A TECHNICAL REPORT ON

INNOVATION IN SCHOOL EDUCATION IN INDIA

SUBMITTED TO
DR. FARHANA PARVEEN

SUBMITTED BY
B.E. 4th SEMESTER
ELECTRICAL AND INSTRUMENTATION BRANCH

ASSAM ENGINEERING COLLEGE

JALUKBARI, GUWAHATI -781013
 DEDICATION

We do hereby dedicate this project to our beloved parents for always supporting us because they are
the driving force in our life and career. Without their love, none of this would matter. Throughout
our life, they have actively supported us in our determination to find and realize our potential and to
make this contribution to our life.
We also dedicate this project to our teachers who taught us to think, understand and express. Our
teachers make us able to face different challenges and achieve those challenges.
 DECLARATION

We the undersigned students of (Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering Branch) hereby

solemnly declare that we have done the project entitled “INNOVATION OF SCHOOL
EDUCATION IN INDIA” under the guidance of our teacher Dr. Farhana Parveen. We also declare
that the information incorporated in this project is true and original to the best of our knowledge.

Name Roll No. Signature

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We thank our guide Dr. Farhana Parveen for offering assistance on our project. We also take this
opportunity to express our deepest and sincere gratitude to other teachers of our department.
We would also like to convey our thanks to all non-teaching staff and other miscellaneous people
for their invaluable help and support. We are also grateful to all our classmates for their help,
encouragement and invaluable suggestions.
Finally, yet more importantly, we would like to express our deep appreciation to our parents,
brothers and sisters for their perpetual support and encouragement in doing this project.

Name Roll No. Signature

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 ABSTRACT

This project discusses aspects of the relationship between innovation in education and the innovative
capacity of the country. It brings out innovations in teaching and learning, with a special focus on
new technologies that expand the educational toolbox. It also emphasized on the ability of the
teachers to invent and apply innovative teaching methods, and how incentives can be designed to
foster successful implementations of such method. It also points out the need for skill education. This
report also focused on the governance for innovation and improvements in education.
 Table of contents
Sl. Content Page No.
No.

1 Introduction 1

2 The need for Innovation in Education 2

3 Innovation to enhance Education System 3

4 Challenges of current Education system in India 4-5

5 Effects of Innovation of Education System in various aspect 6-7

6 Solution to Educational crisis in India 8-9

7 Role of organization in Education 10

8 Conclusion 11

9 Bibliography 12
 INTRODUCTION
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, these words
were quoted by Nelson Mandela and indeed it is true, the world we live in, as we see it has
drastically changed compared to past. It is the result of the knowledge and education we have
acquired over decades, education helps us grow to be a better human.
School is a place where the students learn and grow, there are many schools in the world
and it has brought change in the lives of many people, it is one of the significant factor which has
contributed in the development of the society and the world as a whole. Creativity and learning
goes side by side, traditional method of learning has been found to be ineffective in learning growth
of a student and most of the students lose interest in learning as a result. We go to school at a very
young age and it is the time where children learn at a fast rate and those are the crucial moments
which demands education in the best possible manner. One of the key factor in education are the
teachers, who helps in bringing the best out of the student. They play a vital role in the education
system, a good teacher can make the students understand and make learning fun at the same time.
In the modern world we live in today is an innovative world, which demands for innovative
people. Innovation in learning in school will help the students to be the future innovators, the
traditional education system which promote memorization rather than understanding and creativity,
which a student must acquire, has to be changed and instead we must shift to a new perspective
where learning can be fun at the same time. The technology we have acquired must be put to good
use as in learning, it has been found that visual aids in learning helps the student in understanding
better. In most of the schools and colleges projectors, computers, internet facilities etc. are being
provided for better learning, this allows the students to learn the skills required which will aid them
in the future.

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 The Need for Innovation in Education

We constantly have those moments in a classroom where despite the hard efforts of a teacher, the
students don’t seem to be engaged in the classroom activities. However, in such situations, a good
scolding may work out at times but mostly that is a silent call for the much needed innovation.

Innovation in education is an ongoing process and is needed every once in a while to keep things
healthy and engaging for students as well as teachers. Particular set patterns and pedagogies cannot
work all the time, a little twist or innovation is needed to keep the monotony off the bay and keep
students interested thoroughly. Innovations are always needed because every problem needs its
solution. So it becomes the need from time to time to discover something new and useful in
education.

Innovation in education is defined as “the process of making changes to something established by

introducing something new.” It applies to radical or incremental changes to products, processes or
services. Students today are on lookout for challenges and opportunities that helps them explore
and connect to the outside world for better opportunities. And so, they challenge educators to be
innovative and to make learning environments more exciting, challenging and rewarding for them.

There's quite a bit of evidence that technology, when used in the right way, helps students learn.
One study, for example, showed that a medical school class with iPads scored 23% higher in exams
than classes without this device.

Technology, such as tablets, isn't only useful for absorbing knowledge; it helps with
communication as well. Teachers and administrators use such devices to send materials and
information to students and parents. Students hand in homework and term papers online and can
access educational applications and programs to further assist with learning.

There are many clear benefits of using technology in the classroom. It makes learning interesting
and engaging, especially for younger generations raised on the latest technology.

It allows for faster and more efficient delivery of lessons, both in the classroom and at home. It
reduces the need for textbooks and other printed material, lowering long-term costs incurred by
schools and students.

It makes collaboration easier. Students, teachers, and parents can communicate and collaborate
more effectively. It helps to build technology-based skills, allowing students to learn, early on, to
embrace and take advantage of the tools technology offers.

~2~
 Innovation to Enhance Education System

A sad reality of today’s education is that students find school and college uninteresting. “Why am I
learning what I am learning?” and, “I don’t remember anything I learned in school or college” are
cheerless statements that one frequently hears in interactions with students. No wonder millions of
children drop out from school forever keeping their innate creativity under lock and key. Attending
school is just not that compelling or interesting.

New teaching-learning methods need to be introduced and instilled to trigger important shifts in
thinking and behaviour. Engaging a child from just saying “yes”, to learning to ask “why?”,
children must be encouraged to be curious and ask innumerable whys and why nots. We should try
to recognise a child not only for the answers she or he gives in an exam but for the quality of
questions that he or she asks.

Children should be taught not just to look, but to observe. Keen observation of the environment has
caused many breakthroughs in science and medicine and in the social and business worlds.
Children must be taught and encouraged to observe deeply, to look beyond the obvious.

Hands-on practical experiments, which engage the child’s senses of touch, feel, smell, sight and
sound, are extremely effective in helping him or her to grasp, explain and retain otherwise difficult
concepts.

In this era of easily accessible data, children are not given the chance or time to use their own
minds or reason for themselves. Model-making workshops, audio-visual presentations, role-playing
activities and exploring the physical world help to deliver the message of classroom lessons in a
more interesting and effective manner.

By encouraging curiosity and creativity, we can train children to become independent and thinking
individuals who discover and solve problems on their own, thus nurturing their confidence and self-
belief. Peer-to-peer teaching is a powerful way to spark and foster confidence among children.

The good news is that none of the above requires an expensive school lab or a huge investment in
infrastructure. Much of the aforementioned desired shifts in thinking and behaviour can be
achieved through low-cost everyday materials. Indeed, the lack of resources is one of the greatest
spurs to creativity. But we do not need to spend any money to observe and learn from nature, the
source of many breakthroughs in science and technology.

~3~
 Challenges of the Current Education System in India

Today’s archaic 19th Century model of rote-based learning, the 'chalk-and-talk' system, where the
teacher talks endlessly and dictatorially and the student listens passively and submissively has
discouraged questioning, discovery, experimentation and application in the school classroom.
Boredom, lack of involvement, low confidence and self-belief, and an obsessive fear of failure are
the unfortunate results of this unimaginative factory-based model of education. Children join
school as a question mark; they leave school as a full stop. Not surprisingly, downbeat attitudes
acquired at an early age have carried into adulthood, resulting in a workforce that is, for the most
part, bereft of the temper, desire and energy to create, invent and innovate.

In the era of 'Startup India', despite the exciting birth of a lot of new businesses, we have not
witnessed an equivalent number of original or innovative ideas at scale from India. Reflecting
perhaps years of uncreative education, an almost instinctive urge to copy ideas from outside, seen
as a more predictable and dependable way of making money, has precluded hundreds of Indians
from investing their time and energy in new and original ideas with a long-term, and possibly,
uncertain return. Reversing this myopic “copying culture” requires faith in one’s own ability to
discover and create, as well as the willingness to invest time and effort to produce inventive ideas
and solutions relevant for the Indian context. Passion-based creativity, doing something not solely
because one wants to make money but because one wants to solve a significant problem, create
something of great value or change or shift a paradigm is a rare commodity. And yet, as both
business and social history has shown, it is the passionate creators, inventors and innovators who
have opened innumerable doors of possibility and opportunity for the rest of us.

How then might we foster a culture of creativity and innovation that makes us want to “think in
India?” For a start, we should overhaul our educational focus and philosophy. A sad reality of
today’s education is that students find school and college uninteresting. “Why am I learning what I
am learning?” and, “I don’t remember anything I learned in school or college” are cheerless
statements that one frequently hears in interactions with students. No wonder millions of children
drop out from school forever keeping their innate creativity under lock and key. Attending school is
just not that compelling or interesting.

New teaching-learning methods need to be introduced and instilled to trigger important shifts in
thinking and behaviour. Engaging a child from just saying “yes”, to learning to ask “why?”,
children must be encouraged to be curious and ask innumerable whys and why nots. We should try
to recognise a child not only for the answers she or he gives in an exam but for the quality of
questions that he or she asks.

Children should be taught not just to look, but to observe. Keen observation of the environment has
caused many breakthroughs in science and medicine and in the social and business worlds.
Children must be taught and encouraged to observe deeply, to look beyond the obvious.

~4~
Hands-on practical experiments, which engage the child’s senses of touch, feel, smell, sight and
sound, are extremely effective in helping him or her to grasp, explain and retain otherwise difficult
concepts

~5~
 Effects of Innovation of Education Sytem in Various Aspect

Innovation can be directed toward progress in one, several, or all aspects of the educational system:
theory and practice, curriculum, teaching and learning, policy, technology, institutions and
administration, institutional culture, and teacher education. It can be applied in any aspect of
education that can make a positive impact on learning and learners.

In a similar way, educational innovation concerns all stakeholders: the learner, parents, teacher,
educational administrators, researchers, and policy makers and requires their active involvement
and support. When considering the learners, we think of studying cognitive processes taking place
in the the brain during learning – identifying and developing abilities, skills, and competencies.
These include improving attitudes, dispositions, behaviors, motivation, self-assessment, self-
efficacy, autonomy, as well as communication, collaboration, engagement, and learning
productivity.

To raise the quality of teaching, we need to enhance teacher education, professional development,
and life-long learning to include attitudes, dispositions, teaching style, motivation, skills,
competencies, self-assessment, self-efficacy, creativity, responsibility, autonomy to teach, capacity
to innovate, freedom from administrative pressure, best conditions of work, and public sustenance.
As such, we expect educational institutions to provide an optimal academic environment, as well as
materials and conditions for achieving excellence of the learning outcomes for every student
(program content, course format, institutional culture, research, funding, resources, infrastructure,
administration, and support).

Education is nourished by society and, in turn, nourishes society. The national educational system
relies on the dedication and responsibility of all society for its effective functioning, thus parental
involvement, together with strong community and society backing, are crucial for success.

A national education system is commonly the product of a distinctive set of historical, political,
social, cultural, and economic effects. As it is a complete system, its different areas are not only
interrelated and interdependent but act together. Subsequently, any change in one of them may
generate a change in others. A few examples of innovations in some areas that made a drastic
impact on the whole educational system are:

Political (NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act), Race to the Top), Social (Equal Opportunities Act,
affirmative action policy, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), Philosophical
(constructivism, objectivism), Cultural (moral education, multiculturalism, bilingual education),
Pedagogical (competence-based education, STEM (curriculum choices in school: Science,
Technology, English, and Mathematics), Psychological (cognitive science, multiple intelligences
theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, learning style theory); and Technological (computer-based
learning, networked learning, e-learning).

Along with types of innovation, the degree of impact can be identified on the following three
levels:

Adjustment or upgrading of the process: innovation can occur in daily performance and be seen as
a way to make our job easier, more effective, more appealing, or less stressful. This kind of
innovation, however, should be considered an improvement rather than innovation because it does
not produce a new method or tool. The term innovative, in keeping with the dictionary definition,

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applies only to something new and different, not just better, and it must be useful (Okpara, 2007).
Educators, incidentally, commonly apply the term “innovative” to almost any improvement in
classroom practices; yet, to be consistent, not any improvement can be termed in this way. The
distinction between innovation and improvement is in novelty and originality, as well as in the
significance of impact and scale of change.
Modification of the process: innovation that significantly alters the process, performance, or quality
of an existing product (e.g. accelerated learning (AL), charter school, home schooling, blended
learning).
Transformation of the system: dramatic conversion (e.g. Bologna process; Common Core; fully
automated educational systems; autonomous or self-directed learning; online, networked, and
mobile learning).

All innovations are ultimately directed at changing qualitative and/or quantitative factors of
learning outcomes:

qualitative: better knowledge, more effective skills, important competencies, character

development, values, dispositions, effective job placement, and job performance; and
quantitative: improved learning parameters such as test results, volume of information learned,
amount of skills or competencies developed, college enrollment numbers, measured student
performance, retention, attrition, graduation rate, number of students in class, cost, and time
efficiency.

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 Solution to Educational Crisis in India
Education has been a problem in our country and lack of it has been blamed for all sorts of evil for
hundreds of years. Even Rabindranath Tagore wrote lengthy articles about how Indian education
system needs to change. Funny thing is that from the colonial times, few things have changed. We
have established IITs, IIMs, law schools and other institutions of excellence; students now
routinely score 90% marks so that even students with 90+ percentage find it difficult to get into the
colleges of their choice; but we do more of the same old stuff.
We also live in a country where the people see education as the means of climbing the
social and economic ladder. If the education system is failing – then it is certainly not due to lack of
demand for good education, or because a market for education does not exist.
What should change in India education system? What needs to be fixed at the earliest? The
following points does not assure of a solution but suggestions for what can be done:
a. Focus on skill based education: Our education system is geared towards teaching and
testing knowledge at every level as opposed to teaching skills. “Give a man a fish and you
feed him one day, teach him how to catch fishes and you feed him for a lifetime.” I believe
that if you teach a man a skill, you enable him for a lifetime. Knowledge is largely forgotten
after the semester exam is over. Still, year after year Indian students focus on cramming
information. The best crammers are rewarded by the system. This is one of the fundamental
flaws of our education system.
b. Reward creativity, original thinking, research and innovation: Our education system rarely
rewards what deserves highest academic accolades. Deviance is discouraged. Risk taking is
mocked. Our testing and marking systems need to be built to recognize original
contributions, in form of creativity, problem solving, valuable original research and
innovation. If we could do this successfully Indian education system would have changed
overnight.
Memorizing is no learning; the biggest flaw in our education system is perhaps that
it incentivizes memorizing above originality.
c. Get smarter people to teach: For way too long teaching became the sanctuary of the
incompetent. Teaching jobs are until today widely regarded as safe, well-paying, risk-free
and low-pressure jobs. Once a teacher told me in high school “Well, if you guys don’t study
it is entirely your loss – I will get my salary at the end of the month anyway.” He could not
put across the lack of incentive for being good at teaching any better. Thousands of terrible
teachers all over India are wasting valuable time of young children every day all over India.
It is high time to encourage a breed of superstar teachers. We need leaders,
entrepreneurs in teaching positions, not salaried people trying to hold on to their mantle.
d. Implement massive technology infrastructure for education: India needs to embrace internet
and technology if it has to teach all of its huge population, the majority of which is located
in remote villages. Now that we have computers and internet, it makes sense to invest in
technological infrastructure that will make access to knowledge easier than ever. Instead of
focusing on outdated models of brick and mortar colleges and universities, we need to
create educational delivery mechanisms that can actually take the wealth of human
knowledge to the masses. The tools for this dissemination will be cheap smartphones,
tablets and computers with high speed internet connection. While all these are becoming
more possible than ever before, there is lot of innovation yet to take place in this space.
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e. Re-define the purpose of the education system: Our education system is still a colonial
education system geared towards generating babus and pen-pushers under the newly
acquired skin of modernity. We may have the most number of engineering graduates in the
world, but that certainly has not translated into much technological innovation here. Rather,
we are busy running the call centres of the rest of the world – that is where our engineering
skills end.
The goal of our new education system should be to create entrepreneurs, innovators,
artists, scientists, thinkers and writers who can establish the foundation of a knowledge
based economy rather than the low-quality service provider nation that we are turning into.
f. Personalize education – one size does not fit all: Assembly line education prepares
assembly line workers. However, the drift of economic world is away from assembly line
production. Indian education system is built on the presumption that if something is good
for one kid, it is good for all kids.
Some kids learn faster, some are comparatively slow. Some people are visual
learners, others are auditory learners, and still some others learn faster from experience. If
one massive monolithic education system has to provide education to everyone, then there
is no option but to assume that one size fits all. If however, we can effectively decentralize
education, and if the government did not obsessively control what would be the “syllabus”
and education personal attention what will be the method of instruction, there could be an
explosion of new and innovative courses geared towards serving various niches of learners.
Take for example, the market for learning dancing. There are very different dance
forms that attract students with different tastes. More importantly, different teachers and
institutes have developed different ways of teaching dancing. This could never happen if
there was a central board of dancing education which enforced strict standards of what will
be taught and how such things are to be taught.
Central regulation kills choice, and stifles innovation too. As far as education is
concerned, availability of choices, de-regulation, profitability, entrepreneurship and
emergence of niche courses are all inter-connected.
g. Allow private capital in education: The government cannot afford to provide higher
education to all the people in the country. It is too costly for the government to do so. The
central government spends about 4% of budget expenditure on education, compared to 40%
on defense. Historically, the government just did not have enough money to spend on even
opening new schools and universities, forget overhauling the entire system and investing in
technology and innovation related to the education system. Still, until today, at least on
paper only non-profit organizations are allowed to run educational institutions apart from
government institutions. Naturally, the good money, coming from honest investors who
want to earn from honest but high impact businesses do not get into education sector.
Rather, there are crooks, money launderers and politicians opening “private” educational
institutions which extract money from the educational institution through creative
structuring. The focus is on marketing rather than innovation or providing great educational
service – one of the major examples of this being IIPM. Allowing profit making will
encourage serious entrepreneurs, innovators and investors to take interest in the education
sector. The government does not have enough money to provide higher education of

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reasonable quality to all of us, and it has no excuse to prevent private capital from coming
into the educational sector.

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 Role of Organization in Education

January 2001 Nongovernmental organizations working in education in India are professional

resource centers and innovators able to reach children who are educationally disadvantaged. The
Indian government could improve the effectiveness of primary education by increasing its
collaboration with such organizations. NGOs extend education to underprivileged children in India
and develop innovations that improve the quality of primary education. In this study of six NGOs
working with school – age children in India, Jagannathan shows the potential benefits of a
government-NGO alliance to achieve universal primary education. The author emphasizes several
areas in which collaboration can be particularly fruitful. Targeting underserved children. The
government could support the efforts of NGOs to bring out-of-school children into schools through
timely supply of teachers, classroom space, and other resources. Targeted action is needed to reach
different types of out-of-school children — those who work, those who live in slums, those on the
street, those who are members of tribes or of migrant families, and those who live in places without
schools. To encourage young, first-generation learners to stay in school requires a supportive and
nurturing environment. To help make learning interesting and worthwhile for such children, teachers
in government schools could receive special training in new methods developed by NGOs. Enhancing
quality, improving the quality of education requires working closely with key agents of change, such
as teachers, school heads, school management committees, and village education committees. To
develop a cadre of trainers for primary school teachers, teacher training institutes would do well to
evaluate and learn from NGO models for teacher training. Teachers need a range of knowledge and
skills to teach underprivileged children effectively. Here again, NGO models would be a useful tool
for teacher training institutes. NGOs and the government could collaborate in developing appropriate
and flexible learning assessment tools, in line with innovative teaching and learning methods. But
without safeguards, large-scale replication by the government of such NGO innovations as the
“alternative school” and the “voluntary teacher” could lower the quality of education. Government-
NGO links. The government and NGOs will need to share a common vision on how to achieve
universal primary education if India is to reach this goal. NGOs can be credible partners with the
government in shaping policies for primary education. This entails collaboration rather than parallel
initiatives by NGOs. To stay at the cutting edge in education, NGOs should continually evaluate and
refine their models. If NGOs are to play a policy role in education, two areas that have been neglected
will need to be addressed—NGO capacity building and organizational development. This paper—a
product of the Robert McNamara Fellowships Program, World Bank Institute—is part of a larger
effort in the Bank to contribute toward the development of knowledge and human capital.

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 Conclusion

Education is the most important element for growth and prosperity of a nation. The role of
education is to develop critical skills for improved conditions for innovation in the economy, which
requires innovation with the education sector itself. In our present world the demand for different
types of skills in the labour market depends on industrial structure and the applied technology. The
increased intensity in the use of information technologies has changes in international trade patterns
have implications on the type of production. The educational system must respond to such changes
and adapt to the needs of the labour market.
Innovations in education should bring skill based education and also technology enhanced
education. Our education requires certain reforms, both in spirit and practice of the knowledge
imparted. Besides the normal curriculum children should receive special training towards one skill
set which will offer an extra certification which will not only help them set a job after school but also
to make them aware of how the real world industries functions. Education system has to be designed
in such a way that produce large number of employment generators and just not employment seekers.
Innovation in teachings methods requires teachers that are able to motivate. Excellent teacher
are able to motivate students and to choose the most productive teaching method. In today's century,
'the chalk talk' system, where teacher talks endlessly and dictatorially and the student listens passively
and submissively has discouraged questioning, discovery, experimentation and application in class
room. Boredom, lack of involvement, low confidence and self-belief, and obsessive fear of failure
are the unfortunate results of this unimaginative factory based model of education. Therefore,
learning through questioning to teachers should be encouraged.
India should mobilize necessary resources for providing education to the under privilege
people. The country needs to create virtual classroom and virtual university. Virtual classrooms of
the future will help students from many locations taught by a team of geographically distributed
instructors through the Tele -education delivery system. Virtual university in India would make it
possible for all the networked universities to pool their resources and provide students with a better
education than they would manage on their own.
A country rests on the shoulder of its youth and children. Quite specifically on how they are
taught and engaged to think and act. This required innovations in education system with innovative
minds. Right now India is exploring in the fields of Education and Information Technology where
employment is also increasing.
Thus, in the future with the innovations in education system our country will become a
developed nation with high economic growth

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~ 14 ~
 Bibliography

1. https://yourstory.com/2017/08/innovative-education-india
2. https://careersnews.ie/need-innovation-education/

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