Education News

Secondary awareness

The importance of resuscitating and augmenting India’s languishing education institu-tions is finally impacting itself upon the powers that be in the highest echelons of government, resulting in some promising initiatives. Foreign direct investment in higher education may soon become a reality as a regulatory Bill is under discussion by a group of ministers, although details of the discussions are a tight secret. "Yes, discussions are on and there’s a possibility that a Bill will tabled in the budget session of Parliament," says a spokesperson of the Union human resource development ministry.

With the pressure to augment capacity in tertiary education to absorb 15-20 percent (cf. the current 9 percent) of youth in the age group 18-23 building up, and the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) at the primary level, educationists have woken up to the need to increase the intake capacity of secondary schools. The Planning Commission has reportedly approved an outlay of Rs.5,000 crore per year for secondary education and asked the HRD ministry to rework its earlier demand for Rs.3,400 crore.

The goal of universal-isation of elementary education by 2010 (though agencies like Unesco believe 2015 is more realistic), and start of the 11th Plan period, seem to have combined to focus the spotlight on secondary education. An estimated additional 22 million students will become eligible for secondary education by end 2010 if SSA targets of enrollments and retention of children in primary schools are attained.

"The downstream effects of the success — or even partial success — of SSA have to be planned for. Can government alone build secondary and tertiary capacity, or should it involve the private sector? It doesn’t seem to be clear about this issue," says Prof. A.K. Sharma a respected educationist and former director of NCERT who points out that a perspective plan for a comprehensive secondary education management information system (SEMIS) was recently recommended by CABE (Central Board of Education).

"Resources for primary, secondary and higher education should never be either/ or choices. All sectors must be developed in synchrony as per the Kothari Commission’s recommen-dations," advises Dr. Farqan Qamar, director, Centre for Management Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

That’s perhaps why the argument for creating capacity and strengthening the secondary school system is finding a growing number of takers. "The failure of the university system in the country is because of a deficient school system. If the quality of students entering tertiary education is below par, standards in higher education institutions will also be low. This in turn adversely affects research at the university level. Therefore a culture of quality, vocational education impetus and academic excellence at all levels — primary, secondary and tertiary — have to be encouraged if we wish to attain universal access, equality and social justice and world class economic development," says Dr. Soti Shivendra Chandra, retired principal of S.S. College, Shahjahanpur and former dean of MJP Rohilkhand University.

In short, there’s renewed awareness in Indian academia that the fire-fighting either/ or approach to education development needs to be discarded in favour of balanced inter-sectoral growth. And with the Central and state governments running large fiscal deficits, there’s no option but to permit a greater role for private sector educationists.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Stanford intent

Although the commissars of India’s durable communist parties and the great majority of the nation’s business illiterate politicians and bureaucrats are still blissfully unaware, post-independence India’s 40 year romance with the communist Soviet Union which collapsed in a heap of rubble in 1989, has extracted a heavy toll from the Indian economy. It not only denied Indian industry access to the wonder products and technology of the US but perhaps more damagingly, to American management sciences and best business practices. Instead, high-potential Indian industry was lumbered with Soviet-style public sector enterprises (PSEs) manned by clerical mindset bureaucrats who have predictably plunged India’s thousands of PSEs owned by the Central and state governments, deep into the red (pun intended).

Now somewhat belatedly following the liberalisation and deregularisation of the Indian economy from 1991 onwards, Indian industry is beginning to tap into the massive pool of American business knowhow and technology. And fortunately US industry and academia seem willing to let bygones be bygones and share knowledge and expertise with its fellow democratic nation.

The latest manifestation of renewed US interest in India, was on full display in Mumbai when the blue-chip California-based Stanford University conducted a two-day executive education programme titled ‘Innovative Strategies for a Dynamic Economy’ at the commercial capital’s Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel on January 15 and 16. Orchestrated by Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the School of Engineering, the seminar exposed captains of Indian industry and business to the intellectual firepower of Stanford’s most famous schools. Faculty from these blue-chip institutions briefed Indian business tycoons and professionals about Stanford’s latest business research breakthroughs and encouraged them to innovate and apply research outcomes. Moreover to help Stanford understand the needs and perspectives of Indian industry, business icons N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of the Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries delivered keynote addresses.

Yet Stanford University reps acknowledged that the prime purpose of the executive education programme was to showcase the university’s transformative multidisciplinary pedagogies under which faculty experts from often isolated fields such as engineering and management jointly explore uncharted territory to find breakthrough solutions to complex business conundrums. "We see a real opportunity for extensive cooperation between US and Indian industry which will also provide our students a chance to familiarise themselves with the most important fast-track democracy in the world," says Stanford University President John L. Hennessy, explaining the purpose of the seminar.

Stanford University’s renewed interest in India and South Asia is evidenced by the inauguration of its University Center for South Asia (CSA) last year under its division of international and comparative studies. Promoted with the objective of integrating study initiatives pertaining to South Asia, CSA works with other departments including the school of humanities and sciences to increase faculty strength, support research, expand the range of study programmes, build the library collection and sponsor student exchanges and seminars.

The Stanford management’s intent of strengthening ties with India was in further evidence at a press conference held on January 15 in Mumbai, when representatives of the university announced an agreement between Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore to launch the Stanford-IIMB Exchange Program. Starting this academic year, 16 graduate business management students of each institution will initiate a sequential two-way exchange. Under the agreement Stanford Business School students will study at IIM-B for one week (September 16-22), and IIM-B students will visit Stanford Business School for one week (December 2-8).

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Online IIT plans

Reacting to increasing criticism about ‘unemployable’ students being churned out by India’s 1,250 engineering colleges and institutional complaints of shortage of trained faculty, the country’s seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, have devised a National Programme of Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) which offers web-based audio-visual content for undergraduate and postgrad science and engineering students. The objective of NPTEL is to make high quality learning programmes available to engineering students countrywide using latest information and communication technologies. Phase I of the project which has already received Rs.20.5 crore from the Union ministry of human resource development commenced in June 2003 and was formally launched in September 2006, while Phase II is scheduled to commence later this year.

As a consequence, undergrad engineering students and faculty across the country can access massive digital resources built into Phase I of NPTEL in five major engineering disciplines — civil, electrical, mechanical, electronics and computer science — besides core maths, physics and chemistry courses which are part of the first year BE/B.Tech curriculum, free of charge. A huge repository of 115 web-based courses is currently available to students and teachers, and during the past four months, over 200 lectures have been converted to the digital format.

"The overall purpose of NPTEL is to improve the teaching-learning process in engineering colleges by making high quality course materials and video lectures available on demand. Teachers can enhance teaching by using content which has been thoroughly peer-reviewed, and students can access the web-based courses online or download video lectures to study at their own speed. The website (nptel.iitm.ac.in) has received 4.2 lakh hits in the past four months and is accessed by 1.2 lakh registrants, of whom 35 percent are students, 45 percent are industry professionals, 10 percent are faculty and the rest from outside the country," says Dr. Mangala Sunder Krishnan, professor, department of chemistry, IIT-Madras, and national co-ordinator for NPTEL’s web-based courses.

Unsurprisingly the NPTEL initiative has been received with great enthusiasm by students and the academic community. "Faculty in most colleges lack in-depth knowledge of subjects. The web and video-based content for undergraduate engineering disciplines, carefully compiled by distinguished professors in the field is a virtual treasure house for students and faculty who should make effective use of the material. Through this project, we are reaping the full benefit of India’s information technology revolution," says Dr. S. Seetharaman, principal, Sai Ram Engineering College, Chennai.

Phase II of project NPTEL scheduled to commence later this year, will scale up the digital resources repository to include more subjects for undergraduate studies and create web and video-based content for postgraduate science and engineering programmes including technology specific courses, of which there is very little expertise outside the IITs. Additionally, the second phase will also facilitate feedback from users and create online discussion forums. Moreover in Phase II of the programme IIT faculty will collaborate with teachers of other top-rank institutions to augment the number of study programmes.

By scaling up the NPTEL project and using the experience gained from it, IIT-M plans to coalesce with the other IITs to eventually launch a virtual, online IIT which will confer degrees to 10,000-15000 students every year. IIT-M’s director Prof. M.S. Ananth who has been highlighting the acute shortage of adequately qualified teachers in India’s engineering colleges, believes that a virtual IIT is a cost-effective option which requires only 10 percent of the faculty needed for brick and mortar institutions. "We have to develop pedagogies that place virtual IIT students on a par with students from regular IITs. We believe we can make it happen," says Krishnan.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Great expectations tragedy

Open, continuous and uninterrupted violation of children’s rights is one of professedly socialist, and generally holier-than-thou post-independence India’s worst kept secrets. The grisly child murders of Nithari which continued unchecked for two years is perhaps the worst manifestation of oppression of children in the new society fashioned by Indian style central planning. However given perpetual capacity shortages in institutions of higher education, even educated middle class parents are making the lives of children across large swathes of 21st century India a torture, by pushing them too hard to succeed (see cover story ‘Pushy parents driving kids over the edge’ EW August 2006).

Currently there’s much anguish and hand-wringing in academic circles and middle class Kolkata over news reports describing the ordeal of 14-year-old table tennis champ Biswadeep Bhattacharya who was beaten to death by his own father for skipping a practice session. "Biswadeep was a good player, but he couldn’t quite meet his father’s unrealistic expectations. Nor was this a one-off incident; Biswadeep had once run away to Patna," recalls Rabi Chatterjee, general secretary of the Bengal Table Tennis Association.

Though Biswadeep was a member of the medal-winning Bengal team in the Cadet Sub-junior National Table Tennis championship in Chennai in 2004, and had won the singles title at the Calcutta District Championship in 2005, his father was less than satisfied and particularly upset since he had lost in a recent tournament.

"Deepak used to force a punishing regime, lash his son with electric wires and seal his lips with adhesive tapes to silence him," stated public prosecutor Swapan Chakraborty in the magistrate’s court in Alipore, where Deepak Bhattacharya, Biswadeep’s father is being tried.

This tragedy has stirred much debate and discussion in the city on parental pressure on children and children’s rights. Behavioural analysts indicate there’s growing incidence of a condition described as ‘explosive personality disorder’ and issued warnings against parents expecting their children to top every list. "Loss of self confidence, low self- esteem, excessive anxiety and nervous disorders are common traits in children subjected to excessive pressure to perform," warns psychoanalyst Shiladitya Ray.

Following this tragic incident which has cut a promising career short, several awareness campaigns about the dangers of excessive parental expectations have been launched in the city. "We have started counselling parents to reduce their expectations of children," says Gillian Hart, principal of the Welland Gouldsmith School, Kolkata. Likewise Swami Atmapriya-nanda of the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University also announced a proposal to start a parental education programme to enlighten them on the hazards of academic stress.

The silver lining to young Biswadeep’s tragic tale is that the subject of obsessive parental ambition which imposes severe strain on children has come out of the closet. Better late than never.

Moushumi Roye Dutia (Kolkata)

Rash order fears

In a move that has provoked charges of discrimination, the Delhi state government’s directorate of education has ordered 618 MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) girl schools to replace their male faculty — teachers and principals — with women. Expectedly, the schools’ male teachers have reacted unfavourably against the order with some of them seeking legal recourse. Of a total of 19,000 teachers in Delhi’s 1,800 MCD-run schools, more than 6,000 are males and unsurprisingly, education director Indira Yadav’s order — issued on December 14 last year — has prompted them to make loud protests.

Citing a sharp increase in cases of child abuse and sexual exploitation of girl children in municipal schools, the directorate has justified its order on the ground that replacing male teachers in girls’ schools with female faculty "will help stem the problem of sexual crimes against girls". Comments Yadav, who took over as education director in 2004 and is known for her penchant for issuing controversial orders: "The comfort level of girls is far higher with women teachers. Replacing male faculty with women teachers is a precautionary measure taken to tackle the rising incidence of girl child abuse."

Expectedly, male teachers in municipal schools — who have launched a concerted campaign against the move — have reacted sharply to Yadav’s "knee-jerk order". The education directorate had issued a similar order on June 5, 2005, but had to withdraw it in the face of stiff resistance from male teachers. This time, however, the directorate is insistent about its order being obeyed even though it has been widely criticised as unfair, sexist and a violation of the right to professional equity.

"The directorate’s order casts aspersions on our professional integrity," says M.Y. Usmani, principal of MCD School, R.K. Puram. "True, there have been cases of molestation in some MCD schools. But does this mean that all male teachers are sexual predators?"

While there’s some substance in the protests of grossly underpaid MCD teachers (average remuneration: Rs.6,000 per month), there’s also growing concern about the alarming rise in sexual abuse cases against children — especially girl children — in India’s government schools. According to the World Health Organisation, one of every 10 children in India is sexually abused during the school years. The National Human Rights Commission estimates that 45,000 Indian children disappear every year (123 per day) — 40 percent of whom are sexual abuse victims — whereas several independent NGOs put their number at a staggering 3 million. Moreover a recent survey of 2,211 school children in the city by the Chennai-based Centre for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse indicates that sexual abuse is suffered by a staggering 42 percent of children in all socio-economic groups.

But while such surveys serve the useful social purpose of highlighting a spreading social malaise, academics feel that rash orders issued by the government are hardly the solution. Though it is a well-documented fact that over 95 percent of paedophiles are men, it is also known that one-third of sexual crimes are committed against boys. In such a scenario, transferring of male teachers to boys or co-ed schools is hardly a panacea. The requirement is to introduce sex education in schools so that children become more aware and less vulnerable.

In any case, arbitrary transfer orders will further disrupt Delhi’s MCD schools which are already plagued by funds shortages, poor infrastructure, indifferent teaching and an abysmal teacher-pupil ratio of 1:50 (as against the accepted international norm of 1:20). Moreover they suffer rampant staff shortages with over 250 headmasters’ posts lying vacant in the past year. Hence, transferring 6,000 male teachers might well worsen their situation.

With exams round the corner and acute staff shortage, disruption of classes is likely. As male teachers take to the barricades, a long hot summer seems to be in the offing for the already short-changed students of the national capital’s MCD schools.

Neeta Lal (New Delhi)