NewZNew (S A S Nagar) : On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, the teaching community has collectively voiced their opinion on the employability quotient of the Indian students and gave critical recommendations for the formulation of New Education Policy to enable Education for Employment, through the Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015.
In Punjab, teachers feel that 65% students do not possess skills required for employment. The survey carries significant insights and possible solutions from teachers that can aid the Government’s deliberations on themes such as Employability, Industry collaborations and integration of ICT in the framework for the New Education Policy.
The Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015was conducted across the country in July-August 2015. In Punjab, it covered 27 cities – Abohar, Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, Bhatinda, Fatehgarh, Firozpur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Pathankot, Patiala etc.
National findings show that with teachers considering 57% of the Indian students to be educated but not adequately prepared for employment, the survey respondents strongly called for increased industry academia collaboration, particularly for course restructuring (75%), to help boost employability. Interestingly, the teaching community (44%) expressed the need for industry training of teachers in addition to merit-based industry internships (48%) for students.
Announcing the survey, Mr. Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director, Pearson India, said, “Being the world’s largest learning organization, Pearson has taken an initiative to engage with the teachers to bring-out the topical issues facing Indian education sector and suggest measures to transform the learning landscape in the country. We are glad that the platform is gaining relevance among the teaching community and this is evident from the growing participation of teachers every year.
Indian Government has shown intent to build greater industry-academia partnership by proposing a consultative theme in the National Education Policy framework. We are glad that the teachers have not only collectively validated this idea of industry-academia collaboration but offered a specific solution of curriculum restructuring.”
52% of the respondents believe that India’s Education Assessment Framework lacks specific action points for teachers and parents to enable holistic education. Dissatisfaction with the assessment system in India is much higher at Higher Education level (60%) than School level (43%).
“Assessments play an important role in giving teachers and parents the right benchmarks to follow for personalized learning and better learning outcomes of students. In the New education policy, teachers expect a more robust assessment framework.” Added Mr. Mehrotra
For integration of ICT in the education system, teachers across India recommend provision of computer and internet connectivity across institutions (66%) and installation of smart boards (62%) askey requirements. However, teachers consider high cost of technology installation (38%) and lack of infrastructure & maintenance (23%) as the biggest challenges for technology adoption at educational institutions.
“It is great to see widespread acceptance for technology adoption as well digital education tools across the learning curve. Going by the survey findings, there may be a case for the government to consider introducing technology subsidization schemes for educational institutes”, commented Mr. Mehrotra.
However the silver lining of the findings showed in teachers’ belief (60%) that India’s education system is providing comprehensive and holisticeducation(subject knowledge along with social, creative, physical and ethical) to learners. However, teachers at higher-education level are less convinced with the existing system’s ability to provide holistic education (51%) vis-à-vis counterparts at school level (72%).
To facilitate transition from ‘subject-based learning’ to ‘holistic learning’, teachers across India ranked continuous assessments ofstudents’ performance (47%), better integration of technology&digital content into teaching methodology (44%) and linkage between conceptsacross subjects/discipline (43%) as the most effective ways.
Released on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey is an annual initiative of Pearson, the world’s leading learning company. The survey focuses on key challenges facing the Education sector in India and shares teachers’ perspective on the changing dynamics of the ecosystem.
The survey, fielded in July 2015 – August 2015 represents the views of 5,387 teachers from schools and higher education institutes across 527 cities and towns in India. One of the leading strategic market intelligence consultancies in Asia Pacific region – Spire Research and Consulting – partnered with Pearson for the survey.
