Experiential educator
With school exams having just concluded and the onset of the summer vacation, it’s the time of year again when a large and growing number of parents start looking for summer camp options which offer fun-filled life skills learning opportunities. To meet the rising demand for learning holidays, a new generation of outdoor-education-cum-holiday companies have burgeoned across the county.
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| Hari Prasad (centre) with pupils: Nature is the best school |
Among this new genre of outdoor education companies is Future Bound (FB) — a Bangalore-based experiential education company — promoted in 2003 by G. Hari Prasad, a specialist in the field with over 12 years of experience. The company recently announced its inaugural series of five-day camps — ‘Backpack summer programmes 2004’ — for children between ages nine-17 years during April-May. The first camp of 50 children heads for Chickmagalur on April 16.
"Future Bound is offering several summer programmes this year. Our five-day experiential learning camps are designed to stimulate children to explore and discover their natural talents and capabilities, learn valuable lessons in leadership, team work, lateral thinking, problem solving, etc. With an instructor-student ratio of 1:5, personalised attention is assured for all," says Prasad.
The curriculum design and delivery methodologies are the result of an intensive two-year research programme conducted by a team of life skills experts led by Prasad. "I believe nature is the best school, where self-learning takes place in challenging and relaxing environments. Through experiential learning, children acquire confidence and learn communication, leadership, planning and problem solving in a natural way. Unfortunately the current school system of education does not accord importance to these skills," says Prasad, a marketing and tourism management alumnus of Bangalore University who started his career as a scouts master at the Christ School, Bangalore.
After a two-year stint as a formal teacher, in 1991 Prasad signed up as camp organiser with the Society for Promotion of Adventure and Rock Klimbing (SPARK). "The big break in my career came in 1996, when Outward Bound — the world’s largest adventure organisation — appointed me executive director of its Bangalore centre. It was a great learning experience working with renowned mountaineers and naturalists including Padma Bhushan Capt. M.S. Kohli and Sir Edmund Hillary," he recalls.
In 2001 Outward Bound, despite its global presence in over 35 countries, closed shop in India due to financial unviability. Prasad was immediately lapped up by the Delhi-based Discovery Educational Services Pvt. Ltd (DESPL) as a senior associate for their south India operations. In 2003 he quit to go solo and promoted Future Bound in association with Bornfree Tourism Pvt Ltd.
Prasad, who is also the co-author of a book on India’s natural treasures Mountains of India (2001), has drawn up an ambitious blueprint for the future. "Our immediate goal is to set up a fully-equipped outdoor education and experiential learning centre on the outskirts of Bangalore. Also on the anvil is a plan to re-establish linkages with Outward Bound," he says.
Right on brother! Keep trekking.
Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)
Education trail blazer
Union planning commission member and well-known educationist and economist Dr. K. Venkata-subramanian recently (March 16) received the Prof. M.V. Pylee ‘Distinguished Academician of India 2003’ award. This prestigious award instituted by the eponymous vice-chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology comprising a cash prize of Rs.2 lakh and citation is the latest honour bestowed on the brilliant septuagenarian, whose long innings in the field of education spans half a century.
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| Venkatasubramanian: behind target |
An alumnus of Madras University, M.S. University, Baroda and Columbia University, USA, Venkatasubramanian began his career as district education officer in the 1950s in Tamil Nadu and rose to the position of director of education of the state. He held several responsible positions under the state government before being appointed the founder vice-chancellor of Pondicherry Central University in 1985. During his career, Venkatasubramanian pioneered several plans, schemes and reforms in education including the introduction of the Plus Two system in Tamil Nadu, vocationalisation at the higher secondary level and the mid-day meal scheme for primary school children in the 1950s.
Currently in charge of the education, health and family welfare, policy research, women and child welfare, youth affairs, sports and culture portfolios within the Planning Commission, Venkatasubramanian’s first priority is the empowerment of women. Also high on his agenda is transformation of the stagnating higher education system in India to meet the challenges of the 21st century. "We are far behind the target of spending 6 percent of GDP on education as recommended by the Kothari Commission (1968). Today the allocation is just 2 percent and 85 percent of it is spent on staff salaries. Inadequacy of financial resources has had an adverse impact on the quality and efficiency of higher education and this must change. I am amazed that we cannot allot enough funds even to send our professors abroad to acquire global competencies. The few opportunities that come are grabbed by administrators who love foreign trips," he lashes out, in his characteristic outspoken manner.
As convener of a high level task force to develop a ‘knowledge society’ in the new millennium, Venkata-subramanian is busy devising strategies to transform India into a knowledge super power. "In a knowledge society, information is the key to creating wealth. Technology changes rapidly; so greater investment has to made in research and development. India has an ancient tradition of learning, adaptability to new conditions and a brainy young population. The first two decades are make or break years for this nation. We must all join forces to make it happen," says the veteran educationist.
Please lead sir, the rest will follow.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)
Kumar’s correction course
He’s cleared some of India’s toughest entrance exams — IIT, IAS, BITS-Pilani, Roorkee Engineering College, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, National Talent Search Exam and the entrance test of the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines. That’s Rajendra Kumar (37), Delhi’s dynamic director of education who in less than two years since he took charge of Delhi Municipal Corporation’s education department in May 2002, has registered a sizeable blip on Delhi’s academic radar screen. Kumar has introduced new schemes for the girl child’s development, accelerated the pace of old ones, focussed on school infrastructure, made school principals more accountable for performance and introduced the concept of holistic education in Delhi’s government schools.
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| Kumar: radar screen blip |
"After clearing the IIT and other top entrance exams I opted to join the IAS in 1989. I was forewarned about the system, its bureaucracy, bottlenecks and frustrations. But over the years, I’ve realised that as an administrator if you set standards with examples of personal discipline, diligence and perseverance, you can make things happen within government," he avers.
Currently, Kumar is wholly focused on education which he believes is the prescription for India’s social ills. To involve local communities he has promoted Vidyaylaya Kalyan Samitis comprising social welfare associations, NGOs, parent teacher associations and even heads of schools to recommend ways to improve school infrastructure and facilitate students’ passage through the school system.
"Obviously there’s a lot of room for improvement in government schools. But ultimately things boil down to indiscipline and lack of accountability. Therefore I have initiated a continuous and comprehensive evaluation plan for schools to improve things and introduce accountability through new schemes for the girl child and by making school principals directly responsible for results, to give two examples. But all this can’t happen overnight," he says, explaining the mess in Delhi’s 960 government schools.
Comparisons with private schools where both conditions and pass percentages in board exams are much better don’t cut ice with Kumar. "You can’t compare oranges to apples. It’s all very well to take the brightest of students, charge them stupendous fees and produce good results in private schools. The challenge lies in taking the worst, not charging them fees, and getting satisfactory results from them."
Kumar’s initiatives to upgrade government school education in Delhi are worth monitoring. Because if with all his academic qualifications and experience of government he can’t set the system right, the system may have deteriorated beyond the point of correction.
Neeta Lal (Delhi)
New age fashion guru
At a star-studded ceremony in Bangalore in mid-March, Mumbai-based fashion couturier Hemant Trevedi was conferred the Australian Alumni High Achiever Award by IDP Education Australia, a non-profit organisation which represents more than 1,000 Australian universities, colleges and vocational education institutes. For this 43-year-old fashion designer who has clad some of the most beautiful women in India including several Femina Miss Indias and Miss World finalists, the award was a prized recognition.
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| Trevedi (right) with IDP award: tribute to Oz |
"I’m happy and grateful that IDP has chosen me for the high achiever award. I owe much of my success to the training and education I received in Australia," says Trevedi, a 1976 graduate of the Department of Fashion Design of Perth Technical College, Western Australia. "I was the first male student to successfully graduate in the history of the college," he adds.
Returning to india in the early 1980s Trevedi entered the field of fashion design as a teacher at SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, an association that lasted for over 20 years, from 1980 to 2001. Other assignments followed — fashion editor with Gentleman magazine; official choreographer and artistic director of the Miss India pageant; creative visualiser and fashion consultant of Garden Silk Mills; associate professor (fashion design) at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi, and finally executive director of the Sheetal Clothing Company.
Trevedi designs for everyone — from the beau monde to the average woman. He pioneered the concept of ‘trousseau design’ in India, whereby customised ensembles for brides and grooms are created exclusively in a personalised ambience.
In 2000, Trevedi was involved in a near-fatal car accident in Mumbai. "My miraculous survival and recovery changed my outlook on life. It made me aware that I should be grateful to God for the gifts of creativity and life itself. And the care and compassion of my doctors, nurses and family have invested me with care, compassion and responsibility towards others," says Trevedi.
One of his most notable achievements has been designing the couture and costumes of Miss World contestants from India, many of whom went on to win the title. He created spectacular costumes for Lara Dutta, who won the Miss Universe contest in 2000. "I was in a coma while the contest was being staged. To enable Lara to retain her composure, the Femina staff didn’t inform her about my car accident until after she was crowned Miss Universe. Moreover I was told that I came out of my coma in Mumbai at the exact moment when she was crowned in the US. There’s a larger divinity at work somewhere," says Trevedi.
Quite obviously divinity has greater plans for this talented couturier.
Mona Barbhaya (Mumbai)