And my topic for today is …
There is a saying that examiners have a habit of asking the wrong questions. They always seem to ask questions that catch the student out …
I was sitting a Geography exam once, and was completely thrown. I really prepared well for the exam. I had noticed that the first question on the Physical Geography paper was always about glaciation – and glaciation was one topic that I felt I knew back to front. So when it came time to turn the question paper over and read the question, you can imagine my surprise when I read: “To what extent can the landform of these islands be attributed to the Pleistocene period.” I was not only “thrown” … I was confused, dumfounded, devastated. OK – If I really knew glaciation “back to front” then I should have known that it was the technical name for the Ice Age.
Fortunately, as I went through the rest of the paper looking, (unsuccessfully, of course), for the glaciation question I found there were other questions that I was able to answer. In the end, I got my pass grade.
Incidentally, RF Delderfield, in his novel “To serve them all my days”, has one of his characters tell his Science class that first question on the Biology paper was always about Blood, and he dictated to them the first line for their essay … which they were supposed to learn and quote word for word … as it would convince the examiner that they were not the dunces that they might be.
If only it was that easy!
I was very lucky in another exam that I sat … There were twelve questions on the paper and we had to answer five. My mood went from bad to worse as I read through them … I didn’t like question one, and question two wasn’t much better … and neither was number three … and so it went on for question after question ,,, it wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t know the answers, but I didn’t feel very confident that I could do myself justice if I tackled them.
Then I came to question number eight and I picked up my pen. At last a question that I felt I could answer and not dry up half way through. One of my tutors once told me that he liked my essay very much, he was enjoying it very much, but … What a horrible word that is, “but …”. The trouble was, he said that I started off well and was just getting going, and then it suddenly came to an end … I didn’t see the problem. I thought I had answered the question, and written a pretty full answer given the time available … but, (there it is again), he seemed to think that I could have gone on and said more … much more. Anyway, I wasn’t going to run out of steam on question eight.
Incidentally – I know that I shouldn’t have picked up my pen until I had read the paper all the way through … but by the time I got to question eight I was beginning to feel quite demoralized. I was so happy to find a question I liked.
When I finished question eight I turned to question nine, confident that I had at least one reasonable answer under my belt. I was feeling even better when I read the question … this was another one that I felt happy about and so picked up my pen and started work on constructing an answer.
Question ten was a good one as well … as were eleven and twelve. In the end I got my five answers – and a pass grade … but thank goodness there weren’t just seven questions on the paper, or I would have been in serious trouble.
Now, the standard tactic often used by students when they meet a question they don’t like is to change it into one that they do like by changing a word, or two.
Of course it is not a very good tactic, because if the question is about the reason for Britain’s entry into the First World War, there’s not much point in pretending it really says the Second World War and writing about Chamberlain, Munich, Hitler and Poland … but, unfortunately, many students do try this. I know from my days as an examiner.
This all came to mind because the other day I was watching a lecture by Professor David Starkey and he actually referred to it … apparently he surprised at one conference when he saw the topic he was supposed to be giving a lecture on was “Anniversaries and events that have, or have not, changed the course of history”, but he had prepared something quite different.
He announced that he was going to change the word “history” and substitute it with “Cambridge” … which more or less fitted with what he had prepared. Fortunately, he is a professor and was delivering a lecture to a conference and not a student sitting an examination … so he was able to get away with it.
Anyway, it reminded me of speech I had to give a short while ago. Actually, someone else was booked to give the speech, but had to drop out because of another urgent meeting, and he asked me to give the speech in his stead. It happened to be a subject I felt confident about, as I had given similar talks on it before … even in my faltering Russian … so you can imagine my surprise, confusion, dismay when I arrived on the morning of the conference to read on the programme a totally different title for my speech.
To make matters worse, there were several different versions of the programme circulating in the room – and each version seemed to have a different title …
I approached the organizers and explained my dilemma. “Don’t worry,” they said, “just deliver the speech that you have prepared.”
As it happens, I was rescued because time was running out. Several of the earlier speeches over ran, and because it was a jubilee, marking the fifteenth anniversary of an Institute of Higher Education, there was much back slapping and congratulations. In the end, there wasn’t enough time for me to deliver my speech, so I adlibbed.
The Conference was called ‘The Third International Scholarly-Practical Conference “Business and Education: Interaction and Development”‘ … and this is, more or less, what I said …
First I want to take the opportunity to thank the organizers, the Bishkek Finance and Economic Academy, (BFEA), for the opportunity to participate in this conference and also to congratulate them on the occasion of their third such conference – as well as on their 15th Anniversary.
BFEA has long been involved in tourism. They were one of the founder members of The Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators, (KATO), and for many years provided both the secretariat and a venue for our meetings – until, that is, we grew too large for all the members to be accommodated in their Library.
They have been especially active in the field of Ecotourism, one of the themes of this year’s conference, producing an excellent textbook on Ecological Management with particular reference to the management of Sanatoria and other enterprises in the Issyk Kul tourist zone, and establishing the Chamber of Ecological Auditors with an aim to establish standards and certification for hotels, resorts, sanatoria, etc..
I must say that I like the title of the conference – with one reservation.
“The third conference” … which means it is not a “one-off”, but part of a series of such events. Once could say that as the third such conference it has already established itself as a regular feature – almost a tradition. In English, we have a saying that “Rules are made to be broken, but Traditions are meant to be kept”! Let us hope that the practice of holding such conferences will indeed continue and as a tradition.
“International” … to me, both as a foreigner (an Englishman), and as I work in tourism, this is very important. Kyrgyzstan is a small country – richly endowed in many respects, but a small country and it cannot hope to survive in the modern world if it remains in splendid isolation. We live in a “Global Village” with a network of interconnecting economies. As an international conference, today’s event helps us to put the situation in Kyrgyzstan into a context: a regional context, a world context – and as such helps us to understand ourselves and our situation much more clearly.
How often do we hear, (or use), the phrases “European standard” or “international standard”? – especially when someone wants to criticise or denigrate local business and practice. It is true that we can learn a lot from abroad: international experience can widen our horizons; it can give us new ideas and techniques to employ in our activities; it can provide us with standards and benchmarks to compare ourselves and place ourselves on a global scale. We should also remember, however, that Kyrgyzstan is not, for example, Russia, or the United Kingdom, or Turkey, or anywhere else. We have our own specific situation and circumstances so that what works in one country may not work here. We need to learn from other people’s experience about what works well, in what circumstances and why, and then to adapt it to meet our own situation.
We should also remember that we in Kyrgyzstan have much to offer and it should be a dialogue – not a lecture, not a one way transfer of knowledge, skills and experience.
“Scholarly-Practical” … again, to me this is very important. Theory is all well and good, but in practice the real world may throw up many things to upset theory. On the other hand, practice without a firm foundation in theory is a recipe for chaos. We need both. Again, we need a dialogue.
“Business and Education” … I suppose that this is an extension of “scholarly-practical” with Business representing the practical, real world, and Education the scholarly, theoretical. Business and Education don’t exist in isolation, we need one another. Education needs business as the future employers of their graduates. Business needs Education to provide the next generation of our employees, and colleagues. There is a saying that “Our children are our future” and if we are to be fair to them then we to equip them as best we can to meet the trials and difficulties that they are likely to encounter in later life. It is no good if Education provides graduates unsuited to work in our businesses in the real world, nor if it produces graduates who don’t have the theoretical background, experience, adaptability and flexibility to meet and overcome new and unfamiliar situations.
If I have one reservation about the title, it is this: I think you are missing two important players, or stakeholders, – Government and Society.
“Interaction and Development” … interaction means communication and dialogue … and this conference is an example of that dialogue, bringing together both academics and businessmen.
KATO also offers another platform for that dialogue. Although it is the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators, we have a wide range of institutions represented in our membership. At present we have fifty three members – most of them are tour companies involved in “inbound tourism”, that is we bring tourists into the country and show them the variety of splendours that the country has to offer, whether that is the landscape, the wildlife, the places connected with the rich historical heritage of the country, or the traditional culture and lifestyle of the nomadic Kyrgyz. Some of our companies are large, well established firms which have been operating for nearly twenty years, whilst others are smaller, perhaps a small family business, and newer, some having started operating only in the last year or so. Some of our members also work in the “outbound tourism” market, sending local people abroad as tourists; offer other services such as insurance or rescue services; or operate hotels in Bishkek, pensionats, hotels, resorts or sanatoria on Lake Issyk Kul.
We also have three institutes of Higher Education as members – including BFEA, which was, as I said, one of our founding members and has been an active member of the Association throughout our existence.
One thing that they all have in common is that they have been accepted as members by others who work in the industry, who recognize them as serious and experienced people. Together the members are responsible for the general policy of the Association; there is President and Presidium to oversee the day to day operations and an executive director to implement the various activities of the Association.
Amongst those activities is work on providing training for those who work, (both now and future potential employees), in tourism – drawing together both educational institutions and businesses amongst our members. The staff of BFEA, for example, contributed to one of our publications, a handbook for guides, and we were able to arrange sponsorship for the publication of “The Road of Chingiz Aitmatov” – which was course material prepared by students of the Academy.
We see this vital if our businesses, (and tourism in Kyrgyzstan in general), are to grow and develop. Tourism is a service industry – our customers do not buy material objects from us, but an experience. That experience depends on many things, such as the landscape, the facilities and infrastructure, but above it depends upon the professionalism and expertise of the personnel who work in the industry.
In fact, in the Tourism sector there is a lot of cooperation between business and educational institutions, which goes far beyond the traditional practice of providing students with internships, (or work experience placements – “practica”). I would appeal to all businessmen to follow this example and become involved in preparing the next generation for work in their industry. Likewise, I would appeal to all those in Education to involve business in their courses: in the design of courses; delivery (invite businessmen as guest speakers, to try and make sure that they incorporate into their courses practical examples drawn from real life …); examinations and assessment.
Once again, I want to stress that this represents interaction, cooperation and dialogue, between partners – it is not, and should not be, a case of one side trying to domineer or dominate the other.
(For the record: This is only one aspect of the activities that we undertake. Amongst the others are disseminating information, including publishing materials; marketing, (Volodya Petrov, our Executive Director, who was supposed to be speaking here today, is currently representing the Association in the Bishkek International Tourism Fair); lobbying, (for example: attending meetings, round tables, consultations over issues such as the new draft law “On Tourism”, Visa reform, or tax reform); and representing members before government bodies and other agencies.
Our mutual aim or target of our interaction is to achieve Development.
As businessmen, of course, we want to our businesses develop and grow and it is easy to think of an Association such as ours as existing only to represent and protect the interests of its members. Although this is indeed one of our tasks, the overriding principle of what we do is always to develop the industry so that it becomes a major sector of the Kyrgyz Economy. This is not just a case of self interest, (although we obviously hope that visitors to the country will use our services, however, we do have to acknowledge the fact that there is a growing tendency for people to prefer to travel as “independent travellers”). Like Kyrgyzstan in the wider world, we cannot operate in isolation. We rely on other service providers, be it the owners of yurts or homestays, hotels, cafes and restaurants, museums, folklore groups – and also banks, providers of internet services, medical practitioners and other services in the wider community, including institutes of higher education.
So, in closing, I would like to congratulate BFEA on its 15 years of successful activities; on the occasion of this third International Scholarly-Practical Conference “Business and Education Interaction and Development” and especially on the title they have chosen which encompasses so much and gives a clear indication of how to proceed.
Bishkek