Much needed improvement in the Indian education system

Fact # 1. None of our institute be it the IIT’s or the IIM’s figure in the Top 200 institutes of the world?

Fact # 2. Indian higher education is in a tremendous mess and is arguably one of worst systems across the globe proven by Program of International student assessment (PISA).

In India, students study mainly to score marks in exams, and sometimes to crack exams like IAS, IIT-JEE, AIIMS etc. Meanwhile, in the West, teachers encourage their students to acquire application oriented skills. We seriously need to revisit our pedagogy and the ways in which we are educating our youth. The education system in India is geared towards testing knowledge at every level as opposed to testing the teaching skills.

In India, the best crammers are rewarded. In the West ones who learn skills, and more importantly learn how to apply them are rewarded. Creativity, original thinking, research, and innovation are all cultivated and encouraged from a young age (and the age seems to get younger every year).

All of this leads to one fact, that while students from the West rarely apply to Indian universities for undergraduate studies; Indian parents are willing to fork out 25 lakhs annually in order to get their sons and daughters into the Western education system.

The truth of the matter is that Indian students are rapidly escaping India. In the past decade alone, there has been a 256 per cent increase in the number of students studying abroad. The number now stands at 200,000 annually, and the students are going everywhere - Spain, Britain, Australia, USA, and even China.

The staggering statistic is this one - Indian students studying abroad cost India $17 billion annually in lost revenue. If India was able to replicate the educational system of the US and was able to either prevent its students from leaving, or was able to attract students from other countries, $17 billion can be saved annually.

So what is the solution wrt the Indian education system/ B-schools?

"The competition for good students is on the rise. The student market itself is hitting the saturation point not because there aren't enough students but because there aren't enough right students. What is a 'right student'? A student who is bright enough not to be a liability for the institution in the first place but to be an asset in a manner that (s) he goes on to bringing good repute to the institution in the long run. Finally, the reputation of the institution is created by its faculty and the students on the larger part.

A number of colleges and universities opening in various geographies around the country over the last decade have led to increasing marketing costs to enrol students. These marketing costs on the other hand are fast spiralling as institutions fight for the limited media space. Media channels and publications on the other hand are laughing all the way to the bank.

So, what can reverse this trend and put things back in control of the institutions? The simplest solution that comes to my mind is a great student experience such that they become industry ready followed with great placements on campus and now your students are your ambassadors in the true sense.

But that entails a lot of work on the front of developing the 10 key skill sets that i spoke about in my earlier posts, which is traditionally considered non-essential and non-academic. We call this the student engagement and campus activation program. Imagine what the excitement of a student coming to a campus happy in the morning can do. Not only that, the student learns while having fun. We help integrate a lot of learning on the domain knowledge, leadership development front, team behaviour, soft skills and personality development into the college curriculum in a manner that is easily digestible, practicable and produces good results in student’s development. And as a bonus, the institution is automatically marketed by the students who love the college now and simply can't help talking about it. Imagine students in a college that are artistically inclined, confident to carry themselves with elan and also academically ignited. That companies will line up to recruit such students is just a natural consequence. We have to keep in mind that this cannot be achieved without excellent faculties. I will be following this up with another post especially for today’s youth in the current scenario “How to be a rock star in whatever you do in life?” Till then keep reading and keep evolving.