Nandan Nilekani Set to Enter Elementary Education

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November 18, 2014

Ending months of speculation over what former UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani would do after his loss in the Lok Sabha elections, it has now been learnt that the Infosys co-founder is betting big on education at the elementary level.

Nilekani is learnt to have started work on his pet project — a platform focused on elementary education that would act as a great equaliser offsetting social inequities. Though the project is in stealth mode, Nilekani is learnt to have hired a small team working on the ‘gamification’ of elementary education and developing relevant technology tools to attain scale.

The move also ends speculation over being drafted by the Karnataka government to help rebuild Brand Bengaluru. While the Siddaramaiah government has talked often about utilizing Nilekani’s expertise to recharge Bengaluru, no concrete proposal was made to him. Instead of getting embroiled in factionalized party politics, Nilekani seems to have decided to opt out of it altogether and focus his energies on the underserved education sector.

Revamping Academic System Need of the Hour: President

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November 18, 2014

Education has figured among top priorities of the agenda for President Pranab Mukherjee in his speeches ever since he took office at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In his latest observation regretting the lack of quality in many Indian educational institutes, the President noted that it was leading to a flow of students abroad and that there was an urgent need to revamp the education system, retain bright minds and attract talent from abroad.

“… It is also a fact that an all-out effort to revamp our academic system is the need of the hour. Some of the immediate steps would be to ramp up physical infrastructure including classrooms, fill up vacant faculty positions, attract talent from abroad, review and change curriculum,” he said.

Mukherjee was addressing the convocation function of Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. He said though there are over 723 universities and 37,000 colleges, lack of quality is denying students world-class education and bright students are leaving the shores to pursue studies abroad.

Leading institutions have to approach the ratings process in a more systematic and proactive manner as there is not a single Indian institution among the top 200 universities in the world even as they are better than what the “rankings project”, he said.

He also strongly pitched for making the institutions “hotbeds” of research activity, saying “we as a society will fail to realise the potential that we otherwise are destined to achieve. We have to make teaching and research an attractive career opportunity”.

He said that while the successful Mars Orbiter Mission is a testimony to the country’s growing scientific prowess, there is a general neglect on research. The focus on research activity is lacking in our universities.

Universities also need to actively participants in programmes and undertake outreach activities the success of recent government initiatives aimed at financial inclusion, creation of model villages, clean India and digital infrastructure, he underlined.

Singapore’s KEF to invest above Rs. 1500 cr in India

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November 17, 2014

KEF Holdings, a specialist in innovative offsite construction technology, headquartered in Singapore, plans to invest more than Rs 1,500 crore in India in social sectors, including education, over the next five years. The company is planning to invest in education sector that could transform public school education in Kerala. This initiative would be supported by Faizal and Shabana Foundation.

KEF group’s chairman Faizal E Kottikollon, stated, “In line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ vision, KEF Holdings is committed to supporting change by focusing on three basic needs – infrastructure, education and healthcare. KEF will change infrastructure development in the country by bringing in best practice, technologies and processes from across the world and integrating them to offer assured quality and a significant reduction in time and money.”

On the education front, Kottikollon wants to focus on public schools as he believes “that is where society can get the greatest bang for the buck.” Earlier, to help improve school education for the economically weaker sections of society, his foundation promptly took up redeveloping the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls at Nadakkavu, Calicut.

After obtaining all requisite clearances from the authorities, he rebuilt the school by constructing modern structures and facilities replete with laboratories, gymnasiums and an astro-turf playground. The construction process was completed without losing a single day’s schooling for girls. Teaching faculty was also given importance, as Kottikollon included IIM Calicut to bring in special courses for teachers. The school soon got listed as one of the top five schools in Kerala and with this Kottikollon hopes to make it one of the top 5 schools in the country.

The Faizal and Shabana Foundation also decided to transform 100 public schools in that state and for this, Kottikollon hopes to get the state to commit its funds, while his trust will put up Rs 500 crore on its own. “Each of these schools will have at least 2,500 students, thus giving us the ability to transform the lives of some 2,50,000 students.” He believes that a similar competitive spirit will spread to other states as well when they watch the transformation of Kerala’s public education.

KEF Holdings would also channel investments through its two business verticals, KEF Infra and KEF Health. KEF Infra will cater to India’s education, healthcare, commercial and residential sectors through offering design, engineering, manufacturing, assembly and project management. KEF Health will aim to reduce the cost of healthcare through industrialising infrastructure, creating evidence-based care-paths and promoting disruptive healthcare technology.

Expansion plans to meet varied needs

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November 17, 2014

Delhi-based St. Stephen’s College is in plans to revamp its infrastructure and curriculum to meet the increasing and varied needs of students. Valson Thampu, Principal of the college, stated, “The college has one of the largest campuses in DU with nearly 20 acre of land and a total enrolment of 1,200. Our current land utilisation is less than 30 per cent; but given the potential of the land, we can expand and put it to better use.”

The process of obtaining approvals from different stakeholders and authorities started three years ago. The proposal, submitted to North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), is awaiting approval. The revamp plan may include a centre of excellence that will enable students to take up multi-disciplinary study by opting for different subject combinations contributing to high-end research. Thampu adds that there are also plans to have a three-floor science block with upgraded facilities. The approval for this master plan would require more hostels and staff quarters.

DU to bring special technology for blind students in libraries

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November 17, 2014

In a first-of-its-kind initiative for visually challenged students, Delhi University is working on Inclusive Print Access Project, a special technology that can scan books and transcribe to speech in libraries. The technology is a combination of software which has been imported from abroad. It includes a high-speed camera called ‘LEXAIR’ and a flat-bed scanner.

Anil Aneja, Officer on Special Duty at Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC), stated: “There are certain universities which have taken initiatives to meet the demands of the blind students but making special rooms for them or providing them scribes won’t really help. We wanted to keep them in the same atmosphere as the other students.”

The student will hold the book in a manner that would allow the camera and the scanner to capture the images and transcribe the text into speech. This technology will enable scanning the book, reading, converting it in PDF and book mark various sections and take notes in the margins. However, the technology cannot read images and handwritten texts.

“We have got software from Germany which can transcribe Hindi books. While the accuracy level for English text is 99 per cent, for Hindi books it is around 90 per cent but it will serve the purpose to a large extent,” added Aneja.
The project also includes software called ‘braille space’ in which the students can record their assignments and convert them into written text. Another feature is the NVDA software which will help the students in reading newspapers and browsing Internet.

The installation of this technology is estimated to cost around Rs 50,000 per college and is being implemented in 65 libraries of DU’s colleges, institutes and departments. The technology is expected to be operational in all DU libraries by end of this month.

New Education Policy 2015 to include common people

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November 17, 2014

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani has announced that the government is in the process of framing a new education policy that will come out by 2015 and will witness the inclusion of common people in the decision-making process. This is aimed at removing the existing loopholes and providing easy access to better education to all sections of the society.

“Till now, the country’s education policy has been determined by some handful of experts only. But things would change soon. Next year, when the new education policy will be prepared, discussions will not be confined to the experts alone but the opinion of those living in villages will also be solicited,” she stated.

The minister also referred to the Udaan project, which would aim to provide free online resources to girl students of Class XI and Class XII for admission tests of premier engineering colleges. The project would focus at addressing the low enrolment ratio of girl students in prestigious technical institutions and to enable girl students to receive special incentives and support so that they can join these institutions.

US sees 28 per cent rise in Indian students’ enrollment

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November 17, 2014

The United States of America is leading all the way as the first choice for Indian students to study abroad, a government report states. According to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security, the number of Indian students in US has increased by 28 per cent to 1,34,292 students. This makes India the second largest foreign student body in US after China.

Engineering, computer science, information technology and support services, and students in other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields made up 79 per cent of the Indian students pursuing these subjects in America. Business, biology and medicine followed as the next popular field with the social sciences, humanities and liberal arts, and visual and performing arts being the least popular.

The gender balance of Indian students is similarly skewered with 89,561 male students against 44,731 female students.

According to Naveen Chopra, Chairman, The Chopras (an educational consulting group), one of the major reasons for this increase in student enrollment in US is the economy as it is growing now. This, he believes, has further resulted in a fall of the unemployment rate from 10 per cent to 6 per cent.

This increase reflects a greater trend for both Indian undergraduate and graduate students studying in the US. The total number of Indian graduate students enrolled there has jumped 26 per cent to 54,245 students, according to a new report by the American Council of Graduate Schools. This was the second consecutive year of double digit growth, building upon a 14 per cent increase last year, and a sharp reversal in trend from years past when Indian graduate school enrollment was actually decreasing.

The number of Indian students in Australia and New Zealand are also increasing. Australia, which registered a huge dip in Indian student enrollment in 2009 due to a series of racially motivated attacks on Indian students, has gained back momentum with total Indian student visa applications more than doubling from 2012 to 2013.

However, Indian enrollment in the United Kingdom has been plummeting, dropping 44 per cent from 2010-11 to 2012-13. As per the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Indian students’ enrolment has gone down from 18,535 to 10,235 students during the same period.

UK’s universities and sciences minister Nick Clark was recently in India on a 3-day visit to strengthen educational ties between the UK and India and to address “misconceptions” that Indian students might have about the difficulty of obtaining visas to the UK. During his visit he had announced a new five-year initiative to send 25,000 students from the UK to India.

UK woos Indian students, promises more cooperation

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November 14, 2014

Hit by a drop in Indian students in its universities due to stricter visa regime, the United Kingdom tried to reverse the unwelcoming image of Britain. Greg Clark, Minister of State for Universities, Science and Cities, The UK, who is leading a delegation to India, announced that the British Government had initiated a programme, under which 25000 young people would be sent to India to study in the next five years. “The first batch of students will reach Indian shores next summer”, he said here at the 10th FICCI Higher Education Summit 2014 on the theme ‘Higher Education Vision 2030: Making it Happen’.

Later at the Sixth India-UK Education Forum Smriti Irani, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, and Clark, co-chaired the meeting. Both the countries discussed the existing bilateral cooperation initiatives in education and also agreed to further strengthen it by taking up several new initiatives. Both sides also acknowledged the cooperation mechanism through joint UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI).

It was also decided to constitute a Joint Working Group consisting of officers from both sides to deliberate and work on modalities of future collaborations in education. The JWG will meet frequently and the first meeting will be held by December 2014.

Both sides also discussed the Chevening Scholarships for Indian students; two-way student mobility; Generation UK-India programme which will support up to 25,000 young people from the UK to come to India over the next 5 years and initiatives supported by DFID. The UK delegation confirmed that they will put in four times more resources for the Chevening scholarships for Indian students and make it the largest Chevening Programme in the world.

The Indian delegation emphasized that, along with students from UK, they would also like to welcome teachers and faculty members under its new programme, Global Initiative for Academics Network (GIAN), the response to which was extremely positive from the Minister leading the UK delegation.

After taking over of the present Government, the issue of equivalence of India’s 10+2 qualifications with “A” level qualification of UK was taken up at very high levels. UK side has acted promptly on it and it was conveyed today in the Forum meeting that most of the UK institutions recognize the 10+2 qualifications for admission of Indian students into the higher educational institutions in UK. The UK delegation also welcomed more Indian students in the British Universities and also assured of addressing the barriers in student mobility.

A Joint Statement was also signed by both the Ministers highlighting the educational cooperation between India and the United Kingdom and the future areas of collaboration. The areas of leadership development; research, innovation, technology and knowledge transfer; Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; enhancing people to people links and two-way mobility; quality improvement in education; use of ICT in education; development of MOOCs and e-Library and launch of UKIERI-III in 2016 have been highlighted in the Joint Statement.

HRD Minister releases Knowledge Paper at FICCI Higher Education Summit 2014

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November 14, 2014

Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, released FICCI-EY Knowledge Paper on the theme ‘Higher Education in India: Moving towards Global Relevance and Competitiveness’ at the inaugural session of FICCI Higher Education Summit 2014.

The knowledge paper reveals India’s vision to build a 21st century model for higher education that is of high-quality, equitable and affordable, and be a model of a higher education system that is not just the best in the world but the best for the world.

The paper suggests key imperatives to realize this vision such as developing higher education institutes with an international outlook and global impact; providing world-class teaching, research and conducive learning environment; relaxing complex regulatory requirements; incentivising transnational education; developing skilled, job-ready and productive graduates; enabling higher education graduates with global skills, who can be employed by or serve workforce-deficient countries; developing research-focused universities that deliver high-quality research output and research-focused graduates; increasing R&D funding by Government, promoting increased industry participation in research and innovation and creating a conducive educational, financial and regulatory ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship.

It notes that the global economy is undergoing structural transformation. There will be need for a workforce of 3.3 billion by 2020, increasingly in the services and capital intensive-manufacturing sectors. The phenomena is also expected to play out in India – by 2020, 90 per cent of India’s GDP and 75 per cent of employment is expected to be contributed by the services and manufacturing sectors.

Technological advancement will make several jobs redundant while also creating new job roles. This structural shift in employment will increase demand for sophisticated workers, innovators, and thinkers who can thrive in a globally-connected and dynamic economy. India, with its large workforce and increasing pool of higher education graduates, is strategically positioned to reap the benefits of this shift. However, the ‘demographic dividend’ will be squandered unless India is able to create a “globally relevant and competitive” higher education system that serves the requirements of both the domestic as well as global economy.

While the Indian higher education system has made considerable progress in terms of capacity creation and enrolment especially in the last decade, it lags significantly in terms of “global relevance and competitiveness”. The FICCI-EY paper highlights the following gaps in the system:

? Low employability of graduates, driven by several factors including outdated curricula, shortage of quality faculty, high student-teacher ratios, lack of institutional and industry linkages, and lack of autonomy to introduce new and innovative courses.

? Low impact research output and patents filed given relatively low government and corporate spending on research, insufficient doctoral students, missing research focus and culture in most institutions, and lack of international research collaborations

? Limited focus on entrepreneurship on campus as reflected in the fact that there are few institutes that offer programs in entrepreneurship and have active incubation / entrepreneurship cells

? Complex regulatory requirements and hurdles, poor institutional governance standards, and lack of professional management While we acknowledge that the Government has proposed and is also taking several measures to improve the system on the above aspects, there are some steps it could take to make the Indian higher education system a role model for other emerging systems. Institutions, on their part, would need to adopt a transformative and innovative approach across all levers of higher education: from curricula and pedagogy to the use of technology to partnerships, governance and funding, to become globally relevant and competitive. In this report, we have looked at some world-class institutions and country systems that could hold important lessons for government and institutions.

To make India “globally relevant and competitive”, the paper recommends that higher education in the country needs to be promoted as follows:

? India prominently placed on the global higher education map in terms of more globally-reputed Indian institutions, significant student and faculty mobility, presence of / collaborations with quality international institutions

? India as a hub for talent that is able to drive competitiveness of the Indian economy and is fit to work in or serve international markets

? A culture of research, innovation and entrepreneurship that can power high economic growth in the country

Centre to roll out innovation initiatives

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November 14, 2014

The Government will roll out the ‘Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan’ next year with a view to arresting the falling trend of learning outcomes in mathematics and science of students in classes 6-8 and upgrade the skills of teachers in line with the needs of modern-day society.

This was announced here today by Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Human Resource Development while inaugurating the 10th FICCI Higher Education Summit 2014 on the theme ‘Higher Education Vision 2030: Making it Happen’.

“I look upon education as an opportunity to redefine India’s destiny and am happy to note that in the last six months we have undertaken a review of all regulators in the field of education to redefine the way forward and ascertain the needs of the future” the Minister said.

These innovation labs will soon be set up in every district for students to think of new ideas which will be funded by the government under an ambitious scheme to encourage research at both school and university level.

“These labs will also be linked to the proposed council of higher education on industry academia collaboration so that those innovation which have potential to turn into great business do not die. We will start a fund which will support such innovations. It will be launched by the dawn of next year,” Irani said.

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