digitalLearning November 2012

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 8

I issue 11 I november 2012 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

Andhra Pradesh

making strides in educatIon...

Contents

ISSN 0973-4139

volume 08 issue 11 november 2012

72 Right to Education The Way Ahead policy matters

policy matters

Ponnala Lakshmaiaha, Minister of Information Technology & Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh

K Parthasarathy, Minister for Secondary Education, Govt.

Examinations, Andhra Pradesh

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30

40

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Prof Ramakrishnan Ramaswamy Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad

Sri Krishna Managing Director, Birla Edutech Ltd

Priya Krishnan CEO, Klay Schools

Dr K T Mahi, Chairman, Sree Group, Sreenidhi International School and Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology

higher education 18

Dr P Prakash, Vice Chancellor, B R Ambedkar Open University

24 S Sampathy, Deputy CEO, Siva Sivani Institutes academia speak 20 Dr V K Swamy, Principal, St Joseph’s PG College, Hyderabad event report 26 TAISI Conference Decodes the Language of Learning industry speaks 32 Dr Haresh Tank, Director, Station-e Language Labs 46 Veena Raizada, Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd corporate diary 34 Ivan Vazquez, Country Director, Netex Knowledge Factory

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“We are Capable of Providing World Class Training in IT Related Subjects”

62 Dr T Venu Gopal Rao Academic Director, Fusion International School, Hyderabad

68 Anirudh Gupta CEO, DCM Schools

44 Akshat Srivastava, Managing Director, Enhance Education Pvt Ltd 48 K S Muralidhar, CEO, Learnsmart India 52 Meena Ganesh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Pearson Education Services k-12 42 Kavita C Das, Principal, St John’s High School, Chandigarh 49 Seetha Murthy, Principal, Silver Oaks School, Hyderabad 50 Adilakshmi C, Principal, Oakridge School 54 A K Agarwal, Director, DRS Group 60 Nancy S Nanavaty, Academic Director, Phoenix Greens International School 64 Prashant Jain, Founder Director, Pathways Group of Schools 66 A Murali Mukund, Secretary, Jubilee Hills Society & Chairman, Jubilee Hills Public School

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simplifying and strengthening of knowledge

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education Volume

08

Issue 11

November 2012

President: Dr M P Narayanan

Partner publications

Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta

Advisory Board Prof Asha Kanwar, President, Commonwealth of Learning

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

Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Principal Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka

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 Group Editor: Anoop Verma

Associate Manager – HR: Sushma Juyal

education Senior Research Analyst: Sheena Joseph Senior Correspondent: Pragya Gupta Research Assistant: Mansi Bansal

Executive Officer – Accounts: Subhash Chandra Dimri

Associate Manager – Accounts: Anubhav Rana Admin Executive: Gurneet Kaur

governance Manager – Partnerships & Alliances: Manjushree Reddy Assistant Editor: Rachita Jha Research Assistant: Sunil Kumar 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 digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

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education.eletsonline.com | egov.eletsonline.com | ehealth.eletsonline.com Write in your reactions to Education news, interviews, features and articles. You can either comment on the individual webpage of a story, or drop us a mail: editorial@elets.in

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EDITORIAL

A Digital Paradigm for Education The pace of implementing ICT in our institutions might not appear to be fast enough, but our educational landscape is prepared for a new daybreak of digital education.

The stakeholders in education, from the government and from the private enterprises, have contributed their mite in preparing the nation socially and technologically for the development of effective ICT models for education.

Andhra Pradesh has always been on the forefront of the states that are investing for enrichment of education and human resources. The ICT infrastructure in the state is already one of the best. The state’s large pool of young population and its integration with the world economy at macro and human levels is also an asset for its education industry.

It was recently announced that the state of Andhra Pradesh will add another International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) to the existing IIIT-Hyderabad from the next academic year. This institution will also come up with a PPP model.

The schools and higher education institutions that are coming up all over Andhra Pradesh present one side of the picture; the other side is presented by the digital paradigm that is getting established.

The current issue of digitalLEARNING is devoted to covering the education sector in Andhra Pradesh from every possible angle. We carry the interview of K Parthasarathy, Secondary Education Minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh. Among other things, K Parthasarathy has also shed light on the importance that the State Chief Minister is awarding to education. The state is conducting an Education Fortnight, a programme that runs for 15 days throughout the state and focuses on re-enrolling the dropouts into the education system. We also talk about Jawahar Knowledge Centers, Andhra Pradesh Government’s initiative to bring equity in employment.

We also have Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, CEO, AP Society for Knowledge Networks, highlight how the Government of Andhra Pradesh is trying to bring radical changes into the curriculum and reduce industry-academia gap — the need of the hour.

Apart from this, we also have interactions with the leaders of many popular schools, colleges and educational movements in the state.

It is a matter of pride for us that the eINDIA 2012 is being held in the capital city of Andhra Pradesh. The event will have a dedicated track on education, called eINDIA Education Summit, which has been conceived on the clear vision of the entire nation being able to achieve the objectives of universal education. The two-day confluence in Hyderabad will announce Andhra Pradesh’s, and more importantly India’s, landmark achievements in using ICT for expanding the reach and scope.

The eINDIA 2012 is going to be a platform for ideas, discussion and meetings on the subject of improving the education sector through ICT deployments. We hope to see you there at eINDIA 2012!

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

digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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guest editorial

Funding Higher Education The economic progress of a country is strongly linked with quality education with values for all. It is therefore, necessary for our higher education systems to undertake periodic review of the curriculum and subject content of the technical programmes to ensure that they are up to date, not outmoded or obsolete, and effectively fulfil the technological requirements of the country. Research is important too, to enhance quality in teaching learning processes and eventual meaningful employment. However, quality comes at a price.

When statistics read that 40 percent of India’s school going population is trying to register in private schools that are seven percent of the total and only 18 percent of the youth are able to enrol for higher education, a mismatch in demand-supply ratio for quality education becomes glaringly obvious and a lot needs to be done in this domain.

An education system where more than 50 percent fail between X, XI and XII standards of schooling, we need to analyse the problems. A study indicates that those who fail and eventually drop out have to make ends meet and hence work, or a majority finding the current education not interesting enough. Either way, enormous funds are required to provide finances like scholarships, soft loans or even change the current predicament to building skill-based education models.

Higher education, in general, and technical education in particular, in India, contributes a major share to the overall education system and plays a vital role in the social and economic development of our nation. In India, technical education is imparted at various levels such as: craftsmanship, diploma, degree, post-graduate and research in specialised fields, catering to various aspects of technological development and economic progress.

A truly massive education system such as ours is highly stressed and needs funds to sustain and grow. Higher education institutes and universities are starved for funds today.

So private investment is needed urgently, but one cannot neglect the mechanisms through which public subsidies are allocated to the universities. One cannot expect the solution for higher education’s problems to come only from increased student (or graduate) contributions. The mechanisms for public funding contain important incentives to achieve higher education’s three main goals, viz. quality, efficiency and equity.

Bringing these incentives more closely in line with incentives to generate increased private resources for higher education would seem to be the goal to be achieved. It is not just the level of public and private funding, but it is just as much the basis and criteria according to which public funds are made available that can improve the quality and accessibility of higher education.

During the financial year 2011-12, the Centre allocated `38,957 crore for the Department of School Education and Literacy, the main department dealing with primary education in India. Within this allocation, a major share of `21,000 crore is for the flagship programme 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan'. A high allocation is required to implement the recent legislation Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. It is a great idea to progressively increase expenditure on education to around six percent of the GDP but such an effort probably also leads to an imposition of an education cess.

There is no optimal funding model that one can use. Goals to be achieved and the model of higher education system that we would like to promote needs to be matched. We need to optimise the public funding the development of research, quality of education and, lastly the access to education.

Some of the concerns here are the degree of autonomy of individual institutions in their functioning and budgeting versus the direct control of the state, the relative contribution of the state and of the students to the funding of higher education and the relative importance of the educational and research mission versus. the model with research-intensive institutions alongside teaching-only institutions.

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guest editorial

We have several desired characteristics and outcomes for state higher education funding models, which include equity, adequacy, stability, and flexibility.

Creating endowments and corpus need to be explored. An endowment is a way for a donor to make a statement, honor a friend or loved one, or to recognise an organisation. An endowment is significant in that it provides financial support for the university and, at the same time, it becomes a permanent resource within the institution.

We also need to look at new models like non-profit organisations transferring assets to the university foundation to create a permanent endowment fund. Other donors also can make contributions directly to the fund. The university becomes the fund’s sole beneficiary.

Advantage of having an endowment is obviously financial stability and oversight where an endowment provides a steady income stream for the university to offset operations, fund risk ventures like new or innovative programs, tuition assistance, etc.

It is a good idea to even create an operating reserve like a designated fund which may act like an endowment because a university may choose not to touch the principal. Principal, however, will be available to meet emergency needs.

Institutions need to realise that there would be no free boarding anymore and need to make the internal systems count to create realistic funding models. Public funding and state funding would always be in short supply. Hence, a pragmatic approach would be to source alternate funding methods like optimising resource allocations, conduct new programs, promote hybrid learning methodologies to reduce cost of education, invest in research for returns on quality, and invest in publishing.

Hence, we need to encourage augmentation of resources for covering a larger portion of cost of higher education. The government would certainly look to provide higher resources moving from higher to primary level of education and with good reason. RTE is singularly a very important piece of legislation and would need funds. This, however, cannot be at the cost of subsidising higher education and a possible full cost recovery from students. Cost recovery cannot and should not be through student fees but necessarily be through other means as enumerated above.

We need a finance corporation set up with public and private funds to create a corpus that has the potential to fund a large population who otherwise cannot fund their education.

This is all the more important when we consider that 65 percent of our population would be below the age of 35 years in the next 20 years. We also need almost double the institutions we have today to accommodate the aspirations of a young population. Where would the funding come from? Like the Hon’ble Minister, HRD Shri Kapil Sibal said, the present loan structure of the government was not conducive for either student taking loan or bank offering loans. "We need to actually liberalise the whole structure." A bold thought indeed.

In this context, he had suggested that financial institutes should have a flexible lending policy when extending loans for setting up educational institutes. In fact, the banks must be asked to give long-term loan to educational institution paid over period of 20 to 25 years. To set up an education institution, nobody is going to borrow at 12 percent or 16 percent and set up an institution where the time to return the loan over period of seven years is neither really workable nor practical.

Finally, great resilience in this country would see the hurdles pass and see good economic sense would prevail in days, months and years to come, for no country has ever had to regret its spending on education.

Indeed, like Aristotle said, “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depend on the education of youth”.

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

digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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Message

Andhra Pradesh has emerged as frontline State when it comes to the implementation of e-Governance projects in India. The State has been keenly focusing on growth and development of new and emerging technologies in the areas of healthcare and education. It has been active in using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to offer government services at the citizen’s doorstep.

Such e-Governance projects improve the outreach, make services more transparent, and reduce response time.

Mee Seva, a citizen centric facility, has been providing convenient access to citizens in an easier, faster and transparent manner. At present, 40 Government to Citizen (G2C) services are being availed and more than 100 services are planned to be delivered to the citizens across the state by December, 2012.

It gives me immense pleasure to share that the government of Andhra Pradesh is the Partner State for the eighth edition of eINDIA 2012, which is being organised at the prestigious Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad, India, on 15th and 16th November, 2012. The Anniversary Celebrations of Mee Seva project will be held along with the eINDIA 2012.

I welcome all the thought leaders, think tanks and private players, who possess the necessary technological and social expertise to facilitate change and make society better. Let us all participate in eINDIA 2012, which is a celebration of e-Governance and be a part of the change revolution that the state of Andhra Pradesh has proudly entered into.

I warmly welcome all delegates and look forward to their participation in what promises to be an immensely enriching event.

MESSAGE

Contributory Editorial

Higher Education in AP Up for Change The Government of Andhra Pradesh is partnering with the premium business schools for creating entrepreneurship courses and encouraging engineering students to pursue a career with the startups which may be the need of the hour

By Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, CEO of AP Society for Knowledge Networks

T

he educational landscape in Andhra Pradesh has dramatically changed over the last decade or so.

There is a huge proliferation of engineering colleges in the state. About 20 years ago, the state had hardly 10 engineering colleges producing less than 4,000 engineers annually. Today, the state is house to over 720 engineering colleges producing over 300,000 engineers every year.

And if we look at the employment generated in the state over the last decade, on average, the state was able to employ 35,000 fresh graduates. The IT services sector has been the major recruiter accounting for over 90 percent of the jobs. The core sector had its 10 percent or less of a share. In the current scenario, there is a huge gap between the number of engineering graduates produced annually and the employment opportunities presented each year in the state.

The pace at which the course and the curriculum have been adjusted in the universities and the engineering colleges has also been quite slow compared to the industry speed. There is very little or no flexibility in the courses that a student can choose. The gap between the industry and the academic institutions has been widening every year. There are several reasons for this. Prominently, due to the mushrooming of the engineering colleges, finding faculty members who are well abreast with the latest technologies is an extremely difficult task. Introducing courses around the latest trends

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Contributory Editorial

in the industry hence becomes an impossible task.

To combat this problem, the government started the concept of Jawahar Knowledge Centers (JKCs) about seven years ago. The JKCs accomplish several things. Firstly, they bring equity in employment. Whereas only city and prominent colleges were able to get campus placements prior to the JKCs, the rural and the remote colleges are seeing placement opportunities with the advent of the JKCs. The JKCs are able to establish connects between the major product companies and all its constituent engineering and traditional degree colleges. Companies such as IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, and Autodesk are providing free software, technical support and certifications to the students in the JKC network. The student does not have to graduate, move to a private center and spend huge amounts of money to get certification. He can get trained, get hands on experience and get the certification while he is in the college through this facility. The students are also given exposure to several Industry based competitions like the IBM’s TGMC – The Great Mind Challenge, Infosys – Aspirations, Microsoft – Imagine Cup amongst others.

However, if we look at the Western educational system, every university has strong industry linkages. We are way behind in that aspect. If you look at for example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, it incubates about 200 companies every year.

The total number of companies that MIT has incubated and in running are over 20,000 and the revenues of all these companies put together far exceeds the Indian GDP. To put it in context, we need to develop strong research foundations in our higher education institutions. The government is trying through the JKCs to create some entrepreneurial courses in the engineering curriculum and encourage students to join startups.

Several industry electives are also planned by the government this year.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh has constituted a high level committee under the chairmanship of the Chairman of the AP State Council for Higher Education to bring radical changes into the curriculum. Several discussions are

We need to develop strong research foundations in our higher education institutions in place with the board of studies and the vice chancellors of the universities as to how to bring the industry orientation to the engineering education.

Alternate learning methodologies need to be taking prominent position in the today’s education system. Academic institutions cannot rely completely on instructor-led training. Technological interventions need to be in place to bring alternate learning methodologies such as e-Learning, satellite-based learning, webinar mode of instruction, etc. Any system that is purely dependent on the instructor is open for failure and difficult to replicate. The Government of Andhra Pradesh through its JKC network is working with Infosys to create an elective called Business Communication Skills where the course will be taught by an instructor of Infosys in the Global Education Campus in Mysore. The course that is being taught there is webcasted. Any JKC Engineering College can receive the course over the web. The colleges can either project it on to a screen or have each student plug into a PC connected to a broadband Internet. An instructor would guide the class before and after and the role of the instructor would be limited to ensuring attendance, home works and the other administrative tasks.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Information Technology and Communications Department has also

started the concept of incubation centres in engineering colleges. This is to ensure that the colleges work closely with the industry. Incubation space would be set aside by the engineering colleges for the Industry to setup its remote center or an extension center in the college. The space would be equipped by state-of-theart machines and high speed broadband Internet. The industry would attain that space at free of cost and can fork its research and non-mission critical works there. The college can get an advantage by having its students work in a live industry environment. The government will provide an incentive to the colleges that are setting up the incubation centers. The whole platform is facilitated by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Information Technology and Communications Department through the JKCs. When India is in the forefront when it comes to the IT services industry, steps must be taken to ensure that our lead is protected. Programming is a skill that is considered inherent amongst the Indian engineers. To preserve it, we need to promote programming contests on the lines of the ACM programming contests. Several efforts are underway to promote such coding contests in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Also, technologically, several advancements are seen in the areas of cloud computing, Big Data, mobile computing, etc. Engineering students should have hands on experience on all the advanced technologies when they exit the college environment.

To summarise, the greatest resource that India is equipped with is the human resources. We have a very large young population and we produce sizeable number of engineers. Efforts are underway by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India to reduce the gap between the academic institutions and the industry.

More emphasis must be laid on creating good research environments in the Engineering colleges. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is also partnering with the premium business schools for creating entrepreneurship courses and encouraging the engineering students to pursue a career with the startups which may be the need of the hour. digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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higher K-12 education interview interview

Implementing ICTs will Make Education System Wholesome Going forward, the next big thing to look forward to in the education sector is the online courses and their integration with the present system, opines Prof Ramakrishnan Ramaswamy, Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad during his interaction with Rozelle Laha

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education policy matters interview interview higher

Has the advent of ICT brought any changes in education?

ICT has increased the reach of education to all the people in India but only a few subjects can be taught through it. A number of subjects that are research- and laboratory- based require proper classes. The next big thing in education would be the open courses that are available on the Internet. There will be a big challenge in implementing these courses. These courses have to be used in conjunction with the present courses that we have in India: something interesting to look forward to in the education sector.

In your opinion, what effect is ICT having on education?

We have a number of PG diplomas that are run in 1718 areas. A number of experiments can be done in these areas and new ways to impart education with the help of the Internet can also be devised. From next year, the university will give tablets with all the courses to its students. The course material will be given to the students at the beginning of the session. The students can also avail the facility of online learning if they have good Internet connectivity. Thus, ICT tools will help in enhancing education domain for the masses.

What programmes has the university adopted to train the teachers?

In order to deliver effective knowledge in today’s world, the teacher has to have thorough knowledge about the concept of Wiki, social networking and class wikis. He should be trained enough to deliver the content and also know how to deliver that concept with the help of these new tools. There are a number of new initiatives that the university plans to undertake like the implementation of Moodle. Governmentrun institutions face a few bottlenecks in implementing these initiatives. Reason: the fee in these institutions is very marginal unlike the fee structure in private institutions. Not just this, government-run institutions also take more time in implementing these changes in technology.

What is your opinion on the contribution of the government in bringing education to the students through ICT? The government has done a phenomenal thing by building the National Knowledge Network. It has also made

We will have to use ICT-based education to reach out to the students in all parts of the country initiatives like the NPTel available. The MHRD is setting up e-pathshalas. These initiatives are very important for the implementation of ICT-based education.

Tablets are becoming cheaper. We provide researchbased learning and this requires WiFi connectivity. The university’s campus has been made WiFi-enabled with the help of the government.

Is ICT a necessity for education?

ICT is the only way education can reach out to all the students in India. There is a continuous talk about inclusive education but this cannot be possible if students have to sit and attend classes. Educating the masses cannot be done without ICT as classrooms do not have enough space for all the students. At the same time, it is also essential that the content is appropriate and it is going to be a challenge to effectively use ICT to deliver proper education. India can even use television as a medium for delivering education, but it is dominated by the entertainment industry. We will have to use ICT-based education to reach out to the students in all parts of the country in the future.

How quality-focused is education in India?

India is a diverse country and its people use various regional languages. There are some predefined norms on the ICT tools that are used and they are not adapted to the varied requirements of our diverse country. There has to be an effort to provide ICT content and courses in regional languages and also have teachers deliver them in local languages. There is also an alarming lack of websites in Indian languages; this hampers the participation of the common man in the technology-based learning.

The current hardware has to be modified for usage by the masses; otherwise everyone will have to learn to speak English so that they can use the ICT tools prevalent in the market. The reason why we use tablets at the University of Hyderabad is that tablets have all the content and also the videos of the classrooms. The content as well as the lectures can be done in regional languages so that all the students can benefit from the technology available.

digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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higher education interview

ODL Makes Learning Flexible Dr P Prakash, Vice Chancellor, B R Ambedkar Open University, in conversation with Rozelle Laha, says that we arrest a student’s thoughts by putting him in a conventional mode of learning

government of India is networking with all the institutes with NME-ICT. We have a very good fiber optic backbone to which we can always stay connected. Students no longer have to go to the library because we have the facility of e-Journals, including e-Books. Students are also more computer-savvy and they are also using mobile learning or cell phone learning through SMS or other types of audio-visual programs. We started primarily with broadcast, video cast and telecast, and now we have e-Learning that primarily comprises of animation and text.

What are the challenges in bringing an open learning school to the Indian society?

Ours is the first open institute in India. It was initially known as Andhra Pradesh Open University and was later rechristened as Dr B R Ambedkar Open University. We were established in the year 1983 under the State Association Act. Then came the Indira Gandhi National Open University. There are 15 open institutes in India including the IGNOU. Our contribution to the higher education sector is 30-32 per cent of the gross enrollment ratio. Open distance learning is one of the tools of higher education where the students have the flexibility of learning at a given space and place. They do not have to come to the classrooms and this gives a lot of flexibility to the learner who may be a fast, slow or a medium type of learner. So, to bridge the gap between the learners, this is one of the best ways of educating.

How open are we to adopt e-Learning?

We are all aware that the entire world is looking forward to open distance learning. I was going through an article that said 85 percent of the American students are going for online learning. Open learning is definitely not eye-to-eye learning, rather it is learning through online mediums.

In India, against the backdrop of power issues how can internet facilities be introduced?

We are now faring better in the power space, therefore, the Internet has now become available in all parts of the country. The

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Students still have the myth that a full-time programme is a more viable option than an open learning programme. How do we get rid of this myth?

It’s a mindset. If you take research into account, many scholars who work in the laboratories don’t need a guide regularly.

They are just given a topic on which they have to learn, which they have been working on for their scholastic enrichment.

Students work in the laboratories and come back with a result: positive or negative. And then they discuss with their supervisors. Don’t you think this is one of the best ways of learning with all the flexibility!

We are arresting the students’ thoughts by putting them in the conventional mode of learning. Although in some aspects the concept may not change, but he doesn’t have the freedom to learn what he is interested in.

How can we improve the quality of learning through open, distance and e-Learning?

We need to blend that. That is missing in India. As I told you, we have open distance learning schools at various places, but all these schools are not equipped with e-Learning labs. Whether you teach Einstein’s theory of relativity or Darwin’s theory of evolution, you require e-Learning modules. And if they are there, there are no e-Learning labs. So we need to blend both of them together so that whether you teach in French, German, or vernacular Tamil, Hindi or English, they all remain the same.

Please tell us about the MoUs BRAOU has with Apollo hospitals and Dr Reddy’s Labs?

We have MBA in healthcare management from Apollo Hospital. We also have an undergraduate programme with Dr Reddy’s Labs. Most of the students are comfortable and are placed very well after their graduation and post graduation.

academia speak

Every Educationist Should be a Change Agent staff for training. A lot of the staff members have difficulty in devoting time to browse and download the relevant material for e-Learning. We have tried to improve every year and we are involving the students to collaborate in the teaching-learning process. Students are now more focused and so it becomes a good learning practice.

The government needs to come forward and make teaching a more lucrative profession, says Rev Fr Dr V K Swamy, Principal, St Joseph’s PG College, Hyderabad, in conversation with Rozelle Laha Please comment on the present situation of higher education in India.

The present situation of education in our country is comparatively better that it was 10 years ago. The UGC and the AICTE have taken charge and it is on the positive side now. There is quantitative expansion. But unfortunately, these two agencies have not concentrated much, though they have given guidelines about the quality of educational institutions.

Therefore, you will find a lot of institutions without proper infrastructure and trained staff.

Have you deployed digital learning solutions in your classrooms?

We have installed LCDs in all our classrooms. But, it is not enough to have equipment, so we are also sending our

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How can we encourage more teachers to take up teaching?

It is one of the major concerns. Even if we get qualified staff, they are qualified only on paper, they need to be trained.

Because of the government’s policy that gave a lot of thrust to engineering education, more people were opting for it.

And now, getting a qualified teacher is difficult.

Also, recruitment of teachers, at least in Andhra Pradesh, is not up to the mark. The teachers are also not paid very good salary; this stops a lot of them from taking up the profession.

This profession is not enlightened by the government or the private sector. People think medicine and engineering will get them more salary. In Western countries, teaching is regarded as a profession of repute. So, the gap can only be bridged if the government comes forward and makes this profession more lucrative.

How have students collaborated in the process of teaching-learning?

As I told you, teachers must have graduated about 10-15 years ago. And they have never touched computers. We have a lot of teaching programmes for them but not all of them are very keen to learn. We are also interested in using ICT based material in the classroom. Since they themselves are not equipped, we have suggested them to take help from bright students in downloading the right material. This will make the student also interested. Otherwise making the students actively participate in the learning process is very difficult.

What are the major challenges in implementing ICT in schools?

The government controls the fee structure in higher education these days.

Arts and science colleges do not charge much, whereas, in kindergarten, people are ready to pay up to `50,000 for a teacher who is not even qualified.

In rural areas, schools have only one or two teachers. Even if the teachers are trained, the shortage of electricity creates problems.

If the government provides power 24X7, the best thing would be to start a primary school and get the taste of students in ICT. The older generation of the staff should be motivated to teach. Change is always a problem, especially for the teaching staff.

They should understand that if they spend some time in learning proper use of ICT, it will enhance their teaching skills and at the same time, preserve their energy because they will not need to yell at the students to teach them.

What is your message to the educationists and policymakers?

Every educationist is expected to be a leader in his profession. And this leadership should be played in a way that he transforms the students and become the agent for change.

But there is a gap between the policymakers and the educationists. For name sake, there are a couple of educationists with political affiliation for policy making. That is one of the reasons why our policies have failed to be implemented or have not reached to the people after implementation.

If we really want to be a partner in globalisation, our colleges should be moulded in a way that they match with the competitive world and build competency in the students. Both the educationists and the policymakers have to play that role together.

higher education

interview

Students Should be Taught Employability Skills Thus, it is not possible to implement all the technologies used in management institutes in schools and graduate colleges.

What are the challenges in implementing ICT tools?

When the management decided to make technology a part of the education in the institutes, there was a lot of resistance from the faculty. There were a number of hardware and software breakdowns and the teachers wanted to go back to the old teaching methods. After the initial hiccups, the system settled down. The teachers are now more comfortable using technology than the conventional methods of teaching.

Please tell us about your teacher-training programmes.

A number of teacher-training programmes are being run in the institutes. Senior faculty train the junior faculty on a regular basis. A lot of skilled people from outside the institute are called to provide training to the staff on various topics and the institutes have grown with their experiences.

There is a huge gap between academic knowledge and the corporate skills that companies demand, says S Sampathy, Deputy CEO, Siva Sivani Institutes, in conversation with Rozelle Laha Please tell us about the implementation of ICT in Siva Sivani Institutes.

The institute is the pioneer in implementing ICT in the classrooms in Andhra region. We have been paperless since 2002.

Students and teachers carry laptops to the classrooms and the lecture that the teacher gives is converted into a lesson and sent to the students. So at the time of revision, the students do not miss even a minute of the lesson done in the classroom. Evaluation of the students is also done on the basis of online tests.

Does the implementation of ICT differ in schools?

The pedagogy used in management institutions is that of participative learning. The students participate equally in the classrooms through detailed discussions. Whereas in the school and at degree level, the teacher does all the teaching and there is less involvement of the children in the discussions.

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How do you visualise the implementation of ICT in the future?

The future of ICT is bright and a lot of growth will be seen in implementing ICT tools. There are a number of institutions that have started implementation of technology in their institutions recently, but they have overtaken us in the implementation of the tools. There is a huge advent of new technology in the market which changes very rapidly. The new institutions went ahead in the implementation of the latest technology.

Siva Sivani Institutions spend a lot of money on the continuous up gradation of their hardware and software to be in tune with the changing times. We have spent around `5 crore in installing and upgradation of ICT in our campus.

Please share with us the success story of Siva Sivani Institutes.

We are firmly rooted in our ethics. We believe in imparting soft skills to the students. The students are taught life skills, beyond academic knowledge. This is our USP and other management institutes emulate us. We have received a number of awards and have been ranked as number one in intellectual capability.

The institute has also been awarded for its student placements.

There is a huge gap between academic knowledge and the corporate skills that companies demand. Various colleges in India are not able to provide anything new for proper development of students. They only follow the curriculum provided by the university and thus, the students lack the employability skills. Siva Sivani Institute believes in enhancing the skills of the students and making them industry-ready.

“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

event report

TAISI Conference Decodes the Language of Learning The conference aimed at bringing international schools together on a common platform for the advancement of international education, friendship and intercultural understanding

T

he TAISI Teachers and Administrators’ Conference was held at Vivanta Taj at Cochin from September 26-30, 2012. The event was organised by the Association of International Schools in India (TAISI), a nonprofit autonomous body.

The conference was inaugurated by Anu Monga, Head, Bangalore International School; Chairperson, Association of International Schools, India (TAISI).

It was attended by 100 participants from 40 International schools, both from India and Abroad. Various sessions were held during the conference to highlight the message of “Positioning your School for the 21st Century: Decoding the Language of Learning”.

The conference was a five-day event.

The main aim was to bring international schools together on a common platform for the advancement of international education, friendship and inter-cultural understanding. Various sessions were held by eminent speakers in education.

The first day of the conference saw the launch of the eighth edition of the Guide to School Evaluation and Accreditation by NEASC. This preconference training offered advice on developing international mindedness within the school community and helping develop a learning-focused school. The session by Kevin Bartlett, Director, The International School of Brussels, Belgium, shared his ideas on Total School system where interactive approach is used to design and deliver learning so that a systemic matrix is constructed from disconnected silos.

The second session was by Clay Hensley, Director of International Strategy &

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Relationships, College Board, USA. The workshop was a professional development programme for college counsellors to learn how to help students through the university planning and admission.

There was a special video conference session by James Montoya, Vice President, Higher Education Relationship Development, College Board, USA, who talked about college admissions and the transition from high school to college.

The second day had Kevin Bartlett, Director, The International School of Brussels, Belgium, talk about making the language of learning easier so that all stakeholders are mobilised for making learning effective. There was a session

by Dr Raymond J Wlodkowski, Professor Emeritus, College of Professional Studies, Regis University-Denver; and Dr Margery B Ginsberg, Associate Professor – Department of Educational Leadership, University of Washington-Seattle, on enhancing motivation in students so that they

are able to learn effectively and for teachers to be able to devise teaching methods for different disciplines and cultures.

In another session, Punya Mishra, Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, College

“Times have gone when teachers only used to teach.

Now teachers are facilitator of hands on learning. Technology will play a vital role in this. Available technologies need to be remodelled to suit the requirements.”

Kavita Sharma, Principal, JG International School

event report

“Learning and sharing best practices in education is most important. It was a wonderful learning experience for all of us.”

Sheila Alexander, Principal, Good Shepherd International School

Speakers at TAISI Conference Anu Monga, Head, Bangalore International School; Chairperson, Association of International Schools, India (TAISI) Anshul Bhagi, Founder, Camp K-12 Aparna Jaitly, Language and Literature Assistant Curriculum Leader; International Award for Young People Co-coordinator, The British School, New Delhi Bryan Beaton, Partner, Other Worlds Learning Services (OWLS), Hong Kong Chris Sherwood, Principal Product Manager, Capita Children’s Services

of Education, Michigan State University, talked about how technology can change learning in the 21st century. He showcased his thoughts through a presentation. He talked about the ways in which Foundational Knowledge, Meta Knowledge and Humanistic learning can be enhanced in students by creatively rethinking the way technology has to be used. He also introduced the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework as a way of thinking about teacher knowledge, technology integration and teacher creativity.

Dr Jena Nicols Curtis and Dr Judith A Johns, Associate Professors of Health, State University of New York, College at Cortland, talked about how administrators can take actions to help the teachers be connected to the students so that the students feel that the adults in school care about them as individuals. Another session was by Sean O’Maonaigh, Executive Consultant, Advisor and Coach, Professional Development Training International, Vietnam, who delivered a talk on leadership and management skills required for proprietary schools. He outlined the potential solutions for effective integration of all people involved in the school to promote success for everyone in the institution.

The third day saw Sean O’Maonaigh speak on the various ways in which the delivery of professional development is made comprehensive and integrated with the continuous process of school improvement and focused on improving teaching and learning.

In another session, Chris Sherwood, Principal Product Manager, Capita Children’s Services, talked about the strategies required by the school for embedding MIS and how can a well implemented MIS turn a good school into a great school. Dr Jena and Dr Judith had a session on discussing

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Clay Hensley, Director of International Strategy & Relationships, College Board, USA Ellen Deitsch Stern, Head of School, Saigon South International School, Vietnam Gaurav Monga, Creative Writing Program Developer, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad Helge Gallinger, Founding Member & Treasurer, TAISI; Head of School, The International School of Hyderabad, Hyderabad James MacDonald, Head of School, Yokohama International School, Japan Jena Nicols Curtis, Associate Professor of Health, State University of New York, College at Cortland Dr Judith A Johns, Associate Professor of Health, State University of New York, Cortland Kevin Bartlett, Director, The International School of Brussels, Belgium Dr John J Guy, Senior Education Advisor, Cambridge International Examinations, UK Lakita Jaggi, Primary Teacher; Gifted and Talented Co-coordinator Primary, The British School, New Delhi Malcolm Nicolson, Head, Middle Years Programme Development, IB Global Centre, The Hague Dr Margery B Ginsberg, Associate Professor – Department of Educational Leadership, University of Washington-Seattle Sean P O’Maonaigh, Executive Consultant, Advisor and Coach, Professional Development Training International, Vietnam Neeraj Manchanda, Managing Partner, Neeraj Manchanda Architects Dr Pascal Chazot, Director, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad Priyamvada Taneja, Development Manager, India Dr Punya Mishra, Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, College of Education, Michigan State University Dr Raymond J Wlodkowski, Professor Emeritus, College of Professional Studies, Regis University-Denver Richard Gaskell, Director, ISC Research Worldwide Richard Pacheco, Dean, Endicott College, Spain Richard Tangye, Director, International School of Bangladesh, Dhaka Stefanie Leong, Head of Development & Recognition, IB Global Centre, Singapore Shashank Vira, Independent Educator and Business Advisor, The Hearth James M Montoya, Vice President for Higher Education Relationship Development, College Board, USA

event report

the ways by which students can be loved to improve their academic achievements and social well-being.

The afternoon session had a talk by Stefanie Leong, Head of Development & Recognition, IB Global Centre, Singapore, on increasing support for schools

by IB and also to discuss what is required by key education stakeholders from IB to make their programmes stronger. Another session had a very interesting topic

by Ellen Deitsch Stern, Head of School, Saigon South International School, Vietnam, who discussed about the various experiences undergone by the teachers in the beginning and end of their career in a school. She talked about how vivid the experience is which can range from exhilaration to despair. Gaurav Monga, Creative Writing Program Developer, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad, had a discussion on how literature is a phenomenological entity.

He had a short workshop in which the fabric of a literary work was explored and he showed how the meaning of a literary creative work can be responded by doing creative writing. He thus showed how creative writing is an effective bridge between reading and analytical writing.

The fourth day had some interesting sessions by leading educationists like Dr Pascal Chazot, Director, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Ahmedabad, who gave a presentation on the various experimental learning carried out in the Mahatma Gandhi School and also showcased the various innovative classroom pedagogies used there. Another interest-

“Such conferences are good platform for sharing and gaining knowledge. IT was informative and insightful as education is about common values.”

Sujata Ravindran, Trivandrum International School

ing session was by James MacDonald, Head of School, Yokohama International School, Japan, who introduced the theory called the ‘Triple Bottom Line’. This theory helps the schools to think about their functioning and aims to provide a way of thinking about the schools priorities and measuring success. He also held a breakout session on the looking at the various ways by which schools can differentiate itself to reduce unhealthy competition between schools and provide better education to meet the needs of the children individually.

A young Graduate of MIT and Founder, Camp K-12, Anshul Bhagi talked about the various ways of getting young school students addicted to innovation. He discussed how early exposure to hands-on experiences can be important for moulding the children. He showcased how educational tools from MIT could be implemented in schools to help children build their own apps for computers and

phones. Lakita Jaggi, Primary Teacher; Gifted and Talented Co-coordinator Primary, The British School, New Delhi, who had some interesting ideas to share about the various ways of handling and identifying the high achievers and gifted children in the classrooms and how to help these children by increasing the challenges in the classroom for them.

Melanie Kells, Dean of Studies, Canadian International School, Bangalore, and Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) and Apple Professional Development (APD) Trainer, held various hands on sessions on the latest apps, interactive textbooks, and research tools designed

by Apple on education.

The last day of the conference had Neeraj Manchanda, Managing Partner, Neeraj Manchanda Architects, talk about the changes in the learning environments in the education landscape and also explored the idea of ‘learning everywhere’ in the schools. He discussed the idea of empowering the design team of the school collaboratively. The second session was by Shashank Vira, Independent Educator and Business Advisor, The Hearth, who explored the prospect of celebrating the multicultural aspects of the international curriculum. The last session of the conference had Clay Hensley and William Bickerdike from the College Board talk about the Advanced Placement Programme that can help promote and validate global skills in the children and help them prepare for an increasingly global and interconnected future. digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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higher education

interview

Glocalising India “We look at the education sector as an opportunity to showcase a new type of education,” says Sri Krishna, Managing Director, Birla Edutech Ltd, in an exclusive interview with Nikita Apraj Please tell us the idea behind the setting up of Birla Edutech.

Birla Edutech is a subsidiary of Birla Shloka Edutech, an education company set up to improve formal education. Under Birla Edutech, we have a combination of preschools and high schools. We use our own model in our schools. Our pre-school brand is called Globe Tot’ers. Under high schools, we have two brands: Open Minds and Shloka. We have also come up with Elevate, an after-school programme for students. Elevate is not just a hobby class, but an exclusive enrichment programme to build students’ life skills to help them make better choices in life.

How have you designed your curriculum?

We look at the education sector as an opportunity to showcase a new type of

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education. Our curriculum has been designed after choosing from the best of the curriculums.

We are proud of India’s diversity and we try to bring that to our curriculum as well. We do not want our schools to be like a burger, which tastes the same wherever you go. I think we are unique because we have something local in us.

We have a standard curriculum but with wide diversification. And we encourage localising it. IB curriculum allows customisation and localisation. We think that knowing what happened during the Maratha rule in India is more important for our students than something that happened in some corner of the world.

Should the education sector be run on for-profit or not-for-profit basis?

If the education sector is allowed to

make profit, it will improve the quality of the services provided by the private players. It will weed out the non-competent players and students and their parents will get value for their money.

It will trigger a healthy competition and improve the system.

What are your future plans?

Over next 10 years, we plan to open more than 100 schools across the country. We will start a range of higher education institutions offering multidimensional programmes involving experts from the industry, apprenticeship and floor visits, thereby bridging the gap between the academia and the industry. These colleges will also provide a unique opportunity to school leavers to attain economic independence and discover their hidden potential.

industry speak

skills

Skill Development for

Higher Education

By Dr Haresh Tank, Director, Station-e Language Labs

A

t a juncture when the percentage of employers facing difficulty in finding skilled workforce is as high as 81 percent in Japan, 71 percent in Brazil, 49 percent in US, 48 percent in India and 42 percent in Germany, one wonders what is it that we are turning out from our universities and colleges. India has the largest number of young people (age group of 14-25) and the highest global unemployment rate. Against this, the job market is increasingly being redefined by specific skills. And education, particularly higher education, cannot afford to overlook the new realities of the second decade of the 21st century.

Across the world, skill development has been addressed with considerable seriousness. According to figures of 2008, the percentage of workforce receiving skill training is 96 percent in Korea, 80 percent in Japan, 75 percent in Germany, 68 percent in the UK and 10 percent in India. Moreover, it is estimated that 75 percent of the new job opportunities to be created in India will be skill-based. While the skill set has changed and employers look more for 21st century skills in job seekers, it is required to take a close look at the academic nature of our curricula and their mode of transaction. We have a number of degree holders in the country, but businesses and industries think they are not employable.

Against the oft-quoted figure of 500 million skilled workforce required in India by 2022, sample this: “Of late, employability of graduates coming out of our educational system is becoming a matter of great concern.

I am told, only 25 percent of the general graduates across all streams have employable skills,” says E Ahamed, Former Minister of State for HRD and External Affairs.

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Skill development is not an additional course; it needs to be integrated into the training and education of a youth

We are not Finland that has more than 40 percent of its population going into vocational education. Compared to vocational education, our students are found pursuing degrees in colleges and universities of higher education.

We have the government intervening by establishing National Skills Development Council (NSDC) and several other skills development initiatives in the pipeline, but unless our higher education wakes up to this and responds proactively, the youths coming out of it would find it hard to claim a place in the world.

Let’s also understand that in a large country like India, apart from the government, private companies should also rope in to enhance the skills of our youth.

Skill development is not an additional course; it needs to be integrated into the training and education of a youth.

A youth seeking job today is expected to have life and soft skills which he has no clue about till s/he faces an interview.

The Planning Commission’s Approach Paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan says: “There is a need for a clear focus on improving the employability of graduates. Indian higher education is organised into ‘General’ and ‘Professional’ streams. General education which is an excellent foundation for successful knowledge based careers, often fails to equip graduates with necessary work skills due to its poor quality. Graduates now require the skills beyond the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic (the ‘3Rs’). Skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity (the ‘4Cs’) are now important in more and more jobs. Accordingly, there is need to focus on the ‘4Cs’.”

Higher education in India cannot live on an ivory tower anymore. Unlike the existing model of university education, skill development may be integrated into the core practices of a university.

Youths completing their education should not hunt for a job. The employers should come to the university and hire them. But is higher education ready for this? The answer will determine the future of this country.

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corporate diary

Affordable Smart Content for Digital Education With the advent of digital content in education, Ivan Vazquez, Country Director, Netex Knowledge Factory, discusses his plan for the e-Learning market in India of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) guidelines are also trying to ensure that the education does not remain textbook-centric. In this scenario, Netex decided to create a specialised learning solution for tablets, smart boards and other digital media. To begin with, we focused on the widely used CBSE curriculum and developed Learning Fruit, one of our flagship products and our first offering to India’s education market.

Tell us about Netex Knowledge Factory in India and globally.

Netex, an e-Learning company, is enhancing e-Learning globally for the past 15 years. A Learning and Performance Institute-accredited e-Learning solutions provider, Netex offers custom and catalogue content solutions, along with a cloudbased learning management system and associated technology services for the corporate, education and publishing sectors.

Netex commenced its India operations in 2008 and is working successfully in the corporate and academic sectors.

What are your views on the current education scenario in India?

The Indian education market is growing rapidly, wherein K-12 alone is expected to reach US$50 billion by 2015. This is just a hint of the tremendous growth in the educational sector. Moreover, the availability of tablets, smart boards, smart TVs, and smartphones at affordable costs is encouraging schools and students to adapt to digital education.

By promoting the use of digital technology in education, the National Council

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What is Learning Fruit? How does it help students and teachers?

Learning Fruit resources are designed for both students and teachers. Teachers can use them just like a teaching aid, that is much more advanced, to explain topics in the classroom. It works smoothly on smart boards. Also, the user interface is intuitive with simplified navigations allowing teachers to swiftly merge this interactive digital content with their lectures in the classrooms. Learning Fruit is a result of hardcore pedagogical research and analysis. It follows scientifically the didactic and methodological guidelines required for an effective digital learning experience. It delivers content in small pills of interactive, visually appealing, and highly effective learning resources.

This kind of granular structure allows students to learn specific topics as required and gives them control over their own learning.

How is Learning Fruit different from the other content available in the market?

Most of the content available in the market is just a re-packaging of existing content or lengthy videos and CDs, which is not compatible with the size or resolution of these smart devices; leave alone the efficacy of the content.

Learning Fruit, on the contrary, goes beyond digitisation of textbooks by exploiting all the possibilities offered by the digital devices like tablets, smart boards, smart phones and even smart TVs. It has unique learning resources like motion infographics, step animations, touch interactivities and quizzes. Sporting a great look and feel, its fluid user interface also ensures ease of access and navigation. The simplified e-Commerce facility allows users to buy specific content online in a couple of clicks.

We have already partnered with a number of tablet and smart board providers and the content will be pre-loaded on these devices and ready to be used. Learning Fruit, for android devices, will also be available on Google Play store as well as on our website.

Tell us your vision and strategic plan for the Indian education markets in the coming years.

Our vision is to revolutionise the education scenario in India. With the advent of digital technology, we can assume that the way education is imparted in India is going to change drastically. The affordability of this technology is substantially influencing the way education is being delivered in India. However, this technology needs to be strongly supported by equally advanced content and e-Learning infrastructure. Netex aims to contribute its capabilities and expertise to provide educational solutions aligned to the technological advancement in India.

We are going to initiate synergies with educational institutions, publishers and technology providers to build a complete digital education infrastructure just the way we are doing it in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and the UK. Launching Learning Fruit for CBSE is just the first step towards our goal!

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Juicy Juicy Juicy Juicy Juicy Juicy Juicy Juicy Juicy Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Nutritious Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive

ForFor Partnering For Partnering Partnering & Business & Business & Business Queries; Queries; Queries; For For Partnering For Partnering Partnering & Business & Business & Business Queries; Queries; Queries; Call: Call: Call: 09765569838/020-64100763 09765569838/020-64100763 09765569838/020-64100763 For For Partnering For Partnering Partnering & Business & Business & Business Queries; Queries; Queries; Call: Call: Call: 09765569838/020-64100763 09765569838/020-64100763 09765569838/020-64100763 Email: Email: Email: india@netex.es india@netex.es india@netex.es www.learningfruit.in www.learningfruit.in www.learningfruit.in Call: Call: Call: 09765569838/020-64100763 09765569838/020-64100763 09765569838/020-64100763 Email: Email: Email: india@netex.es india@netex.es india@netex.es www.learningfruit.in www.learningfruit.in www.learningfruit.in Email: Email: Email: india@netex.es india@netex.es india@netex.es www.learningfruit.in www.learningfruit.in www.learningfruit.in

special feature

Gateway to Education

Mpowerment through Technology

D

igital Campus Service (www. digitalcampusglobal.com) is a leading global company offering multiple technology solutions and management services across the education value chain. The company is considered as a pioneer in education campus management on cloud computing.

A visionary leadership and a passionate team continuously drive the innovation and excellence in the design and delivery of solutions and services.

The company operates under the powerful umbrella brand of “Digital Campus” touching millions of students, parents, teachers transforming the education ecosystem management.

Since its inception, it has adopted a unique collaborative approach to create smart and innovative products to make the lives of stakeholders of education ecosystem easier and more exciting. Today, with the patronage of its valued customers, it has become the most trusted partner in the progress of the education sector, used by a large number of stakeholders in the education ecosystem. In the next 3-5 years, we plan to expand globally and launch a series of new and innovative products.

Next Generation Solutions Digital Campus prepares for the future; institutions are rethinking how to define, deploy, source, and manage their technology and processes. The company offers a broad portfolio of services, frameworks, and methodologies to help our customers explore and steer a new generation of technology solutions.

These next generation solutions from Digital Campus shall facilitate: • Simplifying dynamic work activities that are complex

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• Leveraging service delivery through cloud enablement • Integrating applications, infrastructure and knowledge processes • Delivering higher levels of transparency, flexibility and reliability ERP on Cloud and Digital Dashboard Over more than a decade of extensive research and development with best brains in the field of academic and technology has led to the innovation of a series of products i.e. ERP, PRM, and CRM on cloud computing technology for the education sector. Today, digital campus products are the most innovative products in the education space.

Digital Campus Dashboard extends world-class dashboard application into a comprehensive business intelligence platform which includes alerts, analytics and reports. It helps institutions leverage information assets through visually rich, real-time and personalised business intelligence dashboards to analyse, track, and drilldown through a wealth of information. It’s an intelligent and interactive tool on a whole new level.

Benefits to the Administration • Eliminates hurdles in the process of getting information out of huge data • Improves the system’s proactive response to the requirement of all users • Integrated solution to manage academic and administrative processes • Saves time spent in manually filing, retrieving and compiling records

Benefits to Students • Assists in understanding performance in any subject at any time • Better access to books in library and other references materials • Information flow regarding school calendar and homework • Improved communication with teachers and alumni Benefits to Teachers • Improves teaching effectiveness through information about student • More focus on teaching and less on administrative functions • Assists students by tracking history of performance of a student Improved quality of interaction between parents and teachers Benefits to Parents • Monitors the performance of one’s ward from anywhere and anytime • Access to grades, attendance, fee status to examination schedule • Improved quality of interaction between parents and teachers • Measures like SMS to e-Mail that keeps parents updated Benefits to Management • Instant access to the information required for decision making • Dynamic generation of reports with alerts provides better control • Direct access to every piece of Information just on a click • View all periodical reports be it daily, weekly, monthly or yearly Process Consulting with SOPs for Best Practices As the company is engaged with hundreds of international educational institutions to provide them management

special feature

consulting services, and has developed the ‘Best Practices’ knowledge repository in the management of education campuses. This becomes the basis for good governance practices for schools and colleges as per the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET).

Turnkey School Project Management Starting and running a school needs meticulous planning and execution. Digital Campus helps achieve this through its transformation and turnkey project management services. The company also manages its model schools under its sub-brands: Palace School and Digital School that are committed to creating values through innovative approaches and interactive methods.

Education Portal Services Digital Campus’ collaborative knowledge portal (www.digitalcampus.in) is a universal platform for the stakeholders of the education ecosystem to connect, communicate, collaborate and contribute for the betterment of the education system through the power of information communication technology.

It has encompassed the best of technology and has become the most trusted partner in the progress with the education stakeholders, used by large number of different stakeholders of education ecosystem. Experts from across the world share their views on critical and contemporary topics affecting the stakeholders’, enabling them to make better decisions

Our Management Over a decade and a half years of rich experience and expertise in technology, operation and marketing, the management team brings a perfect blend of capabilities to deliver a world-class product and services to its valued customers.

Satish Kethineedi (CEO)

Nihar Pradhan (COO)

Giriprakash Reddy (CMO)

Customers powered by Digital Campus Top educational groups like DPS, DAV, Oakridge International, Ivy League Academy and St Mary’s Educational Institutions are transforming the way they are managing the education ecosystem through the technology innovation of Digital Campus gamut of products and services. It is a one-stop integrated solutions provider for all the needs of education institutions: schools, colleges and universities.

and choices in their sphere of endeavour and engagement.

Innovation in Practice As a culture, Digital Campus has focused on customer-centric innovation; persistently searching for new ways to solve problems and build a stronger education ecosystem. At Digital Campus, we nurture innovation.

Channel Partner Programs The Channel Partner Program delivers high performance and service quality to customers. It combines Digital Campus’ global technology leadership and support with the local expertise and market understanding of our channel partners.

At Digital Campus, we work in harmony with our partners to produce the best possible results. The Digital Campus Channel Partner Program is a framework of sales, marketing, training, and other support activities that are designed to provide a competitive advantage in today’s challenging marketplace.

The diagram shows the concept of Digital Campus as a system on cloud to convert the physical campus into a virtual and knowledge campus, taking administration, information, communication and management to a whole new world. digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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advertorial

IMT Hyderabad “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”

- John Dewey, the Education Reformer

I

n a world galvanised by ICT, the 21st century is characterised as a global knowledge economy, which in turn has put a premium on learning. The decade of 2010-2020 has been christened as the ‘Decade of Innovation’ by the Government of India: Innovation spurred by reasoning and critical skills.

IMT Hyderabad charted its course for the future based on the premise that the future belongs to a mind that is a creator, a pattern recogniser, a meaning maker, a visualiser and projector of the big picture. At IMT Hyderabad, technology has been seamlessly integrated into the curriculum instead of a clichéd perception of an add-on, an after-thought or an event. Ideas and know-how are pivotal to economic growth and development along with application of new technologies that necessitates radical change in how knowledge is imbibed and applied.

US Senator, Nancy Kassenbaum says. . “there can be infinite use of the computer and new age technology, but if the teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classrooms and make it work, then it fails.”

IMT Hyderabad recognises the need for a paradigm shift in education, characterised by imparting instruction, collaborative learning, multidisciplinary problem solving and promoting critical thinking skills, in order to equip learners with a skill set which is the new code ‘blue’ for success. The young and dynamic faculty team understands this changing trend and continuously innovates to offer industry relevant and updated curriculum.

Recognising technology to be a potent and influential tool that aids learning, the working philosophy at IMT Hyderabad is the use of efficient IT practices to help increase access, create personalised learning environment, and improve student engagement and actionable assessment.

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•

•

• • • •

IMT Hyderabad follows the philosophy that students learn best by ‘doing’ and doing is best when it involves engagement and participation with the premise of real life problem solving.

Real world experience to entry level marketers is simulated by Markstrat and Markops. Similarly Capsim provides the simulation exercise for Strategic Management and SAS for forex forecasting exercises in International Finance and portfolio evaluation tasks in Financial Risk Management.

‘Up-date and Up-grade’ is our foremost principle for fresh entrants who are required to attempt to innovate and thereby catalyse change in the market.

Learning Management System (LMS) is a web-based application that brings the faculty and students together and is used for sharing learning material, assessments and feedback.

Our Corporate Resource Centre a vital link between the institute and industry, and multiple networking oppor-

Fully networked campus: Wi-fi, Smart Boards, Video-Conferencing & Web Casting Computational Resource Centre: IT Labs with more than 100 state of the art systems Learning Resource Centre: Knowledge hub, Books, Magazines, Journals Electronic Databases: EBSCO, ABI Inform, IndiaStat, CMIE to name a few Harvard, Darden and Ivey Business Case collections Academic Alliances: SAP University, Microsoft & SAS

tunities through Career Fairs, Business Conclaves, Industry talks, Career Mentoring and Counseling.

Practitioner sessions– Sessions taken by senior industry professionals that form about 30% of our course delivery help bring in the business dynamics straight into the class context.

Showcase Events in Economics and Business Communication help build bridges between concepts and application in the real world.

Our blueprint for innovation is built on greater, faster and effective use of ICT to think creatively, learn, adapt to new changes and adapt on the fly! Recognising and adapting to these changing trends has helped IMT build visionary school(s). The learning environment at IMT Hyderabad is thus a blend of technology, research and practice brought together by partners like SAS and SAP, industry practitioners and faculty research.

At IMT Hyderabad, we strive to achieve a perfect dynamic balance between innovation, ICT and the human mind, thereby effectively becoming the harbinger of change. As an ancient Chinese proverb goes: “Do not confine your children to your own learning; they were born in another time.”

pre school

interview

Pre-Schooling

Takes a Giant Leap

“KLAY Schools is making balanced growth a culture for its pre-schoolers,” says Priya Krishnan, CEO, Klay Schools, during her conversation with Mansi Bansal learning styles so that the children are able to understand the materials teachers use in the school.

Parents choose our school because we believe that school is a community of parents and they also have a say in how their children are educated and taken care of.

Please give us a brief about KLAY Schools.

KLAY Schools are a chain of high-end preparatory schools that cater to preschoolers between the age group 1-10 years, provide day care and after-school services setup by VBHC Education Service (VES).

According to you, what distinguishes KLAY from other pre-schools?

Our focus is on the quality of care providers. We also have early childhood trained teachers who know how to deal with children in their early childhood days.

We also consult psychologists to frame the curriculum. This team comprises of people who have worked in the US, Singapore, and Korea, in child psychology and knows what behavioral hassles are and how to deal with them.

We follow a multiple intelligencebased approach. When a child comes to us, we make him go through a regular schooling system. We use primary

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What are the different digital solutions used in your school?

We use iPads. There are a lot of applications for kids that make things interesting and easier for children to learn.

We have digital boards also but we do not use digital content. We use these boards for growth and skill development. The children today are technology freaks, so taking them away from these things does not make any sense.

KLAY applies the multiple-intelligence teaching approach that encourages individuals and focuses on team-based learning. It also uses teacher- and child-directed activities and ICT to teach various concepts.

How do you see the market of KLAY and other play schools in the coming years?

Currently, we have more demand than we can cater to. We believe that we should not compromise on the quality and hence the slow pace. We can open 10 schools in place of one, but we want to get the right kind of people and all the other things too. The market is very fragmented. Our attempt is to really see how we can create a good structure which can replicate itself across the nation.

What is your primary focus as a school and as a provider of day care facilities?

We are the day care that provides schooling services. We do have kids who come from school. We concentrate on

stimulating the child positively through different activities and structured learning. You cannot be a day-care provider without these things in the system.

What about your expansion plans?

We plan to be in all the major markets where we have our corporate edge like Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, etc. The day-care market emerges in the bigger areas. We do not have a franchise model because we do not think that we would be able to maintain the quality aspect of our school then. The capital requirement for expansion is not an issue for us.

We had made four in the first year and we would look to do another eight or nine this year and then we would plan to do 100 in five years’ time.

What training model have you adopted for the teachers?

We have our training team that goes to train our teachers for six weeks within the centres. Our mode of training is also not only theoretical; we have quite a lot of innovative activities too. We record what is going on in the classrooms and then we use that for training our teachers.

How have you planned the day for your day care activities?

Here, the children do three hours of schooling from 9 AM to 12 noon. At 12, they have their lunch, and at 1 pm, they are put to sleep. They sleep for two hours and from 3 pm onwards, they have outdoor play and other activities like reading and yoga. By 6 pm, they are ready to leave. You will be amazed to know that we don’t find difficulty in handling the children for so long everyday because children learn by seeing each other.

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Working memory capacity is a very good predictor for academic success and is strongly correlated with a child's performance, particularly in reading and maths.

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K-12

interview

our country. Change, unfortunately, is always treated with suspicion.

If CCE is implemented in the spirit in which it was introduced, it will allow children to develop in an all-round manner.

Education will no longer be a rat race for marks alone. CCE will allow education to be seen as a healthier approach for the all-round development of children.

Educating Beyond the Classroom Educators should approach teaching as a ‘vocation’ and not simply as a ‘profession’, opines Kavita C Das, Principal, St John’s High School, Chandigarh, during her conversation with Mansi Bansal

Please tell us about the growth story of St John’s Schools. What’s your mission and vision?

We were incepted in the year 1959 when the Christian Brothers were invited by the then government to begin a school in Chandigarh. Today, more than 50 years later, St John’s has introduced a senior secondary wing and grown from an initial strength of about 100 boys to more than 2,000.

We are an Edmund Rice Educational Institute and work at forming a community composed of students, teachers, parents, management and other staff.

The central purpose of the school community is the religious, moral, intellectual, physical and social education of the student. This community seeks to create an atmosphere of genuine care and concern for its students.

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What distinguishes St John’s from other schools?

St John’s is different from other schools because it teaches its children to have a heart. We give a lot of emphasis to value education and it is not confined to the classroom alone. Our outreach programmes inculcate in our students a deep sense of compassion and a moral responsibility for those less fortunate. It is this ability to reach out to others that will truly impact our society and make a worthwhile difference.

What are your views on the various government policies like the RTE and CPE? The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 is the work of a visionary who has striven to bring about a paradigm shift in education in

How do you think will ICT enhance learning?

Whilst ICT integration enhances the quality of learning, we should not consider it the be-all and end-all of teaching.

Education goes beyond ICT and is essentially, a matter of the heart. That human factor can never be replaced.

Please elaborate on the digital solutions you are using in the school.

St. John’s has two fully-equipped computer laboratories with the latest software.

We also have a multimedia room, which is kept updated with the most recent programmes designed to assist learning. Not just this, our students design the most innovative teaching presentations as part of their projects and these are also integrated into the library.

Do you think IT will help the education sector to progress and reach to the last mile?

So long as there are dedicated teachers and a committed government to spread education, the roots of learning will spread with or without IT. What are the key elements that make for the visionary schools of the 21st century?

The greatest key element that will make for the visionary schools of the 21st century is when the educators take up teaching as a ‘vocation’ and not simply as a ‘profession’.

Teaching has to go beyond the mere goal of imparting of knowledge.

What’s your message to the parents?

Parents need to open up to the inputs from teachers. Only when the school and the parents work together with trust, the child will grow and benefit.

corporate diary xxxxx interview

Enhancing

Higher Education

“The Indian education sector is constantly evolving and we want to be a part of this change and lead from the front. We strongly believe that a right mix of traditional teaching methods and adoption of technology is imperative to help the Indian Education sector,” says Akshat Srivastava, Managing Director, Enhance Education Pvt Ltd, in conversation with Pragya Gupta

Please share the genesis of Enhance Education in India.

Enhance Education was formed to address the technology pain points in the Indian higher education system. The core team consists of people with deep understanding of technology.

The vision of the company is to provide platforms to the higher education vertical that improve their processes, help both students and administrators, and generate more revenue from existing streams. Our focus is on enabling the use of technology on campus to help all the stakeholders within the ecosystem.

How do you enhance education through technology? Also please tell us how you address the challenges of educational institutes with your technology solutions.

We have launched our collaboration platform My Open Campus that is geared towards the needs of the Indian campuses. The platform provides features like online student database and profile management, online assessments, placement and internship opportunities coupled with a complete secure collaboration solution.

We help the college right from the admission of a student to his life inside the

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campus and then onto placement. The platform smoothens the interaction between the various stakeholders including administrators, faculty, students, alumni and corporates. It is a structured and moderated platform where we add value to each and every facet of the campus.

We have noticed that most colleges in India use technology solutions that are piecemeal – My Open Campus plans to create a structured online ecosystem that gets all these disparate systems into one easy to use platform. The platform is free to use for any educational institute ranging from large universities to coaching classes to specialised colleges.

Enhance Education is planning to come up with online certifications for skill enhancement. Please shed light on the solution.

We are partners of National Mission of Education in ICT (NMEICT) and National Programme on Technology Enhance Learning (NPTEL) and help extend their offering across our partner colleges.

More than 12,000 hours of premium content created by the IITs under NPTEL is available on our portals, along with learning ecosystem meant to help students enhance their knowledge through intensive interactions.

We will soon be launching online skill enhancement and certification courses through leading universities and other certification agencies. Students will be able to get industry-certified courses on My Open Campus that will help them advance their careers.

The idea is also for a student to have an online repository of courses that they have done or participated in. This online profile can be embedded in their resumes which will then be opened to corporates across India. We understand that it is only through the use of technology that millions of students can be given certification and skill upgradation programmes.

To start off, we will be having vocational certifications that add value to core degree courses that students complete. However, over the next three years, we plan to add several mainstream higher education courses to the roster. Overall, within next three years, we plan to offer 100 different course certifications to students.

What are the products and solutions offered to the education sector?

We have launched two portals – My Open Campus and My Open Courses.

xxxxxdiary interview corporate

Both are geared to the higher education vertical. My Open Courses offers lectures created by NPTEL. We have created an interactive platform where students can watch these lectures and also interact with the creators of these videos, as well as with other students. They can get their queries answered and also extend help to their peers.

My Open Campus is a secure collaboration platform that is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;white labeledâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for a college. It has all the features that an educational institute needs right from admission to placements and also creating a vibrant alumni network.

My Open Courses has been launched less than two months back and we have seen tremendous response from students. Already, more than 10,000 students and mentors login to the site on a daily basis. We have an average time spent of close to 20 minutes per student.

In the last couple of months, 25 large educational institutes have embraced My Open Campus totaling over one lakh students on the platform already.

Through the use of technology, millions of students can be given certification and skill upgradation programmes that can foster lifelong learning

Akshat Srivastava

Managing Director, Enhance Education Pvt Ltd digitalLEARNING / november 2012

45

industry speak

Surging Demand for e-Learning Solutions The highly competitive world of global business is driving the demand for e-Learning solutions

By Veena Raizada, Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd

T

he ever-changing world of technology has transformed the lives of the young and the old alike.

Smartphones, Wi-Fi, 2G and 3G technologies, and Web2.0 and 3.0 have revolutionised the way we interact within and beyond our world.

Google says around 40 million Indians access the Internet through their mobile phones and download 30 million apps in one week.

The impact of technological innovations is growing exponentially. This has brought in a radical change in the attitudes of the people, and in the way they interact with each other. It has, indeed, given birth to a “digital population”, and ushered in an e-Learning revolution that thrives not only in the K-12 segment but in institutions of higher learning and in the corporate world too.

On the thriving milieu of e-Learning activity, demand for customised e-Solutions for m-Generation will continue to surge and e-Business industry is bound to grow in India.

Research shows that there are about 100 companies of varying size and scale in India in the e-Learning sector. Delhi/ NCR leads with 25 percent followed by Mumbai at 20 percent.

According to marketsearch.com, “The e-Learning market in India was valued at `18.41 trillion in 2010-11, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20 percent in the near future.”

The report, Indian Distance Learning Market Analysis, projects the distance education market growth in India at 24 percent during 2011-2016.

The factors driving the growth of eLearning solutions in Indian education include the projected increase in the

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The distance education market in India is expected to grow at 24 percent during 2011-16 population of young Indians (243 million in 2008 to 293 million by 2022), increasing awareness about education, huge demand-supply gap of teaching faculty (shortage of 12 lakh teachers at present), lack of infrastructure (2,500 schools to be set through PPP to support government initiatives in XII Five-Year Plan), and lack of skills for the jobs in various segments.

The demand for e-Learning solutions and effective delivery platforms with tools will undoubtedly keep growing as the

missions Right to Education, Education for All, and No Child Left Behind continue to be the challenges for Indian education. e-Healthcare, web-based services to extend quality patient care, treatment and knowledge management are propping and demand extensive support of trained professionals for e-Governance of hospitals and services. e-Literate Indians opt for shopping online. “Indian e-Retail market is expected to be more than INR `10,000 crore by 2015,” reports Companies Revenue Analysis & Forecast to 2015, Bharat Book Bureau. Indians e-Tailing thrust in future will seek e-Learning tools and solutions for training talent to monitor customer satisfaction.

The market also thrives with the advent of flexible learning, virtual classrooms, conferences, web seminars, customised content solutions, instructor-led training, blended learning, augmented learning and simulations across business domains and functions.

Though e-Governance in India is a challenge with low literacy and socio-economically weaker lots, yet measures at all levels are heading towards a better future.

To conclude, the transition to knowledge-based professional services cannot happen without adequate effort in training talent. Time constraints and cost effectiveness call for rapid e-Learning solutions with low cost interactive, adaptable learning tools facilitating executive and operative performance to enhance service industries.

Education industry, be it e-Learning solutions or tools supporting flexi-learning, is a supporting element of growth.

Even in times of a gloomy world economy, e-Learning is here to stay.

corporate diary

Green is the New Mantra for Indian Education System How do you visualise modern education? What is the way ahead with the help of digital tools?

For many reasons, education in this era can only happen with digital tools. One is the lack of training the teachers. Digitisation of learning is required to learn or assess or learn through assessment.

We learn through assessments.

So how do you assess what you have learnt? You learn, but you don’t know how much you have learnt. That’s why our tagline is: ‘Do you know how much you know?’ If I know how much I know, I can take the next step forward.

How can we rectify ourselves through the learning process?

You need to know where you are going wrong at every stage and what the shortfall in the learning mechanism is.

The online system that we have developed tells you on the spot the mistake you’ve made and the way forward. So there will be no backlogs.

In the Indian education system, there are many backlogs. For example, if you’ve been taught a chapter, before you understand that chapter completely, you’re already being taught the third or fourth chapter. The aim of the teachers is to complete the syllabus. There should be no delay or spoon-feeding.

Today, if the teachers are at 1.0, the students have reached 3.0.

How do you think this gap can be bridged?

Today’s generation is computer-savvy and much more advanced than the teachers when it comes to technology. But, the teachers who graduated years back will have to change their mindsets and logic to understand the challenges ahead of them.

How has the model you have created resolved the problem of power in India?

Necessity is the mother of invention. We analysed that even the best content and

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self-analysis reports would be futile if we did not reach to a school. Even today, most of the schools do not have power.

We branded our product as 24X7guru. com, aiming at giving green labs with clean and green energy to schools 24X7. And for students, it’s a full cycle of learning on alternate power.

If you are waiting for power to be generated, it will take about 15-20 years. Solar and wind power are recognised worldwide. We only need to have a standalone system. One kV power is enough for a school with 10 computers and lights. That would need a bare minimum investment, and can go on for at least 10-15 years.

Please tell us a little more about the model.

In the project, we will have energyefficient computers. The computers that we generally have consume because they consume up to 150 watt, whereas the energy-efficient computers will take only 25 watt. And using LED lights means saving more power. If we don’t use energy-efficient computers and lights, the energy consumption will go up to at least 5 kV. To generate more power, the capital cost will increase.

What is the cost of implementation?

We should be able to generate 1 kV power in `7-8 lakh. This is enough to power at least 4-5 computers, LED lights and fans.

Please tell us about your ongoing pilot projects.

We visited Navodaya School in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, to test the project. It is completely green and has 20 energy-efficient computers. Today, the school is not paying a single rupee for its power consumption. The government of Assam has also asked us to do this as a pilot project in 10 schools in the state.

If this model is successful, all the panchayats will be connected properly and

The process in India education needs to change to empower the academician to validate everything. Currently, it is the clerks and bureaucrats who are empowered, opines K S Muralidhar, CEO, Learnsmart India e-Governance will happen.

Which state governments have you approached for this?

We have approached the government of Andhra Pradesh and they have shown a positive response. They have also sent a proposal to the government of India for fund sanction. If our project in Assam is successful, the project will be implemented in at least 400 schools.

We are approaching other state governments also.

There are e-Labs in the NKN model of exchanging knowledge. What is your opinion on that?

Technology is moving at a very fast pace and the level of collaborative learning has come up. 24X7guru.com will be on that platform.

interview

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Competence Follows Character Development “No teacher training programme is customised for any particular institution. If the aspirations of an institution are high, they have to encourage their teachers,” says Seetha Murthy, Principal, Silver Oaks School, Hyderabad, in conversation with Rozelle Laha

Please tell us about special feature of Silver Oaks School?

We, at Silver Oaks, believe that the character of an individual comes first and then comes competence. Today, after seven years, I can say proudly that all the 2,000 students and 200 teachers we have are very responsible in terms of their approach towards life. In terms of competence, I would not mind if you are weak in a particular subject, but I would want you to be a risk taker and work harder on in subject.

What made you to make a move towards International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum?

There is a special philosophy behind it.

IB concentrates more on a child’s profile; it is child-centric. Also, there has been a phenomenal transformation in the school after that. We did not move to IB to get the international tag.

How have you implemented ICT in your education model?

We do not have very high tech gadgets in the classrooms, but every classroom has a system and Internet access. The teachers use it to show the world to the children. We do not have textbooks, as there is no prescribed curriculum.

We strike a balance between the curriculum and the methodology. In the classrooms, the teachers and the students form a small group and find out

how research in scientific phenomenon works in countries like Australia, Switzerland etc. The monitor is used to stimulate the audio visual sense of the education.

Today’s students are more technologically advanced as compared to the teachers. How can this gap be filled?

Students have their own websites these days. A lot of them know how to upload videos too. So, there is a lot of gap between the children and the teachers. It may be a generation gap, but technology has definitely accentuated their learning. We also give time-to-time training to the teachers in a softwareoriented format for teaching in classrooms.

There is a lack of quality teachers’ training programmes in the country. How can the schools address this problem?

You cannot find the best skilled people anywhere in the world, be it a school or any other institution. When we interview a teacher, we only look at his attitude towards learning and his openmindedness.

We should stop complaining that we do not have enough trained teachers. The teacher training colleges that train the teachers to cater to the present generation are in reality, imparting training only to teach the students of 1980s. There is a lack of teacher training colleges to make the teachers ready to teach in the present day schools.

Schools should train the teachers according to their needs. digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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Technology Enables Effective Learning in the Classroom Technology is a tool for steering education towards creative thinking, opines Adilakshmi C, Principal, Oakridge School, in conversation with Rozelle Laha

Please share with us the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initiatives.

Oakridge continues to be in tune with time and we strive to incorporate the techniques useful for the children to have effective learning. We train our teachers continuously. And the best schools are those that have continuous upgradation of their teachers through the training processes as they are the facilitators of imparting knowledge in the classrooms.

Why did you shift from a CBSE school to being an International school?

Since the inception of the school, we wanted to have a smart school and make technology an important tool for teaching in the school. The school has the best smart classes, multimedia and computers and equal emphasis is laid on training the teachers in using the technology effectively. The school has seen a shift from blackboards to whiteboards, and the children have access to laptops and tablets.

The assignments are sent to the students in advance and some teachers also do flipped classrooms. The teachers record the lessons and send them to the

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children. The children watch the video of the lesson at home and have a fair understanding of the topic when they come to the classroom. Thus, the teaching method changes from teacher-centric to discussion-centric. In the flippedclassroom-style of learning, the time in class is used for discussions among the children and teachers.

The children are able to connect to other children in the world through Skype. With the availability of the Internet, children are taught the concept of framing the right questions so that they can search the right information from the Internet.

How do you see the future of school education with the advent of ICT tools?

The most important thing in education is that the children should learn and understand the core content of the lesson. They should acquire the domain knowledge without any hiccups.

In the near future, the change will happen in the delivery of the knowledge to the children. There are various types of learners in the class and technology helps them in learning effectively.

How often should technology in e-Learning be upgraded?

Technology needs to be upgraded so that the children get more opportunities to inculcate creative thinking. The children should have confidence and should learn to communicate well. Technology gives them a medium to express themselves and explore the depth of their inquisitiveness.

Technology has to be continuously upgraded to keep pace with the requirement.

Please tell us about your teachertraining programmes.

We put a lot of effort in building our faculty. The teachers are always in sync with the latest pedagogy techniques and philosophy of the school. Thus, they are able to deliver effective learning in the classroom based on these principles. All teachers have to undergo mandatory hours of training on the effective use of technology deployed in the classrooms.

How can we bridge the gap between the government and international schools in terms of technology deployment?

The awareness of computers in CBSE and government schools is rapidly rising as they have also come to realise the importance of using technology in their schools.

With the launch of Akash tablets, the deployment of cost-effective solutions in education will come forth so that everyone can benefit from the use of technology.

corporate diary

Kudos to Inspirational Teaching It is the quality of teachers and the kind of learning being imparted that is critical in bringing about a transformational change in the society, opines Meena Ganesh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Pearson Education Services tive call of duty to deliver extraordinary content in innovative, inspiring and path-breaking ways that maximise the engagement of their students. Also, and helps in eliciting their creative potential.

We want teaching to be seen as a very exciting profession once again.

Please tell us about Pearson Education Services and Pearson Teachig Awards.

Pearson has been working in a number of areas in education. We work with schools to provide them digital classrooms. We have been providing students with various services for preparation in entrance and board exams. Apart from that, we run a network of schools called Pearson Schools. We have 30 regular schools across the country and follow the CBSE curriculum. We have been intimately associated with schooling and K-12 spaces in multiple angles, so we thought it was appropriate to reach out in a way that will help students deal with learning practices in classrooms better.

We are very blessed because of the kind of support that teachers have been giving us. They showed us the right path and gave us direction. We felt we should do something very exquisite and that is why we introduced the Pearson Teaching Awards. We want to recognise teachers and hear their inspiring stories and hope that other teachers also get inspired.

Pearson Teaching Awards aim to reach out to all corners of India. The goal is to identify, recognise and felicitate teachers who go beyond the administra-

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Who are your target audience and the geographical reach of this?

The award gives recognition to excellent teachers from all regions and communities of India and highlights their contribution in nation building. It also helps in making a better society through inspirational teaching.

It is a pan-India award, so we are encouraging people from all over the country to come in and apply. We want all urban, rural, private and public to apply and be a part of this award ceremony. We are not restricting to teaching only academic subjects. Apart from the core academic subjects and languages, we also have awards for other categories like sports, arts, crafts, music and other co-curricular activities.

Not just this, we also have an award for teachers for special children.

Also, there are awards for innovative teachers who have brought technology or any innovative method of teaching into their classrooms.

What is the criterion on which the nominations and the entries will be evaluated?

We have a very detailed process and the partners are the Digital Empowerment Foundation who will help us run the process. NDTV is the media partner. In terms of the process, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a detailed questionnaire that has to be filled in by the

teachers and then ratified by the principal of the school in which they work.

It talks about what subjects you teach, how long you have been teaching, how many students you have taught, and what you have done differently which influences the children and the kind of change that they are going to make. We will be ensuring that all nominations are authentic and all projects are verified on the kind of impact they are going to make.

What is the time period that has been given to the teachers?

The award applications are open till the middle of November. The awards will be announced by the end of December.

How is the response till now?

The response has been very good. We have just opened it and we have already received a lot of nominations. Website hit rate is also very high.

NDTV has been helping us in promoting the awards.

How Pearson is going to contribute in the overall growth story of the education sector in India?

India has a really solid education system and people see it as a major tool to alleviate the societal position. The government also understands that the private industry needs to play a big role in further strengthening this edifice. At the end of the day, it is the quality of teachers and the kind of learning being imparted that is critical in bringing about a transformational change in the society.

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Colossal Growth Awaits K-12 Space in India What steps are you taking to ensure that your students have proper grooming?

In my opinion, schools can do wonders in the way they mould a child. For example, we feel that a student should know at least three languages apart from his mother tongue and the local language so that wherever in the world he goes, he should feel like a local person because he knows the local language.

So we have started two more languages in addition to English: French and Spanish. The CBSE or IB does not say a school should teach these. Our objective is only to add to their communication skills and we don’t teach them reading or writing in these languages.

We have around 11 sports in the school and to find which of these is the most important in life, we spoke to around 10 people, and their answer was swimming. So we made it mandatory for each of our students to first learn swimming and only then can they join a second sport. And today, all the 1,150 students in our school know how to swim.

A K Agarwal, Director, DRS Group, believes that schools must focus on personality development, good academics and exposure to the best in the world in order to deliver quality education. In conversation with Pragya Gupta Please give us a little background about the school.

Starting this school was my father’s vision. We started this school in 2003. We had thought of starting a normal school, but my family wanted to make it international because in those days, there was not even a single school in Hyderabad. We thought of starting an International Baccalaureate (IB) school because there were hardly 4-5 IB schools in the country then.

It was a grand success. Finally, we started Cambridge also in the same campus. And today, we have up till twelfth class and 1,150 students which is the full capacity of the school.

We focus not just on academics; it is the major core area of any educational institution or school. Our aim is to make it simpler, the way IB says it should be: practical, and based on projects and research. But it’s becoming common in the country.

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What steps are you taking to make the parents more involved in the educational process?

We give emphasis on involving parents in the school. Be it the rich or the poor, everyone wants his kids to be the best in the country. So we been doing a small exercise for the past six years in which our teachers visit the house of each of the 25 students we have in one class, at least once a year. The reason: we want to keep the teacher and the parents in close conjunction so that they can drive the student better. If my son is not doing well, I should feel free to talk to his teacher. And if the teacher wants any improvement at home, he can talk to the mother directly and not wait for PTMs, because they happen once in a quarter or once in two months. Today, our teachers are good friends with the mothers and jointly work towards the betterment of the students: a small thing but it improves the students a lot.

We do not want to run our school like a school, we want to run in a way so that students learn something from here, build their life here and remember that they have learnt a lot from here: relationships, bonding, humanity, helping nature, and sensitiveness: things that are required in every step in life. One who wants to get education can study in a government school or in a five-star school also. One who has to prosper, will. What is important in life is personal development and give priority to that.

What is your opinion about the role of technology in education?

Technology drives everything today. If we are teaching our students Geography, we cannot take them to the Moon and

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teach them about it. But we can show them everything practically with the help of technology. Technology helps students to understand concepts in a more practically manner. We can’t track or control the institutions manually every day. The system not only drives a company but also helps the students learn more, it may be LCD or an interactive board. Today, every student above ninth has a laptop. From third class onwards, we’re introducing tablets for students. The idea is as they see more, and thus learn more.

The overuse of technology has been challenged by a lot of people. What is your view on that?

What is already proved in the world is introduced in India after 6-7 years. Those who are opposing today will themselves implement it after a few years. They’ll be late in the industry but it’ll come. Without technology, we can’t improve. People need to change with time or time will change them. After five years, all the schools will be using tablets. Everyone wants to cut down the cost of printing books and this is one of the ways to do it. Moreover, if you are aware of the area where you are working in and the system you are implementing, you won’t have a problem. It is nothing but awareness.

Maybe the people who are talking about this have less awareness.

Where do you think the school stands after the many years of its inception?

Achievement is only about satisfaction. We are personally very satisfied after starting the school because it makes us feel that we are giving something back to the country and its people. Tomorrow when these people become IAS or big businessmen, it would be an achievement for us.

We’ve also expanded our product into a franchise model. We have started a company called Edify Education Pvt Ltd to give franchisees in the country. There are three brands we are using in this company: Edify School, a K-12 school; Edify Kids, a pre-school; and MDN Future School, a low-budget school. All the schools will have the same system, the same quality of education and the same concept which we have implementing in our school in Hyderabad. The difference is only in the fees and facilities.

The aim is personality development, good academics and exposure to the world.

Today, we have 12 operating Edify Schools and 175 pre-schools. We have signed another 20 K-12 and another 25 pre-schools. There is a big market and we are growing very fast. In the next five years, we will have around 100 K-12 schools and 200 pre-schools in the country.

Do you have any plans to expand it to the higher education segment?

No. Many people are foraying into the higher education sector already. In Hyderabad, for example, at least 50 percent of the seats in colleges are vacant. In In-

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People need to change with time or time will change them dia, what is required is K-12 education. We have lesser K-12 schools in the country when compared to their demand, and more engineering or MBBS colleges. And this school is a bigger project than any engineering college because an engineering college can only teach 350400 students whereas a school can teach a minimum of 1,200. Each of the schools that we are starting will target 1,640 students.

According to a survey by the Education Department, we need around 8,000 schools every year. And we are hardly opening 200. So for the next five years, we only want to focus on K-12.

Is it difficult to control the quality in franchise model?

Yes, it is difficult, but if they are investing `15-20 cores in education, they’re obviously equally concerned and focused. In pre-schools, it’s a small project of `10 lakh and they don’t bother if something happens. But in K-12, if anything happens, the whole brand gets spoilt. And we have appointed an MNC to check the quality of every school every year. They give feedback to every school which helps us in maintaining the quality. As of now, we’re very happy with the performance of the schools.

What is the criterion if someone is interested in taking a franchise?

In K-12, minimum five acres of land, an investment of Rs 15 crore approximately in a span of 4-5 years, one family member or promoter for a span of at least five years in the school, the reason why they want to start the school and that’s the most important criterion. People shouldn’t start a school just because they have the money. We also look if the area in which the school is being started will attract enough demand.

What is your vision for education 2020?

In addition to new schools and pre-schools, we also plan to start an MBA and a law college and make it one of the best in the country, along with five training schools for teachers. We are also starting one teachers’ training college in Hyderabad this year where we will have a diploma course for them, and definitely plan to start five in India by 2020. Apart from this, we also plan to start at least 10 libraries in all the big cities of the country by 2020. The objective: people will become more knowledgeable and their communication skills and thought process will improve.

summit 2013 April 2013, New Delhi The World’s Premiere Education Event

Bringing Together Thought Leaders in Education Key Tracks School Track Higher Education Track Vocational and Skills Training Track

Visitors Profile •

Education policy makers, Ministers, Secretaries

•

Vice Chancellors, Directors, Deans, Registrars and International Higher Education Institutes

•

Education Regulatory bodies and

•

School Principals, Key Management,

professional association representatives Senior Functionaries and Global K12 representatives •

Edupreneuers, Entrepreneurs, Private Equity Investors, Venture Capitalists

•

ORGANISERS

Education technology providers

For programme enquiries contact Sheena Joseph Cherian, +91-8860651644, sheena@elets.in

For sponsorship and expo queries contact Fahim Haque, +91-8860651632, fahim@elets.in

wes.eletsonline.com

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interview

Please tell us how Sreenidhi International School was started.

The genesis lay in the idea of creating something that would endure and make a small contribution to the society. The school was founded to realise a dream: to create an institution where there is no fear of education in the minds of the students, and where teachers do not pursue the teaching for any short-sighted gain.

The school has been in operation for a couple of years. Where does it stand now?

It stands poised, confident, eager to learn, prepared to take greater strides in all directions, and, above all, at peace with itself and perfectly self-possessed.

Constant Improvement is the Biggest Challenge Dr K T Mahi, Chairman, Sree Group, Sreenidhi International School and Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, tells how the school is doing its bit for the society

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What is the biggest challenge of the school today, and what are you doing to address it?

The biggest challenge is to not stopping even for a moment in the journey to improve ourselves and learn new skills.

Besides this, there are three other challenges: 1. Not to allow anything to make us deviate from our vision 2. Never become self-satisfied and rest on our laurels 3. Never forget our duty towards the students and the parents.

How is the school distinctive from other international schools?

We neither believe in competition nor do we compare. Running a school is not like participating in a beauty contest. We have our goal, vision and responsibility and we are focused on that.

Please share your vision for 2020.

Such visions do not take into account two things: First is the world of change: I do not know what will happen tomorrow. And second is too great a pre-occupation with the future that makes us neglect the present.

Moreover, a school is always an evolving vision that develops from conversations with parents, students and teachers. For me, 2020 is here and now, and so, we work towards making the school great every moment.

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Education is All-Compassing Nancy S Nanavaty, Academic Director, Phoenix Greens International School, believes that education shouldn’t be the premium of the people who can afford it

Please tell us about the genesis of Phoenix Greens.

Phoenix Greens was started with the aim to provide an alternate for disillusioned parents. Also, we wanted quality education to reach every child. Education shouldn’t be the premium of the people who can afford it. Usually that is what is happening. The parents who can afford it send their child to the best of the schools and spend a lot of money.

Education should be within the reach of the common man. The middle-income group is the thickest of all the groups.

We wanted to cater to them by giving quality education to their children. Our fee structure is very competitive. And like they say ‘paisa vasool’, for every penny that the parent pays, we give it back to them.

Education is not just academics; you need to educate the child in everything.

It is all-compassing: personality development, leadership skills, presentation skills, how a child presents the work, how well he is groomed – the whole persona has to be taken care of by the school, not just ABCD. Because even a parent can do that.

But why does a parent say, “How does a school differ from another school?” It’s by bringing this holistic development. Everyone says that their school provides holistic development, but are we really providing it? What are the measures a school is taking to provide this holistic development?

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Even a nursery class child from our school would be able to take the mic and speak. When we have the parents’ day, all the 300 children of our school are on the stage, and not just as the flower walls, paper flowers or as the trees swaying in the breeze. Everyone participates.

I also subscribe to the Glenn Doman way of thinking which says that every child is born a genius, he is born with a potential intelligence that was used by Einstein and all the great people. How we utilise this potential genius, how we stimulate the brain, is what is going to make this child an above average, below average or an average child.

It is an awesome task for a school.

What are the challenges and opportunities in expansion?

Yes, absolutely till grade 12. We follow the CBSE board because I believe the CBSE is one of the most dynamic boards. We could have easily started with a Cambridge or the IB or ICSE curriculum, but CBSE is so dynamic, it’s within the reach and in the middle-income society, there are a lot of transfers. So wherever students go, they will be following the same thing. Our syllabus is CBSE, but our curriculum is international because we take the best practices and teaching methodologies from all over the world and we incorporate them in ours.

When you say syllabus, it’s a very narrow one. When you talk about curriculum, it’s a very broad perspective.

What are your views on technology in education?

It’s an absolute must. Even for the simplest of things, technology and education should go hand-in-hand. Unless the child does and sees something, education is not complete. Rote teaching does not happen now. Our theme changes every month. So when our theme is, say water, our children go and watch on YouTube what a water cycle is and what the different bodies of water are. Our nursery children also go to the computer lab.

They only know that is the monitor, this is the keyboard, this is the CPU, this is the hard drive, this is a pen drive and these are the CDs. Prep 1 and 2 start using the Paint and do a lot of activities. And nowadays, there are a lot of interactive activities. In the third term, the nursery children would be able to click the mouse to see. There are a lot of interactive sessions, like when they are doing the letters, if you say ‘A’, there’s a picture of an apple, a bat and a cat.

And the child has to click the apple. So technology and education go hand-inhand.

What is your vision for the school in 2020?

Academically excellent, social responsibility, pride in being an Indian: as elaborate as that, that encompasses everything.

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guest article

Indian Education Needs to Hit the Bullâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eye

By Dr T Venu Gopal Rao, Academic Director, Fusion International School, Hyderabad

W

e need to upgrade the Indian curriculum with new ideas for bringing maximum benefit to our younger generation. As India is a land of contradictions and dichotomies, the education system should be suitable to everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs and aspirations.

Almost 50 percent of Indians are youngsters, but compared to the Western countries, our education system lags behind. We often have instances of children feeling bored at school; this could be because education is not being delivered in a proper way. Majority of our schools are teacher-centric, and this makes the children feel that education is being imposed upon them.

There is a need to revolutionise the pedagogy. New ideas in education have to be implemented.

If Eastern educational philosophies are merged with the philosophies from the Western world, then we will be able to carve out a road for globalised and holistic education. Real education is where students can apply their skills to solve an issue, think laterally, with horizontal expertise and lateral exposure. Organisations willing to impart education should have a clear motive, vision and mission.

A good team work is a necessary part of the vision.

Curriculum development The curriculum needs to be designed to suit the needs of the students, thus helping them utilise their skills and apply their education and learning in the future. The curriculum must be vibrantly designed and it should appeal to the younger generation of today.

A step-by-step process is a must for integrating the above skills into the curriculum. The content needs to be ex-

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plained very lucidly and repeated many times. We need to have a pragmatic way of teaching; incorporation of emails, interactive boards and YouTube will help students in understanding the concepts with greater clarity.

Giving enough room for higher order thinking skills (HOTS), journal writing, creative writing and interdisciplinary learning needs to be encouraged.

The schools can also try to indulge the students by having entertaining assemblies, which also foster learning. During the assembly sessions, the students can present their talent through a skit, presentation, poem or song. The students will thus develop confidence to face the crowd even before sensing stage fear.

Primary school assembly may be segregated from pre-primary assembly. Students of pre-primary can recite rhymes and tell stories in their assemblies. This will encourage learning by emulation.

It will also make way for better bonding between the students.

Implementation It is important for the schools to take parents along in all their initiatives. The parents must be convinced that this kind of programme will build up self-esteem, strength in concepts with knowledgebased learning and will lead to the road of success in their lives. It is important to be communicative with the parents regarding the programmes conducted in the school. Regular parent orientation helps the parents align themselves with the curriculum and keep abreast of the latest programmes in the school.

A lot of preparation and planning is required from the teachers and senior administration to implement the programme. Continuous comprehen-

sive evaluation must be implemented in schools, because you cannot evaluate a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential with just marks obtained in the examination. Group discussion on a question or a topic is compulsory. Teachers have to plan the lessons and elicit answers from the students on a constructive theory of learning. They should build the concept and add information to what the students have learnt.

Physical education has replaced physical training. Theory and practical lessons have to be conducted by the sports personnel. Both indoor and outdoor games need to be stressed upon. Curriculum must be designed to allow the students to stay fit, both mentally and physically. The right kind of balance between height and weight is important. A regular regimen of 3 to 4 minute aerobic lessons is a must.

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Towards a Holistic Education System Prashant Jain, Founder Director, Pathways Group of Schools, believes that the education system in India should be student-centric and not teacher- or curriculum-centric. In conversation with Sheena Joseph Cherian and Seema Gupta connect well with the children and should be able to speak their language.

Pathways has teacher training programs for its teachers all through the year.

Every Thursday, the school ends one and a half hour earlier for students-teachers collaborative training programme. During summer and winter vacations, all teachers come back a week earlier and a huge teacher-training program is run for the teachers at the school. The teachers are sent for training workshops held by IB. Experts in various fields from all over the country come to provide training to the teachers.

Please tell us about the genesis of Pathways Schools.

The idea of Pathways was conceived in the year 2000 and much research has gone into the kind of education that has to be delivered. We have studied the education models in India and abroad and found that students in India can beat their Western counterparts in academic excellence but they lack when they have to present themselves to the outside world.

India was a world leader in education 2000 years ago because of the Gurukul system of education. The concept focused on engaging with the students on a one-to-one basis. It was not a one-way but a two-way delivery of information. This was the basis of setting up Pathways where education was student-centric and not teacheror curriculum-centric.

What methods have you adopted to train your teachers?

A teacher should have the ability to

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How is social media being used to promote agenda of schools?

General social media is a very open platform and can be easily misused by the children. In contrast, a modified and monitored platform which all children can be a part of should be provided. This platform can be used by the children and teachers alike to take forward the experience of the children in education.

Please share with us about the cocurricular activities Pathways has taken up.

The objective of a school should be to educate the child in all spheres of life.

Academic knowledge is only one aspect of education but for the overall development of a child, various areas like dance, drama, art, debating and sports have to be made an integral part of education.

Pathways Schools has special educators who can identify the inherent qualities of the child and then help enhance them further. We also have a brilliant set of teachers and educators who provide wholesome exposure to all co-curricular activities to students.

How has CCE pattern been introduced in the schools?

In CBSE schools, CCE has just been introduced but in the IB system, the concept of continuous evaluation has always been followed. Pathways Schools hasbeen practising the CCE pattern since the inception of the school. Assessment of children happens all through the year. At the end of the year, the teacher has the flexibility to take whichever best assessment he wants to include in the final grading.

A Pathways student is evaluated on two levels: achievement grade and effort grade. A child scoring an A in a subject in achievement grade but a C in effort grade means he has only scored good marks in that subject but has not made much effort in that subject. This helps the teachers know about the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multiple intelligence and his likes and dislikes.

What do you think is the role of ICT in education? How is it useful to students?

ICT should be used as a tool for education as it provides ways to enhance the learning experience of the students. ICT complements education beautifully. It enables the child to do his work from anywhere and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t restrict him to the classroom. It also makes the delivery and understanding of education easier.

What are your future expansion plans?

Pathways will be starting a preschool which will be a family-solution school for the young children. The Pathways Early Years is a step to fill this gap. This school will take care of children from age one till grade five. It will be like an extended day for Pathways students and a day care for children coming from other institutions.

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Preparing Students for Future A Murali Mukund, Secretary, Jubilee Hills Society & Chairman, Jubilee Hills Public School, believes in the philosophy of tradition and technology for providing complete education. In conversation with Pragya Gupta, he speaks on the importance of technology and need for quality education in schools

Jubilee Hills Public School has celebrated its silver jubilee year. How did it start its journey?

Jubilee Hills Public School was started in the year 1986. It was started as a neighbourhood school to provide quality education at an affordable cost. The main aim was to meet the social obligation and run the school on a non-profit basis.

Our tagline: Tradition and Technology, clearly tells our philosophy. We strive to retain the culture and values of our country while simultaneously using technology to gain quality education which help us in imparting general awareness and a competitive edge in the national and international scenario to our students.

How do you ensure delivery of quality education to the children?

To ensure that we not only provide education, but also act as a finishing school for the students to prepare them for a better future, we have installed projectors and smart boards in all our classrooms from LKG to class 12th.

Many of our students are now placed in good jobs across the world and have excelled in whatever they are doing. That itself tells our success story.

We realised that education is the answer to all the problems in any country and we have taken steps as a pioneer in the education sector in Hyderabad. The major challenges include commitment of teachers, their quality and their adaptation to technology.

The present generation children also pose a challenge to any educational institution because they are sometimes distracted by the social media and the downtrend of moral values in the society. There are several opportunities in the education sector, and we have utilised every one of them to provide better education to our students.

How do you see the school in 2020?

The vision 2020 of the school is to establish its own teacher training centre, to strengthen our skill development centre and consolidate the sports infrastructure. All these will make our institution one of its kind in the education sector.

During the next few years, we are also planning to open two more branches in and around Hyderabad, one at Vijayawada and another at Vizag.

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STaTE aWaRDS 2012 madhya pradesh

STaTE

STaTE

SUMMIT 2012 EXPO 2012 madhya pradesh

madhya pradesh

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Quality Education should be Accessible to All Anirudh Gupta, CEO, DCM Schools, shares how they are planning to deliver quality education even to the unrecognised rural India. In conversation with Sheena Joseph Cherian and Seema Gupta Please share with us the vision of DCM School.

Our vision is to provide quality and affordable education in rural areas. The school was started in 1957 and has grown tremendously and carved a niche for itself in northern India.

What are your views on change in education?

A lot of changes are happening in pedagogy, assessment, usage and the integration of technology. CBSE has brought in a number of reforms in education and the government has also started making amendments in education. India has provided the world with many professionals because of the ethos and culture of its education system. While we want to change our education system, we have to retain our values too. The need is to make sure that these changes are integrated slowly into the system.

If these changes are too quick, they would prove to be a double-edged weapon.

Do you have any plans for expansion?

DCM group is identifying places where schools are required for providing education, especially in rural India. The group is starting a new school which will be very close to the border of Pakistan in Ferozpur and another in Ludhiana. Thus, the group has a vision to bring quality school education to those parts which are unrepresented in rural India.

How are you using ICT in the school?

ICT plays an important role in the education system today.

We have been using smart classes as a medium of education. The schools are technology-enabled. The teachers are motivated to use ICT tools by integrating them in their daily teaching and this helps the children in understanding the concepts better.

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How have you designed your teacher-training programmes?

It has been a very challenging task to impart training to the teachers to incorporate ICT in their lessons. The group has a special proposal where the annual assessment of the teachers is based on the technological knowhow of the teacher. The teachers have to upgrade their knowledge in computers and its usage. The teachers have to take an exam based on IT literacy and these grades are used to give increments to teachers so that they are motivated to become computer literate.

Please tell us about your collaborations with schools abroad.

We have collaborated with a few schools in the UK. The management visits various schools in different countries to study their school education system, which helps it in knowing the practices followed in other schools. These best of these practices are used for enriching education in DCM schools. We are also taking up globaisation of education in a very calculated manner while also maintaining Indian cultural ethos.

What is unique about DCM Schools?

We have initiated the academic cell. The best of the teachers in all subjects are selected from various branches of DCM Schools. These teachers serve as the resource head and provide support to all the teachers in various branches in their respective subjects. Thus, uniformity and consistency is maintained in delivering education in various branches of DCM. We also have a mentor system where weak students are identified at the beginning of the academic year and mentors are assigned to help them. Quarterly review is done to evaluate the improvement in these children so that all children become equally enthusiastic about their studies by the end of the year.

policy matters

“We are Capable of Providing World Class Training in IT Related Subjects” Ponnala Lakshmaiaha, Minister of Information Technology & Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh has contributed in the areas of policy formulation for hardware, animal husbandry, dairy development, poultry, and allied industries in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Ponnala Lakshmaiah’s political career that spans over three decades is focused on service to the socially and economically challenged sections in the state of Andhra Pradesh In conversation with Pragya Gupta and Nayana Singh, he highlights the various initiatives taken by the state for the development of IT sector. Excerpts: The IT industry in the state has been growing at a healthy rate. What kind of contributions, in terms of enacting new policies, has the government in the state made for the development of the IT industry?

The ICT industry has always been the main driver behind the jobs creation and fostering of regional development in the country.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh is committed to the development of a more competitive industrial environment. There are large numbers of initiatives that we have taken to develop the IT industry. In order to promote sustained growth of ICT sector, not only to enhance the balanced regional socio-economic development but also to spread the usage of IT to the last mile of the State, for the benefit of common man, Government has announced the ICT Policy 2010-2015. If I may say so, the IT Policy in the state is far more effective as compared to that in any other state in the country. As a matter of fact, it is well known that in the world one out of every three IT professionals is from India, and one out of every three Indian IT professionals is from Andhra Pradesh. This by itself is a proof of the fact that the state is blessed with abundant talent in the field of IT. There are more than 700 institutions in the state that are engaged in churning out highly competent IT professionals. These talented professionals coming out of our institutions serve the manpower needs of not just the Andhra based IT industry, but the entire world. It is a result of work done by the government on the policy and infrastructure front that we have so many institutes capable of providing world class training in IT related subjects.

A decision to set up Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) around the city of Hyderabad has also been taken. Will this also lead to improvement in the size and scope of IT industry?

I was about to come to ITIR. The Centre has finally gave “in principle” approval to the Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal for setting up an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) around the city. This will give a much-needed boost to the state’s efforts to attract fresh investments into the industry. The ITIR will be developed in an area of 202 sq km (50,000 acres) in two phases over a period of 25 years. The

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ITIR is aimed at attracting an investment of `2.19 lakh crore in the ITITES sectors and create direct employment for 15 lakh youths. ITIR is a combination of production units, public utilities, logistic, environment protection mechanism, residential areas and administrative services. ITIRs will include Special Economic Zones, Industrial Parks, Free Trade Zones, Warehousing zones, Export-Oriented Units, growth centres, existing settlements and estates.

It is an accepted belief that IT industry is concentrated mainly in the urban areas, so what steps you are taking to develop IT industry in smaller towns?

The government is taking many new initiatives to ensure that IT industry can also move into our tier II towns. Many new institutions have been allowed to come up in the towns. In fact five years ago, hardly any IT industry was located in the town of Vizag, but now the same place generates revenues of more than `1,000 crore. Similarly things are going to pick up at other towns also.

You have been associated with many rural development projects. In your opinion what kind of impact ICT can have on rural industries and in agriculture?

Modern technology has a role to play in every sector, including agriculture. For instance, in agriculture you need to know the nature of the soil, you need to know what kind of fertilizers will be most suitable. You will need information on transplantation of the produce post harvesting. The thing is that such information can be more easily accessed through the use of technology. Nowadays we have computer systems that can be accessed in Telgu language. This has brought computing and Internet close to many farmers. In fact, I would like to tell you that we are one of the first Unicode members along with IBM, Honeywell and Microsoft. Only nine entities are the permanent members, Andhra Pradesh is 10th member. We are taking active measures to ensure that Telgu becomes one of the premier languages for conducting business on the web.

policy matters

Ponnala Lakshmaiah

Minister for Information Technology & Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh digitalLEARNING / november 2012

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Right to Education

The Way Ahead K Parthasarathy, Minister for Secondary Education, Govt. Examinations, Andhra Pradesh; Residential Educational Institutions Society, Hyderabad Public School, Intermediate Education. In conversation with Rozelle Laha...

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policy matters

Please tell us about the various schemes that Andhra Pradesh government has implemented for bringing improvement education sector.

We have implemented a number of schemes with help from the Government of India. Our Chief Minister, Sri Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy’s priorities are education and health which he had announced on the day of assumption of his duties. He has been giving a lot of importance to the departments for the sanction of funds and all other things.

We are taking many new initiatives to improve the standard of education being provided in 770 model schools in educationally-backward areas. The first phase of construction has already started and we will be commencing the process from the next academic year. We had planned to do it this year but we will take it up in the next year.

In the second phase, we are planning to cover about 350 high schools and we have already completed the construction of additional rooms valuing 45 lakhs in almost 1,500 high schools. Around 70-75 lakh children in the state are taking mid-day meals. We have formed committees to visit all schools to observe the quality and quantity of the food that is being served to the students in schools.

graduation. Generally, for teachers for regular schools, the qualification is graduation plus B.Ed. but here we are hiring people with a post graduation plus B.Ed. and that too with an English background because all these schools are English-medium schools.

Provide us with an overview of the scheme for girls’ education?

The state has large number of schemes for female students. There is the Kasturba Gandhi schools scheme that is dedicated to providing better education to girls. The scheme also has provision for providing hostels. They are called KGBVs or Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.

What strategies have been implemented to ensure that the ratio drops?

Our Hon’ble Chief Minister, as I told you, has given a lot of importance to education. For the first time in this country, we are conducting education fortnight. We will have this programme for 15 days throughout the state.

The programme will include the construction of buildings. We plan to launch campaign for dropout students. All our teachers will go to all the villages, they will survey all the households and if they find any children who are not going to schools, they will try their best to bring them to schools. That is how we are planning our course of action.

The state is having schemes for catering to the educational need of the backward classes. Will there be any ICT implementation in such institutions?

We already have 6,500 schools with the ICT programme. Another 400 schools are going to implement it this year. We are taking special interest in the appointment of teachers for these schools, as we want to make them unique when compared to any other corporate school, and all our children will have corporate education.

The construction will be in five acres of land and we will also have girls’ hostels.

We will have special teachers for all these schools. Apart from this, we have also mentioned the qualification for them as post

Are there any teacher training programmes for teachers at these schools?

Even the teachers in regular schools go through training. For model schools particularly, we have already announced the results for teachers who appeared for the exams. We are trying to complete the process of recruitment by January or February. Between April and May, we will conduct training sessions for all the teachers who will be recruited for the model schools.

Could you tell us how many teachers are being recruited and how many seats are there?

We are recruiting 7,100 teachers including principals.

How many schools are already functional?

The process will start next year in June. Our academic year shall be from June to March.

Since when has this been in operation?

The first fortnight happened only last year. This will be the second year of the scheme. This has been designed by our Hon’ble Chief Minister.

What challenges are being faced in ensuring compulsory education?

We are not facing any problems as such. Ensuring education to the poor is a key challenge because people in backward areas are

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policy matters

What positives can be brought to education through PPP? Corporate or private education has become very expensive today. Unfortunately, most of the parents are inclined towards sending their children to private schools. This is one major failure on the part of the government. Because of this, the people are put to a lot of financial hardships. For example, if you take a rural parent having two acres of land, his income would not be more than `20,000 if the entire atmosphere and everything is okay. Even if there is government school in the village teh parents want to send their students to a Convent. He only wants them to go to a convent. In rural areas also, a convent wouldn’t charge less than `8,000-10,000. So despite an income of `20,000, his spending on education on every child is `8,000. This is giving a lot of financial stress on the middle class and the poor people.

If PPP mode comes, we will definitely get corporate education. And because the government will also be involved in schools, the cost would come down. So there is an opportunity for the poor people to send their children for convent and government education. If the government of India has plans to implement PPP, we have no objection in supporting that scheme.

Ensuring education to the poor is a challenge because people in backward areas are more inclined to make their children earn by working

more inclined to make their children earn by working. But we don’t allow them to do that. The mid-day meal scheme is one way to inspire these people to send their children to school.

We also give free books and dresses as an inspiration to these people to educate their children.

Do you have any plans to bring PPP in education in Andhra Pradesh?

Not as of now. From the Government of Andhra Pradesh, there is no provision to bring in PPP but yes, we have private schools for private and corporate education and we are giving admissions there.

I was also told that the central government is coming up with PPP mode. They will provide land and other things necessary if anybody comes forward to start these schools. So we are working on that also.

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Would you like to mention some success stories of Andhra Pradesh government in the education sector?

We can say if you take any all India exam, our students stand first or bag many ranks. Not just that, a lot of students from other states also come here to get education in the schools of Andhra Pradesh. If you take number-wise, we stand at a good rank. And anyway, our education is far better than other state’s education.

In Andhra Pradesh, there are a lot of power issues.

So when we talk about the implementation of ICT and introduction of computers in model schools, how would you address the issue?

Power is an issue only when it rains. And it is an issue all over India, not just in Andhra Pradesh. The failure of monsoons is one of the reasons for power shortages and there are other external factors also. But this is not a regular problem, though we are facing more problems this year.

In addition to power, in ICT, they are supposed to provide a generator also for which we are making the payments. So electricity won’t be a problem because it will be backed up by a power generator.

Will the schools be paying for the generators?

The educational firms like the NIIT and others that are providing ICT-based education, are supposed to provide generators also.

What is the vision of Andhra Pradesh government in the coming years with respect to education?

Our objective is to give quality education to one and all in Andhra Pradesh. We want take it to every nook and corner of the state. We also plan to create very good infrastructure for all the schools in the state.