EducationWorld July 08

Several years ago I wrote in EducationWorld about an inspiring lady who worked with me in my organic foods retail store. Although unschooled and illiterate she was an amazing worker, always ready to give her best without complaining, always smiling and cheerful. Fittingly she now earns six times what she was earning when she first signed up with me.Moreover since then she has learnt to travel wherever we need her to go, can match labels with products better than literate co-workers, operates the manual sealing machine efficiently, is never late, dresses in lovely colours, and suffers the slings and arrows of fortune, which Indias neglected poor are heir to, with exemplary fortitude. Thus she has taken one daughters elopement and anothers spinsterhood in her stride, adopted a relatives orphaned son to add to her three girls family, and copes with a husband who rarely works in the house. What I had written about this special lady earlier in EW was the way she carried herself. She never slouches and her walk can put a fashion model to shame. This despite a very spare and minimal diet. So minimal that often shed (to save money) skip lunch. Disturbed by her doing this regularly, I had to give her an ultimatum to eat or quit. She was my first woman employee; the other few employees were men. Now that Conscious Foods has been corporatised and become much larger, it has signed on several women who sort, clean, pack and deliver the products to retail shops and directly to customers homes. Amazingly all of them have the same qualities in equal or lesser measure — a cheerful attitude despite their daily regimen of simple meals, long cramped travel, eight hours of work followed by work at home, queues for water and toilets, unhygienic surroundings, hand to mouth existence and loans to pay off. Now that I am no longer actively engaged with retailing and involved in the growth of organic farm produce near Mumbai, once again my faith in the women of India has been reaffirmed. I still cant help being struck by their poise, deportment, courage, and cheerful optimism, notwithst-anding their frugal diets and hard lives. Yes, clean air is a contributing factor to their well-being and high energy. But as I get to know rural women I have begun to notice how much the women who work with me in Mumbai and these women of village Zurad, Raigad district, have in common. Living on the edge, and exposed to the elements makes them strong, fearless and confident. Their proximity and dependence on Mother Earth, their limited desires and respect for nature distinguishes them from urban middle class women hopelessly dependent upon fragile support systems, who fear the very luxuries that they cannot do without. In rural India where cooking gas, potable water, electricity, kerosene, and even modern sanitation are luxuries, women learn to minimise their wants and value basic support systems. Moreover its quite remarkable how village women use available resources…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Every weekday, 300 boys gather in a gym on Chicagos South Side. They are all black. More than 80 percent are poor. Over the past few weeks Chicago has seen a surge in gang violence. But here boys stand in straight lines. Each wears a blazer and a red tie. And in unison they begin to shout their creed: We believe. We are the young men of Urban Prep. We are college-bound.Urban Prep Charter Academy opened in 2006, part of an effort to bring 100 new schools to Chicagos bleakest areas by 2010. Richard Daley, the citys mayor, announced Renaissance 2010 (‘Ren 10) in 2004; Chicagos business leaders created the Renaissance Schools Fund (RSF) to help support it. Backers of this ambitious scheme hope it will spur competition across school districts. On May 6 RSF held a conference to discuss the new market for public education. At the core of Ren 10 is the desire to welcome education entrepreneurs, as RSF calls them. Ren 10 lets them start schools and run them mostly as they choose (for example, with longer days and, in some cases, their own salary structure); it also sets the standards they must meet. Schools receive money on a per pupil basis, and may raise private funds as well. Chicago is not the only city to pair autonomy with accountability. New Yorks school chief, for example, wants to characterise the whole city system. In Chicago, Ren 10 is opening charter schools and trying to bring their flexibility to two new models: ‘performance schools, where teachers are unionised, and ‘contract schools which may hire non-union teachers but must still abide by some district rules. The first step is to identify the seeds of a good school. Leaders in Chicagos Office of New Schools (ONS) and in RSF recommend Ren 10s methods for doing so, which include reviews by local parents, educators and national experts. Ren 10 offers many kinds of schools (ONS even hopes to open boarding schools), but good ones share common traits. The most important, argues Josh Edelman, the head of ONS, are strong leaders, neighbourhood outreach and a rigorous curriculum based on a clear mission. Urban Prep is structured around the goal of helping local boys, admitted by lottery, to get to college. Longer school days give teachers more time to help boys catch up. Being a pupil is each boys ‘job. RSF chooses schools that seem most likely to succeed, then gives them up to $500,000 (Rs.2.6 crore) over 30 months. So far the group has raised $44 million (Rs.185 crore). Increasingly, RSF looks for those with sound management and plans to use data to improve performance (Urban Prep tests students every six weeks). After five years ONS will assess each new school to judge whether to renew its contract. So far 55 schools have opened: 32 charter campuses, 19 performance schools and four contract schools. As Ren 10 moves towards its goal of 100 (and perhaps beyond), it will be a continuing challenge…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

An academic is pursuing a last-ditch appeal against a sentence of 150 lashes and eight months in prison for meeting a woman at a coffee shop in Saudi Arabia. Muhammad Ali Abu Raziza, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Um al-Qura in Mecca, was convicted of the Islamic law offence of khilwa — being found in the company of a member of the opposite sex who is not an immediate relative.According to Amnesty International, which has launched a second appeal on the lecturers behalf after a previous attempt failed, Dr. Ali Abu Raziza believed that the student would be accompanied by a chaperone when he met the woman. It believes that he may have been the victim of entrapment by students who are members of the countrys religious police. According to reports, Dr. Ali Abu Raziza had upset a number of students during an argument in one of his classes. When a number of them failed to pass their final exams, he received a phone call from a woman asking him to meet her at a coffee shop earlier this year to discuss a problem. He is said to have agreed on the condition that she brought a male guardian, but when he arrived he found her waiting alone. Comments Tim Hancock, Amnesty Internationals UK campaign director: No one should face punishment — let alone 150 lashes — simply for meeting a person of the opposite sex. Were calling on the Mecca governor to ensure that neither the flogging nor the imprisonment is carried out. If he is imprisoned, we would most certainly consider him a prisoner of conscience. Dr. Ali Abu Raziza was originally sentenced in March; that was upheld on appeal by the Mecca Court of Cassation at the end of April. He has been suspended from teaching and is barred from other jobs that involve direct contact with members of the public. According to an Amnesty International spokesperson Prince Khalid Al-Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the governor of Mecca province, is currently deciding whether the sentence will be carried out.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Tradition has it that boys are good at counting and girls are good at reading. So much so that Mattel once produced a talking Barbie doll whose stock of phrases included Math class is tough!Dr. Luigi Guiso of the European University Institute in Florence and his colleagues have just published the results of a study which suggests that culture explains most of the difference in maths, at least. In the end May issue of Science, they show that the gap in mathematics scores between boys and girls virtually disappears in countries with high levels of sexual equality, though the reading gap remains. Dr. Guiso took data from the 2003 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment. Some 276,000 15-year-olds from 40 countries sat the same maths and reading tests. The researchers compared the results, by country, with each other and with a number of different measures of social sexual equality. One measure was the World Economic Forums gender-gap index, which reflects economic and political opportunities, education and well-being for women. Another was based on an index of cultural attitudes towards women. A third was the rate of female economic activity in a country, and the fourth measure looked at womens political participation. On average, girls maths scores were, as expected, lower than those of boys. However, the gap was largest in countries with the least equality between the sexes (by any score), such as Turkey. It vanished in countries such as Norway and Sweden, where the sexes are more or less on a par. Average reading scores were higher for girls than for boys in all countries. But in more equal societies not only were the girls as good at maths as the boys, their advantage in reading had increased.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

An injection of millions of dollars to overhaul outdated and inadequate university infrastructure has been announced in Australia. The one-off sum of A$ 500 million (Rs.2,050 crore) was awarded in the new Labour governments first budget presented in May. It was billed as a fund to rebuild campuses after 11 years of neglect.The funds are an unexpected windfall, and the move is seen as an early dividend of a much-expanded public endowment that has been set aside to support the sector. The government says it will add A$ 5 billion to the existing Higher Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) to create a new Education Investment Fund (EIF) worth A$ 11 billion (Rs.45,100 crore). Meanwhile the A$ 500 million, which is to be made available immediately to improve student amenities, libraries, laboratories and lecture halls, has won enthusiastic response. Comments Margaret Gardner, vice-chancellor of RMIT University (formerly the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology): We are unlikely to see vice-chancellors dancing in the streets — that would be too scary — but well be dancing privately in our offices and lounge rooms. However, this delight is tempered by concern in some quarters that a disproportionate amount of the money will go to the countrys large, research-intensive institutions. Greg Hill, vice-chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, says the $ 2.3 million his institution received compares unfavourably with $ 35.2 million (Rs.144 crore) given to the University of Sydney. While the new fund is far larger, and the government has scrapped an annual cap that limited spending to the previous funds income from interest, the range of potential recipients has also expanded to include research organisations and vocational educational and training institutions. Says Ian Young, vice-chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology: Theres a real risk that funds will be spread too thinly. A universities lobby group has called on the government to guarantee that higher education will end up with at least the A$ 6 billion originally promised in the HEEF. Whatever the outcome, they can bank on receiving the A$ 304 million allocated in the first round of grants next year, prior to the transition to the new EIF system.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

It is perhaps the hardest reform of all. pension systems or energy shortages can be fixed by cutting entitlements or spending more. But no amount of money can in itself make a million qualified teachers materialise in less than a generation. That is the aim of the Alliance for Educational Quality launched by Felipe Calderon, Mexicos president, in May. To signal its importance, he gathered together much of his cabinet for the signing ceremony on May 15. The document his pen hovered over was not a new law, but rather an agreement with Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the national teachers union.Ms. Gordillo is a powerful political figure in Mexico. Her critics contend that she is more a politician than an educator, and say that her union has long been an obstacle to improving education. But President Calderon is by nature a pragmatic deal-maker, and ignoring the union would only have led to a hopeless stalemate. The need for good teachers is glaring. Mexico was placed dead last among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of mainly developed countries, in reading, science and mathematics in December by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Look beyond simple place rankings and the picture gets worse. On the reading part of the test, less than 1 percent of Mexican 15-year-olds scored as capable of sophisticated, critical thinking (compared with 22 percent in South Korea, the top scorer). The main problem lies not with salaries for teaching, which are competitive with other jobs in Mexico but with the quality of teachers. The government has been trying to solve the problem since 1992, when it introduced annual bonuses linked to teachers participation in training courses and their scores in tests. This system is far from perfect. A study last year by the Rand Corporation, an American think-tank, found that the tests given to teachers required only low level cognitive responses, while the criteria for evaluation were fuzzy and subject to manipulation. The new agreement between President Calderon and Ms. Gordillo has two aims. First, there is a promise to improve the fabric of the 27,000 schools — around one in eight — that are in poor repair (though no new money was allocated to this as part of the agreement). Second, it seeks to break the hold of the union over teachers careers. Under the agreement, teachers would be hired and promoted according to how they fare in tests devised and marked by a new independent body. The reaction of education experts to the deal has been muted. Many find it hard to believe that the union will concede its power over hiring and firing in a meaningful way. They also note that Ms. Gordillo has a knack of co-opting reforms to serve her own ends. Yet Josefina Vasquez Mota, the minister of education, is one of President Calderons more able political operators. If she can make the agreement stick in practice, the quality of Mexican schooling should…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The recommendation of the national commission for minority educational institutions to establish a Central Madarsa Board to standardise the disparate and often arbitrary syllabuses of the countrys 30,000 madarsa schools, has aroused the opposition of orthodox Muslim clergy. Puja Awasthi reports from LucknowThere is a growing sense of unease in the ranks of Indian liberals and Muslim intellectuals across the country, that the much debated subject of reforming Indias Muslim minority schools which provide — or are supposed to provide primary and secondary education to an estimated 1.1 million children of the countrys 150 million strong Muslim population — is disappearing off the national radar screen. According to a front page news report in the Kolkata-based daily Telegraph (June 27), the prime ministers office (PMO) has sent a stinging raspberry to the Union human resource development ministry accusing it of repeatedly delaying recommendations of a high-level committee to modernise madarsa school education. Over a year ago a three-member committee headed by Justice (Retd) M.S.A. Siddiqui had submitted a detailed proposal for liberal provision of secular mainstream (English, science, maths, computer science etc) education in Muslim madarsa schools, which provide religious and variable secular education to over 1 million children of the minority community. With a general election looming on the horizon, there is a new, even if belated urgency to introduce mainstream or vocationally oriented education for children of the countrys Muslim minority, which is a massive vote bank. Indisputably, Indias Muslim minority, which ruled the subcontinent for three centuries during which it assimilated with the indigenous population and greatly enriched Indian culture and performing arts, needs all the help it can get to raise itself up to become full, contributing citizens of secular India. The pathetic socio-economic condition to which the Muslim community — barring a thin upper crust — has been reduced, was recently highlighted by a report of the Prime Ministers High Level Committee on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India (more popularly known as the Sachar Committee after its chairman Justice (Retd) Rajinder Sachar), submitted in November 2006. The first comprehensive study of its kind, it details just how poorly Muslims are situationed in comparison with the majority community and other religious and social minorities. According to the Sachar Committees report, only 59.1 percent of the countrys Muslim population is literate, significantly lower than the national average of 65.1 percent; against a mean of four years of schooling, Muslim children complete only three years and four months in school; one of every four (25 percent) Muslim children has never attended school; at the tertiary level, only one of 25 undergraduate and one of every 50 postgraduate students is Muslim, and only 6.3 and 6.8 percent of the countrys Muslim citizens are graduates and diploma holders — a statistic which compares unfavourably against the historically deprived and discriminated scheduled castes and scheduled tribes languishing at the very base of the Hindu caste hierarchy. This education deprivation is reflected in the employment profile…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The World is What it is — The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French; Picador; Price: Rs.595; 555 ppFor an individual to be acknowledged as the greatest living writer in the English language by V.S. Prichett, arguably the greatest living literary critic in the English language, is a rare honour indeed. More so when the recipient of the encomium is a small brown man of Indian origin born in a tiny island (Trinidad) in the obscure West Indies. Neither is that an exceptional opinion. Queen Elizabeth II awarded him a knighthood in 1990, and the jury of the Nobel Foundation conferred the Nobel Prize for literature upon him in 2001. These are just a few of the honours that have been heaped upon London-based writer and chronicler Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul. A descendant of indentured labourers shipped from rural Bihar in inhuman conditions to work the sugar plantations of the West Indies, during the span of half a century as a full-time writer, Naipaul has emerged as the most perceptive interpreter of the maladies of the post-colonial world. Nor unlike most heavily honoured writers, is Naipaul unrewarded by the market. According to Patrick French, the author of this authorised but unsparing biography of this controversial writer, Naipaul owns several homes in Britain, and has a million pound bank deposit in the tax-free Channel islands, which makes him one of the richest writers in the world, certainly of non-fiction. Born on August 17, 1932 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, V.S. Naipaul (‘Vidia) was the second child of Seepersad and Droapatie (charming mutations of ‘Sreeprasad and ‘Draupadi) Naipaul. In popular legend in 1930s Trinidad, Indians were depicted as poor, mean, rural, heathen, aggressive, ethnically exclusive and illiterate. This then was the rough world into which Vidyadhar (later re-spelt as Vidiadhar) Naipaul was born, writes French. Remarkably, although he had to tend cows and goats before going off to school, barefoot, by the time he was in his late teens, Seepersad had taught himself to read and write English, and even before Vidias birth had begun to work as a freelance reporter for the Trinidad Guardian — an unusual job for an Indian to be doing at the time. Although at best a moderately successful journalist and a failed novelist, Seepersad implanted the idea of a life of letters in his young son, nurturing him on Dickens, Shakespeare and Somerset Maugham in his growing years. In 1950, Vidia Naipaul, a student of Trinidads top school, Queens Royal College where government paid his fees and gave annual grant for the cost of books, was awarded a scholarship to study at University College, Oxford. Intensely aware that he was cut out for greater things, getting out of the closed and intellectually arid environment of Trinidad was vitally important for young Vidia. Ascribing the scholarship which was initially denied to him, as one of the lucky things in my life, Naipaul is quoted by French as saying that had he not been able to escape from…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke; Scholastic; Price: Rs.356; 560 ppWhen one reads of interesting characters in a well-written book, there is a natural tendency to get drawn into their world. However, what if instead of being drawn into the world depicted in a novel, you find the characters of the narrative popping out and landing in your living room? And what if these characters turn out to be wicked and up to no good? Thats what happens in Inkheart, an intriguing tale authored by German novelist Cornelia Funke, writer of many bestselling childrens books including Inkspell (2005), The Thief Lord (2002) and Dragonrider (1997). In Inkheart, the main character Mo has the uncanny ability of summoning characters and objects out of books when he reads them aloud. The author narrates how Mos extraordinary talent which sounds thrilling, can turn out to be an absolute nightmare. A fantasy thriller, the moral of this story is that power should be used with caution even as good triumphs over evil. The two engaging protagonists of Inkheart are Mo and his 12-year-old daughter Meggie, both incurable book addicts. Meggies love for books is inherited from Mo whom she fondly refers to as book doctor. Mo earns a living mending old and tattered books — dusting them, sticking back torn sheets, choosing end papers and finally binding them with fresh new covers. One stormy night Meggie espies a stranger waiting by their gate in pouring rain. She rushes to inform her father who lets the stranger, Dustfinger, in and talks to him behind closed doors. Meggie hears Dustfinger referring to her father as Silvertongue and subsequently notices that her father is worried and has suddenly turned secretive. However, Mo does not satisfy Meggies curiosity, instead waking her up early the next morning to go south to her aunt Elinors house. Meggie is not very happy about this sudden proposition, but she doesnt argue and they set off in a van together with Dustfinger who insists on accompanying them. Aunt Elinors house is huge, stacked with books from floor to ceiling and jealously guarded by her. She is brusque and rude and doesnt trust little Meggie anywhere near her precious books even though Mo repeatedly assures her that Meggie too loves books and wouldnt dream of spoiling them. Though Meggie is left out of whispered conversations in the library, she notices Mo handing Aunt Elinor a book wrapped in brown paper for safekeeping, and witnesses the latter conceal it among a pile of books in her library. That night, four men break into the house and kidnap Mo and take him to Capricorn, the villain of this story. Capricorn wants the book (Inkheart) in the brown paper parcel because hes a character in it. Hes been called out of it by Mo and his fear is that unless the last surviving copy of Inkheart (in the brown paper packet) is destroyed, he may be ‘sentenced back into the book. Instead he wants Mo to put his powers…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The National Knowledge Commission (NKC), constituted by the Union government in June 2005 under the chairmanship of Satyen (‘Sam) Pitroda, has made several recommendations to the Congress-led UPA government for reform of higher education. In its Report to the Nation, presented to prime minister Manmohan Singh on January 12, 2007, NKC suggested ways and means for government supported universities and colleges to raise additional resources for accelerated institutional growth and development. Excerpts (verbatim):Government support. There is no system of higher education in the world that is not based upon significant public outlays. And government financing will remain the cornerstone of any strategy to improve our system of higher education. The present support for higher education, at 0.7 percent of GDP, is simply not adequate… In an ideal world, government support for higher education should be at least 1.5 percent, if not 2 percent of GDP, from a total of 6 percent of GDP for education… Therefore, it is essential to explore a wide range of possibilities which can be complements to the increase in public expenditure. Better assets management. Most public universities are sitting on a large reservoir of untapped resources in the form of land. In effect, with some imagination, many of our universities can be converted into institutions that are similar to land grant universities. Each university should thus have an innovative assets management plan… It should be possible to draw up norms and parameters for universities to use their land as a source of finance. Rationalisation of fees. On average, fees constitute less than 10 percent of total expenditure in our universities. And, in most universities, fees have remained unchanged for decades. In theory, universities have the freedom to decide on fees. In practice, however, universities have not exercised this freedom in part because of some genuine concerns about access but in larger part because of the rhetoric and populism in the political process. The problem has been compounded by the UGC method of providing grants-in-aid to bridge the difference between income and expenditure… The low fees in public universities, without any means test, have meant unquantifiable benefits for unintended beneficiaries… The time has come to rethink, as we have no choice but to rationalize fees. It is for universities to decide the level of fees but, as a norm, fees should meet at least 20 percent of the total expenditure in universities… Philanthropic contributions. It is clear that we have not exploited this potential. In fact, the proportion of such contributions in total expenditure on higher education has declined from more than 12 percent in the 1950s to less than 3 percent in the 1990s. It should be possible to nurture this tradition of philanthropy through changes in incentives for universities and for donors. In the present system, there is an explicit disincentive. If universities mobilize resources from elsewhere, they are in effect penalised through a matching deduction in their grant-in-aid. What we need to do is exactly the opposite. Universities which mobilize resources through contributions…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Motorola India Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of the Illinois-based Motorola Inc (sales revenue: $36.6 billon or Rs.153,700 crore in 2007) recently connected four primary-cum-secondary schools of the Parikrma Humanity Foundation scattered across Bangalore, through utilisation of Motorolas state-of-the-art Canpoy™ technology.Employing a completely wireless ecosystem, from infrastructure and applications to end-user devices, Canopy enables streaming of audio-video feeds and touch-screen smart boards, turning the idea of a dream classroom into reality. Speaking on the occasion of the launch of this initiative, Soumitra (‘Sammy) Sana, country president, Motorola India and managing director, Motorola Software Group India commented: Motorola technologies have always had relevance as enablers of social development. This is another example of that attribute at work. Acknowledging the generosity and depth of Motorolas corporate social responsibility programmes, Shukla Bose, founder-director of Parikrma Humanity Foundation, which has promoted four schools in Bangalore providing English medium education and nutrition to 850 slum children of the poorest of the poor observed: We understand the difference technology can make in the new world, and all of us at Parikrma are raring to make the best use of it. Motorola India has been closely associated with several NGOs. In particular the companys association with Parikrma goes back to 2005, when it donated a library and three-wheeler to the foundation. A school bus and classroom aids followed in 2006.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The end of the prolonged and violent agitation by the Gujjar community in Rajasthan and Delhi, following the signing of a peace accord between the state government and 35 leaders of the Gujjar community in Jaipur on June 18, has rung down the curtain upon another manifestation of a peculiar malady which distinguishes the 21st century Indian state with absurd superpower aspirations. At issue in the 27-day stir which resulted in the forced blockage of road and rail traffic across large swathes of western and north India and caused 39 deaths in riots and police firing, was the communitys demand for constitutional classification of Gujjars, traditionally a shepherd community whose number is estimated at 53 million across the Hindi heartland, as a scheduled tribe.Its a sad commentary that in a country whose political leaders are negotiating Indias inclusion in the G-8 and Security Council of the United Nations, tens of millions of people in the bottom reaches of its iniquitous social pyramid are clamouring to be classified as backward and tribal, in the hope that some of them can avail reservations in institutions of higher education and government jobs. Quite clearly, entire communities and groups with common identities lack the confidence to be able to compete on the basis of merit for college seats and jobs in contemporary Indias booming marketplace. After half a century down Freedom Road, millions of citizens believe they require legal reservations and special quotas to access decent education and jobs. And such is their desperation that they dont mind being classified as ‘backward castes, communities and tribes in the process. Ingenious arguments have been advanced — and continue to be advanced — to refute the obvious logic of fall in academic standards and government services due to quotas and reservations. Regretably the learned justices of the Supreme Court whose duty it is to protect the spirit of the Constitution while interpreting it in the public interest, have tended to equivocate rather than forthrightly condemn the new provisos added to Article 15(1) which stringently enjoins the State to eliminate discrimination and differentiation on the basis of caste, religion, sex etc. In the process the noble ideal of the founding fathers of the Constitution to rid independent India of the dreadful iniquities of the caste system have been sabotaged by an unholy coalition of a myopic political class, and pandering justices of the apex court. As has often been argued on this page, the antidote to the virus of casteism and other forms of discrimination is provision of education and more education. Only when and if the supply side of the education supply-demand imbalance is successfully addressed, will the caste tensions and narrow particularisms which are sharply manifesting themselves within Indian society, abate. Its plain as a pikestaff that the current clamour for backward status is rooted in pervasive fear of failure in Indian society, rather than in caste pride per se. Its the supply-demand imbalance in Indian education that needs to be addressed and corrected to…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The unequivocal denunciation of faith-proclaimed terrorism in all its manifestations by the Deoband (Uttar Pradesh)-based Darul Uloom — Indias largest Islamic seminary — and its call to save Islam from its lunatic fringe which has brought it grave global disrepute, has come not a day too soon. Addressing a convention comprising thousands of clerics and students from across the country in Delhi on May 31, Habib-ur-Rehman, rector of the 150-year-old Darul-Uloom Deoband, which offers its 3,500 students study programmes in Islamic law and jurisprudence, declared: The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace… Six days earlier, a self-styled Islamic terrorist group — Indian Mujahideen — claimed responsibility for bomb blasts in Jaipur which indiscriminately killed 65 citizens (including three Muslims) and injured 200 people.Following the failure of the countrys Muslim intelligentsia and middle class to squarely condemn faith-based guerilla outfits (repeatedly prescribed on this page), this forthright denunciation of Islamic terrorist groups who are giving Islam a bad name while playing into the hands of Hindu militant organisations, is particularly timely and welcome. Now the lead given by the communitys ecclesiastic leadership needs to be followed up by Muslim academics and middle class to introduce secular learning within the curriculums of Indias 30,000 madarsa schools and institutions of religious education. The overwhelming majority of students enrolled in these institutions have little or no exposure to modern knowledge and English communication skills, which theologists with their narrow perspectives are unlikely to fulfill. Subjects such as economics, history, geography, mathematics, political science, computer science etc — the staples of contemporary school education — are alien to them. Against this backdrop, a recent proposal of the Central government to set up a Central Madarsa Board (akin to CBSE), which will inject contemporary learning into madarsa education needs to be strongly endorsed by the Muslim intelligentsia. Its patently obvious that the failure of the Muslim clergy to sufficiently stress the importance of modern, secular education has alienated the minority communitys youth from the mainstream, thus making them soft targets for fundamentalist and terrorist groups. Such a contrast to the enlightened ecclesiastical leadership provided by the Aga Khan to the (Muslim) Ismailia community, which is thoroughly modern and secular in outlook and completely untainted by terrorism. It is from such groups/sects within the Muslim community that the Deoband clerics — who have taken the wise and welcome step of denouncing radical violence and terrorism — need to look for inspiration. The clerics of Deoband, the Muslim clergy and intelligentsia in general need to accept and assert the liberal, humanist and sui generis traditions of subcontinental Islam. This is the prerequisite for transforming the countrys young Muslim population into respected, contributing citizens of a just and stable society.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The circumference of the reservations in education institutions debate has been expanded following a diktat of the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry to the directors of the countrys seven IITs to introduce reservations for SCs (15 percent), STs (7.5 percent), and Other Backward Classes (27 percent) in faculty appointments with immediate effect.The government order dated June 9 signed by Seema Raj, director (technical education) in the HRD ministry says: I am directed to say that the matter relating to reservation of SC, ST, OBC categories in recruitment to teaching (faculty) posts in the IITs was considered in the second meeting of the SCIC (Standing Committee of IIT Council) held on February 11, 2008. The recommendations made by the SCIC have been accepted by the chairman of (the) IIT Council. Accordingly it has been decided to implement reservation for SC, ST, OBC in recruitment to teaching (faculty) posts in IITs with immediate effect. Evidently the HRD ministry took care to prepare its case. It first raised the issue at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the IIT Council, the apex body which governs all the IITs, and obtained its approval for enforcing faculty quotas. The SCIC recommendation was later accepted by the chairman of the IIT Council. Moreover the order is consonant with the broad social consensus created on reservations, including those for OBCs, recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Nevertheless according to a news report in The Times of India (June 28), the IIT directors are livid with the ministry. They have accused it of encouraging teachers to use the caste flag to get in. Unnamed IIT directors are quoted as saying that social group-based reservations will damage the quality of education in these centres of excellence, which are among the handful of Indian institutions of higher learning to make it to the list of top 500 such institutions globally. One of the directors has been quoted as saying: Some of the finest people have given up top positions and fat cheques… to come and teach at the IITs… With reservation in faculty positions, I see a day, not far from now, when the IITs will crumble. According to Dalit leaders, the IITs have a long history of resisting and opposing affirmative action. Way back in the 1960s, they used to actively discourage Dalit (scheduled castes) and Adivasi (scheduled tribes) students from enrolling. The few SC and ST students who managed to get in despite heavy odds were subjected to discri-mination, insult and humiliation — to the point of acute clinical depression, sometimes forcing them to quit altogether. Its only very reluctantly and belatedly that the IITs began to accept that reservations for the underprivileged in admissions or jobs are inevitable, but only for students and administrative staff. Now they are opposing quotas for faculty positions, insisting that the most meritorious faculty will be turned away. One thought that all such arguments were put to rest by the affirmative action debate that has raged since 1990, says a…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populous (180 million) and arguably most backward (per capita income: Rs.10,817 per year; adult literacy 56.6 percent) state, is known for the stoicism and resilience with which its long-suffering populace stomachs bad news. Even so the languorous dovecotes of the state government in Vidhan Sabha, Lucknow have been set aflutter by a recently released United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef) report which indicates that children in Uttar Pradesh are worst off worldwide.Titled State of Children in Uttar Pradesh, this first-of-its-type report prepared by the states planning department in conjunction with Unicef, discloses that every second child (age group 0-14) in the state is malnourished, one in four has not received vaccination of any type and that the state ranks # 1 countrywide in the incidence of child labour and accounts for 23 percent of all child kidnappings. Among other grim statistics, State of Children in Uttar Pradesh (Unicef 2008) highlights that: • Of the 2.5 million children who die prematurely in India every year, close to 4 lakh die in UP. • Across the states 70 districts, 30-54 percent of children dont receive any vaccination. In at least 10 districts, more than 45 percent have not been vaccinated. (According to the Central government sponsored National Family Health Survey 3, only 22.9 percent of UPs children are vaccinated against BCG, DPT, measles and polio). • 38,000 women die in childbirth every year. Of them half die at home and another 10-15 percent on the way to hospital. • Only one in 20 newborns is breastfed within an hour of birth. (Breast feeding within the first hour reduces chances of death by diarrhoea to less than half). • Of the total number of children afflicted by fatal Japanese Encephalitis (JE) countrywide, 60 percent are in UP. Deaths from JE in the state have consistently risen from 35 in 1994 to 228 in 2005. • Of Indias 72 million undernourished children, 12 million live in UP. Every second child in UP is undernourished. • Fifty-two percent of children in UP are underweight — much higher than the all India figure of 43 and way beyond the Sub-Saharan percentage of 28. • Of the countrys officially admitted 20 million child labour, 20 percent work in UP. • Every third infant born in UP has low birth weight — below 1,200 grams. • More children are murdered in UP — 39.2 percent of all across India — than in any other state. • State of the Children highlights a chronic shortage of doctors and nurses in hospitals as a critical challenge, particularly for children. • The state ranked third in the country for the number of child rape cases registered. Unicefs Lucknow-based state representative Nirmal Hettiarartchy expresses shock and bewilderment. Beyond these statistics, are millions of children, the future of the country, who lead miserable, blighted lives. The challenges highlighted in the report need to be addressed immediately, he says. Ironically V. Venkatachalam, principal secretary of the…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Although the Delhi-based National Commission of Minority Educational Institutions recommended the establishment of a Central Madarsa Board (CMB) to standardise and upgrade the disparate and often arbitrary syllabuses of the countrys estimated 30,000 madarsa schools in April 2007, theres been little forward movement to action the proposal. Educationists believe this is because of the sharp dualism between the ulema, religious scholars educated in traditional madarsas, and the small, ‘modern educated Muslim middle class.Influential sections of the mass media tend to portray the ulema and the educational institutions that they run (madarsas, maktabs, seminaries etc) in stereotypically negative terms, as being wholly and fiercely opposed to reform. However such depictions of the ulema are less than accurate. Actually a growing number of the ulema are the most ardent advocates of maktab and madarsa reform. And the progressive clergy is increasingly soliciting the help of NGOs and secular educationists to engineer reforms in minority-run education institutions. A case in point of collaboration between the traditional ulema and non-Muslim civil society groups is the Jeevan Talim educational project in rural Kutch in north Gujarat. A joint project of the Jamiat-i Ulema-i Hind, a leading body of ulema associated with the Deoband seminary, and the Ahmedabad-based Janvikas, (through its initiative Udaan, a resource centre working on primary education), the project was initiated in 2004 with a grant from Misereor, a German Catholic relief and development agency. The aim of the project is to provide remedial, pluralistic and inclusive education and teach basic numeracy and literacy skills to Muslim children in the age group four-10 years in selected areas of Kutch where no government-funded education facilities exist. The prime purpose of the project is to prepare students for admission into government schools in classes IV-V. The project entails organising Jeevan Talim classes providing secular education in maktab precincts, or, in villages and hamlets that dont have maktabs, in the porch of local mosques, with the timings suitably adjusted so that the childrens Islamic education would not be interrupted or disturbed. Where possible, the maulvi or Islamic scholar teaching in the maktab would be engaged to take the Jeevan Talim class as well, for which he will be paid additionally. If there is no adequately qualified maulvi available in the village or its neighbourhood, then a local youth, male or female, would be engaged as teacher. Because the levels of education in rural Kutch, particularly among Muslims, are extremely low, provision was also made for suitable pedagogical training of maulvis and local youth selected as instructors in Jeevan Talim centres. Subjects to be taught in the centres include basic literacy in Gujarati, numeracy skills, environmental awareness, as well as music and theatre. It was expected that after completing Jeevan Talim classes, children would be ready to join the nearest government primary school. To start with, a total of 14 villages in northern Kutch, many of them on the fringes of the Rann, the vast stony desert that spills across the border into neighbouring Pakistan, were selected…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Academic policy decisions — whether for school, college or university education – take inordinately long to fructify in West Bengal (pop. 80 million), the eastern seaboard state which has been governed for over three decades by the Left Front government headed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM). In July 2005, exactly three years ago, well-meaning apolitical academics had proposed that the West Bengal Board of Secondary Educations school leaving class X exam be brought on a par with the CISCE and CBSE boards, by testing class X students on the class X curriculum rather than classes IX and X. The rationale behind this pro-pupil proposal is that the current WBSE class X exam load is too vast and cumbersome. Therefore the two-year run up to the secondary exam ought to be split to reduce the stress of class X students.But the Left Front governments education ministry will have none of it. It strongly opposes the notion of any split or bifurcation. According to the academic grapevine this vehement government opposition to an eminently sensible proposition is due to the unwillingness of the CPM to antagonise private tutors who rake in small fortunes by coaching students privately — and illegally — beyond school hours. Given that 736,756 students wrote the WBSE class X exam in February-March 2008, the stakes involved are huge. A dipstick check by your correspondent indicates that class X students — even from ‘poor families — typically engage three tutors to coach them in tough subjects like mathematics, physics, life science (chemistry), geography and history at Rs.500 per month per subject. This adds up to over 2 million tutors collectively raking in a mind-boggling Rs.100 crore per year. Since CPM supporters have a monopoly over teachers jobs in urban areas and districts alike, the party is unwilling to risk incurring the wrath of 2 million voters who would be more than cheesed off, if the long-entrenched combined curriculum (classes IX and X) is lightened. Unsurprisingly teachers unions have solidly endorsed the partys refusal to split the combined classes IX and X syllabus. We are opposed to the proposal to bifurcate the syllabus because the course has been designed in that way, says Aparesh Bhattacharya, senior member of the All Bengal Teachers Association. We will never allow this to happen. Veteran academic Sunanda Sanyal explains: There is continuity between what is taught in class IX and in class X. So the final assessment should be on what is taught in these two classes. And respected academic Dr. Amal Mukhopadhaya, retired principal of Presidency College, Kolkata, also endorses the status quo to maintain academic standards. Any attempt to make the school education system easier should be discouraged, he says. Inevitably WBSE officials are circumspect in their remarks. (After all, the board is administered by the state government.) A final decision has not been taken yet, says Dr. Mamata Ray, president of WBSE. Clearly, the chances of rationalisation of the school leaving syllabus are dim, even if national examination boards…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Even as a new academic year has begun and bright-eyed students are streaming into college campuses across the country, the R.K. Raghavan Committee, appointed in December 2006 by the Union HRD ministry, (following a Supreme Court directive) to suggest and monitor measures to eliminate intimidation, molestation, assaults etc aka ‘ragging in college campuses, has severely criticised college managements for lack of seriousness in curbing the ragging menace. At the third review meeting of the committee held on June 11, Raghavan, a former CBI director, made his displeasure clear with the post-office like attitude of higher education regulatory organisations such as UGC, AICTE and Medical Council of India.These regulatory bodies have become too close to educational organisations and believe in tokenism. But I have told them in no uncertain terms to punish institutional manage-ments not following our anti-ragging guidelines endorsed by the Supreme Court on May 16, 2007, he says. Raghavans annoyance with apex level regulatory organisations is shared by the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), which together with Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE), was instrumental in helping the Raghavan committee formulate its anti-ragging code circulated to colleges and universities before the beginning of the academic session last year. Its routine for UGC and other regulatory bodies to issue stern instructions to college managements at the start of every academic session. But thus far no college has been penalised for ignoring these instructions. Due to inaction of past decades, these warnings are seldom taken seriously by college authorities and senior students, and ragging continues unabated. Last year despite the strong anti-ragging recommendations made by the Raghavan Committee and endorsed by the Supreme Court, more than 70 cases of ragging were reported in a span of five months in the English media. The number of unreported cases and those reported in the vernacular media are many times more, says Harsh Agarwal, who co-founded CURE along with Rajiv Ram in 2001. In the June 11 meeting attended by representatives of UGC, AICTE, Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Nursing Council of India, UGC informed the committee that a separate cell has been constituted within the commission to investigate ragging-related complaints from colleges and universities. Moreover a visiting committee has been constituted by UGC to sensitise institutions about the scourge of ragging. The visiting committee will have powers to recommend dilution of grants under various UGC schemes for colleges and universities not complying with the anti-ragging measures stipulated by the Raghavan Committee. We will publicise the measures against ragging in our campus as per the committee directives and are ready to implement them, says Dr. A.K. Agarwal, dean Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi. According to Harsh Agarwal of CURE the HRD ministry and regulatory bodies must list the measures they have taken in the past year to enforce the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee. They must detail cases where they have punished raggers. Even to this day, ragging victims have no idea about the complaint registering authority. Last…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

“Steady acceleration of growth bears testimony to the wisdom of the saying, slow and steady wins the race. The Indian tortoise will win the race against many Asian hares.” Prime minister Manmohan Singh in India Today (June 16) “We want more Indian students because we want the best in the world to come to Oxford.” Oxford University vice-chancellor Chris Patten at a conference jointly organised by FICCI and Said Business School, Oxford (June 23) “Zimbabwe has plunged into horrendous violence while you have been mediating. With respect, if we continue like this, there will be no country left.” Morgan Tsvangirai, opposition leader, in a letter to Zimbabwes appointed mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki (Time, June 23) “There is concern about leadership needed in various areas of Indias progress. It is not unemployment that is a major problem; it is the question of unemployability that is a bigger crisis in this competitive era. What kind of management leaders do we need to generate?” Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam speaking at IIM-Bangalore (June 25) “There is no doubt that the Indo-US deal will be in the interest of India… The pain of Left parties stems from their excessive love for China which makes them oppose any move which strengthens India by improving ties with the US.” Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in party mouthpiece Saamana (June 25) “Our study estimates that about Rs.9,000 million (Rs.900 crore) have been paid as bribes by the poor (in 2007).” Bhaskara Rao, chairman of Centre of Media Studies, Delhi (Mint, June 28) “Manekshaw was one of the finest communicators the Indian Army has ever had. And for managers struggling to learn the intricacies of that complex thing called leadership, the model to follow is Manekshaw.” Major General Ashok Mehta in an obituary of Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw (1914-2008) in Business Standard (June 28/29)

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

The US-based multinational Genpact Inc, which manages business processes for companies around the world, and the Delhi-based NIIT Ltd, announced the launch of a joint venture — NIIT Institute of Process Excellence Ltd (NIPE) — on June 10. The joint venture will address the increasing demand for skilled workers in the business and technology services industry, by providing training programs in relevant areas.This is a significant milestone which we believe will benefit not only Genpact, but the entire business and technology services industry. Genpact and NIIT are committed to building a world class training organisation that will focus on developing talent and increasing employability to meet the rising demand for skilled workforces in the countries where we operate, said Pramod Bhasin president and CEO of Genpact, speaking on the occasion. Our new initiative will build a pool of global professionals to fuel the growth of the ITES industry, added Rajendra Pawar chairman of NIIT. With NASSCOM estimates indicating that the number of trained professionals required by BPO (business processing outsourcing) firms is expected to double by 2010, Vijay K. Thadani chief executive of NIIT said, NIPE training programs will be offered to students through our state-of-the-art learning centres in key metros, mini metros and tier II towns in India, followed by China and the Philippines.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Your cover story ‘India’s fastest growing schools chain’ (EW June) highlighting the achievements of Dr. Augustine Pinto and Mrs. Grace Pinto in establishing a chain of 110 Ryan International Schools providing affordably priced quality English medium education in a mere 25 years, was amazing and inspiring. Dr. Pinto seems to have discovered the methodology to beat red tape and bureaucratic delay by opening schools in the constituencies of powerful leaders of major political parties! In the initial days of the ‘licence-permit-quota Raj’, he would have undoubtedly faced unimaginable hurdles. But now, thanks to the quality education he provides, politicians of all parties are clamouring for RIGI schools in their constituencies. I was particularly pleased to learn that Dr. Pinto is a God-fearing individual. This quality will guarantee his continued success. However he should constantly remember that ours is a country with diverse cultures and religious faiths and his 200,000 students should be broadminded and respect the diversity in our unique unity. That is the crying need of every school! G. Neelakantan Bangalore Salutary mission I enjoyed your latest cover story on the genesis and growth of the Ryan International Group of Institutions (EW June). Dr. Augustine Pinto’s personal journey from a struggling school teacher in Mumbai to promoter of 110 Ryan schools with an aggregate enrollment of 200,000 students across the country is truly remarkable. Let alone middle class parents, even domestic workers and daily wage labour aspire to English medium education for their children. But state governments and politicians persistently ignore this popular demand for English learning and inflict vernacular education on the children of the poor in government schools. In the light of this large-scale deprivation, Dr. Pinto’s mission to provide English medium school education to as many children as possible is salutary. He deserves the gratitude of the nation for establishing state-of-the-art schools offering international standard education at affordable prices. Indeed for the thousands of education entrepreneurs trying to promote schools and colleges offering education that people want against all odds, his story is inspirational. Kudos to you for giving him the recognition he deserves! Shailaja Mathur Delhi AICTE alternative You’ve hit the nail on the head in the special report ‘Curious case of India’s unemployable engineers’ (EW June). The major reason for the unemployability of the thousands of engineers that Indian universities and colleges churn out is deficiency of English language skills. I also believe outdated syllabuses are a major factor behind large numbers of college graduates being rejected by companies. To solve this problem, it’s a good idea for engineering colleges to draw up their syllabuses in consultation with industry. An independent board comprising engineering academics and captains of industry needs to be set up to draft and revise syllabuses and monitor academic standards country-wide. This board should also arrange for internships in companies for six months to a year to enable students to learn on-the-job skills. But before this board is promoted, AICTE needs to close down! Surajprasad Sharma Mumbai Buddhist trail lacunae I checked out the…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

A team of five students of the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore has been selected to represent India in the 2008 Microsoft Research Design Expo this month (July), by Microsoft Inc, USA, the theme of which is ‘Learning and Education. Srishti Schools project entitled ‘Moon Vehicle created an interactive user experience, drawing inspiration from the imminent Chandrayaan-1 moon mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation.Our students were challenged to design a user interface and/or interactive experience around this theme. The design teams which will participate in this years competition in Redmond will present projects on diverse topics such as the moon and space, satellite technology, myths, stories and narratives, innovative economic systems, games and toys, social networking, information technologies, and industrial ecologies, says Dr. Geetha Narayanan founder-director of Srishti. Among other institutions invited to the exposition on July 28-29 are the Rhode Island School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, Techniche Universitiet Eindhoven (Germany) and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

On a recent flight from Goa to Delhi, i was seated across the aisle from three loutish young men. Clearly new rich, they bristled with flashy phones and watches. They didnt bother turning off their cell phones even after the stewardess made an announcement; instead, they went right ahead playing with their toys. I asked them to switch their phones off. They stared at me insolently and went into a huddle from which emerged crude sounds that I understood to be mocking laughter.This is the newly emergent middle class that an open India has thrown up: crass, belligerent and reckless. It is the polar opposite of the privileged classes that presided over closed India: snobbish, full of intrigue and cautious. Theres not much to choose between the two. The new middle class is vile; the old was servile. While I have been a champion of the newly emergent middle class, I guess my view was coloured by my disdain for the privilegentsia of Fabian socialist India. But the new middle class is just as hideous as the privilegentsia. I call them vulgarians. The privilegentsia was bred on elitism: right connections, right schools, one of the few best colleges, and preferably Oxford and Cambridge. The vulgarian instinct is to push and shove; and when push comes to shove — to buy their way out. On the other hand, while mouthing homilies about the rule of law, members of the privilegentsia held them-selves above the law. They never waited their turn for anything and without the slightest bit of embarrassment bent rules, flouted regulations and scorned the law. The emergent class of vulgarians makes no such pretence; they seem to believe everything has a price: schools, colleges, hospitals, and more worryingly — bureaucrats, policemen and judges. During privilegentsia raj, India had to reckon with parasitic elites who dominated state coffers, extorted usurious taxes and provided few public goods in return. Under their dispensation, ordinary citizens were cruelly ignored: perpetual power, water, telephones and public transport shortages; ramshackle roads, airports; minimal primary education, housing, public healthcare and sanitation. The minuscule unconnected middle class was especially targeted by privilegentsia policies and in many cases, driven into exile in the United States, Canada and Britain. Those who couldnt emigrate saw conditions decline rapidly — famines, civil disturbances, war, scarcity, suspension of civil rights under the Emergency in 1975 and finally total bankruptcy, which forced the government to fly out its gold reserves in secret and mortgage them to the Bank of England. Forced to open up the shackled economy, the government progressively scrapped industrial licensing and numerous other controls after the 1980s. In the process, it unleashed animal forces that transformed India. We went from being pitied as a ‘basket case to being admired as an emerging world power with a dynamic economy. With GDP growth of 9 percent plus for the past five years, millions were lifted from poverty. From being an apostrophe in the demographic profile, the middle class burgeoned and became one…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Thanks to the popular movie star Aamir Khan who produced and directed the surprise hit Taare Zameen Par (TZP), public awareness of a critical learning difficulty known as dyslexia has sky-rocketed. However, addressing this learning difficulty, which educators believe affects tens of millions of children across the country, demands more than just awareness. It calls for teachers, school managements and parents to take steps to respond to the behavioural and learning difficulties of students struggling to cope within the countrys overcrowded classrooms, with love, understanding, and action.Typically, when a teacher notices a child being off-task, distracted, hyperactive, or failing, the first response is to scold him/her for not paying attention, not trying hard enough, and being lazy. In TZP, some of the insults directed by teachers at Ishaan, the dyslexic protagonist of the movie, are idiot, duffer, lazy, crazy, books are his enemies, youre the problem, etc. The plain truth is that no child wants to fail or misbehave; there is always an underlying cause. One way to respond differently to difficult behaviour or learning difficulties is to train teachers to be sharp observers. By equipping them with observation skills and techniques, they can learn to identify possible causes of learning and behavioural problems. At the University of Tennessee, I studied one such technique, i.e functional behaviour assessment. This technique equips teachers to identify the ‘function of a childs behaviour — i.e. to ascertain the real reason or purpose behind the behaviour. As teachers collect data through observation, they begin to discern a pattern. Behind all challenging behaviour, there is an ABC pattern: Antecedent (trigger), Behaviour (specific description of behaviour), and Consequence (positive or negative reinforcement). As we analyse data, we can deduce whether the child is trying to obtain something or escape from something. In TZP, for instance, after observing Ishaans ‘laziness and ‘disinterest, Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan) becomes aware of Ishaans ability to focus on creative and imaginative tasks (e.g. when all pupils are making paper boats). He also observes that Ishaans focus decreases when confronted with reading, writing, and mathematics, and how he tries to avoid or escape any activity centred upon writing and text. In reality, we all try to avoid tasks that expose our weaknesses or make us feel uncomfortable. Dr. Mel Levine, a highly respected American paediatrician and learning expert, is of the opinion that teachers around the world tend to over-rely on testing (cognitive tests, IQ tests, etc) to identify problems. Instead he says, …teachers can learn so much through good observation. Its knowing what youre looking for, knowing what the possibilities are, knowing what to prescribe… When teachers are equipped with sharp observation skills, they can introduce early interventions to address dyslexia and behaviour problems. As teachers we need to do this whilst always treating students and children with love and understanding. Instead the existing reality is that teachers and parents impose incredible demands on children to perform well in all subjects. Dr. Levine comments in his book A Mind at…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

In a championship game between two high school soccer teams, a goalkeeper was inadvertently kicked and knocked unconscious. With the ball in play and the unfortunate team trying to defend without a goalkeeper, a member of the opposing team intentionally kicked the ball out of bounds to stop play.When asked later why he kicked the ball out of bounds instead of trying to shoot it into the open goal, the young man said, If someone is hurt like that, especially the goalkeeper, you do that. If I had scored, it wouldnt have been much of a goal. This young player displayed an exceptional understanding of the difference between winning and success — that one doesnt necessarily equal the other. And I would like to stress that not everyone understands that difference. It is when sportspersons entirely equate winning with success (and vice versa) that sportsmanship problems arise. Hardly surprising. If you must win to feel successful, then losing becomes an even bigger blow to the ego than it is ordinarily. Unless the difference between winning fairly on a level playing field and winning at any price is understood, the pressure to win often at the cost of ones self-esteem and peer reputation, becomes intense. So how do you help your kids distinguish the difference between winning fairly and ‘success? First, you have to examine your own attitudes and beliefs. How important do you believe winning is in the grand scale of things? I know one mom who thought she was pretty enlightened when it came to sportsmanship issues — until her favourite basketball team experienced its first losing season in two decades. Suddenly, she couldnt even read the sports pages as it was too painful. But gradually she rectified her over-reaction. If I am like this over a bunch of guys I dont even know, what am I going to do when my kids team starts losing? she reasoned. As a responsible parent its important for the growth and development of your children that you dont equate winning with success. Success is all about honest effort, good feeling, comradeship, making a contribution, developing skills, and having fun — things we have some control over. Individuals have control over the amount of effort they put into training and on-field performance, but they have limited control over the final points on the scoreboard. Success is what youngsters strive for, but unfortunately winning is what adults value, and kids know it. In the world of sports, the word ‘success is usually used to describe a desired outcome or goal. A successful athlete is one who performs at a certain established level. However, since not everyone can win, outcomes are not the best way to determine success. Therefore, its better for parents, athletes, and coaches to define success on the basis of self-improvement. This could be by improving attitudes (being open to learning, positive) and behaviour (showing up for practice on time, becoming a team player, etc). As a responsible and caring parent, how…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda

Against the backdrop of a fast developing transnational ITES gaming industry, theres no dearth of career opportunities as India establishes a reputation as the next gaming hubA by-product of the booming IT, ITES (information technology enabled services) and the BPO (business process outsourcing) sectors, the gaming industry, born out of the leisure pursuits of IT geeks, has become a major global industry in its own right. And not only in the US and Japan, but also in slow-coach India where only 3 percent of the countrys 160 million households have internet connectivity. A rising star of Indias entertainment sector, the annual revenue of the countrys nascent gaming industry is estimated at $45 million (Rs.194 crore). According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the sales revenue of Indian gaming companies touched $30 million (Rs.129 crore) in 2005 and is expected to rise to $300 million (Rs.1,290 crore) in 2009. Meanwhile the annual revenue flow from the global gaming market estimated at $19 billion (Rs.81,700 crore) in 2005, is expected to take a quantum leap to $36 billion by 2009. Currently specialist divisions and subsidiaries of IT megaliths as well as garage start-ups are providing console video, desktop, online, mobile and wireless games at bewildering speed. In particular the online gaming market which allows contestants separated by vast oceans to play mind games and match skills, is all set to experience boom conditions as access and broadband connectivity rates improve significantly. Against this backdrop of a fast-developing transnational gaming industry, theres no dearth of career options as Indias reputation as the next gaming hub is growing by leaps and bounds. The process of games development generally involves three stages — the creative process (conceptualisation and visualisation), production (graphics, animation and programming), and finally, testing on a multiplicity of platforms and media (video, desktop, mobile etc). Designations in this sunrise industry range from lead artist, pre-production concept artist, modeller, texture artist, lighting environment artist, creative writer and FX artist, game coder, level designer, technologist/programmer. Graduates from engineering, fine arts, science and commerce streams, are employable in this industry. For programming and game design, IT, engineering and science graduates are generally preferred. In the graphics and concepts divisions, a fine arts background is a prerequisite. For porting and testing (the final stage of game development), individuals with engineering/technical backgrounds are most suitable. For sales and marketing, an MBA or any other degree will do, as long as you are passionate about online gaming. The best study and preparation programmes in this field are of the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai which offers a bachelors in fine and applied arts (BFA) with specialisation in visualisation; National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad offers a graduate diploma programme in design with specialisation in communication design and postgrad diploma programmes in graphic design, new media design and animation film design; the arts faculty of MS University of Baroda offers a postgrad degree and diploma in graphic arts. The bachelor of design programme of…

Already a subscriber

Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now

Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda