How will India’s universities implement the 10% quota?
HURDLES A streamlined system requires integration at all levels and functions, including instruction and credentials
The US education secretary, John Gardner wrote a great book in the 1960 and asked a pertinent question, “Can we be equal and excellent?”. The new regulations around the 10% quota for the economically weak sound well intended – that a child’s life chances should not be fixed by certain morally arbitrary circumstances of their birth such as their social class, race, and economic status. Once implemented, the regulations shall significantly influence such a child’s life chances in terms of labour market success, preparation for democratic citizenship, and general human flourishing. However, implementation of the same without impacting the quality of education shall be challenge for universities unless they reinvent themselves – education that is multimodal, modular, blended and technology assisted can help institutions overcome this new challenge!
Institutions are being instructed to increase the capacity in their already over-crowded classrooms to accommodate this extra demand. This shall call for a massive increase of infrastructure inside classrooms and universities will need to recruit additional faculty to handle the workload. However, we would like to make a case that counting only on the traditional classroom model for expansion of capacity seems inadequate given our demographic dividend (where 65% of our population is less than 35 years old).
This new regulation shall, at the same time, present a large opportunity for higher education institutions both to serve their mission and to increase the number of students they impact; however they will have to creatively think about their product and think of effective ways to deliver them to the modern learner. Uni- versities would need to think beyond the classrooms and integrate several aspects of University 4.0 (U4.0) – Is it going to be physical classrooms or online classrooms; text or multimedia; degrees or apprenticeships; study before working or continuing education or creative combinations? Universities will need to think of an education model that is multi-modal, modular and blended – where students may not come to the campus everyday but learn the skills on the job; where assessments may not be a year-end activity but continuous feedback; where teachers need not physically come to the classroom but can interact with the students online. Students will need a continuum between certificates, diplomas and degrees where each can be an opening balance to the next one! Credentialing would need a fresh look where students can study several parts of their curriculum online and aggregate credits towards their certification. Universities will need to think harder about collaboration; where industry, academia and government can partner to create a structure that can benefit from the discovery driven culture of the University and the innovation driven culture of the industry!
The litany of disruption in higher education redefined by global competition, new technologies, growing costs, reservations, strong demand for rapid impact call for a fresh strategy and new approaches to problem. Universities will need to create a performance driven culture where there is a hope of rising and a fear of falling. Instead of quickfixes, it needs rethinking education – always on, on-the-go, online, onsite, on-the-job, gamified, crowd sourced, just-in-time, modular, collaborative and impactful.
CHILDREN’S PHYSICAL GROWTH VARIES
For instance, even today in many classrooms, students sit on conventional wooden desks and benches that are not suitable for their height or body structure. Though the children are of the same age group, their physical growth varies from one another and hence one common desk or bench may not fit all of them. Ill designed classroom furniture may give rise to body pain (back and neck especially) which in turn distracts a student from concentrating in the classroom.
Classroom seating should support a healthy posture, especially since young bodies develop rapidly. It should also
OPEN CLASSROOM DESIGN
But after having said so, the future is not utterly bleak. There have been some grass root and rather ingenious attempts at reforming and remaking the classroom set up such as openclassroom design, collaborative learning space, etc.
While ergonomics is extremely important, classroom seating must also be flexible in terms of functionality. In other words, it has to complement the curriculum. Educators and designers feel that classrooms of today have become active learning environments. This requires portable (in weight and design) chairs that students of all age groups can quickly and easily move, arrange, stack and store.
We should break away from the ‘sit still and listen’ teaching style to one where students and
CONCLUSION
School furniture is an environmental factor that is too often neglected considering the fact that it plays an important role in the effectiveness of a student’s learning. This opens - up an opportunity for schools and educational institutions to improve students learning and engagement by focusing on proper classroom furniture.
Institutions must take initiative to invest on customized solutions rather than conventional plug-and-play models. They must think beyond regular classroom design and encourage collaborative learning by creating an ideal learning space that suits every child’s need.
The Litany of disruption in higher education has Been redefined By global Competition