EducationWorld March 12

Revolution 2020 by Chetan Bhagat; Rupa Publications; Price: Rs.195; 296 ppUndoubtedly Indian society owes a debt to IIT graduate and former banker turned acclaimed novelist, Chetan Bhagat whose books have attracted countrywide attention. During the past decade, he has written four novels on contemporary themes, which have resonated with the public, particularly the countrys estimated 100 million urban youth. Until Bhagat arrived on the 21st century literary scene, an English language book or novel which sold 3,000 copies was acclaimed a bestseller. According to news reports, all of Bhagats novels (Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Centre (2005), The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008) and 2 States: The Story of My Marriage (2009)) have sold in hundreds of thousands. To this list add his latest oeuvre Revolution 2020 which reportedly received advance orders for 2 million copies. But while Bhagat has brought the freshness and energy of youth into Indian writing in English with appealingly contemporary storylines, at another level the amazing popularity of his novels is a depressing indicator of the extent to which education and public expectations have been dumbed down in our times. Revolution 2020 is awash with trivial and awkward dialogue which is often downright corny. Moreover if youre looking for social context, credible characterisation, interpretation of motivations and insights into the human condition — essential ingredients of the accomplished novelists craft — you are reading the wrong author. All you are likely to get is a simple tale told in the style of a Bollywood movie with over-painted characters, stagey situations, childish dialogue and a rain of italics to draw attention. Revolution 2020 has two narrative strands. One is a love triangle which follows the lives of friends Gopal, Raghav and Aarati growing up in Varanasi. Although this city steeped in myth and history offers rich opportunities for context and character-shaping influences, it is dismissed in one paragraph as a habitation which some call beautiful, holy and spiritual. According to Bhagat, middle class children raised in this sacred city of vintage temples, burning ghats and discarded widows, are completely unaffected by their environment, and are more interested in tiffin and chocolates, the subject matter of the entire first chapter. The second narrative strand is the rags to riches story of Gopal, the only son of a retired widower school teacher, whose burning ambition is to enroll his offspring into an IIT. Therefore, like most aspirant middle class youth, Gopal is sent to a cram school in Kota to be coached for the countrys IIT-JEE (joint entrance exam), written by over 300,000 youth vying for 3,000 seats in the IITs. Here too, Bhagat had a good chance to honestly detail the hard grind and grudging social lives allowed to youth sent to study there. But in true Bollywood style, Gopal is a paragon of virtue, interested only in Aarati, the spoilt girl (daughter of the district magistrate) he left behind. Predictably, she becomes enamoured with Raghav, a brilliant student — the third…

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Science Centre, Kuppam• A 172-acre state-of-the-art science education hub in Gudivanka, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, equipped with separate labs for physics, chemistry, robotics, maths, ecology, biology experiments and demonstrations is operational. The Kuppam campus also includes an arts centre, illusion rooms, medicinal gardens, playground and a 15,000 sq.ft Discovery Centre with jumbo size interactive science models • Six days per week, 500 children and 40 teachers of government schools in neighbouring villages are bussed into the science centre to conduct hands-on experiments in the centres 13 science labs with the aid and advice of 35 teacher-instructors Mini-science centres • 28 mini-science centres have been established in 20 districts of Karnataka • Every day, 100 children from schools in each district are bussed into these satellite science centres to conduct experiments and undertake project assignments Science on wheels (mobile labs) • 61 mobile science vans in ten states including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, visit remote villages • Each van, fitted with lab equipment and models (including the solar system), LCD, DVD player and UPS, dispenses science lessons and conducts live experiments and demonstrations for children Young Instructor Leader programme • Thus far, 3,361 YILs have been selected, trained and mentored from among rural government school students and lead childrens study groups under the peer-to-peer teaching-learning model • Eight YILs have won awards at Intels annual IRIS all-India science compet-itions since 2008 Teacher training • A specially equipped Creative Centre for Teaching on the Kuppam campus provides counselling services and advice to 40 government school teachers when they accompany students on daily visits to the campus • Thus far 159,413 government school teachers have received counselling under Agastyas day-visits programme Science fairs • During the past 13 years, nine mega science fairs have been staged in Hubli, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, attracting over 141,000 children, teachers and other visitors • 452 mini-science fairs have been convened in 36 districts which have attracted 200,000 students Camps @ campus programme • Introduced last year, this residential science camp programme (1-30 days duration) has attracted 1,748 students from 30 private schools (including Rishi Valley, Chittoor, Shishuvan, Mumbai, Mallya Aditi International, National Public School, Brigade School, Bangalore) to Agastyas Science Centre in Kuppam

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Jawad Khan (15), spends most of his day at home in his village in the remote Battagram District of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Province (KP), sometimes glancing at a magazine, or occasionally helping his mother shell peas or cut up potatoes. His three younger siblings spend their day in school, and Jawad, a top student in his grade till a year ago, assists them with revision and homework. He has himself refused to go to school for over a year, as the new private school set up in the area lacks a ramp to accommodate his wheelchair.Jawad lost both legs after he was trapped for over two hours under the rubble of his public school during the devastating earthquake of 2005, which killed at least 73,000 people in parts of KP (then known as the North West Frontier Province) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. That school is still to be built, and Jawad says he feels too embarrassed to be carried into his classroom. To add to his problems, his wheelchair, donated soon after his legs were amputated when he was nine, has also virtually fallen apart. My family cannot afford a new one, he says. According to the UN Childrens Fund (Unicef), the 2005 quake left 23,000 children disabled. Unicef itself is building child friendly schools across the quake zone, complete with facilities for the disabled, and last year opened 16 more such schools. At the child friendly schools Unicef is building, we try to mainstream disabled children. Ramps are provided when needed, but issues like access to schools for children in remote areas are huge ones, Jan Madad, an education specialist at Unicef, told IRIN. But the 165 schools Unicef has agreed to build cannot cater to the needs of all the quake-affected children. According to the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority, set up by the government immediately after the quake, 5,751 educational institutions damaged or destroyed by the quake need to be reconstructed. Some 73 percent had been completed by the start of September 2011. Work continues on others, but this still means many children lack access to school. The problems for physically challenged children are acute. I have a nine-year-old pupil, Gul Muhammad, who is carried to school on his fathers back. His friends help him to the toilet, and the hard chairs are uncomfortable for him as he has a back problem. I feel sorry to see him and wish our school had better facilities, says Alimuddin Ali, a school teacher in Battagram. I have read of education by radio in some areas of the world for children in remote communities. Perhaps we can use FM radio to offer them broadcast lessons, he suggests. (Excerpted and adapted from www.irinnews.org)

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The recent easing of Australias visa restrictions on overseas students could usher in a third wave of international education in the nations universities having established government support for the sector via an affirming message that resonated abroad, says the outgoing chief executive of Universities Australia. But for many in the sector, the question is whether the benefits stemming from the Knight review of Australias student visa system will feed through fast enough to remedy the financial damage from a sharp decline in international numbers.By recommending a reduction in red tape and an enticing new post-study work option for international students, the review is seen by many to have boosted Australias attractiveness as a study destination and wrong-footed competitor nations — especially the UK, which currently seems to be heading in the opposite direction. More importantly, many believe it has sent a signal that Australia is open for business after a period in which more stringent visa rules and bad publicity presented a negative picture to potential students from abroad. Glenn Withers, who stepped down as chief executive of umbrella group Universities Australia in January, is in no doubt about the positive effects of the review, led by former Sydney Olympics minister Michael Knight. The release of the report, and the governments positive response received strongly affirming coverage in the international media and through agent and informal networks, he says. The review was very important because it showed that the government recognised the significance of the international education sector to Australia, while signifying that (it) is committed to working with the sector to protect the interests of students, universities and other providers. The key question now is whether the announced changes will boost Australias flagging recruitment of overseas students in time to stem the resulting loss of jobs and income at universities and other education institutions such as vocational colleges. The latest figures on education exports in Australia, published in December highlight the need to act fast. The value of fees, goods and services purchased by foreign students dropped to A$15.8 billion (Rs.83,740 crore) in 2010-11 from A$18.5 billion the previous year, according to the International Education Association of Australia. The states of Victoria and New South Wales — which together have almost half the countrys universities — each lost more than A$1 billion (Rs.5,300 crore) in that period. Agents recruiting international students for Australian institutions are not optimistic about the chances of a quick upturn. Changes being made by the government to the visa system are making Australia a more attractive destination for international students, but we dont expect to see a clear turnaround in the offshore market for at least a year, says Warwick Freeland, general manager and chief strategy officer at international student-recruitment agency IDP Education. Recent visa-application statistics from the Australian government show the fragility of the market. In the three-month period ended September 2011, ‘offshore applications by international students to all types of institutions were up 5.2 percent compared with the same period in 2010. Demand…

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The French government has made a u-turn on its post-study visa rules for overseas students following an outcry from the countrys leading higher education institutions. In changes described by Pierre Tapie, president of ESSEC Business School, as a radical shift from the governments initial position (that) answers 90 percent of our concerns, in mid-January the French ministry of the interior issued a new diktat on student immigration, easing post-study visa rules for foreign graduates.As Times Higher Education reported last November, the work-visa applications of hundreds of top overseas graduates who had found work in France were rejected or delayed last year after the interior ministry issued stricter immigration rules to local authorities in May. But a memo sent in mid-January calls on local officials to award foreign graduates who have completed a Masters degree in France, the right to work. Caroline Fourest, a lecturer at Sciences Po in Paris, says the move acknowledges that the work-visa clampdown was a mistake: The government went too far in its repressive and defensive policies, and this time realised it had gone too far, so it is a victory for us, says Fourest. Currently there are hundreds of overseas graduates struggling to obtain work visas, according to the 31 May Group of students set up to protest against the rules. Many students and academics say they will continue their protest against the government. Dr. Tapie, who leads the Conference of the Grandes Ecoles, a group of elite French universities, says academic lobbying had been crucial in securing the policy change. Our action was part-public, part-intense personal negotiation with government officials. We lobbied hard and brought individual cases to the attention of the highest levels of the administration, he says. In France, as in the UK, the concern was partly about rising hostility to French institutions abroad, with the message appearing to be that international students were no longer welcome on French soil. Thats why the protest has such resonance, says Yves Lecointe, president of the University of Nantes. Everywhere university presidents were dealing with one, two, sometimes 10 or 20 cases of graduates struggling with their visa applications. The campaign was joined by some of Frances best-known scholars, including Nobel laureate Albert Fert, who said the regulations had already started to damage postdoctoral research in the country. Postdoc students in their prime are a real driving force in research labs, he says. Today, many postdoc candidates are worried, and some have already seen their visa applications rejected. The result, he says is that France risks sending its best brains abroad and will not see anybody coming here and compensating for this loss. (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)

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As soon as it got devolved (self) government in 1999 within the framework of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (aka UK), Wales set out on a distinctive path of school reform — or lack thereof. League tables of exam results were abolished in 2001. Wales strong trade unions opposed the creation of any ‘academy schools, which are independent of many state restrictions and are widespread in England. Parental choice has been limited to deciding whether to send a child to a school in which lessons are conducted in English or in Welsh. While England has engaged in customer-oriented reforms, Wales has indulged in what David Reynolds, an educationist at the University of Southampton, describes as producerisms last hurrah.Standards have slipped. Over the past decade Wales has failed to match the improved exam results in other parts of Britain: just 66.5 percent of GCSE entries got a decent grade in 2011, compared with 69.8 percent in England. Wales has also lagged England, Scotland and Northern Ireland in tests of how well 15-year-olds can apply their knowledge devised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a think-tank. In an attempt to reverse this trend, Leighton Andrews, the Welsh education minister, has settled upon a new form of accountability, published in December last year. This groups secondary schools in Wales into one of five bands, according to exam results achieved by their pupils, their attendance and how well the school serves children from poor families. That has helped sort the wheat from the chaff: on January 11, BBC Wales produced the first league table for a decade using the banding data. Andrews wants to extend the exercise to primary schools in the coming months. Yet, holding schools publicly accountable for the achievements of their pupils may not be sufficient to raise standards in Wales in the same way it has in England, says Reynolds. In rural parts of the country, exercising choice is impractical for parents; even in urban areas, sending children to the local school is a deeply ingrained tradition. Instead he points to the improvements made by schools that are using data to sharpen teaching. Sandfields Comprehensive School, for example, lies in the middle of a housing estate close to a steel works and the site of a former petrochemical plant on the edge of Port Talbot. Its pupils are mostly poor, yet the proportion who pass their school-leaving exams has risen steadily over the past few years. Mike Gibbon, head of the school, attributes its success to a programme overseen by Sam Stringfield of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, in which pupils are tested regularly. The results are used to identify gaps in their knowledge that are promptly plugged. This is good, but hardly sufficient, progress. As Wales comes around to the discipline of accountability and transparency that has been commonplace in England for the past decade, English schools are heading in a radical new direction, towards financial independence and parental oversight. Whether…

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In an election year, it came as no surprise that President Barack Obamas State of the Union (SoU) address contained the now-familiar soaring rhetoric, as well as announcements designed to please students and recent graduates — voters who proved vital to his victory in 2008. However, with the power of the executive office to enact policy being limited, and with Republicans looking to oust him in Novembers election, there are doubts about how many of his lofty ambitions will be realised in the months ahead.In particular, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act cited by Obama in his SoU address in mid-January may prove a sticking point. Despite pledging soon after taking office to implement the Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who entered the US as minors, allowing them to receive in-state tuition-fee rates or federal loans, Obama has found it difficult to garner enough bipartisan support to do so. The legislation was filibustered and voted down in late 2010, and since then has lost the support of several high-profile Republicans, including the former presidential candidate John McCain, who do not want the Act passed without increased immigration enforcement. Nafsa, an Association of International Educators, released a policy document in November last year, urging the Obama administration to press ahead and not allow conservative factions in Congress to keep delaying the legislation. This situation can continue because we have become all too willing to play on the anti-immigration sides turf, the organisation said. Also highlighted by Obama in his address to Congress was the rising cost of college education. At an event at the University of Michigan on January 27, he expanded on his comments, which included the assertion that higher education cant be a luxury — its an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford. To this end, the president said that federal funds for campus-based aid programmes would be linked with responsible campus tuition (fee) policies. However, while the Obama administration has said that the measure is necessary to keep tuition fees from spiralling too high, the move has prompted some concerns. Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, believes the policy is effectively introducing price controls at a time when universities are struggling with budget cuts and increased demand from students for financial aid. President Obama also announced a new ‘Race to the Top scheme for college affordability, under which a $1 billion (Rs.4,800 crore) pot will be available for states willing to drive systemic change in their higher education policies. In addition to this, $55 million (Rs.275 crore) will be invested in a ‘First in the World competition, which the president hopes would find the next breakthrough strategy that will boost higher education attainment and student outcomes. Academic stereotypes study When dr. brent harger watched Henry Walton ‘Indiana Jones Jr, Ph D, leave his archaeology class in the middle of a lecture and set out to find the Holy…

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Its highly unlikely that any of the estimated 8,000 individuals who attended one or more lectures delivered by Dr. Howard Gardner — globally-renowned professor of education and developmental psychology at Harvard University and author of 25 intensively researched and insightful books including Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983); Multiple Intelligences, New Horizons (1993) and Five Minds for the Future (2007) — during his recently concluded Howard Gardner India Tour 2012, will ever view education through the conventional prism again.During their first visit to India in January-February, Dr. Gardner together with his wife and collaborator, Dr. Ellen Winner, professor and chair of psychology at Boston College and an expert on gifted education, delivered mind-bending lectures to enthusiastic audiences in Indias major metros (Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bombay and Delhi). They interacted with a large number of policy formulators, educationists, school principals, teachers and students, sharing valuable insights into the human brain and cognitive sciences. Moreover, the historic visit of the highly acclaimed education seer and savant attracted widespread press coverage. However media coverage of Dr. Gardners tour was restricted to cursory reportage of his 90-minute lectures and set-piece question-answer interviews. A detailed biography tracing the history and development of Dr. Gardner into arguably the most influential education and mind development guru of the contemporary world, and the impact of his lectures on Indian educators was conspicuously missing. This is the lacuna the cover story in this months issue of EducationWorld attempts to fill. It is recommended to all educationists, trustees, principals, teachers, parents and well-wishers of the worlds largest, and most educationally short-changed population. My hope is it will focus the minds and stimulate the hearts of educators and the public to press for the teaching-learning revolution which is urgently needed to reform 21st century Indias moribund education system. While interacting with, and writing about the Gardners was a mind-expanding experience, the special report feature filed by managing editor Summiya Yasmeen reporting on an unprecedented, ambitious initiative to introduce the joys of learning the sciences — physics, chemistry, maths and ecology — experientially, is perhaps no less so. The story of Ramji Raghavan who threw up a promising London-based career in banking and returned to India to establish the Agastya International Foundation which comprises a state-of-the-art sciences learning centre in the rural backwater of Kuppam on the Andhra-Karnataka border, is equally inspirational. Every day 500 children and 40 teachers from neighbouring village schools are bussed in — and conversely mobile science vans traverse lonely roads to reach far-flung rural schools — to give poor and neglected rural children opportunities to conduct live experiments and learn the sciences joyfully. Its an extraordinary effort in resources mobilisation, management and commitment.

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Mumbai-based Aditya Seth wears several hats and has been associated with almost every genre of Indian media since 1986. As an academic, he lectures at well-known media training institutions including Mumbais St. Xaviers Institute of Communication, Whistling Woods International, and the Emdi Institute of Media and Communi-cations. As a telefilms producer and director, he has edited and directed television serials, commercials, corporate and short films. And as a documentary producer-director — his first love — he has over 500 films to his credit.Newspeg. 2011 was a significant year of challenges and plaudits for Seth. In mid 2011, he directed Bahadur the Accidental Brave, using his sharp camera skills to depict the spread of HIV within Nepali migrants in Mumbai. Premiered in Kathmandu and Mumbai, the film was widely acclaimed by critics and the media. Another film, Teach for India was awarded a Certificate of Merit at the IDPA Awards for Excellence 2010. History. An arts graduate of Kirori Mal College, Delhi, Seth began his career in audio-visual media in 1987 as assistant to the famous Bollywood director Prakash Jha. Around the same time, Seth also promoted his own banner Drishya Movies, which produced documentaries and short films for the Union government, corporates and Unicef. Among his documentaries which connected with audiences in India and abroad are Youth and Future: The Indian Spectrum, Ek Paristhiti (on child labour), Paritap and Buzz of Betrayal (on sexual abuse of children), and Silent Revolution (on rural sanitation). Direct speech. Ive always found fact more fascinating than fiction. I suppose this is because of an inherent need to understand society in its myriad facets, to look beyond and beneath the obvious, to analyse and comprehend the dialectic at work. I always learn from my films and regard myself as a perpetual student of life and cinema. The objective of my documentaries is to hold up a mirror to society, to arouse sensibilities and reflection. Most of my films are about local problems with global appeal, since they depict universal emotions and explore the human predicament, says Seth. Future plans. While continuing to produce and direct impactful documentaries which will arouse the collective conscience of society and spur action, Seth is also drawing up a blueprint to promote a film school under the name and style of Indian Academy of Short Films, to teach the craft and techniques of documentary and short films. The intention is to train a pool of audio-visual communicators who will make films for international distribution, says Seth. Wind in your sails! Kalpana Rangan (Mumbai)

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Im a Plus Two (science) student. I want to know how I can qualify for the Indian Police Service. Ashok Wadhwa, New Delhi You have to be over 21 years of age and a graduate before you can write the Civil Services Examination (CSE) for entry into all-India services such as IAS, IPS, etc. After class XII, choose a degree programme which will help you in the Civil Services Examination. Please visit www.upsc.gov.in to understand CSE. When writing CSE, you have to select two subjects (optional) in which you require knowledge and training equivalent to a postgraduate degree programme. Therefore it makes sense to choose the same optionals for your graduation and postgraduation. After completing Plus Two (science), I would like to read for a degree programme in pharmacy. Is it necessary to study maths and biology in class XII? Which institutes offer undergraduate and postgrad courses in pharmacy? Deepika Seth, Ahmedabad For higher education in the pharmaceutical sciences, it is advisable to study maths and biology together with physics and chemistry at the Plus Two level. For admission into a B.Pharm programme, candidates should have successfully completed Plus Two with English, physics, chemistry, biology or maths, averaging over 50 percent in PCB/M. In Mumbai, colleges offering B.Pharm include University Institute of Chemical Tech-nology, Matunga; Bombay College of Pharmacy, Kalina. Other prominent institutions with degree programmes in pharmaceutical sciences include BHU, Varanasi; BITS, Pilani; BIT, Mesra; MS University, Baroda; Pharmacy Depart-ment, Kalabhavan, Vadodara and University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Punjab University, Chandi-garh. Some of them also offer M.Pharm programmes. Im an engineering student and would like to qualify as an air traffic controller. Please advise. Gautam Vaze, Pune The Airports Authority of India invites applications for air traffic controllers from individuals below 28 years of age who have scored 60 percent plus in: the bachelor of engineering in electronics/telecommunications/radio or equivalent; sections A and B exams conducted by the Institute of Engi-neers (India) in electronics/telecommu-nications/radio engineering subjects; graduate membership exams of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommu-nications Engineers (India); associate membership exam, parts II and III/Sections A and B of the Aeronautical Society of India (electronics/avionics as a group); science undergrad exam with physics/maths as main subjects. I would like to enroll in a degree programme in genetic engineering after completing Plus Two (science) next year. Please advise. Ashok Rao, Bangalore A stand-alone degree programme in genetic engineering is not available except as part of a B.Tech programme in biotechnology offered by the Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad 211 007. Instead you need to enroll for M.Sc in one of the biological/life sciences or in biotech-nology and specialise in genetic engineering. So figure out whether a B.Sc in biological sciences, biotech-nology or life sciences is preferable or whether you would like to pursue a B.Tech in biotechnology. The latter is offered in a few engineering institutions in the country and requires a high order of mathematical skills in addition to high scores in physics and chemistry. Also remember that genetic engineering…

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While the pet healthcare and food industries are growing steadily behind the scenes, pet grooming salons or parlours have become increasingly visible in the countrys metropolitan cities For the countrys growing number of animal rights activists and household pet lovers, new opportunities have emerged to combine their pleasure — love of pet animals — with business. According to Euromonitor Inter-national, a London-based transnational market research agency, the population of pet dogs and cats in India numbered almost 9 million in 2010, a number that is expected to grow considerably in the near future. Consequently a host of vocations and professions have begun to take wing in the fledgling but promising pet healthcare and grooming businesses. The estimated revenue of the Indian pet foods, healthcare and grooming industry will rise to Rs.1,160 crore by 2015. While the pet healthcare and food industries are growing steadily behind the scenes, pet grooming salons or parlours have become increasingly visible in the countrys metros, esp-ecially Delhi and Mumbai. The multiplying number of pet salons in the metros and tier I cities has opened up oppor-tunities for a high-potential career choice for animal lovers. Pet grooming services are mostly availed for dogs, especially long-haired breeds, and can include basic services such as bathing, hair drying, eye cleaning, teeth brushing, nail care and hair trimming or complex hair styles such as the ‘lion cut, the ‘teddy bear cut, the ‘lamb cut, etc. Additional services include manicures, herbal hair colouring, dematting, deshedding, anti-tick treatments, hydro cleaning and nail painting, perfuming, aromatherapy and massage. Proficient groomers are expected to offer both routine and show grooming services, for pet and show dogs respectively, and to be able to cater to felines. People are now more open to spending on their pets due to increased education and exposure, and pets are now regarded as members of the family and not just guards of home spaces, says Sanjeev Kumar, the countrys premier pet care entrepreneur. Kumar gave up his career with HDFC Bank in 2005 to pursue his passion for pet grooming and was joined by his teacher wife, Preeti. He promotes his pet care business under the name of Scoopy Scrub and owns seven salons in Delhi, and has licensed three franchisees in Jaipur, Hyderabad and Pune. A mere love of animals though, is not enough to make a career in pet grooming. A diploma programme will facilitate entry into pet salons and also empower aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own salons or businesses. Until recently, Indian pet care professionals were obliged to travel overseas to acquire certified qualifications — mainly to Singapore which is a more budget-friendly option, compared with pet care academies in Europe or the US. However, now several pet lovers and entrepreneurs have promoted training schools in India. Among them: Fuzzy Wuzzy Pet Grooming School and the Shevar Grooming School, Bangalore; Whiskers & Tails, Mumbai; and Scoopy Scrub, New Delhi, which offer basic and advanced pet grooming diploma programmes of 20-60 days duration. Advanced courses instruct…

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These are times when no education system can afford to shun global comparisons in terms of quality and canvas of learner attainments. Education systems the world over are under severe pressure to accept new and innovative techniques and technologies that could well dominate emerging pedagogies as also measure what students are gaining in terms of knowledge, skills, and learning to learn. In this context, the issue of assessment has become an important subject.The introduction by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) — the largest all-India school leaving (classes X and XII) examinations board — of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) and grading is a pedagogically sound initiative, which could make a positive impact on the quality of learning. However, there are serious gaps at the implementation stage which raise doubts about whether the desired level of change would actually be attainable. During his recent India tour, Dr. Howard Gardner, the well-known professor of cognition and education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, emphasised that assessment processes should focus on two objectives: (1) Can the student demonstrate under-standing in and across the major disciplines — the scientific, historical, artistic/humanistic and mathematical domains? This is best done by providing novel and unfamiliar examples/problems/concepts, and have the stud-ent explicate them. And (2) Are young people becoming moral and ethical citizens? One may not necessarily agree with all that the learned professor opines, but it must be acknowledged that he fully captures the essence of pedagogically sound assessment in consonance with the delineated objectives of education i.e, earning a decent livelihood and contributing as an effective and creative citizen who adheres to values and morals. What can our children learn by observing and understanding, say, the process of elections, voting patterns, unethical practices, and the public image of elected representatives? How far does this understanding prepare them to enter adult life respectful of democratic values and norms? The great Greek scientist-philosopher Aristotle wanted good persons to become good citizens. Education in all its aspects must respond to the simple query: has it prepared children for responsible citizenship to not only be good people but also good citizens? Does the system make them internalise the concept and pragmatic import of satyam, shivam sundaram — ‘truth, beauty and good-ness? This is the litmus test of quality of education. Despite Indias school education system being under severe stress from compounding competitive compulsions and constraints, lack of adequate teaching-learning opportunities and facilities for 70 percent of the countrys children, the questions posed above create few ripple effects in terms of systemic functional efficacy. The encouraging primary enrolment rate of 96.7 percent loses its sheen when 50 percent of children drop out of school within five years. All that is learnt and acquired during this period is lost in the next two-three years as dropped out children — most of them from poverty-stricken rural and urban slum habitations — relapse into illiteracy. Non-functional schools, absentee teachers, low learner attainment, inadequate facilities and dry-cum-dreary school environments are to blame.…

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Well-known educationist and managing director of the Ryan International Group of Institutions which includes 120 K-12 schools countrywide, Mme. Grace Pinto was conferred the Kelvinator GR8! Women of Spirit Award 2012 on February 15 for her outstanding contribution to education and social work. Bollywood actors Dikshita and Manisha Khadwady presented the award to Mme. Pinto in the presence of cinestar Vidya Balan, entrepreneur Anushka Ranjan, choreographer Saroj Khan, musician Richa Sharma, and politician Smita Thackeray.The annual GR8! Women Awards — an initiative of GR8! TV magazine, and the Indian Television Academy — confers honour and recognition on women achievers from all walks of life. This year the Mumbai-based Asmi Diamond Jewellery and ‘Beti — A Movement, a campaign against female foeticide, in association with GR8! TV magazine, observed this day to honour women of spirit in the fine arts, literature, music, politics and public life, sports, medicine, business, entrepreneurship, education, cinema and television. YES Banks Vision 2020 report released Vision 2020: Education and Employability, authored by the strategic initiatives, government and advisory division of YES Bank Ltd, was released at the India Education Summit 2012 organised by Network 18 on February 24 in New Delhi. The report highlights the challenges of integrating the skills development and formal education systems to improve employability of students and availability of trained manpower. The report also presents a roadmap for closing the gap between the vocational and formal education systems and calls for greater private sector participation in the vocational education space. There is a need to create sustainable public-private partnership models, based on the principles of social equity, to overcome the infrastructure gaps existing in this sector, said Tushar Pandey, president of the strategic initiatives, government and advisory division of YES Bank Ltd, while participating in a panel discussion at the summit. British Council Young Global Citizen Summit 2012 Shri Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha (formerly Orissa), inaugurated the British Council Young Global Citizen Summit (YGCS) 2012 convened on the premises of SAI International School (SIS), Bhubaneswar on Republic Day (January 26). The summit was organised for the first time by British Council (India) in partnership with SIS. It attracted the participation of over 500 students and teachers from 115 schools countrywide, together with eminent personnel of the British Council and facilitators from the UK and Europe. Speaking on the occasion, Charlie Walker, programmes director of the British Council (India), highlighted the importance of internationalisation of education in the rapidly globalising world. The commitment of the council will be firmly focused on respecting cultural diversity and improving communication skills of children and youth, he said. The three-day YGCS 2012 included several creative workshops, enlightening addresses and entertainment progra-mmes together with sightseeing tours for participants. The creative workshops were conducted by renowned partners of the British Council such as The Tony Blair Foundation, 100 Words, BBC World Class, Royal Shakespeare Company, Big Dance, Youth Music Voices, Forum Theatre, Art Education, among others. The Global Citizen Summit was also addressed by Dr. B.K. Sahoo,…

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GoaMedium of instruction divide The election manifesto of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) — Goas oldest regional political party — released on February 24, promises to retain Konkani and Marathi as media of instruction in primary schools, if it is elected to office in the state assembly elections scheduled for March 3. The mediums of instruction for primary education will either be Konkani or Marathi or any other Indian language (but not English), MGP working president Narayan Sawant told reporters in Panaji. The party has also said it will enforce use of local languages in the day-to-day official communications of the government. MGP is contesting next months Goa assembly polls — in which medium of instruction in primary education is a major election issue — in alliance with the BJP. Last year, the incumbent Congress-led coalition government of the state extended government grants to English-medium in addition to Konkani/Marathi schools, a policy decision fiercely opposed by MGP. MGP which ruled Goa for 18 years after liberation from the Portuguese in 1961, has also promised it will promote agriculture and horticulture. Its mani-festo promises deserving rates and markets for agricultural products, and transport subsidies for agriculture. Rajasthan Court raps multiple supervisory authorities The Rajasthan high court has strongly criticised the multiplicity of adminis-trative councils whose clearance is required to introduce educational programmes approved by the Central and state governments. It is seen by this court that at times, various councils of the government of India are granting approval to courses, over which they have no power, Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari observed in his order passed on a petition filed by a group of students studying pharmacy. When the Pharmacy Council of India exists, we fail to understand what AICTE has to do with the pharmacy course and is granting permission to run the course, he said. The court also enquired about the reasoning behind approval for each course being neces-sary from several councils and bodies. Expressing disapproval of multiple supervisory councils for professional education study programmes, the court issued notice to the Centre and state authorities, including the vice chancellor of the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences to explain the need of multiple permissions for introduction of every study programme. We cannot allow such types of irregularities in the name of recognition, opined the judge. Bihar Universities restructuring programme The Bihar state government has resolved to restructure universities in the state according to new guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The states human resources development minister P.K. Shahi said a proposal advanced by the director of higher education to this effect has been approved by him and the ministrys principal secretary, Anjani Kumar Singh. Currently there are 12 universities in the state. A detailed proposal will soon be prepared to bifurcate Magadh Univ-ersity and create a new university comprising two Patna-based colleges. Smaller universities will be carved out of B.R.A. Bihar University, Muzaffarpur; L.N. Mithila University, Darbhanga and T.M. Bhagalpur University, say ministry sources. The proposal to bifurcate universities…

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Inevitably, the countrys dysfunctional legal system characterised by chaos and humungous delays, and a tradition of chronic neglect of children of the socio-economically disadvantaged, has converged to weigh upon young offenders lodged in government-run observation homes, meant for the temporary reception of children in conflict with the law. According to the Child Rights Trust, Bangalore statistics, currently 200,000 juveniles (below age 18) are lodged in 5,000 observation homes countrywide. Those convicted are later sent to juvenile justice homes (aka borstals), where they are lodged for reform and rehabilitation.The world over, minors who commit criminal offences are placed on a different footing from adult criminals. Whereas the latter are prosecuted for crimes against society and public order, juvenile offenders are perceived as youth gone astray, whom the state and society needs to counsel and rehabilitate. However conditions in Dickensian government-run obser-vation homes characterised by corruption, over-crowding, rotten food and insanitary conditions are so bleak that most young offenders yearn for the relative safety of the streets. This was surely the motivation behind a mass breakout from an observation home (OH) in Madivala, a suburb of Bangalore, on February 7. Four youths in their early 20s vandalised the OH office and attempted to flee the home with other children aged between ten-18 joining in the affray and failed mass breakout, until a police contingent restored normalcy. The four leader youth had been lodged in the OH as minors but due to the laws delay in hearing the cases against them, continued to stay on in the home even after they turned 20. On the statute book the laws relating to caring for, counseling and rehabilitating young offenders, are unexceptionable. Under s.14 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, cases filed against young offenders shall be completed within a period of four months from the date of commencement, with exceptions if the period is extended by the board having regard to the circumstances of the case and in special cases after recording the reasons in writing for such extension. However this exception provision has permitted cases to languish in the system way beyond four months — sometimes for years — for petty reasons such as transfer of the principal magistrate, lack of case workers, charge-sheets not being filed in time, procrastination of lawyers, dearth of probation officers, and paucity of juvenile justice board (JJB) members. Cases in each district are supposed to be adjudicated by a three-member board — the principal magistrate and two social workers from the fields of child rights, childrens education or child welfare. But since the state government hasnt constituted all juvenile justice boards yet, young offenders are held in observation homes longer than they should be. Therefore the first priority should be for the state government to establish fully-staffed JJBs in all of the states 30 districts, says Nina Nayak, chairperson of the Karn-ataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR). However this is easier said than done. Poor pay and working conditions…

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The gruesome murder of school teacher R. Uma Maheshwari (41), who taught science and Hindi at St. Marys Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School (a government-aided school established in 1845) in Chennai, by a 15-year-old class IX student of the school on February 9, has shocked and stunned the academic community, parents and students in Tamil Nadu (pop. 74 million), which prides itself as Indias most academically progressive state. The heinous crime which was widely covered by the television and print media has provoked a national debate on issues of parenting, teaching and student stress within a national school system which places high premium on examination success.By all accounts, the student (whose name has been withheld as he is a minor) was angered by adverse remarks that his Hindi teacher had made in his school diary, repeatedly reprimanding him for his poor performance in class tests. The teacher had complained to the boys parents who had also admonished him. While Maheshwari, who had been teaching in St. Marys for six years was routinely doing her duty, the boys carefully planned murder has created consternation bordering on panic, within Chennais teachers community. According to students who witnessed the gruesome act, the delinquent sped ahead of the others into the classroom where Maheshwari was waiting to conduct a special class in Hindi, pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed her. The teacher succumbed to her injuries on the way to hospital. Police officials probing the crime have stated that the student had been carrying a knife in his bag for three days, waiting for an opportunity to attack his teacher when she was alone. Further inquiries about him have revealed he is from an affluent family, but a loner. When questioned, he admitted to being influenced by the Hindi movie Agneepath in which the protagonist takes revenge on his fathers murderers. The police have charged the student with murder and sent him to a juvenile home, pending inquiry into the murder which will be conducted by a juvenile justice board. This violent incident of student angst and campus murder, hitherto dismissed as a typical Western phenomenon, has focused the attention of educators and the academic community on the multiplicity of challenges confronting teachers and parents while raising children who are beco-ming increasingly aggressive and intolerant of discipline. Several factors including rising parental and faculty pressure to excel in academics, inadequate attention from working parents, dom-estic strife and peer pressure, explain this phenomenon. Our education system evaluates children purely on marks obtained in examinations, giving precious little weightage to their other talents and skills. At home, children spend hours watching films, television and playing violent video games, which glorify and romanticise graphic violence. Moreover total neglect of values-based education in most schools is also responsible for childrens inability to distinguish right from wrong, says Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder, Centre for Counselling, Chennai. Given that contemporary children are exposed to an overload of information, and each generation is smarter than the previous one, parents and teachers need…

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