Education News

Anything goes

• The sound of a conch shell banishes poisonous insects and evil spirits.

• King Ashoka converted to Buddhism, the doctrine of non-violence spread. People started considering hunting, animal sacrifice and even the use of weapons bad. Slowly cowardice spread through the entire country.

• Sitaji was a chaste woman. With the help of your teacher, list five other chaste women like her.

• Christian priests were found on every square, running down Hindu Gods, Goddesses and Muslim prophets and praising Christianity.

• Dronacharya was right in asking for Eklavya’s thumb.

• There should be unquestioned faith in Islam, belief in its principles, Allah and life after death.

If you think these regressive fundamentalist generalisations are the ravings of religious loonies, you’re wrong. This is what an estimated 10 million children in the almost 14,000 Saraswati Shishu Mandirs (SSM) and 20,000 plus madrasas across Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous (166 million) state — are currently learning in schools.

Madrasa students in UP: business as usual

Comments Vibhuti Narain Rai president of Saanjhi Duniya: "The curriculums devised by the SSMs and madrasa managements are promoting rank communalism and hatred of other religions. The books lack scientific temper and propagate superstition. For example wars between Mughals and Rajputs in history books are presented in communal shades."

Prof. Roop Rekha Verma, former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University under whose guidance the study was conducted, describes this a matter of "grave concern". "Such hotch potch of mythology and history has disastrous consequences, especially since the textbooks are for young and impressionable children. Instead of inculcating modern values, they brainwash children with patriarchal, casteist and sexist values. There is absolute lack of scientific temper in them," says Verma.

Such unlettered fundamentalism and lack of scientific temper is also evident in science texts. The maths text of SSMs for instance, uses Hindu-centric examples. One question in the chapter on addition and subtraction requires children to arrive at a number from sadhus bathing in the mahakumbh after some depart for Nasik and Mathura.

The Saanjhi Duniya report cites several other such examples to prove its point. Gauravshali Bharat (the prescribed history textbook in SSMs) depicts the map of India in the form of a temple with a sacrificial altar in the centre surrounded by pictures of religious swamies, Chanakya and Hindu kings who fought against Muslim invaders. The first chapter states that "Humans are the descendants of Manu" thereby rubbishing the Darwinian theory of evolution. According to the class V history book, "Apart from great men, even God has taken birth in various forms in this country."

Unsurprisingly caste and class biases are common in textbooks imposed upon students in SSM and madrasa schools. The story of the legendary Shravan Kumar includes a recitation in which the protagonist tells a child that killing a Brahmin is a greater sin than killing a person of any other caste! Likewise, a history book followed in a madrasa attributes Emperor Akbar’s secular leanings to malevolent Shia influence.

Dr. Fahimudin, researcher at Lucknow’s Giri Institute of Development Studies, whose study on madrasas in 2003 called for modernising their syllabuses, notes that they are getting a bad name for the type of curriculums designed. "Unless they include vocational studies and modern subjects in their curriculums, madrasas will remain irrelevant if not socially harmful," he says.

But in a state where the government’s education ministry is dormant and the rule of law is a theoretical construct, anything goes. Meanwhile the fundamentalists of the RSS and the Islamic clergy are doing business as usual — brainwashing impressionable children before they step into the mainstream of national life.

Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)

Southern discomfort

Solidly bourgeois citizens of the southern littoral state of Tamil Nadu (pop. 62 million) and its capital Chennai in particular who tend to regard examination scandals as a peculiarly Hindi heartland or cowbelt states phenomenon, have been jolted from their complacency by an answer scripts scam in the semester examination conducted by Anna University in April-May this year. Details of arrest warrants served on 41 students and three daily wagers of Anna University made headlines in local dailies on May 7.

Thus far 11 students enrolled in five private engineering colleges in Chennai who were arrested on charges of tampering with their answer sheets have been granted bail by the Madras high court. Of the three temporary staff members of Anna University’s constituent college, Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), two are still in police custody for further questioning and one has been granted bail.

The modus operandi of the students and the three daily wagers of MIT was simple but effective. The students, a majority of whom are in the final year, paid the daily wagers bribes of Rs.4000-10,000 for replacing their answer booklets with newly written answer sheets provided by the temps in advance, in which they rewrote the answers to the question paper after completing the examination. The MIT employees cut off the top portion of the original answer sheet which details the candidate’s name, examination number, the supervisor’s signature and the college and examination seals, and pasted it on the newly written answer booklets before stealthily substituting them in the night following the examination.

Anna U headquarters: complacency jolt

Following this scandal Anna University has constituted a six-member committee headed by the former vice-chancellor K. Aludiapillai, to analyse pre and post examination processes and suggest ways of preventing malpractice. The committee will study all issues pertaining to setting, printing and dispatch of question papers, answer scripts pattern and distribution, strengthening of manpower, pre-evaluation procedures such as dummy numbering and central valuation. It is expected to submit its recommendations within three months.

While agreeing that proper safeguards are necessary to prevent leaks and scams during examinations, academics are of the view that the root of such malpractices lies much deeper in the system. Anna University has been cracking the whip at private self-financed colleges since 2002 when 250 private colleges were brought under its academic control. The syllabus has been revamped and the question papers are tough, resulting in many students failing the exam.

"A large number of students who do not have the basic competence for engineering courses and whose Plus Two marks are far below the minimum required for admission, get into self-financed engineering colleges through the management quota paying huge sums of up to Rs.7 lakh per year. They are so anxious to pass the exams that they resort to malpractices such as the answer scripts scam. Colleges have to lay down certain minimum norms for admission under the management quota to prevent such rackets. Moreover, Anna University with its 250 affiliated colleges is too large and unmanageable. The solution lies in converting a few good colleges into constituent colleges of Anna University, others into constituent colleges of the eight existing universities in Tamil Nadu and a few more into autonomous colleges of these universities. Such a system will be self-monitoring and will also lead to healthy competition among the different institutions," says M. Ananadakrishnan, former vice-chancellor of Anna University and currently chairman of the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS).

Clearly, a much overdue shakeout in engineering education in Tamil Nadu is the need of the hour. Clear policy initiatives have to be spelt out, starting with reorganisation of colleges into different categories affiliated to several universities, so that they become manageable. There is also an urgent need for effective regulation and monitoring of self-financing colleges and deemed universities by a regulatory authority, if the shame and scandals which are commonplace in higher education in the cowbelt states are to be prevented from crossing the Vindhyas.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Environment education slippage

Environmental education was mandated as a compulsory subject in all schools across the country by the Supreme Court of India in 1991 following the filing of a PIL (public interest litigation) by M.C. Mehta, India’s leading environmental lawyer and recipient of the Magsaysay and Goldman awards. However environmentalists, especially those concerned with education in the country, are voicing apprehensions that the apex court’s order is being shabbily implemented, if at all.

In 12,000 schools affiliated to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education a 100 marks environmental studies (EVS) paper has been introduced in class IX for the academic year 2005-2006, starting June, in keeping with the SC order. The subject will be taught in class X in 2006-07 when students from class IX get promoted to class X next year. 

According to Dr. Rashneh Pardiwala director of the Mumbai based NGO, Centre for Environment Research and Education (CERE) and former scientific advisor to the World Wild Life Fund for Nature (WWF) and Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), this belated and lukewarm proposal of the state examination board side-steps the apex court’s order. "We have spoken to Mr. Mehta on the topic and together with him are going to continue our fight to set it right," she says.

The original Supreme Court order, issued in 1991 mandated compulsory environment education to fulfill the fundamental duty of citizens to "protect and improve the natural environment," as set out in the Constitution of India. In 2004, Mehta successfully re-petitioned the Supreme Court of India to enforce the 1991 court decision making environment studies a compulsory subject at all levels — primary and secondary — within the school system with separate time allocation. In his fight for effective environment education, Mehta has been consistently backed by CERE, which, through the data received from its on-going project ‘Documenting Successful Models of Environmental Education across India’ keeps him informed about implementation progress of the Supreme Court order across the country. According to Katy Rustom, a well-known Mumbai based environment activist, who co-promoted CERE with Pardiwala in 2001, environment education mandated by the apex court is currently "in a complete mess". "School managements across the country don’t have a clue about what they are supposed to do and often take the easy option of dishing out perfunctory environment education to their students," she expostulates.

In its 1991 order the Supreme Court had directed the central agencies of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the University Grants Commission (UGC) as well as the All India Council for Technical Education to put their heads together to formulate a well-graded curriculum for schools and colleges. To this end NCERT took the assistance of NGOs, environmental educationists and other experts in the country and formulated an "action-oriented" curriculum. However, the state examination boards felt that it would be impossible to train their numerous teachers and therefore the subject should be taught through textbooks.

Explaining CERE’s stand, Pardiwala says: "Good environment education requires more than providing mere scientific data on global environment problems in textbooks. Children must be taught and equipped with practical skills to lead environmentally sustainable lives from early childhood so that as adults they will incorporate environmentally sound practices and habits in their daily lives. CERE will assist Mehta and ensure that whichever board or state does not address this subject seriously is taken to task for contempt of court."

With the UN having declared the period 2005-14 as the Decade of Education for a Sustainable Future and with runaway consumerism threatening to suck the earth dry, the need for well designed syllabuses and curriculums to be implemented in letter and spirit by education institutions has become pressing. Educationists and school managements need to give this neglected subject the attention it deserves. The future of this nation as a hospitable habitation depends upon it.

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Trust deficit

Weak administration, the soft underbelly of Indian universities, threatens the examination system of Bangalore University (BU), billed as India’s largest with over 462 affiliated colleges and 375,000 students. Thirty lecturers of BU are up in arms against the varsity’s examinations evaluation department. These 30 senior-level academics have refused to discharge custodianship duties — which involves supervising the process of evaluating answer scripts by academics — thus delaying the marking of answer scripts of over 45,000 students who wrote their undergrad examinations in April. The 22-member university syndicate, BU’s highest decision-making authority, which met on May 17, will shortly issue show-cause notices to the recalcitrant lecturers.

The duties of custodians are centred around prevention of examination fraud, supervision of the evaluation process, and entering of student marks in a master sheet for BU’s exams evaluation department. As per the ss. 73 and 74 of Karnataka State Universities Act 2000, examination and evaluation duties are mandatory for all academics teaching in the state’s seven universities and their affiliated colleges. Refusal to discharge examination and evaluation related duties is punishable with termination of service and three years imprisonment or a fine of Rs.2,000 or both.

According to the Bangalore University’s registrar (evaluation), Syed Adoni Saleem, 50 lecturers from affiliated colleges and university departments had been directed to discharge custodian and deputy custodian duties in April. However, 30 of them refused to report for evaluation duty despite repeated reminders. "We sent registered letters to these academics inviting them to officiate. Some refused and several others did not even bother to revert. To maintain evaluation schedules, we approached the syndicate for a solution. After studying the matter the syndicate directed us to issue show cause notices to them. Unfortunately the problem of academics shirking custodian duties is not new," says Saleem.

Comments Dr. G.T. Chandrappa, senior lecturer in BU’s chemistry department who officiated as a custodian last year: "As custodian one has to work from morning to late evenings. The long hours leave little time for teaching and research. Our primary job as academics is to teach and do research, not perform clerical tasks. I have two doctoral research students in my department. Who will guide them if I am away for custodian duties for four-five months?"

According to Chandrappa even though he hasn’t been invited to discharge custodian duties this year, his name is on the list of 30 errant lecturers. "I don’t know why my name is on the list of people who have refused custodian duties. I didn’t receive an invitation from the university," he says.

The obvious fallout of the tussle between academics and the Bangalore University syndicate is a delay in the announcement of undergrad results which has a cascading effect of delaying the issue of degree certificates, and delaying the entry of graduates into the job market and/ or postgrad programmes. Increasingly academics across the country blame archaic examination and evaluation systems which have remained unchanged for several decades.

"The post of custodian who supervises the evaluation of answer papers in a classroom setting is an anachronism. The answer papers which bear a code number rather than the name of the examinee can be delivered to the homes of evaluators for marking within a specified time frame. There’s little danger of evaluators being aware of the identity of students because their names don’t figure on answer papers. The problem is that university managements don’t trust their own chosen faculty and suspect them of being susceptible to payoffs and inducements from students. Therefore they have imposed this humiliating system of evaluation of answer papers under supervision of a custodian, to be doubly sure. In universities abroad this process is computerised and automated so that evaluators are unaware of student identities. It’s high time this system is introduced in Indian education institutions," says an academic on Bangalore University’s show cause list.

The bottom line issue is that varsity managements don’t trust their own chosen faculty to discharge their duties faithfully and honestly. Hence these elaborate — humiliating — examination processes.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)

FIPE frisson

While India’s celebrity journalism obsessed fourth estate is becoming increasingly indifferent — perhaps hostile — to social welfare issues (there’s a media blackout of EducationWorld which champions the cause of India’s neglected children), journalists in Europe and particularly France, are becoming increasingly aware that education issues of critical importance to the well-being of national and emerging global societies are subject to indifferent coverage, if not entirely neglected, by mainstream media. To rectify this situation and create greater awareness of the unsexy subject that is education, four French journalists joined forces with the Paris-based Centre International D’Etudes Pedagogiques (International Centre for the Study of Pedagogies), the French government’s ministries of external affairs and education, and Sciences Po University (Paris) to convene an international seminar in Paris (May 19-21) to discuss this and other issues.

"French education is in a state of flux and vital issues relating to social mobility, the recruitment and training of elites who run the country, design of lifelong learning systems and global domination of the Anglo-Saxon model of education are being neglected by the media, placing them outside the public discourse. Moreover in this country there is excessive focus on France and the Francophone countries of Africa. But in the rapidly globalising world the French public needs to learn more about the education systems of non-Francophone nations and vice versa," says Emmanuel Davidenkoff education editor of Liberation and lecturer in journalism at Sciences Po.

Davidenkoff (left): globalisation stimulus

Following a plenary session which outlined the aims and objectives of the conference, the two-day seminar was divided into four workshops chaired by the four French journalists listed above. The workshops discussed the following subjects: ‘What makes schools effective?’; ‘The role of education in power distribution within societies’; ‘How to interpret international (education) comparisons?’; and ‘Mobility for whom, why, how?’ (mobility in higher education especially research, the brain drain etc). Unfortunately two workshops were held simultaneously and delegates had to choose which one to attend at a time.

The session in which your corres-pondent was invited to present a paper on mobility in higher education was enlivened by a spirited exchange between this writer and two patently ill-informed Delhi-based education correspondents of the mainstream Times of India and The Hindustan Times who challenged officially acknowledged and familiar statistics relating to the abysmal state of primary and higher education in India. According to these generously proportioned TOI and HT correspondents, "many" and "a lot more" children are being retained by India’s primary school system though it’s officially admitted that 53 percent of enrolled students drop out before making it to class VIII. Moreover the previous Union HRD minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi had questioned the accuracy of UNDP and World Bank data relating to Indian education so QED, they argued.

Such sideshows apart, the main achievement of the conference was that it highlighted the neglect of this vitally important society formation subject in mainstream media around the world. All delegates to the conference unanimously resolved to push the case for wider education coverage in their publications and academics promised greater interaction with the media. On the downside dissatisfaction was expressed about the structure and short duration of the conference which prevented delegates from acquiring any insights into the education systems and challenges of several Arab and Latin American countries whose delegates attended the conference. Despite the stated efforts of the organisers, the Francophone focus of the convention was glaring.

However to their credit the promoters of FIPE and mana- gers of CIEP who were the prime movers of this novel convention, admitted its drawbacks making the plea that this was an inaugural pilot conference. At its concluding session a unanimous resolution was passed making the FIPE conference an annual international event with rotating venues. "This was a fairly successful pilot convention and we are open to all constructive criticism for which purpose FIPE has set up a functional website. The seed of an idea has been planted. I’m sure future conferences will get progressively better," says Laurence Albert education editor of Les Echos

Quite obviously the major beneficial fallout of this first-of-its-type convention is the establishment of FIPE and the entry of Europe into the international education arena overly dominated by the Anglo-Saxon, English speaking countries. FIPE cannot but bode well for pushing education higher on the agendas of laggard third world nations to attain the United Nations Education For All goal by 2015.

Dilip Thakore (Paris)

Mobile school fears

In a tacit admission that several thousands of street children are out of school in the national capital region, the Delhi state government has announced mobile schools which will enroll an estimated one million children under the Central government Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) or Education For All programme. The groups identified for this purpose include street children, distressed girl children and those residing in slums and red light areas. For this purpose the government has steeply hiked its SSA budget to Rs.123 crore from Rs.19 crore of last year, and has also drawn up plans to inter-link schools with net-based picture projection technology. Moreover to attract children, health check-ups and nutrition supplements will be provided. "Our effort is to reach out to the underprivileged, focus on providing them basic education and motivate them to enroll in regular schools," says Arvinder Singh Lovely, education minister of the Delhi state government.

However all this activity and promises hasn’t impressed education activists here. "The most unfortunate aspect of this proposal is that while the Congress-led UPA government is examining the possibility of implementing a common school system based on the concept of neighbourhood schools ensuring equal educational opportunity to every child, the Congress government of the state of Delhi is working towards strengthening the multi-track education system in the state," says Karam Tyagi, convenor of the Delhi-based National Alliance for Right to Education and Equity (NAFRE). According to Tyagi the much-hyped SSA is an anti-national brainchild of the previous NDA government to legitimise non-formal, cheaper options to achieve the Education For All goal. "SSA is a policy ploy for shifting responsibility for education from the state to the community, which can have disastrous results," he warns.

Newly appointed secretary (education) Reena Ray says that the state government is very serious about implementing this new initiative and is planning to seek the help of international funding agencies for infrastructure requirements. "Though mobile schools cannot replace formal classroom education and are not an alternative to formal schools, we don’t have any other mechanism by which we can persuade street children to learn," says Ray.

But Tyagi is unimpressed. "It is really a mockery. On one hand government schools lack basic infrastructure and teaching aids and on the other hand the government is promoting such high cost, hi-tech activities, which will hardly contribute to the improvement of the quality of education," he says.

Among educationists there is widespread and justified apprehension that this is a panicky high-cost exercise to deliver vaguely defined para or informal education. The requirements of a planned, scientific assessment of financial needs to ensure equitable qualitative education to every child have been bypassed. There is a pervasive feeling that the system of "literacy for masses and education for classes" is being reinforced by the hastily proposed mobile schools.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)