Bengaluru: While over nine million students graduate from different institutes in the country annually, the number of those who get placed in jobs is relatively low and researchers believe lack of cognitive skills among the young is mainly to blame.
Trying to bridge the gap is education expert, Ashish Rajpal, who has chalked out an academic programme, XSEED, that was launched in 2008 and encourages children to speak their mind and think differently, following a thought sequence that caters to their own interests and abilities.
Today XSEED is being implemented in over 3000 schools, covering over a million children in the country and eventually hopes to reach out to 10 million of them. Its developers are currently working on a smartphone platform which will help after-school education as well.
Mr Rajpal, who is founder and CEO of XSEED, says he wants to script a change in approach to teaching from the colonial style still in vogue in the country. "I discovered that basic concepts were not clear to teachers in developing countries. That observation was path breaking as we identified the major hurdle we had to overcome," he explains.
A Harvard and XLRI graduate, he has based his innovative method on his observations of his own children. "While one liked playing with words, the other liked working with building blocks. When one had questions for everything, the other one had to be asked questions," he recalls.
Mr Rajpal who teaches grade IV students occasionally, is ranked among the top 50 educationists in India by the Education World magazine. Interestingly, he believes that a strong bilingual medium of instruction is necessary in schools. "Reading and speaking only in English should be avoided in schools," he says.
