The Haryana state government’s department of school education has launched a massive learning enhancement programme in 3,200 government primary schools under its statewide quality improvement programme (QIP), partly funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF). MSDF has committed $2.7 million (Rs.17.5 crore) over three years to the Boston Consulting Group to provide QIP management support to the Haryana government. QIP’s main goal is to bring 80 percent of classes I-V and V-VIII students to prescribed levels of competency in five-seven years, which will place Haryana among the top five states countrywide in the ASER, NAS and other learning outcomes assessment surveys.
“The goal of QIP is to ensure that all students attain prescribed competencies of previous classes, and rise to the level of their current class,” said T.C. Gupta, principal secretary, school education department of the state government, addressing a media conference in Delhi on September 16.
“The government of Haryana should be commended for its leadership and we are honoured to be a partner in a programme which has the potential to become a model for the rest of India,” added Prachi Windlass, education director (India) of MSDF.
King’s Chevening Gurukul Programme
King’s College London has announced the start of its 2015 Chevening Gurukul Programme for Leadership and Excellence. The fellowship is aimed at high-flying early to mid-career professionals from diverse backgrounds with strong and demonstrable leadership potential.
Fourteen Gurukul Fellows from India have commenced an intensive 12-week residential course at King’s College London, one of the world’s top 20 colleges/universities. The programme, hosted at the King’s India Institute from last year, addresses issues confronting leaders in all fields by analysing changing ideas and leadership practices and exploring implications of globalisation. The Chevening Gurukul Leadership programme is the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s flagship fellowship scheme for India and has been running for nearly 30 years.
“Our aim is to provide the fellows a unique purchase on pressing contemporary concerns — ranging from financial markets to human rights — by bringing the latest research into dialogue with best practices in these fields,” says Dr. Kriti Kapila, lecturer in social anthropology and law at the King’s India Institute of King’s College, London, and director of the Chevening Gurukul Programme.
The course faculty comprises academics from King’s College, London and highly-reputed professionals and practitioners from industry and public policy formulators.
Woodstock’s Writers Mountain Festival
The annual Writers’ Mountain Festival of the top-ranked Woodstock School, Mussoorie (estb.1854), which attracts more than 200 distinguished authors, mountaineers, artists, musicians, photographers, filmmakers and naturalists to celebrate “mountain culture, exploration and conservation,” will be celebrated on the school’s campus on October 22-25.
This year’s list of speakers features Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Austrian mountaineer and first woman to have climbed all the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 metres without supplemental oxygen. Writers attending the festival include Amrita Tripathi, Paro Anand and Patrick French. One of the primary themes of this year’s festival is ‘Women and Mountains,’ featuring speakers Bernadette McDonald, Mukti Datta, Manjari Mehta and Mirella Tenderini.
“Although the festival is open to the public and draws a considerable audience of mountain lovers from groups like the Himalayan Club, the primary focus is on attracting students from Woodstock and other schools in Mussoorie and Dehradun. Student engagement is critical to the success of the festival and is one of its primary goals. Woodstock’s annual Activity Week begins in mid-October and at least three treks and trips planned are related to aspects of the festival,” says Steve Alter, a spokesperson of the Woodstock School.
Recruitment record of JECRC institutions
Managers of the Mumbai-based IT transnational Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS, annual revenue: Rs.81,809 crore), visited the campuses of the Jaipur-based JECRC Foundation (estb.2000) and its three colleges — the Jaipur Engineering College & Research Centre, JECRC UDML College & Research Centre and JECRC University — on a recruitment drive between August 27-29. After interviewing 850 students from the three institutions, TCS signed on 286 students to begin work with the company in 2016.
A fortnight later a team from Accenture India visited the foundation’s campus and recruited 410 students. According to JECRC sources, these are the most successful campus recruitment drives in the history of north India.
“Although the JECRC Foundation colleges maintain a low public profile, they are very well-reputed countrywide, particularly in north India. We admit the top 5 percent of students who write IIT-JEE and other entrance exams. I attribute the trust these blue-chip companies repose in our institutions to the excellent academic and soft skills — communicative English, aptitude and interview training that we give our students,” says Prof. Mukt Bihari, director, placement of the JECRC Foundation.