EducationWorld May 17

The world’s youngest universities outperform their older counterparts when it comes to attracting overseas students and publishing international research, according to data used in the 2017 Times Higher Education Young University Rankings. While older institutions tend to be richer and have stronger reputations in teaching and research, THE data show young universities excel when it comes to internationalisation. Institutions founded from 2000 to the present day (“millennials”) produced the highest proportion of internationally co-authored research, when compared with universities founded during other periods since the Second World War and the full list of institutions in the latest THE World University Rankings, which have a median age of 91. Meanwhile, universities founded between 1986-1999 (“Generation Y”) attracted the highest proportions of international students on average, followed by the millennials cohort. The findings are based on the median scores for universities of different age groups that feature in the World University Rankings. As well as the millennials and Generation Y cohorts, the analysis calculated the median scores for “Generation X” (1967-1985) and “Golden Age” (1945-1966) universities, as well as for the full 980-strong list. However, some of the millennial institutions, such as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Antwerp, were established by mergers of older institutions. In the millennials group, the University of Luxembourg (founded in 2003) and Saudi Arabia’s Alfaisal University (2002) achieved the highest scores for internationalisation, which encompasses metrics on the proportion of international students, staff and research. Attila Brungs, vice chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney, which is fifth for internationalisation in the Generation Y group, says the institution focuses on “preparing our students to be global professionals”. More than one-third (35 percent) of students at the institution come from abroad, while a similar proportion of domestic students spend time studying overseas, he says. The data also show that Generation X universities and the millennials achieved the greatest scores for citation impact on average.

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What are career prospects like in the field of artificial intelligence? — Ramya Rangisetty, Hyderabad Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the theory and development of computer systems capable of performing tasks requiring human intelligence such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and language translation. In recent years, AI has transformed from a niche into mainstream computer science, and is making visible inroads into our everyday lives. Top IT and internet companies are investing billions in AI research. Career prospects for computer science graduates with specialisation in AI are excellent with employment opportunities easily available in IT/internet companies, banking, insurance, government R&D departments, telecommunications and consumer electronics.    Which colleges in India offer study programmes in paint technology? — Rupanshu Rastogi, Lucknow  Paint technology is a specialised branch of chemical engineering, and involves study of the various ingredients — resin, polymers, pigments etc — used in the manufacture of paints.  Paint technologists develop new products as well as enhance and upgrade quality of paints already in the market. Institutions which offer study programmes in this field include the University Institute of Chemical Technology, Jalgaon (Maharashtra) and Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh).   I wish to qualify as an eye specialist. What’s the difference between an ophthalmologist and optometrist?  — Harman Preet Kaur, Dasuya  Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine focused upon the anatomy, physiology and afflictions of the eye. Ophthalmologists are qualified medical practitioners and specialists in eye surgery. Optometrists on the other hand, examine eyes and test them to detect and diagnose sight defects and determine visual efficiency and performance, disease or other abnormalities through observation and with the aid of instruments.  After examination, optometrists prescribe corrective measures to improve and correct vision, through the use of spectacles, contact lenses, low vision aids, appliances, vision therapy and control of visual environments. In case patients need further medical aid and advice, optometrists refer them to ophthalmologists.   I am a US citizen currently residing in India. I want to pursue medicine in a US university. Do I need to write TOEFL? Also, please suggest universities which offer pre-med courses.  — Prabhjot Gill, Mumbai,  Direct entry into a MBBS/medical study programme in the US is impossible. Students must first obtain a bachelor’s degree, preferably a pre-medical course and clear the Medical College Admission Test. To qualify for a pre-med programme at the undergrad level in the US, you need to write SAT. Since you are a US citizen, TOEFL/IELTS scores aren’t required. Prominent universities offering pre-med courses include Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and UC Berkeley.   I am a class XII student interested in qualifying as an IT games developer. Please advise. — Vinay Rao, Vizag After completing Plus Two, sign up for a B.Sc degree in computer graphics and animation followed by a Masters/diploma/degree in gaming/games development. An undergrad degree in computer graphics and animation will equip you with a strong foundation for a career in games design and development. Moreover, you need to be well-acquainted with computer programming languages…

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For several years, shoppers worldwide have been used to China’s omnipresence: ‘Made in China’ has long been the commonest label on the goods they buy. More recently, however, the Chinese government has been trying to sell the country itself as a brand — one that has the ability to attract people from other countries in the way that America does with its culture, products and values. A decade ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) declared a new goal: to build ‘soft power’, as a complement to its rapidly growing economic and military strength. It spends some $10 billion (Rs.64,400 crore) a year on the project, according to David Shambaugh of George Washington University — one of the most extravagant programmes of state-sponsored image-building the world has ever seen. Shambaugh reckons that America spent less than $670 million (Rs.4,300 crore) on its ‘public diplomacy’ in 2014. Evidently, CPC borrowed the idea of soft power from an American academic, Joseph Nye, who coined the term in 1990. Nye argued that hard power alone is not enough to wield influence in the world.  In 2013, about a year after he took over as China’s leader, Xi Jinping convened a meeting of the ruling politburo to discuss soft power. Its members agreed that it is a vital ingredient of Xi’s “Chinese dream of the great revival of the Chinese nation” — the term “Chinese dream” being one of Xi’s favourites. Since then, Xi has made himself promoter-in-chief of this new form of power (helped when he travels abroad by the highly visible presence of his elegant, smiling wife). His efforts to boost it were on display at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, where he won plaudits for extolling globalisation and calling for unity in the fight against climate change. Even Mao Zedong, who enjoyed cult status abroad among some left-wing academics, put far less work into winning over foreigners. Confucius, condemned by Chairman Mao as a peddler of feudal thought, is now being proffered as a sage with a message of harmony. Since 2004, China has established some 500 government-funded Confucius Institutes in 140 countries. They offer language classes, host dance troupes and teach Chinese cooking. Many of them are on campuses. China has also set up more than 1,000 Confucius Classroom arrangements with foreign schools, providing them with teachers, materials and funding to help children learn Mandarin. China wants its message to be clearly visible in the heartland of America’s capitalist culture. Sometimes the party uses covert means to sway foreign opinion. In 2015, an investigation by Reuters revealed that a Chinese state broadcaster, China Radio International, controlled at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries, including the United States, but was using front companies to mask its ties with them. Reuters says the stations avoid airing anything that might portray China negatively. China’s soft-power push has made some gains. In global opinion polls, respondents from Africa tend to be more positive about China than people from other regions.…

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Russia is recruiting international students to strengthen its soft power in former Soviet states rather than gaining any significant income from foreign enrolments, suggests a study. About 283,000 international students were in Russian universities last year, making it the sixth largest market for globally mobile students behind the US, UK, China, France and Australia, latest figures gathered by the Institute of International Education’s Project Atlas study show. That represents a fourfold increase since 2001-02, when about 72,000 international students were in Russia, with numbers increasing by 13 percent between 2014-15 and 2015-16 alone — the fastest growth of any major higher education sector. However, 69 percent of these students came from Azerbaijan, Belarus and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States that were previously part of the Soviet Union, with some 10,000 students from former Soviet states receiving scholarships from Russia, according to an analysis by Alena Nefedova, a researcher at Moscow’s National Research University Higher School of Economics. The objective of attracting international students: “Russia is not about making money, it is about soft power and influencing people through education,” Nefedova told Times Higher Education. “UK and US universities will use international students to earn money but Russian government universities are mainly exporting education because of (state) pressure,” she added. For instance, a 2014 survey of 540 Russian universities with international students found that exactly half derived no income from these enrolments, says Nefedova. The total income derived by those that did charge fees stood at just £49 million — or about £208,000 (Rs.1.7 crore) per university, she adds. Despite this meagre international income — the Russian higher ed sector has about 6 million students overall — the country’s universities are still keen to recruit foreign students because it improves internationalisation indicators used to rank institutions globally, with high performers likely to receive more state funds. “It is about the rankings game — the more institutions rise up the rankings, the more money they will receive from the 5-100 programme,” says Nefedova of Russia’s flagship higher education funding project that aims to have five universities in the world’s Top 100 by 2020. The 5-100 investment has been beneficial for Russian higher education in other ways, such as encouraging universities to become more international in their outlook and concentrate on their research strengths. “However, Russia is failing to capitalise fully on its support for international students owing to its failure to bring more of the highly skilled international graduates that it has trained into its labour market,” says Nefedova.

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Hungary’s top-ranked university is fighting for its existence after the country’s increasingly authoritarian government tabled legislative changes that would make it impossible for the institution to remain in Budapest. The Central European University (CEU), a graduate institution set up after the fall of communism to defend democracy in Eastern Europe, could be the first international institution to fall victim to ascendant illiberal governments in Europe and the US, according to observers. It is believed the government of prime minister Viktor Orban has been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump as US president to move against pro-democracy organisations, particularly those funded by the multibillionaire George Soros, such as CEU. Legislative amendments tabled on March 28 will prohibit the institution from issuing US-accredited degrees; force CEU to open a campus in New York; change its name; and end an agreement whereby non-EU staff don’t need a work permit, making it “impossible for the university to continue its operations as an institution of higher education in Budapest, the CEU’s home for 25 years”. Speaking at a press conference in Budapest on March 29, CEU president Michael Ignatieff called for the amendments to be withdrawn. “We plan to remain here,” he said. But he added that, by tabling them, the Hungarian government had eroded trust so completely that a new international agreement is needed to make the CEU’s status in the country secure. A Hungarian government spokesman told Times Higher Education that the amendments are a response to a review of foreign universities operating in the country. It recently discovered that 28 are operating unlawfully by not complying with regulations. Because of the proposed stricter rules, “universities from outside the EU can only hold courses and issue degrees in Hungary on the basis of an international treaty”, he says. Prof. Ignatieff says the new legislation has “carefully” excluded EU institutions, meaning that it targeted a “very narrow set of international institutions” including CEU. The CEU is the latest pro-democracy organisation funded by Soros to come under attack in Hungary. Prime minister Orban has railed against the investor, who was born in Hungary and has poured money into institutions that aim to increase openness and transparency in former communist countries, and support refugees, whom Orban has sought to block from Hungary. Other Soros-backed groups have been targeted by a proposed new law that would force organisations which receive foreign funding to register, Reuters has reported. Even receiving scholarships from Soros-funded organisations has become a political issue in Hungary; last year, it was reported that Orban would be happy to repay a scholarship he had received from the Soros Foundation to help fund a brief period of study at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1989. According to Simon Marginson, director of the Centre for Global Higher Education at the UCL Institute of Education, London, CEU “looks likely to be the first international university to be made a victim of the new ‘closed’ brand of nationalism epitomised by Brexit, Trump policies (and) the Le Pen agenda” unless…

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Have you ever wondered why so many people — parents and aspiring young coaches — sign up to coach children’s teams? It’s simple, really. Coaching kids is terrific fun — and moms, dads and all those who have experienced the joy of coaching and mentoring will know exactly what I’m talking about. For some volunteers, it’s a chance to help out the community, get some fresh air and be around to lend a helping hand to young players and athletes. For others, it’s an opportunity to make a significant, positive impact on young lives or take the first steps towards a career in sports education, including coaching. Looking back on my own long career in basketball, I clearly recall three coaches in grades III-VI — a YMCA basketball coach, my junior high football, basketball, and baseball coach, and my high school basketball coach with great fondness. Most of you may remember a cricket or soccer coach who took the time to introduce you to the basics of these games and showed confidence in the way you played them. Whatever your own positive memories you can return the favour by volunteering to coach the next generation of athletes and sportspersons. If you take the plunge, you’ll find that today’s kids are very eager to play and improve their game. Especially if they’re struggling, they’ll want a coach to step up, give them a reassuring pat on the back and take a few moments to work with them on their game. Show them how to hold a cricket bat, or the right type of shoes to purchase, how to backspin a tennis shot, how to head a soccer ball and how to make a reverse layup. This is where the fun comes alive. When you go all out to help a young person to learn an athletic skill, you can see her eyes light up with excitement and enthusiasm as she gets closer to mastering it. And that is the essence of coaching. It enables and empowers young people and provides emotional satisfaction to coaches. To realise these magic moments, keep these simple guidelines in mind: • Make sure to spend at least half of each practice sessionwalking around talking to each kid, helping players with the skills they’re trying to develop or perfect. If they’re doing an activity well, tell them so. Kids like it when a coach (especially one who lives in the community) praises their effort. • If you help kids with specific skills, demonstrate the skill first and then let them try it. Avoid lectures. Just give children a demo, and then let them practice and learn. Instruct them without boring them, so they learn faster and better. • Regardless of whether they’ve mastered a skill or not, be sure to praise the effort. In most cases, kids will improve quickly, and a few will even exhibit mastery potential. But they need positive, encouraging reports of progress. Praise goes a long way when you’re coaching. • Adopt the…

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The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Amitav Ghosh, Penguin Random House ; Rs.399 ; Pages 275 After winning global acclaim for his path-breaking Ibis trilogy — Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015) — historical fiction novels which focused scathingly on the impact of commerce-driven Western imperialism on Asia, especially China and the Indian diaspora of the 19th century, celebrated US-based (but currently residing in Goa) writer Amitav Ghosh’s latest book is on the scary issue of climate change endangering Planet Earth.  Not that this prolific Doon School, St. Stephen’s, and Oxford-educated novelist is new to writing non-fiction. Previous works of non-fiction include In an Antique Land (1992), Dancing in Cambodia and at Large in Burma (1998), Countdown (1999), The Imam and the Indian (2002) and Incendiary Circumstances (2006).  Ghosh’s new oeuvre is an analysis of the cultural, historical and political repercussions of global warming, the impact of which is being experienced on an everyday basis by all worldwide — except America’s new president. “There never was a time,” writes Ghosh, “when the forces of weather and geology did not have a bearing on our lives — but neither has there ever been a time when they have pressed themselves on us with such relentless directness.” Despite this, purveyors of literature, history, politics and culture have not responded to the imminent catastrophe with any urgency. Indeed Ghosh finds the present day establishment complicit in “modes of concealment,” and warns they will have to answer future generations. The focus in the first section of the book, ‘Stories’ is on the novel as a genre and its inadequate interface with climate change. Spanning a range of fiction writers including himself, Ghosh argues that since the late 19th century, realistic fiction has operated within paradigms of probability and individual moral concerns. Several freak natural disasters were considered too melodramatic to find a place in fiction.  Drawing on his reading of Jane Austen, Gustave Flaubert, and Indian writer Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Ghosh shows that the novel had adapted to the regularity of bourgeois life. The two key issues that he handles in this section are how the novel can re-emerge in new generic variations like sci-fi, and how it is imperative to address climate change concerns collectively through literary fiction.  The author is also appalled by global complacency about urban planning. Indiscriminate colonisation in the post 17th century which created colonial cities such as Mumbai and Chennai, New York and Charleston showed “reckless disregard” for traditional knowledge about ecology management. Therefore, disasters are just waiting to happen. Irregular warming, cyclones and hurricanes, tsunamis and deluges will play havoc with civic systems and urban cityscapes, a prophecy already proven by cyclone Sandy in New York in 2012, and the deluges in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata between 2005-2015. Across time and space, the global and the local, continuities of experience highlight the author’s critique of human apathy towards climate derangement worldwide. Ghosh compellingly argues that the root cause of the…

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To succeed in the murky world of Indian politics, cynical amorality combined with chameleon qualities is very useful. Consider the amazing political longevity of Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Bihar chief minister and Union railways minister. Beginning his career as a youth leader in the late Jayaprakash Narayan’s anti-corruption crusade against then prime minister Indira Gandhi in the 1970s, Lalu rose high in politics by promising equality to the cruelly neglected Dalits and backward castes of Bihar. But soon after he was swept to power in 1990, he became deeply mired in a fodder-for-cattle procurement scandal, and following a prolonged battle in the courts, was disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court, whereupon he promptly appointed his illiterate wife, Rabri Devi as chief minister in his stead and misruled by proxy.  Since then, this typically amoral BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP) politician has remained a permanent fixture of Bihar politics, and following the Bihar assembly election of 2015 when his RJD party unexpectedly won the largest number of seats in the legislature, he arm-twisted chief Nitish Kumar to appoint his two sons as deputy chief and forestry ministers in the state’s coalition government.  Not content with running the state government through proxies, now this backward castes champion has transformed into a businessman, inevitably crooked. Right now, Bihar’s largest shopping mall is under construction on a two-acre plot in Patna owned by a company named Lara Projects LLP in which the Lalu family is the major shareholder. According to the Kolkata-based The Telegraph, this plot was transferred to Lara Projects without any discernible compensation by RJD member and MLA Prem Gupta, who had been granted the lease of two railway hotels when Lalu was Union railways minister of the Congress-led UPA-I government in 2004-2009.  Yet despite his disqualification from holding public office, Bihar’s electorate voted the Lalu-led RJD to power. It’s no coincidence that it is India’s most educationally backward state ranked last in the Educational Development Index of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration. Quite obviously, it’s in the interest of the state’s light-fingered, amoral politicians to maintain the status quo.    Unheeded history At first the insidious agenda was covert. BJP leaders — including prime minister Narendra Modi and party spokespersons — would reply to English language television and print journalists in Hindi, allegedly the national language of the country.  But of late, the campaign to establish the supremacy of Hindi and impose it upon the general public, including citizens resident south of the Vindhyas has become overt. After publicly celebrating Hindi Day (September 14) last year with great zest, the BJP/NDA government at the Centre has issued a spate of official circulars to establish Hindi — which coincidentally would confer a great advantage to citizens of BIMARU states in bagging government jobs, topping public exams, accessing information — and relegate non Hindi-speaking citizens to second-class status. Recently the Union cabinet has advised Central government ministers to deliver all public speeches in Hindi; the…

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Neerja Birla is founder-chairperson of the Mpower Centre, a Mumbai-based mental health diagnostic and treatment centre, and Mpower Foundation, a mental healthcare initiative launched under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme of Idea Cellular Ltd, an Aditya Birla Group company. Excerpts from an interview: What were the motivating factors which prompted you to promote Mpower Centre and Mpower Foundation? In India, there’s still significant social stigma associated with mental illness. People are ashamed and embarrassed to admit that they or a family member have mental health problems. This thwarts open discussion about this important social problem. Moreover, we also have an acute shortage of mental health professionals in India with only one psychiatrist for every 10,000 people suffering from mental health conditions.  I believe it’s in the public interest to have open conversations about prevention, early intervention and treatment of mental health illnesses. Therefore, bearing in mind that over 60 million Indians suffer mental health ailments, I started the Mpower Movement with my daughter, Ananya. Through the Mpower Centre and Mpower Foundation, we want to encourage open discussions and provide counseling and treatment to people suffering mental health problems.  What are the aims and objectives of the Mpower institutions? The Mpower Movement proactively champions mental health issues, generates awareness and suggests educational remedies. Through events and campaigns such as Ride to Mpower, #EverydayHeroes, and #StampOutStigma, the movement improves solidarity within the cause, sparks conversations and reduces the social stigma associated with mental health. The Mpower Centre provides counseling and treatment through a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach. The Mpower Foundation provides similar services, but to underserved sections of society.  In schools and colleges, counseling facilities for students are lacking even though the incidence of suicide and self-destructive behaviour is highest among teens and youth. How do you explain neglect of this important issue?  There are several reasons for suboptimal mental healthcare facilities in our education institutions. Shortage of mental health professionals is one of them. A few schools have SEN (special education needs) teams because of the insistence of their boards of management. But most schools lack counsellors and immediate access to mental health professionals.  Another reason for the neglect of this critical issue is discomfort with the subject. There is a misconception that talking about mental health and possible suicides with school or college students will prompt them to engage in self-destructive behaviour. However, research studies indicate that talking about suicide and ways to prevent and treat depression actually dissuades teens and young adults from hurting themselves. All schools and colleges should appoint counsellors so students have access to mental healthcare professionals.  What is your strategy to reach your message about mental healthcare issues to schools and colleges countrywide? Mpower Foundation’s IGNITE outreach programme and SAP (school assistance programme) are designed to raise awareness and provide mental health counseling and treatment services in schools. Through SAP, Mpower professionals communicate important information related to mental health such as early intervention, parenting, child and adolescent mental health, neurodevelopmental disorders, reflective teaching, etc, to…

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University professors in France are paid far less than their peers in other countries as the government bureaucracy prevents top researchers from negotiating higher salaries, new analysis suggests. While most senior academics in France enjoy “almost total job security” thanks to their “lifetime positions”, professors are significantly underpaid compared with chairs in the UK, Germany and the US, according to a new study by Johannes Angermuller, professor of discourse at the University of Warwick, published in the Higher Education journal. Comparing publicly available salary scales, Prof. Angermuller highlights a huge pay deficit experienced by French university professors in comparison with their international peers. “After taxes and charges, full professors should expect at least £40,000 (Rs.32 lakh) in the UK, €40,000 (Rs.32.5 lakh) in Germany and $50,000 (Rs.40 lakh) in US state universities, but (theoretically) they receive just over €30,000 (Rs.21 lakh) in France,” explains Prof. Angermuller, who is also a member of the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, a grande ecole that is part of Paris’ PSL Research University. Those at the top end of professorial salary scales, which can hit about £120,000 (Rs.97 lakh) at some UK universities, will also find limited financial rewards in France, says the study, which is titled ‘Academic careers and the valuation of academics: a discursive perspective on status categories and academic salaries in France as compared to the US, Germany and Great Britain’. “It is not uncommon to see some net salaries of senior academic staff rise to £60,000, €80,000 and $200,000 (in the UK, Germany and US) respectively,” explains Prof. Angermuller. “The situation is different in France, where… end-of-career professors’ (salaries) rarely exceed €60,000 (Rs.41 lakh),” he adds. Prof. Angermuller, whose research is funded by the European Research Council, blames the limited earning power of French professors on the massive influence of the country’s government bureaucracy, in which “most academic staff are civil servants and almost all are paid by the central government following a single national salary system”. Other factors also limit the salaries of French professors, the study says. For instance, French universities typically don’t have strong deans or heads of departments who might be encouraged to recruit strategically on behalf of an institution, which would create a transfer market and higher wages for professors. Meanwhile, the “relative absence of an inter-institutional job market”, thanks to a job-for-life culture, means there’s little appetite to lure researchers from rival institutions on better terms, the study adds.

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Yale University is perhaps the epicentre of the campus activism so voguish today. Two professors stepped down from pastoral roles last year after a controversy about whether students should police their own offensive Halloween costumes, rather than letting the university do it for them, provoking protests from hundreds of students. Yale is also debating whether to discontinue using the word “freshman” in favour of the more gender-neutral term “first-year”. That Yale is also one of America’s most prestigious universities is not coincidental. Across the country, colleges with richer, high-achieving students are likelier to witness protests calling for controversial speakers to be disinvited. Recent flare-ups at Middlebury College, which tried to prevent Charles Murray, a conservative writer, from speaking and left the professor interviewing him with a concussion, and at the University of California, Berkeley which had to cancel a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, an over-exposed provocateur, are but the tip of a larger pile. Following the work of Richard Reeves and Dimitrios Halikias of the Brookings Institution, The Economist analysed data on student attempts to disinvite speakers since 2013 collected by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group. Even among selective universities, those with better-credentialed and wealthier students are likelier to mount protests. They are also likelier to mount successful attempts to block speakers. This could be because elite students attract controversial speakers more often. Reeves, who is also a biographer of John Stuart Mill, reasons otherwise. America’s best universities contain bubbles in which “certain left-of-centre tenets, largely around identity politics, take on the weight of an orthodoxy”, he says. Mill, who wrote that squashing freedom of expression results in “a kind of intellectual pacification” that sacrifices “the entire moral courage of the human mind,” wouldn’t have liked it very much.

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Like most people, until a few years ago, I wasn’t aware that the majority of India’s 29 million youth in the 18-24 age group fortunate to access tertiary education — incidentally a mere 20 percent of the country’s youth in this age cohort is enrolled in higher education cf. 85 percent in South Korea and 50-60 percent in the US and UK – are in privately promoted higher education institutions. The plain truth is that India’s 266 private universities, 2,776 engineering and technology institutes, 2,415 B-schools and other assorted private post-secondary education institutes prepare 65 percent of the country’s educated youth for the organised sector jobs market. Admittedly, the majority of private higher education institutions aren’t doing a good job of it because government, industry, agriculture and total factor productivity in the Indian economy is rock bottom.  Yet the blame for poor national productivity can’t be entirely laid at the door of private tertiary institutions. Despite being heavily subsidised and favoured by the Central and state governments, public higher education institutions are at best marginally better. Except for a few universities and professional institutions promoted and/or funded by the Central government — Delhi University, Indian Institute of Science, the IIMs and IITs – the great majority of universities and undergrad colleges established by state governments have been ruined by the country’s bull-in-china-shop politicians and bureaucrats who have been recklessly interfering with, and eroding the autonomy of public universities and colleges for decades. With the mainstream media paying minimal attention to private institutions of higher education, in 2015, your editors took a decision to separate the sheep from goats among the country’s private universities, engineering institutes and B-schools which have quietly and unobtrusively emerged as popular alternatives to public universities and colleges. In our cover story, 8,386 sample respondents drawn from academia and industry have rated the country’s Top 100 private universities, engineering institutes and B-schools on 30 parameters of academic excellence and have ranked them inter se in three different categories. Moreover, to inject a measure of objectivity into the exercise, on the important parameter of research and innovation, citations of faculty of ranked institutions in refereed journals approved by Scopus and Web of Science, have been taken into consideration.  The comprehensive EducationWorld India Higher Education Rankings 2017-18 league tables are the outcome of serious, professionally managed field interviews spread over four months. They provide valuable, actionable information to the millions of aspirational youth who don’t or can’t make it into the highly subsidised top-ranked public universities and professional institutes. The country’s top-ranked private higher ed institutions offer globally benchmarked education to youngsters aspiring to quality education and prepared to pay reasonable — by global standards — prices for it.

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With torrents of data flowing into the public domain from the Internet, social media, think tanks, corporates, etc, the demand for data analytics professionals is booming – Odeal D’Souza With torrents of data flowing into the public domain from the Internet, social media, think tanks, corporates and sundry official sources, the job of collating, preserving, classifying and interpreting data to make informed business and investment decisions and to create customers around the world, has spawned a new industry and numerous career opportunities in data analytics (aka data science, business intelligence, predictive or prescriptive analytics). This digitally driven 21st century vocation requires professionals with capability to simultaneously apply statistics, computer programming and operations research expertise to enable corporates and other organisations — including education institutions — to discern demand-supply trends and predict consumer needs and behaviour.  STUDY PROGRAMMES Graduates in quantitative disciplines such as mathematics, statistics, computer science, economics or engineering are eligible to enroll in postgraduate study programmes. Most of India’s premier B-schools offer courses to upskill students in data analytics tools such as machine learning, R, Python and Hadoop. For instance, the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon offers a six-month online course in data analytics, and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in Calcutta, Ranchi and Bangalore offer 12-month executive programmes in business analytics and intelligence under the hybrid model. Among other reputable institutions offering postgraduate programmes in advanced data analytics are the Mumbai-based Aegis School of Business, Data Science and Telecommunication; Hindustan University, Chennai; Ahmedabad University; Crescent Engineering College, Chennai and SRM University, Chennai which offers an M.Tech in data analytics. PAY & PROGRESSION Inevitably, the remuneration packages of data analytics professionals vary, depending on skills and experience. The most valued skills are SAS (statistical analysis software suite), data modeling, R programming language, big data and statistical analysis. A senior business analyst with three-five years of experience can expect a remuneration package of Rs.8-12 lakh per annum. A team leader/ lead analyst in an IT services company with five-10 years experience can expect to earn Rs.10-14 lakh per annum and an analytics manager with wider experience could take home an annual package of Rs.12-20 lakh. PROFESSIONAL PROFILE “There is a huge unfulfilled demand for data professionals given rising FDI (foreign direct investment) flows into India. Industry experts estimate a shortfall of approximately 200,000 data analysts in India by 2018. With data being generated at a furious pace, I don’t see the demand for data experts slowing down in the forseeable future,” says Gaurav Vohra, CEO and co-founder of the Bangalore-based Jigsaw Academy Education Pvt. Ltd, an online analytics school.  An economics and business management alumnus of Delhi University and IIM-Bangalore, Vohra was campus recruited for the risk management team of Capital One Financial Corp, a US-based company. “It was during my two-year stint with Capital One Financial in the US that I became aware of the importance of data analytics for making smart business decisions,” recalls Vohra. In 2003, “bullish about the Indian IT industry” Vohra returned…

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RV College of Engineering (RVCE), Bengaluru and Cisco India have launched a IoT (Internet of Things) Centre of Excellence (CoE) to provide the next generation of students digital skills and training necessary for 21st-century jobs.  The CoE, sited within the RVCE campus, was inaugurated by Gaurav Gupta, principal secretary, department of IT, BT, and S&T of the Karnataka government, and V.C. Gopalratnam, senior vice president (international) of Cisco India, a subsidiary of the US-based Cisco Systems Inc. Over the next five years, the CoE will provide a specialised curriculum preparing 10,000 students from 50 colleges across Karnataka for careers in the digital economy.  “The CoE will enable students and working professionals across the state to access the skills and training to help them promote start-ups and build successful technology careers,” said Gopalratnam, addressing the media on the occasion.   CIE’s new CGP syllabus The UK-based Cambridge International Examinations (CIE, estb.1858) plans to adapt its popular skills-based learning programme — Cambridge Global Perspectives (CGP) — for application in primary and upper-primary schools (classes I-VIII). CGP is a standalone subject with its own syllabus and requires students to research global themes.  This was announced at a Members of International Schools Association conference in Mumbai convened earlier this year by Paul Bullen-Smith, head of CGP. “CIE is continuously researching and revising its prescribed syllabuses to develop students’ sense of global citizenship. The CGP paper will encourage students in affiliated schools to collaborate, research and develop data using mathematical and analytical skills,” said Bullen-Smith, speaking on the occasion. Dyson Awards extended to India The annual James Dyson Award 2017, which rewards “something that solves a problem, big or small” and is open to university students (and recent graduates) studying product, industrial and engineering design in 23 countries, invites entries from India for the first time. The prize: $30,000 (Rs.19.2 lakh)  “The James Dyson Award looks for remarkable yet simple designs with the potential to have a huge impact on society. Every year, I am amazed by the ideas presented and I look forward to seeing this year’s raft of entries,” said Dyson, announcing the extension of this annual award to India on March 30. Past winners have helped tackle the problem of over-fishing, transportation of vaccines in the developing world, global food waste and mortality rates of premature babies. Now in its 14th year, the award rewards those who solve problems through intelligent engineering solutions. “The best inventions are often the simplest,” says Dyson.  The last date for submission of entries is July 20.    Creya Ignited Minds Challenge 2017 The Creya Ignited Minds Challenge (CIMC) 2017, an initiative of the Hyderabad-based Creya Learning (estb.2011) which claims to be the “first education company in India to offer integrative 21st-century learning programmes” to K-12 schools, concluded in Hyderabad on April 8. Twenty-two teams from top-ranked schools across India demonstrated their analytical and creative skills in solving real-world problems. This edition of the challenge was special with Intel supporting the event this year.  Open to class…

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The state government’s education ministry has launched new skill passbook and catch-up schemes to prepare students for the new academic year 2017-18. Skill passbooks completed by teachers of their 2016-17 classes will reflect each student’s capabilities in Hindi, English and maths.  “The aim of the project is to prepare children for their new classes before start of the academic year by introducing interesting and activity-based informal learning. The catch-up programme will be undertaken in the first two months of the new academic year as a refresher of the curriculum covered in previous classes,” said Haryana’s education minister Ram Bilas Sharma, addressing the media in Chandigarh on April 5.    Maharashtra Varsity recruitment scandal The Maharashtra government has suspended higher education director Dhanraj Mane for alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 53 officials of the Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. This was announced in the state legislative assembly by education minister Vinod Tawde on April 6. Earlier, Shiv Sena legislator Subhash Sabne alleged that despite Mane being held guilty by a three-member committee constituted by the education directorate to investigate the complaints against him, some government and university officials are shielding him.  Moreover, a retired judge will investigate the role of higher education ministry officials reportedly involved in the recruitment scandal, the minister informed the house.    Odisha China scholarships for KISS The Bhubaneswar-based Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS, estb.1993) announced scholarships for 20 class XII school-leavers to pursue undergraduate education in China’s Yangzhou Polytechnic College (YPC). Addressing the media in Bhubaneswar on April 25, Dr. P.K. Routray, chief executive of KISS, said the scholarships were awarded after Dr. Achyuta Samanta, founder-director of KISS, signed a collaboration agreement with YPC during a visit to the People’s Republic of China in March. Under the agreement, YPC will provide free-of-charge undergrad education to 20 KISS students from the term beginning September. In the first year, the KISS students will study a foundation course in Mandarin which will qualify them to select higher study programmes. Moreover, YPC will ensure job placements for these students in Chinese multinationals with offices in India after they graduate, added Routray.   Kerala Leaked question paper enquiry Education minister Prof. C. Ravindranath has ordered a thorough investigation into the alleged leak of a state board class X mathematics question paper following a first information report filed by education secretary Usha Titus.  Addressing the media in Thiruvananthapuram on April 1, a government spokesman said Titus has demanded a probe into a nexus between the teacher who set the maths question paper, and a private test prep coaching institute in Malappuram.   Delhi Sexist textbook row A physical education textbook titled Health and Physical Education published by the New Saraswati House Press, Delhi for class XII students and approved by CBSE, has provoked outrage on social media.  The textbook, authored by V.K. Sharma, opines that the “perfect female body” should be of 36-24-36 proportions. This description was widely denounced by academics and feminists as “sexist” and “unacceptable”. Questioned by the…

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“I have always felt that every senior management person of an Indian corporation has to show self-restraint in his or her compensation and perquisites. He or she has to fight for maintaining a reasonable ratio between the lowest salary and the highest salary in a corporation in a poor country like India… This is necessary if we have to make compassionate capitalism acceptable to a majority of Indians who are poor.”  N.R. Narayan Murthy, founder of Infosys Technologies, slamming the board’s decision to hike the company COO’s annual remuneration by 60-70 percent (The Economic Times, April 3) “If a man can be beaten to death on a crowded highway in broad daylight on the mere suspicion of ‘cow smuggling’, as happened in Alwar on April 1, how can anyone — an African, a northeasterner, a Dalit, a Muslim, or a person with a different set of beliefs — feel secure?” Economic & Political Weekly on the rising tide of mob violence being tacitly encouraged by the BJP/RSS and sangh parivar (April 8) “What is a bigger threat than war, civil unrest or natural disaster? For Indian business there is an obvious answer: government.” The Economist on the Indian Supreme Court’s order banning alcohol sale within 500 metres of a state or national highway (April 8-14) “It undermines (an) honest credit culture, it impacts credit discipline, and it plugs incentives for future borrowers to repay. In other words, loan waivers engender moral hazard.” Urjit Patel, RBI governor, on the newly elected Uttar Pradesh government’s fulfilment of an election promise to waive farmers’ loans aggregating Rs.36,000 crore (India Today, April 24)  “If one talks of developing country agriculture, especially in India, one gets an imagery of a thin, dark-skinned, half-naked farmer using a 17th century instrument called yoke either tied to a couple of bulls or himself.” Shanthu Shantharam, adjunct professor of biotechnology, University of Maryland on a “global conspiracy” to deny scientific developments from the West to third world countries (Swarajya, April)

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Enactment of the gujarat state Higher Education Council (GSHEC) Act, 2016, which has become law after governor O.P. Kohli gave his assent to the eponymous Bill on February 3, has sent a shock wave through the already nervous academy of the state. Under the provisions of the Act, a council headed by the chief minister as president and education minister as vice president together with secretaries of several ministries of the state government, is the apex supervisory and regulatory body for higher education in the state. In addition, five vice chancellors, a representative of a private university, an eminent scholar from institutes of national importance sited in Gujarat, and five eminent persons from various fields and three academics from the teaching community will be appointed by the state government as members of the 32-member strong council which will supervise planning and development of Gujarat’s 50 public and private universities and institutes of national importance. Critics of the GSHEC Act believe that strict control of public and private education institutions is an integral part of the RSS/BJP/sangh parivar strategy to transform the BJP into India’s natural party of governance.  The governor’s approval of the Bill came despite a 35-strong delegation of academics drawn from several universities and higher education institutions statewide meeting Kohli to draw his attention to the “colossal damage that such a draconian Bill” would inflict upon academia. Comments Prof. Dilip Patel, a former registrar of the North Gujarat University and professor of Sanskrit: “It gives sweeping and autocratic powers to the state government completely taking away the autonomy of universities.” Adds Prof. Rohit Shukla, president of the Gujarat chapter of Save Education, a Kolkata-based NGO which was headed by the late jurist V. Krishna Iyer: “S.15 empowers the council to recommend to the government to direct any university to make any modification in its bye-laws, notwithstanding anything contained in any law. This provision will be the death blow to the autonomy of all universities in the state.” Cursory perusal of the GSHEC Act, 2016 confirms that the council is endowed with overarching powers. In effect, varsity governance bodies including the academic council, syndicate and senate, can be overruled by the super council. “All council members will be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of s.21 of the Indian Penal Code. This provision implies that all faculty and non-teaching staff will come under the authority of the council. Therefore, faculty and staff of universities, colleges and other institutes will have to make themselves available for all government programmes ranging from polio campaigns and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to election duties or plain politically loaded government campaigns. This subservience will lead to total emasculation of the state’s universities and institutions of higher education,” warns Rimmi Vaghela, secretary of the Gujarat chapter of the All India Students’ Democratic Organisation (AISDO). However, education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama is unfazed and says apprehensions “about abstract issues such as academic autonomy” are misplaced. “The government wants to bring about uniformity in the administration of…

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After passing the west bengal Clinical Establishments Registration, Regulation and Transparency Bill on March 17, which lays down rules for the state’s 300 private hospitals to end ‘extortion’, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government has resolved to frame a similar policy to regulate the tuition fees and donations allegedly demanded by private schools. A Bill on this issue has been framed and is scheduled to be passed in the next session of the legislative assembly in which the TMC has a clear majority of 84 seats.  West Bengal (pop. 91 million) is one of the nine states including Rajasthan, Kerala and Delhi, where private school tuition fees will be increased by over 10 percent in the academic year 2017-18. The Bill will have provisions to “take action” against 1,000 CISCE and CBSE schools in West Bengal and a few affiliated with the state board, which have announced tuition fee hikes of more than 10 percent. Protests against rising tuition fees of private independent schools have been gathering steam across the country in recent months. In December 2016, the Maharashtra legislative assembly passed a Bill enabling the state government to regulate the tuition fees of all private schools and colleges. In Punjab, the state government has imposed an 8 percent cap on tuition fee hikes; in Karnataka, the high court recently directed the government to issue a notification to frame a policy for regulating private schools’ tuition fees and donations.  On the other hand, private school promoters/managements claim to be flummoxed by the contradictory demands of middle class households for first world benchmarked education at third world prices. “To provide high quality education, we need to recruit, train and retain excellent teachers. Moreover, all parents expect excellent infrastructure, co-curricular and extensive sports facilities. Therefore in an inflationary economy, it’s impossible to keep tuition fees static. Parents who invite government interference — a Trojan horse — are being very foolish,” says the principal of a private unaided international school, who spoke to your correspondent on condition of anonymity.  The reality that India’s independent schools are experiencing severe operational costs pressure is confirmed by a 2015 Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) study. The study reveals that private schools’ costs have risen faster than their incomes in the past decade — by 150 percent between 2005-15. According to the study, the cost of educating a child in Top 100 ranked private schools has risen from Rs.55,000 per year in 2005 to Rs.125,000 in 2015. “In a diverse country like India, government has to accept variety and respect the management and operational autonomy of private education institutions. Government regulation of tuition fees of private independent schools could result in private schools being reduced to the status of government institutions,” warns Devi Kar, the highly-respected director of Kolkata’s Modern High School for Girls (estb.1952), ranked India’s #3 girls day school in the EW India School Rankings 2016.  Curiously, neither West Bengal’s government, academy nor the middle class voices the opinion that…

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From the looks of it, attending to the needs and requirements of the education sector is the last priority of Tamil Nadu’s political parties and leaders. Three of Tamil Nadu’s most reputed government-run universities — University of Madras (UoM), Anna University (AU), Chennai, and Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) — have been limping along without vice chancellors (VCs) for over a year. Although the ruling AIADMK government, currently pre-occupied with filling the vacuum left by the sudden demise of three-term former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year, appointed three-member VC search committees in all three universities to shortlist, and recommend names before the terms of the VCs ended early last year, the search committees took their time submitting recommendations to the governor and ex-officio chancellor of state universities, Vidyasagar Rao.  The protracted delay in appointing VCs in these top-ranked universities has brought several academic and administrative reforms and upgradation initiatives to a standstill. Moreover, thousands of undergrad and postgrad students, who completed their study programmes haven’t been issued degree certificates in the absence of VCs to sign them.  “The main reason for the delay in appointing VCs is the lack of political will to appoint persons of integrity and proven professional competence to these apex-level positions. Over the past decade, corruption has become rampant in the university system due to lack of democratic functioning of university bodies including the academic councils, senates and syndicate, which also needs to be urgently rectified,” says senior academician S. Krishnaswamy.  A scandal surrounding the re-appointment of a tainted convenor of the search committee empowered to shortlist candidates for the post of VC of Madurai Kamaraj University is indicative of the rot that has permeated higher education in Tamil Nadu. Although a search committee member levelled serious charges of nepotism and corruption against convenor Dr. C. Murukadas and subsequently resigned from the committee, a government order of December 20, 2016 reconstituted the committee retaining Murukadas. A public interest litigation filed by A. Narayanan, director of Change India, an NGO, to quash the December 20 government order is pending in the Madras high court. Moreover, complaints that vice chancellors appointed in state universities lack the required qualifications are rife among teacher associations and educationists. According to the University Grants Commission — the apex Delhi-based supervisory body for all non-technical higher education — rules and regulations, persons of the highest level of competence, integrity, morals and institutional commitment are to be appointed as vice chancellors. “The VC should be a distinguished academician, with a minimum of ten years’ experience as professor in a university system or ten years in an equivalent position in a reputed research and/or academic administrative organisation”. However, the AIADMK government is yet to adopt these UGC regulations of 2010, giving the state government full freedom to appoint candidates of their choice as VCs of state universities.  Little wonder that Tamil Nadu’s once highly reputed universities including UoM (estb.1857) have lost their lustre. In the latest NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) league…

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Under s.12 (1) (c) of the landmark Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (aka RTE) Act, 2009 — having perhaps given up hope of ever improving learning outcomes in the country’s 1.20 million government schools — the then ruling Congress-led UPA-II government at the Centre expropriated 25 percent of capacity in private elementary (classes I-VIII) schools for poor children in their neighbourhoods. A proviso embedded in s.12 (1)(c) also obliged elementary schools dispensing pre-primary education to reserve 25 percent of capacity in preschool for poor neighborhood children. However, to partly compensate private unaided (financially independent) primary-secondaries the cost of providing free of charge education to poor neighborhood children, s .12 (2) of the RTE Act requires the State (state or local governments) to reimburse them tuition fees equivalent to the per pupil cost incurred in their own government primary schools or actual fees of private schools, if lower. Inevitably, the constitutional validity of s.12 (1) (c) was challenged by private school associations. In Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan & Ors vs. Union of India (2012), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of s.12 (1) (c) by a 2-1 majority while exempting minority and boarding schools.  However, despite the normative tuition fees of private unaided schools being substantially higher than the cost of per capita education incurred by the State for children in public education, state/local governments have been reluctant and/or tardy in reimbursing private schools the modest sums owing to them for complying with s.12 (1) (c). Private budget schools in Maharashtra claim that a massive sum of Rs.450 crore is owing to them since 2012-13 under s.12 (2) of the RTE Act. However, the state’s education ministry challenges this amount and pegs it at a mere Rs.147.61 crore (2012-16). This dispute has prompted the Maharashtra English School Trustees Association (MESTA) and the Independent English Schools Association (IESA), which together represent 14,000 private budget (i.e, low cost) schools across the state, to issue a notice of stoppage of s.12 (1) (c) admissions from the academic year 2018-19 unless pending dues are cleared. According to MESTA and IESA spokespersons, the huge mismatch in reimbursement calculations is due to a large number of schools demanding reimbursement of fees for children admitted into their pre-primary classes. However, despite the clear directive of the proviso which directs composite schools to reserve 25 percent of capacity in preschools pari passu with class I, the Maharashtra government disputes reimbursement of costs incurred towards poor children admitted in pre-primary classes on the narrow legal argument that the RTE Act is applicable only to children aged 6-14, and not younger children.  When a division bench of the Bombay high court (April 28, 2015) directed the state government to reimburse composite schools under s.12 (2) stating “the appropriate governments (i.e, the State) cannot shirk their responsibilities by contending that they are under no obligation towards pre-primary education,” the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition state government issued a government resolution dated 30 April, 2015, “cancelling” all pre-primary admissions…

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Notwithstanding a detailed cover story in EducationWorld (February 2017) in which several principals of the country’s top-ranked schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) roundly criticised the pan-India school-leaving examination board for excessive interference, this Delhi-based nominally autonomous exam board, which is under the supervisory jurisdiction of the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry, hasn’t mended its ways. On April 19, the board issued a circular to its 18,778 — including 13,657 private unaided (financially independent) — affiliated schools countrywide to refrain from advising parents to buy books, uniforms, shoes, bags etc from selected vendors and “use only the textbooks issued by the Delhi-based National Council of Educational Research and Training,” (NCERT, an autonomous body also under the supervisory jurisdiction of the HRD ministry). Citing rule 19.1 (ii) of its bye-laws, it said “managements shall ensure that school is run as a community service and not as a business and that commercialisation does not take place in the school in any shape whatsoever… there is a nexus of profiteering. But our affiliations (sic) are clear that schools are a community service and not commercial entities. It is mandatory for schools to adhere to the provisions,” said the circular signed by Rakesh Kumar Chaturvedi, a former bureaucrat, appointed chairman of CBSE in July 2016.  Last December, Chaturvedi issued a circular under Rule 25.2 (a) of the CBSE’s bye-laws changing the composition of the managing committees of CBSE affiliated private schools to effectively vest power to appoint principals in the Central government. This circular prompted the Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan (SUPSR) to revive a writ petition (No.6510 of 2013) in the Delhi high court challenging the ambit of CBSE power. According to the petition, CBSE is a mere school-leaving examinations board with no power to regulate or prescribe administrative and regulatory norms for affiliated schools. Even as this writ petition is pending adjudication, on April 20, CBSE issued a disaffiliation show-cause notice to Delhi Public School, Mathura Road for re-appointing well-qualified educationist Manohar Lal, who has more than three decades of teaching and administrative experience, as the school’s principal. According to the show-cause notice, the board’s affiliation bye-laws (amended in December last year), mandate a retirement age of 60 for principals of affiliated schools.  “CBSE is merely an examinations board authorised to conduct examinations. Therefore all its bye-laws relating to tuition fees, textbooks, uniforms, composition of managing and selection committees are illegal and ultra vires,” says Damodar Goyal, founder-president of SUPSR (estb.1997).  Nor is SUPSR the only representative organisation of private schools fed up with the interference and command-and-control circulars of overbearing bureaucrats in CBSE and the Union HRD ministry. The Delhi-based National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA, estb.2011), which represents over 36,400 budget private schools across the country, is also set to go to court against a CBSE circular dated April 12 which threatens to impose a penalty of Rs.50,000 on schools that don’t make financial disclosures under the board’s bye-laws. “The board is continually deviating…

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Your cover story ‘Belated teacher training revolution in K-12 education’ (EW April) is misleading and one-sided. You have incorrectly concluded that a belated teacher training revolution is sweeping India because a handful of high-end private schools have promoted academies to train their teachers and/or aspiring teachers. Though this is a positive development, it’s a drop in the ocean. The majority of the country’s teachers are employed in government schools. Your story unfortunately, hasn’t even attempted to highlight any in-service training programmes launched by the government. Unless the government takes the lead in reskilling and upgrading its teachers, there will be no teacher training revolution in this country.  Saraswati Haldar Bangalore   Open secret Thanks for your cover story on teacher development in K-12 education (EW April). Teacher training has been grossly neglected by government for far too long. It’s an open secret that the country’s B.Ed colleges churn out poor quality graduates, and that their syllabuses haven’t been revised for decades. Most B.Ed colleges are promoted by ill-qualified private entrepreneurs, and are largely responsible for the mess in teacher education. The recommendation of the T.S.R Subramanian Committee report on the New Education Policy to introduce a four-year integrated BA/B.Sc, B.Ed degree programme is an excellent idea. Also there should be a rigorous entrance test for admission into this course to ensure that only the brightest and best are admitted. Manoj K. Sharma Delhi   Disturbing development The country’s 594 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are indeed the crown jewels of Indian public education (EW April). They have given thousands of neglected children in rural India a window — albeit small — of opportunity to access high-quality school education and break out of the vicious cycle of illiteracy and poverty. The secret to their success as highlighted in the story is what makes any education institution excellent — generous funding, committed teachers, and high-quality curriculum. Unfortunately, none of these are provided to the average government school.  However, I was disturbed to read that admissions into the JNVs are being grabbed by rural elites and the ‘creamy layer’, whose children are professionally coached to top the JNV admission open exam. Obviously, this places the majority of rural children whose parents can’t afford tuitions at a disadvantage. Every child deserves quality education; access cannot be restricted to the meritorious and privileged. It may be a good idea to discontinue the JNV entrance test and introduce a lottery system. Sudhakar Rao Hyderabad  Exposed agenda  Your editorials in the latest issue (EW April) were excellent. All right-thinking citizens of this country should be dismayed and even frightened by the appointment of Yogi Adityanath — a hindutva zealot more in the news for inciting communal hatred rather than development initiatives — as chief minister of India’s most populous state. As you have rightly argued, this decision of the BJP leadership and in particular of prime minister Narendra Modi, has made it clear that the party’s real agenda is consolidation of the Hindu vote and construction of a Ram…

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