When i was in school 3 decades ago, career choices were limited to Engineering, Medicine, Law, IAS and Accounting. Rarely the choice of what career the child wanted was made by the child as there was very little awareness of what was good or bad. It was almost always the choice of the parents based on what they considered to be  safe and secure career options. Being able to get into a position to “provide”  was the most important criterion. Most parents considered themselves failures if the child did not become a doctor or an engineer or an IAS officer.  In many parts of India, dowry tags of the eligible bachelors were directly proportional to the premium-ness of the education qualification !

Today, the child growing up in urban india , is a “google” generation kid, who some marketers call as the Millenials. They are the technology generation kids born with a PC/Internet/ Mobile. Technology and devices are part of their childhood . They take to technology like a fish takes to water. Anything that’s not digital makes less sense to them.

I believe that what the Personal Computer did to the US/ Developed countries, the mobile has the potential to do in India and most developing countries. Coupled with a very robust TV penetration, the awareness level of this generation is far superior to the earlier generations. Add a reasonably  growing Indian economy, job creation across many sectors, demographic quotient favoring the youth in India and an ageing population in most developed markets, the future prospects from a job  point of view are looking very attractive.

If the earlier generation was about job security and safety this generation is fast moving to “this-is-what-I-love-doing”.  This is triggering  endless career choices, and these career choices are being debated between an arguably better informed child and his less informed parents/teachers. Are the schools , administrators, curriculum , teachers poised to handle this significant shift ?   Also, most education companies have not embraced this in the technology frameworks that they have put together in schools .

Popularity: 10% [?]

There has been  an interesting controversy brewing since last weekend, when the  WSJ published an article by Yale professor Amy Chua, who professed that Asian parenting was better than the Western way, in “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior.”   I found the article amusing, and it hit close to home sometimes (as an Asian, I’m sure I have unconsciously bought into the stereotype).  Of course, there is no one superior method of parenting, and all of us who are muddling through parenting as best as we can, know that the best way is that which works best for you and your child.  And again, the best way is usually the middle way, balanced between two extremes.

Do read the article at the first link below, as well as the rebuttal by a Western mother at the second link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703333504576080422577800488.html

Popularity: 8% [?]

Every Maharashtrian village is traditionally structured along caste lines. With

the higher castes residing at the centre, near the resources, vis-a-vis the common well, the schools, the health care centers and the lower castes at the periphery. In the Konkan, the Katkari Adivasis are the casteless ones, and consequently, they reside furthest from the village centre, on the hills that make up the Western Ghats, far away from development. Geographically marginalized and socially discriminated against, the Adivasis are also politically excluded making them some of the most impoverished people in the country.

While working with Sarvahara Jana Andolan (SJA), a people’s organization of the Katkari Adivasis of western Maharashtra, I attended what was called the Activists School. This four day residential programme was conducted once every month for activists of both SJA and other organisations. It aimed at educating people and making them conscious of different realities with the mandate of generating action for social transformation. But most importantly, activists undergo a gradual realization of how much control they have over their own, their community’s, their country’s and the world’s destinies, slowly obliterating the fatalism that was so characteristic of feudalism. At the same time, they are infused with a newfound self-respect and self-confidence that the caste system had completely eroded. In four days, we learnt psychology, economics, civics, how to file an FIR (this was part of the ‘curriculum’ because it had currency and relevance for the target audience) and every night we sang and danced to indigenous tunes. Much of my fellow learners had barely passed the third standard. This was perhaps the most educative experience of my life.

The idea isn’t novel, really. The great Brazilian educator and pedagogue, Paulo Freire, spoke of educating for critical consciousness (and the Activist School is inspired from his writings).As far as my limited reading of Freire goes, the most significant aspects of conscientization are as follows.

1. To develop critical consciousness of the world and different realities
2. To use this critical consciousness to perform transformative action in order to liberate oneself from oppression (oppression can be of any kind, class based, caste based, urban-rural type, gender based, employer-employee type etc.)
3. To use critical consciousness and transformative action to create a new situation which is conducive to the pursuit of a fuller humanity

As a knowledge system, this is a deeply thought-out, radical philosophy based on critical theory. Moreover, it is also a difficult concept to grasp especially for those with a mainstream education (for the newly initiated it nullifies mainstream education- so the theory becomes personal as it threatens status quo)

But, let us just take the three objectives at face value. They are, none of them, antithetical to education as we, in the mainstream would perceive it. We do want our education system to develop in our children the ability to think and react critically. We do want it to help them liberate themselves from social, political and economic shackles.

Pedagogy of theoppressed

Infact, Freire in his seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, briefly argues how the ‘oppressor’ is also leading a sub-human life. So this is not a ‘special’ kind of education for the poor and the marginalized. And finally, how truly rewarding to create a new situation to pursue one’s humanity unfettered?

Sounds like a lot of rhetoric?  Which is why the Activist School, in many ways, drives the point home. The idea, then, is to see if the Activist School can be extrapolated to the education of children and other groups. I believe it can.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Yes, increasingly it is Math and not Maths. It is not just the nomenclature that has changed for this subject (that is close to most Indians), there is a complete transformation in the way the subject is being learnt and taught.

When we grew up, you were on either side of the Lakshman Rekha – either you hated Maths (and you sucked at Maths) or you loved Maths (and of course you were great at it). Maths classes were all about rigor – lot of nos. written all over the blackboard and a 100 problems assigned for you to practice.

Today there is a lot of emphasis on application and hands on learning, right from the kindergarten level. So patterns are taught with colored blocks, geometrical shapes with shape sorters and what not. There is a plethora of games and interactive content, both free on the Internet and paid for on CDs.

About 2 1/2 years ago, we at Prayag Consulting worked on an interesting assignment with HeyMath, who offer animated content that is interactive and interesting. HeyMath offers content from Kindergarten to Class 12. They offer online access and also work with schools for content to be used in the classroom.

Recently, I met a company called iMath, that focuses on content for kids upto age 7 – they feel that the predisposition to the subject is largely governed by how the child is exposed to it early on. The method is fun based, and again material based so that abstract concepts are imparted effectively. iMath has franchisees – so children go to these centers to access the content.

Right on the heels of my meeting with iMath, I came across another interesting company – 10/10 (actually they came to the place where I live). Again, they focus on primary classes. Former IITians have joined forces with cartoonists to create worksheets that are engaging and yet impart rigor.  10/10 sends worksheets by courier to the doorstep.

It is great that there are so many options for children and parents today. Maybe the Laxman Rekha is slowly being erased and we will see Math being not just learnt, but also enjoyed.

Popularity: 9% [?]

At Prayag we have been working with educational institutions for a couple of years now and it is interesting to observe the landscape.

On the one hand higher educational institutes such as MBA colleges face challenges such as meaningful differentiation. On the other hand, even schools that enjoy an enviable demand-exceeding-supply scenario are looking at enhancing their offerings, be it international curriculum such as IGCSE and IB or additional facilities such as digitized learning. Consequently, we see educational institutions evincing interest in market studies, branding exercises, research and so on.

We also see many professionals from traditional marketing organizations such as FMCG companies either venturing out on their own to start schools/training institutions or joining such entities.

There is more openness to trying marketing initiatives and this is definitely an encouraging and interesting scenario. With reforms promised by the government, there is only one direction this sector is headed – one of growth and innovation.

It feels good to be part of this change.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Guhesh Ramanathan, a batchmate from IIM, had written recently to me about setting up a computer center in a school in a village in Tamil Nadu where his mother had studied. The computer center was being used by high school children to get hands on programming knowlegde. They had also set up some scholarships for bright but under priveleged kids from the school. He mentioned that the response has been superb. 2 kids from the school have got into the IITs and a few more into engineering colleges. I was bowled over.

Our batch of IIM has started an initiative to help under privileged kids in government schools in Bangalore. We are now covering 2 schools, and though it is early days yet, we can see that providing the right environment does make a difference.

I know of other examples where people like you and me are now thinking seriously about, (or are already doing),  how they can make a small difference. Personally, my belief is that if we can each help support education of children in India, it will add up to make a big difference.

Popularity: 7% [?]