EducationWorld March 15

ALTHOUGT THE SAMAJWADI PARTY government which has been ruling Uttar Pradesh, India™s most populous (200 million) state since 2012, is more reputed for caste and community-based politics and its high tolerance of criminals and criminality, sometimes ” even if rarely ” a socially beneficial proposal is produced by the state™s massive 2.7 million-strong bureaucracy. One rare and unambiguously socially beneficial proposition is the state government™s Nutrition Mission which proposes to merge the meals programme of children aged 0-6 years of the Central government™s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) with the national Mid-day Meal (MDM) programme for children in the 6-14 age group. If the UP government™s Nutrition Mission announced last November (2014) attains its objective, a massive cohort of 29.72 million children between ages 0-14 will be provided a nutritious daily meal free-of-charge. In a state which grudgingly hosts a population greater than all European countries except Russia, and in which 42 percent of children under age three are underweight, 52 percent are stunted and 19.5 percent are wasted, this will be a huge ” and electorally profitable ” achievement. œConvergence of the two schemes will automatically improve the meal delivery systems of the state™s 150,986 anganwadis established under ICDS and 866,361 elementary schools covered by the mid-day meals scheme, says Kamran Rizvi, director general of UP™s Nutrition Mission. Currently, meals provided to infants (and lactating mothers) in the state™s anganwadis are prepared in a central location in each district by NGOs and transported to village serving centres. This involves huge logistical costs. On the other hand, the mid-day meal provided to over 120 million children countrywide ” reportedly the world™s largest MDM scheme ” is cooked on the premises of every school. Under the new proposal, both ICDS and MDM meals will be prepared together and served to children from the two target age groups. To facilitate this merger, the allocations for anganwadi meals will now be transferred to the MDM accounts of school principals and gram pradhans (village panchayat heads). œThe inability to reach well-prepared nutritious meals to infants in the 0-6 age group is one of the major infirmities of the ICDS programme. This is the most important age group for any intervention against malnutrition. Nutritious anganwadi meals apart, home visits and meetings by anganwadi workers for health counselling, regular child growth monitoring and proper distribution of good quality supplementary nutrition are necessary to reverse the child malnutrition epidemic sweeping the state. The Nutrition Mission will have to factor these elements into the programme as well, says Arundhati Dhuru, food security advisor of the state government. However, Rizvi believes that integration of the meal schemes of the two Central government initiatives is a good step which will result in higher primary enrolment in UP™s primary/elementary schools. œYoungest children provided their meals in primary school premises will become familiar with them and willingly enter primaries when they come of age. This will increase primary enrolment. Moreover, the mid-day meals of primary schools will improve nutritionally with ICDS professionals…

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AN AMBITIOUS ATTEMPT OF the Indian academy, ruined by six-plus decades of continuous Central and state government interference and over-subsidisation of tuition fees, to make a global impact, has suffered a severe setback. In a letter dated February 19 addressed to the board of governors of Nalanda University, promoted to revive the ancient glory of the eponymous varsity which in the 5th century BCE attracted students from around the world, economics Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen resigned his post as chancellor with effect from July when his first three-year tenure ends. In a subsequent statement, Sen clarified that he won™t reconsider his decision as he has reasons to believe that the newly-elected BJP-led government at the Centre is against his reappointment as chancellor. Even though Sen had publicly criticised the majoritarian politics of the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the run-up to General Election 2014 in which the BJP-led NDA coalition roundly trounced the Congress party, Sen™s decision has generated shock waves in Indian academia. However, given that the Central government (under the Congress dispensation) had pledged to contribute Rs.2,727 crore of the estimated project cost of Rs.3,000 crore of the new varsity assuming shape and form in the small town of Rajgir (pop.41,587), contiguous to the ruins of the ancient Nalanda University in the backward state of Bihar, Sen™s resignation wasn™t entirely unexpected. But with the new Nalanda University having begun its operations with the admission of 16 students in two disciplines and 11 faculty members in  rented accommodation last September, Sen™s departure has come at an awkward time when ” inevitably ” the fledgling institution is experiencing teething pains. Former president Dr. Abdul Kalam and  Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who championed the cause of establishing Nalanda University-II, were conspicuous absentees at the inaugural function. Dr. Kalam is reportedly displeased with the appointment of Dr. Gopa Sabharwal, a reader at Delhi University™s Lady Shri Ram College, as the vice chancellor of the university at a salary of Rs.5 lakh per month. Reacting to the news, Nitish Kumar who engineered a Bill through the Bihar legislative assembly allocating a massive land grant of 450 acres for the Nalanda University campus, described the decision as œunfortunate and a personal loss. œI am sad because I took personal interest in bringing him to Nalanda University. I will talk with him. This is a very disturbing development, we will discuss it, he told mediapersons in Patna on February 20. Meanwhile, maverick BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy, weighed in with a volley of scandalous charges against Sen, accusing him of spending taxpayers™ money œrecklessly during his tenure as chancellor and called for the eminent academic™s prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 because he allegedly drew a salary of Rs.50 lakh per annum for himself œdespite the fact that he lived in America and briefly visited India. On February 26 in a detailed statement, Nalanda University described Swamy™s charges as œfalse, stating Dr. Sen has received œno salary whatever…

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The open, uninterrupted and continuous persecution of civil rights activist/lawyer Teesta Setalvad (and husband Javed Anand) by the BJP government of Gujarat headed by Anandiben Patel ” the hand-picked choice of prime minister Narendra Modi  ”  is further proof that the prime minister has few qualms about hounding his actual and perceived enemies by abusing the State™s administrative services. This proclivity was first highlighted during the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 in Gujarat, when Modi reportedly ordered the police to stand by while BJP cadres and associated lumpens ran riot for over 48 hours, attacking and massacaring  over 700 citizens of the minority Muslim community. In November 2013 in another scandal described as ˜snoopgate™, Modi reportedly deployed top police officials and agencies of the Gujarat government to spy and track a lady who had captured his fancy across several states. Now the Gujarat government says Setalvad has embezzled funds raised from the public to erect a monument commemorating the riot victims and fight their battles in court. The burden of the police charge against her is that she put some of the expenses of the Gujarat riot victims™ trust ” trusts are not eligible for issuance of credit cards ” on her personal credit card, and claimed reimbursement. For the information of the Gujarat police and high court, this is a commonplace practice in business and industry. Your editor, who was acquainted with Setalvad when she and Javed published and edited a high quality journal Communalism Combat from Mumbai, is also ready, willing and able to vouch for her character. Indeed, when your correspondent together with the late J.B. D™Souza filed a writ petition in the mid-1990s against the late Bal Thackeray for stirring up the Mumbai communal riots of 1992-93, our counsel was her father the late Atul Setalvad, assisted by Teesta. It™s impossible that there™s any substance in the embezzlement charge against her which requires ˜custodial interrogation™. It™s pure spite and vindictiveness. Unreliable heart Nobel laureate Dr. R.K. Pachauri is the latest addition to the infamous list of celebrated, influential and powerful alpha males which includes publisher-author Tarun Tejpal (Tehelka) and former Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly, accused of sexual harassment during the past year. According to a first information report (FIR) registered with the Delhi police, Pachauri is charged with outraging the modesty, sexual harassment, stalking, and criminal intimidation of a female employee of the Delhi-based The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), of which he is director-general. The FIR alleges that Pachauri sent the woman researcher dozens of messages via SMS, e-mail and Whatsapp, in addition to making unwanted physical advances for over a year. The curious reluctance of the highly educated and celebrated Nobel laureate to accept rejection has provoked a spirited debate in the cyber world. One view is that despite his impressive formal education (North Carolina University), Pachauri is a typical sub-continental, who believes women cannot resist the rich and powerful. Another is that Pachauri, a small-towner born in Nainital who made it big, believed…

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Nehru & Bose: parallel lives by Rudrangshu Mukherjee penguin books; Price: Rs.599; Pages 256 Critics and laymen who complain the history of India in the 20th century is overly dominated by the towering personalities of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and his offspring, are not unjustified in voicing dissatisfaction. Several scholarly and informative biographies have been written about Nehru, independent India™s first prime minister, his daughter Indira Gandhi, free India™s longest serving prime minister and her son Rajiv who succeeded  her. But other stalwarts of the freedom movement notably Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Lal Bahadur Shastri have not attracted the attention of professional historians with (English) language proficiency, scholarly discipline and capability to sift trivia from substance. This lacuna vis- -vis Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945), one of the most romantic and dashing leaders of the Congress party and uncompromising champion of India™s liberation from British imperialism, has been handsomely filled by this eminently readable comparative biography of Nehru and Bose. Free-flowing, balanced and rich with insight and the revealing anecdote, this volume tracks the career progression of two individuals of broadly alike upper-middle class backgrounds (both sired by successful lawyers), who developed a deep friendship sharing a common radical ideology, while rising high in the inner councils of the Congress party, as under the leadership of Gandhiji it planned and plotted to end British rule. Although Nehru™s privileged home schooling by English tutors in the parental mansion (which inter alia offered a swimming pool and tennis court) followed by  Harrow and Cambridge is the stuff of legend and folklore, the information deficit about Bose™s background, is made good by Oxford-educated historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee (Awadh in Revolt, 1857-1858; The 1857 Kanpur Massacres; Penguin Gandhi Reader), former  editor of The Telegraph, Calcutta and currently first vice chancellor of the mint-new Ashoka University, Gurgaon. Like Motilal Nehru in Allahabad, Janakinath Bose, a successful Cuttack (Orissa)-based lawyer also ensured that his son received œthe best education the English could offer, albeit in India. Subhas studied at the Protestant European School and seven years later at Ravenshaw Collegiate School, Cuttack where he learned to read and write Bengali and discovered Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Unlike the fashionably upper crust Nehru eight years his elder, who scraped through his exams in Harrow and Cambridge which awarded him a second-class degree in the natural sciences in 1910, Bose was a brilliant student and topped the matriculation examination conducted by Calcutta University. In 1913, he was admitted into Presidency College, where typically, he got into trouble for allegedly assaulting an English professor of history who had œmanhandled some of his batchmates. Although it™s doubtful he was directly involved in the assault, Bose was expelled from Presidency and forced to return to Cuttack œwhere there were no words of recrimination from his family, and he immersed himself in social work. A year later, he was re-admitted into Calcutta University and read philosophy at the Scottish Church College, graduating with a first class degree. In…

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The Pardada Pardadi Education Society (estb. 2000) has transformed socially backward Anupshahr in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh into a model village, offering a blueprint for the upliftment of women and empowerment of girl children summiya yasmeen Four hours by road from Delhi, the village of Anupshahr in the badlands of Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh (pop.200 million), is the epicentre of a remarkably successful experiment in girl child and woman empowerment. This educationally and socially backward hamlet (pop.23,000) has been transformed by the Pardada Pardadi Education Society (PPES, estb.2000) into a model village offering a blueprint for the upliftment of the status of women, and empowerment of girl children countrywide. Founded by former South Asia head of DuPont, Virendra (˜Sam™) Singh, to œempower girl children in rural India through education, PPES runs a free-of-charge K-12 Pardada Pardadi Girls Vocational School (PPGVS) with an aggregate enrolment of 1,255 students mentored by 59 teachers; a health centre for village inhabitants; community development programmes for over 2,000 women of 48 surrounding hamlets; a call centre training academy; a sanitary napkins production unit; and a textiles unit which manufactures home furnishing and corporate gifting products. Sam Singh An engineering graduate of Panjab University with a Masters in textiles engineering awarded by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Sam Singh began his professional career with the Delhi-based DCM Group in 1961. Four years later, he was recruited by the US-based chemicals behemoth DuPont Inc (annual revenue: $35.7 billion or Rs.214,200 crore), whom he served until retirement in 2000. œDuring my three decades plus in the US, I was repeatedly reminded that India was steeped in poverty, ignorance and gender discrimination. During one of my visits back home, it occurred to me that the golden key to liberating the country from ignorance and poverty was education and empowerment of girl children. But I had to wait for my retirement in 2000 until I had enough savings to start a girls school, says Sam, who donated 60 acres of land in Anupshahr to PPES. A typically American-style hard-driving CEO, during the past 15 years Sam Singh has transformed PPES (annual budget Rs.3 crore) into a premier rural development organisation with a strong focus on education and health. Pardada Pardadi Girls Vocational School The first initiative of PPES, the Pardada Pardadi Girls Vocational School was started in 2000 with 45 girl children and two teachers in a makeshift classroom. Confronted with the untenable situation of 31 children dropping out because of parental discouragement, Singh devised an innovative scheme of crediting Rs.10 per day into newly opened bank accounts of girl students attending class, with the proviso of no withdrawals until completion of the class X school-leaving exam. Unsurprisingly, the current enrolment of PPGVS, which supplements its academic curriculum with VET (vocational education training), has risen to 1,255 girl students with five applications for every available seat. Unsurprisingly again, PPGVS has been consistently outperforming all government schools in Bulandshahr district (pop. 3.5 million). In 2014, the entire batch of…

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About five years ago I was in my mid-seventies, commuting between Washington DC and my home in California. I worked a consulting job and was putting the final touches on what I thought would be my eighth book titled Kid Sense: Advice to Coaches and Parents from Kids in Sport. I was in a reflective mood. My daughter, Alison, a doctor, had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. She and her husband, Keith, a former Stanford University basketball player like myself, had one child ” my then seven-year-old grandson Spencer. My thoughts were with Alison, as they always were during that terrible, anxious time, but they were also on the book I was finishing. Almost all the books and essays I had previously written had, at their centre, the same message: sports can ” and should ” provide kids with much more than trophies on the shelf. For example, in Court Sense: The Invisible Edge in Basketball and Life (1999) I argued that if a child could learn to think on the basketball court, she could transfer the same thinking skills to the classroom, to relationships, career choices, and other decision making. However, years of dealing with pushy parents and coaches who believe sports and games are more about winning than developing good citizens, made me aware I hadn™t made much of an impact. Therefore why not try something else? Why not give children the opportunity to speak up about what sports and games mean to them and what they wish to gain from participation? That was the stimulus for writing Kid Sense. However, while on that five-hour flight, burdened by my daughter™s illness, it occurred to me that the proposed Kid Sense was devoid of integrity. The way I had conceptualised the book, it was my voice that would be speaking, not of  children themselves. Granted, it was a voice that had more than 50 years™ experience of working with kids in sports; but still, it was like the difference between margarine and butter. Fast-forward to 2015. At an age when most of my contemporaries are enjoying the fruits of their labour in retirement, I have just returned from a fortnight™s tour of India and Dubai, where I met with school leaders who were very interested in what children have to say about sports and life. And I also interacted with hundreds of children eager to talk. You can™t imagine the excitement I felt ” it was almost like being 20 again! So, what does it take to get an octogenarian like me excited enough to think, œYes, I do want to keep working! instead of, œWhere™s my rocking chair? Well, on my recent trip to India, it took two stimulating experiences. First was my meetings with school leaders who expressed how excited they were about the idea of using a sports and fitness programme to empower children to lead other children. Maybe you™ll wonder why this was so unusual for me. The answer is that I have…

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With the resignation of vice chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty on January 12, peace and calm has returned to West Bengal™s showpiece university. But with the ruling Trinamool Congress Party determined to infiltrate the state™s premier varsity, its future is bleak Somdev Thakur & Summiya Yasmeen After four months of student and teacher agitations during which classes and academic time tables were routinely disrupted, peace and calm has returned to West Bengal™s showpiece Jadavpur University (JU, estb. 1955). On January 12, the state™s beleaguered chief minister Mamata Banerjee, embroiled in the statewide Saradha chit fund scam and battling the flight of members of her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party to a resurgent BJP, visited the JU campus to announce the œvoluntary resignation of vice chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarty, the students™ hate object. A majority of JU students backed by some academics had been continuously agitating for Chakrabarty™s removal following a brutal police assault on the university™s students on September 17 last year. The students were demanding an independent investigation into the molestation of a woman student on the JU campus on August 28, when Chakrabarty called in the police to break a 12-hour gherao of the academic council by the agitated students. By summoning the police on the JU campus, Chakrabarty breached an iron ” albeit unwritten ” law of Indian academia. And inevitably the state™s lumpenised policemen broke up the agitation with extreme violence and brutality. Nevertheless the mercurial Banerjee, whose TMC ended 34 years of rule in West Bengal of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and its allies in a spectacular electoral victory in 2011, adamantly resisted the students™ demands, even confirming Chakrabarty™s appointment as vice chancellor ” he was interim/acting vice chancellor at the time of the police crackdown on students ” on October 6 for a five-year term. But with no let-up in the protests ” in a first for the university, students boycotted the convocation ceremony held on December 24, and 12 students began an indefinite hunger-strike on January 5 ” and the tide of public opinion turning in favour of JU students, Banerjee made a politically expedient volte-face. The ham-fisted reaction of the university authorities and TMC government, to a peaceful and justified student agitation which snowballed into a bitter three-month confrontation between JU students and the state government, has taken a heavy toll on West Bengal™s top-ranked university, which has an enrolment of 8,738 students mentored by 896 faculty. In the process the 60-year-old hitherto non-political unitary varsity has suffered serious loss of reputation and erosion of academic credibility. œThere™s no doubt these recent events have badly dented Jadavpur™s academic reputation. The blame for the prolonged student protests and disruption of academic calendar should be laid at the state government™s door. Not only did the TMC government mishandle the molestation case and resulting protests, it aggravated the situation by refusing to dismiss a vice chancellor so universally disliked by students and faculty. Continuous government interference, first by the CPM during its 34 years in office, and…

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At an astonishing 787ft (240m) tall, the vast tower of Lomonosov Moscow State University dominates the skyline of Russia™s capital. Inaugurated shortly after Stalin™s death in 1953, his œtemple to Soviet science remains the world™s tallest university building and can be seen by Muscovites for miles in every direction. But while the tower ” more than three times as high as London™s Senate House library and Europe™s tallest building until 1990 ” is awe-inspiring, the international standing of Russia™s universities does not reach such heights. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2014-15, Moscow State ” Russia™s most prestigious and highest-ranked university ” is placed 196 in the world, and occupied positions in the low 200s during the previous four years. Meanwhile, Russia™s oldest higher education institution, Saint Petersburg State University ” the alma mater of eight Nobel laureates, dozens of world-renowned scientists and Russian president Vladimir Putin ” has failed to break into the Top 400, despite an illustrious history spanning almost 300 years. Siberia™s Novosibirsk State University, founded in 1959, is the only other Russian institution to make the Top 400.œRussian universities are a bit like collapsed stars ” they are still giving off light, but what produced that light disappeared many years ago, says the vice rector at one Russian university, who asked not to be identified. In an attempt to fix the problem, in 2013 Putin launched an ambitious plan, Project 5-100, which aims to place five Russian universities in the world™s Top 100 by 2020. One of its key objectives is to ensure that at least 10 percent of Russia™s academics and researchers and 15 percent of its 7 million students come from abroad. The resources associated with this scheme are currently concentrated on 15 universities, with more set to be cut out of the group each year in an X Factor-style elimination to decide the final five. However, investment in Project 5-100 is relatively modest, with about 44 billion roubles (£448 million or Rs.4,256 crore) available for 2013-16. In comparison, Germany committed ‚1.9 billion (£1.4 billion) for the first stage of its Excellence Initiative (2006-2011) and France put ‚7.7 billion into plans to improve higher education, according to a European University Association report published last December. Project 5-100™s international spending power has also been hit by the collapse in the rouble™s value amid falling oil prices and sanctions imposed by Western governments. With economists predicting that the country could be facing its first recession in five years, the present economic climate is likely to cripple efforts to recruit researchers from overseas. Moreover, Russia™s pariah status in the wake of its sudden invasion and annexation of Crimea and warmongering in eastern Ukraine will also do little to help academia improve its international links. One of the toughest parts of Project 5-100 is likely to be convincing international researchers, particularly emigre Russian scientists and young academics, to consider a career in Russia. But deputy education and science minister Alexander Povalko is confident that top talent…

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Cherian George used to be an academIC at Singapore™s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The former journalist is a political liberal and a prominent critic of the Singapore government, and he has been publicly rebuked by the state in response. In 2014, Dr. George joined Hong Kong Baptist University, after what he describes as a œforced exit from NTU, and having twice been denied tenure. Now the case ” which was big news in Singapore and Hong Kong ” is back in the headlines and is being widely discussed on social media after comments made about his exit by Bertil Andersson, NTU™s president, in a recent interview with Times Higher Education. Singapore™s universities are rising powers in the world of higher education thanks to massive government investment in research. Links between its universities and leading Western institutions are growing: Imperial College London and NTU recently committed to opening a medical school on the island in a joint venture. But the case of Dr. George raises a big question about Singapore. Does the state limit academic freedom by intervening in the nation™s universities to suppress its critics? In 2005, Dr. George became involved in a public dispute with the Singapore government. The nation, which achieved independence in 1965, has been ruled by the People™s Action Party (PAP) since 1959. œControls are so seamlessly integrated into the system and coercion is so well calibrated that the average Singaporean can go through much of life without bumping into the hard edges of PAP authoritarianism, he wrote in The Straits Times, Singapore™s highest-circulation newspaper, in October 2005. Dr. George, who took his undergraduate degree in social and political sciences at the University of Cambridge, is the author of three books including Singapore: the Air-conditioned Nation (2000) and Freedom from the Press: Journalism and State Power in Singapore (2012). THE asked Prof. Andersson about the matter in an interview published in December. He said: œOne can have different opinions if that academic decision (by) our tenure committee was right or not. That is an academic decision. But the decision was not political. Prof. Andersson then issued a œclarification stating œthere was no intention to lower the reputation or standing of Dr. George in his field of work. But that wasn™t good enough for Dr. George, who countered on his blog: œThe issue (here) does not boil down to ˜different opinions™, as (Andersson) suggests, but the following objective facts that contradict his quotes. First, I was assessed to have met the university™s academic criteria for promotion and tenure in 2009. Second, NTU withheld tenure nonetheless. And third, it gave only political and not academic reasons for its decision. In his blog post, Dr. George challenged Prof. Andersson to release all documents relating to his tenure case, including the œhandwritten notes from the meeting of 2010 at which the reasons for withholding tenure were explained to me by then (university) president (Su Guaning) and provost (Andersson), watched over by the permanent secretary of the ministry of education in…

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Nearly 70 schools in Cameroon™s Far North Region have been forced to close, are damaged, or operate intermittently as a result of the recurrent cross-border raids by Nigeria™s Boko Haram insurgents. œBoko Haram attacks on villages and schools have forced students and teachers to flee. There are many displaced families in the region. This displaced population is now occupying other localities like the central towns of Kolofata and Mora, says deputy-prefect Ibrahim Koulagna. Just a handful of government teachers assigned to the Far North Region remain in their posts. œIn 2014, more than 200 trained teachers did not take up their posts in these localities and many seek transfer to other places due to insecurity, a ministry of basic education official told IRIN. The official, who did not want to be named, voiced worry that education in the Far North is in serious jeopardy not only because schools in the region are shunned by teachers, but also because no additional funding is being given to schools absorbing refugee pupils from other establishments. The brutality being unleashed by the insurgents on communities is likely to have a deeper impact in Cameroon™s most deprived region. œThe short and long-term implication will be enormous. The quality of education is bound to worsen and many youth will miss out the opportunity to be at school and may end up being brainwashed into joining militant groups as a result of idleness, warns Koulagna.

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When Sugata Mitra won the TED Prize, it didn™t just give him $1 million (Rs.6 crore) to put ideas about internet-based learning into action. It also gave the professor of educational technology at Newcastle University a global platform for his theories, which have now been adopted in thousands of schools and communities worldwide. It is an impressive illustration of what winning the prize, awarded by the California-based not-for-profit ideas network TED, can do for a scholar™s global impact. The money allowed Dr. Mitra to build seven œself-organised learning environments” classrooms of the future where children study by trying to answer big questions for themselves in groups ” using the internet. Two of the labs are in the UK, in North Tyneside and County Durham, and five are in India. The project™s flagship centre, Area Zero, which opened near Kolkata in January, can accommodate up to 48 children at once, using 15 computers. Using the internet to learn, Mitra says, better reflects the way young people now use mobile phones and tablets not only to entertain themselves and interact, but also to access information. The TED money also supported the establishment of an interdisciplinary centre at Newcastle to study self-organised learning, and development of a œgranny cloud, a community mainly comprising retired teachers, who encourage learners via Skype with questions and assignments. Drawing on technological support from Microsoft and Skype, the learning labs form a digital platform that Mitra calls the School in the Cloud, allowing anyone anywhere in the world to participate in the experiment. And they have joined in droves. More than 10,000 self-organised learning environments (SOLEs) have been set up across five continents, and a SOLE toolkit has been downloaded more than 67,000 times. Mitra says that after he won the TED Prize, self-organised learning environments seemingly went œviral. œIt was a life-changing thing because until TED, I was struggling around, tinkering with a few places here and there, he recalls. The project has opened up new research avenues for Mitra, who wants to explore why children can apparently learn more quickly ” and pick up new languages more swiftly ”when working independently in groups. Two years on from his win, he hopes his idea of using the internet to deliver more effective and democratic education can continue to transform curricula and pedagogy. œChildren are alienated from school because school prepares them to store answers in their head, from an age when you had no other way to fish for an answer. That™s all gone now, so naturally children don™t understand. A question asked today all over the world is ˜why is it important for me to learn this™ and we don™t give them an answer very often, he says. Dirty little secret Nearly a third of academics in the UK don™t believe foreign students in their departments speak and write English at a level adequate for degree-level study, a Times Higher Education survey suggests. According to the results of the second annual THE Best University Workplace Survey,…

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President barack Obama says 9 million students could benefit from his plan to make at least two years of community college education free of charge. This proposal featured in his state-of-the-union address on January 20. If all 50 states go along with it, a typical full-time community-college student could save $3,800 a year, he claims. Students must maintain a 2.5 grade-point average (C+) to qualify. Uncle Sam would cover 75 percent of the cost; the states would pick up the rest. The White House says the tab will be $60 billion (Rs.373,379 crore) over ten years. Community colleges are publicly funded local institutions which offer vocational courses or prepare students to transfer to a four-year university programme. President Obama calls them œessential pathways to the middle class and praises their flexible schedules: œThey work for people who work full-time. They work for parents who have to raise kids full-time. They work for folks who have gone as far as their skills will take them and want to earn new ones, but don™t have the capacity to just suddenly go study for four years and not work. Tuition is typically $3,300 per year ” far less than at a university. Quality varies. Some courses are excellent; others are out of date or ill-matched to local job markets. Only 20 percent of full-time students at community colleges earn an associate™s degree within three years ” and it is supposed to take two. The president™s scheme might encourage Americans deterred by the price tag to study. But for many students community college was already free or nearly so. Financial aid averages around $5,000 per student per year. Anyone from a family that makes less than $24,000 (Rs.14.40 lakh) a year also qualifies for a Pell grant of up to $5,730 (Rs.3.43 lakh) a year ” an already generous (by Indian standards) scheme that Obama has expanded. Obama™s new plan is loosely based on the Tennessee Promise, a state programme backed by both Republicans and Democrats. It is also similar to a scheme in Chicago. However, a Republican Congress is unlikely to fund another federal spending spree, even if the cost to taxpayers is only $6 billion (Rs.36,000 crore) a year (4 percent of the federal education budget). Lamar Alexander, a former secretary of education and now a Republican senator representing Tennessee, says he would like to expand the Tennessee Promise, but thinks such programmes should be left largely to the states, not the federal government. New deserving elite phenomenon œMy big fear, says Paul Ryan, an influential Republican congressman from Wisconsin, is that America is losing sight of the notion that œthe condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life. œOpportunity, according to Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, œis slipping away. Before the word meritocracy was coined by Michael Young, a British sociologist and institutional entrepreneur in the 1950s, there was a different name for the notion that power, success and wealth should be distributed according to…

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I™m a second year B.Sc student interested in a packaging design study programme abroad. What are the eligibility requirements? Ashok Raghavan, Chennai Numerous universities abroad offer postgrad packaging design study programmes. They include MA (packaging design) and MS (packaging technology, design and marketing, packaging science) offered by universities in the US, UK, France and Finland. Eligibility requirements are a bachelor™s degree and English language proficiency (TOEFL/IELTS scores). Some universities may also require GRE scores. I™m a class XII (commerce) student. I want to study actuarial science or chartered accountancy alongside my B.Com degree. What do these courses entail? Neena Kelkar, Pune Actuarial science is the application of mathematical principles to assess risks of insurance and prescribe premia for life and health insurance, pensions etc. Other applications are in demography and census studies, forecasting, banking and finance. On the other hand, chartered accountants provide financial information and advice after reviewing a company™s accounting system to maximise profitability for clients and employers. Chartered accountants can specialise in financial accounting, auditing, cost accountancy, tax management or business consultancy. I™m a class XII (science) student keen on a career in biophysics. Please advise. Ravi Iyer, Bangalore Biophysics applies the principles of mathematics, chemistry, biology and physics to the study of living cells and organisms including structures, bio-electric phenomena, radiation effects, molecular behaviour, photosynthesis, and membranes. Breakthroughs in DNA research have enabled scientists to study biological systems with unprecedented precision and investigate how the brain processes and stores information, the heart pumps blood, muscles contract, etc. Biophysicists work in universities, industry, medical centres, research institutes and government organisations. M.Sc programmes in biophysics are offered by several universities including Panjab University, Chandigarh; All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi; Mumbai and Madras universities. Moreover, the department of biophysics at AIIMS is a centre of drug discovery and clinical proteomics. Science graduates with a minimum 60 percent average are eligible to apply, after writing an entrance test. However, for excellent career prospects it would be advisable to do a Ph D followed by postdoctoral research. I™m interested in a banking career. Can I start working in a bank after class XII and continue with my undergrad studies through correspondence as I have financial constraints? Dipika Roy, Kolkata After completing class XII, you can apply for a clerical position in the State Bank of India (SBI) and SBI associate banks via the SBI clerks™ recruitment exam. To qualify, you need to be between 18-28 years of age, score a minimum of 60 percent in the class XII exam and be familiar with computer usage. On clearing the exam, you will be called for a personal interview. Apply online at www.sbi.co.in. Meanwhile you can become a distance learner while working. Open universities offer the flexibility to complete a bachelor™s degree programme in four-five years. After graduation, you could write the bank probationary officers exam. I™m a second year B.Com student specialising in accounts and finance. After graduation, I want to pursue an MBA in finance from IIM,…

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According to a report of Gartner Inc, India™s active mobile telephony connections will exceed 900 million by 2016, a national penetration of 72 percent The demand for applications (˜apps™) software for digital hand-held devices ” mobile phones, tablets and i-pads ” is booming globally. Apps can be pre-installed or delivered as web applications by innovative software engineers to enable users of hand-held devices access a range of services at the press of a button. The latest apps which are becoming the norm, are changing the way the world communicates, does business and accesses news and entertainment. There™s a world of digital opportunity for clever young engineers who are taking to apps development as a fast track career path. According to a report of the US-based Gartner Inc, which bills itself as the world™s leading technology research and advisory company, India™s active mobile phone connections will exceed 900 million by 2016, which translates into national penetration of 72 percent. Study programmes The essential skill-set required for a career in apps development is grasp of the software development cycle and suitable software languages such as Java, Swift, HTML 5, Java Script, C, C++, C# etc. Mobile apps developers also need to choose the operating system (aka platform) such as Google™s Android or Apple™s iOS, prior to learning the appropriate programming language to ensure compatibility with the chosen platform. Currently, there are five major mobile platforms, each with its own core language and development environment. Academically, graduate/postgraduate qualifications in computer science ” B.Tech, MCA, B.Sc (IT) ” provide a sound foundation for a successful career in the mobile apps space. Moreover, specialised training and qualifications in the aforesaid programming languages will prove useful. However, professionals from non-technical backgrounds can also transform into apps developers by attending specialised diploma and certificate apps development programmes of private academies and training institutes. Remuneration prospects Career development and progression opportunities in this specialised discipline are immense, and span start-ups to established enterprises. Typically, apps developers start as trainee engineers and progress to become software developers and mobility architects in IT companies. Later, they are awarded titles such as mobility strategy consultants and mobility test engineers. Remuneration packages of professionally qualified apps developers range from Rs.3-5 lakh per annum, and for gifted pros who deliver ˜killer apps™, the sky is the limit. œApps development is the new driving force of the contemporary IT industry. With over 10 billion mobile internet devices expected to be in use by 2016, the mobile applications industry will need to grow exponentially to meet the demand for increasingly complex apps, predicts Husain Raniwala, senior software developer of 100 K Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a successful mobile apps development company promoted by him in 2011. Professional profile A self-confessed computer geek from his schooldays during which he acquired a penchant for developing software, Raniwala graduated in commerce from Burhani College, affiliated with Bombay University, and subsequently acquired a software engineering diploma from NIIT, Mumbai. After acquiring the necessary skills and experience, in 2011, Raniwala launched…

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Dilip Thakore interviewed Dr. Manjunath Sadashiva, a co-founder and director of the Children™s Movement for Civic Awareness (estb. 2000), in Bangalore. Excerpts: Congratulations for commissioning CMCA™s unprecedented Yuva Nagarik Meter aka Young Citizen National Survey 2015. What were the aims and objectives of the survey? The preamble of the Constitution of India ” the world™s most populous and complex democracy ” promises to secure justice, liberty equality and fraternity for all citizens of the Republic. The objective of the Young Citizen National Survey is to measure the impact that civics and co-curricular education have made on young India ” high school and first year college undergrads. What are the major outcomes of the  Young Citizen National Survey 2015? How satisfied are you with them? We are not satisfied at all. The 10,542 respondents of the survey including 6,168 class IX and 4,374 first year undergrad students across the country who were administered written tests to measure their awareness of citizenship issues in seven domains, recorded an average score of a mere 21 out of a maximum possible 100. We also tested 757 social science teachers for their social attitudes and classroom practices, and their average score of 32 percent wasn™t much better. What in your opinion are the most disturbing outcomes of the survey? The regressive views of respondents on issues of gender equality and acceptance of diversity of the country™s population and social justice. Moreover, awareness about democratic rights and responsibilities of the country™s youth and their respect for democratic governance is depressingly inadequate. The findings of the survey quite unambiguously indicate that the education system is not developing the critical thinking skills of children which would enable them to reflect on larger social and political issues, and sift the grain from chaff. What are the root causes of the alarming democracy deficit and regressive social attitudes of youth across the country? In my opinion, India is a superficial democracy. The ground reality is that patriarchal authoritarianism is normative in most households, and hierarchical authoritarianism is practised and accepted in education institutions. For democracy to strike deep roots in Indian society, it™s important democracy is not merely preached, but practised at home and in schools. Unfortunately, there™s a big gap between theory and practice in Indian society, and the poor quality of education at all levels doesn™t help bridge this chasm. The CMCA Survey indicates that the country™s youth are thoroughly unprepared to be good citizens of a democracy. What are the implications of the shocking and pervasive democracy deficit for Indian society? There™s a real danger of the country slipping into dictatorial rule in the near future as hundreds of millions of youth become decision-making adults. The preference indicated by the overwhelming majority of respondents for military or one-party rule shows the country™s youth don™t value democracy and take it for granted ” a dangerous complacency. Moreover their regressive attitudes towards gender equality and acceptance of diversity and social justice, is an indication of tolerance of substandard human…

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A nationwide study commissioned by the Bangalore-based Children™s Movement for Civic Awareness highlights that high school and college students are shockingly casual about democracy and entertain regressive beliefs and anti-social attitudes Dilip Thakore WITH THE INK HAVING HARDLY dried on the recently released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, which indicates that 53 percent of children studying in rural primaries can™t read and comprehend class II textbooks and almost 74.7 percent of class III children can™t do simple subtraction sums, comes another shocker highlighting that class IX and even college students are severely under-schooled about their democratic rights and duties. According to a national survey released on India™s 66th Republic Day (January 26), which celebrated  the momentous adoption of the Constitution of India by free India™s first Parliament, students countrywide are shockingly casual about democracy, ignorant about their democratic rights and responsibilities, and entertain regressive beliefs and anti-social attitudes which bode ill for the nation in the new millennium. Commissioned by the Children™s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA, estb. 2000), a Bangalore-based public charitable trust, and conducted by the well-reputed market research agency IMRB (formerly Indian Market Research Bureau) with offices in 17 cities across the nation, the survey reveals that the country™s youth are ignorant of the basic principles and objectives of the Constitution. œIndia is the world™s most populous and most complex democracy established with the noblest objectives. The preamble of the Constitution promises to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all citizens of the Republic. Yet with monotonous and ineffective civics education dispensed in secondary school classrooms, no real effort has been made to provide citizenship education to the nation™s youth. Although co-curricular activities such as NCC (National Cadet Corps), NSS (National Service Scheme) and boy scouts and girl guides have been introduced in education institutions to promote some of the ideals of the Constitution, their outcomes and effectiveness have never been measured. Therefore, last year under the guidance of a high-powered advisory panel, we commissioned IMRB to conduct a survey of the attitudes and opinions of 10,542 class IX students and first year college undergrads, plus 757 social science teachers in 11 state capitals  to ascertain their citizenship attitudes and values. But our survey is not a mere opinion poll. The respondents were tested through multiple choice questions administered in classroom settings, supplemented by 30 focus group discussions. The outcome of this elaborate exercise is an accurate reading of the abysmal awareness of the country™s youth about citizenship rights and duties, says Dr. Manjunath Sadashiva, an alumnus of Bangalore and Dortmund (Germany) universities, former joint director (1996-2009) of the Public Affairs Centre (PAC, founded in 1993 by former IIM-Ahmedabad director Dr. Samuel Paul) and co-founder and director of CMCA. The social attitudes, beliefs and sheer ignorance of students  including college undergraduates starkly reflected in the survey,  are certain to shake taxpayers and  right-minded adults out of their complacency. Many of them entertain fond illusions of India emerging as a democratic superpower in this millennium,…

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THE WHEELS OF A NEW EDUCATION policy (NEP) have been set in motion with the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry inviting public participation and initiating a consultation process œto ensure that an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach is undertaken. In the circumstances, it would be instructive to study the backdrop against which the new NEP is being formulated. The 1986 National Policy on Education (NPE-86) very clearly called for a focus on learner attainments in addition to access. It stipulated that minimum levels of learning (MLL) should be prescribed for each stage of education. MLLs were delineated and implemented on a pilot basis for primary classes by the HRD ministry through 17 projects. However, the MLL innovation was lost somewhere along the way, reportedly because it was œtoo restrictive and prescriptive, and hence, a hindrance to nurturing the inherent creativity of children! Yet the plain truth which somehow seems to have become obscured is that there™s more to elementary education than mere learning of the 3Rs. Moreover, vocational education and training (VET) ” working with hands ” has been totally ignored. Curiously, it hasn™t occurred to our education planners that it™s impossible to develop high-quality skilled manpower without introduction of VET in elementary education. Now we must in all seriousness correct this error. A succession of government and NGO surveys including the Annual Status of Education Report 2014, lament poor learning outcomes, particularly in language and mathematics. The causes are ascribed to inadequate infrastructure, air nd the indifference, low qualifications and chronic absenteeism of teachers. But no survey discusses how cartels of private schools exploit teachers by paying less than the signed receipt. Young para teachers in government schools appointed on honorarium basis are also exploited inasmuch as they suffer the stress of job insecurity. In the circumstances, it™s naive to expect them to become fully involved in teaching and learning. Even relatively better paid teachers in government schools have to manage over-crowded classrooms, political interference in recruitment and subsequently, in placement and transfers. This is a major factor responsible for the erosion of credibility of government schools and their unacceptable learning standards, even as demoralising corruption has become deep-rooted in Indian education. Meanwhile, the slow-moving bureaucracies of the Central and state governments rarely permit any innovation or experimentation which are the preconditions of improved learning outcomes. In Tamil Nadu, ˜multi-age classrooms™ ” a rare innovation ” under which children are grouped not by age but by learning level attained, has resulted in a 15 percent improvement in primary/elementary learning outcomes as reported in ASER 2014 released early this year. This is  attributable to Tamil Nadu™s education officials who pioneered the idea of establishing District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) in the early 1990s. On the other hand, DIETs and other teacher training institutions are in a state of utter neglect in Bihar, UP and Madhya Pradesh. A total overhaul of DIETs, development of contemporary curriculums and systems for teacher training and recruitment, intensive participation of serving teachers…

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CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH, a not-for-profit affiliate of the University of Cambridge, UK and a global leader in English language development, introduced its ˜Cambridge English for Schools™ programme in India last month (February). œOur international assessments and certifications open doors to higher education and the world of work. Our learning support and materials bring international expertise into your classrooms. Our curriculum design and support services have impacted millions of learners the world over. Our teacher support and development services have transformed teachers from chalk-n-talk practitioners to passionate facilitators of learning. It™s time to help your students seize these opportunities by beginning their journey of language development, said Angela Ffrench, director of operations (South and South-East Asia), addressing school principals in Jalandhar (Punjab) on February 24. Promoted in 1913 in Cambridge UK, Cambridge English (which has its India head office in Chennai) offers English language proficiency assessment and development services to schools, colleges, corporates and governments in 136 countries around the world. RIGI chooses Tata ClassEdge The Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI), India™s largest chain of owned primary-secondary schools, has selected the Tata ClassEdge teaching-learning programme for its new schools in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. œWe always strive to provide our students with the best educational experience. We are confident Tata ClassEdge with its technology-enabled instructional solutions, will help us provide highly engaging teaching-learning experiences to our teachers as well as students, said Ryan Pinto, chief executive of RIGI, addressing a news conference in Delhi on February 23. Added Nirav Khambhati, CEO of Tata ClassEdge: œRIGI™s choice of Tata ClassEdge™s teaching-learning solutions for the group™s state-of-the-art Abu Dhabi and Sharjah schools marks our international debut. After all, sound educational principles are equally applicable across all countries. Tata ClassEdge is a subsidiary of the Mumbai-based Tata Industries Ltd. Sagar School valedictory The valedictory school-leaving function of class XII of The Sagar School, Alwar, was staged on February 18 and presided over by chief guest Dr. Philip Lundberg, senior vice president and campus director of the Modi Academic International Institute-Stratford University, New Delhi. On the occasion, Sagar School™s principal, Jayshree Balasaria, introduced Aditya Bhasin, the president of the newly formed Sagar Alumni Association. Graduating international students  Nilza Wangmo and Zuren T. Kikon recounted their experiences at the school while the class XI orchestra performed on the occasion. The vote of thanks was delivered by vice principal, Dr. Deepak Bisht, followed by lunch. NPSC symposium The Delhi-based National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC) discussed ˜Education for Social Engagement and Responsibility™ on February 19-20 during a two-day symposium staged at the national capital™s India International Centre. The conference, chaired by Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal of the Springdales School, Pusa Rd, Delhi, was attended by over 300 principals and teacher delegates of 150 member schools of NPSC (estb. 1973). Eight schools were inducted into the conference on the occasion. The keynote speaker of the conference was Prof. Shyam B. Menon, vice chancellor of the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi.  Other stellar speakers who addressed the conference included chief…

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Himachal Pradesh 85 principals under scanner The state government has urged speedy completion of a preliminary enquiry into cases pertaining to misuse of funds and grants by 85 principals of government schools across Himachal Pradesh. Speaking to mediapersons in Dharamsala on February 23, an education ministry official stated that principals facing enquiry are of Government Senior Secondary schools in Sirmour, Mandi, Shimla, Una, Solan, Kangra, Bilaspur and Kullu districts. In a strongly worded letter addressed to deputy directors of higher secondary education in the districts, the state government has ordered that the preliminary enquiries should be completed within a fortnight. Complaints against the principals have been pending for a long time despite repeated requests and instructions to deputy directors to complete investigations, the letter reminded them. Andhra Pradesh Varsities network initiative In an innovative initiative to revamp the higher education system in Andhra Pradesh, chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu chaired a video-conference connecting academics and education experts of top-ranked universities countrywide. According to a state government communiqu© issued in Hyderabad on February 16, the chief minister proposes to convene monthly video-conferences to stimulate innovative education ideas. œEducation should support employment and lead to development, he said, requesting academics to propose solutions to upgrade universities, suggest new teaching-learning methodologies, integrate technology into extant and new institutions, and stimulate research and development. Odisha Budget axes preschool outlay The state government™s budget for 2015-16, presented in the Odisha Legislative Assembly on February 17, has sharply reduced the allocation for construction of anganwadis under the Centre™s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme. According to a report of the Odisha Budget and Accountability Centre (OBAC), a non-profit NGO, against the budgeted Rs.839 crore, the revised expenditure in 2014-15 was Rs.676.41 crore. The 2015-16 budget has further reduced the outlay to Rs.300 crore. Currently, there are 71,306 functional anganwadis in Odisha, of whom only 22,843 are run in government-owned buildings. œAlthough the importance of anganwadis in providing quality education to preschool children is paramount, the overall budget of the women and child development ministry which supervises early childhood education in the state, has been reduced from Rs.4,666.65 crore to Rs.4,162.62 crore in 2015-16. Preschool education is the worst hit, says Surendra Sahoo, a spokesperson of OBAC. Gujarat Smart schools roll-out The Gujarat state education ministry has approved a definition of ˜smart schools™ and is all set to roll out 6,500 smart schools statewide in 2015-16. Under the approved definition, a smart school should be equipped with information and communication technology (ICT)-driven aids including LED television and projector, laptop, printer with scanning facility, biometric attendance device for teachers and students, wi-fi, e-content, Building as Learning Aid (BaLA), internet connectivity and school management software, requiring an approximate expenditure of Rs.17.5 lakh per school, an education ministry official informed media personnel in Ahmedabad on February 17. School management committees constituted under the Right to Education Act will be entrusted with the safety and security of ICT hardware and other equipment installed in smart schools, said the official. œThe selection…

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DESPITE A 2010 INITIATIVE OF THE Chennai Municipal Corporation (CMC) to rename the primary-upper primary (˜corporation™) schools it runs in the eponymous port city as ˜Chennai Schools™ and œa series of development initiatives to upgrade teaching-learning standards, their popularity with the public has steadily declined during the past four years. An RTI application filed by the city edition of the Times of India has revealed that 45 of CMC™s 284 schools in Chennai have less than 50 students and seven less than 20 students on their muster rolls. The Chennai Urdu Girls School, Saidapet has just three students and one teacher attending classes, and the Chennai Middle School, Gangapuram and Chennai Primary School, Strahans Road are attended by six and 11 students respectively. Declining attendance in corporation schools has embarrassed the AIADMK party which has a majority in the CMC. In February 2014, city mayor Sadai Duraiswamy invited private education trusts to help corporation schools by taking over their management under the charter school model. But the proposal aroused fierce protests from opposition parties and several academics, and failed to take off. As if to reiterate political opposition to any radical reform of the municipal school system, several cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged a demonstration on January 7, protesting the gross neglect and closure of 53 corporation schools since 2001 by the CMC. But they simultaneously warned against any attempt to involve private trusts in the management of CMC schools. Confronted with a barrage of criticism, the CMC  shelved its plans for public-private partnerships. Instead it has deployed headmasters and teachers to go door-to-door to counsel families in their neighbourhood to send their children to CMC schools which they promise will fill existing teacher vacancies, adopt Montessori pedagogy and introduce an English-medium option from class II. However the major problem of CMC schools is the corporation™s poor management of funds allocated for education. In the CMC™s 2013-14 budget of Rs.3,629 crore, Rs.14.50 crore was allocated for education. However, only 34 percent of this modest allocation was spent, prompting the corporation to slash its education budget by two-thirds to Rs.5 crore. Even of this outlay, only Rs.1.69 crore has been spent. This is surprising because according to a 2010 study conducted by the outreach department of the government-aided Loyola College, Chennai, which investigated 19 corporation schools with low enrolments, all of them are burdened by dirty, unhygienic toilets with some schools lacking even teachers™ toilets. Moreover, maintenance of school buildings is poor, and drinking water facilities rarely provided. In the circumstances, it™s a mystery why even allocated funds are not spent for infrastructure upgradation and institutional administration. Little wonder the steady exodus from the state™s 284 corporation and 44,371 government schools to low-cost private budget schools which offer children from poor households better learning outcomes and English-medium education. According to the recently published Annual Status of Education Report 2014, the percentage of children in private schools is steadily rising, and has increased from 29 percent in 2013…

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WITH CAMPUS VIOLENCE, fraudulent admissions, faculty recruitment scams and mass cheating during examinations de rigueur in West Bengal™s government colleges and universities, œpolitics in education and œeducational anarchy are frequent descriptors employed by academics in the state (pop. 91 million). The general consensus is that the Trinamool Congress Party (TMC), which swept to power in 2011, ending 34 years of communist rule, is following the communist tradition of severely damaging education institutions. Yet amidst the encircling gloom, a government child rights panel has initiated a positive proposal to educate school children about their rights and entitlements. The West Bengal Commission for Child Rights (WBCCR), established under s.17 of the Commission for Protection of  Child Rights Act, 2005, is finalising a proposal to integrate several provisions of the United Nations  Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989, in the curriculums of the state™s upper-primary, secondary and higher secondary schools. œWe don™t want to impose additional load on children. But there should be at least one page in all textbooks which informs children about their rights and entitlements in simple language, Ashokendu Sengupta, chairman of WBCCR, said in an interview to PTI on February 5. The panel will soon meet the state government™s school syllabus committee to impress upon it the need to implement the commission™s proposal. Educators and child rights activists have warmly welcomed the proposal because levels of awareness among children about their rights is almost non-existent, as is the awareness of teachers and parents about Central and state governments™ child welfare programmes. According to Unicef data, 1 million children drop out of the state™s school system every year and early marriage and motherhood which adversely affect the health of girl children, is rampant. Moreover, census data indicates that 550,000 children are employed as child labour statewide. According to Ananya Bhattacharya, director of banglanatak.com (estb. 2000), a child rights NGO, if implemented sincerely, the WBCCR proposal will positively impact child development in the state. œChildren need to be aware of their rights which are casually violated. NGOs have been building awareness of children™s rights but with limited success. Therefore including the subject in school curriculums is an excellent idea. However, first, teachers need to be educated about children™s rights. Corporal punishment, which is a violation of child rights, is pervasive in West Bengal, says Bhattacharya. The importance of teacher sensitisation is underscored by Tamo Chattopadhyay, an alum of the Columbia University Teachers College and former faculty at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), Delhi. œIntroducing a module on children™s rights in school curriculums is a wonderful idea. But teacher training and teacher sensitisation ” which should be immediately introduced in the B.Ed degree curriculum and in all in-service training programmes ” are vital pre-requisites for success of this welcome initiative, says Chattopadhyay. Undoubtedly, WBCCR™s proposal to introduce the subject of children™s rights and entitlements is an excellent ” and overdue ” idea. But with the state readying for the assembly elections due in November and the…

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CHARGES THAT CHILDREN FROM poor families admitted into upscale private unaided schools under s.12 (1) (c) of the Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009, are being maltreated and discriminated against, have generated a stir among academics and NGOs in the industrial city of Pune (pop.4.5 million), which prides itself as the cultural and education capital of Maharashtra, India™s most industrialised state. S.12 (1) (c) obliges private schools to reserve a 25 percent quota in class I for œchildren belonging to the weaker sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood and provide free and compulsory education till its completion. According to a report in the Pune Mirror (February 14), 40 RTE quota students admitted into the St. Ramanand Chidakashi English Medium School, Pimpri, affiliated with the Maharashtra State Secondary Certificate exam board, were barred from the school™s annual day function held on January 26. Parents also complain that s.12 children are relegated to the backbenches in classrooms and are disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment. œWe have registered a complaint. But we need to check with higher authorities on what besides tuition, has been made free for children admitted into private schools under the RTE Act, comments Usha Ubale, education officer of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). This is not the first complaint of discrimination against s.12 children. Last September, Tree House High School, Karve Nagar (affiliated with the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations) was charged with schooling s.12 children in an altogether separate section. Eminent educationists in the city say that discrimination is inevitable given the deep fissures within the education system and society. œPrivate schools have resisted inclusion of children from economically and socially disadvantaged sections of society ever since the RTE Act became law on grounds of ambiguity, lack of funds, etc. However, the major impediment to inclusive education is the class-obsessed mindset of India™s middle and upper classes, says Dr. John Kurrien, director emeritus at the Centre For Learning Resources, Pune and a member of Action for the Rights of Children (ARC). That s.12 children suffer humiliation and discrimination in private schools which accept them resentfully, is confirmed by Human Rights Watch (HRW, estb. 1978), a New York-based international NGO. In a 77-page report titled They Say We™re Dirty: Denying Education to India™s Marginalised (April 2014), HRW says that instead of being brought into the education mainstream as stipulated by the RTE Act, students from disadvantaged sections œface discrimination, get segregated in class and are insulted in public. Far from being embarrassed by media expos©s, a rising number of private school managements justify partial exclusion of s.12 children, arguing that the tuition fees reimbursed by government for educating them doesn™t cover the cost of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. œThe reimbursement we get is very low compared to the expense incurred by us per student. The government has promised to reimburse Rs.14,000 per RTE quota student per annum. But schools which provide excellent infrastructure and holistic education charge non-s.12 children Rs.30,000-40,000 per annum. Therefore,…

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

COGNOSCENTI WITHIN THE academic and NGO world in the national capital are shocked by an order of the state government issued under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, declaring the K-X Deepalaya School, Sanjay Colony, in the Okhla industrial area, illegal. As a consequence, if it continues to declare itself a ˜school™ and offers classes as such, its promoters and principals can be fined up to Rs.10,000-100,000 per day. Threatened with this draconian punishment, the management of this private budget school has been obliged to issue a notice to parents that it is no longer a ˜school™ but a learning centre. œThe country™s six Deepalaya schools were promoted with the objective of providing affordable education to the poorest of the poor. Parents of poor households want their children to attend a fully-fledged school. Therefore when they were informed that Deepalaya, Sanjay Colony, had been transformed into a learning centre, the enrolment fell from 700 to 200 students, says T.K. Matthew, the highly reputed managing trustee of the Deepalaya Trust (estb. 1979) which has promoted four K-X private budget schools in Delhi and one each in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh with an aggregate enrolment of 3,500 girls and boys. The derecognition of one of the three Deepalaya schools has come as a shock to right-thinking people in the national capital, because over the past 35 years since it was promoted as an education NGO by educationist T.K. Matthew and several associates in 1979, the Deepalaya Education Society (motto: ˜Give every child a chance™) has become synonymous with affordable education excellence. For instance, for a monthly tuition fee of Rs.1,300, the now derecognised Deepalaya, Sanjay Colony, provides its students 11 smart classrooms with audio-visual aids, adequate furniture, ramps for differently-abled children, separate, clean toilets for boys and girls, safe drinking water, a well-stocked library and in-class libraries ” facilities which most government and even private schools can™t match. However, under provisions of the RTE Act 2009, which prescribes stringent infrastructure, teacher-pupil ratio and other norms for all private schools under s. 19 and the Schedule of the Act, three of the four Deepalaya schools in Delhi have been declared non-compliant. Moreover, these schools have been declared in breach of the Delhi State Education Act, 1973, which was amended last year to make it mandatory for all ” including private budget ” schools to pay salaries prescribed by the Sixth Pay Commission to teachers (Rs.23,000 per month at the entry level) ” an impossibility for low-cost budget schools levying tuition fees of less than Rs.1,500 per month. Thus the Deepalaya schools have been hit by a double whammy with one derecognised by the Delhi state government which has withheld the grant of a recognition certificate under s.18 of the RTE Act. œWe have made every effort to explain our position and obtain government recognition for our schools. But all our applications have either been rejected or remain unanswered, says Matthew, who has become a prime example and icon of low-cost private budget…

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

Thank you for the very inspiring cover story ˜Design for Change: Global learning by doing movement™ (EW February). It™s commonplace in Indian society to ignore children™s voices and opinions. Adults predominantly opine that children should restrict themselves to prescribed studies and not bother about larger social issues. I believe the DFC programme should be made compulsory for all schools ” government and private ” across India. We need to begin to hear children™s voices and encourage them to become leaders of change. In a country facing a severe leadership deficit in all sectors, any programme which trains children to learn by doing needs full encouragement and support. Sarita Kumari Delhi Universalise ECCE! Heartiest congratulations to you and the EducationWorld team for hosting a magnificent and productive Early Childhood Education Global Conference 2015, and the EducationWorld India Preschool Rankings 2014 Awards ceremony (Special Report, EW February). The biggest problems confronting the Indian early childhood care and education (ECCE) sector are capacity utilisation and unavailability of skilled human resources. Most ECCE centres mushrooming in smaller towns, urban slums etc, are yet to offer quality curriculums delivered by skilled teachers trained to provide age-appropriate education to infants. It™s time the Central government works closely with private educators to develop a pool of skilled, talented and committed professionals to prepare our youngest children for schooling. We must make it our #1 priority to provide ECCE to all 158 million children in the 0-5 age group. Kusum Kanwar Managing director, Kangaroo Kids, Kandivali, Mumbai Speak up forcefully Re your editorial ˜Muslim middle class must lead™ (EW February), the killing of over 200 innocent school children in Peshawar by Taliban terrorists is a gruesome, unpardonable act of barbarism. Such terrorists are enemies of mankind and all countries of the world must unite to defeat and eliminate them. And as you have rightly suggested, the Muslim middle class must speak up forcefully against clergy members brainwashing Muslim youth. Mahesh Kumar Delhi Hidden motive I read with interest your education news on the department of public instruction (DPI) declaring 1,266 primary-secondary schools in Bangalore œillegal (EW January). For your information, the Karnataka state government has issued a circular dated December 6, 2014 pertaining to minority education institutions. It says to qualify as a minority institution, a school should have at least 25 percent students from the promoters™ minority community. This is ridiculous logic. How can a Christian minority institution have such a large proportion of students from that community when Christians constitute a mere 3 percent of the country™s population? The motive of the circular is obviously to divest minorities of their fundamental constitutional right œto establish and administer institutions of their choice. The same circular also proposes to bring hitherto exempted CISCE and CBSE schools under the purview of the Karnataka State Education Act. When these proposals are read together, the state government™s hidden motive to bring all schools under the stranglehold of the bureaucracy becomes clear as daylight. It™s alright to praise private institutions and their…

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

The sweeping victory of the aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi state election, winning 67 of the 70 seats in the legislative assembly in early February, signals a tectonic shift in Indian politics. The BJP which won a spectacular victory in the General Election of May last year, was reduced to three seats while the 130-year-old Congress Party scored a round duck. These dramatic electoral victories and reverses indicate that none of the leaders of the major political parties which continue to practice traditional vote bank politics, adequately understand that the ground has shifted hugely beneath their feet. For one, with post-independence India™s family planning (birth control) programme having failed due to the criminal neglect of primary education in the Centrally planned Indian economy, the country™s demographic profile has changed significantly, with contemporary India grudgingly hosting the world™s youngest and most short-changed electorate. Secondly, because of sustained neglect of agriculture, education, and socio-economic reform in rural India, there™s been continuous migration of impoverished peasants into the country™s overcrowded and insanitary urban habitats. And third, during the past decade the world™s most populous democracy served by 70,000 newspapers and magazines, 100 television news channels and 875 million mobile telephone connections, has experienced an unprecedented information explosion. These new socio-economic realities explain the high volatility of voter behaviour in recent elections which has resulted in dramatic reversals of electoral fortunes of the country™s numerous political parties, including AAP, which, it may be recalled, received a drubbing in General Election 2014 in which it contested 432 seats countrywide and won only four. Now that the party has clearly been forgiven by the electorate for its 49-day disastrous governance of Delhi last year, and endowed with an overwhelming mandate not only to govern Delhi state but also to put its house in order and practice new politics in step with the temper of the times, it™s important the party™s leadership doesn™t misinterpret its mandate and revert to practising populist freebies politics, which ruined the Congress party. The leadership of this fledgling party needs to be aware that in a country with a failed education system, its role is as much to educate the public as it is to govern with sincerity and transparency. The country™s youthful and ill-educated electorate needs to be tutored that the politics of vote-banks and hand-outs is a zero sum game in which instant gratification is nullified by persistent inflation. If the AAP leadership misinterprets its miraculous second mandate, the party will be rejected as decisively as the BJP, which misread its General Election 2014 mandate and paid a heavy price in the Delhi state election. Electorate™s message to BJP leadership Nine months after it stormed to power in New Delhi following the 2014 General Election on the strength of its promise to re-fire India™s stalled engines of economic growth, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads a coalition of 28 parties at the Centre, seems intent on realising the worst fears of liberal academics and the intelligentsia. Fringe elements…

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

The prime motivation behind the promotion of this sui generis magazine 15 summers ago, was to secure a fair deal for the country™s neglected and short-changed children and youth. The number of children below age 18 in India aggregates 450 million ” the world™s largest child population. And if to this you add youth below 24 years, the number of India™s young citizens aggregates 600 million, more than the populations of the United States, United Kingdom and France combined. Unfortunately, the disruptive innovation essayed by EducationWorld has had limited success. The public is unenthused by our mission statement, viz, œto build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda. The annual outlay for public education (Centre plus states) is stuck in the 3.5 percent of GDP groove and learning outcomes in primary, secondary and higher education are in free fall. Early this year, the Annual Status of Education Report 2014, published by the well-reputed Mumbai-based NGO Pratham, indicated that learning outcomes in rural primaries in 588 districts countrywide are continuously falling. Now comes a Young Citizen National Survey, 2015, a study commissioned by the Bangalore-based NGO, Children™s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA, estb. 2000). It reveals that class IX and first year college students in urban India are woefully ignorant and casual about the rights and obligations of democratic citizenship and entertain shockingly regressive attitudes towards women, and poor and marginalised citizens of the Republic. It™s all very well ” and fashionable ” to celebrate the nation™s youth. But if they fool around for years in a highly subsidised education system without making any effort to learn, and graduate as ignorant and callous duds with an exaggerated sense of entitlement, one shouldn™t shy away from blowing the whistle on them. Formal school and collegiate education aside, the country™s youth have a social obligation to undertake self-study and learning initiatives to mature into responsible, socially aware and contributing citizens, rather than mere party animals. Nevertheless the valuable CMCA-IMRB survey is yet another wake-up call to the country™s purblind and moribund educators and teachers that Indian education needs urgent reform across the spectrum, if the nation is not to slide into chaos and dictatorship in the near future. Regrettably, our special report feature on a determined effort being made to extinguish the academic autonomy of West Bengal™s premier Jadavpur University makes much the same point. Perhaps the only bright spot of this spring issue of EW is the newly introduced Eyewitness Despatch feature visually detailing the success of a lone ranger against the system and establishment. Check it out.

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