Within nine days of American-Indian Snigdha Nandipati making history by winning the 85th edition of the annual national Scripps Spelling Bee 2012 contest staged in May in Washington DC, USA — in which Americans of Indian origin have bagged first rank for five years consecutively — Bangalore-based Samvida Venkatesh (15) was crowned national champion in […]
Banners of revolt against steady erosion of the autonomy of private schools are being unfurled across the country. On August 16, the National Foundation for Promotion and Protection of Private Education is scheduled to be formally launched in Mumbai to lobby for a fair deal for India’s private schools. Dilip Thakore reports
The summer of 2012 has […]
Informed academics and medical practitioners are unanimous that a clean-up of the malodorous augean stables of the medical profession must begin with comprehensive disinfestation of the Medical Council of India, from which the contagion has filtered into the bloodstream of medical education and practice. Summiya Yasmeen & Swati Roy report
Medical education in the country is in […]
Dilip Thakore interviewed Damodar Prasad Goyal, convenor of the National Foundation for the Promotion and Protection of Private Education in Mumbai and Bangalore. Excerpts:
What are the factors or developments which have prompted you to promote the National Foundation for Promotion and Protection of Private Education (NFPPPE)?
In spite of the qualitative and quantative growth of private, non-government education […]
Rather belatedly, promoters, trustees and principals of India’s 80,000 private schools (200,000 according to the Union HRD ministry’s calculus which tabulates each section — primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary — within an integrated school as a separate unit) who have hitherto regarded each other as competitors, have begun to unite and make common […]
Introduced in the Rajya Sabha on december 22 last year, the National Commission of Human Resources for Health Bill (NCHRH), 2011 proposes to subsume the Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India and Pharmacy Council into a National Commission of Human Resources for Health. It provides for trifurcation of regulatory functions of the commission […]
The admirably and painstakingly crafted Constitution of India is unambiguous that the obligation of providing free and compulsory education to all children is of the State (i.e Central and state governments). It is also unambiguous that all citizens have the fundamental right to practice any profession, or carry on any occupation, trade or business (Article […]
A common factor connects the several separate incidents of mob molestation of a teenage girl in Guwahati graphically captured by video footage, the brazen diktat issued by a khap panchayat (village council) forbidding women to venture out of their homes without a male escort or use mobile phones, and incidents involving celebratory gunfire in Uttar […]
The malaise of persistent government interference in India’s elite IITs has been brilliantly highlighted in your cover story (EW July). The recent attempt of Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal to abolish the time-tested and rigorous IIT-JEE in favour of a common entrance test was a bad idea as it would have dumbed down academic standards in […]
Privately promoted B-schools countrywide offering postgraduate diplomas in management (PGDM — considered equivalent to an MBA degree programme which can be offered only by University Grants Commission-approved universities) inched a step closer to financial autonomy on July 10. Delivering an interim order in AICTE vs. Education Promotion Society for India, Association of Indian Management Schools […]
A week-long (July 16-22) strike called by the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA), which boasts a membership of 1,800 private unaided schools, to protest the “clumsy” implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009 by the state government, received a lukewarm response. Only a handful of private unaided school managements responded to KUSMA’s […]
Following the end of 34 years of rule (1977-2011) of the Communist Party of India (CPM)-led Left Front government in West Bengal (pop. 90 million) in which private initiatives in higher education were strictly verboten, the legislative assembly passed the Techno India University Bill 2012 on July 6 to establish West Bengal’s first private university […]
The politics of confrontation practiced by the Narendra Modi government is adversely impacting education in Gujarat. The chief minister’s fetish for unrestricted control, which has ensured Gujarat remained without a Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) for most of his almost 11-year rule of the state, is now impacting the state’s education system.
Two key education Bills have become the subject of […]
“We’ve been waiting for it for 7,000 years. For the first time in history, we have our own President, elected by us.”
Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party, whose candidate Mohamed Morsy became the country’s first democratically elected leader (Time, July 9)
“Our citizens are not safe and there is […]
Tripura
Decks cleared for IIIT
Tripura will soon host an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) with the Centre having reportedly approved it. “Though a formal letter hasn’t been received by the state government as yet, we understand the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry has issued a notification clearing the proposal for establishing an IIIT in […]
NIIT Mindchampions Academy (MCA, estb.2002) — a not-for-profit initiative of Grand Master Viswanathan Anand and NIIT Ltd, the transnational IT skills development and certification corporation, to promote the mind stimulating game of chess in schools across India — celebrated its 10th anniversary on July 20. Over the past few decades, the academy has promoted 16,600 […]
Student entrepreneur Bhupesh Sharma (22) is a young man in a hurry to make his mark in the business world. An electrical and telecom engineering graduate of the University of Mumbai, Sharma has trained his sights on addressing India’s chronic energy deficiency problem. His two-year-old startup Breson — a partnership firm — designs and manufactures […]
Accredited by the Geneva-based IBO and the UK-based CIE, Ryan Global School, Andheri (Mumbai) is set to evolve as a benchmark institution for all 128 Ryan International Group schools in India and abroad
The Mumbai-based Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI) — India’s largest chain of proprietorial K-12 schools comprising 128 high quality […]
Established in 1963 by an act of Parliament, Newcastle University, UK (aka University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NU) is ranked among the Top 12 universities in the UK by The Sunday Times, and among the Top 150 universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education and QS World University 2011 league tables. A member of […]
With a steadily growing number of business and industry leaders insisting upon homes and offices being vastu-compliant, there’s rising demand for practitioners of this now mainstream science
Once dismissed as oriental mumbo-jumbo, Vastu Shastra — an ancient Indian science of construction or architecture based on traditional lore relating to how the laws of nature affect human […]
Which is a better option — enroling in a ME (Master of Engineering) or MBA programme after completing my bachelor of engineering degree next year? Also should I pursue my postgrad studies in India or abroad?
Sridhar Swamy, Chennai
To qualify for an MBA study programme abroad you need to have at least three years work experience, […]
The passage of the Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE) and its substantial validation by the Supreme Court marks a historic epoch in terms of renewed emphasis on education as a development driver of the nation. But closer scrutiny of the current state of affairs also indicates the low point from […]
A senior member of the Rome-based Congregation of the Mission of Vincent de Paul (estb. 1625), Dr. Jose Aikara, CM, is the newly-elected chairman of the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) — India’s second largest school-leaving examinations (classes X and XII) certification board. Currently, CISCE has 1,910 of the country’s top-ranked primary-secondary schools […]
Ashish Bhardwaj is regional director (South Asia) of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a US-based non-profit organisation of leading business management schools around the world that administers GMAT (Graduate Management Aptitude Test) — the premier standardised test used by over 1,500 B-schools worldwide for admission into their business and management programmes. Conducted simultaneously in […]
Rajeev Pathak (42) is the founder chief executive of Bangalore-based eDreams Edusoft Pvt. Ltd (estb.2010), a company which promises to infuse joy and fun into school curriculums through its innovative Funtoot solution. Developed around artificial intelligence with the intent of improving teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes, Funtoot is a first-of-its-kind digital tutor which is both intelligent […]
Founder chief executive of Attano Media & Education Pvt. Ltd — a Mumbai-based company that creates digital content products for primary and supplementary education — Soumya Banerjee was among the first to discern that in an era where tablets, smartphones and general integration of electronics have become part of everyday life, books need to go digital […]
Ananthapadmanabhan G is the India country head of Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organisation (estb.1961) which investigates and exposes human rights abuses in more than 150 countries and territories around the world, and educates and mobilises public opinion to help transform society and create a safer, more just world.
Newspeg. Last month Amnesy International inaugurated its India […]
“Everyone’s pencil should be on the apple in the tally-mark chart!” shouts a teacher to her class of pupils at Harvest Preparatory School in Minneapolis. Papers and feet are shuffled; a test is coming. Each class is examined once every six or seven weeks. The teachers are monitored too. As a result, Harvest Prep outperformed […]
The University of Cambridge has secured the top spot ahead of Oxford University in Times Higher Education’s fifth annual ‘Table of Tables’. Based on the combined results of the UK’s university league tables, Cambridge retained its number one status after ousting its varsity rival from pole position for the first time last year.
Cambridge sealed its […]
Almost 7 million students are graduating from Chinese universities this summer, and there is plenty of pressure to turn newly minted qualifications into well-paid jobs. The competition is increased by the ease with which almost anyone in China can buy a fake degree.
On July 3, a former ministry of education official charged with swindling students […]
Is it possible to turn $10 billion of oil money into one of the top 10 science and technology universities in the world — in Saudi Arabia — and in just 11 years?
The answer is now “hopefully” rather than “definitely”, according to the president of the Gulf state’s flagship institution, the King Abdullah University of […]
Strict Sharia, or Islamic religious laws, imposed by Islamist rebels controlling vast swathes of northern Mali are driving thousands of students out of schools. Dress codes have been imposed, boys and girls are forced to learn separately, and subjects deemed to promote “infidelity” have been struck off the curriculum.
Outraged parents are transferring their children and […]
Since the new government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra took office last July, Thailand has been treated to a soap opera about the supply of tablet computers to all children starting school. Yingluck’s “one tablet per child” pledge during the campaign was probably her single most vote-catching policy, yet fulfilling it has turned into a […]
Several years ago I was in San Diego visiting my youngest son and his family. My granddaughter Kennedy was around two-and-a-half at the time, so we adults were all scattered around the floor of the apartment participating in our favourite activity — Kennedy-watching. At one point, Kennedy was about to do something — I don’t […]
Breakout Nations by Ruchir Sharma; Penguin Books; Price: Rs.599; 292 pp
Why are some societies and nations just, egalitarian and prosperous while the majority aren’t? In a world awash with money yet paradoxically afflicted with poverty, injustice, inequality and inhumanity, India-born New York-based Ruchir Sharma, manager of the emerging markets and equities portfolio of the global investment […]
M. SRINIVASAN
Principal, GEAR Innovative International School, Bangalore
Where would you place education on your national list of priorities?
Topmost. The well-being of a nation and its contribution to the world depends on the quality of education.
How best to upgrade government schools?
A daunting task as the reality is far from what is projected […]
Congress party veteran and former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s consummately plotted transition from North Block, New Delhi to the magnificent 340-roomed Rashtrapati Bhavan, marks the culmination of Mukherjee’s 40 years of survival and prosperity in the treacherous corridors of power in the national capital. On July 22, following his 69 percent vote of an electoral […]
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Home visits, positive reinforcement helped Udupi push up its rank in Karnataka SSLC Exams - Reshma Ravishanker Positive reinforcements to students and a leadership who kept their cool helped Udupi district in Karnataka catapult ... 
26 NGOs Enabling Indian Education If India's K-12 education system hasn't collapsed completely, its due to the efforts of the country's private schools and estimated ... 
School boards in India: types and differences -Riya Ganguly CBSE, ICSE, NIOS, CAIE, IB- what are the differences between these boards and how do you make the ... 
Tradition of righteous reaction
Rajiv Desai is president of Comma Consulting, Delhi
Through my pre-teen and teenage years, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather. He was a medical practitioner, theosophist, Congress party activist and a compassionate human being — my ideal.
One summer when my siblings and I were visiting his home in Surat, someone told him I […]