Most students are not thinking: Michael O'Sullivan

Interview with Global chief executive, Cambridge International Examinations

There has been an explosive growth in the demand for international curriculum and syllabi in India during the last decade.

The opening up of the Indian economy in the 1990s has brought home the realization that the world is becoming smaller and smaller and a large number of Indian parents are seeking to educate their children to fit into the global world. 

Rich Indians in the past sent their children to study in expensive boarding schools in the UK but with the rise in incomes an increasing number of parents are sending their children to study at United World College (UWC) in Singapore. 

In India, children are being moved out of ICSE and CBSE boards into schools that offer international curricula. Several prominent schools – especially in Delhi and Mumbai – are either moving to international curriculums or adding an international option and offering both Indian and international curricula.  The highest concentration is in Maharashtra followed by Tamil Nadu (see chart). 260 schools in India offer the IGCSE (taken at the Grade 10 level) and 150 schools in India offer the A levels (at Grade 12 level).

Another international curriculum that has gained popularity in India is the International Baccalaureate (IB) at the Grade 12 level. 33 schools in India now offer the IB. There are many schools that offer IGCSE (for Grade 10 students) and/or A levels or IB for Grade 12.

With this trend picking up, international examinations like the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) A levels (taken at age 18) and IGCSE (taken at age 16) are gaining currency and the numbers tell the story (see chart). Between 2005-06 and 2015-16, the compounded annual growth in the number of students taking the IGCSE is 25 per cent and for the A levels it is 19%. India is among the top ten countries that offers the CIE syllabus. Along with USA and China, CIE sees India as one of the three countries with the highest potential for growth.

CIE’s global chief executive and an Oxford university alumnus Michael O’Sullivan, 57 was in India and spoke to Business Standard. Excerpts from an interview with Anjuli Bhargava :

How do you deal with the quality of teachers - teachers in India are generally not equipped to teach these syllabi?
There is an acute shortage of highly qualified and quality teachers - not only in India - but definitely in India. There is even a greater shortage of teachers who are skilled in teaching international curriculums such as ours.

A big and growing part of our work is teacher development. In the 360-odd schools we work with, teachers will receive training in both how to teach their subject in an effective manner and in general teaching skills. Last year, we did 50 face-to-face events for teachers here in India. This will double to 100 this year.

There are big shortcomings in the way school education - all over the world - is designed and delivered.

In most organised schools, when we find students listening to the teacher, can we assume students are learning? Our research says no. They might be learning nothing. Or we may go to a progressive school and feel the students are engaged, having fun but does it mean they are learning? Again, the answer is not necessarily. They might be playing games they enjoy but not learning anything new.

We know that students learn when they think. When they don't think, they don't learn. Most of the time, in most schools, most students are not thinking. They are doing something else so they are not learning much. So there is a huge opportunity globally to improve the outcomes by better designing the curriculum, assessment, and teaching.

How do you know children are not thinking most of the time?
Experienced observation of teaching by good teachers is the best way to do it.

Our experience shows that the best schools are those where the principal gives top priority and time to instructional leadership. The symptom of a school that is going nowhere is a principal who mostly worries about the new building or the business of the school or communication with parents or the final results. A school principal has many responsibilities but our experience shows that schools where the principal allocates most of their time to instructional leadership - that is they are concerned about what teachers do in class and what students do in class - fare the best.

Is university education in the UK going to a similar squeeze like the US…people questioning the value of degrees and so on…

I won’t say similar but there is a trend of questioning the cost of higher education in the UK and scrutinizing the benefits. In the UK, there is a cap of 9,000 pounds a year set by the government for UK students but for most families that is quite a lot of money. There are cheap loans available from government for students. 

UK universities have been quite successful at diversifying what they offer. Many universities have made their degree courses employment-relevant. In fact the universities that have the best statistics are either like Cambridge and Oxford (with high academic excellence) where nearly all the graduates have good jobs within six months or those that have designed courses that are very employment relevant. Students study courses that make them attractive to future employers. So we have seen some healthy diversification of higher education models.

Is it true companies in the UK are beginning to value apprentices at times over graduates?

I have noticed that as well. It does seem to me social habits are formed in the UK and some other countries where going to university is considered an end in itself. In fact going to university should only be important for what you get out of it. But it has become important in itself.

I see the same in middle class India. This is not ideal. Ideally, children should go to university if they know what they want to gain from it; not because everyone else is going.

We are beginning to see employers valuing other types of preparation for employment, not just a university degree.

In countries that have universal access to quality education – like UK, Singapore – it is not a good idea to suggest that absolutely everyone goes to university – we see graduate unemployment rising in many places. 

China is a case in point. The country has huge skill shortages and significant graduate unemployment. University courses are not preparing the students for the opportunities that exist.

Is there a move towards MOOCs (massive open online courses) - like in the US?
They are much talked about. But I have to say I am quite sceptical. I don't think anyone really knows how to make MOOCs work as a business model. Drop out rates are extremely high. I think MOOCs - like Beta Max - are an important step in the evolution of online learning but I don't think they are an end point.

At any stage?
I look at the evidence and based on that I don’t see MOOCs becoming an established end point. One of things I have noticed in education, quite often when a big idea comes along people begin to talk about it like it were already successful but they tend to forget that they are actually discussing an idea. It’s like a company trying to sell shares based on its business plan. If I were buying shares, I wouldn’t look at the business plan as closely as the accounts.

Give an example in the past of a much discussed idea that didn’t amount to much…

One was modular curriculum and assessment. This became immensely popular in the UK around ten years ago – so much so that it was adopted as the national standard. CIE didn’t adopt it because we were not convinced. We could see some of the benefits but we could also see the negatives. And I think on the whole we have been proved right. But at the beginning people talked about it like it was already a proven success whereas it was in fact an untested theory.

At the moment, I have to say that MOOCs are not a proven success even though they are quite exciting. 
 

Let me say it is more convincing to say traditional models of higher education will change. It is also fair to say that digital technologies will play a big part in that change. But it is less convincing to say what will replace it. And further let me add that it is not always the best ideas that win. The global standards – as we have seen in the past – are not always the best standards; yet them become global for extraneous reasons.

With Tentacles Across India….. 

Spread of Schools

Maharashtra : 107

Tamil Nadu : 57

Karnataka : 37

Haryana : 21

Uttar Pradesh : 13

West Bengal : 16

Kerala : 12

Andhra Pradesh : 6

Delhi : 3

The Number of Students Taking International Examinations Has Surged

        2005/6 2015/16 10 year CAGR IGCSE 5,084 47,081 25% A/AS Level 2,098 16,009 19% (10 year CAGR means the average growth each year that has happened in that 10 year period)       Source : Cambridge International Examinations