Present State of Indian Education System

Solar Energy - Last source of energy

05:18, Saturday, May 12, 2007 .. 0 comments .. 0 trackbacks .. Link

Solar energy in its raw form may be pollution-free, but manufacturing the devices that get the energy out of light and heat requires metal and other material, requiring mines and smelters, therein causing pollution. Maybe the most exciting thing about solar energy today is not only that the costs continue to drop and efficiencies continue to rise, but that clean solar energy is arriving at last. New technologies allow new methods of manufacturing which pollute much less, and often run on solar energy.
Solar heating and solar electric systems can now generate thermal and electric energy over their service life up to 100 times the energy input during their manufacture. This ratio; the energy it will produce in its lifetime, compared to the amount of energy input to manufacture and maintain an energy system, has doubled in the last 20 years for most solar technologies. The ratio of energy out vs. energy in for solar systems has become so favorable that the economic and ecological viability of solar power is now beyond question.

One reason solar energy still cannot compete financially vs. conventional energy is because the value of future energy output from a photovoltaic system is discounted when calculating, for example, an internal rate of return. These economic models that put a time-value on money, making long-term receipts not worth as much as near-term receipts cannot necessarily be applied to energy. Traditional models of economic analysis for an energy system lasting 50 years treat the free energy in years 11 through 50 as nearly worthless. The underlying assumption when discounting returns beyond 10 years is that BTUs are as fungible as currencies; something that is arguable but not certain. If a society as a whole desires energy independence, a solar energy system's return on investment in year 50 is no less valuable than the return on investment in year one.

As forests and fossil fuels diminish, look to solar energy

as one of the most promising sources of alternative energy.

India's Central Arid Zone
Research Institute

"At the present rate of energy consumption, the reserve of fossil fuels of the entire world can be exhausted in 50 to 100 years," said Dr. M. N. Nahar, principal scientist of the Division of Agriculture and Energy at the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI). "There is an urgent need to harness solar energy and other alternative energy sources."

Unlike natural gas, coal, or nuclear power, solar power requires no fuel, works without polluting the air or leaving behind dangerous radioactive waste, and is extremely plentiful. Researchers estimate that the sun produces enough energy in a single second to meet the needs of all humanity for 2000 years. "The surface of the Earth receives an amount of solar energy equivalent to roughly 10,000 times the world energy demand," wrote Erik Lysen in the January 2003 issue of Renewable Energy World magazine.

Figuring out how to harness it has already been accomplished, to some extent. Solar technology is currently divided into two categories, thermal and photovoltaic. Thermal solar power uses the heat of the sun, and photovoltaics, or PV, is the technology that converts its light directly into electricity.

LABORATORY PV EFFICIENCY PROGRESS

In the last twenty years of the 20th century
photovoltaic panel efficiencies doubled

A photovoltaic panel consists of several connected 0.6-V dc PV cells, which are made out of a semiconducting material, generally mono- or multi-crystalline silicon. The thin layer of silicon is sandwiched between two metallic electrodes, and the cells are usually encapsulated behind glass to make them weatherproof.

Multiple PV panels can be then connected to form an array, capable of providing sufficient power for everything from common electrical applications like single-household electricity to Olympic swimming pools, apartment or industrial buildings. The average lifetime of a PV system is about 20 years, and it can be used in combination with conventional power or alone. The only problem is that, although in some cases it is becoming competitive, solar power is generally still slightly more expensive than tapping into conventional electricity. The process of constructing PV cells is somewhat complicated and delicate, and there is also a considerable loss of materials. Multi-crystalline silicon wafers are obtained from ingots grown by casting liquid silicon in a large container followed by controlled cooling, a technique less complicated than the pulling of single-crystalline rods. Then, in sawing the thin layer of crystalline silicon, about 20% of the material is lost as "sawdust".

Efficiency is also not high, although it has been progressively increasing. A solar cell made of multi-crystalline silicon, which accounts for most of the PV panels currently in use and production, converts sunlight to electricity at about 13.5% efficiency. Mono-crystalline silicon, which is more difficult to produce, can achieve about 15%; in both cases, clouds and night time also rob the cell of a further 65%.

USA's Dept.
of Energy

One way to reduce PV costs is to use materials other than silicon as semiconductors, like amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe). Although government grants are keeping the fire going, the technology is moving slowly, and thin-film PV panels are hard to mass-produce cost-effectively because of the difficulty of coating large areas of glass. "It is my opinion that crystalline- silicon technologies will dominate for at least the next 10 years," said Jeffrey Mazer of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Solar Energy Technologies in Washington.

There is one instance, however, in which PV energy is already cheaper than using fossil fuels. If a location is not currently connected to the "grid," that is, if no power lines are there, it is less expensive to install PV panels than to either extend the grid or set up small-scale electricity production with a diesel or other generator. the average cost of extending those power lines ranges from $20,000 to $80,000 per mile, a cost the consumer usually has to bear. At this price, eliminating a power line extension of even one mile could well pay for the PV system for someone who can easily afford it-- or make electricity possible for someone who can't.

A "Solar Yard" in the sunny state of Rajasthan, India

Approximately two billion people, or about 1/3 of the global population, residing primarily in developing countries, are not connected to the grid, and may never be; in this area particularly solar is the energy source of the future, as these places develop. "For electricity production in rural areas in developing countries, solar energy is the cheaper alternative," said Nahar. Indeed, the demand for PV is growing faster outside than inside the U.S.

Photovoltaics first came into use in 1958 when NASA needed a feasible power source for its spacecrafts and satellites, and has been used for this purpose ever since.

Other current uses of PV solar panels include powering watches and pocket calculators, powering the lamps of some remote lighthouses, and solar-energy systems in homes and buildings in Western countries. In the United States and Europe alone, about 15,000 vacation homes are equipped with PV systems; some environmentally-conscious consumers are willing to pay more for clean energy.

The popularity of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV's), in particular, has grown considerably in recent years. BIPV's are PV devices designed directly into building materials like roofs, shingles, and siding, which offer electricity and aesthetics, eliminating the need for mounted solar panels.

The cost of a BIPV system is also partially offset by replacing the costs of conventional construction materials. The system helps insulate and protect roofing structures, and BIPV life expectancies range in excess of 30 years, 33% higher than normal solar panels. There are currently more than 3,000 BIPV systems installed in Germany, and Japan has a program that plans to build 70,000 new BIPV buildings.

In terms of overall installed PV capacity, India comes fourth after Japan, the US and Germany (Indian Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources 2002). "India is the only country which has a separate ministry for alternative energy," Nahar said. "Government support and subsidies have been a major influence in our progress."

India is also in a good position because of the intense heat. "Arid regions receive plentiful solar radiation," he said. In computed global solar radiation of arid stations in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana, it was found that Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, receives the maximum radiation at 6.27 kWh/m2 per day; the average daily duration of bright sunshine in Jodhpur, Rajasthan is 8.9 hours.

Flag of India

- A Solar Still -
Why not combine in one module a distallation unit,
thermal & photovoltaic collectors, & runoff capture?

"Thermal solar energy can be used for water heating, cooking, drying, water distillation, refrigeration, and space heating and cooling," continued Nahar. One of the most crucial of these uses is cooking, as half the total energy consumed in developing countries is used in the domestic cooking sector; there are currently over 500,000 solar cookers in use in India, according to Nahar, including the world's largest solar cooking venue in Tirupati, which provides food for over 15,000 people each day.

Solar dryers, for dehydrating vegetables, and solar water heaters are also becoming popular. "Conventional water heaters require copper piping," Nahar said. "We have developed models using gerberized steel." These water heaters are currently used in hotels and hospitals, providing up to 100,000 litres of water per day; the cost of these is also decreasing steadily (Figure 3).

Another important area of development is that of solar stills, by which the acute draught and shortage of potable water, currently the cause of many physical disorders, can be alleviated.

MEGAWATTS OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
INDIA - INSTALLED THRU 1999

India Has Many Alternatives
For Renewable Energy

In the latest models of solar stills, presuming the potable limit to be 1500 PPM TDS, as much as 50 litres per day of potable water can be made available from raw water with salinity of 5000 PPM TDS by installing a solar still of capacity 35 litre/day. If the per person requirement for drinking and cooking is 5 litres/day, this is enough for a family of 10.

Income can also be derived from solar stills. Considering the cost of the still, interest and maintenance, solar distilled water costs Rs. 0.98/litre, and the current market rate of distilled water is Rs. 3/litre. A solar still for the production of rose water has also been developed, which can be quite profitable. A unit with glass area 0.6 m2 costs only Rs. 900. Although irrigation facilities are required, the unit produces approximately 36 litres of rose water per month. The current market rate for rose water is Rs. 50/litre, which means that in the first month the unit has paid for itself-- twice.

Other important areas of alternative energy development are those of wind power and biogas. Biogas plants have become increasingly prevalent--The present capacity of biomass-based power generation totals 358 MW and 42.8 MW biomass gasifier power has been installed and regarding wind power India keeps fifth place after Germany, the US, Denmark and the UK with a total wind power generation of 1507 MW (MNES 2002).

"The future of solar energy is bright," Nahar said. "In the last 20 years, the cost of conventional power has been going up, and the cost of solar energy has been coming down."

Brook and Gaurav Bhagat are writers and independent filmmakers based in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.

Article is taken from http://www.ecoworld.com/home/articles2.cfm?tid=339

My views : India has the industry to produce cheap solar panels and I believe the day is not far when we will export to all the other countries of the world.

Why Private Colleges Are Surging in India

11:27, Wednesday, April 11, 2007 .. 2 comments .. 0 trackbacks .. Link

India's continued economic success depends in part on what's happening in this city on the outskirts of New Delhi, where construction workers lay brick for new science buildings, libraries and dormitories for the rapidly expanding Amity International School.

Amity is part of a wave of private universities in India -- the most high-profile backed by the nation's business moguls -- that are sprouting up to meet the exploding demand for skilled workers. While the private universities are adding much-needed capacity, they are also raising questions about the quality of their degrees and the motives of some wealthy backers.

Amity, one of the fastest growing private universities in India, started as a small management college about 16 years ago funded by Ashok Chauhan, whose AKC Group of Companies made a fortune in plastic products and herbal medical products. Now, with 45,000 students at two university campuses near New Delhi, plus various grade schools and high schools, the school is adding 4,000 new dormitory rooms and about a million square feet of buildings in the next year. Amity plans to expand throughout India, says the school's Chancellor Atul Chauhan, the 33-year-old son of the founder.

"The number of good students applying to top universities who don't get in is huge," he says, "Why should they lose out? They should have opportunities."

The need to expand those opportunities has attracted interest from U.S. universities. This week, the heads of several schools are in India meeting with government leaders ahead of an expected vote next month in India's Parliament on a law that would allow foreign universities to set up branches in India -- but with extensive restrictions. Among U.S. universities considering expanding to India is the Georgia Institute of Technology, which according to spokeswoman Lisa Govenstein, is "investigating the possibility of establishing a presence in India, most likely in partnership with a local Indian university, that could offer joint degrees."

Thanks to the wealthy backers, some of India's young private colleges have impressive infrastructure, including elaborate science labs and well-outfitted dormitories. "The more private institutions that come up, the more options we have," says Sankaranarayanan Padmanabhan, Global Head of Human Resources for Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., India's biggest outsourcing company by revenue. However, India's nationwide accreditation system is only about a decade old, and the process is voluntary in most states, so there is little incentive for universities to acquire it. Because so few institutions have accreditation, TCS and other big employers have developed their own systems for measuring the caliber of the schools, public and private.

The new institutions raise difficult issues. "The government is not very comfortable with the growth of the private sector," says Pawan Agarwal, a former government official in the higher education field and now a scholar at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. The government's concern is that some of the new colleges and universities may be taking advantage of the rising middle class. Prospective students have few independent sources for assessing quality, in contrast to the U.S., where a student can look at not only accreditation but also independent rankings by magazines and newspapers.

Another concern is that India's private universities -- which by law must be nonprofit -- are blurring the lines between philanthropy and business, Mr. Agarwal says. While students at even the top publicly funded schools pay less than $1,000 a year in tuition, the private institutions charge two to three times that amount, going as high as $10,000. "The concern is that the private colleges are exploitative. They create the impression of high quality and ask for high fees," Mr. Agarwal says.

Nevertheless, the Indian government is gradually allowing more private institutions. For decades, the country relied mainly on publicly funded institutions, such as Delhi University and the highly competitive Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, for higher education. But a lack of university capacity has led to India having a lower proportion of youth ages 17 to 23 enrolled in higher education than China, the Philippines and Malaysia. The national University Grants Commission sets rules and criteria for the new institutions, and states are responsible for ensuring they are enforced.

The private engineering college started by one of India's original technology tycoons, Shiv Nadar, near the high-tech hub of Chennai, earned a high mark from Tata Consultancy Services. Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, named after Mr. Nadar's father, was approved in 2003 by the National Board of Accreditation.

It's seeking a university status that would allow SSN to grant degrees in its own name. Now, the school is affiliated with the nearby Anna University, formed in 1978 from the merger of several public and private colleges, which designs the programs and grants degrees to SSN students. Over the last decade, Mr. Nadar, 61, has poured about $37 million into SSN to build facilities and fund scholarships , according to Kala Vijayakumar, SSN's president. SSN's School of Advance Software Engineering offers a graduate program that sends select students to study in the U.S. at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Jayalakshimi, the daughter of a picture framer, almost didn't go to college because banks refused to lend to her low-income family. Then she received a full scholarship to SSN and, most recently, an offer to work for HCL Technologies Ltd. after graduation this May. As a software engineer, the 21-year-old will earn a salary seven times higher than what her father makes framing pictures. Says Jayalakshimi, who goes by one name: "I really must thank Mr. Nadar."

Anil Agarwal, the billionaire founder of mining firm Vedanta Resources PLC, last summer pledged $1 billion to start a mega-university with 100,000 students in the state of Orissa. Mr. Agarwal himself never went to college, rising from his start as a metal trader.

"A huge amount of students can't go outside of India," he says. "This is a university that can look after them."

But some government officials question Mr. Agarwal's motives. Noting that his mining firm is seeking deals for mineral rights and mining operations in the Orissa state, they suspect the university is a veiled attempt to win support. Another issue is funding, as some of the $1 billion personally pledged by Mr. Agarwal is tied up in company stock and dedicated to his family foundation.

Mr. Agarwal says there is a "Chinese wall" between the university project and his company. "We don't want anything free." He says he expects other donors to contribute to the university as the project proceeds.

Amity has had trouble with government regulations. The school was in danger of having to shut down after India's Supreme Court struck down the law under which it had received its accreditation from the state of Chhattisgarh. The court felt the law was too lax, allowing many of 100 or so private schools opened under the Chhattisgarh law to function as diploma mills. Amity, which has headquarters in the state, was caught up in the legal tangle even though the school was established long before the law was passed. Special legislation was put through in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Amity's largest campuses are located, to keep it operating.

The university faces another problem now -- this time a regional official says the management program, with 150 students, isn't up to standard. Amity has challenged the ruling, and Chancellor Atul Chauhan says he's confidant it will be overturned.

However, such incidents are having a palpable effect on public perceptions and recruitment. "The degree doesn't hold value if the university is devalued as an institution," says Kanika Anand, 18, who chose to attend Miranda women's college at Delhi University instead of Amity, though Amity offered her scholarship options. "I didn't think that university is worth going to."

Mr. Chauhan says the hiccups are normal. He looks up to universities such as Stanford and Harvard and sees the U.S. Ivy League as a model for private universities in India. "This whole concept of private education is a revolution that is happening," he says.

About Author : Anonymous

Union Budget of India - Education Sector

11:26, Monday, March 26, 2007 .. 1 comments .. 0 trackbacks .. Link

Almost 15 years after adopting new economic reforms , India has reached a stage where it will reach many of its milestones. But the smell of reforms does not reach the larger proportion of population. Larger portion is looming with problems of poverty and education .

For education sector , the biggest problem is elementary education. Here is how our finance minister is trying to improve our education :

Allocation for school education up to Rs.23,142cr
Allocation to education hiked by 34.2% to Rs32352cr
2 lakh new teachers will be appointed next year
Education cess : service tax now at 3%.
National Means and Education Scheme for students above class 8.
Two lakh more teachers to be employed and five lakh more classrooms to be constructed.
Secondary education allowance to be increased from Rs 1,837 crore to Rs 3,794 crore.
School dropout rates high. To prevent dropout, a National Means-cum-Merit scholarship to be implemented, with an allocation of Rs 6,000 per child
Allocation for SC/ST scholarships enhanced from Rs 440 crore to Rs 611 crore.
Scholarships programme for minorities students to be of the order of Rs 72 crore for pre-metric, Rs 48 crore for graduate and postgraduate.
Rs 50 crore provided to begin work on vocational education mission for which task force in Planning Commission is chalking out a strategy.
1,396 Indian technical institutes to be upgraded to achieve technical excellence.
Rs 100 crore for recognising excellence in the field of agricultural research.

All Indians should be educated

10:05, Thursday, March 1, 2007 .. 1 comments .. 0 trackbacks .. Link

Present Indian educational condition is very bad.India's literacy rate is about 64% and the percentage of educated persons is even less.This is quite shameful.so,it is very necessary that every one should be educated by making education free and compulsory upto a certain age.

Some of the drawbacks in the educational system are----[as i think]

1.Quota system should be replaced by a system of monetary aid to poor but bright students-be he/she st/sc/or whatever.

2.Then in primary & secondary schools,if you can memorize the answers and can represent in a bookish way during exams,you will get fantastic marks.whether you really understood the concept is not seen!we get so many types of knowledge from books but is there much practical application of that knowledge in our life?important things are less taught.so,the syllabus should be mordernized like most of the western countries.

3.Then there is no standardization of schools and the teachers.>many schools does not have the minimum facility of a library and a laboratory.>there is no fixed qualification level for the teachers in primary schools mainly.

4.Next,a very irritating thing is the political interfereance.

5.To top it all superstitions and such passed to the children by their parents and grand parents.god may or may not be there.but you can rationally explain nature's mysteries through science.it is very easy to say -god made them all!children are much confused at young age because in the moral science class or such,the teacher says-god is the creator of everything and it is his great mercy that we are living and in the next class the teacher says-every thing can be explained by science.

6.Moreover now india is losing her valuable brain power due to the brain drain.well job facility is co scarce and the lack of proper infrascructure is also a vital cause.these are compelling the bright students to go abroad and study or work where they can get better pay and respect and facilities.

if these things can be rectified [though i doubt it],india,the 2nd most populated country will develop to be a 1st world country.And I hope this thing happen as soon as possible

About Author : Kitkat is just a 13 year old 8th grader living in calcutta,and likes physics mainly astronomy part,detective stories,reading jokes,travelling in places where snow falls and football,zidane is her fav footballer.

A Saucerful of Secrets

06:30, Tuesday, February 27, 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Indian education system has heights of intellectual brains who create intellectuals and has echelon of morons who thus create morons.

The system includes politicians, bureaucrats, teachers, parents and students. Politicians and bureaucrats who decide upon the budgets, education policies are not doing their job enough due to selfish and political reasons. This problem is visible in most of the sectors in India, but very much prevalent in education system, this major problem has to be addressed.

Teachers in government schools are not doing their jobs. A primary government school teacher gets 5K as salary. A Professor in Government college gets 12K as salary. A Phd holding professor gets 20K salary in IITs/IIMs/AIIMS. The average salary of educated working Indian citizen is around 20K in cities and 10K in towns. Where is the motivation for teachers to work with this kind of salary. The salaries have to be increased to a larger scale. Apart form salary other issues related to teachers are lack of training and facilities. Most of the qualified teachers prefer to stay back in the cities, while only few of the unqualified teachers opt to go to teach in the rural areas, who also end up frustratingly as there is hardly any electricity, computers and most importantly books and school buildings at times even to deliver their knowledge successfully. In West, Japan, Europe and China teachers get much more salary than the average salary of a educated working citizen which is not the case in India. They are respected more in society which is not the case in India.

Parents on the other hand are very much society conscious which prevents them from doing what they want to. Parents have lot of cultural prejudices which they have to remove from their minds and should differentiate between myths and reality. One prejudice for example in rural and in some case urban parents is that the occupation which they do, they expect their children to do the same is a major drawback in the type and quality of education which they give to their children.

The pre-dominant Vedic System over India always mandated inequality of educational opportunity, while the reforms created by Buddhism and Ashoka tried to change the myths of the Indian minds and moved them in to more liberal and equal men policies. The British were also successful in partially breaking the inequality by establishing new institutions, but ultimately reinforced elite caste dominance through differentiated education and compromises made to upper caste by British administrators so as to

protect their rule in the country. Reservation aspect of the education system is very sensitive and should be addressed with much more research which is not done till now, and should be implemented with much more monitoring.

Government schools in villages gets sanctioned for three storied building for all the facilities but it will end up in a small one room school where ten classes gets constructed under one roof and in some cases roofless. The middlemen eat up the sanctioned budget. Who is monitoring this?

The significant problem in Primary education is majority of students who pass 7th Grade does not go for 8th grade because of various reasons like girl child not allowed to study because of bewildered parents or backward society of villages. Other reason is traveling to alternate place to study which is not possible by children of poor families. And boy child forced to work because of poor and selfish people.

This problem continues to higher secondary education as well. The number of students who pass 10th grade stop their education for one or many of the reasons mentioned above. There is lack of guidance to parents. There is lack of information in villages. Many villagers does not even know that there is almost free education till 11th and 12th grade in their districts. Girls get married at this age. And boys go for work. All because

of the backward, information less, electricity less, transport less, poor, illogical confused society which is majority of Indian population.

Kendriya Vidyalayas were good, but day by day the quality is decreasing as the number of teachers who jump from KVs to Private schools is increasing drastically. The picture of private education on the other hand is like this. Delhi Public School charges Rs 1500 to 5500 per month for primary and secondary education. In some cases its been 15K to 20K for international schools. There has to be some kind of regulation in these areas by government keeping in mind the average educated working man's salary. After all education is not just pure business it is about giving back to society also.

Look at the budget that gets allocated to education compared to any other sector. Its very less unlike other countries in West. The main reason for this is the huge population problem India has, but why does not it learn from China. Also the kind of education policies used in Kerala has to be implemented by whole country. Governments are promising that they will contribute 6 percent of GDP to education which is actually very less compared to West, Europe, Japan and China but practically they are not even spending 4 percent of GDP on education.

One more statistical example which highlights the difficulties faced by parents to provide good education to their children is

Tier One cities.( Capital of states ) : decent private school fees 1000 to 5000 per month.

Average salary of parents in these cities 20K per month.

Tier two cities. ( Major cities in states apart from capital ) : school fess 500 to 2000 per month.

Average salary of parents 10K per month.

Tier three cities. ( Major towns , industrial towns etc ) School fees 200 - 1000 per month.

Average salary of parents 5K per month.

Villages. No private schools. 80 percent of India is in Villages.

How many poor families can afford technical education in India for their children. There is lack of dignity of labor in India which stops students form working on their own and funding their education. This is one major difference from India compared to West, where dignity of labor is high.

The following things can be done to better the Indian Education system.

Policies by UPA government like common minimum program which is implementation of two percent education cess on the tax, a stress on employment guarantee and establishment of National Rural Health Mission are some good steps. These kind of steps have to be implemented more and more.

Why is the number of MS/MBA people applying abroad increasing drastically every year. Why dont we open more IITs, IIMs, AIIMS so that people stay back in India. Compare the number of good colleges in USA and USA population with that of Indian counterpart. The (good college)/(students) ratio in USA is 100 to 1000 times greater than that of India.

India is divided into states, states into districts, districts into taluks, taluks into mandals.

Open one IIT/IIM/AIIMS per state.

Open one well facilitated government Eng/Medical/Gradutaion college in every discrict.

Increase higher secondary education till 12th in every taluk.

Increase secondary education till 10th in every mandals.

As you have bureaucrats for Police, Traffic, general administration , similarly have them specifically for education in each of the district. Look at the number of IAS applicants to the number of seats that are available. One lakh apply for 300 seats. Make the seats to 1000 and use the remaining 700 efficiently, use some portion of it to education system. Take the money from politicians and use for these noble causes.

Because of British rule in India much of the curriculum of primary education ponders around European history. And of course majority of the education is about Indian History which is not of much use. There is no where we study about Japan, China and Singapore which are doing excellent now. After world war Japan has become global leader in automobile and electronics, where do we study this. Singapore was worse than Bihar 50 years back, and now its better than USA, where do we study about that. Even China, it has got amazing history, well developed economy, good political system which is not taught in schools.

In spite of all the problems that Indian education system has there are some good things for which we can be proud of.

Literacy rate has increased from 20 percent to 60 percent in 50 years.

Number of primary and secondary schools has been increased by 10-100 times.

Number of technical institutions, colleges, universities has been increased several times.

Indian Education System has few visible flaws, the curriculum of it so very complete and well defined that it develops a hard working and dedication in the student, which keeps him at much higher ranks when it comes to judging an Indian child on global level.

About Author : Narendra currently works with Motorola Inc and was my batchmate @ SJCE . He was among the toppers of 2004 batch .

Hide-and-Seek for Hopscotch

07:20, Monday, February 26, 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Thanks to the nagging nannying that comes along as an implicit responsibility, till some years back, I hated being the eldest among my cousins. Who wants to take care of a naughty cousin running out on the streets when all you want to do is run to the nearest playground and play hopscotch!

On second thoughts, troublesome cousins were easier to deal than the ever-pestering homework and the impending ‘tuition classes’ that my cousins have to wage a lost battle against, each day! I had a childhood that stood for itself – my time was not mutilated with the ‘busy schedules’ that some of the junior school-goers from my family and in my neighbourhood.

Hmmm… those were the days of cheering and chirruping. Everyday, I woke up at 7a.m. to catch my school bus but the day truly began around 3 p.m. when I got back from eight lectures of rote and ‘learning’. I’d go off for a siesta – to replenish my spent self and gear up for all the action lined up. It was hopscotch to begin with, while we waited for other lazier friends to trickle in. And it didn’t take too long for the real action to begin – Vish-Amrit (The Indian version of Lock-and-Key), Gallery, Crocodile-crocodile, Poshampa, Pitthoo, I-spy, Chor-Police, Kho-kho, Hide-n-Seek, Marbles and the list was endless. The uproar and pandemonium for the next couple of hours saw us quarreling, tripping and falling amidst the seemingly endless guffawing, chuckling and bantering.

We wouldn’t come back until we had to – who would ever want to leave the mirth and merriment! The only reason we had to, was our parents’ parched throats – thanks to the persistent yelling for the awaiting dinner! We’d even risk being admonished and (sometimes) even getting a read cheek or two – it simply seemed worth it all!

Most of my cousins consider these tales mere figments of imagination. “What about tuitions?”, they ask with amazement bordering on disbelief already! And these are kids in grades three to five! The first time I had to join private tuition was in class 10 – only because everyone around me was joining one or the other. I understood most of what my Math teacher at school explained but I needed extra coaching for extra practice, I was told. The same holds true of this cousin in class 3. My cousins don’t know most of their age-mates in the neighbourhood. Their favourite games are reduced to video games and ‘hobbies’ start and end with ‘channel surfing’ across the idiosyncrasies of the idiot-box.

Whatever happened to ‘play-time’? Have outdoor games become too old-fashioned to be indulged into while we are still kids (despite the fad that ‘reintroduces’ them to be a part of the list of various informal team-building activities that the corporate world is proud of)? Parents apparently hate jettisoning the erstwhile play-time with hours clocked at the neighbourhood coaching classes. Yet they say they have no choice. After all, who’s to assist the latch-key kid with his homework? To make matters worse, the gossip-circles whisper to the worried parent that teachers at school are leaving a chunk of the syllabus incomplete and not giving adequate attention to the portions that need more time to grasp. Increasing strengths of classes at school put the parents in doubt – how much attention can be paid to my one-in-sixty child?

Is it not a win-win situation for all? The now-coveted ‘tutors’ enjoy their newly discovered and highly lucrative hobby-turned-profession. Parents have their conscience no longer ticking because they’ve invested in better ‘resources’ for their dear child’s invaluable education. And who knows, this may be an incentive for school-teachers to ‘just take it easy’ with the chalk-dust in school – after all, expectations from them must have been lowered, right?

Gosh – I’m so glad I was the eldest among my cousins. I escaped what they go through now – and so comfortably!

Most of my cousins are simply bored of studying – barely a couple of years of having begun their education-life! What’s worse is that it’s become increasingly more a rule than an exception to see a child complaining of boredom. “Studies are meant to be boring”, says one of my aunt, for her homework-evading primary school-going darling. Biscuits are dished out every other hour when a class 12 examinee is studying back in home – apparently, to break the monotony. A break, moreover, means 15 minutes of channel surfing or a quick telephone chat with any of her friends

Once upon a time (and this might draw alarm and shock in most younger readers), school was fun and studying was not as much an ordeal as the longer hours, ever-increasing piles of homework and heavier school-bags have made it today. I enjoyed learning about the water cycle in Geography and solving BODMAS sums in Arithmetic as much as I loved reading Oscar Wilde in English Literature and learning in History about the relics found in Mesopotamia and Harappa!

How come not one of my friends failed an exam in those days and it is exactly this fear that sometimes drives parents to knock the doors of the local tutor today? How come we never let anything impinge on our play-time but today it’s considered more a dispensable luxury that anything else? How come we took notes in class so much more seriously than the rowdy, noisy hooligans who get away with little effort in class, thanks to the assurance of a tutor waiting back home? What worries me is – will my friends have any friends in the neighbourhood unless they join a coaching centre? Can I, as a parent in future, be able to revive what I think was a better environment for the overall development of my child, despite the pressures from kith and kin alike to send him rushing to the nearest tuition teacher?

Can I ever expect him to enjoy Hide-and-Seek and Hopscotch or will I have to push him to ‘seek’ prospective pals for Hopscotch! I’d rather have MY child squirm about having to baby-sit his younger cousins than feel relieved that he isn’t burning the midnight oil like them when they should be playing snakes-and-ladders in bed!

About Author - Roopika Sood is doing her MBA at NMIMS,Mumbai. I am always impressed and inspired by her way of writing(mainly her mails).

Note

07:18, Monday, February 26, 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

This note applies to all the articles under the blog 'eduindia'.

Views expressed by the writer in the blog are personal and are neither related to the school/college where he/she studied nor to the company where he/she works.

Welcome Note

04:21, Tuesday, February 6, 2007 .. 4 comments .. Link

In this blog, I will try and get as many writers as possible. These writers will have their own stories to tell, the stories about their life @ college, entry into the college and days after college.

As far as I can tell, the education system in India is in shambles. The best remain the best and the worst are lost in crowd . Year after year, the country gets millions of bachelors. But apart from few , who land in software jobs, rest are left in no-mans-land ! Isn't there a way to handle Indian brain drain.

As the floyd lines go :

"..... And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear,
You shout and no one seems to hear,
And if the band youre in starts playing different tunes,
Ill see you on the dark side of the moon..."

I promise to get writers who will tell their very own stories of education at various levels & of different types - all but in India.

Also, few writers , who have studied both in India and abroad, will try and compare the education systems.