More focus on assessment and personalised learning besides participation in the global student programme PISA after a gap of over a decade will help India become an active player on the international education stage, says Oxford Education MD Fathima Dada.
"Because Oxford University Press (OUP) is charity and belongs to Oxford University, we tend to take long and medium term view and we are very excited about India," South Africa-born Dada, who was in India recently, told PTI in an interview.
India, she says, has the right demography, the population is becoming ever more and more skilled and in the last 10-20 years, it has become a resource of technology, IT and engineering.
She says despite economic growth shrinking in India and also in China, both these countries are still sitting in the 5-7 range.
"So we see slight adjustment happening, which businesses are thinking of how to cope with. We think India is a market that we want to be in," Dada, whose one grandmother is from Bengal and her grandfather from Gujarat, says.
According to her, there are exciting times in store for India because of its strong digital and technology industry.
"A curriculum change is in the offing. If there is a lot more focus on assessment, personalised learning and on the stem subjects - science, maths etc, then together with PISA, India can become quite an active role player on the global stage," she says.
Dada is also impressed by the numbers. "Look at your numbers - the number of students you have as your maths, science standard is measured. I think it gives more energy into improving and making it even better."
"So we can learn the best practices. For example, people in India are really strong in early reading and in primary English and those in a place like Australia are not that strong. So Australia can learn what the best practice in India is."
"In India, the education division has been at the forefront of one of our biggest strategies. We look at integrated learning programmes which bring a combination of print in your usual textbook, packaging to meet government requirements for low weight etc and also world class quality digital assets and digital learning tools which will help us measure not only student progress but also help teachers save time and bring digital into the classroom."