Even as the London Olympics 2012 are about to begin, Ankita Sehgal (17), a class XI student of Delhi’s Ahlcon International School, is preparing for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016. In January this year, she qualified for inclusion in the national squad for the 10-metre rifle shooting event. “Henceforth, in all international championships […]
A firestorm of protests erupted within the IITs and their alumni associations worldwide after Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal abolished the rigorous IIT-JEE (joint entrance examination), replacing it with a common entrance exam for all applicants to Central government-funded engineering and technology colleges. Dilip Thakore reports
In the end after the faculties of several Indian Institutes of […]
Early last month, the Central Advisory Board of Education unanimously adopted the National Policy on ICT in School Education (NPISE). For cruelly neglected Indian primary, secondary and higher education, ICT offers a magical opportunity to rapidly create 21st century learning environments. Vimal Joshi & Summiya Yasmeen report
Although India’s spectacular — by the yardsticks of the country’s […]
John Kurrien is director emeritus, Centre For Learning Resources, Pune
The Supreme Court’s verdict in society for Unaided Schools of Rajasthan vs. Union of India delivered on April 12, has affirmed reservation of 25 percent capacity in class I in all government and private schools with a few exceptions, for children from disadvantaged and economically weaker sections. Amid […]
In 2006 following BJP ideologue Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi’s providentially aborted move to pack the boards of the IITs two years earlier, his successor Union HRD minister Arjun Singh proposed an additional 27 percent quota (i.e in addition to the reserved quota of 22.5 percent for scheduled castes and tribes) for OBCs (other backward castes) […]
During the rule of the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government at the Centre (1999-2004) when BJP ideologue and hardliner Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi was the Union minister for human resource development (HRD), he made a determined attack on the administrative and financial autonomy of the country’s (then) seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Inevitably, […]
In intelligent, rational societies when an academic institution is successful in attaining the aims and objectives for which it was promoted, the powers that be in the education (aka human resource development) ministry and other organisations involved with education quality and development, study the successful institution, distill its culture and essence and replicate it to […]
An early June report of Standard & Poor’s — the well-known sovereign bonds and country risks rating agency which speculates that India may be the first country among Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) nations to lose its S&P investment grade BBB- status labelling it a high-risk country for foreign investment — has shaken the […]
Congratulations on the informative cover story featuring 50 leaders from different walks of life working relentlessly towards changing Indian education (EW June). Their biographies are an inspiration for all principals and teachers.
I am especially pleased that you have included our dynamic chairman Dr. Augustine Pinto, and managing director Mme Grace Pinto in your list of education […]
With the release of Delhi University’s first cut-offs list for admission into its 65 affiliated colleges offering 54,000 undergraduate seats on June 25, the stage is set for implementing the new rules for admission of OBC (other backward castes/classes) students who have a 27 percent reserved quota in all Central government-funded higher education institutions.
A youth revolt is brewing in Mumbai (pop. 20.5 million) — India’s commercial capital and most cosmopolitan and westernised city. A series of police raids and crackdowns on pubs, restaurants, discotheques and party revellers over the past two months, is generating a surge of anger against the police and state government, particularly among influential and […]
A major examination scam has rocked the University of Madras (UoM, estb. 1857), exposing the deep rot which has seeped into and festers within this hallowed institution of higher education. An internal investigation conducted last December has unearthed a major tampering of marks racket and procedural lapses in the BE/B.Tech (arrears) exam last year. Tampering […]
The historic Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009, which came into force in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 60 million) in the academic year 2012-13 started in June, is floundering in a sea of chaos.
On June 24, the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA), which has a membership of 1,600 private […]
With West Bengal’s education system swamped with apparatchiks and lumpenised cadres of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) which ruled the state (pop. 91 million) with an iron hand for 34 years (1977-2011) until the CPM-led Left Front coalition was routed in the legislative assembly elections last year, the successor Trinamool Congress (TMC) government led […]
“The coaching centres are giving training for the IIT entrance. As a result, students are not studying seriously for class XII exam and giving more attention to entrance. We want to get rid of coaching centres by giving more weightage to the board exam.”
Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal on replacing IIT-JEE with a new common entrance […]
The Assam state government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd — a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Microsoft Corp (annual revenue: $60 billion or Rs.342,000 crore) — to expedite adoption of new information and communications technology (ICT) in its schools. The year-long alliance will accelerate […]
Twelve class IV-IX children were adjudged Student Icons of India at the national finals of iKen Scientifica 2011-12, organised by Mexus Education in Mumbai between Feb-April. They will represent India at the international finale where they will compete with students from ten participating countries. Based on the premise that “every child is a born genius”, […]
Raghavendra Ramachanderan (17), who recently completed his class XII school-leaving exam from the CBSE-affiliated St. John’s International Residential School in Chennai, won the ‘Best of Category’ award for chemistry ($3000) and the SIYSS Dudley Herschbach award for the third best project worldwide at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2012 — […]
Founded in 1936, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai has evolved into India’s top social sciences university reputed for academic and research excellence. Last year TISS celebrated its platinum jubilee with deserved aplomb
Sited on two green campuses in Mumbai’s north-eastern suburb of Deonar, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is widely […]
Spread over 8,000 acres in North Carolina, Duke University, USA is ranked among America’s top 10 universities by US News & World Report and among the top 20 in the QS World University rankings
A top-ranked private teaching and research varsity in the US, Duke University (estb. 1924) offers a comprehensive range of […]
With US Bureau of Labor statistics indicating that the average university graduate will change jobs 11 times by age 38 in this century, corporate, technical and other training is big business
In today’s fast-paced world, in which new technologies — and entire industries — become rapidly obsolete, all professionals, technicians and workers need to constantly improve […]
I’m in class XII (science) and set on qualifying as an astronaut. I want to work in ISRO or NASA. Should I study aeronautical or aerospace engineering or write the National Defence Academy (NDA) exam for entry into the Indian Air Force?
Nikhil Ramsaswamy, Chennai
ISRO employs only indian nationals whereas NASA usually employs US citizens. To […]
In a society and era in which single-minded pursuit of academic grades and excellence usually precludes all co-curricular education, learning music is often regarded as an unnecessary luxury, even a waste of time.
In the overwhelming majority of K-12 schools across the country, students are highly focused on the academic domain. Therefore it’s important to correlate […]
Former textile tycoon Gautam and quizmaster wife Ami Goradia promoted Hayagriva Software Pvt. Ltd in 2001, to provide a combination of qualitative content and robust technology for school students. In the initial years, Hayagriva developed specialised tools to help teachers and students create their own question-answer banks to raise general knowledge levels for the purpose of self-assessment.
Marilen Daum is the Delhi-based regional director of library and information services (South Asia) at the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany. A postgraduate of the Hamburg University of Library Sciences, Daum began her career as a librarian at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics, and has since acquired 25 […]
Rao Kabool and grandson Madan Mohan Singh are staunch believers in the empowerment potential of education, especially of girl children in their native state of Rajasthan. While the elder Singh served in the Indian Army pre-independence and fought in the Indonesia, Burma, Bhutan, Singapore and Cambodia theatres during World War II, the grandson is a successful travel and […]
Sangeeta and Ashutosh Khurana are co-founders of the Delhi-based Mind Edutainment Pvt. Ltd (MEPL, estb.2007) which offers in-school programmes for developing high order thinking skills (HOTS) of K-VIII students. During the past six years since it was founded, MEPL has firmly established its credentials. In 2010, it was acknowledged as one of the country’s top 15 innovative and […]
An alumnus of Kolkata’s St. Xavier’s College and Calcutta University, Nilanjan Dey has emerged as a new force in preschool and primary-secondary education in Kolkata. Three years ago under licence from the SIP Academy Chennai, he promoted SIP Academy, Kolkata as an independent maths learning centre, teaching the subject under the ancient Chinese abacus system. More recently, […]
The great and good of Hollywood crowded into a white tent off Los Angeles’ Sunset Boulevard on March 8 as paparazzi snapped photos and well-dressed speakers braced themselves to take the stage. But they hadn’t gathered to witness honours, accolades or gold-plated statuettes being bestowed. The object of their interest was, in fact, a hole […]
The Republic of Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology has topped the first Times Higher Education ranking of 100 best universities under the age of 50, leading a strong showing for East Asian universities.
The THE 100 Under-50 aims to show which nations are challenging the US and UK as higher education powerhouses — and […]
Applications from overseas students have risen by up to 26 percent at some major UK universities despite the government’s tougher visa regime — but the number of Indian postgraduate submissions has fallen dramatically in several institutions.
Times Higher Education surveyed universities in the Russell Group and Million+ on their applications from non-European Union students for 2012-13. […]
Quebec’s governing liberal party has lost its minister of education after more than three months of strikes by as many as 200,000 university and junior college students against a proposed 75 percent increase in tuition fees, while protesters have been arrested and tear-gassed.
The resignation of Line Beauchamp caught the province’s leadership off guard. “I am […]
It is, says Gabriel Demombynes, of the World Bank’s Nairobi office, “a tremendous success story that has only barely been recognised”. Michael Clemens of the Centre for Global Development calls it simply “the biggest, best story in development”. It is the huge decline in child mortality now gathering pace across Africa.
No sooner had the celebrations following the Republic of South Sudan’s independence from its northern neighbour in July last year died down than the country’s fledgling government found itself facing serious challenges, a number of them education related.
The conflict between north and south has been ongoing since the 1950s. When the south finally achieved its […]
For more than 25 years I have been designing, developing and, most important, implementing sports education programmes for coaches and parents. I regularly solicit views of parents and coaches relating to sports opportunities their children are availing today. Their views on the subject tend to be confusing and disturbing.
Whatever the Odds by K.P. Singh with Ramesh Menon & Raman Swamy; HarperCollins; Price: Rs.699; 323 pp
One of the reasons why post-independence India’s nefarious licence-permit-quota regime has flourished for over 60 years and counting, is that businessmen and industry leaders who have experienced its most egregious excesses, don’t write memoirs and autobiographies. If towards the end […]
Where would you place education on your national list of priorities?
Right on top. An informed and educated citizenry is the most valuable of all national assets.
How best to upgrade government schools?
To marry them with private schools in some way or the other.
Most columnists and television anchors who have been foaming at the mouth over the national furore about which combinations will represent India in the tennis men’s doubles and mixed doubles in the XXX Olympic Games in London scheduled to begin later this month, seem to understand little about the nature of this game because they […]
- Mita Mukherjee Nearly 25 lakh persons working as pre-primary facilitators and caregivers in the country will be offered training to equip them with the .....Read More
Businessmen Elon Musk has established a new Montessori preschool ‘Ad Astra’ in Bastrop, Texas, a one-of-its-kind, endorsing his and US President-elect Donald Trump’s views on .....Read More
RTE judgement: the day after
John Kurrien is director emeritus, Centre For Learning Resources, Pune
The Supreme Court’s verdict in society for Unaided Schools of Rajasthan vs. Union of India delivered on April 12, has affirmed reservation of 25 percent capacity in class I in all government and private schools with a few exceptions, for children from disadvantaged and economically weaker sections. Amid […]