By Amit Gainda

“Teachers are the backbone of any country, the pillar upon which all aspirations are converted into realities.” – APJ Abdul Kalam.

Numerous sectors such as healthcare, IT, and BFSI are playing a major role in the growth and development of the economy. The education sector, too, holds the lion’s share in nation-building and significantly contributes to the country’s advancement. It bridges the gap between young learners and their academic aspirations. The education landscape provides the right platform to learn new concepts and understand the changing economic, social and geopolitical dynamics. Teachers are the catalysts of change, preparing the nation’s youth to navigate through challenges and to be future-ready. They spark remarkable upward mobility in students’ lives.

Recently, the Indian education sector has witnessed a massive shift in pedagogy, with technology as one of the key enablers to ensure seamless access to education. The need to transform the education sector to ensure uninterrupted learning and provide quality education is the driving force that demands the teaching fraternity to upgrade its skills to enable a seamless knowledge-sharing process. Although the education industry had embraced technology early on, the pandemic only accelerated the adoption. The digital transition stemming from the health crisis came with its own set of challenges, with educators having to adapt to this new method of imparting knowledge. Nowadays teacher’s role is multi-faceted, focusing on not only teaching students ‘what to think’ but also ‘how to think’ with greater emphasis on critical thinking and data analysis.

Technology has been a game changer across sectors leading to major technological breakthroughs in the education ecosystem that aim to deliver a superior learning experience to students. Digitalisation and the changing content and context of learning have reinforced the need to empower the teachers, who are at the forefront of the education landscape, to be the ideal knowledge facilitators. Upskilling the tutors is essential as they play a pivotal role in revolutionising the sector in multiple ways.

Foster student interest

To address the short attention span of the students, the education ecosystem has remodelled the learning processes to incorporate student-centric teaching methods. Gamification, audio-visual learning techniques, micro-learning content, and quizzes help grab students’ attention and drive more focused learning sessions. Academic instructors need to be trained to use appropriate teaching tools to effectively impart knowledge by using these techniques.

Build conversations

With increased access to technology, learning has become more collaborative and conversational. Educators must have access to new-age tools that allow them to take stock of the latest developments and geopolitics, social and cultural transformations so that they can design and customise learning sessions accordingly. Discussing contemporary events in the context of lessons bring meaningful insights too.

Enriching learning experience

Technology allows teachers to use digital tools like projectors, presentations, VR-powered immersive educational content and videos, enabling them to offer an exceptional teaching experience. Adopting these techniques fosters a conducive learning environment where students are encouraged to participate in information exchange and fruitful discussions.

Adding to teachers’ learning capacity

Tutors can use various technological tools to personalise the way they approach a certain subject. With a vast array of tools at their disposal, it helps broaden their horizon of various subjects and, in a way, also accelerates their learning capacity.

Various financial institutions have successfully identified this transformation in the education ecosystem that has changed the overall landscape. Hence, new-age financiers have designed financial products to democratise education and empower educators by providing them with hyper-personalised solutions that will help them fulfil their aspiration of upskilling.

As advocated by National Education Policy 2020, teacher education is essential to address the need for digitalisation in education. This only reinforces the significance of upskilling to ensure that educators stay relevant in this dynamic industry and continue to empower students with more evolved methods of imparting knowledge. Upskilled tutors can unlock their potential to construct meaningful learning experiences to inspire young learners to be tomorrow’s success stories.

The author of this article is MD and CEO, Avanse Financial Services. Views expressed are personal.

Also Read: How career in design can help students be future-ready

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