City schools to be inspected for rule violations

Bangalore, Oct 26, 2014, DHNS:

The Department of Public Instructions (DPI) will start an inspection drive of schools in the City to check possible violation of rules while setting up such institutions, and the authenticity of their affiliation, following the sexual assault of a minor girl in a school that had flouted a number of rules.

“I have been told that there are a number of organisations in the City which may have got permission for only 10 schools but start 25 of them. There is, therefore, the need to find the antecedents of such schools,” said Public Instruction Commissioner Mohammed Mohsin. 

“We will start with Bangalore, as there have been reports of a number of schools which have fleeced parents claiming to be affiliated to the CBSE or the ICSE. It is a huge exercise, but we will have to undertake it,” he said.

The drive is likely to be taken up next month after the appointment of a committee consisting of education officials like the Deputy Director Of Public Instructions, block education officers, as well as education experts, organisations and NGOs working in the field of education. They will conduct the drive in particular areas. 

According to the latest District Information System for Education figures, there are as many as 1,717 private unaided schools in Bangalore North and 2,469 in Bangalore South. 

“The exercise may go on for a month in the City as the number of schools is large. However, we have no choice but to undertake it,” said Mohsin. 

Asked how the department would deal with schools that would not allow them to conduct the inspection, Mohsin said: “If schools do not allow education officials and the team conducting the inspection, legal action will be taken against them for obstructing a government official from discharging his or her duty.” 

Last year, education officials had to face opposition and non-cooperation from a number of private schools during the conduct of the out-of-school children’s survey.

UGC favours issuing mark sheet with photo of student by varsities

Prakash Kumar, Oct 19, 2014, NEW DELHI: DHNS:

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all universities to consider issuing mark sheet with the photograph of the student to check duplication of final year marks statements.
Mumbai University is set to issue mark sheets with photographs of students on them. The document will also have a number of security features like hologram and water mark.
The higher education regulator has suggested to vice chancellors of other universities to adopt the Mumbai University model, while appreciating the initiative taken by the latter.

“The commission appreciates this initiative of the university which shall help in eliminating duplicity of mark sheets. The other universities may also consider adopting this feature along with other security features to bring about uniformity and transparency within the system,” UGC secretary Jaspal S Sandhu said in his letter to varsity heads recently. 

In his letter to UGC Chairman Ved Prakash in July, Desai said: “The purpose of incorporating photograph is to bring in a transparent and foolproof system and enable easy verification by various authorities and prospective employers,” he said, suggesting that other higher educational institutions in the country could also adopt it to check duplication of mark sheets.

Two years ago, the Mumbai university did away with plain mark sheets and opted for a rainbow colour scheme citing security measures after cases were lodged against more than 600 students for producing fake certificates between 2006 and 2009.“The plain mark sheets did not have a distinguishing feature and lacked security codes. The new seven-colour scheme is unique. It has seven security features incorporated in the mark sheets to avoid duplication.

Managing classrooms in a smart manner

DH, Oct 16, 2014 :

Controlling a classroom does not mean yelling and punishing. It is devising innovative methods to make students feel belonged, writes Dr Aradhana Mudambi.

It is a universal fact that classroom management is hard, no matter what anyone says. A teacher may know his or her subject matter, be eager to make a difference in the lives of his students, and have graduated from the best of colleges; and yet he may still find it difficult to control his students without losing his temper. 

Fortunately, however, teachers at any stage in their careers can learn how to better handle  their classes without resorting to yelling at students.First, it is important to understand why beyond the institution of recent regulations that prohibit teachers from scolding their students, constant yelling in the classroom is inappropriate. Yelling turns even the most talented teachers’ classrooms ineffective. 

A classroom in which the teacher feels he must yell is one in which he or she has lost control. This means that precious, instructional time is replaced with discipline issues, so students lose out on learning. Furthermore, a disruptive class takes the fun out of teaching.

Effective classroom management requires teachers to develop within every student, a sense of belonging to the classroom. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, every human being, in order to be happy, should have certain needs met in a specific, hierarchical order. The first set of needs is physiological. People need to have basic food, water, and clothing. The next set of needs is the need to feel physically and emotionally safe. For the sake of this article, let us assume that the above two sets of needs are met. The third rung is the need to belong. Classroom management is based on this social need.

Teachers who take advantage of students’ need to belong have a much stronger control over their classrooms. In the modern world, the need for belonging is highly unfulfilled for children due to the recent surge of nuclear families. 

Undoubtedly, most parents do their best. Nevertheless, with extended family members living far away and time that primary caregivers can give their children being limited, students no longer feel that they belong anywhere. Hence, they tend to seek out acceptance elsewhere, and often in the wrong way. For instance, by misbehaving in class, students obtain approval from their peers. Also, it gets them attention, albeit negative, from their teachers. 
Applying a formula

To combat this phenomenon, teachers should turn the classroom into the students’ own club where they can belong and where only appropriate behaviour is acceptable. A teacher can apply this formula to accomplish this task:

First, the teacher should carefully create a class theme that encourages appropriate classroom behaviour. For instance, a class theme could be cats since they are clean, independent, and quiet. Teachers need to visually reinforce their themes around their classrooms. For instance, a teacher who embraces the cat theme needs to have pictures of cats, stuffed animals, and a sign that says, “Welcome, Ms Padma’s Cats.”

Next, teachers need to induct their students into the special club. When students walk into the classroom, teachers should tell them that they belong to this special society. For instance, if we continue our cat theme, students should be told that the second they walked through the door, they became cats.  

The teacher should also introduce students to rules, which in turn should revolve around her theme. For instance, if a teacher has the cat theme in her room, she could post the following rules:

n Cats purr quietly.n Cats are neat and orderly.n Cats treat each other as a loving family.n Cats work independently with the support of the parent cat.
A conversation could then ensue, revolving around the characteristics of the theme item, and how those characteristics relate back to the students and the rules. For instance, when describing the first rule, “Cats purr quietly,” teachers should ask students to think back if they can remember a cat that meowed so loudly that people in the hallway could hear. 

This is obviously rare if it ever happens; therefore, everyone in class will also talk softly. When describing the third rule in the above example, “Cats treat each other as a loving family,” teachers may explain how the parent cat takes exceptional care of its children and how the kittens love and respect their parent cat. 

Then, she would relate the characteristics back to the classroom by stating that similarly, the teacher, who is the parent in the room, will love the students, who are the kittens, and the students will return the affection. 

In practical terms, the students and teacher will talk respectfully to one another and help each other when appropriate. All rules should be reviewed for a week and then, tested before the teacher holds students accountable. Take note from the above example that the teacher must also be part of the unique society.
Revision for sustaining

Finally, the classroom theme should be revisited constantly. Younger children in a second standard class can be asked to decorate paper cats and write their names on them. These cats can be displayed throughout the room, allowing students to take ownership of the classroom. Older children in a classroom with cats as the theme may be asked to read a passage about socialisation among felines.

Teachers, especially of older students, may believe that their students are too savvy for this set up. Older students will inevitably look askance at their teachers when the classroom theme is introduced, but all children, regardless of how grown-up they think they are, quickly take a liking to the idea because of the psychological need it fulfills. 

And as the theme slowly becomes a part of their identities, students actually want to behave as to not jeopardize their membership in the classroom. Of course, as children, students will make mistakes now and then and some, more than others. However, if the theme has been properly incorporated, rather than yelling, a teacher can simply redirect the student in a soft voice, and the student’s response will usually be favourable.

Any questions?

SHUBASHREE DESIKAN, October 12, 2014 15:45 IST  

Learning is not just listening. Fuel your curiosity and engage with your mentor to enrich the classroom experience.

Speed is the operative word in any activity today, and this applies more than ever to reading, writing and studies in general. What often gets sacrificed in this speed-driven process of education is the ability to absorb what you study, analyse it and come up with creative questions. How can this be avoided? Is ability to question things an essential skill? Great scholars seem to think so. Einstein said about scientific thinking, “The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.”

Scientific education must induce scientific behaviour, and this is all about asking questions and inquiring into truth. However, for various reasons, science students often hesitate to ask questions. They are keener to find the answers than to ask questions. If students did not rely on rote learning, studies tell us, they would turn out to be more suitable to what employers want in the workplace.

Learning is not passive

Dr. S.V.M. Satyanarayana, assistant professor at the Department of Physics in Pondicherry University, has been conducting physics classes every Sunday, in Chennai, for the last 18 years. The motive of these classes is to invoke thought. The classes aim at creating thinking individuals who will go on to pursue research. There is no fee and no compulsion to attend classes. Nearly a hundred students who have attended these classes have gone on to do their Ph.D. in physics.

Having observed students from various places and backgrounds come to his classes and pick up the scientific attitude, Dr. Satyanarayana says, “One of the practical problems in science education at the postgraduate level is that the students do not ask questions. Typically, learning is passive — involving accumulation of information…”

As an example he talks about the students’ views on the heliocentric theory. We all know that the Earth and all the planets move around the Sun because we have studied that it is so, but do we ever question why the geocentric theory is wrong? What is a scientific attitude in this contest? He says, “Being scientific is in contradiction to unquestioned acceptance of what is currently true. In the words of Aristotle, ‘the mark of an educated mind is to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it’…”

Active learning

To move from passive learning to active learning, it is important to be totally engaged when you are in class. Going over the topic before a lecture will help in formulating questions. Dr. Satyanarayana says, “At the beginning of the course, as well as the lecture, students can be encouraged to think about the topic and the course itself and write down their questions in a notebook.”

This is a very effective method because it allows you, as a student, to approach the subject from a fresh perspective. Also, your questions flow from an uninhibited stock that exists in your mind. At the end of the course, you can tick off the questions that have been answered and ruminate on the philosophical angles and perspectives you have gained in the process.

From a teacher’s point of view, the nature of the questions a student asks can give a perspective on the progress they have made in learning the subject. In fact, this paves the way to a gradual change from ‘learning science’ to ‘doing science’.

Breaking it down

Often, the first questions you come up with can be really complex and perhaps even somewhat vague. As you interact with the teacher at this level, you learn to refine your questioning skills and ask sharper questions. You also learn to break down the questions into simpler ones. It is an illuminating experience to move from vague questions, which, moreover, cannot be answered, to sharp questions, which are deeper and better formed.

The last query is — how do I find the time to do this? This is easy to answer but requires commitment to pursue. Allot time before lectures and before courses to go over the contents of your chapters. Anything from ten minutes to half an hour a day should be enough. Not only would this push you into active learning, it would also enhance your own interest in the subject.

Experience the fact that questions lead the way to conversations, and conversations to discovery and innovation. This then is the route to learning, doing and excelling.

Chhattisgarh government cracks whip on non-accredited universities

PTI | Oct 11, 2014, 10.12 PM IST

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh government has asked police to take legal action against non-accredited universities operating illegally in the state after receiving a slew of complaints against them even as the chief Lokayukta has sought a detailed list of such institutions within 15 days. 

"Higher education department has given information to Chhattisgarh Lok Ayog that it has seriously considered the complaints received against the non-accredited universities and have issued letters to superintendents of police (SPs) of respective districts for taking immediate legal action against such institutions," an official statement here said today. 

Notably, the chief Lokayukta has directed the higher education department to submit the list of such universities, consisting of details like their vice-chancellors, office addresses, mobile numbers etc. within 15 days. 

The chief Lokayukta issued these orders after perusing the report submitted by higher education department officials on Friday. 

In his report submitted to the Lok Ayog, additional director, higher education department, Dr R B Subramanyam said that as many as 23 universities are recognised by the state government. 

They include Indira Art and Music University Khairagarh, Pt Ravishankar Shukla University Raipur, Indira Gandhi Agriculture University Raipur, Kushabhau Thakre University for Journalism and Mass Communication, Ayush and Health Science University Raipur, Kamdhenu University Durg, Bastar University Jagdalpur. 

Besides, the universities recognised by the Central Government in Chhattisgarh are: Guru Ghasidas University Bilaspur, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Raipur, Indian Institute of Information and Technology (IIIT) Raipur, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Raipur, Indira Gandhi National Open University New Delhi. 

Except the aforementioned universities, no other university has been accredited in Chhattisgarh, according to the higher education department.

A compassionate learning environment

DH, Sep 10, 2014 :

Subha Parthasarathy stresses the importance of providing a kind ambience to children in their formative stages.

Sameer was a child who was enthusiastic to share his knowledge, but lately his parents had noticed that he would hesitate to talk or even speak up when he knew certain things.

 On digging deeper, they found out that the teacher encouraged only the right answers.
 Every time he stood up to speak and took some time, the teacher would tell him to sit down and let someone else speak. This demoralised the child and he thought it was better not to answer at all.

Chandan was in his teens going through the growing up issues of acne. He was trying to work with the changes happening to him and the teachers did not spare him. They constantly commented on his acne and the way it impacted his looks. The other children interpreted this as “permission”  to make hurtful remarks.

Teachers play a very powerful role in facilitating learning in children. It may appear that the teachers are not sensitive enough or are clueless in dealing with such situations. It is also true that teachers working with more than thirty students at a time can be under  pressure to complete the syllabus, execute lesson plans, maintain order and administer tests, evaluations etc. 

It can be hard on teachers to meet the need of every student in the class. For learning to take place, the environment in class needs to be conducive for learning. This is the objective with which the schools need to work.

Teachers can make a big difference to the life of a student if they are open and willing to make just a few changes in the way they work and think. Here are a few things teachers can do to change their experiences with children in the class: 
Respect 

If we are able to see children as people having fears, anxieties, desires, needs etc., it enables the teacher to treat them with respect. Children need to be treated the way an adult would like to be treated. Respect is not based on “what the children do, but on who they are”. 

A few ways to respond to situations that highlight understanding and compassion.

* “Each one of us is different and we respect each other the way we are.’’

* “It is not acceptable to ridicule or talk about other’s physical or mental abilities. We are here to help and support each other.’’ 
Accept 

Accept that each child is different and acknowledge that he or she will learn at his or her own pace. Helping the child see his or her strengths would help in creating a growth-oriented learning environment. Pitting one student against another and comparing students creates an environment that chokes free flow of ideas.
 Responses that reflect acceptance are: * “You have explored the topic from a very different angle. It is interesting, could you share it with others too.’’

* “Can we have each one of you explain how you completed your project and share your thoughts on what you liked about it.’’
Wait Time

Children are constantly hurried into answering questions. This process does not encourage children to think or even listen to others. They are more into waiting for their turn or avoiding the question. ‘Wait time’ helps children who are in a hurry to slow down. It also helps those children who need some time to gather their thoughts. 

Teachers can create tools to implement wait time, like having a placard which says, ‘Think.’ Responses that promote wait time are, “I know you are eager to share your answers but we will wait till everyone gets time to think about it.’’ 

Typically, we have the tendency to stop with the right answers by saying, “That is correct …very good! Sit down.’’ Or, we explore the wrong answers with such responses, “You have not studied properly and that is the reason you are not getting it right.’’

These responses tend to send a message to the children that there are only right or wrong answers. Children get demotivated and putting in efforts does not make sense to them. In the above examples of responses, the  focus is on the child and not on the learning. 

Instead, if we are ready to explore the right and the not so right answers differently, it may open up a different world for children where they are exposed to the attitude that there is continuous learning and the focus is not on the person but on the learning. 
Choice of words

When teachers use words like ‘difficult’, ‘easy’, ‘tough’, ‘simple’ , it creates a closed mindset towards learning. Children start thinking in terms of whether they can do something or not and the focus shifts from learning to ‘I can’t’ or ‘I can’The vocabulary instead, can be something like this: 

* “This worksheet today is going to be really interesting for all of you. There may be some that  you are familiar with and some that may be new to you.’’

* “As you keep working on it, you will understand how it works though in the beginning, it may be confusing.’’
Reflection

Reflections are an important aspect of learning. It enables teachers understand how much and what children have learnt or what they liked and did not like. Assessments, evaluations and quizzes are a reflection of the content, but to add to it, if the teachers are able to get a feedback on the methodology or their feelings, it would help the children express their needs. This would help the children understand their teacher better, without judgements.
ConsequencesThere have been lots of changes in our education system and it is really surprising that we still follow the system of impositions in many schools. Giving impositions is a punishment that drives home the message – “You better do this or else...”. 

 The main objective is often lost and the exercise is reduced to an inane reproduction of sentences in a notebook instead of focusing on how the issue can be addressed. Compliance through fear or punishment is not conducive to a healthy learning environment.

There was a case where the child had to write twenty times that he would not forget to get his notebook. Instead he wrote, “I will forget to get the notebook,” and the teacher signed it without checking. 

Consequences for specific actions can be pre-decided by the children and the teacher after a discussion. There are other non-violent ways to communicate with children and respect them. They will be willing to go along and cooperate if they are seen as people and not as objects who are inferior to adults.

Small changes can create an environment that is conducive to growth and learning. Children, in turn, will be more than willing to share, cooperate and learn happily at school. Parents and teachers should work together on building a compassionate learning environment for the children.

My Teachers' Day :)

Day of introspection

Shobhana Verghese,DH, Sep 5, 2014, DHNS

We need to return honesty to the centre stage and respect teachers' time better.

Current political posturing over ‘Teachers’ Day’ or ‘Shikshak Divas’ or ‘Guru Utsav’ leaves me quite unmoved because what really matters is not what the day is referred to as, but what it symbolises. On this day pupils lovingly express appreciation and gratitude to their teachers who are second only to parents, while government and private school owners often go the extra mile with a grant of largesse in one avatar or another. Altogether, an especially warm and fuzzy ‘feel good’ day for us in the teaching fraternity!

And this is how it should be since teachers in a few hundred elitist schools along with a few thousand more in government and private schools around the country are doing a great job from most perspectives. Their pupils emerge with progressive attitudes and productive skills which makes them either highly coveted by universities/employers in India and abroad.

However, my concern is for the remaining millions of teachers who work in urban/rural and government/private schools wherein this kind of success is rare. Unfortunately, these teachers can’t work or won’t work as effectively as they have the potential for. Bearing testimony to their under performance are millions of children who either dropout or fail at every significant stage along the 12-year continuum. Add to this the tragic fact that almost half the number of government school pupils in Class 5 cannot demonstrate language and math skills at the level of Class 3, and we have a problem of mammoth proportion.

Let’s take the ‘won’t’ first since throwing stones at ourselves will preclude others doing it. In my view there are no politically correct answers here. Indulgence in corruption and nepotism comes to mind immediately. Who does not know of the fictitious BEd colleges that give out thousands of fake degrees each year to completely unscrupulous persons who then proceed to masquerade as ‘teachers’ to get well-paid government jobs? And who does not know of the large number of well connected teachers who indulge in unethical and unprofessional activity with gay abandon. When dishonesty is almost a way of life in common society, schools cannot escape an unethical work culture. We all need to smell the rot and accept that corruption and nepotism are personal choices with disastrous long-term outcomes.

And now, let’s have a look at the ‘can’t’ aspect of teacher under-performance! A critical factor is that all government teachers lose over 30 working days each year when on deputation for census duty, election duty, immunisation duty and whatnot. A further 10 days is lost every year to mandatory off-site training conducted by a plethora of agencies. Out of a possible 190-200 working days available annually, nearly 25 per cent of classroom time in all government schools is lost. Further, neither technology nor multi-grade teaching skill is generally available to help mitigate the missing-teacher syndrome.

As a people, we need to return honesty to the centre stage of life and have our government respect teachers’ time and purpose better for the ground reality to improve.