digitalLEARNING September 2014

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 10

I issue 09 I september

2014

I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

Future of Education Redefined Challenges of Tech-enabled Learning

Education Beyond Stereotypes Towards a Smarter Generation Minority Education - The Road Ahead

ISSN 0973-4139

volume 10 issue 09 september 2014

digital LEARNING

world education summit 2014

From Grassroots to Galaxies 17 Cover Story LEAD FEATURE

12 Higher Education

46 Looking Down the Barrel

16 Campus Calling

The Challenge of Technology Enabled Learning

WES AWARDS

48 Limited Impact of ICT on Quality of Education’

58

The Game Changers: Marking the emergence of niche players dedicated to providing innovative solutions in education

50 The Challenge Lies in the Mindset

60

Government Initiatives in Education

62

Use of Technolgy in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Institutions

52 ‘Technology is Empowered by the Teacher

63

Technology Solution Provider

64

Innovations by Engineering Institutes

Sunaina Singh, Vice Chancellor, English and Foreign Languages University

65

Virtual Classrooms

66

Non-Government Sector Initiatives

68

Green Initiatives by Educational Institutes

69

Global Collaborative Learning

70

Innovations in Pedagogical Practices

K P Mishra, Vice Chancellor, Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya

Nupur Prakash, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women

who Uses it’

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

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Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education Volume

10

Issue 09

September 2014

Partner publications President: Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta WEB DEVELOPMENT & IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Advisory Board

Team Lead – Web Development: Ishvinder Singh 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

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

Executive – IT Infrastructure: Zuber Ahmed Executive – Information Management: Khabirul Islam

Prof Parvin Sinclair, Director, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

Editorial Team education Sr Editor: K S Narayanan Assistant Editor: Parimal Peeyush Correspondent: Seema Gupta, Roselin Kiro governance Sr Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Sr Correspondent: Kartik Sharma, Nayana Singh, Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Research Associate: Sunil Kumar Health Sr Assistant Editor: Shahid Akhter Sr Copy Editor: Rajesh Sharma SALES & MARKETING TEAM: digital LEARNING National Sales Manager: Fahimul Haque, Mobile: +91 - 8860651632 Associate Manager – Business Development: Amit Kumar Pundhir, Mobile: +91 - 8860635835 Subscription & Circulation Team Manager Subscriptions: +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in Design Team Sr Graphic Designer: Om Prakash Thakur, Pramod Gupta Sr Web Designer: Shyam Kishore Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLearning - Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, Stellar IT Park Office No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Annexe Building, C-25, Sector 62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600 Fax: +91-120-4812660 Email: info@digitalLearning.in digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. in technical collaboration with the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

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EDITORIAL

Time to Turn the Tide Even after 67 years of Independence, India is yet to achieve cent-per-cent literacy, possibly because the Indian education system still reeks of command and control of yesteryear, with students reduced to being shadows of passive knowledge receivers. But as the country heads for a digital tomorrow riding the ambitious ‘Digital India’ programme, it is time to set right all that has plagued the education system since decades.

It was in this backdrop that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Teacher’s Day address to millions of children, teachers and parents, spoke of the need to harness technology for taking education to the farthest corners of the country. The remarks couldn’t have been better-timed, as there is a growing stress on spread of literacy, with special focus on education of girl children. After all, the process of nation building has its roots in education and skill development.

Continuing with its eight-year exercise of tracking emerging trends, challenges and competition in education and ICT sector, digitalLearning organised the 4th World Education Summit 2014 on 6th-7th August. The event saw high-level of participation of decision makers, educationists, practitioners, heads of educational institutions, eduprenuers and corporates across the country and abroad.

Several noted personalities in the education sector presented their perspective on the current education scenario and the vision for the future. The common goal seemed to echo across boundaries the need for a universal effort to move closer towards a world of inclusive, collaborative and quality education.

A remarkable high point of the fourth edition of WES was the special inauguration by Union Minister for Minority Affairs Dr Najma Heptulla and her address to WES delegates.

The inaugural session, held in association with the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, highlighted the opportunities, challenges and achievements in the field of minority education. This was first-ever conference on minority education in the recent years.

The World Education Summit is a beginning of our endless journey towards building a platform for exchange of excellence and innovation in the knowledge sphere. I take this opportunity to thank all our participants, speakers, supporters, sponsors, exhibitors, and delegates for helping us make this Summit a memorable and an enriching experience.

This edition of digital Learning also features the challenges of IT enabled learning in higher educational institutions as the lead feature. We have engaged some leading vicechancellors across the country for their viewpoint.

In a few days from now, India will celebrate the festival of Navaratra. This time round, while paying obeisance to Goddess Durga, let’s not forget to pledge for the empowerment our ‘little Durgas’ – the girls. For, an educated boy takes care of his family, while an educated girl takes care of the generations to come by educating them.

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

digitalLEARNING / September 2014

7

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Science sans Laboratories

A

country that argues being a superpower does not have enough laboratories in schools to mould young minds, a recent survey has revealed.

A survey of 2.4 lakh secondary and senior secondary schools in India conducted by the Unified District Information System on Education (UDISE), with data analysed by the Delhibased National University for Educational Administration and Planning (NUEPA), has found that over three quarter (75 per cent) of schools in the country do not have fully equipped science laboratories.

For classes 9 and 10, where an integrated science module

is taught to students, over 58 per cent schools don’t have the requisite lab. Shockingly,

only six per cent of schools in West Bengal and Karnataka are equipped with science labs. Schools in other southern states, however, are better equipped with Andhra Pradesh at 13 per cent, Kerala at 34 per cent and Tamil Nadu with 40 per cent of the schools with decent lab facilities, the survey findings have revealed. Even smaller states and Union Territories like Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Goa and Manipur have a relatively higher proportion of schools with labs for senior students. With over half the students of classes 9 and 10 learning science without labs, it could prove a major deterrent for students to pursue science further, the report warned.

Call for Clean India: Corporates Chip in

School Curriculum to include North East

Responding to the government’s call to build a clean India, two corporate giants have announced a contribution of over `200 crore for the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign to build clean toilets.

Two major corporate houses – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bharti Foundation, an arm of Bharti Enterprises – have announced a total expenditure of `200 crore to construct toilets in schools as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. While IT major TCS announced it would spend `100 crore for building hygienic sanitation facilities for girl students across 10,000 schools in the country, Bharti Foundation will be investing up to `100 crore in constructing new toilets for girls over the next three years as part of their initiative to improve rural household sanitation facilities in Punjab. On August 15, the Oriental Bank of Commerce also earmarked `2 crore to construct over 200 toilets for girls and boys in government primary schools in villages. In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked everyone to be part of the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign and make it a public movement rather than just a government mission.

In an attempt to overcome prevailing prejudices and pre-conceived notions about India’s North East and build a united India, the central Human Resource Development ministry has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to include sufficient material related to the north-east region to create awareness. “The curriculum committee of the CBSE has decided to give due preference for inclusion of precise and sufficient material to the northeast region in CBSE curriculum for students’ awareness about the region,” Human Resource Development minister Smriti Irani informed the Parliament. The step follows a demand from the people of north-east living in different cities to include information about north-east in NCERT text books.

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

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RSS in Plans to Indianise School Education

HDFC Makes School Foray

F

ormer school principal, octogenarian, rightwing historian and a top national executive of Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dina Nath Batra, is on a mission mode to prepare a blueprint for ‘Indianising’ the country’s education system and liberating it from the clutches of western education.

“We have set up a commission Bharatiya Shiksha Niti Aayog, which is preparing the blueprint for the Indianisation of the education system. It will take us three years to complete it and we will circulate it among people. Till now, we have eight academicians in the commission and more will be included,” Batra recently noted in an interview to a news agency. The commission has been established by Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, an organisation affiliated to the RSS, that will study the present education system and suggest corrective steps to make it ‘Bharatcentric’. In 2011, as an NCERT advisor under the erstwhile NDA government, Batra had led a team that ‘corrected’ history text books by eliminating or altering portions that glorified Muslim rulers and also those which were found derogatory and defamatory according to the view of Hindu nationalists.

Modern Montessori to expand pre-schools in India

T

o cater to the huge demand for trained kindergarten teachers in India, UK-based Modern Montessori International (MMI) Group is in plans to expand its reach in India by doubling preschool teacher training centres and franchises for running kindergarten classes through major corporations. MMI Group, a private education organisation with over 100 offices, pre-schools and training offices in London, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

After having made its debut in the education sector by acquiring India’s first education loan company - Credila Financial Services, the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has launched its first English medium school affiliated to the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) in Gurgaon this academic year. The school is being set up by a trust with the management services being provided by HDFC Education and Development Services (HDFC Edu), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HDFC Ltd. Though the school is scheduled to start functioning from the next academic year (2015-16), the admission process for nursery to class III has begun in August. Plans for the school are to have classes up to class XII. The school will be headed by noted academician and educationist Anita Makkar.

The tuition fee will range from `6,500 to `7,500 per month with an additional annual fee and onetime admission charges. Apart from setting up their own school, HDFC is also set to provide school management and other related services.

Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, the U.A.E., Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria presently runs 10 pre-school teacher training centres and five kindergartens in India.

Having first forayed into the Indian market in early 2003, the group estimates a demand for 1,00,000 such educationists over the next 10 years. MMI’s overall plan is to train 1,500-2,000 pre-school teachers a year, double from the current intake of 750 and is targeting Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai as the starting points for its twin ventures.

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Ombudsman Must for Universities: MHRD

I

n a move to deal with irregularities and malpractices in higher education institutes across India, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has notified the UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations, 2012, according to which, each university will now have to appoint an Ombudsman.

Informing the Parliament of this move, HRD minister Smriti Irani said that the decision was taken due to concerns expressed by the Supreme Court in Viplav Sharma case regarding dilution of academic standards in deemed universities. As per the regulations, the Ombudsman in a central university and deemed university shall be appointed on part-time basis from a panel of three names recommended by a search committee which will consist of the UGC chairperson or his nominee, one vicechancellor (VC) from a central university, one VC from a deemed university and one joint secretary in the central HRD ministry dealing with higher education. In case of a college, the VC of the affiliating university shall constitute a grievance redressal committee. The grievance redressal mechanism will be implemented in all central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITS, IIITs, private and governmentrun deemed universities and all higher educational institutions under various central government ministries.

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

Four-Member Committee to Review UGC Status The Union Ministry for Human Resource Development (HRD) has set up a four-member committee to review the present status of the Universities Grants Commission (UGC). Benchmarks on which the evaluation will be based include UGC’s performance in co-ordinating and determining education standards in universities and regulating them, suggesting measures for effective regulation of distance education, improving the accreditation system, curbing commercialisation and promoting research. The committee will be headed by former UGC chairman Hari Gautam. The other members of the committee will be C M Jariwala, former dean of law, Banaras Hindu University and Kapil Kapoor, former pro-vice chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University. R P Sisodia, Joint Secretary (Higher Education) will be the member secretary of the committee. The committee has six months to submit its report. The choice of Gautam, according to many, was natural as he was the UGC chairperson when NDA was in power. Under Gautam, UGC in 2001 had asked universities to introduce Vedic astrology as a science course - a move that triggered a huge controversy with scientists ranged against the proposal. This, however, is not the first time that UGC’s functioning is under the scanner. In 2008, the UPA government had set up a committee on “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education” under Prof Yashpal. In its report in 2009, the committee had suggested setting up an overarching body — over and above the UGC and the All India Council of Technical Education — to regulate all branches of higher education, including medicine, law, engineering and humanities.

CBSE NETs UGC The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the largest examconducting body, is now in charge of the National Eligibility Test (NET).

The CBSE, that also conducts board examinations for classes Xth and XIIth along with pre-medical entrance exams, joint engineering entrance (main) and the central teacher’s eligibility test, will now become the biggest exam-conducting body worldwide. After the University Grants Commission (UGC) failed to carry out the test hassle-free this year, the responsibility got transferred to the CBSE to carry out the test with the consent of the HRD ministry. NET is conducted twice a year for grant of junior research fellowship and eligibility for assistant professor in institutes of higher learning. In a year, the CBSE has been conducting diverse qualifying, eligibility and entrance exams for over 63 lakh students. With NET, its number is expected to go beyond 65 lakh.

E=mc2

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Education Education

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Rajasthan Sets Up First Skill Development Centre In a move to help the state’s unemployed youth with good job-oriented training programmes, the Rajasthan government has set up India’s first dedicated skill development centre in Udaipur. Set up under the ‘Livelihood Skill Project’, the one-of-its-kind centre is aimed at getting the state’s young poulation job ready and aid the development of the state. The Udaipur centre was recently inaugurated by Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje and the state government is in plans to open 200 such centres in the 33 districts of Rajasthan.

MoUs have also been inked with 40 agencies which will provide skilled training to the youth, Raje informed.

India Fails at Shanghai Rankings None of the major institutions of higher learning from India have made it to the Shanghai Rankings of the top universities worldwide. The sole consolation was Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science listed at the 327th rank. No other Indian institute figured in the 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released by the Centre for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. While Harvard University remained number one in the world for the 12th consecutive year, other toppers included Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Cambridge, Princeton, Caltech, Columbia, Chicago and Oxford.

Railways Mulls Four Universities in Five Years

Telangana gets Separate Higher Education Council

The Indian Railways is exploring the possibility of setting up four universities across the country for trained manpower.

The railways, which is hailed as the lifeline of the country, currently has only one training institute located in Baroda. The idea of a dedicated railway university originally came from none other than ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan. Union Railway minister D V Sadananda Gowda had talked about plans for one such university in his maiden budget speech and has now extended it to set up four such universities in different parts of India in a phased manner over the next five years. According to Gowda, graduates coming out of railway universities will have an assurance of getting absorbed in the system as all-rounders. “We should have a full view on the issue by December and roll out the university from start of an academic year,” the minister said. These Railway Universities are slated to be world-class and will impart knowledge in diversified fields of technology and innovations in Railway operations etc. The intention to set up Railway Universities is not to limit the university to a particular region but to cover all four corners of the country.

Amid an ongoing turf war with Andhra Pradesh over admissions to professional courses, the ruling government of the newly formed state of Telangana has constituted a separate Telangana State Council of Higher Education with effect from June 2, 2014.

A Government Order to this effect was issued by the education department stating that as per the AP State Council of Higher Education Act (Telangana Adaptation) order, 2014, the Telangana State Council of Higher Education is deemed to have come into force with effect from June 2, 2014. The formation of this separate higher education body is being largely seen as a step taken by the KCR regime to ensure that Telangana students are not forced to take part in the counselling being conducted by the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE). The TRS government has already asked the students of Telangana not to attend certificate verification sessions that commenced on August 7. The move comes close on the heels of APSCHE having filed an implead petition in the Supreme Court on a plea filed by the Telangana government seeking extension for completing the admissions to professional courses and Eamcet counselling till October 31, 2014. Defying the Telangana government’s diktat, APSCHE decided to go ahead with counselling for the admission process with the view that it was the competent authority to conduct admissions in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

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MSME Min, Samsung to Set Up Technical Schools

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) ministry has joined hands with South Korean global consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics to set up technical schools to impart technical skills to 10,000 youth across the country. The schools will be opened at MSME technology centres in ten cities across India, viz., New Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Kolkata, Varanasi, Mumbai and Chennai this year.

The MSME-Samsung technical schools will run Samsung’s advanced repair and industrial skills enhancement programme, providing students with trade-specific training on various aspects of repairing and troubleshooting consumer electronic products such as mobile phones, televisions, home theatre systems, home appliances and their related accessories.

The fee structure is `20,000 per course of three months duration. B D Park, president and CEO, South West Asia, Samsung, said, “The student is free to join Samsung or set up his own business or even join a rival company”. Students who enroll will also get real time working experience at Samsung authorised service centres.

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

Godaddy Unveils Domain Name Extension ‘.SHIKSHA’ GoDaddy, the world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has announced the availability of generic top level domain (gTLD) .SHIKSHA for registration. The new domain name extension means ‘education’ or ‘learning’ in Hindi. The .SHIKSHA domain name extension helps individuals, business owners and organisations associated with education to attract Indian students

of all ages. “Through dot-SHIKSHA, we now offer organisations in the education industry an option to help create a more compelling online identity,”said GoDaddy India Vice President and Managing Director, Rajiv Sodhi.

PSUs Hook B-School Graduates

the business schools outside the IIMs has gone up by 160 per cent this season over the last year, said D S Rawat, Secretary-General, Assocham, while releasing its paper on “PSUs back in reckoning”. The survey sample included over 500 students from various B-schools.

The survey, conducted in June-July 2014, found that over 65 per cent of respondents preferred the public sector over the private. According to the paper, there has been a steep rise in the management trainee jobs in public sector in the last one year.

PSUs now offer annual packages of nearly `10-12 lakh, higher than the average starting salary of `7-8 lakh that the private sector offers.

Credit-Based System for IITs

to accumulate a fixed number of credits through class work, laboratory work, workshop participation and field work. They will have the flexibility to complete the credit requirements of the course at their own pace – with a maximum of eight years to complete their B.Tech degrees. The new system will help in easing the academic pressure for slow learners while smarter students can earn 176 to 182 credits in just seven semesters or three and half years – and use the remaining six months to explore entrepreneurship and start-up ventures. Top technology institutes such as MIT, Standford and Harvard use the credit system.

An increasing number of B-school graduates are flocking to top public sector companies due to job security, improving prospects of firms and headwinds faced by the private sector, a study has revealed. The intake by PSUs from

Come 2016 and all the campuses of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will shift to the credit-based scoring system. The move will make it possible for B.Tech students to complete their degree in just three and a half years under the new system instead of four years. From the 201617 academic sessions, the IITs will replace the standard four-year course with the US-based credit system which allows students a flexible time frame to complete their undergraduate engineering degree programmes.

In the new system, students will have

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

digitalLEARNING / September 2014

17

cover story

Education for Empowerment An eminent panel of government and academic luminaries got together at the World Education Summit 2014 to brainstorm the way ahead for education in India. From access and quality of education to the importance of technology enabled learning, the thought leaders’ panel set the tone for extensive deliberations that were to follow at the summit in the next two days

I

ndia boasts of being the largest higher education sector in the world. It has around 610 universities set up under the state and central legislation, and around 36,000 colleges are affiliated to these universities. Under these circumstances, it is nothing short of an irony that the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) at the higher education level is just 15 per cent, much lower than the world average of 26 per cent. The fundamental problem faced by the Indian

Freda Wolfenden, Department of Education, Faculty of Education and Language Studies, The Open University, UK

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September 2014 / digitalLEARNING

education sector as a whole is lack of suitably qualified and appropriately trained teachers in adequate numbers.

Apart from access to education, which has also been an issue that is now being addressed partially with the rise in the number of schools and private universities, there is also a need of technology enabled learning to keep it abreast with the developments globally and also keep education relevant to today’s techsavvy generation. It was with this view that the ‘Thought Leaders Panel’ at the World Education Summit (WES) 2014 got together to discuss their views and discuss the way forward to enrich the education sector in India and ensure quality education.

Speaking about the initiatives taken by the government in this regard, Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary, Technology Enabled Learning, Department of Higher Education, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) said, “There is a renewed focus on im-

parting technology-enabled education which is as important as other disciplines of education. To ensure that technology enabled learning takes centre stage, the mission of education through ICT needs to be carried out by everyone – government-run institutions, private institutions, state institutions, companies, NGOs, voluntary institutions and the media as well,” he said. The outcome of these initiatives needs to be such that ensures quality education.

Quality of education should be such that it prepares and moulds the students with skills that make them employable.

In this dynamic world, the expectations of the employers, either state or private, are also changing. It is important that these expectations are incorporated in the teaching learning process. The problems that India faces with regard to higher education are common to other developing nations as well. Talking about the problem of employment in Sri Lanka, Vishakha Nayanakara, representative of the Ministry of Higher Education, Sri Lanka said, “In an employability census done in Sri Lanka, it was observed that out of every 100 graduates that it produces, 76 are unemployed. So, one of the main objectives of the Sri Lanka higher education ministry is to ensure that we do provide outcome-based education at the universities. Identifying the graduates that we need to produce, identifying the attributes that should be in those graduates, we try to develop

digitallearning.eletsonline.com

From left to right: Vishakha Nayanakara, Dr M P Narayanan, Praveen Prakash, Unni Krishnan Koroth and Freda Wolfenden

the curricula and make sure that the teaching learning processes and assessments map the outcome,” she said.

Stressing on the importance of private partnership in fuelling the growth of the education sector, Vishakha said, “Sri Lanka did not have a full-fledged private participation in higher education. But the government is now encouraging transnational education allowing private players to have branch campuses in Sri Lanka, which is doing well and has a long way to go.”

Rapid advancement in the technology space has resulted in the availability of a plethora of software and technologies in the market to digitise education and make it easy, quick and advanced.

“Software should actually add value in the teaching and learning process, teachers should be comfortable using it and the school should benefit out of it,” said Unni Krishnan Koroth, CEO, Foradian Technologies. Fedena, a product of Foradian, is a complete student information system in cloud and has been widely implemented across schools of Kerala under the state government’s project Sampoorna.

Quality in education is what schools across the world are looking for today.

No education system can be better than the quality of its teachers. Schools today need to pay more attention to the quality of teachers and teachers’ training. “We are doing many collaborative projects in different states of India,” said Freda Wolfenden, Department of Education, Faculty of Education and Language Studies, The Open University, UK. “At the heart of our programme is to take the policy, which has been elegantly expressed in the international policy documents, and move them into practice at the classroom level - both in rural and urban areas,” she added. There is also a requirement of teacher educators to support their own professional learning, building their capacity etc.

In essence, the views aired during this gathering of leaders in education in India and abroad set the

tone for discussions that were to follow in parallel sessions on school and higher education during the summit. More importantly, it provided insights on how to harness technology to enhance the teaching learning process in the classroom and also touched upon the importance of quality leaders and educators in the process of creating quality students.

Unni Krishnan Koroth, CEO, Foradian Technologies

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igher education in India is in the process of change at several levels.

This assumes importance as India is home to about 600 million people under the age of 25 years.

Needless to say, the existing system is not capable of dealing with the pressure and is in desperate need to expand. The country’s young population has an immense appetite for education and with the rising middle-class, an increasing number of this young populace are now able to pay for it. Apart from the 20

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demographic dividend, India will also have the second largest number of graduates by 2020, behind China and ahead of the USA. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that in 2020, 200 million of the world’s 2534 year olds will be university graduates and 40 per cent of these will be from China and India, representing a huge proportion of the global talent pool. The government has massive plans for revamping higher education in India which

includes a complete overhaul of several aspects in the next five years. Prominent among these are quality assurance, international collaborations and new teaching methods.

What remains to be seen is how these plans translate to ground realities. At the WES 2014, experts got together to deliberate upon the various facets of higher education in India and helped create a better understanding of the intricacies that exist in this domain. Here is a glimpse of the sessions and the moot points the eminent speakers touched upon.

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WES-2014 : Higher Education Track

Role of Assessment, Accreditation, Evaluation & Quality Standard in Higher Education

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rom 20 universities and 500 colleges at the time India attained independence, higher education has developed into a large system.

In a scenario where expansion is rapid and keeping up globally is a challenge, there is a need to deliberate upon and address the concerns of the quality and relevance of higher education in India.

Speaking in this context, Dr. Sandhya Chintala, Vice President, NASSCOM, noted that the higher education system will need to employ 150 million people to deal with the huge number of students that will be entering into the system. “Both the supply side – formal and non-formal – will require skilled workforce. That is why we have organisations like the National Skill Development Corporation,” she said.

Examination marking is a crucial but timetaking and costly process. NC Jain, Head-Business Development, Newgen Software Technologies Ltd., explained how the Newgen On-Screen Marking System is revolutionising examination marking. This solution, built for effective management of the life-cycle of answer scripts accumulated from examinations automates the traditionally managed examination evaluation system, thus enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of marking processes. “It combines automation and high-specification technology to deliver a flexible and powerful marking solution. Its benefits include ensured quality marking and significant savNC Jain, DGM, Head-Business ings,” he said.

Development, Newgen Software Technologies Ltd.

Prof.

P

Direc Ramesh tor, IIM an Rohta k

Accreditation shows where we stand as educational institutions, said Prof. P Rameshan, Director, IIM Rohtak. “Today, we have global aspirations.

One manifestation of brand identity is customer acceptance. Today, we have to see students accepting us as customers. Social media is playing a key role in achieving this. It goes without saying that staying up to the mark is very important. ICT is indispensable,” he observed.

Evaluations are high stakes as errors lead to a huge reputation risk, Nagendran Sundarajan, Executive Vice President, MeriTrac Services pointed out. He believes that On Screen Marking (OSM) is the way to transformation. The concept, however, is not new to India, he informed.

“The largest central board in the country adopts OSM for 10th and 12th standards, a large technical university leverages OSM to streamline the evaluation process and doctors at a medical university use OSM to evaluate answer scripts from campuses across various countries. One of the largest distance education universities uses OSM to evaluate internal assessments and term-end exams,” Sundarajan noted. Considering the fact that not many students are financially in a comfortable position to pay for revaluation, OSM Nagendran Sundarajan, offers a healthy solution due to its flexibility and accuracy.

Executive Vice President, MeriTrac Services

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WES-2014 : Higher Education Track

Fostering Excellence: Transformative Practices towards Ensuring Quality in Higher Education

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ith the rapid warming up of educational and technological links globally and the commendable rise in the institutional capacity, there is an equal need to look at transformative practices and the ways and means for improving the quality of higher education in India. “We need to expand higher education to a much greater level and take up innovative measures for the same,” said Prof.

Furqan Qamar, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities.

“We started looking at idea at values and character of our students,” said Dr. Akshai Aggarawal, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technological University. “We took

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he education sector in India has seen tremendous evolution with the rise of private universities in this space. Along with this rise comes the need to look into the way ahead for private universities in India, their scope, opportunities and the impact it can have to the quality of higher education in India. The challenges in higher education are several. To begin with, a mere 5 per cent of people in India are getting higher education which presents a huge opportunity for private players to come in and fill this gap. However, intent alone cannot help this process. Setting up a university requires several clearances and the process is very time-consuming. Moreover, with instances of fly-by-night operators, private universities face the challenge of trust deficit.

In such a scenario, private universities need to look inwards and find ways and means to keep themselves at par with the

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Prof. Furqan Qamar,

Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities.

up something that we had done previously with SBI - The Contributor Personality Development Programme, which, like an e-learning model, is an online active guide,” he added.

Recognising and working towards bridging the huge skills gap between what our institutions produce and what the industry requires is the need of the hour. “Need for Skills Development has been recognised across the spectrum of employers, policymakers, educators and youth, and for raising the employability of the youth from 15 per cent to a respectable level, skills development is a must,” said Paresh Joshi, Academic Director, Station-e Info Services Pvt.

Puneet Kumar,

CMD, Nysa Communications.

Ltd. Talking of Station Language Lab, one such offering, Joshi noted that their Station-e Skills Development Centre (SDC) had emerged as a one-stop solution across India and that it could be established at college and university campuses to cater to the need for employability skills.

You can teach a student a lesson for a day, but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.

It is this belief that is driving Mahendras towards preparing able and future-ready individuals. “Our future projections include pan-India expansion of over 200 branches by 2015, online classrooms by

WES-2014 : Higher Education Track

Private Universities: The Way Forward quality requirements of today’s India.

“We need to reinvent ourselves in terms of research and workshops etc. Why don’t we have certain innovative courses besides science and engineering?” asked Colonel (Dr) Mithilesh Dixit, Vice Chancellor, Career Point University: Capacity building is an issue that poses a huge challenge for India. Japan has 4000 Universities for its 127 million people, the US has 3650 Universities for its 301 million people; and India only 675 Universities for its over 1.25 billion people, informed Prof. VPS Arora, Vice Chancellor, Supertech University. “Indian GER is

Colonel (Dr) Mithilesh Dixit, Vice Chancellor, Career Point University

about 19 per cent against 83 per cent for USA,” he said. Speaking of the challenges that private universities in India are faced with, Prof Arora pointed to several issues that included providing affordable, good quality, and globally relevant education, stifling regulatory overhang, multiplicity of approval regimes and tyranny of agencies often unleashed on the private entrepreneurs, long gestation period between the issue of Letter Of Intent (LOI) and

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August 2014, tab facility for every student of Mahendra’s by July 2015, speed test facility for students on their mobiles and e–books, M.I.C.A and putting study material on the Internet by December 2014,” informed Akash Jain, ManagerIT, Mahendras Educational Pvt. Ltd. In many ways, the onus of transformation and taking education to the next level rests with the leaders of respective institutions. “The fact that even a world renowned institute like Amit Mahensaria, Paresh Joshi, Academic Akash Jain, Manager- IT, Harvard is trying to revamp its syllabus Director, Station-e Info Co-Founder, Impartus Mahendras Educational says a lot about the need to revamp,” Services Pvt. Ltd. Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Pvt. Ltd. said Prof. Sunaina Singh, Vice Chancelmulti-campus models, there will be an Co-Founder, Impartus Innovation Pvt. lor, English and Foreign Language Uniincreasing demand for streamlining Ltd. spoke about how videos are driving versity, Hyderabad. “We need to have and controlling processes. “Technolexcellence in education. “Education, esnational and international collaboraogy solutions in the form of campus pecially higher education has not seen tions. We need a monitoring mechamanagement software packages will the extensive penetration of technology nism and ground breaking research,” gain ground. Even course management unlike other domains of our daily lives she added. She further stressed upon tools will become prominent among such as banking, healthcare, retail and the need for academic auditing and faculty for efficiently organising their communications. In the past 5 years, lot determining whether the student comclasses,” observed Puneet Kumar, CMD, of technology companies focussed on munity is globally competitive.

Nysa Communications. Underlining the education are doing exciting work globThe use of technological tools for limitations of traditional programmes, ally,” he said. improving the quality of education is Prof. (Dr.) L. N. Bhagat, Vice Chancellor, The adoption of technology in edua concept that we get to hear often.

Ranchi University said, “Skill developcational practices is set to increase The right use of these technologies can ment programmes and technology are with time. There is a belief that with undoubtedly transform the teachinga must”. the growth in scale of institutions and learning process. Amit Mahensaria,

Prof. G. L. Datta,

Chancellor, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (K L University)

the start of academic activities, resulting in time and cost over run, plethora of clearances, quotas imposed in admissions and employment, shortage of quality faculty and the ‘not for profit’ concept. “The way forward requires single window and time bound clearances, level playing arena to private universities, cut in number of statutory bodies, autonomy in governance, periodic third party audit of education quality in private universities and single accreditation body at the national level with empowered regional units,” he elaborated further.

It has been widely understood and accepted that the huge requirement for higher education cannot be met by setting

up institutions in the public sector. “Some of the best universities in the world – Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT – are private. The only way to meet this demand is encouraging setting up of private colleges and private universities,” said Prof. G. L. Datta, Chancellor, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (K L University), indicating the opportunities for private universities. “We have to create top level private universities which would have vision, autonomy and innovation. Government should come up with policies which can boost private investment in higher education,” he added.

There is a growing belief among institutes of higher education that it is only through the use of technology that private universities can reach where they aim to be. This can be achieved by creating

new models of delivery of education and designing models which are ICT-enabled.

“India has 500 million people in the age group 0-24. Therefore our problems are different. We need massive online open courses (MOOCs) which are purely technology driven,” said Rakesh Rathi, Head, Education Vertical, RICOH India Ltd. “In the future, about 75 per cent of the children who are presently in the age group of less than 10 years, will be working in jobs that have not been created yet. That’s the pace at which the world is changing.

Is our education system geared up to cater to that kind of demand?” he asked. Stressing upon the need for a sustainable model for institutes which allows profit, Dr Devendra Pathak, Vice Chancellor, Dr K N Modi University, Jaipur, said, “It should be allowed as it is the only practical solution for higher education institutes to survive and prosper.”

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WES-2014 : Higher Education Track

Innovation in Universities: Focussing on Research and Creativity

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cientific research is one of the key driving factors for any diversified, strong economy. In India, there is a need for encouraging creativity and original thinking across universities.

Technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades and so has its understanding worldwide. There are ways that institutions of higher education in India can put technology to good use for research and innovation and in the process foster better learning.

“It’s not sufficient to understand what’s taught in a class. We need to absorb, assimilate and reproduce that. The teacher and student need to connect. It can only happen if you have the correct acoustical environment and architecture,” said Naresh Duble, DGM, Training and FMD, Armstrong. Discussing how acoustics can enhance the quality of higher education in India, he said, “Background noise and reverberation time are the two main aspects as far as acoustics goes. We have a nice instrument which can distinguish sound once it comes back to it after .5 seconds”. The instrument can help back-benchers and people with hearing impairment as the results tend to improve dramatically.

Technology and its use has swept all sectors off its feet and education has not been alien to it. In today’s time and age, educational institutions need to concentrate more on quality of education and thus need tools that can help them deal with processes such as admissions, examinations, affiliations etc. Stressing upon creativity in education automation, Brijesh Nigam, Managing Director, Iterate India Pvt. Ltd. observed how creativity could reflect with good vision.

“Automation of a university can happen

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only when you Abhishek Pandit, have some conDirector AISECT, trolled systems.

C V Raman University It is a system full of checks and controls and at the same time user-friendly,” said Nigam, adding that a good system increases Naresh Duble, efficiency and DGM, Training and FMD, Armstrong results and that a wide range of topics can be applied for automation and transparency.

Brijesh Nigam, Managing Director, Iterate “This is a social responsibility. Also, deIndia Pvt. Ltd livering results takes lesser time and acTo make the process interactive, a telecess to information is fast and accurate,” phone line and call centre have also been Nigam informed. Creative automation set up. “To our surprise 50,000 students covers many areas including student are going through our live video lecadmission and registration, centralised tures. We have started programmes that examination and evaluation system, are vocational, and are completely in online mark sheet and degree printline with NSQF. It has been a successful ing, online fee deposit, accounting with model,” Pandit further explained. computerised cheques, HR and adminisThe quality of higher education in tration data management etc.

India has been a cause of concern for The use of Information and Commuquite some time now. The recent Shangnication Technology (ICT) at institutes hai Rankings, where no institution of higher education has the potential apart from the IISc could make its mark to take it to the next level. The use of is sufficient indication of where things these tools is slowly catching up in India stand today. “The global world throws and through some interesting models. a challenge,” said Prof. K P Mishra, Vice Abhishek Pandit, Director AISECT, C Chancellor, Nehru Gram Bharati VishV Raman University, spoke about how wavidyalaya. “When ranking of unitheir initiative Radio Raman is bringversities come, Indian universities don’t ing about a transformation. “Bringing stand anywhere. The primary reason for in community radio as a tool for eduthis is that there is hardly any innovacation in rural India, we record classes tion in universities and no research in and air it in rural areas. In fact, we have higher education. Our research output distributed free radios so that they can is less than 5 per cent,” Prof Mishra access our programmes. Moreover, we pointed out. also have literacy programmes,” he said.

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WES-2014 : Higher Education Track

Striving for Excellence: Linking Education With Employability Moli Diva, Deputy Head of English and Foundation Studies, Australian College of Kuwait

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ith urbanisation and the rapidly changing job market, it is becoming increasingly important to link education with employability. The use of technological tools in education, as a result, are becoming crucial for improving skills and meeting industry requirements. Moli Diva, Deputy Head of English and Foundation Studies, Australian College of Kuwait, observed that getting students in the interactive mode in classes can enable them make use of technology – like the Internet on their mobiles - to enhance upon their skills. “I have seen cases where

students found innovative ideas with ICT and contacted organisations to create opportunities to earn money,” she said.

Education, however, is a process of longterm investment and takes a considerable amount of time before one can be called employable. “Is India ready to afford the cost of education in terms of international standards? However, if you consider the benefits of acquiring that education, they are far larger.

In fact, employment is one economic benefit of higher education, as it helps a person attain better economic status. Moreover, are we just taking care of need-based systems or are we

considering value-based education?” asked Dr Halima Sadia Rizvi, Head of the Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia.

With steep rise in demand for skilled professionals, it is important that students have a vision for their achievements and stay ambitious. This, feels Rajiv Kumar, President, Amar Parkash Educational Development Society, is lacking in students today and can be addressed by making learning enjoyable and interesting. “Students lack a goal and we need to raise their levels of ambition. Taking this a level further, education should be practice-oriented. We have to teach students with help of simulation, animation, video and graphics. There is sufficient material available on Youtube,” he said. On the importance of good teachers in this process, Kumar said, “We have to give our teachers exposure to industry so that they can help students become employable and vocational studies should be compulsory. Admission should be on interaction basis – we have to know the student’s interest”.

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WES-2014 : Higher Education Track

Dr. G. R. C Reddy,

Director, National Institute of Technology, Goa

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here is often a mismatch between what the colleges teach and what the industry requires. More than ever, there is a need to put the focus on an interactive and collective arrangement between academic institutions and the business cooperation if we are to meet mutually inclusive goals and objectives.

“Academia has not geared up to face the challenge of translating the evolving idea into a technology. A support system is needed to ensure a focussed involvement of both academia and industry and venues should be created for close interaction starting from conceptualisation down to commercialisation,” observed Prof. (Dr). Priyanka P V, Director, C.N.K. Reddy College of Management, Bangalore. “Technology in this scenario will be the key enabler,” she added.

Several experts, surveys and reports have pointed to the growing mismatch between the job requirements and the employability quotient of technical graduates. India today produces some 1.5 million engineering graduates a year, most of them in what we call ‘circuit branches’computer science, IT, electronics and electrical engineering, said Dr. G. R. C Reddy, Director, National Institute of Technology, Goa, adding that about 75 per cent of these graduates are unemployable as graduate engineers. “The reasons behind this shortfall is that both government and private colleges lack teachers of appropriate scholastic standard. Again, this is so

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Industry - Academia Bridge: Channelising Collaborative Models

because bright students are not joining postgraduate programmes nor are taking up research/teaching as a profession,” he said.

Quoting former President Pratibha Patil, Amitabh Akhauri, Sr. VP – HR, Jindal Stainless Ltd, drives home a similar point. “Unfortunately, as Pratibha Patil, former President of India said, ‘Its a worrying sign that even though the 3rd largest number of graduates in the world every year is produced in India, only 15 percent of our boys and girls passing out of college have the skills required to become employable! This brings in concerns that students are getting degrees, but not getting employable hands-on skills’,” he said. It is expected that the size of India’s education sector will increase to `602,410 crore (US$ 100.23 billion) by FY 15 from ` 341,180 crores (US$ 56.77 billion) in FY 12. “To deal with this scenario, we need progressive action and technological development on part of the institutes, students, industry as well as the government,” Akhauri added.

VSN Raju, CEO, Globarena Technologies Pvt. Ltd., took it a step further. While noting that the industry is not getting the right fit for their requirements and that it feels that only 10 per cent students are employable, Raju points to VSN Raju

CEO, Globarena Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

a deeper problem. “When a student is employed but ends up dissatisfied with his/her job, it becomes a problem cycle,” he observed. The academia can provide well-grounded students to the industry, he suggests. “Take for example Andhra Pradesh where we have more than 600 engineering colleges. We conducted video conferencing, videos and learning in seven colleges in seven districts. We have converted the entire engineering learning into e-learning, both for students and teachers. Everything has been loaded on the server. Today, we have prepared more than 500 students with the help of technology to be industry ready,” said Raju.

Successive gatherings of educational leaders in various sessions have pointed to the changing scenario of higher education in India. As the pillars of higher education, the onus to bring requisite changes into the system now rests with these leaders. One thing that everyone seems to have concurred is that meeting global standards will require innovation, not just in technology, but also in the mindsets. Through various deliberations and brainstorming at the WES 2014, we have tried to bring these ideas to one common platform so as to aid in the betterment of educational standards. This, we believe, is in the interest of stakeholders and the future of the nation at large.

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Children are the future of this country and how we treat them in their early days determines the future and the development of our society. It is for this reason that schools have such an integral role to play. Leaders in the field of school education got together at the World Education Summit 2014 to discuss the changing contours of education and the challenges that come along with it 28

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Towards a Smarter Generation

ducation is the prerequisite for sustainable development of any society or economy.

The purpose of education, therefore, should not limit to building careers but also envisage developing a generation of vibrant minds that has the potential to develop a vision and contribute to nation-building. Despite political parties and governments at the state and central levels having vowed in the name of improving the scenario of education in the country – and have succeeded at it to some extent – conditions in India remain dismal.

The trend in India suggests that government policies alone cannot improve the current status. Besides the issues of access to education in rural

areas, there are several social factors such as discrimination on the basis of caste and gender that need to be addressed for education to become a reality. It is for these reasons that the Right to Education Act, 2009, lays down that schooling is free and compulsory for all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. However, what it fails to address is the quality of education that will be provided in the process.

The complexities and opportunities in the field of school education are numerous and exist across the public and private sectors. It was with this backdrop that experts from across the country came together at the World Education Summit 2014 to discuss various issues and the road ahead for taking school education to the next level.

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WES 2014 : School Education Track

Intelligent Classrooms: The Future

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orld over, educators are looking at the use of the latest tools of technology in education for enhancing the teaching-learning experience and making it more interactive. Looking into the possibilities and opportunities that the digital learning mode presents for India, Prachi Joshi Johar, Program Director, Smartur 3D, focussed on how augmented reality can repurpose learning. “We need to put technology in each student and teacher’s hand as it is the pen and paper of today’s time,” she said. Speaking of the importance of technological tools for classrooms which can make teaching much more relevant, she said, “Software companies are also aware of the fact that we need to create technology that is simple enough to be used in areas and by people who have either not been introduced to technology or are not comfortable with it.”

The recognition of technology as a potent tool for change has been there for quite some time now. The use of technology in education too has started gaining acceptance in schools. “About 50 per cent of projectors sold globally go to classrooms, and in any technically-enabled classroom, 25 per cent of the budget goes in projectors,” informed Ganesh S, Business Development Manager, DLP Product, Texas Instrument India Ltd. Technology, as a tool, is often contradicted with the view that it does not have the potential to replace the existence of teachers in the education system. Stressing that tools don’t alone have the power to change education and it is the teacher who has to finally bring that change in the teaching pro-

Prachi Joshi Johar, Program Director, Smartur 3D (above) & Ganesh S, Business Development Manager, DLP Product, Texas Instrument India Ltd (left)

cess with technology, Shalini Nambiar, Deputy Director - Education, Gems Education, wondered why mobiles and Facebook etc are banned in schools.

“Why are children still carrying heavy bags? With such fascinating stuff happening and market players existing, why is it that just 10 per cent of schools are taking the leap with technology?

Children today should not be carrying those heavy bags when we have ebooks,” she exclaimed.

Shanti Krishnamurthy, Principal, Chinmaya International Residential School, Coimbatore, also had a similar take on the technology versus human interface debate. “Even if the tools are there, students still say they need a teacher. For smarter classrooms, you need smarter teachers,” she pointed out. However, schools that don’t absorb the change will be left behind, she added. “The objective is not to replace your current teaching learning process, only enhance and complement it,” said Rishi Karan, Founder & Director, Tabkids.

Tabkids is intended as an activity starting from (Pre) Nursery/KG till the sec-

ond standard varying between 20-45 minutes as per schools’ convenience and timetable.

With the advent of technology in education also comes the challenge for teachers to remain relevant and updated. Ratnesh Kumar Jha, Managing Director, South Asia, Cambridge University Press, put forth an interesting viewpoint. “Economy is changing and also bringing changes to adjacent things – education is one. Students today have more than 20 technology tools to gain information from. So, when they come back to teachers who have the same book, they are not too interested,” he observed.

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) worldwide has seen a huge spurt in recent years.

However, India still has a long road to travel to match global standards.

“When I visited various countries in Asia in the 1980’s, I realised that they had classrooms with technology that we don’t have even today in schools,” said D R Saini, Principal, Delhi Public School, RK Puram. “Today, we have introduced ICT in a big way and this year, 720 of our students have qualified in the best colleges across the globe, including the Ivy League, earning total scholarships and financial aid worth `178 crore and Rs 65 lakh respectively from foreign countries,” he added. digitalLEARNING / September 2014

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WES 2014 : School Education Track

Role of Technology in Changing Dynamics of Education

Jay Shah, Co-founder & Director, Sports Gurukul Pvt Ltd

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he younger generation is today more well-versed in technology than you and I were at their age.

Apart from technology, the demands of today’s world are also not limited to academic excellence alone. In this rapidly changing scenario, we need to take a look at some of the emerging trends and practices in school education and what educators in India need to look at to keep them abreast with the rest of the world.

Different industry experts had different trends to discuss.

Sports as a module integrated into formal education has gained prominence for the past few years. Sports have the power to unite people, says Arun K Khetan, CEO, Sports Education Development India Limited (SEDIL). Commenting upon the need to encourage sports in schools, he said, “Out of the 48 Olympics held till

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earning is not about cramming textbooks anymore and technological tools have made critical inroads into education. The ways through which technology can be used to enhance critical thinking and literacy skills is a key focus area. “The population of India in the 0-24 age bracket is twice the population of US. When will we have the ultimate technology which will revolutionise education? Maybe this will never happen,” said Rakesh Rathi, Head – Education Vertical, RICOH India Ltd. Technology predictions can be very hard to make, he observed. “So how do we customise our teaching to a group of children completely different in their style? Technology is on its way to achieving that,” added Rakesh.

With changing times, students and their attitude towards learning have also become different. “Today’s child is global and we remain in our cocoons,” observed Manju Gupta, Principal, Kothari International School, Noida. “Even if I want to reduce the curriculum in the interest of the children, we are not able to do that,” she added, citing civil society pressure on performance and achievement.

WES 2014 : School Education Track

Emerging Trends in School Education now, we have participated in just 32, but won only less than 1 per cent of prizes.

The scene is not better in other international sports events as well.” Another trend that is fast catching up with schools in India is mainstreaming. “Students with disabilities have been kept in different schools. Today, every second child has some problems and therefore this aspect has to be looked into. Special Education Needs cells are required in schools,” said

Neeta Bali, Principal, GD Goenka World School, Gurgaon.

In the coming decades, India is poised to be sitting on a huge demographic dividend and this, many believe, could be the golden period for this country. However, there is a huge amount of concern when it comes to the quality of manpower that we produce to reap the benefits of this advantage that we have. “So much churning is happening in the world of educa-

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Students today are well-versed with technology and can adapt to it much faster than earlier generations. “The digital student has arrived at school and there is no generation gap, but digital divide when it comes to students and teachers,” said Kaisar Dopaishi, Principal, Singapore International School.

“When we look at the dynamics of education, we stand on certain premises.

We have the 19th century curriculum, 20th century teachers and 21st century students. Piecemeal approach will not help,” he added. Not just students but teachers too need to be adept with the changing contours. “Teachers need to be up to date,” said Archna Jain, Principal, DPS, Panipat City. “Technology has brought in an ocean of knowledge learning and information to all of us. We have to be futuristic and tomorrow, virtual classes will be the buzzword,” she added.

Technology as a tool comes with its own set of challenges, more so for the education sector. Talking about technology from a different perspective, Vivek Atray, Director, Secondary Education, Haryana, noted how technology can also become a disabler. “More than of-

Arun K Khetan, CEO, Sports Education Development India Limited (left) & Dr Vandana Lulla, Principal, Podar International School, Mumbai (right) discuss emerging trends in school education

tion. The big debate is unemployment versus unemployability, one-size-fits-all versus differentiative learning, creativity versus programming and content-heavy curriculum versus skill development,”

Vivek Atray, Director, Secondary Education, Haryana

ten, technology controls us, when we should be controlling it,” he said, adding that not enough stress was being laid on developing leadership in teachers to develop school leadership. “Under the Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) programme in Haryana, we have not only stressed on school leadership, but also developed a class readiness programme,” he added.

Perhaps the biggest advantage that technology brings to education is in reaching students and geographies that

observed Sudha Sahay, Principal, The Shri Ram School, Aravali. “The world seeks job givers besides job seekers,” she said underlining the importance of skill development in schools.

A P Sharma, Principal, Apeejay School, New Delhi, said, “We need design thinking. Every child needs an education that is child-centric. We have collaborations with Willem De Kooning University, Netherlands, for special programmes.

How do we have a teaching programme that is open-ended? Thematic teaching is what is required.”

With rapid technological advancements, it becomes important to ensure that moral values and traditional teachings are not left behind. “Today, we are lacking in values. We need to bring in technology along with values,” observed Rajeev Chauhan, Principal, Sir Padam-

have not been brought into the fold yet. Rajesh U Purohit, Director, GCERT, Education Department, Gujarat, talked about their example in the state of Gujarat. “We have 26 District Institutes of Education Training (DIETs) and eight Colleges for Teacher Education (CTEs).

Presently, the main function of all 27 DIETs is to impart training to teachers of primary as well as secondary in their respective districts. We have started a satellite-based education system. We have provided computers and TV sets to all schools in Gujarat,” he informed.

Schools now decide a timetable according to these satellite-based telecasts. Furthermore, students in rural areas that do not have good teachers benefit from it.

No doubt that technology-enabled learning is going to be the buzz in coming times and the biggest requirement therein is to bring a change in mindsets.

This change is not solely limited to its acceptance but will have to be extended to a deep sense of its understanding. This will be crucial as it is the teachers who will be responsible for the correct use of these technologies both within and outside the classroom.

pat Singhania Education, Kanpur. In this mad rush for technology, education too tends to take a backseat sometimes.

“Nowadays, schools are infrastructurebased and education-based schools have taken a backseat. The human connect is getting lost,” said Arup Mukhopadhyay, Principal, Royal Global School, Guwahati. “Technology cannot connect you.

Information anxiety makes you lost when you don’t know how to organise matter from the number of pages that Google opens before us. Human capacity to think, create and innovate has been badly affected by technology,” Arup further observed.

New trends and technological advancements need our attention and understanding, more so to ensure the right balance between technological and traditional methods of education. digitalLEARNING / September 2014

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WES 2014 : School Education Track

WES 2014 : School Education Track

Education Leaders Conclave: Are Schools More Than Business?

Eduleaders: Bringing the Change in Education

E Education leaders interact with the audience

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he role of a school in the formative years of a child’s life extends to several crucial functions that help shape a student’s future. It is important that educational institutions understand the role they need to play so that they mean business rather than just being one.

However, in times where rising costs have not spared any sector, things are certainly not easy for schools as well.

“Every business industry is affected with inflation. In today’s time, it takes `20 crore to `100 crore to set up a school and the ROI (Return On Investment) takes a minimum of seven to 10 years,” said Raj Grover, Chief Mentor, Kangaroo Kids Education Limited.

“Today, people are struggling in the industry and this is frightening news. This is more so for the private sector in the crème league as they are keen to bring in technology and their sincerity towards bridging the digital divide is much more,” he added.

While that may hold true in some cases, there is a general perception that schools today are increasingly shifting from their duties of providing education to making profits. “There are questions of survival with rising real estate cost etc.

However, some institutes have very smartly separated academic delivery from business angle. There are separate teams for each,” informed Chandrashekar D P, COO,

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The JGI Group. “We do require a business model. But a profiteering model is what I have issues with. If we allow profiteering, we will have schools only in urban areas,” he pointed out.

While schools are expected to fulfill societal obligations, at the end of the day they are businesses and need to be treated as such. “It is very volatile when we see business only as money. We have to broaden our horizon about what business is. It creates employment,” said Manjula Pooja Shroff, Founder-Director, Calorx Foundation. “Business is an ecosystem and productivity is the underlining factor. We know that as educationists, if we don’t give good results, there will be no productivity. We definitely require a business model for the sustainable running of educational institutes,” she observed.

“Education is definitely more than business. Business is a repeatable process that makes money,” said Unni Krishnan Korotha CEO, Foradian Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The question of running a school with decent facilities is not based upon an institution’s choice to opt for a profiteering model or not. At the end of the day, schools are businesses and can continue to deliver quality education only if they are profitable. This is something that we, as a society, will have to accept.

ducation is said to be the most effective tool in bringing about a change in society. Given its potential, education needs to change too in order to cater to the various needs of a multi-faceted and pluralistic society such as ours. How can educators and the leaders in the education sector bring about the change that education needs?

“There is a difference between Eduleaders and educators. Eduleaders are those who make policies and educators are the ones who implement it. But there is a link,” said Kush Kulshreshtha, Principal, Central Academy School, Gwalior. “Today, many principals don’t support CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation). We have the technology but who will handle it? First we have to work on the quality of teachers,” he said. Agreed C V Singh, Principal, Rawal International School, Faridabad. “Change must be for betterment and not just for bringing about change. As principals we have to work with our teachers and on the quality of teachers,” he said.

If there is one unanimous view regarding the factors that can bring the change to education, it is on the need of quality teachers. Lack of teachers training is something that has led to a drastic fall in the quality of students. Other countries have set some good examples we could learn from.

Elaborating upon one such experience, Jhansi Premanand, Founder,

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Colonel Atul Sekhar, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya, Valsad, the session chair, moderating the proceedings of the session

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Enthusiastic participation of educationists at the session on Eduleaders

Greenwood Kindergarten, Hyderabad, spoke about how during her visit to Russia, she learnt that kindergarten teachers there are trained for 3 and a half years.

“Although we are a very small school, I train my kindergarten teachers on a day-to-day basis. Teachers training programmes have to be improved in India,” she observed. Similar concerns were also aired by Shounak Lahiri, Principal, Banyan International School, Jammu. “We are not focussing on solutions for teachers as much as we should. We all know the problems. We should brainstorm and find ideas,” Shounak noted.

In contrast, the importance of teachers and the traditional methods of teaching couldn’t have been underlined better than Ravi Kumar Bhardwaj, Principal, Department of Secondary Education, Rajasthan. Despite the challenging state of affairs in his village, teachers have worked hard to ensure success for students. The village had an ICT lab which has been closed for two years and the school has hardly any teachers. However, the few teachers that remain in school have faced all odds to produce good results. “The school has given us 28 Indian Administrative Service officers and 10 officers of the Indian Police Service,” Bharadwaj informed. This experience should act as a reminder for all that change cannot be brought with introduction of technology alone. The dedication of teachers and their ability to draw students towards learning is perhaps more important than the benefits that any technological tool can provide.

WES 2014 : School Education Track

Role of New Pedagogy in Internet Age and Personalised Learning

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n this age of free access to unlimited information over the Internet and the focus on personalised learning gaining momentum, schools too need to devise new methods and techniques that can enhance the experience and the outcome for students. Educators need to delve into the challenges that schools face on this front and the ways through which they can overcome them.

Learning in today’s world is not limited to the realms of academics.

According to Arun Khaitan, CEO, Sports Education Development India Limited (SEDIL), with academic compulsions of schools pushing sports behind, physical activities receive scant attention. While pushing students towards physical activities may be one challenge for schools today, there are other issues too. Colonel Atul Sekhar, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya, Valsad, believes that the life of an urban child today is saturated with media.

“For me, pedagogy is the biggest challenge for today’s teachers and it is the innovative teaching techniques and the child-centric techniques that we have to take into account,” sug-

gested Dr Vandana Lulla, Principal, Podar International School, Mumbai.

“Pedagogy is teaching techniques. We were one of the first schools to introduce I-pads for learning. A teacher has to be a facilitator today. She has to pass on the charge to the students.

It has to be research-based learning,” she explained further.

The balance between human interface and use of technology is extremely crucial and is pointed out by the academia time and again. “It is true that we have to balance the human aspect and technology in the Internet age,” said Nirmal Mahna, Director Academics, DCM Public School, Jammu. “As a principal, I visited several secondary and higher secondary schools in rural areas of India, and realised how they are lagging behind. They did not even know about CCEs and there were no records for it,” he added.

These instances and experiences go on to show how important it is to address issues pertaining to education in the rural areas of the country. If the scenario of education is to improve in India, the change needs to begin with the villages and small towns.

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WES 2014 : School Education Track

Distinguished panellists at the pre-school session deliberate upon how the child should be the focus of attention while providing education

Early Childhood Education and Care: Keeping the Child in the Centre of it All

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arly childhood education and care can lay the foundations for later success in life in terms of education, well-being, employability and social integration, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. For institutions, it becomes all the more crucial to keep the focus on the child and his needs.

Brain development in the early years of a child should be encouraged through innovative measures, believes Swati Popat, President, Early Childhood Association and Director, Podar Jumbo Kids.

“Reggio Emilia, as a philosophy, is taking the world by storm. It is superseding Montessori, which is sad as both should be used together,” she observed.

The scenario in India in terms of children’s education is far from ideal. “Children are not at the centre. Parents put pressure on what a child has to do, and children mostly don’t follow their talents, abilities and passions,” observed Rajeev Gupta, Director, Golden Bells Pre School.

There is too much importance attached to IQ though it constitutes only 25 per cent of one’s existence, he says. “Why can’t we focus on Adversity Quotient

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(AQ), Creativity Quotient (CQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ)?” he asks.

Experts also suggest that brain research can tell a lot about a child’s inclinations. “We should be child centric. We must look at brain research and what that tells us about how children work and then translate that theory into actual practice in our classrooms,” said Anshul Arora, Founder and CEO, Edvance Group.

While discussing ways to keep the child at the centre of developments related to him/her, it is essential that teachers and parents understand that each child is different from the other and their needs too differ accordingly. “The more they are exposed to sensory experience, the more enriched they are,” said Hazel Siromoni, Managing Director, Maple Bear. “Also, we look at skill development at a later stage in life. We forget that skills develop right at the early years,” she added.

Parents and teachers have a crucial role to play when it comes to the child’s overall development. The process, however, is not temporary. “It takes every minute of your working life to keep the child at the centre of it all,” said Pooja

Goyal, Director, Intellitots. “You have to take parents and teachers along to keep the child at the centre of it all. We have to take the teachers along to implement the strategies,” she added.

From `1.2 trillion in 2010 to `2.3 trillion in 2015, the pre-school industry is growing at a fast pace. “In 2010, it was a `1.2 trillion industry and will be worth `2.3 trillion by 2015, which means over 15 per cent growth. The demand is growing in tier II and III cities and investment from private players is increasing,” A S Ganesh, Founder & Managing Director, Smartkidz Educare India Pvt. Ltd informed. “Education is useless without values. We need to keep young age in mind where the ability to absorb is very high,” he added.

With such a fast pace of growth registered in this industry, it becomes all the more crucial that the child’s needs are understood and discussed in detail between teachers and parents. Understanding a child’s individual needs and acting upon it will go a long way in shaping the future of the child and his ability to contribute to the society and the nation at large.

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WES 2014 : School Education Track

Universal Education: Assistive and Learning Designs for All

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very child has different needs and adapts to things differently. Education leaders today have to realise the need for adopting universal designs of learning, its benefits and the impact it can have on a child’s learning in today’s shrinking world.

John Shackleton, Senior Training Consultant, The British Council, New Delhi, and the experts together concluded that educationists need to have attributes like being self-driven and committed, aware of the teacher learning process, have good interpersonal skills, and be open to change.

“We have to realise the fact that we can’t train everybody at the same level,” said John.

With the advent of technology, the world is getting smaller with every passing day. Traditional methods of teaching have their own advantages but teachers too need to understand the changing contours and demands of the new age. “Don’t concentrate on how to teach, but also teach how to learn,” said Anil Anantrao Dhumkekar, President, Narayana’s Kids Primary English School.

“Inclusiveness brings strength and better results in a society,” noted Prafulla Mani Pradhan, Principal, Confluence World School, Rudrapur.

“Education needs designs that take into account slow learners and children with disabilities,” he added.

It was drawn that both teachers and students need to be life-long learners, and there should always be innovation happening at each stage. The process of adapting to progress and technology is never-ending and through the right examples, leaders and institutions need to ingrain it in the minds of students and teachers. Education, at the end of the day, needs to be multi-faceted and changing with the times is wise and will be fruitful for the future of individuals, institutions and the nation alike.

WES 2014 : School Education Track

Cultivating Innovation in School Education

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nnovation is crucial for society as well as the economy. There is need for cultivating and encouraging innovation at the school level. Schools need to cultivate interest towards innovation among its students. There needs to be a clear understanding of the ways that it can be done and the impact that it can have in the long run.

William Bickerdike, Regional Director, South Asia at Cambridge International Examinations asked the participants to discuss the innovative measures being taken by various schools to introduce innovation in their school. In response, a plethora of such initiatives came up. From imparting values right from the age of two to health foods and concentrating on human excellence, participants discussed various efforts undertaken in order to create an environment for teachers to innovate and not to force it upon them. The educators agreed that learning should increase but teaching should decrease. “The Principal has an important role to play in innovation and leadership. Make innovation an explicit core value of your school and give that space for innovation,” said Yasmin Contractor, Principal, Summerfield School, Gurgaon. “There will be risks and failures but don’t let that affect you,” she stressed.

“We have to reach beyond our schools. We have a community outreach programme where our students choose the groups they will work with,” said Kavita. C. Das, Principal, St.John’s High School, Chandigarh. Speaking of innovation, Ritu Gupta, Principal, Indraprastha Global School, Noida, informed that they begin meetings with the new things teachers have introduced in their classes.

An excellent example came from Satyabrata Minaketan, Principal, ODM Public School, Bhubaneswar, whose students, while working with victims of Orissa floods, were left in a situation where there was no electricity. Driven by the need to stay connected with technology, one of the students invented the Walk a Mile mobile charger, which is a pair of shoes that can charge your mobile device depending upon the distance you cover walking.

Several survey reports point to the lack of innovation and research in our educational programmes. It is initiatives such as these that can provide a muchneeded boost to bring the desired changes. This does not require just smart brains, but also an understanding and encouragement of a child’s interests on part of teachers, parents and schools.

William Bickerdike, Regional Director - South Asia at Cambridge International Examinations

digitalLEARNING / September 2014

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ICT With a Mission Higher education In India is today faced with challenges in terms of access, equity and quality. The role of Information Technology and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in this context is today being seen as that of an enabler and a catalyst that can fuel the growth of higher education in colleges and universities

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Pradeep Kaul, Senior Consultant, NMEICT

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he rate at which Information Technology (IT) is growing today is evident from the fact that it has invaded almost every part of our lives. The central government has implemented several national as well as state-specific schemes that run concurrent to a large number of privately-led IT initiatives at school and higher education levels. Keen to use technological resources in helping its mission to make higher education accessible to all students, the government has launched its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT).

Use of ICT for promoting education and development has for long been a part of policy and plan documents on education. At the moment, decision-makers at both the central and state levels are in favour of inclusion of new computer and Internet-based IT/ICT tools in education. This includes adopting cloud-based virtual classrooms, universities and mLearning initiatives.

Deliberating upon this vision and the way ahead, Pradeep Kaul, Senior Consultant, NMEICT, noted that India was the first country to have used satellite in a big way for deliver-

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The team of experts from NMEICT handling various projects

ing education to 2,400 villages in six states, for which it signed an MOU with NASA as early as September 20, 1969.

The programme was called Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) and was launched jointly by ISRO and Doordarshan from August 1, 1975 to July 31, 1996.

Unfortunately, as a developing nation, we got left behind somewhere in pursuing the use of satellite and ICT for education. “It is obvious that emphasis on ICT is a crying need as it acts as a multiplier for capacity-building efforts of educational institutions without compromising the quality,” said Kaul. A modest budget allocation of `4,612 crore has been made in 2009 for NMEICT. Under this mission, a proper balance between content generation, research in critical areas relating to imparting education and connectivity for integrating our knowledge with the advancements in other countries is being attempted. “For this, what is needed is a critical mass of experts in every field working in a networked manner with dedication. Although disjointed efforts

have been made in this area by various institutions and organisations, and isolated success stories are also available, a holistic approach is the need of the hour. This mission seeks to support such initiatives and build upon the synergies between various efforts by adopting a holistic approach,” Kaul noted.

Kaul further pointed to the ICT Development Index (IDI) - an index published by the United Nations ITU based on the most important indicators for measuring the information society and combining 11 indicators related to Access, Use and Skills. Amongst 155 countries, India ranked 119th in 2011, with South Korea ranking at 1 and China at 78.

“Our current Gross Enrolment Ratio is still at around 20 per cent as compared to an average of 45 per cent in developed countries. It shows that there is strong need in the country to use ICT for education,” he added.

Acting upon the urgent need felt for connecting institutions, the MHRD has so far connected about 403 universities with 1 Gbps fiber optical connectivity and has also decided to make all such

university campuses Wi-Fi enabled.

Further, around 26,000 colleges have also been connected with 10 Mbps.

The colleges connected are associated to central, state and private universities located across the country. The MHRD has also strongly pursued the development of e-content in several engineering and non-engineering subjects taught in colleges and universities. “About 1,200 courses are being developed by 7 IITs and the IISc under the NPTEL programme. As on date, more than 9,000 hours of NPTEL videos are available on YouTube and these are the most viewed educational programmes in the world with over 125 million hits so far,” Kaul informed. The MHRD is also procuring e-books and making them available to students across the country without charge. So far, more than 97,000 ebooks and 6,350 e-journals have been procured and students from thousands of colleges are benefiting from them.

NMEICT is also undertaking an initiative to set up a national library for visually challenged students. “MHRD has got 175 books converted to DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format in 6 languages and they are all available online,” Kaul informed. Yet another programme ‘Interactive Quality Education Delivery to masses through 50 DTH channels’ is going to be launched by MHRD. It is designed to carry curriculum-based content in almost all subjects of higher education to be delivered on TV sets at home and at institutions free of cost using set top boxes with a one-time cost of `2,000. “The DTH programme of MHRD is a cost-effective and people-centric programme and makes use of technology-enabled products that students of the country can afford for long distance education,” Kaul said.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this programme is that content can also be viewed on IP devices and students shall be able to interact live on each channel and ask questions to teachers in studios and seek instantaneous reply through video conferencing, mobile/land line, SMS, e-mail etc.

The content shall also be converted into e-content into four quadrants using a

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template and made available to viewers on demand through MHRD’s cloud servers. Total fresh content generation and delivery is going to be to the tune of 1,46,000 hours a year, equivalent to 3,650 courses of 40 hours each.

Around 2004, the need was felt for making use of technology to reach out to large number of students as there was dearth of sufficient number of qualified teachers. There were several instances where senior undergraduate teachers were teaching the next batch. This prompted a good number of IITs and the IISC to come together to decide upon the kind of courses that were required as prescribed by the AICTE and other universities. They decided to create a resource of whatever is taught

Education through technology also needs to be interactive. The issue here is with answering queries. With several students opting for web and video-based material, it is no good if questions can’t be answered. “For this purpose, we developed FAQ material where we provide links to detailed analysis of that topic.

We also have highly qualified people willing to help with queries.

“We provide massive online learning.

Anywhere in the world, you get an honours certificate for participating in it. We thought that in the country, we can develop online programmes where students can take an exam and get certificates. In one case, out of 65000 who appeared, 25,000 took the online exam. We are

Prof Ranjan Bose, Deptt of Electrical Engineering & Prof Kaushal Sen, Deptt of Textile Technology, IIT Delhi

to an engineering student. Prof. Kushal Sen, Department of Textile Technology, IITDelhi, talked about the development being brought about by National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL).

“When we started, bandwidth in the country was not that good. We wanted webbased instruction material. However, some thought that video mode would be better due to limitations of Internet availability.

But as Youtube became very popular, we started uploading videos, and the students preferred these video over traditional methods. Then we went for Phase II, where we are providing web-based and video-based instructional material to whichever institution requires it, besides IITs and associated universities,” said Sen.

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yet to see if students clearing these exams can become employable,” Sen noted.

Virtual online universities is another idea that MHRD has in mind. “Self-learning is of utmost importance when it comes to ICT in education. It is also required that people from industry are involved as they are aware of what the industry wants.

We still have miles to go,” Sen observed.

Prof. Ranjan Bose, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi, stressed upon the Virtual Labs project which comprises 12 partners with IIT Delhi leading in terms of coordination.

The study of engineering is pointless without a laboratory. However, physical labs come with their own requirements such as costly equipment etc. “We looked

at these problems and realised that we can have a proper ICT based solution,” said Bose. Here, there can be an actual physical lab with several users accessing it remotely through the Internet. “The problem is that if I am accentuating a real lab experiment, I cannot scale up this model. I cannot have several people tinker with the same equipment in a different manner,” Bose noted.

Thus, the need was felt to scale up the project big time. This led to the idea of simulation based labs which don’t offer anything less in terms of learning.

The first step here was defining the target group. This was followed by major objectives being devised into a four-fold model.

“With the idea to provide remote access to labs, we are catering to UG, PG and even research scholars and we would like students to learn at their own pace. We want to arouse their curiosity. The big question is whether we can build a complete learning management system around this virtual lab experience, which we don’t have even today,” Bose observed.

There are five main features of these labs. These are on-demand labs, there is an integrated learning with self evaluation, animations and the luxury to make mistakes. “As a teacher, I say that physical labs are most important and I would never encourage students to ignore their importance. However, these virtual labs are a great boon in a situation where there is shortage of resources and time,” Bose observed.

Today under NPTEL, there are over 100 labs at IIT Delhi and plans are to scale it up now. Phase I is over and Phase II talks about proliferation and outreach.

Till date, 150 workshops around 125 colleges have been conducted and two lakh students have tried these labs and provided feedback. “We have a restricted number but now we will go all out and will be doing workshops and training.

Moreover, we have been monitoring the usage of these labs. These labs are being used late into the night and weekends, which is a great advantage,” said Bose.

When we talk about ICT-enabled learning, it also has the potential to provide solutions to issues such as shortage of qualified faculty. Shyama Iyer, Project

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Manager at The Spoken Tutorial Project, MHRD, believes people need to get comfortable with technology. If a teacher runs away from technology, students run away from them. “The attention span of today’s generation is less. Using open source software is the smart thing to do,” she says.

Spoken tutorial is an audio-video tool used to teach open source software where students learn a software in short simple steps in an interactive manner. They can replicate the instructions, build and run the highly manageable programmes.

“What is remarkable is that we have conducted 2,500 workshops across the country,” Shyama informed. Talking of the various advantages of the initiative, she said, “In programming, there is nothing like writing your own program, compiling and running it. It helps that instead of reading theory, you see the concept in a small programme, do it, practice it and understand it hands-on”.

Over 4 lakh students have been trained in colleges, polytechnics and ITIs in the past three years. For each software, the training consists of a first session of two hours, followed by self revision of the remaining topics and a one hour long online assessment test after a month or so. The two-hour session or workshop can be accommodated in the lab hours of the related course being taught. Once it is downloaded from the website and installed in the systems, learning can be offline and Internet is not needed.

The course content includes the software, 10-minute long video tutorials to cover the topics, assignment questions and an instruction sheet. It is suited for individual self-learning without the need of an expert teacher. Students do not need to leave the campus but learn in their own labs and guidance is provided by team at IIT Bombay.

There are questions all around and the essence lies in whether we can convert the question into a great tool to teach, said Rahul Deshmukh, Technical Officer, IIT Bombay. “With this aim, IIT Mumbai has started a project. Ask a question (AAQ) is a unique question and answer series in the field of engineering and science which offers open access

Rahu Deshmukh

Nageshwar Nath

Shyama Iyer

CEC has one of the largest repository which includes more than 23,886 educational video programmes, more than 8,086 e-content modules and 1,500 short learning objects to the responses of IIT Mumbai faculty.

One has to just give a missed call to the number and get the information of the next session by SMS,” he informed.

Here is how it works. The online video courses portal “Courses on view” has an AAQ question bar. The AAQ application programme interface (API) is made available and can be embedded to any website to directly post questions. The question and answer collection is also available on DVD. “Recently AAQ has started in the faculty of Physics and we are in the process of starting AAQ in design as well.

There is an Online Live Interactive Session,” Deshmukh elaborated. Under the programme, every Thursday at 4 p.m., an expert is available to answer all the queries. In three and a half years since this programme took off, today there are over 81 remote centres, more than 1,600 questions have been answered, and the number of beneficiaries is approximately 36,000.

Nageshwar Nath, Maintenance Engineer, Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC), New Delhi, informed how its centres comprising about 500 trained manpower and state-of-the-art equipment, are engaged in production of video and multimedia-based programmes for the past 28 years. CEC has one of the largest repository which includes more than 23,886 educational video programmes, more than 8,086 e-content modules and 1,500 short learning objects. Over 2,500 video pro-

grammes, e-contents, LOR etc., are added to the repository annually. “The MHRD vide its communication dated March 31, 2009, has approved a project proposal for e-content development to CEC in under graduate subjects. CEC, along with media centres, has developed an e-content template in four quadrants following instructional design methodology, which has been accepted as a model template by MHRD,” Nath informed.

Apprising the gathering of other initiatives that are being undertaken for use of ICT in education, Nath further talked about their programmes with Centre for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC), Pune, starting skill based and languages e-courses in collaboration with Universities and creating local storage at University /Colleges where entire content can be stored for viewing by students.

Viewed as a powerful means to build a knowledge-based society, higher education plays a pivotal role in the development of any country. The will from the government to promote use of technology in education is visible. The programmes initiated a few years ago have finally started to take shape. Monitoring the implementation of these technologies at institutions in the boondocks and addressing the infrastructure related issues therein is the next step forward. One hopes that these efforts multiply and find greater acceptance at all levels so that one can find the right mix of teaching and learning methods for the larger good of education in India.

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Looking Down the Barrel Technology has made critical inroads into our lives and there’s a concerted push from the government to integrate it with higher education in India. Despite a realisation of benefits of technology-enabled learning, there are challenges that need to be urgently addressed.

Parimal Peeyush of ENN delves into the details

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here has been a remarkable shift in the way education is being imparted across the globe. Technology, which for long had been the exclusive premise of realms above the understanding of general masses, has infiltrated our daily lives to an extent that one could not have imagined a few years ago.

Far from being alien to it, the education sector has been one of the biggest adopters of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool for delivery. Innovation, for long a hallmark of good education, is now transforming the way education is being imparted worldwide. With a revolution in the way information is collected and disseminated, ICT is catching up as a medium of choice for educators in India.

Several senior academicians that we got in touch with agree that the benefits of the use of technology are multifold for students and teachers alike.

“Today, we are faced with the challenge of providing opportunities to the youth to receive appropriate education and unfold their full potential for meeting their aspirations. We recognise that technological tools, particularly computer, digital tools, Internet, etc., have

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immense potential to enable students acquire knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the competitive global market,” says K P Mishra, Vice Chancellor, Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya (NGBU).

For the uninitiated, there has been a concerted push from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) towards adopting technology-enabled learning and a separate division has been created for this purpose under the Department of Higher Education. Another major push in this direction has been the launch of the National Mission for Education through ICT (NMEICT).

Under this mission, the National Video Server of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) was launched at IIT Madras in February 2011. The video server, aimed at making the entire NPTEL content available to students across universities and colleges online, is connected to 1 Gbps link of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) and to 155 Mbps link to the Colleges’ Virtual Private Network (VPN).

The realisation that technology is relevant to the field of education and that it is growing in importance in today’s

knowledge-based society is clearly present in all quarters. “An average person now changes at least 10 professions in his/her lifetime. In such a scenario, what is it that we can teach to enable our students to be future-ready?” asks Sunaina Singh, Vice Chancellor, English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU).

The benefits of the use of ICT tools in education have also been debated and discussed at various forums and within institutions extensively.

What has perhaps been missing in current times is the willingness and the ability to address the challenges that are hampering the implementation of technology-enabled learning. This significant innovation in education is disruptive and expensive and many institutes today are finding it tough to deal with the lack of required facilities and the high costs associated with it. Regulatory hurdles, erratic electricity supply and a mindset among teachers and students that resists change are some other bottlenecks that several institutions across India face in terms of implementing the policies devised by the government to encourage and facilitate technology enabled learning.

“We are all geared up to deliver tech-enabled education, but often face

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difficulties in terms of adoption,” says Nupur Prakash, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women.

Insiders tell us that there is also a lack of awareness among the institutions about the programmes of the government in this regard. Monitoring it is also a major challenge as there is no concrete data to suggest how far digital learning techniques have penetrated across institutions and colleges across the states.

“In my experience, there are a few snags that need to be tackled for enhancing the impact of ICT on quality improvement of education,” observes K P Mishra of NGBU. “For example, infrastructure and manpower in various universities differ markedly. Therefore, plans of implementation of the ICT programme have to be executed in groups of universities with similar background and encourage them to catch up with better placed institutions,” he adds. Among other issues, he also calls for devising a plan for one-time special funding assistance to establish and improve infrastructure for technology-based teaching, training, learning and research for the accelerated implementation of NMEICT. Infrastructure and monetary issues only constitute a part of the problem.

The major issue lies in the poor understanding of technology among teachers as well as students. “There is the danger of dwelling too closely on the use of technology and tools,” says Sunaina Singh of EFLU. “What is more essential is a change in our attitudes to the use of technology in the classroom, a commitment to think of education in a new perspective – one that is no longer handed down by the teacher, but is more collaborative and interactive in nature; one that is not compartmentalised, but aimed at developing transferable skills,” she suggests.

The Roadblocks D Lack of funds has been a major deterrent D Inadequate infrastructure and facilities D Erratic supply of electricity in several areas D Absence or shortage of trained teachers D Resistance from students and teachers in making the shift to technology D Lack of incentive for teachers for innovation

These issues form a challenge for the government as well. Speaking of the implementation of ICT-enabled education in India, Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education and Mission Director, NMEICT, says that the major challenge of the mission is to enable and empower teachers in adopting a technology-enabled environment.

“We have to support teachers in acquiring skills in e-content development and make them adept in the emerging modes of technology-based delivery,” he observes. “Another area that requires urgent intervention is to put in place a policy acceptable to all stakeholders for integrating technology-enabled learning as a part of curriculum and recognising degrees earned through the online mode,” he adds.

His observations do hold true. Today,

teachers who have become used to conventional methods find it tough to deal with this change. Moreover, lack of incentive to adopting these techniques is also missing from our existing framework and teachers, as a result, find it difficult to devote the time required for learning and adopting new age tools of teaching. There needs to be an overall change in the mindset of the academicians for promoting the use of these technologies within the teaching fraternity and more importantly, among students.

The world a decade from now will not demand the same skill sets that keep us going today. Moreover, with the demographic dividend that India is poised to be sitting on in the coming two decades, there will be a huge demand for quality manpower. This would require present students to be ready to face the demands of coming times. Technologyenabled education is an enabler in this direction and the benefits we are able to reap will depend upon how quickly we understand its effective and correct use and adapt to it. One must not forget that over 65 per cent of India still lives in villages and it is here that this revolution will have to reach to make the right impact if India has to be future-ready. In a scenario where education still remains elusive to a majority of the population, the benefits of technology will have to be harnessed in expanding the reach of education and bringing a huge population into the mainstream. Running away from technology is no more the answer. Technology is here to stay and the onus of reaping its benefits now lies with the teachers and institutions. The sooner we get it, the better it will be for our society, our economy and our country as a whole.

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As a university with the objective to improve the access of higher education for rural areas, how relevant do you find the use of technological tools in education in today’s time and age?

Major population of India lives in rural areas and education has to reach remote and inaccessible places. Plans have to be worked out to engage youth from urban as well as rural areas in nation-building through proper education. The focus of our endeavours is to improve upon the quality and access of higher education to students from rural India. Without doubt, technological tools hold the key to achieve these objectives effectively. At this point in time of globalisation, new opportunities have been created but competition has also become tougher.

This demands optimisation of talent promotion through innovation in education and training and requires reforming and strengthening of our education system - from primary to university level - to match global standards. We are faced with the challenge of providing opportunities to the youth to receive appropriate education and unfold their full potential for meeting their aspirations.

We recognise that technological tools, particularly computer, digital tools, Internet etc. have immense potential to enable students acquire knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the competitive global market.

While setting up the university, late Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru had noted the importance of vocational, technical and professional education. What role does technology play in achieving these objectives and how well is your university geared up for techenabled learning?

Universities are regarded to be the temples of knowledge. India’s first Prime Minister Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru had recognised and placed due importance to vocational and professional education as it provides the confidence and capability for winning jobs and setting up enterprises. Education is meaningless if it cannot help earn a living to meet the

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‘Limited Impact of ICT on Quality of Education’ There are many challenges that must be tackled for effective implementation of ICT in the education programme, believes K P Mishra, Vice Chancellor, Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya (NGBU). In an interview to ENN, he also talks about the issue of funds, infrastructure and the unintentional resistance of stakeholders to change

necessities of life. In the present time, the advent of information and communication technology has facilitated the process of teaching and learning in more ways than one. Education has witnessed a revolution in the approach and methods of teaching. A greater opportunity of interactive teaching has become possible and teachers can design and deliver course material to students in an interesting and effective manner.

We have made sincere efforts to employ ICT in teaching programmes for the benefit of students and teachers by providing computer labs, Internet facilities, digitisation of library and innovations in teaching. Many initiatives have been taken and upgradation of technological facilities is a continuous process in our future plans.

In recent years, there has been a concerted push from the HRD ministry at the Centre towards technology enabled learning. Are you aware of the initiatives and how well have they progressed at your institute?

We are fully aware of the HRD ministry’s push for introducing technology enabled learning in higher education. I am a strong supporter of the government’s National Mission for Education through ICT (NMEICT). In fact, NGBU has actively followed the implementation of plans and programmes of the central government provided from time to time. We are particularly interested in increasing utilisation of information technology in admission, examination and evaluation processes.

We have also started an orientation programme of training the new and existing faculty through computers and power point presentations to make them technology savvy and upgrade their professional knowledge and class room teaching methods. The focus is to integrate technology in teaching and transform the traditional class room teaching into a technologydriven learning and practice centre.

What in your view is the impact of the use of technological resources on the quality and accessibility of education? How has it helped the

students and faculty at your institute?

In my opinion, quality of teaching is the core strength of university education which, unfortunately, has shown a declining trend in past years in our country. It is hoped that MHRD would take note of this decline and take corrective measures. Use of technology has enormous scope to improve quality and accessibility of education, especially in rural areas. There has been a limited impact of ICT on quality improvement of education but the efforts are continuing. In my experience, there are a few snags that need to be tackled for enhancing the impact. For example, infrastructure and manpower in various universities differ markedly. Therefore, plans of implementation of the ICT programme have to be executed in groups of universities with similar background

to conceive, initiate, and implement projects utilising information technology in their fields of study. We believe that by allowing students to employ and practice technology in a free atmosphere would prod them to thinking of creating new software and services for future.

What are the challenges that you have faced with regard to the introduction of ICT in education?

Any plans to engage with private players to take it to the next level?

There are many challenges that must be tackled for effective implementation of ICT in the education programme. In this context, the merit of investment in creating infrastructure for implementation of technology is obvious. But, often such investments receive lukewarm response by the university fund allocation Commit-

The major problem faced in implementation of technology-based teaching programmes is the unintentional resistance of stakeholders to change and encourage them to catch up with better placed institutions. Among other factors, unreliable availability of electricity from commercial supply system and inadequate power through generator system frequently disrupt the plans of technology teaching and practice, thereby disturbing the schedules and adversely affecting the teaching programme. Teaching standards and accessibility would substantially improve after we make dependable delivery of teaching from centralised destinations assuring students quality lesson material designed by experts in the subjects.

Are there any other initiatives that you have streamlined with regard to tech-enabled learning?

We have planned a few initiatives for technology based teaching and learning in our campus. For example, we are keen to implement our plans for transforming the classroom experience by replacing traditional passive lectures with active learning experiences based on information technology. In addition, it has been in our active plans to motivate students

tee. It may be advisable to plan for onetime special funding assistance to establishing and improving infrastructure for technology-based teaching, training, learning and research for accelerated implementation of NMEICT. In my experience, the major problem faced in implementation of technology-based educational programmes is the unintentional resistance of stakeholders to change.

Passive approach and lack of receptivity are major hurdles which, of course, stems due to traditional mindset. It can, however, be tackled with patience and tactful handling. I feel fortunate to have identified and involved willing faculties to implement new plans of technology based teaching, training and research activities. However, it was more than satisfying to witness enthusiastic participation of young students in technology based courses and innovative research activities in Ph.D. programme. I strongly believe that participation of private players in education supported by technology would push the ICT programme towards a faster pace, wider acceptability and better academic participation.

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The Challenge Lies in the Mindset Although the university is all geared up to deliver tech-enabled education, difficulties often arise in its adoption, says Nupur Prakash, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women. In an interaction with ENN, she says that the bottlenecks arise either in the form of infrastructure or on account of the closed mindset of teachers and students who still believe that the chalk and talk method is the best mode of education delivery As a premier institute for women in the field of technical education, how well do you think has the university succeeded in addressing the gender gap observed in the workforce at tech companies?

Every year, 300 women engineers pass out from this University and get placed in prestigious Indian companies and abroad. Most of the companies visit our campus to recruit our girls to correct their skewed gender ratio.

There has been a concerted push from the HRD ministry towards technology enabled learning.

Being an engineering institute, what are the initiatives that you have streamlined at your university in this regard?

We have recently got high-speed National Knowledge Network (NKN) connectivity on our campus which can be used to stream live lectures and Webinars. We have introduced electives in our B.Tech, MCA and M.Tech programmes where students can opt for digital lecture series from NPTEL (National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning) which provides e-learning through online Web and Video courses in engineering, science and humanities streams.

Any plans to engage with private players to take technology enabled learning to the next level?

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it helped the students and faculty?

We are able to offer more number of electives using ICT as good quality lectures and course material is available online these days. Moreover, students can enroll for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and take lessons anytime, anywhere on the subjects of their interest.

The bottlenecks are due to inadequate infrastructure and the closed mindset of teachers and students who still believe that the chalk and talk method is the best mode of education delivery No, not in the near future. However, we are looking for cloud-based campus management solution for automating different activities of our University.

What in your view is the impact of the use of technological resources and ICT on the quality and accessibility of education? How has

How well is your university geared to imbibe this new phenomenon of tech-enabled education?

What are the major challenges or bottlenecks that you have faced while implementing the same?

We are geared up to deliver tech-enabled education, but often face difficulties in terms of adoption. The bottlenecks are sometimes due to inadequate infrastructure and sometimes on account of the closed mindset of teachers and students who still believe that the chalk and talk method is the best mode of education delivery.

What are the other priority areas for the university in the near future?

We would like to upgrade the existing lab, buildings and IT infrastructure of our campus to improve the overall academic ambiance of the campus. We have recently started doctoral programmes in various branches of engineering, science and technology and would like to improve upon our research culture, industry tie-ups and academic alliances.

‘Progress Slow Due to Lack of Funds’ There are steps we have initiated in line with the government’s push for technology enable learning, says M C Dileepkumar, Vice Chancellor, Sree Sankaracharaya University of Sanskrit. However, the progress has been slow due to the paucity of funds. Excerpts from the interview The vision of your university talks about a blend of the study of Sanskrit with modern science and technology. How relevant do you find the use of technological tools in education?

It is very relevant for our university to link with modern science and technology. Sanskrit is the first language acceptable to computer software. Unfortunately, we have not yet exploited the scope of this language in technology.

There has been a concerted push from the HRD ministry towards technology-enabled learning.

How have they progressed at your institute?

The steps initiated by the HRD ministry in this regard are appreciable. We are taking steps for its implementation.

However, due to lack of funds, the progress in this field is slow.

How do you view the impact of the use of technological resources on

the quality of education?

Without the use of technology, development becomes slow. To attain progress, development of new technology is essential.

What are the challenges with regard to the introduction of ICT in education?

As a state university, we have a process where we need to obtain permission from the government. All this (engagement with private players) depends on fund allotment.

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‘Technology is Empowered by the Teacher who Uses it’ Being literate in the traditional sense is no longer sufficient for success in the 21st century workplace, believes Sunaina Singh, Vice Chancellor, English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU). In an interaction with ENN, she says that apart from students benefitting from the use of technology, there is a perceivable change in teachers’ attitudes towards teaching, knowledge and learning As an institute involved in teaching and training of languages, how relevant is the use of technological tools and ICT in the field of education for you?

As a teacher, I am aware of the constantly shifting paradigms in education – many of us are caught in a situation where digital immigrants teach digital natives. It would not be wrong to say that many of our students are more tech-savvy than the teachers, and comfortable with their own set of digital practices. To reach out to a group like that, we need our teachers to engage with ICT and new tools. But more importantly, as academicians we need to be aware that technology is no longer a ‘nice-to-know skill’, it is an ‘essentialto-know skill’. Being literate in the traditional sense is no longer sufficient for success in the 21st century workplace.

Newer definitions of literacies are being explored and hailed globally as essential workplace skills. Digital literacy that goes beyond basic skills to include information, technological, and visual knowhow, is one such core essential skill.

There has been a concerted push from the HRD ministry towards technology enabled learning. What is the progress at your university?

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Following directives from the MHRD, and based on the observations made by the Honorable President and recommendations made during the Vice Chancellor’s Conference 2013, our University has consolidated and strengthened its initiatives in the use of technology in education to assist both students and teachers. There is more e-content being generated both in our distance mode programmes and also as support to faceto-face classrooms. Conscious adoption of web 2.0 tools by many of our teachers has made the teaching-learning process more seamless. EFLU has always laid emphasis on providing access to learning opportunities for all students.

An area emphasised by my administration was enabling our differently-abled students to move forward with ease in e-learning.

Are there any other initiatives that you have streamlined with regard to tech-enabled learning?

Apart from providing empowering technology tools to our Disabled Cell, we have made significant efforts in restructuring courses in terms of content and delivery, to make them simpler, yet more efficient.

The EMMRC, School of Distance Education and several programmes in foreign languages are using technology both as

an agent for content presentation as well as a medium of delivery. Our teachers welcome opportunities for content updation of face-to-face courses to ensure their currency – some of our courses deliver the latest in the field of ICT in language sciences like Use of web 2.0 tools, Game theory, Digital literacies, Digital artefacts etc.

What in your view is the impact of the use of ICT on the quality and accessibility of education? How has it helped the students and faculty at your institute?

Technology makes possible concepts that we have always upheld as educators, like learner autonomy and lifelong learning. It facilitates a move away from a perception of education as something that happens within classroom walls at specific times and allows individualised learning in the truest sense. Many of our course instructors use social networking sites and 2.0 tools like wikis, penzus, blogs, voicethreads, etc. The affordances offered by such digital learning environments include multiple entry levels and individualised learning paths.

Additionally, they also allow multimodal assessment patterns, promote higher order thinking skills, encourage creativity and facilitate collaborative and interac-

tive learning paradigms. And it isn’t just our students who have benefitted, there is a perceivable change in teachers’ attitudes towards teaching, knowledge and learning; our teachers have started thinking of newer pedagogies, reinterpreting research methodologies, and designing new modes of assessment.

Any plans to collaborate with private players?

Several linkages to establish collaborative programmes with industry in the field of language research and pedagogical innovations are already in place and more are being planned. The intention is to introduce multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity to our programmes so that our students gain opportunities to ideate and innovate. A second area where we would benefit interfacing with industry is in developing transliteracy skills in our students. The ability to acquire and present information in multiple forms, I feel is best achieved in authentic contexts. We are seeking

industry partnerships for such digitally-situated student development programmes.

What are your priority areas in the near future?

Scoping future trends and opportunities, I think as educators and administrators we need to think of ways to promote and support digital learning in continuous and sustainable ways. My goal is to think of embedding digital literacy as an educational approach and a norm rather than an exception restricted to a workshop or a few courses. I read a survey report somewhere that an average person now changes at least 10 professions in his/her lifetime. In such a scenario, what is it that we can teach to enable our students to be future-ready? There is the danger of dwelling too closely on the use of technology and tools. As the head of a language university I find this unrewarding. Instead, what is more essential is a change in our attitudes to use of technology in the classroom, a com-

mitment to think of education in a new perspective – one that is no longer handed down by the teacher, but one that is more collaborative and interactive in nature; one that is not compartmentalised, but aimed at developing transferable skills. Now, all these mean incorporating newer elements into teacher training programmes – we need to encourage the teacher to come out of his/her comfort zone and address teacher anxiety.

We plan to design confidence-building sessions to demonstrate that technology can never replace teachers, that technology is empowered by the teacher who uses it. Which is why I feel blended classrooms should be given priority. Secondly, I am also interested in providing authentic contexts for practice of digital literacy skills so that our students are industry-ready by the time they complete their education. And finally, we would also like to build on our online courses and encourage wider dissemination of courses and lectures to make them accessible to the general public.

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The engineering e-Learning courseware for faculty and students is installed in the college LAN and also hosted on a portal to access anytime, anywhere through the Internet. Faculty can use the content with animations, images, quiz etc., in their classroom deliveries and students can access the content in LAN or through Internet. The courseware is adaptable to the bi-directional video conference system to beam in live interactive sessions whenever required.

A bi-directional video conferencing system is established at the University headquarters or any central location identified by the University, from where live lecture sessions can be beamed to all the endpoints, i.e. to the colleges or from any college in the network to all other colleges. Students from any college can interact with expert faculty and clarify their doubts. Bi-directional video conferencing provides an awesome learning experience and broadens the students’ thinking horizon; and will help the institutions with a tool to develop their own knowledge repository.

The same platform can be leveraged to connect to industry experts, leading academicians, HR experts, and eminent personalities to make the students aware of changing industry trends, percolate the recruitment parameters of companies and other programmes that will help the institution in shaping a student’s career.

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‘Education has to Converge on a Device’ Tarun Malik, Director, Media Solutions Center – South West Asia, Samsung Electronics, speaks to ENN on the South Korean giant’s debut in digital learning solutions in the Indian market How do you see Samsung’s foray into smart learning?

Samsung is a leader in technological innovation and we are well-known in the hardware side. Smart Learning is the first in software services innovation

by Samsung. At the end of day, we are looking at converging all the technology devices and continue to innovate. This is the first step in this space. You will see more offerings in the coming weeks.

What is the potential for Smart Learning?

India is a huge market. The solutions will supplement the educational needs of over 60-70 million students studying in classes 1 to 12 for CBSE board. There is a gap between learning and getting educated. There is a gap in imbibing the pedagogy. We have taken a step forward by working with the best academicians in the country and with feedback from teachers and students. The solutions will be augmented to include other school boards, higher education and skill building content in due course.

How long did Samsung work on the education solution?

We worked for eight months.

How will it transform learning?

Samsung Smart Learning provides indepth subject-wise content with elaborate multimedia tutorials, interactive lesson-based exercises and practice tests.

The solution is designed to ensure maximum impact-based learning through proven techniques like conceptual vid-

Our target is to reach over 30 million school children. The enterprise team is approaching schools for tie-ups. It is a cloud-based service. It can also be accessed via offline access points. There are approximately 7,000 Samsung stores across. India has been equipped to sell education content on the Samsung Galaxy tab. This will be gradually extended to 10,000 stores.

What is the investment in Smart Learning?

It is a highly complex investment to be in. We are investing constantly. eos and collaborative learning methods.

What is the response for Smart Learning both from metros and tier II cities?

We have got good response from across the country. Actually, the need is the same both in metros and tier II cities.

What changes is bandwidth need. Solution and response is the same.

Is Smart Learning affordable?

It is as low as `2,600 for class X per year for science and mathematics. For class XI onwards, it is in the range of `7,800 to `10,400 for science and mathematics. Students have to buy the entire course which will remain valid for a year. On an average, a student who goes to dinner spends `3,000. This content is licensed. We have to pay license fee to content creators.

How do we access the solution?

So is enterprise mobility looking up for education?

Enterprise mobility is a big word. As I see it, education and health has to converge on a device. Most of the things will go on a decent screen size of 5 plus on a smart phone. Education, particularly the content, is deep and has to be on TV as well.

Will the Smart Learning content come in other languages?

We are looking at nine to ten languages in the next few months.

Will the software put teachers out of work or supplement their efforts?

We are closely working with teachers and spending on teachers’ training in the schools we go. Schools and parents are excited as students are learning and understanding concepts better. This is critical as these are the formative years for students. It makes them skilled for future decisions.

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Iindustry ndustry s speak peak

Rapid adoption of mobile and tablet technology will play a major role in the way the entire digital learning experience is valued and consumed, believes S N Rai, Co-Founder & Director, LAVA International. In conversation with ENN, he says there is need for collaboration among content development companies, network providers and device manufacturers to build an ecosystem of mobile learning to propel the industry forward

‘Strong Focus on the Enterprise Space’ What has been the genesis of Lava Communications?

Lava was born with a vision to empower people to do more and be more. Lava continues to do that at every touch point consistently – consumers, employees, commercial partners and shareholders. The entire value chain is working with ownership to become a global consumer from India. Over the last five years, Lava has invested in setting up a strong foundation in distribution, R&D, processes and people and continues to do so. On the back of this structure, we have been very successful with entry level phones. Our focus now is to acquire a larger pie of the mid segment and premium smartphones market in India.

What are the various fields you are venturing into in the education space and how?

Tablets offer immense potential, particularly in the field of education. The market for tablet PCs in the education sector is growing extremely well as a result of government initiatives to adopt e-learning in schools. We are collaborating with several state governments to provide tablets with customised educational content. Last year, Lava spearheaded the education initiative in Meghalaya, where eleven thousand tablets were delivered to students under the government’s Student Digital Learning Scheme. The tablet was customised with an inbuilt education app – Digital Library – that enables students to access the content. With our tablet offerings, we are committed to facilitate

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customised products to harness the potential of digital learning in India. Apart from this, we are tying up with several content providers as well as mobile app development companies in the education space to provide a complete solution to several educational institutions in higher education.

How do you plan to capitalise on the increasing demand of tablets in the enterprise space?

Lava is focussing aggressively on the enterprise space this year and is building up a dedicated sales and service team for our enterprise customers. In the education domain, we have tied up with several content development companies who provide content for senior secondary classes, engineering and medical preparation. This year, we will launch tablets on Windows platform apart from Android as the enterprise segment has shown affinity towards Windows-based devices due to better user interface.

How do you see the evolution of the tablet PC market in the education sector?

The market for tablet PCs in the education sector is growing as a result of government initiatives aimed at providing affordable tablets to students in schools and educational institutes.

Many early adopter schools are using tablets to conduct electronic tests via tablets. This enables teachers to devote more time on teaching students without the hassle of correcting a number of test papers. As tablets are also coming up with pre-loaded reference material, audio and video books, they are being used as primary study material. Tablets also enable students to get additional information through the Internet which

compliments their studies. With increasing penetration of 3G and introduction of 4G services in India, tablets will be in huge demand due to their portability, ease of use and ability to provide connectivity, content consumption and entertainment on the go.

The government has the mandate of providing affordable tablets to students in educational institutes.

How big is this opportunity for the private sector?

At present, the Indian higher education sector witnesses spends of more than `46,200 crore which is estimated to grow over `2,32,500 crore in 10 years. Strong government initiatives to push student enrollments in primary, higher education and distance learning will keep propelling market expansion.

The rapid adoption of mobile and tablet technology is going to play a major role in the way the entire digital learning experience is valued and consumed. Not long ago, the government aided many college students to get a tablet at subsidised rates for quality education as part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). Several state governments are providing affordable tablets to students at schools and educational institutions and the opportunity for the private sector is huge.

Which segment in the education sector can drive the market for tablet PC over the coming years?

The major thrust in the education sector will come from the K12 segment.

There has been an increased adoption of tablets for e-learning by private schools and government for the students in secondary classes and could introduce this

“Through partnerships, we are focussing on solutions specifically for sectors like education, healthcare and retail. The product portfolio will comprise the mix of affordable Wi-FI only and 3G calling tablets at different price points�

scheme for students studying in middle and lower standards as well. Schools will also start focussing on co-scholastic learning that includes imparting life skills like creativity, critical thinking etc.

The life skills are very important to a child’s development and have been mandated in CBSE schools. Digital learning will play an important role in skill development as this involves a lot of multimedia content consumption. Tablets are best suited to serve these needs.

What are your future plans for expansion and which areas you would focus on?

There is a strong focus on the enterprise space for providing an end-to-end customised solution to their commercial needs. Through partnerships, we are focussing on solutions specifically for sectors like education, healthcare, retail, etc. The product portfolio will comprise the mix of affordable Wi-fi only and 3G calling tablets at different price points.

Tablets in the `5000 to `7000 price bracket mostly offer Wi-fi only and there is a huge demand for such products in the education sector. On the other hand, enterprises prefer to equip their team with a portable device catering to computing and voice-cum-data connectivity needs at an affordable price; thereby bringing products with 2G/3G capability into the picture.

What is the percentage revenue growth of your tablet business in the education sector for 201213 and 2013-14? What are your expectations for 2014-15?

Overall in 2014-15, we are looking for over 100 per cent growth from 201314 revenues and we will achieve this through a strong focus on the enterprise and education domain along with expansion of the retail distribution channel. Although majority of our revenues will come from consumer retail channel, we are looking at nearly 30-40 per cent contribution from the education and enterprise domain combined. This is keeping in view the increasing demand of tablets as a substitute to laptop PCs from organisations.

digitalLEARNING / September 2014

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S

chools, colleges and institutions of higher learning are not what they used to be five years ago.

Today’s classrooms are undergoing a huge transformation, thanks to the use of digital technology by schools and higher educational institutes. The nominees and the award winners at the recently concluded World Education Summit (WES) 2014 reflected this emerging trend. The WES Awards 2014 recognised several initiatives and developments at the grassroots that will ignite minds, skill Indians better and aim for a sustainable environment.

These ideas that we hear succeeding today are a result of a vision that the best brains had a few years ago.

However, the scale at which we are witnessing this revolution has been possible only due to the innovative learning solutions eyeing 70 million students as their potential market.

Innovation and competition in the solutions market is fuelling education and propelling them into an higher orbit. Those who miss the bus now may not see themselves grow or contribute to India’s growth story.

We have witnessed the emergence of several niche players dedicated to providing innovative solutions to enhance outcomes in education. With a staunch belief in last mile connectivity, the WES Awards recognised the importance of government initiatives in several verticals. Here is a look at the awardees at the prestigious World Education Summit held at Hotel Eros, New Delhi, on August 7-8, 2014.

The Game Changers 58

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Government Initiatives in Education

Boosting Agronomy

India’s First University on Cooperatives Organisation: Assam Rajiv Gandhi University of Cooperative Management.

Website: www.argucom.org.in Description: To establish state-of-the -art facilities for Cooperative education and training to sustain the cooperative movement.

Target Group: Students from Assam, Delhi & Shillong.

Organisation: Kerala Agricultural University e-Agri-Tech Platform for Open and Distance Education.

Website: www.celkau.in Project: Centre for e-Learning.

Description: Speedy dissemination of timely knowledge in English and Malayalam, information and advice related to farming practices, technology and business.

Target Group: Farmers, extensionists, researchers, students, line departments, commodity boards, importers and exporters of farm commodities, private agencies, input dealers, SHGs, Farmers’ Consortiums, NGOs, LSGs, job seekers, job providers.

Achievement: The end-users span all over the world.

Achievement: The Assam Rajiv Gandhi University of Cooperative Management commenced on 28th December 2010 and it is the first University in India dedicated to cooperatives’ studies.

Empowering Rural India through Digital Learning Organisation: CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. Website: www.cscacademy.org Project: E-Inclusion.

Description: Innovative online and off-line Learning Management System to cater to the rural needs.

Target Group: To train and empower 45,000 rural SC/ ST Women beneficiaries across 12 States.

Achievements: • Scenario based local language eContent and interactive learning through

Learning Management System.

• Blended learning approach with large emphasis on self-learning.

• Regular tracking of the learning progress and completing the training within stipulated time.

• Online monitoring of the beneficiary registration, learning progress, course completion, etc. with the click of a button.

Making Higher Education Affordable Organisation: Karnataka State Open University.

Partner: Schoolguru Eduserve Pvt Ltd, Mumbai.

Website: www.karnatakastateopenuniversity.in

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Objective: Online programmes to ensure access to higher education at an affordable cost.

Target Group: Students.

Achievement: Inclusiveness in Education through open learning.

Government Initiatives In Education

Learn Anytime, Anywhere

Marching Towards Knowledge Society Organisation: NIIT Ltd, Thimpu, Bhutan Website: www.niit.com Project: Chiphen Rigpel (Enabling a Society Empowering a Nation) Objective: Aims to provide IT Knowledge to citizens in Himalayan Kingdom.

Organisation: The M.S University of Baroda,Vadodara.

Website: www.msubaroda. ac.in Project: E content generation of Adult and non-formal education courses.

Partner: This project was sponsored by MHRD, New Delhi, under NMEICT (Sakshat) initiatives for E-Content development.

Description: Technological innovations and rapid economic growth have created demands of skilled workers. The Institute is making all round development through quality education.

Target Group: Students.

Achievement: Each course is divided into small modules.

Description: Provides IT skills for policy makers, empowers teachers and provides IT skills to youths.

Target Group: All Bhutanese Citizens

Achievements: • Enabling E-Governance, Extensive Integration of ICT in Education, successful indigenization and knowledge transfer.

• Demonstrated impact of playground learning stations on english, science and math scores.

Best Private University in North India

Imparting Quality Education Organisation: Amity University, Rajasthan – Best Private University Website: www.amity.edu/jaipur/ Description: Amity University Rajasthan is part of the Amity Education Group, which has more than 80,000 students, 3500 eminent faculty and scientists, 150 Institutions of Excellence and conducts over 240 Programs in campuses spread over 13 cities across India.

Target Group: Indian and International students.

Achievement: Amity has under its umbrella a wide range of activities apart from education that underlines its vision of nation building. At Amity, the core faculty comprises distinguished academicians from the best institutions and leading professionals from the corporate world with rich industry experience.

Innovation in Open and Distance Learning

A Voice For The Voiceless Organisation: Dr C V Raman University, Bilaspur Project: Literacy campaign through community radio in Central India on legal, health and educational rights.

Website: www.cvru.ac.in/ Project: Literacy campaign through

community radio in Central India on legal, health and educational rights.

Target Group: Tribals and socially backward people in Kota.

Achievement: Free Radio sets distributed to increase wider accessibility to learning.

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Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Institutions

Stress Free Learning

Technology Integrated Education Organisation: Dr KN Modi University, Rajasthan Projects: Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning by Higher Education Institution Website: www.dknmu.org Description: DKNMU uses cutting-edge technology to improve transparency, convenience and to sharpen the student’s professional skills to improve their spirit of inquiry.

Organisation: Bannari Amman Institute of Technology.

Project: Creative Learning Methodology (CLM).

Website: www.bitsathy.ac.in/ Description: CLM is a student centered approach. It consists of six major steps namely alpha breathing, evocation & subject introduction, brain activation, reading and discussion by students, drawing mind map by students and faculty, presentation of summary by students.

Objective: Engage every student in creative learning.

Target Group: Students.

Achievements: • Application oriented learning • Personality Development and Self-learning ability.

Target Group: Students Achievement: DKNMU is selected to participate in the QEEE Pilot program in the first phase of 100 Colleges/Universities.

Partner: ERP has been put in place by Ellora Eduventures Ltd.

Interface between Academia-Industry

Preparing for Future Organisation: Ganpat University, Gujarat.

Project: Preparing Industry Ready Employable Skilled manpower.

Website: www.ganpatuniversity.ac.in Description: The project is aimed to promote industry linked programs, to promote research & innovation by filling the industry – academia gap, to develop competent skilled manpower ready for employment.

Target Group: Students.

Achievements: GU offers unique industry-focussed programs with strong industry linkages by involving industry in programs & content designing, class room delivery, resource development, research and faculty development.

Technology in Testing in Assessments in Higher Education Institutions

Managing Examinations for Error-Free Evaluvation Organisation: Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences & NIMHANS. Website: www.svimstpt.ap.nic.in Project: Transformation in Examination systems.

Description: Migrating examination process from pen and paper to

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computer-based model in colloboration with NIMHANS. Target Group: Students and teachers.

Achievements: • Error-free examinations, benchmark for medical entrance examinations.

• Streamlining processes has ended in faster results.

Technology Solution Provider

New Tools for Evaluation Organisation: TRS Forms And Services Private Limited, Chennai Website: www.trsforms.com Project: Auto Dummy Numbering Process Description: The process which was manually done in all Universities and education boards is now automated with this technology.

This has proved to be a boon with the increase in volume of students.

Target Group: Educational institutions Achievement: Initiative has automated the process of laborious evaluavation of examination sheets.

Global Collaborative Learning

International Exposure Programme

Global Exposure, Global Learning Organisation: Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar.

Website: www.hindustanuniv.ac.in Project: Global Exposure to Business School Students.

Description: Enriching learning experience in foreign universities and learning to be a global citizen.

Objective: The faculty-led study

abroad program provides a uniquely immersive international experience.

Target Group: Teaching faculty and students.

Achievement: • Global Networking • International placements in global MNCs.

Target Group: Students.

Website: www.iitgn.ac.in

Achievement:

Project: Globalising the IIT Gandhinagar Curriculum.

Strives

Description: Undergraduate students receive study abroad opportunities due to established partnerships and exchanges with international institutions besides a vibrant visiting faculty Organisation: Hindustan University, Chennai.

program.

to

expand collaborative classroom offerings with student exchanges and joint and simultaneous course offerings with international institutions.

Public Private Partnership in Higher Education

Nation Building Exercise Organisation: Gujarat Technological University.

Website: www.gtu.ac.in Project: Personality Development Program I-Become–an educational service provider specialising in nation and citizenship building initiatives.

The project is funded by the Adani Group as a part of their CSR initiative.

Description: To inspire the students to develop a larger vision of their own career and nation building.

Target Group: Teachers and Students Achievement: Bringing in a ‘purpose-orientation’ into the graduates of the country rather than just an ‘examination orientation’.

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Innovation by Engineering Institutes

Innovation Initiative

Teach Better, Learn Better Organisation: Padmashree Dr. D Y Patil Institute of Engineering & Technology.

Organisation: SAL Institute of Technology & Engineering Research.

Website: www.sal.edu.in Project: Hybrid Desert Cooler.

Description: It is basically a combination of an air cooler and air conditioning.

Objective: The main aim behind this venture is generation of education and research as a blend for Rajasthan at large.

Target Group: From commercial to non-commercial zone.

Achievement: Low power consumption, cools at lower cost.

Innovation in Open and Distance Learning

Digitally Simple

Website: www.engg.dypvp.edu.in Project: Class for Learning.

Description: Boring lectures were replaced by interactive learning by involving every student.

Target Group: Academically weak students .

Achievements: • Increase in attendance • Better academic results and team work.

Skilling Students Organisation: Chiripal Charitable Trust, Ahmedabad.

Website: www.scs.edu.in/ChiripalGroup.htm Project: Innovating a guaranteed six months paid internship for better iIndustry relevancy & higher placeability.

Description: The internship provides the students an opportunity to test their interest in a particular career before permanent commitments are made. It develops skills in the application of theory to practical work situations.

Target Group: Target students of Shanti Business School.

Achievement: A 100 per cent placement track record for successive years since its inception.

Engineering Rural Punjab Organisation: SAL Lovely Professional University, Punjab Website: www.lpu.in Project: e-Connect Description: User friendly online platform for Distance Education any time any where.

Target Group: Students Achievement: Currently handling 91,000 users with 20 terrabyte storage which is scalable to 180 terrabyte.

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Organisation: Swami Parmanand College of Engineering & Technology, Mohali.

Website: www.spcet.org Project: To develop a technically sound skilled force in Punjab by making them technical compatible with the help of technologies like VOIP, Wi-Fi, higher speed internet facilities and smart class rooms.

Target Group: Rural youth.

Achievement: Generating jobs for the rural people.

Virtual Classroom Provider

Startup Educational Institutions

Smart Learning, Quick Learning

Empowering Tribal Girls

Organisation: AuthorGEN Technologies Private Limited - WizIQ Virtual Classroom

Organisation: Himalayan University, Itanagar.

Website: http://www.wiziq.com

Website: www.himalayanuniversity.com

Project: To increase quality access to education for anyone, anywhere. It enables educators and learners from all over the world to connect with each other over internet in real-time.

Description: It is aimed at democratising education.

Target Group: Learners at all levels.

Achievement: WizIQ hosts more than 4500 live classes daily in the WizIQ Virtual Classroom and has already served over one billion minutes of live online learning.

Enterprise Resource Planning

From Kerala to Kenya Organisation: Foradian Technologies Fedena.

Project: Community oriented approach toward sustainable development in tribal region of Arunachal Pradesh.

Description: Offering quality higher education under the seg-

ment of career-oriented programs.

Target Group: Girl Empowerment Achievements: • 200 scholarships mainly for tribal girls.

• Introduction of E-learning.

School for Change

Breaking Sterotypes Organisation: Royal Global School, Guwahati.

Website: www.rgs.edu.in Project: Establishment of a world class progressive school in remote North East.

Target Group: North-East.

Achievements: • Readiness of the society, parents and community at large to accept the initiative with an open mind.

• Encourage the individuality of every child and prepare them to face new challenges and urge them to seek originality.

• Build a sense of global citizenship through cross cultural dialogue, exposure to discussions on international issues.

Website: www. foradian.com

Innovation in Education Practices

Project: Multipurpose school management software.

Imparting Quality Education

Description: Installed in over 40,000 institutes world-wide and powers over 20 million students and teachers. It allows easy and complete customisation.

Target Group: Schools.

Achievements: Present in more than 100 countries, Fordian helped in implementation of Project Sampoorna of Education Department of Government of Kerala, to automate the system and process of over 15,000 schools in the state.

Organisation: American Institute of Enrichment.

Website: www.theaie.org Project: Innovation In Pedagogical Practices.

Target Group: Schools.

Achievements: The AIE aids schools in curriculum design and implementation with the latest techniques and effective methods of classroom implementation.

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Testing and Assessment Solution Provider

Innovation in Education Practices

Self Paced Learning

Spicing It Up

Capture – Innovative Technology which brings videos into mainstream learning.

Organisation: Ginger Webs Pvt. Ltd.

Description: Taking learning beyond classrooms.

Website: www.gingerwebs.com Project: Innovative softwares to evaluate exams done both on paper-pencil and online.

Description: Establishes student-centric, participatory classroom.

Target Group: Education Institutes.

Achievement: First company to offer technology for taking assessment on paper, computer, mobile & tablet devices.

Technology Solution Provider

Engineering Excellence

Organisation: Globarena Technologies Pvt Ltd. Website: www.globarena.com Project: Designed to facilitate self-paced learning, the content is accessible 24 x 7 in the college LAN or over Internet and on various devices including tabs.

Description: Establishes student-centric, participatory classroom.

Target Group: Engineering Faculty and Students.

Achievement: Implemented in 2 Universities JNTU Hyderabad and JNTU Kakinada. Reached out to over 4.6 lakh students spread across over 500 colleges.

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Target Group: Students.

Organisation: Impartus Innovations Pvt. Ltd. Website: www.impartus.com Project: BlueBook Lecture

Achievement: Learning available on all popular devices (laptops, tablets, mobiles) and platforms (Android, iOS, Windows).

Competition Master Organisation: Mahendra Educational Pvt Ltd. Website: www.mahendras.org Project: Online mock test provider for different competitive examinations.

prestigious Educational Institutions across India.

Description: DIGIUNIV Education Management Solution is a Web-based Online ERP Software which is used by

Achievement:

Target Group: Job seekers.

Four lakh candidates registered on a pan-India level.

Enterprise Resource Planning

Going Digital: The Way Forward Organisation: Nysa Communications Pvt Ltd. Website: www.digiuniv.com Project: DIGIUNIV: Give your Institution the digital Edge.

Description: DIGIUNIV Education Management Solution is a Web-based Online ERP Software which is used by prestigious educational institutions across India.

Target Group: Universities as well

as colleges.

Achievement: Catering to 10 leading universities, implemented in more than 500 colleges and user base more than 10 lakh.

Non-Government Sector Initiative in Education Virtual Classroom Provider

Vocational Education & Training and Skill Development

Transforming Teachers

Linguistic Proficiency Organisation: Station-e Info Service Pvt. Ltd., Rajkot.

Organisation: Transform Educational Society.

Website: www.station-e.com

Website: www.sane.at.org Project: Make teachers value added assets for their organisation and the nation.

Description: Lift standard of education by working upon teacher’s teaching style.

Target Group: Teachers.

Achievement: Customised Workshop.

Smart Class Solution Providers

Project: Digital Language Lab for Skills Development.

vanced technology.

Target Group: Students.

Description: Digital Language Lab is a one-stop solution for training the youth for communication proficiency in English. Digital Language Lab is a man and machine combination providing training through innovative pedagogy and ad-

Achievement: There are 30 Centres of Digital Language Lab across the country and more than 10,000 youth trained. Addressed the requirement of diverse sections of the market.

Vocational Education & Training and Skill

Learn to Retain

Securing the Virtual World

Organisation: Foradian Smartur 3D.

Organisation: Cyberfort Technologies.

Website: www.smartur3d.in

Website: www.trsforms.com

Project: Experiential Learning using Augmented Reality for students to get first hand experience of science.

Project: Cyber Security Training and Consultancy.

Description: The tool provides real life models covering science topics from class 6 to 12.

Target Group: School Students.

Achievement: Presenting learning in 3D in a real life environment enhances better understanding and aids in long term retention.

Description: CYBERFORT Technologies is a Boutique Training and Consulting Firm specialising in Information Security. It seeks to impart quality Information Security programs that would equip Information Security professionals with the necessary tools and education to help

them avert cyber-crimes.

Target Group: IT professionals, IT companies , government bodies, universities and colleges.

Achievement: First company to launch MBA in Cyber security with strategic alliance with MGU.

Skills for Jobs Organisation: NIIT and NSDC. Website: www.niityuvajyoti.com Project: Transforming Lives Through Technology Enabled Skill Development NIIT Yuva Jyoti.

Description: With more than 60 per cent of the Indian population below the age of 25, there is a strong need to ensure that the youth of the country are adequately skilled as per industry requirements, in order to effectively utilise this ‘demographic dividend’ to power

a high potential for growth. the growth of the Indian economy. NIIT Yuva Jyoti – Skills for Jobs, an initiative between NIIT and NSDC (a PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) not-forprofit company promoted by the Union Ministry of Finance, with 49 per cent equity held by the Government of India) conceived with the vision of providing job oriented skills training of the highest quality to over 70 lakh youth by 2022, in different services sectors, which have

Target Group: Class X/XII pass, Diploma Holders.

Achievements: • First of its kind Video Log technology for evaluating students performance.

• Impacted the life of over 15,000 students, and created a skill registry database of more than 1.2 lakh students.

• Placement with over 325 industry tie ups like Reliance Retail, Kapsons, Aditya Birla Retail, Sparsh (BPO), Vishal mega mart. digitalLEARNING / September 2014

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School Education Green Initiatives by Educational Institutes

Green Campus of the Year

Creating a Better World

Organisation: Suryadatta Education Foundation, Pune.

Website: www.spsec.co.in

Website: www. suryadatta.org Project: The Foundation has embarked a dozen projects in order to make living on our planet sustainable.

Organisation: Sir Padampat Singhania Education Centre, Kanpur.

Project: Educating students about environment, conservation, recycling, renewability and reuse within a clean – green environment.

Description: Clean and Green Environment.

Description: To give a feel to students of being ‘In Nature’s Lap’ so that they may feel connected to the environment while attaining an education.

Target Group: Pune and Maharashtra citizens.

Target Group: Classes 1 to XII.

Achievements: • Reducing the soil loss from erosion by developing lawns across the school campus.

• Adopting green practices by recycling and reuse.

•

To reduce the soil loss from erosion by developing lawns across the school campus.

• Optimum utilisation of renewable resources.

Achievement: Created an eco-friendly campus, tree plantation and drinking water project in Pune.

Innovation In Pre-School Education

A Tool for Social Change

Organisation: Smartkidz Educare India Pvt. Ltd.

Organisation: Gundecha Education Academy, Mumbai.

Website: www. gundechaedu. org Project: Zero Garbage School.

Description: Managing waste generated by it, instead of depending on municipality. Students are taught the segregation, pre-recycling procedures and composting in order to accomplish a successful waste management. It also emphasises the social responsibility of the school by explaining how the benefits from such waste management practices are passed over to the underprivileged sections of society.

Target Group: Students, parents and the neighbouring community Achievement: Several channels for recycling set up.

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Best Practices in School Website: www.smartkidzindia.com Project: Emphasis on interaction between adults and children.

Description: To develop five major skills required for children i.e. Social, Physical, Intellectual, Cognitive and Emotional which we simplify as SPICE.

group of two to five and a half years

Target Group: Children between the age

• Reduces stress in children

Achievements: • Holistic development among children.

Enjoyable Learning Organisation: School Of Scholars

ers & Parents.

Website: www.mgsnagpur. org.in

• To teach the child in the way they will like and remember.

Project: The Hub System.

Description: Introduction of hubs for different subjects. Each and every child gets a chance to attend every hub and the activities are prepared well in advance.

Target Group: Children between the age group of two and five years , Teach-

Achievements:

• At the beginning of each school year faculty discuss the challenges that are being faced by children and teachers.

• Children became more responsible and independent. They learned in each domain how to work alone and in groups.

Global Collaborative Learning Initiative

Innovation in Pre-School Learning

Learning for Life

Greening Future

Organisation: Manav Rachna International School.

Project: Experiential learning.

Organisation: DCM Public School, Jammu.

Website: www.mris.edu.in Project: The Learning Center approach Description: Opportunities for hands on concrete learning, social interactions, real life problem solving, fine and gross motor development, literacy and numeracy and open-ended activities.

Target Group: Pre Kindergarten.

Children are happy to be in school.

Organisation: KMV Red Hills High School, Bangalore.

Organisation: G D Goenka School.

Website: www.gdgoenka.com spirit

Achievements: • Learning by doing.

• Enhancing the curosity.

• Taking out the leadership.

Greening Future

Going Global the

Target Group: Pre-Primary school

children.

E School initiative

Achievement:

Project: Promoting internationalism.

Description: Taking children for a nature walk in the middle of various fields, leaving them to play in the sand pit but monitoring side by side with the aim that children should understand and acquaint themselves with the environment and nature they are growing in.

of

Description: With the aim of strengthening the spirit of internationalism in the school, GD Goenka School is collaborating with other schools in areas of best teaching practices and projects. Involving the entire school community in the initiative and imparting ICT training and educating everyone besides coordinating, collaborating, collecting and submitting/ uploading reports/ pictures on various media and web channels for the whole school.

Target Group: Learners of Grade 6 to grade 12.

Achievement: Accredited with British council International School Award 2013-16 and there is an exchange programme with Oban High School. Oban, Argyll, Scotland.

Website: www.redhillshigh.com, www.livingtree.com Project: A secure social communication platform to improve parent involvement and community engagement.

Description: Schooling does not happen in a vacuum. We deal with parents, children and teachers. We

deal with their emotions and apprehensions.

Target Group: Parents, students and teachers.

Achievement: The project has been able to bring all the parents, students, teachers, school staff together and engage to create a vibrant community with a true sense of togetherness.

Full Use of ICT in School Management Organisation: Cambridge International School – Dasayu

strategies to support movement towards a variety of educational goals.

Website: www. cisdasuya.com

Target Group: School Students.

Project: Full use of ICT in School Management

Achievement:

Brief Description: There is full Use of ICT in School Management and imparting education, recognising its diverse uses with multi-pronged

The project’s reach is all over India, as well as UAE. ICT has helped in extending the boundaries of the school as well as facilitate innovation. digitalLEARNING / September 2014

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Innovations in Pedagogical Practices

Building Vocabulary

The Hub of Innovation

Organisation: Children’s Academy, Ashok Nagar Mumbai.

Website: sites.google.com Project: Innovation in Pedagogical Practices.

Description: Transforming teaching and learning process.

Target Group: Education institutions like universities, professional examination bodies and education boards.

Achievements: • Changing attitude of teachers from quantitative to qualitative teaching.

• Enthusiastic response from teachers and students.

Organisation: Kothari International School Noida.

Website: www.kotharischool.edu.in Project: Enhancing English-speaking skills through a reward system.

Description: To encourage students to speak in English.

Target Group: Grades 4 and 5.

Achievements: • Students built up their vocabulary bank gradually and began showing interest in reading so as to improve their vocabulary.

• Students began correcting each other’s sentence structures while speaking leading to better grammar concepts, both in the oral as well as written work.

Excellence in Education Organisation: Indus World School Website: www.indusworldschool.com Project: Innovation in Pedagogical Practices.

Description: The Practices include emotional corners in class, home visits by mentors, starting the day by setting the agenda and ending the day with a closure, QCT (Quality Circle Time) which encourages self discipline and self esteem.

Target Group: Children and parents Achievement: Google Apps have helped in creating effective communication channels. This has also helped reduce the use of paper.

Innovation in Science, Maths & Languages

Producing Polygots

Beyond Sites and Skies

Organisation: DAV Public School Sreshtha Vihar, New Delhi.

Website: www.davsreshtha.com Project: Multilingualism.

Description: Multilingualism has become a way of life in our school as students are actively involved in the multi-lingual projects. The projects include the four languages taught in the school namely English, Sanskrit, Hindi and French.

Organisation: Ryan International School, Noida Website: www.ryaninternational.org/risnoida/ Project: Innovation in Science Education.

Description: Efforts to sensitise the young minds with scientific temperament by using the universe and sky around us as one of the powerful tools. Our students have been actively participating in all astronomical events as members of the school astronomy

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Target Group: Class 5-12.

Achievements: • Students are given ample opportunities to apply their knowledge in creative ways by giving them an exposure to activities like radio shows, crosswords, spell bees, skits and multilingual assemblies.

• Multilingual prayer has become a regular feature of the school.

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club. This is one of the most interesting and regular events in which the students of our school are regular and active participants.

Target Group: Students of classes 6 to 12.

Achievement: Students study about the asteroids and try to discover the undiscovered ones with the help of a software Astrometrica, USA.

RNI NO. UPENG/2008/25311

UP/GBD-70/2012-14