EducationWorld May 05

The Murdoch Archipelago by Bruce Page; Simon & Schuster; Rs.520; 580 pp Within the rapidly emerging global marketplace a new news globocorp is assuming shape and form. In this age of globe girdling satellite television, digital printing and publishing, news can be transmitted across continents in a matter of minutes. This new development was most dramatically showcased by the global television news channel CNN which brought live, minute-by-minute coverage of the wars fought in Iraq in 1991 and in 2003 into the living rooms of middle class India. Similarly the internet and digital technology have revolutionised newspaper publishing making most newspapers and magazines available online. In this new era of satellite television and the internet, the days when an Indian traveller abroad or a foreign tourist in this country didn’t know what’s happening back home are gone forever. Over this scenario which promises unprecedented freedom of the press and intensive scrutiny of the multiplying acts of commission, omission and misgovernance of governments around the world, looms the large and somewhat sinister shadow of media tycoon and press baron extraordinaire, the (currently) US-based Rupert Murdoch. Arguably the most powerful media magnate in global history, because unlike the much celebrated and feared press barons of the past — Randolph Hearst (USA), Northcliffe and Beaverbrook (UK), whose power and influence were contained within national boundaries, Murdoch’s influence is global. Through his closely-held company News Corporation, Murdoch owns several newspapers and television channels in his native Australia; the Sunday Times, the News of the World, The Sun and the upscale The Times, London (once the most influential news daily in the world) in Britain, and the New York Post and several smaller newspapers in the US. And perhaps most important, News Corp also owns the BSkyB television platform which enables Murdoch to beam satellite television programmes (including the Fox news channel) to any and every nation worldwide, while limiting access to the platform of troublesome rivals. Prima facie there’s nothing wrong about one individual owning so many influential papers and television channels. On the contrary, it could be evidence of entrepreneurial skill. But unfortunately as former journalist Bruce Page, the author of this remarkably well-researched book illustrates with telling examples, the News Corp business model is to cozy up to governments and ruling parties to secure business advantage rather than full disclosure of the acts of commission and omission of powerful governments who could be of present or future use to the company. This argues Page, who worked at the Sunday Times in the weekly’s pre-Murdoch era when under the leadership of editor Harold Evans it invented investigative journalism, is the very antithesis of the basic canons of news publishing and is creating an amoral global media monopoly, jeopardising the spreading global democracy movement. Leveraging media influence to install friendly governments in nations scattered across the world to create “a corporatist sense of partnership with holders or likely holders of power” apart, the other enduring contribution of Murdoch to the media and communications industry is low-brow “tabloidisation” or trivialisation of news. Though the Australian newpapers…

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Children discover the charm of KutchEvery pattern, every village and every person in Kutch has a story. Students and teachers of Sanskruti ‚ The Heritage Club made a journey across Kutch to experience innumerable stories of human adaptationSaltpans in KutchAccording to Outlook Heritage, Kutch, an arid district of Gujarat (pop. 0.5 million) is nature‚s most hated child. Yet it is full of surprises, many of them pleasant. In this dry district on the edge of the desert where the earth is perennially restless with tectonic movements, flourished Dholavira ‚ one of South Asia‚s earliest cities. And despite being orphaned by earthquakes and parched by droughts the people of this desert land have developed vibrant embroidery and mirror work into an art form. These masterpieces of art which decorate the homes and attire of city elites and country folk are a reflection of the lifestyle of Kutch ‚ a mƒ©lange of camels, peacocks, parrots, flowers, trees and women churning milk. Every pattern, every village and perhaps every person in Kutch has a story. Students and teachers of Sanskruti ‚ The Heritage Club recently made a journey across Kutch to listen to and experience innumerable stories of human adaptation. Sanskruti is a unique education programme offered by the Ahmedabad based Educational Initiatives (EI) with the objective of learning social studies in new ways and linking it to other subjects to make it more interesting, practical and fun for children.EI was promoted by a group of IIM-Ahmedabad alumni in 2000 and is well recognised in Gujarat for its innovative work in school education. EI is also working closely with ICICI Bank on a large benchmarking study to be conducted in 2005 to assess the “state of learning in municipal schools”; with the Azim Premji Foundation and the World Bank in Andhra Pradesh; with Intel to develop math curricula and “question marking abilities” of teachers, etc. They also prepared the questions for Star TV‚s ongoing India‚s Child Genius quiz programme hosted by Siddhartha Basu. As part of EI‚s heritage programme, 22 Ahmedabad school students got a rare opportunity to visit Kutch in December 2004.The educational trip to Kutch was unique inasmuch as it exposed students to the complex interplay of history and geography and allowed them to interact with local people and acquaint themselves with their artistic skills and heritage. They also checked out a natural fossil park and trekked across the vast Rann of Kutch ‚ the white land.Kutch ‚ the desert landThe word ‚ËœKutch‚ has been derived from its similarity on the map to a kachbo or tortoise. Bhuj is the district headquarters of Kutch. Located in the extreme west of India, it is surrounded by the Gulf of Kutch, the Arabian Sea and the Great Rann of Kutch which separates India from Pakistan.The history of Kutch goes back to the mists of time. The bed of the dry river Surkhi, a few miles to the north-east of Nakhatrana has revealed large flakes, handaxes and tools of the Paleolithic era made from…

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Flagged off in 1999, the objectives of SSA whose goal is to meet the educational needs of 192 million children across the subcontinent are monumental: 319,000 new primary schools, 1,000,000 new classrooms and 390,000 teachers across 524 districts. but this ambitious programme is way behind schedule. Neeta Lal makes a mid-term appraisal Proclaimed from the roof tops as India’s magic prescription for attaining the United Nations mandated millennium development goal of Education For All (EFA) by 2010, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (education for all) the Union government’s flagship programme to implement the 86th Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees free and compulsory education to children in the age group six-14 faces a present and clear danger of running aground.  Flagged off in 1999 by the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government after an exhaustive three-year survey of each Indian state by its controversial Union minister for human resource development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, SSA’s goal is to meet the education needs of 192 million children in 1,100,000 habitations across the subcontinent. This ambitious programme detailed in a humungous 659-sheaved document is being implemented in alliance with 31 state governments and addresses a swathe of primary education (classes I-VIII) issues. By any yardstick the objectives of SSA are monumental: 319,000 new primary schools, 1,000,000 new classrooms and recruitment of 390,000 teachers across 524 districts countrywide by the turn of the first decade of the new millennium. Apart from new schools and classrooms, the programme envisages fortification of the existing school infrastructure by way of constructing additional classrooms and toilets, providing drinking water, and liberal school improvement grants. Inadequate teacher strength in existing schools is being shored up not only by recruiting additional staff but by extensive training and additional academic support inputs at the cluster, block and district levels. Moreover the programme has a special focus on education of girls and children with special needs. “Holistically, the programme’s thrust is on decentralised, participative and consultative elementary education with community ownership of the school system a key objective,” Anita Chauhan, deputy secretary (elementary education) Union ministry of human resource development told this correspondent after a five-week chase. According to Chauhan, SSA targets the enrollment of all children in schools or “other alternatives” by 2003; completion of five years of primary schooling by all children by 2007; completion of eight years of elementary education by all children by 2010; universal retention in primary cycle by 2007; dropout rate pegged at under 10 percent for grades VI and VII and improvement of all aspects of education (content and process) to ensure reasonable learning outcomes at the elementary level especially in literacy, numeracy and life skills. “We are targeting 100 percent enrollment and zero drop out rate with infrastructure development being on top of our agenda,” avers Chauhan. However, when pressed to quantify, Chauhan referred your correspondent to her colleague D. Jhingran, director elementary education, an equally elusive official who failed to return any of EW’s repeated phone calls and e-mail messages. Bureaucratic obduracy and opacity in the Union HRD ministry is…

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Letter from London Education tops Labour agenda again Election campaigning has begun in the UK in preparation for the general election scheduled for May 5. In the run up to the election whose result will be declared when this issue of EducationWorld hits the newsstands in India, prime minister Tony Blair, and his deputy, chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown, have confirmed that education is the number one priority in the election manifesto of the Labour Party as it bids for an unprecedented third term in office. At a recent press conference the prime minister reaffirmed that for Labour, education and the economy are two sides of a coin, reiterating his conviction that improving education opportunities and standards is central to Britain’s future economic well being. “These two topics are linked. A strong economy is an essential part of making investment in education in the future,” he said. With this in mind the Labour party has pledged to increase annual spending on education to £5,500 (Rs.4.62 lakh) per pupil, and the creation of 300,000 apprenticeships by 2008. The Labour party seems to be concentrating on 16-19 year olds, the crucial ages when school students decide whether to pursue further education or enter the job market. Curiously business leaders seem to prefer more school leavers to pursue the latter option. The British Chamber of Commerce is telling the prime minister that employers are unable to recruit people with requisite skill-sets because too many school leavers are reading for degrees that don’t equip them for the workplace. The chamber believes that students aren’t receiving the career counselling advice they need in their early teens, meaning they are not encouraged to examine the possibility of pursuing routes other than university. That’s because school managements prefer to show high exam performance and high university acceptances to enhance their academic ratings. “We fully support the main thrust of the Tomlinson report, which is full integration of academic and vocational qualifications, so that there is no difference between the two,” says Bill Midgley president of BCC. The chamber has appealed to the prime minister to ditch the Labour party’s target of getting 50 percent of young people into university, on the ground that doing so will damage the economy. Midgley thinks the government is not making it clear why it is desirable that such a high proportion of young people should enter university. He says, “It is damaging because it promotes a false impression in the minds of many young people that getting a degree will get them through their working lives.” Certainly it is at this time, when the end of the academic year is looming, that hitherto happy-go-lucky university students suddenly become aware that they have to confront the prospect of surviving in the real world. They have to find themselves jobs, compete with others outside their field of studies and learn to get on with people from many walks of life. Universities do a good job, but their graduates have to learn to compete with those who may…

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Shades between the bogus and realKabir MustafiI often thinkI am lucky to be in a job that pleases me. But after 30 years in the teachers‚ profession I sometimes have to drag myself to work. As a school principal my average day is full of people, inspections and little hassles. The major compensation is the time I spend teaching.There‚s much to commend actual teaching. Many years ago a fellow-teacher and friend was preparing for his first Plus Two class. He had decided how he was going to introduce himself and what he was going to say about ground rules, teacher-pupil interaction, discipline etc. My wife (also a teacher) advised against elaborate planning and recommended allowing students to respond in their own time. It proved to be good advice for which she received profuse thanks. I think a good lesson to be learnt is that you cannot impose. Students have to let you enter.Getting them to let you enter has nothing to do with political correctness or being kind and loving. It has to do with trying to recognise each person in a class as a unique individual (whether mad, zany or incredibly bone headed), and for the class to believe that in spite of your idiosyncrasies, you mean well and that you actually know the subject you are teaching. The bottom line is that if they listen attentively, you are accepted.It takes hard work to get there. It‚s worse if working conditions are difficult and you have to deal with a megalomaniac promoter. The type who feels threatened if students speak to you outside the classroom, or if they utter a word of appreciation within his or her hearing. A situation like that can drive anyone to quit, not just the school but the profession itself, so completely can the cancer of pettiness fill our lives.But the ups and downs of the teaching profession notwithstanding, the worth of a day is best measured by the time spent with students, even if it comprises no more than a couple of hours. And that‚s why it‚s important for every teacher to know what she is doing and what she is about.Looking back, I have to say that in my book, only 10 percent of all teachers I have met, were unworthy of the profession. Most teachers I know have the ability to be intellectually dynamic, to continue to assimilate, challenge and be challenged, and revel in the 40 minutes of stimulation that a lesson can provide. The corollary of this is that if a teacher knows she is good in the classroom, she will also know that she is good outside it. Generally speaking teachers like water, find their own levels of happy involvement. And what about schools in which teachers teach? The most dedicated teachers can be stifled by bogus schools ‚ those that look good from far but are far from good, to paraphrase an old clichƒ©. A typical bogus programme is a school day that‚s really a class day:…

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Three final year mechanical engineering students: S. Karthikeyan, A.G. Nanda Kumar and B. Kranti Pandey of St. Peter’s Engineering College, Avadi, Chennai, have developed a new lightweight, automotive three-wheeler christened Trionta (an acronym for tri-wheeled, one man, non-traditional automobile), for intra city commuting. They exhibited the compact vehicle at a national exposition staged in March at the Amrutavahini College of Engineering, Sangamner (Maharashtra) in which 57 students from 40 colleges participated. “Globally, there are an estimated 900 million vehicles on the road to which 50 million are added every year. Automotive two and four-wheelers, which are the most popular means of road transport, pose the problems of traffic congestion, pollution, parking and plying on narrow roads. Though motorcycles and scooters are maneuverable and compact, they are more accident prone on roads and offer little protection from dust, heat and rain. Automobiles on the other hand are safer, but more expensive and hog more road space. Therefore the market requires a vehicle combining the advantages of a motorcycle and car. The Trionta is not only as compact and maneuverable as a motorcycle but is much safer on crowded roads. It is comfortable while offering the steadiness and load-bearing capacity of a car,” says Karthikeyan. The student trio started research on the Trionta in January last year and perfected it in the past five months, inspired and supported by the management and staff of St. Peter’s mechanical engineering department. The outcome of a sustained one-year effort is the two-seat three-wheeler made of mild steel, which weighs 70 kg, uses petrol and runs on an 80cc engine. “The Trionta is suitable for long and short distance travel inside theme parks, zoos and for intra-city transport. It can also be used by industry and trade for carrying loads and can be modified for industrial transport applications. We have priced it at Rs.40,000 but the cost can be brought down by using improved technology for mass production,” says Pandey. Their future plans include modifying the Trionta and experimenting with alternate fuels like LPG, acetylene, hydrogen fuel cell and hybrid vehicle technology. “Redesigning the Trionta by using a fibre matrix body can reduce the weight of the vehicle. There’s even the option of transforming it into an eco-friendly electric vehicle and increasing its length to provide a roof,” says Karthikeyan. Despite the gloom and doom forecasts of left ideologues and old world economists, India’s automobile industry which currently manufactures over one million cars and trucks annually, is booming. And even as the world awaits the Rs.1 lakh car promised by Tata Motors, the tempo of automotive industry research as testified by the Trionta experiment is gathering momentum. A sign of India’s engineering education coming of age. Hemalatha Rahupathi (Chennai) Arhatha Magavi  Though only 11 years old, Bangalore-based Arhatha Magavi is creating waves in the world of competitive aquatics. She has, “hold your breath”, already won 65 gold, 33 silver and 18 bronze medals apart from 33 rolling shields and trophies in district, state and national level swimming…

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With Australian academia having impacted universities and institutions of higher education Down Under as serious study destinations for Indian students, its traditional rival in the antipodes New Zealand seems to have discovered the student mining potential of the subcontinent. Suddenly varsity delegations from NZ and education consultancy firms representing them have been galvanised into action. Quite evidently institutions of higher education from this picturesque nation (pop. four million) whose rugged landscape and natural beauty has been imprinted upon the global consciousness by the Lord of the Rings cinematic trilogy and numerous Bollywood potboilers, are serious about attracting students from India. Because the latest education delegation from NZ representing six universities and five technical institutes which made a whirlwind tour of Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai in mid-April, was led by the Rt. Hon. Trevor Mallard, a veteran leader of New Zealand’s ruling Labour party and minister for education, public services and sport who is also deputy finance minister in the coalition government of prime minister Dr. Helen Clark. “Perhaps it’s not well-known in India that New Zealand has established several globally reputed institutions of higher education which offer excellent study programmes in biotechnology, agriculture, medicine and genetics, especially at the advanced postgraduate level,” says Mallard. Mallard’s ministerial mission was laid down as: “The government of New Zealand is particularly interested in encouraging Indian postgraduate research students in these fields of study to enroll in our universities and help us develop our intellectual capability. In Delhi I had useful discussions with (Union minister of human resource development) Mr. Arjun Singh regarding the exchange of research students and faculty between our two countries which share many commonalities including cricket, the English language and a British heritage.”  According to Mallard, currently there are an estimated 2,500 students from India in institutions of learning in NZ with the number likely to grow as universities and technical institutes in that country become familiar with the Indian education system and establish linkages with “40-50 high quality institutions of higher education in India”. Looking ahead, Mallard is quite confident that as academic and scholastic exchange between India and New Zealand (which spends a massive 6.5 percent of its GDP on education) intensifies, there will be greater appreciation within the subcontinent of hitherto unfamiliar universities, technical and technology institutes Down Under. “Contrary to popular belief we offer high quality liberal and creative arts education as well, especially in the fields of film and multi-media technology. Our government policy mandates that all faculty positions be advertised world-wide to attract the best teachers. As a result over 50 percent of faculty in institutions of higher learning are professionals from abroad with proven research and teaching capability. That’s the distinguishing characteristic of New Zealand’s higher education,” says Mallard. Not to forget cricket, English and picture postcard landscapes besides. Dilip Thakore (Bangalore) Differential film-maker Little terrorist, India’s sole entry for Hollywood’s Oscar awards this year was directed by 32-year-old Delhi-based film-maker Ashwin Kumar. Although the 15-minute short film didn’t bag an Oscar, it received rich…

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Your counsellor repliesI‚m a class XII science student and want details of institutes offering courses in genetic engineering. Navin Chopra, New DelhiBachelor‚s degree programmes in genetic engineering are yet to be introduced though B.Sc with genetics as a subject is offered by several universities including Osmania, Hyderabad, Kakatiya, Warangal and Bangalore universities. Moreover Allahabad Agricultural Institute allows you to specialise in genetic engineering as part of a B.Tech course in biotechnology. B.Tech (biotech) is also offered by a few engineering institutions. But please bear in mind that careers in genetic engineering are mainly research oriented and require long years of study.I would like to qualify as a forensic accountant. Please advise.Jal Mehta, MumbaiForensic accounting has to do with utilisation of accounting, auditing and investigative skills to detect and solve crimes. Forensic accountants investigate white-collar crimes and use accounting techniques to detect fraud. They are also required to investigate mergers and acquisitions, tax cases, economic crimes, civil litigation, specialised audits and even terrorist activities. Most forensic accountants possess accountancy qualifications and diploma certificates like ‚Ëœcertified fraud examiner‚. Alternatively, they could be chartered accountants with law degrees. Forensic accountants need the skills of private investigators and accountants. Analytical ability, research skills, financial experience including knowledge of accounting procedures (proper and improper) are vital for a successful career in forensic accounting. Moreover to get a foothold in this profession, you need a thorough knowledge of auditing, risk assessment control and fraud detection, law and strong written and oral communication skills.I‚ll be graduating in commerce next year and want to do a course in medical social work. Which institutes offer this course and what are the job opportunities?Vidya Kolhatkar, Pune The two-year master of social work degree programme offered by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, qualifies you to specialise in medical and psychiatric social work. The best study programme available in the country, it gives students an opportunity to work in mental and community health organisations, substance abuse and rehabilitation centres, hospitals, child guidance and counselling centres, schools and research organisations.I‚m in Plus Two (commerce) and keen on pursuing a company secretary‚s course together with my undergraduate (bachelor in management science) programme. Please advise.Nikhil Rao, ChennaiCoterminously with your B.Com, BMS or any other bachelor‚s programme (other than fine arts), you can enroll in the foundation course for qualifying as a company secretary. There is no admission test. After completing the foundation course you can enroll in the intermediate and then in the final course. While you can pursue BMS and CS simultaneously, it will require excellent time management skills and discipline to do justice to both courses. I‚m a practising MBBS doctor and would like to do a course in hospital adminis-tration through distance education. What are the options?Geeta Raghavan, BangaloreThe one-year postgraduate certificate programme in hospital management through distance education offered by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Munirka, New Delhi 110 067 (www.nihfw.org) is for MBBS candidates registered with the state/ Medical Council of India who have at…

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The fast-track pharmaceutical and healthcare industries could lead to a boom time for clinical researchers in India, as clinical research is poised to become the fastest growing sector in the life sciences Even as the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry is utilising contemporary information communication technologies to transform India into “the back office of the world”, the fast-track pharmaceutical and healthcare industries could morph India into a hub of clinical research poised to become the fastest growing sector in the life sciences.  “There is an immediate requirement in the Indian pharmaceutical industry of 10,000 people in the area of clinical research. India apart, internationally too, there is a dearth of trained manpower in this sector. According to a McKinsey & Co report, the global clinical trials outsourcing opportunity in India is estimated at an annual billing of $2 billion (Rs.9,000 crore) by the year 2010 when the demand for clinical research professionals will rise to 50,000,” predicts the eminent Dr. S.K. Gupta, dean of the Institute of Clinical Research (India) and former head of pharmacology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. Unsurprisingly, pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to sign on trained professionals whose pay packages are getting bulkier. Trained pharmacists and clinicians are required for various genres of clinical research starting from site monitoring, site management, clinical data management, data analysis, report writing, to report submission, presentation and publication. Given the sensitivity of the process, clinical trial professionals need special academic qualifications. Graduates/postgraduates in zoology, biology, microbiology, biotechnology, botany, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, pharmacy, statistics, information technology and management are eligible to enter the field of clinical research. A career as a trained clinical professional is worthy of consideration because remuneration packages are weighty. According to a US-based personnel recruitment and head-hunting agency (Center Watch) normative annual pay for a senior clinical research associate in 2001 was $72,000 (Rs.34.2 lakh); project manager, $74,000; medical writers, $58,000; business development managers, $90,000 and clinical research coordinators, $40,000. “Globally there has been a paradigm shift in the pharmaceutical industry and nearly two-thirds of R&D expenditure is allocated for drug development. Of this clinical research accounts for 70 percent of the time and resources spent in drug development. The discovery of new drugs requires investments of millions of dollars with the cost of developing a new drug steadily increasing from around $200 million (Rs. 900 crore) in the early nineties to over $800 million in the new millennium,” explains Gupta. Gupta has impeccable academic and experiential credentials to comment upon the unfolding scenario in the pharma-ceutical industry, and clinical research in particular. A Ph D in clinical pharmacology, DSC, FIACS, he retired as head of the pharmacology department of AIIMS in 2004. He is also president of the Indian Pharmacology Society and an emeritus professor at ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). Having published over 300 papers in national and international science journals, he is the recipient of the distinguished services award in medicine and surgery of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, and…

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In my last despatch, I had written about the growing natural farming movement which is gathering momentum across the country. There is increasing awareness that the need for expensive chemicals which endanger the soil keeps escalating to maintain per acre yields. In this despatch I press the case for Rich sustainable agri traditions-natural or organic farming- further. Agricultural malpractices such as infiltration of soils with genetically modified hybrid seeds, irradiation, etc are the reason for human cell mutations and many forms of disease (some incurable) and birth defects that have become commonplace in modern civilization. People like Dr. Vandana Shiva and her organisation Navdanya, are doing invaluable work in building seed banks to prevent the influx of dangerous chemicals into our food chain. At present certifiers of organically grown produce are licensed by the Union ministry of commerce through a national level accreditation committee. The process is very costly, time consuming and complicated. Which is why at the most recent (January 2005) conference on organic agriculture in Bidkin, near Aurangabad it was strongly argued that if certification agencies must multiply to lower the certification cost of farmers, we need to evolve processes by which local certification bodies can be accredited, preferably by the voluntary sector empowered to certify small growers. I remember attending an organic farming conference in Bidkin where a marketing company volunteered to set up a certifying agency, a proposal which was unanimously vetoed. The Bidkin conference was organised by the Institute for Integrated Rural Development (IIRD) which was awarded a prize for sustainable agriculture and rural develop-ment. Farmers, scientists and professionals under the auspicies of IIRD prepared a set of national voluntary standards in 1997, revised in 2001. IIRD spokespersons say that its standards are a guarantee mechanism not just for marketing of organic foods but for preserving indigenous agricultural practices and conserving traditional knowledge banks — important factors to be considered while drawing up regulations for the organic farming sector. Since then only recently in 2005 have our law-makers decided to include the word “organic” within the definitions of the proposed Modern Food Law. We await to see how this legislation evolves. It is estimated that nearly 18 million hectares of farmland tilled by small farmers could be certified “organic” immediately after documentation for certification is completed. Meanwhile as a vendor of organic produce, I trust the certification of people like Kapil Shah, Baroda; D.D. Bharamagoudra, my first farmer friend from Karnataka (who has himself been accredited to certify); Dr. Sushil Sharma of Aarohi and Bharat Bhist of INHERE, Uttaranchal (who has managed to group 1,200 farmers, certified them and markets for them); Mathew of Keystone, Tamil Nadu; Raju Joseph who lives as he preaches in Kerala; Claude Alvares of Other India Books in Goa who put together the first Organic Farmer’s directory, and other great sons of the soil who spend their lives tirelessly working towards being leavers rather than takers as Daniel Quinn says in his must-read book, Ishmael. The pioneers who have switched to organic farming…

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Case for green accountingBittu SahgalNature feeds the birds in the sky, the fish in our waters and the deer and tigers in our forests. The fact seems so obvious as to need no mention. So let‚s take the thought a step further. Water from the Himalayan glaciers slakes the thirst and irrigates the fields of over 400 million people in the Indian subcontinent. Again, it hardly needs mentioning; every child is taught this in school. Now let‚s take the thought still further. The government does not feed the people of the Indian subcontinent ‚ nature does. Now we have an argument on our hands. No agronomist will accept this statement. Nor will any politician, businessman, economist, or social activist for that matter. I doubt if they are even remotely aware of the extent to which the food security of India is dependant upon wild nature. Even beneficiary communities, who live on our coasts, in forests and depend on nature‚s larder take it for granted ‚ as they do the air they breathe. Which is why they undervalue their resources and sell their land to developers of all persuasions. Even without placing a specific monetary value on the food directly obtained from nature, it is easy to see just how significant such resources are. Take the case of the sea.The seas help meet part of the nutritional needs of around 50 million people every single day. Much of this food is consumed within the fishing community, or is bartered for goods and services. It might be reasonable then to presume that inland waters, including India‚s many lakes, swamps, streams and rivers directly feed another 100 million people ‚ every day. Much of this food too is consumed or bartered. And then we have wild ‚Ëœland-foods‚. In Rajasthan, en route to school, village children routinely fill their pockets with wild ber fruit (zyzyphus sp.) or amla (emblica officinalis). There is not a state in the country where this gather-and-consume act is not played out by young and old. These are just illustrative examples. Without overstating the case, economists have no clue whatsoever of the monetary value of wild foods. They never take nature‚s larder into account, until someone sells it for money.And because we know not what we lose, India‚s munificent natural treasury is being emptied. In the absence of any resource accounting, economists readily advise decision makers to turn marine nurseries into ports and other commercial infrastructure, and natural forests into golf courses and housing colonies. Wetlands are reclaimed and our purest aquifers are used as hazardous waste dumping grounds. Precious topsoil is treated like dirt (pun intended).Comments Pavan Sukhdev, an international banker and director of the Green Accounting for Indian States Project (GAISP): “India‚s forests deliver vast economic benefits, which we simply do not account for anywhere in our gross domestic product (GDP). Which is why GAISP is in the process of setting up a system to measure the economic value of forests from conservation and natural forest growth, as…

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Though in the somnolent groves of Indian academia it’s business as usual, of late horror statistics and media reportage of pervasive corruption within the education system is arousing indignation among right-thinking people across the country. Dilip Thakore reports  The unprecedentedly large allocations made for education and health in the Union budget 2005-06 presented to Parliament on February 28 by finance minister P. Chidambaram (though adjudged inadequate for the needs of the long-neglected social welfare sectors of the Indian economy by EducationWorld — see April cover story ‘Why India’s most pro-education budget isn’t good enough’) read in combination with Chidambaram’s frank admission that “outlays do not necessarily mean outcomes”, has transmitted a tremor of apprehension within the small community of right-thinking champions of quality education for all across the country. Though in the somnolent groves of Indian academia where tunnel vision is the rule rather than exception, it’s business as usual, as there is growing crusade against corruption in education with a growing number of public spirited citizens drawing up elaborate plans and strategies to safeguard the public interest and ensure that the historically unprecedented budgetary outlay made for educating the cruelly short-changed children of post-independence India is utilised for the purposes for which it has been allocated.  Snowballing apprehension that a massive proportion of budget outlays for soft sectors such as education and health will leak out and be frittered away is understandable. By global standards, particularly of developing countries, the national (Centre plus states) provision for education which has averaged 3-3.8 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) annually for the past half century is hardly inadequate. For instance the red hot, most favoured nation of the newly emerging global order — the People’s Republic of China — expends a mere 2.2 percent of its GDP annually on education. Yet 91 percent of its adult population is literate cf. India’s 65 percent. Sri Lanka and Indonesia’s outlays for education are even more modest (1.3 percent of GDP), but they boast literacy rates of 92.5 and 88 percent respectively. Therefore quite obviously the major problem of Indian education is not paucity of resources as much as widespread kleptomania within the system. As India’s reformist prime minister the late Rajiv Gandhi once famously observed, barely 15 percent of government outlays made for social welfare projects reach the intended beneficiaries. But while hitherto the popular reaction to pervasive petty and not-so-petty official corruption which is a defining characteristic of the Indian economy was a gallic shrug and typical soft state rationalisations (ill-paid government servants, natural equalisation of wages etc) and top-level condonation (according to the late prime minister Indira Gandhi government corruption is a “universal phenomenon”), of late horror statistics pertaining to the education system incrementally highlighted by the media (EducationWorld in particular) is arousing indignation across the country. The ground zero level implications of data glibly cited by the media — one-fifth of government schools (90 percent of the total) are multi-grade teaching institutions; 20 percent don’t provide a proper building; 58 percent can’t offer children safe drinking water…

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In 1969, India’s fire-breathing populist government introduced legislation that empowered it to nationalise banks. Banking took on a whole new meaning. Freed from the imperative of commercial viability, the entire system became focused on opening branches across the country. Banks were charged with the responsibility of garnering small savings accounts and disbursing small, mainly unsecured, loans to deserving customers, regardless of their financial solvency, leading to being caught between the Left and crass commercialism. A few months after I returned from America in the late 1980s, I happened to be at a luncheon where I met the authors of the Bank Nationalisation Act. I asked if nationalisation detracted from risk management, which I saw as the primary objective of banking. I was laughed out of court. “In India, we cannot merely go by commercial imperatives,” a grandee sneered at me, “we have to take into account the fact that India is largely rural and poor.” Bank nationalisation spurred a demand for administrative staff. Since the entire function of risk management was rendered null and void, all that nationalised banks needed by way of staff were employees who could fill forms and stamp paper. In hundreds and thousands of bank branches in India, there rose a demand for bureaucrats. These recruits did not need the selective finesse of the Indian Administrative Service, just passing acquaintance with finance and commerce. Around that time too, there was a sea change in India’s higher education system. Ideology rather than competence became the sine qua non of acceptability. India’s prized university system became a servant of reigning populist ideology. It mattered little whether you were a good teacher and guide or if you were an original researcher. You had to be politically correct. A whole new system was engendered. My brother, who is among the brightest people I know, tells a story of his teacher in a commerce college, affiliated to Gujarat University. Apparently, this teacher used to commit his lectures to memory and would occasionally fluff his lines like a bad actor, whereupon the entire class would erupt in laughter. “Like a poor player, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage,” my brother recalls, quoting Shakespeare. The way my brother describes it, the mainstream university system in India is true to its British origin as a factory which produces clerks. Over the past decade, the Indian economy has integrated with the mainstream global economy. The demand right now is for people with special skills in computer software, media, telecommunications, civil aviation, hospitality and various other disciplines including marketing, public relations and insurance. An incredible number of colleges, training institutes and even universities, have sprung up to fulfill this demand. Many of them are beyond the purview of regulatory agencies such as the University Grants Commission, the All India Council for Technical Education and others. It is a veritable free-for-all. There are no standards of curricula and testing. The norm is: pay the money and become qualified. Into this breach, a vast number of…

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First established in 1938 as a constituent college of Sydney University, UNE became autonomous in 1954. Since then it has earned a sound reputation for teaching and research  Situated in the picturesque town of Armidale, New South Wales, the University of New England (UNE) has established a sound reputation in the sixth continent as a provider of outstanding teaching and centre of research excellence. The first Australian university to be established outside a state capital, UNE has four faculties: arts; economics, business and law; education, health and professional studies and the sciences. The university offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, diploma, Masters and doctoral study courses in the general (arts, science) and professional (accounting, teaching, nursing and law) fields to 18,863 students including 1,800 students from over 50 countries. “The University of New England has a long and enviable reputation as a provider of quality education and combines a commitment to excellence in teaching and advanced research. We have established formal links with many overseas institutions and maintain a strong relationship with our alumni. The presence of international students at UNE allows the university community to gain a greater understanding of different countries, languages, cultures, religions and customs,” says Prof. Ingrid Moses, vice-chancellor of UNE. First established in 1938 as a constituent college of Sydney University, UNE acquired autonomous status in 1954. Since then it has pioneered distance education where technology is used to provide programmes to students studying at home. More than 12,000 of its 18,000 plus students study via the internet, making UNE Australia’s largest provider of distance education. On campus the student-staff ratio is 10:1 and students benefit greatly from access to individualised tuition. Moreover UNE has signed partnerships with more than 33 universities and colleges overseas for collaborative research, course articulation arrangements and staff and student exchanges. Armidale. This picturesque town is situated in the New England tableland region of northern New South Wales. An hour by air from the metropolitan cities of Sydney and Brisbane, Armidale (pop.25,000) is the region’s commercial and educational hub. The city offers excellent transportation facilities for air, rail and road travel. Armidale also provides first-rate shopping, recreation and cultural facilities. The New England region is famous for its magnificent gorges, waterfalls, rivers and streams and for its four distinct seasons that have earned it the descriptive ‘a city of all seasons’. Summer temperatures rarely climb beyond 33oC. Winter nights are often frosty but the days following are sunny and clear. Autumn and spring arrive with spectacular bursts of flora which attract thousands of tourists. Campus facilities. UNE has a number of libraries which together subscribe to more than 9,600 journals in print and electronic form, contain comprehensive reference collections and have a combined stock of nearly 1,000,000 volumes. The main library is the Dixson Library, centrally located on campus. The law library is located in the faculty of economics, business and law with the curriculum centre sited in the faculty of education, health and professional studies. UNE’s information technology division provides…

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They said it”It is true that India has the advantage in software and China has the advantage in hardware‚¦ Cooperation is like two pagodas (temples) ‚ one hardware and one software. Together we can become world leaders.”Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on a visit to Bangalore (April 10)”A person from Gujarat was not allowed to visit the US as he doesn‚t allow religious conversions in his state.”Narendra Modi, Gujarat chief minister (April 18)”Agra was different. Then there was hatred, acrimony, we were killing each other. Today, it‚s friendship and cooperation. I haven‚t come with the same heart. I‚d like to say I have come with a new heart.”President Pervez Musharraf in his interaction with Indian editors in Delhi on April 18 “India‚s present rate of population growth translates into 16 million more Indians every year, rising almost to 18 million a year by 2016. Failure to stabilise the population will have a significant implication for the future of India‚s economy.”N.R. Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys Technologies in Mumbai (April 18)”Creativity has to be built in the primary schooling of children in the age group of five to 11. That means our present syllabus has to be reduced and the learning process should concentrate on creative lessons and products in classrooms.”President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at the National Bal Shree Awards on April 21″When I joined, I found NCERT had become a director-centric, power-driven organisation. One could act according to one‚s whims. There were no institutional structures, no policy guidelines even for the constitution of the textbook writing teams. We have had to start from scratch and set these up.”Prof. Krishna Kumar, the new NCERT director in The Hindu (April 21)”In the past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility.”Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese prime minister, at the Asian-African summit in Jakarta (April 22)”My real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole Church to the word and will of the Lord.”Pope Benedict XVI in his inaugural mass in St. Peter‚s Square (April 24)

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Delhi End of sudden death era The abolition of Indian academia’s high stress, ‘sudden death’ final examination system — universally condemned by educationists but mysteriously durable — seems imminent at last. The Union ministry of human resource development has forwarded a proposal to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) and the 30 state examination boards to abolish the terminal and final examination system and replace it with a weekly or monthly grading system. If the school boards accept the proposal, perhaps as early as the next academic session, Indian students may well be able to bid adieu to the all-important nerve-wracking final exam and welcome shorter, less stressful tests. College students might also be brought under the purview of the proposed change. Working in a fast-forward mode, CBSE and NCERT have already fleshed out their examination reform proposals and according to CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, the board’s plan to reduce exam stress will be unveiled shortly. However, the new system will assume concrete shape only by May-end when representatives of boards of secondary education converge for an all-India convention. NCERT, which is addressing the issue through a national focus group on examination reform, hopes, according to its chief Krishna Kumar, to formally involve the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as university academics in its plan formulation exercise. “Examination stress within the student community is a real cause for worry. We need to and are taking a critical look at it. It’s more common than most people realise and is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently,” says B.S. Baswan, secretary, secondary and higher education in the Union HRD ministry. Seized of the issue, NCERT and the pan-India examination boards in particular are simultaneously examining other ideas, especially in relation to class X and XII boards. Suggestions under consideration include proposals to allow the use of calculators during exams; giving students a second chance to clear the boards in the form of supplementary exams; providing a support system to students by way of extra question reading time and giving greater weightage to internal assessments. ‘Partial achievement’ of students will be recognised as well, allowing them to stagger clearance of exams in installments rather than in one fell swoop. With over 10 million students writing school-leaving final exams every year, exam stress is a phenomenon that has assumed larger-than-life dimensions in India. According to a study conducted by the Delhi-based Hindustan Times, north India’s leading daily, nearly 70 percent of Indian students after class VIII experience severe academic stress, especially during exam time with nearly 10 percent having contemplated suicide at some point during their academic years. In addition, there were seven suicides and nine attempted suicides in and around Delhi during this year till March-end. However opinion in favour of replacing highly competitive final exams by continuous grading is not unanimous. Says Anubha Sawney, mother of two school-going teenage daughters: “Competitive exams are what give…

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I read your cover story “Why India’s most pro-education budget isn’t good enough” (EW April). There is some homework needed on this argument. It is not the “how much” of spending but the “how” of spending that is important. In particular I am inclined to challenge your argument that we first need massive investment in education infrastructure and then monitor the quality of spending. My understanding based on empirical evidence is precisely the opposite: First monitor the quality of spending and then invest in education. Again while it is true that investment is needed in education, it doesn’t mean all investment has to be raised through public funding. Implementing schemes that draw private spending are a better bet because of the better accountability systems they come with. Demand-side financing by the government through education vouchers and tweaking the regulatory system by allowing for-profit and English medium primary education institutions can lead to more investment and better, accountable managements. An esteemed magazine like yours can have a localised rating scheme for schools (like India Today does for business schools) in every city, in fact, in every district of India. Imagine the readership and the good that you will be doing to parents by providing this information! Imagine the competition it will set off among schools to provide sound education! A few back-of-the-envelope calculations based on Dr. Sajitha Bashir’s study (Government Expenditure on Elementary Education in the Nineties in India) throws up interesting findings. Assume that a state’s budget is Rs.100. Usually about Rs.20 of it is devoted to causes of education. Again, about Rs.10 of the Rs.20 goes towards elementary education. Of it Rs.8.50 is approximately disbursed as salaries to teachers and administrative staff. The rest Rs.1.50 is spent on three items primarily: paying salaries of additional teachers hired during the Plan period; construction of new buildings and classrooms and incentives for attendance of students (uniforms, textbooks etc). Where is the money for quality improvements like teacher training or learning materials that arguably do more for learning outcomes than any other input? The success of a scheme is often accounted for in terms of meeting the quantitative targets which are usually enrollment figures and not reflective of the quality of schooling. The annual expenditure on instructional/ learning materials per child is in the range of Rs.15-30. Compare this with the expenditure of Rs.88 spent on every child for his mid-day meals to “get” him to school to boost enrollment figures. Pardon my strong feelings about education reform, but I can’t believe how a set of entrenched interests (like teachers’ unions) and wrong ideas (disallowing markets in education) have deprived millions of children a basic right: quality schooling at affordable rates. Naveen Mandava Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi Prompted letters This is a rejoinder to letters “In defence of Gintara” (EW April) supposedly written by a couple of Gintara parents in response to my letter “Practice-precept gap” (EW March). It is very clear from these letters that the Gintara school management is getting so desperate to get its…

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Perhaps the greatest historical blunder of Indian society — for which it is paying dearly — is its passive tolerance of major and minor acts of official corruption. Taking full advantage of the well-meaning but hopelessly utopian Nehruvian experiment in state socialism, post-independence India’s 20 million-plus strong politician-bureaucracy nexus has transformed a high-potential nation state which could have been the mirror from which third world nations of the post-colonial era could have fashioned themselves, into one of the five most corrupt countries worldwide, according to the corruption perception index of the Berlin-based Transparency International. Now with neta-babu conspiracy hooked on the easy ride afforded by the spoils of corruption and refusing to get off the collective back of the public, right-thinking people intent upon a just social order based upon impartial rule of law, have a big fight on their hands. But even within a manifestly unjust social order in which the weight of official corruption bears down most heavily upon the marginalised poor and dispossessed, there is a hierarchy of corrupt practices. And perhaps no corrupt practice is as heinous as that which targets the most blameless and vulnerable members of a given society — its children. Measured by the yardsticks of total absence of rule of law and unchecked looting of the people, the late unlamented communist Soviet Union was arguably the most corrupt nation state of the 20th century. But even Stalin and his heirs stopped short of targeting children and ensured provision of universal elementary education for all Soviet citizens, an investment in human resources which has stood the former republics of the dismembered Soviet Union in good stead, as their people begin to build anew. Alas, stoically accepted, all-embracing corruption Indian style lacks this saving grace. Indeed following the incremental delicensing and deregulation of industry since the historic liberalisation initiative of 1991, licence-permit-quota infected plague rats seem to have scurried into the education sector spreading bribery and corruption which has the serious consequence of disabling vulnerable children and depriving them of the right to decent livelihood. But growing awareness of these most unkindest cuts being incrementally inflicted on the most blameless and innocent members of society has aroused unprecedented indignation. A never-before coalition of the righteous is crystallising to cleanse the rotting augean stables of Indian education. This is the subject matter of our first-of-its-type cover feature. Our special report feature focuses upon a connected issue. EducationWorld’s Delhi-based assistant editor, Neeta Lal persistently chased slippery educrats for data and statements of intent to compile a mid-term appraisal of the belatedly ambitious Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (Education For All) programme which guarantees elementary education to all children between six-14 years of age by the year 2010. Lead features apart, there is a smorgasbord of our usual and incrementally response-generating comment columns and news reports. We are always pleased to receive readers’ views on issues raised in EducationWorld. So please don’t hesitate to write.

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