Teachers are a critical education resource for every country. Right from primary and secondary school, the presence of qualified, well-motivated and supported teachers is vital for student learning. Effective teaching strongly influences what and how much students achieve in school. At the same time, shortage of quality teachers has become a serious challenge.
Recently there was news that India is operating at more than 30 per cent faculty shortage in the higher education sector. The demand-supply gap, and the adverse teacher-student ratio in the colleges and universities to meet the needs of the increasing young population opting for higher education, is widely visible.
A similar situation is arising for students in the K-12 segment, and not just in India. Alongside the fact that more and more private schools are coming up, we see a huge demand for Indian teachers to teach Indian students from across the globe.
“Indian students will soon take over the American students because they are far ahead when it comes to education,” US President Barack Obama had said during one of his visits to India. When it comes to K-12 education, Indian teachers and their way of imparting education is considered the best, not only by the Americans but also the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries.
India produces the best teachers
The schools in the GCC countries which follow CBSE or ICSE are constantly looking for and also sending recruiting teams to India to hire good and experienced teachers. This is because the standard of education that is found in the Indian K-12 section is often considered far ahead and evolved compared with other countries. Not only is getting tutors in these countries is extremely difficult, but also according to the law in these GCC countries, school teachers can’t take tuitions for their students post school hours. Therefore, the students in these countries have shortage of good and experienced teachers to cater to their needs.
Another big challenge that most Indian students face is adapting to the teaching methods, and study patterns abroad. Any student who has recently migrated to another country may take time to adjust to the new ways, methods and syllabus. It means adjusting to a lot of new things, a new culture, new people, new campus and a new curriculum. In situations like this, until the time when the student is totally accustomed to the new syllabus and teaching methodology, it would be ideal for a teacher in India to continue to teach her/him so that she/he does not see a gap in her/his subject matter knowledge.
Sometimes students seek comfort in the fact that with Indian teachers they needn’t worry about the pronunciation and method of teaching. It is a general trend that students here will generally finish K-12 education, and then shift to international universities.
Indian teachers have been popular in various parts of the world, particularly in Africa and several countries of Asia. Countries like Singapore and Malaysia are already facing shortage of teachers, and are actively hiring from India to teach their students. They find Indian teaching practices similar to theirs, and also feel the culture is closer to theirs.
But the Indians who teach across many parts of the world are often overworked, thus limiting their ability to cater to more number of students. Some of the reasons that teachers quit teaching even in urban schools are travelling long distances or having to handle a class with anywhere between 40 and 60 students where they are unable to provide personal attention to the students. This further adds to the shortfall of quality teachers. Online education does away with most of the regular constraints, and is helping bridge the demand-supply gap and connecting students across the globe to passionate and qualified teachers in India. With online, the cost of tutorials also comes down as against hiring a teacher in any other part of the world.
With the government’s focus on Digital India, a rapid proliferation of broadband connections and mobile devices is expected in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns. This would act as the gateway to unlimited knowledge and learning. Teachers from these cities in India will also be able to deliver LIVE lectures to students globally and guide them to do better. The right technology can open doors for democratised and personalised learning wherein our highly regarded teachers from India can impart quality education to students around the world.
(Vamsi Krishna is the co-founder and CEO of Vedantu Innovations, a live, 1-to-1 online tutoring platform.)
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