Chandigarh, Tuesday, July 13, 1999
Chandigarh, Tuesday, July 13, 1999 |
Need to insulate education from politics NEW DELHI: As yet another controversy over political colouring of textbooks crops up, this time in Rajasthan Experts suggest entrusting the management of education in the country to autonomous bodies to insulate it from politics. Coaching centres: cashing in on
minority success |
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Need to insulate education from politics NEW DELHI: As yet another controversy over political colouring of textbooks crops up, this time in Rajasthan Experts suggest entrusting the management of education in the country to autonomous bodies to insulate it from politics. “Education should be left to educationists. While the government may frame the broad policy, the management of education — running of schools, framing of syllabi — should be left to autonomous bodies”, says Dr J. Veera Raghavan, Director of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan here. Such autonomous bodies, he says, would act as a check against the recent trend in some states of successive governments revising textbooks introduced by their predecessors in line with their ideology. At present, state governments are free to introduce anything in school textbooks “so long as it is not against the Constitution and is not communal or otherwise inflammatory in nature”, says Dr R.M. Kalra, a curriculum specialist with the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). This freedom saw a Bihar Chief Minister introduce a chapter on himself in a school textbook and the Uttar Pradesh government project its own view of the Babri Masjid’s demolition in 1992. Another example is that of a Class XII textbook on political science in Rajasthan, the 1995 edition of which, in one paragraph, dubbed the Akali Dal as a communal and secessionist party. The 1998 re-print of the same book did not have the paragraph, apparently in view of the ruling party’s alliance with the Akali Dal in Punjab. An autonomous syllabus framing body, to which governments will not be able to appoint persons with known political leanings, is the answer to this problem, says Mr Raghavan. Bodies like the NCERT and its state counterparts have only an advisory role. For framing the syllabus for a particular subject, the NCERT first invites experts and teachers — “practising educationists” — to select topics to be included. Once the topics are tentatively selected, the government departments concerned and subject-matter experts are consulted on the choice and teachers invited to see if they are skilled to teach the topics. Then the NCERT prepares the textual material, which acts as a standard for schools. “Any state government or board of examination like the Central Board of Secondary Education can adopt the syllabus thus prepared. They also modify it according to their requirements. The NCERT does not claim any royalty for use of its textual material”, says Dr R.P. Singh, a former Dean (Research), NCERT. This situation leads to a variety of textbooks being followed in different schools, especially in the lower standards, something that worries parents and students but is considered healthy by experts. When there is a variety of textbooks to choose from, schools can choose the best, says Mr Raghavan. “If one body has a monopoly on producing textbooks, there is no guarantee that they will produce good books”. Besides, says Ms Sudesh Mukhopadhyay of the state Council for Educational Research and Training, while the government bodies only suggest the minimum areas which should be covered in a syllabus, research has shown that this should be enriched with additional material, especially in languages. “Creativity should not be killed by a uniform syllabus. Variety in school syllabi is welcome as long as the textbooks cover the basics”, says Ms Mukhopadhyay. Moreover, she says, it is a misconception that schools follow different syllabi. “The syllabus is the same everywhere. The students learn the same concepts, only the textbooks are different”. While uniformity of syllabus is possible with science subjects, in which learning is graded, as far as other subjects are concerned, a uniform syllabus for the entire country is undesirable, according to Dr R.P. Singh. “Santhals should not have to study what students in Delhi are learning. The textbooks should be in line with the students’ culture”. This difference, the experts say, does not result in any disparity in the standard of education imparted to students in different schools or states. “There is nothing
like standard. Standard only means marketability. If you
meet the market requirement, your standards are good
enough. Students from even poor states excel when they
compete in Delhi”, says Mr R.P. Singh. — PTI |
Coaching centres: cashing in on
minority success June marks an all-time high on the scale of tension as far as students are concerned. Its the time of the year when students await, with hearts that miss many a beats, for results — the yardstick for them to get admission to higher and professional studies. Of late, however, there seems to be a moronic race with students scurrying for admissions into private coaching institutions, tormented by the growing fear that inability to get into one of these institutions could spell disaster for a career in engineering or medicine. Talk of self study or guidance from school/college teachers and all you get is a ‘which world are you living in’ from plus one and two students parent shall out whopping amounts to these institutions. At the end of two years, however, for most of these students fear turns into reality when they fail to make it through an engineering or medical entrance test and then the realisation dawns on them that with coaching centres eating up most of their time, they had no time for self-study or for analysis. On retrospection they realise that they had been swirling around in a daze hopping crazy from one coaching centre to another with no time for selfassessment. In the pre-entrance examination days, admission to career colleges was essentially based on the performance in board examinations conducted annually by various states and educational bodies. The gradual degeneration of the conventional board examination system was brought about by manifestations such as leakage of question papers, manipulation of marks, copying and use of unfair means. The corollary was the beginning of entrance tests which in turn, inadvertently, brought about the mushrooming of coaching centres. This culture has proliferated enormously and contributed to the mental depression of students blunting their creative instincts. Parents spend about Rs 24,000 over two years at these coaching centres. Besides the school/college fee of Rs 4000 per annum, they spend another Rs 5000 on about 4-5 entrance examinations ( on an average) that their child appears for yet admissions to these professional colleges remain a matter of chance, much less, hard work. None-the-less the juggernauts — in the name of coaching institutions — reign supreme. The necessity of tuitions, which students are given to believe will open the gateway to nations prestigious career institutions, have gained larger than life dimensions. But with so much time and money involved and with their tall promises of giving individual attention, are these institutions achieving the expected or targeted success rate ? Or is it only the highly motivated and exceptionally bright ones that bring laurels to these institutions ? Who, then is accountable for the hundreds who are just as hard-working but do not make it to any career institution ? A majority of the ‘much-sought after’ coaching centres run about four to five batches each for +1 and +2 students with about 80 to 90 students in one batch. Only meagre 20 students (as the statistics reveal) make it through the JEE or PMT. This can hardly be called a feat! This when these institutions select the school cream of all on the basis of a minimum cut off percentage, which is no less than 80 to 82. What is the solution to this imbroglio that has amputated analytical and critical minds, breeding rote-learning as the tutors have “no time for detailed explanation” and insist students do “typical” sums, numericals or questions as the case may be? Given this and the terror of inviting the tutors’ wrath, the students find the easiest way out — learn by heart, crush all queries, displease no tutor. “Apparently these coaching centres are thriving on the success of a minority who are given more than their share of media hype. The failure of, the majority is no parameter for their incompetence. What about approachability to students problems and individualise care that these institutions speak of in their prospectuses and advertisements? “Had that been the criteria it would be the majority and not the minority succeeding” says a disgruntled parent. What remains hushed up is the large-scale failure. What was the beginning of this anomalous appedi in our educational system and is there be any cure to this syndrome? The problem stems partially from the fact that parents seem to hold in total reverence nothing but engineering or medicine as professions for their children, so much so that after paying practically through their noses for extra coaching they are more than willing to buy paid seats in sub-standard colleges, if their ward fails at entrance examinations, knowing well enough that such seats seldom fetch sound jobs and run the risk of their ward remaining unemployed or under-employed. The coaching centres have indeed cashed in on a very vulnerable situation “when your child insist on joining these coaching centres, there is little you can do. If we refuse and in case he doesn’t make it to an engineering college or doesn’t get the rank he expects, he’ll blame us for the rest of his life. Moreover, he will feel academically ostracised. What he doesn’t realise is that spoon-feeding at these centres actually deprives students of a lot more than it offers. But the coaching fever has given them a rigid mindset and got the better of all reasoning and logic” says a parent who prefers anonymity. The whole system is a catch-22 for both students and their parents Mr H.R. Satya, a parent, says “There is no way out. In spite of the flaws, we send our children into these centres because schools and colleges have failed miserably as far as +1 and +2 students are concerned. The various boards have taken a backseat and have turned a blind eye to the loopholes in their syllabi and examination system.” For the coaching centres, it is like shooting a sitting duck. Students feel helpless. “There isn’t much of a choice, but to join coaching classes,” says a student, who has made it through the CET The CBSE at the +1 and +2 level is a big let down. The syllabus is outdated, inadequate and not target-oriented. Maths for instance, has the same syllabus for a commerce student, who takes it up as an optional subject, as it is for an IIT or CET aspirant, he says. Another CBSE+2 student reveals “calculus (maths) is taught by CBSE at +2 but competitive exams demand that its application be known to students at the +1 level, especially in physics”. It is little wonder that these coaching centres are flourishing? “Paying money, first for course completion at coaching centres, which is primarily the duty of schools and colleges, and then for competition batches (test through which a student’s placement is ganged) is criminal”, says Mr L.K Grover. He feels “these coaching centres are shops robbing students of the confidence that they can achieve success by dint of hard work and self-study.” The plight of many students is reflected in the words of a student, who has over the past two years attended every possible course these coaching centres have to offer and has ended up low in self-esteem as he has not made it to any engineering college. “Now I realise that I have thrown away two very crucial years of my life on a wild goose chase. The coaching centres snatched away every moment, leaving me with no time for self-study. All I’ve gained from them is total loss and regret.” Alone in their private hell, these at-risk students do not dare another attempt. They are convinced that they are pariahs in a world of science and technology they decent to be a part of. This, of course, is no deterrent to the increases in fees by the coaching classes. Reputed correspondence course like Irodov, Brilliant tutorials, Apex and the like charge something between Rs 4,500 — Rs 5,000 for all subjects related for both years of preparation. This abysmal set-up in the streams of engineering and medicine has caught the attention of many parents and the helmsmen of education. After all, there are other national-level entrance examinations like that of NDA and IAS. These are by no standards any less grilling, yet coaching centres wreak no mortification on aspirants for these exams as in the case of engineering and medical aspirants. The supposed solutions are replete with good intentions but few radical ideas. There is, as is the standard response to a crisis, a reluctance to embrace difficult changes. The various board at the +2 level could be the first and best trouble-shooter. “The need for the boards to revamp the +1 and +2 syllabi is the first essential. Second, the examination system needs to be spruced having achieved this the coaching centre would due a natural death and entrance examinations, then, could be done away with. The board examination merit list could decide admissions into professional colleges.” says Mr Satija “If at all such coaching is to be given, schoolteachers should be inducted to do so in the college/school itself after school hours. They cannot monopolise the situation and will be accountable,” says Mr L.K Grover. “If given the proper incentive college/school teachers can produce much better results and parents don’t mind paying extra which by all means will be far less than what they pay to private coaching centres. Besides, there ought to be one testing body. The students, then, will not be confused and on the horns of dilemma preparing for different examinations,” he says. Another measure to curb the debacle is to introduce career awareness programmes which to familiarise parents and students with not just career options that are already well- known but with those that are unknown to many. A radical channelisation of talent could also be acquired by expansion to other career branches. The government must establish more institutions like the Rashtriya Indian Military College and military schools where from the beginning a students potential is tapped and honed. There could also be screening and aptitude tests to counter rote-learning. Another possibility is an on-line examination system, as is used for GRE/SAT. The need of the hour is
to create the right environment that will bring, besides
other gains, the right thought process among the student
community, enabling them to outstrip their parents in
education and, thus, in economic attainment. It is
absolutely imperative to break such an impasse and
Rubicon of sorts created by the delusive power of the
coaching culture, the insidious effects of which are now
percolating to junior classes. |
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Architecture Jul 26 Sir J.J. College of Architecture (Affiliated to University of Mumbai), 78/3, Dr D.N. Road, Mumbai 400001. Tel.: 2621649.
Selection Procedure: Aptitude test at Guwahati (17 Aug) and at Delhi and Mumbai (19 Aug). Appln Form: Send Rs 250/- by DD in favour of “The Principal, Sir J.J. College of Architecture: payable at Mumbai along with two passport size photos (with name on the reverse). Apply with following details: Full name, Address with home no.; marks in Phy, Chem, Maths of HSC; Attested copies of SSC and HSC; Domicile/proof of residence. Armed Forces Jul 24 Headquarters, Western Air Command, Indian Air Force, Subroto Park, New Delhi 110010.
Jul 24 Indian Air Force, Post Bag No. 001, DHQ Post Office, New Delhi 110011.
Aviation Delhi Flying Club Ltd, Faculty of Flight Safety Services, Safdarjung Airport, New Delhi 110003. (1) Flight
Despatcher’s Course Elig: For (1): 10+2 preferably with Physics and Maths. Appln Form: Contact on phones: 4618931, 4618325. Extn. 43, 44. Commercial Diving Jul 26 Indian Navy, Diving School, INS Venduruthy Naval Base, Kochi 682004.
l 50% agg in Class X or
subsequent higher examinations. Fluency in Hindi or
English. Candidate should be a good swimmer. Appln Form: See notification in leading national dailies. Computers July 19 NSIC Technical Services Centre (The National Small Industries Corporation Ltd), Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase-III, New Delhi 110020.
Jul 23 Indian Institute of Information Technology, 4th Floor, ‘MSIL House’, 36 Cunningham Road, Bangalore 560052. Tel.: 2259356, 2269188, 2258131.
Jul 24 Sri Guru Harkrishan College of Management and Technology, Shaheed Sewa Singh Thikriwala Nagar, Patiala 147001. (1) BCA (3 years) Selection
Procedure: For (1) and (2): Entrance test
conducted by Panjab University. Appln Form: Send Rs 75/- by DD in favour of “Sri Guru Harkrishan College of Management and Technology” payable at Patiala or Rs 150/- in cash at counter. Distance Education Bharathidasan University, Centre for Distance Education, Tiruchirapalli 620024 1. MCA Elig: 2) and 6) HSC (10+2 pattern/PUC/11+1 pattern) 3) Graduation in any discipline. 7) Any degree with Eng 8) BA (Eco)/BCom/BBA/BA/ Corporate Secretaryship/BA (Bank Mgt)/BA (co-operation)/BSc (Maths). 9) BCom/BBA/BA (Cooperation) BA (Corporate Secretaryship)/BA (Bank Mgt) 10) BSc (Maths). Last Dates: BA, BSc, BBA, BCom, BCA, MA, Msc, MCom: Aug 30, MCA: Jul 30 and PGDCA: Aug 16. Appln Form: Send Rs 50/- by crossed DD (separately for each course) in favour of “Centre for Distance Education, Bharathidasan University: payable at Tiruchirappalli and drawn on any one of the following banks: SBI, State Bank of Mysore, IOB, Andhra Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Tranvancore or Indian Bank. Mention your name and the course on the reverse of DD indicating your full postal address. Engineering Institute of Aviation and Technology, Nageswar, Tangi — Bhubaneswar 751002.
Appln Form: Send
Rs 175 by MO/DD.
Management Rukmini Devi Institute of Management Studies, CD-Block, Pitampura, Delhi 110034. Tel: 7434701, 7434572.
July 25 Rajdhani College of Engineering and Management (RCEM), 20-E, Near Press Chhak, Bhubaneswar 751005. Tel: (0674) 444521, 441236 and 414605.
Nursing Jul 29 School of Nursing, Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi.
Jul 18 M.D. Oswal Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation, Ludhiana 141009. Tel: 0161-670182. (1) Diploma in General
Nursing and Midwifery (3 years) Elig: For (1): Unmarried females in the age group of 17-25 years with 10+2 (Preferably with Sc) and with 50% agg. Punjabi up to Matric and Punjab domicile is compulsory. For (2): unmarried candidates in the age group of 17-25 years with 10+2 (Medical group) and with 50% agg. Appln Form: Send Rs 125/- by DD in favour of “MDOCT and RF, Ludhiana” or Rs 100/- in cash at counter. Unless otherwise specified, the dates mentioned above are deadlines for receipt of completed application forms. CARING (Career
Information and Guidance), New Delhi. |
Career hotline What is the difference between a reporter and freelance journalist? Does one need to have a degree or certificate in journalism to be one of these? Harish Sawhney, Chandigarh A reporter is on the pay-rolls of a particular newspaper while a freelance journalist is a journalist who specialises in a particular field and works independently by contributing articles to various newspapers and magazines. Reporters normally cover a specific beat like crime, health, education, civic matters, etc. The Chief Reporter who is in charge of city reporting allocates the reporters their beats. Reporters interpret the events they are reporting on, in terms of their significance or what they mean to the people. However, making a living by freelance writing is quite a hard proposition unless of course you are a celebrity or a specialist in a particular field. A Reporter usually has a background in journalism in terms of either a diploma or a degree. A freelance journalist, on the other hand, requires good writing skills and sufficient knowledge of the area s/he is writing about. For complete information on various jobs available in the print and electronic media, you may refer to Writing for the media published by CARING, 24, Feroze Gandhi Road, Lajpat Nagar-III, New Delhi-110024. I am doing graduation in English (H). Could you please tell me about the future prospects in this subject after graduation and postgraduation. Suman Jaiswal, Phagwara After graduation or postgraduation in English (Hons), you could either take up teaching in schools (after doing B.Ed.) or join the print and electronic media as a journalist, editor, compere, announcer, newsreader or anchorperson. An additional course in public relations or mass communication would also open up more options. I am a Class XII (Arts) student keen on pursuing a career in law. Could you please tell me about the eligibility criteria for courses in law and also the institutions offering these courses. Steve, Jammu You can study law straight after Class XII, Integrated 5-year Law Courses (BA LL.B) are offered at nearly 30 universities in India. The most prestigious institution being the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore 560072. Eligibility for NLSIU’s course is a pass in Class XII with 50% aggregate. The upper age limit is 20 years, relaxable to 21 years in exceptional cases. Admission is through an all-India entrance test held each year on the first Sunday of May at various centres. The main thrust of the entrance test is on aptitude rather than knowledge-level. The university boasts of 100% campus placement with law firms, corporates, investment banks, government organisations and NGOs. The annual intake of students for the undergraduate programme is 80 of which 22.5% is reserved for SC/ST. In the north, some of the universities that offer Integrated 5-year Law course are:
The other option would be to do a 3-year LLB after your graduation. For a complete list of integrated 5-year law courses and details on career prospects in various fields of law, read Careers in Law published by CARING, New Delhi. After completing Class XII, I am interested in doing a bachelor’s course in Library & Information Science (BLISc). Could you please tell me about the job opportunities available in this field. K. Damayanti, Chandigarh After your graduation in Library & Information Science, you have a wide choice of options to choose from. As a librarian, you will find openings in government and public libraries, universities and other academic institutions, cultural institutions, information centres, museums and galleries, photo and film libraries, besides companies and organisations with large information-handling requirements. With computerisation playing a key role in information management, there is scope for diversifying into hi-tech areas like systems analysis, research assistance, database operations and management, printing and publishing, documentation, corporate and even freelance consultancy, or information marketing. I am a Class XII student in the arts stream. After completing Class XII, I want to do a degree in management. Could you please suggest some recognised institutions. Harminder Singh, Jalandhar You can either do a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration), BBM (Bachelor of Business Management) or BBS (Bachelor of Business Studies). These courses are offered at a number of universities. You could, however, consider the following universities that are located in the north:
Also, the following universities offer MMS (Master of Management Studies) (Integrated) courses for students who have completed Class XII:
I wish to do graduation through correspondence. What are my chances of procuring a job after getting the degree? Preeti Aggarwal, Ambala The chances of landing a
decent job straight after graduation are similar in both
cases, irrespective of the fact that you have acquired
the degree through correspondence or a regular course.
But certainly the prospects are bright if you acquire a
professional postgraduate qualification subsequently.
Since mere graduation is not sufficient to equip you with
the skills required to enter a profession, the
postgraduate professional course of study which you take
up subsequently is what will really matter. The best part
is that the degree that you get at the end of a
correspondence course does not specifically mention the
fact that you have studied through correspondence. So go
ahead and enrol for a correspondence course from a good
university. |
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