Educator

The Education System

The education system is fraught with it’s own challenges, and haven’t we all experienced it? Fundamentally, the system that we continue to rely on today, was built to meet the needs of the industry and society in the Industrial Age. It has far outlived it’s utility, but as creatures of habit, we continue with the status quo.

We no longer need the future inheritors of our planet, whether they are job seekers or job creators, to be mere cogs in the wheel. We do not need them to only display convergent thinking and comply with past precedents. With the rise of machines, data and algorithms, a lot of the activities that were the exclusive preserve of mankind, are increasingly being performed by intelligent machines. This trend will only exacerbate in the future.

The Crying Need for Reforms

This clearly highlights the crying need for change and reforms in the education sector, for both young and adult learners. The new world order has a different ‘ASK’ of a new set of attitudes, skills and knowledge (ASK) that is required to succeed. You might be thinking that things will change with billions of dollars being pumped into startups in the ed-tech sector each year. However, one cursory look at the business models of the poster boys of the ed-tech industry and you will realize that there is negligible (or even, negative) value addition to the field of education, beyond digitalizing content and making it more engaging and personalized.

My Tryst with Education

Before I tell you my plans to solve this problem, allow me to share my educational background with you. I, for one, have been very fortunate to receive the best of education. After completing my schooling from one of the best schools in my city, I became a Chartered Accountant and then graduated from IIM Bangalore, as part of the Director’s Merit List. This education has most certainly helped me advance faster and farther in my career.

However, despite the best of education, as I look back at my own career and learning trajectory over the last three decades, there are a few things that I realize.

Firstly, the nature of what constitutes relevant knowledge is very dynamic. For instance, in the field of NLP (Natural Language Processing), models built on research papers published in 2013, started being called “classic” in 5 years’ time.

Secondly, the education system is predicated on specialization in one discipline, whereas we need a multi-disciplinary approach to succeed in society or business.

Thirdly, innumerable skills and competencies that are crucial for success are not at all honed by the education system. It is just not their concern, that you can step out of the most premier educational institutes (across any discipline), and yet remain ill equipped to face the myriad challenges of professional life in that very discipline.

I can continue ad infinitum, but let me just round this section off by saying that even though the system ensures that you know a lot of facts and theories in your area, the know-how to apply this knowledge only comes with practice. This process is tedious, error-prone, and eats into the best years of your life.

From Problems to Solutions

If you know me even a little bit, you know that I will never leave a problem unaddressed. So, wouldn’t it be wonderful, if we could all learn from the people who are a few steps ahead of us, in the game of life? If the experienced ones could condense their know-how into learning products or services, wouldn’t such courses help you change the direction and trajectory of your life?

Even though there are e-learning courses available on any topic and at any price point, most of them are only providing theories and concepts.

Education is not about providing information, but about enabling transformation.

My Mission as an Educator

With this radical thought process, I embark on my mission to provide society and industry relevant transformational inputs in my capacity as an educator. The mission is mammoth, and needs a radically different approach in order to make the required impact in society. So, here are the pillars of my approach, in my journey as an Educator:

• Sharing my knowledge – I am regularly sharing my knowledge and experiences, and helping people build skills, in my individual capacity as a resource, instructor and educator, in addition to my contribution as a Thought Leader.
• A Platform based approach – In my capacity as Co-Founder of From The Experts’ Mouth, we will be hosting courses on our website, and the courses will have learning communities associated with them, so that the focus remains on transformation, rather than merely information.
• Enabling other instructors – Instructors can host their courses on our website, and we will bear the hosting charges, without any recurring monthly / annual commitments. In addition, I will help people with the right intent and experience set to productize and convert their knowledge into courses that can have a transformational impact. We offer what none of the leading and most well funded ed-tech players are offering, because we put Purpose over Profits.

If you find this inspiring, let us talk, whether you are a prospective student or teacher, or just someone who wants to help or appreciate this initiative.