Azim Premji says 20 percent of teachers not sincere

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September 23, 2014

Speaking at the annual convocation of the Azim Premji University (APU), Chancellor Chairman Azim Premji lamented on the problems that faced education. He said of the nearly 6 million teachers, twenty percent were not sincere and committed, 60 percent were willing to learn, while the reamining 20 percent were committed.

Premji extolled students to go to rural areas and work to develop the education sector. “There’s a need for deeply committed teachers. At times, government schools in rural areas are better than private schools,” he said.

“Improving public education is the responsibility of the government and we are also working in collaboration with various state governments. Transforming education is a very complex task, given the diversity of our country, compounded by issues of socio-economic deprivation and other ground realities. Citizens should also help the government,” Premji said.

Premji also said there was an acute lack of quality higher education to prepare people to work in the education and social sectors. India is investing only 3 percent of its GDP in education, while countries like Finland invest 8 percent of the GDP. He said India needed to invest at least 4-6 percent of the GDP.

Applauding the graduates of APU, Premji said, “70 percent of the graduates from the first batch of APU are working with NGOs in rural areas and they are not attracted to high salaries in the city.”

Kodaikanal International School to use campus for experiential learning

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September 23, 2014

Kodaikanal International School (KIS), plans to put its campus near Palani Hills for academic purposes. It plans to set up an experiential learning centre on the campus for research on environment and an outdoor campus experience.

“It is the school’s new mission to provide for a healthy planet and our commitment to the ecologically important Palani Hills,” said school principal Corleigh Stixrud. “Students can speak to local farmers on the effects of climate change, learn about the flora and fauna and we will invite experts to carry out work on environmental issues.”

This 92-acres of wilderness, which is currently used by students for hiking and camping, will soon be open for middle and high school students as a good four-month outdoor residential programme.

A curriculum has already been drafted, and children are most likely to be cut off from the internet and only work in natural settings. “We will also open it for other schools and students or any group that is interested in studying the environment,” said chairman Anil Henry.

Thane schools give self-defence classes to students

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September 23, 2014

In order to protect children against crime committed against them, schools in Thane have started giving self-defence lessons to help them during emergencies.

Thane has seen a nearly 100 percent rise in kidnapping cases between 2011-2013.

To counter the threat, some city schools are equipping students in self-defense techniques. With lessons in martial arts to counseling, children are being trained to handle emergencies confidently.

Apurva Wadikar, a self-defense professional said that There are some situations where quick thinking can save you from trouble. “We have designed the training in such a way that youngsters can confidently deal with a challenge,” she said.

A resident said it is a good thing that schools have taken up such an initiative. ” Going by what is happening around, it is a good move by schools to include self-defense lessons in their curriculum,” he said.

Chandigarh to teach music, dance in government schools

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September 23, 2014

The Chandigarh Administration has started teaching music and dance during the hobby classes in the Government schools in Chandigarh city. The aim is to teach music to the underpriviledged students. Starting out with 12 schools in 2013 on an experimental basis, the success of the exercise has encouraged the administration to extend the exercise to other schools too.

More than 2,000 students from 35 Government schools have enrolled in hobby classes to learn classical dance, classical music, instruments, folk music and dance so far.

Speaking on the initiative, Amandeep Kaur, Director, culture, said, “We started this exercise on an experimental basis last year, but received exceptional results. From this year, we have decided to spread the idea as much as possible in most city schools. Financial grants have been given to schools to buy musical instruments and other infrastructure, so that we can encourage talented children”. Sources said the cultural wing of the UT has kept aside a special fund of Rs 80 lakh to buy all kinds of instruments and payment of resource persons teaching in schools.

The Chandigarh Administration has formed a special group comprising of vice-principal and head of the instrumental music and dance department and an associate professor of one of the Government Schools to look into the matter.

Google Launches Digital India Initiatives

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September 23, 2014

Global search giant Google Inc has joined hands with Indian government to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Digital India programme by launching a nationwide contest for developing a mobile application for the PM’s office.

“MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government and Google are collaborating to launch a nationwide contest to develop a mobile app for the PM’s Office,” Google said in a statement.

Google said the mobile app will bring the PMO to every citizen and the contest will showcase how Indians can build a world class application.

Digital India programme is focused on increasing high-speed Internet connectivity across the country, introducing digital classrooms, building smart cities, providing online delivery of services through the integration of government departments, and introducing online visas.

Google will run a series of initiatives, which include collaboration with the government’s new citizen engagement platform, www.mygov.in.

Commenting on the joint initiative, RS Sharma Secretary, Department of Information Technology said, “The Digital India programme has been launched with the vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It can truly transform India and bring it on par with other developed countries.”

Google India Vice President and Managing Director Rajan Anandan said India is already home to the third largest number of Internet users globally with 245 million users as of June 2014 and is on track to become the second largest user market by 2015 and a 500 million-user market by 2016.

“Yet, there are more than a billion people who will need to be brought online for India to realise the vision of a digitally connected, knowledge economy. Prime Minister Modi’s Digital India programme will play a transformational role in achieving this,” Anandan added

To support the Prime Minister’s vision, Google will run a number of initiatives which also include programmes such as helping women get online, getting Indian SMEs online and showcasing India’s rich heritage and culture online which will further promote the digital empowerment of citizens.

Google is also engaged building a vibrant language ecosystem online and help the government transition into the increasingly ‘mobile’ India.

To encourage digital literacy and Internet safety, Google is also introducing curriculum for schools, officials and elected representatives.

Google is working with the Department of Information Technology and other state governments to develop these initiatives.

IIT-Bombay begins Lectures in Bengali

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September 23, 2014

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay has introduced computer program lectures in Bengali for first year B Tech students who are mainly from the interiors of West Bengal and lack English proficiency.

After Hindi and Marathi, this is the third vernacular being used for special instruction, albeit informal, at the institute. The idea of Hindi and Marathi lectures was started a few years ago by professor D B Phatak of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Bengali was included in the informal initiative this year after professor Supratik Chakraborty of the same department offered to teach students in the language.

Initially, 60-70 students from a batch of 570 signed up for the extra coaching in regional languages. “After a couple of sessions, more students are showing interest,” said Chakraborty.

Rajasthan eyes major changes to RTE Act

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September 23, 2014

The Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in Rajasthan is in plans to bring two major amendments to the Right To Education (RTE) Act. These changes include reintroducing exams in at least three classes from Class I to VIII, and giving more importance to “learning outcomes” than to physical infrastructure of schools while deciding on their recognition or registration.

Parents are learnt to have suggested that a complete ban on exams till class VIII was not in the best interest of the child. Accordingly, the state is considering evaluations in classes III, V and VIII.

The second significant change stresses on giving more weightage to “learning outcomes” of schools than on hardware such as school buildings, playgrounds etc. Here, the Rajasthan government has taken note of the closure of a large number of private schools in several other states because they could not manage the RTE-mandated physical infrastructure requirement.

The Centre for Civil Society estimates that at least 34.94 lakh children have been affected with 19,414 schools across 17 states having been closed or issued notice for closure for not fulfilling the norms related to infrastructure and teacher salaries. The state is now in plans to restrict the weightage on infrastructure and other inputs to 30 per cent or less, and instead focus on absolute, relative (compared with previous year) and scholastic learning outcomes.

UGC recommends blacklisting 7 Deemed Universities, 34 get clean chit

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September 23, 2014

The UGC committee set up to review 41 ‘C’ category deemed universities has recommended the disqualification of seven of them. The committee set up under UGC vice-chairman H Devraj has, however, given a clean chit to the remaining 37 deemed universities that were blacklisted by a government report in 2009.

The report of the committee was accepted by the UGC full commission at a meeting held in New Delhi on Monday. According to the report, only 7 of the entire list of deemed varsities originally blacklisted have been found inadequate on specified standards. Accordingly, the union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry may serve them a show cause notice before denotification, the report recommended.

The names of the universities placed in the ‘C’ category, however, have not been disclosed and the report has also not been shown to UGC members. Vice-chairperson H Devaraj only read out the operative portion, leading to protest by one member who asked how the commission could claim that the report had been accepted when not all members had even seen it.

The committee was set up under the orders of the Supreme Court which had asked it to examine three earlier reports on deemed universities. The Tandon Committee in 2009 had categorised them into three and 41 were found unfit to continue as deemed universities.

The report will now be sent to the HRD ministry which is expected to submit it to the SC on September 30, 2014 when the issue comes up for hearing.

Easier Eligibility Norms for IIT Admissions

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September 23, 2014

Starting 2015, students scoring 75 per cent marks in their class XII examinations will also be eligible for admissions to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, provided they clear the JEE (Advanced). In a move that is set to have a positive impact on several aspirants to the much sought after IITs, the IIT Council has decided to relax the eligibility criteria for admissions to its institutes.

Under the rules set in the last two years, eligibility for admissions was limited to students falling in the top 20 percentile of their higher secondary boards. The decision was arrived at unanimously in a meeting of the council at IIT Madras on Tuesday.

According to council member Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay, “Students can either score above 75 per cent or be in the top 20 percentile of their boards to be eligible. We wanted to give all students a definite target of 75 per cent.”

The proposal to the IIT council to relax the norms had been mooted by the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC), the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs. The move will benefit students from boards that follow a liberal marking system as well as students from the CBSE and ISC board, which had higher cut-offs for the top 20 percentile.

Guidelines for Guest Speak

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September 22, 2014

Guest Speak is a column focussed on bringing out the voices of persons involved in the field of education. It is not a page to promote a product or an institution.
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