Dr Larry Arnn, President, Hillsdale College, USA America is beset with bureaucracy. Several million people work in public education and most of them aren’t teachers. The effect of charter laws is to decentralise the management of schools, a major advantage In my last Letter from America (March), I wrote that Hillsdale College is sponsoring over 100 “charter schools” with more in the pipeline. Let me explain charter schools. “Charter” in this usage is a synonym for contract. Most state governments in America have passed laws permitting private citizens to manage schools under a special charter or contract. This permits these schools to receive public funds but run their own affairs with greater latitude. The terms vary by the state and even by city or town. In many states, they are liberal enough to permit the school to operate differently from regular “public schools”, our name for what in India are known as “government schools”. Usually, this money is paid per student enrolled in the charter school, and is usually lesser than the amount regular public schools receive. In most states, it is enough to educate children often with some help from parents and others. Meanwhile the government schools are left with more funding per pupil, for the pupils that remain. In theory and sometimes in practice, this eases their displeasure. The effect of charter laws is to decentralise the management of schools, a major advantage. America is beset with bureaucracy. Several million people work in public education, and most of them aren’t teachers. Look at the ratio of teachers to non-teachers in any private school in India, and I expect you will find that teachers constitute most of the staff. Not in regular government schools in America. One wonders what these other employees do. Of course, many of them maintain financial records, which is necessary. Many of them also write rules for the operation of classrooms. These rules are written by people who don’t spend time in classrooms. Therefore, the rules and regulations become innumerable and complex. Often, they serve goals other than the direct goal of learning. I believe the people of India have some experience with bureaucracy, and if I am right, they will know what I am talking about. The growth of bureaucracy in America is a relatively recent phenomenon. It has grown to advanced size in every department of government. It is particularly dysfunctional in the world of education, in my opinion, because of the nature of education and the nature of people. What are those natures? Human beings understand and communicate in a different way than other earthly creatures. All children learn to talk, just by watching and hearing and without elaborate instruction. The animals who live in our households, seeing and hearing the same things, don’t learn, at least nothing like so well. We are built to do this, and Western classic philosophers argue this is central to our nature. The ability to use a word, a sound, to signify not only a thing…
A Learning Experience Designer (LXD) is a professional working in education and instructional design, specialising in developing effective and engaging learning experiences for students Education is undergoing radical change, driven by technological advances that are propelling us towards a dramatically different future for learning. Metaverse Learning, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) are high-potential technologies that compel adoption of experiential teaching-learning. And even as game-changing technologies play a pivotal role in this transformation, the Learning Experience Designer will become a central player in the creation of innovative learning experiences. A Learning Experience Designer (LXD) is a professional working in education and instructional design, specialising in developing effective and engaging learning experiences for students. The primary role of an LXD is to design learning environments to enable learners to achieve their educational objectives as effectively as possible. An LXD ensures that an engaging learning experience is underpinned by extensive research to provide a deeper understanding to the learner and fulfilment of her objectives. As educational developers, remaining at the forefront of change is not only beneficial, it is essential. One of the most transformative changes in recent years has been the shift from conventional pedagogies to holistic learning experiences. Learning Metaverses: Using neuroscience and experiential learning to power the learning process. Often associated with provision of interactive digital environments — Virtual and Augmented Reality — a Learning Metaverse provides students with opportunities to interact with each other and with virtual objects in an immersive way, enabling lesson content to be personalised in accordance with their individual learning objectives. However, these virtual worlds or metaverses become effective only when a LXD steps in to assist with development of meaningful, emotional learning experiences, and neuroscience is harnessed to optimise knowledge retention. Advances in neuroscience have resulted in better understanding of how the brain functions in learning situations. As such, Learning Metaverses, combined with this knowledge, offer unique opportunities to design learning environments that are in harmony with cognitive mechanisms. The role of the LXD and neuroscience in building Learning Metaverses is critical. Together, they create digital environments that optimise learner participation by combining the principles of cognition. As a result, the cognitive potential of learners is fully aroused making the learning experience highly effective and memorable. LXDs combine instructional design, immersive storytelling, and ease of interaction to optimise the learning experience. Generative Artificial Intelligence: Creating high-quality educational content. Generative AI, based on large language models (LLM) such as GPT-3 and GPT-4, is revolutionising the way in which educational content is developed. To harness its full potential, LXDs ‘collaborate’ closely with AI programs. They discharge a critical role in customising AI-generated content to the specific needs of each learner. In collaboration with teachers and AI programs, they create pedagogy scenarios that incorporate contextually generated content, enabling students to derive maximum benefit from automated programs. Professional LXDs leverage their expertise to design learning scenarios that seamlessly incorporate AI-generated content. They create stimulating learning environments, drawing on the powers of AI, to personalise the experience…
Since 1986 when the Delhi-based University Grants Commission (UGC) introduced a ‘Scheme for Autonomous Colleges’, their number has grown to 979. Of them the majority — 786 — are privately promoted and managed Way back in 1986, the National Policy on Education (1986-92) mooted the idea of autonomous colleges under which selected highly-reputed colleges affiliated with state government universities should be conferred academic and administrative autonomy. Subsequently, while accepting that the system of universities affiliating 500-700 colleges had become too “unwieldy”, the apex Delhi-based University Grants Commission (UGC) introduced a ‘Scheme for Autonomous Colleges’. Over the next 17 years, 140 colleges, which in the commission’s opinion had a good track record of higher education delivery and had been awarded top A grading by the National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC), were conferred autonomous status. Since then, the number of autonomous colleges has grown to 979 as on June 12, 2023 (2.1 percent of the 45,473 colleges countrywide). Of them, the majority — 786 — are privately promoted and managed. The award of autonomous status and associated privileges — freedom to draw up independent syllabi and curriculums; introduce new study programmes; devise independent performance evaluation systems; conduct examinations and notify results — has transformed private autonomous colleges into benchmark national role model institutions. Therefore in 2020, to avoid apples and oranges type comparisons, the broad category of Arts, Science and Commerce (ASC) colleges in EWIHER was sub-divided into private autonomous, government autonomous and non-autonomous institutions. Since this categorization, the league table of India’s best private autonomous colleges has been dominated by St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai (SXCM, estb.1869). This year is no different. The 2,100 knowledgeable sample respondents comprising higher education faculty, students and industry representatives interviewed by Bengaluru-based AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd have once again ranked SXCM India’s #1 private autonomous college with top scores under the parameters of faculty competence, curriculum and pedagogy, placements and leadership. “I am not surprised that SXCM is ranked India’s #1 private autonomous college for the fifth consecutive year, reinforcing our position as the country’s leading undergrad education institution. We have rich experience of recruiting and developing excellent faculty to deliver high quality globally comparable undergrad and postgrad academic and co-curricular education. That’s why your respondents have awarded us top scores on the important parameters of faculty competence, curriculum and pedagogy, placements, and leadership. Last year, we were conferred the status of Empowered Autonomous College by Mumbai University,” says Dr. Rajendra Shinde, appointed the first non-Jesuit order principal of the vintage SXCM in 2015. According to Shinde, autonomous status has enabled SXCM to contemporise curriculums, pedagogies and assessment systems. “Autonomy has enabled us to introduce new study programmes aligned with industry needs, innovative teaching, examination reforms, and provide research opportunities to students. Moreover, autonomy has proved pivotal in enabling us to align our curricula with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and effectively implement its directives. This includes the incorporation of interdisciplinary courses, skill-based learning modules, and experiential learning. We are committed to continuous…
In this year’s private non-autonomous colleges league table, St. Stephen’s College, tied to the apron strings of Delhi University — a Central government institution — retains its #1 status. Several nationally acclaimed Arts, Science and Commerce (ASC) undergrad colleges are in the same boat Like God, government moves in mysterious ways. Any well-educated and well-informed individual will readily concede that St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (estb.1881) is by far and away India’s most admired/best Arts, Science and Commerce (ASC) undergrad college countrywide. Certainly the several thousand sample respondents drawn from academia, industry and students communities interviewed for the annual EducationWorld India Higher Education Rankings (EWIHER) year after year seem to think so. Ab initio since the annual EWIHER was introduced in 2013, St. Stephen’s has been voted India’s #1 ASC college. Since 2020 when ASC colleges were divided by your editors into Private Autonomous, Government Autonomous and Private Non-autonomous categories for ranking purposes (to eliminate apples with oranges type comparisons), St. Stephen’s has consolidated its numero uno position in the EW national league table of Private ASC Non-autonomous colleges. However in the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) 2024 of the Union education ministry, St. Stephen’s is ranked a modest #14. That’s the mystery. Last year on this very page your editors had speculated why St. Stephen’s has not been awarded autonomous status for which it applied five years ago. Even though the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 explicitly recommends that excellent colleges should be awarded autonomy and encouraged to transform into degree awarding universities in their own right. At that time drawing on information derived from the academia grapevine, we opined that the neta-babu brotherhood which has controlled and commanded Indian education — especially higher education — with iron grip, is reluctant to surrender its powers of control and patronage over India’s finest higher education institutions that provide excellent learning at heavily subsidized tuition (and residential accommodation) prices. Under the status quo their powers of patronage are massive. Unsurprisingly there is no change in St. Stephen’s official status and it continues to remain a Private Non-autonomous college tied to the apron strings of Delhi University — a Central government funded institution. Several nationally acclaimed ASC undergrad colleges such as Miranda House, Sri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Shri Ram College, Hindu College, Sri Ventakaswara College — all affiliated with Delhi University — are in the same boat. Indeed of the country’s Top 10 private non-autonomous ASC colleges, eight are affiliated with Delhi University, indicative of the heavy subsidization of the varsity by the Central government. In the Union budget 2024-25, Rs.15,928 crore has been allocated for Central government universities (apart from IITs and NITs). An estimated 30 percent of this amount is for Delhi University (DU) and its constituent colleges where tuition fees are less than half paid by college students in neighbouring China. For several years EducationWorld has been advocating means-tested, targeted — instead of universally subsidised — tuition fees in higher education which would increase the income flow of…
Although it is commonly accepted that the IITs and NITs provide the best engineering undergrad education, since they admit a mere 2-3 percent of aspirant school-leavers, the public interest is better served by ranking undergrad private engineering colleges which constitute 70 percent of all engineering institutions countrywide, writes Dilip Thakore. India’s engineering higher education institutions — especially the older six IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) — are the country’s pride and joy. The IITs whose number has grown to 23 in recent years are renowned worldwide because several dozen CEOs including Google’s Sundar Pichai are IIT graduates as are numerous start-up founders in Silicon Valley, California. Curiously, most economists and academia pundits see nothing amiss in planeloads of IIT graduates — whose education in these premier institutes of engineering and technology is heavily subsidised by taxpayers (including poor villagers) — migrating abroad. The annual exodus of IIT grads is viewed with cool equanimity by them. Their rationale is that the dollar remittances of emigres to families in India and exchanges with their counterparts in academia — even perhaps their eventual return back home — may well become a “brain gain” for India. The option of taking the hard road and devising policies and creating conducive conditions to plug this massive brain drain from the country is seldom entertained, except by your editors (see https://www.educationworld.in/educationworld-current-issue/educationworld-november-2023/). However, the IITs and the country’s 31 NITs (National Institutes of Technology) which also provide quality, highly-subsidised engineering and technology education to next best students who write the annual IIT-JEE (joint entrance exam), repeatedly topped the initial EducationWorld league table of engineering colleges/universities. But they admit a mere 2-3 percent of the 1.2 million school-leavers who write the annual IIT-JEE (joint entrance exam). Therefore in 2016, your editors decided to eliminate IITs, NITs and government-owned engineering colleges from the annual EducationWorld India Higher Education Rankings (EWIHER). The reasoning was that since these institutions are routinely top-ranked in all league tables published by government, Indian and foreign media, and they admit just a thin 2-3 percent of school-leavers aspiring for undergrad engineering education, the public interest would be better served if we ranked India’s next best private engineering colleges which admit the overwhelming majority of engineering aspirants. In this connection, it’s noteworthy that over 70 percent of India’s engineering HEIs (higher education institutions) are privately promoted. Against this backdrop, we commissioned the Bangalore-based AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd (estb.2010) to constitute and interview a representative database of 2,100 sample respondents comprising vice chancellors, faculty, industry leaders and senior students in colleges and universities to rate India’s most reputed private engineering institutions under nine parameters of higher education excellence. The parameters: leadership and governance; faculty welfare & development; faculty competence; curriculum & pedagogy; industry interface; research & innovation; infrastructure; placement of graduates and value for money that students derive. The parameters were given differing weightages (maximum scores attainable) with faculty competence accorded highest weight (350). Scores awarded by sample respondents under each parameter were totaled (maximum attainable: 2,300)…
The annual EWIHER with its careful categorisation of higher education institutions — to eliminate apples and oranges type comparisons – is the most reliable guide for school-leavers seeking academically and aptitudinally suitable colleges and universities, writes Dilip Thakore As most corporate leaders will testify, academic standards India’s higher education institutions — especially undergrad arts, science and commerce colleges — are short of expectation. Year after year the country’s 45,473 colleges nonchalantly certify an estimated 10 million graduates as ready for employment in government, industry and business. The majority of them however, are far from job-ready and require extensive and expensive post-induction training before they become productive. According to State of Working India 2023 report of the Bengaluru-based Azim Premji University, 42 percent of India’s graduates under-25 were unemployed in 2021-22. And this is not because there are no vacancies in industry and business. Quite the contrary. Most captains of India Inc lament the unavailability of sufficiently well-qualified and skilled youth for managerial and shop-floor jobs. After analysing the job-readiness of 440,000 young graduates in 2,500 campuses across India, in its India Graduate Skills Index, Mercer/Mettl, a New York-based firm with several offices in India that bills itself as the “world’s fastest, largest online assessment and certification company”, reports that 55 percent of college graduates are “not employable”. Consequently choosing the ‘right’ — most academically and aptitudinally suitable — undergrad college is a matter of critical importance for higher secondary school-leavers. Therefore since 2013, your editors have been publishing the EducationWorld India Higher Education Rankings to make it easier for school-leavers to choose the most appropriate undergrad Arts, Science and Commerce colleges in India. Although media publications and several government agencies notably NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council), a subsidiary of the University Grants Commission (UGC), awards its A-E star ratings to colleges and universities that opt for assessment, NAAC doesn’t — and never did — inspire much confidence. Even though it was established in 1994, thus far only 9,062 colleges and universities have volunteered for NAAC accreditation. Last year at this time, Bhushan Patwardhan, Chairman of NAAC, resigned in dramatic circumstances citing “malpractices,” “manipulation” and “questionable grades” awarded by NAAC to favoured higher education institutions. This, as we remarked on this page at the time, was hardly novel news for us because over the years NAAC had besmirched its reputation by awarding five star rating to numerous colleges and universities that didn’t deserve even three. The latest news reported by us last month (see https://www.educationworld.in/delhi-naacs-second-innings/) is that NAAC has scrapped its A-E ratings system in favour of a binary institutional evaluation system of accredited and non-accredited institutions. And within several categories it will award Level 1-5 ratings. Academics are keeping their fingers crossed that the new accreditation system won’t be same old wine in a new bottle. The other official HEI (higher education institutions) rankings initiative is the education ministry’s NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) introduced in 2015. Although it is often cited by some HEIs as proof of university…
For mysterious reasons government autonomous colleges are rarely ranked by the Union education ministry and media publications. EducationWorld is an exception because we appreciate them as islands of collegiate education excellence: Writes, Summiya Yasmeen India’s 979 autonomous undergrad colleges have a special place of honour within the national higher education system. They constitute just 2.1 percent of the country’s 45,473 colleges and have passed stringent criteria prescribed by the apex Delhi-based University Grants Commission (UGC) for conferment of prized autonomous status. According to UGC rules, to qualify for autonomous status, all applicant colleges — government and private — must be of more than ten years vintage and “accredited by either NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) with minimum ‘A’ Grade or the NBA (National Board of Accreditation of the All India Council for Technical Education) for at least three programmes, or be awarded autonomy by a corresponding accreditation grade/score from a UGC empanelled accreditation agency”. After conferment of autonomous status, chosen colleges are permitted to restructure, redesign and prescribe their own syllabi and curriculums, introduce new study programmes; evolve independent performance evaluation systems, conduct examinations and notify results. They are also allowed to issue mark sheets, migration and other certificates. Although their degrees are awarded by the affiliating state university, the name of the college is permitted to be inscribed on the degree certificate and they carry great weight with potential employers in industry and business. Though of the 979 colleges conferred autonomy by UGC (as on June 12, 2023), the majority — 786 — are privately promoted, a small minority — 193 — of state government-owned colleges have also passed UGC’s rigorous assessment tests to qualify for autonomous status. While there’s a perceived quality gap between private and government autonomous colleges, the latter serve an important social purpose by providing heavily subsidised collegiate education to youth from low-income households. For mysterious reasons, government autonomous colleges are rarely ranked by the Union education ministry and media publications. EducationWorld is an exception because we appreciate them as islands of excellence among government higher undergrad education institutions. To acknowledge their status and encourage undergrad colleges to improve continuously since 2020, India’s best Arts, Science and Commerce (ASC) colleges have been divided into private autonomous, government autonomous and non-autonomous colleges and ranked separately in each category. The 2024-25 EW league table of best government autonomous colleges shows a re-arrangement of top table seating. The 2,100 knowledgeable sample respondents comprising higher education faculty, students and industry representatives interviewed by Bengaluru-based AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd have voted the Government Degree College for Women, Begumpet, Hyderabad #1 (#2 in 2023-24) followed by Maharaja’s College, Kochi at #2 (#1) and Presidency College, Chennai at #3 (#3). Promoted in 1971 and awarded autonomous status in 2012 by UGC, Government Degree College for Women, Begumpet (GDCW) has been steadily rising in the EW league table — from #5 in 2022-23 to #2 last year, and to #1 in 2024-25. The college is awarded top scores under the parameters…
Ex facie it is shocking and a severe indictment of free market capitalism. A thin upper crust of 1 percent wealthiest Indians cornered 22.6 percent of national income in 2022. Income inequality was never so great in the good ole days. In 1951, the top 1 percent bagged 11.5; in 1980, the heyday of neta-babu socialism, the top 1 percent appropriated only 6 percent of national income. This is the research finding of the Data Team of The Hindu, the much lauded daily (estb.1878) published from Chennai and presided over by Cadillac communist N. Ram, whose intent is to show the pivotal liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 and thereafter in bad light. But while the Hindu Data Team’s report (March 21) drawn (without attribution) from a report of the Paris-based World Inequality Lab headed by Thomas Picketty, which also highlights that India’s top 10 percent not only corners 57 percent of national income, but also 40 percent of national wealth, is a damning indictment of its richest citizens, actually it is proof that India’s steel frame bureaucracy is alive and kicking. The post-liberalisation neta-babu brotherhood hasn’t substantially facilitated ease of doing business for millions of aspirational entrepreneurs who continue to be bound in red tape and complex procedures and denied upward mobility. Rising income and wealth inequality is not because the rich and wealthy are wicked monopolists, but that the neta-babu brotherhood with its socialist era mindset continues to stymie the growth of millions of MSME (micro small and medium enterprises) entrepreneurs by refusing to bin thousands of useless rules, regulations and complex procedures of the socialist era. India’s rich and wealthy have made it to the top by enduring the insolence of office, law’s delay, extortion and patient endurance of the humiliations heaped upon them or their progenitors. Therefore, they perhaps deserve to enjoy their wealth. To prosper, India needs 10,000 Ambanis and Adanis. Cribbing commies who can’t lead or follow should get out of the way. Also read: Saving capitalism from Indian capitalists
Breaking the mould: Reimagining India’s economic future Raghuram Rajan & Rohit Lamba Random House Rs.799 Pages 366 This book contains an impressive array of aspects/data points to argue that India’s seemingly impressive economic growth has been very patchy Raghuram Rajan, former Governor, RBI and former chief economic advisor to the Union government, needs no introduction to knowledgeable citizens. This book is written in co-authorship with Rohit Lamba, an alumnus of Princeton and Cambridge universities, who worked as an economist in the office of the chief economic advisor and is currently visiting assistant professor of economics at New York University, Abu Dhabi. That’s an impressive partnership. Unsurprisingly, Breaking the Mould contains an impressive array of aspects/datapoints to support the contention that India’s reportedly impressive economic growth has been very uneven. The authors emphasise that our main focus ought to be to maximise the growth potential arising out of our demographic dividend. In 2020, after three decades of strong growth, 35 percent of our children below 5 years of age were stunted (over 85 percent of cumulative brain development happens before the age of 6. A child is deemed stunted, too short for its age, if she falls below two standard deviations from the ‘median height for age’ recommended by the WHO’s child growth standards). This cannot be held to be an India-specific genetic trait as other studies indicate that Indian children brought up in the UK/US do not reveal stunting. Nutrition/sanitation/hygiene imbalances could be the main cause. The book notes that though a variety of schemes exist, their implementation record is patchy/has significant heterogeneity; it is better in the south and west than the north and east. Additionally, although primary school enrolment has touched 95 percent, dropout rates are high. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 says that the gross enrolment for classes VI-VIII was 90 percent but for classes IX-X and XI-XII it was 79.3 and 56.5 percent respectively. Further, joblessness is growing. Not only are unemployment levels high but our ‘Women Labour Force Participation’ rate of 22 percent is the lowest amongst G20 countries. This despite women’s enrolment in higher education rising, indicating workplace safety issues. The authors highlight that India, China and South Korea had almost similar per capita incomes till the 1950s. Now we lag. The world order witnessed epochal changes after the end of WW II and again in the 1980s. Pessimism prevented newly independent India from partaking in the post-WW II trade and development boom. South Korea, with no such inhibitions, benefited and is now a high-income OECD country. Their narrative does relate an amusing and interesting story about South Korea but skips discussing the ‘how and why’ of the issue. China’s success came in the 1990s. The collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War coincided with the dawn of the Internet revolution and sharp improvement in transport technologies which, together with the ‘Washington Consensus’ of a newly unipolar world, created the globalisation boom where pricing efficiency and profitability governed locational…
The dawn of the Internet Age and spread of OTT cinema is one of the positive outcomes of the digital revolution. It has radically transformed Indian cinema and movies, and freed the intelligentsia interested in this story-telling medium from having to compulsorily watch Hollywood and esoteric European cinema, depicting narratives of alien societies and contexts. OTT corporations such as Netflix and Amazon are commissioning intelligent Indian producers for feature films and serials, which are getting better with the passage of time. Alternative cinema funded by Netflix and Amazon among others has succeeded in narrating tight stories that capture the grim lives of the majority in the country’s ill-planned cities and neglected rural outbacks. Recently, one had the good luck to stumble across an evocative and impactful alt cinema production titled 12th Fail which narrates the trials and tribulations of a village boy with his heart set on qualifying as an IPS (Indian Police Service) officer. The utter backwardness of rural India where he grows up, the grim conditions of a coaching school and his repeated failure in the UPSC exam are realistically portrayed, as is his grit to clear this all-important exam while working in a flour mill to keep body and soul together. A point forcefully made in the film is the huge advantage that middle and upper class candidates enjoy because of English language fluency, for which the hero is totally unprepared because of his rural education. Although the Supreme Court has decisively ruled that the choice of medium of instruction is of parents and not government, there’s no shortage of grey eminences who parrot that children’s early years and primary education should be in their vernacular mother tongue. Even the otherwise enlightened NEP 2020 reiterates this. Politicians and pundits who wax eloquent on mother tongue primacy readily enroll their progeny in English-medium schools and foreign universities. One of the virtues of 12th Fail — which has a schmaltzy happy ending — is that it exposes the hypocrisy of the Indian establishment which has gamed the system to keep the under-class down by denying them Inglish education.
There’s something rotten in India’s public sector enterprises (PSEs). Although by definition they are owned by the public and all citizens are shareholders, in reality they are the private sector of commissions-hungry politicians and bureaucrats, and those who work in the 256 Central PSEs and an equivalent number owned by state governments. Failure to deliver promised surpluses for investment in rural development and social welfare (public education and health) apart, PSEs have earned a notorious reputation for contracts-rigging, bribery and short-changing ancillaries, intermediates suppliers and bottom-of-pyramid citizens who are their shareholders. This latter proclivity of PSE babus was recently highlighted in a case filed by one Shakraji Thakor against the public sector crude oil quasi-monopoly Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for “forcible occupation” of his farmland on the outskirts of Ahmedabad for 23 years. Thakor (no relation, note the spelling) contended that ONGC has been paying him “meagre rent” for over 20 years and refusing to vacate the land or acquire it at market price. An irate bench of the Gujarat high court has directed the chairman of ONGC (annual income: Rs.6.39 lakh crore) to file an affidavit to explain the corporation’s failure and negligence. This high-handedness doesn’t surprise your correspondent. Some five years ago when a main road in Bangalore was under repair, LIC shut its gates to ensure that the public — its shareholders — didn’t use its forecourt as an alternative route. Your correspondent was roundly abused for claiming shareholder’s right. My rule to never subscribe to PSE equity shares or do business with them has paid off. Given their business practices, it’s a rule that’s served me well. Also read: Jobs opportunities in the Public Relations industry
H-Pop: the secretive world of Hindutva pop stars Kunal Purohit Harper Collins Rs.499 Pages 306 This book draws us into the world of the modern propaganda machine that the Sangh Parivar has nearly perfected for the new Internet age A silent, hidden campaign master-minded by Hindutva ideologues and conducted by social media entertainers could well prove a game changer in General Election 2024 scheduled for this summer. According to Kunal Purohit, Hindutva or H-Pop, is making waves in the Hindi heartland and BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states of India. Its popularity is narrated in his revealing book H-Pop, The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars. The author draws us into the world of the modern propaganda machine that the BJP and RSS parivar have nearly perfected for the new Internet age. Flashing across millions of mobiles, TV screens, mofussil kavi sammelans and Hindi language publications, this below-the-radar campaign spews hate and venom against minorities and actual and perceived rivals. Kunal Purohit is an independent award-winning investigative journalist who has been writing on development, politics, inequality and gender issues for over two decades. His discovery of the Sangh Parivar’s closed world H-Pop propaganda machine was accidental. In 2017, a Muslim youth was lynched for marrying a Hindu girl in small town Gumla, UP. Thus began a five-year investigative journey into the H-Pop world of BIMARU India. Through “this work of courage” (Ramachandra Guha), he has unmasked the Hindu supremacy campaign by profiling three H-Pop stars — Kavi Singh, Kamal Agney and Sandeep Deo — and assessing their huge impact upon the ill-educated masses of hinterland India. The book begins with a detailed profile of Kavi Singh, an attractive woman in her early twenties with an enchanting voice, stylish costumery and brilliant skill of singing songs with vitriolic lyrics which she labels as patriotic. Her songs and videos are broadcast on every social media, music and audio-visual channel — YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Gaana, Saavn, Hungama — throughout the country. In just four years, she has vocalised over 200 songs on almost every major talking point of the Hindutva agenda. From Article 370 to Ayodhya to Pulwama to love-jihad, her lilting melodies and videos are streamed non-stop to millions of viewers. Besides the world of pop music, Purohit takes us deep into the heartland, smaller cities, mofussil towns and villages, where kavi sammelans are popular entertainment. At a sammelan organised by Hindutva nationalist Yati Narsinghanand, who has expressed intent to mobilise a religious army of Hindus to fight for an Islam-free India, he finds heavily garlanded Kamal Agney. In a rousing speech on Gandhi and Godse, Kamal Agney belittles the Congress legacy of Nehru and the Mahatma and ends the lecture with a poem: “Nathu had had enough of all this/He could take no more/He went to Gandhi’s prayer meeting to bid his final adieu, and pumped a bullet so hard, that Gandhi finally remembered Lord Ram/Had Godse not pumped that bullet into Gandhi/Every Hindu would have been…
Paromita Sengupta MSDGS is a unique sports focused holistic education partnership between experienced educators and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s iconic and most successful cricket captain in all formats of this sophisticated game Sited on a 16-acre verdant campus in the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border town of Hosur, an industrial hub which hosts the manufacturing facilities of blue-chip companies including Hindustan Motors, Tata Electronics, Kansai Nerolac among others, and a 20-minute drive from Bengaluru’s Electronics City, the new age M.S. Dhoni Global School (MSDGS-H, estb.2022) is a unique sports focused holistic education partnership between experienced educators and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s iconic and most successful former cricket captain in all formats — test, ODIs and T20s — of this game described by historian Ramachandra Guha as “the world’s most sophisticated game”. Currently, the K-12 MSDGS-H, affiliated with the Delhi-based CBSE examination board, has 2,348 children mentored by 152 highly qualified teachers on its muster rolls. Promoted under the aegis of the Hosur-based Shree Sharada Educational Trust (estb.2009) registered by Chairman R. Chandrasekhar, for 12 years the school had a collaboration agreement with Mumbai-based Zee Learn Ltd. In 2022, the Sharada Trust management concluded the collaboration with Zee Learn and signed up a strategic alliance partnership with M.S. Dhoni. The trust also owns and manages another affiliated K-12 school in HSR extension, Bengaluru (Bangalore) which has an enrolment of 785 children mentored by 62 teachers. “At MSDGS-H, we firmly believe that holistic education — with focus on sports and physical fitness, appreciating nature and developing curious minds — is essential for children’s optimal development. Apart from our attention to sports education, we are a Microsoft showcase school wholly committed to providing contemporary digitally-enabled education for the nurturance of global leaders equipped to manage challenges of the future. With a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:15, we pride ourselves on bestowing individual attention upon all students,” says Chandrasekhar, an engineering graduate of Madras University, a nationally awarded decathloner, and chairman of MSDGS-H. Promoted as a “futuristic educational institute”, MSDGS-H’s “seven foundational pillars” are maths, sports, interpersonal/intra-personal intelligences, science, technology, social pedagogy and arts. In January, the school inaugurated a Hybrid Learning Node classroom which connects it with its Bangalore affiliate and schools countrywide to enable collaborative learning. In 2022, the school was conferred the Grand Jury Award of EducationWorld for ‘Best school using STEM technology’. “The school’s USP is our 360-degree curriculum which optimally integrates academics, sports, co-curricular activities and life skills education. It includes 120 minutes of physical activity daily, specially designed to keep children fit. We also accord high importance to the welfare and professional development of our teachers. All of them are certified Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts. All this adds up to our institutional objective which is to develop future-ready leaders in academics, sports, sciences and technology,” says Bhuvaneswari C, chairperson of the Sharada Trust and senior principal of MSDGS-H, a physics and business management alumna of PSG College, Coimbatore with 14 years of teaching and admin experience. The school’s impressive academic infrastructure…
Airbus-IIM-Mumbai concordat Delhi, march 6. The Paris-based Airbus Group signed a contract with the Indian Institute of Management in Mumbai (IIM-Mumbai) to provide aviation education to professionals and empower them with industry-ready skills under the company’s Airbus Beyond programme. Under this contract, IIM-Mumbai will offer short-term aviation courses to aspiring and working civil aviation professionals to harness the power of the Airbus Beyond programme in aviation logistics, supply chain management, operations excellence, cargo handling, strategic procurement, business analytics and digitisation. “Through this partnership with IIM-Mumbai, we are combining our expertise and resources to create comprehensive programmes that will help advance the future of aerospace education and skilling in India. This will create a strong pipeline of industry-ready talent for the aviation sector in the country,” said Remi Maillard, president and managing director, Airbus India and South Asia, speaking on the occasion. Women’s scholarships program New delhi, march 7. DXC Technology — a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange — has announced 310 scholarships for meritorious women under its DXC Progressing Minds Scholarship Program. Of them, 260 are for women in STEM education, and 50 for women in sports training. Recipients in the STEM category will receive a one-time financial award of Rs.50,000, whereas women athletes will be granted Rs.125,000. The DXC Progressing Minds Scholarship Program is for encouraging inclusivity and empowering young women and transgender students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects. Additionally, the program acknowledges and celebrates exceptional female athletes who have achieved success in state, national, or international arenas. “The overwhelming number of applications and exceptional talent we encountered during the selection process has further motivated us to continue our efforts in fostering inclusivity and supporting the education of deserving girls from marginalised communities in STEM fields and sports,” says Lokendra Sethi, vice-president (human resources), India & Global Delivery Network, DXC Technology. Added Ashutosh Burnwal, founder-CEO of Buddy4Study: “We are proud to collaborate with DXC Technology. Through a robust implementation approach, the Buddy4Study team has ensured that the most deserving women scholars received scholarships under the program Drones Centre of Excellence New delhi, march 11. IG Drones, an Odisha-based drones tech startup and analytics company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Management- Sambalpur (IIM-S) for collaborative work in advanced applications of drone technology in business analytics, management strategies and public policy. This landmark agreement was formalised during the 100-Cube Start-up Conclave, staged by IIM-Sambalpur, and supported by the Union ministry of education. Under the agreement, IG Drones will establish a Drones Centre of Excellence at the Delhi campus of IIM-S. This centre will serve as a hub for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the drone technology space. “Partnering with a leading IIM of India is testament to our commitment to driving innovation and fostering advancement in drones technology. We believe this partnership will not only benefit our company but also contribute to the growth and development of the drone ecosystem in India,” said Bodhisattwa Sanghapriya, founder-CEO of IG Drones,…
“The 52 primers in Indian languages have paved the way for the beginning of a new civilisational renaissance.” Dharmendra Pradhan, Union education minister, launching 52 school textbooks in Indian non-scheduled languages (Hindustan Times, March 9) “The government will probably claim that it was simply following the law; that Kejriwal was not responding to summons. But the law was already being applied in a way that was highly discretionary. If you have a government that does not allow the Opposition to mobilise, organise and govern, it is hard to pretend that we are a democracy. The election is already being vitiated.” Pratap Bhanu Mehta, former president, Centre for Policy Research, on the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (Indian Express, March 24) “We just need to get basic primary and secondary education right. We are very, very far away from being able to produce a fit, healthy and able workforce that will positively contribute to making the country a Viksit Bharat by 2047, irrespective of whichever path of development we choose.” Economist Rohit Lamba on enhancing human capital (Business Standard, March 28) “We aim to democratise technology in schools and ensure that every child, regardless of background, has access to quality education.” Prime minister Narendra Modi in conversation with Microsoft’s Bill Gates on India leveraging AI to revolutionise education (March 29) “Yet again a journalist has asked me to identify an individual who is the alternative to Mr. Modi. The question is irrelevant in the Parliamentary system. We are not electing an individual — as in a presidential system — but a party, or coalition of parties, that represents a set of principles and convictions that are invaluable to preserve India’s diversity, pluralism, and inclusive growth.” Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP (Times of India, April 3)
Promising times ahead! Your cover story ‘Modi government’s education report card 2014-24’ (EW March) offers a refreshing perspective on the NaMo government’s performance in the education sector. I agree with Prof. Rishikesh’s views that over the past decade of BJP rule at the Centre, education has received high visibility with the long overdue introduction of the National Education Policy 2020, and the subsequent National Curriculum Frameworks for the Foundational Stage and School Education. Promising times ahead for Indian education! Umesh Kumar Chennai Must-read analysis Your latest cover story ‘Modi government’s education report card 2014-24’ is a must-read (EW March). Summiya Yasmeen’s analysis of the BJP government’s performance over the past decade is bold, balanced and probing. Progress is comparative, not to be judged by already low standards of attainment, but measured against performance in fast-track overseas countries, to close the gap. I believe the top education priorities of the new government should be to avoid the minimalist approach to early childhood education, focus on literacy, numeracy, social-emotional development, science, simple technology, creativity and parental involvement. Focus on teacher training institutions is also required to ensure teachers are highly proficient in the planning, delivery and evaluation of courses. Professional development needs to ensure high impact teaching skills. Schools, colleges and universities need to become pro-active. Delays are inevitable with new governments. But change happens when a few people, with determination, bring vision to transform reality. Lionel Cranenburgh Silver Medal for Service to Education Awardee, Australia Improve rural education Against the backdrop of the latest protest by lakhs of farmers on the Punjab-Haryana border, your insightful Special Report ‘India’s colonisation of Bharat — Liberating Rural India’ (EW March) certainly made the point that all it takes to give rural India’s farmers a better deal are a few policy tweaks and willingness of the urban middle class to pay fair prices for agricultural produce. The fact that millions of ill-educated rural youth are pouring into urban cities as low-paid migrant labour is a wake-up call to the government to pay greater attention to public education in agrarian India. Delivering high-quality education in rural backwaters is the only way to bridge the India-Bharat divide. Hridya Gupta Indore Emotional intelligence call Especially at a time when children’s lives are being disrupted by ubiquitous internet and social media, your Teacher-2-Teacher essay ‘Introduction to conscious learning’ (EW March) should be read by all educators. Lina Ashar succinctly highlights the potential of conscious learning not only to enhance children’s academic performance but to also develop their emotional intelligence. I agree with her that children gifted with good mental health and emotional intelligence are better equipped to face the challenges of an unpredictable world. Nithin Kamath Bengaluru Brave heart teachers I am a retired schoolteacher and a regular reader of EW. Much as I love reading your People profiles, I must admit I rarely see stories on teacher brave hearts, who have gone beyond the call of duty to further the cause of education. Recently, I read in the…
A public research university, Hull is ranked among the world’s Top 200 universities in the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. Moreover, Hull is ‘Gold’ rated under the Teaching Excellence Framework 2023 The 14th oldest British varsity, University of Hull (estb.1927) enjoys an excellent reputation for academic rigour and impactful research outcomes. A public research university, it’s ranked among the world’s Top 200 in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings that assess higher education institutions against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) objectives. Moreover, Hull is ‘Gold’ rated under the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023 of the UK government. Sited on a scenic campus in Kingston-upon-Hull, the university’s 23 academic departments and schools offer a wide range of undergraduate and postgrad study programmes to over 15,000 students including 3,750 from 97 countries. They are mentored by 1,000 faculty. Illustrious alumni include Samir Shah, chairman of BBC; online shopping pioneer and entrepreneur Michael Aldrich; Assem Allam, owner of the Hull City football club, and playwright James Graham. The famous English poet Philip Larkin was Head Librarian at Hull for 30 years and Dame Sarah Gilbert — who co-developed the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccine — and Prof. Guido Imbens, a Nobel Prize winner for Economics, began their academic careers at the university. Founded in 1927 as University College, Hull, its foundation stone was laid the following year by the Duke of York (later King George VI). The initial cohort comprised 39 students and 14 ‘one-person’ departments. The college received a Royal Charter granting it university status in 1954. Hull. Situated some 200 miles to the north-east of London, Kingston-upon-Hull aka Hull is Britain’s premier east coast port. Water is essential to the identity and history of this port town, and its lasting association with the sea is reflected in the buildings and museums which commemorate the city’s traditions. Historically as a maritime city, Hull was well-known only to those engaged with sea trade. Today in the 21st century, it not only remains a major port, but is also a thriving commercial centre. London and Edinburgh are only three hours by train, while the great football cities of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool are no more than an hour or two distant. Refreshingly, Hull has managed to maintain the culture of a country town while offering all the facilities and amenities of UK’s largest cities. Its citizens boast of its pedestrian precincts, cafes, restaurants, pubs, theatres, concert halls, clubs, galleries, museums and cinemas. Campus facilities. The university is spread across a picturesque campus in the port-city of Hull with students blessed with easy access to a scenic coastline and some of the most beautiful open spaces of Britain. The benefits of a scenic environment apart, Hull students enjoy the advantages of a modern, IT-enabled state-of-the-art campus. According to a university spokesperson, £300 million (Rs.3,160 crore) has been invested recently to boost and upgrade campus infrastructure and facilities. Academic support is provided by the main library — the quintessential hallmark of great universities…
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) Although politically BJP, the ruling party at the Centre, and DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu (pop.77 million), are at daggers drawn, the Tamil Nadu government has signalled an intent to embrace the Prime Minister Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) programme, launched in September, 2022. In an official statement dated March 15, the state government declared that it will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement PM-SHRI in state government schools before the commencement of the 2024-25 academic year. Following this declaration, state school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said that its primary attraction is the funds allocated under the scheme to states — ranging from Rs.1,200 crore in 2024-25 to Rs.3,800 crore in following years. Nevertheless, Poyyamozhi made it clear that signing the MoU should not be interpreted as acceptance of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. “Our objective is to get education shifted to the state list, and we will work towards achieving this goal. We are drawing up our own state education policy. We will never accept the NEP,” he said, simultaneously expressing the state government’s intent to “maintain a dialogue” with the Union education ministry. According to the website of the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Union education ministry, the PM-SHRI scheme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi 18 months ago, is “an initiative intended to develop more than 14,500 PM-SHRI schools managed by the Central government/state/UT Government/local bodies including KVs and NVs in which every student feels welcomed and cared for, where a safe and stimulating environment exists, where a wide range of learning experiences are offered, and where good physical infrastructure and appropriate resources conducive to learning are available to all students”. The scheme envisages substantial investment in selected PM-SHRI schools proposed to be established over five years — 2022-23 to 2026-27. The total allocation for the scheme is Rs.27,360 crore, with the Centre contributing Rs.18,128 crore, and the remainder from state governments. However the Tamil Nadu government’s MoU with the Centre to implement the PM-SHRI Schools scheme has elicited scepticism. “One of the primary goals of the scheme is to upgrade existing schools to exemplary standards to serve as role models. However, a significant proportion of government schools are grappling with low student attendance and enrollment right now. Therefore, improving them over five years is too long a period. By the end of five years, there may not be enough students left to benefit,” says advocate MJ John Arokia Prabhu, vice president of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association. According to Prabhu, low attendance and continuous flight from Tamil Nadu’s 39,000 government schools are the outcome of infrastructure deficiencies, poor quality education, and lack of community engagement. These issues need to be urgently addressed so that the benefits of the scheme can be realised. “Merely designating them as PM-SHRI Schools without first rectifying these underlying problems won’t serve any purpose,” says Prabhu. “This scheme is an experiment for implementing NEP 2020. But it proposes to…
Aditi Maheshwari (Bhopal) The popular urban perception is that rural SC (scheduled caste) and ST (scheduled tribe) children are content with their backwardness and poor-quality schools. This perception was contradicted on February 26 when a delegation of 40 class VII-VIII girl children of the Government Kanya Shiksha Parisar (GKSP), a CBSE-affiliated school for girls, in Pansemal village, undertook a gruelling 80-km trek to meet the district collector. Their demand: a dedicated school building and hostel. GKSP is an upgraded Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS), a scheme launched in 1997-98 by the Union ministry of tribal affairs, to enable India’s forests-dwelling tribal communities which have been bypassed in the post-independence national development effort, to recover lost ground. Currently, there are 690 EMRS countrywide. According to Census 2011, tribal communities constitute 8.6 percent of the total national population. A majority of tribal citizens reside in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Currently, classes at GKSP supervised by the Tribal Welfare Department and Madhya Pradesh Special and Residential Academic Society (MPSARAS) are conducted through a makeshift arrangement with the Model Hr. Sec. School in Pansemal. GKSP, which has 175 primary/elementary children, is restricted to the first floor with ten classrooms and six toilets. Residential accommodation is in a building of the neighbouring English Medium Ashram and comprises ten rooms, each crammed with 17 beds, and six common toilets. GKSP principal Santosh Pawar says land for a new school building was allotted in October 2022. However, the Public Works Department (PWD) classified the allotted land as “too hilly” and expensive to develop. Subsequently, a new 15-acre plot was allotted in January 2024, but is reportedly stymied by bureaucratic hurdles. Comments Shakti Singh (Deputy Commissioner, Barwani): “PWD engineers have inspected the site and approval has been granted by the National Tribal Student Education Society (NEST) for construction,” though he can’t give a date for completion. In their present hostel in the English Medium Ashram, the children are allotted Rs.2,000 per year for stationery, Rs.1,500 per month for meals, and Rs.1,000 per month for discretionary spending. Academics in Madhya Pradesh are stunned by the incident of little girls trekking 80 km to demand basic education facilities. But with a muscular BJP government having been returned to power in Madhya Pradesh following the legislative assembly election of last December, they are reluctant to openly criticise the sluggish administration. “Universities and colleges at the divisional and district levels should become involved with tribal institutions and schools, and engineering departments of technical universities should collaborate with PWD for faster project completion,” says Dr. Sanjay Sahay, professor of botany at the Sarojini Naidu Govt. Girls College, Bhopal. Santosh Singh, a teacher at DPS School, Jabalpur, with 32 years of experience, offers a long prescription for waking up the state government to pay greater attention to education of rural and tribal children. Among her suggestions:“Empowering local authorities with decision-making power, community participation and public-private partnerships with NGOs to build schools in challenging environments. Exposure visits are a must; city schools and colleges should…
Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) After a month-long flip-flop over conducting class V, VIII and IX ‘summative assessments’ aka board exams for government and private schools affiliated with the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB), the last leg of the exams was conducted on March 25-26. This after the Karnataka high court (March 23) directed KSEAB to hold the exams without delay “in the interest of students”. The conclusion of these exams came after a month-long drama. Last December, the state’s department of school education and literacy issued a circular stating it will conduct ‘no-detention summative assessments’ in March for classes V, VIII and IX to enable schools to assess the learning levels of students. Under s.30 of the landmark Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, board exams were prohibited for children in elementary education (classes I-VIII) and s.16 provided that no child should be “held back in any class until completion of elementary education.” However in 2019, following complaints that under-prepared children were routinely being promoted to higher class, the BJP government at the Centre amended the RTE Act to permit exams in elementary education and also detention of children who fail more than twice, in the same class. Surprisingly four months ago, the Congress government which was elected to power in Karnataka last May, issued an order to KSEAB to conduct exams for elementary school children. Despite the circular stressing that no child will be failed/detained, the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association (RUPSA), a representative association of 13,000 private schools in the state, petitioned the Karnataka high court seeking a stay on the exams for imposing unwarranted stress on young children. On March 6 — five days before the board exams were to begin on March 11 — a single judge of the Karnataka HC quashed the exam notification. Next day on March 7, after the state government appealed, a division bench comprising Justice K. Somashekar and Justice Rajesh Rai K stayed the March 6 interim order, ruling that “the present situation of uncertainty would be detrimental to the student community virtually on the eve of their examinations,” and ordered the state government to go ahead with staging the examination for elementary school children. Dissatisfied with the order, RUPSA appealed to the Supreme Court. On March 12 — second day of the exam — Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal, while noting that the board exams violate s.30 of the RTE Act, referred the case back to the Karnataka high court. On March 23, the high court ordered the state government to complete the remainder examinations without delay. The re-introduction of KSEAB summative exams for youngest children has been heavily criticised by parents, school associations and educationists who argue board exams arouse fear and anxiety within children. “The term ‘board’ evokes fear in every Indian student’s heart. No matter how hard working a student is, the prospect of a board exam instills instant anxiety… By deciding to reintroduce board exams for classes V…
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) With dates of general Election 2024 declared, the political mercury in West Bengal (pop.91 million), set for seven-phase polling from April 19 to June 1, has touched unprecedented levels. Leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and resurgent BJP are trading vitriolic diatribes, indulging in character assassination and slanderous allegations to discredit their opponents and sway public opinion. Meanwhile as political parties are engaged in relentless slugfests, West Bengal’s education system is experiencing a huge crisis. There’s an acute shortage of teachers in the state’s 92,000 public/government schools as recruitment has been stalled for the past seven years because of multiple complications and pending court cases. Recruitment following the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 2015 has been stalled because of several petitions filed in various courts alleging irregularities in the selection process. Simultaneously, the state’s primary education board hasn’t appointed 150,000 candidates selected from TET 2022 as a Calcutta high court order has barred new recruitment before appointment of all successful TET 2015 candidates. This situation has been further complicated by a fresh case filed in the Calcutta high court by 500 aspirant teachers in September 2023, alleging that there were 15 “wrong questions” in TET 2022. Hearings in the latest case were held on March 12 and 20, in which Justice Rajashekhar Mantha stressed the need to find a “permanent solution” to fix recurring problems with TET exam questions. Moreover, responding to WBBPE (West Bengal Board of Primary Education) chairman Goutam Paul’s statement that all questions were framed after consulting specialists, Justice Mantha asked for an affidavit from the said specialists. It’s pertinent to note that a verdict ruling that the questions were inappropriate will further complicate the recruitment process leading to all candidates who attempted the flawed questions in TET 2022 receiving full marks by default. This outcome will significantly alter the landscape, increasing the number of individuals qualifying in TETs. With recruitment stalled for seven years, the number of teacher vacancies statewide is estimated at 3.5 lakh. In rural Bengal in particular there is a severe shortage of teachers with the teacher-pupil ratio having risen to 1:59 against the 1:35 prescribed by the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Moreover, 6,845 primary and 1,362 upper primary schools in the backward districts of Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Jhargram, Murshidabad and West Midnapore were shut down in March 2023, after an education ministry report revealed that they have less than 30 students on their muster rolls. This closure of schools highlights that a large number of children are dropping out of school, especially from higher secondaries with boys’ drop-out rate being higher. In 2021, while 10.5 lakh students cleared the class X board exam only 8.5 lakh wrote the higher secondary (plus II) exam in 2023. With increasing drop-out rates after class X the gross enrolment ratio in undergrad college education has also dropped sharply. In 2017-18, West Bengal’s GER (gross enrolment ratio) in higher education was only 18.7 percent, cf. the national…
Autar Nehru (Delhi) Living up to its reputation of being a bastion of woke Left politics, a students’ coalition of organisations affiliated with mainstream Left parties — AISF (affiliated with CPI), SFI (CPI-M), AISA (Communist Party Marxist Leninist) and DSF (independent Left) backed by BAPSA (a Dalit Ambedkarite organisation) — swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections held on March 22 after a hiatus of four years. The posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary in the JNUSU governing council were all bagged by the United Left coalition. A total of 5,050 students who voted this year (73 percent of 7,700 eligible to vote) gave the United Left a clear majority against its main rival Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) affiliated with the BJP which rules at the Centre and in several states and is widely predicted to sweep General Election 2024 scheduled for next month. Dhananjay, a doctoral student of theatre and performance studies (sic) of AISA, was elected JNUSU president with 2,598 votes defeating nearest rival ABVP’s Umesh C. Ajmeera (1,676). The votes polled by the presidential candidate of the Congress party-affiliated NSUI aggregated a mere 283 (against 700 in 2019). A Congress party spokesperson attributed its low vote share to “half-hearted campaigning” to support the United Left. The defeat of ABVP which was fully backed by the BJP, has sparked a ray of hope in the opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) — a coalition of 40 — opposition parties cobbled together in 2023 to ensure that the ruling BJP is not re-elected for a third time in General Election 2024. They hope that the JNUSU election result will be replicated on the wider canvas. In a post on X, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav observed: “The PDA unity has collectively won all important posts in the JNUSU elections and defeated the BJP-backed ABVP by a huge margin.” PDA is a Hindi language acronym coined by the SP leader to represent pichhde (backward classes), Dalit and alpsankhyak (minorities). Although most political observers dismiss such speculation as wishful thinking, there’s no gainsaying that JNU (estb.1969) is a big prize and status symbol. Spread over 1,019 acres in the heart of Delhi, it has an annual budget of Rs.200 crore, hosts 8,800 students including 4,300 doctoral (Ph D) students in its 20 schools and specialist academic centres. International university ranking agencies including QS and THE routinely rank it among Asia’s Top 100 universities. In the EducationWorld India Higher Education Rankings 2023-24, JNU is ranked #3 nationally and under the Union education ministry’s NIRF, it’s #2. Unsurprisingly, control and command of JNU and JNUSU is a high priority for the BJP leadership and its ideological mentor organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), particularly because intensely debated social issues such as minority rights, feminism and socio-economic justice are anathema to it. Therefore, JNUSU elections are fiercely contested by its proxy ABVP. However thus far, ABVP has failed to fulfill this wish of its parent organisations. Nevertheless, following…
Full disclosure of details of the Electoral Bonds Scheme (EBS) by the State Bank of India and Election Commission following stern admonition by the Supreme Court of India, is proof that despite dismantling of the licence-permit-quota regime in 1991, government still exercises substantial control over industry and commerce. That’s why a large number of companies and individuals, including some of the biggest names in India Inc, purchased electoral bonds — essentially bearer bonds which granted complete anonymity to the purchaser and recipient political party. Introduced in 2017 by the BJP government at the Centre, the objective of EBS was to clean up donations to registered political parties and eliminate the necessity of donors generating unaccounted ‘black’ money to fund electoral expenses — a necessity that can’t be wished away — of political parties and politicians. However in a landmark judgement delivered on February 15, a full bench of the Supreme Court struck down EBS, ruling that the fundamental right of citizens to information about who purchased and donated electoral bonds to which political party to ascertain quid pro quo, over-rode the right to privacy of donor-citizens. Although legally correct, this judgement is not in the public interest inasmuch as it is likely to restore the status quo ante and force citizens and corporates to generate black money to fund political parties. Recent developments such as weaponisation of government controlled economic offences investigation agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, CBI, Income and GST authorities to target opposition parties and their actual and perceived supporters, are proof enough that the Central and state governments have sufficient powers to intimidate opposition parties and their supporters in business and industry. Therefore new pathways have to be found to legitimise contributions of individuals to political parties. A readily available option is to revert to the previous system of permitting corporates and businesses to transparently donate up to 7.5 percent of net profit to political parties of their choice. But this is a route fraught with danger because open and transparent donation to a political party is likely to make donors vulnerable to vendetta when an opposition party comes to power. In the circumstances, the better option is to enact legislation which permits individuals and corporates to contribute to an Election Fund which could be distributed by the Election Commission to every registered party in proportion to the percentage of popular vote it received in the last General Election. Of course the best option is for political parties to fund themselves by registering members for a modest fee — say Rs.100. Given India’s huge population, that can add up to a massive amount. Moreover party membership is a vote almost assured. This was the logic behind the registration (2013) of the Children First Party of India whose aims and objectives were self-evident. But lack of big budget promotion and an apathetic middle class buried this much needed initiative. Also read: Why BJP Swept Assembly Elections
Amid all the hype and hoopla about India having become the world’s fifth largest economy with a $4 trillion GDP and fastest annual rate of 6.2 percent GDP growth, it’s an unpleasant, but necessary duty to strike a discordant note. GDP should be measured according to the per capita metric and not by way of absolute number. There’s a certain inevitability about the GDP of India with its population of 1.4 billion surpassing Britain which has 63 million people, equivalent to that of Karnataka, one of India’s 29 states. Moreover, India’s $4 trillion (Rs.333 lakh crore) divided by its population translates into per capita GDP of $6,500 per annum. Even this statistic that every adult and child in the country directly or indirectly receives a monthly income of $500 (Rs.42,000) is misleading. The reality is that 60 percent of annual GDP is hogged by the upper 10 percent of the citizenry comprising the 430 million-strong middle class. Against this backdrop, a recent report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) revealing that India was the world’s largest importer of arms, armaments and defence equipment in 2023, makes — or should make — disturbing reading. According to SIPRI, in the period 2018-22 India imported 11 percent of global defence equipment ahead of Saudi Arabia (9.6 percent), Qatar (6.4), Australia (4.7) and China (4.6). In the interim Union budget 2024-25, the allocation for defence is Rs.6.2 lakh crore cf. Rs.1.20 lakh crore for education; Rs.90,171 crore for healthcare and Rs.3.5 lakh crore for rural development. Admittedly education, healthcare and rural development are ‘concurrent’ subjects under the Constitution with the states also obliged to incur expenditure under these heads. But with the Centre setting the bar so low, total expenditure on education adds to less than 3 percent of GDP against the global average of 5 percent. Hence the poor learning outcomes documented by ASER surveys. Therefore, the question which nobody seems to be asking is: should a country in which over a billion citizens live desperate lives in conditions of bleak deprivation, incur such vast expenditure on defence every year? Isn’t making peace with China the easier option in the broader national interest? It’s well-documented that during almost 200 years of British Raj over the subcontinent, arbitrary boundary lines were drawn and imposed upon Chinese-Tibet including the Aksai Chin region. Instead of re-negotiating these lines in a bona fide spirit of give-take, successive governments in New Delhi have adamantly insisted upon preserving border lines inherited from the British notwithstanding several millennia of Sino-India peace, harmony and cultural linkages in the pre-Raj era. This foolishness has upended post-independence India’s national development effort and heaped misery on over one billion citizens. A bona fide reset of Sino-India relations is overdue. Also read: China: CCP takes charge
Despite continuous efforts of EducationWorld for almost a quarter century to accord high importance to public education improvement and upgradation, human capital development remains a blind-spot of the Indian establishment, academy, and society. For over three decades the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) of the independent Pratham Education Foundation has been highlighting poor learning outcomes in rural primary education. The latest ASER 2023 which assesses the learning outcomes of rural teens arrives at the dismal conclusion that almost 50 percent of senior and higher secondary students casually promoted year after year, can’t read a sentence in English or manage common tasks such as calculating time, adding weights, figuring out discounts and repayments. Regrettably, learning outcomes in higher education aren’t much better. For a start, contemporary India’s GER (gross enrollment ratio) in higher education at 27 percent is low by international standards (Korea: 85 percent). Moreover according to several research studies (Mckinsey Aspiring Minds), over 80 percent graduates of the country’s 45,000 ASC (arts, science and commerce) and 4,500 engineering undergrad colleges are under-qualified for employment in Indian and foreign multinationals. They require prolonged post-induction education and training. Nor are our 1,113 universities much to write home about. None of them is ranked among the Top 200 in the annual league tables of the world’s best universities published by the London-based QS and Times Higher Education. This despite some of our universities being of over 150 years vintage. Against this backdrop, since 2007 we have been rating India’s most reputed schools, preschools, ASC colleges and universities slotted into various categories — to eliminate apples with oranges type comparison — inter se. The objective of the rankings is to encourage education institutions to improve their performance on several carefully ideated parameters of education excellence. We believe that our detailed annual league tables have aided and enabled school, college and university managements to conduct periodic SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threats) self-assessments to improve and upgrade their curriculums. For this summer issue, following the termination of our long-standing contract for conduct of field surveys by the Delhi-based C fore, we have engaged the Bangalore-based AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd, a premier market research firm to partner with us to rate and rank India’s best ASC and private engineering colleges. League tables rating and universities and B-schools will follow next month. Meanwhile please note that ASC and engineering college league tables aside, there’s a wealth of carefully curated content in this pre-General Election issue of EducationWorld. Read, learn and absorb. And perhaps transform into a QEFA (quality education for all) evangelist.
Board exams mystique
The Karnataka state government is pushing the evaluation system several steps backward. The RTE Act, 2009 had stipulated school-based assessment such as continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) The Karnataka state government’s decision to revive board exams in classes V and VIII is in keeping with the post-RTE (Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009) trend. Several state governments taking advantage of an amendment forced into RTE’s original text and rationale for banning board exams throughout the eight years of compulsory elementary education, have already done this. The word ‘board’ evokes fear in every Indian student’s heart. No matter how hard working a student is, the prospect of a board exam instills instant anxiety. What is a ‘board’ and how did this word acquire this stressful connotation? In the western world, boards are elected bodies that manage the public education system. In India, they emerged during the colonial period from the need to govern the crucial matriculation exam in a confidential manner. Secrecy was the key to their role and functioning. Colonial rulers didn’t trust teachers to assess children studying under them. Therefore, externally conducted exams were deemed necessary. The exam paper, i.e, questions, the paper setter, and evaluator were all shrouded in secrecy. On the other side, the identity of every student was also firmly encoded, with the help of roll numbers. The marks a student attained remained a secret until the result was declared. It was a dramatic moment. Newspapers carried roll numbers of successful candidates and the ‘divisions’ they were placed in. The long gap between the board exams and the day the results were made public caused as much anxiety as the period preceding the exam. ‘Preparation leave’ before the board exam was a common feature of colonial societies. No classes were held during this period. Before exams started, students were stripped of access to the library. They had to acquire a ‘no objection certificate’ from the library, science labs and even the NCC officer-in-charge. It was necessary to obtain an entrance ticket for the exam hall. And when all the ‘papers’ were over, the long wait for the result began. No one could be sure about what might happen. Everyone at home and the school shared the anxiety of examinees. Readers must be wondering why I have used the past tense throughout the previous para. They would be right to be curious about this usage because the fact is that the exam rituals I have described are intact and functional to this day. And not just school exams, colleges and universities follow the norm of depriving students of library rights before exams. It is an expression of institutional distrust in the young. It has an element of bureaucratic callousness as well. The system forces teachers to adopt a hands-off attitude in board exams season. Many among them do participate in marking of answer sheets, but they do so as anonymous entities, for a modest fee. By deciding to reintroduce board exams for classes…