Towards 2020

Life with a Smart-Phone

I have been in India now for three and a half months. I have a bank account and a debit card, and am in the process of linking this to an electronic wallet in my phone, which is the way most people settle bills - anything from a restaurant take-away delivery to paying a utility bill. 

Pay with your phone and it debits your "Electronic Wallet"

In a shop, you just point your phone at the QR code by the check-out.

I am used to getting an OTP (one-time password) on my phone as a security check for almost anything.
If I phone someone and get no answer, I have caught the Indian habit of giving a "dropped call" rather than bothering to leaving a message. You just hang-up and know the other person will see the missed call and ring back. It is all part of learning the universal language of technology

Taking Things More Easily

The last few weeks have been a time of upheaval and hiatus, with the Chief Executive struck down with illness and needing several sessions of deep massage to relieve pains in his arms and shoulders. There was no clear diagnosis of the cause, but there were strong suspicions that it was a result of living a very stressed life with not enough relaxation, combined with poor posture at both the keyboard and the steering wheel.

Both he and I suffer from difficulties in stopping work and taking time off, which is an inevitable consequence of not having any kind of structured timetable. I am finally starting to create some sort of routine, and find that the simple process of setting tasks and completing them helps me relax at other times, without an overwhelming sense of guilt at my perceived laziness.

A Broader Curriculum

Both James and I are passionate to find ways to deliver a wider general education than the state demands. This is a bold decision in the face of the South Asian obsession with tests, exams, grades and certificates. Such is the dominant culture in India, where a first (Bachelor's) degree is the essential initial step in almost any career, even at the most menial level. 

Of course, parents in Britain see the same trend as General Knowledge, Music, Art and Craft skills are sidelined out of the curriculum to ensure that teenagers know the essential key facts about a subject and can incorporate half a dozen core statements into their examination answers. Exams become a test of whether students know how to answer an examination question, rather than a test of their knowledge and intelligence.

The Spread of A.I.

When it comes to Intelligence, education everywhere seems to underestimate the reality of Artificial Intelligence, which is rapidly replacing much of the work of Accountants, Solicitors and many general administrative functions in offices. 

Sales staff are eliminated as shoppers check out their own purchases.

As for retail distribution, the personal element of the human interface has been virtually eliminated, as people shop on-line or else check out their purchases at automated tills.
The photo is a TESCO's branch in the UK, but retail automation is a global phenomenon.
Here is a link to an article about India's first fully automated supermarket. 

What should we be teaching?

My Job Specification (- and I had the luxury of writing it myself - ) is to plan the way forward for our operation. At the heart of our Vision is the provision of education to children who live in the most deprived situations in urban society in Bangalore. What James and I both believe is that we should not be focused simply on the 3Rs (Reading wRiting and aRithmetic,) but - in the face of the advances in Artificial Intelligence - we should look at ways to stimulate creativity, both in the way children approach tasks and challenges, as well as in their approach to the written, visual and audible Arts.
Which leads me on to a project I am currently working on, - getting the children in our After-School Clubs to talk about "Virtues" starting with a dozen weekly sessions 
Under the heading of Let's Talk About . . . I have put together topics like The Gift of Helpfulness, The Power of Enthusiasm, Being Truthful, Gentleness and Showing Leadership,and I am excited to see what a group of 9 - 12 year-olds come up with. 

The beauty of a project like this is that is blue-sky thinking with no Rights or Wrongs. What I want to achieve is help these amazing kids to learn HOW to think and not simply WHAT to think.

So that's my first big project for 2019 - all the while seeking sources for the funds we need for the ever-increasing numbers of kids who deserve a financial investment in their education, from corporations and benefactors in India or from around the world.

Which reminds me . . .  

Could you spare a few pounds this Christmas?

                 Just click HERE and put it on your plastic.