Education making technology work for you.

The biggest pain points of Indian education are lack of resources, you can read that as  'Qualified teachers' and 'time' for these teachers so that they can help children in need of guidance. Any parent whose child is not performing in school will tell you the reason - the teacher doesn't pay attention to my child.  Teachers have become people who tell the child what to study at home, when it is their job to explain concepts. Teachers have become people who make ridiculous demands for projects which they have never taught their students and know that parents will eventually make the projects before submitting it to the school. In short teachers are to blame for students spending so much time in school but not learning anything.

But are the teachers really to blame or are we setting them up to fail?

We have put teachers in such a position that they are bound to fail. We want then to complete the curriculum. Give and assess projects. Design, take and assess tests. Do other admin work. And also help children learn. And the priorities are not defined. Like any other good employee they prioritise according to the demands of the administration. No wonder they fail! They are doing what they are held accountable for and the responsibility to teach is never a priority unless the school decides that's what they want to do. That is why we have good schools and bad schools. Good schools take responsibility of the teaching and make sure students learn and that's why you hear things like xyz is a good school and a bad school does the opposite, that's why you hear people criticizing the school. Why is that when the curriculum is the same for both the schools?

We should try and give the teachers more time with the students.

How? Thank fully the education ministry probably after realising the need of the hour has decided to use technology. How they are going to do it i honestly do not know, but as a teacher I certainly have some suggestions.  The government with its vast resources and funding can record lectures and programmes of concepts that are taught in school. There are enough studies floating around and experts who are authorities in the field of education and learning who can guide us with learning methods and outcomes. Test design and assessments can also be handled by technology today leaving the teacher free to concentrate on individual weaknesses of the students.

A teacher in Finland where they firmly believe that children should have fun while learning implements what they call learning to learn style of teaching. She usually devotes around three hours per student. However, school days in Finland are short. Although we can definitely ease up on our students, they can spend time in school learning new skills rather than simply knowing what to study for the exams.

Standardised tests should be given, not to differentiate between students but rather to make it easy for them to learn at their own pace. That is the advantage of technology we should use to the maximum. The teacher too can let her hair down literally and have fun teaching the students - actually teaching the students and the school with is resources can aim at the holistic growth of the child than simply going through the motions of finishing the curriculum.