Matters India reporter
Melbourne, May 6, 2019: A former Kolkata student currently pursuing Master of Business Analytics in Australia has been honoured with a membership in world’s leading academic performance honour society.
Mr Kiran Mathew Tom, a former student at Don Bosco School Park Circus Kolkata currently doing Master of Business Analytics at Deakin University, second year, is made member of ‘Golden Key International Honour Society’ at the award ceremony held last week in Melbourne.
Membership into the the world’s largest collegiate honour society is by invitation only and applies to the top 15 per cent college and university students as well as graduate students in all fields of studies, based solely on their academic performance.
The Society demands that the selected students consistently render outstanding leadership by demonstrating an intense commitment to provide excellent leadership to students, faculty and / or the community. Honorees will be chosen based upon the degree of demonstrated excellence and the impact of their actions.
Reflecting on his higher educational trajectory Kiran says, “I took my first step when I moved to Australia to pursue my Master of Business Analytics from Deakin University. Once I reached here, my entire perspective about education and academics changed. I realized that exams were not a test of memory any more rather a test of understanding and application. I could learn much better because I could dedicate those long hours spent in memorizing to reading research papers and understanding concepts. All assignments were application or research based.”
After waiting with bated breath for his first academic results, Kiran was confirmed in his belief, “Once the results started to show I realized I am doing very well.”
Kiran further recalls, “One fine day at the end of my first year, I received a letter from the ‘Golden Key International Honour Society’ congratulating me for my academic performance and inviting me to be a part of the society.”
“This led me to reflect,” says Kiran, “about the educational and examinational system back in India. There is high level of unemployment and the industry is giving the feedback that the university graduates are unemployable and not being able to meet the fast changing requirement of industries.”
A McKinsey report published in The Economic Times (4 June 2018) had flagged the issue more than a decade ago when it said just a quarter of engineers in India were actually employable further confirmed that 94 per cent of engineering graduates are not fit for hiring.
“This is a very high percentage,” says Kiran who adds, “our exams are mostly a test of memory with a few exceptions here and there. In today’s internet world where information is obtained at the click of a button, the need of the hour is to modify the educational system to teach students how to research this information, understand and apply them to solve problems rather than testing the strength of their memory.”
When asked for a message for his juniors in India, Kiran was quick to say, “reduce the time spent on social media and start reading articles that interests one from the internet, try to understand them and find an application for those concepts. Every new topic is like a hazy picture the more you read the more the clarity increases. All you need to do is take the first step and then keep walking, be persistent and the eventually you will realize that your goal is not far away.”
Formerly a member of Christ the King Church Park Circus Kiran graduated in B.Tech from Future Engineering Institute at Sonapur, Kolkata and worked for a while as Business Development Manager with India’s leading Ed-Tech start up Byju’s-The Learning App.