The education sector is seeing a tremendous growth at all levels. Schools and colleges which have been successful are expanding to new locations, successful industries are setting up schools and colleges, and many regional businessmen are in the run too. And there is no dearth of customers too. Students and parents are queuing up at any school and college. The only difference between established and new institutes is only the fees that they are able to charge and the quality of students which they can attract.

But are we missing something or someone here? We have got an industry and we have got customers. Who is delivering the goods to the customers? No industry can thrive if it cannot satisfy its customers. Yes, we are talking about teachers, who are the machinery of this education factory. Are they effective? Are they trained to do their job? Are they happy about their job? Are they passionate about what they do? Do they realize that they are shaping the life and future of thousands of students?

And yes, there’s the campus placement too! Until last year, big companies were visiting campuses and hiring by the hundreds, because they have the budget for training these new hires for the jobs. There are constant complaints from the industry that most of the graduates are not employable. Haven't we still realised that getting marks doesn't make someone suitable for a job. The skills - both about the subject and the personality - which the industry is seeking in these graduates can only be acquired through ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES. Instead of breaking our heads on how to change the curriculum we should all be looking at how effectively the curriculum is delivered by the teachers.

And about schools - the habit of memorising and rote learning targetting higher and higher marks in a meaningless learning is formed since early schooling. We need to nip it in the bud.

Traditionally school teachers have been formally ‘trained’, but college teaching doesn’t even need any training. We assume that anyone qualified in a subject is also qualified to teach that subject. This philosophy is unable to meet the needs of the tremendous scale of operations.

I believe that if we address the effectiveness of teachers we will be able to solve the challenges of the larger population. There was an adage – “If you educate a man, you educate a man. But, when you educate a woman, you educate a family”. I would like re-word it as “If you educate a teacher, you educate many generations of students”.