Our nation needs proper Education...!!!

Beef? Minority? Hinduism? Muslim? Dadri?Dalit?Punjab Riots?

I'm sure everyone must be coming across all these words over the past few days. It doesn't matter which side of the debate you're on...

At QuesTeach, we believe education is of prime importance and it helps us analyse, think, question certain things. Today, we see negativity all around us and it may have a demoralizing effect on us...and the society as a whole. Whenever we think of taking a step forward in the direction of growth and progress, all this stupidity of religion fanaticism, takes us couple of steps back.

In today's era, Education is all the more important. Education is the solution to think radically about each and every issue, big or small, professional or personal. In case of Religion, radical and rational thinking is necessary. IF you are Hindu, read all the holy books you can but try to understand the logic behind that. If you are a Muslim, read Quran-e-Sharif but try to understand what it's really trying to say. What's the logic behind all the rituals, philosophy mentioned in holy books of every religion. That's the education which is needed in today's context.

COW IS OUR MOTHER!!

That's fine but how and why? Did we ever try to understand that?

Cow's milk and mother's milk have almost the same essential ingredients which is important for a new born child. It's like a life serum to a new born child. That's why all the Saints in our ancient history advocate the importance of preserving the cow. But they also knew that if they will tell it directly, we might not listen, and will start ignoring this precious animal. So they linked cow with all the mythological stories to educate us about the importance of the cow. Gradually, generations go by and we tend to forget the logic behind those stories.

Today we are still fighting because we are hollow, in the logic arena. I have seen my mother standing at roadside dustbins and eating garbage. We only remember her on the occasion of some ritual, otherwise we are those lame kids and those hypo-critic individuals who don't care where our mother strays during the day. In this regard, we have no right to call cow our our mother. No need to cry and shout slogans about cow slaughtering if you your yourself have stopped caring about her.

Education empowers you to see the logic behind the curtains, and with the right education, you will see the actual logic behind many concepts and it'll help you to make others understand the same.

Education is important for getting good marks or to get a good job but education is also important to have compassion and an analytical mindset. With the kind of education structure we have in our country, we might get good marks in exams, but we will surely fail in life. Think about that....

Who are we...???

In  our blog, we always talk about events and activities happening in our education system. We always try to keep our views as positive as we can, But today we am going to divert a little bit from what we do usually and would like everyone to introspect...Because that is the need of the hour.

Who are we? 

That's the silliest question you would encounter today but let me tell you its the most difficult one to answer. Any question which are difficult to answer can't be that silly. 

So your answer would be quite obvious and i.e. HUMAN BEING. The most important and intelligent animal on this planet. The main characteristics of a human being is humanity. If  they have it then theie race will survive for many generations to come. But sadly HUMAN BEING is the most endangered species on this planet and the reason for this is that Humanity is getting diminished very rapidly.

What is happening in past 1 week with minors girls in Delhi is not only sad but frightening as well.Girls aged five and two got raped in Delhi and one of the incident was of brutal gang rape. 

I would like to know one thing from all those who feel that girls are responsible for the crimes on them What is the faults of these 2 girls? Are they wearing skimpy clothes or they were suggestively inviting those criminals to them?  they were out on streets late at night or they were eating noodles or chowmein too much which caused this oppressive incident?

It's high time that we should understand that apart from the negative and dominant mindset towards women there is no reason behind these unfortunate incidents. Now this negative and dominant mindset will not get changed overnight and it will be a slow, long and tedious process which will take many years to come but work on this should start from today. 

The problem is the rate at which incidents are happening is quite alarming and till the overhauling of mindset takes place we need to find some solution to put a brake on these incidents. 

Our solution is to that any offender who booked under the charge of sexual assault should report to Police station every week for his life. Whenever a rape case got registered in his area police should detain him from his home, He is not allowed to leave his place and his state for his life. In other words he would get societal, mental and moral molestation for his whole life in return for sexual molestation of the girl he did.

The implementation should be strict, quick  and equal for everyone irrespective of cast, religion or financial or social status He should be made example in front of the society in which he lives in and people there should think 1000 times before committing this heinous crimes.

Now after reading all this many intellectual creeps might start shouting that why should one get punished again and again for the crime which he did once? And my answer would be just look at that girl who got raped once and the harassment which she faced. That harassment now stays with her forever and its sad that we live in this kind of the society. If that girl is facing repeated harassment for her life the the offender should get repeated punishment for his life. Life imprisonment and death sentence impact might be there but this fear of getting molested in his society every day, every week, every year will crumble the sexual offender internally. It will also help in increasing the rate of overhauling of the mindset mentioned above.

Its a request to all the caretakers of law order and justice that don't say that law will take its own course, Its you who has to change the course of the law otherwise that day is not far when people will come to street to change the course of law. That would be the end of the course of law. 

Also, all those political parties who has the habit of shedding crocodile tears on these incidents should have some moral conscience.

When we are really ill then we have to take medicine which might taste sour but is very effective similarly to save the humanity in human being we need to take some strict steps. With these strict measure and effective preaching of values we can take our human species out of danger. 

We need to act now otherwise very soon we will start asking ourselves that "WHO ARE WE?"

Lalita Prasad..You made us really proud!!

Corns are really beneficial for our health and that's a scientifically proven fact. It has a rich fiber content. But Lalita Prasida Sripdad Srisai gave us a new use of Corn Cobs and because of that this talented girl from Odisha made whole country proud by winning  "Community Impact Award" in Google presitigious science fair in California, She won the prize money of $ 10,000 US Dollars. 

She developed low cost bio absorbent based water purifier system using Corn cob as its key ingredient. It will help those villages which still dont have any access to purified water. Through her research she discovered that corn cobs were suitable adsorbents because of their high mechanical strength, rigidity and porosity. Hence, contaminants like oxides of salts, detergents, suspended particles, coloured dyes, oil, grease and even some heavy metals get adsorbed in their surface.  Her discovery will open a new market value of the corn cobs which are considered as bio-waste till date. And the best part is that corn cobs are eco-friendly, cheap,  locally available, easy to use and reusable.

This all started with a cute incident when lalita won first prize in a fancy dress competition and dresses as a Corn cob. One day while playing she made a hole at the center of a corn cob and poured some water into it and collected the extract from the other end. She saw that collected water was free of all suspended particles and then she thought to research on it. Today whole world acknowledged her conviction that water can be purified from Corn cobs.

She is a student of the school at Damanjodi celebrated the news of Lalita's Achievement. Headmaster of DPS Damanjodi was all praises for achievement. They have planned some big celebrations at their school to honour her achievements.

Well one thing which was highly notable that many winners in Google science fair was of Indian Origin. We would like to congratulate Lalita and all the other winners from Questeach and wish them success in their future endevaours.

Oldest College and Universities in India!!

India is the oldest country known for its values, Heritage and educational capabilities. In ancient times, scholars from all around the world used to came to India to get the education which will enable them to live a happy and peaceful life.

At that time there were many Universities and GuruKul which used to be famous amongst world scholar and it was very difficult to get admission into those. In modern India we have several universities and colleges carrying heritage of their golden years and still attract students from within and outside India.

These colleges and Universities are almost 2 centuries old but the way they are functioning right now, we can easily say that they are there for many centuries to come.

SeramPore College:

Founded in 1818 by William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William ward in Howrah, West Bengal. This college churns out many graduates every year. Aim of this college to give the knowledge of arts and science to the students of all caste creed and color.

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

Established in 1847, formerly the name of this college is University of Roorkee and Thomason College of Civil Engineering. It was not an IIT before but due to its rich heritage this is one of the first few IIT’s of our country.

University of Mumbai

Established in 1857, the oldest campus of this university is in South Mumbai.  This university modelled on University of London. Its first degree got awarded in 1862 and it was for bachelor in arts. Also it was one of the first 3 state universities.

University of Madras

Established in 1857, this is the second university in the trio of state universities.  This is the 5^th ranked university in 2011 by India today’s magazine. It has 6 campuses in the city.

University of Calcutta

Established in 1857, this is the third university in the trio of state universities. UGC recently gave 5 stars to this University. It has 4 Nobel laureates which includes, Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, C V Raman and Ronald ross.

Aligarh University

Established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and has one of the largest campus of 465 hectare in India. It offers more the 300 various courses in different streams.

These are some of the oldest colleges available in India and still educating thousands of Scholars every year. It shows what rich culture and heritage we have in our country.

Raju fir bhi banega Gentleman...So what if he don't know English??

So we all studied in English medium school and we are proud of that. Some of us are convent educated and some of us were from some really good private schools which gives good emphasis on English. It’s very common to hear nowadays when children’s speaking to each other in Hindi and parent’s telling them “Why are you talking in Hindi? Did we send you to an English Medium school to Speak in Hindi? You are wasting your parent’s money?” Even many parents want’s their children to learn A for Apple first rather than any other language.

According to the latest data by National University of Education, Planning and Administration (NUEPA) there is 274% increase in the no of students studying in English schools between 2003 & 2011. Now, if you want to get a Job so knowing English is almost necessary everywhere. So parents are linking English language knowledge to their wards official and personal growth.

People feel embarrassed when they are not able to speak English and even we always had a good laugh when we heard someone speaking incorrect English. People speak loudly in English in public places to create an impression or become the center of attraction or sometimes they don’t speak at all because of lack of English language skills. So knowing English is important for social status now? Or Speaking in Hindi language is matter of shame for us now?

India has myriad of Language like Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit, Malayalam etc. and it’s difficult to choose official language and each language has a rich history and culture behind them. So why one don’t want to choose any one of them? In a staggering data given by People linguistic survey by India, out 780 language 220 languages has already been lost in last 50 years.

Students who are studying in local languages got demotivated by society and sometimes by near and dear ones. They feel rejected everywhere. They can’t see themselves adding any value to the Indian ecosystem. All of important examinations like IIT JEE or UPSC etc. has adopted English as the primary language of communication and because of this many local language speaking students not even try for these examinations.

English is seriously becoming our primary language and we think it’s important for us to grow as a nation as well. In this way we can integrate ourselves to the western world and speed up our growth. That’s why we are choosing French and German instead of Sanskrit. Well many of you may not know that many words in English have taken from Sanskrit like Mother and Brother from MATR and BHRATA. If we have to learn something from our neighbor then we should learn from China. That country is miles ahead of us in every department and ENGLISH IS NOT THEIR PRIMARY LANGUAGE.

You want to stand in a world forum and you want to communicate globally then yes knowing English is important. But it doesn’t mean that you forget your identity and knowing your language and speaking in it is a matter of pride. Learn from Japanese they are so proud of their language and if English is so important then their country might not be functional today. Many Russian players speaking in Russian in major sports event and other countries reporters make the effort to understand them. Then why we can’t speak in our local language? Let the world make an effort to understand that.

Movies reflecting the eternal beauty of Teacher-Student relationship

Movies are the mirror of our society. Movies reflect all type of relationships and all type of emotions in entertaining way. Relationship between teacher and student is also one of them. Many movies portrayed varied emotions between teacher and students. So today we are going to have a look on some of the memorable movies which is considered to be a milestone in Hindi cinema. These movies inspired us and imparted moral values in us.

Abhi Bhattacharya played a boarding school teacher who instills moral values by unorthodox teaching methods and also helped a spoilt rich kid to get the right direction in his life. A must watch for lovers of Indian cinema classics. It also has a famous song “AAO BACHE TUMHE DIKHAYEIN”.

Jeetendra played a music teacher who goes to Rai sahib bungalow to give education to kids. He uses music and games to give them education and helps them to reconcile with their grandparents. This movie boasts of some melodious songs including very famous “MUSAFIR HOON YAARON”.

Nasseruddin Shah terrific portrayal of a drunkard ex cricketer who helped a deaf and mute boy to achieve his dreams to play for Indian team make this movie memorable one and must watch.

Amitabh Bachhan played a teacher and mentor to a girl who can’t see and speak and helped her to get all the obstacles of life. Performances from Amitabh Bachhan and Rani Mukherjee made this movie a milestone in Hindi cinema. The highest point of the movie was a kissing scene between teacher and student.

Aamir khan played a teacher who helped a dyslexic child to gain his self- confidence and helps him to get into mainstream world. Darsheel Safary portrayal of a Dyslexic child won him accolades and made this movie memorable.

Shahrukh Khan played a coach who helps girls in Indian hockey team to forget their individual differences, play with unity and to come on top by winning Hockey world cup. Shahrukh khan memorable performance made this movie one of the most successful movies of Indian cinema.

So guys do not miss these movies as these movies reflect the true value of Teacher and student relationship.

SITE - Another reason to be proud of,Always!!

We had just celebrated Teacher’s day with utmost enthusiasm and our President Dr. Pranab Mukherjee took a class and whole India witnessed that. The medium of transmission was TV and it shows the power of communication technology with the help of which we can reach to many students even if they are at distant location in our country.

Video conferencing and satellite broadcasting of these conferences seems a bit old for many youngsters when they themselves are using instant communication tools like Whatsapp and Skype in their handheld phones. But still in many schools (I am not talking about high end city schools) teachers are still using chalk and boards. Communication technology like mentioned above has a pivotal role to play in this field but still we have a long way to go in this field. BUT THERE IS ONE INSTANCE IN HISTORY, WHICH COULD HAVE CHANGED THIS SITUATION DECADES AGO IF THAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED AS THAT WAS PLANNED.

There was an experiment, an indigenous one, which could have consolidated India’s position in the world and pioneer in the field of distant education. The name of the experiment was SITE (Satellite instructional television experiment). Very recently our eminent scientists celebrated 40 years of this amazing experiment. So we thought that this is the right time let our scientists know to use this amazing experiment in educational sector.

Mind behind this indigenous experiment was of none other the Vikram Sarabhai, Father of Indian Space program. He invented this technology and wanted to use it for socio-economic development. ISRO has managed to convert Sarabhai’s vision into reality by using this technology for communication, environment forecasting etc. but left out education sector in it.

SITE used an American satellite in 1975-76 and it was the first experiment anywhere in the world to showcase the power of satellite technology in development communication. Can you believe this fact that this experiment used to demonstrate technology that can take satellite signals directly to homes?

We are using DTH now in our homes, decades later from SITE. Now you all can imagine that the technology and its application both were a unique product from this experiment called SITE.  India could be the world leader into the satellite technology and its use in the field of education, environment etc. So what happen and where we missed the bus? Let’s check it out.

Ignorance by then Indian government:

SITE was viable and its use was already shown to the government. Indian government expands its television network very rapidly in 1980’s but through its one day a transmitter program.  SITE was a program in which many engineers, scientist from India and other countries and also UNESCO were involved in it, whereas the expansion of our beloved Doordarshan was solely and Indian government program. So when Satellite broadcasted channel like Star and Zee entered into Indian shores our public broadcaster legged behind in the race in no time.

Ignorance by the ISRO:

Once ISRO developed SITE then after that they got busy in strengthening and developing their space technology in launching satellites and launch vehicles. Though they tried to provide educational television in collaboration with UGC and IGNOU but they were not able to repeat the magic of SITE. In 2004, India launched its EDUSAT satellite with the objective of providing quality education into remote areas and also to overcome the problem of under qualified teacher both at higher and secondary school levels. It was much superior to 1975 experiment as it was equipped with 2 way communication facility both audio and video and consists of interactive channels.  But at this time many countries already forayed into this field and India had already lost the chance to be a pioneer in this field.

There was problem in software and education content and because of this EDUSAT satellite was not able to work properly in spite of having better hardware. There was delay in the on ground facilities to receive the signal from EDUSAT. There were no definite plan of action for content generation and there were no single source identified for monitoring and controlling of the program. So EDUSAT was up there in the sky but there were not enough facilities to catch those signals which EDUSAT were beaming.

CHALLENGES AHEAD:

So we have the necessary technology, expertise and capability to again create the magic of SITE but the inadequate content development and management capacity to run these multi-agency programs ineffectively. We need to develop the satellite, digital and mobile technology to conquer the deficiency in education and health sector as well.

Now ISRO alone can’t do it because we have seen the situation of EDUSAT. So if we don’t want to import any other communication revolution so we need to lighten up the spirit of SITE and start working in this area more rigorously. We are not leader in DTH despite pioneering In it but we should not repeat this mistake again.