Education in India

Full text of Kaushik Basu's dissent note to the Yashpal Committee Report

Prof. Kaushik Basu wrote a dissent note to the Yashpal Committee Report, the full text of which (as provided by Prof. Basu himself) is as follows.

Report of The Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education in India

A Note of Dissent

Kaushik Basu

The broad ideas outlined in the main report, such as forming an apex body for managing Indias higher-education sector, nurturing inter-disciplinarity and extending university education to much larger and diverse segments of the populationare commendable. My apprehension, however, is that without more detailed plans of action and sharper targets these broad aims will remain unfulfilled, like so many well-meaning previous pronouncements. There are many areas where we need reform and which have been dealt with in the main report. What I mention here are items which, in my opinion, deserve consideration but are omitted or not emphasized in the report and also some fine points on which I have a difference of opinion.

Till a few decades ago India's higher education system stood out for its excellence, in comparison to developing countries but also some industrialized nations. The high economic growth that India has witnessed since 1994 has several causes; one of them is our good higher education. Unfortunately, this sector is now faltering. Several nations which trailed India on this score are now ahead of us. This is not because India has changed but because India has not changed while others have. If our nations development is to be sustained and we want to be a progressive and enlightened nation, then it is imperative that we reform our system of higher education.

First, the main report speaks about the need for greater autonomy for colleges and universities. However, one stumbling block for this objective is the huge power vested in the UGC and AICTE. There is need for these organizations to divest themselves of some of this power.Also, there should be a refocusing of their main function. It is the responsibility of the UGC to maintain the quality of our higher education and research. However, this must be achieved by nurturing excellence instead of spending a disproportionate amount of energy creating barriers to entry, and preventing new colleges and universities from coming into existence. The latter has led to the creation of what is effectively a licensing system in higher education. Just as India gave up on industrial licensing in the early nineties (and thereby unleashed growth), the reformed UGC and AICTE should give up on the licensing of higher education. At times we forget that the market with all its faults does perform certain functions reasonably well. Poorly-performing colleges and educational institutes, if information about their performance is made easily available, will be competed out of existence by the pressures of the market.

For this reason, one principal activity of a revised UGC should be to rate universities and institutes of higher education. As we know from the modern industrial sector, good quality rating is vital for the economy and successful nations spend a lot to collate information and rate corporations. The UGC should, likewise, produce and publicize ratings of and information about all universities and institutes of higher education. This should be a detailed, annual exercise and be prominently available on a website.

Our main aim must be to nurture excellence instead of spending a disproportionate amount of energy trying to curb the lack of it. While the United States has arguably the world's greatest universities, it also has many sub-par ones. The existence of the latter does not harm the reputation of the US as a nation of academic excellence. If there was a perfect way for the state to efficiently weed out the bad, I would be for it. But as we learnt from our experience with industrial licensing, often the effort to weed out the bad by using bureaucratic control can do more harm than good.

What has to punished is misinformation. Many private colleges levy charges midway through the course of study by when the student has no choice but to pay up; they advertise achievements of the college which are false; they promise to offer courses without any intention to actually do so. These need to be severely punished.

Second, we have to recognize that it is not possible for any government, let alone the government of a developing nation, to run over three hundred universities with equal generosity.Such an agendum is bound to cause either a fiscal breakdown or doom the university system to mediocrity. It follows from this that we have to reconcile ourselves to the differential treatment of institutions and universities and also of individuals. This has to be based on a transparent system of objective evaluation, so that every individual and every university has the same opportunity. But to expect the outcome to be the same across individuals and universities is to court failure.

This takes us to the touchy topic of salaries and research support. The old system of a flat scale, where every professor was supported in the same way across all the over-300 universities, was once an attractive idea. It is no longer feasible. On the one hand, most nations are switching over to the system of special salaries and research budgets for star researchers and professors. This began with the U.S.. Now other nations, including U.K. and even China, have switched to this. On the other hand, corporate salaries have gone through the roof. Given these facts (about which there is little that we can do), if we want to attract top talent to research and teaching, we have to allow for pay differentials. The exact modality of this will entail discussion and debate. Two ways of doing this are: first, designating, say, 20 universities, as centers of excellence and putting them on a higher funding scale. The list of top 20 should be evaluated and revised every three years so that all universities stand a chance of getting there. The second option is to select a small number of professors in each field from the entire nation and place them on a higher salary and research support. By higher salary I do not mean 5% or 10% higher but three or four times the regular professorial salary. This will create incentives for academics to work harder and also attract top minds that would have gone to the corporate sector to come into academics and research. If this system is properly managed, it can transform the quality of India's higher education. Further this can be achieved with no additional fiscal burden. The average salary of all professors all over India can be held constant and this achieved by simply creating a graded salary system.

Third, we should allow private sector money to come into higher education. Surreptitious privatization is already a fact of life. It will be better to let this happen openly; there can then also be open monitoring. The purely-private colleges should of course not be subsidized by the state. They should be allowed to set college fees as high as they choose (as long as this is made transparent). It is true that such private colleges will end up teaching mainly commercially-viable subjects and cater to relatively rich students. There is no harm in this and some advantages, since the state will now be able to allocate more money to the colleges and universities under its charge and provide good education to the remainder at a lower cost.

There is an additional question: Should we allow these private colleges to be profit-making organizations, that is, allow the owners or the shareholders to openly keep the profit to themselves? A common presumption is that,if someone is interested in profit, that person will not be interested in providing good education. This is a fallacy. It is like assuming that, if Tata Motors is interested in making profit, it will not be interested in producing a good small car. However, in reality, its interest in producing a good small car could be because it is interested in making profits. Likewise, in education. If a profit-making company wants to start a university, there is no reason why we should not allow this. This is an idea that should at least be on the table. There are not too many examples of such universities in the world. This can be a pioneering effort on the part of India and, if successful, can cause a huge infusion of funds into our higher education system.

Finally, this is the time to consider steps to make India into the world's major hub for higher education. Given our historic (though eroding) advantage in higher education, our strength in the English language and our low cost-of-living, it is possible for India to position itself as a major destination for students from around the world, not just from poor countries, but rich, industrialized nations, such as Korea, U.K. and even the U.S.. One reason why an African student goes to the US to study is to then acquire the right to stay on there and work. Attracting such a student will not be easy. But consider an American student who anyway has the right to go back to the U.S. and work there. In the U.S. each year of education costs approximately, $50,000 or Rs. 25 lakhs. If India can build some good universities with high quality residences for studentsand advertise globally, India can give this market tough competition. If India charges tuition fees of Rs. 5 lakhs per annum from foreign students, then with all other overheads a student can get quality education for Rs. 8 lakhs per annum, which is one third the cost in the U.S. There is clearly a huge comparative advantage in this and the scheme can attract lots of students to India. This can bring in a large infusion of money, which can make it possible for the Indian government to subsidize the higher education of Indian students and vastly expand the number of Indian students

Summary of the full text of the Yashpal Committee Report

The Full text of the 94 page report of the The Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education is up on the education ministry's site. The 24 member committee chaired by Prof. Yashpal included amongst others the Chairpersons of UGC, AICTE, and NAAC, Vice Chancellors (current and former) of publicly funded universities, Directors of IIT (Madras), IIM (Bangalore) and NCERT, economists and bureacrats from the Planning Commission, the Finance, Education and other ministries. Dr. Ramdas Pai, Chancellor of Manipal University, was the sole member on the committee from a private university. A few others from outside the education sector include Kiran Karnik (former President of NASSCOM) and legal expert N.R. Madhava Menon who is a member on the commission of Centre-State Relations.

Apparently, Prof Kaushik Basu, an Economics Professor at Cornell University, and a member of the Yashpal Committee, has penned a dissent note to the report. There is no mention of the dissent note by Kaushik Basu in the copy of the 94 page report put up online at the education ministry's web site.

Addendum: Prof. Basu has provided the full text of his dissent note.

Here is a summary of the main points from the full text of the Yashpal Committee Report (extracted and paraphrased by me as I have understood it, with references provided to the page numbers on the report).

1. All universities must be teaching cum research universities. All research bodies must connect with universities in their vicinity and create teaching opportunities for their researchers. (p14)
2. We must prevent isolation of study of engineering or management. We should look forward to the day when IITs and IIMs also produce scholars in areas like literature, linguistics and politics. Institutions must be given the freedom to expand and diversify as they see fit rather than thrusting an uniform diktat on all institutions. (p15)
3. All syllabi should require teachers and students to apply what they have learnt in their courses, on studying a local situation, issue or problem. There should be sufficient room for the use of local data and resources to make the knowledge covered in the syllabus come alive as experience. (p18)
4. Minimum set of occupational exposure to be made compulsory for all students, irrespective of discipline, in the form of summer jobs or internships, with evaluation of the students on this front. (p19)
5. Need to expose students at the undergraduate level to various disciplines like humanities, social sciences, aesthetics, irrespective of the discipline they would like to specialise in subsequently. (p21)
6. Teacher training for all levels of school education (from primary to higher secondary) must be carried out by institutions of higher educations. The absence of university-level interest in teacher training has resulted in poor academic quality. (p21-22)
7. We need to build strong bridges between different fields of professional education and the disciplines of science, social sciences and humanities, All professional institutions must be part of a comprehensive university in a complete administrative and academic sense. We must abolish intermediary bodies that have been set up solely to issue licenses to professional colleges alone and inspect them. This will also help new interdisciplinary courses and research to evolve in the comprehensive universities. (p23)
8. All vocational institutions must also be part of universities. (p24)
9. It should be mandatory for all universities to have undergraduate programes. All teachers in universities must teach at the undergraduate level. (p26)
10. Universities must take steps to reduce gender, class and caste asymmetries. (p27)
11. Universities must study areas that are relevant in their immediate social and natural milieu and create knowledge bases in those areas. (p28)
12. Universities must be motivated to identify and prioritise areas for reform and initiate and implement the reform themselves from within rather than having the reform thrust on them top-down by a national or state-level body. This will be true autonomy. (p28)
13. There should be no discrimination between Central and State funded universities. All benefits extended to Central Universities must also be extended by State Governments to the state universities and the Centre must incentivise the States to do so. (p30)
14. There is an optimum size for a University in terms of the number of affiliated colleges, which must be maintained. (p31-32)
15. The inability of the state to drastically increase capacity in higher education has led to growth of the private sector in higher education. To double higher education capacity, we need all three kinds of universities: state-funded and run universities, private universities and those funded and run by public-private partnerships. All of them should work efficiently overseen by a transparent regulatory mechanism. (p32-34)
16. All private universities must submit to a national accreditation system. Private degree-granting universities must not be confined to select areas like technology, medicine, management, finance etc.. They must be required to be comprehensive universities covering the arts and social and natural sciences too. (p35)
17. There must be tight regulation of private universities in terms of auditing of accounts, payment of minimum salaries to teachers, certain percentage of seats reserved for meritorious students who are to be provided scholarships etc.. (p35)
18. Granting of Deemed University status to be put on hold. All existing Deemed Universities to be given three years to shape up (to have strong research programmes, and become a comprehensive university as defined in this report) failing which their Deemed University status is to be withdrawn. (p37)
19. Education must be made affordable for all through scholarships or loans provided by the State. Every student who gains admission must get an assured loan or a scholarship (for the needy) from the State. (p39)
20. Do we need foreign universities? Can the best learning experiences not be provided to our students by opening our doors to foreign scholars? p(40)
21. If the best of foreign universities (amongst the top 200 in the world) want to come to India, they should be welcomed. Such institutions should award an Indian degree and be subject to all the rules and regulations that would apply to any Indian university. (p40)
22. State funding, though increasing, will not be enough to expand supply and progress towards excellence. Complementary sources of funding will have to be found even for state funded universities. Philanthropy from society and alumni as a source of funding needs to be encouraged, with appropriate changes in regulation. Universities must be able to hire professional fundraisers and professional investors to attract funding from non-government sources. (p41)
23. Universities must be freed from the constraints imposed by funding agencies to obtain approvals for every single post. Funding agencies must provide block grants against a plan and universities must be allowed to spend them according to their priorities, subject to the plan. (p42)
24. There are a large number of students who can afford to pay for their education. Absence of differential fees has led to subsidising students who can actually afford to pay. Those who can afford to pay must pay higher fees for which they will be offered guarateed student loans. Free education will be provided only to those who cannot afford it. (p42)
25. National tests like the GRE must be organised round the year. Students from all over India must be allowed to take the tests as many times as they like and their best score can be sent to the universities for admission. Currently the CBSE and the State Board exams are a means of normalising school level competencies - this can be done by the National tests. We must seriously think of reviving our faith in each school and its teachers to credibly evaluate their own students. (p42-43)
26. India can provide affordable higher education to foreign students, if we remove systemic impediments. It will also enrich the ethos of our universities. (p43)
27. Urgent measures are needed to attract good people who enjoy teaching and research back to the university and offer them a positive and motivating environment. Resources in terms of libraries, laboratories and research assistance as well as competitive remuneration will need to be provided to retain good people. (p43-44)
28. Student assessment of teachers needs to be instituted. Students can provide an experiential assessment of the quality of teaching. Parameters of student feedback can be drawn up to avoid distorted assessments by students. Teachers whose feedback record remains poor in successive years should be required to face formal precedures which might allow a university or college to shed them.
29. We need to improve governance of universities by developing expertise in educational management, and avoid burdening good academics with administrative chores. We must have a separation between academic administration and overall management (including fund raising). State governments must abandon the trend of appointing civil servants as university administrators. (p45)
30. Teachers and students must have autonomy. In academic matters, the teacher should have the autonomy to frame his/her course and the way he/she would like to assess his/her students. Students should be allowed to take courses of their choice from different universities and then be awarded a degree on the basis of credits earned. (p46)
31. We should not blame private initiative, political interference, and other forces for the loss of autonomy of universities. There was no rigorous resistance, indeed there was willing abdication, from the academic community to the subversion in matters of policy implementation, appointments and day-to-day functioning of the universities. Education was made subservient to ideological compulsions, which led to its loss of respect. (p49)
32. We need a De Novo regulatory body - the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) under which the various functions of the existing regulatory agencies would be subsumed. The new body would also take over the powers vested in the existing regulatory bodies in terms of creation of new institutions as well as their content/sylallbi. (p52)
33. The 13 existing professional councils created under various acts of Parliament may after divesting their existing regulatory functions to NCHER look at conducting tests for practicisng professionals affiliated to the councils, prescribing syllabi for such tests and leave it to the universities to design their curriculum based on such syllabi. (p55).
34. The NCHER would not interfere with academic freedom and institutional autonomy. It would not follow the current inspection-based approval method, it but would use move to a verification and authentication system. Universities will put out mandatory self-declarations in the public domain.(corrected)
35. 1. Given the federal nature of our country and the role of states in education, there must be Higher Education Councils (HECs) in the states which will co-ordinate with the NCHER, to allow different institutions created and funded by the Centre and States to grow on equal footing. These HECs would also insulate the State universities from outside interference. (p57).
36. There should be a fast-track statutory mechanism in place for the adjudication of disputes between teachers, employees and management of institutions and universities in respect of matters concerning service conditions, as well as in matters of disputes relating to fee, admissions etc. A suitable law should be enacted to establish a National Education Tribunal along with State Education Tribunals or appropriate number of Benches of the Apex Tribunal in place for such adjudication. This would be in line with the observations of the Supreme Court of India in the TMA Pai matter, where such Tribunals were recommended. (p 60)
37. Any agency whose intention is to protect students from sub-par education is better off by providing information on the programmes and univerisites to the student rather than walk the slippery path of establishing minimum standards of quality (for education is about academic over-reach rather than reaching the minimum). (p63)
38. Curricular reform to be the topmost priority of the newly created NCHER which would create a curricular framework based on the principles of mobility within a full range of curricular areas and integration of skills with academic depth. (p64)
39. The NCHER should galvanize research in the university system through the creation of a National Research Foundation. (p64)
40. The NCHER should identify the best 1,500 colleges across India to upgrade them as universities, and create clusters of other potentially good colleges to evolve as universities. (p66)
41. The NCHER too should be subject to external review once in five years. (p66)
42. The NCHER should prepare and present a Report on the State of Higher Education in India annually to Parliament. (p68)
43. 1. The NCHER shall establish transparent norms and process for entry and exit of institutions. The need is to make the process easy for good and serious proposals for setting up new institutions. (p68)
44. The NCHER would be an autonomous body created by making a suitable amendment to the Constitution, accountable only to the Indian parliament and drawing its budgetary resources from the Ministry of Finance. It would have a seven-member board with a full-time Chairperson. Of the seven members, one would be an eminent professional from the world of industry and one with the background of a long and consistent social engagement. All other five members would be academic people of eminence, representing broad areas of knowledge. The status of the Chairperson of the commission should be analogous to that of the Chief Election Commissioner and that of the members should be comparable to the Election Commissioners. The Commission will be independent of all ministries of the Government of India. It will have the autonomy to hire talent at various levels within and outside the government. It will also have the autonomy to define the compensation of its employees.
45. The NCHER may initially consist of five divisions: (p70)
    • Future Directions: Developing global benchmarks on student performance; university performance; salaries, potential programmers; new research directions; and articulation of needs of the government in terms of manpower etc.
    • Accreditation Management: Creating norms for accreditation and certifyingmultiple accreditation agencies which would be independent of the government .Institutions and universities may like to get accreditation from one or more than one agencies depending on their reputation. They would be also providing annual feedback to universities, and organizing workshops etc.
    • Funding & Development: Developing funding needs of universities, developing mechanisms for funding institutions, helping universities with development of corpus and good endowment management, managing the guaranteed student loan/scholarship programme, and funding the requirements of universities etc.
    • New Institutions & Incubation: Including training workshops for first-time VCs as well as on themes like accounting, investing the corpus, communication within & outside the university, negotiations & managing vendors, good office practices, human resource management etc.
    • Information & Governance: This division will focus on managing the data needs of the commission, display of information on universities, develop performance parameters on the governance of universities, support other divisions with information as well as provide students with information on each university. This division w ill also inform the Accreditation and Funding & Development divisions of the performance or lack thereof, for each university, each year.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in the report! Enough fodder for a separate post to follow looking at the prognosis, suggestions and recommendations.

Procedures to start a new school in Tamil Nadu to be streamlined

says, The Hindu.

A committee, headed by M.P. Vijayakumar, former State Project Director of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), is now holding public hearings and it will submit its report to the Government/Department of School Education shortly. While the committee had its sittings in Chennai and Coimbatore, it will hold its hearing in Madurai on July 4 to receive suggestions from schools in southern districts.

 When someone wants to start a school or get the mandatory renewal for a school, he/she has to go through many procedures. So, the State government has constituted a committee to address the issue," Mr. Vijayakumar, committee chairperson, told The Hindu here on Sunday. The government was "seriously concerned" over the difficulties faced by school managements in getting the necessary clearance and certificates. "For instance, every school applies for renewal once in three years and there are cases where it takes two years to get the clearance. By the time, the next renewal becomes due. This was brought to our attention at the two hearings held so far," Mr. Vijayakumar, who is also an honorary advisor to SSA, said.

    According to him, the committee would hear directly from all stakeholders - State Board/Matriculation Board and nursery schools - about difficulties they encounter. Mr. Vijayakumar said the final report would be submitted in about a month.

It would be interesting to see what the report has to say. In an earlier post, I had looked at Mayank Wadhwa's note on the licenses required to start a school in Delhi.

Update: The Hindu carried a report on the public hearing at Madurai on July 4th. 

“The State government is seriously concerned over the delays in obtaining recognition certificate for starting a school and also at the time of renewal. So, this committee was formed to look into the means for simplified and streamlined procedures,” Mr. Vijayakumar said in his opening remarks.

He said that the objective of forming the committee was to examine how to reduce the time taken by various departments for issuing the mandatory certificates to schools in both urban and rural areas.

The common suggestion that came from the school correspondents and principals was that the officials of School Education Department in all districts must have powers to deal with issuing of certificates if all parameters were satisfied as per the Government norms.

Town planning approval, Fire Department certificate, building stability certificate, local body approvals and license from the tahsildhar were among the topics discussed. Some participants suggested that the norm of obtaining renewal certificate by private schools once in three years can be revised to at least five years.

“Every time we go for renewal, documents and photographs of buildings have to be submitted. That practice may be done with to simplify the job for both the schools and department officials,” a school Principal said.

Kapil Sibal's 100 day Action Plan

The education minister, Kapil Sibal's 100 day Action Plan has been published on the Education Ministry site. The hundredth day would be around October 10th - the clock is ticking. The Action Plan lists the following goals:

Legislative Initiatives

1. An autonomous overarching authority for Higher Education and Research based on the recommendations of Yashpal Committee and National Knowledge Commission;
2. A law to prevent, prohibit and punish educational malpractices;
3. A law for mandatory assessment and accreditation in higher education through an independent regulatory authority;
4. A law to regulate entry and operation of Foreign Educational Providers;
5. A law to establish a Tribunal to fast-track adjudication of disputes concerning stake holders (teachers, students, employees and management) in higher education;
6. A law to amend the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, to strengthen the Commission;
7. A law to amend the Copyright Act, 1957 to address the concerns relating to copyrights and related rights of the various stake holders

Policy Initiatives

1. Formulation of a 'Brain-Gain' policy to attract talent fiom across the world to the existing and new institutions;
2. Launching of a new Scheme of interest subsidy on educational loans taken for professional courses by the Economically Weaker Students;
3. Strengthening and expansion of the Scheme for Remedial Coaching for students from SC/ST/minority communities, in higher education;
4. 'Equal Opportunity Offices' to be created in all universities for effective implementation of schemes for disadvanaged sections of the society;
5. A new policy on Distance Learning would be formulated

While a draft of The Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of entry and operation, maintenance of quality and prevention of commercialisation) Bill, 2007 already exists, the other bills on the agenda will need to be drafted. The Law ministry had mooted special educational tribunals to adjudicate on educational malpractice complaints about an year ago.

This 100 day Action Plan is quite ambitious, especially the legislative agenda. The lawyer that he is, Kapil Sibal may well be able to put up drafts of each of the bills for debate by October 10th. Apparently he has the support and backing of the Prime Minister for his agenda.

The Azim Premji University, a pioneering initiative in India

The Azim Premji Foundation (APF) is planning to set up the Azim Premji University (APU) a private self-financing university in Karnataka that would undertake teaching, training and R & D in fields like elementary and secondary education,education management and education policy. The APF will provide the statutory endowment fund of Rs. 25 crores. The University, while based in Karnataka will open branches elesewhere in the country. The Azim Premji University Bill is to be introduced in the Karnataka Assembly in the upcoming session, says the The Economic Times.

According to Business Line,

• The University will be self-financed, with no financial grant or assistance from the State Government
  
• Implying that reservations could apply to this university, a note issued during the meeting said that while it would be "open to all classes, castes and gender, the Government of Karnataka can make special provisions".
  
• The Board of Governors will have two Secretaries holding the charge of the education departments, while the rest will be from outside the Government. The board will appoint auditors, lay down policies, review decisions of the university, approve the budget and decide, if necessary, on the winding up of the university. The Government reserves the right to intervene in the event of mismanagement, mal-administration and indiscipline, the note, explaining some of the clauses in the proposed Bill, said.
  
• The Governor of the State will be a visitor of the university. He can seek any information and clarifications and confer degrees and the minister for higher education will be pro-visitor (pro-chancellor).

Business Standard interviewed Dileep Ranjekar, the CEO of the APF, who throws more light on their plans for the APU.

Where do you plan to have the varsity?
If Karnataka finally passes the Bill, and empowers us to start the private university, then the location will be Bangalore.

What was the inspiration behind this concept?
The biggest issue that has actually promoted us to think about the varsity is 'why is that there is no university that is focussed on elementary education in the country'. We observed that we don't have people with professional backgrounds in this country to address issues pertaining to the education sector. Hence, this university will be very similar to the national law school which was launched primarily to create professional lawyers in the country. The university will engage itself in educating professionals who, in turn, will be required for building the capabilities of teachers and managers as educators. Besides, we intend to train people who will make policy decisions based on their knowledge about education.

What courses you plan to offer?
Other than creating trained educational professionals, we plan to offer a post-graduate (MA) programme in education initially. We will also launch several short-term courses which will actually be targeted at in-service development needs of education managers, teacher educators and teachers. The second important activity is research, because research is lacking in education in India. The university will focus sharply on research on several issues to understand how things works; what causes better learning; how do we develop better people and what makes an effective teacher. There are hundreds of such issues. It will also have some experimental labs as part of the university. We also intend to collaborate with a number of states across the country to help them through education resource centres.

Since it will be a self-financing university, will students bear the cost?
Essentially it will be borne by the students. But where the students can't afford, we will have a scholarship programme.

How much funding have you received from Azim Premji for the Foundation so far?
We have earmarked close to Rs 650 crore so far, and this has been entirely funded by Azim Premji. We work with the government and we leverage the funds which we spend. The leverage is very important because the state has really the strength. Because anybody else spending money on the education is going to be very minuscule. The Foundation works with the government which is responsible for schooling. We work with close to about 20,000 schools across the country.

Will the UGC recognise the courses being offered by the university?
The university that comes into existence through a state legislation, will automatically be a recognised university. We don't have to approach the UGC for this.

The APF website lists K.S. Viswanathan as the person in charge of the APU project. Viswanathan had outlined APF's thoughts on improving education in India and its current activities in an interview last January.

VP: What exactly is the Azim Premji foundation doing now in the school scene in Karnataka?

K.S.V: The Azim Premji foundation is focused on Rural Government Schools in the states. We work along with the State Governments in executing some of their priorities. Karnataka has over 45,000 Elementary Schools and 8,000 Education functionaries. However, the learning levels in these schools are very low.

The key objective of the Azim Premji Foundation is to significantly contribute to the Universalisation of Elementary Education in India that facilitates a just, equitable and humane society. After 7 years of operations driving this goal, the foundation has now identified Teacher, Education functionaries as well as Examination reforms as the three pillars as the major programs to pursue.

Teachers tend to teach what gets tested. Teachers are the key transformational agents in the class rooms. Education Functionaries play an important role on how a teacher is actually engaged in a class room. What is needed is a common shared Vision amongst the various stake holders in the Education System in the country. With these goals, the Azim Premji Foundation has been working with the State Government on various initiatives that will supplement their efforts in improving the quality of education in the state.

Our programs in the Karnataka Government is built around Examination reforms, Class room teaching learning process, Teacher training and preparation and Academic support for schools.

We started with Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) in North East Karnataka (the most backward economically and academically) in 2001. This was followed with the Learning Guarantee Program ( LGP) where we ran programs to assess the learning's in the class measured in terms of Competencies acquired in Maths, Language and Science in Class 2 and Class 4. Based on our findings, the Karnataka Government set up a special Organization, Karnataka State Quality Assessment Organization ( KSQAO). KSQAO is now running the LGP program across the state to assess the competency acquired in the Elementary Schools in the state. Currently, we are implementing Child Friendly School initiatives in 330 schools in Surpur block of Yadgir district in NE Karnataka to assess the impact of Community participation in School management, Teacher support system as well as LGP.

We are also running a Management Development Program for 8000 Education functionaries in the state.

VP: What does the Foundation do in other states?

K.S.V: We have extended the concept of Learning Guarantee Program in the few districts in the states of MP, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal. We are also developing Child centric, self paced, interactive learning system using educational software in 18 languages including 4 tribal languages, to facilitate the unleashing of creativity in children.

In addition, in the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Pondicherry, we are working with the Governments to assess the impact of Technology led initiatives in Class room learning along with, as well as providing Academic and Pedagogic support to Schools . Our programs cover 13 States, 16000 schools and 2.5 Mn children.

VP: India currently has about 35 Million children "out of school" and about 157 Million children in the school. How are you trying to bring a balance between quantity and quality?

K.S.V: We have a unique challenge here. We need more schools to cover larger number of children in the country and at the same time, the quality of education in terms of school infrastructure, class room process as well as Teacher support system. Post the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universalisation of Elementary Education) program, there has been an improvement in the access to the school for the children in the rural areas. Today, close to 90 % of the children have an access to an elementary school within a distance of 3 Kms from their homes. However, in the process the quality of education has taken a beating. Other programs like Mid day meals, free text books etc have further enhanced the gross enrolment ratio in the schools to around 90%. This is good and welcome news with respect to quantity.

However, quality of education has emerged as the biggest concern in the elementary school system in the country. We have around 200 mn children in the age group of 6-14; out of who only 52% of them reach Class 8 and only 31% reach class 10.Even amongst these children, only 1/3rd of the children are able to read and write their names in their native language.

One of the main reasons for the higher drop out rate as well as low learning in the elementary schools, is the quality of class room process, Curriculum design and Teacher support system in addition to other socio economic factors. The good news is there is an increased awareness on these issues and there is a good focus from all concerned including NGO's like Azim Premji Foundation, Ministry of Education in the Central and in the state government to address these issues . It is a slow but a definite process towards improving the quality of education in the elementary schools.

VP: So what, according to you, are the key needs of elementary education today?

K.S.V: Elementary Education today requires a good Academic Support System, more accountability to all stake holders including the Community for learning outcomes as well as a common shared strategic perspective amongst all stake holders in the system. Making the Teacher's job more exciting, more important as well bringing more recognition to the teachers and the Education functionaries can change the way we look at the Elementary education system in the country.

We need more Action research in the challenges of the Elementary Education. There is also a need to revamp the teacher Education system in the country focused on Elementary schools.

The APF's strategy of addressing the challenge of universalisation of elemenatary education by improving the quality of teachers and the quality of the classroom learning process is an excellent one. Their idea of walking the talk and investing to set up an university focussed on teaching and education management is a welcome step. What is more, the APF's strategy of working closely with the Government, indeed partnering with them, to leverage their strengths and complement them with the APF's own strengths is very well conceived. As Dileep Ranjekar points out, the challenge of educating all our children is a challenge of scale. No private player can match the scale of the Government's efforts. The Government has a crucial role to play. Ranjekar's choice of the word "leverage" is apt in this context. The APF's efforts (backed by its Rs. 650 crore investment - no mean sum in itself, albeit just a drop compared to the Government spending on education) can provide a multiplier effect to the Government's own investments and lead to huge improvements in teaching and learning in Government schools. By working closely with the Government (the Policy Planning Unit in the Dept. of Education in Karnataka is staffed by Government officials as well as staff from the Azim Premji Foundation) and offering the Government substantial control over the running of the proposed APU, the APF is also pre-empting the possibility of any standoffs with future Governments, run by other administrations.

The APF's initiatives in area of Education Management are described on their web site. One aspect of Education Management that doesn't find a mention in their list, but deserves attention is the economics of running schools. The challenge will be to keep fees as low as possible and affordable to the masses, yet find the ways and means to delivery a high quality education in a self-sustaining manner year on year. I hope the APF is working on this too.

The APU is likely to be the first of many more such universities likely to be set up in the coming years. Just as Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata provided the seed investment to set up the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (still knowns as Tata Institute to Bangloreans) a 100 years ago, I can see a time not before long when we will have more such universities spawned by India's successful and farsighted business leaders. Imagine an Infosys University, a Mittal University, a Mahindra University, a Tata University, a Birla University ,a Reliance University, a HCL University, a TVS University, a Bharti University, a Bajaj University, an ITC University, an ICICI University, a HDFC University, and many more dotting the country over the next decade. Just the thought of the impact they could have, with each of them specialising in different areas, sends a frisson of excitement down the spine. It took almost 13 years, from 1896 when Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata wrote to Lord Reay about the creation of a national university, to 1909 when the Government of India issued the vesting order for the institute, for the Indian Institute of Science to see the light of day. Azim Premji has shown that it will take much less time today from idea to reality.

Are students drawn to universities because of their teaching or their research programs?

In the U.S., the tilt seems to be in favour of research. Why is that so? Is that how it should be?

Okonomos reviews some recent research on this debate

The paradox is that, though the higher education market is quite competitive, students, who should be most interested in teaching quality, are also drawn towards universities with better research reputation.

The paper reviews many theories in higher education, looking at the relationship between research and teaching. One theory is that researchers more effectively teach higher order skills and, therefore, increase student human capital more than non-researchers. In contrast, according to the signalling theory, education is not intrinsically productive but only a signal that separates high and low-ability workers. Under this theory then, researchers would make worse teachers and better screeners. That is, as researchers find it easier to teach better students who can move ahead with them rather than spoon feed students with lower abilities, a faculty with higher research reputation would automatically drive out low-ability students.

There are various issues involved here. Do universities prefer to reward research since it is easier to measure than teaching quality? Student evaluations, after all, are known to be beset with problems. Or is research valued because it brings prestige with it? Or, is unfunded research a public good? In which case, wouldn’t direct subsidies be a better way of financing such research than allowing for subsidies from teaching?

Indian students's choice of universities in India, on the other hand, are driven by a complex combination  of factors of which proximity has probably been the dominant one. But that is beginning to change. The availability of state of the art infrastructure and facilities at the university has become a major differentiator today - the Vellore Institute of Technology is a good example. The quality of teachers and teaching as well as reseach is mostly an unknown.

Special educational tribunals mooted to curb malpractices by educational institutions

According to a report in The Hindu Business Line, Monday, August 11, 2008, p3 print edition ( I couldn't find this report online),

The Law Ministry is taking a close look at a suggestion to set up special tribunals with jurisdication on various educational malpractices, including overcharging of fees and non-payment of students' dues by institutions. Ministry officials said they are in touch with the Human Resources Ministry, as it is concerned with policies related to educational institutions. The government's stand on the issue would largely depend "on the HRD ministry's views", said an official. The Law Minister, Mr. H.R. Bhardwaj, is believed to be keen on using the tribunals for handling litigation related to specific kind of cases in already overburdened courts. The proposed tribunals on educational malpractices would save students and their parents the trouble of approaching over-burdened courts for justice.

Presumably "overcharging of fees" refers to the so called donations that are forcibly demanded and collected?

While the idea of regulating educational institutions is certainly welcome and long overdue, we need to look into the pros and cons of establishing a new tribunal just to look into malpractices by educational institutions. If the existing regulatory bodies for schools, colleges and other types of educational institutions are given more teeth and enforcing powers, they may well be able to handle this themselves, rather than creating a new tribunal.

If the Law Ministry is considering such a proposal, I wish they think about putting it out in the public domain and calling for comments and suggestions from the public. An important regulatory issue like this needs to be debated.

GEMS to invest US$408 million in UAE schools, expanding capacity by over 20,000

After expanding into the U.K. (11 schools now) and India (6 schools now), they are now on planning to provide more than 20,000 new school places in the UAE, their home base, and foraying into South Africa.

According to a report in The National,

Plans to provide more than 20,000 new school places in the UAE have been announced by the Dubai-based Global Education Management Systems (Gems). The Dh1.5 billion (US$408 million) expansion will focus on Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and other emirates.

Gems, which runs more than 75 schools worldwide, is also looking to significantly increase its international reach. The company’s mission is to become the “leading provider of education and learning management services” globally, said Dino Varkey, senior director for business development at Gems. It is currently developing plans to open schools in South Africa, where the company already has a strong presence, and in other nations.

Gems has 25 schools in the UAE with about 70,000 pupils, which it says equates to a 14 per cent share of the total UAE education market. It is the single largest employer of British and Indian teachers outside the UK and India. “The UAE is still our home business and there is a tremendous amount of growth,” said Mr Varkey.

As it grows, Mr Varkey said Gems plans to move away from owning the school buildings in order to concentrate instead on running the schools. “Because we’re an education company, we’ll try to separate ourselves from the bricks and mortar. We’d like to leave that to others,” he said. “If we can find investors to build the school for us, we can take the land and building on a long-term lease. We have a lot of landlords comfortable with 25- to 50-year leases. It’s a quicker way for us to grow.”

Gems owns and operates 60 per cent of its schools, with 40 per cent owned by others but managed by Gems, a proportion that has more than doubled in two years. Last autumn, Gems branched into the public school sector in the UAE with a subsidiary company, School Improvement Partnership, which runs public-private partnership (PPP) schools in Abu Dhabi. “We do expect to grow our managed school business for high-net-worth individuals who want to go into education. We manage schools for them,” Mr Varkey said.

“We’re very cost-focused,” Mr Varkey said. “A parent paying $15,000 to $20,000 is very specific in what they want, whereas the parent sending [their child] to a mid-market school is not concerned about their child speaking five languages or learning the cello. They want a good education and for their kid to go to a good university. It’s very aspirational.

“Many of the mid-market schools, which include several Indian schools, offer tuition for less than Dh5,000. “Our Own English High School in Dubai charges just Dh7,500 annually. At the other end of the spectrum, the Gems World Academy in Dubai, which will open its doors in September, will charge as much as Dh92,000 a year.”

The GEMS website provides details on its plans in South Africa.

GEMS South Africa was registered in November 2006 as a company in South Africa to promote the interests and activities of GEMS Education.

GEMS South Africa will purchase and build schools in its own name and to manage schools on behalf of clients thereby promoting and incorporating cutting-edge internationally recognised curriculum developments; implanting knowledge and intellectual property into environments most conducive to the enrichment of learning, creativity and personal development; utilising highly experienced educationalists, teachers and school management experts, working collaboratively with international educational organisations while preserving the beliefs, values, traditions and cultures of the schools it owns and manages.

GEMS South Africa is currently undertaking feasibility studies for the development of two new private schools in Namibia and developing the first high volume/low cost school in South Africa.

The latter model is based upon a very successful model operational by GEMS Education in other parts of the world. GEMS South Africa believes that there is a gaping void in key strategic locations in South Africa for such private, not-for-profit schools, which it hopes to develop as a network of highly successful and prestigious schools throughout South Africa to assist in spearheading access to quality, affordable education.

GEMS' plans in India, announced in 2004 of 100 schools in India seem to have taken a bit of a back seat with only 6 schools run by them as of now in India. In an earlier post, I had discussed their strategy in India of not owning the schools, but taking on management contracts - a replication of their UAE strategy.

GEMS is looking to hire Principals for their schools and has advertised for the 2009 school year.

Description: For 49 years GEMS has provided education that enriches the lives of children and their communities. In 2009 GEMS plans to expand the network of GEMS Schools within the UAE, UK, India and Kuwait.

Each school project will differ depending on the country in which it is located and the curriculum offered. Each of these new schools will feature an international curriculum, National Curriculum for England, an American curriculum or the International Baccalaureate Programme.

We are looking for successful, experienced school leaders and ambitious senior leaders to join GEMS in our planned expansion. Roles will focus on the development and opening of schools and on providing the solid foundations from which they will grow over the coming years.

Salary / Pay: Remuneration packages will be aligned with the best leaders of prestigious schools from around the world.

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to American, Australian, Canadian, European, Kiwi and South African Participants.

Application Process Involves:

* In-Person Interview Required
* In-Person Interview when Feasible
* Letters of Reference
* Other
* Phone Interview
* Resume
* Transcript
* Written Application

Section 25 companies to be allowed to invest in higher education in India

According to a Business Standard report,

Private and foreign corporate investment may soon get to flow into Indian higher education with the government considering a move to reform policy that hinders such financing.

Currently, it is not possible for non-profit companies under Article 25 of the Companies Registration Act — like industry associations — to set up an institution and get university status and recognition from the University Grants Commission.

Educational institutions in India can be set up only by trusts, societies and charitable companies, but the profits cannot be taken out of the institution and have to be reinvested. Not only does this restriction hamper expansion, it also encourages promoters to resort to creative accounting to take out profits from the institutions.

Now, under encouragement from an influential political ally from Maharashtra, the United Progressive Alliance government is expected to clarify this clause, sources told Business Standard.

But this report doesn't indicate that for-profit higher education will be allowed - it only seems to indicate that in addition to non-profit trusts or societies, non-profit Section 25 companies will also be allowed to set up higher education institutions, which is not as big a step as what is being considered in the primary education space. A recent report had suggested that for-profit investment in primary education is under consideration.

So, what is a Section 25 company? The Indian Companies Act (1956), provides a definition of a section 25 company.

Section 25 POWER TO DISPENSE WITH "LIMITED" IN NAME OF CHARITABLE OR OTHER COMPANY.

(1) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Central Government that an association
(a) is about to be formed as a limited company for promoting commerce, art, science, religion, charity or any other useful object, and
(b) intends to apply its profits, if any, or other income in promoting its objects, and to prohibit the payment of any dividend to its members, the Central Government may, by licence direct, that the association may be registered as a company with limited liability, without the addition to its name of the word "Limited" or the words "Private Limited".

(2) The association may thereupon be registered accordingly; and on registration shall enjoy all the privileges, and (subject to the provisions of this section) be subject to all the obligations, of limited companies.

(3) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Central Government - (a) that the objects of a company registered under this Act as a limited company are restricted to those specified in clause (a) of sub-section (1), and (b) that by its constitution the company is required to apply its profits, if any, or other income in promoting its objects and is prohibited from paying any dividend to its members, the Central Government may, by licence, authorise the company by a special resolution to change its name, including or consisting of the omission of the word "Limited" or the words "Private Limited"; and section 23 shall apply to a change of name under this sub-section as it applies to a change of name under section 21.

(4) A firm may be a member of any association or company licensed under this section, but on the dissolution of the firm, its membership of the association or company shall cease.

(5) A licence may be granted by the Central Government under this section on such conditions and subject to such regulations as it thinks fit, and those conditions and regulations shall be binding on the body to which the licence is granted, and where the grant is under sub-section (1), shall, if the Central Government so directs, be inserted in the memorandum, or in the articles, or partly in the one and partly in the other.

(6) It shall not be necessary for a body to which a licence is so granted to use the word "Limited" or the words "Private Limited" as any part of its name and, unless its articles otherwise provide, such body shall, if the Central Government by general or special order so directs and to the extent specified in the directions, be exempt from such of the provisions of this Act as may be specified therein.

(7) The licence may at any time be revoked by the Central Government, and upon revocation,

Not that big a difference from the way non-profit trusts or societies operate in India.

The Business Standard report also goes on to suggest that with the shackles of the Left Parties removed after the recent confidence vote, there will now be movement on the pending Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill to allow foreign universities to operate in India.

There is also renewed hope for a Bill allowing foreign universities and institutions into India to be tabled in Parliament, judging by Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh’s remarks at a conference of state education ministers two days ago.

The Left parties were the principal opponents of the Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill, which was cleared by the Cabinet in 2007 but never introduced in the Lok Sabha although it was listed in the agenda papers.

“We have tried to accommodate some of the concerns. We will try to introduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha session beginning August,” Singh said. The Bill seeks to regulate foreign institutions setting up campuses in India. A contentious issue is whether caste-based reservations would apply to these institutions.

Both Oxford and Stanford Universities have evinced interest in setting up campuses in India but have been hesitant about moving forward until they are clear about the degree of regulation, funding and other issues.

Experts say the moves would provide clarity on funding of higher education institutions by overseas entities. "This will probably provide funding clarity for foreign institutions like charitable organisations or NRIs wanting to set up facilities in India.

Primary education for profit likely to be allowed in India

says The Economic Times. This is a very interesting move by the Government, heralding a huge change in their thinking on funding primary education. If they implement it, there could be a surge of much-needed private investment into primary education to provide a big boost to both supply and quality. The idea of cautious experimentation by asking private players to work in partnership with a government agency is a wise one.

Source: The Economic Times, Chennai Edition, Tuesday, July 22, p1 (couldn't find the link online)

Profit-making in primary education may get okay

Gireesh Chandra Prasad
New Delhi

Come December and corporates may get to venture into preimary education as a profit-making business by partnering with government bodies. According to a proposal on public-private partnership that the government is working on, shareholders of such companies will be eligible for dividends. This is a major break from the present legal restrictions that force companies providing education to plough back profits and utilise the funds for their stated objective of providing education.

Trusts, societies and charitable companies are the most-preferred legal structure for educational institutions and promoters are barred from taking profits out of such institutions. The proposed rules will change this equation with promoters earning reasonable dividends under watchful eyes of the public sector partners they will work with.

THe new norms would allow entrepreneurs to incorporate their ventures as companies and get into education as a profit-making service. However, they will not be eligible for any tax exemption that now extends to societies, trusts and charitable companies.

The finance ministry is expected to begin the process by issuing a request for qualification - a document detailing the parameters for eligible companies. This would give details about how the proposed business model would be structured without violating the existing restriction on repatriation of profits. The ministry would also evolve a model for inviting private investments in primary health centres through public-private partnerships.

The proposed relaxation would be available only for companies getting into partnerships with government entities and not to all. The nature of these projects would be different from the few public-private partnerhsips that have already happened under the rurual health mission and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which are largely in the form of management contracts or for providing specific services.