The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Radical shift needed
education in India needs to go through a complete shift from the quintessential concept of grades, exams, textbooks and teachers, and it needs to be more technical and accessible to all, said technocrat Sam Pitroda.“When we think of education we assume grades, teachers, school, books etc. These things do not matter anymore. The paradigm in education needs to be changed,” Pitroda told a gathering of diplomats, academicians and scholars in New Delhi recently.

More media space for literature sought
Sunit Dhawan
Noted educationist and translation expert Dr Suresh Singhal has expressed concern over the marginal importance being accorded to literature in the media. Speaking at a refresher course on translation studies organised by the Central Translation Bureau in New Delhi recently, Dr Singhal lamented that literary pursuits were being sidelined by commercial motives.

Chandigarh leads in facilities
V. P. Prabhakar
Chandigarh has done well in comparison with the surrounding states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in providing facilities like infrastructure, and teachers at the elementary education level.This has been brought out by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, which has developed an educational development index (EDI) to track the progress of states towards universal elementary education (UEE) for the primary and upper primary levels as well as for a composite look at elementary education.

Campus NoteS

ADMISSION DEADLINE

Radical shift needed

Sam Pitroda

education in India needs to go through a complete shift from the quintessential concept of grades, exams, textbooks and teachers, and it needs to be more technical and accessible to all, said technocrat Sam Pitroda.

“When we think of education we assume grades, teachers, school, books etc. These things do not matter anymore. The paradigm in education needs to be changed,” Pitroda told a gathering of diplomats, academicians and scholars in New Delhi recently.

“Today with the kind of technology that is developing everyday, we can learn just about anything. I know this kind of model would have challenges and it may take up to 15-20 years time but it will happen,” he added.

“We need to build a knowledge-based society and take education to the poorest of the poor, which I believe is the greatest challenge of all. Rural development is the key to this country’s true development and not the economic prosperity of the country,” said Pitroda, chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC).

“A knowledge economy needs minds and we have to create those minds,” he said, adding that the government had envisaged to allocate more funds towards the development of education in the 11th Five-Year Plan.

Pitroda said: “In the 11th Five-Year Plan, the Prime Minister has decided to increase the funds needed for education, almost four times of what had been provided in the last plan.”

“I hope this would bring in more inclusiveness and make the education system more affordable,” said the Chicago-based technocrat-entrepreneur.

“We, at the knowledge commission, are recommending some major transformational changes in the Indian education system which is bound to attract criticism and debates. But we must remember that we need to make education more equitable and inclusive,” he emphasised.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up the NKC in 2005 with the objective of introducing radical transformation in the country’s education sector. It is expected to create a fundamental change in higher education, vocational training, libraries, e-governance, right to education and translations.

Some of the other recommendations of the NKC include development of the translation industry, teaching of English as a language along with the first language from Class I, building of a national knowledge network and creation of more universities.

— IANS

More media space for literature sought
Sunit Dhawan

Dr Suresh Singhal

Noted educationist and translation expert Dr Suresh Singhal has expressed concern over the marginal importance being accorded to literature in the media. Speaking at a refresher course on translation studies organised by the Central Translation Bureau in New Delhi recently, Dr Singhal lamented that literary pursuits were being sidelined by commercial motives.

Dr Singhal, who holds Ph.D degrees in Hindi as well as English and has authored and edited several scholarly books on translation, had been invited as a resource-person by the bureau.

“Literature is a mirror of the society; but this mirror seems to have been blurred by the dust of negative notions,” he remarked while addressing a gathering comprising central officials and educationists from different parts of the country on the occasion.

Advocating the provision of more space for literary affairs in the media, the author-academician also cautioned the managements of Hindi newspapers against distorting the language and urged them to maintain its purity and originality.

Presently serving as a senior faculty member with the Department of English at Vaish College here, Dr Singhal has 40 research papers and several books on various aspects of translation and functional Hindi to his credit. An executive member of the All-India Translators Association and a recipient of numerous awards and honours, he is also on the panels of subject experts of many universities.

Chandigarh leads in facilities
V. P. Prabhakar

Chandigarh has done well in comparison with the surrounding states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in providing facilities like infrastructure, and teachers at the elementary education level.

This has been brought out by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, which has developed an educational development index (EDI) to track the progress of states towards universal elementary education (UEE) for the primary and upper primary levels as well as for a composite look at elementary education.

While Chandigarh has been ranked fifth in the EDI state-wise ranking for 2005-06, Himachal Pradesh is seventh, Punjab is 14th and Haryana is placed 23rd in the ranking. Kerala has topped the ranking followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. Bihar is at the bottom of the ranking list.

It is expected that the EDI ranking will encourage the states to improve their performance and take a closer look at both the inputs and the outputs of the parameters that are affecting elementary education. It is also hoped that the EDI will also enable more effective targeting of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

The EDI, according to the annual report of the Central Human Resource Development Ministry, has been developed keeping in mind four broad parameters of access — infrastructure, teacher related indicators and outcomes. The index takes into account 22 variables for calculating EDI. These variables are for 56 Access (percentage of habitations not served, availability of schools per 1,000 population). Infrastructure (average student-classroom ratio, school with student-classroom ratio grater than 60, school without drinking water facilities, school with boys’ and girls’ toilets), teachers (percentage of female teachers, student-teacher ratio, school with the school-teacher ratio greater than 60, single-teacher schools—in schools with more than 15 students), percentage of schools with less than 3 or less teachers, teachers without professional qualification) and outcome (gross enrolment ratio: overall, scheduled castes: gross-enrolment ratio, scheduled tribes: gross enrolment ratio, gender parity index in enrolment ratio — overall. Scheduled caste: gross enrolment ratio, scheduled tribes: gross enrolment ratio, gender parity index in enrolment: repetition rate, drop-out rate, ratio of exit class over Class I enrolment—primary stage only, percentage of passed children to total enrolment, percentage of appeared children/assign with 60 per cent and above marks).

The National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) has also created a comprehensive database on elementary education known as District Information System for Education (DISE). The project covers both primary and upper primary schools of all the districts of the country. DISE has completely eliminated the time lag in availability of educational statistics, which has come down drastically from 7-8 years to less than at the national and only a few months at the districts and state levels.