EducationWorld March 04

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss; Profile Books Ltd; Price: Rs.195; 209 pp It’s an eyesore to which my eye is unfailingly drawn every morning before I hunker down to the task of parsing, phrasing, dressing up and generally rendering EducationWorld intelligible to our half-a-million readers of whom at least one will hopefully do a Moses and lead the people of India out of the wilderness of dangerously levelled down neta-babu socialism. Prominently displayed in the premises of the office next door — professedly a fairly successful telecom equipment and services company — is the stern notice: Visitor’s entry only with permission. Initially this eye-catching sign provoked some amusement but the obstinacy with which this obvious error is adhered to is increasingly irritating and provokes alarmist explanations why Indian industry has a mere 0.6 percent of world trade. Maybe people abroad just don’t understand what our businessmen are talking about. But this particular grammatical bloomer has also served the useful purpose of being a daily reminder of the importance of punctuation in communications, especially given that those in the communications business (such as this reviewer) are (despite a legal system which is the pits) always vulnerable to writs of defamation. Of course one shouldn’t over-emphasise the importance of impeccable English punctuation in a heterogeneous, multi-cultural society in which half the population can barely read and write their names in any language. I often find myself keeling over with sheer gratitude if as editor of this newsmagazine I receive a paragraph which is intelligible, never mind the punctuation. But that is precisely the point that Lynne Truss, hitherto a not-so-successful novelist and broadcaster and now the celebrated author of this dark horse bestseller, wants to — and does — make. Improper punctuation can diabolically alter the intelligibility of a written sentence, as recounted in the apocryphal — but you never know — story encapsulated in the title of this engaging book. Which is to the effect that a panda (a large furry endangered animal found in the upper reaches of China) walks into a restaurant, orders dinner and having done, instead of paying the bill, draws a gun and fires away at the ceiling and crystal ware. “Why?” asks the bewildered maitre d’ as the panda heads for the exit. “I’m a panda. Look it up,” he says tossing him a badly punctuated wildlife manual. The waiter does so and comes across this entry: “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like animal native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.” This clever punctuation joke about the perils of misjudged punctuation is the point of departure for a detailed investigation-cum-lament into abysmal standards of English grammar and punctuation, if at all it is taught, in the very home and epicentre of the English language. According to Truss until 1960, punctuation was routinely taught in British schools. Currently a recently introduced National Curriculum “ensures that when children are eight, they are drilled into the use of the comma, even if their understanding of grammar at such an early age is a bit hazy”. But during…

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Multiple charms of Madhya PradeshSituated in the heart of India, the country‚s largest state offers visitors the temples of Khajuraho, the serenity of Marble Rocks, stupas of Sanchi, and tigers of the Kanha National ParkLakshmana Temple KhajurahoAs its name implies the state of Madhya Pradesh (central province) is situated in the heart of India. The largest of the 30 states of the Indian Union, the huge geographical sprawl (443,446 sq. km) of MP (as it‚s popularly known) offers visitors a multiplicity of leisure and travel options. Whether it is the exquisite statuary and sculptures of the temples of Khajuraho; the ancient stupas of Sanchi, seat of Buddhism; the serene and peaceful waters of Marble Rocks; the Kanha National Park famed for its tigers, MP has plenty to offer to business and leisure travellers. Though given its size state-wide tours are a tall order, its major cities ‚ Bhopal (the capital), Jabalpur, Indore and Gwalior offer numerous excursion options.The recorded history of Madhya Pradesh dates back to the time of the great and venerated emperor Ashoka (300 BC). Subsequently a major portion of central India was incorporated into the Gupta Empire (300-550 AD). In the first half of the seventh century it was part of the domain of emperor Harsha. In the early 11th century the Muslims invaded central India, first Mahmud of Ghazni and then Mohammad Gori who integrated certain parts of the state with the Sultanate of Delhi. It also formed part of the Mughal Empire during the rise of the Marathas.Until the death of Madhoji Scindia in 1794, the Marathas ruled supreme in central India, but subsequently several independent and smaller states came into being. The disintegrated smaller states paved the way for British sovereignty. Around that time, fabled women rulers ruled over Central India and these include Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, Rani Kamla Devi and Rani Durgawati.When India became independent in 1947, the British Indian provinces of Central Provinces and Berar were consolidated into Madhya Pradesh. Boundary changes followed and the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000. Forty percent of the tribal population of India ‚ including large numbers of the Bhil and Gond tribes eke out a living in India‚s largest state also noted for its ravines and forests.Comments Leena Karkera, assistant manager, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation in Mumbai: “Last year 3.5 million tourists visited Madhya Pradesh during the season which is between August and February.”The state hosts notable cultural events such as the annual Kalidas Samaroh (performing and fine arts) in Ujjain; the Tansen Samaroh (music) in Gwalior, and the Khajuraho Dance Festival a unique extravaganza of performing artistes. Comments Renu Diwan, a Mumbai-based homoeopathic physician who has visited MP several times: “The contrast between different places within Madhya Pradesh is immense, not only in terms of natural beauty and scenic spots, but also in infrastructure and hotel facilities.” BhopalTaj-ul-MasjidThe picturesque capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal is set around a lake and is renowned…

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Letter from London Stormy top-up fees debate It is amazing how quickly subjects which dominate the British press for a time, suddenly disappear from the front pages of newspapers. A case in point is the stormy ‘top-up’ fees for university students debate which almost brought down the Tony Blair government. The objectives of the Bill as enunciated by education secretary Charles Clarke are to place Britain’s somewhat down-at-heel varsities on a sound financial footing; to give institutions the freedom and resources to compete with the best universities around the world, and to make university education accessible to all regardless of income. Currently tuition fees payable to attend any university in the UK are £1,125 (Rs.92,250) per year. The introduction of top-up fees (in other words topping up the mandatory £1,125 fees they already receive) means university managements will be free to levy any fee between this price point upto a maximum of £3,000. The general expectation is that top rung institutions will demand the highest amount permitted by the government. Despite the narrowness of the government majority, there’s general agreement that British universities have suffered from many years of under-funding, even as student numbers have increased dramatically following a government commitment to facilitating 50 percent of young people to pursue higher education. The percentage of students of university age has risen to 43 even as investment in higher education has continued to fall. Therefore even those resolutely set against the idea of top-up fees agree that supplementary funding has to be found from somewhere. Inevitably given its working class traditions, the Labour government has made provision for means testing students. Under the new system due to come into force in 2006, students from less well-off families will receive grants of £1,500 (Rs.1.20 lakh) for living expenses. Simultaneously the government is encouraging universities to offer bursaries so that students from poor backgrounds could effectively pay nothing, even for courses priced at the maximum £3,000 (Rs.2.46 lakh). However all students will have to pay back their fees after graduation though under the new system repayments will begin once they earn over £15,000 (Rs.12.30 lakh) per year, rather than the £10,000 (Rs.8.20 lakh) currently, and repayment instalments are directly linked to income. Any unpaid debts will be written off after 25 years. As is often the case in Britain, middle class families which are neither poor enough to qualify for assistance, nor wealthy enough to be able to pay up without a struggle, will be worst hit. Meanwhile there is considerable speculation about which universities will charge full permissible fees. Critics fear this will result in a two-tier university system, with poorer students more likely to opt for less popular universities charging lower fees. Thus far little reference has been made to the impact of the bill on international students. In the long term they will presumably have to pay far higher fees to maintain the gap between themselves and domestic students. At the moment international students pay between £7,000-10,000 (Rs.5.47-8.20 lakh) by way of tuition…

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Some four decades after it bequeathed its mantle to the Delhi-based Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) which conducts the prestigious ICSE school leaving examination for 1,286 secondary schools scattered across the country, the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), is all set to make a comeback to Indian shores. In mid-February a top-level three person UCLES team led by Dr. Fred Burke, director South Asia and Mauritius of the Cambridge (UK)-based syndicate (est.1858) made a week’s whistle-stop tour of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to conduct teacher training workshops which attracted over 550 senior teachers including principals. “Yes, you could say that we are making a comeback of sorts to India. But this time round our focus is on training programmes — face-to-face, online and distance — for teachers in Indian schools to improve their classroom teaching skills. Therefore we are offering cooperation rather than competition to the national boards of examination — CBSE and CISCE — in India,” says Burke. According to him there is also considerable latent — and increasingly articulated — demand for the bouquet of diploma programmes which UCLES has designed for schools and professionals looking to upgrade their skill-sets. The syndicate has developed short-term study programmes for information technology, business management and travel and tourism for school to postgraduate learners, apart from its popular teacher training programmes. “The response from school principals and from students and learners for our diploma programmes has been excellent,” says Burke. This is hardly a matter for surprise because UCLES has an association with India which goes back over a century. And even though the syndicate hand-held and anointed CISCE as its successor examination board four decades ago when in deference to nationalist sentiment it quit India, to this day 120 Indian schools offer UCLES’ International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), the globally recognised equivalent of the British GCE-O level, to class X students who opt for it. Therefore while this time around the syndicate’s emphasis is on marketing its teacher training diploma programmes in the subcontinent, the gradually rising affiliations are an additional bonus. “We have retained friendly contact with the national examination boards, particularly CISCE for the past 25 years. And now we are looking more intensively for ways and means by which we can work with them for the good of education in India,” says Burke. That sounds like an offer too good to refuse. Dilip Thakore (Bangalore) New B-school pacesetter The hitherto low-profile Bangalore-based Institute of Finance and International Management (IFIM) is rapidly moving up the hierarchy of India’s reportedly 930 business management training institutions. Promoted in 1995 by the Centre for Developmental Education (CDE) — a registered trust — IFIM has made it into the ranks of the top 50 B-schools in the country according to Outlook magazine (September 15, 2003). “The differentiating characteristic of IFIM is our strong emphasis on learning by doing. We believe that personalised attention or mentoring is the best B-school pedagogy. Therefore each student is assigned a faculty member who monitors his progress…

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Your counsellor repliesAfter completing my Plus Two (science) this year I would like to read for a degree programme in physiotherapy. Please advise.Nalini Shah, AhmedabadPhysiotherapists employ a regimen of exercises, electrotherapy, manipulation and massage to heal the injured, disabled, sick and convalescent of all ages. They prescribe and interpret tests and measurements for building muscle strength, motor development and respiratory and circulatory efficiency. Physiotherapy is offered as a four-year bachelor‚s degree programme followed by a six-month internship. To qualify for admission you have to write an entrance test after class XII. Physiotherapists find employment opportunities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, rehabilitation and sports coaching centres and in homes (when patients need it). There is also a huge demand for physiotherapists abroad.I‚m in third year B.Sc (computer science) and have completed a diploma programme in graphic design. I‚m interested in studying communication and graphic design further. Which reputed design schools offer this course in India? Do design schools abroad offer financial aid?Uday Kamath, MangaloreAdvertising, packaging, television, catalogue illustration, animation film-making and video programming, graphic design or graphic animation film design are basic disciplines within the ambit of communication design. You could try for admission into the four-year graduate diploma programme in design offered by the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design. Admission is on the basis of performance in an entrance test followed by a workshop and personal interview. For details visit www.nid.edu. On the basis of your educational qualifications, you are not eligible to apply for admission into NID‚s postgraduate diploma programme in graphic and animation film design. But you can apply to read for the film and video communication or software and user design courses. You could also try for admission into local art and design colleges or polytechnics which will put you through an aptitude test and/ or intermediate grade drawing exams. Admission criteria for entry into design schools abroad, include submission of a portfolio of your work. Expectations of financial aid should not form the basis of your plans for training abroad.I‚m a second year B.Com student and would like to enroll in a chartered accountancy course.Nalini Gupta, MumbaiYou can pursue a chartered accountancy study programme after completing Plus Two by registering for the Professional Education-I or you can complete your graduation and start off with Professional Education-II (PE-II) course. A student must register at least ten months before the examinations of these two programmes. After passing the Profess-ional Education-II exam, candidates are eligible to be inducted as articled clerks in accountancy firms for practical training and for admission into the final study programme ‚ a three-year course. Prior to commencement of practical training, a student has to attend and successfully complete at least 250 hours of computer training with hands-on experience. For more information write to The Western India Regional Council Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Anveshak, 27, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai 400 005.How can I become a qualified commercial pilot? I‚m currently doing my B.Sc.Ajay Singh, New DelhiIf you have completed your plus two with physics…

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Brand management is a newly evolved specialised function which involves creating and nurturing a brand with the objective of enhancing its image, recall and longevity in a competitive environment Brand Bollywood, brand India, brand Vajpayee, brand Sonia Gandhi. Increasingly products, places and people are being branded. Hardly surprising given that global brands like Adidas, Nike, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Versace, Fosters, Kelloggs, Omega, Titan, Kingfisher among others, are more highly valued than the companies which own them. Not surprisingly again, brand development and management is a fast-track career option which provides a host of advancement opportunities. Brand management is a newly evolved specialised function which involves creating and nurturing a successful brand (or set of brands) with the objective of enhancing its image, recall and longevity in a fiercely competitive environment influenced by innumerable environmental and non-environmental variables. Hitherto brands were managed by marketers designated product managers. But with incremental brand awareness in corporate India, product managers have morphed into brand managers, responsible for brand development to improve its visibility, market share and market value. As such, brand managers are required to focus their attention upon market research and development, packaging, manufacturing, sales and distribution, communications and forecasting. In particular forecasting involves keeping track of sales trends, anticipating response to marketing campaigns and competitive brands, new launches etc. Brand management jobs are available aplenty, particularly in FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies marketing foods, soaps, soft drinks, tobacco, drugs, cosmetics and liquor. Moreover latterly service sector businesses like banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, television channels and newspaper organisations too, are employing brand managers who usually rise to the very top rungs of the executive ladder. A more recent development is that management consultancy firms have begun hiring marketing managers to develop clients’ brands. They are increasingly recruiting marketing professionals with expertise in branding, market research, public relations, pricing and business-to-business marketing expertise. The usual route for entry-level positions in industry or service sector firms is a Master’s degree or postgraduate diploma in business administration (MBA), preferably from an IIM. Some firms do hire fresh graduates depending upon their aptitude and flair. The other route to enter the brand management business is by acquiring communications/ advertising experience. The skill sets required are creativity, communication and marketing savvy. Business study programmes with specialisation in brand marketing are offered by more than 50 universities across the country. Among the premier institutes/ universities for management and marketing studies (including brand management) are: Indian Institutes of Management (at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode) and the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai; Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi; Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar; BHU Faculty of Management Studies, Varanasi; Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune and S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. “Brand management in the United Breweries group of companies has evolved into a scientific process of identifying consumers, evaluating their needs and fulfilling them. This requires paying special attention to the component functions of marketing, especially market research, media planning, advertising, sales and distribution,” says Gurpreet Singh, group product manager, UB Ltd who manages the…

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Often when I am doing nutrition consultation for a ‘spoilt Indian’, I am confronted with the grave realities of the disparities in our society. Who is a spoilt Indian? A person who in spite of all the resources to eat sensibly, be aware, and live a balanced life, gets into a pattern of eating anything and everything merely to satisfy taste. All spoilt folk want a panacea, a miracle cure which ensures that their lifestyle is not affected and yet they can have the benefits of youthful energy and good health. They will not flinch at spending on designer clothes or travel abroad. But to spend marginally more on better, safer and cleaner food, which can make a big difference to their insides rather than outsides, becomes an economic issue. They get their palates accustomed to caviar and raw oysters to keep up with society, but ask them to savour brown rice and you get a contemptuous look or snort of bewilderment. Well it’s your health and your life, I feel like telling my clients. With every complaint of aches and pains, I feel like telling them of the millions on earth who survive on only one meal a day and that too not a ‘square’ one. Every time I’m late for a meal or for whatever reason am forced to experience the pangs of hunger, I cringe to think at how for so many humans this is a daily reality and often one that leads to death. At the recent MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival) there was a boycott by some documen-tary filmmakers who opposed censorship of their films which contradict the feel-good India Shining propaganda blitz of the ruling dispensation in New Delhi. Therefore simultaneously just across the road from the MIFF venue, a parallel film festival of filmmakers who boycotted MIFF was staged under the Vikalp (films for freedom) banner. Often authorities don’t realise that by controlling too much they give vent to parallel movements that do more ‘damage’ than they can imagine. Anyways thanks to Vikalp we got to see films depicting true ground conditions in India. A film by Sagari Chabra entitled Hunger in the Time of Plenty explored the irony of starvation deaths in an era of food surpluses. The film showed godowns overflowing with foodgrains being eaten by rats and weevils but denied to 50 million people who it alleges are on the verge of starvation. This despite a 60 million tonne food reserve when the need is for only 20! Sagari explains in the film how money set aside for the hungry rarely reaches them: contractors usurp it before it reaches its destination. So even though there may not be a real food shortage, hunger pangs are a live reality for millions of Indians, who are reduced to mere statistics. If India is shining, the majority of its inhabitants have yet to experience the glow. I will mention only some films here to bring to light that while the spoilt city person worries about where she gets her vitamin…

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Not so dead woodBittu SahgalIn the next few months I will be interacting with hundreds of teachers throughout India and through them with over 1,000,000 children across the country. This is under the aegis of the Kids for Tigers, the nature education programme that is helping to transform teachers and students into India‚s most effective Green Army.In our mission we have the support of Pradeep Poddar, CEO of Heinz India Ltd, makers of Complan, our sponsors. With his entire team, he shares our belief that in this day and age no child‚s education can be considered complete unless she is provided a real sense of what it takes to protect her natural heritage.Of course, clued-up contemporary teachers constantly remind their students how important trees are. Which is just as well, because they are among the least appreciated of nature‚s masterpieces. Indeed it‚s difficult to imagine a more useful ‚Ëœinvention‚. We need oxygen, which trees give us. And we put out carbon dioxide ‚ tonnes of it ‚ as our ‚Ëœwaste product‚, which trees transform into all manner of resources including food and fuel. No man-made machine could perform this vital service for us half as well. Indeed, almost everyone interested in environment and the great outdoors loves trees. Trees have beauty and grace that few other life forms can match. But when a tree falls, it is at best regarded a dead asset. This, I always take pains to explain to teachers, is a mistake. I suggest to them instead, that their wards are introduced to the miracles that allow even a dead tree to provide shelter and life to uncounted other life forms.In the course of its life (and this varies greatly from species to species) a tree works as a collector, retainer and converter ‚ all rolled into one. Water, solar energy, soil and minerals are all absorbed and retained by trees to be converted into leaves, wood, sap, flowers and fruit.Nutrients are thus blocked in a living tree and admirably protected by the tree‚s natural defences. The outer bark, for instance, prevents all types of invading organisms from attacking and destroying inner wood tissues.But once a tree dies, the dry, strong, hardy bark that used to function as a protective layer, begins to weaken. Why? Possibly because of fire, moisture in the atmosphere, or perhaps wind erosion. To a greater or lesser degree all these contribute to the inner tissues ‚ xylem and phloem ‚ losing their firmness. And this, ironically, is the trigger for new life forms to manifest themselves in the logs of a dead tree.Though you could find plenty of fungi on the stem of a tree even before it has fallen, it is only when the tree is well and truly dead that the fungi and mosses actually flourish. This is when the ‚Ëœinvasion‚ really begins. Organisms that enter new habitats (in this case the fallen log) are loosely termed invaders. The ecological term for this sequence of colonisation is ‚Ëœsuccession‚.Look in your…

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There is a general awareness that contemporary education is a totally different ball game from what it was earlier. Increasing inroads into students’ minds by the broadcast media day in and day out, vastly differential lifestyles and severe peer pressure have very disturbing consequences and implications. In academia too, new courses make headlines everyday, focusing on currently fashionable professional and personal profile skills, each carrying a more fanciful designation than the other! Typically students are attracted to these state-of-the-art designations since they are driven by the natural desire for peer acceptance and acclamation, and wish to be in tune with current mores and fashions. If we analyse these processes and their symptoms carefully, it becomes evident that students, particularly those in the twilight zone between adolescence and adulthood are to a great extent driven by a strong need for personality differentiation. One can relate this need of youth to an extrapolation of what can be categorised as ‘self esteem needs’, to borrow from Maslow’s hierarchy of ‘esteem needs’. Perhaps a better and more communicative term would be ‘differentiation needs’. This stems from the basic premise that each individual is different, looks different, talks, walks, dresses, thinks and acts differently. It is these highly individualised differentiation needs which drive youth to actively participate in virtual or real group activities that repeatedly satisfy their different needs either in thought or in action and attach them by a needs-driven umbilical chord to be part of the pace-setting differentiated crowd. In the Bangalore-based Jain Group of Institutions (JGI) we are keenly aware of, and committed to helping our students to ‘make a difference’ in terms of meeting their aspirations, through a combination of empowerment and enablement. In our scheme of things, powered by our chairman Sri Chenraj Jain’s vision, we believe that contemporary, latter day students need to be encouraged and motivated to achieve their aspirations by giving them “empowered education leading to enhanced employability”. To this end, we have addressed each sector of the education-employment continuum in a bottom-up step-wise manner, starting with: • A binary model of school education for the haves (Jain International Residential School) and the have-nots (Jain Vidyaniketan) • Vocationalised education (Jain Institute of Vocational & Advanced Studies) • Graduate education (Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College) • Postgraduate education (MATS School of Business) • Entrepreneurship/incubatory education Our experience has been that while vocational education and employment are complementary and directly proportional to each other up to a point in terms of entry level jobs, vocational education has its limitations in being only a ‘job enabler’ rather than a ‘career enabler’. Also, in our considered view, it is at the undergraduate level that we need to be different, to address students who aspire to be different, so that together we can help them to differentiate themselves. From an early stage we were aware that if we were to meet students’ differentiation needs it would not be enough just to ‘run a race’; what was actually required was a focus and drive to run a perpetual ‘relay…

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The wholly unsolicited reduction in the annual tuition fee of the six Indian Institutes of Management decreed by Union human resource development minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi has drawn an unprecedented storm of protest from industry, academia, students and the media. Dilip Thakore reports A ministerial bolt from the blue has thrown the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) — the nation’s proud world class institutions of business management education scattered across the country — into disarray, anguish and confusion. On February 5, the Delhi-based department of secondary and higher education (technical section V) of the Union ministry of human resource development presided over by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, one of the top three leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the major constituent of the ruling 22-party coalition government, issued a terse five paragraph order. It directed the IIM managements to slash tuition-cum-residence fees payable by students admitted into the new academic year (2004-05) by 80 percent from Rs.1.5-1.75 lakh to a uniform Rs.30,000 per year. Describing the annual fee of Rs.1.5 lakh ($3,340) as “exorbitant”, while stressing that the IIMs “are fully funded central government technical institutions”, and invoking the “observations made by the Supreme Court and the recommendations of the U.R. Rao Committee”, the order (F.No.7-4/2002 T.S.V) decreed that “the revised fee structure will take effect from the academic session 2004-2005”, and added ominously, that “the compliance report in this regard be sent to the ministry urgently.” This wholly unsolicited reduction in the annual tuition fee of the six IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode) has drawn an unprecedented storm of protest from middle class India — industry, academia, students and the media. Quite evidently the imperious February 5 order has reminded the informed public that during the past year Joshi has sacked the chairmen of the Indian Council of Historical Research, ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Sciences Research) and issued a diktat routing alumni donations to the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) through a specially constituted Bharatiya Shiksha Khosh trust (see EW cover story January 2004). Prior to these institutional interventions he blatantly commissioned the doctoring of school textbooks published by NCERT (National Council for Education Research & Training), to reflect hindutva nostrums of dubious authenticity. Suddenly a rising current of apprehension is running through middle class India that Joshi has morphed into the proverbial bull in the china shop who could wreck the education system. The minister’s tinkering with the proven structures and processes of the IITs and IIMs which have acquired global reputations for the high quality of problem-solving engineers and managers they produce, has proved particularly galling for the nation’s upwardly mobile urban middle class which highly values quality education, and has provoked a declaration of war. The February 5 order of the HRD ministry has generated widespread indignation because it’s common knowledge that even the annual fee of Rs.1.5 lakh per year currently payable by the fortunate one percent of students admitted from among 150,000 graduates who write the IIMs’ Common Admission Test…

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Ask your 1to1help.net counsellors1to1Help.net CounsellorsI am worried about my nine-year-old son watching too much television and missing out on more creative pursuits like reading and sports. How do I wean him off this habit? Meghana Malhotra, JaipurFirst and foremost, you need to realise that this problem of children spending far too much time before the telly is a common concern of thousands of parents. However the good news is that children can be motivated to engage in more productive pursuits like reading, sports and extra-curricular activities.Here are some suggestions to limit and control your son‚s passion for the idiot box in a friendly and co-operative way.‚ Discuss the reasons why you want him to limit telly viewing. Ask his opinion about the benefits and ill effects of television‚ Go through the TV guide with him and mark the programmes everyone in the family favours. Turn off the set as soon as the chosen programme is over‚ Don‚t leave the telly on all day, especially if no one is watching. Otherwise it may become omnipresent‚ Negotiate the maximum amount of time that your son can watch television, each day or each week‚ Don‚t allow unsupervised access to television‚ You could impose logical consequences when your child violates agreed rules; ban television for a specified period of time‚ Encourage your child to play badminton, tennis, cricket or any other sport in which he is interested‚ Help him to become a member of a library and encourage him to spend some of his free time reading. You could also read to himGenerally speaking it‚s also useful to plan family activities which don‚t involve television. Eat meals together (with the television switched off); schedule one or two nights for family games like monopoly, pictionary etc; invest in toys, games and books; encourage your son to invite his friends over and arrange games and other activities for them. All this will help him become aware that there‚s more to life than television. My five-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. How can I help him to cope with this problem? Ruchi Oberoi, DelhiAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder (APHD), once known as hyperkynesis or minimal brain dysfunction, is one of the most common mental disorders among children. These days it is regarded a medical syndrome rather than a disease.Characterised by a given collection of symptoms centred around short attention span and hyperactivity, ADHD generally manifests itself during primary school years and upto the age of seven, though in some instances it could prolong into adolescence. Though the symptoms become less severe in late teenage and early adulthood, people never quite ‚Ëœoutgrow‚ ADHD because of the developmental nature of the syndrome. And though it is widely prevalent and affects 3-5 percent of the global child population, the syndrome is usually mis-diagnosed and disregarded.Once your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, apart from prescribed medicines and therapy sessions, it‚s important that he should be provided with adequate support and encouragement. You should bear in mind the following points while…

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Learning community modelLionel CranenburghCommitted educators know that change for students at risk requires extraordinary will to overcome the pressure to do nothing. Educators can be like Shakespeare‚s Macbeth “letting I dare not wait up I would” and like Hamlet in their search for reasons to “lose the name of action”. A few innovative educators dare to dream and gradually break down barriers so that a pulsing river of systemic pedagogic change can be channelled to parched educational fields. As an India born educator in Australia, my account of challenges I overcame as a consultant to principals working with aboriginal children and their families, has many lessons for Indian educators and teachers in a country with one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. According to the Human Rights Commission in Australia, aboriginal students are among the most severely disadvantaged in the contemporary world. They suffer from high levels of illiteracy, transiency, poor motivation, poverty, homelessness, poor health, substance abuse, inadequate home support structures and often unsupportive school environments. In 1996, 16 percent of aboriginal students completed school compared to 60 percent non-aboriginals.My research as a consultant to principals in the most remote parts of Western Australia where the population is almost entirely aboriginal, indicated that only 40 percent of them attended school. Change, if it is to be successful, must be resourced using a bold approach which involves develop-ing a vision and making decisions that are valued. I involved principals, teachers, motivated parents and students to draw up a strategy to address social, emotional, educational and literacy raising needs. The first requirement was to identify the needs of students at risk in each school, provide professional development programmes for teachers, principals and parents and draw up a comprehensive and workable plan to make parents and students vital cogs in the decision-making system. Setting teaching standards are as necessary as light in the darkness to guide, infuse confidence, illuminate targets as also to provide opportunities for reflection and progress. I conferred regularly with parents, teachers and principals to develop a set of standards based on the Adelaide Declaration of National Goals in the 21st Century. These benchmarks include teachers demonstrating a sound commitment to the holistic development of children; continuously learning their subject and how to teach it; taking responsibility for managing and monitoring student development; thinking systematically about implementing best practices, and creating learning communities. Regular meetings, close monitoring of agreed standards, reports by principals, consultants and the groups involved in this project helped maintain enthusiasm, reduce opportunities for teachers faking it and ensured an output-oriented system. Most schools in India and Australia are education providers isolated from their local communities and jealously guarding their right to independence from parents. To break this harmful self-imposed isolation, we borrowed the idea of building learning communities from Britain. We resolved to involve various organisations and dedicated individuals within local communities to meet regularly, work collaboratively, develop instruction, welfare and curriculum policies and promote lifelong learning for students at risk. This learning…

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Education in india has many shortcomings. One limitation that is often glossed over is that students, at the undergraduate as well as the postgrad levels, are not taught how to develop and improve their communication skills. It is not uncommon to come across individuals who are supposed to have studied literature for five years but cannot write two paragraphs without grammatical errors or speak for two minutes without stumbling. Colleges and universities should emphasise the development of effective communication skills, both written and verbal, as part of their curricula. It is easy to write or talk about how a person can become an effective communicator. It‚s far more difficult to actually become one. From time immemorial, women and men have communicated with each other with considerable difficulty. Seals found at Mohenjodaro and Harappa depict animals that are easily recognisable; but the same seals have words written in a script that is yet to be fully deciphered. Cave paintings of the Stone Age, writings on papyrus (the precursor to paper) found in ancient Egypt and some of the priceless treasures that were once stored in Baghdad‚s (now destroyed) museum ‚ all represent evidence of the earliest attempts of human beings to communicate. We have been communicating with each other from birth. But the process of transmitting infor-mation from one individual to another or from one group to another is fraught with numerous potential sources of error. Effective communication determines the success not only of an individual but also of the organisation that she or he represents. This is because communication can be inter-personal, inter-group, organisational or external. The true meaning of what is being communicated often gets lost, especially in cross-cultural interaction.The importance of effective communication in a cross-cultural world should be evident to all in this country in particular. That‚s because India is not just the second most populous country in the world, it‚s the only nation with words in 20 official languages printed on its currency notes, the world‚s most populous democracy and so on. It is also arguably the most deeply divided nation in the world, a country that divides itself along the lines of economic class, religion, region, language and race. Juxtaposed with all these divisions is a caste system which is unique to India. In such a deeply divided society, the importance of effective communication should become self evident.Communication is not merely verbal. Body and sign language and other forms of non-verbal communication are also important. There is a visual aspect to communication, a tactile and vocal aspect, besides the use of time, space and images. On the vocal aspect of communication, how many of us have reflected upon the numerous ways one can utter the simple word ‚Ëœno‚? This single word can express mild doubt, amazement, anger or terror or could convey a wide range of emotions in between these extremes. A verbal message is more than a mere string of words put together. The tone of voice, enunciation, tenor, timing and context ‚ all…

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Coca-Cola India announced the launch of its Olympic Torch Bearer nomination programmes to select 42 torchbearers and seven escort runners to represent India in “one of the most far-reaching participatory events in human history” — the first global relay of the Olympic Flame, on February 24. These programmes include an essay competition for school children, a radio phone-in nomination programme and key account activation in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. “We are overjoyed about providing people in India the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being part of the first truly global Olympic Torch Relay,” says Sanjiv Gupta, president and CEO, Coca-Cola India. Coca-Cola India’s programmes for selecting torchbearers are designed around the theme of ‘Recognise Inspiration’. The company is looking for candidates who are an inspiration to those around them through their celebration of fundamental values such as friendship and peace; or by encouraging the participation of others; or by dedicating themselves to “making a difference”; or by keeping traditions alive for a better world. Participating students will be required to write an essay on the person who inspires them most. The same goes for the radio activation, where listeners can call in FM radio stations like Radio Mirchi and nominate a person of their choice. The nominations will be screened by a panel of distinguished judges and short-listed candidates will be invited to New Delhi by Coca-Cola to participate in this historic event. The Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay will begin in late May to effectively circle the earth. Fourth convocation of Ohio Manipal School of Business The Ohio Manipal School of Business (OMSB) celebrated its fourth convocation in Bangalore on February 1. On the occasion, 40 graduates of the 2003 batch were awarded their Master’s degrees by Ohio University. Soutgata Bannerjee was the valedictorian of the outgoing class. Dr. Stephen Kopp, provost, Ohio University, Dr. Glenn Corlett, dean, Ohio College of Business and Dr. Ramdas Pai, chairman of the Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) were present on the occasion. “To date 180 students have graduated from OMSB which is poised to emerge as a business school of standing comparable with top rung management institutions anywhere in India and abroad. The global learning benefiting the students is credible for a promising future. We are delighted to contribute to the all round development of the leaders of tomorrow,” said Kopp speaking on the occasion. The Ohio Manipal School of Business was promoted in 1999 by MEMG and Ohio University, USA. The School offers a full time MBA degree in India from the College of Business, Ohio University. The MBA programme is accredited by AACSB and the International Association for Management Education. Kellogg School’s super class of 2005 The MBA programme of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, USA has been adjudged the No.1 business management study programme in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), London. Currently the class of 2005 includes 23 Indian citizens. From over 50,000 applicants, 524 men and women were enrolled in the Kellogg School’s…

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Uttar Pradesh Educational gimmickry With the general election just a month away and governments at the centre and in the states handing out largesse in the form of subsidies, tax cuts and handouts, Uttar Pradesh’s wrestler-turned chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has joined the rush. And many pre-poll sops have been offered to the education sector. From raising the retirement age of academics to lifting the freeze on recruitments, Yadav has positioned himself as the saviour of education stating that before his rise to political fame and fortune, he was a teacher. But two of his recent education-related pronouncements seem to have backfired. The first was a self confessedly last minute proclamation in his 2004-05 budget presentation speech of February 11 decreeing free education upto class XII in all government schools. This announcement follows a previous government order mandating that development and teaching charges should not be calculated in the affixation of fees. That decree brought the class X tuition fee from Rs.297.70 per year to a rock bottom Rs.66.70 (Rs.5.55 per month). Similarly the class XII tuition fee dropped from Rs.472.90 per year to Rs.88.90. Typically after the impromptu declaration while presenting the state’s budget, no details were issued. Therefore school principals are confused whether they are to charge the reduced fee as per the earlier order or waive all tuition fees. While officials in the state government’s education depart-ment evasively claim that details are being worked out, school principals are plagued by another worry. Comments Vinay Tiwari, principal of RSM Inter College (class XII): “Schools anyway get very little by way of tuition fees. But whatever little we get we try to put to good use in providing meagre facilities to our students. Now if schools can’t charge tuition fees at all, their managements will find other ways to get money out of students. This will give a fillip to corruption.” R.P. Mishra, president of the UP Intermediate Teachers Association is also sceptical about this “political gimmick” which in his opinion won’t be implemented. “The government is not really serious about improving the standard of education in UP. Moreover a government which is reeling under huge deficits cannot afford such profligacy,” he says. Currently the state government’s fiscal deficit is an unsustainable 9.1 percent (cf. the Centre’s 4.8 percent) of GDP. With Yadav’s whimsical tuition fee waiver firman likely to remain a dead letter in the cash-starved state, his other unprompted declaration that all government educational institutions will work from 8 a.m to 12 noon on Fridays proved equally ill-advised. The decision, says Yadav was taken “in the best interest of students” on the assumption that the state’s 30 million strong Muslim community would welcome the opportunity of sending school-going children for Friday prayers. But much to his surprise, this proclamation made with one eye on the Muslim vote bank aroused an unexp-ectedly violent reaction within the state’s beleaguered Muslim community. “Since only elders generally offer namaaz on Fridays, it would have been better if government employees were given an hour’s relaxation on that day. The…

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The great enthusiasm of the Union ministry of human resource development and AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) to monitor and regulate the entry of foreign universities offering their degrees in India is a grand design to extract bribes and inducements from them. Instead they could easily issue warnings in the press about shady foreign institutions and post their names and antecedents on their websites. As you rightly allude but don’t sufficiently emphasise in your cover story ‘Foreign degrees in India: boon or bane?’ (EW February), the real issue is the abysmal condition of the great majority of colleges and universities in India. The stringent regulations proposed by AICTE to monitor the activities of foreign universities offering twinning and other programmes in India will certainly dissuade the best foreign universities which will be put off by the red tape and corruption involved while the worst will find it easy and lucrative to do business in India. Inevitably the sufferers will be ‘next best’ students who cannot get admission into the too few good Indian colleges and universities or afford to go abroad. But you can trust control-freak bureaucrats to throw a spanner in the works. Let’s hope they fail in their efforts! Ashish Mehra  New Delhi Self-evident boon Summiya Yasmeen’s excellent cover story ‘Foreign Degrees in India: boon or bane?’ (EW February) made a strong case for allowing the winds of liberalisation and deregulation to blow through the education sector. However the question posed in your cover story was adequately answered by your special report feature ‘Danger! Date-expired syllabuses’. If syllabuses and curriculums of Indian universities are obsolete and the HRD ministry and regulatory bodies such as UGC and AICTE aren’t able to do much to rectify the situation, naturally the entry of foreign universities is a boon. QED. Zafar Safiullah Aligarh CISCE clarification In the January 2004 issue of EducationWorld you published a letter from Abhijit Singh of Kanpur, branding the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) as elitist and restraining. I would like to clarify that the council has not supported a colonial language, i.e English, at the expense of any other language including Hindi. In fact, the standards of all languages in schools affiliated to CISCE are equal. Long before the council was established, C. Rajagopalachari, the first governor general of India, famously said, “English is Saraswati’s gift to India” and Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopala Krishna Gokhale and Bal Gangadhar Tilak regarded English as “milk of the tigress” with which the nation could drive the British away from India. Today, English medium schools address the world community in a continued expression of this vision, in the prevailing social, economic and technological scenario. There is a section of the nation’s children whose destiny, based on constitutional provisions is linked to proficiency in the English language and CISCE endeavours to serve this niche with commitment. English being the associate official language of the nation, needs to be accessed by those who so desire. The schools affiliated to the council have evolved to positions of…

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The conclusion of purchase negotiations last month (January) by the Union government of the 45,000 tonne Russian-built aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov at a reported price of Rs.7,000 crore is a good indicator of the warped development preferences and priorities of the myopic collection of supra nationalists who rule contemporary India, and their fellow travellers within the establishment. Negotiations for finalising the purchase of this ancient but reportedly overhauled and modernised aircraft carrier have been ongoing for over three years and their successful conclusion has been widely welcomed in the media as a triumph of the Union defence ministry. Admittedly the Admiral Gorshkov will infuse considerable power and puissance into the Indian Navy and the defence services in general. Ever since the Vikrant â€” India’s first aircraft carrier — was moth-balled two years ago and converted into a permanent Mumbai-based naval museum, defence strategists have been pressing for an aircraft carrier following the Vikrant’s great utility in the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. But bearing in mind that the utility of aircraft carriers in the high-tech age of intercontinental missiles is being questioned by defence experts and strategists the world over and in particular given its chastening price tag, it’s a moot point whether at this juncture in the nation’s development history the purchase of an aircraft carrier should have been accorded the priority it has been given. Particularly at a time when the Union government’s fiscal deficit (though it has been somewhat reduced according to the interim budget presented to Parliament in early February) is still a formidable 4.8 percent of GDP, and the government is hard pressed to fund its Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All) in the age group six-14, initiative. In this connection it is also pertinent to note that the estimated cost of providing a free mid-day meal to all primary and secondary students in government schools across the country has been estimated (by EducationWorld â€” vide special report January 2004) at Rs.9,000 crore per year. For the majority of state governments which are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, financing the free mid-day meal scheme which, it is unanimously accepted, can dramatically improve school enrollment and retention is wholly beyond their budgetary capabilities. In the circumstances wouldn’t the RS.7,000 crore spent on purchasing the Admiral Gorshkov have been better invested in the development of the nation’s human resources through deployment in SSA and/or the mid-day meal scheme? And to what extent has the standard clandestine commission of 10 percent routinely paid on all defence hardware influenced the purchase decision? Development economics requires such hard questions to be posed and debated. Unfortunately India’s ruling establish-ment (media included) has little time or inclination for them. India may be Shining but not rural Bharat As the country readies for its 14th general election since it attained independence from British rule way back in 1947, the ruling 22-party National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP is riding high with its ubiquitous India Shining advertising campaign splashed within the undoubtedly grateful media. The reportedly Rs.400 crore campaign (alas, EducationWorld excluded) proclaims that the nation is enjoying unprecedented…

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