digitalLEARNING December 2012

Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 8

I issue 12 I december 2012 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

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madhya pradesh

the rise of an educational HUB

STATE SUMMIT 2012 madhya pradesh

19th December 2012 Radisson Blu, Indore, Madhya Pradesh

special coverage p-50

Contents

ISSN 0973-4139

volume 08 issue 12 december 2012

policy matters

ACADEMIA SPEAK

Inclusive Growth should be the Focus

“Our Focus is Quality Faculty, Research Facility” The faculty in IIT are a blend of sound fundamentals and updated research skills, says Prof Pradeep Mathur, Director, IIT Indore

Jainarayan Kansotiya, Higher Education Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh, believes that if you start a college or university for the right reasons, you will be able to maintain quality

Kr Sumer Singh Principal, The Daly College, Indore

Gowri Ishwaran Chief Executive Officer, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation

46 Dr Prashant Rajvaidya President & Chief Technology Officer, Mosaic Network

53 Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations

57 Rajeev Katyal, Country Director, Global Indian Foundation and GIIS Schools India

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

academia speak

k-12 interview

34 Ajay Sharma, Managing Director, Shri Ram New Horizons

Sanjeev Agrawal, Chairman, Sagar Institute of Research & Technology (SIRT), Bhopal Prateek Sanghvi, Vice-President, Sanghvi Institute of Management and Science (SIMS)

38 Dr Aatul Wadegaonkar, Managing Director, Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Ltd (RKCL) event report

K-12 speak

36 FICCI Higher Education Summit 2012

20 Siddharth Singh, Director, Emerald Heights International School

50 eINDIA Proves the Power of ICT in Education

20 Mohit Yadav, CEO and Director, Annie Besant Groups

skills development

22 Sanjay Paw, Chairman, Vidyanjali International School 22 Cynthia James, Principal and Director-Academics, Indore Public School corporate diary 32 Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON

40 Bridging the Knowledge and Opportunity Gap 42 Upskilling the Indian Rubber Industry perspective - security 43 Security Patches for Networks News 24 K-12 30 Higher Education

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Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education Volume

Issue 12

December 2012

President: Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta Group Editor: Anoop Verma

Partner publications

Advisory Board Prof Asha Kanwar, President, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

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)

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

Web Development & Information Management Team Team Lead - Web Development: Ishvinder Singh Executive – Information Management: Khabirul Islam Information Technology Team Executive-IT Infrastructure: Zuber Ahmed Finance & Operations Team General Manager – Finance: Ajit Kumar Legal Officer: Ramesh Prasad Verma Sr Manager – Events: Vicky Kalra

Editorial Team

Associate Manager – HR: Sushma Juyal

education Senior Research Analyst: Sheena Joseph Senior Correspondent: Pragya Gupta

Associate Manager – Accounts: Anubhav Rana Executive Officer – Accounts: Subhash Chandra Dimri Admin Executive: Gurneet Kaur

governance Manager – Partnerships & Alliances: Manjushree Reddy Assistant Editor: Rachita Jha Research Assistant: Sunil Kumar Correspondent: Nayana Singh Health Sr. Correspondent: Sharmila Das Research Assistant: Shally Makin Sales & Marketing Team Sr. Manager – Sales: Satish Shetti Manager – Marketing: Ragini Shrivastav Manager – Business Development: Abhijeet Ajoynil National Sales Manager – digitalLEARNING: Fahimul Haque Associate Manager – Business Development: Amit Kumar Pundhir Assistant Mamager : Vishukumar Hichkad Assistant Manager – Business Development: Shankar Adaviyar Sr. Executive Officer – Business Development: Gaurav Srivastava Sr. Executive – Business Development: Suman Pokhriyal Subscription & Circulation Team Sr Manager – Circulation: Jagwant Kumar, Mobile: +91-8130296484 Sr Executive – Subscription: Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 Executive – Circulation: Ashok Kumar Design Team Team Lead - Graphic Design: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Sr Graphic Designer: Om Prakash Thakur Sr Web Designer: Shyam Kishore All India Distribution by Ibh Books & Magazines Distributors Pvt. Ltd Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLearning - 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

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EDITORIAL

Madhya Pradesh Riding High on Learning Wave Madhya Pradesh, the second largest Indian State, has always been a tourists’ delight for its pre-historic paintings, temples and forts. Of late, it has emerged as one of the educational hubs in the country and now boasts of having institutes of excellence like the IIT and the IIM. Today, the state has a robust educational infrastructure that caters to the needs of all segments. Apart from thousands of schools, the state has more than 400 colleges that impart engineering, management and other courses in the higher education sector. The government of the state has built a strong infrastructure to facilitate easy and smart learning amongst its students through the use of various modern technologies. With a huge number of students taking up information technology (IT) related programmes, more and more colleges offering courses in the segment are coming up. IT has also been introduced in the school syllabus. The commercial city of the state, Indore, has always been a focus area for the government to improve educational facilities. And this is perhaps, one reason that the IIT and the IIM has been set up in the city, where quite a good number of IT companies have their operations. This issue of the digitalLearning magazine is devoted to the education sector in MP as a whole, and Indore in particular. To give an added thrust and explore more of it, we decided to organise a State Education Summit on December 19 at Indore. The summit will see eminent personalities in the education sector, thinktanks, academicians, policy makers, educational institutions’ heads and students, and others discussing the various issues, challenges and best practices in the education sector. We have also tried to incorporate the views of all such stakeholders in the form of interviews, write-ups and analysis that reflect different aspects of the sector. Last month, we organised India’s biggest 8th eINDIA 2102 event at Hyderabad where we had a dedicated track on education, eINDIA Education Summit, wherein a host of national and international speakers shared their views on different aspects of the education sector. Encouraged by the responses from the stakeholders in the domain, we have decided to fan out our activities across the country. The State Education Summit is just another step in this direction. We have planned to usher in the coming year with more such events in the field of governance, health and education to keep you engaged, updated and informed.

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

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

Cover Feature

Madhya Pradesh

Emerging as an Educational Hub M

adhya Pradesh, a tourist hub, or more famously a state of prehistoric paintings, temples and historic forts, is now emerging as a state full of opportunities for education. The state has been identified with a potential to fulfil the future requirements of the knowledge workers. The state enjoys robust educational infrastructure with 222 engineering colleges, 218 management institutes along with hospitality, agribusiness and law institutes. The state also boasts of institutes of repute such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM). Different states have various socioeconomic challenges, unique to those states. These challenges can only be addressed through the implementation of the right kind of education and skills development programmes. However, the fact remains that universalisation of quality education is the biggest challenge confronting the country. The government has recognised the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a key enabler to bridge the gap. The policy makers in the government have realised that the huge task of

Sanchi Stupa, Madhya Pradesh

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creating a knowledge-driven economy can be successfully achieved only with the support of ICT. Different kinds of public private partnership projects have been envisaged to address the skills gap. Madhya Pradesh, the second largest state in the country, provides around one lakh manpower or technical experts every year to the country. The state has a population of over 70 million. It has a decadal urbanisation growth rate of 26 percent with bigger cities growing as high as 40 percent. Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur are its key growth centres. Unbelievably, the population of MP is more than the population of Afghanistan, Australia and Sri Lanka combined. In the last decade, the state has added more population than in Greece. The state’s large youth population can become the fountainhead for boosting the central government’s agenda of creating 200 million skilled workforce by the year 2020. For this, various educational programmes have been undertaken. The state is witnessing significant growth in engineering, telecom networks and other industries. Yet the challenges and gaps in industry

and academia persist. The lack of quality and industry-ready skills in the youth continue to create unemployment. The last two decades have critically examined of the role of higher education institutes (HEIs) in economic and social development of the country. In addition to teaching and research, contribution to regional economic growth through innovation is now perceived as the third role of universities. According to a UNESCO report, the university-industry-government linkage is seen as a triple-helix model through which effective transfer of technologies lead to economic growth. ICT can play a major role once HEIs are geared with appropriate frameworks. Hence, the need of the hour is to create frameworks vis-à-vis adapting with technology. Smt Archana Chitnis, Minister of School Education, Madhya Pradesh, has expressed her concern over the quality of higher education in technical education. She has welcomed the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) as a significant step. She believes that educationists should address the needs of agriculture and allied sectors also. She has also emphasised upon the need for having a plan for the development of indigenous knowledge. The private sector companies, in terms of education, can be leveraged in four dimensions by participation in school education, higher education, and participation in public and private institutions. School education too, is taking a leap in the state as major revamp can be seen in terms of pedagogy and curriculum. In this cover feature, the digitalLEARNING magazine conversed with education stakeholders in the state to take a roundup of the emerging education scenario in Madhya Pradesh. Excerpts:

policy matters

madhya pradesh

Inclusive Growth should be the Focus Jainarayan Kansotiya, Higher Education Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh, believes that if you start a college or university for the right reasons, you will be able to maintain quality. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

We have given autonomy to universities to start new self-financing courses as per the requirement and demand of the industry. We are also working on skill development programme which caters to the needs of the industry

You have been posted to different departments of the Government of Madhya Pradesh in the last two decades. How has your experience been? I started my career as an Assistant Collector in 1991. My experience has been very good and I am really happy with the work that I have been doing. Wherever I was posted, I contributed something meaningful there, and that is very satisfying for me.

How successfully has higher education in MP been in leveraging ICT? Leveraging ICT is the reality today. It has improved the quality of public services drastically. For us, ICT has become more important because good teachers and professors avoid going to rural areas. Therefore, we can leverage ICT to teach students in rural areas. Keeping this in mind, we have identified 100 colleges where we are planning to start virtual classes very soon.

A lot of educationists complain that there is value missing from todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education system. What is your opinion on that? I agree that there is demand for value-based education today. The challenge is we should have inherited the values but we are searching for them now. At times, we come across cases where university or college students are involved in wrongdoing and do not respect their teachers. But I strongly believe that if all the stakeholders come together and work sincerely on building a foundation course that teaches them values, we will certainly be able to work more efficiently on this issue.

How we can bridge the industry-academia gap? We will have to take initiatives at the institutional level. There is a provision of the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s participation on the board of universities. The academic council of the universities also reviews the course and curriculum every 2-3 years, but the gaps between industry and academia persist. We need to focus on these issues in academic or executive council meetings and not dedicate them to administrative works. In Madhya Pradesh, we have given autonomy to universities to start new self-financing courses as per the requirement and demand of the industry. We are also working on skill develdigitalLEARNING / December 2012

madhya pradesh

policy matters

opment programme which caters to the needs of the industry. Improve the quality of education still remains a dream. Where have we gone wrong and what do you think is the best way forward? Quality is definitely one of the issues where a lot more needs to be done. Our education institutions do not feature even in the top 200 institutions of the world. And at the state level, we are yet to match with the top higher education institutions at the central level. Quality is one of the major challenges and is directly attached with the teaching staff, their training programmes and inclusion of all sections of the society in teaching, and the availability of good infrastructure. Another challenge is engaging with the students. If you start a college or university for the right reasons, you will be able to maintain quality. The private higher education institutions need to look into where they are going wrong and if they need any assistance from the government, we are here to serve them, because at the end, we only want good quality education for our students. According to a recent survey by the Department of Higher Education, MHRD, the Gross Enrolment Ratio of SC and ST in higher education has gone down to 7.4 percent and 2.9 percent respectively. Why is that? The inclusion of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe in higher education is very low. The national population of both the communities is around 23-25 percent but their GER is never double digit. This may be attributed to their socio-economic conditions, their participation in

The private higher education institutions need to look into where they are going wrong and if they need any assistance from the government, we are here to serve them, because at the end, we only want good quality education for our students

teaching and lack of awareness among them. At the state level, the Government of Madhya Pradesh is taking many initiatives to raise the GER of these communities in higher education. We have started new scholarships and raised the scholarship amount of students pursuing PhD

from Rs 8,000 per month to Rs 16, 000. We are also coordinating with Ministry of Tribal Affairs to start hostels for students so that they do not face problems of accommodation and commuting. Not just this, we will also have to implement the national commitment of reservation made to them. Without their inclusion, the story of inclusive growth will remain a story only. What major initiatives is the Government of Madhya Pradesh taking to improve higher education in the state? For improving the quality and inclusion in higher education, we are adopting a multi-dimensional approach. We are starting a large number of colleges in rural areas to make higher education accessible to people in those areas. In the past one year, we have opened 20-25 colleges and have about 15 more in the pipeline. We are drafting a new policy to make good teaching staff available in colleges. We will now be hiring teachers through the Public Service Commission and have hired more than 1,000 teachers as guest faculty. Apart from this, we are also ensuring that no teaching post for the SC and ST remains vacant. We are also looking at providing good infrastructure to colleges and assisting them with any financial aids. We have already built about 25 college buildings in this year. Also, in order to raise the quality in education, we have implemented the semester system across the state. We are also taking steps to ensure that exams are conducted on time, and that teachers and students come to college regularly. We are also adopting innovative methods for student evaluation.

For latest updates on the education sector, log on to www.education.eletsonline.com 10

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MADHYA PRADESH ACADEMIA SPEAK

“Our Focus is Quality Faculty, Research Facility” IITs have the best lot of faculty members in the country, chosen after a rigorous exercise, and are a blend of sound fundamentals and updated research skills, says Prof Pradeep Mathur, Director, IIT Indore, in conversation with Rozelle Laha Prof Pradeep Mathur has been appointed as the first director of IIT Indore. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Science (Chemistry Honours) from the Polytechnic of North London, University of North London, UK, in 1978 and the Doctor of Philosophy (Chemistry) from Keele University, UK, in 1983. He joined IIT Bombay as a member of the faculty in the Department of Chemistry in 1984 and moved over to IIT Indore as its Director in January 2010

What role can IITs play in improving the scenario of technological education in our country? Although India boasts of a large number of engineering colleges on paper, the fact is that the quality of education imparted in these colleges is much below

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the required; and for a country like ours, there will be a massive shortfall of skilled manpower to run our growing industrial demands in the coming years. IITs are different from other engineering institutions. After Independence, setting up IITs as centres of excellence was

mooted and they were modeled on the best institutions abroad. Over the years, they have maintained the standards and have excelled in teaching and research. One of the reasons for this has been a fair degree of autonomy with them. The best students in the country are taken and

MADHYA PRADESH ACADEMIA SPEAK

teaching faculty is also chosen very carefully. However, it is not important to have good students and faculty but adopting a good governance system like IIT can do well for other engineering institutions. What kind of autonomy is needed for running a quality engineering college? Autonomy of governance that is free from any interference of the government machinery and state powers in routine affairs of the institute is needed. There is a lot of interference of vested interests by politicians and vice chancellors in the recruitment of faculty and in the other day-to-day functioning of an engineering college. So, the administration of such institutions should be free from any kind of state interference and they should be given full autonomy for running the institution. All educational institutions should be kept free from any kind of political intervention. The IITs are different from other colleges in the country in the way that apart from teaching, their faculty is greatly involved in high-degree research projects that get recognition for publication in international journals. Teaching and research in IIT go hand-in-hand. In fact, faculty at all the leading universities of the world is engaged in frontline research. That is why such institutes are in the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top 10 or 20 institutions. So, research must be encouraged to get good quality teaching. At the IITs, our students have this facility and they get engaged in research laboratories in the third and fourth years. This opens up their minds and brings them out of the textbook parameter with innovative ideas. It not only makes a graduate, but also equips him with knowledge to deal with the new challenges while joining any industrial project or any research laboratory. The other factor for IITs to excel is that their faculty members have updated knowledge of teaching methods and trained in application of new educational tools. So, other engineering colleges should have training programmes for their faculty members for upgrading their teaching skills and adopting updated technology and curriculum to deliver the latest to their students.

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Why are a large number of graduates not getting employment? The reason is that companies do not find what they look for in their prospective employees. Students only fight for getting good grades in the examinations. Nowadays, companies not only look at how sound the basics of an applicant are, but also at how tech-friendly he is. We need to concentrate on producing quality teachers. If that is done, students will not find it a problem to get a good job. Not many people are interested in taking up teaching as a profession nowadays. Why? A lot of engineering colleges, particularly the private ones, do not pay their teachers well. Therefore, only those who badly need a job or are dedicated to the profession become teachers. Unfortunately, the second lot is scarce these days. There was a time when teaching was supposed to be a noble and prestigious job. But with the passage of time, it has now been taken as a profession in desperation. Is this syndrome present in the newly opened IITs also? Are they getting quality faculty members? No, I do not see any such syndrome affecting the IITs as they have a very good salary structure, much higher than the universities across the country. And because of the very tough norms for hiring faculty, there are a very dedicated lot of applicants applying for faculty positions there. Even for a junior faculty position in an IIT, an applicant should posses at least a doctorate and a three-year postdoctorate teaching experience. A lot of Indian scholars from abroad too apply for the post. So, getting quality faculty is not a problem for the newly opened IITs or for the proposed ones. Why do less number of girls opt for engineering and how can we encourage them to take up a career in engineering? In India, the problem is not with the number of girls taking up engineering but girls not taking up education. Our social system discourages girls to take up education as there is tremendous discrimination against girls.

Students only fight for getting good grades in examinations. Nowadays, companies not only look at how sound the basics of an applicant are, but also at how tech-friendly he is. We need to concentrate on producing quality teachers. If that is done, students will not find it a problem to get a good job

When it comes to engineering, even in the metros, there is a social stigma attached with girls opting for engineering. But things seem to be improving in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Unfortunately, the percentage of girls getting into the IITs is quite low and this is because very few girls take the IIT entrance examination. Also, only two percent of people who take the IIT entrance exam get admission and the remaining 98 percent join other engineering colleges â&#x20AC;&#x201C; another reason for fewer girl students in the IITs. This is something we need to address urgently. IIT Indore has the largest number of girl students among the new IITs that were set up last year.

madhya pradesh

academia speak

the education sector in India while fostering industryacademia partnership. Apart from imparting education, we believe in providing our students opportunities to showcase their talents in extracurricular and cultural activities. What challenges did you face in your journey? The main challenge was to create an atmosphere of commitment and dedication. What prospects do you see for yourself in the near future as an academic entrepreneur? We are looking at developing research-oriented institutions in engineering, pharmacy, basic and management sciences. These will work on real-life problems. We are networking with all the stakeholders in the education sector and encouraging innovation in order to address the challenges confronting technical education in the years to come.

Building an Institution Par Excellence Our endeavor is to bring quality and modernisation in the education sector that helps the nation progress, says Sanjeev Agrawal, Chairman, Sagar Institute of Research & Technology (SIRT), Bhopal

You have carved a niche for yourself in the education sector. How did the journey begin? During my early years, I went through the work and life of eminent personalities like Swami Vivekanand. They inspired me to get into the higher education sector to serve the society. Sagar Institute of Reseacrh & Technology (SIRT) started its operations in the year 2003 under the patronage of Shri Agrawal Technical & Education Society. Since then, all our efforts are aimed at imparting quality education to our students and encouraging research for the growth and development of the country. At SIRT, we are creating avenues for the corporate world to explore

What is your vision for the institute? Our efforts are dedicated to transform SIRT into a knowledge enterprise capable of: Production of knowledge: This will comprise of data collection, conversion into information and learning to use and apply the knowledge to specific and useful purposes. Marketing knowledge: This will be done with the help of Information Technology. The aim is to enable transfer of knowledge and the capability to use it. Maintenance of knowledge: The goal is to regularly and consistently update and upgrade knowledge and its applications. Innovating knowledge: In this, new knowledge and the scope of its application is expanded and extended. What has been your mantra for success? Determination, honesty and transparency are the keys to success. Timely planning and consistency are among the other factors that have helped us grow. What is the role of education in nation building? How are you contributing to it? General education, and science and technology can help in the development of the society by broadening its vision. Our endeavor in this is to bring quality and modernisation in the education sector that helps the nation progress. We also use the most innovative teaching methodologies and best teaching practices to ensure that our students are equipped with the latest techniques and technologies. Apart from your work interests, what are the pursuits that help you to unwind? Aesthetic creativity, spiritualism and social service are my key interests and help me relax. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

Higher mADHYAEducation pRADESH

aCADEMIA interview sPEAK

“We have Kept Our Slate Clean” Our institute runs on its credibility for providing quality education and making efforts for proper placement of its students, says Prateek Sanghvi, Vice-President, Sanghvi Institute of Management and Science (SIMS), Indore, in an interview with Rozelle Laha What initiatives have been taken by the SIMS for quality improvement in higher education? The first and the foremost thing is that we have no control over admission plan for engineering courses. The intakes are taken after counselling where a student opts for the college. There is an amalgam of students from public, government, and Hindi and English medium schools. Our faculty members undertake a lot

of effort to ensure that these students become employable after four years of engineering and two years of MBA from the institute. As you said, admissions, being a centralised counselling process, is not in your hands. Have you ever thought of introducing a separate institute-specific entrance test? We have started an AICTE-approved PGDM course where everything — from conducting an entrance test, selecting intakes for the course, designing curriculum and picking up faculty — is managed by us. We also shortlist companies for summer internships for our students. Those students who opt for this programme are employable on a better level than those who have joined the regular MBA course. Quality assurance is a question mark as far as the employability scale of students coming out from privaterun and regular MBA courses is concerned. Courses for engineering or management have not been re-engineered in government-run institutions for decades according to the demand of time and it affects the employability prospects of students.

What are the challenges in imparting higher education in Madhya Pradesh? In Madhya Pradesh, one needs to go through a lot of legalities, fulfill each and every norm, and run around scores of government institutions to get clearances for a higher education course. You have to ensure that your professional integrity is maintained and no false agreement is made with any agency. Fortunately, in the last seven years, we have tried to keep our slate clean. What is the level of technology implementation at SIMS? So far as major post-graduate level courses like MBA, MCA, MTech and PGDM are concerned, we have deployed almost all the eLearning tools like eJournals, eBooks, etc. Our ICT-enabled library has all the facilities to meet the demands of the students and the faculty. If a student misses a class, he can access it at the library where it is stored online. But at the undergraduate level, we need to put in more efforts to make the learning technology-friendly. Right now, we have digitised all the course material and made it interactive for the students. We have graphic designing solutions to help student get 3D images of labs to understand the practical courses. We are in the process of introducing many more ITenabled solutions in our campus. What is the vision of SIMS in the coming years? In the next couple of years, I would like to see SIMS as a full-fledged university under the University Grants Commission and not under the state government, where students from all economic strata can fulfill their demands for higher education.

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MADHYA PRADESH K-12 SPEAK

Education is about Real Life Experiences Our job is to provide more experiences and opportunities for students, says Kr Sumer Singh, Principal, The Daly College, Indore, in an interaction with Rozelle Laha where all the institutions in the country will be brought down to the same level and there will be no good schools, except the IB and CI schools as the government will not be controlling them. That way, the Indian system of education will disappear and an international educational system will emerge. In such a situation, the villages and the tribal areas will suffer the most as they cannot afford international schools.

Please brief us about the Daly College and its mission. The Daly College was started as a Chiefs’ college. In the mid 30s, the founding member of the Indian Public Schools Conference realised that independence was not too far and the need of the hour was to educate the masses who would take up leadership. Therefore, admissions were opened to the public, and later on in the mid 60s, The Daly College began admitting girls also. We are members of different associations like the Indian Public Schools Conference, Round Square, AFS and NCC. These memberships are indicators of the the reflexive thinking of the school. Each child is born with certain talents, and we provide our children with every opportunity to discover and nurture their talent. We offer a variety of subjects, sports and a range of cultural activities and social service opportunities so that a child can find his passion. Please tell us how you are improving the quality of education. At Daly, our focus is on teachers. Our students can opt either for Cambridge

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International or CBSE curriculum at the same fees. The CBSE system is a prescribed textbook system. The Cambridge University system emphasises on challenging questions and clarity in concept. A student needs to refer to different sources to be able to attempt an answer. So while the CBSE system focuses on creating a follower, the other aims at making a good leader. How can we improve the teachinglearning process in our country? There are two kinds of schools in the country: non-profit schools owned by societies and trusts, and for-profit schools run by businessmen or families looking for income. People should generate money from education, but at the same time, they should also promote more educational institutions. The government should not regulate the fee structure. These days, the schools need to pay different taxes. So if a school has to pay out more and charge lesser fees from students while also accommodating students under RTE for free, the standard of education will obviously fall. We are approaching a situation

Please comment on the changes in the education system with the advent of IT tools? The teacher is always the main component in the education system no matter what the system of imparting education is. IT tools might provide more options of explaining and teaching. But, a good teacher can teach without any such tool. What is your opinion on the quality of teachers’ training programmes in our country? The teachers’ training programmes in our country are just a surface training. A teacher needs to unlearn whatever he learns during the training process once he enters the teaching world. What is the vision of The Daly College in the coming years? Our vision would be to provide an opportunity to students to think and experience. This opportunity can be in the form of good talk, books, teachers, travel, service or adventure. At the end of the day, all your experiences and what you make of these experiences is what we call education. Education is what you become as a result of all the experiences. Our job is to provide more and more experiences and opportunities for students.

MADHYA PRADESH K-12 SPEAK

Change has to be Forward-Looking If you are running a school with the right vision, you will choose quality over quantity, says Siddharth Singh, Director, Emerald Heights International School

Please tell us about the journey of Emerald Heights so far. Our journey has been a little different from the other schools. My mother started the school 30 years back as a Nursery school with two rented rooms. Today, we are one of the biggest residential schools in central India with more than 4,000 students. Our campus is spread in 90 acres of land. What challenges are you facing? One of the biggest challenges for a majority of schools is the implementation of Right to Education Act. We under-

stand that every child must get the best education. Teachers in government schools are paid very well, yet education in government schools is not up to the mark. The government is spending more money per child than anyone else, so why does a person earning `5,0006,000 per month wants his child to go to a private school? The government needs to look into where the system is lacking. There is a myth that private schools are only money-making institutions. If I start a hotel on the same land, I would earn much more. Challenges are inevitable, but we stand by our passion and dedication. Please highlight some changes that you are looking at in the school? We are bringing international exposure to our school and have affiliation with Cambridge International. Indore is still a very

young place for international board to set in, but it is happening. This year, we have around 30 students taking Cambridge. In my opinion, CBSE is changing more than us. Indians are very hardworking and flexible. Ironically, Cambridge is moving towards the Indian system today; they have started marking and we are moving toward grades. Change is always welcome but it should be forward looking. What major challenges do you see in school education in MP? The major challenge would be to provide quality education in government schools without putting any burden on private schools. Despite all the facilities, most of the government schools are unable to provide quality education to students. If you are running a school with the right vision, you will always choose quality over quantity.

If Central Schools can Excel, Why cannot Ours? How has the school come over the years? The Annie Besant School was started in the year 2000. Our Chief Director, P K Yadav, dreamt of a school which belonged to the average middle-class family and supported the cause of real education. In those days, the focus was shifting from school-for-education to business. Even in this area, there was no good school as most of the schools were in other parts of the city. Though our emphasis has been modern education, we have ensured that we do not shake the roots of our students or the society, while keeping intact our moral and cultural values. How helpful is the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system in improving studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance? Though we are satisfied with the results we have got after the implementation of the CCE, we also understand that every system has its own limitations. We feel that continuous evaluation brings in an element of involvement and makes education interesting for students. We have CCE hours during which students work on the project assigned to them. This activity brings both the teacher and the student close to each other. How supportive has the Government of MP been to the schools? The Government of Madhya Pradesh has little role to play in CBSE schools. It is implementing the Right to Education Act in schools in the state. Schools are also be-

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ICT helps a student see beyond his subjects, says Mohit Yadav, CEO and Director, Annie Besant Groups ing made to enrol students from all sections of the society. We should bring our government school system on the lines of the Kerala model which encourages good pay and amenities to teachers in government schools. If central schools can excel, why canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ours?

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MADHYA PRADESH K-12 SPEAK

Imparting Quality Education to Girls Why have you chosen Vidyanjali International School to be a girls’ school? I always wanted to start a school especially for girl children because girls’ education in India is still not getting the focus it needs. We started Vidyanjali International School with the aim to provide quality education to girls. We have been successful in doing this and believe that we will continue serving the society the way we have always been.

Sanjay Paw, Chairman, Vidyanjali International School, says that the government is the agent that can catalyse the process of good education in our country

What major challenges do you see in school education today? Challenges are many and inevitable, but we need to be focused on what we really want to do. Quality education to girls should be the major focus of the government because one educated girl can educate the entire family and her education has multi-fold impact on the lives of people around her. Access to education and providing quality education are the major chal-

lenges. Access to education does not mean forceful implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE); it means making education available at different levels of the society and as per the endowment of people. There should be proper co-ordination between schools. Existing schools should be upgraded and teachers should be trained to provide quality education. Also, the government needs to work on improving the efficiency and relevance of its schools. One way to do this is better co-ordination between private and public schools at different levels of academics, cocurricular activities and administration. How important is the role of government in education? The government is indeed one of the largest stakeholders, and education is its subject. The government needs to be progressive and forward-thinking because only it can catalyse the process of good education in our country.

PPP can Boost Quality in Education

Cynthia James, Principal and Director-Academics, Indore Public School, says government schools must be trained to impart quality education to students

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Please share with us the story of Indore Public School. The school was incepted in the year 1987 and was the first public school after Daly College. In 1991, we started the system of no books and no exams for students till class three and gave special training to our teachers for that. Today, we have successfully completed 25 years and have four more branches of the school. We have also opened Indo Kids, a zonal school upto Nursery. We already have six such schools and are planning to start 25 more by July next year. How can we address the problem of making education accessible to all? A majority of the government’s programmes are directed toward raising the enrolment ratio. The government has recently enacted the Right to Education (RTE) Act also, but has its own drawbacks. Forcing a school to take a certain

percentage of students from the weaker sections of the society is not a wellthought process. Students face problems integrating with other students, which may hamper their overall development. Instead, government schools must be trained to impart quality education. A lot of people debate that we are not focusing on quality but quantity. What is your opinion on that? I agree that quality is missing in our education system but that is not because enrolment is being raised. Anyhow, we need to raise the enrolment ratio if we want to make India literate. I strongly feel that we do not have enough good teachers and that is why quality is not upto the mark. Another area that needs to be looked into is the interaction between government and private schools and how they can be encouraged to assist each other. This will help in raising the quality of education.

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news k-12

Kerala CBSE Schools Get Breather from UID The Kerala High Court has issued a stay on Kerala Government’s demand that CBSE schools should compulsorily ensure UID registration to students for obtaining NOC. Observing that the government cannot insist on a condi-

tion that’s not within the powers of a school management, the court ruled that they cannot be compelled to produce the same. The ruling was given by a division bench while considering petitions by 15 CBSE schools, challenging the rules put forwarded in Kerala Education Rules for obtaining fresh NOCs to run schools.

Mumbai Schools Bag British Council Award About 15 Mumbai schools bagged the International School Award 2012 by the British Council under its Connecting Classrooms programme. The award is conferred for bringing in an international dimension to the curriculum. Over 240 schools from across the country were felicitated at the event by the British Council. These schools are Anjuman-I-Islam’s Allana School, City International School, Dr S Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya, Narayana Vidyalayam, National English School, Pradnya Bodhini High School, Ryan International, St John’s School, The Reading Tree, Udayachal High School, Veer Bhagat Singh Vidyalaya, and Vidyadiraja High School.

Schools Teach Children to Share Top private CBSE schools in Kerala are encouraging their students to reach out to the less privileged through various social awareness efforts. In line with CBSE’s efforts towards inculcating social commitment among students through value-based questions, the schools are doing voluntary work at hospitals, old-age homes and orphanages and collecting money to provide better classrooms and labs in schools where poorer students study. Some schools collect rice and grocery from children and distribute to the poor in the area every month. Many schools have formed clubs to develop compassion in students.

MHRD’s Special MBA Course for Principals India’s first MBA in Educational Management and Leadership for School Principals was launched recently by the HRD Minister, Shashi Tharoor. Uttarakhand Technical University (UTU) in collaboration with SelaQui Institute of Management will offer the programme leading to an MBA Post Graduate Degree awarded by UTU. The programme was launched at India’s first ‘National Conference of School Principals 2012’, a two-day conference held at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, in November.

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North Indian Kids More Obese in the Country School children in north Indian metros are less healthy than their counterparts in the country, says ‘EduSports School Health and Fitness Survey’. The survey covered around 49,000 children in 7-19 years age-group across 100 schools in 54 cities. Children from Northern states of Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP and Haryana have a higher BMI of 24 percent as compared to national average of 19.9 percent. The survey added that nearly 40 per cent of school-going children in India do not have the right BMI and almost 20 per cent of them show signs of obesity, possessing poor body strength, poor flexibility and have undesirable BMI scores.

summit 2013 23 - 24 April, 2013, New Delhi

The World’s Premiere Education Event

Bringing Together Thought Leaders in Education

Key Tracks • School Education • Higher Education • Vocational Education and Skills Training

ORGANISERS

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For Programme Enquiry Contact: Sheena Joseph Cherian Mobile: +91-8860651644, sheena@elets.in

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k-12

interview

Knowledge and

Learning are

Never-Ending

Gowri Ishwaran, Chief Executive Officer, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, believes that we should get out of the habit of rote learning and encourage our children to be curious and discover for themselves You have a partner network of schools that you are catering to. What is the reach of the schools you have? We have about 75 schools in India and Bhutan. We have reached to about 65,000 kids and trained over 1,000 teachers. But we realise that we need to reach out to more. So our plan is to convert our curriculum into a digital format and reach out to at least the second- and third-tier cities that have access to the Internet. The challenge is not only to convert, but also to track and supervise. In India, a larger penetration is through mobile phones so we are partnering with young global leader from the US to accept that market and reach even to remote corners through mobile apps.

Please tell us about the Global Education & Leadership Foundation. The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF) is a programme initiative of The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation. It was launched by Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, five years ago. The mission of the foundation is to identify, mentor, nurture and guide future leaders, but leaders with a difference. Generally, leaders stand on four pillars: leadership skills, ethics, altruism or your desire to help and reach out and share, and the ability to act. Unless all these four pillars work together, you cannot be a change maker. Most of the programmes today are at the university level which is too late to change because attitudes have already been formed by then. We enter schools when kids are at the age of 12-13 and be with them for at least five years. We have modules that work on all the four pillars in a fun way: through games, activities, and discussions. We hope to impact the outlook of the kids through this. When they finish school, we induct the best amongst them into our leaders’ forum. We hope to make our children leaders the change makers that the world needs to fix the risks and challenges ahead of us.

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What are the specifications for future training? What are you specifically dealing with? It is a mixture of leadership skills and ethics or value system. Our curriculum is a mix of both, but we are not didactic. We want the children to explore and discover for themselves because then they take ownership of it. Earlier, a teacher was seen only in a single capacity: the giver of knowledge. But today, you are not the giver of knowledge, you are the facilitator. And we try and make that transition through our training programmes. With the Internet, kids do not need you to access information; they need you to help them discover what to access and how. There is a quote from Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese-American artist, poet and writer: the job of education is to take a person up to a door and leave him there. And when he crosses that door, it is all that you have given him that he has to make use of, but he has to make his own choices and decisions. What are the areas that require specific attention in the education sector? One of the most pressing factors is teachers’ training. In India, we have archaic teacher training programmes that don’t equip our teachers with modern strategies. It doesn’t help them transform

interview

from a knowledge giver to a facilitator. And nowadays, there is a one-year training programme which is insufficient. A doctor is trained for four years because he deals with the human body, but a teacher deals with the human mind and should be trained for at least two years. Education is dynamic because it is related to human life. Education can’t stay stride. Therefore, it cannot have a curriculum which is fixed forever. It needs to revamp every two to three years. And because 21st century is a century of knowledge, you have to run even more. The government has been bringing in a lot of reforms. Do you think the government is doing enough to promote the school education sector? The government has passed the Right to Education Act. It is a step in the right direction but there is insufficient emphasis on the monitoring of quality. There are many more millions of children in the classrooms but what are they learning? The government needs to step in and see what it can do to ensure quality learning. It should not look at this as an end; but as the beginning. It should incentivise teachers and provide proper infrastructure like blackboards, because a teacher cannot deliver without that. The government should also adopt technology to monitor quality. Every state can have a district hub and a central data system. We are the technology leaders of the world in many ways and it is a pity that we are not using it enough. Higher education will pay off only if schools, the foundation, do well. How do you impart training to schools, students and teachers? We create hubs and train the teachers there. The teachers, in turn, communicate in the classroom. The student will react better if it is an in-house activity. Anything external is never taken with that degree of concentration or application. We train the teachers to deliver it. What best practices from across the globe can be replicated into India? We are only looking at the skills that you will need in the years to come, not the

Education is a vessel, which needs a fire underneath to make it cook and create something on its own years that have gone past or even present. We are already working as partners with Howard Gardner from the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. His project, The GoodWork Project, deals with values and we are getting training from them. We also work with Dr Daniel Shapiro, Harvard Law School, on how to impart negotiation skills to school children because we think that we are all going to need that skill in the future. There are a lot of teaching best practices and we work with the Teachers College at Columbia University which is on the cutting-edge of teaching strategies. They revamp the curriculum almost every year. They help a lot in conducting training on conflict resolution and ethical dilemmas. We have also taken the Gross National Happiness Index from Bhutan. We have discovered that in running after the Western education, we have turned our backs on India’s strength: our spiritual heritage. Spiritual is not equated with religion. It means knowing yourself and becoming an evolved human being, and seeing your relationship with others and rest of the world. It is not ‘I’ and ‘my’; it is ‘my’ and ‘others’. We have made that an integral part of our curriculum. We give meditation sessions to our children on things like counting and thanking in your heart the number of people who have helped you in the last one week. We make them realise the connect outside and that they cannot survive by themselves. Lifelong learning is also a part of our programme because you never stop being a learner. We use the poem from Alfred Lord Tennyson in which he goes to an arch in a boat and he sees the horizon. When he crosses the arch, he finds that the horizon

k-12

is still far away. That is how knowledge and learning are – never-ending. Please highlight more on your foreign collaborations. Our collaboration is rooted in our kids who go from here. We encourage them to go to the leading universities so that they can get the best possible skills. For example, the Brown and Lehigh universities give us free summer placements, so we send children from rural areas there. It is like a window for them into the outside world. We partner with the University of Pennsylvania and Wharton on the intellectual stimulation of the kids and holding seminars. The Teachers College at Columbia University works with us on teacher training techniques, mentoring and measuring. We also work with Harvard University’s Law School and the Graduate School of Education and share a very good link with Cornell. We have a very good relationship with Yale and also send our children for summer internships to the Columbia University’s Earth Science Department. What needs to be done in the education sector in India? What is your vision for the country? Unless our youth are imparted the right skills and are empowered, what they will achieve is my greatest concern. Empowering them can only be through education and we need to move much faster than we are doing now. As they say, ‘Time and tide wait for no man’. One of the most radical changes we need to bring in is strengthening teacher education and have the child explore and discover for himself. You do not pour everything into a vessel. Similarly, education is not a vessel to be filled up. It is a vessel which needs a fire underneath to make it cook and create something on its own. Simultaneously, we must keep up spirituality in some way or the other, not equated to religion, in schools and our curriculum. You can be agnostic and still be very spiritual. Our curriculum needs to bring together the spirit of exploration and rationality from the West and spiritual understanding from the East. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

special feature

HeyMath! Celebrates National Mathematical Year The year 2012 has been declared as National Mathematical Year by Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of the Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan

Chances are if you ask children what they fear the most in school, you will hear a resounding - ‘Maths’! And ask them what they enjoy the most – and it would very likely be a unanimous ‘games’

hat is what HeyMath! has done — combining the enjoyment and fun of playing games with animated visuals to create fun engaging activities that make Maths easy and enjoyable for all students. This is part of a year-long celebration of ‘National Mathematical Year’ where HeyMath! teams travel to schools across India to run exciting Math-based activities for students.

National Mathematical Year The year 2012 has been declared as National Mathematical Year by Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of the Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. His birthday on December 22 will also be celebrated as National Mathematics Day every year.

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The joy of maths HeyMath! plays an active role in demonstrating the importance and joy of Mathematics and inspiring more students to pursue careers in Maths and Science. The activities aim to foster collaborative learning as students work in teams and develop a positive attitude towards the subject. The activities also help students connect Maths with everyday life while ensuring active and complete participation from students. “I never knew activities based on Maths can be so interesting and enjoyable,” Yamini, a class VI student said. Her opinion echoed across students of all classes and schools that participated in the event.

news Higher Education

ISB Students Spend a Day with Top CEOs Students of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, recently had a chance to ‘Shadow a CEO’ for a day through a philanthropic initiative launched by the school with the Give India Foundation as a part of the Joy of Giving Week. The students bid for an opportunity to spend a day with an executive of their choice. The objective was to engage B School students in the act of giving and provide the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imbibe valuable leadership lessons. Around 50 CEOs participated in this venture.

West Bengal to Set Up Four B-schools To cater to the increasing demand of management courses, the West Bengal Government has decided to set up four B-schools in the state. Four engineering colleges will also be set up after a gap of 16 years. The management schools will operate from these engineering colleges. The B-schools will be set up in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad and Purulia and will offer two-year courses partnering with industries.

Ireland Wants to Double the Number of Indian Students Ireland is aiming to double the number of Indian students studying in the country in three years, its Minister for Higher Education and Skills, Ciaran Cannon T D, said in Bangalore. Around 850 Indian students are currently studying in Ireland for post-graduate degrees in engineering, pharma, business, computer sciences, accounting, and hospitality management. According to Irish officials, it is estimated that every 100 additional international students who come to Ireland support the creation of 15 local jobs, through spending on tuition, accommodation and other living expenses.

IIM Ahmedabad Gets LinkedIn IIM-A has tied up with LinkedIn, a professional networking site, to keep placement channels open with recruiters even after students graduate. Recruiters can go through alumni profiles for hiring at the middle and senior levels. LinkedIn has more than 17 million users in India. The site provides a platform to foster professional relationships and search for new jobs. Since 2009, LinkedIn has more than tripled its users in India.

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Professor Manna Appointed IIT Kanpur Director Professor Indranil Manna has taken charge as new Director of the IIT Kanpur. He took over from Professor Sanjay Govind Dhande who served as the Director of the institute for over a decade. Professor Dhande had applied for voluntary retirement and his request was accepted by Chairman Professor M Anandkrishnan, and the Board of Governors of IIT Kanpur. Before joining IIT Kanpur, Professor Manna was Director at Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute since 2010. Prof Manna is BE from Calcutta University and MTech from IIT Kanpur.

IIM Rohtak Celebrates 4th Foundation Day IIM-R celebrated its fourth Foundation Day with a discussion on the theme ‘Revitalising India’s Growth Sentiments’. The industry stalwarts and academicians, who gathered at the IIM-R explored means to thrust the Indian economy again onto a rapid growth path amidst persistent global economic and business slowdown. The event was formally inaugurated by Ravi Swaminathan, MD, AMD India and Professor P Rameshan, Director, IIM-R, by lighting the ceremonial lamp. Prof Rameshan outlined in the inaugural address the journey of IIM-R and reiterated its commitment to create the enabling environment of faculty, systems and processes while furthering its vision and mission.

Foundation Stone of Kalpana Chawla Medical College Laid Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, laid the foundation stone of Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College in Karnal. The `650-crore super-specialty college would have a 500-bed hospital, an OPD, maternity ward, emergency care, nursing college, auditorium, animal house and other facilities. The state government has provided `105 crore in the current financial year to the medical college. Spread over 43 acres, the college is expected to be ready in two years. The college will offer 100 MBBS seats.

Special Discount for ”Group of Schools”

”

corporate diary

iONisation of Institutions With more and more institutions turning to automation to ease processes, the education vertical has emerged as a big opportunity for n ERP solution providers. Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON in conversation with Pragya Gupta, shares the value proposition that TCS brings to educational institutions in the form of iON and its strategy to position the solution in this highly competitive area

How do you see the role of technology in education? Technology is rapidly changing the way we perform our daily activities, do business and collaborate with people around us. I feel that the impact of technology in raising the quality of education and its role will be significant in the next decade. India has one of the largest student populations in the world where students are Digital Natives. They belong to a generation in which social networking on the web and emerging online media and natural mediums of interaction is relatively high. Educational institutes are facing the challenge of engaging this tech-savvy generation along with the need for streamlining and controlling processes. Going ahead technology solutions for campus management, digital assessments, stakeholder collaboration and social learning are poised to change the way education is imparted and consumed in the near future. New models like online education and distance learning are picking up and putting pressure on institutes and universities to invest in the latest online platforms and avoid technology obsolescence. Another emerging trend is mEducation – delivering education content, assessments and campus management on the mobile or tablet.

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Please shed some light on solutions offerings of TCS for Education? We at TCS cater to the complete needs of the education sector with offerings for schools, colleges, education boards and universities. It is pay-per-use model, and it constantly enhances itself as an institute uses it. The use of service is seamless like consuming electricity and required no IT staff and no capital investment on IT. Our services are offered in six layers. Bottom most is hardware, which we provide if required by the institute. We then integrate those into a network service, which may stretch across many sites. On top of these stands a set of utility and collaboration software like website hosting, messaging and document management. As we move upward from here, we have a set of business applications. First comes the horizontal business applications – like finance and accounting, HRMS and payroll. Then we provide the Campus Management Software – covering processes from enquiry to admissions, fees, academics management, and grading and promotion alumni, etc. Above these applications are a host of platforms like a Professional Virtual Community and a Business Reporting Engine. Now, all these come integrated. To the customer, it is one piece of multi-function software sharing a common data. How does the TCS iON meet the needs of the education vertical? We have met with key stakeholders from educational institutes across the coun-

try to understand the unique needs for this sector. I am confident that we have built an offering which creates value by addressing the challenges faced by the management, principals, teachers, student and parents. iON has a service model that never gets obsolete due to a Perpetual Beta, helping institutes focus only on delivering education and stop worrying about IT. We have a commercial model that keeps the cost of ICT linear by allowing the institute to pay on a monthly basis depending on the number of teachers and students using the system, thus freeing institutes from capital expenditure. All institutes are benefitted from a solution bundle that is fit for the purpose, incorporating global best-practices of international institutes. It enables creation of a boundary-less campus by involving multiple stakeholders in an extended ecosystem through virtual communities and networks. What is your strategy to position the product among educational institutions? Our strategy has always been to position iON as a ‘one-stop shop’ for the entire gamut of IT needs of the education sector. Along with our Channel Sales Partners who are called Cloud Service Partners, we are creating awareness about our product and penetrating into tier-2 and tier-3 towns aggressively. From a pricing strategy perspective we are purely pay-per-use, thus helping institutes scale linearly without incurring capital expenditure.

“WE RE-DEFINE THE MEANING OF HIGHER EDUCATION”

Convocation 2011

Aman Malik – A Student of University School of Chemical Technology at Antarctica on an Expedition

Winning Team of IGIT with their Formula Car

• 11 UNIVERSITY SCHOOLS • ONE CONSTITUENT COLLEGE –'IGIT’ • 106 AFFILIATED INSTITUTIONS • 124 PROGRAMMES • 65000 TOTAL STUDENTS, 4000 IN CAMPUS • 20 FOREIGN COLLABORATIONS FOR STUDENTS & FACULTY EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES • 65 ACRES STATE-OF-THE-ART CAMPUS

GURU GOBIND SINGH INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY Established by Government of NCT of Delhi (NAAC Accredited 'A' Grade University) Sec-16C, Dwarka, New Delhi-110078 www.ipu.ac.in | Telephone: 25302167-69

Corporate k-12 Diary interview

“We cannot Become a Superpower without Education” Ajay Sharma, Managing Director, Shri Ram New Horizons, believes that quality education should not be dependent on the amount of fees one can pay. In conversation with Sheena Joseph Please elaborate on the education initiatives of Shri Ram New Horizons. Shri Ram New Horizons started its operations in 2002 with a vision to cover all the aspects of a learner’s life including preschools, K-12 schools, higher education, vocational training, post-qualification training, coaching for admission into higher education, and getting students placed. Ever since we changed our name from New Horizons India to Shri Ram New Horizons, we moved into the formal education space. We specialise in curriculum, pedagogy, culture, systems, processes, teachers’ training and books. For the past three years, we have been setting up schools under two brands: Shri Ram Global School for all the metros, and Shri Ram Centenary School for all the other cities. We have 13 projects running as of now. In about five years from now, we expect to have about one lakh students in our schools. We are also going to launch schools and pre-schools very shortly. As we continue to build our premium schools at the rate of one school every two months, we will now be looking at having schools with a reasonable fee structure and the same quality and culture. India requires education to become a superpower and the government and private sector companies must come forward to make a contribution. We are trying to contribute in our own way. We will be shortly diversifying outside India also. We had proposals from Thailand, Middle East, and Africa. We plan to have at least 4-5 schools outside India before the end of this year. Will the schools be international or associated with the CBSE? One of these will be a CBSE school because of its high demand in the country. If need be, we will also do a state board; and lastly, we will create a few high quality world schools following the ICSE or IB curriculum and affiliated to the UK or USA. These schools will have a global mix of faculty and students. What challenges are you facing in setting up schools and what opportunities do you see? There are two kinds of schools in this country: unaided and aided. In unaided schools, there is no dependence on the gov-

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ernment. In India, we have about 14 lakh schools and only 80,000 of them are unaided. So, if education has to be subsidised under the RTE or other provisions, the government should take some policy measures and make these subsidised schools self-sufficient instead of subsidy-dependent. For example, Delhi has an acute shortage of colleges and there is a demand for two lakh seats in higher education against the 25,000 seats we have. There are about 1,000 schools in Delhi that get free by one in the afternoon. But the government’s regulation says that if you are running a school, you cannot run an engineering college in the evening. One simple and small regulation by the government can provide Delhi and India thousands of colleges. Secondly, those who can afford must provide the weaker sections of the society with at least health and education. Current trend says that education should be so low-cost that people should not have to think twice. In India, providing low-cost education means bringing the standards down. Quality education should not be dependent on the amount of fees you can pay. You can compromise with the facilities, like swimming and horse riding, but quality in education is a must. The regulatory framework must concentrate on infrastructure and promote a lot of private sector participation. The government has made good moves in the education sector, but some reforms are still on the way. The Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan is a great initiative in which teachers from across the country are given training. The government is committed to privatising Kendriya Vidyalayas and promoting model schools in each district. A few more reforms have been proposed. We are going slowly, but in the next 2-3 years, the private sector will definitely stand up and deliver and we will also have a university in the top 100. What do you think is the contribution of the private sector in the education space? Private participation has always been there in education. It is the consolidation and corporatisation of education that is happening now. And it will be a big move forward in improving the minimum deliverables of quality in education. A number of large industrial houses and corporate bodies are continuously entering either the K-12 or the higher education sector. India needs about 1,300 uni-

Corporate Diary k-12 interview

versities and we have only 300. Of these 300, about 150 have come up in the last 3-4 years. On the medical front, India produces about 30,000 doctors a year and we need at least 300,000 doctors every year. So even if we have a hundred times more medical colleges in the country, we would still be meeting only the average. Is it difficult to find human resources to man the school? Do you attain the qualification level that is required to dispense quality education? You have to have trained teachers at different levels of education. I also believe that technology is missing in our teacher training courses, whereas on the other hand, children have become tech-geeks. There are a decent number of people available with the minimum educational qualification but they do not possess the skills to be a great teacher. Our teacher training and placement programmes help a person becomes a good teacher and this allows us to consistently provide high quality education.

purchasing power to buy diesel or petrol for a generator to run a school. The job of the government is that when it provides funds for infrastructure, it should also give priority do to the infrastructure that enables a school to deliver quality education to a child. What are your concluding remarks on the education sector in India? One thing common between the rich and the poor is that they want to give the best possible education to their kids. I wish India produces a billion-dollar private sector corporations engaged in education that help her become an exporter of quality education across the world, particularly when there is a shortage of people in countries like America and Europe who refuse to be teachers.

Please tell us about technology integration in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schools. Technology can only put digital content and educational aids for students to understand better. But these cannot help you score extra marks in boards. So there is a missing link between a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quest for knowledge and his quest for scoring the highest marks in a competitive exam. In other countries, employers see how best they can use a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent. Whereas, in India, employers look for people who can deliver. We are going on a single route of securing our economic dependence through our degrees. I think from a level of zero, at least 8-9 percent of Indian schools and almost 22 percent of Indian colleges are now equipped with technological tools and we need to go further on this route and also create an evaluation system which values the knowledge of a child. We welcome technology if it can get you marks. But if it is against marks, it is equivalent to a decoration fees with all the digital content, white boards and computers. In rural areas, there is no Internet and digitalLEARNING / December 2012

Report

FICCI Higher Education Summit 2012 The Twin Trend in Private Higher Education:

Expansion & Excellence

By 2025, India will have 25 percent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total workforce, says Shobha Mishra Ghosh, Senior Director, FICCI

The emergence of India as a knowledgebased, service-driven economy has brought human capital development in the country to the centre stage of socio-economic development planning. Apart from focusing on universalisation of elementary education, the Eleventh Plan saw nine-fold increase in the public spending on higher education which fueled significant inclusive expansion in the public higher education sector. Simultaneously, the demand for quality skilled workforce and an environment for impending policy and regulatory change encouraged greater private sector participation. The Indian higher education today boasts of being the second largest higher education system in the world with 659 universities, 46,430 colleges and 25.9 million students. It goes without saying that private sector has been a predominant contributor to this major upsurge of higher education institutions in the country. The private sector now accounts for 64 percent of the total number of institutions and 59 percent of the enrolment in the country as compared to 43 and 33 percent respectively about a decade ago. While India has shown impressive growth in adding the number of higher education institutions and student enrolments, the demand-supply mismatch would persist in higher education, given the young population base that our

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Private institutes dominate the overall market with approximately two-third market share (29,662 institutes) 0.5 63.9

35.6

Private Institutions

State Institutions

Central Institutions

Source: Planning Commission-FICCI-E&Y Report 2012

country is bestowed with. India, at present, is recognised as one of the younger nations in the world with over 50 percent of the population in the age group of 18-30 years. It is estimated that by about 2025, India will have 25 percent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total workforce. In the last two decades, we have seen significant growth of private sector institutions/universities which have been responsible for addressing the employability needs of our youth. Leading private universities like BITS Pilani, Manipal University, Thapar University, NMIMS University, Symbiosis International University, VIT, etc. have significantly

contributed towards this end. In the last decade, one has seen private universities like Amity University, Galgotia University, Lovely Professional University, SRM University, opening up campuses in multiple locations and have helped in massification of higher education. Although, the country has seen six times increase in the number of universities and twelve times increase in student enrolment in the last four decades, there still is a crying need for developing appropriate skilled manpower, generate indigenous knowledge and develop research capabilities with focused outcomes to retain global competitive-

Report

ness of Indian businesses. India’s higher education concerns are far broader and have to address enhancing of access, providing relevant and quality, inculcating entrepreneurship, encouraging applied research and also focusing on hard core fundamental research. Hence, India needs layers of higher education institutions doing these tasks in a clubbed approach or as an independent entity. These would need an enabling regulatory framework that will attract substantial investment both from the government and the private sector. Some key recommendations by FICCI are: • Private sector now has limited mode of entry with only the State Private University route in few states leading to a skewed growth. Further, the not-for-profit mode restricts the source of revenue creating high dependence of self-financing institutions on student fees. Hence, • Higher Education should be accorded Infrastructure status to attract private investment • Allow all types of institutions to be established as Section 25 companies and permission to convert the existing trusts and societies (Currently only technical institutions are only allowed to be set up through this route). • One of the barriers to generating endowments in an institution is that the trusts that run educational setups can receive the benefit only if they are acknowledged as a Section 25 organisation as per the Income Tax Act or under the Charities Commissioner. This matter needs to be looked into by the government and simplified. • There are at least 20 to 30 Indian entrepreneurs who can singlehandedly create world-class universities. Expediting the passing of the pending Innovation Universities Bill could help in attracting such credible investments by the Indian industry in the higher education space. • The past experience has proved that the so called ‘not-for-profit models’ of trusts and societies are opaque and have led to unfair practices. The

success story of ‘for-profit’ higher education in countries like USA, Japan and Malaysia provides us with interesting lessons. The need for expansion of higher education in India and dependence on the private sector to meet this necessitates an extensive public debate on the issue to evolve a transparent Indian model to attract investments from the private sector. • For attracting private sector contributions, government should encourage private institutions to induct independent professional and private philanthropists in the managing boards of the higher educational institutions. This will surely improve the governance of these institutions and also pave the way for attracting donations from the corporate world. • Further, the Indian companies have been asking for a 100 percent exemption on endowment tax to contribute towards better research in the higher educational sector. Though the government’s last year’s announcement of increasing the weighted deduction from 175 to 200 percent on payments made to national laboratories, universities and institutes of technology for scientific research is a good move forward, however there is a need to seriously look at raising the 50 percent tax exemption to 100 percent on endowments made to educational institutions. • Distance education is an alternate mode for higher education delivery with reduced investment. But conflicting regulations create an ambiguous environment for private players. It is important to create a harmonised view on the nature of programmes, and do away with arbitrary restrictions on deemed and state private universities. • Setting up of education hubs can also bring down the overall infrastructure cost by developing common facilities like hostels, staff housing, libraries, auditoriums, research centers etc. In spite of the impressive expansion of Indian higher education sector, there

has been no significant improvement in terms of quality of higher education delivery and research in the country. In order to harness the full demographic dividend, India needs an education system that can deliver quality in terms of skilled and industry -ready workforce, without diluting focus on world-class research and innovation. The Twelfth Plan focus in higher education is to strengthen the quality in the existing universities and institutions. Hence, the Planning Commission-FICCI-Ernst & Young Report examined the levers of quality in higher education that can be implemented by the private sector institutions without waiting for the impending reforms to be passed by the Parliament. They are: • Merit-based student financing: This should ensure admissions to meritorious students independent of financial background • Internationalisation of education: This would entail aligning different aspects of education (curriculum, faculty, etc) to international standards • Enabling a research environment: This would involve creating adequate means of research funding and practical application of research • High quality faculty: The need of the hour is to create a conducive environment and provide incentives to attract and retain high quality faculty • Improved technology for education delivery: Leveraging technology for enhancing the teachinglearning experience will ensure better outcomes • Employability: Making educationindustry relevant and practical would be the right way to ensure a highly employable talent pool Industry-academia engagement is critical for effective and efficient implementation of the above identified levers. Government should expedite the establishment of Council for Industry and Higher Education Collaboration, as a not-for-profit, independent nodal agency proposed by Planning Commission to facilitate industry-institute engagements. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

k-12

interview

Promoting Digital Literacy In Rajasthan fruits of IT to the masses for survival, development and empowerment. Currently, we are providing quality vocational computer-related education to the masses. The education is being provided in a blended learning mode, in a very structured and evidence-based environment. In our current batch, around 1.5 lakh learners are taking their training in our computer literacy course, RS-CIT. The system of learning has been developed in such a way that it is possible for us to online monitor learning progression of each learner. This helps us to ensure that each learner is able to acquire the necessary skills. Our vision is to create a digitally-literate Rajasthan.

RKCL is not just a business entity; it is a movement for the good of the people, says Dr Aatul Wadegaonkar, Managing Director, Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Ltd (RKCL), in conversation with Anoop Verma

Give us an overview of the work that is being done by Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Limited. What is your vision for the organisation? Our basic mission is to bridge digital divide, bring the common people closer to ethos and provide opportunities of knowledge society and knowledge-led economy, with a view to bring the real

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You spoke about monitoring the learning progression of each learner to assess the quality of their learning. What kind of monitoring is being done and what aspects of education are being monitored? All aspects of learning are being monitored. It is not just the marks that we are focussing on; we are also keen to identify the actual skills that the learner is picking up. In simulated eLearning environment, the learner performs various differential and integral skills related assignments, the details of which get uploaded. Similarly, learners are enabled to create society useful and productive outputs during their course of learning and a portfolio of what output they create is also uploaded. Is the main objective of the kind of learning being offered by RKCL to make the learners job ready? We are into developing courses that are connected with survival skills. For instance, unless you learn courses like

computer literacy, financial literacy, and English language proficiency, you will not be able to survive in the modern competitive environment. It has nothing to do with direct employment but improving your employability skills. Wherever you want to get employed, even as a clerk, you must acquire these skills. Many private players like Aptech and NIIT are also providing similar courses in all parts of the country. How is RKCL doing it differently? The RKCL is a public limited company established in Rajasthan as a joint venture of the Government of Rajasthan; Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL), Pune; University of Rajasthan, Jaipur; Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur; Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota; Rajcomp Info Services Ltd; and Centre for e-Governance. Today, RKCL has a franchise network of 2,000 centres across the state. No one else has such a huge network. We want to deliver high-tech, high-touch education to the masses. All other players have a district-level presence, whereas our presence is up to the block level. The fee structure for our courses is also very low; it varies between `2,300 - 3,000. Our courses are evidence-based and our eLearning framework is designed to ensure implementation of high-tech with human touch; appreciation to imitation than from imitation to emulation; from emulation to self-expression; from selfexpression to self-confidence; and from self-confidence to self-esteem approach to ensure guaranteed learning. All other frameworks lack on this front and are instructor-driven, where learners are taught and it is assumed that essential skills are imparted.

Perspective

Skills Development

Bridging the Knowledge and Opportunity Gap By Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Vice President - Strategies and Alliances, Mosaic Network (India) Pvt Ltd

Skill development is the essential constituent to future economic growth in India as the country transforms into a diversified and internationally competitive economy. With a young population and government’s focus on skill development, India is likely to become a leader in vocational education

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trategic investment in human capital and advancement in quality can be regarded as the key to building a knowledge economy. Skill development in India faces the challenge of a pronounced skill gap in economy’s high growth sectors. At the policy level, the Government of India, in the Union Budget 2012-13, has doubled its allocation of funds for skills development under the National Skill Development Fund to ~1,000 crore, raising the corpus of the fund to ~2,500 crore. To put things in perspective, the government proposes to generate 70 million new jobs by 2012, and has constituted the National Skill Development Mission to steer the Skill Development Policy in the economy. In the Indian context, high growth industries such as auto components, transportation, packaging, automobiles, logistics, warehousing, construction sector, retail, tourism, media & entertainment, security, IT/ITES, gems and jewellery verticals, banking and finance services, and healthcare services are expected to create these new jobs. It has been envisioned that by 2015, around 75 percent of these jobs would require sector and skill-specific trained workforce. Further, 90 percent of the jobs in India are ‘skillbased’; while only 6 percent of the Indian workforce receives any form of vocational training. These facts and figures are clearly decisive of the fact that India needs to refurbish its skill development strategies with a focus on industry needs and attempt to balance the knowledge and opportunity gap. Fortunately, India’s superfluous labour will coincide with labour shortages across the globe, giving the nation an opportunity to provide for the ‘workforce of the world.’ With more than a hundred million young population to be added to the workforce in the coming decades, we have to maximise the opportunity offered by this ‘demographic dividend’ by ensuring that we add a young skilled workforce in our economy. But the country can do this only if its trained per-

sonnel meet the quality standards demanded internationally. Vocational education can only have its full economic impact if it produces people with skills that can get them well-paid, and fulfilling work as per industry requirements. While the thrust, so far, has been more on building the technical and domain skills, the generic skills and competencies that make people employable are equally critical. Interestingly, the conceptualisations of skills share a common goal. They seek to establish the basis for recognising an important set of skills that support the successful accomplishment of the task-based activities vital to any job role. While these generic skills have contextualised applications unique to a workplace, it is essential to uphold that these skills are also highly transferable. We are the second largest producer of engineering talent in the world. There is a very low correlation between academic performance and industry expectations. As a result, while approximately 3.5 lakh engineering students graduate every year in our country, we are not able to optimise our existing talent pool. The crisis, evidently, need to be addressed from the bottom upwards, which can only happen when all the key stakeholders – industry, government and academia – work in close collaboration and alliance. Efforts should also be channelised to upgrade labour force skills, especially for the underprivileged sections of society and in the regions that have lesser opportunities. Vocational education must be introduced in schools such that it coheres with academic options rather than competing with them. There is also an opportunity to enlarge the scope of the existing ‘Skill Development Centre’ programme into a Virtual Skill Development Resource Network for web-based learning. A more essential and sustainable solution is for the government, industries and educational institutions to collaborate in order to ensure that the education being imparted to our knowledge force is relevant to the industry.

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Skills Development

Upskilling

the

Indian Rubber Industry There is an urgent need to develop modular, short-term skill development programmes for frontline shop floor workers and supervisors By Anupama Giri, CEO Rubber Skill Development Centre (RSDC)

of the industry. To meet these objectives, Rubber Skill Development Centre (RSDC) has been set up by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), in collaboration with rubber industry bodies – All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) and Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA).

Current skill scenario

ndia has a vibrant rubber sector and ranks second in natural rubber consumption in the world after China. In terms of production, India is the fourth largest producer of Natural Rubber and numero uno in per hectare productivity. The rubber industry is fairly developed in India with around 5,000 rubber units across large, medium and small scale sectors scattered across the counry, accounting for upwards of `50,000 crore in turnover. The industry is currently directly employing more than 4.5 lakh personnel. Given the impressive growth rate of the industry and immense potential for its growth, around 6 lakh people will be required by the year 2020. Clearly, there is a dire need to create talent that is industry-ready. Skill development of existing personnel is also critical to sharpen the competitive edge

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In the current scenario, most of the skill learning on the shop floor, particularly in the small and medium scale sector is largely unstructured. The technical institutions running certification courses with rubber specialisation are few. There is an urgent need to develop modular, short term skill development programmes for frontline shop floor workers and supervisors. It is also very important to build capacity and affordability to encourage persons from the less educated and lower income groups to opt for such courses and develop fruitful careers in the Indian rubber industry.

Objectives of RSDC RSDC has been formed with a wide range of objectives such as providing skilled manpower to meet the requirement of the industry in coming years; offering tailor-made courses that satisfy the industry’s need for technical professionals; framing certifications and accreditations for short- and mid-term courses in various trades of rubber industry – both for new people joining the industry and for upgrading skill level of existing employ-

ees; designing and offering courses to create career opportunities across functions at all levels, especially at the entry level; and setting standards of quality in the skills required for different job roles in the rubber industry. Besides, RSDC also aims to frame occupational standards and competency matrix for job roles in the rubber industry and align the training content and curriculum with them. The other objective is to develop training programmes, which are application-based, with simulation or live projects, as per the requirement of the industry, to ensure training of adequate number of trainers to cope with the skill development and to encourage private players to participate in the skill development initiative to build capacities.

Progress so far RSDC has set in motion the process of initiating its Phase I of National Occupational Standards (NOS) formats for critical job roles. The project contract has been awarded to KPMG and IInd phase is being planned for February, 2012. “Skill Gap Analysis” is also being carried out for all sectors and subsectors for selected states, viz Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh in the rubber industry. The study would be initiated by the last week of this month. “RSDC is committed to meeting the requirements of trained manpower across the ecosystem on a sustained and evolving basis,” says Vinod Simon, Chairman, RSDC.

Security

Perspective

Security Patches for Networks In addition to compliance, additional security defenses are required by educational institutes to realise the need to protect information and ensure appropriate security across their network By Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan

ncreasing adaptation of mobile technology has motivated the education sector to take advantage of the innovative capabilities that the technology brings with itself as a digital learning technique in the classrooms today and beyond. Technology not only contributes in making learning attractive and engaging, but also in cutting short investment for IT infrastructure required by educational organisations. Though every educational organisation is trying to let Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy takeover the traditional methods of teaching and learning, the idea comes with its own demerits that need serious consideration before being adopted. In this era, securing any network has become a concern for the education fraternity.

Vulnerability to cyber attacks With a huge number of students enrolling for various courses in these institutes/ universities every year, their networks are an ocean of distinct type of data. These days, educational institutes are increasingly adopting online interactive platform in order to ensure easy accessibility of course documents for students, while facilities such as online tests are increasingly being used. Moreover, online applications and admission procedures are now used by most of the universities. This pool of heterogeneous database systems, inadequate resources, budgetary constraints and numerous

IT departments within a university are some of the other factors that lead to data breaches targeted specifically to educational institutions. Applications or operating systems come with vulnerabilities, which in turn create opportunities for skilled cyber criminals that discover them at a significant rate and implement automated attacks. Ensuring smooth and efficient running of an application is essential. Thus, it is imperative for every educational institute to ensure that the patches are applied as and when they are made available.

Deployment of patches Though all educational networks comprise a wide range of applications, there lies a vast difference within the users in the network when it comes to deployment of patches, which are critical in keeping a computer system safe. As an individual user, it is easy for students or teachers to keep their systems updated with latest security patches. However, when it comes to the network of the institute, it includes innumerable workstations and network aware devices that lead to challenges in order to match and balance the security needs. Moreover, as the educational networks involve a lot of data storing and sharing at various accessibility levels, non-compliance with patch management leads to higher risk issues related to data integrity. Patch management strategy strives

for consistency across an organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s systems, even if that means delaying the deployment of key software updates, which is again a serious issue. Hence, the most appropriate solution is the deployment of a central patch management system that usually requires a huge amount of dedicated resources. It comprises testing of patches before being applied into the production environment. It is a must for educational organisations to implement a process in order to prioritise critical security updates on their networks that will help remediate critical vulnerabilities in the minimum time-frame. It should also be understood that though patch management plays a pivotal role in ensuring secured business networks, however, it is not a complete solution for all kinds of security vulnerabilities. In addition to multiple security controls, patch management is just one part, though one of the most effective means of securing networks against evolving cyber threats. Educational organisations that do not have dedicated resources to handle patch management can manually implement patch management or opt for a Managed Services Provider (MSP). It will help them implement both an automated service and a remote service. It is very important for these educational institutes to realise the need to protect sensitive information and ensure appropriate security measures across the network. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

special feature

ePunjabSchool Wins Accolade at eINDIA Education Summit ePunjabSchool is a one-of-its-kind of IT/ICT intervention that allows the Decision Making Authority to have a bird’s eyeview on the endto-end functioning of school education system in the state, thus connecting the three verticals of Education: School, Teacher, and Students. The system is equipped with GIS coordinates of school position that allows decision to be taken exactly on the guidelines of SSA Act in positioning of new schools or even upgrading of schools

nvisaging the ePunjabSchool project is to monitor the delivery of quality of education at school level as well as administering the internal functions of schools. This covers all government schools about 18,500. Currently the project has been opened to 6,250 middle, high and senior secondary schools having around 70,000 teachers and 14 lakh students. In future, the department is planning to roll out this project to all primary schools coming under the MIS system. The Department of School & Mass Education Punjab is arguably one of the most technically equipped systems currently functioning in the boundary of India. The way the Department has provided computer and connectivity to the schools particularly the Middle, Secondary & Higher Secondary sects, it only becomes a formality for the department to introduce a Software application that enables them to use the facility in updating day-to-day information, ultimately that collates to a MIS at the Central Decision Making level to get instant access to information that can prove vital and work as a Decision Support System (DSS). About SSA The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a historic stride towards achieving the long cherished goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) through a time bound integrated approach, in partnership with State. SSA, which promises to change the face of the elementary education sector of the country, aims to provide useful and quality elementary education to all children in the 6 -14 age group by 2010. The SSA is an effort to recognise the need for improving the performance of the school system and to provide community owned quality elementary education in mission mode. It also envisions to bridge gender and social gaps. Following up this prescience, Government of India launched its most ambitious planning of making the act of “Education for All” thus by making compulsory, the minimum elementary education for every child between the age of 0-14 years. To realise this mandate every

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state has empowered its school education system by financially being governed by Sarva Sikhya Abhiyaan (SSA). The SSA again added to its wing as a separate IT/ICT division to further add Computer education in schools alongside regular mainstream education. Scope of replication The key features that make this system worth replication in other states are: 1. Meeting RTE guidelines is same for all states. 2. Proper Inventory Management for MDM. 3. Maintaining proper MIS of funds received and funds utilised. Scalability of the project 1. Any number of schools can be added 2. Dynamic workflow makes module plug and play. 3. Infrastructure available (high end servers, bandwidth, etc.) at the data centre enables the system ready to be scaled up. 4. Investment at the client end is minimum where one PC with Internet connectivity can be used for using the application. Also user-friendly modules make the training programme simple to implement. The system helps the state and district officials by monitoring student management like child tracking, student enrollment, academics and inspection, staff management like transfer, promotion and increment, infrastructure management and deficiencies. The GIS component links the MIS information with the mapped data where spatial queries, distance calculations and other GIS utility are possible. Every change and enhancement in the application is making the edges even sharper. Lastly, we do commend the involvement of all stake holders irrespective of their position and responsibility.

special feature

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

corporate diary

Adopting a Holistic Approach for Knowledge Delivery Technology alone cannot be a solution provider. It has to be coupled with best practices in education delivery and research, says Dr Prashant Rajvaidya, President & Chief Technology Officer, Mosaic Network

Please tell us about your journey so far. Our journey has been eventful and enriching. Our experience spans the range of social innovation, with particularly strong experience working with evaluation-centric community initiatives. At the county, state, and national levels, our work extends over a broad range of human services, including education, youth development, public health, and international development, among others. Across this range of human services, our experience includes the entire lifespan, from prenatal and early education to adults and seniors. Our work at the international, national and state levels includes work with national foundations including certain Gates Foundation’s school initiatives, as well as universities and research institutes in the UK and USA and projects in more than 29 developing countries through the international aid efforts of Medical Teams International.

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How do you see the role of technology in education, governance and healthcare sectors? We believe that technology alone cannot solve the need of more human, personal and scientific solutions that are required in the education, governance and healthcare sectors. Technology has to be seamlessly coupled with strong background in best practices in education delivery as well as research. This blend of multidisciplinary approach can uniquely position “one-stop-shop” for holistic education service providers, such as Mosaic, to help multi-agency education initiatives with high-quality and just-in-time results that supply the needed information to improve knowledge delivery in various classroom settings as well as to ultimately improve overall life outcomes for the students. Where do you think the company stands today? Our offerings and our successes have reflected our commitment to our vision and

include a comprehensive and integrated suite of services and products to enable users harness the benefits of effective results through real-time data. With this motivation, we offer a well-rounded package of services, intended to provide not only for your technology needs, but also for the people and processes that interface with the technology. Specifically, our offerings cover five broad areas. First, we offer strategic data planning and reporting consultation, in which we partner with you and your evaluators and partners to help prepare for data collection. Through this process, we strive to ensure that your vision is continually managed through effective technology on an ongoing basis. Second, we offer a quality data system customised to meet data collection and reporting needs of each of our clients. From this trusted platform, we implement customisations to reflect your vision and the results of our strategic planning efforts. Our goal through this process is to produce a data system that fits your needs and encourages your users to utilise datadriven decision-making. Third, we offer extensive training, data coaching and technical assistance with the goal that all users—administrators, partners, evaluators, and providers—are able to optimally use the technology for their own specific needs. These services are ongoing throughout the life of our work together, and are provided by a consistent team from start to finish. Fourth, we offer ongoing evaluation consulting with a focus on the use of diverse information for continuous evaluation as well as data analysis and report writing, and strategic communication consulting which focuses on helping GEMS users communicate their results and impacts. These services are intended to aid GEMS users and stakeholders in better understanding and interpreting

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their data, such that it can be used for ongoing evaluation and sustainability. Finally, our community-focused research services are conducted in collaboration with our partner universities and focus on developing research practices that can rely on both real-time access to quality data and dissemination of research results to a wider audience of stakeholders in a timely fashion. What are your views on the importance of data scientist in India? We feel that our primary directive in this project would be to help the UWGH ensure the success of the Community Collaborative and their commitment to its goals without compromising on the core evaluation service requirements of this request for proposal (RFP). The key outcome will be ensuring the initial and continuing buy-in from partner agencies with respect to the desired results identified by the collaborative. We have reframed the collaborative as the central and most important element of the initiative that informs all other evaluation activities. This approach allows the UWGH to maintain a singular, unified focus on its desired results while providing a framework to evaluate a variety of targeted strategies to address specific results. Our evaluation approach will inform how well these targeted strategies (e.g., early grade reading, parent education and engagement) are working while ensuring that the ultimate barometer of success will be how well the collaborative achieves its desired results. What is your vision for education 2020 in India? Our vision for education 2020 in India relies on participatory approach that is very important for the success of education in India. We have developed a simple model to illustrate the basic dynamics of our collaborative vision for education initiatives in India throughout their lifecycle. The model explains how we envision the education projects relating to each other, and differentiates the process of an education collaborative from its conception to the documentation of its success.

The Collaborative Process Model for Education 2020 Vision

1. Identify Community Needs: The identification of the specific problems, conditions, trends, and/or indicators to be addressed through a collaborative approach. It is important that the Indian policy makers and the educational leaders are committed to continuing to engage the community/population around desired results. We anticipate partnering with and guiding these policy makers and leaders in these endeavours. 2. Organise Community Collaborative: The next step is to identify resources in the community and bring them together as a collaborative. Two important considerations at this stage are ensuring that collaborative partners are all committed to the same, singular purpose and that there is sufficient inclusion of key stakeholders to make an impact. We anticipate to help these policy makers and education leaders adjust their current education outcomes to include a component that can help them (a) gain consensus on these new education outcomes as well as models and (b) identify and incorporate new partners as needed. 3. Consensus on Desired Results: Feet on the Ground and Working with Education Institutions: Large education initiatives often require a mul-

titude of services, programmes and strategies to the employed. A more successful approach that accounts for this complexity involved monitoring progress on a specific set of desired results, an approach we term 4Q Approach. In this approach, education initiative partners, affiliate agencies and programmes (the schools and their classrooms) use a standard set of measures to collect, monitor, and review their progress on desired education results indicators, regardless of the curriculum and the subject being taught. 4. Evaluate Desired Results: The next step in our model is to apply the best ways to measure student success indicators by applying our 4Q solutions and products to assist in student performance data collection, data analysis, and result interpretation in real-time. 5. Present Feedback: The final step of our education 2020 in India as well as our contribution involves disseminating and communicating results to all the stakeholders. Where do you see Mosaic in India in the next three years? We aspire to make a difference in the lives of at least a million Indians through our various programmes. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

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Innovation in Education at Apeejay School The transformation of Apeejay School from an ‘enriching school’ to an ‘empowering school’ focuses on enabling teachers and students to become reflective practitioners through experiential and enquiry based learning, decision-making and interpersonal trust

n exhaustive exercise had been conducted to identify the areas and level of students’ competence. The focus was on the convergence of technology, pedagogy and content to enhance learning ability. The entire project is based on developing curiosity, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking across the curriculum. A collaborative process had been chosen to prepare a comprehensive strategy, keeping in mind the various domains of human learning, namely cognitive, psychomotor and affective. Bloom’s taxonomy (which is cognitive-domain based) having various thinking levels, namely, recall, recognise, understand, apply, analyse, synthesise and evaluate, was used as the foundation for developing this innovative project. Since the Apeejay School curriculum is a dynamic breathing document, the teaching-learning pedagogy incorporated interdisciplinary methodology, with extensive project-work, team-work, problem-solving, decision-making and presentations.

Objective The objective was to encourage independent thinking, nurture curiosity, promote action-research culture and maximise learning effectiveness. To achieve the above objectives, tiered instructions (graded learning) strategy was followed, based on “subject-specific rooms” that have been equipped to develop synchronisation between student caliber and available resources. Each classroom was converted to a subject room/laboratory well-equipped with all teaching aids, with students moving to them as per timetable (and teachers remaining in subject rooms). Since each student’s learning potential differs from subject to subject, he is allowed to attend subject-classes as per current skill level.

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Student engagement Teachers use tiered activities with students focusing on essential understanding and skills, but at varying levels of complexity and thinking levels. A challenging task for brilliant/ gifted students is also in practice through multi-grade learning opportunity. Here, a child attends vertical class to feel recognised and attains challenging aptitude. Life-skills and human values were integrated in the curriculum through various programmes and projects, so that values pervade the whole atmosphere and culture of the school. The curriculum focuses on inculcation of values in the regular teaching-learning of subjects itself, wherever possible. The project was carried out keeping primary and secondary levels in mind. Abstract concepts were identified across the curriculum.

Introduction of technology Courseware development training was given to all teachers. The Courseware written was converted into educational software to be used for computer-aided instructions. Tools used: Smart Classroom, Analyser machine, Visualiser, Indigenous, ePackages, Random machine, eWorksheet, Language Lab, Physical Resources, Analogue Table, Flash Cards, Mind Maps, Abacus, Maths Lab Equipment, and School’s Science Park with specialised equipment.

event report eindia 2012

Anniversary Celebrations

eINDIA Proves the Power of ICT in Education The recently held eINDIA 2012 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), Hyderabad, witnessed key decision makers & experts, administrators & policy makers, leaders & stakeholders, service providers & IT-telecom vendors, consulting firms, ICT entrepreneurs & development agencies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all converging on one platform

L to R: Dr Ravi Gupta, CEO, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd and Convener of eINDIA 2012; M Samuel, IAS Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA); Dr Raghuveera Reddy N, Minister of Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Government of Andhra Pradesh; Sri Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Minister for IT & Communication, Government of Andhra Pradesh; Sri N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; Sanjay Jaju, IAS, Secretary, IT & Communication, Government of Andhra Pradesh; Dr (Smt) Killi Kruparani, Minister of State for Communication & IT, Government of India; and J Satyanarayana, IAS, Secretary, Department of Electronics & IT, Government of India; releasing the three special issues of egov, eHEALTH and digitalLEARNING magazines during the inaugural session of eINDIA 2012

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eindia 2012 event report

echnology is of no use unless it comes to the reach and affordability of the common man, said Sri N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and chief guest, during the inauguration of the eighth edition of eINDIA 2012. India’s largest ICT event comprising conferences, expo and awards was held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on 1516 November, 2012. Jointly organised by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd; Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS); and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and hosted by the Andhra Pradesh Government and Mee Seva, the two-day event witnessed 30

panel discussions on ICT usage in governance, health and education. The conference had three parallel tracks on eGovernance, Education, and Healthcare. The three summits convened concurrently offered a unique platform for in-depth knowledge exchange and networking for key decision makers and experts; administrators and policy makers; leaders and stakeholders; service providers and IT-telecom vendors; consulting firms; ICT entrepreneurs and development agencies. Apart from the seminal tracks, eINDIA Awards turned out to be the real showstopper of the event. Fifty-four awards were given for ICT initiatives across governance, health and

The eGovernance summit witnessed eight sessions over two days. The topics of panel discussions ranged from the Roadmap of e-Governance in India; ICT Deployment in Public Safety & Security; Smart Cities; ICT in Energy & Transportation; Aadhaar based Service Delivery; From eSeva to Mee Seva: State Leadership Summit; ICT Usage by Public Sector Units; and ICT Usage in Financial Inclusion.

L to R: Sanjeev Gupta, Marketing Head, Accenture; Veerabhadraiah Narumanchi CIO, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh; Srikant Nagulapalli CEO, Arogyasri Health Care Trust; and Dr B K Murli Founder & Director, Dr Hope Hospital during a health session on Emerging Paradigms in Healthcare

education under 24 separate categories. Moreover, the ICT expo with 110 exhibitors was a major attraction of eINDIA 2012. The event coincided with the first anniversary of Mee Seva – the flagship scheme for electronic delivery of services by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Speaking about Mee Seva services, the Chief Minister said that by issuing certificates and other documents through digital signatures, the state government had reduced dependence on the middlemen, thus introducing transparency in the system, timely delivery of services, and reducing wastage of public money.

L to R: Sanjay Sahay, IGP, Karnataka; Bipul Pathak, IT Secretary, J&K; M Chaya Ratan, Special Chief Secretary, Home Dept, Andhra Pradesh; Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner, Delhi Traffic Police; N S N Murty, IBM during a governance session on ICT Deployment in Public Safety and Security

In the two days, eINDIA witnessed eight sessions on health and telemedicine. Panel discussions took place around the Emerging Paradigms in Healthcare; eHealth and mHealth; Point-of-Care Technologies and Chronic Disease Management; Emerging Trends in Health Insurance; Patient Safety; Rural Health and the like. While aiming to provide a platform for dialogue on the health systems in India and beyond, the eINDIA Health Summit track was able to associate with various departments and representatives of state government departments, bodies like the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH)

and others. The event speakers and attendees were from reputed hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, doctors, policy makers, researchers, health experts and industry members from Andhra Pradesh, across India and abroad. Among the key speakers were Girdhar J Gyani, Member, Governing Board, NABH and Member, Governing Board, ISQua; P K Taneja, Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Gujarat; Balaji Utla, CEO, Health Management and Research Institute (HMRI) and N Veerabhadraiah, Chief Information Officer & Deputy Director, Commissioner of Health & Family Welfare, Andhra Pradesh. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

event report eindia 2012

The education seminal track was divided in two parts – School Education and Higher Education. Overall, 14 panel discussions were held in the two days. The topics for Higher Education included Challenges and Opportunities in Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions; Investment in Education; Vision 2020; Transformatory Practices in Technical Education; Creating Innovative Models in Education; and Best Practices in Higher Education. Under the School Education Track, discussions were held on topics such as Essentials for Building Visionary Schools in a Globalised World; Learning Practices in the 21st Century; Alternative Assessment Strategies; STEM Education and Tech Assisted Tools for Student Comprehension; Progressive Learning Environment through Connected Classrooms; Blended Learning Curriculum & Supportive Teaching; and Training of Educators: Coping with Rapidly Changing Education Technologies. Prof S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE); K Sunitha, Commissioner, Directorate of Collegiate Education; Prof Parvin Sinclair, Director, National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT); Prof U B Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad; Prof V S Rao, Director, BITS Hyderabad Campus; Sanjay Singh, Principal Secretary, Department of School Education, Madhya Pradesh; Dr Pascal Chazot, Head of School, Mahatma Gandhi International School; N Siva Sankar, Commissioner & Director of School Education, Andhra Pradesh; Son Kuswadi,

Winner: Prithvi Solanki, 1st Runner-up: BAPS Swaminarayan Sonakshi Mukherji, Vidyamandir, Silvassa Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Kolkata

2nd Runner-up: Hormazd N Godrej, The Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai

Prof H A Ranganath, Prof Bharat Chattoo, Prof Furqan Qamar, Prof S Ramesh Babu

K Renuka Raju, Rupesh, G. Kumar Naik, Mathewhzacharias, Lt Col A Sekhar

Education Attache, The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia; Andrey Shelukhin, Counselor (Science & Technology), Embassy of the Russian Federation in India; and K Gopal, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation were among the key speakers who included state education secretaries, vice-chancellors of universities, directors and faculty members of higher education institutes, and principals and chairmen of schools. The speakers focused on how institutions and academicians have an important role to play in the development of employability skills of the students and how ICT can be utilised as an integral tool in this direction.

Igniting Young Minds

Interestingly, eINDIA 2012 witnessed a welcome initiative in involving the youth and teenagers in its movement to promote innovations in the usage of ICT in governance, health and education. It’s a step towards igniting the young minds and creating a platform to share their perspective with industry players. As the first step in this direction, eINDIA 2012 had organised an online national essay contest for teenagers and the youth. The objective was to assess the vision and understanding that today’s youth posses in the fields of governance, health and education. Essays were invited around topics on future of technology vis-à-vis governance, health and eduation.

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higher Education

eindia 2012

Reengineering India for the Future The Indian democracy can go forward in the 21st century only if it democratises information, said Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations, at eINDIA 2012

ndia has come a long way in eGovernance and at the same time, has a long way to go because technology and tools that were used years ago are very different today. A lot of that learning will be useful and a lot of it will have to be unlearnt to go further. Without democratising information, the Indian democracy cannot be taken forward in the 21st century. There are a number of new tools and technology, leadership in the IT industry world over, and good human resources, which need to be capitalised to reengineer the nation. As a part of this challenge, we are focussed on public information infrastructure which consists of: 1) National Knowledge Network linking 1,500 nodes with 40 gigabit bandwidth to connect all the universities, R&D laboratories, governments, etc. 2) Connecting 2,50,000 panchayats to the optical fibre network. We want to use the network and add another 4,00,000 kilometer of optical fibre to connect all local governments. This will

give a new meaning to local governance. Putting all this together, you get to see the power of public information infrastructure that is essentially designed to provide transparency, accountability, openness and ultimately beat the needs of the RTI. In the RTI, information is not organised in a manner that it can be delivered properly. The main challenge today in India is that a lot of people are doing their own things and there is very little coordination, collaboration and standards. There are 32 million court cases pending today. It takes 10-15 years to get justice. Can technology be used to reduce the time to get justice to maybe three years? A lot of these things are possible if we work together. Every government department should convert to electronic files. It is a very difficult task because not even the department of electronics uses electronic filing. Until, we do that, we will not have a good handle on the benefits of eGovernance. How do we transform governance,

health, education, agriculture and financial services? We need to innovate and think differently, and create new business models, delivery systems and learning models. The answer to all this is education. We need teachers as mentors. We need to change the foundation of the education system. If we focus on taking benefit of public information infrastructure, we will be able to redesign the nation for the future generations. It is our responsibility to leave the right kind of tools and platforms for the young generations to create their own future, provide new models for education, health, vocational training, governance, agriculture and financial services. This, in turn, will create a new India with transparency, accountability and access to the right information at the right time. It will also bring in new tools for the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid to address challenges related to water, education, sanitation, health, food distribution, nutrition and infrastructure.

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

Anniversary Celebrations

Glimpses

eindia 2012 school Education

Day 1

Essentials for Building Visionary Schools in a Globalised World “To build the school is to build the civilisation”, says Robert Stevenson. The term ‘visionary’ implies to those schools where learning programmes and communities share basic qualities. The session was enriched with speakers from across India and the world. The panel shared their opinion on the roadmap to building visionary classrooms to adapt to the globalised world

Dr Pascal Chazot, Head of School, Mahatma Gandhi International School Good methodology and pedagogy can resolve challenges in the classroom.

Sukumar Venkatachalam, President, Pearson Schools The holistic development of a child does not focus only on academic brilliance. Academic knowledge is definitely required but it is not the only aim to getting education. This is a starting point and is the fulcrum. It needs to be supported by the overall activities of children. Exhibiting your talent in cocurricular activities needs to get into the classroom today, and teachers are the pillars for this implementation. The focus on building good teachers needs to be given more emphasis.

Shashwati Banerjee, Managing Director, Sesame Workshop Schooling needs to begin at a much earlier age and needs to be regulated with standardised guidelines. We also need to have high quality trained teachers in the country to impart meaningful education, apart from engaging content, holistic curriculum, and teaching methodology in the classrooms.

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Shivoo Kooteshwar, Director, Amaatya Academy We should spend less time in filling minds of hungry students with content by lecturing them. Rather, we should ignite their creativity, imagination and problem-solving skills by talking. This is done by interacting with students and doing active learning in classrooms. Sundaram Ramaswamy, CEO, Xcallibre To build visionary classrooms, we need to have limited teaching staff and focus on making their time more useful and effective.

Sanjay Singh, Principal Secretary, Department of School Education, Madhya Pradesh Quality has to be the target in education, but the major limitation is that we have teachers who do not have teaching as their first choice.

school Education eindia 2012

Multi Dimensional Approach is a Must for Visionary Schools Holistic development of a child is very important in today’s globalised world, said Rajeev Katyal, Country Director, Global Indian Foundation and GIIS Schools India, at eINDIA 2012

ndia is globalising very fast. Indians are going abroad and MNCs are coming to India and interacting with each other. This is pointing to an era where India will emerge as a global economic superpower in the years to come. Children of today’s India will lead the effort. And for this they need education in globalised environment. A global school needs to cater to certain aspects, which makes it the visionary school of future. One such aspect is curriculum, whereby we need to have schools catering to diversified curricula. Second aspect is infrastructure that needs to be not only academic, but one that also caters to co-curricula and global connectivity. Third is holistic development of a child academically, and also support multiple intelligences, and excellence in different areas. Holistic development is a method of looking at a child in multiple dimensions and choosing that dimension in which that child is special and trying to emphasise on that strength in a particular child. Global education excellence also talks about exchanging information between children in various parts of the world to make them globally aware about the other parts. Global education is about sharing best practices across geographies and involving every stakeholder including teachers, students, parents, media, and society. There are multiple dimensions that need to be focused on when we talk about visionary school in global context. Today, schools emphasise only on CBSE curricula. Many students have full potential and freedom to go to curricula, which are different from Indian curricula like IGCSE curriculum or IB, ICSE. Particularly with international curricula, students get a chance to go abroad and study in foreign universities. Holistic development of a child is very important in today’s globalised world. A child could be good in academics, sports, communication or creativity. Typically in our schools, we focus

on different dimensions of the child’s personality. The schools measure the ability of the child to develop in each of these areas termed as nine gems or nine dimension method where we look at things like values and ethics, leadership development, and sporting excellence to develop a child. So, multi-dimensional development is another aspect of developing global school. An interesting experiment that the Global Indian International School has done is the global student exchange through videoconferencing. We facilitate monthly interactions with students from Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indore, Surat, and Noida through the videoconferencing method to understand about each other’s countries. For example, students of Noida interacted with the students of Singapore and each presented to the other interacted about transportation system in their respective cities. Students of Noida came to know about Singapore’s transportation system and what they can learn from it. So this kind of student exchange leads to globalised community and develops global culture and etiquette. Another good practice that GIIS has created all over the world is strengthening of communication between all stakeholders that are important for welfare of a child such as parents, teachers, principals, and administrators. So we have created software, My Global Campus, that provides basic information about assignment, marks, tests, student notificationand also encourages regular feedback and interaction between the parents sitting at home and teacher. This implementation enables 24X7 connect with schools and parents at home. They can remotely track the child’s progress, take feedback from teachers and school. They have become partners in the child’s progress along with the schools. With all above-mentioned efforts we are creating visionary schools of the global world. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 school Education

Day 1

Learning Practices in the 21st Century: Technology Challenges and Digital Insights The Internet and a wide variety of emerging communication and simulation technologies have enhanced the learning process and experimental or real-world problem solving skills for students. Schools are not just adopting technology, but more diverse and innovative ways of teaching and learning. The session expresses viewpoints on blend of technology and education to overcome these challenges

Simi Kher, Country Coordinator, Tony Blair Faith Foundation Our education system today would feel irrelevant unless there is a bridge between how students live and how they learn.

K Renuka Raju, Founder, Correspondent, Lotus Learning Systems Society Every child and teacher must have the skills that are required to make them job-ready. These have to be evaluated as a part of the curriculum and also reported in the National Certificate for Workplace Preparation.

Nageswara Rao, Principal, Sanghamitra School If we blend technology and classroom teaching, we can give better education to the children. Harnessing technological advancements can turn the world around for a student who considers studying as a compulsion. Rupesh Kumar Shah, CEO and Co-Founder, Inopen Technologies Our objective in teaching computer science is to develop clarity and stepwise execution of any task. We want to develop confidence in solving complex problems. We should use this as a vehicle to mould the next generation technology users.

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Lt Col A Sekhar, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya The right blend of technology is needed in teaching. Quality and access to education are the major challenges that need to be addressed.

Satheesh Kalyansundaram, Senior Sales Engineer, Websense Security is a serious issue in education and needs to be looked deeper into.

Mathewhzacharias, Principal, Global Indian International School To achieve quality in education, we need to involve our student community in brainstorming. Charles Darwin said that what we think today is not the best thing in the next generation. We have to put things in perspective. G Kumar Naik, Secretary, Primary and Secondary Education, Government of Karnataka Schools have changed drastically in the last 15 years. To overcome the barriers in the education, we have to move from the first level of ICT to the second.

school Education eindia 2012

Day 1

Alternative Assessment Strategies and Innovative Approaches in Evaluation The session evaluated the current practices in assessment and evaluation used in schools and institutes of higher education in our country. It highlighted next and best practices and provided innovative models that can be replicated in teaching-learning practices

Neti Srinivas, COO, Ryan Group of Institutions Children learn at their own pace, and in different ways. We cannot have a uniform testing method for all of them. Over the last few years, the government has also become active. The CCE manual is extremely comprehensive, child- and school-friendly, and if followed properly, it can bring a revolution in the assessment of kids.

S A M V Prasada Rao, CEO and Principal, DRS International School Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Its prime objective is to provide feedback on the learning process. Schools are expected to develop assessment procedures and methods that reflect the philosophy and objective of the programmes run by the school. Information that has been put in the brain is like a closed file and gets wiped off as soon as the exam is over.

Son Kuswadi, Education Attache, The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia We have to evolve our secondary education. Higher education too, in Indonesia faces a lot of challenges with the gross enrolment ratio being 26 percent. Yet, we are on a higher side in comparison with India which is around 16 percent. India and Indonesia have signed a memorandum of understanding on education cooperation last year.

Veena Raizada, DirectorAcademics, Next Education Teaching methodologies are important before we assess students. Delivering education content only will not work. We should make students understand and deliver knowledge with the right objective of that content.

V Nanda Kumar, Principal & CEO, Ecole Mondiale International School Is it possible for an assessment system or a combination of its parts to fully satisfy our requirements of a reasonably comprehensive assessment?

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 school Education

Day 2

STEM Education and Tech Assisted Tools for Student Comprehension The session focused on STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to create skilled and employable workforce. It highlighted the need to increase critical thinking among students that will help build the next generation of innovators

Hema, Principal, Ganges Valley School It is a great challenge for educators to handle kids born with STEM skills as they are born creative and innovative. They are practical problem solvers and designers rather than workers. Also, they have collaborative thinking and are life-long learners. These kids are very comfortable handling technology tools. The only thing missing out is engineering approach and we have to concentrate on that.

Prabhakar Reddy, Principal, Bhadrachalam Public School Our talent pool can be increased by enhancing the level of STEM education in K-12 and by strengthening the skills of teachers through additional training in STEM. We should enlarge the pipeline of graduates and students entering college with STEM degrees. Degrees acquired today do not prepare them to face real world challenges and limit their employability.

D Usha Reddy, Principal, Meridian School Think and then create, innovate because gadgets can only support. After all, it is the human brain that created gadgets. The human mind should focus more on the classroom than on technology.

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Seetha Murty, Principal, Silver Oaks School Every school should be a research centre because they know the background of every student who comes in. Schools and parents have to decide what technology should be used in schools to fulfill the goals of the education they want to give to the youngsters.

Andrey Shelukhin, Counselor (Science & Technology), Embassy of the Russian Federation in India The Russian concept of socio-economic development up to year 2020 stresses on the need to establish a national system for the development of science and national innovation in technologies with greater use of ICT.

higher Education

eindia 2012

Knowledge should be Coupled with Common Sense Prabhakar Rao Polasani, Chairman, Raoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Group of Educational Institutions, opined that our education system should be more interactive and make students think out-of-the-box, at eINDIA 2012

n todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world, children are very active when it comes to using technology. They know how to quickly operate and understand things that use technology. Before we talk about having digital classrooms, we should first ponder over the purpose of educational institutions in India and the future in India. We have so many big and prestigious institutions like the IITs in our country and a number of other institutions working towards getting students into the IITs, but do we have a noble prize winner from even one of the IITs? All it takes to get into an IIT is a lot of

hard work and revision. Certainly, there is a lot we are missing out on. I shall explain this through an example. A 65-year-old man was suffering from a cardiac problem and was visiting a famous super-specialty hospital for his treatment where he also got his bypass surgery done. After two months, he fell sick with something else that affected his lungs. He went to the same hospital where they tried to diagnose the problem through various tests. A week after he was discharged, he fell sick again, went to the same hospital and got the diagnosis repeated. This time, he visited another hospital to cross-check, where he was admitted for a week. His illness reoccurred.

He now went to a third hospital where he was found to be suffering from fluid-filled lungs. What did all the other hospitals he went to miss out on? Idea. Clearly, all the institutions in our country are imparting a lot of knowledge to the students, but this knowledge lacks common sense. We seriously need to analyse if the kind of education that we are imparting to our students make them think out-of-the-box and how interactive our teaching is. Despite a lot of gadgets being introduced into the classrooms today, learning through visualisation still seems to be more impactful. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 school Education

Day 2

Progressive Learning Environment through Connected Classrooms: Enriching the Experience of Education Connected classrooms help students learn about global issues and become responsible citizens. They help develop new ways of teaching and learning. Anywhere, anytime learning is the new mantra. The session explored how ICT can be emerged as a tool for enriching the experience of education

Veena Raizada, Director - Academics, Next Education Are we creating meaningful learning environments which engage the students for meaningful learning?

A K Agarwal, Director, DRS International School We are now implementing tablets in classrooms as a replacement for textbooks, with additional features. The demand of time is technology be implemented in all the schools. In five years, we will find textbooks replaced by tablets, especially in the metros. The biggest challenge in education is teachers and their training on these technologies.

Kiran Singh, Head, Ramgarh Cantt Sahodaya Complex Schools “E” must be understood to have a broad meaning if eLearning has to be made effective. It should be interpreted to mean exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended, excellent, and educational, in addition to “electronic”, the traditional national interpretation. This broader interpretation allows for 21st century applications.

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K Gopal, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation There is a growing demand of eApplications everywhere. We are not only dealing with high school kids, but also high-tech kids who are prepared to accept any application in this digital world. Teachers also need to integrate technology seamlessly. We expect integration from both from teachers and students today. Pawan K Samba, Director, Narayana Group of Schools Over the last 20 years, the approach towards education has completely taken a U-turn. The influence of IT in curriculum management has increased manifold. We have reached a situation where curriculum management and ICT go hand-in-hand. Virendra Rawat, Director, Academic, B-Kanae School We want to create new paradigms for learning and cultivate physical sensibilities so that children adapt and grow capable. We are also aiming at developing spiritual awareness and emotional intuition to encourage them to be in the wonder of life’s possibilities.

school Education eindia 2012

Day 2

Blended Learning Curriculum & Supportive Teaching: Tools to Promote Student Engagement The session advocated the emergence of new tools to promote student engagement. Creating constructivist approach, peer learning, collaborative, teaching learning processes, using and bringing relevance in the classroom can lead to more effective student engagement

Kalpesh Bordawekar, General Manager, Mexus The role of the school is to adopt teaching designs that suit the classroom mindsets. Schools must encourage teachers to participate in collaborative environment. Academic leaders should initiate corporate ventures in education. Schools should engage in educating parents about the importance of new age teaching learning processes. Arif Dar, Zonal Head-ICT Sales, Pearson Education Services Our core belief is that every teacher is unique and we need to help strengthen or amplify his uniqueness. The freedom to tailor-make training sessions helps teachers enhance their uniqueness in knowledge delivery.

A Murali Mukund, Chairman, Jubilee Public School Technology is a great way to engage the kids and making them learn at the same time.

Sunil Shriwastav, Principal, Kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Kingdom Public School Blended learning curriculum must be blended with the elements of morals, values, respect for culture, equality and human empowerment.

Dr T Padmavati, Principal, Fusion International School A child should learn in a way that he is confident to go to the next level. There should be a simple gradation in the difficulty of learning. Interdisciplinary learning needs to be encouraged.

Ashutosh Tripathi, Director, Krishna Public School Successful learning is directly related to its relevance, purpose and authenticity. If our desire is for students to engage, the work they do must be significant, valuable, and real.

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 school Education

Day 2

Training of Educators: Coping with Rapidly Changing Education Technologies Technology changes everyday and it is very important for teachers to keep abreast of new technologies to teach the children of today. Hence, training comes as an essential component to keep momentum with time and technology. The session finds out the way forward to cope up with the rapidly changing education technologies and training of educators

Prof Parvin Sinclair, Director, National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) A teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience in her pre-service and in service activities should be similar to her experience in the classroom. If she has to bring constructivism in the classroom, her own experiences too should be like that.

Prof (Dr) NB Sudershan Acharya, Founder and Chairman, Lead India 2020 Foundation The integration of technology in education will change the face of India. Educators integrate technology in teaching-learning process for strong professional development of students. Creation of user-friendly learning environment for educators will help them grow much beyond.

Mamatha E, Chairman and Correspondent, Johnson Kids School We should train our teachers in the new technologies and methodologies that are coming in. But I think, when they do it by their own, it becomes memorable for them forever. The overuse of technology kills a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creativity.

T Venu Gopal Rao, Academic Director & Managing Director, Fusion International School Skills of in-service teachers should be refreshed by providing internal or external training in the latest educational technology trends. Teachers should be trained to evaluate and integrate available materials into the learning process along with enabling trainee teachers to access sources of knowledge and to create knowledge.

education.eletsonline.com

Higher Education

eindia 2012

Day 1: Special Session in Association with the NAAC

Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions: Challenges and Opportunities The session delved upon why some of the universities in the country are not following the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Higher education is evolving and new challenges are coming up. Therefore, there must be a provision in our accreditation process that offers space for versatility in the institutions

Prof H A Ranganath, Director, National Assessment Accreditation Council and Former VC, Bangalore University Accreditation is the health check-up of an institution. If it is done by the correct diagnostic centre, it gets to know its strengths and weaknesses and other challenges that the body is facing, and accordingly initiate remedial measures.

Prof Furqan Qamar, VC, Central University of Himachal Pradesh Making accreditation compulsory does not serve the purpose. You make it compulsory and the whole process becomes ritualised. Let people realise that accreditation is in their own interests so that they come on a voluntary basis so that higher education catches up with some kind of quality improvement drive.

Prof Bharat Chattoo, Former VC, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Jammu India accounts for just about 3.5 percent of the global research output. Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s output is about 18 percent. When we talk about our quality institutions, even out of those 3.5 percent, not more than 1-2 percent of the research output has international impact. In that kind of a situation, one will really have to ask what constitutes good science.

Prof S Ramesh Babu, Associate Vice President, Education & Research, Infosys We need to connect to the stakeholders and get a lot of insight from them to make our programmes relevant, flexible and useful to our people. Our focus is how we accredit, not from the NAAC perspective, but from the quality assurance perspective. We also need to look at how our services are accredited by the clients, how we provide the services and how we know that they are benchmarked.

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012

awards

Anniversary Celebrations

Hall of Fame The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Use of Technology for Teaching – Learning Practices in Higher Education goes to Sagar institute of Research & Technology

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Education Initiative in Schools goes to Apeejay School

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best ICT Enabled Higher Education Institute goes to Prestige Education Society

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Use of Technology for Vocational Education & Skills Training goes to Jetking Infotrain Ltd

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Use of technology in Teaching – Learning Practices goes to Pearson Education Services

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Use of Technology in Testing & Assessment goes to Mindlogicx Infratec Limited

The Award (Public Choice) for the Best Education Initiative in Schools goes to Kids’ Kingdom Public School

The Award (Public Choice) for the best ICT Enabled Higher Education Institute goes to Jaro Institute of Technology, Management and Research Pvt Ltd

The Award (Public Choice) for the Best Industry Academia Interface goes to Mosaic Network (India) Pvt Ltd

The Award (Public Choice) for the Best Open and Distance Learning Initiative goes to Lovely Professional University (LPU)

The Award (Public Choice) for the Best Use of technology in The award (Special Mention) for Best Use of Technology in Teaching – Learning Practices goes to People Tree Education Teaching-Learning Practices goes to Elsevier Society and BroadVision Systems India Pvt Ltd

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Interactive Solution Providers goes to Mexus Education Pvt Ltd

The Award (Public Choice) for the Best Use of Technology in Testing & Assessment goes to Sify Technologies Ltd

The Award (Jury Choice) for the Best Open and Distance Learning Initiative goes to Karnataka State Open University and KEONICS

The Award (Public Choice) for The Best Interactive Solution Providers goes to Next Education India Pvt Ltd

The Award (Public Choice) for the Best PPP Project in Vocational Education and Skills Training goes to Centurian University of Technology & Management & Gram Tarang Employbility Training Services

The Award (Special Mention) for the Best Education Initiative in Schools goes to TeachNext & Gowtham Model School

The Award (Special Mention) for Best Interactive Solution Providers goes to Edutor Technologies India Pvt Ltd

education.eletsonline.com

Higher Education

eindia 2012

Day 1

Investment in Education: Opportunities and Challenges Private equity and venture capital provide strong returns for companies which creates a leadership position in a highly competitive global economy. The session focussed on how investors rethink the risk/reward equation breaking the traditional investment models. It highlighted new ventures in the education space and added insights to spur growth and innovation in education

Ujjwal Singh, Operating Partner, Indus Balaji In the last one year, we have got US $3.6 billion of investment in multiple sectors in India. Not even one percent of this has come to education. Forty six percent of this investment goes into land. Out of that one percent, 70 percent goes to K-12 and the balance 30 percent remains with higher education, which is not significant enough. Some serious thoughts need to be put into this.

Prof Satish Sharma, Chairman and MD, Maharaja Group of Colleges In 2010-11, the Indian government assigned `2,350 crore to the UGC under planned grants of extending assistance to state-based universities and colleges so that they come up and meet the national requirement. Central and deemed universities are granted `1,980 crore and `60 crore for providing assistance to these universities. Not only this, the self-financing colleges and other sectors must also be given some kind of support so that they could serve the nation.

Dr P Shankar, Principal, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha University When we talk about introducing research at the undergraduate level, it is not only in terms of publications or patterns. Training the minds to become inquisitive and finding solutions to pertinent problems is very important. Every institute must be consciously taking directions to have a knowledge management policy to sustain the quality in the longer perspective.

Ranjan Choudhury, Head and Principal Programme Development, National Skill Development Corporation When you see the magnitude of the task at hand, there is no way that all of this can be funded through government budgetary support. At the same time, the projected compounded annual growth rate is also very attractive. Hence, there is scope for private sector participation in the task of building infrastructure for nation building.

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 school Education

Setting India Free from Regulatory Barriers We need to identify pockets of excellence in our country and provide opportunities for growth to them, said S S Mantha, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), at eINDIA 2012

eaching is a performing art. You need passion to teach and learn and have the immunity to learn from students. This immunity creates a two-way traffic and helps you connect with the students. The class expects some understanding from the lecture and in the absence of that, he might never want to come back for that class. We need teachers with domain expertise and the ability to understand students. We can use technical interventions as value-added material but not as a replacement to the teachers. I do not think we have good content available today. Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students do not study from books, but series. They mug the questions and the answers from those. And if the questions come in a different form, the students are unable to answer them. Therefore, we have a very serious concern about the regulatory processes we are employing. For example, the national average for first year results is about 20 percent. This means if there are a million students, only 20 percent of them pass their engineering exams. Quality is a very important factor in technical education today because students enter the industry directly. This means the industry judges us from day one. We also come across students who score 90 percent in grade 12 and fail in the first year of their engineering. The problem: lack of conceptual understanding. Mugging does not hold any value. A lot of people who cannot make that transition fail, and those who have the potential, understand the game and change their track. So from the second or third year, their percentages start rising. Providing opportunities for growth Creating quality all over the space is not possible. We need to identify pockets of excellence and provide means of growth to them.

education.eletsonline.com

Everyone wants to do an MBA today. But are all the people pursuing MBA getting commensurate jobs? We need to change the demand side and increase employment opportunities in different sectors, come up with manufacturing and retail sectors and open up more retail sectors, primary, tertiary and secondary markets because there is a lot of job potential available in these sectors. Not just this, we also need more money circulation in the system. Population figures say that the rate of growth is 1.5 percent and the GDP is 5.5 percent. The difference four percent is the per capita income. Inflation is about eight percent. Therefore, the real value is going down. We do not have any money to spend and there is no money in circulation. And because of inflation, the prices are going up. The Indian society believes in saving and investing money in different bonds, and in the US and other countries at the country level. And yet, we say that our economy is not performing well. The US takes loans and spends they money we save. They import almost everything and their economy is growing. What we need is self-regulation. The systems we are moving towards are not proper for a developing country. We should systematically break regulatory barriers and create trust in the system. At AICTE, we are promoting the vocationalisation of higher education which is the future. If we do not provide our students meaningful opportunities for education and employment, it will hamper the growth of our country. In the coming years, conventional degrees or diplomas in any discipline will not work. We need to create new paradigms and bring in more students into the system, especially those who fail or drop out. We are also promoting the concept of community colleges for those who have never gone to school, provide skills to them and show them higher pathways.

Higher Education

eindia 2012

Day 1

Vision 2020: Reforming the Education Landscape and Strategies for the Future As part of reforming the education landscape and strategies for the future, the teacher needs to be retrained, especially in ICT to cope with the rapidly changing education technology. The session talked about revisiting the education pedagogy in the industry, being focussed on skills for jobs and nurturing entrepreneurial skills beyond functional silos

H E Dr Samuel K Mbanbo, High Commissioner, High Commission of the Republic of Namibia The quality of the teacher and his continuing professional education and training remain central to the achievement of quality education. This is one of the many challenges we are facing today.

Prof R K Mittal, Vice Chancellor, Teerthanker Mahaveer University Universities should grade the students of different skills like on discipline, general proficiency, technical, communication and behavioral skills and practical university in their mark sheets. This will tell an employer what kind of a student a person is. A good grade does not always reflect the qualities of a person.

Dr V Panduranga Rao, Director, IMT, Hyderabad Campus The three problems we are facing in this country are: pedagogy or the design of the curriculum, delivery of the pedagogy and the readiness of the teacher to adapt to the dynamic needs of the pedagogy processes.

Ramesh Kumar, Vice President, SAP Services, India Education provides foundation for global opportunities. If we design it right, the world changes. Research is not only about managing grants or funds or bringing transparency around that, but also to manage if these research projects are environment-friendly and if there are some eLabs that technology platforms can support.

K Sunitha, Commissioner of Collegiate Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh We have demand for skilled force in certain sections but it is not respectable in the Indian society to go in for those fields. Many parents think it would be demeaning if their son becomes a plumber or carpenter. There is a lack of dignity of labour in India so we always try to become more academic or useless people. digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 Higher Education

Day 2

Transformatory Practices in Technical Education: Engineering for the Knowledge Economy Engineering still follows the same standards in education. The time has come to sit back, brainstorm and see what can be done to be in tune with the needs of today. The session talked about enhancing the employability of engineering students and introducing instructional design in education. Research needs to be the focus area because it drives teaching

Prof V S Rao, Director, BITS Hyderabad Campus I want to request the AICTE and other organisations concerned with engineering education to seriously think about the engineering practices, overhauling the curriculum, changing the pedagogy and addressing the problems of the faculty. You cannot transform engineering education without transforming your faculty. Meritorious students should be identified and sent to excellent universities abroad to do research and come back and teach in India. Priority should also be given to giving rewarding for educational innovations.

Prof U B Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad One of the things that needs to be brought into our education system is a lot more emphasis on innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, and creative design because no engineering development is ever going to hit the market unless creative design goes into it. There has to be a focus on engineering education where we do not simply talk about the pedagogy of education, but instill in our students that they have to be job creators and not job seekers.

Dr N M Veeraiyan, Chancellor, Saveetha University We need to have project-based learning methodology and industry-oriented interdisciplinary courses for moulding competent professionals. The changing characteristics of the new generation have to be considered in designing innovative teaching methodologies. Higher education course material needs to be aligned with the industry requirements. Contemporay skills training, that suit the demands of the industry, will help provide employment and accentuate the growth of the economy.

education.eletsonline.com

Higher Education

eindia 2012

Day 2

Unleashing the Strength of Institutions through Technology: Emerging Scenario and the Way Forward The session talked about the challenges of imparting education today – exponential growth in the number of institutions since independence in our country, lack of qualified and senior faculty and industry-academia gap. One way to overcome the lack of quality faculty in our educational institutions is to effectively use ICT because qualified and experienced teachers can be obtained only over a period of time

Prof K Lal Kishore, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University, Anantapur, Hyderabad Technology is changing rapidly. Knowledge gets doubled in a period of eight years. But change may occur even in four years. If you take engineering education of four years’ duration, by the time a student completes his programme, the knowledge may have got doubled, and hence, the industry-academia gap comes in play.

VSN Raju, COO, Globarena Technologies Pvt Ltd Currently, our evaluators check answer sheets manually. Instead, we can digitise the entire exam script and transfer the answer scripts to the evaluation centre and do online evaluation. This will enable effective, faster and transparent result processing.

Vimal Wakhlu, Chairman & Managing Director, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) The Government of India has taken initiatives like the National Knowledge Mission to provide broadband to all the educational institutions in the country. The objective is that information should be shared. If there is a brilliant professor in a university, it is not necessary that only a handful of people under his tutelage benefit from him. Why not the whole country and the whole world?

Dr Lovi Raj Gupta, Vice Chancellor, Baddi University of Emerging Science and Technology Let the artificial intelligence be for the gadgets and gizmos. The inducted intelligence looks wonderful with air conditioners and washing machines. But inducted and artificial intelligence is not meant for my students because he is not going to solve numericals; he is going to solve problems. Today’s students need to have problem solving skills that will help them succeed in the 21st century.

digitalLEARNING / December 2012

eindia 2012 Higher Education

Day 2

Creating Innovative Models in Education and Assessments: Best Practices and Next Practices The session threw light on what our model of education should have: let the student achieve what he actually wants to achieve, and scale it and speed up the process through which he is going to achieve. We need to develop knowledge assets rather than students with just a degree. Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students have to be the investors of tomorrow

Dev, Director & CEO, Holy Mary Business School What exactly is one thing which is a necessity for success? In the last one decade, innovation has been the driver of success for any individual, organisation or country. In India, the oldest system we have is education. And education is innovation.

Brig Dr R S Grewal, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University In India, we are still into multiple choice questions, which is just a refinement of the paper-pencil model. To design a good computer-based question paper, there are two basic requirements: the teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; command over the English language and proficiency of the students in the language. If these go wrong, you lose the basic objective of finding out whether the student has learnt or not.

Prof Dr G Tulasi Ram Das, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University A beautiful educational landscape with technology-driven solutions is ahead of us. It will make the learning process in the four walls of the classrooms interesting.

education.eletsonline.com

Dr Sr Alphonsa Vattoly, St Francis College for Women The students are really good at the innovations introduced in the higher education learning process. They only need a good exposure to the learning environment and our effort is to introduce them to such an environment.

Amarnath Reddy, CEO, Jawahar Knowledge Center, AP Society for Knowledge Networks About two and a half lakh engineers pass out every year. We cannot give jobs to all of them. We need to create more opportunities by making more entrepreneurs.

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