Arjun Ray
CEO, Indus Trust

An alumnus of the Staff College, Camberley (UK), Lt. Gen. Arjun Ray, PvSM, vSM (Retd) is chief executive of the Bangalore-based Indus Trust (regstd.2001). During the two decades past, the trust has promoted three top-ranked co-ed day-cum-boarding international schools and seven preschools with an aggregate enrolment of 4,000 students from 33 countries.

The Covid-19 crisis has majorly disrupted the education system. How has the Indus Trust responded to this challenge?

I believe the Covid-19 pandemic may turn out to be a blessing for humanity, especially for education. It has transformed all workplaces, including schools and classrooms into digital teaching-learning war zones. Schools and students have to become digital ready and managements and teachers have to welcome administrative and pedagogy innovations.

At the start of the new academic year, our three Indus International Schools in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad will transform into wholly digitalised schools on an experimental basis. The feature of this programme is that a greater number of AI (artificial intelligence)driven robot-teachers will be placed in classes Iv-XI as supplementary teachers. In addition, we are taking online synchronous and asynchronous teaching to completely new levels. We have had a head start because we introduced robot-teachers in our classrooms more than a year ago.

What are the major challenges confronting K-12 education in the new Covid-19 era?

The challenges confronting K-12 education in the Covid-19 era are manifold. But the main one for all schools is that they must switch to blended learning — a mix of conventional and digital pedagogies — as soon as possible. Even after normalcy returns, schools will need to continue building their IT infrastructure and develop capabilities for conducting online and offline classes simultaneously. Unfortunately, most schools teach online as they would in conventional bricks-n-mortar class rooms. This is unworkable and has to change because in online teaching, there is greater focus on non-linear thinking, compaction of syllabus and lessons, considerable self-directed learning, continuous 360 degree feedback and formative assessment.

Several state governments have issued fees waiver/deferment circulars to private school managements. What’s your comment?

This is a very bad idea. State governments that have issued such circulars should withdraw them immediately. Schools have to incur considerable expense to introduce technology-driven education and also spend on teacher training which is complex and difficult. Teachers are Corona warriors in the frontline of the on-going blended learning revolution. Fee waivers and reduction will necessarily translate into salary cuts, which is not acceptable. As it is, school teachers are paid less than in most professions. Their remuneration must be protected, if not enhanced.

What are your Top 3 proposals for reviving and reforming K-12 education in India?

First, all K-12 schools should be enabled by IT infrastructure provision, followed by intensive teacher training to provide online learning. The situation in government schools that comprise 80 percent of primary secondary institutions countrywide, is pathetic to say the least. Therefore, the Central and state governments must immediately increase their education expenditure budgets.

Secondly, Parliament should enact legislation to ensure that all teachers in government and private education are paid a basic minimum salary and allowances including dearness allowance, on a par with class-1 gazetted officers of the Union government.

The long-pending proposal of instituting an Indian Education Service should be implemented right away. Teachers are under-valued and this situation has to be remedied at the earliest. Third, teachers should be compulsorily re-skilled every two years at government expense. And lastly, all school curriculums must prioritise innovation over content.

What are your future plans?

We plan to introduce virtual and augmented reality and nano-teaching pedagogies in a big way in all our schools. We will also provide every encouragement and opportunity for our students — and teachers — to aspire to become self-driven, ambitious entrepreneurs keen to launch their own start-ups.

Also read: Leaders who can revive Indian education – Swati Popat Vats