“A great education is one that empowers today’s students to thrive in the wildly unpredictable world they will face when they are no longer in school.”
Research shows that children at school right now will change at least 7 careers in their lifetime, and if this is the case, it calls for the development of a certain skillset that mainstream education in India does not provide. Callido, an initiative by three young educationists - Sriram Subramanian, Madhu Agrawal and Chinmaya Kulkarni - which aims at equipping students with what is known as the ‘21st Century Skills’. These skills have been deemed to be of utmost importance by educators and workforce experts for children to be able to successfully participate in the global economy.
Development of the 21st century skills is already a phenomenon in the USA and Australia and in an attempt to introduce the same in India, these young entrepreneurs set about collaborating with distinguished educationist.
“Our resources are vetted and recommended by Cambridge (the only India-based published recommended by Cambridge) and endorsed by Dr. Lina Fruzzetti of Brown University. All students who successfully complete our course get a certificate from Dr. Fruzzetti,” says Madhu Agrawal.
Callido’s founders are experienced educators and have studied in some of the most prestigious educational institutes in the world like Brown University, Imperial College of London and Warwick University. Sriram Subramanian and Madhu Agrawal studied in the same school, and Chinmaya Kulkarni met Sriram at Brown University while pursuing their undergraduate degree. By the age of 25, they had one thing common - they had switched multiple careers. With this came the realization that they had handled their transition from career to career with ease because of the transferable skills they had picked up with
Sriram and Madhu studied at the same school (Dhirubhai Ambani International School) whereas Chinmaya and Sriram met at Brown University during their undergraduate degree.
“The Indian curriculum is highly focused on the transfer of knowledge or information from the teacher to the student in a world where information is becoming obsolete rapidly. What is important is the ability to understand what is being learned and having good thought processes,” said Ms. Agrawal, adding, “It is not the ability to remember lots of facts and learn them, but the ability to think independently, find the right information and problem-solve independently.”
Callido aims to teach students to think for themselves and innovate using new information which would be a more sustainable and valuable form of education, an aspect that is not considered in the quest for grades through periodic testing. Callido involves “personalized learning”, wherein students assess for themselves their strengths and weaknesses and begin the program at a level appropriate to them. The program is completely online and students receive personalized feedback to be able to proceed further.
Callido has found clientele in some leading schools of the country like Dhirubhai Ambani International School, The Heritage School (Gurgaon), Canadian International School (Bangalore), Singapore International School and Pathways Schools and spanning across cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Trivandrum, Bhopal and Jaipur. Their international ventures include UAE, Indonesia and USA.
Callido is a great step forward in a rapidly changing, and highly unpredictable world. Instead of replacing the current education system, working along with schools to equip students with 21st century skills is a way of building a better future for both the country and for the children.