Technology Vision 2035 (Education)

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2 0 3 5

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP

EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT IS DEDICATED TO

(Former President of India)

TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION, FORECASTING AND ASSESSMENT COUNCIL

DISCLAIMER

The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The information contained in sections of the document reflect data that were derived from both public and confidential sources and also received through various consultative processes like brainstorming meetings, workshops, surveys etc. TIFAC shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretation thereof.

The material in this publication is copyrighted. No part of this document can be reproduced either on paper or electronic media without prior permission in writing from TIFAC. Request for permission to reproduce any part of the report may be sent to the Executive Director, TIFAC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2017 Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) Department of Science and Technology (DST) ‘A’ Wing, Vishwakarma Bhavan, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg, New Delhi 110016, India.

Email: tifac.foresight@gmail.com l Web: www.tifac.org.in All rights reserved.

First print: November 2017 Published by: TIFAC Designed by: i-imazine [www.i-imazine.in]

Foreword

Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, TIFAC

Human capability is driven largely by quality education and health of individuals as they grow and participate in socioeconomic activities. In the knowledge era that we are already in, this is of even greater importance because knowledge also drives innovation and technology that are significant capability multipliers.

Our competitiveness will thus be determined by the effectiveness of our education, research and training activities and lifelong learning skills that we inculcate in our youth that is the largest in the world in terms of their number.

In a large and diverse country like ours, creating conditions for every individual to realize her/his full potential through relevant learning opportunities is a formidable challenge. The challenge becomes even bigger because of considerable backlog that exists in implementation of our education programs. We need to create access to all including those in not so well served regions and raise the quality levels to be comparable to the best in the world. This is where technology can also be of considerable help over and above its role in creating competitive products and services.

Technology Vision 2035 has been a people centric exercise steered by TIFAC. The idea has been to envision the state of Indians around the year 2035, assess their needs/prerogatives and visualize the technology pathways that could possibly enable meeting them. Among

x

the twelve prerogatives that have been identified, education clearly is among the most important ones. Creating and nurturing curiosity all along in a constructivist mode of knowledge acquisition, opportunities for hands-on practices relevant to ongoing learning process and linking education with surrounding people and environment to facilitate situated learning and problem solving are the key elements of an effective learning environment. Building technology support to realize this in a large and diverse country like ours is indeed a formidable challenge.

Technology itself is now evolving at a rapid pace with the possibility of paradigm shifts even during active life of an individual. Design of education curriculum therefore needs a more fundamental approach that is flexible and remains relevant even in a fast changing scenario. Our ability to adopt to new technology even as it evolves has also to become a part of every ones lifelong learning process and is the key to sustaining competitiveness.

Linking education and research with technology, technology with livelihood and both of them with development is the key to sustainable progress.

This sectoral report on education technology is thus of a foundational importance. It looks at the education and education technology

domain in a comprehensive manner in the emerging Indian context. I wish to express my gratitude to the very able group led by Prof. Varun Sahni for their efforts to develop this document which, I am certain would be found very useful by educationists, policy makers and indeed all other stakeholders.

Preamble Prof. Varun Sahni, Vice-Chancellor, Goa University

This document is located in the intersection of technology, education and society.

It offers a roadmap to the deployment of technology to meet socially desirable educational objectives. It examines all aspects of education and seeks to draw the contours of an education system that would befit India and benefit Indians in 2035. It treats India’s immense size and splendid diversity as the firm foundations upon which a people-centric technological and educational future can be envisaged. It seeks to bridge several gaps: between tradition (classical and indigenous knowledge systems) and innovation (cutting edge futuristic research), between the world of learning and the world of work, between knowledge (know what) and skills (know how), between ‘mainstream’ and vocational education, between education-as-instrument and education-as-value, between knowledge production (research) and transmission (teaching), between teaching and learning, between the disciplines, and between different levels of education. Thus, the document is not only about educational technologies but about education per se.

The document is built around five axiomatic propositions:

xii

• In human and social terms, our country is the sum total of all its generations, those past, those living, and those yet to come; hence, empowering Indians empowers India.

• By enhancing individual possibilities, education leads to social transformation and national advancement.

• Technology is socially constructed and in turn shapes and transforms society.

• Public policy choices will determine whether educational technologies function as barriers or levellers.

• In an era of rapid technological change, we must either work hard to keep pace or risk rapidly falling behind.

The Education Technology Roadmap is the product a very long gestation. It was conceived from the beginning as a multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder, iterative and consultative effort. Below are some of the key activities in the creative process: • The exercise began with a Brainstorming Meet on Educational Technologies in December 2011.

• An Advisory Committee, consisting of eminent experts from across the country and from a wide range of knowledge specialisations, held seven long meetings in New Delhi between April 2012 and March 2013, during which the contours of the Education Technology Roadmap were laid out.

• In parallel, a two round Delphi foresight exercise on technologies impacting the future of education was conducted during November 2012-February 2013.

• Between October 2012 and July 2013, six thematic workshops were held in Madurai and New Delhi with contributions from a diverse group of resource persons.

• The Advisory Committee devised three sets of questionnaires, consisting of 90 statements covering every aspect of education, that respondents were requested to assess in terms of likelihood, feasibility and desirability. The questionnaires were uploaded on the TIFAC website and also sent out to several significant stakeholders including Principals of Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and DPS; Vice-Chancellors and Registrars of randomly chosen Universities covering every region of the country; and Education Department officials of several States.

• After the main Technology Vision 2035 document was released by the Hon’ble Prime Minister in January 2016, the Advisory Committee held its eighth and ninth meetings in February and April 2016 respectively to review all the material at hand and decide on the optimum mechanism for writing the Education Technology Roadmap.

• The Advisory Committee set up a Drafting Team from amongst its members to jointly author Education Technology Roadmap.

Between May 2016 and August 2017, thirteen Authors’ Workshops were held over a total of 34 days in New Delhi, Manesar, Kovalam and Goa to write, review and revise the document.

What has emerged from our labours is certainly not the last word on the subject. Education is far too important, technology is far too dynamic, and society is far too complex, for their mutual interaction to be encapsulated in a single static document. The authors of Education Technology Roadmap and the members of the Advisory Committee thank TIFAC for the priceless opportunity to rethink the fundamentals and hope the document will spark necessary conversations and catalyse essential transformations.

Genesis & Key Contributors Prof. Prabhat Ranjan, Executive Director, TIFAC

India’s technology think tank, TIFAC in the 1990s undertook a major national exercise that ignited minds to envision a developed India. Technology Vision 2020, covering 16 sectors of socio-economic importance was delivered by TIFAC, first-of-itskind long-term perspective plan for the country. As a sector, education remained almost untouched in that exercise and became the first motivation for inclusion in Technology Vision 2035 (TV2035) exercise.

The time horizon for the current TV 2035 exercise was chosen because it was coinciding with 200 years of Macaulay's Minutes on Education. Naturally, the exercise would not have been complete without a document on education. The main vision document too proposed "quality education, livelihood and creative opportunities" as one of the prerogatives to the citizens.

Also, education is a sector which leads to new technology and at the same time, gets impacted by new technology. With some technologies starting to grow exponentially, education is going to be under tremen-

xiv

dous pressure and in a state of flux.

The things may turn more complex, with melding of mind and machine in future. That unnerving "singularity" may be a distant reality but changes in next couple of decades itself will force educational institutions to rediscover and recalibrate themselves.

This document is based on the educational needs of future Indians, extensive deliberations with experts and stakeholders and changes visible on the technology horizon (including sectors covered in the TV 2035 exercise). With comprehensive insights from all quarters, it should be an effective sounding board for all stakeholders, including policy makers and educationists.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman - TIFAC & Chairman- National Apex Committee (NAC) for TV2035 exercise for his inspiration, guidance, insights and also contributing a valuable section on Research, Innovation and Product Development, in this document. The guidance and insights of eminent members of NAC are highly appreciated.

I am highly grateful to Prof. Varun Sahni, VC, Goa University and Chairperson, Advisory Committee (Education), the chief architect of this document. He admirably led the drafting team at every stage and guided us in shaping up this impressive document. He was a co-author of the main Vision document and this has ensured fulsome dovetailing of this roadmap with it.

I express my gratitude to members of the Committee- Dr. Debiprosad Duari (Director, M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research, Kolkata), Dr. Kuncheria P. Isaac (Vice-Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr. V. Abhai Kumar (Principal, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai), Prof. Sita Naik (Formerly Dean, SGPGIMS, Lucknow), Prof. Dhruv Raina (JNU, New Delhi), Prof. Rajaram S. Sharma (Formerly Jt. Director, CIET-NCERT, New Delhi), Prof. Geetha Venkataraman (Ambedkar University, Delhi), Prof. Siddiq Wahid (Formerly Vice-Chancellor, IUST, Awantipora, J&K) and my colleagues Dr. Gautam Goswami and Dr. Neeraj Saxena, who also contributed significantly to this document as members of the drafting team and authors.

I am thankful to the co-authors Prof. Amber Habib (Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar), Prof. Fozia S. Qazi (IUST, Awanti-

pora, J&K), and Prof. R. Hariharan (AICTE, New Delhi). I also acknowledge the valuable inputs we received for the document from Prof. Jatin Bhatt (Ambedkar University, Delhi) on craft and skill development; Prof. Minati Panda, JNU, New Delhi) on testing and assessment; Ms. Divya Rajput (IICA, Manesar) on employability, entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities and Mr. Yashawant Dev Panwar (TIFAC) on patenting in academic institutions.

I express my deepest appreciation to my TV 2035 colleagues Dr. Gautam Goswami, Dr. Neeraj Saxena, Ms. Jancy. A, Dr. T. Chakradhar, Ms. Mukti Prasad, Mr. Manish Kumar and Ms. Swati Sharma for their inputs on technology, sectoral insights and commendable team work that has resulted in such an impressive document. The contribution of Ms. Khatija Sana Khader as Project Associate in the exercise is highly appreciated.

All of us are stakeholders in education as learners, educators, parents or policy makers.

I am sure all of us would find this document refreshing, exciting and illuminating; also, effective enough to contribute to the change that our education system warrants. This is what foresight exercises are all about and through this document, I hope TIFAC does what is expected of it!

Contents

1-6 7-20 21-40

The Historical Significance of 2035

The Landscape of Education in Contemporary India

Indians in 2035: Educational Aspirations

iii Messages x

Foreword

xii Preamble

41-54

Literacy, Creativity and Skills

xiv Genesis and Contributors 184 Contributors 187 References and Sources

55-64

Ensuring Access: Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

65-78

Mainstreaming Vocational Education, Reimagining Lifelong Learning

79-90

Achieving Quality

91-98 99-106 107-114

Employability, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Security

Culture, Recreation and the Good Life

Research, Innovation and Product Development

115-142 143-156 157-166

Technological Future of Education

Emerging Knowledgescapes and Institutional Architectures

Shaping an Enabling Environment for Knowledge and Skills

169-176

Key Considerations and Aspirations for Education in 2035

177-183

Grand Challenges and Call to Action

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

ON 2 FEBRUARY 1835, Thomas Babington Macau-

lay enunciated his Minute on Education in which he asserted

that ‘a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.’ Macaulay’s Minute, which received the ‘entire concurrence’ of the Governor-General, William Cavendish Bentinck, established English as the medium of instruction in secondary education, from the sixth year of schooling onwards, rather than the Sanskrit or Persian till then used in the educational institutions supported by the British East India Company. Thus, Macaulay’s document set British policy on a pathway that eventually had a determining impact on (a) the content and methodology of what has been and is being taught in Indian educational institutions, and (b) the medium of instruction through which these have been and continue to be taught.

The Minute on Education is explicit about the imperial purpose behind education: ‘We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.’ However, while Macaulay’s Minute reflects the colonial regime’s attempt to resolve the problem of governmentality, by the end of the nineteenth century educated Indians actively endeavoured to reshape programmes and agenda of higher education.

3

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 2035

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

In 2035, two centuries would have elapsed since British imperial power shaped the Indian education system in the service of its own interests of extraction and control. This document gives us an opportunity to assess where we are and would be, in terms of both education and technology. We can capitalise on the opportunity to think afresh and aloud, to draw the contours of an education system befitting the Indians of 2035. Our vision statement for educational technology – achieving the full potential of every Indian – is thereby both an intellectual rebuttal and a nationalist rebuke to the imperialist projections and pretentions enunciated two centuries ago. In Technology Vision 2035, we have presented a vision that is radically different from Macaulay’s.

EDUCATION IN 2035 Schools, colleges and universities as currently constituted will be redundant in 2035. Instead, we will have institutions of learning that are virtual/ meta/open in character. Although the actual education needs of different segments of our population would vary enormously based upon life circumstances and livelihood opportunities, certain core targets in the area of education would be critical to achieve. The most important target would be 100% literacy, including operating knowledge of devices, instruments and machines. There would be no school dropouts. All children would have access to quality and affordable education, independent of social, economic, geographic, physical and even mental constraints. All people would have affordable re-skilling opportunities to meet the changing requirements of the job market. In a longer-living and aging society, everybody would have access to second careers and lifelong learning.

Ubiquitous online access to reliable educational resources and services, through multiple mobile devices, would be available to all either free of cost or at an extremely affordable price. Schooling would no longer consist of large classrooms, grade wise stratification, common and rigid curricula, syllabi and textbooks, and an overbearing presence of examinations. An essential vision for 2035 will be the delivery of language neutral content to all individuals, at the press of a button, 24x7. All learners would be able to study in the language of their choice, thanks to cheap real-time translations services.

4

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

Most important of all, predetermined content would be a thing of the past: all students would choose their own team, scheme, content and pace of learning, thereby eliminating the distinction between curricular, non-curricular and extracurricular learning. This would open the possibility of peer-to-peer learning.

Thus, delivery of content that is configurable to the need of the individual would be a focus, as would the use of technology to make educational content ‘real time’. Education itself would have to be contextually reinvented and not dictated by academic and educational bureaucracies.

Teachers will remain central

Based on the above targets, we will face a number of critical challenges in terms of education provision. The most important of these would be to make quality education available in all areas. Whatever may be the projections for rural-urban issues, education will be an all-pervasive need, for all age groups. For this to happen, we would have to develop applications and collaboration tools for all areas of education. Students would have to be provided seamless access to courseware and technology based curriculum. Thus, open content, data and resources to promote creativity and self-expression would have to be developed.

Integrating interactive adaptive and multimedia courseware and simulation into teaching and learning would therefore be another core challenge. Enhancing the cognitive and mental abilities of learners with disabilities would be extremely important from both an educational and a livelihood perspective.

a high level would be a core

to education, although their role would be fundamentally transformed to that of orienting the learner; teachers would become navigators and pathfinders, counsellors and confidants. Keeping teachers extremely motivated and maintaining teacher morale at challenge.

In order to strengthen the link between education and livelihoods, industry/ user organisations would have to be integrated into educational systems in a seamless and unobtrusive manner. A fundamental challenge would be to mainstream vocational education and to recognise non-formal innovators and master crafts persons as teachers. Empowering the master-apprentice relationship for the learning of skills would therefore be essential. Technology intervention to provide formal training for unorganised sectors such as construction and many small-scale industries in the rural areas will not only improve the efficiency of operations but will also create other avenues for employment in both urban and rural areas.

5

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 2035

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Apart from its link to livelihoods, education is also the arena in which individuals come to realise and understand their unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Technology should provide educational tools for self and society to enhance and make effective use of their unique strengths, as also to overcome their weaknesses. Sports education is a critical area in which ICT tools could provide sportspersons with training on simulation, evaluation and regimens.

Knowledge itself would have to be fundamentally reorganised in order to break down existing disciplinary barriers. History, theory and data (laboratory and field) would have to be seamlessly integrated in all branches of knowledge. We will have to create modular education packages in order to give students much greater mobility and flexibility. We will also have to build enabling pedagogies to transmit knowledge that exists in living traditions and social practices, including marginal knowledge traditions.

Examinations as they currently exist would be yesterday’s nightmare. The purpose of educational evaluation would be to measure a much wider range of talents, skills and knowledge through technology based assessments. Evaluation would be a continuous exercise in which learners will get several opportunities to improve their competence levels. Establishing certification repositories that are secure, efficient and authentic would be a core challenge.

The availability of trained personnel will always be a constraint, particularly at primary and secondary levels of education. Thus, providing content that gives the same human touch and feel would be a fundamental technology challenge. That said, teachers will remain central to education, although their role would be fundamentally transformed to that of orienting the learner; teachers would become navigators and pathfinders, counsellors and confidants. Keeping teachers extremely motivated and maintaining teacher morale at a high level would be a core challenge. Building databases of teachers with similar expertise for knowledge sharing would therefore be essential, as would be taking advantage of social networking to enhance teacher capabilities and the learning experience.

It is evident that ICT will be the backbone for the much-needed root-to-branch transformation of Indian education. In terms of individual possibilities and national prospects, the transformation of education through technology would be a game changer in every conceivable way. Interestingly, many of the transformative technologies already exist and await deployment, which suggests that at least some of the bottlenecks in the transformation of education relate to policy and not technology. Some technologies of the future, relating to machine augmented cognition and personalised virtual teaching, are promising areas of blue sky research. Education customised to individual talents and preferences would lead to all sorts of creativity and innovation, resulting in greater self-actualisation as well as concrete social benefits.

THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 2035

6

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

A

systemic assessment of education in our country requires a focus on specific questions of input, process and output.

As will become clear in this section, hard data on inputs into the education system as well as the teaching-learning-research process are much more readily available than those on the expected outputs from the system.

The 2011 Census of India is revealing. Sustained efforts at stabilising population growth has begun to yield results.

The 73% overall literacy rate and a steady increase over the past decades augur well as an independent factor.

But in the overall context, characterised with large scale non-completion of schooling, a very large number of people in India would not be equipped to partake of available opportunities.

9

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

2.01

INPUTS

2011

80.9%

MALE

73.0%

TOTAL

64.6%

LITERACY RATES ABOVE 7 YEARS

In terms of input into the education system, we need to ask questions about accessibility to learners, availability of teachers and provision of adequate resources. It is not an accident that issues relating to access are at the fore of Quality Education, Livelihood and Creative Opportunities, the sixth Prerogative in Technology Vision 2035. The single most important educational goal for 2035 is 100% literacy (both male and female), which includes 100% e-literacy and zero dropouts from the school system. Keeping this goal in mind, we need to view the current situation.

The 2011 Census of India is revealing. Sustained efforts at stabilising population growth has begun to yield results. At the same time, if we consider persons below age 50 in 2035 as persons who would be in the best positions to lead and participate in society’s varied initiatives, we are looking at over 60% of India’s total

64.8%

MALE

TOTAL

2001

53.7%

FEMALE

FEMALE

75.3%

FIG 2.1

IN PERCENTAGE

DATA SOURCE Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (website: http://censusindia.gov.in/)

population today, or more than 70 crore people. The 73% overall literacy rate and a steady increase over the past decades augur well as an independent factor. But in the overall context, characterised with large scale non-completion of schooling, a very large number of people in India would not be equipped to partake of available opportunities.

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

10

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

LEVEL-WISE ENROLMENT IN SCHOOL AND

PRIMARY I-V

67,609 62,892

1.30,501 ELEMENTARY I - VIII UPPER PRIMARY VI - VIII

67,165

32,664

1,02,110 95,556

1,97,666

34,501

SECONDARY IX - X

38,301

18,180

I-X

20,121

1,22,231 1,13,736

2,35,967

There are currently 26 crore students studying in classes KG to XII and another 3.4 crores in some level and form of higher education. Thus, there are today 29.4 crore students in formal education in our country, raising the need of creating at least 25 crore new jobs in the days to come. These pressures on the education system exist despite low gross enrolment ratios at the secondary and post-secondary levels.

ENROLMENT IN SCHOOL (TOTAL)

1,34,671 1,24,797 2,59,468 IN THOUSAND

MALE

FEMALE

TOTAL

UNDER GRADUATE

SENIOR SECONDARY XI - XII

12,440

11,061

14,467

23,501

12,705

27,172

POST GRADUATE 1,867

The most important aspect of India is that it is a country with ‘large numbers of everything’. Nothing reveals this more than data on the number of learners in formal education systems.

87

M.PHIL 14 19

142

CERTIFICATE 74

48

Ph. D 70

PG DIPLOMA 121 215 94

96

170

ENROLMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION (TOTAL)

18,488

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

15,723

34,211

IN THOUSAND

MALE 11

55

DIPLOMA 1,788 2,508 720

FIG 2.2 LEVEL-WISE ENROLMENT IN SCHOOL AND HIGHER EDUCATION (2014-15) in thousand

118

3,853

INTEGRATED

33

DATA SOURCE: For School Education: National University of Educational Planning & Administration, New Delhi (website: http://dise.in/) * Figures related to School Education are provisional.

For Higher Education: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

1,986

FEMALE

TOTAL

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

UPPER PRIMARY VI-VIII

ELEMENTARY I-VIII

98.9

94.8

101.4 95.3

GER 2013-14

GER 2013-14

87.7

91.2 99.2

GER 2013-14

PRIMARY I-V

96.9

4.14

SECONDARY IX-X

3.09

4.34 4.49

SR. SECONDARY XI-XII

78.1

AADOR 2013-14

4.53

AADOR 2013-14

AADOR 2013-14

101.4

---

3.77 ---

---

HIGHER EDUCATION

1.48

17.86

1.61

23.2

---

1.54 ---

GER 2013-14

GER 2013-14

53.8

25.3

54.2

AADOR 2013-14

17.79

78.5

AADOR 2013-14

17.93

AADOR 2013-14

78.9

GER 2013-14

54.6

MALE

FIG 2.3 GROSS ENROLMENT RATIO (GER) AND AVERAGE ANNUAL DROPOUT RATE (AADOR) [IN %AGE] DATA SOURCE: For School Education: National University of Educational Planning & Administration, New Delhi (website: http://dise.in/) * Figures related to School Education are provisional.

For Higher Education: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

24.3

--

FEMALE

The number of learners completing primary and secondary school is certainly on the rise. The progress made with large-scale programmes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), which have endeavoured to put more and more children through school, augur well for the future. Sharp drops in GER at the secondary and senior secondary levels now need to be similarly tackled. Throughputs in the tertiary sector are also encouraging. Nevertheless, while educational statistics over the years show improvement, they still do not meet the desirable levels.

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

12

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

Another critical input factor in education is the availability of teachers. The pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) is the most adverse at the senior secondary level, and best at the upper primary (VI-VIII) level.

1:24

26,70,396 PRIMARY

1:17

25,59,769

NUMBER OF TEACHERS AND PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO

UPPER PRIMARY

HIGHER EDUCATION#

SECONDARY

1:27

13,46,888

SENIOR SECONDARY

1:38

19,84,711

FIG 2.4 NUMBER OF TEACHERS AND PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO (PTR) (2014-15)

13,19,295 13

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

1:24

DATA SOURCE: For School Education: National University of Educational Planning & Administration, New Delhi (website: http://dise.in/) * Figures related to School Education are provisional.

For Higher Education: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist) #Does not include Stand Alone Institutions

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

PRIMARY

Another key input factor is the number of institutions of learning at all levels. There are 760 universities, 38,498 colleges and 15,16,865 schools in India. Of these, 60% of the universities and 27% of the colleges are in the public sector. Notably, 90% of the students in tertiary education are now passing through private institutions.

8,47,118

SCHOOL EDUCATION

15,16,865 UPPER PRIMARY

4,25,094

HIGHER EDUCATION

38,498

SECONDARY

1,35,335 HIGHER SECONDARY

1,09,318

FIG 2.5 NUMBER OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA (2014-15)

43

CENTRAL UNIVERSITY

1

CENTRAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

316

STATE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

13

STATE OPEN UNIVERSITY

122

DEEMED UNIVERSITY

75

INSTITUTION OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

DATA SOURCE:
 For School Education: National University of Educational Planning & Administration, New Delhi (website: http://dise.in/) * Figures related to School Education are provisional.

For Higher Education: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

181

STATE PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

1

STATE PRIVATE OPEN UNIVERSITY

38,498 UNIVERSITY

5

INSTITUTIONS UNDER STATE LEGISLATURE ACT

3

STAND ALONE INSTITUTE

OTHERS

12,276

3,845

DIPLOMA LEVEL TECHNICAL

431

PGDM

3,114

DIPLOMA LEVEL NURSING

4,730

DIPLOMA LEVEL TEACHER TRAINING

156

INSTITUTE UNDER MINISTRIES

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

14

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

Despite these massive numbers, there is still a shortage of education provision in our country. Due to the shortage of institutions at the tertiary level, there is enormous competition to gain entrance into our educational institutions. In some branches, such as medical education, there are significant shortfalls in educational opportunities at both basic and specialised levels. In recent entrance examinations for medical college, 11.5 lakh candidates competed for 63,800 seats.

These competitive pressures to gain admission have led to a thriving coach-

ing industry that seeks to fill the perceived gap between the education received in the secondary system and the expectations of the tertiary system.

Over 7 crore students now attend some sort of coaching institution, amounting to 35% of high school students, 20% of undergraduates and 13% of postgraduates. The entire private coaching industry is now worth 4.2 lakh crores rupees (US$ 70 billion). This is equivalent to the total public-sector expenditure on all levels of education, which stood at 4.08 lakh crores rupees in 2012-13, or 4.10% of GDP.

19,673.17

32,693.96

0.33% of GDP

TOTAL

40,370.74

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

0.92% of GDP

SECONDARY EDUCATION

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

1,40,145.92

1.41% of GDP

91,324.34

574.93

0.01% of GDP

0.41% of GDP

1.04% of GDP

0.27% of GDP

ADULT EDUCATION

44,504.71

0.4,5% of GDP

1,03,311.81

27,041.54

EDUCATION

0.12% of GDP

509.33

0.01% of GDP

0.20% of GDP

UNIVERSITY & HIGHER

11,583.06

FIG 2.6 EXPENDITURE (REVENUE) ON EDUCATION

BY GOVERNMENT, REVISED ESTIMATE (2012-13) AND AS %AGE OF GDP

3,05,109.89

3.07% of GDP

Union Government States and UTs

These data suggest that the coaching industry in our country will be made irrelevant only with a vast expansion in the number of higher education institutions (HEIs), thereby providing many more opportunities for tertiary education. Although the number of private HEIs are likely to increase enormously in the coming years, public investments into the education system would also have to increase from 4.1% to at least 6.5% of GDP. 15

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

PROCESSES

CON

9 0.9

1. 0 1 SE

E

EN (X O N I O R I- X D A II) R Y

1.05

(I-VIII) RY A T EN M E

1.09

1.03

EL

The reality of the teaching-learning-research process is difficult to encompass in data, but some trends are clearly visible. For instance, as the gender parity index suggests, women (and girls) are catching up with their male counterparts. It is only at the senior secondary and tertiary levels that there are more males than females in formal education.

PRIMARY (I-V)

0.92

Any assessment of the teaching-learning-evaluation processes inherent to the education system must focus not only on quantitative data but also on questions of quality. In Technology Vision 2035, a number of desirable goals have been laid out for the teaching-learning-evaluation process: language neutral education, at least one smart classroom in every school, ubiquitous content access, individualised curriculum, emphasis on skill acquisition through vocationalisation of education, and new forms of assessment and certification for a wide range of talents and skills.

III) -V I (V

ER GH ION HI CAT U D

UPPER SEC ON DA RY

2.02

) D A R Y (I- X

S C SE

FIG 2.7 GENDER PARITY INDEX (GPI) (2014-15) DATA SOURCE For School Education: National University of Educational Planning & Administration, New Delhi (website: http://dise.in/) * Figures related to School Education are provisional.

For Higher Education: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

The enrolment of learners at the tertiary level reveals a distinct predominance of certain branches of knowledge. Over 40% of undergraduate students are enrolled for a degree in the arts, humanities or social sciences, with undergraduates in the sciences, engineering and commerce accounting for another 40%. This is, however, not necessarily a reflection of actual preferences of learners and often, as in the case of medical education, is the direct outcome of shortages in the provision of educational opportunities.

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

16

FIG 2.9 SCHOOL EXAMINATION SYSTEMS: EXAMINEES AND THEIR PERFORMANCE (2010)

40.24

ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

15.89

7.60

23.42

SCIENCE

15.38

12.51

25.88

COMMERCE

13.98

9.61

3.09

EDUCATION

3.25

MEDICAL SCIENCE

3.05

3.06

3.99

IT & COMPUTER

2.57

7.48

1.69

MANAGEMENT

1.93

15.70

5.31

LAW

1.13

0.67

0.99

AGRICULTURE

0.61

0.58

3.84

ORIENTAL LEARNING

0.39

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

4.86

2.58

HOME SCIENCE

0.25

0.51

INDIAN LANGUAGE

8.99

5.01

SOCIAL SCIENCE

17.35

12.13

11.34

11.56

1.58

OTHERS

FIG 2.8 ENROLMENT IN VARIOUS DISCIPLINES AT POST- GRADUATE AND DOCTORAL LEVELS IN HIGHER EDUCATION (2014-15) (%AGE) DATA SOURCE Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

PERFORMANCE (PASS)

NUMBERS OF EXAMINEES IN LAKHS

CLASS X CLASS XII

73.5 45.5

58.6

93.8

IN PRECENTAGE

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

73.2 77.4

167.3

73.2

104.1

DATA SOURCE Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

17

Ph. D

ARTS/ HUMANITIES/ SOCIAL SCIENCES

In contrast to the disciplinary distribution at the undergraduate level, social sciences, management and sciences dominate at the postgraduate level. In terms of doctoral research, the sciences and engineering are preponderant.

The examination system in India also has to cope with vast numbers of students. According to the latest available data, 1.67 crore examinees sat for the Class X examination and 1.04 crores for the Class XII examinations.

Despite ever-increasing pass percentages, many deficiencies remain in the evaluation and assessment system in India, the most significant being the fact that they are still based on single-shot, winner-takesall examinations. A diligent student who underperforms in, or is forced to be absent from, a crucial examination for any reason, risks the loss of a year or permanent abandonment of career choice.

POST GRADUATE

UNDERGRADUATE LEARNERS

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

MALE

81.5

FEMALE

75 76.8 TOTAL

* Includes Regular & Private Students.
 Note: Percentages may not taly exactly due to rounding off

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

2.03

OUTPUTS

An important measurement of the output of an education system is the annual number of learners who have earned a certification by passing the required tests. The latest publically-compiled data indicates that in a given year (2010 in the case of secondary education, 2014-15 in the case of post-secondary education) 125.5 lakh learners cleared the Class X examination, 80.0 lakhs the Class XII examination, 62.9 lakhs an undergraduate degree, 14.2 lakhs a postgraduate degree, and 21,830 the Ph.D.

42.9 FEMALE 37.1

MALE

80.0

CLASS X*

6.9

FEMALE

7.3

MALE

62.9

MALE

CLASS XII*

UNDER GRADUATE** MALE

68.6 FEMALE 56.9

125.5

14.2 POST GRADUATE** DOCTORATE**

0.2

FIG 2.10 STUDENTS PASSING OUT AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION DATA SOURCE Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (website: http://mhrd.gov.in/statist)

MALE

30.9 FEMALE 32.1

0.1

FEMALE

0.1 IN LAKHS * 2010

**2014-15

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

18

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

Another way to measure educational output is employability, i.e. the preparedness of the products of formal education to enter the workforce and contribute to their organisation. According to India Skills Report 2017, jointly sponsored by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), only 40.4% of the students passing out of the Indian higher education system are deemed employable. Going hand in hand with employability is the availability of employment: by 2020 India would be graduating six engineers for every engineering job available. So, the problem is clearly bi-directional: not enough jobs for those who want them, not enough adequately trained persons entering the workforce for those who want to hire them.

Comparative testing of learner abilities across international boundaries is another method, albeit highly controversial, of measuring the output of an educational system. One prominent exercise is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial international survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The two-hour PISA test evaluates the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in science, mathematics and reading as well as their ability to solve problems in new and unfamiliar conditions. The ostensible purpose behind PISA is to encourage competitiveness in a global economy that rewards individuals not for what they know, but for what they can do with what they know. While narrow critiques of PISA raise doubts about cultural fairness, lack of learner familiarity with testing 19

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

methods and procedures, and failure to accommodate the embedded peculiarities of the education processes of developing economies, a more fundamental criticism is that it promotes an instrumental and skill oriented notion of school education, thereby legitimising a global economic reward system based on a constricted understanding of education. The last time that India participated in PISA was in 2009, when the two best performing Indian states in education (Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh) were ranked 72 out of 74. In response to this abysmal performance, India decided to withdraw from this assessment exercise for a decade.

Another comparative international assessment of a country’s education system is the performance of its best HEIs in world university rankings. The highest ranked Indian HEIs have not featured very high in the most recent world universities rankings: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi at 172nd rank in the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings 2018; Indian Institute of Science in the 251-300 band in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2018 and in the 301-400 band in the Shanghai Rankings (Academic Ranking of World Universities) 2017. Although there are several reasons why these indicators of output should not be overemphasised, by these yardsticks Indian HEIs are seriously underperforming in global terms.

Intellectual property is yet another measure of the education system’s output. Data relating to publications and patents of the Top 50 non-commercial knowledge producing institutions in India suggest that that high-

NUMBER OF PATENTS GRANTED

NUMBER OF UNSUCCESSFUL PATENT APPLICATIONS

TYPE OF INSTITUTION

50

CENTRAL UNIVERSITIES

8

44,748

43

120

STATE UNIVERSITIES

11

34,052

43

100

INSTITUTIONS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE (INI)2

13

73,783

482

1,971

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

6

21,782

20

399

UNIVERSITIES + INI

38

1,74,365

588

2,570

NATIONAL LABORATORIES3

12

42,980

62

141

FIG 2.11 PUBLICATIONS AND PATENTS PROFILE OF TOP 50 RANKED HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (HEIS) AND NATIONAL LABORATORIES IN INDIA (2010-16)

NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS IN THE TOP 50 KNOWLEDGE PRODUCERS IN INDIA

NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS1

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Publications in SCOPUS Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institutes of Technology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Statistical Institute 3 Institutions of the Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Department of Science and Technology 1 2

DATA SOURCE: Mamta Bhardwaj, Senior Scientist-C, DST-Centre for Policy Research, Panjab University, Chandigarh

er education institutions (HEIs) have done quite well in recent years compared to the national laboratories.

Finally, the most important output of an education system is imparting to learners the mix of ‘right’ values that will lead them to becoming good human beings, good citizens and good inhabitants of the planet; in other words, pursuers of the good life. Although an explicit link between education and human values is not readily

established and hard data is not easy to find, there is a widespread feeling that the education system is falling short in inculcating the values that would safeguard individual freedom, social harmony, gender and social justice, cultural pluralism, civic virtue, political democracy and sustainable living. Value education is already a core challenge for the education system and is likely to become even more pressing by 2035.

THE LANDSCAPE OF EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

20

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

THIS section focuses on the problems and possibilities of education in India in 2035 with the stories of twelve contemporary Indians. Through these twelve stories, we hope to bring alive the stories of 1.32 billion Indians. These life stories are all about education – of absences and aspirations, about acquisition and ambition. All stories about education are stories about people.

Hence, it does not, strictly speaking, make sense to talk about the landscape of education. We ask, instead, about the ‘peoplescape’ of education in India in 2035. In its macro impact, education affects every social group, every economic sector, indeed every aspect of national life. But these macro impacts flow out of a billion micro impacts: education is the force multiplier that transforms individual human lives and thereby changes the trajectory of social possibilities. Our educational technology vision for India in 2035 is therefore clear: Achieving the full potential of every Indian. Nothing else, and nothing less, will do: as a country, we have wasted several decades due to insufficient purposive endeavour, thereby unforgivably blighting the life possibilities of countless compatriots.

23

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

INDIA: POPULATION PROJECTIONS, VARIED SCENARIOS, 2010-2035

YEAR

VARIANT

POPULATION

2010

Actual

1,224,614,327

High

1,320,768,994

Low

1,295,672,394

Medium

1,308,220,695

High

1,420,342,295

Low

1,353,475,846

Medium

1,386,909,072

High

1,519,233,780

Low

1,398,681,383

Medium

1,458,957,583

High

1,612,028,852

Low

1,435,284,976

Medium

1,523,482,335

High

1,701,037,970

Low

1,460,866,602

Medium

1,579,802,186

2015 1.8

2020

1.6 1.5

2025

1.4 1.3

2030

LOW

MEDIUM

35 20

20

30

25 20

20 20

20

20

FIGURE 3.1

15

1.2

10

PEOPLE IN BILLIONS

1.7

HIGH

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, New York, 2011, accessed from http://data.un.org (accessed on 12 October 2012).

There is another compelling reason for the people-centric thrust of this technology roadmap. Prediction is, by its very nature, a risky intellectual enterprise. In the memorable words of J. P. Hartley, ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ If the past is a foreign country, how much more foreign must the future be?

How do we overcome the problem of prediction? The most fruitful approach would be to ask if there is anything that we could possibly be certain about as we peer into the mists of India’s future. Are there any aspects of the future of our massive and diverse country that we can be certain about? As has already been pointed out in the main Technology Vision 2035 document, we can be certain that India will continue to be very large, and that it will continue to be very diverse. The certitude of massive

2035 Table 3.1

diversity: these two unmistakable, instantly recognisable, characteristics are the solid foundations upon which we have erected our educational technology vision of India in 2035. Thus, our educational technology vision is not of India in 2035 but about Indians in 2035.

According to the United Nations, by 2035 we Indians will probably number anywhere between 1.46 and 1.70 billion; throughout this report, we will use the medium variant of 1.57 billion for our estimates. The sheer weight of numbers will pose challenges for India that only one other country on our planet has to face. In India’s size will reside not only a multitude of problems but also the solutions to its problems. But how do we capture our country’s diversity without resorting to storytelling about our compatriots?

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

24

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

12 INDIANS

AND THEIR STORIES

ABENI

25

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The characters in these stories are works of fiction created to illustrate various education needs of Indians.

NAGALAND

1

Abeni lives in a small village in Nagaland, several hours away from the nearest road. She is a widow, having lost her husband when her two sons were in their teens. Fortunately, her husband had saved enough money for Abeni to live comfortably, and her boys were able to continue their education in the good missionary school in the neighbouring district. One after the other, her two sons left Nagaland to pursue university degrees in other parts of India. The elder son is now married and lives in Pune, where he has a good job in a private insurance company. He manages to come with his family to stay with Abeni for two weeks every year; Abeni spends her entire time counting the days until their next visit. Her younger son now lives in Thailand, where he has opened a small art gallery, and his visits home are rare indeed. Although two of her nieces live nearby, Abeni is terribly lonely most of the time. But she is too attached to her house to think of leaving her village and joining her son in Pune; after all, she cannot abandon her buried husband.

Most of all, Abeni misses her grandson. She had studied only till Class VIII, but she would now like to complete her education so that she has something in common with her grandson as he grows up. She feels that she would enjoy studying again, if only she could do so without leaving her own house, her precious comfort zone...

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

BIJOY

CALIFORNIA

3

2

Bijoy works for a computer company in California. He is in his early forties and has lived outside India for almost two decades now. Bijoy was a bright student from the beginning and fell in love with Mathematics at an early age.

Although he is Bengali, he has never lived in Bengal. His father was an army officer who did not spend more than three years in his long career in a single location. Bijoy and his elder sister were accustomed to packing their bags in the middle of the school year and making new friends hundreds of kilometres away in a matter of hours. Charming and popular, Bijoy often jokes that he is spiritually a laidback Californian. Strangely, he has of late been feeling a sense of unease about his rootlessness. He has decided that he wants to reconnect with his Bengali heritage, but in an authentic manner. He particularly regrets his complete lack of awareness of Bengali literature. Bijoy travels a lot to Southeast Asia for work and has started making brief trips to Kolkata whenever he can. The pathways of his life, he now realises, were decided for him when he was 14, when his father had given him a simple choice: prepare to join either NDA or IIT. He wonders what his life would have been like if he had studied in one of the great colleges of Kolkata. Bijoy likes his job but would love to earn a Ph.D. in Bengali literature on the side, just for fun…

Chandrakant is an accountant in Agra. He is forty-two years old. Ask him when he decided to become an accountant and he will just shrug his shoulders and smile ruefully. Chandrakant’s memory of the entire education process is that of one long terrible nightmare. He was never a bad student, just mediocre, an unmemorable child in a large classroom who was quiet and kept to himself.

College was worse: rowdy and exuberant classmates, absent and indifferent teachers... he always felt that he did not fit in. So why did he become an accountant? Probably because of the friendly maths sir in Class VII who had once told him that he wrote up his answers neatly and systematically and would make a good accountant one day. The teacher wasn’t wrong: Chandrakant cleared his professional accountancy examinations in his second attempt. The money he earns is not bad. It is just that he hates his job passionately. Chandrakant’s parents arranged his marriage to Sheela within days of his being offered his first job. Creative and enthusiastic, Sheela was like a gust of fresh air in his life. A year ago, while shopping for furniture, he told her that he could probably make a better set of chairs himself. She promptly told him to go right ahead and nagged him until he began his project. To his astonishment, Chandrakant has discovered that he loves making furniture and, even more surprising, that he is good at it. He would give anything to be properly trained in the craft and to be able to start his own furniture studio and business…

CHANDRA KANT AGRA

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

26

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

ILA

ODISHA

Ila is a young woman in an isolated fishing village in Odisha. She has studied till class 7 in the village school. She was severely unwell for several months and stayed at home, helping her mother in the house when she was feeling well.

After the break in her studies, her parents did not think it made sense for her to return to school. In a less remote setting, it is possible that her parents would have been pressurised to send her back to school. As it happens, in her village it is still normal for girls to stop going to school during their early teenage years.

Several of her classmates, all of them girls, dropped out of school by class VIII or IX. Ila’s marriage has been fixed for next year but she is now aware of other possibilities. There is one girl from the village – Madhu – who was luckier than all the others: she was good at her studies and had a very supportive grandfather who encouraged her to go to college in the neighbouring town after finishing higher secondary school. Ila saw her some weeks ago, when Madhu returned from the big city and spent a few days in the village. Madhu spent a lot of time with young women in the village, encouraging them to not give up on their education. Ila has enquired about the school in the village of her husband-to-be and is despondent to learn that it is even worse than the school in her own village…

5

Lalchamliana is a vegetable vendor in a village an hour away from Aizawl. He has never been able to experience the beneficial effects of education. His parents died when he was young and he spent much of his childhood being passed on from one relative to another. Other young boys from his village have done well in life. A couple became doctors, some got good government jobs, one a few years younger to Lalchamliana even got admission into an IIT and now lives in Canada. During the troubled years, many young men of his generation had joined the underground. When normalcy returned to Mizoram, some members of the underground were absorbed into government while others returned to education. Unlike most of them, Lalchamliana did not have any links or networks that he could take advantage of. He dropped out of formal education many years ago. He has done odd jobs all his life and has ended up as a vegetable vendor completely by accident.

When he reflects of his life so far, Lalchamliana has an overwhelming feeling of having been left behind by his contemporaries. He often wonders if he could ever catch up with the rest of his generation. There is a kind pastor in the village and of late Lalchamliana has taken to meeting him every few days.

He now attends the fellowship meeting in the church regularly and is experiencing for the first time in his life a sense of family. Lalchamliana realises that education is the way out of the prison in which he finds himself, but he does not know how he can return to education after this long hiatus…

27

4

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

LALCHAMLIANA AIZAWL

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

UMA

COIMBATORE

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Uma lives in Coimbatore with her husband, who retired as an engineer five years ago. All her working life Uma was a school teacher, teaching mathematics to the younger classes and physics to Class XI and XII students. All in all, it has been a satisfying life, Uma thinks. Her son has a good job in Chennai and the grandkids are growing up so well. She wishes that the grandchildren could come to Coimbatore more often but of course their studies must come first.

Uma’s daughter is a doctor in Boston, married to a nice American boy who is also a doctor; no worries on that front either. After retirement, Uma’s husband is at last able to indulge in his true passion, which is golf. He disappears for hours on end several times a week. When he is home, the TV is always on some sports channel broadcasting some golf tournament.

Uma does not mind: he has worked so hard all his life, it is now time for him to enjoy. Uma has started visiting a nearby temple to listen to religious discourses and is finding herself drawn to Vedantic and Shaivaite philosophy. This is a new world for her because she was not particularly religious growing up and was always more interested in science. Uma is particularly fascinated by some of her recent readings showing parallels between mathematics and classical Indian philosophy. Uma has decided that what she would really like to do is study for a master’s degree in classical Indian philosophy…

The characters in these stories are works of fiction created to illustrate various education needs of Indians.

6

28

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

XAVIER

29

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The characters in these stories are works of fiction created to illustrate various education needs of Indians.

PUNE

Xavier works in a car factory located in the outskirts of Pune. He has been on the shop floor of the same factory for over twenty years and has slowly risen to the level of foreman. He likes his work and his wages, with which he has not only paid for his children’s education but also regularly sent money home to his aging parents in a village outside Mangalore. Xavier had joined the factory’s work force when he was in Class XI; a few positions had opened up due to sudden retirements and his uncle was able to get him a position. Although Xavier is good at his work, he has long been conscious of his lack of formal qualifications beyond a Class X passed certificate from the state board.

Some years ago, after he had been identified as one of the candidates for promotion to foreman, his company had sent him along with five other employees for a special training course at the local engineering college. Although some of his friends had slept through the course, Xavier had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. He still remembers the lady lecturer who had given two classes on human relations in the workplace and motivation techniques. It was as if a new world had opened up for him! As a foreman, Xavier still tries to apply on the shop floor the principles that he had learnt in class that day. He has recently heard that a European company is planning to open a plant to manufacture mobile phones not too far from his house. Xavier has been looking for a new opportunity for some time and wonders if he can quickly take some courses to make his application more attractive…

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

7

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

VIDYA

KONKAN

9

8

Vidya, all of 28 years of age, in a born rebel. All her life she has been asking questions about why the system is the way it is, why it cannot be designed better, why it cannot work in a manner that benefits all rather than a few. She has a degree in social work and has worked for a few years in a large trade union. Increasingly disillusioned by what she saw as bureaucracy, factionalism and betrayals, she decided two years ago to resign and move to a small fishing village in north Konkan. A couple of her friends live in Uttarkashi where they run an NGO that is heavily involved in reforestation activities. They spend a large amount of their time taking on the logging mafia. Vidya spends a few months every year in the hills, the rest by the sea. Like her friends, she totally distrusts the political system and reserves special scorn for those people in her generation who have ‘sold out’ to the system. But as she moves between hill and coastal communities, Vidya has been able to see some startling similarities between them. In particular, she cannot close her eyes to the fact that most of the friends she has made in these communities are much less distrustful of the system than she herself is. Vidya has come to realise that the key to social change is education. She would like to set up an alternate educational system in which India’s marginalised communities can not only learn life enhancing skills but also develop a radical approach to all social issues, whether economic, political or cultural…

Waseem is an architect based in Hyderabad, although he travels so much around the country and abroad these days that he is rarely home. He belongs to a younger generation of architects who are self-consciously experimenting at the leading edges of green architecture. For Waseem, environmental sustainability in terms of water and energy consumption and carbon intensity are fundamental and non-negotiable elements in habitat design and construction. From his student days Waseem was attracted to the idea of bringing together the latest technological advances in materials and innovations in construction methods with age-old local traditions and wisdoms about the natural and built environment. Early in his career, when he was a junior team member, this was relatively easy to do because he was always working on a small part of a much larger design problem that was someone else’s responsibility.

However, a few years ago Waseem capitalised on his growing reputation to launch his own architectural practice and he is now receiving some large and complicated commissions. As he moves around his various projects, Waseem has become aware that it is very difficult to simultaneously keep abreast of the latest technology and design developments in his field and at the same time understand the myriad variations that emerge from geography and culture. What he needs, Waseem now realises, are short duration, high impact online courses on a wide variety of subjects, wherein he would be able to tailor make the curriculum to suit his specific needs and extremely long working hours…

WASEEM HYDERABAD

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

30

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

MANREET AMBALA

Manreet has just turned thirty. She works in a pharmacy in Bhatinda alongside her husband. It is a family business and it is doing really well. Manreet’s father ran a pharmacy in Ambala and Manreet was accustomed to spending hours behind the counter chatting with her father and his customers after she returned home from school. At a very young age she had memorised the names of medicines and what they were prescribed for. She knew how much the medicines cost. She kept track of the stocks of different drugs. As she grew older, she even began to count and hand change back to the customers. You could say that she was born to be a pharmacist. She certainly saw things that way growing up, taking all the right courses and clearing all the required examinations. There was never a doubt that her parents would find a pharmacist for her to marry and she is grateful that they found such a fine man for her. She knows she is fortunate and has no right to feel unhappy or dissatisfied, but as she turned thirty she has had to acknowledge a gnawing bug inside herself. More than anything else in the world, she wants to be a doctor, or, more precisely, a surgeon…

11

Zeenat is fourteen years old and lives in Lucknow, a city in which her family has lived for as long as they can remember. Her family is conservative and has not been encouraging when it comes to educating its daughters, so Zeenat has not studied beyond primary school. Right from when she was a baby Zeenat has been a curious child. Her auntie jokes that the only way to get Zeenat to stop asking questions is to offer her jalebis, which she cannot resist eating. Even her family recognises that Zeenat is a gifted child. Had she been born a boy, the family would have willingly made huge sacrifices to send her to a ‘good school’. Instead, even at her tender age Zeenat is already being left behind by her contemporaries, including other girls her age in her own neighbourhood. Zeenat’s mother has a good friend who married into a more liberal family in which girls have been encouraged to study. Zeenat’s mother can see that a huge gap is building up between what her daughter knows and what her friend’s daughter knows. This makes her sad and uneasy. Zeenat’s mother has tried to raise the subject with her husband on two occasions only to be sharply rebuked. But this has only made Zeenat’s mother more determined that her daughter will not be left out of formal education as she herself was. She is now trying to see if there are alternate ways for Zeenat to receive an education without having to leave the domestic precincts…

31

10

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

ZEENAT LUCKNOW

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

YASIN

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Yasin dropped out of school when he was twelve.

School was the most boring place in his young life.

He could not make head or tail of it. Worse, no one ever told him what school was for. Not a single person in his life – his parents, his teachers, his friends – ever asked him why he stopped going to school one day. He just stopped. He started sitting in his uncle’s barber shop. He began to help out by sweeping the floors and collecting the soiled towels and sheets.

Slowly he was drawn into the business. His uncle never forced him to learn the trade but did not stand in his way either. Over time he became an ever more integral part of the operation. But his role was always auxiliary and supportive. Yasin’s uncle continued to make all the decisions that mattered: what to charge for their services, when to buy supplies and from where, how to negotiate the rent for the shop, whether to start offering pedicures and massages to the customers… in a word, everything. Recently, when his uncle had to be hospitalised for major surgery, Yasin was forced to shut down the shop after trying to run it by himself for two days. This came as a shock to his uncle who had always assumed that Yasin would take over the business someday. Yasin’s uncle is now talking of taking time off to go on pilgrimage and would like Yasin to take over. Yasin, meanwhile, has discovered that his skill set is strictly limited to cutting hair and shaving beards and all these years later he still has no idea of how to run a small business…

The characters in these stories are works of fiction created to illustrate various education needs of Indians.

12

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CATEGORIES OF COMPATRIOTS

Each of the 12 stories sketched above is uniquely human, yet in terms of its social impact it can be aggregated with other stories and organised in appropriate analytical categories. From the perspective of education, what do these individual stories collectively tell us about the kinds of Indians who will exist in 2035? Would these categories be mutually exclusive or not? To what extent would circumstances (structure) determine these categories? What would be the role of choice (agency) in the making of these categories? On the basis of these stories, we suggest that in 2035 there would be eight broad non-mutually exclusive categories of Indians, each with very distinct educational needs.

We call them as i. Rooted and Remote, ii. Globalised and Diaspora, iii. Drop Outs or Late Bloomers, iv. Left Out or Left Behind, v. Second Chances and Double Dips, vi. Alternate Lifestyles and Worldviews, vii. Creative, Innovative and Imaginative, and viii. Beehives and Production Lines.

Let us examine the educational needs of each of these categories.

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ROOTED AND REMOTE

India in 2035 will have many people like Abeni and Ila. They will not all be women, of course, but women will outnumber men in this category. Many of them will be rooted by choice, although some will not have had the choice. The rooted and remote will not all be rural, although most of them will be.

Together, they will account for about 20 per cent of India’s population in 2035, or up to 314 million people, most of them elderly.

The rooted and remote Indian will be associated with adherence to old values, but the values themselves will evolve as society transforms and circumstances change. By 2035, India would have become predominantly urban, but there would be a great deal of nostalgia for rural life. Hence, this type of Indian will be seen by others not as backward but as emblematic of the good old days. The danger in the nostalgia is that this type of Indian could become a cultural exhibit.

Furthermore, the notion of remoteness would also have changed by 2035. There would be road connectivity to every village, Internet connectivity in every household. Remoteness will be a function of rootedness; hence, not only social circumstances but also individual decisions will play a major role in shaping the possibilities of this type of Indian. While the remote would not be cut off from mainstream trends and developments, they will be forced to harness technology to a much greater extent in order to just stay abreast with other Indians.

GLOBALISED AND DIASPORA

Indians would be the largest Diaspora community in the world by 2035. People like Bijoy would be 30 per cent of the country’s population. The Government of India would have to devote considerable resources upon this segment and deploy these resources worldwide. For this segment, comparisons across countries would be routine and notions of ‘best practices’ would be commonplace. In a very real sense, the concept of citizenship itself would be transformed. This segment would be extremely assertive about its rights, have a strong sense of entitlement and would not hesitate to hold government accountable for all ills, real and imagined.

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35

DROPOUTS OR LATE BLOOMERS

The highly competitive system would result in a high dropout rate and there would be many Indians who would share the fate of Yasin. The system would also be extremely harsh on late bloomers like Chandrakant who discover their true talents late in life. Conventional education systems are very unfair to late bloomers. Taken together, dropouts and late bloomers would amount to 20 per cent of India’s population. Thus, the danger exists that the educational system will generate a large number of extremely talented and frustrated people. In order to prevent attrition of talent, the system would have to extremely flexible in allowing people to switch fields late in life.

LEFT OUT OR LEFT BEHIND

Despite much greater openness and many improvements, India would continue to be an unequal society in which many like Zeenat would simply not get a chance in the first place, or not be able, like Lalchamliana, to keep pace. At least 30 per cent of the country’s population would either be left out or left behind. Thus, the system would have to be acutely sensitive about inclusion issues.

SECOND CHANCES OR DOUBLE DIPS

In 2035, a huge segment of the population would, like Manreet, be seeking a second chance at revisiting early choices and tacit decisions and overcoming the vicissitudes of life and social circumstances. They will be joined by people like Uma for whom things worked out reasonably well the first time, but who now want to do something completely new. In particular, an aging population will be keen to do more, to continue to grow, and to contribute. The segment of the population that we are calling second chances and double dips would amount to 20 per cent of India’s population by 2035.

ALTERNATE LIFESTYLES AND WORLDVIEWS

There will always be Indians like Vidya who will choose to opt out of the system, who will advocate and pursue alternate lifestyles, who will have radically different ideas about society and the good life. India’s long tradition of sadhus and other varieties of itinerant mendicants indicates a

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

society that has always been tolerant of alternate lifestyles and worldviews. In 2035, this segment will approximate 15 per cent of India’s population.

A sensible system would not interfere with their choices but would nonetheless seek to remain engaged with them. It is important to remember that social benefits can accrue from individual mavericks.

CREATIVE, INNOVATIVE AND IMAGINATIVE

Some individuals like Waseem will refuse to be constrained by the straitjacket imposed by the system. The segment that we are calling creative, innovative and imaginative will amount to 15 percent of India’s population by 2035. Although this segment of the population will be small in size, it will be critical to the health of the country because it would be the fount of economic and social dynamism. Much needed innovation will come from this segment of the population.

BEEHIVES AND PRODUCTION LINES

The productive process, that is the source of all resources and underlies all social existence, would be due to the segment that we are calling beehives and production lines. This segment, consisting of people like Xavier, would comprise the vast majority of the population. A full 55 per cent of the country would fall into this segment of the population. Catering to their needs, keeping them skilled, satisfied and involved, would be the biggest challenge for the system.

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3.03

TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY AND EDUCATION

TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY In the social imaginary, there are two distinct conceptions of the relationship between technology and society.

The first is that of technological autonomy, emphasising the internal logical momentum of technology that pushes society to the brink of alienation and catastrophe. The contrasting framework is of technological neutrality which suggests that society has the complete freedom to shape its technological present and future. In this roadmap, we seek an appropriate interpretive position between these, wherein the boundary between society and nature, technology and bodies is not drawn so clearly. For quite some time now, historians of technology have proposed an understanding of technology and society within the framework of biological evolution: even chimpanzees and fish have been known to construct tools to act upon 37

INDIANS IN 2035: EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

and manipulate nature. As prosthetic devices and medical aids are implanted within human bodies and extend the lifespan of human populations, the analytical distinction between technology and society, knowledge and bodies, becomes increasingly difficult to sustain. As societies transform and technologies emerge, in India and across the world, a social constructivist perspective on technology, in which society and technology are mutually-influencing and -implicating, will in the coming decades deepen, and reveal the complex ways in which technologies, societies, lives and bodies are mutually shaped by each other. Since educational technologies are about people, this document is imbued with a social constructivist perspective on technology.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION In order to envision the field of technology and education in 2035, we must anchor not only present technological ensembles and educational systems within the social context of the second decade of the twenty-first century, but also elaborate upon what we mean by these concepts and how the relationship between the two is conceptualised. It further entails speculating upon the conceptual evolution of this relationship in the coming two and half decades. The genetic-information technology revolution sweeping contemporary society is altering ways of work, communication and living our lives. On the way to the realisation of a full-fledged ‘Knowledge Society’, education and technology naturally have a special role to play by catalysing each other. This poses a challenge in thinking about both education and technology in order to creatively and democratically deploy the latter to restructure the former.

The present era is marked by the finalisation, extension and expansion of the regimes of nano, bio, information and cognitive technologies (NBIC) at an ever-accelerating rate, thereby ushering in the knowledge economy. As a result, what society considers to be knowledge would itself change. We need therefore to think beyond existing educational paradigms and envision systemic alternatives. New models of education must be envisioned as the means to the good life and the good society, leading to the development of communities and formation of citizens. In a liberal political system like ours, democracy and education are inextricably linked: in the good society, every citizen can intelligently participate in social and political life; and the role of technology in education is the realisation of such a citizenry.

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3.04

PERSPECTIVES ON LEARNING

Over the last few decades there has also been a movement towards more constructivist perspectives on education. There has been a shift from a teacher-centric to a learner-centred approach in which the learner is no longer seen merely as a passive recipient of a particular branch of knowledge. On the contrary, the learner at primary and secondary levels is seen as the co-creator or participant in the construction of scientific and social scientific theories.

Learners are encouraged to understand natural and social phenomena, ranging from eclipses to festivals, as participant-observers. To have a social impact, this approach to learning would have to go beyond some elitist private or experimental schools.

The current state of technology has 39

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the capacity to facilitate and enable constructivist curriculum development, and future technological advances will speed up this process further.

Furthermore, despite widespread fears that ICT would diminish the importance of teachers, the role of teachers is likely to be strengthened by the deployment of an ensemble of educational technologies. The teacher’s role will be reinvented to that of facilitator or navigator, as different from that of an instructor. In other words, without radically altering an educational practice towards constructivism, the technological ensemble draws the pedagogy towards a constructivist practice or reinforces it.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Where will the constructivist paradigm morph into by 2035? It is impossible to occupy an Archimedean point and predict the likely pedagogies of the future. Extrapolating from present trends, constructivist frameworks will continue to provide platforms for anchoring androids (robots with human phenotypes), cyborgs (organisms with technological implants) and other hybrid entities.

The teacher’s role will be reinvented to that of facilitator or navigator, as different from that of an instructor.

Without radically altering an educational practice towards constructivism, the technological ensemble draws the pedagogy towards a constructivist practice or reinforces it.

Despite differences in the constructivisms emanating from science and educational studies, both argue against the idea that human consciousness is merely a tabula rasa or a docile repository of sense impressions from the external world. These two constructivisms, with significant inputs from the cognitive sciences, will play an increasingly significant role in further illuminating the complex relationship between technology, society, individual minds and educational processes. Human understanding of this relationship is likely to develop very rapidly over the coming decades, and will be reflected in the construction, management and governance of techno-educational systems. This prelude provides an outline of the technological imaginary of our time, on which we project our technological vision of 2035.

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

IN

this section, we take up the matter of how technology can be used to further literacy. Our first concern is to reach an understanding of literacy itself. We discuss the purpose of literacy and provide a working definition of literacy for 2035. We also briefly survey how the concept of literacy has evolved till the present, and project further likely or desirable expansions in its scope till 2035. Among these is the integration of creativity and skills with literacy.

We do not assert that technology can remove all the obstructions in expanding literacy in India. Indeed, one of our recurring concerns is that, left to itself, technology may well enhance inequities and hamper the spread of literacy. Nevertheless, our main focus is on the benefits technology may be able to deliver.

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1

In India, the Census treats a person aged seven years and above who can both read and write in some language as literate.

(See http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/data_files/mp/07Literacy.pdf.)

4.01

the what and why of literacy

According to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), ‘Everyone has the right to education.’ As the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg, Germany has stated: ‘Literacy arouses hopes, not only in society as a whole but also in the individual who is striving for fulfilment, happiness and personal benefit by learning how to read and write. Literacy... means far more than learning how to read and write... The aim is to transmit... knowledge and promote social participation.’

Over two decades ago the Ernakulam district in Kerala announced that it had achieved 100 per cent literacy. This created a great sense of accomplishment in India. It seemed like a big step had been achieved, and that reaching the goal of 100 per cent literacy in the rest of the country would only be a matter of a short span of time. Yet after the

2011 census, the best that the country can state as a whole is that we are 74 per cent literate.1 The literacy rate provides baseline information about the state of certain desirable markers for a country.

On the other hand, education has been seen as a formal knowledge acquiring process that allows individuals to realise their potential and to be able to function successfully in society. In an ideal society, there should not be a gap between a literate person and an educated person.

To achieve this, the ‘desirable markers’ for literacy have to be examined in further detail.

The markers of literacy should not only indicate whether an individual is proficient in the three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) but also so much more: whether an individual is well placed to realise their potential, whether they can access the opLITERACY, CREATIVITY AND SKILLS

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portunities provided by the state and non-state players, whether they are able to earn a livelihood, whether they are able to utilise the advantages that advances in technology provide and whether all this is achievable in the context of their everyday lives and the society they live in.

We need to be able to define the markers that will decide whether a person is literate or not in 2035.

Given the goals of literacy enunciated above, the markers need to engage with the following.

READING, WRITING AND COMMUNICATION (RWC) The ability to read, write and communicate in at least one language.

E/DIGITAL PROFICIENCY (E/DP) The ability to use devices and applications for daily needs.

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Literacy paves the way for further and continuing development of an individual. These would include opportunities for building soft skills, vocational skills, skills that lead to expression of creativity, skills that lead to livelihoods, empowerment and dignity. The education sector in 2035 should provide a literate person the means to access, complete and secure certifications at all levels. Technology will enable the processes required for this. The certifica-

NUMERACY (NU) The ability to compute concomitant with an understanding of what the process signifies. This should be of a level which enables a citizen to understand and work with numbers in their everyday lives, including handling of basic finances.

VISUAL AND SYMBOLIC PROFICIENCY (VSP) The ability to interpret and use visual and symbolic indicators.

CIVIC AWARENESS (CA) A working knowledge of the right and duties of a citizen.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

tion could be stand-alone and/or could provide entry into the realm of higher education including the completion of a formal degree.

One of the most positive and important impacts of the idea of ‘universal literacy’ has been the

GUJARAT Diksha lives with her husband Rakshit in a small town in southern Gujarat, where he works in the municipal government. They had married when she turned eighteen, soon after she cleared the Class X examination in her third attempt. They have three daughters, all university graduates, all married and living in neighbouring towns.

The first grandchild is expected in the next few months and Diksha is excited about becoming a grandmother. Over the years, Diksha and Rakshit have built strong ties within their community and are a popular and well-respected couple. With a partner, Diksha has opened a small boutique that stocks traditional women’s clothes and although their business is only five years old, they made a small profit last year. Anyone interacting with Diksha would see in her a happy, well-adjusted, middle aged woman. Only Rakshit knows the truth.

Ten years ago, when Diksha was approaching her fortieth birthday, Rakshit had returned from work one day to find his wife sobbing uncontrollably in the kitchen. Upon his repeated questioning, Diksha had confessed that she had deep feelings of inadequacy and was even envious of her own daughters. Grasping at straws, Rakshit had proposed that he would help her to prepare for the Class XII examination. Diksha not only cleared the examination, she discovered the world of Gujarati literature. The family was at hand to cheer her when she won a prize in her university’s convocation ceremony a few years later. While Diksha may never ‘use’ her education, she knows how much her sense of self is wrapped up in her learning.

LITERACY, CREATIVITY AND SKILLS

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Technology has a very short shelf life and continues to change and evolve at a very rapid rate. To be able to use and harness technology, an individual has to have the ability to learn and retrain with equal rapidity. This requires each individual to be creative and innovative and to be undeterred in facing new and ever-changing scenarios. The role of creativity, because of its nebulous and unquantifiable nature, becomes all the more crucial to achievement of literacy in 2035. Creativity and technology will be the two pillars on which this will be achieved. Literacy enables an individual to effectively communicate and function in society and is therefore an essential and non-negotiable ingredient for each human being to achieve their potential.

DIKSHA

The characters in this story are works of fiction created to illustrate the close link between education and self-esteem.

The skill to be able to use technology effectively is essential for literacy in 2035. For too long, language and numeric skills have dominated the literacy spectrum.

Being able to achieve one’s potential also needs an effective exploration of skills that at the very least involve music, dance, art and craft.

Further the term ‘skills’ also has to encompass other aspects essential for fulfilling one’s goals, namely, life skills and citizenship skills involving adaptability, empathy and so on.

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2

See From Access to Equality, UNESCO, 2012. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/ 002184/218450E.pdf

widening of horizons through access to the written word.

What was until a few centuries ago the prerogative and privilege of only a few, is now finally within the reach of all with the adoption of the idea of 100 per cent or universal literacy. In the decades to come, the form and medium through which we read the written word may change. So, the challenge will also be to ensure that ‘access’ is not denied and that we continue to ensure and enjoy universal literacy.

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4.02

LITERACY AND SKILLS IN 2035

Literacy has a positive correlation with, and a direct effect on, many of the social and economic indicators. Higher literacy and better education levels help achieve better health and nutrition levels. It also helps one to do one’s job well and improves the ability to earn a higher income. Further it empowers communities to achieve political and social status.

NUMERACY

Female literacy in particular has specific consequences beyond those that apply to both genders.2 A woman’s literacy improves her health and that of her family and leads to a valorisation of education in the household. Higher literacy for women has also been associated with social benefits such as reduction in child marriage and greater participation of women in local government. Low female literacy rates also have a negative impact on family planning and population stabilisation efforts.

• At the very basic level, numeracy or numerical literacy would be the ability to handle and make sense of quantities. This would involve being able to count, being able to transact with currency, being able to work with quantities of objects being purchased or sold and so on. .......................................................

• At a higher level, one could also view numeracy as the ability to use mathematics effectively to solve real world problems like designing precision tools, making scale models, long term planning, etc. .......................................................

LITERACY, CREATIVITY AND SKILLS

As early as the nineteenth century, the ability to do arithmetic was included in the notion of literacy. It is impossible to imagine a person surviving without basic skills in numeracy. Broadly speaking there are two levels at which one can analyse numeracy.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

As the story of Yasin suggests, ‘innumeracy’ (an inability to understand quantified data) is a fundamental impediment in contemporary society: it restricts one’s ability to make judicious choices, on the basis of quantified information, in personal finance, business dealings or health-related issues. On the other hand, higher levels of numerical literacy lead to better employment and higher paying jobs (Jerald 2009).

e/DIGITAL AND VISUAL & SYMBOLIC PROFICIENCY The skill to use digital technology is desirable today and will become essential in the near future. Navigating the digital world calls for skills of digital, visual and symbolic literacy.

While e/DP refers more to the ability to handle technology, VSP refers to the ability to extract information from an image and symbol. The fundamental role of images and symbols in digital communication has given new significance to VSP. These literacies become even more essential because information technology is already becoming a vital contributor to the propagation of the conventional literacy of reading and writing.

Visual literacy may thus become the most fundamental form of literacy.

The main challenge regarding the roadmap to achieving these literacies is equity. Another issue is the generation gap wherein teachers may not be as comfortable with the content and medium as learners.

However, the generation gap in this context would perhaps have diminished by 2035.

TRADITIONAL SKILLS Literacy is a plural and dynamic concept that has the capacity to elevate and enable an individual to attain their potential. Millions of Indians, who today eke out a livelihood using traditional skills, do not have the literacy and education levels to earn more than a basic wage even though they have skills that could command a high value in the market.

The lack of literacy and education inhibits their ability to source markets, to understand the economy of the craft sector, to be able to innovate and utilise technology for creating new products as well as marketing them.

Often, the inferior social status that is associated with the practitioner of traditional skills leads the next generation abandoning this skill to pursue other trades. School curriculums largely ignore the importance of traditional skills, further eroding their social status. A change in the way traditional skills are viewed could be brought about with access to meaningful education for practicing communities and a better understanding of traditional skills through curriculum change at the school level.

Both school curriculums and adult literacy programmes need to integrate craft learning with modern education. They also need to create courses with value-additions from the domain of business and commerce, so as to equip communities of craftspeople to practise their traditional craft in a manner that assures them livelihood, recognition and rightful place in society.

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RANGANATH

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Literacy 2035 involves continuous learning, an ability to build on latent talents to achieve one’s goals, develop one’s knowledge and skill base to be able to face the challenges of the future.

As mentioned earlier, the term ‘skill’ also has to encompass a range of competencies. But how do we ensure that an individual is able to face scenarios that one might not even be able to envisage? The clue is creativity. Indeed, the abilities to think critically and creatively are among the ten core life skills defined by UNESCO.3 This links up with two of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Quality Education (SDG 4) and Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8).

See page 2 of http://www.unicef.org/rosa/Life_skills-based_education_in_south_asia.pdf

Ranganath is a fifth-generation potter who will soon turn thirty. His earliest memory is of his mother giving him some warm sweetened milk before resuming her preparation of the clay. Even now, Ranganath associates the process of clay preparation with the taste of warm sweetened milk. The month before Diwali, Ranganath and his two elder brothers worked backbreaking hours to help their father create tens of thousands of diyas. Ranganath’s father worked hard to educate his three sons, fiercely determined that they would not follow him into the family occupation.

One of Ranganath’s brothers joined the state police force after completing his degree in commerce, the other works in the state electricity board in an administrative post. Ranganath, clearly the brightest of the three brothers and the apple of his father’s eye, deeply disappointed his parents by enrolling in a fine arts college despite scoring very high marks in the Class XII examination. A truly gifted sculptor, Ranganath received a prestigious scholarship to a postgraduate programme in London. After three years of apprenticeship with a renowned artist, Ranganath has decided to return to Nellore and join his father’s tiny business. Although his parents are very proud of him and are delighted that he is returning, they are also mystified by his life and career choices. For Ranganath, keeping the traditional family occupation alive for another generation is an ethical obligation. With his talent, training and networks, he is confident that he will be an artistic and commercial success.

3

Any resemblance to a real person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The character in this story is a work of fiction created to illustrate the importance of skill-based vocational education.

NELLORE

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

4.03

creativity and literacy

The concept of literacy is directed towards establishing the essential skills one must have to function as a fully empowered citizen. As society changes, and as ambitions for the citizens increase, the scope of literacy will inevitably expand.

The most striking new factor in society is information technology (IT).

Although its spread is uneven, there is a dramatic increase in the quantity and variety of information. The ability to deal with this sea of information and put it to use is included in e/DP 2035. The spread of digital literacy is essential if the emerging ‘information society’ is to be an equitable one.

One aspect of such rapid changes is that e/DP 2035 is a dynamic definition.

It does not only change from generation to generation. A person considered ‘digitally literate’ at one point of

their life may be considered ‘digitally illiterate’ later, even though their skills may have stayed constant or even risen. This is most dramatically seen in our own lives when we compare digital literacy across generations. It is imperative therefore that the concept of a literate person includes not just the ability to operate in the present, but also the ability to continually acquire new skills and adapt to changing needs. As future needs cannot be predetermined, what is needed is the x-factor of creativity, which enables a person to achieve literacy and to stay literate.

Creativity or creative thinking is about being able to view, experience and think in different or divergent ways about the same objects or scenarios.

It is the ability to deal with problems and situations that are outside the normal rule-bound domain, that lack LITERACY, CREATIVITY AND SKILLS

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structure, and do not have simple (or any) solutions. It is also not only the ability to be able to do new things but also the ability to innovate, to be able to do even existing tasks in a better manner.

If one were trying to describe the characteristics that would signify creativity, it would be the ability to view a problem or situation in a multiplicity of ways, to be able to think out of the box, laterally, and find solutions. Creativity provides the ability to face one’s future and to take actions towards fulfilling one’s potential. Although creativity is sometimes conceived of as an innate or miraculous ability, its problem-solving aspects should be treated as a skill or attitude to be acquired, which therefore needs to be included as an essential component for achieving and maintaining literacy.

CREATIVITY THROUGH CURRICULUM Various processes and situations built into curriculum can be used to help learners to develop the ability to think critically and creatively through the process of generating and evaluating knowledge, gaining clarity about concepts and ideas, and developing the ability to find alternative solutions to solve problems. The process of developing the ability to think critically and creatively is achieved by ensuring that the following four aspects are an integral part of the curriculum: • Enquiry, identification, exploration and organisation of information and ideas ..................................................

• Generation of ideas, possibilities and actions ..................................................

• Reflection on thinking and processes ..................................................

• Analysis, synthesis and evaluation of reasoning and procedures ..................................................

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Creativity provides the ability to face one’s future and to take actions towards fulfilling one’s potential.

CREATIVITY THROUGH ART IN EDUCATION (AIE) A complementary method of ensuring that creativity and self-sufficiency are built into basic education or literacy programmes is to include and integrate art. ‘Art in Education’ or AiE (Wagner, et al. 2006) is seen as a way in which learners can develop ‘multiple intelligences’. This in turn would enable them to solve problems creatively, develop self-sufficiency and expression, realise that there can be multiplicity of ways in which stumbling blocks may be overcome.

As AiE moves from the notion of ‘learning art’ to ‘learning through art’, several questions arise: How should art be integrated into learning other subjects? How do we train teachers and art teachers to cope with this new way of teaching and learning through art? (Smilan 2007) In the context of adult literacy programmes, art has a further role in giving ‘adult illiterates’ dignity and self-respect by incorporating traditional forms of art expression, which are culturally rooted, into literacy programmes.

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4.04

literacy for the future

NONCURRICULAR APPROACHES TO CREATIVITY Enhancing creative thinking or creativity should become part of everyday life for all sections of society and all ages. However, if activities or practices are labelled as creativity-enhancing they may well become counterproductive.

It might be more effective to aim for an open society which embraces all aspects of creativity.

A society that encourages group and leisure activities like arts and craft, games and sports, and immersion in natural environments, creates the enabling conditions within which creativity can emerge and flourish. In a technology-embedded society, this approach to creativity might well involve explicitly privileging human-human interaction over human-machine interaction. However, technology could help to a limited extent by creating virtual reality where open spaces and natural areas are not within easy physical reach.

The ability to read and write in a language is a limited and minimalistic definition of literacy. This limited notion of literacy is not enough for millions of India’s citizens to catch up with those who have benefitted from higher levels of education. Further, given the immense presence of technology in our everyday lives, the digital divide between the educated and the minimally literate is growing. A vision of how literacy fits into the general education framework is therefore essential and is presented in the form of a Literacy Wheel.

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LITERACY WHEEL ~ 2035 ~

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C O R PORATE CTOR SE

G

AI

IN

TR

N

T

AI

MENT WER PO EM

TR

DI GN IT Y

IC

OR T C SE

TRADITIONAL SKILLS

PU BL IC

LIVELIHOOD

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Points on the rim represent the potential that an individual can realise on the basis of the core at the centre and the pathway/spoke that the learner has travelled down. .............................................................. ..............................................................

The multiple spokes of creativity will add to the strength and structure of the wheel, thereby rendering it more stable. .............................................................. ..............................................................

Technology will be the lubricant for the wheel, enabling the structure to be smoothly mobile. .............................................................. ..............................................................

By 2035, a person completing compulsory education would – irrespective of the knowledge that she has gained – possess the portfolio of skills that would make her literate in the senses defined above. The Act of Parliament guaranteeing Right to Education (RTE)4 assures compulsory and free education for children between 6 and 14 years of age. However, studies (Kothari and Bandyopadhyay 2010) show that education up to Class X is essential for learners to retain essential literacy skills throughout their lives, and if they leave at lower levels of education there is an erosion of these skills. The challenge for Literacy 2035 will be to ensure compulsory education up to secondary school (Class X).

Apart from languages, mathematics, social sciences and sciences, the basic curriculum should incorporate sports, art and craft education, digital literacy and life skills.

We need to ensure that education will prepare individuals to cope, innovate and creatively solve any challenges or problems that they may face in life. A harmonious and resilient society will emerge from such an education system.

4

The spokes of the wheel point the way to further and continuing development. These would include courses and opportunities for building soft skills, vocational skills, skills that lead to expression of creativity, skills that lead to livelihoods, empowerment and dignity. The wheel will also include paths for higher education, vocational education, lifelong learning, which includes training and re-training. .............................................................. ..............................................................

See http://mhrd.gov.in/rte

At the centre of the ‘Literacy Wheel 2035’ are the markers that decide whether a person is considered literate or not in 2035. .............................................................. ..............................................................

LITERACY, CREATIVITY AND SKILLS

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ACCESS in a society can be defined as that

condition in which every member has guaranteed opportunities to benefit from social institutions, facilities and resources and the only reason for inaccessibility would be the person’s own unwillingness to seek it. Thus, the concerns of equity and access relate to the removal of barriers. In the context of education, enabling access would universalise the reach to knowledge. The lack of access, or the absence of opportunities, can drain society of its precious human resources. As the stories of Abeni and Zeenat indicate, a large number of our compatriots are facing significant barriers in their desire to access education. This lack of access has both human and social costs. Education for all leads to the creation of wealth to sustain society. For this reason, universal access to education should be the goal for any society. Therefore, achieving the full potential of every Indian implies universal access to education.

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Universal literacy and schooling are essential first steps, but in itself would not be sufficient in creating the conditions for society and economy to flourish. Incomplete efforts result in less developed capacities, leaving people not capable of fully benefiting from the opportunities that society has to offer. Tapping the creative potential and the genius of a society and deploying it for the benefit of society is very critical.

While primary education endows people with the basic tools of learning (literacy and numeracy), secondary education equips them with capacities to seek, access and process information, thereby developing the knowledge required to participate in society. Tertiary education would aim at building professional capacities to participate in specific areas, at the same time creating an awareness and interest in social issues and the need for lifelong investments in learning. Hence, each stage of schooling, while a precursor, would in itself be an incomplete step towards education. The gains of tertiary education are to be invested in exploring, understanding and solving

problems of society. Universal access therefore provides for throughputs through all these stages.

Historically, social progress has unfolded over centuries, but from the mid-nineteenth century, the pace has accelerated thanks to the First and Second Technological Revolutions.

Contemporary information and communication technologies (ICT), which encompass a wide range of media, devices and techniques for interpersonal communications and broadcasts, will further accelerate social change.

The Internet is becoming an omnibus carrier of these developments in ICT. For the first time in history, a set of technologies that enable unrestricted participation and anytime-anywhere access now exist, which hold a huge promise for the democratisation of education. However, converting this potential into a definite possibility requires a social response, whereby each possibility is explored, exploited and directed towards the overall goals of universal education. Left to chance, the inequities in societies are likely to hinder or even deny access to education systems.

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5.01

current trends and challenges

The current education system is inadequate, both in terms of the number of people accommodated and also in the range of abilities (skills) and capacities (knowledge) being developed. Apart from the physical expansion of the system to cater to the burgeoning numbers of learners at all levels, alternate methods providing technology-enabled access to open education systems are being developed. It is essential that these new models are institutionalised with the necessary support systems. Popular notions of the purpose of education must change from the prevalent focus on economic gain to its broader contribution to individual and social well-being.

Expanded access will lead to universal access. Given the realities of socioeconomic stratification, access will mean different things at different levels of education.

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

PRIMARY STAGE

At the primary stage, despite 100% enrolment, children do not attend regularly, fail to achieve age-appropriate learning goals, nor complete and progress to the next stage. The core challenges for educational access at the primary stage are: • The lack of schools within reasonable reach of every habitation; • Failure of parents and guardians to appreciate the long-term relevance of investing in their wards’ schooling; • Sociocultural factors that make it difficult for children to progress through schooling, such as inadequate and irregular attendance, caste discrimination, absence of basic facilities such as toilets in schools, status of girls in the family and concerns about their security; • Absence of basic school infrastructure like libraries, resources for arts, games, furniture and tools; • Irrelevance of curricula; • Social taboos relating to children with special needs; the perceived irrelevance of education for these children; lack of systemic commitment to train teachers, provide specialist community counsellors, and ensure adequate infrastructure; • Seasonal migration.

Some of these factors, particularly absence of appropriate benchmarks and irrelevance of curricula, affect all primary schools, but economically well-off parents can circumvent these problems better. Policy initiatives the enhance the chances for completion, including the possibility of re-entry and redefinition of the curricula, are needed.

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

SECONDARY STAGE

Additional challenges for educational access at the middle through secondary stage include backlogs in achievement of basic skills, adolescence, social pressures for early marriage or work. The solutions include building more schools in under-serviced areas, developing curriculum specifically aimed at overcoming backlogs by ‘learning to learn’, designing broader options in terms of content that go beyond traditional subjects, and counselling learners on life and career choices.

Learners at this stage are entering adulthood. Many may discontinue formal education and enter the world of work. They are also likely to establish a family and take on social responsibilities. While these natural changes will diminish their participation in formal education, informal avenues for continuing education should be open to all who desire it. Strengthening secondary schooling to ensure higher attainments in basic skills, knowledge, and preparation for adulthood will pave the way for a broad-based tertiary schooling preparing young people for the variety of professions.

The tertiary education system suffers from structural rigidity. The core problems for the educational access at this stage are that the system was not designed for scale and cannot handle large numbers, and also that it fails to cater to the wide array of contemporary occupational choices. Here, it would be appropriate to distinguish professional education, which prepares and skills learners for the socio-economic opportunities available, from an academic education which aims at widening intellectual horizons, perhaps better termed as higher education.

Multiple entry and exit, shorter run-time, constant updating and sharing of peer expertise would increase access to tertiary education.

If the challenges of ensuring access at multiple levels is adequately addressed, it would enable the delinking of degrees from jobs. With some inbuilt flexibility, it would allow for skilling and reskilling of people, thereby helping them adapt to migration across professions and to newer technologies. At the same time, providing for open access to the academic stream for those desirous will allow for people at later ages, and with adequate professional experience to pursue knowledge for its own sake and contribute to the development of thought leaders in the community.

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TERTIARY STAGE

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

5.02

technology as an aid to access

Three technology trends, particularly in the ICT sector, taken together augur well for a universal equitable access: 1. Developments in materials science have ensured that size and power consumption has monotonically declined, leading to miniaturisation and more affordable devices. ..............................................

2. Attention to interface design, information architecture and distributed computing has led to flatter learning curves and more diverse applications, contributing to greater accessibility. ..............................................

3. Participation of diverse interest groups has led to a spurt in application and content development, leading to increased attention to education and training.

Together, these have led to lower costs of devices and services, increased availability even in the remotest of places, and utility in a greater range of tasks. Opportunities have emerged for the participation of ever larger numbers of people in technological and technology-enabled activities. Exposure to technology by itself has heightened awareness, leading to greater creativity as well as critical acceptance of new trends.

With the expansion of user bases, transcending geographies, cultures and languages, technology would have to evolve representations which no more remain restricted to particular cultures and languages, as is already happening with the icons used in smartphones. The evolution of generic interfaces will circumvent the obstacles posed by linguistic and literacy barriers, which in earlier times ENSURING ACCESS: ANYONE, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

were fundamental factors in access denial. The initial concerns that the Internet was evolving into an ‘English Web’ no longer seem relevant. Traditionally, efforts at education have rallied around embracing English as the lingua franca.

Maintaining this as a link to communicate with other communities is no doubt important, but inadequate efforts at developing the languages of the people is certain to deny access to post-secondary education to large numbers of people. Perhaps even primary and secondary education will not be enriched adequately due to this inattention.

The immediate imperative would be the use of the available economic and academic resources to achieve this end. The realisation that technology provides for an economical way of addressing this issue is a step in the right direction. Large-scale translation of works and their electronic dissemination can catalyse a culture of using the local language for most purposes. Concrete programmes towards this end need to be prioritised to pave the way not only for large scale participation, but also, a chance to set higher benchmarks for education. The sociocultural dividends for society will then be immense.

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5.03

A 2035 VISION FOR ACCESS

The vision for educational access in 2035 is to initiate and establish processes that would catalyse and nurture institutional arrangements, initiatives and activities aimed at providing and ensuring universal access so as to enrich the quality of life.

Towards this end, the institutional arrangements, backed by an active participation of all segments of the community, need to be developed. It is important that all learners have access to and complete an adequate number of years in school, whether primary, secondary or tertiary, developing in themselves capabilities to function as fully developed citizens. They should be able to seek and obtain livelihoods within and outside their communities and strengthen their economic status, build awareness and interests in their own and the community’s education, and progress both individually and collectively.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Society itself would have progressed beyond conceiving education as a mere instrument for economic gain. It would also accept schooling as an essential but not sufficient step towards the empowerment of all its members and groups. This would require establishing many scaffolding structures to strengthen the schooling process. At the same time, opening up opportunities beyond schooling for lifelong learning, would be needed. Adequate attention towards larger issues of sustainable development and preservation of the Earth's resources would also be essential. Structures and institutional arrangements for broad-based continuing education, dissolving the boundaries within formal tertiary schooling, interchange through the media, socio-cultural networking and activism would be needed, thereby providing for a wide range of access to education.

FIVE FACTORS ARE GOING TO BE CRITICAL IN THE 2035 TIMEFRAME

1

2

The direction in which technology-enabled social media and networks evolves will have a significant impact on the provisioning of education. If large scale sharing of information and data, and development of informed debates around common concerns emerge as significant features of social media, access to education will be facilitated.

Universal participation will also depend on whether technologies will become accessible to persons with special needs. Technology could prove to be a significant leveller of differences in physical and cognitive capacities. This should result in greater throughputs in the school system and greater demands for tertiary education.

3

The extent to which online tertiary education becomes available will have a significant impact on access to education in 2035. There will be an exponential growth in demand for tertiary education which the brick and mortar institutions will no longer be capable of meeting. Technology could play an important role in the management and delivery of courses. Mentoring support, courseware, modes of delivery, assessment methods will all need to evolve towards flexible systems that would replace the existing rigid curricula. Standards and guidelines will have to be established for the use of technology for education.

4

A major determining factor of educational access in 2035 will be the extent to which technological and other initiatives facilitate the emergence and strengthening of multilingual education. English has always been a marker of social privilege in our country, but it has also been a significant barrier to academic progression. People forced to exclusively function in an alien language tend to be diffident and guarded, thereby impeding their creative possibilities in terms of thought and action. Creating content in a variety of local languages and building on technologies for real time interpretation will be a major step in providing educational access to all.

5

Educational access will also depend on the economic form that software and digital content takes in the coming years.

In its early years, ICT developed around economic models that treated software and digital content as products over which intellectual property rights could be claimed.

While the Internet has revolutionised all aspects of society and economy, it has also created barriers to participation and innovation. The free and open source software (FOSS) movement has grown in response to proprietary software and should lead to an increase in access to ICT and the educational content carried on these technologies.

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (VET) is an activity that pro-

vides people with the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to perform a job or a set of jobs, whether or not they lead to a formal qualification. The industry/employer specifies the occupational standards required for a job.

VET comprises acquisition of these specified skills as well as other elements of education.

In line with this standard definition, a number of professions that we do not traditionally regard as vocational should properly be regarded as such. Two prestigious professions that come immediately to mind are chartered accountancy and commercial flying. Why have we not considered them as falling within the purview of VET? Why is professional education in India – engineering, medical and legal education, to give the three most esteemed examples – not regarded as being vocational? Or, to put the question even more provocatively, when does a ‘vocation’ become a ‘profession’?

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Every branch of learning comes with its own mix of necessary knowledge (‘know what’) and essential skills (‘know how’). For some reason, those branches of learning that privilege knowledge are regarded as more ‘prestigious’ than those in which skills predominate. But this distinction would not necessarily explain why Surgery is universally regarded as being in some way ‘superior’ to Nursing. If we were to be totally honest, the real difference between a profession and a vocation has to do with its social status rather than any other attribute. As we have used the term for the past many years in India, vocational education is professional education for the subaltern classes, the kind of education that leads to blue-collar, lower paying jobs. We will never be able to transform the educational landscape if we do not reject this mindset. One of the core challenges for Indian education is the mainstreaming of vocational education, which must go handin-hand with the vocationalisation of ‘mainstream’ education.

Ramu, who lives in a village in Kerala, learnt carpentry from his father and keeps busy working throughout the year. He has four sons and a daughter.

Aravind, the eldest son, studied up to Class X in the village church school and then joined a one-year certificate course in surveying at an institute in the nearby town. Aravind is now a technician in Dubai and has constantly upgraded his skills through various professional courses. Chandran, the second son, dropped out after primary school and started learning the skills of carpentry from his father. Gopal, the third son, earned a degree in science and later found a government job. Vishnu, the fourth son, joined a course in typewriting and stenography after Class X and now works in a private company in Mumbai. The lone daughter, Sitha, studied nursing and migrated to USA as a nurse. Of Ramu’s children, Chandran is clearly the worst off. Unlike his siblings, he has not had an opportunity to enhance his skills to cater to his evolving needs. Trained in the traditional gurukul system that involves transference of skills from the elder guru to younger relatives, Chandran did not learn the advanced skills needed to use power tools, incorporate new systems and designs, and enhance business opportunities. Worse still, he has developed an inferiority complex vis-à-vis his siblings. Although Chandran is pursuing the family profession, there is now a strong stigma attached to it in the family and his own children have little in common with their cousins.

RAMU KERALA

The characters in this story are works of fiction created to illustrate the importance of vocational education.

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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For individuals, the VET system delivers knowledge and skills; for employers and industries, it facilitates the recognition of skills gained by these individuals. Quality assurance includes the formal acknowledgement, through the award of certification from an appropriate agency, that the expected skills and knowledge have been delivered.

In India, the share of VET in the formal sector is significantly less than in the informal sector. The formal stream of VET is imparted through industrial training institutes/ schools, industrial training centres and polytechnics. The informal sector is mainly run by private players. There are over a dozen ministries of the government which are involved in VET. Our country has seen a major transition into knowledge based economy which requires a skilled workforce. There is a large younger cohort that is not getting ample opportunities for either formal education or VET. India will not benefit from the demographic dividend nor create a knowledge society if the educational needs of the young are not catered for. Furthermore, the number of people in the age group of 60 and above is increasing. The VET sector has to provide for their needs too.

Imbalances that exist in the labour market due to the unavailability of skilled persons will be further accentuated in the future.

A skilled workforce will improve industrial performance. To achieve this, the following issues are important: modern skill training with vertical and horizontal mobility and connectivity with formal education; social inclusion through VET; enhancing the social prestige of VET, and lifelong learning (LLL).

For individuals, the VET system delivers knowledge and skills; for employers and industries, it facilitates the recognition of skills gained by these individuals. Quality assurance includes the formal acknowledgement, through the award of certification from an appropriate agency, that the expected skills and knowledge have been delivered. Table 6.1 depicts the various aspects of governance, registration and accreditation that the quality assurance agency would have to cover.

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Table 6.1 QUALITY INDICATORS FOR AGENCIES OF QUALITY STANDARDS

THEMES

INDICATORS

Learner Characteristics

Learner demographic profile

Provider characteristics

National registration of providers

Learner Pathways

Flexible and alternative pathways into National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) programs

Recognition of prior learning in all contexts

Strategies for recognising learning in all contexts including formal and informal educational contexts as well as learning in the workplace

Labour market influences

Coherence of supply in relation to demand

Learning resources and support

Access to learning resources and support services Provision of services to learners with disabilities.

Program design and curriculum development

Effectiveness of program design, accreditation and review

Quality of Teaching Staff

Investment in training of teachers Recruitment and retention of high quality teaching staff.

Training and Assessment

Range and appropriateness of training and assessment strategies employed

Learner Progress and Attainment

Retention and completion rates

Comparability of achievement standards

Monitoring achievement standards across time.

Graduate destinations

Monitoring pathways from VET to work and/or continuing education

Stakeholder satisfaction

Graduate and employer satisfaction with the program

Continuous external audits and feedback of stakeholders will improve the performance of the VET system.

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6.01

CHALLENGES

The four core challenges facing the VET sector are:

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

FACULTY TRAINING

INVOLVEMENT OF INDUSTRY IN IMPARTING SKILLS

ACCREDITATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

Given the large number of aspirants for vocational education, technology is the key. VET enhancing strategies are depicted in Figure 6.1, while the parameters to be considered while developing the VET design strategies are described in Figure 6.2.

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FOR VET VET SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

FIG 6.1

PROFESSIONALISM FOR TEACHING STAFF QUALITY EDUCATION THROUGH CREDITABLE QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ASSESSMENT SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARD INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION IN SKILL COMPONENT TRAINING QUALITY VET THROUGH BALANCED, RELEVANT DYNAMIC AND DIFFRENTIATED CURRICULUM

FIG 6.2

VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PARAMETERS

STRATEGIC THEMES

LEARNING AREAS

LEARNING FOCUS/ DOMAIN

ASSESSMENT

DESIRED OUTCOMES

State-of the-Art Simulated Industries

Identification of Areas and Specialised Technologies of the future

Imparting Skills Education

ICT and entrepreneurship across the curriculum; Co-curricular activities; Social skills

Knowledge & Understanding

Essential skills

Assessment for Knowledge

Attitudes & values

Assessment for Skills

Industry Specific Skill Levels

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6.02

THE WAY AHEAD

It is possible that in the years ahead schools and colleges will show an increased interest in providing the education component of VET. However, the participation of industry to act as Skill Knowledge Provider (SKP) to provide the skill component could well remain problematic. A new concept of simulated industries in campuses may have to be established to fill this critical gap.

Vikram Sarabhai’s vision in the 1950s, to use satellite communication to reach out to the masses for educational purposes, has now to be transmuted to the use of existing and future digital and virtual reality platforms. The use of ICT in imparting education in both classroom and distance modes along with ubiquitously accessible virtual laboratories will become the norm. Individual preferences and aptitudes (‘personalised learning’) will require teaching tailored to a learner’s specific needs. Given the diversity of individual preferences, VET will require the development of teaching methods that optimise personalised learning.

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TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Content and information for acquiring knowledge and skills will be increasingly available on open platforms with modular courses. Credits earned in such short courses would be aggregated to obtain diplomas and degrees. Robust quality assurance and testing platforms would ensure that skills acquired by a person are certified to high accuracy.

Hiring of personnel by companies will then become less capricious. This process will mainstream VET and the social stigma attached to it will vanish.

‘Experiential Learning’ leading to better conceptual understanding, wider knowledge bases and appropriate skill sets, will take different forms in the coming years. It will help to make VET more accessible and enjoyable. Experiential learning must be supported by reflection, critical analysis and synthesis. An important example of experiential learning is ‘Do Engineering’, which will be learner-centric and technology-driven.

MAINSTREAMING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, REIMAGINING LIFELONG LEARNING

education. Any resemblance to a real person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THERE COULD BE A FOUR - STAGE TEACHING LEARNING PROCESS 1. Animated and descriptive content of the topic 2. Conduct of an experiment/ process by simulation 3. Experimenting using kits available off the shelf 4. Apprenticeship in an industry

Aravind, Ramu’s eldest son, was not able to utilise the surveying skills that he had first acquired through VET because the technology had moved from chain and compass surveying to using total station theodolite (TST) in construction sites: the shift from analogue to digital was a disruptive technology in the construction industry. Disruptive technologies always lead to new skills, so anticipating upcoming and over-the-horizon technologies and preparing training modules will become essential. If solar energy is the potential source of future energy needs, the technical knowhow and skills to operate and manage the solar installations will have to be imparted in anticipation. So, the identification of technologies of the future is justified as a strategic theme.

The character in this story is a work of fiction created to illustrate the importance of vocational

ARAVIND

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6.03

REIMAGINING LIFELONG LEARNING

According to UNESCO (1976: 2), ‘Education and learning, far from being limited to a period of attendance at school, should extend throughout life, include all skills and branches of knowledge, use all possible resources, and provide opportunities to all people for full development of the personality.’ Learning is a flexible, creative and responsive process through which meaning and purpose is constructed over a lifetime. Among our twelve representative Indians, Yasin, Xavier and Lalchamliana would certainly have benefitted from access to lifelong learning.

Since the 1980s, lifelong learning (LLL) has come to mean a ‘learning society’ or, in the individual context, cradle-to-grave learning. This all-encompassing understanding of lifelong learning may not be particularly helpful in catering to the educational needs of Indians in 2035. For instance, pre-school learning involves ques75

MAINSTREAMING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, REIMAGINING LIFELONG LEARNING

Learning is a flexible, creative and responsive process through which meaning and purpose is constructed over a lifetime.

tions of cognitive and neurological development that are more appropriately tackled through health systems rather than education systems.

A more useful understanding of LLL would focus upon (trans)formal education and training, i.e. the processes of re-skilling and re-education that take place after and beyond formal education, and will not include those returning to formal education after taking a break for reasons of choice or compulsion.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

RESKILLING

RE-EDUCATING

LIVELIHOOD - DRIVEN INNOVATION IN DELIVERY LIFELONG LEARNING NEW CONTENT QUALITY OF LIFE DRIVEN THE DRIVERS AND CONTENT OF LIFELONG LEARNING FIG 6.3

There is a complex relationship between three important elements of lifelong learning namely, education for a highly skilled workforce, personal development leading to a rewarding life and the creation of a stronger and inclusive society. Lifelong learning can emerge as the ideal mechanism for working adults to update their knowledge and skills without having to pay the high costs associated with stepping out of the workforce.

People learn better within the context of their work, both in terms of physical location as well as their phase of life. The direct usefulness of new knowledge for actual problem situations greatly improves the motivation to learn. In other words, learners in an LLL context must have greater agency to choose what, when, where and how they will acquire knowledge and skills.

IN THIS CONTEXT, SYSTEMIC TRANSFORMATION NEEDS TO GO BEYOND BARRIERS OF THE CURRENT EDUCATION SYSTEM IN ORDER TO • Allow more liberal entry and re-entry into formal education, thereby reducing the need for LLL, • Encourage growth and diffusion of LLL systems, and

• Permit learners to proceed at the pace and direction that fulfils their needs

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

Kulwant, a retired postmaster who is seventy years old, lives with his son Omkar and daughter-in-law Harseerat in Mohali. Kulwant is thoroughly enjoying his retirement, although he feels lonely sometimes because Omkar and Harseerat are usually busy working and he does not have many friends in Mohali.

Kulwant, who could always sketch well, is now thinking of taking up a formal course in painting with watercolours. Omkar is a dentist who specialises in orthodontics. He has set up a practice with a partner who specialises in dental implants. Over the last few years, their practice has taken off and is now very busy. Both Omkar and his partner realise that dentistry is a constantly evolving field and their practice needs to keep abreast with the latest developments. After taking several years off to raise her two children, Harseerat has recently re-entered the workforce. Earlier, she had worked in the sales department of a large pharmaceutical company but she no longer likes being in sales. Harseerat is ready for a total career change: after years of helping her children with their homework, she feels that with proper training she could become a fine school teacher. Each member of the family wants to re-enter the world of learning for different reasons: while Kulwant desires a better quality of life, Omkar needs to re-skill on a regular basis and Harseerat would like to re-educate herself in a new field. Fortunately for them, they live near a great university that offers many lifelong learning (LLL) possibilities.

KULWANT MOHALI

The characters in this story are works of fiction created to illustrate the different reasons for people to seek lifelong learning (LLL) programmes. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

LLL is a life enhancing strategy for two reasons: livelihood and quality-of-life.

For some people, it is necessary because of professional and livelihood imperatives. Given the high rate of technological obsolescence in most productive activities, people increasingly feel the need for LLL options.

Some people need to reskill themselves in order to remain relevant and employable in the sector in which they currently function, while others need to re-educate themselves in order to become attractive and viable in a sector that they are unfamiliar with.

Everyone should have the competencies that make them employable, and in this context the recognition, 77

MAINSTREAMING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, REIMAGINING LIFELONG LEARNING

accreditation and validation of competencies are essential.

However, in a world populated with individuals who are living longer and healthier, and aspire to pursue their interests with deep passion, LLL becomes a very attractive option for reasons that go beyond livelihoods and pertain to quality of life. In either context, LLL can focus on new content or innovative delivery mechanisms, or both. Livelihood-driven LLL may need connectivity with formal systems of education and training while in the case of quality of life-driven LLL the link with formal systems could be more tenuous.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

What are some of the macro trends that will drive LLL-seeking behaviour?

It is estimated that the population in India would touch 1.57 billion by 2035 resulting in an exponential increase in diversity. Higher disposable income would allow families to spend on the educational needs of not only the children but other members as well. Smaller families would have more free time to devote for learning. An ageing population, consisting of people such as Uma, would embrace education for recreation, well-being and spirituality. A vibrant middle-class seeking upward mobility would look for continuing education and knowledge. The diminishing gender gap would lead to the quest for equal opportunity and a competitive environment would place further demand on education beyond the formal education system.

A culture of openness, transparency and participation would in turn create a constant demand for new knowledge. Citizens could in a life time seek a second career (and also short-span careers). This will increase the demand for new or emerging professions/skills.

LLL is not just a choice or option, but an urgent imperative for the quality of life of citizens in society. There are several reasons why people would be interested in updating their knowledge on a continuing basis: • The emergence of a stronger service sector would open new avenues for knowledge and skills ................................................................

• ‘Do-it-yourself’ (DIY) cultures will emerge as options for individuals to update their knowledge on necessities for good living ................................................................

• The concern and awareness about societal and global issues will prompt people to know and learn more ................................................................

• Point-of-care management, monitoring and diagnosis of diseases will increasingly shift from healthcare professionals to individuals and families ................................................................

• Operation of routine financial services will devolve entirely to individual consumers

With enough policy support, renewed stakeholder commitment and adequate resources, LLL can empower individuals and communities alike to break out of the cycle of exclusion and disadvantage towards a more sustainable future. To become a knowledge economy, we need to keep developing our human capital and creating knowledge workers to contribute to our growth, development, and competitiveness in the global economy. Adequate support for LLL will assist in poverty reduction and provision of quality education for all.

Finding the most efficient and effective ways to match the versatility of the modern digital and technological age with the goals of LLL in India will be a huge challenge for educational planners.

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WHILE

discussions on our edu-

cation system invariably include a mention of quality issues, in reality the focus of public policy in recent years has been more on issues of access. Both access and quality are important and should not be seen as mutually opposed. Nevertheless, there is a certain tension between access and quality that the proper use of technology could help eliminate. When providing for universal access, flexibility and mobility, every programme should ensure quality and maintain standards.

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Even with universal access and online learning opportunities, not all educational institutions and processes will be equal in quality. The expanding base of education at all levels should, in theory, generate healthy competition between educational institutions and agencies, leading to improved standards. With our large population, demand for the best institutions will remain ahead of the supply.

Hence, selection processes will have to continue, albeit in a more transparent, robust and healthy climate.

The impulse for quality is a race to the top. It reduces differentials between institutions in terms of their essential processes and, conse-

quently, their output. When quality becomes the touchstone, both competition and socialisation lead to greater efficiencies, emulation of best practices and even mimicry of the leaders in the field. The application of technological solutions to issues of quality will facilitate in narrowing the bandwidth across which the competitors are arrayed.

A core challenge for quality assessment in any field of human endeavour is to have clear and realistic metrics. In the case of education systems quality metrics need to be devised that cater to assessment for entrance (input), teaching for learning (process) and evaluation for certification (output).

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ASSESSMENT FOR ENTRANCE

The present system of deciding who gets to study where, has evolved over the experiences of the last 3-4 decades, during which time the gap between supply and demand in educational institutions has been widening. The premier institutions have had rigorous selection processes, including entrance examinations, from their inception. This was deemed necessary because of the perception that standards of high school education across the country were widely disparate. The increasing aspirations in all segments of society led to a surge in demand that was out of proportion to the growth in population.

The present entrance examination systems aim to select on the basis of elimination and do not take into account aptitude as a factor. The more elite institutions, in order to deal with the ever-increasing numbers, test at a level a few steps ahead of the Class XII Board examination curriculum. While the intention may be to pre-select the brighter aspirants, it has encouraged and formalised a parallel education sector, the private tuition industry.

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Savitri has sketched perfectly for as long as she can remember but she has never considered herself an artist. Early on, her parents had chided her for wasting time instead of studying.

Savitri’s school did not even have an arts teacher on its staff for several years. Never having been trained in the ways of visual imagination, Savitri’s drawings were limited to images that she had copied from elsewhere or sketches of objects and faces. Her friends were delighted with her likenesses but could not understand why Savitri was so bad at drawing caricatures of their teachers. While her maps in geography were incredibly accurate, her natural talent came to the fore in biology: Savitri’s teacher used to proudly exhibit his favourite student’s drawings of plants and animals in the staff room.

Yet neither he nor anyone else ever told Savitri that she should consider opting for a visual arts career. Although she hated dissection, Savitri scored very high marks in biology and her parents took it for granted that she would study medicine. With the customary coaching, Savitri did very well in the entrance examination and has been admitted to a top ranked medical college. She is miserable: when she encountered her first cadaver in anatomy, she almost ran out of the room. Savitri has made no friends in college and has, for the first time, started imagining and drawing all manner of macabre images.

Meanwhile, her parents are proudly awaiting the day their daughter becomes an MBBS.

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Any resemblance to a real person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

In this changed scenario, young people may opt for a wider range of educational and skilling opportunities, contributing to the decreased stress on the coveted courses and institutions. The selection processes for these will continue. But, it should become possible to make selections based on aptitude, interest, motivation and general intelligence along with specific skills for the concerned sector, such as empathy and gentleness for doctors and nurses. Only then will there be a blooming of minds, with creative output and innovations in all knowledge domains, something the present system has failed to do. Technology platforms would allow the tracking of learners through the latter years of schooling, to advise them on their aptitudes and capabilities.

SAVITRI

The character in this story is a work of fiction created to illustrate the importance of pursuing one's passion in education.

As the education sector expands, skilling opportunities widen, and demographic stability is achieved, the supply-demand ratio will start to change in a favourable direction. By 2035, all young Indians at the end of their schooling should be able to pursue the educational path of their choice and aptitude, confidently facing the competitive selection process. The most important factor will be the attitudinal transformation of society into one where knowledge and work are respected for themselves and teachers have high social standing. Without this change in social attitudes, fundamental transformation of the education system is extremely unlikely.

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TEACHING FOR LEARNING

Irrevocably intertwined, teaching and learning form the cornerstone of the education system. Historically, skills were learnt in the apprentice mode and formal organised schools were few. In the early centres of learning, the emphasis was on learning itself, at each individual’s pace under guidance and supervision. With increasing number of young people accessing school education, certification boards with common curricula were born. In the traditional classroom model of teaching, the teacher was vested with the total responsibility of imparting knowledge.

The creation of large number of jobs in the last two decades has led to an increased demand for a trained work force. This in turn led to a rapid expansion of training programmes in many branches of professional education 85

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without a concomitant investment in transformation of the education and training processes. This inevitably resulted in a decrease in quality and a mismatch between the training and the employability of those trained.

In recent years, the emphasis in education has shifted from teaching to learning and the role of the teacher has evolved in new directions.

Schooling not only needs to impart understanding of minimal life skills, defined in this document to include reading, writing and communication (RWC), numeracy (Nu), e/digital proficiency (e/DP), visual and symbolic proficiency (VSP) and civic awareness (CA). It also needs to prepare all young people for the challenges of the life ahead of them. The purpose of education is to prepare people to create value.

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To achieve this, a paradigm shift is urgently required. Newer educational processes should harness the large amount of knowledge that is available in the public domain and use relevant modern and evolving technologies to reach the learner. To become an integral part of school education, innovation must not only involve the teachers but make them the agents of this transformation. The training of teachers for this new role is the essential first step. The evaluation of the quality of teaching is also a critical element. Currently, this is predominantly missing at the school level and is essentially absent at college and higher levels of teaching.

While teaching and teachers need to be evaluated, this process should be non-threatening.

The transition to an e-enabled teaching-learning culture will require newer paradigms. The free access to knowledge can itself be counterproductive, and education technologies must evolve to guide learners through the ocean of available information. Relevant and interesting curricula have to be developed to keep learners engaged with learning. One challenge is to balance deep domain knowledge with a wide awareness of other knowledge domains, especially at the undergraduate and professional levels. In addition, certain generic capabilities such as analysis, problem solving and communication, must be taught across all knowledge domains.

The undergraduate level is crucial for three reasons • it corresponds to the phase in life when young adults are shaping their sense of self, ......................................................

• the human brain experiences its last growth spurt in terms of neuronal connections between the ages of 16 and 22, and ...................................................... • all teachers and trainers, across all levels and types of education, go through this level themselves and learn to become good teachers. ......................................................

By 2035, this transformation would no longer appear revolutionary and should have become the norm.

Training in skills within the technical education space is another area of concern. This has over time declined due to the pressure of increasing learner load. Skills evaluation is often formative, but it is not taken seriously enough by the trainer or trainee. Skills training is in fact the most important part of technical education and its importance must be re-instituted using technology.

Evaluating the quality of educational institutions is every bit as important as that of teaching and teachers. Accreditation should be mandatory for schools, which currently only need to be registered to fulfil certain administrative requirements with no oversight on the quality of education.

Accreditation of tertiary level educational institutions, which already exists to a certain extent, should be across the board and should be completely transparent. There is currently minimal accreditation procedure for post-school non-formal training. This presents a huge opportunity to start from scratch, to have decentralised training and certification with technology driven teaching and evaluation.

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EVALUATION FOR CERTIFICATION

Earlier, when skills were learnt in the apprenticeship mode, certification was an informal and decentralised process, with the mentor certifying the learner as and when he/she felt that the required level of knowledge/skill had been achieved. This guru-shishya system still prevails in many fields, especially in family based crafts like handloom weaving and in classical music and dance.

In the post-industrialisation era, the apprenticeship model was no longer sufficient to impart the new technical knowledge and skills and formal programmes evolved for this purpose.

With increased mobility of the work force, it also became necessary that the content and methods at different centres of education conformed to some common pattern. As or87

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ganised training formats, such as school boards and structured courses evolved, formal evaluation processes like board certifications and university degrees also evolved to certify a skill or level of knowledge. These would then be easily recognised by others and used by employers.

ing-learning process, both evaluation and assessment are integral. Learner assessment is normally conducted by teachers and designed to motivate and direct learning, provide feedback to learners on their performance, provide feedback on instruction and/or the curriculum and ensure standards of progression.

DEFINITIONS

Certification is the confirmation of certain pre-defined characteristics. In the field of education, both teaching and institutions providing the service need to be certified in order to ensure that the expected minimum standards of delivery are met. Although this could be a self-evaluation process, third party certification which involves external review, assessment, or audit has better recognition.

In the context of education, evaluation is the critical assessment, in as objective a manner as possible, of the degree to which a provider fulfils programme educational objectives. Educational assessment involves gathering and evaluating data evolving from planned learning activities or programmes. Since education is a teach-

Nabhendu is in many ways an ideal student, who recognises his own shortcomings and is willing to work twice as hard as everyone else to constantly improve himself. His teachers have always adored him for this quality. Nabhendu is mature beyond his teenage years. A good middle-distance runner and a bit introverted, he is popular with his classmates, especially the girls. Unlike his elder sister, who has given their parents no end of trouble, Nabhendu has never been a problem for his parents‌ until his terrible accident immediately after the Class XII board examinations. The examinations had gone well. The years of after-school coaching and extra classes seemed to be paying off at last. Nabhendu was looking forward to a few days rest before the grind of the engineering and medical entrance examinations began. He went to the class farewell party riding pillion on his friend’s motorcycle. His friend took a silly and dangerous turn in front of a city transport bus and the result was instantaneous and tragic. His friend died in the ambulance and Nabhendu had to endure three surgical operations and several months in traction. He missed all the entrance examinations. Nabhendu’s parents and sister are just grateful that he is alive. Nabhendu has taken all the physical pain, psychological trauma and heartbreak in his stride. Based on his outstanding Class XII results, he has taken late admission into an Honours programme in Mathematics and is discovering how much he loves the discipline. He could be a Fields Medallist one day.

NABHENDU

The character in this story is a work of fiction created to illustrate how a person can be successful in learning and life despite not clearing the entrance examination to professional programmes. Any resemblance to a real person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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THE CURRENT SCENARIO The problem of evaluation for certification in Indian education today exhibits the following characteristics:

Certification of the learner is generally based on a summative evaluation which does not guarantee that programme educational objectives have been met but only acknowledge the number of years of formal participation in the programme.

Certification of college/university level programmes and courses is based on a pass/fail system.

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Certification of the learner indirectly also certifies the teacher and the institution.

Formal employment is fairly rigidly linked to certification.

In the trades and crafts sector involving learning in the apprenticeship mode, the lack of official certification has led to a loss of status for the trade or craft.

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Many emerging business activities engage in their own training programmes without any certification of skills and knowledge acquired.

In many areas, employment is no longer strictly linked to paper qualifications.

Although national accrediting bodies do exist in many educational sectors, and while specific professional councils do oversee each of the professions, there is no standardised accreditation process in medicine, nursing and other streams of education.

Certain changes are urgently needed in the process of evaluation for certification. School-level certification should be based on formative evaluation rather than summative evaluation.

With regard to college/university level programmes and courses, modular certification to facilitate easy exit and re-entry into the system is essential to facilitate individual life choices and to link up the worlds of study and work.

CONCLUSION It would be fair to say that the urgency for the radical transformation of all aspects of education has recently gained wide acceptance. It has also become very evident that the massive transformation that we want to see in society as a whole as well as in other technology sectors hinges on the success of transformation in the field of education. Existing technologies need to be harnessed, and new technologies generated, to fulfil the aspiration of the country in this field.

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EMPLOYABILITY refers to the explicit and implicit

linkages between the world of learning and the world of work. It is the ability to gain initial employment, maintain employment and obtain new employment. It is also about possessing a basket of knowledge and skills to perform adequately in a defined job, to be attractive when searching for alternate employment, and being able to be self-employed. Entrepreneurship is the ability to set up and run an economic enterprise in the face of market uncertainty and risk so that the earnings outstrip the investments. Livelihood security is the certainty of earning a living either through one’s employability or entrepreneurship.

While some analysts view educational output solely in terms of employability, there is a wider understanding that employability is only one of the many parameters by which an educational system should be judged. Employability becomes an educational issue when there is a mismatch between what is being taught, how it is being taught, what is being learnt, and what is being sought by the marketplace. Livelihood security therefore depends on appropriate sets of knowledge and skills that are in tune with the contemporary economic scenario in terms of entrepreneurial and employment opportunities. In the face of the rapid advances in technology, the world of entrepreneurship and employment are now in constant flux, making re-skilling, re-training and re-learning an essential element is any individual’s career and life plans. Educational systems that do not cater to demographic segments beyond the age of 28 will soon become redundant.

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8.01

ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR LIVELIHOOD SECURITY

Apart from relevant disciplinary knowledge and skill sets, an education system makes learners aware of the ways in which the world around them is changing. A good school system teaches the learner not only the basic skills of literacy and numeracy – the traditional 3Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic – but what is today is termed as the 3Cs (comprehension, communication and computation).

To enable people to lead happy, healthy and productive lives, Sugata Mitra argues that a school system based on a curriculum of questions rather than facts, a pedagogy that encourages collaboration and use of the Internet, and an assessment system that looks for productivity over process and method, are needed.

The education system should equip learners to navigate the complexity of an ever-changing ecosystem of work and remaining valuable as an entrepreneur or employee by building their leadership, management and interpersonal skills and enhancing their innovation, creativity and resilience. Education also makes absorption of life skills easier.

At higher levels of learning, educational programmes need to emphasise certain basic skills that are essential in the new post-industrial economy:

i. Data extraction and generalisation; relating data to theory and/or the use of formulae and models ii. Systemic thinking, which involves the ability to see both the micro and macro contexts and to link the two iii. Experiential learning, both intuitive or logical iv. The ability to collaborate through better communication and soft skills

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THE MARCH OF THE GENERATIONS

There is a new generation, born between 1990 and 2010 – variously known as the ‘Z’, ‘I (for Internet)’ or ‘C (for connected)’ generation – that will be between the ages of 25 and 45 in the year 2035. Any roadmap for employability and education must therefore be centred around the characteristics of this generation. It is envisaged that the Z generation will disrupt most existing models of living, working and playing. The Z generation was born to more involved, educated, friendlier and aware parents and therefore have a greater sense of purpose and self-worth. It is expected that the Z generation will exhibit greater civic mindedness and volunteerism. It consumes information voraciously, lives for socialising with its peer group, needs constant stimulation and has extremely short attention spans. As a group, they tend to be more confident, expect good news and are optimistic about getting good jobs and doing better 95

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in life than their parents. Meeting the expectations of others is an important goal for them. Z generation persons expect technology to work all the time. They tend to be team oriented because that insulates them from individual pressure. For this generation, success comes from effort and planning. Unfortunately, this generation is so used to achieving under constant pressure in a highly competitive environment that it leads many to regard themselves as failures. Z generation persons will seek opportunities for career progression, better packages, flexible working arrangements and place value on the reputation of their employer. Since this generation has had its initial learning experiences in the ICT era, it would be more receptive to rapid change, although that does not imply that they would necessarily be better equipped to take the multiple technological disruptions envisaged in the coming years in their stride.

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Pallavi is a management graduate in her late twenties. Top of her class, she received several lucrative and interesting job offers but decided to become a social entrepreneur with her own public policy NGO. She set up her social enterprise in partnership with Joydeep, who graduated from the same management institute three years before she did. They first met online in an alumni group and found that they shared similar concerns and ambitions.

Unlike Pallavi, Joydeep has had to struggle to get an education and move ahead in life. Nevertheless, they make a good team and have just produced an outstanding policy paper on the handicrafts supply chain. Pallavi’s husband, Gautam, is her classmate from high school. Gautam is an extremely talented designer with his own design studio, who receives and executes all his commissions online. On Diwali, Pallavi and Gautam took a tray of sweets over to the neighbouring apartment and were warmly welcomed by Edhas and Deepti. The easy friendship of the two couples has been cemented by the overlap in Pallavi’s and Deepti’s gym timings. Their husbands joke that Pallavi and Deepti spend more time in the gym chatting rather than exercising. Edhas is a journalist on a prominent news website in Hindi. Deepti is a lawyer. Joydeep recently met Edhas and Deepti at a birthday celebration organised by Pallavi for Gautam, and could not help observing that of the five of them, only Deepti is working in an occupation that any of their parents would recognise as a regular job.

PALLAVI

The characters in this story are works of fiction created to illustrate the different career choices being pursued

by Generation Z. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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THE CHANGING WORLD OF WORK AND VANISHING CAREERS

On the face of it, there appear to be three trends that are emerging in the world of work. The first is disappearing jobs: automation will not only drastically change the human-machine ratio in productive activities but lead to the elimination of entire categories of professions and jobs. The second trend is transitory careers: the traditional unidirectional movement from the world of learning to the world of work is being replaced by people returning to the educational system throughout their working lives for retraining and second/third careers. The third trend pertains to the primacy of leisure: due to emerging technologies, most people will work fewer hours and will have to find meaningful ways to fill the empty hours.

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The significance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge in finding and retaining jobs will increase, with significant knowledge-skill barriers to entry in many professions and occupations.

The importance of self-employment will correspondingly increase due to newer and constantly changing business models, lower entry barriers, greater access to information and increased speed of operation. Due to mechanisation of agriculture and aggregation of agrarian land holdings, a much smaller percentage of India’s population will work in agriculture.

Similarly, manufacturing, mining and construction will be hugely impacted by automation and mechanisation, with inevitable downward pressure on the number of jobs available in these sectors. The services sector will

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become the principal source of jobs, making soft skills and emotional intelligence even more important in the job market than they already are.

The rise of un-crewed vehicles will give rise to new workforce requirements in transportation, with the operators of terrestrial, aquatic, marine and aerial vehicles functioning not in the field but from offices in remote locations. Across all sectors, the number of highly skilled jobs will increase. Entirely new categories of jobs will emerge, including big data analysts, complex decision support analysts, customer experience experts, and online chaperones for individuals, children and small businesses. These changes would result in significant pressure on the education system from the young and employable population, amounting to almost half the country’s citizenry. Modification and transformation of curriculum to align with the needs of job markets will become inevitable. In conclusion, the education system must facilitate a transition to newer and better jobs, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind in the future flux.

In what way is the education system contributing to their livelihood security?

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THE ‘good life’ is the ability to enjoy the rou-

tine of daily life, find meaning in its values and achieve one’s aspirations in that context. With increased time for leisure, thanks in large part to the efficiencies provided by the industrial and technological revolutions of the last two centuries, the quest for the good life has become a modern imperative. This is illustrated by the use of the terms like ‘standard of living’, ‘human development index’ and ‘progress’ in contemporary discourses. Concepts like progress and development emerged from the devastation of the two World Wars in the first half of the twentieth century, reflecting a faith in humankind’s ability to overcome self-inflicted atrocities.

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This perspective also argues that accelerated progress would resolve the problems of political injustice and social inequality, thereby achieving the good life. Despite these expectations and aspirations, poverty, gender inequality, hunger, life expectancy and access to basic amenities, including education and health services, remain fundamental problems. There are several broad global and national trends that may influence achievement of the good life in India: 1. The global centre of gravity is shifting to the Asia-Pacific. Developments in India will therefore have a continental and global impact. Equally, developments overseas will have significant consequences for India’s domestic dynamics. ...............................................................

2. Economic globalisation and political decentralisation are proceeding simultaneously. Key decisions are now made globally and experienced locally, and vice versa. ...............................................................

3. The individual is being empowered in a variety of different social, political, economic and cultural contexts. This trend can be attributed to the global rise of the middle class, ICT and mass education. The combination of the empowerment of the individual, possibilities in idea-sharing and unprecedented facility in claiming individual rights appear as a giant stride for humankind towards ‘the good life’. ...............................................................

4. There has been a fundamental transformation in the dynamics of the family unit including basic interpersonal human relationships, such as those based on gender and generation. ...............................................................

5. There is an unprecedented emphasis on ecosystem concerns that encompass ideas such as carbon impact, biodiversity footprint, sustainable development,

integrity of landscape and water bodies, and living in harmony with nature. ...............................................................

6. Technology has evolved from being a background phenomenon to becoming a central defining aspect of human and social existence. Rapid technological change has placed huge pressure on individual adaptability and collective resilience in the face of transformation.

Technology can no longer be ignored: it must be engaged with so that its trajectory can be influenced. ...............................................................

In India, technology can be a good medium for reducing the tradition-modernity divide that exists across the categories of gender, geography, economics and generations.

An example would be the experiment of a group of young computer applications entrepreneurs in Kashmir in 2011 who digitised the complex traditional taaleem (coded instructions) upon which carpet weaving is based. The advantage of doing so is to not only save huge amounts of time but also to quickly convert the taaleem into a viewable design. Colour and pattern elements could also be changed instantly in accordance with consumer preferences and the corresponding taaleem generated rapidly. Thus, technology can become a tool for a dialogic environment.

An issue that will confront and challenge India is its capacity to maintain its diversity and plurality, and to find ways and means for the myriad groups within the country to preserve their individual uniqueness. This can be done by ensuring that its education system continues to be multilingual so that languages and their dialects are given a chance to not only survive but flourish. Further, given that there will be more leisure time, technology can enable virtual journeys and visits to introduce and expose hitherto insular societies to other cultures and values.

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UNDERSTANDING THE GOOD LIFE

Living the good life is to be at peace with oneself, with others and with our surroundings. To put it differently, there are three dimensions to the good life. Firstly, one must pursue the good life in one’s individual capacity, as a human being embedded in society. Secondly, one must seek to be a good citizen, a worthy member of the political community to which one belongs. Thirdly, one must aspire to the good life as a global citizen, an inhabitant of a planet consisting of precarious ecosystems. Each of these aspects deserve elaboration.

GOOD LIFE AS AN INDIVIDUAL

All individuals need a sense of safety and security, a sense of satisfaction with their economic and social circumstances, and a sense of confidence about who they are and about how and where they fit in the world and the larger scheme of things. Seen thus, security, prosperity and identity are basic needs that either cumulate or detract from one another: one either has all three simultaneously, or is to a degree deprived of all three. All human beings seek security, pursue prosperity and cherish identity: to survive, to thrive and to be oneself are the fundamental drivers of human existence.

Security has many facets including health, livelihood and shelter. Prosperity relates to income, earning potential, sense of wellbeing and some assurance regarding the future. Identity is about confidence in oneself and in one’s place in the social order. All three are inherent to the individual and yet influenced by external stimuli, of which the most important is education.

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Taahir owns a medium-sized brassware factory outside Moradabad which he runs with his daughter Qudsia and sonin-law Farid. Educated as a chemical engineer, Taahir was working in a petrochemical plant in Gujarat when his father suffered a massive heart attack after some business setbacks.

Sitting at his father’s bedside, Taahir had decided to give up his promising career and return home. Although many in his family feel that he has ‘wasted’ his education, Taahir has not regretted his decision even for a moment. He has worked hard to impose high quality standards in his factory. He has assiduously cultivated foreign links and has even won a prestigious government award for his company’s export performance. Most important of all, he has been able to eat three meals every day with his aging parents except when he is travelling on business. He encouraged Qudsia and her two younger siblings to study hard. Qudsia studied economics and then earned an MBA degree. It was at Business School that Qudsia met Farid, and after their marriage they took the radical decision to join the family brassware business rather than take up jobs in finance. Taahir is delighted that Farid and Qudsia have an active life outside the factory, whether in the tennis club, the neighbourhood mosque or the local business chamber. Their company has joined hands with others to promote a clean and green industrial estate. Taahir is totally at peace with himself. His inner serenity makes him an inspiring person for everyone around him.

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A good citizen is required to be involved in public life, which minimally implies awareness of the important issues of public policy that are likely to have an impact on oneself, one’s interests and one’s broader social concerns. A good citizen is conscious of the politics of the day: the latest manoeuvrings of political parties, the electoral process and the news and information media. Good citizenship requires, first and foremost, awareness of one’s rights whether political, social, economic or cultural. However, good citizens are equally conscious of their duties and responsibilities to fellow citizens, habitats and the law of the land.

MORADABAD The characters in this story are works of fiction created to illustrate the various dimensions of the good life.

GOOD LIFE AS A CITIZEN

TAAHIR

GOOD LIFE AS A GLOBAL CITIZEN

There are two critical dimensions to being a good global citizen. The first relates to how people interact with, and impact upon, the natural world around them. Here, such issues as one’s carbon footprint, interaction with other species in the context of biodiversity, and one’s overall use of resources, becomes exceedingly important. In essence, this requires an awareness of and sensitivity to how one’s micro activities and actions have a macrosystemic effect. The second dimension, sometimes neglected, relates to how one responds to sociocultural differences. In a rapidly globalising world people are forced to interface with strangers who possess a very distinct understanding of what is appropriate in social life. Faced with others who have a distinct social common sense, cultural receptivity becomes the hallmark of a good global citizen: acceptance of difference while remaining true to oneself.

Thus, the good life is a multidimensional construct. Achieving the right balance helps a person to attain and live the good life. Education – especially value education – therefore becomes an important pathway to achieve an inner equilibrium and to radiate positive externality.

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SPORTS, CULTURE AND VALUE EDUCATION

One of the most enjoyable ways to train oneself to pursue the good life is to seriously practice sports. The most compelling reason to promote sports is that they are the healthiest way to have fun and thereby promote individual fitness and public health.

Whatever the preferred physical activity, whether walking or jogging, yoga or aerobics, golf or kabaddi, sports are at their most beneficial when they become a way of life, an activity that becomes a part of one’s identity.

Through sports, one can teach and learn some of the most significant lessons about life: about striving to win yet being graceful in defeat; about team spirit and giving your all for the group; about the importance of competitiveness, diligence, discipline and 105

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hard work; about sacrificing current comfort for future success and joy; and about the importance of strategy and mental strength. Any system of education that does not privilege sports is fundamentally unsound. Not providing the young a safe outlet for their energies and their competitive – and combative – instincts is also potentially dangerous for society.

Just as important as sports is culture in all its myriad forms of expression: literature and the spoken word, the performative and kinaesthetic arts (music, dance and theatre), visual arts in all their media, classical and popular culture, and those art forms that lie between (the hybrids) and beyond (the transcendental). The pursuit of

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artistic excellence, requiring daily riyaaz (practice) and lifelong sādhanā (intense discipline), elevates us to a higher plane. Culture is based equally in memory and imagination: tradition goes hand in hand with innovation. Culture is both the arena and the fount of creativity, which may be defined as conceiving and executing ideas that have value. Encouraging cultural expression is a wonderful way to increase creativity and innovation in society. In particular, cultivating a deep appreciation of local language, food, art, clothes, rituals and festivals makes us more connected to our social context and thus better human beings.

Value education is about orienting learners from an early age to distinguish right from wrong and to always choose the right path although there are easier and more tempting options available. Seen in this sense, value education never ends and is coterminous with life itself.

Value education involves learning about differences, learning to appreciate differences and learning to live with differences. It is about not being self-referential, accepting critiques, developing a critical and questioning approach and yet having an appreciation for tradition and ways of living bequeathed by one’s ancestors. Seen in this light, sports, culture and value education are seamlessly intertwined.

Can we deploy technology in creative and innovative ways to preserve, promote and propagate India's traditional performing art forms?

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THE

creation of knowledge and its transmission are integrally interconnected in all domains: mathematics and philosophy, the natural sciences relating to the physical world, the sciences of life, the social and human sciences, the various manifestations of culture and of course the applied sciences.

Knowledge creation and research are synonymous terms. The quality of research is ultimately judged by its novelty, but increasingly the ‘usefulness’ of research is also becoming a crucial metric in some branches of knowledge. Sometimes usefulness is immediately apparent; in many others, it becomes apparent only on intergenerational timescales. So, there must be caution in dismissing any area of research as not being useful.

In the emerging knowledge era, research, innovation and product development have become key factors in national advancement in an increasingly competitive world. Excellence in research and its translation to technology products is thus a matter of crucial importance to realise the country’s aspirations. This is both in terms of technologies needed to fulfil intended prerogatives for the citizenry as well as in terms of strengthening the economy to assure wide scale deployment of those technologies for the benefit of all. Continuous engagement of young people is necessary to sustain this process and the current demographic profile is favourable in this context. Linking higher education with research is thus a key challenge in order to strengthen capability for knowledge based innovations.

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10.01

ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR LIVELIHOOD SECURITY

Connecting research with higher education requires a major paradigm shift that is crucial to expanding frontiers of knowledge. Furthermore, the teaching-learning process itself benefits immensely when conducted in an environment of high quality research. The ability to translate research to products and their deployment is an important aspect of learning and training that young learners should experience during their educational process. For higher education to be effective in preparing learners to be worthy contributors to socioeconomic development, the following key features would need to be created and nurtured in our educational institutions: 1. High level research that continuously pushes the knowledge frontiers forward and a learning environment that facilitates knowledge acquisition by learners all the way up to latest frontiers of knowledge in different disciplines. ............................................................................................................................

2. An eco-system that promotes translation of new research to technology, wherever possible, and facilitates its commercialisation or deployment through training in entrepreneurship and linkages with other stakeholders.

Apart from individual research, group research involving different disciplines is urgently needed. Exposure to understanding market needs, making viability based choices, product qualification and entrepreneurship, is also essential. An example would be the presence of industry on academic campuses to provide hands-on learning opportunities for learners in research translation. ............................................................................................................................

3. Flexibility for learners and teachers to dwell in any one or more of above domains depending upon their interests, along with presence of faculty with actual experience in aspects related to technology development and translation on the campus.

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In addition to a comprehensive education and research infrastructure, there is a need to create a holistic environment where learners can learn along multiple tracks and at multiple levels involving: 1. Fundamental understanding in chosen disciplines of knowledge 2. Procedural knowledge that creates different types of professionals related to a discipline 3. Training and skilling in areas related to one’s specialisation.

Such a comprehensive and holistic academic environment, with vibrant linkages to all external stakeholders (industries, investors, partner institutions, government, market, society), would constitute a desirable innovation ecosystem that creates knowledge-based value in society by creating empowered individuals. The proposed approach would lead to considerable diversity on the academic campus in a variety of ways. This diversity would pose many institutional and systemic challenges, such as defining a suitable yardstick to measure faculty excellence when faculty members are engaged in areas as diverse as teaching, research, technology product development, commercialisation of technology, etc.

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10.02

LINKING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS WITH INDUSTRY

Technology development can be broadly of two types. The first type, involving incremental changes to existing technologies, takes place predominantly in industry settings and is a workhorse for the continuous evolution of technology. In contrast, the second type of technology development emerges from open ended basic research that typically exists in more academic settings. While the first type of technology development has important economic consequences, the second type has a greater chance of nucleating a disruptive technology, thereby having a much larger social, economic and cultural impact. However, for institutions of higher learning to play in significant role in seeding disruptive technologies they must be willing to recognise the importance of

technology development and to facilitate those who play an important role in doing so. Furthermore, even in basic research the academic-industry linkage in crucial, both to identify good problems for research and to recognise the real-world consequences of research outputs and to capitalise on them.

The effort required for the initial proof of concept is a mere fraction of that which is required for translation of a technology to a robust commercial product. The prevailing support systems for the technology translation effort tend to be resource deficient. An additional issue arises from the need to nurture partnerships between diverse organisations on the basis of their technological competence RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

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rather than on ‘lowest technically acceptable’ (chalta hai) basis. It is particularly important to evolve modalities for institutions with complimentary capabilities to work together and put an adequate support system in place at least for first-of-kind technologies.

These support systems must be capable of bridging ‘valleys of death’ that invariably exist in the technology translation process from proof of concept to commercialisation. There are several ways of doing this apart from sponsored development in a mission mode such as: 1. A judicious mix of public funded research that is accessible to all partners with competitive proprietary research that is privately funded. .......................................................

2. Support for demand driven development of products to cater to a specified functional need through competitive evaluation of invited proposals. .......................................................

3. An assured initial market for the products of this research. .......................................................

With the shift towards knowledge products backed up by growing digital connectivity, a new reality is emerging with potential for fundamental transformation in the rural domain. Apart from market drivers, there are aspects related to social equity, cultural sensitivity, adaptation by local people, technology qualification under local circumstances etc. which would be important in the evolution and deployment of relevant technologies. To ensure such a transformation, knowledge institutions rooted in local surroundings should play a proactive role. This is both a big challenge as 113

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well as an important opportunity. Collaborations with knowledge institutions experienced in technology development and deployment, as well other relevant stake holders, would rapidly transform the Indian countryside and ensure leapfrogging by local knowledge institutions.

Market access is a key element for product development efforts to grow.

Market entry of a new product has to overcome the barrier of buyer confidence particularly when there are choices available. This barrier is particularly significant for high cost products or for products with first-of-kind features. Technology development support schemes designed to fulfil a felt need should thus incorporate some hand holding features with respect to market entry in the initial phase of commercialisation. This is of particular importance with respect to building national technological capability in strategically important areas

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and would involve synergistic actions on part of more than one department of government.

Just as knowledge institutions should have responsive industry linkages on the campus for the learners to be exposed to the innovation chain, it is also important to create knowledge institution linkages in large industrial zones.

Industries tend to cluster together to benefit each other through shared facilities and resources. Locating a knowledge institution in the midst of such a cluster with focus on relevant core technologies would help a deeper assimilation of technologies, address problems that may arise in the practice of a new technology, rejuvenate and continuously update technologies and eventually even lead to the evolution of new technologies. Presence of a knowledge institution thus constitutes an insurance against obsolescence and support to an environment of innovation in our industrial sector.

Inculcating the spirit of innovation should begin from early childhood.

Encouraging and addressing curiosity among children is crucial to inculcating a spirit of innovation and self-confidence. While activity based learning is essential, access to facilities that would enable unstructured modes of learning through hands on efforts to address self-curiosities under the guidance of an able mentor is even more necessary.

India has all along been a fertile land for ideas. This probably arises out of our rich heritage in terms of knowledge and culture. The challenge is to create an ecosystem that facilitates opportunities to translate an idea into commercially robust product and to develop the capability and confidence in our youth to undertake such a challenge. While there are several policy actions that the government needs to take, our education system must proactively prepare itself to lead society into this transformation.

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EDUCATIONAL

technologies involve the creation, usage and management of appropriate technological processes and resources to facilitate learning and skill enhancement. A scan of the technology horizon leads to the identification of a wide spectrum of existing and emerging technologies that are likely to have a transformational impact on all aspects of education. These technologies can be organised into six groups: information and communication (ICT), artificial intelligence (AI), display and user interface, Internet, computational, and simulation and modelling.

Several of these technologies already exist, but the timeline for their adoption would depend upon their widespread introduction and use in our country’s educational systems and processes. By widespread introduction and use we imply that a technology is accessible to any educational institution for which it has obvious applicability. Since technologies tend to constantly evolve, novel features will continue to be incorporated into existent technologies, thereby changing their use and impact upon learning. Also, given the rapid pace of technological advance, some of these technologies may become redundant even before they are widely utilised.

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11.01

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT)

5G TELEPHONY Technology relating to the fifth generation of cellular wireless standards.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

A 5G system is expected to provide a comprehensive and secure all-IP based mobile broadband solution for computers, wireless modems, smart phones and other mobile devices. Facilities such as ultra-broadband internet access, IP telephony gaming services, and streamed multimedia may be provided to users. From an educational perspective, 5G telephony would provide fast and secure content delivery. High-speed communication will benefit synchronous remote classrooms by reducing latency and improving quality of interaction. Video-on-demand service, 3D image transmission and access to repositories and libraries will improve the quality and appeal of content. Multimedia streaming and other infotainment services would make education interesting and offer near-real learning experience, even in remote locations and while travelling (study on-the-go).

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CLOUD COMPUTING The delivery of computing as a service rather than as a product, wherein shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet).

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

This will permit learners to access virtual classes and experimental facilities as independent learners, and provide access to learning material, software, virtual labs, repositories etc., anywhere, anytime and on any Internet connected device. Through shared resources and data management, economies of scale can be achieved. Assessments can be administered or made accessible from anywhere. Unnecessary computer hardware can be eliminated.

Learners would no longer need to carry heavy bags with textbooks and notebooks. The power of combined computers, available at any terminal, would greatly empower researchers. Every place would become a learning space, making lifelong learning an authentic possibility. Eventually, the Cloud could become a resource for all forms of education.

MESH NETWORKING TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

It would be an ideal tool for collaborative learning and making the most out of the Internet. Mesh networking would provide the interface for real-time communication like VoIP, thereby finding applications in distance education. It would improve connectivity and help develop a virtual classroom beyond the four walls, drastically improve access to education even in the remotest places. It would help in monitoring the delivery and performance of learners at the individual level, leading to better evaluation of each learner’s performance. It should also add to fault-tolerance of the network and enhance peer-to-peer interaction in the absence of a server.

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A type of networking where each node must not only capture and disseminate its own data, but also serve as a relay for other nodes, i.e., it must collaborate to propagate the data in the network.

Mesh networks may involve either fixed or mobile devices. An important possible application for wireless mesh networks is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

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11.02

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TECHNOLOGIES

NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION A field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

This technology would lead to the development of highly intelligent and interactive machines useful in learning and training that can be operated 24x7, and even without human operators.

Friendly machine-human interfaces with digital platforms for access to educational resources, would not require excessive familiarity with computers, thereby mainstreaming the left-outs from educational systems and those physically, linguistically, socially or culturally removed from computer environments. Furthermore, it would empower distance learners to interact with machines remotely and learn independently. Physically challenged persons would also become digital natives and learners. It would enhance ease of testing, assessment and comparisons among multiple learners on a common ground and also improve the verbal and listening skills of learners. It would promote pedagogic innovation in language instruction and could help solve practical problems in various fields including behavioural and social sciences. It would help create awareness on civil rights, responsibilities, law, quality, standards, etc. and increase participation of people in governance and democratic practice. Finally, within the realm of heritage studies it would improve the digitalisation of the manuscripts and preservation and dissemination of traditional knowledge through vibrant translations.

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MACHINE TRANSLATION The use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another. Current efforts such as Google Translate© go a long way in translating text, but when coupled with proper natural language interpretation this technology would start removing language barriers altogether.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Websites, documents and learning material would be translated into other languages, thereby making them more appealing and also universal. Web-search could become natural language based, instead of keyword based. Translation of text and voice would encourage more and more people to learn independently, in a language of their choice. Computers by interacting with humans over time can learn dynamically about contextual nuances, usage of phrases and other words specific to the language, technical words etc. Contents in the translated language would thereby be understood contextually rather than through wordby-word translation. This would further lead to fruitful and meaningful interaction with the learner in a lively ‘learn-and-interact’ atmosphere. By being able to talk to the learner and respond to his/her voice, content would become more interactive. Together with Speech Recognition, it would greatly improve assessment and testing. Heterogeneous groups of researchers could carry out collaborative research seamlessly. This technology would result in greater exposure to, and thereby greater appreciation of, diverse cultures. Archaic languages could be restored, those facing extinction preserved, and exiting ones enriched.

MACHINE VISION The application of a range of technologies and methods to provide imaging-based automatic inspection process control and robot guidance in industrial applications. It is a fundamental technology for improved robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

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TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Machine vision combined with neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can allow reliable, objective and faster evaluation of examination answer scripts. This could enable the evaluation of a large number of learner assignments simultaneously, transforming distance education. These assignments could include engineering drawings, designs, prototypes etc. A robot with machine vision could conduct laboratory sessions and help in the identification of micro-organisms and appreciation of micro-structures. It could, if used properly, create safer learning spaces by sensing the ambience and improve simulated environment for training.

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CONTEXT AWARE COMPUTING Computers can both sense and react based on an awareness of their environment. Devices may have information about the circumstances under which they are able to operate and, based on rules or intelligent stimuli, react accordingly. Context aware device may also try to make assumptions about the user’s current situation.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Such computers will be smarter, intelligent and responsive and have the potential to change the face of online learning by improving the ‘reality quotient’ in immersive virtual reality. If a device has all the relevant data regarding what is being taught in class, and it is able to monitor the teacher’s words and gestures, then it can pull up the relevant images or text as the teacher covers them in class. Thus, a predictive-proactive education system can be developed using this technology. This would improve the quality of simulations of the environment providing for a better understanding of concepts and offer insights not immediately available in classroom teaching. Context aware computers can dynamically and quickly make real-time assessment of the environment and react to induce appropriate changes in them (e.g. to study the behaviour of smart materials, structures, atmosphere etc.). Sensing the physical environment (noise-level, number of students, even temperature and light -level in the classroom etc.) can help teachers and learners to take corrective actions instantly.

Class-room evaluation systems can be made smarter.

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DISPLAY AND USER INTERFACE TECHNOLOGIES

HANDHELD DEVICES Mobile computer integrated into a flat touch screen with Internet connectivity.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TERM

Apps, software, interactive e-books and access to internet will empower learners to learn anytime and from any location including remote and inaccessible areas. Learners would acquire knowledge and practice their skills at their own convenience and pace. This technology would drastically cut down learners’ paraphernalia and replace classroom aids like projectors.

Devices within NFC range will transform several classroom activities such as online attendance, distribution of learning material, spot evaluation of a class, tracking progress of study, assignment submission, finding on-campus facilities etc., making them smoother and simpler. Challenged learners, like those with cerebral palsy, would specially benefit. At the level of pedagogy, teachers would get more involved in designing problems to enable learning in a constructivist manner, which would further interest and encourage learners to acquire deeper insights into the subject. Game-based learning would become a part of the pedagogy. Colocation of all information and learning material in one unit will help better management of educational resources. The technology would also be a powerful medium for quick dissemination of information and creating awareness on health, hygiene, safety, environment, disasters etc.

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WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES Devices that can be worn by users, taking the form of an accessory such as jewellery, sunglasses, a backpack, or even actual items of clothing such as shoes or jackets.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

The benefit of wearable technology is that it can conveniently integrate tools, devices, power needs, and connectivity within a user’s everyday life and movements. Google’s Project Glass© features one of the most talked about current examples: the device resembles a pair of glasses, but with a single lens. Users can see information about their surroundings displayed in front of them, such as the names of friends who are in close proximity, or nearby places to access data that would be relevant to a research project.

Wearable technology could include accessories such as gloves that enhance the user’s ability to feel or control something they are not directly touching. Wearable technology already in the market includes clothing that charges batteries via decorative solar cells, allows interactions with a user’s devices via sewn-in controls or touch pads, or collects data on a person’s exercise regimen from sensors embedded in the heels of their shoes. Wearable technology could serve as an experimental aid or tool and transform the experience of field-based research.

VOLUMETRIC SCREENS TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

This technology would help create a strong 3D (‘real-world’) representation of content, thereby greatly enhancing the quality of illustrations and animations used in education and training. It could have a major impact on the quality of medical education and training. It would greatly enhance the experience of flight simulators or similar learning spaces, facilitate better visualisation of what is being taught, and magnify small scale objects on 3D screens, heightening the level of learner interest. Virtual prototypes could be developed and refined by learners before finalising the product.

In addition, feel-as-you-touch based Apps could become a reality, adding appeal to the interfaces with computers. 3D screen simulations would facilitate the analyses of problems by scholars, who could easily employ this software for solid modelling. Nano and micro scale components could be fabricated with greater precision and ease.

A graphical display device that forms a visual representation of an object in three physical dimensions. This contrasts with the planar image of traditional screens, which simulate depth through a number of different visual effects. Volumetric displays create 3D imagery via the emission scattering or relaying of illumination from well-defined regions in (x,y,z) space.

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GESTURE RECOGNITION Enables humans to interface with the machine and interact without any mechanical devices.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Gesture recognition technology would radically improve the ease of computer use. It would be possible to gesture at the computer screen to move the cursor. This would be very helpful to the learner who cannot hear or speak and could potentially make conventional input devices such as mouse, keyboards and even touchscreens redundant. This technology would be useful for delivery of instructions in virtual classrooms and for operating Virtual Labs in remote locations. By improving the naturalness of human-computer interaction, learning would become more learner friendly. It would be particularly useful in teaching subjects involving physical manipulation of objects and would help in developing handeye coordination and motor skills. Certain skills could be evaluated using tests that employ gesture recognition technology. Saving time in imparting instructions to computers through keyboards, mouse etc. would make content delivery simple and cheap. It would also be an appropriate technology for simulated learning and gaming.

PICO PROJECTOR TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

With easy display on-the-go, this technology can help connect to a larger audience. It would also eliminate presentation-through-laptop, thus increasing mobility. It would be easy to carry for personal interviews and group discussions and would help in administering onsite tests or conducting assessments. The need for fixed infrastructure and hardware for projection would be done away with. High portability and lesser consumption of power would make it a boon for rural schools and mobile schools even in non-connected remote areas. This technology would be especially useful for actual field learning in disciplines like archaeology, forestry, botany and geology.

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An emerging technology that applies the use of an image projector in a handheld device. It is a response to the emergence of compact portable devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants and digital cameras which have sufficient storage capacity to handle presentation materials but little space to accommodate an attached display screen.

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FABRIC EMBEDDED SCREENS A subset of wearable computers, fabric-embedded screens are miniature electronic devices worn by the bearer under, with or on top of clothing.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

This class of wearable technology has been developed for general or special purpose information technologies and media development. It can be used in outdoor environments, remote areas or in the absence of fixed infrastructure for projections. Classrooms in remote areas can be set up easily by employing this device in conjunction with low power personal computers with good communication links. Featuring easy display on the go, this technology can help connect to an audience without extra hardware for projection such as projectors and display screens. Integration of this technology with mobile telephony would vastly increase its utility. In would be particularly impactful for learning on-the-move, especially at-site learning like for archaeology, botany and geology.

HAPTIC INTERFACES Communication or interface with a computer mainly through vibration as a sensory cue, besides making use of sensations such as movement, temperature, texture, and pressure to convey non-verbal cues and information to the user.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

Although sometimes considered synonymous with gesture-based computing, haptic interfaces or touchscreens are distinctly different. Gesture-based computing is centred on input to a device: It does not require direct touch and does not generate any feedback from the device. On the other hand, haptic interfaces are output-oriented and are used to acquire information from the device. Physically interfacing devices like keyboard and mouse would be eventually replaced by haptic interfaces. The use of sensations such as vibrations, movement, temperature, texture and pressure to convey non-verbal cues and information to the user will make Virtual Labs appear more realistic. The gap between conventional education and distance education will reduce drastically. Haptic interfaces will make medical simulations possible, enabling learners to perform mock surgeries while learning the different sensation of actions, such as cutting through tissue and muscle. They also have significant potential for aiding the visually impaired, allowing users to touch a surface to hear a specific audio explanation. By sensing vibrations, haptic interfaces can also help in efficient storage and management of records.

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SKIN EMBEDDED SCREENS A blood powered electronic interface which is embedded under skin to mimic a tattoo, display videos, or act as a phone or computer.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

This technology could find applications wherever LCD or LED screens are used today. With skin acting as video display, learners-on-the-go would need no additional display hardware. Functioning as sensors, there could be many applications in biometrics and in subjects involving the human body like physiology, forensics, ergonomics. Data about a person’s life history could be collected and used with Learning Analytics. It could also play a role in assessing the mental state and wellbeing of learners.

SPEECH RECOGNITION Ability of a machine or a program to identify words and phrases in spoken language and convert them to a machine-readable format.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TERM

That are many potential educational benefits to be derived from speech recognition technology. It would assist in the transcription of spoken knowledge, input data without the use of keyboards, assist persons with speech and upper limb disabilities, enhance spoken language skills, automate translation and interpretation and thereby contribute to language-neutral communication.

BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE (BCI) A system that allows a person to control a computer or other electronic device using brainwaves with no physical movement required.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: LONG TERM

Initially developed with biomedical applications in mind, BCI is leading to generation of assistive devices. Individuals can use BCI as input device for hands free applications. It will help differently-abled learners to cope with classroom situations and learning. It has the potential to personalise interaction for each learner.

BCI devices can rehabilitate learners by helping them regain their lost motor skills.

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IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY (IVR) An artificial, interactive, computer-created scene or environment wherein users feel just as immersed as they usually feel in reality.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Subjects like geography and history could be understood very well by simulating various historical scenarios and geographical locations. Walkthroughs (3D walkable learning spaces) find application in Virtual Labs, allowing better experience of scientific experiments and other content. For instance, teaching and learning human anatomy, plant physiology, machine architectures and social processes could all become easier and more interesting.

Learner comprehension can be assessed by creating virtual scenarios based on study material. This technology would allow anyone who needs practical experience to train more easily. It could make distance learning as good as, or even better than, classroom learning by enhancing learner motivation. Appropriately designed teaching and assessment methods would mainstream non-formal education, lifelong learning and adult learners.

Holography, a distinct technology that might converge with IVR in the future, serves similar purposes. In holography, a 3D image is projected into the viewer’s real space. Educational applications may include demonstrations of procedures, for instance, surgery, or the projection of a virtual teacher. Individually customised virtual teachers could assist young learners to better comprehend educational content.

MULTI-TOUCH INTERFACE A touch sensing surface’s ability to recognise the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface. This plural point awareness is often used to implement advanced functionality such as pinch to zoom or activating predefined programs.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

This technology will improve the interfacing on devices and usage of the contents of educational material. It will be used extensively in online learning materials and Virtual Labs. While teaching, a particular concept, algorithm or mathematical model can be activated through zooming. Multi-touch interfaces can help improve handeye coordination and motor skills in kindergarten kids.

High level games built around concepts to be taught can come out on devices. Conventional 2D mouse and possibly keyboards for interfacing with computers will become redundant. Once all user-end devices have this feature, a seamless learning ecosystem would result. This technology would be particularly useful in teaching-learning in subjects like 3D modelling, biology, geology etc.

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INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES

MOBILE APPS An application software, emphasising ease of use, that is specifically designed to run on mobile devices and displays such as smartphones.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TERM

Mobiles are becoming better understood in the academic world; there has been a significant amount of time spent finding creative ways to incorporate them both physically and remotely. As educational institutions become better at developing and using mobile apps, their utility and pervasiveness will increase. Current examples of mobile apps span functions from interpretation to campus services and specific courseware. As interactive and social features become more integrated into mobile apps, learners can share their findings on topics, making the app an ever-growing repository of information. Many disciplines now have mobile apps dedicated to deeper exploration of specific subjects. Mobile apps facilitate content creation through the use of cameras, microphones, and other sensors and tools that are inherent in many smartphones.

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MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOC) An online course on the Internet that provides open access to an unlimited number of learners.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TERM

Designed to provide high quality, online learning at a large scale to people regardless of their location or educational background, MOOCs have been met with enthusiasm because of their potential to reach a previously unimaginable number of learners. The notion of thousands and even tens of thousands of learners, not limited by any factor such as age, location or educational background, participating in a single course, working at their own pace, relying on their own style of learning, and assessing each other’s progress has changed the landscape of online learning.

INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

IOT would function as an interface to access the compatible remote educational devices and infrastructure.

It would be useful to teachers and learners for managing day-to-day tasks such as online real experimentation in remote laboratories. It would also help in recognising and classifying physical and virtual objects. This technology would reduce the transportation costs and other physical and financial hurdles. By enhancing the opportunity for collaborative learning, it would greatly reduce ‘distance’ in distance learning. It would enable sharing and optimal utilisation of infrastructure globally, thereby leading to global educational integration. It would contribute to the realisation of a virtual world that would help learners interact comfortably with teachers and peers at different locations. It would vastly reduce the time, effort and expense involved in the physical movement of teachers, learners and experimenters.

A global network infrastructure, linking physical and virtual objects through the exploitation of data capture and communication capabilities, that includes existing and evolving Internet and network developments.

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COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

DIGITAL IDENTITY Enables users to create a single digital identity that can be used in any place where a login is required to access a website or service.

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TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TERM

Digital technology is not a single technology but a group of related technologies and ideas. Digital identity is a method that allows recognition wherever a log-in is needed. It guarantees secure access to the Internet, facilitation of transactions and participation in various educational activities through proper authentication. It will facilitate maintaining attendance and tracking the students. Performance of learner can be tracked and periodic feedback provided. Learner evaluation process, content security and originality in learner projects can be verified and ensured.

Digital identity helps to access multiple information with a single identity for teachers and learners. All educational records (credits, grade, electives, language, competence etc.) of the learner can be securely maintained and accessed, thereby eliminating forgery, impersonation and other academic fraud. The costs associated with maintaining records on paper can be reduced or even eliminated. Based on digital identity, a learner can be allocated certain specific resources, access or privileges relating to academics and other on-campus services like libraries, laboratories, or sports facilities.

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BIG DATA ANALYTICS The process of examining large data sets to uncover hitherto hidden patterns and correlations, thereby enabling more reliable predictions.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

Big data analytics refers to the interpretation of a wide range of data produced by and gathered on behalf of learners in order to assess academic progress, predict future performance, and spot potential issues. Data are collected from explicit learner actions, such as completing assignments and taking exams, and from tacit actions, including online social interactions, extracurricular activities, posts on discussion forums, and other activities that are not directly assessed as part of the learner’s educational progress. The goal of big data analytics is to enable teachers and schools to tailor educational opportunities to each learner’s level of need and ability. It promises to harness the power of advances in data mining, interpretation, and modelling to improve understandings of teaching and learning, and to tailor education to individual learners more effectively.

MODULAR COMPUTERS TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

This technology involves real-time load balancing that would prevent applications from slowing down for long periods. Likewise, automatic invoking of failover would drastically reduce chances of system failure, making IT infrastructure more reliable for critical applications. By improving and updating contents faster, it can help create an environment for better collaborative learning.

Just-in-time access to information in the classroom can help teachers to undertake more ambitious projects with their students. It will help learners shift from hard paper format to interactive web-pages, thereby helping them to increase their ability to grasp new ideas and concepts. With this technology, the cost of IT infrastructure and power consumption in educational institutions can be brought down significantly.

A multi-processing computer system in which processing memory and peripheral units can be added or removed without disrupting its operation.

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COMPUTATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Digital image capture and processing techniques that use digital computation instead of optical processes.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM

Contemporary examples of computational photography include HDR imaging and 3D photography which allow learners to see novel images of places, organisms and objects. By creating more effective learning content such as textbook diagrams, it has the capability to improve any knowledge area that involves imaging and image processing like medical education, forensic sciences, biology, materials, etc., as also context/site-based learning like geology and geography. It also facilitates the creation of new content from the same image, thereby speeding up the process of producing new value-added educational material. For instance, images can be stitched and 2D or 3D reconstruction of the image series can be analysed to find out the components of interest. Models, prototypes etc. can be analysed more accurately, at faster speeds and with greater detail, making it a powerful technology for facilitating research.

NEURO-INFORMATICS A research field encompassing the organisation of neuroscience data by the application of computational models and analytical tools.

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TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Neuro-informatics utilises computer science to build databases, tools and networks to analyse and model neuronal systems. This may lead to better understanding of teaching-learning processes, possibly identify new learning styles, develop technologies to facilitate human-machine interactions, and discover innovative ways of problem solving. It would find application in fields like medical sciences, psychology, education, ergonomics, sports, physical fitness etc. It has the potential to simplify complex actions into data, allowing the building of artificial neural networks (ANN), which in turn would have many educational applications such as developing curricula for learners with special needs. It could lead to personalised education: for instance, a teacher could administer optimum curricula based upon the neural profile of learners.

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PHOTONICS Technology involved in the properties and transmission of photons.

TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

Applications of photonics are ubiquitous and are already having an impact in diverse fields such as light detection, telecommunications, information processing, lighting metrology, spectroscopy, holography, medicine, military technology, lasers, material processing, bio-photonics, agriculture and robotics. This technology would be critical to the realisation of desktop quantum computing. It will improve quality, density and speed of communication, which is essential to processes in the education system. Transmission of holographic data and 3D image reconstruction at the receiving end, coupled with highly advanced display and imaging devices, can add a completely new dimension to synchronous distance education. Learners would store encyclopaedia in nano-scale optical chips which will possibly have the capacity to be integrated with human mind.

QUANTUM COMPUTING TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: LONG TERM

Quantum computers encode information as a series of quantum-mechanical states such as spin directions of electrons (or polarisation orientations of a photon) that might represent (i) 1 or 0, (ii) a combination of the two, (iii) a number expressing a state somewhere between 1 and 0, or (iv) a superposition of many different numbers at once. A quantum computer can do an arbitrary reversible classical computation on all the numbers simultaneously, and has some ability to produce interference between various different numbers. The significantly faster and more effective computing capability would improve research capabilities, lead to better understanding of complex systems, and enhance the pace of discovery of new knowledge. Combined with AI, machine vision and photonics, quantum computing would have a profound impact not only on the discipline of computer science but also on all teaching-learning processes.

Using quantum physics properties of atoms or nuclei as quantum bits, or qubits, to function as a computer's processor and memory.

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SIMULATION AND MODELLING TECHNOLOGIES

GAMIFICATION Applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve specified goals.

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TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: SHORT TERM

Educational games immerse the learner in the game, where content and curricula are delivered or juxtaposed. Gamification aims to incorporate elements of games, such as levels and badges (but also via quests and other strategies) into non-game activities. In gamified curricula, learners can accumulate points or other rewards by accepting different challenges, and often have more freedom in choosing what kind of assignments they undertake to earn them. Badging or ranking systems serve to recognise learner achievements, and the transparency of learner progress inspires competition that can drive more interest in study material among the learners.

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3D PRINTING TIMELINE OF ADOPTION: MEDIUM TERM

This technology would provide better insights in understanding structures in all branches of education, facilitate more authentic exploration of objects, improve models/diagrams used in teaching and encourage do-it-yourself (DIY) activities in learning spaces.

For instance, it could help medical students produce anatomical models themselves based on MRI and CT images. 3D printing would in itself emerge as a new knowledge and skill domain and will become a part of engineering laboratory courses such as workshop practice, 3D modelling and engineering drawing.

The manufacture of end use products using additive/ layer manufacturing techniques.

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11.07

THE TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION INTERFACE

The extent and nature of the technology-education interface depends upon the intersection of a number of factors: extant and emerging technological options, social choices within systems of education, individual preferences and needs, the ability to harness technology, the stages of education and learning, and what we are terming as the ‘Delta Factor’, i.e. the aspect of education and learning that technology can help transform. Three factors deserve elucidation.

Firstly, there are at least six sets of related issues that can readily be identified in the education sector: i Teachers, teaching, and continuous development of teachers in terms of knowledge and skills ........................................................... ii. Curriculum, curricular resources, and delivery ........................................................... iii. Creative output, interaction and exchange ........................................................... iv. On-the-job training (OJT), reskilling and lifelong learning ........................................................... v. Evaluation, aptitude testing, analytics and selection ........................................................... vi. Administration, management and governance ...........................................................

The impact of technology upon education varies with the issue area.

Secondly, the role and impact of tech137

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nology (and of specific technologies) varies with the stages of the education system: preschool to grade 5 (K-5), grades 6-10, grades 11-12, higher education (HE), OJT, reskilling/retraining, and continued learning. These stages are likely to persist into the 2035 timeframe.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the impact of technologies depends upon the ‘Delta Factor’: the extent to which technology will transform either access/ opportunities for learning, delivery of content, the content itself, the learning experience, or all of them. Essentially, the most profound transformational impact would be on the learning process itself.

The three different ways in which we are analysing the use and impact of technology in and on education will allow us to achieve 360 degrees understanding of the complex technology-education relationship. It must be emphasised that these various ways are non-exclusive and mutually implicating.

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11.08

TECHNOLOGY AND THE ISSUE AREAS IN EDUCATION

TEACHERS, THEIR CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT, AND TEACHING

Teachers will remain central to the teaching-learning process in the period up to 2035. Catering to the needs of teachers, ensuring their continuous development, and facilitating their teaching abilities would therefore be of critical importance.

Among the needs that arise in this context are access to educational material, developing peer-to-peer links, learning and upgrading pedagogical skills, supplementing the material that learners can themselves access, understanding the latest developments in their discipline, acquiring conceptual clarity, mock teaching sessions and virtual classrooms and, perhaps most importantly, comprehending the needs of specific learners. The technologies that would cater to these needs include 4G/5G telephony, real time translation, natural language translation, cloud computing, near field communication, wearable technologies, pico projectors, immersive virtual reality and the Internet of Things.

CURRICULUM, CURRICULAR RESOURCES, AND DELIVERY

Technology impacts curriculum in a fundamental manner.

Before the advent of the written word, the curriculum was that which could be verbally transmitted by the teacher and memorised by the learner. The scroll, and later the book, transformed curricular possibilities. Technology opens the possibilities of creating new knowledge, builds new interconnections, facilitates interdisciplinarity, and strengthens the relationship between theory and practice on the one hand and knowledge and skills on the other. It helps in the

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integration of history, theory and data, opens new pedagogical possibilities, widens scalability of delivery, and enables remote access to curricular resources. Furthermore, language neutrality, differential learner-centric delivery, flipped classrooms, and teacher participation in curriculum development will all become possible with the infusion of technology in education. Important technologies for these purposes include Cloud computing, volumetric screens, pico projectors, haptic interfaces, immersive virtual reality, real time translation, natural language interpretation and the Internet of Things.

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CREATIVE COMMUNICATION, INTERACTION AND EXCHANGE

The teaching-learning process will benefit significantly if knowledge, ideas and methodologies could transcend borders and boundaries whether socioeconomic, geopolitical, ethno-cultural or disciplinary. Sharing ideas and information (communication), building interdependence (interaction) and seeking mutual benefit (exchange) can be enhanced by the utilisation of appropriate technologies such as natural language interpretation, real time translation, mesh networking, 3D printing, Internet of Things, machine vision, gamification and wearable technologies.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING (OJT), RESKILLING AND LIFELONG LEARNING

The user community of learners includes persons who are older than 28 years, the upper demographic range for traditional educational programmes. Rapid changes in the world of work will require authentic OJT programmes and multiple reskilling opportunities. With increased lifespans, the necessity to create environments for lifelong learning becomes extremely important. Technologies that would assist in these issue areas include 3D printing, haptic interfaces, the Internet of Things and speech/gesture recognition technologies.

APTITUDE TESTING, SELECTION, EVALUATION AND ANALYTICS

The quality of the learning experience is critically dependent on the match between the field of study and aptitude of the learner – an aspect to which little attention is presently given. Ideally, selection should be based on capability and aptitude. Evaluation, too, needs to go beyond the current

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‘recall testing’ and become innovative, with interesting and engaging models that assess skills and capabilities in an imaginative way. The large numbers in the education system at any given time (‘large numbers of everything’) has been an excuse that has held back many innovative ideas to usher change. Technology interventions have the capability to bring out changes despite the large numbers of learners.

Analytics would use Big Data to serve, and make creative use of, the large numbers. Apart from Big Data Analytics, other technologies would include gesture recognition, machine vision, the Internet of Things, volumetric screens, haptic interfaces and wearable technologies. New testing tools, methodologies and metrics will emerge in future and a more comprehensive range of aptitudes and performances would become amenable to assessment.

ADMINISTRATION, MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE

Education is not just about the teaching-learning process but also a range of other processes, systems and institutions. For this reasons, administration, management and governance of systems and institutions in the education sector becomes extremely important. Administration is essentially about procedures and is therefore important in all public institutions, but it can lead to stasis and even sterility because of the emphasis on normality and routine at the cost of novelty and innovation. Management is about resources – what do we possess, what do we lack, and how do we achieve what we need to achieve with what we have? – which makes it a very important set of skills in both the public and private domains, but it can easily transmute into a short-term tunnel vision with a very focused goal. Governance pertains to the quality of administration and management in any sector of collective life. Good governance is therefore about providing leadership and about people: it involves empowering individual human beings, encouraging them to form teams in which the sum greatly exceeds the parts, and in getting them to believe that when they work in concert they can dream of wonderful futures and achieve great things together. Technologies that can lead of effective administration, impactful management and quality governance in the education sector include 5G telephony, Cloud computing, mobile apps, digital identity, RFID and real-time translation.

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11.09

TECHNOLOGY AND THE STAGES OF EDUCATION

PRESCHOOL TO GRADE 5 (K-5) The first stage in a child’s learning could be stimulated through a range of new technologies that are adapted to specific learning abilities. The focus here will be on providing the child with wide and rich visual and haptic inputs that would stimulate the exploration of the world. Critical technologies include haptic interfaces, multi-touch interfaces, speech recognition, gesture recognition, volumetric screens and gamification.

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GRADES 6-10 This is the period of most rapid child development, when children find expression for their interests and aptitudes. Their capacity to learn at this stage is immense. The education system has to meet this challenge and the following technological interventions could play a significant role in enhancing the learning experience at this stage: handheld devices, speech recognition, natural language interpretation, volumetric screens, MOOCs, haptic interfaces, multi-touch interfaces, holography and 3D printing.

GRADES 11-12 At the higher secondary level, learners begin to converge upon their preferences either in terms of skills or knowledge to be acquired. Educational technologies play a role in deepening these preferences and translating them into informed choices.

The following basket of technologies assist learners in choosing between a wide variety of possibilities in the worlds of study and work: MOOCs, 3D printing, haptic interfaces, multi-touch interfaces, volumetric screens, holography, Big Data analytics, real time translation, immersive virtual reality and pico projectors.

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HIGHER EDUCATION (HE) At this stage learners settle into highly structured environments of skills development and/or learning. Here, another set of educational technologies specifically developed for each knowledge and skill domain prepares learners for specialised training and careers. All of the technologies that we are considering in this technology roadmap would be relevant at this stage of education.

OJT, RESKILLING/ RETRAINING, AND CONTINUED LEARNING This is a special group outside the conventional education system whose requirements have hitherto been ignored. Technology will play a major role in reskilling and retraining, providing on-job-training and providing opportunities for continued learning. The latter would ideally be an antidote to obsolescence in the world of professional skilling. Technologies that would assist in OJT, reskilling, retraining and continued learning include 3D printing, haptic interfaces, the Internet of Things and speech/gesture recognition technologies.

As basic technologies, 5G telephony, Cloud computing and handheld devices would contribute to all stages of education.

11.10

DELTA FACTOR: THE TRANSFORMATIONAL POTENTIAL OF TECHNOLOGY

By 2035, technology would have totally transformed all aspects of education. For example, the use of technology will open up access to education in at least three distinct ways. The sites of learning will multiply manifold and will no longer be restricted to formally established educational institutions. Content would become multi-layered: depending upon age, level and learner preferences, the learner would be able to access and interact with content that is comprehensible to him/her. Technology would also largely erode the socioeconomic, geographical, cognitive and other asymmetries that exist in society today, and in that sense become a democratic leveller in the terms of knowledge and learning possibilities.

But these positive changes will not happen automatically. Critical engagement of educators with technology would have to complement market forces and public policy to help achieve these outcomes. Technology will transform learning into a genuinely lifelong activity.

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

UTOPIAN visions are foreshadowed in the

social imagination of our times. Our technoscape is quite contemporary and reflects incremental evolution based on present trends.

Our vision and road map is a wish list because the inherited technoscape contains within it the seeds of future knowledgescapes. This section emphasises a perspective of technology and education that recognises multiple geographies, implying thereby that there are diverse ways of seeing and knowing, rather than a knowledgescape that is globalised, flat, homogeneous and boring.

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As part of the legacies of higher education, several institutional and epistemological aspects from the nineteenth century have persisted.

Other aspects, rather than remaining static, have co-evolved with the changing landscape of society and the advancing frontier of knowledge. These axes of transformation spring forth or coruscate in the following directions:

1. As the sciences announce a new mode of knowledge production, there is a corresponding revision of the social and epistemic norms of science.

MODE 1

MODE 2

Problems set and solved in contexts governed by academic interests of disciplinary communities – characterized by homogeneity

Problem solution governed by the context of application, transdisciplinary knowledge characterized by heterogeneity

Organizationally hierarchical and form preserving

Organizationally hetrarchical and transient

Normative and disciplinary accountability

Socially accountable and reflexive

More enduring, homogeneous set of practitioners, working on problems defined by global and general contexts.

More transient group of practitioners working on problems defined by specific and local contexts.

2. With the expansion of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fields of knowledge, there follows a restructuring of the traditional university founded on the idea of the nineteenth century disciplines.

3. With the late twentieth century critiques of the ideas of objectivity, value-neutrality and universality, there is today a focus on the conditions of production of robust knowledge.

4. The supposed superiority of formal knowledge over tacit knowledge and theory over practice have been challenged, leading to the reconfiguration or re-conceptualisation of these divides.

5. The engineering sciences will engage with social and cultural values, in the hope of addressing problems of global scale.

6. The integration of indigenous and local knowledge with developments in areas such as the cognitive sciences and Big Data will transform and pluralise the knowledge institutions.

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12.01

THE CHANGING SOCIAL NORMS OF SCIENCE

The institutional structure for the production of knowledge has been affected by internal developments within the sciences, larger changes in the economy, and the relations between science and state. The first half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of the research institute outside the boundaries of the university. After the Second World War, the rise of military science and industrial science altered the value system of science itself. By the end of the twentieth century, the traditional norms of science (communitarian, universal, disinterested, original and sceptical) had changed irreversibly due to the emergence of Big Science. These changes were supplemented by rapid developments within computer and computational sciences, non-linear dynamics and complexity theory, leading to fundamental epistemological changes.

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The changing nature of knowledge production has diluted the ideal of what constitutes knowledge. Academic accountability and legitimacy now breaches the bounds of the disciplinary community. The epistemic drift caused by the institutional reorganisation of science is reflected in a new set of values captured in the acronym PLACE (proprietary, local, accountable, commissioned and expert knowledge). Mode-1 knowledge production (university and discipline based) is unlikely to be replaced by mode-2 knowledge production (trans-disciplinary and distributed across a range of actors and institutions). Rather, mode-1 and mode-2 will run parallel to each other. This is an opportunity for conversation among many knowledge systems to produce a more robust idea of what constitutes knowledge. By 2035, the multiversity could be the place for

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such conversations, where each knowledge system creatively confronts its limitations while validating its strengths.

The multiversity, a tripartite pluralistic institution dealing with research, disciplinary specialisation and diversification of the curriculum, is the next moment in the evolution of the university. The university system commenced from single communities, woven together by circumscribed ways of knowing, unified at a general level but differentiated along disciplinary lines oriented towards a particular division of labour, with shared and varying norms of credentialisation. Gradually very diverse universities sprouted across the globe animated by a singular orientation towards the cultivation and promotion of rational, cultural and utilitarian knowledge to meet the demands of society. With the growing complexity and proliferation of roles and functions within society, the university system has been transformed into a multiversity, while protecting its objectives of producing and reproducing knowledge.

Prior to the stabilisation of the multiversity, the research university sustained several objectives such as the reproduction of liberal culture, citizenship and democracy, expertise that enhanced governance and productivity, and techno-scientific research. A multiversity has several campuses, constituent and affiliated institutions distributed within and across countries.

The multiversity in the coming decades will have to adjust to two new challenges. The first would be to develop flexible systems of credentialisation that are responsive to the rapid growth of knowledge and skills as well the varied kinds of expertise that learners would acquire in the face of social and market demands. Secondly, the multiversity would need to accommodate what UNESCO Science Report 2030 calls Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems (ILKS) within the existing curriculum.

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INDIGENOUS AND LOCAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS (ILKS)

The conception of diverse knowledge forms being radically incommensurable is more apparent than real. The active engagement with different knowledge forms reveals as much about what they share as about what separates them. This has become increasingly evident in debates about indigenous knowledge forms and their underlying philosophical premises that are now seen to be both empirically grounded and constantly evolving. The new regimes of technology, implemented within systems of education, will go a long way in providing access to the diversity of local knowledges. Cultivation of cognitive and cultural diversity and theoretical heterogeneity is in the interests of a democratic society, especially in the institutions and structures of scientific and technological education. Recent UNESCO publications have emphasised that the separation between science and traditional knowledge is self-limiting and needs to be addressed afresh. The systems of the future will need to integrate ILKS into the institutional rubric of science and technology education.

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12.03

FROM DISCIPLINARITY TO INTER- AND TRANS-DISCIPLINARITY

The traditional disciplines, institutionalised in the nineteenth century under the organisational umbrella of the University, were the norm for 150 years. From the late 1940s, a series of developments – decolonisation and the Cold War, the emergence of mass university education, the creation of new culturally-specific knowledge like area studies, ‘scientisation’ of the social sciences, and the rise of new professional fields like business management – fundamentally challenged the existing disciplinary framework.

It was now argued that this framework as well as the tripartite division into the sciences, social sciences and humanities, reflected the intellectual horizons and political dominance of the North Atlantic region.

Reconfiguration of the social sciences is producing new interdisciplinary and multicultural maps reflecting greater scholarly and curricular presence of hitherto marginalised societies and cultures. In contrast, the natural sciences from the early twentieth century onwards have been forced to confront the inherent limitations of chopping and slicing nature into disciplines. While biochemistry emerged as the first interdisciplinary formation, its success has been because of the epistemic overlap of the parent disciplines, thereby making it a difficult example to replicate. The future challenge of interdisciplinarity is to encourage and enable conversation or dialogue between disciplines that lack an obvious epistemic overlap, such as current endeavours in the cognitive sciences.

The factors responsible for the initial successes of disciplinarity led to a crisis which then enabled the rise of interdisciplinarity. The disciplinary EMERGING KNOWLEDGESCAPES AND INSTITUTIONAL ARCHITECTURES

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Recent experience shows that it is easier to establish interdisciplinary fields across the sub-disciplines of the sciences or the social sciences, but more difficult to do so between the sciences and the social sciences.

Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fields such as cognitive science or the sciences of complexity will become exemplars for the new interdisciplinary sciences.

By 2035, it is imperative that there should exist ample numbers of knowledge workers to prepare the next generation in the new interdisciplinary tradition.

procedures and methods of investigation, premised on specialisation, resulted in the snipping of connecting ties with other disciplinary domains. This increasingly produced negative side-effects at the level of investigation and research, as well in their social impact. There have been many struggles to get interdisciplinary knowledge on track. Recent experience shows that it is easier to establish interdisciplinary fields across the sub-disciplines of the sciences or the social sciences, but more difficult to do so between the sciences and the social sciences. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fields such as cognitive science (investigations at the interface of brain sciences, neurochemistry, network theories, philosophy of mind, and anthropology) or the sciences of complexity (involving such diverse fields as physics of condensed matter, earth sciences, econo-physics and socio-physics, and evolutionary medicine) will become exemplars for the new interdisciplinary sciences.

As the ground is prepared for interdisciplinary research and teaching, the problem of structuring interdisciplinarity will persist until a critical mass of scholars and thinkers producing quality interdisciplinary research have emerged. By 2035, it is imperative that there should exist ample numbers of such knowledge workers to prepare the next generation in the new interdisciplinary tradition. The map of knowledge would then comprise a core of disciplines from which lines would diverge and connect with newer and larger formations of inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge, thereby transgressing the contemporary boundaries between the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

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12.04

THE CLASH OF UNIVERSALISMS

Although objectivity and universality of science have been problematised since the 1980s, they remain relevant to the practice of the sciences. Furthermore, they continue to serve as regulative maxims guiding scientific work and practice. Within the social sciences and social theory in particular, the notion of modernity as a phenomenon unique to Europe’s exceptional historical trajectory has been severely challenged. Historically, a culturally loaded notion of universal, objective knowledge privileged itself over other cultural claims to universality.

These insights of social theory are beginning to enter the curriculum and would radically transform our conceptions of

history and social change. It is also clear that the answer to Eurocentrism, both theoretical and its widely institutionalised form, cannot be another civilizational or denominational essentialism.

The idea of cognitive justice may be a particularly important resource in legitimising these approaches and conversations.

In incorporating a global contextualist perspective, we need to emphasise the idea of a situated universality. Systems of higher education will need to seriously engage with these conceptual and theoretical concerns and develop serious and sensitive educational content at the level of primary, secondary and tertiary education.

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12.05

THE THEORYPRACTICE DIVIDE

By the beginning of the nineteenth century two large structures for higher education emerged in Europe. These were the German university of teaching and research and the French model of the grande ĂŠcoles or the specialist technical institutions. Both models catered to the demands of an emerging industrial civilisation. Both were nourished by the crystallisation of a culture of techno-science strung together by ties between universities, research institutes and industrial research laboratories. Through the twentieth century, hybrids of these two models shaped the educational landscape of nation states across the globe, leading to the emergence of research and teaching universities, in which a humanist education was nurtured, side-by-side with specialised professional institutes in which the goal was to impart value-free domain-specific knowledge. A second seeming binary was between theoretical or formal knowledge transmitted through the university and practical or applied knowledge transmitted through the technical schools. This separation provided the impetus for innovation and development during the first and second industrial revolutions. However, during the information and biotechnology based revolutions since the late twentieth century, an irreversible change in the modes of 153

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the production of knowledge and in the regimes of knowledge production and consumption has emerged.

The so-called mode-2 knowledge production is itself a response to the changing character of techno-scientific knowledge and the need for modifying the social and institutional arrangements that this revision necessitates. The changes in the social character of techno-scientific knowledge are further exemplified in the efforts of international agencies like UNESCO to conceptually grasp and reorient the changing relationship between science and state.

There is an increasing recognition that the current global crises such as climate change and water scarcity cannot be solved by science and technology alone. A serious social engagement with contextually bound, local knowledge systems would complement efforts towards finding sustainable and just solutions to impending environmental crises. It would become imperative to enlist indigenous knowledge systems, whether classical or popular, into the traditional curricula of institutions of higher education.

A very ambitious goal would be to create well-honed practitioners in the anthropology of knowledge.

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12.06

ENGINEERING AND ENVISIONING FUTURE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Since the early 1990s, those thinking about engineering education have felt the need to develop a more holistic approach that revises the objectives of engineering education from controlling nature to participation with nature. The new components will not only study ecosystems and ecosystems sciences, but also integrate complex ideas of preservation and restoration. This is already happening in the interdisciplinary fields of genetics and biotechnology. The societal goals of sustainable development will require the rapid institutionalisation of ecosystems thinking, exemplified in the emergence of fields such as Earth Systems Engineering (ESE).

This necessitates a curriculum that would incorporate systemic tools to engage with the issues of complexity in the interactions between

atmospheric, oceanic and other natural and socio-cultural systems. In spatial terms, ESE would focus on the problems of emerging economies by recognising the global scope of the contemporary problems and future possibilities. It would be necessary to develop the curriculum to transmit this understanding to the next generations.

There is a creative tension between the drive towards greater commercialisation, implying market-driven research, and the social agenda of sustainable development encouraged by a culture of open-ended research. It would be essential to safeguard the possibility of open-ended research and not render the system entirely vulnerable to the dictates of social relevance, however defined, or product development as the only drivers of research in the future.

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12.07

DEVELOPING MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

On the way to the realisation of a full-fledged ‘Knowledge Society’, education and technology have a special role to play, each catalysing the other. This poses a challenge in thinking about both education and technology in order to creatively and democratically deploy the latter to restructure the former. For instance, the ensemble of internet technologies could be conceptualised as an information ecosystem. The genetics-information technology revolution sweeping contemporary society is altering ways of work, communicating and living. In such circumstances, the systems of representation and intervention would be deeply entangled rather than separable in any meaningful way. On the contrary, the two would play a role in mutually shaping each other.

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The blurring of the distinction between the two suggests that we require a more critical perspective of technology and technological systems. The critical approach to technology has an important social function principally in initiating processes of the social and cultural appropriation of new technology. This process in turn may involve the rejection of elements within the ensemble and the redefinition or relocation of other elements. Consequently, technological systems cannot be seen as a collection of purely technical artefacts linked to each other to perform a singular task. Rather, innovation commences precisely through the critical processes of rejection, reconfiguration and reordering. The rejection is never a total rejection but a reflection of alienation from technological re-

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By the end of the twentieth century, the university – product of the industrial nation – had gimes and it is these responses that throw up alternatives and the ability to think about technology differently from received ways of thinking.

Critical thinking about technology could be institutionalised within educational settings where there are many contending frames of technical instruction and technical practice, that are in turn filtered through a variety of social constituencies and educational regimes. Essential to this process of institutional diversification is the ability to reproduce constructive and radical critique that could throw up new and hybridised technologies. By 2035, these changes would become institutionalised and stabilised as the frontiers of the new educational technologies advance. Needless to add, there would always be loci of informal

metamorphosed its role, from a nation-centric to a more international and globalised educational format.

innovation which by their very nature cannot be anticipated.

By the end of the twentieth century, the university – product of the industrial nation – had metamorphosed its role, from a nation-centric to a more international and globalised educational format. Likewise, the information ecosystem is transforming the nation state into a network state that is creating new forms of citizenship. Since social change and technological change shape each other, the techno-educational system has a huge responsibility to bear.

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TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

BY 2035, India would be a society that is ac-

customed to and embedded with technology, in which the average citizen will routinely, regularly and constantly interface with technology.

Technology will create newer needs in society and the education system would be the crucial link between the two. As a sector, education is especially susceptible to ecosystem concerns.

Two educational institutions with ostensibly the same funding structure, statutory support and personnel policies may nevertheless produce very different outputs because of a range of other factors. Shaping an enabling environment therefore becomes a primary challenge for any educational system. Three pillars that will have a determining impact on the creation of an enabling environment for knowledge creation and dissemination and skills training and enhancement by 2035 are policy, finance and infrastructure.

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13.01

POLICY

Policies are plans or courses of action that are intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters. Policies can be distinguished from programmes, which are systems of projects or services, consisting of a series of steps to be carried out as well as goals to be accomplished, that meet a public need. Policies are important because they determine resource allocation, identify critical priorities, resolve contradictions and conflicts, enable experimentation, and ensure conformity to a set of predetermined standards. While some educational policies could have short- and medium-term objectives, the policies that matter most – and these are the policies that will have an impact in the 2035 timeframe – are

aimed at goals that will fructify in the long term. In this section, the focus is not on prescribing policy changes but rather raising the issues that long term education policy must address.

For instance, at the preschool and primary levels, at what age should learning through play be supplemented and then replaced by other ways of learning? And what would this mean in a technology embedded environment? If we wish to promote the development of cognitive and motor skills in children, would it not be better to encourage them to manipulate objects in the material world till age 8 and introduce them to screen-based learning only after that? If the last concern were to take concrete shape, SHAPING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

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it would imply a policy that privileges teachers at the KG-Class 3 stage and does not seek to supplement or replace them with distance education, virtual teachers or other technological fixes.

At the middle to secondary level, a different set of policy issues gain in prominence. Should the exit point from formal education be Class 8 (14 years of age) or Class 10 (16 years of age)? At what stage should a common curriculum give way to streaming into distinct specialisations? If vocationalisation of education rather than vocational education is the goal, how can skill acquisition be mainstreamed into the learning process instead of being regarded as a separate activity? To build technology literate citizens not just information but skills are needed.

How can problem solving, especially with a technological orientation, become a part of the curriculum? Perhaps most importantly, if common textbooks, fixed curriculum and predetermined content are to be overcome, what are the ways of doing so?

Innovative local solutions and a diversity of pathways would still lead to a fixed predetermined endpoint, in the sense that all learners would finally be assessed and evaluated by the same set of tests. Or could we contemplate not only different pathways but also different endpoints, encompassing a diverse range of examinations and certifications?

The impact of policy on the tertiary sector will be just as significant. The rate at which knowledge is advancing will put teachers in higher education under huge pressure on multiple fronts: staying abreast with knowledge advances, deploying the latest technology to serve pedagogical 161

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ends, getting accustomed to transdisciplinary challenges, adapting to changing modes of evaluations and assessment, etc. What policy inputs would be needed to ensure that this happens in quotidian and systemic terms? How can we encourage teachers at the tertiary level to not just receive change passively but to be active drivers of change? Perhaps most important of all, how do we encourage knowledge producers to become effective disseminators of knowledge?

If education policy is to be made for the long term, it is important to avoid frequent policy changes. Although some mid-term course correction is understandable, the impact of educational policy changes can be assessed only in decadal terms. For this reason, it is important to have a moratorium on changes in education policy more frequently than once every ten years or so.

There are two policy issues, both relating to systemic balances of a fundamental nature, that will have to be tackled in the coming years. The first is the balance between the public and private sectors in education. The learners in higher and technical education passing through private institutions already vastly outnumber those being educated in public institutions.

Given the ongoing massification and the target to achieve 30% gross enrolment rate by 2020, the proportion of first generation learners will continue to rise in the higher education sector. Such learners will thrive only in socially inclusive university spaces. If access is to continue as a major policy goal of the Indian education system, public investments must increase manifold. As the private sector gets

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entrenched in education, it would be important to ask if there are any areas, such as teacher training, that should be ring fenced from the private sector. Humanities and social sciences will continue to need protection from the state in terms of funding and policy support.

Education policy must grapple with

There are four types of educational institutions in our country: central government, state government, private (philanthropic) and private (profit driven). By 2035, foreign educational institutions are likely to become a fifth player in the game.

Education policy must grapple with the issue of the profit motive as a driver for the establishment of educational institutions. The challenge would be to arrive at an equilibrium between the production of robust knowledge and the extrinsic goal of generating profits from research in both the public and private sectors. The possibility to building public-private partnerships (PPP) in education should also be fully leveraged.

research in both the public and private

the issue of the profit motive as a driver for the establishment of educational institutions. The challenge would be to arrive at an equilibrium between the production of robust knowledge and the extrinsic goal of generating profits from sectors. The possibility to building public-private partnerships (PPP) in education should also be fully leveraged.

The second balancing act is between the prerogatives of the Union and the States in education.

Constitutionally, primary and secondary education are in the State List and tertiary education in the Concurrent List. We must, however, ask if this is desirable in a technology-embedded society which would require huge investments in higher education institutions (HEIs). In order to enforce desirable standards across the country and to build a technologically empowered citizenry, a strong case can be made for enhanced central funding to state HEIs. SHAPING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

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13.02

FINANCE

Financial issues have a huge impact on the ecosystem for knowledge and skills. The rising cost of education is placing a strain on both the banking system and individual learners and their families. On the one hand, the biggest category of non-performing assets (NPA) in the banking system are educational loans, while on the other it is estimated that 45 million learners have dropped out of higher education over the last decade due to burgeoning costs.

The issues that come to the fore in the financing of education are the quantum of resources allocated and the provenance of these resources. Significant shortfalls remain in the quantum of public resources devoted to education, with public funding amounting to 3.65% of the central budget or 0.47% of GDP. Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh (PSK) is the repository of the primary education cess (PEC) which is used to finance Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Midday Meals Scheme.

This has had a direct impact on improved enrollment and retention rates at the KG-Class 8 level: the gross enrollment ratio is 96.9% for Classes 1-8, in sharp contrast to 78.5% for

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Classes 9-10, 54.2% for Classes 1112, and 24.3% in higher education.

The public funding challenge is to expand capacity at the secondary and tertiary levels to accommodate the burgeoning student numbers, now estimated at 260 million in KG-Class 12. There are only 37 million students currently in tertiary education, indicating thereby the huge mismatch between current capacity and future needs. Much of the public funding in higher education (83%) comes not from the general budget but from the secondary and higher education cess (SHEC), which unlike PSK does not go into a separate account. To ensure a strong financial base for tertiary education, both generic and professional, this needs to change.

The private sector has emerged as an important source of investment in education. While philanthropy is the most desirable motive for private funding, corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding is now overtaking it. Furthermore, the profit motive is now becoming the most important driver of private investments in education. There has been a tendency for profit-driven private funding to compromise on academic freedom and autonomy, an outcome that can be obviated only by a vast increase in the scale of public investments in education. But therein lies another problem: there are many pressures on the public purse and public investment alone is unlikely to cater to the exponentially increasing demand for education. A new funding equilibrium therefore needs to emerge between the public and private sectors. The best public-private partnerships in

education will embrace inclusiveness – hitherto the policy preoccupation of the public sector – with quality and standards to which both sectors can be expected to contribute.

Increased participation of the private sector in skill development and applied programmes has become imperative for two reasons. The first is financial: additional funding support is needed from the private sector in view of the fiscal constraints being faced by the public sector. However, the second reason is perhaps more compelling: industry’s field level knowledge about specific sectoral skill requirements and their ability to make sensible future projections in the deployment of technology should penetrate the curriculum. The gap between what is being taught and what is desired by industry can thereby be bridged to a significant extent. The learner would be the biggest beneficiary of this this type of public-private synergy.

Yet another issue relating to public funding of education is about the recipient, i.e., about who or what is being funded. So far, public funding has largely been to institutions in order to provide subsidised education, with only a few individuals receiving direct public funding through scholarships, fellowships and research grants.

But the question surely needs to be asked, on grounds of both efficiency and equality, whether we would not have better and fairer outcomes if public funding of education were to shift from an institution-centric to a learner-centric mode.

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13.03

INFRASTRUCTURE

Educational infrastructure has traditionally been conceived as pertaining to either bricks-and-mortar buildings or equipment. Lately, with the ICT revolution, issues of fibre optic cabling and bandwidth have been added to the list. If we are to attain the desired goal of anyone-anywhere-anytime by 2035, we need to stop thinking of infrastructure issues in silos and view them instead as a network of interlocking and mutually-impacting elements. The academic community of the future will be a complex network of human relations, work plans, teaching-learning schedules and other daily activities, located in a physical environment with its own material flows and internal requirements.

We cannot address the educational infrastructure needs of the future without confronting the critical and unavoidable question of temporality.

Should we continue to regard educational institutions as built for the ages?

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If yes, we should be willing to make investments in educational infrastructure that can only be amortised in the medium-to-long term. Or should we alternatively see the educational institutions of the future as ephemeral, only one of the multiple sites for knowledge and skill acquisition? It is worth highlighting that the future of physical infrastructure in education will depend upon the degree of social embeddedness of technology.

The most pressing issue will be the lack of adequate land holdings upon which to build the campuses of the future. An expanding educational system must devise new norms regarding the physical characteristics of schools, colleges and universities. Educational buildings of the future must go vertical so as to optimise land use, with adequate open spaces for sports facilities and Li-Fi/Wi-Fi enabled virtual learning spaces. Physical expansion of university spaces should take into

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Educational institutions of the future will blend physical and virtual learning environments.

Tacit knowledge thrives in informal work and learning environments. consideration the optimum utilisation of existing spaces in publicly-funded HEIs. All these opportunities should be marshalled without comprising with the broad objective of inclusive expansion of quality education. Issues of resource availability, affordability and sustainability must remain in the forefront.

Educational institutions of the future will blend physical and virtual learning environments. Physical learning environments would consist of spaces of different sizes, ranging from auditoriums to small cafeteria, in which information would be obtained, courseware studied and experiments conducted in group settings. Plugand-play facilities, shared multimedia workstations and separate rooms for meditation and contemplation would be commonplace. Tacit knowledge thrives in informal work and learning environments. In terms of lighting, air conditioning and waste manage-

ment, educational buildings of the future should set examples of environmentally friendly, energy efficient and sustainable habitats. ICT will create virtual learning communities that break physical borders, widen social networks and allow greater interactivity and rewarding experiences. However, the lack of face-to-face interaction of learners with their teachers and peers may limit their impact on personal and social development, ensuring thereby that traditional classrooms and teacher-learner contacts will not disappear.

Implicit in all the above is that new norms and modes will emerge for the sharing of resources and facilities across institutional and disciplinary divides. Maintenance of existing infrastructure and reinvestment in facilities, a perennial challenge in our country, would have to become yesterday’s problem.

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KEY CONSIDE AND ASPIRAT FOR EDUCAT I IN 2035 Education cuts across all the other sectors and has therefore been identified as a separate sector for Technology Vision 2035. The Educational Technologies Sectoral Roadmap has given us an opportunity to assess where we are and would be, in terms of both education and technology. We have been able to capitalise on the opportunity to think afresh and aloud, to draw contours for an education system befitting India of 2035. Realising the full potential of every Indian is our collective goal and aspiration. Towards this important goal, we have framed 90 statements reflecting conditions and envisioning changes in our country’s education system by 2035. Assessing the likelihood, feasibility and desirability of each of these statements is a key task for all stakeholders in the education sector, whether government agencies and regulators, public and private education institutions, individual actors like teachers and researchers, or learners and their families.

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RAT IONS IONS ION LI KELI HO OD is about whether a state of affairs will exist, partially exist or not exist.

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FEASIBILITY pertains to whether a proposed condition or change is technically, managerially or financially achievable, either entirely or partially.

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DESI RABILITY is about whether a condition/change is worth having or seeking.

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Affordable education Education will be available in remote areas.

Quality education will be available in all areas, thereby reducing the pressure on urbanisation.

Technology will make education more affordable.

Higher education will continue to be subsidised in 2035.

Higher education will continue to garner more public resources in proportionate terms than other levels of education.

Science, culture and society Scientific knowledge will not be the preserve of a privileged few but would be widely available to society at large.

Society will have an increasingly important role in shaping the trajectory of technological development.

Education in skills The job market will emphasise skills, thereby delinking jobs from degrees.

Technical education will be industry oriented, driven and funded by industry/user.

Knowledge that does not exist in textbooks and classrooms but rather in living traditions and social practices, would also be transmitted to learners through enabling pedagogies.

Manual skills would have far greater prestige than they do today.

Re-skilling possibilities will become universal and affordable.

The tradition of learning through the master-apprentice relationship will be central to learning of skills.

Infusion of technology will revitalise but not replace traditional skills and crafts.

Education as values Environmental, social, civic, cultural and human values would be inculcated in all levels of education.

Higher, technical and professional education will encompass ethics of knowledge and workplace values.

The pursuit of knowledge would be valued not only as a means of employment and professional advancement but for its own sake.

By breaking down existing structures of domination, exclusion and privilege, education would be a pillar of a democratic society.

Notions of sustainable development, including sustainable life forms and sustainable livelihoods, which are contained in indigenous and tribal knowledge systems, would have been mainstreamed.

The new technologies in education and research will create new ethical issues for knowledge production systems.

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Evaluation and testing Better evaluation technologies will lead to more robust assessment, and hence better education.

Technology based assessments will be able to measure a wider range of talents, skills and knowledge.

As the diversity of educational providers multiplies, evaluation of skills, knowledge and talent will get increasingly standardised.

Evaluation will no longer be single shot, winner-takes-all examination, but rather continuous exercises in which learners will get several opportunities to improve their competence levels.

Certification

Mainstreaming of vocational education Vocational education would be a mainstream activity.

By 2035, ‘highly qualified’ will not imply ‘highly educated’, nor vice versa.

Vocationalisation of education Vocationalisation of education would not only provide livelihoods but also enable and empower the population.

Technology will enable certification repositories that are secure, efficient and authentic.

Experimental and exploratory aspects Revamping teacher education at all levels Continuing education for all teachers across levels and employing flexible models of instruction would be commonplace across the country.

Faculty exchange and mobility programmes at all levels, aimed at experience sharing and enriching teaching careers, would be routine and encouraged.

Technology would help in seamless integration of theory, history and data (laboratory and field) in all branches of knowledge.

Experiments and projects of local relevance would be an integral part of education.

Conversations across the branches of knowledge will lead to new forms of experimentation and exploration.

Databases of teachers with similar expertise would lead to knowledge sharing.

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Teachers and their role Preparing enough teachers, equipping them for the new contexts of learning, and developing the schools they will teach in would be a challenge of quality and not of scale.

Due to the information explosion, the role of teacher as a mentor will increase.

Educators will have access to required levels of technology, resources, training and support.

Interactive adaptive and multimedia courseware and simulation will be used in teaching and learning and integrated into the curriculum.

With a fundamental change in the role of a teacher from instructor to mentor/ navigator, anyone with knowledge and skills to share will be regarded as a teacher.

Impact of technology Technology will help learners in identifying and maximising their talents.

Learning will be based on multi-media rich interactions.

Flexibility Education packages would be modular, allowing for much greater mobility and flexibility.

Creativity and innovation Openness in education (concepts like open content, open data and open resources) will promote creativity and self-expression.

In higher education, the paradigm will shift from today’s ‘Reading + Receiving + Researching’ to ‘Contributing + Collaborating + Creating’.

Non-formal innovators and master crafts persons, both in rural and urban India, would be a part of mainstream educational activities.

Social media and networking would have a deep influence on the learners.

Social networking will help in developing social skills to compliment education.

With children getting exposed to technology at a much younger age, the danger exists that the curriculum will be overloaded and the learning process will be hampered.

Human cognitive and mental abilities will advance through drugs, implants, virtual learning environments and wearable devices.

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Languages and world knowledge With real time translation possible, the learner will be able to take advantage of content and wisdom of other cultures.

Technology will enable learning of other languages and cultures, thereby allowing learners to participate fully in global society.

Linguistic competence and multilingual education Many languages would vanish as more and more people get hooked to the Internet, which may not offer too many language options.

In order to prevent the overwhelming domination of English, language diversity would need to be actively promoted.

Technology will be actively used to prevent the extinction of spoken languages and dialects.

Infrastructure – hard and soft High speed internet access will be available to all for robust communication.

Ubiquitous reliable access to resources and services will be available through multiple mobile devices and access points.

Applications and collaboration tools will be common and freely available for all areas of education.

Large number of new universities will be Virtual/Meta/Open in character.

Individualised education As against learning from teachers in the classrooms, learners will choose their own team, scheme, content and pace of learning.

Learn-work-earn-learn-migra te, for personal and job market reasons, would be the norm.

Lifelong learning Reflecting the real needs of a longer-living and aging society, second careers and lifelong learning would be mainstreamed.

Universities and education providers would receive a significant portion of their revenues from older learners and would therefore be extremely responsive to their educational needs.

Literacy, schooling and education The infusion of technology will lead to a clear distinction between literacy (data), schooling (information and skills) and education (knowledge and critical thought).

Technology will transform the meaning of literacy to include the operation of devices, instruments and machines.

In India, technology will have to cater to three distinct learning goals: universal literacy, mandatory schooling to a certain age, and lifelong education.

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Inclusion

Disciplinary barriers and other divides Availability of information will catalyse the interest of educators/media to act as bridge over divides of all forms.

Realising the goal of Education for All would require transformation of the concept, resources and delivery of education.

The social, economic, physical and mental constraints that prevent many children from accessing education would have been overcome.

Language translation tools and disciplinary word lists/ glossaries will develop adequately to bridge the gap.

Wide availability of information and new teaching methods will promote critical and reflective appreciation of cultural diversity.

Technology in education will lead to new ways of ‘seeing’, thereby enhancing mutual tolerance and building a sense of shared vulnerability at local and global levels.

Cultivation of critical thinking Introduction of social and cultural sciences in professional education would make learners much more socially conscious and tolerant in their approach.

Applying the scientific virtues of openness and scepticism would make the learners in the social sciences and the humanities more critical and therefore relevant.

Plurality of education systems and knowledge forms Education would be socially constructed and contextually reinvented, in contrast to being dictated by academic and educational bureaucracies as it now is.

Marginal knowledge traditions, such as those belonging to indigenous and tribal societies, would have been successfully incorporated within institutions of secondary and tertiary education.

By 2035, private ownership and patenting of knowledge would be futile because almost all knowledge would be in the public domain, thanks to technology.

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Virtual Education Online courses will ensure all learners have access to high quality instruction, no matter their location and schedule.

Learners will have seamless access to courseware and technology based curriculum.

Electronic supplementary instructions, resources and online tutoring will be accessible to all learners.

Integration of various levels Teachers at various levels of education would be encouraged to spend at least a part of their careers at a different level of education.

Cultural side of education Cultural boundaries will dissolve and trans-disciplinary formations will emerge.

The barriers between the natural and social sciences would be broken down by the emergence of new ways of organizing knowledge.

Future of classrooms and schools Much of the learning will happen outside of traditional classrooms.

Higher education will have faculty, researchers and students from overseas.

Entrepreneurial/Innovation Universities would be in high demand.

School curricula will not be restricted to learning of prescribed subjects but will provide opportunity to learners to hone their cultural and creative talents.

The distinction between curricular, non-curricular and extracurricular learning will diminish.

The conventional model of scaling schooling (large classrooms, grade wise stratification, common and rigid curricula, syllabi and textbooks, and an overbearing presence of examinations) would no longer exist.

Universal access to technological resources will provide alternate ways of designing the school and education.

The university as we know it would be passĂŠ; the multiversity would have arisen in its place.

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GRAND CHALLENGE CALL TO ACT The fourth Grand Challenge identified in Technology Vision 2035 is ‘providing learner centric, language neutral and holistic education to all’. A Grand Challenge is conceived as ‘a strategic visionary decision for the entire nation, symbolising our collective desire to scale greater heights’, with the following features: • It encompasses an overarching objective with not one but multiple specific targets.

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• It involves multiple players and technologies.

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• It involves a significant degree of difficulty either in terms of knowledge creation, ecosystem design or technology deployment, or some combination of the three.

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• It would require enormous investments for our future generations, with deferred but hugely rewarding payoffs.

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• It would have a multiplier impact, leading to positive spinoffs, building virtuous cycles and feeding into a number of different sectors, if successfully achieved.

ES AND TION TECH NOLO GY VISION

2035

GOES ON TO STATE THE FOLLOWING

Technology makes it possible for us to move beyond the bane of predetermined, one-size-fits-all content; we can now provide individualised curriculum that is relevant to the needs, interests and talents of each individual learner. Assimilation of material deemed essential for all learners can be accomplished at different paces and sequences. Language need no longer be a barrier to learning. Education and skilling would then be liberating and empowering, imparting the values to make complete human and social beings while being relevant in terms of life and livelihood possibilities.

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In line with this Grand Challenge, the education technology roadmap laid out in this document presents a forward-looking assessment of the intersection between society, technology and education to enable all Indian citizens in 2035 to achieve their full potentials as each of them defines it.

Affordability therefore becomes a key element in each of the education technology Grand Challenges identified below.

GRAND CHALLENGE 1 ENABLING UNIVERSAL PERSONALISED ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN A DIALOGIC TEACHINGLEARNING ENVIRONMENT

It is widely recognised that our education system fails to provide individual learners with the opportunity to systematically and actively pursue their interests and passions. If we are serious about giving each and every Indian the opportunity to achieve their full potential, this must change. While teachers would remain central to the teaching-learning process, it is difficult, given the demographic pressures under which our country’s education systems function, to envisage personalised access to learning emerging from human-human interaction alone. The Grand Challenge would be to build affordable artificial intelligence (AI)-based learning platforms that would facilitate the development and dissemination of customised dialogical knowledge and skills acquisition.

For personalised learning, the dialogic dimension is indispensable. For instance, a young learner could work through a set of mathematical problems as if she were sitting with a personal tutor, who could be configured in the persona of a famous mathematician. A more mature learner could debate the merits of euthanasia, or some aspect of Buddhist metaphysics, or botanical taxonomy, with a virtual teacher. Skills ranging from classical dance mudras to carpentry to fabrication and maintenance of electronic systems and devices could benefit from personalised mentoring. These learning platforms would help transform the guru-shishya paradigm in exciting ways.

Self-organising learning environments, a shishya-shishya paradigm in which learners learn from each other, could be a variation of this technological application.

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GRAND CHALLENGE 2 ENABLING LANGUAGE-NEUTRAL CONTENT THROUGH REAL TIME TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

India derives its strength from plurality of cultures, ethnicities, foods, faiths and languages. Multilingualism is an asset that expands horizons, catalyses people-to-people contact and integrates the country, but has been an education bottleneck because the best teachers and educational materials are not available to learners in regional languages. Education over the internet, though catering to ‘anyone, anywhere, anytime’, remains unexploited because of linguistic barriers. If real time translation and interpretation were a reality, a learner in Vasco would be able to hear in Konkani a lecture on organic chemistry being delivered in Heidelberg in German. Language-neutral content therefore is an authentic democratiser, a leveller of the barriers and asymmetries that exist in our education system. Technology Vision 2035 identifies Real-time Translation Among Indian Languages (ReTrAIL) as a solution to this Grand Challenge. The translation-interpretation process involves three steps: (a) automated speech recognition, (b) machine translation, and (c) speech synthesis. Latency and jitter would need to be maintained as per VOIP standards in an interactive session. Beyond the technological challenge, there are significant linguistic and cultural challenges. Specifically, is there a single language that can serve as a common base/meta/ pivot language? An alternate approach would be to invent a new meta-language that can facilitate real-time translation.

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GRAND CHALLENGE 3 BUILDING UNIVERSAL INTERACTIVE AND ADAPTIVE SIMULATORS FOR SKILL TRAINING AND EVALUATION

It is expected that in the coming years the skill sets possessed by an individual will become increasingly important. Unlike knowledge, which can be accessed from multiple sources, skills can be acquired and maintained only through repeated practice in specific contexts. As the productive processes get more automated, the types of skills needed will change. Providing opportunities to practice critical skills will emerge as a core challenge of the education system. Traditionally, skills have been acquired through human mentorship, which is a labour intensive, time consuming, idiosyncratic and expensive means to skill acquisition. An alternate method to learn and hone one’s skills is by resorting to repeated practice in and on simulators. To facilitate skill training and practice on a mass scale, simulators will have to become commonplace in our educational institutions. Designing and fabricating affordable simulators which faithfully replicate visual, aural and tactile stimuli will emerge as a core education technology challenge in the coming years. For instance, the same simulator with various add-ons could train learners in academic skills (dissection), vocational skills (carpentry), life skills (driving) and sports (boxing). Affordability could be obtained by designing and producing a universal rig upon which hardware and software add-ons could be modularly mated to produce versatile platforms to teach and practice a wide variety of skills. These simulators would have both a training and an assessment role, since they would also be used as virtual skill assessment platforms and automated evaluation and assessment systems.

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GRAND CHALLENGE 4 INTEGRATING DIVERSE KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS, ACADEMIC SPECIALISATIONS AND LEVELS OF LEARNING

There are currently four significant barriers or divides in the world of knowledge. The first pertains to the boundaries that exist between various scientific disciplines. The second is the divide that separates the ‘three cultures’ of sciences, social sciences and humanities.

The third is the gap that currently exists between modern systems of knowing and indigenous and local knowledge systems (ILKS). Finally, a divide that exists at the level of learning: as the learner matures, she is repeatedly re-introduced to knowledge that she has already encountered earlier in a simpler form. The Grand Challenge is to integrate and aggregate these knowledge silos and make the existing conceptual boundaries more flexible and permeable. By doing so, three important and desirable goals become achievable. Firstly, knowledge production, dissemination and assimilation will become more holistic. Secondly, since the disciplinary boundaries have already encountered their limits, inter- and trans-disciplinarity needs to be mainstreamed. Thirdly, the contemporary and emerging imperatives of sustainable development, upon which in extremis planetary survival will depend, requires these integrative and assimilating efforts.

Big data analytics based on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies would be the means to achieve this Grand Challenge. Big data is characterised by the volume generated annually, the velocity at which it is generated and the variety of the data produced. It is estimated to be currently growing to the order of 1021 bytes per year. Big data has opened up a number of avenues in social science education and research, making ‘value’ as important as volume, velocity and variety. In the coming years, AI technologies will employ sets of computational and visualisation tools and techniques to unearth hidden patterns and unknown correlations. The social sciences and humanities, not to mention the natural sciences, will transmute into newer transdisciplinary formations as the sciences of complexity and integrative sciences. Under the same institutional structure, academics from disciplines as diverse as statistical physics and social stratification are already coming together.

By 2035 more advanced web mining and analytic methods across the spectrum would be commonplace at the higher secondary and undergraduate levels. These would include methods for data retrieval, conversion, cleansing, organisation and analysis (such as natural language processing, social and conceptual network analysis), as well as enhanced data visualisation and interpretation software.

182

GRAND CHALLENGE 5 REPLACING INDIVIDUAL CERTIFICATION AND INSTITUTIONAL RANKING WITH SOCIAL REPUTATION METRICS FOR QUALITY ENHANCEMENT

A Grand Challenge of considerable importance in the education sector is to link evaluation and assessment – whether of individuals, institutions, processes or products – to authentic quality metrics. Existing systems of assessment and certification merely provide snapshots of the entity being assessed: the examinee on the day of the examination, the institution at the moment of its assessment, a particular process only when it is not functioning properly, etc. This is problematic because quality assurance and enhancement should be based on dynamic data, not static snapshots. Furthermore, the current system of examinations forces the learner to tailor learning to the requirements of the examination itself, thereby skewing the process of learning. Similarly, institutional grades and rankings can be gamed to present a much better institutional picture than the reality warrants. Social reputational metrics based on dynamic data already exist with regard to certain knowledge products such as articles in peer reviewed journals. The technology Grand Challenge would be to use Big Data Analytics to create dynamic 360º social reputation metrics for all categories of individuals, institutions, processes and products in the education sector.

Clearly, not all the educational grand

be a grand challenge of the highest

challenges facing our country have a

order, albeit one without an explicit

technological dimension. One of the

or obvious technological solution.

biggest banes of India’s education-

183

al system is predetermined content,

Finally, in this technology-oriented

which forces all learners to try to gain

projection of India’s educational fu-

mastery over material that has been

ture, it is important to emphasise that

identified by an educational bureau-

the core agent of knowledge and

cracy in an un-nuanced ‘one-size-

skill transmission, the teacher, will re-

fits-all’ manner. Such an approach

main central to the entire education

prevents or at the minimum severe-

process. Since their role will change

ly restricts the space for creativi-

with the march of technology, mak-

ty, innovation and lateral thinking.

ing teacher training and re-training

Building much needed synergies

the keystone of educational reform

between curricular, co-curricular and

is an educational Grand Challenge

non-curricular learning will therefore

of primary importance.

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

Contributors ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS

CHAIRPERSON Prof. Dr. Varun Sahni Vice-Chancellor, Goa University

Dr. Debiprosad Duari Director, M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research, Kolkata

Dr. Kuncheria P. Isaac Vice-Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram

Dr. V. Abhai Kumar Principal, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai

Prof. Dr. Sita Naik Formerly Dean, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow

Prof. Dr. Dhruv Raina Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Prof. Dr. Rajaram S. Sharma Formerly Joint Director, CIET-NCERT, New Delhi

Prof. Dr. Geetha Venkataraman Dean, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi

Prof. Dr. Siddiq Wahid Formerly ViceChancellor, Islamic University of Science & Technology, Awantipora

Dr. Gautam Goswami Head, Technology Vision 2035, TIFAC, New Delhi

Dr. Neeraj Saxena Member Secretary and Scientist-E, TIFAC, New Delhi 184

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2035

Contributors AUTHORS/ DRAFTING TEAM

Prof. Dr. Varun Sahni Vice-Chancellor, Goa University

Prof. Dr. Sita Naik Formerly Dean, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow

Prof. Dr. Dhruv Raina Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Dr. Kuncheria P. Isaac Vice-Chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram

Prof. Dr. Geetha Venkataraman Dean, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi

Prof. Dr. Rajaram S. Sharma Formerly Joint Director, CIET-NCERT, New Delhi

Dr. Gautam Goswami Head, Technology Vision 2035, TIFAC, New Delhi

Dr. Neeraj Saxena Scientist-E, TIFAC, New Delhi

CO-AUTHORS

Prof. Dr. Amber Habib Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar

Prof. Dr. Fozia S. Qazi Islamic University of Science & Technology, Awantipora, South Kashmir

Prof. R. Hariharan Advisor, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi

TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP - EDUCATION

TIFAC TEAM

Prof. Dr. Prabhat Ranjan Executive Director

Dr. Gautam Goswami Head, Technology Vision 2035

Dr. Neeraj Saxena Scientist-E

Mrs. Jancy. A Scientist-E

Dr. T. Chakradhar Scientist-C

Ms. Mukti Prasad Scientist-C

Mr. Manish Kumar Scientist-B

Ms. Swati Sharma Scientist-B

186

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www. tifac.org.in