Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata and the Fourth ‘D’

                                         Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata and the Fourth ‘D’

Admission season is on. Mad mad rush, frenzied filling of forms, marking distance between school and the applicant’s residence as7.99kms to ensure that it does not cross the 8kms cap, nervous waiting for the admission list, anxious roving eyes  and heads jostling with heads to peer through the list when it is pasted around 4 in the evening  on the school gates and finally a hurrah from the lucky parents whose names figure in the list and a boo from those whose wards fail to make the list – these are the order of the day, an annual ritual to get children into school. The tension all round is palpable, though mercifully, the little kids of 3+ are untouched.

Every year, during this season, my octogenarian neighbour gets a lot of visitors. While for the rest of the year, hardly anyone visits her, the admission season is the one time I hear the bell ringing frequently in her apartment.  She is a retired professor who in her heydays was the most feted and honoured academic, reputed  for her academic credentials and  for her suave and cultured manners.  But true to the proverb “long absent, soon forgotten”, 15 years after her superannuation, she has very few visitors. But I see every March, she is approached by parent(s),( usually by mothers if the ward is a girl but  by both parents if it is a son), to help their child get into  a good school. I wondered how she felt when people approached only once a year seeking her favours. I went to her apartment late in the evening  after all the visitors had left and asked her whether  she was more irritated or more embarrassed by the March visitors. I   give below her  long answer which she prefaced with an impish smile that her long years of teaching has made her a prolix speaker, though not hopefully garrulous and voluble and asked me to have the patience to listen to her.

 “ Having been a teacher, it is difficult for me to get out of the insatiable itch for talking.  It is almost fifteen years since I superannuated. Not that I was a great shake while in service except for the luxury of having the paraphernalia of a Personal Assistant and a peon in attendance.  The PA on my request would connect me to the Principal of any school by giving my designation and I could him/her for  a child’s admission to the Nursery class. The gusto of appreciation and praise from the child’s parents will be gratifying, swelling me with pride as though I had all the power and influence to speak to the school Principals who acted like demigods and remained invisible to mortal eyes during this period. Though I  never saw nor hear from the parents after the admissions were done,  I would come to know  that my recommendation had been successful  six months  later during college admissions when I would get a reciprocal recommendatory call from the school authority who had obliged me.

But today, though far removed from the powers that matter, by virtue of the “once upon my time” status,  I do get parents visiting me for my assistance in admission to schools. Of course they come to me as the last resort after they had exhausted all other sources. “You can do it. We know, you are very well known in all academic circles. If you can’t do it, who can we turn to?”- Flattering words, though I know there is not a grain of truth. My family members will snigger calling me , “the empty container of asafoetida”( a catch phrase in Tamil that speaks about the lingering smell of asafoetida after the container had been emptied and cleaned). After the snigger, there will be the  bombardment as to why I can not tell the truth that I have no power or influence. “Why do you say you will try when you know you are a spent force? Why do you consider very request as  sacrosanct?”

But I have continued for the last 15 years and will continue as long as I am blessed to be alive to never say “no” to any request from any quarter. My refrain has been  “I will try my best” and  followed by  a caveat quoting the oft quoted Bhagavad Gita verse “Karmanye vadikharste ma phaleshu kada chana… You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action”. All of us are aware no one seeks help unless, s/he is in real distress. It is humiliating for anyone to go and seek personal favour from someone who is a stranger and indirectly known through his/her multifarious contacts. Many of the parents who come to see me are fairly well to do people and they have their small sphere of influence in the little space they occupy.  But they have no contact with schools;  they are not allowed anywhere near the precincts of the Principal’s room.  It is easier to get a darshan of Balaji in Tirupathi than to get a darshan of the school principal. The parents have to give up their ego, swallow their pride and literally beg for admission.  Though admissions are strictly by lottery after all the admission criteria are met, still for the few seats that may remain vacant, there will be a competitive demand. Hence like the dying man holding to a straw, they latch onto whosoever can put in a word. “

The Octagenarian continued: “ Again it is as humbling an experience to the seeker as it is to the giver  whom s/he approaches with a request. We have constantly to remind ourselves that once we are out of power, hardly anyone comes to us. We are only what our chair bestows on us. Retirement peels off the illusory mask of our  greatness  and brings home the truth  that it is the chair that is respected and not the user who sits. At our advanced age we are made to understand the falsity  and frailty of our power and glory that is inextricably tied to the chair.  But those who come to us in our superannuated years as the last resort exemplify the saying “desperate measures need desperate remedies”

The third and last point is it is indeed flattering to be recognized that someone thinks that I am still worth my salt even at my advanced age. It is uplifting to feel one is useful and not relegated to oblivion. Being approached means you are still considered worth something. Maybe worth not of  any great power or influence, but worth of  being human. I have never shied away from requesting for help as I know that in the process, I restore self esteem to my benefactor even when s/he is no longer in the active circuit. Our Upanishads(Brihidaranyaka Upanishad)have taught us to follow three ‘d’s- Datta, Dayadhvam, Dammyata,-to give , sympathize and control.  I sympathize with the parents who are desperate to give their ward a good footing for life. I control my anger and irritation that I am remembered only once a year( and that too not even on my birthday). I give whatever I can within my limited sphere of influence though I may not succeed all times. I have added for myself a fourth ‘d’  - this is what Nike says- just ‘DO’ it. This is what gives meaning to me in this last phase of my life. To seek help and to give help bless both the seeker and the giver by teaching a lesson in humility.”

I looked at her with awe and admiration and understood what keeps this octogenarian ticking in her ripe old age.

Being Average

                                                                 Being Average

We all look forward to the first day of the week, Sunday to provide us a break from the daily routine,  starting from 5.30 in the morning till late at night with no fixed time set to roll into bed.  I love Sundays for those extra ten minutes in bed in the morning, unmindful of the thud of the newspaper falling, the barking of the black dog opposite our apartments that is allergic to anyone on two wheelers(all the newspaper vendors and the milkman come in bikes) and  the sing song cry of the kabbadiwalla. Those ten minutes are heavenly bliss as I snuggle under the bed sheet (even more in winter under the cosy blanket) wishing those ten minutes to be eternal. 

What is ironic is once out of bed, Sunday turns out to be the most hectic day of the week. The weekly cleaning, washing and ironing, preparing special Sunday dish, catching up on missed calls and responding to piles of e-mails that had remained unread for a week and above all  reading Sunday newspapers and the supplements leave me ( I don’t think it is an exaggeration if I substitute ‘me’ with ‘us’) any time to blink before the day is over.

Yet I wait for Sundays, more so for the newspaper supplements that cater to readers with colorful pictures, astrological predictions, juicy tidbits, and art of living. This morning I glanced through one of the leading newspaper supplements proffering wise tips for living life” average size’, with its catchy byline “  rev up your life” and my eyes at once riveted on  an interesting homily on ‘Being average’ . It was an article that provided comfort to me( and to all ‘me-likes’) as it short circuited our efforts to hide our being average. It was a great relief that instead of concealing one’s mediocrity, one acknowledged it and gained in stature for being average. With feigned modesty it makes us  proudly say “not for me the rat race. I would rather be average than chase a mirage unlike my parents who had damaged themselves in a of envy-spending their lives in a hamster wheel.”  One is applauded for such honesty, such humility and self deprecation. This is the irony of modern life where being average gains an equal or perhaps a higher status than striving for excellence.

Deep within I knew that this is the easiest way to evade any challenge that life continually

springs forth in our daily activities without being criticized. A laid back attitude is easy to follow than to be a productive individual. It needs a lot of self determination to stand out or be someone, be original and not a copy of another. To move with the flow demands very little exertion; to go counter to the flow and that too in a distinct manner is a challenge to one’s mind, intellect, will, strength and time. It is natural for most of us to sit back and enjoy someone else steering us through life. To take to the wheel involves concentration, responsibility and mental alertness and physical effort. The world needs its people to be more than average in respect of the talents they have been born with and skills they have acquired through training and education. To take umbrage in pseudo greatness of being average is a failure to rise to one’s potential. If the world has over many millennia progressed significantly, the credit goes not only to the innovators in science, technology, industry, medicine, entrepreneurship, but it is due to the assiduous and diligent application of many workers to make the innovations available to the society.

Innovations are key to the betterment of society.  I recall my brother citing Schumpeter who  had coined  the phrase ‘creative disruption’ as basic to move the world beyond its present state. Schumpeter’s eloquent expression ‘creative destruction’ is a process in which the sudden displacement of the old by the new takes place. It highlights the primacy of Innovation for long term economic growth. One has seen the emergence of automobile industry displacing the earlier transportation through horse led carriages.  We now see the postal service upended by email, telephones by smartphones which also have replaced television, newspapers and books. Schumpeter’s  ‘creative destruction’  endorses  radical Innovation through a disruption with the past. 

With the fast moving age and faster moving technology, being average can no longer be a desirability, leave aside its possibility. This hyped slogan of wanting to move away from rat race has served us well for nearly five decades- from the days of the flower children of 1968- to delude us and revel in being average. The present day youth hooked to Facebook, Selfies and net related activities is a reflection of its acceptance to remain average without striving for anything. Being average is solipsistic; it is nothing but a glorification of being mediocre. It is wrong to impute an ideal of not wanting to run the rat race. Time we call the bluff of being average and revitalize ourselves to rise to our full potential.

Impact of Disruption on Indian Higher Education

                     Impact of Disruption on Indian Higher Education

“And if your breath to you is worth saving, then you better start swimming, or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times are a changing.”- Bob Dylan

21^st Century is changing to a distinctly different world order set in motion by technology that reflects the ingenuity and innovativeness of the human mind. The disruption it has brought in its wake is in line with disruptions that had taken place in the past.  The primitive world of hunters and gatherers was disrupted by agricultural revolution which later experienced another disruption after the Industrial revolution of the 19^th Century.  From the last quarter of the 20^th Century we have moved into the world of technology.  We have seen how with every change and every disruption, the world had organized and settled itself into a new  way of life and thus cueing on the past we must now prepare ourselves for the fourth phase of disruption ushered in by technology.

Disruption is usually used as a pejorative term but it is not necessarily so. Disruption is termed as the act of causing disorder or interrupting continuity. But since change is an essential and continuous part of life, interrupting continuity has to be accepted as facilitating change and furthering a movement forward. During periods of transition, disruption is inevitable and unavoidable. If we fear disruption and shy away from taking the requisite steps to march with change, we may be well left behind as the world will not stop moving forward in search of an improved and better world.

Innovation in technology is impacting our lives in a way, no other previous innovation had done. There is no doubt technology has conferred huge benefits on us, making life easier and more comfortable than in the previous eras.  But there is also the creeping fear of its negative fallout as it renders our past skills obsolete and demands learning new skills to work with new and advanced technology. This is because the progress and advancement of technology is so rapid that  yesterday becomes obsolete today and today becomes passe^’ tomorrow. It is exhilarating and challenging to keep pace with technology. Another anxiety about technology is about the increasing employment of robots in our daily life which is likely to result in loss of jobs, as the robots perform many of our manual tasks with greater ease and speed. It is estimated that robots may replace upto 800 million human workers by 2030. But the robots are a boon for doctors while performing remote surgery or surgery where hands cannot easily reach. The new breed of robots include fire fight robots, rehabilitation robots, industrial robots, service robots used in both professional and personal  work to perform tasks. The fear of robots dominating Man has resulted in extensive research being done to realign technology with humanity’s best efforts so that disruption can be turned on its head to bestow greater benefits to Man and society. While there is a growing skepticism about technology and its disruptive role in our daily lives, it does not mean an increase in automation will result in a decline in employment, but  is to be seen rather as a shift in the tasks needed to be done.  Disruption does not result in irrevocable destruction; on the contrary, the phase of disarray and disturbance is temporary and sparks human ingenuity to move forward to a new and an improved phase of life.
 We are aware of how Industrial revolution in the late 19^th century had caused an exodus from the rural areas to urban cities. But contrary to the prevalent concerns of that time, Industrial revolution did not kill agriculture. Even as farmers went in search of new livelihood in the cities, Industrial revolution introduced new farming techniques and improved livestock breeding that led to amplified food production. Even as recently as two decades back, the introduction of computers rendered typewriters obsolete and typists became jobless.  But it was just a matter of time before people trained themselves to work on computers which opened a new avenue for employment.  
Therefore it is axiomatic that we accept disruption as a necessity to move forward and meet it with cheerful optimism before we discuss its impact on higher education and the ways to harness it to yield better and improved results. Disruption as in the past will always prove to be the mother of invention.  
The impact of technology on higher education is phenomenal as it has added a new dimension to teaching. The white and black method of pedagogy, using chalk and blackboard is in use in colleges, where the number of students is limited. Today we see an exponential rise in the numbers of students who seek admission to colleges, post the XII^th Board’s examinations. As per the statistics released in 2014, across the country, tertiary enrollment rates have increased at a compound annual growth rate of 3.5% in the 5 years preceding 2016. Current enrollment stands at 34.58 million, over 15% more than what it was in 2011. This is growing steadily and India will add a million, if not more every year to the rising number of students seeking admission in colleges. As of February 2017, there are 789 universities, 37,204 colleges and 11,443 stand-alone institutions in India, according to the latest statistics from the UGC website. So we cannot expect our institutions to grow further to accommodate 400 million students knocking at the portals of the colleges. And even those who graduate are not career worthy or employable. To speak about loss of jobs in such a scenario sounds anachronistic as the number of jobs in existing colleges will remain the same.

Technology can solve this problem of the humungous number of students seeking higher education through the establishment of virtual class rooms and e-lessons. Digitization alone can solve this problem of the vast number of young men and women who cannot get admission in the existing institutions. We have to make use of technology in higher education to bring into its fold millions of young people desiring post secondary education. Online education can reach out to a very large number of students and has the capacity to absorb this massive group. It is different from traditional college education and in that sense disruptive of the existing methods of teaching and learning. But the term disruptive technology gains recognition and approbation as it is a welcome fusion of new technology and disruption associated with it.

 Online education in a paradoxical way reverses the current skewed ratio of demand and supply. In traditional classroom, demands are high and supply remains static.  More and more students want to go for higher studies but there is no way to fulfill their aspirations as both the infrastructure and faculty in existing colleges have limited capacity and cannot handle more than what they currently handle. Online education alone can meet the demands by switching to the mode of virtual teaching. The present age encourages virtual teachers and the fear is it will ultimately displace and discourage  young men and women aspiring to be in the traditional teaching profession . The fear is disruption of it makes supply(teachers) in inverse proportion to the demands(students). The second fear is the pedagogical disruption -disturbing the current teaching mode of classroom lectures by switching to digital mode of instruction. While the primary anxiety relates to possible loss of jobs, the second one demands acquiring new skills in pedagogy. Both the fears arise out of an inadequate understanding of these two inter- related problems. The existing colleges (and possibly there may be a few more colleges coming up) will have the same or marginally more requirement of teachers and this number cannot grow any larger to make a vast difference. Even if new colleges are started, teaching jobs will not appreciably increase. The loss of jobs is thus purely notional as college jobs are not frozen by the establishment of online education.

Online instruction or what we identify as digital or virtual learning will need a lot of differently trained teachers with new pedagogical skills. Just as a typist evolved into a computer assistant after acquiring new skills, the classroom lecturers must evolve into digital presenters of those lectures. Even many traditional classroom lecturers employ power point presentation with the help of desktop and laptop computers.

The content of the lectures is also changing. The lecturers cannot now give just facts as these are available to students on the net. The lectures can no longer be bookish as students have access to all the text material on the net. Lectures have to go beyond the text and give students multi dimensional interpretations and approaches to the topics dealt with. The instruction must be in the mode of capsule lectures that give the students an exposure to ideas, concepts and interpretations of texts.  Lecturers must be catalysts in inspiring and motivating students to self study based on the lectures they receive in the class. Technology has in a large measure changed students’ approach to learning. It has made it easy for them to prepare assignments through cut and paste methods without trying to comprehend the subject. The disruptive effect of technology is seen in the weakening and lessening of intellectual challenges that confront the learners. This can be arrested if classroom lectures are in capsule form and in a catalytic mode, sufficient to expose students to new knowledge and perk their interests to learn more on their own.

The preparation of digital lessons skill requires both writing and vocal skills. Those with good Masters and Doctoral degrees have enough knowledge to impart. But they have to be trained to write lessons innovatively and creatively to help students study and understand them on their own. The writing and presenting of video capsules is the new pedagogy teachers have to be trained in. The approach should be interdisciplinary.  For example a lecture on War literature or War poetry cannot be wholesome if textual interpretation is alone done. This has to be complemented by reference to history of the World Wars, the rise of nationalism in Europe, the sociological factors that gave rise to Nazi carnage,  religious skepticism in the late 19^th and 20^th century, the rise of new philosophical concepts like  existentialism and the psychology of men and women affected by war. This amounts to academic collectivism where the lessons are prepared by scholars and professors of different disciplines such as history, philosophy, political science, psychology and religion besides Literature to write that would help students get the right perspective of the works of the War period. War poetry is just one tenth of a semester’s course. To write lessons in a holistic way for a full course will involve a large number of teachers from different disciplines. Preparing video lessons is a different art. Unless one knows how to use the audio and video medium, the lectures will remain print material and therefore inadequate for a wholesome understanding of the topics / subjects discussed. Online courses can become ideal and can be best described as Educated Democracy where the means of production of learning material is collectively done by academics in a democratic manner

 Again in a vast multi lingual, multi cultural and multi religious country like ours, education has to cater to students of different regions speaking different languages. While the study material is prepared, it has to be not only in English and Hindi, but in multiple languages. The video capsules have to be made similarly in many Indian languages.  This again requires a large number of teachers to write the course material in different languages and prepare the video capsules.  The course material uploaded on the website has to move on a graded scale so that it is easy for students to progress from simple to complex theories and analyses. It is not like preparing a small unit that suffices for everyday lecture, where every lecture is a step by step building towards the completion of the course syllabus. What is attempted in our structured classroom is to thread the parts into a whole. In the digital learning, the process is on a reverse gear. The teacher has to keep the whole in perspective and from the whole, slice the parts that together reflect the whole. The writing of digital lesson is a to and fro process – from the whole to the parts and from the parts to the whole. In the traditional classroom the part is in the whole; in the digital classroom the whole is in the parts. The student is thus enabled to go through the study material without losing sight of the perspective. If the perspective is always in the front, the reading of the lessons becomes less problematic.

 Writing lessons is different from classroom teaching and requires a different orientation. Since this is a new pedagogy, it is of cardinal importance to train teachers in the art of writing digital lessons and use of multimedia technology.. Digitization that is seen as a disruption to traditional teaching, helps teachers to be innovative, creative and imaginative in their role as virtual teachers.

 The third factor of disruption( after the anxiety about loss of jobs and the need for acquiring new skills in pedagogy)  relates to infrastructure , which in the case of virtual centres  will be distinct from college complexes. The digital lessons are available on the computers and therefore desktops/laptops , net connectivity and uninterrupted power supply must  be ensured. Keeping the large number of students in rural and tribal areas, study centres must be opened in every taluk in every district. These centres must have large rooms with desk top computers where the students assemble and go through the lessons. At fixed hours, the digital teacher appears on the big screens in these rooms for students to interact with him/her.  The Q&A sessions between the student and the teacher, facilitated both by e-chat and SKYPE is a double bonus for the student as the digital lessons are complemented by face to face interaction with the teachers. A time table should be drawn and given to the students about fixed times when digital classes will be held in different disciplines. The nodal centre must be in the capital cities of each state where teachers through satellite receive questions and give answers that are projected on the big screens in the halls.

 Such a process obviates one other problem relating to the learner. The student is not alone in his room sitting before the computer.. One of the anxieties about online learning which one notices in the Open University system and MOOC is the student remains isolated from the world and left alone to study. S/he is denied the wholesomeness of college life and loses out on companionship, mutual discussions and debates, cooperative learning and the thrill and pleasures of campus life.  By establishing online centres on the lines of SWAYAM(Study Webs of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) they meet halfway the expectations of the youth to enjoy participatory learning in the company of other students. Just as the campus libraries are open for long hours through the day, the students should have at all times access to computers and digital lessons at the centres. The flexibility of time, the flexibility in the duration of the course and the flexibility in selecting the course without the rigours of admission, complemented by digital class hours at fixed times make the digital learning both formal and informal.

Lastly one more important problem to factor in is the employability of the courses to be offered. This is a problem common to structured traditional classroom teaching and also digital teaching to make courses that are qualitatively relevant and job worthy in providing the young men and women skills needed for gainful employment.. It is important to identify new courses that are relevant to the present century. In India which is turning more and more towards urbanization, courses on Urban Centres, Sustainability Education, Applied Ethics, Environmental Economics, Agricultural Geography, Human geography, Population Study etc will be in order.

What is important is to have an innovative curriculum that forms the minimum core of modern liberal arts and sciences education. Robotics, Cyber Security, Nursing, Radiation therapy, Bio engineering Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Behavioral Analysis, Community Health etc are the new courses that must be offered online. This seems the most welcome disruption in higher education.

Technology has opened the doors for education to breeze in. The existing number of universities and colleges cannot meet the challenges of the 21C.  The future of 400 million students seeking a bright future for themselves and for the nation lies with the use of technology in imparting education. We need disruptive innovations to propel us to scale higher destinations. This is specially the need for higher education to meet the twin challenges of maximum reach to millions of students and qualitative improvement of education both in terms of employability and relevance for our times.
I conclude this article with lines from Douglas MacArthur, the Chief of Staff of the US army in the 1930s:

“How old do you think you are? You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your self confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.”

Do we remain young with faith in our ingenuity, with self confidence in our potential to confront disruption and with hope to better our educational standards or do we grow old with doubt in our potential, with fear of disruption and with despair of the future?  Our choice determines our approach to technology and its disruptive benevolence.