Teachers’ Day: Education must be basically in mother tongue: Vice President

News

By

-

September 6, 2018

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has suggested to the Centre and State governments to provide education in the mother tongue. He was speaking on the occasion of National Teachers’ Awards as he felicitated 45 teachers in the capital on Wednesday.

Addressing the teachers and other dignitaries at the event, the Vice-President said, “I would like to advise the government, not only the central government but the state governments as well, that education must basically be in the mother tongue.”

Most of the awardee teachers had used Information Technology and its applications to make learning interesting.

The awarded teachers included B S Ravi, the headmaster of Zilla Parishad High School in Telangana. He convinced and motivated children and their parents in nearby villages for enrollment in school surrounded by cotton fields. Most of the parents worked as labourers in those fields.

“I realised that these children were working as labourers instead of attending school. So as part of community mobilisation, I went door to door and convinced parents to send their kids to school. Today we have good enrollment and modern labs,” said Ravi on the occasion.

A total of 6,692 applications were received from teachers from all over the country. Every district selected three best teachers and forwarded their names to the committee under the state secretary of education who made a short-list.

Under the revised guidelines, the number of awardees was brought down to 45 from around 300.

Also among other awardees was Manu Gulati, a teacher at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Rohini, Delhi. He used Information and Communication Technology (ICT), music and dance to make English teaching fun.

Basruddin Khan, a teacher for over 24 years, from Haryana’s Mewat area got the award for encouraging girls in the area to join school.

“In 1995, there was just one girl in our area who had completed Class XII. But we went from house to house to enroll girls and also held remedial classes,” he said.

Khangembam Indrakumar Singh from Manipur won the award for his efforts towards refurbishing the school building, changing teaching practices and special residential programmes for slow learners.

Work towards bringing out students’ inherent strength: Modi to teachers

News

By

Akash

-

September 5, 2018

Urging teachers to mobilise the community and make them an integral part of school development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exhorted them to work towards bringing out the inherent strength of students, especially those from poor and rural background.

He also encouraged the teachers to digitally transform their schools and its neighbourhood.

The prime minister stated it while interacting with the awardees of National Teachers’ Awards, 2017, on the eve of Teachers’ Day.

Also, present on the occasion was Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar.

Congratulating the awardees for their efforts towards improving the quality of education in the country, the prime minister commended their dedication towards education and for making it their life mantra.

Stating that a teacher remains a teacher throughout life, the Prime Minister said the educators should work towards removing the disconnect between the teachers and students so that teachers are remembered by the students throughout their life.

The awardees narrated to Prime Minister Modi their stories in transforming their schools into centres of learning and excellence.

The awardee teachers also thanked the Prime Minister for the new online nomination process and for schemes like Digital India, which is bringing a big qualitative change in school education throughout the country.

Ministry of Human Resource Development had revised the guidelines this year for the selection of Teachers for National Awards.

The new scheme envisages self-nomination and was inspired by recent innovations in major national awards. The scheme is transparent, fair, and rewards demonstrated excellence and performance¸ an official communiqué said.

Teachers’ Day 2018: All you need to know about Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Article

By

Akash

-

September 4, 2018

Teachers are among the greatest influencers in everyone’s life. They help us to form or change our perception towards life, career, people, society and many other things. They not only teach us concepts of various subjects but also guide us to lead a successful and respectable life ahead. To recognise the significant contribution of teachers in a person’s life, National Teachers’ Day is celebrated every year on September 5 in India. The day not only is to respect the teachers’ role in everyone’s life but also to celebrate the transformations caused by them in their students’ lives.

The Teachers’ Day is celebrated in honour of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on September 5, 1888. Dr Radhakrishnan was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He was the second president of independent India (1962-67) and the first Vice-President of the country. Since the year 1962, India has commemorated Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s birth anniversary by paying tribute to its teachers and gurus with the Teachers’ Day. Below are the few important points that every student should know about Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in a middle class family on September 5, 1888, in Thiruttani, Tamil Nadu. It is said that his father wanted his son to be a priest and not to learn English. However, according to a Press Information Bureau’s feature, Dr Radhakrishnan was so outstanding in his studies that he was sent to schools at Thirupati and then Vellore.
In 1906 Dr Radhakrishnan completed his masters in Philosophy from the Madras Christian College and in 1909 he was appointed at the Department of Philosophy at the same college. From 1918-21, he was a philosophy professor at Mysore. In 1921, he worked in a college at Calcutta till 1931 and in 1937, he again joined the college at Calcutta and worked their till 1941. It is said that when he was leaving Mysore to join as a professor in Calcutta, a flower-decked carriage was pulled by his students all the way from the Mysore University to the railway station as his farewell. He also held a professorship in eastern religion and ethics at Oxford (1936-52).
Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan also worked as the vice chancellor of Andhra University (1931-1936) and Banaras Hindu University (1939-1948). He was also the chancellor of University of Delhi from 1953 to 1962.
H N Spalding – A renowned philanthropist and professor once listened to Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s lecture in London. He was so fascinated by his content and personality that he found a chair at Oxford for Eastern Religions and Ethics.
Being a Vice- President, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had to preside over the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) sessions. It is said that, during heated debates, he used to intervene with Sanskrit slokas to calm down the atmosphere.
As a philosopher, according to Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Radhakrishnan espoused a modern form of Hinduism that attempted to reconcile the world’s religions.
He received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1961 and was also awarded with the Templeton Prize in 1975. He donated the entire amount of the Templeton Prize to Oxford University.
Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was nominated 27 times for Nobel Prize; 16 times for the Nobel prize in literature, and 11 times for the Nobel Peace prize.

The second President and first Vice President of India, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was also a philosopher and a great teacher. He introduced the thinking of western idealist philosophers into Indian thought. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once said about him, “He has served his country in many capacities. But above all, he is a great teacher from whom all of us have learnt much and will continue to learn. It is India’s peculiar privilege to have a great philosopher, a great educationist and a great humanist as her President.”

Read Also: Teachers’ Day

IIM Kozhikode partners Stanford University for EPGP Programme

News

By

Akash

-

September 4, 2018

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode has collaborated with Stanford University for its Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP). Under this collaboration, Stanford faculty will periodically deliver five interrelated webinars over the course of one year.

“IIMK’s contribution in the field of Executive Education is very significant; IIMK has been consistently updating the curriculum to provide the best to the participants; Partnering with Stanford is another step taking forward the Executive Education to a new horizon. This surely will enable the working professionals from various fields gain competency and leadership skills to fast-track their career growth in their organizations,” IIMK Director Prof Debashis Chatterjee said.

Stanford Centre for Professional Development (SCPD) has designed Masterclass Webinar Series in Design Thinking & Innovation for remote participants. The series provides a cohesive educational experience tailored to the goals of working professionals adding value to the students of IIM Kozikode’s flagship programme.

In an official statement, the institute said, “IIM Kozhikode is the first IIM to collaborate with an Ivy League University in an Executive Education Program. The participants will also receive individual certificates of participation from Stanford University.”

“Design Thinking & Innovation will introduce participants to the nature of innovation and creativity, and how to use the design thinking process to promote and scale innovation within their organizations,” the statement added.

Dean of IIMK’s Extension Programs Prof C Raju said, “This strategic alliance with Stanford University would go a long way giving exposure to the latest Design Thinking Techniques to the participants of EPGP and will help them as well as the organizations they work with. This is only a beginning of such great international collaborations.”

Teachers’ Awards to be conferred on National Teachers’ Day

News

By

Akash

-

September 4, 2018

On the occasion of National Teachers’ Day, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will be conferring the National Teachers’ Awards at a function on September 5 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be interacting with the recipients on September 4.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has revised the guidelines for the selection of Teachers for National Awards (2017). According to a statement by the MHRD, “The new scheme should be transparent, fair, and reward demonstrated excellence and performance and has been inspired by recent innovations in major national awards.”

For the first time, teachers were allowed to apply directly nominate themselves for the award. 6,692 applications were received from teachers from all over the country for the awards.

As per the MHRD, all regular teachers will be eligible to apply and no minimum years of service is required which enabled meritorious young teachers to apply as well. Earlier, teachers with minimum 15 years of service were only eligible to apply for the awards.

The number of awards has been rationalized to 45 and the ministry said this has been necessary to restore the prestige of the awards (under the earlier scheme the number of awardees had crossed 300).

For the awards, every district selected the three best teachers and forwarded their names to the committee under the State/UT Secretary of Education who made a shortlist. A total of 152 nominations were finally received from all States, UTs and Organisations.

The final selection was done by an independent Jury. The criteria adopted was to select those teachers who had shown innovation in their work and had added value to the school and to their students.

India making rapid progress in access to sanitation in schools: UN Report

News

By

Akash

-

September 4, 2018

India is on a path to rapid progress in increasing access to sanitation in schools, a report by the United Nations (UN) revealed. It also said that the proportion of schools without any sanitation facility has also decreased at a fast pace in the country.

According to a new joint UN agency study – Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools: 2018 Global Baseline Report, better hygiene facilities in schools act as a base for healthy learning environment and it also supports girls more likely to attend the schools when they are on their period.

The annual report is produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO)/UN Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme or JMP, which has been monitoring global progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) since 1990.

The report said, “India has made rapid progress in increasing access to sanitation facilities in schools. Between 2000 and 2016, the proportion of schools in India without any sanitation facility decreased even faster than the proportion of the population practising open defecation.”

Based on the trends reported, the JMP estimates that almost all schools in India had some type of sanitation facility in 2016 while 10 years earlier half the schools in India reported having no sanitation facility at all.

Between 2000 and 2016, the number of school-age children in India increased from 352 million to 378 million.

The report also said, “A recent survey in India also collected information on the availability of facilities for menstrual hygiene management. The proportion of schools with bins with lids for the disposal of sanitary materials varies widely across states in India, from 98 per cent in Chandigarh to 36 per cent in Chhattisgarh.”

APU Delivering Research- Based Interdisciplinary Learning

Magazine

By

Akash

-

September 2, 2018

In an effort to mentor Scheduled Tribe (ST) students of Arunachal Pradesh, the Apex Foundation established a private university with professional degree programmes, providing prospective ST students a wide range of career streams. Though the dropout and attendance rate in the State were far more than the national average, the university provides youths an exposure to new ideas and career opportunities. They have started observing how much they can achieve after professional education.

Acharya Dhanwant Singh, Chancellor, Apex Professional University

The Law and Library programme at Apex Professional University (APU) saw the maximum enrolment and today is a proud platform of many future lawmakers and book keepers from a community which is amalgamation of nature’s own heritage and strong tribal roots. APU has not only opened their world to different career opportunities, but gave them hope for the future. Today, we feel immense proud to claim that more than 90 per cent of the students are from ST community alone, perhaps the highest percentage in any private university in India.

The effects of the APU’s professional programmes are now being felt far beyond the Arunachal Pradesh — they are reaching to remote communities in far North East, which is home to many similar habitats.

For APU, the learning goals are important to establish a comprehensive interchange so that teachers and students understand the purpose. Teachers benefit from using frameworks to organise objectives and clarify it for themselves and for students. They plan and deliver appropriate instructions, design effective assessment tasks and strategies, and ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the effective learning goal. Working on Bloom’s Taxonomy platform, the university imparts knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation in a systematic order.

The University is run by board of Governors and the Founder & Chancellor Acharya Dhanwant Singh. Acharya Dhanwant Singh is an Allumni of IIM-A, a technologist, social entrepreneur and a Corporate Yogi. Else than establishing APU – the only private university in India to educate and empower Scheduled Tribes (ST) by enrolling more than 90 per cent ST students, he also has experience of more than 21 years of leadership, mentoring and research. He has organised and attended more than 30 state-level, national and international workshops, seminars conferences and training. He also has been conferred with more than 19 prestigious outstanding awards and prizes from various prestigious institutions in India and abroad. He has laid many milestones in the field of online and distance education for the benefits of working professionals. Being among the eminent educationist of the nation, he is adviser to many projects and a strategy consultant to various national and international institutions as well as business houses. He is member and fellows of more than a dozen institutions.

It is because of the selfless educational services and vast social connect, that Ministry of Aayush has bestowed the first ever Yoga Park in Arunachal Pradesh, to be fully functional under Apex University Umbrella. There will be courses on Yogic Sciences, medicinal plants, Astrology and Vastu, that too with the ancient yet modernised Gurukul Methodology.

Serosoft Delivering Leading-Edge Solutions in Education Automation

Magazine

By

Akash

-

September 2, 2018

Serosoft is focused on creating sustainable value growth through unique ideas and innovative solutions for the education sector, says Arpit Badjatya, CEO & MD, Serosoft Solutions, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

Please describe briefly about the solutions provided by your organisation and how do they support educational institutions’ needs.

Arpit Badjatya, CEO & MD, Serosoft Solutions

Serosoft’s Academia is a robust, feature-rich, analytics-equipped, user-friendly product which is built on a cutting-edge and flexible architecture, enabling institutes to automate and streamline their functions and processes for both learning and administration, from enquiry to graduation.

Academia empowers educational institutions of varied sizes and operations to focus on delivering high-quality education without worrying about the administrative processes. The architecture of Academia is designed in such a way that it meets the different needs of schools, colleges and universities.

Academia helps create an educational community where each of its users can get their entire job done on a click. It ensures better interaction between students, teachers, parents and institute’s management. It helps institutes’ administration in taking effective decisions for better management of available resources. We are benefitting over 5,00,000 learners from 200 institutions of 10 countries.

What are various problems of institutes that Serosoft solutions help in resolving?

At Serosoft, we rise to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving educational landscape that includes implementation of new technologies, new educational business models, and cost pressures. With the goal of promoting effective learning, teaching and automating educational administration, we assist institutions to implement our flagship product – Academia.

Our domain expertise helps schools/colleges/ universities and training institutes to address the questions like how to cope with the existing system constraints? Where should they deploy their resources? How to integrate and automate the fragmented functions, departments and processes?

Our experience of over 200 educational clients helps us to understand the critical problems associated with the existing student information systems. With our cutting-edge product-Academia, we have been able to remove bottlenecks such as – non-configurability, lack of interoperability, expensive and lengthy implementation initiatives and inadequate workflow capabilities. It ensures cost savings, higher efficiency, greater personnel productivity and better ROI for our clients.

What makes Academia better than its competitors?

We have developed Academia to be a world-leader in campus automation. We believe we have a five-fold advantage over competitors owing to:

High Configurability: Academia provides high level of configurability which allows for quicker implementation and a low cost of ownership for customers.

Multi-centre capabilities: Academia can efficiently automate multi-centre/multi-brand organisations. Our largest customer manages a group of 100 schools through one platform.

Focus on Technology Innovation: We ensure innovation in our product and the embed cuttingedge technologies like Mobility, Artificial intelligence, Nudge Tech, focus on CX and Inbuilt Analytics.

Focus on ROI for the customers: Apart from all the efficiency and productivity gains, we ensure our customers are ahead of their competitors and can use Academia as a competitive advantage. Academia has ensured incredible IRR on the investment for many of our customers.

Our Culture and Domain Expertise: We have a high performing team with tremendous education domain expertise.

Please describe your vision and mission for upcoming years.

Our vision is to be the world-leader in education automation. Our mission is to design and deliver leading-edge solutions that ensure efficiency, cost-saving for the education ecosystem and positively impacting the lives of two million learners by 2022.

Technology Infusion in Education

News

By

Akash

-

September 2, 2018

The entire world has been reduced to a global village due to the advancement of technology, making it a digital world wherein technology becomes a necessary life skill, writes Sudhir Goel, Head of Commercial Business, Acer India for Elets News Network (ENN).

Sudhir Goel, Head of Commercial Business, Acer India

The infusion of technology has been a huge catalyst for the education sector as a whole. The rote learning methods are gradually being done away with and schools both in urban and rural areas are adopting advanced teaching methods.

Smart classrooms are becoming a norm and teachers at the same time are considering ways to improve the teaching methods and make it more interactive. Education cannot be limited behind closed doors and blackboards, these days, it is more about the way a child is taught to deal with practical scenarios and using technology to enhance the learning experience.

By 2030, the urban population in India is expected to grow faster than its overall population at present. This means that our economy and education system will be under tremendous pressure. According to the present scenario of education system in our country, not all sections of the society receive quality education and access to quality institutions. People have become more aware of the importance of education and this can only be attributed to the reach of technology to various parts and various strata of the society.

For technology to penetrate completely in the education sector, in both urban and rural areas, there has to be government policies and support to accelerate the change.

Rural areas still face difficulties to even get an easy access to basic education, lack of teachers, lack of interest, poverty, gender differentiation, lack of infrastructure, common curricula are few of the reasons which are holding back the progress in rural education. But with the use of technology, education can be improved with greater reach to the rural and underprivileged.

Our education system, both urban and rural, at present is in urgent need of digital infusion because it allows for personalised learning, and access to a global perspective.

The academic potential, strengths and weaknesses and learning pace of every student can be catered to. It opens up communication channels, allowing students to get more attention as well as enabling them to track their coursework progress and identify areas of improvement. Student feedback can, in turn, help improvise the system.

Device-based learning, such as through computers and projectors, will get rid of textbook constraints. Students can use a digital surface anywhere. Virtual Reality can be used to help student use e-learning platforms on mobile devices to interact directly with study material, and Augmented Reality can help teachers and trainers in performing tasks.

When a classroom is equipped with technology, students are provided with an instant access to information across the globe that just adds up to their learning experience. This also fosters a more collaborative learning environment; students, networked together online, can share information, work together on group projects, and interact with the instructor.

Since we are still a developing country, a right recipe of education and technology would be a combination of blackboard and smart classroom technology wherein the instructors should always remember that students have widely heterogeneous needs and learning styles.

Also, it should always be remembered that the instructor’s goal should be deep learning and that excellent teaching skills are needed to reap benefits from technology and overcome its limitations. (Views expressed by author are his personal opinion)

Saint Soldier School: Encouraging Innate Abilities of Kids

Magazine

By

Akash

-

September 2, 2018

The school ensures teachers are in sync with the changing educational trends and the students’ innate abilities are also encouraged as part of our mission to impart quality education, says Ranjan Kumar, Saint Soldier School, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you prepare an interesting curriculum that is also focussed on students’ holistic development?

To make the curriculum interesting, the obvious route is to use a variety of methods possible in a threat-free environment. For, it is said: “If children feel safe, they can take risks, ask questions, make mistakes, learn to trust, share their feelings, and grow.” The teachers, thus, are encouraged to use discussion as the key ingredient in their lecture supplemented by the judicious use of SMART Class content. The focus is always on hands-on activity, especially in science and mathematics classes. For students’ holistic development, during the zero periods students have to compulsorily enrol themselves to various clubs, sports-related groups, public speaking forums under leadership programme and inter/intra-class competitions.

With the ever-changing dynamics in the education sector, how do you keep your curriculum up-to-date to meet the changing demands?

The curriculum constraints occur due to the NCERT framework under which schools have to educate a child. Having said that, our curriculum is constantly modified as per government guidelines and changing society’ needs. A lot of stress is laid on inculcating moral values, self-discipline, encompassing vocational education and use of technology in teaching, assessment and development of scientific temper in children.

Our curriculum is constantly modified as per government guidelines and changing society’ needs.

How does the school meet parental expectations and requisite government standards simultaneously?

Parental expectations and societal needs are manifested in the Government decisions whether it is reservation for underprivileged under the Right to Education Act, or revision of curriculum or examination pattern or following safety guidelines for children. We, as one of the most reputed schools in the region, comply with the Government’s direction in totality – in letter and spirit. Daily parental interaction is done through school-pad and regular parent- teacher meets (PTMs).

How do you integrate students and teachers’ development?

Both are inseparable. Professional development of teachers is necessary for them to keep up with the changing trends in education. A constantly trained and focussed teacher will go a long way in the development of the students.

LATEST NEWS

Top Trending News

Top Trending Categories