Talking Education

EFF Virtual Classroom reaches Gandeed (Andhra Pradesh)

2011-10-31T15:36:00.007+05:30

Education For Free Virtual Classroom got deployed over the weekend at Gandeed Zilla Parishad High School for boys (four hours drive from Hyderabad). We have been working on this for sometime now and we are very happy that the boys will now have access to a lot of good educational materials including videos on various topics or even get to see how a chemical reaction works--they've never even heard of a laboratory. We are very grateful to the school for the support we have had and the enthusiasm they have shown for the new way of learning. Real teachers only wishes for the good of the students and the joined effort we believe, will make a difference in the lives of these boys.

Over the past few months we have trained Mr. Upender (computer teacher of the school) to operate the application in the school and will also be the coordinator between the school and the EFF teachers.

We don't have a lot of people working full time on this but it has never been a hindrance because we've always had people coming forward to help us--in different ways.

We would like to thank the amazing boys from PurpleTalk who spent every other weekend testing the application, making trips to the village and finally installing the equipments--drilling holes on the walls and ceiling isn't really every body's cup of tea on a weekend. But our volunteers from PurpleTalk would rather help some students get a better education than perhaps catching a movie or go dancing.

Or maybe there was dancing here ;) work+fun=perfect life.

The guys in the pictures are just a few and there were a lot of them who spent every free hour helping us. And though you are not in the frame, you are in our hearts! Cheesy line? :) What can we say? You guys are simply the best.

Ambica Ayla our coordinator and teacher is the one with the extra energy and passion--with her everything is possible including getting a BSNL connection that works like magic in a remote Indian village. She along with the PurpleTalk volunteers also repaired a leaking roof in one of the school buildings but that's for another day. I will post soon with lots of pictures.

We are just giddy on our new school and can't wait to bond with the little boys over some fun videos and some English learning exercises to begin with.

Mid Day Lunch (Free Lunch provided by the Government)

We will surely come back with updates on our progress.

More schools up the alley....

2010-08-03T15:44:00.004+05:30

It is not always easy working out the logistics when it comes to deploying our Virtual Classroom in the schools. We need immense cooperation from the school management, the principal and the teachers. We have been doing pretty good for the last 3 years (yes! our baby is three years old!!) nevertheless, we went ahead and got the DEO (District Educational Officer) give us written permission to deploy our VC in about 5-10 schools in Ranga Reddy district. It gives us the incentive of having the government by our side. The officials have always been supportive but me thinks this is a new high for us. Difficult they may, the government officials, but they are always willing to extend their helping hand. In particular, I would like to thank Mr. P.V. Srihari the DEO of Ranga Reddy district for being exceptionally supportive and encouraging. I list the following schools here:

Zilla Parishad High School Vikarabad
ZPHS Parigi
ZPHS Doma
ZPHS Gandeed
ZPHS Uppal

It looks like we are going to get very busy but I'll keep you guys posted. Come back soon! :)

More schools we visited...

2010-08-02T19:50:00.001+05:30

Zilla Parishad High School Polkampally

This building was donated by a concerned and warmhearted individual.

Shantinekithan at Polkampally

Zilla Parishad High School Raipole village

There are only three rooms that are usable in the whole building. Sad affair.

This is meant to be a school building but what we have is the unfinished building and unfulfilled dreams for many students!

Primary School in Polkampally

2010-07-31T14:19:00.000+05:30

Our next stop was Polkampally about 8 kms from Ibrahimpatnam--30 minutes of blissful ride in good company of our fellow passengers--intrigued to the hilt about our mission. The best part about these visits are the children--the little ones...innocent stares and tugs...aww. I forget the cruel world. There is a good number of students here--majority from underprivileged families. There are a few private schools and some parents send their children to these even if they cannot afford the fees because apparently it is a prestige issue. Having said that, am very sure every parent wants to give their children the best. And they might possibly think that these private schools fare better than the Government schools. After all, nothing that comes for free is good enough. esp. when it is the Government giving. I leave here some photos:

since teachers were away on a dharna, the principal is taking care of the students.

Always ready for the shutterbugs :)

School tour in Ibrahimpatnam...

2010-07-30T09:54:00.000+05:30

A couple of weeks back we took another tour visiting Government schools in Ibrahimpatnam about 40 kms away from Hyderabad. After a bus and a shared auto ride---we are at the premises of the school.

It was pleasant trip--we especially loved the green and lush fields on both sides of the road. Anything that takes us away from Hyderabad horrendous traffic is a music to the soul. So back to the schools now, the first school we went to was Government boys high school. The infrastructure was poor which wasn't a big surprise.

On the contrary, the Government girls school on the other side of the lane was a whole different story. The buildings were sparkling clean and stood strong and tall--you wouldn't believe it to be a government school building. The computer room was also a shocker. All the monitors are flat screens. The only glitch were the animals for company during mid day meal hours.

Both the schools have no major teacher shortage issue but they do have vacant post laying around.

Government boys school Ibrahimpatnam through the entrance gate.

White washed as new :)

There is a new building that is getting constructed.

Computer room.

the boys in their school uniform

The girls' school

Tutor Vista....

2010-07-03T12:50:00.001+05:30

I don't know who I should be addressing here on this one...I'm just hoping anyone in need would be able to use this information.

Tutor Vista is an online tutoring company one of the biggest in the world. They mostly cater to the American students--with subjects such as English, Math, Geometry, Geography, the sciences, statistics, Algebra, Trigonometry and a few others. If you are looking for a job, you could apply online...you can use the trial version application for free to see how comfortable are you with it.

If you are a parent and is looking for a private tutor for your kid, this is a good option. I actually had a few friends working for it.

If you are a student, you should totally check out their blog. They very often solve complex solutions here --you may or may not find what you are looking for but it's always a good try.

So check it out and let us know how you like it.

Trophy for the girls...

2010-06-21T10:49:00.002+05:30

We just managed to get the photos of the girls with the trophy. If you remember a few weeks back they participated in a dance competition organised by Naandi Foundation with another 100 schools. Our girls came third! Isn't that awesome? The trophy is now displayed in the make shift library cum virtual classroom. As you can see, these girls are the latest starlets of the school . :)

Dance workshop by Naandi Foundation....

2010-06-08T12:02:00.005+05:30

Now that the schools are reopening after the long summer break, we have been visiting our schools and doing the necessary tweaking and testing with the Virtual classroom application. Yesterday, at Red Cross Girls Government high school, we bumped into some of the Naandi Foundation volunteers who were conducting a dance workshop as part of their summer camp program 2010. Our girls will actually be participating at Ravindra Bharathi today with other fellow students from Government schools in Hyderabad. We are excited as much as the girls are! A big 'Thank you' to the Naandi guys for their awesome work all these years!

2010-06-07T19:39:00.001+05:30

I read two interesting articles today --ironically I read them in order. The first one was on the Government schools in Delhi, the very good pass percentage they have had this year at the X board exams and that now they are number two in the country. All good news but I wondered, how well are these kids learning.

The second article appeared in Wall Street Journal and it talks about thousand of Indian students who despite being graduates in 'flying colors' are unemployable.

India's biggest challenge is not unemployment, but unemployability. A study by McKinsey and the National Association of Software and Services Companies a few years ago found that barely 25% of engineering graduates are employable. Last year, another survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the World Bank reported that 64% of the employers were not satisfied with the skills of the engineering graduates. According to biotech industry sources, barely half of the 200,000 post graduates in science are employable.

They blame New Delhi for making things worse with their Right to Education Act according to which children up to the age of 14 have the right to get free education. The actual problem is not with the act itself, even though the article seems to suggest that this new act has made things worse. The real problem is that the government continues to be in charge of all aspects of implementing this act, and spreading education.

Sometimes, it feels like there is really no end to the problems. The right approach perhaps is community-managed education, rather than government-backed education.

Child Welfare and Holistic Organization. Hyderabad

2010-06-03T18:20:00.003+05:30

Some of us went to "say hello" to the CHORDers (Child Welfare and Holistic Organization). This is a not for profit charitable organization in Bachupally, Hyderabad. They have a bridge school for rescued child laborers and school dropouts, a regular school and a Junior college. CHORD was started by a group of warm hearted people when they saw thousands of children (3000! to be precise) working away as laborers while visiting a lime stone quarry in Piduguralla village Guntur district A.P. That was 13 years ago. And I'm reminded of the little Bridge school in Aloor run by the MV foundation.

Yesterday we couldn't meet the students at the Bridge camp they were away for their summer vacation, yes thanks to CHORD they now get to have a vacation! we met some of the volunteers and teachers and were once again overwhelmed by their enthusiasm and courage. They actually go door to door checking and when they find the children in the family working as laborers they reason with the parents and have them at the bridge camp. I'm very sure it's not as simple as I make it sound.

We are trying to see if we could help them in our own little way. Have the Virtual Classroom for these lovely children and also get some volunteer teachers teach them over the video. Will tell you guys how it works out :)

(Sorry for the fuzzy pictures...will get better ones next time)

Children...

2010-06-02T18:40:00.000+05:30

These children lived on a street in tiny little make shift shacks. Sometimes I saw them sleeping outside and it made me wonder where they'd go when it rained. I was walking around one Sunday afternoon with my camera I walked up to them and said hello...and then they wanted their picture taken. I showed them and they loved themselves in the photo. You should have seen their smile. So I promised that I would print it out and give it to them so they could hang it on their 'wall'. But I moved on with my life and forgot about it. After a few months as I was spring cleaning my computer I saw the pictures and remembered that afternoon and the promise I made. That evening I checked for them on the street. But they were gone. Their little shack had been destroyed by the monsoon wind.

Looking to buy Children's books?

2010-06-01T09:59:00.000+05:30

Ever since my nephew turned 3, I've been lurking around bookstores in Hyderabad--Walden has decent collection so also is crossword. If you don't mind buying second hand books then Best Buys in Lakdikapul has very good collection for throw away prices. Better still the second hand bazaar in Abids on Sundays! You could snag books for as low as Rs.5.

The books in the photo (children's books) are all from Best Buy and Sunday secondhand book bazaar Abids.

Shopping online is another convenient option. I've bought books from First and Second, Book Depository--this one has free shipping worldwide! how awesome is that? and then the Amazon. First and Second ships from India--I usually use amazon for International shipping when books I need aren't available in India.

There a few good Indian publishers for children's books and you might want to check them out. The prices are very reasonable too.

Tulika Books

Sterling publishers

Ratna Sagar (school textbooks)

Children Book Trust

Spark India

Tara books
Pratham Books
Bookman India

A small survey but tells so much....

2010-05-27T18:33:00.005+05:30

We did a survey of a few schools and collected data which we would like to share with you all here. The schools are all in Andhra Pradesh--a couple of them around Hyderabad and a few in far flung districts. The schools are all sad looking in terms of infrastructure (old story) but that doesn't stop most of the teachers from giving their best. Every visit, every story, every interaction motivates us to be able to do what we set out to do.

I tell my colleagues that visiting schools every once in a while should be mandatory for everyone including our engineers. Most of us do know that there are problems out there but unless you see and hear for yourself you remain impersonal. The whole thing has been tedious--sometimes slow but when I see the students over the video or in their classroom with smiles from ear to ear just happy that someone is trying to do something special for them. Or that's what I'd like to think :) I've heard teachers and volunteers commented many a times 'these children are not at all interested in studies' but I tell ya kids are really smart--they know when someone's doing something 'nice' for them. They make the effort to learn. There are exceptions of course.

So do check out the survey data and you'll see why making EFF a success is so crucial. Not for us but for them.

District – RR district
Mandal – Tandur
This is a survey of some schools in Tandur. It is 125km from Hyderabad. Tandur is a town, has BSNL broadband connectivity in the entire Mandal. We visited four schools.

Name of the school

Address

Medium

Strength

Staff

1. Govt High School No.1

Saipur, Tandur

Telugu / Urdu
Success schools(E/M)

657

19

Vacc - 20

2. Govt High School

Tandur

Telugu / Urdu

410

12+4(V.V)

Vacc – 11

3. Govt Girls High School

Kallalgally, Old Tandur

Urdu/ Success schools(E/M)

700

10

Vacc – 7

4. Govt High School

Malreddy pally

Telugu/Success school(E/M)

424

6 + 5(V.V)

Vacc – 8

District : Ranga Reddy

Mandal : Quthbullapur
We visited 3 schools in Quthbullapur mandal.

School

Address

Medium

Strength

Staff

1.Z.P.H.S

Suraram Colony

Telugu

Boys and girls 600

17
1 vaccancy

2. Z.P.H.S

*Suraram Village

Telugu

B & G
350

12

3. Z.P.H.S

Shapoor Nagar

Telugu

B & G 450

14

District: Nalgonda
Mandal: Choutuppal
We visited 3 schools in the Choutuppal Mandal.

School

Address

Medium

Strength

Staff

1.Z.P.H.S.

*Choutuppal

School &
Telugu

B & G
571

20

2. A.P.Residential School for Girls(Gurukul Pathashala)

Bangarigadda, Nr Govt Hospital
Choutuppal

English & Telugu

Girls
400

20

3. Kasturba Gandhi Balikala Vidyalayam

Bangarigadda, Nr Govt Hospital
Choutuppal

English

Girls
48

7
3 vacancies

Schools for the new academic year.

2010-05-23T16:46:00.005+05:30

A few more schools in Andhra Pradesh will have the Virtual Classroom from the coming academic year. After a tedious research, visiting schools, several meetings with Mandal heads, principals, teachers,we shortlisted a few that we thought needed our initiative the most.

I must thank our volunteers and our EFF teacher and Co-ordinator Ambica Ayla for making sure we found the right schools in terms of infrastructure--Internet, electricity, co-operation from the school and so on. They braved the 45 degree heat and dust and walked around the villages meeting teachers, parents and students--It's vacation time but they wanted to make sure they get a feel of what what they needed.

We will have more action this academic year, our engineers are geared up too. Some of their weekends would be with the Virtual Classroom as we add more schools to the EFF community--the committed and inspired lot that they are would rather give their time for EFF than the movies and Biryani ;)

Some of the schools:

Shapur Zilla Parishad School A.P

Ambica and a teacher inspecting the room for Virtual Classroom.

Suraram Village Zilla Parishad School A.P

Right to Education Act, 2010

2010-04-05T15:07:00.000+05:30

Right to Education Act finally came through on 1st April 2010. While this is no little task, it is our hope that we are going in the right direction.

Here are a few information on the Right to Education Act:

The act was enacted by the parliament on 4th August 2009
Free and Compulsory Education for children aged between 6-14 years
This is under Article 21A of the Indian constitution
It extends to the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir
It requires reservation of 25% seats in private schools for children from weaker section of society
The Act compels the State to provide all supplies, fees, transportation, libraries etc.
Admission to students will be allowed any time during the academic year
The Act also provides that no child shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until the completion of elementary education.
Special training for dropouts to bring them to par with students of the same age
No birth certificate or transfer certificate is required for a student to get into a school

Therefore, India would need:

15 lakh new teachers and they are to be trained by 1st of October 2010. I can imagine the revolution the country will see even if just a fraction of the 200 million from the underprivileged families could receive their education through some of the good schools we have in the country.

References

Here, here and here

Students act... part one

2009-12-21T10:51:00.005+05:30

The students operating the system on their own just before their virtual classroom.

ok, that doesn't need a lot of work :) but she wanted a picture taken to show her dad :)

Once the power is on, it's a simple press on the CPU.
the screen would require some adjudgements... but that's about it.

Hole-in-the-wall

2009-12-17T20:11:00.001+05:30

Lately, I’ve been exposed to numerous organizations that work towards improving the lives of underprivileged people. Education being one major aspect and thanks to EFF, I’ve been also privileged to work closely with some of them.

Beginning from cupboards to be called home for the homeless, food prepared using technology for the hungry, virtual teachers for the teacher-less, and here is yet another, with a rather unusual name, “Hole-in-the-wall”. Except that it’s a hole where thousands of underprivileged children get to touch computers for the first time in their lives. And they don’t have a computer sir monitoring them with a stick. They get to play around and learn on their own. The computers are affixed to the wall outside the community hall or somewhere near the playground or anywhere in the village where it could be conveniently accessed by the students. An initiative established in 2001, a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. and the International Finance Corporation. This looks like a fine step to self-educating and thereby taking the efforts of educating millions more widespread. Good job.

Urban vs rural education

2009-10-02T16:44:00.001+05:30

As part of the initial research for EFF, we went visiting a number of schools last year. One of the schools we went to was located in Janwada, near Hyderabad. We were interested in the high school, but we also spent some time at the primary school, which was just a few minutes away. My job for the day was to walk around and take pictures of the school and the children.

To say the conditions in the school were deplorable would be an understatement. In terms of facilities, this is what the schools offered:

Classroom
Teachers
A compound and open space around the school

There wasn’t much more, actually.

Here are a few pictures.

At least there WAS a school, you’d say. But the list above was easy to make. A much more difficult list to make is that of the things the school did not have. What DID the school lack? The answer would depend on what you think a school should have. To my knowledge that hasn’t been clearly stated anywhere. Not by the policy makers, nor by an NGO or group that is concerned with the field of education. “Schools should have all the amenities” is the sort of vague claim we are used to hearing.

But let me see if I can put things in a little perspective here.

My sister’s little son very recently turned three, and started attending school, preschool is a more appropriate term here, I suppose. He is in Mumbai, and, although initially apprehensive about going to school, loves it now that he’s started.

There’s a good reason for it. The school is safe, comfortable, and fun. There are beds for the little kids in case they happen to doze off, lunch is provided by the school and so is drinking water; all children carry ID cards with school phone number; and every week there are movies and programs shown in a specially designed hall which looks exactly like a real movie theatre, except that everything is on a smaller scale.

I hardly need to add that the school also has a library, toys, classrooms and teachers, playground, the works.

I’m not suggesting that all government schools need to be equipped with all this too. I know we probably don’t have the resources to provide such facilities in our schools just at present.

But the question is, how far are we willing to lower our standards? Recent efforts, such as The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has maybe increased the number of schools, but the whole project has done little to improve the quality of education. In fact, in a way, the project has been seriously damaging. Where there was no school, people and the media could focus on the lack of educational facilities. Now that the schools are there, such protests, and their intensity, would go down--regardless of whether there is any education happening at all.

In the meantime, the gap between the government schools where the poor and the rural children, and the urban private schools, will keep widening. For some reason, the situation is not considered shocking. It is in fact just accepted by the government that implements this policy as well as the people whose lives are made--and unmade-by this situation. The urban, affluent people who continue to be unaffected by this situation, and perhaps no motive to react anyway. As a nation, we seem to say that if a child is born in a remote place, or a small village, then she cannot expect to have access to a good library. If a child’s parents are poor, or not very well-off, then she cannot expect to have safe drinking water at school.

Before they’ve had the opportunity to even comprehend the world around them, our children are sorted into important and unimportant, and this is somehow normal and acceptable. And what we, as a nation, offer these children is based entirely on what sort of money they have, what the gender is, or even what the social status is, whether on the basis of caste, or financial condition.

At the Janwada school, I approached an empty classroom--there were schoolbags neatly arranged in rows on the floor, but the kids were out for recess. There was one little boy in there though--it looked like he’d just run in to fetch something from his bag, and he was now running out to join the other kids. As I stepped in, he nearly ran into me, stopped, and broke into a huge, ear-to-ear smile.

We did not have a language in common, but for the next hour, he held my hand and showed me around the school. I spoke in English, some of the older children caught important words like “classroom” and “standard”, and translated for the little boy who then showed me around the school.

The only reason this boy, and millions like him, are not getting a good education is because we have learned to pretend, somehow, that the poor or the deprived somehow deserve less.

We need to be educated about what education is--and needs--in the first place, and also realize what we need in terms of resources and effort to achieve this. Forget the air-conditioned, soundproof auditorium but let us remember that every school that today goes without a library or clean drinking water is in fact a compromise of the worst kind, a disastrous situation that needs to be corrected as soon as possible--the lives of a few hundred children depend on this every year, per school.

We’ll tolerate the situation--for the time being--since we must. But nothing gives us the right to accept it. Initiatives such as Education for Free are the result of a simple refusal to accept the condition Indian education system is in, the implicit discrimination, and the incredible tragedy that surrounds us and wait endlessly for someone to come along and fix it.

Hysea Awards ...

2009-09-21T17:13:00.007+05:30

Hysea Awards happened a few months ago, and although, rather delayed, I wanted to post some pictures here. Our stall was the busiest of the lot--tsk, I don't have a picture to prove that :) We did not win the award, (it went to the Andhra Pradesh Government)--but the participation was totally worth it. We met some very smart people- those that were awed by our work as well as those that critiqued us. Yes, we need them all—I'm still learning the tricks of business relationship management and how to sit gracefully while someone tells you, "This is not going to work"! (Not that we heard such responses very often--just about everyone was positive and impressed. There were a couple of people who had more questions than enthusiasm, but more on them later.)

For now, I leave you with these pictures.

Reading to learn English faster and better

2009-09-21T16:56:00.003+05:30

Students keep asking me how they can improve their English. I give them tips now and then but I thought writing about my experience could help them.

For me, reading was by far the most enjoyable and easiest way to perfect my English. Sure, as I began, it took maybe 10 days to finish a 100 pages book, but that’s just the way to go about. I‘ve probably read a few thousand books over the years, but the take off wasn’t easy. Our school did not have a library, you see. So unfortunately, unlike children in good schools where learning English came by default, I had my own little struggles as I manoeuvred to keep that undying zest to speak English going. My initial reading started with the comics—Tinkle was a hot favourite. I even had access to Tintin thanks to my friend’s brother who happened to be a fan. I read these first for entertainment but I also had a secret agenda—to improve my English--as I was told very often that reading was an assured way to get you to speak good English.

I upgraded to reading Reader’s Digest, but avoided the long stories. I would start with the “Humour in Uniform” and the little snippets here and there. The moment I started reading the long stories, I also began to take notes. I would write down all the phrases I thought I could use with my teachers and those few friends who spoke English. It sure did make me feel good that I was into real reading.

My first real novel was Jeffery Archer’s A Quiver Full of Arrows I barely understood any of the stories but it’s on record and it’ll go down in history as my first real book. As I went on reading, I also began to notice that my letter writings became more interesting. I took to writing answers on my own instead of mugging up the teacher’s notes during exams. I started participating in debates and essay writing competitions--in fact, all those literary activities in school that required the use of speaking and writing in English.

It was a conscious effort although the fact that I enjoyed what I did came as a bonus. If you still haven’t tried reading, start with the comics and the newspapers. Each morning as you wake up, get hold of the English newspaper. Start with the section that interests you the most. Skip words that make no sense to you. Get the hang of reading first, then you can start looking up the dictionary. Make it a habit-- keep reading and keep talking. Annoy people if you must--soon you’ll impress them. Being able to speak English will make you feel good about yourself and will definitely help you to get better in life.

2009-06-29T23:29:00.000+05:30

Check this link for a comprehensive list of virtual school books.

And this article on livemint.

Article....

2009-06-07T23:17:00.000+05:30

Readings---

An article on online education

"Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education".

Teach India Project...

2009-05-04T08:55:00.002+05:30

If you are an Indian parent living outside India and would want to educate your children on India, you should check out Teach India Project-- an initiative by a group of mothers way back in 2004 is now a successful organization. They provide lesson plans, Curriculum, teaching kit, etc. Schools also use their curriculum. I have families who often order books on India from here which do not reach them on time or have to wait until somebody from the family get there. A customized curriculum which you can use at home for your children sounds perfect to me.

EFF updates...

2009-03-06T13:13:00.003+05:30

It’s been quite sometime since I’ve been around on the blog but this is not to say that we’ve not been active :). We’ve been working with a few schools to expand our current pilot for the next academic year. And when we do that I’ll have lots to say.

And oh, EFF Virtual Classroom has been shortlisted for the HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters Association) awards 2009. We will be presenting on the 7th march 2009 at HICC complex (Novotel). Apart from the stage presentation, we will also show case the Virtual Classroom technology to a distinguished line of product industry leaders, academicians and entrepreneurs. This is a wonderful opportunity for us and we are really excited.

And I hope I’ll have some great news to share :)

EFF's pilot

2008-11-17T15:06:00.006+05:30

We are deploying EFF Virtual Classroom in Kothaguda Government High School, Madhapur, Hyderabad as part of our pilot.

Holidays :(

2008-11-14T00:41:00.005+05:30

Schools are on holiday for two more days: Yesterday was Guru Nanak's birthday and today is Children's Day. There has been too many holidays this year! Thanks to the teachers strike, schools were closed for a week last month. Arrrgh! we need a change in the system.

National Awards for Teachers

2008-11-06T20:16:00.001+05:30

The National Award for Teachers (India) was instituted in the year 1958 to recognize meritorious teachers and award them the highest national recognition. Every year on the 5^th of September, the day we celebrate as Teachers’ Day, around 366 teachers are conferred with the honor, Rs. 25,000 cash award and a silver medal by the President of India.

This year the award was given to 374 teachers but nowhere have I found the names of these meritorious individuals. I can’t think of any reasons why the names should not be published. In fact, I feel it should be national front page news—something everybody gets to read the first thing in the morning on the 5^th of September. Why not? When we can glorify our movie stars, sportsmen, TV actors, singers etc, why can’t we make a grand affair of the best men and women who make a real difference in our lives?

on broadband connectivity...

2008-11-06T18:19:00.004+05:30

If only "news" could come true and promises are kept to be made.

Government has already given directives to provide Internet connectivity in schools under Nagpur division... read the story here

Middle schools in Ponducherry will also get to use Internet if the plan of the Directorate of School Education comes true. It'll do good to around 70,000 students. Story

The biggest news is Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Mr. Thiru A. Raju, announcing to make Internet a reality in ALL schools in India by 2012! just 3 years away from now. Story

Teachers' strike--schools hit hard.

2008-10-29T16:16:00.003+05:30

Teachers working in government schools in Andhra Pradesh have been on strike for more than a week now! The only outcome being-- the classes are discontinued in over 40,000 schools. And this is why we have not been able to visit some of the schools we had short listed for our Virtual Classroom.

That apart, the strike is such an unfortunate thing to happen for school children as if the holidays round the year aren’t enough! I was told that most teachers cannot finish their syllabus usually for whatever reasons, and this academic year with a very low number of working days and the strike still on, are we in for a grim pass percentage? And I say percentage because that’s the way we measure our students’ progress and their performance. I hope JACTO (Joint Action Committee of Teachers’ Organizations) and the Government will come to a consensus soon.

EFF updates...

2008-10-23T19:36:00.003+05:30

Since this blog is one of our channels to stay in touch with people, I have another quick round of updates on what Education For Free has been up to:

For the past few weeks, our engineers were working on improving the video quality, and the whiteboard. The video quality works much better now. We will soon have a much friendlier ‘pen’ too to write on the whiteboard. Thanks to the Dusserah vacation, no classes were interrupted.

We were also testing the equipment, especially the microphones—to see which ones work best in a regular classroom. Ravi Shankar, one of the registered members of EFF, helped us immensely with figuring out the acoustics and the right equipment for our classrooms. He is a senior sound engineer with Ramoji Film City and his expertise in this field has helped us understand how the whole sound system works. He has been extremely helpful, and has consistently gone out of his way, whether to help us solve some nagging audio-related issues, or to just stop by and say hello. We are now using the new set of microphones he recommended, and it works great. A big thanks to Ravi from all of us here.

We are also running around, meeting different organizations for more schools. And phew! by next week we will have 2 more schools with Virtual Classroom. I will sure be writing about this.

EFF as young as it seems, participated in the National Seminar for Education organized by Byyraju Foundation on the 21^st October. Sridhar presented a paper on “A technological approach to educational problems”. 17 other organizations participated in the seminar and collaborated on the issues with the present education system and ways to solve them. It is encouraging and challenging at the same time as we take our steps further, becoming more mature with each experience. And we are thankful to all the individuals and organizations that support and motivate us to do our bit --for our country.

Have the brightest Diwali Ever! :)

A portal for Teachers of India

2008-10-11T15:18:00.002+05:30

Teachers in India now have a website to be called their own. This is not school specific but a website for all teachers to collaborate, contribute and learn. Launched in August by the National Knowledge Commission in collaboration with a few non profit organizations, the site offers, for phase one, a section where articles, lessons plans, or any materials could be contributed which gets uploaded to the website accessible for other teachers to use. At present, the website can be read in five languages: Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. In future versions, we are told, there is much more coming up. Here’s a list of what functions the website will perform in the coming day:

This Portal will offer resources related to:

1. Education Perspectives (Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Economics)
2. Classroom Practice (Principles of Pedagogy, Pedagogy of Language, Science, Mathematics, History, Geography, Political Science, Economics, EVS, Art, Music, Dance, Sports) including manuals, activities, modules, tools, etc.
3. Subject Content (Language, Science, Mathematics, History, Geography, Political Science, Economics, EVS, Art, Music, Dance, Sports)
4. Stories, Songs, Games that teachers can use in class
5. Reading Resources (including links to other websites/portals/on line library
6. Research Information
7. Specific Case Studies
The following will also be available:
1. Information on organizations/Individuals/Resources (district-wise)
2. Career Information (government recruitment details and opportunities available in organizations and institutions)
3. Teacher education courses – both short term and long term
4. Workshops and Conferences
5. In-service training programs
6. News/information/articles on relevant current events
7. Awards (honors)
8. Calendar of events

I quite appreciate the effort. However, to make this functional and accessible to all teachers, it is necessary to also publicize the effort well, to make teachers aware of the ways in which it can help them. Needless to say, Internet in schools is essential too. But if the launch is planned carefully and implemented successfully, the cooperation and participation from the teachers, and above all their enthusiasm will no doubt sustain this effort effectively.

Virtual classrooms for UPTU

2008-10-11T15:16:00.004+05:30

The UP Technical University will be starting online classes soon. This initiative is to overcome the teachers shortage problem they have been facing for sometime now. The university is facing a shortage of over 2,000 teaching staff. Its a project funded by the union ministry of information technology. Read the story here

"For conducting online interactive classrooms, we are setting up a virtual classroom hub at our Noida campus"

According to officials, the upcoming hub will beam teaching programmes to nearly 12 institutes that would have direct access.
The institutes will then extend the online facility to at least 25 colleges located in their vicinity.

SBI's Teacher-Plus scheme

2008-09-23T18:23:00.003+05:30

Here’s a little something for all the teachers out there....SBI (State Bank of India) has a special scheme called “Teacher- Plus”. They offer minimized interest rate when you take loans from the bank. isn't that nice? If you have plans to apply for a loan, you could check this out. This is what they have to say:

SBI recognizes the special position sanctioned for teachers in our society and is proud to introduce Teacher Plus - a special scheme for teachers placed under State and Central Governments as also under the deemed universities. Through Teacher Plus, you can avail of concessions in the rates of interest, processing charges and margin amounts in the following schemes:

* Personal Loan
* Car Loan
* Festival Loan
* Housing Loan

Get the details from here.

P.S: When you click the 'apply now' button, it takes you to the 'report a complain' page. It’ll be more helpful if you contact your nearest SBI branch.

Akshaya Patra Foundation in action

2008-09-17T15:03:00.007+05:30

After I wrote about Akshaya Patra Foundation and their efforts in using technology to prepare and provide hygienic food, I searched Google images for the machines--the conveyor, industrial steam boilers, bucket elevators, and material handling systems etc they have mentioned just to get a feel of it, but couldn’t find any. This morning I searched in Youtube and viola! I found some amazing videos. I share one of them here. Their effort is awesome ! And btw, the sambhar totally looks yum! :)

Check it out...

scribblings

2008-09-17T11:30:00.006+05:30

Just a couple of days back, teachers’ day was celebrated in India. And every year esp. on this day, I think of my teachers who taught me the best way they could. But I seldom wish them…the last time I did was ten years back. There are five of them, three --who taught me in my primary school and the other two in high school. This year something told me that I need to thank them for what they have done over the years…moulding hundreds of students year after year. I was up early and dialed the numbers one after the other….I heard them and believe me they were overjoyed! Ex students hardly wish their teachers you see.

My primary math teacher-- my favorite, who taught me arithmetic, because of whom I had fun with numbers, the utmost pleasure of calculating... however, is no longer a teacher. He told me that he is suffering from throat cancer and will not be able to teach any more. I was saddened by the news—sorry for the many students who will not be able to experience the joy of learning from him. Nevertheless, he has done his job and did it so well.

Akshaya Patra Foundation

2008-09-16T19:51:00.002+05:30

Until now I had only been aware of people using technology to harness education, EFF being one. But here is Akshaya Patra Foundation using technology to prepare and supply hot (nothing to do with spice) nutritious, quality, hygienic food, to feed thousands of hungry children and thereby bringing them to school and keeping them. It is interesting to note that they have been using industrial steam boilers, bucket elevators, conveyor & material handling systems, and other industrial processes in the kitchens to prepare the meals.

Started in 2000, Bangalore, they feed children aged 6-16. So far they have provided mid day meals to over 825, 000 children in over 4500 government schools. Their vision is “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.” And as you enter their website, you will see “Feeding a hungry child is not charity; it's our duty” flashing on the screen. Way to go guys!

Check out their website

Things I learn as I teach--to teach better

2008-09-16T18:47:00.007+05:30

Teaching is easy but keeping the students interested or having them listen to you is altogether a battle in itself. Being a teacher myself and a virtual one at that, it is all the more taxing. But after almost 4 months of teaching virtually I have almost figured out what works for them.

Somehow I’m reminded of the many preachers in the church I’ve attended and I realize that I only liked the ones who seemed intelligent, well read, in sync with the world types. Most of all someone with a sense of humor, who would make the entire congregation burst out in laughter. My girls seem to like that too. Especially. But me being someone who can hardly ‘crack jokes’ my only way to make them laugh is to talk in Hindi! And seriously no matter how much my friends made fun of my Hindi, I didn’t think it could be as bad. But thankfully, it looks like in a way, it works to my advantage.

The other way to keep them interested is to be INTERESTING! Now that’s not easy. On my breakfast-less, lunch-less, after my University trips, I force myself to appear interesting but seriously these are bright kids. I couldn’t possibly fake it. And therefore, the point is, I have to eat well, be healthy and stress-free to be able to teach well. And of course, I need to be passionate of what I teach, whenever I’m not prepared well, even though I know the subject, I can’t keep them interested. I have to keep telling myself that they are supposed to learn out of the lesson I take. Preparing myself, telling myself that it’s going to be fun no matter what; all geared to meet them is what ticks.

Making them understand is again extremely challenging for me. Interacting with students who only know a few English words is difficult. Sometimes I realize that in the pursuit of explaining a word I end up using another three words which they are not aware of. And when they don’t understand, they lose interest. It goes back to the same thing of preparing my lesson with care, be conscious of every example, words I use, and making them relate to it, explain every little detail and not take anything for granted.

Over the past few months, I have also learned that I need to be supportive and kind. Being aware of where they have come from helps me in this aspect. Onetime, in one of my physical classes, I had an assignment for them to write about their family. They were skeptical at first wondering if that’d be assessed by their official English teacher, the principal and the Red Cross representatives but I assured them that was only for me and promised that I wasn’t going to judge them.

I made myself clear that it was to understand them better and in the process allow them to practice their writing too. And boy! What lovely writings they were. Even now, on sultry weekends, when I find my days depressing, I open the folder where the papers are neatly clipped, and as I read them one after the other, I’m rejuvenated not only for my next class but for days to come, a reminder of hope and life at its best.

ICICI's Read to Lead

2008-09-09T19:42:00.002+05:30

ICICI has also joined in the effort to work towards educating the uneducated millions in India. “Read to lead” is the program which for now will cover the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

ICICI pledges through this initiative that they will educate 1,00,000 children at the elementary level by partnering with major NGOs in this field. By December they plan to reach out to a hundred thousand children.

I hope this initiative will not be only about reducing the drop-out rate but also about quality education—a wholesome drive to give EDUCATION its true meaning.

Idea ad campaign

2008-09-08T21:02:00.005+05:30

The ‘idea ad campaign’ has been catching a lot of attention these days. While many people appreciate the ad, there are some who dismiss that it is silly and absurd and that they are ‘abusing education’ and giving false hope to poor people to promote their product.

Both sides have a valid point. The ad in itself is good, creative, and appealing to the masses.

But I wouldn’t take it literally and assume that teaching through phones is going to become a reality. There are issues of cost, or pedagogical effectiveness, and, of course, great as it sounds, if one teacher is going to educate “a million students” in a single classroom, they might as well use a TV, considering the level of interactivity these classes would have. I just think of it as a clever, well-meaning ad and leave it at that.

However, this ad does convey the message that there is a lot you can do with connectivity and technology. That distance isn’t a barrier anymore, that with technology, nothing need be distant or impossible.

Every time I catch this ad on TV, I’m reminded of my grandma who finally had some idea of how EFF works—for her, it was a question of whether the Education for Free project was similar to this. The explanation is altogether a different story, but I’m thankful that there is something we can take away from this ad campaign—even if it is not teaching through phones.

“The crumbling schools” and the political apathy

2008-09-06T16:11:00.002+05:30

I’ve been following the US elections fairly closely this time around. I’ve always kept track of them, but it was just as part of catching the daily news on TV. This time, though, I find myself actually seeking more information, reading not just the headlines, but also some analytical articles, and much more detailed news.

It’s partly because I’ve started to admire Obama’s oratory skills, and enjoy the way he uses rhetoric effectively. What has impressed me most is the way, regardless of who the candidate is or what the party is, education is one of the key concerns that everyone tries to address.

For example, in a major speech titled “a more perfect union” Obama declared:

At this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

Don’t you just love the rhetoric--measured, rhythmic phrases all balanced together? Obama has some concrete plans too--check the section dedicated to education.

Which brings me to my point: I’m no expert, but I’ve always taken a reasonable amount of interest in Indian politics and Indian elections. And I honestly cannot recall, off-hand, a single instance where education was part of any election agenda or any political debate surrounding an election. I wonder if this has happened at all.

Off the top of my head, I can think of religion, caste, taxes and subsidies and reservations, linguistic identities, and regional identities as the issues that dominate our elections. I know it’s easy enough to say something like “We Indians don’t have that maturity yet,” and explain away why our elections are never about our schools and our children, but why DON’T we have the maturity? Why do we really never ask about drop-out rates and about schools without classrooms when electing our representatives?

The situation is genuinely surprising, because Indian parents typically spend most of their energy and time trying to ensure a better life for their children. It is hard to think of another goal that an average Indian couple aspires to as strongly.

And that's why I’m puzzled. At the personal, domestic level, everything is about--and for--the children. But the public, political part of our lives is solely an adult world where children are not even a presence, let alone a minor one.

There must be some way of ensuring that even the political, social processes we are involved in begin to address the needs of our children, and not just of us adults. Some way of making sure everyone realizes that while as individuals we can do a lot for our children, as a nation working together, we could do a lot more for all the children, and not just our own. And that we need to speak up, and talk about the problems our children face and what we want for them, and then elect someone who is willing to do something about it.

Sashi Tharoor on eductaion in India

2008-09-05T20:36:00.002+05:30

Just a few days before Teachers’ day, I came across Sashi Tharoor’s article “Let’s groom teachers of tomorrow” in the Times of India. Succinctly written, intense, urgent, and genuine. I can’t agree more with him. It’s one of those articles of which I take a print out, laminate and neatly store in my article collection box. I know with technology there are many convenient ways of storing such things, but it’s just an old habit that refuses to die. Here are some excerpts from the article:

UNESCO defines an illiterate person as one who cannot, with understanding, both read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life. By that definition, i fear that fewer than half our population would really qualify as literate
What is missing is not just financial resources, but a commitment on the part of our society as a whole to tackle the educational tasks that lie ahead.
How are we going to cope with the 21st century, the information age, if half our population cannot sign their name or read a newspaper, let alone use a computer keyboard or surf the Net?

Happy Teachers' Day!

2008-09-05T13:03:00.002+05:30

Happy teachers’ day to all the teachers out there…this is the day to honor you for all that you have done to educate the nation. Today, as you receive flowers, presents, cards and hugs remember that “a better tomorrow” is in your hands. Teach in a way that our children not only listen but also learn and grow up to be responsible citizens.

Cheers!

An excellent list of problems with Indian education

2008-09-01T22:20:00.006+05:30

Over a relaxed weekend, I came across this article by Rushi Bakshi in The Hindu. Certainly worth a read. As you’ll see, Rushi makes an excellent, nearly exhaustive list of all the problems that plague the educational in India. Everything we’ve been telling people for a year—from lack of teachers to unhygienic schools to boring, colorless textbooks—Rushi mentions it all.

The similarity is striking. But then again, not quite. Rushi is recommending the satellite route to cure many of the ills—set up the hardware in rural schools, and beam quality content via satellite.

While I do not doubt that such an arrangement will benefit students, I’m not sure to what extent it will fix the problems we face. After all, good education can only be facilitated only in an environment where there is open interaction between teachers and students, and where students participate in their education, rather than just “undergo” it.

I suppose satellite can allow two-way interaction too, but I doubt if that will be financially viable in terms of equipment required, as well as in terms of scale.

On the other hand, using the Internet to achieve the result is far more practical and cost-effective. And with Internet spreading into various corners of the country at a dramatic rate, more and more schools—and children—are in a position to benefit from the Education For Free initiative every year.

Education For Free in Eenadu

2008-08-30T22:28:00.004+05:30

Eenadu, a Telugu newspaper, one of the most popular in Andhra Pradesh wrote about Education For Free this morning. For those of you who cannot read Telugu, I'll have a translated version soon. While the lucky ones can read the story here.

Picture Courtesy: Eenadu

an Education For Free update...

2008-08-29T20:08:00.005+05:30

As I write this, I got a report from our database guy that we have received the 1800th member sign up! Thanks to The Hindu, that’s a staggering number in just 23 days. The power of press indeed is mighty! :)

It took us quite a while to read and sort all the emails we received from almost all over the world. Majority of the writers were from India, USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Dubai and Germany. We also had lone representatives from Korea, Rome, Maldives and Saudi Arabia.

Out of the 1800 emails, there were about 20 individuals and organizations willing to adopt schools. There were others who came to meet us directly. These organizations will need teachers and we’ll have the Education For Free volunteer teachers helping them out.

To help us with our plans, implementation, coordination, we have formed an Education For Free group comprising people from all professions, students, homemakers, and retired folks.

A quick update of what we are up to so far:

We are working on our Teacher For Free portal which will be launched soon. This will be a place where volunteer teachers and schools will register. A place for schools and volunteer teachers to find each other.

We are also looking for sponsors to fund about 20 schools. For each school we need about Rs. 60 thousand for the equipment (projector, computer, webcam).

We are working on putting up a process in place to train new volunteer teachers, training and deployment technical support, coordination between teachers and EFF etc. This will eventually be automated from the TFF (Teacher For Free) portal.

And btw, we have a full time Education For Free Virtual Classroom teacher, Ambica Ayla, who after reading the article in The Hindu came to our office soaked in rain asking if she could volunteer for a day in a week—her only day off from work. Her enthusiasm and passion for children and education touched us so! We interviewed her the next day and if I had a math teacher even half as good as her, I would have been flying saucers today. :)

She teaches math, physics and chemistry to 9 and 10th graders.

Terry Pratchett on education

2008-08-27T15:15:00.010+05:30

Over the weekend, I found myself re-reading parts of Hogfather, a novel by one of my favorite writers, Terry Pratchett. It is an excellent book, if you enjoy comic yet meaningful fantasy fiction. This post isn’t about Terry Pratchett, but about a striking, intelligent comment on education in the book.
Now working as a governess and teaching and looking after children, Susan, an important character in the book, recalls her childhood and upbringing and realizes:

It had been a good education, too. But it had only been later that she’d realized that it had been an education in, well, education. It meant that if ever anyone needed to calculate the volume of a cone, then they could confidently call on Susan Sto-Helit. Anyone at a loss to recall the campaigns of General Tacticus or the square root of 27.4 would not find her wanting. If you needed someone who could talk about household items and things to buy in the shops in five languages, then Susan was at the head of the queue. Education had been easy.

Learning things had been harder.

Susan’s education is of the affluent kind. But, as Terry Pratchett observes, even with plenty of resources, education can suffer from basic, nearly intangible mistakes.

In India, schools would be lucky to have problems at this level though. In the government schools that EFF is targeting, there is at present too much dependence on textbooks of average quality, too much focus on studying for the annual examinations, and there is practically no focus on the actual learning.

You could say that most school-level education in India is focused on just helping students survive the system of education itself, and not on learning things.

With its potential for effectively combining learning with exposure (to the world, to people, to means of communication, to just about everything), we hope that the Education For Free program will help a number of schools eventually rise to a level where they tackle higher level problems regarding the concept of education, its purpose, and the like.

Let India be Free...

2008-08-15T09:51:00.004+05:30

Today we celebrate 61 years of freedom from the British Empire. I hope we'll also be free of hunger, child labor, illiteracy, and social deprivation soon enough.

I hope some day, soon enough, we 'll be proud of India, a free India in soul and spirit.

Indian schools and holidays

2008-08-14T13:38:00.003+05:30

When I was in school, years ago, every holiday announcement was greeted with loud cheers and desk thumping, and we would all rush out of the class even almost forgetting our schoolbags.

But after I started working, any sort of holiday (apart from weekend that is), just feels like an annoying inconvenience. Most people would take this as a weirdo syndrome but hear me out here. A holiday means:

More work load the day after
Unfinished task to worry about
Break in the flow
Add more

For me, it also means getting my routine messed up with my students. Holidays are in fact a big problem here. Sometimes it feels like they have a holiday every other day! There are the three national holidays: the Independence Day, the Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti (Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday). Then there are the religious and regional festivals. Also the births and deaths days of important personalities must be observed with a holiday. So far they’ve had: Goru Gobin Singh Jyanthi, Pongal (which goes on for a week here in Andhra Pradesh), Good Friday, Id-e-Milad-un-Nabi, Holi, Ambedkar Jayanti, May Day, Buddha Purnima, and tomorrow is Independence Day. And of course there’s more coming up! The schools even had a “precaution from rain” kinda holiday on Monday!

Out of 365 days, there are 52 Sundays and most Saturdays are holidays too, and over 20-30 days are other holidays, so schools are usually left with only about 240 working days. And with major teacher leaves and absentees, the working days come down even more. Add to that the usual summer end of academic year breaks (about two months long) and the winter break (usually a month), and you begin to wonder if the compulsory school education policy is all a myth.

The authorities should realize that too many holidays are counterproductive. An occasional holiday makes for a refreshing break, but too many of them serve no real purpose and in fact get in the way of the important project of educating our children. It’s time something was done to minimize the number of holidays.

Important occasions still need to be observed, and they should be—that’s part of the education we give to the children. But not working or learning on these days sends out the wrong message. In fact, maybe we could have, instead of a holiday, some other ways of marking the occasion: extra-curricular activities like a ‘literary day,’ or an environment preservation activity, a drive to clean up your locality, or the like. Such activities will practically benefit the students, and not lose precious school time.

Amartya Sen in the Central Hall Of Parliament House

2008-08-13T17:14:00.003+05:30

Lately, I’ve been reading Amartya Sen quite a bit. I’m rather fond of his take on “Social Exclusion and Inclusive policies”. I understand him better now when he talks about

India

’s “quiet acceptance of the consistent deprivation” in his inaugural of Hiren Mukherjee Memorial Parliamentary Lecture on “Demands of Social Justice” in the Central Hall of Parliament House.

He directly addressed members of our Parliament. So hopefully that made some difference.

Read the story here

Students from India do the 'disappearing act' in USA

2008-08-11T18:38:00.011+05:30

Four school children from Doaba Public Senior Secondary School, Garhshankar Punjab, while on a trip to USA to attend the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) rocket project went “missing”. This would normally be a cause for grave worry for the families concerned, but the parents of the 'missing' students stated that:

“I don't know how this happened. But from my relatives, I have come to know that my son is in California” and that “he had no idea about his son's plans to stay back in the US.”

So looks like the disappearance was well-planned and carried out carefully, with the participation of parents and relatives settled in US.

We have heard of similar “missing’ stories but even school children resorting to this illegal act makes me want to scream out loud! Certainly, there are plenty of great opportunities for people outside of India, but it makes no sense to jeopardize one’s life and also sacrifice dignity and self-respect in the process.

Come to think of it, students who were picked to participate in a high profile NASA project are probably the best students in the school. Isn’t it a matter of extreme concern when our best students resort to such extreme and desperate measures? Also, it can’t do a lot of good for students who’ve been “left behind”. They probably looked up to these four students, who have now sent a clear message that they have little regard for the school, or for the country.

Most of all, these youngsters will now remain illegal immigrants for a long time, if not for good. Getting a permanent residency will be practically impossible, and by the time they are caught and deported, they will have lost a precious academic year at the school they abandoned.

Read the story here

Overwhelming response to the EFF initiative

2008-08-07T15:00:00.003+05:30

We got featured in ‘The Hindu’ yesterday and since early morning hours we have been receiving tons of emails! There are college students wanting to teach during their free period, homemakers, retired professionals, professors, doctors, engineers…the works! We also have people willing to adopt schools. The response has been overwhelming and we are deeply touched.

Indeed, there are wonderful people out there with good loving heart who want to contribute for the betterment of the society. This is a not a clichéd 'vision statement' but words of individuals willing to contribute with time, knowledge, money --all for free. For a better, educated

India

P.S. We’ve received over a 1000 emails and more are still coming in. We are going through each email carefully to see how each individual can contribute the best way possible. We will get back to you soon.

In the mean time, thank you so much!

Shortage of textbooks in schools in India…

2008-08-05T21:05:00.006+05:30

Well, that’s hardly news anymore. It is a regular phenomenon which happens every year as school reopens.

But this year, this academic session, the ‘news’ pinches me a little harder than usual. Because the policy makers of our country are into fancy stuff. They proclaim that they are going to give each child a laptop for free. A laptop which is going to cost only $10. Hang on, it’s actually $100. It seems our dear minister missed a ‘0’. But didn’t our minister think that it was “pedagogically suspect”? What happened to that ‘good’ sense? While I’m all for improving the quality of education through the use of technology I’m not much of a supporter of One Laptop Per Child schemes be it India’s or Nicholas Negroponte’s. Especially when children go without even basics like textbooks. We all want an educated India but I’m very sure this is not going to be achieved by throwing laptops in the laps of children!

Here’s a list of “textbooks shortage stories”:

27^th May 2008-- This year too, CBSE students wait for textbooks

K Chandrika (name changed), a student of class 10 in a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus school will consider herself lucky if she can procure all her textbooks by September-October.

18^th June 2008-- Stores run out of textbooks

A survey of bookshops selling school books in many parts of the city revealed that textbooks for many classes are not available. Sources said this year, syllabi of class 3rd and 7th standards have changed and hence books of these classes are yet to be made available in the bookstores.

22^nd June 2008-- Urdu schools go without textbooks, teachers

Like all school-going children, 13-year-old Atyaab Hussain of Quami School carries a bag to school. However, instead of books, this sixth grader carries a bottle of water in it.
Urdu schools in Delhi are battling a resource crunch. At the heart of the crisis is a pressing shortage of teachers and textbooks.

24^th June, 2008--Shortage of textbooks irks parents in Rawalpindi

Parents of children studying in different schools here Monday expressed concern over the shortage of textbooks of various classes published by Punjab Textbook Board. A parent in Rawalpindi said that he went to buy books of Class 8th for his daughter and Science book of Class 6th for his son but was disappointed on their non-availability.

28^th July 2008--

Shortage of textbooks haunts kids

The problems dogging the field of education seem far from over. After the recent class XIth admission fiasco, now, primary and secondary students are confronted with the problem of shortage of text books. The text books approved by Maharashtra government, as prescribed by the state board for most of the classes are not easily available.

02 August 2008-- Forty three textbooks unavailable in market, students face hardships

Contrary to the claims of Chairman Sindh Text Book Board, some forty three books for both English and Urdu medium are short in the market, as the academic session started Friday after two-month summer vacation in the province.

4^th August 2008-- Kannada medium students suffer without textbooks

Plus-One and Plus-Two students of Government Higher Secondary School in Panakahalli in Thalavady Union face a peculiar problem: they study without text books.

Problems with the Indian public school system

2008-07-31T21:29:00.005+05:30

Before we started developing the technology that we have right now, we did a lot of research—going to villages and talking to teachers, parents and students. We were aware of the various problems that have crippled the Government schools in India but getting a first hand experience of the whole scenario put things in a much better perspective for us.

Here is a far from exhaustive list of the main problems we saw in the Indian public school system:

Too many students and not enough teachers (Recruitment is slow, and there are many vacancies that go unfilled for years. Result? Unfair workload for existing teachers and corresponding decline in the quality of teaching.
Teachers need to work for all government programs, from election duty to pulse polio campaigns. At the expense of the children who come to school to learn.
Teachers are made to attend way too many training programs.. These mandatory programs need to fit into an already busy calendar, and teachers invariably do it at the expense of their students. Moreover, this training is often based on theories that do not take the real situation into account. With the real situation that teachers have to deal with-- the large number of students, the limited time available, the examination oriented focus of education, and the lack of facilities—this training proved to be irrelevant for the teachers.
Very high percentage of teachers are absent from schools. The reasons are varied, and include infrastructure, corruption and motivational issues.
There is supposed to be a teacher for every 40 students. Most administrators follow this to the letter: if a school only has 120 students then they only get 3 teachers even if the school actually has 5 classes or grades.
Serious infrastructure issues like power, lack of classrooms, lack of study material (Even textbooks--the minimal study material available to children--are usually delayed by 2-3 months every year.)
Lack of basic amenities like drinking water and toilets. It turns out that the lack of toilets is a major reason for female students’ absence from school.
Students do not put in any effort at home. Everything from lack of family encouragement to working after school, to lack of infrastructure at home (privacy, space, light, books) conspires to prevent children from studying at home. While many of these factors are not within the direct control of the teachers or of the educational system, little effort has been made to find an effective substitute for the system of assigning homework.
A very small percentage of the students coming out of our primary schools has basic reading and writing skills.

The list could go on, and I will be sure to elaborate on these various problems, as well as their impact and the urgent need for solutions in the near future. I’ve identified problems specific to the rural education system. Satya Meva Jayate’s detailed article offers a more general critique of the Indian education system in general.

Another 'no teachers' story...

2008-07-30T19:23:00.008+05:30

India Today writes about "Classroom in crisis" in Uttar Pradesh. With mind-boggling stats on schools that need teachers and other higher educational institutions, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan after all, is not as successful as it is claimed to be. Need a reality check?

With an acute shortage of qualified and experienced teachers, both in primary as well as higher education institutes, the education system in Uttar Pradesh finds itself severely crippled.
Most alarming is the condition of the primary schools, where out of the total 2.82 lakh sanctioned posts, 1.8 lakh posts have no takers.
So is the condition of the universities and colleges providing professional degrees in the areas of aviation, medical, engineering and agriculture, where about 50 per cent of the teaching work is either done by part-timers or ad hoc teachers...
Read the story here

Some pics with Amongla teacher :)

2008-07-23T15:11:00.014+05:30

I see them all--each one from my desk in office

and they see me--loud and clear :)

as I teach away from the comfort of my desk...

Interaction at its heights. They love to talk. Like teacher like students.

(Click on the image for a better view.)

Getting to know the Whiteboard...

2008-07-23T14:28:00.009+05:30

During my after-class interaction with the Red Cross School teachers one of them asked me how the EFF Virtual Classroom could be useful for subjects like math where a lot of talking is done through symbols. Since I don’t teach math I haven’t had the opportunity to experiment on the symbols we have embedded in the Whiteboard. Although I intend to rope in one of the software engineer friends I have. Anyhow, I did a demo for them and while I was at it, I also managed to take some screenshots. Here's a quick summary of what I told them:

Some basic symbols: Geometry, math, shapes etc.

some of the math symbols we have

In the whiteboard, you can draw, upload images, type text, highlight and so on

Prepare presentations in the Editor and save them in the slide library. Simply click on the respective icons. These presentations can be used for teaching/demonstration through the Whiteboard. You can edit them as well...you only have to save the changes and a new version will be up there in the slide library.

(Click on the images for a better view.)

Chandigarh Govt. School

2008-07-23T12:21:00.002+05:30

Government schools in India are synonymous to all things negative. Schools where parents wouldn’t dare to send their children unless they are from economically poor families. Sad that such is the case. However, I came across this article while browsing the Internet. Sounds unbelievable! I’d like to believe that there is hope—that people would fight for admissions in government schools irrespective of rich or poor.

Thanks to excellent results, low costs and upgraded technology, government schools in Chandigarh are way ahead of private ones when it comes to attracting the brightest brains.

In most parts of India, state-run schools are associated with poor infrastructure and unsatisfactory results. But that's not the case in Chandigarh where admissions began Tuesday.

With many students from the region preferring to opt for top government schools in the city, especially Classes 10, 11 and 12, getting admission in them is all the more difficult.

Even the students of elite private institutes opt for the government schools of Chandigarh when it comes to seeking admission in Class 11. Students from states like Haryana, Punjab, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are also applying to government schools here.

in words and pics...

2008-07-22T20:07:00.015+05:30

After three virtual classes I wanted to see for myself how my students were responding to the whole new change. From the other side of the table, as it were. So this morning, I walked down to the school and sat with them as my friend and ex-colleague agreed to volunteer for the class.

The girls were a little shy initially but felt comfortable soon and started to interact as usual. Being seated on the floor did not deter them from carefully taking notes. I remember being such a diligent student only when we had to crack the Pythagoras theorem in school. I was particularly impressed with how comfortable they felt in this virtual classroom. In terms of discipline and in terms of their attention and level of interest there was no difference from a real classroom. In fact, this new way of learning seemed to have created much more interest.

Afterwards I spoke to my friend about how he felt teaching in this novel way. This is what he said:

“I’m impressed by the fact that these girls are very keen learners and refuse to let any learning opportunity be wasted. They had lots of questions and as a group they made sure that everything that needed clarification was in fact clarified then and there.
As a teacher with previous classroom experience I also felt comfortable using the virtual classroom which provided all the essential elements that a classroom needs. In less than ten minutes I was comfortable using the technology, was extremely pleased with the high level of interactivity, and at the end of the class came away convinced that I could actually teach using virtual classroom for an entire year.”

The class was on the basics of punctuation and I wish learning punctuation was as easy as this for me too. Apart from lil glitches here and there, the technology does look like a little wonder of wonders!

A thank you note.

2008-07-21T17:02:00.004+05:30

For the past three days I have been teaching from my office using the Virtual Classroom technology, and I’m overwhelmed at the way I’m able to teach so easily and also explain complex lessons conveniently with the use of images and videos.

While I do it with so much joy and warmth in my heart in the knowledge that I’m able to contribute to make millions of lives better, I really should not forget the many people and organizations that made this wonderful technology possible.

I opened my EFF journal, where I have been making notes on our progress, and jotting down hopes and concerns. This was a good way to remember how we got here—the journey hasn’t been easy but at the same time, the generous contribution of some special people made EFF possible. We started working on EFF last year in the month of June and today we have the Virtual Classroom technology in place. This would not have been possible without the help of some generous and like-minded people who shared our vision and went out of their way to help out.

We thank you for believing in us!

ESPRE Solution’s David Espenlaub and the CEO Pete Ianace for giving us their excellent video technology which powers our virtual classroom.

Jon Beck and folks at OpSource for giving us the network and servers to host this service.

Red Cross School management for letting us deploy this technology and do our pilot from here.

Suresh Panchal and Satish Babu from Pioneer Online for giving us the Internet connection to the school.

And of course our engineering team who worked so passionately, for days and nights together, to make the EFF dream a reality.

EFF's Virtual Classroom live in a school!

2008-07-21T12:47:00.010+05:30

EFF Virtual Classroom went live on Friday the 18^th of July 2008 in Red Cross Govt. Girls' High School. After a year of research, planning and developing with immense passion and hard work, it was indeed a proud moment for all of us.

I taught the eighth graders from my office desk while they were seated in their school computer room. I could see them sitting systematically forming a pyramid like shape so that the camera could capture all of them. The moment they saw me in the projector they started giggling and chimed in unison “good morning Teacher”. I did explain how this was going to work but thanks to the ‘idea ad’ on Television, they now had a better idea.

And even before I started with my introductory note, they started asking questions just as in our regular classes. The comfort level was amazing and they sure were incredibly enthusiastic. When I asked how she liked the Virtual Classroom, Soni, one of the students, responded that she felt lucky because she never could even dream of these things being provided in a government school. She says she now looks forward to coming to school more than ever.

We always believed that this is something that would change the face of Indian public school system. And now that we see in action, we are convinced that the “change” is not too far away. Our target is to deploy EFF’s Virtual Classroom in 1000 schools in the next 5 years.

Here is a photo of the class in progress:

(more pics and videos on the way :))

(Click on the image for a better view)

What do these school text books in India teach?

2008-07-03T15:07:00.010+05:30

In my class yesterday, I asked my students if they knew where I was from. They didn’t. So I told them I was from Nagaland. Did they knew where it was? This time I heard a “yes.” Without any suspicion or doubt about their knowledge of where my homeland was, I enthusiastically asked “where.” Two girls stood up and shyly somewhat unsure, said that Nagaland is in Africa!

I was amused and shocked at the same time. It was one of those feelings that you can’t quite give a name. With my very tiny little eyes and typical Asian features, I couldn’t possibly be mistaken to be an African or Nagaland to be in Africa.

With a wide smile stuck on my face I told them that I was one of them-- that Nagaland is one of the states in India. Desperate to teach the girls at least some of the basics about their country, I even drew a map of India on the blackboard. It wasn’t anywhere close to being called an Indian map, but thanks to the distinct shape on the right hand side of the map, I was able to show them the part that is called the North-east India. I then gave them the list of states that come under it– most of the names were completely new to them. For the rest of the class, instead of English I ended up teaching them Geography.

So yes, it ended well enough. The girls learned a little lesson, and I learned a big one. I’m left wondering about the kind of education we are giving these children. What is the worth of this free education anyway? We don’t care if the students know anything about the country they live in, the land that’s their home. Instead, year after year, we keep fighting about portions of “communal flavors” in our text books, and other irrelevant stuff.

Someday, hopefully, we’ll start to worry about what our children should learn, instead of being obsessed about what they should not learn.

More Kendriya Vidyalayas to come up

2008-07-02T19:14:00.007+05:30

It has just been announced that many more model schools on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalayas will be coming up in India in the near future. Arun K. Rath, secretary in the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry said, “We are rolling out these 2,500 schools from August." (Read here)

For the school education system in India, this is excellent news. Students will have something to turn to because KVs are inexpensive and definitely centers of excellence.

Kendriya Vidyalaya is a system of Central Government schools spread widely across the country. Started in 1965, it now has 981 schools with 9,94,730 students in all parts of the country. The Minister of Human Resource Development is the chairman of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

One of the missions of KV is to cater to the educational needs of the children of Defence or Para-military personnel who are constantly on the move. Kendriya Vidyalaya has been doing exceedingly well in the board exams for many years now. The school provides a common program of education thereby making it convenient for students to catch up with the syllabus without many hassles.

In the long term, this move will probably benefit India as much as the increase in the number of IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), if not more.

(View the achievement page here)

Inflation hits school education too...

2008-07-02T16:33:00.008+05:30

It looks like inflation is the most happening thing in India today. Everything costs more: From fuel to flight fares, cooking gas and vegetables--it just doesn’t seem to end.

The latest on the list is education. We have been paying more and more for education, the cost will keep increasing. Check this story in Economic Times, a survey conducted under the aegis of the Social Development Foundation of Assocham on ‘Rising school expenses vis-a-vis dilemma of young parents.’ The cost of school education has risen by a whopping 160% in the last 8 years. And this is, believe it or not, excluding tuition fees. Most middle class parents today spend a significant part of their income on their children’s education.

Some mind boggling numbers from the report:

Annual Expense for a single child

Risen from 25,000 in 2000 to 65,000 in 2008 (excluding tuition fees)
Tuition Fess 35,000
Another 30,000-35,000 more for a host of 'overheads'

If this is what good education actually costs, I wonder what our government schools, which offer “free education” are actually dishing out to the vast majority of children in India.

Some of my favorite blogs on teaching...

2008-07-01T21:50:00.008+05:30

Christina Laun has a comprehensive list of some “must reads” by teachers in Teaching Tips.com, a teachers’ resource website.

I went through the sites and blogs and I list my favorites here: (great find! thanks Christina :))

NCERT textbooks speak through pictures!

2008-07-01T20:35:00.007+05:30

Much of early learning is motivated by a sense of wonder. Wonder about sounds, smells, people and their attires and languages, and everything else. A lesson in geography that speaks of the desert, and has a description of a camel cannot be as effective as, say, a video clip of a camel crossing the desert, with the roar of strong winds in the background.

Imaginative movies, and fictional narratives about visiting the past, or parts of the world are therefore popular among children, and come in handy as teaching aids. They serve as the perfect excuse for taking the audience of children on an audio visual tour of the past or of a place, where things can be shown and heard, and not just told.

The reason is simple: the more we see and hear, the more we learn. (Read more)

Looks like the NCERT has taken at least a baby step in providing what educational theories have been proposing for many years now.

The students are in for a nice surprise this academic session. Text books with illustrations since pictures speak a thousand words! Pictures of our freedom fighters, soldiers, weapons, the socio-religious reforms by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and other eminent personalities. Would it work? I'll have to check with my kid cousin.

In a unique way to present the glorious history of India's freedom struggle, the NCERT has resorted to pictorial presentation of the subject aiming to generate interest and inquisitiveness among the students to explore the past.

Read the complete story here

Another Government school in shambles...

2008-07-01T20:20:00.007+05:30

Yet another sorry state of a Government school. The Jowai Government school located somewhere on the hills of Meghalaya opened in 1941 is close to shutting down. Doesn't the Jowai Government school started in as early as 1941 even before our independence deserve a little attention? Considering that this is one of the first schools in India! But then, being so alienated from the mainstream, so distant in heart and hearth, it is no surprising that the center is heartless about it. However, I'm certain that a host of Meghalayans (bureaucrats, educators, businessmen, political leaders) are alumnus of this school. Can't somebody, anybody do something about it?

It has been almost 61 years since we attained independence and we have seen numerous governments come and go and we have heard promises after promises from these governments. But the condition of the school is deteriorating day by day.

The school has been facing numerous hardships for some decades now without any government coming to its rescue. Some of the main problems that the school is facing vary from shortage of manpower to the infrastructure.

Little drops of water indeed make the mighty ocean

2008-07-01T18:38:00.009+05:30

There are millions of homeless children here in India. Several NGOs, the government, individuals are all doing their bit to give these homeless a space and a place in society. Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta talks about his experience as he helped an institution in Bhopal where orphans and underprivileged children found a place where they could get some education and a locker to be called their home. It is indeed touching!

These children, in my opinion, do not have anything personal and individual, no assets, no home, not even a toothbrush, nothing. It is a totally transient existence. And it is horrible, not to have anything to call your own.

But the idea was, that if they have a locker, with their own locks and keys, it becomes their little piece of home. And that is what we saw, there were thirty lockers and each had been decorated individually by their owners. The key was hung around their necks with a piece of sturdy twine, but some had put up photographs, some had arranged their clothes in pleasing manners, one even had managed to put in a tiny curtain in that locker.

Read the story here.

Lite talk

2008-06-30T22:14:00.007+05:30

I do have a lot of fun teaching English to my students. Sometimes I really wish I knew Telugu, Urdu and Hindi to aid me in my teaching. I can manage colloquial Hindi but not enough to explain meanings or translate English words into Hindi. However, I do my best...at times, out of sheer desperation I call up my Telugu and Hindi speaking friends too in the middle of a class!

Last week, I was teaching them the names of the parts of the body--I showed them my fingers and asked them what they were called--"fingers" they chimed. But when I showed them the toes...in a loud angelic voice they answered "leg fingers"! and calf they thought was called "back sheen" Sweet aren't they? I forget my walking woes when I'm with them :)

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan...

2008-06-30T22:04:00.003+05:30

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) reaches out to the children of commercial sex workers in a corner of the city in Kolkata as a part of their “Education for All” program.

The social stigma and the fear of ostracism kept mothers from enrolling their children - till the SSA intervened with regular counselling, interaction and awareness drives.

“Children are never made to feel that their mothers are from this disreputable place where I live. Ten years ago, school not have even looked at us, let alone admitted our children to study. So much has changed over the last few years,” said Banita, a sex worker, whose daughter Sona studies at the Swamiji Vidyapeeth Primary School.

Read the complete story here.

12 years of distance learning invalid

2008-06-30T19:06:00.007+05:30

Today, online distance learning, virtual classrooms have found an enthusiastic audience in many parts of the world. The advantages that this system gives are tremendous. The ability to earn a degree and also pursue a job at the same time has improved the career prospects for many people, who would not otherwise be able to afford an education. And since one isn’t limited by one’s location, it’s possible for people to “go the distance” looking for a good course administered by an excellent faculty.

Many people need to work and support themselves for an education and the best deal they have is to go for a distance course.

While lunching with a friend in the university campus a couple of weeks ago, I met her brother and got around to talking about his work and his education. He’d finished his graduation through the distance mode and was working in a private bank. But it seems next week he is shifting base to Delhi because he plans to join a coaching institute and write the central banking exams.

Why am I telling you about him? I remembered him when I read this story in Times of India this morning:

Several lakh degree certificates awarded by the University of Madras and a few other state universities through the distance education programme for over 12 years are not valid for getting employment in Central government departments.

I hope he didn’t go to one of these universities. But there are thousands of people who did—in a long span of 12 long years. I find it shocking that universities could be irresponsible enough to offer courses they were not authorized to offer (weren’t they supposed to be the very foundation of our educational system?) and I am amazed that for 12 years, this fraud was allowed to continue: universities collected their fees, printed out stacks of certificates, and the only ones who lost anything (precious hours of study at night, many years of effort and hope) are the students. It just goes to show how devious and negligent some people can be.

Two solutions come to mind:

All the degrees issued in this manner should be recognized and the people who were systematically deceived should now be allowed to write central Government exams (as long as they meet other conditions, of course).

The people who were involved in committing this fraud as well as the people who were supposed to put an end to it but did not should be required to give up their own citations or increments—effective from 12 years ago.

East or west, government schools are the same!

2008-06-30T18:31:00.016+05:30

In India, Government schools are synonymous to lack of everything a normal school should have: Teachers, classrooms, drinking water, toilet, desk and benches, books, the works!

I’ve been writing about the government schools in Andhra Pradesh ever since we started the EFF project. For a quick recap, it’s here, here, here and here.

As I read this story in Express India, it’s a déjà vu moment for me.

Due to lack of infrastructure, students are made to either sit in the verandah or outside the classrooms, irrespective of the weather — rain, heat or cold.

The pictures below are students of Rasoolpura Government School Hyderabad diligently taking a test in the veranda of their school.

Despite the absolute negligence by the government towards the school, the students are blessed with an organization called Bhumi--a group of young individuals who have revived the school and have given it a fresh lease of life. In two years, apart from other necessities, they have even managed to built enough classrooms for all the students-- Thanks to organizations like Panterra Networks (formerly Pandora Networks--where I worked last) who in their own way contribute to make this change easier.

Next time around when I visit the school, i'll see a different picture. Literally.

Red Cross School girls...

2008-06-30T14:54:00.017+05:30

This afternoon I took the engineers to the school to examine the room where the Virtual Classroom technology will be deployed. As they got busy discussing the logistics and stuff I went out and took some pictures of the girls. Not just the uniform but they are bright in every way!

The 7 graders--the girl in glasses (front) stood first in the previous year...this morning she read out a poem in Hindi and translated bits and pieces of it in English for the non Hindi speaking audience :)
The lower graders waiting for their parents to pick them up.

I lifted the red schoolbag just to get a feel of how heavy they were and goodness me!They were as heavy as a ten kilo rice bag!

Buying guava from a fruit seller through the grill of the school gate.

It's 2pm and they are dying to go home but the gate is locked and will be opened only after the long bell is rung :)

NCERT textbooks now just a click away!

2008-06-23T17:27:00.009+05:30

The NCERT (National Council of Educational Training and Research) textbooks are finally available online. I’ve been looking forward to this launch ever since the department made the announcement last year.

I did have my own share of running around last academic session searching for textbooks which turned sour at times out of sheer desperation and displeasure. I cannot understand how, year after year, textbooks are available very late—well after the start of the academic year—and never after the first month of sale. That’s never enough for students. Shortage of textbooks continues to be a major problem for schools in India.

However, with the textbooks being made available online, life will get a little easier. If this facility is utilized well and classes are planned systematically, it might even lessen the burden of carrying heavy school bags for students.

Most importantly, students and teachers can now turn to the Internet while the government and publishers take their own time getting the books to children. I still do worry about students who do not have access to the Internet or use the State syllabus. But for now at least I’m contented with the fact that my students will no longer suffer even if they study in a government school—they will now have the best learning resources available to them not just school textbooks.

You can read or download the books from NCERT and here.

Me thinks...

2008-06-20T16:02:00.005+05:30

While the A.P Government has decided that English is the way to go for all schools, we have people like Dr. J Abdul Kalam the former President of India, who seem to think just the other way round. On his recent trip to Aligarh Muslim University, he said that mother tongue languages should be used in schools for learning. In his words:

"Education should be imparted in mother tongue up to 10th standard as it promotes creativity and sharpens intellect immensely”.

He says English should instead be used for Higher and Technical education. While I’m tempted to agree when I see it coming from something like him—who started life like any other typical village boy, studied in a village School, in mother tongue and so on---but went on to become a great scientist and the President of India. But when I think of the larger picture, I’m not so sure. It is definitely a given that no matter where you study, in what medium, as long as you have the zest to excel, you can succeed. We have heard many stories about similar people achieving great heights in life out of scratch.

But leaving all that aside, if we consider the scenario today where there are over 3.1 million graduates stepping fresh out of college every year, there isn’t much choice but to be the very best. And I believe apart from being an expert in your subject matter, knowing English (the language used for communication around the world) and being able to carry yourself with confidence will take you a long way.

I wouldn’t say the A.P government made a great move, (they could have managed it far better) but at the same time I do think that it is crucial for students to learn to speak English in school. We’ve tried to achieve this for decades, unsuccessfully. Maybe English as the medium of instruction will help. It’s worth a try, anyway.

School bags on wheels

2008-06-16T17:21:00.005+05:30

This morning as I stood on the balcony sipping my morning cuppa chai, I saw this young school girl dressed in her school uniform pulling a trolley bag down the road towards a car that was parked a minute away. On closer inspection, I noticed that the trolley was actually a regular school bag, with wheels and a pull-handle. This scene reminded me of an article featured just two days back on the 14th June in the Times of India “Now school carry books on trolleys”

Much has been written about the heavy school bags already, so I don’t need to delve into the issue again. In fact, some time back I wrote about the Chandigarh Government’s plan of doing away with textbooks and thus with heavy school bags. I don’t know how far the plan is being implemented, but here, in Hyderabad, it looks as if the students will have resort to carts and trolleys to lighten the burden, since the authorities haven’t even recognized excessively heavy schoolbags as a problem to be addressed.

SSC to CBSE syllabus in A.P Government School

2008-06-13T15:21:00.009+05:30

I had a meeting with the Red Cross officials this morning and as I waited for them to turn up, I noticed a group of unfamiliar students dressed in their own attire seated in a corner of the corridor. I was told that these were newly admitted students, all in grade VI, part of the recently announced plan of the Govt. of A.P. They are the ones who will be using the CBSE syllabus and will be taught in English medium.

The department on Tuesday issued an order introducing English as the medium of instruction with CBSE syllabus from class VI in 6,500 select schools, covering over 250,000 students.

The move is part of the World Bank-aided Strengthening and Universalisation of Quality and Access to Secondary Schools (SUCCESS) project.

Under the order, students of classes VI and VII of upper primary schools which are within two kilometre radius of high schools where English would be introduced as medium of teaching would be shifted to the nearby high schools along with teachers and other administrative staff.

While Red Cross Girls’ High School is an English medium school with their own class VI students why the Government ordered the school to have a bunch of girls from here and there, beats me! At the same time, the teachers are already hands full--the amount of attention the students will receive also worries me.

The students are from Telugu and Urdu medium schools, who am told do not even understand a word of English! Among other things, they do not have a classroom for these students and unless the Government fulfills their promise of providing ‘specially trained’ teachers for them, these students will be left even without teachers.

While there are concerns voiced out by academicians, teachers, parents and concerned citizens, this is a first hand experience of the fiasco that has been doing the rounds ever since the Government announced the plan.

School reopens!

2008-06-10T13:09:00.014+05:30

After a two months’ long break, students are in school. Every year with June comes a new academic year: one grade up for students, new lessons and perhaps students with newer insights and a stronger zest for a better and fulfilling year.

After last year’s experimental teaching, I will be the official English teacher for the 8th grade students for this academic year. In a week’s time, we will be deploying the Virtual Classroom technology at the Red Cross Government Girls' High School. I’ll be teaching 3 days remotely using our VC and 3 days physically present with them.

How do I feel? Excited, but at the same time, a little nervous. After all, it’s about making a difference to 50 odd girls. And that’s a big responsibility!

I’ve been gearing up for a month now, reading up on teaching techniques, working with our engineers to fix all minor bugs, and getting more features added in our Virtual Classroom application. Emotionally and mentally, I’ve determined not to be disappointed and even when I do, not to give up.

It’s going to be yet another exciting and challenging year. And I need all the good wishes and blessings that you could bestow upon me :)

On bags and baggages

2008-05-12T18:18:00.008+05:30

It is generally an undisputed fact that textbooks are indispensable to education, that one can’t learn successfully without them. For example, all through school, for every class I attended, there had to be a textbook opened at my desk. (Some classes could take place, without them—singing and painting—and those subjects felt different, somehow.) To learn, you had to use a textbook, that was the simple rule. In fact, I was once punished for forgetting a textbook at home. And that of course made sense: we could not study, or pass an exam without the textbook—an entire year’s worth of knowledge was in there!

While the importance of textbooks can hardly be disputed, some problems do come up as a result of this dependence. One problem is that both teachers and students in India often tend to believe that textbooks are “enough” and learning from other sources is unnecessary. The second problem is that the combined weight of all the books makes the schoolbag so heavy that forcing little children to carry such bags becomes a form of child abuse and child labor, and certainly an unpleasant way of implementing a human right.

But here is something interesting: the education department in Chandigarh, India set out to solve the “heavy schoolbags” problem, and in the process may also have addressed the first problem!

The department is doing away with bags/textbooks till the 2nd grade after the summer holidays, and plans to keep the higher classes also free of textbooks soon. It seems the education department has already initiated a training program where 50 teachers have been trained on how to teach without textbooks. For all I know, this may lead to a new kind of teaching and learning methodology, where teachers would start experimenting and challenge the creative streak in them.

The move to work without textbooks might just introduce a level of experimentation in teaching and learning, and hopefully make education less of a burden than it tends to be.

Good news from UNESCO

2008-05-07T18:51:00.006+05:30

Early last year, while researching on education, I read bundles of reports from UNESCO, UNICEF, EFA etc. The 2005 UNESCO report, while highlighting the phenomenon of the Out-of-School students, called upon us to understand better who they are and what background they are from, to help us design programs for them.

A vibrant organization here in Hyderabad, the MV Foundation takes care of over 2500 schools in A.P. They employ volunteer teachers in these schools and make sure that the dropout rate is controlled. They also rescue child labors, who are often dropouts, rehabilitate them, and prepare them to rejoin school with the help of their specially designed bridge course.

If the number of school dropouts has decreased in recent years, organizations like MVF have had a lot to do with it.. As I read this news from UNESCO, I rejoice with high sounding cymbals.

06-05-2008 - The number of primary-school-age children not in primary or secondary school fell by 2 million worldwide between 2005 and 2006, according to new estimates published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

The new figures confirm a downward trend: between 1999 and 2006, the number of these children fell from 103 million to 75 million. From a regional perspective, South and West Asia reported the greatest progress. This was mainly due to changes in India, where the number of children out of school fell by over 12 million as participation in primary education significantly improved for girls (accounting for more than 75% of the decrease).

Sub-Saharan Africa also made important strides, with a reduction of 10 million. This was largely the result of progress reported by the Governments of Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Globally, more than one-half of the 75 million out-of-school children are girls. The following countries had 2 million or more children out of school in 2006: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan.

These figures are part of the latest release of UIS education statistics for the pre-primary to tertiary levels for the school year ending in 2006. The new data are available in the UIS Data Centre.

Goverment of Madhya Pradesh plans for an extraaa step

2008-05-07T17:45:00.005+05:30

The government of Madhya Pradesh plans to increase the working hours in schools from 10am-5pm from the next academic session which is July. This initiative is to improve the performance of the students in schools by increasing the time for each period and perhaps a study period as well. However, many are skeptical about this plan-- educators are concerned because children cannot be forced to learn by keeping them in the school premises. Other concerns are like having to catch up on co-curricular activities. Parents are worried that if students get home only after 5pm, that leaves no room for coaching classes. Or children might end up sleeping late.

Read the news here

Purposeful Scribbles?

2008-05-06T17:11:00.008+05:30

The Times of India ran a story this morning about how a student trapped corrupt examiners. While a majority of the readers are up and arms against the teachers, it makes me wonder if there are more skeletons to be uncovered.

Did the student Satish Barot’s actually scribble the phone number just to find out how the examiners would use it? Were there any ulterior motives? Going by the marks he has supposedly scored, just 18, looks like he didn’t do that great in his exams. Did he actually want the teachers to contact him? What’s even more intriguing is--is this is a racket that has been going on? Only time will tell.

An extract here:

Barot had taken his exams in March in GL Patel School in Unjha and the paper were assessed in April. "They told me that I had scored only 18 marks in the Philosophy paper. If I wanted 40 marks, I should pay them Rs 5,000,"Barot said, adding that he had recorded the mobile phone conversations with these teachers.

Read a book or two this vacation!

2008-05-06T11:08:00.027+05:30

Its summer vacation for schools here in

India

. A time to visit grandparents in villages, relish mangoes straight from the farm or the market. For some, it’s a time for more classes to hone their talents—singing, painting, dancing, acting, sports and the likes. For some other people it's sightseeing trips to foreign lands. Most of the kids in my colony are into playing cricket these days…I suppose it’s the IPL (

Indian

Premier League) influence. For the book lovers, I have some recommendations here...I know I know! nothing like beating the heat with a nice book and a cup of butter milk ;)

Journey to the river sea by Eva Ibbotson

I finished reading just last week and totally loved it! Packed with adventure, some romance here and there, nice lil suspense, harmless humor and some wicked characters to complete the plot. This book gives you a beautiful sight of the life in Amazon that you almost want to go and live there. Enjoy the adventure with Countess Maia, the boy from the Xante tribe, Clovis, Miss Minton, the twins and others. Read more reviews here

The witch of the blackbird pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Set in the 19th century, this is a book about a girl who goes to live with her relatives in Connecticut. The tone of the book is serious, and conveys the difficult choices one must make on the way to maturity. Read the preview of the book here

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

It’s about a little boy who lives with his divorced mother. All through his childhood, he writes letters to his favorite author about his loneliness frustration and his everyday life. The entire book consists of these letters, which start with Leigh as a 2nd grader , and progresses to being in 6th grade by page 10. A lovely book that lets you see the heart of a little boy. You’ll like it even more if you have younger brothers, and young boys will definitely appreciate it! …most times you will find yourself in the letters.. Read More

The secret garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A spoilt 10 year old Mary Lennox goes to live with her uncle in Yorkshire. she has lost her parents to Cholera while living in India. There she meets her crippled cousin and encounters a life that she had never experienced. Set during the 1900's-1920's, the book teaches you about acceptance and never giving up.
Read more reviews here.

Kofi A. Annan on education

2008-05-03T16:02:00.006+05:30

Education is the single most vital element in combating poverty, empowering women, protecting children from hazardous and exploitative labor and sexual exploitation, promoting human rights and democracy, protecting the environment and influencing population growth. Education is a path towards international peace and security.

Kofi A. Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nation

(from I. Preface. Human Rights Publication, Reports 2001--read the article here)

11 ways to keep teachers motivated...

2008-05-01T13:16:00.018+05:30

While I was teaching at Red Cross Girls' High School, on some days I was overwhelmed with frustration over a whole lot of things…the lifeless atmosphere, lack of important facilities, most of all, the persistence of a monotonous routine for the teachers. I was there only as a volunteer teacher but my heart goes out for the other teachers who have been teaching for years in spite of so much inconveniences! I came up with lil ideas as I walked to the school and back but couldn’t implement them as I had to take a break for some other work. However, apart from friends, students, teachers I have school administrators as readers of this blog and therefore I’m putting the ideas here. I hope it's useful :)

*These ideas have come out of sheer passion to instill enthusiasm among teachers and are not the result of experience as an administrator.

Some of the ideas are borrowed from my Mom, herself a teacher who shares with me some of the reasons why she wants to continue teaching despite the resistance from my Dad (he has retired wants her to retire too!) of course apart from the money and the passion.

So here goes the list...

Organize a lunch party—pot luck way is the easiest and most convenient way. Make sure there is music going on in the background and fresh flowers on the table!
Go for a teachers’ tour once a year to nearby resorts or any holiday spot. Plan at the beginning of the year so that you get to raise some funds too. Have a meeting and ask the teachers to come up with ideas. Get everyone involved in the fund raising activity.
Organize a ‘Talent Show’ exclusively for teachers…you will be amazed as they unwrap their hidden talents. During one such program, my Mom didn’t know what to do (she doesn’t sing, cannot act, doesn’t play any instruments or paint or draw-- so she decided to walk the ramp in our traditional attire! So you see there is something everyone can do.
Present them with little awards on teachers’ day—ensure that all teachers get an award each. For this, leave out the “best teacher award” but have something like “teacher with the best smile” “best dressed teacher” “innovative teacher” “most cheerful” etc.
Recognize their efforts by announcing their achievements during the morning assembly however small they might be. For instance, “100% attendance in teacher Michael's class for the past one month! *applause” etc
Most schools have sports week every year, dedicate one day for teachers. The best way is to divide them into houses so that the competition gets stronger and merrier.
Every Once in a while, have a “costume day”. Nothing fancy and over the top (to make it convenient for everyone) ask them to wear something pink, blue or red and mention in bold “wearing smile is mandatory” (This is my Mom’s favorite) and see for yourself how colorful and lively the whole atmosphere looks.
Plan for a movie outing on a weekday! Send the students home an hour earlier than usual…makes both the parties happy :)
Have a “breakfast in office” morning and order in something special. Be casual and make sure there is enough room for interaction.
Celebrate birthdays together or send a ‘welcome back” card when a teacher gets back after an illness or after a paternity/maternity leave.
In your weekly school bulletin, have short interviews of teachers…again be sure to include everyone. This is a good way to make them feel important. Also run a column, something like "we are watching you” and fill it in with funny incidents and snippets about teachers. It’s after all a human right to be funny in life :)

Cheers!

book counting

2008-04-29T19:25:00.008+05:30

Over Facebook iRead listing a good friend of mine recently commented that I was ill-read as I had listed only a 100 odd books. While I have read a few hundred books, it is nothing compared to him who has read a few thousand books! (Thanks to a professor father and a university library, grumble!) All I ever read during my growing up days was fairy tales and comics. Our school did have a “library”, but it was kept in the Principal’s office in a steel cupboard where he also tucked away heaps of files. We were too scared to even enter his room leave alone browse for books , and our school never actually required us to read anything other than the textbooks.

A whole range of experience—children’s literature—remained completely unknown to me throughout childhood. In fact, it was only after I joined college that I discovered that there is something called a children’s literature.

Just the other day I happened to drop in at our local British library and was tempted to take a sneak peek at the colorful children’s section (spent more than an hour there, actually) only to be reminded of the opportunity I had missed. I know I said in an earlier post that I loved everything about my school, but here is something that, in hindsight, I wish had been different. I now wish we had had access to a good library with fun books—there are so many to choose from! Newberry, Plumes, Superfudge, Scholastic, Puffin…

Last year when I decided to build up my own library; I started with children’s books. I now keep buying them for my little cousins back home. I’m not sure if they read those books at all, but I know they are not going to miss an enriching experience, and that they won’t have the regret that I do when they grow up. This assurance, my own ever-expanding library, and my compulsive reading give me respite from that regret.

a double toast!

2008-03-20T15:24:00.004+05:30

My dear readers, I bring to you another wonderful news! Just the other day, we received a substantial funding commitment to pilot our Virtual Classroom in at least 20 schools in and around Hyderabad.

Which means about a few hundred students will be able to interact with the best teachers from around the world and also experience the enticing audio visuals we have in store for them.

It also means that after the Easter holidays, we get started with short listing the schools and screening the teachers. And in a couple of weeks we’ll begin their training.

Heck! That sounds like a lot of work! But hang on, with some dancing and celebration over the weekend, we will be back all refreshed and geared up. :)

I’ll be popping up here soon with more news on our progress so do check on us.

Happy Easter,

Life is beautiful :)

Good news!

2008-03-20T00:02:00.011+05:30

Woo! We did it! It’s finally done! We present to you our Virtual Classroom. And we are back to being happy people--. Ever since the day we had our EFF pre alpha release in our office, our lives changed. At least temporarily: we worked and ate at our desk, we put a hold to our salon and parlor visits, we fought, we made up and some nights we had to walk home coz by the time we stepped out of our office, the cabs had retreated to their respective garages.

Even with our sunken eyes we can’t stop smiling. That’s the effect our babe VC has on us. Yesterday, while I was testing the whiteboard, I created a lesson for my students. It was just a test but I wanted to feel like I was using it. And it’s now uploaded in my slide library. When I saw myself in the video, I quite liked what I saw—for once I didn’t have much to complain about. The quality is awesome—I’m considering using it as a substitute for a mirror. ;)

Most of you are aware of our journey with EFF and will certainly feel our enthusiasm and excitement. This means a lot to us because it's going to make a difference to a lot of children out there who have never experienced what education is. It took us half a year to research, plan and finally execute!

As we share the good news, do check out the develper version of our VC on our website. It is available in the Moodle community too. We have put it up for you because we value your suggestions. Do drop us a line about your experience.

We hope you’ll like it and thanks for cheering us along the way.

P.S

We will be releasing the beta version on the 14th of April.

An island of learning

2008-03-13T13:21:00.008+05:30

Some of my friends snigger at me when I tell them that I loved my school. But I did and no sniggering stops me from emphasizing that fact. :) As I think of it—it was mostly because of my teachers--simple but dedicated—who ensured that we were taught with enthusiasm.

I honestly liked everything about my school—my teachers, the tests and exams, the extracurricular competitions, sports week and morning assembly…all of it.

Come to think of it--even the textbooks I used were old—handed down from my sister who was a year ahead of me. I remember repairing the books since they had dog-eared pages, some books were torn, pages in the middle had come loose, and there was plenty of scribbling and underlining done in all of them.

It actually surprises me now that I willingly and lovingly used those textbooks. In fact, I remember the cold winter afternoons when I would sit on the wooden floor with a cup of tea, wrapped in a sweater and a muffler and cover them with used white calendars because the textbook covers were usually torn and lost. I would write the name of the subject and my name with a marker.

I did not have access to any fancy educational material apart from those textbooks but the effort with which my teachers taught me with whatever little they had gave me access to a whole wide world. I remember one teacher in particular who taught the class what an island was. He filled a shallow plate with water and placed a slab of stone covered with moss and told us that that patch of “land” was an island and corrected us when we pronounced island with an “s”. That’s when I learned about silent letters.

They always insisted that each of us will in our own way become “great” someday. I may not have become ‘that great someone’ I wanted to, but it’s because of my teachers that I today value education and the life that comes with it.

So with my old textbooks, some motivated teachers, and lots of encouragement, I learned well, and more importantly with enthusiasm and enjoyment. What really made the difference for me was that I always had good, committed teachers who could enthuse me and get me to focus on learning in every class.

I am convinced that without a teacher to help you relate to your lessons and to the textbooks, even the keenest child would find her enthusiasm wavering. And that a good teacher can turn even dull textbooks into precious learning resources. And this is the reason for our sense of urgency regarding this severe shortage of teachers in our schools today, and our desire to do something about it.

Mid Day Meal scheme--food for the hungry or fodder for the money mongers?

2008-03-13T12:59:00.005+05:30

Most of us are aware that Mid Day meal scheme has started to show results. There is a wide increase of children attending school now. (Read Government schools) After all, Education will definitely taste better when you don't go hungry. However, this scheme doesn't go free of controversies. A story ran by indiatogether.org caught my attention...looks like corrupted political leaders are 'eating' through the plates of these hungry little children. And this definitely will not be the last story... after all, with over US$1.9 billion funding running the show, more private pockets will be filled at the expense of millions of malnourished, starving children.

CLF

2008-03-12T21:27:00.005+05:30

Center For Learning is an alternative school that believes in giving an all round development to a child. Started by a group of educationist, it has been extremely successful over the years. They have around 30 students with half of them as fee-paying and the rest as sponsored students. Their work looks very interesting and I would like to meet them one of these days. They also bring out a journal called Edu-Care where they discuss issues on education. In their own words:

A Forum for education concerns Quarterly Magazine in English. Edu-care takes up a specific theme in each issue related to education such as "play", "competition" and "culture" and analyses them to great depths. The articles are from CFL members as well as from readers. Discussion threads on topics from previous issues are also published.

Check out their website for details.

Planning to plan

2008-03-07T14:42:00.012+05:30

According to this news report, the Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh plans to make a law to provide 'Free and Compulsory' education to children aged between 6-14 years. In India, where illiteracy is rampant, poor aplenty, the policy, if actually planned and implemented, will be like manna from heaven! Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said today that one of the most critical aspects of social development is education.
He said, "Even the most impressive and robust economic progress is rendered meaningless if social development lags behind"
Singh said he plans to make a law to provide free and compulsory education to the age group of 6 to 14 years.

Azim Premji Foundation

2008-02-23T12:22:00.007+05:30

The Azim Premji Foundation is a well-known name today for its contribution to the field of education and child welfare. They sum up their vision in a single line: “To significantly contribute to quality universal education as a foundation to a just, humane and equitable society”. They have achieved much and changed many lives.

We are proud to have them as one of our partners and as a start, they sent us a pack of CDs (educational software content), beautifully illustrated and designed. I wanted to become a child all over again just so that I get to be in a class where interesting ‘cartoons’ are shown as part of a classroom lesson. :)

Blessed are these children!

sugary release

2008-02-06T16:43:00.009+05:30

My New Year wishes come along with a sincere apology to all our readers for not coming up with any new posts in a long time.

However, this does not in any way indicate that EFF wasn’t doing much! In fact, the past few months have been tiring, nerve-racking, challenging, but exciting and fun too. To beat the cold wave (our AC remote control ran out of battery and we couldn’t figure it out how to turn it off!) and to keep our adrenaline pumping, we ended up slurping cups of sugar syrup (read chai) and the result is for all to see. Oodles of expanding waistlines. But that’s ok. We are cool. After all, we are almost ready with our technology although a little behind schedule. Our first internal office release happened three weeks back…and all of us, including our chai boy clapped and hugged. It was indeed a joyous moment…one more step closer to our dreams.

We are now working on our interface designs, fixing a couple of pesky bugs here and there. And it won’t be long for you to catch EFF live in action! Do whisper a prayer for us :)

I have some pictures here. This is my treat for being our loyal, faithful readers!

Work space

our colorful white board. It's amazing the things

it can do! I love playing with it. :)

Our virtual
classroom
white board and
the tutor /student video window.
for now it's a
photographer window :P

and that's our chai boy with our cups of sugar syrup! :P

Our Manifesto

2007-11-26T12:47:00.001+05:30

It is generally accepted that the amount of education and the quality of education one has directly affect the quality of life one can have. Educated people are in a better position to influence the course of their own lives as well as of their communities; the educated are healthier and less vulnerable, and have a better chance of improving the quality of their lives, not just from one generation to the next, but even within their own lifetime.

We today live in a complex world that has been forged out of the efforts of countless men and women, out of conflict, convergence and synthesis between millions of varied forces in all parts of the world and in all periods of our history. This is a world that contains innumerable political and economic systems, numerous languages and cultures, and an infinite number of opinions, perspectives, and value systems.

And the world continues to get more complex, and changes more and more every day. An important implication of this fact is that every year, millions of children go out into this increasingly complex world to live as well as they can, even when they have no training for this world.

The serious deprivation causes not just millions of unhappy lives, but also has economic and political costs for the society as a whole.

Also, education today needs to be not just a simple curriculum, but an opportunity to gain exposure to the world and its complexities. That, after all, is the essential minimum goal of education: to equip children with the skills of reading, writing, and understanding the basics of all sciences and disciplines, and, most importantly, with the ability to learn, so that they can cope with the demands life makes on them and also have a life that can cope with their demands.

The education system in place in most parts of the world is unable to meet these requirements even partially, and we are faced with the prospect of millions of unsatisfactory lives. We believe this deprivation has serious consequences and must be ended as soon as possible.
The problems we address

Not enough schools or teachers
Schools are ill-equipped
Teachers refuse to teach in rural areas
Even teachers tend to lag behind without new training
Textbooks are not updated often enough, and are boring
Students have very little to learn from: no more than ten books in an entire year
Students typically have only books to learn from in school, and no other learning resources elsewhere.

What we have observed

At present, beyond 6-10 dull, small textbooks in a year, children have nothing to learn from.
Children’s capacity for learning is unlimited, but they can only learn from the materials we make available.
In a typical Indian school textbook, the ratio of concept to illustration probably stands at less than one illustration for 20 concepts “taught”. The efficacy and relevance of the illustrations is rarely of a standard that will appeal to children.
Children have wide individual differences in terms of how they learn, what type of examples work, and so on. The limited number of examples and illustrations means that a certain example will work for some children--for the others there is no second chance (an extra example, an additional illustration.) to learn the same concept. Instead of simply deciding what children should learn and in what order, we also end up controlling what they should learn with, leading to total failure in imparting education.

Many educated people wish to contribute to the places they come from, the schools or villages they grew up in.

Considerable charitable effort by such people is already in place. However, in each individual instance, the wheel is reinvented, and considerable effort is wasted in each village, each donor learning what is needed and how it can be accomplished.

Many people who would like to help but would find it easier to spend time rather than money are unable to contribute, as there is no convenient way of sharing one’s expertise and experience with students who are far away, and schools that are isolated.

Our proposal

In order to meet this goal we propose that the following policies / measures be considered essential:

Not learning should no more be considered the fault of the child: all failures expose the weaknesses of our own education and teaching, and not the children’s ability or interest in learning.
In order to make up for the current lack of skilled teachers, esp. in rural areas where they are scarce, a paradigm shift in the way education is implemented should be effected: those who have education should be allowed to teach.
The educated must educate—a valuable resource must be utilized.
Education should be the result of a collaboration between local rural communities, non-profit organizations working at the grassroots levels, and educated people.

What we can do

Make quality education non-localized
Access to highly competent teachers from anywhere in the world
Quality study materials for students anywhere in the world
Make education enjoyable and relevant for students
Start a community where anyone can contribute their ideas and experiences in teaching, forming an intense and extensive knowledge base of teaching methods and policies. Since the majority of school teachers work in isolation today, this platform will revolutionize the way and the extent to which we think about education.

To my girls at Red Cross Government High School

2007-09-19T19:10:00.003+05:30

This writing is inspired by my students. Their blank stares and blank answer sheets. This is a message, an appeal to my students on what education can do for them.

Dear Girls,

It is important to be educated because Education makes you aware of your rights in a society. It also gives you the courage and the means to fight for them. In fact, in most cases, you don’t even have to fight. You get what you deserve and what is yours. Education teaches you to treat every human with respect. Respecting people for what they are, and not because they belong to a particular religion, caste or status. It gives you the confidence to live life on your own terms, at the same time by respecting the emotions and opinions of those that are close to you.

It also teaches little things like civic sense, preserving the environment, taking care of your health by exercising and eating healthy food. It gives you the ability to make your own decisions, be it choosing a field of study, deciding on a career, or choosing a person to marry. The freedom to do any of these comes only with 'education’.

It gives you the confidence to present yourself. Become independent. And in many ways people become dependent on you. You understand the things happening around you, and are able to participate in social, economic, and political debates of your interest.

Education gives the ability to make informed decisions and form well thought out, independent opinions. Ability to contribute more to society since you better understand how it works and what it lacks. –A more active role in building and maintaining the society and civilization.

When you are educated, people respect you.

When you are educated, you have a voice, a voice for others too.

Your teacher.

Red ribbons and plaits

2007-09-05T15:10:00.003+05:30

I conducted the first unit test today despite resistance from some of the students. Everyone hates exams, including my students! so I decided to treat them with some photos and a video. They were so pleased with the idea that they actually started waving and smiling ...I had to literally force them to 'pretend' to be writing. Take a look...

40 girls in total, but only 33 were present today.

One of my favorite students. She proudly showed me her mehendi (the print on her hand) She must have done for the festival yesterday.

I love the way the girls wear their hair. Everyone of them neatly plaits her hair and tie it up with those red ribbons. It's a part of the school uniform. It seems elder sisters and moms help with the styling.

I did the writing on the blackboard and surprisingly not many of them have problems reading it. I consider that as an achievement :)

How Children Learn

2007-08-31T14:37:00.000+05:30

The reason is simple: the more we see and hear, the more we learn.

While it is true that children have a highly active imagination, it cannot be denied that the more one sees, the more is one capable of imagining. As Prof. George E. Hein asserts:

…we must provide learners with the opportunity to: a) interact with sensory data, and b) construct their own world.

There are many theories of learning, and the most widely accepted today asserts that children learn from experience, by engaging with the world. Education is therefore not seen as a matter of passing on information (in whatever format), but as an effort to increase the child’s exposure to the world as well as the child’s engagement with the world.

Since children are not taught so much as allowed to learn, they learn not just specific things or “lessons”, but also how to learn. More than anything else, it is this skill that gives children the competence and the opportunity to chart their own course, and seek better lives.

Much more than any other teaching methodology, this is the most critical fact. Children learn continuously every day of their lives, and education is really only a matter of guiding the focus of their learning and helping them pick up some of the essential skills that are needed in the course of a normal adult life.

There have been only very minor changes in the system of education over the centuries. If for instance, someone from the 19^th century walks into a typical classroom of today, he will find the same things: chalk and talk, text and desk. But even though the needs of the students have changed drastically, as Andre Lestage’s assertion regarding the importance of audio-visual aids in 1959, shows, things have not changed much in terms of how we teach .

There has in fact been some effort to increase the use of audio-visual aids in education. What has not changed, or not changed sufficiently, is our current understanding of audio-visual aids. Schools who do use audio-visual aids essentially continue to rely on conventional technologies such as Television and Radio. While these work fairly well, they have a significant disadvantage: they do not allow a two way interaction. Introduction of computers has not changed things substantially either. Typically schools use computers to teach computers, and not other subjects, thus underutilizing a valuable resource.

Since the majority of children’s learning takes place based on experiences in the real world, it is clear that in order for children to be sufficiently interested in their school education (which is often a problem, esp. in rural areas) we need to make school education as interesting as possible. To that end, audio-visual aids that are interactive, and allow person to person interaction are the best possible solution, and something we seek to do through our Education For Free.

Teaching is fun

2007-08-24T13:27:00.005+05:30

As I work for EFF, I get to interact with people from different fields: teachers, policy makers, social workers, educators and many others. Recently we had a meeting with Sheel Parekh of Spark-India. She writes, among other things, story books for children with the intention of making them interesting. Now, EFF is also working with the same intention, to make education interesting. We want children to get up each morning eager to go to school. But I had never yet understood how one actually does that.

I asked Sheel, “how do you know what you write will be interesting for children? Do child psychology books help?” In her soft, yet assertive voice, she said “you have to touch to feel the pulse”. That morning I decided to become a teacher.

It’s been a week now since I started teaching English to the 7^th graders of the Red Cross Girls High School. It is an English medium school, with classes from I to X

Teaching children is indeed a challenging task. I’m burdened with a sense of responsibility. Every night just before I go to bed, I prepare my teaching plan. I visualize the girls, just so eager to learn. To make things a little different and interesting for them, I have divided the girls into three different groups. (They had to name their group on their own). So in my class, they sit group wise. For every lesson I teach, we have a quiz just to make sure, they remember what they have learnt.

I keep a “teacher’s journal” and I make a note of my observations and feelings in it. Here are a few things I have noted in my journal so far:

Most girls can hardly read their textbooks.
They do not understand most of the English words.
Most of them do not have their English textbook. I found out that the government has not sanctioned textbooks yet. The rest uses old textbooks handed down from their seniors.
Students who do not understand English and like to refrain participating in the classroom interaction sit on the last benches.
But, they all want to learn. They even wanted me to sing a song and tell them a story about my country. I had to remind them that I belong to this country and was one of them.

I want them to learn to read, write and understand, and speak English, in that order. I was talking to my colleague Sridhar, the other day on how I could encourage and motivate them to read. He suggested that I do something unconventional, like buying them a copy of tinkle each or any other comic that might interest them. My take was, even if they read, they won’t understand. He said, “There are illustrations along with words, which would make it easier for them to understand. And since the illustrations look interesting they will make an effort to read and understand.”

I decided that this was worth a try. After all, as a child it was my favorite comic too. So in my next class, I asked if anyone read tinkle comics. One of the girls had 4 copies right there!

When I asked the rest of the class if anyone else was interested in reading the comics, all 40 of them raised their hands, including the owner.

Over the weekend, I plan to buy them some comics and the English reader textbook for the students.

I've started liking Monday mornings :)

Kondakal High School: Seeing is believing!

2007-08-18T15:14:00.003+05:30

The pictures below were taken during our visit to Kondakal High school which is about 35 kms away from Hyderabad. What we saw was a pleasant surprise. The scene was very different from all the government schools we visited. For a change, this school had excellent infrastructure: sufficient classrooms, a laboratory, a computer room with some 15 computers, a playground, clean toilets, just to list a few. The teachers owe their thanks to the villagers who donated land and exhibit tremendous support and interest in the functioning of the school.

Scroll down and see it for yourself to believe it.

The students were busy preparing for the Independence Day celebration program

they even have a green and clean compound

You will notice that all the students are wearing uniform

The laboratory cum Art class

she proudly showed me her drawing :)

that's a real skeleton!

the computer room

most students use bicycles to commute

Kondakal Primary School

2007-08-18T10:30:00.002+05:30

This school has 126 tiny tots and 5 teachers. Out of which, 2 are on long (read 3-6 months) leave. A school with classes from I-V, and only 3 teachers to teach, they have no choice but to conduct combined classes. No wonder most children there are unprepared for higher studies--class VI, that is.

He prefers to do some extra studying instead of playing with friends

captured them just as they were rushing out for a break

break time...tamarind time :)

simply love this photo!

Photo courtesy: N.J

Million dollar smiles :)

Name of the school	Address	Medium	Strength	Staff
1. Govt High School No.1	Saipur, Tandur	Telugu / Urdu Success schools(E/M)	657	19
				Vacc - 20
2. Govt High School	Tandur	Telugu / Urdu	410	12+4(V.V)
				Vacc – 11
3. Govt Girls High School	Kallalgally, Old Tandur	Urdu/ Success schools(E/M)	700	10
				Vacc – 7
4. Govt High School	Malreddy pally	Telugu/Success school(E/M)	424	6 + 5(V.V)
				Vacc – 8

School	Address	Medium	Strength	Staff
1.Z.P.H.S	Suraram Colony	Telugu	Boys and girls 600	17 1 vaccancy
2. Z.P.H.S	*Suraram Village	Telugu	B & G 350	12
3. Z.P.H.S	Shapoor Nagar	Telugu	B & G 450	14