EI May 2015

RNI No: 114514 KERENG/2012/41957

IIM-A has always been able to reinvent itself: Dr Bakul Dholakia

Lack of political will mars ‘Education for All’ programme Aaron Benavot Director, EFAGMR, UNESCO

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EDUCATION FOR ALL SO NEAR YET SO FAR

Woman Power

Anjali Menon Great escape

of three

fallen angels

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Contents Cover Story

Thought Leader IIM-A has always been able to reinvent itself - Dr Bakul Dholakia, Director General, IMI, and former Director, IIM-A

18

Interview/ Aaron Benavot A lack of political will has been a great impediment to achieving Education for All Aaron Benavot, GMR Director

30

‘Education for All’: Still an unfinished agenda

Management Education Management education expert Akhil Shahani tells that MBA grads are more concerned about the ROI

23

48

The world needs $22 billion annually for quality pre-primary and basic education for all by 2030. The international community must find innovative ways and resources to bridge the $22 billion gap for the sake of Education for All

Against the odds A story of struggle and tears and a great escape of three fallen angels from the world’s largest red light area, to freedom, respect and recognition

42

Regulars Edu News 8 Voices 12 Research 14 Digiclass 34 Motivation 46 Counterpoint 54 Tech + Education 58 Science Education 61 Short Notes 68 * Cover Photo: UNESCO / Karel Prinsloo / ARETE

‘‘Ayush’’man Bhava!

17

The 17-year-old Kanpur lad had just found out that he got admission to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Woman Power

70

When the skilled have the power, there will be real growth - Anjali Menon, celebrated film maker

37

Social cause Sonia Singh sells dolls online for a cause

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

5

INFOGRAPHICS

SAVING CHILDREN’S LIVES

A higher level of education reduces preventable child deaths

IN SIX SUB- SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES LESS THAN 50 % OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ARE TRAINED

Eq. Guinea Senegal Angola Benin South Sudan Guinea Bissau

49%

Number of children under 5 that died in low and lower middle income countries in 2011

6.1

million

48% 47%

Reduction in deaths in low and lower middle income countries

if all women had primary education

if all women had secondary education

47% 15%

49%

fewer child deaths

44%

fewer child deaths

saving

saving

39%

3 million lives

0.9 million lives

Source: UNESCO institute for Statistics Database

Stunted children* in low income countries

47 million

Reduction in stunting in low income countries

4%

If all mothers had primary education

45.3 million 1.7 million children

saved from stunting

6

26%

If all mothers had secondary education

34.8 million 12.2 million children

saved from stunting

EDUCATION TRANSFORMS LIVES Education increases Women’s and men’s job opportunities

Education reduces child marriages

Education reduces early births

Maternal education improves child nutrition

Educated people are more tolerant

mothers’ education saves children’s lives

More equal education leads to faster growth

Education saves mothers’ lives

Education leads to more concern about the environment

Source: UNESCO institute for Statistics Database

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

7

EDU NEWS-INDIA

Education a business than a social service: Lord Swaraj Paul

£30,000 scholarship for Indian students New Delhi: “Education has become more a business than a social service,” said eminent educationist and leading NRI industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul. He was speaking on ‘Internationalism in Education’ at the first convocation ceremony of the Apeejay Stya University, India’s 1st Industry-centric Liberal Arts University focusing on research, technology and Innovation.

Lord Paul, who is the chairman of Caparo Group, also stressed on the need to have world class universities in India. “It is a moment of immense pleasure to see my niece working towards quality education in India.

Today, education has become more a business than a social service. My late brother Stya Paul struggled towards imparting education as a service and his legacy is being carried forward by Sushma. I am happy to witness this moment,” Lord Paul said while addressing the students. Sushma Paul-Berlia is the co-founder and chancellor of Apeejay Stya University, During her presidential address, she said, “the educational practices of Apeejay Stya University is a blend of best practices followed by reputed universities internationally with Indian thoughts and the best that was available in Indian education and tradition.”

New Delhi: Sheffield Hallam, one of the UK’s largest universities, is offering six scholarships worth £30,000 in partnership with the British Council, as part of the GREAT campaign to encourage India’s brightest students to study in the UK. It will allow Indian students to gain professional skills and knowledge in a range of subjects which are in great demand from employers across the world. Six GREAT scholars will be selected to study MA Sports Journalism, MBA, MSc Automation and Control Robotics, MSc Technical Architecture, MSc Advancing Physiotherapy Practice and BSc Tourism and Hospitality Management (first year of study only) in Sheffield in the UK in September 2015. Each scholarship is worth £5,000 and will be awarded to students who demonstrate high levels of academic, personal or professional achievements on their application form. The last date to apply for this scholarship is June 30th 2015. Applicants must hold an offer for the relevant course to apply for a scholarship.

Sudha Mary Toppo, regional head for South Asia, Sheffield Hallam University said, “We work closely with employers and professional organisations to ensure our courses are developing the skills which are required in business and industry.’’ For more details, visit www. shu.ac.uk/international/scholarships-bursaries/greatscholarship.html. Email: india@shu.ac.uk

Dublin City University’s €1,000 scholarship New Delhi: Dublin City University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has announced their scholarships for Indian students joining the faculty in September 2015. A €1,000 scholarship will be offered to each student from India joining one of the full time postgraduate programmes in Journalism, Multimedia, Social Media Studies, Film and Television Studies, International Relations, Development,

8

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

International Security and Conflict Studies, Sexuality Studies, Political Communication, Science Communication, Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, Translation Technology. To achieve the scholarship, the student must have met the academic and English language entry requirements of the programme, have accepted an offer and enrol on the programme in September 2015.

TERI University signs MoU with CAPS

New Delhi: TERI University, which offers Masters and Doctoral programmes related to sustainable development, and the Centre for Air

Wealth & Investment Management course BSE Institute, in association with Chartered Institute for Security & Investment (CISI), launches International Certificate in Wealth & Investment Management (ICWIM). BSE Institute Ltd. is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of BSE Ltd., Asia’s first and fastest stock exchange with a speed of 200 micro seconds. BSE Institute is a pioneer when it comes to offering of short term as well as long term courses related to Capital Markets. The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) is the largest and most widely respected professional body for those who work in the securities and investment industry in the UK and in a growing number of financial centres globally.

Power Studies (CAPS), which focuses on research and analysis in areas related to national security, defence and aerospace, have entered into a

collaborative arrangement. Serving officers of the Indian Air Force (IAF) would be admitted to the doctoral programme at the TERI University in research areas related to politics & governance, energy security, resource management, economics, statistics and social science analysis.

They would be jointly supervised by faculty members of the TERI University and of the Centre for Air Power Studies. “Through this arrangement, we will be able to build capacity in the country in the nexus between issues of national security and sustainable development.

Serving Air Force officers will do doctoral level research under the guidance of experts in both these strategic areas,”Dr Rajiv Seth, Acting Vice Chancellor, TERI University, said.

HWZ University’s ‘Discover Business India’ initiative A delegation of 36 future business leaders, including some faculty members from the HWZ University of Applied Sciences Zurich, Switzerland visited India as part of ‘Discover Business India’ initiative.

The university promotes this programme in order to help participants understand the broader picture of an emerging sector within a country.

This time they decided to track the booming dairy sector in India and made a plant visit to Parag Milk Foods, the largest private dairy player in the country. As part of the plant visit, all the participants took a detailed tour of the cheese plant to understand the entire process of cheese making and also look at the state of the art machinery set up there.

This was followed by a visit to Bhagyalaxmi Farm for a know-how on the ‘Pride of Cows’ brand, and demonstration of the facilities set up to ensure a best breeding environment for the cattle including the advance technology led milking system.

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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EDU NEWS-INDIA

IIM Kashipur to launch financial market courses Indian Institute of Management Kashipur (IIM Kashipur) has inked MoU with National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE), agreeing to launch financial market courses, certificate courses, national/ international workshops / conferences, management development programmes (MDPs), joint research project, etc., in Financial Markets. “This MoU will strengthen finance specialization”, said Dr. K N Badhani, Chairperson of the finance area of the Institute.

Elaborating, Dr. Gautam Sinha, Director, IIM Kashipur said, “It will enhance industryacademia interaction. Infusion of rich experience of NSE with academic rigour of IIM Kashipur will further sharpen the ability of our students with finance specialization.

Additionally, IIM Kashipur and NSE will get further mileage and contribute to spreading knowledge about financial management through short-term courses, MDPs and international/national conferences”. The programme contents will have apt amalgam of practical intricacies by NSE and strong theoretical inputs by IIM Kashipur. As the programme will be based on research and academic input

by IIM Kashipur and practical inputs by the NSE, the institute will effect greater contribution to the economy by running short-term courses highly relevant to ‘erratic economy’.

10

MDIS announces admissions to MBA programmes for India New Delhi: The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) has announced admissions to two programmes for students in India - MBA in International Marketing and MBA in Banking and Finance. Offered in collaboration with Bangor University, UK, the MBA programmes are comprehensive in approach and developed to match the emerging needs of business demands across the globe. Open to fresh graduates and working professionals, both programmes are of 12-month duration.

“The MBA in International Marketing attracts many because it offers practical and real-life experiences in the form of fieldwork

and problem-solving skills. While the MBA in Banking and Finance is attractive because Bangor University, which awards the qualification, is rated the No. 1 Business School in the UK for research in the field of Accounting and Finance,” said Jessie Tan, Director of International Business at the institute. Intakes for these two programmes are available in June and November 2015. MDIS also offers Merit Scholarships (International), awarded to qualified students on the basis of academic merit, leadership potential, special talents or other personal characteristics. These scholarships are valued at S$4,000 for Master’s programmes.

Cambrdge Learn Cambridge University Press announced its first digital education product in India, Cambridge Learn, a first-of-its kind comprehensive digital learning solution. Cambridge Learn comprises of books and learning resources on a tablet. With the potential to transform teaching and learning for teachers and students, Cambridge Learn is leading the revolution in digital learning in schools following Cambridge

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

International Examinations (CIE) and IB (International Baccalaureate) programmes and qualification in India. Speaking on the launch of Cambridge Learn, Ratnesh Kumar Jha, Managing Director, Cambridge University Press, South Asia, said, “ At Cambridge University Press, we are driven by a simple goal: to create resources that helps in igniting curiosity and love for learning in teachers and students alike.”

Edu Event

Edu News-China

New role for Vishal Sikka

Shanghai:The East China Normal University (ECNU), one of the most prestigious universities in China, announced the appointment of Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer of Infosys, as Advisory Professor.

Prof.Shijun Tong, CCP Secretary of ECNU, formally conferred the Advisory Professorship at a ceremony, held at the ECNU campus on March 24, 2015. “ECNU is on the road to develop into a globally recognised university and we look forward to partnering with Infosys to identify upcoming technologies that will in turn help us prepare our students with skills to address the opportunities that they offer. We are focused on developing talent that has strong foundations in scientific research, and who are in turn able to service the development of social and economic development of China,” Prof.Shijun Tong said.

“ECNU is a prestigious Chinese university. It is a great honor to receive this recognition, and I accept it with deep gratitude. It reinforces my desire to be a lifelong teacher and a lifelong student. I look forward to working closely with students and the university to help nurture

the passion for learning and to help people think in new ways,” Dr. Sikka said. Infosys is a global leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services.

Dr. Sikka’s passion for lifelong learning has led him to work closely with universities and students around the globe to pursue their own passion for learning, and exploring new areas of innovation, and looking at some of the world’s greatest challenges in new ways. As Infosys’ CEO, Dr. Sikka is driving a strategy that is exactly centered around the above areas – working with clients to renew existing working processes by applying the latest and most innovative technologies, and at the same time, bringing entirely new ways of working, new ways of thinking and new ways of finding and resolving problems.

Prior to joining Infosys, Dr. Sikka was a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, leading all products and technologies, and driving innovation globally.

During his 12 years at SAP, Dr. Sikka was instrumental in defining the company’s technology and product strategy and architecture.

He is credited with creating the breakthrough in-memory platform, SAP HANA. He has also created the concept of ‘timeless software’, which articulates the principles for renewal of products without disruption to customer environments. He is well known for championing technology as an amplifier of human potential, and his passion for applying software in purposeful ways to address some of the toughest global challenges.

His experience encompasses research in artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, programming languages and models, and information management at Stanford University, at Xerox Palo Alto Labs, and as founder of two startups.

EDUTEK in October EDUTEK - Education and Training Exhibition Kuwait will be held from 07 - 09 October 2015, at the Kuwait International Fairground, Mishref. The Exhibition is held under the auspices and in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education, Kuwait.

Education and Training Exhibition Kuwait is an annual and strategically important event, aligned with the Government’s vision, providing an indispensable platform which will comprehensively showcase Higher Education, Vocational & Occupational Training and Human Resources Development to a myriad of focused, prospective students and affluent visitors spanning over 20 nationalities.

EDUTEK, in collaboration with government authorities, associations and media partners, will endeavor to bridge the gap between the increasing demand of quality education and training requirements, and the present options available. The 3 day exhibition will bring more than 120 prominent accredited universities, colleges and institutes, from over 25 countries, offering extensive courses to over 5,000 focused visitors comprising of potential national and expatriate students, HR managers, government officials, corporates and many more, making it a significant convergence point.

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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VOICES Every dollar we put into high-quality early childhood education we get $7 back in reduced teen pregnancy, improved graduation rates, improved performance in school, reduced incarceration rates. The society as a whole does better

The programme to educate and support the girl child in India is one that is closest to my heart. We will ensure that they can go to school;and, also, that they can attend it in safety and dignity.

Barack Obama, US President

The NGOs are not even united on a common vision of education in Pakistan. Their strategies vary and there is no collective research being done on classroom approaches, medium of instruction, curricula, textbooks, etc

Narendra Modi,

Indian Prime Minister

Zubeida Mustafa, Journalist

The government needs to make continued investments in health if they want to make progress for women and children. They have this commitment to India’s Every New Born Action Plan, but continued investments are going to be really important

Melinda Gates, Co-founder, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Public education is foundational to democracy. It helps break down social and economic inequalities and helps build an egalitarian, inclusive society

Azim Premji, Wipro Chairman

One day your tragic ordeal will end, you will be reunited with your families and friends, and you will have the chance to finish the education you courageously sought

Malala Yousafzai, Education activist

12

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

KUWAIT’S COMPREHENSIVE EXHIBITION ON EDUCATION, TRAINING & HRD

EDUCATION & TRAINING EXHIBITION KUWAIT Date: 07 - 09 October 2015 | Time: 10am to 1pm and 5pm to 9pm Venue: Kuwait International Fair, Mishref- Hall 4 A

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RESEARCH

Reviving inverse graphics The most recent advances in artificial intelligence, the Probabilistic programming does in 50 lines of code what used to take thousands of lines of code earlier

Credits: Courtesy of the researchers

Larry Hardesty, MIT NEWS OFFiCE

M

ost recent advances in artificial intelligence — such as mobile apps that convert speech to text — are the result of machine learning, in which computers are turned loose on huge data sets to look for patterns.

To make machine-learning applications easier to build, computer scientists have begun developing so-called probabilistic programming languages, which let researchers mix and match machine-learning techniques that have worked well in other contexts. In 2013, the U S Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an incubator of cutting-edge technology, launched a four-year program to fund probabilisticprogramming research.

At the Computer Vision and

14

Two-dimensional images of human faces (top row) and front views of three-aproduced by both a new MIT system (middle row) and one of its predecessors (bottom row).

Pattern Recognition conference in June, MIT researchers will demonstrate that on some standard computer-vision tasks, short programs — less than 50 lines long — written in a probabilistic programming language are competitive with conventional systems with thousands of lines of code.

“This is the first time that we’re introducing probabilistic programming in the vision area,” says Tejas Kulkarni, an MIT graduate student in brain and cognitive sciences and first author on the new paper. “The whole hope is to write very flexible models, both generative and discriminative models, as short probabilistic code, and then not do anything else. Generalpurpose inference schemes solve the problems.”

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

By the standards of conventional computer programs, those “models” can seem absurdly vague. One of the tasks that the researchers investigate, for instance, is constructing a 3-D model of a human face from 2-D images. Their program describes the principal features of the face as being two symmetrically distributed objects (eyes) with two more centrally positioned objects beneath them (the nose and mouth).

It requires a little work to translate that description into the syntax of the probabilistic programming language, but at that point, the model is complete. Feed the program enough examples of 2-D images and their corresponding 3-D models, and it will figure out the rest for itself.

“When you think about probabilistic programs, you think

ACHIEVERS “When you think about probabilistic programs, you think very intuitively when you’re modeling,” Tejas Kulkarni very intuitively when you’re modeling,” Kulkarni says. “You don’t think mathematically. It’s a very different style of modeling.”

Joining Kulkarni on the paper are his adviser, professor of brain and cognitive sciences Josh Tenenbaum; Vikash Mansinghka, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; and Pushmeet Kohli of Microsoft Research Cambridge. For their experiments, they created a probabilistic programming language they call Picture, which is an extension of Julia, another language developed at MIT.

What’s old is new

The new work, Kulkarni says, revives an idea known as inverse graphics, which dates from the infancy of artificialintelligence research. Even though their computers were painfully slow by today’s standards, the artificial intelligence pioneers saw that graphics programs would soon be able to synthesise realistic images by calculating the way in which light reflected off of virtual objects. This is, essentially, how Pixar makes movies.

Some researchers, like the MIT graduate student Larry Roberts, argued that deducing objects’ three-dimensional shapes from visual information was simply the same problem in reverse. But a given color patch in a visual image can, in principle, be produced by light of any color, coming from any direction, reflecting off of a surface of the right color with the right orientation. Calculating the color value of the pixels in a single frame of “Toy Story” is a huge computation, but it’s deterministic: All the variables are known. Inferring shape, on the other hand, is probabilistic: It means canvassing lots of rival possibilities and selecting the one that seems most likely.

That kind of inference is exactly what probabilistic programming languages are designed to do. Kulkarni and his colleagues considered four different problems in computer vision, each of which involves inferring the three-dimensional shape of an object from 2-D information. On some tasks, their simple programs actually outperformed prior systems. The error rate of the program that estimated human poses, for example, was between 50 and 80 per cent lower than that of its predecessors.

Learning to learn

In a probabilistic programming language, the heavy lifting is done by the inference algorithm — the algorithm that continuously readjusts probabilities on the basis of new pieces of training data. In that respect, Kulkarni and his colleagues had the advantage of decades of machine-learning research. Built into Picture are several different inference algorithms that have fared well on computer-vision tasks. Time permitting, it can try all of them out on any given problem, to see which works best. n (The above news is based on the data provided by MIT)

Cohen wins Truman Scholarship

A

dam Cohen, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, wins Harry S Truman Scholarship, a merit-based award for college students who plan to pursue careers in government or in public service, wish to attend graduate or professional school to help prepare for their careers and are U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals. He is among 60 students awarded Truman Scholarships this year and is the 22nd Truman Scholar from Penn since 1981. Cohen is pursuing a major in urban studies in the School of Arts & Sciences. He is engaged in evidence-based social policy improvements in both Philadelphia and in his home state. Cohen’s work at Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships has helped improve post-secondary success initiatives in West Philadelphia public high schools. He has worked with Netter affiliated faculty members to develop and coordinate three college-access programs that serve high school juniors and seniors and has also contributed to improving Penn’s Academically Based Community Service program. After graduating, Cohen hopes to continue working on education and community development initiatives in Philadelphia. n May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

15

Study: Fielding more female candidates helps political parties gain votes

P

olitical parties find that their fortunes improve when they put more women on the ballot, according to a study coauthored by an MIT economist. The study analyzes changes to municipal election laws in Spain, which a decade ago began requiring political parties to have women fill at least 40 per cent of the slots on their electoral lists. With other factors being equal, the research found, parties that increased their share of female candidates by 10 percentage points more than their opponents enjoyed a 4.2 percentage-point gain at the ballot box, or an outright switch of about 20 votes per 1,000 cast.

“When you force a party to field more women, they gain votes,” says Albert Saiz, the Daniel Rose Prof. of Urban Economics and Real Estate in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and director of MIT’s Center for Real Estate, who is co-author of a forthcoming paper detailing the study.

Saiz believes the study strikes a blow against some common justifications for the dearth

STUDY

Peter Dizikes

Winning

women of female candidates in many democracies — namely, that voters simply prefer voting for men, or that not enough high-quality female candidates are available to political parties. It is likely that voters will support women, he thinks, and that plenty of good female candidates exist — but women do not appear on ballots as frequently as men because of machinations within party organizations. “We [believe] that it’s not really about voters,” Saiz says.

“It’s about internal dynamics of the parties. There’s some elbowing out going on that leaves women behind.”

Held back?

The forthcoming paper — “Women and Power: Unpopular, Unwilling, or Held Back?” — will appear in the Journal of Political Economy. It is co-authored by Saiz and Pablo Casas-Arce, an assistant professor of economics at Arizona State University.

The study makes adroit use of a “natural experiment,” a real-world circumstance that social scientists can use to examine the causal impact of, say, a policy change within otherwise similar civic conditions. In this case, Spain’s Social Democratic Party enacted an equality law after gaining power in the country’s 2004 parliamentary election. That law, requiring the 40 per cent minimum quota of female candidates in local elections, was put into effect for Spain’s 2007 elections.

The law’s rapid enactment

challenges the claim that there is a scarcity of qualified female candidates, among other things; if there were such a shortage, it would have been manifest in the elections three years later. As a result of the legislation, the number of female candidates increased by 8.5 percentage points, or 32 per cent, compared to 2004.

Spain’s law only applied to municipalities of more than 5,000 people; in some places, parties were already above the 40 per cent threshold. So as a further refinement of the analysis, the researchers used towns unaffected by the quota as a control for the study. Saiz and Casas-Arce found that, given these controls, parties still produced the 4.2 percentage-point shift.

No major aversion

While the findings are particular to Spain, the study itself was extensive: All told, the researchers examined elections in 4,852 municipalities. Among their additional findings: Voter turnout did not diminish in response to a greater number of female candidates.“These results are not consistent with the existence of major voter aversion to female candidates,” the authors said.

At a minimum, he notes, the study gives parties with a prior lack of female candidates an obvious incentive to remedy that. n (The above news is based on the data provided by MIT)

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

16

“

“

PERSONALITIES

The best things that happen to me are the ones I least expect

‘Ayush’man Bhava! h. encouraged Ayus ush did excel wood movie. e of everybody, Ay lly ris rp Bo d su e ol th an To of got a full tuition t has the flavour ral background, ing exam and also ru ify a al m qu e fro ol. Then, y th bo in a Ivy League Scho means, The story of r studying at the ther, with limited fo fa r c ther ive ni fa s wa ha Hi ec . m US a born to vel to the IT, that too nding d no money to tra fu ha the prestigious M dhe to ow it cr es A ak s. ly m nd al o wh enough fu 14 was liter ise ch ra ar le M ab st t d La no an s p. h hi us wa e behalf of Ay on a full scholars Ayush Sharma. Th was initiated on of n , e ig kh lif pa e la m th .1 ca in Rs t t in ou d raise ab a turning po out that he six hours he coul d had just found in la th ur wi np Ka ld ts r-o 17-yea assachuset the prestigious M says a report completely got admission to t school in os m re turned from Yale fo re e sh th , yu gy “A lo d a broader no ch ore articulate, ha Institute of Te full tuition m a s th wa wi He g, . in ed er rm ne n engi transfo wanted the world to lear convinced that he rld view and was wo ity for his rs ive un s r.

US as p waive en I was in Cl or another to wh IT IT M M to t tor, Varun go ou ab to m d “I had hear says Atush’s en e other th s,” ie or e ud st on t e at ou du ab ra uld read underg nus and head 7 or 8 when I wo of Michigan alum ents or professors ity rs ud st ive r ei Un a th ed a, ch ar se Varm n, a Mumbai-bas path-breaking re anti. The Red Pe nal pages of the Av io the at at s th rn le te wi sa e in e nc of th ver red assista were doing, in consultancy offe e media. “I had ne ns th io ld iss to m h ad us Ay ,” newspapers ng there as it process.

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Ayush applied fo holarship amount e Yale University sc th IT of , M m e ra Th og Pr Global Scholars s at first not sure ur years. n EI Bureau aduate himself, wa 1.40 crore over fo at od go t Wright, a Yale gr no s wa y bo e th as result about a positive glish. Yet he municating in En m co d an ng ki spea

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Thought Leader- Dr Bakul Harshadrai Dholakia

‘IIM-A has always been

The panacea for the chaos in management education is to define performance Dipin Damodharan

“Mushrooming of management institutes creates a misleading picture for the students, because it gives a false sense of easy availability of a seat in a management institute without the potential for finding jobs which a management institution should guarantee.”

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

D

r Bakul Harshadrai Dholakia, the man who played a lead role in reinventing IIM Ahmedabad as India’s foremost management institute, thinks that the nation needs more premium quality management institutions.

According to this revered teacher, they can be IIMs or private sector organisations. Dr Dholakia also warns that unless the new IIMs come up to the level of the established IIMs they are not going to last for a very long time as far as the market perception is concerned. The new IIMs have to evolve rapidly into systems, processes, quality of faculty, curriculum and everything that has established IIMs. Dr Dholakia had a phenomenal stint at

able to reinvent itself’ parameters and rank the institutes, says Dr Bakul Dholakia

IIM Ahmedabad, where he took some bold initiatives to make the institute self-reliant and a fine centre of excellence. He was best known for creating the brand IIM-A on the world map of higher education.

A gold medalist from Baroda University, he was dean at IIM-A from 1998 to 2001 and director from 2001 to 2007. Having nearly five decades of teaching experience, of which 33 years at IIM-A, Dholakia is at present Director General of International Management Institute, New Delhi.

In an interview with Education Insider Dholakia tells that the

largest pool of quality management teachers, the corporate government structure and the most distinguished pool of alumni who continue the interface with the institute help IIM-A to remain an institute par excellence. Excerpts: Do you think the rapid changes in technology are changing the face of management education?

The new trends in management education are that new areas of decision making are emerging, new fields of specialisation are emerging and also the method and style of doing businesses are undergoing

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changes, both because of the change in the environment and because of the change in technology and therefore the old paradigms of management and the style of doing business has undergone a sea change in the last 10 years.

What do you think of the placement offerings of our business schools?

The quality of management education in India represents a very interesting contrast. Out of the odd 4000 business schools in India,the quality of education at the top 50100 business schools is acceptable and is considered to be fairly good,

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May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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Thought Leader- Dr Bakul Harshadrai Dholakia

but for the bottom 50 colleges the quality of education is absolutely pathetic and is so inadequate that the market acceptance of their products is practically not there and as a result they are finding it very difficult to place even 20-25% of their students.

Most of the management schools produce graduates who are not competent enough to meet the job requirements. Is this because of the easy availability of getting admission into a management school?

Yes, mushrooming of management institutes creates a misleading picture for the students, because it gives a false sense of easy availability of a seat in a management institute without the potential for finding jobs which a management institution should guarantee. So the students who have not performed well or whose academic background is average also start aspiring for positions and jobs which are not possible with their past background. This can happen only if they get quality education in these management institutions, but they do not have that kind of education.

The managerial talent requirement of job market is complex and changing. Are our institutions able to equip the students to meet this? Do you think we need to develop a new model for our B schools?

Yes, the Indian institutes require a successful model of management education. The first thing is that the managerial need of the nation represents a hierarchy. You require managers for MNCs or the large cap companies that rub shoulders with the global corporation.

The managerial talent of these organisations represents one kind.

Then you have large number of mid cap organisations that are growing at a fast pace. Their managerial talent requirement is different.

Again, small and medium enterprises

Dr Bakul Harshadrai Dholakia Age Education Career

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(SMEs) have a different need. The problem is that any organisation caters to local, regional, national and international markets. Managerial needs and even affordability of managerial talent is going to greatly affect these kinds of organisations.

Secondly, managerial talent is not only required in the private/ corporate sectors but also required in the host of service organisations which may be in the public domain.

So if you look at the requirement of managerial talent it is very vast but most of the B schools focus only on

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: 67 : PhD in Economics from Baroda University : International Management Institute, New Delhi (Director General), IIM-Ahmedabad (Director, Dean), Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management and Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences (Director)

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

“The government should create a level playing field for everyone. An independent agency should be assigned the task to identify and rate the management institutes. AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and Ministry of HRD (Human Resource Development) can identify a creditable agency for this job. Depending upon the parameters and methodology, the A-plus or A-rated institutes should be allowed to award degrees”

creating stereotypes, which means they are providing managers only for the larger sectors which cater to multiple markets. In this process the needs of SMEs have been ignored and the needs of many service organisations which are very crucial for the quality of life for a common citizen is also overlooked. Therefore, I would categorise some of them as undermanaged sectors.

Maintaining the quality of the IIM brand is a tough task for the newer ones. Your comment.

India needs more premium quality management institutions.

They can be IIMs or private sector organisations. IIM is a wellestablished brand. Maintaining the brand and enhancing the brand is a challenge. Unless the new IIMs come up to the level of these established IIMs they are not going to last for a very long time as far as the market perception is concerned.

The new IIMs have to evolve rapidly into systems, processes, quality of faculty, curriculum and everything that established IIMs have.

What do you think of the IIMs Bill placed in the cabinet to confer master’s degree to their PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) programme?

This bill is a welcome step. I believe it will solve a lot of problems related to the management education in India. The whole logic behind demanding a master’s degree for PGDM course is not merely a certificate but its marketability and perception in the market. IIMs were

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Recognitions: Awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2007 for his contributions in the field of Literature and Education, Bharat Asmita National Award Author of 12 books, 25 monographs and more than 50 research papers and over 30 case notes

© Wikimedia Commons

the pioneers of PGDM course in India and since then they had very high credibility because of their commitment to excellence, quality and culture. Following the lines of IIMs, similar levels of standards were created and maintained by the top 20 - 30 premier management institutions in the country and that’s the reason that the industry considers them at par with the IIMs. If all the new IIMs start awarding master’s degree there will be a situation of dichotomy for the master’s degree offered by them

and the PGDM offered by the top institutes of the country. The PGDM as a qualification will stand at a disadvantage.

The solution is to define performance parameters and rank the institutes. The government should create a level playing field for everyone. An independent agency should be assigned the task to identify and rate the management institutes. AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and Ministry of HRD (Human Resource Development) can identify a

creditable agency for this job.

Depending upon the parameters and methodology, the A-plus or A-rated institutes should be allowed to award degrees so that they are not forced to get affiliated with some university and compromise their autonomy and hence the quality of education.

It is in the interest of the government to make sure that institutions are not placed at a disadvantage in terms of perception in the market. Also, if the government is committed to attract

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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Thought Leader- Dr Bakul Harshadrai Dholakia

private investment in the higher education and want an overall growth of the higher education system in the country where private sector supplements the effort of the public sector then they should create a level playing field and if that happens it will not be a threat but an opportunity for the premier management institutes of the country.

There’s an argument that IIM Ahmedabad has to reinvent itself to take its glory to the next level. Please comment. And what do you think of the present status of IIM Ahmedabad on producing future leaders for the country?

IIM-A has always been an institute par excellence and will always remain. It is what it is on account of its massive strength of highly qualified and highly skilled interdisciplinary faculty. It has the largest pool of good quality management teachers in the country. The focus on continuous upgradation of case material, curriculum and introduction of new course material has helped IIM-A far exceeded its peers in this industry. IIM has always been blessed with excellent leadership.

IIM-A has also been blessed with excellent corporate government structure and above all IIM-A has the most distinguished pool of alumni who continue the interface with the institute. Therefore all these features ensure that there are enough forces driving the change from within and that is the reason IIM-A has always been able to reinvent itself and has been able to keep pace with the changing time.

The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode made history with the largest — ever — percentage of women graduating from any top school for business in India. More than half of the postgraduate degree holders— around 200 of the 348 students— were women. How do you look at this achievement? Will other IIMs

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“The basic purpose of education is to enhance the skills in the context of employability or entrepreneurship but good education or a policy of education should not only focus on the material aspect but should also focus on creating better human beings and better citizens and creating an all-round development of personality” need to follow this for creating more women entrepreneurs and promoting women empowerment?

There is no doubt that the IIM system should do its best to improve gender equality. The proportion of females taking CAT (Common Admission Test) entrance in 200506 was not even 20%. If this ratio can somehow increase to 40%, we may get more girls admitted and be able to have some gender equality.

Hopefully that scenario is changing.

The other option is that IIMs create a separate quota for women but this is not a desirable scenario.

As a professor who helped shape India’s greatest management institute, how do you define education?

The basic purpose of education is

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

to enhance the skills in the context of employability or entrepreneurship but good education or a policy of education should not only focus on the material aspect but should also focus on creating better human beings and better citizens and creating an all-round development of personality. With a focus on skills they can produce good economic benefits either through employability or entrepreneurship.

At the same time education should also create awareness about high moral values, integrity and ethical practices because if this country needs to flush corruption out of its system, at the end of the day these young graduates coming from the premium institutes will take the baton in order to achieve that. n

COVER STORY

‘Education for All’ it’s happening, but still an unfinished agenda Dipin Damodharan

Photo credit: Karel Prinsloo / ARETE / UNESCO

The world needs $22 billion annually for quality pre-primary and basic education for all by 2030. The international community must find innovative ways and resources to bridge the $22 billion gap for the sake of Education for All

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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COVER STORY

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t was the most important and decisive event in the history of education. Back in April, 2000, 1,100 participants from 164 countries assembled for the World Education Forum meet in Dakar, Senegal for a noble cause. It was known as the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments. And the 164 countries agreed to launch an ambitious initiative for achieving the goal of Education for All by the year 2015. But, after 15 years of ups and downs, commitments and actions, funding and under-funding, terror, conflicts and the “I am Malala” campaigns, the universal goal ‘Education for All’ still remains an unfinished agenda.

The World Education Forum entrusted UNESCO with the responsibility of coordinating with all countries and other international players to achieve the goal and keep up the global momentum. UNESCO initiated an independent publication, Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EFAGMR), to monitor the progress, report the remaining gaps and provide recommendations for the sustainable development agenda to follow in 2015. The latest GMR, ‘Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges’, produced by UNESCO, which came out in April, has tracked the progress

Teacher Ewesit teaches children under trees at a mobile school some 50 kilometres from Lodwar, Turkana, Kenya

of six wide-ranging education goals for the past 15 years.

In April 2013, Education Insider reported that there was little chance to achieve the six goals by 2015.

The new GMR report now officially

approves it. “Education for All is definitely an unfinished agenda.

We are not on track to meet the six goals by 2015. Currently, 250 million primary school-aged children cannot read or write. In addition,

Ban Ki-moon

UN Secretary-General “We know that when we work together and invest in the future, the sky is the limit for young people. Let us harness the power of education to build a better future for all”

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“Just one third of countries have achieved all of the measurable Education for All (EFA) goals set in 2000. Only half of all countries have achieved the most watched goal of universal primary enrolment,” finds the GMR 2015

Photo credit: UNESCO / Karel Prinsloo / ARETE

while the name ‘Education for All’ implies that progress in education should reach all children equally, our new World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE) shows that this is not the case. In particular, the poorest girls living in rural areas are often left behind,”Pauline Rose, the previous director of the GMR, who participated in the initial development of the new report, told this author in 2013.

“Just one third of countries have achieved all of the measurable Education for All (EFA) goals set in 2000. Only half of all countries have achieved the most watched goal of universal primary enrolment,” finds the GMR 2015. It is a good sign that the report says 80 million more children are in school today since the initiative was launched 15 years ago. However, the UN SecretaryGeneral, Ban Ki-moon is upbeat on May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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COVER STORY

the developments. “We know that when we work together and invest in the future, the sky is the limit for young people. Let us harness the power of education to build a better future for all,” Ban Ki-moon told Education Insider.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova also feels confident about the future. “The world has made tremendous progress towards Education for All. Despite not meeting the 2015 deadline, millions more children are in school than would have been had the trends of the 1990s persisted. However, the agenda is far from finished. We need to see specific, well-funded strategies that prioritise the poorest – especially girls –, improve the quality of learning and reduce the literacy gap so that education becomes meaningful and universal,” Irina Bokova said.

Another important finding of the report is that an extra $22 billion a year is needed on top of the already ambitious government contributions in order to ensure we achieve the new education targets now set for the year 2030. Funding continues as a major concern for education. As Pauline Rose pointed out, “the first way to fund education is to make it a top priority: we recommend that countries direct 20% of their budgets to education and prioritise

pre-primary, primary and lowersecondary education. In addition, many governments can expand their income by managing natural resources better and improving tax systems.’’

The report finds that since 2000 many governments significantly increased their spending on education: 38 countries increased their commitment to education

Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General “The world has made tremendous progress towards Education for All. Despite not meeting the 2015 deadline, millions more children are in school than would have been had the trends of the 1990s persisted. However, the agenda is far from finished. We need to see specific, well-funded strategies that prioritise the poorest – especially girls –, improve the quality of learning and reduce the literacy gap so that education becomes meaningful and universal”

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by one percentage point or more of GNP. “Unless concerted action is taken and education receives the attention that it failed to get during the past 15 years, millions of children will continue to miss out and the transformative vision of the new Sustainable Development agenda will be jeopardised.

Governments must find ways to mobilise new resources for

The report finds that since 2000 many governments significantly increased their spending on education: 38 countries increased their commitment to education by one percentage point or more of GNP

education. International partners must ensure that aid is distributed to those most in need,” GMR Director Aaron Benavot told Education Insider.

Now let us come to the six goals set up in the Dakar framework and its progress.

Goal 1: ‘Expand early childhood care and education, especially for

the most vulnerable children.’

According to the GMR 2015, 47 per cent of countries reached the goal meanwhile eight per cent were close to the target. 20 per cent remains very far from this goal.

“Yet, in 2012, nearly two-thirds more children were enrolled in early childhood education than in 1999,’’ the report reveals.

Goal 2: ‘Achieve universal primary education, particularly for girls, ethnic minorities and marginalised children’.

Fifty-two per cent of countries achieved this goal; 10 per cent are close and the remaining 38 per cent are far or very far from achieving it. This leaves almost 100 million children not completing primary education in 2015. A lack of focus on the marginalised has left the poorest five times less likely to complete a full cycle of primary education than the richest and over a third of out of school children living in conflict affected zones,’’ the GMR states.

However, the most significant achievement of Goal 2 is that around 50 million more children are enrolled in schools now than in 1999.

The report observes that education is still not free in many places, but cash transfer and school feeding programmes have had a positive impact on school enrolment for the poor.

Goal 3: ‘Ensure equal access to learning and life skills for youth and adults’.

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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COVER STORY

Proposed sustainable development education goals and targets outlined in the GMR 2015 report Targets

Credit / Ami Vitale / EFA Report

1. By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes 2. By 2030 ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education 3. By 2030 ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university 4. By 2030, increase by 10 per cent the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship 5. By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal

Indian children study in an open hut.

The GMR reveals that 46 per cent of countries reached universal lower secondary enrolment.

Globally, numbers in lower secondary education increased by 27 per cent and more than doubled in sub-Saharan Africa. One third of adolescents in low income countries will not complete lower secondary school in 2015.

Goal 4: ‘Achieving a 50 per cent reduction in levels of adult illiteracy by 2015.’

Just 25 per cent of countries were able to reach this goal. 32 per

cent are very far from it. “While globally the percentage of illiterate adults fell from 18 per cent in 2000 to 14 per cent in 2015, this progress is almost entirely attributed to more educated young people reaching adulthood. Women continue to make up almost two-thirds of the illiterate adult population. Half of subSaharan African women do not have basic literacy skills,” the report says.

Goal 5: ‘Achieve gender parity and equality is the fifth goal.’

“Gender parity will be achieved at the primary level in 69 per cent

of countries by 2015. At secondary level, only 48 per cent of countries will reach the goal. Child marriage and early pregnancy continue to hinder girls’ progress in education as does the need for teacher training in gender sensitive approaches and curriculum reform,’’ the report reveals.

Goal 6: ‘Improve the quality of education and ensure measurable learning outcomes for all’.

Many more teachers are needed to get all children into school. Even though the numbers of pupils per

Pauline Rose

the previous director of the GMR, told EI in 2013

“Education for All is definitely an unfinished agenda. We are not on track to meet the six goals by 2015.”

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access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations 6. By 2030 ensure that all youth and at least x% of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy 7. By 2030 ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development

teacher decreased in 121 of 146 countries between 1990 and 2012 at the primary level, 4 million more teachers are still needed to send all children into school. “Trained teachers remain in short supply in one third of countries; in several sub-Saharan African countries, less than 50 per cent are trained.

However, education quality has received increased attention since 2000; the number of countries carrying out national learning assessments has doubled.”

To achieve the education goals, the GMR lines out some relevant recommendations. Education Insider

After 15 years of ups and downs, commitments and actions, funding and under-funding, terror, conflicts and the “I am Malala” campaigns, the universal goal ‘Education for All’ still remains an unfinished agenda

presents four key recommendations from the report for our readers.

1. Complete the EFA agenda: Governments should make at least one year of pre-primary education compulsory. Education must be free for all children: fees for tuition, textbooks, school uniforms and transport must be abolished. Policy makers should identify and prioritise skills to be acquired by the end of each stage of schooling. Literacy policies should link up with the needs of communities. Teacher training should be improved to include gender-focused strategies.

Teaching styles should better reflect

student needs and the diversity of classroom contexts.

2. Equity: Governments, donors and civil society must develop programmes and target funding to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged so no child is left behind. Governments should close critical data gaps in order to be able to direct resources to those most in need.

3. Post-2015: Future education targets for education must be specific, relevant and realistic.

At current rates, only half of all children in low-income countries are expected to complete lower secondary education by 2030. In many countries even the core goal of achieving universal primary education will remain out of reach without concerted efforts.

4. Close the finance gap: The international community, in partnership with countries, must find the means to bridge the US$22 billion annual finance gap for quality pre-primary and basic education for all by 2030. Clear education finance targets must be established within the Sustainable Development Goals where none currently exist. n

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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COVER STORY: INTERVIEW/AARON BENAVOT

Lack of political will mars

‘Education for All’ programme “Governments must find ways to mobilise new resources for education. International partners must ensure that aid is distributed to those most in need,’’ says Aaron Benavot, Director, UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EFAGMR), in an exclusive interview with Dipin Damodharan. He talks on the latest GMR report, India’s spectacular progress in achieving education goals and the lack of political will to close the funding gap. Excerpts:

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ifteen years after 164 countries had agreed to work towards education for all, just one-third have achieved the six goals set.

What do you think the reason for this?

The goal was ambitious and it is clear that despite missing the target that millions more children are now in school than would have had been the trends of the 1990’s persisted.80 million more children and adolescents are now in school. This shows the world has left the previous decades stagnation well and truly behind. However, the past 15 years also reveal chronic underfunding and too little political commitment and influence in the areas that need it the most. The majority of countries that haven’t yet achieved Education for All tend to be poorer countries and many have faced conflict, corruption and humanitarian disasters that have hampered their progress.

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Viet nam school children

Credit- Tuan Nguyen- EFAReport

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Do you think lack of a political will among leaders is an impediment to achieve the noble aim of Education for All? A lack of political will has been a great impediment to achieving Education for All. One of the biggest consequences has been in the lack of funding for education from both international donors and governments resulting in the US$22 billion annual financing gap.

Unless concerted action is taken and education receives the attention that it failed to get during the past 15 years, millions of children will continue to miss out and the new Sustainable Development goals will be jeopardized. Governments must find ways to mobilise new resources for education. International partners must ensure that aid is distributed to those most in need.

You said quoting the Education for All Global Monitoring Report that there’s an annual finance gap of US$22 billion for quality pre-primary and basic education for all by 2030. How can we bridge this finance gap?

The international community, in partnership with countries, must find US$22 billion every year to bridge the finance gap. Clear education finance targets must be established within the Sustainable Development Goals where none currently exist. Such targets will

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allow us to see who has met their targets and more importantly who hasn’t.

How do you look at the NarendraModi-led Indian government’s approach towards Education for All goal?

This particular report monitors progress from 1999 when the Education for All goals were agreed. At that time India had almost 17 million children out of school that has now fallen to 1 million, Universal Primary Education has been achieved and this year India is predicted to be the only country in South and West Asia to have an equal ratio of girls to boys in both primary and lower secondary education.

There has been a great investment in nearly all aspects of school facilities and infrastructure - 45% of schools now have electricity compared to 20% and 78% of roads are paved within 1 kilometer of schools versus 63%. India’s nationwide government-sponsored literacy programme, Saakshar Bharat Mission, is making a strong effort to empower women and reach an 80% literacy rate. India is successfully moving towards achieving Education for All and we hope that the Narendra Modi-led Indian government will continue to build on this success.

According to the report, India reduced its out of school

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children by over 90 percent since 2000, and achieved universal primary education. Is India going in the right direction?

India is going in the right direction. It has ensured all children have had the chance to enroll and complete primary education since 1999 – a vital goal to have achieved and maintained. Education has been prioritized and well-targeted ensuring all children, including the most disadvantaged, have the chance to go to school.

What do you think the most important recommendation of the EFAGMR report 2015?

The most important recommendation of the 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report is to close the funding gap.

Without that many countries, particularly the world’s poorest countries, cannot afford to train teachers, build schools, buy books and introduce initiatives such as offering free school meals. As the new Sustainable Development goals are agreed we must seize the opportunity to ensure that new funds are mobilized and we improve how they are used.

Countries like Niger, Chad, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ethiopia are way off the target?

How do you view this? What do you want to tell the governments of these countries?

Many of the countries furthest away from achieving Education for All have had to deal with incredibly tough circumstances such as conflict, humanitarian disasters, corruption and the impact of climate change. It is important we understand what these countries have had to deal with and that they’re given theappropriate support and funding to overcome those challenges. On a government level education must remain a priority whatever the circumstances as for many children it is the only chance of breaking the cycle of conflict and poverty. n

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Photo credit: UNESCO/ GulshanSachdeva

COVER STORY / INDIA

Making ‘education’ a pillar for the nation’s character building It is a matter of great pride for India for being selected as the venue for the launch of the 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report in New Delhi in April. This is the first ever international launch of the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) outside Paris and New York. The findings of the report is also a global recognition of India’s education policy, which literally ensures every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years a free and compulsory elementary education in a neighbourhood school. A look at the speech delivered by Smriti Zubin Irani,Central Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), highlighting the country’s internationally recognised efforts to educate its children, while releasing the report.

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t was the first ever international launch of the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) outside Paris and New York, when India’s HRD Minister Smriti Irani released the report on April 9 in New Delhi in the presence of Nobel laureate and education activist Kailash Satyarthi and other luminaries.

According to the GMR 2015, India has made tremendous progress in school education. The findings of the report predict India as the only country in South and West Asia to have an equal ratio of girls and boys in both primary and secondary education this year.

“The goal of Education for All

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has been high on the agenda of the Government of India since the adoption of the Constitution in 1950 and the nation’s development planning. Article 45 in the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Indian Constitution mandated the State to endeavour to provide free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 years,” Smriti Irani said.

She opined that successive development policies have pursued this goal and India’s efforts to achieve universal elementary education gained further momentum with the

enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 which became effective on 1 April 2010. The Act entitles every child in the age group of six to fourteen years to a right to free and compulsory elementary education in a neighbourhood school.

As a follow-up to the Dakar Framework of Action for EFA, a National Plan of Actionfor Education for All, namely was formulated in 2002 in India, with a view to contextualise and strategise policies and programmes for achieving the EFA goals. According to the minister among the many programmes the government formulated, the most prominent is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is the Indian version of Education for All. “India has made substantial progress towards the EFA goals, as is brought out in the GMR reports too. Several strategic approaches have been found to be effective in promoting the goals of Education for All, namely the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and the Saakshar Bharat. Under the strategies of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship programme for universalisation of elementary education which covers about 1.4 million schools and the National Programme of Mid-Day Meals which provide mid-day meals daily to about 11 million school children, near universal access to and enrolment in elementary education has been achieved,’’ Smriti said.

“Between 2000-01 and 2013-14, the number of schools imparting elementary education has increased from about 845,000 to 1.45 million and enrolment in elementary education increased from 156.6 million to 198.9 million. The number of out-of-school children in the age group 6-13 years has declined from 13.45 million in 2005 to 6.06 million in 2014. The general average dropout rate for elementary level has

As a follow-up to the Dakar Framework of Action for EFA, a National Plan of Action for Education for All, namely was formulated in 2002 in India, with a view to contextualise and strategise policies and programmes for achieving the EFA goals. According to the minister among the many programmes the government formulated, the most prominent is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is the Indian version of Education for All dropped to 4.17 per cent in 201213,” the minister pointed out.

Significant progress has also been made in bridging social category gaps in elementary education. The participation in elementary education of children from disadvantaged population groups such as Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), minorities and children with special needs (CWSN) has increased substantially.

“For the first time in India’s literacy movement, Sakshar Bharat, an innovative concept of “Certified Literate”, a transparent assessment and certification system has been designed and operationalised in collaboration with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

This practice has spurred demand for literacy, made the outcomes of the adult education programme measurable and significantly enhanced overall credibility of

the programme. This system has opened for neo-literates avenues for vertical mobility in basic education.

The Sakshar Bharat programme continues to focus on districts with low female literacy,’’ the minister said.

“Recognising the vision of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of making Education a pillar for the nation’s character building, a new paradigm of education that fosters knowledge with analytical skills, logical reasoning and the ability to imagine beyond the given, that aims at transforming lives by instilling 21st century skills and stimulating lifelong learning, is being adopted. Achieving excellence by improving the quality and relevance of education and enabling all children and young people to achieve expected specified learning outcomes remains a key goal. Our focus therefore is to build an education system with the highest educational and ethical standards that encourages young people to be productive and socially responsible citizens within a caring, collaborative learning community,’’ Smriti Irani added.

With a view to harness technology for education the use of ICT in education, the government is focussing on the introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) as a massive platform for on-line learning.

Emphasis on skill development for Make-in-India campaign, Quality of Education, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and Initiatives for inclusive education are being accorded high priority. “The 2015 GMR provides an opportunity to the international community to put in place a cooperation mechanism to facilitate achievement of the goal of education for all within the shortest possible time period,’’ the HRD minister concluded. n -EI Bureau May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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DigiClass Naveen Rajlani

Modernising

education in India T oday we are surrounded by technology in every domain of our lives, be it our daily household chores or education that we wonder to give a second thought to the impact it plays in our life. Involving technology in education for children seems to be a debatable subject for parents as they see kids glued to advanced gadgets the entire day and now making technology an integral part of education will make them more addicted to the same.

But when the positive impact of education technology outnumbered the negative it definitely leaves a mark behind for parents to understand the true worth of ever-advancing technology.

It is indeed a common factor for children to grow up with a tech savvy intent in this 21st century as they find themselves greatly connecting to global insights to learn something new. To keep up with the pace of today’s students lot of educational and innovative technological programs are now introduced in order to engage students actively into the world of technology. The challenges faced by modern education can only be overcome by an innovative mixture of technology and smart thinking.

Exploring possibilities beyond the four walls of classroom and

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Exploring possibilities beyond the four walls of a classroom and using a creative blend of technology will help taking modern education to a higher level

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

using a creative blend of technology will help taking modern education to a higher level.

Positive impact of technology

With the advancement of various technologies in India, now schools and other educational institutions have started embracing the new techniques in making education a fun and interactive avenue for students to impart quality education. The impact majorly plays a positive role in education as thinking beyond the classroom wall gives a whole new meaning to the concept of modernising education in India. The innovative concept of making learning more fun and interactive boosts up the insight of students as they learn faster and open up to more ideas, making it easier for teachers to recognize a student’s overall understanding of the subject. Combining technology and education is a great blend if used together in a right direction for a better tomorrow and to make students ready for future in this competitive world.

Technology improves education

The use of technology definitely improves education as it brings with it a revolutionising wave in modernising the education system and making it more interesting for the students. The improvement in education technology can be well managed by mentors, students and parents as all the information they would need is made available to them with just a click of button.

Here are some pointers to elucidate more on various ways technology has improved the education system of India eventually with time. – DigiClass: This particular technological approach has become very popular with the advancement of modern classroom learning. In this practice dynamic multimedia contents are displayed inside the classroom which makes the topics fun filled and interactive for the student. It comes as a complete

With the advancement of various technologies in India, now schools and other educational institutions have started embracing the new techniques in making education a fun and interactive avenue for students to impart quality education classroom solution from chalkboard to digi-board training. The introduction of this practice has shown a remarkable performance in students with noticeable grade boost.

Online curriculum, online content and DVD: With the

introduction of online curriculum the sharing of ideas and online resources have become very easy for the teachers. Teachers can now club together all their ideas and resources available online to make a comprehensive curriculum for the students and can share them in the form of DVD’s or other online content. Online education players like Edurite (www.edurite.com) comes as an ultimate solution for teachers to improve or refine their content before sharing with the students thereby making online learning a credible option. Online education is now highly credited and has changed the way the world view of imparting education.

Educational tech-gadgets an ultimate solution: The

learning service providers are in a continual process of developing new education gadgets which can make learning easier for students and make them understand tougher

subjects with much ease. In an era where children are more comfortable in using a tablet over textbook, ICT gadgets like MXTouch (www. pearsonmxtouch.com) are the tools which act as a catalyst in students’ learning pace. The use of education tools like MX Touch will not only make learning easier for students but also help parents to assist and monitor their learning needs of their children. Students can have direct access to more personalized and collective digital learning platform which consists of rich digital content, 3D animations, quizzes and educational videos which would help shaping their ideas.

Learning solutions: Unique learning solution that combines pedagogically sound and comprehensive courses for a variety of subjects with innovative learning and teaching resources available now a day. Solutions like Activeteach,(www.pearsoned. co.in/activeteach/home)seamlessly integrates technology with the syllabi to ensure effective learning in a learner-friendly classroom environment. Teachers can use engaging and visually stunning animations and audio inputs for classes. The captivating videos from the BBC Motion Gallery and Informative slideshows keep the students engaged as well as boost their learning speed.

With technology playing an integral part of the learning process of students it is highly advisable to scale up the efficacy of bringing technology and education together.

As the technology involves a whole lot of products and services aiming to cater to the education of students the efficiency of such technology is very important. The use of latest technology for better teaching and learning experience is a key to an innovative education system improving learning outcomes. n (The author is Business Head Inside Services, Pearson India)

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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PROFILE

Lakshmi Narayanan

baby nightingale “One day I will be one of the best singers in the world. Music is my passion and I want to be a well established singer,” the 10-year-old Uthara Unnikrishanan, who won the national award for playback singing this year, smiles and shares her most valuable dreams Name : UtharaUnnikrishnan Age :10 years Known for : The youngest playback

singer to win a national award Teacher in music : Sudha Raja Learning music for : Four years Ambition : To become a world class singer Loves : Western and classical music

T

he name, Uthara Unnikrishanan is familiar to the Indian music industry, especially since the announcement of this year’s national award for films, in which she bagged the title “Best Playback Singer” for the song Azhage in theTamil film Saivam. The film is directed by Atlee.

Uthara is just 10 years old and has been learning music for the last four years. She was born into a family of artistes. Her father Unnikrishanan is already a well acclaimed playback singer, who bagged a national award for singing long ago. Her mother is a well recognised dancer. Uthara is also interested in dance, but music is her favourite. Her teacher in music is her father himself.

The song which brought to her the national reognition, was composed by GV Prakash. The song

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was supposed to be sung by an adult singer, and as fate would have it, the music director happened to listen to a song sung by Uthara. He immediately changed his mind and asked her to sing the award winning song. It was literally a God sent opportunity for the child singer.

“I was quite excited about my first recording, but I was a little nervous,” says Uthara.“When I began singing, the nervousness just vanished. My father and G V Praksah uncle supported and encouraged me a lot.”

Uthra was just smiling innocently, when we asked her about the award she bagged, as she was so ignorant how important it was to a singer. “Lots of people called and congratulated me. My father’s friends came home with gifts and bouquets. I am so happy about it and enjoyed it well, she added.

Uthara is a star today, not only in her class at the Lady Andal School at Chetpet, but in the entire music world. The school, her family and her neighbourhood are so proud of her.

Uthara began learning Carnatic music at the early age of six from Sudha Raja, a renowned Carnatic musician. Apart from Carnatic music, she is also interested in Western classical music. When we ask her about her dreams, she says,“One day I will be one of the best singers in the world. Music is my passion and I want to be a well established singer.”

“I had never come across such a voice and knowledge in music by any child of her age. Mark my words, she is a prodigy. She proved that music is not just hereditary, not just practice, but a gift from the Almighty !!! , says director Vijay. n

SOCIAL CAUSE

She sells dolls online for a cause The Tree Change Dolls, an organisation initiated by Sonia Singh, an Indo- Australian settled in Tansmania, collects and recycles abandoned and damaged dolls and sells them through internet. The money earned through the sale is used to educate poor children

W

ho does not love a beautiful doll?

It has been our close companion, to whom we talked, smiled and played with once. Memories of this wonderful childhood cannot be erasable. Even when we are no more children, we love to hold a

doll close to our heart. But there are so many children in the world who are deprived of this fortune to have a doll. They don’t have any happy childhood memories.

But an India-born Sonia Singh in Australia, who knows the value of a happy childhood very well is using the memories of dolls

Lakshmi Narayanan

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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SOCIAL CAUSE

Every month Sonia lists a Tree Change Doll on Ebay with most, if not all, of the proceeds going to charity. In April she wanted to give 75 per cent of the final sale price to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy. This charity was chosen by a class of local school children she had for a good cause. She has launched a charity organisation four months ago and named it Tree Change Dolls to educate poor children across the world.

The organisation collects damaged and abandoned dolls and makes them new through recycling and selling them online. The money earned through the sale is used to educate children from poor families.

Through Tree Change Dolls, Sonia also encourages others to recycle and upcylce old dolls and toys. There are so many plastic dolls and toys left behind as children grow up, which can be reused by somebody else. Unless reused, these toys end up as landfills.

The project was a quick idea. In January 2015 Sonia posted pictures of an art project on the social media. The project, Tree Change Dolls, showed Bratz dolls she had “rescued” from op-shops after they had been given “make-unders.”

Within two days, her ‘dolls’ became viral and were featured on news sites across the world. She and her project became famous overnight and the support she got was overwhelming.

Shewas interviewed by Daily Life, one of the leading Australian newspapers on her project and the astounding response she had received. According to Sonia, recycling dolls will help in two ways, the first is that it will help protect environment from the damages of

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Sonia Singh abandoned plastic products and the second, the money earned from recycling them can be used for charity.

Why the name Tree Change Dolls

Tree Change is a term in Australia that means moving from the city to the countryside for a more relaxed and down to earth life. It is really a ‘recycling’ of the original term ‘seachange’ which means moving from a bustling city to a small seaside town for a more relaxed and down to earth life.

When Sonia started doing these dolls, her partner John persuaded her to put them online in a few different names around, but finally

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

before

after

they decided that Tree Change Dolls was the best fit. The Tree Change Dolls website became viral fast.

“I grew up with my four sisters in Tasmania playing outdoors a lot and most of our toys were secondhand. I’m an illustrator and a science communicator. I was made

redundant from CSIRO in September last year, so that’s when my doll project - which is what I was calling it- started, and a part of its ideas was contributed by my daughter, when engaged with her insearch of dolls,” says Sonia on the launch of her project.

To her, it’s not a small idea and effort. Sonia is pretty good in painting. She does a few dolls’ faces at a time and that “takes me a few hours. The face is the major change, but more time goes into making the cloths and doing the hair,” she said. Sonia’s mother is helping her in making cloths for the dolls. Once finished, the dolls look really new and beautiful . These were available to buy in Ebay and Tumblr.

“At the beginning, I was really shy to start a platform for Tree Change Dolls. I started the Tumblr on January 15. Two days later, I realised ‘Okay, this has gone viral’, and media requests started pouring in from all over the world – Germany, France, Finland, Canada, the US, UK and Australia, of course,” says Sonia.

Within such a small span of time, Sonia could collect and contributea better amount for charity purposes and she is happy with that. She is getting good rsponses from all over the world. “I got a really sweet email from a mother in one of the Latin American countries saying she has a son and she would like him to grow up in a world where these

kinds of dolls are valuable to girls and she talked about the perception of women in her country. I think it’s something that concerns all parents.

I’m really happy that my work has not just inspired people in terms of dolls and toys, but opened some discussions about issues to do with women in society,’’ Sonia shares her experience.

Every month Sonia lists a Tree Change Doll on Ebay with most, if not all, of the proceeds going into charity. Prices for this group of dolls range from A$75 to A$165.

Another 20 dolls listed on 14th March were also sold out at a price of A$122 –A $230 each. In April she wanted to give 75 per cent of the final sale price to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy. This charity was chosen by a class of local school children.

In her opinion, everyone can follow her path and save many things including, money, and environment and of course contribute to family finance and charity affairs. Not much investment is needed for recycling dolls and the cost of painting and cloths are affordable.

You can also support Sonia Singh and her work by going to the Tree Change Dolls etsy shop ordering a set of greeting cards or limited edition prints featuring some of her original photos of the first Tree Change dolls. n

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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Talent Hunt Vivek Ravisankar

5

unconventional ways

to source top tech talent

T

echnical recruiting is more competitive than ever. Recruiters along the entire recruiting funnel feel the pressure and top tech talent is harder to come by. A recent survey by TalentPuzzle states that amongst IT employers, a third has positions that they cannot fill, and 69% of SME execs feel there’s a shortage of tech talent. In this environment, traditional recruiting methods are not enough, and poaching passive candidates becomes a necessity. To help you go beyond career fairs and resumes, here are five unconventional ways to attract top tech candidates:

Host hackathons, not university career fairs

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Hackathons are the newer, better alternative to IT career fairs for tech employers. While traditional career fairs are often over-crowded and not well targeted to specific needs, hackathons - a day to week long coding competitions where coders intensely work on software challenges - get technical talent engaged while producing innovative solutions to real world challenges. Moreover, traditional recruiting processes are focused on testing fundamentals while

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

hackathons present an opportunity to test advanced or niche skills.

Lastly, career fairs normally draw active job seekers, while hackathons allow companies to engage passive candidates.

Hackathons are usually done on-site and often encourage collaboration.

They have been in use by major companies like Amazon, Facebook, ESPN, and Yelp for a

number of years with great success. Last year, 2,000 students across six National Institute of Technology locations in India participated in a hackathon organised by Amazon. Following the event, Amazon conducted 15 pre-placement interviews and hired five exceptional programmers that they wouldn’t have been able to reach otherwise.

2

Run online CodeSprints

Sponsor a CodeSprint

Taking a slightly different approach to hackathons, CodeSprints are usually online-only challenges that are taken by individual developers to win prizes or get recognition. CodeSprints are specifically designed as recruiting events where programmers solve both pure technical and real world coding problems within a short period of time, showing their talent and style to potential employers.

In a recent CodeSprint, powered by HackerRank and facilitated by Addepar , a technology company that offers an interactive investment analysis and reporting technology, an overwhelming 3,500 coders from eight different countries participated. Prizes such as a paid trip to California and iPads were offered to winners, as well as the promise of facetime with the recruiting team at Addepar. Twitter, Intel and Citrix all host similar CodeSprints using HackerRank platform to attract top tech talent globally.

Even if full-blown facilitation of a CodeSprint isn’t right for your company, sponsorship is always a great available option.

By sponsoring a CodeSprint that is well-organised and appropriately targeted for your company’s tech talent needs, you gain brand recognition among tech professionals, engage with top developers, and get the opportunity to interview the winners. In short, you receive many of the benefits of facilitating your own CodeSprint for less time and monetary investment.

Companies such as RocketFuel, Evernote and Quora routinely sponsor HackerRank CodeSprints to find top talent.

3

Add code challenges on your career page

4

In the current tech recruiting environment, the company’s career page plays an important role in piquing the candidates’ interest and showcasing the company’s culture.

Many companies choose to highlight employee benefits and perks, but to make the most out of this page and

really engage developers, add code challenges to it. Job descriptions and resumes are both dry and easily manipulated but performance on a code challenge gives valuable insights on a candidate’s skillset and starts a two-way conversation that is meaningful and engaging.

Milk the leaderboards globally

5

Developers from around the world who solve challenges on HackerRank get scored on their performance. Top performers make their way to the leaderboard, where they are rank ordered. To really tap into the talent pool and increase their reach, savvy recruiters keep an eye on hacker leaderboards all over the world, not just locally.

Xiaocong Liang, a Chinese developer recently hired by Facebook, is a great example of how top talent is discovered via HackerRank leaderboards. Liang commented, “Growing up in China, where Google,Youtube and Facebook are blocked, I would never have thought of getting a job at Facebook. However, after successfully competing in online challenges on HackerRank and Facebook discovering me, I eventually landed my job at Facebook in London. ”

As reported by Mashable, more than 50% of tech recruiters expected the recruiting process to get more cutthroat in 2014. Clearly, then, with even the biggest tech companies taking unusual measures to reach and recruit tech talent, traditional recruitment methods won’t be enough for you to win over these talents.

(The author is Co-founder and CEO of HackerRank)

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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AGAINST THE ODDS

Great escape of three fallen angels It’s not a titillating story from the red light street, though it happened at Kamathipura. It’s the story of struggles and tears and a great escape of three fallen angels from the world’s largest red light area, to freedom, respect and recognition Lakshmi Narayanan

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

All this happened because of Robin Chourasia and her organisation Kranti. Hats off to this young woman from Indore for her commitment, dedicatton and love for fellow-being

T

his is the story of Shweta Katti, Sheethal Jain and Pinky Sheikh from Kamathipura of Mumbai.

Born and brought up in filth, abused as child and young, they lived in the shadow of fear and uncertainty day and night. They had no right to even dream about a happy life outside this dirty world. One thing they knew very well that they had to follow in the footsteps of their mothers who were in the oldest profession. This is the story of all the girls living here.

The three girls decided to be different. They had big dreams of studying, getting jobs and living respectfully. With the help of social activists they started going to schools. Determination, hard work and the help of some good souls helped them realise their dreams in a big way.

Now Shweta Katti and Sheetal Jain are doing their graduation in the US and Pinky Sheikh is busy with her art camp performances all around the world.

How did they succeed in their life battling the odds?

Shweta Katti, the kali ladki

Shweta Katti

Shweta Katti, the oldest among them, was living with her mother. She had no idea who was her father. She was black, but beautiful. Many of her mother’s “friends” put pressure on her to initiate the daughter into her profession. Shweta was abused many times by her stepfather. She hated him and avoided his presence. He used to call her kali ladki ( black girl). Her mother Vandana was helpless. She remained a silent spectator as she was so scared of him.

Shweta was studying in a Maratha medium school, where her teachers May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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Shweta was abused many times by her stepfather. She hated him and avoided his presence. He used to call her kali ladki (black girl). Her mother Vandana was helpless. She remained a silent spectator as she was so scared of him

Shweta Katti

gave her food at lunch time.

It was Robin Chourasia, a social activist and the founder of Kranti, an organisation working for the uplift of girls in red light area, who brought about the changes in Shweta’s life.

Robin was bold and courageous enough to find solution to the problems of the people approaching her for help. She has made these girls a part of Kranti and they became Krantikaris (revolutionists).

Krantikaris along with Robin conducted social awareness camps and other programmes in the area to help the girls of Kamatipura to find their own way of living other than what their mothers were doing.

Shweta met Robin, when she passed her 10th standard. And Robin virtually adopted her and supported her for her higher studies.

After joining Kranti she developed her language skills in English. After

passing. 12th standard with high marks, with the help of Robin, she approached some foreign universities for higher studies. She got selection in three US universities and decided to join the famous Bard College, for her graduation in psychology. The university offered her a $30,000 scholarship that covered her tuition fees for the year, as well as half her accommodation cost.

But finding rest of the fund to send Shweta to Bard was not that easy for Robin. She conducted several campaigns through social media.

Funds started flowing into her account. Now, she is doing her fourth semester in psychology.

“It was like a dream come true for me, It was my biggest aim to be a psychologist, not for any personal benefit, but I want to help the women engaged in sex work at Kamatipura to lead a normal life,’’ says Shweta. n

Sheetal Jain , the girl who loved music Sheetal Jain was also a 17-year-old

girl rescued by Robin Chourasia through Kranti. Her earliest memories were of women soliciting customers and taxis lining up outside her house.

Sheetal’s mother was a bar dancer.

Every other night, she came home with a different partner. One of those men became her stepfather.

There were times when he touched

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

her inappropriately. When this was continued she ran away from home and took refuge at Karanti.

Robin along with Kranti found fund for her higher studies through social media campaigning.

Today, she is in Washington, taking a course in drumming at the prestigious Levine School of Music for a year. Music, especially, drumming

AGAINST THE ODDS

was a passion, she is the first girl from Kamatipura to go abroad to study an instrument.

She is open about her past. She has spoken, on several platforms, including at One Billion Rising, the global campaign to end violence against women and promote gender equality, about being sexually abused.

As part of Kranti, Sheetal travelled all over the country attending workshops, giving lectures and sharing her knowledge.

Now , both Shweta and Sheetal are living together in the US. n

Sheetal Jain

Sheetal Jain was also a 17-year-old girl rescued

by Robin Chourasia through Kranti. Her earliest memories were of women soliciting customers and taxis lining up outside her house

Pinky Sheikh, the artiste 16-year-old Pinky Sheikh

also has realised her dreams through Robin and her organisation. She returned recently from a performing arts camp in Minnesota, called Songs of Hope. She is very sharp, funny and hard working.

It was Pinky’s dream to be a dance teacher for AIDS orphans and other marginalised kids in Africa, and she is working for that cause.

She has now performed for an international audience and has made friendship with young people from Iran, Russia, and Vietnam.

And, she is also planning performances in various countries .

The way shown by Shweta Katti, Sheetal Jain and Pinky Sheikh is followed by other girls here as well. These three girls are their role models. The stories of these girls never end. They continue, but with a difference. They are success stories. n Shweta Katti and Pinky Sheikh

Pinky Sheikh May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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MOTIVATION

RG Gireesh

“To build up a library is to create a life. It’s never just a random collection of books”– Carlos Maria Dominguez, an Argentine writer and a journalist

Admirable initiative E

ducation and and basic facilities.

But Priti Roopchand development should start from rural areas Gandhi makes a difference because the majority with her works to impart basic quality education to of our population lives in villages. This vast majority her students. She is the has been deprived of even principal of Kalol Primary primary education and School No.9, Gandhinagar, basic amenities for decades.

Gujarat.

What prompted her to Still people generally speak only about urban India think about a library for students? At the beginning when it comes to education Priti Gandhi and development issues. of her career in the school, This clearly shows the neglect of rural she had conducted a survey in the Kalol taluk and found that there was masses in areas of quality education

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

not a single library for children in the taluk. Moreover, she said, “Every year we used to celebrate Vivekananda Vatsyayana Parv. Then I noticed that many students from my school were not even able to read properly and this made me depressed and that I wanted to do something for these poor children.”

So Priti decided to start a library in the school and she got positive response from the public and full support from her husband Yogesh Acharya to the initiative.

She started collecting donations from people and received a total of Rs 25,000. She cleaned a part of her school, made it colourful giving an atmosphere of a library and named the library ‘Khushi Reading Garden’.

Students started reading books during their free hours.

Most students were coming from slum areas and their parents were unable to buy books for these kids. She made a library kit for students so that they can use it at their home. The kit is made of aluminium and there are 20 books in a kit comprising story books, mathematics, science, history, English and Gujarati dictionary and other useful books for students.

Why she chose aluminium boxes? She said that in slum areas where these students live are full of

Students with aluminium kits

“Every year we used to celebrate Vivekananda Vatsyayana Parv.

Then I noticed that many students from my school were not even able to read properly and this made me depressed and that I wanted to do something for these poor children” rats and if we give plastic bags, rats will damage them. These books can be used by their sisters or brothers also, she adds. There are 55 kits and a student can use it for a month and after returning it, he can use another kit. She has already supported more than 150 students in this way.

The kit, launched in 2012, was initially named Little Library—At My Home and was renamed Granth Mandir on the suggestion of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi who had appreciated the model at an exhibition in 2013.

The officials of DIET (District Institute of Education and Training) and IIM too appreciated her efforts.

IIM Ahmedabad, which recognized her mobile library kit, Granth Mandir, as an innovative concept, has asked Priti’s school to assemble 10 boxes of Granth Mandir that they

will distribute in five schools on the occasion of President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the institute.

“We have made different committees of students to manage the library. I have noticed positive reaction from them. Now they are much better. They can read properly and understand better than before.

Teachers and my two children are also supporting me. There are many schools in rural India which have no libraries and good books, let this be a model for them. Let our students learn,” says Priti.

She was also included in the list of 100 teachers as part of “Teachers as Transformers: Innovations in Gujarat’s State Schools”.

Sometimes, a small initiative like this can bring about a positive change towards rural education in India. n

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Management Education

Expert Interview:

Akhil Shahani

A recent survey discovered that only 10% of Indian MBA graduates are employable. This is primarily because many of the management institutes in India are very academic in their approach. This means that they focus on imparting facts through theoretical lectures that enable the students to pass the exams

Akhil Shahani, Director, Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management

MBA grads more concerned about the ROI Dipin Damodharan

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“

Adding more IIMs will not necessarily improve the quality of management education in India,’’ says Akhil Shahani, who has helped the Thadomal Shahani Centre for Management (TSCFM) emerge as one of the most innovative management institutes in India.

Under Akhil’s leadership, TSCFM is featured in the global network of 500 colleges and 75 leading universities.

Since 2009, Akhil has been serving

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

as a director at, Kaizen Management Advisors, the pioneering education sector-focused private equity fund.

In 1999, he founded Ajax Knowledge Systems, a software company creating Knowledge Management systems where he devised the company’s growth and strategic outlook. Akhil Shahani talks to Education Insider about what is ailing MBA studies and suggests solutions to make it world class

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What are the new trends in management education?

There are two major trends that are affecting management institutes globally. The first is that MBA students are more concerned about the return on investment, their tuition fees are getting them in terms of the job and salary they get on graduation. The second is that recruiters are increasingly demanding that college graduates should have industry-ready skills.

This is forcing management institutions worldwide to get closer to industry so that the education they impart gives their students the skills and knowledge needed to work well in any career on graduation.

This means that their curriculum needs to incorporate the latest industry domain knowledge and there needs to be an emphasis on building students’ soft skills. ‘Less theoretical knowledge and more practical training’ is the modern mantra.

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What do you think of the quality of management education in India?

A recent survey discovered that only 10% of Indian MBA graduates are employable. This is primarily because many of the management institutes in India are very academic in their approach. This means that they focus on imparting facts through theoretical lectures that enable the students to pass the exams. There is also very little interaction with the industry in many of these institutions. This does not give students the skills and abilities needed to work well in whatever job role they take up on graduation. Companies realise they need to spend a few months training these graduates, so are not

willing to pay them high salaries.

Students, who often pay lakhs of rupees for their MBA degree, get disillusioned as they are not able to get a better job with the investment they have made. Some people blame the fact that the government regulators, AICTE & UGC do not give these institutes the flexibility to make their students more industry ready. However, these regulators do not prohibit industry involvement in management colleges, so I personally believe that it is often a lack of will on the part of MBA college managements to make the needed changes.

Does the mushrooming of management institutes put the students in trouble?

I feel that any consumer benefits

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“Students, who often pay lakhs of rupees for their MBA degree, get disillusioned as they are not able to get a better job with the investment they have made”

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Management Education

“Our whole curriculum has been built from the ground up taking corporate inputs. We focus on building a student’s attitude and skills along with imparting domain knowledge” when there is greater choice. More management institutes mean that the student has many options to choose from for their MBA. These institutes need to upgrade their education and career outcomes to attract students. The better quality ones will succeed over the long term and the lower quality institutes will close down. This cull is already happening, as 147 management colleges closed down in 2014. Most of the institutes that closed were not able to attract students as they were not able to make them employable.

Can you suggest a successful model for management education for Indian institutions?

Some of the top Business Schools in the world like Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, and London Business School (LBS) have revamped their curriculum to make it more practical and industry-oriented. It is easy for the Indian institutes to study what these institutions have done and adapt their best practices.

Does India need more IIMs? What do you think the quality of IIM students?

A well-kept secret is that many recruiters like to hire from the top IIMs (Ahmedabad,Bengaluru andKolkatta) mainly because they assume that these institutes have already pre-filtered the top 1% of job candidates from the annual pool of management students. If a student has put in the hard work, has

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developed the logical, mathematical and English skills to score top marks in the IIM entrance exams, he would be greatly desired by recruiters.

The actual knowledge the student acquires while at IIM is of less importance to these recruiters.

When it comes to the issue of more IIMs being built, we need to keep in mind that they will need to be less selective than the original group of IIMs while selecting students.

They would also have a tougher time attracting the best quality faculty to these new institutes. So I feel that adding more IIMs will not necessarily improve the quality of management education in India.

How TSCFM is unique from other institutions? What’s your teaching approach?

TSCFM started with the fundamental idea of making employable management graduates.

In fact our operating principle is creating ‘performers, not just MBAs’. To do so we have to become one of the most industry-oriented

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business schools in India. In fact we have won awards for our industry interface. Some of the innovations we have done include conducting psychometric tests to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses, individual career counseling to match their strengths with the ideal career path, assessment of our students via an industry-oriented ‘Corporate Readiness Score’, having corporate guest sessions almost every week for our students and international industry study tour among other things. Our whole curriculum has been built from the ground up taking corporate inputs.

We focus on building a student’s attitude and skills along with imparting domain knowledge. Due to this, our students have performed very well in the job roles they have been placed in on graduation. We have received many testimonials from corporate recruiters who have agreed that our students are among the most pro-active and job-ready that they have seen. n

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Building a skil G

lobalisation has triggered a global skills race and nations that succeed will be those who areable to bring the best in their people and their potential. The creation of world-class skills may well beconsidered a route to greater economic prosperity, reduced inequality and improved social cohesion. Policymakers are hence faced with the challenge of outsmarting other countriesin the ‘skill wars’ of the future.

Prime Minister NarendraModi,in his Independence Day address last year, clearly articulated his vision of skilled India by announcing pan-India multiskilling programme for tapping the country’s vast demographic dividend by augmenting youth employability. Finance Minister ArunJaitley, in his budget speech this year, announced the launch of National Skills Mission through the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry.Government’s objective is clear but the focus of its activities lies elsewhere.

In his speech last year, Narendra Modi stated, “India also needs a skilled workforce. At times, we look for a driver but he is not available, we look for a plumber, but he is not available. We have young people, they are unemployed but the kind of young people we seek for are not available.” The finance ministry had also outlined the Skill India mission reiterating that it would focus on job roles like welders, operators, masons, cobblers,

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artisans etc. It laid stress on the provision of employability skills to school dropouts so that they can fit into these job roles.

One may argue, what is the type and level of skills that government is proposing to cultivate? Does having enough plumbers, cooks, cobblers and masons make us globally competitive? Are these the kinds of skills we need for technological advancement and innovation? The World Development Report on Jobs (2013), defines ‘good jobs for development’ as the jobs that connect to global markets, encourage international trade and participation in global value chains, and move the country up the export ladder, but ironically none of the job roles stated in the policy statements fit these criteria.

Close co-operation between the business world and government is an essential characteristic of the much acclaimed German dual vocational training model, which is widely hailed as a successful model in structuring of schoolto-work transition. Hence, the question facing policymakers in India is whether or not the Indian industry has incentive to join forces with the government in development of such level of skills? It is true that investments in skill training of the younger population are central to improvement in economic performance of a country but one may question the government’s resolve with regard to the level of skill development that it

Sirjjan Preet

Our education system has to be reoriented towards development of non-cognitive skills to address the skill gap often cited by the employers

lled India plans to undertake in the country.

Development of non-cognitive skills is another area that needs attention of policymakers. As it is often said that hard skills will get you an interview but it’s soft skills that get you a job, government should realise the importance of non-cognitive skills such as perseverance, motivation, problem solving skills, communication skills, logical reasoning and co-operation in today’s job market.

According to Nobel laureate economist Dr James

Opinion

Heckman, narrow focus on cognition and preoccupation with results of achievement tests as indicators of success of educational intervention programs is the biggest blind spot in the vision of most policymakers across the world. Full array of socially and economically viable non-cognitive skills is often neglected in policy discussions worldwide, which has serious implications for early intervention programs and their evaluation.

Cross country comparison of population data, divided into three age-groups of 0-14 years, 15-64 years and 65 or above, reveals a demographic reality that seldom finds mention in literary and policy discourse.

India’s true demographic edge lies in the age-group of 0-14 years with 30 per cent of total population falling in this bracket compared with 18 per cent in China, 20 per cent in the US and 13 per cent each in Japan and Germany (WDI data, 2010). Though this age bracket represents the future of our nation’s workforce, they lack power to influence policymaking for their welfare.

There is an urgent need to re-examine the skill development strategies and focus on development of high-level skills. The government should try to integrate its skill development initiatives with the primary and secondary level of education so as to foster employability skills at an early stage. Focus of skill development programmes in India has always been skewed, focusing only on technical education and training while missing out on soft skills. Our education system has to be reoriented towards development of non-cognitive skills to address the skill gap often cited by the employers.

A consensus is emerging that learning is a lifelong process that starts in infancy and continues throughout life. Given that much of the learning takes place outside of schools, role of families and other non-institutional environments should also be considered in shaping health, attitudes and skills of young children. Countries all over the world have come to realise that their competitive edge lies in the quality of their human capital and India, with its vast young population, stands to benefit the most from its favourable demography. n (The writer is an economic researcher based in New Delhi)

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Go national Kerala has everything to become a global education hub. It has well managed educational institutions, qualified faculty, a good weather throughout the year, affordable cost of living and a people with a civic sense. Yet the state could not become a national education hub. The state should make use of its potential to attract more students from within India first, before even thinking about getting students from abroad

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here is immense potential for Kerala to become a global education hub, provided the state is able to bring together all the different departments, to work together towards achieving this long term goal. The first step towards ensuring this is to make Kerala a national hub, where students from all over the country are attracted to join various programs at top class institutions across the state.

The literacy rate is high in Kerala and the civic sense and hospitality have

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Babu Jose K won appreciation all over the world.

Educational institutions in Kerala are well managed and have produced men of high calibre in all walks of life. English, the global language has good penetration among the population. Literature, fine arts, cultural activities are well integrated with the Kerala life style. Cost of living is marginally less. Climate in the state is conducive for academic pursuit. Steady weather coupled with natural resources has made the state an attractive destination for people from all walks of life.

first

Counterpoint

First make Kerala a national education hub, then go global

We have to make many changes, in fact drastic changes in the existing policies to get to the right track. The government has to initiate proactive steps to attract foreign students, which can bring in additional revenue to the state. Appointment of people of eminence as visiting faculty will bring reputation. Lodging facilities for multiracial students should be there. Training institutions in traditional arts and related cultural activities should be there attached to the centres of learning. Facility for paying guest system can be considered for attracting people of middle level income to migrate to Kerala.

Currently universities in the state do not give permanent affiliation to the private colleges even after several years of its setting up. Once it gets permanent affiliation, it could move to get the financial support being offered by the Government of India, the UGC, and ACTE like fellowship and scholarships to students and create infrastructure and travel assistance to students to go abroad for presentation of papers in foreign universities etc. Therefore the universities should be forced to change their attitude so that the potential opportunity could be fully utilised.

The immediate priority in making Kerala a national hub of education by 2020 with a view to making it a global hub by 2025 is to create facility for foreigners to be in Kerala at reasonable charges.

Profile of selected institutions should be augmented by adding facilities to infrastructure and improving faculty position. The concept of ‘Makerspaces’ should be initiated towards ‘Make in

Kerala’ to accelerate the process of industrialisation.

The existing rule is that for admission to professional colleges in Kerala, the student should pass the entrance test conducted by the Kerala Government for the respective professional courses. As a result many of the seats especially in engineering lie vacant primarily because the students in Kerala prefer to study in neighbouring states due to lack of proper understanding about the level of competency that

The immediate priority in making Kerala a national hub of education by 2020 with a view to making it a global hub by 2025 is to create facility for foreigners to be in Kerala at reasonable charges our private colleges have. compared to government colleges. The solution for this grave and detrimental situation is that the government should bring in an enabling law allowing anyone qualified in the all India list also to be considered for admission in Kerala at least in our private colleges. This is a prerequirement before going global.

The majority of college hostels at present are of dormitory type.

Global level facilities should be provided in hostels. The private colleges may not afford to construct such hostels. Therefore it has to be made possible to avail funds from AICTE, UGC and Government of India for constructing best

infrastructure facilities including hostels in all professional colleges which is a top most requirement for an educational institution to make open for foreign students and for going global.

Necessary law has to be made so that the Government must be able to see that un-interrupted education can be provided to students in professional colleges.

For that Government should see that such institutions are not affected by any sort of strikes and hartals declared frequently in Kerala.

Coupled with this The Universities should prepare calendar for at least five years showing the road maps of working days , conduct of examination , awarding degree certificates etc. Convocation has to be made compulsory. The University should also make stringent steps to revise the Curriculum and syllabus in every two years, incorporating new changes and requirements and avoiding topics and papers which become obsolete or of no relevance or scope. Formation of students union as extension of political parties should be avoided by necessary legislation.

It goes without saying that our institutions ranked very low in the global level. An introspection followed by urgent corrective action is necessary to cope up with the world leaders in Education. Unless this is done, we will be pushed out of the race and may not even survive in the competition. We can invite private participation to accelerate the process. n (As told to Juliat Sebastian. Babu Jose is administrator of Thejus Engineering College, Thrissur, Kerala)

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ONLINE EDUCATION

s C O O M r o s C SPO

e t s a w s i g n i n r a e l no luably is sure va d e s u d n a d e g Cs, the learnin ucation if receiv Any mode of eds worth, be it MOOCs or SPOuccess. to determine it es decisive to measure its s outcome becom Mohan Prof. Lakshmi

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ducation has been through great innovations from early times, striving to break inaccessibility, building learning opportunities, creating education empowerment and eradicating all barriers like cost, distance, time and several others.

This throws open the fact that whether it is MOOC , SPOC or DOCC it depends on what enables accomplishment of one’s goals, opportunity and empowerment, the choice lies with the learners with many learning platforms.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), a form of distance education carried out online, opens to unlimited participation, became a popular form of learning from 2012 onwards. Coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island, this mode of learning is supported by webinars, interactive online sessions and in some cases traditional classroom material as well. Although MOOCs began in the initial stages with open-access features, like open licensing of content, and learning goals, in the later stages MOOCs moved to closed licences for their course materials at the same time creating learning access to students enrolled for the program.

SPOC refers to Small Private Online Course which is not new

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and has been in existence for the past two decades; what is novel is the acronym. For SPOC, the learning community though online is not vast but is typically small and the content is customised to the needs of the group. SPOCs are provided by universities often as part of a course for credit. Colleges and universities too create SPOCs and license them.

In recent times there is bombardment of news on how Harvard is transiting from MOOC era to SPOC era. What surprises is the presence of such small online courses in existence prior to MOOCs, then why so much noise made about SPOCs and why treat it like the latest innovation. Or is it to kindle the learning bud, something spelt new always fascinates! I can sense a close connect between MOOCs and SPOCs . Attrition is a major issue in MOOCs as many participants give up half way and this can give chance to a selective focussed audience that is retained to learning through SPOC which is

eventually specific and customized for the ones that remain to complete the program successfully. Both for sure are slated to provide education and workplace skills.

MOOCs provide one a platform to network with several participants, an advantage that I found while doing a course through MOOC. The academic and professional networking that MOOC enabled me is way beyond what I experienced in SPOC or classroom learning.

The interactions can be marvelous with intellectual exchanges. With SPOC of course one experiences a personalized program.

SPOCs cannot be distinctly distinguished from other traditionally offered online programs, unlike MOOCs, which proved to be a revolution with Coursera , Edex and others popularly offered by reputed universities.

SPOCs attracts many and diverse applicants but is selective on the audience it caters to.

MOOCs with thousands of enrolments, makes it impossible for participants to interact with Professors. It is the peer groups that discuss and put forth their views. For SPOCs unlike MOOCs the selection advantage addresses focused participation, high retention and sharing of common goals within student community. While MOOCs faces problems to create serious learners many a times, SPOCs will be a winner in this regard.

From a learner’s point of view MOOCs give flexibility in time, one can choose to do the course at his own pace while this will be a limitation in SPOCs that is known to impose time lines with certain expectation of discipline from the student. At the same time assessments are rigorous, student validation stringent, thus paving way for a certification course.

MOOCs are cost effective and provide abundant choice, what is

open is accessible and encouraging; MOOCs must continue to exist for those who wish to keep the learning adrenaline rush in full swing. At the same time one needs to realise that due to lack of structure and personal interaction coupled with non accreditation, it may not be apt for career development. But if one is able to pick the valuable essence out of the MOOCs experience it is sure to add value to one’s career.

MOOCs “O” (open) and SPOCs P (Private) is major differentiator between these two online learning tools. Open makes learning available, accessible, easy and encouraging but could also be mistaken to be light and lacking seriousness. Private makes the learning measured, targeted and not so easily available thus giving it a serious focused approach. But on the other hand it could cause hesitation to probably even try out the learning. Innovation of MOOCs has undoubtedly created a revolution in the education arena.

Can one deny the huge increase in the enrolments for MOOCs. It is a known fact that at Harvard which boasts of 377-year history, more people have signed up for MOOCs in a single year than have attended the university in years. I have heard professors of ITM Business School vouch for the learning from courses offered through MOOCs that gave them richer understanding of current trends. If one has to look at learning without worrying about grades, credits and degrees, MOOCs is one of the best options. Be it MOOCs or SPOCs the bottom line is, the learner, course structure, facilitators, cost, time factor, the right media, the hype and many more factors contribute to one’s learning preference. No learning is waste if put to right use and all learning is clutter if not put to right use! n (Prof. Lakshmi Mohan is Deputy Director, ITM Business School, Chennai)

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TECH + EDUCATION

Rupesh Shah

Shaping up a

tech-savvy generation The field of education is currently undergoing a massive revolution in terms of enthusiasm for the use of new and varied digital tools in the classroom. A look at technology’s immense potential to enhance the teaching and learning experience

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n our current paradigm, being technologically advanced very likely relates to having incorporated digital technology into what we produce and how we process. Consider also the ubiquity of the idea that the mere presence of technology is perceived to constitute an improvement to status quo, an innovation. The field of education is currently undergoing a massive revolution in terms of enthusiasm for the use of new and varied digital tools in the classroom. The most persuasive selling point for educators who find themselves in this digital age is technology’s immense potential to enhance the teaching and learning experience. Given that the ultimate objective is a worthy one, educators

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ought to analyze the effective outcomes of using education technology (EdTech), as compared to what is purported. This would allow help tease out the difference between exhaustively planned technology assisted instruction (TAI) from the superficial me-too race to “install technology” at schools.

We can begin to think about how to leverage edtech more effectively in our classrooms by taking stock of the expected advantages. One of the oldest technology enhancements has been the use of audio-visual stimulation. In the early days, “innovation” took the form of slide projectors, VHS cassettes and TV sets, overhead projectors. The prime goal was to add variety to the lecture-chalk-and-talk mode of instruction. These soon gave way to digital and web content, and the LCD projector (which served to combine the previously separate functionalities). Learning from a textbook can be confining, in which the onus of capturing the concepts in the mind’s eye is often left to the students individual abilities. Visual and auditory aids facilitate that process by giving the imagination training wheels, so to speak, allowing students to grasp ideas quicker. Showing a video in class is a great way to explicate a complex idea through animation or to act as a generator of discussion.

But what is innovation today can quickly become routine tomorrow.

The tendency toward rote teaching is just as troubling as the much lamented rote learning. And so it is that the use of audio-visual technology can just as quickly become a superficial addition to a class period.

Say, for example, students of a computer science class are at an intermediate level of coding. Simply inserting in the day’s lesson plan a video, which doesn’t further any particular learning outcome, for the sake of claiming TAI compliance is disingenuous. In this case, TAI

Learning from a textbook can be confining, in which the onus of capturing the concepts in the mind’s eye is often left to the student’s individual abilities. Visual and auditory aids facilitate that process by giving the imagination training wheels, so to speak, allowing students to grasp ideas quicker. Showing a video in class is a great way to explicate a complex idea through animation or to act as a generator of discussion. might more effectively take the form of engaging students in learn-bydoing activities at the computer lab. Keeping with the context is a key concern of effective TAI. Ultimately, outcomes the use of any kind of technology in any kind of context is rendered less effective without a chance for students to engage in a follow-up discussion and acknowledgement of the learning outcomes of the day.

No matter where teachers train for their profession, the idea of multiple learning styles is introduced and reinforced.

This can relate to the various modes of receiving instruction (verbal, auditory, tactile), as well as interpersonal tendencies (performance when subject to a pair versus small group or large group).

It is the responsibility of an educator

to ascertain through observation and interaction what kind of stimulation best leads to comprehension and higher order abilities.

A particular advantage technology brings to the teaching role is the ability to reach many at once. Consider that the typical class size in India is in the range of 45-55 students!A corollary benefit is the increased probability of success in engaging as many students as possible at an individual level.This is especially relevant given the discussion on how students exhibit different combinations of learning needs.

What does successfully balancing the needs of an individual with those of a group look like, and how technology can be creatively put to work? A fun analogy is the audience poll during the general knowledge

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TECH + EDUCATION

game show KaunBanegaCrorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire)?

Take the audience to be analogous to a classroom, and its members to students. The handheld devices allowed for real individual action and quick analysis. Imagine using technology in ways that truly galvanize disinterested kids to perk up! Not possible due to infrastructure constraints? Get creative! For example, explore the use of cloud computing to achieve the same goal, projecting a shared document while individual student respond to a prompt or collaborate to create.

As with the introduction of any new instrument or toy to the classroom, the new tech devices are in themselves a source of excitement, if not awe.This immediate interest significantly improves the chances that students will pay attention, until their curiosity is satiated.Students (and very nearly everybody) are genuinely pleased to be given access to technological hardware in the classroom, and most around the world are not yet privileged enough to be jaded by the experience.

Building on this understanding, move from showing devices from a

The challenge ahead though is that of staying technologically savvy yet pedagogically relevant.

One does not have to look far to see schools scrambling to add buzz words to their PR materials, many often losing sight of the core requirements of quality content and teacher preparedness. distance to actually allowing tactile engagement, and what you have is a body of learners who are invested in their own learning. This is precisely where the global trend is headed.

Educators are tending towards the concept of the flipped classroom, where the age old power equation represented in the teacher-as-boss and student-as-subordinate dynamic is reimagined to give students greater ownership of the learning process. The roles within a modern classroom are crucial pieces of the puzzle to ensure that EdTech results in more meaningful outcomes.

The challenge ahead though is that of staying technologically savvy yet pedagogically relevant.

One does not have to look far to see schools scrambling to add buzz words to their PR materials, many often losing sight of the core requirements of quality content and teacher preparedness. At the end of the day, while technology is subject to the whims of stored electrical power, enhancing the teaching learning experience is subject to the imagination of passionate educators. n (Rupesh Shah is the CEO of InOpen Technologies)

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SCIENCE EDUCATION

Biju Dharmapalan

What we need is

good teachers To be a good teacher is more tiring than securing a PhD degree. In higher education what we lack today is the presence of a good teacher. Mushrooming PhD holders won’t improve quality in science higher education

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t’s often said that quality of higher education in a country rests on the hands of number PhD holders produced by her.

With this objective policy makers of higher education give more impetus to increase the number of doctoral degree holders every year. Even

during the accreditation process of UGC- NAAC more thrust is given to the number of PhD holders in an institution. The UGC is also supporting teachers through faculty improvement programmes to purse PhD. Even those who don’t have any interest in research also do PhD for

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SCIENCE EDUCATION

the sake of promotions. Does more number of PhD holders improve academic or research culture of a country?

If we analyse the quality of an average PhD holder from a state university or private university, we get a dismal picture of our higher education (of course, there are few exceptions). Mushrooming PhD doesn’t in any way help the proposed objectives in higher education of improving quality.

Quality in higher education cannot be attributed to the degree one holds. If the number of PhDs and high impact factor publications are the scale for measuring quality, our country would have produced hundreds of Nobel Laureates and we would have solved many of the problems afflicting our society.

Even after producing thousands of PhD holders still we have to depend upon Western scientists to find solutions for our problems. Among the thousands of instruments we use in our research institutions one would rarely find a true Indian company. Our great scientific policy makers don’t accept results obtained from a machine manufactured in India. Every one depends on foreign companies.

In higher education what is needed is transformation of the students to equip them to solving the problems faced by society and also to mould them into citizens having good values. Unfortunately today’s education fails to impart these. Academic transformation can be achieved only by updating the latest developments in the

subject. Unfortunately most of our teachers are not interested in updating the subject. Even in UGCNAAC accredited “A”grade colleges, students are fed with informations of 70s or 80s that these teachers learned during their college days and they ask students to write the same for university examinations.

Teachers of this group even don’t encourage students to refer standard books. During student days students like such teachers as they don’t have any extra burden. But as far as the academic community is concerned this will erode the quality in science as students get the feeling that one’s subject is monotonous and don’t have any significance to the present day society.

Value-based education can be provided only if a teacher has

Mushrooming PhD doesn’t in any way help the proposed objectives in higher education of improving quality. Quality in higher education cannot be attributed to the degree one holds

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some connection with the society.

Most of the present day college teachers feel they are an elite class and don’t wish to interact with the society. A teacher having more degrees and honours become totally excluded from the society. During earlier days students had good role models among their teachers. But in today’s world even a teacher’s life is corrupted with the dismal state of the society. Most of the present day teachers don’t like to correct students in their misdeeds, they only fulfill their duty as a lecturer providing one hour lecture or giving a test and after that there is no teacher-student relation.

To be a good teacher one needs to be a good student. Only a good student can excel as a teacher. To be a good student means always keep open your eyes and ears to the learning process. A good teacher need not be one who holds a PhD degree. The reason in most cases is that once a person is awarded with a PhD degree he feels that his learning process is complete and becomes egotistic. They feel that they are superior super human beings and nobody should question them. This creates a negative impact on the academic culture of our students. In science education this attitude will destroy the questioning nature of students.

Also many professors even forget the basics of their subject and also stops updating knowledge once they become “Dr.”. The situation is so pathetic that a person worked in the field of plant science doesn’t know the difference between a dicot and monocots. Similarly there are teachers in chemistry who doesn’t know the basics of pH. It is also highly deplorable that many such doctoral persons even don’t know how to read or write a scientific paper. The problem with the present generation teachers is that the higher the degree one earns the more ignorant one becomes. Even if somebody wants to be different, they

Value-based education can be provided only if a teacher has some connection with the society. Most of the present day college teachers feel they are an elite class and don’t wish to interact with the society. A teacher having more degrees and honours become totally excluded from the society will not be accepted by the academic community.

Another major issue affecting the academic environment is the mushrooming of PhDs from lesser known private deemed universities and foreign universities. There is also a serious issue of outsourcing of research work whereby the researcher will delegate his job to different persons and the thesis will be written by another group.

Everything has become business and this is being reflected in the present day academic environment also. All these persons enter our academic community and to differentiate which is good and which is bad is difficult. Unfortunately the academic community also doesn’t look into the quality. This will ultimately ruin our students who look their teachers as role models.

To be a good teacher is more tiring than securing a PhD degree.

In higher education what we lack today is the presence of a good teacher. Only a good teacher can instill scientific creativity in students, which is lacking in present day students mainly due to the over emphasis given to the technological innovations in teaching.

There is no meaning in making PhD a benchmark for teaching or research and also for getting projects from government agencies. There are many people with simple M.Sc. degree doing excellent research in their field of interest and producing high impact factor publications and also earning respect from the student community as a good teacher.

What India needs is not PhD holders but people who can generate creative and innovative research solutions and mould the students for the future. Any person who has that caliber should be recognised and supported. It should be remembered that the one and only Nobe Laureate India has produced, Sir. C.V.Raman doesn’t have any research degree.

During his initial days he even didn’t have any affiliation to carry out research. He did most of his research as a passion along with his government job.

Science grows by such passionate persons and not by PhD holders alone. Many of the successful entrepreneurs in science and technology are not PhD holders.

There are many passionate researchers among our school teachers who even don’t have a post graduate degree. Their aptitude in research can be revealed in the creative scientific solutions for our day to day problems showcased during children’s science congress and science fairs through their students.

If India has to rise to the level of a scientific superpower, the government should promote such passionate researchers who understands the pulse of society.

For a passionate researcher degrees should not become a barrier for development. n Biju Dharmapalan

School of Biosciences, Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies,Tiruvalla-689101 E-mail: biju@macfast.org / biju_dharmapalan@yahoo.co.uk

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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SMART CLASSROOMS

The emergence of India as a global centre of an educated and skilled workforce has made it imperative to make our classrooms smart to provide quality education

The blackboard needs a

whitewash Alok Sinha

T

he market size of Indian education sector is expected to reach Rs6,02,410 crore in the Financial Year 2015-16 on the back of what is expected to be a strong demand for quality in education, according to India Ratings, a Fitch Group company.

The emergence of India as a global centre of an educated and skilled workforce has driven the need to provide quality education for all, irrespective of social and economic disparities and geographical limitations. The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2015-16 Union Budget has announced plans to establish a senior secondary

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school within 5 km reach of every child. The government is focusing on expanding the existing system to include the marginalised sections, provide equal learning opportunities, and drive excellence and enhancement in the quality of teaching and learning in schools.

Which is why in the 2015-16 budget, the central government has allocated Rs 42,219.5 crore to the schools of the total outlay of Rs69,075 crore for the education sector.

However, in a geographically diverse country like India, reaching out to students in remote areas was and continues to be a major challenge for the government.

Making the classrooms smarter

For the last several years, the Indian government has been leveraging technology, especially e-learning to bridge the digital divide between students in rural and urban areas. Through schemes such as the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning and ICT@Schools, the government is distributing video and web-based course content as well as offline multimedia educational content.

The secret to a successful smart classroom

Smart classrooms are interactive but not disruptive; a teacher should know when to employ technology to enhance the delivery of the lesson. We need to remember that technology is not a crutch and should never replace traditional teaching methods.

E-learning facilitates dialogue between the teacher and student.

In the traditional model, the conversation is usually a monologue, where the teacher writes on the board and students may or may not pay attention. The bright or confident students ask questions, the passive ones usually don’t. A smart classroom enables the less vocal students to engage with their teacher. For example, a teacher can take a quick online poll to check if students have understood the lesson, or to ask a question. With Big Data, the teacher understands how much time a student is taking to complete an assignment, predict students at risk and more. The technology in the classroom also enables teachers to engage with parents in real-time. If a student is performing poorly, a parent does not have to wait for the term report to see how their child is progressing. A teacher can engage with a parent on an ongoing basis, and this allows a

parent to become more involved in their child’s education.

However technology is only as good as the people who use it.

Securing support from teachers and parents is fundamental. We have seen examples of schools spending most of their budget on purchasing multiple educational online tools, only for them to sit unused as the teachers have no idea on how to integrate them into the class.

Additionally, the platform and delivery model have to be simple for the teacher to grasp the tech outlay and its relevance. The next step is to make the model work fast.

Despite slow Internet speed in tier-3 Indian cities, companies must offer solutions that improve the delivery of content. This implies using technology to crunch information keeping in mind the Internet speed.

Also the underlying software must be seamless enough to ensure speed and minimal lag. By using Application Performance Management technologies, one can find easy solutions for these problems. The last step is to make the content engaging enough that children want to learn and want to use their devices to interact with teachers. This is important because ultimately the student needs to be curious enough to adopt a new way of learning.

Meanwhile, we also need to set the ball rolling by first setting up pilot projects in tier-2 and 3 cities. This not only addresses the heart of the issue, but gives scope for companies to be focused on developing technologies that will make the most impact. Internet connection and bandwidth availability is still one of the main obstacles to bridging the digital divide. Organisations that create educational content or the technologies that deliver them, can partner with local cloud infrastructure providers to ensure bandwidth availability in rural schools. A Smart Classroom solution should work under three key

Smart classrooms are interactive but not disruptive; a teacher should know when to employ technology to enhance the delivery of the lesson. We need to remember that technology is not a crutch and should never replace traditional teaching methods

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

65

SMART CLASSROOMS

For education to reach all and for Smart Classrooms to truly succeed, we need to adopt a three-pronged approachdeveloping meaningful content; educating teachers on the benefits of this approach and engaging students and interacting directly with the parents tenants—it needs to be simple, fast and engaging.

Beyond the hype – putting the money where the mouth is The key to the success of a smart classroom strategy is that it should be student-centric; recognising the demand, from both students and their parents, for a seamless learning experience between the school and home.

These technology enhanced classrooms foster new opportunities for teaching and learning by integrating new-age learning technologies and devices such as computers/ tablets, specialised software, audience response technology, assistive listening devices, networking, and audio/ visual capabilities, etc. In short, the use of smart classes eases the learning and teaching process for all students and teachers.

Xchanging in partnership with YTL Communications has created

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the largest 4G education network in the world in Malaysia connecting more than 11 million users, covering 10,000 schools, 4.5 million parents, 500,000 teachers and over 5 million students. This solution is the first of its kind that helps students from all backgrounds to learn, ideate and make education a fun and fulfilling experience.

However, can Smart Classrooms alone improve learning? The answer is an emphatic NO. Technology in the classroom should be about enhancing education. Learning and teaching will improve in ways that have a sustained, substantial, and positive influence on how students and teachers think, act, or feel if – 1. All stakeholders work in collaboration with peers instead of grappling with the problems alone.

2. Be open to trial, failure and feedback from experts instead of summative judgment of their efforts.

EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

3. Investment is made in teacher training.

For education to reach all and for Smart Classrooms to truly succeed, we need to adopt a three-pronged approach-developing meaningful content; educating teachers on the benefits of this approach and engaging students and interacting directly with the parents. These should be the most important steps in our nation-building exercise; fair education for all irrespective of geographical barriers. Our strength is about finding diversity in this unity – a solution that does not discriminate teaching based on geography, but instead equipping teachers to empower children to become future ready global citizens. n (The author is CEO at Xchanging Solutions Ltd)

GIRLS’ EDUCATION

Let girls

learn W

e all have heard of the days when our ancestors were living without education and about the social status of the world at large at that time.

Strikingly, there was no place of their own for women in society those days and no one talked or even thought about their rights and opportunities in life. Parents, then, had only one aim: marry off their girls and get free of the burden.

With the passing of time, we moved ahead and realised the power and value of education, whether it is for a boy or a girl. Now, there are so many programme and projects promoting education across the world and all the powerful personalities and leaders of the world are making plans and working to encourage education.

Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, who believes that girls play an important role in building up a nation, initiated the Let Girls Learn programme to encourage girls’ education across the world. It has

India appreciates US First Lady Michelle Obama’s efforts in boosting girls’ education across the world through her new initiation called “Let Girls Learn” Ritu Verma

a funding of $340 million which would be spent in three years.

She visited Japan and Cambodia recently as part of her campaign to improve Girls’ Education globally. In Japan, she met the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe and in Cambodia, she met the Prime Minister Hun Sen and discussed with them her programme of “Let Girls Learn”.

This programme, led by Peace Corps and other aid corporations, aim to help at least 62 million girls all over the world who are unable to get education. Further, the program will be implemented initially in 11 countries that include Cambodia, Ghana, Georgia, Uganda and Togo. Along with this, she is also ruminating over hundreds of other projects that would encourage girls’ education and other child welfare programme all over the world.

India stands 177th in world ranking with 61 per cent literacy rate, but only 53.87 per cent girls are literate in the country, whereas Finland, Greenland and Luxembourg

stand 1st in the ranking with 100 per cent literacy, and the US stands 22nd with 99 per cent literacy. Thus, the data is much enough to show that India needs immediate action in this sector, if needed, with the help of a cooperating hand.

There is no doubt, India is continuously renewing its education plans and policies to engage more girls in education. On this, Director of Ivory Education, Kapil Rampal says that “The coalition on the program of “Let Girls Learn” in between America and Japan will open a new luminous way for other countries to encourage girl’s education. We need some kind of improved plan and facilities that can enable the Indian schools, colleges, universities and institutes to go higher in the field of education.”

As part of strengthening IndiaAmerica bilateral relationship, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama met on 25th January, this year and discussed and agreed on several issues from economy to education.

Considering the need of improving girl and boy education ratio in India, it would be highly beneficial for the education sector in India, if both the countries cooperate in this sector too.

The Indian government is ready to provide funds and facilities to improve the literacy rate in the country, but what we need is the right concept and vision to use the funding rightly for the betterment of higher education. Michelle Obama’s ‘Let Girls Learn’ program can be a model for India’s efforts to educate its girls. n

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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SHORT NOTES

A blueprint for clearing An international team of scientists have put forward a blueprint for a purely space-based system to solve the growing problem of space debris. The proposal, published in Acta Astronautica, combines a superwide field-of-view telescope, developed by RIKEN’s EUSO team, which will be used to detect objects, and a recently developed high-efficiency laser system, the CAN laser that was presented in Nature Photonics in 2013, that will be used to track space

Early education advantageous for children A new research from UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) reveals highquality early education is especially advantageous for children when they start younger and continue longer. Not only does more high-quality early education significantly boost the language skills of children from low-income families, children whose first language is not English benefit even more.

“These findings show that more highquality early education and care can narrow the achievement gap before children reach kindergarten,” said Noreen M. Yazejian, principal investigator of FPG’s Educare Learning Network Implementation Study. “Children from low-income families can improve their standing relative to their middle class peers.”Yazejian said previous research has shown language skills are most malleable for children before age 4, which in large part explains high-quality early education’s powerful effects.

Her study examined children’s receptive language skills--the ability to hear and understand words-because these particular skills are an excellent predictor of later academic success.According to Yazejian, Educare classrooms offered the chance to study children enrolled in high-quality early education and care from the earliest ages. -FPG

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

How Twitter can help predict emergency room visits Twitter users who post information about their personal health online might be considered by some to be “oversharers,” but new research led by the University of Arizona suggests that health-related tweets may have the potential to be helpful for hospitals.

Led by Sudha Ram, a UA professor of management information systems and computer science, and Dr. Yolande Pengetnze, a physician scientist at the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation in Dallas, the researchers looked specifically at the chronic condition of asthma and how asthma-related tweets, analyzed alongside other data, can help predict asthma-related emergency room visits. Their findings, to be published in the forthcoming IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics’ special issue on big data, could help hospital emergency departments nationwide plan better with regard to staffing

the skies of space debris debris and remove it from orbit.

Space debris, which is continuously accumulating as a result of human space activities, consists of artificial objects orbiting Earth. The number of objects nearly doubled from 2000 to 2014 and they have become a major obstacle to space development. The total mass of space debris is calculated to be about 3,000 tons. It consists of derelict satellites, rocket bodies and parts, and small fragments produced by collisions between

Sensor detects when a driver is alcohol-impaired and blocks the vehicle Credit: (Agencia ID)-Investigación by Desarrollo

and resource management, said Ram, the paper’s lead author. Over a three-month period, Ram and her team collected air quality data from environmental sensors in the vicinity of the Dallas hospital. They also gathered and analyzed asthmarelated tweets containing certain keywords such as “asthma,” “inhaler” or “wheezing.” After collecting millions of tweets from across the globe, they used text-mining techniques to zoom in on relevant tweets in the ZIP codes where most of the hospital’s patients live, according to electronic medical records.

The research highlights the important role that big data, including streams from social media and environmental sensors, could play in addressing health challenges, Ram said.

Big data analysis already has been used to predict the spread of contagious disease.

The Google Flu Trends Web service, for example, estimates when and where flu will spread based on analysis of flu-related Google searches. -University of Arizona.

debris.Because the debris exists in different orbits, it is difficult to capture. The objects can collide with space infrastructure such as the International Space Station (ISS) and active satellites. As a result, developing remediation technology has become a major challenge.

The EUSO telescope, which will be used to find debris, was originally planned to detect ultraviolet light emitted from air showers produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays entering the atmosphere at night.-RIKEN

As a strategy to decrease road accidents caused under the influence of alcohol, a group of young students at the Institute of Technology of Cintalapa, Chiapas, (southeast state of Mexico) develops an automotive safety system that detects the alcohol blood level of a person and prevents them from driving. The project is called AlcoStop, and emerged from the high incidence of road accidents in Mexico where alcohol is involved.

AlcoStop was developed by three students of renewable energy and five from computer engineering at the Institute of Technology of Cintalapa and aims to avoid car accidents.

The system works through a series of sensors placed on the steering wheel, the shift lever and seat, which detect through sweat if the person is intoxicated, if the result is positive the motor is disabled, which prevents the individual to drive. It also has a GPS tracking unit that allows monitoring in real time. The young entrepreneurs also designed a mobile application that sends a signal to family or friends with the location of the vehicle, “as the car is disabled, some one can go and pick up the driver” comments Karla Isabel Sánchez García, CEO at Alco Stop.

It is also practical in comparison to other products, in which a breathalyzer test is needed every time the driver gets in the car. AlcoStop detects the person behind the wheel, if the system does not indicate levels of alcohol, the car will start, but if the driver is under the influence of alcohol the vehicle will remain still. The project, assisted by Jorge Bermudez Iván Rodríguez and Eder Toledo Valente Núñez was the winner in the fourth National Technological Innovation Contest 2014 in its Regional presentation. (Agencia ID)Investigación by Desarrollo.

May 2015 EDUCATION INSIDER

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WOMAN POWER

‘When the skilled have the power,

there will be real growth’ An alumna of London Film School, Anjali Menon has stepped into the world of Malayalam Film industry with an out of the box approach. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Providence Women’s College, Calicut and Master’s in Communication Studies from Pune University. Her critically acclaimed films, Manjadikuru, Bangalore Days, and Ustad Hotel, also created waves at the box-office.

She shares her views with Remya Nair on women empowerment and success

What’s your success secret?

I think it is important to understand the audience psyche, the gender equ ation among the audience an d reality beyond what is usually shown on screen .

I attempt to understand these factors and incorporate it in my wo rk.

But more than anything else I think what has he lped me is to step to a differ ent drumbeat.

gestave g i b The is you h ur cris d in yo oman faced as a wrespective fiel is is a crisispirs my beingaale

s a A cri der. Perh tionally m t I n di e a g it bu r t f o in a ribute to at way. n a I wom ay cont it th m n and ok at field not to lo es happe t s mo o r prefe hunting d re but the oing a h p h c ee g ys Wit ad m ing is to k on one’s h e v th ha us an rtant e foc impo h absolut is what c s. t k e i r i t o w i on ’s w ativ . One onal neg k r o w ti o irra outd

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EDUCATION INSIDER May 2015

u think f What do yo elevance oa society? about the ard rship in women le l opeportunity to women helps h wider

equa a muc tend to have In any society, since women y ge asset base et ci hu so a m ve or transf Kerala we ha In y. unately et ci so un folk but fort en ripple effect in om w d lle ki ualified/s ity. Women in educated/q making author on si ci shift. de ck ey la out this power most often th s can bring ab th. ur ow ne gr re al ep re tr there will be , leaders and en er w po e th ed have When the skill

Education Insider Monthly, Published on 05th May 2015 `50 ‘registered’ Regn No:KL/KTM/673/2012-14 RNI No: 114514 KERENG/2012/41957 Licence No. KL/CR/KTM/WPP-62/2012-14 Licence to Post Without Prepayment

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