A Time To Reflect

charukesi June 14th, 2008

interfere with my education. and when it is a question of exams…

Mumbai Mirror gave six Class XII toppers a simple GK test. Most of them didn’t even come close to getting a first-class - and so the newspaper calls them rather cruelly, floppers in its cover story of Friday June 13th.

The questions we posed to them were based on common knowledge that any educated citizen should have. But most of them got less than 50% marks in our test. The overall HSC topper, Priyanka Shah, who had got 96.59% in the Board exams, in fact got 36% marks in the GK test, and one of the CBSE toppers got just 27%.

On this article which goes on to attack the “mugging-culture” in the education system, a commentor has this to say - “You have infront of you, your whole life, to get your General Knowlege ripe. You did the right thing by concentrating on the studies. You can pick up newspapers anytime and improve your general knowledge throughout your life. There is no need to feel any sense of incompleteness or a lack of confidence on that”. Concentrating on studies is one thing - but to the exclusion of everything else?

And as an aside, also this - which I found myself agreeing with - Please don’t call them flopper and that too on the front page of a leading daily. I am very sure if similar kind of test is conducted for your newspaper staff you guys won’t be able to score anything near to what these kids scored.

• Children and youth , - Education
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charukesi November 2nd, 2007

The last time I wrote on this, I had over a hundred comments, most of them from “post-graduates with teaching skills” (but not terribly good spelling skills, I may add), all of them asking me for details on that - but here goes anyway, from new York Times - Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math on how while the tutees are all over the world (seeking help with math and whatever else), the tutor is in India. But then, why not? Read - from the same newspaper - Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere.

• Technology , - Education
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charukesi October 30th, 2007

I found 1 in 10 schools are ‘dropout factories’ on my yahoo homepage. Not surprisingly - The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around, because their students face challenges well beyond the academic ones — the need to work as well as go to school, for example, or a need for social services.

A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Education has tried to explain this saying - “Part of the problem we’ve had here is we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education” - I do not think it is about valuing education - it is about the children - and their parents - thinking about what that education gives in turn, in the long run, and finding almost nothing. Atleast nothing worth the effort of going to school everyday under challenging personal circumstances. Added to that is the pressure from schools that tend to grades and scores above a more intrinsic capability and understanding. And this article here, is about America, not India.

• - Education
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charukesi May 6th, 2006

Earlier this week, our maid at home wanted to leave early. She was to go to her children’s school to pick up their mark sheets. The teacher had said that mark sheets would not be given out until the parents came with their kids to collect them.

Bahut saara baccha loge ghar se bhaag jaata hai ya aatma hatya kar leta hai na. Is liye, she threw in casually. So many kids run away or commit suicide the school had decided on this. I gaped at her and tried to ignore the strange word system that kept popping into my head.

Baccha loge paas ho gaya madam. Aise hi faaltu me gaya mein, she grumbled the next day. Her kids had passed. What a waste of time was loud and clear in her eyes…

Talk of pressure.

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Update : Today’s (May 08) Bombay Times has a story on wunderkind (poor little four-year old) Budia Singh of the 65 km run fame. Mamma, please let me be!

And an interesting SMS survey (the 8888 types where ten ardent readers respond and we are given percentage figures of responses) - Who puts maximum pressure on kids? A) Parents B) Schools C) Peers D) Exposure

Duh? Exposure is a Who now? And aren’t all these inter-related anyways?

• Children and youth , - Education
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charukesi April 10th, 2006

I was recently going through a UNICEF report ‘The state of the world’s children‘ published in 2004 - the report focusses on the millenium develpoment goals, primarily universalisation of education and gender equality - to be achieved by 2015.

From the foreword by Kofi Annan,

Every boy and girl around the world has a right to expect that we will do all we can to ensure that they will enjoy their right to an education. But in most countries, girls are the most disadvantaged when it comes to school. As this year’s State of the World’s Children reports, millions of young girls never attend school at all, millions more never complete their education, and countless numbers never receive the quality education that is their right. These millions of girls slip easily to the margins of our societies – less healthy than they could be, less skilled, with fewer choices in their lives and less hope for the future. As they grow into women, they are ill-prepared to participate fully in the political, social and economic development of their communities. They – and their children in turn – are at higher risk of poverty, HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation, violence and abuse.

Conversely, to educate a girl is to educate a whole family. And what is true of families is also true of communities and, ultimately, whole countries. Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutrition and promote health – including helping to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation.

I found a summary of the most recent report on the internet - The 2006 report is about children excluded and invisible - not just denied access to education and other rights that the UN considers basic but additionally coping with armed conflict, HIV, exclusion and discrimination… I have not yet read this latest report but a quick glance showed no indication of the progress made towards the set goals, but sadly additional goals to be met…

Here is an ad I came across while searching for some information on gender and education: More education for girls in Islamic countries!

[Image courtesy : adsoftheworld]

Here is the video of the ad - I personally prefer the print version - it is simple and powerful…

• Society & Development , - Education , - Gender issues
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charukesi November 21st, 2005

21 MOST LIKELY QUESTION SETS STD - X SOLD HERE

I was passing by and I just had to stop at this shop window. And I just had to take out my mobile phone to take this picture.

In the course of research, I have come across students who believe that school is just a necessary evil - grin and bear it - whereas tuition is where the real action is. I have met teachers who frankly admit to not paying attention to class work because most of the students come for tuitions anyway. (As for those who don’t, well, tough luck for them). And parents who find school books a “waste” and goad their children into studying only using study guides and such exam “guess papers”.

This is the state of education in India.

• - Education
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charukesi November 7th, 2005

I got this via email : sick of making minimum wage

You’ll thank me later… Start making money TODAY… not years from now.

The mail ended helpfully with a US phone number for me to call for further information, and finally with a pleasant, have a good day.

I did have a good day mulling over the letters to choose for behind my name. And about what will do when the loophole gets discovered and closed.

And above all, my heart bleeds for those poor sods who have multiple letters behind their names and still manage only minimum wages.

Have a good day. And as you go out, please notice that the post is filed under ‘education’.

• - Education
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charukesi October 17th, 2005

In the previous post about the nature of advertising in high involvement product categories, education figured as a lucrative business area. I discussed briefly the areas of English coaching and higher education (as represented by the numerous private MBA institutes and dental colleges and engineering college all over the country). Exciting promises of a bright future. In exchange for a king’s ransom as fees. Which people were willing to pay - in anticipation of even part fulfilment of their dreams and aspirations - as conveyed in the advertising for such “products”.

Another money making business in the sphere of education which is discussed here is computer training. What lies behind the phenomenal success of computer training centres that have mushroomed across large and small towns in India in the last decad? Clearly, the key reason is that of a tangible benefit - a job at the end of the course. An advantage that “vocational” training has over conventional college education. These training centres started small, diffidently offering courses that supplemented formal education. And soon caught on to the fact that people were willing to accept such training as substitutes instead. From certificate / diploma courses offered in return for a few weeks / months of classes, soon there were degrees being ofered, for courses extending over a few years. If as a conventional graduate, you had no perceived value in the job market, as a graduate from the ‘premier computer training centres’ of the day, you landed straight from your desk at the class to a desk at a “multinational company”.

Apart from this, there is another reason for the roaring success of such centres. Especially in small town India which made as much money for this business as the large towns. A new dimension to social mobility that conventional sociology has not taken much notice of.

These centers offered young men and women an opportunity and place to meet other young men and women in public. In a society that was otherwise traditional and constricting, such classes offered legitimate and even parentally approved meeting grounds for the young with romantic notions. Or just the young wanting to ‘break free’ - in more ways than one.

I discovered this dimension quite by accident while an acquaintance mentioned to me that he had met his wife at NIIT; there were four other couples from his batch alone. “I got the feeling that some of them came there only for that purpose“.

Think about the number of times you have noticed groups of young people hanging out in front of computer centres - at all times of the day. I am not suggesting that this was the only reason for the popularity of such courses. I see this as a bonus that a lot of young people in the last decade or so discovered. Get an ‘education’ that is job-oriented, and along the way, if you happen to meet and like someone, then all the better. And your parents are paying for all this too… (so what if they, with dreams of their children’s brilliant future, went bankrupt in the process…)

• Children and youth , - Education
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charukesi October 9th, 2005

Much has been happening in blogland - Gaurav Sabnis gets a legal notice from IIPM about his post on the institutes’s tall claims - requesting him to either back of and apologize or else…

And Rashmi Bansal gets, to put it mildly, obscene comments on her blog. And what’s so strange about that? Because these comments seem to originate from people supporting the insitution that she had earlier published an incisive - needless to add, negative - report on. And they all lead back to newly created blogs with only one or two posts, usually dealing with the same theme - a supplementary website to their original one.

Strangely enough (or maybe not) none of the comments have anything good to say about IIPM. Instead, they all attack the writer - and if it is a woman, then it is even easier… Absue her in filty language and threaten her with physical violence.

All I can say is that these responses on their blogs speak more about the quality of the institution and its students than anything Rashmi or Gaurav might have to say. Having said this, I can actually sympathise with these students - how many times have you all spent loads of money on a coveted product promising the sun and the moon and a few stars, and then found that all you have got is some mud. Post purchase dissonance. And when someone else points out to you what a fool you have been, and that a false marketer with a ponytail and a flop movie behind him is just as bad as any other, then you are bound to direct your anger towards those who pointed it out to you - considering the money has already been spent and the dream seller has moved on to his next big thing in life.

Please keep this issue alive and lend your support to Rashmi and Gaurav. Other bloggers who have already written about this : Harini, Kaps, Anshul, Press Talk, Walk with me, desipundit, The arbit council, Patrix

Update : There is one comment - actually two from the same er, person - on Rashmi’s blog that is worth a dekko. This person is doing a PhD, has done a PhD, will do a PhD, is teaching PhD students - whatever, it doesn’t muter (no typo this) - at Haas UCLA. Uh, where? Harini just googled for Haas and came up with Haas Associates - A resume writing service specializing in resume writing for the IT industry.

But more importantly, this person is proud of his alu mutter. He says it not once but several times in his comments. I quote, I’m proud of my alum mater, and where it has reached, without governemnt subsidies or interference. He also accuses Outlook editor Sandeepan Deb of writing a book on alu mutter. Sanjeev Kapoor has stiff competition.

Another Update : I found this recent post of mine on MBA institutes - where I have written And while on this, I was searching in Fabmall for some books and I noticed that Arindam Chaudhuri’s book Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch is to be found under the Humorous Section. Go check it out. Fabmall has my vote for best ecommerce site of the decade or some such thing.

Further updates as on October 12: Three days after the ugly controversy first reared its head on the blogosphere, over a hundred blogs have linked to it. Fake IIPM blogs have disappeared and other equaly fake IIPM blogs have appeared. The rants and threats from IIPM “students” have gone from bad to worse.

Legal notices are flying fast and furious across the blogosphere with Varna receiving one from the “legal cell” of IIPM.

Hindustan Times coves the story in its third page today. Mumbai Mirror mentions this in their bloggers’ park corner. And hopefully, other newspapers and TV channels will carry this soon. A no-words-minced post from Harini here on this.

Gaurav’s professor from IIML calls the IIPM bluff. No words minced here either.

For detailed updates, head to the fantastic desipundit.

• Society & Development , - Education
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charukesi September 20th, 2005

I had written about the saas bahu sammelan a while ago. Now read about the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society, an educational progam based in Anoopshahar in the Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh. The PPES opted for a unique approach of education through academic, value-based, and skill-based education allows PPGVS to address the interrelated issues of poverty, gender-bias, and education in India. At present PPES working with girls from 46 villages of Anoopshahar in Uttar Pradesh.

To me, the following rationale make this a remarkable program…

Economic : this is one of the prime reasons for parents to not send their children to school :

- many poor people who want to educate their children cannot afford to send them to school - especially their girl children - where there is a need felt, the priority is for the boys to be educated
- and there is a clear (perceived, and maybe even real) lack of link between education and opportunities for work or economic betterment in any way. Mera beta (and much more, beti) school jaake kya karega - usko naukri to aasani se nahi milega na (what will my son / daughter do going to school - he will not get a job so easily)

PPES takes care of this with by providing free education for girl children. In fact, this report says that students, all girls, are paid Rs 10 a day for attending classes. Wisely, the money is not given in the hands of the girl or her parents on a regular basis but placed in a joint account n the name of the girl and her mother - the money can be withdrawn only after the girl completes Class X.

More on this here.
For every day a student attends school, 10 rupees (US$0.30) is put into her bank account. By the time a girl completes the program (about 7-10 years), she should have approximately 100,000 rupees (US$2,200), assuming she has attended most days of the school year. Ideally, the products produced by the students bring back Rs.30 (US$0.90) per day. Of that, 10 rupees goes in their account and 20 rupees goes back into sustaining the school.

And what is even better is that the PPES has a clear focus on prividing vocational training to the girls, along with bookish learning. The vocational school run by the Society produces fine hand embroidered linen appliqué work and block printing which can have various uses, along with table clothes, luncheon sets, bed covers and sheets, curtains, and cushion covers says this website describing the activities of the school.

Social : the school, in addition to regular education and vocational training includes training in other social aspects such as personality development, health and hygiene, leadership development, legal awareness, money management, business management, and values and ethics. Ideally, the girl comes out of school, not just educated but also confident and trained in social skills.

Apart from this, I think the money incentive is also great for making parents push the age at which they will get their daughter married off. Right now, girls in this district are married at the age of 13-14.

Cultural : and this is what I love most about this concept - the idea of drawing on the wisdom of our great grandparents. Bringing educatoin into their lives by associating it with a concept that such people know and respect - the knowledge and wisdom of the elderly. As opposed to introducing an education system completely foreign to their ideas and values - and forcing it on them.

And finally their business model : in other words, their plans for sustainability and scalability. As the students work and get trained in different skills, they also contribute towards the expenses incurred in running the school through the products they make and sell. At present ( yr-2004-2005) school has 280 girls and it costs app. Rs 2 lac10 thousand per month towards running cost of the school. Running cost of PPES is Rs. 35 per girl per day. Vocational training of the girls is planned in such a way that with a training of two years students can earn wages of Rs.35 per day through the vocational skill they learn. In the month of Jan 2005 school earned Rs.1 lac 35 thousand. Deficit of Rs. 85 thousand is because the newer batches of girls have still not reached the required levels.

Their website is called, rightly, education for change; you can sponsor the education of girls there if you wish.

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And then this extremely heartening (but seeming to me over-optimistic in tone) article on rediff, The Quiet Revolution - that has been taking place in India’s elementary education that, if successful, will equip an entire younger generation with skills to improve productivity and reduce the burden of disease, high birth rates, hunger, and poverty, while changing societal attitudes toward gender, caste, tribe, and disability. I need to go back and read this piece again…

• Children and youth , Society & Development , - Education
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