EducationWorld November 17

That the public schooling system is tragically broken hardly needs proof — the massive abandonment of government schools (despite their providing free tuition, books, uniform and mid-day meals) and migration to fee-charging schools, even by children of poorest households, is proof enough. The Union HRD ministry’s District Information System on Education (DISE) data show that in the four-year period from 2011-2015, aggregate enrollment in government schools countrywide declined by 11 million and increased in private schools by 16 million. What exactly is wrong with government schools? After all, they have trained and well-paid teachers, playgrounds, blackboards, drinking water, toilets, teaching-learning material grants, school development grants, a favourable average teacher-pupil ratio — 40 percent of all government elementary schools (420,000 out of the total 1.04 million schools in the country) have fewer than 50 students and an average of 32 students, which translates into four-six children per class. Alas, fulfilling the infrastructure, trained-teachers and pupil-teacher-ratio norms prescribed by the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 isn’t sufficient (or perhaps even necessary) qualification to be branded a quality school. Whats needed is teachers who attend school, maintain a timetable, go into classes to teach, set homework, assess pupils, provide regular feedback, monitor extra-curricular activities and ensure good learning outcomes. But all this requires effort, and effort is lacking in public schools, as seen from the Union HRD ministry and World Bank surveys of teacher absenteeism and teachers time-on-task. This data indicates high teacher absenteeism of almost 25 percent, and low time expended on teaching tasks. As the PROBE (1998) report found years ago, even when government school teachers are in school, they are engaged in a variety of pastimes such as sipping tea, snacking, reading comics, knitting or just snoozing. Yet, instead of focusing on effort-deficit, the favoured solution to improve public education has been to allocate greater funding, pay higher salaries, appoint more teachers and give more amenities, all soft-option solutions that permit government to dispense largesse to this influential vote bank. There are scores of lurid examples of this kind of cynical, self-serving, populist and politically expedient policy formulation (e.g. the regularisation of 176,000 unqualified, non-TET-passed para teachers in Uttar Pradesh, a politically motivated decision prior to general election 2014, which caused the salaries of these teachers to increase nine-fold in one go, and which the Supreme Court rescinded in August 2017, sparking riots and some suicides). Article 171 (3 c) of the Constitution of India gives teachers guaranteed membership of upper houses of state legislatures. As a result, a high proportion of the legislative councils (e.g. upto 24 percent in UP) are constituted by teachers. Moreover, teachers of private but government-aided schools freely contest Lower House elections, with many becoming MLAs. They are not deemed to hold an ‘office of profit despite being government paid employees. This special constitutional privilege granted to teachers in India, viz, their guaranteed representation, requires carving out separate teacher constituencies for electing members to the Upper House and, as…

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Vamsi Krishna (34) is CEO and co-founder of the Bangalore-based Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd (VIPL, estb. 2014), an edtech company which offers class VI-XII CISCE/CBSE students after-school supplementary learning solutions, including test preparation for admission into top-ranked engineering colleges.  On its patented software app which can be downloaded on any Android device, Vedantu tutors deliver course content mapped to CISCE/CBSE school curriculums using its customised in-house WAVE — whiteboard, audio and video environment — technology that enables live two-way interaction on very low bandwidths. Currently, the company has 460 maths, physics, chemistry and biology tutors on its rolls to instruct its 11,000-plus students. Newspeg. In early April, VIPL introduced an innovative teacher assessment tool to evaluate the degree of teacher-pupil engagement during live teaching-learning sessions on parameters such as subject knowledge, voice modulation, quick response of queries, body language etc. “E score feedback gives our teachers data for continuous improvement,” says Krishna. History. An alumnus of IIT-Mumbai, Krishna was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug during his early college years and together with three childhood friends Saurabh Saxena, Pulkit Jain and Anand Kishore (all IIT graduates), co-promoted the Lakshya Forum for Competitions Pvt. Ltd — a brick and mortar test prep centre — in Barnala, in the Sangrur district of Punjab by investing Rs.5 lakh raised from friends and family. Having started from a small town, Krishna is well aware that access is a huge challenge to delivering high-quality education in India. After six years of managing and gradually upscaling Lakshya, Krishna and his friends sold it to MT Educare (aka Mahesh Tutorials) and in 2014, Vedantu (Sanskrit for knowledge network) was promoted.  Tuition fees: Rs.80-900 hourly per teacher deployed. Direct talk. “Vedantu is driven by a mission to find scalable solutions to the enormous education deficit in India, and the excitement of building innovative technology solutions. We believe the one-size-fits-for-all classroom model doesn’t work. Therefore, our objective is to create a vast resource pool of well-trained teachers to deliver high-quality education to student communities countrywide,” says Krishna. Future plans. Krishna’s ambition is to spread the network of Vedantu tutors nationally. “This year we intend to saturate tier I and II cities and subsequently tier-III cities and rural India over the next five years. We are also currently working on tutoring students in more grades and subjects, beyond what we serve today,” he enthuses.  Odeal D’Souza (Bangalore)

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Despite rising tuition and residential accommodation fees in foreign countries — especially the US, UK, Canada and Europe — the annual outflow of students from India who venture abroad for quality higher education shows no sign of decreasing.  However, it’s a mistake to believe that colleges/universities abroad are accessible by all who can afford the tuition and other fees payable. Ill-equipped and under-prepared students tend to hold other students back and depress teaching-learning standards that foreign universities pride themselves on. Therefore, high tuition fees apart, they also rigorously test admission applicants. And one of the critical requirements of all undergrad colleges and universities is the admission essay which all applicants are required to write. Indeed, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that the essay is given greater weightage by admission officers than SAT/ACT scores and school-leaving records.  Therefore when students start working on their admission essays, one of the great challenges they face is to answer the question: how do I make my essay different and appreciated by over-worked admission officers?  Although deceptively simple, students tend to struggle with this conundrum. Partly because it is so open-ended, and partly because students from India — who are inclined to regard university education as an extension of school — have no idea of what higher ed institutions abroad are like. So when they choose the subject of their essays, they often write superficially about mascots, professors and clubs. They struggle to make their essays distinct, original and specific, and really aren’t sure how to convince the college that they really want to go there. This makes what should be a fairly simple essay far more difficult, and they end up frustrated and overwhelmed. This prompts some of them to plagiarise or cut and paste content from the Internet. This is absolutely inadvisable. There’s a good chance of your being discovered and blacklisted from ever applying again. So here are my top three suggestions for writing original and persuasive admission essays for higher education institutions abroad: Respect the college you would like to be admitted into as you would like to be respected by it. Too often, students prepare one admission essay and send it to several colleges/universities, changing only the name and address. Recently, I saw a student’s draft of an essay, which was for several undergrad colleges in the US. This is a terrible way to approach this task. You want the college to treat you like an individual, to learn about you and your hopes and interests. You wouldn’t want to be treated like an interchangeable unit, but as the unique person that you are. You should treat the college in exactly the same way. Therefore, before you write your admission essay, look at what makes the college/university of your choice different. So research as to what makes it distinctive. It’s not the clubs, or classes, because most of them will be similar in these aspects. What is it about each college/university that sets it apart? What aspects of its history and…

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Any sentence containing the phrases “Donald Trump” and “campus sexual assault” could reasonably be expected to conclude with the word “outrage”. Yet when President Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, announced her intention to “revoke or rescind” directives to universities on handling sexual assault issued by the Obama administration, the move was quietly welcomed by a large number of colleges. The Obama administration’s determination to discourage campus sexual assault — suffered by as many as a fifth of women attending college — was well-intentioned but poorly thought out. In 2011 the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter — named after its misleadingly congenial salutation — which issued a sweeping reinterpretation of Title IX, a federal law prohibiting gender discrimination. The letter urged universities to investigate sexual assaults and conduct hearings assessed on a lower standard of proof, requiring just a “preponderance of the evidence”, or 51 percent certainty of guilt. Universities were discouraged from using a tougher “clear and convincing” standard because this was judged to be “not equitable”. Because the OCR letter was sent without time for notice and comment — steps that DeVos is rightly taking in revising the policies now — the letter lacked the force of law. Still, colleges were cowed into compliance after the OCR threatened to cut off federal funding to offending institutions. Opposition to the Obama-era policies isn’t just a cause for dubious men’s rights activists or alt-right agitators. The most prominent critics have been the faculty of Harvard Law School, who publicly broke away from Harvard University’s new sexual-assault procedures (which they said lacked “the most basic elements of fairness and due process”) and established their own. They pointed to the improper role of Title IX compliance officers, a newly sprouted type of academic bureaucrat, who often act as investigator, judge, jury and appeals board all at once. Some officers advise the accusers, making them far from neutral. In some colleges, the accused aren’t given complaints, and aren’t allowed to address the evidence gathered against them. Other colleges skip hearings altogether, issuing summary judgements after an investigation. Stories of malpractice at these courts abound. The University of Southern California launched an investigation and eventually expelled one student after he was accused of abusing his girlfriend, despite her vehement denials. A federal judge excoriated Brandeis University for its handling of an investigation filed after two male students, called John and JC in court proceedings, broke up after a two-year relationship. JC contended in a complaint to university officials that during their relationship, John would wake him up by kissing him, even when JC wanted to sleep. The university special examiner concluded that the events constituted “sexual violence”, and a note was made in John’s permanent record. The possibility of racial bias also haunts the proceedings. Observers have noted that black men make up a disproportionate share of the accused. Those who want to keep the Obama-era guidelines in place paint the issue as a zero-sum contest between the victims…

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Germany remains way ahead of other developed nations in terms of the share of new students who choose to study STEM (science, engineering, technology and maths) subjects, the latest data show. According to the Education at a Glance report published by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), 40 percent of new higher education entrants in the country chose a STEM field in 2015, almost seven percentage points higher than Estonia, the next highest OECD country for which data were available. However, the detailed figures, which for the first time have been broken down by broad STEM fields in the OECD report, show Germany leading only in subjects related to engineering, manufacturing and construction. In natural sciences, maths and statistics, the UK sees the highest share of new higher education entrants studying in such fields, while for information and communication technology (ICT), Estonia and Finland top the list.  Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s director for education and skills, says that one of the interesting questions that has emerged from the data is whether attempts by governments to try to boost industry and manufacturing — as in the UK — actually affects the choices young people make. “On one hand, you have the UK talking about strengthening manufacturing and industry and that is not reflected in the choices that young people make. It is still very much geared towards academic disciplines. How do you help students make meaningful choices: do you look at the present, which is easy, or do you somehow incentivise change?” questions Schleicher. The OECD data also show a huge gender gulf in higher education participation in STEM subjects. On average across the OECD, a mere 30 percent of new entrants who studied STEM subjects in 2015 were women.   (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times Higher Education)

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India’s universities aren’t the only ones experiencing stress and turbulence. Scholars and students worldwide face a “continuing global crisis of attacks” driven by an “anti-democratic fear of universities” as bastions of free thought, according to an international network that promotes academic freedom. Figures released by Scholars at Risk reveal that global higher education was subject to 257 reported attacks in 35 countries between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2017 including 55 cases involving killings, violence and disappearances. A further 83 incidents led to academics or students being imprisoned, while 45 led to prosecution, according to data published in the organisation’s 2017 Free to Think report.  Comments Robert Quinn, executive director of Scholars at Risk: “Over the past year, we have witnessed a continuing global crisis of attacks on higher education communities as documented in our previous reports. What has become increasingly clear this year is an anti-democratic fear of universities as spaces in which everyone is free to think, question and share ideas.” According to Quinn, the report “highlights the toll of these attacks on individual lives and serves as a clarion call to meaningful action for states and civil society to ensure the security, well-being and sustainable future of the university space”. The report also counts 32 cases leading to academics losing their positions and a further 21 that have involved travel restrictions. It highlights the academic purge in Turkey, which in the past year has resulted in 7,023 academics and administrators being targeted for dismissal from their positions, 294 students being expelled, and at least 990 scholars, staff and students being detained or arrested. Mass arrests of student protesters in Venezuela, with reports of widespread custodial abuse and detention without charge, are also major concerns. Overall there were 63 incidents involving organised student expression, including protests, marches and press conferences, 45 involved attacks on students, as occurred during a Fees Must Fall meeting at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa last autumn, and 18 involved violent or destructive acts committed by the students themselves, such as the protest against Milo Yiannopoulos speech at the University of California, Berkeley. Meanwhile, legislative amendments threatening the existence of Hungary’s Central European University and the revocation of the European University at St. Petersburg’s licence are further concerns representing “serious threats to academic freedom and institutional autonomy”, according to the report.   (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times Higher Education)

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Australia’s education minister has promised to be “pragmatic” in his bid to get controversial funding reforms over the line, but maintains that the package of spending cuts and tuition fee increases will not damage universities’ teaching and research. Higher education institutions remain strongly opposed to the Liberal-led administration’s plans to cut sector funding by 2.5 percent, slicing A$2.8 billion (Rs.14,274 crore) off campus budgets over four years, and to increase tuition fees by 7.5 percent. Their resistance has won them sympathisers in Australia’s Senate, where the government is struggling to win over the crossbenchers whose support is vital if the Bill is to pass. But Simon Birmingham, the education minister, told Times Higher Education that he remains “hopeful” the legislation will get through. “Constructive and cordial” discussions are continuing, the minister said.  Universities are pushing for the government to rethink its proposal to allocate 7.5 percent of sector funding on a performance-contingent basis, most likely judged on the sort of student outcomes used in the UK’s teaching excellence framework. Institutions are also fearful that if the government cannot win support for its higher education Bill, it will look to impose spending controls that don’t require parliamentary approval. On this point, Birmingham says the government is “not really thinking about alternative plans”. Universities warn the cuts will force them to cut courses and research programmes and will imperil their global standing. There’s also concern about the potentially negative impact of the language used by Birmingham to describe higher education institutions, in particular his claim that higher education providers had been receiving “rivers of gold” from the taxpayer in recent years. Birmingham told THE that he held Australia’s universities in “extraordinarily high regard”. “That doesn’t absolve universities, which are majority-funded and supported by taxpaying Australians, from being held to account for being as efficient as possible in terms of their use of public and student resources, and it doesn’t entitle people to a blank cheque of public funding,” he adds. Birmingham describes comments such as his “rivers of gold” remarks as “rhetorical flourishes”.   (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times Higher Education)

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Catalonia’s referendum has brought into sharp focus the potential benefits of independence for science in the region, but it has also highlighted the potential pitfalls that researchers could face if relations between the separatist region and Madrid sour further. Catalonia is one of Spain’s richest regions, providing 19 percent of Spain’s gross domestic product. It’s home to thriving industry, several top universities and research centres, and punches well above its weight in terms of the excellence of its research. For example, Times Higher Education analysis of Catalan universities’ performance in the World University Rankings (WUR) shows that the region is third behind only the Netherlands and Sweden in terms of average scores for the citation impact of institutions’ research, among countries with at least five entries in the table. On the same measure, the rest of Spain without Catalonia, meanwhile, ranks #25. In the most recent round of European Research Council grants for early career researchers, ten of the 22 awards for scientists based in Spain went to those at institutions in Catalonia, despite the region comprising just 16 percent of the country’s population. Advocates of independence argue that Catalonia’s government has already acted to free universities from some of the bureaucracy that hampers academic recruitment and promotion in the rest of Spain, and claim that independence would allow this process to be accelerated. Arcadi Navarro, secretary for universities and research in the Catalan government, says that independence would enable him to implement policy measures that Madrid has so far banned. “They would include the development of a fiscal policy encouraging private donations, whose treatment is now worse than in many other European countries,” says Prof. Navarro, director of the department of experimental and health sciences at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University. “Also, we would leverage on private investments to ensure that knowledge better reaches society.” These would be possible only if the Catalan government had control over tax legislation, and the power to regulate credit operations and the mechanisms for venture capital, adds Navarro. Many credit Andreu Mas-Colell, emeritus professor of economics at Pompeu Fabra, as the architect of the current research system in Catalonia. Prof. Mas-Colell, who served as Catalonia’s minister of economy and knowledge from 2010-2016, believes the Catalan government places higher priority on research than the Spanish government. “Anything that gives the Catalan government more fiscal resources is good for research in Catalonia,” says Prof. Mas-Colell. However, he cautions that funding would remain a key concern even after independence. “The research system has been quite efficient in transforming core support from the Catalan government into budgets that on average are three times larger. This is hard to improve,” he says.  There are shorter-term concerns, too. In the weeks leading up to October 1, the Spanish ministry of finance and civil service took measures to take control of the financial affairs of universities and research centres. “These measures are unjustified, unnecessary and they are endangering academic activities in Catalonia,” says Navarro, adding that they “damage the credibility” of…

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Days before the start of the new school year, Merve, a class VIII science teacher, is flipping through the pages of her old biology textbook. A picture of a giraffe appears, alongside a few lines about Charles Darwin. Teaching evolution in a predominantly Muslim country where six out of ten people refer to themselves as creationists, according to a 2010 study, has never been easy. And today, it’s no longer possible. A new curriculum has scrapped all references to Darwin and evolution.  Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has made clear on more than one occasion that he would like to bring up a “pious generation” of young Turks. He has made plenty of headway. The education ministry, says Feray Aytekin Aydogan, the head of a leftist teachers’ union, is working more closely than ever with Islamic NGOs and with the directorate of religious affairs. Attendance at so-called imam hatip schools, used to train Muslim preachers, has shot up from about 60,000 in 2002 to over 1.1 million, or about a tenth of all public-school students. The government recently reduced the minimum population requirement for areas where such schools are allowed to open from 50,000 to 5,000. An earlier reform lowered the age at which children can enter them from 14 to ten. The new curriculum has left Turkish liberals and secularists aghast. From this year onwards, children as young as six will be taught the story of last summer’s abortive coup — presumably without including the mass purges and arrests that followed it. Imam hatip students, meanwhile, will study the concept of jihad. (The education ministry says the term, which can also refer to one’s personal struggle against sin, has been misused.) A module on the life of Prophet Muhammad will teach the same pupils that Muslims should avoid marrying atheists, and that wives should obey their husbands. Schools are also becoming a target of Erdogan’s mosque-building spree. A new rule requires all new schools to be equipped with prayer rooms, segregated by sex. “The interference of religion into education has never been as visible and as deep,” says Batuhan Aydagul of the Education Reform Initiative, a think-tank in Istanbul. During its first decade in power, President Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) party indeed presided over vast improvements in the country’s education. As the economy boomed, millions of Turks lifted themselves out of poverty. Many more young Turks, especially girls, started going to school. Spending increased, and thousands of new schools opened. Yet progress has stalled since then. Student performance, as measured every three years by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), having improved until 2012, dipped in 2015. Turkish students scored second to last among all OECD countries that year. The previous curriculum placed a bigger emphasis on critical thinking. The new one has reverted to an emphasis on rote learning. Many now resort to private schools. Devrim Ertekin, a drug company employee, recently enrolled his six-year-old son in a private preschool in Istanbul, though the fees…

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New Zealand and Canada have been singled out as countries that best prepare students for the future, in a major study assessing the “effectiveness” of education systems. The Worldwide Educating for the Future Index, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Yidan Prize Foundation, evaluates education systems in 35 economies across 16 indicators, which cover the education policy environment, teaching environment and socio-economic environment. The report, which covers students between the 15-24 years age group, concentrates on “inputs” such as government expenditure on post-secondary education, the quality of teacher education, cultural diversity and tolerance, as opposed to “outputs” such as test scores, to judge how students are being readied to master “interpersonal, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, and navigate an increasingly digital and automated world”. When all three environments are considered, small and rich countries generally come out top; the five highest ranked are New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Switzerland and Singapore. The UK is sixth overall, while the US is 12th. New Zealand also comes top in the teaching environment category, which accounts for 50 percent of the overall score. “The reasons behind this success are two fold. Firstly, New Zealand views educating for future skills as a broadly-agreed strategic imperative: it is a small and remote country, with the vigilance that comes with knowing that it has little choice but to become globally competitive,” says the study. “Secondly, it has a systematic government-led approach to making its education system fit for purpose, across technology, teaching, curriculum and collaboration with industry.” Singapore comes top when countries are assessed only on their education policy environment, while Finland takes first place for socio-economic environment. But more than half of the economies in the index are failing to invest in or effectively assess skills needed for the future, says the study.    (Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times Higher Education)

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Of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held around the world, Wimbledon is the most prestigious. The other three, the Australian, French and US Open, pale in comparison. Wimbledon isn’t only the oldest of them all, it combines tradition and glamour – Rahul Singh This summer was green and pleasant because despite the odds being against it, I was able to fulfill my annual ritual of attending the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship. I usually make it a point to spend at least a few days there every year, preferably sitting on a hallowed centre court seat. Of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held around the world, Wimbledon is the most prestigious. The other three, the Australian, French and US Open, pale in comparison. Wimbledon isn’t only the oldest of them all, it combines tradition and glamour, making it perhaps the most watched individual sporting event worldwide, barring the Olympics. Actually, the fortnight-long epic tournament is staged at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Wimbledon is merely its location, in south London. Spread over 42 acres, with a total of 31 courts, 18 of them grass, it is the only Grand Slam played on grass, the others being on red clay (Roland Garros, Paris) or rubberised hard courts. However Czech-born Ivan Lendl, one of the greatest players never to win Wimbledon (along with Australian Ken Rosewall), grumpily dismissed it as a surface fit only for cows. Be that as it may, Wimbledon still attracts all the worlds top players. The impressive prize money — equivalent of Rs.19 crore each for the men’s and women’s singles winners with even a first round loser getting Rs.30 lakh — is undoubtedly a strong incentive. But its not just the prize money that makes Wimbledon so special. It has an almost mystical quality that combines Royalty (an obligatory courtesy by competitors entering the court towards the Royal Box graced by the Queen or a close relative) with typical British quirkiness — the insistence on all players wearing pristine white, for instance. This year the organisers made women’s finalist Venus Williams change her pink bra, much to her amusement. Or the serving of strawberries and cream during the tournament, the fruit plucked fresh at 4 a.m every day with 140,000 servings sold during the fortnight, together with 35,000 bottles of champagne. I have been to Wimbledon several times, braving serpentine queues and frequent downpours. The first two occasions were when our own national champ Ramanathan Krishnan reached the semi-finals. Admittedly, this was before the ‘Open era, and only amateurs were allowed to play at Wimbledon. Tennis professionals, who understandably wanted to earn some money from their talent were barred. Nevertheless, no Indian had ever reached the semi-finals before, so it was a proud moment for us. In those days, the cheapest way to watch a centre court match was to buy a ‘standing room only ticket (later done away with, for security reasons). There I was straining my neck, cheering my hero. But…

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How Pakistan got divided, Rao Farman Ali Khan, OXFORD university press; Rs.1,150, Pages 298 Rao Farman Ali Khan’s book under review is of interest because, as the Pakistani newspaper Dawn noted when he died in January 2004, he had been a “key player in the East Pakistan crisis”. Commissioned in the Artillery regiment in 1942, Rao Farman Ali Khan served many years in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). As military adviser to the governor of East Pakistan in 1971, he had complete knowledge of the events leading to the fall of Dhaka. That comes through in the 17 chapters of this narration. He was later accused of many misdemeanours, including preparing a list of Bengali intellectuals and others for elimination. He denied the charges saying his wasn’t a prominent role; he did nothing but his assigned duty. Yet, it is a measure of contemporary popular perception that he was the one addressed by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw to surrender to the Indian army in December 1971. Post-liberation, he was taken a PoW and remained in India till repatriation in 1974.  The discrimination and alienation faced by the Bengalis in East Pakistan; suppression of democratic forces and representative institutions to ensure dominance of the Western wing and the Army; the 1970 elections and political shenanigans thereafter; the military crackdown from March 1971 onwards; and, finally, the War of Liberation have been documented well enough by Bangladeshi, Pakistani and third country sources. The author’s own account contains, at different points, severe indictments of the decision makers — mainly the generals sitting in distant Islamabad. Thus, Rao Farman Ali Khan’s exoneration of the Pakistan Army (despite an army/martial law regime throughout this period), blaming the defeat on the Pakistani “national political leadership’s ineptitude, ego and pursuit of personal gains”, lack of patriotism among the Bengalis, and Indian conspiracy to dismember Pakistan, fails to ring true.  It is sad that four-and-a-half decades later, this thesis is sought to be given legitimacy through retelling. There was, clearly, no effort during his lifetime to revisit the events taking advantage of the authoritative corrective knowledge that became available. It is a pity the present edition has also evaded this task. Indeed, the foreword says the book is dedicated to the shaheeds of 1971 but restricts the term to those “defending united Pakistan” and “innocents who fell prey to the vengeance of the uprising forces”. In effect, the Bengalis who died or were otherwise casualties of the military crackdown and the Liberation War deserve no tears, no prayer!  Defeat is an orphan: How Pakistan lost the great South Asian war, Myra Macdonald, Random House; Rs.599, Pages 313 Myra Macdonald presents a reality check. With sharply dissimilar political systems, Pakistan has “calcified into a militarized state dependent on nuclear weapons and Islamic proxies,” whereas India has become the “world’s biggest democracy”, “fastest growing economy”. The big change in the last two decades in South Asia has been that “India had emerged as a rising power while Pakistan floundered”.  Having observed the region over the past two decades, partly…

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The Allahabad high court’s belated (as usual) ‘not guilty’ verdict in the Aarushi murder case of 2008 seems to have been taken as a personal setback by popular television news anchor Arnab Goswami. For those who have been living under a rock, 14-year-old Aarushi was murdered in her Noida home nine years ago, and her parents Dr. Rajesh Talwar and his wife Nupur were convicted of the heinous crime when a sessions court judge bought the CBI’s argument that they had done it in a fit of rage after finding her in a sexually compromising position with their cook Hemraj.  Now in new vestments as anchor of the recently launched Republic channel (in which he reportedly owns a majority equity share), Goswami is back to beating the same drum. There were only four people in the Talwars’ home the night of the murder because there was no sign of forced entry. Moreover, the murdered girl’s bed was neat and tidy and the crime scene was carefully cleaned. Who else but the parents would have done that? asked Goswami in his prime time news telecast on the night of the Talwars’ acquittal. But as suggested in director Meghna Gulzar’s reconstruction of this episode in her film Talvar (2015), there was no sign of a break-in at the Talwars’ residence because Hemraj had let in some friends working as servants in the neighbourhood for a round of drinks after which they made a rape attempt on Aarushi. When Hemraj objected, he was killed by them and when Aarushi resisted she was also killed. The crime scene was cleaned to mislead the parents into thinking she was asleep and to allow the neighbours’ servants to make a getaway. At the time when this theory was advanced on Goswami’s Times Now newscast by some police officers, they were shouted down for going after the usual suspects, i.e the poor, by Goswami (annual remuneration: Rs.12 crore at the time). Subsequently, the utterly inept Noida police dropped this line of investigation. Now notwithstanding the well-considered judgement of the Allahabad high court, Goswami is back to singing the same tune. The poor, my dear sir, are not always blameless. 

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Shabdasharan Tadvi, Gujarat’s minister for tribal welfare, formally inaugurated the Birsa Munda Tribal University in the tribal-dominated town of Rajpipla in the Narmada district of Vadodara. Addressing the media on October 14, the minister said the university will function from the premises of Adarsh Nivasi Shala for a temporary period, and later shift to its own 25-acre campus at Jitnagar village on the outskirts of Rajpipla. The minister who represents Rajpipla constituency in the legislative assembly, said the new university will offer undergrad, postgrad, diploma and certificate study programmes covering arts, commerce, science, traditional art and herbal medicine among other disciplines.   Punjab Early childhood education breakthrough Pre-primary classes will commence in all government schools statewide from November 14 (Children’s Day), Punjab’s education minister Aruna Chaudhary informed media in Chandigarh on October 26. The admissions process began in the third week of October. This initiative is expected to strengthen the educational system from bottom-up besides encouraging personality development of youngest students to equip them for the challenges of K-12 education, she said. According to the state government’s Parho Punjab, Parhao Punjab (‘learn Punjab, teach Punjab’) project, children in the three-six age group will be admitted into pre-primary classes, said the minister.   Odisha Fake teachers detection drive A special cell of the state’s school and mass education ministry terminated the contracts of four shiksha sahayaks (assistant teachers) on charges of furnishing fake education qualification certificates to become eligible for the posts, district education officer Sangram Sahoo informed the media in Kendrapara on October 24. The drive to detect fake teachers was undertaken following suspicions raised in specific cases, Sahoo said, adding that the special cell had been constituted to cross-check certificates of contractual teachers appointed during the past four-five years.   Arunachal Pradesh Connectivity focus advice On a recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh, Niti Aayog’s vice chairman Rajiv Kumar cited connectivity issues as the critical constraint for economic development in the state and urged officials to draw up a New Arunachal Mission 2022 plan, said a government communique released in Itanagar on October 23. After a meeting with chief minister Pema Khandu, the council of ministers and top state government officials headed by the chief secretary, Kumar said: “I believe robust connectivity will solve all issues of the state. Therefore, the state government with all its machinery has to singularly focus on this issue together with Niti Aayog for a road forward.” He directed the state government to constitute a task force and evolve a clear-cut vision document and a time-bound action plan.     Maharashtra Salary-performance link regulation The state’s education ministry has introduced a new regulation which links teachers’ salaries with schools’ academic performance. A government resolution (GR) issued in Mumbai on October 25, said teachers of government and government-aided schools will qualify for higher salaries only if their schools secure ‘A’ grade under the Shaala Siddhi quality assessment and improvement programme of the state government. For high school teachers, the eligibility is class IX-X exam averages above…

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An open, continuous and uninterrupted tragedy is unfolding within Indian Railways (IR) with none so poor to find solutions to end the daily carnage on the metal rails of this public sector monopoly’s runaway killer trains. Twenty-nine train accidents were reported in the first six months of this calendar year which killed 57 people and injured 58. The major causes of accidents are derailments and unmanned level crossings indicating under-investment in track and infrastructure maintenance. This is hardly surprising given that 96.6 percent of the massive annual revenue of IR (Rs.168,300 crore) is spent by way of operational expenses (salaries and maintenance of essential infrastructure) and mainly on the remuneration of its 1.33 million employees, leaving precious little for capital investment. In effect, IR — the country’s #1 employer — is a state within the State with its own schools, hospitals, pension schemes, whose prime concern is welfare of its 1.33 million employees. Everything else — including passenger comfort and safety — is secondary. With operational expenses draining its finances, IR’s problems are further compounded by gross under-investment by the Central government in developing modern infrastructure to match rising public demand. On the one hand, there’s a political consensus that passenger fares — currently the lowest worldwide — cannot rise. This is compensated by routinely raising freight fares to the extent that haulage of freight by road of all except the heaviest, has become cheaper than by rail for almost all categories of goods. A recent report of the Parliament standing committee on IR noted that against 4,500 km of track length required to be renewed annually, barely 2,700 km is. Moreover, as any well-travelled individual will testify, IR’s rolling stock (compartments, engines, toilets, in-train services) is hopelessly obsolete by global standards. Even as the problems of IR are well-known, and the basic cause is the incapability of the resource-strapped Centre to provide sufficient budgetary support for its growth, development and modernisation, a curious analysis-paralysis seems to have disabled the countrys politicians, intelligentsia and the middle class from preventing the slide of this valuable legacy of the British Raj into anarchy. The solution advanced by your editor for over four decades is to transform IR into an essentially track maintenance corporation which auctions its tracks to private corporates and travel companies to run trains in various time slots between destinations of their choice. This will hugely augment the revenue of the corporation which can be invested in safety, modernisation and infrastructure development. Coterminously, IR can continue its services in other time slots. Similar reforms have been introduced in civil aviation and telecom with remarkable success. But strategic reform of IR on these lines is not even debated by the country’s feeble intelligentsia and greedy middle class addicted to subsidies, which are in effect funded by the poor and most underprivileged of Indian society.

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In a quasi-literate country where political parties thrive on opportunism and cheap populism, offering the public free water, electricity, schooling, food etc, one can’t single out the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which in a totally unexpected counter-wave to the BJP shortly after the latter swept General Election 2014, won the Delhi state election with an overwhelming majority. But since it was first elected in 2010 and again in 2015, the AAP government of Delhi state has stuck to the tame path of populism.  Despite rising costs, it has reduced power charges, enacted legislation to freeze fees of private schools, and has substantially failed to deliver free medical care and medicines in primary health centres. And its latest confrontation is with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which has built and runs the country’s first metro (over and underground) rail network that transports over 2.76 million commuters every day.  The simple point of dispute is that DMRC, which hasn’t raised commuter fares since 2009, proposes to raise the minimum fare from the current Rs.5 for 2.5 km and the maximum fare of Rs.30 for distances beyond 44 km, to Rs.60. Inevitably, this is opposed by the middle class citizenry of Delhi NCR which has benefited enormously from the construction of the metro city rail network in record time.  Unfortunately instead of educating the populace about the prime importance of preserving and maintaining its metro rail network — one of the few world class infrastructure projects completed within the promised deadlines in post-independence India — the AAP government has joined the chorus for a continuous freeze of DMRC fares.  This raises the question as to whether the political class at all understands the function of pricing. The country’s rundown nationalised logistics infrastructure — Indian Railways, state road transport corporations, Air India etc — is standing testimony to the failure to raise prices, i.e, fares, in time. There seems to be no awareness that trains, buses, aircraft, rail tracks and roads need to be well maintained so that the quality of services, including passenger safety, doesn’t decline. In addition to maintaining rolling stock, roads and tracks, the function of price is also to discourage excessive usage.  A classic case of the consequences of populist pricing is provided by Mumbai’s overcrowded suburban rail network which is unable to adequately finance its maintenance, growth and safety. Season tickets are priced so low that the suburban rail network is unable to purchase modern rolling stock with automatically closing doors, as a result of which nine commuters die in accidents every day.  The job of the AAP government in Delhi is to draw a lesson from this and educate the local citizenry, who have been gifted a world-class metro network, not endorse their myopic demand for a permanent freeze on DMRC fares. 

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I am a regular attendee of the EducationWorld India School Rankings Awards ceremonies and I must say it gets better each year. It’s a great forum for school principals to meet and network. For us at the Jodhamal Public School, Jammu, it was a great feeling to be ranked the #1 school in Jammu & Kashmir for the third year in a row. These rankings and awards motivate us to continuously strive to improve our school to be ranked with the best in the country, and to serve the nation with dedication. Our school has also been awarded the Future 50 Schools Shaping Success award of Fortune recently. Thank you for hosting a great awards nite and bringing all educators on one platform to facilitate mutual learning. Trilok Singh Bisht Principal, Jodhamal Public School Jammu    Focus on VET Your cover story ‘AISECT: India’s pioneering skills university’ (EW October) was an eye-opener. Dr. Santosh Choubey needs to be congratulated and thanked for founding this remarkable enterprise to provide vocational skills and training to youth in neglected tier II and III towns and cities and the rural hinterland. I was also very impressed with how he has linked training and employability by enabling vocational education and training (VET) graduates such as Santosh NET to set up Internet/financial e-service centres in villages. For a country that hosts thousands of school drop-outs and millions of unemployed youth, there can’t be a better answer than vocational training. It’s high time our government wakes up to this fact and revamps our schools, colleges and universities to include VET. Across all education institutions, vocational training in one subject at least, should be made compulsory for all students. Surendranath Sharma Delhi   Great motivation Notre Dame Academy, Patna was conferred the best Girls Day School in Bihar award at your superbly organised EW India School Rankings Awards function held in Gurgaon (Pictorial Essay, EW October). I would like to thank the 12,000-plus respondents to your survey for recognising and acknowledging the dedication and commitment of the school management, staff, parents and our industrious students to make this world a better place. The rankings exercise was thorough and extensive with schools assessed on a wide range of parameters. Our #1 ranking is a great motivation for us to improve continuously. Sr. Jessy SND Principal, Notre Dame Academy Patna   Questionable authenticity The EducationWorld India School Rankings (EW September) is an appreciable endeavour undertaken by the EW team. However, we have questions about the authenticity of the 2017-18 rankings exercise as you have ranked Jabalpur’s Delhi Public School, Mandla Road lower than it deserves. According to your rankings, DPS, Mandla Road is #5 in Jabalpur and #191 in the country. Please enlighten us on the basis of what statistics this ranking has been published in a national magazine without gathering any authentic information from the school. This seems to be an attempt to malign the name of our school — an esteemed institution whose motto is ‘Service before self,’…

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Among the major recommendations of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2017-18 released on October 24 in Paris by Unesco, are a call upon governments to design accountability systems for schools and teachers that are supportive of children and avoid punitive mechanisms especially those based on narrow performance measures, allow for democratic participation, respect media freedom to scrutinise education, and establish independent institutions to hear complaints.   The 505-page annual GEM Report sub-titled Accountability in Education, Meeting our Commitments, second in the series that focuses on accountability, is “the mechanism for monitoring and reporting on SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) 4 on education in the other SDGs”. The SDGs were adopted by 193 member countries of the United Nations in 2015 as successors of the Millennium Development Goals ratified by UN member countries in the Millennium Declaration (2000) and whose timeline expired in 2015. The SDGs officially known as ‘Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ has set 17 global goals and 169 targets. Among them: improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change and protecting oceans and forests. Use of the word ‘accountability’ throughout the 2030 agenda’s framework for action, demonstrates the high importance that Unesco accords to follow up and review functions to catalyse and monitor progress. This also means that all countries should produce national education monitoring reports explaining their progress against their commitments — currently only about half do so and most of them not regularly (India is among the countries which don’t publish such a report).  “Accountability is about interpreting evidence, identifying problems and working out how to solve them. This must be the backbone to all our efforts to achieve equitable, high-quality education for all,” writes Irina Bokova, Unesco’s director-general in the foreword. Against the backdrop of calls for linking teachers’ pay to students’ academic performance in examinations in this country, the report stresses that blaming teachers for poor student test scores and absenteeism is unjust and unconstructive. “Using student test scores to sanction teachers and schools makes it more likely they will adjust their behaviour to protect themselves, which may mean leaving the weakest learners behind,” warns Manos Antoninis, director of GEM 2017. “Accountability must start with governments. If a government is too quick to apportion blame to others, it is deflecting attention away from its own responsibility for creating a strong, supportive education system,” he adds. Setting and enforcing regulations ranging from contract tendering to teacher qualifications are also crucial, says the report. Fewer than half of low and middle-income countries had standards for early childhood education and only a handful had mechanisms to monitor compliance. There are no regulations of class sizes in almost half the countries, and government regulations are often too slow to keep up with the fast growth of private schools and universities.  The establishment of an International Finance Facility for Education, initially proposed by the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, received a boost when a reference to it was included in…

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Maharashtra’s state education ministry has softened its stance on private agencies conducting extra-curricular competitive tests and talent search exams  for primary-secondary students. On January 7 (2017), the government had imposed a complete ban on schools from participating in such competitive tests/exams. However, on October 4, through a revised GR (government resolution) it issued new guidelines for agencies conducting talent search competitions/academic olympiads. Private agencies will now require clearance from the state’s education ministry to conduct these olympiads. The earlier ban on supplementary testing had come amidst fears of a nexus between private testing agencies and school managements forcing students to participate in olympiads, putting additional pressure on students. Parents were often made to pay huge sums for entry into olympiads. However, following requests from private schools for continuation of academic olympiads/competitive tests, the state education ministry decided to allow them subject to their organisers fulfilling certain pre-conditions.  “Conducting extra-curricular tests is a profit-making business attracting several fly-by-night operators. We had received complaints about children being encouraged to attend extra classes and buy books to study for these competitions besides following their regular school syllabus. The new regulations will ensure a check on this money making racket,” says Nand Kumar, principal secretary (education), Maharashtra. There are more than 23 supplementary tests/academic olympiads conducted by various agencies including state-level teachers’ associations which conduct the prabhutva and pravinya math exams, not-for-profit organisations such as Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) and Eduheal Foundation (EHF) and private education groups like SMO Education and KACE which assess students’ summative and formative knowledge or age appropriate IQ levels. Despite the government’s reservations about these extra-curricular tests, the response of educational institutions has been phenomenal. EHF’s olympiads test 600,000 students annually while SOF draws participation from 42,800 schools in the six-subject olympiad exams it conducts worldwide. Most of these agencies give away cash prizes to winners. For instance, SOF has budgeted Rs.15.2 crore for awards, scholarships, gifts and felicitations etc to olympiad winners in the academic year 2017-18. According to the new GR, managements which run more than 25 schools can conduct supplementary testing in their schools. Tests run by state-level teachers’ associations and non-governmental organisations will also be allowed if they are conducted on a no-profit no-loss basis. All testing agencies will be required to submit costs involved in designing the test and justify fees per student. The government will also release a list of supplementary tests approved by it. However, schools cannot make writing these tests/olympiads compulsory. Testing agencies are piqued with the GR’s decree on the content of the tests which needs to be aligned to existing syllabuses, or test knowledge about national heroes or promote personality development.  “The idea is to promote education beyond the curriculum and allow parents to analyse their child’s capability vis-a-vis his peers in class, city, state, country and even globally. At Science Olympiad Foundation, we have a team of highly qualified domain experts who work on designing test papers. Our detailed student performance report provides a competence matrix that is…

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An October 3 government circular asking private schools in the state to disclose salary payments made to their teachers, has sent the managements of Karnataka’s 19,593 unaided private K-12 schools into a tizzy. A decade after the state government made it mandatory for unaided private schools to pay their teachers a minimum monthly salary of Rs.13,600, the issue is back to haunt them.  Although a noble profession, teaching is not lucrative for private school teachers particularly in the state’s private budget schools (PBSs), many of them unrecognised by the state government — which have mushroomed as a market response to dysfunctional government schools and where teachers are paid as little as Rs.5,000-10,000 per month. On the other hand, despite their abysmal performance, which is driving children of even poorest households to PBSs, government school teachers’ remuneration as per the Fifth Pay Commission is Rs.13,600-26,700 for elementary school (I-VIII), and Rs.17,650-32,000 in secondary school. Though way back in 2006 a government order (GO) required private school teachers to be given pay parity with government schools, the GO was ignored by most private schools, especially the state’s 14,000 PBSs. Now with the exodus from government schools showing no signs of abating, the state’s neta-babu brotherhood has hit upon pay parity with government schools as a new stick to beat PBSs with.  “Equal work, equal pay is a democratic principle which satisfies the constitutional values of justice and equity. The morale of the teachers community as a whole has to be maintained to attract high quality college and university graduates into teaching. Therefore, the representative associations of private schools which are so active in filing court cases, should collectively prescribe a minimum wage for their teachers. To pay far below government school wages is exploitation, which is tarnishing the image of private schools that impose a heavy load on teachers while paying them rock-bottom wages. I’m not in favour of government prescribing private school teachers’ remuneration. I believe private schools should collectively prescribe minimum teachers’ pay in their institutions in their own long-term interest,” says Dr. A.S. Seetharamu, hitherto professor of education at the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. Maya Menon, founder-director of The Teacher Foundation, a not-for-profit engaged in teacher training and development, agrees. “The single most important factor that influences student achievement in schools is the quality of teachers. They need to be motivated and private schools need to invest in them as a school is only as good as its teachers. Paying them respectable wages will improve the societal standing of private schools and help them attract high quality talent,” she says.  However, private budget school managements don’t agree and are quick to express their resentment to the October 3 GO. “Admittedly we pay teachers less than they are paid in government schools because we can’t run up huge annual deficits. Our objective is to provide good quality education to children from the economically weakest sections of society. The Fifth Pay Commission minimum pay prescribed is Rs.13,600…

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The West Bengal Government’s much-hyped education hub, which was announced in February 2015 and promised at least 30 educational institutes concentrated in Rajarhat Town on the eastern fringe of Kolkata, has started taking shape. The hub has been allotted 150 acres in the township to establish higher education campuses. Equipped with a football ground, sports academy, swimming pool, a 3,500 sq.ft food court, law institute and four postgraduate courses offered by St. Xavier’s University, the Rajarhat Education Township was inaugurated on July 8 this year.  The latest initiative of the state government to develop this education township has been to issue a notice on September 27, announcing the upgradation of India’s oldest B-school, the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM estb. 1953) into a university which will set up its main campus in Rajarhat. The state government’s education ministry has already begun drafting a Bill, which has the full support of chief minister Mamata Banerjee as well as education minister Partha Chatterjee, an IISWBM alumnus. The institute, which has a long list of illustrious alumni including management guru Sumantra Ghoshal, founding dean of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, chairman and CEO of the UK-based Arcelor Mittal, Bhaskar Das, executive director of the Times of India, Sudhir Jalan, president of the All India Management Association and C.V. Chandrasekharan, managing director of Balmer Lawrie among others, plans to establish two new campuses at Rajarhat and Salt Lake. IISWBM’s Rajarhat campus will be spread over 3 acres while the Salt Lake campus will rise vertically over one acre. It’s been a year since work started and the foundation laid.  The private sector IISWBM, established by Calcutta University on April 25, 1953, will begin its new journey from the start of the academic year 2018-2019. It was the very first B-school in India and south-east Asia, and was constituted by a resolution passed by the senate of the University of Calcutta. This was the culmination of a joint initiative supported by the University of Calcutta, the government of West Bengal, the Central government together with captains of Indian industry. The suggestion to confer university status was made by the chief minister in early August at the inauguration of St. Xavier’s University in Rajarhat. According to an education ministry spokesperson, if and when IISWBM gathers the several private B-schools in West Bengal under its umbrella, it could become the country’s first business management university. At the moment, the main source of revenue for the institute is tuition fees of its 220 students. It is living a hand-to-mouth existence. However, government grants and corporate research funding will be more forthcoming once it is upgraded into a university. “Collaborations with foreign universities and research projects are being stalled since IISWBM is only a private autonomous body. We do get paltry sums from the state government but that’s not sufficient for expansion,” says Dr. Soma Bandopadhyay, an alumna of Calcutta University who signed up with IISWBM in 2016 and teaches financial…

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“The debate between public and private schools has raged for long. This is a false hiatus. Societies with rising aspirations need both equity and excellence. Seeking inclusiveness while ensuring acceptable outcomes is invariably challenging. Public policies must be designed to harmonise a possible asymmetry.” NK Singh, former member of Parliament, on how the RTE Act and bias against private schools have been disastrous for learning outcomes (Times of India, October 5)  “Both the BJP and Congress are expressions of the people of India… I will never say that I want to finish the BJP… they can say that about the Congress, but I cannot say that about them. I’ll fight the BJP, but never not respect its existence.” Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice-president, at a rally in poll-bound Gujarat (October 9) “Why do people have to wear their patriotism on their sleeve? People go to a movie theatre for undiluted entertainment. Society needs that entertainment. When a court mandates, the question arises then why restrict it to movies. Why not drama and other public places?… Where will this moral policing stop?” Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court, hearing a petition seeking recall of its order making it mandatory for movie halls to play the national anthem (October 23)   “Teachers only ask girls to ‘be careful’ as boys, of course, have no izzat. Only we shoulder that burden.” Reena, a MCA student in Gurgaon (Outlook, October 23)   “An unpatriotic Left that looks up to another country than to tradition, the corruption of Congress from the party of freedom movement to being restricted to a single family; and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country’s backyard, are major contributors to rise of jingoism in the country.” Ramachandra Guha, well-known author, speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival (October 28)

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An alumna of the top-ranked Jodhamal Public School and currently a first year humanities student of Jammu’s Government College for Women, Nandini Kapoor (19) made her debut in playback singing in regional producer Surinder Manhas’ Dogri film Doli, set for release next month. Christened Jammu’s ‘nightingale’ by her growing legion of fans, this 19-year-old is elated by the enthusiastic public reception and believes her dream of playback singing in commercial cinema has finally come true.  Daughter of a state government employee Ajay Kapoor and homemaker mother Bindu, Nandini’s vocal music talent was discovered when she was in class II. “My teachers used to encourage me to sing during assembly and on special occasions. My first public performance was in 2008 in a children’s talent hunt programme where I was top placed. Formal training in Hindustani classical music began in 2009 under the tutelage of Pt. Kulbushan Sharma. I was later introduced to Bollywood music. With the help of specialised training, I participated and won several inter-school music competitions,” she recalls. In 2012, Nandini received wide publicity in the local press for a brilliant stage performance in a show organised in memory of Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma, father of legendary santoor player Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, wherein the maestro himself felicitated her. Two years later, she was adjudged runner-up in a reality show for youth organised by the local Doordarshan centre, and in 2016, Nandini featured in a YouTube video directed by her mentor Deepak which was telecast on regional TV.  Jammu’s new melody queen is also academically focussed and aspires to join the civil service after graduation. “I am aware of my singing talent but I can’t give up my academic aspirations as I believe I can serve the people of this neglected state better. The challenge will now be to balance both aspirations,” she says.  Wind beneath your wings! Autar Nehru (Delhi) 

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This 230-year-old university is ranked among the Top 10 US research varsities by the Center for Measuring University Performance, Arizona Founded in 1787, the University of Pittsburgh (aka Pitt) is one of the most respected research universities of America. Though a privately managed institution, the university is a member of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth System of Higher Education and receives annual financial grants from the state. Also a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) which comprises 62 pre-eminent doctorate-granting research institutions in North America, Pitt is ranked #68 among national universities by the US News & World Report in its 2018 rankings of America’s Best Colleges. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-17, Pitt is ranked #80 while in the QS World University Rankings 2017-18, it’s ranked #100 worldwide. Moreover, the Center for Measuring University Performance, Arizona has ranked Pitt #9 among US research universities in its 2015 annual report.  The 230-year-old university comprises a 132-acre main campus in Pittsburgh and four campuses within Western Pennsylvania — Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville. Currently Pitt’s 16 academic schools and colleges offer a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degree programmes to 28,664 students instructed by 4,977 faculty. Its schools of philosophy, law and health sciences are particularly highly ranked. Pitt’s undergraduate degree programmes mandate compulsory liberal arts education complemented with well-rounded curriculums in the arts, sciences, engineering, business management etc (see box) and provides hands-on learning opportunities through co-ops and internships. It has also initiated a university-wide Outside the Classroom Curriculum (OCC) that includes a series of extracurricular programmes and experiences designed to complement students’ academic studies and help develop their personal attributes and professional skills. Pittsburgh. Located at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers in Pennsylvania state, Pittsburgh (pop. 305,000) is known as the Steel City for its more than 300 steel-related businesses, and as the City of Bridges for its 446 bridges. Ranked the most livable city in the United States in 2014 by The Economist’s Global Liveability Ranking, Pittsburgh hosts over 1,600 technology companies, numerous law firms, banks and over 68 colleges and universities. The second-largest city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia), Pittsburgh is student-friendly with a good public transportation system, numerous restaurants, low-price shops, parks, malls, coffee shops, bars and cinemas. The city enjoys four distinct seasons: winters are cold, cloudy, and moderately snowy, spring and fall are generally mild with moderate levels of sunshine, and summers warm to hot and humid.  Campus facilities. The university’s main 132-acre Pittsburgh campus is located in the city’s Oakland neighbourhood and regional campuses in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville. The Pittsburgh campus showcases an eclectic mix of architecture that includes Greek revival, Neogothic, Italian Renaissance, and modern with its signature 535 ft Cathedral of Learning — the second-tallest educational building in the world after the University of Moscow — dominating the skyline. Other campus landmarks include the William Pitt Union, once a luxurious hotel and now hosting the students union; Frick Fine Arts Building which is modeled…

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There’s growing concern in academia about checking quality deterioration in higher education. New initiatives, innovations and research require urgent attention. One of these initiatives was announced by prime minister Narendra Modi while addressing the centenary celebrations of Patna University on October 14. He promised an allocation of Rs.10,000 crore to 20 universities — equally distributed between public and private to make them “world-class”.  It would really be worth witnessing how these fortunate universities will set about becoming role models for the country’s other 780 universities. The 10+10 initiative also offers an opportunity to scholars, intellectuals and informed citizens to reflect upon what factors led to the loss of quality and credibility of universities which enjoyed great reputations till a couple of decades ago. It could help trigger genuine reform of the education sector as a whole. Contrast the present reputation and credibility of the great universities of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Allahabad and Patna among others to what they enjoyed until the 1960s. To comprehend this plunge in all its dimensions, one should recall the words of India’s scholar-president Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. “The ideal of the university is promotion of liberty of mind or freedom of thought. It has little to do with the protection of privilege or call to conformity.”  The signs of deterioration became manifest within two decades after independence and the illustrious philosopher-statesman analysed it professionally and pragmatically. “If our universities, which showed so much promise on the eve of independence, now, appear to be in a state of disarray, it is because they have been increasingly invaded by masses of people who have no regard for intellectual competence or aptitude for academic work. We have made short work of tests of intellectual competence in order to make peace with every kind of social and political pressure.”  This analysis is in conformity with his universally accepted assertion that “intellectual work is not for all, it is only for the intellectually competent”. This nostrum could become the guiding light for these 20 universities after they are selected. Each one of their actions and initiatives will be keenly observed by the other 780 universities, and certainly by the nation. Universities deserve only intellectually inclined leaders and faculty; that is the premier prerequisite of excellence in higher education. It’s undeniable this prime prerequisite of academic excellence has been diluted over the past three-four decades. After independence, India needed large-scale expansion in school and higher education. This required heavy resource mobilisation, and also in-built strategies to guard against quality dilution that accompanies expansion. That needed identification of persons with proven leadership qualities. Think of any great school or university and the pioneering and visionary role played by one or two individuals gets respectful mention! Every vice chancellor is expected to be a pioneer in the quest of knowledge, a person invested with humane qualities, an embodiment of scholarship, living a values-based life, extraordinary for his commitment. He commands respect for academic scholarship, inspires by example and is a continuous innovator. A great…

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