Malanad Educational and Welfare Association (MEWA) a trust registered under the Public Trust Act formed with an objective to promote social, cultural and Educational Activities.
We do feel that as citizen of this great nation each individual should strive to contribute our bits to help the economically backward class of our society to achieve their full potentiality.
The words of Mother Teresa: "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." Rightly so, we are the brink of a new decade which will define the future of a whole generation. Hence, the need of the hour is to brace ourselves for the new era, backed by technology, automation and globalization with direct implications towards the future of learning and education.
Some of the noticeable learning gaps amongst students exists across basic competencies, such as creative and independent thinking, problem solving, soft skills, as well as indicating low levels of technical and vocational education. Hence, despite graduating from premiere institutes and having the basic educational knowledge, students find it challenging to find good jobs in the corporate world.
Technology has catalyzed the growth of education industry; witnessing the emergence of new learning solutions. For this reason, many new trends are shaping the needs and demands of individual, learners, institutions and the industry.
The coming decade will witness phenomenal change and disruption in the field of higher education. As academicians, while our focus has been intense on the quality and delivery aspects of education, I feel it is technology that will be the great disruptor of how we teach and measure the outcomes of that teaching. One clear area of evolution I see for schools will be a shift of focus from ‘marks based’ academic curriculum to ‘life based’ overall development. Institutions may talk a lot about it these days but do very little – however, this will change gradually but surely.
Focusing on life-skills and overall development starts with an admissions process that places value on the students non-academic qualities rather than just on their grades. In the coming years, I feel strongly education will start enrolling students through a thorough assessment of their personalities and soft skills.
At present, there is a large gap between what students study and what the industry and the world require from them. We are on the verge of collapsing the wall that exists between academia and industry. Industry must engage institutions at the very root stages and drive the development of curricula, teaching methodologies and applied learning experiences. Especially in STEM (Science, Technology, and Engineering & Mathematics) fields, I find that the curriculum and teaching methods are considering the pace of change in these disciplines.
Before I conclude I take this opportunity to thank my colleagues of MEWA, Teaching and Non Teaching staff of "Vidyaniketan English School, students, parents who supported us in our endeavour to build up this institution.
Vidyaniketan English School has over the last 25 years created a culture of excellence and hard work.
An excellent instance to all the Academics, Governments, parents, and Teachers, so as to change the system of education which we have in our country.
With warm wishes and Regards,
Sreekanth Nair
General Secretary.