By Soumitra Banerji
A few days ago, I was watching a Bengali adaptation of a Hungarian Play… in which an ‘Old Boy’ of a school gets back to his educational institution asking for a refund of his entire school fees along with interest and cost of opportunity loss; on account of his not being able to do anything in life after school. His school failed to educate him well enough.
As the play went, a committee of the School’s Senior Teachers was formed by the Principal to prove that he was very much up to it with his Alma Mater’s education…and was questioned in a way that he was made to pass through the improvised test in every subject…He went away empty handed.
Although this was originally a Hungarian Play but, in reality, it seems to have been tailormade for the modern Indian ecosystem. We have multitudes of schools and Institutions…Public as well as Private…multitudes of students streaming out of them and filling up vacant demographic spaces of our country. Yet we have difficulty in employing the right people for the right jobs. Industry struggles to employ…and our educated populace struggles to get employed…while Stiglitz wins a Nobel Prize to analyse this classic Indian problem.
While watching, I realised the truth in this satire. The majority of our educational institutions would like to have a critical mass of students to fill their seats…take them through their courses with highly stressed multitasking teachers…support them to pass out…and thereafter forget their existence. Most of these students, who are nothing more than of ‘Supply Chain’ relevance to the educational institutions, walk around disillusioned in a world that doesn’t seem to need their existence.
Don’t we owe our freshly educated youth so much more than what we are providing them with? Educational Institutions should be working on an ‘Objectives Based Framework’ wherein the ultimate objectives are:
- The education pattern should be aligned with prevalent industry requirements. A continuous interaction with Captains of Industry in the institution’s vicinity should enable the institution to create an ideal Education Workflow as well as customised contents. This would help Industry to get ‘Best Fit’ Human Resource supply commiserate to their requirements. Institutions right from the school level to higher learning institutional levels should be involved in this structured process of alignment.
- There needs to be a Strategic Tracking and Reporting Methodology in place, which enables an ideal template-based approach and transparency in presenting findings in fields of:
- Data Collection Methods, including Surveys, Professional Networks (LinkedIn etc.), Engaging and Dynamic Alumni Portals, easily accessible Mentorship Programmes through such Alumni Portals, Integration of Alumni Records with Institutional student data to identify which educational variables predict future success.
- Performance Reporting for Transparency… Which includes Alumni Success dashboards, Thematic Case Studies, Accreditation…
The entire gamut of the above-mentioned framework components has a singular objective…The Alma Mater, at whichever level of learning, is creating a workflow of success for its students right from Institutional Learning to Career to the Entire Passage of Life.
After all no one would like an ‘Old Boy or Girl’ coming back for a fees refund.
(Soumitra Banerji is an acclaimed Indian author and writer, best known for his thought-provoking novel “Liminal Tides”).
