White_Paper_on_Enhancing_the_Education_System_in_India
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Transcript of White_Paper_on_Enhancing_the_Education_System_in_India
2009
Purpleframe Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
11/2/2009
Revolutionizing India’s Education System
through Technology
Learning I Media I Technology
Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
The Real PROBLEM ........................................................................................................................................ 4
The Real Challenges ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Other Challenges ........................................................................................................................................... 5
No Common school system .......................................................................................................................... 5
Education for all -The Advantages ................................................................................................................ 6
The Significance of E-learning and Technology ............................................................................................ 7
Some facts about Learning & Technology: ................................................................................................... 8
Types of E-learning ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Performance Support Systems for Virtual Classroom Learning Solutions .............................................. 10
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Virtual Learning Solutions .......................................................... 10
Performance Support Systems for Online Learning Solutions ................................................................ 10
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Online Learning Solutions .......................................................... 10
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Rapid Learning Solutions ........................................................... 11
Performance Support Systems for Mobile Learning Solutions ............................................................... 11
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Mobile Learning Solutions ......................................................... 11
References .................................................................................................................................................. 14
Introduction
Just Imagine... A world where every kid participates on a level education system,
challenging themselves and others, and achieving rewards and prizes for applying
themselves, no matter what their social, economic, or geographic disposition.
We can ...definitely build it….and how?
Yes... Technology is the answer……
Every man is but the product of his beliefs, and what he thinks, he becomes. It is
believed that India is uniquely positioned to achieve a significant competitive
advantage in the world economy by being among the first to implement a flat
education system for its entire people before the end of the next decade. This goal can
be accomplished by partnering with technology to develop a complete free open
source education solution for its people and peoples of the world.
We must strongly believe that access to educational opportunities is a basic human
right for all, not just a privilege for the few. Regardless of whether one is from a urban or
rural sector, one is born in a city or a village, one's status or location, all people should
have access to the best education the world can provide. And we believe that the
technology already exists to accomplish this goal--so together we can change the
world.
For over 3000 years the "sage on a stage" most instructional approach has dominated
human culture and education models. Education is now emerging as schools, teachers
and students have begun to utilize technology, open to all approach in education.
Today technology can play a intense role in creating a education system converge to
unite disparate and disconnected education systems into a single global learning
platform.
Current instructional pedagogy is tied to task allocation--a cornerstone of
industrialization. Since the mid-19th Century, training has followed the prescription of
task allocation and delivered education to students believed to be socially and
mentally standardized groups. Yet, this historical disconnect between the standard and
the needs of differentiated learners is now being felt more profoundly than ever.
Therefore, factors such as ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, language, environment,
and culture all combine to create a student body that is incredibly difficult to
homogenize.
It is important then to realize that today's students demand information to be delivered
on demand from the best minds more quickly and in more emotionally stimulating and
contextually relevant formats. What is the methodology through which technology and
e-learning can develop tools to bridge these divides? The answer lies in nature's oldest
and most successful learning tool... Play.
Such an effort to revolutionize education in India will not be possible without bringing
together leaders in government, technology industry and education into a collective
mission dedicated to realizing the vision of Educated India and learning for ALL. The
outcome we seek will benefit millions, tens of millions, in Indians. India will enjoy as a
result of elevating education to be equal and accessible for all across cities, towns and
villages. In essence this is a continuation of Gandhi's struggle for equality and fairness
for the people of India.
The Real PROBLEM
India's education system is facing challenges that may be one of the biggest facing
any nation in the 21st Century. Faced with the fastest population growth and poor
technical infrastructure in rural regions, India must find a cost effective solution for
educating its people. The traditional education solution isn't going to be adequate to
overcome the educational challenges it is facing. Under that model, India would need
to build new schools, train and retain teachers, buy books and collateral supplies, keep
these materials current and put in place more bureaucracy that leads to ever
escalating costs at the sacrifice to education. Therefore, a technological solution for its
entire people needs to be identified, actualized and implemented. And most
importantly how can we do it for less than it is currently costing India?
The Real Challenges
1 Today, India‘s education system is designed to overload the pupils with too
much 'knowledge' or theory and the focus is to enable them to improve their
memory skills rather than enabling them to be innovative/creative/practical.
2 The current system is designed to create a hierarchical society, with only a
small section scoring very high marks; the remainder gets fed up with the
monotonous and irrelevant education system, forcing them to discontinue
their studies.
3 India has made giant leaps in the field of telecommunication and
technology. There is hardly any village in India which is left out from this
excitement. This technology has not touched the education system to
provide 'remote teaching' facilities or online knowledge sharing.
4 The urban sectors are more concentrated on, whereas technology can
touch lives and enable education across the rural sectors as well.
5 The cultural differences between the urban and rural sections of people in
India; this creates barriers for people in the rural sector, who are more docile
in nature and it takes great efforts for them to open up, answering in class, or
making their ideas heard
6 The access to uniform teaching content, especially video and multi-media
content will enable removal of disparities. This will neutralize the ill effects of
absentee teachers (which is also a major problem in rural India).
7 Limited access to technology, where only a few can afford.
Other Challenges
Primary and secondary education: Lack of access, quality and literacy
Despite efforts to incorporate all sections of the population into the Indian education
system, through mechanisms such as positive discrimination and non-formal education,
large numbers of young people are still without schooling. Although enrolment in
primary education has increased, it is estimated that at least 35 million, and possibly as
many as 60 million, children aged 6–14 years are not in school. Severe gender, regional,
and caste disparities also exist. The main problems are the high drop-out rate, especially
after Class 10, low levels of learning and achievement, inadequate school
infrastructure, poorly functioning schools, high teacher absenteeism, the large number
of teacher vacancies, poor quality of education and inadequate funds. Other groups
of children ‗at risk‘, such as orphans, child-laborers, street children and victims of riots
and natural disasters, do not necessarily have access to schools.
No Common School System
Furthermore, there is no common school system; instead children are channeled into
private, government-aided and government schools on the basis of ability to pay and
social class. At the top end are English-language schools affiliated to the upscale CBSE
(Central Board of Secondary Education), CISCE (Council for the Indian Schools
Certificates Examination) and IB (International Baccalaureate) examination boards,
offering globally recognized syllabuses and curricula. Those who cannot afford private
schooling attend English-language government-aided schools, affiliated to state-level
examination boards. And on the bottom rung is poorly managed government or
municipal schools, which cater for the children of the poor majority. Therefore, while
education for all is safeguarded by the Constitution, and a majority of people can now
access educational resources, the quality of the education that young people in Indian
receive varies widely according to their means and background.
• The present Indian government, the United Progressive Alliance, appears to be
committed to confronting these challenges, as reflected in their Common Minimum
Program.
• The introduction of a 2 per cent education cess (surcharge) on tax, a stress on
employment guarantees and the establishment of a National Rural Health Mission are
thus welcome developments in this respect.
India‘s aim of providing basic education for all stems from the empowering and
redistributive impact of education. Until recently, literacy, and the related issue of
access to schooling, have taken precedence over curricular content.
J. Dreze and A. Sen argue: Literacy is an essential tool for self-defense in a society
where social interactions include the written media. An illiterate person is significantly
less equipped to defend herself in court, to obtain a bank loan, to enforce inheritance
rights, to take advantage of new technology, to compete for secure employment, to
get onto the right bus, to take part in political activity – in short, to participate successfully
in the modern economy and society.
The 1991 census indicated that about half of the adult population was unable to read
or write. Unsurprisingly, literacy rates vary widely between states, and between genders.
The northern Hindi-belt states, whose economic performance has been worse than that
of western and southern states, have lower literacy rates. Female literacy varies from
around 34 per cent in Bihar to 88 per cent in Kerala; male literacy varies between 60 per
cent in Bihar and 94 per cent in Kerala. Rajasthan suffers the widest gender difference:
female literacy stands at 44 per cent; male at 77 per cent.
Education for all -The Advantages
Technology and Learning when together will majorly help improve many of the
problems facing India by creating a complete education system -for every student,
young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural.
• Technology and Learning can enable education that is not anymore limited
to a particular region or age group.
• It will be learning anything, anytime, and anywhere from multiple authorities
from the comfort of your home, village, town, city from any web-enabled
device.
• It will be about playing exciting e-games that emphasize the topics key points
you just watched or listened too.
• It will be about students being able to earn and spend reward points for
achieving goals and milestones, or completing assignments and connecting
with others in virtual classrooms.
• It will lend a helping hand in the process of identification of brilliant global
students living in villages of India, based on their ability to interact within an
intelligent e-learning environment.
• There will be new roles for schools – it can mean the end of thoughtless
evaluation tests, grades and abusive certificates. Educational institutions,
schools, colleges that will become the heaven for networking, knowledge
application and mentoring.
• There will be shift in learning, so will there be a change in the way schools and
colleges operate.
• Our teachers will become more focused on teaching problem solving
techniques, critical thinking skills and social and interpersonal skills.
• Teachers will no longer need to be experts in subject areas. Instead experts
will be delivering their thought and ideas directly to the students.
• Teachers will become more like mentors and guidance counselors to their
students and as a result India will be able to train more teachers faster, and
retain them, helping to increase the teacher to student ratio in classes.
• It will then become easy to create and deliver a complete open course-ware
online education media solution to any web enabled device.
• It will provide tremendous efficiencies by allowing a global community of
enthusiasts, teachers and practitioners to develop open course ware.
• It will eliminate the need to repeatedly create lesson plans, and local and
regional control of educational content will become a thing of the past.
• Just as communities of writers sort out topics on Wikipedia a community of
global educators will sort out the order in which learning should progress for
every subject.
• There will be more avenues available to more people on job training and
professional training programs that traditionally were limited to specialized
organizations.
The Significance of E-learning and Technology
In today‘s times the there is important views that organizations form on the investments
in human capital and enterprise IT systems with enterprise success metrics such as
revenue, profitability, knowledge measurement, retention, and talent attraction.
Therefore, there is no doubt that e-learning provides a foundation for performance
monitoring that makes those correlations between people and learning technologies
possible.
The benefits of e-learning are twofold:
1 One focused on the needs and interests of individuals who are linked to
competency and accomplishment.
2 The other more closely aligned with the needs of the enterprise, tied to true
business results.
Some facts about Learning & Technology:
• Learning is a deeply personal act that is facilitated when learning
experiences are relevant, reliable, and engaging.
• During those early days of e-learning, we learned the hard way that simply
building a learning system that could be accessed over the Internet did not
guarantee that people would have much need for, or interest in, the courses
and programs, regardless of the provider.
• We learned that shoveling courseware online did not provide anyone—
faculty, students, or administrators—with an online experience that was much
more than tedious electronic page-turning. Sometimes we learned the hard
way that ―doing learning unto others‖ could quickly de-motivate and
disengage the very people we had hoped to serve.
• Different kinds of learning demand appropriate strategies, tools, and
resources.
• Concrete operational learning can be facilitated using representational
media, whereas teaching complex problem-solving—such as performing
surgery or landing an airplane—may be far better served by allowing learners
to practice developing those skills in a safe, risk-free virtual environment.
• Having just-in-time access to information, even in a flat-file, text-based form,
may be far preferable to having no access to any information at all.
• Questions about media appropriateness from a pure cognitive perspective
are likely to be mitigated by aesthetic and experience quality metrics.
• More than 20 years of empirical evidence underscores that there is no such
thing as a ―one-size-fits-all‖ technology solution for learning. (e.g. Clark,
1983;Jonassen, 2004).
Therefore, technology engages learners by structuring and organizing information, by
displaying and demonstrating procedures and operations. It can help make a learning
experience more memorable and can help relate new information to that which is
already known.
Technology can also simulate a range of conditions, immerse people in virtual
environments, and provide safe practice opportunities as mastery is developed—all of
which are necessary conditions for maximizing the probability that learning will occur.
Perhaps even more important, technology allows us to have relationships with
information in our own, unique ways. This phenomenon effectively shifts the question
from ―Will technology improve learning?‖ to ―How much further will technology let us
push the envelope of human cognitive, affective, and kinesthetic experience?‖
The more engaging the experience and the more intentional the results, the greater is
the likelihood that learning will occur.
Therefore, technology can help strengthen learner motivation, focus attention, make a
learning moment more memorable, or demonstrate the relevancy of learning to
performance; the greater is the likelihood that technology will have a direct positive
effect on learning.
Types of E-learning
E-learning is emerging as a solution for delivering online, hybrid, and synchronous
learning regardless of physical location, time of day, or choice of digital
reception/distribution device.
E-learning programs are implemented in the following ways:
• The virtual classroom
This model of e-learning continues to be the most familiar analogue for building e-
learning programs. The intention of virtual classrooms is to extend the structure and
services that accompany formal education programs from the campus or learning
center to learners, wherever they are located. The virtual classroom is for learners who
may be pursuing a distance education degree made up entirely of online lessons, and
it may include campus-based courses, where students join in from a variety of on- and
off-campus locations—in a real-time class session via the Internet.
Performance Support Systems for Virtual Classroom Learning Solutions
The virtual classroom model includes places for posting papers for review and
comment, and for completing tutorials and distributing class assignments for team
review before posting the secure PDF file containing multimedia assets and for breaking
away into study sections dealing with shared interest using web conferencing tools.
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Virtual Learning Solutions
In the Adobe world, common tools used for constructing virtual classrooms include such
applications as Adobe Acrobat® 8, Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly
known as Macromedia® Breeze® Meeting), Adobe Presenter 6 (formerly Breeze
Presenter), and Adobe Captivate 2.
• Online learning
This model of e-learning revolves around its dependence on courseware, delivered
over the Internet to learners at a variety of locations where the primary interaction
between the learner and the experiences of their learning occur via Networked
Computer Technology.
Performance Support Systems for Online Learning Solutions
Increasingly, learning management systems are serving as the basis for building online
programs where the education experience is entirely meditated through a digital
interface.
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Online Learning Solutions
Adobe tools, which have long been the de facto standard for creating interactive
digital learning content, include such familiar products as Flash®, Dreamweaver®,
Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Adobe Premiere®, Adobe Contribute™ and Adobe Captivate,
to name a few. The rising trend of integrating dynamic, modular learning content—
learning objects—in face-to-face and e-learning programs alike is expected to drive
greater demand for solutions built on Adobe Flex® and Adobe LiveCycle® platforms.
Greater interoperability with industry leading LMS platforms extends integration of
Acrobat Connect Professional.
• Rapid e-learning
This is a direct response to e-learning products that made it hard for nontechnical
subject matter experts and learners to contribute and make use of multimedia learning
content to the knowledge base.
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Rapid Learning Solutions
Rapid e-learning uses tools such as Adobe Captivate 2 and Adobe Presenter 6 to
reduce the time it takes to produce rich, engaging Flash learning content, while
allowing more non-technical contributors, including subject matter experts (SMEs) and
students, to share their SCORM and AICC conformant Adobe Captivate learning
objects as a stand-alone Flash movie or as an element of a multimedia portfolio that
can be securely shared within an Adobe PDF document.
• Mobile learning
This type of learning builds on the availability of ubiquitous networks and portable digital
devices, including laptop computers, PDAs, game consoles, MP3 players, and mobile
phones, and it takes advantage of place-independent flexibility that comes from
working away from the desktop. Mobile learning provides the opportunity to connect
informal learning experiences that occur naturally throughout the day with formal
learning experiences. Common tools for producing mobile learning content include
Flash Professional, Flash Media Server, and Flash Lite.
Performance Support Systems for Mobile Learning Solutions
These include decision support tools, checklists, and other kinds of performance aids
that are designed to bring workflow support to the point of need. Performance support
tools can be simple and straightforward or can be richly immersive, depending upon
need and criticality of performance.
Fundamental Ingredients for Building Mobile Learning Solutions
From specialized content creation tools such as FrameMaker® to Adobe Acrobat and
all of the Adobe Creative Suite® and Adobe Studio tools, to server products such as
ColdFusion® and those for creating rich Internet applications with Flex and LiveCycle,
Adobe tools are a fundamental ingredient for building e-learning solutions that respond
to any and all e-learning deployment models.
It is important to understand that all solutions for e-learning are all based upon creating
and extending rich, retentive, engaging learning experiences that connect learners
with instructors, other learners, and rich learning content assets regardless of physical
location.
The keyword is ENGAGEMENT and this is what binds together all types of distributed,
distant, and e-learning experiences.
• Provides the power to be able to determine the kinds of outcomes that a
learning engagement should enable guides the developments of
instructional designs, concept specifications, functional specifications, and
technical specifications. • E-learning also provides for the metrics for
evaluation. • Opportunities to use Interactions that promote and enable a
strong sense of social presence help keep learners engaged and motivated.
Therefore, e-learning and technology mediation, play a significant role and we need to
stand up and realize the value that rich, engaging content creation, distribution, and
management tools contribute to the experience of rich, effective e-learning programs
enables new levels of engagement and participation among all learning stakeholders.
Final word…
Purpleframe's solutions for e-learning are all based upon creating and extending rich,
engaging learning experiences that connect learners with instructors, other learners,
and rich learning content assets regardless of physical location. Engagement is the
conceptual glue that holds distributed, distant, and e-learning experiences together.
Being able to determine the kinds of outcomes that a learning engagement should
enable guides the developments of instructional designs, concept specifications,
functional specifications, and technical specifications. They will also provide metrics for
evaluation. Interactions that promote and enable a strong sense of social presence
help keep learners engaged and motivated.
The significant role played by technology mediation, and the value that rich, engaging
content creation, distribution, and management tools contribute to the experience of
rich, effective e-learning programs enables new levels of engagement and
participation among all learning stakeholders.
Purpleframe Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a Learning, New Media and Technology Solutions
Company offers cost effective business solutions, enabling organizations achieve their
performance management goals. Our process oriented approach ensures precise and
creative solutions for communication and learning needs in the fields of education,
entertainment, edutainment and infotainment. Purpleframe specializes in providing
blended learning solutions, engineering services, virtual reality, stereoscopy, rapid
prototyping (physical modeling) and other novel and ingenious products.
Please visit our website www.purpleframetech.com for more on our solutions for
communication and learning needs in the fields of education, entertainment,
edutainment and infotainment. You can also write to us at
Purpleframe Technologies Pvt Ltd.
#23, Opp Big Bazaar, Banashankari 3rd Stage,
Bangalore-560085, Karnataka, INDIA
Ph- +91.80.26678494
References
For more details on the NEP and the problems of Indian education in the 1980s and
1990s, see N. Jayapalan, Problems of Indian Education (Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2001).
Ram and K.D. Sharma, National Policy on Education: An Overview (Delhi: Vikas
Publishing House, 2005), p. 1. http://www.indianchild.com/education_society_india.htm
(accessed 15.09.04). http://www.indianchild.com/education_society_india.htm
(accessed 15.09.04). Outlook, 18 August 2003.
J. Dreze and A. Sen, ‗Basic Education as a Political Issue‘, in B.G. Tilak (ed.), Education,
Society and Development: National and International Perspectives (New Delhi: APH,
2003), p. 3. 13 J. Dreze and A. Sen, Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The evolution of India‘s education policy Elitism, Nehruvianism and development
Traditional Hindu education served the needs of Brahmin families: Brahmin teachers
would teach boys to read and write. Under the Moguls, education was similarly elitist,
favoring the rich rather than those from high-caste backgrounds. These preexisting elitist
tendencies were reinforced under British rule. British colonial rule brought with it the
concept of a modern state, a modern economy and a modern education system. The
education system was first developed in the three presidencies (Bombay, Calcutta and
Madras). By linking entrance and advancement in government service to academic
education, colonial rule contributed to the legacy of an education system geared to
preserving the position and prerogatives of the more privileged. In the early 1900s, the
Indian National Congress called for national education, placing an emphasis on
technical and vocational training. In 1920 Congress initiated a boycott of government-
aided and government-controlled schools and founded several ‗national‘ schools and
colleges. These failed, as the rewards of British-style education were so great that the
boycott was largely ignored. Local elites benefited from the British education system
and eventually used it expel the colonizers. Nehru envisaged India as a secular
democracy with a state-led command economy. Education for all and industrial
development were seen as crucial tools to unite a country divided on the basis of
wealth, caste and religion, and formed the cornerstones of the antiimperial struggle.
Following Independence, school curricula were thus imbued with the twin themes of
inclusiveness and national pride, placing emphasis on the fact that India‘s different
communities could live peacefully side by side as one nation.
The legacies of this Nehruvian approach to education are considerable; perhaps most
notable is the entrenchment of the pluralist/secularist perspective in the minds of the
Indian people. Subsidized quality
higher education through institutions such as the IITs and IIMs formed a major
contribution to the Nehruvian vision of a self-reliant and modern Indian state, and they
now rank amongst the best higher education institutions in the world. In addition,
policies of positive discrimination in education and employment furthered the case for
access by hitherto unprivileged social groups to quality education. It has been argued
that while access for some marginalized communities continues to be limited, the
upward mobility of a few Dalit and tribal households resulting from positive
discrimination in educational institutions and state patronage has created role models
that help democracy survive in India.
The Kothari Commission: education for modernization, national unity and literacy
Drawing on Nehru‘s vision, and articulating most of his key themes, the Kothari
Commission (1964–6) was set up to formulate a coherent education policy for India.1
According to the commission, education was intended to increase productivity,
develop social and national unity, consolidate democracy, modernize the country and
develop social, moral and spiritual values. To achieve this, the main pillar of Indian
education policy was to be free and compulsory education for all children up to the
age of 14. Other features included the development of languages (Hindi, Sanskrit,
regional languages and the three-language formula2).
The need for change: the National Policy on Education
In 1986, Rajiv Gandhi announced a new education policy, the National Policy on
Education (NPE), which was intended to prepare India for the 21st century. The policy
emphasized the need for change: ‗Education in India stands at the crossroads today.
Neither normal linear expansion nor the existing pace and nature of improvement can
meet the needs of the situation.
Operation Blackboard (1987–8) aimed to improve the human and physical resources
available in primary schools.
Restructuring and Reorganization of Teacher Education (1987) created a resource for
the continuous upgrading of teachers‘ knowledge and competence.
Minimum Levels of Learning (1991) laid down levels of achievement at various stages
and revised textbooks.
National Program for Nutritional Support to Primary Education (1995) provided a
cooked meal every day for children in Classes 1–5 of all government, government-
aided and local body schools. In some cases grain was distributed on a monthly basis,
subject to a minimum attendance.
District Primary Education Program (DPEP) (1993) emphasized decentralized planning
and management, improved teaching and learning materials, and school
effectiveness.
Movement to Educate All (2000) aimed to achieve universal primary education by 2010
through micro planning and school-mapping exercises, bridging gender and social
gaps.
Fundamental Right (2001) involved the provision of free and compulsory education,
declared to be a basic right for children aged between 6 and 14 years.