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.}

Technorati Tags: Career Guidance,Career Development,Career Planning. Indian Education System.

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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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MID CAREER CRISIS...

We are in touch with several senior and top executives in the corporate. What is heartening to know is that each one has a deep desire to move out and do something worth while. BUT the feel is I CANT becauseeeeeee....

I have some serous questions to ask all these execs.. does your 10- 20% hike Y oY make you happy??.. if we draw a line chart of cumulative income and a line graph of expenses it clearly shows that the expenses line has a steeper gradient, call it the inflation, or call it the increased personal responsibilities or increased aspirations the money is always short.And then you have the credit cards, the loans that you have lines up to fill the gap.

This is a serious trap executives fall into. To get of the trap either have a phenomenal growth or just step out get in to become an entrepreneur who create value. The mid career crisis is so grave that people have moved job, take up education or just stepped out to take up something on their own. Some succeeded and some failed miserably have landed into a worst situation than before..

We at Dheya are working with several executives caught into a midcareer crisis and are helping them get out of the same with scientifically developed processes.

Here's an interesting article i read about excuses senior executives give when they are unhappy and facing a mid career crisis and are unable to breakthrough...

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If you’re unhappy at work, I’m sure that the thought “Man, I really should quit!” crosses your mind occasionally. So why don’t you?

Even if you long desperately to quit, to get away from your horrible workplace, annoying co-workers or abusive managers, you may hesitate to actually do anything about it, because right on the heels of that impulse come a lot of other thoughts that hold you back from quitting.

Each of these excuses may sound to you like the voice of sanity, offering perfectly good reasons why it is in fact better to stay and endure that bad job just a little longer, but look a little closer, and they don’t really hold up. What they do instead is keep you trapped in a job that is slowly but surely wearing you down. Here are 10 of the most common bad excuses for staying in a bad job.

1 “Things might get better”

2 “My boss is such a jerk but if I quit now, he wins.”

3 “I’m not a quitter.”

4 “I’ll never get another job”

5 “If I quit I’ll lose my salary, status, company car, the recognition of my peers, etc.”

6 “Everywhere else is just as bad”

7 “I’ve invested so much in this job already”

8 “I’ll lose my health insurance.”

9 “My job pays very well”

10 “Quitting will look bad on my CV” Many of us would be much happier at work if we quit bad jobs sooner.

Source: http://positivesharing.com/

Dheya.com Blogs..

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Managing Failure and success ...

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , March 22,2008)

Question : Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam : Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini"

satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready..

As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch.

At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine.. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at

7 : 00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7 : 45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof.

Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience .

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Dreaming Works??

Here is an excerpt of a mail that I received recently. Dreaming of your goals and achieving them can be a fulfilling and satisfying aim in life.

“Julie, who lives in the Atlanta area, has been pursuing her
passion for figure skating for the past several years. The
email was to share pictures of one of her outings in which she medalled. The look on her face as she stood there victorious with the medal around her neck was priceless!
We've gotten frequent emails from Julie sharing with us the
different things she's had on her "dream" board. On one
occasion she emailed us to tell us she had realized every
single dream that she put on her board. Underscoring that washer closing statement that "I didn't dream big enough!"
Does visualization work? It certainly does for Julie, and for
millions of others who put it to work in their life. It all begins with a single thought and that thought changes everything to a reality only when you pursue it from the bottom of your heart. Thoughts change to pictures which can formulate into ideas and inspirations. So DREAM on to succeed.

All the best and bring out the best in you.

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Failure..nah..nah.. not for me

Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953 he scaled the highest mountain then known to man-29,000 feet straight up. He was knighted for his efforts.
He even made American Express card commercials because of it! However, until we read his book, High Adventure, we don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success.
You see, in 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members.
Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. The audience was recognizing an attempt at greatness, but Edmund Hillary saw himself as a failure. He moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform..
He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!"

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