ScooNews-June 2017-Digital Edition by ScooNews

Volume 1

Issue 11

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think

June 2017 IGNITING MINDS

Margaret Mead

STRAIGHT TALK

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED by Ravi Santlani on behalf of EduPulse Media Pvt. Ltd

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Nichola Pais

A teacher and so much more…

hat good are chocolates to a person who is thirsty?” This insight by one of the teacher warriors in our cover story sums up the true and varied nature of education, far beyond the conventional three Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic) imparted in a traditional classroom. Free and compulsory education is a fundamental right for children aged 6-14. Yet the reality is that universal access to elementary education is a distant dream for lakhs of India’s disadvantaged children. According to CREATE – Consortium for Research on Education, Access, Transitions, and Equity - scores of children living in remote habitations in rural areas are invariably unable to participate, the situation being even more challenging for girls and the disabled. The situation is graver still for the poorest of the poor, living on the fringes of society, who are simply not part of the scheme of things. While educating girls continues to be seen as unnecessary by many, and they are weighed down by domestic chores, boys are often withdrawn from the schooling system due to economic reasons. First generation learners generally live in environments which do not nurture education, while malnutrition and illness along with a deficiency of healthcare facilities further reduces the numbers. Many schools lack adequate infrastructure, facilities and resources, with teachers largely untrained and the curricula often irrelevant. Children invariably learn little and drop out of the system altogether. Does anyone care? The answer is a resounding yes! Transforming the bleakness of this arid desert is a band of individuals, toiling selflessly to create little oases of learning and love. They are teachers yes, but warriors even more, battling social stratification, apathy, lack of funds and a host of other issues, to give that one fighting chance to kids who need it the most. Their methods are unconventional, their functions much more than those expected from a regular teacher, their rewards even more satisfying and their joy, absolutely infectious. Teacher warriors, may victory always be yours!

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED by Ravi Santlani on behalf of EduPulse Media Pvt Ltd PRINTED AT Jaipur Printers Pvt Ltd, MI Road, Jaipur 302001, Rajasthan, India and PUBLISHED AT EduPulse Media Pvt Ltd, J-3, Jhalana Institutional Area, Second Floor, Jaipur 302004 India Published for the month of June 2017 Total number of pages 76, including Covers

FIND US ON

June 2017

CONTENTS

26 COVER

Teacher Warriors: Triggering Change

MUSINGS: SIX REASONS TO EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

It is rightly said that it is the disadvantaged who need the best teachers. Though the latter may be few, there is simply no denying that their quality is exceptional! These outstanding individuals have taken learning out of the classrooms of...

62 Feature Story: Why Teachers in India Would Love to Work in Luxembourg!

OPINION : Learning In Another Time

TECH IT OUT: How teachers should be using Linked in

June 2017

From developing multiple intelligence platforms to time efficiency, Amit Yadav, Founder, Kidstriangle and Rishi Kapal, CEO & Global Strategist, Edugild, make a case for optimizing technology in the 21st century classroom

54 TECH FOCUS ERP IN EDUCATION Time is of the essence and advancement of technology is only enhancing the systems in education

YOURS TRULY SINGLE BOARD, BAD IDEA! I read your editorial on the need to create single school board in India. I quite disagree with you. I was also of the same opinion earlier but I have changed my opinion now. Here’s why… 1. India is a diverse country and the states can make their own structures regarding education. I witnessed this on a visit to remote parts of Himachal Pradesh. I saw a school with 20 students with two teachers. If one were to adhere to CBSE standards that school could have never existed! Central government does not, at times, understand this point and is very Delhicentric in nature. 2. CBSE and ICSE compliances are so onerous at times which results in high fee structures today. Moreover both the boards are managed by bureaucracy today and are not responsive to the changing needs of schools today. 3. Do we want to create a situation where one person will decide the future of school education system in our country? Just look at the seesaw changes in CBSE

regulations. Where I agree with you is that the MHRD should create learning levels and rubrics for each level - already done so by them. However, the problems lie in the fact that SCERT are not responsive to these parameters and changes and there is a huge time lag between NCERT and SCERT. State boards are already losing a lot because of the fact that all central exams like IIT are based on NCERT guidelines.

Katha, to Tin Tin, and many more such comics. How times have changed! As children we looked forward to reading books; these days children are so occupied with gadgets that they have forgotten to pick up a book. They are so far away from the sheer pleasure of reading. The article on comics brought back so many beautiful memories. My advice to this generation is please read more – it’s good for you in every way! Sonali Fernandes, Panjim

Robin Aggarwal, Director, Learning Path School, Chandigarh

DQ ROCKS!

BOARD-WISE

Just received the May issue in our school library. I must commend you and your team on the excellent content coverage the magazine provides. The story on the education boards in India was really informative. It is only through ScooNews that I came to know of the concept of DQ or digital intelligence. Keep doing the good work! Tarun Bahl, Jalandhar

In today’s times it is so difficult to choose an education board for your child. Very few parents have the knowledge of actually how many boards exist. Every parent’s expectation from a school is different; therefore it is inevitable that we know the options available. I simply loved the article on the education boards in India. So informative and useful! Usha Singh, Jaipur

GET BOOKED! Being an avid reader, we grew up reading Tinkle and Amar Chitra

UNUSUAL CAREERS As a student, I suggest that the student-focused articles on career options like law, medicine and others must be a regular feature in the ScooNews magazine. I also suggest that you include non-conventional career options related guidance in your magazine. This month’s article on law as an option was informative and the just thing I was looking for. It will help me a lot in starting my search on how to get started. Mukesh Raina, Meerut

WELL-DONE! In this age of mobiles and gadgets, it is interesting to see the amount of work being put in by the ScooNews team in creating this interesting magazine. Kudos! Ashok Shrimali, Bengaluru

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June 2017

Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts and samples before recycling

TRENDING

South Asia high schools mission visits Australia Organised by the Australian Trade & Investment Commission, Australian Government and co-hosted by Study Perth, Study Queensland & Study NT, a 15-member schools delegation from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh comprising of Directors, Principals and Heads of International Baccalaureate Organisations (IBO) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) accredited international schools are visiting Australia. The participants will enjoy a

first-hand perspective of Australian Universities and the Australian Education System. The Mission will provide an opportunity for international schools in South Asia to establish relationships with Australian universities to explore study programs i.e. summer/winter schools with Australian Universities, explore opportunities for incorporation of Australian teaching methodologies and curriculum in international schools in South Asia, and learn about emerging career options and the contemporary educational programs offered in Australia.

Messi Foundation helps 1600 Syrian children

Mothers know best! UP Basic Education Minister Anupma Jaiswal said that due to the recent complaints regarding the mid-day meals being served at state primary schools not being hygienic and nutritious, the state has come up with a “Maa” in every school. This would comprise a six-member committee of mothers of students from that school. These Maas would supervise every minute detail related to the preparation of the food for the school. The State government is also bringing about a change in the uniforms of these schools from the regular ‘khaki’. Also a ‘no bag day’ will be introduced on Saturdays where kids come minus bags and can bond with their teachers over creative activities. The chief minister is said to be keen on rolling out the BJP’s promise to provide free books, uniform, shoes and school bags to all poor students from July 1 to 10.

Messi continues to sparkle – on field and off it! A generous donation from the Leo Messi Foundation has helped UNICEF install 20 new prefabricated classrooms in Tartus, Syria, and rural areas of Damascus. This enables more than 1,600 Syrian children affected by the conflict to attend school with fully furnished classrooms. Due to the fighting, more than 60 per cent of

children attending these schools have been displaced from their homes. Says UNICEF, “School provides children affected by war with a routine, structure, and a sense of normality in a situation that is far from normal.” Over seven years, the Leo Messi Foundation has supported UNICEF’s work for children in countries including Haiti and Nepal, among others.

June 2017

TRENDING

Gandhi’s school to become museum The Gujarat education department plans to shut down the 164-year-old school where Mahatma Gandhi received his secondary education. They plan to invest Rs.10 crore to open a museum that will showcase the life and times of Gandhiji, Sardar Patel and other prominent personalities. It is reported that students have not been performing well in board exams for a decade now and enrolment has dipped. Around 150 students have moved to Karansinhji High School, a state school nearby after the government resolution to close the school last August. The school was earlier known as the Alfred High School (in the memory of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh) and was built by the Nawab of the erstwhile Junagadh state in 1875.

Retired teacher receives honorary degree at age 98 Freda Smith from Ipswich, England, was one of 2,100 recipients of the awards from the University of Roehampton. She had to complete three years of study to attain a Bachelor of Education degree. Mrs Smith completed two years but she did not have funds to complete the third year. Since then, she worked as a teacher for 44 years taking just 19 days of sick leave in the entire term that she worked! “I must admit, I do consider it to be an honour,” she said. “When I apply for my next job, I shall be able to say Freda Smith, BEd (Bachelor of Education).”

Delhi HC issues notice re NCERT only textbooks

June 2017

UNICEF welcomes release of 80 abducted girls

The release of more than 80 girl students, who had been abducted by Boko Haram insurgents at their school in Chibok over three years ago, has been welcomed by the UNICEF. The road to normalcy will be difficult after the indescribable horror and trauma they have suffered. UNICEF has pledged support to the Nigerian authorities to provide comprehensive psychosocial support and other specialized services, while helping reunite the girls with their families and ensuring they can continue their education in a safe environment. Staff at a UNICEF supported health clinic have been supporting immediate efforts to identify the girls and conduct medical check-ups before their onward transport.

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and sought their replies on the petition seeking quashing of a CBSE circular allegedly forcing schools to prescribe text books printed by printers empanelled with the NCERT only. The plea has been filed by Independent Schools Federation of India. The plea alleges that certain printers in the panel of NCERT are attempting to create a monopoly in matters of publication of books. The petition filed says this would "jeopardise innovation" in the creation of textbooks, among other issues.

MP Edu minister blames parents for student suicides Within hours of declaring the class X and XII Madhya Pradesh board examination results, 12 students committed suicide. MP Education Minister Vijay Shah blamed the parents for the tragedy saying that students are unnecessarily pressured to perform. He said that his department had taken steps like introducing the Ruk Jana Nahi scheme to curb student suicides. They had also made it mandatory for every school to have a counsellor appointed. Despite these steps, students are taking the extreme step post result announcement. “Children always live under pressure to meet parents' expectations. They are either told to secure more than 90% or become a doctor, engineer. It is parents, who push their kids to extreme limits,” Shah stressed.

Haryana schoolgirls’ Gandhian protest to upgrade school A group of 86 village girls staged a Gandhian protest against the government to upgrade their school to class XII. Haryana Education minister Ram Bilas Sharma gave in to the protest and agreed to upgrade the Government High School at village Gothda Thappa from class X to class XII. Haryana has the lowest child sex ratio in the country and girls fear harassment if compelled to go to the next village for higher studies. This justified their demand for upgradation of their school.

Bunnies–Foe or Friend?

Cranborne Middle School in Dorset is facing an unusual problem from rabbits. These furry creatures have been creating havoc on the school’s field by digging holes. Attempts have been made to close these holes but more holes spring up faster than they can be covered. To control the population of these creatures’ ferrets, gas and guns have been used but in vain. These holes have been known to injure children as a result of them tripping. The school has now banned kids from playing on the field to curb students from getting seriously injured. All sports and after-school club activities have been moved to other playgrounds and into the gym. They hope to have their field back by their new school year.

School of travellers The Crays Hill is a school like no other situated at the edge of an Essex village. Ninety eight percent of the students are from a travelling community called Dale Farms, which became Europe’s largest traveller site. Dale Farms have illegally built homes and have had 80 families evicted from it which created a high anxiety situation for the school community. Many students had to be pulled out of the schools due to this situation. Children were affected by this and the school tried its best to run a normal school and ensure that the kids had some firm ground beneath their feet. Due to the falling number of pupils in the school, 10 members of the governing bodies also quit. Children from settled communities in the area also left. The population of the school is now divided into three: foundation and year ones, year twos, threes and fours and then a final class grouping of years five and six. This distillation of the population leaves an eerie silence hanging over the unused rooms of the school, which was built, in the early 20th century, to house more than 150 pupils. The school day starts with early-morning activities, such as reading or doing jig-

saws and, once the actual school day starts, pupils do 15 minutes of focused reading followed by 15 minutes of handwriting. For the rest of the morning, children then move into other groups, sorted not by age but by reading ability. It means pupils get more relevant teaching. The school has been deemed as a good school and Malcolm Buckley, the former leader of Basildon Council and who currently serves as a county councillor for the area, wants families from the settled community to see what Crays Hill has to offer and increase the number of pupils in the school.

June 2017

MUSINGS

SIX REASONS TO EMBRACE

TECHNOLOGY

IN THE CLASSROOM From developing multiple intelligence platforms to time efficiency, Amit Yadav, Founder, Kidstriangle and Rishi Kapal, CEO & Global Strategist, Edugild, make a case for optimizing technology in the 21st century classroom

June 2017

MUSINGS Amit Yadav and Rishi Kapal writeback@scoonews.com

echnology is enabling the creation of personalized learning environments that will eventually replace the traditional classrooms. Edtech (education technology) is one need-

ed right step in this direction. Edtech has evolved from providing online learning material, information sharing and collaboration to the next level of personalization using innovative and adaptive teaching strategies. Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students have unprecedented technological literacy. They

Personalized Learning Every student is unique in terms of his/her strength, learning style, and their day to day environment. Smart assessments continuously evaluate student performance and cater teaching strategies and material as per their needs. Students have access to interactive videos, updated textbooks, on-demand classrooms, customized learning modules, access to top-quality lessons and content from some of the best universities in the world, and all of this â&#x20AC;&#x201C; available and accessible via todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smart phones. Many startups offer tuition to school-goers. They help them in cracking entrance exams. On the other hand, a number of startups help aspiring professionals and entrepreneurs with their professional certification courses.

June 2017

are eager to embrace the use of various edtech platforms in the classroom. Teachers are more able to understand students. They can provide them more customized instruction. Schools should adopt edtech because it makes teaching easier and encourages students to be more engaged with lessons.

Higher success rate Students become smart learners and can track their mistakes, thus ensuring mistakes are avoided. According to recent digital survey conducted by Mc Graw Hill, 75% students found technology helpful in preparing for class and nearly 80% felt adaptive technology has helped in improving their grades. Learning through technology is necessary in every facet of society because of the shift in worldwide computer usage and the need for computer skills in the workforce. Equipping students with the caliber to become successful and knowledgeable professionals is at the core of a teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job. Modern teachers are now familiar with technology. Classrooms are also becoming paperless and technologically equipped. Due to many benefits of edtech, teachers should welcome its usage with open arms. Schools districts and school boards need to prioritize funding for edtech and computer devices for every student. Hence it is important to epitomize technology.

Time efficiency

Students get the liberty to study and understand concepts at their own pace giving them adequate time to learn. Knowledge sharing and collaboration using technology platform has further helped students to get their questions and doubts answered quickly. Teachers can easily distribute their work with others when uploading lessons is as simple as the click of a button. Edtech is also self-checking because it is paperless and gives students instant feedback on their work. There are timer and monitoring apps, organizational sources and editing services. You will better manage your time and increase both your and your traineeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s productivity. So many things can be learnt in a short time.

June 2017

MUSINGS There are several good reasons to embrace edtech in the classroomâ&#x20AC;Ś

Multiple intelligence platforms Technology identifies and reaches more learners than any other kind of tool available in the classroom, and allows for a dynamic learning experience that directly benefits students. It can increase many kinds of intelligence in students like verbal-linguistic intelligence, verbal-logical intelligence, musical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence etc. and is hence very useful.

Boost student motivation It makes learning more engaging and students are motivated to

learn more. Modern students are extremely tech savvy. They prefer internet and smart devices for their learning. The students and skill-seekers want to go beyond the

June 2017

limitations of classrooms and improperly trained teachers. This is an excitement for them. It motivates them to learn many things in a shorter time.

Enhance the learning material Students can access the learning material virtually anytime. They can do this anywhere in their preferred format of audio/video/games etc. This has significantly increased effectiveness of teaching strategies and learning materials. With Edtech tools instructors can now use visual models that are built in a game-like setting to communicate information, while also constructing teamwork skills and analytical thinking. Incorporating Edtech tools will allow instructors to foster learning through complex thinking. The Edtech options help in storing information. It will make organizing your brain easier. Digital space savers will not only help

focus, they will also support you sharing and explaining any learning material. Designers should keep this in mind when constructing training materials. Sending and saving files digitally will boost the overall efficiency of the learning process. There are some products which solve the issues of engineers (students, graduates, professionals) who experience difficulty in effectively visualizing and conceptualizing complex engineering subject matters, like diagrams, schematics, drawings, laboratory experiments, technical site operations etc. Poor visualization leads to poor performance during examinations, job interviews, or when applying technical know-how in industry. Edtech generates core quality content that solves this problem. Edtech in the classroom â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the need of the moment!

June 2017

OPINION

June 2017

Learning In ANOTHER Time Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England, looks at the shape of things to come in the world of learning, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Prof. Sugata Mitra writeback@scoonews.com

hildren, given access to the Internet in groups, can learn anything by themselves. Indeed, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;learningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; itself may no longer be as important as it used to be.

I knew nothing of this when I did an experiment with children and a computer connected to the Internet embedded in a wall of a slum in New Delhi (1999). Children began to surf and teach each other to surf in about eight hours. There was nobody to show them anything. They learnt how to play games, paint and finally how to look for information. They learnt some crude but workable English to enable them to do all

June 2017

OPINION

this. We, admiring adults, were astounded. The Press called it the ‘hole in the wall’. We (my research colleagues and I), funded by the World Bank, ICICI bank and the Government of Delhi, repeated the experiment many times over in the slums and villages of India. The results were always the same – digital literacy out of nowhere. The children began to use the Internet for their homework. They copied down things from websites and took them to their astounded teachers. ‘This is not learning’, everyone admonished me. They, and I, had missed a vital point, a mistake that would cost me several years. The children were, almost always, copying the right things down. How did they find the websites that were relevant? How did they find the right answers? We continued with several years of experiments until it was clear that

children in groups do have an understanding that is much greater than that of each individual. It was this collective ‘hive’ mind that was working like an efficient teacher. I had seen nothing like this before and it took me years to realise that what we were witnessing at the ‘holes in the walls’ was an example of a selforganising system – where spontaneous order appears out of nowhere. I brought the results to England in 2006. There, with the help of a teacher, we created the hole in the wall inside the classroom. We called it a Self Organised Learning Environment (SOLE). It consisted of a mildly chaotic situation caused by a few Internet connections, and about a quarter of the number of children present. The children formed groups and milled around, much as they did in the Indian experiments. They began to answer questions years beyond their time. We admired them – they

June 2017

laughed and went still further. I made a ‘Granny Cloud’ for children in India, consisting of people who had the time and inclination to talk to children over Skype. Children who are in places where good teachers do not, or cannot, go. They don’t teach, they encourage the children to learn by themselves. In 2013, using the TED prize, I built seven experimental ‘Schools in the Cloud’. Five of them are in India ranging from the remote Sunderbans to urban, middle class Maharashtra. Two are in England inside urban, middle class schools. ‘Schools in the Cloud’ – spaces where SOLEs and the Granny Cloud come together. The results are not yet fully analysed but we do find significant improvements in English reading comprehension, conversation, selfconfidence and, of course, Internet usage and searching skills.

A ‘School in the Cloud’ is easier to make and maintain inside a regular school, rather than a standalone facility in the community. At least that is what I feel at the moment.

This has to happen. There is a generation that uses assistive technology, particularly the mobile tablet phone, all the time, except when they are in school. They learn continuously from these devices.

What is constant Internet exposure doing to children’s brains?

The teaching profession as we know it is obsolete because it caters to an examination system that was created to serve the needs of another time.

There is powerful resistance to these ideas. The resistance comes from an older generation with a subconscious desire to return to the 1920s, a time that they believe was the best the world ever had.

This is a question from the Dark Generation born before the Internet.

Most national curricula for children consist of outdated norms from the last century. These include excessive emphasis on spelling, grammar, cursive writing, multiplication tables and mental arithmetic. These skills were needed and valued in the last century, mostly for clerical work. The examination system requires learners to answer questions on paper, using handwriting. The learner must be alone and not in any communication with anyone. The learner must not use any assistive technology other than a pencil, and perhaps a ruler, namely, technology from the 18th century. In order to cater to the needs of such examination systems, teachers, good or bad, need to use teaching methods from 18th century consisting of rote learning, drill and practice and negative reinforcement.

The examination system is obsolete and so are the teachers that are forced to cater to it. Fortunately, teachers understand this. Since 2014, teachers in all five continents were making SOLEs in their schools. I have lost count of how many there are. Collectively, they are changing the nature of education. When automobiles took over from horse drawn carriages, the coachmen went away and the passengers became the drivers. Eventually, cars will drive themselves and ‘driving’ will become an obsolete skill. A child, 20 years from now, will ask, ‘What does ‘driving’ mean?’ When the Internet takes over from ‘taught’ schools, the learners become their own teachers. But only for a while, until the immense network drives all learning and makes ‘learning’ itself obsolete.

After the school years, when the erstwhile learner enters the real world, he is expected to solve problems using the Internet, to collaborate with others while solving problems, to type rather than write by hand, to use calculators and not their minds to calculate, to use spell checkers and grammar checkers while typing, and so on.

A child, 20 years from now, may well ask ‘What does ‘learning’ mean?’

In other words, the learner is asked to do the opposite of what he did in school.

Military-Industrial requirement from the age of empires. Centuries old.

The examination system needs to be changed to include collaborative problem solving using assistive technology. If this is done, teachers will be free to enable learning in newer ways. The easiest and cheapest way to cause global change in education is to change the examination system.

Requires identical people with identical skills.

The Future of Learning A summary of the work described above is as follows:

Schools as factories

Obedience and compliance are more important than curiosity, imagination and creativity. Purpose of schooling is to serve a ‘ruling class’.

The Internet is here and it’s not going to go away. Children will access it whether we want them to or not. The devices with which they will access the Internet will be so minimal, we will not be able to tell whether someone is accessing the Internet or not – in a few years. There was a time, less than 1000 years ago, when people thought books, paper, reading and writing were all expensive bad habits for children. Our current fears about the Internet are similar to the fears of those times. There is a generation that is growing up immersed in the Internet; they don’t know a world without it. The relationship is symbiotic – the Internet lives off them, they live off the Internet. If you think of a ‘human + smart phone’ as a composite creature, it knows just about everything. ‘Knowing’ is obsolete for this composite creature. What will that do to the human brain? I think it will liberate the brain from knowing all kinds of things just in case it ever needs them (this is what existing schooling does). Instead the brain will learn how to learn when there is a need to learn. How to learn fast, accurately and critically. ‘Just in time’ instead of ‘Just in case’. A brain that is liberated from ‘knowing’ and in a world where most things are done by machines will have the space to create. This is what the new generation will do – they will imagine and they will create. The ‘Ape that Knows’ (Homo Sapiens) will have the opportunity to transition to the ‘Ape that Creates’. We should applaud that transition.

June 2017

OPINION The Hole in the Wall to the School in the Cloud Children in unsupervised and self-organised groups can learn to use the Internet for their own purpose (1999-2005). They learn to search and find answers to questions they have. Such ‘hole in the wall’ environments can be created inside schools. They are called ‘Self Organised Learning Environments’ (SOLEs, 2006-2010). In SOLEs, children can learn almost anything by themselves. Their reading comprehension, searching skills and self-confidence seem to improve quickly. Search Engines are at the heart of this process. This process is helped by the presence of a friendly, but not necessarily knowledgeable, mediator. In remote areas, such mediators can be brought in using Internet video conferencing. The ‘Granny Cloud’ (2009). SOLEs augmented with the Granny Cloud form the so-called ‘School in the Cloud’. They can be built inside schools or in community settings.

The length of the school day needs to be reviewed.

The Future of Pedagogy

‘Schooling’ may be redesigned to last throughout life.

‘Spontaneous Order’ as an emergent process seems to be a new mechanism in children’s education, in the presence of the Internet. It is irrelevant to provide direct factual information, manually. Reading, writing and arithmetic are of newer and lower priority. The role of memory in education does not need emphasis, devices are playing that role. Encouragement can replace guidance. The teacher’s role is that of a friend, not a guide or a mentor or a facilitator.

The Future of Curriculum Curriculum needs to consist of the Big Questions of our time. Not a subset of what we know but driven by what we don’t know. All irrelevant knowledge and skills need to be removed. This will require careful thought about what is relevant. ‘Just in case’ skills and knowledge should be replaced by the skill of learning ‘just in time’.

The Future of Assessment Current assessment systems look for identical responses from learners. Open-ended questions cannot be asked in such assessment. We need a new assessment system that looks for imagination, creativity, critical thinking and the ability to learn quickly, when there is need to know. The emphasis needs to change from ‘What is the answer?’ to ‘How will you find the answer?’ Use of the Internet should be allowed during examinations. Fair evaluation of such a new assessment system is not possible by human examiners for large numbers of learners. More research on automated and contin-

uous evaluation of open-ended questions and tasks is needed.

The Internet must be a subject as important as science or mathematics. Networks, Chaos Theory and Emergent Phenomena should be introduced into schooling.

Schools and teachers should exist in physical and virtual environments. Not all teachers need to be human. We need to develop new methods of assessment and testing. It is proposed that a laboratory be set up for this purpose. The laboratory will design new assessment systems and, consequently, redesign the curriculum, pedagogy and school structure to fit the new assessment.

The Assessment Lab The objective of this laboratory will be to develop new and accurate assessment methods for the measurement of learning in children. The laboratory is expected to work with two different approaches. Cloud based assessment – where we will experiment with selforganised assessment systems, where peer review and multiple external judging will be used to evaluate learning. We expect to use methods similar to those for assessing Ph.D. theses, music creation, cooking and other such ‘open ended’ subjects. Robots for assessment – where we will design and build robots or bots to design and execute assessment in a minimally invasive manner. These bots are expected to learn how a child is progressing, much as concerned parents do.

Curriculum should be reviewed and updated every quarter. Hence, textbooks should be either eliminated or made electronic and continuously updated.

Neurobiological assessment – where we will experiment with the changes that happen in the brain when learning happens. Is it possible to look for reliable changes in the brain rather than the ability to reproduce memorised answers?

What are schools for and what should the new design be?

It is also expected that the laboratory will have one or more attached experimental schools.

Schools should enable people to live happy, productive and healthy lives.

The new methods need to be validated over thousands of children all over the world.

The duration (years) of schooling needs to be reviewed.

Someone has to build this lab, somewhere….

June 2017

JUST BLOGGING

Mithun Kamath

Are we PREPARING our young for the world of TOMORROW?

Mithun Kamath, CEO of Arc Skills, emphasizes the importance of implementing a combination of new age technical skills blended with socio emotional competencies, crucial for employability and success in the rapidly evolving Digital Age. Mithun Kamath writeback@scoonews.com

or a young person, the current times are the most exciting and challenging in human history. The world around them is disrupting and changing rapidly. The scale and pace is phenomenal. According to a recent EY report, the trends shaping our world are technology, globalization and demographics.

Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Quantum computing, the Internet of Everything are dramatically changing industries. Technology enabled advances in genomics, agriculture, aviation and transportation, ocean mining, deep space exploration, advertising, automobiles, medical technology etc. will spawn new industries creating new jobs requiring an entirely new set of skills. According to IATA, 3.6 billion people took a flight in 2016! This is almost half the people on the planet who travelled outside their base locations and discov-

June 2017

ered new things. World trade doubled from 2005 to 2015. Global citizenship is being adopted by many education systems as a key foundational pillar of learning. Never has our world been more integrated than it is today. Millennials have become a customer segment! Birth rates in India and Africa are creating a demographic dividend. Some of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Asia and Africa. While urbanization is increasingly rapidly, we are also witnessing massive migrations. The demographics of the world is undergoing tectonic shifts. The world is changing in fundamental ways. So what does the above have to do with our young today? Everything! 65% of the jobs of the future donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist today. In the hyper connected and integrated world of tomorrow, the ability to adapt, innovate and think critically will be crucial. Communicating ideas, speaking multiple languages, working collaboratively and solving problems will be the most important skills. This combina-

tion of new age technical skills blended with socio emotional competencies, are broadly defined as 21st century skills – crucial for employability and success in the rapidly evolving Digital Age. And these are the skills our young people need to thrive in the future. There has been increasing awareness amongst parents and students about the importance of these skills. In a recent survey conducted amongst 3040 parents on what children need to be employed in the future, confidence, communication, leadership, responsibility and problem solving were rated the highest. Of that number, 2427 students in the same survey entirely agreed. This is very encouraging. An increasing awareness and demand for inculcating 21st century skills will spur institutions to create provision. Recent years have also seen significant effort around the world in defining a new agenda for education. The World Economic Forum, OECD, Skills for Employment initiative, ILO, UNESCO etc. have published various reports outlining issues, frameworks and possible solutions. The sustainable development goals now emphasize quality of education besides attainment. Almost all the frameworks equally emphasize the importance of socio emotional learning. Some early studies, on the benefits of social emotional based learning, report excellent news. One breakthrough study found that upon implementing programs that focused on building social, emotional and character skills for one hour each week, Hawaiian elementary schools reported “fewer suspensions, lower absenteeism and better reading and math scores on standardized tests.” According to Oregon State University researcher Brian Flay, “these outcomes make sense, because improved social and character skills leave more time for teachers to teach, and students to learn and be more motivated.” A meta-analysis of 213 studies by the World Economic Forum showed that students who received socio emotional learning (SEL) instruction had achievement scores that averaged 11 percentile points higher than those who did not. SEL potentially leads to long term benefits such as higher rates of employment and educational attainment. As the benefits are getting reinforced, pedagogical methods of teaching these skills in scalable and cost effective ways are being explored. Recent innovations are integrating technology

Mithun Kamath is the CEO of Arc Skills, an international skills development organization. His twenty plus years of skills implementation experience spans 24 countries across four continents. He actively works with educators, businesses and governments to promote implementation of crucial skills for the digital age. A firm believer in integrating technology, pedagogy and contemporary skills, he has pioneered innovative ways of teaching skills to children and adults alike. with gamification and immersive learning. Gamification and immersion allow students to explore and get emotionally connected to learning. According to MIT, “Game players regularly exhibit persistence, risk taking, attention to detail, and problem solving, all behaviours that ideally would be regularly demonstrated in school”. Daphne Bavelier (professor at the University of Geneva, who studies cognitive neuroscience) gives a TED Talk on the effect of gaming on the brain, and she stresses that different games have different effects on the brain. Puzzles improve strategic thinking, problem solving, analysis and memory in gamers. Action games teach kids quick-thinking, accuracy, memory, and many other skills. It was even discovered that surgeons who play video games are faster and more accurate in surgeries. In fact, she states that gamers are four times quicker at making decisions and executing them! People who played action based games are reported to take decisions 25% faster without compromising accuracy and scored higher on standardized tests of creativity. Progressive schools and education regulators are encouraging activities to develop these skills. Efforts range from embedding them into curriculum to offering them as extracurricular programs. While we have started moving in the right direction, the pace of implementation is slow and sporadic. All our educational metrics still revolve around academic achievements. The pace is also hindered by sig-

nificant challenges, most important of them being curriculum and teacher training. Already overstressed students need to be taught such skills in an engaging and fun manner requiring significant innovations in curriculum, pedagogy and delivery. Teachers need to be trained in these skills and the pedagogy to deliver them. The scale of implementation is also staggering. For instance in India, just at the primary level, there are more than 1.4 million schools with 7.7 million teachers! Getting this implemented at such a wide scale requires enormous systemic “will”, resources and innovation. The solutions would lie in blending technology with innovative solutions. But implementation challenges cannot be allowed to be our “excuses”. Traditionally in India, academic achievement is emphasized and celebrated, sometimes at the cost of socio emotional development. The fact remains that these skills are absolutely crucial and need to be taught urgently. We also cannot be selective in teaching these skills. Every academic institution, irrespective of its resources, needs to teach these skills. Moreover, the consequences of not teaching these skills far outweigh the resources needed to teach them. So while there is direction and effort, we are not preparing our young for the future. We will need to pick the pace, create the will, find the resources and start! We owe it to our young…

June 2017

COVER STORY

Teacher Warriors: Triggering Change

Nichola Pais editor@scoonews.com

June 2017

Babar Ali

The youngest headmaster at age 16

In 2002, a 9-year-old boy travelled 10 kilometres every day from his humble home in Murshidabad, one of the most backward districts in West Bengal, to attend school. Ignited by his passion to learn and pass on what he had learnt in school, he would call in other children of the village to his home, gradually turning his backyard into an open air school of learning, of course, for free. At age 16, Babar Ali was declared the youngest headmaster in the world by BBC (British Broadcasting Company). His vision and dedication to educating children has earned him respect not only in his village but also across the world, where his biography has even been included in textbooks in some European countries. Today, with the help of funds from well-wishers across India, he has built a new school. Babar’s Ananda Siksha Niketan is a morning school that provides education to 300 underprivileged children and he has a hundred other children attending classes in the evening in his backyard.

At age 9, what inspired you to start teaching other children? I was attending a school which was 10 kilometres away from my home and I used to see children of my age playing around or working in homes or grazing cattle, but they did not even think of attending school. I told them that I could teach them what I learnt from school every day and that is how they started coming home to learn from me. It was not easy for me to convince them but I when I did, the results were brilliant. Today, I have children in the age group of 5 - 14 years coming to learn in my school. I strongly believe in Swami Vivekananda’s words - “Service to man is service to God”. Who inspired you to attend school and acquire education? My father is a jute trader and mother works at the anganwadi centre. Both of them supported me to go to school. In fact, my father was keen that I attain education. He wants me to do IAS but my mission is to educate as many children as I can. Could you share an experience that reinforces your belief in your mission? I started my school with eight children, of which six were girls. I can proudly say that all the girls have attained a Bachelor's degree and one even

achieved a first class. Today, all of them are teachers in my school, helping me fulfil my wish to provide good and free education to all. In the last 10 years, the number of children attaining primary and higher education in my village have increased manifold. Once, I even received a letter from some students in the US, encouraging me to continue my work! What are the challenges you face? We do not get enough support from the government to improve the state of our schools. We run solely with the support of well-wishers from across the country. The school in my backyard cannot function when it rains as we do not have a roof. Do you have any other ambitions you would like to fulfil and what would you like to be known as? My ambition is “Education for all” and I hope to spread my mission across the country. I did my MA in English and I’m now pursuing another MA in History. My first identity is that I’m “the teacher”. I’m also the headmaster and I have administrative duties but I take at least six classes every day. But I also want to be a student forever. Because when I’m a student, I can learn more and teach others. - Parvathy Jayakrishnan

June 2017

COVER STORY

17,000 ft. Foundation owes its name to the towering pass that Gurgaon-based founder Sujata Sahu, her husband and a friend had crossed on foot to reach Lingshed, Ladakh. The organisation owes its success to its unstinting efforts within existing ecosystems to improve and transform lives in the remote Himalayan villages. Their programs work to improve schools and education, while also providing income opportunities for the locals and involving the youth and communities to contribute to their villages in turn. The foundation has successfully geo-mapped 1000 remote village schools of Ladakh, via a technology program called MapMySchool, which connects them to the outside world, facilitating trekkers and travellers to get involved. The Yountan Project works at improving education in schools, sets up libraries, conducts periodic reading programs, improves infrastructure by setting up playgrounds, providing furniture, and also trains hundreds of teachers annually. Volutourist@17000ft enables outsiders to contribute to a remote school while on vacation.

June 2017

Sujata Sahu

Transforming lives of thousands of children in remote Ladakh

What was the trigger in your journey to starting 17,000 ft. Foundation? An outdoor person at heart and a diehard trekker, the trigger was a solo trek to Ladakh in June 2010. The trip turned out to be not just eventful, but also traumatic, as I undertook the trek without being able to acclimatize properly in the high altitude regions of Ladakh. Suffering from Pulmonary Edema, alone for my job as a teacher, finally convinced me that I had found the one place where the need was most and where I could contribute time and efforts to make a difference. Providing holistic education to severely disadvantaged children... how fulfilling has this project of passion been? I am extremely happy that we have been able to reach out to these children, who are extremely isolated and ignored and have absolutely no exposure to the outside world. To imagine that the terrain and geography can be a barrier between people is somehow unthinkable to me and I am glad that, through our efforts, more people are reaching out to these ignored villages. What are the challenges you continue to encounter in your work? I face the same challenges that every other non-profit faces, i.e. the challenge of trying to find a continuous source of funding to sustain our work. The other biggest challenge I face is

trying to devote enough time to my family in Gurgaon and the three offices in Gurgaon, Leh and Kargil. However, none of my challenges in any way stop me from doing my work and I find that being optimistic and continuing to have faith is what helps me continue along. There must be numerous heartening changes that 17,000 ft. has brought about in the lives of childrenâ&#x20AC;Ś There are so many that it is hard to list them all down. I will however, list a coupleâ&#x20AC;Ś A little school in a village called Tigger, in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh has a government school that we have been supporting for years. We have setup a library, trained its teachers and also setup a playground and provided furniture in their school. Prior to our intervention, students â&#x20AC;&#x201C; some even as young as four years - from this school had been going to a faraway private school, away from their parents, staying in hostels or dorms and managing on their own. After our continued support to this school, parents have pulled out their children from these faraway schools and brought them back to the government school, keeping them close to their families. Children do not want to go back home after school and stay late in school to play and have fun! A little village called Latoo in Kargil, Ladakh, is a village in the actual LoC,

and has been in the middle of the Indo-Pak war multiple times. Their villages have been torn apart; families split up across the border and even had to move bag and baggage during the bombings. 17000 ft. supported the school here a year and a half ago by providing them with a library and a playground and also trained their teachers. The entire village comes out to welcome our team each time we visit the village and have pledged extra support to keep their school running and performing well. Their teachers have been so motivated to run our Library Program that they conduct many activities, over and above what is required of them, resulting in some spectacular transformations in the reading levels of their children. What do you see as the role of parents in the education of their children and the degree of their involvement in the school setting? 17000 ft. has made it its mission to involve parents in each of its missions as we believe that they are equal stakeholders, and that the development of the school will not be possible without their active involvement. Parents of villages in Ladakh contribute to the growth of the school by contributing their time, skills and often even money and labour to ensure that their children get quality education and a holistic environment to learn in. - Nichola Pais

June 2017

COVER STORY

Play is more powerful than you could imagine. Project KHEL uses the concept of play in a range of progammes tailored for disadvantaged children. If KHELshaala creates a curiosity for learning among underprivileged children who are either out of school and illiterate, drop-outs or enrolled in schools but lacking proper academic guidance, Made in Maidaan harnesses the ‘Power of Play’ for development through modules designed to impart crucial Life Skills Education (LSE). Ab Bas! builds awareness about Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) which affects children of all age groups, genders and social backgrounds, while Red Spot empowers adolescent girls to understand and revalue menstruation as a clean and natural biological process. Play is so much more than just fun and games, the way Akshai Abraham sees it…

June 2017

Akshai Abraham

From classroom to the playground, imparting Life Skills Education through Play

Project KHEL has an interesting bedrock – Life Skills Education through Play. How did you develop this concept? My experience of living and working as an AIESEC in a highly-developed country – Austria, motivated me to rethink my career plans from IT to the social sector. I returned to India and pursued a sectoral MBA from IIFM, Bhopal with the aim of learning more about the sector. After seven years of work experience in the development sector in the areas of research, program development, project management and organization building, I decided to quit and start something I had wanted to for a long time - a grassroots organization that works with under-served children. The idea of Project KHEL itself is a result of my schooling and the impact sports and cocurriculars had on the development of peers and me - I wanted to bring this aspect of "education" to those who were denied or did not have access to this. I believe we learn much more from our interactions OUTSIDE the classroom than within those four walls - and the learning that we get outside the classroom is actually what we need and use throughout our lives - thus the concept of Life Skills Education through Play. How do you look at education for children ideally? I believe that the job of education is to

enable young minds to question and that of an educator is to teach a child ‘how’ to think and not ‘what’ to think. My vision for education for children is aligned on these terms. I would wish the education system were geared towards enabling children to perceive things fairly, question what they doubt, and build the capacity to take informed decisions. Project KHEL has touched the lives of over 12,000 children. The positive changes must gladden your heart… For me, it has been incredibly satisfying to see children responding to each other’s needs, by offering to help, by explaining complicated instructions to the ones who have not understood or simply by taking ownership of their entire group and keeping them all together to ensure the most fruitful outcome of the sessions we run. With the dying sense of community and a strongly individualistic thinking that a lot of children are brought up with, seeing the children channelize their energies to the larger benefit of their class as compared to the initial disruption they used to cause in similar situations makes me feel happy. The kind of changes we see with respect to gender sensitivity and empowerment is absolutely motivating and it is difficult

to describe the satisfaction one feels when we see a boy behave respectfully towards a girl, where formerly he would be derisive, or a girl, who was formerly shy and subdued, express herself both physically and verbally through her body language or participation in discussions. Project KHEL has conducted more than 2577hour long sessions. Does this mean people are now completely convinced of the concept of learning through play? The idea of education I promote through my work is often not taken seriously because we use the medium of play. The fact that play and physical activities in general are deeply impactful on a person’s character is often ignored. As a believer in my cause, my strongest weapon has been my unfailing belief in the power of play and the positive impact of the kind of education I want to promote. This forces me to be a good listener, so that I can analyse where the other person is coming from, and speak in a language that they understand best. This has brought me a fair amount of success in getting others’ buy in. The second way to conquer this has been my belief in putting my head down and working hard, in a way that my work speaks for itself. - Nichola Pais

June 2017

COVER STORY

Amitabh Mehrotra, a man who considered himself the ‘Chosen One’ for the cause of disability despite the challenges of having cerebral palsy. He did his Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (1987) and recently was awarded a PhD degree from the University of Lucknow in Applied Psychology on the topic ‘Inclusion of Challenged Persons in Rural Settings’. After completing his post-graduation and working for almost a decade with a corporate and an NGO, he started the School for Potential Advancement and Restoration of Confidence (SPARC)-India in 1996, a society dedicated to the rehabilitation of all kinds of disabilities in rural and urban areas of Lucknow, Barabanki and about 30 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

June 2017

Amitabh Mehrotra

Overcame the barriers of cerebral palsy to start a school for disabled children

What is your vision for the education for children? When I was in standard XI, I had an intuition that in my future I would start an education centre for children with cerebral palsy. SPARC-India established Jyoti Kiran School in 2003 which was initially for children with cerebral palsy but is now being converted into an inclusive school. The Right to Education Act also looks after inclusion of children with disabilities in the general schools. It is our vision to ensure that children with disabilities acquire education and employment thereafter leading to social inclusion and their overall growth. What are the challenges you continue to encounter? As an individual facing a struggle with cerebral palsy, I have developed adaptive measures and methods to solve these challenges. Writing is still a major challenge but fortunately I have a devoted volunteer and staff who help/ assist me in these difficult times. I am a God fearing individual, my parents are following a spiritual path and Sri Sri

Yoganand Ji and God have always been making divine interventions in my life which make complicated things easier for me. Do you have a role model whose work you were inspired by? It has been purely my own impairment and experiences that inspired me to establish this organisation to work on the issue of disability. There have been ups and downs but strong family support made me take courageous steps to leave no stone unturned, and lastly my own will power and determination made me work on this issue untiringly. Beloved Guruji and God have been the guiding force which has always supported us through divine interventions at time of need. What was your background in working with children before you started your project? When I go down memory lane I had experience working with children with mental impairment. After my Bachelors of Commerce in 1985 I was not sure what type of field I would be working in, in future. So I worked with Chetna,

an institution for mental impairment in Lucknow. This was the only experience other than my own childhood experiences which was my greatest teacher and made me sensitive and, many a time, emotional for this cause. What do you see as the role of parents in the education of their children and their degree of their involvement in the school setting? This is a very important area, as I had given credit to my beloved parents, siblings, friends and faculty who have given not only their support for education but have been quite sensitive to me. It is the role of parents/ family which is quite important without which a child cannot move forward. In my experience in the last 14 years of running SPARCIndiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jyoti Kiran School, I have found that the parentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement is the least in the school setting which is a major barrier which keeps the students deprived of education, inclusion in society and thus leads to a life with crises. I have observed that where the family gives required attention to the child/ children with disability, the results are amazing. - Anjana Deepak

June 2017

COVER STORY

When Faith Gonsalves decided to include music as an element to contribute to social upliftment of children from backward societies in India, she was sure to break the barriers of traditional learning methods to reach out to many. Demolishing the tradition of acquiring knowledge merely from books, Faith started her programme called Music Basti which uses music as a tool and vehicle of learning. The programme is intended to help develop life-skills and confidence for children from vulnerable backgrounds as they have poor access to quality education. Music Basti, in its initial years, was focused on leading enjoyable and creative community music projects in different parts of Delhi, primarily with rehabilitation and shelter homes. There is considerable evidence from around the world, on the impact and power of community music projects in bringing people together and promoting peace.

June 2017

Faith Gonsalves

Started a community-led approach to music education for social-upliftment of ‘at-risk’ children How was the initial response to Music Basti? The response was extremely positive. In its initial years, Music Basti’s programme was largely volunteer-driven through a series of shorter-term projects. We focused on creating learning and exposure opportunities for hundreds of atrisk children in institutionalized child care organizations. Through these projects, we gained insight into the aspirations and needs of the children we were working with, and we were made more aware of the need to become as childfocused in our programmes as possible. How did you come up with the idea of spreading music education to help children build skills and confidence? It stemmed from a desire to see transformation in education for children in India. There is no simple one-stop solution to the complex challenges we face in educational policy, school systems, content, pedagogy, curriculums or teachers. Today’s children need much more than to just be taught how to learn and remember facts. Students need content knowledge about language, math, science or civics, but equally they need learning and innovation skills or “lifeskills”, such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity for success. Research evidence has come a long way in showing that people who have more life skills enjoy a range of benefits including greater financial stability, less depression, low social isolation, better health and fewer chronic diseases. Evidence from across the world also strongly supports the role of music and arts learning to be a powerful and unique vehicle to foster these life-skills. Music is more than just about perform-

ing or entertaining. It builds practical, transferable and applicable skills in areas of school, work or social development. Every child has the ability and right to excel, if given the opportunities and encouragement. What kind of children come under the category of “at-risk”? We work primarily with a student demographic who are first generation learners, attending government schools or low-income private schools. Most of the students live in slum communities. They are at-risk to a range of issues affecting their physical, mental or emotional well-being; these may include abandonment by families or education. We already know the extremely poor statistics on students staying in school in India, as well as primary learning outcomes, and this demographic is particularly at risk to being failed by the system. Early interventions have the potential to dramatically and positively change the life trajectory of a child. Students’ interactions with their teachers have a profound impact on their longterm academic outcomes; in other words, great teachers cannot be underestimated. Children from lower socioeconomic groups are extremely disadvantaged in their access to quality learning and opportunities in and out of school, to learn, be encouraged and excel. The only thing separating them from their more affluent peers is opportunity. Why did you choose music over any other form of art? Responsible educators today cannot and should not be ignoring the evidence that music has shown across the world in supporting cognitive development, social and emotional skills learning and

academic excellence for children. There are clear connections we can see between long term music learning and group music learning programmes with developing motor skills, memory and recall, math and reading skills, as well as enhanced self-confidence and esteem, communication abilities, concentration and overall academic excellence. Is it your love for music as a child that inspired you to start Music Basti? I was very fortunate to grow up in a school and college environment that not just allowed arts learning, but actively promoted it and promoted learning through it. Singing in choirs, for example, allowed me to grow profoundly as an individual and a team player, about the importance of hard work and persistence, and also about creativity and leadership. What aspects does Music Basti focus on? The original song writing aspect of the programme and the general song-based pedagogical teaching serves many learning outcomes. These range from learning about different musical elements, cultures, genres. The programme content focuses on introducing the fundamentals of music including rhythm, pitch and singing, music appreciation and listening, and song-writing and performance. Interwoven into the programme are opportunities for students to perform outside their schools at events, festivals or concerts, and also Music Basti’s own public ReSound concert at the end of the year. We are developing teaching resources including curriculum frameworks, handbooks and instructional classroom videos to help teachers or musicians implement these practices into their own classrooms, wherever they may be. - Parvathy Jayakrishnan

June 2017

COVER STORY

Who would have thought of converting a bus into a computer lab for children from backward societies! Taking on the idea from Fr. Jose Churavelikudilil and implementing it to its full potential, Chitra Don Bosco director Fr. Maria Julian has his bus, fitted with laptops and enthusiastic children, doing the rounds in Chitradurga, imparting basic computer education since 2012. He is also into providing skill training for youth to empower them to do better.

June 2017

Fr Maria Julian

Imparting computer education to underprivileged children in a self-sustainable bus How did this rather unusual, yet successful idea occur to you? In this day of technology boom, I wanted to introduce computer education to children at a very young age. Children in backward districts do not even know what a computer is and it is hard for them to succeed in a world where computers are a bare necessity. I wanted them to get over their fear of computers and give them first-hand experience of computers - see, touch, feel and maybe do something on a computer and hence the project. How was the bus converted into a classroom on wheels? We had to remodel it to create a space similar to what you see in a computer centre. I got a carpenter and a welder to remove the seats and get desks in their place to place the computers. Initially, we thought of getting desktops, which was more popular at the time for being durable and easy to maintain. But we realised that keeping desktops stationary in a moving bus was almost impossible. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when I suggested that we could use laptops instead. They are specifically made for travel and they also have three to four hours of power back-up, which was exactly suited to our need! How do you source power to run the bus and the laptops? Our original idea was to use a battery that would hold power for 10-12 hours and, at the end of the day, the bus could

come back to our campus and we could charge the battery overnight so that we could use it the next day. But the battery alone would require an investment of Rs.2.5-Rs.3 lakh and again the charging would cost more money. Then we came up with an alternative and thought of using generators. But that would again mean someone had to start the generator and it would need fuel too, apart from the air and noise pollution that it would contribute to. So how did you solve this problem of sourcing power? I thought, why not make the bus solarpowered? Luckily, the same day that I came up with the idea, SELCO, a company dealing with solar panels came to visit me. I told them about my idea and they were ready to give it a shot. The process was simple. They fitted solar panels on the bus and set up batteries which would store the energy for future use. What challenges did you face to set up the first bus for education? We had to approach the RTO (Regional Transport Office) and get permission from them to set this up. Luckily, for us, they said that anyway a school bus is for education, be it transporting children to a school or teaching them in it. They gave us permission immediately. There were no major hitches for us. What age-group of children do you concentrate on imparting computer education? We teach children from 6-7 years up to

high-school. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve heard that the Azim Premji foundation is doing work for high-school children. So we stick to the younger children. How did you convince students and teachers to start learning inside a bus? That was very simple. This was a new idea and the teachers were very interested, especially because we were ready to go to them and they did not require any effort from their side. We got permission from the Department of Education on the condition that we would not disturb regular classes. What is your arrangement with schools currently? During school hours, on a rotation basis, we take a class of students and educate them in our bus completely for free. We mostly approach government schools as they are the ones who lack computers. Private schools have at least one computer for children. Today we have a similar project happening in Ramanagara district. How do you get funding for this project? We received good funding from the Kinder Mission Work, Germany. During Christmas, children go around from house to house singing carols. They are given chocolates or money from these houses. These children from Germany donated to us all the money they collected, in tune with the true spirit of Christmas! So a part of this project is a Christmas gift from children to children. - Parvathy Jayakrishnan

June 2017

COVER STORY

The Purkal Youth Development Society, Dehradun has come a long way. From starting off in 1998 as an informal free home tutoring facility for four students, it has grown into the PYDS Learning Academy, a full-fledged CBSE affiliated school for over 435 rural children, with infrastructure at par with the best. Combined with the Early Childhood Learning Centre, On To Life â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Post 12th Support, and numerous Community Development initiatives, PYDS has been fostering an unimaginable transformation in the lives of the poorest of the poor. At the core of this mission; the passionate, pioneering, indefatigable Founder-CEO, G K Swamyâ&#x20AC;Ś

June 2017

G K Swamy

Transforming the lives of underprivileged rural children through holistic education, nutrition and healthcare What is it that fuels your hope and motivation? The motto of the organization is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Life is for Givingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Consciously over the years I have been molding my life so that I live it well. To feel gratitude to the Great Source and to treat this gratitude in the form of a strong and regular commitment, is the reason for this Mission. Although aware of the challenges that the Mission implied, I believed that the Universe always responds. I am grateful for all that I have received. I have also sometimes felt helpless in the face of challenges that this effort implied. Prayer happens naturally in both these conditions. This prayer has transformed me and strengthened my resolve to do more. It has meant surrender to His Will and offering all that I have. What better motivation can one have beyond realizing that you are on the path pre-determined? Since it is His work, it is yielding results. This is enough motivation to continue. I shall continue with this one conviction that the future is His Will. Do you believe education is the responsibility of the community? I always believed that Saraswathy cannot be sold for a price; that it was the duty of the community to educate the children. I still believe this. There are many who are well endowed and they should all contribute, give their time and make it happen. It cannot be left to a money making institution called a school or to an impersonal government that seeks to deliver education through paid employees. All new expenses were accepted because there was a need and we have been able

to find donors for the purpose. We grew from nutrition to guaranteed medical aid and on to new hostels. We help children travel extensively. They all get adventure experience and very good learning. We have more challenges ahead as well and we shall meet them. Has sustainability been a concern at PYDS? Our sustainability is our donor population all of whom will help as long as there is honesty, accountability and transparency. The most important is the passion for the Mission. The program is not fragile since we have over 300 steady donors and this number is increasing. We have seven corporates and foundations just now and this number is steady and growing even though a few of them have dropped out after a few years of support. Others have come in. This exercise of finding donor corporations is not easy but we work with faith. Talking of sustainability, I often ask myself whether Tirupati Devasthanam or the Golden Temple would have discussed sustainability when they began many hundred years ago. They depended on faith. That is religion. We need to think of education also as a religion. Indeed the many who support us, do so because of their faith in the possibility of education. Although I do not know much about Oxford, Harvard or Yale, I understand that much of it was built out of charity. Do you dream big for the disadvantaged children you work with? Our vision for the disadvantaged children is to create leaders for change: individual, social and global.

Leadership is not the assertion of oneself; leadership is the art of fulfilling the aspirations of others. A leader for change in the social and global domain must first evolve oneself. We cannot change others; we can only bring a change in ourselves and be a role model. The change should be for the benefit of humanity and not merely personal. This can only happen if one can see and be a part of the bigger picture. We wish to witness the emergence of leaders from amongst the poorest young people in the community, preferably girls. Achieving laurels for the country, they should be leaders in academics, professions and trades: grounded in values and culture with a global outlook. Serving as catalysts of change the new hope instilled by them should encourage Purkal to become the model for change for rural agglomerates...To achieve excellence among rural children and make them capable of functioning as Change agents of the Community. Excellence is not mere achieving success in life but to serve as catalysts of change. Their personalities should encourage Purkal to become a model for other rural communities. The idea of providing holistic education as a means of realizing the potential of the individual is twofold: becoming human and being human. The effort is to prepare children for a normal productive life, to help them learn to observe the values of human and rise above the compulsions of the animal instinct in a man. - Nichola Pais

June 2017

COVER STORY

Mittal Patel

Works tirelessly to ensure children of Nomadic and De-notified Tribes get their right to education “Even after 69 years of Independence, they live a life of slaves – slaves of their fate, lost in desolation,” says Mittal Patel. With government authorities and bureaucrats largely unconcerned about the issues and maintaining a calculated distance from these communities, their basic rights have been blatantly disregarded for too long, their very existence denied. But not any longer…Under the umbrella of Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch (VSSM), Mittal and her committed team strive to give social identity, citizen’s rights, education, health facilities, housing and livelihood options to the various communities of Nomadic Tribes and De-Notified Tribes (NT-DNTs). VSSM has reached out to more than 30,000 families from more than 1000 settlements in 18 districts. They work with 40 different communities from NT-DNTs. Their work has borne fruit in the barren, poverty-stricken world of the once-nameless, faceless nomads. Over the years, more than 5000 families were helped to make ration cards, 70,000 individuals acquired voter ID cards, residential plots were allotted to 1000 families, construction of houses for 300 families was supported, vocational training was provided to 396 individuals and more than 1150 interest-free loans were given to start businesses or for other requirements. More hearteningly, VSSM has educated large numbers of nomad children – more than 300 children currently stay in two hostels run by the organisation.

What, in a nutshell, is your mission at Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch (VSSM)? Our mission at VSSM is to enable the communities of nomadic and de-notified tribes attain and lead a life of dignity. We want to ensure that all the children from NT-DNTs enjoy their fundamental Right to Education. We work to enable these communities to avail of their fundamental rights and entitlements. Facilitating the creation of alternate employment opportunities in lieu of the traditional occupations that have been rendered obsolete with time, is what we strive to do. Our objective is to ensure that the NT-DNTs acquire a roof, a place to settle and get an address of their own. How does VSSM go about educating the disadvantaged children of these communities? We have a two-pronged approach: Bridge School: The experience of working with these communities made me realise that the literacy level in Nomadic and De-Notified Tribes Communities is very low. Thus, a greater emphasis on orientation of children toward education is necessary to realise our goal as an organisation. Primarily, we run Bridge Schools within their settlements where children are introduced to the current education system. Once the children are prepared, we enrol them in regular schools. Hostels: Once the children are ready to be enrolled and their parents are adequately sensitised, the children are brought to VSSM run hostels where their future can be properly moulded

June 2017

for future challenges. The aim of hostels is to provide a conducive, educationfriendly environment. All these efforts are destined to realise the mission of making these children an example for others from the community that only literacy can resolve the long impounding drudgery they have been enduring. The challenges must be many… The biggest challenge was sensitising the parents of these children to the importance of education. The main reason being, these communities never had any exposure to the present trends. Neither had they felt the necessity of education, as these children do not have an academics-friendly home environment. Due to absence of literacy, sometimes it becomes troublesome to convince them even for silly matters while some complicated matters, which we feel would demand much effort, require no effort! This uncertain behaviour within all these communities requires us to plan our efforts and interventions coherently. On other hand, the political and social apathy towards these communities plays a role of fuel to the fire. Society in general, does not carry a healthy and empathising opinion towards them while large section of society, bureaucrats, and government authorities carry a negative approach towards most of them. Our major efforts are wasted in convincing them to extend a hand of amity… but largely in vain. - Nichola Pais

Gazi Jalaluddin

Forced to quit school, driving a taxi, he works hard to give poor children an opportunity to attend school…

The ride so far has been pretty rough for taxi driver Gazi Jalaluddin of Kolkata. A class topper who loved going to school, he was forced to give up education at the young age of 7 because his family could not afford it. This little boy was determined to give other children from underprivileged homes what he was not lucky enough to receive. From pulling rickshaws and tailoring to running a driving school, Gazi Saheb, as he is fondly known in Thakurchauk village in Joynagar in West Bengal’s Sunderban area, runs two schools and an orphanage, solely from donations received from his passengers and well-wishers. Today he drives a yellow Ambassador with these words written on it - “This taxi total income spent on Orfan’s mission, Sakhiyathan mission and IIFP School. So kindly don’t give any traffic case against this taxi. Thank you, taxi driver Gazi Jalaluddin.” You can’t help but smile at that spirit!

What did you do after being forced to drop out of school in second grade? I started pulling rickshaws to make money. Years later, I started the Sundarban Driving Samiti, a driving school, where I would bring in boys from my village to Kolkata and teach them driving for free so that they could make a living. We have 400-500 people from Joynagar who are successfully driving taxis in Kolkata. How did you start your first school? In 1987, I decided to convert our half acre of ancestral land with a two-room house into a school. We would stay in one room and the other room was the classroom. I started talking to my passengers for help and some were kind enough to provide books, money, clothes and even medicines. We started with 22 children and two teachers. Every year, we try making a new room to accommodate more children. In 2006, we had 12 classrooms and nine teachers and we could provide mid-day meals without any support from the government. Today, we have grown to become a school with 21 teachers teaching 425 students and three workers. Parents from very low income groups have an additional incentive to send their chil-

dren because we give them a free meal every day. Has the government provided you any support to continue your mission? I have approached ministers for the same but they just send us back to the panchayats. The party workers do not take us seriously either. It is very hard to gain access to the right people and convince them too. I feel it is just a waste of time and energy. I realise that it is easier to talk to passengers and convince them. What more do you plan to do to ensure children get education in your village? My biggest challenge today is lack of help. Both my sons help me fulfill my mission but I want to inspire more people to work for the cause of education. Especially in backward villages like ours, I want people to realise the importance of education and how it can help them lead better lives. What inspired you to start an orphanage? I realised that some children who wanted to attend my school were orphans. I started the orphanage to give them a home and support their education so that they could lead good lives. - Parvathy Jayakrishnan

June 2017

COVER STORY

Living to love, the Kung Fu Nuns put their prayers into deeds. More likely to be spotted in athletic gear than monastic robes, they plunge into their mission of building and educating from the ground.

June 2017

The Kung Fu Nuns

Helping hands, healing hearts in the Himalayas What drives the Kung Fu Nuns? We began learning Kung Fu several years ago, at the encouragement of the spiritual leader of our Buddhist lineage, His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa. Our tradition of Drukpa Buddhism believes strongly in gender equality, and we also do rituals and spiritual practices that have commonly been restricted to male monks. We believe by promoting the role of women and young girls, we are returning to our original roots. Many Buddhist saints and celebrated figures are actually women. On top of that, Kung Fu also began in India with the Buddhist master, Bodhidharma. So for many reasons, Kung Fu seemed like a great way for us to connect to our core values, and where we come from. Also, we believe so strongly in educating others by example, not just talking. We love to lead to by example. By mastering Kung Fu, we can show communities that girls and women can do anything. That we can be physically strong, take leadership positions, and defend ourselves in the face of danger. For much of the Himalayas, this is a very important and urgent message for the safety and livelihood of young girls. We focus mainly on environmental awareness campaigns, women’s health, clean water and water rights, heritage preservation, and speaking out against human trafficking. How do you work to bring change in the lives of disadvantaged children? We use creative ways to reach the new generation in the Himalayas. Since we believe in reaching traditional, nomadic communities as well as the fixed-location villages, we have launched several educational efforts that have never before been done. One is the Eco Pad Yatra. We trek off-road annually, often on routes longer than 650 miles, to do environmental and ecological education programs for each community along the way.

Recently, we began doing Bicycle Yatras, to reach an even larger geographical area. The Bicycle Yatra of 2016 covered over 5,000 km, and we rode from Kathmandu, Nepal to Leh Ladakh and back again. This allowed us to stop village to village and give our talks on sustainability and gender equality, do Kung Fu demonstrations, and interact with people of different religious faiths. These events have had a large impact in these regions, where people do not always have access to modern communications. How has the response been? The results have been so inspiring. In the wake of our educational programs, many positive things have happened. Locals have organized with our partners to break a Guinness World Record for tree planting – 100,000 trees were planted in 33 minutes, and tens of thousands from across Ladakh joined for the effort. Use of plastics has also greatly diminished, and we are now training others in monitoring the quality of water in the major rivers. Environmental preservation is especially important in the Himalayas, because its glacial melt provides fresh water to nearly a third of the world’s population. We also collaborate closely with the award-winning Druk Padma Karpo School (aka ‘Rancho’s School’ from the film THREE IDIOTS) in Ladakh, India. It was also founded by His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, and has become a model for sustainable architecture and for providing a competitive modern education while maintaining traditional values. What is your vision for the education of the disadvantaged children you work with? In order to be properly educated, basic human needs must be met. That is why we organize and run regular health clinics (free of charge), do extensive relief aid work in disaster zones, and provide food and shelter for those in need. The Kung Fu Nuns take turns training in

these special skills, and in collaboration with doctors, we now run dental clinics, women’s health clinics, and our wellknown ‘Live to Love Eye Camps’, where cataracts surgeries are provided free of change. We do at least one of these each year, serving hundreds at a time. Many times, young children who dropped out of school from blindness come, and their sight is restored. For us, helping disenfranchised children survive is the first step to ensuring equal opportunity in education and in society. The changes your mission has brought about are inspiring… As a result of our efforts, there have been several wonderful advancements in gender equality in the Himalayas. After the Nepal earthquakes, we were some of the first on-ground relief workers, delivering food, medicine, and shelter supplies to landslide-prone regions neglected by other NGOs. We organized a helicopter rescue mission, and travelled on foot to places no one else could reach. For the two years after the earthquake, we helped to rebuild over 200 homes and several community halls for villagers whose houses collapsed. Some of the halls are being used as schools and classrooms, as well. Now, it is so rewarding to see their lives slowly rebuilding. Hope is there. Most importantly, we are so happy that the way people view religious women is changing because of us. We don’t just sit and pray… Yes, that is important, too. In fact we are all very well-trained in meditation and ritual practices. But also, we help to heal, build, and educate from the ground. We go in person, and we help people face to face. Now all these communities are starting to respect women more. The final result of this is giving young girls a sense of possibility - that they can also do anything, if their heart is in the right place. - Nichola Pais

June 2017

COVER STORY

A young girl from a small town Nagore in Rajasthan, born and brought up in a conservative Rajput family in Jaipur, had big dreams to help underprivileged children. Witnessing how chains of orthodoxy and pointless rituals restrict an individual from doing what he/she CAN do, hearing that a girl should not get educated beyond school as it can â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;spoilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; her or will make it difficult for the family to find a groom for her in the community... These things always bothered her. She often spoke to her father about these issues but her questions went unanswered. Teaching children from the slums during her college days is when she realised that if there was anything that could bring about the transformation in the mind-set of people, it was only education.

June 2017

Mrinalika Rathore

Changing societal mind-sets and empowering children to speak up, analyse, dream, grow

What was your motivation to start your educational project Sashaktikaran? In my second year of college, I joined a small student run community project called Chehel. At Chehel we taught students from a slum called Zamrudpur, near our college. And this is where I got all my answers. This is where I realized that if there was anything that could bring about the transformation in mind-sets, it was only one thing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and that is only and only education. I joined Teach for India as a fellow in a government school for two years (one of the best decisions I ever took!) and during my fellowship I came across some brilliant teachers, children and beautiful people. I want every child who is growing up to feel empowered to dream and speak up the way I could! And that is why Sashaktikaranâ&#x20AC;Ś because education empowers like it empowered me and so many of us. What is your vision for education for children? My vision is an education that empowers our children to make a well informed choice in their life, to do what their heart says, to speak up without any fear or inhibition and, most importantly, to analyse themselves and strive to become better human beings for something bigger than their own selves.

In the course of your work, what are the challenges you continue to encounter? Some of the challenges I continue to encounter are subtle opposition from people around me, finding the right set of people to work with, building investment in all the stakeholders from school to community and, last but not the least, personal conflicts of not being able to do my best every single day. What are the positive changes you feel happy to have brought about through your work? Firstly, the change in my own home! My father was one of the strongest critics of the work I did and did not support a lot of exposure for girls in the family but now the change that I see in his mind-set is incredible. Secondly, there is the change in the children whom I have worked with. I see them expressing gratitude for little things, taking responsibility for their own learning, and working hard for their dreams. Thirdly, I see the change in people. All the people I have worked with or have been connected with have been impacted by my work in some way or the other. Do you feel there is more that the government needs to do? I feel the government really needs to

collaborate more with other private and non-profit stakeholders and use their learning to improve the current system. At the same time, awareness regarding policies like RTE is really low. Just creating policies wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help if people are not well informed and the execution is not happening efficiently. What reinforces your belief in your mission? My mission is to transform learning in schools through transformational teachers. To provide an empowering education, a teacher plays the most crucial role. I have seen my own children transforming through my work. There is no other experience that reinforces my belief in this mission. What do you see as the role of parents in the education of their children and the degree of their involvement in the school setting? Parents are the biggest teachers of children. I think 80% of what the child is and how he behaves comes from his/her parents. Parents need to be facilitators who ensure that their child wants to learn and provide him/her a supportive atmosphere to help him/her grow. I think as much as school administration, teachers and students are a part of the decision making process in school, parents are equal stakeholders. - Anjana Deepak

June 2017

COVER STORY

“Our problem is we question things a lot. There is no need to question if you are doing good!” This sums up Navin Gulia’s simple guiding belief. Through Apni Duniya Apna Ashiana (ADAA), he reaches out to the severely disadvantaged children living on the fringes of society… the migrants exploited for cheap labour and begging, the abandoned, the differently abled. “These children are prone to a lot of negative experiences. In the midst of this toxicity, they see one person who is doing good for them… it affects them. The child’s belief that there are good people in this world too is triggered. And this might trigger a change. You might not be there to witness that change but you should do it regardless.” Coming from a man who suffered a near fatal accident in 1995, and has never allowed his paraplegia to get in the way of living life and spreading hope, his words are deeply moving…

June 2017

Navin Gulia

A glimmer of goodness in young lives darkened too early by the grime of reality

Philanthropist, award-winning adventurer, author, and motivational speaker… yours is a life that inspires many. What spurred you to start ADAA? Working for yourself gives you some amount of satisfaction but nobody can be fully happy, no matter the amount of fame, money and success one might achieve. Michael Jackson was not a happy man; neither is Shah Rukh. At a certain point, you have to stop and start giving back to society. I always wanted to work for children and I knew I would do it. I am a practical person; I don’t keep coming up with excuses to delay something. Fact is, if you do something for yourself no amount is enough; if you do for others, even a little is enough. It gives you joy. If you work for your own children it is a joyful experience for a parent. But in the vast majority of cases, parents sacrifice a lot for their children but they don’t get appreciation in return. But when you are working with disadvantaged children, they appreciate whatever you do for them. It is a misused term nowadays, but I’m a believer in the Gandhian philosophy that the progress of a society is measured by the condition of its weakest, most vulnerable section. These children are that section. They don’t even have a vote; politicians and administration only generally work for votes. Eventually, whether society is bothered or not, I did

not want to feel guilty at the end of my life that I didn’t do anything. ADAA works with children, whose existence nobody seems to even know about... Most NGOs have a shelter which benefits a fixed number of children In Jhajjar district we work with large shifting numbers of migrant labourers, children who live around brick kilns, which are outside the city or village because of the pollution laws. These migrant children cannot avail of the facilities that the village provides. They don’t go to the village school, they don’t have access to proper water and electricity. They don’t have anything. I always make it a point to address the children who are not being attended to by anyone else. The drawback is that I will never be able to visibly present all these children if someone wishes to see them. But that is no reason why I shouldn’t be working for them. It is a difficult decision to make, but the better decision to make. What support does ADAA provide at your village centre? We have welfare activities which include food distribution, medical health camps and warm clothes distribution during winter for 500-1000 children. We also have a project for the education, support and promotion of

the girl child in Barhana village, which has the lowest girl child ratio at 378 girls to 1000 boys. Does formal education feature in your scheme of things? You cannot offer sweets to a person who is very thirsty! When it comes to children who have been exploited for begging or who are employed in brick kilns, the need for food and clothes comes first. Medical help is next and then comes education. We have motivational, awareness and educational activities which help children learn skills. You cannot expect every child to complete his graduation or post-graduation. In today’s world it is difficult for a child who hails from a very poor family to study for ten years more when he could start earning his livelihood at 14, working as an electrician, plumber, or carpenter. If a child is very good at academics we support him/her for further studies. With migrant children you might never see the harvest, so to speak, yet you plough on regardless… Many children who have grown up keep in touch saying they were inspired by me. But there will be larger numbers who are not able to give me feedback. You might not be there to witness that change but do it regardless. - Nichola Pais

June 2017

COVER STORY

Uttam Teron

Started a school of ‘joyful learning’ for tribal children in Assam

What inspired you to start Parijat Aacademy and how did it all begin? We are in a tribal village and I realised that children were not interested in going to school. I wanted to make them realise the importance of education. In 2003, I spent Rs.800 for a tin roof, bamboo walls, a bench, desk and a blackboard to start teaching children in my village. We started with four children and today I can proudly say that we have 512 children attending our classes from kindergarten to the 10th grade.

Parjiat means “heavenly flower” in Assamese. That’s exactly how Uttam Teron wants his students to bloom and grow when they come to learn at Parijat Academy. Bringing a change in the Pamohi area in Assam’s Guwahati is Parijat Academy, a free school started by Uttam with a vision to educate children so that they will be able to pursue a better livelihood. His school has been the prime reason for social upliftment in the area and Uttam Teron wants to see to it that children not just realise the importance of education but also enjoy going to school.

Do you think the government is doing enough to educate children in India? The government is indeed doing a lot for educating children. There are government schools in our villages but I realise that children do not enjoy studying there. We, at Parijat Academy, believe in “joyful learning”. Children should love going to school. Children love coming to our school because we include music, trekking and rock climbing, and football apart from imparting bookish knowledge to them. We also give them computer education. What have your students been doing after finishing their studies at Parijat Academy? Some of them are graduates; some are even doing their post-graduation. We

June 2017

are motivating children to study and take up jobs. We even provide skill training so that they can do well in a setting outside of their village. How involved are you in the day-to-day activities of your school? I am there with my children everyday starting from the morning assembly. I take classes too. My students and I clean up the classrooms every day at the end of the day. What challenges do you face in running Parijat Academy? People have an option to sponsor our children. So some of our students are sponsored; we try getting donations for the rest. Funding is our biggest problem. Motivating and convincing people, is tough. When they come and see what we are doing at Parijat, they feel more motivated to donate money. Sometimes we struggle to pay our 25 teachers their salary. In 2011, I received a CNN IBN Real Heroes award which came with a gift cheque of Rs.5 lakh. I distributed that money among the teachers. We collect second-hand clothes from Guwahati, which we distribute among our children. With better funding, I can do more for the children. - Parvathy Jayakrishnan

Sandeep Desai

Collected donations from Mumbai’s local train commuters to start four schools to educate children in rural India

A marine engineer and ex-professor of S P Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, Prof. Sandeep Desai found his true calling when he decided to collect donations and build schools for children living in rural areas. And he does it in his own special way - he asks for donations by talking to hundreds of passengers who commute via the Mumbai local trains! He has already built schools in remote villages in Udaipur and Yavatmal, and is currently camping at his new school construction site at village Sipur in Udaipur district of Rajasthan, arranging for facilities and building a bore-well. The school, which will start in the first week of July, will offer free education like the other Shloka Missionaries’ Trust schools. “Private schools in the area hate me for taking their children away. I educate them for free while they charge almost Rs.15,000 per annum. They try and make false allegations against me saying that I am here to take away the children to Mumbai,” he chuckles. Shloka Missionaries is dedicated to the cause of educating hundreds of children in rural India.

Why did you choose local trains to ask for donations? I approached corporates and they do not show a lot of interest in making donations. I realised that asking people who work for them would be the right thing to do. I also found out that speaking to people on the road or going to their doorstep often yielded no response. But in trains, I get an active audience who is ready to listen to what I do and make a contribution. By now you must be a familiar face in Mumbai local trains but how do you convince commuters to donate generously for the cause? Initially I used to give them a visiting card which has details like my name, address and phone number. That helps builds confidence as they know where to go if they think they are being taken for a ride. Do you have a group of people who help you in local trains and how has the response been from railway staff to this method of collecting money for charity? No. I go and ask for donations myself. People are worried about what others will think about them if they ask for donations. So they choose not to. The RPF (Railway Police Force) has a problem with people begging for money. But I told them that there is a big difference between other “beggars” and me. They see my plastic box with money and think that all this money is coming to me for my personal use. I beg for money for others and not for myself. All proceeds go to charity. How many children are availing of free education from your charity? Initially we started a school in Mumbai

with 800 students but we closed that down in 2014 and after the implementation of RTE (Right to Education) in 2010, we stick to teaching students in rural areas. Around 700 children study for free and are given a free meal every day - and all this from the charity money we raise. What about the response to your school in the farmer-suicide belt of Vidarbha? I feel Vidarbha is indeed backward and needs help but the farmer-suicide scenario is “glorified.” Response to our schools in Vidarbha has been good. We started our first school in Yavatmal district and it is doing very well. urprisingly, we have more girls attending our school than boys. Do you still lecture? I still give lectures but not on subjects like marketing strategy. I give lectures on how to build schools in rural areas of India and educate children. You have become a role model yourself but who is your inspiration? I do not have a role model as such but my mother is my inspiration. She was a teacher and she used to teach rural children maths and science. She used to inspire me to educate children who could not afford it. Can you shed more light on the foster guardian programme? People have an option to sponsor our children, especially orphans or children whose parents struggle to make a living. They can pay Rs.25,000 per year per child or in monthly instalments and we will take care of all of that child’s expenses for that year, including education, food and even celebrating his/her birthday. - Parvathy Jayakrishnan

June 2017

COVER STORY

An NRI living in Washington hasn’t forgotten his country or his people. He is going all out to bring changes to improve the quality of education in government schools. Introducing the concept of ‘Tea with Headmaster’ here (since we have more tea drinkers in our country!), on the same lines as ‘Coffee with Principal’ followed in US schools, this outreach method sees parents and teachers discussing prevailing issues and solving them. The concept has already been introduced in two schools -- the government school at Venkatrampuram, Kodad in Suryapet district; and Zilla Parishad High School, Almaspur in Sircilla district. Sudheer Jalagam feels if most children attend government schools abroad, why can’t the same be followed here?

June 2017

Sudheer Jalagam

‘Tea with Headmaster’ brings parents and teachers together to discuss prevailing issues in government schools and solve them

What was your motivation to start your educational project ‘Tea with Headmaster’? The ‘Coffee with Principal’ program is my inspiration. My parents struggled a lot for my education in private schools. I have decided to strengthen public schools so that no parent struggles for their kids’ education. I have seen many public schools in USA which have this program and successfully involves parents for their school development. At least 25% of the parents work voluntarily at school for their kids. Your vision for education for children… Education is very important for everyone in this modern age. State and central governments are spending huge amounts on the public education system but they are unable to get 100% utilization of those funds. After some research on the public education system in USA, I decided to start the ‘Tea with Headmaster’ program in public schools in Telangana, India and Andhra Pradesh, India. This program will help parents and teachers discuss issues pertaining to the school and resolve them. The initiative will ensure

improvement in infrastructure, and new methods of learning, among other requirements. What are the challenges you continue to encounter? It is very difficult to convince government teachers to follow some international standards due to certain restrictions from local governments. With minimum involvement of parents, teachers won’t concentrate on new methods and other issues at school. We have noticed that there are insufficient toilets and play areas in the public schools. Many groups and organizations in the teachers’ community are delaying the implementation of new methods. Yet your efforts have brought about positive changes… Mr. V. RangaRao and his team from Venkatramapuram primary school in Telangana State implemented the ‘Tea with Headmaster’ program twice and received an impressive response from parents and teachers. Many changes were noticed such as parents starting to visit school regularly to know the status

of their children’s education. Based on the results from this school, a few more schools started working on this program and are getting good results. What, in terms of support and awareness, do you feel the government needs to offer? I have requested Hon’ble Minister for Education of Telangana and Hon’ble Minister for Education of Andhra Pradesh to implement this program in each and every school so that parents can be involved in school development. What are your future plans? My son, Vedansh Jalagam (6 years) visited India in August 2016 and visited a government school. He wrote a letter to Hon’ble Minister for Education, Telangana about the school issues. I have requested the Hon’ble Minister to utilize public school buildings and playgrounds for private functions/ meetings on the weekends and holidays to generate revenue. Also I have requested him to start short term courses on Indian culture for NRI kids in government schools at a nominal fee. - Anjana Deepak

June 2017

COVER STORY

Best known for his â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hole in the Wallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiment, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England, Sugata Mitra, forges on ahead with his mission of Minimally Invasive Education. Since the 1970s, his work has resulted in the training and development of nearly a million young Indians, including some of the poorest children in the world.

June 2017

Sugata Mitra

Fuelling the training and development of nearly a million young Indians Your pet project - Hole in the Wall… How did it come about? The ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment of 1999 was done by me simply out of curiosity. To see what children would do with an information environment just by themselves. I had no idea it would lead to self-organised learning, deep learning and, eventually, to change in education worldwide. That experiment gave us a glimpse of the future – one that we could barely comprehend. Your vision for the education of the disadvantaged children you work with? I work with children all over the world, disadvantaged or otherwise. I find the same methods working everywhere. Not so much because of my work but because of the information environment we live in. Over the next decade, it will no longer be possible to tell whether a person is consulting the Internet or not. Access will be through invisible audiovisual technology. When that happens, examinations, as we know them, will have little meaning. Indeed, ‘knowing’ as we use that word today, will become less consequential. If a child and the Internet are considered a composite creature, then how much does that creature know? In that world, it will not be important what you know (because you can know whenever you want), but it will be important what you look for and what you think of what you find. This is what education must focus on. Comprehension, communication and computing will be the pillars of primary education for all children. Reading, writing and arithmetic will be subsumed into these ‘Three Cs’. Classrooms with students and teachers are a technology for learning. An old but time-tested technology that has

brought up countless generations in the world. That technology is based on the fact that there are things you should know, just in case you ever need them – because, in an age gone by, when you need to know, the means to know may not be available to you. The Internet and associated devices have changed that premise. You can know at the point of need. You can ‘know before you learn’ (in the words of a 10year old in England). The ‘classroom-student-teacher’ technology is obsolete under these changed circumstances. What are the challenges you continue to encounter? The biggest challenge is the examination system left over from the last century. Learning is equated to the ability to reproduce information and solve problems using no assistive technology. Often, the questions asked have little relevance to life. Can you solve a quadratic equation? Well, so what if you can’t? Can you go through life without knowing how to solve a quadratic equation? The examination system is mostly meaningless today. The second problem is, often, parents. ‘My child should be educated the way I was educated’ is a mindset that is common and poses a major challenge to change in education and learning. It is hard to accept that knowledge that we held so dear may no longer be needed. The positive changes you feel happy to have brought about through your work… There is an awareness of the problems I spoke about earlier, although not everyone agrees. There is general consensus among teachers around the world that groups of children can learn things by themselves, using the Internet. New skills and new things need to be

learned. And they need to be learned differently from the ‘taught’ methods of yesterday. We need a ‘School in the Cloud’. Many agree. What, in terms of support and awareness, do you feel the government needs to offer? Governments need to change assessment methods urgently. The old examination system is near breaking point. The Internet must form an integral part of school – indeed the Internet should be learned as a subject, much like science or mathematics are. Teacher training needs to be revamped. Teachers don’t need to be repositories of knowledge; they need to be able to raise interesting and relevant questions for our times. They don’t need to know the answers. Can you share any experience which reinforces your belief in your mission? In a school in Hong Kong, the math teacher was going to start on trigonometry. He was worried the children would show no interest. I suggested they start with a SOLE (Self Organised Learning Environment). So we asked them, ‘How does a smart phone know where it is – how does it know its geographic location?’ We let the children use the Internet in groups and answer the question, by themselves. We, the teacher and I, just sat down. There was a huge amount of noise and commotion after which they said they had found the answer. ‘The phone looks at three towers or three satellites and figures out where it is’ ‘Why three?’, I asked. ‘Because they use triangles and something called Trigonometry. Triangles have to have three sides’, they said. ‘Would you like to know what Trigonometry is and how your phone uses it?’, I asked. ‘YES’, they chorused. We had opened a door… - Nichola Pais

June 2017

TECH FOCUS

ERP IN EDUCATION Time is of the essence and advancement of technology is only enhancing the systems in education

Anjana Deepak

increasing popularity of ERP solutions in educational industries.

writeback@scoonews.com

RP or Enterprise Resource Planning is a software program designed for small or large businesses to help expedite their management processes. For a while now we have been living and breathing technology. Computers have made a ubiquitous presence around us. The world of education is also aware of the importance and advantages of information and communication technology, not only for education and research purposes but for their other functions such as administration, organisational, accounting, etc. The need to improve these operations and ease management processes has led to the

Out with the old, in with the new With the introduction of ERP an educational institute can ensure that it is operating at its maximum potential. It is all about time and efficiency today. Introducing technology to manage the operations of an institute where everything is available at a click of a button makes it way simpler than some of the traditional methods that were being used. Institutes had books that were meticulously managed for its various operations such as managing their finances but with ERPs, managing funds and tracking those into reports

June 2017

has never been easier.

Perks of an ERP system in education The number one benefit of implementing an ERP system is that it is cost effective. Basic management of a school/ college requires man power. Admission processes to fee collection, if done online, saves a huge bundle for the institute, which can then be put to use for other purposes. Data of the institute can be managed effectively and efficiently without any fuss and can be customised to fit anyway; whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, it is made available at any time with just a click of a mouse. This also ensures that the data that is

being stored is safe and secure from prying eyes with the system tending to be a lot better than storing physical books containing sensitive information on shelves. Institutes provide all the users with a unique login ID and password to access this facility. At any time, parents can seamlessly track all the information about their kids’ progress report cards, registration fees, homework, internal assessment, health details, sports and extracurricular activities and more. Other than a few technical glitches or minor human errors while filling up a form or information online, ERPs are way more precise and can be easily tracked and managed rather than having huge manpower that can create more mistakes. These systems are automated and, in many cases, pick up errors. It allows for a quicker management process and helps to focus more on education. Homework, attendance, parent-teacher interaction, security management, leave/ attendance management are also some of the processes that can be taken care of easily by installing ERP systems in schools/ colleges.

ERP in India India is catching up to the digitization frenzy. Many well-known schools and colleges are implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software applications to reduce the management work of the institution. Another important feature of this application is that it brings students, parents, faculty members and management authorities on a familiar platform to discuss various issues of the institution. Speaking to heads of educational institutes as to what impact ERP has had on implementation, this is what some of them had to say:

The Education system has witnessed a paradigm shift over the last decade especially with a lot of innovation inside and outside the class room. The effort is to produce maximum output with the minimum input. And technology is the keyword for that. We, as an eco-friendly school, emphasize on the least usage of paper. And it has become possible only with the application of communication technology such as email, Drop box, Whatsapp, bulk SMS, CCTV, etc. which saves time as well as energy. Technology has one more important role which is data security. All the school records can be well secured and saved with usage of proper software and can be retrieved easily anytime. As an administrator, I believe that usage of technology in the 21st century is not an option but a priority. Madhumita Roy Chowdhury, Dean, Prudence International School, Panvel

Dr. Rajasab, Dr Jagpreet Singh, Principal, The Punjab Public School, Nabha

“We have recently tied up with a company called Detailed Assessment for continuous assessment of a child online. It enables a child to learn the art of taking an online exam. For school management program, we have taken help from Cloud 9, in order to facilitate management and administrative issues.”

A.H. Vice Chancellor, Tumkur University

“Manual administration consumes a lot of time of the teachers as well as the a d m i n i s t r a t o r. Adopting new technology is the need of the hour. Some of what can be adopted in schools, colleges and universities are: Teaching pedagogy, integrating manual teaching with internet technology, audio visuals, practical experiments, virtual class

rooms, continuous assessments instead of only term end exams, attendance monitoring system, maintenance of student records, fee payment, online employment opportunities, connecting students with teachers/ professors abroad, campus placements, arranging lectures on life skills, morality, confidence to face difficulties, distance learning and outdoor camps/ study tours abroad.” Brig. S.K. Sharma (Retd.), Pro Vice Chancellor, Northcap University, Gurgaon

“Adopting the ERP System helped make our university management efficient. It has helped the university improve the operations and make them manageable. The main advantages ERP provides are improved information access for planning and managing the university and improved services for faculty, students and other employees, resulting in low business risk, improved efficiency and less paper work.” Dr Niyati Chitkara, Principal, Chitkara International School, Chandigarh

“With the help of technology we have been able to run an online school inside a school! In classrooms, we take the help of technology in providing personalized learning. Our students undergo a variety of courses through MOOCs. They are given various assignments throughout the session, but it is left to them how they want to undertake them. One may give a video presentation, one may give a live project or it could be in the form of a mind map/ Flowchart. Technology has assisted us in giving freedom to the learner to choose the way he/she wishes to learn. “We extensively use technologies like ERP system, Google Classrooms, Google Earth, Edmodo, Skype Sessions, TED Talks, Webinars and iTunesU in our school on a day to day basis. We have witnessed increased levels of participation and interest shown by the students in the learning processes.”

June 2017

TECH FOCUS Taruna Kapoor, Headmistress, Allenhouse Public School, Ghaziabad

We have adopted technology from day one and all our data concerning data management, fees collection, timetable management, attendance management of both staff and students and miscellaneous administration work is digitalised. We have adopted the latest techniques of e-learning in our classrooms too.

“Our school is technology oriented and has a customized ERP which has been adapted to make the school management easier. There are many tasks which the institution is completing in an easier and paperless manner. These include circulars to the students, attendance of the staff and students, website maintenance, marking schemes, managing mark registers, declaration of results, data management, fees collection, library management, management of student records, staff data, staff salary, sending assignments and homework, keeping a track of students’ progress record, data management in all the departments and day to day interactions with individual parents.”

Saadhana Malik, Principal, Bodhitaru International School, Greater Noida

Dr Vidya Shetty Director-Higher Education, Presidency Group of Institutions

“It is important that educational institutions migrate to the Rep which is more of a spine to a growing institution. With stakeholders growing a lot more involved in schools, seamless transfer of information across stakeholders and society, information at the tip of the educator's table is a must. Analytics and student support systems go faster and are a lot more accurate with ERP.”

“In case there is a change of sequence of tasks decided upon by higher policies and processes related to business, it has to be ensured that only updated and relevant information is available to down lines so that there is no confusion. The project covers HR, curriculum, events, administration, parent delight, and calendars. It includes the what, when, who (KRAs), and how (execution plan) of every task.” Karan Garg, CEO, IFW Techno Creations Pvt Ltd gave examples of the types of software available and how they work.

Sudha Gupta, Chairperson, Presidium

“We have the ERP Initiative to help us with school management. The project is an online system to facilitate storage and access of information across our 108 branches (100 preschools and 8 K12 schools). It has been developed keeping in view the problems faced by multi-branch schools, where each branch is executing the processes as perceived by them and not as required by the head office. Optimum output can be reached only when all the branches are working as per set standards. This can be achieved by ensuring that all information reaches the stakeholders and is available to them during the entire course of the execution of a task, and is safely stored for the future.

“Browser or web based school software solutions which can run on Cloud Model ie. internet are easy to implement and use. SchoolSAAS.com is an integrated cloud-based transaction platform for schools which comes with modules like student admission management, timetable management, library management, attendance management, employee hr payroll salary management, school exam mark sheets cce system and results management, fees & accounts management, homework assignment management etc. SchoolSAAS.com also provides advanced modules like online examination, e-library, stock/store tuck shop management etc. The software provides separate login facility by giving online student login, employee staff login, parent login and school adminis-

June 2017

trator login. These logins can also be accessed through your personalized SchoolSAAS mobile app. SchoolSAAS.com is by far the top solution in the market with best quality and fastest implementation guarantee. It also provides complete integration with banks and payment gateways for fee collection, mobile bulk SMS, email, bio-metric attendance machines and even provide mobile apps for schools integrated with SchoolSAAS.com. SchoolSAAS.com is developed on the concepts of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Package) model and covers each and every department of the school. It covers the systems followed by CBSE, RBSE, ICSE, HBSE and all other boards of education in all states of India. At present is has a strong presence in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh etc. SchoolSAAS.com is a venture of No. 1 ICT Solutions Company of India, IFW Techno Creations Pvt Ltd. The company has experience and expertise of more than 12 years in elementary to higher education sector in India. An example of ERP presence in the education industry in India was when she was hit overnight with demonetisation. The need for going cashless became of utmost importance for the day to day running of people’s lives. Manisha Thakur a 30-year-old MBA in marketing and a certified techie from BITS Mesra, 31-year-old Viral Dedhiya, an electronics engineer from Shah & Anchor Mumbai and 32-year-old Mayur Jain, a Mumbai-based CA created OnFees an ERP which allowed parents make fee payments to various schools/ institutes online. Most institutes up until this point collected their fees in cash. OnFees tied up with multiple educational institutes and learning centres in order to facilitate fee collection for them and payment for their students. The platform also allowed students to apply for admission to these institutions. “This is like a marketplace aggregation model, where we are trying to solve multiple problems for various stakeholders,” says Manisha. Institutes could take the digital route for collecting fees in less than two days. “They could also collect cash/ DD from the backend and still have a daily consolidated report without any manual hassle,” explains Viral. Within two months of going live, 35 institutes got

on board, including big names like Sandesh College, Nirmala Niketan, Guru Nanak Khalsa College, and YMT College, and over 70,000 registered students for fee payment. They recently raised Rs.2.5 crore in growth capital from some HNIs to capture market share in Mumbai, at a Rs.10-crore valuation. Looking beyond Mumbai, the trio will take on other major cities by August this year. Once ERPs are in place, the institute provides all the users with a unique login ID and password to access facility. Parents can track all the information about their kids’ progress report cards, registration fees, homework, internal assessment, health details, sports and extracurricular activities. All this information can be seamlessly accessed by the parents any time. Most of the software modules installed in the applications are user friendly and interrelated to other modules. School and College management ERP Software applications have become very popular in society. Most parents inquire about these facilities prior to the admission of kids to their schools. ERP vendors are consistently evolving to become more powerful, more affordable, and less complex. Cloud-based ERP systems are now taking over the traditional methods of managing data and processes because of its various advantages. A cloud-based ERP solution provides enhanced data storage capacity, security and control. It also gives real-time access from anywhere and helps in quick, yet wellinformed decision making. With this cloud-based solution, the institutions do not have to make expensive upfront investments in IT hardware and servers, nor worry about dedicating significant personnel resources to managing it. They are usually fast and easy to install compared to on-site deployments. Maintenance is much easier since the cloud-based ERP provider is responsible for keeping the technology up-to-date. Most importantly, with cloud technology, product enhancements are painless, and customizations and integrations automatically update with system upgrades which assures that the business is running with the most advanced capabilities. There is a variety of school software in the market, use of which helps schools manage day to day running smoothly. Valai School is one of the fastest grow-

We cannot deny the fact, that technology is the utmost need of today’s world and automation in every sector has not only increased efficiency and saved time but has undoubtedly made things very simple and transparent to all its stakeholders. Be it hotel industry to pharma industry, Ecommerce to E-learning, ticket booking to transportation or banking to ATM service… technology is everywhere and in everybody’s life. Some advantages of an ERP based school using SchoolTonic are: Online Application, Student Admission, Student Information, Student Promotion, Daily/Periodic Attendance, Fee Allocation &amp; Collection, Examination Configuration to Marksheet Creation, Dynamic Marksheet Builder, Timetable, Syllabus Management, School Diary, Reports, Mobile Application, Smart SMS. Apart from the above, School ERP provides many other facilities, such as library, payroll, inventory, hostel, accounting, transportation, and front desk management. This gives us a clear idea that school management software is a boon for schools. Mr. Shufyan Ghani Khan, CEO, Student Tonic

ing school management software by The Valai Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Bengaluru. Catering to CBSE, ICSE, international curricula and state board schools across India, it is a very versatile cloud based online application. This cost effective solution is spreading rapidly even among the rural schools in India as well as in the urban region. Providers of ERPs also talk about how ERP in education is changing the old and tested ways, which were done manually and were time consuming. They have ushered in a new faster and more precise method. Here is what some of them had to say: Gaurav Mundra, Chief Executive Officer, EduCommerce Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

“If we talk about school administration, there are three major categories of school software: Traditional ERP systems – These are large enterprise applications requiring dedicated hardware, software licenses, team and are high on CAPEX and OPEX. But they get a lot of stuff done. They are usually suitable for managing internal workflows of large schools. (Eg. Fedena) Simple apps – These are communication only software for sending messages to parents/students; suitable only for messaging and need other software for

school to manage all functions (Eg. Teno) Hybrid solutions – These software offer the best of both worlds where you get all workflow management facilities (attendance, fees, exam, time-table etc.) in addition to omni-channel multi-media communication (fees reminders, messages, circulars, home-work, images etc.) (Eg. Myly); appropriate for all levels of schools as they have low CAPEX and OPEX.”

The Future Research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that the enterprise application spending in India (which includes spending on ERP) will grow from $2.04 billion in 2016 to $2.39 billion in 2017, an increase of about 17%. ERP vendors are consistently evolving to become more powerful, more affordable, and less complex. Mega-vendors such as Oracle and SAP have a major share of the ERP market, but newer companies are nudging their way into the space with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) options that are changing the game. As more devices and products become connected to the internet, more data can be automatically funnelled into the ERP system. This gives better supervision over things and harnessing this data could prove beneficial not just in the field of education but across all industries.

June 2017

TAKE2

READ

The Smartest Kids in the World ‘The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way’ is a book by the American author Amanda Ripley. The book follows three case studies from schools in Finland, South Korea and Poland and analyses their education systems.

Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life As an Educator Based on Dave Burgess's popular "Outrageous Teaching" and "Teach Like a Pirate" seminars, this book offers inspiration, practical techniques, and innovative ideas that will help you to increase student engagement, boost your creativity, and transform your life as an educator.

June 2017

Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World Tony Wagner’s groundbreaking bestseller is a provocative look at why innovation is today’s most essential real-world skill and what young people need from parents, teachers, and employers to become the innovators of the future.

‘NLP FOR TEACHERS’

India’s First Book on NLP by a Lucknow Educator ‘NLP For Teachers – Towards Quality Teaching Skills’, by academician and National Teacher awardee Dr Dheeraj Mehrotra, empowers teachers to rediscover the power of teaching in a fresh and effective manner, through human excellence, leading to the objective of Quality Literacy for All. It aims to manipulate human-building approaches via tools of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as practice for developing Total Quality Student (TQS). This would be one of the key initiatives of any school with the purpose of unleashing the power of success and happiness for teachers, students, and parents, in particular. Dr Mehrotra pours his wide experience of over 30 years of teaching and learning into this book. He has initiated the cause of quality mantras and practices of Neuro Linguistic Programming. The one and only book on NLP for teachers by an Indian author, this book is expected to empower teachers towards wow teaching scenarios within classrooms.

About the Author Dr. Dheeraj Mehrotra, (MS (Education Management), MPhil (Education), PhD (Ed. Mgmt), H.C.), is an Academic Evangelist at Next Education India Pvt Ltd, one of the renowned education service providers to schools, in India. He has an expertise in Six Sigma In Education, NLP, Experiential Learning and TQM in Academics as a coach and a practitioner. He has published over 40 books in the field of academics and has trained over ten thousand teachers. As a President of India National Award Winner, he has also been listed in the Limca Book of Records and India Book of Records for his innovation in Education. His other awards include Best Teacher Award by Education World Magazine, Air IndiaBroad Outlook Learner Teacher Award, Science Teacher Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh & Innovation in Education Award by Education Watch, among others.

June 2017

TAKE2

In the US, most kids have a very long summer break, during which they tend to forget a good chunk of what they learned during the school year. This "summer slump" affects kids from low-income neighbourhoods most, setting them back almost three months. TED Fellow Karim Abouelnaga has a plan to reverse this learning loss. Learn how he is helping kids improve their chances for a brighter future.

WATCH

Most English speakers who notice differences in pronunciation, grammatical structure, or word choice believe that some of these variants are "correct" and others are not. Differences in spoken English (and other languages) often encode local or social identity, and ideas about correctness create groups of people who are "othered" because they "say it wrong." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= VEFM905EOUk

For 24 years, Azul Terronez had been asking the question: What makes a good teacher great? He collected 26,000 responses from 8 different schools and shares the patterns that have emergedâ&#x20AC;Ś

https://www.ted. com/talks/karim_ abouelnaga_a_s ummer_school_k ids_actually_wan t_to_attend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =vrU6YJle6Q4

June 2017

FEATURE STORY

Why Teachers in India Would Love to Work in Luxembourg!

Despite the recommendations of the 7th pay commission, teacher salaries in India continue to lag way behind most other countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, finds Nichola Pais.

June 2017

Teacher Salary in India (Based on Experience) Job Category

Experience

Average Annual Salary

Primary School Teacher

Less than a year

INR 59,516 – INR 232,699

1-4 years

INR 70,181 – INR 279,774

5-9 years

INR 82,851 – INR 297,988

10-19 years

INR 78,292 – INR 360,000

20 years and more

INR 180,000 – INR 268,584

Less than a year

INR 66,000 – INR 368,671

1-4 years

INR 86,121 – INR 384,303

5-9 years

INR 77,167 – INR 398,656

10-19 years

INR 120,000 – INR 494,484

20 years and more

INR 174,445 – INR 760,256

High School Teacher

Salaries of Teacher in India (based on Degrees or Certification) Job Category

Degree Or Certification

Average Annual Salary

Primary School Teacher

Bachelor’s degree

INR 69,996 – INR 289,617

Bilingual education

INR 108,000 – INR 192,000

Teacher Certification

INR 71,353 – INR 300,607

Middle Teacher Certification

INR 103,846 – INR 174,000

Elementary Teacher Certification (Grade 1-5)

INR 72,877 – INR 301,362

Secondary Teacher Certification (Grade 9-12)

INR 78,000- INR 232,258

Master of Arts, Economics

INR 117,916 – INR 308,368

Bachelor of Education, Bed

INR 86,555 – INR 1,616,179

Master of Science, Math

INR 98,959 – INR 317,418

Bachelor’s Degree

INR 94,020 – INR 596,993

Bachelor of Education

INR 93,000 – INR 330,000

Master of Arts or MA, English

INR 60,820 – INR 363,650

Bilingual education

INR 68,008 – INR 930,797

Teacher Certification

INR 71,952 – INR 471,049

Middle Teacher Certification (Grade 5-9)

INR 93,653 – INR 294,408

Elementary Teacher Certification (Grade 1-5)

INR 48,656 – INR 295,898

Secondary Teacher Certification (Grade 9-12)

INR 93,483 – INR 473,976

MRT or Master Reading Teacher Certification

INR 73,533 – INR 447,399

High School Teacher

(Figures courtesy naukrihub.com)

June 2017

FEATURE STORY Nichola Pais editor@scoonews.com

ow much do you make?’ This insulting, belittling question is addressed by American slam poet, humorist, teacher, and voiceover artist Taylor Mali in his poem, What Teachers Make. “You want to know what I make? I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them criticize. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them write. I make them read, read, read… I make them understand that if you have the brains, then follow your heart...and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you pay them no attention!” It ends with the slam - "You want to know what I make? I make a difference. And you? What do you make?”

If we are strictly speaking money here, however, your average professional in almost every other industry does make much more than the lowly teacher. The irony is despite studies confirming repeatedly that students who have high quality teachers make significant and lasting achievement gains, dedicated teachers in many countries across the world remain poorly paid. In India, while government school teachers are paid in the range of Rs.20,000 to Rs.40,000 (310 USD to 620 USD) a month depending on their level of qualification and experience, the situation can get dismal in the private schools sector, which employs nearly 43% of school teachers in India. The 7th Pay Commission launched in September 2015 ensured all teachers in primary schools, secondary and higher secondary schools, colleges and universities receive a hike of 16% in net salary. The projected salary of trained graduate school teachers would become around Rs.29,900 – Rs.1,04,400 (basic) along with grade pay of Rs.13,800. This would bring the net salary of a teacher to Rs.51,420 (788 USD). While that is news to cheer about, according to the investigations of a national newspaper, many private school teachers in different states were found to be working for salaries as low as a distressing Rs.2,000 (31 USD) per month. Here again corruption is rife, with teachers often made to sign against an official salary and return part of the payment in cash to

June 2017

DO YOU MAKE ENOUGH? Teachers across the country share their opinion… Priyanka Kaushik Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. MSc, BEd, Computer diploma. 5 years’ teaching experience. “Indeed my income supports my family financially. My salary is used to purchase the groceries used in my house as well as the medicines of my daughter. However the other aspects such as EMI etc. are my husband’s responsibility. The additional benefit of rebate on school fees of daughter is also a great support. Other professions do pay better; however the teaching profession allows you that extra bit of time to take care of your child and family. The work and life balance is good as compared to a 9 to 5 job. That said, it is a pity that teachers put in a lot of hard work but are not paid what they deserve. The government should make stricter laws to bind school managements of private institutions to remunerate teachers at par with the government salary scale. This would also lower the rate of teachers discontinuing their career due to lack of financial viability.”

unscrupulous management.

Seema Patel Dr S Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya, Malad, Mumbai. MA, B.Ed. 27 years’ teaching experience. “My husband and I equally contribute towards our family. Yes, I believe I could earn double in another profession. I would appreciate equal rules and policies for aided and unaided schools. Parents should respect the teachers and not believe that their children can do whatever they like just because they are paying fees.”

The figures pale shockingly compared to the salary of the average American teacher, who starts out earning approximately 37,000 USD and goes on to make $60,000 a year. Going by figures released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), stark variance exists around the world in how much teachers earn and also how much their salaries increase with time. If a teacher in South Korea starts out making 22,000 USD which increases to 34,000 USD after 10 years of experience, teachers’ salaries in Germany begin at around 46,000 USD and max at 60,000 USD a year. Even Germany lags behind however when it comes to Luxembourg, one of the richest countries in the world, where teacher salaries begin at 79,920 USD, while more experienced teachers earn on average 138,920 USD. The next biggest earners are teachers in Denmark (starting 46,000 USD up to 53,400 USD) and the USA (starting at 43,000 USD up to 66,000 USD). France and Belgium come next with teachers earning 30,300 to 65,800 USD and 43,400 to 59,600 USD respectively. Teachers in Hungary earn an average of 10,600 USD a year and are considered illpaid... For a teacher in India who earns Rs.40,000 a month which works out to approximately 7440 USD annually, the less said the better. A survey by TED-Ed reveals that in Canada, a middle school Special Education teacher with seven years’ experience has a take home salary of 3,120 USD, while a grade 6 homeroom teacher who with 8 years of experience earns around 2,750 USD per month. A newly qualified BEd degreeholding teacher in London has a take home of around 3,540 USD a month, while an English foreign language teacher with 33 years of experience in Athens earns just around 1,360 USD. A qualified secondary school teacher in Kildare, Ireland with five years of experience earns 3,140 USD, a teacher with 19 years of experience in Kagoshima, Japan averages 3,340 USD after tax, while an English teacher at the gymnasium in Kruonis, Lithuania earns just 870 USD after 36 years. A 7th grade English teacher starting out in Prilep, Macedonia earns around 133 USD net, while a computer teacher at a community school in Kathmandu, Nepal earns even less at 115 USD. A

Kiran Pherwani Mount Litera Zee School, Wakad, Pune. B.Com, Diploma in ECE. 3 years’ teaching experience. “Yes my children are dependent on me. Opportunities are many in every field as well as in teaching; we have to explore opportunities and perform to our best. It gives immense pleasure to spread knowledge and give guidance. The profession can be made more joyous and fruitful if it is being supported by a decent enough package depending on the base spending capacity of Indian people on education.”

Ashish Mittal Indirapuram Public School, Ghaziabad. M.Sc. (Mathematics), M.A. (Philosophy), B.Ed., M.Ed., UGC-NET, Ph.D. 8+ years’ teaching experience. “My monthly income (salary) supports my wife and a little son. Teaching is not just a profession for me but a dream come true. Though this profession also has ample opportunities to earn more, if you have some commitments towards any educational institution then your total responsibility lies with them and with the kids who are associated with that institution. I am associated with many schools informally so I know the salary structure of many schools which is really pathetic. However, some have genuine reason for not paying much to the teachers. Indian teachers are obviously among the poorest paid which hinders teachers from becoming dedicated towards their profession. Though in India, teachers get the maximum respect as compared to other countries but the condition in most areas is really very bad which is not looked after by either the central government or state government.”

Mansha Lakhmani Indirapuram Public School Kids. 7+ years’ teaching experience. “My income supports my child. As I am also an Information Technology certified professional, I could have earned more than double my current salary but that sector requires full time involvement which is quite difficult to manage along with family responsibility. So I am completely happy with my current profession.”

June 2017

FEATURE STORY relatively good packet of 4,370 USD is what a middle school math and science teacher with seven years of experience makes in Oslo, Norway; considerably more than what a 55-year-old English teacher in Bucharest, Romania makes at around 492 USD. Johannesburg, South Africa treats its teachers better, offering a secondary math teacher with three years of teaching experience around 1,130 USD. Sweden fares even better; a teacher teaching math, science and technology to grades 4 to 6 in Norrkoping has a take home of around 3,030 USD. A 7th grade math teacher with two years of experience in Damascus, Syria earns 114 USD. The picture is definitely rosier in the US where an elementary music teacher of five years in Georgia, earns 2,100 USD net, while a high school special education teacher with five years’ experience in Minnesota takes home 2,800 USD after taxes. While the scenario is definitely brighter for teachers in the country’s international schools, who start off at Rs.45,000 to Rs.50,000 going up to Rs.1 lakh to Rs.2 lakh for co-ordinators or heads of department, the average salary of a high school teacher in India remains Rs.3,01,462 (approx. 4650 USD) a year. The simmering resentment among the majority of teachers across the country is understandable. During his last address to students and teachers on the eve of Teachers’ Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pointed out that that while a mother gives birth to us, a teacher gives life to us, and a void remains in our life when there is no balance. He spoke of how a student represents his teacher, is the canvas painted by his teacher, as they make up the only pair that distributes knowledge. He also ventured to add that there is a great demand for good teachers in the world, and India, being a young country, should be able to produce good quality teachers for the world. Make in India, export to the world? Many would love the chance! As to the question regarding the need to find out why “the value of a teacher has lost its sheen and why students don’t want to be teachers when they grow up,” the answer would come back to what a teacher makes… Low salary combined with low respect for services delivered to society cannot make for a cocktail to raise a teacher’s spirits.

June 2017

H Fazalunnisha Hussain Government High School, Kalimangalam Madurai. MSc, MPhil, BEd. 30 years’ of teaching experience. “My income fully supports my family. Teaching is a noble job and I don't get upset about my income. The government simply needs to ensure quality education to the students.”

Pooja Vohra Indirapuram Public School, Ghaziabad. N.T.T, B.Ed, M.Sc (Gold medalist). 19 years’ teaching experience. “I am very satisfied with my salary as I can fulfil all my needs and desires. I am supporting my mother, as she lives alone and has no income source, as I have no brother and father. Other professions may give more salary but I am pretty satisfied because my work is my passion. It also gives me respect, name and fame.”

Anupam Sharma Indirapuram Public School, Ghaziabad. BSc, BEd, MA (English), PGDSLM. 12+ years’ experience. “My income supports the education of my children. I couldn’t think of being in any other profession as it gives me a sense of satisfaction. There is a considerable difference in pay scales and quality of work between government school teachers and private school teachers. Learning is getting degraded. There should be strict rules in the selection process and ample opportunities provided to teachers for professional development and follow ups.”

Kiran Aggarwal Indirapuram Public School, Bed, Diploma in Business Administration. 15 years’ teaching experience. “My income supports my partner and my son. I get a good salary because I am professionally qualified. There is also the love and respect which is more important for me as compared to money. I am a teacher by heart not by profession. Sadly, a number of teachers in private unaided schools are not even professionally qualified. In unrecognized schools, of which the number is unknown and probably runs into thousands, only about 42% teachers are professionally qualified. This is in contrast to private aided schools where 91% teachers have the requisite professional qualification.”

Reena Mishra Indirapuram Public School. MA, B.Ed. 11 years’ teaching experience. “My income is not enough to run a house completely yet l am happy as it has given me the love of my students and an identity. I feel blessed to get a chance to serve my country although l agree that l could earn more – at least Rs.10,000-Rs.15,000 more – in any other field, but l would never get the chance to shape young minds. Sometimes l feel that government has opened a door for people to mock us by giving a chance to undeserving teachers in government schools, who themselves send their own children to public schools where the quality of education is better.”

Radhika Goenka Indirapuram Public School Girls, Patna, Bihar. Master of Computer Application. 1+ years’ teaching experience. “I occasionally support my parent. I do believe that had I opted for a technical job I would be able to earn more but when you impart education to children you feel happier because you are enhancing their knowledge. Now schools have started paying good salary. When hiring teachers, the government should check if the students are getting quality education.”

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How teachers should be using

Vinay Singh writeback@scoonews.com

inkedIn (www.linkedin.com) differs from other social networks as it focuses on people in their professional capacity from the business, industry and public sector. A LinkedIn profile is very easy to set up and will be one of the first Google search results that appear if someone searches for you.

List your skills, gain recommendations, promote and share your extracurricular activities… There are several reasons why Vinay Singh recommends every teacher set up a LinkedIn profile.

Finding a LinkedIn profile that backs up everything you have told a principal or recruiter about your work history, eliminates panic and creates trust. LinkedIn, without question, is one of the best social media networking sites for students and professionals including teachers and yet many teachers don’t know how to use it properly especially when hunting for a job. A complete LinkedIn profile has the following components: • Your industry and location • An up-to-date current position (with a description) • Two past positions • Your education • Your skills (minimum of 3) • A profile photo • At least 50 connections Here are some reasons why you should be using it even when you have a job you love:

June 2017

Connect with old and current colleagues If you have friends and colleagues from previous employment or study experiences, LinkedIn is the place to reconnect. Having well-respected education professionals as direct connections on LinkedIn can go a long way. Maybe your next interviewer will have one in common... and just like that, you’ll have your foot in the door.

Consult experts Since LinkedIn users are searchable via name, position and institution, seeking out new potential contacts and reaching out to them with questions about experience about curriculum or lesson topics can be a breeze.

List your skills and gain endorsements from your connections Overseas and at home, teachers with specialized skills are a hot commodity. You can use LinkedIn to list your skills. Then your connections can see your listed skills and endorse you for skills they know you have. Teaching English as a Foreign Language listed as a skill and backed up with 25 endorsements looks a lot better than not having a LinkedIn profile.

Gain recommendations Gone are the days of requesting letters of recommendation from trusted colleagues. LinkedIn provides the space for others to recommend you based on your past employment and projects shown on your profile. Of course, if someone writes something you don’t agree with, it won’t be shown on your LinkedIn profile.

Promote and share your extracurricular activities

Do you have a blog about your classroom or a sports team that you coach outside of work hours? Relevant research or a side venture? LinkedIn is the place to share extracurricular activities that highlight your skillset. This is especially important for teachers looking to obtain employment abroad - extracurricular experience tends to be highly valued by placement coordinators and administration at schools around the world.

Follow influencers and companies LinkedIn has introduced features that allow users to follow influencers and companies that interest them. If you have a teacher or education writer you look up to, or an education council that interests you, there is a good chance you will find them on LinkedIn. It is a great place to engage in meaningful discussions, share what you read, or simply to gain insight on what thought

leaders are talking about.

Show work samples LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as documents, links, images, videos and presentations to the various sections of your LinkedIn profile which enable you to provide samples of your work and enhance your LinkedIn summary. One must remember that LinkedIn is not just for finding opportunities and improving professional career, it has usage beyond what we just think. Many people fail to realize that the features of LinkedIn are not only for employees in various sectors but also for teachers and educators. Educators or teachers will get expertise by actively participating in several groups of LinkedIn. The power of the platform can only be known once you use it. What are your experiences if you already use it? Do share it with us and we will be happy to share them with other educators.

Five tips for an awesome LinkedIn profile Always keep your profile name clean and professional Include a photo on your profile Write a meaningful headline Keep your work experience and education up to date Ensure that the summary is meaningful and comprehensible

June 2017

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Train Your Brain: TOP 10 APPS TO BE SMARTER TODAY Can smartphones be used wisely to benefit your brain? Absolutely! Donna A. Norton shows you how… We often hear how harmful the influence of gadgets can be—especially when they are inseparable from us 24/7. Some of us constantly argue with parents and teachers to show the benefits of smartphones; others are working to decrease their use. Even scientists have found pieces of evidence for both the negative and positive effects of smartphones. So what’s the truth? Can these gadgets be useful

June 2017

at all? The short answer is yes! Today we are here to show you 10 amazing ways to use smartphones wisely and benefit your brain. Here are the top 10 apps to be smarter in various areas—languages, mathematics, physics, psychology, history, and more. All of them are free to use and available on both iOS and Android platforms.

TED

Lumosity

Memrise

Elevate

Duolingo

Like to spend time browsing YouTube channels? Then just replace this procrastinating hobby with TED Talks! TED is a regularly updated collection of innovative lectures. Each video is usually just about 15 minutes long—which means you can watch them while having breakfast or waiting for the bus. TED is one of the greatest brain development apps. Why? Because it supplies you with the newest ideas in technology, science, and other important areas. The guests of the forum are remarkable speakers and representatives of the scientific world. The content is both inspiring and educational. By watching TED Talks, you will learn many new topics—for example, 3 Principles for Creating Safer AI and The Nerd’s Guide to Learning Everything Online can teach you a lot of new things. Playlists, podcasts, new speeches—all these are available on TED every week. It isn’t a brain stimulating game, but it’s still one of the most useful apps online.

If you are looking for the best mind games for iPhone or Android, Lumosity is something that you should try out. This app offers more than 30 top brain games, which have been developed with the help of 40+ university researchers. The app presents 6 categories: memory, attention, problem-solving, flexibility, speed, and language. Every day, the app offers 3 different games that are free to play. But you can always buy the premium version, too— 59.99 USD per year.

Language learning is a great exercise for the brain. Why? We know at least 34 reasons. The biggest benefit of Memrise is its use of mnemonic devices. If you are searching for apps to help with memory, pay attention to this one. Memrise will not only give you excellent examples of Chinese or Spanish language learning but will also train your long-term memory. Memrise is a great platform to compete with your friends while learning one of 200 languages. You can study anytime and at any intensity you need. Funny word associations will keep you in tune to continue training and increase your vocabulary.

With Elevate, you can develop many skills— memory, attention, flexibility, and more. But the main focus is on language. No, it’s not an app about language learning; it’s about the English language, and it’s perfect for both native and ESL speakers. Elevate presents five categories: writing, listening, speaking, reading, and math. Once a day, you get three free brain exercises to train your cognitive functions. Every game is pleasant to play and has perfect design. To get full access to other games, you must open a premium account, but even with the free version, there are many benefits and a lot of fun to be had. For example, everyone can see your performance—letting you and everyone else keep track of the progress of your exercises.

If you want to become a polyglot, this brain exercise app is a must. We all know that to learn a language, it’s necessary to spend at least five minutes practicing every day. Duolingo is the best brain trainer for those who want to learn Spanish, Greek, or Polish (many other languages are available as well). This app allows you to train your skills in listening, speaking, writing, and reading. There are several types of exercises in Duolingo—one teaches you how to structure sentences, while another helps you remember new vocabulary, and so on.

About Donna A. Norton When Donna A. Norton started writing in school, it literally changed her life and predetermined her profession. During her studies at Texas A&M University, she helped her fellow students with writing academic papers and sought opportunities to get published. Donna is proud to be a writer at Custom Writing Blog and enjoys traveling the world. She has visited many European and Asian countries and has even managed to take a few trips to Africa. Note: Scan QR Code for more information and to download the app.

June 2017

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Coursera

Peak

Curiosity

Feedly

Issuu

Education is the best hobby in the world, right? And the best way to spend your time with a smartphone is to visit Coursera. Coursera is the greatest resource for students and specialists—really, for anyone who wants to know something new. There is a great choice of universities and courses in such spheres as programming, biology, history, psychology, art, data analysis, and more. Many companies trust Coursera’s results regarding its users’ performances. You can even earn a certificate to prove your knowledge! Coursera is especially convenient because it’s also available offline. Just download the lectures you want and listen to them whenever you want.

Looking for brain games like Lumosity? Try Peak! Peak is a well-designed app that is helpful for developing cognitive functions. Just like Lumosity, it has several categories. Since the categories are different, though, it’s beneficial to use both. Peak helps you train mental agility, problemsolving, memory, language, coordination, attention, and emotion control. It has more than 40 amazing exercises, and you can track your progress with the help of various graphs. Peak also allows you to compare your results with people of various age groups and professions.

Are you a curious person? If the answer is yes, we have good news— now you have a brain booster app to make you smarter. Every day, Curiosity presents five fantastic facts for you to enjoy. With this app, you will learn how time travel could be possible, why swimming makes you hungry, and why one kind of caterpillar eats plastic. These daily facts, available in many different areas, are accompanied by several videos. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge. By the way, you can find a lot of interesting YouTube channels with the help of Curiosity.

Brain stimulating games are great, but reading is still the best way to search and find new information. Feedly is a unique app that stores articles and blog posts. You may have a lot of interesting blogs you want to read but don’t want to spend time checking all of them to see new publications. With Feedly, you won’t have this problem anymore. You can collect every piece of information in one place. You can even add YouTube videos! The biggest benefit of Feedly is that you can sort your posts. There are several ways to do it—by adding your blogs, scrolling through topics, or using your own keywords.

Magazines are a wonderful source of knowledge—as long as you know where to look for it. Some people think that magazines are just a way to entertain yourself. Remember all those times you have been waiting for a dentist appointment? There were people with magazines there for sure. But what about How It Works, Think, History, or Knowledge? These magazines—and many others—share a lot of information on scientific topics. Access to such knowledge is an exciting opportunity to become smarter every day.

Whether you are looking for a memory exercise app, brain games, or language training, you can find anything you want with almost no effort. In this article, we shared the top 10 apps to be smarter. But the point is—there are tons of similar programs out there! Find your own collections of articles, brain stimulation games, or language exercises. They will be just as useful as the trusted and exciting sources we have listed here. Use these fantastic apps and become smarter, but never forget to try new things!

Note: Scan QR Code for more information and to download the app.

June 2017