Overwhelming desire to upgrade teaching-learning standards in school and collegiate education prompted an eclectic group of distinguished Chennai-based educationists and industry professionals — Rev. N Casimir Raj, V.A George, Raphael Ilango, Dr. C.J. Arun, P. Janardhanan Menon, R. Narendran and Anuradha Parakat — to launch Knowledge Xchange in April 2007 as an independent, non-profit organisation. The inauguration of Knowledge Xchange also coincided with the golden jubilee in academia of Rev. Casimir Raj SJ, the high-profile director of XLRI, Jamshedpur. “The prime objective of Knowledge Xchange is to investigate teaching-learning processes in educational institutions and evolve innovative pedagogic models and content to produce capable, employable and socially compassionate individuals. A sea-change is required in institutional and government policies to ensure that students receive high quality contemporary education. To attain these objectives, first we urgently need to attract committed teachers into the profession by paying them well. Knowledge Xchange also aims to open the eyes of educationists and government bureaucrats to best practices around the world, so that we can set the deficiencies in our education system right, says V. A. George, a city-based entrepreneur and chairman of Knowledge Xchange.
An engineering alumnus of Kerala University and business management postgrad of IIM-Ahmedabad, George is a former banker (Syndicate Bank) and corporate executive (India Cements), and currently the promoter-CEO of the Chennai-based Thejo Engineering Ltd. His involvement with education began in 1989 when he was appointed visiting faculty to the Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai and XLRI, Jamshedpur. Currently he serves on the governing boards of the Xaviers Board of Higher Education, Bangalore and Rajagiri Institute of Management, Cochin and is well acquainted with best educational practices and modern pedagogies.

In his capacity as chairman of Knowledge Xchange, George is actively working with his co-members (now 12) to implement an action plan to generate awareness of new pedagogies. Two international seminars on ‘Delearn to Relearn held on May 12, 2007 and July 19, 2008 received enthusiastic response from over 300 school and college principals and educationists. Eminent academics, business and media leaders from across the country and abroad were invited to share ideas and suggest new teaching-learning models for replication in Indias schools and colleges. Moreover, seven development programmes for college teachers and a workshop for college principals have already been held this year.

With Knowledge Xchange acquiring momentum, the apex level management has chalked out ambitious plans to widen the NGOs span of activities. A national seminar for teachers and heads of teacher training institutes is on the cards, as also an initiative to adopt a rural school in Tamil Nadu, commissioning of a research project on nursery school education and promotion of a centre for educational research to develop new education models. We have created a ripple and if this has to surge into a wave, we need all the support we can get from like-minded people, says George.

Count EW in!

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)