Editorial

Let Schools Bloom

Industry Speak

Are you afraid of using an LMS?

‘Groundwork Should Begin Early’

Making Learning Simpler

Give your institute the power of Applane Education

Lead Feature

Boon or Bane?

Special feature

Caught in the Cauldron

Leader Speak

Youth Theatre: Developmental Drama for Young Adults

Event Report

A Prescription for the Future

Top Schools of India

Methodology

How we Ranked them

Top Schools in Bengaluru

Top Schools in Haryana – Chandigarh

Top Schools in Chennai

Top Schools in Delhi/ NCR

The Horizon School, Calicut

Top Schools in Haryana-Gurgaon

Top Schools in Hyderabad

Top Schools in West Bengal – Kolkata

Top Schools in Mumbai

Top Schools in Haryana

Top Schools in Himachal Pradesh

Top Schools in Jammu and Kashmir

Top Schools in Punjab

Top Schools in Uttarakhand

Top Schools in Uttar Pradesh

Top Schools in Andhra Pradesh

Top Schools in Telangana

Shalom Hills Group of Schools

Top Schools in Karnataka

Top Schools in Kerala

Top Schools in Tamil Nadu

Top Schools in Bihar – Patna

Top Schools in Jharkhand

Top Schools in ORISSA

Top Schools in West Bengal

Top Schools in North-East India

Top Schools in Goa

Top Schools in Gujarat

Top Schools in Rajasthan

Top Schools in Maharashtra

Top Schools in Chattisgarh

Top Schools in Union Territories

When a large number of people start using a service, it is only natural that they discover challenges as well as benefits. Technology in education is no different. It has been subjected to intense scrutiny since its influx into the world of learning. We sometimes see technology with a halo, a cure-all for all human inconveniences. And when it fails to meet our lofty expectations, we quickly dismiss it.

Are we expecting too much?
Every challenge varies from user to user. It’s almost a philosophical thought, but a single LMS, or any other technological service for that matter, can’t satisfy everyone. But this should not stop LMS providers from striving for perfection when designing and building their products.

Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. It is true that learning can’t be achieved with technology alone. But the amount of dependence we have on technology renders it impossible for an online teacher, for example, to not expect to marvel and flourish along with it.

Beware of Insensitive Technology!
There is only one reason the online community is dissatisfied with LMS providers. Insensitivity. Feedback indicates providers exhibit a sheer lack of understanding for what teachers want, and what enterprises want, when it comes to incorporating an LMS. You can’t promise your customers a double-decker hamburger and not put in that extra patty!

Technology, when it was simply a fancy toy, needn’t have delivered so much in terms of facilitating something as comprehensive and far-reaching as learning. But looking at it today, I would oppose any thought that undermines the significance and impact technology is making on the e-learning industry. Where money, time and energies of the stakeholders are involved, we cannot help but look at technology as a panacea for poor e-learning.

Relying on a Single Product Case in point, you buy an LMS for a huge amount of money. You spend a ton of time and resources on training. Inevitably issues arise, but over a period of time, your employees acclimatise to the new system and things start working out.

Would you then, for the sake of experimenting and looking out for the perfect LMS, be willing to start all over again with another system?

As it is, change is difficult. And for big enterprises/institutions, it is very challenging indeed. Again, reiterating what I already said, if LMS providers focus on the requirements of the end users, it becomes easier for everyone.

Taking care of the communication factor
Academic LMS systems help facilitate collaboration and student-to-instructor communication opportunities, while the corporate systems overlook it. That is, in most cases, an LMS mis-feature.

Learning Management Systems like the one offered by WizIQ have an incorporated feature for discussions called ‘Course-feed’. It is not sold as a separate plugin or component. It comes built into the LMS out-of-the-box, and is one of the most-loved features of the WizIQ LMS.

A useless deal after all?
Many LMS providers fail to convey the essence of their product. In many cases, money gets spent but the organizations ends up not using the service. When companies fail to tell users what they really offer, users fail to identify the exact point of implementation of the product within their organizations. Before you jump on the LMS bandwagon, ask yourself if you have an admin to manage it (including the design and implementation)? Do you have content to share? If you purchase content is your culture the type that will take advantage of it? “

With cloud-based LMS platforms, these issues are easily resolved.

What’s WizIQ’s LMS all about? For starters, it goes beyond the obvious reasons for using an LMS. It’s cloudbased and, thanks to our world-class engineering team, never goes out-of-date or stale. It is ever-changing, ever-improving with free updates delivered all the time. It is not only ideal for academic use, but also delivers perfectly on training requirements for corporations and enterprises.

But the story doesn’t end with simply the feature list. WizIQ Support is 24X7 and purely human. No matter where you are, we take your issue seriously. So you know that we shall be on it anytime of the day!

For any query, drop an email to Kalyan, at kalyan@wiziq.com or academics@wiziq.com

Private schools in India have managed to fill the void left by government measures in school education to a large extent. But how far can it go towards achieving the goals that education seeks to achieve in today’s knowledge economy? Elets News Network reads the fine print

Attaining sustainable all round development, the central imperative in today’s globalised world, requires certain fundamental pillars in place. Education is one such pillar without which any future growth is inconceivable. To imagine growth with a large chunk of the country bounded in illiteracy is just impossible; more so in today’s information based society where education is the key to a whole world of opportunities. History has been witness to a whole host of issues in fields of healthcare, economic opportunity, women empowerment and community building that can be traced purely to lack of proper education. Despite a rich history of education in India, the country is still plagued with high levels of illiteracy and drop-outs. The scenario in many ways is scary.

Kavisha Khurana Vij
Director, The Chintels School
“Our text books are only teaching them what to think and not how to think. Let the education be such that prepares our children for  tomorrow. Our children can’t change history (they can always learn from it) but they can make the future.”

The history of education as it stands today stems from the time when Lord Maculay proposed in the 20th century that Indians should attain modern education to come out of their traditional thoughts, interests, intelligence and morals. While that speech made by Macaulay has had different takes, perhaps it is time we focus on real challenges that face our system and state of primary education today. On its part, the government has initiated several schemes and programmes to improve the scenario and funds have also been allocated for the same. However, the impact of these measures is not one would expect.

That government schools have failed to address the rising demand for education would be to state the obvious. The state of government schools in India in terms of infrastructure, discipline, teachers and several other factors is miserable and there are no doubts about it. There are large gaps that have existed due to the government’s failure to address issues that have adversely affected the state of education in India in general. It is this gap (supplemented by a glaring disparity between the scale and quality required in education and the government’s ability to provide for it) that has led to the rise of private schools in big cities but also in small towns.

When it comes to the perceptions regarding private schools in India, it has traditionally been considered to be the exclusive premise of children who hail from rich families, have big money to spend and have had generations exposed to good education. However, the actual scenario is different from popular perception. Private schools today exist not just in cities but also in small towns and tier II, III and IV cities. In fact, had it not been for the emergence of private schools in the country, much of the population entering formal education would otherwise have remained uneducated.

Carl Laurie
Principal, Christ Church School, Mumbai
“The generation we are dealing with are natives of the IT age. It’s here to stay and to grow. So we have to accept it; and yes, try and make best use of it. This is the knowledge age, and no one will deny that technology is the best tool to acquire, test, share and contribute to this knowledge bank.”

 The contribution of private schools in improving the overall scenario is imminent and their share is only set to increase in coming years. Consider the following figures in this case. Number of government schools currently stands at 1.1 million with an enrolment of 153 million students. In contrast, the number of private schools stands at 3,39,000 with an enrolment of 100 million. To achieve the abovementioned figures, India will need an additional 130,000 private schools by 2022. The share of private schools enrolment is estimated to be 55-60 per cent in 2022 getting 500-550 students per new school. In rural India, 24 to 40 per cent of children are currently enrolled in private schools. In poor urban areas, the figure is at least 65 per cent.

The role that private schools in India need to play is amply clear from our Plan documents. What remains to be seen is the path we take to achieve it. There is a clear school of thought that argues that India’s mad rush to achieve high GER can be a risky proposition. And there is merit to this argument. Just like higher education is not just about the number of universities, school education is not just about schools. If there is one thing that it is about, it is changing the discourse of development. Efforts to ensure access to quality and affordable education, thus, must take centrestage.

James Tooley, in his book titled ‘The Beautiful Tree’ says that development experts are mostly either unaware of the existence of low-cost private schools, or they criticise them on a few main grounds, including that the teachers are uncertified and low-paid, that the facilities are inadequate, and the education received is of low quality. However, there is no reason to believe that low-cost private schools are in general any worse than the public schools in these facets. First, certified public school teachers frequently ignore or abandon their classes altogether, with major absenteeism problems. As such, their certification is not doing the students much good. The lower pay of private school teachers is in line with what the market will bear and keeps this form of private education sustainable. More-over, the private school teachers are more often residents of the villages and towns in which they work, which beneficially decrease the “social distance” between them and their students. As for facilities, it is simply unreasonable to insist that schools in these areas must have, for instance, playgrounds of a certain size or a certain number of toilets. These amenities are not congruent with the standards of living for the area and are prohibitively costly for private schools (besides, many public schools lack them as well). As for the education being of low quality, Tooley forcefully argues that this criticism of low-cost private schools mostly just betrays experts’ distrust of poor parents’ judgment, or even contempt for them. Experts assume that parents who pay for a service that they can get for free must be getting taken advantage of by private school proprietors. However, the test scores from Tooley’s research, as well as his team’s observational accounts of public and private schools, clearly vindicate these parents’ judgment. Low cost private schools are, in fact, often better than public schools.

Jitendra Nath Das
Director, NPS International School, Guwahati
“To ensure the safety of students in classroom, we have installed more than 150 CCTV cameras in our campus. Corporal punishment is totally discouraged in our campus, and we take strict measures if any teacher is found inflicting corporal punishment on any student.”

 Students in private schools routinely outperform those in government schools around the world. But do private schools make students better or do they simply attract better students? Most studies find that private schools do attract better students. The question then becomes whether this “cream skimming” effect fully or only partially explains private school performance. It is a difficult question because researchers do not observe all elements of student quality and, due to peer effects, individual student quality enters into aggregate school performance in complicated ways. The question is also difficult because in most places in the world there are many more children in public schools than in private schools. As a result, the private schools have a very large population of students to select from and it is easy to imagine that in one way or another, the private schools select the cream of the students from the public schools.

Anita Brooks
Principal, Mount Litera Zee School DHR, Kolkata
“The NCERT is doing their share of educational research leading to some necessary and effective changes in the curriculum being followed in most schools. Our content team at Zee Learn works painstakingly to create new age pedagogy keeping the need of the hour in mind.”

Pauline Dixon’s meticulously researched ‘International Aid and Private Schools for the Poor’ is both a critique of India’s government schools and a guide to these grassroots alternatives. Dixon, a senior lecturer in international development and education at Newcastle University, starts with a history of Indian schooling. “The country once had a robust system of private schools that covered the majority of children,” she explains, but the British government, in Gandhi’s words, uprooted the “beautiful tree” of indigenous Indian education. Next, Dixon documents the corruption and low performance in the current government-run school system and the extent to which private low-cost schools have filled the gap for poor parents with better facilities, instruction, and performance than their state-run counterparts.

Dixon carefully details studies that demonstrate the low quality of government schools, including such problems as teacher absenteeism, lack of teacher commitment, and inadequate conditions. A World Bank study found teacher absentee rates of over 25 per cent in rural India and over 22 per cent in urban areas. Studies of private schools in Hyderabad, Delhi, and Mahbubnagar, by contrast, found that all private schools including low-cost budget schools had much higher rates of teaching activity and lower rates of teacher absenteeism. Low-cost private schools, including those that have not been formally recognised by the government, are likely to provide better conditions for students, including clean drinking water, toilets for children, electric light, and desks. Both recognised and unrecognised schools were more likely to have computers and televisions for instructional purposes. Another study carried out in 20 rural states found that private schools’ students scored significantly higher on tests as well.

Saadhana Malik
Principal, Mount Litera Zee School, Mohannagar
“There is no denying the fact that in the competitive world, parents tend to pressurise children to perform at the highest levels in all fields. This is the reality of the day. And with both the parents working, the pressure to ensure that their child achieves excellence has shifted to school authorities.”

 In order to assess whether private schools produce the same or higher student achievement than public schools, all these studies take into account the home background of students, since part of the reason for the achievement of private school students typically found is that they often come from better-off or more educated homes. Despite the different methods used, the results of the various studies are roughly similar. They find that a residual advantage remains with students at private schools. However, the extent of this advantage varies between studies, within studies, by subject or by state. For example, in one study on UP, private school students demonstrated a residual achievement advantage over public school students in Maths, but not in language.

Government schools are not known to provide the standard of education and facilities for the students that are available at ones that are aided by them or at private schools. In addition, these schools also see the wards dropping out a few years after starting with their education. Perhaps this is an area that the authorities in question need to look into if the education movement is to attain success in the rural areas. This is because the skill and competence of workforce is something that can make or break a nation’s fortune and India is certainly no exception. Secondly, the government has been hiring many teachers for schools in the rural areas but they are not always reporting in time or not even coming at all for days on end and are yet being paid their full salaries. If the teachers are not coming, then obviously the students do not report to school as well. On the other hand, since students are dropping out, in some places teachers are feeling disillusioned and leaving their jobs as well and this leaves the students who are willing to learn in a lurch. In this way the whole process of education is devalued and it is reduced to a farce. On the other hand, the teachers who are present, are used like clerks and are mostly found to be occupied with government surveys of the likes of cattle census etc. Mid day meal is another addition that consumes a lot of time and resource of government schools. In essence, teachers alone cannot be held responsible for the poor state of government schools.

In the urban areas, the problems are of a different dimension. In the cities and towns there are the private schools that provide the best of facilities to their students and ideally are preparing them for a better future. However, the problem is that their fee structure puts them out of the reach of most and they are understandably not willing to lower the same since they require sufficient capital to procure the facilities they offer to the students. The government aided schools also offer similar facilities and are well equipped to include children from the economically backward sections in the region in which they are based. The same cannot be said of most of the government schools though.

Addressing a conference as Home Minister of India in 2010, P Chidambaram had noted that Naxals had destroyed 71 schools in 2009 alone and that rebuilding them could take years; depriving tribal children of years of education. He had also observed that building a government school ordinarily takes nine years. The long period is on account of excessive bureaucracy and hardly any accountability.

There is one aspect though that is often overlooked. Private schools fare slightly better than their government counterparts in the smaller towns and cities. However, this difference also deters required government initiatives in this sector. Strengthening the public sector in education is also going to be crucial in defining the path that India’s society and economy takes. The private sector may bode well for numbers in terms of enrollment, the overall vision needs to come from the government.

It is often believed that a team is as strong as its weakest member. India lives in the villages. Until the supposed weaker sections of India are empowered, it is better to do away with the thought of India being a superpower.

With over a dozen clearances required before you even begin, setting up and operating a private school in India is no easy task. Elets News Network gets you the details

India’s education scenario needs several reforms to stay relevant with the changing needs of the world. High levels of illiteracy, poor enrolment and lack of quality in education certainly do not bode well for India to claim its rightful place in world order. Addressing this problem first needs a realisation that age-old systems of education cannot continue forever on a mass level. Looking back at the time of independence, the government sector was the major player in the education sector. In contrast, its share today has fallen to 62 per cent. As a consequence, the role of the private sector in increasing access to good quality education, once a distant dream for many poor parents, cannot be ignored.

In the absence of efficient measures by the government to address challenges facing education in India, this is one sector that has fast emerged as one of the most sought after for private investment. Several private bodies and individuals have been enthusiastic about setting up schools in India to provide for education. Today, one of the most striking trends in Indian school education is the increase of private sector participation with an estimated 3 lakh private schools that constitutes 40 per cent of the total student enrolment.

Private enrolment in elementary schools is approximately 35 per cent and over 50 per cent at the secondary level. Studies in cities like Mumbai and Patna reveal that over 75 per cent of children in these cities are attending private schools. This trend holds true for rural India as well. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) shows that enrolment in private schools at the elementary level in rural India has increased from 19 per cent to 29 per cent in the seven-year period between 2006 and 2013. Moreover, private schools in India are expected to grow at 4 per cent per annum to fulfill the requirement of 130,000 additional schools by 2022.

To say that there is a lack of realisation that efforts in the education sector need to be ramped both in terms of quality and scale is childish. Report after report points this out. It would then seem logical that the private sector be encouraged and supported. However, when it comes to implementation of measures towards a course correction, one can easily be left wanting. A case in point is the apathy towards private school edupreneurs.

Legal Framework
India’s current legal framework with its multiple bottlenecks and inefficiencies does not provide an environment that is conducive for the entry and sustenance of the private sector. Establishing a school itself is an uphill task. Several laws and regulations governing it are cumbersome and force eager edupreneurs to run pillar to post for years together. Even the Planning Commission in its Approach Paper to the Twelfth Plan noted: “possibilities will have to be explored for involving private sector more meaningfully to achieve the objective of expansion and quality improvement. However, barriers to private entry are high which need to be re-examined.”

“The barriers to enter the education sector and establish a school are high and numerous, and therefore discourage most people who would like to work in the sector,” notes Parth J Shah of the Centre for Civil Society. As with the economy, education too needs to be liberated from the license permit raj. Though different sectors of the Indian economy benefitted from economic reforms in 1991, education is one sector that has been left crying for attention. “Licensing has the same effect on education as it has on the economy. Through a licensing system, the government limits competition and arrogates the power to decide the number and type of schools that serve the educational needs of the people,” adds Shah.

The barriers to enter the education sector and establish a school are high and numerous, and therefore discourage most people who would like to work in the sector”

Complex Regulatory Mechanism
To open a school anywhere in India, one needs to furnish 25 to 30 documents, involving a colossal amount of paper work which is then scrutinised by five to six departments. These archaic and inefficient procedures make the enterprise expensive and time consuming to the extent that permission for setting up a school can take anywhere between six months to several years!

To set up a school in Delhi, an association or a group of individuals has to be registered as a society under the Societies Recognition Act, 1860 or as a trust constituted under any law for the time being in force. This is to prove the “non-profit’” motive of the society. Second step is that the registered society then needs to obtain an “Essentiality Certificate” (EC) from the Department of Education (DoE). An EC is an essential document certifying the requirement of a school in the particular zone, on the basis of which land is allotted to the society for the purpose of building a new school. An EC is stipulated to avoid proliferation of schools, which could make existing schools redundant.

The DoE decides the need for a school in a particular zone. “By restricting the supply of schools in an area, it restricts the role of the market in assessing the demand for school education,” observed Mayank Wadhwa of Centre for Civil Society in a 2001 paper tited ‘Licences to Open a School: It’s All About Money.’

Third, in order to obtain recognition from the DoE under the Delhi Education Act And Rules, 1973, the applicant needs to submit a Certificate of Registration of Society under the Society Registration Act, 1860; a Certificate of Land Ownership for running the school besides half a dozen other documents.

The fourth step is to get approvals from civic bodies and public utilities. Certificates required include duly approved Scheme of Management, Completion Certificate, Sanctioned Building Plan, Water Testing Report, Health Certificate, Fire Safety Certificate and Mock Drill Participation Certificate. All this is governed as per the rules mentioned in Delhi Education Act, 1973.

Fifth, a school needs to apply for affiliation with different school boards that allow the students of the particular school to appear for public examinations. In order to get affiliated to the CBSE, for instance, the school needs to follow the prescribed syllabi and books by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). The next step is to submit a new set of documents under the Delhi Right to Education Act 2011 besides giving new details of faculty, infrastructure and various facilities – playground, separate lavatories for girls and boys, enrolment status etc to obtain recognition from the District Education Officer.

Operational Challenges
Having managed to wade through the deep waters of complex regulations, operational challenges confront school edupreneurs everyday. Barring a handful of them run by business houses, most low-cost academies operate under severe financial and infrastructure constraints while offering access to millions.

High Capital Cost: Entrepreneurs often face problems in finding suitable and affordable land. Land cost is a key deterrent for schools to start operations with the realty sector grabbing up land at a premium for residential projects.

Low Fee Structure: Most of these low budget private schools charge anywhere from Rs. 200 to 1,000 as monthly tuition fee while those in metros charge ten times more. Unlike the preschool sector which is unregulated and charges exorbitant fees, these private schools fall under the close scrutiny of several regulators. As most of them serve the not-so-affluent section, regular hike in tuition fees is not possible. Nevertheless, to keep the enterprise going, schools hike fees to beat inflationary pressures.

Poor Access to Capital: Regulations require schools in India to be registered as ‘not for profit’ while banks to do not lend to ‘not for profit’ organisations.

Infrastructure: Due to tough competition in the private school space, edupreneurs brand their schools with latest equipments, laboratories, playgrounds, digital and ERP solutions etc in metros and Tier II cities. However, in Tier III and rural areas, infrastructure in most private schools leaves much to be desired. Despite poor power supply, schools do not even have power back-up facilities.

Speed Money: With a skewed regulatory framework monitored by multiple authorities, private schools are forced to cough up ‘special funds’ every now and then.

Attracting and Retaining Talent: In most of the tier II and III cities, attracting teachers through public examination for government-run schools is much easier as compared to private schools. This is primarily on account of better salary, perks and retirement benefits in the government setup. In comparison, apart from a few private schools that employ well-qualified teachers and pay them well, private schools pay their teaching staff a pittance. Weak career prospects, lack of perks and job security makes it even more difficult for private schools to retain talent.

Inappropriate amounts allocated to schools by the government and delays in reimbursement under RT E are yielding inadequate resource flow to institutions affecting schools and students. It is estimated that over 1 lakh schools have been adversely impacted”

Reservation in Private Schools: A new challenge that can throttle private schools is the mandatory 25 per cent reservation under Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009. The law mandates every private unaided school to admit 25 per cent of its entrylevel class from children belonging to economically weaker and disadvantaged groups. Though well meaning, this big ticket legislation enacted during UPA II in 2010 is creating problems for private schools. Inappropriate amounts allocated to schools by the government and delays in reimbursement under RTE are yielding inadequate resource flow to institutions affecting schools and students. It is estimated that over 1 lakh schools have been adversely impacted. Though many private schools are keen on this inclusive measure, though with much reservation, there is a lack of clarity in design and implementation strategy especially in reimbursing the school. Further, a few state governments have reduced the reimbursements as well.

Like economy, concerns of the private sector in education too need to be addressed as government alone cannot provide education for all. In a foreword to a report by FICCI and Ernst & Young on the private sector’s contribution to K-12 education in India, three leading educationists, Prabhat Jain, Founder, Pathways School; Ashish Dhawan, Founder and CEO of Central Square Foundation and innovative educationist Gowri Ishwaran noted: “The government must recognise the role of the private sector in improving access and quality in school education and encourage more robust policies that support and promote collaboration between the private and public sectors to address the needs of our nation’s children. Together, we must ensure that all children in India get a high quality education that prepares them to be responsible and productive citizens.”

Though private schools have to live with the taint of being mere profit-mongers, one cannot ignore the fact that they do serve a purpose. Their contribution in the increasing levels of enrollment in underdeveloped areas is a fact for all to see. Private schools have helped India’s education scenario in more ways than one, especially in areas where government measures have failed miserably. In view of the demands of India’s education, creating unnecessary hurdles towards their establishment and smooth functioning is something that this country can and should most certainly ill-afford.

Research says, drama in education leads to development of self-confidence and personality which helps students excel in the competitive environment” says Arpita Mittal, CEO of Helen O’Grady International, in an interaction with ENN’s Seema Gupta

What is Helen O’Grady International’s Youth Theatre?
Youth theatre is a developmental drama programme developed by Helen O’Grady International. Its objective is to encourage young people to express themselves creatively while developing interpersonal and communication skills. The curriculum uses our unique Helen O’ Grady Drama system with its specialised techniques to facilitate personal growth and promote thinking skills in students pursuing all the university accredited degree and certification programmes.

What does Youth Theatre do?
Youth Theatre employs elements of role-play, theatre games, group-dynamics games, mime, improvisation, vox pops, snippets, speech dynamics, quick fire dialogues, expression exercises, space and body awareness, etc. in a progressive educational model through an intensive format which focusses on developing imagination, creativity and spontaneity.

Why is there a need for such a programme?
Youth are at a critical formative and impressionistic stage of their lives and their experiences, learning, choices and social atmosphere impact their growth. Through Developmental Drama, they find themselves in a simulation of real life situations where all their responses and reactions can be recorded and assessed. It is absolutely necessary that they become good communicators in today’s world and this can happen through self-realisation. This leads to development of self–esteem, self–confidence, creative thinking and problem solving abilities among the young adults. Their inter-personal & intra–personal skills need to be honed, which will stimulate their creative self and allow them to enjoy the freedom to experiment leading to a harmonious life pattern.

How has Youth Theatre evolved?
Helen O’Grady International, over a period of 35 years, has developed a curriculum through intensive educational research on the needs and requirements of the young people studying in diverse academic streams.

How are the Youth Theatre classes conducted?
Youth Theatre modules can be conducted either through weekly classes of 2 hours each for 15/20/25 weeks or in a workshop format of 3 to 5 hours every day for 5/10/15 days.

Are there any additional benefits?
University life of students involves various stress factors caused by long hours of study, project work, academic and assessment related pressures. Our Youth Theatre Programme works as a stress buster and enables the students to channelise their anxiety, fears, anger, disappointments into positive emotions and achievements. They learn to cope with failures and successes with equanimity.

How does the Youth Theatre programme help in furthering the future prospects of young people?
Youth Theatre helps in moulding the personality of young people to cope with the competitions and face interviews with confidence through enhanced body poise, social skills, eye contact, public speaking skills, presentation skills, leadership roles in group discussions and an eloquent personality.

The digitalLEARNING Higher Education Knowledge Exchange between November 14 and 16 in Kovalam, Kerala, was a thumping success with top minds in education sharing their views and experiences. A report

The serene beauty of beaches in Kovalam in Kerala would usually imply a holiday, relaxation and an escape from the daily grind. But not when the best minds in India – responsible for charting the future track of India’s education and strengthening the country’s knowledge society – get together. A gathering such as this can only mean business.

For three days, Vice Chancellors, academicians and education entrepreneurs took time off from their daily duties to share ideas and experiences at the digitalLEARNING Higher Education Knowledge Exchange.

In line with the Prime Minister’s ‘Digital India’ vision, the 10th anniversary edition of one of India’s biggest ICT event – eINDIA 2014 – was organised from November 14 to 16, 2014. The three-day summit, held in association with the Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala, at the exquisite The Leela hotel, saw an enthusiastic participation of nearly 400 delegates from all across India.

P K Kunhalikutty, Minister for Industries and Information Technology, Government of Kerala, inaugurated the summit that hosted delegates and speakers from 15 states including Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Haryana, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, New Delhi and Puducherry.

The event took into account various topics pertaining to the higher education sector through extensive panel and round table discussions. Vice Chancellors from central, state, private and deemed universities deliberated upon ongoing initiatives, short-term and long-term objectives for strengthening the country’s higher education system and the challenges and scope for accomplishment of these goals. Keeping in view the inevitable role of technology in enhancement of the teaching-learning experience, the event also engaged several solution providers from the industry who shared their innovations in the domain. Major areas of deliberation included role of technology in redefining pedagogy, examination management, skill development initiatives and the importance of research-based education in strengthening the knowledge society. These were the compelling reasons behind holding this summit and engaging educationists, policy makers and members of India Inc involved in education solutions. IT majors like Vodafone, CA Technologies, Akamai, Microsoft, HP, Accenture, Wipro, Samsung, Adobe, Canon, Hitachi and many others were part of this mega event. Besides deliberations at the conference, exhibitions gave them the opportunity to showcase their products and services.

‘ICT Key to Reaching Out’
Excerpts from an interaction with Dr C S Kumar, Commissioner cum Secretary, Employment and Technical Education & Training Department, Odisha

To achieve the two-fold objective of creating skills and making them employable, what are different ICT initiatives your department has taken?
ICT is a very important ingredient for running of our department efficiently and reaching out to our stakeholders. For example, in skills training, we have engaged lot of project implementing agencies who give training to the people. It is right from the enrollment, their desk operation, to assessment, and certification. We have developed an application through NIC and are trying to further improve it. In technology education in ITIs and diploma areas, for registration of students to enrollment to examination to certification we have developed applications and are improving it further. 

What are the different challenges that you have been facing with regard to the successful implementation of these initiatives?
Challenges are enormous. The recent being changing all these applications to mobile-based technology, as students and different stakeholders are today carrying smart phones. 

How do you propose to overcome these challenges?
We are working with different stakeholders and application providers. How many ITIs are there in the state? Presently there are 35 government ITIs and over 600 private diploma colleges with over 40,000 students. 

How has this concept of digital learning helped your organisation and what are the steps you are initiating in this direction?
We have already implemented many applications in our department and we are now focusing on process integration. The other part is that of content development and we are doing this by involving teachers, content developers and all the others who can help. We want to make ‘digital’ simple, available and affordable.

The country’s young population has an immense appetite for education and with the rising middle-class, an increasing number of this young populace are now able to pay for it. Apart from the demographic dividend, India will also have the second largest number of graduates by 2020, behind China and ahead of the USA. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that in 2020, 200 million of the world’s 25 to 34-year-olds will be university graduates and 40 per cent of these will be from China and India, representing a huge proportion of the global talent pool. The government has massive plans for revamping higher education in India which includes a complete overhaul of several aspects including regulatory affairs governing this sector. At the digitalLEARNING Higher Education Knowledge Exchange 2014, experts got together to deliberate upon the various facets of higher education in India and helped create a better understanding of the intricacies that exist in this domain.

‘Money should be Spent Rightly’
Prof. Dr Fr. Paul Fernandes, S J, Vice Chancellor, Xavier University

Yours is a university majorly involved in imparting skill sets required by your students. How do you see Digital India?
I feel that the terms ‘Digital’ and ‘India’ don’t go together. If we put them together, then ‘digital’ is actually involving digitisation in every sphere of education, e-governance, administration, resources and many other aspects. The data first needs to be digitised and will have to be made accessible to everyone. We also need to understand that India is still far behind than other developed countries. Adoption of ICT by other countries is about 55-60 per cent while in India it is hardly 5-7 per cent. The government would be spending about $20 billion as an investment for this programme over a period of 5-6 years. Its huge money and will have to be spent rightly. Higher education is one area that government is looking at for digitisation of books and e-books to be made available.

The summit also acted as a platform where both industry and the users, the educationists, came together to share what they have to offer to take higher education beyond stereotypes. Former Telecom Secretary and President, NASSCOM, R Chandrashekhar, stressed in his keynote address that higher education in India can happen only if India adopts ICT in education and uses mobile phones as the device of empowerment. “We need to look not just at the technology and solution but also the process for the deployment of technology,” he observed.

Vice Chancellors, who are catalysts of change in higher learning, showcased how they had introduced innovations with ICT in their respective institutions. On the other end of the spectrum were industry representatives who demonstrated their products and technology that can change the future of higher education in India for the better.

Narendra Kumar, Director, Orion Indis System India Pvt Ltd said at eIndia confence “Orion has studied the Indian education ecosystem throughout the country and found a lot of roadbloacks, after which our think tank team has come up with found high quality solutions. Our innovations include state-of the-art technologies and we aspire for four major things with them– live digitisation of marks/scores given by the evaluating examiner, capturing data and time of evaluation, 100 per cent accuracy in captured marks and student ID masking.”

One critical area where technology is redefining institutions is assessment and examination management as they are not only crucial but a time-taking and costly process. Saran Gangan, Vice President, Business Development, TRS Solutions, said that as the number keeps growing, manual process becomes a challenge. To ease pressure on the system, several digital solutions are making their way into the Indian market.

Narendra Kumar, Director, Orion Indis System India Pvt. Ltd. explained: “Orion has studied the Indian education ecosystem throughout the country and found a lot of roadbloacks, after which our think tank team has come up with found high quality solutions. Our innovations include state-of-the-art technologies and we aspire for four major things with them – live digitisation of marks/ scores given by the evaluating examiner, capturing data and time of evaluation, 100 per cent accuracy in captured marks and student ID masking”

Jasdev Singh, VP – Business Development, WizIQ: “The gap between industry and academia needs to be bridged. The biggest challenge is not teaching but teaching how to learn. Academia is a research based and knowledge based outcome. Industry is skill-based. The gap between industry-academia has to be bridged.”

Another area that was hotly deliberated upon was redefining skill development initiatives to get India’s youth job ready. In this context, education was seen through the prism of skill development, upskilling and reskilling. Of course, this issue had always gripped the imagination at individual levels. Finally, it has gripped the imagination of policy makers, universities and schools today. India is home to about 600 million people under the age of 25 years and the government has set a target of skilling 500 million people by 2020.

Top education administrators too are seized of the need to impart skill development. Prof K S Rangappa, VC, Mysore University, noted, “Today, industry is playing a very important role. We cannot shut our eyes to the huge gap that exists between what industry requires and academia teaches.”

With winds of change blowing across different sectors, pedagogy in higher learning too is witnessing transformation. Jasdev Singh, VP – Business Development, WizIQ, called for bridging the gap between industry and academia. “The biggest challenge is not teaching but teaching how to learn. Academia is a research based and knowledge based outcome. Industry is skill-based. The gap between industry-academia has to be bridged,” he observed.

Saran Gangan, Vice President, Business Development, TRS Solutions: “As the number keeps growing, manual process becomes a challenge. To ease pressure on the system, several digital solutions are making their way into the Indian market.”

But adopting new technology over conventional methods of teaching has its own challenges. Prof. R V Raja Kumar, VC, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology, Andhra Pradesh, informed of the ways that their university is using new technology. “Many students find many of digital classes boring. It has to be made interactive. Therefore, innovative measures need to be taken to take everyone together in the journey of enhancing education standards with ICT and promoting inclusiveness in education,” he said.

Venkatesh Sarvasidhi, Head-Academic Initiatives, Microsoft India : “I advise educators across the globe to use the latest and the best technology available anywhere in the world in the field of education. Online, virtual and e-libraries within the system can cut across boundaries and take education to the next level. In a country like India which is full of so much diversity, education should look at such initiatives that can bring a fresh start to the education drive.”

Calling for collaborations and joint ventures between academia and industry including developing curriculum, Prof Rangappa of Mysore University stressed on the need to maximise benefits for all stakeholders. ”Industry wants immediate solutions and looks at profit maximisation while the academia prefers long term solutions,” he cautioned.

However, it is not that corporate India gains all the time, believes Prof. Kankanala Rathnaiah, Vice Chancellor, Dravidian University. “The importance of technological innovation and ICT in education can be gauged from the fact that they directly impact the standing of an institute,” he noted. “Even when companies come for placements, the presence of ICT initiatives in the campus affects the process a lot. Companies are always more impressed with institutes which are constantly innovating and introducing new technology with students well-versed in them,” he added.

Supreeth Nagaraju, Sales Head- South India & Sri Lanka, Education- Adobe Systems: “Technology should be used to attract students, and innovation should happen regularly on ICT platforms, so that students can showcase their innovations.”

“I advise educators across the globe to use the latest and the best technology available anywhere in the world in the field of education. Online, virtual and elibraries within the system can cut across boundaries and take education to the next level,” said Venkatesh Sarvasidhi, Head- Academic Initiatives, Microsoft India. “In a country like India which is full of so much diversity, education should look at such initiatives that can bring a fresh start to the education drive,” he added.

Pointing out to the low levels of literacy and higher education among the minority community, particularly among Muslims, Prof A H Rajasab, Vice Chancellor, Tumkur University, called for educational institutions to play a big ger and more constructive role to follow the inclusive philosophy in true spirit for the country to succeed.

‘Technology should Percolate to the Villages’
Excerpts from an interaction with Prof A H Rajasab, Vice Chancellor, Tumkur University

How can one differentiate your university as compared to others?
Tumkur has a reputation of being an intellectual city in Karnataka. We have introduced a SAKALA System, wherein students as well as teaching and non-teaching staff can have access. If a student wants a mark sheet, he can login in to the system and apply for it. The mark sheet would be delivered at his home.

An innovative measure showcased at the digitalLEARNING Higher Education Knowledge Exchange was the Z-A technique adopted by Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur. Vice Chancellor Dr P Balakrishna Shetty said the academy drew inspiration from the foreign universities while implementing it. No regular classroom teaching happens in this technique. Siddhartha Academy instead involves students in more ways through discussions, debates, lectures, walkathons, afforestation etc.

Supreeth Nagaraju, Sales Head- South India & Sri Lanka, Education- Adobe Systems, stressed on using technology to attract students as well as being innovative on regular ICT platforms so that students can showcase their innovations.

One thing that everyone seems to have concurred is that meeting global standards will require innovation, not just in technology, but also in the mindsets. Through various deliberations and brainstorming at the digitalLEARNING Higher Education Knowledge Exchange in Kovalam at Kerala, we have tried to bring these ideas to one common platform so as to aid in the betterment of educational standards. This, we believe, is in the interest of stakeholders and the future of the nation at large.

Lack of preparedness and access to authentic information about options in higher education are factors that typically trouble students seeking education opportunities abroad, says Lisa Jain, India Representative of the College Board. Excerpts from an interaction with ENN

What does the College Board do?
The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization founded in 1900 with a goal to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of over 6,000 of the world’s leading educational institutions. Each year, the College Board helps more than 7 million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT®, PSAT/NMSQT, and Advanced Placement Program®.

In India, we work closely with schools, universities, parents and guidance counsellors to help students plan and prepare for college.

Students can take the SAT and Subject Tests at any of the 45+ test centers spread across India, with more centers being added as demand rises. SAT, a standardized university admissions exam taken by students in 180+ countries, is administered in India 6 times a year – Jan, May, Jun, Oct, Nov and Dec.

Along with universities in the U.S. and across the world, an increasing number of Indian higher education institutes are now using SAT as part of their admission process.

Indian students also have access to the PSAT or Preliminary SAT, which provides excellent practice for the SAT (and other similar assessments), and helps students identify strengths and weaknesses in the skills tested on the PSAT. PSAT is taken by students in Grades 9/10/11 in October at their school, or at US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) centers.

The Advanced Placement Program (AP) has also been very well received in India. Many schools now teach AP Courses, and students are also able to take AP Exams independently at authorized test centres across the country, in May every year. AP Exams can help Indian students stand out in the university admission process, and earn college credit, which can help save time and money at college.

With the redesigned SAT, how is College Board moving beyond delivering assessments to delivering opportunity?
The Redesigned SAT aims to be more relevant in changing times. Each change in the redesigned SAT focuses on the knowledge and skills that are most essential for college readiness and success. Rigorous classroom work will, more than ever before, be the best preparation for the revised SAT. The College Board will be open and clear, taking the mystery out of the exam and providing a full SAT blueprint before the first administration in spring of 2016.

Some of the changes in the redesigned SAT, such as the use of only relevant words/vocabulary on the exam, removal of penalty for wrong answers, use of source texts from writings/speeches of world leaders, and the essay becoming optional, amongst other changes, will ensure that the SAT continues to be fair to an international and diverse body of test takers.

To deliver opportunity to all, we are partnering with Khan Academy to provide world class, free test preparation materials for the redesigned SAT. College Board and Khan Academy are building this material together for launch in spring 2015. This means that for the first time ever, students across the globe who want to take the SAT, will be able to prepare for the exam, practice, and diagnose gaps in their learning, for free.

What can schools do to support students who want to pursue their higher education abroad?
Schools play an integral role in the college admission process, and there are several steps they can take to create a support structure for students applying to colleges overseas.

First, schools should apply for a CEEB Code (aka International School Code), which is a unique 6-digit ID assigned to schools worldwide. Schools can obtain this Code from the College Board without any cost. The Code is mentioned by students on their college application forms, and is also needed when they register for standardized tests and exams such as SAT or AP. Colleges and universities are able to build a track record of the school with this Code. Acquiring the Code also enables schools to receive their students’ standardized test scores officially from the College Board. Schools can ask for a Code Request Form by writing to india@ collegeboard.org.

Second, most college applications require a ‘School Profile’ to be submitted along with the student’s application. The School Profile provides admission officers with key information about the School and gives a glimpse into the uniqueness of the School and its’ student body. Schools should work on creating a strong School Profile that is an honest representation of the institute.

Third, schools should consider recruiting an experienced and knowledgeable college guidance counsellor who can guide students in their college application work.

Fourth, schools can organize information sessions by universities and organizations that work in the ‘study abroad’ space, to inform their students and parents about available options.

What are the future plans and vision of College Board to help Indian students?
The College Board is continuously working with schools and universities in India to improve opportunities for students who want to pursue their undergraduate studies in the U.S., other countries, and also in India.

Some of our efforts in the coming years will be to
(i) provide students with greater access to SAT and AP by adding test centers in more cities,
(ii) give high quality information to students, parents and educators about different higher education options available,
(iii) continue supporting schools who want to implement our programs such as AP or PSAT/NMSQT,
(iv) plan high quality professional development opportunities for teachers and college guidance counsellors, and
(v) work with Indian higher education to increase acceptance of SAT and AP for admission into Indian colleges and universities.

What are the lacunae of the market for students wanting to pursue higher education abroad?
In my experience, one thing that is sorely lacking in India, is access to authentic information about the different higher education options available. Students often get heavily influenced by published rankings or guidance given by ‘agents’. While both might add value, it is critical for students and their families to carry out independent research as well. Each student cares about different factors – availability of financial aid, access to research facilities, geographical location, etc. Students should acquire unbiased and reliable information from the college website, by attending college fairs, and through interactions with University Representatives, current students and even faculty, in order to decide which colleges are ‘best-fit’ for them. The College Board helps students with their college search process through www.bigfuture. org which is a free, comprehensive, college planning tool that allows one to search information about different colleges/ universities, and shortlist institutions based on self-selected parameters.

Students often get heavily influenced by published rankings or guidance given by ‘agents’. While both might add value, it is critical for students and their families to carry out independent research as well

The second glaring gap, is in the preparedness of students who aspire to study abroad. Students often start planning for it very late, in the 12th grade, whereas they should begin their groundwork as early as 9th or 10th grade. Students should work on building a strong personal profile, take their standardized tests in a timely manner, and also determine whether they have the emotional maturity to study overseas at the undergraduate level.

How do you think the education system can be enhanced to make Indian students more global?
In my opinion, the Indian education system has many strengths. It helps students develop a strong theoretical understanding of topics, handle high levels of rigour and competition, and build an ability to absorb large volumes of information quickly. However, the emphasis on practical learning and critical thinking can sometimes be low.

(i) Asking students to apply their theoretical understanding of subjects to real world situations,
(ii) encouraging them to be more creative and innovative while solving problems,
(iii) fostering a culture of discussion-based and collaborative learning,
(iv) emphasizing the importance of building communication and other soft skills,
(v) introducing a degree of flexibility and encouraging a multidisciplinary approach in course selection, and
(vi) a stronger focus on research, can all help make our education system more relevant in changing times, and global in nature.

A Comprehensive Ranking of Top Indian Schools 2014

Children are the future of this country and how we treat them in their early days determines the future and the development of our society. It is for this reason that schools have such an integral role to play. Besides, education is the prerequisite for sustainable development of any society or economy. The purpose of education, therefore, should not limit to building careers but also envisage developing a generation of vibrant minds that has the potential to develop a vision and contribute to nation building. It was this prime motivation that led us to undertake a comprehensive ranking of top schools of India for the second consecutive year.

In this issue, we carry the rankings of some of the key schools located in the country. Through our methodology, we have tried to break the barriers of geographical limitation. Our rankings, as you will see, are spread across the length and breadth of the country and not limited to the metros and big cities alone. In this exercise, we have tried to select and rate the top schools located in eight zones – Metros and cities in North, Central, South, West, East, North-East and Union Territories of India captured through primary, secondary and perception data. This mammoth exercise was spread over two months. The schools have been ranked on parameters that parents factor in while making a selection. Hope this exercise helps you, as parents; make a more informed decision while choosing the school for your child. Our ranking edition will be equally beneficial for schools as it is an overview of the factors concerning the education sector at present.