Making efforts to achieve quantified targets is the zeitgeist of today's world. Our obsession with metrics, targets and standardised indicators creates an illusion of progress. The same mentality has crept into our complex and often chaotic educational ecosystem.

It is imperative to understand the difference between efficiency and effectiveness to learn the ropes of production systems. Peter Drucker, an Austrian-American educator and leader in management education, says in his famous dictum, "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things."

Efficiency in education is specifically related to inputs and outputs. Contrarily, effectiveness probes deeper. It underlines: What is the quality of student learning? Are they learning critical thinking, moral judgement, decision making, civic sense, or real-world problem solving?

Where efficiency requires teachers to follow run-of-the-mill pedagogy, effectiveness banks upon teachers' empowerment and ability to teach, inspire and guide. The difference is not merely........

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