Following are the top five themes that dominated the education landscape in 2016 and will continue to impact the sector through 2017 as well. Source<> http://www.edubilla.com/blog/top-five-education-themes-that-trended-in-2016/

1. Top five education themes that
trended in 2016
The year 2016 was a vibrant one for the education
sector. Several new developments took place and a
gamut of themes and issues gathered pace to
further transform the education landscape for the
better. The two biggest beneficiaries of these
changes have been the learner, who is at the centre
of the learning eco-system, and the teacher, who is
the principal pivot in this eco-system.

2. Following are the top five themes that dominated
the education landscape in 2016 and will continue
to impact the sector through 2017 as well.
Integrated and theme-based learning: Integrated
learning solutions that seamlessly combine print
and digital modes have made their presence felt
and will potentially disrupt the school education
sector in a big way this year. It is important that the
content, being delivered in a classroom setting via
different mediums, is consistent to provide context
and enable optimum learning outcomes. In
addition to print and digital integration, it is
important for such solutions to be teacher-friendly,
assessment-enabled, theme or activity-based,
among other things. Theme-based learning
modules enable contextual learning through a
cross-disciplinary approach which aids conceptual
clarity for the learner. This approach will probably
be the biggest disrupter in modern-day schooling, if
delivered to high quality standards with adequate

3. teacher support.
Assessments: Assessments are today established
as a potent tool to not just measure the learner’s
performance but also modulate the overall
teaching strategy, especially with the help of
analytics in formative assessments. The year 2016
saw a massive focus on measurement of student
outcomes and performance, in both online and
offline mediums. Integrated and more developed
assessment solutions that provide detailed
analytics on student performance should get
further traction in 2017.
Professional development of teachers: There was a
lot of focus on professional development of
teachers in 2016, starting with the introduction of
the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers
Training Programme announced by the
Government in the Union Budget of 2016. Shortage
of trained teachers is a recognised hurdle in
improving learning outcomes in the country. A

4. continued focus on the professional development
of teachers through a combination of online and
offline learning modules is critical, given their
pivotal role and contribution in the education
eco-system.
Bilingual as medium of learning for young adults:
India has a large and diverse learner base which is
multilingual. In order to expand reach, it becomes
imperative for learning organisations to develop
content that is either in the native language of the
learner or bilingual recognising that commerce and
industry uses the English language. Experiments
have shown that the use of mother tongue while
delivering learning instructions enables faster and
better understanding of learning outcomes,
especially in the case of young adults.
Given India’s young demographic and their
linguistic characteristics, bilingual learning material
is probably more relevant than ever before.

5. Digital proliferation in education: The Internet and
its proliferation and affordable and accessible
devices have redefined learning ability
unconstrained by factors like time and place. While
digital proliferation in education is not a new trend,
it saw a bigger push in 2016. Digital Literacy Mission
was announced as part of the Union Budget 2016 to
cover 60 million rural households within the next
three years. ‘Digital Highways’ that are being
created as part of the ‘Digital India Mission’ will play
an important role in connecting ‘India and Bharat’.
We do believe that the full impact of digitisation in
education will play out even stronger in 2017 and
beyond.