Prachee Javadekar has initiated a sharp educational change with her entrepreneurial venture.
Committed to applying her skills and knowledge, acquired over 30 years of experience in the field of education, Prachee Javadekar has initiated a sharp educational change with her entrepreneurial venture. She will provide consultancy to educational institutes for quality enhancement.
This represents a new chapter in the life of director of the newly-founded Javadekar Educational Consultancy Services (JECS), as she said, “My aim is to add the dimension of quality education and help educational institutes overcome challenges in innovation, fostering collaboration, managing conflict and being diverse.”
Javadekar started off as a professor in Ness Wadia College of Commerce in 1980, moving on to become a recognised PhD guide at the University of Pune. She was also a consultant and advisor at Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad (MPSP) in Mumbai and since 2001, she has been the director of Indira Institute of Management, Pune. Thus, Javadekar has the expertise of teaching, leadership and administration.
“One can become a teacher by following norms, but to nurture real qualities, one needs the passion for teaching. How many have that is a big question. Just meeting eligibility criteria like two years of experience or required qualifications is not enough to become a teacher,” said Javadekar.
About the attitude of those in the field of teaching, she said, “Today’s students have expectations from their teachers, so teachers need to know how to connect with students and mould their mindset.”
While pointing out that expect for a few institutes in India, “the rest do not realise that they are in service to the masses, not classes. If you are in the education business, you have to deliver education and cannot run away from it. Not a single institute would be willing to undergo the academic quality audit,” said Javadekar. She also highlighted that most educational institutes in the country do not know how to utilise knowledge for consultancy and research.
To tackle the issue of quality teaching, Javadekar insisted that the teaching faculty for higher education must be researchers. “India needs qualitative and quantitative research. If an MA in India cannot compare with a BA in Harvard, we have to accept that we need to raise the bar. The question is how we encourage our researchers to be real researchers,” she said.
“All of a sudden if the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) comes up with a new framework, the entire purpose is lost,” said Javadekar, reacting to the newly announced AICTE norms.
“They are established for proper planning and coordinated development of the technical education system. When the liberty of framing the syllabus is withdrawn, you are not addressing the issues around, leading to students losing out on the opportunity of employability,” she said.
Javadekar stressed that it was high time for higher education in India to become liberal. More liberal subjects should be offered to students and learning must go beyond the syllabus, she added.
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