Aarya Sarda, a ten-year-old youngster from Nashik, is the proud recipient of the prestigious CCRT (Centre for Cultural Resources and Training) Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme 2013-14 of the Union ministry of culture. The scholarships are annually awarded to outstanding performing arts exponents between 10-14 years of age. A class VI student of the Rasbihari […]
It’s a tragedy that the great international institution christened Visva-Bharati (India-World) University in which literature Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore invested the “cargo of my life’s best treasure” and which he gifted to India, has been reduced to the status of a provincial university. Reports Gargi Banerjee with Dilip Thakore
The recently-concluded year 2013, especially November 14, […]
Staged against the backdrop of a National ECCE policy having received Union cabinet approval in September last year, the objective of the 4th EW ECE Global Conference was to provide a national platform for international and indigenous experts to share their knowledge and best practices with pre-primary educators from across India. Summiya Yasmeen
THE 4TH EDUCATIONWORLD EARLY […]
Visva-Bharati (later University) was inaugurated on December 22, 1921 at a ceremony presided by Dr. Brajendranath Seal, one of India’s foremost philosophers. Rabindranath Tagore donated the land, buildings, library, copyrights of his books and interest from the Nobel Prize money to Visva-Bharati.
The constitution drawn up by Dr. Prasanta Mahalanobis, a pioneer of statistical research in […]
Gargi Banerjee interviewed Dr. Sushanta Dattagupta, vice chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, in his office on the VBU campus. Excerpts:
Rabindranath Tagore often described Visva-Bharati as the greatest achievement of his life. Yet to this day there is confusion about Tagore’s educational philosophy and the goals he set for VBU…
In his formative years, Tagore was deeply disappointed with the […]
Santiniketan Griha. Originally constructed by Rabindranath Tagore’s father Dwarkanath in 1863 for meditation, it became the poet’s base when he first came to Santiniketan in 1901 with the intention of setting up a school. Most of his famous poems from Gitanjali for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1913, were composed in this house. Today […]
I WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN WITH thanking EducationWorld for the opportunity to share some of my experiences and views relating to early childhood care and education (ECCE), particularly in the UK and other parts of the world. As ECCE practitioners, we are clearly facing times of challenge, but also of opportunity because we can positively […]
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND education (ECCE) is a step child of Indian education, indifferently nurtured by the Union ministries of women and child development, human resource development and finance.
Of the country’s 158 million children aged below six, 75.7 million i.e. 48 percent are reported to be covered under the Central government’s Integrated Child Development Services […]
Against the backdrop of the Union government having made early childhood education subject to official regulation for the first time by formulating a National Early Childhood Care and Education (NECCE) policy which received cabinet approval on September 20 last year, the first panel discussion of the EW ECE Global Conference 2014 focused on the subject […]
The second panel discussion of the EW ECE Global Conference 2014 on the subject ‘Best practices in ECCE – What Indian preschools need to learn and adapt’ was lively and engaging. The panel chaired by Summiya Yasmeen (SY), managing editor of EducationWorld, included Sapna Chauhan (SC), founder of Amiown preschools, Delhi; Prriety Gosalia (PG), co-founder and CEO of Leapbridge International preschools […]
Conventional wisdom of the newspapers and magazines industry is that publications should get a design and layout makeover every decade. Regrettably, because we spent considerable time (and money) rejecting several designs before selecting a design team which understood the philosophical moorings and education reform objectives of EducationWorld, while simultaneously appreciating the importance of continuity with […]
The spectacular electoral debut of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi state assembly elections two months ago, culminating in AAP forming the state government, had aroused great expectations of a new political sunrise covering the entire country. But since then, its oleaginous populism and maladroit initiatives in governance has raised ghosts of the post-Emergency […]
I WAS WHOLLY unaware of the impact of India’s best schools around the world (EW January). It’s reassuring to know that our premier schools are comparable with the best worldwide. It’s also encouraging to learn of the role Afairs Media & Exhibitions plays in showcasing them across India and abroad. The success of Indian schools […]
EVEN AS ADMISSIONS HAVE BEGUN for the current academic year starting June/July, confusion about rules and regulations governing admission of tiny tots aged three-four years in Delhi’s estimated 6,600 composite private schools offering nursery education has not cleared despite a rain of legislation, litigation, clarification notifications and rules drawn up by the Delhi state government, […]
THE NINTH ANNUAL STATUS OF EDUCATION Report (ASER) 2013 — the sole national survey measuring learning outcomes in rural government and private primary schools (classes I-VIII) conducted by the acclaimed Mumbai-based NGO Pratham — depicts a downtrend in learning outcomes in rural India, which hosts 67 percent of the national population. This annual survey assesses […]
GUJARAT’S THREE-TEAM CHIEF MINISTER and now prime ministerial candidate of the opposition BJP for the general election scheduled for this summer, Narendra Modi has had to endure severe criticism for his failure to maintain law and order during the communal riots which swept the state in 2002 when over 3,000 citizens — mainly of the […]
WHEN WEST BENGAL’S FIREBRAND chief minister Mamata Banerjee ended 34 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist)-led Left Front government rule in the state — during which quasi-literate CPM apparatchiks filled all institutions of education driving teaching-learning standards to new lows — in May 2011, she aroused great expectations in West […]
THE SHOWPIECE OSMANIA UNIVERSITY, Hyderabad (estb.1918), a prime bone of contention between the feuding protagonists of a breakaway Telangana from Andhra Pradesh (pop. 84 million) and proponents of a unitary state, may not be as valuable a prize as popularly believed. A task force of the Delhi-based University Grants Commission (UGC) which visited and inspected […]
THE RAIN OF WOES POURING DOWN ON THE STATE OD UTTAR PRADESH (pop. 200 million) — the Muzaffarnagar riots, legislators globetrotting at public expense and exacerbating breakdown of law and order — has been compounded by the release of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013, published by the nationally reputed Mumbai-based education NGO […]
Bihar
Examination reform plans
THE BIHAR SCHOOL Examination Board (BSEB) will conduct its matriculation (class X) examinations for every subject in two shifts. The state’s education minister P.K. Shahi informed the media in Patna on January 9, that this initiative has become necessary as the number of examinees is set to rise to 1.4 million this year.
“This […]
THE SANSKAAR VALLEY SCHOOL, ranked among India’s Top 50 (#32) day-cum-boarding schools (EW India School Rankings 2013), is the 10,000th school worldwide to offer Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) qualifications. The Bhopal-based school was registered as a CIE-affiliate institution on January 10.
In 2013, 27 schools across India registered with CIE bringing the total number of the […]
RN Podar School, Mumbai, RNPS is a top-bracket class I-XII CBSE affiliated co-ed day school in urbs prima indis. Sunayana Nair
Founded in 1998, Ramniranjan Podar School (RNPS) is the CBSE-affiliated school of the Mumbai-based Podar Education Network (estb. 1927), run by the Anandilal Podar Trust whose first president was Mahatma Gandhi. Currently […]
Sited in south-east London, Goldsmiths, University of London is ranked among the world’s Top 100 higher ed institutions for arts and humanities
Affiliated with the University of London, Goldsmiths (estb.1904) is a specialist college offering study programmes in art and design, the humanities and social sciences. Sited in south-east London, […]
Kolkata-based Simran Kapur (17) was conferred the Young Chef India Schools Award 2013 following a major cookout competition staged at the University of West London last September. This class XII student of Modern High School won the Young Chef Finale, a competition for students in class XII, organised by the International Institute of Hotel Management […]
With offshore information technology personnel training firms springing up countrywide, thousands of trainers are required for India’s fast-track IT training companies. Indra Gidwani
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IT (information technology) — especially writing code and software programs — industry since 1991 when the licence-permit-quota regime which regulated all industrial activity was substantially abolished, is post independence India’s […]
After completing class XII, I want to study law and enroll for a company secretary (CS) foundation course simultaneously. Please advise.
Geeta iyengar, Bangalore
CS and law are an excellent combination and can help you get off to a great start. I suggest you consider signing up for a five-year integrated degree in law. This will give […]
As the new academic year approaches, schools are planning and budgeting for big-ticket purchases in preparation for the next year. This is a good time for school managements to pay heed to emerging trends in 21st century education to avoid investing mega bucks in technology which is cumbersome, expensive and on the threshold of obsolescence.
The […]
CHINA’S INFAMOUS UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE exam, known as the gaokao has long been subject to criticism. Admissions are based solely on the points scored in one exam, and the need for rote memorisation does little to foster creative minds. Now Beijing has taken its first tentative steps towards reforming the system.
Last December it announced that the […]
LAST YEAR WAS NOT A VINTAGE YEAR FOR the university of Central Lancashire’s attempts to gain a foothold in overseas markets. In November it emerged that it will lose up to £3.2 million (Rs.32 crore) in the collapse of its planned Thailand campus. The university set up a joint venture company with the president of […]
UNIVERSITY GRADUATES IN NORTHERN Sri Lanka, which is recovering from decades of civil war, are looking at a sparse employment landscape with few opportunities on offer. “Those from the north face a much more difficult time than those from elsewhere in the country. New jobs are very difficult to find,” Rupavathi Keetheswaran, government agent for […]
SCHOOL IN THE TYPHOON-AFFECTED areas of the Republic of Philippines (pop. 97 million) are slowly reopening and thousands of students are resuming classes after the category 5 storm struck the island nation last November. Millions of children have had their education disrupted due to school buildings being severely damaged or used as shelters for survivors […]
YASMIN WAS AT HOME AFTER A DAY AT work at Al-Baath University in Homs, Syria, when she heard that one of her students had been shot and killed. Yasmin’s life had been dominated by Syria’s civil war since unrest began in 2011. Syria’s higher education system is in meltdown. Students and academics have fled the […]
ONE OF THE HOTTEST TOPICS BEING DEBATED in the sporting world currently is whether it is advisable to specialise in a single sport from an early age to maximise potential. When young children exhibit extraordinary skill or potential in a specific sport, they are often pushed to specialise by family or coaches. While it’s tempting […]
David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell; Penguin Books; Price: Rs.599; Pages 305
A STAFF WRITER of the well-known New Yorker magazine, Malcolm Gladwell is among the most original and innovative of contemporary thinkers. During the past decade or so, he has written several stimulating books traversing politics, sociology, psychology and anthropology which have refreshingly challenged conventional […]
Amit Agarwal, Chairman, Unison Group of Institutions, Dehradun
Are you satisfied with the importance given to education on the national development agenda?
Yes. In the 12th Plan, there is commendable emphasis on upgrading the infrastructure and faculty of existing institutes and strengthening Central universities, new IITs, IIMs and state universities.
How best to upgrade […]
The delight which all right-thinking citizens of this benighted republic groaning under the incremental weight of open, uninterrupted and continuous corruption practiced by the Congress-led UPA government for nine long years experienced when the neophyte Aam Aadmi Party trounced the Congress in the Delhi state election of December, is fast turning into disillusionment. With each […]
New Academic Year 2024-25 Creating conducive home study environment With the new academic year all set to begin this month, PW presents a comprehensive child development guide devised by ... 
The Importance of Art Appreciation The term art encompasses a large variety of works, from paintings to sculptures, architecture to design, and in modern times ... 
Students who petitioned the SC against UGC guidelines asks PM to cancel exams Students who are fighting a case against the UGC to get the final year exams cancelled, have now written to ... 
Remembering late APJ Abdul Kalam, India’s missile man on his death anniversary “If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun” — APJ Abdul Kalam A prominent Indian ... 
Golden keys of national development
– Rahul Singh is a former editor of Reader’s Digest and Indian Express and consultant to the United Nations
AT THE START OF A NEW YEAR, commentators often put forward their priorities for accelerated national development. Mine is centred on two sectors of the economy that have been foolishly neglected for the past 66 years since […]