People

Broward moves forward

Calderon (centre): approval seal

"Our India study programme is of the same academic standard and quality as the associate degree course we offer in Broward. Every detail from the syllabus, admission criteria, faculty selection and the evaluation process is checked and approved by BCC, whose senior administrators visit CAE several times a year. It is this detailed supervision by the parent university which distinguishes a good university transfer programme," says Calderon, an alumnus of the University of Southern California, who took charge as president of BCC in early 2004.

According to Calderon, Broward’s India programme enjoys the distinction of being among the few overseas programmes accredited in the US. "Of Broward’s seven international education affiliations, only the Singapore and India programmes have been approved by the Atlanta-based Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. This approval and accreditation of our India programme lays to rest any fears students may have about acceptability of the associate degree in the US," says Calderon who adds that the real advantage of CAE’s university transfer programme to Indian students is economic — they can complete the first two years of a four-year US bachelor’s degree at home at one-third of the US price. The annual tuition fee at CAE is Rs.2 lakh while in BCC it’s Rs.6 lakh. Currently CAE which boasts 30 students and 10 faculty is on a massive enrollment drive given that the student capacity in its spanking new campus in Hennur in suburban Bangalore is 250.

Among the top ten of America’s 1,200 community (i.e. public funded vocational-cum-conventional) colleges with 60,000 students and 1,500 faculty, Broward is also keen to offer its tried, tested and proven vocational programmes in India. "Community colleges in the US offer study programmes that integrate academic and vocational education and enable students to become market and employment ready. We would like to share the expertise we have gained in offering professional programmes in India and are looking for partners here," says Calderon.

Given the almost complete unavailability of qualitative vocational education in India, it’s an offer too good to refuse.

Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)

Special asset

Asrani: students first

"Though ours is a special school, we subscribe to the ideal that inclusive education is the best education. However though theoretically correct, it is often impractical. Students with profound and severe hearing impairment experience great difficulty while studying in crowded mainstream school classrooms where they seldom receive the special attention they require. Nevertheless after induction here we always attempt to mainstream students who can cope. Thus far 32 of our students have joined mainstream schools," says Amar Asrani the promoter honorary director of RTTHS.

A former senior teacher at the Swami Vivekananda High School in the city, Asrani has ensured a regimen of focused attention to students admitted into RTTHS. At the time of admission, speech therapists conduct an audiological evaluation to ascertain the degree of each child’s hearing loss and prescribe appropriate hearing aids. If a student’s family can’t afford the prescribed hearing aid, the school pays for it. Immediately after admission, the school’s speech therapists commence auditory and speech therapy instead of teaching sign language, which would limit children’s social circles to the hearing impaired. Consequently it is usual for the school’s students with moderate to severe hearing loss to speak aloud in grammatically correct sentences. "We regard hearing challenged students as students first and then as differently abled. After all their IQs are as good as anyone else’s. Our job is to identify the innate talents of each student and work on developing them," says Asrani.

The showpiece of this school is its specially designed audio-video auditorium with complete amplification facilities for 40 students. Audio-visual equipment including television, video, tape recorders, slide projectors, overhead projectors and audio-video cassettes are used for teaching. The school’s computer lab is open to all students from kindergarten to class X. Moreover as most children are from the economically disadvantaged sections of society, the school has a nutrition programme, while its in-house publication division prints books authored by teachers of the school especially for pre-primary students to make up for the dearth of books for the hearing handicapped in this particular age group.  The school has also established a vocational training centre where students learn screen-printing, beauty culture, bookbinding, embroidery, tailoring, pottery, painting and other arts and crafts.

Asrani believes that parents need to become actively involved with their children’s progress in school to ensure their holistic development. The school’s PTA is very active and educational and vocational guidance and training is given to parents as well to help them supplement school learning.

Pallavi Bhattacharya (Mumbai)

Pandian’s progress

Pandian: broader goal

An English and education postgraduate of Madras University who was also awarded her doctorate by the varsity, Pandian began her career in 1979 as a lecturer in her alma mater and climbed the academic ladder to head the department of education in 2003. She also served as director of the Academic Staff College of the university for five years (1998-2003). During this period she was widely credited with revamping the syllabuses of several study programmes, organising seminars and spearheading a number of research projects financed by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the National Institute for Educational Planning and Adminis-tration and the National Council for Educational Research and Training.

In her new job as vice-chancellor of MSU, Pandian has listed tightening the administrative structure of the university and its affiliated colleges, and examining the socio-educational and ecological needs of the people of Tirunelveli as top priorities.

"My first priority is to address the educational needs of local people. Tirunelveli (pop: 5.5 million) is an earthquake prone area and was badly hit by the giant tsunami wave which struck coastal Tamil Nadu on December 26. I want to equip students with the knowledge and capability to cope with such natural disasters. Secondly, Tirunelveli district, which has the largest number (33) of community colleges in the state offering skills training to a heterog-eneous mix of students, is the right place to begin work towards my broader goal of integrating community colleges into the higher education system," says Pandian.

Another focus area is to contemporise the curriculums of MSU and affiliated colleges to bridge the yawning gap between study programmes and needs of the job market. "I have been pressing for employment-oriented curriculums since 1987 but education administrators have awakened to this need only recently. I plan to restructure existing study programmes at MSU and add new courses to make students readily employable. Also on my agenda is a choice-based credits system which facilitates the movement of students from one discipline to another, and provides greater flexibility in the choice of study subjects," she says.

Inevitably, women’s empowerment and development programmes are also high up on Pandian’s agenda. "There are very few women leaders occupying key positions in business and industry. I want to design capability building programmes for women to prepare them for leadership positions. We shall shortly initiate the process of identifying potential women leaders and give them intensive training," says Pandian, who during her long innings in Indian academia has acquired a good reputation for translating plans into action.

Certainly with Pandian at the helm, MSU can look forward to a higher profile in the near future.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Persistent educationist

Singh: fitting tribute

Dr. Karan Singh, chancellor of the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Rajya Sabha member was awarded the Padma Vibhushan for public affairs on Republic Day (January 26) this year. The life of this septuagenarian senior educationist-cum-politician is memorable on several counts. Born as heir apparent to the throne of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, he was installed as the first sadr-riyasat (president) of J&K in 1947 after its accession to India. He served as sadr-riyasat until 1965 after which he was appointed J&K’s first governor following a constitutional amendment (in which the designations of prime minister and president of the state were changed to chief minister and governor). Soon he plunged into active politics and was appointed minister in the Union cabinet in 1967. Thereafter, he was elected to parliament in 1971, 1977 and 1981 from Udhampur (J&K) and served as Union minister of tourism, aviation, health and family welfare and education in several governments.

Educated at the Doon School, Dehradun, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi universities, Singh also served as chancellor of the prestigious Benaras Hindu University for six years. "Education has been a life long interest. Therefore I am somewhat dismayed by the falling standards of research in our universities where too many students ‘manage’ Ph Ds rather than earn them," he says ruefully. Though he acknowledges the commendable progress of specialist centres of excellence like the IITs and IIMs and the spread of education among girl children, he feels the nation has a long way to go. "The idea of Plus Two as a launching pad for vocationalisation of education has collapsed. Hordes of young people drift aimlessly from school to college and are largely unemployable," says Singh.

Singh’s prescription: rationalise and modernise higher education to achieve higher academic standards. "We should integrate positive values like fundamental duties, social commitment and environ-mental protection into education either through the formal curriculum or by strengthening co-curricular and extra-curricular education," he says. Singh also advocates greater private sector participation in higher education despite the Chattisgarh fiasco.

A poet and author, Karan Singh’s interest in religious philosophy is reflected in over a dozen published books authored by him. The Padma Vibhushan is a fitting tribute to a man who lost it all at times but came back to reclaim accolades in public life.

Autar Nehru (New Delhi)

Multi-skilled spirit

Meera Ali (centre): widespread acclaim

Fashion designer, architect, restorer, educationist, social worker, music lover… Meera Ali (wife of renowned filmmaker and Padma Shri recipient Muzaffar Ali) is a woman of many parts. A trained architect from the Institute of Environmental Design, Baroda, she is also a couturiere of repute, having exhibited her designer collections — marketed under the brand name Kotwara — at Galeries Lafayette, Paris; the Air and Space Museum, New York and in Dubai, London and Singapore.

Her interest in haute couture was catalysed by a crafts centre promoted in 1989 by her husband in Kotwara, near Lucknow, which trains craftsmen in the traditional art of chikankari. Kotwara collections are distinguished by their exquisite white-on-white chikan work with the fashion line having established a pan-India presence in top-notch boutiques over the past 12 years.

But despite having acquired a national reputation, Ali’s enduring passion is a non-formal school sited in a 14-acre mango grove for Kotwara’s youth and children. "Education is the single most important factor that will propel India’s progress," she says. "That’s why we invest a lot of our time and resources in this initiative." The Kotwara School which began with an enrollment of 16 students in 1992 has grown with aid from NGOs and the US-based Sam Rich Endowment Fund. Today, it boasts 14 teachers and 320 teenage students, half of whom are girls.

Though the school doesn’t follow any prescribed curriculum, it teaches its students the 3R’s and enables them to learn a craft. "We teach humanist values and impart skills-oriented training like carpet weaving, embroidery and tailoring," says Ali. "The objective is to make the village youth employable — they could work at our crafts centre or promote their own small-scale businesses," she says.

The crafts and vocational education curriculum of the school has impressed UNESCO which has adopted the institution under its Village One World program, sponsoring a dhurrie-weaving workshop and a school newspaper project christened Kabira. Moreover the University of Utah, USA, has partnered with the Kotwara School for an exchange programme. "Students and professors from the university visit our school and conduct communication classes. The synergy is working out wonderfully and we’re hopeful of bringing more world attention to this beautiful region. It’ll be a huge step forward for this village and its talented craftspeople," says Ali.

Recently Ali has won widespread acclaim for organising the annual International Sufi Music Festival — Jahan-E-Khusrau — in Delhi in conjunction with the Delhi Tourism Board. The festival, staged in early March attracted appreciative crowds in the national capital. "I enjoy doing a host of things. All of us are blessed with just one life so we should try and make the most of it," philosophises Ali.

Neeta Lal (Delhi)