We have experienced exponential growth of
use of information technology (IT) in all sectors of economy. The concept of
“core banking” software revolutionised banking sector. Earlier you could encash
your cheque from only your branch in which you had the account. Software
connected all the branches and then you can withdraw from any branch. Such
software enabled the implementation of ATM.
Stock market were like fish markets. Now
they are all sophisticated with use of computers, internet and complex software.
We can deal with any stock from any part of the world, only barrier being the
time zone.
Travel booking, be it airline, train,
hotel, sight-seeing or restaurant searching, everything can be done online and
at flick of a button. You can compare thousands of options from the comfort of
your bedroom.
In all these sectors implementation of
technology has brought the costs down. The reason is very simple, it has
increase manpower productivity by leaps and bounds. Today a private bank has about
3 times the market capitalisation per employee than a public sector bank. This
is due to the better implementation of technology (apart from better management
skill).
Education sector has still not been able to
reap dividends of IT. 20 years ago CBSE has 40 children per class and 1 teacher
to teach. Even today the productivity per teacher is same. Each class requires
one teacher and 6 hours when the students are there in the school, some or the
other teacher has to be present.
This is not a problem in India alone. It’s
a worldwide problem. We have SMART boards for teachers, so they can be more
effective at teaching. We have computer generated marksheets, question paper,
worksheets, but teacher’s role in the classroom is not eliminated. At best the
teacher can make PPT and reuse it whenever the same topic is taught in the
future. This does not decrease the manpower cost, just improves the classroom
attention span if at all.
Thus contrary to other sectors, cost of
education has not decreased with the implementation of IT. What has improved is
quality of education. Today we can show amoeba classroom in motion at a flick
of a button. We can show an animation of photosynthesis or a human blood
circulation system so students can understand it clearly and faster. History
becomes more interesting with colour photos, audio speeches, old videos.
Today’s children have exposure to a richer
mediums like TV, Radio and computers at home. While studying they get to use
both side of brains for faster learning through use of IT. Hence students have
benefitted a lot with the implementation of technology in education even when
cost of education has not decreased.
Very good read sir.
ReplyDeleteI am Pranav Ingle from Corporate Gurukul, Pune. I completely agree that student have benefited from IT.
But IT has not being utilized by Indian schools to its full potential and has being just limited to Smart Board rooms and E-learning systems.
Where as in USA education even for the first graders have utilized technology to its complete potential by implementing STEM education to its fullest and introducing IT to 5 year old students.
We also need to do the same and introduce smart stem holistic learning for our students.
I would like to discuss with you about our new SMART (Science, Mathematics, Augmented reality & Technology) programme which we have launched for the first time in India in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
You can reach me at pranav.ingle@corporategurukul.com & 7588847074 or can I get a correspondence line/number to send you few details of the programme.
Look forward to your reply.