Digital Learning January 2015

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 11

I issue 01 I JANUARY

2015

I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

digitallearning.eletsonline.com th

INDIA’S

BEST

SCHOOLS

2015

Cover Story: Smart Education

Contents

w

ISSN 0973-4139

volume 11 issue 01 JANUARY 2015

cover Story

P 12 B-School ranking

India’s

46 Ranking Methodology

B-Schools

How we ranked them

BEST B-schools in india 47 Top 50 Public Institutes 62 Top 60 Private Institutes

An exclusive ENN Survey

BEST B-schools in CENTRAL india 48 Madhya Pradesh BEST B-schools in EAST india

COVER STORY

50 Assam, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh and

12 Smart Education

Meghalaya

51 Odisha, Tripura and West Bengal

POLICY NEWS 32 70% girls drop out

BEST B-schools in NORTH india

32 Price of fee curbs

52 Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand 53 Delhi 54 Uttar Pradesh BEST B-schools in WEST india 56 Gujarat and Maharashtra 57 Rajasthan BEST B-schools in SOUTH india 58 Kerala and Tamilnadu 59 Karnataka 60 Andhra Pradesh and Telengana

b-School Ranking 4

January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

P 44

DEBATE 68 Agenda For Tomorrow

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education Volume

11

Issue

1

January 2015

President: Dr M P Narayanan

Partner publications

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta Advisory Board

Prof Asha Kanwar, President, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr Jyrki Pulkkinen, Senior Adviser, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Dr Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt of India Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Executive Vice President, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment

egov.ele tsonline .com

` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973- 161X

ER 2014

| VOLUME

Prof S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

education Sr Editor: Shitanshu Shekhar Shukla Programme Manager: Seema Gupta governance Sr Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Sr Correspondent: Kartik Sharma, Nayana Singh, Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Research Associate: Sunil Kumar

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eINDIA. eletson line.com

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10 th

INDIA’S PREM

Special

Editorial Team

12 | ISSUE

Full Coverag

ASIA’S FIRS MAG AZIN T MON THLY E ON E-GO VERN ANCE

DECEMB

Toward Digital In s dia

14th-16th IER ICT EVENT Novem Kovalam, ber 2014 Kerala

Interview

Welfare of All in Fo cu

s

Mukht ar Abb Union as Ministe Naqvi, r

Shekhar Agrawal SVP & Head, Business Vodafone Services

Anil Swar Secretary up, Ministry , of Coal

Ashok Kum Inspector ar, Gene

Nidhi Khar e Joint Secretary Ministry , Finance of ral, BSF

M Veer agha Chairman nta, & CEO , VSoft

V Venu Gopa VP & GM, l Hitachi Data Systems

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

EDITORIAL

Promises to keep India’s education system has long waited for a major structural revamp. Dream of modern, high tech-driven education, accessible to all seems distant. The previous governments did try to bridge the digital divide. The schemes were launched with a big bang, but ended with a whimper. Times have changed since Narendra Modi-led government launched a new Digital India campaign. Or, so it seems. The slew of initiatives has given rise to hopes. Among the sectors most likely to reap the benefits are e-commerce, banking, health and e-governance. The Government promises to deliver the services at the doorstep of its people eliminating the sloth executive, which often works as middlemen, much to chagrin of their own masters.

Several tech giants have taken huge strides in right earnest. Recently launched, ‘Digital Skills for India’ comprised of modules on digital literacy, financial inclusion, healthcare and cleanliness in five Indian languages.

Smart classes, gamification and ambitious National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) will be the engines of the Digital India campaign. There are three components of technology enabled modern education: digital content, technology platform and delivery infrastructure i.e. internet.

However, internet infrastructure and availability of high quality wireless internet speed are still the challenges to overcome. Penetration is another handicap, further restricting the digital reach. The classrooms across the world have taken to new digital tools, modern technology, interactive whiteboards. The purpose is to fire the imagination of a fertile mind. India is not a late starter, trying fast to catch up with the rest of world. Smart class is already an accepted reality, especially in K 12 segment. The digital labs and the projectors are also set to revolutionise the classroom education.

However, we still need more devices and an ecosystem. There is a consensus on the need for greater participation from the industry and the stakeholders.

The educational devices will continue to trend for long. There cannot be a greater need for applications and services than now. There is a huge market waiting to be explored.

The Indian executive have always been known for throwing spanners in the work of the legislature. Given the sheer magnitude of the Digital India campaign, it must not look too ambitious. Half-hearted steps are as much bound to falter as the over ambitious steps.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

7

nEWS

School

Education

To read latest news, log on to education.eletsonline.com

Gujarat speaks in English

T

he number of students opting for english medium schooling is on the rise. Some schools are closing down their Gujarati section to make way for the changing times.

Demand for english medium education grew when the applications began to be filled up for standard X and XII exams to be held in March.

10.62 lakh and 5.4 lakh students will appear in class X and class XII respectively for their board exams.

“The number of Gujarati medium students has registered a sharp decline.

We are closing down Gujarati medium section gradually.

Last year, we closed class IV, this year we had just five

students in the beginning of academic session in class V and now the number is only 20,” said principal of a citybased school.

According to the data of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB), 57,000 English medium students will appear for standard X exam. This is 11,000 more than last year’s number. There are 1,500 English medium schools in the state.

Sr Jennifer, principal, Mount Carmel School, said, “A Gujarati medium student is restricted to this state, while his english medium counterpart can learn or work anywhere. With more and

more students planning their higher education abroad, learning the queen’s language is essential.”

Officer on special duty (OSD) of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB Vadodara) M M Pathan said, “During the last two to three years, the number of students in English medium schools in standard X is steadily increasing. Correspondingly, the number of schools has jumped from 1,000 to 1,500 in the same period.”

GSHSEB secretary GD Patel said, “In XII general stream this year, we have 27,000 more students than the last academic session.”

Odisha plans 100 model schools At least 100 model schools will start functioning in Odisha from June this year. The English medium schools, proposed on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalayas, will initially start with three classes - VI, VII and VIII, said the sources.

With high-quality model schools established in some of the backward blocks of the state, the government hopes to arrest the drop in secondary stage enrolment and also to hone the talents of children in these areas, the sources added.

“Main objective of these schools is to provide English medium education in rural areas at an affordable cost to ensure they do not lag behind students from urban areas. There will be 50 per cent reservation for girls, with hostel facilities,” said a senior officer of Rashtriya Madhyamik Sikhya Abhiyan (RMSA).

He said the construction of about

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

87 school buildings is almost over.

For effective teaching, the teacherstudent ratio will be 1:40. Two sections of Class VI will begin from June with a total strength of 80 students in all the identified blocks under the KV concept, sources added.

“Each class will have two sections with 40 students each. The students will be selected through lottery. All the district education officers will widely publicize it for admission from the next session so that the parents can prepare their children,” he said.

The schools would follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus and Odia will be taught as a second language.

“We have proposed to the state government that it should recruit teachers through the Staff Selection Commission on a regular basis and non-teaching staff will be hired on outsourcing or contractual basis,” said the officer.

It is also proposed to form Odisha Model Schools Education Society for management of these model schools, which will be notified shortly. All appointments will be made by the society, official sources said.

The model schools would also be equipped with such facilities as computer, science labs, libraries, art, music and horticulture. There will be sufficient space for sports, recreation and outdoor activities with an equal emphasis on vocational education.

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Indian students, British scholarships Scholarships to UK universities for students from India have risen by 50 per cent this year, according to senior British embassy officials. In October 2014 -15, the total scholarships to Indian students amounted to nearly 1.5 million pounds.

“Scholarships to Indian students were 1.5 million pounds this year as compared to 1 million pounds last year,” said Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai. According to Joshi, the scholarships were for the students aspiring to pursue undergraduate and post-graduate courses in United Kingdom. Contrary to the rise in scholarships though, Joshi pointed out that as far as education visas were concerned there had been a ‘general dip’ in almost all visas except for business.

“Visas, including education, have seen a general dip this year, except for business,” he pointed out.

In fact, the business visas to the UK have actually risen by 12 per cent this year compared to the previous one.

Figures given were for the October 2013-September 2014. The visa applications have also seen a 91 per cent approval rating, he said. “Ninety one per cent of applications seeking visas are approved and the rest are not for reasons including lack of requisite documentation,” he said.

Trade has also seen a marked improvement and according to Joshi, growth is expected to grow much faster than ever. Total trade has been around 15.6 billion pounds.

University no 1 The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has emerged as India’s new No 1 in the latest rankings for universities from BRICS and other emerging economies. The Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings 2015 has placed Bangalore-based IISc at No 25 in the overall 100, topped by China’s Peking University.

According to the latest rankings, India has four varsities in the top 40 - IISc, IIT Bombay (37), IIT Roorkee (38) and Chandigarh’s Panjab University (39) – and seven more in the top 100. “There is some good news for India as it has universities in the top 100, which is a good sign and it also has entirely new entrants arriving in the higher echelons of the table,” said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings.

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Baty, however, said there are “some major challenges for India’s higher education system and there is clearly a national priority to improve quality across the system.” “These leading universities need special extra levels of funding to stay competitive and pay competitive salaries. They also need improvements to infrastructure and there is a need to invest more in research as well as teaching,” he added.

The other seven universities that complete India’s tally of 11

Joshi also announced that more joint ventures between British and Indian companies would be a good thing and that he was a ‘fan’ of them. “The renewable energy sector holds huge potential for bilateral ties.

Both Tamilnadu and Gujarat have immense opportunities as far as this is concerned,” he said.

British telecommunications giant, Lyca is also expected to enter the Indian market by June next year in the medical diagnostics sector.

institutions in the 2015 list - up from 10 last year - are: IITs Kharagpur (43), Madras (44), Delhi (56), Jawaharlal Nehru University (71), IIT Kanpur (74), Aligarh Muslim University (78) and IIT Guwahati (98). Some 22 countries, classified as emerging economies by FTSE, have been analysed for the rankings, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS).

China has dramatically strengthened its position as the number one nation among the emerging economies, matching its economic dominance.“The big story this year is that China dominates these tables so powerfully and has increased its dominance yet further,” said Baty adding, “India for example is some distance behind China and this should be a concern for India’s future economic strength.”

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cover story

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

Digital divide between India and Bharat doesn’t augur well for a country as diverse as ours. Growing cynicism has more takers than a wide spectrum of ideologies.

The digital tools are new enablers. There will be a digital society, free from discrimination and inequality

S

martclass is rapidly transforming the way teachers teach and students learn in the schools with innovative and meaningful use of technology. Powered by the world’s largest repository of digital content mapped to Indian school curriculum, smartclass brings in technology right next to the blackboard for teachers in the classrooms.

The advent of Information and Communication Technology has had a profound and commanding global influence on the matrix of socio-economic and educational activities the world over in a new era. Industrial and developed countries are wellahead in formulating the policies and programmes to accelerate its development, diffusion and empowerment abilities. Developing countries like India, having sensed it, must follow at a breakneck velocity to establish and capitalize on the enabling capabilities of Information and Communication Technology in the field of education.

Technological tools are a necessity today and the students today have more than twenty technology tools to gain information from, so the teachers with the same knowledge base are not sufficient to quench their thirst for knowledge.

There is requirement for much more and the need thus is for more technology intervention.

Total number of schools in India stands at 1.3 million, and only around 10 per cent of the private schools have tapped the potential of multimedia classroom teaching, whereas in government schools, it has barely made any inroads. The current market size for digitised school products in private schools is around US$500 million.

This is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent to breach the US $2 billion mark by 2020.

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

13

cover story

The population of India in the 0-24 age bracket is twice the population of US and India still has a long road to travel to match global standards. According to the Indian Education Sector Outlook — the total number of schools in India stands at 1.3 million, and only around 10 per cent of the private schools have tapped the potential of multimedia classroom teaching, whereas in government schools, it has barely made any inroads. According to market research, the current market size for digitised school products in private schools is around US$500 million. This is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent to breach the US $2 billion mark by 2020. However, the market potential then might get as big as US $4 billion.

Apart from this, the current market size for ICT in government schools is US $750 million. This is expected to grow five times by 2020 due to the current low level of penetration in

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Indian Government is planning to set up virtual classrooms and online courses for school education, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said during his budget speech for 201415. The Finance Minister proposed an allocation of `100 crore for this initiative government schools.

Indian Government is planning to set up virtual classrooms and online courses for school education, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed during his budget speech f o r 2 0 1 4 1 5 .

Jaitley has proposed an allocation of `100 crore for this initiative. BJP, in its 2014 election manifesto, had said that this initiative would make it convenient for working class people and housewives to improve their knowledge and qualifications.

Education has taken a quantum leap with the Internet, breaking classroom barriers and introducing students to a whole range of courses for upgrading themselves, which are also more affordable and accessible. In an IT savvy country like India, virtual classrooms assume a whole new value.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that are, so far free, have generated a new wave in an education environment highly dissatisfied with the state of

college education. The move is set to get a further push with India and the US looking to partner in this domain.

In 2012, online education enrollment witnessed a 21 per cent growth rate in India compared to a paltry 2 per cent growth rate in higher education. What goes without saying is that the easy access to technological services is the main reason behind this.

Another critical factor is that the requirement for trained engineers and technologists is far more than the number of qualified graduates that India’s technical institutions currently produce. It is imperative that the institutions like IITs, IISc, NITs and other leading universities in India disseminate teaching/learning content of high quality through all available media like virtual classrooms.

It may be mentioned that the previous government had also launched an open repository for school education called National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) in August last year. This repository included concept maps, videos, audio clips, talking books, multimedia, learning objects, photographs, diagrams, charts, articles, Wikipages and textbooks for all grades in multiple languages. Students could search or browse through concepts from various subjects from elementary and secondary level education. They could also comment on them and contribute to the repository.

A good example of extending training with virtual classrooms can be found at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where audio-visual facilities were set up in 400 civic-run schools across the city at a cost of `27 crore last year. A brain child of Uddhav Thackeray, the initiative’s aim was to teach students in a fun-filled manner, which, in turn, would put a check on poor attendance.

India needs to take the virtual classrooms to each and every sphere of education to take India to the next level as far as learning, knowledge and skills are concerned.

This makes India a very promising

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

The Indian schools have gradually moved from pathshalas (top left) to smart classrooms (Bottom left). A blackboard, white chalk and duster were the standard tools in a pathsahala. Now, the smart classrooms. as shown above, have digital tools.

It is alive and connected to the world outside the classroom.

market for introducing newer technology in classrooms. A recent trend is that schools in tier two and tier three cities are increasingly adopting the latest technology. Moreover, state governments are also giving a boost to the adoption of technology in schools.

There has been a significant improvement in student enrolment and attendance, as well as a reduction of student dropouts due to ICT interventions. Yet another study conducted by the Xavier Institute of Management in Bhubaneswar revealed that computer-aided education has improved the performance of children in subjects such as English, mathematics and science, which are taught through computers using multimedia- based educational content.

Furthermore, with technological innovations gaining ground in the arena of school education, there has also been a growth of educationfocused tablet computers in the market and the trend is only picking up.

Smart Classrooms Smart class is a new method of teaching recently introduced. Today’s classrooms are in transition. Technology of all sorts is making its way into the classroom

The global market for digital English language learning products and services reached $1.31 billion in 2011. The worldwide five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 14.5 percent and revenues will reach $2.58 billion by 2016 and offering new ways to engage learners. The transition is not smooth, nor is it following a single path.

Classroom technology was once limited to presentation via VCRs, filmstrips, and slide projectors. Today we find more interactive technology that uses LCD projectors, interactive whiteboards, notebook and desktop computers, and tablets such as the iPad. The students are taught through digital instruction materials, 3D animated modules and videos. All the renowned schools are setting a benchmark for using this concept. Now the students are thrilled at this concept

of innovative and interactive learning process. The concept of digitized classroom has not only redefined the education but it also gave the students better insight. Their imagination is fired.

The students learn difficult and abstract curriculum concepts, watching highly engaging visuals and animations.

This makes learning an enjoyable experience for students while improving their overall academic performance in school. Therefore it is clear that a smart classroom is a classroom that has an instructor station, equipped with computer and audio-visual equipment.

Smartclass also enables teachers to instantly assess and evaluate the learning achieved by their students in class with an innovative assessment technology - smart assessment system - designed by a well known company. Smartclass is powered by a vast repository of digital instruction materials exactly mapped to meet the specific objectives laid out by different state learning standards. This repository is continuously populated through the ongoing development at a well known company’s digital products and solutions group.

The content repository consists

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

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cover story

of thousands of highly animated, lesson specific, 3D and 2D multimedia modules. These modules are built with an Instructor-led design that allows the teacher to effectively transact the lesson in a typical classroom of diverse set of learners.

The modules are embedded in a template that allows the teachers to teach a chosen lesson in class, frame by frame, with engaging and instructionally sound animated set of visuals while retaining complete control on the pace of delivery. The curriculum reach unfolds from kindergarten to grade twelve covering subjects like

Mathematics, Science, English, EVS, Social Studies, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, Economics and Business Studies.

The computers have revolutionised the education. We hear about smart classes every day. We all know that if a subject is understood better by a visual method, it is more beneficial. So the demand of using smart classes is being forcefully raised. ‘Smart Classes’, are providing education better through presentations and videos. A student can learn and retain a lesson better through visualization. All the students may not understand the teaching methodology of a teacher, but can understand by smart classes. This can be seen in

case of movies, i.e students remember movies better than the lessons taught in classroom. This type of teaching creates an attention called as interest in them.

So e-learning is much better.

But this should not be applied to all the topics in every subject, because imagination, visualization and application capability of a student regarding the subject may be reduced.

So, smart classes are better only up to certain extent. Firstly, in smart class mode the curriculum is converted into animated visuals, which not only becomes an enjoyable experience for students but they can also relate to and

Sources: Ministry of HRD, Unesco, UGC, DrEducation.com

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

remember facts easily. For them, while learning in the classroom becomes a thrilling and exciting experience, at the end, they find abstract and difficult concepts easy to comprehend thereby enhancing their academic performance.

Such teaching helps to maintain the student’s interest and focus by engaging them fully for the entire learning experience.

Secondly, from the teacher’s point of view, with the arrival of this digital initiative which is so practical to modern time and friendly to use, the teachers can instantly evaluate/assess the learning achieved by their students in his/her class. If a concept taught is not understood then teacher can repeat with greater clarity and emphasis. He/ she can identify the areas of student’s strength as well as weaknesses. These ultimately help the students for better understanding. Smart classrooms are very much beneficial to teachinglearning process in a school. We make use of an appeal to audio-visual senses of students in using smart boards. These smart boards are like a computer screen, handled by a teacher and sometimes by students.

Some of the advantages for Smart board used inside a classroom are:

Appeal to audio-visual senses By using smart boards in a classroom, we are appealing to both the audio sense and visual senses of students.

Learning in such a way is very effective as the information is strongly embedded in a kids’ mind.

of desert like Sahara or Kalahari for the students to learn this by heart.

Smart board teaching is not ‘seeonly’. We could use special markers to underline or mark an important location while teaching. We can even write on it to make the concept clear.

Inbuilt library

where active participation of both the teacher and the students is needed.

This increases the interaction between teacher and students during a lesson and the students do not hesitate to ask any question if they have any doubt. It reduces the effort of the lecturer as its most parts are done in the presentation.

It is very difficult for the tutorials to continue in a day without break. So this multimedia class is a boon for the students as well as the teachers.

Smart board has an inbuilt library in it, which enables a teacher to have an instant look at it in case of requirement.

He/she may not have to scan a real library for this.

Digital Labs

Active learning

The digital labs have come as a blessing for many. Companies in this space

Several companies have entered into partnerships and created world-class digital resources, 3D videos and perhaps the world’s best interactive virtual lab software to its repository of content for teachers. The modules are embedded in a template allowing the teachers to teach a chosen lesson in class, frame by frame

No waste of time In traditional classroom, much time was wasted in drawing diagrams on the black/white boards, whereas in smartboards, the diagrams are engrained deep in memory. Time is used better for the active learning part.

Virtual field trips The students are taken virtually to field trips. When a teacher is covering a lesson on desert animals, using smartboard, we could play on screen a tour

Smart boards lead to active learning process where both the teacher and the students are involved. This leads to strong reinforcement of information in students. Smart boards have many advantages and every class room should have it just because of easy learning process. Only a strong motivation is the basic of any learning process and can be carried out in any situation.

Thus, it can be said in the end that smart board is such a learning process

realize this well and have adopted innovative techniques to make this solution available to the masses through institutions and maximum use of ICT. Though in its nascent, stage, digital labs have the potential to benefit the millions who have been unable to get a hold over this language and subsequently fail to get jobs. With the advent of ICT being integrated with education and the pace with which it is catching up, things could soon change. The demand

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

17

cover story

for digital solutions is huge. There is hardly any family in rural and urban India that is not obsessed with the idea of English medium education and subsequently digital labs. Moreover, it can also bring about a much-needed transformation in the domain of language learning and personality development that is crucial to the success of India’s aspirational youth and the country at large.

The global digital divide is usually measured in terms of differences between rich and poor countries in the extent to which they use ICTs in general and the Internet in particular. Such a view of the problem, however, ignores the fact that there are all kinds of ways in which poor, illiterate persons in developing countries benefit from the Internet without any use of computers and Internet connectivity.

Most of these benefits occur as a result of intermediaries who, in one way or another, transfer relevant parts of the knowledge available from the technology to recipients in a form that is relevant to their specific needs. Using India as an illustration of this argument, we find that usage understates actual beneficiaries by at least 30 percent. On the basis of this finding, we suggest that a reconstrued notion of the digital divide be based on usage as well as other more indirect forms of benefit from the Internet in developing countries. The use of technology in education was an uncharted territory for many till early 2000 but today it is well established industry with significant number of players

The increased digital deficit between Internet usage and welfare derived indirectly from that technology is the main subject of debates in the developing countries 18

January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

eyeing for the pie in the market. In fact, at a time when other sectors are struggling to thrive, this sector is witnessing an exponential growth.

To this end, much more needs to be known about these other forms of benefit in a large sample of countries in addition to India. With usually minor methodological differences, these studies invariably conclude that the usage of ICTs in developing countries does indeed lag far behind what occurs in the industrialized world. This is problematic, so the argument usually runs, in as much that the usage gap reflects differences in the degree to which countries are able to benefit from the new technologies in question.

In what follows, however, we seek to criticize the inevitability of this assumed link between usage and welfare and in so doing, hope to initiate a reconceptualization of the notion of a global digital divide.

Ambient Insight Premium Report says that the global market for digital English language learning products and services reached $1.31 billion in 2011. The worldwide five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 14.5 percent and revenues will reach $2.58 billion by 2016. The situation is equally bright in India.

Smart class is now an old story, labs are the latest phenomenon.

The products which are closer to the curriculum are very much in demand as compared to the products which are just value addition.

Moreover the report by a recent technology market research suggests that about 5 percent of the $ 40 billion IT market in India, including hardware, software and IT services, was in the education sector. The market is expected to grow at nearly 12 percent through 2017. But this growth in the sector has to be supported by good infrastructure in terms of good labs in the schools and high-quality internet connectivity.

The fundamental infrastructure required is just computers, internet and awareness about IT tools. Boom

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

of internet in the country has led to a boom in this sector. The official rate of growth is around 8-10 percent but this is a very conservative scenario.

The industry has immense scope and on ground, the rate of growth is much higher. But the growth depends on overall development of infrastructure and content. The IT solutions required in schools and colleges are very different.

There is no one “right answer� as to which technology will best engage students and improve outcomes.

Teachers have a vision of what an engaged classroom looks like, and they strive to create that in their own classroom. Practices that make that vision more likely are more readily adopted, while those that do not are resisted. However, seeing our students engaged or feeling good about what we are doing may not be enough.

Some teachers may assume that more interaction is better than less, that collaboration is better than independent study, and that tackling problems and projects through discovery and inquiry improves classroom practice and produces more authentic learning.

Technology often purchases such beliefs.

The increased digital deficit between Internet usage and welfare derived indirectly from that technology is the

A research suggests that about 5 percent of the $ 40 billion IT market in India, including hardware, software and IT services, is in the education sector.

The market is expected to grow at nearly 12 percent through 2017 main subject of debates in the developing countries. It is not surprising that numerous attempts have been made to quantify arguably the most pronounced than anywhere else in the Third World.

Central to explanation of this discrepancy, is the idea that among the poorer, rural segments of the Indian population, usage is only rarely the way in which the benefits of the Internet are actually derived. In past few years, India has seen a rise in number of companies providing technological solutions to schools and colleges. These companies were nowhere on the block till 1990s, but as soon as the market opened for foreign players and internet started spreading in India, a lot of

players plunged into the sector eyeing the first-mover advantage. The growth in the sector was propelled by the IT revolution in the country and boom in the Indian economy.

By describing a variety of cases that illustrate this contention and by estimating the numbers of beneficiaries involved in each case, we are ultimately able to deduce the size of the discrepancy between the number of Internet users and the group of persons that derive benefits in ways other than usage of the technology itself. Let us first, however, use one well-known measure of the global digital divide, to gain some sense of where India stands in the ranking of both rich and poor countries, according, among other variables, to Internet usage. A lot of companies established themselves as technology solution providers in education sector in India post 2000 when new schools, especially IB schools, were being set up in the country and internet penetration started increasing. There were only a few players then and schools were apprehensive of adopting new methods of teaching-learning. It was in mid2000s that the demand for digital lab started rising in the market as awareness increased among schools and parents.

But the boom in the industry has not yet come. digitalLEARNING / January 2015

19

Sctate overRs eport tory

SSA aids Gujarat

S

arva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a flagship programme of the Central Government for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory education to the children of 6-14 years age group, a fundamental right. The SSA is being implemented in partnership with State Governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations.

The programme seeks to open new schools in those habitations which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen existing school infrastructure through provision of additional class rooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants.

Existing schools with inadequate teacher strength are provided with additional teachers, while the capacity of existing teachers is being strengthened by extensive training, grants for developing teaching-learning materials and strengthening of the academic support structure at a cluster, block and district level.

The SSA seeks to provide quality elementary education. The SSA has a special focus on girl’s education and children with special needs. SSA also seeks to provide computer education to bridge the digital divide.

CALP

Increase in Girls Enrolment Rate

Decrease in Girls Dropout Rate

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

25

98.96

Objective and Process The main objective of the CAL programme is to attract the children, retain them in the schools and to improve the quality of the education through animated multimedia based educational content. CALP objective is sought to be achieved through story based, animated cartoons, interactive games and riddles with the use of multimedia features. Spontaneous, self initiated and self regulated, the three critical aspects that make an activity play are integrated in CALP to make

20

2004-2005 2012-2013

22.8

74.8 15

05

2003-2004

2003-2004

January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

0

learning play and use of cartoons, story line and music is intended to make CALP as self initiated and engaged in learning.

Benefits This programme has improved the IT literacy in the rural areas particularly and will go a long way in removing the digital divide in the state.

The emphasis is on how to improve the interest of students in school studies and thus increase school attendance and better performance in examinations.

It will improve the teaching process with the integration of the IT in the class.

The children will be better prepared for getting into secondary education and continue with computer education at a higher level.

Basic Objectives • To make the students and teachers familiar with computer • To teach the subjects through computers • To use the educational software for hard spots.

• To enable the government school students especially rural area students to be at par with the urban school Year

11.77

10

Sources: Education department Govt of Gujarat

20

During 2009-10 to 2012-13, Gujarat had incurred against primary education `19,533 crores, 89% of the total expenditure while the central Government had given `2326 crores, which was only 11%.

The Computer Aided Learning Program (CALP) is an innovative program that creates an environment, where learning and assessment is fun and the opportunities to learn are equitable among the rural and urban children. The CALP is primarily introduced in rural government elementary schools covering the classes 1 to 8 to attract and retain children and also in the process, enhance the quality of learning by making “Learning Play”, “Assessment Fun” and “Equal knowledge for all”.

7.37 2.06 Std 1to 5

Std to 7

2005-06 2006-07 2009-10 2011-12 Total

No. of Schools provided with Computer Lab

500 4061 275 14856 20502

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

99.24

Decrease in Dropout Rate 40 35

2001-2002 2012-2013

30

75.07

25 20

38.92

Increase in Enrolment rate

20.93

15 10 5 2001-2002

2012-2013

0

7.05 2.06 Std 1to 5

Std to 7

Sources: Education department Govt of Gujarat

students In 2003-04, the procurement of 2934 computers was made. These computers were installed in 517 upper primary schools. The distribution of computers was as mentioned below : • District level school - 10 computers + 1 printer • Block level school - 6 computers + 1 printer • Cluster level school - 5 computers + 1 printers In this fashion, a computer lab was established in 25 district level, 224 block level and 268 cluster level schools.

After installation of computers, SSA Gujarat has tied up with a company for the basic training of computer operating to teachers. In this programme, 517 Head masters were oriented for 1 day regarding the advantages of computer and its usage. Immediately after that 517 teachers were trained for 10 days regarding the fundamentals of computes, MS Office, Internet etc.

Thereafter, each of 517 teachers trained 10 more teachers for 10 days for same syllabi. As a result, 5687 teachers were fully prepared for the use of computers.

After completing the teachers training, the trained teachers started using Powerpoint for preparing the lesson card.

SSA Gujarat has tied up with Azim Premji Foundation for the development of content. A series of meetings were held at various levels. Finally, 23 topics were identified, which were already prepared by foundation in Hindi and English medium. For giving the local

touch to the software, the scripts of all 23 topics were re-written in Gujarati language with the help of 25 teachers.

Finally, after the evaluation, these 23 topics are ready. The same will be implemented in 517 schools in the coming academic session. For this the training of teachers will be completed in vacation period.

Other Initiatives For 13 years, the “Kanya Kelavani Rathyatra” – “Shala Praveshotsav” is being organised to promote Girls Education and enrolment every year in June. And it has resulted in an increase in enrolment rate of children from 75.07% in 2001-02 to 99.24% in 2012-13. It has further resulted in decrease of dropout rate of children by 20.93% to 2.04% in Std 1-5th and from 38.92% to 7.08% in 2012-13 in Std 1 to 7. One would appreciate that in last 10 years, literacy rate of India has increased by 8.64% whereas in Gujarat, it has increased by 10.17%. And Female literacy rate has increased by 12.93%.

Targets under Millennium Development Goal by year 2020 • Reduce Drop-out rate of up to 5% • Enhance male literacy to 95% from the current 87.2% • Enhance Female literacy rate to 81% from the current 70.7% • Reduce Gender gap to 14% from the current 16.5%

Gunotsav The focus today in primary education in Gujarat has shifted to addressing the quality, to address gaps in the quality

of learning, to bring accountability and increase stake holder and community participation with awareness about quality education. For this purpose, Government of Gujarat launched GUNOTSAV, which in Gujarati means “Celebrating Quality”. The entire state government machinery is mobilised to see and evaluate quality of education.

The main purpose of Gunotsav is to make sure that all children studying in primary schools (Std 2 to 8) achieve quality improvements in basic reading, writing and numerical skills. It also reviews community participation and utilization of basic facilities in schools.

Smart Class The state has a vision of smart class with use of the latest technology of audiovisual mode for teaching. It improves grasping and makes long lasting impression in the mind of the students.

It creates active interaction between teacher and students and over `20 crores of budget is planned in FY 2014-15.

Green School This initiative is the first of its kind in entire country. The concept consists of an integrated sustainable school with the provision of school augmentation and modification, rain water harvesting system, plantation and waste water disposal management, solar energy and solar cooking. It is proposed to develop some 70+ schools as green and sustainable schools. This will create environment consciousness among the students who are future citizens. Over `10 Crore + budget has been allocated in this financial year by the state government. digitalLEARNING / January 2015

21

State Report

Education Initiative R

ajasthan is the largest state of all others in the Indian Union. With 10% of the landmass of the country and 5% of its population, it presents huge challenges in development and socioeconomic growth.

Rajasthan authored educational models in the past, ushering in the sweeping changes through innovation and public participation. The now internationally acknowledged “Shiksha Karmi Project” and the “Lok Jumbish” project helped generate interest in far flung areas of the State by utilizing local talent and motivating children to attend the schools.

The literacy rate doubled up in the state during the last decade, a clear indication of the impact that these measures have had on the population at large. Education in the state received new impetus with the World Bank assisted District Primary Education Projects in 19 Districts.

State wise, Odisha registers the highest percentage of out of school children in India at 6.10 %, followed by Uttarakhand at 5.07% and Rajasthan at 5.02%.

The principal challenge confronting education strategies in Rajasthan is education of the girl child, especially among Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. The system of education in Rajasthan needs considerable reform in order to improve the access of marginal groups (women, girl children, dalits, migrants and nomadic people, etc.) to the educational infrastructure that has been put in place.

REI Accomplishments at a Glance • The REI has significantly contributed to the fulfilment of SSA goals and different facets of educational development in Rajasthan, including widening access, promoting efficiency and enhancing quality.

• Approximately 15,000 schools were impacted through various REI interventions; 30,000 teachers received ICT training.

REI reached wider • The geographical areas in the state and addressed the needs of rural and urban underprivileged children, especially girls and children with special needs.

• 26 MoUs have been signed with various organizations under the ICT and non-ICT streams.

• The District Executive Committee of SSA has been delegated the responsibility of coordinating and monitoring the REI partnerships.

• The REI has developed various partnership themes, estimated costs and guidelines for partnership. This will help the potential partners in engaging with the REI in their areas of interest and expertise

The figure below provides an institutional map of the administrative

Govt of Rajasthan ICT and non-ICT initiatives ICT based Programme Project GRACE (Girls of Rajasthan and Computers Education District Computer Education centers School Computer education programme CALP Computerization of department

Non-ICT based Programme Learning Skills Development Adoption of Schools Scholarships for Indigent Children Mid-Day Meals Programme

EDUSAT

Children with Special Needs

Teacher training Technology Academics

Health and Sanitation Sources: GESCI

22

January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

structure of primary education in Rajasthan that is responsible apart from other echelons of school education, as well as the finance, administration and management of the primary school system. The system of accountability and planning is mostly a top down one, centralised in terms of programmed management, design and implementation.

The existing decentralised approach to planning is limited to sub-programmes for which the options, opened to the communities, are limited by the criteria set by state planners.

The State Government realizes that much ground still remains to be covered and that enlisting the support of stake holders including the p rivate sector, civil society and other voluntary organisations in the critical areas of education will yield results that can be effectively demonstrated and that can help inspire similar activities within the traditional education sector.

The present Rajasthan Education Initiative arises from this thinking.

Rajasthan has evolved for the REI its own definition of public – private partnership in the field of education, involving not only technological interventions in schools, but also socially relevant initiatives to help in the holistic development of child.

The REI is enjoying a unique position within the education sector. Under the over arching vision of Millennium Development Goals, and the specific thrust of the “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan”, the REI has set an outstanding example of public-private partnership which has brought forward the energy and capacity to transform education and bring about a long term beneficial impact on the development of human resources of the state.

The Govt of Rajasthan did not depend solely on the ICT and non-ICT initiatives to be implemented under the REI banner.

Dept of Education, Govt of Rajasthan has launched several programmes covering all 33 districts.

corporate Desk

Classrooms, Alive The multimedia classrooms have barely made any inroad into the government schools.

The state governments are now waking up to adoption of IT in the schools. Joy Ghosh, VP - India Operations, Edaxis, shares his experience with Elets News Network.

What do you think are the factors driving the market of projectors in India? How good is the scope for its growth in the education sector?

Edaxis ventured in to projector market in the year 2010, with BoxLight Interactive Projectors in India. At that time it was a new concept but today a number of brands jumped in to the interactive field. Still, BoxLight manages to hold position as market leader in this segment.

The core strength lies in innovation and introduction of new enhanced features in every series. For instance, BoxLight introduced the world’s smallest and lightest entry level interactive projector with 3D ready feature only weighing 1.8kg.

Edaxis has already launched a complete smart solution OnfingerTip AIO which is short throw, with inbuilt interactivity integrated computer and inbuilt data storage. Edaxis has planned to introduce low cost, low maintenance and high performance multimedia projectors, especially for the education segment, keeping in mind the primary schools.

How do you look at the emerging technologies in this field? What can be the areas of improvement?

The most widely used technologies are DLP and LCD. The LED based technology is also being recognized and accepted in India now thanks to mass imitation.

There is an old anecdote. Once a gentleman from a renowned organization (In presence of representative of various projector brands including LED) said it was his biggest mistake to buy LED projector because he could not even see the picture in moonlight. He further commented that he had to wait for Amavasya or New Moon Day to use

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Now projectors with LAN, wireless connection between PC and projector, Light weight projectors (BoxLight entry level Interactive projector is only 1.8 kg), 3D technology and even the projectors with built in wireless interactivity (BoxLight) are available today in Indian market.

it. BoxLight has introduced this year a wide range of interactive products based LCD technology which are easy to operate, technology wise ahead of any other available product in India market. This year will witness wide acceptance for All-in-One projector too again is based on DLP technology. The DLP and LCD will continue to remain favourites of all kinds of people in the coming years too.

What are the opportunities and challenges faced by the projectors?

The projector market will be stagnant, if it does not change. So, the projector industry like any other industry is embracing the changes. The large scale production of projector, we see today, is not an overnight miracle. It is the result of continuous change over decades. In present scenario, given the competition in the market, the demand for projectors is increasing day by day and this will be a constant process for years to come.

Before 2007, the Interactive Projector was not even in the imagination of this Industry Wizards. Then BoxLight introduced for the first time Projectowrite, the world’s first Interactive projector.

What distinguishes you from the competitors?

The ultimate goal of ours as OEM is to reduce cost of operations in order to introduce cost effective item without compromising on quality and performance.

For instance, first ever BoxLight Interactive projector projectowrite2 was introduced in India by Edaxis way back in Oct. 2010. Now, the latest series is Projectowrite6 with wireless interactivity and wireless connection between PC and projector, practically a no wire solution giving more space and peace of mind to user while operations.

Edaxis as an innovative research and development company works on new ideas, which can make remarkable changes in our professional lives. Edaxis has introduced a user friendly Finger touch interactive board, pen touch interactive board compatible with any projector.

Please share new innovative tools for the projectors that are available with you for a more effective studentteacher engagement.

The latest in the line is a new All-In-one Projector by name OnfingerTip All In One ICT Computer. It has in built computer along with interactive function.

This is a complete solution. Now, no need to install a number of hardware and a net of wiring all over. Only a single cable will do the magic.

corporate Desk

Future Beckons The students are our future. They need to be updated about everything across the world. It is possible only because of the digital laboratory. Shakti Singh, MD, ADS Keytronics, shares his views with Elets News Network.

What do you think are the factors driving the digital laboratory market in India? How good is the scope for its growth in the education sector?

Today is the right time to take this forward. Till now, we were battling tough times. Now that cheap hardware and technology are available, we can take this to every part of India.

As we talk about the future and scope, we can’t think about today’s education system without digitization. The students have a fertile mind. This is the only platform where a student can show his creativity, engage himself, others and empower everybody.

How do you look at the emerging technologies in this field? What can be the areas of improvement?

These concepts are all for the students only. It varies from person to person, based on his educational background and nature. Most important factor in our industry is how to customize it. And this shows us a way. Also that it requires a great work to make it more acceptable to our students and the teachers.

Digitization must be a solution of all these questions, which give a very fruitful answer in the due course of time.

What are the opportunities and the challenges faced by the digital laboratories?

We are a big country with huge diversity. It is a challenge. We can make an opportunity out of it. A small company always has enough room for a person to fit himself in and serve the clients.

What are the strategies, adopted by the vendors, to promote their products?

We are in an industry where people are much informed. They are teachers, pro-

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

distributors of Aver Videio conferencing and Visulizer, we also deal with Acer projectors. We have the outlets to showcase our products across the country, including Lenovo and Acer Tabs.

When an organisation approaches us, we can offer him the services at the best rates because we are manufacturing base company and cater to their needs.

Manufacturing is the call of a nation.

We have taken this call.

We are a big country with huge diversity. It is a challenge. We can make an opportunity out of it. A small company always has enough room for a person to fit himself in and serve the clients fessors, managers. They are able to work without any hassle. We are here to make a difference. Switching from traditional to digital technology is really a huge challenge. We should customize, specify, organize as well as prepare a good backup. Only then can we win, change this industry for better.

What distinguishes you from the competitors?

We, the Adskeytronics Engineering P Ltd, are a manufacturing base company and start with normal white and green board. We manufacture Interactive Board. Although we are also in trading but that is restricted only to the products we can’t manufacture but we may manufacture in near future. National

Please share new innovative tools for the digital labs that are available with you for a more effective studentteacher engagement.

We always believe in the customization of a classroom. Because, every class has a different need, different requirement.

We make the tool accordingly. Our most popular equipment is strake all in one. It includes Green board, Interactive board, PC, Audio system, Multimedia projector, Visualiazer. We customize it, according to the need of individual requirement.

We have a Tablet sync which is a very useful technique to manage Tab. Although we are also making remote classroom setup on cloud as well as through videoconferencing, we receive a new concept, a new requirement every day. We design the product accordingly.

This is our strength.

How do you think can a digital laboratory revolutionise the education sector in our country?

We are in the midst of a digital revolution. Nowadays, everybody is surfing internet on a mobile. It is sought more by the students than anybody else. The students are our future. They need to be updated about everything happening across the world. It is possible only because of the digital laboratory.

corporate Desk

Laboratories are Game Changer The parents realize the need for moving away from pure exam preparatory education to applying what they are learning. This can be achieved through digital and simulated lab environments. Sajeev Karuthody, Director, Edutech India, shares his views with Elets News Network What do you think are the factors driving the market of digital laboratories in India? How good is the scope for its growth in the education sector?

Digital laboratory is a generic term and if we have to consider the use of digital technologies like computers, smart devices and other ICT platforms helping education, it is a no brainer that digital laboratories are a game changer in this space.

Digital laboratories according to Edutech, an organization in the forefront of using technology in education and training has three dimensions a) Enhancing the current classroom based training using ICT and digital aids like computers in classrooms, Printers and Scanners for digitizing and reusing content, Audio visual aids for enhancing and reproducing classroom content etc. Few of the schools, colleges and universities have started using these tools; which are largely hardware in nature b) E Learning: Digital labs are as good as the content or materials it uses. So instructionally and pedagogically sound content should be used in digital format. Ready to use off-the-shelf content or custom content can be used for specific learning outcomes and learning technologies like Learning Management System (LMS), Online assessment systems, lecture capture systems and collaboration tools are used for any time anywhere learning experience. These are largely software and digital interventions c) Apply what you learn: These are digitally simulated lab environments that

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

ing away from pure exam preparatory education to applying what they are learning. This can be achieved through digital and simulated lab environments.

As Indian education sector gears for this challenge there are enough rooms for various product and service providers in this space. Low cost of internet connectivity and computing devices like tablets will add to this process.

help you apply what you learn, practice and learn various concepts in arts and science and languages. For instance, digital language labs are great tool to learn and practice English and various other foreign languages.

How do you look at the emerging technologies in this field? What can be the areas of improvement?

Lab environments that facilitate effective use of digital technology to simulate an engaging and interactive experience in a simple and cost effective manner is the way forward. Gamification of elearning content, informal and social learning models, use of lecture capture tools will help generate good amount of institution specific content.

What are the opportunities and challenges faced by the companies offering digital labs?

Opportunities are plenty in this space.

In view of Indian education system, the parents realize the need for mov-

What are the strategies adopted by the vendors to promote their products?

Here in India, the vendors have an uphill task of educating the various stakeholders including decision makers, policy influencers, school systems, teachers, parents and students. Investing in the sustained marketing campaigns, participating in academic conferences, organizing workshops and articulating our thoughts through educational magazines like Digital Learning are some of the ways through which we build awareness.

What distinguishes you from the competitors?

As an organization, we complete twenty five years next year. Our speciality lies in identifying the best-of-breed-solutions from across the globe and introducing them in India after contextualizing their relevance, content, price and packaging to meet local market requirements.

There are several Indian firms that take inspiration from western products and develop versions in a half-baked format ending up as a failure at the cost of time, energy and resources.

Guest Column

Reform Education Sector In 2015 we look forward to a continued impetus on education and sector-specific reforms. The government will need to ensure that quality standards of content and delivery are improved

2

014 has been a year of monumental changes in the Indian polity and expectations from the new government are many.

People will expect the positive sentiment to translate to action and impact on the ground, and that we believe will be a real test of the incumbent government.

For obvious reasons, the education sector has been a priority area for successive years. However, the sector is in need of policy reforms, increased outlays, stringent implementation of existing schemes and most importantly measurement of the efficacy of the work undertaken.

We think that while the Union Budget of 2014 was promising in parts for the education sector, in many ways it was not hugely dissimilar to earlier budgets with no significant increase in outlays. However, it did strike the right notes with the priority accorded to skill development, teacher training (launch of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching) and digitization and innovation in schools. We believe each of these is a critical block in improving learning outcomes in Indian classrooms and contributing to the development of the learner.

Some of the other announcements through 2014 too seem like steps in the right direction, such as plans to increase IITs and IIMs, review of the role of key regulators such as UGC and AICTE and introduction of credit transfer system in Indian universities. The underlying philosophy behind each of these initiatives seems to be that quality education should be made accessible and affordable for learners of all ages. To make this happen, the government will need to ensure that quality standards of content and delivery are improved.

Ranjan Kaul, Managing Director, Oxford University Press India

Some of the other announcements through 2014 too seem like steps in the right direction, such as plans to increase IITs and IIMs, review of the role of key regulators such as UGC and AICTE and introduction of credit transfer system in Indian universities

of students and education fraternity, copyright infringement, piracy and plagiarism of content should be dealt with seriously so that the authors and the publishers are incentivised to produce high-quality and original work for learners.

Digitization in schools: The last few years have been marked by increased digitization of education, mainly in the elite private schools. Across the world the governments have supported digitization of education which has led to better learning outcomes. There should be allocation for digitization in both government and government aided schools, as also in private schools.

Private publishers can then be encouraged to provide interactive digital content to such schools.

Clarity in tax regime The current tax structure for publishers is unclear. It is a long pending demand of publishers to bring about a simplified tax structure around both print and electronic content (e-books). Presently, in some cases service tax is levied on e-books, a holding tax on foreign published journals and no tax is levied on books printed in India. With increased usage of e-books, taxation of e-books and other forms electronic content should be reviewed earnestly.

Learning either in print or through the electronic medium should not be differentiated.

Duty on paper In 2015 we look forward to a continued impetus on education and sector-specific reforms. Some of the measures that the education industry will welcome include: Laws to protect original and authentic content: In the larger interest

A long standing issue has been duty on paper which results in publishers increasing price of books on a frequent basis leading to cost burden on parents of school going children. A reduction in VAT/custom duty on paper shall certainly be a welcome step in 2015.

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

29

Policy News

70% girls drop out

O

nly one girl out of 100 girls, enrolled in Class 1 in the villages, reaches Class 12.

This figure stands at 1.4 in the urban areas. This is tip of an iceberg revealed

by World of India’s Girls, a study formulated by a six-member team of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The report recommends a National Policy for the girl child and calls for a ban on child marriage. A new study about the status of girls in India made some shocking revelations. Titled as World of India’s Girls (WINGS), the brainchild of Save the Children, a NonGovernment Organisation (NGO), the report highlights that 70.2 per cent of girls, enrolled in schools across the country drop out before they finish Class 10.

In short, nine out of 10 girls, enrolled in the schools do not complete their education in India. The report further highlighted that twice as many girls drop out of schools as compared to boys. “The Material for this study was collected from the 2011 census as well as various other micro studies conducted by the government and

other bodies across the world. While we all know that the status of girls in the country needs to improve, the figures in this report clearly show that very little seems to be changing,” said Dr Bindulakshmi.

The report recommends a National Policy for the girl child and calls for a ban on child marriage. A new study about the status of girls in India made some shocking revelations She added that while emphasis was on enrollment of girls in schools, very little was being done to retain them.

“Family pressure and lack of toilets in schools are two major causes for the girls discontinuing their education.

The issue of girls dropping out of school is much more startling at the higher education level,” she added.

Skewed sex ratio

The report stressed on how the skewed child sex ratio is still a major concern in our country. “Due to various reasons, we bear the tragic burden of being a country of disappearing daughters.

The 2011 census revealed a deficit of 7.1 million girls as against boys in the age group of 0-6 years, a sizeable increase from 2001 census (6 million) and 1991 census (4.2 million),” stated the report.

It proved wrong the common notion that ‘poor and uneducated families are more likely to commit female infanticide’. The Muslim community (with lower social and economic indices) has a higher child sex ratio,” states the report.

Implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act in 2009 was applauded across the country but has not yet eliminated the gender inequality from our education system.

Though, the Act definitely helped in larger enrollment of girls in schools across all boards.

According to data provided by the government in 2012, 58 per cent of all private school children in the age group

Price of fee curbs

T

he state’s attempt to regulate school fees will only make getting an education more expensive, a study by the Centre for Civil Society, a Delhi think tank, has found. A paper titled ‘Analysis of School Fee Regulation in India’ by researcher Sajad Santhosh said regulating school fee will muscle out smaller private players and give the bigger and more established institutions monopoly over the market.

The study, published on the think tank’s website, looks at fee regulations imposed on private schools in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Tamil Nadu started regulating fees for private schools in 2010, and associations of private

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

schools are still engaged in a legal battle with the state over the issue.

The study said the state’s intervention in the fee fixing exercise could be seen as a reaction to the demands from some parents to rein in large private schools charging higher fees. It could also be based on an assumption that these are the only types of private schools that exist, which is not the case. “A basic understanding of economics will suffice to explain that artificially keeping prices low would mean there is less competition, which would result in the bigger players dominating the market,” the study said.

Santhosh argued that one of the problems with setting prices at a lower

level is that it creates an entry barrier in the market, leading to a shortage of competition. Existing schools will have to close down because they cannot meet running costs, and/or due to a lack of

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of 6 -14 years were boys. The statistics also revealed that the girls with special needs have lesser access to education than their male counterparts.

“Boys always get a preference over girls. It is a known fact and the trend trickles down even when it comes to children with special needs. It is the country’s cultural influences that should be blamed for such trends,” said Dr Mithu Alur, founder chairperson

of ADAPT (Able Disabled All People Together), an NGO. The report also highlighted rampant prevalence of other social evils including early child marriage and sexual abuse in the country. A study conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2007 showed that 45.3 per cent of the victims were girls.

“This report highlights topics that

demand because of falling quality as a result of lower fees. Another result of the fee regulation is that fewer entrepreneurs will be willing to start schools since it is not profitable, the paper said.

The destruction of the private school ecosystem would mean that a large number of children will be out of school because the government school system will not be able to accommodate them, Santhosh said in the study.

“Thus, while the intention of fee regulation is to decrease cost of education and therefore increase the access to education, the effect is that it creates a supply deficit which in turn ends up reducing the access to education for the very population it had hoped to help,” the paper said. Larger private schools that charge a higher fee will survive but the smaller private schools will not be able to compete with them once their primary source of competition, that is price, is taken out of the equation. This results in a situation where the bigger schools could probably

are known, but the fact that nothing seems to change in these issues over decades is a bigger problem. While working on this report, we gained a lot of insight into the major issues affecting the progress of the girl child in the India,” added Dr Bindulakshmi.

The TISS team made several recommendations in the report. The focus was mainly on making current policies about the girl child stringent..

expand to take in part of the students who are out of school because of the closure of smaller private schools, but at a fee higher than what these students were paying at the smaller schools, it said.

A state school education department official said the government has taken measures to ensure that children of private schools that are closing down can be accommodated in government-run schools. Child rights activists, however, said many parents in the lower-income bracket were unwilling to deny their children an English-medium education in a private school, and that they had come across cases where the parents were willing to keep the children at home rather than send them to a poorly performing government school that lacked infrastructure facilities and teachers. digitalLEARNING / January 2015

33

Event Review

NIIT MathLab

Impact Study Become a Mathlete with NIIT Nguru MathLab- Nationwide Impact Study shows that NIIT MathLab has a positive impact on students’ performance in mathematics

F

ive-time World Champion and NIIT Mind Champion Viswanathan Anand have unveiled the NIIT MathLab Impact study at an event organized in the capital.

A breakthrough initiative based on NCERT curriculum, MathLab Plus by NIIT, a global leader in skills and talent development, aims at making the vital subject of mathematics simpler, easier and fun to learn for school students, resulting in improved performance and proficiency in math results.

The recent NIIT MathLab Impact study, conducted by one of the big four research agencies in 34 schools across 11 states in India to understand the impact of the MathLab both at the quantitative and qualitative levels, highlighted that 20

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

percent of children (and adults) suffer from math anxiety. It has been observed that after introduction of MathLab in schools there were multiple changes among the students as well as teachers, in their approach to Math. MathLab helps to increase interest in the subject, develop logical thinking, improves retention of concepts, decreases fear of math and builds up confidence among students through interactive and collaborative learning. The NIIT MathLab Impact study clearly shows that Class X students from MathLab using schools perform distinctly better in math than students not using MathLab. The efficacy of MathLab was highlighted through a unique theatrical performance titled, Masti ki Math-Shala, wherein performers drew upon daily experiences to demonstrate the importance of math in every sphere of life. Real life situations were masterfully adapted to showcase the significance of mathematics and how NIIT MathLab Plus could help in making this difficult subject simple and

fun. Leading academicians, principals, and teachers from top schools of Delhi and NCR were present during the performance.

On the occasion of the launch of NIIT MathLab Impact Study, GM Viswanathan Anand spoke on how the collaborative nature of MathLab Plus allows seamless integration of creativity, connectivity and problem solving for contextual learning. He shared his personal conviction on how any lesson that is learnt with enjoyment and engagement invariably leads to better results – whether in sports or as demonstrated in the NIIT MathLab Impact Study.

Speaking on the occasion, P Rajendran, executive director, NIIT Limited said, “It is our constant

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a definitive impact of MathLab on math performance across schools in India.”

NIIT Nguru MathLab Plus has been successfully implemented in more than 1500 schools, with over 8000 teachers using the product to teach mathematics to more than 5 lakh endeavor at NIIT, to make education more impactful, interactive and fun filled experience for teachers and students alike. To this end we decided to assess the impact of learning math with NIIT MathLab and the Impact Study results reiterate our belief that MathLab not only makes learning math fun, but also improves the fundamentals of mathematics through enhanced performance and proficiency.”

Five-time World Champion and NIIT Mind Champion Viswanathan Anand said, “With a vision to enable ‘schools of tomorrow’, NIIT’s MathLab Plus ensures that the students get a thorough grasp on the subject, thus laying a foundation to train students to think, analyze and articulate logically. I congratulate NIIT for its MathLab Impact Study that shows

students.

MathLab Plus is all about learning, verifying and visualizing mathematical concepts in a ‘fun’ way through educational aids, interactive tools, computer interface, and guidance from teachers and NIIT experts. It inspires out of the box thinking and provides an opportunity to explore the valuable knowledge with classmates. With the help of MathLab Plus, teachers can make seemingly complex subjects, easy to understand.

MathLab Plus offers multiple teaching and learning aids comprising technology applications, videos, manipulative, measuring instruments, and tables and charts, to schools on the basis of three pillars of imagine, investigate, and interact.

About NIIT Established in 1981, NIIT Limited, a global leader in skills and talent development, offers multi-disciplinary learning management and training delivery solutions to corporations, institutions, and individuals in over 40 countries. NIIT has three main lines of business across the globe- Corporate Learning Group, Skills and Careers Group, and School Learning Group.

NIIT’s learning and talent development solutions, have received widespread recognition globally. The company has been named among the Top 20 Training Outsourcing Companies for the past seven consecutive years by Training Industry, Inc. Further, leading Indian ICT journal Dataquest has conferred upon NIIT the ‘Top Training Company’ award successively for the past 20 years, since the inception of this category.

NIIT Yuva Jyoti Ltd was recognized as the Best Vocational Education and Skill Development initiative at the World Education Summit, 2014.

In recognition of its people-centric policies, which foster an environment of growth and career development, NIIT has been ranked as the 4th Best Company to work for in India 2013-14,

by Great Place to Work Institute.

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

35

Guest Column

Big Date, Bigger Step F ormer US President Lyndon B. Johnson famously said in 1964 that “the answer for all of our national problems, the answer for all the problems of the world, comes down, when you really analyze it, to one single word: education.”

Education is the foundation on which all of society is built and from which it will improve. With the many technological advancements in data sciences being used to better things like the procurement industry or reducing our car insurance premiums, isn’t it time we looked at what they can do for education?

There are essentially two areas where Big Data and data sciences can improve education systems - help the students or help the schools.

Helping Students One thing we are working on right now is the ability to identify at-risk kids inside the educational system. We are doing this by tracking students’ past behaviour across an upwards of 75 different parameters; demerit points, disciplinary records, grades, attendance and so on.

We look back at students with poor performance, or maybe who have evenbeen forced to leave the educational system, and apply machine learning in order to identify correlations in the data. By interrogating those correlations and assigning different weights to the various parameters, we can apply the findings to the general student population and identify, with as high as 90% accuracy, which kids are at-risk – enabling the school or parents to intercept things before they go wrong.

Without machine learning we simply wouldn’t know what attributes to look at or the importance of each. We could guess, of course, but with data science we are able to throw all of that data into the software and then watch as the correlations appear. It also allows us to see the probability of different outcomes– meaning that in a situation where we’ve

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Murali Nadarajah, CEO, Xchanging Malaysia

identified multiple at-risk kids within a school, the school administration can focus their attention on the most susceptible first. That is powerful!

Helping Schools There are loads of different ways to improve a school. If you ask the administrators, it’s with better control. If you ask parents, it’s better teachers. What Big Data and data science are allowing us to do is identify all of the characteristics that actually make a school successful, whether it is control, teachers, principals, standards or something else.

Machine learning looks for the correlations between these attributes in high performing schools, assigning weights to each, and is then able to apply that insight to other schools, determining which are on the right path and which need change. In the old days, parents and administrators would have to rely on reports published annually to tell them the performance of their school.

Now, with data available much more regularly, they can enact change, where needed, a lot sooner.

We can take that insight a step further and not only report on the overall performance of a school but the performance of each individual department. Maybe a school has an average overall perfor-

mance, but is above average in maths and sciences. Why is that? Is it the teacher, the department head, the facilities? By possessing this level of granular insight, other schools can then make changes to improve their own departments.

Currently, Big Data is actually used very little in education. The majority of educational system worldwide is managed and implemented locally or regionally making it hard to gather significant amounts of data across a large number of schools. Thanks to our involvement in one national education project that covers 11 million students, teachers and parents, Xchanging has a particular advantage here. With this massive sample base, we are able to do more analysis in the education sector than any other organisation.

Another big difference with how we are able to approach the issue comes from our software capabilities and partners. Where most companies are only looking at either the students’ academic data or the schools’ administrative data, we are able to capture both. We can gather grades and academic performance along with things like their extracurricular activities and disciplinary points. By combining the academic side with the admin side, we are able to attain a holistic view of the performance of the teachers and students – and thenprovide actionable insight.

Big Data in education has the potential to greatly help both students and schools, but we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. Imagine what this level of insight could mean for our kids going forward; better learning environments, bespoke curricula, increased safety, better fit between students and teachers, and more. It’s an extremely exciting application for Big Data and machine learning, and one that will affect us all. If LBJ is right, and education is the answer to all of the world’s problems, then we should be doing everything we can to make it better!

digitalLEARNING is pleased to announce the School Leadership Summit in New Delhi on January 31, 2015, with the objective of having an open dialouge between various school administrators to make education better in their organisations.

Education in India has embraced internet and technology to reach out to last man, tucked away in a corner. With

the availability of computers, internet, smart classes, digital lab, smartphones, tablets, projectors and many other digital devices, it makes more sense to invest in technology, infrastructure for education to become accessible to all. We need to build mechanisms which can take the wealth of knowledge to the masses.

While we are closer than ever to achieve these objectives, more needs to be done.

Organisers

schoolsummit.eletsonline.com

“Such events lead to the germination of new ideas for creation of healthcare and education solutions that are more affordable and effective” APJ Abdul Kalam Former President of India

SLS 2015

Felicitation Ceremony: The SLS 2015 felicitation ceremony will celebrate and acknowledge top schools featured in our School Ranking issue. Around 800 schools were ranked through rigid parameters across India.

Who will attend?

• Education policy maker.

• Education regulatory bodies, professional association representatives.

• School principals, key management, senior functionaries and global k-12 representatives.

• Education technology providers.

• Leaders of private areas that are actively working in the area of Education.

Sponsorship & Exhibition The one day SLS 2015, which is being attended by many key stake holders in the domain of education will be the ideal place for you to showcase your projects and solutions to the key stakeholders and get noticed.

One good way of demonstrating your innovations and achievements is through exhibition. The whole day exhibition is expected to attract more than 300 schools and education policy makers.

There are wide range of sponsorship packages that you can avail of to catch the attention of the eminent attendees at the SLS 2015. The SLS 2015 is uniquely positioned to deliver maximum benefits for your brand.

“The 21st century is an era of knowledge.

If poverty is to be abolished in this century, it can be abolished only through knowledge” Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

Who Should Exhibit?

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Technology & service providers.

Overseas education agencies.

Test preparation companies.

Career counseling agencies.

International brands looking for tie-ups in India.

Schools/Preschools looking for franchisees.

Education management consultants.

Security/hygiene management services.

Educational toy companies.

Classroom and learning environment suppliers.

Transportation & facilities management companies.

Uniform, stationery, books suppliers and printers.

Exhibition Benefits: • Showcase your products to education industry stakeholders.

• Look for tie-ups and partnerships with institutes.

• Pitch and network with principals, management and government funding bodies.

• Generate new sales leads.

• Expand your business network-leverage your brand identity.

• Raise your profile in the industry and add more business association.

• Discover the latest online retail innovations and trends.

• Strengthen your brand internationally.

• Attract potential investors and strategic partners.

• Meet and establish relationships with potential buyers from around the world.

Leaders @ Our Past Events: Smriti Irani Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India

Usha Padhee Commissionercum-Secretary Department of School & Mass Education, Govt. of Odisha

S. Chockalingam School Education, Govt. of Maharashtra

Past Panelists @ SLS: Ryan Pinto CEO, Ryan International group of Institutions

Shalini Nambiar Director, Excelsior American School, Gurgaon

Archana Sharma Principal, Indus World School, Indore

Ajeeth Prasath Jain Bhavans Rajaji Vidyshram, Chennai

Dr. Tarulata Hirani Executive Director, Ahmedabad International School, Ahmedabad

DR N K DUTTA Principal Miles And Bronson Residential School Guwahati

Jorawar Singh Principal Cambridge International School, Phagwara

Partners @ Our Past Events:

For programme & registration details Seema Gupta seema@elets.in +91-8860651643

For sponsorship & Exhibition details Fahim Haq, fahim@elets.in +91-8860651632 Amit Pundhir amit@elets.in +91-8860635835

SLS secretariat Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd Stellar IT Park, 7A/7B,5th floor Annexe Tower, C-25, Sector 62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201309, India school@digitallearning.in

Powered By

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Learning Practically Corporates are more and more demanding. They look for overall personality, overall grades and ability to think laterally. Dr. N.R. Parasuraman, Director, ​Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development (SDMIMD), Mysore, shares his views with Elets News Network.

How good are Indian MBAs in global market?

In my opinion, the Indian MBAs are among the best in the world. Having said that, I am assuming that the MBA is from a good Institute where academic rigour takes the front seat How good are B-School Institutes from Tier II cities?

There is no reason to believe that MBAs from Tier II cities are in any way inferior.

It all depends on the exposure they have from the academic program and industry interaction.. AS I said earlier, the Institute from where the MBA is got matters a lot.

Emerging trends in campus placements?

Corporates are more and more demanding.

They look for overall personality, overall grades and ability to think laterally. By the same token, students are very intent on the correct profile and a high initial pay.

With all sorts of information about the company and prospects readily available, there is pressure on either side Emerging verticals of Business Administration?

More and more, B-schools are developing courses on sustainability, innovation and corporate social responsibility. These need not be single courses but are sometimes embedded in several modules across courses. Further, some B-schools have started specialized courses on emerging files like hospitality management, logistics management and big data analytics.

Does MBA education provide the professional orientation that is required?

Yes, I think it does. No other course can

give this sort of general coverage, with a pedagogy that is blended with practice MBA Education: Issue, Challenges and Opportunities?

The big macro question is as to how many B-schools are really needed in the country.

Given the changes in the number of aspirants, the overall sector is fraught with uncertainty. That said, the good Institutes will be able to stand out from the rest by their superior pedagogy and facilitates offered for value-based education. With foreign collaborations, there are plenty of opportunities for excellence for the good Institute.

Is it good enough to be an MBA? Should the MBAs specialize?

Personally, I think it is good enough to be a good MBA. The specialization in MBA is more for setting the direction of a career and also for providing an overall focus.

How do corporates assess and

evaluate MBAs for jobs?

Again, this depends on the jobs they are wanting the MBAs to fill. Ideally, they should be looking for smart generalists capable of rising in the corporate ladder Is MOOCs a threat to B-Schools?

Why/Why not?

No, they constitute a different offering.

But for B-schools this is an opportunity for diversifying into a related field Are Indian B-Schools ignoring practical learning?

None of the good B-schools will ignore practice. For instance at SDMIMD, the curriculum and pedagogy will be devised in a way to blend the two together Future of MBA Education in India.

The future looks good, but over a period of time we may have to weed out many Institutes who do not have the necessary infrastructure or expertise to offer quality programs.

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

The digitalLEARNING magazine has brought for your perusal a list of the best institutes from among 3000+ B-schools in India.

Needless to say, it was a mountainous task.

It was our concern for the MBA aspirants that kept us going.

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

45

How We Ranked Them We have ranked 250+ B Schools in the country based on year of establishment , infrastructure, placement, teaching pedagogy, faculty, foreign collaboration and research activities on a scale of AAAA to A, with AAAA being the highest rank on the scale. The public institutes have been ranked based on perception voting and the private institutes have been ranked based on analysis of available data. We have also listed promising institutes in some zones, which have the potential to be in the top league in future.

Ranking methodology Public Institutes: We chose the best public Institutes and Institutes of National Importance in a transparent and democratic manner through public Voting.

We followed two steps Process: Step 1: A List of Top 65 Government –aided (Institutes including IIMs, IITs, NITs and others) was prepared.

Step 2: We eliminated 15 institutes that received lowest number of votes, from list of 65 shortlisted institutes.

Based on Number of votes received by these institutes, we have declared the Top 50 Public B Schools. The Voting Conducted on popular social networking sites got any amazing response of 12,626 unique votes. Among the voters there were 9,975 students and Alumni; 1,037 teachers and academics; 839 people representing coaching centres and 775 undergraduates.

Private Institutes: To gather maximum available information about any institute and ensure its credibility, we followed a three step approach: Step 1: We analyzed the past years ranking conducted by

various organization in the Best B Schools in India country. We filtered the list to Zone Wise B Schools detail eliminate colleges not ranked by Zone Central State Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh any organization in the previous Government Institutes ranking. Further those institutes Categories Private Institutes which featured only once in Promising Institutes Zone East any of these ranking were State Cluster 1 Assam, Jharkhand & Meghalaya eliminated.

Categories

Step 2: We visited official website of 2,000+ institutes and private universities to get information such as Year of Establishment , Infrastructure, Placement, Teaching Pedagogy, Faculty, Foreign Collaboration and Research Activities. For UGC / AICTE affiliated institute, we got most of the information from the mandatory disclosure in their official website.

However, the challenge was that most institutes did not have the updated disclosure on their website.

We also studied the student reviews in some of the education portals to get a better understanding about Institution we have ranked.

Step 3: We also asked B Schools across the country to send us the filled Questionnaire in a given format. Only 217 institutes reverted with filled questionnaire in a given deadline.Simultaneaosly, we were able to gather complete Information of 1,250 odd colleges, out of the List of 3,000+ colleges that we had targeted.

State Cluster 2 Categories

Zone State Cluster 1 Categories

State Cluster 2 Categories

State Cluster 3 Categories State Cluster 4 Categories

Zone State Cluster 1 Categories

State Cluster 2 Categories

State Cluster 3 Categories Zone State Cluster 1 Categories

State Cluster 1 Categories

Government Institutes Private Institutes Odisha, Tripura & West Bengal Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes North

Himachal Pradesh & Uttrakhand Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes Punjab & Haryana Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes New Delhi Government Institutes Private Institutes Uttar Pradesh Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes South Kerela & Tamil Nadu Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes Karnataka Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes Andhra Pradesh & Telengana Government Institutes Private Institutes West Maharashtra, Goa & Gujarat Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes Rajasthan Government Institutes Private Institutes Promising Institutes

Total Number of Ranked Institutes- 250+

The ranking team was led by Amit Kumar Pundhir and data support was provided by digitalLEARNING Information Managment Team.

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

21 21 4 15 2 29 10 5 5 19 5 11 3 85 9 3 5 1 17 2 14 1 16 5 11 43 6 35 2 97 40 5 32 3 30 3 25 2 25 3 22 48 36 7 26 3 12 2 9 1

Top

50

Government B-schools A Perception-based Survey

Public Institutes

Name of Institute

City   

Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management IIM-A Agri Business Management (ABM) IIM-L Agri Business Management (ABM) Indian Institute of Science Indian Institute of Technology National Institute of Industrial Engineering Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Ahmedabad Kolkata Bengaluru Lucknow Delhi Mumbai Delhi Chennai Kozhikode Indore Ahmedabad Lucknow Bengaluru Kanpur Mumbai Kharagpur Delhi

National Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management

Shillong Rohtak Raipur Ranchi

18 19 20 21

Indian Institute of Technology Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Indian Institute of Management Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management ABV- Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Pondicherry University National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management Delhi School of Management, Delhi Technological University Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Education

Roorkee Kashipur Udaipur Tiruchirapulli Udupi Mumbai Kolkata Gwalior Puducherry Hyderabad Delhi Allahabad Mumbai

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

Department of Management Studies Anna University National Institute of Technology National Institute of Technology Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune Guru Gobind Singh IP University Faculty of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University Indian School of Mines School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad National Institute of Technology Malaviya National Institute of Technology Pt Ravishankar Shukla University North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology University of Lucknow University Business School, Punjab University Himachal Pradesh University Business School Department of Business Administration, Assam University

Chennai Warangal Durgapur Pune Delhi Varanasi Dhanbad Hyderabad Rourkela Jaipur Raipur Nirjuli Lucknow Chandigarh Shimla Silchar

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

47

Best B-schools in Central India Central India is home to some of the best institutes in the country. Indian Institute of Management (Indore), Pt Ravishankar Shukla University are known for their academic excellence.

AISECT has established itself as India’s largest education, skill development, services and e-governance network. With 12,000 centres across 27 States and 3 Union Territories, AISECT has transformed the lives of millions of people at the grass root level. Its sustained efforts have earned praises from ‘World Bank’, ‘World Economic Forum’, ‘NASSCOM’

Madhya Pradesh Government Institutes Name of Institute

City

Rank Based on Public Choice

ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management

Gwalior

29

Indian Institute of Management

Indore

10

Indian Institute of Management

Raipur

20

Pt Ravishankar Shukla University

Raipur

45

Promising Institutes Name of Institute

City

School of Management, Jagaran Lakecity University

Bhopal

Universal Business School

Raigad

Private Institutes Name of Institute

City

digitalLEARNING Ranking

Acropolis Institute of Technology and Research

Indore

A+

AISECT University

Bhopal

AAA+

CH Institute of Management and Commerce

Indore

A+

Chameli Devi Group Of Institutions

Indore

A+

Disha Institute of Management and Technology

Raipur

AA

Gyan Ganga Institute of Technology and Management

Bhopal

A+

Institute of Business Management and Research, IPS Academy

Indore

AA+

Institute of Professional Education Research

Bhopal

AA

ITM School of Business

Gwalior

A+

Jain College

Gwalior

AA

Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies

Indore

AA

Prestige Institute of Management

Dewas

A+

Prestige Institute of Management

Gwalior

AA

Prestige Institute of Management and Research

Indore

AA+

Sanghvi Institute of Management and Science

Indore

A+

Institute names are given in alphabetical order *digitalLEARNING Ranking

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Case Study

IIM Indore Conference

live online via WizIQ

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

49

Best B-schools in East India The region comprises of states rich in ethnic cultural heritage with linguistic diversity. The region has some of the best educational institutions in the country.

Assam, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh & Meghalaya Government Institutes Name of Institute Department of Business Administration, Assam University Indian Institute of Management Indian School of Mines North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management

Private Institutes City Silchar

Rank Based on Public Choice 50

Ranchi

21

Dhanbad

41

Nirjuli

46

Shillong

18

Name of Institute

City

digitalLEARNING Ranking

Birla Institute of Technology

Ranchi

AAAA

Department of Business Administration, Tezpur University

Tezpur

AA+

Institute of Science and Management

Ranchi

AAA+

Xavier Institute of Social Service

Ranchi

AAAA

Jamshedpur

AAAA

XLRI

Founded in 1949 by Fr Quinn Enright, SJ in the steel city of Jamshedpur, the Xavier School of Management (XLRI) offers global MBA programme, one-of-akind in the world, in partnership with the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University (USA) and Tongji University (China) Institute names are given in alphabetical order *digitalLEARNING Ranking

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

Odisha, Tripura & West Bengal Government Institutes City

Rank Based on Public Choice

Indian Institute of Management

Kolkata

2

Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management

Kolkata

28

National Institute of Technology

Rourkela

43

National Institute of Technology

Durgapur

37

Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology

Kharagpur

16

Name of Institute

Private Institutes Name of Institute

City

digitalLEARNING Ranking

Army Institute of Management

Kolkata

AA+

Centre for Management Studies, JIS College of Engineering

Kalyani

A+

Centre For Management Studies, Orissa Engineering College

Bhubaneswar

Heritage Business School

Kolkata

A+

ICFAI University

Tripura

A+

Institute of Management Study

Kolkata

A+

Institute of Professional Studies & Research

Cuttack

AA+

Integral Institute Of Advanced Management (IIAM)

AA+

AAA+

KIIT School of Management

Bhubaneswar

NSHM Knowledge Campus

Kolkata

Xavier Institute of Management

Bhubaneswar

AAA

Promising Institutes Name of Institute

City

International Management Institute

Bhubaneswar

Jagannath Institute of Technology & Management, Centurion University

Paralakhemundi

School of Management, Centurion University of Technology and Management

Odisha

Founded in 1987, the Xavier Institute of Management, (Bhubaneswar) provides training, action research and consulting services in the field of development. All the programmes of the institute are approved by All India Council for Technical education (AICTE) and encircled by such top notch firms as Satyam Computers, STPI, Nalco, Posco, CYSD etc.

AA AAAA

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

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Best B-schools in North India North India is an educational hub comprising of several universities and centres of excellence. The MBA aspirants make a beeline to earn places in these institutions.

Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand Government Institutes City

Rank Based on Public Choice

Shimla

49

Indian Institute of Management

Kashipur

23

Indian Institute of Technology

Roorkee

22

Name of Institute Himachal Pradesh University Business School

Private Institutes City

National Rank*

Dehradun Institute of Technology

Dehradun

AA

Doon Business School

Dehradun

A+

ICFAI University

Dehradun

A+

Institute of Management Studies

Dehradun

AA

Tula’s Institute, The Engineering and Management College

Dehradun

A+

Name of Institute

Promising Institutes Haryana & Punjab Government Institutes

Name of Institute

City

Quantum School of Business

Roorkee

Rank Based on Public Choice

Name of Institute

City

Indian Institute of Management

Rohtak

19

University Business School, Panjab University

Chandigarh

48

Private Institutes National Rank*

City

IBS Business School

Gurgaon

AA+

KIIT College of Engineering

Gurgaon

AA

Lingayas University

Faridabad

AA

Lovely Professional University

Phagwara

AAA+

Management Development Institute

Gurgaon

AAAA

Panipat Institute of Engineering and Technology

Panipat

A+

Skyline Business School

Gurgaon

AA

University School of business, Chandigarh University

Mohali

AA+

Name of Institute

City

Bhai Gurdas Institute of Management and Technology

Sangrur

Biju Patnaik Institute of Information Technology & Management Studies

Bathinda

Chitkara Business School

Chandigarh

A+

Faculty of Management Studies, Manav Rachna International University

Faridabad

AA+

Gian Jyoti Institute of Management and Technology

Mohali

AA

Name of Institute

GNA Institute of Management and Technology

Phagwara

A+

Baba Farid College of Management & Technology

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A+

AA+

National Rank*

Name of Institute

Promising Institutes City Bathinda

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

DELHI Government Institutes Name of Institute

City

Rank Based on Public Choice

Delhi School of Management, Delhi Technological University

Delhi

32

Department of Management Studies, IIT

Delhi

7

Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi

Delhi

5

Guru Gobind Singh IP University

Delhi

39

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Delhi

17

University School of Management Studies (USMS) is one of the most forward looking and innovative oncampus School of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU). The school follows a pedagogy designed to prepare the students for a challenging corporate environment. Emphasis is on interactive learning and handling the sophisticated electronic media/computer aided tools, technologies.

DELHI Private Institutes Name of Institute

City

National Rank*

Bharati Vidyapeeth's Institute of Management and Research

Delhi

AAA

Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research

Delhi

AA

Fore School Of Management

New Delhi

AAA+

Fortune Institute of International Business

New Delhi

AA+

FOSTIIMA Business School

Delhi

A+

International Management Institute

Delhi

AAAA

Jagan Institute of Management Studies, Rohini

New Delhi

AA+

Jagannath International Management School, Kalkaji

Delhi

AA

Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management

Delhi

AA+

New Delhi Institute of Management

Delhi

AA+

Skyline Business School

Delhi

AA+

International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi is India’s first corporate sponsored business school with sponsorship from corporate houses like RPG Enterprises, Nestle, ITC, SAIL, Tata Chemicals, BOC and Williamson Magor etc. Its flagship two year Post Graduate Programme in Management has a student exchange programme with various European Schools.

Institute names are given in alphabetical order *digitalLEARNING Ranking digitalLEARNING / January 2015

53

Best B-schools in Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh has several institutes up the list of the best B-schools in India. Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and IMT (Ghaziabad) are among the most sought after institutions in the country

Uttar Pradesh Government Institutes

Private Institutes City

Rank Based on Public Choice

Faculty of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi

40

IIM-L Agri Business Management (ABM)

Lucknow

12

Indian Institute of Management

Lucknow

4

Kanpur

14

Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology

Allahabad

33

University of Lucknow

Lucknow

47

Name of Institute

Indian Institute of Technology

Private Institutes National Rank*

National Rank*

Name of Institute

City

Institute of Management Studies

Noida

Institute of Management Studies

Ghaziabad

AAA+

Institute of Management Technology

Ghaziabad

AAAA

Institute of Productivity and Management

Ghaziabad

AAA

Institute of Technology and Science

Ghaziabad

AA

International Institute for Special Education (IISE)

Lucknow

AAA

ITS Management and IT Institute

Ghaziabad

AA+

Jaipuria Institute of Management

Noida

AA

Jaipuria Institute of Management

Ghaziabad

AA+

Jaipuria Institute of Management

Lucknow

AA+

Maharishi Institute of Management

Noida

AA+

NIMT Greater Noida

Greater Noida

AA+

NIMT Institute of Hospital & Pharma Management

Greater Noida

AA+

NIMT Institute of Technology & Management

Ghaziabad

AA

School of Management, Bharat Institute Of Technology

Meerut

AA

School of Management, Krishna Institute Of Engineering and Technology

Ghaziabad

AA+

AA

Name of Institute

City

Accurate Institute of Management & Technology

Greater Noida

Amity Business School, Amity University

Noida

AAA+

Anand Engineering College

Agra

AA

BDS Institute of Management

Meerut

AA

Department of Management Studies, SRM University

Ghaziabad

AA+

Disha Institute of Science & Technology

Dhampur

A+

DIT School of Business

Greater Noida

A+

GL Bajaj Institute of Management and Research

Greater Noida

AA+

Sharda University

Greater Noida

A+

GLA University

Mathura

AA+

Greater Noida

AA

Greater Noida Institute of Technology

Greater Noida

Shri Ram Institute of Management and Technology (SIMT)

AA

United Institute of Management

A+

Hindustan Institute of Management & Computer Studies

Greater Noida

Mathura

AA

United Institute of Management

Allahabad

AA

IIMT College of Management

Greater Noida

A+

Promising Institutes

Indian Institute of Finance

Greater Noida

AA+

AA

Institute of Advanced Management and Research

Ghaziabad

A+

Institute of Management Education

Sahibabad

AA+

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Name of Institute

City

JRE Group of Institutions

Greater Noida

Shri Ram Murti Smarak International Business School

Lucknow

Institute names are given in alphabetical order *digitalLEARNING Ranking

KNOWLEDGE

EXCHANGE, JAIPUR Higher Education

Best B-schools in West India West India is dotted with the best B-schools in the country. Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), among the best in the world, falls in this region only.

Gujarat & Maharashtra Government Institutes Private Institutes

Name of Institute

City

Rank Based on Public Choice

IIM-A Agri Business Management (ABM)

Ahmedabad

11

Indian Institute of Management

Ahmedabad

1

Institute of Business Studies and Research

Navi Mumbai

AA

Pune

38

Institute of Management, Nirma University

Ahmedabad

AAA+

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies

Mumbai

27

Institute of Rural Management

Anand

AAA+

National Institute of Industrial Engineering

Mumbai

15

Navi Mumbai

AAA

Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay

Mumbai

6

Pune

AAA

Mumbai

AAA+

Pune

AAA

Nashik

AA+

Pune

AAA+

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies

Mumbai

AAAA

Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research

Mumbai

AAAA

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research

Mumbai

AAAA

Sterling Institute of Management Studies

Navi Mumbai

AA

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management

Pune

AAAA

Mumbai

A+

Name of Institute

Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune

Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education

Mumbai

34

ITM Business School Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research MAEER’s MIT School of Business Mahatma Gandhi Vidyamandir's Institute Of Management and Research

Private Institutes

National Rank*

City

City

National Rank*

Amrutvahini Institute of Management And Business Administration

Sangamner

AAA

Balaji Institute of Management and Human Resource Development

Tathawade

A+

Pune

AA+

Tathawade

AA

Navi Mumbai

AAA

Dr VN Bedekar Institute of Management Studies

Thane

AAA

Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Management & Research

Pune

AA+

Promising Institutes

Vidyanagar

AA

Name of Institute

City

FLAME School of Business

Pune

A+

Akemi Business School

Pune

Goa Institute of Management

Goa

AA+

Global Institute of Management

IES Management College and Research Centre

Mumbai

AA+

Universal Business School

Name of Institute

Balaji Institute of Modern Management Balaji Institute of Telecom & Management Bharati Vidyapeeth's Institute of Management and Research

Faculty of Management, Ganpat University

MIT School of management (MITSOM)

YMT College of Management

Gandhinagar Mumbai

Institute names are given in alphabetical order *digitalLEARNING Ranking

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Institute of Rural Management (Jaipur), established by The Society for Indian Institute of Rural Management (SIIRM), is a contemporary, smart, innovative institution and a leading research-led B-school established in 1994. It has traversed a long path to earn an enviable name in India and abroad.

Rajasthan Government Institutes

Private Institutes City

Rank Based on Public Choice

Udaipur

24

Jaipur

44

Name of Institute Indian Institute of Management Malaviya National Institute of Technology

Private Institutes

National Rank*

NIMT Institute of Agri Business & Rural Management

Jaipur

AA+

School of Business and Management, Jaipur National University

Jaipur

A+

Taxila Business School

Jaipur

AA

Chittorgarh

AA

Vision School Of Management City

National Rank*

Department of Management Studies, Jodhpur Institute of Engineering & Technology (JIET)

Jodhpur

AA+

Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR)

Jaipur

AA+

Institute of Rural Management

Jaipur

AAA

International School of Business Management, Suresh Gyan Vihar University

Jaipur

AA

Jagan Institute of Management Studies

Jaipur

A+

Name of Institute

City

Name of Institute

Promising Institutes Name of Institute

City

Management Studies, Career Point University

Kota

Indian Institute of Management Udaipur (IIM) is among the six new IIMs, the Indian government decided to start in 2009. The premier institution has a number of partnerships with several internationally reputed universities in Europe, North America and Asia.

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

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Best B schools in South India Known for rich cultural heritage, South India is also a popular Business school hub, which attracts students from all over the country and abroad. It is an ideal place for the students aspiring to be management graduates

Kerala & Tamil Nadu Government Institutes

Private Institutes

Name of Institute

Rank Based on Public Choice

City

Name of Institute

National Rank*

City

Indian Institute of Management

Kozhikode

9

KCT Business School

Coimbatore

A+

Pondicherry University

Puducherry

30

Kodai International Business School

Kodaikanal

AA

Department of Management Studies Anna University

Chennai

35

Chennai

AAA+

Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras

Loyola Institute of Business Administration

Chennai

8

MOP Vaishnav College for Women

Chennai

AA+

Tiruchirapulli

25

PSG Institute of Management

Coimbatore

AAA+

Cochin

A+

Satyamanglam

AA+

School of Management, Hindustan Institute of Science and Technology

Chennai

AAA

School of Management, Sri Krishna College of Engineering

Coimbatore

AA+

Salem

AA+

SSN School of Management and Computer Application

Kalavakkam

AA

Thiagarajar School of Management

Thirupparankundram

AAAA

TKM Institute of Management

Kollam

AAA

Vel Tech Dr Rangrajan Dr Sakunthala Technical University

Chennai

AA

Velammal Institute of Technology

Chennai

A+

Vinayaka Mission's Kirupananda Variyar Engineering College

Salem

AA+

VIT Business School

Vellore

AAA

Indian Institute of Management

Rajagiri Centre for Business Studies

Private Institutes City

National Rank*

Adhiyamaan College of Engineering

Hosur

AA+

Alagappa Institute of Management

Alagappa

AAA

Coimbatore

AAA

Chennai

AA+

Bharathidasan Institute of Management

Tiruchirapulli

AAA+

DC School of Management and Technology

Pullikkanam

AA

Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology

Tiruchirapulli

AAA+

Department of Management Studies, SRM University

Chennai

AA+

Name of Institute

Amrita School of Business Asan Institute Of Management

School of Management Studies, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology

Sona School of Management

Department of Master of Business Administration, Jayam College of Engineering and Technology

Dharampuri

AA

GRD Institute Of Management

Coimbatore

AAA+

Great Lakes Institute of Management

Chennai

AA

GRG School of Management Studies

Coimbatore

AA+

Institute for Financial Management and Research

Chennai

AAA+

ITM Business School

Chennai

AA+

Erode Builder Educational Trust's Group of Institutions

Kangayam

Coimbatore

AA+

Sri Krishna Institute of Management Centre for Excellence in Management Education

Coimbatore

Karunya School of Business, Leadership and Management, Karunya University

Promising Institutes Name of Institute

City

Sri Sai Ram Institute of Management Studies

Chennai

Institute names are given in alphabetical order

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Karnataka Government Institutes City

Rank Based on Public Choice

Indian Institute of Management

Bengaluru

3

Indian Institute of Science

Bengaluru

13

Udupi

26

Name of Institute

Indian Institute of Management

TAPMI is among the best institutes of India. TAPMI, Manipal, has embarked upon investing one crore rupees in a state of the art finance lab. The world class finance lab will be equipped with Bloomberg terminals and supported by data fed from BSE and NSE.

Private Institutes Private Institutes

City

National Rank*

Acharya Bangalore B-School

Bengaluru

A+

Name of Institute

City

Acharya Institute of Management and Sciences

National Rank*

Bengaluru

AA+

Presidency College

Bengaluru

AA

Don Bosco Institute of Technology

Bengaluru

AA

Hubli

AA

Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research

Bengaluru

AAA+

IBS Business School

Bengaluru

AA+

Indus Business Academy

Bengaluru

AA

Sambhram Academy of Management Studies

Bengaluru

AA+

Institute for Technology and Management

Bengaluru

AA+

Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development

Mysore

AAA+

Institute of Finance and International Management

Bengaluru

AA+

Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development

Mysore

AA+

International Institute of Business Studies (IIBS)

Bengaluru

AA

Siddaganga Institute of Technology

Tumkur

AA+

T.A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI)

Manipal

AAAA

Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management

Udupi

AA

The Oxford College of Engineering

Bengaluru

AA

Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies

Harihar

AAA

Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship

Bengaluru

AAA+

Kousali Institute of Management Studies, Karnataka University

Dharwad

AAA+

Promising Institutes

M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Management

Bengaluru

AAA

Name of Institute

National School of Business

Bengaluru

AA

Name of Institute

Global Business School

PES Institute of Technology and Management

Shimoga

A+

PES University

Bengaluru

AAA+

City

Alliance School of Business

Bengaluru

Krupanidhi School of Management

Bengaluru

School of Management, Centurion University of Technology and Management

Odisha

*digitalLEARNING Ranking digitalLEARNING / January 2015

59

Best B schools in South India Andhra Pradesh & Telengana Government Institutes City

Rank Based on Public Choice

National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management

Hyderabad

31

School of Management Studies, University of Hyderabad

Hyderabad

42

National Institute of Technology

Warangal

36

Name of Institute

Private Institutes

Private Institutes City

National Rank*

Visakhapatnam

AA+

Name of Institute AQJ Centre For PG Studies

The Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), Hyderabad, is a non-profit educational society established in 1964. Recognized as a “Centre of Excellence� by the ICSSR, MoHRD, it is the founder member of the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS).

City

National Rank*

Institute of Public Enterprise

Hyderabad

AAAA

Hyderabad

AAA+

Name of Institute

Badruka College Post Graduate Centre

Hyderabad

AAA

R.G. Kedia College Of Commerce (Business Management)

Chaitanya Postgraduate College

Warangal

AA+

Ronald Ross P.G. College

Hyderabad

AA+

CMR Institute of Technology

Hyderabad

AA

David Memorial Institute of Management

Hyderabad

AAA+

School of Management Studies, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology

Hyderabad

AA+

Department of MBA, Bhoj Reddy Engineering College for Women

Hyderabad

AA

Secunderabad

AA+

Dhruva College of Management

Hyderabad

AAA

St.Joseph's Degree & PG College

Hyderabad

AA+

Gitam Institute of Management, GITAM University

Visakhapatnam

AAA

Vaagdevi Institute of Technology & Science

Kadapa

AA

Holy Mary Business School

Hyderabad

AAA

IBS Business School

Hyderabad

AAA+

Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management

Hyderabad

AAA

Indian Institute of Management & Commerce

Hyderabad

AAA+

Visakha Institute For Professional Studies

Visakhapatnam

AA+

Indian School of Business

Hyderabad

AAA

Warangal Institute of Management

Warangal

AA+

Siva Sivani institute of Management

*digitalLEARNING Ranking

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Private B Schools Keeping in view India’s unmatched growth in the field of management education sector, we have analysed the data based on various parameters and we have also studied online student reviews on different education portals to take an informed decision.

Name of Institute

City

National Rank

Jamshedpur

1

Birla Institute of Technology

Ranchi

2

Xavier Institute of Social Service

Ranchi

3

Thirupparankundram

4

Hyderabad

5

Management Development Institute

Gurgaon

6

Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research

Mumbai

7

Pune

8

Ghaziabad

9

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research

Mumbai

10

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies

Mumbai

11

Delhi

12

Manipal

13

Bhubaneswar

14

PSG Institute of Management

Coimbatore

15

David Memorial Institute of Management

Hyderabad

16

Chennai

17

PES University

Bengaluru

18

R.G. Kedia College Of Commerce (Business Management)

Hyderabad

19

Indian Institute of Management & Commerce

Hyderabad

20

Kousali Institute of Management Studies, Karnataka University

Dharwad

21

Lovely Professional University

Phagwara

22

Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research

Bengaluru

23

Tiruchirapulli

24

Anand

25

Loyola Institute of Business Administration

Chennai

26

AISECT University

Bhopal

27

Ahmedabad

28

XLRI

Thiagarajar School of Management Institute of Public Enterprise

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Institute of Management Technology

International Management Institute T.A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) Xavier Institute of Management

Institute for Financial Management and Research

Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology Institute of Rural Management

Institute of Management, Nirma University

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January 2015 / digitalLEARNING

Top

60 Best Private B Schools

Name of Institute Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Institute for Management Development

City

National Rank

Mysore

29

New Delhi

30

Mumbai

31

GRD Institute Of Management

Coimbatore

32

Bharathidasan Institute of Management

Tiruchirapulli

33

Hyderabad

34

Amity Business School, Amity University

Noida

35

Institute of Science and Management

Ranchi

36

Visakhapatnam

37

Pune

38

Institute of Management Studies

Ghaziabad

39

Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship

Bengaluru

40

Kollam

41

Coimbatore

42

Dr VN Bedekar Institute of Management Studies

Thane

43

Institute of Rural Management

Jaipur

44

Ghaziabad

45

Navi Mumbai

46

Chennai

47

Pune

48

Lucknow

49

Navi Mumbai

50

Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies

Harihar

51

Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies

Pune

52

Hyderabad

53

Delhi

54

Alagappa

55

Holy Mary Business School

Hyderabad

56

KIIT School of Management

Bhubaneswar

57

Vellore

58

Amrutvahini Institute of Management And Business Administration

Sangamner

59

M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Management

Bengaluru

60

Fore School Of Management KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research

IBS Business School

Integral Institute Of Advanced Management (IIAM) MIT School of management (MITSOM)

TKM Institute of Management Amrita School of Business

Institute of Productivity and Management Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Management and Research School of Management, Hindustan Institute of Science and Technology MAEER’s MIT School of Business International Institute for Special Education (IISE) ITM Business School

Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Management and Research Alagappa Institute of Management

VIT Business School

digitalLEARNING / January 2015

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Special Feature

Station-e Digital Labs:

Ushering in English in Scientific Way A cross the world, there is a growing contradiction of rising unemployment rates and the shortage of skilled workforce. On the one hand, the educated unemployed are turning every job search engine upside down to look for a silver lining. On the other hand, employers increasingly find it difficult to identify the skilled youth with the right skills set who can be handed over the baton.

Education system across the world continues to provide degree holders who have degrees but the requisite competence and skills are an area of concern. To make matters worse, the world order is defined by knowledge and skills in consonance with the 21st century. It is aptly articulated in Strategic and Implementation Framework for Skills Development in India by FICCI: “Knowledge is the engine that drives the growth of an economy. In order to remain competitive, all countries and organizations have to attract human resources with new and innovative skills. However, availability of skilled manpower is becoming a challenge. The world is entering a phase, which is expected to witness an unparalleled shortage of skills.

In developed countries, the ageing population and retirement of baby boomers will have a significant impact on countries’ capability to manage workforce quantity, quality and costs.

Despite high unemployment rate, employers are facing difficulty in finding the right match for the jobs. According to the survey conduct by Manpower Group (US), one in three employers in the world is experiencing difficulty in filling job positions.”

This is the global scenario and skills crunch is a global issue. But in the case of a country that prides on its ‘demographic dividend’ and wishes to transform this ‘demographic dividend’ into the magical solution of economic crisis, it is a much greater challenge. India

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has long been touted as the youngest country in the world and its youth is deemed the treasure for the country. But when one studies the unemployment rates, it is alarming to learn about how Indian youths are also finding it difficult to participate in globalized world. One of the major barriers to their participation is their ability to articulate themselves in English. Where do we stand in this regard?

The report further addresses the issue: “On other hand, India has the distinct advantage of having one of the youngest populations in the world. The country has a very large pool of young Englishspeaking people and has the potential to meet the skill needs of other countries and also cater to its own demand for skilled manpower. Ironically, most industries in India are currently struggling with scarcity of skilled labor. Although more than 40 million people are registered in employment exchanges, 0.2 million people get jobs. This is because the current education system does not train young people in employable skills that will open up immediate employment opportunities for them. Today, a large section of India’s labor force has outdated skills. With current and expected economic growth, this challenge is going to only increase further, since more than 75% of new employment opportunities are expected to be skill-based.

However, to make this exercise a success, India has many lessons to learn and implement from international practices -as compared to 75% of Germany’s, 68% of UK’s skilled workforce, India can only account for 2%. Therefore, far-reaching and deep rooted reforms are urgently needed if it wants to emulate countries, whose vocational education and training systems has been successful.”

It has been believed for a very long time that India has the largest Englishspeaking pool in the world. But that may not be an accurate estimate as against the rising demand for the same. David Graddol explains: “The rewards of investing in English depend in great measure on how many other countries are now teaching English to their youth. In China, elsewhere in Asia, in Latin America, across Europe and many

other places, English is now seen as a new ‘basic skill’ which all children require if they are to fully participate in 21stcentury civil society.

India speaks English. At least that is what most of the world imagines. Only a few years ago, north America and Europe discovered that India could provide lowcost back office and call centre facilities.

It looked as if India was finally able to ‘monetise’ its British colonial legacy. The English language appears to be the key ingredient in a new, IT-enabled, economy which is everywhere transforming Indian society. But as the Indian economy grows, exhausting its English-speaking ‘talent pool’, some people are beginning to think that perhaps not enough people in India speak English after all.”

To put it in perspective, David Graddol wrote this a few years back and the demand for English is accentuated even further in the past few years.

Station-e Digital Labs Station-e is a chain of Digital labs, spread across the country and scientifically designed and customized to the core for proficiency in English at all levels. Station-e Language Lab is different as it is not 25 PCs stationed in cubicles but a cozy lab with flexi tools for listening and recording,

Dr Haresh Tank Dr. Haresh Tank is Director, Station-e Language Lab. In the capacity of Director, he is in charge of conceptualizing and operationalizing initiatives with a special focus on Skills Development.

He holds a doctorate in Statistics and is a noted Statistical Analyst.

He was also nominated for Young Scientist Award. With a passion for teaching and contributing to the society, he continues to serve as Associate Professor in Statistics. As a Director, Station-e Language Lab, he has initiated several projects in the realm of Skills Development with Government and private companies. In addition, Dr. Tank is serving as Vice Chairman, CII, Western Gujarat Zonal Council.

playing back the audio video files on the plazma TV and a host of technologydefined ways of learning. The course material provided to learners is designed by nationally acclaimed experts in the field and advanced technology is integrated into the activity-based and learner-centric modules of language learning.

In the language labs at Station-e, we have evolved a technology based model of language learning to address the diverse requirements of the scores of people who aspire to communicate in fluent English. Till now, Station-e has lent material shape to the dream of attaining communication proficiency of over 100000 learners across the 30 Centres in the country.

Station-e as the New Model of Digital Labs Station-e marks a new era in the realm of English training because it is a nongovernment initiative but also an effective and novel innovation. It is a new window that opens to the world of corporatization and professionalization of training and teaching of English. No longer can we afford to look up to the governments for the language training solutions; it is time to usher in corporate, NGOs and form public-private partnerships wherever need be. 19th century mindset, processes and solutions have not helped and will not help. We need 21st century solutions for 21st century demand for proficiency in English for the youngest country in the world. Station-e is a phenomenon, a landmark and a model of how to go about it. We have done our bit; we have led the way and shown the direction. The path to scientific way of language learning has been constructed by the concerted and sustained efforts by Station-e. In this world increasingly defined and re-defined soft skills such as communication skills, Station-e is a model of language training, designed in a customized way, devised with the ICT tools at their sophisticated best and delivered with human excellence. If implemented throughout India, Station-e model of Digital Labs cum Skills Development Centres can transform the skills development landscape in the country.

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BFSI

Leadership Summit & Awards 2015

3rd February 2015, Vivanta By Taj-President, Mumbai

A business efficient banking model with progressive intervention of government and regulator needs to be promoted to overcome this challenge and garner the opportunity of optimum utilization of technology for easing the banking processes as well as baking the unbanked. eGov BFSI Leadership Summit resonates with this thought and brings on one platform the four pillars of Indian Banking vis-à-vis Government, Regulator, Banker and Industry for deliberations on growth of banking industry in India.

Key Speakers at our Past Banking Events

Dr C Rangarajan Former Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Govt. of India

Anurag Jain Joint Secretary, Minister of State for Finance, Government of India

Mohammad Abdul Mannan Managing Director, Islami Bank Bangladesh

R ChandraShekar Former Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, Government of India

Rakesh Sethi Executive Director, Union Bank of India

Pulak Sinha General Manager (Payment Solutions), State Bank of India

Anil Swarup Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India

Dr Deepali Pant Joshi Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India

K K Jalan Central PF Commissioner, EPFO, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India

Dr Neeraj Mittal Joint Secretary (Marketing), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India

Abizer Diwanji Partner and National Leader, Financial Services – Ernst & Young

Rajeev Agarwal Secretary, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Government of India

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Anshula Kant Deputy Managing Director, State Bank of India

P S Rawat Exe cutive Director, Canara Bank

Our Past Corporate Partners

Shubhalaxmi Panse Former Chairperson & Managing Director, Allahabad Bank

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Ishtiaque Ahmed Chowdhury Managing Director, Trust Bank

...and more

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eGov BFSI Leadership Awards 2015

The eGov BFSI Leadership Awards recognizes the innovations and initiatives across the banking, financial services and insurance industry. The awards will also felicitate the exemplary work done by Government and industry towards the growth of banking and financial services across India.

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Award Categories

BFSI Categories Insurance through Remote Sensing Best Claim Settlement process Best Roll in Monthly pay system Cash On Mobile Direct Banking Best Branchless banking Best Kiosk Implementation Green Remit card Best Alternate payment option for all Best Banking provided to urban and rural areas Biometric ATM Implementation Best Online payment Solutions Best Phone Banking for end user Best Internet portfolio Management Best Access to Banking and Financial Services Best Financial Inclusion Imitative

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IT & Technology Categories d Best Mobile Application Development platform d Best security solution for Banks d Financial Inclusion through Business Innovation d Best Security solution for (NBFC, MFI, Stock exchange etc) d Best solution for high performance storage for BFSI d Best Solution for high performance computing for BFSI d Best solution for high performance networking for BFSI d Best Solution for cards in BFSI d Best Solution for Payment in BFSI d Best ATM integration d Best Cash management system and solutions d Best Online Payments Solution of the Year d Best solution for Risk Management/ Anti fraud/ Compliance d Best solution for Data management d Best Solution for FI Partner Publications

Co-operative Bank Categories Best Branch Implementation Best Datacenter Implementation Best Annual Report Best Product solution for Business Best Product solution for Individual Best New CBS Implementation Best Solution/Rates for Mortgage buyers Best Financial service Provider

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ORGANISER

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Debate

Agenda for Tomorrow Introducing global teaching methods has become a necessity.

Nirav Khambhati, CEO, Tata ClassEdge and Naveen Rajlani, CEO, VP & Business Head, Inside Services, Pearson India open a debate to the avid readers of digitalLearning How do you look at the emerging technologies in this field? What can be the areas of improvement?

Nirav Khambhati, CEO, Tata ClassEdge: Big data is rapidly changing the way we look at teaching and learning. The field of education science has been more theory driven than data driven so far. However, with massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other open learning platforms that are closely monitoring and collecting data on how students respond to different types of learning experiences, learnerexperience data is going to be a gamechanger in the design, development and delivery of technology-enabled educational solutions. Analytics-based adaptive learning that adapts learning experiences to suit the end user’s level of understanding and preferred ways of processing information will move teaching-learning from a one-size-fitsall approach.

At Tata ClassEdge we are constantly trying to build on our offerings by creating an ecosystem of like-mined people and partners in areas as diverse as computer education, authentic hands-on science learning, robotics and the like.

Naveen Rajlani, VP & Business Head - Inside Services, Pearson India: With massive technological advancements and economic liberalization, the world is now becoming a global village. In a scenario like this, introducing global teaching methods has become a necessity. It is essential

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Mr. Nirav Khambhati, CEO, Tata ClassEdge

The main challenge is in winning over teachers to start using technology.

However, we cannot blame teachers even if there is some resistance. It is to do with the fact that technology is ineffective if there is no thrust on how to use it to improve the learning outcomes that students and teachers in India are able to think and function at par with their counterparts across the globe.

All the emerging technologies available in this digital field provide a great solution to the much awaited benefits of incorporating technology in education. The technology solutions available for schools in bits like Digital Classrooms, e-Books, Tablets & ERP help both teachers and students to innovate, recreate and give shape to their ideas.

All of these solutions need to be integrated as one solution for schools to impart quality education and innovative answer to a complete learning solution.

One area of improvement is the need to integrate all kinds of learning tools, be it textbooks, digital aids or assessments into one integrated learning solution that helps teachers with reports on individual student performances so that they can identify gaps in learning and ensure better progress.

Pearson is currently working towards addressing this concern and will be soon announcing the launch of an integrated learning product for the K-12 segment.

What are the opportunities and challenges faced by companies offering Technology based Instructional solutions?

Nirav Khambhati: The main challenge is in winning over teachers to start using

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Naveen Rajlani, CEO, VP & Business Head, Inside Services, Pearson India

technology. However, we cannot blame teachers even if there is some resistance.

It is to do with the fact that technology is ineffective if there is no thrust on how to use it to improve the learning outcomes.

If teachers see a clear benefit in using technology to enhance their teaching, the resistance automatically disappears.

Currently, most players use projectors and interactive whiteboards to display multimedia content in classrooms. From this passive display of content, we are witnessing a move towards students directly interacting with technology as in the use of virtual laboratories and immersive educational games. Tata ClassEdge offers both these solutions already. The other big opportunity is in gathering data on the way teachers and students use technology. The insights that can be derived by analyzing this data can serve as powerful tools in fine-tuning educational design. On this aspect again, Tata ClassEdge is sitting on a goldmine of usage data.

Soon when 3D printing, wearable technology, augmented reality and intelligent tutoring systems become more accessible, classrooms are bound to undergo a radical change from the way we see them today.

Naveen Rajlani: One of the major

problems faced by the smart classroom solution providers is encouraging teachers and education providers to use this technology in imparting education.

The digital service providers need to ensure that teachers are able to utilize this technology to the maximum to gain benefits out of it. Unless the solutions offered are fully used in classrooms, school won’t be able to derive maximum benefit. Companies offering DigiClassrooms will have to find out more and more ways to engage and encourage teachers to use this technology.

What distinguishes you from the competitors?

Nirav Khambhati: At the heart of Tata ClassEdge lies its instructional design model — the multiple learning experiences model (M-LEx™) — that assists every teacher in preparing unique lesson plans suitable to his or her individual teaching style. The lesson plans include not just interactive multimedia, but also innovative multisensory activities that aim to enhance critical thinking, social interaction, communication skills and creativity in students. What is more, Tata ClassEdge has differentiated the content, designed for struggling learners and high achievers. This ensures equal

One area of improvement is the need to integrate all kinds of learning tools, be it textbooks, digital aids or assessments into one integrated learning solution that helps teachers with reports on individual student performances so that they can identify gaps in learning and ensure better progress. opportunity for all students to learn according to their abilities and perform in class. Thanks to a large number of modularised teaching points developed for multiple state boards, CBSE and ICSE, the lesson plans can be mapped and sequenced exactly according to each school’s particular textbooks.

This makes the system much easier for teachers to adopt.

The multimedia included in lesson plans are short nuggets that help clarify difficult concepts using animations, interactivities, songs and engaging story-based formats. Almost all of the multimedia has been created inhouse, which makes it possible for Tata

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Debate

ClassEdge to update content or add new sections. A cloud-based architecture ensures continuous and near real time content updates in schools and enables tracking of usage of Tata ClassEdge in every classroom of every school.

Tata ClassEdge is not just about readyto-use lesson plans and multimedia. It also provides a platform for teachers to contribute open resources, create original lesson plans and collaborate with each other. The platform has been designed to develop a collaborative knowledge sharing community of teachers.

The 4 Cs maturity model indicates the maturity level of usage and how usage evolves over time.

• Consumption: In the first few months or a year of usage of Tata ClassEdge, schools tend to use mainly the lesson plans and multimedia.

• Contribution: Schools gradually contribute and share open resources using the Tata ClassEdge platform.

• Creation: Teachers realise the potential of creating their own original resources and sharing them using the platform.

• Collaboration: Teachers and schools collaborate with each other to share learnings, ideas and resources. This expands and deepens knowledge and communication at the community level and can have a much wider impact. This impact need not be restricted to curriculum but could be extended to a broader scope including social issues, community welfare and environmental issues in the area.

The success of Tata ClassEdge is not measured on financial criteria alone but more importantly on the number of students we are reaching out to in different segments of the society.

Significant investments are poured in so that we remain best-in-class. Partnering with like-minded entities ensures crossfertilization of ideas and innovation.

Naveen Rajlani: DigiClass is a complete classroom solution that comprises of hardware such as a CPU, interactive white board, UPS, server and speakers.

The content, DigitAlly, is our patented,

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award winning software which contains animations, simulations, diagrams, 3D objects and much more. DigitAlly allows teachers to make changes and save it as their own copy. The ability to make changes to existing content, our continuous process of getting regular feedback from teachers and up gradation is what differentiates us from the rest. Our content is also customized as per the boards.

Over and above that recently Pearson has selected IBM as its strategic technology partner to deliver customized e-learning solutions to Schools across India. As part of the engagement, IBM is implementing Life Cycle Maintenance solution which will ensure IT operations are well maintained and function without any disruption. This includes supply, installation and maintenance of the IT infrastructure in these classrooms.

Please share new innovative tools for the Technology based Instructionalsolutions that are available with you for a more effective student-teacher engagement.

Nirav Khambhati: Tata ClassEdge provides effective curriculum support to teachers through: • lesson plans mapped according to the

sequence of chapters in textbooks • visually rich multimedia • worksheets that promote critical thinking • teaching strategies for teachers to use authentic hands-on experiences in classroom In addition to this, we have LabEdge, which consists of interactive simulations and virtual tools to teach maths and science. GameEdge includes interactive group games to practice all subjects including science, maths social studies and grammar.

PlanEdge facilitates academic and assessment planning for the entire academic year and helps teachers track their progress on curriculum completion. PlanEdge also provides a grade book that conforms to the CCE requirements of CBSE. It also allows schools to capture the co-scholastic aspects of students.

TestEdge provides a high quality question bank with varying levels of difficulties, mapped to the Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives.

All the questions are mapped to the chapters and concepts covered in the textbooks followed by schools. Teachers can create formative and summative test papers using these questions. TestEdge also comes with a question authoring

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classroom environment.

Students nowadays are using more technological tools to learn better, QR code readers and augmented reality applications like ActiveApp helps students to convert images from the textbook into digital resources and helping them make their own digital resources. We have the classroom Quiz, where the class can be divided into teams and the quiz is currently there from 5 grades onwards.

This is very interactive for both student and teacher.

feature, which makes it possible for teachers to create customised test papers. We expect that these products will free teachers from a lot of the administrative work which can be better utilized for class preparation and interactions with students.

Naveen Rajlani,: There are various kinds of technology that is being used to adopt innovative learning methods.

At Pearson Schools, we provide endto-end education solutions in the K-12 segment, with a focus on technological innovations. We offer ICT enabled classroom solution, DigiClass and MX Touch Education devices to impart quality education to our students.

The solution combines state-of-theart hardware with syllabus based, multimedia content.

PowerSchool is a web-based student information system that enables educators to make timely decisions that impact student performance while creating a collaborative environment for parents, teachers and students to work together.

Apart from using technology in education like ActiveTeach, which is an academically sound and comprehensive school curriculum with innovative teaching and learning resources, integrating technology with the syllabus Active Teach creates learner-friendly

A digital learning programme in schools can greatly enhance the quality of education and provide learning which is more interactive, deploying visual and aural mediums to help students understand concepts and retain them for longer How can a Technology based Instructional solution revolutionize the education sector in our country?

Nirav Khambhati: Technology has made it easy to visualise difficult topics like the structure of an atom or the working of the digestive system.

Teachers and students can manipulate values like temperature and pressure and see their effect on objects in a virtual laboratory. It helps teachers collaborate with each other and share best practices (for example, in a large chain school).

With better connectivity in schools, students and teachers can access some of the best content from prestigious universities across the world that is available free on the Internet.

Technology also helps students connect with their peers across different parts of the country as well as the world. A socially networked world also fosters multiple learning communities and inspires interest in academic topics

beyond the confines of textbooks and classrooms.

Naveen Rajlani: ICT in education can be pivotal in transforming the face of Indian education. A digital learning programme in schools can greatly enhance the quality of education and provide learning which is more interactive, deploying visual and aural mediums to help students understand concepts and retain them for longer.

By adopting ICT in education we can exponentially increase the quality of education accessible to the masses.

Smart Classrooms also bridges the gap between classrooms and outside world to large extent. It enables the teachers to explain the abstract concepts better.

There is an issue of availability of quality teacher in many schools across India; the use of these solutions can help minimize that to some extent.

How indigenous is the digitization of the classroom and the textbooks? Is there any mechanism to Indianise the smart classroom so that the technology can fill the digital deficit in the country?

Nirav Khambhati: Tata ClassEdge content is mapped to CBSE, ICSE and 22 state boards including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and UP. Tata ClassEdge is also available in three regional languages viz. Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati. Tata ClassEdge is not only mapped to a specific curriculum but also to the textbooks followed by individual schools. Currently we have mapped our content to over 7,500textbooks across 400 publishers.

Also, if you look at the use of characters in Tata ClassEdge multimedia and worksheets, they represent the diversity of India. Many of the examples used are taken from Indian contexts and even the English version uses neutral Indian accent as opposed to British or American accents.

Naveen Rajlani: At Pearson India, content is our core strength. We create and adapt local content that is designed around the curriculum and local needs.

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4th Annual

March 12, 2015, Hotel Royal Plaza, New Delhi

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Debate

Smart Students The apt use of technology in the hands of the teacher helps abstract concepts become more tangible. Principal, Maharaja Agrasen Model School, Pratibha Kohli shares her views with Elets News Network.

T

he ICT has revolutionized the vistas of education and has taken the facets of education to a novel dynamic platform. It is impossible to alienate education from the mushrooming growth of digital revolution.

The first interactive whiteboard was manufactured by SMART Technologies Inc. in 1991 and there has been no looking back since! IWB is a revolutionary teaching tool and has facilitated stimulating yet captivating teaching-learning environment in the closed confines of the classroom. The IWB has facilitated multifarious teaching-learning strategies as it is a very versatile tool in the hands of the educator.

The apt use of technology in the hands of the teacher helps abstract concepts become more tangible. IWB facilitates constructivist model of teaching and offers a meaningful intersection of technology and pedagogy. Further webbased IWB metamorphoses classroom dynamics in true sense, as geographically dispersed learners can interact in real time.

Set of learners Yes, definitely. Students come with a variety of learning styles; visual, auditory, kinesthetic. IWB immensely facilitates multiple expressions in teaching, thus well amalgamating the varied learning styles of the learners. In fact, the inclusion of all these dimensions in teaching has a positive impact on pedagogy and helps promote effective teaching; thereby cementing the learning of concepts by students. The optimum mix of visual and auditory learning experience has lead to better attendance of students across educational institutions as the lessons become more informative, interesting and appealing.

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The optimum mix of visual and auditory learning experience has lead to better attendance of students across educational institutions as the lessons become more informative, interesting and appealing IWB can very well facilitate learning in children with special needs (CWSN) too. Hearing impaired learners greatly benefit from IWB, since IWB has immense visual impact and if coupled with sign language, IWB is well suited to the needs of such learners. Visually impaired learners with some vision may benefit from the large fonts and bright colours of IWB. Moreover, it helps to capture the attention of learners with attention disorder.

Hassle or help IWB immensely helps the teacher and is a boon for her. The lessons can be easily customized to suit the aptitude and attitude of a learner or group of learners. It facilitates better planning of the lessons

and better use of available resources so that the lessons are suited to the learner and also to the learning content. The use of technology helps the teacher to plan her lessons in a better manner. The teacher can use a variety of effects like, including pictures and video clips; adding sound effects for confluence of available digital technologies and make teaching effective. Notes can be made in digital ink, and can easily be updated later.

Using the internet, surfing websites and adding hyperlinks while teaching lessons can broaden the horizon of learning. Videoconferencing may be taken up. The use of IWB helps the teacher to put his/her creativity to an optimum level to make the lessons more appealing.

The technology also helps the teacher to conduct online tests, opinion polls and help the teacher get instant feedback.

Word of caution The technology cannot teach, it is for the teachers to engage technology so as to enhance the learning experience of students. Alignment of digital content with prescribed curriculum is important. Also, information overdose through IWB may dishearten the average learner.

Global perspective While most of the developed countries are using IWBs extensively, in India, there is still a tremendous scope for incorporation of IWB in the education sector. The government should proactively consider introducing innovative digital solutions in the educational institutions to boost academic levels. The benefits of using IWB definitely outweigh the cost and bringing down the cost of installation of IWB would definitely help the cause of education.

RNI NO. UPENG/2008/25311

UP/GBD-70/2012-14 UP/GZB/70/2015-17