On Measurement problems in Education

This piece had been languishing for 3 years. Not particularly insightful, but I need to move on to things I find more interesting at the moment.

The ability to think describes existence; it determines thoughts, actions, participation in society, view of self and of the world. Education is the process that develops perspectives, imparts tools and provides frameworks that are needed for an individual to develop and regulate their abilities. Amartya Sen calls it an enabling factor, though even this rather broad description does not do justice to the central importance that education holds in the world that we live in.

These insights on the importance of education are nothing new and have been acknowledged for very many ages. Hence, universities and schools developed to formalize the methods and mechanisms used to impart education. However, while institutionalization of education is not a modern creation; the interaction between the institution and an individual desirous of getting a education through the market is. Herein lies the construct (primarily with reference to higher education) that shall be presently the object of attention.

Economists and other social scientists often emphasize the role of 'information asymmetry' in workings of the market. The concept is very simple: information about quality of the commodity or service being supplied to potential customers is private to the producer,  or at least it is not available for public consumption. It for this reason that firms (or individuals) go to great lengths to provide assurances of quality to their prospective customers. The financial sector attempts to resolve such problems through credit rating agencies; manufacturing and processing sectors by creating benchmark certifications and offering replacement warranties. 

Aside:  The limitations of private provisioning of such information were exposed during the economic crisis of 2008. The contradictions built into the credit rating mechanism became apparent showing how the sytem could be rigged. Such privately owned rating services are usually paid for by the supplier (directly or indirectly) and thereby the ratings can hardly ever be expected to be based on a fair assessment.

The provision for education in a modern economy, suffers from problems of a similar nature. In societies where the university system has matured over a long period of time (which is not to say that they dont have serious problems of their own), the quality is signaled by perceptions associated with individual institutes or universities. However, in relatively younger systems of education, with new institutions coming up everyday, consumer (students) decisions have to made without the luxury of being able to rely on years of historical performance as measures of quality. Therefore developing mechanisms to convey quality are of far greater importance. To further complicate matters, such markets are characterised by a demand-supply mismatch, whereby there are many applicants than there are positions. So not only do potential consumers suffer from information asymmetry, the intense competition for places might mean that most might not have a real choice in where they get their education from. Given this situation and the importance of education the onus of resolving this issue usually falls with the state. 

The state in its attempts to assure quality is likely to create some system of regulation. In India, there state funded accreditation agencies, along with licensing authorities who are responsible for ensuring the quality of education institutions. Given the enormous demand for education there are plenty of private entrepreneurs willing to set up schools and colleges. But a license-permit regulatory system makes these entrepreneurs potential targets for rent seeking as also potential sources of future employment to be cultivated by bureaucrats at the agencies. The problems are akin to the general malaise that afflicted the pre-liberalisation Indian economy.  

While licensing institutions leads to graft and nepotism, accrediting and rating educational institutions comes with its own set of problems. The process of imparting education does not lend itself well to evaluation. It is almost impossible to generate a list of criteria that can be objectively measured for purpose of evaluation. Education is what would be called a complex process, where following the same recipe twice may not result in the same dish. There are no detailed blueprint of a method that can ensure a high level of learning. Whats worse is there are no concrete outcomes of the process that can be measured. There are many proxies: placements, salary, alumni network. But measuring these is confusing being 'successful' for being educated.  Is someone who became a high school teacher any less educated than an investment banker? This serves to  show that the measurement problems in education production process further complicate the problems arising from information asymmetry.

On Communication Skills and 'Porn Movies'

For some strange reason, the people in charge at my current place of work place an inordinately high importance on improving the communication skills of their students. Therefore, not only do the students have to endure a course in English/Communication Skills and a course in Foreign Language (German - a compulsory optional subject being the only language offered of the six listed in the course structure), but also a weekly class on 'Extra-Curricular Activities', where they are expected to hone their ability to communicate under the able guidance of their core subject (as opposed to english or communication skills) teachers.

And so it transpired that I was asked to conduct a Group Discussion in the 'Extra Curricular Activities' class scheduled for 12:25 pm every Thursday. There were to be two topics, one subject (in my case economics) related and the other I was free to choose. Despite being informed of this onerous task moments before entering a room full of students miffed at loosing out on an extended lunch break, I said a small prayer thanking my 17 year old self for ensuring that I did not have to come to this place as an undergraduate before proceeding.

I introduced myself to the class and told them that their topic for discussion today would be - The Changing Face of Indian Cinema. I thought given all the talk surrounding 'Delhi Belly', the students would have strong opinions about something like this and might therefore be more inclined to participate in a discussion. However, my faculty colleagues seemed to think otherwise, or at least that is what their looks of absolute horror and disgust conveyed. But the arrow had been fired and the discussion had begun.

I spent the first few minutes to figure it out, though I could not imagine the problem that anyone would have with a discussion on this issue. But then I heard it (from the students) and watched with a sinking feeling the look of horror and disgust return to the face of my colleagues.

The discussion had somehow meandered its way to the question of how realistic is the portrayal of foul mouthed youth who talks in expletives with some prepositions and conjunctions used to maintain the stream of thought. From there it was only a small distance to the dreaded P-word; 'Porn Movies' as they called it. The discussion had gone to a place where our elders (teachers or otherwise) fear to tread and so had to be killed and it was with short crisp announcement - "We are done with this topic"! (not by me of course)

While not entirely relevant to the topic at hand, I found their short descriptions of lack of realism in porn and hypocrisy that surrounds it well thought out and articulated. It was probably the first time in the last few weeks that I had seen these students speaking up and in the process disclosing a side to their personalities that I will never get to see in a classroom setting.

For all the cynicism I had about having such a class, I came out of it thinking that the given constraints that we operate with, its a wonderful opportunity to accomplish one of the primary goals of education - to help develop and open young minds to arguments and discussions, to foster a world view that is arrived at by observation, thinking and analyzing.

I was of course chastised later on for having such 'liberal' views and asked to come up with ways of making the session more interactive and meaningful for the students - Make them talk about global warming and growth and development of India, talking about movies never did anyone any good.

(mind you while referring to what transpired in the class later on, the p-word was replaced, 'you know what they were talking about')

On Arguments and Conformity in Education

I dont know about the experiences others had in school, but I got the impression that raising uncomfortable questions is never advisable for someone who wants to stay in the teacher's good books. Is it that as a society we prefer not to have our youngest members think too much? Or is it that the collective conscious of human society is a control freak, relying on controlling the range of our thoughts to preserve the current social structure, with its hierarchy and power structures? Or is it that restricting the things about which a modern student thinks is made necessary by the now vast treasure trove of knowledge gained by us over time, which has lead to modern curriculum being so vast and extensive that the opportunity cost of any digression is very high?

I now stand on the other side of the table. Now I have to decide what sort of a teacher do i want to be.

What should be the role of a teacher in the development of a student? Should/Can it be impressed upon students that books are the real sources of knowledge and the role of a teacher is to help in the process of reading and understanding them? How does one encourage students so used to being spoon fed chapters/topics for all their life to educate themselves? How should the diversity of intellectual capability in class be dealt with? Can students ever get over the sense of hierarchy that permeates our existence and not judge themselves with respect to others and learn for the sake of learning?

These and many other questions are yet unanswered..Any ideas?