BENGALURU: What does it mean to be excellent? Is it a multi-fold concept? How does one chase it? These are some of the questions that KC Mishra, principal and director of Sambhram Academy of Management Studies (SAMS), has always wondered about. Unfortunately, most of his questions remain unanswered. So Mishra took it upon himself to crack the code.
“I never wanted to confine myself to the ‘good’, ‘better’ or ‘best’ qualitatives. I try to incorporate that into my students too. I teach PG students and urge them to go beyond the course material. I believe in Sri Aurobindo’s school of thought that nothing can be taught and the teacher’s job as a guide is to suggest and not impose,” shares Mishra, who has been working in Bengaluru since 2003.
He has been teaching students for 34 years with 20 years of it being in the city. “Nowadays, we see students coming in not only from India but across the world. There is definitely an opportunity for a student and a teacher to learn from each other. Sadly, we have become morally focused towards a degree-oriented way of teaching. That mars our attempts to achieve excellence,” he says, who hails from Puri, Odisha.
This problem, Mishra believes, is at the core of our education system, and there is no easy solution. “India produces almost three lakh MBAs per year, but more than 50 per cent of them are unemployable as they lack the required skills for placement. We, teachers, are responsible. In my opinion, companies should adopt certain colleges. There should be a give-and-take policy between them, so students can be nurtured in their course work itself,” he explains.
Mishra is close to completing 12 years as the principal and director of SAMS. After having achieved so much, is he still striving for excellence? “I still have a lot to contribute to higher education. I will be completing 12 years at SAMS by August, and I feel my work here is done. Now, I would like to look ahead.
I am still hoping to contribute in a different way and at the policy level,” he concludes, adding that he is
in the process of writing a book.