People do want to change things....

I attended a seminar on education last month - InspirED...The opening ceremony or as they call it 'One night in India's most innovative classroom' was based on the theme of pencils..how pencils can be used for innovative teaching....For alot of us who left school years ago, the opening night took us back to school. The play performed at the opening showed that children learn the most when they are having fun. Keeping them engaged is not an easy task and that imagination can do wonders.....I also realised that India has come a long way from the way education is imparted...not only are people from all walks of life thinking and talking about reforming education system but have also started moving the wheels of change...

The guests for the evening included hotshots such as Ashish Kumar Singh (Additional Municipal Commissioner, MCGM), Mrs. Indu (Sheriff of Mumbai), Karan Khemka, (Head-Mumbai, Parthenon Group), Nisa Godrej (Executive Assistant, Godrej Group), Neha Hiranandani (CSR Head, Hiranandani Group) and Aditya Natraj (Program Director, Pratham).

The most interesting bit of the evening was a Jeopardy round with these famous students.... Here's a quote unquote from them....Nisa Godrej believes that one of the ways of supporting and expanding educational reform is by supporting social entrepreneurial projects.....Neha Hiranandani on being asked if educational reform was work of civil society and not govt.alone, said - Corporate India are like ATMs; If we can get shampoo sachets to every household, why not vaccines and education?

According to Aditya, the 3 common things between a teacher and a leader are belief in self, belief in people and belief in change.....Teaching is Leadership....

Karan Khemka's answer to the question - How do you teach imagination was simple - Not in a classroom.....

The 3 skills children will need in future? Ashish after alot of thinking said - Compassion, commitment and hardwork....

Mumbai's sheriff adding a little humor to the evening said - That the most innovative way of teaching currently would be teaching on Facebook....cos students seem to be spending more time on that than anythn else...She also said that teaching should not be about a teacher teaching what he or she knows or likes...it should be about how the student wants to learn...."Teach me the way I want to learn and not the way you want to teach"....Things that can help the education system progress faster include holding teachers accountible, ensuring educators become more responsible, dropping "chalta hai" attitude and most importantly teaching by example...

I believe it is important that people are sensitised to the issues being faced by the education sector....and I am glad that people are willing to do whatever it takes to make that change than just sit back and talk about it....