Girl education to bring social revolution: Nitish Kumar

After a gap of two years, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has resumed blog writing. His latest one posted on Thursday is about girls' education which is ushering in a social revolution in Bihar. Referring to his Independence Day speech this year in which he announced scholarship for all girls studying in class I to X in different government schools, he wrote that it was an important decision to further boost the girls' education.

"What is significant about this decision is that schoolgirls from all sections of society, regardless of caste, creed, community and economic background, will benefit from it. The only criterion is that the beneficiary should be a student of a government school. That's all. This, in my opinion, is a revolutionary step which will give a tremendous boost to women's education in the state," Nitish blogged.

The CM hoped that this scheme may turn out to be an equally significant decision not only because it will encourage families to send their daughters to school but also because it will act as a catalyst for social change in the long run. "I have always believed that educating a girl means educating an entire family," he said.

Disclosing his decision to establish a high school in each panchayat, the CM wrote that there was shortage of about 4,500 high schools in the state. The cabinet has already approved setting up of 1,000 high schools in the current financial year. "There are other burning social issues such as child marriage and gender inequality which are reasons behind several social problems. These, too, can be tackled through girls' education," he said.

Expressing concern over the female population going down because of rampant foeticide, he said at present, the male-female ratio is 1,000:916 in Bihar which needs to be improved. "I am of the view that proper and holistic education of girls will definitely help reverse this unhealthy trend as well. In my opinion, an educated girl will never allow female foeticide," he wrote.

Nitish, in his blog, also referred to the success of uniform and bicycle schemes. He said the cycle scheme not only saw a drastic increase in enrolment of girls but brought a newfound confidence in them leading to a social transformation. Prior to the scheme implementation, a large number of girls used to drop out of their schools after Class VIII but these schemes reversed the trend, he added.

"The cycle scheme brought about a social revolution and made the cycle-riding schoolgirls a veritable mascot of Bihar, especially in the rural areas. The success of that scheme could be gauged from the fact that altogether 9,61,109 students, including 4,92,899 girls, availed of the scheme in 2012-13," the CM remarked.

He further wrote that the bicycle project has heralded a silent revolution in the hinterland of Bihar as far as women empowerment is concerned and has instilled a sense of confidence in the girls. "The sight of girls going to their schools from their villages on their bicycles bears ample testimony to that. It is a kind of social revolution which has altered the way girls' education has been looked at in Bihar, historically. I am certain the impact of this revolution will be felt in the long run when women would be truly empowered."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Girl-education-to-bring-social-revolution-Nitish-Kumar/articleshow/22776990.cms

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Worlddidac India 2013 and Asian summit on education and skills 2013

MUMBAI, INDIA: The fifth edition of Worlddidac India and Asian summit on education and skills, the country's only exhibition and conference on educational material, training and technology based solutions for all levels and sectors, proved to be a grand success and ended as being the most productive three days of the year for the entire education and training fraternity.

The theme of the summit was ‘Confronting Complexities for Effective Policy Implementation'. The summit brought together the policy makers and eminent educationists from all over India and other Asian countries, during which issues such as symmetric regulation among public and private sector, optimal utilization of 21st century technology, and developing sustainability through partnerships and collaborations were addressed to bridge the policy implementation gap.

During the summit, S.S. Mantha, chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said: "Several changes have been made in the past and various initiatives have been planned for the future to make a well-defined formal education system and making all courses more employable."

http://www.ciol.com/ciol/news/195948/worlddidac-india-2013-asian-summit-education-skills-2013

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Datawind join hands with TES India to provide free educational resources

The UK-based tablets maker Datawind said that it has signed a strategic partnership with TES India, an online community by the teachers for the teachers.

A media release from the company said: "With this strategic partnership Datawind would be able to offer a huge library of five lakh ready-to-use teaching material to its end users. Datawind is targeting teachers' community via this strategic partnership. Teachers and institutions can choose to teach their students absolutely free of cost by using this library. They can also teach their students an international syllabus, which can help them keep in sync with global standards."

Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO & President, Datawind said: "This partnership will allow Datawind users to access high quality, interactive and engaging educational content for free. Also this partnership will strengthen teacher's community so that they can deliver quality education which is a need of the hour by Young India."

"We are delighted to be working with Datawind. We are committed to driving excellence in the education sector, and this partnership will help teachers to access the very best classroom resources - lesson plans, assessments, worksheets, presentations and more", said Sachin Kapoor, general manager, TES India.

An application created for the purpose will have learning materials available for several courses like Bachelor of Arts, B.Com, B. Ed, general awareness, entire CBSE content, educational presentations, discussion on social topics and many more.

There is content available for special need of special children which will help teachers to understand different cases.

According to press release, the most amazing feature is that teachers can find employment for themselves and on the other hand students will be able to locate a great career guide for themselves too as it has Jobs services on the portal that is not chargeable.

This platform will enable teachers to share teaching & learning material so that they can learn from each other hence contribute to a better learning and creating great recourses for the country.

- See more at: http://www.voicendata.com/voice-data/news/195776/datawind-join-hands-tes-india-provide-free-educational-resources#sthash.8w918m4G.dpuf

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Education loans a problem at sub-6% growth

MUMBAI: Pratip Chaudhuri's tenure as SBI chairman has been one of extremes. The bank recorded its highest ever profit of Rs 14,105 crore, but this was marred by a surge in bad loans. The sell-off in bank stocks resulted in SBI losing its position as the most valuable bank but Chaudhuri reaffirmed its fundamentally strong image by bolstering Tier-I capital adequacy to well over 9% and providing for pension liabilities. Excerpts from an interview with TOI:


SBI has tightened income criteria for car loans. Will you do this for all retail loans?

We have done this for auto loans as we feel that those with higher income are less likely to default. Home loans are different because it is against property and it also enhances the borrower's income through rentals or savings in rent. Education loans will become a problem if, going forward, the economy does not grow at 6% as enough jobs won't be created and also employment would come at lower salaries. That is why we have extended the tenure of our education loan from five to twelve years. We hope the government brings in the guarantee scheme for education loans.


What do you expect from RBI's mid-term policy review on Friday?

We have made three recommendations: A 1% reduction in cash reserve ratio (CRR), allow 2% interest on current account deposits and permission to raise three-day bank deposits. Today, there is no difference in return if money is maintained in cash or in current accounts. Given that close to Rs 11 lakh crore is in the form of currency with the public, the endeavour should be to encourage flow of the cash into the banking system.


Why have stocks of SBI and other public sector banks fallen so sharply?

Not just banks, there is a huge element of short-selling that goes on in public sector stocks. If you look at the price of ONGC, Sail, Coal India, NMDC, NTPC — all have taken a beating of 30-40%. Short-sellers get away with impunity as they feel there is not enough interest to defend these stocks. Whereas if someone were to short-sell companies where promoters have sizeable holdings, there is fear that if these people come and start buying then they would be caught on the wrong foot.


RBI has allowed banks to swap NRI deposits for rupee funds at low cost. How much do you plan to raise?

We lend the funds we raise through foreign currency non-resident (FCNR-B) deposits to companies in the form of dollar loans, for which there is very good demand. If we convert FCNR-B into rupees, we will not have resources for dollar loans. Also, the blended cost of rupee funds would come to around 8% which is higher than SBI's indigenously procured funds. For SBI, this does not make much economic sense.


Why is liquidity so tight? Why is bank credit growing despite the slowdown?

We are also experiencing the tightness. I don't know if it is temporary but it is indicative of the highly inverse yield curve. RBI's cut-off yields on bonds are so high, primary dealers find it attractive to borrow from RBI at 10.25% and buy bonds at 11-11.5%. Bank credit is growing because companies have shifted their borrowing from commercial paper and from short-term external commercial borrowings to rupee loans since other sources are unavailable. Also, deposit growth is quite muted, which is why we are offering 9% on our fixed deposits. We don't see any upward pressure on lending rates as our margins have moved up by two basis points in each of the last two months. But our lending rates are always kept under the scanner.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Education-loans-a-problem-at-sub-6-growth/articleshow/22677858.cms

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Translating Cambridge research into Bangalore business

BANGALORE: He is fresh from a two-hour talk with technologists, innovators, entrepreneurs and scientists in Bangalore. And for Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, 345th vice-chancellor of the 803-year-old Cambridge University, that's enough to capture the mood of IT city.

"This is an amazing city of opportunities. People here are always looking forward. The Bangalore-Cambridge connect is great," the 62-year-old medical researcher told TOI on Wednesday, hours after he opened a centre on the sprawling National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) campus on Bellary Road. Excerpts:

The Bangalore-Cambridge connect got a little closer today. Why is the city special for one of the world's oldest universities?

A This city has so many innovators and entrepreneurs - and that's the spirit at Cambridge. This is the IT and science hub of the country. Back in Cambridge, we do a lot of research which can be translated into business in Bangalore because there are so many innovators here. The collaboration with NCBS is fostering knowledge-driven therapeutic interventions for human diseases, and the other key stakeholders in the Bangalore-Cambridge innovation network are the Indian Institute of Information Technology and IISc.

The Indian government has expressed its intent to allow foreign universities to set up campuses here. Will we have a Cambridge in India?

We have no plans to open a campus in India. Exporting collegiate education is not possible as it's very expensive. We'll continue to partner with scientific institutions and colleges in India. We're looking at exchange programmes and research for students. We can collaborate with any number of institutions. To me, partnership is the key as learning is two-way.

How has the economic slowdown affected universities?

It would be wrong to say we are immune to the slowdown. World over, universities have been affected. But students who look up to us continue to come. That's heartening. We need to loosen up the immigration policy. I've asked the UK government to allow more international students into our campus.

Innovation is the buzzword for Cambridge. How have you integrated the changes in your courses?

We've made the Arts and Humanities courses more flexible. There are more subjects within each stream now so the student is more rounded. Innovation and research must be the success statement for every university, so that students are not lost when they step into the corporate world.

Forging links

The innovation network will also drive commercial activity between technology companies like Infosys, in Cambridge. My meeting with your chief minister Siddaramaiah was encouraging, where we agreed to leverage this city's strengths in information technology, biotechnology and science. Research must be ploughed back into the economy. The vision is to foster links between academics, businesses, researchers and entrepreneurs from both cities.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Translating-Cambridge-research-into-Bangalore-business/articleshow/22676302.cms

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Weaving education into the social fabric

With an outreach programme, the Aga Khan Academy looks to improve, provide quality education.

Thirty-five-year-old Pushpa Ragam talks about the ways in which her students have not just managed to relate to her but also express themselves better in the English language. A teacher at a government school in Hyderabad, Ragam was talking to the media after an interaction organised by the Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad which trained them as an outreach programme.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) which opened the Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad in 2011 will be formally inaugurated on September 20.

With an intention to improve the standard of teaching and provide quality education and develop home-grown leaders, the AKDN has taken two steps.

One is the Academy which is part of the 18 academies planned by His Highness Aga Khan in South and Central Asia, Africa and Middle-East. The other is the outreach programme through which the AKDN looks to improve skills of teachers so that they can better impart English language.

“Through the outreach programme, we try to improve the English language capacity of the teachers. What we did was dealt with the pedagogical strategy of the teaching the English language,” said Dan Arnold, facilitator of the training programme of English language.

Instead of just making students learn, the teachers are trained to  teach students how to acquire the language. “Basically what we do is teach students English at their subconscious level by helping them express in their thoughts,” said Ragam who was part of the five-month training programme  that is held at the sprawling 100 acre campus of the Academy, which boasts of five fields, swimming pool and other facilities.

At present, the Academy has over 50% students studying at the campus that get anywhere between 5-100 percent financial aid in the IB curriculum academy. The financial aid to deserving students too is part of the social uplift initiative of the AKAN.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1889433/report-weaving-education-into-the-social-fabric

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Technology driving educational revolution in villages

In the beginning of the last decade, a simple webcam and a fledgling, though unsteady internet, provided a lifeline of emotional connect between students abroad and their parents and friends back home. That was a video-conference in a very simple form. Cut to the present: we are witnessing a generational shift in technology; so much so that it is quietly triggering a social revolution in the educational and health care sectors in the remote corners of our country.

Curious and impressionable minds are being led into a new world of enlightenment, hand held by teachers sitting kilometers away, with the help of advanced remote-access technologies. The teacher and students are not in the same classroom, but they virtually are — children can see their teacher, ask doubts and get them answered; as they can not only hear but also see each other.

Some of these lucky students belong to nine schools in the districts of Raichur, Shimoga and Hoskote. And the game changer is the giant technological leap, brought in by Cisco's multi-pronged inclusive growth initiative.

"At 40.2, India has one of the lowest pupil-teacher ratio and 33% of schools have just one teacher," says Aravind Sitaraman, president, inclusive growth, Cisco Systems. "The fact that students have laptops with them doesn't solve the problem, because there are so many infrastructural bottlenecks. The technology that we have put in place is a great enabler bringing in a qualitative change in the education sector."

Power of the cloud
The big challenge facing the educational sector in India is the impossibility of the few teachers to reach the huge number of children scattered over vast areas of our villages. And, Cisco is leveraging technology to address this problem.

At the core of the technology is a box which functions like a router. It has a computer running on Windows, projector, speaker, camera, microphone, power management tools all built into it. Sitaraman said that technology that is being used to bring in the social and educational transformation is WebX, which is also used by many Fortune 100 companies. It allows a high level of scaling, and multiple concurrent sessions can be held.

This box and the WebX bring a virtualized teacher not to one classroom in one locality, but to many classrooms in many localities, thanks to the power of the cloud. The system is administered by the telecom provider. The teacher is able to see these classroom in the form of tiles on a screen. He can enlarge one of the tiles to have a closer look at that classroom. He can even address a particular student in that classroom, explained Sitaraman. The solution ensures that all rural schools can offer all subjects with the same level of expert teaching that a student in a city or a metro gets access to.

The key features of this educational ecosystem are cloud connectivity, integrated network with wi-fi features, high-quality image projection and power management, high-quality audio/video streaming on SaaS based platform, and ruggedized products for temperature, dust and theft intolerance.

Efforts yielding results
"We are looking at the concept of an Enabled Village by focussing on four key areas: education, health care, marketplace and skills, and public services. For this, we make use of affordable models that save time and money for people; and high-end technology that are based in the cloud," said Sitaraman.

Under their 'Remote Education Deployment' programme, nearly 6 lakh student hours were utilized in the last two years to impart knowledge in English, mathematics, science and social studies. The efforts have paid off with tangible improvements — 10 to 12% increase in attendance and 19% increase in pass percentage.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-15/internet/42080420_1_classroom-cisco-systems-technology

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PG medical seats auctioned for Rs 4cr

BANGALORE: A group of parents sitting in a city medical college auditorium, facing a management team, appear to be attending an orientation session. A closer look reveals they are bidding for post-graduate medical seats. A parent stands up and announces he is ready to pay Rs 1 crore for an MD (radiology) seat. Another parent ups the bid by Rs 25 lakh. At the end of the two-hour session, the coveted seat goes to the ward of the highest bidder.

So highly contested have been the auctions for PG medical seats this year that the going rate for an MD (radiology) seat touched Rs 4 crore at a prominent Chennai college. It hovered between Rs 3 crore and Rs 3.5 crore for the same course in Bangalore colleges.

Successful bids for orthopaedics and dermatology seats varied between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore. A paediatrics seat cost Rs 1.6 crore.

Parents find the auction disturbing. "It's like buying property. The more money you have, the better your house is."

A source says: "It seems only the elite can pursue some courses. What is also shocking is that students are a witness to this trend. So the student whose parent could not pay those extra lakhs is scarred for life."

Reasons for the high demand are not far to seek. For the lakhs of students who aspire to specialize in radiology, there are only 683 seats every year. "The gap between demand and supply is enormous. The shortage is perpetuated so that the cost of seats rises every year'' officials told TOI.

College managements, on their part, say their repeated pleas to the Medical Council of India (MCI) to increase the number of seats have been in vain. "If we admit very few students for some courses, the cost of their training goes up. How do we make up for that?" asks the principal of a college where PG-seat rates this year hovered between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3.5 crore. The huge gap in the number of under-graduate and post-graduate medical seats makes medical education costlier every year.

TIMES VIEW: End 'not-for-profit' charade, let market forces decide fees

Apart from law and order, education and health are perhaps the two areas where a government has the greatest responsibility towards its citizens - in socialist as well as capitalist societies. Unfortunately, in India, we have seen the steady retreat of government as a provider of quality education and healthcare. It is clear that there is no option but for the private sector to step in to bridge the yawning gap in the number of schools, colleges and hospitals. The private sector — barring a handful of philanthropically-minded business groups and businessmen — will do so only if there is a return on investment. But the Supreme Court has, in an old judgment, specified that the "object of setting up an educational institution is by definition 'charitable'...and should not be to make a profit."

While the objective of providing a sterling education that is affordable and widely accessible is laudable, the reality on the ground is very different. What has compounded the situation is the farce of trusts and societies setting up "not-for-profit" medical and engineering colleges when everyone knows that they exist only for profit. Huge capitation fees, running into crores, have to be paid unofficially for admission to these colleges. In several states in India, a large number of these colleges — often of dodgy quality — are run by powerful politicians or their pals. Worse still, government policies on education are designed to protect and promote these businesses-masquerading as-charitable institutions. Kapil Sibal's legislative move as HRD minister to allow "foreign education providers" to enter India are said to have been scuttled by these "education barons", many of whom are top ministers in state governments. They feared that reputed institutions from countries such as the US and the UK would undercut their money-making ventures.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-13/news/42040093_1_pg-medical-seats-3-5-crore-private-sector

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Networking will help special schools: Expert

Chennai: India is a far more inclusive society than the West, but there remain huge challenges when it comes to special education needs. Centres like Sankalp should network with other institutions, coordinate and disseminate information, said Richard Rose, professor of inclusive education and director of the Centre for Education and Research at the University of Northampton, UK.

He was in the city on Friday to attend the third international seminar on 'inclusion through education and vocation', organised by Sankalp, an institution that is involved in remedial instruction, catering to children with learning disa­bi­lity/dys­lexia and autism spectrum disorder.

Forming a network would be useful, he said. Though India has Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Right to Education Act, government agencies and policy-makers have to address and support special education needs.

Mary Doveston, senior lecturer, school of education, Centre for Special Needs Education and Research at the University of Northa­m­pton, said teachers should also be trained for they needed a basic level of understanding about special education.

Started in 1999 with 25 children, Sankalp now has about 240 children. “Apart from our open school and learning centre, six months ago, we started the Sankalp Vocational Sahayika. Those kids, who do not fit into the academic mainstream, take this work skill programme, called 'Sahayika'. We always talk about inclusion, but nothing has been done in India, and we have to really take it forward,” said Sulata Ajit, director (special education), Sankalp.

Speaking about the work skill programme, Prema Gnanaolivu, consultant, Sankalp Vocational Sahayika, said from the following year, apart from Sankalp's kids, other students would also be able to join in this structured course that would be held in a simulated workshop setting.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130914/news-current-affairs/article/networking-will-help-special-schools-expert

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Sex education crucial to sensitize children

Moments before Saket Court sentenced Nibhaya rape accused to death on Friday, Justice Leila Seth guided city students on how sensitization about crime against women can start from a very early age.

Seth was one of the members of the Justice Verma Committee, which was formed after Nirbhaya's gang-rape, to take a re-look at sexual assault against women. The committee broadened the ambit of the crime and recommended harsher punishment for the rapists.

Seth was invited by La Martiniere School for Boys to address the students on its 178th Founder's Day. Interestingly, before shifting to Delhi, Seth lived in the city. She studied in Darjeeling and Kolkata and then went on to live in Kolkata for quite some time, informed principal Sunirmal Chakravarthi.

"Every school should start sex education from a very young age. Trouble starts when children start getting sexually awakened but are not comfortable enough with parents to ask these questions. Schools should step in as mediators and help young boys and girls tackle sex-related curiosities. This will automatically sensitize children and help tackle criminal offences like rape," Seth said.

The society was going through one of its worst crises of aggression that often manifests itself through sexual assault and crime against women, felt Seth. "Aggression has to be tackled at its root and that will be possible only if you stop the culture of competition in the classroom. A child should not be encouraged to compete with his classmates because that means asking him to become aggressive. Instead, ask them to be creatively different and recognize their talents. You will be surprised at the difference you will notice," she advised.

According to the first woman judge of a high court in India, value education classes in schools should focus on teaching kids to respect the Constitution and its Preamble. If this is routinely done, children would automatically strive to become good citizens. "It is more important to be a good citizen than to be the President of the country," was her message to students who listened to her in rapt attention.

A crusader against environmental pollution, Seth also urged young boys to be conscious about their surroundings. "We should not wait for the last tree to dry up and the last river to be poisoned to realize that we cannot eat money."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Sex-education-crucial-to-sensitize-children/articleshow/22564543.cms

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