EducationWorld July 05

Once the most innovative woman chief executive in Indian industry, Shukla Bose founder CEO of the Parikrma Humanity Foundation, Bangalore has established several English medium primary schools for slum children which offer the hope of a break with the inegalitarian school system of the past century. Summiya Yasmeen reports Two years ago Selva Kumar was a 10-year-old who irregularly attended a run-down local government primary school. His alcoholic father ran a cobbler’s kiosk in Koramangla, Bangalore’s plush suburb which houses many of the city’s infotech millionaires. Neither his parents nor his teachers bothered whether he showed up in class. Most days Selva would while away time loitering or hanging out in the local park. And if he was lucky, he managed one meal a day. Though in class III, he couldn’t read or write.  One day in the summer of 2003 when he was playing truant from school, his life changed. Volunteers of the Parikrma Humanity Foundation (PHF) persuaded him to visit the Parikrma Centre for Learning, an English-medium free school which had just become operational in Koramangla. Two years later Selva is a happy 12-year-old who eagerly looks forward to class, gets two meals in school, plays football, and can read, write and speak English. He hasn’t missed a single class in three months. Thanks to counselling sessions with Parikrma social workers, his father has foresworn alcohol and works a full day. The 12-year-old who didn’t know the English alphabet two years ago, now writes English verse and aspires to become a poet. Selva is one of the 620 children aged five-14 years who attend three Parikrma Centres for Learning — free kindergarten-class VII schools run by Parikrma Humanity Foundation in Bangalore (pop. 7 million), India’s infotech capital and reportedly the fastest growing city in Asia. On March 30, Parikrma celebrated its second anniversary in the Bangalore Municipal Corporation town hall packed with the schools’ children and their slum-dweller parents who rubbed shoulders with the infotech city’s most prominent citizens including police commissioner S. Mariswamy, the chief guest. They had cause for celebration. Within two years of registration, Parikrma’s three centres in the garden city (Koramangla, Sahakarnagar, Jayanagar and a soon to be inaugurated centre at Nandhini Layout) have established themselves as model primaries which offer the hope of a break with the inegalitarian school education system of the past century or more, under which the children of the poor and socially disadvantaged were crowded into vernacular medium, indifferently serviced Dickensian-style poor schools affiliated to undemanding state boards. The differentiating characteristic of the Parikrma schools is that all of them follow the syllabus and curriculum of the Delhi-based Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) board (successor to the Senior Cambridge board) which numbers 1,392 of India’s most well known private schools including the Doon School, St. Paul’s, Darjeeling, Mayo College, Ajmer, Bishop Cotton Shimla and Bangalore, and Indus International, Bangalore as blue-blood affiliates. As the currently kindergarten-class VII Parikrma schools add a higher class each year, in due course they will seek formal affiliation…

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Letter from London Competition, challenge and response It is hard to believe that the end of the academic year is already here and cheerful students and staff are packing for the long summer break. Those likely to be feeling less cheerful are final year students now confronted with the reality of surviving in the tough world beyond the walls of academia. The passage from student life to workplace realities has always been difficult. This year it’s particularly rough because research into the graduate labour market has shown that a university degree is not necessarily the passport to a well-paid job. When the department of education and skills was trying to justify the introduction of £3,000 (Rs.2.46 lakh) a year standard tuition fee for all students (to be implemented in September 2006), it used the argument that graduates could expect to earn roughly £400,000 more in their lifetime than those dropping out after school. Now this figure has been reduced to only £140,000 — reflective of a huge closing of the graduates-non-graduates gap. Research studies conducted by the University of Swansea suggest there has been a fall in the relative wages of recent graduates. Secondly that rates of return on investment in degrees are declining. There are a number of reasons for this declining rate of return, but surely the principal reason must be the huge rise in the number of university enrollments during the 1990s, leading to the supply of graduates exceeding demand. Unsurprisingly the study also indicated that the degree subject chosen impacts rates of return and that graduates from the popular arts and humanities streams are worst hit. Meanwhile the skills shortage in scientific and mathematical disciplines is growing with universities struggling to attract students into what are perceived as much harder study programmes. Universities also have other matters to worry about, including the subject of student recruitment. Not to supply the British economy with better equipped graduates, but to supplement their income with higher fees from foreign students. The top-up fee argument is now over, but institutions continue to seek students from the farthest corners of the world. China and India are seen as particularly rich sources of students. However British universities are now looking over their shoulders at America’s generously funded universities which seem a more attractive proposition for foreign students. At a recent conference, attended by a number of leading British vice-chancellors and academics, the mood about the future was far from complacent. The consensus was that the fund-raising expertise of American institutions such as Harvard, Stanford and Yale can’t possibly be matched by any British university. One vice-chancellor said the funding gap was creating a “brain drain with a prevailing wind blowing academics westward”. Vis-à-vis China in particular, British academics expressed dismay about the growing number of graduate students sent to the UK to study for Ph Ds, who on their return use their knowledge to compete with European and American universities for global research contracts.  Although the conference didn’t reach any conclusions about how European…

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Two final year postgraduate chemistry students of Madras Christian College (MCC), Chennai’s Venkatram Balasubramanian & Vidhya Narasimhan have been selected by the Union government’s department of science and technology (together with 24 other students countrywide) to meet with eminent Nobel laureates in Lindau, Germany, at the 55th meeting of Nobel laureates scheduled for end June. “This is a rare privilege and we plan to make the most of it. During our three-week stay in Germany, we will be visiting some of the country’s best science institutes and looking for research opportunities,” says Narasimhan. The duo has been selected on the basis of their excellent academic record, research work and paper presentations throughout their undergraduate and postgrad years in MCC. A top-ranked student through school and college, Narasimhan was awarded the Poraiyar Natesa Iyer prize for chemistry (2004) in her first year of postgraduate studies and secured second rank with a “Grade A” score in a drug storage and management course conducted by Apollo Hospitals in 2003. Balasubramanian’s academic track record is equally impressive. He received the S.D. Sargunar prize for Tamil essay-writing in 2000; the Dr. Michael Lockwood Gold medal for philosophy in 2002; the I.M. Mathai and Boyd prizes for chemistry at the undergraduate level, and the Boyd prize II for chemistry in postgrad studies. “Our resumes read similar because we work as a team. We want to pursue research in environmental chemistry to find ways to make scientific advancements eco-friendly and in harmony with nature,” says Balasubramanian who also acknowledges the “continuous encouragement and support” of Dr. Wilfred Sugumar, head of the department of chemistry at MCC as a motivational force. The duo’s future plans are to “research extensively” to discover ways and means to create a pollution-free world. “We hope to derive motivation from the Nobel laureates we meet in Germany and learn how to do systematic, methodical research. The research divide between India and the West has to be narrowed pronto,” says Narasimhan. Stand by for a quantum leap forward in environment research activity! Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)  Rahul Jayanth “If you can’t get close to stars, bring them closer to you.” That’s a quotable quote worthy of a renowned astronomer. But coming from Rahul Jayanth, who is all of nine years old, it’s a brilliant insight. This class V child genius of Bangalore’s Presidency School has built a fully-operational Newtonian reflector telescope, which offers clear focus sightings of the Galilean Moon, bands of Jupiter, and rings of Saturn among other wonders of the universe. While standard reflector/ refraction telescopes are also useful, they offer blurred pictures of distant galactic bodies. Rahul’s love affair with the galaxy began at the age of three when he accompanied his father, B. Jayanth a mechanical engineer with Wipro Fluid Systems and amateur astronomer, to a meeting of the Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium. Fascinated by the science that is astronomy, Rahul promptly enrolled as a member and has since attended all their weekly meetings and workshops. “My…

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In a scenario in which Karnataka’s 104 private engineering colleges are under fire for their relatively high tuition fees and for churning out industry-unready graduates who add to the huge and growing number of unemployed, the four-year-old Don Bosco Institute of Technology (DBIT) is lighting a new path for other engineering education institutions. Last month (May) 70 percent of DBIT’s first batch of 143 graduates received job offers from the nation’s top corporates such as Wipro, Infosys, Polaris Software, Oracle, Toyota Kirloskar, Torry Harris while the remainder pressed on for postgrad studies. “Right from the start, our objective was to develop industry-ready engineers. Our curriculum was designed accordingly and includes business communication, supply-chain management, corporate etiquette, life skills, project and application management training. The proof that we have succeeded in attaining this objective is that leading corporates have hired our graduates,” says Byrasandra Bylappa, businessman educationist and chief trustee of Wayanamac Education Trust (WET), which promoted this impressive state-of-the-art engineering college sited in a green 36-acre campus replete with modern classrooms, laboratories, computer rooms and libraries at a project cost of Rs.50 crore in 2001. A former mechanical engineer who worked in the Kirloskar Electric Company in design, production and sales before promoting his own enterprise “Prashanth Cylinders” in 1982, Bylappa has grown Prashanth Cylinders (P) Ltd (annual sales turnover: Rs.60 crore) into India’s premier and the world’s second largest manufacturer of high pressure arc welding equipment which finds application in the automotive and construction industries. Bylappa’s transformation into a missionary of education began when on a business trip to Kolkata in 1990, he met the late Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity. “I experienced a compelling need to do something similar. When I sought Mother’s opinion, she advised me to help people through education. That’s when I resolved to promote a world-class engineering college,” recalls Bylappa. Since then the Wyanamac Education Trust has expanded the ambit of its operations. Currently WET administers four institutions of higher education in Bangalore: DBIT, Don Bosco College of Sciences and Management, Don Bosco Institute of Bio Sciences and Don Bosco Pre University College, and has an aggregate enrollment of over 2,500 students. DBIT, which has 1,058 students instructed by a faculty of 94 including 20 Ph Ds, offers a four-year (eight semester) bachelor of engineering degree and two-year (four semester) Masters in business administration programme of the Visveswaraya Technological University, Belgaum. The average teacher-pupil ratio is 1:15. Fully committed to fulfilling his education mission, Bylappa has drawn up an impressive expansion plan for DBIT. Soon the four-year-old college will introduce postgraduate programmes in mechanical engineering, computer science, initiate foreign language training for final year students, and will set up industry training centres on campus. “Whether in business, industry, education or any other endeavour, I benchmark my institutions with the best in the world. Therefore I have set my sights on getting DBIT ranked among the top 50 engineering institutions worldwide. I won’t spare any effort or investment required,” vows Bylappa. Way…

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Your counsellor repliesI‚ve completed my BCA (bachelor in computer applications) through distance education. I would like to do an MBA in the US or UK. As an open university student am I eligible to enroll in foreign universities?Shirish Deshpande, PuneIn most cases, open university students are allowed to pursue higher education abroad. For US business schools, you need 16 years of education while 15 years is sufficient for UK B-schools. I recommend that you check with each short-listed university about its rules for admitting foreign students.After I complete my B.Tech (information technology) degree next year, should I study for an MBA or opt for a job? Amit Puri, New Delhi It‚s a good idea to acquire work experience before signing up for an MBA study programme. It will also help you decide whether a career in IT suits you and whether you need to do an MBA. You could either opt for a two-year postgraduate diploma or a two-year Master of business administration (MBA) or Master of management studies (MMS) programme. If the B-school you choose is reputable you will have no problem in securing a job with a good firm.I‚m in my final year BA and would like to become an air hostess. Please advise.Shalini Rao, BangaloreTo qualify as an airhostess, you should have completed Plus Two/ equivalent with a hotel management diploma or undergrad degree. The age limit is usually between 18-26 or 19-27 years (for airlines in India) though international airlines may have slightly different age criteria. A minimum height of 154-57 cm (varies slightly between airlines) with proportionate weight, normal vision, good communication skills and physical fitness is required. Keep track of recruitment notifications in prominent newspapers and apply accordingly. After completing my BA next year, I would like to do a Master‚s in personnel management and industrial relations from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. What are my job prospects?Dina Mehta, MumbaiAfter graduating fromTISS you‚ll have excellent job prospects. You can expect to be snapped up by industrial and business firms, information technology companies, multinational and Indian consultancy firms, Central and state government departments, government undertakings, and other professional institutions. You will need tact and communication skills for a successful career in personnel management. Although demand for specialists and professionals in personnel management is rising, competition for jobs in established corporations is stiff. I‚m interested in studying architecture after my Plus Two (science). What are the career prospects in this field?Deepak Mehta, AhmedabadArchitects can work in the town-planning departments of local authorities (municipalities, corporations, housing boards), government departments (public works), railways, defence, insurance companies or in private sector construction companies. You could also start your own private practice, specialise in architectural conservation, industrial design, building engineering and management, or landscape architecture.I‚m in my final year B.Sc and would like to be a pilot. How do I apply for a student‚s pilot licence (SPL)?Sukhwinder Singh, ChandigarhYou can enquire at a local flying club for details of an SPL, which primarily comprises a verbal examination. The private…

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The rich variety of red, white and sparkling wines which India now produces has opened up a whole cellar of tantalising career opportunities to oenophiles to mix business with pleasure as the wine industry offers cheerful vocations With economic liberalisation and globalisation having precipitated a huge change in the lifestyle of Indians, wine is beginning to flow as easily as conversation in trend-setting middle class households across the country. As a growing number within the jet set are becoming conscious of the adverse health consequences of hard alcohol, there’s been a phenomenal growth in the wine-making industry in the past five years. The rich variety of exquisite red, white and sparkling wines which India now produces has opened up a whole cellar of tantalising career opportunities to oenophiles (wine connoisseurs) to mix business with pleasure. Whether you want to produce, distribute, sell, teach wine-making techniques, taste it or write about it, there’s expanding accommodation in this sunrise industry. Oenology. Known as an oenologist, a professional winemaker needs a degree in oenology (winemaking) or viticulture (cultivation of grapes). An oenologist is responsible for every facet of winemaking; not only does he decide on the quality of grapes, but also on how to blend them to create the best flavours. An oenologist needs a sharp understanding of climatic factors which affect the quality of grapes and the expertise to coalesce these factors to produce marketable blends and flavours. Vineyard manager. Another career option in this fast-track industry is of vineyard manager who supervises grape plantation and maturation right from planting, irrigation, pruning, pest control and harvesting. Vineyard managers also discharge admin duties such as preparing budgets, hiring and training workers. Cellar master. The cellar master comes into the picture after the grapes are picked and brought to the winery. Cellar masters manage wine making equipment such as tanks, barrels, gases, bottles and work closely with oenologists to produce wines in accordance with their prescription and specifications. Wine taster. After a wine is produced and is ready for bottling, it must pass muster with professional tasters. Quite obviously tasters must have the palate and discrimination ability to differentiate and classify varieties of wines and nuances of flavours. If it’s lacking, the taster will suggest ways and means to improve it. Sales and marketing. With the demand for wines of all vintages, flavours and prices booming, there is no dearth of openings for wine marketers. Starting as a sales rep, importer/ exporter or distributor, the rise to the position of marketing director could be swift. Apart from these directly connected professions, there are job opportunities galore in the fields of writing, training and wine education. Entry into this fast-moving consumer industry is facilitated with a degree in oenology or viticulture. However this is not mandatory since Indian academia presently does not offer specialised degree programmes. The usual entry route into the industry is a bachelor’s degree in science with specialisation in food technology/ chemistry/ microbiology. However for those with deep pockets, the best option is to enroll in a…

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With the passage of time Mumbai has become more polluted than ever, but I have been able to keep germs and viruses at bay with a supreme health route map. This I attribute to taking deep breaths near the open sea, turning down social and extra-curricular work opportunities, taking a break when needed and religiously getting my eight hours of sleep every night. The only downside of this feeling of well-being is that one becomes unsympathetic to sick whining people, many of whom I suspect don’t want to be well. Because if they did, all they need do is adhere to some simple commonsense lifestyle rules. Vibrant health is the natural state of being. You don’t need to be a nutritionist to experience it! As a serious student of nutrition, which I first embraced for the sake of giving my son the best start in life, I’ve experimented with raw foods, veganism, vegetarianism and mixed fare Indian cuisine. Today choosing to eat right is not a matter of simple choice. Environmental, social, animal rights, spiritual, religious, emotional and of course nutritional issues, or a mix of all, are involved. Moreover there are research studies which indicate that certain blood groups thrive on certain foods. Then there’s adulteration and pesticide poisoning to worry about. So unfortunately eating is not a simple instinctive matter. One night my father made my brother and I (at ages seven and eight) sleep on empty stomachs because we had complained about the dinner fare. That was the last time we did that. It’s important to accept all food as a blessing and not be pernickety about it. The other lesson we learnt that night was that a family that dines together stays united. I believe that the incident also prevented me from being picky about food, including health foods! Having no addictions contributes to one’s well-being and high energy levels. Therefore food is just fuel to keep the body running and simplicity is the operative word. Without going into complexities such as emotional energy of the cook, using iron cookware, forswearing television dinners, masticating well, eating less, hygiene issues, balance of raw, lightly cooked and slow cooked foods, here are some of the essentials of eating for good health. Whole grains (instead of refined) with a preference for brown rice should make up 50 percent of your diet. The intake of brown rice can prevent nervous breakdown, depression, stress and fatigue. It’s advisable also to replace bread with roti or khakras of jowar, bajra, ragi or other millets; substitute refined sugar with jaggery or raw sugar, refined oil with cold-pressed or ghani oil and refined salt with rock salt. Ideally fruits, vegetables, pulses, nuts and spices should be organically grown. Organic produce is good for the body as for the soil of our Mother Earth. Being eco-conscious is a vital consideration today especially in the light of the knowledge that the earth has been borrowed from our children. The additional money spent on organic produce is the most important investment we can make. To complete the…

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A lot of confusion is created in the minds of young and impressionable children by the contradictory sermons and exhortations of modern-day evangelists of differing religions. The philosophy of every religious leader is often contradicted or even condemned by another. As a result people, especially the young, are confused and confounded by the conflicting messages they hear in the media and from pulpits in churches, temples, mosques, gurdwaras etc. In multicultural, plural societies such confusion is inevitable. Therefore, society should be propagating universal religion to children instead of dogma. A few fundamental principles form the core of a true, universal religion. For instance truthfulness, honesty, sympathy, self-sacrifice, peace, love, co-existence, good neighbourliness and compassion are virtues propagated by all the world’s major religions. The burden of the scripture of every religion is to preach these virtues by way of anecdotes, parables and explanation. Unfortunately instead of highlighting the commonality of universally recognised truths and values, religious leaders waste valuable time differentiating their faith and scriptures from those of others. Little wonder there’s absolute confusion in the minds of the masses in matters of religious practices, precepts and beliefs. For teachers it should be easy to understand that God is one and that He is the sole creator of all life on Earth. Teachers should have little difficulty in propagating that God has not created us to quarrel with each other in the name of religion, but to live peacefully and harmoniously within increasingly plural communities. Therefore they must not belittle the beliefs and practices of any faith or label its followers heretics or apostates. The existence of other religions is a fact and regarded as given as are differing climates in different parts of the world. Religious leaders know that even an atheist is an offspring of God. Therefore there is no justification to hurt or harm anyone on religious pretexts. If a sinner is liable for punishment, it should be left to God to deal with him, or if he has broken a secular law, the law will deal with him. Why bother about another’s sins when we ourselves are sinful? It is nothing but sheer arrogance to call others’ faith a fallacy or heresy and under this pretext, attack or wound imaginary sinners. Self-styled custodians of religions in some countries including India have even contaminated textbooks with falsehoods. Instead of exhorting young students to cultivate values, textbooks are being misused to brainwash young minds to wage religious wars on people of different faiths. Things have gone so far that there is a real danger of this happening. Our appeal to all religious leaders and their followers is to treat the whole of humanity as the creation of a universal God and not divide it on grounds of religious differentiation and dogma. For teachers and student communities who are part and parcel of a nation’s intelligentsia, it is important to be aware that the soul is the inspiration from God himself. The guidance of the soul is through the conscience and therefore we…

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National Curriculum Framework 2005  Pious intent of liberation charterGiven the pathetic condition of contemporary India’s schools, the passions aroused by the draft National Curriculum Framework 2005 are rather modest. Because for the nation’s 415 million grossly neglected but high-potential children, the pious intent of liberation charter- the finalised NCF 2005- will be of make-or-break significance. Dilip Thakore reports  It’s an indicator that even if belatedly, the vital but unsexy subject that is education is beginning to arouse violent passions. On May 7 an estimated 100-strong group of youth identified as members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stormed a joint meeting of the National Council for Education Research & Training (NCERT) and Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) in Delhi, breaching the security perimeter of Vigyan Bhavan, the massive conference centre which is the preferred venue of important seminars and conferences in the national capital. Once inside the centre, the youth shouted slogans against the draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 for school education authored by NCERT which was formally presented to CABE for study, debate and approval on that day. Quite obviously the vandalism was orchestrated by the BJP which during its period in office (1999-2004) under its hardline Union HRD (human resource development) minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi had insinuated far-reaching changes in the national school curriculum completely bypassing CABE and arousing a storm of protest within the intelligentsia. Still smarting under the unexpected and humiliating defeat in the general election of May 2004 and the incumbent Union HRD minister Arjun Singh’s top priority ‘detoxification’ drive within NCERT, ICHR (Indian Council for Historical Research), ICSSR (Indian Council for Social Science Research) etc, the BJP leadership has been itching for a confrontation with Singh. EducationWorld’s Delhi correspondent Autar Nehru who was present and correct at Vigyan Bhavan on May 7 describes the mayhem. “The drama began soon after Arjun Singh reached the venue around 2.30 p.m. As planned, the ABVP activists immediately began raising slogans against Singh which was a cue for the education ministers of five BJP ruled states and its allied BJD minister of Orissa to stage a walkout of hall No. 5 where the NCERT-CABE meeting was being held. The mob crashed through the gates and smashed everything from glasspanes, flower-pots to paintings on the walls. In the melee, theatre personality Habeeb Tanveer suffered a fall and fractured his arm. We heard later that a wordy exchange between the ABVP activists and CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel had sparked off this ugly vandalism. Delhi police reinforcements arrived 15 minutes later and arrested 58 ABVP activists,” reports Nehru. Though Arjun Singh and members of the newly-revived CABE which comprises some of the most distinguished names in Indian education including Anil Sadagopal, Prof. P.V. Indiresan, and Azim Premji put a brave face on it, the ABVP agitation wasn’t entirely unsuccessful. It prompted the board to give time until August to the BJP-ruled state governments to study the draft…

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Several recent econometric studies have tried to show a systematic relationship between globalisation and growth, and between growth and poverty reduction. The message of these studies is clear: open your economy, liberalise and you will grow, and as you grow, poverty will be reduced. With a cause for customised liberalisation, this research is supposed to lay to rest the attacks on globalisation and, though it shuns the words, breathe new life into long-discredited trickle-down economics, which held that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Trickle-down economics became discredited for an obvious reason: it was not true. Sometimes growth helps poor people, but sometimes it does not. By some measures poverty increased in Latin America in the 1990s, even in many countries where there was growth. It was not just that well-off people gained disproportionately from growth: some of their gains may even have been at the expense of poor people. Though there are a number of technical problems with these recent studies, the most telling problem is that they asked the wrong question: globalisation and growth are endogenous, the result of particular policies. The debate is not about whether growth is good or bad, but whether certain policies, including policies that may lead to closer global integration, lead to growth; and whether those policies lead to the kind of growth that improves the welfare of poor people. A look at the most successful countries, in growth and poverty reduction, shows how misleading these studies are. China and other East Asian countries have not followed the Washington consensus. They were slow to remove tariff barriers, and China still has not fully liberalised its capital account. Though the countries of East Asia “globalised”, they used industrial and trade policies to promote exports and global technology transfers, against the advice of the international economic institutions. Perhaps most important, unlike the Washington consensus, policies promoting equity were an explicit part of their development strategies. So too for perhaps the most successful country in Latin America, Chile which during its high-growth days of the early 1990s effectively imposed a tax on short-term capital inflows. The policy issue is not “to globalise or not to globalise” or “to grow or not to grow”. In some cases it is not even “to liberalise or not to liberalise”. Instead the issues are: to liberalise short-term capital accounts, and if so, how? At what pace to liberalise trade, and what policies should accompany it? Are there pro-poor growth strategies that do more to reduce poverty as they promote growth? And are there growth strategies that increase poverty as they promote growth strategies that should be shunned? For instance, neither theory nor evidence supports the view that opening markets to short-term, speculative capital flows increases economic growth. But there is considerable evidence and theory that it increases economic instability, and that economic instability contributes to insecurity and poverty. So, such forms of capital market liberalisation might in some ways increase “globalisation”. But they do not enhance growth, and even if growth increases…

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The largest hospitality training institute in India with 40 centres in 31 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh, Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training, Mumbai is experiencing exponential demand-led growth The Mumbai-based Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training (FIAT), which offers a 12-month diploma in aviation hospitality and travel management has hit the ground running since its promotion, given the runaway boom in civil aviation. “We have many firsts to our credit and the type of comprehensive training we provide isn’t available in any institution in South Asia. This is evidenced by our placement record. The number of Frankfinn students selected as air hostesses and flight stewards in international and domestic airlines is more than eight times that of any other academy/ institute in India. Moreover hundreds of our graduates are employed in five-star hotels, multinationals and reputed organisations,” says Rakesh Agarwal an alumnus of Boston University and promoter managing director of Frankfinn Aviation Services (Pvt) Ltd (incorporated 1993). Agarwal takes pains to stress that despite its formal name, FIAT also provides study programmes in hospitality and travel management. “We train professionals for the entire hospitality industry,” he says. “Some confusion is created by the name of our division. But we named it Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training because once a student completes our aviation training course, she is fully qualified for the hotels/ hospitality and travel industry as well,” adds Agarwal. According to him FIAT is the largest hospitality training institute in India with 40 centres in 31 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh. While 35 centres are directly run by the company, five are franchise units, and FIAT ensures that all centres deliver standardised professional education. “FIAT accepts full responsibility for operations of all its centres whether self-managed or franchised. Tuition fees are collected in our name and we check our franchisees thoroughly to ensure they deliver quality training. As we are growing rapidly and with centres constantly opening all over the country, it’s difficult to give an exact count of our aggregate enrollment which is about 4,000 students across the country taught by experienced hospitality industry professionals,” says Agarwal. The FIAT diploma programme which requires students to attend classes two hours a day, five days a week, is open to students between 17-26 years of age who have completed class XII. In addition, applicants should have a pleasing personality and communication skills. Course content covers in-flight cabin crew training which includes first aid, personality enhancement, personal grooming, hair and skin care, public relations, effective communication skills, customer service orientation, hotel services management, swimming (as per international airlines’ requirement), character enhancement, moral education and industrial training in a leading hotel or hospitality organisation. “We also give our students exposure to the CRS (computerised reservation systems) of airlines and hotels like Galileo and Fidelio. Indeed FIAT is the only institute in the field which includes internship within the course content and provides in-flight cabin crew training to students on our own leased Airbus A-300 based…

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The Dina Institute of Hotel and Business Management, the well known Pune-based pioneer hospitality management institute (est. 1996) has added a bouquet of business management programmes including specialisation in banking management, BPO, apart from finance, marketing, international business, human resources, operations and systems to its curriculum. As Dina Institute offers MBA courses, these business management programmes are certified by Pune University. The latest Pune University accreditation is an addition to affiliations with Sikkim Manipal University, Educational Institute of American Hotel and Lodging Association, USA and Middlesex University, London, for various study programmes. “We are thrilled that Dina is now affiliated with Pune University which will satisfy students desiring Pune University certification. Our mission is to provide the best education and professional, job-oriented technical training relevant to industry on a par with global standards, and thus mould individuals into effective, self-motivated professionals of the future,” says Ajit K.Oberoi, managing and founder director of Dina Institute. Spread over 18,000 sq ft the institute currently has an enrollment of 400 students taught by a faculty of 21. Expansion plans include acquisition of another two and half acres in the city. Vivekanand Institute goes international The Vivekanand Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management (VIHTM), Rajkot (Gujarat), the only institution in Saurashtra offering a bachelor’s degree programme in hotel and tourism management (of Saurashtra University) has signed a slew of collaboration agreements with offshore education providers. Among them: the Highgate Academy for Professional Development, London; TTM Service Company Ltd (UK) which will accept VIHTM graduates under its international work experience programme; Cambridge University (UK) with whom VIHTM will offer the former’s Business English learning programme. “We have drawn up an ambitious expansion plan for this institute because of increasing pressure from students in the Saurashtra region for high quality professional and life skills education. In the coming academic year we expect our enrollment to double from 200 currently. We are determined to put this neglected region on the higher education map of India,” says Ramesh Mohanami managing director of VIHTM. Also read: India™s top hotel management institutes Library information services workshop A one-day national workshop on “Library Information Services for Quality Higher Education” was jointly organised by the National Accreditation & Assessment Council of India (NAAC) and M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management (MSRIM), Bangalore on May 21 on the MSRIM campus in Bangalore. Speaking on the occasion Prof. V.S. Prasad, director of NAAC highlighted the importance of well administered libraries stating that for continuous learners a librarian is a best friend. In the presidential address Prof. L.M. Patnaik of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore added that unlike in the past when information sources were scarce, with the advent of internet, the present is characterised by information abundance. “In this changed scenario, the role of the librarian in directing users to the appropriate information source to help conserve time and energy is of critical importance,” observed Patnaik. The workshop consisted of five sessions including one earmarked for discussion and feedback. Anil Gowda of MSRIM presented a paper…

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Tamil Nadu Imperious diktat fallout Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s peremptory decision announced on June 6, to abolish all entrance examinations to institutes of professional education (medical, dental, engineering, business management, pharmacy, etc) for the current academic year 2005-06 beginning this month, has shocked the academic community in the state. Particularly since over 2.5 lakh school leaver students have already written several entrance exams including the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE), All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and the state government’s ‘improvement examination’. Under the state government’s June 6 order, marks obtained in the Plus Two (class XII) examination will be the sole criterion for admissions into colleges of professional education in Tamil Nadu (pop.62 million). This out-of-the-blue order of the state government promulgated on the rationale that it will create a level playing field for rural school leaving students who don’t have access to the state’s ubiquitous (and expensive) coaching classes, has elicited a chorus of protest from students across the state. Over 400 writ petitions were filed in the Madras high court in the immediate aftermath of the order, mainly by urban students who have already written TNPCEE and/ or AIEEE. Suddenly their time, money and effort expended to prepare for and write the entrance exams were reduced to naught by the government order. Hence the flood of writ petitions. Admitting the petitions on June 23 and hearing preliminary arguments, the two-judge bench (Chief Justice Markandey Kaju and Justice F.M. Ibrahim) seemed as outraged as the petitioners. They clearly indicated that they are likely to strike down the June 6 order. The learned judges opined that the state government cannot overrule statutory provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act and the All India Council for Technical Education Act which mandate common entrance tests in states with more than one school examination board. Since Tamil Nadu has schools affiliated with three boards — the state board, CBSE and CISCE — common entrance tests are mandatory in the state, they observed. “If the government relies only on the marks obtained in the Plus Two examination, Article 14 of the Constitution which provides equal opportunity to all is violated,” they opined. The Madras high court’s stand on the June 6 order has provided temporary relief to students who have already written TNPCEE and AIEEE this year. Meanwhile CISCE and CBSE students are also aggrieved because it equates their performance in class XII exams with that of class XII students of the state board which — as it is widely known — is less demanding and more generous in awarding marks. “The announcement of the new admission policy after the completion of the TNPCEE and the improvement examination is unfair to students. Also the new ranking methodology is highly ambiguous and will create problems. If the common entrance exams are abolished, it is essential to add one more subject component to the Plus Two curriculum that will test students’ aptitude, analytical skills and reasoning ability. If this is done, abolition of…

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Congratulations for introducing the TCS-Education World Teachers Awards, 2005. As far as I am aware, this is the first award offered to the teachers’ community in India. Tata Consultancy Services, IL&FS ETS and EducationWorld deserve the gratitude of teachers for showing appreciation to this long-neglected community. Moreover your cover story outlining the contributions and innovations made by “India’s best teachers” was informative and encouraging for teachers like me who are underpaid and over-worked. However I was surprised that your all-India advertising campaign inviting nominations for the awards received only 175 entries, and that too from small non-metro towns. This indicates your ineffective ad campaign and/or as the author of the story, Summiya Yasmeen observes, parents and principals in metros can’t be bothered to appreciate the contribution of teachers to the growth and development of their children. Nevertheless kudos for this new initiative. I’m sure there will be a much better response to the TCS-Education-World Teachers Awards 2006. Christine Rozario  Mumbai Worthy beginning The June 2005 issue of EducationWorld looks bright and cheerful. And the cover story is really heartwarming. I am glad that at last someone has decided to honour people in perhaps the most underpaid profession, especially in the Indian context. However it’s surprising that you received only 175 nominations in a country of 1.2 billion people and 5 million teachers. I am sure there must be thousands of unsung heroes in the teaching profession. But I don’t think the low number is because students and parents in metros are unappreciative of teachers. It’s probably because there was no news coverage of the awards in the mainstream newspapers and magazines. Moreover even post event there was hardly any news coverage about the winners or the awards ceremony per se. To sum up I feel that even with 175 nominations, a good and worthy beginning has been made. Our teachers, though overworked and underpaid are still discharging their duties with diligence and dedication and they need to be recognised and honoured at every opportunity. I hope there will be many more entries and more teachers will be rewarded in the coming years. Sunil Thekekara Kochi (Kerala) Visionary edupreneurs wanted The June issue of EducationWorld is indeed power packed. I was greatly encouraged to read about the TCS-EducationWorld Teachers Awards 2005, your special report on Indian industry’s foolish divorce from academia, Prof. Ramaswamy’s proposal for creating an India Development Service, and Dr. Maroof Raza’s analysis of the dilemma in higher education. The tragedy of India is that private entrepreneurs are anathema to the politician-bureaucrat nexus, and to the public at large, most private entrepreneurs are cheats of the first order. In education we need entrepreneurs with vision, values and voice. This is the most critical challenge confronting the country. I hope EducationWorld will inspire entrepreneurs with wisdom, values and vision to contemporise Indian education which is in bad shape. K.V. Simon Mumbai Private varsity panacea Your special report titled Why is Indian industry divorced from academia? (EW June) was well researched and interesting. The fact that 73 percent of all higher education…

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Though only cursorily reported by the increasingly page three obsessed mainstream media, an important war with far-reaching implications for the future of the Indian economy is being waged in urban wholesale markets for control of the growing volume of agricultural produce flowing into the country’s fast-expanding cities. In early June fruit and vegetable wholesale markets in several cities including Delhi and Bangalore, were closed for several days following a nation-wide strike called by trade associations which dominate the APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Commission) yards, to which farmers are obliged to bring or send their agriculture produce for sale through daily auction. The burden of the grievance of the powerful cartels which control these markets is that large FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies, particularly multinationals- a handy bogeyman of native traders who since the dawn of independence have refined the crude science of short-changing illiterate farmers into a fine art- are by-passing APMC yards and purchasing farm produce directly from farmers. Moreover they are (horror of horrors) writing contract farming agreements with farmers, guaranteeing the latter assured prices. Though relatively privileged urban citizens tend to regard low food prices as an entitlement, right-thinking people need to reflect upon and seek way and means to rectify the persistently unequal terms of trade between urban and rural India. Curiously, despite the contribution of the agriculture sector to the nation’s GDP (gross domestic product) having shrunk from 50 percent in the 1950s to 27 percent currently, the rural economy still supports 67 percent of the nation’s population. This is an indication that neither urban India nor Indian industry has expanded sufficiently to absorb the surplus population of village India. Worse, prices of rural produce have been consistently suppressed by a ban on exports and official discouragement of the growth and development of a viable domestic food processing industry. The consequence of persistent artificial suppression of prices of agriculture produce is the huge and widening standard of living gap between urban and rural India. It’s not that India’s rural citizens are lazy or inefficient. Indeed India’s Green Revolution of the 1960-70s quadrupled foodgrains production and saved the country from mass starvation. Moreover India is the world’s second largest producer of fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately because of faulty government policies an estimated 20 million tonnes of foodgrains become unfit for human consumption and over 40 percent of the nation’s horticulture produce rots on the ground because of lack of downstream cold storage and food processing industries. The annual damage suffered by farmers for loss of horticulture produce is estimated at a mind-boggling Rs.50,000 crore- a loss which has huge consequences for Indian industry as a whole in terms of reduction of mass purchasing power. Quite obviously the status quo which traditional traders in APMC yards are demanding by raising the bogey of multinationals entering the farm sector, is unacceptable. The national interest demands a radical departure from past practice and organised sector corporates including multinationals, ready, willing and able to invest in a strong rural…

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It’s an indication of the growing awareness of the vital importance of education and its upward movement on the national agenda that the draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 has aroused violent passions and stimulated a cross-country debate. Its predecessor the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFE) 2000 which proposed radical changes in the direction of hollow, divisive super nationalism, was cursorily debated and served as a convenient justification for the BJP-led NDA government to attempt to rewrite history from a hindutvastandpoint, politicise and generally mess with school curriculums. Likewise, the debate of education policy papers such as the New Education Policy, 1986 and even the landmark Kothari Commission Report, 1966 remained confined to Delhi’s charmed circles and were interpreted by state governments and self-styled educationists to suit their prejudices and proclivities. That’s why post-independence India’s school education system — particularly state and municipal government schools which teach 90 percent of the nation’s 200 million enrolled children — is in a shambles. Characterised by rote learning, poor quality textbooks, ill-defined medium of instruction and language learning policy, crowded classrooms and crumbling infrastructure, contemporary India’s public school education system is hopelessly outdated, if not obsolete. Conditions are better in the country’s private schools where infrastructure and curriculums tend to be more supportive of children in their formative years. But the number of privately promoted schools is relatively small approximating to only 10-15 percent of the total number (1.03 million). The obsolete curriculums of the school system explains the curious paradox of a severe shortage of skilled personnel within an economy in which the number of unemployed has topped 44 million. The NCF 2005 draft is a thoughtful, well-written policy paper which needs to be thoroughly discussed and debated before it is finalised. And it’s befitting that the first major debate of NCF 2005 is presented by EducationWorld — the country’s sole education newsmagazine. But while it is comprehensive, cogent and articulate, NCF 2005 is not without its flaws. It is arguable that it fudges the vital question of the resource mobilisation effort required to implement its recommendations. Nor has it taken a forthright stand on the status of English language learning for which there is widespread demand. These and other issues related to the NCF 2005 draft which could make or mar the future of 415 million children are discussed in our cover story to which you are cordially invited. By a happy coincidence our special report feature in this issue is intimately connected with, and has a direct bearing on NCF 2005. Right here in Bangalore, former high-flying businesswoman Shukla Bose who experienced a pauline conversion to the cause of educating underprivileged slum children in the mid 1990s, has promoted and manages three free primary schools which could prove a good model to the authors and discussants of NCF 2005. Uncompromising about equal quality English medium education for slum children, Bose is a forthright practitioner of the common school system recommended by the Kothari Commission way back in 1966. She believes that provision…

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