DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Addressing the audience at the Eweek, Rupesh Shah of InOpen, a technological company in the educational sector, pointed out the immense scope in the educational sector which is currently growing significantly but can flourish manifold with adequate technological support.

The common practice in schools is to teach the students what the book says. The teachers mostly focus on completing the curriculum and conducting tests, but whether the student has understood the concept wholly or not isn't given much attention.

The education system in India is flawed and needs to be restructured from the very root. The student is the priority. The prime motive behind teaching should be to make the student understand the topic/ subject. However, to ensure that the student understands the concept, it is important to change the age-old ways of teaching. And that is possible with the help of technology.

"Technology enabled education is the need of the hour," said Rupesh. According to him the current education pattern, where higher marks in tests is seen as student's deeper understanding of the subject, needs an immediate overhauling. And the way to change it is by developing interactive solutions.

He sees opportunity in the current flaws. The fact that most of the developed content/ solution is for the elite classes and not for the masses is an opportunity in itself. As per him, on a national level only one out of hundred schools is elite, which presents a tremendous scope. Content on various subjects of school books can be developed.

The second opportunity in this sector is in teacher empowerment. Through teacher empowerment centres, teachers could be trained to impart knowledge to students in a way that is compatible with the technologically developed curriculum. Rupesh said, “Emphasis on teachers is a must as he/she is the facilitator. The teacher needs continuous training.”

Talking about opportunities, lastly, he said, “As the commonly used softwares such as Windows, Photoshop, etc. don’t help much, softwares which are scalable can be used instead.” His enterprise InOpen is, in fact, one of the few companies which work full time in sync with Open Source (FOSS) technologies thus making affordable and effective community support.

Discussing the importance of technology enabled education, Rupesh said that it is important to develop the content keeping in mind the perspective of the student, the teacher, parents and the government. Doing so is prescribed, in order to give develop a holistic content.

It is important to explain all the Ws and H behind every topic and every subject through the content for the student to understand it in entirety.

Here are some of the questions that Rupesh answered for the audience-
Q. If I start a teacher training venture as there is a big need for training teachers in India, who are hired in schools based on only a degree, will the schools buy it, as most of them are profit oriented?
Rupesh: Schools require a qualified teacher. At school level a graduate can be a qualified teacher however in higher level higher degrees are required.

Q. Is it possible to make something like Smart classes by Educomp?
Rupesh: Yes, very much. A lot of Open Source application is used these days which can make any class smart class.

Q. In what other education domains can Open Source be used?
Rupesh: There are applications for every subject for instance geography. In fact all the top companies like Facebook, Google, etc. are all on Open Source. Now Open Source has shifted from an alternative to main stream market.

Q. Since cellphones are used widely by students, so can there be some mobile based module?
Rupesh: The problem in doing that is the platform. However, if that can be done then nothing like it.

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