Education News

Typical indifference

It’s an initiative that holds out the promise of a literacy revolution which could transform India with its nearly 300 million adult illiterates into a fully literate country within the span of three to five years. Excited by the huge potential of this never-before initiative, EducationWorld featured a cover story (July 2003) on the path-breaking Computer Based Functional Literacy (CBFL) programme, conceptualised and tested by the Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest and first $ 2 billion information technology services company. Designed by a high-powered TCS task force assembled by the legendary F.C. Kohli, lauded as the father of India’s computer software industry, CBFL has demonstrated the potential to transform every adult illiterate into a functional literate capable of reading and comprehending a daily newspaper, following a mere 40 hours of informal learning.

Tried, tested, refined and operationalised in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh in the year 2000, CBFL which relies on cognitive capabilities of individuals to recognise 500-1,000 words (instead of alphabets) with the help of images beamed simultaneously on computer screens, has already transformed 56,000 hitherto illiterate adults in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh into functional literates capable of reading and comprehending newspaper headlines and lead paragraphs in their native languages.

Typically, this revolutionary literacy programme has generated little interest in government or the establishment whose support is vital. As its name implies, CBFL is a computer-driven programme. Therefore the availability of second-hand or used computers junked by the million by corporate enterprises every year is essential. Although through its overseas connections, TCS was able to source 20 million discarded personal computers in the US, for almost two years customs and excise officials refused permission for duty-free import on the nit-picking plea that PCs can be imported duty-free only by schools, not adult literacy centres. Following sustained lobbying by Kohli in early 2004, just before the general election the then Union minister of disinvestment Arun Shourie pushed through an amendment to the Customs & Excise Act, permitting the duty-free import of used computers for any literacy purpose.

However following the change of government at the Centre, the plan to massively import used computers for the CBFL programme has been on hold. Moreover, TCS has not gone about importing computers into the country yet. "Packing and importing used PCs from abroad is a gigantic exercise. Before that we need a proper plan for their speedy despatch and deployment across the country. For this, government must have a proper arrangement worked out because at the end of the day, it is only the government which has the infrastructure and resources to execute this project on the scale required to impact the problem of adult illiteracy in India. Until that happens I would like Indian industry to donate an initial batch of 100,000 PCs," says Kohli.

Yet despite official indifference the TCS management is optimistic about government support. Says Jagdish Joshi, representative of a foundation being set up by Tata Sons to oversee the CBFL programme: "We are coordinating with the Maharashtra state government and the Centre on the matter. The state government is very cooperative and the National Knowledge Commission is examining the CBFL programme currently. We hope they will give their recommen-dations to the prime minister before the fiscal year is out."

Having conceptualised, designed, tried, tested and operationalised CBFL at TCS expense, Kohli who stepped down as chief executive of TCS in 2001 is quite clear that the onus of rolling out CBFL is now on the Central and state governments. "We’ve designed and proved the efficacy of the programme and informed government about it. A scheme should be drawn up, implemented, mentored and monitored jointly by the National Literacy Mission and Union ministry of information technology to source the millions of used PCs required in India and abroad. Once sourced they have to be distributed down to the district, taluka and panchayat levels. This requires a massive, coordinated effort in which TCS can at best be a minor, advisory player. The potential of CBFL is great. If effectively implemented, we can improve literacy in the country to 95 percent in three years. But this is possible only if the government gets seriously involved. And we can’t afford to waste further time on the matter. Time is a perishable commodity," says Kohli.

But quite evidently indifference is not.

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Medical education imbroglio

The mess that is higher medical education in Maharashtra (pop. 96 million), India’s most industrialised state, was highlighted during the 13-day strike called by 7,500 postgraduate medical students who double up as resident doctors in the state’s 24 municipal hospitals in Mumbai and several other cities including Pune, Sholapur, Nagpur, Nanded and Aurangabad. This flash strike which ended on March 11 was the sixth by resident doctors in 20 years, and caused great inconvenience and misery to thousands of people from the poorest strata of society who are wholly dependent upon municipal and government hospitals for medical treatment provided free of cost — though not free of bribes.

In consonance with socialist ideology, higher education has always been subsidised in post-independence India, medical education even more so. Tuition fees in government medical colleges are as low as Rs.30,000 per year against the actual cost of tuition calculated by Medical Council of India (MCI) at Rs.4.5 lakh per annum. Under complex rules stipulated by the state government, even privately promoted medical colleges have to provide tuition at below cost prices of Rs.85,000-150,000 to students admitted purely on merit and as per the (castes) reservation policy of the state.

In return for subsidised medical education, postgrad students are obliged to work as interns or resident doctors in government hospitals, where they are paid modest stipends and given residential accommodation.

Inevitably in typical government style, the stipend is minimal (Rs.8,500 per month) and residential accommodation deplorable. Several doctors are obliged to share small single rooms, with some sleeping on the floor amid their luggage while the washing hangs from twine cutting across the room. One of the highlights of the 13-day strike was that the media went to town exposing the filthy, rat-infested living conditions in which postgrad medical students are compelled to reside during their two-year internship period.

To prevent the closure of government hospitals, the state government threatened to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) unless the doctors called off the strike immediately. But MARD (Maharashtra Association of Registered Doctors) contended that it would go to court since the provisions of ESMA cannot be invoked against students. Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials argue otherwise. "They are working for the BMC, so they can’t say that ESMA doesn’t apply to them," says Vijay Kalam Patil, deputy municipal commissioner of BMC.

During the strike which received blanket coverage in the media, the low stipend paid in Maharashtra compared to other states, also became a talking point. The state government has steadfastly refused to implement the Central Parity Scheme (CPS) of MCI which stipulates the pay, doctor-patient ratio, duty hours, and living and working conditions of postgrad student doctors. According to MARD joint secretary Bharat Jigiasi, Maharashtra is one of the few states yet to implement CPS guidelines. "This despite the fact that way back in 1988 the Supreme Court had asked all state governments to implement CPS," says Jigiasi.

As part of the compromise settlement with the striking resident doctors, the state government has promised to set up a four-man committee (including MARD members) to look into the issues of security for doctors, feasibility of reducing working hours, improving living conditions and has also agreed to raise their stipend to Rs.12,500 per month.

"The present rot of the public health system is due to the neglect and under-financing of public health services by the BMC, the ministry of health, and the political leadership of the city and state. Consistent lack of resources, both human and financial, poor maintenance of facilities and equipment, deteriorating living and working conditions of resident hospital staff, severe shortages of drugs and other supplies and the introduction or increase in user fees have created an environment which is insecure, stressful and frustrating for both hospital staff and patients. This has led to extreme anger and is the cause of the wedge in the doctor-patient relationship," says Ravindra Duggal, office bearer of CEHAT, an NGO which brokered the settlement between the state government and striking student medicos.

All this is very well, but unless the root problem of heavy subsidisation of medical education and the quid pro quo demanded by way of 24x7 service in government hospitals is addressed and resolved, the peace in government hospitals is likely to prove short lived.

Ronita Torcato (Mumbai)

Damning research study

Delhi’s education governance is not only dismal but also fraught with obsolete delivery mechanisms, according to the Delhi Citizen Handbook 2006, a compilation of information on 25 departments of the state government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi, published by Centre for Civil Society (CCS), the well-known liberal think tank.

According to a CCS research team comprising students from College of Media and Communications and the Rai Foundation, the state government’s directorate of higher education created in 1997 has consistently failed to utilise budgeted funds. In fiscal 2004-05 it spent Rs.5.48 crore, merely 8 percent of the approved outlay of Rs.70 crore. This has been the pattern of its delivery mechanism for the past four years. Unsurprisingly the directorate has been headless for a long time, and the education secretary of the state government was not available for comment as she was "on a tour of Australia" at the time of filing this report.

Tracing the indifferent and uncoop-erative attitude of the government establishment (directorates of education and higher education), the handbook says that indifference and inefficiency is inbuilt in the system. The Delhi School Education Act, 1973 bristles with stifling regulations, epitomising licence-permit raj and discourages the promotion of new institutions of education. "The decision-making process is very centralised and creates inevitable delays and poor infrastructure. The non-profit motive as a prerequisite in the education sector often breeds corruption and illegality in the system," says Susmita Pratihast, who coordinated research for the handbook.

Citing an instance of irrational regulations, the handbook highlights that all privately promoted colleges aspiring to Delhi University affiliation have to procure an NOC (no objection certificate) for Rs.10,000 from the state government and renew it every year. In addition the university charges them an annual fee of Rs.20,000 until the affiliation becomes permanent. "The promoter foundation has to be registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 — thereby excluding private entrepreneurs from higher education. Though UGC doesn’t pay a single penny to these institutions, yet it dictates pay scales of teachers," adds Pratihast.

Another interesting finding of the research study is that against the national per capita education expenditure of Rs.749, Delhi spent Rs. 927 during 2003-04. However, CAG (comptroller and accountant general) reports hardly praise the financial prudence of the state government’s directorate of education, the de facto education powerhouse and also the largest government department. The handbook lists the case of the Gadodia Girls Senior School, Chandni Chowk which received grants aggregating Rs.1 crore from 1997-2004, although enroll-ment in the corresponding period plun-ged from 409 students to a mere ten.

"A liberal and dynamic democracy is based on the principles of good governance through vigorous participation of informed citizenry. This handbook attempts to arm citizens with information to participate in institutional reform. In this information age, I am sure our work will generate informed debates among people in Delhi instead of morchas and dharnas," says Parth Shah, president of CCS.

Meanwhile, to improve the poor performance of state government school students in examinations especially in mathematics, the directorate of education has decided to start a special training programme called ‘Mind Math’ from the next academic session in all its 950 schools. "The programme is designed to sharpen the minds of students and to dispel their fears about maths," says B.N. Bajpai, deputy director (south) and head of Academic Support Group (ASG) of the directorate.

But such measures will prove to be only of cosmetic value if the systemic reforms recommended by the handbook are not initiated. The political class in the city, sadly, is not seized of the pressing need for reform in the education sector. Within CCS the expectation is that the handbook will stimulate public pressure to force the state government and MCD out of their complacency.

Autar Nehru (New Delhi)

Liberal winds

St. Xavier’s, Kolkata’s premier undergraduate college, received a dramatic double promotion on March 6 when the University of Calcutta granted it two additional stripes. One, it was conferred autonomous status, the first to any of Calcutta University’s 157 affiliated colleges. Simultaneously, it was permitted to introduce postgraduate study programmes. Although technically, St. Xavier’s will remain part of the huge Calcutta University, it will now design its own syllabuses and conduct examinations independently.

Explains Fr. P.C. Mathew, principal of St. Xavier’s: "One condition of the grant of autonomy status is that though we can hold our own exams, the answer papers cannot be evaluated by our teachers. The controller is responsible for the paraphernalia and will ensure complete secrecy in the evaluation process."

Inevitably, the ambit of the controller of examinations extends far beyond the "paraphernalia" of staging exams. For instance, he will have to get the answer scripts evaluated subject-wise, and send the marks to Calcutta University where the marksheets and degree certificates will be prepared. But St. Xavier’s will now have its own registrar who will be the custodian of the college, responsible for day-to-day adminis-tration. All this might be humdrum in several Indian states but not so in West Bengal — and definitely not in Kolkata — where a Marxist government has been continuously in power for 30 years and has consistently stonewalled all proposals to allow autonomy in education.

Therefore the St. Xavier’s management has been quick to seize the new opportunities offered by its newly acquired autonomous status, just in case the politbureau changes its collective mind. Its first step is to introduce an M.Sc course in astrophysics. Ingeniously, Mathew has got this study programme going from academic year 2006-7 by collaborating with Kolkata’s renowned Bose Institute. The two institutions signed a formal memorandum of understanding on March 23.

The grant of autonomy also brings a modest windfall of Rs.7 lakh for holding undergraduate classes and Rs.12 lakh for offering at least two postgraduate courses. St. Xavier’s College already runs a postgraduate course in computer science and will soon start a five-year integrated course in biotechnology.

The same subject, viz. biotechnology, will be introduced into the curriculum of Kolkata’s other top undergrad college which is also likely to be conferred autonomous status. About a month ago, the chief minister had announced in the state assembly that the government is ready to grant autonomous status to Presidency College.

In anticipation thereof, the Presidency management is pressing the state government for grant of a 15-acre plot for establishing a second campus in Kolkata’s southern outskirts. Presidency principal Prof. Mamata Roy hopes to attract "meritorious students from all over the country for study and research in emerging streams like biotechnology, applied economics and environment management".

The liberal winds of change blowing into higher education in West Bengal have raised expectations that leftist comrades in government and the party are atoning their policy failures of the past three decades. However, Cassandras believe that all these liberal initiatives are mere ploys to bag middle class votes in the state assembly elections scheduled for May.

Take your pick.

Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)

Deemed damage

Private sector institutions of tertiary education, particularly deemed aka deemed-to-be universities are enterprises of such proven academic excellence and general merit that they have been conferred autonomous status under the special powers of the Delhi-based University Grants Commission (UGC). That’s why the total number of deemed universities countrywide is only 95.

In the circumstances, it’s a matter of considerable import that several engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu which have been conferred deemed university status witnessed unprecedented violence and agitation by students during the past four weeks. On March 1 and 2, angry students of the SRM Institute of Science and Technology and Sathyabhama Deemed University went on a rampage destroying computers, furniture and other college equipment, forcing closure by their managements.

These unprecedented student agitations have been sparked off by a February 16 notification of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Clause (3) of the notification states that no university, including deemed universities, shall conduct technical courses or programmes without adhering to the norms and standards prescribed by the council. Moreover clause (5) decrees that institutions should not admit students to any technical education course not approved by AICTE. It also advised all universities offering engineering/ tech-nical degree programmes to apply for AICTE approval on or before March 7.

The February 16 notification has shocked and confused students who sought clarification from their managements on the status of their courses and whether AICTE approval and recognition is mandatory for deemed universities. But since the managements of deemed varsities have been conferred academic autonomy by UGC, they don’t believe they are answerable to AICTE. With this matter being a grey area, they have been giving ambiguous and evasive answers to students who pay higher than usual tuition fees in deemed varsities. Hence the violence and commotion.

Following the unrest on their campuses, four deemed universities in Tamil Nadu filed a petition in the Madras high court seeking to quash clauses (3) and (5) in the AICTE February 16 notification, which they say, offends deemed universities and have sought to restrain the council from interfering in their affairs. The Madras high court has ordered that the said clauses be kept in abeyance till further hearing of the petition.

"The notification in the press is misleading and gives the impression that every deemed university is legally obliged to obtain AICTE approval, which is not true. Deemed universities are governed by UGC rules though most of us have voluntarily complied with the rules and standards set by AICTE. The AICTE must therefore publish the names of the deemed universities which have followed its norms and standards on its website, so that student protests do not spread to other campuses," says Prof. R. Sethuraman, vice chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur.

Quite clearly there is a territorial and/ or boundary dispute between UGC and AICTE with students in deemed universities caught in the crossfire. As the apex regulatory body of technical higher education, AICTE recognition of degrees awarded by all institutions is advisable. On the other hand UGC is the monitoring body which confers the status of an autonomous institution or deemed university on private colleges based on their infrastructure facilities. The problem has arisen because some recently proclaimed deemed universities have declined to permit AICTE to conduct its periodic inspections of their facilities prior to endorsing their degrees, arguing that they are governed only by UGC.

According to some educationists, several privately promoted engineering colleges in the state persuaded UGC to grant them deemed university status. But subsequently four of the state’s 13 deemed universities have been flouting sanctioned seat strength norms of AICTE, making independent admissions and charging arbitrary tuition fees. In the past five years, some deemed universities have misused their special status and have made admissions, shockingly disproportionate to faculty and college infrastructure, ignoring minimum eligibility and intake norms.

Although the Madras high court has clubbed all the cases relating to the issue of whether AICTE has the right to inspect and approve the study programmes of deemed universities together, and will pronounce its final verdict on April 3, it had made a commonsense preliminary ruling that the deemed varsities are subject to AICTE supervision. This preliminary ruling is likely to be confirmed by the April 3 verdict.

In the meanwhile the reputation and credibility of all deemed universities — supposedly privately promoted institutions of excellence — have been badly damaged by the obstinacy of the managements of a few of them.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

AMU’s big secret

In a society where sexual harassment remains shrouded in veils of secrecy, shame and silence, Farah Aziz Khanum, a mass communication and journalism student at the 30,000 strong Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) burst upon the nation’s consciousness in early February. She complained loud and clear about the continuous harassment of women at this ultra-conservative institution whose students are agitating for minority status which could well legitimise its archaic conservatism.

Khanum alleges that she was abused in the campus area while walking to her department on February 2. This student from Bihar, who prefers western attire (jeans and T-shirt), had worn a dupatta over her T-shirt in deference to the unwritten AMU dress code for women. "Two male students on a motorcycle snatched my dupatta and passed lewd remarks. Over the past year, I had been advised by numerous people to dress more appropriately and hence the dupatta. But when I chose to wear one, it was snatched away with insulting remarks," she says.

When Khanum complained to vice chancellor Naseem Ahmad, she was given short shrift. Following this, she lodged an FIR (first information report) at the local police station. A week later, following the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union extending support to her cause, she addressed a press conference alleging that not only is the university administration unhelpful, the AMU Students’ Union (AMUSU) too has been insisting that she withdraw her demand for a gender sensitisation committee in AMU. According to Khanum representatives of AMUSU warned her of "dire consequences" if she persisted with her protest.

Typically vice chancellor Ahmad seems unaware that in law the dupatta incident is clearly sexual harassment. In its judgement in Vishakha vs the State of Rajasthan (1997), the Supreme Court defined sexual harassment as "such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour as physical contact, a demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature e.g. leering, dirty jokes, sexual remarks about a person’s body etc".

 Nor can the university’s management pretend that sexual harassment of women students in its most virulent forms, is new or isolated in AMU. In the past four years, 11 major incidents have been reported — attempted rape by a professor of the geology department; rape by the dean, faculty of arts; molestation of a daily wage employee by a section officer; sexual molestation of a student of the blind school by a teacher, and two complaints of sexual harassment against a teacher in the law faculty. Despite this, the AMU women’s cell, constituted in 2001, consequent upon the Supreme Court’s directives in the Vishakha Case has been largely ineffective. Either it hasn’t bothered to follow up complaints of sexual harassment or its suggestions have been unheeded.

 Another unexpected fallout of the Khanum incident is a demand for an order banning eminent historian Irfan Habib from visiting the AMU campus. According to the National Students Union of India, Khanum’s FIR was prompted by Habib, who is against the university’s campaign for restoration of its minority status.

But despite the fallout of the storm she has unleashed, Khanum remains undeterred. "My complaint isn’t about the harassment I faced. A larger issue of the safety of women students on the AMU campus is involved. Hence, the need to mobilise student opinion. I am not looking for short term solutions because while I had the courage to speak out, many others suffer in silence. My struggle is to ensure that harassment of women in AMU stops completely," she says.

 Brave words indeed in a country where according to conservative estimates by the Delhi-based NGO Sakshi, almost 50 percent women face regular sexual harassment and discrimination in their workplaces and 58 percent are unaware that there are laws to counter it.

Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)

Long hot summer

It’s an indicator of rural neglect and lop-sided development which is a feature of the over-hyped southern state of Karnataka (pop. 56 million), that the great majority of the state’s 175,449 primary and secondary school teachers employ ingenious strategies to escape rural ‘punishment’ postings. Stunned by research data in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2005 that primary school students in Karnataka have the lowest maths ability of all states in India — "even less than Bihar" — the newly inducted JD(S)-BJP coalition government has identified mass teacher truancy in rural and upstate Karnataka as the prime cause.

According to Basavaraj Horatti the newly inducted primary and secondary education minister "a few thousand" rural school teachers prefer to work in low-end clerical jobs in the offices of block education officers (BEOs), deputy directors of public instruction (DDPIs) and public relations officers (PROs) in government departments, if they can’t get jobs in urban schools. In Bangalore, over 300 rural teachers have secured postings in non-education government departments to avoid rural school duty. The minister estimates that over 5,000 teachers do clerical jobs in government departments across the state to evade teaching in rural schools.

"This is not acceptable because all government school teachers’ appointment letters clearly state that they are subject to posting anywhere in the state. Therefore I have cancelled all deputations with immediate effect and directed all teachers on deputation to return to their schools. BEOs and DDPIs have been instructed to immediately implement the order. This is a racket which has been thriving with the connivance of the DDPIs and other district officers. If government officials take teachers on deputation, severe action will be taken against them," warns Horatti.

But teachers posted in rural areas cite government neglect of rural infrastructure and abysmal school conditions as the prime cause of their unwillingness to serve in the hinterland. "Teaching in rural areas is very unrewarding. Some schools have no buildings at all and we have to take multigrade classes in the open in all seasons. Teachers — especially women — suffer great indignity because of lack of toilets, unsafe housing and poor law and order conditions. Mr. Horatti’s government should at least begin to address these problems if they really want to provide quality education to rural children," says a teacher on deputation in Bangalore who is contemplating resignation.

However Horatti is not unsympathetic to the problems of rural teachers. His solution is to provide urban standard residential facilities in rural locations for them. "We are in discussion with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, HDFC Bank and the Karnataka Housing Board to provide long-term finance for construction of urban standard homes for rural school teachers. We intend to improve housing and school facilities in this very year," says Horatti.

But with rural infrastructure unlikely to improve in the short run, teachers on deputation are certain to resist the new government’s order to return to their posts. Educatio-nists expect a major confrontation between the powerful teachers’ unions and the JD(S)-BJP government over this issue, when the new academic year begins in June.

Looks like a long hot summer ahead for the newly constituted JD(S)-BJP government, especially for the education ministry.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)