EducationWorld February 10

The Union HRD ministrys bombshell affidavit presented to the Supreme Court on January 18 proposing to withdraw the deemed university (i.e autonomous) status of 44 mainly private higher education institutions countrywide blacklisted by the P.N. Tandon Committee, has had an unlikely fallout in the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 57 million). The states six private sector deemed universities recommended for derecognition have found an ally in the BJP state government.On January 22 Karnatakas higher education minister Arvind Limbavali informed the media that in the interest of students the state government was willing to grant private university status to the impugned universities, as well as give them other options. In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court the HRD ministry had named and shamed six deemed universities in Karnataka — Christ University, Bangalore; Sri Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar; Yenepoya University, Mangalore; BLDE University, Bijapur; Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur; and Jain University, Bangalore. The six deemed universities recommended by the Centre for derecognition are providing quality education and none of them is a substandard institution. If they are in trouble they can apply for private university status. We have already permitted one private university in the state. They also have other options. One is to become affiliated with a state university. Another is to get affiliation but have autonomous status, Limbavali told mediapersons on January 22. The BJP minister also took the opportunity to fire a salvo at the Congress-led UPA-2 government, and Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal in particular. Sibal is taking unilateral decisions on education; it would have been better for him to discuss the issue with all the state education ministers before taking this policy decision, he said. Obviously Limbavalis sudden display of generosity towards the six deemed universities has more to do with belittling and showing the Congress HRD minister Sibal in poor light, than genuine concern for the 12,098 students enroled in the six universities. According to sources within the education department, Limbavali did not attend either of the two meetings Sibal has held with the states education department officials in the past six months. Meanwhile with the Supreme Court in an order dated January 25 directing the Union HRD ministry to maintain the status quo, and place on record the reports of the UGC Review and P.N. Tandon committees, the managements of Karnatakas six deemed universities are wary about accepting Limbavalis offer. They believe that they have a strong case given that most of them have received favourable reviews from UGC inspection committees. While your correspondents repeated attempts to elicit responses on Limba-valis offer from the vice chancellors of Jain and Christ universities failed, sources within these deemed varsities indicate that the prospect of re-affiliating themselves with the thoroughly dumbed-down, corrupt, crumbling and caste-politics infested Bangalore University (BU) doesnt enthuse these higher education institutions, which enjoy excellent public reputation. Nor does the prospect of autonomous status within BU. And the road to getting private university status from the…

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“Heres the sad truth: mainstream Muslims have zero influence over extremists. In fact, if one of those guys had a single bullet in his gun and you and I were up against the wall, he would shoot me first. He hates me more because not only do I not follow his perverse version of Islam, I also represent an alternative interpretation.” Eboo Patel, well-known Muslim intellectual and member of President Barack Obamas Faith Advisory Council (USA Today, January 4) “Its his right as a Zulu. But he only took one wife to Italy to meet the Pope.” Jemmy Gordin, biographer of South Africas polygamist President Jacob Zuma, who married for the fifth time on January 4 (Time, January 18) The concept of deemed universities from the country will go in the near future and this is part of the reform process. We are putting in place the required legislations. Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on the controversy surrounding derecognised deemed universities (January 19) “Rahul Gandhi is part of a new generation of political leaders focused on making sure these (health) investments are well spent. Rahul was very frank in saying that right now a lot of the money is not getting to the intended recipients and that it wont be easy to fix. His openness was refreshing, since many politicians wont say anything that might discourage a donor from giving more.” Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Times of India, January 26) “To encourage… businesses to stay within our borders, it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas.” US President Barack Obama in his State of Union address to Congress (January 28) “Education is the second largest spend for the Indian family after food and groceries, compared to 7th largest spend in the US below DVDs and music.” K. Ganesh, founder of TutorVista (Business Standard, January 30)

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One of three schools promoted by the Hindu Educational Organis-ation, THSSS (I) has acquired an excellent reputation for providing a balanced mix of high-quality academic and co-curricular educationPromoted by the Hindu Educational Organisation (estb.1907), currently headed by retired IAS officer B.S. Raghavan, the CBSE (Central Board for Secondary Education) -affiliated The Hindu Senior Secondary School, Indira Nagar, Chennai (THSSS (I), estb. 1978), has acquired a good reputation for combining academic excellence with culturally-rooted, value-based K-12 education. One of three schools — the other two being the state government-aided Hindu Higher Secondary School, Triplicane (estb. 1852) and CBSE-affiliated The Hindu Higher Secondary School, Triplicane (estb.1974) — promoted by the Hindu Educational Organisation, THSSS (I) has 2,100 students instructed by 60 teachers on its muster roll. We believe in providing secular, holistic education that follows a child-oriented approach and focuses on the overall development of children. Our emphasis is on developing every childs reading, writing and communication skills. We also give high importance to value-based education to mould the personalities and character of children. Moreover our co-curricular and other programmes are designed for optimum intellectual growth and to inculcate leadership qualities, says Padmini Sriraman, an alumna of Madurai Kamaraj, Kanpur and Madras universities who has 24 years of teaching experience in schools in north and south India, and has been serving as principal of THSSS (I) for the past decade. Testimony of the school manage-ments commitment to co-curricular education is provided by THSSS (I) having nurtured some of the citys best music groups, which have bagged medals and trophies in several state and national competitions. Under the expert guidance of music teacher Uma Balasubramanian, its top ten-member music group has performed in numerous concerts in the city, and was recently awarded Rs.50,000 by the government of Uttarkhand for winning first place in the national-level Sanskrit patriotic and folk song competitions held in Roorkee. The school is justifiably proud of its musically gifted alumni who include famous Tamil playback singers Chinmayi and Madhumita. Other distinguished alumni include successful edupreneur Isari Ganesh, founder of the Vels group of institutions and Chennai police commissioner R. Natraj. Its reputation for dispensing excellent co-curricular education apart, THSSS (I) is highly favoured by discerning middle class parents for providing high-quality academic education. In the year 2008-09, 83 of its 128 students passed the pan-India CBSE secondary class X exam with distin-ction, while the rest passed in the first division. In the class XII school leaving exam, 57 out of 81 students passed with distinction and the rest were placed in the first division. Unsurprisingly every year a large contingent of THSSS (I) students secure admission into prestigious engineering and medical colleges countrywide. Moreover, in the recently concluded academic year, two students bagged cash prizes in the International Mathematical Olympiad; eight students won medals and certificates in the 8th National Cyber Olympiad conducted by the Science Olympiad Foundation; and five students were awarded certificates of excellence in the Third National Aerospace Olympiad held in Nagpur. The schools management ascribes…

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South Korea is involved in a big national push to recruit more academics from overseas to internationalise its campuses and improve its standing in world league tables. But the 2009 Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings show that it has a long way to go.The highest-rated South Korean institution (47), Seoul National University, scores only 29 out of 100 for the proportion of international staff and 33 out of 100 for the proportion of overseas students on campus. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, ranked second in the country and 69 overall, scores 47 for international staff and just 31 for foreign students. Pohang University of Science and Technology, ranked third domestically and 134 overall, scores 50 for international staff and 19 for students. Academics in South Korea attribute this to unconducive conditions for foreign instructors. In sharp contrast to generally prevalent practice in Asia, the average foreigners pay falls significantly below the national average, while their standard lecture hours are frequently twice those of local staff. At one post-secondary institution an American with a Ph D was told that he was entitled only to the ‘foreigner salary, roughly 50 percent of the Korean starting salary. Worse still, Indian academics are paid less than Westerners. Significantly The Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings were based on a survey of academic opinion. If such a high proportion of Times Higher Educations new rankings in 2010 is based on a reputational survey, South Korean institutions risk sliding down the table by creating a negative impression through their discriminatory practices. So they must start treating foreign students and faculty with the same respect afforded to local people, says Paul Z. Jambor, a lecturer at the Institute of Foreign Language Studies, Korea University. (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)

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British boarding schools are estimated to have missed out on hundreds of lucrative Chinese boarders after the home office stopped issuing visas to students across a swathe of southern China. The clampdown began in September after the UK Border Agency found a number of irregularities with applications from Fuzhou province.The home office refused to confirm what these were, but it is understood that there was a spike in applications sparked by a rush by farm workers trying to get into the UK by posing as English-language students. Boarding schools have been affected by the clampdown, which saw visas stopped at a centre in Fuzhou as well as at visa offices in Guangzhou and Shenzhen in neighbouring Guangdong province. But in November, the UK Border Agency said it would accept new applications from students in the three provinces set to attend fee-levying independent schools. However Martin Webber, managing director of Academic Asia International, which recruits Chinese students for UK boarding schools, says the damage has been done. British boarding schools have come to depend heavily on Chinese students in recent years and many schools have invested heavily in marketing and promotion in the area, he says. He now expects the Chinese boarders hit by the clampdown to have gone elsewhere, such as the US and Australia. It has scarred a lot of people. The message we fear that has come across is that ‘you cant ever be sure with the UK any more. Some parents might think that to be on the safe side they will send their children to the US instead. The UK is competing with the US and Australia here and it is the long-term impact we are concerned about, says Webber. Hilary Moriarty, national director of the Boarding Schools Association, plays down the number of schools affected. Last year we had just over 1,300 coming to boarding schools from China. If this had affected the whole country, then it would be more serious, she says. (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)

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For 480 years the Johanneum has taught ancient languages to Hamburgs children. That tradition is about to be disrupted, fears the schools director, Uwe Reimer. Radical reforms are planned by the citys government, a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Green parties. These would mean ‘humanistic gymnasien (academic high schools) like the Johanneum would get two fewer years to impart Latin and Greek. If the reforms are enacted, says Reimer, the profile we developed over such a long period cannot be maintained.The unease goes far beyond the Johanneum. ‘We Want to Learn, a parents movement to stop the reforms, collected 185,000 signatures in November, three times the number needed to force a referendum. Half of Hamburgers want changes to the plans; a fifth think them completely wrongheaded. They will vote next summer unless a compromise is found. Defeat would discourage similar experiments and also traumatise Hamburgs government, which has been seen as a model for a national CDU/Green coalition one day. Education keeps Germany in a perpetual state of angst. University students have been striking for weeks over a shortage of teachers, botched curriculum changes and tuition fees. Whenever a state government loses an election, anger over schools is usually a prime cause. Germany is a middling performer among rich countries in international tests for maths and reading. Too few Germans graduate from university. Bright students from low social classes stand little chance. A child from a privileged background is four times as likely to reach a gymnasien, the main route to university, as one with similar grades from a working-class family. In Hamburg his chances are 4.5 times better. A third of 15-year-olds, often immigrants or their offspring, learn too little to get decent jobs. The Hamburg school reforms seek to help the bottom without hurting the top. They are based on the idea that educational inequality is high in Germany largely because most states decide when a child is only ten what type of high school he or she should go to. Propelled by the Greens, Hamburgs government wants to extend primary school, where children of all abilities learn together, from four years to six. Social distance is diminished when children learn longer together, says Christa Goetsch, Hamburgs (Green) education minister. The reform would end parents right to pick their high school, because pushy middle-class parents advance their children at the expense of others. Rather like busing in America, Hamburgs planned reforms touch middle-class nerves. Mocked by critics as Gucci protesters, opponents worry that children will be held back by schoolmates destined to be social and economic laggards and by teachers who cater to their weaknesses. One-size-fits-all schooling will hurt children of all abilities, insists Walter Scheuerl, a lawyer who heads ‘We Want to Learn. Uncomfortably for Hamburgs CDU mayor, Ole von Beust, the resisters are disproportionately CDU voters. (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist)

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