EducationWorld March 16

Rick Levin is CEO of Coursera Inc (estb. 2012), which bills itself as the world’s largest Moocs aggregator/provider offering 1,816 courses from 140 partner universities to 18 million-plus students worldwide. An alumnus of Oxford and Stanford universities, Levin served a 20-year term as president of Yale University prior to signing up with Coursera in 2013. Excerpts from an email interview: How has online education and in particular Coursera changed higher education? Coursera courses are not merely videotaped lectures. We use mastery-based learning principles to combine lectures, interactive content, discussion forums, and assessments, offering students a unique online learning experience. Video lectures are broken up into 5-15 minute segments, interspersed with exams and peer graded assignments. Learners who complete our courses have the option to earn certification which they can automatically upload to their LinkedIn profiles. Open online course platforms such as Coursera are widening the reach of the world’s great universities. The vast majority of the 1.2 million Indians on Coursera are people in their twenties-forties who want to acquire new knowledge and skills without the commitment of going back to college full-time. How do Moocs compare with traditional university education? We don’t aspire to replicate the university experience. Online education provides opportunities to people who don’t have the time for on-campus instruction. For the vast majority of learners, signing up for a Coursera programme is not about getting a university education, but about finding an alternative to higher education or supplementary higher education to prepare for college or improved on-job performance, or acquiring skills required by employers. Moreover, we believe that online education has the potential to greatly enhance on-campus learning, complement traditional classroom formats, and grant instructors more flexibility in their teaching methods. What are the challenges of delivering online education, specifically in India? Lack of internet access, especially in rural areas, is one of the biggest challenges for the growth of online education in India. The second critical challenge is making people aware that online education is available and useful. A large segment of the population, not only in India’s villages but also in the metros, is not aware of online learning opportunities. An important role for Coursera in India in the next few years is to engage with potential learners to make them aware of the positive impact that online education can have on their careers and lives. Pricing is another factor. Many in India may find the pricing of a Coursera certificate too high. To address this, we have launched some of our courses in India at affordable prices. The largest number of Moocs enrolments is coming from emerging economies like India. Your comment. That is certainly the trend we’ve seen at Coursera. The percentage of learners on Coursera from emerging economies has grown from 30 percent in 2012 to 50 percent in 2015. These numbers reflect the significant unmet demand for access to high quality education in these economies. What are the future plans of Coursera? 2015 was a notable year for the growth…

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Bharati Thakore interviewed Amrish Patel, founder-president of the Shirpur Education Society, chancellor, NMIMS University and president SVKM trust, in Shirpur. Excerpts: During the past almost seven decades since independence, several rural development and regeneration movements have been started but have achieved limited success. Among them Operation Flood started by Dr. Verghese Kurien in the 1970s in rural Gujarat, the Shetkari Sanghathana movement begun by the late World Bank economist and farmers’ leader Sharad Joshi, Bunker Roy’s Barefoot College, Anna Hazare in Ralegan Siddhi. Why have none of these movements captured the public imagination and spread countrywide? What Dr. Kurien did was remarkable and I don’t think anyone can match the achievement of Operation Flood which transformed milk-deficient India into the world’s largest producer of milk within two decades. The movement worked because he got the support of the milk producers of Kaira district and Anand town. Some governments and cooperatives across the country did succeed in replicating it in some other parts of the country. The Amul/Anand model didn’t succeed in horticulture and oilseeds because state governments couldn’t support it, and there was no one of Dr. Kurien’s stature and vision to carry his mission forward after he passed away. Transforming rural India requires sustained education of farmers, organisational effort, infusion of technology and creation of rural-urban linkages. One person cannot do this for the whole country. Others have to be enthused by the model and replicate it as happened in the case of Operation Flood and the Amul model. Continuous under-investment in rural India by the Central and state governments, lack of rural leadership, commitment, under-investment in public education, teacher absenteeism, and poor quality government schools have stifled growth and productivity in rural India. The original mistake was adoption of the Soviet-inspired centrally planned economic development model which sucked away rural savings for investment into a capital intensive public sector, neglecting agriculture, rural development and social sectors. What’s your comment? I’m not familiar with the Soviet development model. But I believe that right from early 1950s, our Central planners should have allocated maximum investment to agriculture and education for India to succeed. Unfortunately, this mistake has been uncorrected for the past seven decades. Even today, the Central and most state governments are perpetuating this error by giving low priority to human resource development and investment in the agricultural sector, with disproportionate focus on urban development. Yet the plain truth is that no country has attained developed nation status without investing 6-8 percent of GDP in education, especially primary-secondary and skills education. Against this background, you have engineered the education-driven Shirpur Education Society (SES) rural development model in Shirpur. What are its distinguishing features? The distinguishing feature of the SES model, which has brought prosperity to this region, is focus on education and irrigation. Over the past three decades, we have established 85 education institutions including 77 primary-secondary schools and eight higher education institutions in Shirpur that are qualitatively comparable to the best in Nasik or Pune. We have developed…

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There’s no denying that sexual harassment of women in workplaces and public spaces by males in positions of power and authority is unacceptable. It causes great distress to victims and is a violation of human rights, and in the larger context dissuades thousands of talented women from entering the workforce. But it’s also in the public interest that sexual harassment is carefully defined. According to some sources in The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi (TERI, estb. 1974), built from ground up into a world-class environment research organisation by Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the chairman of TERI who has been sent on indefinite leave following charges of sexual harassment made by two women employees of the institute, Pachauri — a Nobel laureate, no less — is perhaps more guilty of being gauche, than of sexual harassment. Like too many narrowly educated techies unschooled in social niceties, he not only ill-chose “sati-savitri types” as objects of his amorous advances, but pressed his suit with them in “typically over-zealous Bollywood-style”. In this context, please note that for Bollywood alpha males, it’s SOP (standard operating procedure) to stalk, verbally abuse and even physically manhandle the objects of their desire for which ‘acting’ they are paid crores. Although a brilliant researcher and great institution builder, the fatal flaw of Pachauri, an unfinished techie with a modest middle class background, was that he was overly influenced by the cinematic trash routinely churned out by the brain-dead badshahs of Bollywood, suggest his sympathisers inside TERI. In the circumstances, his expulsion from the organisation is too heavy a price for the nation to pay for his Casanova delusions. Therefore it’s suggested that a public apology and substantial monetary compensation to the two wounded women is adequate punishment. Though tub-thumping moral brigades are likely to be outraged by this proposal, it’s difficult to disagree. Inevitable accident Way back in 1969 when in a fit of socialist frenzy, 28 major private banks promoted by India’s tried and tested business houses, which had survived all discriminatory efforts of our erstwhile imperial masters to make them go under, were nationalised, I feared the ruination of India’s financial system. And so it has come to pass. There is a general consensus that the country’s public sector banks (PSBs) which advance 75 percent of the credit within the Indian economy, are drowning in a sea of bad debts, aka non-performing assets (NPAs). According to banking and finance experts, the NPAs of PSBs average 14-17 percent of advances cf. the normative 1-2 percent of private banks. All these years, PSBs have been kept afloat with massive recapitalisation giveaways from the budget at the expense of investment in education, health and rural development. My scepticism ab initio about the PSBs ever doing well was based on sound logic. Under the Bank Nationalisation Act, 1969, all chairmen and directors of PSBs are appointed by the Central government. In the circumstances, which one of them could refuse to advance loans to politicians’ cronies on merits? And it wasn’t long before…

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Farthest Field: An Indian story of the second world war by Raghu Karnad fourth estate; Price: Rs.550; Pages: 300 The re-telling in recent years of unsung deeds of valour of Indian soldiers and regiments fighting under the flag of imperial Britain during the two World Wars of the 20th century, has opened up a new, illuminating chapter in the history of the past century. Raghu Karnad reconstructs a family history that dovetails with the Second World War in the “farthest fields” of the West, in Iraq, Baghdad, Libya and Egypt and connects it with insurgencies in Manipur and Imphal on India’s eastern frontier. Karnad retrieves the stories of Godrej Khodadad Mugaseth, or Bobby, a Parsi from Calicut and his two brothers-in-law, Manek Dadabhoy and Ganny, married to two of Bobby’s three sisters. In a promising debut novel, Karnad brings the texture of social and political life in the backwaters of Malabar which sharply contrasts with life in the Madras presidency between 1936-1940, when young Bobby arrives there to go to college and stays on to continue his education in the engineering college at Guindy. Being young and a rare Parsi helps in making new friends who speculate about the imminent World War II even as they celebrate milestones in nationalist politics like the swaraj movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the formation of the provincial government of Madras presidency in 1937. Bobby’s sister Kosh or Khorshed’s courtship and marriage with the dashing Manek is set off against that of his other sister Nugs (Nurgesh) who falls in love with Kodandera Ganapathy (‘Ganny’), a native of Coorg, in medical school. In some ways the siblings, including the Oxford-educated eldest, Subur, who had been disowned as she had married outside the Parsi community, live life in Madras on their own terms, away from parental disapproval, enjoying every moment of their personal freedoms. In political terms, imperial Britain’s declaration of war against Nazi Germany, followed by then Viceroy Lord Linlithgow’s declaration of India’s participation, creates conflicting loyalties and confusion. Should Bobby and his siblings support imperial policies or heed the voices of nationalist leaders calling for non-cooperation and Quit India? The family is confronted with the paradox of promoting the concept of freedom and anti-fascism in the European theatre even as the freedoms being fought for are denied to loyal Indian subjects. Declaring allegiances in the war either pro-British or pro-nationalist brings its own rewards and punishments. Ideology vies with opportunism, patriotism with loyalty even as the brothers are inducted into army training programmes. In 1941 after Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Manek patrols the North Western Frontier, “cocooned in the cockpit of his Hawker Audax, 2,500 feet above the mineral sea of Waziristan” after he is commissioned into the Royal Indian Air Force. Retrained in Bhopal to fly Hawker Hurricanes, in April 1943 he is despatched to Imphal, the North-Eastern Frontier, to fly over Burmese jungles to locate the survivors of Gen. Wingate’s Chindit guerrillas who had been sent deep into northern Burma…

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Over the past nine years, Vidya Vanam, an alternative school providing education to K-IX students of impoverished backward communities living on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, has miraculously transformed the lives and destiny of tribals and their children:  Hemalatha Raghupathi Prior to 2007, the Irula tribe and other impoverished backward communities living in 25 villages surrounding the town of Anaikatti (elephant corridor; pop. 2,438), 32 km from Coimbatore on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, were eking out precarious livelihoods working as casual labour in coffee plantations and brick kilns. They could at best dream of giving their children a decent education. Then the Bhuvana Foundation stepped in nine years ago. A registered education NGO (estb. January 2007), it has miraculously transformed the lives and destiny of the tribals and their children through several education and community development initiatives. Jointly founded by Anaikatti-based educationist Prema Rangachary, her US-based neurologist brother Dr. S. Sriram and Padma Shree awardee Shanthi Ranganathan, the mission of the Bhuvana Foundation is to provide education, health and self-employment opportunities to economically uplift the tribals and backward classes in remote villages surrounding Anaikatti. The spearhead project of the Bhuvana Foundation is the Vidya Vanam School (‘education in the forest’) in Anaikatti, started in June 2007 by Prema Rangachary. Currently, the school provides English-medium, alternative education to 300 K-IX students whose parents are illiterate daily wage labourers of the Irula tribe, adi dravidar and OBC (other backward classes) communities. Vidya Vanam provides free-of-charge education to tribal students, but as a token of the community’s pledge to support the school, non-tribal students pay a fee of Rs.300-500 per month which covers tuition and school bus charges. The school also dispenses free books, stationery, uniforms and three nutritious meals and snacks to all students everyday at a total cost of Rs.25,000 per student per year, and is entirely supported by voluntary contributions from friends and family of Rangachary and donations from individuals and corporates. Vidya Vanam is accredited by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) till class VIII, and Rangachary is striving for state government recognition of the class X certification issued by the school. For the higher secondary school which is on the drawing board, Vidya Vanam is affiliated with Edexcel, UK and plans to offer its International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) programme. Promoters & Drivers The driving force behind the school is 73-year-old Rangachary. An English literature postgrad of Madras University, Rangachary began her career in the Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai in 1965, where she taught for three years before marriage and family commitments compelled her to take a long break. She picked up the threads of her career again in 1985 and promoted Akshara Vidya Peetam, a primary school and Kala Peetam, a school of fine arts, in 1987 in Chennai, which she ran successfully for 15 years before winding up both in 2000 for “compelling personal reasons”. Rangachary’s introduction to Anaikatti and establishment of Vidya Vanam School was unplanned and fortuitous. “At a friend’s request I…

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China’s one-child policy, perhaps the biggest attempt at social engineering in history, came to an end in 2015. Under pressure from an ageing population, the authorities announced last October that couples would be allowed to have two children, scrapping a policy strictly implemented since 1979. It was widely credited with having prevented 400 million births, although this claim has been challenged by scholars who traced it back to a Chinese government study of the late 1990s. A number of demographers have argued that birth rates would have automatically come down with rising prosperity — as they have in other countries — regardless of state intervention. Whatever the overall impact was, it did usher in an age of families without boys in a society where many parents traditionally kept trying for more children until they had a son. These girls did not have to compete with brothers for resources and attention, and so were able to blaze a trail through China’s universities, according to a paper by Ye Liu, senior lecturer in international education at Bath Spa University, UK. Statistics back this up. According to Women Rising as Half of the Sky? An Empirical Study on Women from the ‘One-child’ Generation and their Higher Education Participation in Contemporary China, which surveyed about 1,000 undergraduates at universities in the eastern provinces of Anhui and Zhejiang, singleton female students did substantially better than those with siblings. They performed far better in the gao kao, China’s university entrance test, and were much better represented at “elite” universities. Singleton girls were also more likely to choose arts, humanities or social science subjects. But now that the one-child policy is over, could Chinese patrilineal culture reassert itself, and sisters lose out to brothers in the fight for higher education? Few expect a baby boom after the end of the policy. “Due to the high cost of property, education and childcare in urban areas, it’s very difficult to afford another child,” says Liu. But those parents who do take advantage of the policy’s demise could revert to older customs, she fears. “If both boys and girls pass the (university entrance) exam, then they would prioritise the boy,” she predicts. Such discrimination is already happening when it comes to property. Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, a book published in 2014, explores misogynist pressure on educated women to marry — lest they become “leftover” — and the widespread prioritisation of sons over daughters when parents contribute savings towards a marital home. According to the author Leta Hong Fincher, a visiting assistant professor at Columbia University, it is “certainly a possibility” that this pattern could replicate itself when it comes to higher education costs, although it’s impossible to know for sure. Furthermore, there’s now “a tremendous backlash against women in higher education”, she says. “The government sees the success of women… as a problem for male students.” Impediments to female success in Chinese universities are being debated in China itself. In a recent paper, Wang Liming,…

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Hundreds of Turkish academics are currently waiting to see if they will be prosecuted or sacked for signing a petition calling for an end to violence in Turkey’s southeast, where government forces are fighting Kurdish separatists. On January 15, 33 scholars who signed the petition were arrested and later released. Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, branded the signatories “traitors” and called for universities to discipline the “so-called academics”. “Everyone who benefits from this state but is now an enemy of the state must be punished without further delay,” said Erdoğan. Andrei Stavila was recently informed that his one-year contract at Mugla Sıtkı Koçman University, in western Turkey, would not be renewed for two more years when, following the arrests and suspension of dozens of academics, he posted a comment condemning the state of Turkish academia. Scholars at the country’s 89 universities have been threatened with dismissal and 30 have been arrested after Erdogan denounced the “treason of so-called intellectuals” who had demanded an end to what critics see as state violence in clashes with Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey. Although Dr. Stavila, who is from Romania, did not sign the controversial petition, he did leave a post on a UK-based academic’s Facebook page that contained an existing post condemning the erosion of academic freedom in Turkey. In his message, Dr. Stavila criticised Turkey’s crackdown on academics as going “back to the dark ages”, saying that lecturers had faced threats for speaking out on certain issues. Within two hours of posting the message, he was contacted by his head of department and warned that his contract might not be renewed by Turkey’s higher education board, he says. Dr. Stavila, who has now left Turkey, likens the situation in Turkish academia to that faced by Romania under the communist-era regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. “I was only 12 or 13 when the Ceausescu regime fell, but my experience (in Turkey) reminded me of being told as a child not to talk about Ceausescu or I would go to prison. When I started at Mugla, I was told not to talk about contemporary politics, which is amazing as I was teaching politics and international relations.” According to Stavila, people do talk politics, “but only behind closed doors when they are sure no one is listening. This is very like Romania in the communist period,” he says. CEM’s transnational MBA “I don’t want us to be the odd one out. People just don’t know about us because they cannot believe it really exists. It’s like, the bumblebee (which) shouldn’t fly, but it does.” It takes a bold person to compare his organisation to a fragile quirk of nature. But for Roland Siegers, executive director of the Global Alliance in Management Education (CEMS), grandiose statements about redefining business education are not part of his mission. He’s an advocate of plurality. “I consider myself to be a liberal, and it’s about what’s good for (students),” he says. CEMS is a 30-member collective of international business schools,…

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In 1986 when the quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians convened at the University of California, Berkeley, almost half of the 80 speakers came from Soviet universities. But a quarter century later, just five of the 170 speakers invited to address the 2010 congress in Hyderabad, India, were affiliated with Russian universities. The exodus of Russia’s best mathematicians to the West since the disintegration of the Soviet Union is often illustrated with such potent anecdotes, but two Moscow-based academics have now sought to quantify what the traditional maths powerhouse has lost during the early 1990s brain drain, and what the emigrants’ host countries have gained. Vladlen Timorin, professor and dean of mathematics at the Higher School of Economics at the National Research University, Moscow, and Ivan Sterligov, head of the institution’s scientometric centre, decided to analyse all the international journal papers published in maths by people with surnames most commonly found in Russia. The pair found that in 1994, 70 percent of these Russian-surnamed publications came from Russian institutions, but by 1997 this tally fell to approximately 50 percent, and has remained roughly at this level. Just over a third of maths papers published by those with a Russian surname were based in the US between 1993-2015 — of which most are likely to be Russian emigrants, the duo suggest. Of those mathematicians with Russian names who were published in a ‘top 25 journal’, 203 were based outside Russia, compared with just 83 working inside their homeland — while the former cohort’s citation rate is three times as high as that inside Russia. “We can conclude that the overseas part of (Russia’s mathematicians) are more efficient in their research, at least in terms of metric values,” say the authors. With an estimated 1,000 mathematicians leaving Russia for the US in the early 1990s and all but one of its Fields Medal winners (seven since 1990) based abroad, the researchers conclude that “Russian mathematics has lost its best representatives”.

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A preoccupation with technical skills means many Middle Eastern graduates lack broader knowledge and understanding, according to university leaders who called for a re-imagination of liberal arts in the Islamic world. Robert Whelan, former president of the University of Wollongong in Dubai, told the Times Higher Education MENA (Middle East & North Africa) Universities Summit staged in Al Ain, UAE, between February 2-4, that the content of some science and engineering courses offered in the region had become “narrower and narrower”, to the extent there’s no space for training in areas such as ethics and humanities. Asmaa Shaei Alshuaifan, dean of quality assurance and academic accreditation at Saudi Arabia’s Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, said students’ demands are focused on vocational skills that they believe would be useful in the job market. But Ali bin Saud Al-Bimani, vice chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, said graduates of technical courses need to be “human beings” too. “I have engineers, doctors and nurses (who) know their jobs but they don’t know how to deal with people,” Dr. Al-Bimani said. Hassan Rashid Al-Derham, president of Qatar University, agreed. Academic programmes should produce “self-rounded” students who, on graduation, would “join society in a very productive way”. However, Dr. Alshuaifan warns that MENA countries should not simply import liberal arts models from the West. “This is a very tricky subject (where) no one formula can fit for all. (You would need) a conference by itself in how to infuse ethics and our own Islamic identity into our programmes, even if they are Western-influenced.” Panelists agreed that no one university could solve the problem by itself, and Dr. Al-Derham suggested that national universities such as his should take a lead. “This is the heart of the challenge and national universities should be the custodians for meeting such a challenge,” he said, adding that at Qatar University the problem is not as pronounced in technical programmes, since curricula are often adapted from Western models. Instead, it is in areas such as humanities, social sciences and Islamic studies that the need for broader-based education is more pressing.

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In early 2016, representatives from nine Thai universities visited London in a bid to strike up academic collaborations with UK institutions and, in particular, to establish double, dual and joint degree programmes. Transnational education — where a British university offers courses outside the UK — has become a huge business. There are now 340,000 students pursuing UK qualifications worldwide, more than the number of non-European Union students in the UK. Thai university representatives introduced their institutions in a bid to drum up interest. There was enthusiasm from both sides, but more than a few hurdles to overcome. Links between Thailand and universities overseas have grown in recent years, according to an analysis by Dr. William Lawton, a higher education consultant. In 2011, there were 92 collaborative degrees offered in the country. By 2013, after a “pretty rapid increase”, there were 159, he told the British Council-organised event, the UK-Thailand TNE Presidents’ Forum, on January 18. China is the biggest player, accounting for 60 of these links, followed by the US (29), the UK (16), Australia (12), Japan (12) and France (11). “From a British perspective, Thailand has more international activity than we thought,” says Lawton. One of the biggest obstacles to setting up courses in English is the relatively weak language skills of Thai students, he explains, an issue that was “said to be so serious that some students were unable to finish” their courses. Other problems include an immigration and visa bureaucracy that some UK universities felt was “uniquely difficult” and even comparable to the home of red tape itself — India. One of those interviewed by Dr. Lawton said it took “years of work just to get to a memorandum of understanding stage” with a Thai university. But some institutions were “willing to play the longer game” despite the difficulties involved. A more repressive political environment since a 2014 military coup is also causing jitters for potential partners. More than half the UK representatives, spoken to by Dr. Lawton, mentioned this instability as a deterring factor. Nevertheless, for Western universities seeking links in the region, there are attractive alternatives to Thailand. The Vietnamese government is also very keen to encourage transnational higher education, says Lawton, and is seen as being easy to deal with, while Indonesia, with a population of 250 million, is viewed as a much bigger transnational education market. Overall, he concludes, “the relationship (between Thailand and the UK) is underperforming”.

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In theory, it works perfectly. Rather than oblige parents to send their children to the nearest state-run or funded school, give them a voucher to be spent at a private school of their choice. “The adoption of such arrangements,” argued Milton Friedman way back in 1955, “would make for more effective competition among various types of schools and for a more efficient utilisation of their resources.” As part of its recovery from Hurricane Katrina (2005), which destroyed many schools in New Orleans, Louisiana undertook one of America’s largest school-choice schemes. But according to a new research study School Vouchers and Student Achievement: First-year Evidence from the Louisiana Scholarship Programme by Atila Abdulkadiroglu of Duke University, Parag Pathak of MIT and Christopher Walters of Berkeley, it has not gone well. Louisiana’s scheme, brought in by a conservative governor, added a feature that ought to delight progressives: a lottery to assign the vouchers. In 2014, 12,000 students from low-income families applied for more than 6,000 vouchers to attend 126 private schools. Lotteries are loved by social scientists because the winners and losers, distinguished by chance alone, are statistically identical. That means differences in learning outcomes can reasonably be attributed to the programme rather than, say, differences in family circumstances. It turned out this was a lottery to lose. The three economists discovered that those who received vouchers and moved to private schools had worse test scores in maths, reading, science and social studies than those who missed out. Schools in New Orleans have improved dramatically since Hurricane Katrina: high-school-graduation rates have risen from 55 to 73 percent and drop-out rates have fallen by half. But this has been a victory for central control rather than the market: bureaucrats at the state’s powerful Recovery School District have closed many schools and presided over the opening of many more. More parental school choice seems to have had little to do with it.

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I’m a second year law student interested in making a career in cyber law. Which national law schools offer postgraduate programmes in cyber law? Sreedhar Iyer, Chennai The National Law School of India University, Bangalore; NLU, Bhopal, and Symbiosis Law School, Pune offer certificate/PG diploma programmes in cyber law. Job opportunities for cyber law professionals are abundant in IT consulting, e-commerce, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and the BPO industry. I’m keen on making a career in the tourism industry. Please suggest premier institutes in the UK which offer Masters and Ph D programmes in travel and tourism. What are the eligibility requirements for admission? Priyanka Advani, Mumbai The UK’s Exeter, Liverpool John Moores, Strathclyde and Surrey universities offer well-structured postgrad programmes in tourism development and policy and related fields. For postgrad study in the UK, students are required to clear IELTS (International English Language Testing System). Admissions are based on academic record, quality and quantity of work experience, referrals, personal statements of objectives and essays. After completing my B.Tech (biotechnology) degree in 2017, I want to sign up for an M.Tech in the same subject. Is it a good idea to follow-up with an MBA in biotechnology? Siddharth S, Bangalore IIT-Kharagpur (www.iitkgp.ernet.in) and University of Hyderabad (www.uohyd.ernet.in) offer M.Tech programmes in biotechnology. Admission is based on applicants’ performance in the GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) exam. The Common Biotechnology Entrance Examination conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (www.jnu.ac.in) also qualifies students for admission into the M.Tech (biotechnology) programmes offered by Anna University, Chennai (www.annauniv.edu), West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata (www.wbut.net), and other premier varsities. The minimum eligibility requirement for these programmes is 60 percent average in the B.Tech final examination. Following up an M.Tech qualification with an MBA in biotechnology will lead you away from industrial research/consulting into management roles. A better option would be to sign up for an MBA in biotechnology after B.Tech, if you are interested in a management career in biotechnology businesses/organisations.  After completing my B.Com degree next year, I want to pursue a career in banking. Please advise. Patricia D’Souza, Panjim To apply for a position in a bank, you need to apply directly or through job websites, placement agents or recruitment advertisements and also clear their selection process. There is no particular course that will qualify you for a job in the banking sector. Pursuing a Masters programme and honing your employability skills will prepare you for a career in banking. You could also check out banking related courses offered by B-schools. I’m planning on making a career as an actuary. Can I pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering coterminously with a course in actuarial science? What are job opportunities for an actuary like? Uday Kirloskar, Pune Signing up for an actuarial science course simultaneously while pursuing engineering studies isn’t a good idea, as both are demanding programmes. First complete your engineering degree and then pursue your actuarial training preferably while working in an insurance firm. Alternatively, you could sign up…

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Cambridge University Press (CUP) unveiled two new digital learning solutions in Bangalore on February 16. According to CUP spokespersons, the digital solutions will make learning maths and upgrading English-learning skills enjoyable for class III-VIII students. Introducing the learning solutions to representatives of schools, Manish Doshi, vice president (education) of CUP, said Cambridge HOTmaths, originally an Australian product, has been thoroughly customised for Indian students and is mapped with the CBSE maths syllabus. “It enables teachers to keep tabs on students’ progress through continuous testing and assessment,” said Doshi speaking on the occasion. Likewise, Communications 360 degrees — the English learning solution — develops listening and speaking skills through auditory and physical activity-based (kinaesthetic) learning aids and programmes. British delegation at Inventure Academy A high-level British delegation including James Brokenshire, UK’s immigration minister, Dominic McAllister, British deputy high commissioner in Bengaluru and Leighton Ernsberger, the British Council’s skills development expert, visited the CIE, UK and CISCE-affiliated Inventure Academy, Bangalore on February 19. The objectives of the visit were to understand the key factors determining student choice to study abroad, including the UK; identify any perceptions or issues specific to the UK and visa policy; and to share key messages around visa policy and processes with students “The facilities are fantastic, but what really impressed me are the ethos and values of the school which have made a real impact on students. I was lucky to meet a group of very talented and bright class XII students about to leave the school for university. They are great ambassadors for the school and I am sure these hugely talented, inspiring young people will go on to do incredible things,” said Brokenshire, after the day’s visit. MPS student winners Sailesh Ranjan and Nirmal Kumar — class X students of the Mother’s Public School (MPS), Bhubaneswar — were adjudged winners at the National CBSE Science Exhibition 2015-16 held in Delhi from February 8-10. Their project Wonder D-Rone, a robotic wheelchair for the specially abled with visual and loco-motor disabilities, was awarded first prize. The Wonder D-Rone was designed by the students at the Creya XEL Design Studio established within the MPS campus. “This is an honour not just for our school but for all east zone CBSE schools. Our special thanks to our project mentors at Creya for their support in allowing our students to use their studio to build their prototype model,” says Poly Patnaik, director of MPS. NPSC annual conference The Delhi-based National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC, estd.1973) conducted its 43rd annual conference on February 16-17 in Delhi based on the theme ‘Learning Revolution for Sustainable Development Goals’. The conference presided by Ashok Pandey, principal of Ahlcon International School, Delhi, and NPSC chairman, was attended by principals of 150 member schools and addressed by a galaxy of academics and education leaders including Prof. C. Raj Kumar, vice chancellor of Jindal University, Sonipat, Dr. Yajulu Medury, vice chancellor of Bennett University, and Prof. Anant Aggarwal, the US-based CEO of edX — the global Moocs…

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Gujarat Preschools upgradation drive The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is all set to revamp 65 balwadis (preschools) of VMC-run primary schools in the city in a phased manner. The objective of the upgradation drive is to provide the 4,160 children enrolled in them with facilities on a par with the best private preschools. Five balwadis have been chosen for a pilot project at a cost of Rs.12 lakh. “We have made provisions in the VMC budget to upgrade our balwadis. Work tenders for five preschools have already been approved,” Keyur Rokadiya, chairman of VMC’s education committee, informed media personnel on February 13. According to Rokadiya, VMC has drawn up a blueprint to equip its balwadis with contemporary teaching-learning materials. Every year, five preschools will be shortlisted for the “facelift” exercise, he said. Jammu & Kashmir DCP demands teachers audit The deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of Udhampur district has recommended an education audit of all government schools statewide after 17 “highly qualified teachers” of two government schools failed to answer curriculum-related questions posed by him. “I asked students of the Government City High School to define ‘fossil fuels’. When they failed to answer, I posed the same question to their teacher who has a Masters degree in science and education. He answered that fossil fuel is the waste material we throw out of our homes,” DCP Shahid Iqbal Choudhary informed media personnel in Jammu on February 8. “Later I asked another science teacher who teaches biology to class X students to name parts of the digestive system, but she couldn’t name even one,” he added. Likewise, 17 teachers of two schools failed to give “satisfactory” answers to questions posed by him. Disturbed over teachers’ lack of basic subject knowledge, Choudhary has asked the chief education officer to conduct an education audit and initiate stringent action against teachers who fail it. Haryana Girl child celebration In a first-of-its-kind initiative to increase awareness about rights of girl children and promote gender sensitivity, the state government of Haryana (which has the country’s lowest sex ratio) has announced plans to observe kanya janamdin utsav, a special monthly programme to celebrate the birthdays of girl students, in all government schools statewide. An education ministry spokesperson announced this in Chandigarh on February 7. The birthdays of girl students falling in the same month will be celebrated as an utsav (festival) every second Tuesday of the month, the spokesperson said. The celebrations will be staged during the mid-day meal break. During the morning assembly, the school headmaster will announce the names of the girls and greet them individually in the presence of village panchayat members and the girls’ parents. Telangana IIT-H-McMaster partnership The Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (estb. 2008) has signed a research partnership agreement with the Ontario (Canada)-based McMaster University — a public research university ranked #94 in THE’s World University Rankings (2015-16) — to promote innovation, intellectual property creation and commercialise research and development (R&D) projects. The agreement is among seven MoUs signed between Ontario…

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“The most effective way to ensure the long-term impairment of India’s entrenched Left-wing ecosystem is to throw open the education market to competition. It is also the cheapest, for it would not require expending government revenue which can be invested to improve India’s national defence and security…” Rajeev Mantri, co-founder of the India Enterprise Council, on how to end Left domination of Indian education (Mint, February 22) “Our education system is weighed down by decades of inefficiency and red tape. Students, parents, schools and colleges are victims of this daily malaise.” Vivek Kathpalia, head of education practice at an international law firm, on redrafting education policy to support private education initiatives (Times of India, February 23) “I had been asked to explain what is the proof against JNU students… I would like to say I am a practising Hindu. I am a Durga worshipper.” Smriti Irani, Union HRD minister, in a debate on the sedition case filed against JNU students in the Rajya Sabha (February 26) “Modern educational institutes are anathema to the Sangh Parivar because of the ingrained spirit of inquiry in these campuses. No academic study or research in democratic societies can be pursued within a narrow framework because there is nothing called the final truth.” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, on why an increasing number of higher ed institutions are being targeted by the ruling BJP/NDA government at the Centre (Deccan Chronicle, February 26) “The names Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon mean little to most students, but they are intended to be symbols of opposition to the establishment. Anti-national rhetoric is often the fuel that feeds demonstrations against the existing order of things.” M.K. Narayanan, former national security advisor, in an essay ‘Is India at an inflection point?’ (The Hindu, February 29)

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The Bihar model of cheating in school-leaving board exams, made globally infamous by a photograph showing parents, relatives and well-wishers scaling a four-storey building which went viral a year ago, has evidently impacted the parents, relatives and well-wishers of 6.3 million students currently writing their high school and higher secondary board exams in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. According to cynics, UP — India’s most populous state (204 million) — is engaged in a neck-to-neck race with Bihar to the bottom of human development indices such as literacy, health, education and law and order among other markers. On day two of the exams (February 19), a major embarrassment was visited upon the UP Board of High School and Intermediate Education when photographs of parents and relatives scaling up two and three-storey examination centres to hand over chits to examinees were widely circulated on social media. These incidents occurred in three schools in Fatehpur Sikri (Agra) stumping board officials. “We were aware of considerable cheating in exams, but now it has risen to a new level,” confesses R.P. Sharma, deputy director of the education department (Agra division). Later, more such pictures surfaced from Saadabad (Hathras) and Inglas (Aligarh), blasting the board’s promise of conducting fair school-leaving board exams this year. Quite clearly despite pulling out all the stops, UP state board officials haven’t been able to prevent over-zealous parents who have proved that malpractices Bihar can do, UP can do better. Though in 2015, officially, only 2,227 of the 5.8 million students who wrote the exam were caught cheating, the actual number of cheats can safely be assumed to be much higher as the state’s education bureaucracy assumes a kinder approach to dealing with cheating (and even more notorious law-breakers) when the Samajwadi Party, which was elected four years ago, is in power. Much of the failure to curb mass cheating in UP’s annual school-leaving exams can also be attributed to acts of omission and commission of the board itself. This year for instance, a much-publicised mobile application, which was to scan the bar codes of admit cards, failed to work leading to much confusion and loss of time on the first day of the exam. While the failure of technology to prevent exam malpractice could perhaps be excused, officials failed to prevent even traditional cheats who carried chits into exam halls or who sent in proxies to write the exam. More worrisome is that incidents of exam malpractice are not being routinely reported to the board’s headquarters in Allahabad, which bears overall responsibility for the conduct of the annual classes X and XII exams. “Strict instructions have been issued to relay information of irregularities to the board within two hours of the end of the exam. Yet the instruction is not complied with,” admits Shail Yadav, secretary of the board. According to R.P. Singh, secretary of the UP Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh (Association of Secondary School Teachers), this wilful non-compliance is because the board seems to have little control over its affairs. “Unrecognised…

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Under s. 12 (1) (c) of the landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, non-minority private schools are obliged to reserve 25 percent of seats in class I for children from poor households in their neighbourhood and admit applicants selected by the state government. However, the admission process under s. 12 (1) (c) for the new academic year beginning June, has got off to a faltering start in Karnataka. First, the online admissions registration link of the department of public instruction (DPI), expected to go live at 9.00 a.m on February 23, failed to activate until after 7 p.m. Consequently, hundreds of parents from low-income households who had skipped work and made a beeline to help-centres set up in Bangalore by the DPI and local NGOs, returned disappointed having failed to register their children for the 114,000 RTE seats declared available in 11,500 private schools statewide this year. This confusion was confounded by new age eligibility norms prescribed by the DPI for admission of children into class I (or nurseries of composite private unaided and aided schools) under s. 12 (1) (c). According to a DPI circular issued on February 8, children should be between three years ten months and four years ten months to qualify for admission into LKG (lower kindergarten), and between five years ten months and six years ten months for class I (as on June 1 of the year in which admission is sought). This is the third year in a row that the DPI has changed age eligibility norms for s. 12 (1) (c) admissions. For instance in 2014-15, the age eligibility for LKG admissions was three years five months to four years five months and for class I children it was five years five months to six years five months. According to Nagasimha G. Rao, convenor of Karnataka’s RTE Task Force, the annual age revision exercise is aimed at “keeping underprivileged students out” of the RTE quota admissions process. The RTE Task Force has received hundreds of calls from parents since February 23 complaining about the new age norms. “The purpose of changing the age eligibility norms for s. 12 (1) (c) admissions every year since 2014 is to make it as difficult as possible for parents to secure admission for children into private schools under the RTE quota. If admissions are restricted, the state government will save the tuition fees it has to pay to private schools for education of RTE quota children. This is the only explanation for the annual flip-flop. No scientific study or research involving experts in early childhood education has been conducted by DPI to determine admission age norms,” says Rao. For tutoring children admitted under s. 12 (1) (c), the state government is obliged to pay private schools the equivalent of per student expense incurred by it in its own (government) schools (s. 12 (2)). Although this is substantially less than the tuition fees normatively payable by non-quota students, the state government has…

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The suicide of three 19-year-old second year women students of the privately promoted SVS Medical College of Yoga and Naturopathy and Research Institute (SVSMCYNRI, estb. in 2008 under the aegis of the SVS Educational and Social Trust) in Villupuram district, Tamil Nadu on January 23, has shocked and angered academics, parents and students across the country. According to the students’ suicide note, they were driven to take this extreme step as their continuous protests against lack of basic infrastructure and faculty in the college had evoked no response. Instead, they were forced into doing menial jobs on campus despite their having paid up tuition fees of Rs.90,000-plus. Following the suicides, the Villupuram police arrested college founder-promoters Vasuki Subramanian, her husband S. Subramanian, their son Sudhakar Varma (also a student of the college) and others, and booked them under several sections of the Indian Penal Code. The tragic suicides have resurrected suspicions of corruption and the integrity of inspectors and officials of the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University which had granted provisional affiliation to SVSMCYNRI from 2008-09 to 2014-15. There are only three private colleges including SVSMCYNRI and one government college in Chennai which offer a five-year undergraduate degree programme — bachelor’s in naturopathy and yogic sciences (BNYS) — in Tamil Nadu. While colleges offering education in ayurveda, siddha and unani medicine are governed by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, colleges offering the BNYS programme are supervised by state governments. By all accounts, SVSMCYNRI, which has since been closed and its students shifted to the government college in Chennai, had an enrolment of 100 students who joined the college after clearing a state conducted entrance test and counseling session. Although the state government decreed a tuition fee of Rs.30,000-55,000 per year for the BNYS programme, students were forced to pay fees for three years in advance, under threat of expulsion. However subsequent media investigations have revealed that the college did not have sufficient classrooms, laboratories or hostels and the institute’s 100 students were instructed by two ‘interns’. Senior students were forced to provide cooked meals in a thatched-roof kitchen and all students had to maintain the campus and toilets. Several students who discontinued their course were reportedly forced by the management to pay “hefty sums” for return of original certificates and for transfer certificates. Not a single student is recorded to have graduated from SVSMCYNRI since 2008. Surprisingly, routine inspections of the college by senior officials and experts of the affiliating Dr. MGR Medical University overlooked glaring infrastructure deficiencies and faculty shortages. This despite numerous petitions sent by hapless students to the Villupuram district collector, the vice chancellor of Dr. MGR Medical University, state health secretary and chief minister Jayalalithaa among others. “Educational institutions that don’t meet even basic infrastructure requirements are given approval and affiliation and allowed to function after bribes and commissions are paid to government officials and regulatory authorities. The rot in the system can be reversed only by appointing academics of integrity to head universities…

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The second phase of a statewide survey to ascertain the number of out-of-school children in the age group 6-14 (according to the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, it is the duty of the Central and state governments — especially the latter — to ensure that all children in that age group are in school) in Maharashtra (pop.112 million), conducted by the incumbent BJP government, says that a mere 11,000 children are out of school. The first phase of the survey conducted last July reported 58,000 children out of school. Both these figures have stretched the credibility of education activists and NGOs in the state, some of whom are contemplating legal action against the government for misleading the public. Speaking to your correspondent on February 27, Dr. Suvarna Kharat, deputy secretary, education ministry, maintained that a mere 11,000 children in that age group were found to be out of school in Maharashtra on February 4 this year. On the other hand, education activists in Maharashtra estimate that the actual number of children in the 6-14 age bracket, who are not enrolled in school or have not attended school for the past 30 days, is 500,000-700,000. “According to Union labour ministry data, there are 496,000 children working as child labour in the state — the second highest after Uttar Pradesh. If to this number, we add the children of migrant labour working on sugarcane farms, brick kilns and stone quarries, the number of out-of-school children cited by the education ministry is absurd,” says Heramb Kulkarni, an Akola-based activist and nodal convener of the second phase of the survey, who resigned his position to protest the government’s lack of seriousness in collecting data. The official number of out-of-school children in the state is also contradicted by a 185,000 figure quoted by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or Education for All programme in 2014-15. SSA, which was introduced in 2001 by the BJP-led NDA government (1999-2004), was subsequently adopted by the Congress-led UPA government (2004-14) and integrated into the RTE Act, which mandates and funds out-of-school children surveys. In 2015-16, the state’s budget allocated Rs.1,690 crore for the Central government-sponsored SSA. Yet, education department officials are reluctant to share details about the budgetary allocation made for the statewide survey that spanned all 36 districts and 356 talukas, and involved 350,000 National Service Scheme (NSS) students who were roped in to gather data. Even as disappointed NGOs are demanding a fresh survey to be conducted under high court supervision, education ministry officials claim success on the basis of the outcome of the second phase of the survey. “The state has already enrolled 49,000 of the 58,000 who were out of school in 2015. We will continue our efforts until all children are in school statewide,” says Nand Kumar, principal secretary (Maharashtra school education and sports department). Confronted with a barrage of criticism for conducting a deeply flawed if not cosmetic survey, to project the state’s BJP government in good…

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Even after a Delhi High Court order of February 16 restored the 20 percent management quota of 6,600 composite private unaided schools offering pre-primary education in Delhi, the scramble for nursery admissions into top-ranked composite schools in the national capital is so intense, that complaints are expected to pour in until the admission process draws to a close on March 31. In a recent populist initiative, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which was elected to power in Delhi last February with an overwhelming (67-3) majority, abolished the 20 percent management quota of composite school promoters under which the latter had the discretion to admit nursery students of their choice. As a result, apart from 25 percent of available seats to be allocated to children from EWS (economically weaker sections) in their neighbourhoods, as per the directions of the education ministry under s.12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, 75 percent of all nursery seats would have had to be allocated under the ‘points’ system with weightage given to applicants residing in the neighbourhood, children with siblings already in the preferred school, children of alumni etc. However, the Delhi high court order upholding the school managements/promoters’ right to allocate 20 percent of nursery seats at their discretion is a huge victory for private composite school managements, and a setback for the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi. Following the high court’s judgement, the AAP government — which by an order dated January 6 had abolished the management quota because of widespread complaints that composite school managements were demanding upfront ‘capitation fees’ for nursery admissions (strictly forbidden by a Supreme Court judgement) — intends to issue showcause notices to many schools against whom complaints of demanding illegal capitation fees have been received by the education directorate of the Delhi state government. Private composite school managements dismiss these allegations as imaginary and false and say they are concocted by parents who fail to secure admission for their children. “We received 2,080 applications against 80 seats available in the general category. So obviously a large number can’t be admitted. Therefore, aggrieved parents make frivolous complaints,” says Rajesh Hassija, director of Indraprastha Group of Schools in Dwarka, Paschim Vihar and Noida. Dr. Aanieetaa Vaissnava, founder-trustee and chairperson of Vaataayan Foundation, says strict action must be taken against parents making false complaints. “School managements which have invested heavily in promoting and building private schools need some discretion to admit their own children or of staff. This is tantamount to backdoor nationalisation.” With the demand for admission into the nurseries of Delhi’s 6,000-plus composite schools far outstripping supply, the national capital has a long and contentious history on this issue. In 2006, following complaints of schools conducting interviews of children and parents prior to demanding capitation fees, a Delhi high court division bench constituted an expert panel headed by then CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly to evolve a transparent system to govern nursery admissions in composite schools, which ensures…

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I live in Nairobi, Kenya and have been an avid reader of EducationWorld for over four years. I believe your annual EW India school and preschool rankings are rendering extraordinary value to Indian school education. I wish similar league tables were available for Kenya. But my favourite section in your magazine is the book reviews page. The books chosen for evaluation are universal in their appeal, focusing on issues and challenges facing societies around the world. Your deeply researched cover stories and special report features apart, your hard-hitting editorials are rich with constructive suggestions and provide excellent insights for policy formulators and educators in developing countries. Keep up the good work! Yusuf Keshavjee Nairobi (Kenya) Fly in ointment I was excited by your cover story on ‘Global Superstar Educator’ Salman Khan (EW February). This extraordinary tech-savvy education missionary has the potential to completely revolutionise vitally necessary foundational (primary-secondary) education by enabling hundreds of millions of children pushed out of rotten government schools in third world countries, to resume learning subjects of their own choice at their own pace. But even your well-written story has failed to sufficiently grasp the human capital development and productivity implications of Khan Academy’s arrival in India. The stumbling block to KA (India) could prove to be broadband connectivity. With government power generation and distribution companies unable to provide even basic electricity to over 200,000 of India’s 600,000 villages, the Central and state governments who have destroyed Indian education, could once again prove to be the fly in the ointment. Arvind Mehta Mumbai Conflicting addresses We thank you for ranking EuroKids, BJ Block, Salt Lake #3 in Kolkata in the franchised category of preschools (EW December). However although in your print edition, the address of our school has been correctly stated, on your website www.educationworld.in, the address is incorrect with the hyperlink directing visitors to another EuroKids preschool (BB Block). Please correct this anomaly to avoid any inconvenience to parents. Sanchari Mukherjee Centre Head, EuroKids, BJ Block, Salt Lake, Kolkata Establish PIRA! Thank you for the excellent special report on the sixth EW Early Childhood Education Global Conference (EW February). There’s a real and present danger that the Central and state governments which have ruined public K-12 education, will also ruin pre-primary education. In fact, government interference with private preschools has become a reality in Tamil Nadu with ill-conceived regulations having already been enacted. Inspection and reform recommendations for ECCE centres should be the province of an expert independent regulatory authority — Preschools Independent Regulatory Authority (PIRA) — not venal government school inspectors. Meanwhile, the Union government’s ICDS (anganwadis) budget which was slashed by half in the Union budget 2015-16 should be restored immediately with state governments obliged to match Central government allocations for anganwadis. It’s time to get serious about ECCE! Manisha Chakraborty Delhi QEFI petition At the recent launch of the ‘Start-Up India’ initiative (January 16), prime minister Narendra Modi reiterated his promise to reach quality education to every child in India, even if…

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The arrest of kanhaiya kumar, president of the students union of the admittedly leftist Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on the charge of sedition by the Central government-controlled Delhi police, provided another instance of the BJP-led NDA government’s clampdown on fundamental rights to freedom of speech and expression, under the cover of nationalism. Kumar is accused of raising ‘anti-national’ slogans at a protest rally in JNU to mark the third anniversary of the execution of Kashmiri terrorist Afzal Guru, who was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court after an exhaustive set of trials and appeals in 2005. Further, after gangs of ‘nationalist’ lawyers ran amok at Delhi’s Patiala House court on February 17 beating up Kumar, journalists, and JNU faculty and students, the BJP government in charge of law and order in the national capital, has yet to arrest any of their leaders, clearly identified by the print and television media. It isn’t difficult to discern the strategy of the BJP and its ideological parent the Hindu hard core Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to make its student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) a force to reckon with on Indian campuses, especially of the 46 top-ranked centrally-funded universities. Over the past 20 months since the BJP led by Narendra Modi took charge at the Centre, the ABVP has made a concerted bid to assert itself on university campuses countrywide, hitherto dominated by Left and/or pro-Congress student unions. For instance, ABVP leaders played a key role in events leading to the tragic suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student of the Central government-funded University of Hyderabad. Vemula was suspended from the varsity following an on-campus brawl with ABVP office-bearers after which they petitioned the Union HRD ministry, which directed the vice chancellor to take action, resulting in Vemula’s suspension and subsequent suicide. Similarly in other cases, the HRD ministry was quick to act on ABVP complaints. In the JNU imbroglio, the government should have left it to the university administration and vice chancellor to take action against students raising alleged ‘anti-national’ slogans. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that raising slogans and making speeches which don’t provoke violence don’t attract the provisions of s. 124 of the Indian Penal Code which defines sedition, a grave criminal offence. But the BJP government’s cavalier invocation of s.124 of the IPC against students on college campuses reveals its intent to tightly regulate the higher education system and supress freedom of speech and expression, which is an inherent part and parcel of academic life. It’s not too late for the BJP to acknowledge that social, cultural and intellectual freedom in the country’s 37,000 colleges and 835 universities is a rite of passage for youth. An autonomous, inclusive and progressive higher education system which produces free-thinking graduates with discursive and debating skills is the prerequisite of national progress. Devolve power for clean India With the stock market in the doldrums, public sector banks flooded with bad debts, farm suicides continuing unabated countrywide and the Budget session…

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Right from the start of my career as a self-styled development journalist in Business India and Businessworld more than 30 years ago, I have advocated policy priority for agriculture and rural development. The logic of this advocacy is that the greater proportion of national savings/investment should flow into the most people-intensive sectors of the economy. In the 1970s, more than 70 percent of the population was engaged in farming and agriculture and produced half of the country’s GDP. Today, almost 60 percent — over 650 million citizens — still lives in rural India, but contributes a mere 13 percent of India’s GDP, a telling statistic of the low productivity of post-independence India’s poor and neglected rural hinterland, and a huge missed opportunity to develop the nation’s human capital. If instead of the capital-intensive Soviet-style public sector heavy industry model, independent India had adopted the South-east Asian wage goods model of development with prime focus on education, agriculture productivity and employment generation in light industries, India — like the US — would have emerged as one of the bread-basket nations of the world. Unfortunately, because of continuous under-investment and neglect of primary education in rural India, per-hectare yields of all major crops — wheat, rice, cotton — countrywide are a tenth to one-fifth of yields in the US, China and European countries. Moreover, because India’s (now mercifully abolished) Planning Commission, which regulated sectoral investment flows within the economy, neglected the agri-produce or food processing industry, the Indian economy, i.e, farmers, suffer an annual loss of Rs.40-50,000 crore because of spoilage of fruits and vegetables before they reach market. Therefore, when your editors received grapevine news that trustees of the well-known SVKM trust, which has established 26 education institutions including the NMIMS University in Mumbai, have also engineered an education, water management and light industries development miracle in Shirpur, a small town in northern Maharashtra, and transformed the Shirpur taluka (sub-district) which includes 72 villages, into arguably the most prosperous taluka countrywide, we were excited to write about it. Unfortunately, your editor was suddenly laid low by dengue fever, but this extraordinary story of organic rural development has been adequately narrated by our films and books editor Bharati Thakore, who stepped into the breach.  There’s much else in this seemingly endangered issue of EW. Our special report focuses on the imminent Moocs (massive open online courses) revolution which is a lifeline for 27 million students floundering within India’s obsolete higher education system, as also for working professionals struggling with low workplace productivity. Also check out our Eyewitness Report on Vidya Vanam, another rural education initiative, and the supplementary second issue of ParentsWorld, prompted by the logic that education shouldn’t be confined to schools and colleges. It’s also a parental obligation.  

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