Change is constant

Woodstock was in the news again recently. The 14th May edition of the "Economic Times" carried a guest column by Principal David Jeffery as part of a special section on education. Other articles carried quotes from the school. We thought you would be interested to read Mr. Jeffery's article.

If globalisation is, in Thomas Friedman's words, 'not a trend or a fad but...an international system', then its impact on independent schools in India is going to be ongo¬ing and twofold. Globalisation means that not only will more young Indians go to study and work abroad but that the world will continue to come to .India in increasing numbers. Independent schools need to think about how they are going to respond directly and indirectly to growing international¬ism in India as well as to the pressures to equip Indian stu¬dents for a global future.

The second challenge seems to be the easiest. In the last few years, many new international' or 'world' schools have been established in response to new economic realities. A good number of these schools have hurried to adopt international programmes, especially the International Baccalaureate, as the answer. Unfortunately, it is only part of the answer.

Offering international examinations does not in itself make an international school or prepare students for a global future. The guarantee of international quality in a school's accredita¬tion by one of the non-profit accreditation agencies in USA or Europe that offers a rigorous quality-assurance process. Accredited schools are regularly evaluated against published in¬ternational standards by independent teams of educators. There will be growing pressure for an assurance of quality based on international standards from increasingly-sophisti¬cated Indian parents. Schools will have the choice to respond either by using well-established and reputable international schemes or by getting together to develop national bench¬marks, understood and accepted by Indian consumers.

'Globalism' in education is not even a product of the overall international quality of the school - it results from the student's experience in every aspect of school life. International teaching methods that focus on the understanding and application of knowledge, and not just on 'cramming', textbooks with a broader international perspective, access to global Internet re¬sources for students, a school climate of intellectual enquiry, are all essential for the education of 'global citizens' who think independently and can work creatively and collaboratively with others' arid in different cultural settings.

Finally, the most important thing for students is the oppor¬tunity to interact, either in reality or virtually, with students from other countries and cultures. Some Indian schools arrange this through school exchanges. In genuine interna¬tional schools, students interact on a daily basis with class¬ mates from many different countries. This experience enables them to develop cross-cultural perspectives and skills needed to function effectively in a global world and a global economy.

On the other hand, the increasing rate at which the world is coming to India is bound to accelerate changes both to schools and to systems such as the Board exam system, which will come under pressure to become more respon¬sive to new theories of learning and to the intellectual and personal needs .of students. The current system, less a method of education than a sorting process for college en¬try, is creaking at the seams. Board examination syllabus¬es should represent the best and most appropriate learn¬ing experiences for young people, and not an efficient means of reducing students to a percentage rank.

Indian students need to be prepared for further study abroad - as well as for colleges in India - with implica¬tions for college guidance and support for students as they make application to international universities. Good schools will want to provide these services in-house, and not have their students go to agencies for help with this vital next stage in their education.

It is hard to find Indian-trained teachers who can teach international programmes confidently. One immediate priority is training and ongoing professional development for teachers in new teaching and learning styles and especially in methods that use computer tools and Internet resources effectively. This is essential not only for international schools, but also to sup¬port change in the national programmes.

To sum up, it seems to me that the impact of globalisation at the present time is to stimulate a continuing growth in demand for genuine interna¬tional education, in a market which is still relatively unsophisticated and certainly unregulated. Many new schools have sprung up in response to parental demand and the challenge for these schools will be to demonstrate sustainable quality. For the traditional school, the challenge of change .is profound because of the absence of systems and structures to support it. If institutions in a position of leadership - universities, colleges, examination boards, associations of schools - do not face up to these challenges of change in the independent sector, then the need will continue to be met by market forces, as it is at present. This may be both good and bad for students.