Reducing the gap between education and practicality
Help students bridge the gap between what they learn and what the industry needs.
This blog is purely in context with the field of Computer Science and Information technology. If you have opted these subjects for your UG or PG, you can surely relate to this.
Many colleges/institutes/universities have a curriculum which includes more theory subjects and few practical ones. The ideal scenario can be more of practical subjects and a few theoretical ones. Why more practical ones? Because in computer science, unless you see the output of the theory we learn, it cannot be understood. Understandably, colleges have guidelines of the university to follow and the university has to follow certain guidelines of higher authorities while designing the syllabus. And the chain continues. But what effect is it making on the student’s actual learning?
In fields like computer science and information technology, every single day something new comes up. May it be a new programming language, a new operating system, new tools, and much more. It’s always on the progressive side but what are we teaching our students? Are we keeping them updated? Are we making them competitive enough? Keep aside the competition, are we making them capable enough to survive? No, we continue with the same syllabus which is being taught over the years. And most of the people are ok with because “Basics are important. Hence, the same syllabus” True! Basics are of utmost importance but need not taught in the same way as it was being taught earlier.
Change is the only thing constant. The one who doesn’t change surely suffers.
What if we go hand in hand with the industry and keep students ready for the challenges? Theoretical subjects are important to understand the concepts and practical subjects are important to learn their implementation. Every subject should be taught in both ways. Because when we see the actual implementation happening, we get more command over it.
The normal process of going through any course is 4, 3 or 2 years of theory and practical exams, projects and placements. In interviews, they check our basic understanding of the subject/concepts, logic, problem-solving capabilities, communication and body language. Then they hire us and once again train us according to their domain. It’s as good as college/university making us learn alphabets and companies training us to form words out of it.
What if college put in some extra efforts to get us familiar with the actual world outside? And now is the era of startups, everyone need not get placed in MNC and then get trained. Some have to start on their own, learn things on their own, no training for them, then what?
Below are the few points which I feel can be improved in our curriculum-
- More of practical subjects.
- Updated syllabus with new technologies/programming languages coming up.
- Giving students taste of how the actual corporate world looks like.
- Giving importance on improving soft skills like communication and body language.
- More emphasis on quality education rather than marks oriented results.
How can this be achieved?
College syllabus should constantly stay updated with current technologies in the market. Importance should be given to learning instead of academic results. Project topics should be wisely chosen by students and teachers should encourage/help them to raise the bar. Performing in a team should be taught as it is required everywhere. You can not handle everything single-handedly. Collaborative work should be given importance. A student should do the part of project work which he/she likes. For example, if a student is interested in coding then he should put efforts in that area whereas if someone is interested in testing, he/she should go ahead with it. Again they should be good with documenting stuff. Most of the people are lacking here but this is a very important part. If you are not able to make others understand about what you have done, then it’s of no use.
Students should be encouraged to participate in competitions. Not for namesake, but for actually improving themselves. Seminars/webinars by experts can be conducted as part of the academics. To sum up, education in college should be as close as in its actual usage. If we succeed at reducing the gap between them then we will definitely produce high-quality employees.
I know it’s too much to ask for, and it’s not easy to implement it in a country where a major part of the population is lacking in basic education. This blog is for the capable ones, renowned universities, high profile colleges, the colleges which can afford and provide quality education. Have a thought!
Till then, keep changing, keep evolving and keep learning! Cheers!
