Education in India

Choosing the right school board and school for your child

Citizen Matters lists the criteria to consider in selecting a school in Bangalore. Their list includes the following:

• Commute distance and time
• Academic standards
• School fees
• Students-to-teacher ratio
• Good teachers
• School management
• Corporal punishment
• Parent participation
• When to admit

In another article, Citizen Matters addresses the issue of selecting the right school board for your child if you are in Bangalore and provides a comparison table of the alphabet soup of ICSE, CBSE, IGCSE, IB, SSLC/PUC and the NIOS.

There is also a wiki on schools in Bangalore put together by some folks, listing crowd-sourced information on various schools

Details about the Azim Premji University

I met my friend KS Viswanathan, the head of new initiatives at the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) a couple of days ago in Bangalore and asked him for some details about the Azim Premji University (APU). This is what I learnt from an informal chat with him.

• The APU will be an institution of excellence in the area of education to develop outstanding education thinkers & leaders, and also serve as a think tank for long-term education change and sustainable development. Akin to the IITs, AIIMS, IIMs and the NLSUI respectively focussed on Science & Technology, Medicine, Management and Law, the APU will in effect be an IIE focussed on Education.
• The APU's vision is to promote, conceptualize and create a paradigm shift through development of outstanding leadership, research, knowledge and ideas for education and allied development sectors.
• The objectives of the APU include
  • Creating Intellectual Capital: through research based theory and outstanding, creative and socially committed leaders and thinkers. Expand the frontiers of knowledge in education and allied disciplines
  • Practice informed by sound theory: Serve as a national education resource center and present an alternative authentic voice for educational and social change
  • Demonstrating models for effective development of teachers and education leaders
• The APU has been set up through a section 25 company and will be autonomous and self-funded with no dependency on funds from the Karnataka Government.
• The Azim Premji University Ordinance 2009, was passed by the Karnataka Government in November 2009.
• The APU is being set up on 50 acres of land in Sarjapur, near Bangalore. The land is being provided by the section 25 company, which is acquiring it directly from the owners.
• It will be a fully residential university.
• The APU will not be aiming to recover all its expenditure from tuition fees. Any budgetary gap between income and expenditure will be bridged by funds provided by Section 25 company being established by Azim Premji.
• The first students will join the university in 2011. The APU will start by offering masters level courses and eventually also run a Ph.D. program.
• Apart from the classroom lectures, the students at the APU will be required to do field work in schools as an integral part of their learning.
• The APU, in addition to developing education professionals and contributing to research will work towards strengthening the educational space by:
  • Increasing the public debate on alternative approaches towards educational excellence
  • Creating possibilities and opportunities to promote innovation and piloting of new ideas/approaches
  • Supporting state and central governments to move towards a quality education revolution
  • Serving as a resource centre for the country in the areas of education and development
  • Emerging as a centre of excellence in education policy and implementation

Corporates may be able to set up universities through section 25 companies

according to the Business Standard.

“We have received requests demanding this route. The government is exploring the possibility, as it could be allowed under Section 25 of the Companies Act,” confirmed Sunil Kumar, joint secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
......

At present, educational institutions in India can be set up only by trusts, societies or companies, and it is not possible for non-profit companies, like industry associations, under Section 25 of the Companies Act, to set up institutions and get recognition from the University Grants Commission. In the primary and secondary education space, however, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) allowed companies registered under the Act to start private unaided schools last year.

Some higher education institutions have taken this route in the technical education space to escape policing by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — the body that regulates technical education in the country. For instance, many management schools have gone the Indian School of Business (ISB) way, opting for a one-year management programme (against the conventional two-year courses), and have registered themselves under Section 25 of the Act.
....

Educational institutions in India, which are set up by trusts or societies come under the purview of the Charity Commissioner, who is appointed by a state government. Section 25 of the Act, on the other hand, comes under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), thus reinforcing the control of the Centre and not the state over the manner in which the institutions are run and financed.

However, in both the structures — non-profit or society and trust — profits cannot be taken out of the institution and have to be reinvested. Institutions registered under the Act have to use their profits, if any, in promoting the institutions. The Act also prohibits the payment of any dividend to its members. The association may enjoy all the privileges of charitable trusts, but are scrutinised by the Income-Tax Department and not Charity Commissioner, unlike limited companies.

MHRD says it is still studying the way out for students if an institution set up under the Act winds up and its assets are to be transferred to another similar institution. “As of today, if an institution set up by a society winds up, its operation and properties are transferred to another institution. But in this case, we are still studying what route a non-profit entity could acquire if it faces a similar issue,” added an HRD official.

Experts add, this arrangement will allow standards for centrally-administered institutes to be cleared by one central authority rather than different standards for different states

This was actually mooted a little over an year ago. But why all this hoopla? What is the difference between being a trust, a society or a section 25 company? What is the difficulty with a section 25 company setting up a university? A study on charities in India throws some light with a comparison of a section-25 company, a society and a trust across various parameters.

There is one uniform law across the country for companies, the Companies Act, 1956. It is this robust law protected by powerful commercial interests that makes it very difficult for the state government to take over a section 25 Company. The company form is recognised all over the world, it is more closely regulated and monitored than trusts and societies.

But the confusion still remains. Why should the state want to take over or dissolve a section-25 company running a university? In the event of the incumbent management of  a section-25 company running a university mismanaging the university, shouldn't the state be facilitating a takeover of the mismanaged section-25 company by any other interested party capable of running the university well? When the fraud at Satyam Computers came to light, the state didn't take over the company. It only appointed an independent board of directors comprising of experienced and respected professionals who set the house in order and found another entity willing to acquire the assets and liabilities of Satyam and run it going forward.

More questions than answers at this point of time.

A reality television show for teachers - a game changer?

Imagine the best school teachers from across the country competing on live TV to teach us Algebra & Geometry, The History of the Indus Valley Civilization , Darwin's theory of Evolution, Each and every Indian Language, The Geography of the Himalayas, Newton's Laws of Motion, The structure of the atom, The story of the Indian Independence Movement, The Working of the Human Digestive System and more, in an absorbing and exciting manner.

Also imagine not just school children watching these shows on TV each night, but doing so along with their parents who will also get the benefit of getting an education from India's best teachers.

How can we do that? Consider a reality TV show for teachers that will unearth teaching talent, enable it to bubble up to the top and showcase it to the national audience. Wouldn't that be a game changer?

How would it work?

• Students and school managements submit the names of their best teachers to the TV Production House, for each class from class I to class XII, for each of the school subjects.
• The TV Production House goes from city to city across the country and conducts an audition of the teachers registered from that city. The teachers are invited to come on a specific day for the audition to the studio and teach any concept/topic of their choice in a 10-15 minute slot before an invited audience comprising of students, parents and judges who are experienced educators. The teachers come prepared and the judges evaluate the teachers on a set of parameters and select the best teacher in each city for each class and each subject.
• The best teachers from each city, as chosen by the judges, are then invited to the second level of the competition where teachers from different cities compete with each other. As before, the competition will cover every subject for each class from class I to class XII and cover everything in the syllabus.
• The reality show will culminate in selecting the best teachers in the country for each subject by the end of the school year and give away the Best Teacher awards along with a substantial monetary prize for the winning teachers.
• The teachers can be asked to teach in English and/or the local languages of each of the states to enable the large audience of school going children across both rural and urban areas to benefit.
• The teachers will be evaluated on their ability to bring about conceptual understanding amongst the viewers and stimulate further interest and excitement in the subject.
• This program can run right through the school academic year to cover all subjects for all classes, with a break during the summer holidays.

The benefits of the reality TV show for teachers

• We can discover India's best teachers and offer them national level recognition
• We will enable every teacher across the country to watch from home and learn from India's best teachers in action and strive to improve and do as well as the best.
• We will be providing students and parents across the country, whether in rural areas or urban areas, with a high quality education right in their homes through exposure to excellent teachers. The students and parents will not only end up learning but will also then expect more from their own school teachers, thereby raising standards overall. We often settle for what we have, only because we haven't seen anything better yet.
• We can make the teaching profession sexy. We can change the perception of the teaching profession by presenting it as exciting and rewarding both emotionally and financially, for good teachers. We will inspire today's students to become tomorrow's teachers and attract talent into the profession.
• The best teachers will be courted by the schools who will compete to recruit them to teach their children. Salary levels will rise for the better teachers.
• A huge amount of superb educational content will be created in the process. All of the content can be put up on the Internet and students will have the ability to watch the programs of their choice in future at any time and learn at their own pace and progress step by step. One can always go back to relearn a concept which may not be clear or something that one may have forgotten. This will become a continuing education opportunity for adults too - they can learn things they didn't learn in school.
• We could do the same thing for college and university level education too.

Funding and operationalising the reality show for teachers

• A huge audience of students and parents are likely to watch these programmes. There will be substantial interest from advertisers for this huge nationwide audience, especially since parents themselves will want their children to watch this program. Which other TV programs do parents want their children to watch every day?
• Given the multitude of reality television shows to discover musical talent with no dearth of advertisers, a reality television show for teachers ought to be viable. I'm sure we can find a way to make it work - our television executives are amongst the best in the business.
• The details of the duration of each teaching segment, the structuring of what to teach in each slot, how to link it to the syllabus, the parameters on which the teachers will be evaluated, selection of the judges etc.. will have to be worked out. When multiple channels pick up on this, there will be constant innovation in these operational aspects to try and do better than the others and the innovations that work with the audience will get picked up by the other channels.

This could potentially revolutionise education in multiple ways, if we can make it work.

Reliance University on the anvil

So reports The Economic Times.

On November 17, when chairman Mukesh Ambani addresses Reliance Industries’ annual general meeting, he is likely to announce the group’s next foray: education.

India’s biggest business house is planning to launch a private university in line with the Ivy League institutions, says a company insider, though the contours are yet to be finalised.

....

According to an IDFC-SSKI report, Indians spend $50 billion annually on private education. The four segments of the education market — plus two, higher, vocational and supplemental — present a $80-billion opportunity by 2012. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16%, says a CLSA Pacific study.

“Mukesh envisions bringing global education to India. He will outline a road map for the business in the AGM speech,” says an official close to RIL who did not wish to be named. An RIL spokesman declined to comment.

....

Ditto Jaiprakash Industries, which is already running engineering institutes, while the London-listed mining giant Vedanta Group has announced a large university near Puri in Orissa. Those in the waitlist include Chennai-based Murugappa group and FMCG company Ruchi Soya.

This had to happen.

Kapil Sibal is away courting the foreign universities to get them to set shop in India. He should be courting Indian investors too and far more aggressively at that. An Indian university can get off the blocks much faster and we may know how to run it better. There's enough and more of money in India and the know how, experience and skills required to set up and run an university can easily be purchased acquired by an Indian entity. What we need most today is the vision, the largeness of outlook and the willingness to invest money. More importantly, to think big over the really long term, well beyond one's lifetime. While Mukesh Ambani and the others to come, have enough and more of the former, we will have to wait and see about the latter.

Listen to a description of Ezra Cornell's unreasonable vision to get a sense of how a self-made millionaire decided to invest his surplus into building the foundation for a university in the mid 19th century. His motto - "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any field of study" - speaks for his vision, and long-term outlook. The operative word is found. He probably knew his vision may not be achieved in his lifetime, but like all visionaries, he was envisioning the way things ought to be, rather than the way things could be in his day or lifetime. He didn't stop with the vision. He hired the right institution-builders and did enough and more to give it the momentum to keep going on and on. I'd say it's still work in progress.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata is another example of such a visionary closer to home.   

Mr. Narayana Murthy, Mr. Lakshmi Mittal, Mr. Ambani, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal and others - are you listening? Azim Premji is already off the blocks.