Life Skills Key for Preparing Youth for Future

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July 16, 2018

A student will grow into a responsible citizen of tomorrow with decision-making and problem-solving skills that will prepare them for every situation in life, says Sharmila Chatterjee, Principal – Billabong High International School, Noida, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you perceive the prevailing education system?

Sharmila Chatterjee, Principal - Billabong High International School, Noida — Sharmila Chatterjee, Principal – Billabong High International School, Noida

The current education system in India may be classified as one of the most robust, structured yet complex system in the world with a large scope of further enhancements and progress.

India is a diverse nation. Its complexity arises from the scope of its length and breadth of the country with varied languages, culture, literature and innovations. India has more than a million schools with state boards, CBSE, ICSE and international boards. Several Government initiatives have helped India provide sustainable basic education. Universal Primary education, Sarva Shishka Abhiyan and above all the RTE 2009 make schooling free and compulsory till grade eight and has seen phenomenal progress in educational performance in the country.

But the challenges are manifold with dropout rate increasing after elementary level, the economically weaker sections are impacted adversely as getting education is not their prime need, and most importantly we are struggling with poor-level of student learning outcomes in both scholastic and co-scholastic results.

The policymakers and the new education policy in the making should focus on skill development and vocationalisation with emphasis on integrating the curriculum with latest developments in information and technology and 21st century skills for learners. We should aim on creating holistic learning and education systems.

How significant is holistic learning in the present times?

Being in the field of education for two-and-ahalf decades, I have come to increasingly believe that schools should focus on holistic education, as it encompasses the development of both academic and non-academic skills comprising the learner’s intellectual, socio-emotional, kinesthetic or physical, creative, artistic or aesthetics and spiritual domains of learning.

Holistic learning will provide real life experiences which may have success and deterrents or roadblocks. The learner will use problem solving and decision making skills in the process of learning or solving a given situation. The learner will also show resilience, healthy social and emotional behaviour, which is the real purpose of holistic learning. Schools that believe in imparting holistic learning will foster a culture of continuous learning and will create life-long learners.

In today’s time the parents are looking towards the school for providing their children with all life skills and integrated learning for a better prepared youth in future. Therefor it becomes imperative on the part of the schools to create and impart holistic education to the learners, as today’s learner is tomorrow’s citizen of the nation.

It is imperative for schools to trend with modern technologies by incorporating them with regular teaching-learning in the classrooms.

Considering the steadily changing scenario, what vision should drive the educationists?

Educationists should encourage emotional and mental wellness along with physical and kinesthetic development in students. The vision of the educational leaders should be to encourage innovation as well as autonomy to learners and mentors. Imparting life skills and values among the young learners should be of primary focus for the educationists. Students should be inculcated with respect to nature and flora-fauna. This will nurture the learners to be global citizens and respect diversity.

Are there any special initiatives being undertaken to enhance the learning or teaching experience at your school?

Billabong High International Noida (BHIS), a CBSE affiliated school is one of the best international schools in Noida that envisions to create an educational system of ‘individualised learning’ that brings out the human excellence in every child. We take pride in being a sensitive school. We have a distinct centre for children with special needs named “Sanchetna” — centre for children with special needs. It is our endeavour to reach out to the children who have specific learning or multiple disabilities by providing them inclusive education with support of specialised therapists. ‘Educate, Engage and Inspire’ is what the teachers practice in the classrooms of BHIS, Noida. The educators here equip the learners with the knowledge and life skills that will enable them to face the future with confidence and responsibility. The goals of the BHIS curriculum lie in developing the cognitive, creative, aesthetic, language and social-emotional skills. The mentors at Billabong High International School, Noida transact curriculum keeping in mind the following parameters: Bloom’s Taxonomy & The Multiple Intelligence theory – The different learning style, Neuroscience & Brain Research Theory, Digital Age & Globalisation and Theme based learning till middle school.

We follow an integrated curriculum wherein all the disciplines and subjects are interwoven and every concept reflects upon all the areas of the curriculum. The learning tasks are designed in a way that the learners move from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills. Billabong High International School encourages students from a young age to take the initiative and go where no man has gone before. Their leadership qualities are nurtured through participation in a competitive house system and student prefect ship. School Life skills Programme – BHIS, Noida is the regional center for Excellence for Imparting Life skills and training Adolescents Peer Educators for Life Skills. The well-being of students is taken care of by the school counsellors through life skill sessions by creating awareness among them and being available for the students in dealing with their academic, emotional and social issues.

What modern technologies are being used in your school?

Besides focusing on life skills development of the learners, it is imperative for schools to trend with modern technologies by incorporating them with regular teaching-learning in the classrooms. At BHIS, Noida, we integrate our curriculum with ICT at all application levels. ICT modules are integral part of lesson plans be it in introducing topics – during the content delivery or plenary sessions and even assessments.

The school campus is Wi-Fi enabled, and has two well-equipped computer labs ensuring each child has one system to work on, along with state-of-the-art audio-visual rooms separate for preschool, primary and senior school learners. The teachers are provided with work stations fully equipped with ICT provisions.

The school has a dynamic website and is interacting with parents through digital mediums like Facebook, twitter etc. As the curriculum is multi-disciplinary in nature, ICT enables both the learner and the mentor/facilitator to enhance learning, imbibing problem solving and critical thinking skills.

ICFAI: Empowering Citizens through World Class Education

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Akash

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July 15, 2018

The ICFAI Group’s culture of teaching and learning supports and fosters intellectual and personality development among its graduating students. We carry an attitude of ownership of our work, says Sudhakar Rao, Director, Branding, ICFAI Group, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

How the innovation in programmes is helping the ICFAI to be among the top ranked B-Schools of India?

Sudhakar Rao, Director, Branding, ICFAI Group

The ICFAI Business School (IBS) is known for excellence in management education. The B-School nurtures the resources with the right set of knowledge, skills and attitude to meet the requirements of corporate world.

IBS has distinguished itself from other B-Schools in India by focusing on action-based learning and close involvement with the industry. The curriculum of IBS is industry-orientated with case pedagogy comparable to the best across the globe ensuring good return on knowledge. As a result of richness in curriculum, case pedagogy, industry recognition and accreditation at both national and international levels, IBS has attracted collaborations with the best foreign business schools.

ICFAI has introduced Case Study methodology. Please share about it and the Case Research Center of ICFAI.

Case study method is the key component of the academic programmes at IBS. ICFAI is one of the few institutions in India that have made case-based learning a critical component of pedagogy. Almost all the courses in ICFAI are taught through case studies. The case studies are being tailor-made to the requirements of different subjects and topics. Student evaluation is based on class participation and reports submitted by them. Students are encouraged to analyse the issues by gathering supportive information either through published sources or by directly interacting with the companies involved.

The Case Research Center (CRC) is a centre of excellence of ICFAI Group developing high quality internationally benchmarked case studies. A dedicated and dynamic team works toward fulfilling the institution’s mission of developing high quality case studies, for its constituents as well as contributing cases to B-schools and organisations through The Case Centre, UK.

Outstanding Achievements by the Case Research Centre

ICFAI is the third largest contributor of cases, next only to Harvard and INSEAD B-Schools
In 2015, 7% of The Case Centre’s 150 Best Selling Cases were from ICFAI
ICFAI Cases were taught in more than 870 B-Schools across 75 countries in the world
In 2015, the sales of ICFAI cases made up 7.5% of the total The Case Centre’s sales
ICFAI currently contributes 6,000 cases to The Case Centre, UK

Nurturing employable youth is one of the missions of every higher educational institute, what practices are followed at ICFAI to bridge the industry-academia gap?

Action-oriented teaching coupled with hands-on managerial experience in the summer internship programme and real time problem solving assignments from the corporate help the students to be industry ready. Continuous interaction with industry, experts talk and feedback forms the base for upgradation of curriculum which differentiates ICFAI from others. Corporate Relations Cell, Alumni Network, Management Development Programmes and Mentoring have enhanced the skills of students required to get better placements.

Along with studies, it is important to develop a globally competitive personality of students, what steps have been undertaken by ICFAI in this regard?

Student Clubs have been formed in ICFAI institutions to help students to get exposure to both curricular and extracurricular activities. Students participate actively in these clubs. These clubs help students understand the nuances related to managing people, behaviour of people, leadership skills and working in teams, which is the key to become successful managers.

The soft-skills training also enable students to judge their communication abilities. There is also a focus on improving the EQ of our future leaders so that they are able to deal with the human element while running any organisation.

How are you placed in the market?

What are your vision and mission for expansion in education sector? Our vision is Merit with Ethics. Our mission is to offer world class, innovative, career-oriented professional post graduate and undergraduate programs through inclusive technology-aided pedagogies to equip students with the requisite professional and life skills as well as social sensitivity and high sense of ethics.

Our model is unique and the continuous placement results year after year is a testimony to our credibility in market.

What are the initiatives taken by you to support ICFAI in achieving its present brand value?

The initiatives taken by the university are:

Engaging inspiring leaders
Two way relationship building with Top Corporate Executives
Pursuing ethical business practices
Mentoring the students to focus on productivity and good work ethic
Learning – Teaching based on making industry efficient by producing competitive human resources
Focus on Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurial Mindset

EmpowerU: Real-Time Monitoring and Evaluation Solution

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Akash

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July 15, 2018

EmpowerU applies innovative analytical solutions and a 360-degree approach to improve the standards of the education system, says Onkar Prasad, Founder-Director, Promorph Solutions, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the Genesis behind establishing EmpowerU?

Onkar Prasad, Founder-Director, Promorph Solution

Promorph solutions, incubated at SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur, came into existence in 2015. The start-up is funded and backed by VILLGRO Innovations Foundation in association with Technology Development Board (TDB), Government of India and Department for International Development (DFID), UK.

Promorph solutions developed an application integrated with data to offer real-time analysis. In the beginning, it was a web-based model that gave the comprehensive and real-time view of sessions in the classrooms.

For the first time, a customised information management application – EmpowerU was introduced at UIET, CSJM University Kanpur. it improved quality standards, transparency, and accountability in education delivery at the institute. Then, we realised that the model can also be used in the government schools benefitting lakhs of students. It affected many stakeholders in the education system positively and improved the standards of government schools with the help of real-time monitoring and evaluation, SMART and Intelligence Systems, and Analytical solutions.

Please describe about the solutions developed by EmpowerU to redefine the ways educational institutions are managed.

EmpowerU facilitates real-time monitoring, and analysis of multiple operations in Government schools. It is a one-stop shop that integrates Mobile App for Ground Level Monitoring and Analytics for Data-Driven Decision Making. The mobile application works online and offline as well. The holistic, intelligent, and SMART solutions that unfold from the platform are:

Mid Day Meal (MDM) Monitoring: It allows better transparency in fund management, fund analysis, ensures fund availability and helps in pictorial and real-time MDM monitoring and analysis.

Teacher and Student Attendance Tracking: Online and Offline attendance marking with the help of GPS tracking generates weekly, monthly, and yearly reports.

Monitoring Learning and Infrastructural Status: Real-time and pictorial monitoring to ensure the availability of resources in the schools and also timely syllabus completion.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation: Conducts student learning level assessment and progress analysis to improve the learning outcomes.

SMART Action Response system (SARS): SARS automatically addresses large-scale issues and notifies malpractices to the headmasters and teachers.

Leave Management: Facilities leave application for various stakeholders through the web and mobile applications.

Grievance Redressal System: Enables an interface between various stakeholders to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability of the system.

Notification and Messaging System: Facilities mobile app-based notifications and SMS alerts to all stakeholders.

How the organisation help the institutions in addressing bottlenecks to impart quality education to its students?

EmpowerU provides various solutions that assist institutions in addressing complex issues with real-time analysis and evaluation to impart quality education. It is developed and implemented on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) framework after a thorough research on users from ground level to top-level decision makers. It helps in addressing real-time challenges in government schools of India.

It performs real-time Monitoring and Evaluation of each of the thousands of schools in a State using mobile application enabled with Geofencing which works even in rural schools lacking internet connectivity.

The Analytical Web Dashboard provides instant Analysis and Data-Driven Decision Making through Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

EmpowerU is currently implemented in 5,500 schools of Giridih and Kandhamal Districts resulting into improving the attendance of teachers from around 58 per cent to more than 90 per cent. Mid Day Meal (MDM) serving also improved from around 75 per cent to more than 90 per cent. Around 6,000 teachers and approximately 1,20,000 students are monitored every day.

Promorph solutions developed an application integrated with data to offer realtime analysis. In the beginning, it was a webbased model that gave the comprehensive and real-time view of sessions in the classrooms.

Most of your clients are government institutions, what are the major challenges in dealing with them?

Despite several schemes to improve technology usage in the country, the idea of using technology and analytics to solve societal problems is not acceptable to everyone. Official and administrators tend to address complex challenges through human intervention, organising trainings and making strict laws. But, such steps are not effective. Successful execution of schemes and policies requires proper monitoring at ground level which can be easily done through technology.

Another challenge that we come across is not getting the correct data for projects we intend to do. The major reason behind this can be the traditional practices of data collection. As data plays a critical role for any project, we do baseline surveys on our own.

How are the challenges addressed by EmpowerU?

EmpowerU aims to redefine the ways educational institutes are managed. The solution facilitates monitoring and analysis of different facets of institutes’ operations. The analytical capabilities generate insights and supports Data Driven Decision Making for achieving Good Governance, Quality Education, Cost Effective Operations, Efficient Time Utilisation and Revenue Generation. It also provides inbuilt intelligence system that automatically detects issues and takes smart action. The contemporary products in education domain especially automation solutions failed to address above mentioned issues critical to an educational institute.

Please describe about the vision and mission of EmpowerU for upcoming years.

The Vision of EmpowerU is to expand the solutions to all the government schools in the districts of various States like Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Orissa. We are also looking forward to expand across India impacting millions of students. EmpowerU is looking forward to harnessing new age technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics for creating data architecture, predictive models, and algorithms for educational data mining (EDM). It will help improving the efficiency of education and teaching methodologies. Also, similar technology can be used to address the challenges of other domains like Healthcare & Nutrition, Anganwadi etc. The mission of EmpowerU is to drive social change and aims to impact lives of two million students by 2020.

MVGR: Empowering Society Through Engineering Education

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Akash

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July 14, 2018

MVGR College of Engineering strives to become a center par excellence for technical education where aspiring students can be transformed into skilled and well-rounded professionals with strong understanding of fundamentals, says Dr K V L Raju, Principal, MVGR Engineering College, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What are the innovative ways adopted by MVGR College of Engineering to improve the teaching-learning processes?

Dr K V L Raju, Principal, MVGR Engineering College

The teaching-learning processes have changed a lot from traditional methods. The methodologies are now inclined more towards using the Information Communication Technology (ICT). Being an autonomous college, we have the liberty to adopt project based learning which is one of the major differences we are offering. Nowadays, the learning is no more teacher-centric, it is more student-centred. It is so because whatever we are teaching in the classroom is already available to students in the form of Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) or other resources on Internet. We are encouraging students to use these resources as it helps in making the classroom environment more engaging and students are also enjoy such type of learning.

How the teachers are encouraged to get trained in latest technologies and to adopt the latest practices?

It is very important for teachers to be equipped with the latest technologies and practices as only then they can encourage students for the same. To remain updated with the latest technologies, we have made policy for teachers 2-3 years back under which they have to do training under a professor of a national or international institute of global repute. Teachers are encouraged to take MOOCs so that later they can encourage their students for the same. Teachers in our institute also undergo industry internship to make the classroom learning more meaningful and industry relevant.

It is important for students to be skilled as per the industry requirements, how MVGR helps its students in acquiring industry relevant skills?

Along with industry visits and internships, we have a strong base of alumni working in various parts of the country and abroad. The alumni are having enriched experience of their respective fields and we help students to see the world through the eyes of our previous students. We leverage the experience of our alumni in getting students hands-on experience in latest technology and tools. We encourage them to adopt the best industry experience. Other than that we have collaborated with various industries for students’ training. Siemens is providing the training to our students in electrical machines. We have a collaborated with organisations like Microsoft, TCS etc. Every department has collaborated with respective industries to skill students as per the industry requirements. Industry collaborations are also helping us to conduct various skill based certification programmes other than the academic programmes.

We have four to five industry ready laboratories not the academic laboratories. The institute is also among the 20 member institutions under Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) for skill training of students.

Education in the Western developed countries are meant for empowerment not for the employment alone. But in case of India, the situation is totally different as the focus is on employment

What methodologies are adopted in your college for better placement of students and to encourage them for entrepreneurship?

The institution believes in holistic development of students. We have sports clubs, cultural clubs, NCC and NSS to encourage students to participate in various activities other than the studies. These co-curricular activities make them more employable. Co-curricular activities which are complimentary to academic learning like workshops, conferences and symposiums shape the students well and encourage them to showcase their classroom learning to the outside world. Each of the department in the institute has a professional club which helps its students to bridge the industry-academia gap. These clubs identify the gap areas among students and suggest measures to bridge them. We conduct classes for aptitude, language and communication for students and also provide them platforms to self assess and later engage themselves in the activities for a better personality.

In last three years, there is a buzz for innovation and start-up and it is good as it will help in generating wealth and employment opportunities to the students. We have an incubation centre which is recognised by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). People from ministries, leading corporate and banks are available for students to support and guide them in their initiatives. Around 90 per cent of the children are interested for jobs but to the rest 10 per cent who are interested for start-up, we guide them and support them in their ventures.

With such a large number of institutions in India, very few are able to make it to the top list of global institutions, what are the improvement areas we need to focus on?

Education in the Western developed countries are meant for empowerment not for the employment alone. But in case of India, the situation is totally different as the focus is on employment. Around two decades ago, the number of institutions India having, was lesser than the demand. But suddenly there is mushrooming of institutions which are affecting the quality of higher education. The situation may stabilise in coming years but currently it is far worse than that of developed countries.

Another reason of degraded higher education quality in India is that the institution and industries work in isolation. Until and unless the two will work together to bridge the gap, it is difficult to bring the education standards at par with the global standards.

VGCF: Transforming Lives through Skill-Based Education

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Akash

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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

News

By

Akash

-

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

News

By

Akash

-

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

By

Akash

-

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.

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