EducationWorld June 09

Pune-based Aniket Mandavgane (23) could have easily cashed in his engineering degree to make a career in Indian industry. But he was always driven by greater contributory impulses. It was always my objective to work for a greater cause. Money and material comforts come second, he says. His idealism and voracious reading habit were, he […]

If the dreams of R. Anusha and S. Srinath, final year students of Chennais College of Engineering, Guindy, could take wing, it would be in the form of a futuristic transport jet with a sleek blended body. Anusha, a final year mechanical engineering student and Srinath, a third year student of geo-informatics, were adjudged runners-up […]

Since its inception in 1636, Harvard University has produced some of the most influential people in the world, who have time and again proved the varsitys excellence not only in academics but in moulding global leaders as well. From Nobel laureates, Oscar award-winning actors, Pulitzer prize-winning authors to US presidents, the Harvard alumni list comprises […]

In one fell swoop, the worlds largest, most diverse electorate pulled the country back from the brink. In deference to the aspirations of the rising middle class, the centre held and gave the country a real chance against the barbarism that has threatened to sink it. Going into Indias 15th general election, posturing politicians and […]

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood — Fred Rogers (American childrens television host)I have a three-year-old granddaughter, so naturally I like to read everything I can about children in this age group. Not long […]

Im an agriculture postgraduate currently working in a bank. I want to do an MBA with specialisation in agriculture or finance. Please suggest business schools in Karnataka offering these subjects.Nikhil Rao, Bangalore
The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, one of the countrys most prominent business schools, offers an MBA in finance. Among the other reputed […]

It had always been one of my many ambitions to investigate the success secrets of Harvard University and its renowned postgraduate institutions, particularly the Harvard Business School, during my previous avatars as editor of Indias first two business magazines. Alas, for numerous reasons, this ambition was never realised. Therefore this spring, when an opportunity presented […]

For seven decades the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB), founded by visionary freedom movement stalwart Dr. K.M. Munshi in Mumbai in 1938, has been promoting Indian values, art, culture and education through its 120 kendras (branches) spread across the country and seven sited abroad. This year the Chennai kendra of BVB, which was inaugurated in 1958 […]

A status report on Indias children titled Still Out of Focus, released by the New Delhi-based HAQ Centre for Child Rights (estb. 1999), has thrown cold water over the grand declaration made in the approach paper of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12), which states that, Development of children is at the centre of the Eleventh Five […]

Its a pernicious campus evil which obstinately defies all efforts of Central and state governments to eradicate it. The tragic death by ragging on March 8 of Aman Kachroo, an undergraduate medical student of the Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Himachal Pradesh, and a suicide attempt on February 27 by another ragging victim […]

The tragic death on April 20 of Aakriti Bhatia, a 17-year-old class XII student of Delhis highly-reputed private sector Modern School, following an asthma attack during classroom hours, has prompted the Delhi state government to issue an advisory to all schools to recruit full-time or part-time medical practitioners. A set of guidelines is also being […]

The class of 2009 will be one of the largest in Americas history. More than 3 million students are getting their high-school diplomas in late spring. Those who plan to go on to university have been told to expect a rough time: with so many students applying, winning admission to their college of choice will […]

On May 14 when the Supreme Court rejected a plea of the Kar-nataka state government to stay the July 2 verdict of the Karnataka high court striking down the states 1994 language policy mandating Kannada or mother tongue as the medium of instruction in all primary schools — government and private — in the state, […]

The Turkish government has been forced to adopt damage-limitation tactics after becoming embroiled in an embarrassing row over academic freedom. It has come under sustained fire after the editor of a state-run scientific journal, Bilim ve Teknik, was reportedly sacked for planning a front-page story on Charles Darwin and evolution. According to Cigdem Atakuman, the […]

Even the most strident critics of communist governments the world over — including critics of the late, unlamented Communist Party of the Soviet Union — concede that whatever the other faults of usually brutal communist regimes, they tend to accord high priority to, and establish sound and well-governed, elementary education systems. But the eastern seaboard […]

Proposed changes to tuition-fee regimes in Finland and Sweden could see both nations compete more aggressively in the lucrative market for international students. Currently, students from outside the European Union are not charged to attend universities in either country, where they make up only a small proportion of their student bodies. But Finland and Sweden […]

“Our K-12 schools need to make sure our students have all the academic knowledge and skills they need to enter college or the workforce. Our higher education system needs to offer whatever advanced learning students need to be successful in a career, whether they will become a plumber, a teacher or a business executive.”
Arne […]

No one knows children better, or has their interests more at heart. So education reforms that put power in the hands of parents have an obvious appeal. Arm them with hard facts about how schools are doing; allow schools to diversify and compete to attract parents; allow parents to choose the ones they like best […]

The lecture theatre at the Beijing Institute of Technology is full to overflowing, obliging unfortunate latecomers to hover by the nearby lavatories. Graduation is three months away and students are desperate to compete for the posts on offer at a job fair. After listening to introductory speeches they surge to place their CVs next to […]

Edunxt — a new technology infused learning system developed by the Bangalore-based Manipal Education Group which promises to transform distributed (or distance) learning in India — was launched in Mumbai by Steve Ballmer, chief executive of the Seattle-based Microsoft Inc, on May 12. EduNxt will be accessible to Sikkim Manipal Universitys Distance Education (SMU-DE) students […]

Launched in 2005 by the well-known Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy NGO, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the Green Schools Award is a national programme which acknowledges the countrys most environmentally aware and responsible schools. The programme is based on a self-assessment of environmental practices of schools which follow a set of guidelines […]