In India, Educated but Unemployable Youths

Graduates Find Schools Don't Foster Skills Needed for Changing Economy

By Rama Lakshmi

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 4, 2009

Barely eight months after leaving prestigious Delhi University with an undergraduate degree in commerce, Reena Dubey is back in the classroom, poring over a textbook on debt recovery and taking notes on India's banking industry.

"I studied economics, accounting, trade, corporate tax planning and industrial law for three years. But I was still clueless when I graduated," said Dubey, 22. "All my education was bookish and theoretical."

Hoping to secure an entry-level job as a credit card collection agent, Dubey recently enrolled in a skills-building course offered by New Delhi's Avsarr training academy for new graduates who want to work in India's booming banking and retail industries.

"India's job market has changed, but my degree has not equipped me for it," she said.

Dubey's deflating discovery mirrors the experience of most of the 3.2 million Indians who receive undergraduate degrees each year. The Confederation of Indian Industry says that 25 percent of technical graduates and 15 percent of other graduates can be readily employed in the jobs that the recent boom has generated in the telecommunications, banking, retail, health care and information technology sectors.

"The stark reality is that our education system churns out people, but industry does not find them useful," said T.K.A. Nair, principal secretary to the prime minister, addressing a recent conference here in the capital on linking education to employability. "The necessary development of skills is missing in our education."

About 69 percent of unemployed Indians are educated but lack skills, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry. Only 6 percent of the workforce has a professional certification other than a degree, a figure the Labor Ministry says it hopes to boost to 12 percent within five years. In February, the government announced an ambitious plan to address the skills gap by improving vocational training and encouraging cooperation between educational institutions and industry.

The problem is compounded by demographic changes that experts say will greatly expand the country's working-age population in coming years.

Today, about 54 percent of Indians are younger than 30. Census projections suggest that the proportion of Indians in the 15-to-64 age group will increase steadily, from 62.9 percent in 2006 to 68.4 percent in 2026. By 2020, the average age in India is expected to be 31, compared with 37 in China and 48 in Japan. Census reports say that India is entering the advantageous "demographic dividend" phase just as China leaves it.

In a report last year, however, the Finance Ministry said that if that growing workforce does not develop skills soon, the country could face "a demographic nightmare": a surplus of educated people and a shortage of qualified workers as labor requirements continue to shift from agriculture to industry.

"This is the biggest wake-up call for India. Our schools and colleges do not provide the skills that India's new economic drive demands," said Amit Kapoor, a professor at the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. "People are graduating without learning how to get things done, without complex problem-solving skills, without knowing how to put their theoretical education into practice, and with poor articulacy. Our schools are centers of rote learning and give out degrees without imparting employable skills."

The problem extends even to India's much-hyped engineering graduates, who have been the backbone of the country's thriving outsourcing industry in the past decade.

Every year, India produces about 650,000 engineers. But Pratik Kumar, executive vice president for human resources at the information-technology and outsourcing giant Wipro, says his company considers fewer than a quarter of them employable. "The biggest problem is the poor quality of teachers," he said. "The teaching profession is unable to attract good talent. It is often the last resort for people who could not make it elsewhere." In the past three years, Wipro has created several funds to finance grants, research scholarships and sabbaticals for teachers in engineering schools.

"This is not philanthropy," Kumar said. "If we don't do this now, it will hinder the future growth of our industry." According to a recently released report by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the research group Technopak, "most industries are struggling to achieve their growth targets because of a shortage of skilled labor." The report says some companies have begun hiring skilled blue-collar workers from abroad and recommends the creation of "skill councils" for different industries that would track data, set standards and design training curricula.

But there is a cultural barrier to overcome, as well. When the Confederation of Indian Industry set out a few years ago to make India the "skill capital of the world," it found that many educated Indians frowned upon the word "skill."

"It is associated with low-level jobs in people's minds. 'Skill' is not meant for educated persons," said Vijay Thadani, chairman of the group's national committee on education. "We have to change that perception, to bring social acceptability and recognition to the word. We keep repeating that skill is a bankable, certifiable asset. Skill is currency

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Are employability skills coachable?

 

A NASSCOM report says only 10 per cent of newly minted graduates in India are employable. Nishant Saxena describes how students can learn communication skills, business ethics and basic managerial skills

Enough has been said and written on employability skills or the lack of them among Indian students. Essential for any job aspirant, these are non-technical skills and competencies which contribute to an individual’s effective and successful participation in the workplace. According to a report by NASSCOM, only 10 per cent of fresh graduates in India are employable. Similar surveys on engineers and MBA graduates place employable professionals at no more than 25 per cent.

So let’s begin by defining 9 missing requirements which limit a youngster’s chances of landing a job.

Attitude (Sincerity, Ownership/Motivation)

• Business Ethics/Honesty
• Grooming/Confidence
• Communication Skills
• General Awareness
• Basic Managerial Skills (Leadership, Teamwork, Time Management etc.)
• Basic Sales and Customer Service (most entry level jobs require one of these)
• Domain Knowledge
• Work Experience
  

While the obvious solution to unlock India’s much discussed demographic dividend is to empower students with these requisite skills, the question remains: can these employability skills be taught?
Attitude & Ethics are the most difficult to correct. Clinical psychologists have found that attitude can be improved through a six-nine month process involving motivation, extended practise and constant feedback. Being pedantic almost never works in improving attitude. Still, most professors continue to hope that by repeating their unsolicited advice, students may change!
Even the use of innovative techniques like story-telling has thrown up mixed results. In reality, the effect of a few hours of class is often drowned by 22 years of grounding. While some borderline cases did change, for the most part, only the good ones got better.

Grooming & Confidence, on the other hand, are the easiest to correct. Steady practise in small batches of 15-25 students, with people of similar ability carefully chosen and teamed up, giving every individual a chance to speak for 5-7 minutes every day for four-five months, brought about tremendous improvement. Workshops involving specially trained grooming instructors, emphasising lines such as ‘dress to impress’ worked too.  The process requires strict discipline so that everyone gets time to speak. Similarly, basic grooming checks on colour combinations of attire, hair and shoe polish, every day, for a few months so that students understand how to dress for formal situations.  

Communication skills takes time and a scientific method of intervention.Basic communication skills have to be sharpened. This involves improving students’ listening skills, helping them understand their audience, and training them to be crisp and logical in their responses.

Most tier 2 colleges are concerned about the inability of their students to speak English fluently. A module which covers Grammar and spoken English, and pronunciation is required. Students are usually less inclined to focus on English at such a late stage in their career. So the training sessions need to be lively and interactive.

An everyday quiz on current affairs for six months can help students develop the reading habits. To build their interest, as part of the quiz, those who are unable to answer a question may be fined Rs 5 while those who answer correctly may be rewarded.

While it would be ambitious to think that a two-hour, team work session will make everyone a great team player, we have seen a significant improvement in the level of maturity through this method.
Many undergraduate students lack work experience in any domain. Moreover, most college faculty are not qualified to train students in industry-oriented skills. So the best practice is to get a significant portion of training to be delivered by industry experts. Those who can deliver live corporate experiences, share inside secrets and tips on the business world, explain what is not covered in theory and how to apply theory in real life must be invited to address students on campus.

Most companies want work experience before a degree like an MBA, but 80-95 per cent of MBA students are fresh BA/B Com/B Sc graduates. This can be corrected by offering industry projects during the course ( internship, externships etc).

The long-term solution may be for colleges to recruit  experienced students, especially for a post graduate course like MBA.

 

Source : Deccan Herald

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Need to link education with employability stressed

About 15-17 million people enter the job market every year, said Hari S Bhartia, Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Jubilant Bhartia Group, and President of the Confederation of Indian Industry, and with urbanisation and the rapidly changing job market, it is becoming increasingly important to link education with employability. Bhartia was speaking at the Plenary Session on ‘Capitalising on India’s Human Capital’ at the India Economic Summit.

Among the many issues plaguing the education system in India, lack of a robust and functioning education system at the primary level, a high-drop out rate from schools, especially seen in rural/semi-urban areas, has resulted in a large number of people entering the workforce straight after school, with few skills to help them find suitable employment or offer opportunities for career advancement. “The context for education is missing — there is no link between education and employability in their minds,” said Bhartia.

 

For India to realise its full potential — its is slated to be the third largest economy in the world — its population of 1.2 billion people, two-thirds of which lives in rural areas, needs to be suitably educated in order to be productive members of the workforce.

For this, major changes in the area of education and skill development are required, emphasised Venkat Matoory, Chief Executive Officer, Junior Achievement of India. “Children today are going through the same education system as earlier and the outcomes, therefore, will not be different.” The education system needs a second look with the objective of creating a “context for learning”, said Matoory. “We need a framework for industry to create a context —industry needs to play a very important role in education.”

While the government continues to address the issues at hand with initiatives such as the National Skills Development Corporation, new and many models should be looked at, at various levels — primary as well as secondary and higher education — said Harsh Manglik, Chairman and Geography Managing Director, Accenture India. Technology can be used to bridge the gap wherever possible and e-learning modules designed for specific streams of education should be used, suggested Manglik.

Given the magnitude of the task at hand, the government alone would not be able to address the issue suitably. The private sector should be allowed to play a greater role, even at the primary level, and allow free market forces to come into play. “If we allow market force mechanisms to come into play, of course with checks and balances in place, there will be advantages — for one, markets drive efficiency,” said Manglik. In terms of regulation on the part of the government, the emphasis should be on regulating outcomes, rather that processes.

Vocational training should be encouraged, and find greater recognition and acceptance to help trained people find suitable employment. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Executive Director, Corporate and Legal Affairs, Tesco UK, suggested apprenticeship and the teaching of “soft skills which are very important, is making a person employable.”

Apart from imparting skills to make people employable, due attention must also be paid to making them self-employable, suggested Brij Kothari, Director, PlanetRead, India. We need to “entrepreneurise the rural community,” he said.

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The Core Philosophy of Dheya…

'The single most important contribution education can make to a child's development is to help him towards a field where his  talents best suit him , where he will be satisfied and competent We've completely lost sight of that Instead we subject everyone to an education where, if you succeed, you will be best suited to be a college professor. And we evaluate everyone along the way according to whether they meet that narrow standard of success. We should spend less time ranking children and more time helping them to identify their natural competencies and gifts and cultivate those. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to succeed and many many different abilities that will help you get there.’

Howard Gardner

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TIME TO TAKE A DECISION

Pavan is an enthusiastic and a high energy kid. Ambitious and strongly focused towards his career goal, Pavan is sharing his views on the process of career guidance and planning. Pavan underwent the career guidance and career planning session last year.

 
HUZZ……BUZZ ………everywhere in schools do you know why, but I know because everyone is tensed and are anxious about their 10th board exams. Everyone after writing/finishing the board exams have to take a decision. It is time to take a decision about their future. Because life is a road and a person travels on this road of life and at this particular time and point he/she, but a student comes to a fork or to halt on their journey of life as they are in front of a road which has many divided sections of roads and this roads can be treated as the courses taken in inter first and second year. They are as follows Mpc, Bipc, CEC, MEC, HEC, etc. These are the roads for the students and at this particular point of time one has to take a decision as to on which road he has to travel or which course he has to take and on which he has interest and may have a bright future.

The student himself has to take decision as on this decision his future is dependent. Students are responsible for their future and they can’t blame others in future saying that because of u now I am suffering. It is time for every student to realize and to make a decision about his/her future. Always remember that “right decisions at right times bring bright results.”

Then why waste time? Go, run, get information about all the courses and colleges offering the groups and then take a decision but decide very carefully because it is your future and don’t try to play with it. And I request all the parents not to force their children to take a course that has a lot of demand in the society. We all know that parents are concerned about their child’s future but they should also give him a chance and try to find out where his interests are.
And if you have any problem, you can consult for aptitude test which can be written online and one of them is dheya.com. I opted for it and I am now enjoying my studies and I am also happy with my decision because at first I wanted to be an army man and the course for it is MPC but I am a lot weak in math’s and I don’t have any interest towards physics and chemistry. So I thought and decided to take CEC, and whatever may happen will happen.

Many criticized my decision and soon I was in a dilemma about my decision of taking CEC. But soon my mother noticed my position and she advised me to write an aptitude test. Aptitude means ability. I wrote the test and he guided me through the right path. They told everything about all the courses and that my decision is right and also asked me not to fear that my decision is wrong. They also said that people say many things but it is your future and nobody will help when u will listen to them and change your decision and opt for an unwilling course. There will be none and u can’t blame anyone about your fate. So try and wake up to take a decision.

And one more thing. After coming back home, after listening to them I still had a guilty feeling in me but after a few months I started enjoying my studies and I also top my class every time is it not enough for me and my parents.

A Note to the Parents

Dear parents, please kindly remember that when a child enjoys his studies he tries to learn more. “Marks are not important, but knowledge is important and when knowledge is gained then it automatically reflects in your marks. “And I also can give you an example when a boy or girl plays a game they try to play more efficiently in the next game as they enjoyed it and want to learn more of it. And when a student doesn’t like or is not interested in studies but still is forced to study, then he tries to opt for important points and mugs them up and vomits in the answer sheet. So let them enjoy their studies. Then they try to learn more of the subject. Even the scientists proved that a person in 24 hours of a day gets only 4 hours of concentration and in the remaining hours whatever he studies can’t be remembered, and none can tell when a person really obtains this concentration. 

Mmy name is V.PAVAN TANAY NAG;
INTER FIRST YEAR STUDENT, C.E.C, ALPHORES JUNIOR COLLEGE, KARIMNAGAR.
YOURS SINCERELY,
V.PAVAN TANAY NAG

You could chat with  Pavan on Facebook

You could also join us on the Dheya Group on Facebook

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Technorati Tags: career guidance counselling aptitude testing

Dheya.Com's Blog. A complete career guidance, planning and development portal. Visit www.dheya.com for details. Dheya also offers aptitude testing and career counselling services.

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Need of the Hour: Career Guidance & Career Planning in India

Indian Education has many issues to deal with. Since the year 1835 the British started tinkering with the India’s traditional education system of ‘Guru shyshya’ which was value based and focussed on outcome and application of learning.

The new age education came into being with schools and colleges being set up across India.

In 1948 when the Radhakrishnan Commission was set up with an intention of designing a new National University Education Policy of free India, the commission stressed on the outcome of education into social, economic and cultural goals of the nation.

Dr S Radhakrishnan in his words said:

“The most important and urgent reform needed in education is to transform it, to endeavor to relate it to the life, needs and aspirations of the people and thereby make it the powerful instrument of social, economic and cultural transformation necessary for the realization of the national goals. For this purpose, education should be developed so as to increase productivity, achieve social and national integration, accelerate the process of modernization and cultivate social, moral and spiritual values.” ⁵

Since 1956 Commissions and committees were set up to deal with non-implementation of earlier recommendations and identifying gaps in the Education system.

On the ground, apart from introducing little new regulatory compliance there were no major changes that could be effected towards building outcome of education to the social, economic and cultural goals of the country.

In reality the focus of higher education always has been away from the outcome and application to just input based education. Outcome here means the education resulting in either economic growth or increased capability of the learner.

Unfortunately today education has minimal relevance to occupation, passion, interest of the individual learner. The age old beliefs have created havoc in making a choice of education. The aspirational needs, abilities and interest of the individual have been ignored. This has led to non-compatibility, career failures, drop outs and unemployables.

Today the youth do not value higher education. They acquire degrees with no connection to their occupations they would like to pursue. This is visible with higher un-employability and unemployment in the country. Hence, the gross enrolment ratios and dropout rates are far from desired.

The government is doing all it can to improve access of education. It’s a known fact that 73% of the population lives in rural India, however 90% of the educational institutes are in urban India ⁶. I believe that it’s a superficial measure of increasing enrolments.

 

Towards Valuing Higher Education

The youth of India will value education only when they see benefits that result in their social, economic and personal growth. There needs to be sustained effort on helping the youth realize their potential and guide them into the right education which will lead them into a career that satisfying yet economically fulfilling.

Today 98% of young boys and 96% of young girls are confused while making a career decision⁷. The confusion is due to the lack of information and skill for making career decisions. This confusion drives them into making unfocussed investments of time, effort and money into education that may or may not deliver returns.

A scientific career guidance process with a reliable information base on education and career would transform the current scenario.

Guiding the student into taking up education that would lead to a career that’s compatible to his or her personal abilities, passion, interests, values and personality, would never let the interest levels in education diminish. Moreover, research tells us that students who are able to understand and internalize the connections between school and work will be more actively engaged in their academic tasks and will be more likely to succeed in high school ⁸

 

^{Excerpts from the paper ‘Relooking at the Indian Education System” Published by Anand Desai, Founder Dheya (www.dheya.com ), A complete Career Guidance and Planning Company.}

Technorati Tags: Career Guidance,Career Development,Career Planning. Indian Education System.

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Skill Development Initiatives will transform India: FM… WILL THEY???

 

 

 

What the FM said is theoretically and conceptually right. We at Dheya Lifelong Learning believe that the focus needs to be on EMPLOYABILITY and not just skill development. 

Dheya’s employability programs focus on building the3 major pillars of Employability. These are competencies that enhance the employability of the student. The first being the academic competence (an ability to read , write, analyse, calculate etc), the second being the process competence (an ability to manage the work assigned which includes ability, skills and knowledge to perform on the job ) and the third is about Personal competence and life skills (the most important of all to remain employed and groowing). We believe just be enhancing the skills with no personal competencies is a sheer waste.

The times of India reported that the FM said here on Wednesday that there was no alternative to effective private participation and partnerships for the government to achieve the target of increasing gross enrolment ratio (GER) in Indian higher education from the existing 12.5 pc to 30 pc. The GER  refers to the percentage of students in the age group of 17 to 24 years enrolling for  higher education on completion of their standard XII studies .

This looks damn neat when the FM says this but the words and actions of the government are absolutely divergent in nature. There is absolutely no or minimal effort in getting the private players to actually participate in the process.

Today the  Developed countries in Europe and the US have a GER of more than 60 pc.  whereas the world average is 25 pc. One of the key reasons for a low GER is not about access but about the value we derive out of education and a big disconnect between education its outcome towards economic and cultural growth of the individual.

The FM  was absolutely right calling for a  rapid multiplication of skill development initiatives for transforming India from a ‘degree-seeking’ to a ‘skill acquiring system’. He said that quality ought to be the focal point of all policies and programmes in education. unfortunately the culture of “degree seeking” came in from the public sector as in the past degrees not the skills or competencies ever mattered in the recruitment process of the public sector. The change would happen when competencies are measured more than the marks at the time of admissions, recruitments and entry into various fields. 

The change would also happen when we link up academics to employability and start measuring the results of the institute based on the employability quotient of the students.

The change would also happen if we help the students plan their career and align their educational efforts towards the career would like to pursue.

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Being more Indian in Education

 

I guess this is what is needed. Its important to be an Indian and feel like an Indian.  Its just not the graduation gown but the entire modern education system is “a sign of colonial slavery”.

 

Its so funny that the vendor who provides these gowns and mortarboards gives it on rent for a day. Its big business I must say. Everyone who wears it looks like a clown of the day.

Jairam Ramesh yesterday gave the graduation gown a dressing down.

The environment minister declared at a Madhya Pradesh convocation that the academic square hat and gown worn at such events was “barbaric”, almost echoing the state’s ruling BJP whose ministers had dubbed the dress “a sign of colonial slavery”.

Ramesh rooted for “some- thing more Indian”. “Why do we stick to the barbaric dress? Why can’t we have a simple dress for such functions?” Ramesh asked the organisers of the convocation at Bhopal’s Indian Institute of Forest Management where he was the chief guest.

The dress, which Indian

universities would have pick- ed up from the Oxford and Cambridge tradition, does not suit the Indian weather, he added, before going on to question the need for such ceremonies.

“Such convocations are boring. We must live with the times,” Jairam said, discarding his square hat and red-yellow gown.

Later, he declared that the tradition of throwing the mortarboard in the air was also “uncalled for”.

Inspite of all the comments made by Jairam Ramesh, students were, nonetheless, seen doing exactly that in celebration.

For an education Indian middle class family, 1/3rd to half of the family income goes in educating their kids. 

There is hardly any such family that doesn’t proudly flaunt the picture

of at least one of its members in graduation gear in the living room cupboard or on the wall.

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GOOD INTENT , ZERO PASSION , DOUBTFUL EXECUTION … The Right of EDUCATION ACT

Technorati Tags: Passion,Education,Law,Government of India,Education Ministry,Access

Right of education is just about giving access to schools. Its important to build education around economic and social goals of the future. Heart of education is in its outcome into economic &cultural growth, access doesn't matter.When people see value in education enrolment will improve.


One April 1st 2010 the historic right to education bill 2009 came into being. The bill will supposedly ensure each and every child from the age of 6 to 14 get primary /elementary compulsory education.. I must admit, there are great intentions behind the bill. I also would like to admit that its a “GOOD Intent, zero passion & doubtful execution

program.

I have been studying this bill since it was tabled in the parliament till it finally got a nod last August 2009. Its a big challenge to the government to actually implement this bill. It may take several years to actually see results from this bill or it could be just another scheme like the NREGA or the mid day meal with either minimal or no social impact.

This bill would ensure accessibility, for sure, but doesn't answer what quality, and what content or the outcome of education. Here when i read the goals of this act i really doubt if it could achieve any level of impact on the learner. I still believe that its more important to analyse the content in this bill. There seems to be no mention of how academics and academicians will actually let these people learn the basics.

In my visits to villages and remote places I found that the teachers are nothing but a figure who represents the schools. With no passion for education he is more interested in signing the muster and earning the wage. I wonder how do we actually train these teachers to enhance quality. What about passion for education??? I am not sure if passion can be built or enhanced, it should come from within.

About the 25% reservation in private schools, I believe its another way of a quota or a rout to get some class of people admitted in the school. May be it would work or it would be a back end entry fro few.

One point i must appreciate and firmly believe is about not  FAILING students. I hope this gets implemented across widely and firmly.

Whatever it is its a good beginning. The country knows that something is better that nothing at all. The only problem is execution. If a clean and swift execution could be managed, this act could do wonders for the future apart from enhancing the quality of education.

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Dheya's Tribute to our Shri Nanaji Deshmukh

 

 

Yesterday the nation lost one of the grassroots reformers who dedicated his life towards building the nation by building the rural population. We are talking about Shri. Nanaji Deshmukh, a visionary, a nation builder and the founder of Deendayal Research Institute,Chitrakoot.

As a child i had a privilege listen to listen to Shree Nanaji Deshmukh in one of the RSS camps in 1979. I could not understand much but understood only one great thing he spoke that I remember it even today, that was about his thoughts on Ram Rajya, as conceptualised by Mahatma Gandhi. It was about having villages free of ills and crimes, it was about villages free of disputes and litigations. He said then which I remember, growth would happen in a positive mind.

So true, what he said, and what he believed in. Chitrakoot is a wonder that was created by Nanaji Deshmukh as per Ex President APJ Abdul Kalam. In his words he said ….

I see that Chitrakoot project is an integrated model for the development of rural India. It aims at creating a society based on family bonding, pride in India culture, modern education wedded to Indian wisdom, easing of social tensions, economic empowerment of all especially the women folk, health for all, cleanliness, concern for environment, equitable distribution of wealth among all the constituents of the society. This concept fully tallies with my view that developed India means not only economic development but also integrated development in art, literature, humanism, nobility in thinking and above all preservation of over five thousand years of our rich cultural heritage.

 

 

One of the experiment that gained huge success was the experiment of Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishvavidyalaya, It is an innovative model of rural reconstruction and education. The school has  students studying in gurukula fashion, living with their teachers in extended families. This defies the entire model of modern education where we only infuse theoretical knowledge with no application to life. In addition the model was towards building values, life skills, self reliance love for the country  and pride.

Another experiment that has done wonders is about litigation free society. As per Nanaji,

if the people fight among each other they have no time for development. They can neither develop themselves nor the community. So he started a concept of ‘Samaj Shilpi Dampati’ , a married couple in the society who are trained in counselling and resolving conflicts. The result of this is just amazing, today 

eighty villages around Chitrakoot are almost litigation free. The villagers have unanimously decided that no dispute will find its way to court.

Nanaji Deshmukh developed a model for the development of rural areas on the basis of Integral Humanism. After initial experiments in Gonda (U.P.) and Beed (Maharashtra), Nanaji finally fine-tuned an integrated program for the development of rural areas that covers health, hygiene, education, agriculture, income generation, conservation of resources, and social conscience, that is both sustainable and replicable. The basis of the project is 'Total transformation through total development with people's initiative and participation'.

The project, called the Chitrakoot Project or the 'Campaign for Self-Reliance', was launched on 26th January 2005 in 80 villages around the Chitrakoot area in the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The aim was to achieve self reliance for these villages by 2005. When complete in 2010, the project hopes to make the 500 surrounding villages self-reliant and serve as a sustainable and replicable model for the Bharat and the world.

If we have few more Nanji Deshmukhs India will have no poverty and will transform itself into a force that is enviable to the world.

Lets all bow our heads and pay a tribute to My IDOL. We will miss you Nanaji. I promise that Dheya will follow your  foot steps and the values you gave the world.

 

 

Anand Desai , Founder Dheya.

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NOBODY…

 

Nobody has the answers.
Nobody is listening to you.
Nobody is looking out for your interests.
Nobody will lower your taxes.
Nobody will fix the education system.
Nobody knows what he is doing in Delhi
Nobody will make us energy independent. 
Nobody will cut government waste.
Nobody will clean up the environment.
Nobody will protect us against terrorist threats.
Nobody will tell the truth.
Nobody will avoid conflicts of interest.
Nobody will restore ethical behavior to the Parliament

Nobody understands subsidies.
Nobody will spend your tax money wisely.
Nobody feels your pain.
Nobody wants to give peace a chance.
Nobody expected the economic downturn to fail.
Nobody warned that the housing bubble would collapse.
Nobody will stand up for what’s right.
Nobody will be your voice.
Nobody will tell you what the others won’t.
Nobody has a handle on this.
Nobody, but you, that is.

Never forget, a small group of people can change the

world.

 
No one else ever has.

 

 

………from Personal Democracy Forum

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Bill Gates 11 rules in Life

This is interesting. ,,,

Bill Gates recently(?)  gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

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Education in India: Is learning happening in Schools???

Penning down my thoughts on the way our kids learn in the current schooling system.

 

Does the school matter  anyhow ??

Schools irrespective of what medium,brand, funded or unfunded, the fact is learning has taken a back seat. Parents are expecting that their kids would turn into scholars once they get them admitted in the right school but its a big illusion. Age old beliefs like convent education being the best or English medium is better than the vernacular has played havoc. It doesn't matter which school the kid goes, learning matters the most.  

Lets understand what's happening in schools. May be I am generalizing and there could be exceptions. My thoughts are based on experiences and our findings after interacting with several schools.

From day one its the marks that the kid is thought to gain. I have seen parents pestering the kid on marks,I have also seen parents building personal relations, networking and flattering the class teacher to help their kid gain good marks. While its a fashion for the parents to tell others that their kid has gained more marks. What  they fail to understand that marks is just  a result of a that One or Two hour question paper that the kid answer after recitation. The strongest ability is  memory and recall and not the attainment of knowledge.

  

 

Hence there is no learning happening, its only the race for marks irrespective of the schools.

 

Does the Teacher Matter??

Till date the teaching profession was for those who don't get into the mainstream jobs or for house wives who need to spend some time outside. May be my statement would irk several people but its a fact.

In private schools its about ladies who have taken up this profession by some compulsion or just an occupation that keeps them occupied. Lack of passion towards the kids and teaching  is clearly visible. I have seen one of the renowned public school telling the requirement of the teacher that the lady should be good looking and well groomed. Teaching skills are not that important as the impression on the parents who spend a fortune is made by the looks of the teacher.

The salaries in private schools are bad. Since its not the main income in the family the level of perks and salaries are acceptable to ladies who take up teaching as a part time occupation. Even after 6th pay commission some school managements tell the aspiring candidates explicitly that the sixth pay commission salaries will not be applicable.

 

In such conditions passion for imparting knowledge or getting the student to learn is lost. Those parents who have the need engage their students to private tuitions at times to the same school teacher who give special attention to their  kid.

The big names in private tutorials are a joke. I don't understand why parents trust them. There are 40-50 students in a class in school, the private tutorials have more numbers sitting in a cramped place. The kids who have the guts to raise their doubts do it in schools as well as private tutorials and clarify their doubts. The rest of the kids keep mum with a fear of being laughed at for asking a question. What learning and understanding of concepts would happen any how??

The government/state/ municipal  schools even worst leaving some exceptions. Each state run school hires teachers who pass through a competitive exam. Unlike private schools the teachers come from needy background who consider teaching as the main occupation and source of income.  The competitive exam churns out the best in the lot who opt teaching as a profession. They may not be  well equipped with teaching aids plush classrooms but certainly have the knowledge of teaching. This lot of teachers take teaching for a secured job and not as a passion for imparting knowledge.  Ultimately the monotony and slow growth in their profession makes it an unattractive profession.

Irrespective of the schools the teachers are not driven towards results. Lack of passion, Lack of result orientation and performance measurement has destroyed the education culture in India.  

A serious  question comes in my mind.  What was bad in adopting the traditional education system and scaling it to masses?? It was the Gurukul system that has churned out the best students in the past. The Guru not only imparts knowledge but also drives in the Indian value system and ethos. The guru also mentors the pupil with learning avenues making the pupil capable and competent.  Our educationist blindly just adopted the westernized education system which has left the Indian population literate/qualified but not  educated.

Are exams effective ??

Exams is a game of TWO hours. Kids mug up for writing papers. I have seen kids singing and reciting  mathematical sums. The kids also know which are the probable questions. There are keys available in the market.

Exams today do not focus on practicality or the application of knowledge. Ultimately the marks gained is the measure of the  memory of the student that his knowledge.

Knowledge if not put to practical use is sheer waste. Today unfortunately ,there is NO education process in India that links to the practical usage of knowledge. There is lack of purposeful education that leads to economic and personal growth.

 

The toppers in exams are not necessarily the most successful in life. Do do exams matter after all. Can we get rid of exams and try to put a process that assesses the practical usage of knowledge the student has gained??

Are Teaching Techniques Effective??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teachers are trained in Education degrees like B.Ed, D.Ed and M.Ed that

text book is just the reference point. you need to teach the students more that just the text books. Invariably the teaching is just limited to text books.

Today in the kids are tech savvy, they have seen computer games, they have seen cartoons on television, they love to see and then learn. They would like to experience and learn.

Here is a suggestion, can we integrate cartoons, national geographic, the history channel , games and checklist base education that engages the kid in learning, understanding , experiencing and playing with the topics to gain knowledge??

With the current system in education its the a dooms day in waiting, The so called educationists need to wakeup fast or just step aside to let the private players take over. Its the issue of nation building and is critical. Its absolutely important for to student to understand the purpose of his learning and what career/occupation he/she plans to pursue post his education.

 

Research has proven that students who internalize the relation between what they are doing today in academics, why are they studying what they are studying and how it will help in their career, do well in their academics.   

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Do we need a SPARTACUS in us…

Spartacus (c. 109 BC-71 BC), according to Roman historians, was a slave and a gladiator who became a leader (or possibly one of several leaders) in the major slave uprising against the Roman Republic known as the Third Servile War.

 

Spartacus' struggle, often seen as the fight of an oppressed people fighting for their freedom against a slave-owning aristocracy. The rebellion of Spartacus has proven inspirational to many modern literary and political writers, making Spartacus a folk hero among cultures both ancient and modern. 

Do we need a Spartacus in us in today's world. Its been time since we have been accommodating everything that is thrown in front of us. We don't question, rather we don't have time. If we question we get blames, excuses and reasons in reply. The cost of these excuses are huge.

 

A simple example of dug up roads in Mumbai, i see them been dug up for years and years and there is absolutely no change. Never there is a smooth ride. Every drive is with stress and delay. When we question the administration that's corrupt points to the contractor, the contractor points to the political system ultimately we as citizens are are on the receiving end.

Roads, Infrastructure and basic amenities for tax payers is a minimum expectations. While urbanization in progress its the rural India that got ignored because money never reaches the grassroots.  Urban lords share the fruits with the political authorities.

 

 

I am not sure how but we need to fight this, its painful. Its important to empower the masses, make them realize their potential and build them into a strong force that builds the nation.  We need few Spartacus who will lead the way. We don't need leaders who are busy aligning themselves with the high command but those leaders who stand for the masses and believe in what is right than who is right.

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Snaptu: Second phase for CAT announced

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on Friday announced the second phase of the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 — to be conducted on January...

http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/india/Second-phase-for-CAT-announced/Article1-492929.aspx

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