Girls Power..Really needed in IIT's

IIT’s are the top most and very prestigious institutes and getting admission in those a tough nut to crack for many including me as well. Every year lakhs of aspirants appear for their entrance examination and very fewof them got selected in them. In these students, only 9% girls are there. If we quantify it bit more then it means out of 9974 students got admitted into IIT’s this year only 900 are girls. What’s happening out there?

If we see last 7 years CBSE score in top towns like Delhi, girls have outshone boys continuously with a good margin so why they are not getting into IIT’s. Is it related to the difficulty level of IIT examination or the sudden change in exam structures from CBSE? I don’t think this is the case over here. I attribute this problem to the orthodox mindset still prevailing in most of the part of our country regarding girl’s education. Only 18% of the total student registered for IIT entrance were girls, further strengthen my viewpoint.

The problem is that people from all parts of the country apply for IIT’s and some of them are still very orthodox about the girl’s education. Many of them start seeking grooms for their girls as soon as they complete their school education. IIT’s provide technical and professional course and their fee structure is quite high. This is the second roadblock for Girls as many parents don’t want to spend too much on girl’s education.

IIT’s are into some specific towns and many students come over from different places and stay in campus hostel. This provides the third roadblock in Girls education as many parents don’t want to send their girls child outside their home towns.

Though the percentage of girl’s students has marginally increased from 8% last year to 9% this year but there is long way to go. Also, the results of admitted girls are at par with boys which is a source of encouragement. In IIT’s post graduate courses, girl’s percentage has increased to 15%.

IIT management is doing their bit by reducing the fees of girl students by 50 percent. They have to take some more concrete steps to spread the awareness about the education in IIT and how much is going to be beneficial for Girls.

Our view is that today’s girl are very different from the girls in 80’s or 90’s even. They are more confident and independent and that’s why you need to support them more. More and more girls in IIT’s classrooms means healthier competition and personality enhancement of students. This is the time to show Girl Power and I am sure the fairer sex won’t remain behind in that.

Gender Champions: A step in the right direction!!

The concept of Gender champions is going to be introduced very soon in all the institutes by the Government of India. This concept may be new to Indian Education system but already available in global education system. Many countries like US, Canada, UK etc. adopted this system and have a profound results with the help of this system. It’s time that we should deploy this system as soon as possible in Indian education system and help or students self-dependent.

There is a report which has been sent by Union ministry of Women and Child to Ministry of Human Resource and Development consisting of detailed implementation guidelines of Gender Champions.

Main objective of this scheme is to create an environment in which gender equality as school, home, university, workplace etc. is of top priority and also it will change the mode of interaction at all.

Gender champions can be either guy or girl but both has to be more than 16 year old and should be enrolled in educational institute. Head of Educational institute will have a certain parameters on the basis of which they have to choose a gender champion.  Gender champion will be a leader so decisiveness. Intelligence and Honesty will be the essential elements which would be considered for the Gender champions. Though Head of institution will be the responsible for the selection of Gender champion but he has to take the consultation of other student representatives to make the decision.

Once Selected, Gender champions has to do certain activities with the help of a faculty member termed as “Nodal teacher” and will be monitored by the Head of Institution. Gender Champion will also get the certificates as the appreciation of the good work done by him.

To train the Gender champion, a formal training program will be introduced with India Educational Certificate (IEC) material which will help them to understand the meaning of Gender Stereotypes, various forms of Gender based discrimination, Gender equality and inequality, legislations, life skills etc. There will also be a website or blog which would help gender champion to spread the awareness in the form of articles, quizzes, plays and other extra- curricular activities. Same kind of activities would be executed by Gender champion in their respective institutes.

Ministry of Human Resource and developments also instructed the Vice Chancellors to establish Gender clubs in accordance to the guidelines given by Union ministry of women and child.

Questeach applauds this effort and also believe that this is the step in the right direction. It will be an integral part of our cohesive education system. The only concern point is that very little said about the implementation of this scheme and how to curb the corruption in the money allocated for this activity.

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India's rank in global education

India has slipped to 93^rd rank in Global Higher education by Geneva based world economic forum.  We have such premier institutes like IIT, IIM’s and we always boast of Indian students mind. Recently, many brilliant Indian minds acquire top positions in some hot shot multi nationals.  But why we are not able to maintain the competitiveness of our education system with others on global scale. Let’s try to find out some reason behind that.

As a student we always aspire to be in IIT and IIM’s but I guess this is not the case with our teacher fraternity. These institutes are centrally funded but still they have 40% teacher shortage. One cause for this situation is remuneration. There is a bias towards western faculty member with our Indian faculty members. A western faculty member will get INR 15 lakh to teach an MBA course whereas the Indian members having same skill set are paid way below them, sometimes INR 2-2.5 lakh.

Most of the premier institutes don’t have proper research and development facilities.  Also, the no of foreign students studying and foreign teachers teaching is also very limited in these premier government institutes. It is because of government rules and regulation. 

Singapore has got second rank in this list and it is because many foreign students go for study there. World economic forum always consider this aspect and that is why we have ranked so low.

Recently, Times Higher Education world university ranking got published. It is astonishing to know that no Indian premier institutes got features in Top 200. Indian institute of science, Bangalore came at 276^th position. Forget world, There is no Indian university in top 20 Asian universities.  No IIT’s are in top 50 Asian institutes.

Our president Dr. Pranab Mukherjee has shown anxiousness towards this issue and his concerns is fully understood. Every day at every Gali and Nukkad, one new institute is getting opened. We are more concern about quantity these days but what about the upgradation in current premier institutes. New institutes are important but it should not be at the cost of old institutes.

There is no change in the curriculum and that’s why some of the course makes us feel outdated. This is the century of Information. Everything is changing rapidly around us but still the speed of change in our curriculum is too slow.

For research and development, Indian institutes and universities dependent on government for funding. Their western counterparts play smartly here. They always banks on their alumni, peer networks and research collaborations besides government funding for R&D processes. Indian institutes need to come out of their skin and start working on the things mentioned above.

India is a land of Education. Our ancient education system was so strong that still the whole world takes the reference out of it. It’s our responsibility, both student and teachers, that we should take a leaf out of our ancient education system and try to strengthen our education system.

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Unique Schools in the World!!

We all studied in different schools and we had fond memories of them. There were some moments when we taught that schools should not have any rules or damn the school rules especially in the last few days of schools. But we never knew, that there are certain schools with no rules which exist on our very own earth. 

Let me share some of the unique schools which might surprise and may ticke your funny bone too:

Dongzhong- Mid cave primary school in China

Located in Miaous village in Guizhou province, this school is located inside a Cave. This province is China’s poorest province and it receives very little government support. It had 8 teachers and 186 students.  Government has shut this school because children had to spent 6 hours in travelling to study and also they believe that china is not a society of cavemen’s.

    Harvey Milk High School, New york City

This is the most unusual school in New York because they have students from LBDT community. Most of them are not comfortable while studying in normal schools. Here they get a safe and secure environment where they can learn and move ahead in their life.

Burgess Hill school, Hampstead, England

Imagine a school in which there is no rulebook. Haven’t we dreamed of one in our life at least once? Our dream is a reality as this school has no rulebook.  Students can smoke in the class, bring their dogs, can vroom on their bike inside the campus etc.

The Boat School, Bangladesh

In many rural areas in Bangladesh, flood is the major cause of concern. Students studies got affected badly during the monsoon. It was important to find a solution which comes in the form of Mohd. Rizwan, an architect by profession, when he suggested the idea of the Boat school. If Students can’t come to school so he made school come to them

Train Platform Schools, India

Inderjit Khurana, a teacher by profession, saw many children begging on the trains instead of studying in schools. So that is why he developed these schools so that these children can have their share of education.

Brooklyn Free school

 A sincere version of Burgess High School!! Well this school is divided into 2 parts. Upper class is from 11 to 18 years age of students and lower class is of 4 to 11 years age of students. Here students make rules. Its their choice whether they want to study or they want to wish away from schools. They can carry out independent studies which may last for years or they can watch Tv Shows and discuss that in their classrooms. Teachers are just moderators here. There are no tests, no grades or no homework.

Trabajo Ya, Spain

There are around 2, 00,000 to 4, 00,000 prostitutes in Spain as it is legal over there.  In this school, you can learn skill, tips and tricks of the prostitution trade. This school offers a “Basic course in professional prostitution with maximum discretion”. It is open for both sexes. It has both theoretical and practical sessions both. They hold 2 hours session for a week in which info given about the use of Sex toys and Kama sutra.

Well we would certainly wish to go in few of them. Some of them are born out of need and some of them out of necessity.

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Actors who were Teachers too..!!

There are numerous incidents in the movies where we all had seen the protaganist plays teacher in the movies. But do you know some of the real big names from our Hindi movie industry were teachers in real life too, Here we are presenting some names who were in the noble profession of teaching:

Balraj Sahani (1946-1973)

Balraj Sahani, an Actor par excellence, known for his iconic roles in cult movies like Do Bigha Zameen and Garam Hawa was a Hindi and English teacher. He taught Hindi and English in Tagore Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, Bengal.  He was an icon and one of the best ever produced by Hindi cinema. He held a bachelor degree in Hindi and Master Degree in English. He was a politically conscious person and the first president of All India youth federation of Communist party of India (CPI). He is writer of repute in Punjabi literature though his earlier writings were in English.

Utpal Dutt (1929-1993)

How can we forget Bhavani Shankar from Movie Golmal?  Utpal Dutt was an actor par excellence in Bengali and Hindi Cinema. He was a theater artist and wrote many revolutionary plays. Some of them got banned and for some of them he had to visit the jail. He won a national award and three Filmfare award. He had achieved an exceptional height in movie career but even after that he continued his teaching practice. He used to teach English at South Point School in Kolkata which is indeed commendable.

ChandraChur Singh

Many won’t believe that this handsome actor, known for his role in movies like Machis, Kya Kehna, Josh and Tere mere Sapne, was a Music teacher in very famous Doon school before his acting career took off. He was a Doon school alumnus and did his graduation from St. Stephens Delhi.

Kader Khan

We all loved him, adored him and he entertained us through out from our childhood to our teenage. A veteran of more than 300 movies and recipient of 4 Filmfare awards were used to teach civil engineering at M.H.Saboo siddik college of Engineering in Byculla from 1970 to 1975. He himself was a civil engineer from very reputed Institution of Engineers (India). Apart from Acting, he wrote dialogues and scripts for many movies and especially of Amitabh Bachhan movies like, Namak Halaal, Lawaris, Coolie, Deshpremi, Muqaddar ka Sikandar etc

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Tom Alter

This multi – talented personality made its mark in movies like KRANTI and famous TV series like BHARAT EK KHOJ & SHAKTIMAAN. He is a well-known theater actor as well. Very few of us know that he was a Cricket coach in a school In Jagadhri. He used to write cricket columns which were very popular on those days. He took the first ever interview of cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar at the age of 15 years.

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Kunskapsskolan...breath of fresh air...!

We all are aware about the monotony which prevails in our education system. This education system is based on the lectures given in classrooms which are full of 60 to 70 individuals having different capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. We wrote an article about the Choice based credit rating system which is an attempt by the government to change the study culture in our central universities. The jury is still out on this system. They are examining the pros and cons of the system. But no one can deny that this system is an attempt to break that monotony and introduce a fresh and robust perspective.

Basic education always starts from the school level and if we need to revive the system, the process should start from the school level as well. There are some foreign schools which are coming in India and aligning their curriculum with CBSE but with their own format of teaching. Kunskapsskolan from Sweden is one such school.

THE KED PROGRAM (Kunskapsskolan Education program)

The study program here is based on the individual merit of every student. They believe that every student is different with their different and unique inherent ability. Hence, their teaching pedagogy comprises of lectures, workshops, seminars and personal coaching. Their curriculum is aligned with CBSE but the method to complete the curriculum is entirely different. Here, a teacher plays the role of a coach and helps student set their study goals as per their discretion. Bright students can cover the syllabus in lesser time but a slow student can take more. Every student has to maintain their goal. A teacher has to perform the role of a personal coach to monitor the progress of students. Regular trainings have been provided to teachers for this.

Online learning portal

From 3^rd standard, everyone has a tab in which they open the school online learning portal which has all of the study material in it. It reduces the weight of the bag drastically. Students just have to keep a notebook for their practice.

Continuous results monitoring

Unlike common schools, the results (grades) are not a quarterly or yearly process. Every student is getting evaluated throughout and his/her performance is marked on the online portal. He can influence his grades by continuous monitoring and work towards betterment. Parents can also see their wards progress on the online portal. Continuous feedback is also there and they can keep a check on that as well.

This school is doing something 'different' and we firmly believe that all other schools should take a leaf out of their book and start applying this new system. This will generate a crop of new, bright & different young individual with a holistic point of view towards everything.

The writer of this article is not connected to Kunskapsskolan in any way nor do we have the intention to promote it. The only intention is to highlight the brilliant systems followed by them.

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Education Level of Cabinet Ministers in Modi Government

We all have high hopes from our current government & would like them to march our country ahead in the road to development. This humongous responsibility lies on the shoulder of our Cabinet ministers, whose decisions can change the facets of development. Their decision are based on many parameters, however, their own education also plays a vital role in their decision making. Let's find out exactly how educated our cabinet ministers really are : 

Narendra Modi – Prime Minister of India

He holds a degree in Political science which he achieved through distance education from Delhi University in 1978.

Rajnath Singh – Home Minister of India

He holds a Masters degree in Physics from Gorakhpur University. He was teaching physics before entering active politics.

Sushma Swaraj – Foreign Minister of India

She holds an L.L.B degree from Punjab University in Chandigarh. She also practiced as a Supreme court lawyer.

Manohar Parrikar – Defense Minister of India

He is the first IITian chief minister of India. He studied metallurgical engineering from IIT Bombay.

Arun Jaitley – Finance Minister of India

He also holds a degree in law from Delhi University and is a senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India. 

Nitin Gadkari – Transport minister of India

He holds a degree in law from Nagpur University.

Maneka Gandhi – Women and Child development minister of India

She had studied till the 12^th standard, before becoming an animal welfare activist.

Uma Bharti – Water resources and Ganga Rejuvenation minister

She is least qualified minister, academically. She studied till class 6^th.

Ravi Shankar Prasad – Information technology minister of India

He holds a B.A and M.A degree in Political science and has a degree in law from Patna University.

Venkiah Naidu – Parliamentary affairs minister

He has a degree in politics and a degree in International law from Andhra University.

Smriti Irani – Human Resource Development minister

She has completed H.S.C, however, there's manner of confusion, pertaining to the authenticity of her educations credentials.

Ramvilas Paswan – Consumer affairs and Food & Public distribution minister

He is an M.A and L.L.B from Patna University.

These are the educational qualifications of some of our cabinet ministers. I am sure knowing about the background of these towering and famous personalities, must have been informative and eye opening. 

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