VGCF: Transforming Lives through Skill-Based Education

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July 14, 2018

Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation (VGCF) is an amalgam of devoted hands and strong minds for imparting outstanding quality of education to the next generation, says A D Sharma, Chairman, VGCF, in conversation with Harshal Desai of Elets News Network (ENN).

VGCF has planned a Science Centre at Rampur, when the centre is likely to be ready for students and what Facilities would be available for them at the centre?

The New Science Centre is planned to be completed in the year 2020. In the upcoming Science Centre, we are planning to provide modern facilities by creating more space, by providing additional Class Rooms, Large Laboratories for Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science. This will give the desired impetus to further strengthen student education in the region and benefit Rampur and adjoining areas like Saharanpur, Shamli and Deoband. The Science Centre shall comprise of two Computer Labs, one Maths and Language Lab, besides Physics, Chemistry and Biology Labs and 14 Class Rooms. It shall also have Student’s Recreation Room, Teacher’s Room and a Reception. The new Science Centre has been designed by well known architects from Delhi.

In its nearly two decade long journey, how VGCF has transformed villager’s lives and what evolutions were made through the REC’s initiatives?

Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation started Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic in year 2000 to empower women through vocational education and skill development. The polytechnic runs courses helping women to be self-employed in fields like Fashion Designing, Textile Designing, Beauty Care, Secretarial Practice and Computer Science. The foundation seeing the need and demand started the Bill Clinton School and Hillary Clinton Nursing School to provide high quality education helping students to get better jobs in healthcare sector.

Today the foundation has the trust and positive outlook of locals. Parents are keen to see their children educated. They are appreciative of the work being done for their children such as providing free Meals – twice a week to students and staff, along with free Bi-Cycles to girls for commuting to the school.

What Challenges VGCF has faced?

VGCF is an amalgam of devoted hands and strong minds for providing outstanding quality education to the next generation. There were no challenges as such which we had faced in terms of money as we were self-funded and never looked for financial help from the Government or from anywhere else.

The local administrative team faced challenges with village residents n bringing the girl child on campus. The team visited village to village doing campaigning and creating awareness to send their girls to Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic. The foundation had to work hard to win the trust of the locals and create a safe learning environment for the girl child. The meaning of women empowerment through education was a major hurdle as local residents were not prepared to send their daughters for skills oriented education. Transportation of students from villages was yet another hurdle as only local means of transport such as bullock carts were available. The school provided buses for commuting to overcome it.

Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation started Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic in year 2000 to empower women through vocational education and skill development.

The Foundation has made all its investment in Uttar Pradesh. Please describe about it in brief.

Vinod Gupta was born in 1945 at Rampur Maniharan, located 100 miles (160 km) north of New Delhi, a small town (village) near Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). After igher secondary education, Gupta was admitted into the IIT Kharagpur, majoring in agricultural engineering. VGCF was started with the aim of providing quality education to girl child living in rural areas. VGCF’s mission is to empower women of marginalised groups through sustainable initiatives in the field of education, which will enable them to be economically independent and socially secure. However, it was started as a society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1960 in Delhi on 4th July, 1997. The vision (Learn, Earn and Return) was given by Dr G L Gupta, father of Vinod Gupta, Founder, VGCF. He recognised the value of education and how it has changed his life. He decided to give all his wealth to charity. As a result, he made education a primary beneficiary for his charitable contributions. Through his foundation, VGCF has helped in advance education across fields including: business, science, information technology, communications, law, and wildlife preservation.

Which are the other countries where the foundation is active or planning to start its operations?

The foundation is only active in India and is not planning to start its operations in other countries. The foundation also contributed to the survival of tigers at Ranthambhor by not only showing solidarity, but also by providing equipments, provisions and vehicles in coordination with the ‘Project Tiger’ of the government of Rajasthan.

In America, Gupta has donated $2 million to establish a curriculum for small business management at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He has also donated an additional $500,000 to the university to set up a scholarship fund for minority students who want to enter its science or engineering schools. He gave another million to the Clinton Presidential Library.

Which are the institutes the foundation has tied up or collaborated in India?

As far as other institutes are concerned, VGCF started its first project in India by building the Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSoM) at IIT Kharagpur. Today, VGSoM is amongst the top 5 Business Schools in India, run by IIT Kharagpur.

Similarly, VGCF Constructed the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law at IIT Kharagpur. Today, it is the Top Law School in India run by IIT Kharagpur.

We have constructed buildings for two institutions namely Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma Institute of Democracy and Dr Giri Lal Gupta Institute of Public Health in the campus of Lucknow University. As and when there is any requirement from the institutes, we fulfill.

We have given lab equipments worth Rs 14 Lakh to Dr Giri Lal Gupta Institute of Public Health University Lucknow.

Recently, VGCF has spent over Rs 40 lakhs for upgrading students’ hostel, kitchen, Mess, common room, providing state-of-the-art equipment and electronic systems for students welfare, New play grounds/sports equipment and other amenities from time to time. Over and above all, we have also provided various cresting new facilities and maintaining and upgrading existing ones at VGSoM/RGSoIPL on regular basis.

IFIM Business School’s Microsoft Journey

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Akash

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July 14, 2018

Recognising the transformation of higher education by the digital revolution and the change it has brought to the education landscape, IFIM Business School became an early adopter of technology. Introducing avant-garde technologies to improve learning experience, smoother administrative processes and improve internal collaboration, IFIM ended stacking up numerous applications, with unforeseen challenges. Realising the need to address these challenges, IFIM went on a hunt for the best solutions in the market – a search that ended with Microsoft Azure and Office 365. Let us take a peek into the journey!

Business Needs

IFIM Business School was quickly understood the importance of technology in streamlining the education processes. The B-school also recognized technology’s efficiency in enhancing educational and extracurricular activities. In this regard, IFIM had deployed multiple applications to cater for various activities across the campus. Security was one of the primary challenges that the B-school needed resolution for. They had to ensure that the users only had access to the relevant application. Access control protocols were introduced to keep this in check. It effectively addressed the issue, but inadvertently gave rise to a totally different challenge.

The users needed multiple login ids and passwords, one for each of the applications, that they were using. This complicated the process and hundreds of password-reset requests started piling up daily at IFIM. This meant, substantially increased workload for the IT support team and a decreased overall productivity as the users could not access the relevant applications on time.

Another big issue was data storage. Most of the staff, especially teaching staff, used personal devices for official work. They saved all their relevant documents and files on their personal devices for convenience as there was a lack of clear protocol on data storage. This led to lack of information sharing, data mismanagement, and loss. In the absence of an established protocol in this regard, it was almost impossible to manage this issue.

There was also the challenge of subpar user collaboration. The internal systems were not developed keeping the needs of internal collaboration in sight. This made collaboration between the faculty members, staff, and students a challenge. IFIM considered internal collaboration as an integral part of their ethos and wanted to ensure that their IT infrastructure complimented this.

IFIM management understood the gravity of these situations and started looking for solutions that led them to Microsoft.

Solution

Microsoft Azure and Office 365 are the two products that IFIM adopted from Microsoft to address all their challenges. The migration process was handled by IFIM’s internal team with a comprehensive documentation on the same provided by Microsoft.

“The Microsoft Office Suite dominates the business landscape for document exchange and the recruiting companies always demand that our students are proficient in the use of these tools. We have been a beneficiary of the campus license agreement for the last decade and this long relationship gave us the confidence to zero in on Microsoft to help us with a solution,” says Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Center for Developmental Education. Furthermore, the ease of integration with the existing products and the fact that they come as managed services also acted in the favor of Microsoft when IFIM was deciding on the right solutions partner.

IFIM started with the Azure cloud. On Azure, they developed the Keep Learning Platform. Keep Learning Platform was built to be the umbrella under which all the various platforms that IFIM was using assimilated. This meant that they no longer remained as disparate systems, but as one unified platform. The applications that the B-school now uses include CampusLabs ERP for Administration requirements, D2L Brightspace for academic delivery, @Workplace for Social, and Office 365 for collaboration. “We wanted a seamless platform for delivering and managing learning. The Microsoft platform helped us to achieve seamless interoperability between disparate applications and services sourced from different vendors,” adds Sanjay Padode. The migration to Azure was also advantageous for data storage, as all the data is now being stored in one place – the cloud. This enables seamless data sharing and mobility. Moreover, it also nullifies the fear of data loss as Azure complies with the best of compliance standards and security protocols.

Office 365 Single Sign-On (SSO) feature ensured that the users no longer had to have multiple sign-in credentials. By signing into their O365 account they could now access all their applications. This meant that the IT support staff is no longer strained with password reset requests. Additionally, the IT administrator now has better control on access, i.e. once users log in to the platform, their personalized platform will only have those applications that are relevant to them. “With SSO implemented, we could get in more users on Keep Learning Platform. In the last 6 months, we have moved from approximately 20 transactions per day to about 2000 transactions per day. There is still a lot of scope to improve. We aim to achieve 5000 transactions per day in the next six months,” says Anandarup Kar, Head – Technology & eLearning.

Benefits

The benefits to IFIM, post the adoption of Azure and O365 are as follows:

Seamless Access Management: O365 SSO ensured that the users would be able to use a single credential to access all their applications. It also ensured that the IT administrator will have better control on who accesses what.

Less Hardware Dependence: File storing and sharing are now happening on the cloud and this ensures that the dependence on localized hardware is much lower.

Better Security Protocols: Azure comes with state of the art security features, consistently safeguarding IFIM data.

Better Collaboration: The collaboration tools of Office 365, with its user-friendly interface, is now popular among faculty, staff and students, and is widely used.

Having solved all its challenges, IFIM is now looking to upgrade. For now, the organization remains to be predominantly paper based. The plan forward is to ensure that the institute becomes as paperless as possible, in the process cut through all the red tapes as well. Transparency is the key mantra that IFIM is toying with. With the help of Microsoft, the B-school is hoping to attain these objectives in the near future.

Chhattisgarh: Laying Foundation Futuristic Education System

Magazine

By

Akash

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July 14, 2018

From infrastructure to Information Communication Technology (ICT), the Chhattisgarh Government is trying to revamp the higher education landscape of the State in every aspect, observes Elets News Network (ENN).

Since being recognised as a State in 2000, Chhattisgarh seems to be on a growth trajectory in every sector including the education.

Even though the education scenario in Chhattisgarh is not so remarkable due to lack of proper educational infrastructure, the Government as well as the private players appear to have joined hands to develop good educational opportunities in the State.

The State Government has launched several programmes for enhancing the academic scenario of Chhattisgarh. Persistent efforts of the State Government have led to Chhattisgarh witnessing an overall growth in the literacy rate. According to the 2011 census report, Chhattisgarh had a literacy rate of 70.28 per cent. The male literacy rate in the State is 80.28 per cent and that of female is 60.24 per cent. Special importance is given to the education of women and students belonging to the underprivileged section of the society to improve their literacy rate.

Like other states of India, the education scenario of Chhattisgarh is also divided into two segments: School Education and Higher Education. Preschool education is part of School Education in the State.

School Education

Most of the children in the State usually attend three years of Montessori Education before joining 1st standard in a school. Like other States and Union Territories (UT) of India, the schools in Chhattisgarh follow the same 10+2 pattern of education pedagogy. One can come across both private and state-run schools in Chhattisgarh.

The Government-run schools are mostly affiliated to the Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education. Students can also join schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) or International Baccalaureate (IB) schools.

The state-run schools have adopted Hindi as the medium of instruction while English is preferred by most of the private schools. New Life English School Janakpur, Jain International School, Adarsh Vidya Mandir, Gyanganga Educational

The Government is also trying to enhance the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in education. It is made compulsory to provide leased lines to the leading colleges at district level.

Academy, Delhi Public School, Kaanger Valley Academy, Bhartiya Sanskriti Higher Secondary School and Salem English School are some of the popular schools in Chhattisgarh.

To improve the quality of education in Chhattisgarh, the 15th Joint Review Mission Report of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan also praised the State for setting up primary schools within a radius of every one km and middle schools within every three km.

Challenges

Despite the Government’s continuous efforts, Chhattisgarh ranked among the 10 lowest positioned states for primary (I-V classes) and middle schools (VI-VIII) with 28th position on a list of 35 on the Education Development Index (EDI).

While there is a host of factors discouraging children to attend schools, Naxalism is the root cause for putting off young ones from going to schools.

The State is placed higher than bigger states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on EDI but it is found that Chhattisgarh has fallen behind in most of the 24 performance indicators for education sector that were broadly grouped under four segments — access, teachers, outcome and infrastructure.

Higher and Technical Education in Chhattisgarh

Like school education, the Government and various private players have invested to improve the Higher Education in Chhattisgarh.

There are 206 government colleges and seven universities including private universities. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the State is around 13 per cent, far behind the national average of GER which is around 22 but certain measures have been taken by the Chhattisgarh Government to equate the GER of the State with that of the national average.

The most important of those measures is the implementation of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). RUSA is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), launched in 2013, with an aim to provide strategic funding to eligible higher educational institutions of different states. The scheme focuses on three major aspects: Access to education, equity among children and providing quality education.

For easy access of higher education to youth of the State, The government is coming up with four new universities at Jagdalpur, Bilaspur, Durg and Ambikapur. Under RUSA, grant of Rs 20 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of each new university.

Apart from this, grant of Rs 2 crore for constructing eight classrooms and two toilets has been sanctioned for each of the 54 colleges in the State. It would help the colleges to increase overall intake of students by around 50,000 annually. It will directly lead to the increase in the GER and to provide easy access of education to the students. The Government is also trying to enhance the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in education. It is made compulsory to provide leased lines to the leading colleges at district level. Last year, Wi-Fi Networks have been provided to around 50 colleges. Few colleges have their own network that has been provided under the scheme of UGC. The Government is also focusing on providing smart classrooms and virtual classrooms to the colleges as well.

Chhattisgarh has seen an overall growth in the literacy rate possible due to the persistent efforts of the State Government. According to the 2011 census report, Chhattisgarh had a literacy rate of 70.28 per cent.

According to Bhuvanesh Yadav, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education and Additional Charge of Mission Director, RUSA, “We are actually stressing on modifying the curriculum as it is outdated. We have formed a community of vice chancellors to improve the curriculum in accordance with the new scenario and this is in the process. We also want to improve employability amongst the students by introducing certain vocational courses. Chhattisgarh is one of the first States which have started vocational courses.”

Modern Approach to Impart Education

To improve the education standards of the State and to provide good quality education to youth, the Government is promoting and installing virtual classrooms, smart classrooms and smart libraries in educational institutes across the State. It contains pre-recorded lectures of important topics from various eminent professors to help students learn effectively.

To provide them with extra input, it is being tried to focus that every college has a Wi-Fi so that they can search more things about their subjects. We are also planning to distribute them Tablets pre-loaded with the content of certain important topics of the subjects. Other than that the government is also planning to distribute tablets pre-loaded with the content of certain important topics of the subjects.

$30 Trillion annual loss if girls don’t get secondary education: World Bank

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Akash

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July 13, 2018

Limited educational opportunity and obstacles in pursuing 12 years of education for girls is costing countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion dollars, revealed a report released by the World Bank.

The World Bank’s report girl’s education globally stated that 89 per cent girls complete their primary education whereas only 77 per cent complete lower secondary education which lead them losing out on lifetime productivity and earnings.

The duration of lower secondary education in most countries across the globe is 9 years. According to the report primary education is not sufficient and by lack of resources and set up for girls to complete 12 years of schooling, they lose out on the transformative power of education in six key areas:

earnings and standards of living
child marriage and early childbearing
fertility and population growth
health, nutrition and well-being
agency and decision-making
social capital and institutions

Highlighting the effect of education on women, the report says, on an average women with secondary school education earn twice as much as those with no education at all.

The report also speculates that secondary education also helps in reducing the possibility of child marriage and consequently early childbearing along with reducing total fertility rate.

Not only this, but universal secondary education for girls also make them aware about health and nutrition and aide them in decision making processes.

KVPY 2018: Online registration begins, last date August 31

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Akash

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July 13, 2018

The online application for Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) 2018 has started. KVPY is a National Programme of Fellowship in Basic Sciences, initiated and funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

The last date to apply for KVPY Fellowship 2018 is August 31. The aptitude test will be held on November 4 and the admit cards for it will be available in second week of October.

Interested candidates can apply through the online application link available on the official KVPY website: www.kvpy.iisc.ernet.in. Candidates must have a soft copy/scanned images of their recent passport size photograph (less than 150 KB) and Signature (less than 80 KB) in JPG/JPEG format.

The fellowship programme is for the students studying in class 11 to first year of any undergraduate course in Basic Sciences namely BSc/BS/BStat/BMath/Int MSc/MS in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

The students are selected for fellowship on the basis of their performance in the aptitude test and interview. A merit list is prepared on the basis of students’ score in the test and the shortlisted students are then called for an interview. The selection process is screened by groups/committee set up at IISc.

A final merit is prepared based on the combined scores of both aptitude test and interview. Candidates selected under the scheme are provided scholarship up till pre-PhD level.

Candidates should ensure that both photograph and signature are saved on the PC/Laptop/Other Media. The SC/ST and PWD candidates must upload scanned copy of caste (SC and ST) and medical certificate (for PWD) in PDF format (less than 300 KB).

Bihar Set to Regain Ancient Glory in Education Sector

Magazine

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Akash

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July 12, 2018

The State of Bihar, which was known as Magadh in the ancient times, has been a major centre of learning. Today, to achieve the goal of 100% literacy and Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE), various initiatives have been taken by the State Government and private players, observes Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

Bihar has also been home to globally renowned universities such as Nalanda, one of the earliest universities of India in 5th century, and Vikramashila.

During British rule, Bihar witnessed boost to the education sector with the setting up of a University at Patna along with other centres of high learning, namely, Science College, Patna, Prince of Wales Medical College (now Patna Medical College and Hospital), and Bihar Engineering College (now National Institute of Technology, Patna).

In the 1960s, major educational reforms were implemented to streamline the education structure of state by the then education minister and educationist late Satender Narain Sinha.

In spite of the inadequate investment on education in Bihar, compared to other poorer Indian states, the students have done well.

The National Institutes of Learning such as IIT, IIM and AIIMS, IISER, NISER have had a good representation from Bihar. A survey by Pratham rated the absorption of their teaching by the Bihar children better than those in other States.

School Education

From the British times, Bihar has had a system of district schools (called Zila schools), located at the headquarters of the older districts of Bihar.

In addition to Zila schools, there were private and semi Government aided schools which were run and administered by local village communities many of which were famous to impart good quality education.

After the liberalisation, the number of missionary as well as Madrasa schools has increased. The chains of Christian Missionary Schools are among the best schools of Bihar. Apart from the types of schools mentioned earlier, the different kinds of schools in the State are as follows:

Play Schools
Montessori Schools
Kids Schools
Nursery Schools
Anglo Indian Schools
Matriculation Schools
Boarding Schools
Urban Schools
Rural Schools

Like the other States in India, the Central Government runs a number of Kendriya Vidyalayas (Central Schools) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya for rural students of Bihar. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya was started by the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to provide quality education to the weaker sections of the society.

Most of the State-run schools in Bihar are affiliated to the Bihar School Examination Board, while the Kendriya Vidyalaya and other private schools including the Christian Missionary Schools are affiliated either to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE).

Bihar Government has also implemented a series of reforms to boost State’s Primary Education including mandatory digitisation of all state-run schools. With the implementation of The Right of Children To Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right To Education Act (RTE), the Department of Education aims to ensure free and quality primary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years in the State and has initiated several innovative schemes like Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Mukhyamantri Balak & Balika Cycle Yojana, Mukhyamantri Paribhraman Yojana, Mukhyamantri Poshak Yojana, Mukhyamantri Smagra Vidyalaya Vikas Yojana, Mukhyamantri Protsahan Yojana.

Some of the prominent schools of Patna include St Joseph’s Convent, St Michael’s High School and St Xavier’s School among others.

Higher Education

Patna is gradually emerging as one of the major centres of learning in India especially for Eastern and North Eastern States. Higher Education institutes in Patna impart education in every stream including technology, medicine, management, law and fashion etc.

The Government has opened institutions of national importance in Patna to offer better higher learning opportunities to the State’s youths.

Colleges such as Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Birla Institute of Technology Patna and National Institute of Technology Patna are the prominent engineering colleges in the State Capital. Colleges other than engineering stream include the recently established National Institute of Fashion Technology Patna and medical schools such as Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna Medical College and Hospital, and Nalanda Medical College and Hospital.

Anugrah Narayan College and B N College are among the best known colleges for commerce and humanities besides for a range of PG courses.

Modern Bihar has an inadequate educational infrastructure creating a huge mismatch between demand and supply. This problem is further compounded by increases in population. The craving for higher education among the general population of Bihar has led to a migration of the student community from the state.

With the implementation of The Right of Children To Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right To Education Act (RTE), the Department of Education aims to ensure free and quality primary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

This has led to a “flooding” of students to seek educational opportunities in other states, such as New Delhi and Karnataka, even for graduation level college education. Researchers found out that 37.8% of Bihar’s teachers could not be found during unannounced visits to schools, the worst teacher absence rate in India and one of the worst in the world.

The present Government has opened a national law university – Chanakya National Law University and a B-school – Chandragupt Institute of Management to improve the conditions of higher education in the State. Both these institutes have attracted students from not just within Bihar but also from far flung States of the country.

A N Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute, Bihar Research Institute are the research institutes in Patna.

The Patna University, the first university in Bihar, was established in 1917, and is the 7th oldest university of the Indian subcontinent. Patna also houses one of India’s world-renowned libraries, the Khuda Baksh Oriental Library and the Sinha Library, which are one of the largest in the region.

Along with engineering studies, the study of medical science has also received a boom with the introduction of latest technologies and courses. Presently, a large number of students are opting for medical studies. The urge for studying medical science has given birth to a number of institutions and courses regarding medical science in Bihar Medical Colleges. Students from different states shift their base to Bihar every year to pursue their studies in Bihar Medical Colleges.

It can be observed that Bihar is emerging as a hub of education for Eastern and North Eastern States. The State is functioning hard with the ultimate goals to regain its past glory in the field of education so that the state can retain the meaning of Bihar, i.e. walk ahead with confidence and prosperity spreading the light of education as used to be in Buddha’s era.

Reforming Education through Digitisation

Magazine

By

Akash

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July 12, 2018

With the advent of technology and its surging acceptability in society at large, there is a huge scope to take education to the remotest part of the country, for enhancing awareness and improving understanding. But, the education field in India is mired in tradition, ideology and incumbent interests, writes Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

“The use of technology coupled with bold decisions can help India leapfrog into inclusive growth and improve the quality of health and education.” – Bill Gates

The statement by the founder of one of the world’s largest technology companies indicates that the use of technology may help India to get placed among top countries of the world in terms of education.

India’s education sector is witnessing the increased use of technology such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in day-to-day practices related to education sector. The Government is also focusing on greater use of technology as it looks to implement largescale reforms such as Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) scheme.

While technology-enabled initiatives or platforms in line with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) such as Swayam (for teachers’ training) have seen use of technologies, the Government is also emphasising on boosting the use of tools such as virtual lab, virtual reality (VR)-enabled classrooms or curated online content for both students and teachers.

Swayam, an online life-long training platform developed with the help of Microsoft, or Diksha, a platform that aids teachers with digital and techbased teaching solutions, are “prominent efforts” in revamping the education infrastructure.

“Digitising education has been an imperative keeping in mind the affordability, accessibility, inclusiveness of the large trainable youth population. Technology may be used to reach the diverse population at the remotest corners. MOOC platforms, NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) are already in use for promotion of higher technical education. They may be used for reaching out to school children as well,” said Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director, IIIT, Kharagpur.

He added that IITs across locations are working on “digital convergence” and “development of innovative infrastructure for education” which could result in increased use of new-age technologies.

India’s education sector is witnessing the increased use of technology such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in day-to-day practices related to education sector.

Education system in future

The series of education provisions in the 2016-17 Budget provides an exact picture about the present Government’s future plans for education.

The Government is planning to establish a new agency — Higher Education Financing Agency to oversee the infrastructural developments in Higher Education. At the same time, owing to standardisation of training, a new regulatory body’s establishment has also been on the agenda. In addition to supporting online courses, the next step of the Government in the direction of digitalisation is the creation of an online register for report cards and degrees.

Concerning State investments, the higher education continues to enjoy priority, but public education, particularly technical training, will also benefit, as the allocation of financial sources makes clear.

Other than the Government, various private organisations are also supporting India’s digital initiatives for education. Software major Microsoft, working with Atal Tinkering Labs across 25 schools in the country to empower students and teachers with technology skills, is also pushing for the use of cloud computing for creating an efficient digital lab experience.

Pratik Mehta, Director Sales at Microsoft India, said technologies are fast finding ways into the classrooms in multiple ways such as mobile devices giving students “access to the latest teacher curated content”, VR-enabled classrooms offering students “an enhanced learning experience”.

Apart from the Rs 1 lakh crore expenditure estimate for RISE spread over four years, the Government has increased the overall expenditure estimate for education by 4 per cent and it grew by more than 11 per cent in 2017-18. Despite a growth in budgetary expenditure allocation, many projects have seen delayed implementation and use of funds. Going forward, analysts said, technology will play a key role to speed up implementation of education reforms.

India as a nation is on a growth path in education sector and digitisation is supporting the collective efforts of public and private sector to realise the dream of becoming the education hub of the world. Along with other States of India, educationally backward States are also focusing on improving the education scenario.

Digitising education has been imperative keeping in mind the affordability, accessibility, inclusiveness of the large trainable youth population. Technology may be used to reach the diverse population at the remotest corners.

The two States – Bihar and Chhattisgarh are adopting the digital educational practices rapidly. Bihar which may be considered as the educational hub for Eastern and North-Eastern India, Chhattisgarh is gradually gaining popularity as the educational destination for Central India. Educationists opine that the two States are leveraging the technology to improve the education sector from primary to higher level.

Digital Education in Bihar – Educationists’ view:

“Information technology has reformed each sector it has grasped and it is currently in the promising phases of altering academia. In the coming decades, Information Technology is likely to change the education sector hopefully more constructive to the people than it is today. Digitisation in education industry has totally changed the learning and also the teaching process to a great extent.” – Prof S B LAL of Patna University.

“Digitalisation really helps to read many books and gather more information easily. Students of Bihar benefitted a lot through digital education. Many schools are adopting virtual class room, flipped class room, e-text books, adaptive learning and on-line learning etc. Class room technologies are enhancing day-by-day, to make the teaching process more comfortable and interactive.” Dr Sanjoy Kumar Parida, Dean – Academic, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna.

Digital Education in Chhattisgarh – Educationists’ View:

“We have taken giant leaps with the help and guidelines of Ministry of Higher Education, Chhattisgarh towards promoting digitally enabled and strengthened higher education programmes. Whole hearted participation of universities and colleges of the state in MOOC through SWAYAM and SWAYAM PRABHA programmes of MHRD will bring in qualitative changes in standards of higher education and provide equal opportunities of education to every child male/ female, adults, senior citizens even at the remotest corners of the state,” said Dr Sanjay Kumar, Vice Chancellor, ITM University.

“Universities have launched massive drives towards digitising libraries, records, rules, regulations, certificates, study materials etc and they have become members of National Digital Library, National Academy Depository schemes. Campuses are made smart, digitally enabled , clean, green and conducive. Participative & demonstrative teaching and learning processes have made education in the state interesting, entertaining and creative. Surrounding villages of the university campuses are adopted to transfer the much needed knowledge to each villager to ease out problems faced by them. In the state, students are bright and very receptive. Free laptops, mobile and tabs are given to each student to promote higher education,” he added.

Some may doubt that the digital reforms may live up to their promises or not but, they certainly prove that India and its States have recognised the challenges of the 21st century, the power of knowledge, information, and innovation, and accordingly radical reforms are taking place in the country.

The successful creation of knowledge-based society would carry great opportunities for India, while its failure could push the nation towards not just an economic but a political crisis as well.

eSense: Enriching Teaching-Learning through Technology

Magazine

By

Akash

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July 12, 2018

eSense is precisely an attempt to contribute to the process of learning by making it effective and engaging in innovative ways, says Harshil Gala, Director, eSense Learning, in an interview with Harshal Desai of Elets News Network (ENN).

Please apprise us of the solutions you are providing to students and schools.

TOP Class is our flagship product which has helped us to add value in education processes to a great extent. The product converts a whole textbook into 2D and 3D animations. Students along with studying text also go through the animations with voice-over. The product has been widely appreciated by schools in Maharashtra and Gujarat. We have also converted textbooks into animations for CBSE as well.

We keep upgrading the software in order to meet the expectations of teachers and students. For example, we have recently added a good number of questions and answers after considering books from various publications to help students in getting ample problems and techniques to solve them.

Besides, TOPScorer is another one of the major products we offer to students. It helps students studying on thier own and estimates their weaknesses. It is a complete package of audiovisual content allowing students to weigh up their growth with detailed analytical reports.

How has been the response towards these products?

We have been fortunate to receive excellent response from schools. We are currently present in over 3,000 schools across Maharashtra and Gujarat. TOPScorer is already being used by more than 1,00,000 users across the country. Our software solutions are very easy to use and that, I believe, is helping us grow at a phenomenon speed.

We tie up with State Government and also to the authorities at local levels like Zila Parishad and District Administration, and help schools to use our products. Moreover, we also tie up with corporate which are willing to contribute through CSR activities, guide them and provide them with complete digital assistance.

We constantly monitor the development stage of any technology irrespective of it is related to our domain or not. We keep evaluating if a particular technology can be applied in upgrading our software.

How do you rate the Edu-tech sector in the country?

It is still at the nascent stage. Real movements have started a couple of years ago. It is really good that Government has started paying attention to the sector and helping administration to make most of the technologies available in schools. We have to have smart classrooms, smart content and smart audio-visual means of studying. Further, student should have access all these smart elements on internet 24/7. Edu-tech is still just about Rs 100 crore industry.

There are many great innovators in the market and also, few disruptors. I am sure in near future we will be at a good position by providing several innovative solutions leading to improvement in the school education sector.

How do you ensure meeting the expectations of your customers and design products which are easy to use yet effective?

We constantly monitor the development stage of any technology irrespective of if it is related to our domain or not. We keep evaluating if a particular technology can be applied in upgrading our software. We have developed every product so far keeping in mind the requirements of students, teachers, schools and parents. As we state, “eSense is precisely an attempt to contribute to the process of learning by making it effective and engaging in innovative ways. At eSense, we engineer solutions that enrich teaching and learning experience. The emphasis here is to go beyond the chalk & talk method and stimulate the learning environment. Our focus is to integrate technology with learning.

Which are the areas where Edu-tech companies have scope to grow?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the areas which will change the education technology sector dramatically. It will help students to analyse their weaknesses and thus allow them to prepare for future. A student attempts hundreds of exams and test in a year. AI can help monitor the growth of students subject wise and do proper assessment for them highlighting thier positive and negative areas.

What challenges do you face while selling products?

We wish, we have a detailed policy of digital learning as it will help the Indian schools to become really smart and thus allow the industry to grow as well. The awareness on the advantages of smart classes needs to be conveyed to schools – even in rural areas.

What are your plans for future?

We will continue to spread our presence in Maharashtra and Gujarat. We will continue to understand the requirements of schools and students and develop products which make a difference.

‘Happiness Curriculum’ in Delhi’s government schools from today

News

By

Akash

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July 12, 2018

Starting from today, the Delhi Government has introduced 45 minutes of “Happiness” periods for students studying from nursery up to class 8 in its schools.

The above practice is the part of Delhi Government’s latest initiative “Happiness Curriculum” under which the entire curriculum will be purely activity-based and no formal examinations will be conducted on it. However, a periodic assessment of children’s progress will be made using a happiness index.

Meditation, value education, and mental exercises will be the part of “Happiness Curriculum”. 40 government teachers, educators and volunteers took over a period of six months to design the curriculum. As per the newly designed curriculum, each class will begin with a five minute meditation practice. The classes based on “Happiness Curriculum” will be held twice a week for nursery and KG students.

“The curriculum will include components that will instill self awareness and care, reduce stress and anxiety, help manage depression, build ability to focus on education & work and encourage creative critical thinking. Such a holistic approach in education will result in building healthy minds of our children that will enable them to lead a happy life,” said the Delhi Government Budget 2018-2019.

This initiative will involve 10 lakh students and around 50,000 teachers from Delhi’s Government schools.

According to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, “There was a need to ‘overhaul’ the present education system that has not been able to produce ‘good human being’ and the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ is a solid step towards this aim”.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, “It is our belief that the modern day problems like terrorism, corruption and and pollution can be solved through schools and a human centric education”.

DU Admissions 2018: Fifth Cut-Off Lists Released, admissions to begin today

News

By

Akash

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July 12, 2018

The fifth cut-off list for admissions undergraduate courses of colleges affiliated to Delhi University has been released.

The details of the minimum cut-off percentage of marks are available on the official website of Delhi University (DU) along with the fifth cut-off list. Candidates are advised to contact the respective colleges for details regarding variation in cut-off percentage in various courses on Thursday.

DU’s fourth cut-off was released on July 5 and the admission process based on the list was held from July 6 to July 9.

As per already notified schedule, DU asked candidates who meet the requirements mentioned in the fifth admission cut-off list to complete their admission formalities in the respective colleges within the stipulated time. Admission based the fifth cut-off will be held from July 12 to July 14.

Out of the total 56,000 seats, around 50,000 seats have already been filled.

Maximum admissions till now have been done in BA Programme with 8,612 seats being filled out of the total 10,172 seats. In BCom, there have been 5,137 admissions against a total of 6,483 seats. BCom (Hons) has a total of 6,273 seats and 5,085 admissions have been done.

The university had only announced schedule for five cut-off lists so far, however, further cut-offs / spot counseling schedule may be declared depending on the vacant seats later.

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