siliconindia | | November 20188EDUCATION SECTOR RESISTING THE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGYBy Gopal Devanahalli, CEO, MeritTracMeritTrac is a global testing & assessment company which provides innovative, scientific assessment services to prominent educational institutions, government organizations and corporate entities.The digital aeon has disrupted the global economy not just at the macro level, but also at the micro level across industries, including communication, healthcare, banking, education among others. The younger generations have taken to technology like fish taking to water. Thus, technology has not only empowered people to stay connected with the global trends, but has also given them the freedom to voice their opinions. This has largely cultivated a culture of constant learning, subsequently leading to career growth.Adoption of TechnologySectors like healthcare, banking, construction, communication, retail, logistics, travel & tourism, telecom-munications, media & entertainment, and agriculture have actualized tech-nology into their systems. The edu-cation sector too, to some extent has adapted technological advancements, but no significant perceptible chang-es have been brought into the sys-tem. Technologies such as cognitive computing can be used across most industries to boost revenues, improve their efficiencies and even save lives. It provides cloud-based analytics for gaining business insights and with cognitive computing, users can visu-alize their data patterns.Adoption of Technology by Educational InstitutesAt a time when technology is being adopted by almost all verticals, the Indian education system is lagging. Incidents of question paper leaks hitting the headlines have become common and are no longer a shock factor. A large proportion of students applying for re-evaluation every year paints a dismal picture, highlighting the lackadaisical evaluation process that is debilitating the system. Despite attempts to expunge corruption, no concrete solution has been formulated to curb it and imbue transparency into the education system.Resistance to change can be considered a major factor behind the non-acceptance of technologi-cal advancements. Most institutions still hold-on to the traditional educa-tional matrix of teaching and evalua-tion which do more harm than good. A notable reason has to be the in-fratructure that does not favour any ingress of technology into Tier-2 & Tier-3 institutions.Fallout of the Traditional Education SystemThe traditional teaching and assessment process have given birth to numerous issues rearing their head in the past few decades, including the question paper leaks, errors during valuation of papers, wrong assessments, and misplaced answer scripts, to name a few. These issues have always existed and have dodged the students who genuinely work hard.In the traditional method, a teacher preparing the question paper gets it printed. But this has a high chance of students taking undue advantage of the situation by copy-ing the questions and distributing it among fellow classmates, thus giv-ing rise to an anarchy-like situation. Thanks to social media, dissemina-tion of these question papers is now much easier and faster. To secure the examination process and avoid these unnecessary situations, institu-tions and universities need to adopt scientific technologies that can help secure the question papers and exe-cute examination processes avoiding unwanted controversies. Gopal DevanahalliIN MY OPINION
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