EducationWorld November 10

The Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act) has become operational with effect from April 1. My reading of this historic legislation enabled by a constitutional amendment, is that its objective is to ensure equal education opportunities for all children. Its laudable goal is to balance an unequal society where so many innocent, bright and inquisitive young minds are denied the nurturance of schooling which is routinely available to children of the privileged. It should enable the young nation that is India to realise its full potential as a knowledge society and take its rightful place among the leading countries of the world.Therefore its unsurprising that the RTE Act, conceived by the BJP, mid-wifed by the communist parties and claimed as progeny by the Congress, sailed through Parliament without substantial debate. But as happens with spoilt and pampered children, this legislation while intended to bring joy, has the potential to do great damage. Clearly a case of noble intent, sabotaged by negligence of detail. While the RTE Act was in process and awaiting presidential assent, I tried to raise a few points of general concern in the corridors of power. But unfortunately I fall into that minority known as the intelligentsia, not only politically irrelevant, but also believed to be disconnected with the common man, and thus at best to be humoured, not heeded. However after careful perusal of the Act and its rules, I have come to the con-clusion that politicians have got it wrong again. They have made a huge promise and shown the common man a dream. If they fail to deliver the promise, resentment will be equally huge. And how can they deliver when the Act is more concerned about shutting down schools on grounds of inadequate infrastructure than it is about setting up new ones? It also relies heavily on providing poor children seats in private schools to the insignificant extent of a quarter of 1 percent of the entire school population each year in real terms. So not only will the RTE Act fail to satisfy the masses, but the burden of the scheme is passed on to private schools who in turn will pass it on to fee-paying lower middle and middle class parents. A parent already struggling to pay fees for two children is unlikely to be willing to pay higher tuition fees to accommodate poor neighbourhood children. Politicians who engineered this legislation (which is being fiercely contested by several private school associations as being violative of their fundamental right to administer themselves without government inter-ference), and idealists may believe I am too cynical. They will contend they arent looking for votes but for the common good of all citizens of India. To them I would like to pose three questions: • All examination boards lay down minimum attendance norms as a pre-condition of promotion to the next class. The Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) prescribes 75 percent. The RTE Act doesnt prescribe attendance norms, but…

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Ever wonder why communist parties and Marxist ideology which have long since been consigned to dustbins worldover — Russia and China included — are thriving in India and morphing into the more virulent strain of Naxalism? Because Indias capitalists are making it easier for them by giving the alternative ideology of capitalism a bad name and reputation.Take for instance Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries (aggregate revenue: Rs.223,216 crore in fiscal 2009-2010), and the worlds richest Indian with a net worth calculated by Forbes magazine at $27 billion (Rs.121,500 crore). Instead of learning from the philanthropic impulses of American billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet among others who have pledged half of their wealth ($53 billion and $47 billion respectively), to charitable causes, this benighted worthy is drawing up a guest-list for his housewarming party on October 28 after he moves into Antilla, reportedly the worlds most expensive single-family residence, sited on Mumbais tony Altamount Road. Among the features of this super deluxe 27-storey residence serviced by nine elevators: three helipads, a swimming pool, health club, a fully-equipped grooming salon, ballroom, multiplex-style theatre and 160 car parking slots spread over the first six floors. This oasis of uber luxury in a country in which according to a committee chaired by the late Arjun Sengupta (who passed away in September), 800 million Indians get by on Rs.20 per day and 46 percent of children below age five suffer chronic malnutrition. Unfortunately, Ambani-style conspicuous realty consum-ption is proving contagious in a nation where an estimated 80 million families reside in wretched one-room tenements. Right across the country, demand for luxury homes featuring home theatre lounge, private elevators, Poggenphol kitchens, home office, plunge pools, sundecks and five-star amenities that flaunt affluence priced at Rs.4,300-25,000 per sq.ft is booming, according to a report in the Times of India (October 13). In shining India, the major threat to renascent Indian capitalism isnt as much from communists and Naxals as it is from India Incs nouveaux riche capitalists rolling out the red carpet for the Red revolution. Shameful admission The political turmoil in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 57 million), where the BJP government which scraped into power two and a half years ago has barely survived two confidence votes in the state legislative assembly through the dubious stratagem of brazenly bribing MLAs (Rs.25-50 crore each) to cross over, and disqualifying dissident party MLAs under the provisions of the Anti Defection Act, 1985, is accelerating the cancer of corruption through the entire administration of this southern state. Almost imperceptibly, this once model state of clean and orderly governance has transformed, according to the best-selling weekly Outlook (October 25), into Indias most corrupt state. Consequently, its extremely rare for any government paper or document to be issued without payment of bribes and/or speed money. I regret to inform EW readers that your correspondent who prided himself on never having paid a bribe while working as a journalist in Bombay (aka Mumbai) for almost three decades before…

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Media frenzy, the irate belligerence of urban Indias upper middle classes newly acquired sensibility and the righteous indignation of the National Centre for the Protection of Child Rights following the caning of class VIII La Martiniere student Rouvanjit Rawla in February this year is bewildering. All these constituencies seem to have accepted that theres a direct linkage between the caning of Rouvanjit and his tragic suicide four days later — a cause-and-effect relationship not proven or accepted by this prestigious schools board of governors or its alumni association. The over-reaction to mild caning seems incongruous, inconsistent and testimony to the double standards prevalent in urban upper class India.It cant be denied that violent chastisement is rampant in Indias schools. Reports of abuse of children constantly appear in the press and other media, not necessarily as ‘breaking news, but as a steady stream of information routinely reporting often permanent disability and even death, imposed upon hapless children by rogue teachers. But the line between formally delivered punishment and abuse seems to have disappeared, and corporal punishment and abuse have somehow become indistinguishable. The difference has been blurred in a haze of borrowed psychological babble which if true, would make most Indians over 40 who scho-oled in India or even Eton College (UK), dysfunctional adults, lunatics, criminals and/or sexual deviants. Abuse of children must end, but paradoxically it may require well-organised disci-plining in schools to attain this laudable objective. By general definition, corporal punishment in a school setting entails physical reprimand of a student with intent to cause pain, but not injury. The blinkered polarisation of the pro and anti corporal punishment camps tends to overshadow the circumstances that necessitate this recourse. The trendy ‘ban corporal punishment and the die-hard ‘pro corporal punishment lobbies must arrive at a realisation that there may be situations in which infliction of exemplary formal corporal punishment will do more good than harm. Yet to argue the case for formally administered punishment is not to endorse arbitrary use of fists, canes, straps and slaps which besides being illegal and immoral, serve no purpose at all. If Indian society can condone snapping a mans neck at the end of a noose as justifiable in some circumstances, surely formal caning can be — and should be — administered to make the point that grave misbehaviour will result in painful consequences and that wrong-doers must face the music. Therefore if a student bullies, beats, cheats, plays truant, copies, deals drugs, indulges in forcible sex or commits other heinous offences which impact the safety and well being of other children, any school principal worthy of the design-ation has to act. If corporal punishment is legal in 20 states of the US there must be something to be said in favour of it. In a systematic review of literature produced on corporal punishment, researchers John Lyons, Rachel Anderson and David Larson of the National Institute of Healthcare Research, USA, found that 83 of the 132 identified articles published in clinical and psychological…

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A new ranking of full-time MBA programmes by the Economist finds that these are difficult times for business schools, especially European institutions. MBAs who graduated in 2009 earned less than those who graduated the previous year. This has not happened for ages. Starting salaries of new MBAs from IMD, a business school in Switzerland, fell from $127,000 to $114,000 (Rs.51 lakh). At the London Business School (LBS) they dropped from $117,000 to $101,000 (Rs.45 lakh). The number of LBS students who found work within three months of graduation fell from 91-81 percent.European MBAs still outearn their American counterparts mainly because they are typically older and more experienced. But the gap between the two has narrowed. Starting salaries for graduates of many American schools have held steady. The University of Chicagos Booth School of Business tops The Economist ranking this year. Spurred by the dearth of jobs in finance, its careers advisers have been steering graduates into unfamiliar terrain, such as government and the non-profit world. The number of MBA programmes is rising sharply, especially in developing countries. No one knows exactly how many there are. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accredits more than 600. In India, there may be millions of business students. With so many courses around, the only way for students to differentiate themselves is to aim for the most prestigious schools. These have grown even harder to enter. As more and more MBA programmes spring up, Asian students are less likely to head westwards merely to attend a second-tier school. But Asian schools have their share of problems, too. Starting salaries for graduates of the Melbourne Business School, the regions best, have also fallen by 23 percent to $72,000 (Rs.32 lakh). (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist)

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When Ngo Nao Chau won a fields medal, the (American) mathematics version of a Nobel prize, it made headline news in his native Vietnam. The president sent a telegram of congratulations. Chau is the first Vietnamese winner. But he does not ply his trade in Vietnam. Chau is a professor at the University of Chicago and a naturalised citizen of France, where he completed his Ph D.Who can blame him? Vietnams university system is archaic, says Hoang Tuy, another mathematician. Teaching methods are outdated, universities are stuffed with cronies and smothered by communist orthodoxy. Censorship and interference are pervasive. For an emerging economy trying to build a technology sector, this is both discouraging and damaging. Top-notch research universities and innovative manufacturing go hand-in-hand. Vietnamese universities do little original research, and are rarely cited by scientific scholars, says a recent UN-financed study. Graduates are poorly prepared: as many as 60 percent of new hires by foreign companies needed retraining, according to a Dutch report. Vietnam already spends more on education than its neighbours. Literacy rates are high, and parents sacrifice much to put their children through college. Enrolment at Vietnamese universities rose from about 900,000 in 2001 to over 1.6 million by 2006. But most students study at lacklustre public universities or in private diploma mills. Those who can afford to, go overseas. The best and brightest, like Chau, rarely return. Efforts to reform public universities have floundered. So the government has seized on the idea of creating four new research-oriented institutions from scratch, with foreign universities as partners and, crucially, promises of autonomy. The first of the new breed, the Vietnamese German University (VGU), opened in 2008 in Ho Chi Minh City. A French-backed technology school in Hanoi will follow. VGU has around 220 students, enroled in engineering and economics programmes which are taught in English, by visiting German professors. Within ten years, it hopes to have 5,000 students. Its independent charter, a first for a Vietnamese university, allows it to hire professors and design its own courses. In theory this should boost academic freedom. For the moment, VGU gets most of its money from Germany. Vietnam contributes a modest €365,000 (Rs.2.2 crore) per year. But it must eventually bear the running costs, which are forecast to reach €45-50 million (Rs.274-305 crore) by 2030. Proper equipment and top-class professors do not come cheap. Vietnams government has to be willing to pay for global talent, otherwise VGU will fail, says Wolf Rieck, VGUs president. Luring back high-fliers such as Chau would be a start. China faces similar problems but has managed to woo some overseas talent by appealing to patriotism and giving academics a chance to work in an innovative economy. It should not be hard. Professors might take less pay if it means being at the cutting edge of research. Most want to be closer to their families. But academics in both China and Vietnam are hemmed in by political dogma. This is as much of a drag on higher…

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Universities have been advised to look to the Middle East to boost their coffers as wealthy Arabs are increasingly keen to support higher education worldwide. A growing population and a cultural commitment to philanthropy mean that the Middle East is now one of the most fertile lands for fundraising, delegates at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education Europe conference in Glasgow heard in early September.Speaking at a session entitled ‘The Wealth Pendulum Swings East, Stephen Jeffrey, vice-president for development and external relations at the American University of Beirut, said higher education was a strong part of the history of the Middle East. Oil and conflict are not the only things we have in the Middle East. We have a population thats growing by leaps and bounds, and one that is increasingly interested in education and philanthropy. The Arab world (comprises) about 320 million people at this point. About 50 percent of them are under 25 and the population is expected to more than treble in the next 20 years, he said. Potential donors in the region are also motivated by zakat, one of the five pillars of Islam, which requires the faithful to donate 2.5 percent of their annual income to charitable causes. Even businesses are increasingly interested in donating. Philanthropy is on the rise, says Jeffrey. Some (businesses) are giving away large sums of money and thats an important step. David Jeu, former director of global development at the University of Alberta, said the institution had experienced great success with corporations within Saudi Arabia. But he also warned of cultural problems that could halt progress when gathering gifts. Alberta sent a high-level delegation to meet a major donor in Saudi but struggled as the senior female members of the team could not take part in any discussions about money. He warned that such a situation could cause a public relations problem, but added: The situation and the values in that part of the world are what they are. (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)

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The UK faced a reality check in mid-September with the publication of the new and more rigorous Times Higher Education World University rankings. Britains performance has deteriorated under the revamped system, developed in partnership with research-data specialist Thomson Reuters. The UK has 29 universities in the top 200 league table compared with 72 US institutions. But just five make the top 50: the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University College London and the University of Edinburgh.The US, by contrast, has 27 institutions in the top 50 and occupies the entire top five, with Harvard University in pole position. The UKs highest-ranked institutions, Cambridge and Oxford, are joint sixth. Despite US dominance, the UK remains an overachiever when its performance is judged against its higher education spending, which is below average for countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For instance, the UK has more than twice as many universities in the top 200 as Germany, which follows in third place. Both countries have performed well despite their higher education spending falling below the OECD average of 1.5 percent: the UK spends 1.3 percent of GDP and Germanys figure is even lower at 1.1 percent. The US is the runaway leader, with more than twice the UKs aggregate points. Its performance correlates with its level of investment: the US spends 3.1 percent of GDP on its universities, more than any other OECD nation. Canada is ranked in fourth place in terms of aggregate points scored, while China is the highest-ranked Asian nation in eighth place. The implications of the rankings are absolutely clear, says Prof. Steve Smith, president of Universities UK. The UKs academy has no automatic right to stay in its current position as the second-strongest system in the world. The government faces a clear choice: either continue to invest in the university system or see the UKs comparative position decline, he says. Smith also notes Germanys additional spending of €18 billion (Rs.109,800 crore) on science, research and development between 2010 and 2015, and Frances extra €1.8 billion (Rs.10,980 crore) a year for research and higher education in 2010 and 2011. By contrast, the UKs most senior civil servant, Sir Gus ODonnell, has warned vice chancellors to plan for 35 percent cuts between 2011 and 2015. (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)

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For Americas children the education system is often literally a lottery. That is the prime message of a new documentary about Americas schools, Waiting for Superman. Made by the team that gave us An Inconvenient Truth, and supported with the sort of marketing budget that other documentary filmmakers can only dream of, it is intended to create a surge in public support for education reform at least as great as the clamour to do something about climate change generated (for a while) by Al Gores eco-disaster flick.The timing could hardly be better. The ‘jobless recovery is finally bringing home to Americans the fact that too many of those who go through its schools are incapable of earning a decent living in an increasingly competitive global economy. The number of jobs advertised but not being filled is increasing even as the unemployment rate stays resolutely high. And despite its depressing enumeration of the failure of so many schools, particularly in poorer urban areas, its miserable ending and the bleakness of its title, the movie also has a message of hope: there are good schools and teachers in America, whose methods could make its education system as good as any in the world if only they were allowed to. That truth, recognised by anyone who has spent even a few hours in, say, a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter school, is an inconvenient one to the teachers unions, which the film rightly identifies as a big chunk of kryptonite standing in the way of a dramatic rescue for the children of America. For example, the film features efforts to reform the school system in Washington D.C, led by Adrian Fenty, the mayor, and Michelle Rhee, his combative schools chief, including a scene where Rhees offer to double salaries of teachers in exchange for them giving up tenure and accepting merit pay (performance-related wages) is rejected by the unions. Right on cue for the launch of the film, Fenty has just lost his local Democratic Party primary to a more union-friendly rival, so Rhee may well be leaving. The $1million (Rs.4.5 crore) spent during the campaign by the American Federation of Teachers played a crucial role in Fentys defeat. The teachers unions have resolutely opposed efforts to pay good teachers more than mediocre ones, to fire the worst performers and shut down schools that consistently fail to deliver decent education. This, coupled with underfunding in poor areas, has resulted in a shortage of good schools; so the few that are worth getting into are hugely oversubscribed, with places allocated by the public lotteries which provide the grim climax to the movie. Rhee upset the unions by refusing to accept all this, closing dozens of schools and firing 1,000 teachers, including the head of her own childrens school. To be fair, the unions are not all bad. As Bill Gates has pointed out, they are taking part in an initiative funded by his foundation to develop new measures of teacher performance, which could…

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Predictably, confirmation of a decision taken in April by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C, estb. 1961) to increase tuition fees of its two-year PGDBM (postgraduate diploma in business management) programme from Rs.9 lakh to Rs.13.7 lakh in the current academic year which began on June 21, has been greeted with dismay, not so much by students as by academics.Thats because in the eastern seaboard state of West Bengal (pop: 80.2 million) ruled by the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist)-dominated Left Front uninterruptedly since 1977, raising college or university fees has been alien to the academic culture for three decades. Tuition fees in the states 18 universities and 354 mainstream arts and science undergraduate colleges have been capped at the ridiculous amount of Rs.100 for the past ten years. Therefore in faculty common rooms across the state, snide remarks against this fee hike proposal are common currency. Evidently IIM-Cs tuition fee hike doesnt have the concur-rence of Prof. Sekhar Chaudhuri, director of IIM-C. Raising fees cannot be the only option. I would like to urge industry to offer financial assistance, says Chau-dhuri reflecting the subsidies-addicted mindset of West Bengals academic community. But fortunately for the future of IIM-C, promoted and funded by the Central government, the board of governors is aware of the irony of stratospherically priced graduates receiving subsi-dised education. The decision to raise tuition fees was taken after considering the fact that we had excellent placements this year, and we need more funds. Therefore the fee hike is justified, Ajit Balakrishnan, advertising guru, promoter chairman of Rediff.com and incumbent chairman of the board of governors of IIM-C, told newsmen in April. Indeed IIM-Cs placements have been more than good. All 280 graduates of the batch of 2010 had their pick of jobs with the annual remuneration package averaging Rs.28.5 lakh — the highest average of any B-school countrywide. Says Samyukktha Thirumeni, second year student and incumbent external relations secretary: The fee hike is no big deal, and the additional funds will be used to improve academic and infrastructure standards of IIM-C. This will benefit the institute and future students. Clearly the tuition fee hike of Rs.4.7 lakh spread over two years isnt likely to inconvenience IIM-C students beginning their careers at seven figure salaries. Particularly since the institute stopped receiving grants from the Central government in 2004 (the Centre stopped subsidising IIM-C, as well as IIM-A and IIM-B six years ago), there is tremendous pressure on IIM-C to mobilise funds for infrastructure and faculty development. Right now IIM-C needs the money to add 500,000 sq.ft of floor space to accommodate the additional 27 percent OBC (other backward caste/classes) intake mandated by Article 15 (5) of the Constitution legislated by Parliament in 2005. Moreover the new fee structure, which is subsidies-free for the first time since 1961, will contribute towards IIM-C — which like all other IIMs has a teaching rather than research reputation — commissioning deep research projects. IIM-Cs new fee structure approved by the board of…

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Indias best ever international track and field games performance (102 medals including 38 gold) in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games 2010, has generated unpreced-ented euphoria and public interest in sports education. The overwhelming consensus within athletes and sports pundits is that this is a good time to begin root and branch reform of sports education, and build modern infrastructure for children to engage in sports and games. Not entirely coincidentally, a determined corporate campaign to weave structured sports education and training into the school experience, has already begun. Dismayed by the lack of a sports culture and awareness that Indians are academically well adapted but necessarily not well-rounded, sports and soccer enthusiast Dev Roy has stepped up to the plate to co-promote the Bangalore-based FitKids Education and Training Pvt. Ltd, which combines sports evangelism with enlightened capitalism.A graduate of R.V. College of Engine-ering, Bangalore with an MBA from the University of Chicago, Roy (37) began his career with IBM, USA in 1995 followed by stints in the Bank of America and Dresdner Bank. In 2007 he was appointed the youngest managing director of Barclays Capital, London, a position he held until 2009, following which he took a leap of faith to return to India. In my 12 years in the corporate world I realised that success is often determined by how we deal with failure and setbacks, and that sports and games are the best laboratory to learn how to deal with reversals and successes. Hence while planning my return strategy, I shortlisted Indias fast growth education and health sectors as requiring prime attention, says Roy. Last December (2009) after six months of intense research FitKids Education launched its Leapstart programme for K-VI children. Leapstart is a unique age-appropriate sports and physical fitness training programme to help children develop basic athletic skills. Our belief is that sports development and training must begin as early as kindergarten as its the key to producing not only world class sportspersons but also for facilitating all-round success and wellness in life, he says. Roy believes that FitKids Educations partnership with SPARK (Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids), a US-based research and public health organisation whose sports curriculum is being implemented in over 1,000 schools in 30 countries worldwide, is certain to pay off and catalyse a sports and fitness revolution in K-12 education in India. To design Leapstart we have taken SPARK — the worlds most researched and field-tested physical fitness programme — and customised it to suit the Indian environment. For instance we have included cricket in the gamut of sports to which children are exposed in class III-VI, says Roy who has also promoted a health company, Nephrolifecare Pvt. Ltd. Market response to the companys Leapstart programme is encouraging. In the short span of six months since its launch, 15 schools in five cities (Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Cochin and Ooty) have signed up for this whole school sports education programme with each student billed a modest Rs.125-225 per month. Under the…

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Experience in sport enlarge(s) the human adventure — James A. MichenerA major motivation for writing this monthly column is that as school and youth sports grow in India, you will not squander the potential to create a sports culture that will offer the greatest good to the greatest number of young people. In poll after poll, Americans express their belief that engaging in sport enhances physical fitness in children while teaching citizenship, commitment, teamwork and other valuable lessons. However, in far too many American communities, the youth sports system overemphasises ‘select or ‘travel teams (children judged to be the most talented in a particular age group), which effectively eliminates most young people before they can fully explore a sport or realise their talent. The question I often raise is: What opportunities do you provide for average-ability children? The current emphasis in American school and youth sports is on shortlisting athletes for select teams or for the ‘next level. This screening process requires sorting out athletes who show promise to advance to the next level, and has contributed a 70 percent dropout rate by age 13 to most sports. This heavy dropout percentage of youth as they proceed up the ladder, leads many to conclude that sports progressively become less fun. It is less fun for many because it has quickly become serious ‘business for coaches and youth sports organisations who measure success by win-loss records and the number of member-athletes who make it through the screen to participate at the next level. Such screening processes lead to uniformity in the values promoted in school and youth sports where outcomes are accorded more importance than the actual process of sports, such as effort, progress toward mastery and plain good fun. This emphasis on winning, records and progressing to the next level is and will continue to produce bumper harvests of dropouts from sports year after year. My concern is: Can nothing be done for young people who drop out of sports and games because of excessive competition? Although the popular preference is for youth to achieve self-esteem through academic excellence or community service, the reality is that sports and play induce children of all ages and abilities to seek self-esteem on the playing field or in gymnasiums. Lessons learned on the sports field and in games arenas complement lessons learned at home or in classrooms. Therefore what we call recreational leagues are necessary for sports to fulfill its promise to our youth, their families and communities. While I played sports at the highest levels in my youth and college days, I have always been impressed by friends and schoolmates who played in recreational and intramural tournaments, and who have memories and experiences that equal mine. They are better people first and good athletes next. As a coach for many years of elite and recreational teams, I have learned that play at any level promotes positive development of youth. Therefore I am wholly convinced that equal opportunity in school and collegiate sports…

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Im keen on pursuing a career as probationary officer (PO) in a bank. Please advise the way forward.Vidya Rajan, Bangalore Examinations are conducted by public/private sector banks to recruit probationary officers in the junior management cadre. Those who clear the exam and interview are recruited as POs and receive extensive on-the-job training. ICICI Bank offers a PO programme (www.icicicareers.com) which includes shortlisting through a written exam and interview followed by a one-year fully residential programme to train selected probationary officers by the ICICI Manipal Academy of Banking and Insurance (http://www. ima.manipal.edu/programme.htm). I want to sign up for an MBA in energy management at the Indian Management School and Research Centre (IMSRC), Mumbai via the distance education mode. The institute is not UGC approved but is affiliated/accredited with the University of North East Virginia and the Distance Education Council. Are IMSRCs degrees recognised? Please suggest names of other institutes offering this study programme. Vijay Suri, Mumbai IMSRCs MBA programme has credibility since it is approved by the Distance Education Council (www.dec. ac.in). Some other reputed universities/institutions which offer a postgraduate diploma in energy management are: Centre of Distance Education, Univer-sity of Hyderabad (www.uohd.ernet.in); MIT School of Distance Education (www.miyode.com); and Annamalai University, Annamalainagar (www. annamalaiuniversity.ac.in) which offers a postgrad diploma in electrical energy management and energy audit. Prior to applying, check your eligibility with the institution since you dont possess a bachelors degree. I will complete my Plus Two (commerce) next year. Is studying for a B.Com degree a good career choice? Neeta DSilva, Panjim For best career trajectory, you should read for a B.Com degree simultaneously with a course in chartered accountancy, company secretaryship or cost accountancy. If you cannot manage the pressure of doing B.Com with CA/CS, just focus on your bachelors degree. A B.Com degree will open doors in all industries at the junior executive level. Im an engineer and have been working in an IT company for the past one year. Im now interested in a career in the media. Is it advisable to make a career switch? Srinivas Iyer, Chennai An it engineer can secure employment in the media, though its advisable to study your new vocation. Several institutions offer postgraduate programmes of one-two years duration in mass communication. For qualified personnel, job opportunities are also aplenty in print, television and radio broadcasting, advertising, film, televi-sion, online media ventures etc. How-ever before you make the switch, do some homework to understand the nature of work involved, and whether its in sync with your abilities and interests. After graduation, I want to sign up for an MBA in a B-school in the US. Please provide information on the GMAT test. Neelam Rao, Bangalore The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a standardised test which measures graduate students verbal, mathematical and analytical writing skills. It is designed to help B-schools to assess the potential of applicants for advanced study in business management. All who aspire to enrol in any graduate B-school programme in the US must write GMAT.…

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Against the background of the recently enacted Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), which directs all private unaided schools to provide free education upto 25 percent of class strength to underprivileged children from classes I-VIII, it is important for the future of private schools that they accept this provision of the Act in the interests of nation building, and observe it in letter and spirit.Alternatively, s.12 of the RTE Act offers private unaided schools an opportunity to exercise the option of providing Equal Opportunity Schools. The Indus Trust has already established an internationally benchmarked Equal Opportunity School on its Indus International School campus in Bangalore, and is in the process of promoting similar schools contiguous to Indus International schools in Hyderabad and Pune. We believe in inclusive and equal opportunity schooling because the purpose of education must be to address the challenges of sustainability such as climate change, sharing of dwindling resources, poverty, illiteracy, religious fundamentalism, and rising greed and corruption. Apart from being centres of academic excellence, schools should equip students emoti-onally and spiritually to become agents of change for transformation of society. For this, development of English, science and math, computer literacy and leadership skills is absolutely necessary. Our neighborhood Equal Opportunity School has been promoted on the premise that in a world that is getting flatter by the day, theres no place for different sets of curriculum and technology for the privileged and underprivileged. They have to be equal and affordable for the underprivileged as well. Therefore, the purpose and rationale of Indus Equal Opportunity schools is to provide the same quality education as high-end mainstream schools at a fraction of the cost. Through sharing of land area and other costs with the parent school, K-12 education whose cost varies between $10-$40 (Rs.450-1,800) per day in mainstream schools, is provided in our Equal Opportunity School at 15-30 cents (Rs.7-14) per day! Sharing of overheads apart, this has been made possible by using low-cost building materials, reducing capital expenditure, number of teachers employed and slashing operating expenses by 70 percent. Indus Equal Opportunity schools provide education from class I-XII and follow the state board and/or CBSE syllabus. However, delivery of the chosen curriculum is based on international systems, processes, benchmarks and best practices tried and tested in the neighbouring parent school to enable Equal Opportunity students to compete for admission into the best colleges and universities in India and abroad. The enrolment ceiling of Indus Equal Opportunity schools is 600 students and classes are conducted in two shifts, to slash infrastructure and teacher costs. Moreover, we ensure that empathetic teachers are selected from the same socio-economic milieu as students, but they are trained in international practices and subject knowledge at our in-house Indus Training and Research Institute. As in the parent school, the entire campus of our Equal Opportunity schools is wifi enabled, with all children from class I onwards being provided with laptops, to enable them to become IT literate, lifelong learners. As…

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

When our older daughter began to attend elementary school in the United States, I was struck by the fact that the school day for all students began, hand over heart, with the Pledge of Allegiance, which was effectively a solemn declaration of loyalty to the republic. Secondly, on the very first day, the teacher taught them ‘the golden rules: think before you speak, and treat others the same way as you would expect them to treat you.Thus, the first lesson learned in school was a civic one: respect for the Constitution and a rule-based way of transacting with fellow citizens of the republic. In fact, the American community-led public education system started out as a citizenship training programme. The objective was to enable and empower citizens in the discharge of their civic obligations and in their quest for economic opportunity. It was a simple idea that drove elementary public education in America: an informed citizenry, compliant with the law is the best guarantor of liberty and justice. Some years later, I was dropping my daughters off at one of Delhis better schools into which they had been adm-itted after we moved from the US. The picture couldnt have been more radically different. First, it was an all-girls school. Students wore a hideous uniform and the ambience was chaotic, with girls running around, push-ing and shoving, unmindful of the safety or convenience of others. Later, we discov-ered that it was a tyrannical institution, subject to the whims of Victorian nuns who ran it. Our daughters were traumatised because on the academic front as well, the school was a zero. The curriculum prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the National Council of Educational Research and Training was lame. The faculty did very little except race through a rote method of teaching; it was clear our daughters were not learning much and that added to their misery. We withdrew them from the school to the disbelief of many, as the school was among the most sought-after in the city. Far from teaching students the virtues of citizenship, all that the school did was to prepare them to write board examinations to attain high scores, which ensured admission into an even more dysfunctional university system. The psychological costs that students have to pay are never addressed — simply dismissed by teachers and parents alike as collateral damage in the race to succeed in examinations. We pulled them out of this twisted system and enroled them in an international school, where they blossomed. In the current debates over education policy, the focus has centred on reform at every level: elementary schools, institutes of higher education, vocational training. Issues of private ownership versus govern-ment control, entry of global education providers, certification and accreditation are routinely raised. What seems to have been missed completely is the civic aspects of education. Respect for the neighbourhood, city, state and country needs to be instilled at a very early age without crossing the line into chauvinism. Sadly,…

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“The old adage of opposites attract doesnt hold true any more. Its about being the other half of a power couple in which synergy and resonance are important.” Rama Bijapurkar, well-known marketing strategy consultant, on the changing character of marriages (Business Standard, October 16) “Making good the tear in our republics fabric that Ayodhya caused will lie not in the wealth of economics or the principles of law, but in the struggles and inventions of our politics.” Sunil Khilnani in Mint Lounge (October 16) “The nations that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.” Jill Biden, US Second Lady, at a White House summit explaining the critical role community colleges play in meeting the nations job-training needs (Time, October 18) “We cant create that kind of infrastructure (800 universities and 40,000 colleges). And it is not even the governments job to create that with public funding. Therefore we need the private sector and foreign direct investment to take a pivotal role in moulding the countrys higher education.” Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal speaking at a Higher Education Conclave in Kolkata (October 20) “Now thanks to Lords Paul and Bhatia and Baroness Uddin, the world might wonder if honesty means the same thing in India as in Europe and America.” Well-known journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray on the suspension of three Asian peers from the British House of Lords (Business Standard, October 23) “Arundhati Roy has become a joke, a publicity fiend. She hops from cause to cause, and just look at the company shes keeping… the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, an ultimate bigot who wants to keep women in purdah and bring in an Islamic theocracy.” Historian Ramchandra Guha on author-activist Arundhati Roys latest comment on Kashmir never having been a part of India (Bangalore Mirror, October 29) “I am a very playful person, full of life. I love life, I love women.” Italys prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (74)

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