Showing posts with label Edupreneurs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edupreneurs. Show all posts

Edupreneurs Contd.

Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009 by MuddassirShah in Labels:
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There was an article doing rounds in News Papers and News Channels alike recently.
It read something like this.


New Delhi, 22 Jul  2009
“The ministry of Human resource development (HRD) indicated it may be open, down the line, to the idea of Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs) Opening campuses in foreign countries….”.


Finally looks like the government is warming up to the Idea of Education as a business. I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping that we will set a new trend and set benchmark of new improvised Indian Education Standards.


The debate of brain drain and quality education was stirred up again whenNRI Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was awarded Nobel Prize for his contributions to Chemistry. One worthwhile outcome of this debate was  people realised it was long time when an Indian from India bagged a Nobel prize for his work in India.


These recent string of events led me to write a continuation to my previous article on Edupreneurs


The Education scenario in India is fast changing and it is just a spark so far we have seen, there is loads to be accomplished and I hope this spark ignites a fire. And why not, We have world’s second largest population. This gives us the advantage of being both producers and consumers. If we have to lead the world, as is being predicted, then the first step to go ahead would be to revamp our education system and build the brand India over again.


Edupreneurship comes with its own set of challenges. The task at hand is not easy.The greatest predicament to an initiative in India is the “we-are-unreceptive-to-innovation” attitude of the people and it is time a high tide comes and this attitude is changed. More often than not the people working at grass root levels are met with scepticism and suspicion. For others, It has been a long toil.I quote a philanthropist who is trying to start and eduventure “There are many governmental clarifications needed to start up a new eduventure in India. Also the officials are not very co-operative. They have been giving me unneccessary headaches. At times, we feel like lets cut the crap and get back to our high paying salaries and lead a happy life. But its not the government officials we are here for, we want to make a difference in the education system”.With corrupt practices being followed from peon to the head officer, it is very difficult to keep going.


Nevertheless, we are witnessing a gathering storm, slowly gaining momentum. Conventional people with not-so-conventional  dreams  are making their moves and many others are planning to follow suit. It has been a long time since India witnessed a revolution in its Social systems and when history is being written in your presence , don’t you want a share of pie for yourself?

Edupreneurs

Posted: Sunday, September 27, 2009 by MuddassirShah in Labels:
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Quote: “Each year 150,000 students leave India to other countries for higher education”
Another Quote: “Each year India Imports 30,000 students from other countries”
The Last Quote: “India loses 45,000 crore rupees every year due to this brain drain”
Simply put edupreneurs are educational entrepreneurs and we need them today for more than one reason. One of the foremost reasons being the one quoted above.
But let’s not get directly into the economics of education business. 


Education is not what it used to be a decade or two ago.
With the fast paced technological development and globalization setting in, the entire education system has changed. World class facilities to learn, understand, appreciate and to put to practice the concepts being taught are the norm of the day for education.


In India, the education facilities are far far below the global standards and only a revolution can help steer India education system to a being top class.
A student who almost made it to the IITs is not very different in caliber to the one who made it to IITs, but there is a huge difference in the kind of education they get and the way they are groomed.
Result: Students start looking out for opportunities outside India (although these opportunities are very costly) which help them nurture their raw skills and give them education on par with IITs.
This is not the end of it.
More often than not, this brain drain is permanent and no effort is being made to reverse this trend. I will try to stop the brain drain discussion here so as to not to foray away from the topic But the point to note is that this leads potential future losses in terms of economy, class and quality for India.
Our governments have not been doing much to address this issue. India’s total expenditure on higher education is 0.6% of the GDP and this shows the importance we place on higher education. The government has set a budget of $72 million for the newly announced 12 central universities. Contrast this with Harvard University, which has endowments of more than $ 30 billion and we know one of the root causes of poor education quality: Not much of an investment in the education industry.
So far the government has been controlling education from being a full blown business. There are too many constraints and checks and this keeps people from venturing here. But the governments justify it -sometimes business men get too carried away with the profits and may concentrate more on profits than the quality of education which beats the purpose.
As Kapil Sibal states in an interview, “There are not many profits to be made here (in education Industry). All that you earn you need to invest back”. This explains one reason why business men used to shy away from education ventures.
But no more. With too much of FDI flowing in, people are looking for opportunities to make money and they realise the potential of this industry. We already have quite a few success stories for the inspiring edupreneurs to look forward to. Educomp systems, amity group, NIIT,career launcher are few successful eduventures to quote.
By encouraging edupreneurs the government can address to major social issues of Indian society – illiteracy and unemployment. Not to forget, they can redeem a part of 45,000 crore rupees deficit India faces every year and can also cut short the brain drain, there by retaining the most talented India back home in a time when there need and presence in the country is most wanted.
P.S: I will try to get more insights on this topic and share with you in the coming articles on this series