Adopting ‘scientific management principles’ will help transform the State’s education sector for the better in a matter of three to five years, A. Sukumaran Nair, Chairman of the State Advisory Board for Education and former Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, has said.
Delivering the keynote address at a seminar on ‘Management Approach to Quality Enhancement in Education’ held here on Monday, the educationist underlined the importance of granting full academic autonomy to schools and colleges in the State.
The programme was jointly organised by the State chapter of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM), an organisation affiliated to the Commonwealth Consortium for Education, the Department of Education under Kerala University, and the Council for Teacher Education.
Dr. Nair said management-based educational practices would grant freedom for institutions to decide their curriculum and course work, the manner of instruction, and evaluation and academic planning.
He said the present educational structure did not facilitate enough room for teachers to be in charge of their classroom practices.
“There is a hierarchy according to which teachers are placed right at the bottom. The scale of priority must be inverted since teachers are the ones who are delivering knowledge to the students. It does not make sense for an outsider to prescribe the rules,” he said.
He suggested that existing teaching professionals be trained to perform a managerial role to take the lead in improving the quality of education in the State.
V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Executive Vice President of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), inaugurated the programme.
He too stressed for a more ‘professional approach’ in improving the state of education here.
The role of technology in the education sphere was growing more relevant and this was changing the definition of a teacher, he said.
