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Overhaul education system

2015-11-16T12:32:00.001+05:30

In the good olden days, education was regarded as a noble profession. Education was imparted to all those interested without prejudices of caste and creed. Education was imparted free of cost and out of courtesy and affection of the gurus that it was disseminated to the students. Money was not the sole criterion with regard to their profession of education. In contrast, the present education system is not knowledge-oriented. It is rather commerce-oriented to the core.

The education system has of late become a tool in the hands of politicians and policy makers to exploit students right from the kinder garden level to the university level. The hopes and aspirations of the parents who send their wards to schools and colleges to mould the lives of their wards are belied. Standards are so poor. In the end, the knowledge the students acquire is not of any concrete use in the country, nor is it beneficial for them to pursue further employment or education abroad.

Although primary education in the country has been made free and compulsory for all children, in practice such a provision ensured by the government has no takers by a larger section of society in view of thelackadaisical attitude of the government and authorities in implementing the scheme. It is high time that the present education system is overhauled, reviewed and revised suitably and appropriately to suit to the opportunities and convenience of the present day generation of students. Teaching methodology and curriculum standards should be upgraded to world-class quality so that the knowledge acquired is makes them employable as well as value-based.

Source :- http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-11-15/Overhaul-education-system-186588

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Aadhaar can be a boon for India’s education system

2015-10-20T16:44:00.001+05:30

: An Aadhaar-linked academic record can enable each new school to be confident that it knows what previous education each student has received, prior to attendance
(Dinesh Krishnan/ Fobes India, April 13, 2011)

Most would agree that Aadhaar is India’s most revolutionary technological endeavour in recent history, second only to mobile telephony in its scale and impact. What other technology or service has shown such impressive growth anywhere in the world – from zero to over 80 crore (800 million) users in under six years? If you ask a room full of people, “Who has an Aadhaar card?” most will raise their hand. But if you ask them if they’ve ever used their card, few hands go up. I believe Aadhaar has implications far broader than the financial services with which most people currently associate it with. This under-utilised asset is ready to improve education, create jobs, and grow the economy.

To understand its potential in education, one must first grasp how Aadhaar works in the most well-known application: The Aadhaar-enabled payment system. This system essentially allows anyone with an Aadhaar ID to go to a micro-ATM and check their balance, withdraw money, deposit cash, and transfer funds to another person with an Aadhaar number. The Aadhaar system also allows the government to send payments electronically to beneficiaries – even those who may not have previously had bank accounts – without concern for the fraud that currently plagues direct payment schemes. Simply put: Aadhaar’s ID’s are attached to real people, and reliably allow transactions of all kinds to happen between clearly identified citizens and the institutions that serve them.

While payment services enabled via Aadhaar have clear value in “financial inclusion” and save money by eliminating fraud and corruption, they are not fundamentally changing an industry. The impact on education will be different. India’s education sector, which broadly includes K-12 and university education as well as vocational training, is ready for Aadhaar to improve via a fundamental disruption: Long term tracking and certification of results, all tied to reliable IDs. India currently lacks a formal system of tracking a person’s school record, training certifications, or employment history. As a result, the academic performances of Indian students have limited documentation and are not tracked over a student’s career; data that is tracked cannot be verified, and service providers and employers in India’s job market lack an efficient means to properly match the most qualified job candidates of specific skills sets to the jobs that most require candidates with those qualifications.

India’s youth are increasingly mobile, moving with their parents as they seek economic opportunities, and then moving to larger towns and cities to get better educational opportunities. An Aadhaar-linked academic record can enable each new school to be confident that it knows what previous education each student has received, prior to attendance. As a result, policymakers and curriculum designers can track academic results of students over time, even as they move between school systems in different states, in order to determine the outcomes of various improvements made to educational systems at the local or national level.

Such student tracking is well established in the US. As of 2010, all 50 states are using a statewide student identifier that remains with a student throughout his or her primary and secondary education career. And 33 states now have the ability to follow student progress into post-secondary education. They can do so by connecting primary/secondary records of individual students with each state’s respective records in its state public higher education system. Creating a similar tracking system based on Aadhaar IDs is well within the reach of the more centrally-managed Indian education system over the coming years.

Aadhaar’s unique IDs can also be used by the vocational education sector as a tracking mechanism that can link to a record of a person’s vocational skill set as well as his or her academic and employment history. For example, a mechanic who specialises in a specific field will be able to charge proper fees for being the most qualified mechanic to best diagnose and fix a problem.

Qualification will be determined by verified skills, certifications, and reputation rather than by word of mouth and anecdotal stories. Having the ability to track the academic and professional history of each person and increase the efficiency of the matching process in services and employment markets will ultimately incentivise citizens to lead more productive careers. Service providers and job seekers will be able to conclusively certify their knowledge, skill sets, experiences, and thereby be rewarded accordingly. To date, people have been expressing their capabilities on resumes, websites, and sign boards. Nobody could easily know how truthful such claims were. Now, skills claims linked to Aadhaar IDs will be verifiable – they will be a new, higher value currency.

Aadhaar-linked skills marketplaces are already being created. In August 2013, the Indian government launched a new programme called the National Skill Certificate and Monetary Reward scheme through a training company, Centum Learning. In order to create a stronger skilled and employable workforce, this new scheme grants government monetary rewards, called Standard Training & Assessment Rewards, to its programme graduates. Training programmes under the scheme are intended to develop and certify skills against industry standards. The assessment and certification processes involved are based on rigorous norms as per National Occupational Standards. Under the scheme, Centum Learning offers skills training on industry recognised courses in order to orient and skill the youth on diverse job roles across priority employment sectors, including, sales in telecom and organised retail, customer service skills in BPO, telecom installation & fault repair, telecom tower equipment operations & maintenance, gems & jewellery, etc. The rewards are directly transferred to the graduates’ Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.

Therefore, in order to be a part of this programme, the government requires that each candidate be enrolled in Aadhaar, ensuring that funds go where they are intended, and that participants are rewarded accordingly.

Leveraging Aadhaar to track students and electronically certify academic and employment histories can certainly contribute to the growth of India’s economy while realising the “demographic dividend” and improving income opportunities across the population.

- By Will Poole, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Unitus Seed Fund

Source : http://forbesindia.com/blog/economy-policy/aadhaar-can-be-a-boon-for-indias-education-system/#ixzz3p6bS1bqo

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Online education is the way-forward in India

2015-10-16T16:44:00.002+05:30

Internet bandwidths are revamping traditional modes of education with new dimensions and a better reach. Distance is no longer a barrier. Choice of course is no more a hindrance. If you prefer a course, online education-service providers will ensure that you get the best through innovative interactive means, no matter where you are.

At the recently concluded EdTech.Now conclave in Delhi, organized by WizIQ, the discussion aimed at understanding the challenges and opportunities for online education service providers.

“The whole purpose of creating a premier conclave in the form EdTech.Now was to bring together thought leaders, innovators, industry experts, educators and content providers on a common platform. We are providing ‘do-it-yourself’ platforms to online education service providers across the globe,” said Harman Singh, Founder and CEO, WizIQ.

According to Aakash Chaudhary, Director, Aakash Education, technology can enhance the abilities of teachers and make them more accountable. He said that technology can help teachers become better teachers.

Also, present during the discussion, Vikalp Jain, Co-Founder, Acadgild, online-service provider from Bengaluru said, “Online courses don’t solve problems for majority of people. We have to bring human element in online courses. Along with this, duration of the online course plays an important role in retention of the student.”

The overall opinion echoed during the discussion – interaction is the way-forward in the changing education culture in India. Brick-mortar models are not completely passe but online courses are gradually gaining ground owing to their flexibility and low cost.

The online course offered by Aakash Institute, for instance, costs 1/4th the price of the offline course.

Plus, it comes with live tutoring mechanism, which allows students to access course without aid of any teachers. Students can later submit their doubts, which will be clarified by subject-matter experts through online mode. The company runs such virtual classroom models in Kota, Malda, Kharaghpur, Cuttack and Chandigarh.

Running on virtual classroom format is another Startup Embibe. Started in November 2012, the company helps students prepare for engineering and medical exams, through a completely online mode.

“We try to provide private virtual teacher to every student through data sense driven engine. Our goal is to help students learn and score higher by identifying their weaknesses which could be related to time management while appearing for exams, overcoming careless mistakes or gaining better clarity over concepts,” said Aditi Avasthi, CEO, Embibe.

She added that through this platform, she is trying to help students become confident individuals by helping them realize their true potential.

Source:- http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/jobs/online-education-is-the-way-forward-in-india/151934/

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Importance of technical education in India

2015-10-14T11:30:00.001+05:30

India is witnessing the age of science and technology. In our everyday life and in every sphere of our life the influence of science and technology is becoming so pervasive that man’s existence in this world is simply inconceivable in their absence today. The pattern of life evolving in this age is very much different from the one we would find in our society even some fifty years back. This is why, to train our people in response to the need of the time, our education must be reorganized to give it the necessary practical and technical bias. Such education alone can produce the specialized armies for making and operating the modern machines. Technical Education imparts knowledge of specific trade, craft or profession. Technical Education can meet the expanding demands of expanding society and to meet its multiplying demands. The industries, mechanized systems and scientific research centers all over the world prove beyond doubt that our tie with the past is snapped and instead of bare hands we must use machines and technological devices for all-round development and regeneration of human society. So there is huge demand for technical education in modern age.
In India, the education was thoroughly reorganized stressing on the importance of science and technology. The present education system in India mainly comprises of primary education, secondary education, senior secondary education and higher education. Elementary education consists of eight years of education. Each of secondary and senior secondary education consists of two years of education. Higher education in India starts after passing the higher secondary education or the 12th standard. Depending on the stream, doing graduation in India can take three to five years. Post graduate courses are generally of two to three years of duration. After completing post graduation, some of the students do research work.
Technical Education plays a vital role in human resource development of the country by creating skilled manpower, enhancing industrial productivity and improving the quality of life. The Technical Education refers to post secondary courses of study and practical training after 10th in Polytechnics and after 12th in Engineering colleges/NITs/IITs etc which are aimed at preparation of technicians to work as supervisory staff. The term Vocational Training refers to lower level education and training for the population of skilled or semi-skilled workers in various trades after 8th or 10th in ITIs.
Technical Education is instrumental in making the remarkable contribution to economic growth of the Developing Countries by way of suitable manpower production according to the needs of the Industry, Society and the Global World as a whole. To produce fully skilled manpower/ knowledgeable technocrats in the present era of science and technology is the need of the hour.

Technical Education covers degree and diploma courses and programmes in engineering & technology, management, architecture, town planning, pharmacy and applied arts & crafts, hotel management and catering technology.

Polytechnic education has responded to the challenges of industrialization for self-reliance. Most of the polytechnics in the country offer three year generalized diploma courses in conventional disciplines such as Civil, Electrical Mechanical, Automobile Engineering. During the last two decades many polytechnics started offering courses in other disciplines such as Electronics, Computer Science, Medical Lab technology, Instrumentation & Control, Architectural Assistantship, Leather Technology, Textile Technology etc. Many diploma programmes are also being offered exclusively for women in Women’s Polytechnics such as in Garment Technology, Beauty Culture and Textile Design. Polytechnics are meant to provide skills after class X and the duration of diploma programmes is three years, which means, the trainee becomes employable at the age of 19 years. The aim of the polytechnic education is to create a pool of skill based manpower to support shop floor and field operations as a middle level link between technicians and engineers. The pass-outs of Diploma level Institutions in Engineering & Technology play an important role in managing shop-floor operations. It is further an established fact that small & medium Industry prefer to employ Diploma Holders because of their special skills in reading and interpreting drawings, estimating, costing & billing, supervision, measurement, testing, repair, maintenance etc.

For the economic development and to ensure a place for India in the community of prosperous nations technical education was given the due importance. Besides this, in this age of unemployment, only technical education can assure one of a job and a comfortable living. Those who are still in the conventional institutions, passing examination that have little relevance in the modern systems, find no opportunities of employment. And, quite naturally, they are victims of frustration and find themselves alienated from the mainstream of modern world. With their stereo-typed general education without any specialization and professional skill they acquire nothing to contribute to the progress and prosperity of the human society. They are quite aware of this and this awareness leaves them demoralized.

India has one of the largest technical manpower in the world. However, compared to its population it is not significant and there is a tremendous scope of improvement in this area. In India, the emphasis has been on general education, with technical and vocational education at the receiving end. This has resulted in large number of educated people remaining unemployed. This phenomenon has now been recognised by the planners and hence there is a greater thrust on vocationalisation of education.

During the last decade, India has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Engineering Colleges at Degree level and Polytechnics Colleges at Diploma level throughout the country.

Another shortcoming in the area of technical and vocational education is that till now, the number of engineers graduating is more than the diploma holders. This is creating an imbalance, as more workforces are required at the lower level. Hence more polytechnics and Institute for Industrial Training (ITIs) are being opened now. Under Government of India scheme of “Sub-mission on Polytechnics” new polytechnics has been set up in every district of the state. In our State in the year 2012, 18 new polytechnic college were opened in each uncovered district. The vocationalisation of education has received a boost with present Govt of India allocating more funds for the purpose under skill development. Besides, it is also being ensured that the marginalised sections of the society, including women, get adequate representation in these courses. It can thus be hoped that Technical and vocational education will play a major role in improving the lives of the people of India.

(The author is Principal Government Polytechnic College Kathua)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com

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Only 28.84% schools in Telangana have internet

2015-09-29T16:51:00.001+05:30

HYDERABAD: At a time when the Centre is rooting for a digital India, a report by Ministry of Human Resource Development says that only 28.84% schools in Telangana have computer and internet facility, leaving more than one crore students across the state unexposed to the World Wide Web.

The recently-released report as part of the Flash Statistics 2014-15 for Secondary Education in India highlights the poor condition of schools across the state in terms of basic facilities.

In Telangana, only 30.09% secondary schools and 23.17% higher secondary schools have computer and internet facility. Adding to the woes, less than 40% schools in the state have fully-equipped physics, chemistry, biology and computer labs. Apart from this, only 24.96% secondary schools have integrated science laboratory. "For subjects like science, chemistry and physics, practicals are must as they develop a permanent image of concepts in a students' mind," said G Dakshinamurthy, convenor of Forum for Protection of Values in Education.

Although 91.39% schools have library facility, only 8.86% have librarians. Apart from this, 24.29% schools in the state do not have playgrounds.As far as health and hygiene is concerned, a measly 34.09% schools have hand-washing facility near toilets and only 67.56% schools have done medical check-ups during the previous academic year.

Lack of facilities in schools clearly reflect the results as the transition rate from secondary to higher secondary has dropped from 76.80% between 2012-13 to 69.21% in 2013-14. While GO Ms. 246 issued by the erstwhile government of Andhra Pradesh mandates constitution of parent-teachers association , the data reveals that only 27.16% schools in the state have adhered to the norms. "Every school needs to consult PTAs before taking any major decisions. However, schools are clearly flouting norms, due to which issues such as fee hike and poor development have come to the fore," said Ashish Naredi, executive member of the Hyderabad School Parents Association. While 99% schools in the state have buildings, only 46.04% schools have ramps and are accessible to students with special needs.

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Only-28-84-schools-in-Telangana-have-internet/articleshow/49146330.cms

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Google launches online IT degrees in India

2015-09-22T16:43:00.001+05:30

BANGALORE, India - Search engine giant Google and online education company Udacity on Monday launched IT courses in India, branching outside the US to tap the country's millions of software developers scrambling for jobs.

The pair teamed with Indian conglomerate Tata to offer online technical training courses, focusing on teaching software developers to build apps for Android, the Google-backed mobile operating system.

Costing 9,800 rupees (US$148) a month, the degrees will take between six and nine months to complete, with lessons from Google instructors based in the United States. Students will get 50 percent of tuition costs back on graduation.

Google is looking to cash in on skilling up many of India's 3.6 million developers, the second largest number worldwide, while at the same time seeking more developers who can programme for Android devices.

"While India has millions of software developers, we still lag behind in creating world-class apps," Google India managing director Rajan Anandan told reporters in India's IT hub of Bangalore.

The companies will also offer 1,000 scholarships and all graduates will be invited to a job fair next year hosted by Google in India.

The launch comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Silicon Valley this weekend as part of a visit to the US, seeking foreign investment in India's plethora of start-ups as well as financial tieups with US tech giants.

Modi, who will meet Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, is expected to reassure IT CEOs of efforts to reduce red tape and make it easier to do business in India, a massive market of 1.26 billion people.

India also boasts a large number of engineering and IT specialists who have left the country to rise to the top of the US corporate world, including Google's new chief executive Sundar Pichai and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella.

Source : http://news.asiaone.com/news/education/google-launches-online-it-degrees-india#sthash.sygT7jCT.dpuf

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PhD students applying for peon jobs in UP: The real problem is with the Indian education system

2015-09-21T10:52:00.001+05:30

In the USA, a PhD scholar, researching on pure sciences, has to sweat it out with the committee before which she has to defend her thesis, having to undergo severe challenges spanning more than five years. Publication of papers related to the area of research in reputed journals is part of the requirement before a candidate is proudly allowed to take the ‘walk’ — a bantering and light hearted Americanese for convocation.

It is not only the patent regime that insists on novelty but also the fastidious regime obtaining for making the grade for the coveted doctorate though the US patent regime has come for criticism for granting patents too readily and too easily even for marginal improvements to an existing product or service. Be that as it may.

Against this backdrop, the collective mourning by the Indian media for the sorry plight of some 250 PhD scholars who are among the 23 lac applicants for 368 vacancies for the peon job in the Uttar Pradesh government misses the woods for trees.

Narayanamurthy, one of the founders of the India iconic IT Company Infosys, bemoaned the employability of our engineering graduates. His grievance, shared by many of his peers, was they required a prolonged induction training spanning six months at considerable expenses to the employer before they learnt the ropes and tricks of trade.

PhDs languishing without jobs is only a heightened manifestation of the same festering problem which has been addressed only half-heartedly, if at all, by a few companies like L&T by setting up their own vocational training schools.

The deemed universities that have mushroomed all over the country are more at fault. Academic rigor is sorely absent in the entire process culminating in awarding of PhD degrees. In fact, many of their teaching staff insidiously complete their doctorates on laughably simple issues sans novelty value — thesis on double entry system of accounting to wit. These universities oblige their own staff more because it serves their purpose as well as education regulators in India insist on PhD degree for professors.

The lucky ones soldier on in the universities and academia sans academic rigor but many not able to land teaching jobs, seek employment as generalists like the ones applying for the peon jobs in UP.

The malaise indeed has deep roots in the system of education in the country. Small wonder boys and girls going abroad for higher education are viewed as prized possessions by Indian companies when they return home armed with a foreign PhD degree on an esoteric subject.

The UP government would do well not to indulge the psycho-babbling of the PhD scholars by giving them the peon jobs which while giving them immediate succor would see them sulking in the long run with the resultant shoddy performance coming to haunt the government sooner than later besides affecting the overall morale of the establishment.

The universities that gave them PhD degrees at the drop of the hat must be taken to task by the education regulators so that in future they don’t trivialize with such coveted degrees. Benign guides with winking universities have been the bane of our PhD dispensation. It is not difficult to set right this malady because PhD is not a regular classroom course but the one where the candidate and guide are supposed to think out of the box. The UGC must mandate that the committee before whom a candidate presents his research paper must be drawn from the who's who of the experts on the field, and as far as possible be the ones with whom the candidate cannot curry favor or cozy up to.

It is time our employers, while prescribing the minimum qualifications, also prescribe the maximum qualifications so that the supposedly overqualified do not apply. Meanwhile the PhD scholars who have applied for peon’s position with the UP government must seek solace elsewhere.

To be addressed as ‘Doctor Sahib’ is ego-boosting but it can cause incalculable harm if it dawns later on that the appellation was not earned but gotten thanks to the indulgent education system.

Source :- http://www.firstpost.com/india/phd-students-applying-for-peon-jobs-in-up-the-real-problem-is-with-the-indian-education-system-2439676.html

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Oracle Introduces Cloud Platform Services for Higher Education Institutes In India

2015-09-19T11:04:00.002+05:30

BANGALORE: The higher education system in India is facing an unprecedented transformation, driven by economic and demographic change. Experts believe by 2020, India will be the third largest economy. Currently, more than 50 percent of India’s population is under 25 years old. But as opposed to developed countries, where the percentage of skilled workforce is between 60 percent and 90 percent of the total workforce, India records a low 5 percent of workforce (20 to 25 years) with formal vocational skills. There is a pressing need for accelerated reform in the higher education ecosystem to equip India’s youth with skillsets that enhance their employability in a digital economy.

Oracle has introduced three Cloud Platform Services for higher education institutes to support this endeavor. The offerings - Oracle Document Cloud Service, Oracle Database Cloud Service, and Oracle Java Cloud Service are designed to meet the industry’s demand for a cloud-ready workforce. They will address the need of an always plugged-in generation of millennial wanting to access these services anytime, anywhere and on any-device. The solution will help students and faculty to collaborate on projects, across disparate campuses and geographies. Additionally, they will provide an easy, secure, and agile environment for the incubation of student start-ups at campuses by enabling easy access to compute resources for application development.

Oracle Cloud Platform Services will enable India’s higher education institutes to:

Minimize the financial burden of deploying new technologies for curriculum updates

Ensure agility to develop and deploy complex solutions for academic projects as per curriculum

Realize a drastic reduction in capital expenditure (owing to reduced IT infrastructure and manpower requirement)

Ensure flexibility to dynamically scale services to address fluctuating demands (without any additional investment in infrastructure)

Oracle Cloud Platform Services to Power Modern Campuses

Oracle Cloud Platform Services will be useful for students who study IT in some form or other in their curriculum, such as mechanical or computer science or electronic fields of engineering. These services can be accessed by all students—day scholars or residential students staying in college hostels. These cloud services can be accessed by students via the internet or their internet dongle connections—anytime, anywhere, on any device. For the university, these solutions offer complete audit logs for the administration to monitor access of students based on IP.

Oracle Document Cloud Service enables sharing of files between staff and students or between project teams (e.g., at the time of third year and final year project submissions). The documents can be accessed on mobile or on desktop/laptop; online or offline. Since access to documents are rule-based, only appropriate faculty or students gain access to documents, depending on sensitivity of information included. The documents can be customized with the college logo to maintain legitimacy.

Oracle Database Cloud Service allows students full access to features and operations that are available with an already familiar Oracle Database, without the hassle of managing its underlying infrastructure. Students can perform database management and development operations in a cloud model. They will also gain access to a suite of simplified tools for backup and recovery commands, software upgrades and patching, and to spin up or tear down additional database instances. This will ultimately grow their skills on Oracle Database, India’s most preferred relational database that powers a majority of industries in the private and public sectors.

Oracle Java Cloud Service provides students with an environment to build, deploy, and manage Java applications. Java continues to be the most popular programming language among developers[4]. With Oracle Java Cloud Service, students can rapidly provision an application environment (conducive to incubate student start-ups) in the cloud. This provisioning ensures authentication and authorization to instances, so students do not have to worry about other users gaining access to their environment in the cloud. This service is enterprise-class, quick and easy, portable, and secure.

“Today’s higher education institutions across the private and public sectors face unique challenges, one of which includes devising appropriate curriculum to help develop an industry ready workforce. The millennial generation is far advanced in their IT consumption and work collaboratively with their teachers and fellow students. Having served some of the globally renowned universities, Oracle wants to ensure that universities in India have access to the most modern technologies. We want to enable those universities and their students to be better prepared for tomorrow. We believe cloud has a major role to play here,” said Mitesh Agarwal, CTO and vice president, Sales Consulting, Oracle India.

Source:- http://jobs.siliconindia.com/career-news/Oracle-Introduces-Cloud-Platform-Services-for-Higher-Education-Institutes-In-India-nid-187282.html

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Education, Skill Development impact on Economic Growth in India

2015-09-17T11:07:00.002+05:30

Education is a process of facilitating learning - knowledge, skills, values, beliefs etc. So, education determines the country’s future as it is having all the powers to change everything. We have come across so many philosophies like naturalism, realism, idealism, modern philosophies and philosophers like Jhon Dewey, Arbinto Gosh, Rabindranath Tagore, MK Gandhi who believed in traditional way of learning along with modern concepts and also Nehru had strong believe in Rationalism.

Apart from these, we had older way of educational methodology like Gurukuls, where students have to stay and learn the mantras, Upanishad by storytelling, games, managing the battles, moral values, leadership skills etc taught by gurus. But the drawback of this methodology was it is only applicable for certain group of people like those who are from Shatriyas and other forward castes.

The difficulties and struggle were felt from the olden period onwards, but still we did not achieve 100% in that. It should reach all people irrespective of age, sex, economic status, religion, language, cultures etc. “Education for All” Initiative must be initiated soon. “A high rate of education is essential for countries to be able to achieve high levels of economic growth so that the developing countries should grow faster than rich countries because they can adopt cutting edge technologies already tried and tested by rich countries”.

Strong Review Argument

Education contributes to economic growth by imparting basic attitudes, moral values and specific skills, which are necessary for variety of places. It contributes economic growth by improving health, reducing fertility, and political stability. Importance of educational system is to produce a literate, disciplined, flexible labour force via high-quality education. Musiban Adelunji et al (2005), the paper investigates the long run relationship between the education and growth in Nigeria by Johansen co-integration technique and the vector error correction methodology.

The results showed that long run relationships between enrolments in primary and tertiary level as well the average years of schooling with output of workers. The results revealed that a well-educated labour force possessed a positive and significant impact on economic growth through factors accumulation and on the evaluation of total factors productivity. P Aghion et al (2009) conducted a study on casual impact of education on Economic growth’s evidence from U.S. The hypothesis tested some investments in education raise growth. They find that exogenous shocks to research type education have positive effects in states fairly close to the technological frontier.

Denise Hawkes et al(2012) a meta analysis was done on relationship between education, skill and economic growth in low– income countries(LICs). Objective of the study was to address the impact of education, skill on economic growth to the direct effect on human capital investments on growth in LICs. The search based on 43 LICs, 3,842 unique studies were screened. The results showed that investing in education skills promotes economic growth in LICs correct in general. Also, some gaps like improper measurements in education and skills were found.

The principle finding suggests that those national and transnational organizations who have invested heavily in human capital development in LICs are likely to see a return on this investment in terms of economic growth.

UNIVERSAL BASIC SKILL:

What countries stand to gain? OECD (2015), the analysis shows that growth is directly and significantly related to the skills of the population. The key is to measure the skills properly. Skills are measured by the aggregate test scores on international mathematics and science tests. Concluded that population’s knowledge, capital, or collective cognitive skills, is by far the most important determinant of a country’s economic growth.

Hanushek and Woessmann (2008), a study conducted on the role of cognitive skills in educational development shows that school attainment alone has not guaranteed economic conditions and they assessed the International Achievement test across the countries. The findings in Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea showed scores above 555. But India is in between the score of 400-450 and the assessment of grades the school dropouts between grades 5 – 9 and never enrolled school are more in south Asia particularly in India.

The study concluded that cognitive skill of the population is powerfully related to individual earnings to the distribution, to economic growth and also much larger skill deficits are there in developing countries. The main objectives of this article was to assess the existing level of education and skill development that will help find solution to fill the gap between the existing and future education, skill development in India.

Present Educational System in India

The Indian educational system is producing more graduates every year. But the graduates havelack of basic communication and problem solving skills. Those are essential for even the elementary level jobs. Today’s education is seen only in earning money. Education is offered to earn good money and also the educational institutions have become more commercialised.

When we talk about present curriculum in India, it is out dated nearly 30 years old. Some institution sticks on an old curriculum. Few want the change and fight a long futile battle trying to change it. So there is a need of massive change in present and development of new curriculum along with administering the planned one. Vocational training should be mandatory alongside lots of practical work, as more importance has been given to theoretical classes rather than practical classes due to many issues like lack of facilities, lack of trainers etc.

The present day education system in India comprises of about 600,000 primary, 150,000 upperprimary, 70,000 secondary school and higher secondary schools. The network of institution of higher education includes more than 7000 colleges of general education about 1000 professional colleges and number of specialised institutions in industrial, scientific, technical, social sciences and research. There are 150 million students who are enrolled with an employment of about 4 million teachers.

Creating more schools and allowing hundreds of colleges and universities to mushroom is not going to solve the crisis of education and economic growth in India. Parents are spending more money for education, even though not getting standard education and struggling to find employment of their choice. There are millions of students who are the victims of unrealistic, pointless, mindless rat race. The mind numbing competition is not only crushing the creativity and originality of millions of Indian students but also drives students to commit suicide.

Significance of Education, Skill and its Impacts on Employability

Education is the backbone of each family that too women’s education is very essential. Nowadays, the value of education is just earning a degree without a goal, why this happens? The reason islack of reinforcement, loss of hope on employment. “Nation does not need pointless, goalless youngsters, instead need mindful, talented, skilful youth to compromise the dynamic society and improve the status of our country among others”. So the government has the responsibility to bring the hope and set stage for the youngsters of India.

Each individual has to think and answer these questions like where we stand? What we have? Where has to go? What is our life time goal? How to bring the status in the society? This is not only for the people and also for the nation. The Nation also should set the goals on what we have? What must be taken initiative to improve the economic growth? What are all the sectors that need attention to improve the economic growth? So select that kind of areas and plan the strategies to implement the methodology which should contain need based education and skill development and plan for periodic monitoring.

Education alone is not needed. For proper execution, skill is necessary. In India, importance of skill is an unattended aspect except in few areas like Medicine, Engineering etc that too not everywhere. What about other areas of studies? The graduates are still struggling in communication, lack of boldness to present the presentations. India is composed by demographic dividend with multiple languages, cultures, religion etc. So teaching in common language is not possible like other countries, if we do it, other issues crop up.

Skill Learning

Having knowledge alone is not adequate to bring the changes, the need of skill to execute properly is important. Now the new ministry introduced “Skill India Mission” for the youth to meet their domestic demands and also for the betterment of economic growth of our nation. Through this mission, Jobless, school dropouts, graduated, uneducated, and women will be given training based on their knowledge and ability which will certify them to get the jobs. For the students it will be starting from the school to provide communication skill, entrepreneurship, problem-solving skills, etc.

The skill India mission has been introduced all over the India. It is not only for the schools, “SKILL FOR ALL” irrespective their education, sex, age etc. The central government has many vocational and professional skill-based training programmes. Apart from the courses the mission is planning to reach the rural India also. So the main aim of the mission is reach the outreach population. Training will be given to carpenters, black smith, masons, nurses, cobblers, welders, tailors, weavers etc. Importance will be given to the area where the government can improve the economic growth like real estate, construction, jewellery designing, tourism, banking, transportation, gem industry, textile etc. It will improve the individual earnings and which directly influence economic growth of the nation.

The mission also plans to bring the courses for specific age groups on language and communication skills, personality development skills, behavioural skills, life and positive thinking skills, including job and employability skills which will be conducted by group discussion, games, brainstorming, simulation, practical experiences and case studies etc. This will be managed by academic institutions, public and private sectors, Nongovernmental organizations etc.

Quality of schooling institutions and Economic Growth

Micro economic evidence of productivity increasing the effects of education and skills, it is naturally extending the view to the macroeconomic perspective of long run economic growth of countries. It is same like education earning relationships. There are three mechanisms through which the education may affect economic growth.

First, education increases the human capital inherent in the labour force, which increases labour productivity and transitional growth towards equilibrium level of outputs. Secondly, education may increase the innovation capacity of the economy and the knowledge on new technologies, products, processes, promotes growth. Thirdly, education may facilitate the diffusion and transmission of knowledge needed to understand the process new information and to implement successfully new technologies devised by others, which again promotes economic growth.

Problems and Policies

Today, problems of identification are too high in India. For example, concentrating on teacher’s salaries, class size, and institution benefits etc., secondary schooling literacy rates are low. Thereare encounter sporadic or nonexistent assessment of student education which is are important issues.

The shift of focus of focus from year of schooling to cognitive skills has important policy implications because policies that extend schooling may be very different from best policies to improve skills. The policy conundrum is that student achievement has been relatively impervious to a number of interventions that has been tried by countries around the world.

1. Improve and revise the health and nutrition policy which directly influences children’s ability to concentrate and leads to gain in basic achievements.

2. Create awareness about people involvement for support their children and provide path todevelop their skills.

3. Strongly need to change the structural changes in curriculum and school institutions.

4. Recover school resources and skill-based education.

5. Improve incentives for student’s performance and strong accountability system that accurately measures a student’s performance.

6. Local autonomy that allows schools to make appropriate educational choices and competition in schools, so that parents can enter into determining the incentives that schools fare.

7. The student autonomy also considered because parents should not impose to select the path.

Cognitive skills have powerful effects on individual earnings on the distribution of income and on economic growth. Changes in curriculum structure and measurements of tools which assess cognitive skill are needed to bring the better impact on economic growth, because economic growth is strongly influenced by the skills of labour force in India.

By A Mahendran

RGNIYD- Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

Source :- http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-09-16/Education-Skill-Development-impact-on-Economic-Growth-in-India-176280

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KV Pattom best government school in the country

2015-09-14T17:24:00.001+05:30

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, here has been adjudged the best government day school in the country in the Education World India School Rankings 2015. The hitherto unranked school, trumped last year's list topper KV-IIT Madras in the category.

A number of schools from the state figured in the top ten list in various categories.

Education World has been publishing the annual Education World India School Rankings with C fore, a Delhi-based market research and opinion polls agency for the past seven years.

: Kendriya Vidyalaya Pattom

"The objective of the annual EW India School Rankings is to track and proclaim the country's best schools as role models for the entire community of educators, and inspire top-ranked schools themselves to improve from good to great," said Dilip Thakore, founder-editor of EducationWorld.

The awards will be presented at a function scheduled to be held on September 25 in New Delhi. In the last four months 120 field personnel of C fore interviewed 11,660 people including parents, principals, teachers and students in 27 cities and persuaded them to rate schools in their region on a ten-point scale across 14 parameters of educational excellence. They rate and rank over 800 of India's high-profile schools.

Established in 1964, Kendriya Vidyalaya Pattom is amongst the oldest KVs and has been widely accepted as one of the best schools in the country. The school recently celebrated its golden jubilee and was in the news for getting the top rank in CBSE class XII 2015 examination.

"The award hasn't come really as a surprise as the who is who in the alumni list of the school stand proof to the meritorious service the school has done to the country," said principal of Pattom K V S Ajayakumar. "Top rated on the parameters of competence and commitment of teachers and sports education, and rated highly on parental involvement and value for money, KV Pattom has beat other government schools by a comfortable margin," he added.

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/KV-Pattom-best-government-school-in-the-country/articleshow/48944724.cms

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International Literacy Day: Here are some of the greatest Indian educators

2015-09-10T11:09:00.002+05:30

September 8 is celebrated as International Literacy Day every year since 1965, when it was first proclaimed by UNESCO.

There were several pioneers who strove to make bring quality education in the country. Let's take a look at some of the greatest educators in India.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

It may be blasphemy in today’s times to name Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as one of India’s greatest educators, but one cannot ignore his contribution to the education of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. The Aligarh Muslim University, founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan is ranked among the top universities in India. Khan saw the need of modern education amongst Muslims, and started a movement to create awareness about education amongst fellow Islamists. He first started a school in Muradabad and then followed it up with many more. Muhammedan Anglo Oriental College was founded in 1875 in Aligarh, and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wanted it to become a Muslim university on par with Cambridge. He literally started a movement called the Aligarh Movement and stirred up an educational revolution amongst Muslims.

Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil

: Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil

While Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and his wife Savitribai can be credited for the spread of mass education in Maharashtra, Bhaurao Patil took this legacy forward by setting up schools and colleges throughout the state from 1920 onwards. He was the pioneer of the 'earn while you learn' system in Maharashtra and set up numerous hostels and boarding houses for needy kids. Patil’s contribution seems larger when we consider the caste system predominant in Maharashtra and he insisted that his institutions will be open to all. His wife Laxmibai was equally supportive in his cause and reportedly offered him all her ornaments, including her mangalsutra, to ensure there was no paucity of funds for his schools. Patil turned the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha into a mass movement as he sought contributions as little as a few paise from the rayat i.e. the common people.

Savitribai Phule

: Savitribai Phule

It may be a sweet dilemma – is her contribution to women’s education greater than her husband Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, who was one of the greatest social reformers in Maharashtra? Savitribai followed up with every cause that her husband took up and surpassed him. While Jyotirao took up the women’s cause, she made him open schools for girls, unheard of in the middle of the 19^th century. People threw cow dung at them in conservative Pune, as the couple opened the first school for women. Jyotirao supported widow remarriage, adopted a boy from a widowed Brahmin lady who was going to commit suicide and opened a care home for orphans. Savitribai took care of the kids like her own. Her death too was in tune with her life. As she took bubonic plague victims from Pune to her son’s clinic, she contracted the disease herself and died. Today, Pune University is named after her.

Dr RM Alagappa Chettiar

: Dr RM Alagappa Chettiar

Born in Kottaiyur in the Sivaganga district, Dr RM Alagappa Chettiyar was a model teacher who was friends with Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the former President of India. He strongly believed in education and donated generously for the cause. Dr RM Alagappa Chettiyar is said to have revolutionised education in Karaikaudi. The Alagappa Arts College was started at Karaikudi thanks to his donation in 1947 and 11 educational institutions were built subsequently in the Alagappa name thanks to his foundation and donations. These include the Alagappa College of Technology Campus (Anna University) and Alagappa Chettiar Government College of Engineering & Technology (ACCET), Karaikudi.

Dr Mrs YG Parthasarathy

: Dr Mrs YG Parthasarathy

In 1958, a group of housewives, including a former journalist Mrs YG Parthasarathy from the Nungambakkam Ladies Recreation Club, came together to set up the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School (PSBB) in Nungambakan, Chennai. Today, the group of institutions headed by Padmashri Awardee Dr Mrs YGP (as she is popularly known) has branches in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The PSBB Group schools were ranked first in the south zone in the Day Schools category by a survey conducted by Education World in 2011. 90-year-old Mrs YGP still looks after the schools.

Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai

: Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai

Manipal in Karnataka flourished into a university city thanks to educationist and banker Padma Shri Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai or Dr TMA Pai. Born in 1898, Dr TMA Pai was the first person in India to start a private, self-financing medical college that offered the MBBS course. Before he passed away in 1979, DR TMA Pai went on to set up numerous other institutions in Manipal like Kasturba Medical College (1953), Manipal Institute of Technology (1957), Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore.

K Kamaraj

: K Kamaraj

This politician from Tamil Nadu was hailed as a ‘kingmaker’. In 1954, Kamaraj became Chief Minister and made significant changes to the education system in the state. He removed the family vocation-based Hereditary Education Policy and opened new schools in rural areas to provide access to education for students there.

As Chief Minister, he made sure every village and panchayat had at least one school and introduced free and compulsory education till 11th standard. The Midday Meal Scheme that provides one meal a day to students in government schools in Tamil Nadu today, was introduced by him. Education in the state rose from 7% to 37% post the education reforms he introduced. A lesser known fact is that it was thanks to his efforts and that of Governor Medhi, that IIT Madras was established in 1959.

Source :- http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-international-literacy-day-here-are-some-of-the-greatest-indian-educators-2123098

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International Literacy Day: How far has India come since Independence?

2015-09-09T11:50:00.000+05:30

Right to education is one of the important mandates for the Narendra Modi-led government. Under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, all Indian private unaided primary schools have been mandated to reserve 25% free seats for children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups. In particular, Section 12 (1)(c) of the RTE Act stipulates that the 25% reservation be implemented while admitting students to Class 1. According to the mandate, No child from class one to eight can be detained in the same class; all of them have to be promoted.

September 8 is celebrated as International Literacy Day every year since 1965, when it was first proclaimed by UNESCO. While millions are yet to come under the literacy bracket, and the government battles for a digitised, literate, and a financially-able India, let's take a look at how far the country has come in terms of literacy rate since independence.

Crude literacy rate

India's crude literacy rate, calculated by taking the entire population in consideration, i.e. including persons of ages 0-4 years or 0-6 years too, has grown consistently since 1901, continuing the growth streak post Independence too – overall, in males and females. The improvement in crude literacy rate has been phenomenal (48.22 percentage points) in post-independent India. The corresponding increase in case of males has been of 46.32 percentage points and among females it is of 49.69 percentage points.

Overall literacy rate

Since 1951, overall literacy rate has gone up from a mere 18.33% to 74.04%. On an average, literacy rates have went up by atleast 9-10% every decade. With the highest jump seen from 1991 to 2001 – a 12.62% climb. It is important to note that in 1951, 1961 and 1971 censuses, ages 5 and above were considered for the literacy ratio calculation, while after that – in 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011 – ages seven and above were considered for the calculation.

Literacy in males

The rate of literacy in makes grew from 1951's 27.16% to a whooping 82.14% in 2011.

Literacy in females

Literacy among women rose from a puny 8.86% in 1951 to 65.46% in 2011.Gender gap

The gap in the number of literate Indian males and females was 18.30% in 1951. What is interesting is that it stayed well above 20%, averaging near 24.4%, between 1961 and 2001, dropping 4.91% to 16.68% from 2001 to 2011.

2012-13 (provisional)

40% of the literate population took Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the under graduate level in 2012-13, as against 16.34 takers for Engineering & Technology, 14.53% for Commerce, and only 4.11% for IT & Computer-related fields. (All

data from National Commission on Population)

Source :- http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-international-literacy-day-how-far-has-india-come-since-independence-2123021

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Funding education dreams and making money

2015-09-08T11:23:00.000+05:30

Education loan in India is still a modern concept, opted for by students with proven academic record

With rising cost of higher education, loans are becoming a key source of funding for those who want to get into top-notch institutes in India and abroad. Higher education is a Rs 80,000 crore market. And education loans for them is a Rs 13,000 crore space that's growing at a fast clip. While the majority of courses opted by aspirants are the usual MBA and medicine degrees, students are increasingly showing propensity to try out new vistas.
Education loan in India, unlike abroad, is still a very modern concept and is opted for by students who have a proven academic track record. These students are very confident of paying back the loan once they are employed after completing their course in India or abroad.

Indian students are the second largest group of international students in the worldwide higher education market today. Combined with this, the rising costs of higher education and the Indian rupee’s slump in global markets have resulted in expanding the demand for education loans for especially foreign studies.

Specialised players
All the public and private sector banks are providing education loans. A few education loan specialists have also emerged -- Avanse promoted by Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) and Credila promoted by HDFC. Among the banks, State Bank of India is a major player in funding education loans along with other large PSU banks. Neeraj Saxena, CEO, Avanse education loans said, “Every year spending on education is rising at 10 per cent to 15 per cent, higher education spending in India is around Rs 80,000 crore, at present, of which 15 per cent to 16 per cent is funded through loans.”

Education loan is becoming crucial for funding studies abroad as well as for highly sought after courses in India. As per latest data, 3.5 lakh students go abroad for higher studies every year. Of this, 2.5 lakh go to the US alone. “The total spend on pursuing masters degree in the US for an exceptionally bright student is around Rs 25 lakh ($37,593 at current rupee-dollar rate of 66.5), and the cost for MBA course in India is around Rs 16 lakh to Rs 17 lakh. “The education finance business in India has grown at the rate of 30 per cent CAGR over the past five years from Rs 15,200 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 50,300 crore in 2011-12,” Saxena said.
With India’s youth showing high degree of maturity in terms of what they would like to pursue as a career and how they would like to finance their higher studies towards that goal, students themselves are involved in loan application and processing these days, thanks to information available on line and growing role of education consultants in guiding students to a right course and university, Saxena added.

Specialist education loan providers like Avanse are also prospecting students who would need loans from them in future by forging a relationship with around 400 educational institutions and 600 education consultants within the country as well as abroad.
“The number of students pursuing higher education in India and overseas has been growing year on year despite uncertainties in the economy and the rupee’s depreciation against the dollar, pushing costs up by 20 per cent to 30 per cent,” said an official from Credila.
New vistas
Students are no more interested only in traditional courses for higher education, but are foraying into new areas. “Credila has noticed a growing preference towards unconventional courses like sports management, acoustics & music technology, sports therapy and sometimes courses as specific as cardio-respiratory physiotherapy in place of the popular engineering or traditional MBA programmes,” Credila official said.

With growing education loan demand, specialised education loan companies are seeing high growth in the range of 30 per cent to 50 per cent year after year.

As per provided data, Credila has disbursed a total of over Rs 2,300 crore of education loan at the close of May, funding thousands of students studying over 900 unique courses in more than 2,100 institutes across 35 countries.

Relatively new in education loan finance, Avanse has financed close to 3,000 students and had a loan book of Rs 375 crore as on March 31. Loans covering the full cost of the undergraduate education are available through many banks and NBFCS -- sometimes the amount being disbursed is as high as Rs 1 crore or more.

The loan covers the entire cost of education for 3 or 4 years, including lodging - boarding and travel expenses. This allows students to choose a loan that suits their study needs completely. During loan processing, the student is required to bring a parent as a co-borrower and a collateral security is also required to guarantee the loan.

Bank on us
Most banks provide unsecured lending up to Rs 7.5 lakh as no collateral is required for loans up to that amount. Banks like HDFC Bank provide wider collateral options for securing a loan of a higher amount than Rs 7.5 lakh like residential property, bank’s fixed deposit, LIC policy, national saving certificates (NSC) or a kisan vikas patra (KVP) issued by India Post.
Some financial institutions may waive off the collateral for certain courses or for meritorious candidates where job is guaranteed. Also, the value of the collateral can be less than the loan amount requested. Normally, lenders require collateral covering 100 per cent or more of the education loan amount.

Processing of education loan for courses starting in the July-September period every year starts in December of the previous year, allowing a gestation period of around seven months.
There are several benefits of an education loan. First, for exceptionally bright students, the repayment of the loan which happens after the completion of the course opted for is not difficult, as they get a job and payments are allowed over a period of 10 to 15 years. During the period of study, students and parent as their co-borrower are asked to pay simple interest or partial interest.

There are some tax advantages also provided by the Union government on interest paid on the education loan. Under Section 80 E of the Income-Tax Act, a person gets income-tax exemption on the amount paid against the interest of the education loan — either for self or for his/her spouse or children — for eight years from the year (s) he starts to repay the loan or for the duration the loan is in effect, whichever is more.

The above tax exemption is on loan taken for the purpose of pursuing higher studies of individual, spouse, children of individual. Hence, parents are also eligible to claim deduction of interest paid by them on loan taken for their children’s education.

With effect from assessment year 2010-11, the income-tax department has added additional fields of studies (including vocational studies) pursued after passing the senior secondary examination or its equivalent from any school, board or university recognised by the central or state governments. These are now covered under deduction in respect of interest paid on loan taken for higher education.

The Union government also provides interest subsidy from the ministry of human resource for students from economically weaker sections with annual gross parental/family income up to Rs 4.50 lakh per annum from the academic year 2009-10. The scheme is applicable only for studies in recognised technical/professional courses in India in educational institutions established by Acts of Parliament, other institutions recognised by the concerned statutory bodies, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other institutions set up by the central/state government. The limit under this loan scheme is Rs10 lakh.
The subsidy is provided for the period of moratorium i.e., 12 months after completion of the course or six months after getting the job, whichever is earlier.

Education loans allow a student to focus on pursuing the course of his or her choice and securing a great education. For example, a student pursuing a master’s course in the US with the help of an education loan finds it’s easier to repay, as he or she gets a job in the US or in a multinational company easily. Their salaries in dollars make it easier for them to pay back the loan in a short span of time.

In top US campuses like Princeton University, University of California (Berkeley) or Yale, the tuition fee is in the range of $37000 to $60,000, at present, according to education experts tracking course fees. While education loan in India is in a nascent stage, both lenders and borrowers need to exercise caution to avoid large NPAs.

raviranjan@mydigitalfc.com

Source :- http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/funding-education-dreams-and-making-money-381

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Smriti Irani invites suggestions on new education policy

2015-09-05T11:44:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: HRD minister Smriti Irani today invited suggestions from teachers and students of CBSE schools on the new national education policy, the draft of which is expected to be prepared by the year end.

Presenting the CBSE awards to teachers ahead of the national teacher's day celebrations on September 5, the minister also favoured introduction of three new award categories including a category that recognises a teacher's achievement in promoting education in rural areas.

"CBSE should also be involved in drafting the new national education policy and should ask the students and teachers about their views, the inputs of which should be collected by November 15," she said at the award function.

The new education policy seeks to involve stakeholders from cross sections of the society including the teachers and students, the consultation process of which has began from January this year.

Hailing the achievements of the teachers who were felicitated at the event, she asked CBSE to constitute three award categories, felicitating teachers who promote performing arts, who venture beyond the classrooms and promote innovation and those who promote teaching in rural areas.

Thirty-four teachers from across the country and abroad were conferred the CBSE award for their innovations in classroom teaching.

The selection of the awardees is based on the academic efficiency and desire for improvement, genuine interest and reputation in the community, love for children, perseverance and commitment towards the field of education.

Sixteen mentors were also awarded for collaboration and handholding through regular visits to clusters of schools for promoting quality.

The Mentors awards recognise principals who go an extra mile in their endeavour to promote excellence.

Mentors are selected on the basis of their training experience, professional guidance, positive role-modelling, collaboration with mentee schools and initiating innovative practices.

These awards consist of a Merit certificate, a shawl and a cash prize of Rs 50,000.

The process of selection is both rigorous and transparent.

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Smriti-Irani-invites-suggestions-on-new-education-policy/articleshow/48790573.cms

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Work part time with Amazon.in & Earn upto 25000 per month

2015-09-04T17:16:00.003+05:30

Limited Time Opportunity

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Q: What is Amazon.in?

Amazon.in is a virtual marketplace where sellers can list their products and have buyers select and buy. Amazon has been at the forefront of ecommerce for the last 19 years and strives to be the globe’s most customer centric company with an obsession on customer experience. To start selling on Amazon.in register yourself as a seller on seller central and start listing and selling your products.

· Amazon has introduced a new program called ATES through which we will be training you on Amazon e-commerce platform and you would be assisting retailors in managing their business. Through this opportunity you can earn upto 25000/month and gain experience in e-commerce.

Q: What is an ATES ?

An ATES is an entrepreneur/freelancer/consultant who has been trained by and certified by Amazon to help Sellers manage their business on Amazon.in . ATES stands for Amazon trained ecommerce specialist, an ATES can assist the seller in managing their account (add product listings, do Price & Quantity Update, do product cataloging, create promotions), managing email communication between the seller and their buyers, managing claims, refunds and all other features of the Seller Central platform. An ATES works alongside the seller to help them manage their business more effectively and also assists in growing the sellers business. The ATES program aims at supplementing the sellers efforts to grow their business, explore additional features the seller may not be aware off and need assistance with.

Q What are the benefits?

You will be trained and certified by Amazon

You gain experience in e-commerce

You can earn up to 25000 per month which would be over and above your current salary

You can work at your convenience

Also you will have Amazon Certificate to add weight to your Resume

· You can earn 2500 Rs. Flat for every seller referral to Amazon.

Q. What all services I need to provide?

You would need to assist Amazon.in sellers in managing their accounts, buyer communications, managing claims, refunds and all other features of seller portal. You would support sellers in managing their business more effectively and also assists in growing your business.

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India's teachers think pupils need more industry experience, survey finds

2015-09-04T11:22:00.002+05:30

Teachers from various parts of the country have voiced their opinions on the current state of India’s learning environment through the ‘Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015’.

Most academicians feel that the restructuring of the curriculum is the need of the hour. The survey, fielded in July-August 2015, represents the views of 5,387 teachers from schools and higher education institutes across 527 cities and towns in India.

As many as 75 per cent of the teachers feel that the curriculum should be restructured in a way that includes industry exposure.

: The Pearson Voice of Teacher Survey 2015 found that many educators believe students are not adequately prepared for employment. (Picture for representation)

Around 57 per cent of the teachers believe that students are not adequately prepared for employment.

“Indian government has shown the intent to build greater industry-academia partnership by proposing a consultative theme in the National Education Policy framework. We are glad that the teachers have not only collectively validated this idea of industry-academia collaboration but offered a specific solution of curriculum restructuring,” Deepak Mehrotra, managing director of Pearson India, said.

Moreover, high costs and lack of infrastructure and maintenance pose the biggest hurdles to technology adoption in educational institutions.

As many as 52 per cent of the respondents believed that India’s education assessment framework lacks specific action points for teachers and parents to enable holistic education.

“Assessments play an important role in giving teachers and parents the right benchmark for personalised learning and better learning outcome. In the new education policy, teachers expect a more robust assessment framework.” added Mehrotra.

Source :- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3220257/India-s-teachers-think-pupils-need-industry-experience-survey-finds.html

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Muslims want education, jobs and development

2015-09-03T11:12:00.002+05:30

BHAGALPUR: The tone and tenor of minority community members present in good number at the PM Narendra Modi's rally was different. They talked about education, enhancing technical skill, employment opportunities and development in Bihar.

At the same time, they didn't feel comfortable talking about infamous 1989 Bhagalpur riots after nearly 26 years. They, instead, dismissed the riots as a non-issue which the political parties should not raise to bully any community. Communal harmony and peaceful coexistence with state's development was the buzz word for them, now.

They were seen discussing 'vikas, vishwash, vichar aur pradesh mey kaisi sarkar (development, trust, understanding and what kind of government in the state needed). TOI talked to a cross-section of the minorities to elicit their points of view vis-a-vis assembly election in the state.

Md Manjoor Ali, a Bhagalpur local, said "aman-chaain aur vikas hi mudda hai aur hum log bacchon ko acchi shiksha dena chahte hain (communal harmony and development are the issues and we want good education for our children)".

MBA graduate Syed Zeejah Hussain, who works in a private company and is a social activist, said development is very important for every section of the society, including minorities. Communal feeling fades away with education and development. It is a heartwarming situation that every politician now talks about development, he added.

Dr Imtiyazur Rehman, a leading neurosurgeon, said 1989 riots memories have faded away and new generation has come up. "We all want development and education. We want quality education for our children, he said.

Md Arif said earlier people used to vote on different counts, but now the focus is on development, employment, electricity, roads, law and order, etc. It is for sure that developmental issues are on the forefront and other issues have taken a back seat, echoed Hasnain Ali.

Md Jumman, an old man sitting at the meeting ground, said, "Hum gareeb hain kya bolen, lekin tarakki hogi, aman chain hoga toh sabka bhala hoga. Abhi tak toh sirf log bewakoof banatey aaye hain."

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Muslims-want-education-jobs-and-development/articleshow/48764841.cms

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KSOU Still Dragging Its Feet on Recognition Proposal

2015-09-02T11:30:00.001+05:30

BENGALURU:The board of management of Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) is meeting on Monday amidst uncertainty among thousands of candidates about the validity of its degrees.

The varsity was derecognised on July 16 after it failed to send a proposal to the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the prescribed format to renew its recognition. The UGC first issued a notice to the university, but since it found the KSOU response unsatisfactory, it slapped a second notice on August 17.

“It is requested that the university may submit an affidavit on a non-judicial stamp paper” stating that “the university has closed its franchisee with private establishments and study centres outside the territorial jurisdiction of Karnataka,” the notice reads.

UGC has also demanded that the varsity affirm in the said affidavit that it has also discontinued its franchisee/private collaboration to offer its open and distance learning (ODL) programmes even within Karnataka. The steps to continue the recognition of ODL programmes of KSOU will be taken only after the affidavits are received by the UGC, the notice said.

When contacted, M G Krishnan, KSOU vice-chancellor, played down the UGC notice. He said all required documents have already been submitted, and “they have only sought some clarifications.”

He said he had submitted the application for recognition to UGC in Delhi on July 16. “UGC authorities have convened a meeting on August 27 regarding the issue. I am hopeful that the issue will be sorted out on that day.”

Source:- http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/KSOU-Still-Dragging-Its-Feet-on-Recognition-Proposal/2015/08/24/article2990505.ece

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India, Australia education ties: Recognition of VET by India is a big step for Indian students

2015-08-31T11:23:00.000+05:30

That Australia has emerged as one of the most-favoured overseas destinations for higher studies was once again highlighted during the visit of the country’s minister for education and training, Christopher Pyne, and ambassador for Australian education in India, cricketer Adam Gilchris.

That Australia has emerged as one of the most-favoured overseas destinations for Indian students for higher studies was once again highlighted during the visit of the country's minister for education and training, Christopher Pyne, and the first ambassador for Australian education in India, cricketer Adam Gilchrist, last week.

Announcing to reporters in Delhi that 48,500 Indian students had already gone to Australia from India this year for higher education, minister Pyne said that his government was looking at expanding educational ties with India to research collaborations between top institutions in both the countries as well as linking schools in India and Australia.

"While the number of Indian students in Australia is growing at around 15% annually, we would also like to build a stronger relationship between educational institutions in both the countries," the minister said. A significant development during minister Pyne's visit was the announcement that the Indian government will soon recognise pathways and foundation courses offered by Australian colleges.

The memorandum of understanding signed between Pyne and human resource development minister Smriti Irani will now facilitate credit transfers and mutual recognition of qualifications between the two countries.

The recognition of Australian pathways and foundation courses in the vocational education & training (VET) sector by India is a big step for Indian students who choose to return to work in India or take up further studies.

"Recognition of qualifications from Australia in the pathways and technical and further education (TAFE) streams will provide flexibility to both Indian students as well as Australian institutions," Pyne said.

The providers of VET in Australia include TAFE institutes, adult and community education providers and agricultural colleges as well as private providers, community organisations, industry skill centres, and commercial and enterprise training providers.

In addition, some universities and schools also provide VET. The sector, which is crucial to Australia both for the development of the national workforce and as a major export industry, is supported through a network of eight state and territory governments and the Australian government, along with industry, public and private training providers.

These organisations work together to provide nationally consistent training across Australia. Significantly, of the total number of Indian students who enrolled in Australian institutions between January and June 2015, a sizeable percentage joined vocational education & training courses.

In fact, 20,189 Indian students chose to join VET courses. Most sought-after subjects for VET among Indian students in Australia were management and commerce; food, hospitality and personal services; engineering and related technologies; information technology and health. "About half the cohort of Indian students in Australia join vocational courses.

The Australian VET system is very strong and is designed to address workplacespecific skills requirement of different industries. There is a strong connect between the Australia's VET and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of building a skilled workforce in India," minister Pyne said. He added that the number of Indian students in Australia was growing and was now second only to China.

"We welcome Indian students to Australia and feel that international students are the best ambassadors for our country. Besides providing a channel for soft diplomacy, Indian students also add to the multicultural mix in our classrooms," he said.

The Australian government's post-study work visas for international students who complete university degrees in Australia enables international graduates to gain practical work experience after they graduate and enhance their overall international study experience.

On completion of studies, a student can, under the subclass 485 visa category, work in Australia fulltime for a period of 18 months to four years (depending on their level of studies) along with an option of applying for permanent residency.

"While this programme is a big incentive for Indian and other international students after they complete their masters, bachelors or doctorate degrees in Australia, they are also allowed to work 20 hours a week during their courses," the minister said.

During minister Pyne's visit, Australia's Group of Eight (G8) universities had also sent their representatives to India as part of the education delegation. Under a new agreement, the G8 universities will work towards attracting more top students from India.

Source :- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/india-australia-education-ties-recognition-of-vet-by-india-is-a-big-step-for-indian-students/articleshow/48737732.cms

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Awaiting UGC nod, KSOU puts off admission process

2015-08-27T10:49:00.001+05:30

MYSURU: The Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), whose courses have been derecognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), has postponed its admission process. It wants to get the UGC recognition for its courses before admitting students.

The admissions were supposed to start in July.On June 16, UGC secretary Jaspal S Sandhu sent a public notice saying KSOU had blatantly flouted its norms, guidelines and directives and that the courses offered by the university after 2012-13 were not recognized.
After the news broke, lakhs of students who had got admission to courses in KSOU rushed to the university seeking explanations.
Subsequently, KSOU vice-chancellor MG Krishnan visited the UGC headquarters in New Delhi to clear their doubts. He also met SP Goyal, joint secretary, department of higher education, union ministry of human resources development, and explained the situation.
"While the KSOU used to update the state higher education minister and the governor about its admission process, courses, students and other details, it failed to submit any details to UGC in the past three years," source said.
The UGC has now called for a meeting with vice chancellors and registrars of all recognised universities in the state, including KSOU, University of Mysore, Kuvempu University and Gulbarga University to discuss various issues including recognition for courses. It has demanded that KSOU submit all the details pertaining to its admission process, courses and others by August end.
"We are expecting a positive response from the UGC after the meeting. We hope to start the admissions by September 20. Students will be given time till the end of January, 2016 to join our courses," sources said adding that around 5 lakh students are already pursuing various courses in KSOU.

Source:- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysuru/Awaiting-UGC-nod-KSOU-puts-off-admission-process/articleshow/48615258.cms

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More educational opportunities for foreigners in India!

2015-08-25T11:47:00.002+05:30

The government is planning to open its education and legal services to foreigners and liberalizing education, which is a move aimed at boosting the country's services sector. Explaining the country's approach to open education sector, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia suggested opening online courses to make it better accessible across communities and countries.

About opening legal services for foreign players, she said the Commerce Ministry's intention is to work with Bar Council of India (BCI) to move in a direction which is in tandem with the policies of both. The government is also in consultation with the Society for Indian Law Firms for this. The Department of Commerce built with stakeholders aims at allowing multi-professional firms to come in, and to allow them to increase size of the firms. "So, these could be early stage reforms. Once we do that, in the next stage we can have consultation with the BCI," said Rita in a statement to PTI.

Opening up of these two sectors is under discussion of the Committee of Secretaries. The UK and the US have been pushing India to open up the sector to foreign firms.

The Advocates Act, which is administered by the BCI, provides for foreign lawyers or law firms to visit India on a reciprocal basis for temporary periods to advise their clients on foreign law and diverse international legal issues.

source :- http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/educational-legal-services-foreigners/1/460584.html

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Govt launches education loan portal

2015-08-21T12:01:00.001+05:30

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said it has a launched the website 'vidyalakshmi.co.in' for students seeking educational loans. Five banks, including SBI, IDBI Bank and Bank of India, have integrated their system with the portal."Vidya Lakshmi was launched on the occasion of Independence Day for the benefit of students seeking educational loans," a finance ministry release said.
The portal has been developed and maintained by NSDL e-governance infrastructure limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of department of financial services in the finance ministry, department of higher education, ministry of human resource development and Indian Banks Association (IBA).
Finance minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for 2015-16 had proposed to set up a fully IT-based student financial aid authority to administer and monitor scholarships as well as educational loan schemes through Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram(PMVLK).
It is aimed to ensure that no student misses out on higher education for lack of funds, said the release., adding that the launch of the portal is the first step towards achieving this objective. "Vidya Lakshmi Portal is the first of its kind portal providing single window for students to access information and make applications for educational loans provided by banks as also government scholarships," it added.
The portal will provide information about educational loan schemes of banks, common educational loan application form for students, facility to apply to multiple banks for educational loans, and facility for banks to download students' loan applications.It also has facility for banks to upload loan processing status, facility for students to email grievances/queries relating to educational loans, dashboard facility for students to view status of their loan application and linkage to National Scholarship Portal for information and application for government scholarships.
Finance ministry said so far 13 banks have registered 22 educational loan schemes on the Vidya Lakshmi Portal and five banks -- SBI, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India have integrated their system with the portal for providing loan processing status to students.
"This initiative aims to bring on board all banks providing educational loans. It is expected that students throughout the country will be benefited by this initiative of the government by making available a single window for access to various educational loan schemes of all banks," said the release further.

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-launches-education-loan-portal/articleshow/48567171.cms

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100 candidates complete training in digital literacy

2015-08-13T11:50:00.001+05:30

About 100 persons, most of them women, who underwent a 15-day training in digital literacy under the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) were awarded certificates here on Friday.

The NDLM aims at helping adults with low technological literacy to develop the skills essential for interacting in an increasingly digital world. It seeks to empower at least one person per household with digital literacy skills by 2010 and reach out to move then 250 million individuals over the next five year. The NDLM programme was being conducted by the Capgemini Business Services India Pvt. Ltd., in association with Nasscom Foundation and Global Talent Track.

The 20-hours of training was conducted at the Capgemini NDLM Centre in Tiruchi with the participants being provided training in basic operation of computers, social media, online ticketing, and shopping. The training included various activities and practical sessions.

The participants were in the age group of 30 to 45 hours and most them were school dropouts from communities in and around Tiruchi.

On Friday, the first batch were awarded certificates in the presence of Nitin Suvarna, Vice-President, Capgemini, Bangalore, Vikram Kannoth, Director (Finance), Uma Ganesh, CEO, Global Talent Track, and Santosh Abraham, Vice-President, Nasscom Foundation.

Source:- http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/100-candidates-complete-training-in-digital-literacy/article7514531.ece

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Can the marking system in Indian education lead to an 'economic disaster' in future?

2015-08-04T11:21:00.002+05:30

There is nothing more tragic than watching a champion stumble—that is how most parents feel when their elation slumps into despair, even anger, as their child who got 85% marks cannot secure admission in any of the good colleges.

Then it dawns on some parents that the marking system has been unfair. And this, is what calls for a historical perspective.

The marking system in India was never very fair–especially after the 1970s, when the examination process began becoming more and more populist year after year.

Examiners for the SSC Board or the University Examinations were well aware that even if papers were evaluated fairly, scores were often changed by a district moderator, when going through the marks given by the various examiners that he was supposed to 'moderate'. If he found one examiner had more students failing, he had the discretion to increase the marks of these 'failed' students, so that the number of failures for all examiners were 'normalised'. Computers weren't around, so only those who failed received grace marks.

Then suddenly the grace began to become a disgrace.

After the district moderators sent in their results, zonal moderators compared marks that each moderator had cleared. If one moderator still had more failures, his 'list of shame' was "propped up" with a few more grace marks. Finally, there were the state level moderators, who performed their own acts of grace. Astute educationists, even then, knew that a child with just 15% marks could be 'graced' all the way up to 35%.

Fast forward to today. During the past two years, engineering colleges were supposed to take in students only from the merit list of the all-India examination for high school students. To give state level examinations some 'dignity', so they wouldn't be deemed redundant, courts allowed state governments to let state level examinations enjoy 30% weightage in the common entrance scores. And this, is where the race towards the dumbing down of scores began.

Till around 2010, there was a general agreement that the best reflection of a student's academic excellence came through the scores of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Examinations). Then came the IISC/ICSE, and then SSC. The last was conducted by the state education boards. As local politicians did not want to watch their boys and girls flunk, the largest chunk of grace marks always went to students appearing for SSC examinations.

Now, with the 30% weightage system, both CBSE and IISC/ICSE administrators realised that SSC students would benefit and secure better marks for getting into engineering colleges. So both boards decided to give marks as liberally as the SSC board. Year after year, as each board raced along the downward spiral trying to ensure that their students were not disadvantaged.

The most disadvantaged were students from states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where the average quality of schooling has always been better than in most other states. Though the quality of students from these states was better, when it came to a national moderation of scores, a 90% from these states was clubbed with a 90% from other states, where the schooling was not as effective. Thus, better students were marginalised. Jonathan Swift would have called this the rule of the Yahoos!

Now, with credits for sports and social work, it is possible for students to score 105% or 110% marks. The eventual consequence, is that students are made to believe they are outstanding— having scored 85%—when they might actually be mediocre, if not worse. This inflated sense of achievement makes them stumble even more easily when it comes to the competitive world of jobs.

Worse still, is the decaying academic standard, which has made almost every assessing organisation–McKinseys, TCS, Nasscom and IMBM—point out that barely 15-20% of students who graduate are employable. Yes, they have the marks. But they are poorly equipped to take on corporate responsibilities because their schooling has been bad.

Third, and more serious, is the progressive dumbing down of education at college levels – because students cannot cope with the standards that college students must have. As a result, universities across the world have begun to de-recognise the scores of Indian educational bodies.

But, the most serious issue is the inevitable 'elite-isation' of education. The poor examination system has ensured that school teachers can afford to stay mediocre, as their inefficiencies are not captured through examination results. Consequently, good education remains the privilege of those whose parents are well read, and can teach them at home. Alternatively, the benefits go to the children of rich parents, who can afford private tutors to compensate for the inadequacies of the schooling system. Not surprisingly then, survey after survey of IITs and IIMs shows that over 80% of the students enrolled are from the upper middle class. This will only increase the working class/management divide with dire consequences for our economic future.

That is when disgrace becomes a disaster.

Source:- http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report-can-the-marking-system-in-indian-education-lead-to-an-economic-disaster-in-future-2110882

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