Overhaul education system

In the good olden days, education was regarded as a noble profession. Education was imparted to all those interested without prejudices of caste and creed. Education was imparted free of cost and out of courtesy and affection of the gurus that it was disseminated to the students. Money was not the sole criterion with regard to their profession of education. In contrast, the present education system is not knowledge-oriented. It is rather commerce-oriented to the core.

 

 

The education system has of late become a tool in the hands of politicians and policy makers to exploit students right from the kinder garden level to the university level. The hopes and aspirations of the parents who send their wards to schools and colleges to mould the lives of their wards are belied. Standards are so poor. In the end, the knowledge the students acquire is not of any concrete use in the country, nor is it beneficial for them to pursue further employment or education abroad.

 

Although primary education in the country has been made free and compulsory for all children, in practice such a provision ensured by the government has no takers by a larger section of society in view of thelackadaisical attitude of the government and authorities in implementing the scheme. It is high time that the present education system is overhauled, reviewed and revised suitably and appropriately to suit to the opportunities and convenience of the present day generation of students. Teaching methodology and curriculum standards should be upgraded to world-class quality so that the knowledge acquired is makes them employable as well as value-based.

 

Source :- http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-11-15/Overhaul-education-system-186588

 

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Aadhaar can be a boon for India’s education system

An Aadhaar-linked academic record can enable each new school to be confident that it knows what previous education each student has received, prior to attendance
(Dinesh Krishnan/ Fobes India, April 13, 2011)

Most would agree that Aadhaar is India’s most revolutionary technological endeavour in recent history, second only to mobile telephony in its scale and impact. What other technology or service has shown such impressive growth anywhere in the world – from zero to over 80 crore (800 million) users in under six years? If you ask a room full of people, “Who has an Aadhaar card?” most will raise their hand. But if you ask them if they’ve ever used their card, few hands go up. I believe Aadhaar has implications far broader than the financial services with which most people currently associate it with. This under-utilised asset is ready to improve education, create jobs, and grow the economy.

To understand its potential in education, one must first grasp how Aadhaar works in the most well-known application: The Aadhaar-enabled payment system. This system essentially allows anyone with an Aadhaar ID to go to a micro-ATM and check their balance, withdraw money, deposit cash, and transfer funds to another person with an Aadhaar number. The Aadhaar system also allows the government to send payments electronically to beneficiaries – even those who may not have previously had bank accounts – without concern for the fraud that currently plagues direct payment schemes. Simply put: Aadhaar’s ID’s are attached to real people, and reliably allow transactions of all kinds to happen between clearly identified citizens and the institutions that serve them.

While payment services enabled via Aadhaar have clear value in “financial inclusion” and save money by eliminating fraud and corruption, they are not fundamentally changing an industry. The impact on education will be different. India’s education sector, which broadly includes K-12 and university education as well as vocational training, is ready for Aadhaar to improve via a fundamental disruption: Long term tracking and certification of results, all tied to reliable IDs. India currently lacks a formal system of tracking a person’s school record, training certifications, or employment history. As a result, the academic performances of Indian students have limited documentation and are not tracked over a student’s career; data that is tracked cannot be verified, and service providers and employers in India’s job market lack an efficient means to properly match the most qualified job candidates of specific skills sets to the jobs that most require candidates with those qualifications.

India’s youth are increasingly mobile, moving with their parents as they seek economic opportunities, and then moving to larger towns and cities to get better educational opportunities. An Aadhaar-linked academic record can enable each new school to be confident that it knows what previous education each student has received, prior to attendance. As a result, policymakers and curriculum designers can track academic results of students over time, even as they move between school systems in different states, in order to determine the outcomes of various improvements made to educational systems at the local or national level.

Such student tracking is well established in the US. As of 2010, all 50 states are using a statewide student identifier that remains with a student throughout his or her primary and secondary education career. And 33 states now have the ability to follow student progress into post-secondary education. They can do so by connecting primary/secondary records of individual students with each state’s respective records in its state public higher education system. Creating a similar tracking system based on Aadhaar IDs is well within the reach of the more centrally-managed Indian education system over the coming years.

Aadhaar’s unique IDs can also be used by the vocational education sector as a tracking mechanism that can link to a record of a person’s vocational skill set as well as his or her academic and employment history. For example, a mechanic who specialises in a specific field will be able to charge proper fees for being the most qualified mechanic to best diagnose and fix a problem.

Qualification will be determined by verified skills, certifications, and reputation rather than by word of mouth and anecdotal stories. Having the ability to track the academic and professional history of each person and increase the efficiency of the matching process in services and employment markets will ultimately incentivise citizens to lead more productive careers. Service providers and job seekers will be able to conclusively certify their knowledge, skill sets, experiences, and thereby be rewarded accordingly. To date, people have been expressing their capabilities on resumes, websites, and sign boards. Nobody could easily know how truthful such claims were. Now, skills claims linked to Aadhaar IDs will be verifiable – they will be a new, higher value currency.

Aadhaar-linked skills marketplaces are already being created. In August 2013, the Indian government launched a new programme called the National Skill Certificate and Monetary Reward scheme through a training company, Centum Learning. In order to create a stronger skilled and employable workforce, this new scheme grants government monetary rewards, called Standard Training & Assessment Rewards, to its programme graduates. Training programmes under the scheme are intended to develop and certify skills against industry standards. The assessment and certification processes involved are based on rigorous norms as per National Occupational Standards. Under the scheme, Centum Learning offers skills training on industry recognised courses in order to orient and skill the youth on diverse job roles across priority employment sectors, including, sales in telecom and organised retail, customer service skills in BPO, telecom installation & fault repair, telecom tower equipment operations & maintenance, gems & jewellery, etc. The rewards are directly transferred to the graduates’ Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.

Therefore, in order to be a part of this programme, the government requires that each candidate be enrolled in Aadhaar, ensuring that funds go where they are intended, and that participants are rewarded accordingly.

Leveraging Aadhaar to track students and electronically certify academic and employment histories can certainly contribute to the growth of India’s economy while realising the “demographic dividend” and improving income opportunities across the population.

- By Will Poole, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Unitus Seed Fund

Source : http://forbesindia.com/blog/economy-policy/aadhaar-can-be-a-boon-for-indias-education-system/#ixzz3p6bS1bqo

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Online education is the way-forward in India

Internet bandwidths are revamping traditional modes of education with new dimensions and a better reach. Distance is no longer a barrier. Choice of course is no more a hindrance. If you prefer a course, online education-service providers will ensure that you get the best through innovative interactive means, no matter where you are.

At the recently concluded EdTech.Now conclave in Delhi, organized by WizIQ, the discussion aimed at understanding the challenges and opportunities for online education service providers.

“The whole purpose of creating a premier conclave in the form EdTech.Now was to bring together thought leaders, innovators, industry experts, educators and content providers on a common platform. We are providing ‘do-it-yourself’ platforms to online education service providers across the globe,” said Harman Singh, Founder and CEO, WizIQ.

According to Aakash Chaudhary, Director, Aakash Education, technology can enhance the abilities of teachers and make them more accountable. He said that technology can help teachers become better teachers.

Also, present during the discussion, Vikalp Jain, Co-Founder, Acadgild, online-service provider from Bengaluru said, “Online courses don’t solve problems for majority of people. We have to bring human element in online courses. Along with this, duration of the online course plays an important role in retention of the student.”

The overall opinion echoed during the discussion – interaction is the way-forward in the changing education culture in India. Brick-mortar models are not completely passe but online courses are gradually gaining ground owing to their flexibility and low cost.

The online course offered by Aakash Institute, for instance, costs 1/4th the price of the offline course.

Plus, it comes with live tutoring mechanism, which allows students to access course without aid of any teachers. Students can later submit their doubts, which will be clarified by subject-matter experts through online mode. The company runs such virtual classroom models in Kota, Malda, Kharaghpur, Cuttack and Chandigarh.

Running on virtual classroom format is another Startup Embibe. Started in November 2012, the company helps students prepare for engineering and medical exams, through a completely online mode.

“We try to provide private virtual teacher to every student through data sense driven engine. Our goal is to help students learn and score higher by identifying their weaknesses which could be related to time management while appearing for exams, overcoming careless mistakes or gaining better clarity over concepts,” said Aditi Avasthi, CEO, Embibe.

She added that through this platform, she is trying to help students become confident individuals by helping them realize their true potential.

Source:- http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/jobs/online-education-is-the-way-forward-in-india/151934/

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Importance of technical education in India

India is witnessing the age of science and technology. In our everyday life and in every sphere of our life the influence of science and technology is becoming so pervasive that man’s existence in this world is simply inconceivable in their absence today. The pattern of life evolving in this age is very much different from the one we would find in our society even some fifty years back. This is why, to train our people in response to the need of the time, our education must be reorganized to give it the necessary practical and technical bias. Such education alone can produce the specialized armies for making and operating the modern machines. Technical Education imparts knowledge of specific trade, craft or profession. Technical Education can meet the expanding demands of expanding society and to meet its multiplying demands. The industries, mechanized systems and scientific research centers all over the world prove beyond doubt that our tie with the past is snapped and instead of bare hands we must use machines and technological devices for all-round development and regeneration of human society. So there is huge demand for technical education in modern age.
In India, the education was thoroughly reorganized stressing on the importance of science and technology. The present education system in India mainly comprises of primary education, secondary education, senior secondary education and higher education. Elementary education consists of eight years of education. Each of secondary and senior secondary education consists of two years of education. Higher education in India starts after passing the higher secondary education or the 12th standard. Depending on the stream, doing graduation in India can take three to five years. Post graduate courses are generally of two to three years of duration. After completing post graduation, some of the students do research work.
Technical Education plays a vital role in human resource development of the country by creating skilled manpower, enhancing industrial productivity and improving the quality of life. The Technical Education refers to post secondary courses of study and practical training after 10th in Polytechnics and after 12th in Engineering colleges/NITs/IITs etc which are aimed at preparation of technicians to work as supervisory staff. The term Vocational Training refers to lower level education and training for the population of skilled or semi-skilled workers in various trades after 8th or 10th in ITIs.
Technical Education is instrumental in making the remarkable contribution to economic growth of the Developing Countries by way of suitable manpower production according to the needs of the Industry, Society and the Global World as a whole. To produce fully skilled manpower/ knowledgeable technocrats in the present era of science and technology is the need of the hour.

Technical Education covers degree and diploma courses and programmes in engineering & technology, management, architecture, town planning, pharmacy and applied arts & crafts, hotel management and catering technology.

Polytechnic education has responded to the challenges of industrialization for self-reliance. Most of the polytechnics in the country offer three year generalized diploma courses in conventional disciplines such as Civil, Electrical Mechanical, Automobile Engineering. During the last two decades many polytechnics started offering courses in other disciplines such as Electronics, Computer Science, Medical Lab technology, Instrumentation & Control, Architectural Assistantship, Leather Technology, Textile Technology etc. Many diploma programmes are also being offered exclusively for women in Women’s Polytechnics such as in Garment Technology, Beauty Culture and Textile Design. Polytechnics are meant to provide skills after class X and the duration of diploma programmes is three years, which means, the trainee becomes employable at the age of 19 years.  The aim of the polytechnic education is to create a pool of skill based manpower to support shop floor and field operations as a middle level link between technicians and engineers. The pass-outs of Diploma level Institutions in Engineering & Technology play an important role in managing shop-floor operations. It is further an established fact that small & medium Industry prefer to employ Diploma Holders because of their special skills in reading and interpreting drawings, estimating, costing & billing, supervision, measurement, testing, repair, maintenance etc.

For the economic development and to ensure a place for India in the community of prosperous nations technical education was given the due importance. Besides this, in this age of unemployment, only technical education can assure one of a job and a comfortable living. Those who are still in the conventional institutions, passing examination that have little relevance in the modern systems, find no opportunities of employment. And, quite naturally, they are victims of frustration and find themselves alienated from the mainstream of modern world. With their stereo-typed general education without any specialization and professional skill they acquire nothing to contribute to the progress and prosperity of the human society. They are quite aware of this and this awareness leaves them demoralized.

India has one of the largest technical manpower in the world. However, compared to its population it is not significant and there is a tremendous scope of improvement in this area. In India, the emphasis has been on general education, with technical and vocational education at the receiving end. This has resulted in large number of educated people remaining unemployed. This phenomenon has now been recognised by the planners and hence there is a greater thrust on vocationalisation of education.

During the last decade, India has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Engineering Colleges at Degree level and Polytechnics Colleges at Diploma level throughout the country.

Another shortcoming in the area of technical and vocational education is that till now, the number of engineers graduating is more than the diploma holders. This is creating an imbalance, as more workforces are required at the lower level. Hence more polytechnics and Institute for Industrial Training (ITIs) are being opened now. Under Government of India scheme of “Sub-mission on Polytechnics” new polytechnics has been set up in every district of the state. In our State in the year 2012, 18 new polytechnic college were opened in each uncovered district. The vocationalisation of education has received a boost with present Govt of India allocating more funds for the purpose under skill development. Besides, it is also being ensured that the marginalised sections of the society, including women, get adequate representation in these courses. It can thus be hoped that Technical and vocational education will play a major role in improving the lives of the people of India.

(The author is Principal Government  Polytechnic College Kathua)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com

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Only 28.84% schools in Telangana have internet

HYDERABAD: At a time when the Centre is rooting for a digital India, a report by Ministry of Human Resource Development says that only 28.84% schools in Telangana have computer and internet facility, leaving more than one crore students across the state unexposed to the World Wide Web.

The recently-released report as part of the Flash Statistics 2014-15 for Secondary Education in India highlights the poor condition of schools across the state in terms of basic facilities.

In Telangana, only 30.09% secondary schools and 23.17% higher secondary schools have computer and internet facility. Adding to the woes, less than 40% schools in the state have fully-equipped physics, chemistry, biology and computer labs. Apart from this, only 24.96% secondary schools have integrated science laboratory. "For subjects like science, chemistry and physics, practicals are must as they develop a permanent image of concepts in a students' mind," said G Dakshinamurthy, convenor of Forum for Protection of Values in Education.

Although 91.39% schools have library facility, only 8.86% have librarians. Apart from this, 24.29% schools in the state do not have playgrounds.As far as health and hygiene is concerned, a measly 34.09% schools have hand-washing facility near toilets and only 67.56% schools have done medical check-ups during the previous academic year.

Lack of facilities in schools clearly reflect the results as the transition rate from secondary to higher secondary has dropped from 76.80% between 2012-13 to 69.21% in 2013-14. While GO Ms. 246 issued by the erstwhile government of Andhra Pradesh mandates constitution of parent-teachers association , the data reveals that only 27.16% schools in the state have adhered to the norms. "Every school needs to consult PTAs before taking any major decisions. However, schools are clearly flouting norms, due to which issues such as fee hike and poor development have come to the fore," said Ashish Naredi, executive member of the Hyderabad School Parents Association. While 99% schools in the state have buildings, only 46.04% schools have ramps and are accessible to students with special needs.

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Only-28-84-schools-in-Telangana-have-internet/articleshow/49146330.cms

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Google launches online IT degrees in India

BANGALORE, India - Search engine giant Google and online education company Udacity on Monday launched IT courses in India, branching outside the US to tap the country's millions of software developers scrambling for jobs.

The pair teamed with Indian conglomerate Tata to offer online technical training courses, focusing on teaching software developers to build apps for Android, the Google-backed mobile operating system.

Costing 9,800 rupees (US$148) a month, the degrees will take between six and nine months to complete, with lessons from Google instructors based in the United States. Students will get 50 percent of tuition costs back on graduation.

Google is looking to cash in on skilling up many of India's 3.6 million developers, the second largest number worldwide, while at the same time seeking more developers who can programme for Android devices.

"While India has millions of software developers, we still lag behind in creating world-class apps," Google India managing director Rajan Anandan told reporters in India's IT hub of Bangalore.

The companies will also offer 1,000 scholarships and all graduates will be invited to a job fair next year hosted by Google in India.

The launch comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Silicon Valley this weekend as part of a visit to the US, seeking foreign investment in India's plethora of start-ups as well as financial tieups with US tech giants.

Modi, who will meet Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, is expected to reassure IT CEOs of efforts to reduce red tape and make it easier to do business in India, a massive market of 1.26 billion people.

India also boasts a large number of engineering and IT specialists who have left the country to rise to the top of the US corporate world, including Google's new chief executive Sundar Pichai and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella.

Source : http://news.asiaone.com/news/education/google-launches-online-it-degrees-india#sthash.sygT7jCT.dpuf

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PhD students applying for peon jobs in UP: The real problem is with the Indian education system

In the USA, a PhD scholar, researching on pure sciences, has to sweat it out with the committee before which she has to defend her thesis, having to undergo severe challenges spanning more than five years. Publication of papers related to the area of research in reputed journals is part of the requirement before a candidate is proudly allowed to take the ‘walk’ — a bantering and light hearted Americanese for convocation.

It is not only the patent regime that insists on novelty but also the fastidious regime obtaining for making the grade for the coveted doctorate though the US patent regime has come for criticism for granting patents too readily and too easily even for marginal improvements to an existing product or service. Be that as it may.

Against this backdrop, the collective mourning by the Indian media for the sorry plight of some 250 PhD scholars who are among the 23 lac applicants for 368 vacancies for the peon job in the Uttar Pradesh government misses the woods for trees.

Narayanamurthy, one of the founders of the India iconic IT Company Infosys, bemoaned the employability of our engineering graduates. His grievance, shared by many of his peers, was they required a prolonged induction training spanning six months at considerable expenses to the employer before they learnt the ropes and tricks of trade.

PhDs languishing without jobs is only a heightened manifestation of the same festering problem which has been addressed only half-heartedly, if at all, by a few companies like L&T by setting up their own vocational training schools.

The deemed universities that have mushroomed all over the country are more at fault. Academic rigor is sorely absent in the entire process culminating in awarding of PhD degrees. In fact, many of their teaching staff insidiously complete their doctorates on laughably simple issues sans novelty value — thesis on double entry system of accounting to wit. These universities oblige their own staff more because it serves their purpose as well as education regulators in India insist on PhD degree for professors.

The lucky ones soldier on in the universities and academia sans academic rigor but many not able to land teaching jobs, seek employment as generalists like the ones applying for the peon jobs in UP.

The malaise indeed has deep roots in the system of education in the country. Small wonder boys and girls going abroad for higher education are viewed as prized possessions by Indian companies when they return home armed with a foreign PhD degree on an esoteric subject.

The UP government would do well not to indulge the psycho-babbling of the PhD scholars by giving them the peon jobs which while giving them immediate succor would see them sulking in the long run with the resultant shoddy performance coming to haunt the government sooner than later besides affecting the overall morale of the establishment.

The universities that gave them PhD degrees at the drop of the hat must be taken to task by the education regulators so that in future they don’t trivialize with such coveted degrees. Benign guides with winking universities have been the bane of our PhD dispensation. It is not difficult to set right this malady because PhD is not a regular classroom course but the one where the candidate and guide are supposed to think out of the box. The UGC must mandate that the committee before whom a candidate presents his research paper must be drawn from the who's who of the experts on the field, and as far as possible be the ones with whom the candidate cannot curry favor or cozy up to.

It is time our employers, while prescribing the minimum qualifications, also prescribe the maximum qualifications so that the supposedly overqualified do not apply. Meanwhile the PhD scholars who have applied for peon’s position with the UP government must seek solace elsewhere.

To be addressed as ‘Doctor Sahib’ is ego-boosting but it can cause incalculable harm if it dawns later on that the appellation was not earned but gotten thanks to the indulgent education system.

Source :- http://www.firstpost.com/india/phd-students-applying-for-peon-jobs-in-up-the-real-problem-is-with-the-indian-education-system-2439676.html

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Oracle Introduces Cloud Platform Services for Higher Education Institutes In India

BANGALORE: The higher education system in India is facing an unprecedented transformation, driven by economic and demographic change. Experts believe by 2020, India will be the third largest economy. Currently, more than 50 percent of India’s population is under 25 years old. But as opposed to developed countries, where the percentage of skilled workforce is between 60 percent and 90 percent of the total workforce, India records a low 5 percent of workforce (20 to 25 years) with formal vocational skills. There is a pressing need for accelerated reform in the higher education ecosystem to equip India’s youth with skillsets that enhance their employability in a digital economy.

Oracle has introduced three Cloud Platform Services for higher education institutes to support this endeavor. The offerings - Oracle Document Cloud Service, Oracle Database Cloud Service, and Oracle Java Cloud Service  are designed to meet the industry’s demand for a cloud-ready workforce. They will address the need of an always plugged-in generation of millennial wanting to access these services anytime, anywhere and on any-device. The solution will help students and faculty to collaborate on projects, across disparate campuses and geographies. Additionally, they will provide an easy, secure, and agile environment for the incubation of student start-ups at campuses by enabling easy access to compute resources for application development.

Oracle Cloud Platform Services will enable India’s higher education institutes to:

Minimize the financial burden of deploying new technologies for curriculum updates

Ensure agility to develop and deploy complex solutions for academic projects as per curriculum

Realize a drastic reduction in capital expenditure (owing to reduced IT infrastructure and manpower requirement)

Ensure flexibility to dynamically scale services to address fluctuating demands (without any additional investment in infrastructure)

Oracle Cloud Platform Services to Power Modern Campuses

Oracle Cloud Platform Services will be useful for students who study IT in some form or other in their curriculum, such as mechanical or computer science or electronic fields of engineering. These services can be accessed by all students—day scholars or residential students staying in college hostels. These cloud services can be accessed by students via the internet or their internet dongle connections—anytime, anywhere, on any device. For the university, these solutions offer complete audit logs for the administration to monitor access of students based on IP.

Oracle Document Cloud Service enables sharing of files between staff and students or between project teams (e.g., at the time of third year and final year project submissions). The documents can be accessed on mobile or on desktop/laptop; online or offline.  Since access to documents are rule-based, only appropriate faculty or students gain access to documents, depending on sensitivity of information included. The documents can be customized with the college logo to maintain legitimacy.

Oracle Database Cloud Service allows students full access to features and operations that are available with an already familiar Oracle Database, without the hassle of managing its underlying infrastructure. Students can perform database management and development operations in a cloud model. They will also gain access to a suite of simplified tools for backup and recovery commands, software upgrades and patching, and to spin up or tear down additional database instances. This will ultimately grow their skills on Oracle Database, India’s most preferred relational database that powers a majority of industries in the private and public sectors.

Oracle Java Cloud Service provides students with an environment to build, deploy, and manage Java applications. Java continues to be the most popular programming language among developers[4]. With Oracle Java Cloud Service, students can rapidly provision an application environment (conducive to incubate student start-ups) in the cloud. This provisioning ensures authentication and authorization to instances, so students do not have to worry about other users gaining access to their environment in the cloud. This service is enterprise-class, quick and easy, portable, and secure.

“Today’s higher education institutions across the private and public sectors face unique challenges, one of which includes devising appropriate curriculum to help develop an industry ready workforce. The millennial generation is far advanced in their IT consumption and work collaboratively with their teachers and fellow students. Having served some of the globally renowned universities, Oracle wants to ensure that universities in India have access to the most modern technologies. We want to enable those universities and their students to be better prepared for tomorrow. We believe cloud has a major role to play here,” said Mitesh Agarwal, CTO and vice president, Sales Consulting, Oracle India.

Source:- http://jobs.siliconindia.com/career-news/Oracle-Introduces-Cloud-Platform-Services-for-Higher-Education-Institutes-In-India-nid-187282.html

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Education, Skill Development impact on Economic Growth in India

Education is a process of facilitating learning - knowledge, skills, values, beliefs etc. So, education determines the country’s future as it is having all the powers to change everything. We have come across  so many philosophies like naturalism, realism, idealism, modern philosophies and philosophers like Jhon Dewey, Arbinto Gosh, Rabindranath Tagore, MK Gandhi who believed in traditional way of learning along with modern concepts and also Nehru had strong believe in Rationalism.

Apart from these, we had older way of educational methodology like Gurukuls, where students have to stay and learn the mantras, Upanishad by storytelling, games, managing the battles, moral values, leadership skills etc taught by gurus. But the drawback of this methodology was it is only applicable for certain group of people like those who are from Shatriyas and other forward castes.

The difficulties and struggle were felt from the olden period onwards, but still we did not achieve 100% in that. It should reach all people irrespective of age, sex, economic status, religion, language, cultures etc. “Education for All” Initiative must be initiated soon. “A high rate of education is essential for countries to be able to achieve high levels of economic growth so that the developing countries should grow faster than rich countries because they can adopt cutting edge technologies already tried and tested by rich countries”.

Strong Review Argument  

Education contributes to economic growth by imparting basic attitudes, moral values and specific skills, which are necessary for variety of places. It contributes economic growth by improving health, reducing fertility, and political stability. Importance of educational system is to produce a literate, disciplined, flexible labour force via high-quality education. Musiban Adelunji et al (2005), the paper investigates the long run relationship between the education and growth in Nigeria by Johansen co-integration technique and the vector error correction methodology.

The results showed that long run relationships between enrolments in primary and tertiary level as well the average years of schooling with output of workers. The results revealed that a well-educated labour force possessed a positive and significant impact on economic growth through factors accumulation and on the evaluation of total factors productivity. P Aghion et al (2009) conducted a study on casual impact of education on Economic growth’s evidence from U.S. The hypothesis tested some investments in education raise growth. They find that exogenous shocks to research type education have positive effects in states fairly close to the technological frontier.

Denise Hawkes et al(2012) a meta analysis was done on relationship between education, skill and economic growth in low– income countries(LICs). Objective of the study was to address the impact of education, skill on economic growth to the direct effect on human capital investments on growth in LICs. The search based on 43 LICs, 3,842 unique studies were screened. The results showed that investing in education skills promotes economic growth in LICs correct in general. Also, some gaps like improper measurements in education and skills were found.

The principle finding suggests that those national and transnational organizations who have invested heavily in human capital development in LICs are likely to see a return on this investment in terms of economic growth.

UNIVERSAL BASIC SKILL: 

What countries stand to gain? OECD (2015), the analysis shows that growth is directly and significantly related to the skills of the population. The key is to measure the skills properly. Skills are measured by the aggregate test scores on international mathematics and science tests. Concluded that population’s knowledge, capital, or collective cognitive skills, is by far the most important determinant of a country’s economic growth.

Hanushek and Woessmann (2008), a study conducted on the role of cognitive skills in educational development shows that school attainment alone has not guaranteed economic conditions and they assessed the International Achievement test across the countries. The findings in Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea showed scores above 555. But India is in between the score of 400-450 and the assessment of grades the school dropouts between grades 5 – 9 and never enrolled school are more in south Asia particularly in India.

The study concluded that cognitive skill of the population is powerfully related to individual earnings to the distribution, to economic growth and also much larger skill deficits are there in developing countries. The main objectives of this article was to assess the existing level of education and skill development that will help find solution to fill the gap between the existing and future education, skill development in India.

Present Educational System in India

The Indian educational system is producing more graduates every year. But the graduates havelack of basic communication and problem solving skills. Those are essential for even the elementary level jobs. Today’s education is seen only in earning money. Education is offered to earn good money and also the educational institutions have become more commercialised.

When we talk about present curriculum in India, it is out dated nearly 30 years old. Some institution sticks on an old curriculum. Few want the change and fight a long futile battle trying to change it. So there is a need of massive change in present and development of new curriculum along with administering the planned one. Vocational training should be mandatory alongside lots of practical work, as more importance has been given to theoretical classes rather than practical classes due to many issues like lack of facilities, lack of trainers etc.

The present day education system in India comprises of about 600,000 primary, 150,000 upperprimary, 70,000 secondary school and higher secondary schools. The network of institution of higher education includes more than 7000 colleges of general education about 1000 professional colleges and number of specialised institutions in industrial, scientific, technical, social sciences and research. There are 150 million students who are enrolled with an employment of about 4 million teachers.

Creating more schools and allowing hundreds of colleges and universities to mushroom is not going to solve the crisis of education and economic growth in India. Parents are spending more money for education, even though not getting standard education and struggling to find employment of their choice. There are millions of students who are the victims of unrealistic, pointless, mindless rat race. The mind numbing competition is not only crushing the creativity and originality of millions of Indian students but also drives students to commit suicide.

Significance of Education, Skill and its Impacts on Employability 

Education is the backbone of each family that too women’s education is very essential. Nowadays, the value of education is just earning a degree without a goal, why this happens? The reason islack of reinforcement, loss of hope on employment. “Nation does not need pointless, goalless youngsters, instead need mindful, talented, skilful youth to compromise the dynamic society and improve the status of our country among others”. So the government has the responsibility to bring the hope and set stage for the youngsters of India.

Each individual has to think and answer these questions like where we stand? What we have? Where has to go? What is our life time goal? How to bring the status in the society? This is not only for the people and also for the nation. The Nation also should set the goals on what we have? What must be taken initiative to improve the economic growth? What are all the sectors that need attention to improve the economic growth? So select that kind of areas and plan the strategies to implement the methodology which should contain need based education and skill development and plan for periodic monitoring.

Education alone is not needed. For proper execution, skill is necessary. In India, importance of skill is an unattended aspect except in few areas like Medicine, Engineering etc that too not everywhere. What about other areas of studies? The graduates are still struggling in communication, lack of boldness to present the presentations. India is composed by demographic dividend with multiple languages, cultures, religion etc. So teaching in common language is not possible like other countries, if we do it, other issues crop up.

Skill Learning

Having knowledge alone is not adequate to bring the changes, the need of skill to execute properly is important. Now the new ministry introduced “Skill India Mission” for the youth to meet their domestic demands and also for the betterment of economic growth of our nation. Through this mission, Jobless, school dropouts, graduated, uneducated, and women will be given training based on their knowledge and ability which will certify them to get the jobs. For the students it will be starting from the school to provide communication skill, entrepreneurship, problem-solving skills, etc.

The skill India mission has been introduced all over the India. It is not only for the schools, “SKILL FOR ALL” irrespective their education, sex, age etc. The central government has many vocational and professional skill-based training programmes. Apart from the courses the mission is planning to reach the rural India also. So the main aim of the mission is reach the outreach population. Training will be given to carpenters, black smith, masons, nurses, cobblers, welders, tailors, weavers etc. Importance will be given to the area where the government can improve the economic growth like real estate, construction, jewellery designing, tourism, banking, transportation, gem industry, textile etc. It will improve the individual earnings and which directly influence economic growth of the nation.

The mission also plans to bring the courses for specific age groups on language and communication skills, personality development skills, behavioural skills, life and positive thinking skills, including job and employability skills which will be conducted by group discussion, games, brainstorming, simulation, practical experiences and case studies etc. This will be managed by academic institutions, public and private sectors, Nongovernmental organizations etc.

Quality of schooling institutions and Economic Growth

Micro economic evidence of productivity increasing the effects of education and skills, it is naturally extending the view to the macroeconomic perspective of long run economic growth of countries. It is same like education earning relationships. There are three mechanisms through which the education may affect economic growth.

First, education increases the human capital inherent in the labour force, which increases labour productivity and transitional growth towards equilibrium level of outputs. Secondly, education may increase the innovation capacity of the economy and the knowledge on new technologies, products, processes, promotes growth. Thirdly, education may facilitate the diffusion and transmission of knowledge needed to understand the process new information and to implement successfully new technologies devised by others, which again promotes economic growth.

Problems and Policies

Today, problems of identification are too high in India. For example, concentrating on teacher’s salaries, class size, and institution benefits etc., secondary schooling literacy rates are low. Thereare encounter sporadic or nonexistent assessment of student education which is are important issues.

The shift of focus of focus from year of schooling to cognitive skills has important policy implications because policies that extend schooling may be very different from best policies to improve skills. The policy conundrum is that student achievement has been relatively impervious to a number of interventions that has been tried by countries around the world.

1. Improve and revise the health and nutrition policy which directly influences children’s ability to concentrate and leads to gain in basic achievements.

2. Create awareness about people involvement for support their children and provide path todevelop their skills.

3. Strongly need to change the structural changes in curriculum and school institutions.

4. Recover school resources and skill-based education.

5. Improve incentives for student’s performance and strong accountability system that accurately measures a student’s performance.

6. Local autonomy that allows schools to make appropriate educational choices and competition in schools, so that parents can enter into determining the incentives that schools fare.

7. The student autonomy also considered because parents should not impose to select the path.

Cognitive skills have powerful effects on individual earnings on the distribution of income and on economic growth. Changes in curriculum structure and measurements of tools which assess cognitive skill are needed to bring the better impact on economic growth, because economic growth is strongly influenced by the skills of labour force in India.

By A Mahendran

RGNIYD- Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

Source :- http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-09-16/Education-Skill-Development-impact-on-Economic-Growth-in-India-176280

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KV Pattom best government school in the country

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, here has been adjudged the best government day school in the country in the Education World India School Rankings 2015. The hitherto unranked school, trumped last year's list topper KV-IIT Madras in the category.

A number of schools from the state figured in the top ten list in various categories.

Education World has been publishing the annual Education World India School Rankings with C fore, a Delhi-based market research and opinion polls agency for the past seven years.

Kendriya Vidyalaya Pattom

"The objective of the annual EW India School Rankings is to track and proclaim the country's best schools as role models for the entire community of educators, and inspire top-ranked schools themselves to improve from good to great," said Dilip Thakore, founder-editor of EducationWorld.

The awards will be presented at a function scheduled to be held on September 25 in New Delhi. In the last four months 120 field personnel of C fore interviewed 11,660 people including parents, principals, teachers and students in 27 cities and persuaded them to rate schools in their region on a ten-point scale across 14 parameters of educational excellence. They rate and rank over 800 of India's high-profile schools.

Established in 1964, Kendriya Vidyalaya Pattom is amongst the oldest KVs and has been widely accepted as one of the best schools in the country. The school recently celebrated its golden jubilee and was in the news for getting the top rank in CBSE class XII 2015 examination.

"The award hasn't come really as a surprise as the who is who in the alumni list of the school stand proof to the meritorious service the school has done to the country," said principal of Pattom K V S Ajayakumar. "Top rated on the parameters of competence and commitment of teachers and sports education, and rated highly on parental involvement and value for money, KV Pattom has beat other government schools by a comfortable margin," he added.

Source :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/KV-Pattom-best-government-school-in-the-country/articleshow/48944724.cms

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International Literacy Day: Here are some of the greatest Indian educators

September 8 is celebrated as International Literacy Day every year since 1965, when it was first proclaimed by UNESCO.

There were several pioneers who strove to make bring quality education in the country. Let's take a look at some of the greatest educators in India.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

It may be blasphemy in today’s times to name Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as one of India’s greatest educators, but one cannot ignore his contribution to the education of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. The Aligarh Muslim University, founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan is ranked among the top universities in India. Khan saw the need of modern education amongst Muslims, and started a movement to create awareness about education amongst fellow Islamists. He first started a school in Muradabad and then followed it up with many more. Muhammedan Anglo Oriental College was founded in 1875 in Aligarh, and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wanted it to become a Muslim university on par with Cambridge. He literally started a movement called the Aligarh Movement and stirred up an educational revolution amongst Muslims.

Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil

Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil

While Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and his wife Savitribai can be credited for the spread of mass education in Maharashtra, Bhaurao Patil took this legacy forward by setting up schools and colleges throughout the state from 1920 onwards. He was the pioneer of the 'earn while you learn' system in Maharashtra and set up numerous hostels and boarding houses for needy kids. Patil’s contribution seems larger when we consider the caste system predominant in Maharashtra and he insisted that his institutions will be open to all. His wife Laxmibai was equally supportive in his cause and reportedly offered him all her ornaments, including her mangalsutra, to ensure there was no paucity of funds for his schools. Patil turned the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha into a mass movement as he sought contributions as little as a few paise from the rayat i.e. the common people.

Savitribai Phule

Savitribai Phule

It may be a sweet dilemma – is her contribution to women’s education greater than her husband Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, who was one of the greatest social reformers in Maharashtra? Savitribai followed up with every cause that her husband took up and surpassed him. While Jyotirao took up the women’s cause, she made him open schools for girls, unheard of in the middle of the 19^th century. People threw cow dung at them in conservative Pune, as the couple opened the first school for women. Jyotirao supported widow remarriage, adopted a boy from a widowed Brahmin lady who was going to commit suicide and opened a care home for orphans. Savitribai took care of the kids like her own. Her death too was in tune with her life. As she took bubonic plague victims from Pune to her son’s clinic, she contracted the disease herself and died. Today, Pune University is named after her.

Dr RM Alagappa Chettiar

Dr RM Alagappa Chettiar

Born in Kottaiyur in the Sivaganga district, Dr RM Alagappa Chettiyar was a model teacher who was friends with Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the former President of India. He strongly believed in education and donated generously for the cause. Dr RM Alagappa Chettiyar is said to have revolutionised education in Karaikaudi. The Alagappa Arts College was started at Karaikudi thanks to his donation in 1947 and 11 educational institutions were built subsequently in the Alagappa name thanks to his foundation and donations. These include the Alagappa College of Technology Campus (Anna University) and Alagappa Chettiar Government College of Engineering & Technology (ACCET), Karaikudi.

Dr Mrs YG Parthasarathy

Dr Mrs YG Parthasarathy

In 1958, a group of housewives, including a former journalist Mrs YG Parthasarathy from the Nungambakkam Ladies Recreation Club, came together to set up the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School (PSBB) in Nungambakan, Chennai. Today, the group of institutions headed by Padmashri Awardee Dr Mrs YGP (as she is popularly known) has branches in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The PSBB Group schools were ranked first in the south zone in the Day Schools category by a survey conducted by Education World in 2011. 90-year-old Mrs YGP still looks after the schools.

Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai

Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai

Manipal in Karnataka flourished into a university city thanks to educationist and banker Padma Shri Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai or Dr TMA Pai. Born in 1898, Dr TMA Pai was the first person in India to start a private, self-financing medical college that offered the MBBS course. Before he passed away in 1979, DR TMA Pai went on to set up numerous other institutions in Manipal like Kasturba Medical College (1953), Manipal Institute of Technology (1957), Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore.

K Kamaraj

K Kamaraj

This politician from Tamil Nadu was hailed as a ‘kingmaker’. In 1954, Kamaraj became Chief Minister and made significant changes to the education system in the state. He removed the family vocation-based Hereditary Education Policy and opened new schools in rural areas to provide access to education for students there.

As Chief Minister, he made sure every village and panchayat had at least one school and introduced free and compulsory education till 11th standard. The Midday Meal Scheme that provides one meal a day to students in government schools in Tamil Nadu today, was introduced by him. Education in the state rose from 7% to 37% post the education reforms he introduced. A lesser known fact is that it was thanks to his efforts and that of Governor Medhi, that IIT Madras was established in 1959.

Source :- http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-international-literacy-day-here-are-some-of-the-greatest-indian-educators-2123098

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