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 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.”
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
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.
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)
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.
Formal education as we knew it is fast approaching its tipping point. A model that has since inception been dominated by the brick and mortar model is changing so fast, it will be unrecognizable within the next decade. While schools will exist, and teaching will continue pretty much as before, learning will morph dramatically – as evidenced already in the switch to digital technologies.
Digital learning is also changing dramatically. From digital classrooms and customised content and dynamic assessment and instruction, it is now converging to on-demand, real time accessibility. Mobile telephony, tablets, mobile phones, streaming services, internet penetration and smartphones are cumulatively transforming the learning landscape like never before. Students can now learn on the go, learn at will and revise at their own pace.
To this milieu, we can now add a new generation app like Fliplearn Prime, an award winning smart class platform, which has introduced an innovative learning algorithm for customized online education that makes learning a breeze, almost literally. For example, a student can access Fliplearn Prime anytime any place and scroll down its vast resource base of content which includes concept explanations, multimedia graphic presentations of subjects, mock tests, revision papers all in tandem with their specific class course.
Designed by top educationists of the country, Flipelearn Prime is a device agnostic and can be accessed from any android mobile phone or IOS. The content provided is completely mapped to the school curriculum and is available for all subjects, classes, and boards. Over one hundred thousand animation videos and hundreds of practice questions of each chapter, all available at a click of a button. The courses are strategically crafted to ensure understanding of fundamental concepts. It provides mind maps for improving a child’s IQ and comprehensive topic synopsis for quick revision at a moment’s notice.
Principals, Teachers, and academic counsellors have acknowledged the role of apps like Fliplearn Prime in improving academic performance of students. Mrs. Vani Gopal, Principal, St. Philomena Public School, Bangalore says that they found that students exhibit deeper engagement with subjects, more alertness, and a better comprehension thanks to Fliplearn Prime. Students too vouch for its efficacy as their grades improve, their peer group performance collectively rises. Consequently, the class performance and the school’s caliber improve.
In a flipped classroom, students watch online lectures, collaborate in online discussions, carry out research at home and engage in concepts and activities in the classroom with the guidance of a teacher. This methodology helps make the classroom teaching more productive and efficient. Students are deeply engaged in the lessons and fascinated by the information that makes learning so much easier for them.
Fliplearn Prime ushers education into a new era of learning. Students now have the opportunity to improve themselves through personalized learning with a joyful and stress-free learning experience. It stands to reason therefore that in a really short period of time, Fliplearn Prime has become the leading platform for online education in India with over 3500 schools and over 3.4 million students using the platform.
Along with an aim to enable students become professionally successful and personally secure individuals, Billabong School is committed to produce individuals who are caring and committed Indians, says Priti Agarwal, CEO & Founder, Billabong High International School, Kanpur, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
How do you develop a curriculum that is both interesting and focused on the holistic development of students?
At Billabong School, an enriching curriculum begins with the planning of coherent and relevant scheme of works and lesson-plans by our qualified teacher. Our curriculum seeks to develop and enrich every student’s subject knowledge. We use an active learning approach, a high level of challenging environment, use of appropriate questions, group work exercises, along with a thrust on digital technologies to keep our students constantly motivated.
A good school must have good student-teacher coordination. What methods are followed at Billabong School to maintain a healthy coordination between teachers and students?
Billabong is truly blessed with teachers who are passionate about teaching, and who continuously create immersive platforms of learning for their students. Our all teachers are extremely committed to the idea of pastoral care in school, and this I believe, paves the way for a strong teacher-student connect.
What strategies do you follow for innovation and reforms in the school administrative system?
We are all global citizens living in a creative society, impacting each other, every second of our existence. The technological revolution in recent times has established best practices in education, which have become a formal template of expected standards, and also an evaluation grid of any organisation in the reckoning. Administration, being a continuous dynamic process, is always a work in progress to us. Thus, we are reviewing and improving our administrative practices all the time.
How does the school meet expectations of parents and government alike (in terms of ensuring essential standards)?
While imparting education, we meet the expectations of parents, Government alike through implementing effective planning in our teaching and learcning and assessment practices. Along with this, a strong co-curricular thrust on creating enrichment platforms in sports, vocational education and transferable skills like work-discipline and language competency also help in this regard.
In order to maintain a good learning environment, what activities, along with studies, are conducted at the school?
Billabong High International School offers a unique and wonderful enrichment platform to all its students. This we do through hosting of our various initiatives that include:
IIMUN – Indian International Model United Nations. This is an organisation based in India which conducts simulations of United Nations and Indian parliament in different cities
BHIS family quiz – The parent and child participate together to turn on their thinking caps. • Cross-over faculty – An initiative under which exceptional teachers travel from the top schools in the UK to teach and mentor our teachers and students
In-service training of teachers – This initiative is executed both in online and offline mode in partnership with Cambridge and Yale – the two world famous institutes
Open day – Open Day provides an opportunity to prospective students and their parents to visit the school and observe the curriculum prior to their actual enrolment
World Scholar’s Cup – Duke of Edinburgh International Award
The receding air quality in India’s capital, New Delhi, has raised many concerns over time. According to the latest WHO list, India has the dubious distinction of being home to 22 of the 50 (source) most polluted cities globally. Proper precautions are necessary, especially when we witness such changing times. With air pollution at its peak in India, the need of the hour is to drive damage control excessively.
The Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency, leading to immediate actions like closing schools. The education sector took a hit despite being a key contributor to the country’s GDP at the turn of the century.
Indian schools have open playgrounds with sand pits, and most classrooms are subjected to no windows or open windows. Adding to this, the AQI (Air Quality Index) levels are higher inside than outside. Keeping pace with the modern times has led to creating greater volumes of educated individuals. According to studies, IIt has been proven over time that uninterrupted learning has been a proven tactic to increase retention and assimilation of information in Indian students. With these standards not being met, the quality of education is lacking considerably; hence, it is time to create and offer a dust-proof environment for the Indian education sector.
The fall in quality of the Indian education system is primarily due to lack of smart solutions along with the rising cost of maintaining them. However, over time Indian schools have implemented smart solutions such as projectors to offer affordable yet an effective education to the masses. 80% of India’s school teachers have agreed to the smart educational system. Recent studies show alarming numbers of dust pollution, and hence, classroom projectors have been adversely affected by dust. Proper dustproof mechanisms will assist in maintaining the lifetime of projectors. Without such mechanism, the maintenance costs will be significantly higher leading to increase in unnecessary overheads.
In the absence of dustproof technologies, projector’s performance could experience the following:
Image Blemish-Image blemish is usually caused by dust accumulation on DLP chips. Due to dust accumulation on internal parts and color wheel sensors, there can be a deterioration in image quality (brightness and color decay,) which can affect the overall classroom experience
Thermal Issue- In the presence of dust, projectors face thermal hikes and results in lagging,which could severely impact the experience and performance drastically
Overheating – If certain amount of dust is accumulated in the filter or the ventilation system, it will lead toprojectors’ airflow beingconsiderably reduced. The reduced airflow may result in overheating, equipment malfunctioning, breakdowns and undesirable maintenance costs
Signal Detection Failure- When dust accumulates on internal parts of projectors; the projection will face delays in visuals, flickering and may shut down without warning.
These can be avoided in the long run by taking corrective measures. BenQ’s Dust GuardTM Series has passed testing in a simulated environment with large amounts of fine dust, soot, and milled cotton lint. It filters out large amounts of dust accumulation, and becomes invulnerable to it. Also, the optical engine is sealed, which enhances to the safety of the projector.
The Dustproof solution ensures optimal reliability and performance by extending projector’s lifeline, reducing maintenance frequency by ? and ensuringhigh image quality without color decay. It also blocks out 90% of particles and PM 2.5. The Dust Guard series is also equipped with smart eco technology, further ensuring reliable eco-friendly operation in classrooms.
The education sector will continue to grow in the next few years. To ensure all Indian students receive the best education, it is time to look for relevant solutions in order for us to define our path to future success.
There has been a considerable increase in the number of private educational consultancies on the rise, the major challenge is to make clients realise how different are we from our competitors. Also, another major challenge is to establish our credibility in the market where a few unfortunate cases of fraudulence are still on the rise. Apart from this, another challenge is to show compliance with both the university and Government regulations and this has been achieved by legally registering the company, thereby establishing compliance.
Christopher Prasad Haridass, CEO and Founder, Bezalel Institute for Higher Education Pvt Ltd
In terms of spoken language training centers, a major challenge is being unable to assess individual student’s need and cater to that specific need because unlike textbook-based English learning, spoken language training has to meet the need of students across a diverse age group and competency levels.
In the language training center at Bezalel, the one innovative method we blindly believe is customised curriculum, as this helps in catering to the needs of students, professionals and the like, according to the purpose for which they decide to take up any specific training course. Also a wide range of available techniques and technology is used for achieving maximum results.
In a world of competition, innovation not only helps the organisation but also the students in achieving the maximum return for the money invested. Thus, a user-friendly interface for students and agents to provide a hasslefree process for student registration, university application, document submission, fee payment etc, with individual login is provided. Another service unique to Bezalel is that we provide student support throughout the university tenure including a local guardian.
