Education News

Hazy SSA picture

Hard on the heels of the Union HRD ministry receiving a shellacking from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the slow implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or Education for All programme, it is now the Delhi state government’s turn to face a broadside from CAG. A new CAG report made public on November 8 says that even as basic facilities are being denied to children in state government and MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) schools, SSA funds remain unspent. Highlighting the sorry state of affairs in the national capital region, it says 734 classrooms in government schools are temporary structures, 818 classrooms are housed in tents and over one lakh children are enrolled in schools without drinking water, over 1.60 lakh in schools without electricity and another 1.75 lakh in schools sans toilets.

All this comes in the wake of the earlier fusillade of August 2006, when CAG highlighted that even after spending a whopping Rs.11,133.57 crore on SSA since its inauguration in 2001, as many as 13.6 million children countrywide, i.e 40 percent of out-of-school children are still untouched by SSA. It had also exposed the financial and other irregularities in the implementation of the programme indicting the Union HRD ministry for ineffective monitoring, delay in finalisation of the annual work plan and budgets of the states, and diversion of funds to programmes not covered under the scheme.

Somewhat belatedly following the CAG broadside, the Union HRD ministry which claims 94 percent enrollment of children in the six-14 age group (March 31, 2006) seems to have woken up to the need for monitoring quality and learning outcomes. "Now, a nine-tier monitoring mechanism has been introduced for supervision and implementation of SSA with the objective of ensuring quality outcomes and meeting the challenges of narrowing gender and social gaps. These include quarterly reports, field visits, independent review twice a year, pupil achievement surveys by NCERT, independent assessments, financial assessment and an annual review by secretary, school education and literacy of the HRD ministry in consultation with officials of state education depart-ments," says a spokesperson of the ministry.

According to the ministry, under the massive SSA programme which covers 209 million children in 1.1 million habitations and 972,000 primary and upper primary schools, overall enrollment currently is 94 percent in the age group of six-14 years. The number of out-of-school children has reduced from 25 million in 2003 to 7.3 million (on March 31, 2006), though in certain groups like SC, ST and minority children, the number of out-of-school children is still high. Moreover the infrastructure gap in schools has reduced at primary level with the inauguration of more than 129,000 new schools, construction of 100,000 school buildings, 330,000 additional classrooms, 162,000 drinking water taps and 220,000 toilets.

"These are clever statistics to confuse education and children’s issues. The government commissions some groups even if they are voluntary to undertake surveys, and then uses unreliable data to make impressive claims. Let’s not get carried away by these claims; the challenges of enrollment, child labour and education quality in primary education remain as formidable as ever," counters Kailash Satyarthi of Save Childhood Movement, who cites Unesco’s latest Education for All global monitoring report which gives India a very poor rating.

"I believe the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is the best regulatory body for education. The HRD ministry should function as a policy and appeals body while monitoring should be the job of NKC. The freedom to teach creatively so that children can actually discover and hone their skills, talents and interests is the duty of teachers and purpose of education. To ensure this happens without hindrance is the purpose of educators. To allow this is the role of government," says Kabir Mustafi, a respected educationist and former principal of Bishop Cotton School, Shimla.

If the minister and mandarins of the Union HRD ministry in Delhi begin to understand their role, the SSA programme would have a better chance of success.

Autar Nehru (New Delhi)

Bridging the gap

In India they are the cat’s whiskers — prestigious institutions which not only provide heavily subsidised business management education, but issue million rupee job tickets to their graduates. Last month 191,000 graduate students wrote the Common Admission Test (CAT), sterling performance in which is the prerequisite of admission into the six Central government sponsored Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Of this huge cohort, only 3,000 of the very brightest and best will be admitted into the IIMs which miraculously have survived government interference and micro-management interventions, and are commonly included in lists of the world’s top 500 institutions of higher education published from time to time.

However despite the IIMs and several next best Indian B-schools having established sound credentials and reputations, and management professionals of Indian origin having broken the glass ceiling in several multinational corporates worldwide, it is generally accepted that India’s best B-schools are a long way behind their best western counterparts in terms of the quality of business management education provided.

This was the theme of a two-day national seminar on ‘Management Education: An International Comparison’ organised by Bangalore-based Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (XIME — estb. 1991) in partnership with Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) on November 17-18. Convened at the state-of-the-art, recently upgraded Rs.7.5 crore fully wired compact (three acre) XIME campus, the seminar attracted over 130 fee-paying (Rs.750-4,000) delegates including corporate executives, students and academics from India and abroad, who were addressed by a galaxy of globally renowned academics and business leaders.

"There has been an increase in the number of B-schools and diversification of their academic programmes with management education emerging as the most vibrant segment of the education sector. A distinct advantage of this extensive and robust growth is global learning through diffusion of best practices in design, formulation and delivery of academic programmes," said Prof. J. Philip, former director of IIM-Bangalore and dean of XLRI-Jamshedpur, founder-president of AIMS, and currently the promoter director of XIME, while inaugurating the high quality conference.

The chief guest at the seminar was Prof. Damodar Acharya, chairman of the Delhi-based All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the national supervisory body for development and accreditation of technical education (including business management) institutions of higher education countrywide. Refreshingly Acharya didn’t feel obliged as is customary in national seminars, to wave the flag and trumpet the glories of Indian management education. Instead he blasted the country’s B-schools for their neglect of research and lack of contemporaneity.

"Our management education should have global focus, and students should be trained to understand global business, ethics, cultures, philosophy, people. The curriculum currently followed by most B-schools in India seems to have been framed by commerce departments of Central and state governments, with hardly any emphasis on industry or continuous learning. This kind of education is completely irrelevant today. It is high time we made B-school curriculums globally relevant," Acharya told B-school academics who were in the majority in the audience. According to Acharya, of the 94,704 registered and 30,000-50,000 unregistered B-schools in India only a handful provide anywhere near contemporary business education.

In a short report demanded by the editor of this publication, it’s impossible and inadvisable to attempt to summarise the high quality presentations made by management gurus including Prof. Julian Teicher, director Monash Graduate School of Business, Australia; Dr. Mahesh Nagarajan, professor, Sauder School of Business, Canada; Prof. Fabrio Corno, associate professor, Bicocca University, Italy, among others. An eclectic mix of academics from France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Spain, UK, US and Singapore also made valuable suggestions on ways and means to raise business management education to the next level in the rapidly emerging global market for ideation and research output as for goods and services. For those interested in a list of papers presented and extracts from them, e-mail director@xime.org.

On another plane, this seminar addressed by stellar international academics marks the entry of XIME which began its innings hesitantly 15 years ago into the big league of India’s B-schools. In recent years the institute has been steadily moving up in the rankings of B-schools compiled by business magazines and the pink papers. The obvious success of its first major international conference could vault it into the top ten.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)

Persistent aberration

Children’s Day (November 14), a day of loving commemoration signifying care for children by providing safe environments for them, unfortunately turned out to be a day of pain and agony this year for A.J.C. Alexander, a class VIII student of St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School in Chennai. Alexander, who had gone to school to participate in a special Children’s Day prayer, was brutally kicked in the groin by his school headmaster Arulraj because he had ‘touched’ his motorcycle. His parents admitted him to the government general hospital in Chennai, where the doctors diagnosed that he had suffered a blood clot in his groin. Alexander is yet to recover from the injury and trauma. A complaint has been lodged with the police, who have registered a case against Arulraj.

This alleged assault on a student was not the only one in November this year. On November 18, the decomposed body of S.Sukanya, a Plus Two student of the privately promoted Fatima Girls Matriculation Higher Secondary School, in Omalur, Salem district, was found floating in a well on the school campus. The student who was resident in the school hostel, had been reported missing since November 16. A preliminary investigation conducted by the district revenue officer has revealed that the watchman of the school and an office assistant who are under arrest, instigated the child to commit suicide. The school has been closed indefinitely following the incident. A third incident that has raised the hackles of the public is the alleged sexual harassment of girl students by mathematics teacher Subburaj of the government-aided Sir Thyagaraja Higher Secondary School in Korrukupet, Chennai. A case has been filed against him and a female colleague who is reported to have threatened students with dire consequences if they reported the matter.

These horrifying incidents of violence and harassment by school teachers across Tamil Nadu (pop. 62 million) have prompted deep introspection within the state’s academic community about the lack of self-control displayed by the 400,000 strong teachers’ community. Poorly paid and overworked, the rod comes in handy for a growing number of teachers to vent their frustrations on helpless children. The assault on Alexander for a small mistake is just one of several instances, many of which go unreported for fear adverse repercussions on school-going children.

Though corporal punishment was banned in Tamil Nadu in June 2003 through an amendment of Rule 51 of the Tamil Nadu Education Rules (which sanctioned corporal punishment) with addition of a new section which prohibits infliction of mental and physical pain while applying ‘corrective measures’, the new law is practiced more in the breach. "In our country child-friendly legislation is seldom respected. Corporal punishment is a criminal offence and when such instances occur, parents shouldn’t hesitate to file a complaint at the police station or with the local magistrate and inform the district education authorities," says Sudha Ramalingam, senior advocate of the Madras high court.

Educationists, lawyers and activists blame school managements for failing to publicise the amended law relating to corporal punishment and total insensitivity to child rights. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) protects children from all forms of physical violence, and Article 37 from inhuman treatment or punishment. Articles 34 and 36 warn against sexual abuse of children. The Children Act, 1960 also specifies that if a person in actual charge of, or control over a child, assaults, abandons or neglects her so as to cause physical suffering, he is punishable under the Act.

"Teachers are unaware of alternative, non-violent methods of modifying child behaviour — like withdrawing privileges, detention after class hours or doing extra homework — and have to be trained in these appropriate methodologies. Despite the TN education department prescribing alternative correctives for children, hardly anyone cares to follow them," says K. Shanmugavelayutham, reader in social work at Loyola College and activist of the Tamil Nadu Forum for Creche and Childcare Services.

Meanwhile, even as investigations into violence against children in the state’s schools are being conducted, education minister Thangam Thennarasu has threatened to withdraw recognition of schools which breach the law. A committee has been formed to study the implications of corporal punishment and suggest further preventive measures. The state education department is also planning to adopt a module on self-discipline developed by Unicef in schools.

However, it is well-known that similar recommendations of previous committees have remained on paper and never been implemented by the great majority of schools. Unless parents as much as education officials constantly monitor the conduct of school teachers and prosecute rogue elements, this widespread practice won’t fade away.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Education renaissance

On November 24 the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar completed its first year in office. To celebrate the occasion the Takshila Education Society in collaboration with the Delhi-based Hindustan Times organised the Takshila Utsav (festival) in mid-November in Patna, in which music stalwarts such as Dr. Shahryar Ashok Bajpayi, Pt. Birju Maharaj, among others performed. This is the latest in the chain of equally well-attended cultural events that have been organised almost every fortnight beginning Independence Day (August 15).

Riding on the pledge of sushashan (good governance), the Nitish Kumar government is trying hard to rectify the public image of Bihar (pop. 82 million), following 15 years of arbitrary rule by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party-led by rustic icon Lalu Prasad Yadav. In sharp contrast to the priorities of the ousted Laloo Prasad-Rabri Devi government, the Nitish Kumar administration has placed education high on its list of priorities.

Kumar’s dream to have a branch campus of the Jamshedpur-based top rated Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) in Patna has been put on the back burner, as XLRI has cited a shortage of teachers and the institute’s global expansion plans as the excuse. But the proposal has by no means been rejected.

Meanwhile the state government’s education department has undertaken to recruit 2.35 lakh teachers for its primary, middle and high schools although the October 30 deadline has lapsed. "But our recruitment drive is still on track and everything is going well," insists education minister Brishen Patel. Moreover six vice-chancellors assumed office in mid-November.

However the education initiative which has generated greatest excitement in Bihar and beyond is a proposal to promote the Nalanda International University near the ruins of the world-famous Nalanda University of yore. The project was mooted in the Vision India 2002 document of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and has particularly enthused Nitish Kumar, who was born in this district and has won his Parliamentary and assembly seats from here. The proposed university (for which the Delhi-based Education Consultants of India Ltd has been appointed to prepare a detailed project report) supplemented by a proposed international airport and ultra-modern township en route to Bodh Gaya and Rajgir which already attract thousands of Buddhist pilgrims, could well transform the face and public perception of Bihar which is routinely written off as India’s most backward state. This Rs.500 crore project is likely to be executed with Japanese and Singapore investment and technical expertise.

Perhaps after a long hiatus of masterly inactivity, Bihar’s image is about to change.

Arun Srivastav (Patna)

Bose’s bridge

Often described as the thinking man’s film star, parallel cinema actor and national level rugby player Rahul Bose, makes time for social causes. In the winter of 2004 when a cataclysmic tsunami devastated south and southern Asia, he was one celebrity who threw himself into rehabilitation efforts for victims of the disaster.

Two years later his involvement in this cause has evolved into the Andaman and Nicobar Scholarship Initiative (ANSI), a project which if it succeeds, could prove a model for the rehabilitation of children who are victims of contemporary India’s multiplying natural disasters. On November 21, Bose announced an ambitious plan to enroll gifted children from the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in upscale residential schools through his NGO (‘the foundation’) which is in the process of being registered. "Our objective is not only to educate but to build a bridge between mainland Indians and our fellow citizens on these islands. Currently there is a huge psychological divide between us," says Bose who has made 14 excursions in the last two years to the beleaguered region.

Accordingly trustees of the foundation have spent the last six months researching, modulating and putting systems in place for the immediate implementation of the project. As a first step ANSI will select six meritorious children from the region and will enroll them in India’s highly respected Rishi Valley School in Madanpalle, Andhra Pradesh established by the alternative education guru J.Krishnamurti in 1931, in the next academic year in classes VII-XII on full scholarship. To the school’s credit it readily agreed to this arrangement and slashed tuition fees for ANSI scholars. The foundation will pay the travel expenses of the children and visiting parents.

The process of selecting the six ANSI scholars will be thorough and painstaking with the initial number of 500 children identified being reduced to six. Renowned educators and social workers including Farida Lambay of Pratham will be part of the interviewing and selection team together with Alok Mathur of Rishi Valley School and Maushimi Kar, an educationist from the Andamans. Fund-raising drives have already begun to raise the scholarship money of Rs.2 crore (approximately Rs. 5 lakh per child per year for the next six years). Two bi-annual fund-raisers are scheduled for 2007.

This project is ambitious because the trustees of the foundation have resolved to fund the education of six additional children every year. But Bose is cautious that additional schoolers will only be funded after measuring public response in the first year. "We will monitor factors like how well the children adjust, and whether they can adapt to a boarding school environment over a period of one year before we undertake a similar initiative next year," he says.

Such caution is well advised. Only fools rush in …

Gaver Chaterjee (Mumbai)

Stimulating gabfest

Once the capital city of the British raj in India and the preferred site of one of India’s first modern universities, Calcutta aka Kolkata, has a debating tradition dating back to the 19th century when stalwarts like Sir S.N. Banerjee, Subhas Chandra Bose and Chittaranjan Das, among others, would match the best from the West in parliamentary style verbal jousts.

Commendably, alumni of the city’s top colleges have endeavoured to keep this tradition alive. For the city’s intelligentsia the top event on the debating calendar is the annual Alsoc Challenge Debate between the Presidency College Alumni Association and Alsoc (Alumnurom Societas), the alumni society of the neighbouring St. Xavier’s College. This year’s gabfest was held on November 11 at the St. Xavier’s College auditorium, which as usual was packed to the rafters by alumni and incumbent students of the city of joy’s top two colleges.

The motion "In the opinion of the House, the cultural superiority of the Bengali is a myth" was challenging and provocative in a city where the bhadralok (middle class) prides itself on its cultural superiority — particularly in literature, cinema and the performing arts. There was also considerable speculation about how Gopal K. Gandhi, the highly respected and popular governor of West Bengal, who had agreed to chair the debate, would conduct it impartially.

In keeping with the best academic traditions of Kolkata’s premier colleges, the debating teams comprised leading lights of industry and the professions. Among them: Kunal Sarkar (surgeon), Sandip Chatterjee (neurosurgeon), Dhritiman Chaterji (film maker), Ashoke Vishwanathan and Subhoranjan Dasgupta (professor of human sciences) from Alsoc against the motion, and Swapan Kumar Chakravorty (head, department of English, Jadavpur University), Anup Kumar Sinha (professor of economics, IIM-Calcutta), Dr. Rudrangshu Mukherjee (editor, The Telegraph) from the Presidency College Alumni Association, for the motion.

"The debate was a heady concoction of vociferous fervour and quiet confidence, of heated rebuttals and mischevious candour," recalls Surma Guha (22), a second year economics student of Presidency and the youngest participant. The speakers for the motion from Presidency disparaged the "so-called" cultural superiority of West Bengal, accusing obsolete parochials of clinging to past glories instead of redeeming the present socio-economic condition of West Bengal, once India’s most industralised state. The current administrative and economic problems of the state were highlighted and the claimed superiority was described as a "nebulous, archaic and often fatal" complex by Dr. Rudrangshu Mukherjee, editor of The Telegraph who was well supported by Dr. Swapan Chakravorty, head of the English department, Jadavpur University.

On the other hand representatives of Alsoc speaking against the motion heaped evidence of Bengal’s cultural superiority citing the contributions of Tagore and Satyajit Ray, the contemporary achievements of author Jhumpa Lahiri, fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, or for that matter Grameen Bank founder Mohammed Yunus, who was claimed by Alsoc speakers "because political boundaries cannot break the threads of culture which bind present day Bangladesh and West Bengal".

Finally, when the time came for the chair to sense the mood of the house, Governor Gopal Gandhi — an ex-student of St. Stephen’s and grandson of the Mahatma — declined to call for a show of hands. "In keeping with civilized mores there won’t be any voting in this House and the motion will only be carried by acclamation," he said.

Later adjudging that the acclamation was "equally loud" for each team, both were declared winners. A diplomatic and Solomon-like judgement of a debate which showcased Kolkata’s best debaters who confirmed that the art of thrust and parry verbal jousting is alive and well in the top two colleges of the city of joy.

Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)