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Vision 2020: Reforming the Education Landscape and Strategies for the Future

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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As part of reforming the education landscape and strategies for the future, the teacher needs to be retrained, especially in ICT to cope with the rapidly changing education technology. The session talked about revisiting the education pedagogy in the industry, being focussed on skills for jobs and nurturing entrepreneurial skills beyond functional silos
H E Dr Samuel K Mbanbo, High Commissioner, High Commission of the Republic of Namibia

The quality of the teacher and his continuing professional education and training remain central to the achievement of quality education. This is one of the many challenges we are facing today.
Prof R K Mittal, Vice Chancellor, Teerthanker Mahaveer University

Universities should grade the students of different skills like on discipline, general proficiency, technical, communication and behavioral skills and practical university in their mark sheets. This will tell an employer what kind of a student a person is. A good grade does not always reflect the qualities of a person.

Ramesh Kumar, Vice President, SAP Services, India

Education provides foundation for global opportunities. If we design it right, the world changes. Research is not only about managing grants or funds or bringing transparency around that, but also to manage if these research projects are environment-friendly and if there are some eLabs that technology platforms can support.


 
Dr V Panduranga Rao, Director, IMT, Hyderabad Campus

The three problems we are facing in this country are: pedagogy or the design of the curriculum, delivery of the pedagogy and the readiness of the teacher to adapt to the dynamic needs of the pedagogy processes.
K Sunitha, Commissioner of Collegiate Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh

We have demand for skilled force in certain sections but it is not respectable in the Indian society to go in for those fields. Many parents think it would be demeaning if their son becomes a plumber or carpenter. There is a lack of dignity of labour in India so we always try to become more academic or useless people.

We have Kept Our Slate Clean

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Our institute runs on its credibility for providing quality education and making efforts for proper placement of its students, says Prateek Sanghvi, Vice-President, Sanghvi Institute of Management and Science (SIMS), Indore, in an interview with Rozelle Laha

Prateek Sanghvi, Vice-President,
Sanghvi Institute of Management and Science (SIMS), Indore

 

What initiatives have been taken by the SIMS for quality improvement in higher education?
The first and the foremost thing is that we have no control over admission plan for engineering courses. The intakes are taken after counselling where a student opts for the college. There is an amalgam of students from public, government, and Hindi and English medium schools.Our faculty members undertake a lot of effort to ensure that these students become employable after four years of engineering and two years of MBA from the institute.

As you said, admissions, being a centralised counselling process, is not in your hands. Have you ever thought of introducing a separate institute-specific entrance test?
We have started an AICTE-approved PGDM course where everything — from conducting an entrance test, selecting intakes for the course, designing curriculum and picking up faculty — is managed by us. We also shortlist companies for summer internships for our students. Those students who opt for this programme are employable on a better level than those who have joined the regular MBA course. Quality assurance is a question mark as far as the employability scale of students coming out from privaterun and regular MBA courses is concerned. Courses for engineering or management have not been re-engineered in government-run institutions for decades according to the demand of time and it affects the employability prospects of students.

What are the challenges in imparting higher education in Madhya Pradesh?
In Madhya Pradesh, one needs to go through a lot of legalities, fulfill each and every norm, and run around scores of government institutions to get clear ances for a higher education course. You have to ensure that your professional integrity is maintained and no false agreement is made with any agency. Fortunately, in the last seven years, we have tried to keep our slate clean.

What is the level of technology implementation at SIMS?
So far as major post-graduate level courses like MBA, MCA, MTech and PGDM are concerned, we have deployed almost all the eLearning tools like e Journals, eBooks, etc. Our ICT-enabled library has all the facilities to meet the demands of the students and the faculty. If a student misses a class, he can access it at the library where it is stored online. But at the undergraduate level, we need to put in more efforts to make the learning technology-friendly. Right now,we have digitised all the course material  and made it interactive for the students. We have graphic designing solutions to help student get 3D images of labs to understand the practical courses. We are in the process of introducing many more IT- enabled solutions in our campus.

What is the vision of SIMS in the coming years?
In the next couple of years, I would like to see SIMS as a full-fledged university under the University Grants Commission and not under the state govern ment, where students from all economic strata can fulfill their demands for higher education.  

Bridging the Knowledge and Opportunity Gap

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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Skill development is the essential constituent to future economic growth in India, says Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Vice President – Strategies and Alliances, Mosaic Network 


Strategic investment in human capital and advancement in quality can be regarded as the key to building a knowledge economy. Skill development in India faces the challenge of a pronounced skill gap in  economy’s high growth sectors.

At the policy level, the Government of India, in the Union Budget 2012-13, has doubled its allocation of funds for skills development under the National Skill Development Fund to ~1,000 crore, raising the corpus of the fund to ~2,500 crore. To put things in perspective, the government proposes to generate 70 million new jobs by 2012, and has constituted the National Skill Development Mission to steer the Skill Development Policy in the economy.

In the Indian context, high growth industries such as auto components, transportation, packaging, automobiles, logistics, warehousing, construction sector, retail, tourism, media & entertainment, security, IT/ITES, gems and jewellery verticals, banking and finance services, and healthcare services are expected to create these new jobs. It has been envisioned that by 2015, around 75 percent of these jobs would require sector and skill-specific trained workforce. Further, 90 percent of the jobs in India are ‘skill based’; while only 6 percent of the Indian work- force receives any form of vocational training.

These facts and figures are clearly decisive of the fact that India needs to refurbish its skill development strategies with a focus on industry needs and attempt to balance the knowledge and opportunity gap. Fortunately, India’s superfluous labour will coincide with labour shortages across the globe, giving the nation an opportunity to provide for the ‘work- force of the world.’ With more than a hundred million young population to be added to the workforce in the coming decades, we have to maximise the opportunity offered by this ‘de mographic dividend’ by ensuring that we add a young skilled workforce in our economy. But the country can do this only if its trained personnel meet the quality standards demanded internationally.

Vocational education can only have its full economic impact if it produces people with skills that can get them well-paid, and fulfilling work as per industry requirements. While the thrust, so far, has been more on building the technical and domain skills, the generic skills and competencies that make people employable are equally critical. Interestingly, the conceptualisations of skills share a common goal. They seek to establish the basis for recognising an important set of skills that support the successful accomplishment of the task-based activities vital to any job role. While these generic skills have contextualised applications unique to a workplace, it is essential to up- hold that these skills are also highly transferable.

We are the second largest producer of engineering talent in the world. There is a very low correlation between academic performance and industry expectations. As a result, while approximately 3.5 lakh engineering students graduate every year in our country, we are not able to optimise our existing talent pool.

The crisis, evidently, need to be addressed from the bottom upwards, which can only happen when all the key stakeholders – industry, government and academia – work in close collaboration and alliance.

Efforts should also be channelised to upgrade labour force skills, especially for the underprivileged sections of society and in the regions that have lesser opportunities. Vocational education must be introduced in schools such that it coheres with academic options rather than competing with them. There is also an opportunity to enlarge the scope of the existing ‘Skill Development Centre’ programme into a Virtual Skill Development Resource Network for web-based learning. A more essential and sustainable solution is for the government, industries and educational institutions to collaborate in order to ensure that the education being imparted to our knowledge force is relevant to the industry.

 

 

 

 

Creating Innovative Models in Education and Assessments: Best Practices and Next Practices

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
The session threw light on what our model of education should have: let the student achieve what he actually wants to achieve, and scale it and speed up the process through which he is going to achieve. We need to develop knowledge assets rather than students with just a degree. Today’s students have to be the investors of tomorrow
Dev, Director & CEO, Holy Mary Business School

What exactly is one thing which is a necessity for success? In the last one decade, innovation has been the driver of success for any individual, organisation or country. In India, the oldest system we have is education. And education is innovation.
Brig Dr R S Grewal, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University

In India, we are still into multiple choice questions, which is just a refinement of the paper-pencil model. To design a good computer-based question paper, there are two basic requirements: the teachers’ command over the English language and proficiency of the students in the language. If these go wrong, you lose the basic objective of finding out whether the student has learnt or not.

Dr Sr Alphonsa Vattoly, St Francis College for Women

The students are really good at the innovations introduced in the higher education learning process. They only need a good exposure to the learning environment and our effort is to introduce them to such an environment.


 
Prof Dr G Tulasi Ram Das, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University

A beautiful educational landscape with technology-driven solutions is ahead of us. It will make the learning process in the four walls of the classrooms interesting.
   
Amarnath Reddy, CEO, Jawahar Knowledge Center, AP Society for Knowledge NetworksAbout two and a half lakh engineers pass out every year. We cannot give jobs to all of them. We need to create more opportunities by making more entrepreneurs.

Our Focus is Quality Faculty, Research Facility

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

IITs have the best lot of faculty members in the country, chosen after a rigorous exercise, and are a blend of sound fundamentals and updated research skills, says Prof Pradeep Mathur, Director, IIT Indore, in conversation with Rozelle Laha

Prof Pradeep Mathur has been appointed as the first director of IIT Indore. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Science (Chemistry Honours) from the Polytechnic of North London, University of North London, UK, in 1978 and the Doctor of Philosophy (Chemistry) from Keele University, UK, in 1983. He joined IIT Bombay as a member of the faculty in the Department of Chemistry in 1984 and moved over to IIT Indore as its Director in January 2010

What role can IITs play in improving the scenario of technological education in our country?
Although India boasts of a large number of engineering colleges on paper, the fact is that the quality of education imparted in these colleges is much below the required; and for a country like ours, there will be a massive shortfall of skilled manpower to run our growing industrial demands in the coming years. IITs are different from other engineering institutions. After Independence, setting up IITs as centres of excellence was mooted and they were modeled on the best institutions abroad. Over the years, they have maintained the standards and have excelled in teaching and research. One of the reasons for this has been a fair degree of autonomy with them. The best students in the country are taken and teaching faculty is also chosen very carefully. However, it is not important to have good students and faculty but adopting a good governance system like IIT can do well for other engineering institutions.

What kind of autonomy is needed for running a quality engineering college?

Autonomy of governance that is free from any interference of the government machinery and state powers in routine affairs of the institute is needed.There is a lot of interference of vested interests by politicians and vice chancellors in the recruitment of faculty and in the other day-to-day functioning of an engineering college. So, the administration of such institutions should be free from any kind of state interference and they should be given full autonomy for running the institution. All educational institutions should be kept free from any kind of political intervention. The IITs are different from other colleges in the country in the way that apart from teaching, their faculty is greatly involved in high-degree research projects that get recognition for publication in international journals. Teaching and research in IIT go hand-in-hand. In fact, faculty at all the leading universities of the world is engaged in frontline research. That is why such institutes are in the world’s top 10 or 20 institutions. So, research must be encouraged to get good quality teaching. At the IITs, our students have this facility and they get engaged in research laboratories in the third and fourth years. This opens up their minds and brings them out of the textbook parameter with innovative ideas. It not only makes a graduate, but also equips him with knowledge to deal with the new challenges while joining any industrial project or any research laboratory. The other factor for IITs to excel is that their faculty members have updated knowledge of teaching methods and trained in application of new educational tools. So, other engineering colleges should have training programmes for their faculty members for upgrading their teaching skills and adopting updated technology and curriculum to deliver the latest to their students.

Why are a large number of graduates not getting employment?
The reason is that companies do not find what they look for in their prospective employees. Students only fight for getting good grades in the examinations. Nowadays, companies not only look at how sound the basics of an applicant are, but also at how tech-friendly he is. We need to concentrate on producing quality teachers. If that is done, students will not find it a problem to get a good job.

Not many people are interested in taking up teaching as a profession nowadays. Why?
A lot of engineering colleges, particularly the private ones, do not pay their teachers well. Therefore, only those who badly need a job or are dedicated to the profession become teachers. Unfortunately, the second lot is scarce these days. There was a time when teaching was supposed to be a noble and prestigious job. But with the passage of time, it has now been taken as a profession in desperation.

Is this syndrome present in the newly opened IITs also? Are they getting quality faculty members?
No, I do not see any such syndrome affecting the IITs as they have a very good salary structure, much higher than the universities across the country. And because of the very tough norms for hiring faculty, there are a very dedicated lot of applicants applying for faculty positions there. Even for a junior faculty position in an IIT, an applicant should posses at least a doctorate and a three-year post- doctorate teaching experience. A lot of Indian scholars from abroad too apply for the post. So, getting quality faculty is not a problem for the newly opened IITs or for the proposed ones.

Students only fight for getting good grades in examinations. Nowadays, companies not only look at how sound the basics of an applicant are, but also at how tech-friendly he is. We need to concentrate on producing quality teachers. If that is done, students will not find it a problem to get a good job

 Why do less number of girls opt for engineering and how can we encourage them to take up a career in engineering?
In India, the problem is not with the number of girls taking up engineering but girls not taking up education. Our social system discourages girls to take up education as there is tremendous discrimination against girls. When it comes to engineering, even in the metros, there is a social stigma attached with girls opting for engineering. But things seem to be improving in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Unfortunately, the percentage of girls getting into the IITs is quite low and this is because very few girls take the IIT entrance examination. Also, only two percent of people who take the IIT entrance exam get admission and the remaining 98 percent join other engineering colleges – another reason for fewer girl students in the IITs. This is something we need to address urgently. IIT Indore has the largest number of girl students among the new IITs that were set up last year.

 

Unleashing the Strength of Institutions through Technology: Emerging Scenario and the Way Forward

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
The session talked about the challenges of imparting education today – exponential growth in the number of institutions since independence in our country, lack of qualified and senior faculty and industry-academia gap. One way to overcome the lack of quality faculty in our educational institutions is to effectively use ICT because qualified and experienced teachers can be obtained only over a period of time
Prof K Lal Kishore, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University, Anantapur, Hyderabad

Technology is changing rapidly. Knowledge gets doubled in a period of eight years. But change may occur even in four years. If you take engineering education of four years’ duration, by the time a student completes his programme, the knowledge may have got doubled, and hence, the industry-academia gap comes in play.
VSN Raju, COO, Globarena Technologies Pvt Ltd

Currently, our evaluators check answer sheets manually. Instead, we can digitise the entire exam script and transfer the answer scripts to the evaluation centre and do online evaluation. This will enable effective, faster and transparent result processing.

Dr Lovi Raj Gupta, Vice Chancellor, Baddi University of Emerging Science and Technology

Let the artificial intelligence be for the gadgets and gizmos. The inducted intelligence looks wonderful with air conditioners and washing machines. But inducted and artificial intelligence is not meant for my students because he is not going to solve numericals; he is going to solve problems. Today’s students need to have problem solving skills that will help them succeed in the 21st century.

 

Inclusive Growth should be the Focus

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Jainarayan Kansotiya, Higher Education Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh, believes that if you start a college or university for the right reasons, you will be able to maintain quality. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley.

We have given autonomy to universities to start new self-financing courses as per the requirement and demand of the industry. We are also working on skill development programme which caters to the needs of the industry

You have been posted to different departments of  the Government of Madhya Pradesh in the last two  decades. How has your experience been?
I started my career as an Assistant Collector in 1991. My experience has been very good and I am really happy with the work that I have been doing. Wherever I was posted, I contributed something meaningful there, and that is very satisfying for me.

A lot of educationists complain that there is value missing from today’s education system. What is your opinion on that?
I agree that there is demand for value-based education today. The challenge is we should have inherited the values but we are searching for them now. At times, we come across cases where university or college students are involved in wrongdoing and do not respect their teachers. But I strongly believe that if all the stakeholders come together and work sincerely on building a foundation course that teaches them values, we will certainly be able to work more efficiently on this issue.

How successfully has higher education in MP been in leveraging ICT?
Leveraging ICT is the reality today. It has improved the qual-ity of public services drastically. For us, ICT has become more important because good teachers and professors avoid going to rural areas. Therefore, we can leverage ICT to teach students in rural areas. Keeping this in mind, we have identified 100 colleges where we are planning to start virtual classes very soon.

How we can bridge the industry-academia gap?
We will have to take initiatives at the institutional level. There is a provision of the industry’s participation on the board of universities. The academic council of the universities also reviews the course and curriculum every 2-3 years, but the gaps between industry and academia persist. We need to focus on these issues in academic or executive council meetings and not dedicate them to administrative works.In Madhya Pradesh, we have given autonomy to universities to start new self-financing courses as per the requirement and demand of the industry. We are also working on skill development programme which caters to the needs of the industry.

Improve the quality of education still remains a dream. Where have we gone wrong and what do you think is the best way forward?
Quality is definitely one of the issues where a lot more needs to be done. Our education institutions do not feature even in the top 200 institutions of theworld. And at the state level, we are yet to match with the top higher education institutions at the central level. Quality is one of the major challenges and is directly attached with the teaching staff, their training programmes and inclusion of all sections of the society in teaching, and the availability of good infrastructure.Another challenge is engaging with the students. If you start a college or university for the right reasons, you will be able to maintain quality. The private higher education institutions need to look into where they are going wrong and if they need any assistance from the government, we are here to serve them, because at the end, we only want good quality education for our students.

According to a recent survey by the Department of Higher Education, MHRD, the Gross Enrolment Ratio of SC and ST in higher education has gone down to 7.4 percent and 2.9 percent respectively. Why is that? 
The inclusion of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe in higher education is very low. The national population of both the communities is around 23-25 per- cent but their GER is never double digit.This may be attributed to their socio-economic conditions, their participation in teaching and lack of awareness among them. At the state level, the Government of Madhya Pradesh is taking many initiatives to raise the GER of these communities in higher education. We have started new scholarships and raised the scholarship amount of students pursuing PhD from Rs 8,000 per month to Rs 16, 000. We are also coordinating with Ministry of Tribal Affairs to start hostels for students so that they do not face problems of accommodation and commuting. Not just this, we will also have to implement the national commitment of reservation made to them. Without their inclusion, the story of inclusive growth will remain a story only.

What major initiatives is the Government of Madhya Pradesh taking to improve higher education in the state?
For improving the quality and inclusion in higher education, we are adopting a multi-dimensional approach. We are starting a large number of colleges in rural areas to make higher education accessible to people in those areas. In the past one year, we have opened 20-25 colleges and have about 15 more in the pipeline.We are drafting a new policy to make good teaching staff available in colleges. We will now be hiring teachers through the Public Service Commission and have hired more than 1,000 teachers as guest faculty. Apart from this, we are also ensuring that no teaching post for the SC and ST remains vacant. We are also looking at providing good infrastructure to colleges and assisting them with any financial aids. We have already built about 25 college buildings in this year. Also, in order to raise the quality in education, we have implemented the semester system across the state. We are also taking steps to ensure that exams are conducted on time, and that teachers and students come to college regularly. We are also adopting innovative methods for student evaluation.

Transformatory Practices in Technical Education: Engineering for the Knowledge Economy

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
Engineering still follows the same standards  in education. The time has come to sit back, brainstorm and see what can be done to be in tune with the needs of today. The session talked about enhancing the employability of engineering students and introducing instructional design in education. Research needs to be the focus area because it drives teaching.
 

Prof V S Rao, Director, BITS Hyderabad Campus
I want to request the AICTE and other organisations concerned with engineering education to seriously think about the engineering practices, overhauling the curriculum, changing the pedagogy and addressing the problems of the faculty. You cannot transform engineering education without transforming your faculty. Meritorious students should be identified and sent to excellent universities abroad to do research and come back and teach in India. Priority should also be given to giving rewarding for educational innovations.
 

Prof U B Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad
One of the things that needs to be brought into our education system is a lot more emphasis on innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, and creative design because no engineering development is ever going to hit the market unless creative design goes into it. There has to be a focus on engineering education where we do not simply talk about the pedagogy of education, but instill in our students that they have to be job creators and not job seekers.
 

Dr N M Veeraiyan, Chancellor, Saveetha University
We need to have project-based learning methodology and industry-oriented interdisciplinary courses for moulding competent professionals. The changing characteristics of the new generation have to be considered in designing innovative teaching methodologies. Higher education course material needs to be aligned with the industry requirements. Contemporay skills training, that suit the demands of the industry, will help provide employment and accentuate the growth of the economy.

Hike Fees to Hike Salary: Rajasthan Engineering Colleges

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Rajasthan Engineering Colleges Society proposed the fees be hiked to at least Rs 80,000 to meet the sixth pay commission, maintenance of laboratories, annual increments and further developments

Jaipur: Rajasthan Engineering Colleges Society has expressed its inability to give revised pay scales to teachers in the existing fee structure.

The private engineering colleges have a provisional (uniform) fees of Rs 60,000 which they claim is the lowest charged by any engineering college in India.

The society has sent a letter to the Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) explaining them the need to hike fees to enhance the quality of education and expand facilities. The move came after RTU asked the affiliated colleges to submit affidavits stating that they are giving revised pay scales to their teachers.

Nitin Talesara, joint secretary of Rajasthan Engineering Colleges Society, proposed the fees be hiked to at least Rs 80,000, which is required to meet the sixth pay commission, maintenance of laboratories, annual increments and further developments.

Association of Private Engineering Colleges has proposed a hike from the existing Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 per annum citing growing expenses on account of revised pay scales, maintaining huge campuses, introducing new subjects and imparting quality education.

RTU has been receiving many complaints of irregularities in salaries.

In many colleges, B Tech students have been recruited on the post of assistant professors against the AICTE norms which mandate an M Tech degree for the job.

According to AICTE pay norms, the pay band for assistant professors is Rs 15,600-Rs 39,100 but many of the private colleges are paying them between Rs 8,000-Rs 20,000.

For associate professors, the pay band is Rs 37,400-Rs 67,000 but they are paid Rs 16,000 to Rs 45,000 and for professors the band is Rs 37,400-67,000 but they receive anywhere between Rs 30,000-Rs 60,000 in these colleges.

RTU has 154 colleges with around 5,000 faculty members. Data from RTI and other sources revealed that 70% of the faculty is underpaid. They are getting salaries in tune with pay scales implemented in 1996.

The colleges say that financial constraints are forcing them to recruit poor quality faculty. They are even hesitant in introducing new courses like aeronautical, petroleum and textile engineering.

Karnataka Conducts Children Census for Drop-outs

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The team will visit houses in villages and take steps to bring dropouts back to schools

Belgaum: The Karnataka state government has launched a ‘special census of children’ to bring students back to schools.

The campaign will identify children who have stopped going to schools after getting admission and failed to attend classes in the past 60 days.

The week-long campaign will include a team of primary teachers, anganwadi workers, and NGO volunteers will visit houses in their respective villages and take steps to bring dropouts, if any, back to schools.

According to the education department, 72,365 students dropped out of schools in 2008-09 in the state. It was 35,637 in 2009-10, 11,1218 in 2010-11 and 3,9841 in 2011-12. Koppal, Raichur, Bidar and Gulbarga registered the highest number of dropouts.

Primary and secondary education minister Visveshwar Hegde Kageri informed the legislative council on Monday that the government has already implemented many schemes like school-based special training, tent schools for children belonging to nomadic tribe, NCLP schools for child labourers and UDC scheme for urban children to reduce number of school dropouts. Besides, there is a 12-month special training for children of the shelter-less people.

” Measures have been taken to encourage poor children, including those from SC/ST and minority communities, to attend classes. To attract children towards schools, we are giving free textbooks, notebooks, bicycles, mid-day meal and hostel facilities,” he added. Umesh, nodal officer of the campaign in Dharwad district, told TOI that they will visit all houses in the district to get details of school dropouts.

“We will submit our final report to the government in a few weeks. Our teams will meet each family and get details of children aged between 6 and 14,” he added.

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