Change in Mindset for a Better Society : Neelima Khetan, Seva Mandir, Udaipur,Rajasthan, India

Interviews

By

-

May 1, 2010

Please tell us about the philosophy at Seva Mandir.

Self reliance is our core philosophy. We, at Seva Mandir look at the developmental aspects of the society where citizens can actively participate and take up collective responsibility in the process. The idea is to encourage people to deal with problems themselves and not to depend on state. It is in tune with Gandhiji’s notion of Swaraj which says that it is important for the community to wake up, become stronger and empowered for to take up the responsibility.

In the context of education, can you reflect on your methodologies to cater to people at the grass-root level?

We plan and work closely with the community. We also intend to inculcate responsibilities among the community population. Issues like agriculture, education and teachers training needs to be resolved in that context and for that a two way communication withthe people is essential that helps to identify problems and the solutions to it as well.

Could you please share with us about the funding aspects of Seva Mandir that help you in implementing the programmes.

Seva Mandir is completely aided by private bodies. We take care of several areas including livelihoods and education, where the total contribution of the government is less than 10% of our total budget.
I guess, the government assumes that role of NGOs is restricted to implementation. But I feel an NGO can work in a much wider spectrum in a democracy.

For a widened democracy like India, we are trying to change the social base, values and social norms. Only putting up of laws will not change it, we need to reach out to the families. The mindset of the people needs to be changed. If not the government, we need to work to change the mindset of the society as a whole.

The idea is to encourage people to deal with problems themselves and not to depend on state.

Any other initiatives you would like to highlight or any other collaborative partnerships that Seva Mandir is holding presently?

We are working in collaboration with Private sector and Foundations set up by corporates. Some of them are ING Vysya Bank, Monsoon Accessorize (a UK based fashion brand), Target (a US based Chain of stores) etc. Now the terms and conditions are a little different in these collaborations. Let me explain it in my own words. For instance, if the partners want development only in water harvesting, they will not consider anything else. But fortunately for us, our donors have been very cooperative.

Please give us a brief description of the teacher training system Seva Mandir provides.

We research a lot on teachers training and capacity building over a long period of time, along with the pedagogy which is equally important. We train our teachers to take decisions according to their observations. As far as monitoring and evaluation is concerned, we wanted to monitor and evaluate performance of teachers through cameras to evaluate his/her effort and decency and carefulness towards the children. Young adults who have passed the 8th standard are required go through the first training which is for 15 days, after completing which they can go back to school. This certificate course is for two to three years with tutorials, classes and on-job training.

What are the special efforts your organisation to bring in children to schools, especially in Rajasthan where girl students ratio is far behind the normal standards, and do away with gender disparity?

We run several programmes for women through the women’s empowerment projects. We also put in efforts to sensitise the community population including, men, women, girls and boys. Within that overall efforts, I don’t think there is a deep resistance that they don’t want to send the girls, or there is a special preference for boys over girls. When they have the confidence that it is a safe place and there are facilities enough, they do send girls to school.

Technical Capacity Building ICT Inculcation in Teacher Education : Prof Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui, National Council for Teacher Education, India

Interviews

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2010

“The NCTE announced its resolve to take a number of initiatives to regulate the growth of teacher education institutions in the country and to ensure maintenance of norms and standards in these institutions. The norms and standards have been revised based on felt need.”

What is the philosophy/mandate behind NCTE that guides it to regulate and maintain the norms and standards in Teacher Education System?

The National Council for Teacher Education continues to vigorously pursue the mandate given to it by the Act of Parliament to achieve planned and coordinated development of teacher education and to regulate and maintain norms and standards in the teacher education system across the country. The functioning of the Regional Committees of the NCTE which are primarily entrusted with the responsibility of dealing with all cases of recognition, as per the procedure laid down by the Rules and Regulations framed under the NCTE Act, has been streamlined with close monitoring so as to achieve the desired results. Detailed scrutiny of the applications and strict adherence to the norms and standards has resulted in a higher rejection rate. The NCTE has adopted zero tolerance policy in this matter. Since the Regulations provide for a mechanism of Appeal under Section 18 of the NCTE Act, the higher rate of rejection of applications for recognition has resulted in a large number of institutions opting for the appeal mechanism.

Adoption of the principle of strict adherence to norms by the Appeal Committee has resulted in higher rejection rate of appeals as well. Strict adherence to norms and standards has pushed the NCTE into an unenviable situation. It has been left with no alternative except to plead before various High Courts in the country, where applicants are staking their claim to get recognition to their proposed institutions somehow. In order to achieve its mandate of planned development of teacher education in the country, the NCTE has to take an impartial but principled stand to check the growth of substandard teacher education institutions at the formal entry point itself i.e. the point at which recognition is accorded.

The NCTE announced its resolve to take a number of initiatives to regulate the growth of teacher education institutions in the country and to ensure maintenance of norms and standards in these institutions. The norms and standards have been revised based on felt need. The new Regulations and revised norms were approved by the General Council of the NCTE on 2nd June, 2009 and these were notified, after legal vetting by the Ministry of Law on 31st August, 2009. This exercise incidentally helped the NCTE carryout the directions received from the Ministry of Human Resource Development under Section 29 of the NCTE Act to review its Regulations, 2007. A year to year ban has been imposed on opening new teacher education institutions in some such states where already these institutions are in excess of the requirement.

With a view to bring transparency in the processing of applications from this year all applications are received on-line only. Institutions are being informed about the processing status of their applications online. As part of a drive to weed out substandard teacher education institutions recognition of several hundred sub-standard institutions has been withdrawn during the last one year after following due process of law.

What are the opportunities and challenges that are being presented by our current education system, with special reference to teacher training ?

Teacher education system has a number of challenges and opportunities. The challenges include –

Experiences in the practice of teacher education indicate that knowledge is treated as ‘given’, and accepted without question; there is no practical engagement with the curriculum.
Language proficiency of the teacher is not satisfactory and it needs to be enhanced.
Teacher education programmes provide little scope for student-teachers to reflect on their experiences.
Disciplinary knowledge is viewed as independent of professional training in pedagogy
Repeated ‘practice’ in the teaching of a specified number of isolated lessons is considered a sufficient condition for professional development
It is assumed that links between learning theories, models and teaching methods are automatically formed in the understanding developed by student teachers
There is no opportunity for teachers to examine their own biases and beliefs
Theory courses have no clear articulation with practical works and ground realities
The evaluation system followed in teacher education programmes is too theoretical, excessively quantitative and lacks comprehensiveness.

The National Council for Teacher Education continues to vigorously pursue the mandate given to it by the Act of Parliament to achieve planned and coordinated development of teacher education and to regulate and maintain norms and standards in the teacher education system across the country.

In order to address these challenges NCTE has developed a new National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education

Technology in Education Taking Literacy Forward : Dr Shayama Chona, DPS RK Puram, India

Interviews

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2010

“We would need technology because we do not have enough teachers. We are not talking about education at this moment, we are talking about access to quality education and equal opportunities.”

Please comment on the changes that are being introduced by technology application in schools, with respect to capacity building amongst teachers and students.

Talking in terms of mainstream education, India is the youngest country in the world and our number of kids outside school is estimated to be almost one crore. And if we really want to bring them into school, in line with the Right To Education bill, then we need millions of teachers and trillions of schools. Education is not like building airports or roads, where you have Public Private Partnership and things can just emerge. Education is a long term investment. Results can be seen after 14 years of a child joining school. The problem is that unless we use technology we can not educate our children, whether they study in centres or schools or studying from home. We would need technology because we do not have enough teachers. We are not talking about education at this moment, we are talking about access to quality education and equal opportunities. So the need is so huge, so we need technology which is one of the solutions.

Now whenever we talk of technology, we talk about cost. Then are raised the questions about who is going to bear the cost and how is it going to be used. I still think that in the absence of very good trained, quality teachers to teach this age group, where we want to retain the children. You know the findings are that out of the number of students who enter school, only two percent are able to reach the university level. So surely, there is something more than the employemnt factor which is taking kids away from school. It could be bad teaching, bad curriculum, it could be anything. So to retain kids there you have to make learning interesting and fun; and have outcomes which would lead to life long learners as per the UNESCO. Therefore the role of technology is very important.

What is the scope of ICT capcity building amongst mainstream and special schools?

The opportunities are immense. These are greater than the challenges but it depends on the investment again. But the government, does not necessarily invest into hardware. Companies like Educomp solutions, which are doing very well, they are providing the hardware, they are also providing the content and digital tools. I am not advocating that tools should replace the teacher, but surely it can supplement the teaching, becasue one of our biggest concerns is that when a child enters a school he should stay there and not leave school. So if your lessons can be made audio-visual enabled, it helps. I believe in a word called VARK which stands for Visual, Audio, Reading and Writing and Kinesthetics, which is human relationship between the teacher and the taught. And if these four principles are followed in school we can become a great country. 5-10% of the population getting excellent population is holding the world. You go anywhere around the world, if there is an Indian there you will see that she/he is able to hold that position in the given enterprise in a very efficient manner. I think we have huge potential, we have great capacity but what we need are resources and those resources can be harnessed with good planning and good attitude.

I am not advocating that tools should replace the teacher, but surely it can supplement the teaching, becasue one of our biggest concerns is that when a child enters a school he should stay there and not leave school. So if your lessons can be made audio-visual enabled, it helps.

Additionally, we have large percentage of government school and a small percentage of private schools. So, that large number of government schools must have quality. There ICT is being introduced and in places like Kendriya Vidyalaya, I am on the board of their Samiti, if they can provide for ICT infrastructures, so can the rest of the government schools. I think we need a quality where many factors are to be brought together and we need campagning for children who are out of school, we need awareness and need to meet their parents for advocating need for educating children. We need to, also, encourage teaching as a profession.

Do you think that the current allocation in Budget on elementary education will help in extending financial support to ICT programme in the country?

Well I think the allocation should have been much more. It has increased from approximately 3.4-4% to 5-6%. But a six percent for a 40% population is really not the desired ratio. If you want this country to use all the roads and the airports, whatever development plan it has involved itself into, unless the population is educated, they are not going to use them properly. I think education is not just about literacy. It is also about an enlightened life. It is about a healthy living. It is about utilisation of total resources of our country and therefore, I firmly believe that they should spend more money on education and related services.

Currently, there is a PPP trend in vogue. Do you see any implications in terms of opportunties and challenges such partnerships offer? Is there any initiative on same steps, taken by institutions you have been associated with?

I am on board of PPP of the Planning Commission, with HRD, so the private players are ready to take initiatives and ready to put in money, but, nobody is going to put in money unless they see some returns coming out of it. And education investment is not one time investment. It is a long term investment so you can’t show results immediately, because human indexes build over period of time. Therefore, I think the ministry and planning commission have already set aside some amount of money to provide back-up financial support. But even if a private initiative builds a school and runs it, what the government says is that they will pay for the thousand children who come from the special category or special classes, as we call them. But what we are saying is that start these initiatives from class one and not class six, becasue the best age to learn is at the earliest. So what we are saying is that whatever the cabinet sanctions should be implemented at the earliest.

There is a vast difference in education provided by the government and the private initiatives. You can not always do what they do. While I agree that some government initiatives are really doing good, around 72% of the government schools are really in a sad state.

We are run by examinations, degrees and diplomas, but what is the quality that we get. So my concern is for the quality of education. I believe it is only through digitalisation and ICT implementation that we can overcome the issues of quality. And this happens when the child is with the computer; he is with the world. For speech, we have programme from IBM, where the kids who do not use their lips, tongue and blow air, if blow at the computer trees come, if they blow more and harder then more trees come, if they blow more the birds start twittering, so the images become more detailed and large. The technology plays a huge role in literacy and spreading awareness. One to one interaction between teachers and students is very important but the research oriented technology programmes on screen are all the more important. IT is one tool that interests students and supports them to do much better than otherwise.

Is ICT implementation of any consequence for educating childern with special needs?

We already have very few trained teachers for catering to education of the children with special needs. It takes long to get them ready. We have tried at Tamana three IT projects for Autistic, Dyslexic and also for others. And we are surprised that kids do exceptionally well with the IT aids. For instance, I have a HP computer with a touch screen. So I can have a child sitting with me right here to work on it, knowing that he can touch and get sounds, colours, pictures, he can click picture of himself or you, and he doesn’t require the traditional form of teaching, where you make him sit down and teach him alphabets becasue for children with special needs you need to teach them the content which is not age relevant but their intellectual state specific. You have to make them believe that they are worthwhile and capable of doing things at their own pace. If I may say, children today are apparently born with their own mouse and windows. We just need to capitalise on their capabities!

PPP a Must for Growth of ITIs and Polytechnics : Dr Narendra Jadhav, Planning Commision, Govt. of India, India

Interviews

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2010

“The best practices are not usually adequately disseminated for people to learn. This is precisely why the Planning Commission comes out with several reports including annual reports and highlights these practices. Increasingly, technology is playing a role in all these efforts.”

What are your views on Right to Education Act (RTE) ?

The passage of the Right to Education Act 2009, which came into effect on 1st April, 2010, is indeed a historic act. It comes as a continuation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which has attained a remarkable amount of success. If we examine the proportion and the numbers, out of a total of 12 lakh habitations, more than 99% have a primary school in the vicinity or within one km radius. Similar is the proportion for elementary education, with 84% of habitations having an elementary school within 3 km radius.

The RTE is a remarkable extension of the efforts in education. It is too early to comment anything about the functioning of the act since it is too short a time. But I have absolutely no doubt that this historic decision is going to be very meaningfully, faithfully and forcefully implemented.

What according to you are the priorities for India in the realm of vocational training and skills development?

Skill development initiatives have to be given high priority today. India’s demographic dividend is definitely a positive aspect, with 24 being the average age of India today. By 2020, it will be around 29, by which year China’s average age will be 37, Europe will be 42, US will be 37 and Japan will be 48. Thus, we are a young, large and growing population. But just having such positive attributes does not mean that we will automatically become an economic superpower. Development of the country critically depends on two things: First, a reform in the education sector; and second, in the skill development sector.

I have often emphasised in the last few months that if we do not get our act together in the higher education and skill development sector, our demographic dividend can actually turn into a demographic nightmare. That is how important skill development is. The government is taking efforts in this direction very seriously.

How can convergence be ensured between higher education and skill development?

As has been rightly noted, only 2% of our population is skill trained. The vocational education in our country needs a lot of intervention. In practice, vocational education can be imparted at two levels: one is at the high school level; and the other is at the post matric level. At the high school level, ITIs become relevant, while at the college level, polytechnics come into play. Both of these are going to be enhanced in a major way. The Public Private Partnership (PPP) model will add momentum to the growth of ITIs and Polytechnics. Several boards have been set up including the PM’s Apex Council of Skill Development and The National Skill Development Coordination Board, of which Montek Singh Ahluwalia is the Chairman. The Skill Development Corporation has been created in the PPP mode which is making good contributions in the field. Therefore, we see that the agencies have been created but it has not yet gained the necessary momentum, which I trust it will. The Prime Minister has also written to the Chief Ministers of all states urging them to start their own skill development mission. Many states are moving in this direction. By year 2022, the vision is to have 500 million trained personnel.

What according to you are the loopholes in the existing regulatory bodies such as UGC, NCTE and AICTE?

As the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and the Yashpal Committee have unanimously pointed out, the higher education sector in India is over regulated but under governed. There are too many regulators, but the level of governance is very low. That is the kind of paradoxical situation that we are currently dealing with. There is no synergy between AICTE, UGC, and various other councils and the level of their operations have taken a big beating. These have direct bearing on the higher education system in India. The NKC and the Yashpal Committee recommended a complete overhaul of the higher education system, and not just a nip here and a tuck there. The NCHER is a step in that direction and it will bring about drastic reforms in the sector.

The new poverty figures were officially approved by the planning commission recently. India has added almost 100 million people to its list of the poor. What are your views on the growing economic development of India and its implications on the poverty conditions?

The poverty numbers do not show an increase. Rather, the techniques or methodology of computation used by the Tendulkar committee is different from the methodology used earlier. The estimates made by the Tendulkar methodology cannot be compared with separate methodologies which were previously used. It is only the figures generated from the same methodologies that can be compared, and if we compare likes with the likes, we see that the incidence of poverty has actually declined.

How do you envision the Indian education system with respect to implementation of ICT tools for enhanced delivery in the coming years?

Technology plays a very important role in education. I was the Vice Chancellor of the Pune University which happened to be the largest traditional universities of the world. The moment I assumed office I realised that there was no Management Information System (MIS) in the University, which had a bearing on the level of governance of the University. Pune University has 536 colleges and a huge student population. Lack of technology resulted in non-connected campuses, with administration being run in an archaic mode. I came up with the concept of triple connectivity solutions, with audio, visual and data connecting the main campus with the 536 colleges. This had positive consequences, since the policy decisions made by the Vice Chancellor were then based on facts and figures that were regularly updated from the disparate but connected campuses. It inevitably have an improvement over the quality and level of governance. That model is being replicated everywhere. Therefore, systems hve to move hand in hand with the advances in technology. Technology will have a definite effect on education governance.

With India set to welcome foreign varsities, what are the challenges and opportunities that you figure in the situation? How important are Public Private Partnerships in promoting quality education in India?

India’s Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education is only 12.4%. Earlier we were talking about increasing it to 20%, but now we want to raise it to 30% in 10 years time. If this is our target, then we need to expand everything from state universities to central and private universities, as well as allow foreign universities to come in. An all out effort to raise the GER is required. As a part of that, foreign universities will be allowed to come in and also act as competition to the local players, thereby upgrading quality of Indian universities. If we administer it properly and if we make sure that the right kind of universities come in, it will have a huge positive impact.
History is unfolding before our eyes today. It is my belief that in the last 62 years, there have never been so many proposals for education as there are today. In the next few years, the Indian education system is going to be completely transformed and it will be a system that will last for the next 30-40 years. Today the kind of all round reforms that are taking place including the Foreign Regulators Bill, National Accreditation Regulatory Authority, Tribunals at the state and central level, Prevention of Malpractices Bill, and several other proposals which are at various stages of implementation, will act as the harbingers of change.

Technology for Educational Advancements : Prof R Govinda, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India, India

Interviews

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2010

Prof R Govinda

Vice Chancellor, National University of Educational Planning and Administration (Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India)

“We exclusively concentrate on policy, planning and administration in education in its totality, starting from school education to technical education.”

Kindly share with us how your university has an edge over other universities, with special emphasis on technology utilisation?

We are a small and very specialised institution. We are a university because of our specialisation. With reference to the aspects that separate us from other university is – firstly, we exclusively concentrate on policy, planning and administration in education in its totality, starting from school
education to technical education. Secondly, at our university we keep one foot in theoretical studies and one foot in practice, since, our mandate is to provide technical support to the state and the central government. This makes us unique and also takes us very close to the field every time. Thirdly, we do extensive research work. We were considered for passing as a university only because of our research status. We are not a teaching university. We regularly bring out the data based research and we also have a very strong data base development system, education information management system. We regularly bring out District Information Support for Education (DISE) which you can also avail online.

Are the technologically enabled courses/ researches a recent development at NUEPA?

No, we have technology based courses running since a long time now. We began this work of producing data base for elementary education in 1995 or 96. We have developed Education Development Indicators, which are now used for classifying districts. All this has been possible because of use of technology. We are able to put the data for public use in less than a year’s time.

What do you opine about the budget for the current year, for education sector?

Budget that the finance ministry gives is never enough. With RTE rolled-out, I feel the allocations to school education are less than what we had expected. I can say that 2/3rd of what we wanted has been allocated, they should have given INR 10,000 crores more. Since NUEPA has completed the financial aspects for RTE, our expectations was more allocation to meet this years annual requirement. So what we are suppose to do is utilise the given resources judiciously. But finance is not the only aspect that supports development. Additionally, for both elementary and higher education, today there is a huge money flow otherwise also. I think 11th Five Year Plan as huge allocations for higher education, if you compare with past. The problem is that we are unable to demonstrate progress in educational institutions and, therefore, it is a problem to show where we want to use the required money. For instance, school demands money at macro level but at micro level they do not know where they want to use the demanded money. It is just about working efficiently and effectively.

What are the approaches that NUEPA has adopted for capacity building and are there any collaborative initiatives you have entered nationally and internationally, recently?

Capacity building is one of our core activities. Every year we do upto 50 training programmes, bring people from all over the country. Every year we do ta diploma programme in Education Planning and Administration. Every course that we organise here has a technology component. We also have an international diploma programme which is currently going on. We have 34 students from 25 countries for this 26th International Diploma Programme. We have students from Jamaica, Cuba, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Russia, Maldives and so on. We have a resource lab that can accommodate 30 students at a time, who can avail online access to educational resources. We have computer and training lab with 35 computers and wi-fi.

As far as research is concerned we are known internationally, we have been collaborating with a wide number of institutions. We have been associated closely with International Institution for Educational Planning, for course delivery and many other things. Some of us have teaching in Insititute of Education, London. At presnt, we are doing a research study in field of Higher Education with Stanford, which covers BRIC countries

"NU will Address the Future Needs of Emerging Areas of the Knowledge Society" : Rajendra Pawar, NIIT University, India

Interviews

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

May 1, 2010

NIIT University, a not-for-profit institution, has been established with the vision and mission to become a leading centre of innovation and learning in emerging areas of the Knowledge Society. Rajendra Pawar, Founder, NIIT University talks about the uniqueness and futuristic approach of the University.

“In a few years from now, India will be known for its innovation and research. In this century of the mind, the country will gain pre-eminence, owing to its holistic and seamless education, which is relevant to society and industry.”

What is the founding philosophy of NIIT University and how is it different from other universities?

NIIT University (NU) was established with the vision of being the leading centre of innovation and learning in emerging areas of the knowledge society. It is dedicated towards building great careers and ensuring exceptional job opportunities for all its students. The University has been developed as an institute of excellence based on the four core principles of providing Industry-linked, Technology-based, Research-driven, and Seamless education.

The emblem of NIIT University depicts a Mobius ring, symbolising eternity. The sides of the Mobius ring merge in and out, and back and forth, to create a graceful, seamless and complete structure. Similarly, the knowledge that NIIT University imparts is the foundation for multifaceted careers, endless in their potential.

With NU, the intent has been to create a new model in higher education, which reflects what a 21st century University should be. The NU campus has been created in a way which will spawn ideas and original thinking amongst its students. To facilitate learning, there is cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art classrooms that connect students to the world. At the Wi-Fi NU campus, students are equipped with all the gadgets and gizmos essential for learning in the 21st century. The focus of the faculty is on seeding new ideas, thoughts and feelings into students. The education provided to learners is not just restricted to their chosen stream. A computer science student for instance, is also exposed to botany, history, culture, art, anthropology, and music. The idea is to provide a seamless and holistic learning experience, that reflects the University’s motto

How did you initiate the planning phase for NIIT University?
While the NU may have started taking shape and structure only in 2005, the dream began as far back as in the early 1990s. In 2002, we created the fi rst advisory board constituted by well known academicians, industry leaders and scientists. The board had luminaries like Prof P V Indiresan, former Director, IIT Chennai, the late Prof C S Jha, former Director, IIT Kharagpur, Dr Kiran Karnik, then President, NASSCOM, Prof R C Malhotra, former Director, IIT Kanpur, Dr R A Mashelkar, then Director general of the Council of Scientifi c and Industrial Research (CSIR), Prof Ashok Misra, (who later became Director of IIT Mumbai), Prof J R Isaac of IIT Mumbai and Prof M P Kapoor, former Vice Chancellor, Thapar University.
From the beginning we were very clear that NU would not be constrained by the mould of existing higher-education programmes. We wanted our students to solve real problems that affected the masses in the country, which is why the entire campus was planned like a research lab which would throw up interesting challenges for students to tackle. The phase when the Master Plan of the University was created, was therefore extremely important. NU not only had to impart technologybased and research-driven training to students, it also had to be designed in a way that ensured sustainability. The campus had to be fi nancially, ecologically and intellectually self-sustaining. This actual planning of the campus was preceded by series of brainstorming sessions which resulted in evolution of the four core principles. This now fi nds representation in the very design and layout of the University. While the campus was being conceptualised, we focused signifi cantly on Seamlessness, which is the reason why the academic and faculty buildings are barely a few minutes away from the lab. Designed to integrate with nature, NU is master-planned by YRM (London) Ltd., a world-renowned campus architecture fi rm. The unique ‘pedestrian only’ campus layout, ensures that cars are left at the parking bay near the entrance. From there the campus is comfortably explored on foot via the ‘spine’- that meanders across all high traffi c areas. The 700m spine runs through various building blocks and seamlessly unifi es the campus. The University’s sensitivity to the environment fi nds resonance in its distinctive Geothermal Cooling, through a network of Earth-Air tunnels, which act as an enormous self-regulating heat sink for the campus, with very little electricity required to cool or heat the ambient temperature. The design of the green campus incorporates one of the largest known earth-air tunnel installations in the world, and also harnesses wind chimney for a natural ventilation effect.

How does NIIT University fi t itself in the current higher education structure and look into in the future?
With NU, we have tried to look into the future requirements of the knowledge society to establish a new model in higher education. This is backed by the knowledge and experience we have gained from delivering education over the past 28 years. In a few years from now, India will be known for its innovation and research. In this century of the mind, the country will
gain pre-eminence, owing to its holistic and seamless education, which is relevant to society and industry. NU is clearly ready for this tomorrow, today. With its focus on cutting-edge technology and research (an important pillar of learning in the future), NU will play a vital role in the knowledge-driven future. We have gone through the IT revolution, and now it is
the time to transform higher education. We need many more Postgraduates, Research Scholars and PhDs to bring in this transformation. Clearly, NU, with its futuristic approach, will fi nd a fi t in the emerging, knowledge-driven society.

What are the parameters that you look for when recruiting faculty for NU?
The fact is that we would rather encourage our own students, particularl the brightest ones, to continue their education until they acquire their PhDs and become NU faculty. Our aim will be to become a net producer rather than a net consumer, which means we have togenerate more and more quality Research Scholars in the long run. We are looking forward to the revival of teaching as a profession, although currently, this trend is at a very nascent stage. The biggest criterion for determining the choice of faculty is their demonstrated love and passion for the subject. Visiting faculty is a critical part of the University. We have roped in educational innovators, top CEOs and entrepreneurs to interact and share their experiences with the students.

What is your admission criteria?
NU seeks meritorious men and women with effective personalities and an inquisitive mind. The selection procedure at NU has been designed to identify such individuals. Due weightage is given to the academic background of the applicant as well as his/her communication skills and passion to learn. Even the application form is designed to facilitate the selectioncriteria by encouraging the candidate to describe his/her background, achievement, interests, motivation and career goals. NIIT University employs a very judicious and innovative selection criterion which ensures that students with the desired potential get through. Our selection process gives merit not to a single exam, but the overall academicperformance in school as well as to indepth interviews to judge areas like passion, potential and social sensitivity. Almost one-third weightage is given to the interview process, one-third to performance in the entrance examination and remaining to marks secured in 10+2.The right kind of students with the right mind set will get attracted to NU’s campus structure and curricula. The interview process at NU is aimed at showcasing the holistic learning at theUniversity and its focus on the four core principles.
What inspired your current model?
Having delved into the area of education since over 28 years, we had insights on the gaps in the current system and the need for radical change. In India, there is a mismatch in what the
industry needs and what the universities are creating. Our passion to make a difference gave birth to the idea of NIIT University in the early ’90s. We wanted to set up an institution that would be an example of pioneering innovation in the area of higher education. The idea was
to tell the world what a 21st century University ought to be. Also, in this Century of the Mind,
we wanted to bring back inquisitiveness in students. Inculcating the research mindset is not just about setting up labs but creating an environment that provokes thinking. We want students to solve real problems that affect the masses in the country.It was with this in mind that we started afresh, literally from ground-zero, to put together such a model. NIIT University was formed with a vision to be the leading centre of innovation and learning in emerging areas of the knowledge society and has been developed as an institute of excellence based on the four founding principles of providing industry linked, technology based, research driven and seamless education.

PPP a Must for Growth of ITIs and Polytechnics : Dr Narendra Jadhav, Planning Commision, Govt. of India, India

Interviews