Onkar Singh Gujral
The first step for him was to apply online for the Intel-sponsored IRIS (Initiative for Research & Innovation in Science) fair in August 2011. Among the applications, 100 well-researched project proposals were selected for entry and evaluation at the Intel ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) held between May 13-18 in Pittsburgh, USA. […]
There’s rising anxiety within middle-class India whether the country’s top-ranked preschools, schools and best colleges and universities are preparing students adequately to compete in the dawning age of global hyper-competition. Dilip Thakore reports
The high interest aroused by the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2012 (see EW September) nationwide, quickly followed by publication and dissemination of the Quacquarelli Symonds […]
Educational Development Index 2010-11 highlights that the country’s most industrially advanced states are placed well below the salt in elementary education development. It also confirms that the BIMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) remain the nation’s education backwaters. Summiya Yasmeen reports
The Educational Development Index (EDI) 2010-11 — released by the Delhi-based National University […]
Promoted by renowned seer Chariji in 2005, Lalaji Memorial Omega International School, Chennai has quickly earned a reputation for providing values-based spiritualism combined with international standard K-12 education
Sprawled over an 18-acre campus in Kolapakkam, Chennai, the Lalaji Memorial Omega International School (LMOIS, estb. 2005), promoted by Tamil Nadu’s renowned […]
Routinely ranked among the top 10 teaching and research universities in the UK by the quality press, University of Warwick, UK (estb. 1965) has speedily risen in peer and public esteem
Promoted in 1965, University of Warwick has risen quickly in peer and public esteem to be ranked among Britain’s […]
This copy of EducationWorld in your hands, is the 156th issue of this pioneer and as yet India’s sole education news and analysis magazine. It represents 13 years of back-bending, and largely unsung effort to attain the mission statement articulated in the very first issue, viz, “to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the […]
The recent rash of sexual assaults and atrocities against women and teenage girl children in the state of Haryana (pop. 25.3 million) which has shocked the nation, is a severe indictment of the education system in this north Indian state. The outcome of decades of neglect of civic, gender and liberal arts education in K-12 […]
The rags-to-riches cover story of Satya Narayanan R, who has grown Career Launcher from a one-room coaching centre into a full services education company in the short span of 18 years, is inspiring (EW October). His team must be congratulated for helping thousands of students prepare for competitive examinations, particularly CAT.
The company’s diversification into K-12 schools […]
Child rights champions and activists in the national capital are up in arms against Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Mehta Vidyalaya, a private school which has reportedly been levying above normative tuition fees upon students with disabilities. In a public interest litigation (PIL) writ petition filed against the school by well-known NGO Social Jurist, a division bench […]
Sixteen years ago, Maharashtra (pop. 112 million) — India’s most industrialized state accounting for 25 percent of the country’s industrial production — became the first state of the Indian Union to declare special education for challenged children a major priority and announced sweeping changes (Maharashtra has 600 special schools exclusively for children with various types […]
The tumultuous reign of Dr. N. Prabhu Dev as vice chancellor of Bangalore University (BU, estb.1964), which has 600 colleges in Karnataka with an aggregate enrolment of 700,000 students affiliated with it, ended four months prematurely on October 13 when he submitted his resignation to Karnataka governor and ex officio BU chancellor H.R. Bhardwaj. Prabhu […]
Nine students of Gujarat National Law University (GNLU, estb. 2003), who filed a writ petition in the high court against GNLU challenging a varsity order detaining them in the third year of their five-year degree course, have won a major victory.
In a judgement delivered on October 17, Justice K.S. Jhaveri upheld the petition which challenged the […]
Estranged from the Congress-led UPA-II government in New Delhi, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool government passed the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012 on September 27. Following approval of the Act by the state legislative assembly, a state government representative will replace the UGC member on the search panel to select vice chancellors of the […]
Reports of continuous mismanagement of the city-based Pachaiyappa Trust (PT, estb. 1842), which runs 15 educational institutions in Tamil Nadu, have been hitting the newspaper headlines in Chennai for over two months, raising doubts about whether the government-aided education model is serving any public purpose.
Founded by munificent philanthropist Pachaiyappa Mudaliar 170 years ago, PT manages […]
“We’re not saying anything new but that’s the beauty of the plan.”
Pawan Agarwal, advisor (higher education) to the Planning Commission on the 12th Five Year Plan (Forbes, October 12)
“A deal over the border has for years been self-evident: China gets to keep Aksai Chin in the west and India gets to keep the 80,000 sq. […]
Delhi
Indian Army pleads RTE Act exemption
The Indian Army is opposed to implementing s. 12 (1) (c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act), which mandates 25 percent reservation for children of weaker and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood of its 150 schools countrywide. According to an army […]
Two students of the Global Public School, Cochin have been selected to represent India in the Biathle World Championships, Dubai 2012 scheduled for November 1-4. Chiranthan Chinchalkar (11) and Nikhil Martin (15), coached by LeapStart swimming specialist, Nihar Kulkarni, will compete in the Biathle event in separate age categories.
The boys will participate in a three-legged […]
How do people get what they want? Well, West Bengal’s chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee clearly believes it’s by opposing what she doesn’t want. “I am opposed to FDI, I am opposed to fuel price increases, I am opposed to the Tata Nano factory, I am opposed to decisions my own minister […]
In retrospect, the decision taken by free India’s leaders to continue to use English as the national medium of professional communication after independence was wise. It not only enabled communication between the 28 linguistically demarcated states of the Indian Union, but over the past six decades has also been universally accepted as the main language […]
By all yardsticks, Bollywood icon Aamir Khan’s weekly 90-minute social reform television programme Satyamev Jayate (SMJ, ‘Let truth prevail’) aired on national and cable television for 13 weeks between May and July 2012, has been a phenomenal success. It generated an unprecedented volume of commentary in the print and social media. By the end of […]
If India is to regain its 2004-05 growth rate of 9 percent, it not only has to usher in a second round of economic reforms but more importantly, it has to ensure the development of a skilled workforce to support reform initiatives. Today the demand for employable youth is over 10 million-plus against supply of […]
The accolades have been torrential for Ahmedabad boy Rush Kalaria (19), a member of the victorious team which won the International Cricket Council-sponsored Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2012. In the 16-day-long international biannual tournament held in Australia between August 11-26, which attracted teams from 16 countries, the India Under-19 XI beat Australia by six wickets […]
With formal study and acquiring of degrees in dance now commonplace, trained classical dancers can become professional performers, teachers and choreographers.
From royal courts, kothas and temples, Indian classical dance has acquired social respectability moving into the halls of higher education institutions, and is being considered by a growing number of youth as a dignified and […]
I want to pursue a career in geology. What optional subjects should I choose in my B.Sc degree programme?
Suresh Karmarkar, Pune
Your combination of subjects in B.Sc should be geology, chemistry and physics, or geology, life sciences and chemistry. The former combination would be ideal if you plan to press on for an M.Sc in geology. […]
When Nelson Mandela, freedom fighter extraordinaire, humanist and free South Africa’s first president described education as “the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”, he wasn’t exaggerating. There’s universal unanimity that education is the panacea for all socio-economic problems. It is synonymous with progress, civilisation, quality of life and potential. It’s the […]
Katherine Rose and Eliza Hilton are founder directors of the Delhi-based Flow India Pvt. Ltd (estb.2010), an education company that runs unique experiential learning programmes — Kids Museum Club, I Love Indian Art and Inspiring Delhi, and its School Museum Programme launched earlier this year specifically for K-12 students — to connect science and the humanities with the […]
Pradip Chopra is chairman and managing director of the Kolkata-based PS Group of companies (founded in 1980 by him and Surendra Dugar), and chairman of the Institute of Leadership Entrepreneurship & Development (iLEAD). PS Group is a major player in eastern India’s real estate sector having completed more than 120 projects in the past quarter-century. […]
Dr Sridhar G is the managing director of Bangalore-based Ace Creative Learning Pvt. Ltd. (ACL, estb. 2008), a company offering test preparatory — including online and pre-university — services to 7,500 class VII-XII students across the city. During the past four years, ACL has established learning centres in Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur, apart from Mysore, Tumkur, […]
Alumni of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Venkatesh Varadachari and A Thillai Rajan are the co-founders of Money Wizards, a recently promoted (2011) financial literacy company that provides money management and finance education to school children, working adults, senior citizens, housewives and corporate employees. The main objective of the company is to simplify and demystify financial concepts […]
Aubrey and Lorraine Aloysius are the promoters of Lorraine Music Academy (LMA, estb. 2005) and the Lamp Trust (estb. 2010), Gurgaon, established to promote the learning of western, Indian, vocal, choral and instrumental (piano, keyboard, guitar, violin, drums, sitar, tabla and harmonium) music.
Newspeg. In collaboration with the Gurgaon-based iCongo (Indian Confederation of NGOs, estb. 2004), the Lamp […]
The stone is worn and chipped, but you can still make out the motto inscribed above the 111-year-old McKean Gate that leads to Harvard Yard: “Veritas”, it says. Truth. It’s ironic, then, that in August the US’ oldest and most prestigious university was embarrassed by allegations of a cheating scandal involving a reported 125 students.
Talking […]
Not so long ago business management students flocked to Europe. Compared with their American counterparts, European schools were cheaper and their student bodies more diverse, both attractive features — and the salaries of European MBA graduates were often higher. Some of these attractions remain undimmed. But they are no longer enough to bring in the […]
Asian universities, especially in the republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and China, performed particularly well in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012, published on October 3, rising by an average of almost 12 places. The US continues to dominate the rankings. Its universities claimed 76 places in the top 200.
In the UK, although […]
It may seem odd that Timbuktu, the malian city on the south-west fringe of the Sahara desert, is twinned with Hay-on-Wye, a placid little town on the Welsh side of the border with England. The reason for this partnership is books. Hay is famous for its bookshops and an annual literary festival. Timbuktu has a […]
Universities in Brazil have long been for the privileged few. Only 11 percent of the working-age population has a degree — and such scarcity has brought rich rewards. Graduates earn on average, 2.5 times as much as those without degrees, and five times as much as the majority who don’t finish secondary school. Until recently, […]
Rumours swirled when France’s best-known university leader was found dead in a New York hotel room in April. Had Richard Descoings, director of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (known as Sciences Po), been alone when he died? commentators asked. Did the gay hook-up websites that the married 53-year-old had allegedly been trawling on his […]
Twenty or thirty years ago, watching children play a basketball or baseball game was an uncomplicated and pleasurable pastime. Parents would bring children to the court or diamond, hang around the field and chitchat with other parents. When the game ended, the players would hop into the family car and head for the nearest ice […]
From the Ruins of Empire by Pankaj Mishra; Penguin; Price: Rs.699; 356 pp
This is truly an extraordinary book of scholarship and history. It prompts reflections on several unanswered questions which have haunted the minds of all right thinking people of India, indeed Asia. Foremost among them is how and why did the British and other imperial […]
Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan International Group of Institutions
Where would you place education on your list of national priorities?
Education is the backbone of any society. So education should be given top priority together with healthcare and food security.
How best to upgrade government schools?
There’s no easy answer to this question. One of […]
According to the Delhi-based IT industry lobby Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies), the garbage (NB: that’s not a typographical error) city of Bangalore (pop. 8 million) aka the Silicon Valley of India hosts more than 170 IT and related companies with an estimated 500,000 employees on their muster rolls. Official encouragement given […]
10 oldest cities in the world Every city in the world has a story to unfold. The ancient cities have all the more tales engulfed with ... 
Image consultants: Societal demand for image consultants With Indian businessmen and society in general having acquired notorious reputation for bad manners and boorishness, its in the national ... 
Remarkable plays of veteran playwright Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (May 19, 1938 – June 10, 2019) One of the best-known faces of Kannada theatre and cinema and a ... 
BCI releases examination dates for All India Bar Exams The Bar Council of India, the apex lawyers’ body and regulator of law education in the country, on Monday said ... 
