Milestone Education Review, Year 06, No. 01 by MSES Pehowa (Kurukshetra)

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Milestone Education Review (2278-2168) Milestone Education Review (The Journal of Ideas on Educational & Social Transformation) is an online peer-reviewed bi-annual journal of Milestone Education Society (Regd.) Pehowa (Kurukshetra). For us education refers to any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. The role of education must be as an instrument of social change and social transformation. Social transformation refers to large scale of social change as in cultural reforms and transformations. The first occurs with the individual, the second with the social system. This journal offers an opportunity to all academicians including educationist, social-scientists, philosophers and social activities to share their views. Each issue contains about 100 pages. ÂŠ Milestone Education Society (Regd.), Pehowa (Kurukshetra) Chief-Editor: Dr. Desh Raj Sirswal (Assistant Professor (Philosophy), P.G.Govt. College for Girls, Sector11, Chandigarh. Associate Editors: Dr. Merina Islam, Dr. Poonama Verma Editorial Advisory Board: Prof. K.K. Sharma (Former-Pro-Vice-Chancellor, NEHU, Shillong). Prof. (Dr.) Sohan Raj Tater (Former Vice Chancellor, Singhania University, Rajasthan). Dr. Dinesh Chahal (Department of Education, Central University of Haryana). Dr. Manoj Kumar, (P.G. Department of Sociology, P.G.Govt. College for Girls, Sector-1, Chandigarh). Dr. Sudhir Baweja (University School of Open Learning,, Panjab University, Chandigarh). Dr. K. Victor Babu (Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam). Dr. Nidhi Verma (Department of Psychology, C.R.S. University, Jind (Haryana). Dr. Jayadev Sahoo (Jr. Lecturer in Logic & Philosophy, GM Jr. College, Sambalpur, Odisha).

Declaration: The opinions expressed in the articles of this journal are those of the individual authors, and not necessary of those of the Society or the Editor.

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In this issue………..

Title & Author

Page No.

UNIVERSAL RELIGION: READING IN VIVEKANANDA:

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Geeta Manaktala IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL VALUES TO PROFESSIONAL SCIENTISTS,

13-20

ENGINEERS, OTHER PERSONS AND ORGANIZATIONS: John Daniel NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE COMMISSION: A REVOLUTION IN HIGHER

21-30

EDUCATION : Purva Mishra TRANSFORMING

EDUCATION

THROUGH

INFORMATION

AND

31-47

48-54

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT): S.Deepa PERFORMANCE

APPRAISAL

SYSTEM

AND

ITS

IMPACT

EMPLOYEES: S.Srinivasa Rao NEW PUBLICATIONS

CALL FOR PAPERS

PROGRAMMES & PARTICIPATIONS

CONTRIBUTORS OF THIS ISSUE

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UNIVERSAL RELIGION: READING IN VIVEKANANDA Geeta Manaktala

As we live in the first decade of the third millennium, we are being forced by the trend of global events to address a number of issues, which sometime in the distant past did not occupy the attention of our ancestors. Because of the growing power of these events and owing to the complexities they create for the average Indian, it is imperative that some attention be given to them. One of the key issues that is beginning to make life nasty, brutish and short is the conflation of two explosive issues in the human condition. These are the issues of religion and ethnic culture. Much blood has been shed in this country and elsewhere by the so-called religious people who believe that their violent actions serve a divine cause. We have the experience of Godhra, one of the most recent ghastly examples of man‘s inhumanity to man. Such tragedies, which are daily brought into our living rooms, tell us a great deal about ourselves and about the strange and sometimes bizarre psychology, which defines our identity, our self-image and our selfworth. Watching such events unravel before one eyes forces the religiously conscious human being to ask the long-standing question. Is religion and its message to human kind still relevant. This paper attempts to examine and elucidate Swami Vivekananda‘s views on the principle and genuineness of religion which symbolically secure the participation in the divine ground thus a Universal Religion. On the whole, Vivekananda‘s concept of a Universal Religion is a comprehensive and consistent attitude toward an explanation of what by common consent shapes the deepest concerns of the human race. It sets the most desirable goals before us: the unity of all human beings, their harmony with one another and the world in which they live, and each person‘s growth into that joyous freedom which is the mark of all true religions. Much has changed in the last century since Swami Vivekananda spoke effectively and passionately at the 1893 Parliament of World Religions, ―accept and understand one another‖.

He made a clarion call for a Universal religion, whose credo would be

sufficiently liberal yet adequately spiritual for recognising divinity in each being, and an infinite capacity for development to be manifest everywhere. While addressing the Americans, he stated that ―the Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist nor a http://milestonereview.webs.com

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Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the other and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth‖. It obviously recognizes the right of each soul to choose its own path and to seek God in its own way. Swamiji was against forcible conversion. Before we examine Vivekananda‘s concept of Universal Religion and how we prepare ourselves and the world for its realisation, we need to know what is meant by ‗Religion‘. The term Religion like many other terms cannot be defined univocally rather it is equivocal in itself. ‗Religion‘ when used unreflectively and conventionally is said to have a clear meaning. But when used reflectively, its meaning becomes more elusive than we realise. Perhaps the best approach that we can adopt is to recognise that words do not have singular meaning. They are used contextually and it so happens that we usually succeed in communicating ideas reasonably well without having to satisfy what particular meaning we have in mind. It is exactly under such conditions of vagueness and open texturedness that miscommunication becomes a possibility; the listener understands the term in a way that was not intended by the speaker. Religion is an affair of the human race.

With the widening horizons of

knowledge, it is no more, possible to reserve the term, ‗religion‘ to one‘s own creed and practices. Today one notices certain strange incongruities like fetish-worship in Africa, Hindus chanting ‗Om‘ before the vast impersonal Absolute, Christians seeking paternal care from a highly personalized and individualized Father-God, the Muslims seeking mercy from a transcendent but personal God, the Buddhist seeking out his own salvation unaided by any supernatural beings, tribal dances and sexual orgies of Tantra are vying for the name religion. In this age of religions pluralism, the term has become ambiguous and many who began by living out their creed have started wondering what it is. Faced with the complexity of the problem, some students of religion feel tempted to look for an easy solution by offering a simple definition. They argue that if they succeed reducing the problem to a simple basic principle, with a claim ―this is the root of the whole matter, this is the essence of the thing‖, then their task is accomplished. But such a accomplishment is never possible in a hurry, especially when the phenomenon studied is complex. As Knight Dunlop writes, ―… certainly, in the field of religion we are dealing with forests, not with a single tree.‖2 It is evident that a complex and diverse phenomenon as religion will defy all attempts at arriving at a simple definition. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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A cursory view of the various definitions proposed in the course of history enables us to show how difficult the task is. Mathew Arnold called it ―morality touched by emotion‖ and Taylor, ―the belief in supernatural beings‖. A.N. Whitehead describes it as ― what the individual does with his solitariness‖. Ames calls it ―the pursuit on the part of the community of what are thoughts to be the highest values‖. Straton defines it as man‘s whole bearing towards that seems to him the best of greatest‖ while Lowie sees its essence in the sense of something transcending the expected or natural, a sense of extraordinary, Mysterious, or Supernatural, Solomon Reinach thinks it as the ―sum of scruples which impede the free exercise of our faculties, but Hyden exalts it as the ―cooperative quest for a completely satisfying life‖. To George Bernard Shaw religion is that which binds men to one another and irreligion that which sunders; while Havelock Ellis Writes,‖ Now and again we must draw a deep breath of relief – and that is relgion‖3 Freud sees in it only a passing illusion, a sublimation of sexual desires and a neurosis of primitive man, while for Marx it is the invention of man to make life on earth more bearable. For Feuerbach religion is man worshiping himself, his own subjectivity made objective, whereas for Durkheim it is man-worshiping society idealised and symbolically expressed. According to some thinkers, Religion is identified with feeling, emotion and sentiments, cult, rituals and faith. Religion begins with a simple rite but ends with the sublime realisation. In between faith and such realisation there are so many aspects with which religion is related. Therefore, it can be said that Religion is generally identified with rituals, practices of one kind or another, with taboos, inhibitions and restraints of various kinds.

Religion also implies worshipping and in such acts of worship the

believer surrenders to the God of his belief.

Since Religion is said to be a blind

acceptance much remains unexplained. Some Religions proclaims that behind the world of nature and man, there is a reality called God, hence for these thinkers religion no longer remains a blind faith, but points towards an experience of the transcendent Reality. Religion therefore is grounded in the very nature of man characterising his essential and spiritual need.

It is his yearning for a direct experience of cosmic

consciousness and a desire to be in tune with the Infinite.

It is his longing for

transcending the world of space and time, to have a unique mystical experience of loving communion with God. Therefore, Religion is the foundation of the character of the individual and provides the basis of the society within which the individual lives. If this http://milestonereview.webs.com

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basis is taken away the entire social structure will collapse. ―It is then both dangerous and stupid to disregard the religious foundations on which any given civilization is built.4 To Swami Vivekananda every religion represents the basic principles, which are common to all religions. He exhorted men of all religions to unite on the basis of essential common principles. Over and above, Swamiji advocated the idea of a Universal Religion, which arose above all limitations and divisions.

On account of external

differences we do not notice the essentials. All religions reveal that the differences are only superficial and not fundamental. With the spirit of tolerance, Vivekananda called upon men of all religions to develop an attitude of understanding based on open heartedness, tolerance, mutual respect and broad mindedness. Swamiji writes, ―I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal tolerance but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the presecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites who came to southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to a religion, which has sheltered of and is still fostering the remnants of the grand Zoroastrian nation‖. He further writes: ―But their time has come: and ―I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this conventions may be the death knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and all uncharitable feelings between wending their way to the same goal.‖ While addressing the great gathering in the West, Vivekananda exhorted, ―If one religion be true, then all the others must also be true. Thus Hindu faith is yours as much as mine. And again in amplification of the same idea: he reiterated, ―We Hindus accept every religion praying in the mosque of the Mohammedans, worshipping before the fire of Zoroastrian and kneeling before the cross of the Christians, knowing that all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realise the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of them marking a stage of progress. We gather these flowers all and bind them with the twine of love, making a wonderful bouquet of worship.‖7 To the heart of speaker none was foreigner or alien. For him there existed only ―Humanity and Truth‖.8

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Such a vision of religious faith points towards the relation of human existence to the transcendent.

Accordingly Vivekananda‘s philosophy is his belief in the basic

oneness of existence and the essential unity of all religions according to this philosophy, there is but one life, one world and one existence God permeates all that exists from stones and plants to human beings and differences between one life and another is one of degree and not of kind. It would be contrary to Vedantic teaching. According to him to claim for instance that animals were created in order to provide man with food.8 Similarly, he upholds the concept of a universal religion does not imply a single ritual, but a mythology or philosophy, for the whole of mankind, but in the sense that every particular, historical religion proclaims an aspect of the Universal traits according to its own insights.9 He maintained that religion is one in essence but diverse in its manifestations and the advantage of maintaining a tolerant attitude is that it teaches us not to look for defects in religions other than our own. Accordingly, Vivekananda regarded the existence of numerous religions as a glorious dispensation of the Lord and its essence. The philosophical implications of the oneness of existence means that all men are bound together in one spirit. It follows that a life of service and sacrifice is the pre-requisite of those who would promote the religions of the spirit. It is, therefore, man‘s duty to create and defend those institutions that preserve the ideals of freedom, justice and truth and promote the development of a truly human life. Such an understanding of the universe and recognition of the common ground of all religions has further implications for our attitude to religions other than our own. It acknowledges that each religion takes its own path to the realisation of the goal of union with the divine, but they are at one in their essence and in what is eternal in them. It amounts to saying that no individual to saying that no individual religion can lay claim to exclusiveness or Superiority. That being the case proselytising based on concepts of exclusiveness and superiority has to be abandoned. Did Vivekananda mean by Universal Religion, the harmony of all religions? Did he mean the unity of all religions or the similarity and commonality of all religions? The notion of Universal Religion becomes clear if we remove the possibility of various interpretations of some of the general statements about religion, such as ‗all religions are paths leading to some goal‘ or ‗all people‘ whatever their cult, station or way of life, who are inwardly at peace attain to the same truth, as rivers (flowing into) the sea‘. This raises a new type of question, namely, how can the interest in religions liberation/emancipation http://milestonereview.webs.com

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be kept alive? Undoubtedly, it can be done only by drawing upon our heritage in the manner suggested by different religions of the world. To state differently, we need to retrieve or reach back into our own religious heritage so as to find radically new resources needed for emancipation in an increasingly dominated world.

Thus Vivekananda

exhorted that ―all religions under whatever name they may be called either Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedans or Christian have the same God, and we who derides any one of these derides his own God‖. The above statements points towards a commonly goal in every religion and it contains a number of suppositions too, some explicit and some implicit. The explicit is that the interest here is sole in the truth or rightness of individual claims of individual religions. The implicit is that individual religions obstruct the vision in finding out the truth that binds all religions. The religions of the East and the West are said to have originated from different premises or world-view. The only common ground, generally, is their views on the liberation of man from the clutches of birth and death. But most religions vis-à-vis religions leaders do not cognisance of the fact that such real liberation from our most basic limitations and deceptions comes only with a conscious effort to take account of the horizon of those who differ. Such an openness is directed primarily not to other religions but to one‘s own religion. In other words, it is an acknowledgement that each religion has its own cultural heritage. Hence it becomes the basis of a life that is ever, more inclusive and more rich. Such a perceptival does not lead to a rejection of other religions nor does it lead to consider them as inferior. It is especially the religious sense with in the various religions that can help to free people from the feeling of being absolute. Realizing oneself as subordinate to God and only a partial manifestation of his truth and power opens in principle the possibility of recognizing that other religions too are reflections of the divine perfection.

Hence there can be an essential similarity despite apparent

diversity and it leads eventually to an inner unity among the world religions and that this unity is the progressive realization of God as the incarnate.

Hence Vivekananda

explained the task of Universal Religion in the following way: ―Religion is a realization; not talk nor doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what is believes‘. According to Vitekananda, ―There are many sects among the Mohammedans and among Buddhists, and hundreds among the Hindus … in order to show you that any http://milestonereview.webs.com

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attempt to bring all humanity to one method of thinking in spiritual things has been a failure and always will be a failure. Every man that starts a theory, even at the present day, finds that if he goes twenty miles away from his followers, they will make twenty sects. You see that happening all the time‖. Besides Vivekananda also accepted and upheld that, ―you cannot make all conform to the same ideas: that is a fact, and I thank god that it is so…. Now, if we all thought alike, we would be like Egyptian mummies in a museum looking vacantly at one another‘s faces- no more than that whirls and eddies occur only in a rushing, living stream. There are no whirlpools in stagnant dead water. When religions are dead, there will be no more sects; it will be perfect peace and harmony of the grave. But so long as mankind thinks there will be sects. Variation is the sign of life and it must be there.‖ And yet Vivekananda spoke of an Ideal universal Religion. Which does not mean anyone universal philosophy, or any one universal mythology or anyone universal ritual, held alike by all, for I know that this world must go on working wheel within wheel, this intricate mass of machinery, most complex, most wonderful. What can we do then? We can make it run smoothly, we can lessen the friction, we can grease the wheels as it were‖13 This vision implies an understanding understand the universal concept of God. Such a concept of God, in essence, lies in the unfoldment of man‘s real nature, which is pure consciousness, the Universal Spirit in man. This Universal Spirit is the very Soul of the human being and as all life is the evolution of that which is within, the Universal Sprit necessarily expresses itself through various peoples and nations in different circumstances and with widely different customs and methods of life. The difference between man and man, people and people, nation and nation is not one of Substance but one of expression. If every Religion is the perception, realization and manifestations of man‘s real nature, which is divinity itself, then it is not illogical to claim that the Universal spirit in men express itself through infinite aspects, forms, modes and media.

These forms and modes are different radii of a circle.

According to Vivekananda, we must learn that truth may be expressed in a hundred thousand ways, and that each of these ways is true as far as it goes … Suppose we all go with vessels in our hands to fetch water from a lake. One has a cup, another jar, another a bucket, and so forth, and we all fill our vessels. The water in each case naturally takes the form of the vessel carried by each of us … So it is in the case of religion; our minds are like these vessels and each one of us is trying to arrive at the realisation of God. God is like that water filling these different vessels, and each vessel, the vision of God comes in http://milestonereview.webs.com

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that form of the vessel. Yet He is one, He is God in every case. This is the only recognition of universality that we can get.‖15 It is therefore, clear that as for Vivekananda, religion is one in essence. Knowledge of the primordial form of religion is the result of an immediate and intuitive apprehension of the nature of reality, which is the result of Jnana, gnosis or integral insight. It is the state of ecstasy; it is what is meant by saying that one is with God and an experience common to all religions. The aim of religion and religious education should be to learn about the basic principles of all religions of the world and promote international understanding and the creation of a world community and a world culture. So far we have been explaining among other things the nature of religion and universalisability of a universal religion as propounded by Vivekananda but despite the common aspirations of the World religions, the historical records have shown what the common purpose of different religions to unite all the inhabitants of the world has really failed. The world has not been united by the search of God, rather it has been divided into religious communities by the insistence on the different ways of worshipping God. ―Even as the world is broken up into different races and nations, it is divided into different races and nations, it is divided into different religions‖.8 The Hindus and the Muslims, the Jews and the Christians are unable to come to an understanding, ‗Even attempts to unite the Christian churches themselves into a single religious community have failed and the various sects continue to insist on their special formalities and rituals. War of religions have been there between the Hindus and the Muslims, the Protestants and Catholics.

Different religions have created

animosity among people and

consequently there arouse a conflict and confusions which antagonised the human psyche in the conflictual world, Thus today what is required is some sort of cooperation among world religions. This cooperation does not envisage and undergird the concept of Universal Religion as there are differences in attitude and perceptions in particular religions and as they are based upon upholding their own religions as supreme or absolute, there remains a tension among religions. It is also notworthy to state that there is a wide spread awareness in the post-modern world that our tendencies have been out ot balance in favour of a universal religion which has resulted in oppression and tyranny. It would be doubtful as to whether anything of value would emer4ge in our times by universalising tendencies, since the attraction towards a particular religion is only ethically and humanistically grounded. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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Therefore, what can be universally accepted is the promotion of life which requires such virtues as justice and love. But as soon as they are interpreted into concrete situations virtues and turned into vices leading to promote arrogance and a sense of superiority to those with whom specific meanings are not shared. Such partial and limited perceptions have destroyed the meaning of religion in World Religions throughout history. Hence the all to a Universal Religion seems no longer attractive as it once was. References: 1. Selection from The Complete Works of Vivekananda, (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama,1986), p.18 . 2. Knight Dunlay, Religion: Its functions in Human Life, (New York: M.C. Grew Hill Book Company Inc., 1946), p.4. 3. See Tomas Kipler, Contemporary Religious Thought: an anthology, (New York: Abingdon -Cokesbury Press),p.13. 4. Selections from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, p.1. 5. Ibid, p.2. 6. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.III (Calcutta:Advaita Ashram, 1970), p.32. 7. C.W. Vol.III, p.272. 8. C.W. Vol.II, p.297. 9. Ibid. Vol.II, pp 382-383. 10. Ibid. Vol. IV, pp. 82-83. 11. C.W. op. cit. Vol. I., p. 350. 12. Swami Vivekananda ,A Study of Religion, (Calcutta:Advaita Ashrama), p. 85. 13. Ibidm, p.92. 14. Ibid., pp. 92-93. 15. Ibid., pp.68-69. 16. Ibid., pp. 69-70. 17. S.Radhakrishnan, Religion & Society (London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1966) ,p. 13. 18. Ibid., p. 51.

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IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL VALUES TO PROFESSIONAL SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS, OTHER PERSONS AND ORGANIZATIONS John Daniel Abstract: Inadequacy of teaching and training on the subjects of engineering professional skill development in the present day curriculum and syllabus of educational and engineering institutes is highlighted. Social moral, ethical and religious values are found to increase the creativity, intelligence, communication and managerial skills and the overall growth of a person or scientist, engineer or organization. Therefore, such subjects are to be taught at all levels of Indian and foreign educational system. Importance of ethics to professional scientists and engineers is briefly introduced. Basics of philosophy and religion are explained. Importance of Indian and English Christian cultures and traditions for the growth of present and the future science, technology and the world is explained. Then finally the importance of integrating all Indian and global cultures for the growth of science, technology, economy, etc. is explained as concluding remark. Introduction: In general the following skills are considered as ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL SKILLS. 1. Analysis and Design of Engineering Systems (Both theoretical and practical skills) 2. Application of scientific and mathematical principles to develop products and services 3. English Communication Skills 4. Engineering Management Skills Engineering graduates with these skills are highly demanded by many employers all over the world. But in India, many Engineering schools concentrate only on the development of first two skills and too little or no emphasis is given to the development of last two skills. Therefore, Indian industries could not employ more than 80% of engineering graduates in industries. Even after publication of this sad fact long time ago, no Indian engineering college has made any efforts or too little efforts to develop these skills in engineering college students. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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In India, two economic systems were created. Traditional Indian economic system is based on agriculture and caste divisions. Modern economic system is based on imported foreign technologies and industries. Due to caste divisions, the industrial economy is socially isolated from traditional agricultural economy. Industrial economy is centered on cities where as agricultural economy is centered on villages and smaller towns. Many good schools and colleges are there in cities since modern educational system is also imported from abroad and these educational institutions are primarily meant for supplying man power to the industries. City children also get opportunity to develop the last two engineering professional skills through many non formal channels. Due to the social division of these two economies, village children do not get proper education and training in the last two engineering professional skills. 80% of Indian people are living in villages and smaller towns. Therefore, 80% of Indian graduates do not get any opportunity to develop these skills. Since industrial economy of India relies on imports, opportunities to a person with just a B.Tech. degree is less. But a M.B.A. graduate with a B.Tech. degree is always wanted by industries. The same fact is true even in multinational companies and also in all countries of the world. Now, the age of discoveries and inventions is over. Therefore, the new age business relies on business management techniques, whereas in the recent past business relied on advancements in science and technology. This fact further reduces the opportunity to pure technical persons. Technical and industrial advancements have destroyed or damaged the nature and created environmental problems. In the modern world, all economies are linked either directly or indirectly. Economic structure and functions depends on the culture of the people. Many national economies are free market based economy. Therefore, a modern engineer is expected to possess management and communication skills to solve the modern engineering problems linked with the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s culture. Therefore, teaching and training on management and communication subjects is vital in engineering colleges wherein village students are studying. Already such subjects are taught in all engineering colleges. But such subjects directly related to engineering and business management. Social moral, ethical and religious values found to improve the creativity, intelligence, management, communication and leadership skills of a person or http://milestonereview.webs.com

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engineer or an organization. These subjects are not taught in engineering colleges at present. Importance of social moral, ethical and religious values to a person or scientist or engineer or organization: Great leaders in all fields are always bound by moral, ethical and religious values. For example, Albert Einstein and Mahathma Gandhi were great leaders bound by human values. All leading nations of the world have a very strong culture founded on social moral, ethical and religious values. For example, Chinese and European cultures were founded on Buddhist and Christian social values. Therefore, management and leadership skills of a person and an organization could be improved if the person or organization is made to follow the social moral, ethical and religious values. If everyone in a society follows the social moral, ethical and religious values, wealth generated will be distributed properly to all. All will get educated properly. Each person will occupy an appropriate position in the economy and work to generate the wealth. Each person will find correct person to get married. Therefore, socio-economic class division and socio-economic hierarchy will be made properly at all times and places. In this way people will be organized properly by themselves and best teams will be working at all places and times in the economic structure. If a person/organization is bound by social moral, ethical and religious values, his/her/organizational mind will be very strong, perfect and pure. This perfect mind will not get satisfaction, unless it finds the solution to the problem faced. On the contrary, the wrong mind believes that it could escape from getting captured by others after doing something bad or wrong by itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s intelligent design and tricks. Man knows too little about both the inner and outer worlds. But wrong mind believes that he/she/organization knows all and therefore, he/she/organization makes false designs after doing wrong deeds. Therefore, evil designs of bad persons are always imperfect. Therefore, at the end of struggle between good and bad, good person/organization finds the truth and defeats the bad person/organization. If a person or organization is bound by social moral, ethical and religious values, his/ her/ organizational mind becomes free, bold, clear, strong and open. Therefore, thoughts and expression of the thoughts of this mind will be free, open, clear, bold and strong. In short, http://milestonereview.webs.com

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the communication abilities of a person/organization will be at the best, if the person or organization is bound by social moral, ethical and religious values. Knowledge and ideas within a person or organization originates from the accumulated experiences of the past. If a person or organization lives and works as per social moral, ethical and religious values, his/her/organizational thoughts and deeds will be always very much noble, healthy and constructive. Therefore, he/she/organization will accumulate noble, healthy and creative experiences. From these accumulated experiences, knowledge or creative ideas originate. Therefore, creativity and intelligence of a person/ organization increases, if he/she/organization is bound by social moral, ethical and religious values. Example: Valmiki of Ramayan, Chinese and European cultures. The social ethical, moral and religious values could also improve the unity and cooperation among the members of an organization, if they are followed by the organizational members. The social moral, ethical and religious value based behavior of a person/organization could improve the happiness of the person/organization. If a person/ organization follow social moral, ethical and religious values in day to day life, the quality of services offered by him/ her/ the organization will be much better than that of others at reasonably lower prices. Therefore, individual or organization will be growing up into better and better state. Importance of philosophy and theology to professional scientists and engineers: Scientists are interested in knowing about the physical world. Engineers are interested in applying the knowledge for the practical benefit of the people. In the modern world technology affects the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s lives both directly and through the economy, education and military. Therefore, modern scientists and engineers have to make many decisions both in technical and social moral, ethical and religious areas. Unfortunately, education in science and engineering often provide little guidelines in how to think about right and wrong. All most all of us receive a great deal of moral training from our parents. Primary and secondary education adds its contribution and formal religion offers even more to itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s believers. However, work place in science and engineering presents a distinct set of ethical problems. These problems are very often proved to be complex and definitely needs special education and training on engineering professional ethics to solve such problems. But in countries like India, many do not get any education and training on http://milestonereview.webs.com

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social moral, ethical and religious values from any source. Engineering professional ethics is a special branch of social moral, ethical and religious values. We human beings learn from the world and make models of various parts of the world by imitating various parts and functions of the world. If this is so, who made this big universe? We do not find anybody or anything in the world which created this big universe. Therefore, God, the creator of the world must exist outside the world. Man can communicate with God. Thinking means communicating within oneself. Communication always needs two persons. Therefore, within each person there are two personalities. One is himself/herself/subject/I. The other personality always gives answers to the questions of first personality and guides the first personality. This personality is very often called as sub-conscious mind or conscience. Therefore, this later personality is superior to the former. Ideas and knowledge originates from this super personality. God made the world and therefore the human beings. The world works as per the laws of natural

and

social

sciences.

Therefore,

the

world

could

called

programmed/automatic perpetual machine. Therefore, the world and the man work as per the plan and wish of God. Therefore, the super personality of man is divine. Therefore, man‘s questions are answered by God through this divine part of the man. Philosophy is set of truths developed by means of human rational inquiry. Therefore, all rational body of knowledge is Philosophy which includes social moral and ethical principles, science and engineering. Religion is set of truth received from God and not by man‘s reasoning power. Ancient jungle dwellers sought and received the message of God for living a happy life. In the absence of rational knowledge, the ancients received the message of God for living a happy social life. The difference between man and other animals is his brain and mind. Therefore, religion or God‘s message is about social moral and ethical values, world and God. Science is about knowing the physical world. Engineering is about applying the knowledge for the practical benefit of the people. Therefore, Philosophy, Religion, Science and Technology based on and about one and the same world. Therefore, Philosophy and Religion were developed based on and about one and the same world by viewing the world from different angles. In other words, philosophy or rational body of knowledge was developed from man‘s view of the world and religion was developed from God‘s view of the world.

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Importance of Indian and English Christian cultures and traditions for the growth of present and the future science, technology and the world: All thoughts and experiences of all men and women of a society in the past and present are stored in the language people use. Ancient England was Christianized under Roman Empire like many other European nations. In this way, people were made to follow social moral, ethical and religious values. Their thoughts and deeds were purified and experiences were noble and these noble experiences were accumulated over a long period of time in their language. In this way English and European languages became highly creative languages. Similarly Chinese languages too have become highly creative languages. This creative power of English language made them to discover and invent and unite all migrated European cultures in USA. The same creative power made them to win the cold war and became the global leader. More over by spreading into Australia, Africa and leading these continents, English culture has accumulated a very vast and wide variety of experiences. In this way English culture has got highest level of creative power and became the most advanced language and culture. Since English language and culture has proved to be the most advanced language and culture, creativity and intelligence of a person/organization could be improved if he/she/organization uses the most advanced language and follows the culture in day to day life. Different geographical conditions have created different races and cultures all over the world. Human race is the most advanced product of nature. Therefore, the complete truth of the world exists in different cultures of the world. Knowledge of a person or organization could be advanced only by following the knowledge. Therefore, to know the complete truth of the world, the world must be integrated by the most advanced language and culture. Man is the most advanced product of nature and also a microcosm. All inventions to satisfy human senses and mind has been invented by manipulating the non living material world. All possible discoveries in physics were made. Therefore, now, the age of inventions and discoveries is over. The age of discoveries and inventions began with reform movements of European Churches and renaissance. But still much truth is not known in plant, animal and human worlds. These facts could be found only in the next renaissances. Therefore, like Christians united the European cultures under Roman http://milestonereview.webs.com

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Empire, all global cultures must be integrated by the most advanced culture of the world to give birth to the next age of discoveries and inventions. Conclusion: Social moral, ethical and religious values found to increase the creativity, intelligence, communication and managerial skills and the overall growth of a person or engineer or organization. Therefore, such subjects are to be taught at all levels of Indian and foreign educational system. Such subjects were removed from educational system to free younger generations to make discoveries and inventions. But now, this age of inventions and discoveries is over. Absence of these subjects makes many to go into wrong ways of life and profession in life and creates corruption, crimes and violence, etc. Following such social values in day to day life improves the quality of services, economy, renders social justice, make perfect class divisions and proper socio-economic hierarchy. India can become the leader of the world if all Indian cultures are integrated by English Christian culture. India is a unique nation in the world wherein many cultures co-exists. By caste divisions Indian culture has accumulated all cultures of the world from the dawn of human civilization to the present day world. Therefore, Indian culture is diverse not only in space domain, but also in time domain. Therefore, India contains most primitive culture to the most advanced culture of the world. In short India could be called as a miniaturized world. Therefore, Indian culture could become the most advanced culture of the world if all Indian cultures are integrated by English Christian culture. Once Indian culture becomes the leading culture, India has got the responsibility of integrating all cultures of the world by the most advanced Indian culture. In this way, India will lead the future world. REFERENCES: 

E.G.Seebauer and R.L.Barry, ―Fundamentals of ethics for scientists and engineers‖ Oxford University press, 2001, pages 4-8.



Albert Einstein, ―Ideas and Opinions‖ Rupa and Co. 1979.



Ronald W. Clark, ―Einstein- The Life and Times‖ Avon Books, New York, 1984.



John Daniel, ―Social Information and Communication Theory (S.I.C.T.) and It‘s Applications for the Welfare of Humanity‖, CLICK-2014, February 12-13, 2014, http://milestonereview.webs.com

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Sankara College of Arts and science, Ennathur, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India. 

John Daniel, ―A Brief History Of Knowledge‖, CLICK-2014, February 12-13, 2014, Sankara College of Arts and science, Ennathur, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India.



John Daniel, ―Indian Culture - Most Advanced Culture Of The World‖, CLICK2014, February 12-13, 2014, Sankara College of Arts and science, Ennathur, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India.



John Daniel, ―Importance of Uniting Socio- Cultural Values of India and the World‖, CLICK-2014, February 12-13, 2014, Sankara College of Arts and science, Ennathur, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India.



John Daniel, ―A Christian Philosophy and Theology based Analysis and Design of Indian and Global Social, Economic and Political System‖, Ph.D. thesis, October, 2013, I.I.C.M., Florida, USA.

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NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE COMMISSION: A REVOLUTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION Purva Mishra Abstract It is now commonplace to say that the 21st Century will be the ―Knowledge Century‖. It is not the military power or economic power that in fact determines a nation‘s place in the world now in the making, but its ‗brain power‘. The ability of a nation to make best use of its brain power shapes its place in the world in the present century. Keeping this in mind, National Knowledge Commission was set up in India in 2005.Now at this stage, when we have completed almost a decade, it is imperative to know about the impact and short comings of the Commission. So, this paper is an attempt to study the performance of the National Knowledge Commission.

Introduction Knowledge has been recognized as the key driving force in the 21st century and India‘s ability to emerge as a globally competitive player will substantially depend on its knowledge resources. To foster generational change, a systemic transformation is required that seeks to address the concerns of the entire knowledge spectrum. This massive endeavour involves creating a roadmap for reform of the knowledge sector that focuses on enhancing access to knowledge, fundamentally improving education systems and their delivery, re-shaping the research, development and innovation structures, and harnessing knowledge applications for generating better services. Such a knowledge revolution that seeks to build capacity and generate quality will enable our country to empower its human capital including the 550 million below the age of 25. Our unique demographic dividend offers a tremendous opportunity as well as a daunting challenge which requires creative strategies for a new knowledge oriented paradigm.

The Setting up of National Knowledge Commission (NKC) Keeping the present scenario in mind, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) was constituted in June 2005 by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Sam Pitroda, to prepare a blueprint for reform of our knowledge related institutions and infrastructure and to advise the Prime Minister on matters relating http://milestonereview.webs.com

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to institutions of knowledge production, knowledge use and knowledge dissemination. Therefore, the mandate of the Commission is to sharpen India's "knowledge edge".

The Terms of Reference The Terms of Reference of NKC are: 

Build excellence in the educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century and increase India‘s competitive advantage in fields of knowledge.



Promote creation of knowledge in science and technology laboratories.



Improve the management of institutions engaged in intellectual property rights.



Promote knowledge applications in agriculture and industry.



Promote the use of knowledge capabilities in making government an effective, transparent and accountable service provider to the citizen and promote widespread sharing of knowledge to maximize public benefit.

Organisation: The National Knowledge Commission consists of six to eight members, including the Chairman. 

All members perform their duties on a part-time basis and do not claim any remuneration for the same.



The members are assisted in their duties by a small technical support staff headed by an Executive Director.



The Commission is free to co-opt experts to assist in the management of its tasks.



The Planning Commission is the nodal agency for the NKC for planning and budgeting purposes as well as for handling Parliament related responses.

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Objectives of the Study: The objectives of the study are: (i)

To study the recommendations of National Knowledge Commission.

(ii)

To study the impact in terms of action taken on the major recommendations of National Knowledge Commission relating to institutions of higher education (Indian Universities) in India.

(iii)

To study the shortcomings and give suggestions for improvement.

Major Recommendations submitted by National Knowledge Commission Recommendations submitted by National Knowledge Commission are relating to the access to knowledge, creation of institutional framework, development of concepts, application of knowledge and provision of services .

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Knowledge Pentagon Access to Knowledge

Concepts

Delivery of Service

Creation of Knowledge

Knowledge Applications Source: Report to the Nation: An Overview of National Knowledge Commission, New Delhi: Government of India, 2009

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The recommendations given by National Knowledge Commissions presented in Table1.1 have clearly been indicating the division of recommendations into 5 key areas relating to 1) the access to knowledge through Right to Education, Language, Translation, Libraries, Knowledge Network, Health Information Network and Portals.2) the creation of National Science and Social Science Foundation, Legal Framework for Public Funded Research, Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, Entrepreneurship. 3) the development of concepts in School Education, Vocational Education and Training, Higher Education, Open and Distance Education, Legal Education, Medical Education, Management Education, Engineering Education, Appointment of Heads of Institutions, Open Educational Resources, More Talented Students in Maths and Science and More Quality Ph.Ds. 4) the applications of Traditional Health Systems, Agriculture and Enhancing Quality of Life. 5) providing services through E-Governance. Important Statistics on Higher Education in India Higher education is of vital importance for the country, as it is a powerful tool to build knowledge-based society of the 21st Century. With the growing size and diversity of the higher education sector particularly in terms of courses, management and geographical coverage, it has become necessary to develop a sound database on higher education. It is widely recognized that the existing data base on higher education is inadequate, out-ofdate. Collection and dissemination of data on higher education suffers from incomplete coverage, inordinate time lag etc. In view of this MHRD initiated an All India Survey on Higher Education in 2011-12 to build a database and to assess the correct picture of higher Education in the country. Table- 1.2 Total Number of Universities and Colleges in India Universities

Colleges

642

34908

Source: All India Survey on Higher Education 2011-12, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India.

Table-1.2 has been showing the total number of universities and colleges in India. These Universities are the Institutions, which are empowered to award degree under some Act of http://milestonereview.webs.com

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Parliament or State Legislature, while affiliated and constituent institutions of Central and State Universities have been counted as colleges. Table 1.3 Central and State Universities in India Central Universities

Central Open Universities

State Universities

State Open Universities

284

Source: All India Survey on Higher Education 2011-12, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India.

The data presented in Table 1.3 has been depicting the number of Central Universities, Central Open Universities, State Universities and State Open universities in India. This does not include private universities either at centre or state level. Table 1.2 Central and State Universities in Different States of India States

Central

Central State State Open Open Universities Universities Universities Universities

Total

Andhra Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh

Assam

Bihar

Chandigarh

Chhatisgarh

Delhi

Goa

Gujarat

Haryana

Himachal Pradesh

Jammu and Kashmir

Jharkhand

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Kerala

Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra

Manipur

Meghalaya

Mizoram

Nagaland

Odisha

Puducherry

Punjab

Rajasthan

Sikkim

Tamil Nadu

Tripura

Uttar Pradesh

Uttrakhand

West Bengal

All india

284

340

Source: All India Survey on Higher Education 2011-12, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. In UTs of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep, there are no Universities.

Table 1.2 has been representing different states of India and the type of universities existing in each state such as Central Universities, Central Open Universities, State Universities and State Open universities.â&#x20AC;Ś..

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Impact: Action Taken on the Major Recommendations relating to Institutions of Higher Education (Indian Universities) in India  The setting up of 15 new Central Universities and 14 new Universities based on world-class standards.  The Committee for Rejuvenation and Renovation of Higher Education, set up for the review of UGC/AICTE has submitted its report.  The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication (ICT) Technology has been launched to leverage the potential of ICT in the teaching learning process.  During 2008-09 Rs. 100 crore has been allocated for the National Knowledge Network which proposes interconnecting all knowledge institutions in the country with gigabit capabilities, for sharing resources and research.  The Government has approved the setting up of a National Translation Mission.  Rs. 180 crore earmarked for setting up a National Mission for Libraries.  The XI Plan envisages the creation of core infrastructure such as SWAN (State Wide Area Network), Common Service Centers (CSCs)and State Data Centers (SDCs) for creation of a common service delivery platform  Under the approved CSC scheme which envisages establishing over 100000 CSCs across India, 20,558 CSCs have been rolled out. The process for roll out for another 250968 CSCs has also been initiated.  SWAN has been implemented in 6 states/ UTs and in 18 states implementation is in process.  SDCs have been approved for 26 states by the Government.

Critical Evaluation:  The setting up of ―world class‖ universities would definitely throw rest of the universities to a lower category.  Government is keen to establish ―world class‖ universities in India even without a clear vision and looking into the real character and requirements of Indian universities which even do not have adequate smart classrooms or fully Wi-Fi enabled.  The proposal for setting up of National Knowledge Network would be able to connect all the institutions of higher education at 100 Mbps or more broadband speed. However, our universities do not have networks to cater to such speed. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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 Most of the developmental projects of higher education in India are generally mired in red tape due to bureaucratic hurdles that stifles expansion and innovation.  At present various state governments are doing their own thing to selectively computerize their processes and provide e-governance. Therefore, it is critical to develop and enforce citizen/business entitlement standards uniformly over all states and central ministries.  One of the major problems faced by institutes of higher education is the shortage of faculty, which has not been addressed properly.

Suggestions: 

There is a need to redesign the government processes keeping the citizen at the centre, providing hassle-free enablement of citizens, businesses, producers and consumers, replacing the old mistrust and control regime from the British Raj.



An autonomous body should be responsible for implementing the projects in a time bound manner.



It is required to equip universities with basic infrastructure like high speed broadband system; fully Wi-Fi enabled campuses and adequate faculty before making them world class universities.



Data providing information regarding institutes of higher education should be updated on portals from time to time.



Coordination among central ministries and state governments must be there for the better implementation of projects.



Central assistance may be provided to states for secured broadband infrastructure and associated hardware, software and hosting facilities with easy access at all levels.

References: 

Dash Manoj (2010), ―National Knowledge Commission: A Step Towards India‘s Higher Education Reforms on India‘s Higher Education‖ International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, Vol. 70, No.1.



Excerpts from Prime Minister's speech at the Launch of NKC in National Knowledge Commission‘s Newsletter, December, 2008.

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

Government of India (2009), A Report on National Knowledge Commission, New Delhi



Government of India (2009), A Report on Knowledge Initiatives of the Delhi Government: A Blueprint for Growth, Innovation and Inclusiveness, New Delhi



Government of India (2008), A Report on Entrepreneurship in India: National Knowledge Commission, New Delhi



Government of India (2013), A Report on All India Survey on Higher Education 2011-12, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, New Delhi



Government of India, (2008), Towards a Knowledge Society, New Delhi: New Concept Information Systems Pvt. Ltd.



Organization of National Knowledge Commission, 5th September, 2014. http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/ about/organization.asp



Official Website of National Knowledge Commission, 4th September, 2014. www.knowledgecommission.gov.in



Reports on National Knowledge Commission. (2009), 5th September, 2014. http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/ downloads/report2009/eng/report09.pdf



Reports on National Knowledge Commission. (2009), 5th September, 2014. http://india.gov.in/reports-national-knowledge-commission.



Sam Pitroda, (2009), Recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission, New Delhi, Academic Foundation.

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TRANSFORMING

EDUCATION

THROUGH

INFORMATION

AND

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) S. Deepa

INTRODUCTION The challenges facing the students of today are radically different from those faced by previous generations due to tremendous changes in society. Technology, particularly the World Wide Web, has played a key role in these societal changes. Given that most of today's teachers are what Marc Prensky calls ‗digital immigrants‘, who speak "digital as a second language" to students who are ‗digital natives‘, we must acknowledge that we have much to learn if we have any hope of providing a relevant education to today's students. Fortunately, the very technology that has transformed our world can be used to transform our teaching. Technology can‗re-place‘ the teacher-that is, technology can ‗re-position‘ the teacher at the side of the student. In this position, teachers and students become partners, co-learners. Online learning is not about using technology, it is about thinking a new way about teaching. Educational Institutions are feeling the pressure to control costs, and to improve quality as they focus more directly on students needs, and respond to competitive pressures. Information Technology (IT) has the potential to solve many of these problems. It can change the roles of students and faculty, facilitate more learner-centered, personalized education, save money through improved processes and distance education, and expand the scope and content of the curriculum. This potential has often been more hype than reality, but hope is on the horizon. The critical mass of IT resources necessary to support integration of information technology in the curriculum is finally becoming available. However, more than just resources are necessary to maximize the potential of IT so as to transform higher education. Careful attention to the following issues is a prerequisite for any institution wishing to change itself and prepare its students for Transformed education with IT: 1. Planning 2. Funding 3. Support and Services

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1. PLANNING Having a document that succinctly outlines key strategies, needed resources, and future directions is crucial for communicating internally and externally. Furthermore, such a document is essential to the successful integration of technology into the curriculum. The process of drafting this document is often more important than the final product. One of the first steps in this process is to assess the current environment and establish a vision of the future. While each institution‘s assessment of its existing IT environment will be different, certain general elements of the future of management education are becoming clearer. There are several important planning assumptions for higher education in the future: 

Virtual learning communities



‗Pushing‘ rather than ‗pulling‘ (with students having greater control)



Lifelong learning



‗Just-in-time‘ rather than ‗just-in-case‘ education



Demonstrated skills versus certification



Global disaggregation



Open competition



Visually-based models rather than textually-based ones



Simulation



And Collaboration between universities and business.

Plans should focus on the student, the classroom (virtual or real), faculty roles, and learning outcomes, rather than on the technology itself. The danger in not having clear goals and pedagogical objectives is that technology will be acquired but not truly integrated into the teaching, learning, and research activities of the institution. Faculty using information technology in their classes needs to establish goals too. 2. FUNDING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Plans should include or be immediately followed by budgets that propose funding for the planned objectives and resources. Financial planning for information technology is a key challenge. Even well-endowed educational institutions that are able to buy the best equipment and software find themselves overwhelmed by the short life span of technology, constant maintenance or upgrades, and escalating demand. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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3. SUPPORT AND SERVICES Transforming Education through Enabling Technology: E- learning To achieve this, new approaches must be considered that go beyond traditional education. E-Learning represents a unique opportunity to rapidly advance the capacity and effectiveness of education. This has become increasingly feasible as global trends remove the issues associated with e-Learning deployments. In fact, the opportunity now enabled by e-Learning will enable not only to leapfrog investments using key technology opportunities, but support transformational educational models that promise significantly faster and broader benefits to the continentâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s population. Computers have long been viewed as a potential solution to Worlds education challenges. However, the devices necessary to enable e-Learning have previously been too expensive, too power-consuming and too reliant on scarce technical skills to practically implement. These trends will also allow world a leapfrog developed world education solutions by using e-content, low cost devices, cloud computing, and renewable energy sources. New e-Learning models, enabled by greater availability of quality content that is easily customizable, can offer a much wider range of learning experiences to improve education outcomes. But the broad range of groups and individuals that will connect in different ways and in different environments (e.g., Internet cafĂŠ, at home, at colleges, via mobile devices). Each group will require different content, and will prefer different types of teacher/student interactions. It is thus important that governments and organizations focus not only on the enabling technologies but carefully consider which eLearning models they need to implement. To do so, e-Learning infrastructure, potential leapfrogging opportunities, and the characteristics and benefits of new e-Learning models must be integrated to create a holistic, flexible, scalable and sustainable solution. When considering the total cost of bringing e-Learning solutions to classrooms, recent trends in reducing the cost and power consumption of devices, along with reductions in the cost of off-grid power, have combined to cut the total cost envelope by at least 10 times. This means that the investment for a complete e-Learning solution for a country with large number of colleges today costs very high. As the trends continue to improve the total cost envelope, e-Learning will become even more compelling as a transformational opportunity.

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ROLE OF ICTs IN CLASSROOMS In recent times, factors have emerged which have strengthened and encouraged moves to adopt ICTs into classrooms and learning settings. These have included a growing need to explore efficiencies in terms of program delivery, the opportunities for flexible delivery provided by ICTs; the capacity of technology to provide support for customized educational programs to meet the needs of individual learners and the growing use of the Internet and WWW as tools for information access and communication. As we move into the 21st century, these factors and many others are bringing strong forces to bear on the adoption of ICTs in education and contemporary trends suggest we will soon see large scale changes in the way education is planned and delivered as a consequence of the opportunities and affordances of ICT. THE EFFECT OF ICT ON ‘WHAT’ IS LEARNED Conventional teaching has emphasized content. For many years course have been written around textbooks. Teachers have taught through lectures and presentations interspersed with tutorials and learning activities designed to consolidate and rehearse the content. Contemporary settings are now favoring curricula that promote competency and performance. Curricula are starting to emphasize capabilities and to be concerned more with how the information will be used than with what the information is. a. Competency and performance-based curricula The moves to competency and performance-based curricula are well supported and encouraged by emerging instructional technologies. Such curricula tend to require: 

access to a variety of information sources;



access to a variety of information forms and types;



student-centered learning settings based on information access and inquiry;



learning environments centered on problem-centered and inquiry-based activities;



authentic settings and examples; and



Teachers as coaches and mentors rather than content experts.

Contemporary ICTs are able to provide strong support for all these requirements and there are now many outstanding examples of world class settings for competency and performance-based curricula that make sound use of the affordances of these http://milestonereview.webs.com

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technologies. For many years, teachers wishing to adopt such curricula have been limited by their resources and tools but with the proliferation and widespread availability of contemporary ICTs, many restrictions and impediments of the past have been removed. And new technologies will continue to drive these forms of learning further. As students and teachers gain access to higher bandwidths, more direct forms of communication and access to sharable resources, the capability to support these quality learning settings will continue to grow. b. Information literacy Another way in which emerging ICTs are impacting on the content of education curricula stems from the ways in which ICTs are dominating so much of contemporary life and work. Already there has emerged a need for educational institutions to ensure that graduates are able to display appropriate levels of information literacy, ―the capacity to identify and issue and then to identify, locate and evaluate relevant information in order to engage with it or to solve a problem arising from it‖. The drive to promote such developments stem from general moves among institutions to ensure their graduates demonstrates not only skills and knowledge in their subject domains but also general attributes and generic skills. Traditionally generic skills have involved such capabilities as ability to reason formally, to solve problems, to communicate effectively, to be able to negotiate outcomes, to manage time, project management, and collaboration and teamwork skills. The growing use of ICTs as tools of everyday life have seen the pool of generic skills expanded in recent years to include information literacy and it is highly probable that future developments and technology applications will see this set of skills growing even more. THE EFFECT OF ICT ON ‘HOW’ STUDENTS LEARN Just as technology is influencing and supporting what is being learned in colleges and universities, so too is it supporting changes to the way students are learning. Moves from content-centered curricula to competency-based curricula are associated with moves away from teacher-centered forms of delivery to student-centered forms. Through technology-facilitated approaches,

contemporary learning settings now encourage

students to take responsibility for their own learning .In the past students have become very comfortable to learning through transmissive modes. Students have been trained to let others present to them the information that forms the curriculum. The growing use of http://milestonereview.webs.com

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ICT as an instructional medium is changing and will likely continue to change many of the strategies employed by both teachers and students in the learning process. The following sections describe particular forms of learning that are gaining prominence in universities and schools worldwide. a. Student-centered learning Technology has the capacity to promote and encourage the transformation of education from a very teacher directed enterprise to one which supports more studentcentered models. Evidence of this today is manifested in: ď&#x201A;ˇ

The proliferation of capability, competency and outcome focused curricula

ď&#x201A;ˇ

Moves towards problem-based learning

ď&#x201A;ˇ

Increased use of the Web as an information source. Internet users are able to choose the experts from whom they will learn.

The use of ICT in educational settings, by itself acts as a catalyst for change in this domain. ICTs by their very nature are tools that encourage and support independent learning. Students using ICTs for learning purposes become immersed in the process of learning and as more and more students use computers as information sources and cognitive tools, the influence of the technology on supporting how students learn will continue to increase. b. Supporting knowledge construction The emergence of ICTs as learning technologies has coincided with a growing awareness and recognition of alternative theories for learning. The theories of learning that hold the greatest sway today are those based on constructivist principles. These principles posit that learning is achieved by the active construction of knowledge supported by various perspectives within meaningful contexts. In constructivist theories, social interactions are seen to play a critical role in the processes of learning and cognition. In the past, the conventional process of teaching has revolved around teachers planning and leading students through a series of instructional sequences to achieve a desired learning outcome. Typically these forms of teaching have revolved around the planned transmission of a body of knowledge followed by some forms of interaction with the content as a means to consolidate the knowledge acquisition. Contemporary learning theory is based on the notion that learning is an active process of constructing knowledge http://milestonereview.webs.com

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rather than acquiring knowledge and that instruction is the process by which this knowledge construction is supported rather than a process of knowledge transmission. The strengths of constructivism lie in its emphasis on learning as a process of personal understanding and the development of meaning in ways which are active and interpretative. In this domain learning is viewed as the construction of meaning rather than as the memorization of facts. Learning approaches using contemporary ICTs provide many opportunities for constructivist learning through their provision and support for resource-based, student centered settings and by enabling learning to be related to context and to practice. As mentioned previously, any use of ICT in learning settings can act to support various aspects of knowledge construction and as more and more students employ ICTs in their learning processes, the more pronounced the impact of this will become. THE EFFECT OF ICT ON ‘WHEN’ AND ‘WHERE’ STUDENTS LEARN In the past educational institutions have provided little choice for students in terms of the method and manner in which programs have been delivered. Students have typically been forced to accept what has been delivered and institutions have tended to be quite staid and traditional in terms of the delivery of their programs. ICT applications provide many options and choices and many institutions are now creating competitive edges for themselves through the choices they are offering students. These choices extend from when students can choose to learn to where they learn. a. Any place learning The concept of flexibility in the delivery place of educational program is not new. Educational institutions have been offering programs at a distance for many years and there has been a vast amount of research and development associated with establishing effective practices and procedures in off-campus teaching and learning. Use of the technology, however, has extended the scope of this activity and whereas previously offcampus delivery was an option for students who were unable to attend campuses. Today many students are able to make this choice through technology-facilitated learning settings. The scope and extent of this activity is demonstrated in some of the examples below.  In many instances traditional classroom learning has given way to learning in work-based settings with students able to access courses and programs from their http://milestonereview.webs.com

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workplace. The advantages of education and training at the point of need relate not only to convenience but include cost savings associated with travel and time away from work, and also situation and application of the learning activities within relevant and meaningful contexts.  The communication capabilities of modern technologies provide opportunities for many learners to enroll in courses offered by external institutions rather than those situated locally. These opportunities provide such advantages as extended course offerings and eclectic class cohorts comprised of students of differing backgrounds, cultures and perspectives.  The freedoms of choice provided by programs that can be accessed at any place are also supporting the delivery of programs with units and courses from a variety of institutions. There are now countless ways for students completing undergraduate degrees for example, to study units for a single degree, through a number of different institutions, an activity that provides considerable diversity and choice for students in the programs they complete. b. Anytime learning In concern with geographical flexibility, technology-facilitated educational programs also remove many of the temporal constraints that face learners with special needs. Students are starting to appreciate the capability to undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace. This flexibility has heightened the availability of just-in-time learning and provided learning opportunities for many more learners who previously were constrained by other commitments.  Through online technologies learning has become an activity that is no longer set within programmed schedules and slots. Learners are free to participate in learning activities when time permits and these freedoms have greatly increased the opportunities for many students to participate in formal programs.  The wide variety of technologies that support learning are able to provide asynchronous supports for learning, so that the need for real-time participation can be avoided while the advantages of communication and collaboration with other learners is retained.  teaching at any time to be opportunistic and able to be used to advantage. Mobile technologies and seamless communications technologies support 24x7 teaching http://milestonereview.webs.com

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and learning. Choosing how much time will be used within the 24x7 envelope and what periods of time are challenges that will face the educators of the future. The continued and increased use of ICTs in education in years to come, will serve to increase the temporal and geographical opportunities that are currently experienced. Advancements in learning opportunities tend to be held back by the ICT capabilities of the lowest common denominator, namely the students with the least access to ICT. As ICT access increases among students so too will these opportunities. LEAP FROGGING OPPORTUNITIES One of the most compelling reasons for using e-Learning to transform education is that it will allow developing local solutions rather than following traditional approaches. By Leapfrogging, time-intensive developmental phase can be achieved by adopting mobile technologies rather than first building out fixed telephone networks, faster. In education, there are several opportunities to leapfrog today‘s approaches. Four key examples involve:  Books  Electricity  Devices  Cloud computing With the rapids move toward e-book readers and electronic content, it is likely that countries can leapfrog traditional books all together. Most public college systems are very deficient in providing books to students due to the high costs of acquiring and text books. This means that in many instances, a single book is shared between 10 or 20 students. E-content and electronic book system can change this. E-book readers are already competitive compared to paper books, without even factoring in the superior value proposition of e-content over static paper content. We believe that naturally leapfrog books in public education, and it will be important to manage this transition intelligently, as the choices and design considerations are very significant. The second opportunity for leapfrogging is in power technology. Most public colleges do not have access to reliable electricity. With innovations in solar and wind power, colleges have an opportunity to leapfrog traditional electric power and move straight to off-grid renewable energy. This will create several benefits, including: http://milestonereview.webs.com

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 enabling e-Learning in remote places rather than waiting for the long cycle of electric infrastructure build-out,  eliminating the costly dependency on unreliable power systems  allowing countries to take advantage of green emissions programs by building carbon-free infrastructure in remote areas, and  avoiding the need to wait for the long bureaucratic cycles required to build out power grids to remote locations. The third opportunity is in new device technologies, which can allow to leapfrog traditional keyboard based computers. Touch-screen and tablet devices offer a number of advantages, including a more intuitive user interface, fewer moving parts and simpler hardware, and a lower overall cost structure. Touch-screen devices offer the potential to create more engaging learning experiences across a wider range of student audiences. The fourth opportunity involves using cloud computing for E-Learning infrastructure can leapfrog the use of traditional data centers which typically involves application management, servers, networking, and data storage—all of which is expensive to set up and operate. Cloud computing can turn data center operations into a utility that can be used as needed by education ministries and other organizations involved in education. Cloud computing will also allow governments and private sector educational institutions to share common content and learning models across different environments. In addition, this concept supports collaboration by allowing neighboring countries with similar languages and curriculum to share eLearning content.

ONLINE STRATEGIES FOR CREATIVE TEACHING Every single student has certain strengths in addition to his weaknesses. By using creative teaching strategies, teachers can harness these strengths and improve them. Creative teaching strategies can help teachers utilize these strengths and to enhance learning. Creative teaching strategies are beneficial to all students, students with behavioral problems, students with disabilities, and grade ‗A‘ students. There are many ways to learn besides simply reading a textbook or listening to a lecture. Hands-on learning can be very beneficial approach. Students learn in different ways – not all students learn visually. Of course, coming up with creative teaching strategies can put extra strain on a teacher. A teacher must be very innovative and also understanding of every student‘s needs. That is why the state ought to pay for certain classes that train teachers in creative teaching strategies. Such training would take a lot of strain off of the http://milestonereview.webs.com

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teacher, and it would ensure that her classes did better in the long run. Teaching online is challenging and creative. Effective online instruction depends on learning experiences appropriately designed and facilitated by knowledgeable educators. Because learners have different learning styles or a combination of styles, online educators should design activities that address their modes of learning in order to provide significant experiences for each class participant. In designing online courses, this can best be accomplished by utilizing multiple instructional strategies. Teaching models exist which apply to traditional higher education learning environments, and when designing courses for the online environment, these strategies should be adapted to the new environment.

COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION (CMC) The Computer-Mediated Communication can be asynchronous or synchronous in nature. Asynchronous: Advantages of these tools include independence of specific time and place requirements, ease of student-teacher and student-student communication, promotion of thoughtful discussion, facilitation of student collaborative projects, online submission of assignments and file sharing, and the potential to actively involve students in the production of learning. There are few disadvantages, though sometimes students require incentives to participate, discussion can develop slowly, and there is a potential for inappropriate comments. Synchronous: Advantages of these tools include the immediacy and spontaneity of realtime communication, ability to brainstorm and receive immediate responses, lack of expense (if using text-based conferencing) and, in the case of MOOs ( is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time), potential for role playing, resource creation, and imaginative immersion in other times, places, languages, and cultures. Scheduling, however, can prove difficult, the tools work best with relatively small numbers of participants at a time, and technological lag or slow typing can impede discussion. Video conferencing is still awkward and unreliable unless all parties involved have access to very expensive technology. BEST PRACTICES The best practices in online teaching strategies can be organized into three major components of the instructional process: http://milestonereview.webs.com

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1. Planning and development, 2. Teaching in action, 3. Student assessment and data evaluation. Together, these three components significantly influence the effectiveness of the online environment Planning and Development One of the most important elements of planning and managing online courses is instructorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; recognition of the fact that although there are a wide array of educational technologies and course management tools available for online teaching, not all of these technologies are appropriate matches to the subject taught and the teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s pedagogical style and strategies. As such, it is very important that instructors ensure that pedagogical principles drive the use of technology rather than the other way around. Instructors must strive to achieve certain learning standards, regardless of the medium through which they are teaching. Because of this, course planning should take place before instructors select the technology and course management system that will be used for the course. The first step in the planning process involves the development of learning objectives. It should have the following features: Behaviour: Learning objectives should be written in terms of observable behavioral outcomes. Clear, targeted verbs should be used to communicate with students the expected outcomes of learning activities. Student-Centered: All learning objectives should focus on the student. Effective objectives explain expectation for student behavior, performance, and understanding. Conditions: Learning objectives should be specific and should target one aspect of understanding. The conditions of the objective include the tools, references, and/or aids that will be provided to the student. Standards: Each learning objective should be measurable and should include the criteria for student assessment. Standards are important because they inform students of the expectations of the performance, while providing insight as to how these expectations will be measured. Following the development of clearly defined learning objectives and the special needs of students (e.g. consideration of the needs of students with disabilities or visual impairments if they are enrolled in the course), instructors may begin to select the technological option best-suited for the course. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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It is important to note, however, that although there is tremendous variety in the educational technologies available to online instructors, the field of distance learning technology is changing quickly, and it is therefore necessary for instructors and administrators to keep a close eye on emerging trends and associated best practices. For example, the annual Horizon Report, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging education technologies, projects that mobile technologies, cloud computing, geocoded data, personal web programs, semantic-aware applications, and smart objects will significantly impact the choices of educational institutions within the next five years. While these six technologies in online education are still emerging as educational tools, online technologies such as web-pages, discussion forums, course management systems, audio tools, and video tools are well-entrenched in the field of online instruction. However, with each technology comes a number of planning considerations that are important for online instructors to reflect upon as they develop their courses and choose the most appropriate technologies. TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS Web Page: Allows teachers to easily communicate information in a central location, update material, and to use the page as a portal for other technologies used in the class. Print: One of the most inexpensive and accessible mediums for delivering distance learning course content. Course Readings on the Web: Provides students with 24-hour access to materials. Images: Can be useful in communicating information that is difficult to explain using text or audio. Audio: Provides flexibility to busy students. Video: Allows for face-to-face interactions with students. Online discussion: Allows students to easily communicate with each other and with the instructor. Peer Review: Allows student to view the same online document and submit comments asynchronously.

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TEACHING IN ACTION The level of interaction among students and between students and the instructor is particularly important in online instruction. Distance education provides many opportunities to foster an interactive ―classroom, including two of the most commonly used pedagogical techniques to promote interactivity: (1) online discussion forums and (2) student collaboration on assignments. Online discussion forums are one of the best ways to facilitate interaction and learning in the online classroom, in part due to their ability to promote constructivist thinking (in which knowledge is constructed from personal experience), critical thinking, and higher-order thinking (thinking creatively and critically in a decision-making or problem-solving manner), all while distributing knowledge among all the students in the class. Additionally, discussion is a relatively simple way to encourage interaction in the online environment. For example, interactive learning can be promoted through the use of email or electronic discussion tools, such as the University of Washington‗s Catalyst Go Post tool, a web-based discussion board where students can compare notes, discuss assignments, post attachments, or work together, and the Google platform, Wiki, a tool which allows individuals to create websites which can be viewed and edited by site members. However, regardless of the technologies used, online discussion forums lose effectiveness without the development of thoughtful and relevant questions and instructor‗s moderation of responses. During the discussion process, it is important that instructors continuously manage students‘ ideas and further facilitate interactions. However, if the online discussion is going well without instructor feedback, it is often best for teachers to wait to jump into the discussion until the students‘ responses are waning. At that point, it is recommended that instructors summarize key points or ask prompting questions to recharge the discussion. The second strategy to facilitate interactivity: encourage student collaboration, relies on the use of educational technologies to simulate face-to-face meetings when students work together on assignments. Instructors need to identify the needs of their students in online instruction; they also suggest that interaction is considered by both teachers and students to influence the effectiveness of instruction in a primarily positive way. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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STUDENT ASSESSMENT AND DATA EVALUATION Best practice recommendations for the assessment of student learning in an online environment include: 

Assessment through an evaluation process that uses several methods and applies specific standards for student learning.

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The regular review of intended learning outcomes to ensure clarity, utility, and appropriateness.

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Timely evaluations at regular intervals to increase course flexibility for students.

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The assurance that monitoring/proctoring policies are in place during assessments of student learning.

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The integration of some sort of verification method to ensure academic integrity.

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Assessment strategies are integral to the learning experience, enabling learners to assess their progress, identify areas for review, and re-establish immediate learning or lessons goals.

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Strategies are varied (self-tests, quizzes, journals, writing assignments, projects, exams, etc.) and aligned to instructional goals.

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Assessment criteria are clearly articulated.

NEW E-LEARNING MODELS The traditional model of education involving a teacher lecturing with a blackboard is still the predominate model. It‘s a low-cost, easy to replicate model requiring no power— not even electric lighting. E-Learning vastly improves upon this, with the ability to expand the capacity and effectiveness of teachers and with the potential to enable many simultaneous models for education. E-Learning models can be classified into five major categories, namely; read, watch, play, experiment, and connect. Within each of these categories, there can be several different learning experiences, including group and individual modes that can occur both inside and outside the classroom. When designing new educational models, it is important to recognize the significant failures of prior efforts to use computers for education in developing countries. These include the fact that most computers in education institutions have been set up in computer labs designed only to teach computer skills. Also, most computers introduced into households for student use http://milestonereview.webs.com

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are delivered with no educational software or content and have mainly been used for entertainment. Transformative e-Learning models must be designed to take advantage of the opportunities created by technology. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s important to design new educational models so that they are accepted and adopted by teachers, students, and communities. One important parameter is to find a suitable balance between group learning and individual learning, and to reinforce the role of the teacher by introducing both models from the beginning. While most people think of e-Learning as mainly an individual activity (and most eLearning content today is geared towards individual, self-paced learners), e-Learning delivered to a group by a teacher can be even more powerful. It is an ideal way to extend the reach of teachers beyond the traditional blackboard lecture. In fact, providing teachers with laptops and projectors is among the most cost-effective ways to introduce e-Learning. This allows teachers to supplement their lessons with presentations, videos and prerecorded lectures. CONCLUSION The world has moved beyond the vision of the transformative potential of technology to improve service provision, to a new reality where technology is an integral part of everyday life. The focus is no longer on transformation, but on pragmatic solutions for delivering efficiencies and reducing waste, enhancing the quality of teaching and research while sustaining progress in widening participation, engaging with employers and developing workforce skills, and meeting the challenges of global competition . The emphasis on the use of technology to promote efficiency and effectiveness through shared public services has shifted to a focus on the enhancement of learning and teaching, and core institutional processes. It has shifted again to reflect the increasing pervasiveness of technology in all aspects of life and work, and the economic imperative of efficiency. In policy terms at least, it seems that technology has transcended transformation. What is needed is a change of mental attitude of the society and money should be spent if IT is to be applied. There is a much need of Scientists and Experts. Thus if Government and NonGovernmental Organizational as well as philanthropist join together, IT can be applied in educational institution in a big way. ICT will become a strong agent for change among many educational practices. Extrapolating current activities and practices, the continued use and development of ICTs within education will have a strong impact on: http://milestonereview.webs.com

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 What is learned?  How it is learned?  When and where learning takes place?  Who is learning and who is teaching?

The upshot of all this activity is that we should see marked improvements in many areas of educational endeavor. Learning should become more relevant to stakeholders‘ needs, learning outcomes should become more deliberate and targeted, and learning opportunities should diversify in what is learned and who is learning. At the same time, quality of programs as measured by fitness for purpose should continue to grow as stakeholder groups find the offerings matched to their needs and expectations. REFERENCES: 

Abdulrasool, S. M. & Mishra, R. (2009). Using Computer Technology Tools to Improve the Teaching-Learning Process in Technical and Vocational Education: Mechanical Engineering Subject Area. Inter-national Journal of Learning, 15 (12), 155-168.

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Bezjak, J. (2010). Contemporary engineer pedagogic‘s project research - using multimedia at technology classes in technical and vocational school. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences , 2 (2), 407–411.

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Drent, M. & Meelissen, M. (2008). Which factors obstruct or stimulate teacher educators to use ICT innovatively? Computers and Educa-tion. 551(1), 187-199.

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Inan, I. A & Lowther, D. L. (2010). Laptops in the K-12 classrooms: Exploring factors impacting instructional use, Computer & Educa-tion, 55 (3), 937-944.

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Parekh, R. (2006). Principle of Multimedia. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill.

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WWW.GOOGLE.COM

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PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON EMPLOYEES S. Srinivasa Rao

Abstract Performance appraisal is one of the most complex and controversial human resource techniques. In many organizations performance appraisal systems are used to identify the better performing employees who should get the majority of available merit pay increases, bonuses, and promotions Performance appraisal system is important to any organizational work performance; it determines the organization‘s success or failure. Employees are the most valuable and dynamic assets of an organization. For achieving the strategic objective of sustained and speedy growth, managing human resource has been featured as a vital requirement in alln organizations. It is a challenge to monitor the entire cycle of defining the competence requirement of the business, accessing existing competence in the organization and bridging the gap between the two. HR practices are crucial for any organization. Every phase from recruitment to exit interview is under the HR department. Keywords: Performance appraisal, Strategic Objective, HR practices, Employees Motivation, Probationary Employees. INTRODUCTION: In the world of globalization there is lot of competition in the market also there is competition among different organization and same organization having similar product and also within the organization. The overall success of each and every organization is depending upon the quality of employees. How successful the organization will be told by the employees on the success of or growth of that company‘s employees. Human beings are considered as an important asset of every organization. It is a duty of every organization to motivate the employees and influence the behavior of the employees through performance appraisal system. The process of performance appraisal helps the employee and the management to know the level of employee‘s performance compared to the standard/predetermined level. Performance Appraisal is essential to understand the employee‘s performance through HRD. In fact, performance appraisal is the basis for HRD. It was viewed that performance appraisal was useful to decade upon employee promotion/transfer, salary http://milestonereview.webs.com

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determination and the like. But in the recent development, Performance appraisal indicates that the level of desired performance, level of actual performance and the gap between these two. This gap should be bridge through human resources development techniques like training, and executive development, etc.

OBJECTIVES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL: 1. Salary increase Performance appraisal plays a role in making decision about salary increase. Normally salary increase of an employee depends upon on how he is performing his job. There is continuousEvolution of his performance either formally or informally. This may disclose how well an employee is performing and how much he should be compensated by way of salary increase. 2. Promotion Performance appraisal plays significant role where promotion is based on merit and seniority. Performance appraisal discloses how an employee is working in his present job and what his strong and weak points are. In the light of these, it can be decided whether he can be promoted to the next higher position. 3. Training and Development Performance appraisal tries to identify the strengths and weakness of an employee on his present job. This information can be used for devising training and development programmes appropriate for overcoming weakness of employees. 4. Feedback Performance appraisal provides feedback to employees about their performance. A person works better when he knows how he is working. This works in two ways, firstly, the person gets feedback about his performance. Secondly, when the person gets feedback about his performance, he can relate his work to the organizational objectives. 5. Pressure on Employees Performance appraisal puts a sort of pressure on employees for better performance. If the employees are conscious that they are being appraised in respect of certain factors and their future largely depends on such appraisal. 6 .Others a) Identifying systemic factors that are barriers to, or facilitators of, effective performance. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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b) To confirm the services of probationary employees upon their completing the probationary period satisfactorily.Role Of Performance Appraisal System on Employees Motivation. c) To improve communication. Performance appraisal provides a format for dialogue between the superior and the subordinate, and improves understanding of personal goals and concerns. This can also have the effect of increasing the trust between the rater and the rate. d) To determine whether HR programmes such as selection, training and transfer have been effective or not. LITERATURE REVIEW: 2.1 Performance appraisal Performance appraisal is one of the important practices of human resource management which was started early in 1813 in United states of America hence there is increasing interest in and uses of performance appraisal system in the last three decades stated by Murphy and Cleveland, (1995).In spite of this success, many organizations still struggling to make and implement effective performance appraisal system. All the thought given to process ,many of flaws still willful (wise and Buckley ,1998).Performance management is a bigger picture in which performance appraisal is located (piggotâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Irvine ,2003),performance management focuses on providing a framework for guiding employee performance towards achieving organizational goals(Torrington et ,2002).Performance management is therefore anxious with improving the performance of teams and individuals to ensuring the optimal environment is available for their employees to enhance their performance (Armstrong ,2003). Performance appraisal generally means the annual interview between the manger and employee to discuss the individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s job performance during the previous 12 months, the result of action plans to encourage enhanced performance (Wilson and western, 2001). According to Fletcher (2004), performance appraisal provides a prospect for a manger and for subordinates to discuss the previous performance work on agreed

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objectives and standards to reach an agreement on how the appraisee can enhance job performance. Performance appraisal is spread in organizations since 1960s for employee evaluation, for organization planning purposes, and it is becoming the important element for maximizing the effectiveness of all part of the organization, from management staffing and development to production and customer services (Creamer and jonosik, 2000).It was used before in this century by larger organization mostly for the administrative purposes (peter and Liang, 2007). According to Angelo S. DeNisi and Robert D. Pritchard (2006) â&#x20AC;&#x2022;Performance appraisalâ&#x20AC;&#x2013; is a discrete, formal, organizationally sanctioned event, usually not occurring more frequently than once or twice a year, which has clearly stated performance dimensions and/or criteria that are used in the evaluation process. Furthermore, it is an evaluation process, in that quantitative scores are often assigned based on the judged level of the employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s job performance on the dimensions or criteria used, and the scores are shared with the employee being evaluated.

2.2 .1 Benefits of performance appraisal to employee Generally, performance appraisals serve an important purpose in the management of workforce and in achieving the organizational objective. From employee perspective, performance appraisal give direction to employee that what exactly their way of required to do the job, also to motivate them to achieve their target and help them to improve their work performance. According to Brown and Heywood, (2005) performance appraisal is formalized way of monitoring the work force and it is proposed to be a management tool to enhance the performance and productivity of an employee. Performance appraisal also improves the commitment of employee (Brown and Benson.2003).The Organization needs an appraisal system in order to put their managers in charge of relation to the performance of organization because when employees are given their job responsibilities and duties, then they are liable for these responsibilities. Also Fletcher (2004) suggested that performance appraisal provide a platform for employees to look forward their tough goals and objectives, which leads them in successful completion of their job. The positive feedback received from the mangers in http://milestonereview.webs.com

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appraisal interview will motivate employees in improving their performance likely. Martin and Jackson, (2000) appraisal is also a method of enhancing employee training and development as it provide information about the strength and weaknesses in performance, which create a debate how to improve the performance of employee. In the end it helps the employees to understand their overall contribution in achieving organization goals (Martin and Jackson, 2000). 2.2 .2 Benefits of Performance apprisal to organization In most of the organization performance appraisal are used to take meaningful decision regarding salary increases, promotion and transfer. Performance appraisal is also the known to be best for the training and consultation of individual employees by their superiors to improve job performance (Wan D et al 2002, Sels L 2003: Singh K, 2004).The performance related pay processes can also be used in integration with appraisal system. There are many ways by which organization will enhance the performance of their employees. They use performance based compensation to give rewards on successful completion on specific organization goals and objectives. Further, research has given evidence that compensation to employees help in improving their performance (Gomez-Mejia & wellbourn,1988,Milkovich & Boudreau 1998). Another system is the bonus system which can also be used for motivating employees to work towards their achievement of the company (Pfeffer 1994).Empirical studies done and found that there is a positive relationship between performance-related pay and overall company performance. 2.3.3 Performance appraisal to organization Grint (1993) argues that due to the subjectivity of performance appraisal is not giving the positive expected result to organization and is unlikely to assist objective appraisals. He indicates that performance appraisal is not as much acceptable to line managers as it is acceptable to human resource managers. However he admits that performance appraisal still play important role in organization. In spite of the criticism, Fletcher (2004), Murphy and Cleveland (1995) argue that performance appraisal is important for improvement performance in organization and Simmons (2002) say again that nobody give reasonable alternative for appraising http://milestonereview.webs.com

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perfomance.Fletcher (2004), Murphy and Cleveland (1995) suggest that the process that is followed in design and implementation of such a system prohibits effectiveness rather than only performance appraisal is not responsible. Fletcher (2004) further argues that organization spends proper money, time and willing to spend effort can be achieved successful performance appraisal system. He also acknowledges though that if organization has an effective performance appraisal system they still have to monitor continuously that system to make sure that it compels all needs of its stakeholders. CONCLUSION: Performance appraisal is an important part of an organisation but the performance appraisal process is incomplete without the feedback given to the employee about his appraisal and his performance. The employee training and development programs, target based appraisal, performance related pay for employees, feedback of the employees all these to improve their performance. The appraisal system which is made on the aim to improve the employee performance has positive effect on employee‘s performance. Business environment condition affect on organization overall performance and employee performance as well. In addition it is concluded that the performance appraisal play key role in any organization success. REFERENCES: 

Armstrong, M. and Baron, A (2003) Managing performance: performance management in action, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

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Angelo S. DeNisi and Robert D. Pritchard, 2006, ― Management and Organization Review 2:2 253–277, 1740-8776.

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Brown, M. And Heywood, J. 2005. Performance appraisal systems determinants and change. British journal of industrial relations, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp.659-79.

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Fletcher, C (2004) Appraisal and Feedback, Making Performance Review Work, 3rd edition London, CIPD.

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Pfeffer, J. (1994) Competitive Advantage through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force , Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

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Martin, M. And Jackson, T. (2000.) Personnel Practice, 2nd Edition, London :CIPD. http://milestonereview.webs.com

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Murphy, K and Cleveland, J (1995) Understanding Performance Appraisal: Social, Organisational and Global-Based Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publication.

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Torrington, D. and Hall, L. and Taylor, S. (2002), Human Resource Management, 5th Edition, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

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Wan D., Kok V., Huat C. (2002). Strategic Human Resource Management and Organizational

Performance

Singapore,

Compensation

and

Benefits

Review, Saranac Vol.34, No. 4.

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NEW PUBLICATIONS

For details of other publication, visit to our new website: Shandanjali : Our Publications http://cppispublications.wordpress.com

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CALL FOR PAPERS Announcement of Research Paper Prize for the session 2015-2016 Dear Scholar/Professor/Researcher It’s a matter of pleasure that the Centre announces two best paper prizes with the name “Prof. (Dr.) Sohan Raj Laxmi Devi Tater Jodhpur (Rajasthan) Research Paper Prize” for our online journals Lokayata: Journal of Positive Philosophy and Milestone Education Review for the session 2015-2016. Eligibility: Those scholars who will contribute their research papers in one of the forthcoming issues, are eligible for these prizes: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Lokayata :Journal of Positive Philosophy, Vol. V, No.02, September, 2015 Milestone Education Review, Year 06, No.02, October, 2015 Lokayata :Journal of Positive Philosophy, Vol. VI, No.1, March, 2016 Milestone Education Review, Year 07, No.01, April, 2016

The selection criteria will be the innovative theme, content and writing style of the paper. Kindly follow the special theme, if mentioned there. You can visit the following websites for our call for papers: Lokayata: Journal of Positive Philosophy (ISSN :2249-8389) http://lokayatajournal.webs.com Milestone Education Review (ISSN:2278-2168) http://milestonereview.webs.com Kindly contribute your research paper in the abovementioned journals and be a part of CPPIS’s work. Waiting for your positive response. For more details of seminars, conferences, jobs and workshops etc. kindly visit to Philosophy News in India: http://newsphilosophy.wordpress.com

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Programmes and Participations Programme Organised:01 

“World Philosophy Day-2014” at Departments of Philosophy, P.G.Govt. College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh in association with CPPIS, Pehowa (Kurukshetra) held on 19-11-2014.

Participations: 03   

“डॉ. भीमराव अम्बेडकर महापररनिवााण श्रद्ाांजली समारोह-2014” भगवाि वाल्मीकक छात्रावास, कु रुक्षेत्र, किसम्बर 06, 2014. “शैनक्षक ज्योनि सानवत्रीबाई फु ले जन्मकिि समारोह” भगवाि वाल्मीकक छात्रावास, कु रुक्षेत्र, जिवरी 03, 2015. “महात्मा ज्योनिबा फु ले और डॉ आांबेडकर का जन्मकिवस”, वाल्मीकक आांबेडकर नशक्षा प्रसार सनमनि, माांडी April 11, 2015.

E-books /Special Issues published: 02 CPPIS Manual for Contributors and Reviewers http://www.scribd.com/doc/137190047/CPPIS-Manual-for-ContributorsReviewers Lokayata: Journal of Positive Philosophy, Vol. V,No.01 ( March 2015) http://lokayatajournal.webs.com/ New Online Page:01 शब्दांजली : Our Publications, Manuals etc. https://cppispublications.wordpress.com November 2014. Videos uploaded: 06 

डॉ. भीमराव अम्बेडकर जी का महापररनिवााण किवस श्रद्ाांजली समारोह :December 6,

   

2014 28th National Conference of Council for Teacher Education, December 2014. Prof. Himmat Singh Sinha on Swami Brahmanand , December 2014. A History of Western Philosophy by the Students , November 2014. Indian Philosophy by Students of Dept of Philosophy , November 2014. Videos can be watch at: https://www.youtube.com/user/cppismedia

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CONTRIBUTORS OF THIS ISSUE

 Dr. Geeta Manaktala, Professor (Retd.), Department of Philosophy, Panjab University, Chandigarh.  Dr. John Daniel, Director, Saroj Institute of Management and Technology, Lucknow-Sultanpur Road, Lucknow.  Dr.Purva

Mishra,Assistant

Professor,Department

Public

Administration, University School of Open Learning, Panjab University, Chandigarh.  Dr. S. Deepa, Lecturer in Commerce, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem.  Dr. S. Srinivasa Rao, Lecturer, Department of Management Studies, Sree Kasyap Degree College, Visakhapatnam.

http://milestonereview.webs.com

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http://milestonereview.webs.com