Education System In India

 

I attended Education conference in India few years ago. I heard a statement that if Silicon Valley of Education has to happen, it must happen in India. Fast forward to 2021, this is what is happening in India . With Many EdTech startups coming up from every nook and corner, India is ready for Digital and Online Learning.

Education is a fundamental right for children aged 6 to 14 years. Byju has rolled out a fab initiative called Education for All with the intent of democratising education and provide learning opportunities to 5 million children from underserved communities  through use of Technology.

Technology makes learning fun
Technology  makes learning inclusive
Technology makes learning personalised

How can you get involved ?

As a Corporate , through CSR initiative , impact communities at large scale. Byju will offer study content free of cost to be distributed to your beneficiaries.
As an Individual , be the changemaker,  promote the initiative on your social media channels  and or volunteer to mentor a child.
As a non-profit, your outreach at the grassroots level can truly help communities and children at large. Make your outreach effective and impactful by providing BYJU’S learning content to the communities and schools you work with. Your insights coupled with our interactive study content, expert educators, and teachers can help us accomplish our goals together.
What is needed is Corporates , NGOs, Individuals to come together to support this grand mission To educate 5 million children and lift them up out of poverty .


How do you create Lifelong Learners ? By instilling a sense of curiosity . Children by nature are inquisitive and ask variety of questions to know the world around them.

India has population of 1.3 billion.
UN projects that Delhi will become the largest city in the world with 37 million people by 2028.
India is now the world’s fastest growing major economy .

India is a highly diverse country with a troubled past . Social Inequalities can be bridged through Education and Learning. If student in a far remote village can’t come to school, let schools go to them. Which is possible through mobile, internet access,  radio, low cost tablets loaded with learning content.

Enable Teachers to play the role of facilitator. If content is accessible 24 by 7, Teacher can facilitate conversations in classroom to help children read, write, speak, develop deeper understanding of the content.

Education in India has an ancient tradition that dates back to the Vedic Period (1500 to 500 BC). By the time European colonialists arrived, education mostly took place in traditional Hindu village schools called gurukuls.

Let each village become a Gurukul and you can be a change maker in Transforming Education in India and leading India towards path of economic prosperity.


Reference
1.  https://wenr.wes.org/2018/09/education-in-india
2.  https://byjus.com/educationforall/

Wicked Problems for Policy Making

We learnt about Wicked Problems in Design Thinking class.

Complex problems like Education and Healthcare are good examples of Wicked problems.
Wicked problems are inherently complex , requires multi disciplinary approach and has 10 distinct characteristics 

Climate crisis will also fall under the category of wicked problem because the articulation is not straightforward and there can't be one simple or final solution.

I love this quote by Albert Einstein -

It's not that I'am so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.  - Albert Einstein

I have been researching ,speaking, articulating, lending voice  and stayed with few problems since many years . One of them is the problem of Gender Equality. 

108 Years: Wait for Gender Equality Gets Longer as Women’s Share of Workforce, Politics Drops

Networks are suggested as a resource for tackling wicked problems in this Nonprofit Quarterly reprint. 

What are common wicked problems? How are wicked problems different from other problems?

In their original work, Rittel and Webber suggested that wicked problems are typically those pertaining to governmental, social, or policy planning. Examples of wicked problems that have been addressed in scholarly literature include poverty, urban renewal, school curriculum design, education, environmental and natural resources policy.

In the Digital World that we live in, Regulatory Framework by Governments around Data privacy would also be categorised as  wicked problem

It's an open secret that FAANG companies ( Facebook , Apple, Amazon , Netflix, Google) are collecting lot of our personal data. We need Govt intervention for robust #Privacy policies regarding our Personal #data to prevent misuse. #PublicPolicy #India @GoI_MeitY

— Ruchi 🏳️‍🌈🌈 (@rucsb) August 10, 2019

Read Bill and Melinda Gate Annual letter 2019 to understand some wicked problems 

I discovered Trillion Dollar Coach fm Bill Gates tweets.His #books reccos r superb.For people who ponder & care deeply abt solving world's complex problems , Open Annual Letter by Bill & Melinda Gates is just the right Food for Thought #ProblemSolvers https://t.co/1t4qeYR0EX

— Ruchi 🏳️‍🌈🌈 (@rucsb) August 10, 2019

What wicked problems you are working on ? Who are the stakeholders involved ? 

How do you go about identifying the problem ? What are the solutions proposed ? 

Who are the sponsors ? 

Would love to hear your views on Wicked Problems in India. 

Social Media is the talk of the Town

Social Media explosion is the talk of the town. Almost every business , industry, company is trying to tap into the opportunities that explosion in Social Media provides for improved business outcomes.
Leveraging Social Media has become imperative for companies to engage with customers, employees and business partners. Marketing & comms department has been the first to jump on the bandwagon to engage in 2 way communication models to reach out to customers. In the age of information overload, attention becomes the currency and Branding acquires centre stage.
How can HR remain immune or impervious to this excellent opportunity. Broadly speaking, when it comes to Talent Management - HR function is about Capacity planning, capability building, engagement and retention. What I see is rise in the HR Job roles that has components of Social elements embedded into it.
For example , if you are a L&D professional, you must be thinking how to utilise newer models eg Flipped classroom into learning process.
Recruitment is not left behind either. We have newer roles in Recruitment eg Recruitment Branding , Recruitment Marketing . After all the job of hiring managers is to sell the "work" ,Organisation "culture " to the prospective candidates.

Social networking phenomenon revolutionises the recruitment experience for both candidates and employers. Companies are rethinking their social media strategies to make recruiting processes more transparent and to tap into and engage with the talent pools. More and more companies are on the lookout for know how on how to leverage social networking sites eg Facebook, LinkedIn to advertise jobs, increase brand awareness, showcase Company culture and provide a glimpse to candidates about the working environment, growth , learning, career and development opportunities.
Both candidates and employers are using the digital footprints to research about each other and find data points for better decision making. Hiring can be viewed as a Match making process . More the data points, assumption is, better would be the decision ie final outcome for both employers and candidates.

In my experience, I see 2 kinds of recruiters & hiring managers. On one end of spectrum, we have recruiters who has invested in self learning , acquired new skills to use social networking for sourcing, engagement, building relationships with candidates. On other end of spectrum , few hiring managers & recruiters are wondering and still pondering over the risks. Social networking adoption Benefits far outweigh the risks, ask any candidate or HR Professional who has reaped benefits from this new medium. Technology is neutral. A fool with a tool is still a fool.  Recruiters and hiring managers must enhance their understanding on the value Social media and social networking adoption and invest in self education and self learning. They must learn from recruiters who are using Facebook graph search, Linkedin recruiters license and reaping great benefits to minimise agency dependency and reduce costs & generate value for organisation with fewer resources. They are the ones who are innovating on the field. These recruiters understand Social Recruiting . Social Recruiting as a concept is relatively new. Talent can not be hired, it can only be courted.Go figure - how. Simply put, Hiring in other words , is a long & extended conversation. For hiring managers, Hiring is about channel mix too. Employee Referrals is another process which can be disrupted using the social networking platforms. Much scope to bring Efficiencies and Effectiveness  into the Hiring process and to disrupt the existing models and evolve new Hiring Models. Employer Branding has nuances and implications understood by the privileged few. Employer Branding and Social Recruiting is bound to witness growth in coming years.

Sage advice from Social Business gurus ~  Get Social. Do business
As Dr Marshall Goldsmith says ~ what got you here! won't get you there.
If you are still wondering why, what, how ..then remember, Self education is the key. Follow and Learn from Thought Leaders. .  I tweet and share insightful stuff on Social HR through twitter (@rucsb) and my blog ~ HR Gurukul.

Bonus ~

What IBM Recruitment is upto -
1. Integrated Social approach to ATS ( Applicant Tracking System)
2. Employee Referral Program empowered by Social Referrals
3. ROI of Social Recruitment measured through  Influenced and Direct Social Hires
4. Hiring Processes enabled & powered through Analytics
5. HR Leaders Rely on Data than on Gut. Better Decision Making on part of HR Leaders. Improved Business outcomes.


3 Key Actionables to get started on Social HR (Recruitment) Journey
1. Invest time  in building your own Linkedin and Twitter Profile.
2. Socially Network with Thought Leaders in Social Recruitment
    Tony Rustell
    Matt Charney
    Todd Raphael
    Sarang Brahme
3. Invest in your Learning and Development. Join IndiaHRLive, IndiaHRChat, TChat, SocialHRSuccess  discussions on twitter . Connect with & Learn from HR Leaders and Practitioners. Learn about Social HR from  Meghan M Biro, Abhijit Bhaduri, Khalid Raza, Gautam Ghosh , Self Promotion Alert : Ruchi Bhatia

I can be contacted via twitter @rucsb






 
 
 

Open Educational Resources for HR professionals

MOOCs offered by Coursera, Udacity , EdEx have gained much popularity over last few months. Corporations have started to experiment with MOOCs for skill development and as a low cost innovative solution to manage learning needs of the employees at large scale . When it comes to Open Online Educational Resources , HR Professionals need not look far for their own professional development. Through this blogpost, I share some of the useful OER for HR Professionals.  

1. IndiaHRChat – Hosted by Dr Tanvi Gautam  every month. #IndiaHRchat is a monthly twitter chat aimed at creating conversation with/for the Indian HR community. Every month a guest is invited as Expert and a chat discussion follows for an hour on a predetermined HR topic . Insightful knowledge nuggets get generated in real time during chat discussion.  As the saying goes, The smartest person in the room is the room , IndiaHRChat is a demonstration of collective intelligence & represents true power of a community. Dr Tanvi Gautam has wider network and interviews experts across the globe & share insights through Podcasts which are my absolute favorite.  Hashtag #IndiaHRchat

2. IndiaHRLive – Hosted  by Nisha Raghavan . IndiaHRLive is a live TV for HR professionals. Nisha interviews HR & Industry experts every week . You are likely to meet key HR & Industry experts and get to hear them live.  Hashtag #IndiaHRLive
3.  Gautam Ghosh Blog – Gautam Ghosh has earned reputation as a Thought Leader in Social HR . His blog is a great resource to stay current on various aspects of Talent,  HR and Design of Open Transparent Organizations. Gautam curates and highlights interesting HR initiatives through his blog posts and shares his insights on HR trends & initiatives across the industry through his blog.




4. CiteHR Community – Hosted by Nabomita Mazumdar , offers real world insights through collective professional intelligence on Human Resources. Do you have a question, problem or a situation in the field of HR you are grappling with, chances are your questions would have already been answered on CiteHR , or you will find several HR professionals coming to your rescue to provide solutions to your problems or specific situation. HR members openly share their knowledge and experience. I Thank Nabomita  for tagging me sometimes to engaging & interesting HR discussions happening on the forum.





5. Abhijit Bhaduri Blog – Abhijit  Bhaduri is the author of 3 books & Chief Learning Officer at Wipro. He writes interesting blog on variety of HR , business and current topics.   Abhijit writings are influential , not just limited to  HR , and is reflective of wide range of interests across Movies, Books, Music . Abhijit is queit selective in what he tweets.  I am appreciative of  Abhijit ‘s twitter curations too.

6. Meghan M Brio Blog – . Meghan writes a popular HR blog on Forbes.  Meghan through her writings cover  leadership, career, HR tech and social enterprise .  


7. Luis Suarez Blog – Professionals who have a deep interest in KM, Social & Open Business, Social Learning, Enterprise 2.0  may already know Luis. He is a popular and  well known Thought Leader on Social Media . He writes an interesting blog which covers aspects of Collaboration, Knowledge work, Communities, Social Learning and Open & Transparent Business .Luis and I have worked together for a brief period of time on Social media adoption across the enterprise and I have picked his brains a lot while working together on the key initiative. I look for opportunities to work with him as there is a lot to learn about Communities, Collaboration, and Open Business and Changing nature of work from him . Few years back,  I had my first novel experience of participating in online sessions organized by Luis where hundreds of global IBMers participate and exchange in online knowledge exchange in real time ( similar to twitter chat discussions). Luis shares his deep knowledge & expertise through his blog regularly.  

8. Jane  Hart Blog –  A must for all Learning & Development professionals to learn concepts of PKM ( Personal Knolwdge Management) and emerging Learning Frameworks.  


9. Khalid Raza Blog  –Khalid is a dear friend and colleague at IBM. He shares his experience, observation, opinion along with practical tips and advice on social media through his blog Social Glamor. I & Khalid worked together to conceptualize initial framework for India HR Hub – A community for India HR professionals @ IBM India. Khalid is involved with Social HR Programs and initiatives at IBM. He knows how to keep the audience engaged and make online communities work. I look for opportunities to work with Khalid as work is fun and engaging with him.

10. Dr Lynda Gratton Blog – I revere Dr Lynda Gratton’s work for her insights, strategic HR trends , studies on organizational behaviour & research on Future of work.

For guidance on  Who to Follow on Social Media , refer to SHRM list or  Top 30 HR, Recruitment and Social Media Industry Professionals to Follow on Twitter  , a list curated by Kunjal Kamdaar.
 
Which HR people you follow & learn from on Social Media ?
 

Demographic Dividend or Demographic Disaster

1. India's future growth depend on supply of skilled workers .  Can India can achieve target of upskilling 500 Million workers by 2022 ?
2. Acc to a research , 80% of the workforce in urban and rural areas does not possess any identifiable marketable skills . What can be done to change this situation ?

3. Employability of graduates coming out of our educational system is becoming a matter of great concern. Only 25 % of graduates are employable. What steps Educational institutions  need to take to churn out graduates with employable skillset ?

4. Are some of Educational institutions often out of touch with the needs of the industry, producing graduates with skills that are outdated or irrelevant ? What more needs to be done to change the situation and  strengthen Industry Academia partnership ?

5. Innovation is critical to create qualified, specialized and global talent pool that will fuel needs of Industry. What role can Corporates play to experiment new ways of creating, developing and maintaining talent ? 
 

Innovation in Education

Anyone who has been reading my blog for quiet a while now would know that I am a LifeLongLearner. I  have deep interest in Learning, Education . Choices I have made at various stages of my Career are testimony to that. Attending Edgex , meeting Educators and having conversations on the topic of Education was one of the highlight this year. I came across an interesting  article recently  "Innovation is the key to bettereducation ( Source  www.brookings.edu  ) . It is surprising and astonishing to note R&D spending by sectors. Overall US spends about 3% of its total expenditures on R&D.  While Pharmaceutical companies Top the chart with  figures as high as 23% ( not surprised )  however Education R&D spending is only 0.2% (!!!) .  Does it mean that in US, education sector by far has remained immune or impervious to Innovation ? What could be the reasons that has Education sector attracted least R&D as compared to other sectors till date ?  Is the political clout of US Universities comparatively less compared to Pharma companies to attract R&D budget from US Govt ? Is Education sector ready to be disrupted through  Innovation / Emerging Technologies ? Is that the reason why Coursera offering MOOCs is a huge success and instant hit ?  Probably, Economics alone won’t be able to solve the problems in society especially in matters of Public Policy. Society needs more Behavioral Scientists. Society needs more Behavioral Economists. Do we have enough platforms where behavioral economists are asked to join the conversation on Innovation in Education and share their voice ? My introduction to the field of Behavioral Economics has been through Prof Dan Ariely .  It would be interesting to read his further thoughts on challenges Education sector faces and his take on what  would prototype of the solutions for Education sector might look like.  

P.S. - I "Hope" for a world where both Education & Healthcare is free to 7.147 billion people on Earth :-)

Social cause - Creating Happiness

It does not happen very often that I come across really appealing ads. Here is one which I think is done brilliantly. With a very neat storyline and message very crisply delivered.
So true, simplicity is usually a result of much complex thinking, it is evident in this 1.31 min ad.Enjoy :-)

Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code

Sir Ken Robinson on "Do schools kill creativity" ?

Few Learning from the video " Changing Education Paradigms"
1. Every country is reforming public education system for 2 reasons
a) economic - how do we prepare our children for new century
b) cultural - how do we preseve cultural identify in a flat , globalized world


2. Raise standards of education system ,really, we should, why should you lower them ? ( laughter)

3.Problem is Current system of education system was designed, conceived, structured for a different age ,

4. Conceived in economic circumstances of industrial revolution,before 19 century no public education systems,
public education was paid for by taxation, compulsory to everyone, free at point of delivery was a revolutionary idea,
many people objected to it , they said its not possible that street kids who are not able to read and write will not benefit from it and why should we spend time on it ? assumptions
about social structures capacity , This created we-versus them mentality.

5. Model of education system was based on economic and intellectual pillars. Driven by economic imperative of the time.

6. Real intelligence consisted in certain type of deductive reasoning & knowledge of classics what we come to think of it as academic ability

7. Consequence of that is many briliant people think they are not smart ( if they are not academic/ intellectual )



1. Modern Epidemic is fictitious , ADHD is a non real epidemic in US ?
2. Divergent Thinking is a precursor to creativity
3. Collaboration is the key to success outside schools
4. Schools still run on production line approach suited to industrial age.
5. Change is required in public education systems around the globe which nurtures creativity, natural abilities of children to suit the information age
6. Can we make our learning process so engaging which enhances aesthetic experience of the learner ?
7. Why do we still categorize students as per their age group or tenure not as per their abilities ?