Indian Education System

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 08 Jul 2011 20:09

Use temple treasure for hospitals and schools: Royals
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 152045.cms

I also support the fact that this money must be used to support Educational institutions and Hospitals.

King are good! We have forgotten the fact that many Indian kings have contributed to education in India. It is essential to highlight those histories back.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 09 Jul 2011 12:09

‘The IIT Adivasi’ who became a frontbencher
By R. GOPALAKRISHNAN

Gitindra Saran Sanyal

At 4.30pm on July 7, as the shadows lengthened on the freedom memorial, Hijli jail, in Kharagpur, Yama took away a campus favourite. Living alone and quietly in a small apartment outside the IIT campus was a bespectacled, diminutive, 89-year-old professor.

He was “The IIT Adivasi”, the only surviving original. His name, Gitindra Saran Sanyal, meant “the path of music and poetry”. His was a path of teaching and leading technology education.

“Professor Sir” to today’s IIT directors and the 25,000 Kharagpur graduates over the last half a century, Sanyal was among the few able to recall first-hand how a modern and premier technical institution was created in a newly independent India.

In the late 1940s, the N.R. Sarkar committee reported to the government, recommending the creation of the four institutions of higher technological learning. Bengal chief minister B.C. Roy provided land in Kharagpur. A committee member, Gyan Ghosh, became the first director in 1951 when the first batch was admitted. Jawaharlal Nehru called it a temple of learning.

Sanyal was born in Assam on a historic day — February 1, 1922. It was the day Mahatma Gandhi wrote his famous letter to the Viceroy of India on the Non-co-operation Movement. Within five days, at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh, a group of protesters was fired upon by the police who soon ran out of ammunition. The excited mob hacked the 22 policemen and set fire to them. Gandhi was distressed and had to suspend the movement.

Through the complex years of the fight for Independence, Sanyal grew up and graduated. When he was 22, he left to study radio engineering and radar systems in England. He was determined to return to India.

He joined the fledgling IIT in 1954 and has lived in and with IIT for 57 years without a break. This must be an all-India record.

He did many wonderful things during this half century. He has been the recipient of awards and honours for original research on electromagnetism, microwave antennas, phased arrays and optical fibres. He was the director of IIT Kharagpur from 1983 to 1987.

But his most endearing quality was his child-like warmth for the students. What he achieved through his connections with generations of former students is stupendous. That was why he was appointed the first managing director of the Technology Foundation to link up with the alumni of the institute.

Arjun Malhotra of HCL and TechSpan fame wished to donate money to set up a school of telecommunications. It is a tribute to Arjun’s generosity and Sanyal’s influence that the institute was named by Arjun after Sanyal. Suhas Patil (ex-Cirrus Logic) and Arun Sarin (Vodafone) have earned laurels abroad but they would doff their cap to honour their wonderful teacher.

So too would several others like Srikumar Banerjee, director of Barc, Purnendu Chatterjee of The Chatterjee Group and Parvati Dev of Stanford.

A few years ago, Sanyal requested me to teach at Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management. I agreed.

“Do not merely say ‘yes’ and forget about it. In our tradition, a promise given to a teacher must be fulfilled — and remember, I am into my late 70s!” he reminded me.

As a diligent former student of his, I took a few days’ leave to discharge my promise. Sanyal amazed me by sitting on the front bench and attending all my lectures. “Just reciprocating what you did 40 years earlier,” he said with a twinkle.

Love in the form of accolades is pouring in from all over the world. From LA writes Devendra Mishra: “I was fortunate to be his student and grew up next door as my father was also a professor.” From Washington DC, B.K. Narayan rues that “it is the end of an epoch”.

Pericles’ oration of 2,500 years ago is of relevance: “For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands, there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not in stone but in the hearts of men.”

Professor Gitindra Saran Sanyal has every reason to be proud of the fruits of his karma on this planet.

The author was Gitindra Saran Sanyal’s student in the early 1960s

Biography from IIT KGP's website

Born at Dhubri in Assam in the year 1922, Professor G. S. Sanyal had his school, college and university education in India up to 1943, characterized by an excellent academic record. After gaining two years experience at All India Radio, he went to the United Kingdom for further specialized studies and obtained general and advanced diplomas in Radio Engineering and Radar. This was followed by 4 years of research experience at Marconi?s Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd., both at U.K. After this phase, Professor Sanyal turned to full-time teaching and research that took him Calcutta University, IIT Kharagpur and several universities and research laboratories, with the longest and most fruitful period spent at IIT Kharagpur. At this Institute, Professor Sanyal held almost all the important academic and administrative positions culminating in his appointment as Director (1983-1987).

Over the years, Professor Sanyal has contributed immensely to the development of higher technological education of the country, in general, and IIT Kharagpur in particular, through his continuous association with the Institute since 1954 till date.

Professor Sanyal has committed himself passionately to the social welfare including the use of technology for rural upliftment. For this scholarship, patriotism and innate love of students, Professor Sanyal?s name has become a byword among generations of learners at IIT Kharagpur. This love has been repaid in ample measure, as evidenced in the setting up of the G. S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication by one of his former students, Sri Arjun Malhotra, now a Life fellow of the Institute. His meritorious contribution to the field of Communication Engineering has been recognized by the Institute through the award of D. Sc. (Doctor of Science) Honorius Causa in the 49th Convocation.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 09 Jul 2011 12:50

vina wrote: Now there was something called the "Internet" that was becoming popular and people were starting to use some new fangled "e-mail" to communicate and some company called Netscape was doing an I-Pee-Oh. So grumbling , I went to the Circuit City nearby and bought a NEC Komputer with a "Cyrix" processor running at 166MHz or so (you remember the first Kampooter you buy I suppose, like the first kiss etc) (off the shelf, marked down/return stuff, at deep discount, Mickey Soft was throwing $400 offer on internet access the skinflint Yindoo-Bania never goes away i suppose , for $350) , then bought that stupid Barrons for $100 or so, took the 3 Computer Based Tests in it over 3 weekends, got a test slot the 4th weekend on a Saturday, went and did it. That was all and still apped and got into a decent Madrassa to park my Musharraf for a year and a half.

Grandpa!

Gaming the system is par for the course - shamelessly gamed it during pee-chaddi. Only roadblock was not realizing before final defence that one of my results would invalidate a committee member's own pee-chaddi dissertation (innocently onlee!) and that member was up for tenure pretty soon

Speaking of pee-chaddi, interesting thing happened today. Some smart aleck intern caught me talking to my pee-chaddi advisor on the phone and heard me address him as Dr. so-and-so. Then I had to spend the next 30 minutes explaining to the damn fella why I refuse to address my advisor by his 1st name despite being very close to him throughout all these years. I guess the teacher is viewed more as a pal in massa rather than a guru?

Tanaji · Post by **Tanaji** » 10 Jul 2011 01:05

The pecking order seems to be Prof -> Dr -> first name

The more familiar you are, the more progression to the right.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 10 Jul 2011 01:15

Even if you are 400% familiar and pally, it somehow does not sound right to address by 1st name (same as one doesn't address their parents by their 1st name). Prof. is too long a word to use frequently

vina · Post by **vina** » 10 Jul 2011 08:02

Raja Bose wrote:Grandpa!

Gaming the system is par for the course - shamelessly gamed it during pee-chaddi. Only roadblock was not realizing before final defence that one of my results would invalidate a committee member's own pee-chaddi dissertation (innocently onlee!) and that member was up for tenure pretty soon
-?

. If you got your Pee-Chaddies when Googal Unkal I-Pee-Oh'ed then you are old! Over 25 ? Over the Hill ? Remember ?

Welcome to 2011 , Uncle!

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 11 Jul 2011 15:50

9th standard students from a private school went on holidays and then one of them became HIV positive!
Translation of the news below in Tamil - It is time to ban ***** in public net cafes. There should be some laws to stop such a freedom being misused. A law should be passed to stop Google having ***** without restrictions. There should be a proof of age registered online then only they should allow. I realise this can also be easily broken still. Google and other search machines should be restricted in terms of allowing these ***** publicly without any restrictions. I understand that there are parental restrictions but still in public it is easily accessible. It is essential to restrict it in a way that only those who pay via a master card or visa card and thus identify their age can access these things. Unless we do this we will be facing a lot of irreversible issues that the Western parents and countries are trying to work against it. There should also be a proper Media Education about this through awareness about these things can be engaged both with parents and children.

மரணத்துக்கு வலை வீசி... மாணவர்களை இழுக்கும் கைபேசி!
http://www.dinamalar.com/News_Detail.asp?Id=272848

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 11 Jul 2011 16:45

^^^

Does it say if the students had sex education as part of their curriculum?

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 11 Jul 2011 17:41

The above article does not say they had sex education as part of their curricula! Rather the article claims that the increase in viewing the ***** lead to sex related activities of young people of 9th standard during their tour trip. In this sense there is a need for engaging with them a discussion on their use of internet related contents and also there is a need for controlling viewing internet ***** upto 18 years. It is not an attempt to control their freedom but to make sure that ***** are used by adults above 18 and does not affect their education and so on. I am aware of the critical remarks about Sex education. In the West it is an option for the children. Media education means to engage with the children critically about the certain issues such as ***** and other contents. It can also be argued that this might create interest to those who do not know about these or encourage them to explore those contents. This is where control and freedom issue arises. The government may have to bring in laws to Google or other search engines to use a particular criteria to identify oneself as an adult before they enter into such websites classified as ***** or those content that are not suitable for those below 18/16. Even parents can be educated to block such contents.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Jul 2011 19:36

who cares about hiding in public netcafe anymore when its all available through home internet and smartphone?

the age registration of all these online id's is purely taken on the basis of what the user gives...its not linked to any official record like SSN database or PAN # etc

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 11 Jul 2011 19:53

joshvajohn, how exactly is Google supposed to check if someone using its search engine is an adult? Can you think of any ways?

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 11 Jul 2011 20:15

nachiket
there are ways. All the sex sites in the google should become comercial even if they are free. In this way everyone has to upload details of their cards even if the website is free of cost. While doing so they will be asked to check with the date of birth. This will certainly maintain the freedom to look at the site by the adults on the one hand (while making many to hesitate to provide their visa or master details to the Websites) and on the other it will keep the children and young fellas below 19 away from accessing many sites. At present many of these sites follow these instructions. My campaign is to make all the sex sites (which have explicit video and photos) commercially available so that the age can be checked. Even if it is within the house or within private space this will make it difficult for the children to access it. If one needs a law then make the law to state that all the ***** sites and sexually explicit sites are made commecial sites so that the age can be verified.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 11 Jul 2011 22:41

If the kids had sex education, wouldn't they know how to avoid accidents and be safe? IMO, such articles support an argument for introducing sex education early on (4th or 5th std), rather than India's proposed ban on the .xxx domain.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 11 Jul 2011 23:38

vera-K
When we created discussion about sex education in schools, there were a large criticism about it and so state governments abandoned that idea. What you are suggesting is good but we may have to name differently to make the school children aware of not being infected. We are not calling for ban on xxx sites rather by commercialising we will not end up having teen pregnency and so on rather adults only sites will be used by adults only not children and young people below certain age.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Jul 2011 01:04

vina wrote:
. If you got your Pee-Chaddies when Googal Unkal I-Pee-Oh'ed then you are old! Over 25 ? Over the Hill ? Remember ?

Welcome to 2011 , Uncle!

Sorry Daddu-ji, I got my pee-chaddi waaaay after G-chacha I-Pee-Oh'ed (When they were I-Pee-oh'ing I think I was in undergrad)

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 12 Jul 2011 06:12

joshvajohn wrote:The above article does not say they had sex education as part of their curricula! Rather the article claims that the increase in viewing the ***** lead to sex related activities of young people of 9th standard during their tour trip. In this sense there is a need for engaging with them a discussion on their use of internet related contents and also there is a need for controlling viewing internet ***** upto 18 years. It is not an attempt to control their freedom but to make sure that ***** are used by adults above 18 and does not affect their education and so on.

Ah, the old "blame the interwebz" tactic. Personally, I think it has improved matters. When I was a nanha in school, there was no internet, but there was a hooker in the 8th grade

. This is the same TFTA school that also graduated Dr. Artiste's granddaughter.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 12 Jul 2011 12:39

I want Indian education should bring back the Indian values system! This is what some in the West wants to ingmore. Not a control freak culture nor a force marriage culture, but a reformed community based culture against individualistic and segregated and all self-centred culture. Our communitarian culture should be preserved through values that are not oppressive. We must also preserve their individual freedom and people's different ways of life. This must be educated in our schools. I know that some of these are part of BJP's agenda but I do not like radicalisation nor making the other enemy through our history books. Rather Minorities will join if there is a right philosophy and right direction in promoting values system through education. I think such attempts are made even in the West.

Coming to the question of internet xxxx pages it is a public domain. We have rules and regulations for a newspaper or a video channel (nowadays more of aselfregulations) in the public domain. It is essential for us to make sure when those traditional values are eroded by these xxxx websites in the public domain we have a righ to fight against them. While we respect freedom to inform and be informed, we need to protect our children from being exploited by these websites. So self regulation is the best way for these websites which means to regulate themselves in way these websites will be available only adults. If they do not regulate themselves, then google should make sure that their public domain is not being abused by these. Self regulation means to allow only adults to use their websites using an id. I hear a loud voice of freedom of expression not be controlled and also blaming net for the young people's changing culture. this is why I am asking for a revolution in preserving Indian values without condemning other values but to promote our own values to our own people.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 12 Jul 2011 18:37

joshvajohn wrote:We are not calling for ban on xxx sites rather by commercialising we will not end up having teen pregnency and so on rather adults only sites will be used by adults only not children and young people below certain age.

xxx site results are banned from display in India by Microsoft Bing and Yahoo. Google is yet standing up to the Indian government. There is a move to ban the .xxx domain entirely as reported by Forbes.

The way this is going, the government may as well ban all school trips because students get in trouble due to the opportunity these trips provide.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 13 Jul 2011 04:32

joshvajohn wrote:I want Indian education should bring back the Indian values system! This is what some in the West wants to ingmore. Not a control freak culture nor a force marriage culture, but a reformed community based culture against individualistic and segregated and all self-centred culture. Our communitarian culture should be preserved through values that are not oppressive. We must also preserve their individual freedom and people's different ways of life. This must be educated in our schools. I know that some of these are part of BJP's agenda but I do not like radicalisation nor making the other enemy through our history books. Rather Minorities will join if there is a right philosophy and right direction in promoting values system through education. I think such attempts are made even in the West.

History books are for building the narration of the Indian people with the civilizational idenitity and this cannot create false history. This will not creat radicalization and India is not some new country with no history. Miroities were already insid India for more than 500 years and this not a new country for Indians who are already "Indians" with "indian culture".

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 13 Jul 2011 20:16

Saw a half page ad in this issue of Spectrum (the half page slot sells for approx 15-20K USD). For SRM University based out of Madras and Blore (also). SRM University was previously SRM College of Engg, went thro a deemed U phase and is now a normal Univ if I am not too wrong.

The startup package is 100K USD, a team of 2-4 can be hired, pay commensurate with international standards and is not an issue (50-60 USD p.a. should be par for the course), performance based incentives, acco in or out of the campus, etc. The first time I am seeing a seriously worthy ad from India in engg hiring. The rubicon has been breached.

SriKumar · Post by **SriKumar** » 16 Jul 2011 10:21

Stan_Savljevic wrote: The startup package is 100K USD, a team of 2-4 can be hired, pay commensurate with international standards and is not an issue (50-60 USD p.a. should be par for the course), performance based incentives, acco in or out of the campus, etc. The first time I am seeing a seriously worthy ad from India in engg hiring. The rubicon has been breached.

Am wondering about the economics of this set-up. Are the salaries of engineering graduates high enough that the fees these students pay (which funds the prof. salaries) can support the 50K+ USD salary for engineering profs? Or perhaps the university augments the salary from research-based contracts, in addition to student fees? But SRM did not look like a research univ. Perhaps, SRM expects to sell 'branding' brought in by the foreign-return profs (but this sounds a bit far-fetched)? And finally, what is the value a foreign-return prof. is expected to bring to an *engineering* classroom to the extent that justifies a several-fold increase in salarium? At the end of the day, they will probably end up teaching the same set of engineering, physics and math principles as a desi-educated prof. (albeit, the teaching approach and goals of the course could be very very different). Am glad to see this development but just wondering about the simpler fundamentals that support it.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 16 Jul 2011 11:14

The business model is the same as the IT industry. Use the lower cost economy of India to serve the global market. I suspect many of their students will be "internationals" either the Indian diaspora or otherwise that are looking for a deal on engineering education.

SriKumar · Post by **SriKumar** » 16 Jul 2011 15:43

vera_k wrote:The business model is the same as the IT industry. Use the lower cost economy of India to serve the global market. I suspect many of their students will be "internationals" either the Indian diaspora or otherwise that are looking for a deal on engineering education.

Very interesting. Did not think of this. However, for this to work, a significant portion of the student body has to be diaspora/internationals, and SRM would need to charge furrin students more than the desi students. It could work for the diaspora graduates because they would be returning to jobs in an environment with a USD/Euro salary, but somehow I dont see this happening on a large scale-diaspora heading out to desh for UG. The market might be more targeted to desi rich kids who go abroad for Undergrad. Also, it seems like SRM might be trying to compete with furrin universities that will set up shop in India-whenever that happens, with the one difference that the brand name factor will not be there. The whole thing looks vague.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 16 Jul 2011 18:43

The missing link is that Indian parents pay for their kids education, so the fees charged are correlated to the earning power of the parent, rather than the future potential earnings of the student.

This is why the diaspora model is well established for kids of parents working in the Middle East countries. I also saw kids with parents working in African and Latin American countries too. Most of these places do not have any good educational options.

Of course, incomes are rising in India and the population that can afford high fees will keep increasing. Within this decade, states like Gujarat, TN and Maharashtra will have $5000-$8000 per capita incomes.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 17 Jul 2011 10:00

joshvajohn wrote:9th standard students from a private school went on holidays and then one of them became HIV positive!
Translation of the news below in Tamil - It is time to ban ***** in public net cafes. There should be some laws to stop such a freedom being misused. A law should be passed to stop Google having ***** without restrictions. There should be a proof of age registered online then only they should allow. I realise this can also be easily broken still. Google and other search machines should be restricted in terms of allowing these ***** publicly without any restrictions. I understand that there are parental restrictions but still in public it is easily accessible. It is essential to restrict it in a way that only those who pay via a master card or visa card and thus identify their age can access these things. Unless we do this we will be facing a lot of irreversible issues that the Western parents and countries are trying to work against it. There should also be a proper Media Education about this through awareness about these things can be engaged both with parents and children.

மரணத்துக்கு வலை வீசி... மாணவர்களை இழுக்கும் கைபேசி!
http://www.dinamalar.com/News_Detail.asp?Id=272848

What about having proper sex education for the kids instead of hiding them away from it. Back in my day NCERTS class 7th text book used to have a section in reproduction which in turn educated us enough about Birds and bees, following it up in the class 9th.

Is formal Sex education cannot be provided, then one can easily educate the students about reproductive health without too many hassles and moral issues.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 17 Jul 2011 10:17

I think both the CBSE and ICSE curricula have it. most state boards would also have it. but these would be in nature of the 'science' behind it rather than a more 'practical' tip sheet about using condoms, pills and how to avoid STD - there would be howls of protest from parents if it were felt schools were assuming that kids would be sexually active at that age and needed that kind of tip sheet.

contrary to popular myths its the rural kids who probably go all the way at a earlier age, compared to the 'urban brats' who allegedly get into it. we had many kids from rural areas in our hostel and the tales they had of the war front literally had ours jaws drop to the floor.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 17 Jul 2011 23:31

While we are at it what happened to the HIV epidemic. There were these blood curdling stories in 2000 about how India is the new HIV capital and Pandaland has no HIV only. AFAIK BRF was one of the few pointing out that that the mode of transmission in India is different and a full blown epidemic is unlikely.

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 17 Jul 2011 23:42

HIV incidence and prevalence has declined. Details later.

joshvajohn · Post by **joshvajohn** » 19 Jul 2011 16:16

Toilet tour to impart sex education in China
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... ation-boys

India's Maharashtra state has banned the introduction of sex education in schools after protests from legislators who say it will corrupt young minds.
The move is being seen as a setback to central government efforts to introduce sex education in schools countrywide.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6523371.stm

I understand the concerns expressed by people regarding sex education in schools. Possibly we may have to bring in health education in which children should be made aware of their health and safety issues including sex abuse and other related areas so that they become aware and possibly protect themelves.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 19 Jul 2011 16:25

joshvajohn wrote:Toilet tour to impart sex education in China
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes ... ation-boys

India's Maharashtra state has banned the introduction of sex education in schools after protests from legislators who say it will corrupt young minds.
The move is being seen as a setback to central government efforts to introduce sex education in schools countrywide.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6523371.stm

I understand the concerns expressed by people regarding sex education in schools. Possibly we may have to bring in health education in which children should be made aware of their health and safety issues including sex abuse and other related areas so that they become aware and possibly protect themelves.

I think instead of sex education we should have pictures of STD's( I was shown these pictures of male organ after STD with it in School when I was 13), dangers of STD, dangers of early pregnency and above all, myths about Self- Help being dangerous should be dispelled.

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 19 Jul 2011 17:05

The results of the international physics olympiad. (11-17th july ) .India , taiwan ,china, israel ,SOKO AND THAILAND (HOSTS this year) dominate the gold medals tally.

http://www.ipho2011.org/contents/gold_medals

Order implies no particular merit AFAIK .(At least not in my days)

However unlike other countries no career incentives are given. In other countries they are hailed as olympic heroes and given admission in the branch and college of choice. However the training and selection procedure for these is exceptionally well developed in India. 5 contestants from each country (84 countries). 3 indians win gold.

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 20 Jul 2011 02:55

India and U.S. Announce Details of Higher-Education Summit
http://chronicle.com/blogs/global/india ... _medium=en

ManishH · Post by **ManishH** » 20 Jul 2011 08:54

Now we have DDM ganging up to hound and lynch the Karnataka Education minister Vishwanath Kageri for daring to impart lessons on Gita to school children ...

Karnataka debates whether to teach The Gita in schools

Bangalore: A minister in the Karnataka government said recently, "No Indian who has values can oppose the Bhagavad Gita. Only those who love to adopt western culture can oppose the Gita. Such persons may well quit the country."

The minister, Vishwanath Hegde, is in charge of Education and if he has his way, every government school in Karnataka will teach its students The Gita for one hour every day.

It's not just the right-wing that's tried to shape education on the basis of its ideology. In 2009, the Kerala government made sure that autobiographies of communist formed large portions of History books. And when Murli Manohar Joshi became the country's Human Resources Development Minister in the NDA, he recommended that Sanskrit and Saraswati Vandana be made compulsory in schools.

Brilliant NDTV - so learning Gita is equivalent to propoganda of Marxist doctrine ? Probably NDTV will support evangelical "Moral Science" lessons for our children.

TOI editorial criticizing imparting of Gita lessons

Article 28(1) of the Constitution forbids religious instruction of any kind in educational institutions wholly funded by the state.

Here's Vishwanath Kageri in his own defence:

Kageri said teaching the holy book was necessary to inculcate moral values in students. He made the comment at a function in Kolar, 65 km from Bangalore.

But Higher Education Minister V.S. Acharya said the programme should not be seen as religious teaching.

"There is no connection between Bhagavad Gita and religion. Gita has more to do with human values," Acharya asserted.

Kageri insists there is no compulsion to attend the programme, that it is voluntary and the teaching would take place only after school hours.

"The government is only supporting the programme, and is nor organising or financially backing it," Kageri has been saying.

The programme is conducted by Sri Gangadharendra Saraswati Swami of Sonda Swarnavalli ‘Math' in Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district, about 430 km from Bangalore.

The programme is for primary, secondary and high school students.

ManishH · Post by **ManishH** » 20 Jul 2011 08:54

-self- delete-

Arjun · Post by **Arjun** » 20 Jul 2011 09:12

IITs have lost old sheen - says Naranaya Murthy

There is truth to some part of this...but the rest of the diatribe seems to be clearly driven by a case of sour grapes....If his son had been good enough to get into an IIT, he would have sung a different song.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 20 Jul 2011 17:50

Read Gita in school or leave India

BJP ministers seem to lack the ability to work subtly. I mean, shouldn't the right wing agenda be to update textbooks, limit CBSE and ICSE growth in the state, promote RSS schools as much as they can and so on. Why show a red rag to the bull by taking on such nonsense?

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 20 Jul 2011 18:00

^^^^ I disagree about the CBSE and ICSE part. For science education CBSE and ICSE are the only appropriate boards. State boards suck largely. Class 11 and 12 science texts of state board are filled with embarrassing errors .CBSE science textbooks are updated frequently. Often have the latest info. For instance their is a mention of the Large hadron collider in class 12 physics text. And cbse and icse do not promote any political ideology. They are neutral. There was no need to do what he did. Most IIT/ PMT toppers are from CBSE. Even abroad I find that people with CBSE schooling to be more successful compared to state boarders. (mainly due to deductive reasoning based question papers in CBSE enables students to grasp subject more effectively, state board people are used to cram without understanding.).We need more scientists and engineers and doctors. Surely nationalism needs to be promoted and pseudo secularism needs to be ousted . But there are far better ways of doing so.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 20 Jul 2011 18:02

That's what I meant - get the Karnataka curriculum up to CBSE/ICSE standards in science/math so students can be kept away from the left wing social sciences agenda peddled by NCERT.

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 20 Jul 2011 18:12

^^^ It is effectively done in Gujarat. The science text books are almost as good as NCERT . There were some errors in Biology texts . I met some local BJP MLA's who were my dads friend. They informed modi. Modi realised that most authors of state board were Prof's from small colleges as Gujarat until recently lacked decent science colleges. Now IIT Gandhnagar profs are going to be commissioned for editing and rewriting. Aim is to better CBSE. Karnataka should not have a problem . As IISc Bangalore profs can be utilized . They are among the best one can get. Only problem is that some school teachers who are incompetent are often given the task of writing textbooks. And they make a real mess. Ideally the whole country should have a uniform Math/Science curriculum . Sibals idea was good. When it comes to implementation he only implements the bad ones.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 20 Jul 2011 18:38

vera_k wrote:Read Gita in school or leave India

BJP ministers seem to lack the ability to work subtly. I mean, shouldn't the right wing agenda be to update textbooks, limit CBSE and ICSE growth in the state, promote RSS schools as much as they can and so on. Why show a red rag to the bull by taking on such nonsense?

Vera K read whats in the article and Bullshit headline, he said respect Gita and not complusarily reading it, Catholic schools have a seperate period for tteaching Bible, non catholic students are taught Moral science, why not do the same for Hindu stuedents in Hindu Majority schools.