Quality in teaching

MY CHILD AND I

There is nothing like educating a small child. It is the most challenging task of any profession. Because you are creating the stepping stones for learning and the future designs of a citizen in a small child by instilling virtue, goodness and all the positive things that you would want a citizen of tomorrow to be.

Today teachers have forgotten this fact. Yet strangely the parents have woken up and are demanding. Each and every parent has a career plan of chart for his kid. There is a well thought out proficiencies that a parent would want to instill in his kid. From extra curricular and recreational activities that include sports, drama, music and what have you to academics specially learning of languages the more the merrier they are.

Environment:
I remember my son’s teacher used to advise me not to push him too much. Though I have taken kindly to her advises there is a genetic or environmental fact that these kids are resilient. You give them more and they take it in without much of a problem. There is nothing psychological about this thing. All it amounts is to the environment that the kid is growing makes him do.

Just the other day, he showed me the ring tone downloads in my mobile that I had missed out. I must have spent more than an hour trying to figure out where it had gone only to give up wearily having used up my battery. While it must have taken him just 5-10 minutes to figure it out. And he is just in class 1! Without any pre-training or education, just smart senses. I find kids of my sons’ age amazingly brilliant, quite capable and built in capacity to take more and do it themselves. I hardly have to spend more than 1 hour for his studies at home. He absorbs everything in the class. At home he watches cartoons and more of them, until my wife or I change to other channels.

Independent Smart wonders:
Kids these days like to spend more of their time themselves. They do their own things. They are highly imaginative and they are smarter than we were even in college. My son’s creativity is something to be told about. He creates his own characters – superheroes. He must have at least a dozen of his own superheroes. And he has them in design – drawn and sketched to their unique strengths. Imagine a child of 5 years, creating characters! He doesn’t stop at that. He makes stories on them. Narrates them and asks me questions in between, just to ensure that I am listening and makes it more interesting with his gestures and actions and sounds effects!

There is also a sensitive part to their behavior, their thought process and makes them very clear headed about their wants and their needs. You won’t believe this, the other day my kid asked me not to open a shop for business, because he felt sad that I have no money. Or listen to this, `Dad don’t ever take off your moustache, I don’t like it’. These show that they have started their thought process and have already have their sets of likes and dislikes! Imagine at the tender age of 6. I have faint memories of my child hood. I loved to be happy and play all the time without a care for anything. My son in contrast is unlike me. He responds to stimulus, he responds to his environment. He responds to everything that is around him and wants it the way he likes it, and makes us follow what he likes the most. Dad, please wear this shirt, I like it. You look terrific in this dress. Mom, don’t wear sari. Mom, please cook me this food and many such ice wonderful things of saying it endearingly that you wouldn’t have the heart not to.

The adult in a child
You start wondering if the kid is a mature mind inside a child. But believe me. When I am on tours and he is alone with this mother, he acts the man in the house. He directs the auto fellow to home and office. He does the shopping. He answers all the calls – phone and door. He sshs my wife saying that she should not talk to a man. Very generous too, he would make my wife give alms to the poor and help the needy. He is kind and loves animals and can’t see anyone suffer or crying.

Now where did he get all these qualities! From teaching good things both at school and at home. The virtues learnt at this age should last him his lifetime. He should grow up to be quite a citizen of this world. My eagerness to provide answers to all his inquisitiveness and curiosity is another story. But what I do to help my child become a good quality citizen of tomorrow is that make him feel and experience the effects, both good and bad and let him judge what is good and what is bad. This way not only he learns, but what he learns gets ingrained in his nature.

QUALITY FOR SMALL INDUSTRIES IN INDIA

My experience has it that small industries in India do no have enough resources to apply quality to their products. All the products though in demand are optimized to pay out higher profits by compromising on quality. Using lower quality than required standards, often lacking in finishing and inefficient technology causes the quality to really go in for a six.

The need of the hour is to hone in on the quality for maximizing profits through product differentiation and innovations instead of waylaying it by compromising it. But the story is very different when it compliance to standards and norms are to be applied. The ISO series is a total redundant afair. So have the BIS standards. All manufacturers except those in the Exports segment look askance when it comes to compliance to quality norms and standards. The reason for this are as follows:

1) higher cost of manufacturing
2) Need for investment in setting up of laboratory
3) Need for hiring and employment of skilled technicians and operators for the lab equipments and instruments.
4) Reduction in margins due to high competition

The Government can intervene in this matter by making:

1) mandatory for compliance to the quality norms
2) Provide susidy or relief ni the form of relaxation of taxes and duties
3) Provide assistance in setting up of laboratories and purchase of lab equipments and test instruments
4) Provide technological assistance for operating the lab/equipments
5) Provide manpower for operating the lab/equipments
6) Create a testing centre in each district which can sample and test products on cost effective rates. Existing centres are too far and wide spread and charges are not affordable by common businessmen.
7) Provide services that enable quality drive with the Small Businesses
8) Provide incentives to small businesses for achievement of quality compliance and standards
9) institute quality awards on district/state/national basis especially for small businesses and industries under 50 lacs.
10) Engage public sector corporations and DGS&D procurement through such small businesses so that marketability is not affected

All these amenities if supported by the goverment will ensure that the quaity for all small business in india can be a relative term for higher profits, market share and growth.