Fact – The percentage of full-time employees working from home is expected to double by 2021, according to a study by Enterprise Technology Research (ETR).

In another survey conducted on over a thousand employees by Airtasker, remote employees were found to be more productive than their office-based counterparts. Not just that, even the organizations are discovering the benefits of having the employees work from home. Some of these benefits are:

• Less office space required
• Employers will move from managing employee experience to managing their employees’ health experience
• Better balance of work and health as jobs now come with flexible schedules
• Less stress of a commute. Saving time can allow you to focus on more important things outside of work
• Location independence

Along with the benefits come a host of challenges as well. Some of the challenges are as follows:

Challenges To Management:

• Safe Work Space: With the increase of remote operations, cybersecurity threats – especially cybercrime – have become increasingly common.
• Reimbursement of costs and expenses: The employer has the responsibility to provide employees with the necessary resources to do the job. This could include a computer with programs to access and protect work files, headset, webcam, and visual assembly software.
• Remote work affects performance management: As organizations focus more on the work done instead of the hours spent – making tools and applications to help manage the work of remote workers becomes more important.
• Building/maintaining trust with employees: Building trust relationships becomes difficult with employees who work remotely and connect virtually.

Challenges To Employees:

• Productivity growth: Sometimes the target becomes unachievable due to work becoming monotonous, and also because of lack of interest.
• Overcoming distractions: Being at home and getting more surrounded by household chores builds distraction over a period of time.
• Staying motivated: Motivation should be a continuous process to keep employees engaged and add value to the organization.
• Maintaining social relations: Working from home puts employees out of personal touch with other employees. Maintaining social relations could therefore be tough.

Overcoming The Challenges:

Build Effective Communication: The first thing needed for a team working remotely is an effective communication channel. Virtual Groups need something quick, responsive, and flexible.

A Clear Vision: Companies should set clear goals, convey them to the employees, and ensure total commitment and dedication from the employees.

Training and Upskilling: Companies should train their employees to use technology confidently. They should keep updated and invest in new technologies. Virtual training sessions to upskill employees are also recommended.

Make Remote Work Efficient: This can be done in a few ways:

• Set one daily goal and focus on achieving that goal
• Take breaks to relax the overworked brain
• Remove distractions

Maintaining Leadership: A simple and consistent response from employers and face-to-face or oral communication is an important means to effective leadership.

To sum it up, as things normalize and the industry opens up for full-time work, the work-from-home model will still remain relevant. The gig economy further spurs the culture of remote work. In the long run, a hybrid model that encompasses both work-from-home and work-from-office will become more acceptable and prevalent for optimum productivity and efficiency.

Over the years, remarkable progress has been made. Our experience tells us that in the future, there might be a possibility of HR work becoming less relevant and getting supplanted with digitization and self-sort-out groups. It’s not difficult to envision a world where top designations are contested so fiercely that the most capable employers enlist specialists to handle specific work areas. The challenge is to be prepared for that future. In the previous decade, students have learned the importance of being aware of the rapid changes that are happening in the realm of work. Advancements like versatility, disruptive digitization, web conferencing, and telepresence have enhanced accessibility around the world and made it possible for individuals to work distantly.

Tapping into the opportunity of using an individual’s potential without expecting him or her to physically commute to a workplace, the employers today are not limited by four dividers or to an office to undertake their responsibilities. Using digital technology, they can get and share information. This development is proceeding at a brisk pace and the emergence of new gadgets and technologies are changing both the work and the workplace.

While the fate of work environment and work culture stays not yet clear, almost certainly, digitalization and adaptability in different structures will continue to remain significant patterns. The future work will presumably comprise of a blend of work from home, work from the office and even work while being on the move. In planning the work environments of the future, we have to consider that individuals at work need not be together in person but only virtually. The plan should rather focus on optimizing a worker’s productivity, regardless of the place he or she is working from. The working environments of the future will be drastically different from the work environments as we know them now. A change in the work environment doesn’t just entail a change in the designs of our workplaces. It also changes how individuals work.

For instance, not long ago, only a few people worked up to the ages of 60 or 70, but as time advanced and work culture changed, workers started holding on to their jobs a little longer. And there’s no reason to not believe that this pattern will continue in the future as well. As the world evolves into a global village, organizations need to rethink the nature of work and work environment. This results from the ever-rising interest in hiring and retaining more talented, adaptable, and trustworthy employees.

Workers must be given the leverage to be professional, independent, and self-coordinating at their job. Overbearing supervisions must give way to a balance between serious and fun activities. The option to work from any place should also be on the table. Because technology is going to be integral to the work environment of the future, companies must put in place robust security systems that are not susceptible to any breaches from malware or hackers. The safety of information, which is going to be so important for the work of the future, will be sacrosanct. Adequate tech infrastructure which keeps sensitive information safe by using state-of-the-art tools and digital defenses would be imperative.

To fully realize the human potential in a digital age, organizations have to be adaptable and empathetic to the needs, requirements, and behavioral quirks of employees. They have to provide upskilling and reskilling programs as well. Some organizations have already implemented this framework by offering training on coding, blockchain, crisis management, risk management, and the like to enhance the proficiency of their workforce. Since AI and digital machines will be intrinsic to the workplace of the future, workers will have to develop new ways of communicating with AI-powered machines in the course of their work. The better and clearer this communication, the more efficient and effective will be the work undertaken.

Flexibility and persistent learning are the most prominent qualities of any worker. With the influx of information, it is important to keep abreast of the latest developments and the tech tools that can be of great help to workers who want to remain up to speed. Yet, at the same time, people should not lose what is called the human touch. Human to human interaction, both digital and in-person, has to continue. Coordination and cooperation should be assisted by technology, but technology must never altogether replace the human presence.

Technology, particularly digital technology, has its great merits. A business choosing to not align with the fast pace of the digital age risks going obsolete. Today, almost every professional in every field is using technology. Politicians, businessmen, sportspersons, artists, scientists, managers, stockbrokers, traders, even laborers, and housewives are using digital tech in their day-to-day lives.

The world of work is in a state of motion. The market openings are getting polarized between high-ability and low-ability jobs. At one end of the spectrum, there are high-paying jobs with astronomical remuneration. At the other end, there is joblessness and underemployment – particularly among the youths not able to find jobs commensurate to their qualifications. There are low-paying jobs and there are jobs in work environments that are depleting a worker’s productivity and well-being.

The advent of AI in the workplace might address some of these problems. While greater digitization of the workplace will help to improve an organization’s profitability and growth, it will assist the workers in performing better, even though there is always a risk of machines and robots replacing the human workforce. The fact is that tech innovation will bring along its own new problems, for which solutions will have to be found. Globalization has had far-reaching implications, including lifting a great many individuals in developing economies into a consumerist class.

In the book Future of Work, we distinguished numerous instances of businesses that have perceived and recognized that the order and control culture of the past is presently outdated. The advantages are reaped by those businesses that have adopted ‘brilliant working’ or ‘spry working’ as business techniques and changed their administration culture. Change is the name of the game. Businesses that are resilient to new influences, that adopt innovations freely, that are redefining both work and workplace for their employees are the ones that will sustain and prosper in the future.

The Coronavirus pandemic, however, has changed a lot. It has changed the way organizations and employees operate. Organizations have had to think out of the box to keep operations going. Many innovative ideas have been put into practice. Gatherings, sales advancement, meetings, training, and so forth are done on advanced platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Team, Google Meet, and so forth. Educational organizations have likewise begun instructing online.

To put it plainly, a lot many operations have shifted to advanced online platforms. During the pandemic, the work-life of a multitude of individuals has gone topsy-turvy. Numerous organizations have attempted to overcome the crisis. Sooner rather than later, we expect organizations to permit their representatives to work on digital platforms in light of the need to work from home. Each one of the offices is making a decent attempt to adapt to the need of their representatives – be it HR or MARKETING or FINANCE.

Innovation and internet access have made it simpler for individuals to work in these tough situations. However, the positions where the physical presence of people is required are seriously influenced. Be that as it may, organizations have taken the initiative to keep up great relations with workers. Sundar Pichai, CEO of GOOGLE, said that the organization will give greater flexibility to their employees by giving them the benefits like working from any place as long as about a month of the year.

In the future, imagination, basic reasoning, and computerized upskilling will be vital. As we all have heard, “Data is the new oil“. Analysis of data will be given extraordinary significance. Organizations will get workers with new abilities and skills. Artificial intelligence is already viewed as our future and organizations need individuals who have the necessary expertise to work with AI. Machines will have the potential to replace the human workforce. Specialties, in addition to common skills, will be needed by the organization. Advanced education and computational reasoning will be the most required ability by 2030. Aside from advanced innovations, individuals with a keen sense of social insight and regular inventiveness will be embraced by the organizations.

Individuals are increasingly operating on digital platforms and the work in the fourth industrial revolution is becoming more effective. This is creating a new environment that makes work simpler, quicker, and more efficient. Smart work is the need of the hour. By embracing technological advances, the organizations are making their developmental endeavors more fruitful and ensuring a high ROI. On top of it, the interest for specialization is getting more and more pervasive in today’s work environment.

A conducive work environment motivates individuals to buckle up, team up and coordinate to achieve organizational goals. It additionally builds profitability which prompts the development of the business. In the present times, the work environment has shifted from brick-and-mortar workplaces to online modes. Work from home is really preferred by numerous individuals. Organizations are changing the work environment into a setting where individuals and machines work in tandem.

The work that previously needed in-person communication – like workers who connect with clients in retail shops, banks, and mail centers – has now shifted online to advanced exchanges. Proceeding with telecommunication will save the space of workplaces. Furthermore, the employees will be glad to work in an agreeable environment. With time, workers will discover self-sufficiency, adaptability, and satisfaction while working for organizations.

A secure environment is essential for work that requires the actual presence of people. After the pandemic, organizations have begun taking security measures and will keep doing it. Organizations are attempting to make a better environment for their workers whether that is better ventilation, restrooms, and so on. Organizations that create a safe and secure work environment will prosper in the long run.

New methodologies will be introduced with support in this market. A hybrid working environment is the new normal. This implies that the organizations will give structures that permit workers to choose when they work in the workplace and when they work distantly. It will attempt to adjust the advantages of social collaborations.

Work is no longer tied to a spot. Numerous organizations have moved to a hybrid working model. The aim is to ensure work efficiency, whether in the workplace or at home or anyplace else. Organizations have begun zeroing in on the psychological wellness of their employees. Some companies have begun worker commitment exercises like yoga, meditation, and online classes.

A virtual work environment is the new normal and the organizations have perceived the advantages of it. It saves both time and cost of organizations. The audio-visual modes have become the new standard in educational institutions. AV Tech assumes a significant part presently, be it on account of conferences or instructive classes or meetings with a specialist.

Conventional businesses that lag behind in embracing the digital transformation will try to converge with enterprises that hold an enormous portion of the overall industry. Representatives will lose their employment in the event that they don’t adapt to the innovative change. College degrees won’t be adequate for finding a new line of work. Reskilling will be the new buzzword.

The future of work and work environment is promising. In a conducive work environment, the payback is many times more than monetary profits. The obsolete ideas and work style will be disposed of, as they won’t be considered as important in the future. The organizations will continue reskilling, learning new innovations and methodologies, continue changing alongside the work environment.

Frontiers of knowledge are vast, infinite and endless. They are somewhat like the horizon which appears close, but as you move towards it, it leaps several miles ahead of you. You keep repeating this process and the real horizon (It does not exist and is only an optical illusion) will continue to elude you. You stand on a beach with the ocean of knowledge lying in front of you. Drink as much water of knowledge that you can assimilate, and yet you will remain thirsty, literally and metaphorically.

There is something very curiously strange about the anatomy of knowledge, indeed of truth.  Paradoxically speaking, more you know, more you realize how little you know. In this context, it will be interesting to quote great Greek (Athenian) philosopher  of Fifth century BC,  also credited with setting up the first institution of higher learning.

“I am the wisest man living alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

Knowledge must also necessarily bring great humility, or it can lead to intellectual arrogance and that is a potential cause of fast decline. Humility therefore is the first attribute of a good teacher. It would not be an exaggeration to state that teaching is counted as one of the noblest professions in the world and it is not difficult to find the rationale behind this statement.

A teacher constantly remains in the state of Giving. He or she gives away and in this case knowledge, which is perhaps the priceless possession any individual can possess. There would be very few disciplines where you are constantly sharing and giving. This becomes an instrument of empowerment which helps a person to live a meaningful and respectable life.

Ideally, a teacher is imparting, knowledge, information and teaching several skills to the students, by actually demonstrating and validating the statement that are made about any phenomenon, essential for enhancing knowledge. The most important and indeed, the most relevant question that becomes evident is the extent of knowledge possessed by the teacher herself. A teacher will be in a position to give only what he or she knows, or has in her possession-in this case knowledge and skills. Nobody can give more that what one has.

This is where relevance of training in the life of teachers assumes importance. She is dealing with the business of education, and perhaps specializes in a few disciplines out of vast and multiple areas of educational landscape.  It is also well known that the world of education is extremely dynamic in nature and is constantly evolving. While some principles and concepts, including some historical facts may not change, new discoveries and fast technological changes bring about a new perspective both on the content as well as on pedagogical methods. The global connect today, facilitated by digital technology has only broadened the scope and access to several changing paradigms, relating to education at all levels, literally from kindergarten to higher level of learning.

The children today, because of an easy and direct access to several knowledge portals, are better informed and are known to challenge the knowledge quotient of the teacher, if she is not adequately informed or prepared. The teacher in the present era has to acquire deep versatility, and this has to reflect in her domain knowledge, innovative pedagogy, adroitness in class management and above all an empathetic mindset.  Initial training that a teacher may have acquired before induction is not adequate, and it is absolutely mandatory that each member of this glorious tribe, takes a brief sabbatical for 10-15 days in a year, to brush up her knowledge and learn a few new skills to remain relevant.

 A periodic immersion in areas like, personal effectiveness, development psychology, classroom management, project based teaching, assessment strategies  is absolutely imperative for a teacher to deliver the best. Teacher is also required, in the present scenario to shift focus from his or her teaching, to learning by the students.

Commitment and complete dedication is essential in all professions and one has to perform to the best of one’s capacity. This capacity has to be enhanced on regular intervals. A teacher should take the profession of teaching as a matter of personal conscious choice, and not as another job for a living.

You have to believe in yourself, be passionate about teaching and continue to remain engaged in a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and its application.

A great teacher who is fondly remembered by her students, well after they have left the school is also happiness personified. She makes learning a matter of joy. This art she has to learn on her own.

Mr. Vinod Malhotra
Director – Corporate Relations
Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions

One of the most interesting age-segments in the life span of all of us, undeniably, is 10-15 years, when most of the school-going children are studying in classes ranging from 5th to 9th.  Much has been written about the toddlers and young children in the age group 1-8 years. Parents and child psychologists seem to spend more time in tending and researching this age-group for several reasons, and one of them happens to be a general perception of fragility in the physical and cognitive context.

In comparative terms much less has been written or commented upon the age band, most of us associate with adolescence. This is indeed, a very interesting stage because it marks the transitional phase of growth and development between childhood and adulthood.

The etymology of the word adolescence lies in the Latin word ‘adolescere’, which means ‘to grow up’. It is also a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood, which is the age of majority. Adolescent is sometime used to describe young people who are no longer children but have not yet become adults. It also refers to their behavior. English language often equates adolescence with synonyms like immature, teen juvenile etc.

Several physiological changes keep happening, from the time an infant is born, but these take place in a very protected environment where figuratively speaking, every step taken by a child is guided. There is also a pronounced change/growth that is visible in the physio-musculoskeletal frame of a child which is essential for the development  of his physical strength,  motor and kinaesthetic skills. For example a baby has 300 bones and by the time he grows into adulthood he is left with 206. By the time a child reaches the age of 10 years, he manages to gain a smart control in areas such as physical growth and development, thinking and reasoning, emotional and social development, language development and sensory and motor development. Much of the foundational work of the child growth is done by now and he is now ready to take-off on a faster trajectory of growth on all fronts.

Child psychologists never tire of saying that much of what we are is done in the first 8-10 years of our existence. There is indeed, enormous truth in this statement, but much remains to be done yet in the next 6-7 years, and that is where we need to focus our attention.

Ironically, an adolescent is not too young to be kept under a watchful eye, nor is he too old to be treated as an adult. He is somewhere in between, and largely seeks answers to many questions on his own,  that arise in his not-yet fully grown neural system. This is also the age when very distinct and perceptible changes are happening in his physiological structure. The hormonal disruptions, heaviness in his voice, growth of hair on hitherto soft skin, are all visible signs of the transition. He also experiences gender differences, sexuality in a soft and subtle manner. These are new experiences, partly weird and partly pleasant, and he is yet to come to terms with them. The parallel experiences for girls is however traumatic and both adolescent boy and girl desperately need someone to confide in. They need a confidant who helps them understand, does not laugh at them nor frightens or confuses them. The respective parents are perhaps the best allies in such situations. Sometimes children hesitate to open up, and it is the responsibility of the parents to engage them in a mature conversation and disabuse their minds from all fears and give a clear perspective.

More than the physiological changes, something more profound is going on inside the adolescent’s mind and intellect, which is far more subtle, strong and yet completely invisible. His cognitive capabilities are on a rise and these are on an exponential trajectory. He starts developing logical reasoning, analytical abilities and begins to understand right from wrong. A few years prior to this stage he was always told and he seldom questioned. In fact, these became embedded in his sub-conscious and substantially influenced his habits, reflexes and some of the negative emotions which he may have sub-consciously acquired during the observational phase of his early childhood. He can tell right from wrong but perhaps does not fully understand the consequences of either action.

But this stage is very critical and deserves to be observed by parents and teachers from a very close quarters. His intellect is developing but is very sharp. Most importantly, it is yet not contaminated with externalities of any kind. It is raw, virgin and intensely productive. He is not yet stressed up unlike his seniors studying in classes 10 onwards who are carrying an unusually heavy burden of Board examinations, competitions. Adolescent has not even made a choice of what he or she wants to do. This is the right time to bring in all elements of intellectual stimuli with respect to critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and put them on a track of higher order thinking. On the academic front he is most receptive at this phase and teachers will do well to spend time in creating concept clarity, develop scientific temper and create opportunities of experiential learning.

This is also a dangerous age when a child is extremely impressionable. It is easy for him to get carried away by the glitter or temptations of the world to which he has a better access now. The peer group influence, company of friends from varied backgrounds, desire to try out new things, especially those that are forbidden have the potential to lead him astray. Again this is the age where children need their parents the most and parents should develop requisite knowledge and sensitivity to spend adequate time with them. Although, there is no straitjacketed approach to this, but mother with daughters, and fathers with sons, and combination of profound love and affection from both of them will create great individuals and strengthen unbreakable family bonds.

Mr. Vinod Malhotra
Director – Corporate Relations
Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions

The year 2020 is proving to be a watershed, an inflexion point in the lives of the entire mankind in all areas of human endeavour and activities. Suddenly an invisible tiny monster appears from nowhere and brings the entire humanity to its knees. Everything stops and everyone is pushed indoors, and waits for some signs of that monster relenting in its pursuit of an unprecedented wave of virulent infection and killing spree.

Great minds from the scientific and medical world are completely bewildered and cannot find an easy solution, or cure to the phenomenon, that has assumed a pandemic character in a short span of time. All economic activity, in practically all parts of the world has come to a standstill, barring those that are essential for ordinary sustenance.

One sector, however that stands out and has taken the challenge head on is the sector relating to knowledge acquisition, its dissemination, and notably the profession of teaching.  It would not be an exaggeration to state that a teacher today is the busiest, the most wanted entity who had to reinvent himself/herself to respond to a situation that had no parallel in the history of any paradigm, relating to the evolution and delivery of knowledge.

The mandates of social distancing, compulsory lockdown and inability to step out of their respective homes posed an altogether different challenge. The only option was to resort to distance-teaching (as against the practice of distance learning), create an experience of a virtual classroom and deliver content and syllabus without actually seeing who you were delivering to. These experiences were earlier shared by the same teachers in the form of fairy tales. Now they had to get into that role in real-time measures.

It is interesting to observe how the methodologies of delivery of knowledge and teaching, have undergone such drastic changes in different era. We are familiar of Gurukul traditions of teaching and learning, wherein the disciple/learner had to stay in the austere habitats owned by the Guru.  The commoner and royalty were treated alike by the Guru and his household, and they would spend formative years of their life in pursuit of knowledge on a model that was based upon the dictum- “serve and learn”. Interestingly, this model of education was complete and holistic, and covered practically every aspect of human growth, including knowledge, skills, sports, fine arts, warfare and everything that had contemporary flavour.

Guru-shishya Parampara now survives only in a few disciplines such as classical music, dance and a few crafts which demand life-long engagement and dedication.

With the passage of time and expansion of spaces, infrastructure and population, Gurukul system gave way to a more organized and structured system in the form of schools, colleges, universities and other institutes of specialized learning. The oldest existing and continuously operating educational institution in the world is the University of Karueein, founded in 859 AD in Morocco.

Available records also suggest that the oldest university in the English-speaking world is Oxford, founded sometime in the later part of eleventh century and continues to be one of the most prestigious institution of learning.

In the Indian context, there is adequate archaeological evidence available that points towards the existence of Universities such as Taxila an Nalanda in the BC era.

But that is as far as the historical narrative goes with respect to education and its evolution over several centuries.

In 21st century however, the narrative is very different. In fact, the education story of the first 20 years of the 21st century was just an extension (with minor modifications) of the story that was being in practice for little over a millennium.  The new-age teaching model with respect to the mode of delivery, pedagogical systems, assessment and examination will undergo a paradigm shift, and the entire teaching community shall have to reinvent themselves to stay relevant.

Some of the essential features of the new paradigm will be as follows;

1. Technology will play a pivotal role in the dissemination process.
2. There will be a proliferation of technology platforms driven by the varying needs of learning models. Needless to mention that it will have to be secure, fast and user-friendly.
3. Rote learning and didactic practices will have to give way to the experiential format.
4. Education will be imparted in a mode of active learning and on a PBL format.
5. Education will have to reorient itself to establish close nexus to real-life situations.
6. The emphasis therefore will shift from acquisition of knowledge to acquisition of skills. Teachers will have to get appropriately skilled to pass them on to their students.
7. Students of the 21st century are smarter and this is an oft repeated statement. They are smarter not on account of any superior genetic reengineering, but because of an independent access to huge amount of data and information. But whether they are more knowledgeable or wise is a debatable proposition. Teachers will have to take on a new role of Information/data analyst to guide the children in right direction.
8. Education will have to be redefined and the curriculum/syllabus will have to be restructured to become more meaningful, relevant, relatable and user friendly.
9. Education will also become trans disciplinary creating a judicious mix of science, philosophy and liberal arts.
10. Study of Nature, natural phenomena, environment and maintenance of ecological balance will become an integral part of the course content. These areas of study will have a strong experiential bias.
11. Every educational institution will create a structured curriculum for imparting socio-emotional learning. Academic and character building will run as parallel streams with hands-on activity and purposeful engagement.
12. Teachers and schools will also be called upon to create a pattern of differentiated learning. “One size fit all” will not work.
13. Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, cloud computing and Data analytics will become important tools that will be used extensively in the education space. Children will have to become adept in writing computer programs, coding and algorithm for multiple usages. Teachers will have to keep pace with these developments.

These are formidable challenges and the entire teaching community shall have to take a serious note of these changes and prepare themselves appropriately.

Mr. Vinod Malhotra

Director – Corporate Relations

Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions

One of the most profound statements that we hear especially from the Educationists the world over, refers to “Education” as the most powerful means of empowerment. In simple words, it should mean that an individual after getting educated, is in a position to lead a meaningful and a productive life, and is fully equipped to face and indeed, solve all challenges that life brings. It therefore presupposes that “Education” a person goes through during the formative years of his life, has a strong connect with real life situations and that he acquires necessary skills to handle them.

We all know that this is far from truth. The paradigm of education currently is structured only to score marks, prepare for competitions and is essentially directed towards facilitating better livelihood. Let us objectively examine the possibility of bringing in certain specific interventions and changes  that will make “Education” more meaningful.

 

1. The syllabus for all classes is too large and unwieldy. It has lot of width and by the time you move on to the last chapter, the earlier ones have been forgotten. So what is important is the depth on the subject and not the width. Shorter and meaningful content would ensure better assimilation and encourage critical thinking. Syllabus should be structured in such a way that it has pace, progression and challenge.
2. We need to move a filter over the content in all subjects and discard the peripheral and inessential components. This would require some application but is worth the effort. The content should be relatable to real life challenges and culturally relevant.
3. Every school must carry out a comprehensive exercise in curriculum progression and alignment so that subject specific content, moves from one class to the next in a seamless manner. A detailed exercise in curriculum mapping should be undertaken and to ensure that it becomes outcome driven.
4. While teaching and all associated pedagogical practices must focus on learning as the primary focus, a parallel assessment protocol must be put in place to ensure that learning is, indeed happening. Our neural system is structured to be a trifle repetitive to store information for a longer duration. Hence revision of what is being taught and learnt is strongly recommended.
5. As mentioned earlier, every subject has a strong symbiotic relationship with real life situations. Integrating that aspect should be an essential part of the content and pedagogy.
6. The teachers in the present context must act as facilitators, guiding students for concept clarity and analytical thinking. Information and data is available aplenty on the digital platforms and is easily accessible. Teachers must build up their own high order thinking and analytical skills to create right perspective for their wards.
7. Strong learning happens only by doing. Lectures and discussions on the topics should, wherever feasible be followed by project work related to the subject. Teachers need to innovate. Project based learning is gaining greater relevance.
8. The course book writers and publishers also need to do some research with a view to incorporate real life connect at the end of each chapter. It will then become easy to remember and co-relate all the learning with real life situations. Students will not easily forget that.
9. The future of the world is largely driven by a combination of knowledge plus skills. Technology will continue to be a powerful tool for achieving tasks with greater precision and efficiency, but problem solving skills will have to become an integral part of the education process.
10. The most important component of education will necessarily fall within the domain of Socio-Emotional learning. People will have to learn to be kind, compassionate, sensible and sensitive to one another, to society, environment and to the world at large. Without this, the entire education edifice of great intellectual or scholastic content will become meaningless.
11. We also need to develop suitable Algorithms with the help of Data Analytics and Artificial intelligence to determine effective pedagogies, student learning and identify areas of improvement.
12. Education is becoming trans-disciplinary. Study of science and arts need not be in separate streams. Both complement each other for creating a paradigm of holistic education. For instance, Music is not limited to be a hobby which is just an add-on. It can be the basis of a fulfilling life-long profession, and also help a student in understanding principles of science and mathematics. (Some of the greatest scientists in the history have been great musicians. Artists and painters understood, maths, geometry, dimensions and astronomy as good, or even better than mathematicians and astronomers.) There is no reason why these can’t be started at the school level.
13. It is quite evident that education is not complete unless it is supported by a sound and a structured curriculum for extra-curricular activities.
14. It is also not advisable to overemphasise the relevance and importance of soft skills. These must necessarily become an integral part of the holistic and wholesome education. Soft skills can be learned, imbibed and practised at an early stage of one’s life. Later in life, it is a bit too hard to learn them, leave alone practice them.
15. We are all equal, but we are all different. Our upbringing, our cultural ethos, sensitivity, habits, span of attention, and all other factors that have an important bearing on learning are vastly different. We need to consciously start working on creating differentiated curriculum to address the needs of individual students. The concept of “One size fit all” in the context of education is an anachronism.

It is time to revisit and redefine EDUCATION so that it becomes more relevant, relatable and user-friendly.

Mr. Vinod Malhotra

Director – Corporate Relations

Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions

These are very unusual times. Something of this kind had not happened in the living memories of the last 2-3 generations. Situations both outside the homes and inside, are vastly different from the usual. Strangely, nothing much is happening outside. Roads are nearly empty, all public places that in ordinary course attracted thousands of people from all age groups are shut. Malls, cinema halls, parks, sports fields all wear a deserted look. This is at the ground level.  Not much action is happening up in the air as well. Even the immediate neighbourhood of an airport has gone silent.

Sporadic activity happening at some random places is also shorn of any visible activity or excitement. It appears thin but more disciplined. The decibel levels of sound are markedly subdued and the total energy in the environment, (both positive and negative) has diminished perceptibly.

Most importantly, children today, have nowhere to go. They are not used to this strange phenomenon, nor do they fully comprehend an almost weirdly paranoid behaviour of the grown-ups.  In normal times, the most common and most frequently used ‘word’ in a house that has young children, was always “NO”. So the seeds of negativity are sown right in the beginning. Many things and activities were largely forbidden. It was not as if the children were always doing wrong things. But parents were themselves low on confidence, carrying similar edicts that they had received from their parents which were rigidly stored in their sub-conscious. Secondly, the present generation leads a more stressful life in comparison to their counterparts in the previous generation. Also, it is easier to say NO and be done with it. Saying Yes, adds to the responsibility of parenting. They need to spend more time with the children, in order to carry the implications of saying yes to its logical conclusion. They are then required to actively participate.

And that indeed, is the biggest problem with the parents today. Firstly, they are short on time and consequently, short on patience. But something that escapes their attention(perhaps it is happening for a long time with all parents) really is the amount of negativity being bred and generated in the early years of a child’s growth. Situation today, has created confusion worse confounded.  The threat of the spread of virus has gone absolutely viral. Today the number of nays therefore, are far more than that of ayes, and hence the negativity wins hands down.

The first task of parents today therefore, is to correct this imbalance. Everyone is spending (albeit forced) more time with one another. There is a greater physical proximity amongst all members of the household, and that must be fully leveraged to create greater positivity in the home environment.

So, Let us use more of YES than NO at home. If No has to be used in a rare situation, than explain the reasons. This will effectively reduce the usage of NO.

Today, everyone is wondering why have all us been locked within the four walls of our homes. The grown-ups perhaps understand, the young ones do not, not fully. The grown-ups stay inside more because of fear than a correct appreciation of the reasons that have led to this situation. Notwithstanding different levels of understanding, the fact is that the entire external environment, including all animate and inanimate things have become hostile to one another and, indeed dangerous. It has become extremely difficult to trust others. Everyone else has become a pariah, an untouchable.

Do human beings have a role in damaging the environment and bringing it to a level that it not only is a health hazard (lesser levels) as in the days of pollution, but is downright dangerous, a killer. The first thing is the acceptance of the fact that it is dangerous, which is self-evident or we would be moving around freely. The second part is the acknowledgement of the fact that all of us played a role in damaging it and bringing it to a state that we dread going out.

So the next important thing that we all need to teach our kids is to clean up the environment and do nothing to damage it further. In fact, children have a bigger stake in this. Parents must lead from the front in this endeavour. If we continue to treat the environment the way we have been doing it, we may have to spend many more days inside the home than outside. I am sure nobody is going to like that.

Actually, nature and the environment’s resilience to bounce back in a short span and restore itself is noteworthy. One month of lockdown and everything is beginning to look fresh, brighter and cleaner. But for the threat of the virus, it is great time to step out.

Parenting today must take on a new role. The most important part of that responsibility has to be, to create deep sensitivity towards nature and all its creation. We must teach them to be kind to our fellow beings, treat everyone as equal (Corona virus has demonstrated that). It is equally important to be kind to all creations of nature. We must understand that everything in the universe has a purpose and every entity has its own life span, determined by nature and its order. We have no right to terminate it prematurely, either out of fear, hatred or self gratification.

Spirit of love and collaboration are two essential qualities that need to be transmitted. This will make them acceptable, secure and a leader in their own right.

Scholastic learning can be justify to the school and teachers. Parents should focus on building strong values and teach them the value of happiness, and not of money or success. Everything else will be picked by them on their own. Children today are smarter than all previous generations.

You only need to make them sensitive and sensible.

Written By – Mr. Vinod Malhotra

Director – Corporate Relations, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group