Ha! Sir, you must have been a good boy with hair parted down the middle and an utterly rank amateur at such tasks then.SRoy wrote:once when I and a desk mate lit crackers in gent teachers toilet and one time when I was bunking morning assembly with my buddies.
I have even planted crackers in Princi's personal toilet and never got caught.IIT-JEE Undergrad (GATE is for Masters right?)SaiK wrote:... and his grades fell into those 30% category who generally get poor score. well, 10% drop out on IITs after passing GATE is naaat gooooood.
etc is attributed to Kalidasa. Can u pls point me to the Samskrtam original version, and the source?Look to this day, for it is Life..
(You can follow the author on Twitter @sankrant)The brouhaha over Smriti Irani’s degree misses a bigger question. How qualified does one really become when one gets a degree? The challenge for India is to take a fresh look at the relevance of our education system. Let us follow the educational path of a hypothetical Mister Prasad with a Master’s degree in Sociology.
Prasad goes through 12 years of schooling. He doesn’t do well enough to get into engineering or medicine. Not that those fields particularly interest him but these, he is told, would make the best career. Twelve years of schooling have not left Prasad enthusiastic about studying more. But as a middle class child, it is unthinkable that he not go to college. He does not have a family business to fall back on, nor has he really learnt any marketable skills despite studying for twelve years in our schooling system. Given his grades, the best he can hope for is a BA in arts.
Why Smriti Irani’s educational qualification is a non-issue
So, Prasad applies to a few colleges and gets admitted to a Government college to study Sociology. Not that Prasad is interested in Sociology or even knows what it is. Prasad gets admitted and shows up to class. Even on the first day of class, few students are there. The professor show up late and rambles on about M M Tumins’ Social Stratification theories while Prasad doodles in his notebook. Practically, all his textbooks are a Western gaze on Indian society. He doesn’t know this and doesn’t really care. He is not comfortable speaking in English and does not speak up. None of the textbooks covers social discrimination in India based on English-speaking ability, the one he has encountered most often in his own life. What he studies is completely irrelevant to his experience, but that doesn’t really matter either to professors or to the students. The professors are there to collect a paycheck, the students to collect a degree; mugging up irrelevant stuff is all that is needed.
Prasad skips attending class and sets up a deal with his friends to mark each other as ‘present’, so that the attendance ledger can get filled. He spends his time watching movies and loitering with friends near the girls’ hostel. He finds that there are 2 or 3 ‘kunjis’ or guide books he can use to prepare a week before the exam. He makes little notes from them or ‘parchis’, so that he doesn’t have to remember much. In the exam hall, a lot of students are pulling out parchis. The examiners are reading newspapers so they don’t have to deal with the hassle of accosting any student. Prasad passes BA with 2nd division. He hasn’t learnt much more than he knew when he started. What he mugged up he has already forgotten. He cannot write a proper essay in any language, neither in Hindi – his mother tongue, nor in English.
Confused Congress rakes up non-issues to stay relevant
Prasad starts to look for a job but a BA in Sociology is not really in high demand. Nothing he has studied prepared him to be of value. He has no skills. After fifteen years of education, he has fewer skills than a kaamwaali, and could not even work as a domestic servant; he does not know how to cook. His parents were upset with him for not getting a job. Do something, they say, rather than sitting idle. He decides after BA, he can do an MA in Sociology. It holds no interest for him, but that is all he can do with his qualifications. After seventeen years of studying, Prasad is now an MA in Sociology. He has learnt nothing of any value to himself or to society. His father begs his relative to employ Prasad. Prasad gets a job as a receptionist at a real estate office. His boss, the owner, never passed 12th grade but is a success. Prasad starts to learn something for the first time.
Now, if you hear the chatter of criticism, Prasad with his MA in Sociology would be better “qualified” than Smriti Irani. But the only thing he would be better qualified to know is that our education system is largely useless, but he might not even get that. Smriti is articulate, passionate, dynamic and rooted in the Indian culture, none of which she learnt through a college degree. Whether or not she will be successful as an HRD Minister, only time will tell! But it is clear that we need to revive our education system completely and move from the culture of degrees to learning.
Engineering graduates from India will find it easier to take advantage of international prospects as their degrees will now be recognised across 17 major countries including the United States, Japan and Australia. On Friday, India became a permanent member of the Washington Accord, an international agreement for accrediting undergraduate engineering degree programmes.
International mobility of engineering graduates from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has not been an issue given the global recognition of these institutes, but this has not been the case with the graduates from the 1,300-odd other engineering colleges in the country.
With India becoming a permanent member of the Washington Accord, Indian engineering graduates will be considered to have met the academic requirements necessary to take up the practice of engineering in any of the signatory countries. The Washington Accord aims to promote mobility and quality assurance across countries. Besides recognition for Indian engineering degrees, membership of the international accreditation agreement will ensure a minimum global quality for all engineering institutions in the country.
The decision to give India permanent membership, seven years after it acquired provisional membership, was taken at the meeting of the International Engineering Alliance in Wellington, New Zealand, on Friday. The membership is effective immediately.
This brings to a close India's 15-year quest for permanent membership.
Well, I would not go that route. I would like government colleges to stay as govt colleges and private as private. Govt should stop building more univs. Whatever new univs we need should be based on demand and supply. All the govt should do is to regulate the standards all univs should meet to be certified. Of course the govt should setup a NSF type body which should fund all research projects on any univ based on the merit of each proposal by a faculty member. I dont think, govt should take on the task of making a private college better via funding it. That would set a bad precedent.Theo_Fidel wrote:murali,
I think we are on the same page.
Unlike others. My question is not on quality at all. IIT quality is excellent. My questions is on priorities. Whether we like it or not the people building India today are vast majority not from IIT. It is those very same marginally functional engineers you point out who are sweating their socks off in 40c heat building India. A bit more respect and money should be dedicated to those folks. That same Rs 500 Crore would go a much longer way in improving the standard and level of education at these private institutes and making those marginal engineers slightly less marginal. GOI can increase funding for good private colleges, in return for lower fees and cut funding and shut down poor performing ones. I believe this is your position as well.
BTW saar it is loss to the construction sector that you are now in management. One wishes more engineers would stay close to the ground. But every ones personal situation is different. This option may not be easy, to say the least, in India. One institution where I have run into IIT types closer to the ground is in Indian Railways. Which is why I think IR can be fixed.
I can still forge my dad's. Gone are those days for the new age munnas.SRoy wrote: Good many of back bench crowd actually had pretty good expertise in forging their dad's (and dad's of their friends) signatures for unit test score counter signatures. It must be tough for these kind of kids nowadays when their parents are handed over the score sheets in person.
MITA MUKHERJEE AND JHINUK MAZUMDAR
Calcutta, July 12: The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations has suspended its chief executive and secretary, Gerry Arathoon, on the charge of promoting two textbooks authored by his wife Anita without the council’s permission.
“A chargesheet has been issued to Mr Arathoon. The council has found that his wife has written a book whose preface states that it has been written in keeping with the pattern of questions set by the ICSE (the Class X exam),” council chairman Father Jose Aikara told The Telegraph from Bangalore.
“This is objectionable because her husband heads the council which runs the ICSE curriculum. An inquiry is pending. He will be under suspension till further notice.”
Anita, a former teacher at Calcutta Girls’ School, has authored two guidebooks for ICSE students of Classes IX and X — The Merchant of Venice-Text with Paraphrase and The Merchant of Venice Workbook.
The books were published last year and their sale began several months ago. But Arathoon had not informed the council, a source in the council said.
Under the council’s service rules, every official must inform the council and take its approval before starting sales of a book if it has been written by the official or a relative.
Two months ago, Arathoon had been issued a showcause notice. The council was not satisfied with his reply and issued the chargesheet yesterday.
Arathoon must respond within 15 days. His reply will be placed before the council’s executive committee and a formal inquiry will follow.
“The secretary is in charge of all exam-related responsibilities and if a relative of his is writing books for the ICSE, allegations of a conflict of interest are bound to arise,” a council official said.
Calls to the phones of Arathoon and Anita, now settled in Delhi, went unanswered.
William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice is taught in Classes IX and X in over 2,000 schools affiliated to the council across the country, including nearly 400 in Bengal.
This isn’t the first time the council has suspended its highest administrative officer. A decade ago, then chief executive and secretary Francis Fanthome was suspended and later dismissed on charges of promoting books for ICSE schools authored by him.
The council had then introduced the clause in its rules barring senior officials and their relatives from writing and selling books for the ICSE and ISC (Classes XI and XII) curricula without its permission.
Lancelot J. Fuller, deputy secretary of the council, will officiate as the chief executive and secretary in Arathoon’s absence, the chairman said.
Schools have to interact regularly with the secretary on various matters, from registering students to appointing examiners and reviewing marks. The registration of Class IX and Class XI students is now under way.
“The schools regularly have to be in touch with the council during the registration process. We will ensure that the schools do not face any difficulty,” a source in the council said.
Father Aikara today sent an email to the principals of all the affiliated schools informing them about the suspension.
“The executive committee of the council has decided that during the period of suspension, all responsibilities of the chief executive and secretary of the council will be carried out by Lancelot J. Fuller, deputy secretary, CISCE,” the council chairman wrote in the letter.
Vivek Bharadwaj, a joint secretary in the Union coal ministry who was the Centre’s representative in the council in 2003-04, demanded a greater government role in the council’s running.
“There should be more government say in the (running of) the ICSE so that such things do not recur. Such things have never happened in the CBSE board,” he said.
Principal caned us for talking in Marathi: KidsNEW DELHI: A first-year MBBS student at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, who hailed from a village in Rajasthan and was the second topper in the Scheduled Tribe category at the all-India medical entrance test, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan of his hostel room on Saturday.
Anil Kumar Meena, 22, was reportedly struggling to cope with the English-medium teaching at the institute. His friends and family members alleged that Anil, the son of a tribal farmer in Baran district, had been facing discrimination at the institute due to his rural background and Hindi-medium education.
PUNE: Around 28 students from the eighth standard of an English medium school in Maharshtra's Pune district were allegedly caned by the school's chief executive officer (CEO) for speaking in Marathi on campus on Wednesday.
Police in Bhosari registered an FIR against the CEO late at night.
Through the past decades, India has made considerable progress in enhancing education opportunities. In 1971, the country's literacy rate was 34.5 per cent; this increased to 73 per cent in 2011, it was estimated. However, as various studies have shown, marked variation in literacy rates exists across states. While the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have higher literacy rates than the national average, the rates of northern and central states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand are lower.
Reminds me of the (frequent) letter-writer Brigman to the Gwinnett Daily News in Ulan Bator, who wrote loudly lamenting thatIn the notice issued to Lal on Thursday, college principal Pradumn Kumar said he “committed a gross breach of indiscipline” by talking to reporters.
The Governor does not even have the Moral Turpitude to..
The trivial solution is to have bilingual textbooks --- the left page in hindi or local language and right page will have EXACT same translation in English. (Aside --- I have been campaigning for bilingual textbooks for over 14 years now) !! And one can also have trilingual textbooks. Page no 3k+1 will have text in Hindi, and page 3k+2 will have same page in English and page 3k+3 will have same page in local language. The questions should be in 2-3 languages too. Some 35% questions will be MCQ and so language wont matter. Rest is OSFSaiK wrote:http://www.niticentral.com/2014/09/08/s ... 37506.html
I think the right to education in mother tongue is important, but as a system must advance to future, and future is much about not to ignore English, we have no other option as to provide English as the second language. Many advanced studies are still in English and mother tongues have long way to catch up. We dont want our youngistans to lose opportunity because of "communication issues". Some basic level of English language is vital. Futhermore, from the brain development angle, world over the prescription is to mix a modern language with an archaic one. Almost all Indic languages are archaic.. so we have one problem solved.
A dual language formula, and the medium of education primarily focused on English and mother-tongue will carry us long way to the future. Also, I don't think we need a three language formula, and we can safely ignore national language issues. National integration is better servied by supporting mother-tonuge. nothing beats a mother and her language of coice to educate her kid.
Focus should be subjective while language should be outside the scope of subjective education. Our objective should not be more than two languages. English should not be thrown away..and focus only on the mother-tongue chosen. There may be certain states that might contend where there are enough population for two or more mother tongues.. such states must ensure there are teachers employed per demographics and student profile.. this will also ensure, parents sign up ahead for public schools (6 months in advance so that schools know which language teachers they need to appoint).
public school systems can definitely learn from massa! heck we can learn even from al-cheapo nation too. knowledge is universal.
Not really that trivial-Rahul Mehta wrote: The trivial solution is to have bilingual textbooks --- the left page in hindi or local language and right page will have EXACT same translation in English. (Aside --- I have been campaigning for bilingual textbooks for over 14 years now) !! And one can also have trilingual textbooks. Page no 3k+1 will have text in Hindi, and page 3k+2 will have same page in English and page 3k+3 will have same page in local language. The questions should be in 2-3 languages too. Some 35% questions will be MCQ and so language wont matter. Rest is OSF
That sounds so similar! 90% of the time I would ask a question in India to my teacher only to be reprimanded or even a hit by a stick for "not understanding at your home or doing homework". As oppose to USA where 99% of the time teachers would spend time to make sure you understand and 1% of the time they will schedule a dedicated time.by LokeshC
I ended up barely making it through because I wanted to understand the science behind it, and could care less about mugging up stuff.
The agreement allows Purdue faculty to co-advise doctoral students at IIT-Madras and vice versa. "This will help foster international experience for students at the two universities, with student visits to the other university. There will be a co-adviser from another country," Purdue University president Mitch Daniels said. Purdue University is the third most prominent STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) university in the US, and is ranked highly among world universities in The Times Higher Education World University rankings and the US News and World Report rankings of undergraduate programmes.
More than a dozen faculty members from seven departments at IIT-M are involved in collaborative research with their counterparts at Purdue, which has 1,500 students from India.
The heads of the two institutions spoke about reforms brought in to keep pace with the way students learn and the requirements of the job market. Daniels said they were looking to transform at least one of the university's colleges to a project-based mode to allow students to move through the course according to their potential. Competency-based degrees will be awarded to students based on demonstrated mastery of concepts and skills rather than performance measured only at fixed calendar intervals of classroom time.
