EducationWorld June 11

With online media becoming increasingly important for corporates whose target customers are tweeting and chatting on digital networks, new career options have emerged in social media marketingThe worldwide digital and internet revolution has opened up never-before career options for the growing number of tech-savvy youth countrywide. Suddenly theres a slew of new career options including digital marketing, logistics management, publishing, and recruitment and placement available to technophiles. And to this lengthening list add social media marketing, which is increasingly becoming a popular choice of B-school graduates looking to explore non-conventional career choices. Online portals, communities, and related technology or software applications deployed or created to disseminate, manage, organise, share and reuse content — both textual and graphic — fall within the ambit of social media. Online media are becoming increasingly important for corporates whose target customers are blogging, tweeting and chatting on digital forums and networks. They offer huge oppor-tunities for creating brand awareness, brand building, sales leads generation, product launches and positioning communities around brands or driving traffic to clients websites. Moreover social media provide a wealth of information about customer preferences and perceptions of brands which can be profitably mined to devise marketing and sales promotion strategies and plan public relations campaigns. This new age career option is most suitable for individuals with analytical mindsets and excellent communications skills. While a Masters in mass commu-nication or English literature are useful qualifications, latterly corporates are hiring specialised social media marketing professionals. The Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai is the only institution of higher education in India and perhaps the third world to offer social media marketing as an elective in its two-year full-time MBA programme. According to a LIBA spokesperson, the institutes course curriculum has been designed to create change managers for tomorrow adept in confronting contemporary marketing challenges using social media. Social media marketing is a promising career for B-school graduates because online community networks are multiplying thereby increasing business and marketing opportunities. All B-schools should introduce this subject to serve Indian industry which is suffering an acute shortage of trained professionals in this new marketing science. Roles and designations vary from executive to vice president levels, with the social media strategist, whose domain is brand promotion and monitoring, being highly sought after and well-paid. Salaries range from Rs.6-25 lakh per annum for beginners and reasonably well-trained professionals. However the best rewards are being earned by enterprising MBAs who promoted their own firms to cater to the growing number of companies who demand their services, says Jayaram K. Iyer, associate professor of marketing and social media at LIBA. A commerce graduate of Delhi University, Iyer pressed on to acquire an M.Phil and an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) of Delhi University, and researched his doctoral thesis in Harvard Business School, MIT and Boston University. Starting his professional career in the corporate sector, Dr. Iyer was a general manager of Chattel and Wood Management Consulting, USA and worked with Siemens India (1988-1998), prior to…

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Dr. K.B. Kushal is the regional director (west) of the Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) College Committee which manages over 700 educational institutions countrywide. These include private and grants-in-aid schools, colleges, and professional education and research institutes. A postgrad in sociology and philosophy with a doctorate in English literature from Amritsars Guru Nanak Dev University, Kushal signed up with the DAV group in 1972 as a principal and was appointed regional director in 1997.Newspeg. The Dayanand Institute of Management Education & Research, Navi Mumbai (estb.2002), of which Kushal is the promoter-director, is organising an international conference on ‘Teacher Education: Emerging Challenges and Responses scheduled for December 10-11 in Mumbai. History. Since he took charge as director (west) of the DAV College Committee in 1997, Kushal has substantially expanded the DAV schools network in Maharashtra and Gujarat, promoting 15 CBSE-affiliated schools, of which two are international schools. In February 2002, Kushal established the Dayanand Institute of Education, Management and Research (DIEMR) in Navi Mumbai to help schools strengthen their research capabilities and facilitate greater interaction between students and teachers. Currently DIEMR runs four annual programmes: a DAV Talent Hunt Comp-etition (science, maths and English) which draws participation of over 12,000 students (class III-X); the Khoj Science Festival in which DAV schools showcase projects on scientific themes; Annual Heritage Programme, a DAV inter-school event in which students present a chosen facet of Indian culture; and an Annual National Conference, at which different themes relating to education are discussed by headmasters. Direct speech. The intention is to promote academic excellence keeping the Indian ethos in mind, not just in DAV schools but in others as well, says Dr. Kushal. Future plans. A higher education management institute in Pune, a DAV university in Jalandhar, and an IBO-Geneva affiliated international school in Navi Mumbai. Besides, we intend to enhance the capabilities of the research institute and improve teacher competency, adds Kushal. Manas Srivastava (Mumbai)

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The most satisfying outcome of the recently concluded legislative assembly elections in five states across the country, is the utter rout of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) in West Bengal, which the comrades party had continuously ruled for 34 years — the longest tenure in office of any communist party in a genuinely democratic country. Hopefully the crushing defeat at the hustings will finally bury this political mafia committed to the dictatorship of a clique of power-hungry autocrats subscribing to an obsolete ideology which has been discredited and discarded the world over including Russia and China, whence it originated.CPM rule in West Bengal began amid much euphoria in 1977 in the new dawn of the post-Emergency era conterminously with the start of my career in journalism as the first editor of Business India. Right from that time I have been repeatedly warning the public about the conniving comrades of the CPM hell-bent upon subverting Indian democracy, and predicted they would wreck the economy of West Bengal. Thirty-four years later it has finally dawned upon the 91 million people of this once most industrialised state of the Indian Union that as predicted, the CPM comrades and cadres have de-industrialised Bengal, exiled the educated middle class, destroyed the education system, terrorised the rural popul-ation and rigged the electoral process in a systematic and organised fashion as Abheek Barman graphically details in the Economic Times (May 17). But this time round by carefully spreading the assembly election over six weeks, the Election Commission successfully prevented ‘scientific rigging and intimidation of voters by CPM cadres in rural Bengal. This is perhaps the greatest victory of Indian democracy in post-independence India, on a par with the defeat of Mrs. Gandhi and the Congress party in the post-Emergency election of 1977. Yet it is pertinent to note that Mrs. Gandhi and the Congress were back in the saddle in 1980. If Mamata Banerjee, leader of the triumphant Trinamool Congress messes up and allows the CPM to re-occupy Writers Building, Kolkata, next time round itll be curtains for certain for West Bengal. Freeloader par excellence That government bureaucrats at the centre and in the states are the countrys greatest freeloaders wholly committed to taking maximum advantage of their positions within the pecking order, is a fact too well known to bear reiteration. The prime purpose of the plethora of punitive direct and indirect taxes imposed upon the long-suffering public is generation of revenue to pay the countrys huge 18 million-strong bureaucracy — including 4 million netas and babus on the payroll of the Delhi durbar — who are remunerated with a bewildering array of pay and perks completely divorced from productivity. Yet even within the neta-babu fraternity, which has developed freeloading and creation of parallel income streams (through corruption and abuse of office) into a fine art, there is a tribe of master freeloaders. A case in point is Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the St. Stephens and Oxford educated deputy chairman of the Planning Commission who was…

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot; Pan Books; Price: Rs.325; 431 ppIn early 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman who had once been a tobacco farmer in Virginia, was treated for highly aggressive cervical cancer at the free coloured ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, Maryland. She died an excruciating death at the age of 31 the same year after receiving radium treatment, the standard curative for cervical cancer in the 1950s. She left behind a husband and five children, the youngest, a mere infant. Before she died, without her knowledge or consent, the attending doctor took two dime-size samples of tissue from her cervix, one cancerous and one healthy, and gave them to George Gey, a scientist who had been trying to establish a continuously reproducing, or immortal, human cell line for use in cancer research. These became the HeLa cells (named from the first two letters of her first and last names), an immortal line of cells that helped revolutionise modern medicine. Because HeLa cells are unusually resilient and robust and multiply at an astonishing rate, they succeeded where all other human samples had failed. Gey provided them free of charge to any scientist and researcher who requested samples. Later they were bought, sold, packaged, and shipped by the trillion to laboratories around the world. Sixty years later, Henrietta Lacks tissue has yielded an estimated 50 million metric tons of HeLa cells. Today, trillions of them are still alive, and if they were laid end to end, they would encircle the earth three times. HeLa cells have generated a billion-dollar medical and pharmaceutical industry, helped biomedical research in cancer, virology, cloning, gene mapping, and in-vitro fertilisation. Scientific and medical researchers produce about 300 HeLa-related studies a month, steadily adding to the collection of 60,000 that already exist. Yet little is known about the woman behind HeLa, who is variously identified as Henrietta Lacks, Helen Lane or Helen Larson, but is often nameless. Her family learned of her immortality only 20 years after she passed away in the 1970s, when scientists started using HeLa in research, again without the familys consent. They benefited not at all from the involuntary ‘donation of their mothers tissue. Rebecca Skloot, a science reporter, who first heard of HeLa in her high school biology class, embarked upon a ten-year mission to set the record straight. Her book — equal parts popular science, historical biography, detective novel, and investigative journalism — is a compassionate and sensitive account of two parallel stories. The first is the history of HeLa and its contribution to medicine, and the second the story of the traumatic burden Henriettas immortal cells imposed upon her deeply troubled family as they struggled for understanding, reconciliation, and recognition. Skloots account is based on extensive primary and secondary sources (medical records, court documents, police records, family photographs, newspaper and magazine reports, wills, deeds, and birth and death certificates) and more than thousand hours of interviews with the Lacks family, friends,…

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One corner of a foreign field is becoming forever England. It is in Johor on the southernmost tip of peninsular Malaysia, opposite Singapore. At a site called Nusajaya, workmen are finishing a new campus of Newcastle University. Nearby foundations are being dug for Southampton University. And down the road Marlborough College, one of Englands most famous public (that is, private) schools, is building a Malaysian campus from scratch. If all goes well, its 900 pupils will hardly notice that they are looking out over palm-oil plantations rather than the Wiltshire Downs. Within a few years thousands of students will be enjoying an English education in this steamy bit of Asia.Educity, as the Johor complex is called, reflects Malaysias grand strategy to become a centre for Western education. The country wants to meet strong demand among Asias new middle classes for English-language schooling. It also worries about its brain drain (over 300,000 university-educated Malays work abroad). Having watched Asian children flock West to spend a lot of money on British and American schools, the government decided a few years ago to try and reverse the trend. It has campaigned to persuade Western schools and colleges to come and set up branch campuses. The Malaysian proposition to Asian parents is simple and beguiling: come to these famous schools and universities in our country and get the same degrees and qualifications as in Britain or America for half the price. Australias Monash University was the first to set up shop, followed by Britains Nottingham University, in 2000. Other Australian universities followed Monash, and in March the Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up with a Malaysian body to create Asias first Institute for Supply-Chain Innovation. Johns Hopkins University is expected to set up a medical school. The Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology is already in Educity. For these Western institutions, the prize is a toehold in the worlds biggest education market. Many have already gone into partnership with or lent their names to schools and universities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. But this is the first time so many have been persuaded to build replicas of themselves in another country, a more permanent and riskier proposition. They are doing so largely because the Malaysian government is bearing the start-up costs. Educity is spending about $100 million (Rs.450 crore) on infrastructure and buildings. Yet other factors count as well. Malaysia is a former British colony and English is widely spoken. The country has a superficially Western feel to it — ideal for Westerners studying or teaching in Asia, and for Asians who want to acclimatise to Western culture. Meanwhile, Malaysia cleverly markets itself to the Middle East as a relatively relaxed Islamic country where young Muslims can mix freely together and, for a few years, slip the surly watch of the morality police back home. In return for putting up a lot of money, the Malaysian government wants universities to set up faculties in subjects that will be most useful to Malaysia. The University…

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Lily, who is three-and-a-half, loves her nursery school in Queens, a borough of New York. Her mother calls her the sponge because every day she comes home with new nuggets of knowledge. But not every child is as lucky as Lily. A new report by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) shows that states preschool funding is declining, which means fewer children will have access to early education, which most agree is essential especially for children living in low-income households. The study looked at 40 states which fund programmes for three to four year-olds. State cuts to preschool funding transformed the recession into a depression for many young children, says Steven Barnett, author of the report.State preschool spending per child decreased by $114 to $4,028 (Rs.1.81 lakh) last year. This is almost $700 (Rs.31,500) less than in 2001-2002. Arne Duncan, the education secretary, understands that states are watching every penny. Tightening budgets is the new normal, he admits, but there are smart ways to cut and there are dumb ways to cut. Cutting early education budgets, he reckons, is one of the dumb ones. Duncan is, in fact, making early education one of his priorities, by including it in the next round of funding for Race to the Top — the big federal programme for schools. Ten states dont provide any funding at all for preschoolers, and some appear to fund it only haphazardly. In Florida preschool programmes are available to all four-year-olds. The problem there is not quantity, but quality. Some programmes — and not just in Florida — are nothing more than glorified baby-sitting. The report encourages states to set and stick to standards so that children are prepared for kindergarten at age five. But more financial woe could be on the way. Congress is considering a Republican proposal to cut Head Start, a federal preschool funding programme for poor families. Chester Finn of the Thomas Fordham Institute, an education think-tank, is no fan of universal preschool. He thinks it makes more sense to focus the limited resources available on intensive programmes for the neediest children. Duncan insists education, especially early education, is vital for America to remain competitive. An OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) report found that although the United States spends more per child on education than any other OECD country, it lags behind in funding the early years. (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist)

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A mechanical engineering graduate of IIT-Kharagpur and a member of the elite Indian Police Service (IPS), Amitabh Thakur is the Meerut-based superintendent of police (Economic Offences Wing), Uttar Pradesh. A socially-conscious top-rank police officer, Thakur is also founder-president of the National Right to Information Act Foundation and Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences, Lucknow.In 2007, Thakur cleared CAT (Common Admission Test), jointly administered by the countrys elite Indian Institutes of Management and was admitted into the four-year HRM (human resources management) fellows programme of IIM-Lucknow. However he had to wage a two-year battle with the state government for the latter to grant him full-time (two years) and part-time (two years) study leave even though the All India Services (Study Leave) Regulations, 1960 permit it. After an epic battle before the Lucknow bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Thakur was granted study leave in 2009. Having completed the first part (full-time) of his fellowship programme, Thakur has resumed his duties as superintendent of police even as he continues to pursue his programme part-time. Newspeg. In February this year, The Fresh Brew: Chronicles of Business and Freedom (Alchemy Publishers, 2011), which tracks the careers of 25 IIM-L alumni who have pursued entrepreneurship or alternate careers, jointly authored by Thakur and Amit Haralalka, was launched in Lucknow. Within a month of its launch, it has made it to the ‘50 All-time Bestsellers list of www.flipkart.com. Objective. According to Thakur, the primary purpose of writing The Fresh Brew was to make B-school graduates aware of alternate career options, especially social entrepreneurship. Direct speech. During the two years I lived on the IIM-L campus, I met a number of business management students interested in business and social entrepreneurship. But they were unaware of the risks and rewards of choosing careers off the beaten track. By presenting case studies of IIM-L alumni who have been there and done that, The Fresh Brew provides information, advice and encouragement to B-school graduates to think beyond nine-to-five MNC jobs, says Thakur. We have also dedicated the book to Manjunath Shanmugham, an IIM-L alumnus who was murdered in 2005 for speaking up against corruption while working with Indian Oil Corporation. Part of the books sales proceeds will go towards the Manjunath Fresh Brew Award for Social Entrepreneurship which we have instituted, adds Thakur. Future plans. Not an individual who likes to let grass grow under his feet, Thakur is now working on a book about 30 IPS officers who have made a difference. I have already given it a tentative title — The Colours of Khaki. Moreover I hope to use the knowledge and skills I learnt at IIM-L for improving efficiency in the police department even as I continue to fight for transparent governance, says Thakur. Cynthia John (Lucknow)

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Air Commodore (Retd.) Farooq H. Kiyani is the principal of Lawrence College, Ghora Gali (LCGG), Murree (Pakistan). An alumnus of Leeds University, UK, Kiyani signed up with the education branch of the Pakistan Air Force in 1968 and graduated to the position of director, and subsequently commandant of the Air Force Cadet College in his 32-year military-cum-academic career until his retirement in 2000. In 2002, he was appointed principal of LCGG (estb.1860). Sprawled over 150 acres in the foothills of the Himalayas, LCGG is Pakistans most respected class I-XII boys boarding school with an aggregate enrolment of 730 students.Newspeg. On April 12, Kiyani together with a 20-member LCGG delegation comprising 15 students and three teachers visited the campus of the fraternal Lawrence School, Sanawar. During their eight-day visit, LCGG students participated in the annual Hodsons Run and founders day celebrations of Lawrence, Sanawar with Kiyani presiding over the prize distribution ceremony as chief guest. Shared history. Sited in the hill resort town of Murree, LCGG is one of three schools established in the mid-19th century by Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence (1806-1857) in the sub-continent for children of deceased and serving soldiers and officers of British military personnel in India. The other two are the Lawrence School, Sanawar (estb.1847) and Lawrence, Lovedale (1858). Although official ties between LCGG and the eponymous schools in India were severed after partition in 1947, given their shared history, traditions and culture, their managements maint-ained informal ties. But since 2004 when Kiyani first visited Lawrence, Lovedale and later Lawrence, Sanawar in 2006, the latter schools principal Praveen Vasisht reciprocated Kiyanis visits with delegations of Lawrence, Sanawar students and teachers in 2008 and 2010. Kiyanis re-visit to Lawrence, Sanawar again this year is evidence of growing warmth of relations between these two elite public (i.e private exclusive) schools and persistent track-II diplomacy between India and Pakistan. Direct talk. The Lawrence schools in the sub-continent share a common heritage and academic culture, as indeed do the people of our two neighbouring countries. With the shared friendships and memories of our generation fading away, our linkages will be lost forever if we dont bring students and youth of our countries together. We have to learn from each other regardless of political differences. Student and teacher exchanges will make the difference and improve the relationship between our countries and build new friendships, says Kiyani. Autar Nehru (Delhi)

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Since Im not keen on enroling in an MBA or chartered accountancy programme after acquiring a B.Com degree next year, what higher study options do you recommend?Cecilia DSouza, Panjim You could read for an M.com degree and follow it up by writing UGCs National Eligibility Test (NET) to qualify as a college lecturer. Alternat-ively you can complete M.Com followed by a B.Ed to qualify for teaching positions in junior colleges and senior secondary schools. Other options include a cost and works accountancy or a company secretarys course, LLB degree, MA in journalism and mass communication, postgrad diplomas in journalism/advertising/public relations/cinematography/film editing/ direction, MA in social work/development studies or a bachelor of library and information science. Can I read for a course in actuarial science simultaneously with my B.Com degree programme? Please advise. Raghav Rao, Bangalore My advice is that you first complete your B.Com with statistics as a subject and subsequently opt for actuarial training through the Institute of Actuaries of India (www.actuaries india.org), or sign up for an M.Sc programme in actuarial science. Actuaries are currently in great demand and theres no dearth of job oppor-tunities for trained professionals. Im in class XII (science) and interested in a career in biology/life sciences. Please recommend undergraduate study programmes in the subject. Srinivas Iyer, Chennai You could enroll in a B.Sc life science/botany/zoology or B.Sc in optometry degree programme after finishing school. If your grades in science subjects are not high, opt for non-science disciplines. While interest is an important factor in determining further study choices, it should also be backed by ability and aptitude. Im a B.Com graduate with keen interest in art and want to pursue further studies in the business of art abroad, preferably in Europe. Please suggest institutions/universities offering this subject. Neelam Patil, Pune Sothebys Institute of Art in London offers a unique Masters in the art business. An important component of the programme is analysis of art markets worldwide. The programme is designed for students with a background in art aspiring to understand the business as well as technical and structural elements of the international art market. Students learn how to evaluate and market objets dart ranging from antiques to modern art. Europe also hosts a number of respectable centres/institutes offering programmes in the business of art. To qualify for management positions in the pharmaceutical industry, should I study for a B.Pharm or an MBA (Pharma Tech) degree? Naveen Bhatia, New Delhi From the career progression perspective, an MBA (Pharma Tech) is definitely a better option since it covers pharmacy as well as management subjects. It is designed to prepare students for management positions in the pharma industry. A B.Pharm study programme, on the other hand, is more technical and research-oriented. I will complete my bachelors in business management next year and am interested in a career in finance. What courses do you suggest I sign up for? Nilima Shah, Mumbai An mba in finance is ideal but alternatives include a Masters in finance and control,…

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Universal Learn Today (ULT) Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Living Media Ltd (publisher of India Today, Business Today etc) and promoter of the Vasant Valley School, Delhi and Educomp Infrastructure and School Management Ltd (EISML), a subsidiary of the Delhi-based Educomp Solutions Ltd (ESL), have concluded an agreement to jointly establish Vasant Valley schools across India.As per the agreement, ULT and EISML will promote 30 Vasant Valley K-12 schools countrywide over the next few years. The two partner companies will provide management services, educational infrastructure as well as learning systems to the proposed schools. The new schools will be promoted under the Vasant Valley brand name and will incorporate the pedagogical philosophy of Vasant Valley School, Delhi while leveraging Educomps deep commitment to education excellence. We look forward to increasing our footprint and making Vasant Valley schools accessible to more people across the country, said Living Media chairman and India Today editor-in-chief Aroon Purie, addressing a press conference in Delhi on May 27. This sentiment was echoed by Shantanu Prakash, managing director of ESL and EISML. Schools with fine traditions and impeccable track records should not be restricted geographically but reach as many students as possible across the country. Our alliance with ULT is a step in that direction since Vasant Valley is among the highest-rated schools in Delhi NCR and indeed countrywide, said Prakash, who added that the first school under this partnership is scheduled to become operational in Gurgaon in 2012.

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Eighty-two school-leavers tutored by the Perungudi (Chennai)-based Everonn Toppers — a division of Everonn Education Ltd, Indias second largest publicly listed education company — have qualified for admission into the countrys 15 prestigious IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) following their success in the IIT-JEE (joint entrance examination) 2011, written by 472,000 students across the country, of whom 9,618 will be admitted.This is a happy moment for Everonn Toppers. Of the 82 students who have qualified for admission, one has an all-India ranking (AIR) of 64, and 23 are ranked among the top 1,000, says M.V. Reddy, chief executive officer of Everonn Toppers which operates 35 learning centres in major cities including Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Everonn Toppers offers classroom-based training for competitive entrance exams such as IIT-JEE, AIEEE and scholarship exams like NTSE, Olympiads and KVPY. We have a unique twin-edge advantage — the most experienced faculty and the largest VSAT education network in the world which enables us to share resources across the country, says Reddy.

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Top policy makers, educationists and corporates attended the Indian Education Congress 2011, convened in New Delhi on April 22-23. The event was organised by Franchise India and presented by the S. Chand Group with KPMG as knowledge partner.The Indian Education Congress is an initiative by Franchise India which recognises the need to think boldly and broadly on how to strengthen and expand existing initiatives within the realm of the growing Indian education sector, said Gaurav Marya, president of Franchise India, in his inaugural address to the congress. The next big leap in education can happen only if education is also looked at as a business. We need best practices, scalable models and investment by organised players to achieve this. Once the education market gets consolidated then a pan-India outreach can be achieved, opined S. Chands CEO Amit Gupta. During the congress, the S. Chand Group also officially announced its joint venture with the worlds leading K-12 education publishing company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to form a company named S. Chand Harcourt India Pvt. Ltd. During the congress, the Indian Education Awards 2011 felicitated achievers, innovators and suppliers who have significantly contributed towards the growth of Indian education. Among the awardees were Amity Universitys Dr. Ashok Chauhan, (Lifetime Achievement Award for Higher Education); Educomps Shantanu Prakash (Best Entrepreneur of the Year); Sharda University (Best Private University) and IGNOU (Excellence in Distance Learning Education).

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“Liberal education is not some fusty notion about reading good books, but is rather an important investment in the future. India will be a fairer and more productive society if more students graduate with not only a set of specific skills but also a liberal arts-inspired capacity to acquire new ones.” Arthur Dudney, an American Fulbright scholar based at Delhi University (Outlook, May 16) “There is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs. The faculty in the IITs is not world-class. It is the students who are world-class. So the IITs and IIMs are excellent because of the quality of students not because of quality of research or faculty.” Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh commenting on Indias world-famous Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in Delhi (May 24) “I want to place on record the governments complete trust in the faculties of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management. Almost 25 percent of the entire IIT faculty comprises ex-students. Surely, if there are world-class students, there must be world-class faculty.” Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal reacting to Jairam Rameshs comment about IIT/IIM faculty not being world-class (May 27) “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” Stephen Hawking, British physicist and author, dismissing the notion of life after death (Time, May 30) “The country needs to provide reservation and quality education for its deprived castes and classes and support them through the entire process. The success of Indias reservation policies should be measured by equality of outcomes.” Prof. K.S. Jacob of the Christian Medical College, Vellore (The Hindu, May 30) “Poverty is Indias greatest polluter and ecological enemy.” B.G. Verghese, author and columnist (Deccan Herald, May 31)

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One of the defining characteristics of the sputtering Indian education system is to launch enterprises of great pith and moment whose currents are allowed to run awry because of implementation failure. A live example are Karnatakas 394 Shri Morarji Desai and 114 Rani Chennamma Residential schools, promoted to provide free-of-charge class VI-X education to scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and other backward caste (OBC) students in the rural hinterland of the state (pop. 59 million).Modelled after the Central government-promoted 600 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya rural residential schools, the first Morarji Desai and Rani Chennamma schools were inaugurated with much fanfare by the Congress-led Veerappa Moily government in 1992. Since then, their number has risen to 394 and 114 respectively with an aggregate enrolment of 98,500 students instructed by 4,000 teachers, including 700 ‘contract teachers. That despite a plethora of politically correct legislation, SC, ST and OBC children (and adults) continue to suffer routine and cruel discrimination at the hands of upper caste Hindus in rural — especially village — India is a social reality which few apart from politicians bother to deny. Therefore it made good sense — and excellent vote-bank politics — to establish all-found residential secondary (class VI-XII) schools for their brightest and best children. But after they were constructed at approximately Rs.2 crore each, successive state governments have neglected — rather than celebrated — these secondary schools. Last month on May 5, these state government-funded schools were once again in the spotlight when over 700 ‘contract teachers/principals and non-teaching staff staged a protest rally before the Town Hall in Bangalore demanding immediate regularisation of their services and withdrawal of a government order calling for applications for new ‘permanent teachers positions in the Morarji Desai and Rani Chennamma schools. The recruitment order dated April 27 directs all new applicants and the 700-plus contract teachers/principals to write a competitive examination to be held on July 24-27, in which in-service contract teachers will be given a weightage of five marks. Since promulgation of the order, the 700-plus contract teachers represented by the Karnataka Rajya Samyukta Naukarara Sangha (KRSNS) have been up in arms against the state government. Their contention is that they have been appointed after clearing the govern-ments recruitment procedure and its unfair to put them through the grind again. According to B. Thippeswamy, district convener of the KRSNS, the new recruitment order will jeopardise the careers of thousands of contract teachers. I urge the government to regularise the services of contract teachers and withdraw the recruitment order with immediate effect, Thippeswamy told mediapersons at the protest rally. Certainly contract teachers have a legitimate grievance. For over 12 years, their remuneration has been half of permanent teachers doing the same work in the very same schools. They are paid a mere Rs.6,500 per month against Rs.13,000 paid to permanent teachers. Likewise, permanent principals are paid Rs.16,000 while those on contract receive Rs.8,000. Moreover during the April-May summer vacation, contract teachers and principals dont get paid at all. The root…

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The stunning landslide victory of the J. Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) alliance in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly elections, whose result was announced on May 13, has been widely welcomed by the academic community in this southern seaboard state (pop. 72 million) which prides itself for its high literacy (80 percent) and standards of school and collegiate education. The return of Jayalalithaa, who has served two terms as chief minister (1991-96 and 2001-2006) and is widely perceived as a liberal, has infused educationists despairing over the regressive leveling-down education policies of the ousted Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, with fresh hope.As if in answer to their prayers, among the decisions taken at its first cabinet meeting by the newly sworn-in AIADMK government was to postpone implementation of samacheer kalvi or common school curriculum, introduced by the ousted DMK government (through the Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010), which mandates a common syllabus and curriculum for all 52,303 government primaries and secondaries, and 10,934 private unaided schools affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board of School Examinations (TNSBSE). The samacheer kalvi syllabus and poor quality textbooks, introduced in June 2010 for classes I and VI and proposed to be implemented for classes II-V and VII-X during the current academic year 2011-2012, have been widely criticised by the states 5,934 private unaided matriculation schools affiliated with the Board of Matriculation Schools (which follow a unique curriculum till class X and adopt the TNSBSE syllabus at the Plus Two stage) in particular. Therefore, the providential and unexpected ouster of the DMK government has come as a pleasant surprise to private school managements especially since the new AIADMK government has swiftly constituted an expert committee to review the samacheer kalvi syllabus. Some educationists are hoping the committee will recommend scrapping of the common school syllabus initiative in toto and restore the status quo ante. That the new government deplores the DMK governments interference with Tamil Nadus school syllabuses and systems was made clear by the new minister of school education, C.V. Shanmugham, who has ordered that a new Tamil Nadu state anthem penned by former chief minister M. Karunanidhi and printed in all 90 million samacheer kalvi textbooks including class X texts where his personal achieve-ments are also provided as extra reading material, is deleted forthwith. Meanwhile the new govern-ment has decreed that until the expert committee submits its report, all government and private schools should conti-nue to follow the old textbooks for the academic year 2011-2012. Moreover to give the Tamil Nadu Textbooks Society and private printers enough time to reprint more than 65 million old textbooks, the commencement of the new school year has been post-poned from first week to June 15. All stakeholders in private schools have denounced samacheer kalvi because it will surely dilute our high standards and usher in stifling regulations at a time when autonomy, flexibility, accreditation and student-centred education are preferred norms. We are also hopeful the new govern-ment will revise the…

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The overwhelming victory of Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress, which won 227 of the West Bengal legislative assemblys 294 seats (with its ally the Congress party winning 63) in the recently (May 13) concluded assembly election, has been followed up with a good start by the new government which ended 34 years of uninterrupted rule of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front alliance in the state.Since she was sworn in as chief minister on May 20, Banerjee has interacted freely and frequently with the media — true to her word to keep open lines of communication with the public and provide transparent gover-nance. Writers Building, Kolkata, headquarters of the state government, is plunged into a level of activity it has not experienced for over three decades. For instance the new governments first cabinet meeting was held on the afternoon of May 20 i.e the day it was sworn-in and one of its first decisions was to make Saturday a full working day. Wisely, Banerjee has retained the education portfolio for herself and has appointed party loyalist Bratya Basu (an apolitical actor and dramatist) as the minister of higher education to assist her. Shortly after taking charge, on May 25 Basu faxed the vice chancellors of West Bengals 18 universities asking for financial and personnel status reports apart from academic reviews. Noting that there are about 200 faculty vacancies in the year-old Presidency University (which was hived off from the University of Calcutta last year), Basu said: These vacancies will be filled shortly through public advertisements and a transparent process. Party membership or loyalties will not be a criterion for selection. But although the Banerjee-Basu duo seems determined to write a new chapter in the states education history, academics with experience of college and university life during the past three decades when CPM loyalists and apparatchiks have infiltrated into all echelons of the higher education system, believe they underestimate the power of the CPM-affiliated West Bengal College and University Teachers Association (WBCUTA). The faculty and staff in West Bengals 18 universities and 354 colleges are heavily unionised and can be expected to fiercely oppose all reform initiatives. Most junior faculty members are card-carrying members of the CPM and WBCUTA remains firmly entrenched in the states universities. For them, cutting the umbilical cord with WBCUTA and CPM will be very difficult. They have been conditioned to do as directed by the CPM apparatchiks who are not likely to give up power in the universities easily, says a veteran Presidency University professor who preferred to remain anonymous. Meanwhile Basu is determined to cleanse the university senates, councils and syndicates of non-academic CPM loyalists. On May 26, he issued a public statement requesting non-academic CPM nominees to councils of higher education institutions to step down voluntarily. I would request govern-ment nominees serving in college and university councils to kindly resign from their posts. Some have already resigned, the rest should follow. I assure you vacancies will not be filled up with nominees loyal…

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The perennially beleaguered Pune-based Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) — the countrys premier film production, direction, cinematography, and sound recording training institute (estb.1960) — is back in the news. High-profile and well-respected film director Saeed Akhtar Mirza has been appointed president of the FTII Society and chairman of its governing council, an appointment which has been well-received by FTIIs strike-prone students community. During the past ten years students of the institute have called strikes on seven occasions on issues spanning FTIIs governance structure, raising student intake, tuition fees and infrastructure adequacy.Last November they launched a two-week on-campus agitation to protest the Delhi-based Hewitt Associations proposal to upgrade this 41-year-old Central government-funded institution which sprawls over 21 acres of prime real estate in Pune but accommodates a mere 300-350 students in crumbling hostels with its annual intake restricted to 172 postgrad students per year, to international status. The sticking point for FTIIs students was that a public-private partnership was the pre-condition of the institutional transformation which would result in sharp tuition fee increases. Currently tuition fees for the institutes 12 full-time programmes range from Rs.33,000-2 lakh per year — about a fifth of prevailing prices in private sector film institutes. The consequence of FTIIs history of student strikes and agitations is that indiscipline in the institute — which boasts several distinguished alumni including film directors Shyam Benegal, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Mahesh Bhatt and cine actors Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan — is rife. One of Mirzas first challenges is to clear the backlog of 15 students who are still residing on campus despite completion of their 36-month study programmes. Our immediate priority is to implement the detailed project report prepared by a group of experts headed by well-known film director P.K. Nair which made several recommendations relating to upgradation of syllabus and infrastructure. FTII should be design-ated a centre of excellence and institute of national importance. We wish to achieve this goal through an Act of Parliament, as a result of which the institute will get the dignity it deserves, says Mirza, who was appointed director on March 24 by a notification of the Union ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B). As a graduate of the institute and an individual knowledgeable about the needs and trends of the film and television industry, Mirza is perceived by mandarins of the I&B ministry to possess the expertise to address the core issues confronting FTII. According to him, they are faculty shortage, outdated curriculums and a funds crunch. Thats why the ministry has sanctioned Rs.11.32 crore as plan (capex) expenditure and Rs.13.5 crore as non-plan expenditure. The ministry is willing to give us more money under special grants, provided we justify the demand as per our needs, he says. The capex amount will fund a state-of-the-art classroom fitted with the latest 5.1 Dolby sound system, seven new high-definition video cameras, four basic digital cameras, and seven computers equipped with the latest versions of editing software, Final Cut Pro. But…

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