Hey guys,
I am very excited that this particular article has been published today in the Wall Street Journal (http://www.smalllinks.com/IMF). This is one of many such articles I hope to write for the newspaper on education and entrepreneurship in India.
Do check it out on the WSJ website and leave me some comments either on this blog or on the WSJ website itself!!
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As published:
As a 16-year old student in Chandigarh, India, I spent most of my time outside school attending private coaching classes in Math, Chemistry or Physics. Most of my classmates, too, lived a similar life, donning their school bags at 5:00 a.m. and taking them off at 9:00 p.m. Private tuition centers thrived in the city and it was a common joke between students that schools were meant for hanging out with friends and coaching classes were meant for studying and learning.
Though a slight exaggeration, this couldn't be closer to the truth. The most common complaint among students like me was that teachers were not attentive to students' specific needs and were more interested in simply completing their daily agendas and signing their attendance registers.
Many times, students were absent for days in a row as they saw little reason for attending school. Classes tended to be boring monologues devoid of energy and at many times the result for incorrect answers to unclear questions was some sort of punishment. When our motivators, our teachers, were indifferent, how could they motivate us to learn?
When this traditional system of learning in schools could not satiate students, they instinctively turned towards private tutors to help them out. This was especially true for students from low and middle income backgrounds who attended low-tier public schools already notorious for poor teaching standards.
In an age where India promised to become a power-house of business, thoughts and ideas, I often wondered how such a feat would be possible with the country's schools churning out bored and frustrated students instead of creative and entrepreneurial thinkers.
Today, as I manage a high-school in India after living overseas for many years, I am heartened by the introduction of hefty government reforms, innovative teaching technologies and practical student curricula in our private and public schools. The one thing I have observed to be a constant, however, is the prevalence of the teaching styles and attitudes that made my high-school journey as enjoyable as a root-canal treatment.
Although India may have surged ahead of several leading economies over the past few years, it now needs to create the magic that will position it as an inventor, creator and leader, and go the extra mile. A magic that will not simply manage businesses, but revolutionize them; that will not simply sell products, but create them; and that will not simply follow norms, but pioneer them. India's schools and teaching styles form an important ingredient in the creation of this magic.
As a student at New York University, I remember the ease with which classes flowed between students and teachers. Instead of maintaining a rigid demeanor or an arms-length relationship with students, my teachers were friendly and approachable people who saw the world through my eyes and who made every effort to quell the doubts of students.
In my economics class, for instance, my teacher used an example of beer factories and pubs to explain an otherwise dry concept (no pun intended) of supply and demand to a class of young adults. All students were encouraged to ask questions and to make themselves heard. "No question is stupid," I was told time and again. The ability to learn outside the textbook by asking questions, talking to classmates and visualizing vivid examples came as a wonderful and welcome surprise to me.
On my first volunteer trip to an inner-city school in the Bronx, New York, I noticed how classrooms were engaged in activities like group work or quizzes. In one class, I was surprised to see students teaching physics to the rest of the class. Coming from a background where such activities were considered sheer sacrilege, I naturally assumed that the school was either celebrating a holiday or was falling short of teachers.
On asking the director of the school, I was surprised that this was how classes were conducted in the school on a daily basis. She felt that students learned best when they were mentally and emotionally engaged. I noticed none of the exasperated looks on the faces of teachers and students that I was used to. Like visitors to a movie-hall, everyone seemed to be excited and interested in what was going to happen next.
Such a reformation in teaching and learning is overdue in India. We need more students in schools, questioning thoughts and ideas, instead of wallowing in private coaching centers. Students should learn something new and develop their critical thinking skills everyday, and not simply when they write their final exams. Teachers should stimulate minds, not bore them. And schools should be seen as fun, not as torture. Only then can we hope to generate a progressive and dynamic set of educated and informed citizens, leaders and inventors.
As I discuss these points with teachers in my own school and in leading schools I visit around the country, I am offered several arguments against a more student-centric and reformed learning system.
The most common of these is that a more fun-filled and interactive learning experience causes a school's discipline standards to tank. This assumption is founded on the belief that strictness and rigidness help keep students in line.
Why was this same strictness causing me to sleep in classes or attend tuition sessions in Chandigarh, then? Through my experience abroad, I noticed how students in university or school were always excited to be in class. Unlike in India, bunking school or university was not considered heroic or cool but was looked down on by classmates. I believe that a teacher who stimulates a student's mind has already won the student's respect in a manner no cane or punishment could have.
I am also told that by removing the arms-length relationship between teachers and students, a teacher's sense of objective judgment is impaired as she interacts with her students and forms personal connections with them. I often wish this were the case for I have received several low grades from my U.S. professors despite interacting with them inside and outside class. For well-trained and grounded teachers, teaching students well and judging their performance can be compartmentalized as separate and non-related activities.
Finally, I am informed matter-of-factly by many school-owners that while implementing such a system would work in the best interest of students, it would come at a considerable cost to the school. This would include the cost of hiring better-trained teachers, of implementing activities for students and of constantly bringing new teaching methods into the classroom.
Instead of seeing such systems as a cost, however, I believe school leaders should see them as an investment; for apart from promoting better teaching standards, they will also reduce student agitations, improve a school's brand name and promote a culture of meritocracy. This in turn will improve the school's social standing, attract high-quality job applicants and boost long-term profitability. More than anything else, it will help schools to live up to their vision of educating instead of merely teaching.
As is stands today, many schools actively advertise the length of their swimming pools or the size of their cricket fields. There is a large emphasis on using computers for learning physics and language labs for learning French. Yet, without a corresponding upgrade in the style of teaching and interacting with students, such fancy systems are as useful as an airplane without a pilot.
Our teachers are not unintelligent or lacking motivation--many teachers who bored students in schools were the same ones who taught them in private coaching centers. Our curriculum is not antiquated or inferior--the U.S. has publicly admitted its intention of following Indian standards of math and science in schools. And our students are not lazy or detached--the enthusiasm and energy I see in students today surpasses those of previous generations. With a better sense of teaching and learning present in our schools, our teachers, curriculum and students can create magic.
-Mayank Maheshwari is a former investment banker and an aspiring social entrepreneur. He currently serves as director at the Hope Hall Foundation School, a private school catering to middle-income families, and is based in New Delhi.
