In a bid to make the tedious subject of Geography into an interactive one, the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) has asked all affiliated schools to ensure the initiation of its web portal, a statement said.
Named ‘School Bhuvan’, the web portal will provide map-based learning to bring awareness among the students about natural resources, environment and their role in sustainable development. It is an initiative of Bhuvan – NRSC/ISRO based on the syllabus of NCERT, said a statement issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
“Geography is comparatively easy, but only those students who find working on maps interesting wish to take up this subject at the higher level. This web portal will surely attract a lot of students, and their knowledge will also increase,” says a geography teacher at a government model senior secondary school .
Kavita Das, Principal, St John’s School, said, “With this web portal, geography will become interesting. It will act as an educative video game for students since they will get to know the results while working on it. It will be a hands-on experience without teachers having to dictate anything. The best part is that the web portal takes you to the main link of the MHRD, which has a lot of things for students to learn about from across the country.”
Sashwati Banerjee, Managing Director, Sesame Workshop in India
New-age learning has expanded with organisations like Sesame Workshop in India’s (SWI) flagship initiative Galli Galli Sim Sim, which uses the power of muppets and media to help children be ready for school and for life, shares Sashwati Banerjee, Managing Director, Sesame Workshop in India while in conversation with Jessy Iype of Elets News Network (ENN)
What are the digital initiatives undertaken by Sesame Workshop in India?
Sesame Workshop in India’s (SWI) flagship initiative Galli Galli Sim Sim uses the power of muppets and media to help children be ready for school and for life. A vast body of research has demonstrated that children who participate in high-quality early childhood programmes are more successful throughout their school career, and are more competent socially and emotionally. They show better verbal, intellectual and physical development during early childhood than children who are not enrolled in similar programmes. India is home to 164 million children in the age group 0 – 6, of which 81.2 million children do not have access to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). With a large education deficit among primary school children (6-8 years), there is a critical need to address how early education can be given more prominence in the country.
SWI uses both traditional, new emerging media and combines it with fun and engaging content to connect with children that are appropriate to help them get ready for school and life. Research has demonstrated that children exposed to the Galli Galli Sim Sim content on TV, print, radio or digital are twice more school ready, have improved language and literacy skills, improved understanding and practices for healthy behavior and are pro-social skills.
With India becoming more and more digital savvy – SWI is looking at ways to engage children through technology to improve access to high quality early childhood education and development. We are using technology in various ways to enhance the learning experience of both children and educators. Right from developing educational yet entertaining digital games and apps to training teachers and facilitators to monitoring the impact of interventions, technology is a part and parcel of all the work that we do. Given the overall limitations of access to high end devices as well as affordability of data, we are also working with low cost technologies such as radio, interactive voice response system (IVRS) and feature phone based programs for last mile connectivity.
SWI has undertaken various initiatives to provide access to quality education to children through digital tools.
The Play ‘n’ Learn initiative is an example which proves how technology can accelerate learning outcomes of children. Wherein SWI and Qualcomm Wireless Reach combined enhances creative skills, market reach, and cutting-edge technology to introduce educational yet entertaining digital games loaded on smartphones and tablets to primary grade children (6 to 8 years).
The Radiophone Project extended the reach of GGSS further into communities and areas with little or no access to entertaining and educational content, especially for young children. Through this initiative, SWI successfully merged radio and telephone technologies to address the educational needs of disenfranchised children. The project showcased if children are provided with access to engaging content through simple tools can improve their educational and developmental outcomes. Technology need not be high end always; to reach out to deeper communities we need to look at affordable and accessible options.
We are currently working on a programme to address the critical need for accessible books in mother tongue languages. The project creates, hosts, and distributes human narrated audio content in Marathi, the language primarily spoken in the Maharashtra community.
Beyond education, SWI lays emphasis on child protection and safety, empowerment of children, positive role modeling, health and hygiene, sanitation, financial knowledge, mutual respect and tolerance, and parent involvement. In this context, various community outreach programs are undertaken across various states including Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, West Bengal and Rajasthan.
What all challenges SWI faced while undertaking these initiatives?
While we are using digital technology to engage and educate young children, it comes with inherent challenges. Usually it’s infrastructural and environmental issues like connectivity and bandwidth, affordable devices, access to electricity etc. Often, teachers are hesitant to adopt new technology as they themselves aren’t very comfortable in using smartphones and tablets. In many communities, young children are the first learners in the family. As a result, they are not able to go back to their parents in case of any query.
However, even with all the limitations, we have seen the huge potential of technology as a long-term, large-scale supplement to the existing educational offerings available to young children.
What contribution can the organisation garner to the new age of pre-school learning?
Early childhood sets the foundations for life. Research has proven that the brain forms as many as 700 neural connections per second before the age of five. Access to high-quality education at this age effectively impacts the learning abilities of children later during their primary, middle and higher education. Still ECCE is not recognised as a compulsory provision by RTE though it urges states to provide free pre-school education for children above three years. The Government of India also approved the national Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy in 2013. However, despite these initiatives, there are still substantial numbers of children not enrolled in preschools, or those who show poor learning skills in early grades. Hence, building school readiness is still a huge challenge in India.
In 2012, Sesame Workshop entered the preschool education space with the launch of Sesame Schoolhouse which is setting a new standard for early childhood education through the unique preschool and after-school programmes. The curriculum and methodology at Sesame Street Preschools integrate hands-on project-based learning, with creative approaches to foster critical thinking and problem solving, laying a strong foundation to promote lifelong learning.
Viewpoints on digitisation in learning.
Education sector in India has long awaited an overhaul to meet the growing demand for a contemporary education system that is accessible to all. Children and youth in India have in the last decade become increasingly technology-driven, revealing considerable potential and readiness to imbibe and learn using digital media. Digitisation through multimedia content, real-time 3D content and interactive applications will make teaching interactive and innovative. With an estimated smartphone penetration of 13 per cent (158 million) as of July 2014, mobile technology also provides a significant opportunity to expand the scope. A multi-sectoral partnership involving state government, content experts, technology firms, educators is required to come together to bridge connectivity and accessibility issues.
Digital India has been envisioned as an ambitious umbrella programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. We are glad to see that the Prime Minister has introduced initiatives like E- education, E- basta, Nand Ghar which will impart education using technologies like smartphones, mobile apps and Internet services. Research conducted as part of our Play ‘n’ Learn initiative has demonstrated that children in classes 1 and 2 who were provided with games on digital devices, both in classrooms and at homes showed significant gains in their Hindi language, comprehension and numeracy skills amongst others. Further the games improved attendance and helped with teacher’s becoming more familiar with technology as a teaching tool. The challenge has always been how the technology will get adopted to make a significant difference – and with the various digital initiatives that the government has launched, we are hopeful that it will help strengthen access to technology especially in government schools and preschools.
Future goals and agenda of the organisation, where all it has expanded?
The vision of SWI is to use the power of muppets and media to help children achieve their highest potential. To us Galli Galli Sim Sim is not just another television show – it’s a movement to ensure that all children in India have access to high-quality early childhood education, to provide the underprivileged and marginalised children the same advantage in their critical development period as the privileged, to use existing media vehicles and new technology to reach population that have no access to preschool education.
SWI plans to extend the learning of our digital initiatives and introduce similar technology-based programs in other parts of the country to bridge the learning deficit. Most of the programs have the potential to be scaled-up to different states for a larger impact. Integrating content in the games and introducing them parallel with the NCERT and/ or state-level curricula would create greater consonance and facilitate the uptake of the digital intervention.
For bringing about digital revolution in the education sector, tech companies have to take the lead and help enable a strong ecosystem by providing technology-driven educational devices which should be backed by creative and engaging content provided by organisations like ours. This calls for a number of stakeholders across the country to come together and support this initiative and thereby strengthen the education sector in India.
In an effort to uplift the young women living in urban slum clusters and hone their skills, Ericsson India in collaboration with Plan India launched three ‘Ericsson Digital Learning Centers’ on Friday in Delhi. Ericsson is further planning to set up 12 more centres in Delhi and NCR as a part of its global education initiative ‘Connect to Learn’ by the first quarter of 2016.
The first Digital Learning Centre for young women was inaugurated at Dwarka by Manoj Dawane, Head of Technology, Government and Industry Relations, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson India and Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, Plan India,followed by the launch of two Centers in the urban clusters of Holambi Kalan and Rangpuri Pahari, respectively. The launch took place in the presence of the local community and representatives of Ericsson India and Plan India, the implementing partner for this Project.
These Centers offer technology-based solutions to provide education to women of 15-25 years age-group within their own communities, thereby overcoming the challenge of limited mobility. The Centers will also provide tutorial support on subjects like Mathematics, Science and English. In addition to educational content, the project aims to raise awareness amongst the girls on issues related to their safety and security.
Speaking on the occasion, Dawane said, “As a leading advocate of ‘Technology for Good’, we believe in the transformative potential of ICT. Our partnership with Plan India is based on the recognition of the important link between limited mobility of women in India and their ability to access progressive learning opportunities. By using ICT, we are providing access to learning and education to the young women within their own community. This Project is likely to benefit around 15,000 women over the next three years.”
The learning modules that are being employed by trainers have been standardised in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Education Department of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and other knowledge platforms.
Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, Plan India said, “We have been implementing programmes that engage, equip and enable girls of all ages to acquire adequate skills and knowledge to succeed in life. This partnership will enable young women from urban slum clusters access best learning opportunities within their own communities.”
To improve the quality of education and taking teaching to the next level, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has rolled out online teacher training programmes in Maharashtra, making it easier for the teachers to engage as per their needs.
The government can keep the track of the number of teachers taking the training programme through online registration process. Also the result of the students will also give an idea on whether the performance of the educator has been improved after the course.
SCERT has been conducted the training programmes for teachers since its inception. These training are conducted by the SCERT experts in Pune and other metro cities. Representatives from different locations attend these sessions and become trainers at their local district level.
This online format will help the teachers to take courses directly from the experts at any time suitable to them. Currently, training courses are available in language and mathematics teaching at 10 levels. SCERT is creating more modules to cover other subjects and include aspects like personality development and leadership. The objective of the online course is to empower the teachers with expertise to be used more effectively in class.
Victoria University Wellington from New Zealand has launched post graduated courses in International Education: Issues and trends, in theory, policy and practice. A first of its kind online course can be taken as part of Victoria’s Masters in Education (180 points) with options to complete a post-graduate certificate (60 points) and Post graduate Diploma (120 points).
The first course will start from 16 November 2015 and finishes on 12 February, 2016. Course co-lecturer Chris Beard said, “The course is tailored for educators, officials and professionals whose work depends on, or it is shaped by international education. It is designed to aid critical enquiry and evidence-based practice in an emerging field that is of increasing relevance to schools and tertiary education providers.”
The course will assist international programme managers, principals, directors of study, ministry officials, teachers and lecturers who deal with significant numbers of international students and student support professionals. It provides an introduction to international developments in international education, key concepts with application to local contexts, fundamentals of intercultural communication and critical reflection on practice.
The online courses offered by the University can be taken alongside international education to complete these qualifications. The courses include Educational Leadership, research methods, teaching linguistically diverse students and effective mentoring and coaching.
Exploring a different gamut of the education gamut, Devsurabhee Yaduvanshi shares her journey of experiential learning
Historically, education in India has been highly personalized, holistic and knowledge-centric. A vital element of this system was the all-round development, a parallel to the renaissance education, which involved education not only in the sciences but also the arts, languages and religious studies. This not only provided students the opportunity to cherish their childhoods with free abandon, but also acquire important life skills and a keen appreciation for all finer aspects of life. One may however ask, what is the need for venturing into so many seemingly unrelated fields in the context of our fast-paced, modern world, which in most cases requires not only specialization, but also super-specialization?
The answer lies in the wisdom of a balanced, all-round development, where individuals inculcate numerous assistive skills but specialise in those that are their core strengths. This is majorly overlooked in current and highly specialized education systems. Although replication of the Gurukul system cannot practically cater to competitive pressures of the modern, professional world, home and/or alternative schooling as close substitutes to providing specialized education holistically through the flexibility of pursuing numerous avenues at once.
This brings to the fore two basic tenets, which I have experienced personally, and they are volition and responsibility. While home schooling, through volition I acquired voluntary interest in setting my own learning targets and the pace at which I would cover the same. This ensured that I explored various syllabi out of interest, which is a stark contrast to the involuntary, rote learning in formal schooling. It also made me more responsible in taking charge of my education single-handedly, and with minimum teacher supervision and guidance. Through my alternative primary education in Mirambika and high school education through home schooling, I realised that human learning in formative years needs to be a continuous and not a part-time process that takes place between fixed timings in a particular day. I still have that basic curiosity that children have, which is suppressed when they are fed with information that they need to retain in order to pass through various stages.
They clearly miss out on the finer aspects of learning from nature and the surroundings, or simply through asking questions. Sadly, and most people would agree, questioning beyond a certain point is not promoted in classrooms, since teachers do not want to deal with extra load of answering probing questions from fertile, young minds. This is directly linked to responsibility, and as a result of the aforementioned, learning becomes limited to what the teacher metes out from the syllabus and what students need to learn to effectively achieve higher marks, and not gain knowledge.
In the context of the Indian education system, competition and high marks serve the purpose of achieving quantity over quality, and gets students from point A to point B, however, at what cost? No doubt formal education has its inherent benefits, but, continuous, all-round, and holistic personality development is certainly not one of them. I had the opportunity of attending a formal school for a total of four days, after which I gave up. Having spent my entire childhood climbing trees, playing, and being innocent, I was never worried about the race of achieving that which is in the very distant future. How many children today climb trees, play in the sand, or sing with abandon anymore? Sadly, the answer is a dismally small and decreasing percentage. I was amazed to discover that most students today have to take tuitions after school from a very young age, in order to cope with their portions; logically, I had experienced my school-timings were effective enough for this purpose.
However, it is understandable that low teacher to student ratios and time constraints in formal schools majorly restrict the dissemination process, which in turn puts the pressure of completing portions on students, who then have to sacrifice their leisure time on tuitions. Home and alternative schooling on the other hand provided me the means of combining structured syllabi with the freedom to develop skills such as Piano, Hindustani and Carnatic Vocal, Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Theatre, Painting, etc. Having studied 6-8th grade CBSE, ICSE and Goa State Board syllabus and later Cambridge CIE for 9-12th grades, I had flexible learning options, providing me with the opportunity and desire to explore more than what I would have in a formal school. It equally empowered me to not only think outside the box, but also do away with the box altogether. The feeling of being entirely responsible for my own education was daunting, yet immensely empowering at the same time. This made itself evident when I became a part of a formal university in Dubai at the postgraduate level, for the first time in my life, and performed really well as a team player as well as an individual. Therefore, I feel all humans are unique and require their own pace of learning, in order to blossom and truly internalise the knowledge they receive. The process of discovering my strengths and weaknesses not only prepared me to face the world, but also understand myself and my responsibility towards society as an important stakeholder.
This in my observation, is inherently a basic difference of perception between students who are taught to only receive information as consumers and those who seek answers to questions that boggle them as active participants. However, both these systems come with their set of challenges, which become magnified in the Indian context. Firstly, ever since the implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE), there has been an ongoing debate about the legality of the home schooling and alternative education systems, as it contravenes with the right to formal education for every child. Secondly, in practice, both systems require higher levels of parental involvement, where mostly both parents are busy working to make ends meet in a highly unsupportive economic environment as that of India, in addition to transition of family structures, from joint to nuclear. Thirdly, although it is catching up majorly in large cities, there is still widespread social stigma attached with educating children at home or in alternative schools, as it is taken as a sign of abnormality or slowness of the student in coping with pressures of the formal education system.
Many a time, my family has had to face numerous probing and uncomfortable questions about my learning capabilities, which is sad. Despite all these challenges, I feel there is an inherent need of adopting a more quality-oriented approach to education in India, as we are a nation of high potential people, who can blossom beautifully if given the right kind of opportunities and personalized education through home or alternative style of schooling. We as a nation produce the maximum number of engineers and doctors, but what percentage is actually happy with their career choice and what would they have achieved, if they had the chance to pursue their passion? This is a question worth considering, as in life, it finally doesn’t matter what you do, but how you do it.
The author is Business
Expansion Manager
(Middle East-Asia)
at the Office of Dr. D Karthikeyan, Pvt. Ltd.
The ongoing debate for students to enhance their developing skills for the industrial demands of the market has been doing the rounds for sometime now. And to ensure the gap of the skill development is bridged, the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani launched the National Web Portal as a promotion for the National Apprenticeship Scheme for Graduates, Diploma holders and 10+2 pass-outs vocational certificate holders.
The Union Minister also released a logo and a slogan ‘Sashakt Yuva, Samarth Bharat’ for the National Web Portal.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development implements the apprenticeship training scheme for one year through Board of Apprenticeship Training (BOATs)/Board of Practical Training (BOPT) located at Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur and Kolkata, informed Irani.
“This portal enables door step delivery of service, streamlines processes and saves time for students,” she said.
The minister added that the portal through the mechanism of internal complaints committee would offer security for women at workplace and ensure grievance redressal for the apprentice.
The portal will enable viable contract for students and industry partnership, Irani said.
The Union Minister has asked the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to come together to expand the outreach and exposure especially for class XI and XII students.
According to the minister, the web portals of regional BOATs/BOPT have been integrated and data of all the regional BOATs/BOPT has been transferred to the National Web Portal.
“There has been a vacuum in obtaining reliable data at the central level about the needs of students who wish to join Apprenticeship Training. The National Web Portal will now ensure seamless connectivity with all stake holders including students, establishments and technical institutions across the country for transparent administration through e-Governance. It will also be a multilingual platform which currently engages with the user in Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and Hindi,” she informed.
Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani, exhorted the directors of Jan Shikshan Sansthans to draw a skill map of the district in which they are located and then draw a specific plan which may be called My District – My Plan.
Present in the Orientation workshop organised by National Literacy Mission, Irani said, “My District-My Plan should also cover plan to meet literacy requirements of non literates falling in the age group of 40 to 60 years.”
She further added that JSS should formulate their District Plan by 1st October, 2015 with clear timelines for completion of various components of the Plan and then it should be uploaded along with the photograph of their Directors on the National Portal. The Portal will be launched as a Deepawali gift this year.
Touching the role of JSSs in the field of adult literacy and skill development, she stressed that as skill requirements vary from district to district there cannot be a uniform solution for all the districts. The Union Minister of HRD conveyed her appreciation for commendable contribution made by JSSs in mobilisation of people to avail the benefits of Jan Dhan Yojana and Suraksha Bima Yojana launched by the Prime Minister. She said that in case any bank was not cooperating with Director of JSSs in promotion of these schemes, such instances may be brought to her notice and she would personally speak to the concerned bank for its immediate solution.
While welcoming the Union Minister, Director General (NLMA) briefly explained that the workshop was being organised for the orientation of the Directors mainly on the new initiatives of the government in the various fields including skill development, social security, financial inclusion etc. and the manner in which Jan Shikshan Santhans are required to associate themselves with these initiatives. He also apprised the Union Minister about the efforts made by JSSs in mobilisation of their target group for the social security schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana & Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.
In a most awaited move, the Supreme Court has asked the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) to assess and grade the 41 deemed universities, which were sought to be de-recognised (on the basis of the Tandon Committee report), based on the 2012 Regulations of NAAC, without considering the 2010 UGC Regulations.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant gave this direction after senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for a few DUs, submitted that the DUs concerned had not sent their self-appraisal report of compliance with the 2010 UGC Regulations, which had been quashed by two high courts. He said since the appeal is pending in the apex court, assessment should not be done on UGC regulations.
The bench in its order took note of the submissions made on behalf of the government and consulting all the stake-holders, — the All-India Council for Technical Education, UGC, National Assessment and Accreditation Council and National Board of Accreditation — for evolving new guidelines and framing statutory rules in three months.
Prof. R. Sethuraman, vice-chancellor of SASTRA University, appreciated the move and said: “The Supreme Court has rightly nailed the coffin by ignoring the Tandon Committee report and ordering NAAC to conduct inspection and submit its report.”
“The government of India ignored the statutorily-empowered NAAC and relied on the arbitrary grades of the Tandon Committee which also upgraded from B to A deemed universities with unauthorised off-campus. The 9th and 10th Five-Year Plans and the UGC’s gazette notification dated January 19, 2013 had clearly delegated powers of conducting inspection and awarding grades by NAAC. The action of constituting the Tandon Committee and its report is superfluous, and the direction of the Supreme Court asking NAAC to conduct accreditation is in the larger interest of higher education,” said Sethuraman.
The bench directed the NAAC to complete the gradation/accreditation in eight weeks and said the DUs concerned should send the self-appraisal reports in 10 days and directed the matter to be listed for further hearing on November 19.
In a bid to ensure that advanced learning through digital education is practiced in schools, the Tamilnadu B.Ed Computer Science Teachers Association have demanded implementation of ICT-enabled education from Class VI to X.
Premkumar from the association opined that the Samacheer Kalvi mandate says that ICT is compulsory, but is not implemented in most schools.
“Initially, computer science was being taught to these students, but even this stopped six months after implementation,” he said. “The government should strengthen their schools to put them on par with private schools that introduce computer science as a subject for the younger classes,” he added.
The association is also demanding that the Teacher Eligibility Test examination allow teachers with a B.Sc Computer Science and a B.Ed qualification to appear for the examination.
“Although B.Ed colleges allow people with a B.Sc computer science to complete their B.Ed, we are not allowed to appear for the TET, which limits our scope of getting jobs,” K. Punitha, another member said.
Even in Class XI and XII, the computer science stream is taught by temporary teachers who are not B. Ed Qualified, she added.
The group had recently staged a protest regarding the cause near Chepauk in the state.
In a bid to make the tedious subject of Geography into an interactive one, the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) has asked all affiliated schools to ensure the initiation of its web portal, a statement said.
Historically, education in India has been highly personalized, holistic and knowledge-centric. A vital element of this system was the all-round development, a parallel to the renaissance education, which involved education not only in the sciences but also the arts, languages and religious studies. This not only provided students the opportunity to cherish their childhoods with free abandon, but also acquire important life skills and a keen appreciation for all finer aspects of life. One may however ask, what is the need for venturing into so many seemingly unrelated fields in the context of our fast-paced, modern world, which in most cases requires not only specialization, but also super-specialization?
people would agree, questioning beyond a certain point is not promoted in classrooms, since teachers do not want to deal with extra load of answering probing questions from fertile, young minds. This is directly linked to responsibility, and as a result of the aforementioned, learning becomes limited to what the teacher metes out from the syllabus and what students need to learn to effectively achieve higher marks, and not gain knowledge.
made itself evident when I became a part of a formal university in Dubai at the postgraduate level, for the first time in my life, and performed really well as a team player as well as an individual. Therefore, I feel all humans are unique and require their own pace of learning, in order to blossom and truly internalise the knowledge they receive. The process of discovering my strengths and weaknesses not only prepared me to face the world, but also understand myself and my responsibility towards society as an important stakeholder.
