11 November 2012

Quality Education for All Children

Last night after dinner, I happened to watch a panel discussion on K-12 education quality in India on NDTV Profit Channel. In general I find their academic program to be of some interest. But what I don't understand is that none of the participants in such programs brings out the single most powerful cause of lack of quality in our K-12 education system: Quantity laden curriculum at the cost of Quality. 

Participants in such media programs usually criticize our exam and school education systems. This seems to be somewhat reasonable. But if we take a deeper look, we can easily find that the basic culprit is the school curriculum which in countries like ours is derived from syllabus drafted by people who may have never worked as competent teachers at all. 

If we are to raise the bar in this aspect, the first steps in the right direction would include the following:
  1. Our syllabus boards should drastically revamp their current syllabi by replacing quantity with quality
  2. Our exam system should test higher order cognitive and process skills
  3. Our teacher training programs should include realistic issues  
  4. School affiliation agencies should insist on quality 
  5. Government Departments, Corporates and NGOs should work hand in hand on a consistent basis to make quality education accessible by all children

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About Me

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Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
I am a retired K-12 Education Management Professional. I have worked at different levels in K-12 school systems, textbook publishing, elearning and Education NGOs. I have held memberships in The Association for Science Education (UK), American Association of Physics Teachers and The Malaysian Institute of Physics. I hold a 1st class B Sc Degree in Physics followed by B Ed [English and Physical Science] and M A [Childcare and Education] degrees. My published works include 59 articles in teacher development magazines in India and the US and a book entitled `Creative Classrooms and Child Friendly Schools' (listed in Amazon). This book is almost an anecdotal account of my professional experience in six countries (including Cambodia where I worked as Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Education, Youth And Sports). I served as mentor in the Certificate of Teaching Mastery Program offered by Teachers Without Borders.