EducationWorld September 16

In the category of relatively progressive co-ed boarding schools, the reign of the Rishi Valley School, Chittoor, established by philosopher-savant J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986), shows no sign of ending. Here are India’s Best Co-ed Boarding Schools 2016-17 Its undoubtedly a sign of social progress that the number of co-ed boarding schools sufficiently well-known to be rated and ranked in the EW India School Rankings (EWISR) 2016 at 55, is more than the number of all-boys (28), and all-girls (18) boarding schools put together. Although single gender schools serve a useful purpose inasmuch as they enable children from conservative households to access high quality education in usually salubrious, conducive and safe environments, the causes of gender egalitarianism and inculcation of respect for girl children and women from an early age argue in favour of sexually segregated schools being gradually phased out. In this ipso facto progressive category of boarding schools, the reign of the Rishi Valley School (RVS), Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), established by the sagacious educationist J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) in 1924 to enable children to learn joyously in a nature-friendly and ecologically sustainable environment – long before it became fashionable to do so – shows no sign of ending. The CISCE-affilated RVS has been ranked India’s premier co-ed boarding school on almost all parameters of education excellence for the past five of six years. The only time it was pipped at the post was in 2014 when the Sahyadri School, Pune, also inspired by the education ideals of Krishnamurti, was ranked #1, and that was probably because A.S. Shirali, principal of RVS for 15 years was appointed principal of Sahyadri that year. In EWISR 2016, Sahyadri School, Pune is ranked #6. Perhaps inevitably for an institution that is invariably awarded highest rating under the parameter of life skills and conflict management, RVS principal Siddhartha Menon is reluctant to beat the schools drum. Nevertheless he deputed Dr. D. Anatha Jyothi, the schools vice principal, to react to the top rank awarded to RVS by EW sample respondents this year. “We don’t believe rating and ranking of schools or students serves much purpose. In RVS, we regard the school as being a work in progress and believe schools can learn from continuous exchange of experiences. Therefore, while we respect the effort invested in publishing the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings, we would be happier if you provided a platform for diverse schools to meet together, share the experiences and challenges they face, and explore key issues in education. RVS is an old school and has grown in reputation due to the contribution of many individuals. J. Krishnamurti’s teachings have laid the foundation for the school, and they continue to inspire much of the work and learning that happens here”, says Jyothi. An English and linguistics alumna of IIT-Madras, Jyothi first signed up as a teacher at RVS in 1996, taught English in the UK for several years and rejoined RVS, which currently has 370 students mentored by 59 teachers, in 2007. As last year,…

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Good Shepherd International, which sprawls across 180 acres in scenic Ooty, has broken the triopoly of vintage American international schools and has been declared #1 in this glamour category, albeit jointly with Woodstock, Mussoorie In the glamorous wholly residential section of the international schools category, the vintage Woodstock School, Mussoorie (estb.1852), Kodaikanal International School (KIS, estb.1931) and Hebron, Ooty (estb.1899) promoted by American missionaries in India’s most scenic hill stations, dominated the EducationWorld league tables ab initio. But in the new millennium, several newly-promoted superbly equipped primary-secondaries affiliated with offshore examination boards such as IBO (Geneva) and CIE (UK) have captured the imagination of upper crust households countrywide. But most of them have been promoted as day-cum-boarding schools which since 2013, are rated and ranked in separate dedicated league tables. However last year, the wholly residential CISCE (Delhi), CIE (UK) and IBO (Geneva)-affiliated Good Shepherd International School (GSIS), which sprawls across 180 acres in Ooty (“queen of hill stations”), Tamil Nadu, broke the American triopoly to be jointly ranked #2 with KIS. This year, the informed EW-C fore sample respondents have declared GSIS India’s #1 international residential school, albeit jointly with Woodstock, Mussoorie. “I am delighted that your sample respondents have acknowledged GSIS’ sustained effort of the past four decades to provide our students globally comparable primary-secondary education, enriched with excellent pastoral care and co-curricular and sports education. This recognition is timely as we have launched a major capacity expansion project to create facilities for an additional 600 students on an adjoining campus. In GSIS we take pride in benchmarking ourselves with the worlds best international schools and our #1 India ranking is assurance that we are progressing in the right direction”, says P.C. Thomas, founder-principal of GSIS, who together with wife Elsamma has studiously resisted numerous offers to expand the footprint of GSIS under partnership and franchise models. “All of our efforts and expertise are invested in GSIS, which we are determined to develop into Asia’s most respected English-medium international school”, adds Thomas. The ascent of GSIS to apex position in the league table of India’s best international residential schools and #1 in Tamil Nadu (pop.78 million), has dislodged the states two vintage international boarding schools – Kodaikanal International School and Hebron School, Ooty – from their former exalted positions. KIS is ranked second nationally and in Tamil Nadu and Hebron is #4 in India and #3 in the state. However Ian McCabe, head of human resources and alumni relations at Hebron, is not unsatisfied with the schools #4 all-India ranking for four years consecutively. “We are quite happy to be in the Top 5 table which is an indicator that we have been able to maintain excellent teaching-learning standards which explains our outstanding academic results. Hebron’s greatest strength is student diversity with our 356 students coming from 26 countries around the world. Likewise, half of our 68 teachers are from overseas and bring valuable international experience and perspective. This internationalism combined with excellent co-curricular and sports education has…

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The country’s well-funded 1,117 Central government-promoted Kendriya Vidyalayas and 596 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya schools dominate the EW league tables of government day and boarding schools Neglected and ruined by years of political indifference and/or interference, India’s 1.2 million government schools, defined by lack of functional toilets, multi-grade teaching, teacher absenteeism, poor learning outcomes and grossly inadequate funding – public spending on education has averaged a mere 3.25-3.5 percent of GDP for over six decades (cf. 5.8 percent in the US) – lag miles behind the country’s 319,000 recognised private schools. The narrative however changes when it comes to the 1,117 Central government-promoted Kendriya Vidyalayas with an aggregate enrolment of 1.2 million students countrywide. These ‘model’ government schools, established for the education of children of transferable government employees and managed by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan – provided generous allocation in annual Union budgets (Rs.3,795 crore in 2016-17) – are nationally reputed for academic and co-curricular excellence. Unsurprisingly, in the second EW Government Day Schools Rankings, they dominate the government day schools league table with seven KV’s featuring in the Top 10. The 1,067 respondents including parents, principals and teachers polled by Delhi-based C fore have once again voted Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom (estb.1964) India’s #1 government day school with top ratings for competence of faculty, sports education and leadership/management. “This is a moment of great joy and pride not only for KV Pattom but the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. KV Pattom has a good record not only for academic excellence but also for co-curricular and sports achievements. In the national level sports meet organised by the School Games Federation of India last year, seven of our students were selected to represent the country. Its this focus on all-round education that has won us the respect of your knowledgeable survey respondents”, says S. Ajayakumar, a science and education postgraduate of Kerala University who began his career as a KV teacher in Manipur in 1992 and has since served as principal of KV schools in Mankhurd (Mumbai), Kumbhirgram (Assam), Delhi Cantt, prior to being appointed principal of KV Pattom in 2003. Currently KV Pattom has an aggregate enrolment of 4,114 students including 2,047 girls, mentored by 163 teachers. A notable feature of the EW government day schools league table is that of the seven KVs ranked within the Top 10, four are from the southern state of Kerala, the country’s most literate state (94 percent). The minority of state government schools included in the Top 10 government day schools league table are the Government Vocational and Higher Secondary School for Girls, Nadakkavu, Kozhikode – which received Rs.16 crore makeover funding from the Dubai-based Faizal and Shabana Foundation in 2014 – at #4 (3), the previously unranked Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV), Dwarka, Delhi #5 and Jadavpur Vidyapith #6. Dr. Tej Pal Singh, an alumnus of Meerut and Delhi universities and principal of the Delhi state government-funded RPVV, Dwarka (estb.2003), believes that the rankings haven’t done justice to the school. “Our #5 ranking in the league…

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Over the past two decades, budget private schools have multiplied as bottom-of-pyramid households have cottoned on that real education (including English language learning) is the passport to upward mobility India’s estimated 300,000 budget private schools (BPS) are a unique phenomenon, evidence of the fierce determination of households even at the base of India’s iniquitous social hierarchy to secure a good future for their children. Sited mainly in urban slums, tier II and III towns and rural India, BPS are small, often ‘unrecognised’ schools promoted by edupreneurs to meet the demand of low-income households fed up with or distrustful of dysfunctional government schools defined by crumbling infrastructure, multi-grade classrooms, chronic teacher absenteeism, corporal punishment, English language aversion and abysmal learning outcomes. Over the past two decades, BPS have multiplied as bottom-of-pyramid households – even if not the ruling neta-babu brotherhood – have cottoned on that real education (including English language learning) is the passport to upward socio-economic mobility. Budget private schools are typically crammed into small premises – often rented – charging monthly tuition fees ranging from Rs.70-150 in rural areas, and Rs.200-600 in urban India. However the country’s sui generis BPS are facing an uncertain future with education ministry officials countrywide shaking them down or closing them for non-compliance with s. 19 and the Schedule of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act). This provision makes it mandatory for all schools to comply with minimal infrastructure and teacher-pupil ratio norms. According to the Centre for Civil Society (CCS), a top-ranked Delhi-based think-tank, over the past two years 2,983 private budget schools countrywide have been shut down with another 5,097 issued closure notices. Your editors believe that the best way to stem the exodus of children from free-of-charge government schools is through improvement of their teaching-learning standards rather than shutting down budget private schools. Therefore, we have opposed the provisions of s.19 particularly because government schools are exempt from its penal provisions. The reality that an estimated 60 million children – an astonishing number – are enrolled with them is proof that BPS provide parents affordable alternatives to dysfunctional government schools. Consequently to confer recognition and appreciation upon the country’s best budget private schools, last year your editors introduced the EW India Budget Private Schools Rankings. As in 2015, to compile a modest national league table of India’s 25 best budget private schools, we solicited the aid and advice of CCS and the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA estb. 2011), a representative organisation of budget private schools, to shortlist 25 well-managed BPS in several major cities. Subsequently, field representatives of C fore interviewed 883 SEC (socio-economic category) C, D and E parents and 127 teachers of budget private schools to rate them on 12 parameters of school education excellence. The ratings awarded were totaled to rank India’s best BPS inter se. Comments Premchand Palety, promoter-CEO of C fore who personally visited several top-ranked BPS to double check: “The list of schools provided by CCS/NISA…

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The objective of the EW league table ranking the countrys most respected special needs schools is to enable parents to make informed choices, as also to acknowledge the country’s pioneer institutions in this important category Although your editors introduced the parameter of special needs education in the annual EW India School Rankings to encourage mainstream schools to provide for children with special needs (CWSN) way back in 2011, in response to parental pressure, last year we introduced a separate league table ranking the country’s most admired special needs schools. Even though an estimated 2 percent of India’s 480 million children aged below 18 years suffer from physical disabilities, mental retardation and learning disabilities, a minuscule 0.89 percent (12,868) of India’s 1.4 million primary-secondaries provide education to CWSN, according to Elementary Education in India 2014-15, published by the Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). Against this depressing backdrop, the objective of the EW league table ranking the country’s most respected special needs schools is to enable parents to make informed choices as also to acknowledge the nations pioneer special needs schools. To compile the second EW Special Needs Schools Rankings 2016, C fore field researchers interviewed 253 knowledgeable respondents including parents and special educators in four cities. The schools were rated on ten parameters: teacher welfare and development, competence of faculty, quality of programme, rehabilitation, co-curricular education, individual attention to students, leadership/management quality, safety and hygiene, infrastructure provision and value for money. The #1 slot in the EW Special Needs Schools Rankings 2016 is retained by the Tamana Autism Centre — School of Hope, Delhi (estb.1992), which has an enrolment of 571 children, and is awarded top ratings on five parameters (teacher welfare and development; competence of faculty; quality of programme; leadership/management quality; infrastructure provision). The second and third rankings are awarded to New Delhi-based Amar Jyoti (estb.1981) and Asha Kiran Special Needs School, Bangalore (estb.1993) for the second consecutive year. Comments Dr. Shayama Chona, former principal of Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram (Delhi) where she served for 35 years (1978-2009), and founder-president of Tamana: “A national league table recognising the dedicated work being done by the country’s best special needs schools will serve as an inspiration to individuals and organisations aspiring to promote similar institutions. For Tamana’s teachers, students and parents, the #1 ranking is a morale booster. It motivates us to continue our mission of providing the most enabling environment for special needs children. Our excellent reputation has been built by our team of highly qualified educators who use latest pedagogies and technology to harness the full potential of students with disabilities. Students from SAARC countries and even from the US are with us in Tamana, while several special educators from Asian countries come here for training”, says Chona. The Top 5 table in this category is completed by the recently promoted The Aditya Birla Integrated School (TABIS), Mumbai, ranked #4 nationally (6 in 2015) and the S.P.J. Sadhana School, Mumbai #5 (4). “Our improved ranking…

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In India, authors of biographies of men/women great and small tend to fall in love with their subjects and end up writing hagiographies. Glenn Khargonkor’s biography of Dr. Ramdas Pai, chancellor of Manipal University and progenitor of the globe-girdling Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), which under his quiet stewardship has metamorphosed into India’s #1 education multinational with highly-respected colleges of professional (medical, engineering) education in Malaysia, Dubai, Nepal, and Antigua (West Indies), is an exception to this rule.  This oeuvre is a biography with a difference, because while at one level it documents the histories of the founding fathers of MEMG — the legendary Dr. T.M.A. Pai (1898-1979) and his son Ramdas —  at another level it is a concise history of Indian education. Manipal and Beyond: Ramdas Pai and the Landscape of Indian Education also narrates the history of steady destruction of the subcontinent’s education system by the “colonial power”, and subsequently by post-independence India’s self-aggrandising neta-babu brotherhood, a floodtide which the late T.M.A. and Ramdas Pai spent the better parts of their lives to resist, with some measure of success.  As recently as 1821, G.L. Pendergast, a member of the Bombay Presidency Council, observed that “there is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one school, in the larger villages more”. Citing an official survey of 1826, Khargonkor writes that in the early 19th century, the number of primary-secondaries in the Madras Presidency (11,575) were twice the number in England (for a comparable population), with the average length of schooling in England being a mere one year (1835) as against 5-15 years in India.  The first important revelation this biography-cum-social history makes is that education in pre-British India was almost entirely privately funded. Parents and households in every strata of society valued education and were prepared to pay for it. Scholars and teachers established gurukuls — often in their homes — and schooled children in languages, math and sciences, with rich households paying more and poorest children performing household chores to pay for their education. Thus an informal system of cross-subsidisation is an ancient tradition in the subcontinent, as are scholarships awarded to poor and meritorious students by rulers and merchants. This legacy of the ‘beautiful tree’ of education that flourished into the 19th century was destroyed by meddling merchants of the East India Company, and overbearing upper class Britons (including Lord Macaulay who penned his famous minute (1835) decreeing a system of education to train clerks for the empire) schooled in British private schools, who were completely ignorant about the pathetic state of public education back home in Britain. The sin of recklessly uprooting the beautiful tree of Indian education was compounded by “pitiless taxation” of the people and particularly the peasantry, by imperial Britain. In Case for India, the highly-respected American historian Will Durant (1885-1981) cites several conscientious British officials (Catheart Wilson, Herbert Spencer and H.M. Hyndman) who protested that taxation in British India was twice…

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Delhi on August 18. Alibaba Group will solicit donations, collect and deliver textbooks to schools and colleges across India. Collected material will be distributed to more than 2,500 educational institutions. A book donation ceremony is scheduled for beneficiary schools in Mumbai in end September. In addition to mobilising and coordinating with all partners for the Mission Million Books project, Alibaba Group will donate 50,000 books to the campaign, and Alibaba.com and UC Web will provide online marketing support to maximise impact.   Book donations can be made between August 18-September 16, 2016, at the 1,300-plus branches of the Kotak Mahindra Bank, as well as Shoppers Stop, HyperCity, and Crossword stores across major cities in India. Pick-up services from Delhivery are available for donations of 20 books or more. Visit books.alibaba.com for further information.    MGAIT’s China linkage The Bangalore-based Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE) has signed agreements with China’s privately-promoted Jian Qiao and Nanchang universities for Android apps development education delivery. A batch of third year engineering students and professors from these varsities will undergo rigorous Android apps development programmes in the Manipal Global Academy of IT (MGAIT), Bangalore. “We are keen on giving our students international exposure and on utilising MGAIT’s expertise in Android apps development training. We believe our students will benefit from this collaboration which will enrich their experience,” says Prof. Su of Jian Qiao University. This 30-day global internship programme began on August 1. Earlier, MaGE was appointed an authorised training partner to deliver Android apps development training in India by Google Inc, USA.    Avery Dennison scholarships Avery Dennison Foundation, the philanthropic venture of the Glendale (California)-based Avery Dennison Corporation Inc, announced winners of the fifth edition of its ‘InvEnt Spirit of Invention’ scholarships in Bangalore on August 29. This programme recognises and rewards the “spirit of invention” of entrepreneurial and high-achieving undergraduate students in selected higher education institutions in India and China in science, engineering and technology.  The ten Indian winners of the fifth InvEnt Spirit of Invention Contest who were awarded Rs.100,000 each towards funding their higher education are Aakriti Agrawal (BITS, Pilani), Alanckrit Jain (BITS, Pilani), Anirudh Tusnial (BITS, Pilani), Anmol Gupta (BITS, Pilani), Anubodh Yadav (St. Stephen’s College, Delhi), Neeraj Gadi (BITS, Pilani), Shravan Patankar and Shreenidhi Vinze (Priya Vidhyarthi Girls College, Pune), Vaibhav Agarwal (BITS, Pilani)  and Vinay Gusain (St. Stephen’s College, Delhi).   CAF Contest 2016 The Camel Art Foundation (CAF) of the Mumbai-based Kokuyo Camlin Ltd announced the launch of its CAF Contest 2016 on August 22,  and invites online entries to participate in the contest. Professional artists and students above 18 years of age are eligible to showcase their talent and work. Entries must be submitted in two categories: professionals and students. Participants can submit two entries using oil, acrylic, drawing and pastels and water media. The last date for submitting online entries is September 30.  “From the entries received, 16 national winners will be shortlisted and interviewed over Skype. In the professionals category four cash awards…

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N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder-chairman emeritus of Infosys Technologies, penned a gracious tribute (Economic Times, August 17) to Azim Premji who recently completed 50 years as chairman of the IT behemoth Wipro Ltd (revenue: Rs.51,590 crore in 2015-16). In an op-ed page essay, Murthy lauded Premji, his business rival for decades, for his firm middle class values and thrift — the billionaire’s preference for economy class air travel and three star hotels despite being India’s richest individual by virtue of his 84 percent shareholding in Wipro, is legendary. But he also disclosed that Premji had rejected him in a job interview for which he expressed his gratitude because if he had not, Murthy would never have become a billionaire in his own right, as he did subsequently. Undoubtedly, Premji, the only Indian to have signed the Giving Pledge promoted by US billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet among others under which signatories pledge to disburse more than 50 percent of their net worth to charitable causes, deserves the encomiums he receives. His endowments to the Azim Premji Foundation and the Azim Premji University (APU) are unmatched by any other business tycoon in India. Yet there is a grudging opacity about his philanthropic activities. Despite your editor being acquainted with Premji in Mumbai, when EducationWorld wrote a laudatory cover feature to celebrate the inauguration of APU (EW May, 2011), Premji churlishly expressed preference for an e-mail interview. Moreover despite his bleeding heart for the nation’s educationally under-served children, when this pioneer education reforms advocacy publication was floundering in its early years, Premji declined to extend any advertising support, let alone investment.  But such boorish resentment and hypocrisy is the badge of the tribe of Bangalore’s noveaux riche, narrow-minded IT tycoons busy with primitive capital accumulation. Luckily just like Premji did Murthy a favour by rejecting his job application, all the city’s tech titans including Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, T.V. Mohandas Pai did your publisher-editor a similar favour by declining to invest in EducationWorld. In retrospect it was foolish of your editor to expect this gentry, erroneously lauded as intellectuals, to make the connection that but for your correspondent’s relentless advocacy of economic liberalisation and deregulation as editor of Business India and Businessworld, they might never have made their billions.    Cloister retreat advice Although ranked among India’s Top 10 universities by several publications including India Today and the #20 private university in India in the EducationWorld India Private University Rankings 2016, the Bangalore-based Christ University is at most the best of a bad lot. For several years this institution (formerly Christ College, estb. 1969), managed by the Syrian Catholic religious congregation, has been hitting the headlines for archaic self-righteousness, and for issuing elaborate dress codes for its adult women students rather than for any notable academic or sports achievements.  Despite this education-focused news magazine being published in the same city, we have never received a press release or the tiniest tidbit of information from Christ University proclaiming the great deeds of its students…

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To collate and compile data which has been processed, classified and presented by way of 100 plus league tables rating and ranking the Top 1,000  from among India’s 1.4 million primary/secondary schools scattered countrywide, work began over four months ago. 140 field personnel of the Delhi-based market research and opinion polls company Centre for Forecasting and Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000) began interviewing 10,301 knowledgeable respondents including educationists, principals, parents of school-going children, and senior school students selected by the C fore management to serve as a sample database, representative of informed opinion countrywide.   The sample respondents were persuaded to rate schools in their geographical regions (east, west, north, south) — on the presumption that they are unlikely to be familiar with distantly located institutions — on 14 parameters of education excellence such as teacher welfare and development, faculty competence, leadership, co-curricular and sports education etc on a scale of 1-10, later multiplied by a factor of 10. The ratings awarded to every school under each parameter were horizontally and vertically totalled to rank day, boarding and international schools sub-divided into seven categories (boys, girls, co-ed, co-ed day-cum-boarding etc to eliminate apples and oranges comparisons) and ranked inter se. Unfamiliar institutions rated by less than 25 respondents are not included in the league tables.  Unfortunately several shady publications and organisations, perhaps inspired by the massive public response to the annual EW India School Rankings and subsequent conferment of awards to top-ranked schools on our annual EducationWorld Awards Nite, are cobbling together arbitrarily-determined league tables and presenting excellence awards to gullible school managements. While legitimate competition is welcome because it spurs improvement, school managements are advised to carefully assess the bona fides and assessment methodologies of publications/organisations compiling arbitrary league tables deceptively similar to ours. Please note that like individuals, institutions — including schools — are also judged by the company they keep.  Against this backdrop, in this bumper issue we present the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2016 league tables, undeniably the most  comprehensive schools  assessment survey in the subcontinent, and perhaps worldwide. Subsequent to the collation and compilation of raw data by C fore, the process of checking, classifying and presenting dozens of league tables has involved back-breaking round the clock effort in the EW office. For this I am thankful to the enthusiastic team led by our managing editor Summiya Yasmeen and deputy chief sub Paromita Sengupta for transforming basic data into meticulously checked and aesthetically pleasing league tables.  P.S. For the benefit of schools, teachers and students, the EW India School Rankings Awards will be livestreamed on September 23-24. Log onto www.educationworld.in or download the Watchlive mobile app.

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One of the unexpected benefits of the information technology, internet and social media revolutions sweeping the world is the huge outflow of data from a wide array of sources. From this phenomenon an entirely new industry has emerged: Big Data and Analytics. Essentially, this sunrise industry enables corporates and other organisations — including education institutions — to integrate data from diverse online and offline sources to develop comprehensive profiles of existing and potential customers. With corporate marketers hell-bent upon acquiring information about buyer behaviour and spending patterns, the annual revenue of big data analytics firms in India is set to explode to $2.3 billion (Rs.15,413 crore) in fiscal 2017-18, according to a joint study of the Delhi-based National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and the global market intelligence firm Blueocean. According to IDC (International Data Corporation), the aggregate revenue of the big data and analytics industry is growing at an annual compounded rate of 26.4 percent, and the industry’s global revenue is expected to rise to $41.5 billion (Rs.275,700 crore) in 2018-19.  With the rising popularity of online education, this data explosion can be used to improve school and higher education effectiveness and support education research. Real-time, embedded-in-everyday-activities collection of children and youth data is being used to acquire complex, valuable information. Simple activities like gaming and online learning enable data accumulators and aggregators to collect vast amounts of data and for analysts to predict student and teacher learning outcomes, aptitudes and latent intelligences. Predictive analysis. Collection of big data enables predictive analysis already being used by progressive schools to assess students’ academic progress and derive early-warning indicators based on students’ attendance, exam performance and behaviour to predict dropouts, on-time graduation, and college readiness. Predictive analysis empowers decision-makers in education institutions to make accurate, data-driven decisions for improved academic results.  Teachers can predict learning outcomes by tracking students’ progress in benchmark assessment tests and devise remedial education solutions for low-performing students. Similarly, student counsellors can recommend appropriate action for under-performing students and identify potential dropouts. Predictive analytics provides early warning signals to school managements and teachers enabling them to take quick action to implement remedial solutions. But all this is dependent upon quality and quantity of data acquired. The more data collected, better the chances of getting an accurate picture for making accurate predictions. Student and teacher assessment. For education to be effective, teachers and students need to be well-informed about their progress on the continuous learning curve. For instance, if a school needs to know whether a particular student is ready for the next level, big data analyses can be of great help.  Likewise, teachers need to continuously increase their knowledge and upgrade their skills. Data analyses enable institutional managements to determine if a teacher is ready for promotion. Data analysis enables managements to assess if she understands core concepts and is ready to move to the next level of teaching. Personalised learning. Personalised learning theory is based on (i) differential learning programmes for students and (ii)…

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India is poised at a rare moment in its history. Four of every ten Indians today are under the age of 20. This is the world’s largest pool of young people with the potential to transform into an energetic, innovative and entrepreneurial workforce. This demographic revolution is happening in India when much of the population of the developed world is greying. This phenomenon could tip the scales firmly in favour of India in the 21st century. But this accidental demographic bounty won’t yield its much-proclaimed ‘dividend’ if this young workforce is not adequately educated. India’s youth need to learn to make their own decisions, think critically and address development problems with creative mindsets. They need to ask the right questions, devise suitable innovations and lead the nation to a higher social purpose. Despite post-independence India’s population having grown from 360 million in 1951 to 1.2 billion in 2011, the country has made some progress in education. During the past 68 years, adult literacy has risen from a mere 12 to 74 percent. In more recent years, India’s focus on the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 in New York, have pushed successive governments at the Centre to do better to achieve these goals. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (universal literacy mission) launched in 2000-01, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, have attracted substantial resources to realise the MDGs.  At the same time, high GER (gross enrolment ratio) in primary schools is not enough. The quality of education dispensed is as — if not more — important in ensuring the large resources allocated for primary-secondary education by the Central and state governments are well spent and result in improved learning outcomes. As the well-known British educationist and thinker Sir Ken Robinson observes, “All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think.” The poor learning outcomes of India’s primary-secondary children reported by Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and the Union HRD ministry’s National Achievement Survey 2015 are not the failure of children, but of education policy formulators and the ‘system’. Some of India’s greatest educationists — Rabindranath Tagore, J. Krishnamurti and Sri Aurobindo — stressed that routine academics apart, out-of-school experiential learning and critical thinking are essential components of well-rounded education. These education philosophers believed that encouraging curiosity and freedom of enquiry, allowing children to learn what they like to learn, and training them to become good citizens who will promote international co-operation, impart value and meaning to education. Unfortunately post-independence India’s education system has ignored the wisdom of these savants. Instead, we have an education system focused on prescribed curriculums and standardised testing. To train millions of young people simultaneously, our policy formulators opted for quantity rather than quality as the primary goal of education. As a result, an alarming 50 percent of the country’s 230 million children who begin primary education every year…

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Rajasthan Mid-day meal monitoring scheme The state government has initiated an SMS-based system through which meals data will be transmitted by schools to a toll free number for daily monitoring by the education ministry. Earlier, mid-day meal data was reported monthly. Under the new system, management committees of government schools have to send meals data including type of school, students’ attendance status, number of students given the mid-day meal, to a toll free number which will be monitored on a daily basis, district education officer Paras Chand Jain informed media personnel in Jaipur on August 1. Currently, 6.25 million class I-VIII students in 73,199 government and aided primary schools statewide are provided free mid-day meals, according to government sources.    Meghalaya Two-week teachers strike More than 14,000 teachers of government-aided schools statewide have begun their participation in a 14-day strike ending September 4, called by the Joint Action Committee of All Teachers’ Association of Meghalaya (JACATAM). The teachers are protesting the state government’s delay in paying them salaries on a par with government school teachers. Students of over 4,500 government-aided schools across the state have already been adversely impacted by the strike, which began on August 22.   “The statewide general strike was called after the state government paid no heed to the demands of aided school teachers,” JACATAM chairman E.D. Nongsiang informed the media in Shillong on August 22. “We had to resort to strike action because there was no sign of the state government making any effort to agree even to a dialogue,” he added. R.C. Laloo, the deputy chief and education minister, maintains that the government will respond to the strike after consulting school monitoring committees, established under the RTE Act, 2009.   Odisha Laptops for girl students Chief minister Naveen Patnaik distributed free-of-charge laptops to meritorious girl students and felicitated college girls trained in self-defence at a function in Bhubaneswar on August 20. “These laptops will help students become tech-savvy, a necessity for development,” said Patnaik speaking on the occasion. Higher education minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi added that 15,000 laptops will be distributed gratis to meritorious students statewide this year. While felicitating the girls, Patnaik said this initiative was taken by the state government to empower women under the state’s youth policy launched in 2013.   Madhya Pradesh Hindi medium engineering courses Under a new initiative, the state’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (university), named after the former prime minister and Hindi language scholar, has launched Hindi medium courses for electrical, mechanical and civil engineering college students. “The process for admitting students into Hindi language electrical, mechanical and civil engineering degree and diploma programmes has begun,” the university’s vice chancellor Dr. Mohan Lal Chhipa informed the Bhopal media on August 20. “We are determined to start these programmes in Hindi this year even if a single student enrolls. We have to break this mindset of English which has dominated the country for over 250 years. It hasn’t been ended 70 years after the country attained independence…

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“Country with 1.2 billion people wildly celebrates 2 losing medals. How embarrassing is that?” Piers Morgan, British journalist, on India’s dismal showing at the Rio Olympics (twitter.com, August 24) “We cherish every small happiness. But ENG who invented cricket & Yet2win a WC, still continue to play WC. Embarassing?” Virender Sehwag, Indian cricket star, trolling Piers Morgan (twitter.com, August 24) “Remedying the deep malaise afflicting education in the country requires taking by its horn the bull of school and teacher accountability. Tinkering at the edges will not do the job.” Geeta Kingdon, professor of education at London University, on the urgent need to tackle teacher accountability (Times of India, August 26) “The Indian state has unconscionably failed in Kashmir. Its legitimacy is tenuous at best, a legal artefact secured by brute force.” Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of Centre for Policy Research, on the Kashmir imbroglio (Indian Express, August 27) “Modi has made headway on many fronts, but there is a lot for him to still achieve. I think the nation believes he is moving in the right direction and that he is the man for the job. That is why India still has faith in him. He must not betray that.” Aroon Purie, editor of India Today, on Narendra Modi and the NDA recovering ground after a two-year slump (India Today, August 29) “The period of capitalist triumphalism that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall and then the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in India, the inexorable rise of the utterly callous, malevolent twins, Hindutva and neo-liberalism… the metamorphosis of India itself into a grab-what-you-can-for-yourself capitalist system.” Bernard D’Mello, journalist, in an essay in the golden jubilee issue of The Ecocomic & Political Weekly (August 20)

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A government resolution issued on august 20 by Maharashtra’s ruling BJP-Shiv Sena government to bring deemed medical and dental universities under the ambit of the state’s online centralised admission process (CAP), was struck down by the Bombay high court on August 30. The court ruled that while admissions into government and private medical colleges are governed by CAP, deemed universities can devise their own admission rules and regulations subject to their being transparent and merit-based as decreed by the Supreme Court in its historic judgement in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation Case (2002). However, admissions into all (government, private and deemed) medical and dental education institutions will be on the basis of merit scores in NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test).  The high court judgement has been welcomed by deemed (mainly private) universities which have accepted replacement of their own entrance exams by NEET. However, on the issue of admission rules and regulations, they are determined to assert their autonomy as per the Supreme Court’s ruling in the T.M.A. Pai Case. Therefore, they were opposed tooth and nail to CAP, particularly since its prime intent was to force deemed medical/dental universities to reserve 85 percent (1,800 seats) of capacity for Maharashtra domiciled students. The Ahmednagar-based Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College, Mumbai challenged CAP, saying it infringed upon their autonomy to devise their own admission processes.  Promoter-trustees of private deemed universities believe that CAP is the thin end of the wedge for whittling down the hard-won freedom of private professional education institutions to administer themselves and determine their own tuition fees. After several titanic court battles stretching over decades, in 2002 a 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court over-ruled its own judgement in Unnikrishnan Case (1993) under which the Central and state governments appropriated over 50 percent of capacity for merit students passing their common entrance tests (CETs) at government stipulated tuition fees and determined the tuition fees, charged to another 30 percent of students admitted into private professional (medical, dentistry, engineering etc) colleges. This government micro-management of private professional colleges was overturned by the apex court in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation Case.  Understandably, promoters and managers of deemed universities are wary of the state government’s attempts to abridge their autonomy by the back door and particularly, to reduce tuition fees for populist electoral reasons. “The tuition fees of deemed universities and colleges providing medical/dental education are high because they are unsubsidised. Providing contemporary infrastructure and hiring competent faculty requires money which results in the higher fees,” explains a trustee of a private deemed university.  The CAP resolution of the BJP-Sena government was also suspicious because most deemed universities have been promoted by opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party politicians and cronies. For instance, the promoter-trustee of the Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune, is former Congress minister, Patangrao Kadam while the Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences, Ahmednagar was established by Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, currently leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra legislative assembly. “After the T.M.A. Pai Foundation…

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A politically loaded decision of the outgoing Anandiben Patel (BJP) government in Gujarat to award a 10 percent admission quota to economically backward classes (EBC) in higher education institutions as well as government jobs, has sowed confusion in the ranks of both admission and job seekers. The government which moved in haste has time to repent at leisure after the Gujarat high court struck down a state government ordinance issued on May 1 to this effect, terming it unconstitutional. The successor Vijay Rupani government has appealed against the decision in the Supreme Court which is now seized with the issue. On August 29, a three judge apex court bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud JJ, extended the interim stay on the Gujarat high court order by another two weeks but directed that no new admissions be processed under the EBC category until the Supreme Court delivers final judgement in end September.   Consequently, the entire process of admissions into the state’s government colleges and 29 universities is frozen until the Supreme Court pronounces its verdict. Thus the fate of about 3,000 students, who have already been granted admission into professional education courses (MBA, MCA, BE, architecture and pharmacy) under the EBC quota, hangs in the balance. In Gujarat University, 1,076 students have been admitted under the EBC quota in the arts and commerce programmes. There is greater anxiety over admission into medical colleges. Thus far, 6,545 students have applied under the EBC quota but their applications too are frozen until the apex court delivers final judgement. Against this the total undergrad (MBBS) capacity in Gujarat’s 21 medical colleges is 3,300 seats, of which 1,175 are reserved for merit students. Realising the implications, on August 30, chief minister Rupani deferred implementation of the 10 percent EBC quota decreeing that the 6,545 EBC quota applications will be transferred to the general category. Earlier, the first division bench of the Gujarat high court had invalidated the ordinance on the ground that it was not a classification but a reservation. And since the EBC quota would breach Supreme Court’s 50 percent ceiling on reservations, it is illegal, ruled the court.  Monitors of the political theatre in this western seaboard state (pop.64 million), which is prime minister Narendra Modi’s bailiwick, are almost unanimous that the EBC quota was a reaction to the Patel-Patidar agitation for reservation in government colleges and jobs. As the stir spread across the state last summer, the Anandiben Patel government arrested 23-year-old Hardik Patel, leader of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) last October. But PAAS leaders were unimpressed with the announcement of the EBC quota, clearly decreed to defuse the Patidar agitation. “From day one we said that this was a lollipop to fool the Patels and we have been proved right. The court has duly struck down the EBC quota as unconstitutional. The BJP government in the state wants to keep the EBC quota issue pending until next year when the legislative assembly…

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Following a rash of scandals relating to admission into the country’s 176 government and 205 private medical colleges and universities, in 2012 the Central government replaced the system of state governments and consortia of private colleges conducting admission tests with a National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). Inevitably the constitutional validity of NEET was contested by state governments and private medical colleges. In July 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of NEET which was again appealed. In April this year, the apex court unequivocally upheld its judgement of July 2013 abolishing all entrance tests other than NEET. But although the issue of uneven admissions into medical colleges countrywide has been resolved and the first full-fledged NEET exam was conducted (by the Central Board of Secondary Education — CBSE) on May 1, the issue of reservations or affirmative action for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes in postgraduate medical education in government colleges (despite being repeatedly upheld in undergrad medical programmes) remains a grey area. In January 2014, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet decreed reservation of 30 percent capacity in postgraduate programmes of state government medical colleges for in-service doctors with service records in rural areas. The rationale of this reservation was that this initiative would motivate MBBS students to serve in severely understaffed rural health centres of the state. On August 16, a three judge bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur struck down the state government’s 2014 cabinet decision (State of UP & Ors. vs. Dr. Dinesh Singh Chauhan) on the ground that it violated the provisions of the Medical Council of India (MCI) Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000. The court held that although some marks could be given to eligible in-service candidates based on the length of service in remote and/or difficult areas, reservation of capacity was unconstitutional.  The apex court’s decision has finally drawn the curtain on an issue which has agitated postgrad medical aspirants in the state. The August 16 order makes it clear that Regulation 9 (IV) of the MCI regulations mandates reservation of seats as per the constitutional scheme (for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes or other backward class candidates) and not for in-service medical officers. The three judge bench also clarified that its proviso for granting weightage in postgrad entrance exams conducted under NEET should be at the rate of 10 percent per year spent in rural service and capped at 30 percent. This should not be interpreted as providing a 30 percent seats reservation for in-service candidates. While the verdict clarifies the status of admissions into postgrad programmes in the state next year, the state government needs to devise other incentives to persuade MBBS graduates to serve their three-year residency programmes in the state’s 3,692 primary and 515 community health centres where there’s a shortage of over 1,000 doctors. “While it is understandable that young doctors do not want to confine themselves to villages, there has to be some mechanism to ensure that they pay for their highly subsidised undergrad medical education in…

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As indicated by her sweeping triumph in the state legislative assembly election of May, chief minister and leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), Mamata Banerjee has unquestionably emerged as a mass leader of the state. Her welfare measures for the poor, including the khadyasathi (rice at Rs.2 per kg), sabujsathi (free bicycles for school-going children), konyashree (stipends for girl children from low-income households), yuvashree (unemployment allowance of Rs.1,500 per month), have benefitted a significant number of people in the state and paved the way for her return to Nabanna, Kolkata, the seat of government of West Bengal (pop. 91 million).  However, Kolkata’s influential bhadralok (cultured middle class), is disenchanted with Banerjee, primarily for her complete failure in implementing the promised poribartan (change) in the education sector. In particular, the total suspension of faculty recruitment during the past five years has cheesed off the educated middle class, especially youth. With murmurs of disapproval growing louder and transforming into street demonstrations, on August 5 the state government’s School Service Commission (SSC) issued a circular to all 92,000 government schools and administrative authorities to submit a complete list of headmaster vacancies by August 28. Earlier, a report of SSC, released on July 20, had indicated that 2,500 government schools statewide have been without headmasters/principals since 2012. According to the report, apex-level vacancies have resulted in poor learning outcomes in government schools, most of which are also understaffed with 70,000 notified teacher vacancies in primaries and 18,000 in higher secondaries.  The problem of top-level vacancies in government schools is exacerbated by the reluctance of teachers-in-charge (TICs) to report headmaster vacancies, according to informed sources. With TICs also functioning as secretaries of schools and enjoying wide administrative and financial powers, they are disinclined to disturb the status quo and respond to recruitment circulars. Last month the state education ministry sent email messages to TICs warning them of possible pay-cuts for not reporting headmaster vacancies.  This excuse, which shifts the blame for top-level vacancies to TICs, doesn’t cut much ice with Swapan Mandol, assistant general secretary of the Bengal Teachers and Employees’ Association. According to him, the school education department which pays monthly salaries, is well aware of the vacancies as the pay scales of headmasters and TICs vary widely. “It’s only public pressure which has forced the state government to address this issue,” says Mandol.  According to Tulsi Masant, convenor of the DL.Ed (diploma in elementary education) Students Forum, a plethora of scams in the state government’s Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) exams during the past four years, has resulted in a freeze in teacher recruitment. After the list of successful TET candidates was allegedly tampered in 2012, and TET exam papers were repeatedly leaked in some centres in 2015, there was a flood of litigation prompting the Calcutta high court to stay the recruitment of even such candidates who had passed the exam without blemish of suspicion in 2012, and  publication of the list of successful TET candidates 2015. “In West Bengal, which suffered continuous…

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Following its stunning triumph in the Delhi state election of February 2015 when it won an astonishing 67 of the 70 seats in the legislative assembly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has its sights on the Punjab and Goa elections scheduled for early 2017. Unusually in the Indian political context, AAP is projecting its education achievements in Delhi to impress voters in these states. Rattled by the possibility of education becoming a major political issue, opposition parties are attacking the AAP ‘propaganda’ on education. The first salvo was fired by the Congress party which has been in power at the Centre and in most states for over four decades since India’s independence and is primarily responsible for the low priority accorded to education by the State for the past 68 years. Writing in the Indian Express (August 22), Ajay Maken, president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, rubbished the tall claims being made by AAP spokespersons about transforming school education in Delhi. “Ever since chief minister Arvind Kejriwal doubled the budgetary allocation for education, there is a widespread perception that the education sector is being transformed. The basis of this perception is unclear. Is it the multiple full-page advertisements by the Delhi government publicising routine events like parent-teacher meetings or the glowing news reports on summer camps, held in a fraction of Delhi government schools, with mixed success?” he wrote. According to Maken, “while important issues such as failure to fill teacher vacancies — risen to over 12,000 — have been ignored,” CCTV cameras installed in classrooms have created “the perception of an antagonistic relationship between teachers and students”. However, there’s no denying that soon after being swept to power early last year, the AAP government of Delhi increased the allocation for education by 106 percent in the state government’s Budget 2015-16. And in Budget 2016-17, it provided Rs.10,690 crore (22.9 percent of the total plan outlay) for education.  But more vote-catching legislation to reduce tuition fees levied by private schools in Delhi state — the Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill, 2015 and proposal to delete s.10 (1) of the Delhi School Education (DSE) Act, 1973 to eliminate the right to pay parity (with government school teachers) of private school teachers — were returned by the state’s lieutenant governor. Under the peculiar arrangement in Delhi which is simultaneously governed by the Centre and the state, all Bills enacted by the state legislative assembly need to be approved by the lieutenant governor who represents the Central government. Anurag Kundru, a member of the education task force of the Delhi state government, says “that during the two years that AAP has been in office in Delhi state, it has paid great attention to improving administration and teaching-learning standards in state government schools”. According to him, local school management committees (SMCs) comprising parents and educationists — stipulated by s.28 of the RTE Act, 2009 — have been established in all 1,011 government schools in the state and…

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India’s poor performance at the 35th Olympics games which concluded in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) last month — just two also-ran medals — despite the country sending its largest Olympics contingent ever (119 athletes) has again highlighted the dismal state of sports education and performance in the country — inadequate training facilities, stranglehold of politicians on sports associations and neglect of sports in the country’s 1.4 million schools, 37,000 colleges and 800 universities. Despite its huge population pool (1.3 billion), India ranked #67 in the medals tally, way below not only the United States (121 medals, with 46 gold), Britain (67 with 27 gold) and China (70 with 26 gold) but below Jamaica (pop. 3 million, 11 medals and 6 gold), Kenya (pop. 44 million, 13 and 6) and Kazakhstan (pop. 17 million, 17 and 3).  Acknowledging India’s poor Rio performance in a nationwide broadcast on All India Radio on August 26, prime minister Narendra Modi announced establishment of a “task force which will help to plan for the effective participation of Indian sportspersons in the next three Olympics, to be held in 2020, 2024 and 2028”.  The Indian Olympic contingent’s dismal — but predictable — performance has invited a floodtide of expert opinion and analyses in the media even as over-the-top celebrations and generous awards/honours are being rained upon the two medal winners. “India’s problem starts at the basic level: the abysmal attention given to sport. Of 1.3 billion (sic), less than 15 percent are actually exposed to it… A politico-socio-cultural ethos that sees sporting excellence as an imperative is necessary… This requires long-term vision, meticulous planning and hard-boiled execution. India has been found wanting in all these aspects, caused essentially by government ineptitude and supplemented by public indifference,” wrote renowned sports journalist Ayaz Memon in the Times of India (August 22). The root cause of the pathetic performance of Indian athletes and sportspersons in international arenas — cricket excepted — is woefully inadequate provision for sports education. The annual budget of the Union ministry of sports and youth affairs for 2016-17 is a mere Rs.1,592 crore against which the UK government’s provision to prepare 366 athletes for the Rio Olympics was £350 million (Rs.3,220 crore).  The official neglect of sports education is compounded by societal and parental indifference to it. While in the US and OECD countries it’s normative for corporates to sponsor local tournaments and championships combining philanthropy with brand building, such initiatives are rare in India. Consequently crucial infrastructure — stadiums, gymnasia and playgrounds — required for children and youth to practice, is woefully inadequate. Moreover most parents and households discourage children from taking to sports and athletics which are widely believed to be inimical to academic achievement. “Most families want their children to become doctors or accountants. Sports talents would be (sic) persuaded by family and even neighbours, stopping them from taking part in high-level competitions,” comments a Chinese website (www.chinanews.com) derisively.  “A sports culture needs to be promoted within children by enabling access to…

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Your cover story ‘26 NGOs enabling Indian education’ (EW August) was a revelation. All the NGOs profiled deserve encomiums for bringing quality education and health services to underprivileged children and youth abandoned by government institutions. Even more commendable is that these NGOs are led by highly-educated and qualified individuals, who have given up successful professional careers to devote their lives to providing the country’s neglected children access to quality education.  I was particularly impressed by the humanitarian work of Safeena Husain of Educate Girls. Empowering local communities by improving and upgrading government schools is the way to fast track and sustain reform of the ruined government school system. Mayuri Mathur Delhi   Tarnished reputation It’s sad that THE EW CISCE & CBSE Academic Rankings 2016 sourced from www.thelearningpoint.net have been a big disappointment (EW July). Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad (DPSG) prides itself on being a transparent institution and any erroneous information published about it is treated with utmost seriousness. DPSG’s average in the CBSE class XII exam has been printed as 88 percent in your academic league table, which is way below the actual 89.04 percent average of the school. This error has tarnished our reputation as a front-runner in providing quality education.  We believe two important points have been intentionally ignored in the rankings: the sixth subject has not been considered while calculating the average, and the scores have been printed before revaluation. After revaluation, DPSG’s class XII average is 89.68 percent and the median 90.6 percent. Consequently, we are shocked that our results were deliberately under-stated to damage our reputation.  Jyoti Gupta Principal, Delhi Public School Ghaziabad Prashant Bhattacharjee of thelearningpoint.net says: The EW-LearningPoint league tables clearly indicate that schools are ranked according to five subject averages. Therefore the question of considering a sixth subject doesn’t arise. Moreover, deadlines don’t permit us to await upgraded results. I have no knowledge of DPSG; therefore to imply a bias against this school is absurd. As clearly stated on the website, for candidates with extra subjects, we use the scores in English + best four subjects.    Exclusion complaint Re the EW CISCE & CBSE Academic Rankings 2016 published in the August issue of your esteemed magazine, you have not included one of Noida’s most reputed schools — Ryan International School — which has many achievements to its credit, and has consistently produced excellent board results in the CBSE class XII exam. For your information, the district (Gautam Budh Nagar) and zonal (CBSE Dehradun region) toppers in the class XII CBSE exam are from Ryan International, Noida. We would be obliged if you could enlighten us on the possible reasons why we didn’t qualify to be listed among the Top 100 CBSE schools. Anuradha Sharma Principal, Ryan International School, Noida The EW CISCE & CBSE Academic Rankings 2016 include Top 100 CBSE schools with more than 66 examinees with 90 percent-plus in the class XII exam. As stated in our commentary, for space constraint reasons, 66 is the cut-off number. Only…

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The demolition of over 100 homes — often with less than 12 hours notice — in Bangalore (aka Bengaluru) by pickaxe wielding gangmen of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) aka the Bangalore Municipal Corporation through the month of August, is a national scandal and symptomatic of the pernicious corruption which has permeated all institutions of government.  The proximate cause of the BBMP’s demolition drive is heavy flooding during the monsoon rains of several parts of this city, vaingloriously proclaimed the Silicon Valley of India. Cursory investigation has revealed that hundreds of homes, apartment blocks and even huge malls and commercial properties are impeding the flow of rainwater into and through storm water drains (SWDs) into the city’s lakes, many of which have dried up, and as a consequence host homes and apartment blocks.  The cause of the nationwide anger and indignation is that the majority of the properties that the corporation’s gangmen are demolishing with great fervour, were approved and sanctioned by BBMP itself. Most of the victimised home owners are in possession of titles and documents issued by the corporation and offices of the state government, and have been duly paying taxes for years.  Mechanically invoking the legal maxim of caveat emptor (buyer beware), learned justices of the Karnataka high court seem to have turned a Nelson’s eye to the reality that BBMP has not drawn any maps highlighting the SWD network since 1905; that there is a blatant nexus of deal-making between politicians, builders and bureaucrats within the city, and that BBMP officials have been recklessly extorting bribes and fees from builders and home owners after issuing falsified licences and permits.  In the circumstances the great majority of the victimised home-owners are bona fide purchasers for value entitled to protection of the law. On the contrary, it is incumbent upon their lordships of the high court to decree full compensation for bona fide purchasers, also bearing in mind that title documents are written only in the Kannada language instead of bilingually (as is the norm worldwide), which makes it difficult for top-rung lawyers educated in English to authenticate them with due diligence.  Regrettably, by manipulating the democratic electoral system and driving down standards of education over the past half century, an amoral lumpen bourgeoisie has infiltrated and overwhelmed Indian politics and the bureaucracy. Hell-bent upon primitive capital accumulation, this brotherhood has corrupted and enfeebled all institutions of governance. BBMP’s flattening of properties of bona fide purchasers, victims of the chicanery of its own officials, is but one of the thousand unnatural shocks that citizens have to suffer because of unchecked corruption and massive failure of governance in post-independence India.  

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The 119-strong contingent of the second most populous (1.2 billion) country brought back only two also-ran medals from the Rio Olympics — substantially less than the six won in the XXX Olympics staged in London four years ago. Against this dismal performance, it’s revealing that the People’s Republic of China, which has a comparable size population and landmass, bagged 70 medals including 26 gold, and tiny Jamaica (pop.2.7 million) garnered 11 including six gold.  The most obvious cause of India’s inability to put its sportspersons on the global map, is the stranglehold of manipulative, sports-agnostic politicians and bureaucrats over sports and athletics organisations — most of them government-funded — countrywide. Despite the autonomously-funded and administered Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) having nurtured and transformed the Indian cricket team into world champions and India into the Mecca of world cricket, and the Gopichand Badminton Academy, Hyderabad, promoted and managed by former All England champion Pullela Gopichand, training and developing world class women champions Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu (the latter won a silver in Rio), neither the Centre nor state governments seem willing to decree that all government-funded sports organisations should be headed by eminent sportspersons.  Yet at the root of India’s disgraceful record in Olympic sports is woefully inadequate funding. In 2015-16, the annual budget of the Union ministry of sports and youth affairs was a mere Rs.1,541 crore, of which two-thirds is consumed by official salary and admin expenses, leaving minuscule amounts for disbursement to state governments and sports associations and federations. Against this the British government’s budget to prepare the kingdom’s 366 athletes for the Rio Olympics aggregated £350 million (Rs.3,220 crore).  Increased government funding apart, miserly corporate India also needs to learn from the US, where it’s commonplace for local industry and firms to combine business (brands promotion) with philanthropy by sponsoring school/collegiate sports tournaments. Public-private partnerships are crucial to building contemporary sports infrastructure enabling children and youth easy access to stadiums, gymnasia and playgrounds.  Even more important is an urgent need for managements of the country’s 1.4 million schools, 37,000 colleges and 744 universities to develop health, fitness and sports cultures. This requires a revolutionary mind-set change within the academic and parents’ communities to accept that co-curricular and sports education is as important as academics.  As a response to India’s Rio debacle, prime minister Narendra Modi has announced a ‘task force’ to prepare a comprehensive action plan for “effective participation” of Indian sportspersons in the next three Olympic Games — 2020, 2024 and 2028. But it’s doubtful whether government committees are the prescription for reviving Indian sports.

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