Uniform, but unworkable

The 9 August ruling of the Supreme Court that schools in Tamilnadu must implement Samacheer Kalvi immediately has received mixed reactions. Some think it is a great step forward for equality and social justice, while others fear that it will undermine the quality of education in some schools. I believe the judgment is flawed, and will prove harmful to the students, parents, and teachers of Tamilnadu.

Samacheer Kalvi, or the Uniform System of Education, was brought in with much excitement by the previous DMK government. It would, said the government, ensure a uniform curriculum across the state in public and private schools, require the use of standardised text books by all pupils, and protect the rights of children to education in their mother tongue.

The implementation of the scheme began in the 2010-2011 academic year for Standards I and VI, and it was set to roll out for Standards VII-X in 2011-2012. But then a new AIADMK government was elected in mid-2011, and objected to the content of the textbooks. The new dispensation claimed the books promoted the previous government's politics and policies, and they passed legislation to delay implementation of the scheme while the books were revamped. In the meantime, some schools waited for the new books, some spent large amounts on books that followed the earlier curriculum. Some halted the use of books altogether.

In June, the Madras High Court ruled that the new law was unconstitutional and that Samacheer Kalvi must be fully implemented this academic year itself, as previously planned. Books produced by the DMK government were acceptable, any objectionable sections could be removed or papered over, and the books should be used. The government's appeal to the Supreme Court proved fruitless, as the apex body affirmed the High Court's views.

All of this is happening after children have been in school for weeks. Valuable instructional time has been lost. Students have become innocent victims caught in a political crossfire over curriculum and textbooks.

The whole situation highlights several important problems - with Samacheer Kalvi in particular and with government control of education in general. First, this sort of political haggling is inevitable when government involves itself in the detailed operations of schools, and the ones who lose will always be the students. Governments are political; they are not educators. Their strengths do not lie in planning curricula or in writing and selecting text books. Schools are familiar with the exams their students will need to pass to be successful and can plan their curricula accordingly. They do not need detailed plans handed down to them by government officials.

When it comes to textbooks and other such resources, schools and teachers are better placed to evaluate various options and determine what will be the best fit for their unique children, teaching styles, and circumstances. Indeed, even the National Curriculum Framework 2005, the central government's guidelines to states, emphasises the importance of giving flexibility to teachers and schools in determining the best way to achieve educational outcomes and the best resources to employ in pursuing those aims.

Children are different from each other, schools are different, and teachers are different. There is no reason, therefore, to assume that the same books will most effectively teach maths or social sciences or English in every situation. Those decisions are best left to individual schools. The government of Tamilnadu has demonstrated extreme arrogance in asserting that it knows better than parents and teachers how to teach children.

Inevitably, when governments involve themselves so heavily in the minutiae of education, the curriculum and textbooks will be politicised. Whether the government itself is writing the books, or a publisher is writing books to sell to the government, the incentive is to produce what will appeal to politicians. Say some good things about the party, and that probably earns you points. Emphasise the bits of history that play to the governing party's strengths, and that will probably help your case. And that's before we even start to think about the potential for bribery and corruption.

Is it any surprise, then, that the new government objected to the old government's chosen textbooks? And is it not all but certain that the scenario will repeat itself when the next new government is elected? Samacheer Kalvi increases the politicisation of education, and disempowers schools, teachers and parents. Neither is good for the quality of education.

Second, Samacheer Kalvi, like so many other government initiatives related to education, focuses entirely on inputs rather than outcomes. Everyone agrees that we want children who can read and write, add and multiply, speak well in their mother tongue and use English. All of these are outcomes. The books that are used, the teaching methods that are employed, the number of teachers, the hours spent at school, and the buildings and other facilities available are all inputs. They are tools for achieving educational outcomes. They are means, rather than ends in and of themselves. We should therefore focus on those ends, those objectives, and trust teachers and parents to judge the tools that are best used to achieve them.

Rather than setting broad standards and allowing parents and teachers the freedom to achieve those in the ways most well suited to their particular circumstances, politicians have focused on equality of inputs. If all pupils were exactly the same, all parents had exactly the same values, all circumstances were identical, and all children had the same goals, then focusing on inputs might work. But they are not. Outcomes are what matter, so governments should trust parents and teachers to figure out how those outcomes are best achieved.

And it is important to remember that Samacheer Kalvi applies to all schools, even private schools that are neither operated nor paid for by the state. The freedom of parents to choose the education that is best for their children has been removed. The ability of talented, experienced teachers to employ creative methods to teach their students has been severely undermined. By focusing on inputs, rather than on outcomes, the government of Tamilnadu has reduced incentives for teachers and schools to be innovative, to raise standards, to achieve more. None of that will be rewarded. Instead, teachers must follow government-determined rules and use government-approved resources.

The signal sent loud and clear is that it is those inputs, not outcomes, that are most important.

The forced requirement that all children must be taught in the mother tongue violates parental rights and is rather impractical in a cosmopolitan and multi-cultural state. The UN Declaration of Human Rights, in the Article 26, clearly states "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." India was one of the first signatories of this Universal Declaration.

To implement this, not just in letter but also in spirit, the Tamilnadu government should not only allow private schools to decide the medium of instruction. It should offer choice to parents in government schools for different media of instruction. The parents should have a right to choose the medium of instruction in private as well as government schools.

The desire for quality education for all children is noble and surely one shared by all. But Samacheer Kalvi makes that more difficult. It ensures that all children will use the same curriculum and the same books, but it reduces the ability of teachers to respond to the unique needs of their students or for parents to choose the education they believe is best for their children. If the government of Tamilnadu truly wants to improve education for all children, it should free up teachers to teach, schools to determine the specifics of curriculum and resources, and parents to choose the education that is best for their children.

This is the best way to improve education for all: Not just the right to education but the right to education of choice.

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Universal education, minimal learning

Tripura claims to have achieved the goal of universalisation of elementary education, with almost 100 per cent enrolment, 90 per cent retention and average attendance rates of 80 per cent for primary schools and 77 per cent for upper primary schools. Does that mean that on any random day, if you show up at an elementary school, you are going to find all the children in 6-14 years age group attending school?

Unlikely. A recently tabled CAG audit report that reviewed the performance of elementary education in the state during 2006-2011 shows that there is considerable mismatch between enrolment, attendance, etc. as enumerated in DISE (District Information System for Education) and actual percentages recorded in 60 schools where checks were carried out. On the day of inspection, average attendance was found to be 57 per cent. Not only is this significantly less than what DISE data claims, it was also less than the number present in the previous academic session's attendance registers.
Hidden behind the 'average' figures that paint a rosy picture of universalisation, retention and attendance are stark local variations. Thirty nine per cent of schools in Tripura show attendance rates below 50 per cent. In Dhalai district, with a high proportion of Scheduled Tribes, the attendance figures are quite worrisome.

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But in case one thinks the joint inspection team merely compared statistics in registers and DISE - a very common perception about auditors - you are in for a surprise. CAG's performance audit report spans across 33 pages and tells us that audit teams also held long interviews with teachers to gauge the reasons for low attendance and were told that such low attendance was due to 'less awareness of parents'.

The audit teams attempted to probe the reasons for low attendance and their relationship to learning outcomes, by examining the data more finely. They found that only two schools reported more than 80 per cent attendance and 50 per cent of students securing more than 80 per cent marks. Another 13 schools reported attendance ranging between 50 to 80 per cent and 25 to 50 per cent of students securing more than 80 per cent marks. As many as 45 schools, on the other hand, (75 per cent of the number sampled) showed poor attendance figures and poor learning outcomes.

The auditors also observed that except two schools, all the others had received teaching grants, but during inspection they did not appear to be using the teaching aids in classrooms. Fourteen out of 60 sampled schools didn't receive the Teaching Learning Equipment they were supposed to get as per SSA norms during the last five years. In Dhalai district, most of the children in schools were first generation learners, but none of the schools had provided any special attention to teach slow/weak learners. Thirty four schools did not have a regular head teacher, which meant that teachers had to attend to tasks related to school management, affecting their teaching duties.

The problem of schools not having a regular head teacher is wide-spread. Of the 4386 schools in Tripura, 2810 (64 per cent) do not have regular head teachers. The state needs to urgently promote more teachers into higher positions of responsibility as head teachers. This should not be too difficult, since Tripura has very positive Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) - in 2006 the state had a teacher for every 22 students and in 2011 it improved this ratio by having a teacher for every 18 students.

Impressive numbers on teacher recruitments also come along with poor school infrastructure, deficient training infrastructure, a depressingly low number of teacher educators, and uneven distribution of teachers. In many places, primary and upper primary schools are run in the same building, in morning and afternoon shifts. Thus, each of the schools on average functions for 22 hours a week for 100 to 284 days in an academic session. This is only half the time prescribed as working hours for teachers as per RTE norms viz. 45 hours a week (although the higher figure includes time that teachers have to spend in preparing for class as well).

While recruitment numbers are good, they are also highly uneven. The state has 11 schools where there is only one teacher for more than 100 students. There are also another 105 schools where there is one teacher for 50 to 100 students. Any intervention aiming to bring the PTR closer to the state average in these schools is constrained by policy hurdles. For instance, teachers recruited under SSA can't be transferred. Similarly as the Principal Secretary, Education suggested in a conference to discuss the audit findings, female teachers and teachers with health concerns can't be transferred either.

There is a need to identify schools/locations that have consistently reported adverse PTRs in the last ten years, and find the reasons that de-motivate teachers from accepting postings in these. That will help plan the incentives needed to overcome the hurdles.

Teacher quality remains an area of concern, despite continuous recruitment. As many as 71 per cent of the teachers do not possess the minimum qualifications mandated by the National Council of Teachers' Education. Only 22 per cent of the teachers are properly trained. Lack of Science and Maths teachers is a huge concern in many schools. 783 Upper Primary schools didn't have even a single Maths or Science teacher, and 1149 more didn't have a Maths teacher. In Dhalai, the shortage of teachers was particularly acute - Maths at 66 per cent, and Science at 50 per cent. This has affected learning outcomes in these subjects.

The state government has responded to the audit observations by stating that it is in the final stage of engaging 1000 Science teachers, but there is no word on addressing the shortage of Mathematics teachers. And even where there are teachers, problems eventually crop up; the poor training infrastructure and shortages of teacher educators deny a large number of teachers any in-service training to improve themselves.

On the whole, the education system in the State looks like one that is at best filling up numbers on a checklist, without much attention to any learning outcomes. And even this limited exercise appears incomplete in many places. One can only hope that this performance review triggers a discussion among educationists in the state, and an effort to address the bottlenecks to learning.

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Struggling to go beyond the basics

In August 2010, the Chief Minister of Sikkim, Pawan Chamling announced the Total Literacy Mission, 2015 - a vision to transform things in the state through equitable, holistic, inclusive and globally competitive education. The state government also claims to have accorded the highest priority to elementary education, and has incurred the highest per-child revenue expenditure on education in the country - Rs.6,667 as against the national average of Rs.1,337.

Certainly, the state has successfully provided access to elementary education for all, with equitable access to boys and girls, and rural as well as urban children. But there are areas where more needs to be done.

A recently-tabled Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit of the performance of elementary education in the state during 2006-2011 revealed that the Perspective Plan for the development of education was prepared by Education Consultants India Ltd in May 2003. Eight years from that date, the department hasn't still initiated any action to get the approval of the government to begin implementing the plan. Indeed, after spending Rs. 6.57 lakhs on preparing the document, the department also didn't care to incorporate any of the suggestions voiced by the consultants in the annual plans it prepared.

The planning process for the annual plan ideally starts at the habitation level, and moves upward to block, district and state levels. Also, annual plans should ideally flow from the Perspective Plan. However, the audit scrutiny revealed that annual plans were prepared by the Secretary, Human Resource Development Department without obtaining inputs from District Education Officers (DEOs). CAG report states that annual plans didn't contain any targets or strategies to ensure universal retention, improvement in educational outcomes etc.

Indeed, it appears that the only purpose for which the Annual Plans were made was to avail budget outlays on a year-to-year basis.

The grand announcment of the Total Literacy Mission did not spur the department into much action, either. The establishment of the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) was notified in September 2010, but even a year later, it had not been actually constituted, says the CAG audit. There was also a promise to embark on a Teacher Training Mission, and to formulate a Teacher Transfer Policy, but these remained on paper as well.

In statements made in August 2010, the state promised to provide all schools with computers and internet connectivity, to facilitate computer literacy and computer aided learning. But only 15 schools out of 776 got computers along with internet facilities under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme. 426 computers and accessories purchased under Computer Aided Learning Program (CALP) funds were not put to use, since department had not yet developed the course curriculum, software applications and training module for teachers. Various important committees such as the State Advisory Committee and State Quality Education Committee, envisaged under the RTE framework, had not been constituted as of November 2011.

While the state boasts of the highest per-child spending on education, there was a 37 per cent shortfall in the funds it was supposed to contribute to SSA. The central government, for its part, wasn't doing any better - it indulged in short release of its share in SSA funds by 31.90 percent.

While the state has a very positive Pupil-Teacher-Ratio on average, there is a concentration of excess teachers in easily accessible areas, affecting the quality of education in remote areas. Records in respect of South District revealed that 42 out of 107 Junior High Schools had excess teachers, whereas 18 schools in this district suffered from a dearth of teachers.

The audit team selected 40 schools all over the state to verify this. Its joint inspections with department officers and head teachers showed a concentration of teachers in excess to the needed strength in 32 schools, and a shortage in two. This was the case despite the department's notification in February 2010 that laid emphasis on transferring excess teachers to the schools that had shortages.

In October 2009, state government amended the Teachers Recruitment Rules, 2008 and prescribed the minimum qualification for recruitment as a primary school teacher as 'Senior Secondary Pass with professional training of two years in DIET or equivalent'. Scrutiny of records in 40 schools showed that 124 teachers (out of 324) did not possess this minimum qualification, and were untrained as on March 2011. The percentage of trained teachers was comparatively better in Primary Schools (76 percent) that in Upper Primary Schools (56 percent). North district fared worse on this count than the three others.

In September 2010, state government implemented Advancement of Educational Performance through Teacher Support (AdEPTS) survey in 18 schools, covering 267 teachers of elementary schools. While none of the teachers scored 'A', 80 per cent scored 'B' or 'C' and the remaining 20 per cent got 'D'. Similarly in order to gauge teaching learning processes in classrooms, the department carried out the Basic Achievement Survey in 112 schools in February 2011. The survey results showed that while most students (82 to 97 per cent) were average or below average in Mathematics, 56 to 69 per cent were less than average in Environment Studies/Science and Technology.

In order to improve the quality of education in the state, the department had allocated funds to initiate two interventions: a Learning Evaluation Program aimed at developing language reading material and science and mathematics kits, and a Computer Aided Learning Program (CALP). The first one failed, since the department didn't actually spend the funds earmarked for it!

For the CALP, Rs.50 lakhs per district was allocated for training teachers, creating infrastructure, developing and producing state specific e-learning materials and sensitising statutory bodies. But although computers and accessories costing more than a crore were purchased and delivered to the schools, the department didn't develop the course curriculum and software applications, or even the training modules for implementing the program. It was nothing more than a purchase contract for computers, which were never used.

The excessive focus on creating 'infrastructural access' seems to be holding back the state, and preventing it from moving beyond achieving the basic indicators of literacy and enrolment. It is evident that mere policy announcements are not enough. A serious review of the system to understand why the highest per-child expenditure in the country has not delivered evident learning outcomes is needed, and may even help prevent other states from repeating Sikkim's mistakes.

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The real and present threat to our future

India and the world at large are witnessing the kind of change that we have not seen in recent times. We have been witness to worldwide ferment, revolutions, emergence of out-of-the-box ideas, inventions, disasters, untold agony, ecstasy and dramatic political, economic and sociological changes. And as the world changes, we have no choice but to revolutionise the field of education. Only that will help us ride the change.

We need innovations. We need people who will drive it, implement it and open the pathway for change by revitalizing and refashioning it. This is possible only with a dynamic education system churning out innovative students who can independently think, strategise and built the nation's future.

India needs an education system to empower teachers to teach differently. Ironically, ancient India had an ancient holistic education system aimed at creating well-rounded individuals who would reflect the soul of India. But the British changed it to one that historian and politician Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay introduced in 1935 - one that was specifically designed to create an army of clerks to run its administration. After more than 17 decades, the same continues at the primary and secondary school level.

Outdated and archaic

The goal of the British system was not to educate, but to enable people to get basic employment. Ironically, it appears we have even failed to achieve that objective consistently. As teachers and educationists, we have failed to develop the innate talent of our children that can help them do better in life, secure better jobs, get their creative juices flowing and contribute to society. At the moment, there is no foreseeable future effort by parents, teachers, educationists, policy makers and politicians to correct this and courageously bring in radical reforms. Talk to any of the thousands of engineering students passing out every year and the tragedy will be clear.

Politics is important in a democracy and has a rightful place, but if democracy is to succeed, it needs a literate thinking population to drive change and progress. Education should be our number one priority, as it has the potential to drive away many social ills, blind faith and, of course, poverty. It can help us think differently, build aspirations and inherent strengths. Political parties across sections have to realise this and hold hands to help the government in power to bring in reforms. We have already lost a lot of time. We cannot afford to miss this turning point in history.

Unprepared future

In ten years, India will overtake China as the world's most populous country. The good news is that India will be the only country with such a large young population. To turn around this demographic dividend, we need excellent schools, colleges and institutions of higher learning that have a revamped contemporary syllabus to meet the challenges of the future. Learning has to be exciting, proactive and practical.

Rote learning which thrives in India does not focus on learning or application of what is taught. It does not develop critical reasoning faculties. Joint studies by WIPRO and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have shown that rote studies at the primary and secondary school level actually resulted in students regressing in mathematics and science. The emphasis in our schools and colleges is on examinations that rely on such memorisation and not on intelligence, innovative thinking or even problem solving.

The Chinese leadership has realised that it cannot keep sustaining its economy by making cheap imitations but needs bright minds in research and development to compete with the western world that have made impressive strides in biotechnology, nanotechnology, knowledge intensive services and manufacturing. It has recognised rote learning cannot get them to achieve this. We in India need to see the logic too. How much research is done today in educational institutions? Pedagogical methods are archaic. Rarely are teachers sent for refresher courses or exposed to innovative methods of instruction. Teachers need to be paid attractive salaries so as to attract the best talent to the profession.

The challenges to innovation

It is not as if India has not experimented in education - there are schools that teach in innovative ways and create space for children to think independently. There are many experimental schools without examinations, such as the one established by the Sri Aurobindo Society in Pondicherry. The accent there is on learning, not performance. Students are encouraged to question, debate and put to test what they have learnt. They are given the space to think freely, have differing opinions, disagree and not be bogged down with mind numbing theories and ideas. No one laughs at their ideas.

However, parents themselves are wary of sending children to such institutions that operate differently, as they fear that they will not be able to compete with the outside world. This, despite the fact that those who have graduated from these alternative schools have done extremely well in a variety of fields. The need, therefore, is to figure out what ignited their learning and how it can be replicated.

There is no space for original thinking in most traditional schools. Can students have fun doing assignments which call for all their senses to be put to task? It will be tougher for a teacher to assess such assignments, but it is worth the effort as students would remember this more than any lecture. It may also be a good idea to have customised tests and evaluations as students are so different from each other and cannot be tested and evaluated in a general test.

Contemporary teaching today must have a lot of electives weaved into our higher education. Liberal arts should be available for all the streams so that students of both science and commerce students would benefit from learning history, sociology and psychology. And when they do, they will start looking at life around them with a different lens. A business school at Lavale in Pune, is attempting to do this. Business students are exposed to painting, sculpture, music, mask making, theatre, horse-riding and golf.

Minutes before the state board examination, students of Corporation Higher Secondary give their books a final go, after three revision exams and countless hours of in-school preparation during their study leave. Pic: B A Raju.

Serious shortage of skills and talent

In the Indian context, education must be job-oriented. Organisations today invest heavily in training new recruits as the education they completed did not teach them the required skills. Former President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, admitted that only 25 per cent of graduating students were employable. The rest lacked technical knowledge, English proficiency and critical thinking. Sam Pitroda, former chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, also says that only 10,000 of the 90,000 MBAs who annually graduate are employable.

A study by Aspiring Minds of 230 fresh graduates in three out of the top 10 B-schools in India found them lagging in practical intelligence. The study attempted to gauge their mid-level managerial skills in business intelligence, judgement, risk taking ability, decisiveness, leadership, marketing, communication and personal effectiveness.

As various sectors such as information technology, engineering and manufacturing witness a boom, the emphasis will be on skilled and cost-effective manpower. Operational excellence will be the key. International companies are eyeing India as there is a serious shortage of young people in the United States, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In some years, China will also be counted among them. India cannot afford to miss this opportunity . it is the only country that has a young, upwardly mobile class ready to work hard, take risks and dream.

However, the present situation does not show our preparedness in positive light. Take for example the construction sector, which faces a serious shortage of civil engineers. A 2011 report by Ernst & Young and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry pegs the overall labour shortage in the Indian construction industry at 30 per cent. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is a significant shortage of civil engineers in the country.

Speaking to an English daily shortly after the Uttarakhand mishap of 2013, Professor C V R Murthy of IIT Madras pointed out that of the 2,700 engineering colleges in the country, civil engineering is taught in only 400. It could also be a classic chicken-and-egg problem as students increasingly opt for the information technology discipline, with prospects in the IT sector appearing to be brighter. The Builders Association of India further adds that the curriculum at engineering colleges do not keep pace with changes in use of technology. The result is that construction firms are now hiring retired personnel at fat pay packages in the face of unavailability of fresh talent.

Various metro rail projects too face a shortage of engineers. Metro wizard E Sreedharan has asked IITs to start a course in metro engineering and is lobbying for a postgraduate course that will churn out engineers to meet the need of metros in the future. The situation is so serious that engineers are being poached by rival metros which are ready to offer them three times the salary! If things go the way it is going at present, India will have to get foreign workers in the years to come as there is not enough trained hands for sophisticated jobs.

The National Knowledge Commission has suggested that premier institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology take lesser-known engineering colleges under its wing so that their mentoring can help raise standards of graduates from these colleges.

The tale is similar when it comes to medical professionals. According to a Planning Commission report, India needs around 6,00,000 doctors, 10,00,000 nurses and 2,00,000 dental surgeons. The health ministry estimates that India needs at least 21,00,000 nurses, if there has to be one nurse for a population of 500. But only 11,00,000 are available. India has only one doctor for every 10,000 people. Compare this with Australia that has around 250 and the United States, which has about 550.

Wanted: Trained hands

Another major challenge for Indian policy makers is to introduce quality vocational training. One way for this to happen is for the government and private sector to hold hands. This is not impossible as the government has the infrastructure, credibility and scale. On the other hand, the private sector is innovative and dynamic with a wide network of industry links. Both training and placement will not be a problem as there is huge demand.

In the overall job market of around 496 million people, 30 million are in the organised sector. Of these 30 million, nearly 24 million are blue-collar workers, says Sudhakar Balakrishnan, chief executive officer of human resource solutions firm Adecco India & Middle East. This semi-skilled worker pool includes mechanics, fitter, electricians, plumbers and other technical hands who usually come out of the industrial training institutes or ITIs. These institutes take in students who have completed their tenth standard and put them through various vocational courses like carpentry, welding, motor winding and the like. There are 1896 of these institutes but most of them are in poor shape with outdated syllabus, equipment or machinery.

Can we ride the advantage?

India is in a singularly commanding position as it has a young upwardly mobile class ready to take the plunge. One opportunity lies in Knowledge Process Outsourcing which is a $3 billion industry. It has opportunities galore like financial analysis, equity research, treasury operations, credit decision processes and accruals. Then, there is Legal Process Outsourcing that has tremendous potential, as law services are comparatively cheaper in India. New opportunities are emerging in areas such as patent application, drafting, legal research, pre-litigation documentation, advising clients, analysing draft documents and writing software licensing agreements. The question is whether our education system is aligned to these realities and fashioned to produce the kind of talent that is needed.

However difficult it may be for students, it has become more important than ever today for teachers to encourage multiplicity of ideas, richness of thought and acceptance of differing viewpoints. They must allow minds to flower, not atrophy. The education system must give students the courage to question what they learn, infer from intelligent reasoning and become thinking individuals instead of senseless robots. One definite way is to stimulate their minds and reasoning by throwing ideas at them. They will be forced to think, analyse and then comprehend.

It is possible to do this, but it needs political will. We need reforms and teachers to drive it. We really do not have a choice. It is only an innovative education system that will help India take the next giant leap.

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Why India needs an alternative model of development

April 2013 was a major deadline, of vital importance at the national level, but went almost fully ignored. 3 May constituted yet another important deadline set by the Supreme Court of India, and that too has gone largely unnoticed by activists as well as the general public for whom both deadlines determine the quality of our lives.

The Supreme Court had, in October 2012, given state governments six months’ time - till April - to ensure that all schools around the country were provided with drinking water and proper toilet facilities. That deadline has not been met. One can survive without books and blackboards but the absence of potable water and toilet facilities in schools, where millions of children spend the greater part of their wakeful hours, was (and is) not only a matter of shame six decades after independence, but also a major reason for preventable illnesses, high infant mortality rates and high dropout rates (especially among adolescent girls). All of this affects the human development indices of the future generation in the subcontinent.

Locked toilets at a school in Tamil Nadu. File pic by Krithika Ramalingam

Three weeks after that deadline imposed by the apex court, there has been not even a mention of this in the media, or contempt of court charges and no politician has so much as mentioned this, in or out of parliament. There are other, more pressing matters on their minds of course - the assembly elections in Karnataka, the choice and projection of a party candidate as future prime minister in view of next year‘s Lok Sabha elections, and so on. The health and education of millions of school children is apparently low priority matter, even if the Supreme Court took cognisance of this shocking state of affairs.

In international discussions about the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to be reached by all countries by 2015 (just two years away), India’s poor child health and sanitation record gets mentioned repeatedly, a matter of shame for a country that sees itself as an “emerging leader“ in the global arena.

A news item on 27 April reports how, out of more than 63,300 anganwadis in Karnataka state, over 42 per cent have no toilets. In the wake of the Supreme Court order, the state’s High Court also took note of this suo moto and asked the state administration to rectify matters. Why does it require court orders to urge our policymakers to attend to the provision of such basic needs, when we are supposed to be the world’s largest democracy and when every candidate standing for elections promises to “ensure that the country progresses fully and takes its rightful place in the global enclave of nations”? Because anganwadi children do not have votes and so, do not need to be wooed with promises? Because the parents of children who attend government schools are so poor that they can be enticed with gifts/bribes of polyester saris and liquor and cash, rather than clean water and sanitation?

We have come to such a pass now in the matter of siphoning off public money for showpieces instead of spending it on social betterment, that the courts have to intervene, whether it is about the use of red lights on VIPs' vehicles, disposal of plastic, clearing of garbage in the metropolis or provision of toilets in schools.

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Those children whose families can afford private schools -- the urban elite, primarily -- carry bottles of drinking water along with their satchels, adding to the burden that they haul (in a literal sense) on their backs every day. I weighed the backpack of a 10 year old last month; it tipped the scales at 9 kg. A litre of bottled water adds another kg to that burden. The boy weighed 26 kg. Many years ago, when the late novelist R.K.Narayan was a member of the Rajya Sabha, he raised the issue of heavy school bags during a session in parliament. Nothing happened, though thousands of parents were in full agreement with the sentiments that Narayan expressed in parliament. I know of parents who carry their wards’ bags to the bus stop each morning because the child cannot manage it on his own. Perhaps it is time to commission a study on the contribution of heavy backpacks to school children’s stunting during their growing years.

Now the Supreme Court has decreed that water and toilets “must be provided” in all schools. It is not that there is a financial crunch. A fancy clock tower (the tallest in Karnataka, as the state government proudly declares) was installed at South End Circle in south Bangalore a few weeks ago, at a cost of Rs 90 lakh. How much does it cost to build a functional toilet in a school? Out of the 40 per cent of schools in the state that lack a common toilet and another 40 per cent which don’t have a separate toilet for girls, how many could have benefited from this ‘clock tower’ money if it had been used for a socially useful purpose? It is the same story in all states around the country, east or west, north or south. There is not a single region that can boast of having provided water and toilets in all schools. Not a single party in power has deemed it fit to accord high priority to this basic need.

A former chief minister, H.D.Kumaraswamy of Karnataka, was reported to have carried with him (or rather, his entourage carried for his use) a portable toilet whenever he went visiting rural areas as a political PR exercise, to gather votes for his party. That is an eloquent comment on the insensitivity and hauteur of our politicians, who fold their hands in supplication when they go on their electioneering rounds as voting day approaches, but close their eyes to all social amelioration plans once they get to the corridors of power.

We have come to such a pass now in the matter of siphoning off public money for showpieces, instead of spending it on social betterment - especially of the disadvantaged sections, that the courts have to intervene, whether it is about the use of red lights on VIPs’ vehicles, disposal of plastic, clearing of garbage in the metropolis or provision of toilets in schools.

The other deadline that the Supreme Court set was for the Central Pollution Control Board and its state units to explain to the court “within four weeks” what steps they were taking to tackle plastic waste disposal. That deadline expired on 3 May. The judges who delivered the ultimatum expressed shock over the fact that the country is generating over 5.6 million tonnes of plastic waste annually (over 15,300 tonnes per day) of which nearly 40 per cent lies around as non-biodegradable litter. The figures are from the Pollution Control Board itself. Delhi tops the list with 690 tonnes generated daily, with Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata following close. Bangalore, which comes in at fifth place (out of the 60 major cities surveyed), throws up just half of the mess that Delhi spews, but life in this “IT capital” is already plagued by multiple environmental issues. Whether it is a city of rulers and national level decision-makers, or of high income global players such as software professionals, it apparently makes no difference to the callousness with which plastic waste is generated.

The enticement of advertisements. File pic

Connect this to two other recent developments -- a survey dated March 2013 which found that rural areas are taking to packaged commodities like branded juices and disposable diapers and the passing of the bill on allowing FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in retail. You can now connect the dots to arrive at a picture that explains why we generate increasing mounds of plastic waste when the trend in developing countries is to focus on discouraging lifestyles that lead to ecological damage. In the name of development, rural populations are spending Rs 200 crore on disposable diapers (a 150 percent increase in just two years). Multinational companies that see India as a “huge market to be tapped for profits” see the need for “greater penetration” of the rural market and spend billions on advertising. TV ads reach even the illiterate rustics who see the acquisition of consumer goods that the urban elites use as a measure of progress, even if the village school does not have a toilet (or drinking water). Such is the potent power of advertising!

More FDI in retail means more supermarkets and packaged goods (even vegetables come wrapped in cling film or plastic pouches) which in turn means more plastic waste thrown out every day. I have written elsewhere about the servant maid who was given Rs 10 by her employer to buy milk for her malnourished infant. She spent the money on a can of fizzy cola, and when chided, retorted saying that she too “wanted to experience, at least once, the pleasures that the rich enjoy every day with their meals” and declared that she and her child “got a lot of pleasure” from tasting the commercial drink -- she sees film stars drinking and advertising cola drinks on TV every day.

The problem is not poverty or teeming population, it is the adoption of a highly inappropriate model of development imported from the west in the name of ‘progress,’ and the exposure of the disadvantaged sections of the population to the dubious but enticing “luxuries“ of the upwardly mobile urban yuppies through ads. The media want advertisements for the revenue they bring, the multinationals rake in the moolah through sale of junk, the government declares that foreign companies are investing in India and GDP is rising -- everybody is happy, except for the marginalised millions who are doomed to lifelong deprivation. With the result that the Supreme Court has to intervene, in everything from garbage disposal to toilets in schools.

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Tamilnadu's striking progress in welfare

Tamilnadu's achievements in the provision of public services are reasonably well established. Could it be possible that as many people with "voice" remain invested in these public services, be it education or health or the PDS, that has prevented the collapse of these services in TN?

As someone who had not visited rural areas south of Maharashtra in the capacity of a researcher, my first trip to a few villages in Tamilnadu left me wondering if that field visit wasn?t a dream. We were looking at the state of public services in rural areas and were pleasantly surprised at the existence and quality of these services ? be it government schools, primary health care, or last (but not trivial at all) bus services - compared to what I had observed in the north Indian states.

This comparative qualification is important. If readers in Tamilnadu react to this article by protesting or by bringing to my notice the many failings of the system there, I will not be surprised. In fact, the high standards that they set are an important part of the Tamilnadu story (more on this later).

Seeing is Believing: Education and Health Services

The better education and health outcome indicators in the southern states (especially Kerala and to some extent Tamilnadu), compared to the north, has been acknowledged for a long time. And yet to see it with one?s own eyes really drives home the point.

An anganwadi in Villupuram district. Pic: Reetika Khera

Government schools in rural areas resemble what one imagines schools should look like: a school compound, with a boundary wall, classrooms, an office, a playground; teachers for (almost) each class, teaching activity using text books and blackboards.

Another impressive aspect was the mid-day meal (MDM) programme. The MDM is one programme which has found roots in the north Indian states as well and yet there are several issues with its implementation: the complaints include irregularity, menu not being followed, quality of the food, that it takes away from teaching time since teachers get involved in some aspect of the MDM (e.g., record-keeping). However, it was easy to see that Tamilnadu is still years ahead of many of the north Indian states that are taking this programme seriously: the question of the meal not being served on any particular day does not arise here; children get more nutritious food, including eggs thrice a week (and sprouted chana, we were told, on the other three days); further, the Tamilnadu MDM programme also has a health check-up which includes ?injections? (as one child told us in Maamandur village), measuring of height and weight of children, eye testing and a dental examination.

In Sicko, a film on healthcare, Michael Moore starts by documenting the difficulties of individuals in the US who are at the mercy of private health insurance companies. Then, he visits countries that have a decent public health system based on a strong commitment to free and universal health care. Starting with Canada, he visits the United Kingdom, France and ultimately, Cuba. I felt in December 2009, that the film should have ended in Tamilnadu. A primary health care centre in Chintalpalli, Dharmapuri district confirms that what I saw in Villupuram was not a dream. Pic: Reetika Khera

The most striking contrast between public services in northern states and in Tamilnadu was the provision of free primary health care (which includes immunisation, ante-natal care, post-natal care, eye care), with a noticeable emphasis on preventive health care. PHCs were well-equipped and functioned well. Amongst the ones we visited was the Iruvelpattu Block PHC (Villupuram district, TN), which provides 24-hour service (each Block, we were told, has one 24-hour PHC). It had a 30-bed hospital, an operation theatre, x-ray machine, a TB unit, an AIDS unit, a pharmacy which provides free medicines to everyone, facilities for blood and urine tests and colour-coded dustbins for segregating medical waste. Not unimportantly, the toilets had running water supply, a bucket and tumbler and soap.

The staff at this PHC was equally impressive: four doctors (including two female doctors) one of whom was a surgeon; five nurses, a lab technician, a pharmacist, two drivers for the two ambulances and other support staff. The staff are highly motivated and are courteous to the patients seeking treatment at the PHC. (When we visited, we were also received courteously, but patients were given priority over us - as they should - in sharp contrast to visits to government offices in northern states, where routine activities sometimes come to a standstill in order to attend to us.)

There is pride and joy in doing their work which was hard to miss amongst other government staff as well (whether it?s the time-keeper at the bus stand, or the anganwadi helper/worker, or the panchayat clerk or the school teacher). At the Tiruvannainallur PHC (Villupuram district, TN), we met a nurse who had quit her Apollo Hospital job in order to "give back" to the state that had made her education possible.

Lessons from Tamilnadu

The functioning of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Tamilnadu has already been written about. And it provides some insights into why things work there but are in shambles in large parts elsewhere in the country. In 1997, when other states in the country were forced to move to a "targeted" PDS, the Tamilnadu government was forced to reverse its decision within a few days under public pressure (Srinivasan, 2010). As mentioned in the opening paragraph, continuous public pressure has been an important part of Tamilnadu's "success".

Everyone was entitled to subsidised foodgrains from the PDS at Re. 1/kg. (Now it is free.) The PDS is not a source of just foodgrains in TN. Ration shops in TN, we were told, provide seventeen items (including sugar, salt, spices, soap, semolina, edible oil, kerosene). Unlike the north, where the opening of the ration shop remains a bit of an occasion, in TN these shops seem to open at least once a week. It is not uncommon to see people carrying large bags full of groceries from the ration shop.

Whether providing rice at Re. 1/kilo (or free) is required or sustainable is debatable, but there is no doubt that the inclusion (in the PDS) of those with ?voice? has certainly played a role in preventing a collapse of the system in TN.

Similar remarks apply to other government services. We found that gram panchayat officials and elected representatives reside in the village and access the same facilities as the most disadvantaged (including Dalits and other marginalised groups). When the children of the "thalaivar" (panchayat president), the organiser of the MDM, of the panchayat clerk go to the same school as the children of the NREGA labourers (this still happens in some places we visited, though private school enrolment is far from negligible in Tamilnadu), it is in everyone?s interest to make the schools work.

In Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh), on the other hand, the husband of a government school teacher told us that their children went to a private school (not to the government school that his wife taught at) because the government school was no good!

The fact that at least some people with voice have remained "loyal" to the government system in Tamilnadu (to some extent), appeared to have a visible impact on the quality of government schools as well. When we asked the panchayat clerk (Villupuram, TN), how it was that teachers were always on time and teaching in government schools, he found it hard to comprehend our question; finally he said that if the teacher were to come an hour late, there would be four parents at the school demanding to know why he/she had come late.

In response to our question as to why things worked in TN, we were often told that there was a strong monitoring system which prevented theft, or slack. However, people weren?t able to tell us why the monitoring system had not fallen prey to corruption and collusion in TN, to the extent that it had in the north.

Rosy as all this might sound, one should not assume that there is no corruption there: we were told of a lab technician charging Rs. 5 to make an x-ray in the general hospital; the noon meal organizer said that it was possible to pilfer a little from the stocks that come for school children (but not too much); a thalaivar told us very candidly that he had to spend lakhs for his election campaign and equally openly told us that this money was spent on buying votes by distribution of ?sarees, shirts and drinks?.

In a situation where the Panchayat President is not paid any salary, it is not hard to guess how this money is recovered. The real mystery is how, in spite of the existence of corruption, public services in Tamilnadu remain functional in a way that few other Indian states have managed.

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Liqvid e-Learning seeks up to $10 million venture capital funding

Liqvid e-Learning seeks up to $10 million venture capital funding - Economic Times You are here: Home>Collections>Venture CapitalLiqvid e-Learning seeks up to $10 million venture capital fundingBiswarup Gooptu, ET Bureau Jan 21, 2014, 04.42AM ISTTags:venture capital funding|Liqvid e-Learning|educational software(Liqvid e-Learning is seeking…)

NEW DELHI: Educational software maker Liqvid e-Learning Services is seeking a second round of equity funding and has begun talks with a number of venture capital funds as investors show renewed interest in India's education services sector.

Liqvid, whose flagship product is the customised English language learning software EnglishEdge, is looking to raise up to $10 million (Rs 61.5 crore), and has held earlystage discussions with Matrix Partners India and Nexus Venture Partners, among others, according to people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

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A successful deal could value the company at about $50 million (Rs 307.4 crore). The company expects to use the funding to expand into international markets, including South-East Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America as well as build its mobile business.

Vivek Agarwal, cofounder and chief executive of Liqvid declined to comment on the proposed deal.

A spokeswoman for Nexus Venture Partners said the fund had not invested in Liqvid while Matrix Partners India did not respond to email queries on the deal.

In August 2012, the Noida-based company raised $3 million (Rs 18.4 crore) from a unit of one of Japan's largest investor firms, SBI Holdings. However, it could not be ascertained if SBI Holdings, which manages assets exceeding $3 billion (Rs 18,444 crore), will participate in this latest round.

The negotiations, if successful, will see venture capital make a comeback to the country's e-learning space. Barring British media group Pearson's 100% takeover of consumer internet services firm TutorVista last year, there have been few exits from the sector for investors.

"There has been a slowdown in the space, because there have been only a few large players that have emerged. Barring TutorVista, which catered to the US market, the others have found it hard to scale," said Raja Lahiri, partner at Grant Thornton India.

Participation by venture capital in India's broader education space also took a sharp plunge in 2013 when investments dropped to $13 million (Rs 79.9 crore) compared with $77 million (Rs 473.4 crore) invested in 2012, according to research firm Venture Intelligence. "The (e-learning) companies cannot focus simply on the domestic market, because it's not big enough for them to scale up," said Lahiri.

Founded in 2002, Liqvid, which has already made a foray into US and Singapore, caters to the consumer as well as enterprise markets. It counts the various Indian Institutes of Technologies, British Council, Cairn Energy and the Essar Group among its clientele.

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February 7, 2012IN-DEPTH COVERAGEVenture CapitalE-learningTutorvista© 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reservedIndex by Keyword|Index by Datewww.economictimes.comFeedback|Privacy Policy|Terms of Use|Advertise with us document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js' %3E%3C/script%3E")); COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:6036484, c3:"", c4:"", c5:"", c6:"", c15:"" });

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Ashish Nanda’s global blueprint for IIM-Ahmedabad

Kala Vijayraghavan & Rica Bhattacharyya, ET Bureau Jan 21, 2014, 04.23AM IST

In early-2013, AM Naik, Chairman of Larsen & Toubro, took a private plane to Boston to convince a professor at Harvard University to take the reins of IIM-Ahmedabad. Naik, chair of the IIM-A board, could have called, but he wanted to personally tell Ashish Nanda why India's premier business school wanted him. "I wanted to look you in the eye and talk to you across the table to convince you," Naik had told Nanda.

Naik and a few others had done exactly that a few months back, when Nanda was in Ahmedabad to attend the 30th reunion of his IIM batch. Nanda returned, flattered and unsure. "How nice of them to consider me," he told Shubha, his wife. "I will send in my thanks and regrets."

Shubha, a practising dentist and a professor at Tufts Dental School, saw something else. "I thought it would be great for Ashish to take up the offer with a sense of adventure," she says. "And he did not need much convincing. Every time he spoke of his reunion, there was a sparkle in his eyes. Eventually, it was truly the spirit of learning, contributing and adventure that got him to return to India."

In September 2013, the 53-year-old returned to India and his alma mater, after more than 20 years. In the institute's 52-year history, Nanda was the first director to be hired from an overseas institute, and he came in with a mandate to take IIM-A to the next level—coveted by students and academics, sought by industry and respected by global peers. "I believe in global benchmarks," says Naik, who pushed Nanda's case with his colleagues and the government. "IIM-A, being a premier institute in India, needed new leadership to make it a truly global management institute that encourages diversity, thought leadership and research."

The breadth of that assignment is matched by the superlatives rolled out for him by those who have worked with Nanda: scholar, teacher, researcher, manager of academic programmes, global thinker...and, they add, pretty good in all those roles. Four months into his IIM-A assignment, an appointment offers a clue of what could follow in Nanda's fiveyear tenure.

Sharon Barnhardt worked on Wall Street, before doing her PHD in public policy at Harvard. In August, she joined the public systems group at IIM-A as fulltime faculty. "Ashish Nanda perfectly understands what makes research faculty tick because he's a great researcher," she says. "Ashish also understands how important it is to bring up the infrastructure and research environment of the institute to global standards in order to attract faculty and people from outside."

Academic Connect

Be it people appointments, orientation shifts or directional turns, 'global' is a refrain while discussing Nanda. It's for good reason, says Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School who has known Nanda personally for 20 years, and has taught and researched with him.

  Nohria cites the experience of an executive program they took together for a company that was struggling with a range of issues related to its globalisation. "We had developed a case study for the company, and it brought to the surface a range of tensions as the discussion unfolded," he recalls. "Ashish used the teaching process to help the participants navigate these tensions and recommit to a shared strategic vision."

Nanda will need to draw on such skills to balance a key challenge: adding new faculty while managing the old guard. During Nanda's days as student at IIM-A, between 1981 and 1983, the institute had about 400 students and a faculty of about 80—a teacher-student ratio of 1:5. Today, with about 1,000 students and a faculty of 90, that ratio has declined to 1:11.

Nanda wants to correct that ratio, but he wants to do it while improving quality: though a mix of young and old, Indian and global. IIM-A is looking to hire more professors in their early-30s at entry-level positions, like Barnhardt, and experienced faculty at senior levels. "They are bright academics who are intrigued by the idea of working and research in India, and want to build specialisation in the Indian setting," says Nanda.

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Hippocampus raises $600,000 bridge round from existing investors

Hippocampus raises $600,000 bridge round from existing investors - Economic Times You are here: Home>Collections>Venture CapitalHippocampus raises $600,000 bridge round from existing investorsBiswarup Gooptu, ET Bureau Jan 21, 2014, 08.44PM ISTTags:Unitus Seed Fund|TutorVista|Lok Capital|Liqvid|Learning centres|investors|hippocampus|Acumen Fund(The proceeds from the latest…)

NEW DELHI: Hippocampus Learning Centres has raised $600,000 (Rs 3.5 crore) from its existing institutional investors, the Bangalore-based rural education services provider announced late on Tuesday.

The proceeds from the latest equity investment, which is a bridge round, will be used by Hippocampus Learning Centres to expand its network, particularly in the upcoming financial year. The company currently operates more than 100 rural learning centres across Karnataka, with a student base of about 3,000, a 3X increase from the previous school yea, according to a press release.

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Hippocampus' risk capital investors include, seed-stage venture capital fund, Unitus Seed Fund, social venture capital investor, Acumen Fund, and impact investment firm Lok Capital.

"We are excited about how the Hippocampus team has built a low-cost delivery model which can be profitable at a tuition fee of approximately Rs. 250 per month. Hippocampus is part of an emerging movement in India to bring high-value, affordable services to the masses," said Dave Richards, managing partner, Unitus Seed Fund.

In 2012, the company raised $1.5 million (Rs 9.2 crore) from Lok Capital and Acumen Fund. It was also among the first three seed-stage investments made by Bangalore and Seattle-based Unitus Seed Fund in the same year.

Last year, a senior company executive said that Hippocampus was in the process of raising a fresh round of capital, estimated to be about $5 million (Rs 30.8 crore).

Founded by IIT Madras alumni and former Infosys Technologies employee Umesh Malhotra in 2011, Hippocampus provides quality learning to children in rural India through its pre-school education centres.

Hippocampus expects to expand its enrollments to more than 7,500 students this coming year, the press release stated.

"With this new capital, we will be able to push forward with our expansion plans for the 2014-15 academic year and continue to invest in preparation for further scaling up," said Malhotra, chief executive of Hippocampus Learning Centres.

Early-to-mid stage risk capital firms have once again turned their gaze on India's education service providers. On Tuesday, ET was the first to report that Noida-based LIQVID e-Learning Services had entered into talks with a clutch of venture capital firms to raise up to $10 million in funding.

Separately, investors made a handsome exit from their investment in Bangalore-based TutorVista, after it was acquired by British media Group Pearson Plc last year. However, successes have been few and far in between.

Participation by venture capital in India's broader education space also took a sharp plunge in 2013 when investments dropped to just $13 million (Rs 79.9 crore), compared with $77 million (Rs 473.4 crore) invested in 2012, according to research firm Venture Intelligence.

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