Strategy Analytics
Agents: educationists, system analysts, business analysts, scientist, engineers;
Strategic moves :
Call deep analytics ‘7-S’ model; explore how to ensure a perfect fit among 7- S elements (scope, system, structure, security, strategy, staff-resources, skill- style-support);
Define a set of security goals and emerging technologies accordingly.
Do SWOT analysis: strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of existing offline technologies as compared to emerging online technologies;
Fair and rational business model innovation for education sector
Do technology life-cycle analysis on ‘S’ curve: presently at growth phase of ‘S’ curve.
Explore technology innovation-adoption-diffusion strategy.
Explore innovation model and knowledge management system for creation, storage, sharing and application of knowledge.
Adopt ‘4E’ approach for the development of underdeveloped zone by building smart villages and optimal resource planning, allocation and distribution (envision, explore, exercise, extend).
The expert panel have explored a set of interesting strategic moves for the innovation, adoption and diffusion of emerging technologies in education sector. The education policy is expected to be defined based on fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of as-is education system globally, identification of gaps and design of to-be system rationally. It may not be an intelligent approach to copy online education system blindly in the present environment of global economic shock and advancement and threats of emergent technologies (e.g. communication; 1G->2G->3G->4G->5G->6G->7G->8G->9G->10G , high risk of obsolescence of phone sets, generation of e-wastes). The education policy should be based on an optimal mix of supervised and unsupervised learning mechanisms which should promote creativity, innovation, self-confidence and skill development through motivation, commitment, trust and fair rational efforts of the academic community. It is also required to explore the scope of other learning mechanisms such as transfer, batch, online and dropout learning.
The education policy is too much focused on time period of various academic programmes; there should be more focus on other critical success factors such as total quality management, education methodology, education technology and education materials. The to-be education policy should explore the scope, system, structure, security, strategy, staff-resources, skill, style, support, shared vision and the ultimate goals of education system in terms of fairness, correctness, transparency, accountability and rationality. The change of time period from 3 to 4 years for graduation or (5+3+3+4) school education system should not be a time pass; the time should be properly utilized through real contributions of the academic community for the development of the nation and human society globally. In many countries, the student community exert maximum effort, time and cost on account of pre-primary and school education and preparation for aptitude tests and become exhausted physically and mentally to create real path breaking contributions in the domain of higher education at colleges, universities and branded academic institutes. There is less focus and fund allocation on higher education system, innovation, research and development; so the number of contributions, ideas and innovation is less in the domain of higher education. Another important issue is complexity: there is less focus on real contributions in science, engineering and technologies as compared to applied arts and entertainment since it is hard to innovate in science (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, medical and management) as compared to create stories (e.g. statistical juggleries, emotional false data injection attack, emotional blackmail, luxurious thoughts) in other domains based on common sense. The academic community and top talent are too busy in exploring simple schemes of various luxurious event management programmes and corporate communication; less focused on complex brain storming sessions as compared to the education system in developed countries.
The concept of single regulator is interesting but what should be the structure of single regulator? Single regulator should have a cellular structure having different cells: science, engineering & technology, management science, medical science, law, arts etc. If there is no proper regulatory control, the education system may collapse in the coming future. The regulatory body is expected to ensure corporate social responsibilities of various academic institutions and academic programmes. Absolute independence often creates pockets of inefficiencies, corruption and lack of commitment in as-is education system at various academic institutions. Benchmarking, standardization and total quality control is essential for talent management, reward, recognition, placement and job assistance. Why so many seats are vacant in technical institutes each year? There is sufficient infrastructure but the capacity utilization factor is very poor. Why?
The design of to-be education system should be structured, compact and free from malicious attacks (e.g. ragging, free riding, mental stress, depression, information overloading). Each course should be modernized and clearly outline the objectives, motivation, pedagogy, evaluation methodology, bibliography etc. The evaluation methodology should be multi-dimensional (e.g. Quiz and written test: 30%, case discussion: 20%, project: 30%, consulting assignment: 10%, research: 10%). What are the strength and weakness of open book examinations? The sole focus on online quiz contest based on MCQ may result a dull education system in future. In school education, (5+3+3+4) system may be interesting but the students should do their assignments and projects independently otherwise activity based learning may become totally vague. Which is preferred: activity based learning or (skill + value) based learning? If the activities or problems are solved by the parents or tutors of the students solely, the learners may not be able to develop problem solving skills in real-life. Multiple choices are interesting in selection of courses but the learners need focus and depth of knowledge to become experts. There may be the risk of loss of focus. The books should be compact and written intelligently with no overlap, vague data content and information overloading. Special children (e.g. Dyslexia) need different education system. Use of mother tongue or local language is important but the options of foreign languages (e.g English) are also necessary. Focus on conceptual learning, problem solving, creativity and innovation, practical experiments, lab works and skill development are interesting options. Simulated virtual lab may be cost effective but may affect the learners in science, medical, engineering and technology streams. Virtual lab should be used with physical labs concurrently. The education policy should protect the learners from only ‘writing, writing, reading; reading, reading, writing, typing, typing, typing’ and various types of healthcare problems of eye, ear and mind due to excessive use of mobile phones and tablets!
Benchmarking, standardization, joint ventures and strategic alliance with foreign institutes in innovation, research and development (e.g. Ph.d., Postgraduate) may be an interesting option to improve the quality of education. Absolute independence of academic institutes may result corruption and inefficiencies in many pockets such as admission, education methodology, technology, innovation and knowledge management.
Vague topics of projects and research for Ph.d., Postgraduate and Graduate programmes are often selected by the academic community randomly as per personal whims and fancies; complex topics are often avoided and simple topics are chosen to complete research by how or by cook within deadline; the topics should be selected based on the needs of the country, society, industry and the world. The research programmes are expected to be well-defined, well-organized, structured, properly planned; the hardness and complexity of research problems should be challenged honestly. The ultimate objectives should be to create contributions for path breaking innovations. Existing research programme gives too much focus to course work and comprehensive qualifying examinations of the researchers; they should devote and dedicate more time to their thesis works and actual research contributions. They should be able to work sincerely with a free mind, free flow of information, collaboration and resources. Most surprisingly, in as-is system, they spend more time in event management and composition of stories; less time in actual innovation. That is why, the underdeveloped and developing countries are lagging so much in creativity and innovation as compared to the West. There should be a balanced approach; some researchers are totally indifferent to publication of research papers; some others are workaholic to large number of publications, some others are busy in knowledge manipulation but the ultimate outcome may be garbage input garbage output (GIGO). Many research guides may be really experts but less committed; some others may have lack of knowledge and no interest; some may be egoists. The researchers are expected to be guided properly; this is an issue of style of leadership, goal setting and intelligent vision of the system administrators, faculties and research guides.
Is it practically feasible to design academic curriculum: Certificate after 1 year, Diploma after 2 years, Degree after 3 years and Honours after 4 years? Many academic programmes are crippled with dead, obsolete courses having no depth and breadth; modern and advanced complex topics are avoided; quality research publications are not included even in graduation levels; such types of programmes need complete overhauling. Availability of right resources (e.g. books, journals, software, hardware) at right time and correct use of the same is very important.
Another important issue is peculiar testing and evaluation system. Online test security is a critical concern today. Is the online testing system (e.g. quiz contest) really evaluating the performance of the students correctly in higher education (e.g. engineering, medical, management, science, law)? Is the online test free from various malicious attacks by the adversaries in India today : session hijack, hanged web portal of academic institutions, networking problem of mobile service provider, privacy, confidentiality, internet traffic congestion, link failure, Denial of Service (DoS) attack, power cut (load shedding), delay, mobile charging problem, battery charging problem, internet access problem, sybil attack, natural disasters (e.g. cyclone, rainfall, storm), data integrity, non-repudiation, authentication, authorization, correct identification, trust, commitment, fairness, correctness, transparency, accountability, corruption, reliability, consistency, resiliency etc. The students are forced to just uploading and downloading files into or from whatsapp or ticking options on the portal; there is no test of depth and breadth of knowledge through such so called quiz contest. There is no logic and rationality of the decision making authorities of independent academic institutions; the standards and quality of higher education system may be becoming a vague silly joke and the present situation of epidemic is adding fuel to the fire. There is no value given to innovation, knowledge and skill development of the young student community.
Law of average having no head or tail is a critical threat. Many boards, councils and academic institutions may be in a hurry with a casual approach in testing and evaluation - how to publish final results by how or by cook; poor performances may be getting maximized; good performers may be getting victimized. There may be no rationality in heuristics of evaluation system. This is just like the film ‘Heerak rajar deshe’ directed by the great Satyajit Roy : ‘Janar kono sesh nai; janar chesta britha tai’; (There is no end of knowledge; so, it is useless to learn anything); as if marks are bribed to the students in the name of peculiar rules and regulations. What may be the solution to this problem: is it ‘dari dhare maro tan, raja hobe khan khan’! [Renew system and governance]. It is essential for the governments of various countries to rescue the education system from sureshot collapse, disaster and uncertainty in the coming future through an intelligent, rational unbiased national education policy.