EducationWorld September 12 Archives

Young Achievers

SAP MoonWalkers 4.0

Four young aspiring scientists — Rochan Avlur (13), Ritwik Jaisimha (12), Nayonika Nair (10) and Sidharth Santhosh (13), students of the Bangalore-based Delhi Public School (East) and Deen’s Academy — who call themselves SAP MoonWalkers 4.0, were finalists at the First Lego League (FLL) Open European Championships held in Mannheim, Germany from June 6-9. FLL is an international robotics competition for children in the age group nine-16, staged with the objective of stimulating interest in science and technology. This global robotics competition is a joint initiative of Manchester-based FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organisation supported by a network of more than 3,500 sponsors including corporates, educational and professional institutions and individuals and the Danish LEGO Group, the world’s third largest manufacturer of play materials. This year, the FLL European championships attracted 67 teams from 35 countries. The theme of the FLL Open European Championship 2012 was ‘Food Factor — Keeping Food Safe’. All participating teams were expected to explore the topic of food safety and propose new solutions to prevent contamination from exposure to micro and macro organisms, nonsterile processing and transportation, and unhygienic methods of preparation and storage. “To get to Mannheim our team had to first win the Indian FLL organised by Techtronics Education and SAP labs. Over 200 teams from across India participated. In January this year, we were awarded the first prize in the category of ‘Best Robot Design’ and a passage to Mannheim,’’ says Ritwik. The judges of the Mannheim competition assessed the team’s solution as “exceptionally well-considered and creative, with good potential to solve the problem researched,” and awarded them the first prize in the innovative solutions category. Back home after their triumph in Germany, the youngsters believe they have gained a lot from this experience. “The best outcome of this competition was that we learnt the benefit of team work,” says Sidharth. “That our project was among the final entries boosted our confidence,” adds Nayonika. These youngsters are not ones to rest on their laurels and want to take their research forward. “We now want to devise a cocktail of bacteriophages which will prevent infection at the field level. This will help farmers economically and ecologically,” enthuses Rochan. Way to go, guys! Sangeeta Venkatesh (Bangalore)

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Cover Story

EducationWorld India School Rankings 2012

Conducted by the premier market research and polling company C fore, Delhi, the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2012 ranks over 400 of the country’s most well-known primary-secondaries on the basis of perceptual ratings awarded by a carefully constituted sample respondents base of 3,070 parents, principals, teachers and educationists across 14 parameters of excellence. Dilip Thakore reports While economists, Central planners and other stalwarts of India’s intelligentsia argue in favour of agriculture and industrial productivity, managing inflation and fiscal deficits, cutting red tape and/or reforming the electoral system, inEducationWorld we are steadfast in our belief that the salvation and renaissance of 21st century India is dependent upon successful nurturance and development of the country’s abundant human resource endowment. Currently, the child and youth population of the nation aggregates 550 million, of whom 175 million are below 14 years of age. Unfortunately post-independence India’s purblind political class in Delhi and state capitals refuses to learn from the example of the world’s most developed nations where annual expenditure on education is 6-7 percent of GDP (gross domestic product). Which is why they are members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) club of rich nations, and 65 years on, India isn’t. Apart from consistently highlighting the skewed development priorities of government and India’s Soviet-style Planning Commission, since 2007 this sui generis publication promoted with the mission statement to “build the pressure of public opinion to make education the No.1 item on the national agenda”, has been publishing annual league tables of India’s most respected day, legacy boarding and new genre international schools, rating and ranking them on several parameters. Moreover, driven by the belief that foundational K-12 education is of prime importance for developing India’s high-potential human resource, since 2010 we have been rating and ranking preschools in six cities countrywide as well. The objective of rating and ranking primary-secondary schools (and preschools) across a broad range of 14 parameters is to drive home the message to educators and parents that there’s more to education than academic achievement and excellence. We believe that teacher and parent communities need to be disabused of the notion that the purpose of K-12 education is academic attainment and success in board examinations. Therefore it’s a cause for satisfaction to us that over the past quinquennium since the Education-World India school ranking league tables were introduced, there is an emerging consensus that although academic performance in school-leaving board examinations is of critical importance because it determines admission into the country’s small minority of best undergraduate colleges, school managements, teachers and parents also need to focus on development activities such as sports and life-skills education, teacher development and community service, to produce well-rounded students equipped to succeed in higher education and workplaces beyond academic ivory towers. Yet even as we expect schools to strive to improve their rankings year on year by improving ratings on each parameter, on our part as well there is continuous effort to improve the rating and ranking methodology. Thus while in the first such…

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Expert Comment

Vocational education imperative

Dr Lalit Kanodia is the IIT-Bombay and MIT, USA-educated founder-chairman of the Datamatics Group As India’s economy develops, there will be mass migration from rural to urban India and by 2050, a mere 10 percent of the population will be rural. This implies that nearly 40 percent of our existing population, i.e. about 500 million citizens will migrate to India’s 7,900 cities and towns. The vast majority of them won’t qualify as engineers, lawyers, doctors or business professionals. They will be engaged in vocational occupations. FICCI has estimated that 95 percent of all jobs in India will be in the informal sector and that India will need a workforce of 500 million in the vocations by 2022! Unfortunately for mysterious reasons, during the past 65 years since independence very little attention has been paid by the Planning Commission or Central and state governments to promoting vocational education and training (VET). Recently however, this long neglected subject has received modest national attention. While presenting the Union budget 2012-13 on March 16, former finance minister (now President) Pranab Mukherjee said: “At the end of ten years, projects (of the National Skills Development Corporation) are expected to train 620 million persons and augment training capacity by 12.5 million per year in the private sector.’’ Acknowledging the urgent need to promote VET, he proposed a 150 percent income tax deduction for expenditure incurred on skills development in the manufacturing sector. But while this belated awareness of the vital importance of VET for national development is commendable, it’s woefully short — as estimated by FICCI — of the nation’s needs. Taking a leaf out of our past experience, we should unhesitatingly solicit help from countries which have successfully and fruitfully implemented vocational training. Prominent among them are Germany, Japan and the US. In this connection it’s pertinent to remember that IIT-Bombay was promoted with Russian assistance, IIT-Delhi, with help from the British, IIT-Kanpur with American and IIT-Chennai with German assistance. Similarly, IIM-Calcutta was established in association with MIT, Boston and IIM-Ahmedabad with Harvard University. The Federal Republic of Germany perhaps has the oldest, best, most developed and well-conceptualised VET curriculums worldwide dating back to 1880s. Indeed, former president Horst Koehler of Germany on a visit to India in 2010, offered German assistance for vocational education. But there were no takers for this valuable proposal. Over 50 percent of high school students — and 2.5 percent of Germany’s 80 million people — are enroled for training in one of 344 trades from tannery to dental technician. Extrapolating from this, India should have 30 million students enroled in VET programmes. However, currently only 1 million youth in our country are receiving formal VET education. The US has a similar structure with vocational education being imparted by community colleges. Japan also has a well-organised VET system. Although in 2008 the Union government promoted the National Skills Development Corporation, its equity capital is a mere Rs.10 crore. Moreover the responsibility for delivering VET is diffused between three ministries —…

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Institution Profile

Amar Jyoti School, Delhi

Two years after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 — s. 12 (1) (c) of which mandates 25 percent reservation in all private aided and unaided schools in class I for children of disadvantaged groups — became law in April 2010, Parliament amended the Act to include India’s 40 million children with disabilities in the definition of disadvantaged groups. Regardless of this development, Amar Jyoti School, Delhi (AJS, estb. 1981) has been practicing inclusive education in its widest sense for the past 31 years, providing free-of-charge education to an equal number of disabled and non-disabled students since its inception. Promoted by Dr. Uma Tuli, also the founder and managing secretary of the Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, Amar Jyoti School, Delhi is a K-VIII school affiliated with CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and NIOS (National Institute of Open School), and has an eponymous sister school in Gwalior also promoted by the trust in 1989. Amar Jyoti School, Delhi was started with voluntary contributions of community members under a tree with 30 children, half of them disabled. It currently hosts 450 children, of whom 215 are children with special needs. “I first became aware that children with disabilities can study with non-disabled children in a barrier-free environment when my 21-year-old brother met with an accident, and faced the consequences of social attitudinal barriers. He eventually managed to go to the US for fitment of prosthesis. The inclusion under a tree became a normative concept much later. Our holistic approach involves teaching disabled and non-disabled children in the same environment. To meet the needs of special children, we have an occupational therapist and special educators in the school, with visiting specialist doctors to mainstream children into regular classes,” says Dr. Tuli, an alumna of Jiwaji University, Gwalior, with a Ph D in English literature from Delhi University and a Masters in special education from Manchester University, plus 30 years of teaching experience in several colleges in Delhi and Gwalior. Unsurprisingly, this pioneer inclusive school has received a plethora of awards including two National Awards for creating a barrier-free environment for persons with disabilities and working for the cause of persons with disabilities through education, in 1995 and 2001 respectively, awarded by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment. Sited on a 1 acre plot with a built-up area of 13,500 sq. ft (with 20,000 sq. ft dedicated to the hospital rehabilitation block), Amar Jyoti School, Delhi offers 40 classrooms, with special classes being held for children with special needs. Ramps, tactile guide paths, loop induction facilities and buses fitted with hydraulic lifts pick and drop students, enabling easy access and equal education for children with disabilities. Apart from mandatory school infrastructure which includes well-equipped science and computer laboratories, a library with 10,000 volumes and ten newspaper subscriptions, the school also hosts a dedicated Braille Library with 760 Braille textbooks and 86 Braille story books for visually challenged students funded by The Asia Philanthropy Foundation. Moreover, medical services…

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Institution Profile

University of Michigan, USA

Founded in 1817, University of Michigan, USA is ranked among the top 20 universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings 2011-12 Sited on a 3,177 acre campus in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan (UM) is a public university highly ranked and rated for academic and research excellence. Founded in 1817, University of Michigan, USA is ranked among the top 20 varsities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings 2011-12. The US News and World Report rates 95 of its study programmes among the Top 10 in the US — making it the fourth higher education institution (after UC, Berkeley, Harvard and Stanford) in the US to boast 95 Top 10-ranked programmes. One of the original eight public Ivy League universities and founder member of the Association of American Universities, University of Michigan, USA has 59,993 students tutored by 6,941 faculty on its muster rolls. Its 19 schools offer a wide range of bachelor, Masters and doctoral programmes in the humanities, social sciences, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), medicine, law and dentistry. “Through the contributions of thousands of faculty and hundreds of thousands of students over nearly two centuries, we have built a university known for a diversity of people, heritage, academic disciplines, and scholarly pursuit. This impressive range of individuals and intellectual activity is the very core of our academic excellence. From our 19 schools and colleges to our nationally recognised health system, the range of disciplines and their inter-relationships throughout our campus are a mirror of the world we serve as a public university,” says Mary Sue Coleman, president of University of Michigan, USA. Founded in Detroit 195 years ago, as the University of Michigania, the institution moved westward to Ann Arbor in 1837, when the town was merely 13 years old. When the first classes were taught in 1841, University of Michigan, USA had only two professors and seven students. Over the years, it has grown in size and reputation and boasts an impressive list of alumni including former US President Gerald Ford, actress Lucy Liu of Charlie’s Angels and Kill Bill film series, and NFL (National Football League) quarterback Tom Brady. Ann Arbor. Sited 40 miles west of Detroit, Ann Arbor (pop.114,000) is a college town with Michigan University largely shaping its economy. The varsity not only employs 30,000 people but has attracted several technology companies drawn to the township by its research and development budgets and high quality graduates. Founded in 1824, Ann Arbor offers students and visitors a wide range of activity options. It hosts galleries, theatres, museums, a year-round farmers’ market, shops and an array of multi-cuisine restaurants. Moreover, the city also boasts 157 municipal parks ranging from small neighbourhood green spots to large recreation areas. Several large city parks together with a university park border the banks of the Huron river. Ann Arbor offers a typically Mid-west humid continental climate influenced by the Great Lakes. Winters are cold with moderate to heavy snowfall, while…

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Cover Story

State & City Rankings

Given the vast diversity of language, culture and ethnicity within each region, the regional tables of yesteryear have been replaced by state and city tables On the basis of feedback received from field researchers of the Delhi-based market research and intelligence agency Centre for Forecasting & Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb. 2000) which has been conducting the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (previously known as India’s Most Respected Schools Survey) since 2008, as also from parents and educationists who constitute the sample respondents base, your editors have revised the mix of this year’s league tables. Accepting the argument that the annual regional (east, west, north, south) tables were of limited value given the vast diversity of language, culture and ethnicity of each region, this year they have been replaced by league tables of 22 of India’s 28 states (in six states and seven Union territories no school was sufficiently well known to be rated by 25 sample respondents). The rationale is that parents are becoming increasingly reluctant to send children to distant schools if comparable primary-secondaries are within easily accessible geographies. Hence league tables evaluating the perceived merits of day schools within municipal limits, and boarding and international schools within state boundaries are more useful for parents and students for the purpose of selecting suitable and accessible schools. From the perspective of stimulating competition for institutional upgradation and excellence as well, publication of state and city league tables makes more sense. It’s natural for principals and teachers to be more mindful of competition within state boundaries and municipal limits. For instance, for the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School, Chennai, the fact that it has been dislodged from last year’s premier position and ranked third in Tamil Nadu and third in Chennai behind The School, KFI and Sishya School this year, is likely to be a greater stimulant for self-assessment and improvement than awareness that it is ranked No. 15 in the all-India day schools league table. Similarly, this year’s No. 15 national rank of St. Joseph’s North Point, Darjeeling among legacy boarding schools, is certain to be of less concern and import to the top management of neighbouring St. Paul’s School than the former’s first rank in West Bengal and Darjeeling. From the viewpoint of the public as well, state and city rankings offer a better basis for comparison because India’s 28 states are not tiny British-style counties with populations of a few hundred thousand, but nation-size entities. For instance, the population of Tamil Nadu is 72 million and West Bengal 90 million, and Chennai and Kolkata host 8.9 million and 14.1 million citizens respectively. The decision to abolish regional rankings of schools and substitute them with state and cities/hubs rankings is welcomed by Deepak Madhok, promoter-chairman of the Sunbeam Group which has established 17 primary-secondaries in the holy city of Varanasi and across Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous (200 million) and arguably most socio-economically backward state. “Abolition of regional rankings is a welcome development because India’s regions are too large and culturally diverse to afford a meaningful basis for comparison. It’s much…

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Cover Story

India’s Most Respected Boarding Schools 2012

The status quo has been maintained at the top table with Rishi Valley School, Chittoor and Doon School, Dehradun ranked the country’s top legacy boarding schools this year as well The great churn witnessed in the Top 10 rankings of India’s most admired day schools is not replicated in the league table of the country’s most respected traditional or legacy boarding schools. The status quo has been maintained at the summit with the new age Rishi Valley School, Chittoor established by seer-educationist J.D. Krishnamurti in 1926, retaining its numero uno position. Although another ‘swamiji school’ Chinmaya International Residential School, Coimbatore (CIRS) and the previously unranked Birla Public School, Pilani have entered the Top 10 list this year, the remaining seats at the top table have been allocated to India’s British-inspired traditional boarding schools with the top two girls’ schools — Mayo College Girls, Ajmer and Welham Girls following the blue-chip Doon School, Dehradun ranked second again this year. But with CIRS and Birla Public entering the Top 10 list, the seating arrangement at top table has been slightly rearranged with the neighbour schools of Lawrence, Sanawar and Bishop Cotton, Shimla sharing fifth place, Daly College, Indore moving down to sixth and Assam Valley, Balipara to No. 7, although this relatively new vintage class III-XII institution (estb. 1995) retains its stellar position as the top-ranked boarding school in eastern India. Yet while the public is likely to be impressed by Rishi Valley School (RVS) being ranked the country’s most respected legacy boarding school for the second year consecutively, Siddhartha Menon, vice-principal of the school is lukewarm about it. “RVS has never seen itself as being in competition with other schools. With due respect, we question whether school rankings add value to educational work around the country. We have great regard for a variety of sincere initiatives in education, and feel there is considerable scope for schools to learn from one another rather than be seen as pitted against each other,” says Menon. Nevertheless, Menon derives some measure of satisfaction from this year’s rankings in which new age schools, and Krishnamurti Foundation schools in particular, have been highly ranked. “Within the parents’ community, I sense much anxiety, arising partly out of disillusionment with mainstream education. It’s possible that people are becoming increasingly aware of the complex issues we face — socio-economic, environmental, sectarian and even psychological — and are seeking alternative approaches to them,” he adds. Beyond the Top 10, a noticeable feature of the boarding schools league table this year is that military schools promoted by the Indian Army or the defence services have considerably improved their ranking, with the Army Public School, Dagshai (Himachal Pradesh) weighing in at No.11, and the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun at 12. And in keeping with the broad trend of a swing of opinion in favour of ‘swamiji schools’, Chinmaya International Residential School, Coimbatore has considerably improved its public reputation rising from No.18 in 2011 to 9 this year, and has established itself as…

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Cover Story

India’s top international schools 2012

This year the newly promoted (2003) Indus International, Bangalore and Dhirubhai Ambani International, Mumbai have ended the four-year duopoly of the vintage Woodstock, Mussoorie and Kodaikanal International. Summiya Yasmeen reports In sharp contrast with the largely undisturbed Top 10 pecking order of British-inspired legacy boarding schools, in the league table of India’s most admired new genre international schools, the old order has changed. This year Indus International School, Bangalore (estb. 2003) and Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai (estb.2003) have ended the four-year duopoly of the vintage Woodstock School, Mussoorie (estb.1854) and Kodaikanal International School (KIS, estb. 1901), to be ranked India’s most respected international schools. Since the EW India School Rankings were introduced in 2007, Woodstock and KIS have alternated as the country’s top two international schools. For the annual EW-C fore surveys, international schools are defined as institutions which offer the syllabuses and curriculums of foreign examination boards such as IBO, Geneva; CIE and Edexcel, UK and The College Board, USA from at least middle school (class VIII) onward. Moreover, with a large number of international schools also offering students the option of writing national exams (CISCE or CBSE), only primary-secondaries with more than 30 percent of students enroled in the international programme are classified as international. “That’s why even though more than 200 schools countrywide classify themselves as international, we have rated and ranked only 40 of them where over 30 percent of the student body is committed to writing the examinations of offshore boards,” explains Premchand Palety, chief executive of C fore. Accredited by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) and UK-based Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), Indus International School, Bangalore (IIS), which was co-ranked second last year, is top-ranked this year with an aggregate score of 1294. IIS, which hosts 1,100 students mentored by 130 teachers, is also ranked first on a record five parameters of educational excellence including teacher welfare and development, co-curricular education, individual attention to students, leadership/management quality, and community service. “It’s a special achievement and honour for IIS-Bangalore to be rated by the public as India’s No. 1 international school, above institutions established a century before us. I attribute our top ranking to several factors including the vision and leadership of the top management, high-quality faculty, excellent year-round teacher training, a unique leadership curriculum which begins in kindergarten, and emphasis on whole education with academics and co-curricular and sports education allotted equal attention. Our first rank on the parameter of parental involvement can be ascribed to the open, transparent and participatory relationship we share with parents, who as part of a Parents Advisory Committee provide the school continuous feedback,” says Sarojini Rao, principal of IIS. IIS-Bangalore has additional reason to celebrate. Its two affiliated schools in Hyderabad and Pune — promoted in 2007 and 2008 respectively by the parent Indus Trust — are also ranked among the top 15 international schools count-rywide. IIS-Hyderabad is ranked No. 11 and IIS-Pune 13. “The rise of Indus International schools in Hyderabad and Pune, promoted less than four years ago, to the Top 15 is very…

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Cover Story

India’s Top Day Schools 2012-13

The highlight of this year’s day schools rankings is the rise to the very top of the Vasant Valley School, Delhi followed by The Valley School, Bangalore. Both these schools reveal striking similarities of institutional values and philosophy At the summit of the league table of India’s 342-day schools sufficiently well-known to be rated by at least 25 people included in the EducationWorld-C fore database of 3,070 sample respondents country-wide, the old order of the past four years has changed, yielding place to the new. The trio of The Shri Ram School, Delhi (TSRS), Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai (CJCS) and Mallya Aditi International School, Bangalore (MAIS) which has dominated the all-India day schools rankings for the past three years has been bested by Delhi’s Vasant Valley School and The Valley School, Bangalore, ranked first and second respectively in 2012. Impressive as is the steady rise in public esteem of Vasant Valley School, Delhi, promoted in 1990 by media tycoon Aroon Purie, promoter-chairman of the publicly listed Living Media Ltd, which was ranked No. 17 in 2008, No. 4 last year, and first this year, the ascent to No. 2 spot of The Valley School, Bangalore is more spectacular. This low-profile K-12 school promoted in 1978 to educate children in consonance with the precepts and practices of the late philosopher sage J.D. Krishnamurti (1895-1986), was ranked No. 86, 59, 61 and 10 in the years 2008-2011 before being catapulted to No. 2 this year. Although ousted from their apex positions, the TSRS, CJCS and MAIS trio continues to be numbered among the Top 5 day schools countrywide. But further down the list, there’s been considerable churn, with hitherto unfancied schools from down south breaking into the Top 10. Among them: the low-profile Centre For Learning, Bangalore which has moved up from No. 18 last year to No. 7 in 2012; The School, KFI (Krishnamurti Foundation Institute), Chennai (from No. 37 to 8); Vidyaranya High School, Hyderabad (No. 83 to 8) and the Sishya School (Adyar) Chennai(No. 21 to 9). Other primary-secondaries which have improved their ranking within the Top 10 this year are Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School (Thane), Mumbai from No. 8 in 2011 to 6 tied with Step by Step, Noida (No. 10 to 6) which has been steadily rising in public esteem. “Being ranked as India’s most respected day school is certain to be a great morale booster to our parents, teachers and student communities, an assurance that we are on the right track. We have consciously set ourselves the goal of being a learning organisation in which students, teachers, and management are all learning continuously to actualise our own potential, and the full potential of our students. Therefore we are not afraid to adapt and implement new pedagogies such as collaborative and peer learning and invest heavily in teacher training and development. Awareness of this institutional culture within your informed sample respondents perhaps explains our top ranking this year,” says Arun Kapur, a history postgraduate of Delhi’s blue-chip St. Stephen’s College, who taught at the Doon School (1977-89) before being appointed the founder-principal of Vasant Valley in 1990. Kapur takes special pride…

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Editorial

Indian establishment’s Stockholm syndrome

Despite being proven beyond all reasonable doubt that India’s 18-million strong neta-babu (politician-bureaucrat) kleptocracy is engaged in open, continuous and uninterrupted loot of the public exchequer and actual and potential revenue of governments at the Centre and in the states, there’s a curious reluctance among media pundits and the nation’s intelligentsia to encourage the entry of anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare and Team Anna into the political arena. The most common refrain is that Team Anna is a single issue movement which lacks the capability to manage the complexities of Indian politics. Such advice is indicative of the extent to which the intelligentsia is cut off from the public, groaning under the heavy burden of institutionalised corruption. Since unchecked graft in government cuts across every sector and segment of Indian society, by definition it is a multi-sector issue. The rotting grain mountains of the Food Corporation of India are the fallout of widespread theft and defalcations within the organisation, which has prevented construction of adequate storage facilities; the country’s ubiquitous urban and rural slums are the outcome of pernicious corruption in the real estate sector; mass illiteracy and unemployability of millions of youth is the result of chronic corruption in education, and poor health and nutrition of the general populace is also the natural consequence of rampant corruption in the public healthcare system. Thus far from being a single issue, corruption is an all encompassing phenomenon which has created roadblocks in every sector of the Indian economy. Therefore if the powerful Lok Ayukta with its own police and investigation machinery and control over the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) — proposed by Team Anna — succeeds in putting the fear of God into every politician and bureaucrat, the nation’s GDP will automatically hit 9 percent plus per year. There is undoubtedly an element of the Stockholm syndrome in the negativism with which the intelligentsia and establishment greet any new initiative to break the stranglehold of established political parties over the polity and political process. This is because despite the political and administrative systems having been thoroughly compromised to the point of degeneration into open banditry, leading lights of the establishment have carved out comfortable niches and perches for themselves. Indeed, there is ample evidence to support the proposition that post-independence India’s national development effort has been restricted to advancement of the establishment and middle class, to the utter neglect and exclusion of the subaltern population in the lower reaches of the country’s socio-economic pyramid. The prospect of a politicised Team Anna’s single issue anti-corruption drive whose natural outcome will be root and branch reform of politics and administration to the benefit of the subaltern classes, upon whom the weight of institutionalised corruption bears most heavily, is subliminally unwelcome within the intelligentsia which prefers to bear the ills we have than fly to others they know not. Lessons from the London Olympics disaster Just one sportsperson, US swimmer Michael Phelps, has won almost as many Olympic medals — 22, including 18 gold…

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Mailbox

Road to hell

I read both your letter from the editor and cover story ‘Private schools on the warpath’ (EW August) with great delight. You have systematically demolished and laid bare the flimsy premises upon which the Central and state governments have proposed to load India’s beleaguered private schools with what in essence, is their responsibility. Truly, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The history of two schools in Darjeeling, West Bengal lends credence to your story. A government boys school and a sister girls school established in 1879 when the first Earl of Lytton was viceroy of India, and boasting acres of land and impressive and extensive neo-Gothic colonial buildings, jointly have about 500 students. Both schools are free for day pupils, and boarders pay a nominal fee of Rs.1,916 per month. Both schools are affiliated with CISCE, New Delhi, and have highly qualified teachers whose salary bill aggregates Rs.1.5 crore per year. These schools can easily accommodate an additional 1,000 students each, but even the free education they provide has few takers from local communities. Admittedly, the right to education is fundamental. But so are the right to food, safe drinking water, and decent shelter. All these are justifiable entitlements. But surely, government should prioritise the order in which they should be provided? Robindra Subba Director, Himali Boarding School Kurseong, Darjeeling Sanctified cop-out I read your enlightening cover feature ‘Private schools on the warpath’ (EW August) with great attention. Damodar Goyal deserves the gratitude of the nation for speaking up for private schools which are the last bastions of qualitative K-12 education in India. Unwilling and unable to raise education standards in the country’s 1.25 million government schools, the ‘neta-babu kleptocracy’ has focused its attention on private schools, forcing the latter to partially discharge its obligation to provide free and compulsory education. Shamefully, instead of reprimanding the Central and state governments for turning a blind eye to the shockingly low teaching-learning standards in government schools, the Supreme Court has sanctified this cop-out. The reality is that private schools are well managed, offer superior quality education and serve as benchmarks for government schools. India’s 80,000 private schools have educated the entire middle class, the most productive segment of our society. The creeping nationalisation of private schools which will result in their being reduced to the level of government schools, is a very dangerous development for Indian society. Ramesh Chandran Mumbai Alarming story The special report detailing the many scandals in medical education (EW August) is shocking. Some of these scandals have also been showcased in the hit television show Satyamev Jayate, to the horror of the nation. There was a time when the medical profession was considered noble, and doctors were believed to be divinely inspired. But corruption has tainted this profession severely. These days the primary objective of medical students seems to be to make money. Your statistics about sub-standard medical colleges being recklessly licensed by the Medical Council of India are alarming. The government should take immediate steps to cancel the licences of such colleges to…

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Education News

Delhi: Student loan hurdles

Pursuing higher education in India and abroad is set to become easier. The newly re-appointed Union finance minister P. Chidambaram announced that the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA, estb. 1946), of which 173 banks — including 26 public, 23 private sector, 38 foreign banks with offices in India and 61 co-operative banks as also 25 financial institutions — are members, will recommend revised norms to make it easier for students to avail education loans. Addressing the media after a meeting with chief executives of 26 public sector banks on August 18, Chidambaram said: “A bank loan is the right of every student who meets the required parameters.” The agenda of the meeting included four issues relating to education loans — expansion, time-bound disposal of applications, education loans for students admitted under management quotas, and loans for professional diploma courses. According to IBA sources, public sector banks (PSBs), which currently account for 80 percent of all loans disbursed annually, are devising a mechanism for rating institutions, courses and students for loan disbursement to reduce the risk of defaults. Under current IBA guidelines, banks are prohibited to demand security for education loans of up to Rs.4 lakh. But loans of Rs.4-7.5 lakh require guarantee from third parties and loans of over Rs.7.5 lakh have to be under-written by parents obliged to ante up collateral in the form of land, buildings, government or public sector bonds, life insurance policies, bank deposits, mutual funds or gold. Moreover, the loanee student is obliged to pledge up to 50 percent of his annual income (depending on bank rules) after a moratorium of six months-one year. Among the most significant reform proposals is to extend the repayment period to ten-15 years from the current five-seven years. Chidambaram’s student loans liberalisation initiative follows former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee (elected as President of India in July) setting up a Central Credit Guarantee Fund (CCGF) for education loans in his 2012-13 Budget speech of March 16. One percent of the interest earned from each education loan advanced by public sector banks will be contributed to swell the corpus of the fund. According to Union minister of human resource development, Kapil Sibal, the CCGF will have a corpus of Rs.5,000 crore, and discussions are on with the finance ministry to give the fund final shape. The proposed CCGF is certain to be welcomed by the country’s estimated 173 banks and banking companies which ab initio have been reluctant to advance education loans because of the high risk of default. According to IBA data, the number of education loans increased seven-fold between 2003-04 and 2010-11. But during the same period, the outstanding loan amount increased nine-fold to Rs.43,074 crore availed by 2.23 million borrowers. With banks’ student loan NPAs (non-performing assets) mounting, it’s hardly surprising that branch managers are reluctant to advance education loans, especially at below prime lending rates. Moreover, there’s the problem of loanees’ ability to repay against the backdrop of poor quality education dispensed by the country’s higher education system which…

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Education News

Maharashtra: Suspicious sudden fervour

The dismal condition of 1,167 primary and secondary schools with an aggregate enrolment of 650,000 children, run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in India’s commercial capital (pop. 20.5 million), is now officially admitted. On July 26, by a resolution of the corporation, private educators including corporates, education trusts and NGOs were invited to take over the reins of Mumbai’s municipal schools. The proposal has been pushed through BMC by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance which has a large majority in BMC on the recommendation of the corporation’s all-party standing committee, indicating a general consensus within the corporation on the issue. On the recommendation of the standing committee, private educators will be offered four public-private partnership (PPP) models — ‘Full school management with private partner’s teachers’ model which permits private partners to manage an existing or new civic school and provide free quality education through its own teachers and principal; ‘Full school support’ model restricting private partners to use existing school teachers; ‘Specific services partnership’ model under which private educators undertake to provide specific services to improve the quality of curricular and co-curricular education in BMC schools; ‘Short-term support from private organisations’ model restricted to provision of teacher training, coaching support, vocational programmes and special needs education; or the ‘One-time donation model’ under which private parties provide computers, books, furniture, uniforms etc. According to the BMC resolution, the corporation wants to infuse dynamism, competitiveness and expert management into municipal schools. However, private educators are wary about the fine print of the PPP options and public opinion is divided on whether the BMC is shirking its responsibility or is genuinely interested in improving the quality of education in dysfunctional BMC schools. According to Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education (estb. 1994), the BMC’s PPP models are precursors of “backdoor privatisation” of municipal schools sited on the most expensive real estate countrywide. “This proposal is not a permanent solution to the challenges confronting these schools. It is the duty of the government to provide free, and equal education. It should not outsource this constitutional obligation to the private sector through the PPP model. The BMC should focus on improving the quality and accessibility of its own free schools,” says Jain. Certainly, finance is no constraint for India’s richest municipal corporation which expends Rs.2,342 crore on education annually. In 2011, BMC spent Rs.1,800 crore on 445,779 primary school students — Rs.40,390 per capita. And this year the amount has been enhanced to Rs.52,255 per student — substantially more than provided by any municipal corporation countrywide. Despite this, the flight of students from BMC schools has not abated, with the percentage of drop-outs rising from 6.23 in 2010-11 to 12 in 2011-12. Moreover, the waters of BMC education have been further muddied by a proposal to invite private educators to construct education institutions on 50 percent of the land reserved for municipal schools, and build a municipal school for the BMC on the remaining portion. Though BMC officials…

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Education News

Tamil Nadu: Child safety hypocrisy

Although the southern seaboard state of Tamil Nadu (pop. 72 million) prides itself for its high academic standards and quality of schools, its school safety record is the mirror opposite of its academic attainments. Almost a decade ago on July 16, 2004, the state’s appalling child safety record hit national headlines when 93 primary school children were burnt to death in the town of Kumbakonam, because of total disregard of child safety rules and regulations by the school management. Since then after initial indignation, furore and brave statements of intent from the state government to strictly enforce school safety regulations, not much has changed at ground zero level. On July 25, six-year-old Shruthi Sethumadhavan was run over by the rear wheels of her school bus after she slipped through a hole beneath her seat. On August 16, M. Ranjan (10) a student of the highly regarded Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School, Chennai, drowned in the school swimming pool despite the presence of lifeguards and coaches. According to media reports, Shruthi’s death was caused by negligence of a government RTO (regional transport officer) and the school management. The bus in which Shruthi, a class II student of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School, was commuting to school had a gaping hole under her seat covered by a cardboard which kept shifting as the bus sped ahead. Shruthi slipped through the hole and was crushed to death under the rear wheels of the bus. Shockingly, an RTO had certified the roadworthiness and safety of the school bus a fortnight earlier on July 9. Taking cognizance of media reports, the first bench of the Madras high court suo motu summoned the school authorities and transport officials who issued the fitness certificate of the bus, to appear in court. As is customary, seven people were arrested, of whom three have been granted bail. In the case of Ranjan, a class IV student of the prestigious CBSE-affiliated Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, there are conflicting reports. According to eye witnesses, 30-35 students were in the small pool designed for only 15 people and the coaches had been negligent. The intelligentsia in Tamil Nadu and Chennai is not surprised by recurring tragedies born out of official and public apathy towards child safety rules. There is virtual unanimity that many more such tragedies are waiting to happen. For instance, most of the state’s 52,303 government and corporation schools are in pathetic condition, and lack proper buildings, drinking water, toilets, electricity and safety systems including fire extinguishers, regarded as luxuries. “Private school managements have to be more vigilant and take responsibility for untoward incidents happening inside the school, and all private and government schools which provide hostel facilities should monitor the premises. Strict action has to be taken against those who violate safety norms, so that such violations are not repeated,” says Andal Damodaran, vice president, Indian Council for Child Welfare, Tamil Nadu, in a typical after-the-event homily. Although it’s not politically correct to say so, there’s a conspiracy of…

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Education News

West Bengal: Cosmetic reforms

After 34 years of uninterrupted rule of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front government during which era the education system of West Bengal (pop. 90 million) — once widely accepted as the best in India — was run into the ground by CPM apparatchiks and cadres, academics and parents expected major reforms after the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress routed the CPM in the state assembly election of the summer of 2011. But since then, the ad hoc changes decreed by the incumbent Trinamool government dominated by its mercurial chief minister, has disappointed academics in West Bengal. On the contrary, with Banerjee hell-bent on flushing out communist doctrine and hagiographies from school and college curriculums, there is growing fear of anarchy in the education sector. Shortly after the Trinamool Congress government was installed in Writers Building, Kolkata in May 2011, Banerjee constituted a 19-member school syllabus reform committee under the chairmanship of Aveek Mazumdar, former assistant professor, department of comparative literature, Jadavpur University. One of the first recommendations of the Mazumdar Committee was to debunk Soviet communism and declare its founders Marx and Engels non persons in the history texts of higher secondary students, a suggestion accepted with alacrity by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education Examinations (WBCHSE). And the latest decision taken by WBCHSE and education minister Bratya Basu on July 28 is to liberalise the higher secondary exam syllabus, and encourage grades inflation so that 700,000 students who write the council’s class XII board exam “secure high marks’’, and are not at a disadvantage compared with students from CBSE, CISCE and other state board affiliated schools when applying for admissions in Central government colleges. To start with, the higher secondary examination in 2013 will span only 13 days, against the 26 earlier. “We have now framed the routine in such a manner that students will be able to wrap up written tests within 13 days, considering the wide range of subject combinations,’’ says WBCHSE president Muktinath Chatterjee. Moreover in July, the Mazumdar Committee also recommended omitting the stories of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894), famous Bengali writer, poet and journalist and temporarily withdrawing the poetry of Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926-1947) from the Bengali K-12 syllabus on the grounds that their prose and poetry is old-fashioned and difficult for students to grasp. The opposition slammed this recommendation describing it as “politically motivated to malign history”. Well-known educationist Sunanda Sanyal who resigned as head of the School Syllabus Committee last November, also criticises this proposal. “Students in class XI and XII should learn and read stories of Bankim Chandra, otherwise those signing up for the Bengali honours programme in college won’t be able to cope with the curiculum,’’ he warns. Adds Prithwis Mukherjee, professor of management at IIT-Kharagpur: “The prose and poetry of Bankim Chandra and Sukanta have played a significant role in the growth of Bengali language, and society and students should be aware of their contribution.’’ However, the Mazumdar Committee recommends the more contemporary writings of Gabriel…

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Education News

Karnataka: Implementation anxiety

Against the backdrop of the Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act) which makes it compulsory for the State, i.e the Central and/or state governments to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of six-14, the primary-higher secondary (class I-XII) education system in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 61 million) is set to experience a major structural change. Radical changes in the structure of Karnataka’s school system have been recommended by a committee chaired by Prof. R. Govinda, vice chancellor of the Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), which submitted its report to the state government on August 17. According to the Structural Upgradation and Reorganisation of School Education Report, “the existing structure of 5+2+3 years of general education has built-in limitations in honouring the constitutional mandate of Article 21A” (i.e the RTE Act). Currently, primary education in Karnataka is offered in classes I-V and upper primary in classes VI-VII. Secondary education is offered in classes VIII-X and higher secondary in classes XI-XII. If the report is accepted by the state government, classes I-VIII will be classified as primary, classes IX-X as secondary and classes XI-XII as higher secondary. In short, the current 5+2+3 school system will be replaced by an 8+2+2 system. Moreover ‘pre-university’ education usually dispensed by undergraduate colleges will be abolished and classes XI-XII (higher secondary) will be merged with the school system. This will require additional infrastructure and teachers. The report has identified a need for 22,718 additional rooms and 14,958 teachers in government schools. An important recommendation of the committee is to abolish the state’s pre-university system and introduce classes XI and XII in all government and state board affiliated schools. “Pre-university level is neither under secondary level nor degree level and hence is in unsettled state. The age group between 16 and 18 is susceptible… they are closer to secondary school stage rather than college education,” says the report. The Govinda Committee’s comprehensive 41-page report which includes a valuable history of the evolution of Karnataka’s primary-secondary school system, has been welcomed as overdue by the state’s academic community. “The 8+2+2 school system is normative across the country but successive governments in Karnataka have evaded switching over to this system under pressure from powerful secondary school lobbies, as secondaries stand to lose class VIII grants and fees. Now with the enactment of the RTE Act, the need to restructure the school system has become pressing. But although the proposals of the Govinda Committee’s report are unexceptionable, I have doubts whether it will be implemented for familiar reasons,” says Dr. A.S Seetharamu, former professor of education at the Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bangalore and advisor to the Karnataka government. Likewise Dilip Ranjekar, chief executive of the Azim Premji Foundation (regd. 1998) which has been championing the cause of primary education and teacher training for the past decade, and is constructing the Rs.500 crore Azim Premji University for teacher training in Bangalore, is…

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Education Notes

Uttar Pradesh Kanya Vidya Dhan scheme for girl children Under the state government’s Kanya Vidya Dhan programme announced on August 22, girl students who clear the intermediate (Plus Two) or equivalent examination from 2012 onwards, will be awarded a lumpsum Rs.30,000. According to a government order, every girl student who qualifies for this scheme subject to the proviso that the total income of her family is less than Rs.35,000 per year, is eligible to submit her application at an office designated by the district magistrate. The last date for receiving Kanya Vidya Dhan applications for the inaugural year is September 20. District magistrates have been directed to ensure that annual income certificates are issued to parents of eligible girl children. Odisha Nalco full scholarships Nalco Foundation, the CSR (corporate social responsibility) arm of the Bhubaneswar-based National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), has signed memoranda of understanding with the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar; Koraput Development Foundation (KDF), Jeypore; and Bikash Vidyalaya, Koraput, under which children from remote villages of Damanjodi in Koraput district will receive full scholarship education in their schools. Nalco will foot all expenses including tuition, board and lodging and other expenses. This full scholarship residential education programme for which the foundation has made a provision of Rs.70 lakh per year, will enable 450 children from the backward villages of Damanjodi to enrol in KISS, KDF and Bikash Vidyalaya schools. Meanwhile a second batch of 210 tribal children to be enroled in KISS has also been selected. Punjab Entrance exam language row Punjab education minister Sikander Singh Maluka has voiced strident objection to cancellation of the Punjabi language entrance exam of Punjab University (PU) and has invited intervention of vice president Hamid Ansari, in his capacity as ex-officio chancellor of the university, to reverse the decision. According to university rules, all M.Phil entrance exams are obliged to be written in English. According to Maluka, this is a “dangerous and strange” decision against Punjab and the Punjabi language by PU which has a “systematic plan to decimate the Punjabi language”. He said the state government will not tolerate neglect of Punjabi by PU, which receives state government aid to fund 60 percent of its annual expenditure. “Protection of Punjabi language is the duty of the university administration. Even the country’s highest civil services entrance exams are permitted to be written in Gurmukhi,” he said, inviting the vice president’s intervention. Tripura Theatre-in-education study programme The National School of Drama (NSD), Agartala has introduced a new study programme ‘Theatre-in-education’ — a first-of-its-type in Asia. The initial batch of 20 students admitted to the 12-month programme includes eight students from Tripura and the rest from other states. An interview board — headed by the course coordinator Kirty Jain, a former director of NSD — selected the candidates, said Anuradha Kapur, director of NSD. The new programme was inaugurated by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar on August 9. NSD intends to send its graduates to stage theatre productions countrywide next year, says…

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Education Briefs

Novozymes-Holck-Larsen Foundation initiative

Novozymes — a constituent company of the Denmark-based Novo Group, a major transnational engaged in production of enzymes, micro-organisms and biopharmaceuticals — and the Holck-Larsen Foundation (India), have joined with Danish universities to establish a scientists exchange programme, the first of its type, between India and Denmark. “With many excellent universities, India has a large population of talented scientists,” says Per Falholt, executive vice president and head of R&D at Novozymes. “At the same time Novozymes has a need for talented scientists with a global mindset. Denmark also educates excellent biotechnologists, who will benefit from international assignments providing them a global perspective. My dream is to connect Indian and Danish science in the field of biotechnology. This is why we’re establishing this scientists exchange programme to provide funds to send them on international education assignments. I’m sure the programme will benefit both our countries and Novozymes.” Novozymes has significant business operations in India with over 400 employees working in a state-of-the-art R&D facility in Bangalore. The objective of the new exchange programme is to attract scientists with international mindsets and project Novozymes as an attractive career opportunities provider to India’s scientific community. The new exchange programme is funded to the tune of DKK 2 million per year (Rs.1.87 crore) by Novozymes and Holck-Larsen Foundation. The programme will run from 2013 to 2019, and each year it will enable 25 scientists to participate in exchange visits between India and Denmark. The funds will be managed by the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University. Texas Instruments launches new genre scientific calculators Texas Instruments (TI, estb.1951), the US-based chipmaker and education solution provider, recently launched its new range of scientific calculators in India, to assist engineering, science and commerce students in learning and exploring mathematics and science concepts. The new genre scientific calculators were launched by Union minister of state for human resource development, Purandeswari, at an event titled ‘Promoting mathematics using technology’ organized by TI in Hyderabad on June 13. The highlight of the event was a panel discussion on the need to increase students’ engagement in the classroom learning process and build strong foundations in math and science. The panel featured eminent academicians who discussed pedagogical practices and the need for math and science teaching-learning to connect with real life. The domestic market for scientific calculators is estimated at Rs.250 crore. About 3 million units are sold annually with a compounded annual growth rate of 15 percent. Priced between Rs.490- 890, TI’s calculators can be used from basic calculations to advanced 2-variable statistics, conversions, regression analysis, etc. “The launch of TI scientific calculators in India is significant because of the government’s initiative of declaring 2012 as the Year of Mathematics. Students all over the world are leaning towards advanced technology enabled interactive methods for analysis and calculations. We are confident that through our calcularors we will help students expand their horizons in mathematics and allied subjects,” said Dr Peter Balyta, general manager, sales and marketing — education…

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Young Achievers

Soumyajit Ghosh & Ankita Das

Siliguri (pop.1.9 million) is a nondescript city and commodities trading centre (tea, timber) in the Darjeeling district of North Bengal, sited on the banks of river Mahananda in the Himalayan foothills. Known as the gateway to the popular hill station of Darjeeling and the seven sister states of north-east India, it’s certainly not renowned for sports heroes. However, two table tennis players Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das from Siliguri, won their way to the London Olympics 2012, after beating their more experienced Indian team mates in the Table Tennis Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Hong Kong, in April. In London, Soumyajit notched up a convincing win over higher ranked Brazilian Gustavo Tsuboi in the first round, but went down in the second. While Ankita, somewhat overawed by the occasion, lost in the first round. Despite their early exit, the duo’s wins over all domestic opposition and subsequent passage to London generated great excitement in Siliguri. Soumyajit (19) is a first year arts student at Siliguri College, an only child of Harishankar Ghosh, a municipal corporation clerk, and his homemaker mother Mina. They are proud that he donned India colours and bested a much higher ranked player in the first round. “It was great to win the first round against a Brazilian player ranked 104 in the world but North Korea’s Kim Hyok Bong, who is ranked 77 and has beaten higher ranked opponents proved much too strong. Playing in London has given me good exposure to international table tennis standards,’’ says Soumyajit, who has been playing the game since age five and has been mentored by coaches of international repute, including, Bhawani Mukherji and Peter Karlsson. Likewise, Ankita Das (18), a second year BA student of Siliguri College, enjoys a huge reputation in North Bengal. She won the national junior championship in 2007, a title she held for two years and is the reigning youth national women’s champion after winning the title in 2010 for the first time. But representing India in the London Olympics is the high point of her achievements. “Olympics is a big event and the pressure is tremendous. Having had the experience of playing in a truly international event, I’m sure I’ll do better if selected to represent India again,’’ she says. Play on! Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) Also read: Sports Education Blindspot

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Sports Education

Getting most out of sports

Contrary to popular opinion, the killer instinct isn’t a prerequisite of sporting success. In fact, it’s an unhealthy attribute to develop. It’s much healthier and personally and socially more beneficial to regard opponents as partners who, because of their competitive effort, afford you the opportunity to raise the level of your performance. You depend on them to extend your limits. One of the most memorable stories of athletes as partners comes to us from the 1936 Olympic Games staged in Berlin, orchestrated by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to prove that Germans were the master race. Jesse Owens, the great Afro-American athlete representing the United States, was a world record holder in the long jump. After fouling his first two attempts, Owens was on the verge of being eliminated in the heats. Before his third and final jump, Lutz Long, Germany’s top jumper, rushed to his side and proffered a crucial tactical suggestion. Owens followed his advice and qualified for the final. Both athletes continued to push each other until Owens set an Olympic record in his last jump. Sportingly, Lutz held Owens’ hand aloft before thousands of cheering spectators, and both walked out of the stadium arm-in-arm. Owens went on to win four gold medals, denting the dictator’s master race propaganda. The verb “to compete” is derived from the Latin competere, meaning “to seek together”. Physical educators of the 1920s taught sportsmanship as well as track and field skills, emphasising health, vigour, high moral conduct, participation, and respect for opponents and rivals. Nowadays too, many men and women compete whole-heartedly without buying into the “super bull” mentality that winning is everything. They develop mutual respect and ties of friendship which often last a lifetime. They understand that to win is not to belittle; that winning is not fulfilling if the norms of fairplay aren’t respected, or participants don’t derive pleasure regardless of disappointments and failure. In his book The Ultimate Athlete, George Leonard claims that “every aikidoist (a martial art) faces the problem of finding a good partner who will attack with real intent. The greatest gift he can receive from his opponent is clean, true attack, the blow that — unless blocked or avoided — will strike home with real effect”. Leonard’s message is clear: be thankful to your opponents. They are the people who enable you to experience the joy of sport, and push you to new heights. While I may not have understood this truth when I was young, building lasting friendships has been a theme of my sporting life as well, together with physical competence, achievement and joy. Though I’ve competed in seven sporting disciplines from junior high school to the professional level, I have only a few memories of victories and defeats. I don’t believe winning taught me to be a gracious winner or losing readied me for more serious losses in life. Rather, 70 years of consistent participation in competitive sports and games has taught me how to play with empathy, humour and honesty. If…

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Our country has never been in such a flux and turmoil as it is today, with Indian society at the crossroads. The public is unsure about which path to take, and the nation is facing an identity crisis because of deteriorating values.

Teacher-to-Teacher

Independence Day message

Our country has never been in such a flux and turmoil as it is today, with Indian society at the crossroads. The public is unsure about which path to take, and the nation is facing an identity crisis because of deteriorating values. The easy solution is to blame government, as most people do. But there’s considerable truth in the adage that people get the governments they deserve. Therefore the onus is on individuals, families, society, and institutions, to drive change from within because education doesn’t happen only in centres of formal learning. Nor should the sole objective of education be about securing good marks, college admissions, jobs and money. Shouldn’t character-building, leadership qualities, and core human values constitute an important component of wholesome education? Moreover, what is the role of parents, who to my mind are the first and most important teachers, even if not formally educated? Parents and teachers especially in primary schools where children are of impressionable age, need to become exemplary role models because the goal of all education must be to give to society honest, law-abiding, productive and compassionate citizens. This is not happening. Therefore we need to introspect why not. As teachers and principals, there’s little we can do to educate parents of our wards, governments, media and other leaders of society who shape public opinion. But what we can certainly do is nurture children holistically by not neglecting sports, extra-curricular activities and moral education. While the role of every teacher is critical in her classroom and beyond, the role and responsibility of principals is more onerous because he/she has to educate, encourage and motivate teachers to give their best to students. Yet the starting point of education reform is within the teachers’ community. Apart from enhancing their classroom teaching skills, are teachers working on themselves to become better citizens? I’ve never known a great teacher of any subject who wasn’t also a good citizen endowed with the virtues of love, compassion, innate sense of fairness, a passion for life, humanity and profession. Teachers, including principals have to lead from the front, by working towards becoming good role models for their students, a responsibility greater than teaching their subjects well. But in all education institutions, leadership and role modelling have to flow down from the top. Principals must earn the respect of staff, students, parents and the local community. They need to evolve into upright and transparent leaders who are sticklers for rules and discipline, yet always fair. Only then can they lead and steer teachers and students towards a better future. Authority by itself is meaningless unless backed by inner moral or ‘soul power’ as Gandhiji described it. The plain fact which the teachers’ community needs to absorb and digest is that you cannot be a good teacher unless your students, parents, colleagues and community groups can look upto you as a strong and committed human being. Those who feel they can’t pass this test are advised to choose another profession. Unfortunately, for complex…

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Career Focus

Creative opportunities in theatre

Today there are numerous career options within contemporary theatre — whether you want to act, direct, start your own acting school, teach in drama institutes or even as preparatory to entry into television and/or cinema Cynics who predicted that theatre’s time had passed, have been proved wrong. Following the advent of cinema and popular acceptance of television, numerous obituaries were written of theatre and the stage. But the demand for on-stage live performances, as also for actors, playwrights, directors and producers, hasn’t abated. Two decades ago, theatre as a full-time vocation was not possible. Today there are numerous career options within contemporary theatre — whether you want to act, direct, start your own acting school or teach in drama institutes, and even as preparatory to entry into television and/or cinema. The stage being an excellent medium for artistic expression, humour and talent, most progressive schools have also integrated drama and theatre into their curriculums. “Theatre is alive and kicking and here to stay! Almost all colleges stage inter-collegiate theatre festivals where theatre groups from across the country participate in a big way. Prospects of full-time careers in theatre have certainly improved with so many wonderful groups emerging from myriad theatre festivals countrywide,” says actor, director, and producer Raell Padamsee, one of the brightest stars of the English theatre and founder of Ace Productions and Ace Academy, which trains children in the theatrical arts. The premier institutes which offer formal training in theatre and related disciplines are the National School of Drama, New Delhi and the Film & Television Institute of India, Pune. Moreover, several universities in the country offer acting and dramatic arts study programmes. Among them: Bangalore University; Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata; M.S. University, Baroda; the Academy of Theatre Arts of Mumbai University (which offers a two-year full-time postgraduate course in acting, direction, stagecraft etc) and Natya Academy, Lucknow. Institutes offering short-term acting courses have also mushroomed countrywide. For aspiring television and cinema artists, theatre training is useful. ‘‘Film and television producers routinely recruit trained stage actors for television serials, cinema etc. This ensures a wider audience for stage productions and a number of theatre actors now run workshops and other programmes for aspiring actors. Some of them also run programmes for corporates. All this has enabled theatre and drama companies and the medium itself to survive and prosper. While acting is the most preferred career option in theatre, my personal passion is direction. I find it more holistic and creative,” says Padamsee, a veteran of theatre for over 20 years. The thespian’s art apart, there are other career opportunities in theatre, says Padamsee. “There’s a huge influx of talent coming into Bombay, especially from smaller towns and abroad as well. Everyday I get at least three resumés of people wanting to showcase their talent as directors, script writers, production executives and stage-hands. However, Indian theatre still lacks a pool of high quality technicians and designers,” she laments. With theatre icons Alyque and Pearl for parents, Padamsee was exposed to…

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Career Focus

Your Counselor Replies

I’m in Plus Two (science) and keen on specialising in psephology at the undergrad or postgrad levels. Please advise. Seema Shah, Ahmedabad Psephology is study of the science of public elections and statistical analyses of voting trends. Loosely, it enables prediction of electoral outcomes and is a sub-discipline of political science. Several universities offer postgrad specialisation and/or research opportunities in psephology in their faculties of political science and sociology. Sociologists, psychologists, demographers, market research professionals, archivists and statisticians are best equipped to qualify as psephologists. Since psephology is not a specific/ independent discipline, you could choose one of several routes to qualification depending upon your interests and aptitude. Along the way, you could also keep alternative occupations in mind. I’m in my final year B.Sc (computer science). After graduating next year, I would like to enrol for a Masters in computer application (MCA) programme while working alongside. Is that possible? Rajesh Iyer, Chennai It would be advisable to sign up for a full-time MCA programme with a reputed college as it will give you the advantage of direct campus placement. If you opt for a distance education MCA, that advantage won’t be available to you. Freelancing is a possibility but you will have to look for a job in the IT industry. I’m in Plus Two (science) and keen on qualifying as a professional chef. What study courses would you suggest? Neela D’Souza, Mumbai IHMCTAN, Mumbai (www.ihmctan.edu) offers an 18-month craftsmanship course in food production and patisserie. IHM, Aurangabad (www.ihma. ac.in), Oberoi’s STEP (www.oberoi hotels.com), Culinary Academy of India, Hyderabad (http://www.iachtchef academy.com/home.html) as also Ace Academy of Culinary Education, Goa (http://www.acegoa.com/) are popular choices for culinary arts and allied education. The minimum admissions eligibility is completion of Plus Two. I’m a genetics engineering student keen on specialising in forensic science in my Masters programme. Can you suggest reputed universities abroad which offer an MS in forensic science. How different is it from an MS in criminology? Ravi Narayan, Bangalore Forensic scientists assist criminal investigations by using specialised equipment and laboratory tests to analyse scene of crime evidence. Students study subjects such as forensic science instruments and methodologies, DNA typing, arson inspection, courtroom testimony and forensic science research procedures. You can also add courses in areas of your interest related to law, accountancy, bio-chemistry, psychology etc. The best forensic science study programmes are offered by the University of Florida, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of California at Davis and Boston, George Washington and Syracuse universities and the State University of New York at Albany, Drexel, as also the universities of Mississippi and Ohio. After completing my B.Tech (biotechnology) next year, I would like to press on for an M.Tech. Which institutes do you recommend? Sumit Chawla, New Delhi Reputed institutes for M.tech (biotechnology) are IIT-Kharagpur (www.iitkgp.ernet.in); University of Calcutta (www.caluniv.ac.in) and University of Hyderabad (www.uohyd. ernet.in). You’ll have to write the GATE entrance exam for admission into these institutions. Success in the Common Biotechnology Entrance Examination conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (www.jnu.ac.in)…

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Books

Honest epitaph

A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time by Arjun Singh; Hay House; Price: Rs.599; 379 pp A welcome and historically valuable development in Indian publishing is the practice of industry leaders teaming up with professional journalists and writers to pen their memoirs, giving a diversity of perspectives on the history of our times. Although inevitably such memoirs, autobiographies and authorised biographies are biased narratives which tend to be justifications written by relatively minor players on the national stage with narrow horizons, they nevertheless provide useful material for professional historians even while enabling lay citizens to acquire fresh insights into contemporary history, which doesn’t offer the luxury of contemplation and reflection. Fortunately this new tradition is also being followed by politicians, and it would be in the national interest if more of this hated yet necessary tribe will follow the example of the late Arjun Singh (1930-2011). In his long career spanning over half a century in state and national politics during which he was always in the inner circle of power in the Delhi imperium, Singh found himself in the thick of action, and undoubtedly helped to shape the history of post-independence India, though not necessarily for the better. A Grain of Sand written in straightforward, felicitous prose with Ashok Chopra, a vastly experienced books editor, provides an insightful portrait of post-Nehruvian India and how it was (mis)shaped by his heirs and successors. The plus point of this chronicle is that it recounts stage-by-stage, Singh’s evolution from the second son of a minor raja into an ideology-driven politician who made a smooth transition from state to national politics, and along the way caught the popular imagination. It serves the purpose of a useful primer to aspiring politicians inasmuch as it demonstrates the skill with which Singh developed a patronage network and deftly utilised populist ideology not only to advance but also survive in Indian politics. Thus he was able to survive the Bhopal gas leak tragedy of 1984 which killed thousands, a catastrophe that unfolded under his watch as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. His loyalty to Indira and later to Rajiv Gandhi was legendary. Loyal to the last, Singh implausibly lays the blame for the release of Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson on bail and his subsequent escape to the US, to pressure from the Union home ministry headed by Narasimha Rao. “… at no point of time did Rajiv talk to me about this matter or intercede on Anderson’s behalf,” asserts Singh. It was as Union cabinet minister in Delhi and as a faithful acolyte of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, that Arjun Singh maximally impacted the polity. He claims credit for coordinating with Sam Pitroda to “bring about the first telecom revolution in the country” in 1987, and for playing a “fairly important role to bringing in peace and normalcy to the strife-torn north-eastern state of Mizoram”. But after the Congress party was ousted from power in 1989 at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh, and Rajiv assassinated…

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Eduleader Bytes

Shayama Chona, Founder-president, Tamana Society

Shayama Chona, Founder-president of Tamana Society & former principal of DPS, RK Puram (1992-2009) Where would you place education on your national list of priorities? Top of the list. How best to upgrade government schools? Central government schools — KVs and JNVs are doing well. But standards vary from state to state. If official dropout percentages and Pratham reports are any indication, India’s children deserve better. Thinker/philosopher you admire the most. Thinker: Jawaharlal Nehru; philosopher: Aristotle. Your leadership style. I lead by example. Your favourite book on leadership. The Leader in Me by Stephen R. Covey. For or against the RTE Act mandating 25 percent reservation for underprivileged children in private schools? For. Should education outlay be doubled by cutting defence expenditure? Yes, definitely. How satisfied are you with the growth and development of the DPS schools movement with which you have been associated for 38 years? Very — amazing growth and development. But teaching-learning standards are not uniform. Some non-DPS society-owned schools need to come up to the standards of society-owned schools. There’s no doubt however, that the DPS brand attracts best staff and students. How adequate are government and public efforts to educate India’s estimated 40 million challenged children? Highly inadequate. How can we call ourselves a civilised society when there’s little care for 10 percent of our population which is disabled? Failure to implement RTE Act provisions in schools has resulted in total neglect of special needs children. The ground reality is far from what is projected. Pessimistic or optimistic about Indian education as a whole? Very pessimistic. We need 200,000 new schools immediately. There is a huge requirement of teachers, but the B.Ed course content is obsolete. The recent CBSE reforms introduced by Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal are praiseworthy but their implementation is still a far cry. Recommended: Dr. Shayama Chona, eminent educationist, sheds light on autism – #WorldAutismDay

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Postscript

Reel life NCW

On one issue the usually brain dead scriptwriters and directors of Bollywood and its regional avatars are bang on target: women are the worst enemies of women. In reel life, the greatest persecutors of heroines and indeed any woman endowed with half-good looks, are the scheming mother or sister in-law, and often the neighbourhood killjoy sworn to uphold Brit-Victorian interpretation of Indian culture. A case in point is the National Commission for Women (NCW, estb.1992), promoted with the objectives of reviewing consti-tutional and legal safeguards for women and advising government on all policy matters affecting women. Alas, over the past two decades the national and state commissions have degenerated into Bollywood-style mother-in-law institutions given to faulting women rather than speaking up for them. So when a teenager emerging from a pub was sexually molested in public by a gang of goons and the incident was filmed by a regional television channel, a Delhi socialite sent by NCW to investigate, unhesitatingly disclosed — instead of protecting — the name and identity of the victim. On another occasion, an NCW chairperson advised women that being referred to as “sexy” by strangers should be regarded as a compliment even as she routinely advises them to tone down their dressing to discourage sexual molestation. Moreover, following an attack and sexual assault on a group of young people — including women — on July 28 in Mangalore by Hindutva activists for the crime of staging a birthday party, C. Manjula, chairperson of the NCW (Karnataka), refused to condemn the attackers, who she said were justifiably provoked by the “immoral activities” of the partying youth, ignorant of “the values of this soil”. Never having experienced romance and probably having ‘purchased’ their husbands, these frustrated harridans are hell-bent on ensuring that Gen Next doesn’t enjoy any of the freedoms they themselves were too timorous to demand. The public interest demands that the regressives who dominate NCW and its branches are sent back to mind kinder, kuche, kirche (children, kitchen and church — the role of women decreed by the late and unlamented Adolf Hitler). Academia inertia In these depressing times of scam upon scam, unrelenting inflation and internal displacement of innocent people, a sliver of good news which has uplifted your dejected editor has come from XLRI, Jamshedpur, the reputed B-school which perhaps because it’s run by men of the cloth, has never quite been bestowed the public esteem conferred upon the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management). Yet XLRI is lengths ahead of the IIMs whose academics preach business management, but seldom practice it, in fundraising. According to a report in the Economic Times (August 14), the reverend fathers who double as faculty at the institute, have accumulated an endowment corpus of Rs.2.5 crore by systematically tapping their alumni for donations. The top management of XLRI (estb.1949) has now set itself a target of raising Rs.100 crore over the next five years to construct a new campus in Delhi, and to endow new chairs in Jamshedpur. For…

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