Advaita - Reforms in High School Education

7/31/2019 Advaita - Reforms in High School Education

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A SWARNI Foundation Initiative

Sector: Education

Area: Reforms in High School Education Curriculum

Target Audience: High Schools of Andhra PradeshInitiator: Veera Karthik Gonagundla

President SWARNI Foundation

Anantapur

Contact Details: 21/323, Vukkalam Street, Old Town, Anantapur

Ph: 08554-237982;

M: +91-7569952820 (Andhra Pradesh)

+91-7259694925 (Karnataka)


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Executive Summary

advaita:Advaita, which means non-duality or unparalleled recognition leading to liberation, is aSWARNI Foundation initiative, to propose unparalleled Reforms in the High School Education System.

The Challenge:

Todays environment has undergone a drastic shift with the advent of globalization, new paradigmsof business, unexampled means of communications, unprecedented types of relationships and IT-

led transformations. But the high school education, which lays the foundation for the rest of the life

of a student, is not transformed to keep the education in tune with the demands of the current

professional lifestyle.

Years of High School Education has not become the integral part of the current Business Context.

Todays young professionals in various industries suffer from the syndrome of trained incapacity. The current Education system doesnt have a robust component to capture the practical, emotional,

spiritual, value-based and ethical aspects which are strongly believed to be the cornerstones for

leadership and good management.

Core competencies and attributes such as team management skills, creativity, communication skills,adventure learning, Optimism, Money management, decision making, Self awareness, Constructive

Discontent, Risk Taking, Contribution-centric, Conflict Management Skills, Tolerance of Ambiguity

etc are given inadequate attention in the High School Education.

Talent plays a critical role in the development and prosperity of a nation. But the talent nurtured inthe High School Education in State schools is not sufficient for an individual to be able to compete

with the Specially-schooled competitors (Students of International School) and survive in theprofessional work life.

Our Solution: Suggest to design and develop the High school curriculum in a manner that it inculcates

various skills into the High School students, the skills more relevant to the needs of an individual in the

current and future work life. SWARNI Foundation has researched rigorously and has come up with a well-

cataloged three-dimensional breakthrough: PIE-Model, in which PIE stands for each of the following

dimensions:

1. Personal Orientation,2. Interpersonal Orientation and3. Execution Orientation

This paper documents many skills, habits and attitudes in each of the dimension to be learnt and practiced.

Our vision: To keep the High School Education Curriculum useful and more relevant to the demands of

the current and future work life and to provide an individual with the required tool kit as per his aspirations.


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Project Report

Introduction: According to Goldman Sachs report, it is expected that while US will be short of 17million people, China by 10 million, Japan by 9 million and so on, India will have a surplus of 47 million

working people in 2020. But, owing to the current skill sets of the current students, will all these millions ofpeople be employable or be the prime contributors to the nation?

And according to CIA World Fact book, and Indexmundi.com, the working-age population is around 51.4

Crores (42% of 1.2 Billion) in India and it is around 6 crores (51% of 12 Crores) in Japan. But surprisingly,

the GDP of India is only $5.3 trillion while that of Japan is around $4.0 trillion. This shows that on an

average the individual contribution in India is far below that of other countries like Japan. There are many

factors responsible for this difference, but the major factor contributing to this is poor management of

Human resources in India. An individuals skill set or perspective on life is not in sync with the corporate or

global demands.

On an average, the Japanese spend around 11 hours a day on productive tasks. But an Indian spends only

5.5 hours a day and with lesser efficiency. Adding to these stats, much of the talented workforce is being

migrated to other developed nations for the past few years. And the result is that only the less developed or

under-developed workforce remains in India worsening the situation of the country further.

UNESCO states that the role of education is to enable people in learning to learn, learning to do and

learning to be. But the current education system doesnt teach the art of learning. System is so rigid that an

individual doesnt learn to apply the theoretical aspects of his education in the practical scenarios. And the

current system is not in sync with what one needs to learn to live. So, with this kind of an education system,

will UNESCO be able to achieve its mission on our land?

With all these facts aside, current workforce is facing innumerable issues in the day-to-day work life. The

issues range from passive and local mindsets to unrealistic aspirations, poor communication to poor

diversity management and from lack of potential to debauched lifestyles. Todays environment has

undergone a drastic shift with the advent of globalization, new paradigms of business, unexampled means of

communications, unprecedented types of relationships and IT-led transformations. But the high school

education, which lays the foundation for the rest of the life of a student, is not transformed to keep the

education in tune with the demands of the current professional lifestyle, leading an individual to face the

impact of lacking needed competencies. There is an unbelievable crisis of competencies possessed by an

individual in the contemporary Business World. The paucity of these competencies becomes critical when

viewed in the framework of the huge challenges and available opportunities for India. Even the GoldmanSachs Report (1999) projected that India has the most rapid growth potential among the BRIC countries.

However, the report suggests that India will have to take drastic steps to develop relevant skills in the

individuals. With the current level of skill set, attitudes and personalities, future generations will face with

the overwhelming challenge of operating in the complex environment generated by the pace and scale of

change and the need to move seamlessly across different situations, cultures as well as interact with different

kinds of people.


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Immediate Challenge: The immediate challenge that the High school students would face immediately

after their schooling in the next few years is the competition with specially-schooled students. There are

many special schools such as International Schools, Talent Schools and many residential schools with

extraordinary curriculum for the students overall development. These schools are now extremely prolific in

cities and a few towns. Because of these schools curriculum the students of these schools possess most of

the skills that they would require to succeed at every step of life. These students learn the need for risk

taking, art of entrepreneurial thinking, beauty of arts and developing hobbies, necessity of English, etc.

These students with such a skill set would excel in every arena limiting the scope for students from normal

State board or Government schools. This would only widen the gap between the students of normal schools

and those of special-schools, enabling only one group to take up the reins of most successful positions in

the world. Hence, the talent nurtured in the High School Education in State schools is not sufficient for an

individual to be able to compete with the Specially-schooled competitors (Students of International School)

and survive in the professional work life.

Solution: Advaita A SWARNI Foundation initiative, is an attempt for schools to re-examine andre-orient their philosophy of education, pedagogy as well as their curricula to promote high qualityeducation which could be useful and relevant to the individuals career progress and to shape the Students

perspectives. SWARNI Foundation understands and believes that High School Education has a tremendous

role to play in grooming future business leaders in tune with the requirements thrown up by changes in the context.

SWARNI Foundation has researched extensively and has documented the skills that the students would

require to learn during the schooling, and that would enable them to be more successful in the path chosen

according to their aspirations and dreams. SWARNI Foundation has invented a PIE-model, according to

which the skills are categorized:

1. Personal Orientation2. Interpersonal Orientation and3. Execution Orientation

These competitive capabilities and mindsets emanate from long-term commitment to improve quality of life

and high quality of education. The skills/attitudes to be developed under each category are as below:

1. Personal Orientation:a. IQ,EQ,SQ & AQ (Intelligent Quotient, Emotional Quotient, Spiritual Quotient and Adversity

Quotient)

b. Understanding and Building Visionc. Drive to follow the Dream/Passiond. Intentionalitye. Entrepreneurial Mindset and Global Mindsetf. Learn Realityg. Human Valuesh. Passion for Adventure and Risk takingi. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses


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j. Communication (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Expression & Etiquettes)k. Reliance, Focus and Commitmentl. Confidence and Optimismm. Literature and Philosophyn. Hobbieso. Clarity of Thought and Continuous learningp. Maintain Personal Spaceq. Money Management

2. Interpersonal Orientation:a. People managementb. Diversity Managementc. Influencing People and Systemsd. Emotional awareness of Peoplee. Constructive Emotional Expressionf. Negotiation Skillsg. Constructive discontenth. Trust Radius

3. Execution Orientation:a. Opportunity Sensingb. Problem-Solvingc. Entrepreneurshipd. Creativitye.

Intuition

f. Prioritizationg. Performance Focush. Willing to Researchi. Tolerance of Ambiguityj. Conflict management skillsk. Fervor to contributel. Innovation Managementm.Ability to Analyze and Synthesizen. Thinking on your feeto. Impact/Result Oriented Approachp. Flexibility


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PIE-Model:Under three-dimensional PIE-model, each dimension suggests a few skills or attitudes or habits to develop.

Let us understand each of the attributes of all the three dimensions.

1. Personal Orientation:a. IQ,EQ,SQ & AQ

(Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Quotient, Spiritual Quotient and Adversity Quotient):

IQ: IQ is ones ability to learn or understand or to deal with. It represents ones reasoning ability. No

doubt, todays education helps an individual end up being knowledgeable but not smart. Whereas, IQ

measures how smart a person is but not how knowledgeable he is. In this age of Google, knowledge can

be obtained at any point in life, in any way, from any available resource. But the smartness, ones ability

to use the knowledge in a way more useful, should be practiced right from the High School. If neglected

then, the development cannot be postponed. Schools should cater sufficient time for the

development of core components of IQ: linguistic, mathematical, spatial, logic, pattern

recognition, visualization, classification skills and General Knowledge. This can be done by

encouraging students to engage in Word Play games, Crosswords, Puzzles, reading, Brain

Teasers, sketching and 3D-drawing, building blocks, Mind games, strategy games, Minesweeper,

Mastermind, Sudoku, Number exercises, use of Mnemonics, informative TV shows,

visualization games, memory games, chess, psychometric tests etc.

EQ: Emotional Quotient is measure of ones emotional maturity. Most often, we are guided by

our emotional faculties more than by our intelligence. EQ therefore determines our ability to use

our competencies or skills or attitudes or expressions in a more constructive way. It is the ability

to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others. Emotional intelligence has a huge role

to play in ones success. How well you perform in your life and career depends more on EQ than on IQ.One needs EQ to accept certain hard facts in life such as Sometimes it is better or important to lose

or it is good to accept certain failures for a larger objective youre trying to achieve . According to

Howard Gardner, EQ can be developed by developing below skills:

Self-awareness: Develops emotional awareness and self-confidence.

Self-Regulation: Develops Self-control, Trustworthiness, Conscientiousness and adaptability.

Motivation: Develops achievement drive, commitment, initiative and optimism.

Empathy: Develops Service orientation, leveraging diversity and understanding others.

Social Skills: Develops influence, communication, leadership, conflict management, building

bonds, collaboration and cooperation, team capabilities and change catalyst skills.

SQ: Todays education failed in developing the spiritual component of an individual. It is the crucial

component for work-life balance. It is a measure of ones fulfillment in life. If one believes that

success comes from happiness, happiness comes from ones spiritual quotient. Many schools

and institutions mistake SQ for a religious orientation. Thats wrong! SQ need not be a religious

orientation. It is the understanding of ones self, the meaning of life and ones efforts, the reason

behind ones drive for emotions and regulation of expressions of ego. SQ is about pondering


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over lifes purpose, thinking of ourselves as an expression of higher reality. More often, it is a

way of life because it answers the question How do I serve others when I myself need so much

from others? The high SQ is the best predictor of happiness, serenity, good self-esteem and

harmonious and loving relationships.

AQ: Adversity Quotient is ones ability to prevail in the face of adversity and triumph over it. A personwith high Adversity Quotient is a hardy personality who is resilient, self-reliant, with zest for life, and is

able to cope with anxieties and risks. Such people have vigorous sense of commitment, control and

challenge and tend to react positively to stressful events. In this generation, learning to live with failure is

another of those often not realized truths. More often than not, there is enough time to mull over a

failure or even lick your wounds. But facing it with grace and bracing yourself for the next set of

decisions or actions is what the real world is all about. One needs to realize that learning comes from

experience and good learning from bad experience. The best way to improve AQ is by understanding and

being conscious of the origin of response to the adversity and improving the control over the response.

Practicing to respond to situations consciously improves ones AQ level.

b. Understanding and Building Vision:It is easy to float on the tide and lose sight of the future is aknown fact. But what results out of it is living on compromises than on educated choices. Current

education doesnt ensure that students have more clear choices than compromises. One must be clear

about what brand one wants to be, at least in the next 3-year rolling map. Because, its critical to align our

actions with objectives and our objectives with our Vision. Today, one switches from one career path to

another as a result of lack of this skill, resulting in wastage of time, money, focus and many other

resources. This only begets regret in ones life, for the uninformed choices or compromises one made.

One should be able to take pride in every effort, every decision and every step one takes in life. This

pride comes from the belief that whatever one does makes ones life more meaningful and is making

positive difference to the world. If one is not proud of what one is doing, there is a vital piece missing.

Pride is not an inheritance or a legacy. It has to be earned. If you have pride in what you do and do itwith passion, results are sure to come your way, and you are sure to make your every effort more

meaningful and purposeful.

c. Drive to follow the Dream/Passion: Followyour heart, not your wallet. Let your heart decide yourcareer; but not your wallet. Bring passion to whatever you do. Identify what it is that you enjoy doing

(and are good at) and then focus on finding a job that lets you do more passionately. Most of you work

about 12 hours a day. So, its important to like what you do. Following ones heart is a bitter pill initially

and demands Gut Feel and self-confidence though the results in a long term are more promising. This

most-inevitable Gut Feel is not taught in schools but it is imperative in any situation that calls for

solving or managing problems and people, facing the resistance from the world, while following your

passion. Even if you are not outstandingly brilliant, but have a hunger to succeed and passion to follow

your dream, it makes a lot of difference. Passion cannot be taught it is inherent. But following passion

can be taught in schools by instilling Gut feel and self-confidence. Passion gives you an inspired energy

towards realizing your dreams. Following passion causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and

outcomes. Passion lets you do your duties full-heartedly, leading to most desirous results.


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d. Self-Awareness: It is the degree to which one is able to notice feelings, label them, and connect to their

source. Enhanced self-awareness leads to increased effectiveness at work. It is a key differentiator

between star performers and others. One with self-awareness makes the choices by fully understanding

ones abilities. But unfortunately there are no marks for self-awareness in schools.

e. Intentionality:It is the ability to act deliberately, to do what you mean and mean what you do. It is themeasure of ones consistency between ones professional goals, values, and decision making. People with

high levels of intentionality are capable of staying focused despite distractions. All their actions are done

intentionally without lacking purpose. This quality enables one to perform actions only purposefully,

increasing the performance efficiency. It involves managing distractions, awareness of deeply felt

motivations and consistently working to make things happen. The powerful attributes these people

possess is Integrity, Achievement Orientation, Work Focus, Quality Orientation and Contribution Focus.

One, who practices this quality, never takes up any job without any purpose. Thus Intentionality is

inevitable in shaping ones life more meaningful.

f. Entrepreneurial Mindset and Global Mindset: Students need adequate execution mindset, cognitivecapabilities for cultivating Entrepreneurial Orientation, capacity to thinking systematically as well as out

of the box, and give fresh perspective to understand a given problem, understand the contextual

sensitivity, ability to prepare today for tomorrow, to develop requisite competencies not merely for the

present but for the emerging future as well, leading change, to have entrepreneurial orientation, to have

dignity of labor, good reality orientation, healthy peer comparisons, to have good appreciation of ground

realities, being sensitive to the context, high ambitions and desire to reach top but not in a hurry, the

importance of learning and passion to contribute. Hence Entrepreneurial mindset is most essential.

Todays business, fun & entertainment, information, Social networking and lifestyles are totally

global. Then why is education not global? Internationalization of education is indispensable. It

enables one with the capacity to think in a global context and have a global mindset. Schools should

start building a strong case for developing a distinctively different mindset and competencies to operatein a global context.

g. Learn Reality:To have a holistic world view encompassing perspective of life, society and the globe, oneneeds to learn reality. But todays education is provided in the boundaries of a classroom, away from the

vagaries of real life situations. Students just pass out with bloated egos, completely unaware of the ground

realities. As this package comes in contact with reality, it goes through a range of emotions, starting with

denial, wrath, angst, confusion, wonder and finally settles into pragmatism, with bouts of nostalgia and a

few clear learning that are far removed from what the rule books preached in schools. Real life is about

real people. It involves dealing with diverse personalities, cultural backgrounds and competencies that

you do not normally encounter in School. The challenge is thus, compounded year by year and you often

see stars of academia unable to deal with this core reality. Students do not know how the skills and

learning acquired in schools can be used in situations demanding reality. Schools know that the

Workplace is a better teacher. But still schools never encourage students to interact with the industry,

understand the ground reality, get the reality check, understand organizational and operational processes

and develop real and valid perspectives on life.


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h. Human Values: It is essential to understand that IQ and EQ levels alone are not sufficient for

success. Human Values are more important for the constructive efforts. Without Human values,

the high levels of intelligence will only hamper the nations growth, peace and harmony. India

has ministers educated from the Ivy-League like Harvard, Wharton etc. But the recently revealed

scams are an example of those ministers lacking Human values, in spite of such a high education

and mental abilities.In this cut-throat environment most of us tend to forget two important emotional aspects of life

compassion and the power of long term relationships. People want to use others as steps in their climb to

the pinnacle of success. But students have to understand that its not about who is first; but, its about

how people can succeed collectively and strengthen relationships. There is a famous quote to be

understood God has created people to love and materials to use. But Man perceives material to love

and people to use. One should possess the ability to be exceptionally empathetic, compassionate and

honor another persons feelings and point of view. People perceive good and quite as weak. But you need

to understand that India got independence only with these Human Values. One needs to understand that

Beliefs and Values powerfully influence ones attitudes and behavior at work. Its a potent combination

when values are backed by hard work.

i. Passion for Adventure and Risk taking: It is the ability to step beyond the conventional mode and trysomething different, which can be more beneficial. Many of us have role models who succeeded

assuming greater risks in life. But we are afraid to follow their path. We dont dare to take risks. Even

schools do not instill an appetite for risk taking. Schools do not teach courage. Schools should enable

students to benchmark themselves against their role models. Students assignments should be

characterized by greater curiosity, open mindedness, sense of adventure, and inquisitiveness. Students

should develop the passion for adventure. This gives the strength to defend your risky decisions, which is

even more important than the ability to take risks. Only if you challenge yourself, you will grow. Your life

will change.

j. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: Many students start thinking of their strengths andweaknesses at the end of graduation as an exercise before the corporate recruitment drives. But,

had the students understood their strengths and weaknesses well before their pre-university

education, they would have made wise decisions at many stages of their life and would have

made wise career choices. Understanding ones strengths and weaknesses will enable students to

work on the weaknesses right from the beginning and to improve their strengths extremely to

the point to excel in the field chosen based on their strengths. Schools should provide an

opportunity for introspection to ponder over ones strengths and weaknesses.

k. Communication (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Expression and Etiquettes): It is thepowerful articulation ability and capability to convey the message through multiple media:

telecommunication, written articles, print technology, television, social-networking, movies, plays,

presentations, meetings, conferences and proposals through writing, speaking, expression or etiquette.

Though India and China has remarkably potential human resources, BPO sector has come to India

mostly because of our communication skills being in sync with that of western countries.


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Students should also possess the ability to interpret the tacit communication, which is more prevalent in

Japanese management in contrast with the western management. One should have the ability to

recognize patterns and react appropriately and instinctively to situations based on prior experiences.

Schools should devote enough attention to develop different communication skills in students.

Communication Skills is the widely marketed skill, learning tools for which are profusely available in

the market. So, schools should not face any resistance or difficulty in inculcating quality communicationskills into the students.

l. Resilience, Focus and Commitment: Resilience is the tendency to recover from or adjust easily tomisfortune or change. Today, the capacity to recover and bounce back in the face of difficult situations

and to retain a sense of curiosity and hopefulness about the future, even in the face of adversity is an

essential requirement to deal with tough and unpredictable challenges. Resilience gives you mental and

physical adaptability to adversity. Resilience develops commitment which is a combination of attributes

like relentless perseverance and tenacity. The commitment gives you the ability to stretch beyond the

normal according to the requirements, thus improving the focus.

Therefore, we need a high degree of resilience as we go through our career because resilience develops

commitment and commitment develops focus, teaching you how to maintain a positive perspective on

and deal with the ups and downs of your career. Unfortunately the education doesnt teach you resilience.

Resilience can be taught by enabling student to constructively look back at his failure and derive a lesson

out of it, by enabling a student to have a positive outlook, to remain hopeful with less anxiety and be

proactive; and by explaining the importance of not giving up.

m. Confidence and Optimism: Confidence and optimism help maintain hope regardless of thesituation. Optimism contributes to better self-management, inspires problem solving, academic

achievement, job productivity, and greater health. Any evaluation with optimism will lead to a capacity to

step beyond the conventional/an ability to take challenges and meet them. There will be times, when, in

spite of your best effort, you fail, or you take the accountability of failures for your friends, family orcolleagues. Having the equanimity to handle these failures with the same composure as you handle

success is critical. Schools should teach students to unflinchingly believe that tomorrow will be better

than today. Schools should follow what the holy book Bhagavad Gita says - Only the removal of

ignorance gives true knowledge and knowledge combined with optimism gives confidence, to instill

confidence in the students.

n. Literature and Philosophy: Everyperson should be well versed in literature and philosophy; along withaesthetic sense and artistic temperament. But todays students dont get the chance to engage with the

arts, philosophy, history, literature, culture, political science etc. Schools should introduce larger

component of liberal arts, develop broader awareness and appreciation; recommend autobiographies and

biographies of great people; select all-time great films, and use the interaction with great minds as thevehicle to broaden their perspective. Pedagogies like theatre, literature experiential labs and to some

extent gaming, also will help them tremendously. Reading autobiographies and biographies plays a crucial

part in developing ones perspective on life. Because, reading about people who made it big is not theory;

its sort of practical experience. As Will Smith recommends in his inspirational video, reading biographies

will let you identify the practical solutions devised by our antecedents for most of the problems that we

face today. But today, students in schools only read one or two biographies a year, as a part of

curriculum, and grab only the information but not the inspiration.


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o. Hobbies: A typical day of a student is not tightly scheduled before hand. So, most of the

students find a lot of time every day, which can be used for some productive tasks or for fun.

But students are not aware how to utilize the spare time available. Rather, students get easily

attracted to many distractions and addictions like watching unproductive movies and TV shows,

spending time on gossiping, or sleeping. This makes the brains more lazy, uncreative and useless.

We need to lose our bad habits or lazy ways that hold us back and clutter our minds. So the best way is todevelop some good hobbies. Hobbies can lead to developing creative and artistic pursuits, acquiring

substantial skill, knowledge and experience. Developing hobbies will help in regulating the energy levels

frequently and help from being stressed out with loads of work. Schools should monitor and encourage

the hobbies that the students develop over the time. Unsurprisingly, Chess and reading books are the

only hobbies that 95% of graduates in India say. But surprisingly, they are not sincere in stating so.

p. Clarity of Thought and Continuous learning: Thinking through clearly and focusing on a singularobjective is the most important ingredient for achieving results. Clarity of thought can be practiced by

paying attention to the path, not just the end result, sticking to one goal at a time, lateral thinking,

concentrating one point at a time, translating the mental thought to written statements and puttingforward for analysis. Focus and concentration is primary for developing the clarity of thought. So one

needs to practice various techniques for developing focus and concentration.

Continuous learning is essential to have a periodic reflection of what students are doing and also to

initiate continuous quest for excellence. Students should have the ability to learn as they grow and also to

unlearn what they have learnt. Zest for continuous learning and an open mind in the early years of your

career lays a strong foundation to future success.

q. Maintain Personal Space: Many a times students need to be provided opportunities to understandtheir emotive and inner psychic space. When emotive power is not developed, it remains as the dark

continent of the human psyche leading to lack of regulation and utilization of the creative energies.

Sometimes, distance from the circle of concern gives students the space and freedom to think and planout fresh ideas. In such cases students should be taught the techniques to maintain personal space even

while staying with their people around.

r. Money Management: With the growth of entertainment industry and internet, students get a lotof scope to display their prodigality. Schools should start a course on money management.

Students should be made to practice calculating and balancing receipts and expenditure, which

makes them aware of amount and kind of expenses they make. They should also be guided on

how to spend money wisely. Money management need not encourage frugality. Not expending

for necessities contributes as much as unnecessary expenditures do to lack of money

management skills.


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2. Interpersonal Orientation:

a. People management: People Management is not a single skill but is a mix of many skills. To havea high score on people management, one needs the ability to initiate a contact, establish

relationship, interact, understand needs of others, inspire the team or others to action, lead the

team and manage superiors, subordinates and conflicts; work with other team members and put

the right team on correctly prioritized goals and letting the team run with it.

You may be brilliant as an individual, but if you cant be a good leader or a good team player, everyone

suffers. The amount of time you spend with people is 60 to 70 percent of your work hours. And its a

great disadvantage if you dont know how to deal with people at all levels. Schools should teach students

to inspire people to work together and scale new heights of success. It is also imperative to learn how to

handle non-performers in your team a painful process that needs to be tackled sensitively. Only those

with good people management skills can handle this more skillfully.

b. Diversity Management: Todays business is characterized by brutal storm of competitors, seeminglystrange cultures, endless business horizons, confusing marketing channels and unknown frontiers of

technology. Seamlessness of marketing and borderlessness of the world is the prevailing pattern today. Insuch an age of discontinuity, business leaders need to develop alert antenna, build opportunity-sensing

mindset and have the courage to go beyond the set rules and frameworks in order to successfully navigate

the present. In order to successfully operate in a scenario full of apparently contradictory forces, the

business world needs leaders with a capacity to manage diversity. Students should acquire diversity

consciousness and sensitivity. Schools should enable students to understand the need for cognitive

diversity and integrative ability. Students should be exposed to the fact that they may have to work with

people with whom they may not get along, and people with whom they may have to agree or disagree.

Understand the famous quote - One is not better than the other; but just different.

c. Influencing People and Systems: To generate any positive change, it is imperative that thesystems are influenced. To influence systems, people who maintain the system need to be

influenced first. You need to earn your spurs before you ride the horse. Capacity to influence the

thinking of relevant people in ones own work sphere is inviolable before influencing the systems. To

influence people, you need an ability to create and sustain a network of people with whom you are your

real and whole self; to whom you can express caring and appreciation; with whom you can share your

vulnerabilities and hopes.

d. Emotional awareness of People: It is the ability to hear, to sense or to intuit what other people may befeeling, from their words, body language, and other cues. The emotional power is critical for connecting

with people and influencing them. Emotional awareness of people is the key to maintaining

interpersonal relationships. But today, people are neglecting the feelings of their friends,acquaintances, relations, family and colleagues. Especially in the work environments, people get

inspired and are willing to stretch themselves when they are touched on the emotional level. The only

time when a team member or a colleague at the work place delivers more than a 100% is when he feels

positive about his immediate environment. The emotionally satisfied colleagues will surprise you with

their entrepreneurial thinking and execution. To get more people with you, its important that you give

more weight to someone else view. Also, managing group emotion is one of the major traits of a leader.


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e. Constructive Emotional Expression:The trend of nuclear families, the increasing fragility of marriageas an institution, the rise in individualism, have only contributed to under development of many aspects

of emotional intelligence. Constructive Emotional Expression is the ability to verbalize or express tacitly

your emotions in a way that puts the information to productive use. People with high score ofconstructive emotional expression never find it difficult to understand others, communicate their

intentions in a proper way and appreciate someone else point of view.

f. Negotiation Skills: It is the capacity to convince, present views, data and facts cogently and get the bestoutcomes in a given situation. Not just for a marketing executive who sells merchandise, the negotiation

skills are vital for anyone who wants to sell ones point of view. A good score on negotiation skills will

not let you feel that someone is taking advantage of you. Good negotiation skills also shape and keep

conscious your conversations and communication and that it ends only in a win-win situation. Schools

should focus enough on developing students skill on negotiation by engaging them in an activity that

uses sufficient negotiation capabilities. There are many books on this topic. Schools can recommend a

few and command some exercises and role plays for the students.

g. Constructive discontent: Constructive discontent is the ability to stay calm focused and emotionallygrounded, even in the face of disagreement or conflict and to get the work done responding

constructively. Conflicts and disagreement are the realities of everyday life. This is so because this global

atmosphere constitutes people with myriad backgrounds, perspectives, attitudes and styles. People with a

good score on Constructive discontent can harmonize, synthesize, and effectively channelize their diverse

energies towards coherent goal in a positive way. These people have the ability to transform conflict into

a creative action. Strikes, work stoppages etc are the results of only destructive discontent. Students

should be taught to get the work done in a constructive way and not by destructive manner. It is so

disappointing that students of Osmania University and SK University were so much involved in ruinousactions recently. This only indicates that students are not aware of the repercussions of their actions and

that they are not aware of techniques to solve a problem in a constructive manner. So, schools should

take an initiative in inculcating the understanding of and the need for constructive discontent into the

students.

h. Trust Radius: It is the degree to which you expect people to be trustworthy, to treat you fairly and to beinherently good. It is a radius of believability, safety and compassion. Trust begets trust. Trust is

considered an essential ingredient for developing cooperation in groups. It determines ones circle of

influence, which is the prime contributor to ones overall success. Developing good trust radius will

enable students the way to express emotions like sympathy and compassion towards people, keep

commitments and promises, act in best interest of others, embrace diversity, present your position and

give a perfect feedback based on the situation. Thus, practicing Trust in schools is sacrosanct.


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3. Execution Orientation:

a. Opportunity Sensing: People say India cannot progress with its huge population. But we believe,if even a part of the population is good at opportunity-sensing, India could be a warehouse of

initiatives and innovations making India the leader of all nations. But the problem is with the

kind of education we have. Current education is all about minimization of risk, not maximization of

opportunity. The future belongs only to people who see possibilities before they become obvious. And

not just the ability to sense the opportunity, but also the speed of execution with the right strategy is vital

to the development. If strategy can be devised, lighteningspeed of response will decide the winner.

One should possess the ability to change faster than your competition that keeps you afloat in the

corporate world. And Schools should encourage students in sensing opportunities through everyday

problems they or their environment faces. This is how the Entrepreneurs are born. Opportunity-sensing

is the first best quality an Entrepreneur has.

b. Problem-solving: Today, chaos has become the rule of the game. There are as many factssupporting a decision as there are against it. And Decision making need not be black and white always;

there are plenty of grey areas. You cant always take a right decision but can practice taking a decision thatis almost perfect. You just have to make sure you have a high percentage of right decisions, for which

problem-solving skills with the sound analytical focus is essential. Students should be taught to focus on

deriving solutions. Students should be taught the most crucial skill, the ability to see simpler patterns in a

simple way and complex patterns analytically and then synthesizing solutions to multiple simple patterns

into a solution to the overall complex pattern. The ability to involve in problem solving and think laterally

will be the needs for the future.

c. Entrepreneurship: An aphorism A new problem cannot always be solved with the oldsolutions is very true in any context. India, the country that faces innumerable issues every day with

its huge population and minimal resources, needs leaders with entrepreneurial zeal, curiosity and

enthusiasm to create new routes and new solutions to everyday issues. Practicing to develop

entrepreneurial mindset right from the schooling will enable the students to take entrepreneurship as

their best choice, and will enable students to move from working for a large company to creating one.

Even the large companies need employees with a strong entrepreneurial sense and with an inclination to

think like a CEO, gaining functional tools to enable decision making, as most business issues are

interrelated and a fair understanding of all areas is critical. It is imperative that every person in the

workplace thinks like an entrepreneur. But, the challenge is to inculcate the mindsets into the individuals

to interact with business realities and then develop appropriate frameworks. So, schools also should

identify the need for entrepreneurship and provide students the constant interaction with the industry.

Schools can also simulate small scale work environments on campus. This would give enough confidence

and understanding to the students to be an Entrepreneur.India scores very low on Entrepreneurship compared to other countries like US. Indians generate many

ideas but do have a fear of failure and lack of execution skills, which hinders entrepreneurship. As

Vivekananda says - Thought without action doesnt have any value; however action without thought has

a lesson to learn. Entrepreneurial experience doesnt go waste. Even most Business schools throughout

the world fail in teaching the execution, while the theoretical concepts alone would not help in starting

ones own startup. Experience of execution is very crucial - When I read, I forget, when I see, I

remember but when I do I understand.


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d. Creativity:It is the ability to tap multiple, non-cognitive resources that allow you to envision powerful

new ideas, frame alternative solutions and find effective, new ways of doing things. Creativity is the

production of novel, appropriate ideas in any realm of human activity. Knowledge must first be digested

and eventually emerge in the form of fresh new ideas. Creative thinking has been found to be related to a

cluster of personality attributes like independence, self-discipline, ambiguity tolerance, perseverance,

orientation to risk taking, and relative lack of concern for social approval. Lack of creativity hindersinnovation and it is in this context that creativity is considered a key factor for organizational

competitiveness. Creativity is the bedrock for managing complexity - Exploring and thinking beyond the

known frameworks and arriving at creative solutions to complex problems. Then, why not schools take a

leap forward to develop creativity and creative thinking in students when Creativity can be enhanced?

e. Intuition: Intuition is the ability to use non-cognitive cues or sixth sense to navigate through potentiallyoverwhelming or conflicting information, derive important insights or sense opportunities. The major

attribute of an intuitive person is that he concentrates on the possibilities and is less concerned with

details. Intuitive person finds solutions directly without basing them on facts, which is very crucial in

turbulent contexts. Intuitive persons are found to be fast and quick decision makers especially under

conditions of uncertainty and also when situations did not have clear clues. These are capable of going

beyond logic and analysis. There is a strong and powerful association of Intuition with emotion, creativity

and innovation, with new learning, improvement of competitiveness, opportunity recognition, improved

overall performance and rapid or more efficient decision making. In general, Decision making is more of

an intuitive process than an analytical one.

The first and clearly noticeable attribute of an intuitive person is his Gut Feel, which is used more for

strategic decision making and which is very crucial for any part of execution. Unfortunately, schools do

not emphasize on Gut Feel and strategies to develop intuition. The historical science and Vedic texts

have revealed various techniques to improve intuition. Schools can adopt a few as a part of its curriculum

to improve the levels of intuition in students. Various texts on Japanese Management System reveal that

intuition played a vital role in forming most of their strategic decisions especially post-second world war.

f. Prioritization: It is the ability to organize tasks at hand in terms of relevance and importance as per timedeadlines for delivering timely results. It basically means first things first. Unlike a decade ago, today

students unavoidably have to get engaged with many tasks like, education, skill development, social

networking, fun for life, to cope with competition, etc. The day of a student has become so tightly

scheduled that he finds very less time or even no time for hobbies or interests or fun or to spend with

family. Hence loses the work-life balance right from the adolescents. Therefore students should practise

prioritization, which helps them rank their activities and work on them based on the priority assigned.

g. Performance Focus: It is the ability to focus energy on performance while delivering the desiredresults. People with high score on performance focus are highly focused on their goals that achievesuperior results and outperform expectations. Stephen Covey, in his 7 Habits of Highly effective people

says, Begin with the end in mind, but still focus on the path that leads to the end. Students should be

given exercises to practice the goal setting and working towards that goal with unperturbed focus.

Schools should give students the tasks like becoming an individual contributor to the success of the

institution, and then evaluate their focus on the set goals.


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h. Willing to Research: Our education mostly focuses on just learning from what others have

researched and found. But never pays attention on how to start a research, how to gather

different threads and connect each, how to transform the unknown to the known, how to

transform the mystery to science. The role of a scholar is to research and publish and thereby to use

the power of knowledge to improve society. Students would need the research skills at every stage of

their life, such as searching for an accommodation in a new place, adapting to the new cultures,progressing on new or creative interests etc. But schools do not pay enough focus on the ways to

research and at least on developing the willingness to research. This skill is very important for an

entrepreneur who has to work on all different levels relying purely on his own research or for an

employee who is expected to work on a tacitly communicated task assigned by his boss.

i. Tolerance of Ambiguity: It is the ability to create a structure out of the fluidity or ambiguity. It is theability to function optimally in a poorly structured fuzzy context/fluid situation. One, lacking TOA, finds

it difficult to operate without structure and framework and very difficult to thrive in todays chaotic and

diverse scenario. People with high degree of tolerance for ambiguity do not get anxious or unnerved by

such diverse realities and carve out opportunities out of all the problems characterized by uncertainties

and ambiguities. Tolerance of Ambiguity assumes importance in a scenario characterized by diversity,

complexity and uncertainty. It is equally important where the context is dynamic and change is order of

the day. Higher Ambiguity tolerance is indicative of cognitive development and ability to deal with

complex ambiguous patterns. It is basically managing the unknown. It is increasingly a way of life. The

way people look at and respond to unclear and vague situations, in a threatening manner, leading to

avoidance of the situation is called the Intolerance of Ambiguity, lack of tolerance of ambiguity.

Intolerance of Ambiguity is the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as a source of threat. Todays

generation should practice to embrace duality by managing uncertainty, essentially knowing when to act

and when to gather more information and balancing tensions, understanding what needs to change and

what needs to stay the same. Students should be given the assignments that are more ambiguous but with

a direction. Students should be given the tasks that have a clear destination but multiple paths to it. Thiswill enable student to make educated choices to derive the desired results.Tolerance of Ambiguity has been found to correlate with originality. High scores on originality were

more comfortable with complexity and uncertainty. Entrepreneurs, compared to managers, are more

comfortable with novelty and complexity. Entrepreneurs have been profiled as people with a liking for

uncertainty and change. Hence the entrepreneurially inclined have more ambiguity tolerance along with

greater innovativeness, higher propensity to take risks, Greater locus of control and higher need for

achievement. Therefore practicing TOA will also help a student develop entrepreneurial mindset.

j. Conflict management skills: Conflict management skills are very essential especially in anunprofessional, conflict-prone environment. It takes the capacity to listen, accommodate and

tolerate contrary viewpoints and also defuse deadlocks between people and within groups. Future

belongs to those who can shape the complexity, resolving any conflicts present. Conflict management

skills will also help develop a peaceful and amicable atmosphere. It develops the strength of relationships,

cooperativeness, synergy etc. With the high score on this skill, people management would be a cakewalk.

Hence, schools should provide a guide for the students to deal with the conflicts in relationships or in

deadlock situations in a more constructive manner.


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o. Impact/Result Oriented Approach: Most of the times,we mistake our efforts for achievements and

focus on activities rather than results. And we finally end up performing the activities without the desired

results. There is a tendency to becoming process-driven rather than being outcome driven. This is what

reminds us what Stephen Covey says Begin with the End in Mind. Students should practise this right

from having a better understanding of what they want out of their education and how it will help them at

their work place in future. Also a technique many management books recommend is to be issue-centricrather than concept-centric. The idea is not to denounce the power of concepts but to highlight the need

to integrate concepts with issues and problems faced in order to be sure to achieve the desired results.

p. Flexibility: It is a ready capability to adapt to new, different or changing requirements. It is the ability toshift ones mindset/stance in response to the changing scenario. Flexibility has been operationalized as

the characteristic of being open to new experiences, liking change and variety, and being patient.

Flexibility is essential to operate in changing circumstances for managing diversity of people and ideas. A

low score indicates not prone to change, likes a steady pace and well scheduled life, may be stubborn,

even rigid. Whereas, a high score indicates person who likes change, variety, easily bored by routine life

and everyday experiences, impatient; able to listen, explore, approach more in alignment with the new

realities and make the needed changes in perspectives and actions when required. Students who succeed

most in their career are those who unlearn the past quickly and move on to adapt to what the future

offers.

Documented above are the skills that are imperative for the students of 21 st Century in India and that are

not given enough focus in the current education system. Hence SWARNI Foundation urges the High

Schools to actively take a leap forward to develop the above stated skills in students in order to make them

better leaders of tomorrow.

Lets make the 21stCentury the Indian Century.

Documents

Advaita - Reforms in High School Education