Private varsities bill gets nod despite opposition

Punjab assembly passed two controversial bills on Friday, paving the way for two private universities to come up in the state even as the treasury benches ridiculed private varsities terming them as teaching shops set up to mint money.

Even as the opposition boycotted the session and did not debate the bills, the treasury benches seemed to have taken over the opposition's role as several legislators of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance slammed the private universities and raised apprehension that these would not be in the interest of the students. Despite this, the Desh Bhagat University Bill and the DAV University Bill were okayed.

SAD MLA Som Prakash said, "Lovely Professional University was set up in 2005 and has more than 25,000 students from 26 nations. But... the standard of education needs to be monitored. In a survey done by metro man E Sreedharan, it was found that only 21% of MBA students are capable of jobs, only 12% of engineers can be recruited directly and the rest need training and 36% of students passing out of private universities are not qualified for jobs despite training."

Nirmal Singh, another SAD MLA, said, "Private institutions have no seats for the poor. Even at places where they have taken panchayat land from villages on discounted prices they have not bothered to give concession to village children. Government must ensure that they follow norms."

'Textbooks sans cartoons take life out of learning'

Politicians may think a blanket ban on cartoons in school textbooks is a good idea but members of the academic fraternity are opposed to the idea. Cartoons not only help liven up and simplify subject matter but also help children look at things in a different perspective, feel teachers and educationists.

"The government has banned cartoons at a time when we are thinking of introducing digital content in classrooms to teach children better. It is not right to deprive children of visual element in learning," says education consultant K R Maalathi.

The government on Monday said it had issued directions to NCERT to not distribute textbooks with cartoons. The decision comes in the wake of a controversy surrounding a cartoon featuring leader B R Ambedkar, which was removed from textbooks.

"When a cartoon is about national leaders, you need to understand that children don't understand the nuances. But to have a blanket ban is ridiculous," says Maalathi.

Lower and middle school students read textbooks when there is a humorous touch to the content, says K Tanuja, a teacher of Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya. "It works well with science, geography, social studies, English or other languages," she says.

Teachers say that cartoons act as visual aids. "Not every child can go through pages of heavy text. Cartoons make lessons more interesting," says Sara Alexander, vice-principal of Spartan Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Mogappair.

Jashoda Sundar, English teacher at Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya, says that cartoons help children look at subjects with a different perspective. "Many English textbooks have stories in the form of comic strips. Oxford University Press has brought out books like these for class IV, V and VI," she says. "And children are excited by it as textbooks are usually dry."

She says that the reaction of the government to the Ambedkar cartoon is excessive. "Ambedkar's grandson has come out and said that the leader would not have objected to the cartoon. But I think that we, as a nation, have lost our sense of humour," she says. "Withdrawing textbooks and introducing new ones would mean great expenditure."

However, some academicians differ. "I feel cartoons should be banned in textbooks because books are sacred. There should not be any mockery of leaders," says Revathi Sridharan, former principal of Chinmaya Vidyalaya. "But there can be cartoons in primary school books as children will like them."

The govt on Monday said it has issued directions to NCERT to not distribute textbooks with cartoons. The decision comes after a controversy over a cartoon featuring B R Ambedkar

All universities should have semester-based exams

HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said until every university in India starts a uniform semester-based system of examination, mobility and choice would not be available to students.

"If a semester system is available in every university, then mobility is possible. But if you have some universities offering three-year degree courses while some others having their own system of examination, then mobility and choice is not available to students," Sibal told reporters on the sidelines of IIM Calcutta's convocation.

At present, most universities conduct annual examinations while only a few have semester-based examinations.

Raising questions on the system of colleges being affiliated by various universities, the minister said the universities "do nothing" for those colleges which fall under its ambit.

"So should the present system of affiliation prevail? Or should structural reforms take place?" he said while putting the onus on the state governments for bringing in such reforms in the education system.

"I am not the architect of those reforms. They have to be done by the state government," Sibal said, adding it was time "for us to look at education holistically" and to connect the youth with it.

Asked about the performance of West Bengal under the Right to Education Act, he said it should be ensured that the teacher-student ratio is kept at 1:30.

"So redeployment of faculty has to take place in the state," he said.

On IITs offering medical education, he said the Centre has agreed to it in principle. "It has been proposed by IIT Kharagpur and we have agreed to the proposal," he said.

"But not every IIT wants a medical college, therefore you can not have a policy," Sibal said.

Schools stand accused of flouting RTE rules

 Almost two years have passed since the Right to Education (RTE) Act came into effect, but not all of its clauses are being followed by schools in the state. 

"Other than a handful of schools, most are violating RTE rules. Even today, students and parents are undergoing rounds of screening during admission (illegal under the RTE Act). We still receive complaints from parents about their wards being denied admission or asked to leave due to various reasons. The state government needs to take cognizance of these problems," said Jayant Jain, president, Forum for Fairness in Education. The forum has filed various PILs in the Bombay high court against rigid school managements. 

A rule that some schools object to is the one making it mandatory for every school to set aside 25% of seats for students from economically weaker sections of society. "This issue is still pending in the Supreme Court, but there is no stay on the matter. Why then are schools using this as an excuse to not entertain applications from students?" Jain said. 

Educationists claim that lack of awareness about RTE guidelines among parents and students gives school managements the upper hand during admissions. An RTI application by a Delhi-based activist last year showed that child rights protection commissions of many states receive only a handful of complaints on RTE violations. The situation is better in Maharashtra. 

"We have received several complaints about problems (faced by parents and students) during admissions and about schools not giving admission to differently-abled children," said Farida Lambey, a member of the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. "We have held several hearings on these issues and also solved a few." 

No-fail policy may change to lift standards

When the Right to Education (RTE) Act became reality, there was a sense of jubilation all around. Students and parents welcomed, in particular, the 'no-fail' clause: no child could be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education (till class VIII). But teachers are complaining that some students take advantage of this clause and do not study at all. The state government has heard the complaints and is looking at ways to make changes to the rule. 

According to sources, the government has issued a circular to education officials, seeking ideas on the matter. "The new system may be that a student who does not fair well in a class will take a written test in April, failing which, he or she will take the test again in June. But it is the teacher who might have to make sure that the student passes. Thus, responsibility for the student's performance will shift to teachers," said an official. 

"Even though CCE ( continuous comprehensive evaluation) ensures that students are evaluated throughout the year rather than through just written exams, students have started taking the written exams very lightly," said a teacher from a school in Andheri. "We try to ensure that this doesn't happen in our school, but keep coming across students who are least bothered about studies." 

Though schools had welcomed most RTE clauses, many were opposed to the no-fail policy. With CCE in place, students are evaluated under two heads: formative (class work/presentations) and summative (written exams). The combined score is taken into consideration at the end of the academic year. "Students and teachers are easily getting adapted to CCE. Students also know that even if they don't score well in the summative part, they will score very well in the formative tests and pass with good marks," said Najma Kazi, principal, Anjuman-I-Islam Saif Tyabji Girls' High School, Byculla. She said she started remedial classes for students who were not fairing well in the summative tests. "Teachers in my school have been asked to hold these classes to ensure that students understand the topics well." 

While most government officials refused to comment on the issue, a senior official told TOI that instead of simply promoting children to the next grade, extra attention needed to be paid to teacher training. "Blindly promoting students does not help to make the quality of education better. Teachers need to be accountable to students and ensure their progress," said the official. "Teacher training programmes need to be more interesting and must incorporate skill-improvement plans." 

Legislative delay holds up degrees of 1,800 students

With their future in limbo, about 1,800 students of Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University have written to HRD minister Kapil Sibal urging the government to pass the legislation giving their institute legal sanctity. The 'Institutes of Technology (Amendment) bill 2011' has been pending before the Rajya Sabha for almost a year. 

The students of 2010 and 2011 batches have been waiting for their degrees for a year now thanks to the legislative delay. "As the bill is getting delayed in the Rajya Sabha, it is creating serious problems for our future careers. The uncertainty over the conversion of IT-BHU to IIT-BHU is also creating an unhealthy academic atmosphere in the campus,'' the letter said. The communication has been signed by all the students. 

The move to upgrade the institute to an IIT was done after several rounds of consultations and discussions with HRD ministry officials and was passed by Lok Sabha in March 2011. 

The bill seeks to amend the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, which declares certain institutes of technology to be institutions of national importance and add eight new IITs in Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Patna and Ropar. It also seeks to integrate the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University within the ambit of the Act and is likely to increase its functional autonomy. 

Speaking in Lok Sabha, Sibal had assured agitated BJP members that Banaras Hindu University would not be bifurcated in the process of giving IIT status to its Institute of Technology. The legislation is also expected to address issues of shortage of staff and quality faculty.  

Kapil Sibal assures Nitin Gadkari of tackling bogus varsity, college racket

Responding to BJP president Nitin Gadkari's letter expressing concern over bogus universities and colleges running with impunity, HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that the ministry was seized of the problem and had even drafted a legislation to bring in stringent punishment. He asked for the Opposition's support in passing the proposed law Prohibition of unfair practices in technical education institutions, medical educational institutions and universities bill 2010. 

In his letter, Sibal said that while opening of the education sector had increased access it had also widened the scope of unscrupulous elements to exploit people. ``The present laws are insufficient to deal with the menace,'' he wrote. 

The bill is expected to hike penalty on a bogus university from Rs 1,000 to Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment for a term of three years in cases where criminal intent is noticed by a court of law. 

Budget and Education

What should be the priority areas in education in budget 2012-13 ? We find out from a crosssection of academics.

Parvin Sinclair, Director, NCERT

Primary and secondary education needs fund allocation, with the focus on the last child getting an opportunity to study at least till Class X. Every sector needs more funds. We, at NCERT, wish to do much more in school education and require funds for these activities too. Education is on the concurrent list, which means that the school sector not only requires central government funding, but each state government has to agree to policies and fund them too.

AS Narang, Professor, School of Social Sciences, Ignou

Amajor portion of present grants to universities goes in for salaries and maintenance. Infrastructure remains a low priority. The need is not only to provide adequate allocations, but of clear earmarking of funds for infrastructure, research facilities and R&D . Since states are not contributing to higher education, the Centre should introduce schemes of grants to states, to improve the quality of universities and also to encourage states to contribute likewise. Funds also need to be earmarked for filling a large number of vacant positions. Quality research in social sciences is another area that needs attention. Also, budgetary allocation for improvement of overall infrastructure and facilities for research must be given priority.

Dinesh Singh, VC, Delhi University (DU)

The scope for innovations in technology, research facilities, experiments and new breakthroughs in science will make higher education substantial and productive. This should be a focus area for funding. More innovations, introduction of new degree programmes and activities for students in undergraduate disciplines must be the priority areas. The budget should focus on allocating more funds for improving soft-skills and also invest in the vocational education sector.

M Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur

For the last five budgets, higher education has been given prominence. It has received special attention in order to sustain and provide sufficient support for economic growth. This trend is likely to continue. At present, technical education has two components - large support base like the universities of national importance (IITs, etc), and state-level institutions. While the central universities get sufficient attention, statelevel universities suffer from low budget allocation and improper recognition, which should be focussed on.

SS Handa, Professor, department of computer science, faculty of engineering and technology, Manav Rachna International University

The core allocation of funds for this year's budget must cover academic research areas like biodiversity, pollution control and sustainable development.

Around 37% of our GDP comes from MSMEs. Hence, the government should extend funding support in research activities in these units.

Major fund allocation should be made for development in IT systems to make progress in manufacturing, business development and service sectors from micro to large-scale .

To develop green technology, the government should allocate funds for setting up small R&D centres, which will transfer knowledge to various sectors.

Students can get Photocopy of answer sheets after results

Following a Supreme Court order in August 2011, CBSE students can now on apply to get a photocopy of their answer scripts, once the board results (classes X and XII) are out. According to the order, students appearing in an examination have a right to view their answer sheets if they want to.

According to Vineet Joshi, chairman, CBSE, students will receive photocopies of their answer sheets as per the request within 15 days of submitting their application forms. However, students can continue to avail of the marks verification facility.

In order to get a photocopy of the answer scripts, students will have to pay Rs 500 per subject. They can avail of their answer scripts by applying online and making an online payment. Students who don't want to make an online payment can send a draft at the regional office of CBSE along with the online photocopy of the application form. However, for verification, students can continue to pay Rs 100 per answer script.

Joshi further adds, "Students wanting to avail of this facility will have to apply to the board within 21 days, once the results are out."

Apart from CBSE boards, students appearing for All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and All India Pre-Medical /Pre-Dental Test (AIPMT) can also avail of this facility.

Credit System is not operational in its full capacity

Although continuous assessment sounds like a perfectly convenient way of grading students, the teachers have reservation with the process of implementation. Tapati Mukhopadhyay, secretary, Mumbai University College Teacher's Union (MUCTU), voices the opinion of teachers across Mumbai, "We are not against the credit system itself, but against the lack of teacher's involvement. Such a system requires effective implementation with structural changes. However, we haven't been taken into operational confidence resulting in complete chaos." 

The teachers' union claims that the credit system is not operational in its full capacity. "The current classrooms hold up to 120 students at a time, as against the UGC recommendation of 60 students per class. Not only is the current teacher-student ratio askew, but most teachers work on contract hours, making it impossible to maintain constant assessment," explains Mukhopadhyay. 

The average number of exams that a student has to appear under the new system has also doubled. Students are constantly appearing for exams in an effort to clear pending credits added by newer semesters, resulting in a loss of teaching days. 

Many teachers also consider the lack of an unbiased system of assessment to be a major drawback. "Unlike in the western system, no checks and balances have been put in place, so the standards of teachers vary dramatically. The teachers who teach also set and correct the paper, with the more demanding teachers getting marginalised," explains a college professor. 

Another grouse amongst the post-graduate faculty is unsynchronised transition from graduation to post-graduation. "The third year results come in very late and the first semester does not start till late August. So, the days are abridged and the entire teaching is really rushed. Students find the jump from college to the first semester huge and the drop rates are alarming. This is especially true in case of students who appear in Marathi medium due to an acute paucity of reading material," she adds. 

The University of Mumbai's current credit system defies the most important aspect of interdisciplinary education. The inability to provide students with distinct options has proved to be another drawback. "Even though the credit system has proved to be a much awaited change, to make it effective, students need mobility allowing them to explore the curriculum," says Dinesh Panjwani, principal, RD National College, Mumbai. 

Despite its shortcomings, many students have welcomed the new format. Akhilesh Subramaniam, a fourth semester post-graduate student of political science, says, "The semester-based system allows us to explore more subjects, 18 papers as compared to the earlier 8, with some very interesting specialisations." 

The incentive of universally accepted grades and credits does help the cause. "This system has definitely increased a teacher's workload and there are a few discrepancies we need to address. But, I believe, when it is a question of the nation's progress, there is no alternative," concludes Panjwani.

New IITs yet to get govt approval, students in a spot

AHMEDABAD: Hundreds of students entered the new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), set up in 2008 expecting a bright future for themselves. 

But their dreams have hit a roadblock, even as the first batch of BTech students is set to graduate in May. The new institutes are yet to be approved as IITs by the Parliament. As a result, the students graduating this year will not get an IIT degree for the time being. 

All IITs are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. The Act declares them as 'institutions of national importance' and specifies their framework for governance, powers and duties. The Gandhinagar campus was among the six IITs set up in 2008. Another two were added the next year. 

While the Lok Sabha passed the bill for incorporating the new IITs under the act, it is yet to be cleared by Rajya Sabha. Because of the uncertainty, the IITs are unable to fix a date for their first convocation. Traditionally, IITs host their annual convocations in August. 

"We are hoping the Parliament moves quickly," said a director of one of the new IITs. "It takes time to plan a convocation that meets IIT standards." 

The first batch of 30 MTech students of IIT Hyderabad graduated in 2011. The students are waiting for their degree certificates. 

Uday Desai, director IIT Hyderabad, said, "We have given the students provisional degree certificates for the time being. With the Lok Sabha having cleared the bill, half the job is done. We hope that the Rajya Sabha clears the bill this time." A total of 160 students will be graduating from the IIT Hyderabad this year. 

Some 600 under-graduate and post-graduate students will be passing out from the new IITs this year. IIT-Gandhinagar has 88 undergraduate students.