EducationWorld January 07

In a perfect world, sports coaches would be caring, considerate individuals who motivate and inspire children without resorting to screaming, put-downs, or humiliating criticism. In a perfect world, coaches would understand each child’s strengths, weaknesses, personality and then work out the best way to communicate with her to generate best results in performance and motivation. The great majority of coaches are this way. However, sometimes parents run into a coach whose idea of a motivational speech is something like, “Is that the best you wimps can do? What did I do to deserve this? With this kind of play, we might as well stop playing,” etc. Such coaches at best are abrasive; at worst, they can be verbally abusive. Verbally abusive coaches tend to offer more criticism than praise, stick derogatory adjectives onto players, compare them negatively with others and highlight shortcomings without offering solutions. Such coaches tend to focus on their pupils’ weaknesses to get them to perform better. There is an entire school of coaches who believe that throwing a challenge or undermining a child’s abilities will cause her to try harder to “prove you wrong”. If your child is bothered by a coach’s abrasive style, what are your options? If it’s someone who has been coaching for a while, it’s unlikely you will be able to do anything to change the coach’s behaviour. However, you can help your child understand and depersonalize his education style. This is important so that your child does not lose interest in a sport because of her coach’s behaviour. There could be several reasons why a coach adopts an aggressive and/ or abusive style. He could be ignorant of other ways of communication. Perhaps he was raised in a home where this was the style. Or maybe this is the way he himself was coached, and he is following in his coach’s footsteps, believing that “My coach treated me like this and I turned out okay, so I can treat my players the same way.” But what they aren’t aware is that kids have changed a lot over the years. What worked with yesterday’s children is unlikely to work today. Verbal abusers often behave the way they do to grab attention. Maybe the coach fears a ‘kinder, gentler’ style would be ignored by players, or wouldn’t fire them up to perform. Finally, there is the possibility that the coach just doesn’t like your child for some reason. Are there other players whom the coach does seem to like, or favour? If so, what are their personalities like? Do they stand up to him? Do they play better/harder/ with more passion when he yells at them? If so, then they are just feeding his belief that he’s doing his job the right way. Abrasive coaches seldom acknowledge their behaviour and sincerely believe that being hard on players is in the latters’ best interests. Moreover there’s no shortage of coaches who believe likewise. This makes eliminating verbal abuse a challenge. Regardless of whether it is a healthy…

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In August 2006 a Reuters Alertnet poll classified india as the most dangerous country for children. Two months later the Human Development Report 2006 ranked India one of the world’s worst providers for children. Unsparingly State of the World’s Children 2007 fingers India as the worst performer for under-five mortality rates. Dilip Thakore reports  The recently concluded year 2006 was marked by the publication of several well-documented studies by reputable international organisations highlighting the pathetic neglect of children’s education and welfare in developing countries of the third world — including fast-track, shining India — in agonizing detail. In August on the eve of the country’s 59th Independence Day celebrations marked by a spectacular avionics display of first strike capability of the Indian Air Force over the skies of New Delhi, came a Reuters Alertnet poll which classified India as the most dangerous country worldwide for children. Two months later the annual Human Development Report of UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) ranked India 126th in its international HDI (human development index), and one of the worst global performers in terms of nutrition, healthcare, water, sanitation and education provision for children.  Moreover unsparingly, the annual State of the World’s Children 2007 (SWC 2007) report released on December 12 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) ranks India the 54th worst performer worldwide in terms of under-5 mortality rates (74 per 1,000 cf. 4/1,000 in Sweden) and indicates that almost half (47 percent) of booming India’s children below five years of age — the global workforce of the 21st century — is moderately to severely underweight with an equal percentage (i.e 58 million children) moderately to severely stunted. Although presumably for reasons of diplomacy and political correctness SWC 2007 refrains from identifying and editorially criticising the world’s most child-hostile nations, it predicts that the developing countries of the third world are unlikely to fulfill their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) ratified by 192 countries (including India) or attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by all member nations of the United Nations at the Millennium Summit in September 2000 (see box p.58). However the statistical tables appended to SWC 2007 make it abundantly plain that in terms of the sheer number (if not percentage) of children deprived of essentials such as healthcare, education, formal identity and protection, or facing early marriage, and hazardous labour, India is the contemporary world’s worst offender. According to Unicef’s previous year’s report (SWC 2006) if the MDGs are met within the next decade, 300 million additional hitherto excluded children worldwide will have access to improved sanitation by 2015, 100 million to improved water sources, 60 million to adequate nutrition, 115 million to primary education and the lives of 5.5 million children will be saved in the year 2015 alone. But the report laments that at current rates of progress towards attaining the MDGs, 170 million children worldwide will remain deprived of sanitation, 70 million of safe drinking water, 50 million of adequate nutrition, 80 million of primary education and 3.8 million under-fives will die…

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In my last but one column, I wrote about fear of germs and viruses, immunity and learning to keep well naturally. Looking at disease and wellness from an alternate point of view was promised. From the time I first became aware that the medical fraternity doesn’t have all the answers, I began experimenting wellness with myself and my baby son almost 25 years ago. Instead of asking a doctor what to do (i.e asking for medication), I decided to put my faith in nature’s plan for perfection. Soon enough I realised that nature has its own prescription for healthy living. Way back then I decided to apply simple common sense rules to health and well-being issues instead of blindly following the quick but temporary relief offered by modern medicine. I remember when my son was two years old, a dear aunt of mine begged me to get a doctor to treat his diarrhoea and dehydration. From my study of nutrition and understanding of the disease process, it had become clear that diarrhoea and vomiting were a result of the body rejecting food. If the body is deprived of food for some time, it will heal naturally and get back to normal. But if stuffed with medicines and more food, the body rebels, which aggravates diarrhoea. The only thing to watch out for is dehydration. This can be prevented by ensuring that children sip nimbu-pani (lemon juice) with sugar and salt (raw sugar and rock salt preferably) at regular intervals. Later, the patient can be fed other liquids like fresh juices, coconut water and soups (without milk/cream/ butter). The mistake most people make is to panic if a child stops eating which is natural in the circumstances. Needless to say, because I followed this logic my son recovered soon. However, those who want to follow nature’s way must first understand their bodies, believe in nature’s wisdom, and learn about natural healing processes. My son, having experienced natural healing first-hand, has so much faith in nature that he refuses even natural medicine including home remedies. He has immense faith that his body will heal itself if he allows it to without hindrance. Certainly the tradition of fasting (cessation of food intake for a specified time and subsistence on water) is not new to Indians. When we fast the body’s reserves are used as energy and the body is allowed to rest and heal without interruption — digestion, assimilation, etc. In naturopathy fasting is trusted to cure many ailments and to detoxify the body. Although I’m not recommending fasting as a cure-all, its usefulness is well documented. It’s ideal when the body needs a break from food ingestion. Besides diarrhoea and vomiting, when we suffer from stomach aches or gas, instead of eating more, skipping a meal or two works wonders. One doesn’t need a doctor to understand this simple logic. Another circumstance in which a short fast of a day or so is essential is during pregnancy. Some pregnant women suffer terrible morning sickness, which simply…

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Letter from London  Spring cleaning preparations When prime minister Tony Blair was re-elected for his second term almost a decade ago, he famously declared “education, education, education” as his government’s top three priorities. Therefore it’s come as a shock to the public that significant numbers of children are still slipping through the secondary school system without adequate literacy and numeracy skills. The reaction from the government to this development is a promise to reshuffle the education system. Too many exams for pupils and overload of paperwork for teachers have been identified as the major problems of school education. The prime minister’s response was contained in a recent speech in which he mooted the idea of the International Baccalaureate exam replacing current secondary level exams. According to Blair, students should have the option of choosing between A-levels, the International Baccalaureate, new specialised diplomas, vocational qualifications or apprenticeships instead of being restricted to the traditional GCSEs and A level school-leaving exams. Although this different-strokes-for-different-folks proposal has been derided as a divisive “sheep and goats” approach in the past, public opinion is veering around to view that the spreading of options is the way forward. Nevertheless there’s still a question mark over the proposed diploma programmes which won’t be ready until 2008, and the general consensus is that International Baccalaureate is unlikely to spread beyond a tiny minority for many years. Meanwhile prime minister Blair’s designated successor Gordon Brown, who will move next door to 10, Downing Street next year, has called upon students to work harder, learn more and generally prepare to become competitive in the international marketplace. This is his prescription for genext to become better-qualified, wealthier and more efficient within the tried and tested school system. On the higher education front there’s growing awareness of the need to become more visible in the international market. To this end British universities are asking the chancellor to boost funding by at least 20 percent which will provide them an extra £1.3 billion which would help them admit 22,000 more students annually between 2008-2011 and help modernise ageing buildings and infrastructure. In any event from their next year’s allocation of £6.9 billion (Rs.58,600 crore), £738 million (Rs.6,273 crore) will be spent on buildings and infrastructure upgradation. This is just as well because the growth in higher education in the 1990s had been achieved at the expense of long-term investment in infrastructure. Now it’s time to match the facilities and infrastructure of British universities with our international competitors so that British graduates are well qualified and respected at home and abroad. Jacqueline Thomas is a London-based academic United States Student loan companies under scrutiny America’s $17 billion (Rs.75,600 crore) per year student-loan industry has come under scrutiny from the Democrats as they prepare to assume power in Congress. The industry, a longtime ally of the newly rejected Republican majority, has been accused of everything from bribing university officials to profiteering from government subsidies. The Democrats have called for the investigation of one loan company and for new…

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An India-based business process outsourcing project which is currently making big waves in the US is distance education, especially cost-effective private tuition delivered to American school kids online by Indian teachers. In particular the modestly priced ($99.99 per month) online tutoring services in maths, sciences and even English being provided to over 2,000 all-American students by the Bangalore-based TutorVista Pvt Ltd — promoted in 2005 by the serial entrepreneur K. Ganesh — has attracted serious media attention in the US. Major television networks and newspapers have provided extensive coverage of this mind-boggling role reversal of third world Indian teachers tutoring American students. And it’s a measure of the excitement that TutorVista has generated in the US that polymath entrepreneur-cum software designer-cum management expert Dr. John Stuppy has signed up with the company as its president and US-based chief executive. An alumnus of Stanford (biological sciences and education), University of Southern California (medicine), Kent College (management) and the University of California at Los Angeles (education policy), Stuppy is a model continuous learner who interrupted his formal education on several occasions to build one of the first ever personal computers (1976) and promote and operationalise a medical practice management software company which he sold for $3 million in 1988. In the late 1980s after reading management guru Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence, he developed an interest in measuring education inputs and outcomes and signed up to write his doctoral thesis on the subject at UCLA. Subsequently in the mid 1990s before the height of the dotcom boom Stuppy was among the first pioneers to register patents for internet-based distance learning software and developed a web-based system for tutoring. Thereafter he worked with several of the largest American companies in the education space including Sylvan Learning, ETS, STI and The Princeton Review prior to signing up with TutorVista recently. “Our goal is to develop a large pool of experienced educators who will provide interactive tuition to students anywhere in the world at a standard affordable price,” he says. According to Stuppy, TutorVista which already has a pool of 250 experienced teachers well-trained in the art of delivering tuition online — of whom 90 percent are India based — has infinite capacity for expansion of operations and global reach. Currently the company has over 2,000 students in 13 countries around the world including the US, UK, Canada, Turkey, Australia and China. By June next year, Stuppy expects the number of students enrolled with the company for personalised online tutoring to rise to 10,000. Unsurprisingly, Stuppy believes that the sky’s the limit for TutorVista in terms of business potential and growth, particularly since he has come aboard to lead the company’s charge in the US and European markets where private tuition is typically priced at $45 per hour as against TutorVista’s $99.99 per month for unlimited tutoring. “My forecast is that in the near future online tutoring will become like cable television — factored into family budgets and on call whenever needed. The implications of this development for…

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Your Counsellor RepliesI‚m in Plus Two (science) and would like to acquire an engineering degree. Please advise which specialisation I should opt for.Ravi Pillai, CochinAfter class XII you should write a pan-India engineering college entrance exam ‚ the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination, the All India Engineering Entrance Examination or a state-level admission test. Depending on your ranking in the entrance exam, you will be offered a seat in one of your chosen specialisations. If you are good at computer science, this is a promising specialisation with enormous possibilities, both in software and hardware. But a very high entrance test rank is required for entry into computer science faculties.Moreover there are excellent job opportunities for electronics and communication engineers in the field of telecommunications and in companies dealing in design, production and application of electronic equipment. Mechanical engineers are in demand in almost every industry. In short, prospects are good for all qualified engineers.I‚m in Plus Two (arts) and want to pursue a bachelor of mass media (BMM) study programme with advertising as a specialisation. What are my job prospects after graduation?Anita Rane, PuneAfter completing BMM, you can work in advertising agencies ‚ either in copywriting or client servicing ‚ depending upon your skills and aptitude. If you are interested in a wider range of jobs in advertising or corporate communications, you should enroll in a postgraduate programme in communications management at institutions such as the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (www.mica-india.net); Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune (www.simc.edu) or sign up for an MBA in marketing. Any of these postgrad courses can be pursued after a bachelor‚s degree, not necessarily BMM.After completing my final year B.Com I want to train as an actuary. Please provide information on study programmes and job prospects.Satish Agarwal, MumbaiYou have to be at least 18 years of age with an aptitude for mathematics and statistics to qualify as an actuary. The Actuarial Society of India, 302 Indian Globe Chambers, 142 Fort Street, off DN Road, Mumbai 400 001 (www.actuariesindia.org) offers actuarial training. Usually, first class graduates or postgrads in mathematics, statistics or economics find it easier to qualify as actuaries. The more visible areas in which actuarial skills are applied include life insurance, retirement provision, healthcare financing, investment banking and short-term insurance. Actuaries work in many areas that directly benefit the public, including life and non-life insurance, pension funds, savings banks, capital projects, investment, healthcare and risk management. Actuarial calculations and projections form the foundation of the insurance and financial security industries. Prospects are also multiplying in insurance intermediaries, pension providers, teaching, financial analysis and risk management. After finishing my B.Sc in 2007, I would like to qualify as an air traffic controller (ATC). Please advise.Sridhar Raghavan, BangaloreAs a science graduate you are eligible to apply for the post of ATC with the Airports Authority of India or join the Indian Navy‚s (www.navsena-bharti.nic.in) short service commission in the Air Traffic Control Cadre (vision should be 6/9 correctable to 6/6), or the Indian Air Force (www.careerairforce. nic.in).…

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With the paint industry growing twice as fast as India‚s GDP and the automobile and construction industries on a roll, job opportunities for qualified paint technologists are multiplying With the infrastructure and construction industries belatedly gathering unprecedented momentum, India‚s booming paints manufacturing and service industry (annual sales: Rs.4,900 crore), offers great career opportunities, particularly for paint technologists. Set to take off in a big way (India‚s per capita consumption of paint is less than 1 kg against more than 25-30 kg in developed countries), the paint industry is expected to show at least twice the growth of India‚s GDP in coming years.Any surface ‚ metallic or otherwise ‚ needs a protective coating, referred to as ‚Ëœpaint technology application‚. This consists of a combination of processes: chemical treatment followed by a decorative layer (paint). Paint technology entails understanding the chemistry of each ingredient (including resin, polymers and pigments) constituting paint. The job of paint technologists is to formulate paints for differing needs and requirements. For instance, paints used for aircraft vary from those used for motor cars and in domestic households. Paint technologists formulate appropriately mixed paints and resin (a raw material) for the purpose of new product development, product upgradation, and new applications development.Paint technologists can choose to work in any of the following departments of paint manufacturing companies: research and development (for which one needs an M.Tech); production, marketing and as technical assistants/ executives who work on clients‚ sites.With the automobile and construction industries on a roll, job opportunities for qualified technologists have multiplied. They are much required by paint manufacturing companies; the auto industry; furniture manufacturers; and associated raw material and allied industries (e.g pigment/ extender manufacturers, resin/ polymer or additive suppliers). With professional paint technologists in short supply, pay packets are getting fatter, varying with size of employer companies. The minimum start-up pay is around Rs.1.75-2 lakh per annum. The Armed Forces are also big employers of paint technologists.The best paint technologists are chemical engineering graduates of one of the 17 National Institutes of Technology (formerly the Regional Engineering Colleges) or the globally renowned Indian Institutes of Technology at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras; Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University; Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. Other institutes offering B.Tech degrees in paint technology are Fergusson College, Pune; Institute of Chemical Technology, Bombay; University Dept. of Chemical Technology (UDCT), Mumbai. Moreover the Garware Institute of Career Education and Development, Mumbai offers a diploma programme in paint application technology. Most universities offer an M.Sc programme in polymer technology which is also useful.”The paint industry has witnessed increased activity particularly in the industrial paints segments with the entry of MNCs in the automobiles, consumer durables and construction industries. Simultaneously public awareness of the corrosion-resistant qualities of paint is increasing, which is a huge boost to this industry. To keep pace with demand, there‚s need for many more paint technologists and companies special-ising in this field have to raise…

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Worldwide an estimated 9 million people are dyslexic. In India an estimated 2 million children are severely dyslexic, and another 3 million mildly or moderately so. The word ‘dyslexia’ is of Greek origin, meaning difficulty with words or language. It includes difficulty in learning to read and write — particularly in spelling correctly and expressing thoughts on paper. It could also involve directional problems, e.g distinguishing between right and left, and following instructions. The symptoms are diverse and do not afflict an individual simultaneously. However contrary to popular belief, dyslexia is not synonymous with poor intelligence, although an individual with low intelligence can also be dyslexic. The most distinctive feature of dyslexia is that a child’s reading and writing skills are not commensurate with her all-round intellectual ability. Dyslexia is life-long, but its effects can be minimised by targeted literacy intervention, technological support and adaptations to ways of working and learning. Dyslexia varies in severity and often occurs alongside other specific learning difficulties, such as dyspraxia or attention deficit disorder, resulting in variation in the degree and nature of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Reassuringly, quite a few famous high achievers were diagnosed as dyslexic: Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise, Richard Branson, Duncan Goodhew, Whoopi Gold-berg, John Lennon, Susan Hampshire, Anthea Turner, Steven Spielberg,  Cher, Agatha Christie, Walt Disney, Jamie Oliver. Which goes to show that dyslexia is not a disabling handicap. The affliction tends to run in families, with the latest scientific research showing that dyslexia is a genetic, neurological condition. But along with its difficulties can be found real strengths, including problem-solving skills and enhanced creativity. Dyslexia cannot be cured, but it needn’t be a life sentence. With appropriate support, many difficulties can be overcome, allowing strengths to shine through. Therefore dyslexia-friendly schools will go a long way in helping children with learning difficulties grow up into confident adults. While most schools in India don’t have the resources to be dyslexia-friendly, Goa, arguably India’s most well-educated state, has three such institutions — Manovikas School, Sharada Mandir School and Vidya Vikas Academy. These schools demand excellence from their students and support them by linking new ideas with traditional values. The schools’ culture is ‘zero tolerance’ of failure. But this is not an aggressive response; it’s more of ‘tough love’. There is high awareness among teachers of what each student should be able to achieve, together with a range of response strategies when targets are not met. The staff are proactively led to demand excellence, and take action when targets are not met. The ethos is: “if children don’t learn the way we teach, we will teach them the way they learn”. All these schools engage in teacher delivered diagnostic assessments when good practice in the classroom fails to secure progress, rather than rely on referrals to the school counsellor. Therefore the delay between identification and response is minimal, and results in action in the classroom in the first instance. Many perceived learning difficulties respond well to classroom based fine-tuning delivered by dyslexia-aware class and subject teachers.…

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To many, and not just Greenpeace activists and protectionist trade unions, WTO (World Trade Organisation) and GATS (General Agreement for Trade in Services) represent forums for aggressive G-8 countries to dominate investment and trade relations with developing countries. Colonialism and the cold war have ended, but not the aspirations of former imperialist powers to exploit the resources of developing nations of the southern hemisphere popularly known as the South. Small concessions were extracted in the WTO parleys in Doha in 2001, and their nuances are being debated ad infinitum. But the fundamental problem is that the proposed free market trade is being transacted between unequals with the industralised nations of the North enjoying an upper hand over the have-nots of the South. This is particularly true of GATS negotiations relating to FDI (foreign direct investment) in higher education. The first inequality is the availability of, and access to higher education. In India, one of the major reasons why the tertiary enrollment ratio (the proportion of college youth aged 17-23 in tertiary education) is a mere 11 percent, is the paucity of higher education institutions in rural areas. Rural youth who complete their class XII exams find it difficult and expensive to migrate to cities to attend college, and most don’t make the trip. Therefore in effect, university education is accessible only to urban school leavers. In developed countries, colleges, or at least junior colleges and technical institutes are accessible in the countryside. But the greying population of these countries has resulted in lower enrollments and their universities are looking for foreign students to fill classrooms. If under GATS these universities enter India, they will set up campuses in urban centres, where college entrants are plentiful, and rural areas will continue to remain starved of tertiary institutions. The second inequality is standards and pricing of higher education. Apart from a handful of IIMs, IITs and private institutions, much of the higher education available in India is of woeful standard. Because foreign institutions establishing shop in India will offer higher standard education improving chances of employability, students will be attracted to these offshore campuses. However this education won’t be cheap and again it will only be affluent urban students who will be able to afford their fees. If FDI is freely permitted in tertiary education as advocated by the Union commerce ministry, many Indian private institutions, especially private deemed universities, will tie up franchise agreements with foreign education providers. In this scenario, there will be little FDI invested by the latter as the Indian partner will provide the infrastructure and most faculty. Moreover typically, the foreign university will be a second or third tier institution (as defined in the annual ranking of US universities by US News & World Report) with the partners sharing the spoils without any significant FDI inflow. The third extant inequality which is certain to be exacerbated, relates to the quality and remuneration of academics. To keep operating costs down, the foreign university will deploy contract faculty from the foreign country.…

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Ranked among the top ten of Tamil Nadu’s 225 engineering colleges and third in Chennai based on Anna University exam results, SEC is distinguished by its value-added engineering education Sprawled over 200 acres of landscaped gardens with a scenic lotus pond as its epicentre, the Sai Ram Group of 12 education institutions in the West Tambaram suburb of Chennai, offer a unique — by Indian standards — campus. Promoted by Melvin Jones Fellow, Lion (MJF. Ln) Leo Muthu, a successful Chennai-based real estate tycoon and industry leader, the Sai Ram Group (SRG) comprises a dozen educational institutions including the Sai Ram Matriculation School; Sri Sai Ram Engineering College (which also houses the Sai Ram Polytechnic, Sai Ram Institute of Computer Applications and Institute of Management Studies); three siddha, ayurveda and homoeopathy medical colleges in Chennai; the Shirdi Sai Engineering College, Bangalore; an ITI in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu; four teacher training institutes (two in Chennai, one each in Pondicherry and Madurai) and the Sai Ram College of Education, Pondicherry. Though Muthu expresses satisfaction with the evolution and development of all SRG institutions which are administered by the Sapthagiri Educational Trust (estb. 1995), he acknowledges that the Sri Sai Ram Engineering College (SEC) — the flagship institution of the group — promoted in 1995, has earned the best reputation for delivering high quality technical education to rural and urban students in the state. Within a short time span of 11 years, the college, affiliated to the Chennai-based umbrella Anna University, has received the ISO 9001:2000 certification from Bureau Veritas International and all its engineering programmes have been accredited by the National Board of Accreditation of the Delhi-based All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Ranked among the top ten of Tamil Nadu’s 225 engineering colleges and third in Chennai, based on Anna University examination results, SEC is well-known for developing outstanding young achievers who have won national and international awards for socially relevant projects and inventions. SEC inducts 600 students annually and offers six undergraduate and two postgraduate programmes. Currently it has 2,012 students instructed by a team of 175 well-qualified faculty on its muster rolls. Student counsellors are appointed for every group of 12 students, to aid and advise undergrad students in particular. “Our focus is on promoting learning beyond textbooks. Therefore classroom instruction is supplemented with guest lectures, seminars, frequent visits to industry establishments for in-plant training, industry-oriented project work and active participation in student chapters of ISTE and the Computer Society of India (CSI). This comprehensive curriculum ensures that students are abreast with latest developments in technology and are well-equipped to meet industry requirements when they enter their workplaces,” says Dr. S. Seetharaman, principal of SEC who has over 35 years experience in teaching, research and consultancy in academia in India and abroad. A tour of the spacious SEC campus indicates that the management has pulled out all stops in providing state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities for students. The college’s air-conditioned, fully computerised and wi-fi enabled library with separate reference and reading sections sprawls…

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The 3rd India & International Premier Schools Exhibition (IIPSE) bandwagon is all set to roll through six Indian cities — Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Ranchi and Patna — starting with a pre-event mega conference titled Premier Schools Conference on February 2 at the Taj Bengal, Kolkata. ‘Building global learning communities through leadership and technology,’ will be the theme of this conference which will be attended by 250 delegates comprising school principals, managing trustees, owners, administrators, teachers and other stakeholders in education. “The objective of the pre-event conference is to provide educators a common platform to share knowledge, build pathways, debate innovations and teaching methodologies and reinvent Indian school education. Eminent speakers from the school education fraternity will share their knowledge and experience,” says Sanjiv Bolia, chief executive of Afairs, a Kolkata-based education fairs promotion firm (estb: 1993) which has staged 80 successful school fairs across India during the past 13 years. According to Bolia, IIPSE has grown into the “biggest scholastic event of its kind in India” and offers a unique interface between schools, parents and service providers. The 3rd IIPSE will be staged in Kolkata (February 3-5), Ranchi (February 7-8), Patna (February 11-12), Hyderabad (February 17-18), Ludhiana (February 21-22) and Ahmedabad (February 24-25). The 3rd IIPSE has the University of Cambridge International Examinations as its platinum sponsor and the Indian Public Schools Conference as its support partner. BIFS mental health study programme The Birla Institute of Futuristic Studies (BIFS), Kolkata has introduced a six month diploma programme in mental healthcare for corporate executives, personality trainers, grooming experts, elderly citizens, NGO and hospital workers and school and college teachers, among others. Graduates of any stream are eligible to enroll for this part-time diploma programme. “Individuals are given training in calming down suicidal or over-aggressive people and to manage stress, anger and improve interpersonal communication skills,” says a BIFS spokesperson. Established in 1998 BIFS also offers diploma programmes in tea and hospital management, photography, public relations and advertising. KLP off to a smooth start An innovative public-private initiative, the Karnataka Learning Partnership (KLP) — a joint programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (Education for All) and Akshara Foundation, Bangalore — released its first formal report on December 15. The focus of this partnership is to improve learning outcomes of primary school children. The first phase of KLP which covers 1,200 schools with an aggregate enrollment of 70,000 children and complement of 3,500 teachers spanning the period July-November 2006 was recently concluded. The first KLP report provides details of its Accelerated Reading Programme (ARP). KLP’s baseline test was administered in all 1,410 government primary schools in Bangalore urban district. Out of the enrolled strength of 185,952 children in classes II-VII, 176,235 children attended the baseline test — nearly 95 percent of all enrolled children. According to KLP’s first report, 64 percent of children in the Bangalore urban district who were in the zero letter or word categories, i.e ‘non-readers’, have been converted into readers following implementation of the ARP. Only 2 percent of children continued to…

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Delhi Murky imbroglio In what could be regarded as Union human resource development minister Arjun Singh’s finest hour in Indian politics, Parliament passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006 on December 14 in the Lok Sabha and four days later in the Rajya Sabha. The Act provides for reservation of 27 percent seats for OBCs (other backward classes) in over 100 Central government sponsored higher education institutions. With this legislation total capacity reservation in Central institutions has risen to 49 percent, from 22 percent for SCs (scheduled castes — 15 percent) and STs (scheduled tribes — 7 percent). Capacity expansion under the new Act will be implemented over three years beginning this academic year in July/August as per the recommendation of the Oversight Committee chaired by senior Congress leader and former Karnataka CM, Veerappa Moily. The price tag: Rs.17,000 crore. However as per the Moily Committee’s formula, the existing capacity for general category (i.e merit) students won’t be affected as new capacity will be added to accommodate OBCs. The septuagenarian Arjun Singh, who had been struggling to retain his portfolio following dismal performance as education minister has with this master stroke bolstered his own and perhaps the Congress party’s electoral future. On December 18, perhaps for the first time after he set the ball rolling for OBC reservations last May, the nation got to hear his views while he responded to a five-and-a-half hour debate in Parliament. “India is an ancient civilization and a modern nation of 60 years. In between these two are 2,000 years of history. We have to proceed with caution if we are to set right all the wrongs of history. This Bill is one small effort and not the end of the matter,” he said, receiving obvious support from the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Moreover responding to opposition criticism to the Bill exempting minority-promoted higher education institutions from its purview, Singh said that doing so would require a prior constitutional amendment. He also made plain his intention to bring private unaided colleges and deemed universities under the new legislation through an ordinance and force them to reserve 27 percent capacity for OBCs. The ordinance, if it comes through, will compel all higher educational institutions in the country to reserve 27 percent of seats for OBC students from this academic year (2007-2008). Not doing so, he says will give rise to “a suspicion in the public mind that the delay in policy formulation was engineered to permit private institutions to make windfall profits at least for one academic year.” Meanwhile the passage of the Bill through Parliament hasn’t fazed students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who were in the vanguard of anti-reservation protests last May. On the day the Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha, AIIMS students commenced a relay hunger strike, which will continue until the reservation case comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court in early January. “The Jessica Lall verdict…

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I don’t agree with the many etiquette experts you have interviewed in the cover story ‘Where have good manners gone?’ of the latest issue (EW December). According to them manners are culturally defined and hence country-specific. I disagree. Good manners are universal and transcend national, cultural and religious barriers. For example letting pedestrians especially women, children and the aged cross the road is good manners. In India my experience has been that no automobile or two-wheeler driver stops to let pedestrians cross over, instead they speed their vehicles. In the West pedestrians get the first right of way. The experts are defending the indefensible. My advice to them is to shed hypocrisy and admit that Indians are globally infamous for their bad manners. Culture has nothing to do with it; it’s all about education. Seldom do schools or colleges in India pay attention to inculcation of good manners and life skills in students. If we want well-mannered citizens with kindness and consideration, we must make sure we catch ’em young. Anita Swaminathan Chennai Compelling reading Thank you for the marvellous December issue of EducationWorld. Your cover story ‘Where have good manners gone?’ and the special report ‘India’s budding home schooling movement’ covered uncharted territory and made compelling reading. It is so true that the manners of homo sapiens indicus â€” particularly the male of the species — are appalling and in urgent need of correction. I wish you had focussed more on the disgraceful behaviour of Indian males towards women on an everyday basis, and upon the contempt that the middle classes routinely display towards the poor and people below them in the social hierarchy. The revolt of Dalits convul-sing Maharashtra currently has a lot to do with the sheer bad manners and “contumely” of the me-first, shoving, pushing and grabbing middle classes towards the socially disadvantaged. If India is not to go up in flames, it’s very impor-tant for schools to begin teaching good manners and conduct right from kindergarten as they used to in the old days. I also enjoyed reading your special report on India’s nascent home schooling movement. With pupil-teacher ratios in private schools rising year by year and government schools shunned by even the poorest households, the home schooling movement is certain to grow. But as Summiya Yasmeen warns, home schooling requires great dedication and commitment from parents. It’s not an easy fix. EducationWorld has matured into an excellent global standard publication. Keep up the good work! Tara Alimchandani Mumbai Business mag bias I enjoyed reading your cover story ‘Where have good manners gone?’ (EW December). It focusses on an important issue, although it states some harsh truths and holds up an ugly mirror to Indians who are generally hated worldwide for their hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness. However your brilliant analysis attributing the “national manners deficit” to communists and socialism is a bit over the top. In reality, India’s communists typified by Jyoti Basu and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya are infinitely more refined than politicians descended from money-lenders and traders who are the greatest contributors…

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A curious miasma of public indifference and official lethargy continues to prevent resolution of the half century old Indo-Pak dispute over the status of Kashmir. Although telling it like it is will certainly raise the hackles of this country’s ubiquitous tribe of supra nationalists and fellow travellers, there’s a growing mountain of evidence which indicates that greater efforts are being made in Islamabad than in Delhi to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio which has bedeviled Indo-Pak relations ab initio after the two nations suffered bloody partition in 1947 and provoked an open, continuous and uninterrupted arms race in the sub-continent which neither nation can remotely afford. Undoubtedly the latest four point proposal made on December 5 by President Mussharaf to discuss the grant of substantial internal governance autonomy to a united Kashmir with defence and foreign affairs jointly supervised by Pakistan and India represents a new initiative which should be welcomed. It is considerably removed from Pakistan’s traditional insistence upon a plebiscite in Pakistan-held Azad Kashmir and the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to determine whether the people of the disputed territory wish to accede to India or Pakistan. This new proposal is not an obiter dicta but a deliberate break from the negotiation position of the past half century as indicated by the insistent statement made on December 11 by Pakistan foreign affairs spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. According to Aslam, independence of Kashmir according to the wishes of the people of the territory is the primary objective of Pakistan and that it has never been Pakistan’s claim that this erstwhile Hindu princely state with a Muslim majority should merge with it. While there is no gainsaying that there is considerable sophistry in this claim, there can be no doubt that read together with President Musharraf’s new proposal, the two statements represent a determined and commendable effort to break the Kashmir logjam which is the condition precedent of peace in the Indian subcontinent. On the other hand the exaggerated caution and tepidity with which South Block which houses the Union ministry of external affairs, has reacted to this new proposal, is deplorable and indicative of the obstinate and obdurate mindset of the Indian Foreign Service establishment which has prevented post-independence India from reaping the peace dividend for over half a century. The UPA government at the Centre led by reformist Dr. Manmohan Singh, if not the IFS establishment, urgently needs to heed the Kennedyesque injunction to never negotiate out of fear but never fear to negotiate. Therefore New Delhi should lose no further time to respond to the new initiative from Islamabad by getting back to the negotiating table. Alacrity of response and bona fide efforts to resolve the burdensome Kashmir imbroglio are urgently needed on both sides of the border so that one wasted generation later, the new generation in both neighbouring countries languishing at the bottom of global human development indices tables can look forward to reaping the elusive peace dividend promised to the people way back in 1947. Urgent need for criminal law reform…

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In the last month of a given year news publications and television channels go to town choosing their citizens of the year. As a relatively new periodical charting unfamiliar territory — the vast neglected spaces of Indian education which mirror every social injustice this misgoverned nation is heir to — we haven’t yet ventured to select the educationist of the year. Therefore it’s perhaps appropriate that our very first issue of the new year 2007, fetes and celebrates India’s best school teachers selected through an elaborate and painstaking procedure. I am aware that to describe the teachers who grace this issue’s cover as the country’s best could be construed as exaggeration or hype. I’m sure there are others as — if not more — meritorious, working unsung across this huge subcontinent who have not been nominated or who have not stepped forward to detail their best practices and classroom innovations for the TCS-EducationWorld Teachers Awards which were instituted two years ago. Nevertheless I’m sure that they and their champions will appreciate that stepping forward for assessment is the condition precedent of these awards. In terms of number and points of origin the nominations received in 2006 were encouraging. The 25,000 teacher nominations we received constituted a vast improvement over the 3,000 received in 2005, although they are a mere sub-fraction of the aggregate teacher population countrywide estimated at 5 million. Now with this publication all set to rev up into campaign mode and establish a more high-profile market presence in the new year, we hope that the very best and brightest school teachers countrywide will be nominated for the Tata Consultancy Services-EducationWorld Teachers Awards 2007. Let’s make it happen! This is not to say that the quality and calibre of the TCS-EW award winners and finalists was in any way deficient. If you read our cover story in this issue you will be elated by learning about the classroom innovations and best practices of dedicated teachers across the country — despite generally unsupportive work environments. Such educationists who are ready to continuously learn and pass on their learning to students, so children’s passage through school becomes an exciting and fulfilling experience, need all the encouragement and support they can get. And I am particularly satisfied that Tata Consultancy Services, India’s No.1 information technology and knowledge company, has partnered with us to encourage the hitherto insufficiently appreciated and neglected teachers community to give of its best. Unlike the great majority of leaders of Indian industry, S. Ramadorai chief executive of TCS can — and does — connect the dots which link foundational education with industry productivity. Hence the partnership. However notwithstanding some silver lining, Indian education has a long way to go. Reading our special report in this eve-of-Republic Day issue will enlighten you about the scale of neglect and deprivation which the world’s largest child population silently and uncomplainingly suffers. I won’t be celebrating Republic Day.  Dilip Thakore

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