FDI in education: Global cos bet big

NEW DELHI: The ongoing debate over viability of FDI in education hasn’t deterred foreign corporates from going ahead with their plans for the sector. There are some who continue to make headway in the Indian education system despite uncertainties.

Global biggies, Oracle, Honeywell, Adobe and Impetus Technologies, to name a few, are not only imparting requisite training at graduate and post-graduate level, they are also focusing on training school teachers.

The Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programme is one such initiative by Honeywell under which the company organises workshops for high-school teachers. There are teachers from 40 countries who participate in the workshop where among other things, the teachers are trained on how to make classroom learning more interesting and less intimidating so that eventually a student is drawn to take up subjects like maths and science.

“The emphasis is on practical aspect of training where science can be taught through local experiments that are economical and locally available,” says SSM Public School (Bangalore) principal Kalpana Prakash, who is also a participant in the workshop.

“In the West, the teaching methodology is quite meticulous as teachers start preparing the subjects much in advance which is something we must adopt.” Since 2004, 685 teachers from 35 countries and 48 states have graduated from this programme. This visit focuses on this heuristic aspect of teaching and learning in a dynamic class room environment.

Similarly, Adobe recently launched Adobe Open Options, which is a unique programme to distribute their creative software among schools and other educational institutions. The aim of this programme is to help students and teachers to cost effectively deploy Creative Suite, which includes graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe. This Creative Suite is being distributed at the cheapest rates.

Yet another initiative for engineering and other professional college students has been started by Oracle. This Workforce Development Programme, as it is called, allows affordable, easily accessible IT training to these professionals.

“This helps create IT skills pool at the college level itself, thus addressing the need to have a surplus of IT skilled professionals in the industry. Under this program, Oracle partners with engineering colleges and other professional institutes and provides them with Oracle software, courseware, instructors and discounts on training and certification programs,” says Oracle Education (India) director Alok Tandon.

Oracle University has this year trained and certified over 42,000 Oracle professionals in India since it commenced its operations in 1995. Earlier this year, Impetus Technologies had set up a chair of information technology and systems at IIM Indore. This chair was set up to provide a collaborative framework for performing applied research, industry practices analysis, sharing knowledge and conducting specific projects of mutual benefit.

This partnership was also entered to ensure a steady supply of leaders and for adequate grooming of mid level leadership. Till the time FDI policy on education crystallises, MNCs are working on the fringe to keep their market knowledge updated.