Gurukul Parampara are they still relevant?
Indian traditions have held role of teachers equivalent to God, especially in the form of slokhas. The reason why they have been in slokhas (chants) as earlier teachings of a guru were mostly oral.
With advent of 'Education' in the west, the teaching traditions evolved in a didactic form, which involved classrooms, books and tests. It is interesting to note the root of word education are formed by combining ex meaning 'out' and ducere meaning 'to lead' sharing root with the word 'duke', when one combines them one can imagine education is a process that enables to become a leader, like a prince.
Though when we review our current paradigm of education, we can draw corollary with factories. Since all of us are manufactured in batches, labelled educated and certificate as our proof. Ken Robinson explains this phenomenon very well in his lecture at Royal Society of Arts, check out brief animate of his lecture.
American universities have been a jewel in eyes of young Indians planning to study abroad. Despite the costs, droves of Indian students enroll at these university for higher education. Though many of them are arriving are more concerned about graduating at the earliest, getting a job and then paying of the student loan which they borrowed at 14% interest back home.
Appeal of American universities are profound, due to sprawling beautiful campuses and an opportunity to settle abroad. Majority of students both in America and oversees are not aware of how universities have been funding themselves, and how they utilize those funds.
These students only hear these details when controversies emerge around how low instructors are paid and how they are treated. Also when predatory practices of these universities in recruiting young people, who end up racking massive student debt without a job after graduating or getting a job which dint require degree in first place.
Cost of attending universities especially American universities have risen 500% over last couple of decade, raising questions around how did universities cost rise exponentially? Was it because of their massive investments in building, bigger and bigger campuses with huge stadiums and arenas.
While such practices exist at traditional universities, on the other hand Chinese investors are funding startup in tunes of multi - million dollar, to create an innovative university model, like 'Minerva'. Which is San Francisco based start up and is enrolling around 200 students.
The student cohort at Minerva shall not have access to huge campuses or shining administrative buildings, but will be having access to online courses along with immersive programs. What is unique regarding this startup is that, the students enrolled will be doing each semester in a different city in a different country.
Such an university model, helps bring down the cost of attending school at the same time helping children grow an international perspective. With advent of information age, skills to relate in an international settings are becoming ever more critical, and that is what this startup wishes to address.
Similarly in India, European architect student attempted at creating a start up school in back waters of state of Kerala. The architect student in his attempt to create a low cost campus, utilizing industrial shelving material to create a structure where these budding entrepreneurs will be hosted. The site he built costed him around $20000, and soon became popular amongst foreign tourist who are travelling the world, exploring, learning and experiencing new cultures.
These ventures give an impetus to innovative experiments, in the space of education to bring down costs, while offering service of higher value. This trend in education is emerging with emergence of information technology, and need of time.
How can GIFT city become a hub to attract students to live and study here? Can entrepreneurs leverage opportunities that exist in selecting cost effective destination such as India, which is in dire need of social entrepreneurs, be able to attract talent from world over to create their start ups?
