Nationalise school education: Kambara

Jnanpith award-winning poet-playwright Chandra-shekhara Kambara on Friday strongly advocated imparting education in the mother tongue. “You can learn English as a language. I feel Kannada should be the medium of instruction. After 10th Standard, you can have a choice”, he contended. Mr Kambara argued that the State should not privatise education till 10th standard. “Let primary and high school education be state-sponsored till 10th standard to wipe out the disparity between children from upper class and downtrodden”, he said.

The playwright downplayed the Karnataka-Maharashtra border issue maintaining that one should not attach much importance to the ‘unwanted dispute’ created by some people from across the border. Mr Kambara, who hails from Belgaum district, said, “I have many friends, including several writers, in Maharashtra who are least bothered about this issue. For some politicians, this issue should be kept alive in the form of a dispute so that they can thrive. If there is no issue, these people will find it hard for their survival”, he said.

Full report here Deccan Chronicle 

Kambar bats for Kannada in schools

Jnanpith award winner Chandrashekhara Kambar on Friday suggested that all schools having classes from the lower kindergarten (LKG) to Standard 10 must be run by the government and that the medium of instruction up to class 10 must be in Kannada.

Kambar, noting that there is a wide divide between students who pass out of private, English medium schools and those passing out of government-run, Kannada-medium schools said: “This can be removed only when the government runs all the primary and high schools. They can allow any private management to run educational institutions from the PU level.”

His justification for having Kannada as the medium of instruction was that only mother tongue can provide an experience, which is an integral part of learning and learning through any other language only gives people information, which makes them less competent.

“I am not saying that one should not learn English. All I am saying is that learn even English through Kannada, because it is essential to have an experience when one is learning and being merely suffocated by information will not take us far. Even learn Japanese if you feel it is necessary but don’t compromise on having Kannada as the medium in primary and high school,” Kambar  explained.

Full report here Deccan Herald

Environment, no longer a sideshow

National Council of Educational Research and Training ( NCERT), the apex curriculum setter in India, in its latest guideline, has allocated scores to environment education in the school-leaving examinations. As per its guidelines, assessments now will no longer be based on the conventional 'study-text-books : write-examination' mode but on how active the examinee has been 'on the ground.'

Sumita Dasgupta, programme director, environment education unit, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and editor, Climate Change & Natural Resources: A Book of Activities for Environmental Education, recently published by CSE, explains, "The book is in response to this new and exciting development.

Full report here Times of India 

The future of Gandhian studies

On Gandhi Jayanti, Express checks out the Gandhian study centres of state universities to find what courses they offer and what are their plans.

UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE
It is one of the first Gandhi Bhavans of the country and was inaugurated by former prime minister Morarji Desai in 1962.
The Centre for Gandhian Studies here offers a 10-month diploma in Gandhian Studies.
Candidates with Pre-University qualifications are eligible for the course.

BANGALORE UNIVERSITY
The Gandhi Bhavan was constructed in 1973- 74 at a cost of Rs 2 lakh. The Centre for Gandhian Studies offers a PG Diploma and a certificate course. Director of the Centre D Jeevan Kumar said besides these courses, the Centre was publishing books on Gandhians.
On Saturday, the 42nd book on a Gandhian will be released.
Plans
The centre is planning to start a post graduation course in Gandhian Studies.
Drawbacks Five teaching faculty members handle five different papers for diploma courses.
“Though there is a demand for the course, all faculty members, including the director, is on deputation from other departments like Philosophy, History and Economics,” Umesh said.
Plans
The university plans to introduce courses on Gandhian Studies for prisoners. A similar initiative has been taken at the Mumbai prison, which has reportedly helped the inmates.
Drawbacks While the PG Diploma in Gandhian Studies is very popular, certificate courses have less takers.

Full report here New Indian Express

MP to get 'Hindi University'

Madhya Pradesh government has decided to set up "Hindi University" to promote the language in the state.

A decision to the effect was taken at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, an official release said on Wednesday, Sep 15.

The objective behind setting up the university is to promote Hindi and give boost to research work in this language in the state, it said.

The place where the proposed university would be located is yet to be decided, the release said.

Full report here Samay Live

Send teachers abroad to teach Tamil: VIT chancellor

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) University Chancellor G. Viswanathan said on Monday, Sep 13 that Tamil teachers should be sent to foreign countries for teaching Tamil to children of Non-Resident Indian Tamil families and who did not get the opportunity to learn Tamil because of parents speaking in English.

The Chancellor spoke while presiding over a function organized jointly by the VIT University as the VGP World Tamil Sangam gifted the varsity's E.V.R. Periyar Library a massive Thirukkural book, consisting of poems by the famous Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar written almost 2000 years ago.

The 1.25 tonnes weighing book that is six feet high and three feet wide contains around 1330 two line verses by the poet.

Full report here India Edunews

Nalanda University to rise from ashes

Indian academics have long dreamt of resurrecting Nalanda University, one of the world's oldest seats of learning which has lain in ruins for 800 years since being razed by foreign invaders.

Now the chance of intellectual life returning to Nalanda has come one step closer after the parliament in New Delhi last month passed a bill approving plans to re-build the campus as a symbol of India's global ambitions.

Historians believe that the university, in the eastern state of Bihar, once catered for 10,000 students and scholars from across Asia, studying subjects ranging from science and philosophy to literature and mathematics.

Founded in the third century, it gained an international reputation before being sacked by Turkic soldiers and its vast library burnt down in 1193 -- when Oxford University was only just coming into existence.

Piles of red bricks and some marble carvings are all that remain at the site, 55 miles (90 kilometres) from Bihar's state capital of Patna.

Full report here AFP

DRDA offers to buy Telugu Academy books

Help is flowing in for the fund-starved Telugu Academy after some corporate institutions' alleged piracy of its Intermediate textbooks came out last week. With the state government and the minister for higher education, Sridhar Babu supporting the academy, another government body, District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) has offered to purchase a part of the academy's stock of textbooks which were not purchased by corporate institutions. The first purchase by the body will be worth Rs 2 crore.

The DRDA is a state project set up to offer free and compulsory education for Intermediate students from rural areas with poor economic status. According to Telugu Academy sources, the DRDA has agreed to buy 4,000 bundles of textbooks for the students who are covered under the programme at first. More stock will be bought as and when the government sanctions come.

The Telugu academy officials had earlier revealed that they had a loss of Rs 8 crore in the academic year 2010-11 alone as corporate institutions, private colleges and small-time publishers printed pirated editions of their textbook content and supplied it to junior colleges across the state. The academy recently, lodged a case against Nishit Multimedia India Pvt Ltd, a Narayana Group of Institutions owned-publishing company for allegedly pirating their books.

Full report here Times of India 

Chetan Bhagat on mistakes in education system

Chetan Bhagat belongs to the funny, sensible and no nonsense breed. He can laugh at himself, at the system and still come through as someone who cares enough to want things to change and knows that they will, someday.

In Hotel Courtyard by Marriott for an interaction with members of Essence Organisation on Friday, Sep 3, the author of bestselling Indian novels such as Five Point Someone and the recent Two States spoke about the pitfalls and lacunae in the education system in India. "Indian education focusses on filtering over learning, remembering over thinking, and exhibits a lack of sync with the globalised world," he said.

He compared the education system in the country, which uses cut-off marks, to a process that requires 50 children on a bicycle for the first time in their lives to get to the other side. Most of them fall down, two or three make it and they are declared as the only ones fit to be in the system, which does not have a place or provide options for the rest.

Full report here Times of India 

NID pitches for picture, visual books in schools

With an eye on possible school curriculum reforms and also on the market, the National Institute of Design (NID) recently organised a workshop on illustrations for students that take on educational hues.

Illustrators from France, Switzerland and Germany taught NID students how to draw illustration stories for children in different age group.

NID professors said the institute is taking interest in this genre of illustration as very few Indians have contributed in the field as well these picturebooks are viewed as supplementary educational tools for young students. But most books available in India are by foreign authors and publishers.

“Visual communication is playing a more dominant role, and even the HRD Ministry has started talking about curriculum changes with more visual books,” said Sekhar Mukherjee, co-ordinator of NID's animation design course.

Full report here Indian Express

Some children still study under a tree in 21st century India

Evoking highest spirit of education in the early 20th century, Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote about the wonder of children studying under a tree in the open air, imbibing knowledge and values in the lap of nature which is being practiced in Shantiniketan, the stellar institution of learning, based on Tagore's principles.

In the 21st century India that recently marked its 64 Independence Day, Tagore's dream seems to have been recreated in quite a different scenario.

One such example of that is visible in district Sitamarhi of north Bihar. Here, village students from Gainpur Tola of Madhuban Purbi Basaha Panchayat, Baj Patti Block, come carrying sacks. They require it everyday to sit on the ground to study under a tree.

Full report here Oneindia

Upper House OKs bill for Nalanda univ

After a well-informed debate over three hours, erudite in parts, Rajya Sabha on Saturday passed the Bill to establish the transnational university at Nalanda in Bihar with the hope that it will become "an icon of Asian renaissance", much like the famous seat of learning in ancient India.

Junior external affairs Preneet Kaur, who introduced the Bill in Rajya Sabha, said the Nalanda University would be established as a non-State, non-profit, secular and self-governing international institute with a continental focus.

With the support of 16 countries in East Asia, India aims to resurrect the ancient seat of Buddhist learning at its original site in Rajgir to attract students and faculty from across South and South-East Asia. The Bihar government, on its part, has already acquired 446 acres of land for the new Nalanda University.

Full report here Times of India 

Untrained translators make school textbooks a bundle of errors

The new textbooks under Samacheer Kalvi' now have teachers making corrections on printed paper. Sentences are plagued by issues of poor sentence construction, incorrect tense, spelling and factual errors. Experts say this may have occurred since the work was not given to the right people and because the books were first written in Tamil and then translated into English.

A Karunanandan, former head of the history department in Vivekananda College, who reviewed the draft syllabus for social studies, said, "The textbooks were both written and reviewed in haste. This lead to a lot of mistakes. Mistakes also arise when the job is not given to the appropriate group. After the books were written, subject experts should have checked for factual errors while people who had a good command over the language ought to have checked the grammar and phrasing.

Full report here TImes of India 

Language pill for minorities

After jobs for Muslims, it's time for quality education. English education, in fact.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be walking the next crucial step when he lays the foundation for an English-medium madarsa at Suri in Birbhum on July 31 — possibly the first such madarsa in the country. Over the next few months, each of the state's 12 minority dominated districts will have such institutions.

In February this year, Bhattacharjee — who also holds the minority welfare portfolio — had adopted the Ranganath Mishra Commission's recommendations ahead of the Centre by reserving 10% quota for backward Muslims. And by deciding to set up 14 new English-language madarsas (including three in Murshidabad), the Left Front government has again admitted that it was wrong in dropping English in primary education in the 1980s. The CM had himself acknowledged this while re-introducing English from Class I in 2001.

The rectification process continued with the government setting up state-run English-medium schools this year. It will come full circle with the English-medium madarsas. So far, the teaching medium in Bengal madarsas has been Urdu, Hindi or Bengali.

Full report here Times of India

Errors galore: Reference book for teachers withdrawn

The state Education department has withdrawn the reference book for primary schools teachers issued under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The book titled Gyan Sarovar, which was given teachers to teach subjects like history, geography, civics and general knowledge, turned out to be a book of errors.

Not only were there several printing errors and wrong information, the book written in English, “exposed the state government’s claim of promoting Punjabi language”.

By this time, most schools have completed half of the syllabus and authorities are not sure when the revised version of the book will be distributed.

The book cites two different theories related to the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and has two different names for the wife of Guru Amardas. It evens state that taking drugs does not make one is an addict and even lays undue stress on issues of blind faith.

Full report here Indian Express

Uniform syllabus has oriental schools worried

Intended as a uniform syllabus to nullify differences across boards, 'Samacheer Kalvi' now has the heads of Oriental schools worried. They feel it may rob their institutions of their special linguistic character, the reason why they were established under a separate stream by the state government in 1951.

"Our schools were set up with the purpose of promoting the study of Arabic and Sanskrit languages. Parents admit their children to Oriental schools knowing that greater emphasis will be paid to these languages and it will enable them to read and learn religious scriptures better,"said G S M P Khadri, secretary and correspondent of Murthuzaviya Foundation which runs the Murthuzaviya Oriental Higher Secondary School in Triplicane.

Full report here Times of India 

94% primary students in India cannot recognise English

For 94% of the primary students in India, English is an alien language. And this is official.

A study conducted by the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) of the Planning Commission has revealed that 94 per cent of the students in primary schools across the country cannot recognise the English alphabets. This reality check is major setback for prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s UPA government that has embarked on a major initiative to universalise primary education, and grant the right to education.

The ‘Programme Evaluation Organization’ (PEO) headed by deputychairman Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia has come out with this data through an evaluation study of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in order to assess its impact.

Full report here DNA

English made easy

AID India hopes to make English more accessible to the urban and rural poor in Tamil Nadu

A report on project ‘English Next India', funded by the British Council, has found that India is lagging behind China in the number of proficient English speakers. The report's initial findings suggest a number of barriers to the improvement of English proficiency in India, including a huge shortage of English teachers, and poor English holding back higher education.

Initial findings advise that a variety of strategies need to be employed to teach English; that there is no one magic solution. AID India founder and CEO, Balaji Sampath, is indirectly taking up the British Council on its advice. However, the education activist is looking at bringing about a change on a much smaller scale.

Through its flagship initiative, ‘Eureka Child', AID India aims to “provide quality education for every child in Tamil Nadu”, which includes making English more accessible to underprivileged children in urban and rural areas. “There is a big gap in education between the rich kids in English-medium schools and underprivileged kids in Government schools,” says Sampath.

Full report here Hindu

Kids failing to read books

The fast life has casted its spell over school kids as they think reading big fat novels is a waste of time. Most British students, after being presented with short extracts and worksheets to practice comprehension and sentence structure, fail to read complete novels at schools.

The National Union of Teachers have expressed their concern over the trend and said that it is fueled by the widespread closure of school libraries to save money. The union of teachers at the Annual Conference in Liverpool would discuss to dedicate a slot in the timetable to give children more opportunity to “read for pleasure.”

Alan Gibbons, the children’s author, who will address the meeting, said an over-reliance on short extracts risked undermining children’s grasp of classic works by Dickens and Shakespeare.

Full report here Oneindia

India shining? Not when govt is stingy with education funds

Nowhere is the disconnect between the dreams of a billion Indians and the cold, hard reality more stark than in education. Even as funds from both, the government and the private sector, flood the system, daunting tasks remain — bringing down the jaw-dropping drop-out rate of over 50% by secondary stage, or making over 300 million adults literate, or making higher education available to more than the meagre 11% youth at present.

One striking aspect of this complex problem is that there is a disconnect between promises made by politicians or policy makers and actual action. The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a Delhi based thinktank has picked up a few significant promises made in election manifestoes and budget or plan documents and tracked down the actual financial allocations made towards it. The results are stunning: in most cases the money falls far short of what is needed to implement the rosy promises.

Take the case of the promise made by the Congress in its 2009 election manifesto, and later included in the 2009-10 budget — to set up model schools (on the Kendriya Vidyalaya lines) in each block of the country. That means 6000 schools in all. This wouldn’t solve the problem of either drop out rates or poor quality, but at least it was a beginning. But CBGA analysis shows that the provisions in the 2009 budget for the first 2500 schools was a mere Rs 9321 crore, of which the central govt’s share was Rs 7457 crore.

Full report here Times of India