, rest of the people live in peace.

We don't need only RED.......(Ignorance) or we don't need only GREEN(Sophistication of knowledge) which leads to high level stress in human life.

There is a need of both groups for the society.........

Regards

KS Rao

Doomed Universities

During the first term of the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh, in which Arjun Singh was the HRD Minister, many colleges were given Deemed University status recklesslessly. Obviously corruption was involved and this could not have happened without the knowledge of the Minister and the UGC officials. Blatant misuse of authority and corruption by UGC officials were cited by many then.

A Public Interest Litigation was filed asking whether the Government had any policy in allocating Deemed University Status. Government was eloquently silent for 3 years and finally has bitten the bullet,

The Centre purportedly reviewed 126 deemed universities across the country. While 38 deemed universities were found to be doing a good job, 44 others have been given three years to improve. The remaining 44 were found completely unfit. The list of unfit deemed universities include the Devraj Urs University in Karnataka, DY Patil University in Maharashtra, the Manav Rachna Institute in Gurgaon and the Savita Institute and Vinayaka Mission in Tamil Nadu.

The Government has finally decided to de-recognize these 44 Universities. This action affects nearly 2 lakhs students, though the Government has assured that all the students shall get the degree from the University to which these colleges will now be accredited. That is no solace. These students have paid huge capitation fee to get admission, and the stigma of having studied in such a rogue institution will adversely affect their career.

The saddest part is that no one involved is being punished. All the guilty, including the Minister, UGC officials, the Deemed University owners have gone scot free. Everyone has made money, the poor Government University is now footing the bills of this misadventure (that means the tax payers) and no one is wiser.

Till such time our justice system improves and guilty are punished, these kinds of scams will multiply

Shame on you IIM & CAT

25 years ago, I had gone all the way from Palghat to Bangalore to write the Common Admission Test (CAT) for entrance to the IIM programs. It was one of my first experience in an event being organized at a large scale and without a hitch. And the reason for admiring IIMs and wanting to join them.

It is also why I am apalled when I read that the online CAT exam conducted yesterday was a disaster, with many students not being able to take the exam across the country with the servers crashing. And what is more galling is the response of the IIM to it. (The highlightings are mine and my comments in brackets).

Convener of Common Admission Test (CAT) said there is no widespread server crash for their first ever online test but just delays (is it acceptable that there was one server crash and a few delays. Has our IIMs heard of Six Sigma?). "There are no widespread server crashes. What is happening is there are delays due to many process that we require to fulfill," Professor Satish Deodhar convener of this year's CAT said.

"This is the first day of the first on-line test. Such an attempt to take an on-line test of 2.41 lakh students in the span of 10 days is being carried out for the first time in the world," Deodhar said.

"We must understand that there are bound to be some problems on the first day of such an huge exercise but the exams is going on and it will go on for the next ten days," he said. (Oh! so we are to understand that there are bound to be some problems on the first day for an exam conducted by the so called only 'World Class' Elite Management Institute in India?)

More than 2.41 lakh students are appearing for the test across the country for admission in different IIMs and other management institutes. "There were delay in processing of candidates finger prints and photographs which are required. (Why should there be delay? Was CAT not aware of the logistics involved?) There is also delay as our test file are taking long to get download due to strict data security provision given to them.( So this is not a glitch but poor and bad Test process design. Did someone not take the trouble of running dry tests before trying it out on the poor students?). Students are also not familiar with the system," Deodhar said.(Ah! now blame is on the students!) "But we hope that from tomorrow it will become more smooth," Deodhar further added. (Again note that he only 'hopes' it will become smooth but cant give a categoric assurance)

Sad to see such a 'Chalta hai' attitude in an exam that is supposed to select the best of the students to the supposedly world class management Institute in India- Shame on you IIM and CAT. What kind of inspiration and values are you spreading by the shoddy conduct of a prestigious exam like CAT? How can we believe that IIM is the best when it comes to management education, when you cant manage your own entrance exam? I would have appreciated if CAT administrator had offered an unconditional apology and accepted responsibility, instead of hiding behind 'these things happen' silly ramblings.

True! it could be worse!! But it could as well be better!!!

The much respected M D Nalapat, who was the editor or Mathrubhumi and resident editor of Times of India, has made thought provoking points about Literacy drives and Indian School Education. It is only fair that I reproduce extracts from his article in his own words,

A national trait in India is to start brilliantly but end poorly. This is what has happened to the numerous literacy drives launched by a medley of government and state agencies. With substantial effort, an illiterate is taught to read and write, only to suffer a relapse into illiteracy within a year because as yet there is almost no literature commonly available for neo-literates. Many lack the money to buy any kind of book in the first place, while those agencies that taught them the alphabet move on elsewhere, to "further reduce illiteracy". Unless a follow-up programme lasting at least five years is devised for neo-literates, India will continue to be a country where half the population is alphabetically disadvantaged.

The rot in the schools begins at the point of recruitment. In some parts of the country, more than three-fourths of all school management (including those in the government sector) select teachers after getting a cash bribe from them. The candidate able to pay this may not always be the best, and is usually among the worst-skilled of the applicants. Because the job has been secured for cash and not competence, there is seldom any effort to enforce standards or mandate improvement. Mediocrity reigns, and spreads to the unsuspecting students.

To attend a classroom in India is usually to fall asleep. Classes are conducted in a monotone from notes that are frayed with long use and remain unchanged for decades. Questions are discouraged, and the pupils very soon understand that their teacher anyway knows little of the subject besides what he or she is reading out to them, hence they stay silent. That is, if there are teachers at all. While a few states (in the south and west) have teachers in almost all schools, in other parts of the country about a fifth of government schools remain without teachers for long stretches of time. Often, a single teacher takes multiple classes and several subjects, to the forfeit of quality.

With such a large number of students opting out of the regular school system before long, thanks to a combination of poverty and abysmal teaching, there ought to be a substantial number of vocational courses. Sadly, because of the numerous regulatory hurdles that the education bureaucracy has put in place, less than a fifth of those working while still in their youth have undergone any sort of vocational training. This figure of 20 per cent is optimistic and-as is the case with numerous statistics in India-unsubstantiated by any comprehensive examination of the facts. The actual percentage of those with vocational training may be much less.

In such training as well, it is mediocrity that is taken as the norm. Take the example of nursing. India has several million young ladies who have the innate ability to be excellent nurses, as indeed many are in hospitals across the world. The problem is that the outflow is confined to what gets described as "C" and "D" grade hospitals and other facilities, and locations such as old age homes. The modern hospitals (the "A" and "B" class) do not recruit nurses from India because the training given in the country does not give access to the latest in patient care and in diagnostic and therapeutic equipment.

As yet, neither the government nor the private sector has set up a training facility that can equip India's nurses for jobs in the best hospitals worldwide. Everybody seems satisfied with the suboptimal.

After all, it could be worse! Yes, but it could as well be much better.

Degrees not worth the value of the paper it is printed on

Excerpts from a news report reproduced below is self explanatory and quite worrying. The rush for Degree Certificates without focussing on skill enhancement and knowledge acquisition will, unfortunately, lead to this ,

State Bank of India, the country's largest bank, faces a huge dilemma. It has 11,000 clerical posts on offer, but has received 3.4 million applications. That's about 300 applications for every vacancy. The bank can afford the luxury of being extremely choosy - a vast majority of the candidates who have applied for the Rs 8,000-a-month clerical job are engineering graduates and MBAs, even though the job specified only Class 12 as minimum qualification criterion.

It's not that there aren't enough suitable jobs for good-quality engineers and MBAs. There are countless stories of how leading Indian companies are visiting engineering and MBA colleges in interior parts of the country to add to their basket of employable graduates but are returning empty-handed.

The main problem is that of employability. Studies have indicated that only one in four graduates from India's colleges is employable.

A Nasscom study found that India still produces plenty of engineers - 400,000 a year. But most are deficient in the required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team and deliver basic oral presentations.

Companies say this mismatch between qualification and quality of job is inevitable in a country where everybody and his uncle is either an engineer or an MBA. The quality of teaching in most of the second-rung institutes is poor.

Indian Institute of Technology alumni have repeatedly expressed serious concern over the mushrooming of engineering colleges that are being run as "business ventures" by contractors, builders, coal dealers, brick-kiln owners and sweetmeat sellers. Two years ago, an assessment of the country's higher education system by the University Grants Commission (UGC) found that as many as 25 per cent faculty positions in universities remained vacant; 57 per cent teachers in colleges did not have either an M Phil or PhD; and there was only one computer for 229 students, on an average, in colleges. The assessment was conducted on 123 universities and 2,956 colleges across India - an estimated 60 per cent of these institutions were private, the rest government-run.

Now, look at a couple of rungs further down in the job market pyramid. India's vocational training institutes produce six million students every

Even more worrying is the fact that only 2 per cent of the workforce has skills training and 80 per cent of the rural and urban workforce does not possess any "identifiable" market skills.

What is also worrying are the findings of the India Labour Report prepared by TeamLease - it has found that over half of employed youth suffered some degree of skill deprivation, while only 8 per cent were unemployed. In all, 57 per cent of India's youth suffered from some degree of "unemployability".

Deem(Doom)ed Universities

HRD ministry and minister Kapil Sibal do not want to talk about the report on deemed universities by its own review committee, because the panel has said that over 40 universities, most of them private, do not deserve deemed status.

The committee found only 38 deemed universities to have excellent infrastructure and 44 could retain deemed status after improving certain aspects of infrastructure, research and administration. The rest, a little over 40, were beyond redemption and could not retain deemed university status. Of the deemed universities that do not deserve deemed status, three were in Haryana, two each in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh but thehe bulk of deemed universities not found fit are in South India, especially Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The reason why ministry does not want to talk about the report, sources said, is due to the fact that it will find it impossible to take away the deemed status of any university (Doesn't it strange that these Universities that affect the life of thousands of students cannot be held accountable by anyone?) .

The reason is not far to seek. Powerful politicians who run many of the deemed universities have been working to thwart any disciplinary action and have ensured that laws were enacted to protect their interests in perpetuity.

Even legally, the ministry cannot take action as under the UGC Act, deemed status is given at the recommendation of UGC. And UGC, the regulatory authority is corrupt to the boot. Deemed University status were given by UGC flouting all basic norms. A similar process has to be followed in case of revocation of deemed status. The funniest part is that while Ministries committee has found many deemed Universities to be unfit, UGC's review committee of deemed universities has not found fault with any of them.

The biggest inadequacy of deemed universities, according to the review report, is the manner in which they have started hundreds of study centres all over India. Fee and administrative structure of private deemed universities are totally unregulated and are run in a whimsical fashion, the report said.

A substantial section of the report deals with how higher education was being run as a business and academic and administrative posts were held by family members and relatives of promoters. Research output of most private deemed universities was sub-standard.

Now is there any wonder why all these led to this Headline?

No Indian university among world's best 100, Harvard tops the list

What is wrong with our schooling?

The Education Minister Kapil Sibal is in a hurry. Notwithstanding the fact that Education is a Concurrent Subject (meaning decisions can be taken only by the Centre and the States together) he has gone about tinkering with the system by abolishing the Class X exams (or making it 'optional', whatever that means) to reduce the stress of the students.

This is just treating the symptoms. Stress is an effect, the cause of which is not the Examinations.

The Japanese have mastered the art of Root Cause Analysis using many tools like the Fish Bone Diagram or by simple asking 'Why' five times. Our honourable minister has not even contemplated asking 'Why' even once.

If he cared enough to dig deep into the problem, he would have found out many things wrong with our schooling.

The syllabus is outdated. The system is extremely rigid and regimental. The teaching methodology is archaic to say the least. The student-teacher ratio is 1:50 in many of the lower classes, whereas it should be 1:15. The syllabus is too heavy at the primary schools. Added to it is the dreaded load of homework. Children hardly get time to play. They rarely indulge themselves in hobbies. It is a common thing to hear kids 6,7,8,9 to say that they are busy- with home work and exams. And I am talking about students studying in good schools. The plight of the Government Schools that take care of 70% of the students is pathetic. The infrastructure is poor, there are inadequate teachers and the system do not attract good teachers.

It is ridiculous that all the Children have to study the same syllabus of their stream, whether it be State Board or CBSE, till they complete 10th. A 15 year old is much more aware than what we were in their age. They have clear career choices. They should be encouraged to experiment at a much earlier age.

It is proved scientifically that the best time to learn languages is till one is 12. The other hard skills can be developed after that. Of late we are ignoring language and humanities. This is reflected in 99% of our students graduating without being able to read or write adequately. I teach many MBA students who have studied in English medium and are in mid 30s. Most cannot write one paragraph without a grammatical error in English. And their command over their mother tongue is still woeful. Why is it that we do not give an option for the students to study psychology, philosophy, music, arts in depth in the school. Many want to do that. It is not possible to study these subjects once they are in the College, for if they do it then, they will have to have a career in that stream, which they may not want.

My recommendation is to have common subjects till the 6th standard and give the students an option of minor subjects from 7 -10th. For eg: let us have 8 subjects of which only 5 will be evaluated. The balance optional 3 has to be done but there wont be any evaluation. But the student needs to show a certain level of proficiency in their optional subjects. This will ensure they learn this with enjoyment.

Finally, the instructor led lecture mode and learning by rote has to be scrapped from the LKG. Students should learn through experimentation. Kerala Government came up with a stunning plan to come up with a creative teaching methodology a decade back, but lack of commitment and prior preparation did not allow it to reach its logical conclusion.

We do not want our education system to churn out mediocre students who dont learn leadership, empathy, social awareness, communication skills or in general soft skills. What we want to create is a society that is vibrant with dynamic, inquisitive, decisive, knowledgable, risk taking young people who are multi faceted.

Making Class X examination alone is not the way forward.

Vouchers for School Children

In my post 'Of intentions and reality checks' dated 11th June 2009, I had lamented about the continued ignoring of the Primary education in India. I had also suggested that Government pay Rs 1000 per student per month who is stuying in Government Schools.

Now, columnist Swaminathan Ankleshwara Aiyer in Times of India, who is known for his out of the box thinking, thinks on similar lines. He talks about giving vouchers instead of cash, but the idea is the same. It is also heartening to note that a pilot project has been on in Delhi.

You may read the article here,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Columnists/SA-Aiyar-An-open-letter-to-Kapil-Sibal/articleshow/4653435.cms

Qualities needed in a student

Ancient Indian philosophy erudiates that a Student needs the following 5 qualities to excel in his studies,

1. Dyantrishna (thirst for knowledge)
2. Gurushraddha (faith on teachers)
3. Sadatatparta (readyness to learn all the time)
4. Ekagrata (concentration)
5. Dheyaprerak (Motivated towards goal)

The teachers role at the higher education levels are very limited. He should be more of a facilitator and should confine to showing the right path to the student. Acquiring knowledge has to be done by the student on his own, in his own way. It should not be spoon fed on him.

This is fine when the student possess all the above, or at least some of the above, qualities. When the student lacks the above, then the teacher should concentrate on developing the above traits in him rather than limiting to teaching the subjects.

In the end, it is the attitude that matters.

A semester not to remember

Another Semester of taking classes for MBA has passed by.

It has been a mixed semester for me. On the one hand, I did make some progress with improving the quality of my classes, definitely MS 3, MS 1 and MS 95. On the other hand, my relationsip with many students/batches deteriorated. The co-curricular activities, though we did get some good participation for most programs, is going nowhere, mainly due to student apathy. They are being wound up next semester, unless students come forward to organize it. Family day was a high point. I was able to uphold the high standards set by me for myself of not starting any class late or cancelling any scheduled classes this time around too.

The enthusiasm for the students to study is flagging. Hardly anyone puts a decent effort. Maybe everyone has other concerns associated with the fallout of Global Financial Crisis on their minds, then maybe not. Quality of Assignments have deteriorated, with students taking the easier way of rampant copy, pasting, necessitating me adopting harsher grading of assignments, something I have to do but am not fond of doing.

While last semester was fun guiding 6 hard working students on their projects, the attitude of the two students doing the project this semester was a big let down. The saddest part is that they are capable of much more but spoilt it with their casual approach.

Almost gave up teaching, but found another self actualization need to keep me continue teaching, albeit with a lesser workload in the coming semesters.

Teaching Balance

I have observed that a good majority of the Children born to Teachers have certain special features. They all make good Number Twos but lack the initiative to become the number one. They are the epitome of all that is good, and are generally very ethical. Disciplined in life, they have a fetish for being led, obey orders without questioning and tries to be perfect in what they do. This makes them invaluable as number two's. But they just do not have the vision, dynamism, right brained thinking, multi-tasking, quick decision making, leadership qualities needed to by numero uno.

I have a theory on this. I strongly feel that the Teachers see so much that can/and do go wrong with their students that they put considerable pressure on their own kids to ensure they become paragons of virtues.

It is true in one way. Teaching can be so frustrating, with majority of the students showing absolute lack of interest in studies and carry a poor attitude. By the end of every semester I feel like giving up teaching forever. Making my MBA students study and learn something is akin to banging my head against a wall - day in and day out.

When I am about to chuck it all away, some nice things happen and my faith in human nature and teaching is restored.

It was the same this time around too. I was so depressed that I had decided to slowly phase out my teaching commitments over the next year and a half possibly.

Then a series of small, unconnected incidents restored my faith partially,

I had taken the orientation program for the Bachelors students six months ago and then stood up for a sick teacher one day teaching them Micro Economics introduction. One of the young girls in the class, barely out of school, sent me a mail recalling that I had told in the orientation class that if students have any doubts, they can mail me any time. She had a genuine doubt as to how to approach her studies, mailed me stating that she has full confidence in my advice and will go by whatever I say. She also appreciated my 2 lectures, pointing out how she was benefitted by them and beseeched me to take some lectures for her class. On receiving my reply to her queries, she again came back saying that she never had a doubt that I will reply promptly and had full faith in me. The fact that a young student had so much faith in me affected me a lot. The operative word here is faith.

My MBA students are rarely interactive in the class, for whatever reason. But for the first time in my decade long association with IGNOU, I am enjoying teaching my Semester 1 students Macro Economics. The class, well at least 6-7 of the students, are so interactive that questions, thoughts and comments fly back and forth. Some of the queries has challenged my knowledge and at times I had to go back and refer. The purpose of any lecture is to stimulate the brain of the students and make them think, while at the same time raising the level of thinking of the faculty. How I wish all my MBA classes are like this!!

A month ago, when we were stuck with finding a volunteer to edit our IGNOU E-Magazine, I turned to an old student of mine, who has moved to Dubai - Tina to bail us out. When no one was coming forward in Kuwait to edit the magazine - barring one young, inexperienced girl - we were at our wits end. But Tina (the acronym TINA means There Is No Alternative !) put her hands up and giving respect to my request put her heart and soul into it ensuring the magazine was published on due date. The vast network and reservoir of talent amongst the students, and what they can do when they are prepared to do Nishkama karma and when they stretch themselves is very gratifying as a teacher.

I had taken the onerous responsibility of guiding a group of six students in their Final Semester MBA Project during July-November 2008. I had driven them hard and made them really sweat it out. My tough work ethic had even led to one of the original 7 to drop out and opt for another faculty. I had always thought that on submission of their Projects, these students will take all possible care to not come anywhere near me in the future. But surprisingly, all the six of them today are great personal friends. Yesterday their results came out. Four out of the six have got 'A' Grade (One project is under dispute and one result is yet to be published). It is debatable who was more happy - me or the students?. Late at night Nitin and Seema dropped by my house to offer me a box of sweets and to share their happiness with me. A nice gesture, but the fact that they thought of remembering me in their time of joy, made my day as a Teacher.

Should I continue teaching? The balance is not so one sided against teaching now, but still...................................................

When will our teachers be ready?

I have always held the belief that the root cause for the current state of education is the quality (or rather the lack of it) of the school teachers at the Primary and Secondary level. They lack in both the understanding of the childrens psychology and on how to transfer the knowledge to the kids. This also stems from the fundamental deficiency in understanding the nature of their job. Merely getting a post graduate degree and B.Ed is no substitute for wisdom, as illustrated by this story,

"In ancient India there lived a certain wise king. One day a pandit (scholar and teacher) who had studied many scriptures and holy books came to the palace and asked to see the king.

"Your Majesty," said he, "I should like it very much if you would permit me to teach you the Bhagavatam, the holy scripture on the life of Sri Krishna. I will not require an unreasonable fee."

Now the king, a good judge of human nature, knew enough of that great book to realize that the pandit, scholar that he was, still had not understood what it says. Otherwise, why would he be coming to a king's palace in search of wealth instead of seeking for the Lord in the depths of his own heart. He said to the pandit: "I perceive that you have not fully mastered the Bhagavatam as yet. I will make you my tutor only when you have learned it well."

As he went on his way the scholar thought to himself, "Why, I've been studying the book over and over all these years. How foolish the king is to say that I have not mastered it!" Yet a seed of doubt had been sown in his mind. He carefully read the book again and again he applied to the king.

This time the king repeated the same thing.Mightily puzzled, the pandit reached home and shut himself in his room. He pored over the holy book day and night, and gradually the truth began to dawn on him. Then he began to see his own vanity and greed for the riches and courts of kings, and also for his own fame. Now he applied himself entirely to the worship of God and never thought once of returning to the king.

After a few years the king became curious and paid a visit to the pandit's house. There he found a changed man, radiant with divine light and love.

The king fell on his knees. "I see," he said, "that you have now realized the true meaning of the Bhagavatam. I am ready to be your disciple if you will teach me."

When will our teachers be ready?

Is being a passionate teacher worth it?

There are times when one wonders if it is worth being a teacher with a passion.

Three separate incidents, unrelated, made me lose my faith in teaching yesterday.

First - I woke up to see a synopsis from a student for a project which clearly showed a lack of effort expected of a final year MBA student. Since the student was close to a deadline and has twice before not changed his approach despite considerable inputs, I thought it fit to be firm with the student and read him the riot act. Instead of taking it up as a challenge and rising to the occassion, the student chickened out and opted to do the project with another faculty, who in his opinion will be more amenable to the low standards set by him. And I thought studying was about raising ones level all the time. What really hurt was the discourtesy shown by the student in not meeting me personally or to call me over telephone to give a personal explanation. I got my notice of being 'Sacked' as a Project Guide through an E-Mail. So much for respect for a teacher.

Second was a minor one. One of the students called me up to find out (hold on) the 'Publisher''of a particular book. This, when all he had to do was to type the name of the book and author in Google search bar. He was sitting in front of his computer when he called me. In an era where information is available at ones fingertips, it is ridiculous that one wont put in even that tiny little effort. A few strong words from my side resulted in the student visibly sulking when he came to the class in the evening.

If these two were not enough, there was this incident in the class. As part of Strategic Management lecture, I had taken considerable pains to make available to the students top quality case studies photocopied with supporting documents superbly describing how to analyze a Case. This was a virtual gold mine of information. One of the student is being transfered to Dubai and was attending her last session in Kuwait. Remember that she is planning to continue the program in Dubai and hence would have been greatly benefitted by the material. I gave her one set of the documents, but she firmly kept her arms folded and refused to accept it saying she was leaving for Dubai and hence dont feel the need for this. To say I was shocked is an understatment. I could never imagine that any student will refuse a material that may help them in their studies. Silently, I retracted my hand with the paper and with a grim face carried on with my class.

Despite 7 years of teaching MBA students in Kuwait, they continue to throw surprises like the above which saddens me a lot.

Why can't I be like some other teachers who don not give a damn what the student does? Or is it that I am out of touch with reality? Is there any meaning to being a good teacher? Is it worth it?

I can only wonder....................................

Knowledge acquisition - Changing Trends

Education (and I don't mean just the formal education that we acquire in school and college - but what we learn over our lifetime) has two contents. Spread and Depth.

You need to have working knowledge on a considerable range of topics to effect a decent conversation with people from various backgrounds, while possessing in depth understanding on limited areas. As one grows older it is essential that one increases the depth quotient subject range. This comes only through seeking knowledge, associating it with your life/work and applying the same.

With the advent of the visual medium and the world wide web, it is easy to seek knowledge. In my younger days, I had to wait for the Radio news (broadcast thrice a day) or for the morning papers to find out about the latest developments in the world. The thud of the paper falling on the porch, thrown by the newspaper boy, still reverberates in the ears. There used to be a scramble for the papers - between me, my brother and father. To avoid one of us sulking in the morning father ordered the newspaper boy to deliver three papers - The Hindu, Indian Express and Malayala Manorama. We also subscribed to nearly 20 weeklies and magazines every month.

It was difficult to be in touch with the world on a 24x7 basis. Library books were the only source of knowledge while in college. One had to walk about a Kilometre and a half to reach the library in the University Campus. There was an upside to all this. We went in search of knowledge and never rested till we found it. Since it was difficult to get, we cherished it when we ultimately got it as we would a treasure.

Don't mistake me. I am not one of those guys who keeps on harping about 'the good old days'. Believe me when I say those days were not half as good as today. There is an information explosion today. We have so many sources of information. Apart from TV and WWW, we have customized information packaged as Podcasts, Audio books, e-books etc. We are indeed lucky to be alive in an era where the collective wisdom of the world is available at our fingertips at the click of a mouse or the pressing of a button of the remote.

One of my close friends used to point out a flaw in me. He used to say, "Swamy (that was my nickname for a long long time till I came to Kuwait), the problem with you is that you don't make people starve before you give them something. You anticipate their need even before they do and provide them with what they want. As a result they don't appreciate the value of your offering". The same is true of knowledge. Since it is available so freely and easily accessible, people don't appreciate the value of it. Also the way in which we are conditioned to assimilate information has changed. Having brought up on a staple of TV news, we are more keen on sensational headlines than on deep analysis of issues of greater significance. We are absorbed by Teji Bachan's funeral, Sachin's elbow, Sunil Dutt's life in jail, political grandstanding than about the status of the economy, detrimental government policies that affect millions, inflation, technological developments, internal and external security, to just name a few.

And WWW has destroyed creative thinking. Almost any information is available on the net. 99% of the people make a living out of copying and pasting from the web. This does not encourage people to think out of the box. In the long run, what is being created is a society that has superficial knowledge about trivial issues, has wrong priorities as far as knowledge acquisition is concerned, is not creative and lacking in necessary skill sets. There is neither spread or depth, though with a little change in attitude both can be obtained.

Fd 4 tho8? (oops! SMS language. that is for another post)

Future of School Education?

This is the last and concluding part of the series of articles on School Education.

Let us to some crystal ball gazing and see what the future holds for our children?

• Home learning through computers and Internet
• Technology based training
• Instructor less training
• Access to live audio – visual lectures through video conferencing
• International syllabus
• Global Virtual School and students of different nationalities attending the same class and interacting through net
• International certification
• Flexible class timings
• Online assessment

Sounds absurd? Mark my words. This is going to happen sooner rather than later.

This model however does not take into account the development of Inter personal and group behaviours. This, dear parents, is your responsibility.

Buy him the latest computer with Intel 25 processor with 100 GHz clock speed, 10000 GB HDD and 1000GB RAM (remember we are in the future) and load Windows Omega operating system (Microsoft and Intel will still be there making our life more and more complicated in the guise of making them simpler)
But also spend some quality time with your children
Hug them
Treat them like your friend
Take them out
Share their joy and grief
Give them freedom
Give them space to move about
Stand apart and watch them grow into responsible human beings
Identify role models in the society and amongst your friends
Encourage them to share their thoughts with your children and their friends
Do not miss a single opportunity to spend time with children whether they are yours or not
Share your knowledge
Gently prod your children to spend time with others of his/her age group
Make them play any team game on a regular basis
Allow them to take decisions concerning their life
Encourage them to accept criticism
Identify their areas of interests and push them gently to excel in what they do best
You can start doing it even now

“ When your children are young, give them Roots
When they are old enough to fly, give them Wings”

Education System - Innovate or Perish

Continuing the series of posts on Education system, it is my strong opinion that this business has done the cardinal sin of not identifying the Customer.The customer has to be the Child, not the parents.

Let us look at the whole system of Education from a Management perspective.

The objective of any Education system should be to develop the necessary skills of the student, hard and soft, so essential to make him/her a success in his/her life and in his/her job. Hard skills pertain to the subject knowledge and the soft skills are those behavioural skills required by the student to be productive in his/her job.

Our current education system does take care of the hard skills aspect to some extent (this also is debatable), but has totally ignored the soft skills, which any Employer worth his salt will say is much more important. The popular saying is that ‘ you can always fine tune the technical skills of an employee, but if his/her attitude is bad, then nothing can be done’.

Every year we are churning out people who are technically adequate but attitudinally handicapped. This results in a mismatch between the requirements of the employer and the skills of the employee.The current system hence has failed in meeting its primary objective. The objective should be to provide the necessary soft and hard skills to the student so as to increase his employability.

What should constitute the core product in any educational system?

Relevant Course Content (both hard and soft skills related)
Teaching Methodology
Batch Strength
Quality of Teachers
Evaluation System
It is interesting to note that Listening(45%) and Speaking(30%) is used most in work place but taught the least in the Schools and Colleges, while Reading(16%) and Writing(9%) is used least in the work place, but taught the most. This anomaly has to be corrected.

There are no arguments even from the die-hard fans of the education system that the current syllabus (the core product) at all levels has lost its relevance. This is especially true of the higher education.

For example let us take the parameters – teaching methodology and the Evaluation system together. The most prevalent teaching methodology is the Lecturing mode. Researches have shown that only 20 % of the lecture is retained even by the most attentive of listeners. This is assuming that the lecture is of the highest quality. It is astounding that our teachers are not prepared to use technology. Is'nt it time that we switched over to Computers, Internet, Over Head Projectors,Multimedia Projectors and Interactive visual media tools. Why can’t we use them extensively in teaching? Whenever I mention this I hear howls of protests and excuses saying that Schools and Colleges don’t have the necessary funds. I don’t believe this. Schools and Colleges are always finding it easy to raise funds for building more classrooms, but how come they are unable to find resources for upgrading their teaching aids. Most of the schools and colleges take hefty sums as donations and fees. Even the smallest computer centre in your neighbourhood has these teaching aids. So the protest does not hold water. Teaching methodology has to undergo a sea change.

Our current methodology does not encourage the student to explore. The focus is on learning things from an examination viewpoint. The current evaluation system checks the memory of the student and not his analytical skills or the student’s ability to apply what he has learned. All a smart student has to do is to learn by heart and spit it out at the examination hall. I have always told my students that they have to be downright stupid to fail in an Indian University Examination. With the advent of Internet, the student should be allowed to explore.

I am not sure how many of our teachers or parents have understood the importance using the World Wide Web to turn your child into a wonderful person. It is the ultimate source for obtaining knowledge. The objective of the education should be to acquire long term knowledge that will stand the student in good stead through his life.

The student currently is focused only on individual goals represented by his marks and his rank. There is immense pressure on the student from his parents to perform well in an individual capacity and he is driven by the parents to believe that unless he gets a first rank, he is worthless. The student, over a period of time, starts viewing his classmates as adversaries rather than friends who would supplement his knowledge. This attitude is carried forward to his job, where he finds to his dismay that it just does not pay to have only individual goals. More often than not, being the only child, the student has to contend with parents who are very possessive and over bearing. This makes the student very dependant on his parents. How often have we seen a student doing well academically but found to be incapable of making even the smallest decision in life on his own. The parents have to take the blame for this. In their eagerness to make their Child's life smooth and hassle free, they are inadvertently turning the child into someone who gets everything easily in life and who is inept at handling any sort of problems.

An often looked aspect of our education is the batch strength which is currently in the region of 40-60. The Batch Strength should not be more than 15. It is proven through researches that the ideal student: teacher ratio is 15:1. This will ensure that the teacher will be in a position to pay individual attention to the each of his student.

The Final Parameter is the Quality of Teachers. Our system does not encourage the best talent to become the teachers. The Teaching profession has lost its sheen. A person takes up teaching as a last resort. Most of them take up the assignment for the wrong reasons. Many become teachers because they can’t get any other job, some because their husbands are working in the same area and they have nothing else to do, for some this is a time pass. Very few become teachers because they love teaching. I have interviewed so many people who have applied for the post of teachers and can count on my fingers the number of people who said that they want the job because they like teaching. The teaching job is not lucrative and in a vast majority of the cases, the teacher has to pay a hefty sum as Donation to get the job. The first priority of the teacher is to take back the money he/she has invested. The end result is the ultimate curse of today’s education system – Tuition. Parents too become an active party to this by forcing their wards to take tuition whether the student requires it or not. I had a Professor in Physics whom I admired a lot. He used to steadfastly refuse to take tuition. He says with lot of feeling “ If it is found that my student has to take a tuition to do well in his examination, I will resign that day. I take this as the ultimate insult and it is a reflection of the quality of my teaching” – Need I say more?

WIIFM – What Is In It For Me? Every customer asks this question and unless he is assured that there is some benefit for him, he will never buy a product. There is no WIIFM for the child and to go to the school. The child goes to the school because he has to, not because he sees a benefit. He does not enjoy going to school. This in the long run will spell doom for our Schools and Colleges.

The Educational Institutions are complacent. But they have to wake up. Otherwise they, in their present form, will cease to exist. Don’t tell me they wont. Who thought that our countryside would be full of private schools? They sprang up like mushrooms because the Government Schools refused to innovate. Our Schools and Colleges have already lost out on a big opportunity – the IT revolution. The phenomenal success of the IT Training Institutes should serve as a warning to the Formal Educational Institutions. Our higher education system is in a mess. We do not have a single university in the amongst the world's top 200 and the best young brains migrate to western countries that offer a chance for them to pursue a mentally stimulating higher order academic degrees. This needs to be seriously addressed.

The Formal Educational System has to innovate or perish, else posterity will not forgive us