Nations remain
underdeveloped largely on account of two reasons. One is the virtual absence
of information networks. The other is the virtual absence of quality education.
If basic skills
of good spoken and written communication and reasoning skills are not
developed, the person becomes unemployable. That is why India's problem
is not unemployment. The real problem is unemployability.
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If there is
underdevelopment in most developing countries it is largely on account
of two reasons:
The first
is the virtual absence of information networks. Without these networks,
the simplest of information -- about where to buy or sell anything, even
second hand goods -- becomes extremely difficult. Not surprisingly price
spreads are the largest in such countries especially when it comes to
agro-products and handicraft items.
The producer
gets paid a pittance, and the consumer pays far too much.The eventual
loser is the economy -- where fewer goods get purchased because of the
high price the eventual consumer pays. It cripples purchasing power on
the one hand, and creates extremely skewed income demographics on the
other.
The second factor that blights these countries is the virtual absence
of quality education. In India, for instance, illiteracy has been pegged
at 40% of the population. But this figure is quite misleading because
literacy has been defined as anyone who can read or write his own name
-- never mind the fact that he may not know or be capable of identifying
the other alphabets in the script. Moreover, education becomes meaningful
if, in addition to providing the basic elements of literacy, it also provides
students with skills -- of communicating properly in any language, of
thinking logically (mathematical skills) and work culture.
If such skills are not developed, the person becomes unemployable. It
is when one recognises this fact that one begins to appreciate that India's
problem is not unemployment. The real problem is unemployability. Advertise
for a secretary and you will get a thousand applications. Start interviewing
them, and you will find 95% of them (even more) unemployable. They have
the right certificates, but lack the above skills.
If there is a skill set within a group of people, a shrewd businessman
will find out ways to exploit these skills and create a marketable product.
But if the skill set is missing, he cannot create a market opportunity.
There is a limit, a saturation point, to creating jobs for unskilled workers.
When people ask government to create jobs they often forget that development
of skills must precede the creation of jobs. Trying to create jobs first
is always a self-defeating exercise.
Pre-requisites:
To make education
relevant it must achieve the following
A reasonable guarantee that passing the course will make him employable
The course must be rich in course content.
It must have the best teachers as the face and the presentation have a
great deal to do with motivating students.
It must be interactive, preferably with a human face at the other end.
It must be reasonably priced.
It must, ideally, be encouraged by the existing educational system.
It must offer a system for certifying qualified candidates in such a manner
that the certificates are recognizable globally, and they eliminate the
risk of fraud or forgery.
Distant interactive learning:
These are the reasons why distance learning, with a great deal of LIVE
interactivity, becomes critically important. Distance learning allows
several things to happen – especially for a capital and resource
starved country like India.
First, it allows good education to be availed of by students even in areas
where the numbers of students wanting to pursue a particular course do
not justify the commercial viability of a private brick and mortal tuition
center or coaching class. Consider, for instance, the possibility of one
student desirous of studying Java programming in a small town in Eastern
India. No businessman can open a coaching class just for one student,
unless the student belongs to a very powerful or rich family which can
afford private tuitions. Distance learning allows even this one student
to become part of a virtual classroom, and thus benefits him tremendously.
No longer is it necessary for the student to travel to a large town to
study the course there.
Second, distance learning allows students to get the best teachers to
teach students. And good teachers are hard to come by. Even with the best
brand names of private teaching institutes, you will find an exceptionally
good teacher at one centre but a mediocre teacher at another. This is
true even in large cities like Mumbai and Delhi where, theoretically at
least, there are scores of qualified people looking for jobs. Thus, even
though branding of the teaching institute is the same, the teaching standards
differ. The sad part is that teaching is highly dependent on the quality
of teachers. If a teacher is good, the student learns faster, even pursues
the subject more passionately. If a teacher is bad, the student may not
end up by just disliking the teacher. Even the subject may get abandoned.
Distance learning allows for a good teacher to become “available”
across the country.
Third, distance learning can help reduce the cost of training and development.
This is because, in a virtual classroom, the numbers of students, once
they exceed a certain minimum requirement, can help the cost of the course
to be reduced. This is not possible in a brick and mortal classroom where
the number of students per teacher is meant to be limited. Violate this
norm, and the effects of overcrowding begin to manifest themselves. In
a virtual classroom the numbers are invisible. The approach appears to
be individualised, the teaching quality standardised, and the evaluation
process rigorous and impartial. And Interactivity makes the entire difference.
The reason why interactivity is of paramount significance is not hard
to discover. Many people overestimate the value of content, but underestimate
the importance of interactivity. But take the most popular of training
institutes like Brilliant Tutorials as an example. It trains students
through correspondence. It sends notes and questions to students who must
then solve the questions and return them to Brilliant by post. Theoretically,
the notes are available for anyone to use and even photocopy. If the threat
of piracy of content were really that important in businesses relating
to teaching and training, Brilliant should have been out of business a
decade ago. But that has not happened.
The reason
for this is that the student not only wants course content; but also guidance
on where he has made mistakes and how to resolve them. If interactivity
were not important, any student could go to the local bookshop and purcahse
a book costing a few hundred rupees and save on the thousands he pays
to private training institutes.
The Examination
System:
However, distance learning itself is plagued by one problem – impersonation
and fraud. Without a proper examination system, the entire edifice of
distance learning can crumble. What is desperately needed are methods
for promoting examination centres at learning centers which can
(a) minimises the possibility of impersonation, and
(b) reduces the potential of forged certificates doing the rounds.
Unfortunately, Indian educationists and promoters of business as educational
centers have not yet been able to address these issues as yet.
