07 December,2009 11:24 AM IST | | Jayita Bandyopadhyay
As he gets set to launch his new book Discover The Diamond In You, Prof Arindam Chaudhuri, honorary dean of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, outlines his plans to revolutionise schools in India. He says his book is a 59-minute guide to success for the common man and not only for the corporates.
The latest
I realised that I have given very less time to writing on management! So much so that when I look back today, ever since the start of The Sunday Indian, I have only and only written on economics and politics, and at times on sports and cinema, but never on management! So this time, I thought I'll write on my first loveu00a0-- management! My new book is for the common man. Anybody, from a Class V student to a professional, can use this book. You can call this book a handy guide to management, written in a simple manner.
Bollywood influences
There are references to Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in my book because these two men are modern India's biggest success stories. Also, people like reading about them and the way they have adopted management theories in real life.
Institutional shift
What Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal is doing is phenomenal. Yet a lot more needs to be achieved. Education in India is in a pitiable state. We need to revolutionise primary education.
I want to venture into primary and secondary education eventually. I feel I can add a lot more value to the present schooling system in India. An entire generation of children has grown up waiting for the school bell to toll.
College for most means three years of picnic, freedom from studies and continuous parental scrutiny. In America, students look forward to college in order to be educated. In India, students go to college to bunk classes, make friends, enjoy and get a degree. But a degree doesn't help in the real life. One needs to understand a subject, not learn it. We need our children to enjoy school. They need to be freed from textbooks. We need to give back childhood to our children
