Education in India

Teacher Eligibility Test for all school teachers in India

Qualifying in a Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) is now mandatory for all existing and aspiring primary and middle school teachers in the country, with the passing of the Right To Education Act. The National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has published the guidelines for conducting the TET, providing complete details about rationale for the test, eligibility to take the test, the structure and syllabus for the test, the type of questions that would be asked  and the marks required to qualify as a teacher.

To be eligible to take the CTET or any other TET conducted by the states, one has to have a degree in education (B.Ed or D. Ed) or be on the verge of completing a degree in the year of taking the test. Teachers will need to take the TET within a period of 5 years from the time the TET is first notified. This kind of a qualifying test can help improve the quality of teachers right from the recruitment stage.

The Central Government and many States have begun conducting the TET. The Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) was conducted by the CBSE for the first time in June 2011. The next CTET will be held on January 29, 2012. Here's how the CTET web site describes the Test.

It had been inter alia provided that one of the essential qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in any of the schools referred to in clause (n) of section 2 of the Right To Education Act is that he/ she should pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) which will be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the Guidelines framed by the NCTE.

The rationale for including the TET as a minimum qualification for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher is as under:

• It would bring national standards and benchmark of teacher quality in the recruitment process.
• It would induce teacher education institutions and students from these institutions to further improve their performance standards.
• It would send a positive signal to all stakeholders that the Government lays special emphasis on teacher quality.

The aggregate results of CTET 2011 are available thanks to a question raised in the Lok Sabha by the MP, Priya Sunil Dutt. Two papers were held as part of CTET 2011, one for those who wish to become a teacher in classes I to V and another for those who wish to become a teacher in classes VI to VIII. 

Aggregate results from the CTET conducted by CBSE in June 2011

	Paper-I (Classes I to V)			Paper-II (Classes VI to VIII)
Category	Appeared	Qualified	% Qualified	Appeared	Qualified	% Qualified
General	255,480	35,768	14%	254,612	29,931	12%
SC	100,837	3,601	4%	92,996	2,383	3%
ST	30,435	515	2%	21,812	389	2%
OBC	213,001	14,864	7%	199,069	10,468	5%
Total	599,753	54,748	9%	568,489	43,171	8%

According to the aggregate data provided by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D. Purandeswari, less than 10% of those who took the tests were able to qualify. There is no indication of how many of those who qualified were existing teachers.

Priya Sunil Dutt, in her question, had also asked whether, to protect the interests of SC & ST candidates, the Government proposes to prescribe lower marks/ qualifying standard in future and retrospectively to CTET 2011. The Minister, D. Purandeswari, responded saying,

The CBSE has issued certificates and statements of marks to candidates of all categories securing marks 60% and above. Appointing authorities can consider giving concessions to persons belonging to SC/ST/OBC/differently abled category in accordance with respective reservation policies.

It would be good if the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) and the respective State Councils of Teacher Education publish a list on their web sites of all teachers who have qualified in the TET conducted by them, just as the Medical Council of India, publishes a list of all qualified doctors. This would also help students wanting to do a B.Ed or D.Ed in selecting those teacher training colleges that do a good job in training teachers to qualify. The teacher training colleges could also be asked to publish on their web sites the percentage of their students who have qualified in the TETs.

The Tamil Nadu Government notified the Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test recently and put out a Government Order based on the NCTE guidelines. There are a few points that I am still unsure about after reading the Tamil Nadu Government Order.

• The G.O. says "The teachers working in unaided private schools are required to pass Teacher Eligibility Test within 5 years." I presume all teachers currently working in Government schools or Government-aided schools will also need to pass the test within 5 years, but am not sure about it. The G.O. states that teachers can be recruited henceforth only if they have qualified in the TET.
• The G.O. says "The Validity Period of the TET qualifying certificate for appointment will be decided by the appropriate Government subject to a maximum of seven years for all categories." Does this mean that every Teacher will have take the test again after seven years?
• Since the RTE Act only applies to children of 6-14 years of age, are high school and higher secondary school teachers exempt from taking the TET? If so, the NCTE could come up with guidelines for another similar TET for teachers teaching classes IX - XII.



Ashoka University at Sonepat and the Young India Fellowship

Ashoka University, a new, private, non-profit university, is coming up in Sonepat, in Haryana, about 100 km north of Delhi. It will have a greater focus on the humanities and the liberal arts.

Forget about chasing foreign universities to invest in setting up universities in India - there's plenty of money available within India to fund many many more such credible non-profit private universities. The HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal, ought to be aggressively courting Indian philanthropists and investors first more than foreign universities.

A recent story in Business World throws some light on Ashoka University.

To recreate their own experience of learning at US universities, a group of professionals have come together to set up a new university of liberal arts in India. Well known names in Delhi and Mumbai circles — Ashish Dhawan (ChrysCapital), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Naukri.com), Pramath Sinha (9.9 Mediaworx), NV “Tiger” Tyagarajan and Vineet Gupta (Jamboree), among others, are part of the International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE).

To be located in the Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Kundli, Sonepat, across 25 acres, Ashoka University has sought “private university” status from the Haryana government and will be not-for-profit. A total of Rs 50 crore has been paid for the land, and the first phase is expected to cost about Rs 200 crore. The  seed capital has been put up by the trustees, apart from donations from individuals.

Dhawan, senior managing director, ChrysCapital — who recently announced he was stepping down — plans to get into school education in a big way. However, with Ashoka University, the “idea is to offer a greater focus on languages, humanities and social sciences and to offer breadth rather than just depth as in the British system. Instead of studying one subject in depth for 3-4 years, the idea is to study many subjects across disciplines,” says Dhawan. He says it will offer courses and areas of study on the lines of universities such as Yale, Princeton and Amherst.

Here's some more info about Ashoka university as described by IFRE.

The International Foundation for Research & Education (IFRE) is a not-for-profit (Section 25 Company) that has been established with the vision to set up the Ashoka University – India’s first world class university. Over the last two years the team has grown in strength and added numerous academic and non-academic members from across the world to build an incomparable team of accomplished and committed individuals driven by the common motivation to give back to the country.

IFRE is also engaging with various reputed universities and schools in USA and Europe to firm up the scope for collaboration in building Ashoka University. A formal collaboration with the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) is already in place.

Addendum: From their detailed YIF brochure,

Initial funding commitments are already in place and the balance is being raised through endowments and debt.

Perkins Eastman, a globally renowned architectural firm, has been commissioned to design and develop a campus of the future and master planning is now under way. Construction is due to start in December 2011 and the campus is scheduled to be operational in July 2013. The application for grant of University status is under evaluation by the Goverment of Harayana. The University will start with two schools - Arts and Natural Sciences - in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and other leading universities and schools of the world

IFRE, has also launched the Young India Fellowship (YIF), a fully-funded post-graduate fellowship programme. Those interested can apply now for The Young India Fellowship. The last date for submission of applications is December 15, 2011.

The Young India Fellowship (YIF) seeks to groom young women and men like you who will lead India through the 21st century. The YIF will bring together 50 emerging leaders from around India in a one-year residential post-graduate programme in our nation’s capital. We will launch you on your leadership journey by opening your mind to a rich and diverse set of subjects and perspectives, delivered by some of the finest teachers of our generation from around the world. In this cross-flow of ideas and inspired learning, we will encourage and mentor you to discover your own self, to understand your personal values, strengths and aspirations, and create a process for you to build a broad life-plan that will align who you are with what you do in life. It really doesn't matter who you are: whether you graduated in the arts, science, engineering or commerce, we are committed to helping you get to where you want to

Here's what they say about why they launched the Young India Fellowship.

India has a large number of gifted and deserving students who are unable to avail of a high-quality learning experience from reputed institutions in India or abroad due to financial or other constraints. YIF will reach out to such students.

Leading undergraduate programmes in India seem to focus too early on professional and specialized courses that tend to stifle the abilities of talented young minds to explore different perspectives and avenues. YIF is designed to rekindle the desire to learn and explore. The perceived value of a broad-based liberal arts education at the undergraduate level has declined over the years. This has compromised a well-rounded learning experience at the higher education level in India. YIF wants to bring liberal arts to the centre-stage of a more holistic learning experience.

New ideas and possibilities get created at the boundaries of various disciplines. YIF aims to showcase the power of a multi-disciplinary learning environment created by some of the best and most inspirational teachers from India and the world.

• Join 50 fellows from around India in the Founding Batch of Young India Fellows: study, work and learn with India’s best minds, carefully selected for their passion and leadership potential. Your batchmates will include engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers, as well as those who have graduated with degrees in history, sociology, English literature, and the liberal arts.
• Take classes in a range of subject areas that cover anthropology to ethics, life sciences to climate change, and art appreciation to entrepreneurship. You will develop insights and a worldview on a broad set of core disciplines as well as on some of the most complex global challenges we face.
• Learn from some of the world’s most reputed faculty members drawn from the best universities and institutions around the world, and known for their outstanding teaching and research. The hand-picked YIF faculty will not only inspire you and help you learn how to learn, but also challenge you to be the best you can be.
• Get mentored by some of the best minds and role models with diverse backgrounds and experiences. From corporate leaders to social activists, from researchers to entrepreneurs, the YIF Council of Mentors will help you think through what you should do next in life and how.
• Be coached on life skills and develop your “whole person” through a portfolio of engaging leadership courses. You will take courses in writing and communication, learn numerical analysis, critical thinking and problem-solving, and train in business and entrepreneurship.
• Experience working in the real world through a year-long team-based consulting and research project created especially for the YIF. Whether for a major company or a start-up, for a university lab or an NGO, the Experiential Learning Module (ELM) will help you learn from doing.
• Receive a full scholarship of Rs 8 lakhs to cover the entire fee, boarding and lodging when you enter this prestigious fully-residential, full-time programme. And on completion, our experienced placement counselors will support and guide you in securing a career or higher-study opportunity in your area of choice.

The YIF is currently functioning out of Delhi now, but will shift to Ashoka University at Sonepat over time.

For the first three years the YIF is being co-located at the Sri Aurobindo Center for Arts & Communication (SACAC) campus, Sri Aurobindo Society in New Delhi.

From the 3rd year onwards the programme will be moved to the upcoming Ashoka University campus at the Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat, which is being planned as the hub for institutions of higher learning in the NCR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Incentives in school education in India

There were two talks on education, both focussing on incentives in school education, at the recently held Takshashila Shala in Chennai.

In the first talk, I spoke on what we can do differently to try and achieve the goal of providing a quality education for all children in India within the next ten years, something we haven't been able to do for the past 60 years.

I presented three ideas on what we could do differently. One of the ideas is a policy change for the Government to think about and the other two are something that we as civil society need to think about.

 

 

In the other very interesting talk, Gautam John of Akshara Foundation described the findings from recent research  on incentives in public primary education.

 

 

Do Government School Teachers in Tamil Nadu educate their own children in Government schools or Private Schools?

Detailed data obtained from the Tamil Nadu Government on this is interesting and revealing. Mr. T.K. Chandrasekaran, a retired Government official in Tamil Nadu, filed a Right To Information (RTI) application with the Tamil Nadu Government in 2009 asking for the following information:

• Number of teachers teaching in Government or Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu
• Number of teachers teaching in Government or Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu who send their own children to Government schools
• Number of teachers teaching in Government or Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu who send their own children to Private schools

Mr. Chandrasekaran says he has received information from most of the districts over a two-year period. It has taken patient and persistent follow-up with every single District Education Officer (DEO). On occasion, he has had to go to the higher authorities including the State Information Commissioner, before the DEO acted on his request. The whole exercise, he says, cost him over Rs. 40,000. In one instance, the DEO of Kancheepuram district said he would provide the requested information only if a fee of Rs. 4,099 was paid to cover the costs of compiling and sending the information, which Mr. Chandrasekaran promptly did. He later filed a complaint against that DEO with the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission which ruled in Mr. Chandrasekaran's favour and ordered the DEO to refund the amount to him!

Many DEOs provided the data requested. Some went beyond their call of duty and not only provided the data requested, but also listed the names of the individual teachers and their children as well! A few of the districts are yet to furnished the information, despite repeated reminders. Very little data has been received so far from the Chennai Corporation which runs the Government schools in Chennai.

Although data has been received from many districts, it is unclear if the data provided

•  includes data on the schools and teachers in every single government school in those districts, or if some government schools have been left out;
• refers only to Government school teachers or if it also includes teachers in Government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu.

The single-handed effort by Mr. Chandrasekaran, as a public-spirited and concerned citizen, in unearthing this data is most commendable. He has compiled all the information he has received so far and graciously shared it (data compiled by him is available in a spreadsheet). I have also crunched through the data provided by him to come up with district-wise summary spreadsheets  for high school and higher secondary school teacher data and primary and middle school teacher data. Further details can be had from Mr. Chandrasekaran (who can be contacted via email at tkcsekar2009_AT_gmail_DOT_com). He has the hard copies of all the responses received from the districts and communication with the DEOs, if someone is interested in documenting all of it.

Based on the data provided by him, which spans both rural and urban Tamil Nadu, here're the findings:

Primary and Middle School Teachers in Tamil Nadu

Out of a reported total of 47,030 primary and middle school teachers in Government schools, 36,322 teachers (77%) were reported to have school going children of their own. Of these 36,322 teachers,

• 27% (9,757 teachers) sent their children to Government Schools and
• 73% (26,565 teachers) sent their children to Private Schools.

For perspective, there are 214,440 teachers in Primary and Middle Schools in Tamil Nadu including Government Schools, Government Aided Schools and Private Schools (Source: Tamil Nadu Govt. Policy Note on Demand No. 43 School Education, 2011-12 page 10).

High Schools and Higher Secondary School Teachers in Tamil Nadu

Out of a reported total of 50,782 high school and higher secondary school teachers in Government schools, 32,595 teachers (64%) were reported to have school going children of their own. Of these 32,595 teachers,

• 13% (4,281 teachers) sent their children to Government schools and
• 87% (28,314 teachers) sent their children to Private Schools.

For perspective, there are 130,000 teachers in secondary and higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu including Government Schools, Government-Aided Schools and Self- Financed Schools (Source: Tamil Nadu Govt. Policy Note on Demand No. 43 School Education, 2011-12 page p29).

The data obtained by Mr. Chandrasekaran till date amounts to a sample of

• 17%  (36,322 / 214,440) of all (Govt and Private) Primary and Middle School teachers, and
• 29% (32,595 / 130,000) of all (Govt and Private) High School and Higher Secondary School teachers in Tamil Nadu.

The percentage sampled would be higher if taken as a percentage of Government and Government-aided school teachers alone and still higher if taken as a percentage of Government and Government-aided school teachers who have school going children of their own. This is a fairly large enough sample for the data to be taken very seriously.

The data clearly indicates that a substantial majority of teachers in Government Schools in Tamil Nadu don't trust the quality of education in the schools they themselves are teaching in. They are voting with their feet when it comes to educating their own children. If the teachers have lost faith in Government Schools, what about the bureaucrats, politicians and policy makers who are responsible for funding public education as well as making policy decision relating to education? It would be interesting to collect similar data for all our MPs, MLAs and Central and State Government officers across India to find out whether their children and/or grand children are studying in, or studied in, Government schools or Private Schools. If the it turns out to be predominantly Private Schools, as I suspect it will, the politicians and policy makers will have a lot of explaining to do.

We must systematically compile similar data for every other state in India to obtain a nation-wide picture of the preferences of Government and Government aided school teachers when it comes to educating their own children. It would be worthwhile to file similar RTI applications in every state in India to obtain data for those states.

The nation-wide District Information System for Education (DISE) could collect this data as part of the annual national school census conducted by them. Since the 2011-12 school census conducted by DISE is already underway, it may be too late to incorporate it this year. 

Data of this kind has tremendous value in helping us think about ways of improving our education system and making policy decisions about it. In the absence of data, inertia and dogma tend to overwhelm the debate on what can be done to improve education in India, resulting in choices and policy decisions which are not optimal, given our past history, current circumstances and national educational goals.

The data unearthed by Mr. Chandrasekaran is extremely important in the context of the debate on the role of the Government and the Private Sector in helping us achieve the national goal of providing a quality education for every single child in India by 2020.

Translating Khan Academy videos into Indian languages

The process of  translating Khan Academy's videos into the world's most spoken languages is underway.

Amongst the Indian languages, work has begun in Bangla (1,243 videos so far ), Hindi (21 videos so far) and Urdu (101 videos so far).

Khan Academy is looking for volunteer translators for the other Indian languages. More information on issues related to the translation of the Khan Academy videos to other languages is available at a Google Group.

6.8 million laptops to be distributed free to students by the Tamil Nadu Government - details and implications

The Tamil Nadu Government is making good on Chief Minister Jayalilatha's poll promise of giving away free laptops to all students of government-aided higher secondary schools (classes XI and XII), arts and science colleges, engineering colleges and polytechnic colleges in Tamil Nadu.

912,000 laptops are to be given away this year in the first phase of the scheme with a total of 6.8 million laptops to be given away over the next five years. Over 10% of Tamil Nadu's population will be toting laptops in five years time. The families of students getting a laptop will also have access to a laptop, especially the younger siblings in these families. The total five year budget for the scheme is estimated to be Rs. 10,200 crores (about 100 billion rupees or US$2 billion). More information on the scheme is available in the detailed tender document.

A few observations and implications of this scheme:

• This is probably one of the the largest unconventional ICT interventions in schooling in India or possibly even the whole world.

• The traditional approach would have been to give the laptops to schools and let the children use the laptops while in school. In the Indian context, with tightly controlled access to anything in school, that would have probably limited the use of the laptops by the students to a computer period under the watchful eye of a teacher or a computer operator. The Tamil Nadu Government's scheme takes a diametrically opposite approach and puts the laptops directly in the hands of the end users, with no role for the school or the teacher.

• This scheme has political rather than educational origins. Jayalalitha probably got this idea from one of her political advisers and not from an educationist or anyone with an educational background who believes that laptops will make difference to learning. The Government has gone ahead without worrying about how the students ought to, or will, use the laptops. They have left it to the children to figure it out. But going by Sugata Mitra's experiments in Kalikuppam (Puducherry) and elsewhere, it is quite likely that give the laptops, the students will figure out ways of using them in various ways.

• The scheme has been pitched by the politicians as a great leveller for those children who could not have afforded to buy laptops themselves.

• It would have been ideal if educational video content in Tamil (for. e.g. the entire set of Khan Academy videos dubbed in Tamil) had been bundled on the hard disks of each free laptop being given away to all the students.

• Although laptops are being provided free to the students, Internet access is not being provided free. Students will need to figure out ways of accessing the Internet themselves. But with the spread of Internet browsing centres across Tamil Nadu, the easy availability of dongles like Tata Photon or Reliance NetConnect and Internet services being provided even in rural areas by BSNL and other ISPs, I am sure the students will figure out ways of getting on to the Internet. This is also a huge opportunity for the ISPs to make a huge Internet push across Tamil Nadu, since the availability of devices is no more a constraint.

• The suppliers of the laptops are required to provide a 12 month warranty. They are required to establish service centres in over 100 towns across Tamil Nadu and a call centre facility to take service calls. The service network will probably remain in place beyond the 12 month warranty period, with more laptops being sold to the public in these small towns given the availability of the service network locally.

• The original spec for the laptops to be given away free was an Intel Pentium Dual Core P6200 equivalent with 2.1 GHz clock speed, 2GB RAM, 320GB hard disk and a 14" screen, an inbuilt camera, 2 hour battery backup, along with a customised backpack. The Government had expected to be able to source these laptops for not more than Rs. 10,000 per piece, but the lowest bid for the laptops was not less than Rs. 18,000 per piece. So the spec was then downgraded to a 160GB hard disk and a one year warranty, leaving the processor and RAM unchanged.

• The laptops will come with Windows Starter Edition and anti-virus software pre-installed. Apart from that the only additional software to be pre-loaded is Open Office, Tamil unicode fonts, Tamil glossary, Tirukkural software, and the State Board's syllabi of class XI and XII. Initially, the Government had stated that Linux would not be installed, but later on, the Tamil Nadu IT Minister announced that the BOSS version of Linux wouls also be installed to offer a dual boot option.

• Educationists around the world may have their own views on the effectiveness, or not, of the use of ICT in schools, but this scheme provides an excellent opportunity for a long-term study on the impact of such an intervention. It would be worthwhile to embed researchers in a few schools to observe how students use the laptops by themselves, whether the laptops become tools in the classroom environment and/or outside the classroom. The schools could be split into a control group and a test group with the researchers in the test group actively helping students make the most of the laptops and look at the results. The Azim Premji Foundation or NCERT or some other educational research organisation could initiate a project to study this. I hope they take this up.

• One important aspect that has not been given much attention is the fact that teachers are not going to be given free laptops. Most school teachers are not computer-literate, not having had the opportunity to learn to use computers during their education. This tends to lead to a general fear and diffidence amongst teachers about using computers. When each of their students has a computer and begins to use it without requiring any help from the teacher, this could lead to teachers either becoming anti-computer and decrying the use of laptops as distracting from learning or teachers simply going into a shell, or teachers forbidding students from bringing or using laptops in school or
  even teachers commandeering laptops from their students for their own use.

  College teachers are more likely to have used computers or have access to computers in their colleges and may be less fearful or diffident about laptops in the hands of their students.

  There are around 130,000 teachers employed in high schools and higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu. It would have been a good move on the part of the Government to give a free laptop to every school teacher too as part of the scheme. It may not be too late yet to include the teachers. Adding another 1.3 lakh laptops to 68 lakh laptops will not cost that much more and could help teachers begin to benefit from the use of IT too.

• Once the laptops are in the hands of the students, what will they do with it? Putting laptops in  the hands of students addresses the demand side challenge of making computers available amongst a large number of students. The challenges are now on the supply side
  
  • What kind of educational content can be made available to the students?
  • How do we make the content available in particular in Tamil which is the medium of instruction for a large majority of children in Government schools in Tamil Nadu?
  • How do we get the content across to the students if they don't have an Internet connection?
  Since the Government has not announced any plans of providing students with educational content, the students will have to rely on free content available on the web and find it themselves. This opens up tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurs across Tamil Nadu to create and deliver content in Tamil and English for the school/college curriculum, different kinds of teaching and learning material, various kinds of portals like career and job portals, news portals, entertainment portals and so on. This is also an opportunity for different educational portals to curate the best content already available on the web and bring it to the attention of students.

• Since most parents and teachers are not conversant or comfortable with the use of computers, they are not going to be in a position to help students when they begin to explore with their laptops. Fears have been expressed of a generation divide which could lead to students "misusing" computers or being exposed to inappropriate content or being taken for a ride by others on social networking sites. As with any scheme, there is bound to be misuse by some people. How the misuse is perceived and dealt with by parents, teachers and society at large remains to be seen.

It may take a few years for the dust to settle and the impact of the scheme to become apparent, but all other states in India and countries around the world too will be keenly watching the outcome of this experiment in Tamil Nadu.

Periscope 5: Future of online learning; Mission10x; Samjho Sikho in Bihar; No uniform school curriculum

• Insightful interview with Mike Feerick of Alison.com on the future of online education. Alison.com provides "high-quality, interactive, certified and standards-based learning free to the individual learner", something similar to the Khan Academy. Feerick also talks about the sustainability of Salman Khan's Khan Academy.

• Mission10X launches Advanced Academic Leadership Workshop in collaboration with Harvard Business School Publishing (Economic Times)

The aim of this programme is to facilitate principals of engineering colleges to enhance their leadership skills and develop them as institution builders who can make a significant difference to all the stakeholders in engineering education, Wipro said in a statement.

It is designed as three progressive levels of workshops, and includes instructor-led training as well as e-learning. During this process of leadership development, principals would enhance their capabilities in strategic thinking, vision building, skills and competency development, the company said.

Mission10X is a not for profit trust created by Wipro Limited in 2007 with a vision of "Pursuit of Excellence in Engineering Education through Innovation." The have conducted over 500 workshops for faculty members across various engineering colleges. One of their goals is to bridge the gap between the number of employable graduates and the number required by industry.

• Bihar shifts focus from enrollment to quality in elementary education (Bihar Days)

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched the ‘Samjho Sikho’ campaign covering nearly 71,000 elementary schools across Bihar. ‘After achieving success in enrollment in schools, now our target is to improve quality of education in the schools,’ Nitish Kumar said after launching the scheme, also mentioning that the state government has outlined 20 parameters that will be followed by all schools.

The CM has also written a letter addressing teachers circulated to all elementary schools, to be read out to students wherein he suggests ways to improve quality of education. He said that in the last five and a half years, the state government has worked hard to ensure that children are enrolled in schools. “The government’s measures have succeeded to a large extent as only 2.5 percent children are now out of school. When I came to power in November 2005, 12 percent children were
out of schools,” Nitish Kumar said.

• No enforcing of uniform school curriculum, but core curriculum is being used voluntarily, says Kapil Sibal (Indian Express)

“There is no proposal to enforce a uniform system and curriculum at secondary and higher secondary levels,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

“CABE has endorsed the need for a core curriculum in science and mathematics at secondary and higher secondary levels across all Education Boards in the country, so as to provide a level playing field to all students to join professional courses,” Sibal said.

Replying to supplementaries, the minister said 21 Boards unanimously decided to adopt core curriculum in science and mathematics at secondary level.

“Accordingly, NCERT has developed core syllabi in Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at higher secondary stage in collaboration with Council of Boards of secondary education and CBSE,” he said, adding core syllabus for commerce stream too is likely to be completed by next month.

Long term trends in grade inflation in U.S. universities

Economix presents two graphs which say it all - the reasons, implications and the likely trend in the future are discussed in the article.

Could this be happening in India at the Class XII level? Are the larger number of students with high scores that we are seeing today due to easier questions on the test, more liberal grading, or are today's students actually doing much better than their past cohorts?

It would be interesting to if someone has analysed the data from Class XII board exams for CBSE and some of the state boards. If not, it may be time someone did.

The Inequality of opportunity in education in India

The inequality of opportunity in education is the worst in India says Pranab Bardhan in an interview in Livemint.

Now in a country like ours, inequality of opportunity depends on three things primarily:

One, inequality in distribution of land—how much land I have inherited by my family determines my future if you are in agriculture sector.

Second, inequality of education, because for good jobs, I need education.

Third, the inequality of social status, so an Adivasi or Dalit compared to high caste or dominant caste, that’s different.

In all these three respects, India is much more unequal than most countries of the world. Social inequality is very high, most people agree, so let me not go into that. Land inequality is extremely high, much higher than China.

The other thing that surprised me, when I looked into the data, is how unequal is an opportunity to education. I looked into some data collected by World Bank for more than 100 countries, so they computed the inequality in number of years of schooling and I was shocked. I always thought Latin America is one of the world’s (most) unequal regions. Inequality in education is much more in India. So, even if you don’t have land, if you are not of high caste, the way to climb out of poverty is education; but if that is being blocked for so many people, no wonder, if you ask me, that India is one of the most unequal in terms of opportunity in the whole world.

Raghuram Rajan, made much the same point in another earlier interview in Livemint, expanding on the ideas outlined in his book - Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy.

What I worry about India, however, is the problem of inequality. The rural areas, in many ways, are falling behind because they are not connected to the urban and coastal areas. Many of the ones that are backward do not have access to education, healthcare. It is very much a thing that the US has; so, in that sense, while 8-10% growth is fantastic, we also need to figure out how to expand opportunities for those being left behind.

There is no substitute for giving people the capabilities to be productive workers. We are not a rich country. How much redistribution can we afford? Which means schools, healthcare, some level of insurance, financing, access to markets; roads that connect them to bigger markets; railway and transport lines. In a sense you have to move the vibrant economy into interior parts of India. So, I would say that many of these schemes are palliatives to keep the pressure down before they explode. I think they are necessary, but you can’t let palliatives overcome what is essential—creating those capabilities. There are ways, but they are enveloped in the old ways of socialist thinking, which I think is holding us back in tremendous ways.

Not having been able to provide an education for all our children even after 60 years, it seems to me that the the passing of the Right to Education Act in its current form is nothing but a palliative to lull the people into believing that the Government cares about education and is doing something. The states seem to be in no position to implement the Right to Education Act, not having enough funds or the operational bandwidth to do so. The Centre cannot do much more than passing the legislation and asking the states to deal with the challenges of implementation.

 

Newspaper, magazine and television companies can help children learn their lessons

A brilliant idea proposed by Andrew Rotherham in his School of Thought column.

So here's a modest proposal: newspapers and broadcast networks are sitting on a trove of material that can be converted into curriculum and sold — yes, sold — for use in our nation's schools and universities. Digitizing these so-called rough drafts of history would not only bring to life many of the events and ideas that students (and adults) should understand as informed citizens, but would help a struggling industry expand its revenue sources.

He goes on to provide examples of media companies in America that are already doing something on this score, and also what more can be done.

This isn't an idle fantasy. There are already some efforts under way. A few years ago, NBC used its video archives to launch a curricular tool for teachers that is designed to supplement Advanced Placement classes. The site offers a free 30-day trial; after that, schools have to pay an annual subscription. Even though television archives contain just a part of our national story, teachers can use contemporaneous footage to craft engaging lessons about events such as the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the energy crisis of the 1970s.

Print archives go back much further, of course, and a project called Chronicling America, which is run by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, is digitizing newspaper archives for classroom use. The New York Times offers lesson plans linked to specific articles and groups these plans by category — and yes, one of them is civics!

Meanwhile, Time and other publications offer free access to their amazing digital archives. But that content could help students even more if it's aligned to academic standards about what students need to know and put in a format teachers can easily incorporate into lessons.

I wonder if there have been any such efforts in India. If not, this is eminently doable by Indian media companies, especially by the print media - they have a veritable treasure trove in their archives.