An educationist with over 40 years of teaching experience in Afghanistan, Nigeria and India, Pramod Sharma is founder-director and principal of the CBSE, IB (Geneva) and CAIE (UK)-affiliated Genesis Global School, Noida (estb.2009). With teaching and administrative experience at The Doon School, Dehradun, Tashi Namgyal Academy, Gangtok, Yadavindra Public School, Patiala, and Mayo College, Ajmer, Sharma was appointed principal of Genesis Global in 2009. 

Are you satisfied with the Union Budget 2018-19 allocation of Rs.85,010 crore for education?

The Union budget’s allocation for education is, like always, less than expected. While the government has exhibited out-of-the-box thinking in starting the Eklayva Model Residential Schools in tribal areas, it’s disappointing that the allocation for this new initiative has come from cutting down budgets of the IIMs, IITs, UGC, Jawahar Navodaya and Kendriya Vidyalayas. Moreover, UGC’s loss of funding will worsen the shortage of professors in our higher education institutions. We are wasting the world’s largest pool of young men and women. We need to allocate greater resources to education. 

What are your Top 5 suggestions for reforming K-12 education?

• The first and foremost requirement is well-trained teachers. We need teachers who are well versed in new-age pedagogies and technologies to deliver high-quality education. It’s always my belief that a student never fails, the teacher does. Therefore, Indian education needs a large workforce of well-trained teachers. 

• Forty years ago, some government schools were among the best in the country. That’s no longer true. The Central and state governments need to invest big money and hard work to improve infrastructure, student learning outcomes and recruit well-trained teachers to make government schools shine again. 

• If the country’s public education improves, government won’t need to bring laws to regulate private schools and their fees. If free-of-charge government schools become a viable option, no parent would submit to the mythical tyranny of private schools. 

• My fourth suggestion is to give a massive push to experiential learning. In the last two years of school life, every student must go through an internship in an adult workspace. 

• Finally, content-oriented teaching is doomed to failure in an ever-changing world. The focus should be on skills development, especially research and written communication.