Education News

Children’s wilderness

JE patients in Gorakhpur: annual epidemic

By end September, more than 900 children aged between three-15 were fatally infected in 14 districts (including Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Faizabad, Kushinagar, and Maharaj-ganj) of the state, while lesser scale devastation was reported from neighbo-uring Bihar. Now the state government’s health officials concede it’s the worst ever JE outbreak in living memory.

Although this unprecedented epidemic prompted consolation visits to the state by prime minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s response was typically laid back. On September 7, the state government hosted former US president Bill Clinton for an evening at a cost to the exchequer of Rs.1 crore.

Politics also grounded a helicopter sent by Rahul Gandhi, MP from Amethi for aerial medicinal fogging (spraying) of the afflicted areas. The chopper is still grounded while the state government and the Congress argue the merits and demerits of fogging. The state’s urban development minister Mohd Azam Khan says that fogging exacerbates the situation. This, despite a World Health Organisation green signal for fogging as a preventive measure.

Besides catching and banishing pigs, the state government’s declared focus has been on treating children with JE vaccine — 7.5 million vaccine doses are needed to immunise children in the region, against which India produces only 400,000 doses annually. Importing the vaccine would cost the state government Rs.130 per child, which given that the health budget of India’s most populous state is only Rs.6 per child, it is unwilling to bear. A Chinese vaccine priced 30 percent cheaper is an alternative. But since it is unapproved by WHO its status is nebulous. Even so the state government intends to vaccinate children only next year while an estimated 60 children are struggling for life in ill staffed and ill-equipped hospitals.

Meanwhile press reports in Lucknow have unearthed that UP’s Samajwadi Party led government has neglected to utilise Rs.48 crore allotted by the Central government to control vector borne diseases for the year 2005-06. In particular only Rs.16 lakh of the fund which was to be used for fogging, strengthening field units and mobilising employees, has been utilised thus far.

Where funds should be spent is also politically determined. Thus when Sonia Gandhi came visiting, she gifted Rae Bareli, her constituency, with expensive gadgetry including a biochemistry auto analyzer, two ventialo, one Elisa reader, 19 fogging machines and a huge supply of antibiotics and anti-epileptics. She also brought with her seven technicians to train the staff in the use of the machines. On the other hand, Gorakhpur district hospital — in the epicentre of the epidemic — got its first ventalio, in early September.

Uttar Pradesh’s director general of health, O.P. Singh explains that the problem was compounded because of the heavy pre-monsoon showers. "Every year the disease strikes only around July. This time JE fatality reports started coming in end June. Our doctors and health officials were caught unawares," he says.

This plea in mitigation of a state notorious for its venal and callous bureaucracy has few takers. Comments K.P. Khushwaha, department head of pediatrics at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur: "Children are not a vote bank, hence the neglect. It’s appalling that the government should be so unprepared to combat a disease which has been ravaging these areas for the past 27 years and has claimed more than 10,000 lives."

Rather belatedly, the government has announced a plan to rehabilitate JE survivors. The state’s welfare department has begun identifying those disabled by the disease. This exercise has revealed that in the past ten years 10,418 JE child patients have been admitted into state-run hospitals. Of the 4,702 patients who were saved, 2,045 developed permanent deformities.

But in India’s most populous state where education and health are way down — if at all included — on the political manifestos and agendas of caste driven political parties, this crisis is expected to blow over soon. "There is no one to answer parents who lost their children to the disease. That it should happen in a country where people elect their representatives in the hope of a better life is a matter of national shame," says Lucknow-based voluntary worker Srikant Das.

But UP’s few protestors are voices in the wilderness.

Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)

New IIT eligibility norms

The new joint entrance examination (JEE) format for admission into the country’s most wanted IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) to be implemented from the year 2007, which was finalised by the joint admission board (JAB) of the seven IITs on September 17, has evoked mixed response from students, parents, academics and coaching institutes. The key changes in the new format include: eliminating the screening test and making JEE a single objective type written examination; mandating a minimum average of 60 percent or equivalent in the class XII school board examination (55 percent for SC/ST students); changing the question paper pattern which will henceforth require short write-ups on topics in physics, chemistry and mathematics followed by objective type questions; restricting the number of JEE writing attempts to two — in the year of passing the class XII examination and/ or the following year and barring students from rewriting JEE after admission, in an attempt to bag a seat in a more favoured IIT.

While academics, parents and students in Tamil Nadu have generally welcomed the changes, the new entrance eligibility requirements sparked vociferous student protests in New Delhi, Patna, Varanasi, Kota, Lucknow and Kanpur. But Union minister for human resource development, Arjun Singh refused to reconsider these proposals and accused the powerful coaching schools lobby of engineering protests against the revised norms. It is well known that in the above mentioned cities and towns there is a thriving IIT entrance coaching industry which encourages students to regard class XII exams a mere formality. The JAB, however, clarified that a one-time exception will be granted only for those who passed their qualifying examination in 2005 or earlier and they will be allowed to take JEE-2006 as a last chance, irrespective of the marks secured at school level or the number of earlier JEE attempts.

M.S. Ananth

While conceding that the new JEE format is an improvement, students and parents in Chennai are doubtful if it will eliminate the need for supplementary coaching. They argue that the JEE is one of the toughest entrance examinations in the world and requires intensive preparation. "Though the single objective test and the new question paper pattern will help reduce student stress, supplementary coaching will continue to be necessary to beat the intense competition for an IIT seat. JEE may be based on the class XII curriculum, but the exam is bound to be more demanding," says S. Harishchandra, a class XII student of the Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan School, Chennai, who will be writing IIT-JEE in 2006.

Nor do the heads of coaching institutes suffer business loss apprehensions. "The new JEE pattern is welcome as it will be on a par with examinations like SAT and GRE. It will also put a full stop to continuous attempts made by some students in the vain hope of getting into an IIT. But it is doubtful if JEE will become easier for students. On the contrary, the new question paper pattern designed to test students’ comprehension and analytical skills, reiterates the reality that the toughest undergrad entrance exam will continue to be tough. Coaching institutions like ours, which stress on imparting the fundamentals of each subject will remain unaffected by the new JEE format though coaching factories in the north and those catering to repeaters, which rely upon the predictability pattern of JEE papers, may find the going tough," says Swaminathan K, founder-director of the Chennai-based Aspire Learning Company.

Undeniably, given that only 4,000 of the nearly 200,000 who wrote the screening test, secured entry into the seven IITs in the current year, IIT-JEE will continue to remain the most competitive examination in the world, despite the latest reforms, according to senior academicians. To reduce such intense competition and make the IIT-JEE relatively stress-free, they recommend that the government promote more IITs to meet the huge demand. The Union HRD ministry seems to have accepted this recommendation into its reforms package and has identified seven institutions — College of Engineering, Andhra University; University College of Enginering, Osmania University, Hyderabad; Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering College in West Bengal; two Central universities including Institute of Technology, Benares Hindu University (IT-BHU); the Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University and Cochin University of Science and Technology for IIT level upgradation, although they’ll retain their identities.

All in all, it seems to be a well thought out reforms package, which will enhance the integrity of the selection process as well as the quality of student input into the world class IITs.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Exam reform winds

In a belated response to nationwide protests about school students suffering examination stress, the Delhi-based National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in conjunction with the country’s largest all India secondary examination board — the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has proposed a string of reforms. CBSE will abolish the percentile system and replace it with a grading structure for the class X board exam. It will also drop pejoratives like ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ from mark sheets. Starting next year, CBSE affiliated schools will also allow students to resit their class X boards — through an ‘improvement’ exam — if they feel their exam performance has not been up to scratch.

Though NCERT director Krishna Kumar’s suggestion to abolish class X board exami-nations altogether was perceived as "too revolutionary", his other suggestions to reduce exam stress fell on receptive ears of representatives of 51 exam boards who assembled in New Delhi recently for a meeting with the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE).

Following the example of CBSE, state boards have also agreed to award 20 percent of overall marking on the basis of internal evaluation by the faculty of each school. Proposals including simpler question papers with more ‘objective’ type questions and a ‘best of five’ system in class X to provide students further relief were also approved. Henceforth, the question papers of all boards will be set so that most students would be able to complete them in two-and-a-half hours, setting aside half an hour for revision.

Krishna Kumar: shift from rote

As part of the new exam reforms, CBSE will also implement the National Curriculum Framework’s suggestion of offering students a choice between two levels of difficulty for maths and science courses for class X.

"We recognise that a major source of stress for class X students are science and maths subjects," elaborates CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly. "Many students don’t have the competence to handle them. We want to implement curricular changes to accommodate two levels in these subjects as soon as feasible."

Although the ‘improvement exam’ proposal has left teachers cold because it could encourage students to become nonchalant about the class X exam, the other stress-reducing proposals have been enthusiastically welcomed. According to Arun Kapur, principal of Delhi’s Vasant Valley School, eliminating the percentile-oriented culture will rectify the most basic flaw in the education system. "The whole point of having a Plus Two system was to bifurcate academic and non-academic streams. But this never transpired as no school in the country bothered to develop vocational courses. The academic system is totally marks-oriented and hopefully this proposal will correct this."

Adds Shyama Chona, principal, Delhi Public School: "Apart from reducing student stress, introduction of the grading system will bring relief for teachers who can focus their energies on developing students’ personalities rather than pushing them for ever higher percentages. Moreover the weightage given to internal assessment will encourage students to perform well through the year."

Reducing the importance of percentage marks will also strike a blow to the private tuition culture which is gnawing at the roots of the Indian education system. "As most board students take tuitions for maths and science to improve their percentages, the two-level proposal will reduce the dependency," opines Madhulika Sen, principal of the Tagore International School.

The alacrity with which CBSE has accepted the NCERT reforms has prompted state boards to accept them too. For instance students in Delhi state government schools will write weekly tests whose average scores would carry a 20 percent weightage in their final assessment.

As education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely puts it, "We’ve adopted this measure to inject consistency in the evaluation system. If a student performs well throughout the year, but for some reason is not able to do well in the finals, he won’t suffer."

Neeta Lal (Delhi)

Unsung Heroes awards

The vital role of teachers — perhaps the most under-paid if not unappreciated professionals in the country — in national development is somewhat belatedly being acknowledged. In April this year teaching professionals from across the country were lauded, feted and rewarded with the TCS-EducationWorld Awards 2005 (EW June). Last month the Mumbai based Rustom Irani Foundation, promoter-manager of the K-X Rustomjee International School Mumbai (est.1998) did likewise. Its ‘Unsung heroes... No longer’ Teacher Awards final round was staged in Mumbai amid considerable glamour, glitter, pomp and ceremony.

"The awards acknowledge and reward the contributions of outstanding teachers in education. It also enables a greater sharing of resources and ideas to raise education standards," says Boman Irani managing trustee of the Rustom Irani Foundation constituted as a trust in 1999. "The trust’s objectives are to make education a national priority and to encourage imparting of education in every sense of the word, differing from the traditional push-feed process."

Rustom Irani Foundation awardees: lauded, feted, rewarded

These finalists were flown into Mumbai for laudation and final selection at a high profile event staged at Mumbai’s posh National Centre for Performing Arts’ Tata Theatre in the heart of south Mumbai. The specially constituted panel of judges included film stars Boman Irani and Perizaad Zorabian, vice chancellor of SNDT University, Rupa Shah, adman Piyush Pandey and fiery feminist and social activist Ranjana Kumari. Following considerable interaction between the judges and 14 finalists, Preminda Ranga of the Shri Ram School (New Delhi), Sanjyot Ghanekar of St. Stanislaus (Mumbai) and Pratima Rao of Baldwin Girls High School (Banga-lore), were adjudged best teachers and awarded Rs.1 lakh, Rs.50,000 and Rs.25,000 respectively, together with specially designed trophies.

The wider benefits of the generously endowed Unsung Heroes awards now in its third year are emphasised by Anuradha Benegal of the Vidya Mandir Education Society (Bangalore), who had topped the contest last year. "The foundation has done a great service to the teachers profession by instituting the Unsung Heroes awards. It has given teachers long overdue recognition and projected teaching as a noble profession worthy of recognition."

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Pune stalemate

Once upon a time universities and colleges were forums for reasoned debate and mutually beneficial faculty-student intellectual exchanges. But reasoning skills, advocacy of a point of view and forbearance seem to have fallen out of fashion in Pune, often trumpeted as the intellectual capital of Maharashtra (pop. 98 million) — India’s most industrialised state.

On September 19 more than 250 indignant student protestors marched upon the varsity’s century-old main building, a listed heritage structure, and went berserk pelting stones and ransacking furniture. Police, who rushed to the scene, detained about 150 agitators charging them with damage to public property.

Condemning the incident as "completely planned and totally unacceptable", vice chancellor Dr. Ashok Kolaskar says the university is being unfairly used by some unscrupulous elements with an eye on the impending polls to various varsity bodies. According to him, the majority of the vandals weren’t students at all.

When university authorities refused to heed their demand, students sought political support. Consequently two politicians, Ramesh Bagve, MLA and Chandrakant Chhjed, Pune City Congress president, led a students’ delegation and met the vice chancellor in early September. This resulted in the appointment of a 12-member expert committee, headed by dean of engineering faculty Prof. R. K. Ambegaonkar, to examine the demand. In a detailed report submitted to the varsity on September 14, the panel unanimously ruled against the students.

"I could have accepted the recommendation of the panel and closed the matter considering that the agitation is confined to only 806 students as against 12,000 others who have successfully cleared their exams. But I went out of my way to extend three new options to the students," says Kolaskar.

The three options were: clear the third year exam; either opt for old course, new course or use some of the old course subjects as electives. But the students were insistent that these options were unacceptable to them. On September 15, five students staged a hunger strike near the varsity main building.

All to no avail. According to Kolaskar the syllabuses of faculties other than engineering had also been changed without mass failure being recorded by their students. Therefore, the engineering students’ demand for ‘carrying over a term’ isn’t acceptable, nor would there be a rethink of the decision.

Michael Gonsalves (Pune)