Funding Higher Education

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November 20, 2012

Enormous funds are required to provide scholarships, soft loans or to building skill-based education models, assert AICTE Chairman Prof SS Mantha

The economic progress of a country is strongly linked with quality education with values for all. It is therefore, necessary for our higher education systems to undertake periodic review of the curriculum and subject content of the technical programmes to ensure that they are up to date, not outmoded or obsolete, and effectively fulfill the technological requirements of the country.

Research is important too, to enhance quality in teaching learning processes and eventual meaningful employment. However, quality comes at a price.

When statistics read that 40 percent of India’s school going population is trying to register in private schools that are seven percent of the total and only 18 percent of the youth are able to enroll for higher education, a mismatch in demand-supply ratio for quality education becomes glaringly obvious and a lot needs to be done in this domain.

An education system where more than 50 percent fail between X, XI and XII standards of schooling, we need to analyse the problems. A study indicates that those who fail and eventually drop out have to make ends meet and hence work, or a majority finding the current education not interesting enough.

Either way, enormous funds are required to provide finances like scholarships, soft loans or even change the current predicament to building skill-based education models.

Higher education, in general, and technical education in particular, in India, contributes a major share to the overall education system and plays a vital role in the social and economic development of our nation.

In India, technical education is imparted at various levels such as: craftsmanship, diploma, degree, post-graduate and research in specialised fields, catering to various aspects of technological evelopment and economic progress.

A truly massive education system such as ours is highly stressed and needs funds to sustain and grow. Higher education institutes and universities are starved for funds today. So private investment is needed urgently, but one cannot neglect the mechanisms through which public subsidies are allocated to the universities.

One cannot expect the solution for higher education’s problems to come only from increased student (or graduate) contributions. The mechanisms for public funding contain important incentives to achieve higher education’s three main goals, viz. quality, efficiency and equity.

Bringing these incentives more closely in line with incentives to generate increased private resources for higher education would seem to be the goal to be achieved.

It is not just the level of public and private funding, but it is just as much the basis and criteria according to which public funds are made available that can improve the quality and accessibility of higher education.

During the financial year 2011-12, the Centre allocated `38,957 crore for the Department of School Education and Literacy, the main department dealing with primary education in India. Within this allocation, a major share of `21,000 crore is for the flagship programme ‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’.

A high allocation is required to implement the recent legislation Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. It is a great idea to progressively increase expenditure on education to around six percent of the GDP but such an effort probably also leads to an imposition of an education cess.

There is no optimal funding model that one can use. Goals to be achieved and the model of higher education system that we would like to promote needs to be matched. We need to optimise the public funding the development of research, quality of education and, lastly the access to education.

Some of the concerns here are the degree of autonomy of individual institutions in their functioning and budgeting versus the direct control of the state, the relative contribution of the state and of the students to the funding of higher education and the relative importance of the educational and research mission versus. the model with research-intensive institutions alongside teaching-only institutions.

We have several desired characteristics and outcomes for state higher education funding models, which include equity, adequacy, stability, and flexibility.

Creating endowments and corpus need to be explored. An endowment is a way for a donor to make a statement, honor a friend or loved one, or to recognise an organisation. An endowment is significant in that it provides financial support for the university and, at the same time, it becomes a permanent resource within the institution.

We also need to look at new models like non-profit organisations transferring assets to the university foundation to create a permanent endowment fund. Other donors also can make contributions directly to the fund. The university becomes the fund’s sole beneficiary.

Advantage of having an endowment is obviously financial stability and oversight where an endowment provides a steady income stream for the university to offset operations, fund risk ventures like new or innovative programs, tuition assistance, etc.

It is a good idea to even create an operating reserve like a designated fund which may act like an endowment because a university may choose not to touch the principal. Principal, however, will be available to meet emergency needs.

Institutions need to realise that there would be no free boarding anymore and need to make the internal systems count to create realistic funding models. Public funding and state funding would always be in short supply.

Hence, a pragmatic approach would be to source alternate funding methods like optimising resource allocations, conduct new programs, promote hybrid learning methodologies to reduce cost of education, invest in research for returns on quality, and invest in publishing.

Hence, we need to encourage augmentation of resources for covering a larger portion of cost of higher education. The government would certainly look to provide higher resources moving from higher to primary level of education and with good reason.

RTE is singularly a very important piece of legislation and would need funds. This, however, cannot be at the cost of subsidising higher education and a possible full cost recovery from students. Cost recovery cannot and should not be through student fees but necessarily be through other means as enumerated above.

We need a finance corporation set up with public and private funds to create a corpus that has the potential to fund a large population who otherwise cannot fund their education. This is all the more important when we consider that 65 percent of our population would be below the age of 35 years in the next 20 years.

We also need almost double the institutions we have today to accommodate the aspirations of a young population. Where would the funding come from? Like the Hon’ble Minister, HRD Shri Kapil Sibal said, the present loan structure of the government was not conducive for either student taking loan or bank offering loans.

“We need to actually liberalise the whole structure.” A bold thought indeed. In this context, he had suggested that financial institutes should have a flexible lending policy when extending loans for setting up educational institutes. In fact, the banks must be asked to give long-term loan to educational institution paid over period of 20 to 25 years.

To set up an education institution, nobody is going to borrow at 12 percent or16 percent and set up an institution where the time to return the loan over period of seven years is neither really workable nor practical.

Finally, great resilience in this country would see the hurdles pass and see good economic sense would prevail in days, months and years to come, for no country has ever had to regret its spending on education.
Indeed, like Aristotle said, “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depend on the education of youth”.

Gateway to Education Mpowerment through Technology

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November 20, 2012

Digital Campus Service (www.digitalcampusglobal.com) is a leading global company offering multiple technology solutions and management services across the education value chain. The company is considered as a pioneer in education campus management on cloud computing.
A visionary leadership and a passionate team continuously drive the innovation and excellence in the design and delivery of solutions and services. The company operates under the powerful umbrella brand of “Digital Campus” touching millions of students, parents,
teachers transforming the education ecosystem management.
Since its inception, it has adopted a unique collaborative approach to create smart and innovative products to make the lives of stakeholders of education ecosystem easier and more exciting. Today, with the patronage of its valued customers, it has become the most trusted partner in the progress of the education sector, used by a large number of stakeholders in the education ecosystem. In the next 3-5 years, we plan to expand globally and launch a series of new and innovative products.

Next Generation Solutions
Digital Campus prepares for the future; institutions are rethinking how to define, deploy, source, and manage their technology and processes. The company offers a broad portfolio of services, frameworks, and methodologies to help our customers explore and steer a new generation of technology solutions.
These next generation solutions from Digital Campus shall facilitate:
• Simplifying dynamic work activities that are complex
• Leveraging service delivery through cloud enablement
• Integrating applications, infrastructure and knowledge processes
• Delivering higher levels of transparency, flexibility and reliability

ERP on Cloud and Digital Dashboard
Over more than a decade of extensive research and development with best brains in the field of academic and technology has led to the innovation of a series of products i.e. ERP, PRM, and CRM on cloud computing technology for the education sector. Today, digital campus products are the most innovative products in the education space.
Digital Campus Dashboard extends world-class dashboard application into a comprehensive business intelligence platform which includes alerts, analytics and reports. It helps institutions leverage information assets through visually rich, real-time and personalised business intelligence dashboards to analyse, track, and drilldown through a wealth of information. It’s an intelligent and interactive tool on a whole new level.

Benefits to the Administration
• Eliminates hurdles in the process of getting information out of huge data
• Improves the system’s proactive response to the requirement of all users
• Integrated solution to manage academic and administrative processes
• Saves time spent in manually filing, retrieving and compiling records

Benefits to Students
• Assists in understanding performance in any subject at any time
• Better access to books in library and other references materials
• Information flow regarding school calendar and homework
• Improved communication with teachers and alumni

Benefits to Teachers
• Improves teaching effectiveness through information about student
• More focus on teaching and less on administrative functions
• Assists students by tracking historyof performance of a student
Improved quality of interaction between parents and teachers

Benefits to Parents
• Monitors the performance of one’s ward from anywhere and anytime
• Access to grades, attendance, fee status to examination schedule
• Improved quality of interaction between parents and teachers
• Measures like SMS to e-Mail that keeps parents updated

Benefits to Management
• Instant access to the information required for decision making
• Dynamic generation of reports with alerts provides better control
• Direct access to every piece of Information just on a click
• View all periodical reports be it daily, weekly, monthly or yearly

Process Consulting with SOPs for Best Practices
As the company is engaged with hundreds of international educational institutions to provide them management consulting services, and has developed the ‘Best Practices’ knowledge repository in the management of education campuses. This becomes the basis for good governance practices for schools and colleges as per the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET).

Turnkey School Project Management
Starting and running a school needs meticulous planning and execution. Digital Campus helps achieve this through its transformation and turnkey project management services. The company also manages its model schools under its sub-brands: Palace School and Digital School that are committed to creating values through innovative approaches and interactive methods.

Education Portal Services
Digital Campus’ collaborative knowledge portal (www.digitalcampus.in) is a universal platform for the stakeholders of the education ecosystem to connect, communicate, collaborate and contribute for the betterment of the education system through the power of information communication technology.
It has encompassed the best of technology and has become the most trusted partner in the progress with the education stakeholders, used by large number of different stakeholders of education ecosystem. Experts from across the world share their views on critical and contemporary topics affecting the stakeholders’, enabling them to make better decisions and choices in their sphere of endeavour and engagement.

Our Management Over a decade and a half years of rich experience and expertise in technology, operation and marketing, the management team brings a perfect blend of capabilities to deliver a world-class product and services to its valued customers.

Satish Kethineedi
(CEO)

Nihar Pradhan
(COO)

Giriprakash Reddy
(CMO)

Customers powered by Digital Campus
Top educational groups like DPS, DAV, Oakridge International, Ivy League Academy and St Mary’s Educational Institutions are transforming the way they are managing the education ecosystem through the technology innovation of Digital Campus gamut of products and services. It is a one-stop integrated solutions provider for all the needs of education institutions: schools, colleges and universities.

Innovation in Practice
As a culture, Digital Campus has focused on customer-centric innovation; persistently searching for new ways to solve problems and build a stronger education ecosystem. At Digital Campus, we nurture innovation.

Channel Partner Programs
The Channel Partner Program delivers high performance and service quality to customers. It combines Digital Campus’ global technology leadership and support with the local expertise and market understanding of our channel partners.
At Digital Campus, we work in harmony with our partners to produce the best possible results. The Digital Campus Channel Partner Program is a framework of sales, marketing, training, and other support activities that are designed to provide a competitive advantage in today’s challenging marketplace.
The diagram shows the concept of Digital Campus as a system on cloud to convert the physical campus into a virtual and knowledge campus, taking administration, information, communication and management to a whole new world.

Affordable Smart Content for Digital Education

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November 20, 2012

With the advent of digital content in education, Ivan Vazquez, Country Director, Netex Knowledge Factory, discusses his plan for the e-Learning market in India

Tell us about Netex Knowledge Factory in India and globally.
Netex, an e-Learning company, is enhancing e-Learning globally for the past 15 years. A Learning and Performance Institute-accredited e-Learning solutions provider, Netex offers custom and catalogue content solutions, along with a cloudbased learning management system and associated technology services for the corporate, education and publishing sectors. Netex commenced its India operations in 2008 and is working successfully in the corporate and academic sectors.

What are your views on the current education scenario in India?
The Indian education market is growing rapidly, wherein K-12 alone is expected to reach US$50 billion by 2015. This is just a hint of the tremendous growth in the educational sector. Moreover, the availability of tablets, smart boards, smart TVs, and smartphones at affordable costs is encouraging schools and students to adapt to digital education. By promoting the use of digital technology in education, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) guidelines are also trying to ensure that the education does not remain textbook-centric. In this scenario, Netex decided to create a specialised learning solution for tablets, smart boards and other digital media. To begin with, we focused on the widely used CBSE curriculum and developed Learning Fruit, one of our flagship products and our first offering to India’s education market.

What is Learning Fruit? How does it help students and teachers?
Learning Fruit resources are designed for both students and teachers. Teachers can use them just like a teaching aid, that is much more advanced, to explain topics in the classroom. It works smoothly on smart boards. Also, the user interface is intuitive with simplified navigations allowing teachers to swiftly merge this interactive digital content with their lectures in the classrooms. Learning Fruit is a result of hardcore pedagogical research and analysis. It follows scientifically the didactic and methodological guidelines required for an effective digital learning experience. It delivers content in small pills of interactive, visually appealing, and highly effective learning resources. This kind of granular structure allows students to learn specific topics as required and gives them control over their own learning.

How is Learning Fruit different from the other content available in the market?
Most of the content available in the market is just a re-packaging of existing content or lengthy videos and CDs, which is not compatible with the size or resolution of these smart devices; leave alone the efficacy of the content. Learning Fruit, on the contrary, goes beyond digitisation of textbooks by exploiting all the possibilities offered by the digital devices like tablets, smart boards, smart phones and even smart TVs. It has unique learning resources like motion infographics, step animations, touch interactivities and quizzes. Sporting a great look and feel, its fluid user interface also ensures ease of access and navigation. The simplified e-Commerce facility allows users to buy specific content online in a couple of clicks.
We have already partnered with a number of tablet and smart board providers and the content will be pre-loaded on these devices and ready to be used. Learning Fruit, for android devices, will also be available on Google Play store as well as on our website.

Tell us your vision and strategic plan for the Indian education markets in the coming years.
Our vision is to revolutionise the education scenario in India. With the advent of digital technology, we can assume that the way education is imparted in India is going to change drastically. The affordability of this technology is substantially influencing the way education is being delivered in India. However, this technology needs to be strongly supported by equally advanced content and e- Learning infrastructure. Netex aims to contribute its capabilities and expertise to provide educational solutions aligned to the technological advancement in India. We are going to initiate synergies with educational institutions, publishers and technology providers to build a complete digital education infrastructure just the way we are doing it in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and the UK. Launching Learning Fruit for CBSE is just the first step towards our goal!

Right to Education The Way Ahead

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November 19, 2012

K Parthasarathy, Minister for Secondary Education, Govt. Examinations, Andhra Pradesh; Residential Educational Institutions Society, Hyderabad Public School, Intermediate Education. In conversation with Rozelle Laha

Please tell us about the various schemes that Andhra Pradesh government has implemented for bringing improvement education sector.
We have implemented a number of schemes with help from the Government of India. Our Chief Minister, Sri Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy’s priorities are education and health which he had announced on the day of assumption of his duties. He has been giving a lot of importance to the departments for the sanction of funds and all other things.
We are taking many new initiatives to improve the standard of education being provided in 770 model schools in educationally-backward areas. The first phase of construction has already started and we will be commencing the process from the next academic year. We had planned to do it this year but we will take it up in the next year.
In the second phase, we are planning to cover about 350 high schools and we have already completed the construction of additional rooms valuing 45 lakhs in almost 1,500 high schools. Around 70-75 lakh children in the state are taking mid-day meals. We have formed committees to visit all schools to observe the quality and quantity of the food that is being served to the students in schools.

Provide us with an overview of the scheme for girls’ education?
The state has large number of schemes for female students. There is the Kasturba Gandhi schools scheme that is dedicated to providing better education to girls. The scheme also has provision for providing hostels. They are called KGBVs or Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.

The state is having schemes for catering to the educational need of the backward classes. Will there be any ICT implementation in such institutions?
We already have 6,500 schools with the ICT programme. Another 400 schools are going to implement it this year. We are taking special interest in the appointment of teachers for these schools, as we want to make them unique when compared to any other corporate school, and all our children will have corporate education. The construction will be in five acres of land and we will also have girls’ hostels.
We will have special teachers for all these schools. Apart from this, we have also mentioned the qualification for them as post graduation. Generally, for teachers for regular schools, the qualification is graduation plus B.Ed. but here we are hiring people with a post graduation plus B.Ed. and that too with an English background because all these schools are English-medium schools.

Are there any teacher training programmes for teachers at these schools?
Even the teachers in regular schools go through training. For model schools particularly, we have already announced the results for teachers who appeared for the exams. We are trying to complete the process of recruitment by January or February. Between April and May, we will conduct training sessions for all the teachers who will be recruited for the model schools.

Could you tell us how many teachers are being recruited and how many seats are there?
We are recruiting 7,100 teachers including principals.

How many schools are already functional?
The process will start next year in June. Our academic year shall be from June to March.

What strategies have been implemented to ensure that the ratio drops?
Our Hon’ble Chief Minister, as I told you, has given a lot of importance to education. For the first time in this country, we are conducting education fortnight. We will have this programme for 15 days throughout the state. The programme will include the construction of buildings. We plan to launch campaign for dropout students. All our teachers will go to all the villages, they will survey all the households and if they find any children who are not going to schools, they will try their best to bring them to schools. That is how we are planning our course of action.

Since when has this been in operation?
The first fortnight happened only last year. This will be the second year of the scheme. This has been designed by our Hon’ble Chief Minister.

What challenges are being faced in ensuring compulsory education?
We are not facing any problems as such. Ensuring education to the poor is a key challenge because people in backward areas are more inclined to make their children earn by working. But we don’t allow them to do that. The mid-day meal scheme is one way to inspire these people to send their children to school. We also give free books and dresses as an inspiration to these people to educate their children.

Do you have any plans to bring PPP in education in Andhra Pradesh?
Not as of now. From the Government of Andhra Pradesh, there is no provision to bring in PPP but yes, we have private schools for private and corporate education and we are giving admissions there.
I was also told that the central government is coming up with PPP mode. They will provide land and other things necessary if anybody comes forward to start these schools. So we are working on that also.

What positives can be brought to education through PPP?
Corporate or private education has become very expensive today. Unfortunately, most of the parents are inclined towards sending their children to private schools. This is one major failure on the part of the government. Because of this, the people are put to a lot of financial hardships. For example, if you take a rural parent having two acres of land, his income would not be more than `20,000 if the entire atmosphere and everything is okay. Even if there is government school in the village teh parents want to send their students to a Convent. He only wants them to go to a convent. In rural areas also, a convent wouldn’t charge less than `8,000-10,000. So despite an income of `20,000, his spending on education on every child is `8,000. This is giving a lot of financial stress on the middle class and the poor people.
If PPP mode comes, we will definitely get corporate education. And because the government will also be involved in schools, the cost would come down. So there is an opportunity for the poor people to send their children for convent and government education. If the government of India has plans to implement PPP, we have no objection in supporting that scheme.

Would you like to mention some success stories of Andhra Pradesh government in the education sector?
We can say if you take any all India exam, our students stand first or bag many ranks. Not just that, a lot of students from other states also come here to get education in the schools of Andhra Pradesh. If you take number-wise, we stand at a good rank. And anyway, our education is far better than other state’s education.

In Andhra Pradesh, there are a lot of power issues. So when we talk about the implementation of ICT and introduction of computers in model schools, how would you address the issue?
Power is an issue only when it rains. And it is an issue all over India, not just in Andhra Pradesh. The failure of monsoons is one of the reasons for power shortages and there are other external factors also. But this is not a regular problem, though we are facing more problems this year.
In addition to power, in ICT, they are supposed to provide a generator also for which we are making the payments. So electricity won’t be a problem because it will be backed up by a power generator.

Will the schools be paying for the generators?
The educational firms like the NIIT and others that are providing ICT-based education, are supposed to provide generators also.

What is the vision of Andhra Pradesh government in the coming years with respect to education?
Our objective is to give quality education to one and all in Andhra Pradesh. We want take it to every nook and corner of the state. We also plan to create very good infrastructure for all the schools in the state.

We are Capable of Providing World Class Training in IT Related Subjects

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November 19, 2012

Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Minister of Information Technology & Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh has contributed in the areas of policy formulation for hardware, animal husbandry, dairy development, poultry, and allied industries in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Ponnala Lakshmaiah’s political career that spans over three decades is focused on service to the socially and economically challenged sections in the state of Andhra Pradesh
In conversation with Pragya Gupta and Nayana Singh, he highlights the various initiatives taken by the state for the development of IT sector.

The IT industry in the state has been growing at a healthy rate. What kind of contributions, in terms of enacting new policies, has the government in the state made for the development of the IT industry?
The ICT industry has always been the main driver behind the jobs creation and fostering of regional development in the country. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is committed to the development of a more competitive industrial environment. There are large numbers of initiatives that we have taken to develop the IT industry. In order to promote sustained growth of ICT sector, not only to enhance the balanced regional socio-economic development but also to spread the usage of IT to the last mile of the State, for the benefit of common man, Government has announced the ICT Policy 2010-2015. If I may say so, the IT Policy in the state is far more effective as compared to that in any other state in the country. As a matter of fact, it is well known that in the world one out of every three IT professionals is from India, and one out of every three Indian IT professionals is from Andhra Pradesh. This by itself is a proof of the fact that the state is blessed with abundant talent in the field of IT. There are more than 700 institutions in the state that are engaged in churning out highly competent IT professionals. These talented professionals coming out of our institutions serve the manpower needs of not just the Andhra based IT industry, but the entire world. It is a result of work done by the government on the policy and infrastructure front that we have so many institutes capable of providing world class training in IT related subjects.

A decision to set up Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) around the city of Hyderabad has also been taken. Will this also lead to improvement in the size and scope of IT industry?
I was about to come to ITIR. The Centre has finally gave “in principle” approval to the Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal for setting up an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) around the city. This will give a much-needed boost to the state’s efforts to attract fresh investments into the industry. The ITIR will be developed in an area of 202 sq km (50,000 acres) in two phases over a period of 25 years. The ITIR is aimed at attracting an investment of `2.19 lakh crore in the ITITES sectors and create direct employment for 15 lakh youths. ITIR is a combination of production units, public utilities, logistic, environment protection mechanism, residential areas and administrative services. ITIRs will include Special Economic Zones, Industrial Parks, Free Trade Zones, Warehousing zones, Export-Oriented Units, growth centres, existing settlements and estates.

It is an accepted belief that IT industry is concentrated mainly in the urban areas, so what steps you are taking to develop IT industry in smaller towns?
The government is taking many new initiatives to ensure that IT industry can also move into our tier II towns. Many new institutions have been allowed to come up in the towns. In fact five years ago, hardly any IT industry was located in the town of Vizag, but now the same place generates revenues of more than `1,000 crore. Similarly things are going to pick up at other towns also.

You have been associated with many rural development projects. In your opinion what kind of impact ICT can have on rural industries and in agriculture?
Modern technology has a role to play in every sector, including agriculture. For instance, in agriculture you need to know the nature of the soil, you need to know what kind of fertilizers will be most suitable. You will need information on transplantation of the produce post harvesting. The thing is that such information can be more easily accessed through the use of technology. Nowadays we have computer systems that can be accessed in Telgu language. This has brought computing and Internet close to many farmers. In fact, I would like to tell you that we are one of the first Unicode members along with IBM, Honeywell and Microsoft. Only nine entities are the permanent members, Andhra Pradesh is 10th member. We are taking active measures to ensure that Telgu becomes one of the premier languages for conducting business on the web.

Quality Education should be Accessible to All

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November 19, 2012

Anirudh Gupta, CEO, DCM Schools, shares how they are planning to deliver quality education even to the unrecognised rural India. In conversation with Sheena Joseph Cherian and Seema Gupta

Please share with us the vision of DCM School.
Our vision is to provide quality and affordable education in rural areas. The school was started in 1957 and has grown tremendously and carved a niche for itself in northern India.

What are your views on change in education?
A lot of changes are happening in pedagogy, assessment, usage and the integration of technology. CBSE has brought in a number of reforms in education and the government has also started making amendments in education. India has provided the world with many professionals because of the ethos and culture of its education system. While we want to change our education system, we have to retain our values too. The need is to make sure that these changes are integrated slowly into the system. If these changes are too quick, they would prove to be a double-edged weapon.

Do you have any plans for expansion?
DCM group is identifying places where schools are required for providing education, especially in rural India. The group is starting a new school which will be very close to the border of Pakistan in Ferozpur and another in Ludhiana. Thus, the group has a vision to bring quality school education to those parts which are unrepresented in rural India.

How are you using ICT in the school?
ICT plays an important role in the education system today. We have been using smart classes as a medium of education. The schools are technology-enabled. The teachers are motivated to use ICT tools by integrating them in their daily teaching and this helps the children in understanding the concepts better.

How have you designed your teacher-training programmes?
It has been a very challenging task to impart training to the teachers to incorporate ICT in their lessons. The group has a special proposal where the annual assessment of the teachers is based on the technological knowhow of the teacher. The teachers have to upgrade their knowledge in computers and its usage. The teachers have to take an exam based on IT literacy and these grades are used to give increments to teachers so that they are motivated to become computer literate.

Please tell us about your collaborations with schools abroad.
We have collaborated with a few schools in the UK. The management visits various schools in different countries to study their school education system, which helps it in knowing the practices followed in other schools. These best of these practices are used for enriching education in DCM schools. We are also taking up globaisation of education in a very calculated manner while also maintaining Indian cultural ethos.

What is unique about DCM Schools?
We have initiated the academic cell. The best of the teachers in all subjects are selected from various branches of DCM Schools. These teachers serve as the resource head and provide support to all the teachers in various branches in their respective subjects. Thus, uniformity and consistency is maintained in delivering education in various branches of DCM. We also have a mentor system where weak students are identified at the beginning of the academic year and mentors are assigned to help them. Quarterly review is done to evaluate the improvement in these children so that all children become equally enthusiastic about their studies by the end of the year.

Preparing Students for Future

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November 19, 2012

A Murali Mukund, Secretary, Jubilee Hills Society & Chairman, Jubilee Hills Public School, believes in the philosophy of tradition and technology for providing complete education. In conversation with Pragya Gupta, he speaks on the importance of technology and need for quality education in schools

Jubilee Hills Public School has celebrated its silver jubilee year. How did it start its journey?
Jubilee Hills Public School was started in the year 1986. It was started as a neighbourhood school to provide quality education at an affordable cost. The main aim was to meet the social obligation and run the school on a non-profit basis. Our tagline: Tradition and Technology, clearly tells our philosophy. We strive to retain the culture and values of our country while simultaneously using technology to gain quality education which help us in imparting general awareness and a competitive edge in the national and international scenario to our students.

How do you ensure delivery of quality education to the children?
To ensure that we not only provide education, but also act as a finishing school for the students to prepare them for a better future, we have installed projectors and smart boards in all our classrooms from LKG to class 12th.
Many of our students are now placed in good jobs across the world and have excelled in whatever they are doing. That itself tells our success story.
We realised that education is the answer to all the problems in any country and we have taken steps as a pioneer in the education sector in Hyderabad. The major challenges include commitment of teachers, their quality and their adaptation to technology.
The present generation children also pose a challenge to any educational institution because they are sometimes distracted by the social media and the downtrend of moral values in the society. There are several opportunities in the education sector, and we have utilised every one of them to provide better education to our students.

How do you see the school in 2020?
The vision 2020 of the school is to establish its own teacher training centre, to strengthen our skill development centre and consolidate the sports infrastructure. All these will make our institution one of its kind in the education sector.
During the next few years, we are also planning to open two more branches in and around Hyderabad, one at Vijayawada and another at Vizag.

Towards a Holistic Education System

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November 19, 2012

Prashant Jain, Founder Director, Pathways Group of Schools, believes that the education system in India should be student-centric and not teacher- or curriculum-centric. In conversation with Sheena Joseph Cherian and Seema Gupta

Please tell us about the genesis of Pathways Schools.
The idea of Pathways was conceived in the year 2000 and much research has gone into the kind of education that has to be delivered. We have studied the education models in India and abroad and found that students in India can beat their Western counterparts in academic excellence but they lack when they have to present themselves to the outside world.
India was a world leader in education 2000 years ago because of the Gurukul system of education. The concept focused on engaging with the students on a one-to-one basis. It was not a one-way but a two-way delivery of information. This was the basis of setting up Pathways where education was student-centric and not teacher or curriculum-centric.

What methods have you adopted to train your teachers?
A teacher should have the ability to connect well with the children and should be able to speak their language.
Pathways has teacher training programs for its teachers all through the year. Every Thursday, the school ends one and a half hour earlier for students-teachers collaborative training programme. During summer and winter vacations, all teachers come back a week earlier and a huge teacher-training program is run for the teachers at the school. The teachers are sent for training workshops held by IB. Experts in various fields from all over the country come to provide training to the teachers.

Please share with us about the cocurricular activities Pathways has taken up.
The objective of a school should be to educate the child in all spheres of life. Academic knowledge is only one aspect of education but for the overall development of a child, various areas like dance, drama, art, debating and sports have to be made an integral part of education. Pathways Schools has special educators who can identify the inherent qualities of the child and then help enhance them further. We also have a brilliant set of teachers and educators who provide wholesome exposure to all co-curricular activities to students.

What do you think is the role of ICT in education? How is it useful to students?
ICT should be used as a tool for education as it provides ways to enhance the learning experience of the students. ICT complements education beautifully. It enables the child to do his work from anywhere and doesn’t restrict him to the classroom. It also makes the delivery and understanding of education easier.

How is social media being used to promote agenda of schools?
General social media is a very open platform and can be easily misused by the children. In contrast, a modified and monitored platform which all children can be a part of should be provided. This platform can be used by the children and teachers alike to take forward the experience of the children in education.

How has CCE pattern been introduced in the schools?
In CBSE schools, CCE has just been introduced but in the IB system, the concept of continuous evaluation has always been followed. Pathways Schools hasbeen practising the CCE pattern since the inception of the school. Assessment of children happens all through the year. At the end of the year, the teacher has the flexibility to take whichever best assessment he wants to include in the final grading.
A Pathways student is evaluated on two levels: achievement grade and effort grade. A child scoring an A in a subject in achievement grade but a C in effort grade means he has only scored good marks in that subject but has not made much effort in that subject. This helps the teachers know about the child’s multiple intelligence and his likes and dislikes.

What are your future expansion plans?
Pathways will be starting a preschool which will be a family-solution school for the young children. The Pathways Early Years is a step to fill this gap. This school will take care of children from age one till grade five. It will be like an extended day for Pathways students and a day care for children coming from other institutions.

Indian Education Needs to Hit the Bull’s Eye

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

November 19, 2012

Dr T Venu Gopal Rao, Academic Director, Fusion International School, Hyderabad

We need to upgrade the Indian curriculum with new ideas for bringing maximum benefit to our younger generation. As India is a land of contradictions and dichotomies, the education system should be suitable to everyone’s needs and aspirations.
Almost 50 percent of Indians are youngsters, but compared to the Western countries, our education system lags behind. We often have instances of children feeling bored at school; this could be because education is not being delivered in a proper way. Majority of our schools are teacher-centric, and this makes the children feel that education is being imposed upon them.
There is a need to revolutionise the pedagogy. New ideas in education have to be implemented.
If Eastern educational philosophies are merged with the philosophies from the Western world, then we will be able to carve out a road for globalised and holistic education. Real education is where students can apply their skills to solve an issue, think laterally, with horizontal expertise and lateral exposure. Organisations willing to impart education should have a clear motive, vision and mission. A good team work is a necessary part of the vision.

Curriculum development
The curriculum needs to be designed to suit the needs of the students, thus helping them utilise their skills and apply their education and learning in the future. The curriculum must be vibrantly designed and it should appeal to the younger generation of today.
A step-by-step process is a must for integrating the above skills into the curriculum. The content needs to be explained very lucidly and repeated many times. We need to have a pragmatic way of teaching; incorporation of emails, interactive boards and YouTube will help students in understanding the concepts with greater clarity.
Giving enough room for higher order thinking skills (HOTS), journal writing, creative writing and interdisciplinary learning needs to be encouraged.
The schools can also try to indulge the students by having entertaining assemblies, which also foster learning. During the assembly sessions, the students can present their talent through a skit, presentation, poem or song. The students will thus develop confidence to face the crowd even before sensing stage fear.
Primary school assembly may be segregated from pre-primary assembly. Students of pre-primary can recite rhymes and tell stories in their assemblies. This will encourage learning by emulation. It will also make way for better bonding between the students.

Implementation
It is important for the schools to take parents along in all their initiatives. The parents must be convinced that this kind of programme will build up self-esteem, strength in concepts with knowledgebased learning and will lead to the road of success in their lives. It is important to be communicative with the parents regarding the programmes conducted in the school. Regular parent orientation helps the parents align themselves with the curriculum and keep abreast of the latest programmes in the school.
A lot of preparation and planning is required from the teachers and senior administration to implement the programme. Continuous comprehensive evaluation must be implemented in schools, because you cannot evaluate a child’s potential with just marks obtained in the examination. Group discussion on a question or a topic is compulsory. Teachers have to plan the lessons and elicit answers from the students on a constructive theory of learning. They should build the concept and add information to what the students have learnt.
Physical education has replaced physical training. Theory and practical lessons have to be conducted by the sports personnel. Both indoor and outdoor games need to be stressed upon. Curriculum must be designed to allow the students to stay fit, both mentally and physically. The right kind of balance between height and weight is important. A regular regimen of 3 to 4 minute aerobic lessons is a must.

Education is All-Compassing

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

November 19, 2012

Nancy S Nanavaty, Academic Director, Phoenix Greens International School, believes that education shouldn’t be the premium of the people who can afford it

Please tell us about the genesis of Phoenix Greens.
Phoenix Greens was started with the aim to provide an alternate for disillusioned parents. Also, we wanted quality education to reach every child. Education shouldn’t be the premium of the people who can afford it. Usually that is what is happening. The parents who can afford it send their child to the best of the schools and spend a lot of money. Education should be within the reach of the common man. The middle-income group is the thickest of all the groups. We wanted to cater to them by giving quality education to their children. Our fee structure is very competitive. And like they say ‘paisa vasool’, for every penny that the parent pays, we give it back to them.
Education is not just academics; you need to educate the child in everything. It is all-compassing: personality development, leadership skills, presentation skills, how a child presents the work, how well he is groomed – the whole persona has to be taken care of by the school, not just ABCD. Because even a parent can do that.
But why does a parent say, “How does a school differ from another school?” It’s by bringing this holistic development. Everyone says that their school provides holistic development, but are we really providing it? What are the measures a school is taking to provide this holistic development?
Even a nursery class child from our school would be able to take the mic and speak. When we have the parents’ day, all the 300 children of our school are on the stage, and not just as the flower walls, paper flowers or as the trees swaying in the breeze. Everyone participates.
I also subscribe to the Glenn Doman way of thinking which says that every child is born a genius, he is born with a potential intelligence that was used by Einstein and all the great people. How we utilise this potential genius, how we stimulate the brain, is what is going to make this child an above average, below average or an average child. It is an awesome task for a school.

What are the challenges and opportunities in expansion?
Yes, absolutely till grade 12. We follow the CBSE board because I believe the CBSE is one of the most dynamic boards. We could have easily started with a Cambridge or the IB or ICSE curriculum, but CBSE is so dynamic, it’s within the reach and in the middle-income society, there are a lot of transfers. So wherever students go, they will be following the same thing. Our syllabus is CBSE, but our curriculum is international because we take the best practices and teaching methodologies from all over the world and we incorporate them in ours.
When you say syllabus, it’s a very narrow one. When you talk about curriculum, it’s a very broad perspective.

What are your views on technology in education?
It’s an absolute must. Even for the simplest of things, technology and education should go hand-in-hand. Unless the child does and sees something, education is not complete. Rote teaching does not happen now. Our theme changes every month. So when our theme is, say water, our children go and watch on YouTube what a water cycle is and what the different bodies of water are. Our nursery children also go to the computer lab.
They only know that is the monitor, this is the keyboard, this is the CPU, this is the hard drive, this is a pen drive and these are the CDs. Prep 1 and 2 start using the Paint and do a lot of activities. And nowadays, there are a lot of interactive activities. In the third term, the nursery children would be able to click the mouse to see. There are a lot of interactive sessions, like when they are doing the letters, if you say ‘A’, there’s a picture of an apple, a bat and a cat. And the child has to click the apple. So technology and education go hand- inhand.

What is your vision for the school in 2020?
Academically excellent, social responsibility, pride in being an Indian: as elaborate as that, that encompasses everything.

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