EducationWorld May 18

Accepting the validity of the argument that the overwhelming majority of the country’s estimated 39 million school-leavers enter arts, science and commerce undergrad colleges annually, C fore field personnel interviewed 946 college faculty and 824 final year students to rate and rank India’s Top 100 Arts, Science & Commerce Colleges on six parameters of education excellence – Dilip Thakore Widely acclaimed for pioneering the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (estb. 2007), arguably the world’s most comprehensive survey rating India’s Top 1,000 primary-secondary schools in 14 distinctive categories on 14 parameters of excellence and ranking them nationally, in the states and host cities, we introduced our EducationWorld India Higher Education (EWIHE) Rankings in June 2013. The initiative was primarily to draw attention to private professional colleges and universities which tend to get short shrift in the institutional surveys of mainstream media. With government — especially Central government — promoted engineering colleges (IITs, NITs etc), universities and B-schools (IIMs) dominating the league tables of national periodicals such as India Today, Outlook and business magazines, we believed that a useful social purpose would also be served by highlighting the silently rising number of private universities, engineering colleges and B-schools. Many among them have emerged as good quality alternatives to ruinously expensive foreign institutions of higher education for school-leavers unable to qualify for admission into top-ranked government institutions which demand sky-high cut-offs in class XII qualifying exams. Positive public reaction to this initiative has prompted us to publish the EWIHE Rankings annually.  Inevitably, the EWIHE Rankings have evolved — and will continue to evolve — with the passage of time. This year in response to feedback received from our multiplying number of readers and accepting the validity of the argument that the overwhelming majority of the estimated 39 million school-leavers enter multi-disciplinary arts, science and commerce colleges annually, we commissioned the well-known field research agency, the Delhi-based Centre for Research & Forecasting Pvt. Ltd (C fore) to conduct an additional survey to rate and rank the country’s Top 100 multi-disciplinary arts, science and commerce colleges in six metro cities. Accordingly, C fore constituted a sample respondents database of 1,770 knowledgeable individuals comprising 946 college faculty and 824 final year students. They were interviewed by C fore field personnel to rate the country’s most well-known multi-disciplinary colleges on six parameters of undergrad education — competence of faculty, faculty welfare and development, curriculum and pedagogy, industry placements, infrastructure and leadership and governance quality — on a 100 point scale with the vital parameter of competence of faculty accorded a weightage of 200. The scores awarded by the respondents under each parameter were totalled and formed the basis for ranking the country’s Top 100 arts, science and commerce colleges inter se.  Unsurprisingly, the Top 10 arts, science and commerce colleges list comprises the usual suspects with the Delhi-based St. Stephen’s, Shri Ram College of Commerce and Lady Shri Ram College for Women — which despite their 95 percent plus cut-off requirements experience an annual admission scramble of…

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While education is the greatest lever for social change, education systems around the world are falling short. Unacceptable gaps in academic attainments, poor social mobility, rising mental health issues and failure to equip young people with the skills they need for 21st century jobs are some of the consequences of education systems rooted in a bygone era. However, pioneers are beginning to present exciting glimpses into reimagined education — systems with “whole-person learning” at their centre. But pockets of innovation are not enough. Educators need to move away en masse from prevailing systems organised around the narrow set of exams, and think about urgent and increasingly complex global issues that must be resolved. Time is of the essence and we must focus not only on innovation but also on driving systems-wide change — now and in the future. A century ago, education systems were designed to equip large cohorts of children with basic literacy and numeracy skills for use in manufacturing industries. In developed countries, a standardised model of education was designed to meet this need. Since then, although our education systems have been modernised to some extent, the changes have been modest and too slow.  Meanwhile around the world, there is growing resistance to the spread of globalisation and a return to nationalist movements in favour of separatism and protectionism. In politics, this trend is discernible in Brexit (UK), the upsurge of nationalism in several European countries and momentum that propelled Donald Trump into the presidency of the USA. Narrow nationalism has again become an important force in a globalising world, together with the belief that populism offers easy solutions and simple answers to complex problems. Existing ‘authorities’ and ‘elites’ are experiencing increasing rejection and the rhetoric of political debates has become shrill and vicious. But while there’s no denying that the hitherto uninterrupted march of globalisation is facing resistance around the world, there’s little chance of slowing down or reversing it. By teaching self-reliance, independence, curiosity, compassion and consideration towards people who are ‘different’, school leaders and teachers can play an important role in removing the apprehensions that have fuelled anti-globalisation sentiments and fanned animosity and intolerance. Schools must prepare students to become strong and mature, and to develop critical thinking skills to resist political manipulation. The mission of schools is to develop responsible global citizens prepared to fight the downsides of globalisation such as injustice, racism and poverty, while simultaneously promoting global harmony, trade and cooperation. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that teaching the skills required to improve our world necessitates a paradigm shift in the way we deliver education. Since fear of the unknown breeds ignorance and prejudice, we have a duty to provide our students opportunities to collaborate with people of diverse ethnicities and cultures, especially those most likely to be targeted as ‘the other’. School leaders and teachers have an obligation to consciously teach the skills of communication, collaboration, cooperation and adaptable thinking, which are essential for bridging gaps between people…

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Promoted by the well-known spiritual leader and guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (aka ‘hugging mother’), AV has swiftly established an excellent reputation for delivering values-based holistic education in a non-stressful environment – Hemalatha Raghupathi Sited on a verdant 5.5-acre campus in Nallampalayam suburb of the textiles city of Coimbatore, Amrita Vidyalayam school (AV, estb.2010) has swiftly established an excellent reputation for delivering values-based, holistic education in a non-stressful learning environment. In the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2017-18, AV is ranked #2 in Coimbatore (pop. 1.9 million) and #12 in Tamil Nadu in the co-ed day schools category.  Promoted under the aegis of the Mata Amritanandamayi Mutt (MAM), a trust registered in 1981 by spiritual leader and guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (aka Amma, ‘hugging mother’), AV began its innings in 2000 as a matriculation school affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board of School Education. However, in 2010 when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum was introduced, most students chose to shift to CBSE and the matriculation section was gradually discontinued in 2015. Currently, the K-XII Amrita Vidyalayam has an enrolment of 3,371 students mentored by 125 teachers. The globe-girdling MAM trust with its head office in the mega ashram complex of Amritapuri in Kerala’s Kollam district, runs charitable institutions and programmes in 40 countries worldwide. In India, the trust has promoted and manages 55 Amrita Vidyalayam English-medium schools, and six government-aided Malayalam-medium schools in Kerala, India’s most literate (99 percent) state (pop. 34 million). It also administers the highly reputed multi-disciplinary teaching and research deemed-to-be (private) Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University in Coimbatore (with campuses in Kollam and Kochi in Kerala, Bangalore and Mysore in Karnataka) which offers study programmes in 19 academic disciplines including engineering, medicine, business and nano sciences. “The distinguishing feature of Amrita Vidyalayam is that we believe in providing education that prepares students for life, and not merely for professions and vocations. Therefore, our aim is to strengthen the intellectual, physical and spiritual development of our students in a happy, stress-free environment. The emphasis is not merely on academic achievement but also on integrating cultural and spiritual values, respect and compassion into the curriculum. Our teachers and students share a close bond with teachers mentoring children academically and spiritually,” says Mataji Nirupama Amrita Chaitanya, principal of AV, who signed up with the Amritapuri ashram in 1990. An alumna of Kerala and Annamalai universities, Mataji Nirupama began her professional career in 1995 as a maths and English teacher in AV, Kodungallur (Trichur district) followed by a stint as principal of AV, Chennai. In 2017, she was appointed principal of AV, Nallampalayam. To attain its institutional objective of providing well-rounded education to all students, the AV management has designed spiritual and emotional development programmes with yoga and meditation an integral part of the school curriculum. The emphasis on spiritual and emotional development has had a positive impact on students’ learning outcomes. Of the 187 AV students who wrote the class X CBSE exam in March-April 2017, 66 averaged…

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That post-independence India’s education system is becoming messier and worse instead of simpler and better, is a routine lament of EducationWorld. Patchwork legislation rushed through a dysfunctional Parliament and raucous state legislative assemblies routinely adjourned without discussion and debate, excessive regulation by government ministries and supervisory boards such as UGC and AICTE which tend to equate institutional autonomy with exploitation, and business-illiterate centre-left academics wedded to obsolete command-and-control nostrums, are factors that  have combined to plunge Indian education at all levels — primary, secondary and tertiary — into a deep abyss of mediocrity from which escape has become very difficult.  However it’s also true that at all levels of the country’s dumbed-down education system, there are a few and far between islands of modest excellence. Some of the country’s private boarding and international schools which have escaped the heavy hand of government, are among the best worldwide, even though they are out of the reach of the great majority of the population. Nevertheless, they are good examples for aspirational school promoters, principals and managers to learn from.  Even in higher education, there are globally competitive, private professional and multi-disciplinary colleges and universities which can serve as role models.  That’s why for over a decade, we have been commissioning annual surveys to rate and rank education institutions at all levels — pre-primary, primary-secondary, and tertiary — to inform the public about their best features and  overall standing inter se. Although there’s widespread scepticism about the value and purpose of surveys measuring and assessing the relative merits of education institutions, I believe they serve several useful purposes. For one, they inform and enable parents to identify and shortlist the most suitable education institutions for their children. Secondly, they instil the spirit of healthy competition, desire for improvement and striving for excellence within institutions of learning. Moreover, a very important outcome of EducationWorld’s annual preschools (January), schools (September) and higher education (May) rankings is that they provide us occasions to celebrate the achievements, improvement and diligence of hitherto unsung and taken-for-granted education institutions and their leaders. It’s pertinent to bear in mind that until this publication was launched 19 years ago, there was very little information and knowledge about India’s education institutions and people within them who have to work in often hostile environments to deliver high-quality education to India’s neglected but high-potential children and youth.  Against this backdrop, we present our EducationWorld India Higher Education Rankings 2018-19. They are very revealing. Certainly, after co-authoring this issue’s mega cover story with our managing editor, Summiya Yasmeen, I’ve  learned a lot.  

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THE ABHORRENT RAPE AND MURDER of eight-year-old shepherd girl Asifa in Kathua, Jammu, the gang rape of a teenage girl in Unnao (Uttar Pradesh) by a BJP politician and his henchmen, followed by her father being beaten to death inside a police station, as also the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Surat — all within the first fortnight of April — have shocked and outraged all right-thinking members of society nationwide, and indeed around the world. Quite clearly, crimes against vulnerable women and minors have not abated since the Nirbhaya rape and murder of 2013 sparked countrywide anger and revolt, and prompted amendment of the criminal and juvenile justice laws of the country.  Regrettably, the pathetic ineffectiveness of the police-justice machinery to prevent or punish the multiplying tribe of perverts is matched by the poverty of solutions provided by self-styled intellectuals and feminists to check the epidemic of unbridled licentiousness and anarchy spreading across the nation.   Curiously, none of the country’s high-profile intellectuals seem to be in agreement with the argument (often made on this page of EducationWorld), that unchecked and continuous streaming of pornography, including child porn, over the Internet is substantially responsible for the sharp upsurge in sex crimes against women and children. Unmindful of ground conditions in this under-developed republic, liberals seem to believe the impact of continuously streamed hardcore pornography on the minds of the country’s 300 million illiterates and 400 million neo-literates, is negligible.   Likewise the media pundit who raises the issue of the woefully adverse police and judges to population ratios in India is a rara avis. Yet the plain truth is that India’s police to population ratio (13/million) and judges (19/million) are the lowest worldwide. Nor do any of these worthies seem to be inclined to highlight the well-known truth that a substantial proportion of the country’s policemen have bought their jobs because of ubiquitously corrupt recruitment systems in the states. Self-promotional breast beating and finely phrased anguish seem to be better options than insistence on implementation of the Justice Verma (2013) and/or Justice Malimath Committee (2003) reports which have made 158 recommendations to reform the criminal justice system.  Unfortunately too, the great majority of the country’s shallow intellectuals and academics seem unable to connect the dots which link rock bottom learning outcomes in the country’s 1.40 million government-dominated primary school system to the huge leap forward in the number of crimes against women and children. Despite every high-powered commission from Kothari (1966) to TSR Subramanian (2016) urgently recommending raising the annual outlay (Centre plus states) for public education to 6 percent of GDP (gross domestic product), it has remained stuck in the 3-3.5 percent groove for six decades.  But this continuous sin of neglect of education by successive governments at the Centre and in the states doesn’t seem to perturb the country’s vociferous public intellectuals. The fault, dear countrymen, is not in our stars but in our effete intelligentsia that we are the world’s underlings. 

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THE MOVING OF AN IMPEACHMENT MOTION in the Rajya Sabha against Dipak Mishra, chief justice of the Supreme Court, and its rejection by the vice president of India, ex officio chairman of the upper house of Parliament, is yet another manifestation of the rot slowly but inexorably destroying the country’s judicial system. It’s pertinent to bear in mind that just three months ago, four senior justices — members of the apex court’s collegium which (under a ruling of the court) has exclusive power to appoint Supreme Court and high court judges — called an unprecedented press conference in Delhi, during which they publicly alleged that Chief Justice Misra in exercise of his powers as ‘master of the roster’, is motivatedly constituting benches of the apex court to hear important constitutional law cases and appeals, often bypassing the court’s senior most judges.  This unprecedented division and disaffection among the senior most judges of the Supreme Court is symptomatic of a deep malaise which is corroding the country’s justice system across the board from the lowest magistrate’s court to the Supreme Court in Delhi. This foundational rot is endangering the fundamental concept of the rule of law and suborning the basic structure of the Constitution of India.  Division and disaffection within the upper judiciary has created opportunities for political parties — especially the ruling BJP/NDA government at the Centre — to appoint judges sympathetic to its ideology and prejudices in the Supreme and high courts across the country, as indeed it attempted to do with the National Judicial Accountability Act, 2014 which was rejected and declared ultra vires by the Supreme Court in 2015.  Yet disaffection in the Supreme Court is only one manifestation of 21st century India’s debilitated and dangerously eroded legal and judicial system. The deeper malaise is the globally notorious delay of contemporary India’s legal system rooted in the world’s most adverse judges to population ratio (19/million), and archaic procedural laws which permit repeated adjournments. In this connection, it’s pertinent to note that the US Supreme Court relies mainly on written pleadings and affidavits, whereas verbose lawyers in India’s over-burdened courts are routinely permitted to continue oral addresses and examination of witnesses for days on end.  Successive law commissions have recommended ways and means to end the law’s agonising delay and upend the country’s collapsed legal system. But pressure on unheeding governments must be exerted not only by the judiciary, but also by notoriously money-grubbing lawyers who seem content to derive easy pickings from the country’s garbage heap legal system. 

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I READ THE latest edition of EducationWorld with great interest. In particular, I enjoyed reading your impressive cover story ‘Why the RTE Act should be scrapped’ (EW April) which offered rich food for thought.  I am hoping the issues of university autonomy and lightening children’s school bags are covered in your future editions. Well done! Prof. M.R. Dua  on e-mail     Kerala’s contrary example EVEN AS YOUR APRIL cover story holds overt and covert Left ideologues and the Congress party responsible for the country’s pathetic education system, I would like to bring to your attention the success story of public education in Kerala, a Communist bastion.  Today, there is a growing movement among people here in favour of state-run schools, contrary to the sentiment in the rest of India. Government and government-aided schools in the state have recorded increased enrolment of 12,000 in LKG and 16,000 in other classes in 2017-18. Around 5,000 government schools are IT-enabled, English is taught from pre-primary classes and infrastructure is robust with monetary contributions from the Centre’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All Programme), local civic bodies and the Local Area Development Funds of MPs and MLAs.  While until circa 2000, the situation wasn’t good with 17 percent of government schools functioning under thatched roofs, successive governments of Kerala, especially the incumbent communist government, have revitalised the public school system. Other state governments need to learn from Kerala’s high quality public education system. Mayank C. Kochi   Revealing feature THE SPECIAL REPORT feature on Bangalore University (EW April) was very revealing. It is disheartening to know that BU, my alma mater, is not ranked among the country’s Top 100 universities by the Union HRD ministry’s National Institutional Rankings Framework 2017.  I applaud the author for examining in detail the causes for its plight. I agree there is urgent need for a genuine road map and substantial financial support. Hope the powers-that-be take the trouble to read your deeply researched feature. Sushmita Kher Mumbai   NLSIU example CAN THE RUMP Bangalore University (after trifurcation), suffering traffic snarls on its Jnana Bharati campus in Kengeri, regain its earlier reputation? ‘No way’, I say. But its offshoot Bangalore Central University (BCU), sited on the Central College campus, has a good chance of achieving some level of academic excellence given that some of Bangalore’s best colleges are affiliated with it. It won’t be a cakewalk for BCU given that Bangalore’s relatively new private universities have impressive facilities, committed faculty and offer numerous streams and courses. There’s a lot that big bro BU can learn from Bangalore’s National Law School of India University (estb.1986), which was initially housed in a couple of backrooms of BU’s physics department in Central College and moved to its present campus in a corner of the Jnana Bharati campus in 1991. Along the way, the institution has evolved excellent academic traditions and practices that have transformed it into the country’s #1 law school in all media rankings. Moral of the story: it’s easier…

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THE THIRD EDITION OF the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry which rates and ranks India’s Top 100 higher education institutions ‘overall’ and Top 100 universities, engineering institutes, undergrad colleges, B-schools, pharmacy schools, medical colleges and law schools separately, was released on April 3 in New Delhi with considerable fanfare by Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar. In the all-important overall category, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, is ranked India’s #1 higher education institution for the third consecutive year followed by the four IITs of Madras, Bombay, Delhi and Kharagpur and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, which are ranked in the Top 6. Two IITs (Kanpur and Roorkee), Benares Hindu University and Anna University complete the Top 10 table. In the Top 100 universities league table, JNU is ranked #2 (after IISc, Bangalore) followed by Benares Hindu University (#3), Anna (Chennai) and Hyderabad universities. Curiously, Delhi University which experiences the highest admissions rush every year, is ranked a modest #7 and Mumbai University (estb.1857) isn’t ranked at all. In the league table of engineering institutes, seven places at the Top 10 table are awarded to Central government-promoted IITs headed by IIT-Madras. But the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (estb.1964) — commonly accepted as an equivalent of the IITs, is awarded a lowly rank of #17 — below Anna University, Chennai (#8), IIIT-Hyderabad (#9) and Jadavpur University (12). Similar anomalies are to be found in the undergrad colleges league table of NIRF 2018. The country’s #1 arts, science and commerce college is Miranda House, Delhi, followed by St. Stephen’s, Delhi and the almost unknown Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli at #3, ahead of the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi (#7) which stipulates a 99 percent cut-off for admission into its commerce stream. The highly fancied St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, is not ranked at all. Nor are the new genre Ashoka and O.P. Jindal private universities, both in Delhi NCR. Experienced market research professionals attribute the anomalies, omissions and low credibility of the annual NIRF rankings to flawed methodology. For one, the facts and data (including public perception) are required to be submitted to the HRD ministry by ‘participating’ institutions. On the basis of this data and documentation, the ministry ranks participating institutions in each category. It’s doubtful if the ministry makes any effort to gather data from independent sources to cross-check the submitted information. Even ‘perception details’, including peer, employer and public perception are required to be submitted by participating institutions. Universities, colleges, B-schools etc unwilling or unable to assume the burden of gathering the extensive data solicited are excluded. The inherent danger of transferring the entire burden of data collection, compilation and submission to participating institutions is tacitly acknowledged by the HRD ministry and authors of NIRF 2018. The following disclaimer is appended to the data sheets submitted by participants and published as a PDF attachment in the NIRF league tables: “Responsibility for the accuracy and authenticity of data…

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FRENZIED CAMPAIGNING HAS gripped the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 67 million) where the legislative assembly election for 224 constituencies is scheduled to be held on May 12. For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which swept to power at the Centre in General Election 2014 and has since won assembly elections in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and calls the shots in most states of north India, a win in Karnataka is being regarded as the “gateway to the south”, i.e, the six states of peninsular India where its hindutva message and prime minister Narendra Modi’s magic has failed to work thus far. On the other hand, for the Congress party which won 120 seats in the assembly five years ago, this is the only large state apart from Punjab, where the party is in power. The third major party in the fray is Janata Dal (Secular) led by former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda which could well emerge as kingmaker with poll surveys predicting a hung assembly.     Unsurprisingly, the issue of overdue education reforms is missing from the heated public speeches of politicians and leaders of political parties including Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah and Narendra Modi, who have made more than half a dozen visits to the state during the past two months. Their public addresses to huge rented crowds have centred on caste quotas, minority status for Lingayats and the state’s deteriorating law and order system. But the vital issue of educating Karnataka’s 11 million primary-secondary children is a low priority, if at all. Unfortunately, while the vast majority of poor parents are insufficiently educated and articulate to press for education reform, and the middle class ensures its children are enroled in the state’s 19,000 private schools, public education in Karnataka has hit rock-bottom. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2017, published by the Pratham Education Foundation, a globally respected NGO, reports that a mere 33 percent children in the 14-18 years age group can manage simple division sums and only 56 percent can read simple English sentences. In higher education, only two of the 28 state universities figure in the league table of the Union HRD ministry’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2018.  The manifesto of the Congress party, released by the party president Rahul Gandhi, at a rally in the coastal town of Mangalore on April 27, gives short shrift to education promising effective implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and 12 years of free, high-quality K-12 education in government schools, without going into any details. But given the record of the Congress government of Karnataka of the past five years during which there’s been mass migration of children from government to private budget schools and the subsequent shutdown of 2,959 government primaries with less than 10 children, the promise of “quality education” is less than credible.   At the time of writing this report (April 28), the BJP’s Karnataka manifesto hadn’t been released. Though BJP MLA…

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WHILE NATIONWIDE PROTESTS by doctors forced the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre to drop the controversial s.49 (4) of the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, which permitted practitioners of alternative medicine (ayurveda, unani etc) to prescribe basic allopathic medicines after completion of a ‘bridge course’, Maharashtra’s BJP government continues to back ‘cross-practice’ by alternative medicine practitioners. Government and private colleges in Maharashtra have been teaching a 12-month modern pharmacology bridge course since the academic year 2016-17. Recently, an additional 1,200 students have been admitted into the course beginning August.   On December 29, 2017, Union health minister J.P. Nadda presented the new National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, which abolished the scandals-clouded 168-strong Medical Council of India (MCI). However, practitioners of allopathic medicine were outraged that s. 49 of the Bill permitted qualified AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy) practitioners to prescribe allopathic drugs and formulations after completion of a “specific bridge course” designed by MCI. After a day-long strike on January 2 by allopathy doctors who argue that cross-practice by ill-qualified practitioners (the MBBS study programme for allopathy practitioners is of five years duration) will do more harm than good, the Bill was referred to the parliamentary standing committee of the health ministry. In its report of March 20, the standing committee allowed state governments the discretion to permit cross-practice of medicine by AYUSH practitioners who complete the bridge course. Successive state governments in Maharashtra have supported cross-practice or ‘crosspathy’ under which doctors certified to practice one branch of medicine can prescribe drugs and formulations which they haven’t studied adequately. Maharashtra is also the only state of the Indian Union that allows practitioners of all indigenous systems to prescribe allopathic medicines. Ayurveda and unani doctors were allowed to cross practice allopathy through special government notifications issued in 1992 and 1999. In 2014, another government notification legalised the long-standing demand of the state’s 70,000 licensed homeopathy practitioners to prescribe allopathic drugs. In 2015, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) was directed to design the curriculum of a year-long certificate course in modern pharmacology to provide AYUSH practitioners theoretical training on the use of a limited number of allopathic drugs, sedatives, antibiotics and anti-malarial formulations. In 2017, the state government permitted AYUSH doctors to practice in government primary healthcare centres (PHC) if they are unserved by qualified allopathic doctors. With Maharashtra hosting 60 homeopathy and 70 ayurvedic colleges (cf. 48 allopathy colleges), the number of ayurveda and homeopath practitioners far exceeds the number of allopathic doctors in the state. Every year, a mere 7,000 MBBS practitioners graduate from the state’s medical colleges, and only 2,800 from government medical colleges where medical education is heavily subsidised on condition that graduates serve at least one year in one of the 1,814 government-run PHCs of the state. Unsurprisingly, few MBBS graduates continue practice in the rural outbacks after completion of their 12-month mandatory postings.  “MBBS graduates rarely practice medicine in rural areas which for centuries have been served by ayurveda and other alternative…

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THE HIGH HOPES GENERATED WITHIN West Bengal’s intelligentsia and academics in the bright summer of 2011 after the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress routed the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist)-led Left Front government which uninterruptedly (mis)ruled this benighted state for 34 years (1977-2011), levelling down the state’s once envied education system, have evaporated.  The disappointment of West Bengal’s intelligentsia and bhadralok (‘refined middle class’) during TMC’s first term in office (2011-16) is turning into alarm after the party’s second term following the legislative assembly election of 2016 in which the TMC was returned to power in Writers’ Building, Kolkata, with an even greater majority. Far from introducing economic, social and education policies which are polar opposites of the CPM-led Left Front government, Banerjee seems to be taking leaves out of populist CPM governance manuals. For instance, responding to complaints of exorbitant tuition fees allegedly being levied by private schools, in March last year, the TMC government formed a 15-member “self-regulatory commission”, comprising representatives of the director general of police, commissioner of Kolkata police and of the city’s top-ranked La Martiniere, Modern High, St. Xavier’s, South Point, DPS, Heritage, Shri Shikshayatan and Loreto schools to “review the operations”, i.e, finances, of private schools in the year ended March 31, 2017. One year later after studying the commission’s report, on March 23 the state’s school education department, has outlined differentiated fee structures for 1,000 upscale private schools affiliated with CISCE, CBSE and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. The fee structures proposed for primary-secondary schools by the self-regulatory commission will be placed before chief minister Mamata Banerjee by end-April, and could be promulgated by an ordinance in May-June, before start of the new academic year. According to reliable sources within the commission, private schools have been classified into four-five categories with tuition fee ceilings prescribed for each category. Factors such as location, average fee, number of students, expenditure incurred by school on salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff, facilities provided and educational qualifications of teachers have been taken into consideration while recommending annual tuition fees and fixing ceilings for pre-primary, primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary schools. Moreover, henceforth private schools will be obliged to post their tuition and other fees on their websites and are likely to be allowed a maximum development fee increase of 10 percent per year, and will have to establish grievance panels for fees-related issues. Annual tuition fee increases will be subject to the approval of self-regulatory committees.  Unsurprisingly, leaders of West Bengal and Kolkata’s top-ranked English-medium schools which have survived the worst efforts of Left Front governments spread over 34 years to level them down, have again become fearful of government interference with the administration of private independent schools struggling with inflation and rising teachers’ salaries. “In our diverse country, 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 their being reduced to the status of government…

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“We have known for years that our education system is failing. Yet, there has been no big bang policy shift, very little sustained media scrutiny and indeed no parent uprising. Why does the bleak future of our young people not stoke our collective outrage? Politicians do not win elections, or bureaucrats get promotions on an education platform.” Anustup Nayak, vice-president, XSEED, on India’s failing education system (Times of India, April 3)   “Patrick Geddes, the sociologist, biologist and polymath, designed one version of the ‘University of Benares’. Watching the outline unfold, people asked him out of curiosity where the administrative department was? He pointed to a little outhouse on the side and warned that if it got bigger, it would swallow the university. The prescient Geddes was warning against the bureaucratisation of the intellect and its great institution, the university. Today, sadly it is the bureaucracy that is defining the university, even dictating what autonomy means for us.” Shiv Visvanathan, well-known sociologist in an essay ‘An act of unlearning’ (The Hindu, April 5)   “This open display of support for rape suspects is unprecedented, with the Hindu Ekta Manch, supported by members of the BJP, marching with the national flag demanding justice for the accused and lawyers physically trying to prevent the police from filing the charge sheet.” Editorial on the recent rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, Kashmir (Economic & Political Weekly, April 14)   “The Europeans and the Americans may claim that it is theirs, but it is actually our technology. Internet has been present in India for over lakhs of years.” Biplab Deb, chief minister of Tripura, at a public function in Agartala (April 17)   “The duty of this generation is to stop the drift towards the Republic of Impunity.” P. Chidambaram, former Union minister, on the recent upsurge in sex crimes against women and children (The Indian Express, April 22)

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MUMBAI, APRIL 19. Cambridge Assessment English, a department of the University of Cambridge (UK), has partnered with TCS iON, a strategic unit of IT behemoth Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, to offer Cambridge’s Business English qualifications in India. Cambridge English Business Certificates (BEC) is a suite of three English language qualifications for international business. They enable students to use English confidently in international business environments. The suite includes the BEC preliminary (B1 level), BEC Vantage (B2) and BEC Higher (C1) courses.  Speaking on the occasion, Mark Johnston, chief operating officer of Cambridge Assessment English, said: “Our programmes help people learn English and prove their skills to the world. Our collaboration with TCS will enable people throughout India to access the benefits of our qualifications.” Added Venguswamy Ramaswamy, global head of TCS iON: “Our larger intent is to enable lifelong learning. I believe learners across the country will greatly benefit from the Cambridge programme delivered through our industry leader digital platform — TCS iON Digital Assessments, which is supported by vast computing infrastructure reach across the country.”   Cisco Digital Education Summit HYDERABAD, APRIL 12. Cisco Systems (India) presented its Blueprint for Digital Education at the Cisco Digital Education Summit staged at The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. The Cisco blueprint is designed by Cisco Systems Inc, USA’s highly secure core network and unified voice, video, and wireless communications protected by state-of-the-art security solutions which connects campuses, empowers educators, administrators and students with the tools they need for success in a new digital world. It allows colleges and universities to learn anywhere through Cisco connected classroom solutions; build intelligent campuses by utilising pervasive wi-fi access, sensors, and digital campus solutions; increase student and staff productivity with smart workspaces that automatically track student attendance and progress, and enable global connectivity. Moreover, the blueprint supports innovation, acceleration and research through Cisco connected research solutions, and creates safe and secure learning environments.  “Today’s students are hyper-connected technology users. They have high expectations that are constantly changing. As the education world continues to change, educators must adapt to evolving expectations and benchmarks. By offering educators and students more ways to connect, engage, manage, and succeed, the Cisco Blueprint for Digital Education will enable higher education institutions to create completely integrated digital environments to meet the high expectations of 21st century students,”  said Sudhir Nayar, managing director, commercial sales, Cisco India and SAARC, speaking on the occasion.   IC3 workshop @ Welham Boys  DEHRADUN, APRIL 11. The top-ranked Welham Boys School, Dehradun, hosted the regional forum of the Mumbai-based International Career and College Counselling Conference (IC3) workshop attended by more than 35 educators from Uttarakhand and delegates from around the world.  The day-long workshop was specially curated for career counselors, teachers, school principals and university representatives, who deliberated on universities admission and career pathway issues confronting the growing student population of India. The main objective of the IC3 regional forums is to discover ways and means to provide holistic counseling services to students in several countries. Apart from India, regional…

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Noida, April 27. Learning outcomes of government school students in the state’s Gautam Buddha Nagar district are better than of private government-aided school students, according to a National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) survey. The survey found the average environment studies score of class III students in government and aided schools last year was 65.59 percent and 65.53 percent respectively. For the same subject, class V government school students averaged 25 percent more than aided school children.  In language, the average score of classes III, V and VIII government school children was also higher. “The higher scores attainment of government school students is the outcome of the concerted efforts we’ve been making to improve the learning outcomes of children in government schools. Regular parent-teacher meetings have also contributed,” says Bal Mukund Prasad, the district’s primary education officer.     Assam Defalcation suspensions  Guwahati, April 29. The state’s Hailakandi district administration has suspended three head teachers of government-run lower primary schools for misappropriation of funds. These funds had been allocated for purchase of uniforms for the schools’ children.  The suspension order was issued after completion of an inquiry by block accountant Arpita Dey, and endorsed by the block elementary education officer, on April 27. The suspension order prohibits the teachers from leaving their headquarters without prior permission, says a media release of the district adminstration.   Haryana Daycare centres drive Chandigarh, April 20. The state government has resolved to increase the number of daycare centres for children of construction workers from 22 to 88 statewide, says labour and employment minister Nayab Singh Saini.  These daycare centres will provide education, nutrition and healthcare services to children of construction workers. The minister added that government will soon initiate a campaign to register migrant labour to provide vocational programmes for construction workers to upgrade their skills.   Tripura New IIIT sanctioned  Agartala, April 12. The newly-elected BJP state government has sanctioned a sum of Rs.50.67 crore for establishing an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Bodhjungnagar in Mohanpur block, under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. According to education minister Ratan Lal Nath, the proposal to construct the institute was stalled for six years by the predecessor CPM-led Left Front government. The institute will be built on a 52-acre campus at a project cost of Rs.128 crore. Of this aggregate amount, the Central government will contribute Rs.73.60 crore, state government Rs.44.80 crore and private partners Rs.9.60 crore. Public sector companies such as North Eastern Electric Power Corp and ONGC have offered financial cooperation, added Nath.   Gujarat Successful grading programme Ahmedabad, April 6. Chief minister Vijay Rupani launched the state government’s Gunotsav programme in Govindi village of Panchmahal district. Under this annual programme, ministers and bureaucrats visit Gujarat’s 32,780 government primary schools, 863 grant-in-aid schools and 804 ashram shalas, and rate and rank them from A+ to D. “The annual drive for qualitative improvement in school education which began 15 years ago has resulted in the rise in the number of A+ grade schools from…

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A woman biotech research scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur has made a promising start with her invention of a unique microbial fuel cell battery. Eco-evangelist Ramya Veerubhotla (27), an alumna of the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, bested 1,500 individuals and teams to be adjudged winner of a Rs.10 lakh Platinum prize for her ground-breaking invention — “a lightweight battery fueled by bacteria in sewage water” — at KPIT Sparkle 2018, a design and innovation talent contest open to engineering and science students countrywide. This national competition based on the theme ‘Next Generation Energy/Transportation Solutions’, organised annually by the Innovation Council of the Pune-based KPIT Technologies Ltd (estb.1990) in association with the Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE), Akurdi, attracted 12,000 entries from 600 science and engineering colleges including 28 premier IITs and the NITs, among others. Working models of the top 30 finalist colleges were assessed, evaluated, and adjudged at the PCCOE exhibition grounds, Pune on February 18 by a high-powered jury of eminent industry experts, technologists, academics and business leaders. Ramya’s innovative fuel cell battery was submitted under the green technology category. “My 4 cm x 4 cm battery device is equipped to store 400 micro litres — a few drops — of sewage water. Unlike other microbial fuel cell batteries invented around the world, my battery is paper-packed, lightweight and fully biodegradable. Currently, it generates sufficient — 5 microwatts — energy to power electronic components and micro controllers”, she explains. Ramya intends to do post-doctoral research after completing her Ph D this July. She is also working on improving the power generation of her device for practical applications. Gearing up for further growth she plans to invest the prize money in research and development of her product. “By the end of this year, I expect to be in a position to apply for a patent and will continue to invent eco-friendly products”, says this responsible, young product innovator. Way to go, Sis! Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

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Ghaziabad (Delhi NCR)-based green crusader Krishi Bhat (14) triumphed over ten finalists to be crowned winner of the inaugural ‘Seven-day Challenge of Innovative Ideas for Sustainable Living’ organised by the Delhi-based TERI School of Advanced Studies (aka TERI University). The results of this seven-day competition (January 17-23) were announced on March 6. At an awards ceremony at the Swedish ambassadors residence in New Delhi, Krishi was conferred a trophy, certificate and cash prize of Rs.10,000 for inventing a herbal, eco-friendly and low-cost sanitary napkin for women. An initiative of TERI in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden and the Delhi state governments department of environment, the challenge — designed to encourage lifestyle awareness and innovations contributing to environment sustainability — is open to youth of Delhi NCR in the 14-24 years age group. The challenge, successfully conducted in Sweden and Kenya prior to being introduced in India last November, drew participation from 1,330 students, of whom 30 were shortlisted for the first round and 11 for the final jury round. The elder of two children of Anjali Dhar, a zoology professor at Jammu University, and Sunil Bhat, a corporate executive, and a class X student of Amity International School, Vasundhara, Krishi is elated about her achievement. “Since menstrual discomfort affects half the country’s population, I gave this project top priority. Encouraged by my mother and guided by my biology teacher Poonam Bhat, I successfully sourced organic cotton and biodegradable polythene to design a leak-proof sanitary napkin. I also identified anti-bacterial plants for insulating the pad against infections”, she says. Currently focused on her class X board exams scheduled for next March, this precocious teen hopes to expand her green footprint nationwide. “Given the flood of low-cost napkins available in the market thanks to Indias Pad Man Arunachalam Muruganantham, I have set price reduction as my next goal for the benefit of rural women. I have also recently applied for a product patent together with my teacher”, enthuses Krishi. Fair winds! Autar Nehru (Delhi)

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Children born after the year 1996 don’t know of a time before smartphones and the Internet. The ubiquity of smartphones is so apparent with this generation of children (sometimes called Generation Z, iGen or post-millennials) that they consider owning a phone to be a pre-adolescent rite of passage and social norm. The advent of the Internet, and the subsequent emergence of social media, has radically changed what it means to learn, socialise and work. Post-millennials are distinctly different from millennials in that they not only use social media as a global platform for self-expression but also actively construct their learning experiences and social connections, in the form of notifications. Therefore, for the purpose of this essay, we’ll describe them as the Notification Generation or NGens for short. Their careful calibration of smartphone notifications defines, at least metaphorically, how the new generation filters, selects and consumes information. This essay explores the behaviour, attitudes and motivations of this elusive yet powerful group of young people coming of age in the post-digital era. Members of this new generation are still young children, adolescents and young adults, the oldest of them perhaps 21 years old. Both millennials and NGens build their world views on social media and the Internet. However, millennials sometimes view social media as both an obsession and intrusion that necessitates time away from their phones in the form of a ‘digital detox’. To NGens, smartphones and social media are tools of everyday life and an indispensable source of information for whom a full-blown digital detox is likely to be anathema.  A report of the Consumer Mobility survey (2017) indicates that NGens would give up TV and gaming time to remain connected to their smartphones. To them, digital boundaries (such as no phone at the dinner table or no texting while driving) are much more reasonable. Just like their millennial parents, NGens are equal parts aware of and wary of their dependence on technology—meaning their online lives are both spontaneous and carefully curated, particularly in the form of push notifications. Perhaps the most notorious trait that NGens demonstrate is their short attention span of around eight seconds — which befuddles parents and teachers alike. However, this development is attributed largely to information overload which has resulted in NGens’ habit of quickly filtering out irrelevant information. In terms of career aspirations, NGens want dream jobs, but they are determined to create them. Entrepreneurship and startups will become ubiquitous when NGens grow into adulthood. Additionally, research indicates that NGens are inclined to create and connect with content. They refuse to learn in passive educational environments and choose to either resist or disengage. The catalyst of this change is technology and its profound implications for how young people learn, socialise and work. While millennials have been educated in traditional classrooms like Generation X and Baby Boomers before them, NGens are currently coming of age during an era of a major disruption in education. This disruption affects three major domains of traditional formal education: accessibility, instructional…

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Reservations impact study Social justice through inclusion: the consequences of electoral quotas in India, Francesca R. Jensenius, Oxford University Press; Rs.408  Pages 228 Caste-based quotas, whether in education, jobs, or electoral positions, are routinely vilified for lowering the quality of the space they are applied to, because of the belief that those chosen through quotas are inherently inferior to those selected on open, or non-quota considerations. This widespread belief transcends the boundaries of academic arguments and popular perception. The only way to assess the validity of the ‘lower-merit’ argument is to analyse it empirically, in a rigorous manner. Collect data on the outcomes of interest (e.g, productivity of enterprises in which part of the workforce is selected through quotas, or various educational indicators for colleges etc), and assess if quotas have resulted in lowering the average (or shifted the distribution) for the particular outcome being assessed. This is easier said than done, even when there is inclination on the part of researchers. Most researchers (what to speak of journalists or lay persons) take the ‘lower-merit’ argument at its face value, and not worth researching. If something is as obvious as daylight, why spend time and effort investigating it? Thus, for instance, the spate of essays and commentaries produced by well-known academics in the aftermath of the MandaI Commission announcement in 1991 took this for granted, and deplored the quota mentality, viewing it through the prism of vote-bank politics, i.e, politics of appeasement, where quotas was one more instrumentality to secure more votes.  Fortunately, that tide has started to turn during the past decade, certainly among academics. There is now a fair amount of empirically grounded, quantitative and methodologically rigorous research, a great deal of this from economists, but also from quantitatively-inclined political scientists and sociologists, which evaluates whether reservations, or affirmative action has made a measurable impact in India. The challenges in this field of research are testing. For one, because of the pre-independence history of quotas, there is no clear-cut and unambiguous ‘before-and-after’ data, which would allow neat identification of the incremental effect of quotas, after accounting for other changes that would have occurred in the interim.  The volume under review, based on the author’s Ph D dissertation, is a very welcome and important addition to this branch of enquiry. She uses publicly available data (combining detailed data from the 1971-2001 censuses of India, with reservation status), and a clever empirical strategy to produce a nuanced, in-depth and solid treatise on the effect of electoral quotas at the constituency level over three decades. What adds value to her work is the fact that she supplements her study with more than 100 in-depth interviews with Indian politicians, civil servants, activists and voters from four states (Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka) as part of her qualitative fieldwork to understand the mechanisms that produce the results that her data reveal. As Francesca Jensenius shows, politicians in India spend most of their time in their constituencies, with a very small amount of their…

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Managing director of the NSS Hill Spring International School, Mumbai and honorary superintendent of the Nagrik Shikshan Sanstha  Where would you place education on your national list of priorities? Its rightful place is at the top of the national agenda of priorities.   How best to upgrade government schools? Activities such as sharing academic and non-academic resources of every private school with government schools, will surely help. Thinker/philosopher you admire the most. Acharya Chanakya — the remarkable 4th century BCE sage, philosopher, educationist, administrator, strategist and economist. Your favourite Nobel laureate. Malala Yousafzai — the youngest-ever Nobel laureate.  Your leadership style. Democratic. I believe in involving subordinates in the process of decision-making, even though I accept the final responsibility for consequences.   Your favourite book on education.  Chanakya Niti by Acharya Chanakya.  For or against the RTE Act’s 25 percent reservation for underprivileged children in private schools? Implementation of the RTE Act’s 25 percent reservation for underprivileged children in private schools needs a more practical approach.      Should the education outlay be doubled by cutting defence expenditure? The annual outlays for education are sufficient. Implementation and execution of projects is the problem. How satisfied are you with the growth and development of NSS Hill Spring International, Mumbai and Nagrik Shikshan Sanstha? I am very happy and proud to witness that both these organisations have established unique identities in the field of education. Pessimistic or optimistic about the future of education in India? Very optimistic. Every day, more and more people across India have started understanding the true value of education.

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Sometimes the neta-babu brotherhood, which by imposing the ubiquitous licence-permit-quota regimen upon this unfortunate country’s populace has transformed post-independence India into a Republic of Rackets, regrets the consequences. Recently, the Congress party’s long-serving Union finance minister P.C. Chidambaram was reportedly shocked that a cup of coffee in the country’s airports under the jurisdiction of the public sector Airports Authority of India is priced at Rs.240 — a sum equivalent to the daily per capita income of over 80 percent of the population. That it took this worthy who served as finance minister of the country for a decade (2004-14) so long to discover that vendors in the country’s airports routinely rip off travellers, is an indicator of the extent to which our overpaid and cossetted politicians are cut off from the daily travails and tribulations of the common man. Moreover under the benign watch of the Union and state governments, restrictive trade practices and monopolies are flourishing in popular entertainment and sports. For instance under the excuse of security concerns, spectators are not permitted to carry any food items, water bottles or even sitting cushions into cricket stadiums hosting the on-going Indian Premier League T-20 cricket matches. Thus they are forced to purchase exorbitantly priced snacks, soft drinks and cushions from in-stadia vendors. Ditto people who purchase expensive multiplex cinema tickets. Under law, these are unreasonable restrictive practices which ought to be checked and prohibited by grandly titled organisations such as the Competition Commission of India and the Union ministry of consumer affairs. But quite evidently, these watchdog commissions and organisations — essentially established to create perks-laden positions for ruling party loyalists — are sleeping on the job. Meanwhile in government offices, bribes are routinely extracted from hapless citizens even as restrictive practices flourish in the entertainment sector. If unofficial taxes are taken into consideration, our Republic of Rackets is surely the most heavily taxed nations worldwide.

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With the neta-babu brotherhood running amok in all institutions of governance and learning, the judiciary — the last bulwark against the runaway philistinism of this acquisitive class wrecking the nation — is also crumbling. Not that the judiciary was ever a shining example of efficiency and equity. With the laws agonising delay, obsolete civil and criminal law procedures, conspicuous absence of a legal aid system and the laws of contract and tort almost dead letters, post-independence India’s legal system fashioned by rapacious lawyers, ivory tower Supreme and high court judges and a venal lower judiciary, has never been anything to write home about. Nevertheless from time to time, learned judges of the upper judiciary deliver epochal judgements and verdicts which protect the constitutional rights and liberties of citizens. Now this edifice is tottering. The Supreme Court is a house divided with four of the five senior most judges of the collegium, which uniquely appoints apex and high court judges across the country, having called a press conference to complain that the Chief Justice of India has been bypassing them and assigning important cases to relatively junior judges of the 25-strong apex court. Moreover, Chief Justice Dipak Misra has raised eyebrows in the legal fraternity by presiding over a three-judge bench which rather hastily dismissed a petition filed in the apex court requesting a judicial inquiry into the mysterious death of Justice B.H. Loya. Yet, there is no evidence that their lordships of the bench and greedy lawyers of the bar are ready to snap out of their inertia and initiate overdue reforms to strengthen the system. Over four decades ago, your editor began his professional career as a barrister of the Bombay high court. But after suffering four years of time-agnostic judges and money-obsessed lawyers focused on legal nit-picking rather than justice, I trashed my gown and bands. I’ve never regretted that decision despite learning that my erstwhile chamber colleagues are multi-millionaires. Getting rich working in a garbage dump of misery and iniquity was — and remains — an unappealing proposition.

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Theres a pathetic quality of helplessness within the Indian establishment in ideating ways and means to combat the rash of ghastly sex crimes against women and children — especially the latter — which has erupted across the country. In 2013, with the aspiration to lift the country’s 550 million children and youth out of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment, at considerable expense in terms of time and money, your editor registered the Children First Party of India (CFPI) with the Election Commission. Promoted on the premise that middle class India is genuinely interested in educating and saving the country’s children, a condition of membership was a one-time subscription fee of Rs.100. Less than 100 members paid the fee, forcing closure of the party. But that’s another story. However, one of the promises made in the CFPI manifesto was reduction of crimes against women and children by 75 percent within 12 months. The manifesto proposed investing the National Commission for Women at the Centre and in the states with suo motu powers to adjudicate cases of ‘minor molestation and impose sentences of up to 60 days including community service; establishment of “under-cover squads of women police backed by highly mobile flying squads of special helicopter-borne police personnel on stand-by in all metros and state capitals to apprehend, prosecute, punish and incarcerate sex offenders and predators”. Unfortunately for the cruelly neglected children of India, this child-focused political initiative collapsed under the weight of middle class inertia and oriental fatalism. Regrettably, the unknown sage who observed that post-independence India is the graveyard of innovative solutions for persistent age-old problems, was dead right.

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The chaos surrounding the US government’s spending bill raises questions about how effectively research agencies and universities can spend their allocations, experts have warned. In March, US President Donald Trump signed into law a $1.3 trillion (Rs.83.35 lakh crore) spending bill, which outlines the budget for all federal departments and agencies for the remainder of the 2018 fiscal year, but the budgeting process was far from smooth. In January, the government officially shut down for the first time in five years after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government running in light of the delay. The final budget is also markedly different from the priorities outlined in Trump’s request. The president had sought to cut funding for the Department of Education by $3.6 billion but in the approved version, its income has increased by $3.9 billion (Rs.25,613 crore). The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities each received a $3 million increase, despite the fact that the president’s budget had called for both to be eliminated. And the National Science Foundation was allocated $7.8 billion, $1.1 billion more than Trump had requested. Student aid programmes also received a boost in funding. Last year, Congress also rejected the president’s proposed research funding cuts. Although the funding increases will be welcome news for the higher education sector, policy experts warn that the delay and unpredictability of the budget has created some complications for universities and research agencies. Terry Hartle, senior vice president in the division of government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, says the budget process for the current fiscal year “has been a complete shambles”. The hold-up in research funding “has delayed federal agencies” ability to solicit grant applications and make awards, “so I think you will see both scientists and federal officials scrambling to spend that money before September 30, when the current fiscal year ends,” he says. “Budget turmoil dramatically complicates government planning. Agencies don’t know how much money they have to work with, so they don’t know what initiatives they should expand or contract or initiate,” he adds. Kenneth Wong, Walter and Leonore Annenberg chair for education policy at Brown University, agrees that the budget chaos “creates uncertainty and raises ambiguity in terms of the effectiveness of the use of these funds”. According to him, the funding delay “interrupted… some of the announcements of calls for (research) proposals” and in some cases, prevented agencies from releasing approved grants. “Any delay in those announcements for funding opportunities would affect how (scholars) organise their laboratory work and then how they think about collaboration,” he says. “It does raise a lot of operational uncertainty every time the funding agencies delay their announcement for funding opportunities.”

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Ash Grove Academy, a state primary which sits in Moss Roe, a poor suburb on the outskirts of Macclesfield, is an excellent school. Recently, its team won a local debating tournament, besting fancier rivals; its pupils are exposed to William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde; lessons are demanding and there are catch-up sessions for those who fall behind. Most important, teaching is based on up-to-date research into what works in the classroom. It is the sort of school that ministers dream of replicating countrywide. But how to do so? When the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in 2010, it set about freeing schools from local-authority control. International studies suggest that such freedom improves results. But giving teachers autonomy doesn’t automatically mean that all will make good decisions. So in 2011, the government provided a grant of £135 million (Rs.1,270 crore) to establish the Education Endowment Fund (EEF), a laboratory for education research which would provide teachers with the information to make smart choices. In the seven years since its foundation, EEF reckons it has commissioned 10 percent of all randomised controlled trials ever carried out in education research. In doing so, it has turned the English school system into a giant test-bed, with a third of all state schools involved in at least one of its trials. Its work has been used in other parts of the world, like Australia and Latin America, and other countries are considering copying England’s example. But at home, its efforts have raised difficult questions. Does providing teachers with evidence of what works change their behaviour? And if not, what next? Teachers claim to pay attention. A report by the National Audit Office, an official spending watchdog, found two-thirds of head teachers say they turn to EEF evidence for guidance. “But EEF has come to the realisation that the passive presentation of evidence is not enough”, says Sir Kevan Collins, its boss. Naturally, it did this by testing its approach. Results published last year found that providing schools with high-quality evidence about teaching led to no improvement in pupils performance. The study didn’t investigate why this was the case. One possibility is that teachers did not take up the ideas. Another is that successful strategies are hard to replicate. Thus the EEF is increasingly focused on working out how to change behaviour. “One thing we know”, says Sir Kevan, “is that teachers really trust other teachers. The EEF has joined with officials who work with groups of schools, either in academy chains, local authorities or charities, to spread the evidence-based gospel. It has also increased its meetings with head teachers and has provided extra funding for trials of promising schemes in poorer parts of the country. As ever, all approaches will be scrutinised to see if they work”. The most ambitious shift is the recruitment of 23 ‘research’ schools, of which Ash Grove is one. As a research school, it gets money to help around 150 other local schools, by putting on events to spread…

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A new private university in China aspiring to be among the world’s best within 15 years, is seen by experts as a huge step in the nation’s higher education development, if it is allowed greater autonomy than state institutions. Westlake University in Hangzhou, which has just been given approval by the Chinese ministry of education, will “prioritise research areas in natural science, medical science, and advanced technology”, reports state news agency Xinhua. The project, led by biophysicist Shi Yigong, a former Princeton University professor and Tsinghua University vice president, was first proposed in 2015. Although it admitted its first batch of 19 students in autumn 2017, it was classified as a research institute — under the name Westlake Institute of Advanced Study — until being approved as a university by the ministry in March. This non-profit institution, initially for doctoral students only, is expected to grow to 5,000 students once undergraduates are admitted. It is said to have held “global recruitment drives” to attract academics. Prof. Shi, expected to be the university’s first president, was quoted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) as having said in a December speech that within 15 years, “every indicator of our university will be on a par with that of Caltech”. The institution “will be regarded as one of the best universities not just in Asia but around the world,” he added. Ka Ho Mok, vice president of Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, says that Westlake’s success depends not only on funding support and the backing of local and national government, but also on “how the university is governed and managed”. Prof. Mok adds that, if Westlake is permitted to follow “the governance model of private universities in the West, given more institutional autonomy in running its programmes and (if) the governance structure is different from state universities, it will become more autonomous and flexible in university governance”. While the Chinese government might be “piloting a new form of governance through this project”, its success will be based on “how this university is governed in future”, he says. The Hangzhou government injected Rmb400 million (Rs.418 crore) into the proposed university last year, according to SCMP. The university also has significant backing from Chinese entrepreneurs, with the founders of technology giant Tencent and the chairman of property developer and cinema chain Wanda Group, among donors of the institution. Philip Altbach, founding director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, highlights the “amazingly optimistic” timescale for Westlake’s ambitions. According to him, it is “somewhat hard to believe that the Chinese government, particularly in the current environment, will permit real autonomy”, he says.   “It is certainly the case that a science and technology institution won’t have quite the same issues about academic freedom and free access to resources that comprehensive universities would have. However, it should be noted that the best science and technology universities worldwide — such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and many others — also have pretty strong social science…

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With continued debate surrounding university tuition fees in the US and the UK, campaigners often turn to free higher education systems deployed in countries such as Germany for comparison. But, as many point to the existence of fees as a barrier to access for lower-income pupils, policymakers should take heed of the recent experiences of Chile, according to the authors of a new report. A policy set up by the Chilean government in 2016 to allow free tuition for lower-income students hasn’t yet seen positive results, and researchers suggest the well-intentioned policy could even have a negative impact on social mobility in Chile. Gratuidad was implemented on top of existing scholarships and tuition-fee loans as part of a bid to tackle low graduation rates and a growing class divide between pupils who do and do not go on to further study. The scheme initially applied to university and college students from families in the lower 50 percent of income distribution, expanding to 60 percent from 2018. Analysis by Jason Delisle, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Andres Bernasconi, associate professor at the School of Education in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, suggests the initiative has left universities “underfunded”, and has “crowded out” students from the poorest backgrounds for whom the scheme is intended. “Instead of universal free college, gratuidad can best be described as having replaced a system of targeted financial aid and cost sharing tuition fees with a system that has slightly less targeted aid and moderately less cost-sharing,” the authors note in Lessons from Chile’s Transition to Free College, published by the Brookings Institution. Expanding scholarship benefits to middle-income families as well as the poorest pupils proves counter-intuitive, since universities can afford to be more selective in their admissions processes, they explain. Data collected from previous studies in the region show lower-income students tend to have lower test scores and are therefore “crowded out” from institutions they may once have been accepted into. Another weakness highlighted is that not all universities are eligible or willing to participate in the gratuidad scheme; 30 of Chile’s 60 private universities — the majority of which are for-profit businesses or have too low accreditation — failed to join the programme in 2016. Public universities obliged to offer free tuition under the scheme, argue that government reimbursements aren’t sufficient to make up for the revenue lost from tuition fee charges. At an average cost of $7,600 (Rs.4.9 lakh) per year for public university courses — half the average annual family income — tuition fees in Chile are among the highest in the world. Only British and private US universities have higher prices relative to gross national product per capita. “The country’s most prestigious universities, which have the highest cost structures, now face budget deficits because of gratuidad,” the report’s authors state. “They will likely have to cut spending to make up for declining revenue.”

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Saudi Arabia could emulate China’s higher education success if it follows through with plans to invest heavily in its education system, a leading university president has suggested. Michael Arthur, president and provost of UCL (University College, London), was speaking about the country’s new Vision 2030, which includes plans for Saudi Arabia to reduce its dependence on oil, diversify its economy and develop public service sectors, including education. He says it’s clear Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman, is “developing and investing in a future” that will have “a very large number of young people coming through the population” and it is going to be “really important” that universities are a key part of this. Inaugurating the MENA (Middle East & North Africa Region) Universities Summit in March, Prof. Arthur said: “There is huge social capital that goes with being educated in a university. This is the same around the world — people who go to university generally are a public good for the country, they contribute hugely, they don’t get involved in difficult behaviours, so I think there are many reasons why (investing in education) is a good idea. The Crown Prince and leaders of higher education have spotted that and it seems to me that they obviously have the resources to invest appropriately.” Arthur also compared Saudi Arabia’s vision to that of China, which has invested large amounts of money in its universities in a short period of time, to great success. “If you look at China over the past 20 years and you look at its higher education system, they’ve shown what can be done with careful and thoughtful strategic approaches and with appropriate levels of funding,” he said. “So I would imagine that the same will happen and is already happening in the Middle East and particularly here in Saudi Arabia.”

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Every year in Singapore, one percent of pupils in the third year of primary school bring home an envelope headed ‘On government service’. Inside is an invitation to the city-states Gifted Education Programme. To receive the overture, pupils must ace tests in maths, English and general ability. If their parents accept the offer, the children are taught a special curriculum. Singapores approach is emblematic of the traditional form of ‘gifted education’, one that uses intelligence tests with strict thresholds to identify children with seemingly innate ability. Yet in many countries, it is being overhauled in two main ways. The first is that educationists are using a broader range of methods to identify highly intelligent children, especially from poor households. The second is an increasing focus on fostering the attitudes and personality traits found in successful people in an array of disciplines — including those who did not ace intelligence tests. IQ tests have attracted furious criticism. Speaking for the sceptics, Christopher Hitchens, a journalist, argued that: “There is… an unusually high and consistent correlation between the stupidity of a given person and (his) propensity to be impressed by the measurement of IQ. Like any assessment, IQ tests aren’t perfect”. But as Stuart Ritchie of the University of Edinburgh points out in ‘Intelligence’, researchers in cognitive science agree that general intelligence — not book-learning but the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly and so on — is an identifiable and important attribute which can be measured by IQ tests. Just how important is suggested by the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), founded in 1971. Julian Stanley, then a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University recruited 5,000 precocious children over 25 years, each of whom had intelligence-test scores in early adolescence high enough to gain entry to university. Research into how these children did in adulthood has emerged over the past two decades. Of the SMPY participants who scored among the top 0.5 percent for their age-group in maths and verbal tests, 30 percent went on to earn a doctorate, versus 1 percent of Americans as a whole. These children are also much more likely to have high incomes and to file patents. Officials often cite the SMPY as inspiration for the creation in 2014 of two specialist maths schools in England. Based on the Kolmogorov School in Moscow, these schools accept only pupils who excel in maths at exams at age 16. In January, the government said it wanted to open more as part of its industrial strategy, a plan to boost Britain’s woeful productivity growth. Linking gifted education to economic growth may horrify some people. But it has long seemed like common sense in countries without many natural resources, such as Singapore. In America, 48 out of 50 states have programmes for brainy children, but in the decade before 2013, 24 redefined them, typically ditching the ‘gifted’ label in favour of ‘high-ability. Today, no state relies on a single IQ score to select students. In his book Ungifted,…

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