A foot fracture opened up golf as a potential career option for Suchitra Ramesh (13), a class VII student of Bangalore’s Greenwood High School. “In 2006, I fractured my right heel and the doctor prescribed playing golf to hasten the healing process. Once I started playing, I liked the sport so much that I couldn’t […]
Under an innovative scheme devised by Dr Achyuta Samanta, the for-profit KIIT University is a means to a greater end: to fund and grow the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) which offers 15,000 children and youth from 62 tribes, K-postgraduate free-of-charge fully residential education. Dilip Thakore reports from Bhubaneswar
In gab fests on television and deluge of analyses in the print media following presentation of the Union Budget 2012-13 on March 16, education — particularly the pathetically inadequate provision for schooling the world’s largest child and youth population — was rarely discussed. Summiya Yasmeen investigates
Despite not a single memorable invention or process contributing to improvement of […]
In the authoritative EducationWorld-C fore India’s Most Respected Schools Survey 2011, Ahlcon International School, Delhi (estb.2001) was ranked among the Top 10 day schools of Delhi and among the Top 20 in north India
Within a decade after it was promoted by the Shanti Devi Progressive Education Society — a trust constituted by […]
Designed and developed in partnership with industry and employers, Wigan & Leigh College, UK programmes are distinguished by their practical, hands-on skills development focus
Wigan & Leigh College (WLC) is one of Britain’s premier general further and higher education collegiate groups offering a range of vocational and professional programmes to […]
The prime focus area of Dr. Achyuta Samanta, the visionary founder-director of KIIT University and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS, estb. 1992), is the latter institution which provides free-of-charge K-postgrad education to 15,000 aboriginal children drawn from 62 most backward and neglected tribes of the eastern seaboard state of Odisha (pop. 41 million), […]
Dilip Thakore interviewed Dr. Achyuta Samanta, the visionary founder- director of KIIT University and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) on the KISS campus in Bhubaneswar. Excerpts:
To have promoted and established KIIT as one of India’s top 20 private universities within 15 years is a commendable and extraordinary achievement. What were the aims and objectives behind […]
I congratulate Dr. Samanta for establishing institutions of character like KIIT and KISS. I urge the students of KIIT and KISS to take a lead in spreading the message of peace and non-violence in the present day strife-torn world — Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India
Education is a subject of national importance and the finance minister has presented a very balanced budget on education. Union Budget 2012-13 has supported industry’s long-time demand to improve the provision and standards of education in the country. An increase in allocation for RTE-SSA and RMSA reiterates the government’s commitment to education. Over 70 percent […]
One of the perquisites of this demanding job — and demanding it is given the hostility of education bureaucrats, paucity of reliable data, disinterest of industry, indifference of the teachers’ community and shortage of trained writers — is that one often gets to meet with great visionaries, thinkers and doers who, unsung and unappreciated by […]
The citizenry of India is too patient and undemanding of its leaders. True, when they commit egregious crimes and brazen acts of impropriety, the public is not averse to voting them out of office. Yet everyday acts of omission and commission and particularly dereliction of the duty of accountability for revenue mobilised through taxation, and […]
Thank you for your excellent cover story on the Howard Gardner India Tour 2012 (‘Multiple intelligences guru’s wake-up call’, EW March). I would like to express iDiscoveri’s sincere thanks for your role in making this historic tour a success. Your support made it possible to bring Prof. Gardner’s ideas to thousands of educators, thinkers and policy-makers across […]
The National Translation Mission (NTM, estb. 2008 on recommendation of the National Knowledge Commission) released its first seven dictionaries — six bilingual tomes translating English words into Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil, and a learner’s English which translates into four major south Indian languages: Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam — on March 10 […]
The engineering education scenario has witnessed a complete turnaround from two decades ago, when a huge number of students applying for admission into engineering colleges had to opt for other streams because of lack of adequate capacity. Today 300,000 seats in the country’s 3,393 engineering colleges with an aggregate capacity of 1.48 million students are […]
A huge row has broken out in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 61 million) on the issue of the state’s ruling BJP government printing hindutva-inspired textbooks for primary school children enroled in 46,000 government and 3,500 aided primary schools statewide. In February, hundreds of students marching under the banner of 14 organisations including the […]
The third annual day celebrations of the Chennai Girls Higher Secondary School (CGHSS) of the Chennai Municipal Corporation (CMC) on March 1 were marred by the attempted suicide of science teacher P. Jagatheeswaran (41) who consumed hydrochloric acid in the school’s laboratory. According to CGHSS sources, Jagatheeswaran was reprimanded for neglect of duty by the […]
Ever since chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced a team of alumni to chalk out a plan for the resuscitation and revival of West Bengal’s showpiece Presidency University (PU, estb. 1817) shortly after she ousted the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front government which had ruled the state for 34 years in the historic assembly […]
“We live in a country where the government is thinking hard over spending Rs.1 lakh crore to provide sufficient food, but easily spends Rs.5 lakh crore towards tax revision for corporates.” Binayak Sen, public health specialist and activist on the financial hurdles to Parliament passing the Food Security Bill (India Today, March 5)
Haryana will have a National Law University, sited in Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat. In all, 16 Bills, including the National Law University Haryana Bill, 2012, five amendment Bills relating to higher education and the Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2012, were passed on March 9, the concluding day of the […]
Mumbai-based Mexus Education Pvt. Ltd, the well-known education technology solutions provider, has partnered with the 45-schools strong St. Xavier’s Group in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to complement the learning environment and philosophy of the group. These schools have opted for technology integration to leverage the creativity of students through enabling learning environments transcending textbooks education.
Dr. Shekhar P. Seshadri, professor, NIMHANS, Bangalore with Prof. Anitha Kurup & R. Maithreyi, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
“…But a failure to equip minds with the skills for understanding and feeling and acting in the cultural world is not simply underscoring a pedagogical zero. It risks creating alienation, defiance, and practical incompetence. And all […]
Team Chronos — a quartet comprising Sumit Patil, Pulkit Agarwal, and Sohan Jawale, all fourth year mechanical engineering students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) and Tanuj Jhunjhunwala (third year) — has designed the prototype of an electric wheelchair which bagged the first prize for the most sustainable design in the Autodesk Sustainability […]
When was the last time you saw a child in your classroom ecstatic about having ‘discovered’ something, or ‘made’ something or even ‘reached at’ something? The chances are the answer would be, “can’t remember”. Sadly, that’s what school education has been reduced to, by some of its practitioners, i.e teachers.
With offshore oil exploration and production set to intensify, a huge demand for deep sea divers, who inspect, maintain and repair sub-sea installations, is on the cards
The workplace is deep underwater; the hours long requiring hanging by an umbilical cord-like link which supplies life-giving oxygen, and a connection with the world above. That’s perhaps why […]
I’m an engineering graduate working in an IT company for the past year. To improve my career prospects, should I do an MBA or Masters in engineering?
Sridhar Swamy, Chennai
An added technical qualification is a better option but finally the choice between M.Tech/ME and an MBA is personal. If you enjoy your current work and want […]
Renya Kikuchi and Masao Ishihara are the chairman and president of the Yokohama (Japan)-based Learning Systems Co Ltd (LSC, annual revenue: Rs.20 crore) which designs and markets customised STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) learning software, robotics kits and IT equipment. In 2010, it registered a subsidiary, LS Creative Learning Pvt. Ltd (LSCL) in Chennai.
An engineering postgraduate and business management graduate of Allahabad University and IASE (Institute of Advanced Studies in Education), Rajasthan, Joy Ghosh is vice president of the Delhi-based Edaxis Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. Prior to signing up with Edaxis in 2009, he was the Delhi-based deputy general manager of Everonn Systems (India) Ltd (2007-2009).
Mike Clark is managing director of Educational Cultural Exchanges (International) Ltd (ECE), a London-based company which offers educational travel programmes to children and youth worldwide. A business management graduate of Manchester University, Clark promoted Hospitality Line Ltd in 1990 after a 20-year corporate career in marketing and sales. In 2003, he acquired ECE and merged […]
Viral Parekh is the Mumbai-based program director (quality control) and general manager of India operations of the US-based American Institute of Enrichment LLC (AIE, estb.1997), which over the past 15 years has been providing a range of advisory services to over 900 schools in the southern and eastern states of USA.
One of the more positive developments of Indian education in the 21st century is the waning romance of the public with science or PCB (physics, chemistry, biology) subjects, and widening interest in the liberal arts and humanities. With Indian industry — including the media — experiencing an accentuating shortage of well-educated communicators, writers and journalists […]
Academics and scholars are unlikely to agree, but sport and physical education have the potential to strengthen the social fabric of nations and deepen bonds inter se. Therefore its important for political and academic leaders to review and revisit traditional attitudes towards sports education and acknowledge the role of sports and athletics towards building and […]
At least 75 alumni of law schools in the US have put their learning to use by suing their alma maters for allegedly inflating employment and salary data. One campaigner sees this as the first rumblings of a trend that could result in graduates demanding that universities keep their promises. For a long time, people […]
Africa is suffering a slave trade in education, the secretary general of the Association of African Universities told an international conference in late February. Olugbemiro Jegede, the founding vice chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, told delegates attending the Association of International Education Administrators conference in Washington DC, that universities in wealthy nations […]
No doubt about it. 1997 Booker prize winner (God of Small Things) Arundhati Roy is Indias finest exponent of long-form advocacy journalism. In numerous riveting 14-15 page essays for several periodicals, particularly the Delhi-based weekly Outlook, Roy has repeatedly exposed the infirmities of global and Indian capitalism and the self-serving machinations of India Incs leaders, […]
A girl student of Anna University was allegedly sexually assaulted on the varsity campus recently. The accused, a 37-year old man who sells biryani on .....Read More
According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report, skills such as Analytical thinking, resilience and flexibility are among the top competencies required in .....Read More
QES 2011 reflections
Dr. Shekhar P. Seshadri, professor, NIMHANS, Bangalore with Prof. Anitha Kurup & R. Maithreyi, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
“…But a failure to equip minds with the skills for understanding and feeling and acting in the cultural world is not simply underscoring a pedagogical zero. It risks creating alienation, defiance, and practical incompetence. And all […]