TIME TO TAKE A DECISION

Pavan is an enthusiastic and a high energy kid. Ambitious and strongly focused towards his career goal, Pavan is sharing his views on the process of career guidance and planning. Pavan underwent the career guidance and career planning session last year.

 
HUZZ……BUZZ ………everywhere in schools do you know why, but I know because everyone is tensed and are anxious about their 10th board exams. Everyone after writing/finishing the board exams have to take a decision. It is time to take a decision about their future. Because life is a road and a person travels on this road of life and at this particular time and point he/she, but a student comes to a fork or to halt on their journey of life as they are in front of a road which has many divided sections of roads and this roads can be treated as the courses taken in inter first and second year. They are as follows Mpc, Bipc, CEC, MEC, HEC, etc. These are the roads for the students and at this particular point of time one has to take a decision as to on which road he has to travel or which course he has to take and on which he has interest and may have a bright future.

The student himself has to take decision as on this decision his future is dependent. Students are responsible for their future and they can’t blame others in future saying that because of u now I am suffering. It is time for every student to realize and to make a decision about his/her future. Always remember that “right decisions at right times bring bright results.”

Then why waste time? Go, run, get information about all the courses and colleges offering the groups and then take a decision but decide very carefully because it is your future and don’t try to play with it. And I request all the parents not to force their children to take a course that has a lot of demand in the society. We all know that parents are concerned about their child’s future but they should also give him a chance and try to find out where his interests are.
And if you have any problem, you can consult for aptitude test which can be written online and one of them is dheya.com. I opted for it and I am now enjoying my studies and I am also happy with my decision because at first I wanted to be an army man and the course for it is MPC but I am a lot weak in math’s and I don’t have any interest towards physics and chemistry. So I thought and decided to take CEC, and whatever may happen will happen.

Many criticized my decision and soon I was in a dilemma about my decision of taking CEC. But soon my mother noticed my position and she advised me to write an aptitude test. Aptitude means ability. I wrote the test and he guided me through the right path. They told everything about all the courses and that my decision is right and also asked me not to fear that my decision is wrong. They also said that people say many things but it is your future and nobody will help when u will listen to them and change your decision and opt for an unwilling course. There will be none and u can’t blame anyone about your fate. So try and wake up to take a decision.

And one more thing. After coming back home, after listening to them I still had a guilty feeling in me but after a few months I started enjoying my studies and I also top my class every time is it not enough for me and my parents.

A Note to the Parents

Dear parents, please kindly remember that when a child enjoys his studies he tries to learn more. “Marks are not important, but knowledge is important and when knowledge is gained then it automatically reflects in your marks. “And I also can give you an example when a boy or girl plays a game they try to play more efficiently in the next game as they enjoyed it and want to learn more of it. And when a student doesn’t like or is not interested in studies but still is forced to study, then he tries to opt for important points and mugs them up and vomits in the answer sheet. So let them enjoy their studies. Then they try to learn more of the subject. Even the scientists proved that a person in 24 hours of a day gets only 4 hours of concentration and in the remaining hours whatever he studies can’t be remembered, and none can tell when a person really obtains this concentration. 

Mmy name is V.PAVAN TANAY NAG;
INTER FIRST YEAR STUDENT, C.E.C, ALPHORES JUNIOR COLLEGE, KARIMNAGAR.
YOURS SINCERELY,
V.PAVAN TANAY NAG

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Dheya.Com's Blog. A complete career guidance, planning and development portal. Visit www.dheya.com for details. Dheya also offers aptitude testing and career counselling services.

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Need of the Hour: Career Guidance & Career Planning in India

Indian Education has many issues to deal with. Since the year 1835 the British started tinkering with the India’s traditional education system of ‘Guru shyshya’ which was value based and focussed on outcome and application of learning.

The new age education came into being with schools and colleges being set up across India.

In 1948 when the Radhakrishnan Commission was set up with an intention of designing a new National University Education Policy of free India, the commission stressed on the outcome of education into social, economic and cultural goals of the nation.

Dr S Radhakrishnan in his words said:

“The most important and urgent reform needed in education is to transform it, to endeavor to relate it to the life, needs and aspirations of the people and thereby make it the powerful instrument of social, economic and cultural transformation necessary for the realization of the national goals. For this purpose, education should be developed so as to increase productivity, achieve social and national integration, accelerate the process of modernization and cultivate social, moral and spiritual values.” ⁵

Since 1956 Commissions and committees were set up to deal with non-implementation of earlier recommendations and identifying gaps in the Education system.

On the ground, apart from introducing little new regulatory compliance there were no major changes that could be effected towards building outcome of education to the social, economic and cultural goals of the country.

In reality the focus of higher education always has been away from the outcome and application to just input based education. Outcome here means the education resulting in either economic growth or increased capability of the learner.

Unfortunately today education has minimal relevance to occupation, passion, interest of the individual learner. The age old beliefs have created havoc in making a choice of education. The aspirational needs, abilities and interest of the individual have been ignored. This has led to non-compatibility, career failures, drop outs and unemployables.

Today the youth do not value higher education. They acquire degrees with no connection to their occupations they would like to pursue. This is visible with higher un-employability and unemployment in the country. Hence, the gross enrolment ratios and dropout rates are far from desired.

The government is doing all it can to improve access of education. It’s a known fact that 73% of the population lives in rural India, however 90% of the educational institutes are in urban India ⁶. I believe that it’s a superficial measure of increasing enrolments.

 

Towards Valuing Higher Education

The youth of India will value education only when they see benefits that result in their social, economic and personal growth. There needs to be sustained effort on helping the youth realize their potential and guide them into the right education which will lead them into a career that satisfying yet economically fulfilling.

Today 98% of young boys and 96% of young girls are confused while making a career decision⁷. The confusion is due to the lack of information and skill for making career decisions. This confusion drives them into making unfocussed investments of time, effort and money into education that may or may not deliver returns.

A scientific career guidance process with a reliable information base on education and career would transform the current scenario.

Guiding the student into taking up education that would lead to a career that’s compatible to his or her personal abilities, passion, interests, values and personality, would never let the interest levels in education diminish. Moreover, research tells us that students who are able to understand and internalize the connections between school and work will be more actively engaged in their academic tasks and will be more likely to succeed in high school ⁸

 

^{Excerpts from the paper ‘Relooking at the Indian Education System” Published by Anand Desai, Founder Dheya (www.dheya.com ), A complete Career Guidance and Planning Company.}

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GOOD INTENT , ZERO PASSION , DOUBTFUL EXECUTION … The Right of EDUCATION ACT

Technorati Tags: Passion,Education,Law,Government of India,Education Ministry,Access

Right of education is just about giving access to schools. Its important to build education around economic and social goals of the future. Heart of education is in its outcome into economic &cultural growth, access doesn't matter.When people see value in education enrolment will improve.


One April 1st 2010 the historic right to education bill 2009 came into being. The bill will supposedly ensure each and every child from the age of 6 to 14 get primary /elementary compulsory education.. I must admit, there are great intentions behind the bill. I also would like to admit that its a “GOOD Intent, zero passion & doubtful execution

program.

I have been studying this bill since it was tabled in the parliament till it finally got a nod last August 2009. Its a big challenge to the government to actually implement this bill. It may take several years to actually see results from this bill or it could be just another scheme like the NREGA or the mid day meal with either minimal or no social impact.

This bill would ensure accessibility, for sure, but doesn't answer what quality, and what content or the outcome of education. Here when i read the goals of this act i really doubt if it could achieve any level of impact on the learner. I still believe that its more important to analyse the content in this bill. There seems to be no mention of how academics and academicians will actually let these people learn the basics.

In my visits to villages and remote places I found that the teachers are nothing but a figure who represents the schools. With no passion for education he is more interested in signing the muster and earning the wage. I wonder how do we actually train these teachers to enhance quality. What about passion for education??? I am not sure if passion can be built or enhanced, it should come from within.

About the 25% reservation in private schools, I believe its another way of a quota or a rout to get some class of people admitted in the school. May be it would work or it would be a back end entry fro few.

One point i must appreciate and firmly believe is about not  FAILING students. I hope this gets implemented across widely and firmly.

Whatever it is its a good beginning. The country knows that something is better that nothing at all. The only problem is execution. If a clean and swift execution could be managed, this act could do wonders for the future apart from enhancing the quality of education.

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Education in India: Is learning happening in Schools???

Penning down my thoughts on the way our kids learn in the current schooling system.

 

Does the school matter  anyhow ??

Schools irrespective of what medium,brand, funded or unfunded, the fact is learning has taken a back seat. Parents are expecting that their kids would turn into scholars once they get them admitted in the right school but its a big illusion. Age old beliefs like convent education being the best or English medium is better than the vernacular has played havoc. It doesn't matter which school the kid goes, learning matters the most.  

Lets understand what's happening in schools. May be I am generalizing and there could be exceptions. My thoughts are based on experiences and our findings after interacting with several schools.

From day one its the marks that the kid is thought to gain. I have seen parents pestering the kid on marks,I have also seen parents building personal relations, networking and flattering the class teacher to help their kid gain good marks. While its a fashion for the parents to tell others that their kid has gained more marks. What  they fail to understand that marks is just  a result of a that One or Two hour question paper that the kid answer after recitation. The strongest ability is  memory and recall and not the attainment of knowledge.

  

 

Hence there is no learning happening, its only the race for marks irrespective of the schools.

 

Does the Teacher Matter??

Till date the teaching profession was for those who don't get into the mainstream jobs or for house wives who need to spend some time outside. May be my statement would irk several people but its a fact.

In private schools its about ladies who have taken up this profession by some compulsion or just an occupation that keeps them occupied. Lack of passion towards the kids and teaching  is clearly visible. I have seen one of the renowned public school telling the requirement of the teacher that the lady should be good looking and well groomed. Teaching skills are not that important as the impression on the parents who spend a fortune is made by the looks of the teacher.

The salaries in private schools are bad. Since its not the main income in the family the level of perks and salaries are acceptable to ladies who take up teaching as a part time occupation. Even after 6th pay commission some school managements tell the aspiring candidates explicitly that the sixth pay commission salaries will not be applicable.

 

In such conditions passion for imparting knowledge or getting the student to learn is lost. Those parents who have the need engage their students to private tuitions at times to the same school teacher who give special attention to their  kid.

The big names in private tutorials are a joke. I don't understand why parents trust them. There are 40-50 students in a class in school, the private tutorials have more numbers sitting in a cramped place. The kids who have the guts to raise their doubts do it in schools as well as private tutorials and clarify their doubts. The rest of the kids keep mum with a fear of being laughed at for asking a question. What learning and understanding of concepts would happen any how??

The government/state/ municipal  schools even worst leaving some exceptions. Each state run school hires teachers who pass through a competitive exam. Unlike private schools the teachers come from needy background who consider teaching as the main occupation and source of income.  The competitive exam churns out the best in the lot who opt teaching as a profession. They may not be  well equipped with teaching aids plush classrooms but certainly have the knowledge of teaching. This lot of teachers take teaching for a secured job and not as a passion for imparting knowledge.  Ultimately the monotony and slow growth in their profession makes it an unattractive profession.

Irrespective of the schools the teachers are not driven towards results. Lack of passion, Lack of result orientation and performance measurement has destroyed the education culture in India.  

A serious  question comes in my mind.  What was bad in adopting the traditional education system and scaling it to masses?? It was the Gurukul system that has churned out the best students in the past. The Guru not only imparts knowledge but also drives in the Indian value system and ethos. The guru also mentors the pupil with learning avenues making the pupil capable and competent.  Our educationist blindly just adopted the westernized education system which has left the Indian population literate/qualified but not  educated.

Are exams effective ??

Exams is a game of TWO hours. Kids mug up for writing papers. I have seen kids singing and reciting  mathematical sums. The kids also know which are the probable questions. There are keys available in the market.

Exams today do not focus on practicality or the application of knowledge. Ultimately the marks gained is the measure of the  memory of the student that his knowledge.

Knowledge if not put to practical use is sheer waste. Today unfortunately ,there is NO education process in India that links to the practical usage of knowledge. There is lack of purposeful education that leads to economic and personal growth.

 

The toppers in exams are not necessarily the most successful in life. Do do exams matter after all. Can we get rid of exams and try to put a process that assesses the practical usage of knowledge the student has gained??

Are Teaching Techniques Effective??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teachers are trained in Education degrees like B.Ed, D.Ed and M.Ed that

text book is just the reference point. you need to teach the students more that just the text books. Invariably the teaching is just limited to text books.

Today in the kids are tech savvy, they have seen computer games, they have seen cartoons on television, they love to see and then learn. They would like to experience and learn.

Here is a suggestion, can we integrate cartoons, national geographic, the history channel , games and checklist base education that engages the kid in learning, understanding , experiencing and playing with the topics to gain knowledge??

With the current system in education its the a dooms day in waiting, The so called educationists need to wakeup fast or just step aside to let the private players take over. Its the issue of nation building and is critical. Its absolutely important for to student to understand the purpose of his learning and what career/occupation he/she plans to pursue post his education.

 

Research has proven that students who internalize the relation between what they are doing today in academics, why are they studying what they are studying and how it will help in their career, do well in their academics.   

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A TIME BOMB waiting to burst :Education VS Employability

While reading TOI, I am really concerned with the future of our education system. Let me explain ..In a place called Solan a PhD, an MBA and many one have registered under NREGA. What's NREGA?? Its National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Every unemployed citizen in the rural area in entitled to employment under this act. The only difference is the work in more on the manual side like digging roads, pits etc..

This raises some tough questions. With the HR managers and the India Inc always shouting on top of their voice that – there are NO GOOD PEOPLE…where have all the good people gone??

While the education system is churning out PhDs, MBA, Masters, and Bachelors like a mass manufacturing products, the utility and the quality of those products are in question?? … Mr Sibal, Mr. education minister are you listening?? Tough Mr. Sibal has taken some great steps in reforming education, he needs to look at more of OUTPUT or RESULT oriented education policy.

With new education bill passing in the parliament, its even funny, the government has legitimised the private education system. Now these people are free to charge what ever they what without being accountable for the quality of education. Today, where the students and the parents invest on an average Rs 8 Lakhs for an engineering degree, Rs. 25 Lakhs for a medical degree and Rs.7 Lakhs for an MBA. The whole of investment is done for supposedly the better future of their kid, and when the kind lands into a job that pays miniscule salary and offers him a menial job, the onus of kids success is dumped solely on the student.

While making sales calls I happened to be meeting the President and the Owner of a large education society which has approx 35000 students studying in it. I was made to wait for 2 hours and then an arrogant chief of the institution arrived, he called us inside. It was admission time, this man from any angle did not look like an educationist but called himself Prof. He said he is very busy, so we waited. He had people walking in and out of his room. TO everyone he was quoting a figure.. if you need admissions, 3 lakhs for this campus, 2 lakhs for another and 1.5 lakhs for a distant campus… ALL IN CASH, no receipt , plus fees..??

People with no background in education are owners of large education institutions. Obviously there is no education imparted in colleges.. hence the business of coaching classes is booming. I fail to differentiate between the college and coaching class of tutorial classes.. both have the same number of student yet people go for it.

Ultimately… only 23% MBA are employable, 15% of grads are employable… majority take menial jobs.. and India as a nation is moving towards a HIGHLY QUALIFIED UNEMPLOYABLE nation with LOW PRODUCTIVITY???

Apart from their brilliant academic track records Ankit Chaudhary, Rajinder Rana, Anchal, Devi, Anjali and a bunch of others like them in Nauni, a picturesque town nestled in Solan, 45 km from Shimla, have one more thing in common. They are all workers labouring under NREGA.

“Some work is better than no work,’’ said Ankit, a PhD from the prestigious Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan. “And work is worship. Haven’t we been taught that? Moreover, I think all of us have another agenda in that NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) funds should keep flowing into our village and should never ever be returned unutilized.’’

Its time we wake up and do something about it…. its a TIME BOMB waiting to burst

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Career Counselling ???? What ??

Every institute you walk in today there are counsellors, in the garb of counselling they sell the program to you, have you ever heard NIIT or the aptechs or the seed infotech’s of the world telling the student that he doesn't have the aptitude for IT so he shouldn’t take up this course. NO. Rather they would develop the aptitude(something that's vague).

While i was working with the Piramal’s I also had a mid-career crisis syndrome catching up on me, so decided to visit a very well known career counsellor in South Mumbai. The guy was young and smart, he suggested me to take up an MBA abroad ( he was running a special batch for working students for GMAT), indirectly he was selling it to me, after TWO sittings i paid him Rs.7000/- to understand that I need Rs.60 Lakhs to get an MBA from a foreign univ.

Now this was the great career counsellor at Mumbai, I happened to see some of the so called career counselling/ career guidance processes in Pune for youngsters, again the same, in the name of career its education these people were pointing to.

People have mis-understood career with job or career with education or career with occupation or career with just doing a course. I need to explain.

Career is a term defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an individual's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work (and sometimes also formal education).The etymology of the term is somewhat ironic in that it comes from the Latin word carrera, which means race (as in "rat race," a pejorative implying the opposite of a useful career).A career is mostly seen as a course of successive situations that make up a person's occupation.

This was then but later the definition has changed and here is the new definition that's published on wiktionary :

One's calling in life; a person's occupation.

An individual’s work and life roles over their lifespan.

A jouster's path during a joust

Do people understand this or the greats in career counselling understand this. The career counsellor focus on pointing the education the person needs to take up than creating the path that makes him or builds him into a successful individual.

So then what is a career?.. The definition goes like this: A career is the total of our work activities—at home, at work, our education and in our extra curricular activities. A career also includes the time we spend learning new things. Even if you don’t think you have a career, you do! And you don’t have to be in certain occupations to have a career. Anyone who has spent time working at anything has a career. For example Sachin Tendulkar, he has build his entire career around cricket, looking back every activity was focussed on a career of cricket.

And what is an occupation? : An occupation is a group of similar jobs for which people usually have to develop skills and knowledge. An occupation is a specific category of work. A person can have several different jobs within an occupation. They can adapt their knowledge and skills to a variety of positions. Examples of occupations include the following: electrician, engineer and teacher.

What is a job?: A job is the position a person holds doing specific duties. For example, an occupation is Customer Services . The job is rresolving customer issues at the Vodafone Telecom Gallery . People usually change jobs more often than they change occupations.

What is Education?:Education can be defined as the art or process of imparting skill and knowledge. Education can be either formal or informal. The success of education lies in harnessing the latent potential of an individual. Informal education happens subconsciously when the values and behaviour of an individual is shaped due to constant interaction with his environment. Formal education on the other hand, is a deliberate effort by a person to learn the skills and techniques considered important for a particular job or activity.

And now what's career counselling : Career Counselling and career coaching are similar in nature to traditional counselling (Kim, Li, Lian, 2002). However, the focus is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues (Swanson, 1995). Typically when people come for career counseling they know exactly what they want to get out of the process, but are unsure about how it will work (Galassi, Crace, Martin, James, and Wallace, 1992).

Career counseling advisors assess people's interests, personality, values and skills, and also help them explore career options and research graduate and professional schools. Career counseling provides one-on-one or group professional assistance in exploration and decision making tasks related to choosing a major/occupation, transitioning into the world of work or further professional training. The field is vast and includes career placement, career planning, learning strategies and student development.

So next time you walk into a career counsellors office.. check for your self if knows the basics??

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UGC, AICTE likely to be abolished..is it the end of licence raj in education???

Yashpal committee report is out. Hope Kapil Sibal keeps his WORD of implementing it in 100 days starting TODAY 24th June 2009.Key regulatory agencies in higher education, including the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), will be shut down if the final recommendations of a high-powered committee are accepted by the government.

Instead, the committee, headed by former UGC chairman Yash Pal, has suggested that these bodies can be replaced with a single National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which will be empowered with statutory powers. In recent interactions, the heads of UGC and AICTE have opposed the closure of their institutions, asking instead for reforms to improve their functioning.

Set up at the initiative of prime minister Manmohan Singh, the committee also recommended the closure of the National Council for Teacher's Education (NCTE) and the National Accreditation and Assessment council (NAAC). It is scheduled to meet on June 22 in Delhi to finalise its report and decide on a date for its submission to the government.

The committee said the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research should be headed by a chairman and include seven other members.

Appointments to the commission will be made by a three-member panel comprising the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The committee has also recommended curtailing the powers of bodies like the Bar Council of India, the Medical Council of India, the Architecture Council and the Dental Education Council. It has recommended that the academic duties of these bodies be transferred to various universities.

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