Dr VM Bachal, former principal of Pune’s renowned Fergusson College, is all set to release a series of books tracing the history of this premier college in its 125th jubilee year. To be published in Marathi, the books will also trace the socio-economic growth of Pune (aka Poona, pop. 4 million), which has grown from […]
Although the hit feature film Slumdog Millionaire, set in India’s commercial capital has swept Hollywood’s annual Oscar awards bagging prizes for best picture, musical score and sound recording, not a few within the intelligentsia — your editor included — have experienced a peculiar reluctance to view it. By all accounts Slumdog is a gut-wrenching depiction of life in […]
Although India hosts the contemporary world’s largest audio-visual entertainment industry with Bollywood and its regional clones churning out 877 feature films per year, and numerous television companies producing millions of reams of footage, the country’s animation industry surprisingly, is still at a nascent stage. This is primarily because until recently, there were barely any qualitative […]
Microsoft Corp (India) Pvt. Ltd and Sify Technologies Ltd (a leader in consumer internet and enterprise services in India with global delivery capabilities) have joined forces to enhance digital literacy skills in India. As per a partnership agreement announced in February, 2000 Sify e-Port cyber cafes across the country will offer two specific courses in […]
Tejal Sudarshan Raut (11), resident of Sonale, a small village (pop. 812) in the Thane district of Maharashtra, had never stepped into the world beyond until a few months ago. But in December she was selected to represent her school run by the Quality Education Support Trust (an NGO promoted by Nilesh and Meena Nimkar), […]
Following a generous endowment made by Dubai-based entrepreneur Krishna Pathak, Exeter College, Oxford (UK), has instituted the SKP Clarendon Scholarship (linked to the Clarendon Award) for Indian graduates, to read for a Masters degree at Exeter College.
The scholarship, which will be awarded for the academic year beginning October 1, 2009, is for one year, renewable […]
Media reports emanating from New Delhi, suggesting that a committee of the University
Grants Commission (UGC) is finalising the provisions of a Bill to regulate the admissions and fees of privately promoted deemed universities, indicate that the licence-permit-quota culture is alive and well in the Union human resource development ministry and UGC. A UGC (Admission […]
A chilling deluge poured from black clouds above the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in mid January. The college is Americas second-oldest university, chartered in 1693 by King William III and Queen Mary II.The mood indoors matched the weather. State appropriations for higher education, which depends on tax revenue, have plummeted — […]
The Talibanisation of India and of the over-hyped Silicon Valley-state-of-India (Karnataka) in particular, which began with the infamous attack on five college girls lunching in a pub in the coastal city of Mangalore on the eve of Republic Day (January 26), is proceeding apace according to the not-so-secret plan of quasi-political outfits such as the […]
With the term of the 14th Lok Sabha having expired on February 26, the decks are being cleared in right earnest for the next general election this summer, with poll dates due to be announced any day now. Fortunately and unexpectedly, the last day of the final session of the Lok Sabha ended peacefully without […]
Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson; McGraw-Hill; Price: $32.95 (Rs.1,615); 288 pp
One of the greatest virtues of this book is that it has not been authored by education professors. This may seem an uncharitable way to begin a book […]
In the over-regulated education sector, politicians with clout, connections and insider knowledge, can cut through red tape and quickly expand capacity. But political wheeling and dealing habits die hard with scandals and allegations of corruption surfacing with tedious regularity. Vidya Pandit reports from Lucknow • August, 2005. Mulayam Singh Yadav, the then chief minister of […]
During exam time, terrorists walked into a school in Baghdad, picked a pupil at random and decapitated him. They left his head on display outside the school building. This was one of a succession of similar incidents during the recent insurgency in Iraq: it was not uncommon for teachers to be murdered in front of […]
Private school teachers will be subject to the same strict code of conduct as their state colleagues under plans put forward by the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE). The council is pressing the case for all those in the independent sector, who are exempt from registration, to sign up with the organisation. Currently, just […]
Almost 70 percent of children in Bangladesh who complete primary education are unable to read, write or count properly, according to an internal report by the department of primary education (DPE). Sixty-nine percent of students who had completed five years of primary school were unable to read news headlines in Bangla newspapers properly, while 87 […]
The great majority of middle class India, I suspect, owes a deep debt of gratitude to Christian missionary educationists who run perhaps one-fifth of Indias 75,000 private aided and unaided schools across the subcontinent. The great majority of them provide all-important English medium school education which — although the countrys cynical politicians elbow-deep in sub-standard […]
Currently relocated in Dehradun, editor and freelance writer/journalist Indrani Talukdar has written and edited thousands of articles for national and international magazines and dailies. So when she sent her first novel When the Lamps were Lit for publication to 4indianwoman.com, a California-based website, they were quick to award her a contract. A global writing platform […]
A natural raconteur and performer, for the past decade Chennai-based Jeeva Raghunath has been enthralling children not only in India, but also in Thailand, Malaysia, USA, UK, Canada, Sweden and Cayman Islands with her rich repertoire of Indian, Asian and western folk tales. In a varied and rewarding career, she has conducted training programmes and […]
Every month shelter Don Bosco, sited in Wadala, Mumbai stages a two-day mela (festival) for the ever growing number of street children in Indias commercial capital. It is the brainchild of Dr. (Fr.) Barnabe DSouza, an alumnus of University College, Worcester (UK) and Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai. Shelter Don Bosco is a Mumbai-based NGO which has […]
Im a second year B.Com student. Please brief me about entrepreneurship study programmes. Vikram Swamy, Chennai
The Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad (www.edi india.org) offers a two-year full-time residential postgrad diploma programme. The institute also provides the option of distance education. Alternatively, theres the one-year postgrad progra-mme in family owned business and entrepreneurship offered by IIM-Indore […]
Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to conduct 11 parent-training workshops, working with parents who have a strong desire to do the right thing when it comes to guiding their children through the world of sport.While interacting with them, the issue that has strongly impacted me is the huge frustration and helplessness […]
Within Indias 5 million-strong school teachers community, there is an urgent need to acknowledge Mother Nature as the greatest teacher and to learn from her example. She speaks not a word in any human language, and yet everything in Nature inspires humanity to seek and learn, engendering awe, mystery, and an enthusiasm for uncovering the […]
A first year economics student of Delhi Universitys Hansraj College, Kartikey Joshi (18) has just returned from a ten-day National Shooting Championship held in Thodokuza, Ernakulam district, Kerala between January 10-19. Organised by the National Rifles Association of India, the event attracted 1,000 sharpshooters from across the country. Participating in the 10 metres and 50 […]
California-based NComputing Inc, a global provider of low-cost personal computers and virtual desktop software, has enabled shared-computing in 5,000 government schools in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh to improve the learning outcomes of 1.8 million students. Under the state governments PPP (public-private partnership) build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model, several ICT companies including […]
In partnership with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Hewlett Packard India announced the launch of Hewlett Packard-TERI Schools Future Programme — an initiative to upgrade environment projects in schools, on February 17. To fund the project, HP India has conferred a grant of $250,000 (Rs.1.25 crore) comprising cash and technology resources to TERI.Learning about […]
The Delhi-based Educomp Solutions Ltd –– Indias largest ICT (instructional communication technologies) education company –– proposes to promote budget schools in small towns countrywide. To be known as Vidya Prabhat Schools, they will offer world class, affordable schooling which will blend latest innovations in education technology with traditional Indian knowledge and values.There is a shortage […]
“This (moral policing) is ridiculous. Todays youngsters have a better value system than us.”
Infosys chairman and mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy in DNA (February 18)
“Courts should be clean, run on the basis of a straight, transparent and accountable code of conduct with the aid of a performance commission with punitive powers. If even one corrupt […]
Under fire from the media and the middle class for tacitly supporting moral policing in the state, the BJP government in Karnataka (pop. 57 million) is making a desperate bid to focus public attention on its development initiatives, particularly in education. On February 25, the state governments education department repackaged an eight-year-old school adoption scheme […]
During the 31 years it has been in power in West Bengal (pop. 80 million), the CPM (aka Communist Party of India-Marxist) dominated Left Front government has taken every care to run the states education system, from primary school to university postgraduation, to suit its ideological predilections. Therefore, the criterion for appointment of teachers and […]
The imperial experience and link of the English language prompts Indian intellectuals and scholars to automatically look West for national development nostrums and inspiration. But the current crisis of capitalism in the US and the imminent bankruptcy of Britain and other erstwhile European imperial powers, suggests its time to look East for more meaningful socio-economic […]
The social media post by the mother of the 14-year-old school student, who allegedly died by suicide in Tripunithura and a post by his uncle, .....Read More
The Ministry of Education on Monday ruled out any irregularities in the allotment of hostels to students in central universities, asserting that the process is .....Read More
