Prabhat Pankaj, Director of Jaipuria Institute of management, Jaipur, shares his views on challenges and opportunities of the Indian education system with FE Education Online.
What is the best thing about today’s education system?
Today’s education system allows the learners to be able to voice, visualise and work on their dream. Learners are not just the meek receiver of knowledge but also a co-creator and their voice is included as a stakeholder in the learning process through various formal and non-formal mechanisms such as feedback, participation, open house, flexibility of choosing courses etc. This has brought about the necessary inclusiveness in the education system based on consultative approach and transparency. Due to this development, learners have now started understanding the power of visualisation and dreaming. They have the opportunity to transform themselves from what they are to what they can be. This has widened the freedom of choice for the learners. Availability of online resources and courses at their disposal, learners are not only widening their explorations but also able to pace-up learning according to availability and time. This is indeed absolutely new and the best thing that has ever happened in the education system.
What is the one thing that you would like to change about the education system today?
Given an opportunity, I would like to change the regulatory system of education and make it more flexible, transparent and merit based. Multiplicity of regulatory bodies are not serving the purpose, rather it gives rise to confusion and uncertainty. Education delivery is at the heart of the making or breaking of the nation. It has to be a merit-driven system which ensures a high degree of accountability and quality. It cannot be bound by the definition of private or public institutions. Unfortunately, we still tend to make a sharp distinction between private and public institutions. We are still not over with the thought process of the 60s and 70s that anything public-funded is good and to be treated as ‘holy cow’ irrespective of its outcome. Even the best of private institutions are not entitled for public funding in research, and are subjected to plethora of regulations which stifles innovations and snatch away flexibility.
What is the role digital has played in the evolution of the education system?
Digital transformation has brought about the biggest disruption in the education system and it has changed education delivery never before. Historically, the education system focused on intrinsic-transformation of the learners through delivering a set of values, ethics and high-order thinking skills applicable to humanity. Overtime, calls for efficiency and productivity took the centre-stage in view of market, mass production and urban living. Here, the advancement in technology and digitization helped in a big way. Education system shifted the focus towards market-based skills and global requirements. This ensued the division of labour between man and machine, which eventually got transformed into the division of labour between man, machine and algorithm. In the age of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its regenerative ability, it looks like that education system is staring at a much bigger transformation ahead. It is no longer about what you learn and which skills you have acquired, rather it is more about learnability, transferable skills, technological dexterity and life-long learning. In this sense, learning is not bound by one-time activity, rather it needs to be embraced as a life-long ongoing process.
What has been the disadvantage of digital in education?
There is nothing like the disadvantages of digital, but I would say it is about sorting out the challenges. Any change will be bristled with difficulties and challenges. Moot point is how do we embrace the change and move ahead, rather than left behind. Short term challenges of digital may include loss of jobs in some sectors and also withering away of some jobs completely. But this would also mean creation of new jobs. Quite often, the pace of new job creation will be much faster than the job loss. For the education system, AI is posing a bigger challenge in terms of its regenerative capacity. This also means that the educational institutions need to adapt and change almost every aspect of their activities, right from the teaching-pedagogy to the way assessment is done. It is no longer about textbooks, classroom, lectures, examinations and degrees, rather it has to transcend to experiential learning, practical projects, journals, and hands-on training. Learning needs to fly beyond the fore walls of the classroom.
Notwithstanding, I would like to bring the issue of mental health here which needs to be focused upon in the educational institutions. Digital growth, AI and social media have reduced the “attention span” quite significantly and it has created serious distractibility, attention deficit among students. Reduced attention deficit is an enemy of learning ability.
What is the career advice that you would like to give to students?
Build on your skills but in hindsight you also need to sit down and create a mental plan or a vision of where you want to see yourself in the next 4-5 years or what do you really want to learn from the education being pursued. Work on your curriculum vitae (CV), add a few interesting stories which go on to explain who you are and where your passion lies. These stories can come from your act, deeds, participation, learning and skill stacking (online certification etc) which ultimately point towards a definite direction. Your direction is the path you want to walk along, if not in the short run but indeed in the long-run. Build on transferable skills such as speaking, writing and evidence of good readings. Develop leadership and negotiation skills.
Never lose hope with failures coming your way. If you have not failed, this means you haven’t tried. Take care of your physical and mental health. Include habits such as morning walk (brisk walk for at least 30-45 minutes, 4-5 days a week), good sleep (7-8 hrs of sleep), reduce reliance on junk-food and enhance your quota of fresh and plant-based food. Last but not the least, and this is my favourite for the youngsters, spare 5-10 minutes for a mindful meditation practice.