Simar SinghA report put out by Assocham has estimated that the value of the coaching industry in India was set to touch $40 billion this year, growing at an incredible rate of 35 per cent annually. For an Indian between the ages of 15 to 25, attending some sort of test prep centre is almost a rite of passage, a must to even fathom attempting one of the highly intimidating and highly competitive selection of exams. According to Anil Nagar, co-founder and CEO of Career Power, the permeation of test prep in India is almost absolute, in all but one space, non-UPSC government job exams and this is where he decided to foray to make his bucks. The company runs both offline and online coaching options with their popular sites bankadda.com and sscadda.com. The IIT alumnus’ idea is rooted in his own personal experiences. “Coming from a rural area, I personally know how getting quality coaching can be a struggle. In these areas and small towns there is a particular aspiration to secure government jobs. Unfortunately, coaching for the same is either not available or of negligible value. We thought this was a unique space that needed to be filled,” says Nagar. “There are a stream of young people graduating every year across the country and hardly 10 per cent of them are absorbed by the private sector,” he says, “And those who do find employment find themselves stuck in dead-end jobs. So a lot of people between the ages of 18 to 20 consider government jobs. The opportunity is huge.” And Nagar is right, despite the growing sheen of the private sector, the allure of government jobs remains for many Indians. Career Power started small in 2010 with a single classroom and Nagar says that it has been profitable from the first year itself. “At the time investors were pessimistic about putting in money in this sector and largely steered clear, now the confidence is beginning to grow and there has been a complete reversal in the sense that investment options are flourishing,” says Nagar. Career Power is currently in talks for its Series A round of funding which is being handled by Ernst and Young and should be closed by January or February 2016. This year, the company estimates that it will have coached around a lakh students. Nagar says the company reported a revenue of Rs. 11 crore in the previous year and speculates that it will be around Rs. 30 crore for FY16. “In the next two years we are hopeful that this figure will grow to Rs 100 crore,” he says.
Read More
By Haider Ali Khan Eminent scientist and Bharat Ratna awardee CNR Rao believes that 90 per cent of the universities and higher educational institutions in the country have outdated curriculum, keeping them from making into the top institutes of the world. He is currently serving as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. "90 per cent of the universities in our country have outdated curriculum. We talk about increasing funds, increasing infrastructure but there is no improvement in the content we are teaching in our hi-tech classrooms," Rao said yesterday during the ongoing Visitor's Conference at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. "One of the major reasons behind why Indian institutions don't make it to the top 100 universities in the world. There are lot of Indian students abroad who want to study in our country and come back but there are no quality colleges to offer them the same kind of environment and education," he said. He emphasised that Indian institutions need to improve and also asserted that the talent search in the country is "marginal. "Talent search in our country has always been marginal. We teach our students what Newton and Faraday did but there is no mechanism to look out for similar talent in interiors of the country," he said. He got Bharat Ratna on 16 November 2013 for his outstanding contribution in the field of science.
Read More
Aptech has entered the formal K-12 school business. The maiden school will come up in Kabul, Afghanistan and will seek students in March 2016.To be run in partnership with a local education trust, Aptech's responsibility will be to develop curriculum, provide content, deploy Aptech's pedagogy, bring necessary education board approvals, deploy evaluation strategy and provide training & certification for the faculty enabling them to excel in education delivery.The school will follow the CBSE curriculum and will aim to provide a wholesome experience for the students, with a mix of contemporary content, delivery by well trained teachers and availability of best extracurricular activities.Ninad Karpe, CEO & MD of Aptech said, "With our entry into formal K-12 education space, we are committed to raise the standard of school education and do what we have suitably done to the vocational education arena in India and across the world through our brands in IT, Animation, Hardware & Networking, Hospitality & Tourism and Language training etc. I also believe that we will be able to help teach the young students to think critically and intensively. The true goal of education is to build intelligence and character and we aim to do precisely the same."Afghanistan faces a daunting task in reducing illiteracy rates in the country with an estimated 11 million currently illiterate Afghans aged 15 and above. Improving literacy rates requires the combined efforts of the Ministry of Education and other partners within the Government of Afghanistan as well as communities, the private sector and other non-government actors. Aptech will participate in this process of bringing world-class education to schools in Afghanistan.(BW Online Bureau)
Read More
LinkedIn announced the launch of LinkedIn Placements, a locally developed product aimed at making it easier for graduating students across India to find their first jobs, and for placement officers and recruiters to manage campus placement initiatives.The students segment is one of the fastest growing demographic for LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, with over 33 million members in India and 400 million globally. A recent study conducted across Asia and the Pacific by LinkedIn revealed that fresh graduates and early professionals (those with less than a year of experience) feel that it is now harder for them to land their first jobs, compared to two decades ago - more than a third said they believe it will/did take them one to three months to land their first job. LinkedIn’s partnership with MTV to help students get internship opportunities at prominent companies in the country also pointed to the level of competition for jobs – 1,00,000 applications for 12 internships. The tough competition for jobs amongst a fast-growing population of graduating students was a key factor in LinkedIn’s decision to develop and pilot LinkedIn Placements in India. “Our conversations with students, placement officers and recruiters involved in campus recruitment point to an unmet need for efficiency and effectiveness. We are excited to start this journey to provide a locally developed solution that helps to improve the experience and processes for everyone involved in the entire campus recruitment ecosystem,” said Ganesan Venkatasubramanian, Head of Engineering, LinkedIn India.LinkedIn Placements was developed as a first step to help connect graduating students to their first jobs at a massive scale. In particular, it transforms the campus recruitment process for three key groups of players: students, placement officers and recruiters. Helping Students: Apply anywhere, anytime and stay informedLinkedIn Placements provides visibility to students by making it possible for them to track most suitable jobs, apply for these jobs and receive updates on their job applications in real time. It allows them to connect with their alumni groups and leverage these to build their professional networkEmpowering Placement Officers: Efficiency, automation and placement analyticsLinkedIn Placements makes it easier for placement officers to organize all data and take decisions that can help achieve maximum placements. For example, the placement officer can easily see the offers a student holds and take action to ensure future applicants conform to the placement policy of the collegeEnabling Recruiters: Easy to post jobs and filter candidate pool before visiting campus.LinkedIn Placements enables recruiters to post jobs and filter candidates they want to meet, ahead of the campus visit. This way, they can focus on their core job of interviewing pre-selected candidates during the campus visit.(BW Online Bureau)
Read More
By Haider Ali Khan The Indian School of Business (ISB) is all set to launch a healthcare management programme (HMP) to groom doctors and healthcare professionals. This course will train professionals to move into leadership positions in the near future and drive the growth of the sector. The one-year, part-time programme, designed and developed by the Max Institute of Healthcare Management and the Centre for Executive Education at the ISB, will commence in January 2016. “There is a serious paucity of well-trained quality healthcare management professionals in India. The impressive increase in investment and capacity of the private healthcare industry in India in the last few years accentuates this shortage,” Analjit Singh, founder, Max India Group and founder-supporter, ISB’s Mohali campus, said in a release on Monday (02 November). “Further, as we deal with lives and care of our patients, the finesse required in management deserves specialised training. Management, science and art have to all come together. This one-year programme is a step to remove this glaring inadequacy in India’s healthcare set up,” he added. This one year programme is a step to remove this glaring inadequacy in India s healthcare set up, Singh said. Ajit Rangnekar, dean, ISB, said, “The HMP has been designed in close collaboration with the healthcare sector, practicing professionals and academia.” "An Academic Advisory Council, comprising eminent faculty from across the world, provides academic oversight and an Industry Advisory Council that includes senior leaders from organisations like Max Healthcare Global Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Care Hospitals, and Narayana Netralaya brings in the industry perspective," he informed.
Read More
King's College, Taunton an independent co-educational secondary day and boarding school in Somerset, England, has joined educators in India to form the first British Partnership school in the country. Keeping in mind its educational background, Rohtak was chosen as the location for this new type of school.King’s College India, Rohtak is scheduled to open in August 2016 for children in years 1 Standard to 8 Standard. However, the admission process is likely to begin by November 2015 and the school will be taking enrolments for children aged 6 to 13, mirroring the UK Prep-school system.Bradley Sailes, Principal, King’s College India, said, “ am looking forward to welcoming the children to what I am sure will be a very special school where we value every student for all their talents both those realized and others whose potential is yet to be achieved”The curriculum will initially be modeled on the British Common Entrance system, which generates academic excellence for children up to 13 and creates a platform for later high-performing success at IGCSE and A-levels.King’s College India will be offering a variety of boarding options starting with day boarding, Flexi boarding (selected nights), weekly boarding and full boarding. The boarding ethos and structures of King’s College, Taunton are of tremendous value and will be one of the many differentiating factors from other international schools. Boarders will enjoy a high standard of house accommodation – homely common rooms and dormitories combined with sympathetic and dedicated House Parents will ensure a warm hearted and happy atmosphere.Rohtak will be headed by Bradley Sailes who himself is an alumni of King’s College Taunton and has 24 years experience in the field of education both in the UK and abroad. He was the highly successful and respected Principal of Adesoye College, Offa, Nigeria (a leading private school in the educational sector in Africa) for six years prior to accepting the position as Headmaster of King’s College India.King’s College India intends to instill in its pupils a desire for excellence and a love of learning which extends beyond the confines of the academic classroom. It believes that all students should develop independent, enquiring minds and be encouraged to realize their full potential in the classroom, artistically and in sports.(BW Online Bureau)
Read More
In a bustling coffee shop, Kabir Chadha, Coursera’s India Country Manager, a man with a mission, lays the online open learning company’s ambition for the country. “The ultimate goal is for a non-English speaking person with poor internet connectivity, accessing the site through a mobile phone, living in a tier-III city being able to get on Coursera,” he says.
Read More
Himachal Pradesh's experience confirms that continuous and comprehensive evaluation of schoolchildren can and does improve learning levels, but should be implemented with care.By Prachi WindlassContinuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) has come under fire of late.CCE is one of the highlights of the Right to Education (RTE) Act passed in 2009, a process of regular assessment of individual pupils, which has replaced end-of-term and end-of-year school examinations from Classes I to VIII. It requires schools to keep a complete record of every child's progress during these elementary school years.Teachers have complained that CCE increases their work hours and clerical tasks, while students have grumbled that unlike an objective end-of-year exam, it leaves them largely at the mercy of teachers' subjective perceptions. It has been alleged that the practice of automatic promotion between Classes I and VIII without failing any student, which the CCE mandates, has bred complacence and lowered learning standards. Various reports have also claimed that CCE is not being carried out systematically in many places, that it does not give the correct picture of a student's progress or learning difficulties, or suggest remedial actions.There appears to be a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. In fact, CCE is a valuable pedagogical tool, but it needs to be implemented with proper understanding, preparation and commitment. The experience of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which supports NGOs like Learning Links Foundation (LLF) and Bodh Shiksha Samiti (BSS) working in the field of education, bears this out. LLF and BSS have allied with the governments of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Gujarat to introduce CCE in select government schools and, in every case, the results are positive.Take Himachal Pradesh. In October 2012, LLF signed a memorandum of understanding with the state's Directorate of Education to introduce CCE on a pilot basis in 200 government schools across the districts of Shimla, Solan, Bilaspur and Kinnaur. A review of the project in March 2014 showed an average improvement of 13 pp in children's math and language competencies in the second year of the intervention. Additionally, the program also found 30 pp increase in teacher's compliance with the CCE-based assessment tools and methods. The experience with CCE in the other three states has been similar.How should CCE be implemented to make it effective? Most important is the design of the CCE framework and tools. CCE is a teacher's tool to collect individualized and actionable information on children's learning levels in order to take appropriate measures to facilitate it in a desired direction. When designed well, these tools can make a teacher's life much easier and positively impact the learning levels of children. Secondly, CCE can help achieve the much talked about paradigm shift from teaching to learning in the classrooms. This shift can be achieved only through a thorough understating of CCE in the main drivers of this process - school principals and teachers, along with the state resource persons (SRPs) employed to help and monitor them. For example, in Himachal Pradesh, a six-day training workshop was conducted for teachers on exactly how to plan and transact the lessons under the new system, how to observe the students' scholastic and co-scholastic performance and record it. Subsequently, based on feedback from the teachers, subject enrichment workshops were also organized.Finally, the training- and capacity-building cannot end with just forum trainings. In addition to the SRPs, LLF designated 24 local experts as field facilitators to help the teachers on a regular basis as well as to liaise with block officials to monitor academic progress. Parents were drawn into the process as well to monitor the academic and holistic development of their children. An Education Management Information System is being developed which will provide academic insights into the progress of every child at every level.It seems to suggest that many of the challenges with CCE that have arisen elsewhere could well be due to all too hasty and ad hoc implementation without consistent and ongoing follow through. The key features to keep in mind, while bringing in CCE are: make curricular objectives crystal-clear; do not expect teachers to engage in more recordkeeping and administrative functions, instead provide tools to help them in the classroom; and above all, provide them with support whenever they need it. Mere change of report cards and one-time trainings are just not enough.The author is Director at India Education, Michael & Susan Dell FoundationNote: Views expressed by the author are personal
Read More
There's such a profound emphasis placed on achieving good grades that students always only bother to learn the material in order to see the grades they want on a report card. There's a difference between learning something and then being tested, and learning something because you're being tested. Whether they are parents at home or teachers at institutes, people are ruthlessly following the norms of past putting a lot of pressure on students towards good percentage in the exams.Today, the highly demanding corporate world demands multi-facet development from the student community. For this it has become very necessary to develop in students the love for learning. Helping students to achieve and grow at a subject is a key part of the effort, as people enjoy what they are good at, but test scores alone do not fully capture a teacher's success at inspiring lasting interest. It is very important to focus on imparting education and training along with preparing a resilient and treasured human resource, who not only shine as stars but pave the path of prosper future like many suns.Preparing students for tests is entirely different from getting them prepared for life. The main aim of learning should be setting the students up for a world where a lot of students will grow up to be obsolete in the way they think and what they do. Students who wish to move towards learning orientation are more focused towards learning and observing the knowledge being imparted in the classrooms. The rest view the classroom as a place where they are being tested.In recent past, it has been witnessed that the grades tend to diminish students' interest in whatever they're learning. A "grading orientation" and a "learning orientation" have been shown to be inversely related. Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task. More strikingly, through frequent studies, it has been witnessed that students are less interested in learning as a result of grading. This process is being followed from elementary schools to grading schools and across cross cultures. As a result, anyone who wants to see students get obsessed on words and numbers and ideas already has reason to look for other ways of assessing and defining their accomplishment.For instance, if the students are asked that what they are doing will count towards their grades will likely result in students avoiding unnecessary intellectual risks. The schools/ institutes are required to create real life engineers and managers by giving them a platform where they can implement their learning towards practical innovations and not just writing for marks. Through books we believe what we read but reality can only be depicted by practice. It has also been observed that students given numerical grades are significantly less creative than the students who just receive few good remarks. In fact, sometimes grading worsens the creativity of students who know that they would be graded. Achievement is when comments and compliments are given to your work instead of numeric marks.Students should take up assignments as a sign of showing their creativity through their projects and not to just satisfy the demands of their teachersA move from grading orientation to learning orientation is the need of the hour. INDIA being a country with huge population still lacks a conducive environment for research. There is a vital call for students and professionals who have a better understanding of research instead of being just technically sound. As a society we are inculcating in our young generation, the values that are necessary to grab a dream job in big organization with high pay packets. No one is actually guiding young ones to first learn and then gradually step up on the success ladder. INDIA is in dire need of the young generation joining research and innovates. We are still looking at outside world for new technology, new research and new innovations due to lack of R&D opportunities in our own land. Here where is the major revamp in delivery and role of technical institutes is required to prepare an environment of research among students.Another important aspect is how to bridge the gap between industry and academia. Today, the industry expects to recruit fresher's who are productive and less effort in terms of time and cost is spent on specific training programs to make them industry ready.In current scenario, Industry is forced to put efforts to first train to make them employable and then put them on projects. This gap can only be filled by developing curriculum in collaboration with industry and academia. For the same, known corporate are now focusing on skill building by providing a workable demo model in the institutes that will facilitate collaboration between teachers and students through learning activities. This will help the students in showcasing there aggression to do something and in becoming more interactive in the classrooms. In the IT and core sectors Industry leaders are contributing towards creating Centre for Excellence in the institutes. In current scenario, Industry is forced to put efforts to first train to make them employable and then put them on projects. This gap can only be filled by developing curriculum in collaboration with industry and academia.It costs a lot if companies spend on training the students and as a result of which students leave after being trained. Hence there is a dire requirement for the students to be more productive for which centre for excellences will add another pillar to their teaching module wherein students may give an insight to the surrounding problems and come up with ideas that would help in innovating industry viable products. This will help in establishing a self-sustaining ecosystem that promotes creativity and the spirit of innovation amongst the students. On the end of the professional institutes, it should be ensured that students undergo rigorous all round training by highly qualified teachers so that after graduation, they are ready to face a tough and competitive world and can take the challenges head-on.The author, Neeraj Goel, is general secreatary, ABES Engineering College, Ghaziabad
Read More
Top educators from best rated schools around the world are coming together in Gurgaon for the first annual meeting of the Global Schools’ Alliance (GSA). The agenda for this year’s event is ‘Co-creating the world’s best schools’. The first and only school from India, Vega School, is the latest addition to the group. The head of GSA, Lene Jensby Lange of Denmark, chose India as the host country for the inaugural meeting. Between 13 to 16 October, the heads and founders of progressive schools in the US, UK, New Zealand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Denmark will travel to Delhi to attend the annual conference and exchange research and best practises about how children learn. The GSA will also set goals on how to collaborate with each other for the coming years and select projects on which children can work together internationally. Sandy Hooda, co-founder of Vega Schools, said, “Great educators from amazing schools like Allan Kjaer Andersen, Director of Orestad Gymnasium in Denmark and Sandra Jenkins from Freemans Bay School in New Zealand, are coming here to share their experiences. We hope there is a lot for Indian schools to learn from their counterparts and help put the child at the centre of learning.” GSA head Lange, said, “I see a lot of schools coming up in the region who intend to be progressive in nature. Schools in India still need to change a lot in order to become truly progressive 21st century schools”. Within GSA, partner schools and faculty are continuously learning from each other. Schools exchange research studies, best practises, and host other member school teachers for visits and teaching opportunities. Students attending member schools also benefit from the partnership, she added. Barbara Cavanagh from Albany Senior High School, New Zealand, said, “Through online facilities children are able to collaborate with students in other countries on projects. By doing this they learn about different cultures and how to work together with people from different backgrounds.”
Read More
