Education News

Reduced temperature

In a landmark order delivered on September 22, which could radically transform student politics in the country, the Supreme Court endorsed the J.M. Lyngdoh Committee’s stringent recommendations (submitted in July) on ways and means to clean up India’s notorious university and college elections. Under the order, a cap of Rs.5,000 has been imposed on poll expenses per candidate and donations by way of money or printed material from political parties have been banned. Moreover as per the apex court order, candidates must be full-time enrolled students with at least 75 percent attendance and below 28 years of age.

Quite evidently the higher judiciary is exercised about student violence and deteriorating law and order on the nation’s campuses because the September 22 judgement is fairly comprehensive. The order forbids students with criminal records and those against whom disciplinary action has been taken by the university from contesting student elections, and restricts the term of office bearers in student unions to one year. However, for executive members, two terms have been permitted. The court also directed district police superintendents to deploy sufficient police personnel on campuses during elections to contain and stem poll-related violence, as recently experienced by Ujjain (see cover story). Bribery, intimidation, impersonation, communal and casteist propaganda and canvassing beyond campus perimeters have all been prohibited under the new code of conduct.

Appointed by the Union HRD ministry on December 12 last year following a Supreme Court order, the Lyngdoh Committee recommended annual elections within six-eight weeks of the commencement of the first academic session. Significantly, it calls for the entire process from filing of nominations to campaigning and declaration of election results to be completed within ten days. The much misused eligibility criterion of age has been kept at 17-22 in case of undergraduates (though it could be relaxed for professional colleges); 24-25 years for postgrads, and 28 for research students. The committee has also recommended appointment of impartial observers.

The Supreme Court order which will undoubtedly reduce the hype that currently surrounds student union elections, has evoked mixed response. While the right-wing BJP’s Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has whole-heartedly welcomed it and demanded holding of elections as per the court guidelines in all colleges countrywide, the Congress affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) has expressed outrage about indirect elections to universities. As per the Lyngdoh Committee’s recommen-dations, elected representatives of affiliated colleges will elect university presidents and office bearers.

NSUI has resolved to discuss this matter with Union HRD minister Arjun Singh, whose ministry has been asked to implement the order in central universities, especially Delhi University which will be most affected by the new guidelines. Amrita Dhawan, the recently-elected NSUI-supported president of Delhi University is agitated about indirect elections of university office bearers as prescribed by the Lyngdoh Committee and the Supreme Court. "Indirect elections will reduce the involvement of students in university polls. This is violation of the funda-mental right of every student to choose representatives directly," says Dhawan.

Ajay Maken, former DUSU president (1985) and currently minister of urban development in the Union government is also critical about the de-politicisation of campus elections. He believes that political parties will become "indirectly involved". Likewise the BJP’s Vijay Goel (DUSU president in 1977) says that students will lose as political parties groom future leaders during student elections. The Left which dominates the JNU students union is reportedly satisfied with the new Supreme Court guidelines.

Although there is some substance in Maken and Goel’s argument that student union elections should serve as the training ground of political parties, there’s no denying that student unions — as testified by the death of Prof. Sabharwal in Ujjain — have run out of control. By endorsing their localisation and de-politicisation the Supreme Court has lowered the political temperature on India’s campuses. Perhaps as a prelude to their gradual heating up, which is inevitable.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Loreto campus rumpus

For minority (i.e Christian or Muslim) education institutions in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous (166 million) and politically important state which is gearing for legislative assembly elections early next year, these are perilous times. Reduced to political irrelevance in this critical Hindi heartland state in which it was a major political force from 1989-2002, the right-wing Hindu militant Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is making desperate attempts to consolidate the majority Hindu vote (80 percent of the state’s inhabitants are Hindus) behind the party prior to the assembly elections.

On September 10 a group of vandals, claiming to be members of the BJP affiliated Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), stormed Lucknow’s 120-year-old Loreto Convent Girls College to protest alleged forced conversion of Hindu students. This reportedly "spontaneous protest" was triggered by a news report in the Times of India, according to which on September 6, 250 class VIII-XII students of Loreto Convent were summoned for a special assembly during which a self-proclaimed healer and visionary Nobo Kumar Mondol (a rickshaw-puller from Krishnagar, West Bengal) transformed into a medium through which Lord Jesus Christ himself blessed the girls. According to the news report, during the two-hour session, Mondol’s chanting, dancing, hopping, writhing and hissing frightened the girls and some even fainted. Moreover all through this evangelical charade the school’s principal Sr. Monica stood by Mondol and sprinkled "holy water, soil and oil" over the children claiming the mix had healing powers.

This "attempted forced conversion" made the BJYM see red and prompted an attack on the convent resulting in smashed flowerpots and window panes on the immaculate school campus. Fortunately the vandals went on the rampage on a Sunday, avoiding injury or involvement of the school’s girl students.

Inevitably, a huge row erupted. Leaders of the Christian community countrywide expressed outrage, and the day after the incident 16 minority schools in Lucknow were shut in protest. All political parties, including the BJP were also quick to condemn the vandalism and local leaders of the Congress party demanded a CBI inquiry.

With English medium convent education highly valued by the middle class, and upscale schools such as Loreto few and far between, the parents community is tight-lipped. Particularly since the school management has described participation in the special assembly as "voluntary" and made a veiled threat to parents not comfortable with such "personality development sessions", to withdraw their children. "Our objective is to give students emotional, mental, physical and religious education besides bookish knowledge. It helps them experience God and prepares them to face the toughest part of their lives," Sr. Teresa, the school’s community leader told EducationWorld.

Nevertheless the school adminis-tration was chastised from on high. When a representation of the state’s Catholic Association, led by secretary Fr. Rodrigues met Uttar Pradesh governor T.V. Rajeshwar two days after the incident, he made it clear that while he condemned the violence, the school had erred in encouraging "occult science". "Don’t mix religion with education, especially with occult sciences," Rajeshwar told the delegation.

The incident however kicked up enough dust for chief minster Mulayam Singh Yadav — a self-styled champion of minority communities — to order an official probe. A four member probe team constituted by Lucknow district magistrate Ramendra Tripathi which included two additional district magistrates, a senior police official and the district inspector of schools, has reportedly submitted a 40-page report to the chief minister’s office. Although the report has not been made public, sources claim that it has severely criticised the Loreto administration for organising more than an "ordinary prayer session".

With the tempo of a no-holds-barred election campaign for control of India’s most populous and electorally important state heating up, educationists in UP are bracing themselves for more of the same.

Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)

Autonomy exultation

For the English literature postgrad department of Kolkata’s Presidency College, rated the best arts college in the country by Delhi-based weekly India Today (July 26, 2006), the wait for conferment of course-specific autonomy with the freedom to frame its own syllabus and conduct examinations has been a long time coming. Typically the wait has lasted several decades — since 1916 when the responsibility for postgraduate teaching was transferred to the University of Calcutta. Presidency, a constituent college of the university was obliged to focus on teaching undergrad students. In the late 1980s most of the science departments of Presidency were permitted to school postgrad students, but full academic freedom came only in 2004.

Faculty members of the Eng lit department believe that conferment of autonomy to the department is a consequence of the consistent and relentless pressure exerted by them to wrest freedom from the university and get this historic decision ratified by the state government, i.e West Bengal’s ruling Communist Party Marxist (CPM) whose imprimatur on all matters pertaining to higher education is a sine qua non.

Liberation day dawned on September 14 when West Bengal’s higher education minister Sudarshan Raychaudhudari signed and cleared the file granting permission for independent teaching of postgrad English lit within the college. "The grant of academic and examination autonomy to the English department of Presidency empowers us to prescribe the syllabus, set and correct the Eng lit Master’s examination papers and award the Masters degree. Given the excellent heritage and reputation of Presidency College for high quality undergrad English education, we are confident about developing a dynamic and wholly contemporary curriculum which will be as good as anywhere in the Commonwealth," says Dr. Jayati Gupta head of the department of English at Presidency. According to Gupta, although all Masters degrees will be awarded by the University of Calcutta, the degree certificate awarded to English lit postgrads of Presidency will also display the Presidency hallmark.

Following the declaration of the autonomy award, Gupta and her colleagues sprang into action to assess 98 admission applicants into Presi-dency’s first Eng lit programme. Of them 30 were found suitable and admitted post-haste on September 25. The huge interest in getting into the English department of Presidency is ascribed to widespread awareness that it is one of the oldest departments of the college (estb.1813) and boasts a continuous tradition of inspired teaching and scholarship.

Gupta says that the Masters syllabus will be structured around an eclectic mix of writers to encourage advanced study of major literary texts and "offer ways of contextualising them historically and in terms of current literary theory". "Lectures and seminars will provide opportunities for studying additional authors and texts so that a holistic perspective of a particular literary period emerges. Opportunities will also be provided to students to pursue inter-disciplinary study," says Gupta.

Following the overdue grant of autonomy to Presidency’s Eng lit department, there is speculation within academic circles whether this liberal-isation is the precursor of institutional autonomy to Presidency College as a whole, which was strongly recommended by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) which rated it an A+ institution earlier this year.

But quite obviously Bengal’s ruling party CPI (M) apparatchiks prefer to cede power very reluctantly.

Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)

Maharashtra

Here comes ASER 2006!

For Central and state government educrats who merrily expend Rs.100,000 crore of tax payers money annually without much to show for it, this is bad news. The Mumbai-based NGO Pratham (estb. 1994) which provides innovative pre-school, in-school and out-of-school education to over one million children in 13 states countrywide, is all set to mobilise a massive army of volunteers to fan out cross country and conduct its second national learning assessment survey, ASER (Annual Survey of Education Report) 2006.

ASER 2005 — India’s first ever independent, nationwide status report on rural primary education, which was released on January 18 this year after a survey of 485 of India’s 603 districts — generated a huge storm. It revealed, among other truths, that almost 60 percent of class VII children in the age group of seven-14 couldn’t read and comprehend simple class II level narratives and that 35 percent couldn’t read a simple paragraph of class I level difficulty (see EW cover story March ’06). ASER 2005 was compiled by 20,000 volunteers, mainly college and university students.

Now Pratham once again appeals to volunteers to help in the preparation of ASER 2006. Volunteers can help by:

• Taking charge of surveying a district, i.e about 20-30 randomly selected villages (training given by Pratham)

• Collecting a minimum Rs.10,000 towards the cost of survey of one district

• Contributing Rs.500 towards survey of one village

• Spreading the word, before, during and after the survey

• Assisting in any other way

"Last year we got an excellent response from lay citizens volunteering to get involved in research. We hope to get as good a response this year. Unlike the survey last year, ASER 2006 will also cover urban districts. We hope urban volunteers will be forthcoming in large numbers," says Rashmi Banerjee, head of Pratham’s research and assessment activities.

Moreover the criteria to measure learning outcomes will be augmented in ASER 2006. The inaugural survey last year measured the percentage of children who could read, write and do basic arithmetic; the percentage of villages with a primary school; the status of school infrastructure (classrooms, toilets, drinking water etc); availability of textbooks to children; the availability of funds for teachers etc. ASER 2006 researchers will additionally test the ability of adult women to read simple paragraphs while volunteers will also report the number and percentage of children between the ages of three-five in pre-schools. "We consider adult female literacy and pre-school learning very important and hence are assessing both in ASER 2006," says Bannerjee an alumna of Chicago University who is masterminding ASER 2006.

With the print version of ASER 2006 scheduled for release in January 2007 — a mere four months hence — Pratham needs all the assistance it can get from individuals, organisations, institutions and industry. Educrats across the country are undoubtedly praying they won’t get it.

Prospective volunteers can log onto www.pratham.org or e-mail aser@pratham.org.

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

TAISI gets started

Against the backdrop of incremental government intervention in the schools sector, principals of 86 of India’s top bracket private schools affiliated with foreign examination boards such as CIE (Cambridge International Examinations), IBO (International Baccalaureate Organisation, Geneva) convened in Hyderabad from September 23-25 at the launch-conference of The Association of International Schools of India (TAISI), registered in July this year.

TAISI is an autonomous non-profit organisation constituted with the objective of bonding international schools — including self-styled ones — across the country under one umbrella to protect common interests and extend academic and administrative support to member institutions.

The slickly choreographed three-day launch conference was staged in the state-of-the-art fully wired Ralph W. Cummings Auditorium of the sprawling 3,600-acre, eco-friendly campus of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) at Patan-cheru, on the fringes of Hyderabad (pop.4.5 million). ICRISAT is a non-profit organisation involved in agricultural research and capacity building for sustainable development with branches in Mali, Zimbabwe and Nairobi.

The conference featured presentations, lecture-demonstrations and panel discussions by a galaxy of educationists including Ashish Rajpal, managing director, iDiscoveri Education; Prabhujot Singh, country director, College Source; William Bickerdike, regional manager, Cambridge International Examinations (CIE); Ellen Deitsch Stern, principal, Ecole Mondiale World School, Mumbai; John McClure, director, sales and marketing (South Asia), Intel Corporation; John Moore, senior partner, Rubicon International; Lance W. Roberts, branch manager, The Investment Center, among others, and attracted 86 fee-paying (Rs.4,000 excluding accommodation and travel) delegates comprising heads of schools, education consultants and edupreneurs.

Delivering the inaugural address Anu Monga, principal of the Bangalore International School and first chairperson of TAISI spelt out the rationale of TAISI and her definition of an international school. "An international school should be open to foreign cultures, systems of learning, thought and knowledge. This conference has been organised so that we can connect with others with similar concerns and begin an interaction that enables dialogue, cross-fertilisation of ideas and practical steps to convert weaknesses into strengths to attain a larger overarching goal: to make children’s learning experiences more meaningful and better," said Monga.

Following symbolic inauguration on September 23 and a sight-seeing tour of Hyderabad, on September 24 TAISI’s inaugural conference was witness to power packed sessions on integrating the latest advances in information technology into education delivered by managers of blue-chip multinationals Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and the Bangalore-based school administration software supplier, Pacsoft. The IT majors made a strong and convincing case for utilisation of computer technologies to attain the national Education for All goal.

But perhaps the most interesting lecture of the day was delivered by Ashish Rajpal, managing director of the Delhi-based outbound learning company, iDiscoveri Education. "Till the mid-1990s education was primarily meant to prepare a child to get a government job and stick with it until retirement. But the scenario has totally changed and one has to be a constant learner. Structural change is required in classroom transactions to make a difference in learning paradigms. Every teacher has to become an education leader to drive this transformation. Think up new ideas, collaborate with others and research data available to achieve change," Rajpal told delegates.

The conference also featured an exhibition where innovative learning-enhancing products for school children and teachers were displayed. A product which attracted great interest was the Classmate PC — a light-weight and rugged network enabled notebook computer, pre-installed with handwriting and voice recognition software — developed by the US-based chip design global leader Intel Inc. Other displays included CD-ROMs, school management software, palmtop computers etc.

Although they had to endure unusually wet and windy weather in Hyderabad, most participants were pleased that they made the time to attend the TAISI launch-conference. "There was a felt need for an association of international schools. This conference served as a common platform for leaders of international and aspiring schools to explore commonalities, exchange notes about best teaching and administration practices, discuss common problems and deliberate on solutions. The establishment of TAISI is a historic event and there’s general agreement this conference should become an annual convention of like-minded education leaders," says Sidney Rose, director of the Vishwashanthi Gurukul’s IB World School, Pune.

Indeed the general consensus was that TAISI has got off to a good start. And as every educationist knows, a task well begun is half done.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Hyderabad)

Poignant exit

The 150th anniversary celebrations of the University of Madras, inaugurated by President A.P.J Abdul Kalam on September 4, was a grand and well-orchestrated event. The president inaugurated the refurbished Senate House, an architectural marvel blending its dominant Indo Saracenic style with Byzantine and European features. Constructed in 1873, it fell into disuse and neglect and was recently renovated at a cost of Rs.6 crore. He also launch-ed India’s first virtual university portal, a joint project of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta universities, which will enable millions of students from across the country to share knowledge and access quality education. Moreover 16 books on the university, part of a project to publish 150 titles during the year-long celebrations, were also released.

Yet despite the aura of goodwill and bonhomie which marked the foundation day celebrations of one of the oldest universities in the country (which has 158 colleges affiliated with it), the shadow of mainstream caste-based politics marred the occasion. For the past four months, teachers in the university, instead of focussing on academic schedules, pedagogy improvement and research, have been engaged in mud-slinging and protests against the outgoing vice-chancellor Dr.S.P. Thyagarajan, whose three year term expired on September 6.

In June this year, they gheraoed Thyagarajan during a senate meeting and demanded his resignation. Charges levelled against him ranged from misappropriation of funds to authoritarianism. Even on foundation day, the Madras University Staff Union (MUSU), comprising members of non-teaching staff boycotted the celebrations following a protest march across the university campus on September 1. Moreover four syndicate members representing differing teachers’ associations resigned from the 150-year celebrations committee and the Professors Forum of University of Madras (PFUM) alleged financial and administrative lapses during Thyaga-rajan’s tenure. The vice-chancellor was not spared even on his last day of office on Sept 6, as protestors shouted slogans and hurled insults.

Such unruly and ill-mannered behaviour of this hallowed university’s employees and faculty has shocked and angered academics most of whom dismiss the allegations against Dr. Thyagarajan as wholly unfounded. A microbiology alumnus of Madras and Copenhagen universities with a string of doctorates and 34 years of experience as teacher, researcher and academic administrator in Madras University, Thyagarajan has won plaudits and golden opinions. As former director of the microbiology department at Madras University he is credited with discover-ing a herbal cure for viral Hepatitis B, which he patented in the name of the university. He also mobilised grants of over Rs.35 crore from UGC for research in herbal sciences. Moreover during his term in office the Bangalore-based National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) conferred the highest level accreditation (A+++) to Madras University. During his tenure the varsity also signed MoUs with 50 foreign universities.

Consequently academics in the city are up in arms against the disruptive behaviour and unwarranted discontent voiced by some faculty groups. Thyagarajan himself ascribes this unseemly behaviour as an attempt to rubbish the substantial progress and quality upgradation that Madras University has witnessed during his three-year term. "Building quality human infrastructure is the biggest challenge, as there is great resistance to innovation and a pervasive sentiment of academic saturation within some sections of the faculty. The university has a system of professional upgradation and career advancement based on performance. Those who can’t meet our new quality requirements have resorted to disruptive behaviour," says Thyagarajan, who prides himself for having stood firm against the pressure tactics resorted to by certain teacher associations.

Quite clearly, there is need for a consultative process to resolve the recurrent controversies breaking out in this ancient institution of higher learning. Therefore new vice-chancellor S. Ramachandran who assumed office on September 6, has his task cut out to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Education stimulus

A year ago the proposition that students from metropolitan India would write a stringent admission test, fork out an annual tuition fee of Rs.30,000 plus residential expenses to acquire a law degree from an institute in Bihar would have invited ridicule. Let alone students, even travellers preferred to avoid Bihar en route to other destinations.

But perhaps that’s all past. On August 14 this year, the newly promoted Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna admitted its first batch of students. Promoted by the Bihar state government, CNLU promises to provide quality law education on the lines of NALSAR, Hyderabad, National Law School, Bangalore and other legal institutes of repute. The 80 seats on offer provoked 650 applications and were awarded on the basis of performance in a written entrance test. Prof. A. Lakshminath, hitherto dean and registrar of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad has been appointed the first director of CNLU.

Ex facie there’s little to distinguish Bihar today from how it used to be during the 14-year rule of the Lalu Yadav-Rabri Devi regime. Even before Lalu Yadav came to the centre-stage of Bihar politics and made bad worse, the state was in a mess. College teachers seldom got their salaries on time, professorial promotions were a national scandal with more professors in Bihar than in the rest of the country put together. With college education in Bihar having become farcical, students from the state swarmed the best universities and colleges in the country. As per a government estimate, student migration siphons out Rs.1,000 crore per year from Bihar

Therefore one of the first priorities of the nine-month-old Nitish Kumar government has been to contain the student exodus by providing better education facilities in the state. In mid-September a branch of Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra became operational in Patna with 120 students admitted into three engineering streams. Next year, the student population of BIT, Patna will rise to 1,200 and seven new engineering programmes will be introduced. According to government officials, the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) is also planning to establish a campus in Patna. 

In view of the renewed interest shown by top industrialists like Ratan Tata, Anand Mahindra, Analjit Singh who visited Patna in mid-September to explore investment possibilities, the government is planning to revive the state’s polytechnic colleges and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), which were moribund for decades.

Another important education initiative taken by the NDA government is the immediate appointment of 2.36 lakh teachers for primary, middle and high schools to meet the target of 4.30 lakh teachers in the state. Moreover given that agriculture is the only other source of livelihood in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar recently inaugurated an MBA (agri business) study programme at the Rajendra Agriculture University (RAU), Pusa. In addition 11 new Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) affiliated to RAU are being built. Perhaps for the first time, education has become the engine of change and progress in Bihar with the incumbent NDA government having understood its potential better than its predecessors.

This unprecedented emphasis on education has enthused and reinvigorated academics in the state. Comments renowned historian and former Delhi University professor R.S. Sharma: "This government has its priorities right. The drive to recruit 2.36 lakh teachers in one go is commendable as it will not only create employment but also wean youth away from crime and terrorism, for which Bihar has become infamous." It sounds too good to be true. But certainly in Bihar’s moribund groves of academia, change is in the air.

Arun Srivastav (Patna)