Eleven year old Somprakash was clearly mesmerized when I opened my laptop to show him pictures that were taken at the village school. He has had lessons on computers but didn’t realize the power of today’s computers and more importantly the ability to network. Like any inquisitive boy his age, he wanted to know more as I took him through the web. Somprakash wasn’t fortunate like many of his city based friends. His curiosity would end when I leave the village, I realized, when he pointed towards a dingy room in the school wherein I could see old computers covered with dusts and cobwebs. The sight reminded me of the various initiatives undertaken by organizations to improve the education scenario in the country. There is obviously a looming gap between what is actually required and what has been served.
As I started driving towards the city, it dawned upon me that the education industry needs a step change as the world rapidly transitions to a knowledge based economy from an industrial economy. Somprakash’s case is just the tip of the challenges ahead of us. The challenges faced by the education system in India, considered to be one of the largest in the world, can be summarized as follows:
Connecting the underprivileged – A number of organizations, attempting to influence a change in the education system have sponsored computers in schools. The question is, does this really help? It is very common to see computers, accumulating dusts and locked in dingy rooms for want of good teachers. What about places that lack regular supply of electricity? What organizations should do is to first understand the basic needs of the faculty and students, especially in their initiative to help the underprivileged section. The key question to answer is how can the application of technology support the needs of basic education of the underprivileged?
Preparing a work force that is job ready – It is said that, you can only manage what you can measure. The key towards investment in education is to be clear about what is the objective? Organizations can choose to be socialistic, opportunistic or tactical. Most of the organizations involved in bolstering the education sector in India have one goal; to hire candidates for immediate work. This is a very tactical and opportunistic approach, which will not address the long-term challenge of sustaining the country’s competitive advantage in knowledge-intensive work. Organizations need to be socialistic in their approach here. Take the example of how IBM invented the PC in early 1950′s and worked with key universities across the world in establishing the Computer Science and Engineering Curriculum. This initiative helped in increasing the manpower, serving the IT industry world over and thereby substantially developing economies.
Addressing the surplus of working group of population – By the year 2020, it is estimated that India will have a surplus of over 47 million people in the working age group. This makes it necessary for the government and policy leaders to envision an ecosystem above and beyond education. In an earlier blog, one of my colleagues stated the significance of investing in research institutes, which would subsequently become innovation clusters like Silicon Valley, giving rise to entrepreneurs and companies.
How do we address these challenges? In the past, as railroads helped transform countries into urban, industrialized nations; the knowledge-driven economies of today will rely on telecommunication networks and broadband connectivity. No one can question the transformational effects such networks can have on societies and in economic development. Across the world, governments, organizations and educational institutions are leveraging the power of such networks to do things that weren’t possible earlier. The government of India is a prime example. With its ambitious project to extend broadband connectivity to 250,000 villages, it could potentially create a social revolution and fuel its growth in the knowledge-based economy.
Imagine the power of social technologies riding on this broadband connectivity? The use of social technology in education can be very promising towards student engagement. As we have seen, social networks have had a dramatic effect on our ability to engage both personally and professionally. If we could implement similar technologies in the education industry, it would present enormous opportunities to improve student engagement, staff retention, academic success and overall educational outcomes. Social technologies can be used to create and support communities of learning with social networking tools, blogging, micro-blogging, chat, instant messaging, Course/Learning management systems, mobile based learning and a lot more. Making these platforms in local language will make them useful to the masses and the classes.
This is contributed by Himanshu Goyal, Country Manager – Collaboration Solutions, IBM SWG ISA.
