Leadership Strategies In Overcoming Educational Problems

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducts the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for its members and partner nations every three years. PISA is meant to assess the key knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in mathematics, science, and reading.

India last participated in the assessment in 2009 and ranked second to last, among the 73 countries. It would appear that India’s system of education, it would appear, is failing its students. Most government-run public and private schools cannot equip their students with the requisite knowledge and skills.

Problems and their Possible Solutions

The problems plaguing the education sector in India need to be solved if India is to achieve its potential as a nation. The problems of the education sector in India and the leadership strategies required to overcome them include:

Inadequate Infrastructure. A recent study revealed that in an overwhelming majority of educational institutes in India do the complete set of RTE infrastructure study found that the educational institutes lacked physical infrastructure such as an adequate number of prescribed labs the prescribed quality, requisite facilities for girls students, poorly trained teachers, high teacher ab multiple boards for primary/secondary education and regulatory authorities for higher education create non-uniformity in the curriculum, mity in the challenging making it difficult to track and maintain quality. The infrastructural problems can be overcome by reorganisation of existing structures to manage education in India. Education in India needs to be managed by a single designated authority at the central/state levels to monitor curriculum and regulatory approvals. Also, newer leadership strategiesshould push for a greater, enabling log, which will allow making up for some of the issues related to infrastructure and quality.

Approach to Education.In the current educational approach in India, education's thrust remains focused on transferring information rather than on imparting knowledge. Teachers end up pushing information to their students instead of helping them conceptualise the subject and develop the power of analysis. At the level of higher education, it is observed that there is a huge gap between the education imparted and the requirements of the students and the industry. The graduates end up being ill-prepared for employment, requiring the industry to invest time, money, and effort to make the graduates industry-ready. This problem can be overcome through the proper training of teachers to equip them to deliver quality education and prepare students for vocational employment. This will also require greater attention from political and academic leaders on education and increased spending, as a share of GDP, by the government.

Slow Pace of Change. The prevalent culture in Indian society is tradition-bound, veers toward conservatism, and is resistant to change. Also, people in leadership positions on educational boards and institutes are not sufficiently empowered to bring about change. This inherent resistance to change can be overcome by promoting cutting-edge best practices in the education sector more engagingly. This can be done by involving community and business leaders in deciding education policy and co-opting the community/business leaders to spearhead educational change initiatives. The problem of a lack of a sound strategy and leadershipempowerment can be overcome by developing a framework for the professional development of leaders. Appropriate training and executive and budgetary authority delegation will enable leaders to execute the planned organisational strategy competently.

Inadequate Budgetary Allocation. India lags behind developed nations and even some developing nations in the budgetary allocations for education. This has meant that in primary, secondary, and higher education, the available funds are inadequate to meet even routine costs. Budgetary constraints also preclude adopting and sustaining recognised best practices in education or exploring and pursuing meaningful or scalable innovations. Leaders need to evolve a more progressive education strategy that supports enhanced educational budgeting. Newer and bolder strategies, such as the PPP model in education or other alternative modes of certification, need to be considered. Public-private sourcing of funding and encouraging the participation of the private sector in education are novel approaches to overcoming budgetary constraints.

Policy Shortcomings. A general charge, levelled against how most sectors are run in

India, is that policymaking lags intent. This is true of the education sector too. Many of the policies for the administration of the education sector are outdated. Consequently, the delivery of education at all levels does not comply with global best practices, lags behind international standards, and does not meet the requirements of either the learners or the industry. What is required is the creation of a national-level cadre of people to manage and monitor educational services. Also, a framework that mandates the periodic review and revision of the education policy should be created. Such reviews and corrections should be reflective of the direction of the evolution of society and the industry. Only then can education serve the needs of the learners and the industry.

Conclusion

Paradoxically, despite its low PISA ranking and the many shortcomings in education, India is viewed, globally, as an education powerhouse and a key source of talent, especially STEM talent. This reputation is based, largely, on a few islands of academic excellence such as the IITs, the IISc, the IIMs, the NITs, etc. Scratch this glossy surface and the picture, sadly, is rather bleak.

What is required is the creation of a cadre of committed leaders with training through the best executive leadership programs, to prepare them to design and implement the strategies enumerated in this article. Committed leaders and sound strategies can be the surest guarantors for bringing about improvements in the education system in India.

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