The symposium focuses on City school to host regional on higher education

VADODARA: City-based Navrachana School, Sama is hosting a regional symposium on higher education in a joint initiative with the Institute of Counsellor Training Research and Consultancy (ICTRC), New Delhi.

Country's renowned educational psychologist and counsellor trainer Dr V S Ravindran and his team of experts are going to conduct a daylong programme with students and teachers of class XII on August 30.

The symposium focuses on equipping students with the knowledge of the scientific process of choosing careers and courses.

Dr. Ravindran specializes in areas of counselling and guidance programmes for senior students, counsellor training, teacher education and leadership development. He has been associated with many reputed educational institutions in India and abroad for the last two decades.

Around 14 schools from the city and Gujarat, including 1,000 students and 200 plus teachers, are going to participate in the programme. This is the first kind of a regional event being conducted in Vadodara by ICTRC.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/City-school-to-host-regional-symposium-on-higher-education/articleshow/53887229.cms

Read More

The national network of doctors medical education commercialisation only aim of reform bill

NEW DELHI: A national network of doctors committed to promoting rational and ethical healthcare on Friday criticised the bill drafted by the NITI Aayog and its report on restructuring regulation of medical education and the medical profession, saying it was merely championing "accelerated privatisation and commercialisation of medical education".

Protection of patients and the need for a strong clampdown on unethical practices is clearly not a priority in the report and the bill, said the Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH). They argued that the bill legitimised and legalised profiteering in medical education by proposing that for-profit entities, including businesses and corporations, would be allowed to open and run medical colleges.

"Until now, only not-for-profit entities were allowed to run medical colleges, a provision which was often flouted, but instead of clamping down on the misuse, the NITI Aayog is arguing for abandoning the principle itself.

This is like saying that since controlling of crime is difficult, we should now legalise crime," said a statement issued by the alliance.

The parliamentary standing committee on health and the Supreme Court had focused on the need to arrest widespread corruption in private medical education. Yet, the report and the draft bill is about dilution of the regulatory approach to medical education, said the statement.

The draft bill says that even colleges with grossly unsatisfactory standards would not be promptly closed down by suggesting that "deviation from standards may not lead to derecognition," the doctors pointed out. "Rather such colleges may just get a lower 'rating' and would continue merrily with sub-standard medical education," pointed out the alliance.


The doctors also flayed the proposal of letting district hospitals be used by private players to run medical colleges saying it would amount to "handing over key public health resources to business interests". Accepting that the track record of elected representatives in the MCI and state councils was problematic, the alliance said there was a need to reform the election process. "The solution to bad democracy is not to eliminate democracy, but to work for genuine democracy," it added. They suggested a regulatory body with roughly equivalent representation from three constituencies: democratically elected representatives of doctors; civil representatives, legal and public health experts; and nominated officials. "There is no mention of giving representation in the NMC to civil society networks working on health rights or patients' rights or women's organisations.


"There is only a generic mention that a total of five part-time members of the commission may be drawn from different backgrounds," said the statement.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Medical-education-commercialisation-only-aim-of-reform-bill-Doctors/articleshow/53881068.cms

Read More

The government has introduced several programmes improve in mini science centres give rural education a boost

MYSURU: With the focus on better primary education in rural schools, the government has introduced several programmes to improve the quality of education and attract more students.

In rural areas, government school children are talented but need good education and skills. Science and English education in primary schooling can boost the academic performance of these children. Towards this end, city-based Ace Education Trust, in collaboration with United Breweries Limited, Nanjangud, has jointly set up Mini Science Centres in Nanjangud taluk.

These centres in select schools benefit students from class 1 to class 7 and help them learn basic science principles and concepts through working science models.

Two centres were opened last year in Hulimavu and Kempisiddanahundi. The good response motivated them to install five more centres in various schools of Hadinaru, Bokkahalli, Srirampura, Thandavapura and Kanakadasa Government Higher Primary Schools in the same taluk. UBL funded all these centres under its Corporate Social Responsibility projects.

Nanjangud BEO M Chandrakanth said that initiatives like this will lift the quality of primary education in government schools. It cha nged teaching methods in government schools and for attractive teaching using models, UBL spent on an average Rs 10 lakh per centre, he said.


Science models designer Ace Education Trust coordinator N Karthik said, "We want to improve rural government schools. Infrastructure and curriculum modernization is the first step in this process; we decided to open the mini science centres based on primary school syllabus. About 50-60 working science models have been installed at these centres. We approached UBL to fund such initiatives in rural government schools and they did it under CSR."


"It's a unique model in the country. Now, more organizations and companies visit the centres and are ready to install them in various parts of the country. Our trust has been working to develop science education models for school students," he added.


On Monday, primary and secondary education minister Tanveer Sait inaugurated the centre and congratulated both organizations to come up with innovative programmes to improve rural government schools.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysuru/Mini-Science-Centres-give-rural-education-a-boost/articleshow/53838069.cms

Read More

Andhra and Telengana in poor standards education

HYDERABAD: The national achievement survey (NAS) conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has exposed the poor standards of education in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Both states failed to meet the mandatory pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in schools.

The survey revealed that 32.03 per cent of schools in AP and 35.79 per cent in Telangana failed to meet the pupil-teacher ratio. The national average of pupil-teacher ratio at primary school level is 24:1, upper primary level 17:1, and secondary school level at 28:1. The NCERT has also expressed concern over increasing number of teacher vacancies.

Andhra Pradesh, which has a sanctioned teacher posts of 1,47,139 has 17,129 vacancies. As many as 13,049 teacher posts are vacant in Telangana. The survey revealed that 31% of headmaster posts are vacant. It also pointed out the high absenteeism among teachers. Citing the survey by Michael Kremer of World Bank that pegged teachers' absence from schools at 25 per cent, the NAS noted that 50 per cent of the teachers were found not to be teaching at all.


The nationwide survey was conducted on a sample of 2,77,416 students in 7,216 government, aided and private schools. Urban students performed better than their rural counterparts in English, mathematics, science, social sciences and modern Indian languages. Girl students have scored significantly higher than boys in languages and one-third of students could not answer 33 per cent questions in English, mathematics and science.


The survey showed that students from schools with ICSE and CBSE performed better in academics than students of state boards. Only 16.61 per cent primary and 68 per cent secondary schools in AP have electricity supply, and 10.25 per cent primary and 69 per cent secondary schools in Telangana have power connection. Only 29.30 per cent schools in AP have computer and internet facility while in Telangana 23.17 per cent schools have such facilities. However, schools fared better on the library front. As many as 86.19 per cent schools in AP and 77.38 per cent in Telangana have libraries.The NCERT expressed concern over untrained teachers in government schools. It recommended separate cadre of head-teachers to be filled up through direct recruitment. It also recommended induction program for headmasters, in-service training for school leadership and setting up leadership academies in every state.

A new program called national program on school standards and evaluation (NPSSE) will be put in place with an aim to evaluate the performance of schools.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Education-standards-poor-in-Andhra-Telengana/articleshow/53852337.cms

Read More

Fund Education Of Underprivileged Australian Woman To Run 3,800 km In India

New Delhi:  To raise funds for education of millions of underprivileged children in India, Australian ultra marathoner, Samantha Gash is set to begin a 3,800 km run across India.

Kicking off from August 22, Ms Gash will attempt to run nearly 3,800 km from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan to Mawsynram in Meghalaya within a period of 76 days.

A former lawyer by profession, the 31-year-old has taken this Run India project challenge to raise funds to support six World Vision Area projects that focuses on education.

"This is the biggest challenge I have ever undertaken. When you consider the challenges many children face on a daily basis, this is not comparable," she said.

On choosing the world's second largest populous country to run, Ms Gash said "I fell in love with India's diversity. But the problem children here face are heart breaking." "I am ready to make my hands dirty to make sure their hands are clean," she added.

The Run India project aims to raise funds to support six World Vision Area Development Projects that focus on education in Jaipur, Barmer, Kanpur, North-West Delhi, Hardoi and Pauri.

Australia's High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu also appreciated Samantha's determination and vitality. She was pleased that Samantha's run will raise money for less-privileged children's education in India. "I commend Samantha for undertaking such a challenging adventure. Her run is in keeping with the spirit of adventure for which Australians are known," Mr Sidhu said.
ADVERTISEMENT
x

When asked if she would be following a special diet plan during the run, she said "What is the meaning of reaching out to Indians if I don't taste the Indian cuisine. I will love to have dal, roti, palak paneer. But will definitely avoid high carbs."

In 2010, Ms Gash became the youngest person and first female ever to finish the Four Desert Grand Slam. At 25 she was the youngest person to attempt the race.

She has run through some of the extreme locations. From deserts in Chile, China, Egypt and Antarctica, to the mountains of Nepal, New Zealand, India.

The journey of her 2010 marathon has also inspired a movie named 'Desert Runners' in which she is the main character.

She follows a mantra to reach out to people -"use what you're good at to impact what you are passionate about".

Samantha is the second ultra marathoner to take such a challenge this year. In January- March, former Australian ultra-marathoner Pat Farmer undertook a 4,600km run through 12 states from Kanyakumari to Srinagar.


http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/australian-woman-to-run-3-800-km-in-india-fund-education-of-underprivileged-1445544

Read More

Education is important aspect of human development more Inclusive in India

Education is an important aspect of human development. This makes it crucial that we be aware and alert as to what is being taught in our schools today and conscious of whether it is contributing to the overall growth of our children. Is our present education system in India doing that?

Here are 12 components that I think should be immediately included in school curricula for the development of the full potential of students. Even if some of these are part of the syllabus in a few schools, they need more attention and the scope of the subjects needs to be expanded:

1. Road SafetyThe topic of road safety should be included in the syllabus to teach students about the essential safety practices they need to observe on the road. Along with theoretical classes, students should also receive practical exposure for better results.
2. Logical Reasoning

A major drawback of our education system is the lack of focus on critical and logical reasoning skills. Using the classroom to teach these will help students build analytical and reasoning skills and boost their confidence as well.
3. Comprehensive Sex Education

Students should be given proper education on sex and sexuality so they can build healthy relationships in life. This knowledge will help them learn about and be sensitive towards the nature of multiple sexualities also. Additionally, teaching them about safe-sex practices is crucial for their health.
4. Mental Health

A healthy person is someone who has achieved both physical and mental well being. Proper mental health education develops the cognitive ability and emotional quotient in students. They develop the ability to cope with stress and adapt to various environments.

5. Physical EducationThe World Health Organisation confirms that physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of lifestyle diseases. Proper physical training can counter the ill effects of the sedentary lifestyle that most of us adopt. It is quite common in our schools to not have specialised teachers for physical training. This needs to change.
6. Art and Crafts

The benefits of art in improving cognitive abilities and building confidence among students have been well established. This subject also provides a creative outlet for many students.

7. First AidProper first aid education can transform every student into a lifesaver. First aid training doesn’t just help in the individual development of each student, it also serves the wider community, health institutions and people who are in need of urgent care.
8. Social Media

These days, every other school student possesses a smartphone and has accounts on various social media platforms. This has both positive and negative impacts. Many incidents have been reported regarding the malicious use of social media. Our education system should disseminate knowledge regarding the responsible use of social media.
9. Soft Skills

Soft skills development from a young age helps students polish their communication skills, creativity, leadership skills, etc., which helps them in both their personal and professional lives.

10. AgricultureAgriculture education should be made compulsory in schools. Students should know that we survive because of agriculture. And also that the food we consume comes because of the hard work of farmers. This will help students respect food and farmers, along with teaching them about the need for environment conservation.
11. Financial Education

Students should know the importance of money and should learn about the adverse effects of being careless with their finances. They should cultivate the habit of saving and should also be taught about how banks work, what are taxes, what is an investment, etc.

12. Legal EducationStudents should learn about child rights and other related policies. This aspect of their education will allow them to question illegal activities and also prompt them to advocate for more child friendly laws.


http://www.thebetterindia.com/65329/improvements-to-make-learning-more-holistic-in-india/

Read More

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Telangana and Odisha slams Centre's education policy

Hyderabad: Calling the draft new education policy as 'directionless', the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Telangana and Odisha (JIHTO) on Thursday accused the Centre of trying to resuscitate a "dead language" even as the socio-religious organisation demanded that it be rewritten with a fresh panel of experts.

Addressing a gathering of media persons at Hotel Harsha in Nampally, JIHTO president Hamid Mohammed Khan criticised the government for giving "a lot of weight" to Sanskrit. "They have made Sanskrit an optional subject. It appears to us that they have given it extra weightage. Sanskrit is a dead language. Nobody speaks it. The government is trying to resuscitate this language," Khan claimed.

The JIHTO also claimed that the draft new education policy seeks to water down the Right to Education Act of 2009. In this connection, Khan said that the government, by means of the draft policy, is trying to force minority educational institutions to reserve 25 per cent seats for students who do not belong to minority groups or communities. "It raises questions about reserving 25 per cent seats for minorities in non-minority schools but wants 25 per cent reservations for non-minority students in minority schools. This is injustice. Muslims are backward. They are away from education and need seats," he said.Describing yoga as a practice deeply rooted in Hindu mythology, Khan raised strong objections to its introduction in the draft new education policy. "They are saying that for schools which do not have grounds, yoga can be done indoors. According to stipulations, a high school should be constructed on a six acre land parcel. Yoga isn't just an exercise, it is a polytheistic practice. Slokas being recited while yoga is practiced are also polytheistic in nature," he claimed.


Khan termed the introduction of yoga as a 'conspiracy', he said: "Surya namaskar is an un-Islamic practice. The sun and the moon are creations. Muslims worship the creator. The introduction of yoga is to marginalise Muslim students. This is not democratic."Khan claimed that sex education is being renamed as 'adolescent education' in the draft policy. Sex education, he claimed, is against Indian culture and values.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has brought about a saffronisation of education, the JIHTO president said. "Education from class I to X has been saffronised. It is higher education which is posing a problem for them. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and University of Hyderabad (UoH) issues are fresh. The students in these varsities have an atmosphere conducive to unbridled learning," he added. The policy also seeks to undermine student activism, he shared.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind-slams-Centres-education-policy/articleshow/53661874.cms

Read More

Applied to elementary education of human resource development the idea that district planning

The extensive media coverage of the 25th anniversary of the launch of economic reforms had brought to light some unknown facts thanks to the personal accounts of key players.

It is apposite to narrate yet another untold story: the unintended and decisive impetus that the 1991 reforms gave to India’s quest for universal elementary education (UEE). India was home to a third of the world’s out-of-school children in 1993, and to a 0.3 per cent in 2010 when the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, (RTE Act) came into force.

The remarkable turnaround was due to the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and its progeny, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

DPEP was developed in 1992 and predominantly funded by the World Bank, European Community and Britain’s Overseas Development Agency.

SSA, launched in 2001, was predominantly domestically funded thanks to the remarkable enhancement of the fiscal capacity of the Indian government because of economic reforms.

DPEP covered about half the districts of India and, with a programme outlay of $2.4 billion, was the largest education programme of the country till overtaken by SSA.The conventional strategy for UEE focused on expansion of the school system, construction of school buildings and organising school enrolment drives once in a while. In 1966, the Kothari Commission had recommended that each district should prepare and implement a perspective plan for achieving UEE.

However, till 1992, it remained an idea whose time had not come. The Total Literacy Campaigns caught the nation’s attention in 1990. The success of quite a few districts in becoming ‘totally literate’ imparted a new thrust to UEE as it was realised that the success would be a nine-day wonder if an inadequate schooling system spawned year after year a new brood of illiterates.

That success also gave rise subliminally to the question why the District-based strategy that made many districts ‘fully literate’ cannot be applied to elementary education. By November 1991, ministry of human resource development (HRD) veered round the idea that district planning should be the main plank of the Eighth Five-Year Plan strategy for universalising elementary education.

Resource availability was so grim that the HRD ministry’s budget was cut not only for development programmes but also for maintenance expenditure to meet dayto-day running expenses of universities and other institutions.

When the idea of district planning was being given up as a hopeless dream, the unexpected struck. In May 1992, the HRD ministry was informed that the World Bank was insisting on a social safety net (SSN) loan be accepted as a condition for financing the National Renewal Fund (NRF).

The NRF’s creation was announced in the finance minister’s July 1991Budget speech and was designed to alleviate the problems of workers who might be affected by the restructuring of industry. The SSN loan was a fast disbursing credit that would provide balance of payment support.

The counterpart rupee funds were to be used to restore the budgetary cuts as well as to finance existing programmes or start new ones in elementary education, basic rural health, family welfare and child development.

GoI’s response was a Committee of Secretaries whittling down the conditionalities so much that they amounted to no more than the government implementing what it had already announced it would in these social sectors.

The resources available for education from the SSN loan were used to develop district plans that could be posed to the World Bank for funding. The decision to avail funding for elementary education was not taken under pressure from the Bank, but after a long dialogue with it from 1987.

Also, World Bank president Barber Conable assured Prime Minister V P Singh that the Bank considered ownership and capacity building to be essential for project effectiveness and sustainability, and was willing to be as flexible as New Delhi considered necessary.

Further, in March 1991, the Central Advisory Board of Education (Cabe) comprising state education minsters and experts laid down the parameters for accessing external funding for education that specified that externally funded projects must be in total conformity with national policies, strategies and programmes.

The manner in which the DPEP meticulously adhered to Cabe parameters, addressed the multifarious challenges in adhering to them, and introduced many practices commended by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, 2005, is a long saga.

Some hold the view that while poverty has declined significantly since 1991, inequality in access to education has increased as quality of the public education system has suffered. It would be more accurate to say that while the infrastructure and facilities of government schools have improved substantially, the learning outcomes have not.


http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/1991-economic-reforms-and-indias-quest-for-universal-elementary-education/

Read More

The cuts to education system plan for budget cuts in government special needs education, school buses, teacher

The cuts, as reported by Channel 10 on Tuesday evening, will result in the cancellation of weekly school hours for all grades—from elementary school through middle school and high school—which would help save NIS 500 million.

The remaining NIS 500 million will be cut from the Education Ministry's budget. In addition to the teachers, at-risk youth are also expected to pay the price of the cuts, as the program aimed at dealing with drop-outs will suffer budget cuts.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett's office has declined to comment on the planned cuts and their ramifications.

Officials in the Education Ministry, however, attempted to allay the fears. "There's a plan for budget cuts in all government ministries. It doesn't necessarily mean teachers will be fired; we can make cuts in other places. The Education Ministry has a budget of NIS 53 billion a year and we can also cut instead from special needs education, school buses, teacher's assistants, and in other areas. We still don't know where the cuts will be made. We're negotiating with the Finance Ministry."

The officials added that "firing teachers is the most complicated action we can take, as teachers have a lot of protection and their unions would object."

Yossi Wasserman, the chairman of the Israel Teachers' Union, said on Tuesday: "Under no circumstance will we accept or allow the firing of teachers. The education system needs support and an upgrade, not cuts and dismissals."

In addition to the cuts to the education system, the Finance Ministry is planning on cutting some NIS 100 million from higher education.

"The Finance Ministry is working to improve and streamline the education system," the ministry said in a statement. "The Education Ministry's budget has increased by a significant percentage in recent years and is expected to grow this year as well. The claims that teachers would be fired are baseless."


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4839819,00.html

Read More

The Scottish government Senior councillors from across Scotland to discuss the education policy

The Scottish government has said raising attainment is a key priority.

Education conveners from 28 local authorities, which run schools, will debate the issue at the meeting hosted by council umbrella body Cosla.

They are expected to focus on how money resulting from council tax changes will be spent.

From next April, people in the most expensive homes will pay more.This is because the multiples between the different property bands will change - those in the most expensive bands will pay more, irrespective of whether a council decides to put up the basic level of the council tax.

The government wants the £100m this is expected to raise handed to headteachers to spend directly on their schools - specifically on schemes to help raise attainment and close the gap between how well youngsters from relatively rich and poor backgrounds do.

Some in local government want to ensure councils retain the freedom to decide for themselves just how much they need to spend on education and would want to automatically retain all the extra money from the council tax changes.
Attainment fund

Critics also fear that the government could, in effect, decide to put the money into a national pot to redistribute back to councils or individual schools. Some areas would receive more or less than they would have raised locally.

Some councils would react furiously to any attempt by central government to take the money from them or dictate just how it would be spent.

No decisions have been taken yet by the Scottish government although it has made it clear it wants all the extra money spent on education.

The issue is likely to come up during the talks between councillors and the government over next year's funding package.

On Monday, Education Secretary John Swinney told BBC Scotland there were "detailed arrangements to be discussed with local government" on future changes.

He explained: "We made clear in our election manifesto that we would change some of the aspects of council collection, to expand the bands and increase some of the thresholds and that would generate £100m which we would invest in the attainment fund."


http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37032110

Read More

Higher education system is time to reform India now

The writing is on the wall. India’s higher education system is in crisis and everyone is paying a hefty price for it: students, parents, industry, society and the nation.

Private coaching costs of preparing for premier institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have soared by 250 to 500 times in the last 30 years. Over the same period, the time required to prepare for the IIT Joint Entrance Examination (IITJEE) has gone up from a one-year grind to four years at a minimum.

As if this wasn’t enough, parents are investing in 24/7 preparation by sending their children to coaching factories in places like Kota. Students are facing extreme pressure, anxiety and uncertainty of receiving admissions into premier institutions, and some pay the ultimate and tragic price of committing suicide.

This pressure has found another outlet: cheating and corruption. The Vyapam scandal, where students cheated, parents paid bribes to politicians and bureaucrats, and all of them colluded with police to facilitate the cheating, is a case study of everything that is wrong with the higher education system in India.

Adding insult to injury, 75-90% of students graduating from colleges are considered unemployable by the industry. As a result, corporations are investing in training of six to 12 months to make these recent graduates ready for productive work. India is facing many mega-scale challenges such as water, energy and health. These challenges can also be tracked back to inadequacies of the current higher education system.

Families are voting with their wallets and their feet. Middle-class parents are spending one-third of their monthly income on private coaching. Lower-income parents are selling their assets or taking loans for the same cause. Those who can afford to send their children overseas for university.

There is a full-blown crisis on India’s hands. In the recent past, the nation has done well in times of crisis: the green revolution for the food crisis, and the white revolution for the milk crisis. Today, it is time for a Gray Revolution for the “gray matter” or the nerve center of society and the nation: its higher education system.Gray Revolution: Transforming India’s higher education system

In India, higher education is all post-secondary education, which includes universities, colleges and vocational schools. The higher education system prepares professionals for all sectors of the economy, including teachers for primary and secondary schools. In a vibrant system, colleges and universities are the enablers of research, innovation and entrepreneurship. Perhaps, most importantly, they prepare individuals for their lives and future careers. They also address problems facing society and the nation.

The Gray Revolution alludes to comprehensive reforms of India’s higher education system. It focuses on three key dimensions: scale and speed; scope and structure; and excellence and impact.

This author discussed these at length in the recently published book, Building Golden India: How to Unleash India’s Vast Potential and Transform Its Higher Education System. Now. A few key ideas from the book are outlined below.
Scale and Speed

India must provide excellent higher education to all within one generation.

The gross enrollment ratio (GER) is a percentage of students enrolled in higher education institutions out of the total number of people aged 18-23 years old. Most developed nations have a GER in the 50-95% range. By contrast, India’s GER is around 23% and lags behind developed countries by a wide margin.

India is a young nation of 1.3 billion people where an additional 20-26 million children are born every year. These demographics could be a dividend but also a liability. Students with inadequate knowledge and skills will be unable to compete in the global marketplace that seeks well-prepared professionals. Unemployment or underemployment for youth, especially after getting worthless degrees, could be a catalyst for violence and a forceful demand for more reservations in education, jobs and promotions. There are several early warning signs on this front.

Delivering a demographic dividend will depend entirely on providing excellent higher education to all. Thanks to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), technological advancements and related innovations, scaling at speed with excellence is a real possibility.
Scope and Structure

India’s colleges and universities must aspire to prepare young men and women for their lives and careers. They also have to provide multiple pathways for students to realize their potential.

India’s colleges and universities are structured to have a narrow scope. Elite institutions, including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), serve less than 0.5% of the total students enrolled in colleges and universities. These are all narrowly specialized institutions focused on just engineering, business or medicine.

At the other end, the affiliated college system, which serves over 75% of students in higher education, has become a thriving hub for making money and printing degrees. As a result, most undergraduate students do not have access to research and innovation. Rote learning is rampant.According to Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “Politicians have emerged as the single largest provider of new higher educational institutions.” With 50-80% of the colleges owned or operated by politicians or their families, this nexus is driving a race to the bottom. It is no wonder why India is still using British Raj regulations and “divide and conquer” philosophy.

India must end these British-era thinking and practices such as narrowly specialized institutions and an affiliated college system.
Excellence and Impact

India’s higher education institutions must aspire to become world-renowned and make an impact to society and the nation.

Existing multidisciplinary universities have lost their way and most have seen a decline in their reputation, selection and rigor. After nearly 70 years of independence, India does not have one world-class multidisciplinary research university, and just one university, the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, is ranked in the top 500 globally.

These three big ideas will address the scale and speed, scope and structure, and excellence and impact dimensions:

1) Establish world-class multidisciplinary research universities

2) Create a master plan for every state and union territory

3) Attract the best and the brightest talent to be faculty members
Establish world-class multidisciplinary research universities

India must establish 50 to 100 world-class multidisciplinary research universities. This could include a mix of newly established universities and transforming some of the existing premier institutions.
Create a master plan for every state and union territory

Each state must establish an integrated higher education master plan to provide an excellent education for all its residents. The mix of institutions could include world-class multidisciplinary research universities, Master’s and Bachelor’s degree-granting colleges, and community colleges. The community colleges would be responsible for vocational education, remedial training and preparing students to transfer to research universities and Master’s and Bachelor’s degree-granting colleges.
Attract the best and the brightest talent to be faculty members

The success of the Gray Revolution rests entirely on the shoulders and gray matter of India’s faculty members. One of the fundamental changes India must institutionalize is a radically new compensation and incentive structure for faculty members. Their total compensation and incentive structure has to be benchmarked with the local industry and global faculty compensation, and not pegged to the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) or any other government category pay scales. A flexibility to pay differential salaries based on market forces and merit must be part of this transformation.

Along with the transformed compensation structure, culture and rewards and recognition, India must also ensure that the processes to train, select and retain faculty members are of the highest standards.Finally, India must adopt the tenure system to improve accountability in the faculty as the United States and many other countries have done.

Most dynamic societies are defined by their higher education institutions. Once, Nalanda University from ancient India was home to great minds, and scholars from around the world flocked there. Today, Harvard, Stanford and many US universities rule the roost. A staggering 146 universities in top 500 of global ranking are in America. These universities add tremendous cultural, intellectual and economic heft to the US.

California was the first state to develop the master plan that has been adopted across the US. Due in large measure to its higher education system, California is home to a thriving economy and diverse industries such as agriculture, entertainment, financial and business services, manufacturing, tourism, life sciences and health care, trade and high-technology.

Stanford University transformed from a regional university in 1940s to its current elite status by attracting the best and the brightest talent as faculty members. In 2014, Stanford University start-ups generated $2.7 trillion in annual revenues.

China is taking a leaf out of the US playbook by transforming its higher education system. India can and must do better. A country that can send an orbiter to Mars, build nuclear bombs, have its people win Nobel prizes and lead Fortune 500 companies can certainly transform its ailing higher education system.

To quote a Chinese proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.” The time to plant the sapling of higher education transformation is now.


http://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/time-reform-indias-education-system-now-23203/

Read More

Adhitya Iyer education system is the deadliest terrorist organisation in india

.says Adhitya Iyer, author of The Great Indian Obsession, who left home for two years and travelled across the country to find out why Indian parents are obsessed with getting their children to study Engineering.

If 3 Idiots were to be remade, Adhitya Iyer would be glad to play Aamir Khan’s Rancho. For him, learning is more important than the college degrees and only logic does the talking. That’s probably why he didn’t like the idea of engineering from day one. What did he do instead? A start-up that sells T-shirts with lines from the average frustrated engineering student printed on them. And, ironically, that’s what exactly got him into the list of the country’s top 30 young entrepreneurs. But that’s just the beginning of the story.

He then came down to Bengaluru, worked in another startup that essentially sold chai (tea), spoke to dozens of IT workers and quit that job to travel across 10 states to find the answer to one simple question — “How did I end up here?” This led to another interesting story which the world knows as The Great Indian Obsession — the book that became the highest selling crowdfunded book in India and the sixth highest in Asia. It was through this journey that Adhitya Iyer presents to you the world’s most interesting educational story. Excerpts from an extra witty interview...How did you go from taking a trip to writing a book?

It was a series of experiences. Firstly, even I was tricked into getting into an engineering college because I was good with Maths and Physics. And as we know,  this combination is pretty lethal, by default. During my college days, I realised that engineering is not my thing. So to vent my frustration, I set up this start-up while in college. This earned me a lot of laurels, including the tag of top 30 young entrepreneurs of the country. Then I moved to Bengaluru where I essentially sold tea. Ummm well, it was a start-up. Bengaluru has more engineers than all of Silicon valley. Not just engineers, they are engineers frustrated with life. Most of these customers I used to talk to, while at the start-up, had similar experiences about how they were tricked. That was the last straw and I wanted to write a book on this issue.

You said you sold tea? Really?

Yeah, it sounds weird, I know. But we are so intrigued by our lives that people fail to see the absurdity of it. For me, it was a start-up founded by a Howard graduate and I wanted to explore thigs. But for my mother, it was a nightmare. I had so many cousins and not surprisingly, they were all engineers. It is embarrassing to tell people that you work at a chai point. “Can you tell me something fancy about it or at least make it sound fancy in front of the relatives,” she used to tell me.Coming back to the book, the funds were all from random people?

I took to crowd funding and 301 generous people gave me money to write a book, so it turned out pretty well. My challenge was to make people understand what crowdfunding is and then make them pay. We had a good campaign video that helped. But the usual engineering student’s last moment brain did wonders and things fell in place. I could write another book on the crowdfunding experience.

Did your childhood play any role in writing this book?

I come from a TamBrahm family, so you can do the math (chuckles). We moved from Saudi to India just so that they could put me into engineering. It is just a natural thing in my family. Ever since a kid, I didn’t know anything else. Growing up, I wanted to figure out the cause of this obsession.

So, what do really think of the Indian Education system?

The Indian education system is India’s deadliest terrorist organisation. Even if you look at the numbers, the number of kids that have killed themselves due to the pressure of academics is just disturbing. But the only bright spot is the competitive environment. So, I knew there was no point competing with these people because no matter how hard I try, this is not something I want to do. It was not my thing and thus I started exploring other things, started reading, and then the start-up happened. That’s where I found my space.

Let’s talk about your 10-state tour. What was that like?

I quit in 2013 and thought a small tour will help me write the book. But my visit to Kanpur changed this. There were people shooting each other in Kanpur, there was a proper gang war. Unfortunately, these were not gangsters but educated coaching class teachers. That day, I knew that there is a larger story and I should spend more time travelling.

Let’s talk about the highest and the lowest points of your journey.

My lowest point of the journey was in Hyderabad. I basically call it the prison journey. Have you seen the movie The Shawshank Redemption? There are places in Hyderabad where students are locked inside a room and they are not allowed to come outside. They are cut off from the outside world. In that coaching institute, one boy had blood cancer. His mother did not know it, his father knew it, I knew it and the hostel dean knew it. He was still made to study in that institute. How crazy was that? For all we know that guy may not have lived till the exam and still, his father wanted him to crack IIT. That was the darkest point in my journey. To be very honest, the journey did not have many high points. It is just the way the book is written that people find it interesting and can relate to it.

There must have been something that kept you going?

It was curiosity. I wanted to know how I ended up like this. We are such a diverse country and we have been given so many choices in everything from language to food etc. How are we obsessed with this? In the process, I knew I was also catering to the curiosity of other people like me.

So, how is your super-traditional family taking it?

They were not really happy. But fortunately, I had awards, I had a good 10-minute coverage on TV. So, they had something to tell others. But now that I am 27, the alarm is ringing again.

What’s next? Another witty book?

The book has taken a lot of my energy, both emotionally and physically. But, I want this same story to come out from some other medium. I want this to reach people in every way it can. So, maybe it will be a movie or a short video. Well, I am an engineer, I will figure it out at the last moment somehow. (laughs)

On the indian trail

“There are places in Hyderabad where students are locked inside a room and they are not allowed to come outside. They are cut off from the outside world. In that coaching institute, one boy had blood cancer. His mother did not know it, father knew it, and I knew it and the hostel dean knew it. He was still made to study in that institute.”

“There were people shooting each other in Kanpur, there was a proper gang war. Unfortunately, these were not gangsters but educated coaching class teachers.”

His visit to a cram school in the city of Hyderabad was the darkest point of his journey. Boys and girls aren’t allowed to talk to each other and are forced to study 16 hours a day.Just days before his visit a young boy just escaped out of the window. He did not bother to take any of his belongings.

When 301 people from all over the world contributed more than $14,000, crowdfunding history was created. The crowdfunding was for the book The Great Indian Obsession

The book happened because Adhitya Iyer, author of the book, left home on a backpacking trip across 10 states of the country to understand the obsession of engineering among the students and their families

The book is about his experiences while travelling, experiences of students that he met while traveling and how the Indian education system needs to be transformed from “the deadliest terrorist organisation to something people can be happy about”

The book is inspired by his own childhood as well. Adhitya grew up in a Tamb-Brahm family. His family moved from Saudi to India just so that they could put him into engineering, something he says is normal for his family. Ever since then, he was desperate to find the cause of this crazy obsession with engineering

Adhitya wants people to hear this story through other media as well. He hopes to produce a short film someday

http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Indias-education-system-is-the-deadliest-terrorist-organisation-Adhitya-Iyer/2016/08/08/article3563973.ece

Read More

The Union government no provision for reservation in jobs and education in the transgender Bill

The Union government has made no provision for reservation in jobs and education in the transgender Bill that was introduced in the Lok Sabha this week.

According to an earlier draft of the Cabinet note prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, all transgender persons, barring those who are not from Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes, were to be considered in the reservation quota for Other Backward Castes (OBC).

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, introduced by Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot in Lok Sabha Tuesday, however, has no mention of the reservation. Sources in the ministry said that it was dropped because of protests by OBC groups who feared this would shrink their share of the pie.

The earlier draft Cabinet note had a section on reservation in employment. It read, “Those transgender persons who by birth do not belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe may be declared as Backward Class and be entitled to reservation under the existing ceiling of OBC category.”

As for transgender persons belonging to SC and ST communities, they were to take benefit under the existing reservation quota available for these categories, it had said. “Ever since the draft was circulated by us, the ministry received representations from OBC groups who were staunchly opposed to the proposed move,” said a ministry source.

The government had to take up the issue of reservation under OBC quota for transgenders following an August 2014 recommendation by the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) in favour of the inclusion of transgenders in the central list of OBCs.

“The Supreme Court judgment in the case filed by the National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India said that the Centre should treat them as socially and educationally backward classes and provide them with the reservations available to them. We elaborated on the SC order in our report and said that all transgenders from forward castes should be given reservation under the existing 27 per cent quota for OBC,” said NCBC member S K Kharventhan.The government Bill on transgenders’ rights came in the wake of a similar Bill introduced in Rajya Sabha by DMK MP Tiruchi. The private member Bill, the first such to be passed in over four decades, spoke of reservation in not only jobs but also in education — an assured two per cent reservation.

“Instead of two per cent, it could even be 0.5 per cent but it has to be only horizontal reservation. This means that within the existing reservation quota for OBCs, SCs and STs, there must be an assured per cent of reservation for transgenders as they cannot easily get jobs and education if they are made to compete with others in each category. However the Bill introduced in Lok Sabha has nothing on reservation; it is entirely toothless,” said Siva.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/transgender-bill-has-no-provision-for-quota-in-jobs-education-2954328/

Read More

The empowering girls and re-training parents in Indian school Is working to end child marriage

Habitually wiping the moisture off her brow, Kunti Rawat deftly rings up a sale while waving in a string of shoppers to Didi’s Food in Lucknow, India, where she is second in command.

Her older sisters were child brides, but she holds a Master’s degree in business administration, an unlikely accomplishment for a village girl in a region of India notorious for selective abortions of girls and the use of gang rape to subjugate women. Of the world’s 720 million women married in childhood, a third live in India, where domestic abuse often stomps out academic aspiration.

But Rawat has no interest in fitting the mold. Tidily dressed in slim black jeans and a white top, her look is a sharp contrast to the women in Lucknow, who are dressed head to toe in colorful salwar kemeez.

“It’s because of Prena,” Rawat said, referring to her high school. There, teachers taught her to challenge patriarchy, drawing straight from Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. At Prena, girls perform above the national average, and almost all of them finish 12th grade. They also march every year in the capital of their state in a formation of flowing peach uniforms to demand an end to violence against women and child marriage.

With recent honor killings—the murder of one family member by another due to the belief that the victim brought shame on the family—in Pakistan and Afghanistan, people are starting to take note of Prena and education that empowers girls as a powerful antidote to gender-based violence.

Research showing tremendous payback for investments made early on in a girl’s life is driving more funding. The U.S. announced $70 million in funding to support adolescent girls in Pakistan, and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn is a multi-million dollar program for adolescent girls abroad.

We went to Prena to sit in on what they call “critical dialogues,” conversations of the sort that don’t usually happen in a school, but should. These discussions often turn to the pressures that so many face—to drop out and marry—but the girls have other concerns as well. In one, after a 9th grader named Shailly told the group how she was harassed by the bus driver on the way to school, her classmates bolstered her courage. In another, the girls improvised a play about a maid trapped in an abusive household. Another 9th grade girl told us the dialogues help them “get ideas for how to deal with our problems.”

The founder of Prena, Dr. Urvashi Sahni, started teaching in her backyard while a young mother and studying herself. She’s been teaching for 30 years, and it’s deeply personal for her. When Sahni was 24-years old, her cousin burned to death—it was either a suicide or a murder at the hands of her abusive husband and in-laws. The cousin’s 2-year-old son was in the house when she died.

Now Sahni protects her students from that kind of abuse. For example, her former student Khushboo was 16 when her father threatened to douse her in kerosene and burn her if she continued at Prena. Sahni went to his house and confronted him, reminding him of his obligation to educate his daughter. That night, he beat Kushboo. Sahni soon found out and called protective services and the police. Still he wouldn’t relent, and so Kushboo moved in with her grandmother and kept coming to Prena. Now Kushboo, a slender woman with lively eyes, has a Master’s degree in gender studies.

Sahni’s curriculum pushes girls to reflect on their lives and to develop strategies to stand up for themselves. Sometimes the girls can’t escape family pressures, and so they work around them. One of Sahni’s students apologized for burning her book corners; she was studying while cooking lentils for her family.

About 800 girls attend Prena, paying only $1.5 per month, which Sahni calls a “commitment fee,” although its often forgiven for girls who can’t pay. Sahni also founded the Study Hall Educational Foundation which, in addition to other programs, runs a well-respected private school serving middle class families in Lucknow. Prena holds its classes on the Study Hall school campus in the afternoon. The double shifting lets Sahni keep Prena fees low, and is also practical: most Prena students work and can’t study in the mornings.

This month, parents streamed through Prena’s courtyard and into an auditorium for a back-to-school meeting. But rather than discuss the calendar and the grading policy, Sahni held forth on the perils of child marriage. Ceiling fans blew hot air on the crowd while a panel of students spoke. One recounted how her parents had been furious when she declined to get married and instead stayed in school, “but now they are very proud of me,” she said. Before leaving, the principal asked each parent to sign a promise to keep their daughters in school at least until graduation.

“We want parents to understand that their daughters’ rights are underpinned by the constitution,” Sahni said. “And even though our bond isn’t legal tender, in many ways it morally binds them.”

A prolific social entrepreneur, Sahni also founded Didi’s Food, where she employs 65 Prena graduates and their mothers. A former Ashoka fellow, several years ago we recruited her to be an Echidna Scholar, a fellowship program for global advocates for girls’ education at the Brookings Institution. From there she planned the expansion of Prena’s work into India’s public schools. Through this, Sahni is now reaching about 100,000 girls in 1,000 schools.

Back at Didi’s, Rawat works with electric determination, perhaps learned from Sahni, whom she calls “Auntie.” Her older sisters were married as young as 9, but her younger sisters will all graduate and get degrees. “I made a huge mistake marrying off my girls” Rawat’s father says of his first four daughters. “But now I have learned.”

http://time.com/4428450/india-child-marriage-education/

Read More

The pro Vice Chancellor of Ashoka University in quality a big challenge for the Indian education sector

Jumpstart Goes to School, a seminar concentrating on children’s education, was held in the Capital today. This two-day seminar is focusing on the education in theory and in practice as well as school education with regard to children’s content.

Delivering the keynote address, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Ashoka University, Vineet Gupta, himself an IITian and a first generation entrepreneur, highlighted the key aspects and challenges of the Indian education system.

Gupta said that India has the largest higher education system in the world in terms of institutions. “We have about 712 universities and 36,671 colleges. We are also the largest market for higher education with a population of 14 crore in the the 18-23 years age group,” he said.

According to Gupta, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) at the school entry level is 93 per cent which drops to 36 per cent at the higher secondary level. “The system of education is more input based which deteriorates the output. Half the students cannot read a text and two-thirds cannot do simple arithmetic after primary school,” he elaborated.

Talking about the challenges of higher education in India, Gupta said that quality is a big challenge for the Indian education sector. “We need to focus on faculty development and training. We’ve left the training of teachers to government institutions. There is shortage of 12 lakh teachers at the school level. In a Central Teacher Eligibility Test conducted by the CBSE recently, only six per cent of the seven lakh graduates who appeared for the exam passed the test,” he said.

Among the panelists present for the first half of the seminar were educator Preminda Langar, Australian author Ken Spillman, CEO of Institute of Digital Learning, Munich, Dr Florian Sochatzy and children’s books writer and illustrator, Orit Bergman.

Langar enlightened the audience about the need for experience-based learning right from the primary level. She said that learning needs to inculcate the physical, emotional, social, cerebral, moral and ethical, as well as spiritual aspects. “We need to focus on helping create more scientists than focus on science, more authors than scribes,” she said.

Spillman, who spoke about bringing technology to education in order to enhance learning, said, “Technology is not just for learning but is a great place to connect.” He added that educators need to be themselves as humans respond better to others when they see that others are real.

Jumpstart, started in 2009, began as a series of workshops and seminars focusing on children’s books. The workshop is organised annual by the German Book Office (GBO), New Delhi, which is a joint venture of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Foreign Ministry of Germany. GBO New Delhi serves as a portal for projects related with content, publishing and exchange between South Asia, Germany and the international book market.

The seminar is being held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, and will continue till August 3, 2016.

http://indianexpress.com/article/education/quality-a-big-challenge-for-the-indian-education-sector-says-pro-vice-chancellor-of-ashoka-university/

Read More

US firms to expand genomics and biotech educational programming globally in india

An American non-profit body and an India-based of provider of software products and services will collaborate to provide genomics and biotech educational programming globally.

As part of the collaboration, Chennai-based Bahwan Cyber Tek, will work with Alabama-based HudsonAlpha to provide genomics and biotech educational programming globally.

The two organisations plan to work together to use HudsonAlpha s expertise in genomic and biotech education to implement high quality educational strategies and materials, such as the iCell and TouchingTriton digital apps and educational kits, a statement said.

"When we saw the educational programming HudsonAlpha has built, we were interested in bringing that foundation to the students of this generation and the next generation in Oman," said S Durgaprasad, co-founder and chief executive officer of BCT.

"Providing this opportunity to students will open up significant means of future employment as well as prepare everyone to benefit from the latest advancements in healthcare," he said.

HudsonAlpha is a nonprofit genomics and genetics research institute located in Huntsville, Alabama to provide genomics and biotech educational programming globally.

http://www.thestatesman.com/news/india/indian-us-firms-to-expand-genomics-education-globally/157647.html

Read More