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Weekly Photo Challenge - "Lost in Details" - Finding My 'Special' Shine -

justanotherwakeupcall — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 09:28:28 +0000

Today I had an incredible experience!

Past few weeks I’ve being going through life on auto mode. I wake, I work, I eat, I work some more and at the end of the day I sleep. I usually like to go through life full force, cramming as much as I can into every second. Friends, family, work, play, writing….. But lately, everything seemed to have lost its sheen. I still continued to go through the motions but the spark went missing.

And then Today I found it again! In the most unexpected way.

A social service club I am a part of had an event in a school for the mentally challenged. I agreed (not very enthusiastically! I may add) to go along. The school a small one with only 25 children was housed in a single room building. There was a neat well-kept garden outside. The head teacher received us warmly and introduced us to the children and their parents.

Whenever I meet the parents of a special child, I am at a loss for words. I know it’s fashionable to say stuff like “Oh they are such a blessing” or “They are so special” (Which they undoubtedly are!) But in today’s time when everyone is so besotted with perfection- perfect scores, perfect looks, perfect children… I can’t help thinking “Yes! They are special. But where is the space for them?”

Back in the times when we still lived in villages, and aspirations were simpler. At least there was more acceptance of these children. Their lives were not much different from those of the ‘normal’ children. Like all other children they too loitered in the fields, played make-believe games, stole mangoes and tamarind and watched the world go by. Agriculture was the main stay and as adults most of these children could be gainfully employed on the family fields. But in today’s hectic city lives, the gap between them and the ‘normal’ has increased. In today’s times of “Little Champs” and “Young maestros”, the divide between ‘normal’ and ‘special’ has become vast. The mechanized, office based livelihoods available in our cities today, don’t have much room for their ‘special-ness’. And every time I have spoken to the parent of a ‘special’ child I have heard the same fear. “What will happen to my child after I am gone?” Who will look after her/him? Who will take care of him? How will he survive?

In a country like India. Where 70 percent people still live below the poverty line. Where the state machinery has failed to deliver meaningful education and basic health facilities to even its ‘normal’ citizens. What hope of a secure future do these children have?

I remember well the first case I was assigned as a student social worker with a school for physically and mentally challenged children (That’s what they were called then!) in Bombay. I was asked to visit an ‘uncooperative’ mother. I was told “she doesn’t take the child to the therapist for appointments.” When I reached her home – a small cramped hut located in the middle of a filthy slum near Bandra. The lady was making chapatis on a kerosene stove, two young almost naked children stood next to her and a baby hung by her breast. Needless to say, I didn’t end up delivering my reprimand. She gratefully accepted my offer to take the child for her appointments. “It’s not that I don’t want to take her didi but it takes up the whole day and I have to go to work too.” she said.

A child with special needs requires additional resources. Besides financial resources, these children also require more supervision, time and patience. Unfortunately a great number of these children are born in families that don’t have enough to fulfill even the basic necessities. The already limited resources of these families are severely stretched by the presence of a ‘special’ child. These families need and should be provided adequate financial, psychological and emotional support.

The Indian government does support establishing and running of ‘special’ schools. But the number of these schools is grossly inadequate. Many of them are not properly equipped to provide the various therapies these children require. And there is also the fear that confining these children to ‘special’ schools may reduce their interaction with ‘normal’ children and cause social exclusion. The focus thus, even in ‘special’ schools is on ‘mainstreaming’. By mainstreaming they mean pulling these children out of ‘special’ schools and absorbing them in regular schools. I don’t deny the need to mainstream and yet each time I approached a school for mainstreaming these children. I felt like I was abandoning them. Very few schools have ramp access or toilets to accommodate wheel chairs. Children, even teachers were not sensitized towards these children. Often calling them names and staring rudely. It’s no wonder that the children themselves never looked forward to being mainstreamed. Mainstreaming was just another word for ‘adjusting’ . Adjusting, to a world that was designed to exclude them.

I have always felt that the solution may lie in the attitude. If for instance instead of focusing on ‘mainstreaming the children we begin to focus on ‘specialising the schools’. We start to equip our ‘normal’ schools with facilities needed for ‘special’ children, both infra structural and attitudinal. As the schools adapt we can declare them as ‘regular schools with specialized facilities’. A special child crosses over many internal barriers to reach a normal school. The least we can do is ensure that when they do reach there they are welcomed with open arms.

I remember a conversation I once had with a young physically challenged man. He couldn’t walk and had to use a wheelchair to get around. He belonged to a well to do family and his parents managed to get him educated in the best of institutions in India. But he said that the first time he felt truly ‘accepted’ was when he went to an American university to pursue his Post Graduation studies. The university had researched on his particular kind of disability and modified his assigned accommodation according to his needs without any instructions to do so, even before he reached. His eyes filled with tears when he said “For the first time in my life I felt able not disabled”.

Our entire educational system is designed for the average, The average child is who we are concerned about. But an average child is a mathematical myth. An average child doesn’t really exist. Each child is unique. In our quest to treat all children as same we beat out their uniqueness till they fit into our pigeon-hole of the ‘average child’.

But I am digressing. As I am prone to doing each time I reflect upon the state of our children and our educational system. The post was about regaining my lost fervor. And that’s what I wish to share with you.

So here we were, six well turned out ladies from a social welfare group. After, dropping our ‘normal’ children in city’s most expensive schools. We had come here to meet these children and their parents, most of them from poor economic backgrounds. Most of these children were mentally challenged, many suffering from border line retardation. Quite a few of them had an odd gait, held their head in an unusual tilt. A few of them could not walk without support. The principal informed us as we reached that the children had prepared a cultural program for us.

When we walked in, we were surrounded by bright eyes and happy smiles. The children were dressed gaily. There was a buzz in the air as CDs were collected and mikes were set up. Cheerful banter was being exchanged. Mothers fussed over their wards as proud dads clicked pictures. When the program began, we were struck by the pure joy that these children brought to their performances. There was none of the self-consciousness that one associates with stage programs among normal children. The steps didn’t matter, there was no obsession over coordination or ‘getting it right’. Unchained by the expectations to be ‘perfect’ these children danced with abandon. They danced for themselves. And in doing so they made the experience memorable for us.

No matter how hard their life is there is a beauty in it. That one can’t help admiring. Their lack of ambition and self-consciousness makes one wistful, almost envious. Their innocence and ability to derive joy in the smallest of things makes one look around at the world with renewed wonder. Their unabashed joy rubs off on everyone, even my world-weary soul. And I find myself smiling. The world no matter how selfish and brutal is still a wonderful place. I find myself thinking “The key lies in not getting lost in the details of living. Instead we need to just slow down and enjoy the ride”

At the end of the program, we hand out the prizes. The children beam, the parents look on proudly. The warm glow I feel in my heart brightens me from inside adding sheen to my every thought. As I leave there is a spring in my step and I get the feeling that I received the biggest prize of all!!

Other posts on this week’s challenge

Introduction

Akshita Mehra — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:01:58 +0000

60% of the adult population in India is illiterate.

Adult Education aims at providing education to people who failed to receive elementary education. The idea of universal education can not be achieved if the masses, the adults are not educated. In my opinion, for a nation to be developed and successful it is largely important for the masses to be educated. Efforts have been made to make Adult education prevalent in the Indian Subcontinent for the past few years, but nothing has been implemented on a large scale.In the year 1952 the government had launched a social education programme under the Community Development Programme as part of the first 5 year plan, but today the National Literacy Mission is spreading Adult education throughout India.

Eradication of illiteracy has been a major cause of concern for the Indian Government since independence and it has been listed as one of the top priorities to improve our nation.

Most classrooms in India for low-income people (primarily children) have dark and dingy rooms with unbearable temperatures due to poor ventilation.There are no fans during the summers, no protection against rain in the monsoons and no doors to protect students from the winters. Buildings appear as if they would crumble any moment and they do not have any proper electricity, water or toilet facilities.

“Classrooms are in bad shape. There is lack of basic infrastructure facilities like libraries, laboratories and even lavatories,” the governor said while addressing principals, guardians and stake holders at the annual conference of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate” 2012. *Times of India,Kolkata

I strongly believe that this abysmal system can change tremendously by completely rethinking it from where it all begins – The School, Centre and Space. In this project I will be aiming at designing a space for the target market of 20 – 40 year olds. Other than teaching regular subjects this Learning Centre will also focus on Health, Self-Development, Social Skills, Family Planning and other recreational activities. It is still not very late for this change to come through and enlighten the minds of many.

Eventually this will widen every adults perspective and will help them fit in this challenging and dynamic world.

Swami Vivekananda has very aptly quoted “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor, who having been educated at their expense, pays not the heed to them. Our great natural sin is the neglect of the masses and that is the cause of our downfall. No amount of politics would be of any avail until the masses are well educated, well fed and well cared for.”

The purpose of teaching is to inculcate good behaviour and illiteracy is as good as a sin.

Prakash Jha on Hurdles in Life, Reservations, Films, Corruption, Education and More...

Charu Rastogi — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 07:46:50 +0000

On Saturday; 8^th December 2012, I got an opportunity to hear Prakash Jha, renowned film producer, director and screen-writer. He has made acclaimed political and socio-political films such as Damul (1984), Mrityudand (1997), Gangaajal (2003), Apaharan (2005), Raajneeti (2010), Aarakshan (2011) and Chakravyuh (2012).

As expected, Jha delivered a riveting speech. It made me think about social issues from a different perspective and I have reproduced parts of it in this post.

Hurdles in Life

Jha was asked that being a self made man, he must have faced many hurdles in life, so what advice would he give to the young generation for facing obstacles. He responded that he never faced any hurdles in life. He accepted whatever he got in life, learned from different situations and made the best of whatever resources he had.

Jha was born and raised at his family’s farm in Baraharwa, West Champaran, Bihar. He did his schooling from Sainik School and Kendriya Vidyalaya. Later, he joined Ramjas College, Delhi University to do B.Sc (Hons) in Physics. He said that in Bihar if you are a good student and go to a university, you face immense family and societal pressure to crack the IAS/IPS and settle down in a comfortable government job. However, Jha was not the guy to settle for the expected. His heart lay in painting and he he left studies after one year and decided to go to Bombay and become a painter, though while he was preparing for J.J. School of Arts, he happened to witness the shooting of the film ‘Dharma’ and got hooked on to filmmaking. He did odd jobs to survive from day to day, slept in beaches, pavements and worked in a restaurant kitchen for 9 months. By his own admission, he can cook professionally, thanks to his restaurant stint. He collected enough money to attend Film and Television Institute of India (Pune) in 1973 and has never looked back.

So in traditional terms, Jha faced several hurdles but the difference lay in his attitude.

Reservation

Jha was asked that his movie ‘Aarakshan’ ended rather abruptly, focusing on coaching centers, and if the audience could expect a sequel to the movie that would address the ‘burning issue’ of caste-based reservations in greater detail. Jha responded that while some had identified the second part of the movie to be focused on coaching centers, the director’s motive had been to draw the attention of the audience towards the rise of a new class; the moneyed class. This class refers to people who have enough money to send their wards to coaching centers in Kota or to buy seats in medical colleges in Karnataka. In his opinion, this moneyed class is the issue that is to be addressed now.

Regarding caste based reservations, Jha said that the day the Supreme Court passed the ruling calling for 47% reservation in government jobs, colleges, etc., reservations ceased being an issue at all. They have become a reality, a truth, a fact of life that we have to live with. This was a front where some affirmative action was needed and whatever the basis (caste rather than finances), we have a law now and there is nothing that can be done against it. Therefore, it is best that we learn to accept it and fight against the reservation of the ‘moneyed class.’

Films

Jha said that just as a singer expresses himself through his songs, an artist through his art and a dancer through his dance, he expressed himself through movies. Jha was asked if he would continue making movies that can lead to betterment of the society. He responded in his characteristic maverick manner saying,”Bhaisaab, movies paisa banane ke liye banati hai, samaj ki bhalai karne ke liye nahi.” He said that even he who made so many issue based movies, had to think about how he would keep the audience engaged for 2.5 hrs.

Jha said that we live in a country where 25 % of the wealth lies in the hands of the top 100 families, while 75% of the country lives in Rs. 30-35 per day. This difference is the root of all the problems that are plaguing this country. Remove this difference and corruption, naxalism, poverty and all other social vices would disappear. He elaborated further on naxalism saying that contrary to popular perception that all naxalites are anti-national illiterate tribals from the forests, some of the naxalites are recruited from among the educated crowd from universities as far as Nagpur.

Corruption

As per Jha, corruption is something that is ingrained in our blood, as a society and as a polity. His solution to corruption is to legalize it. He says that corruption raises its ugly head only when there are rules against it. He compared it with the censor board. If all restrictions are removed and people decide what to watch, the market would automatically fall in line.

In his native state of Bihar and in much of India, he says that corruption has become an accepted way of life. They don’t view it as something detrimental to the common interest because they are more focused on day to day survival rather than lofty ideals. He cited the example of a certain ‘Dagru’ a labourer in his native village of Champaran, Bihar. One time when Mr. Jha was visiting Patna, the Dagru, Mukhiya and Sarpanch of his village came to visit him. He asked about the well being of Dagru and was told that Dagru recently married off his daughter with the help of the sarpanch and mukhiya, who had helped him get money from the government under KCC scheme and crop insurance. KCC means Kisan Credit Card scheme under which a farmer can get small loan from the government for farming and crop insurance claim is paid when the crop fails. Dagru is a landless labourer. The money that he got from the government treasury against false papers and with help from corrupt babus and chairholders of the village was distributed between all involved parties. All of this was done at the expense of the government and the tax payers. Do they feel even a little guilty for duping the government? No, because it is the norm for them.

He also cited the example of National Rural employment guarantee act (NREGA) which promises hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Jha’s research around the country indicated that corruption has permeated the Nregs system as well. Money is paid to nonexistent persons for nonexistent work. In some places the same roads, ponds and wells are built again and again. Only a fraction of the money reaches the deserving and there is a shortfall of agricultural labor in villages because of this act.

He says that the market or ‘bazarwaad’ is the single most influencing factor of our times. It is due to the demand of the market and the flow of bribes from the market to the decision-makers that FDI bill got passed in the legislative houses. The politicians don’t care about the poor farmer or the shopkeeper, they do what the market wants them to do. Jha said that the scenario in our society is such that if a learned person like Swami Vivekanand would stand in a square with all his knowledge, philosophy and gyan there would be no takers because no corporater would back him.

Jha said that twenty-thirty years ago who would have thought that industrial houses would buy Rajya Sabha seats at Rs. 50 crore each, to establish their presence at the center and lobby for bills that promote their interests. However, that is a reality now.

Education

Market has its influence on the education system as well. In Jha’s opinion, engineers and managers are the only professionals that our educational system is churning out. There is no scope and no interest in humanities, core science programs or social sciences in the youth. Except for Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, which still has respect as a center of studies in subjects other than management and engineering, he reckons rest of the country has become stricken by a network of competitive exam coachings, engineering and business management schools. There isn’t a single university that has a reputation comparable to foreign universities for research in subjects like literature, history, etc.

Jha opined that nothing is more indicative of the rotten state of our education system than the respect accorded to the teaching profession. Nowadays the relationship between a teacher and student has become similar to the relationship between a service provider and a client. As a result only people who can’t make it in other professions come into this field. With the rise of private institutions the formerly noble profession of teaching has fallen into a state where teachers are torn between serving two masters; the institution and the students. Such is the state of affairs that we celebrate the money (annual package) that we get from our degree rather than knowledge itself.

He closed off his speech by saying, “Jis desh mein 75% log Rs. 30-35 daily par rehte hai, Mukesh Ambani Altamount road par Rs. 5000 crore ka ghar bana kar kya dikhana chahte hai?”

At Rachna's

Jas — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 06:28:48 +0000

There are few bloggers that you admire for their style of writing, few for their sheer audacity of challenging the norms, few for their ability to touch the right chords and few for how they garner massive readership. Rachna is one blogger that has it all and manages the fine balance with elan. A delight to read, her blog is truly a place where free thinking and progressive attitude prevails. You can also connect with her at FB and Twitter.

When she asked me to do a guest post for her blog, I was flattered, honored and for a while stunned too. Here is my little effort to bring into light a topic that is close to both of our hearts. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

Here is the link : Young Guns Or Gunning For The Young?

Those Awkward Moments - II

shaiitaan — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:00:47 +0000

Stereotypes. They’re everywhere aren’t they? I mean, Americans are dumb infadels, Indians are tech-support or Pakis, Pakis are terrorists, Asians are Chinese, Russians are mafia, Africans sell drugs and the Italians are the cast of The Sopranos. These are just a few racist-stereotypes which we’ve gotten used to lately.

They’re pretty funny actually, I don’t see why people get offended.

Before we go ahead, it would require me to describe myself, for you to get where I’m headed.

See, me, I’m South-Indian, I’m dark, tall, broad, built and my parents loved me more than the others’. That combined with the fact that I’ve been playing basketball all my life, which in turn means that I roam around in Shorts 95% of the time and couldn’t care lesser for “dressing up”. Also, being from a CBSE background throughout pre-school, school and college, I’m most comfortable conversing in English. I use the local language purely for abusing people.

In short, I’m unlike all or most Indians. Which brings me to one question, according to you, when I say tall, very dark, broad, well-built, exactly which group of people spring to mind?

Exactly, today my friends, we talk about the awkward moment when -

You’re South Indian and people from your own country think you’re African -_- .

It’s alright if it happens once you know. I mean, it’s acceptable if this happens in a remote village but in the metropolitans? Really?

Let us study 4 such incidents -

Saharanpur, Gujarat –

I’m an atheist, but for some godforsaken reason I decided to visit this remote Hanuman temple somewhere in Gujarat with a friend. We’re at a little shop outside the temple having a few smokes and cold-drinks, and I see almost everybody there staring wide-eyed at me. The stare wasn’t a negative one, it was pretty much the exact same stare the kid gives E.T when he first encounters him.

One of them eventually musters up the courage to walk up to me and asks, “Aap kaunse muluk ke ho?”(Which country are you from?, in Hindi), only to walk away disappointed when I replied, “Agar main bahar ka hota, toh mujhe Hindi samajh mein aati, chutiye?”(If I wasn’t Indian, how do you expect me to understand your question in Hindi, you moron?)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh –

I happen to visit Bhopal a lot. Essentially the same story here too, anywhere I go, it may be a walk on the street to a nearby eatery, or a visit to the mall, people look at me like I’ve just hacked down a 10 people with a machete, still walking with bloody clothes, the blade in hand and chunks of human carcass hanging from the side of my mouth.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

New Delhi, Delhi(Ironically,The Capital of my MORONIC country) -

I was in Delhi for a week, earlier this month, family vacation. Two significant events were encountered on this trip.

A)Woke up late, freshened up, Dad and me headed out to see the Qutab-minar, about half-n hour from where we were put up. I walked up before my father, out of the Hotel gates, 3 auto-rickshaw drivers jump out of their vehicles as if they popped out a hernia, walk towards me, asking me where I want to go, with the kind of English, hearing which Shakespear would jump right out of his grave, bitch-slap them and then stab himself in the ears and choke himself to death, again.

As I stood there trying to convince those nincompoops that I am indeed one of them, my dad walks out of the hotel. This group of dimwits then walk up to him and ask, “Saab! Yeh(pointing to me) kaunse desh ke hain?”(Sir, which country is he from). Are you kidding me?

B)We finally manage to get ourselves to Qutab-minar, beautiful structure that, even better complex, a photographer’s paradise.

Speaking of Photography, after imagining a particular picture in my head, I handed over the clicking duty to dad to go ahead and become the model myself, and then from nowhere, I was, well, ambushed by 6 dudes wielding ugly “digicams” requesting, “Sir, weeth uoo, 1 fotu, pleaz”.

So I stood there, for what was 10 minutes posing with the unknown group who were orgasming at the fact that they clicked pictures with a foreigner, as they took turns in clicking pictures from the various cameras.

Once they left, I turn around towards my Dad, and there he was standing with the biggest frikkin question mark all over his face, and I’m sure he saw one on mine, We stood there, for the next 2 minutes, looking at each other, trying to comprehend as to what in the holy hell had just happened.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And finally,

Mumbai, Maharashtra -

I have a bad habit of losing my mobile-phones. Lost three phones, one of which I lost twice, and drowned the other in the ocean, that’s material for a whole other piece.

On losing the phone I lost twice, for the first time, I headed to the local Police Station to lodge an official complaint. Also because I happened to know somebody in the Cyber branch who claimed he could help me track my phone.

So I reached the station early, did the needful and waited for my contact to turn up. As I waited, another officer in the adjoining cabin thought this would be an awesome time to make small-talk, again with what I can only describe as the abomination of the English language, “oh! You! Come here! Sit in my cabin! Soft sofa!” he said, in exactly the tone you read it in, in your head, and I’m like, “soft sofa? Fuck no, I’m cool right here”.

After replying to what I can assume to be questions by the tone with monosyllabic answers, my friend turns up, starts chatting with this other officer in Marathi(local language) and both start laughing.

Apparently the coppers had just busted a Nigerian group notorious for cyber-crime the previous day and Mr.Einstein over here thought I was one of them.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As I said earlier, at the end of the day, it’s all good. I mean, these stereotypes exist because there actually IS or WAS some relevance to them at some point, think about it with an open mind.

It’s all good, if it’s all in good humour, with friends. There’s a decent tone and a way of putting things which makes it funny without you sounding like a prick.

On a serious note, Racism is wrong, when its used for generalization with respect to a particular incident or activity. It’s awesome to have friends from different walks of life. You tend to exchange a lot of knowledge which makes you better equipped to deal with things in life and not remain to be an obnoxious racist ‘c’ word which rhymes with runt.

Everybody is entitled to be proud of their respective race, except if your white, then it’s being racist :p.

Cheers.

P.S – I would like to mention Aditya Tambe, who reminded me of the ordeals I go through being black in India :p . Cheers biyatch.

The school of thoughts...

Anirban Kar — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:09:33 +0000

For the young guns!

We often talk about how the education system of the Western World is much more effective in the overall growth of the students, and how this has not been replicated yet in our Indian society. We often crib at the task load that creeps up for the young students, even at the age of six or around, and the pressure that is created in the young minds.

Here is some food for thought dedicated to the young minds:

Reduce the burden in the basic school. The basic school (KGs to class III) in the morning shift should cater to the learning basics like English, Maths, and General Knowledge, while evolving the team spirit through proper sports and games. Each of the child psychology should learn to share and care for others. This is the time when you are learning fast, and the activities of the young minds reflect later.

The Middle school (Class IV to Class VII), should cater to the behavioural aspects that make up the personality in the long run. In this assessment, behavioural experts should assess what is the natural psychology of the student, and if it is better to pursue arts, science or commerce in the high school. Different types of the psychological games, should address this point. But the emphasis should always be on English, Maths and GK, in slightly advanced module.

The high school should master on content majorly. This is the time when the students grow to nurture their future aspirations and dreams. The student decides which way to go from there, and hence build up a rational thinking process. But advanced grammar and maths should be emphasized in this aspect, including advanced GK, till class X for non-science students, whereas the science students have advanced Maths.

More emphasis should be on the advanced applications of the subject at the end of the high-school level, even though the questions are objective in nature. A mix of the difficulty should be spread, and just like the few competitive exams on national level post-graduation, there should be three sets of questions – medium, difficult and advanced so that each type of students get their own set, and the results are normalized, according to the difficulty.

Grading and not percentage, is a much better option for the school level. Absolute percentage actually fosters high competition.

There should be at most 3 kinds of entrance exams all over India for meritorious students. IN engineering, I would prefer to say AIEEE, IIT-JEE, and state selection JEE, all of which are autonomous.

Allowances of 1-5 % of special children in the class room, so that they grow their mental aptitude in the natural environment.

Appointment of psychologists in the behavioural classes for middle and high school students.

Making of graduation in normal traditional streams in 4 years rather than 3 years.

Partial allowance of foreign universities in India, but allowing tie-ups for student exchange.

Professional mentors for top 5% brilliant and identified students, at all times for a proper guidance, including the visit of the motivational lecturers, from time to time.

Exposure to various clubs in the breaks during summer of Class IX and X from the school, somewhat like the summer camp. Not for class XI and XII where the mind might be distracted.

Professional speakers in every field like doctors, CAs or Engineers to guide the students of Class XI and XII for their dreams through motivational speeches by taking live examples.

The onus should be on the school for making a student creative right from his day one. In that case the students grow up with the freedom to express themselves a lot, and naturally get to know his strengths. This helps in fostering entrepreneurship in place, after a certain period of time. The students grow up thinking outside the box.

Natural growth should be emphasized at the schools rather than mugging or number crunching. This allows the thought process of idea generation get latent.

Right Brain vs. the Left Brain – Exercises at the school level should be done by teachers that simulate both the brains. Puzzle solving competition, drawing competition, debating, all should be a part of the curriculum.

Everybody talks of the mental strength, but none talks of the physical stamina. Some of the sports should attune to these aspects also, like sports and games in reserved periods.

If necessary, double promotion should be allowed at the lower stages of the school. This is again to normalize the growth of the minds of the students.

The students should evolve with the games of their own, like simulating a business, or a law school. Solving a small and distinct case, and so on. This is to give a flow to natural thinking, even though the thoughts generated are random.

Expose as much as in school. Given the time the children spend with their parents is less, the maximum impact should be through schools.

Let us wait for a better tomorrow!

CBSE assigns weightage to Value Education in Board Exams

meritnation — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:13:20 +0000

This academic year onwards, the Central Board of Secondary Education will be assigning 5% of the marks for value education in each of the core subjects in Class Xth and XIIth Board Exams. The questions will be for five marks in a 100-marks paper and for 3-4 marks in a paper of 70-90 marks.

Eg- A potential question in Economics is: a father in his will gives 40% each to his son and daughter and 20% to his servant who has been with him for long. Why has he done it and what is the value addition? 8 marks

The answer to this would be based upon Gender equality and charity.

Besides class Xth and class XIIth, schools have also been asked to select such relevant questions to be asked during the final exams for classes IXth and XIth.

The education system in India has been for long under the wrong light for neglecting the skill and value development of students and making them tunnel-visioned towards academics. CBSE in recent times has been taking many positive steps to address this concern. School heads have also welcomed the move, saying that the holistic development of a child holds greater importance over only academic development in the long run.

Cheers!

The Present Education System in India

NH School of Management & Technology (NHSMT) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 08:26:08 +0000

The Indian Education system is producing a large number of graduates that are unemployable. They lack basic communication and problem solving skills that are needed for even the most elementary jobs. The problem is not infrastructure or money. Indians are willing to invest in education and this investment is more than sufficient to create infrastructure for most Bachelor or Masters level courses. Except in very few technical fields such as medicine, fees paid by students are sufficient to provide good quality education. But clearly this is not what is happening. The problem is that a vast majority of Indian colleges lack the focus to create employable graduates. Their task, as colleges see it, is to help students go through a curriculum and pass an exam. After that, the student is on his own.

To change the way we treat education, we need to change this focus. Institutions that are involved in education must consider gainful and appropriate employment as the primary goal of their courses. This is especially true of courses in Technology and Business Administration, where colleges need to have strong and continuous interaction with companies that will employ their graduates, to understand what they require from their employees. Colleges must then make sure that their graduates have those skills. In today’s world, even a brilliant technologist will struggle if he is not proficient in English. A talented animator is no use if he cannot understand instructions. This is the way it is, take it or leave it. Most Indian colleges do not focus on employability and therefore are of no use to their students.

Building this focus requires three things: additional training, industry stints and real life exposure. We at NHSMT provide just these three things.

The current curriculum in India is out of date. It has great content from thirty years ago and does not take into account the fact that the world has moved on. Educational institutions have a choice – they can stick to the old curriculum, or fight a long and probably futile battle trying to change it. We at NHSMT believe that the most urgent need is to supplement the curriculum with additional training in new technologies such as online advertising, cloud computing and mobile apps development. We provide Earn while you Learn options with our industry partners that helps reduce students’ financial burden of education and at the same time enables them to gain precious industry exposure.

Changes will come to education in India, but they will take time. You, as a student, do not have the luxury to wait for education to catch up with the real world. Take your future in your hands and invest in skills that enhance your employability.

About The Author

Mr. Bhuwan Singh Atri is the Head, Academics at NH School of Management and Technology.He has a B.Tech degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. He also has 12 years of rich industry experience in top notch international organizations including Goldman Sachs, Infosys Technologies and Evalueserve where he has assumed leadership positions and contributed in a noteworthy manner.

The Right to Right Education Part 2

The Chocolate Warrior — Sat, 26 May 2012 05:33:16 +0000

Second was a more serious incident of a similar nature.

When I was in my final year, Z was my project guide. Z suggested me a topic and I started studying on the same. I was moving slowly with the project and at some point I was totally stuck. I sought help from Z. But Z could not help me as he/she was as stuck. Later I took the skewed ways again, modified my codes. Cheated again and got through all the project reviews. This is pretty common. But Z who did not know my gimmicks, assumed that my project was genuine and asked for a paper on that which he/she could publish. I was in a total fix again. But having no other way, I wrote a paper on my project and gave her.

In the mean time one of my friends in college asked for a technical article to be published in a technical E-magazine. So I decided to do half the work (I said I was lazy), I gave the article to my friend, added some diagrams, algorithms, results to it and gave it to Z. Z, I would assume went through the paper, verified it and sent it to some Science Journal (lets call it SJ) for publishing.

Few days later Z called me and showed me an email from the SJ. Now my name is Chocolate Warrior, assume people call me “choco”, and I study in “abc college”. Now what that mail from SJ was, that text in the paper submitted to them was lifted from a paper in a technical E-magazine published by some group in abc college and that was written by a person called Chocolate Warrior. The interesting things to be noted are, first Z has tried publishing the paper by her name alone. Which meant, the software SJ used to detect plagiarism in the papers submitted to them, decided that Chocolate Warrior’s paper was lifted to fill the paper submitted to them. Second, Z seeing the mail thought that I lifted the contents from some other paper. I clarified all her doubts, that both the papers were mine. But since SJ’s software cannot be overpowered, I had to re-write the paper again and give her. I rewrote it and give her.

Later I finished my college; joined in my first job a week later and a few days later Z gave me a call saying that SJ was happy with the paper (WTF???? That was supposed to be one shit of a paper and SJ was supposed to be a science journal) and needed few clarifications before publishing it. Z forwarded me a questionnaire which she got from SJ. Most of them were very straightforward questions, but Z could not answer them I answered them and replied Z. End of story. No more words from Z or SJ.

And on one fine day, may be a couple of months later, I was browsing hopelessly (I always browse like I am lost). I decided to check if anything further has been done on my final year project. I gave my project name and googled. The first result had some familiar names. That of Z’s. The paper was published by SJ. I opened the link; it showed the PDF of the published paper. SJ’s logo was broad at the top. I was so shocked, that I did not speak a word after that that whole day. Now if there was someone who can testify against that paper, it was me. I typed every single word in that paper. It was five and half pages of shit and nothing more. And Z could not find it, so was SJ. I will never forgive Z and SJ for this. Unfortunately SJ is a reputed and esteemed science Journal inIndia. Has the degree of education and Research gone down so much?

Nothing has changed since; Y has become a permanent staff of my college, which means Y now teaches more serious subjects than Comprehension. Z has successfully finished mentoring another set of students with their final year project. Probably those students are busy doing a paper for Z now. The thing is, these are quite funny events to look from outside. I was able to cheat (I don’t know why this word is a scrambled form of the word “teach”) them. The students get away with the shortcuts. And people, who are responsible, just stay blunt because they have no clue on what is happening. May be because, they don’t deserve to be there in the first place. And, all of this in not an ordinary college. My college is supposed to be one of the best in the state. My college has produced a former President of India. The man who invented voting Machine was its alumnus. Now my extraordinary college is churning out one ordinary student after another. I am just one among them. I am sure, this will be the state in most other schools and colleges. Does not this reflect the state of education in this country? Is it going to remain this way forever? Something has to give way.

I feel, as students we were cheated. I am not questioning here for the college fees I have paid over the last four years. I mean, I don’t want to treat Teaching as another profession. It is not another service providing industry where the consumers get to question the service providers. It is much more than that. Someone who understood so much once said, that the destiny of a nation is written in the classrooms. Someone whom I admire even more (It is fitting, this someone was a school teacher) said, make schools as models for temples.

And as someone who wanted to become a teacher and as someone who will become a teacher in some form, I have just one thing to say. This is a lovely profession. Probably, the best. For how many people get to shape a country like you do. Be true to it. Be good at it. Value it.

Because, if you believe in god, have this, Teaching is God’s own Profession. You are all his counterparts.

The Right to Right Education Part 1

The Chocolate Warrior — Sat, 26 May 2012 05:18:34 +0000

No, that was not a typing error. It is double “Right”. You read it “Right”. The second “Right” in the title means being “Right”. Yes you are “Right”, it means correct. Leaving this kind of shabby writing for now, let us accept the fact, that the blogging world is filled with articles that press the issue of Right to Education. So is the print world. In fact, every amateur writer I have seen/known seems to have written about it sometime or the other. There are the heavily infected policy makers of these country making rules and laws about the same. Add to it, our power hungry movie stars, who spend a rupee for someone’s education, advertise it by five more rupees. Some may even remember an IPL team owner bringing school kids to an IPL match showing her support to the serene cause. And of course, on the other side, there are very commendable efforts from unknown individuals (or people who don’t want to be seen or known), some NGOs that focus on this big issue. But what I am going to speak here is, according to me an equally serious issue. Let us face it;Wrong Education is as serious as No Education.

Yes, Wrong Education is at least as serious as No Education. By saying Wrong Education, I mean the any kind of knowledge transfer that is given by incapable or unwilling people to any kind of audience that serves a temporary purpose of getting the things done for then and does not really do any good to the audience or their surroundings in any real sense. Result- an Education System that is in place, just because something needs to be there, Professors teaching because they do not find a job with an MNC or find the teaching job much lesser complicated, lesser demanding and better paying than the other jobs outside and which all lead up to Students studying because they feel they have no alternative. This, in a country supposed to boast largest youth power.

We will share a totally irrelevant joke for now, STUDYING = STUDENT + DYING! Now jokes apart, I always wanted to be a teacher. I will one day be. For now, I want to pick out two incidents from my college to show you people what the status of engineering education in India is. Am very sure, this kind of infection exists in every other discipline, course and institutions all through the country. So this might as well be your story. Keep reading.

I will not use the names of the professors/Lecturers involved. Not of fear, but as I said the purpose of this article is to show where we stand as a community that wants to be educated rather than pointing fingers at others.

First incident involves me and Lecturer Y. Lecturer Y did his/her Post Graduation from the same college where I did my Under Grad. Y joined my college’s teaching staff as a temporary Lecturer when I was in my second year. Y took us a paper called comprehension in my third year. Now those of you who did engineering will know about this paper. This subject is a blend of all core subjects that we had studied in the last few years. We had a Continuous Assessment System by which, we should write few periodic tests whose marks will be considered for the final grades. The first few assessments for the Comprehension Paper were normal tests and for the last, Y wanted us to form groups of four, and present a recent IEEE paper relevant to our department. We could form the groups among ourselves and choose any IEEE paper to present. I too was in a group.

After coming to college, I had come to believe the fact that I am the fourth laziest person in the world. Unfortunately the top three in that list were in the same group too. So which meant, I had to choose, study the IEEE papers and help the other three with organizing the presentation (as to decide what they should present, how and stuff). I had seen few IEEE papers before, and heard a few things about them. They contain pretty serious stuff and needs deep understanding of the basics so as to even make a good attempt at understanding the paper. As I said, the laziness cost us a lot of time, so there we in the last week trying to figure out what on earth was wrong with us. So I decided to make an IEEE paper. Yes, I distinctly remember one of my simulation projects for an Engineering Lab. It was a beautiful simple concept. Interesting and gave a lot of scope to present. I had one very informal white paper on that which I got from internet. I decided to forge that to make it look like an IEEE paper.

So the plan was to put an image (we were too lazy even to type it) of the whitepaper into a Word document, cut and paste some IEEE header from a recent IEEE magazine and print the document and present it. When I put the contents into the document, I found that it did not have enough content for four of us, so I put some code from my project into the paper and now the “IEEE paper” was six or seven pages long and had enough stuff for four of us to speak. We went to her presented the paper, got our grades, passed. We had our degrees last year, now all the four of us are in some decent jobs.

But, when I made that paper, I did not realize that

1. IEEE always had the double column format where as the paper I copy-pasted had a single column format.-Y did not know this.

2. IEEE papers might contain some algorithms at the maximum, they never contain code as I had put.-Y did not know this.

3. The Paper we presented had many more serious issues from concept to presentation.-Y could not find out even a single mistake with us.

So some one who was teaching Engineering Students did not know how an IEEE paper looks like.

A reminder to the Sage of Bengaluru

bargad — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:18:02 +0000

Professional journalist and occasional documentary filmmaker John Dayal has been a human righ

India - young and old

abirami — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:27:30 +0000

Few days back i was participating in a TV talk show – the topic was ‘ whether youngsters

Does Education matters ???

Vijay — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:42:41 +0000

Our Batch for 10th Standard.

Childhood days were days of great dreams, dreams of becoming big, in haste to grow up we would imitate ourselves like grown ups, learn their body languages of grown up people whom we then idolize, habits which stuck up with our persona and in turn swayed us away from our own originality.

The common career trend in our childhood days was to study hard, become either doctor or engineer. It was a profession of repute, it still does is. IT, Biotech, Hospitality or other similar sunrise industries which we see now was not even heard of in the 80′s. Schools and Education was the main source of achieving what we’d then dreamt of, of becoming big. We would be pampered, cuddled, forced to study, study even harder. The boy or girl earning more percentages then us would be envied upon by parents, and at times hated by us, for because of them, we were being looked down and forced to do what we did not particularly liked much – to study.

Childhood days were of forced education i guess, because most of the times we kids did not understand what we have learnt, so just mugging up was what we used to do. But, as we grew up we started to cope up with the system and learnt more precisely what we were required to. Education then we thought was the only thing that can change lives. Education is important, but, it is not the only thing that can change lives, is now what i believe, your attitude, your experiences, your approach can also change things upside down.

We were in our tenth standard and it was the final year of our secondary education, a make or break year that could shape up our future permanently. Obviously, we all were very serious about the year. Coincidentally, the school in which we were enrolled was a new and our school wanted to prop up the best of results, the teachers exulted extra pressure on us to perform better. We all were a good batch and were expecting a good result for the school and ourselves. There were a couple of students who not so good enough, teachers pressed them hard to study.

Then there was this boy, who had different ideas, he was average in studies, he had good dreams, dreams of college life and the fun of it. He would study as hard as us. After the exams he was the boy who rushed to various colleges to collect admission forms, and he had scouted around 25 different colleges & collected forms in that one month of vacation.

Soon the D day arrived, and we all waited with anxiety for the results. At around 5.30 pm the teacher came with the results and declared the results, just the basic result of pass or fail, in the class of forty, only three students failed to pass the hurdle that evening , it was a good result by all measures. We were jubilant and it was one of the happiest moments of our lives.

But as our happiness sunked in we soon realized that the boy was nowhere around, we understood that he had failed the exam, the boy full with dreams to enjoy the college life could not have gone to college that year, he was broken, he was nowhere around. He was my best friend, he still is, after so many years, we were actually a gang of four. So we three friends rushed to our homes to find him, we checked up with our parents whether he was seen in the locality, the happiness was now replaced with tension, tension that this emotional boy might end up taking some drastic steps. We reached his home and inquired with his mother whether the boy turned up, the anxious mother said no and asked what was the matter and about the result. We lied to her that the results would be declared tomorrow morning and made a hasty escape. Now, we were really tensed, where would this boy have gone after all. We confided the story to one neighborhood uncle who was very close with us. He too now joined the search for this boy. Our search finally took us to the secluded railway tracks, where we found a faint shadow of a boy sitting all alone on the tracks for the train to arrive, we ran towards him, as we went near and near we found that he was the boy whom we were searching for so long. As the boy saw us, he became unusually aggressive and started shouting us to stay away from him, he picked up stones from the track and started throwing it at us. His anger might surely have hurted us, then the uncle came in front and said “…son, you want to harm me, come throw the stone, hurt me”, saying so he kept on moving closer and closer to the boy. The boy could not have hurted the uncle whom we all liked so dearly. He helplessly hugged the uncle and wailed and weeped like it was the end of the world for him. Somehow, just somehow, we were able to convince the boy that it was certainly not the end of the roads for him, we managed to bring him back to his house and then we told his parents what had happened. They were also broken. Time, as we say was the cure, the boy recovered from the failure. No he did’nt study further or re-appear for the exam. But that did not deter him from achieving his goals.

We are still in touch with each others, sometimes, the boy who is now a man, a father of two, becomes nostalgic, comes to the locality, he now stays in other suburbs, he becomes sentimental, takes me down the road where it all happens, once he even took me to the track where he was going to give up his life. He once thanked me and my friends for saving his life.

Today, the boy is a successful businessmen, he is a Wealth Consultant, last time when i visited his office, i found fifteen employees, mostly graduates and MBAs working under him. The boy in a jovial tone told me, you friends went to colleges to complete your graduation, i plunged into this field and today i employ graduates like you under me, come you too leave your job and join me, i will pay you more than what you earn.

The joke he did somehow hurted me, for i somehow felt that i spoilt some fine years of my life learning the subjects which were never of any use to me. The history of world some six centuries ago that i learnt, is of no use to me, the geography – the easterlies, the westerlies, the physics, the geometry the trignometry nothing, nothing helped, i never understood what Pythagoras, nor did i ever understood the laws of the elements, the law of probability, but still i mugged up just everything and scored handsomely. What was the use of such education ?

The boy on the other hand, utilized these precious years gainfully to learn life, to learn people, to learn trade and today he succeeded, he earns atleast five times better than me today. Money is not the factor, the confidence the boy gained is worth appreciating, the command in his tone, the way he presents himself is worth appreciating.

So the pertinent question that lingers to me, is education, the way that it is taught in this part of the world really helpful ? For the kid mugs up the entire year, reproduces it during exam and the next day he gets blank, he learns nothing in the process. In a way he learns the topic by heart but nothing ever touches his heart. Thankfully, some steps are being now taking to overhaul the education system, I guess it was long long overdue.

Education system in India: the circle of cut offs, competition and domination

Shubhda Chaudhary — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:22:37 +0000

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury today told NDTV that the present scenario of sky-high cut-off would have kept even Shakespeare out of college.

Sarcastically, would Shakespeare even exist now?

The recent news that SRCC’s first cut off percentage is 100 is indeed irrational and ridicuolous. Shri Ram College of Commerce, indeed is one of the top notch colleges in the highly esteemed Delhi University. During my growing years in DU, I realised two simple facts.

1. The university, college and the so called brand, has nothing to do with the education you attain. What might differ from college to college is perhaps the quality of lecturers and the entrepreneurship development which an insititute can provide to the students. Every year, in June, I never understand why the same paroxsym of competition swallows everyone. The impact and longevity of education is ruined by the marks. Human psychology is greatly altered by how a growing child is accustomed to the real world of higher education. All roads lead to Delhi, especially in North India. But then, what after that?

Unfortunately, I met several brilliant minds during my three years who were into the best branded colleges by sacrificing the best courses. What difference does it make in the end, if you did a B.COM from SRCC or from Aatma Ram College? Oh yes, the student might not be in the ‘posh’ and ‘popular’ culture but does it really matter? I have not heard of a single personality from DU who had been able to make his/her mark by being a very famous figure in the peers.

2. Lists after lists, cut offs after cut offs, have now become the reputation of a college. The sleepless nights, the pressure, the competition forces the student to have a one track mind. Its only books and studies. What about the over all development? What about being more than a mere scholar? What about your logical thinking and aptitude. There are hundreds of engineers and doctors graduating every year. Where do you make the difference in the list? What mark do you leave? What inspiration are you?

Everytime I thought about these questions, I slowly got to know that there are no answers. I wonder, when life would change from being a stereotypical ritual to something more concrete. Something, which is not juggling between trying to live up to your family’s expectations or trying to avoid their respective mistakes.

‘Impact of education’

Right now, we dont see it. But these three/ four years of college life have the power to completely change the individual within us. The changes do not come on the surface at the very moment. It takes times, a lot of time. And this measurement can not be done by what package you get, the company you work for. It all matters to what is exactly happening ‘inside’ of you.

Who is going to make a change? When are we going to understand the stark difference between education and literacy? When would this vicious circle of ‘All that glitters is gold’ going to end. Not every student can fight for their ambitions. Not everyone can relish it.

>'India has exam system, not education system'

Jamshed Siddiqui — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:15:00 +0000

>In the thick of the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch to the Prime Minister from his own scientific adviser has termed such tests as one big menace. Strongly recommending an immediate halt to the system of sitting for a pile of exams, Prof. C.N.R. Rao, who heads the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SACPM), said in a letter sent last week that the American method of holding one national exam before joining university is the way.

Putting it bluntly, Rao told the PM that India is said to “have an examination system but not an education system… When will young people stop taking exams and do something worthwhile?” Referring to the exam overdrive, Rao briefed Manmohan Singh on the various flavours of examinations that dot a student’s life: “It is important to relook the entire examination system including the system of final examinations, entrance examinations, qualifying examinations, selection examinations, and so on. Now one hears of a proposal to have a qualifying or accreditation examination for medical graduates and post-graduates.” Students who groan under the pressure of multiple entrance exams will cheer this advice.

Citing the example of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by IIT, he said: ” IIT entrance exams have the reputation of being difficult and purposeful, but they have also had a negative effect on young minds. Young people suffer so much to succeed in these entrance exams, and in the process lose excitement in education itself.” The lakhs who don’t make it across the IIT gates, Rao told the PM, get exhausted and can’t perform as well as young people with fresh minds.

Talking about the agony that the Indian higher education sector is in, the SACPM, in a brief document sent to the PM recently – accessed by TOI – noted, “Today there is not a single educational institution in India which is equal to the best institution in the advanced countries”. In view of the growing number of aspirants for higher education, the SACPM has readied a 10-point checklist of key problems and challenges. It has asked the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) to set up a taskforce to come up with an action-oriented document within a year.

“We should seriously consider a possible scenario wherein the young India advantage enables India to emerge as the provider of trained manpower for the entire world in the next 20-30 years. This could be a worthwhile national objective,” he told the PM. Rao’s checklist for higher education include:

Raising the bar: Provide all required support to 10 educational institutions to enable them to compete with the best in advanced countries.
Look ahead: There’s a manpower mismatch in many countries with too many professionals in some subjects. Prepare a vision document which foresees the problems 20 years hence.
Inclusivity: Increase the number of fully residential schools up to higher secondary level in rural India to nurture rural talent.

Source: The Times of India, April 14, 2011

Education System in India: My Perspective

Rajneessh Kumar — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:18:36 +0000

Here are some excerpts of my comments on a discussion going on Linkedin.com. The discussion was started by Sanjeev Nagar, when he raised a point, “When the industry says–Students are not ‘Industry ready’, what are the parameters?”

For me the question was very interesting and important in a way, so I started with the following comments:

COMMENT-1:

Rajneesh Kumar •

The strange vantage points are in the air. Who is the culprit?

Yes, very complex it is.

At one end is the supply side, which is producing students/candidates who are seemingly not fit for professional/industry-jobs. They are focused only in numbers of admissions and revenue collection; Education & its quality of delivery & content is least important in their considerations.

At other end, the demand side is Industry itself who is supposed to absorb what is being supplied to them. Who is the culprit? Either none or both.

What does give right to so called industry people, to make a fuss about ‘they are not industry ready’ or ‘Educational institutions are not incorporating industry inputs’? If it is attitudinal problem, then it is with both sides.

How many times you’ve find that HR departments are really doing the job of developing the Human Resource? When are they doing HR in larger strategic context?

In India, the HR is just reduced to fill up (quick-fix) the left vacancies. The approach to mentoring and succession and talent acquisition is widely & extensively missed. When the HR parameters are only meant to quickly fill up the vacant job, then how can they over emphasize it and expect it from the new-comers. Some times it would take only 3-6 months for a reasonable candidate to develop as per the exact requirements of an organization, but why to spend these 3-6 months’ salaries on a candidate, instead they opt to ready-made solution to their current problem.

How many working professionals are granted a leave/vocation of 6 months to 1 year for sabbaticals or skill-enhancement without worrying for their jobs when they come back? None.

It is ruthlessness that is at the core of such non-alignment. Another thing, very very very few people have actually EYE to spot the talent of any kind–regardless of what it is? Most of the working professionals would curse the management/HR for not being able to chalk a growth-path for them. They witness everyday phenomenon that good jobs are filled up by getting a professional from outside of the company, not by developing the inside talent or succession planning. Are they not ‘Industry Ready’?

Remember it is all chaos there.

Who the culprit is?

COMMENT-2: The First Area Of Thought

Rajneesh Kumar • No one seems to be able to put his/her finger on the real causes, because it is far too complex and messy. Let us get the movement of thoughts correctly. First, I would re-mention the initial point made by Arnabb Bhattacharjee, “Who’ll take the pride to make students Industry Ready….. ?” Please ponder upon the underlying issue here little deeply.

Here are three segments involved–Academia, Industry and The student. Out of these three who should take the onus of making students ‘Industry Ready’. This is the first thought area.

If the academia is not serving with Job-oriented knowledge & skills, does the onus of making himself/herself industry-ready lies only with the student? When the Industry itself is not able to define well what it needs from a new-comer coming out of Academia, does the onus of making himself/herself industry-ready still lies only with the student?

Yes, when the academia and industry both are NOT serving the objectives well, you would state that now the onus of making himself/herself industry ready is left with the student only. That’s exactly what is happening.

Even if you observe all the comments starting from the origin of this thread to the last comment including my own previous comment, we have just presumed that the major onus lies with the student only. Please note: THEY ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO DO IT ALREADY. When they are not able to get what it needs to be industry ready, they are opting for all possible kind of vocational-training institutes. But again this segment of the equation (fourth one) is also not doing its job well; they also are not able to make students industry ready even after charging huge prices. (I myself have worked for this segment for last 11+ years). What else do we all expect the student to do? That’s not fair.

I strongly believe that we should spare the student from this equation, because he is already trying his best whatever way he can.

Now we are left with three remaining segments of the equation. Lets deal with them one-by-one.

Please observe my follow up comments.

COMMENT-3:

Rajneesh Kumar • The Second Area Of Thought

Academia: They are the institutions who are being governed by UGC or various Universities or Govt. Departments, usually not having any control over their syllabus or content they deliver. This is a kind of hindrance as far as adopting the specific requirements of the industry is concerned, as Manish Aggarwal has correctly indicated. Even the privately managed institutions face the similar problems.

Here we have two-fold problems. One, there is the absence of mechanisms at academic institutions or bodies to incorporate industry requirements into syllabus. Another thing, the people whom we meet at academic bodies usually, are not those people who would have necessary authority or access to bring about desired changes in their curriculum or teaching methodologies.

Even if they have, they would not be able to weight the various skill-requirements expressed by industry-people. For an example, if during a campus interview season, say 5- IT/Software Development companies visit the institute (for BCA/MCA), and each company indicates 5-different skills which should be emphasized–JSP & EJB, .Net/ASP, C & C++, Linux & Java, SQL Server & Oracle. Now you tell me that how can the academic people be able to bring about changes in their BCA/MCA curriculum. They would say that they were already teaching all these things. Where is the problem? The problem is that they are not able to assign right weights on these 5-set of possible areas of skills, even the 5-companies cannot assist them here, because for each of them their generalized opinions or requirements are more important over others. Similar problems are faced when different soft-skills are emphasized in general.

Please observe my follow up comments.

COMMENT-4: The Third Area Of Thought

Rajneesh Kumar • Rajeev Jain has correctly stated in his comment, “Just like not everyone in the industry is really competent to give right inputs to academia”; I would like to add that “Most of those in academia are really not competent to train students as per corporate needs”.

Industry: Most of the industry-stated requirements are highly lucid as far as Technical Skills are concerned, and change very very frequently. Even the other so called emphasized parameters such as Communication Skills, Attitude, Hard work, Awareness, Global Outlook, etc are mere generalized opinions expressed by people who have crossed the threshold.

But the fact of the matter is that even the people sitting in corporate board-rooms are not able to define their skills’ requirements in clear & exact terms. Even if it is done, it is most often based upon emergency or short-term needs; never from a broader perspective or strategic orientation. Most of the time, they don’t make right assessment of the un-utilized skills of their current manpower in a way that many people working with them are rendered as ‘Not Industry-Ready’.

A Gross fact about the way the Industry operates in India, is that we just have misplaced importance on finding out ‘WHAT’ to do for our businesses, and in the process we have lost the correct importance of ‘WHO’ (read: people) element in our thought processes. Once we start making right definition (to our HR) of what type of employees we want our company to acquire and nurture, then we would be able to define what base-level of skills these prospective employees should have to join our companies. Only then our Industry would be able to train them over specific skills and groom them for particular requirements.

Please observe my follow up comments.

COMMENT-5: The Fourth Area Of Thought

Rajneesh Kumar • Vocational Training.

The whole ideology of Vocational Training has lost its very meaning in India. The failing of Academia was the gap these vocational training institutes were supposed to fill up, but did they? I don’t think so. If Academia is plagued by bureaucratic pitfalls & lack of skills, the vocational training segment is plagued heavily by money-motivation.

Because of the fundamental model they adopted or better to say, forced to adopted, they followed the foot-prints of giants like NIIT, Aptech etc, essentially making such institutions money-spinning machines only where the student has been treated very unfairly. Not only he had placed more faith over these institutions, but paid very heavily also in the expectation that they would assist him in acquiring skills which Academia failed to do. The end we pursue here is Money, Money and Money only, whereas it should have been Job-placement, after making him Industry-ready. The mean we focus is students admissions/enrollments (in terms of numbers), where the mean should have the process of delivering skills.

Just floating a new company and making a curriculum by copying the contents from books or competition and then tweaking it a little to claim it as your original content is the vicious starting point for such ventures. Ideally it should have come from very close understanding of the industry segment it wishes to cater to and SHOULD BE BACKED BY HARD SURVEYS & FINDINGS ABOUT INDUSTRY REQUIREMENTS ON ON-GOING BASIS. Merely claiming so would not solve the problem.

The identification of crucial contents should go a little deeper and some more pain should be taken.

How?

Lets take an example, if we find that in our curriculum of computer/IT course, JSP & EJB, SQL & Oracle should be emphasized, then the real job is not only to include those subjects (macro-contents) in our curriculum as they might already be there, but the real job & a badly managed area is to find out the most crucial aspects/skills/knowledge about these technologies (micro-contents) which should be well inculcated in the students so that they don’t miss the most crucial aspect of the expected skill.

Assigning the importance to various competing factors/sub-contents (macro and micro-contents) should be the most important cog in the design of Vocational Trainings as well as Academic qualifications, but it is sorely missed in our systems. And it should not be done by academicians or faculties or departments, it should ‘essentially’ stem from the industry research only.

Then the most important thing would come from the PROCESS of how we deliver the correctly identified industry expectations or skills or contents–not only one time, but every single time, in every single city.

Do you feel if any of three segments we discussed in this section, has a right mechanism in place anywhere? NO–I hope we all would be agreeing.

SUMMING IT UP:

If we are seeking to bring about the right changes in the system (on smaller or larger level), then we should not think of identifying few most important parameters to change or to include so as to make the student Industry-ready. We may end up building a laundry-list of parameters to think about and we would be confused as ever, wishing to do something right, but not being able to.

Instead, regardless of what segment of the equation we are serving, we should only think of bring about ‘Inside-Out’ improvements in our relevant processes. Because only 2-3 or 4 factors are NOT to be changed, but just about every thing calls for ‘continuous improvements’ there. Yes, the Continuous Improvements is the key!

And it must come INSIDE-OUT only, which could be brought by RIGHT PEOPLE only. No other way round!

Thank you all,

COMMENT-6: (made after many days)

Rajneesh Kumar • I had been continuously observing this thread from the time it started, but it was quite disheartening to see that for last 5 days, no gentleman has added any more comments here.

I don’t know what Sanjeev (Initiator of this thread) has got from the discussions till now. Though we all have appreciated the comments we received from all the gentlemen, but where we do stand now as far as this issue is concerned.

Have we got a concise list of parameters we were seeking? If yes, should it be shared or compiled?

Don’t know….

Is there more clarity about it now?

Don’t know…..

Is the issue still very complex in our minds as was earlier?

Don’t know…..

Is the future of students or industry readiness still unpredictable?

Don’t know for sure…….

Gentlemen, we all are agreeing on one point that this issue is close to our hearts, but so is it to every informed citizen. In general, they also don’t have a clear-idea of parameters this question of industry readiness raises. How can we, a small bunch of people?

Sharing views on this thread is a thing, but being equipped with essential methodology to bring about necessary information is quite another. Please ponder upon this fact that we individually are not equipped with necessary skills to dig this information out. We believe that we all in ourselves are informed citizens having opinions just about anything. We are……………………….but so is the case with Academic & Industry Stalwarts. Where is the difference? No Difference.

As we are not equipped correctly, they also are not. Thus I believe very strongly that acquiring such skills….which can assist in digging this information out…..should be our first step in moving in this direction. We also need to endorse the fact that the information we are seeking is not static in its nature, rather very dynamic. It would vastly vary in its scope & importance as per the domains in question.

But whatever we can do or would do, our grand guiding philosophy should be based upon the principles of Product Development. The students/candidates should be treated in our thought process as Product in themselves, made to meet the requirements of Industry, the customer, per say. Products are not system or process in themselves, they are mere output. Their failure to meet industry requirement in any case is not their failure, it is the failure of school, college, and institution producing them. This was the reason when I wrote that they should be kept out of equation (previous comments). Until we do this, we would conventionally keep blaming students for their failure to become industry-ready.

Another thing, Manpower requirement projections done by IDC, Nasscom or any other body have very little meaning. For last 10-12 years, I have been witnessing these data, but they don’t get translated in improved Education delivery system. They are there for long…….

Lets see another facet of data, Education system & major players are ONLY interested in one data, i.e., business potential of education segments. For example, nowadays K-12 segment is the focus of all education plans, but only because of its magnitude of size and business potential, not for the question we are wrestling with. They want to harness technology to en-cash the business potential actually. Digitalization or animation of contents is hallmark of the day today….. Who is equipped with what expertise, and where they would lead the students and us…..I don’t know…

Above all, we all need to do a rigorous reality-check first.

Please continue to write on this thread, it is important. It’s an obligation.

Thank You all.

(You can visit to this discussion on the following link and contribute: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=40924744&gid=938347&commentID=31887388&trk=view_disc)

EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA

codename9 — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:28:30 +0000

Educational technology has few dull moments and nowhere is this truer than in India. The intriguing history of India’s love-hate relationship with the one- laptop-per-child idea now has a new chapter with the announcement of a $35 laptop by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal.

In 2006 the late Sudeep Banerjee, then Education Secretary, said categorically that India disapproved of Negroponte’s one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) project. Calling it ‘pedagogically suspect’ he urged that the money be spent on universal secondary education instead. ‘The OLPC may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child’, he said, ‘we need classrooms and teachers more than fancy tools’.

Yet in the same year that it rejected Negroponte’s American OLPC, the Indian Government claimed that it began working with its high-powered institutes of science and technology on a road map leading to a $10 laptop. It seems that by following this map they have now reached the milestone of the $35 laptop.

I am proud to say that COL, through my colleagues Ramamurthy Sreedher and V. Krishnamoorthy of our Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) in New Delhi, has travelled part of the way with the Government of India on this journey. I report on our own functional cheap laptop in another blog.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the $35 laptop has been received with a mixture of scepticism and hostility. Criticisms come from three perspectives:

Sour grapes from the original Negroponte ‘$100-dollar laptop’ (OLPC) project;
Questions about the functionality of the machine – what is really ‘under the hood’ for that price? Just as stone soup requires more ingredients to make a nourishing meal, critics suspect that this machine needs more features – and more money spent – to be useful;
Observations that the issue in computing for children is not the price of the hardware but rather the thought and infrastructure required to make it educationally effective at scale.

These laptop projects follow a similar pattern. In the early days of OLPC, Negroponte insisted that it was ‘about (constructivist) learning, not laptops’; yet today his project is engaged in a desperate effort to sell the machines. Similarly, India seems to have forgotten Sudeep Banerjee’s doubts about pedagogy.

As the World Bank’s Mike Trucano, a wise observer of the educational technology scene, has noted: ‘A disconnection is apparent between the rationales most often presented to advance the use of ICT in education (to introduce new teaching and learning practices and to foster “21st century thinking and learning skills”), and their actual implementation (predominantly for use in computer literacy and dissemination of learning materials)’.

Reference: http://www.col.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=62

After reading it all followed by a thought on the current scenario of educational system in India, it unfortunate that:

Citizens are deprieved of education due to financial and social issues, which gets their footsteps on the path of crime. The current educational system , the response from students and the influence of external factors raises a question on how far the coming generation would be able to balance the responsibility of Superpower India?

1. What do you feel about the vision of present Indian Education System, if any ? How far do you agree with it ?

2. How far and in what direction is it shaping the future youth/leaders of India?

3. What are the ills of the present educational institutions ?

4. How can we develop sprituality in our education system / institutions ? (Honesty, Integirty, Selfless service and ethics)

5. What kind of training is needed by our educational system leaders ?

6. What should be the financing model of our education systems so that the quality of education will be the ultimate objective ?

7. What is the nature of political interference and external factors in our educational systems ?

8. What do you feel about the distance learning programme, online education and globalization ?

9. Do you feel there is a corruption in our educational system? How can this be curbed ?

Amartya seeks values' rehaul to remove gender bias

parulsabherwal — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:23:42 +0000

New Delhi, Feb 20: Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen believes India needs a comprehensive ef

A solution

samarthrvittal — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:27:01 +0000

the interesting thing is, more than 80% of the guys who pass JEE are still not satisfied ! Because they will

mostly not get the course they want. Then, there are people like me with a poor rank who wont get anything

ME: there are only 1000-2000 seats in sought after courses in IITs. Say we have a guy who is really interested in

comp science but ends up getting a 2000+ rank in JEE and has to settle for a so-called “lower branch” like chem in

IITM. He will not be happy ! Of course, he will be happy for the next few years, coz he’s in an IIT

but what then, once he passes out ? He would have spent countless hours studying chem engg, something he doesnt

even enjoy/excel at and in a few years time, perhaps an “ordinary” comp engineer from ramaiah/rv will overtake

him.

Therefore, a majority of people who got thru JEE are also not happy. 99.9 percent of people who have written the

JEE are disappointed.

THAT, is unfair.

The following post was born out of a conversation i had today with Ameya, in reply to his two newest posts, which can be found here and there. It started off as a discussion of the current education system in India and what we can do to change it, instead of just cribbing about how sucky it is. [For the original IM version of this post (edited, of course), go to MY OTHER BLOG ]

A prelude - One may say that the only guys who have performed exceedingly well after studying science in 11th and 12th are the ones who’ve gotten through the IIT-JEE and other competitive exams. The interesting thing is, more than 80% of the guys who pass JEE are still not satisfied ! Because they will mostly not get the course they want, as there are only 1000-2000 seats in sought-after courses in IITs. Then, there are people like me with a poor rank who wont get any course at all, even though we’ve cleared the JEE.

Let’s take a scenario, to better understand the argument – Say we have a guy who is really interested in comp science but ends up getting a 2000+ rank in JEE and has to settle for a so-called “lower branch” like chem in IITM. He will not be happy ! Of course, he will be happy for the next few years, coz he’s in an IIT but what then, once he passes out ? He would have spent countless hours studying chem engg, something he doesnt even enjoy/excel at and in a few years time, perhaps an “ordinary” comp engineer from ramaiah/rv will overtake him.

Therefore, a majority of people who got thru JEE are also not happy. 99.9 percent of people who have written the JEE are disappointed.

THAT, is unfair.

A semblance of a solution – What i think may work is a system a la Harry Potter(a selection of career options based on your grades after the O.W.Ls) , or more realistically, a system similar to the one implemented in western society today.

How about something radical, like when a student is in 9th and 10th grade, he has to take up a wide variety of courses and mark out the courses he is interested in. Then in 11th and 12, he gets to narrow down the field even more. This is somewhat similar to the current system itself - the idea is the courses we do in first year of engineering, like a bit of mech/math/comps/physics/chem/electronics can be done much earlier. ( I know engineering is not everything, but this is just an example !). So we get a taste of everything, beforehand.

You may say that this is too much for a “child” to learn but 1- its just a teaser-trailer of the actual subject, just enough to arouse interest and 2- a lot of our learning today is repetitive – we learn the same thing in college and again in coaching classes- why don’t we learn it correctly once and for all !

So first we must identify the major fields one can contribute to. It is an oft-repeated statement that in our country every youngster is only offered with 2 “real” options - engineering or medicine. What we have to do now, is offer a student more choices, at an earlier stage and gradually narrow it down. Its all about consumerism, where the customer is king. Right now, society tells us what to do, but ideally, society shud ask us what we want to do.

Lets say that in 9th/10th we have – history, geography, civics, math, life-science, physics, chemistry, technology, current affairs and language – these are our subjects spread out over 2 semesters/years.

Now, the grading for these subjects must be continuous and must include things like attentive-ness of the student during these classes and enthusiasm of the student while doing projects in a particular subject. For instance ,if a student scores 70% in the exam for comp science but is 100% interested in it, as a teacher i would rather teach him than some guy who hates comp science but mugs all night to score a 100%.

I’m sure this idea has its flaws, but education HAS TO be student centric . Its sounds very, very idealistic, but some percentage of evaluation has to be set aside for the students passion/interest.

An instance of the solution – Now lets assume i’m a student of this Utopian system. (I’m yet to figure out the 1st to 7th/8th grade details, but) right now, im entering 9th grade and i want you to understand my mentality and knowledge level. So far my education is such that i know as much as, lets say in our system today, an ICSE kid knows in 8th grade. So i have more than a rudimentary understanding of social science, science, math, technology, current affairs. enough to get me through the rest of life alright.

[Like enough math to not get cheated in shops, even enough math to calculate basic optimisation and stuff, enough history/geography to understand what's written in newspapers and stuff]

Now in 9th grade, I do 10 courses in 2 semesters. At the end of 9th.. i show most interest and perform best at .. lets say 6-8 courses -

history

nature/life sciences

geography

technology

current affairs

physics

and language

In 10th grade i’ll be studying a higher level of these courses, so when i write my 10th grade exams i can eliminate 2-3 more options.

[There can be arguments like you cant do higher physics without higher math, etc. etc., but each of these courses is completely exclusive of the other, i.e. higher physics will teach you enough math as part of its syllabus to handle the physics you're learning]

Let’s say im left with History, Technology, Current affairs, and Language for my 11th/12th. Now wat happens is : There is an exams committee for every one of the original 10 subjects i listed. Each exam committee consists of experts from that field so at the end of my 12th , I will take 4 exams and based on my ranking in each of those exams, my interest and other factors i can take up a degree course in any of these subjects.

Now that will result in fewer students writing every exam, better looking report cards, and fatter pay-checks when you eventually pass out as a specialist ! All-in-all, an utterly enjoyable student life …

A problem

samarthrvittal — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:19:45 +0000

After watching Barkha Dutt and her panel of “experts” debate on the issue of scrapping 10th standard board exams for an hour, i don’t think anyone is closer to arriving at a solution. Kapil Sibal thinks he’s doing a favor to us all, but a bunch of kids on the sets of “We the people” refuse his help - which makes us question the kind of demographic that the students sitting in the NDTV studios represent. Where are the voices of the village kids ?

Time and again, the issue of 10th boards being a mock exam in preparation for the 12th finals appears; but nowhere do we raise the question of whether we’re justified in taking away (atleast!) two long years worth of learning from these children. I’m sure we learn more in the long run from our events and extracurricular activities than from textbooks.

The teachers present on the talk show seemed to alternate between turning a blind eye, or being downright rude. When a student complained of having to give up her extra-curriculars during the years of her board exams, the teachers responded by making irresponsible statements, blaming the student, her parents, that particular school and all and sundry. Instead, they should recognise that it is our society that has given birth to this myth of having to drop everything during exam years, because of the competition in academics during these times. They must find a way to encourage the student to perform well at the activities he/she excels at, and help them maintain a healthy balance between this and academics, instead of being absolute kill-joys.

Another reason for scrapping the current education system (YES, the entire system needs to be reviewed!) is that during the years of the board exams, even if one is prepared to give up on all extra-curricular activities and concentrate solely on studies, one is restricted to thinking only within the “syllabus” prescribed by the all-knowing education boards. Any doubts/questions one has will not be entertained by the teacher because it is deemed unnecesary by a bunch of doddering old men who wrote the text books.

Since state boards are even worse than central ones, sometimes one is forced to write an answer that is factually INCORRECT, just because it says so in the text book. I clearly remember our teachers asking us to refrain from using long and complicated words in our answer paper to avoid confusing the examiners, who were from a rural background, as we ran the risk of losing marks. We are forced to reduce our level of answering to live “up” to the standards of the board exams.

What we need is a major overhauling of the education system in India. The time is NOW and the place is HERE. I really hope that the education ministry knows what its doing and manages to change the system for the better.

ಫಾರಿನ್ ಅ, ಆ, ಇ... ಅಮೆರಿಕಾ, ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾ, ಇಂಗ್ಲಂಡ್...

badekkila — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:30:51 +0000

ಬೆರಗು ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ…

ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮವರಿಗೆ ಹೊಡೆದಾಗ ನಮಗೆ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆನ್ನೆ ಊದುತ್ತದೆ. ಕೋಪ, ತಾಪ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲೂ ಅದರದ್ದೇ ಮಾತುಕತೆ ಬೇರೆ. ಇದು ಬರೀ ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದ ಕಥೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಅಲ್ಲ. ಬೇರೆ ದೇಶಗಳಲ್ಲೂ ಇದೇ ಕಿರಿ ಕಿರಿ ಅಂತೆ. ಹೀಗೆಲ್ಲಾ ಚರ್ಚೆಗಳು, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಪುಷ್ಟಿ ಕೊಡೋ ಸುದ್ದಿ ಕಳೆದ ತಿಂಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಈ ತಿಂಗಳು ಎಲ್ಲೆಡೆ ರಾಜವಾಡಿದ್ದು ಗೊತ್ತೇ ಇದೆ.

ಆದರೆ, ನಾವೇನು ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾ. ನೀವೀಗ ನೋಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ಅಥವಾ ಕೇಳುತ್ತಿರುವ ಅಮೀರ್ ಖಾನ್ ಜಾಹೀರಾತೇ ನೋಡಿರಬಹುದು. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಟ್ಯಾಕ್ಸಿ ಡ್ರೈವರ್ ‘ಫಾರಿನ್ ಟೂರಿಸ್ಟ್’ಗಳನ್ನು ತಮಾಷೆ ಮಾಡೋದನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ ಸಹಿಸೋದಕ್ಕೆ ಆಗದ ಆಮೀರ್ ಖಾನ್ ಅವರತ್ತ ಕಿಡಿಕಾರಿ ‘ಅತಿಥಿ ದೇವೋಭವ’ ಅನ್ನೋ ವಾಕ್ಯದ ನಿಜವಾದ ಅರ್ಥ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಆಮೇಲೆ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಅದೇ ವಾಕ್ಯದ ಪುನರುಚ್ಚಾರ ಮಾಡಿ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟವಾಗಿ ಹೇಳ್ತಾನೆ ಪ್ರವಾಸಿಗರು ನಮಗೆ ಭಾರಿ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಅಂತ.

ಇದೆಲ್ಲಾ ಸರಿ. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಜಾಹೀರಾತು ಆಸ್ಟ್ರೇಲಿಯಾದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ಲೇ ಯಾರು ಮಾಡ್ತಾರೆ ಅಂತ ಕೇಳ್ತೀರಾ. ಛೆ. ಅದಲ್ಲಾ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಚಾರ. ನಮಗೆ ಈ ಜಾಹೀರಾತು ತರಬೇಕಾದ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಏನಿತ್ತು ಅನ್ನೋದರ ಹಿಂದೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಯೋಚಿಸೋಣ. ಬಹುಷಃ ನಿಜಾರ್ಥದ ಅನುಭವವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಆಗ. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲೂ ಇಂತಹ ರೇಸಿಸ್ಟ್ ಯೋಚನೆಗಳು, ಬಣ್ಣದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಾರತಮ್ಯದ ಭಾವನೆಗಳು ಭಾರಿ ಪ್ರಮಾಣದಲ್ಲಿರೋದು ಗೊತ್ತಿದ್ದರೂ ಅದನ್ನು ಎಲ್ಲೆಡೆ ಹೇಳಿಕೊಂಡು ಬರೋದು ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತಿಕೆಯ ಲಕ್ಷಣ ಅಲ್ಲ.

ಇನ್ನು ನಾವು ಯೋಚಿಸಬೇಕಾಗಿರೋದು ಆಯಾ ದೇಶಗಳ ಬಗೆಗೆ. ಅಲ್ಲದೇ ಆ ದೇಶದ ಮಂದಿ ನಮ್ಮನ್ನು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕರೆಯುವಾಗ ಯಾಕೆ ಈ ರೀತಿಯ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು ದೂರವಿಡುವ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಗೋಜಿಗೆ ಹೋಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಅನ್ನುವುದುರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ. ನಿಜವಾಗಿ ನೋಡಬೇಕಾದರೆ, ಇಂತಹ ದೇಶಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ರೇಸಿಸಮ್ ಇರ್ಬಹುದು ಅಥವಾ ವಿದೇಶಿಯರ ಮೇಲೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ದ್ವೇಶಿಸಮ್ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಇರೋದು ಸಹಜ. ಅದರ ಜತೆಗೆ, ನಮ್ಮೂರ ಮಂದಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋಗಿ, ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಮಂದಿಗಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮಾರ್ಕ್ಸ್ ಪಡೆಯೋದು ಬೇರೆ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾರಣ ಅನ್ನೋದೂ ಸರಿಯೇ.

ಇದೆಲ್ಲದರ ಜತೆಗೇ ಇನ್ಯಾರೋ ಹೇಳ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದರು, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಫಾರಿನ್ ನಾಡುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ನಮ್ಮವರ ಮೇಲೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಮಂದಿ ಹರಿಹಾಯೋದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾರಣಗಳು ಹುಟ್ಟು ಹಾಕೋದು ಕೆಲವೊಮ್ಮೆ ನಮ್ಮವರೇ ಅಂತ. ಅವರನ್ನು ಬಿಳಿ ವರ್ಣದವರು, ಗೋರಾ ಅಂತ ತಮಾಷೆ ಮಾಡೋ ಭಾರತೀಯರಿಗೆ ಕಮ್ಮಿಯಿಲ್ಲವಂತೆ. ಅದೇನೇ ಇದ್ದರೂ ನಮ್ಮೂರ ಮಂದಿ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೇ ಸರಿ ನಮಗೆ ಅಲ್ವಾ.

ಆದ್ರೆ ನಾವು ಸೀರಿಯಸ್ಸಾಗಿ ಥಿಂಕ್ ಮಾಡ್ಬೇಕಾಗಿರೋದು ಇಷ್ಟನ್ನ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಫಾರಿನ್ ನೆಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿಯೋದು ಸರಿ. ಆದ್ರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ನೆಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಲಿಯುವ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾವು ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ಚಿಂತಿಸೋದು ಒಳ್ಳೇದಲ್ವಾ ಅಂತ. ಹಾಗೇ, ಮಾಜಿ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರಪತಿ ಡಾ. ಎ ಪಿ ಜೆ ಅಬ್ದುಲ್ ಕಲಾಂ ಅವರ ಭಾಷಣ ಕೇಳಲು ಇತ್ತೀಜೆಗೆ ಅವಕಾಶ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿತ್ತು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಟಿತ ಸಫಾಯ ಹೈಸ್ಕೂಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ. ಅಲ್ಲೊಬ್ಬ ಹುಡುಗಿ ಕೇಳಿದ್ದು ಇಷ್ಟನ್ನ; ಫಾರಿನ್ ನೆಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮವರು ಕಲಿಯೋದ್ಯಾಕೆ ಈ ರೀತಿ ರೇಸಿಸಮ್ ನ ತೊಂದರೆ ಇರೋವಾಗ ಅಂತ.

ಅದಕ್ಕೇ ಕಲಾಮ್ ತಲೆದೂಗಿದರು. ಅಲ್ಲದೇ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದು ಸರಿರ ಅನಿಸಿತು. ನಮ್ಮೂರಲ್ಲೇ ಹೆಚ್ಚೆಚ್ಚು ವಿದ್ಯಾ ಮಂದಿರಗಳು ತಲೆಯೆತ್ತಬೇಕು. ವಿದೇಶಕ್ಕೆ ಓಡೋ ಚಟ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾಗಬೇಕು, ರಿಸರ್ವೇಶನ್ ನ ಹಾವಳಿಗೆ ಕಡಿವಾಣ ಬೀಳಬೇಕು. ಹಾಗಾದಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿನ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲೇ ಉಳಿದು ಇಲ್ಲೇ ಕಲೀತಾರೆ.

ಕಲಾಂ ಹೇಳೋ ಮಾತಲ್ಲಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ಅರ್ಥ ಇದೆ. ಅದರ ಜತೆಗೇ, ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿರೋ ಶಾಲೆಗಳ, ಸರಕಾರಿ ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳ ನಂಬರ್ಸ್ ಹೆಚ್ಚಿಸಿದರೂ, ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಗುಣಮಟ್ಟ ಬೆಳೆಸಬೇಕಾದ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಇರೋದಂತೂ ಸತ್ಯ.

ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಐಐಎಸ್ಸಿ ಇರ್ಬಹುದು. ಎಂಐಟಿ ಕೇಳಿರೋ ಮಂದಿ ಲೋಕದಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಸಿಗ್ತಾರೆ, ಆದ್ರೆ ಐಐಎಸ್ಸಿ ಕೇಳಿದ ಮಂದಿ ಬಹಳ ಅಪರೂಪ. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಜೆಎನ್ಯು ಇರ್ಬಹುದು, ಆಕ್ಸ್ ಫರ್ಡ್, ಕೇಂಬ್ರಿಜ್ ಕೇಳಿರೋ ಮಂದಿ ಸಿಕ್ತಾರೆ, ಆದ್ರೆ ಜವಾಹರ್ ಲಾಲ್ ನೆಹರು ಯುನಿವರ್ಸಿಟಿ ಹೆಸರಿಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟು ಬೆಲೆ ಇಲ್ಲ.

ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿ ಹೀಗಿರುವಾಗ ನಾವೇನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕು?

ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಇದೆ.

ಈ ಲೇಖನ ekanasu.comನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಾಶಿತವಾಗಿದೆ.

Teaching math to Americans, Indian-style

asianwindow — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:05:45 +0000

Indian Math Online teaches math to Americans. But two-thirds of the students using it are children of Indian and Chinese immigrants. From the New York Times:

The New York Times recently reported on a study that found, once again, that the United States is failing to develop the math skills of its students, particularly girls, especially compared to other countries where math education is more highly valued.

Indian Math Online is a start-up that aims to take on that disparity by teaching math to American kids using techniques from Indian schools.

Bob Compton, an Indianapolis-based venture capitalist and entrepreneur who co-founded Indian Math Online, hatched the idea when he was producing “Two Million Minutes”, a documentary comparing high school education in India, China and the United States. He realized that Indian teenagers who were the same age as his daughters were three years ahead of them in math.

Public health, education face the brunt of drought

citizenjournalisms — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:42:03 +0000

Absence of proper health and education in the face of drought in MP, villagers are migrating to nearby cities. As survival becomes an everyday struggle for them, question is, where is the much hyped development taking place in the country?.

More on Public health, education face the brunt of drought