Educational Reform - Stop Certifying For A Purpose - Aditya Yadav

1. “Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76
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*A Typical Global Company
*Fortune 500/1000
*200 Divisions
*40 Countries
*25000 Employees

3. @ Acme Inc.
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*Original Question “We need to fix the
education system. The question is how?”
*The Correct Question - “Give me a minute to
run you through the foundational principles of
our Education System… perhaps the answer
would be self evident then… Allow me!!!”

5. And The Philosophy Behind The Answer
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6. *
*Rethinking Education: Why Our Education
System Is Ripe For Disruption
*Our education system is not broken its „Obsolete‟
*Skills we teach become Obsolete in 10-15 years
*Our education system today uses the mass
production style manufacturing process of
standardization.
*Standardized tests
*Assembly line analogy

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*Each one of us Learns differently
*Don‟t limit to one Format
*Don‟t limit to one Curriculum
*We need to allow children to learn to be creative,
learn to reason, and to solve real world problems using
collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches
*Adaptive – Student Centric Learning
*Personalized – Self-paced learning
*Gamification for Immersive and Addictive learning
*Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
*Collaborative and Peer to Peer learning

8. *
* Before you solve any problem you have to understand the Problem and its Context
* Answer this…
* Why does a University have to Certify any Student for a Purpose or Any Purpose for that matter?
E.g. Mechanical/Computer-Science/Electrical/Civil Engineer etc.???
* Why can‟t a Student define his own Purpose?... We know Purpose is Super-Optimal in Strategy!!!
* And working towards your own Purpose brings out the Passion in you.
* And shifts the Focus from Mass Production to Learning!!!
* The need for Certification of Students for a Fixed Purpose is the underlying root of a whole lot of
problems in the world
* #Fail: One thing for sure is whatever the Universities claim to certify the students for … the industry
always claims there is a huge Gap in what they need and what Universities deliver
* So to try and bridge this Gap … Univ‟s started the concept of Core Courses and Elective Courses
* And the Univ‟s went further to define Major‟s and Minor‟s (of Degree‟s)
* And in some cases Dual Degrees!
* Sit back and think why? Why are they/Univ‟s doing this?
* The answer is extremely simple – The Education System is designed to “Certify” Students “For
Some Purpose”
* That my dear friends is the Foundational Flaw in our Educational Systems all over the world.
* All the other problems everyone mentions about our Education System are peripheral problems

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* Lets revisit a Problem from Combinatorics
* Courses are conducted in Two Semesters/Year i.e. Spring and Autumn
for example… Why can‟t we make all courses run every semester???
You will soon realise why we need to do that…
* Every Course has a Student limit e.g. 50 students or even 500
students for example
* A full Course has 6 credits and mini Course has 3 credits for example
* You need a minimum of 300 Credits for example to Graduate with a
Degree or 100 Credits to get a Diploma for example
* Every Course may have „0‟-‟n‟ pre-requisite courses or as we call
them dependencies
* Lets say once you enrol you „Have To Graduate‟ in 8 years or pay a
fee premium for extension

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* If we get rid of just one thing – The Mind-set of Certifying Students For „A‟ Purpose we get a whole lot of things, for
example below…
* Students Enrol into a University and not into any specific „Course‟ or „Stream‟ or „Specialization‟
* The end product will be „A Graduate of The University‟ and not a Computer Science Engineer, or Statistician or a Civil
Engineer etc.
* Students define their own purpose
* Own Purpose brings out their Passion
* There is No Assembly Line… the Focus is on Learning
* They start incrementally by choosing some courses out of the 500 courses a University offers for example across all their 20
departments…
* The Software System resolves all Course Dependencies and lists all the courses they need to take to accomplish their
Purpose, Credits completed/planned etc., laying out a semester wise schedule, registering/bidding them for courses
(Preference for earlier University Enrolled Students so that they Graduate sooner than Newer Students)
* And The Software System, based on the courses they have completed… also lists the next Possible (Chain of ) Courses they
can take up… i.e. Alternatives
* This happens continuously during their Enrolment at the University
* The Planning System for the University is slightly more complicated but nothing unsolvable.
* If someone wants to hire them they can see their Course List and Course Grades!!!
* My dear friends the Industrial Era of the 20th Century was designed for Specialization and Specialists…
* The 21st Century is about Generalists and Solving The Toughest Problems
* Golden Rule: Unless you need a Ph.D. ….. Generalists are the ONLY WAY TO GO!!!
* This is The Only Possible & Viable Future!!!

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Aditya!!!