CPI-M led LDF Opposition in Kerala staged a walkout dissatisfied with the government response to an High court order regarding effective steps to improve the quality of education in private engineering colleges. Both Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb assured the House that government would adhere to the court directions and take steps to ensure that infrastructure and faculty in private professional colleges were of high-quality. The court had also made the observation that pass percentage in most of these institutions was very low.
Opposition walkout on private engineering colleges issue in Kerala
Need for better investment in early childhood education, says report
Several recent reports have strongly indicated that the most vulnerable children in New Zealand are at risk of missing out on quality early childhood education.
NZEI executive member Hayley Whitaker says these findings should send a clear message to the Government that its changes to early childhood education policy are putting our most vulnerable children at risk.
“The Government needs to restore funding for early childhood education so that all children get better access to qualified teaching and better teacher:child ratios.
“These reports need to be taken seriously because good quality early childhood education is a key indicator for long term success at school. And this is especially crucial for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.”
“ECE is one of the single biggest influences on education achievement and the effects are still apparent at age 15 and older,’’ Ms Whitaker says.
The reports*, from the Government’s own advisory groups as well as independent research, show that New Zealand is falling behind in its investment in early childhood education.
This comes in the wake of changes to funding for early childhood education that removed an earlier target of 100 percent qualified teachers in ECE centres by 2012.
Instead, the Government has reduced the required teacher qualification rate to 50 percent and reduced the 100 percent funding band to 80 percent.
The reports have concluded that the quality of early childhood education is suffering, partly as a result of these changes.
“The Government’s own advisory groups’ reports make it clear that adult:child ratios, group size and teacher qualification are cornerstone indicators for high quality ECE for children,’’ Ms Whitaker says.
“Quite simply, the evidence shows that children who attend early childhood centres with a higher proportion of qualified, registered teachers get access to better quality early childhood education than those who attend centres with a lower proportion of qualified teachers.”
For instance, a report by Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZ Childcare Association found that children in “100 percent qualified” centres are more likely to have conversations with teachers, partake in shared sustained thinking with teachers and engage in complex play.
The Early Childhood Education Sector Advisory Group has recommended that the Government ensure that from 1 July next year all centre-based services be required to have at least 80 percent registered teachers.
For under twos, the working party recommends a reduction in the adult:child ratios of be 1:3 for children under one and 1:4 in the 1-2 age group. The current ratio is 1:5.
While the Government, in its last Budget targeted “high needs” areas in order to increase participation rates, Ms Whitaker says it is vital that all ECE services are adequately funded to ensure that quality education is provided.
PTU signs MoU with IBM for faculty polishing
IBM Academic Initiative (AI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, on to conduct a series of Faculty Development Programs (FDP) across affiliate colleges of PTU. IBM AI program has been created to equip educational institutions with the latest IT tools in the market, to better prepare students for the professional world.
PTU vice chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora said that this partnership was aimed at making faculty and students familiar with IBM technologies in pursuit of their academic excellence. IBM is offering this as a pilot project to PTU looking into the potential offered by faculties and students of PTU. This collaboration will initially help in training and certifying 300 faculty of PTU and impacting knowledge base development of more than 1500 PTU students on software technologies that will increase their employability. The development program will cover all affiliated colleges of PTU and extended to students across all the colleges of PTU, said a PTU spokesperson.
Meanwhile Karthik Padmanabhan, country manager – ISV & developer relations, IBM India, said, “This partnership aims to bridge the academia-industry gap by training the faculty and students on cutting edge software tools and technologies. The ongoing series of faculty development programs will ensure smoother knowledge transition to students.”
ApnaCircle revamps its profile
ApnaCircle, India’s local professional networking site has refreshed its look and feel by redesigning its interface for easy navigation. The new interface has been developed after careful research to equip users with enjoyable navigation and at the same time make it easy for them to gain and maintain repute in their chosen industry.
The new Summary Tab and Career Visualizer are just a few of the features that are sure to help enhance your profile.
The upper part of the new profile now displays crucial information such as current job, number of contacts within the network and the received recommendations. You can also download your visiting card in the accepted format.
A new add on and improvement which gives an overview of your career path. It emphasises recent work experiences, recommendations (which are a great help for potential recruiters) as well as skills. The networking site has updated its profile so that you can get the best brand value out of it.
“95 per cent schools don’t follow the RTE guidelines”
Over two years after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) was notified by the central government, more than 95 percent of schools in the country do not comply with its guidelines, a study by an NGO has found.
Data compiled by RTE Forum with inputs from its members from across the country points out that only one out of 10 schools in 2010-11 had drinking water facilities, while two out of every five schools lacked a functional toilet.
The report accessed by IANS also shows lack of training facilities for teachers, adversely affecting the quality of primary education in India.
Nearly 36 percent of all sanctioned posts of teachers in the country are lying vacant. Of this, the national capital alone accounts for 21,000 vacancies, while 1,000 posts are vacant in Odisha, RTE Forum’s report says.
The guidelines under the RTE act specify that schools “established, owned, controlled or substantially funded by the government or local authorities” must ensure that the vacancy of teachers “shall not exceed 10 percent of the total sanctioned strength”.
The study also found teachers in Haryana being engaged in non-teaching activities like construction work or working as contractors in the mid-day meal programme.
“95 per cent schools don’t follow the RTE guidelines”
Over two years after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) was notified by the central government, more than 95 percent of schools in the country do not comply with its guidelines, a study by an NGO has found.
Data compiled by RTE Forum with inputs from its members from across the country points out that only one out of 10 schools in 2010-11 had drinking water facilities, while two out of every five schools lacked a functional toilet.
The report accessed by IANS also shows lack of training facilities for teachers, adversely affecting the quality of primary education in India.
Nearly 36 percent of all sanctioned posts of teachers in the country are lying vacant. Of this, the national capital alone accounts for 21,000 vacancies, while 1,000 posts are vacant in Odisha, RTE Forum’s report says.
The guidelines under the RTE act specify that schools “established, owned, controlled or substantially funded by the government or local authorities” must ensure that the vacancy of teachers “shall not exceed 10 percent of the total sanctioned strength”.
The study also found teachers in Haryana being engaged in non-teaching activities like construction work or working as contractors in the mid-day meal programme.
“No teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational purpose other than the decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority or the state legislature or parliament,” according to the guidelines of the RTE act.
The data shows that the national average for pupil to teacher ratio is worryingly high at 1:80, against the prescribed ratio of 1:30 for primary and 1:35 for upper primary level under the act.
?
ApnaCircle revamps its profile
ApnaCircle, India’s local professional networking site has refreshed its look and feel by redesigning its interface for easy navigation. The new interface has been developed after careful research to equip users with enjoyable navigation and at the same time make it easy for them to gain and maintain repute in their chosen industry.
The new Summary Tab and Career Visualizer are just a few of the features that are sure to help enhance your profile.
The upper part of the new profile now displays crucial information such as current job, number of contacts within the network and the received recommendations. You can also download your visiting card in the accepted format.
A new add on and improvement which gives an overview of your career path. It emphasises recent work experiences, recommendations (which are a great help for potential recruiters) as well as skills.
The networking site has updated its profile so that you can get the best brand value out of it.
PTUsignsMoUwithIBM for faculty polishing
IBM Academic Initiative (AI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, on to conduct a series of Faculty Development Programs (FDP) across affiliate colleges of PTU.
IBM AI program has been created to equip educational institutions with the latest IT tools in the market, to better prepare students for the professional world.
PTU vice chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora said that this partnership was aimed at making faculty and students familiar with IBM technologies in pursuit of their academic excellence. IBM is offering this as a pilot project to PTU looking into the potential offered by faculties and students of PTU. This collaboration will initially help in training and certifying 300 faculty of PTU and impacting knowledge base development of more than 1500 PTU students on software technologies that will increase their employability. The development program will cover all affiliated colleges of PTU and extended to students across all the colleges of PTU, said a PTU spokesperson.
Meanwhile Karthik Padmanabhan, country manager – ISV & developer relations, IBM India, said, “This partnership aims to bridge the academia-industry gap by training the faculty and students on cutting edge software tools and technologies. The ongoing series of faculty development programs will ensure smoother knowledge transition to students.”
Need for better investment in early childhood education, says report
Several recent reports have strongly indicated that the most vulnerable children in New Zealand are at risk of missing out on quality early childhood education.
NZEI executive member Hayley Whitaker says these findings should send a clear message to the Government that its changes to early childhood education policy are putting our most vulnerable children at risk.
“The Government needs to restore funding for early childhood education so that all children get better access to qualified teaching and better teacher:child ratios.
“These reports need to be taken seriously because good quality early childhood education is a key indicator for long term success at school. And this is especially crucial for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.”
“ECE is one of the single biggest influences on education achievement and the effects are still apparent at age 15 and older,’’ Ms Whitaker says.
The reports*, from the Government’s own advisory groups as well as independent research, show that New Zealand is falling behind in its investment in early childhood education.
This comes in the wake of changes to funding for early childhood education that removed an earlier target of 100 percent qualified teachers in ECE centres by 2012.
Instead, the Government has reduced the required teacher qualification rate to 50 percent and reduced the 100 percent funding band to 80 percent.
The reports have concluded that the quality of early childhood education is suffering, partly as a result of these changes.
“The Government’s own advisory groups’ reports make it clear that adult:child ratios, group size and teacher qualification are cornerstone indicators for high quality ECE for children,’’ Ms Whitaker says.
“Quite simply, the evidence shows that children who attend early childhood centres with a higher proportion of qualified, registered teachers get access to better quality early childhood education than those who attend centres with a lower proportion of qualified teachers.”
For instance, a report by Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZ Childcare Association found that children in “100 percent qualified” centres are more likely to have conversations with teachers, partake in shared sustained thinking with teachers and engage in complex play.
The Early Childhood Education Sector Advisory Group has recommended that the Government ensure that from 1 July next year all centre-based services be required to have at least 80 percent registered teachers.
For under twos, the working party recommends a reduction in the adult:child ratios of be 1:3 for children under one and 1:4 in the 1-2 age group. The current ratio is 1:5.
While the Government, in its last Budget targeted “high needs” areas in order to increase participation rates, Ms Whitaker says it is vital that all ECE services are adequately funded to ensure that quality education is provided.
Opposition walkout on private engineering colleges issue in Kerala
CPI-M led LDF Opposition in Kerala staged a walkout dissatisfied with the government response to an High court order regarding effective steps to improve the quality of education in private engineering colleges.
Both Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb assured the House that government would adhere to the court directions and take steps to ensure that infrastructure and faculty in private professional colleges were of high-quality.
The court had also made the observation that pass percentage in most of these institutions was very low.
Rabb said the state government was yet to receive the copy of the court order. Government would examine the order and take steps, he said.
However, he said it was not practical to close down the private colleges where the pass percentage was less than 40 per cent as it would lead to several other social problems.
Government would come out with guidelines for functioning of private colleges in the light of the High Court observation, he said.
ERP Manages Well!
To make the education infrastructure more aligned towards taking care of the best interests of the students, the education institutions have marched an extra mile and adopted Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). With ERP the game has changed a lot
Education in today’s world has become highly competitive. In order to be different and ready for action the institutions need a central resource planning that can manage the entire information and operations of the institutions.
How does it work?
ERP brings cohesion to the administrative culture of the education institutes, by creating a system for management of data in a seamless and efficient manner. The information can be stored and retrieved in different ways. Whether it is keeping attendance of student, teacher and administrative staff or informing the student about the date of new session to be started, ERP does it all.
Benefits of Education ERP
The future integration of Internet technologies, Application Service Provider(ASP) hosting services, and expanded ERP systems can help transform the way education institutions operate in the 21st century and move closer to realising the goal of anytime, anywhere computing. Here are some benefits of using the Education ERP solution.
Benefits for Management
• Easy access of all records at one place
• Channel to interact with staff, teachers, parents, students
• Saving man hours and increasing productivity
• Unhindered, smooth management
Benefits for Faculty
• Manage class reports, attendance, and performance
• Making online exams
• Interaction with parents
• Effective planning
• Online projects and forums for students
Benefits for Administration
• Easy access to reports
• Getting accurate and timely data
• Publication & circulation of reports
• Saving man hours for productive work
Benefits for Students
• Platform to interact
• Share knowledge, experience, views
• Access library
• Online exams
• Participate in projects
• Contribute to school in out of school hours
Benefits for Parents
• Reports & Updates regarding ward
• Effective and Timely communication of school activities
• Knowledge Interaction with other guardians
To make our readers aware of the actual scenario of education ERP deployment in India, we contacted some of the ERP solution providers and have noted their excerpts in the following pages.
Smooth Working with ERP
“Sanjeev Phatak, VP, Training and Assessment Solutions Practice of Aptech Computer Education shares his insights on ERP in education infrastructure “
What benefits do you think education institutes can have in embracing ERP solutions?
These ERP systems are totally automated, they come with inherent benefits such as transparency in operations, seamless integration of discrete processes, database management and archive facilities, admission to alumni management systems, to knowledge management. The single most challenge so far is a mind set of schools from the investment perspective. Hence, services model can be the best fit to start with. Schools are reluctant to invest in systems; infrastructure. Also skilled resources to manage these systems are also a challenge faced by schools.
What is your opinion on the level of ERP adoption in Indian schools?
Currently the penetration is too low. Only few schools with international tie ups have adopted such systems, but in such cases also adoption has not been done across all the modules. Government schools are far away from such systems.
ERP for Better Management
“Ajay Sakhamuri, CEO, MyClassboard Educational Solutions Pvt Ltd feels the country’s education ecosystem has started getting the benefits of utilising ERP”
Who forms the largest group of ERP adopters in schools?
When it comes to adopting an Educational ERP Software to run the day to day operations, the private schools are way ahead of government schools. From my understanding as on date the usage of ERP is primarily limited to the schools in the urban areas and large chains of schools.
What ERP solution do you give to schools?
MyClassboard Fully Online School Management System is an end to end web-based School Management System that can be deployed for single schools or groups of schools without the need for a great deal of configuration. The application has a vast amount of built-in functionality and can handle everything including student records, elementary and secondary student report cards, fee collections, daily attendance, timetable scheduling, budgeting and accounting needs (Tally integration), admissions, library, learning management, online examinations, transport management and much more.
What is the investment required in deploying the solution in any educational infrastructure?
MyClassboard works on the cloud model, the initial investment on purchasing software or hardware that the client needs invest is absolutely zero. The client needs to pay a monthly subscription charge of ` 5999 and MyClassboard will take care of the rest.
What is your opinion on the level of ERP adoption in Indian schools and higher education institutes?
We feel that until now only less than 5 percent of school and colleges actually use ERP in their organisations. And currently we can observe that the usage of ERP solutions in the India education sector is increasing rapidly. I believe with the next three years Indian education system will see considerable amount of changes and it will become mandatory for every organisation to go for ERP System to manage all their academic and administrative operations.
However, schools generally tend to make wrong choices while picking an ERP solution provider. Before picking an ERP solution the educational institution must do a lot of analysis and then pick the vendor. The primary reason for this could be that there are very few players across India who has the funding, long term vision and passion to work in the education technology space.
ERP Makes You Work Faster
“Lawrence Zacharias, Founder Director of Entab Infotech Pvt Ltd sees that ERP utility in education will grow expediently”
Who forms the largest group of ERP adopters in schools?
Private schools are the major adopters of ERP. This is because the private schools are more concerned about the systematic accounting of 3Ms(man, money and material) and activities (students, staff, fund, exam and co-curricular, inventory and the library). There is a competition prevailing among the private schools to perform better to bring out best results, hence they are willing to accept technology to automate their day to day activities.
What ERP solution you give to schools?
Our software products name is Campuscare. We provide solution starting from enquiry for admission to arrange transfer certificate of the students. Assessment of the students to preparing report cards, fund accounting, purchase order to material handling to scrap- inventory, taking care of daily transactions as well.
What is the investment involved in deploying the solution in any education infrastructure?
A full-fledged ERP implementation ensuring high level of automation can be achieved by 15-20 lacs expense and recurring expense of leased line to host the web server.
What benefits do you think education institutes can have embracing ERP solutions?
As we all are aware many institutions do not have all the documents properly
maintained, and there is lot of duplicity in admission number. The fees collection never gets tallied, and those who are not authorised for concession some time enjoy concession. The tabulation mistakes are also there in report cards, salary sheet. PF returns are a tedious task and we are depending on external agencies for accuracy, library does not have proper records, library books stock check is a tedious task.
Solution:
ERP software can resolve issues at institutions by:
1. Automating the repeated process by simple steps.
2. Providing provision for verifying the inputs
3. The dependability on staff has reduced for the management for information.
4. Enhances work flow, increases the efficiency, reduce the reliance on
paper.
Institutes Work Better With ERP
“Vinod P John, Senior Director (Sales), Ellucian feels the 21st century education infrastructure must include education ERP in its work management infrastructure “
What are the challenges associated with implementing ERP solutions, please tell us from yours and your client’s point of view.
At Ellucian our key forte lies in deploying ICT solutions for higher education. From our point of view, we take pride in the fact that we focus on a solution based approach tailored to suit our customer needs. Our success lies in communicating the value proposition of Ellucian’s ERP solutions enabling our customers to migrate from the paper based legacy systems to the new system. This would be the major challenge for ERP vendors at the beginning of every customer journey. Apart from this familiarizing the staff and student with the new system will be challenging. Establishing a unique set of best practices by leveraging our international and local expertise is what we consider the biggest challenge.
What is your opinion on the level of ERP adoption in Indian higher education institutes?
IT now is considered as a strategic element to make changes & growth in associated policies across all segments in India Inc., and education is not far behind. Earlier, majority of Indian Institutes deployed software solutions on a very small scale but we are witnessing a gradual change in this approach. Indian universities are now open to the idea of adopting ERP for procedures related to admission, teaching, examination, and interaction with students.
Education ERP Streamlines Management
Rajendra CM, MD, APAC and EMEA, Talisma, talks about the ERP solutions they offer
Tell us about the investment involved in deploying the solution in any education infrastructure?
There are two types of investments that will be needed. One is monetary and other is in terms of resource allocation. Institutions need to have a clear idea of their expectations from technology investments and a clear road map defined in association with a consultant or a vendor will help.
What benefits do you think education institutes can have from embracing ERP solutions?
Today, campuses are operating in an immensely competitive environment. In order to attract, retain and nurture talent, universities need to offer flexible and engaging distant education courses, enriching student services, smart classrooms, learning analytics, comprehensive placement service, alumni relation management etc. Talisma can help campuses in all these areas. We are already partnering education institutions in various parts of the globe in their endeavour to become agile campuses that are powered by benchmark student services. In a hyper competitive scenario, our ERP and CRM solutions can help campuses focus on students and the student eco system without worrying about competition. ERP helps reaping the benefits of technology in areas such as revenue growth, brand equity management, student lifecycle management, faculty and administration management and operations.
What is your opinion on the level of ERP adoption in Indian schools/ higher education institutes?
We are seeing plenty of traction in the Indian market. Many institutions have already defined or are in the process of defining an IT roadmap for transforming into agile campuses. The adoption rates are low as of now due to a variety of reasons. But the next few years will see many Indian campuses turning agile and emerging into role models for campuses in the Asia pacific region.
Work Smart with ED-ERP
“Anil Goyal, Director-Strategy & Business Development, Mexus Education Pvt Ltd offers education ERP for education institutes “
Who form the largest group of ERP adopters in Schools?
Private schools especially tier I city schools are major adopters and active users of ERP solutions because of the easy access to information.
What ERP solution you give to schools?
We offer complete school automation processes from enquiries to staffing and
marksheets with various user access levels.
Our Iken ERP platform connects 8 core school activities. It felicitates inquiries, admissions, student information and records, fees, subject planning, student performance and progress, payrolls and staffing.
Over 150+ schools have adopted Iken ERP across India.
What benefits do you think education institutes can have embracing ERP solutions? What are the challenges associated with it?
Iken ERP is designed to ensure –
• Data Security with pre-defined user access levels
• Grade-wise Subject and Exam Planning
• Synchronize all information for better planning & resource management
• Scalable to match growth of the schools
The concept of ERP is novel to Indian School, thereby, connecting with the schools and educating them on the potential benefits of using technology for organising processes and resources is a roadblock that is holding back the realization of full potential of this demand. Automation of existing physical data is constantly a challenge for deploying the software and the systems. A complete support cycle of training, monitoring and refresher training brings in the necessary understanding and acceptance of the software, at a macro level.
What is your opinion on the level of ERP adoption in Indian Schools?
With the scope of education widening, there is a strong underlying need to align the process and manage resources optimally. Yet the adoption levels of Iken ERP remain abysmal till date.
Offering Seamless ERP
Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solutions (SLS), NIIT Ltd says his company has been offering seamless ERP solutions to education institutes over the years
Where do you see the need of Education ERP?
Schools of today are complex organizations with hundreds of people working in tandem to create an ever-evolving institution. One of the keys to the success of a school is in the way it manages the deluge of information amongst other things. Most schools use information management one way or the other, whether it is Excel or function-specific information systems like Library Management System, Fee Receipt Generation etc. These are mostly stop-gap solutions rather than scalable, comprehensive and long term solution. Since most of these systems are outdated, the generic school staff (Teaching and Non-Teaching) waste their time on mundane tasks and the school management lacks a decision support system. The education ERP solution comes handy to address these issues.
Who form the largest group of ERP adopters in schools?
The major adopters of ERP are private schools. Private schools adopt ERP to streamline their functions like fees collection, report card generation, payroll, admissions, inventory management, transportation etc. However, in new IT initiatives all state governments are coming up with requirement for ERP in the state schools.
What ERP solution you offer to schools? So far how many schools/higher education institutes have deployed ERP solution from you?
Quick School is integrated and comprehensive education resource planning software developed for schools to manage information spanning all functional requirements like fees collection, report card generation, payroll, admissions, inventory management, transportation etc. It also has the unique feature of modules that facilitate the implementation of CCE guidelines. It addresses the needs of all stakeholders within the education realm – students, teachers, principals, school management and parents. The product empowers schools to strengthen their services to students and parents, thus enhancing their competitive advantage many fold. NIIT has implemented Quick School in 6000+ government and private schools.
What is the investment involved in deploying the solution in anyeducation infrastructure?
Although it depends on the school requirement, the student strength and what all functions that school wants to automate, the price ranges from `1.5 lakh to ` 7 lakh.
What benefits do you think education institutes can have embracing ERP solutions?
Quick school standardises and streamlines the various processes in the school through the following:
Support For Evaluation
a) Evaluation plan,
b) Multiple evaluation types,
c) Scholastic,
d) Co-scholastic,
e) Formative,
f) Summative
Data Management
a) Students data,
b) Teacher’s data,
c) Examination data,
d) Health Status,
e) Attendance data
Reporting
a) Report card generation,
b) Analysis that can lead to remedial action,
c) Information to parents,
d) Involving parents in the teaching learning process.
ERP on Board
“Forward looking Higher education institutes have adopted ERP solution as it leads to improvement in performance.It brings efficiency and transparency to the sphere of operations. Higher education leaders in India share their ERP experience”
Dr Elizabeth Verghese, Chancellor, Hindustan University
Our ERP solution is an in-house development of the Hindustan Group, and is tailor-made for our purposes. The complete solution is in various stages of development and implementation and we are reaping the benefits of the system. The biggest challenge is user acceptance and change management.
Dr Upinder Dhar, Vice Chancellor of J K Lakshmipat University
The 
ERP solution at JKLU c o m p r i s e s of various modules that cater to the needs of academic and administrative staff. The ERP is going through the implementation and customisation phase and the results are satisfactory. The biggest challenge was to strike a balance between customisation and adopting standard industry practices. Balance has been struck with mutual agreement and heavy involvement of all stakeholders. Periodic review meetings have been a great help in the most trying times.
Santanu Mishra, Co founder and Executive Trustee of SMILE foundation
The current ERP system functions under two broad subjects. The most important one is operation of all the institutes along with their progress. The second area is the recruitment system for all the alumni. This recruitment system helps us to keep a track of all our students and also the students are updated about the recruiters.
Brig Grewal, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University
We have also developed our own ERP package for the university, where every aspect of the students activities whether it is attendance, his medical sickness, his performance & evaluation, his end term tests etc, everything is put up on this thing. So a father sitting in US, by login user id and password can come to know about the activities of his son or daughter studying in India.
Akhlesh Agarwal, VP – Learning Technologies, NIIT University
We had been using an industry strength ERP for our accounting and financial functions. In the forth coming academic year, we are going to start using a student information management ERP product also. This ERP will cover complete information in student lifecycle, from admission and registration process to management of academic records, library, hostel, mess, placement and Alumni. We, at NU have very specific processes for several academic functions and we wanted to get an ERP package that could be fully customized and configured to suite our process requirements. This ERP package is being developed and customized by NIIT LTd.
From STEM to Innovation
An innovative mind is every country’s asset and to build this asset STEM helps in a big way
By Sharmila Das, Elets News Network (ENN)
STEM or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education provides that environment to think beyond ordinary. To use scientific investigation, knowledge and practices in understanding the whole world. The progressive educationists of the world have come to the conclusion that STEM education should be encouraged in the early education of a child. Only through STEM we can have the wherewithal to develop an innovative mind. This approach to education is designed to revolutionise the teaching of subject areas such as mathematics and science by incorporating technology and engineering into regular curriculum by creating a meta-discipline. STEM Education attempts to transform the typical teacher-centred classroom by encouraging a curriculum that is driven by problem-solving, discovery, exploratory learning, and requires students to actively engage in a particular type of a situation in order to reach a logical solution.
Does it fill the bill?
Letting students explore ideas in science and watching them learn is truly a passion that most teachers share. It is inspiring to watch a student work through a science investigation and get to the “aha” moment of understanding, seeing their eyes light up, the smile broaden across their face, and the explosion of energy as they rush to explain to someone what they have just discovered.
As a nation we should capitalise on the “aha” moments and work hard to help students not only understand science, but also foster a lifelong learning in science. Why is this so important?
?Science is the one subject that encompasses everything in life and helps students be curious, ask questions, and make connections as to why the world exists as it does. It is the backdrop for understanding our world, and helps us to explain and appreciate it in new ways.
?A successful STEM education provides students with science, math, and engineering/technology in sequences that build upon each other and can be used with real-world applications.
STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases science literacy, and enables the next generation of innovators. Innovation leads to new products and processes that sustain our economy. This innovation and science literacy depends on a solid knowledge base in the STEM areas. It is imperative that as a nation, we make STEM education a top priority.
Roadblocks
As with any educational initiative, there will be noted barriers to the successful implementation of STEM education into education systems. Developing a curriculum to include STEM as fully integrated requires funding that may presently be unavailable. In order to provide all students with STEM education, funding would be needed not only to develop the curriculum to support STEM, but also to expose students to STEM careers, provide on-going and sustainable STEM professional development, provide STEM preservice teacher training, provide mathand science-related competitions, include mentoring and internship programs, provide hands-on science activities, and recruit and retain STEM teachers.
Another area noted as a barrier to the successful implementation of STEM into a school’s curriculum is the lack of necessary leadership to infuse STEM approaches into a current educational system. Studies of various school curriculums suggest that while curriculum appears to include science and math, all too often, engineering is missing from the curriculum. There may also be school policies around credits and curriculum that may hinder successful implementation of STEM. School systems may feel that the school’s curriculum is already too crowded with classes/studies.
Another factor that hinders the high-quality STEM education in K-12 is the lack of qualified teachers. The most successful implementation of STEM education would require professionals to instruct classes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or at least provide good role models for students to inspire them to pursue careers in STEM.
Beyond educational obstacles, there may be barriers that include cultural perceptions on the part of parents and students that may hinder students from becoming involved in science and mathematics. According to Mary Ann Wolf, Executive Director, SETDA, societal attitudes and perceptions do need to change regarding careers in engineering, science, and mathematics. She emphasises the need to change the mind-set of people and the stigma attached (often called “geek”) to those excelling in the areas of science, mathematics, and engineering. Research suggests that a strong emphasis must be placed on STEM education to inspire our students to seek careers inSTEM so that we may continue to compete globally for jobs and prepare our students for the 21st Century.
To create such ambiance the role of private players offering STEM solution is crucial. To understand their role, we got in touch with Jaganathan. C, Director, Education Technology of Texas Instruments, India. He says, “Texas Instrument (TI) is working with the government and private education entities to inculcate one-to-one learning practices using TI Nspired Learning solutions for classroom teaching and learning, real time experience of concepts in the lab and beyond, and classroom assessment. Our solutions are implemented in the market for CBSE schools through partners like CORE Education and Technologies who specialise in education services. We have run pilot programs in 2010-11 on TI Nspired Learning in nine schools in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai including two Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan schools and our solution is being considered by schools”.
STEM in early education
State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) 2008 says states and school districts should begin the development of a plan in kindergarten to implement STEM education and develop specific targets to achieve these goals. Based on past indicators, little emphasis is placed on science as a major subject area, often being taught once or twice a
week at the elementary level.
Experts Speak
Ashish Kesharwani, Chief Learning Officer, UEI-Global believes, “Future holds great hope and scope for Maths, Science and Engineering background students. Thus the need to create interest amongst the student fraternity to take up this stream is required. It is evident right from school education that these are dreaded subjects and teachers use traditional/ conventional methods to teach them. Being innovative and practical orientation / application will help generate interest in this field. This will increase the creativity and analytical ability, thereby enabling students to use their knowledge in real world environment. There is dearth of technical graduates. Also the graduates that pass-out lack application skills since the current education system lacks practical learning. Thus the IT and Engineering companies need to spend more time and money on training fresh graduates. At the moment it does not cost much since the wages are low and manpower is available in abundance, this will not be the case in future thus, not only from education but from industry and economy point of view STEM education will help in creating interest and upgrading skills”.
Future holds great hope and scope for Maths, Science & Engineering background students. Thus the need to create interest amongst the student fraternity to take up this stream is required
Kartikay Saini, Chairman, The Scottish High International School says, “There are definitely few aspects of STEM which are currently been followed by the Indian education sector in different forms. With the ever changing innovation in education, the Indian education sector may be interested to research and implement the same in the near future”.
Stem education will empower students and teachers enabling them to address some of the bigger social challenges around the world and in their communities
Prof Shanath Kumar, Head, ELearning, SMU-DE of Sikkim Manipal University says, “STEM Education is the foundation for development and progress for any country, more so for a developing country such as India. Proof has come in the form of thousands of Indian youth migrating and serving abroad in information technology and several other engineering and science fields. The country has also grown rich in terms of high quality educational institutions of STEM imparting professional education to millions of students every year. Technology offers an excellent opportunity to scale up this education system and to carry the efforts into the remotest corners of the country. This will provide the much needed Human Development effort for India. India has also produced hundreds of entrepreneurs from the STEM education. Increased thrust on entrepreneurship will provide the impetus for innovation and thus propel the country towards high growth rates and into the league of developed countries of the world. The sign of this happening is already visible.
However, excellent technology infrastructure, consistent faculty development efforts and adequate number of faculty, newer pedagogical methods to enhance employability and increasing industry connect will be the challenges which we should overcome and change into opportunities”.
Jaganathan C of Texas Instruments says, “In India, we have been witnessing a significant improvement in the infrastructure in primary, upper primary and secondary schools in the last 10 years and more so with respect to public schools. Though there are some important issues that call for attention both in the infrastructure and professional teaching areas, enrolments in school are on a gradual rise”.
Texas Instrument (TI) is working with the government and private education entities to inculcate one-to-one learning practices using TI Nspired Learning solutions for classroom teaching and learning
Vandana Lulla, Principal of Podar International School (IB and CIE) says, “Stem education will empower students and teachers enabling them to address some of the bigger social challenges around the world and in their communities. It will help institutions and students to think out-of-the-box for solutions and ideas that are both collaborative and creative”.
Stem education will empower students and teachers enabling them to address some of the bigger social challenges around the world and in their communities
Amit Rana, Pro-Vice Chairman of DPS-Panipat comments, “The STEM system is a good start. Proper training and continued usage will lead to competence and then to innovative techniques using STEM technology in education. Our education system needs a thorough revamping and technology cannot be ignored”.
The STEM system is a good start. Proper training and continued usage will lead to competence and then to innovative techniques using STEM technology in education
End Note
Last but not the least, inclination towards a more scientific approach of education is required from the education eco-system and it is not restricted to schools and higher education institutes alone.
CCE: The Poser of Student Evaluation
A problem identified is often a problem solved. However is CCE the right tool for enabling educationists to identify myriad issues in education?
Continous and Comprensive Evaluation (CCE) helps in improving student’s performance by identifying his/her learning difficulties at regular time intervals. It also employs suitable remedial measures for enhancing their learning performance. The CCE system was formulated by Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development Government of India. CCE is introduced to decrease the accumulated stress of board exams on the students and to introduce a more uniform and comprehensive pattern in education. The scheme of CCE has inbuilt flexibility for schools to plan their own academic schedules as per specified guidelines on CCE. In CCE system the student’s marks is replaced by grades, which get evaluated through a series of curricular and extra-curricular systems. The aim is to reduce the workload on students and to improve the overall skill and ability of the students by means of evaluation of other activities. Grades are awarded to students based on work experience skills, dexterity, innovation, steadiness, teamwork, public peaking, behaviour, etc. to evaluate and present an overall measure of the student’s ability. This helps the students, who are not good in academics to show their talent in other fields such as arts, humanities, sports, music, athletics, etc. This is a new term to assess all round development of a child, irrespective of individual differences.
Vineet Joshi Chairperson,
The CBSE has introduced a number of reforms in the school ducation sector. Our focus for the coming decade is on effective implementation of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation
Marks and Grades
It also has its own demerits. A child with 92 marks will get the same grade, as the child with 100 marks and their talents cannot be recognised by anyone else other than their close ones. Also, with this system, students find it difficult to study many chapters, because of its so
called semester system, which lead to the students being engaged mostly in projects rather than in actual studying. Although this system might have some drawbacks, it instils this value that students need to compete with themselves to get a better grade and not with others.
Experts Speak
The assessment has been made easy by splitting up the whole year into two semesters. After completing a semester, a test called ‘Summative Assessment’ is held by CBSE directly (90 marks for class IX and 90 marks for class X).According to the notified scheme, every aspect of extra-curricular activities like sports, club activities, are given prior importance. Kartikay Saini, Chairperson, The Scottish High International School, says, “According to me it is a fine and effective assessment system which helps the mentors/ instructors to track the performance through regular evaluations. It enables educationists to take immediate corrective measures for the students. We follow continuous assessment such as formative, summative, parent assessment, peer assessment, self assessment at regular intervals to study the performance of the students, to help them self evaluate their performance and work an action plans for the same. So according to me every evaluation method helps in knowing the areas of improvement leading to effective results”.
Vandana Lulla, Principal, Podar International School (IB and CIE), says, “Change is inevitable. As a school, we need to constantly upgrade and update ourselves. If improving the continuous and comprehensive evaluation systems in school benefits students, so be it”.
Mamta Gupta, Principal of Shiksha Bharti School, says, “I welcome CCE and through CCE, I came to know that every child is special. Through CCE I realised that if any student is not good in studies it does not mean that he/she is good for nothing”.
Rajat Gupta, Director, Ramit Technologies Pvt Ltd, (CCE software solution Provider Company), says, CBSE has to understand the reality & revisit implementation of CCE so as to strike a judicious balance between scholastic and co-scholastic outcomes
“Till now, our education system was academics oriented, but with the introduction of CCE, students are now evaluated both on scholastic (intellect and brain) and co-scholastic (heart and hand) attributes. Such kind of system leads to the change in the attitude, life skills (emotional and social) and confidence level of our children and helps in their overall personality development. This is very important for them to survive in today’s competitive world. Some critics say, it is not apt for the country like India, but if implemented properly, its advantages completely outweigh its disadvantages”. 
Norina Fernandes, Principal of Smt. Lilavatibai Podar High School, says, “Introduction of CCE has bought about a sea-change in the classroom. The main aspect of this change is the fact that assessment has become an integral part of the teaching-learning process.”
CBSE Chairman Speaks on CCE System
Vineet Joshi, Chairperson, CBSE, says, “The CBSE has introduced a number of reforms in the school education sector. Our focus for the coming decade is on effective implementation of CCE for which the board aims to provide continuous training and engage in discussion with our teachers to build effective monitoring processes within the system.”
On the Flipside
Teachers are going to play a very important role in the implementation of CCE, which is why a comprehensive plan to upgrade teachers teaching skill through different training is required. Secondly, the introduction of CCE does not advocate less emphasis on academic achievements. Students will still be required to do well in studies. CCE in no way dilutes the emphasis on academics. In fact, while the assignments and projects assigned by teachers have to be interesting, they also have to be challenging for students. Fernandes says, “The one off area of challenge in this system is dealing with student absenteeism, especially with long sick leaves where the student has missed out on a whole concept”.
Investment required
Rajat Gupta of Ramit Technolgies Pvt Ltd says, “To achieve fair assessment, proper student to teacher ratio is required, Proper training to teachers is a pre-requisite to achieve proper results. In rural areas, CCE can be a burden where even the desired primary objective of basic academic teaching is not properly achieved.” Rajat Gupta goes on to say that the investment required to have the CCE assistive software in education infrastructure can vary from ` 15, 000 to ` 50, 000. To sum up we all know that every new policy is bound to have its own pros and cons – the CCE is too seems to be plagued with as many cons, as it is blessed with pros. In the final reckoning, it is up to the education masters to bring out the best of it and use it wisely!
Experiencing New Innovations in Education
The Pearson chain of schools was established in 2008, with the aim of delivering world-class education at an affordable price. Pearson Schools manage, operate and build high quality schools that focus on quality control and standardization. Started off with an ambitious target of having 100 schools within 5 years, today Pearson Schools is the fastest growing chain of schools in India, with over 27 schools in India and Nepal. Pearson School offer complete solutions to schools. Different schools in India using Pearson solutions share their experience with new innovative tools in education.
Saroja Rathnam , Principal, Amanora School, on use of modern teaching tools
We at Amanora School believe that learning happens most naturally through developing, listening and visualising skills. Solutions from ICT are of great help in developing the cognitive aspects of the learner and hence learning happens most effectively with higher retention.
Judith Singh, Principal, Cambridge Public School, on digital
teaching tools
We are planning to add ICT boards, introduce tablets, implement Power School solution with the view of attaining the following objectives:
• Guide my students to success, designing maximum activities for them to work on the topics as ‘class projects’ with ICT integration.
• Equip MATH lab with e-activities for enrichment.
• Encourage and exchange ideas with colleagues / teachers about ICT integration and quality of education.
• Students get connected to teachers via Skype / video talk or are able to discuss with experts wherever and whenever needed. We use Edurite DigiClass, which is an interactive, ICT based classroom solution.
Prabha Balasubramaniam, Principal, Amara Jyothi Public School, Bangalore, on CCE system and assistive software
We face challenges like lack of instructional tips, lack of support material, and creative aids. Solutions from ICT provide teachers with excellent resources for
creating their own lessons (state- CBSE-ICSE syllabus). These personal lessons can include mind mapping of concepts, introduction, previous knowledge links and animations from digital sources, drawings, pictures drawn on e-white board, interesting related facts, lesson notes with highlights, summary of the lesson, evaluation pages.
Ahanjith Chandra Routh, Principal, Pailan World School, on CCE model
A learner with CCE model of assessment stands to benefit, as assessment is in fragments. CCE brings lot of transparency to the system of evaluating various students, and hence it is of great benefit.
Rekha Shiralkar, Principal, Jnanasarovara International Residential School, Mysore, on training of teachers
Working in a school managed by Pearson is a reward for us, as the teachers are given maximum support and encouragement. We are provided with excellent infrastructure, ICT resources, timely training and teacher development programmes and have ample opportunities to achieve the target of excellence in education.
The Future Belongs to Personalised Education
Pearson Education Services aspires to seamlessly combine its international standards in education with India’s traditional methodologies, and bring to us teaching techniques that can propel education into a higher plane. Uma Shankar Vishvanath, President, Pearson Education Services Pvt Ltd, speaks to Pragya Gupta about the ways by which Pearson schools are re-inventing pedagogy
What initiatives have been taken by your company to make optimal usage of technology? Please share the idea behind launching Pearson Schools in India?
Pearson schools have been launched in India with the aim of enabling majority of students to access quality education at an affordable price. One of the major concerns we found was when we enter into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities there is a dearth of branded schools offering quality education. There are many missionary institutions traditionally which have been there in lots of these towns, but there is no single large player in these markets. So we felt that we wanted to provide branded education at affordable price by leveraging the vast resources of Pearson. Looking at technology, as the price of technology keeps coming down, the usage will increase in education. We are focussed on ensuring that classroom learning will become better by use of technology.
What are the solutions offered at these schools?
We have considered a 360 degree d e ve l o p m e n t programme in these schools. The common challenges that any school faces today is that of good quality teaching staff. Perhaps teaching is not con-sidered a noble profession anymore. There is a need for making teaching an attractive profession. There are many regulations and restrictions, therefore many schools are not in position to pay high salaries to the teachers. As a school manager I have to ensure that good quality of learning is happening in my classroom. Today it is a trend that number of higher education institutes are not growing at a pace that is in tandem with the way the demand for these are growing and the world is becoming very competitive. As new courses arrive in the education sphere, parents have to condition their child to be better prepared on these upcoming topics and at the same time I have to reduce my dependency on good quality teachers that I am unable to avail toady. So, that is where technology and ICT play a key role.With use of technology, good content, animation, graphics, I am able to supply much better quality of education to the child. ICT and technology play a very key role. As the cost of educational technology acceptance keeps coming down, the popularity of such solutions goes up.
Tell us about your tie-ups and partnership plans for Pearson Schools?
We are currently working with our own companies, including Edurite. All our classrooms are enabled using Digiclass solutions. We also have Edxcel working with us, so our teacher training programme is currently certified by Edexcel. We also have a competency test on the use of IT that is accepted worldwide.
Is technology playing a role in re-inventing pedagogy?
Children today are getting more accustomed to the visual media. There was a time when regular TV was not considered educational, however, with wide variety of educational content becoming available today on the TV and Internet, students are getting hooked to the screen. The methodology of teaching has to take into consideration the fact that content is now not limited to the confines of a teacher’s mind, ICT is leading to universalisation of content. A blended approach is best way forward, moderation and best-suited combination should be used. It depends on the teacher and how she uses it. The government itself is promoting tablets and promoting personalised learning. This will pave the way for teacher-independent learning and dependence on good teachers will come down.
