Rajaram Ka Purva is a remote rural hamlet in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh inhabited by the poorest of the poor. Almost none of the children in this hamlet are able to go to school. The reasons relate to poverty, distance of the nearest school as well as the unsafe path to school. Till these difficulties can be sorted out[Read More…]
Every year on September 5, Teachers’ Day is celebrated in the country. Dr. Radhakrishnan’s birthday is celebrated as Teachers’ Day. He was born on September 5, 1888, in Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. Dr. Radhakrishnan was the country’s second president, first vice president, and second ambassador to the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1954 for his important services.[Read More…]
Society is in a state of flux. It is undergoing constant change and reformation. This element of metamorphosis is true for all fields of human endeavour – be it agriculture, commerce, industry or the arts and sciences. We are living in an age of information explosion where vast quantities of written matter are available thus allowing access to[Read More…]
The overwhelming feature of the education system of the greater part of the world is that is that it is completely out of connect with the real needs of our deeply troubled world. What are the real needs of our world? These are clearly linked to the recognition of the most pressing problems of our world. The present day world[Read More…]
Education is a basic human right and all education should be free for all. However the commodification and corporatizing of higher education has meant that free university education presently only obtains in about 25 countries. Australian universities charge impoverished local and overseas students hugely excessive tuition fees when Accredited Remote Learning (ARL) can deliver top quality, reading-based courses and accrediting[Read More…]
by Riya Jain, Sagar Sengar and Sandeep Pandey A Gujarat government Indian Administrative Service officer Dhaval Patel after visiting six primary schools in Chhota Udepur district among the tribal area made the following observation: ‘These poor tribal children do not have any other source of education. It is my strong opinion that we are doing injustice to them by giving[Read More…]
The urgency of improving school education, particularly in the government-run schools of more remote rural areas, has persisted for a long time. Following the prolonged closure of schools during the pandemic, this urgency has increased all the more as the learning of students was adversely affected during the time of school closure. A recent survey conducted early this year in[Read More…]
The great tradition of education in Maharashtra has been destroyed by politicians, shikshan samrats running institutions like overlords. They were exposed in a highly forthright manner by Sharad Jawadekar, a senior educationist from Pune. He walks with a serious limp and a walking stick but he speaks with such clarity and force, he ought to be heard often and be[Read More…]
by Ekitha Gangavath, Ayush Bajpai, Amit Singh and Sandeep Pandey Unfortunately, this theme gets people’s attention only when some students commit suicides. As public memory is short things relapse to normal soon. The academic atmosphere becomes more competitive and then we have more suicides a few years down the line. Actually, number of students’ suicides is pretty large but media[Read More…]
by Sandra Elizabeth Joseph, Apoorva Yarabahally, Sukanya Maity and Snigdha Jayakrishnan A response from few members of Aijaz Ahmad Memorial Study circle(AAMSC), in the light of suspension of four professors from the university for their alleged association (which we completely deny) with our study circle. It was not so long ago, in an interdisciplinary course called ‘Introduction to South Asia’[Read More…]
The New Education Policy, 2020 has unleashed an unprecedented attack on the education system of India. As the NEP2020 is getting implemented, we can find that Indian history is getting more and more saffronised. It is not just a matter of communalism but it is a broad matter of viewing history and science from the lens of the oppressor. The[Read More…]
Dear future students wishing to come to Australia and study: don’t. The gurgling, decaying system is, on a regular basis, being exposed for what it is. If it is not students being exploited, its academics being manipulated to the point of ruinous ill-health. True, not all universities are equally rotten in the constellation of corporate manipulation, but each one is[Read More…]
by Gangavath Ekitha and Ayush Bajpai CLAT[1] was introduced in 2008 as a Common Entrance to the so-called Islands of Excellence[2]- the National Law Universities in India- or the Law Schools as the students prefer to say. The admission test used to have five different Sections, including English, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, General Knowledge Current Affairs and Legal Reasoning[3]. Learning[Read More…]
An alternative education path (ATP) which is well integrated with the creation of a better and safer world is presented here. One part of ATP can be called Core 1 and the essence of this remains the same from the beginning of school education to post-graduation, although of course the learning is different for various classes and age-groups. This core[Read More…]
There are countless subdued dreams of young girls residing in the remote villages of Bageshwar, one of the 13 districts in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Bageshwar, which was erstwhile a part of Almora district, was divided into three development blocks: Bageshwar, Garur, and Kapkot, to speed up the pace of development. But even after two decades, the district still[Read More…]
There has been a lot of concern recently regarding the direction of education policy in India, particularly regarding the Union Government’s National Education Policy 2020 (NEP). The National Education Assembly (NEA), organized at Delhi on April 30 has helped to shape and consolidate these various apprehensions being felt increasingly by many educationists, students and teachers as well as their numerous[Read More…]
Universities are no longer producing critical mass to question power for social, political and economic transformation of society for greater common goods. Universities are no longer producing independent knowledge traditions to address essentialist and emancipatory needs of individuals and societies in short run and long run. The governmental and non-governmental funding bodies control the nature, scope, structure and outputs of[Read More…]
Ensuring school education for all children is an important policy objective in India. Our progress in this was disturbed in recent times by the pandemic which increased the number of drop-outs for some time while the adverse impact on learning attainments was even more durable. Poverty is without doubt one of the major factors which hinders the completion of school[Read More…]
Only 0.1% of funds allocated for pre-matric scholarship for scheduled caste students disbursed during first 9 months of financial year The government has been trying to reform the system of disbursement of scholarships to scheduled caste and extremely backward class students. Reform is supposed to lead to improvement. However in the present context the supposed ‘reform’ has muddled up things[Read More…]
by Jyoti Raina and Mansi The work of Brazilian philosopher-educator Paulo Freire continues to have great relevance in the world today. Born to a middle-class family in Recife, in the state of Pernambuco in northeast Brazil, South American philosopher Paulo Reglus Neves Freire’s (1921-1997) life experience shaped his vision of education. In his younger days he faced hunger, poverty and[Read More…]
Report from Jhansi district National level information has frequently highlighted many unmet needs of schools and anganwadis in remote rural areas. While the government has several ambitious plans of improvements, the harsh reality is that budgetary allocations have been falling short of meeting even essential requirements, let alone make ambitious improvements. In such a situation, voluntary organizations can make an[Read More…]
Over the last week or so, Australian politicians and representatives of the university sector got busy pressing flesh in India, hoping to open avenues that have largely remained aspirational. It was timed to coincide with G20 talks in New Delhi, which has seen a flurry of contentious meetings traversing security, economics and education, all taking place in the shadow of[Read More…]
Adequate investment in equality-based education is widely accepted as one of the key components as well as a strong base for the progress of developing countries. Despite this, educational progress in India has been impeded badly by low budgets as well as inequalities. There is near consensus, even at the official level, regarding the need to take government educational budget[Read More…]
by Sanjana Sree Manusanipalli and Sandeep Pandey The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted by the Union Government in 2009 and implemented in 2010. As part of Section 12(1)(c) of this Act, at least 25% of children in the age group 6-14 years from the disadvantaged groups and weaker sections can be admitted to unaided[Read More…]
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Nelson Mandela). There are varied perspectives exist among the scholars with regard to the role of School as an agency of social change. For some, modern institutions like Schools and Colleges (by promoting secular and democratic thinking through critical pedagogy) could play progressive role in the[Read More…]
1 Ravela Somaiya, a senior socialist friend living in Hyderabad, had sent a video to me about two months back. I opened the video and found Ramchandra Guha’s speech in it, which was delivered at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana. I closed the video without listening to that speech. This university came into limelight last year for abruptly terminating the services[Read More…]
One third of primary schools in Jharkhand have a single teacher. Pupil attendance is just 68% in primary schools and 58% in upper-primary. Right to Education Act grossly violated in all government schools A new survey report, Gloom in the Classroom, lays bare the dismal state of the schooling system in Jharkhand and the depth of the post-Covid crisis.[Read More…]
Muslims will suffer the most. This will lead further marginalization of Muslims in higher education. In India, the nightmare for Indian Muslims does not appear to be ending anytime soon. As if the daily physical and virtual assaults on Indian Muslims weren’t enough, the government of India has decided to further torment the Muslim community by scrapping the Maulana[Read More…]
Every academic year comes to an end with the graduation of students who are ostensibly ready to take up a new set of challenges and goals. Many of them have dreams both big and small, however, it is merely survival that matters the most as many of them consider their dreams to be silly. Pash, a Punjabi poet says, “The most[Read More…]
As election day (November 12) approaches, people of Himachal Pradesh are more inclined to recall the more impressive achievements of the long era of Congress rule. In 2017-18 among Human Development indicators Himachal was at 7th place and in Gender Development indicators Himachal was at number 2 place ( compared to rank number 16 of neighboring state Haryana) among 36[Read More…]
There has been a significant decline in the quality of education during the last few decades. Additionally, the right-wing government has been working to modify the curriculum that stifles Indian students` ability to think critically. The majority of Indian students feel unprepared for the future in technologically advanced nations as a result of right-wing government endeavors. Most educational institutions are[Read More…]
Every year in India we celebrate 5th September as the National Teachers’ Day and just a month later the world observes 5th October as ‘World Teachers’ Day’. The theme this year is: “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”. It was UNESCO that established this day in 1994 to celebrate and recognize the immense contribute of all those in the[Read More…]
Someone I know very well has just completed his engineering course and joined an IT company. He was selected by the company after a rigorous online selection test. Many of his friends have also taken the selection test in other renowned companies. I have seen him taking online selection tests on behalf of his friends and all of his friends[Read More…]
Today , a public meeting was organized by the Education Promotion Council ( henceforth EPC)at the Nobel Senior Secondary School, Dillar Nagar, Ghazipur, UP. At the outset, let me remind that long ago a great educationist and social reformer like Sir Syed Ahmad khan had founded Scientific Society in Ghazipur to spread education , social reform and scientific temper among[Read More…]
As children go back to school, a Delhi government programme to close the gap that has taken place in learning during the pandemic is helping in more ways than one. Pooja, a student in a government school in Saket, Delhi had been waiting to return to school for the past two years. As the classes commenced online during the pandemic,[Read More…]
In the last week of her life, my mother extracted a promise from me. “Make sure,” she said, “that Orion goes to college.” I swore that I would, although I wasn’t at all sure how I’d make it happen. Even in the year 2000, average tuitions were almost 10 times what my own undergraduate school had charged 30 years earlier. I knew[Read More…]
by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young Recently, the idea of Academentia has entered the public domain. Academentia combines academia – those working in post-secondary education – with dementia, i.e. the progressive impairments to memory, thinking, and behaviour which negatively impacts a person’s ability to function. In short, Academentia describes a state of organisational insanity in which university academics can no longer function as academics and scholars. Academentia occurs in neoliberal universities run by faceless[Read More…]
In the name of rationalization of curriculum many a topics have been removed from the CBSE syllabus (April 2022). From the tenth standard syllabus; the topics excluded are democracy and diversity, rise of Afro-Asiatic Islamic states, history of Mughal Courts, non alignment movement, impact of globalization on agriculture, popular struggle movements, poems of Faiz in the section of Communalism and[Read More…]
One of the most important requirements of our troubled world is a meaningful system of education which is able to create joyful, interesting conditions of learning linked to strong ethical values of justice, equality, honesty, truth, compassion, non-violence, care of all living beings, protection of environment and courage. A key question that any student should be exploring is—how can I[Read More…]
Prologue Some years back, I was visiting government schools in an eastern state of India, when the government official accompanying me said, “Let me take you to a SMART school, which is doing exceptionally well”. With much anticipation and apprehension (because I’ve already had experienced some SMART schools in other states), I agreed, and within half an hour’s drive we[Read More…]
The Hindu right wing forces are planning for a while to make the Bhagavad Gita as a national scripture and access to absolute state power is allowing them to fulfil their long-time dream. The decision of the Gujarat government to incorporate the Bhagavad Gita within the school syllabus for Class-6 to class-12 students from 2022-23 academic year is a dangerous[Read More…]
The results of Term 1 exam of class X have been declared. As a student myself, I can intensely feel how the educational atmosphere is laden with the brute bulkiness of marks-mania. Toppers have got 100% marks, and this has naturally created an ugly scenario where each student’s worth is measured vis-à-vis this standard. While schools are garlanding the toppers[Read More…]
Several students of mine on Saturday came to meet me. Since I stay near JNU, we decided to go to the campus. For those who may not know, I am teaching a paper on political science at Moti Lal Nehru College, University of Delhi. Please do not think that I am a permanent teacher. Nor am I an ad-hoc teacher.[Read More…]
That academia which preaches justice is itself an unjust environment has been pointed out by some of the academia themselves (Kumar 2016, Guru 2002). The major complaint is that the marginalised do not get due recognition. I published a book in 2011 out of my PhD (Khora 2011). However, it has not been referred in academic writings in India in[Read More…]
With the re-opening of schools, there is a need for pedagogic support for students belonging to the marginalized sections to help them acquire linguistic, numerical, and cognitive competencies. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the contradiction between instrumentalism and morality as educational aims has reached the state of a full-blown crisis. This has percolated in the educational institutions as they[Read More…]
In its Term 1 sociology test for Class 12 students – held on December 1, 2021 – the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) included a question asking which political party was in power when the “anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place”. This has caused a furore. Calling the question “inappropriate”, CBSE has promised to take “strict action”[Read More…]
by Sandeep Pandey, Seema Muniz and Gopal Krishna Verma Some people are disheartened with the disruption in children’s education due to the menace of Covid and the successive lockdowns. While a number of children are getting used to attending online classes, their counterparts from the weaker socio-economic backgrounds continue to struggle either because of unfamiliarity with technology or because of [Read More…]
“General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that education is the foundation of a century-old plan. It is hoped that the People’s Education Press will focus on the fundamental task of fostering morality, adhere to the correct political direction, carry forward the fine traditions, promote reforms and innovations, and create excellent teaching materials with Bacon casting soul, enlightening wisdom, and making new[Read More…]
Recently, I was involved in a discussion about the things we do and do not teach our children. I’ve already said quite a bit on this subject. But after talking with a few other people about education, and especially secondary education, I realized I approached the subject from the assumption that the purpose of school is to train the mind in skills[Read More…]
Education is the backbone of any developing nation. 100% literacy is one of the first landmarks used for judging the level of development of any nation. India is a developing nation vying to become a superpower but it’s far from achieving 100% literacy. According to official statistics, India’s literacy rate hovers around 75% which leaves a quarter of the citizens[Read More…]
PBL: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to catch a fish and he will never go hungry”. This simple quote emphasizes the key tenet of education – providing people with the means to succeed in their future endeavours. But does our education system fulfil the basic needs of the people? The[Read More…]
The Central board of secondary education has cancelled class X and class XII examinations. They have sent a formula for awarding marks to the students of class X this year based on best result of the school for the last three years. Also, for different subjects there is another criterion for awarding marks. For all other subjects except for second[Read More…]
“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge” (Nicolaus Copernicus). Socratic knowledge in its true essence is neither any teaching in the conventional sense of world nor about filling the empty minds of largely passive students with facts and figures acquired through mugging[Read More…]
Introduction Our ability to achieve a livable future for all depends on whether we can foster an unprecedented degree of social learning. There is no change without learning, and no learning without change. But with the stakes higher than ever before, time is worryingly short. How, under such urgency, do we effect such a large-scale paradigm shift? Formal education systems[Read More…]
It seems appropriate that the 2020-2021 school year in Portland, Oregon, began amid toxic smoke from the catastrophic wildfires that blanketed many parts of the state for almost two weeks. The night before the first day of school, the smoke alarm in my bedroom went off. Looking back, I see it as a clarion call, a shrieking, beeping warning of all the[Read More…]
“Cultivation of the Mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence” – said Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Well, what could be more stimulating and productive than art? The art of creating something, where the brain intercepts an idea and grows it into a manifold entity. Whether it’s writing an article, a poem, a story or making a painting, a[Read More…]
Global Classroom is a novel and innovative way to gain international experience, virtually, from wherever you are! When talking about Global Classroom we mean a unique class consisting of students from two or more different countries. Even while students in a virtual classroom are divided by physical space, they are connected by being involved in the identical practical activities, learning[Read More…]
Written by Dr. Aadil M. Nanda and Dr. Rafi Ramzan Dar Gone are the days when our educated youth were viewed as a potential human resource waiting to be tapped. In the days of yore, they were role models for guiding the nature of social change in terms of their capability to socialize society in its moral, cultural and intellectual dimensions. Nowadays, educational[Read More…]
If a university privately funded by philanthropists can be forced to fall in line, even if due to implicit pressure from the ruling dispensation, it can be inferred that autonomy in institutions funded by businessmen is literally non-existent. The institutions run with direct government funding have had little autonomy. The publicly funded universities can offer greater protection to academics but[Read More…]
The need for introducing more issues of social relevance in school and college education has been often emphasized, as also the need for improving the ethical content of education. At the same time, the need for making education more interesting and participative for students at all levels is increasingly realized. All of these on objectives can be advanced by making[Read More…]
Written by Bhumkia Rajdev, Abdul Basith and Suhail K New Education Policy 2020 has replaced thirty-four-year-old National Policy on Education (1986). The 66-page document talks about vision of government for ECCE (Early childhood care education), School Education, Higher Education and Professional education. It aims for universalisation of education from pre-school to secondary level with 100% GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) in[Read More…]
“The higher education in India is poised for colossal changes with deleterious outcomes under the ‘surveillance capitalism,’” according to G. Arunima, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Director of Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR). She was delivering the Third “Scholars of Eminence Web-Lecture” (SEW-L) organised by the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi[Read More…]
Who is a teacher? In a loose sense a teacher would be anybody including Mahatma Gandhi who was not a teacher in any school or college and Ambedkar who was a teacher in a college for some time. On the other hand, only the school teachers are called the teachers in a strict sense and not the university teachers who[Read More…]
The last year has been extremely difficult for school education. On the one hand there have been very prolonged school closures due to COVID related factors and on the other hand the new situation has been used to push commercialization trends which already existed but appear to have gained more strength in these exceptional times. There is a feeling of[Read More…]
Forget the global university rankings of any list. The global university promotion exercise is filled with snake oil and perfumed refuse, an effort to corrupt the unknowing and steal from the gullible. The aim here is to convince parents, potential students and academics that their institutions of white collar crime are appealing enough to warrant enrolment and employment at. Writing[Read More…]
Written by Dr. Sudhamshi Beeram, Dr. Arathi P Rao and Prof. K Rajasekharan Nayar The disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic has been drastic and perhaps one of the most dramatic transitions witnessed in the education sector. The massive and unexpected closures have forced educational institutions to seek quick fixes in different digital learning platforms (Jandrić, 2020). More than a semester[Read More…]
Written by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms Nestled in the northern Hanseatic port city of Bremen, Jacobs University is one of Germany’s few private tertiary institutions Jacobs University In a country dominated by 107 state-run universities., it is soon to join a list of eighteen other private universities and colleges that have closed their doors in the last few years.[Read More…]
The coronavirus student, a species brought forth in the world of education by a pandemic that has killed over 400,000 people in the United States and 100,000 in the United Kingdom, is a troubled creature. When universities and schools across the globe were given varying and often contradictory messages on the safety of continuing in class teaching and participation, the[Read More…]
The disruption of education in Covid times has caused serious concern, and there are well-justified calls for urgent corrective action. Along with this, however, there is compelling reason to give much more thought to where exactly business-as-usual education systems are taking us and to what extent, if at all, these are capable of contributing to the creation of a better, [Read More…]
The education and the department of human resource is always a hot topic in Kashmir valley but from last one month it has been more. It is being discussed at every nook and corner, from top to bottom and by every Tom, Dick and Harry. There has been three trending topics which were discussed by the people in the print[Read More…]
Along with COVID 19 and its associated terminology, we are currently being educated in a new jargon regarding one of the oldest occupations, namely, teaching. We now are told of online learning, e-teaching, edtech, edutech, smartphones in the new role of teacher, and so on and so forth. India is a large country with a very young population, where almost[Read More…]
Education has always been considered as one of the most important weapons for improving the living standards of society and help the nation progress. Though it is seen as a great equalizer, inequality in education leads to the reinforcement of social and economic inequalities, thus, widening the gap and not progressing the society as a whole. As the Oxfam International report[Read More…]
Education is the foremost tool that can be used to empower entire communities towards progress. Consider any issue that plagues a community, and education would be a key resolution mechanism. It is therefore of highest importance that right education is dispensed to all members of a community from an early age. This equips them with the necessary skills to take[Read More…]
In 2012, the spirit of India was violently shaken by the heinous Delhi gang rape. People took to the streets demanding justice for the girl we named Nirbhaya – “the fearless”. The Government amended the rape law bringing in a stricter, more formidable Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act) on laws related to sexual offences. In 2019, according to[Read More…]
The pandemic and the extended lockdown in India has hit the poor disproportionately hard. They have a higher risk of infection, significant loss of income and livelihoods, and immense learning losses for their children as the schools were closed for 7+ months. During this period, government schools have been struggling with identifying new ways of working and trying to enable[Read More…]
We are all aware of the dire consequences of subjecting young kids to intense academic pressure from an early age. In India, we have coaching institutes like FIITJEE and Resonance offering programs for 6th standard kids to prepare them for “NTSE, IJSO, PRMO and other Olympiads”. The duration of these programs is around 175 hours – hours that could’ve been spent playing[Read More…]
“True education must correspond to the surrounding circumstances or it is not a healthy growth.” – Mahatma Gandhi Reports and Surveys such as the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) by NGO Pratham or National Achievement Survey conducted by NCERT repeatedly point out that the learning outcomes in school children are steadily declining. There can be two aspects to[Read More…]
Education is a very powerful transformative force, provided we first transform education itself. India has always been a patriarchal, feudalistic society, and even now, it is. There are certain societal and cultural norms, so deeply rooted in our culture, that a shift in mindset for the better is extremely slow, and sometimes, even close to impossible. Even today, in the[Read More…]
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” – Albert Einstein Coding is a short reference to the use of programming languages to provide lengthy sets of instructions for a computer to perform specific tasks. The continuous lines of text written behind the fancy looking websites and apps are what constitute as code for the application.[Read More…]
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, while getting acquainted with new digital modes of learning, it suddenly struck me hard on listening to the plight of a 15-year-old girl, living in a semi-urban area of India and struggling to learn from Zoom classes on the single smartphone of the family being shared between her and four siblings. Plights of children belonging to[Read More…]
Published as Introduction in Chowdhury A. and Alok John (Ed.). Excellence in Higher Education: Emerging Concerns and the Road Ahead. N Delhi: Rajesh Publications. 2020. Introduction Policy makers in India have constantly strived to provide greater access to high quality education to youth. This has been the endeavour since independence70 years ago.This is also crucial for the demographic dividend that[Read More…]
“Education should be so revolutionized as to answer the wants of the poorest villager, instead of answering those of an imperial exploiter.” Mahatma Gandhi With Article 21A being introduced in the Constitution, elementary education became a fundamental right to all the children from the age of six to fourteen years. With the Right to Education Act 2009, it became the[Read More…]
Why does not the nation move? First educate the nation. Even for social reforms, the first duty is to educate the people. – Swami Vivekananda Education helps develop the human personality and sense of dignity while acting as a tool for effective participation in society by enabling the understanding of the key facets of its being. Education has an intrinsic[Read More…]
After certain number of years of academic jargoning, learning and unlearning existing pedagogies, meandering through honky-dory lanes of rigorous materials prescribed in concerned “syllabi”, gnawing about a future of being in “academics”, I try to make sense of the exact amount of satisfaction I have felt till this point of my life’s journey. Entering “academia” was more of a part[Read More…]
Co-Written by Badre Alam Khan & Tarique Anwar It is a historic moment for all of us that Jamia Millia Islamia, a ‘Lusty Child’ of the Non-cooperation, and the Khilafat movement based on secular and composite culture, has completed 100 years of its academic journey on 29th October 2020. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, this year, the university has not organized several programmes[Read More…]
Panjab University Chandigarh is in turmoil these days. The four-year term of its highest governing body The Senate is coming to an end on 31st October 2020. The last Senate was notified by former Vice President Hamid Ansari in the capacity of Chancellor of Panjab University. It was notified by 25th October to come into existence from 1st November 2016,[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Arathi P Rao, Dr. Sudhamshi Beeram, Dr. Parul Malik and Dr. Urvashi Priyadarshini The fight against the threats of COVID -19 pandemic has profoundly impacted almost all sectors of mankind. The field of education is a deeply affected strata, with closures of educational institutions and emergency distance-learning plans turning the teachers’ routines and student interactions totally upside down.[Read More…]
The economic and health crises which we are now experiencing form part of a more global systemic crisis, a consequence of the degeneration of our socio-economic order. Behind this degeneration lies (among other factors) climate change, ecosystemic destabilisation and reduced availability of materials and energy. What we have experienced in the last few months (huge fires in Australia, California and[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Right to Education Forum (ORTEF) has drawn the attention of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik against closure of Government neighborhood schools in the name of rationalization. Showing its concern about newspaper reports on closure of government primary and upper primary schools, ORTEF – an informal network of civil society organizations and individuals working on the issues of right[Read More…]
‘You may burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas those books contain have passed through millions of channels and will go on.’” Helen Keller, An Open Letter to German Students ‘Fahrenheit 451’ It was the name of a movie which had appeared in mid-sixties. ( 1966) The only English movie directed by[Read More…]
During this pandemic period, virtuality has taken over many facets of our life and especially education although it could be a temporary phase. But the academic world may be realizing the immense potential as well as drawbacks of the virtual medium in the ‘give and take’ process of education. It is a near certainty that the hardest hit is pre-primary[Read More…]
The discussion on the new education policy so far seems to have omitted the subject of text books. The quality of most text books so far is considered quite poor, especially of books in English language for English medium students… This has been going on year after year, the same mistakes are repeated in next editions. Let me cite the[Read More…]
(This is concluding and Part-3 of an article. ) English medium at primary school level is certainly harmful, more so to the rural and poorer masses. That is a key lesson in my life’s experiences, both as a student and as a teacher. It is being promoted by ruling classes, more aggressively in much of South India : English[Read More…]
by Kalu Naik and Ajit Kumar Lenka The much-awaited and ambitious ‘New Education Policy-2020’ rolled out by the NDA government under the chairmanship of former ISRO Chief K. Kasturirangan. This New Education Policy is popularly known as the Kasturirangan committee on Education Policy. This is the third education policy since 1968 and 1986 and considered as the modern education policy[Read More…]
English medium at primary school level is certainly harmful, more so to the rural and poorer masses. That is a key lesson in my life’s experiences, both as a student and as a teacher. It may be useful only to the elite, including those of dalit bahujans, and to the vote bank politics of ruling classes. I am a[Read More…]
Youths and children, the most demographic dividend of any country, are equally important for the society specifically as well as for the nation-building in general. They are the impregnable pillars of any country’s social integration and economic growth. Education is treated as best mode of shaping these young populations towards their holistic development, thereon the destiny of any nation depends[Read More…]
Co-Written by Peehu Pardeshi and Sandeep Pandey It is unusual for a bright young scholar like Amrendra Narayan, with a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Mississippi State University, preceded and followed by research stints at Indian Institutes of Technology at Kanpur and Mumbai, respectively, to go and work at a relatively little known Veer Kunwar Singh University in a small[Read More…]
In India Engineering as a career has attracted alot of students in a big way & large number of aspirants who burn the midnight oil in order to crack the exam. These aspirant’s dream themselves as an engineer earning a decent package. Every year lakhs of students appear in the entrance examination for institution’s like “IIT” but only few of[Read More…]
A friend of mine requested that I must contribute my suggestions sought by the government for the preparation of the New Education Policy (NEP). He reminded me about my elaborate critique of the report of Ambani-Birla Committee, constituted by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He added that in continuance of the argument presented in that critique I should suggest to the[Read More…]
Children cannot come to school. But schools can go home. CSOs working on education have urged the Odisha government to clarify mechanisms and modus-operandi of recently announced Shiksha Samparka scheme and to initiate remedial classes to bridge the learning gap among children. As per the government report, there are only 2.2 million school children out of around 6 million, who[Read More…]
How did factory schools develop? Why did factory school develop? What does factory schools do? What is the relevance of factory schools today? The answers to these questions come from the history of factory schools, which reveals its immense impact not only on our educational system but also on our society, culture, economy, politics and individual lives. The historical perspectives[Read More…]
NEP(2020) sets out high ideals for quality learning indicators for ensuring inclusive and equitable education keeping in view 2030 sustainable development goals. On the basis of robust consultation with different stakeholders it aspires for a great equalizer for economically and socially diverse set of groups. While the document recognizes the underrepresented concerns of Socially and Economically Disadvantaged groups (SEDGs), economists[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashok Danavath and Sanjeev Gumpenapalli State governments and the Centre have been advancing scholarships to students from marginalised social groups so that they can pursue higher education abroad. There is tremendous enthusiasm among Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, minority and backward students for overseas education. These scholarships are meant to promote diversity and ensure equal opportunities for them. However, of late,[Read More…]
Language policy in NEP is not suitable to present context. The overemphasis of Hindi and Sanskrit in proposed three-language policy, and withdrawal of English from primary level, in National Education policy 2020 will be impacting over non-Hindi speaking states. If executed, the language burden will be more on students of these states and additional burden on students of linguistic and[Read More…]
Will we ever know the category-wise distribution of vice chancellors of the forty central universities located across the country? Thanks to the rules governing these universities, and those of the University Grants Commission, there is no such record. This form of “castelessness” at the top is coupled with marginal representation of teachers from socially and physically marginalised sections. Be it[Read More…]
Education is the most powerful weapon to produce desirable changes in our society, and in order to drive the nation towards greater accomplishments, it is important to furnish quality education to all of its citizens. The education system in India is one of the world’s largest sectors and after Independence, the country has passed through many reforms right from 10+2+3[Read More…]
I completed my primary education from a school that no more exists: Heroes Memorial Inter College. Situated in the capital of India’s most populous state, it was made in the memory of heroes and whoever fits in your definition of one. With about the strength of 400 students—that started to leave the school at a surprisingly exponential rate—the man who[Read More…]
Once upon a time, universities were the places, where intellectuals, teachers and students as a community of learners used to reflect on everyday realities, learn the skills to use it in their professional life, discover the knowledge, to understand themselves and dissect the complexities of society. They also used to practise their utopian dreams in pursuit of knowledge for the[Read More…]
It was only a matter of time that the fire started by Covid-19 would consume all traditional aspects of higher education teaching-learning and reach the doorstep of faculty training forcing it to don the e-avatar. On 1st July 2020 UGC issued directions to all the Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) – the institutions responsible for professional development of higher education[Read More…]
The BJP Education Policy (BEP)2020 has been formalised with a Cabinet approval on July 30, 2020. It is drafted by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan (79) the BJP’s Education Committee Chairman. He was the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He is an expert on sophisticated war weapon production centre, including nuclear weapons, but not of economic and social development of[Read More…]
The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (on July 30, 2020): The RSS-led NDA government has approved the New Education Policy (NEP). The policy brings with it a fundamental change in the system towards creating education markets and away from ensuring universalisation of education through government schools and rejecting quality education to poor[Read More…]
“Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition”, said Jacques Barzun. Rightly, did he point this out that ‘teaching’ is no more respected as a profession neither ‘teachers’ are accorded their due share of acknowledgement for the work that they do. This is not to say that teaching has always been a respectful[Read More…]
India is currently reeling under the deleterious effects of decades of neoliberalism. It is increasingly becoming clear that the financial imperatives of neoliberalism have severely subverted social infrastructures which could have alleviated the impact the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, with India ranking 3rd in the daily increase in Covid-19 cases and having experienced the migrant worker crisis, the deep-seated economic fault-lines[Read More…]
As Covid 19 has created havoc all rounds, the rulers of certain countries are using it to further intensify their set agendas. The democratic freedoms are being curtailed in certain forms, the reaction to which has come in America in the form of a campaign, which is opposing “stifling” cultural climate that is imposing “ideological conformity” and weakening “norms of[Read More…]
“Every major change in the education structure needs to be understood as being intimately connected to a shift in power.” Stuart Hall Ages ago, Hall rightly thought of education as a pursuit of politics ‘by other means’. Today when the Indian government has decided to eliminate certain chapters from school books, we need to see how this step is not[Read More…]
In the midst of isolation crisis, when all educational institutions have been stirred to online teaching and up-scaled teachers’ digital skills through school-based training interventions, few states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh had placed a restriction on online classes for primary school-going children. Online learning, no doubt is by far the most compelling alternative in the times of Covid-19[Read More…]
Since the first case of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was diagnosed in December 2019 in Hubei province of China, it has swept across the world and galvanized global action. This has brought unprecedented efforts to institute the practice of physical distancing called in most cases “social distancing” in countries all over the world, resulting in changes in[Read More…]
Human equality is a major problem of India. Historically ownership of property created human inequality in all countries. Caste gradations in education also created an unbridgeable inequality in India. This inequality has been carried very successfully to modern India through caste system and education. Fighting for human equality from power is more difficult than fighting from civil society even in[Read More…]
At their best teachers are everyday gods, standing at the entry to the world. If they are fair and good, they are possibly the most morally impressive adults. For a while, they are the law, they are the knowledge, they are the justice. Theirs is the profession that creates all other professions. Teachers are greatly valued in all religions. Every[Read More…]
Human history as cultural history We need to reform our teaching of history so that the emphasis will be placed on the gradual growth of human culture and knowledge, a growth to which all nations and ethnic groups have contributed. A new freely downloadable book I would like to announce the publication of a book which presents the history of[Read More…]
The coronavirus pandemic is seen as a ‘useful crisis’ in which to transform the economy. Yet the university system has not received any such ‘stimulus’ of fresh ways of thinking about education. While exams do play a role, they are being fetishized as the return of ‘normalcy’ even as many students have been left to themselves in the face of[Read More…]
India has started Lockdown 4.0 with dismal numbers. We are already over 1 lakh cases, and as much as NITI Aayog would predict otherwise, the slump in cases is yet to come. A large part of the country’s 1.3 billion population has been at home since over 50 days now; I say a large part because it excludes the homeless[Read More…]
The unprecedented situation that the global community faces in the wake of Corona induced pandemic and the fear, panic, isolation and uncertainty that it has brought with it, has left many wondering about the future of the world in general and their lives in particular. We, and I am sure I can say this for almost the entire world population,[Read More…]
Amid an unprecedented corona virus crisis across the world, in India, a discussion about online education has now acquired paramount importance in terms of reliance on imparting knowledge virtually, compared to the conventional method of face-to-face teaching. Our education structure is different and only limited people have access to digital media. We can enter into this model of education if[Read More…]
Mahabharata and Ramayana are considered as biggest epics (Mahakavya) of India are again in popular discussion with the repeat telecast of serials on Doordarshan amid Covid-19 crisis. Those who have access of television are watching the serial with great interest and rising TRPs of Doordarshan are proof of it. Coming to Mahabharata, the authorship of the great epic is accredited[Read More…]
Co-Written by Afaq Ahmad Mir & Zaraq Jahan It is a time when people from every section of the society are talking of a single discourse known globally as Covid-19. This pandemic has spread all across the globe and is contaminating humans, filling societies with fear, anxiety, horror and creating a new social stigma. Meanwhile, organizations from diverse backgrounds are[Read More…]
With the schools and colleges being shut due to the covid-19 pandemic the respective ministry and departments have advised the institutions to ask teachers to keep engaging students academically through e-platforms. Good enough, as in such times this is the only solution available. However, how much of good it would be is decided by the varied class structures Indian society[Read More…]
Special spittoons… “not to spit inside public buildings or outdoor spaces”…was never been the regular behavior of an American until the War on Tuberculosis impacted the community at the end of 19th century. Crisis always stimuli actions and responses, it alters society not sometimes but often for its good by creating better habits and practices. Many infrastructural developments and healthy[Read More…]
The recent news of the primary school of Bhulia village under Bhawanipatna Block in Kalahandi District of Odisha has raised the concern of many as the children of this schools are being taught beneath a tree from the last three years. The classroom is one of the most important factors affecting student learning. Because a child spares most of his/her[Read More…]
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton Ideal teacher could be somebody who has empathy, understanding, patience and the ability to provide the knowledge of what student seeks in a comprehensive manner by helping him to liberate his mind. Unfortunately not many[Read More…]
Academic year of 2019 – 20 begun in June – July. Multiple educational reforms are implemented by state and central governments in India. Kerala is inter alia a topper state in India in respect of literacy having 96 percentage in 2018. It has been striving for achieving sheer and comprehensive literacy rate in coming years. However higher educational achievements of[Read More…]
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” – Kofi Annan According to the Right to Education act, “Every child within the age group of 6 to 14 must be provided with free and compulsory education.” The act came into the referendum in the year 2001 to increase the[Read More…]
With the increasing pace of technological advances and globalisation rapidly taking over, India is all set to become the next hub for economic growth. Adding to this is a young population with an average age of 29 years, which puts India at an advantage. But is India’s human capital prepared to face the challenge? The role of education is crucial[Read More…]
Most of us are not stoics yet. Injustice caused to us evokes strong reactions and whenever we feel empowered enough to effect a change in our circumstances, we do. The critical element here is the personal nature of the impact of such an injustice; and this is the key focus which I address in the situations of social movements. Our[Read More…]
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Praveen Srivastava Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, Professor of Education Economics at University College London and President of City Montessori School Lucknow has critiqued the New Education Policy in an article published in Times of India on 24 June, 2019. She has identified poor school and teacher accountability as the main cause of learning crisis in public[Read More…]
There are no protests on the streets and no effigies of university officials being burned by protesting students today. There are no protests outside the officers of the over-remunerated Vice Chancellors and their various henchpersons. It is business and malpractice as usual after revelations by Australia’s national broadcaster that Australian universities have been adjusting admission requirements to boost student numbers. [Read More…]
It’s exam time in India. A time of deep tension for students and parents. All that you’ve learnt in a year will have to reproduced in a two hour written exam and the student will be assessed by what she has written in those two hours. If you fail to answer a few questions you’ll be at a loss and[Read More…]
“Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself”- John Dewey John Dewey was an American Philosopher and educator, founder of the philosophical movement known as Pragmatism, a pioneer of functional psychology and a leader of the progressive movement in education in United States. Dewey’s authority on education was evident in his theory about social learning; he believed that[Read More…]
The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves –Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan The building blocks of a nation are the citizens of its tomorrow. The way these seeds will sprout will always depend on the way you choose to water them. India’s education sector is one of the largest sunrise sectors in the economic and social development of the[Read More…]
American capitalism has a hate-love relationship with the nation’s schools. On the “hate” side is a stream of complaints from business leaders and organizations about the many students, particularly in city schools, who fail achievement tests, are high school dropouts or, if they complete high school, do not have the academic qualifications for college and advanced-skills education. Given these educational[Read More…]
That time of the year. Student evaluations are being gathered by the data crunchers. Participation rates are being noted. Attitudes and responses are mapped. The vulnerable, insecure instructor, fearing an execution squad via email, looks apprehensively at comments in the attached folder that will, in all likelihood, devastate rather than reward. “Too much teaching matter”; “Too heavy in content”; “Too[Read More…]
They are some of the most remunerated officials of one of Australia’s most importantly lucrative sectors, drawing huge “packages”, as they are termed, for little more than ribbon cutting, attending meetings and overseeing policies that, if implemented, will have to be reversed at some point. The modern university is neither corporation nor government agency. But it has the worst elements[Read More…]
” The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves ‘ S. Radhakrishnan While ‘teachers day ‘ is being celebrated with statements about their role in society and contribution to ‘ education ‘ of students, little light is being shed on their plight as well as some dangerous tendencies. Vacancies According to data compiled by The Times of[Read More…]
The summary The new educational policy and proposed reforms like CBCS, RUSA, Central Universities’ Act are steps towards conformity of the WTO demands commoditization, liberalization and privatization of education on the so-called developing countries and the least developed countries. It is to be noted that the WTO representing the interests of the imperialist global capital, has included education in GATTS[Read More…]
As IIT Bombay students, we are proud that this institution has now stepped in its Diamond Jubilee year and has occupied a prominent place among the other well-known institutes of learning in this world. However, invitation of Mr. Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, as a guest of honour in the convocation of this year, has raised some concerns[Read More…]
The summary The new educational policy and proposed reforms like CBCS, RUSA, Central Universities’ Act are steps towards conformity of the WTO demands commoditization, liberalization and privatization of education on the so-called developing countries and the least developed countries. It is to be noted that the WTO representing the interests of the imperialist global capital, has included education in GATTS[Read More…]
Another suicide at the altar of so-called Education. The news report about a fortnight back shook one to the core – so much so that the tragedy stays in the mind all these days after the happening, knocking at the door of conscious thought every now and then. A young girl seeking admission to the M.Sc. (Chemistry) Course in Maharshi[Read More…]
In spite of the fact that there are a number of justifications for privatisation of education, commercial consideration underpins all its good objects of imparting quality education, of course, with the availability of adequate basic facilities of premises, toilets, infrastructure, libraries, drinking water dispensers-purifiers, computers, libraries & hostels: the facilities invariably unfound in government run educational institutions primarily for lack[Read More…]
If the Modi Government’s first year of its rule was marked by the burial of an important institution of national importance—the Planning Commission of India—with the launching of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), its last year in office is likely to witness another interment of a Statutory body of national importance—the University Grants Commission (UGC)—with the notification[Read More…]
In the name of Fundamental Research not much has been done in India in comparison with European nations. The right to education was once traditionally confined to ‘one’ community in India which is a fact that also has contributed to great extent to the degradation of Education system. Right from School education to the PhD; the education system in India[Read More…]
‘ To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country,to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from western nomenclature , and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population ‘ Thomas B. Macaulay (Country, class dialect) With the increase in dogmatism and religion[Read More…]
“..I am afraid I have no faith in astrology and certainly I should not like to fix up national programmes in accordance with the dictates of astrologers…” Jawaharlal Nehru (In a letter to Rajendra Prasad, who had objected to January 26, 1950 as the date for inaugurating the republic on astrological grounds. Page 77, Volume 2, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography, OUP,[Read More…]
Forgetting the relationship between education and society and ignoring the required engagement between thinker theorists and innovators on one side and society on the other, the governments, legislators and people hypnotized by the neoliberal economy have came to an understanding that commericialisation/marketisation of education from first grade to PhD is the best way forward not for any appreciable societal transformations[Read More…]
The true teachers are those who help us think for ourselves –Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan India’s education sector has expanded rapidly in the last decade but the quality of learning remains pathetic on account of unimaginative and misguided policies. The Modi government’s budget this year was a mixed basket for the education sector, which is bogged with several serious issues aside[Read More…]
The recent UGC move to grant autonomous status to 62 educational institutions have been hailed in various quarters. MHRD has praised it and have equated the move to grant autonomous status to Universities with “New economic policies of 1991”. The new move has been[Read More…]
Through the title I don’t want to shed a sense of pessimism about the future of Jawaharlal Nehru University, instead my attempt is to lay bare the context which is indeed very frustrating and demotivating. Also, being in the campus from the last two year it seemed to me that somewhere down the line a crisis is also emanating from[Read More…]
People’s Tribunal on Attack on Educational Institutions was held at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, on April 11-13, 2018. The tribunal was organised by the People’s Commission on Shrinking Democratic Space in India (PCSDS). The jury panel of the tribunal comprisedJustice (Retd.) Hosbet Suresh, Justice (Retd.) B.G. Kolse Patil, Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Dr. Uma Chakravarty, Prof. T.K. Oommen,[Read More…]
“I always thought school was a form of torture.” — Valleria Ruselli “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” — Audre Lorde “Parents need to encourage their children to provide their teachers with tools which will enable them to instruct them along entirely new lines.” — Rachel Olivia O’Connor of the Oxman Collective (which sponsors Flannery O’Connor Academy) Stealth torture is the kind of torture[Read More…]
“Why don’t all schoolchildren know what TCE is?” — Richard Martin Oxman “Not many people want to continue to aid and abet crimes against humanity and war crimes behind big lies launched against weaker nations with fabulous resources to loot.” — John McMurty The Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada who I’m quoting above has written an article recently which puts the lie[Read More…]
“Education is the simply the soul of society as it passes from one generation to another” G. K. Chesterton T. S. Eliot started his ‘ Wasteland ‘ saying ” April is the cruelest month…” ( 1. The burial of the dead). But, for the students from KG to PG, the ‘ cruelest month’ starts in March itself. They have to[Read More…]
India’s education sector is one of the largest sunrise sectors in the economic and social development of the country. With more than 1.5 million schools — 1.1 million of them run by the Government — and more than 250 million student enrollments, the country’s K-12 school system is among the largest and most complex in the world. Between 2010-11 and[Read More…]
“I know that you’re job-hunting at present and/or looking to volunteer with non-profits. If your article gets posted, it’ll stand to undermine your chances of being brought on board in most quarters, Richard. You’re taking a risk in submitting your piece.” — One of the author’s colleagues “Why don’t you found a secular educational institution which focuses on your passion, Richard?[Read More…]
National science day (February 28) once again shifts focus on ‘ scientific temper’ as envisaged in constitution. In the present situation, when all sorts of pseudo -scientific postulations, dogmatism and ‘ scientific religiosity ‘ are gaining momentum, this day assumes additional significance. Science and disabled According to indiacelebrating.com, the theme of 2017 was ‘ science and technology for specially[Read More…]
“Academia in the U.S. — in most places — offers kids an invitation to a mental institution where qualified medical professionals are absent and the drugs offered have not been tested.” — Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel, a member of the Oxman Collective “One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.” — Ken Kesey’s inspiration Highly educated people[Read More…]
Before my transfer to an Engineering College recently, I taught at Govt. Degree College Bandipora, situated on the top of a hillock, an idyllic place surrounded by a majestic bulwark of mountains on almost three sides and overlooking the bucolic expanses of famous Wullar Lake on one side; undoubtedly a wondrous place with amazing ambience for the transaction of education.[Read More…]
“Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed” — Tennyson Most college professors of literature — most readers of Flaubert across the board — will tell you that the characters in Madame Bovary are bourgeois. But one thing that should be called attention to[Read More…]
Education at the school level, though it takes years to bear fruits, is recognized as crucial factor for social ,economic and cultural development. Education is an important indicator of inclusive growth and social change. School level education is the most crucial stage spanning the first fifteen years of life. It lays the foundation for the development of the child’s[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ashish Kumar Singh & Lenin Raghuvanshi Knowing how to read is knowing how to walk. Knowing how to write is knowing how to ascend. Feet, arms, wings, all these are given to man By his first and most humble schoolbooks[i]. Education is the primary vehicle by which marginalized individuals and communities lift themselves from the vicious circle of[Read More…]
( Following is the Text of Presidential Address Delivered By Dr.K.S. Sharma, President, Indian Academy of Social Sciences, ISSA, Allahabad, at the 41st Indian Social Science Congress, held in Salem, Tamilnadu. The Annual event , held for five days from December 18 to 22, 2017, was attended by a few hundred academicians, educationists, and research scholars. Sharma is Joint Director,[Read More…]
The present-day education reformers believe that schools are broken and market solutions are the only remedy. Many of them embrace disruptive innovations, primarily through online learning. There is a strong belief that real breakthroughs can come only through the transformative power of technology or the invisible hand of the market. However, findings suggest that this strategy has not lived up[Read More…]
“What do they talk about these days at Parent Teacher Association meetings?” — Question asked by one of the author’s home schooled youngsters. Cobalt is such a health hazard that it has a respiratory disease named after it – cobalt lung, a form of pneumonia which causes coughing and leads to permanent incapacity and even death. Even simply eating vegetables[Read More…]
Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king. (King Richard, Act 3 Scene 2) The ability of scientists to not only record and analyze brain activity but also influence it is growing, and those in academic circles on all levels — I humbly and respectfully submit — are obliged to[Read More…]
“The problem I’ve always had with ‘objectivity’ as a concept is that it doesn’t have an agreed upon meaning.” — Dr. Anthony DiMaggio, author of “Confronting the Cult of Objectivity” What school has teachers who handle Social Studies and Humanities subjects without advocating a particular political point of view? Is that even possible? Certainly, there’s plenty of talk — always has[Read More…]
Two figures tower over the idea, and the realisation, of industrial America. The first is Henry Ford, whose factory process dedicated to mass car production featured specifically focused machinery, a moving assembly line, and a linear process of interdependent tasks. The second giant in this regard is Frederick W. Taylor, whose principles of scientific management involved the division of factory[Read More…]
When the nation celebrated children’s day, much was discussed about the pathetic situation of education as well as malnutrition of children. But, a recent Supreme Court observation on education of disabled has raised many questions on the right of disabled children to equal education along with normal children. ( Supreme Court suggests separate schools for children with disabilities :[Read More…]
Every year on November 11, India celebrates National Education Day. The day also commemorates the birth anniversary of India’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He was a literary figure and during his lifetime he emphasised on development of quality education and provision for compulsory education to all children upto 14 years of age. India has seen great educationists[Read More…]
Who is your Role Model? Think of someone you know or knew personally, not a public figure. For how many of you is that a parent or a teacher? If I asked your children the same question, what do you think they would say? Who would they be thinking of you? How do you know? What about you inspires your[Read More…]
“As water seeks its own level, corruption creeps into the body politic to metastasize throughout society and its institutions.” –from Geoff Dutton’s NPR, the CIA and Corporatism While our mainstream media continue to distract us with the gender-based “horrors of Hollywood” and spotlights on other injustices (which do deserve our attention to some degree), the Big Picture is being ignored in the U.S.,[Read More…]
“Too many educators have pigeon-holed their disciplines. This or that does or doesn’t fit in my classroom. Old school nonsense, particularly with the way in which high tech utilitarianism is bringing everyone down, preaching that the only way to fit in lies in acclimating to our momentum.” — Rachel Olivia O’Connor If you’re an educator in the U.S. —[Read More…]
“Why do we forget our childhood? With rare exceptions we have no memory of our first four or five or six years, and yet we have to only watch the development of our own children during this period to realize that these are the most exciting, the most formative years of our life. Schachtel’ s theory is that our[Read More…]
I was disturbed and appalled to read these two compositions: Children Can’t Wait: Taking Steps Towards Their Protective Present – Mahima Sukheja Pradhuman Dies Due To Gross Negligence And Bad Governance – Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava Whenever I get upset and this is the way that I’ve been since a little girl, I chase that which bothers me like white on[Read More…]
On a Sunday morning, I woke up to a plethora of messages on social media about the increased outrage amongst parents in Gurgaon against a top school of India. The issue concerned the murder after an attempt to sexual assault of a 7 year old child within the school premise by a bus conductor. With no other available option, I[Read More…]
(In context to the changes brought out by the Maharshtra State Board in the History curriculum for Standards VII and IX) Imagine that you are a detective. You will probably relate the nature of your work to solving jigsaw puzzles. As a detective, you will be required to put together the missing pieces and arrive at a plausible explanation of[Read More…]
Education plays a catalytic role in the socio economic development. The relationship between education and development is well documented and fairly well understood. Education is an important indicator of inclusive growth, development and in bringing social change. In Punjab, while there has been a surge in number of educational institutions and literacy rates, education sector is in the state[Read More…]
The missive below was sent to my colleagues at Point Arena Community Charter School in Calfiornia, U.S.A. They are preparing to blend their theme for the year (Mythology, Magic and Mystery) with the curriculum. Parents will also be made privy to the email. Perhaps this will help. A society that begins by denying the soul’s longing cannot possibly satisfy[Read More…]
Several years ago I read a children’s non-fictional book about a young American girl, who had a pen-pal in Holland shortly after WWII. This meant that they wrote letters to each other back and forth about their lives and became long-distance friends. One of the facts that the American child learned was that the war had taken a terrible toll[Read More…]
One’s living in a proactively progressive family is not easy from a number of standpoints. Especially as a youngster, one can feel torn between wanting to fit in with contemporaries and standing up for an altogether different viewpoint and lifestyle — an alternative that could cause one to be ostracized and shunned by peers. Relative to this, I well remember[Read More…]
When I was five years old, my parents bought a television set. It was in 1955 when TV’s became affordable for the common household in the USA. One of the first films that I saw on it was a very scary cartoon of upright vertical accordions hopping around and squeezing down on a stage with a sound as they alternately[Read More…]
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” — from Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead as translated by Constance Garnett What Dostoyevsky says about the incarcerated applies to how we treat children and animals too, of course. And — of course — we’re failing immeasurably on all those counts. But you’d[Read More…]
“Mohammed frequently went to a cave in the desert three miles from Mecca, where he would spend months in prayer and meditation.” — Swami Sivananda’s introductory sentence to The Birth of Islam The posting of this article might — in the future — prevent me from securing a teaching position at more than 99% of the schools in the[Read More…]
We commit a big fallacy when we assume that our educational accomplishments are our individual achievements. We like to believe that we were born with a certain innate talent which makes us intellectually superior to all the rest. But the fact of the matter is that our innate talents aren’t all that different. Some people are born with genes that[Read More…]
“The Declaration of Independence said governments are not sacred things. The laws are not sacred things. Governments are set up by people to defend rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And when governments become destructive of those ends, it’s the right of the people to alter or abolish those governments.” — Howard Zinn The obligation of the[Read More…]
The Coordination of Science and Technology Institutes’ Student Associations (COSTISA) expresses its solidarity with the ongoing students’ movement against the fees hike in IIT Bombay. Barely a year after introducing a two-fold hike in tuition fees for UGs, the institute has made a unilateral decision to increase the fees for all students. There has been, a 300 % hike in[Read More…]
“…so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.” — from the Down the Rabbit-Hole section of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland When Humpty Dumpty shakes hands with Alice he extends only one finger. In Victorian Days, when someone shook hands with a person of inferior social status it[Read More…]
For a reduction of violence on the U.S. domestic front educators on all levels will have to do what I suggest here, or attempt to implement or embrace some significant variation of it. Educators cannot think that our present wars are necessary, cannot believe and teach that we are “exceptional” in a positive way with our ongoing behavior overseas.[Read More…]
“There is no intelligence in Washington. Only arrogance and hubris. The quarter century I spent there was with the most utterly stupid people on the face of the earth.” — Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan, author of Another Step Toward Devastating War “The EPA was run like the Mafia for the twenty-five years I[Read More…]
“Western indifference has been a problem. It continues to be a problem.” — Iris Chang to the author, 2004 On Craig’s List I came across an ad which called for an Elementary School Teacher to provide Spoken English instruction to youngsters in Nanjing, China. I’m highly qualified to serve in that capacity, the pay and benefits are good, and I’d love to[Read More…]
Some of the questions below are, unquestionably, not appropriate for all grade levels. But — certainly — some should be addressed by the time a student secures entrance to, or matriculation status at, one of our institutions of higher education. If you disagree, do let me know. Over the last 34 years, incomes for the top 0.001% richest Americans[Read More…]
The present crisis of respecting the viewpoints of diverse group in the higher education system in India questions the idea of freedom.The examples such as ‘the barricading of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU), ‘Freedom Square’ sometime back showed that freedom to protest and offer resistance to the despotic policies are not only discouraged but are embarrassing to the university administration. However,[Read More…]
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” — William Faulkner Patrick Cockburn concludes his article Britain Refuses to Accept How Terrorists Really Work with, Contrary to conventional and governmental wisdom, terrorist conspiracies have not changed much since Brutus, Cassius and their friends plotted to murder Julius Caesar. It made me think about how many people Caesar killed or enslaved[Read More…]
“We are documenting, discussing, debating, demonstrating, diverting and delaying ourselves to death in lieu of doing something new in solidarity that stands to make a big enough difference in time.” — One of the author’s home schooled youngsters at six years old (calling attention to the collective deadlines we face respecting our collective crises) “Yes, of course, one could make[Read More…]
The extraordinary achievement of Claire Simon’s latest film, The Graduation, relies on its ability to capture power at work. The film documents the entire selection process that hundreds of young candidates go through at La Femis in Paris to obtain a seat at one of the most prestigious film schools in the world.
In the months of April and May we conducted a random survey of 100 U.S. educators nationwide* — on all levels, in public and private institutions — and discovered that less than 10% of teachers and administrators** knew much at all about the 25 major environmental issues plaguing the planet today.
University Grants Commission (UGC) has drafted a new set of regulations/ guidelines and released it inviting feedback from public. (http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/9837591_Public-Notice-regarding-draft-Regulations-and-Guidelines.pdf ) These regulations/ guidelines are going to have profound impact on the higher education in the country and are in fact an extension of the thrust towards the assault on the public higher education and the attempts towards creating avenues[Read More…]
Schools are still shills for our collective addiction to belief in technological fixes as a decent approach to addressing climate change issues. That’s one reason to home school, among many. But my informal survey of home schooling parents nationwide has revealed that virtually no one is teaching youth that only a no-growth vision of economics can possibly give us[Read More…]
“We live in one global environment with a huge number of ecological, economic, social, and political pressures tearing at its only dimly perceived, basically uninterpreted and uncomprehended fabric. Anyone with even a vague consciousness of this whole is alarmed at how such remorselessly selfish and narrow interests – patriotism, chauvinism, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds – can in fact[Read More…]
“Near Eastern religions have a propensity for building massive temples and tombs and this tradition has been emulated by Christian tendencies to construct gigantic cathedrals. Temples, churches, and synagogues separate the faithful from the secular world and from the natural world as if religion needs to be isolated from the rest of human activities.” — Vine Deloria, Jr., God is Red:[Read More…]
..nothing to eat nothing to wear boundless is the anguish who indeed can bear to see such misery among the world’s creatures let my soul be condemned to hell but let the Universe be redeemed. – Bhima Bhoi, [Source: BiswamoyPati in Religion and social ‘subversion’, Re-examining colonial Orissa (EPW, July/2010).,BidyutMohanty in Orissa famine of 1866 Demographic and economic[Read More…]
There was once a city called ‘The City of Ideas’. It was known far and wide for its culture of questioning, debating, discussing, disagreeing, arguing and naturally, generating more and more ideas in the process. It was a city filled with numerous schools, colleges, Universities and Institutions of learning. People from all over the world vied to earn themselves the[Read More…]
Education is a basic human right and all education should be free for all. However the commodification and corporatizing of higher education has meant that free university education presently only obtains in about 25 countries, and the young are brainwashed into acceptance of fee-charging higher education. The present ruling generations should grant free university education to the young who[Read More…]
This year’s budget has once again been lackluster in terms of allocations made to the Education sector. The Kothari Commission recommendation of an allocation of 6% of GDP has remained far from realization, with the allocation hovering in the range of 3-4% every year. Within the education sector also, elementary education is the most fund-deprived and neglected sector. The priorities[Read More…]
Science has it’s roots established as old as Islamic civilization. The institutes of scientific dissemination had been established first by muslim dominated nations as is evident from history & historical monuments. The Islamic theology lays claim to the world’s oldest continually operational university. The University of Qarawiyyin was founded in Fes Morocco in 859 AD at the beginning of an[Read More…]
We all constantly hear the lament of how our education system is in a mess. Education today is no more about exploring new ideas, seeking multiple forms of knowledge and an eagerness to get introduced to hitherto unknown terrains of intellectual wealth. Job security precludes the possibility of[Read More…]
Universalizing education involves issues of both distributive justice and quality. While former embodies education to reach to the marginalized, later counts for education of comparable and meaningful quality. Indian school education system is among the largest with almost 26 Crore children enrolled in class I to XII. In the last decades education system in the country has witnessed a huge[Read More…]
There still exists a lack of effective monitoring mechanisms: ill-treatment, neglect (despite RTE banning discrimination); disabilities not ensured – ‘remains a distant priority among school authorities’ – not enough done to bring and keep girls in classrooms
Recently the contents of the New Education Policy 2016 draw the attention of many stakeholders including academicians in particular. A detailed look at the policy found to be very ordinary; it’s the same wine in new bottle, even it’s failed to address the RSS doctrine on education in totality. The drafting Committee consisted of three bureaucrats and ex NCERT[Read More…]
Politics in many ways has become a bully boy gimmick. One has to read beyond headlines and think of deeper processes and consequences. One such event was the recent cabinet reshuffle by the Modi led NDA government. What fascinates me in these events is the amount of strategies that are tactfully played out to portray a sense of sustainability within[Read More…]
Interculturality is a dynamic concept and refers to evolving relations between cultural groups. It has been defined as “the existence and equitable interaction of diverse cultures and the possibility of generating shared cultural expressions through dialogue and mutual respect. Interculturality presupposes multiculturalism and results from ‘intercultural’ exchange and dialogue on the local, regional, national or international level.
Recent decision of the MHRD to hike the fees of IITs, NITs and IISERs has once again made it clear that the paradigm of this government is to betray the masses and to serve the profit hungry corporates
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 
Zelensky Faces Difficult Time In Washington D.C. 
Stumbling Towards Old Age And Looking for Someone to Lean On 
Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
“Our world is becoming unhinged”: Antonio Guterres 
How Chances of Direct War between the USA and Russia Are Increasing 
G20 Biofuel Alliance threatens Food security 
Thousands Of Auto Workers Strike In Three U.S. Plants, Face Financial Hardship 
Submission To Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission, NACC: Mainstream Media Lying 
In The Name of Decolonization 
Is This the End of French Neo-Colonialism in Africa? 
Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy 
Tackling Global Emergencies – UN International Day of Peace 
The Futility of Feudalistic Democracy 
Bayer over-riding Bhartiya Krishi 
Pulwama Bombing 14th February 2019: Unanswered Questions 
Himalayan Apple Growers Worried Over Increasing Threat from Imports 
After protests in flood-hit Derna, Libyan officials order journalists to leave 
International Day of Peace: Fostering Harmony and Unity in a World of Diversity 
More Butterflies, Fewer Billionaires — Unrigging the Global Economy 
Veganic Farming: How My Tiny Plot Produced 5,000 Pounds of Food Without Using Manure 
Fighting the Diaspora: India’s Campaign Against Khalistan 
CAIR Files Lawsuit to End Islamophobic No Fly List 
N.D.Mahanor, The Poet Who Taught Us to See Culture in Agriculture 
Dark and light streaks in India-China relations 
Why the Central Government Should Rush Special Aid Package for Himachal Pradesh 
Special Session: Another Image-Boosting Move? 
Eddelu ( Wake up) Karnataka: The Great Citizen’s Wall Against BJP 
Urgency of Improving Dam Safety Re-Emphasized in Libya and Ukraine 
Climate Crisis Threatens Largest U.S. Cities 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
