NEET Result 2020 will be announced today: Finally, the decision day has come for medical aspirants who have appeared for NEET 2020 medical entrance test and are waiting their results. As per the rough estimates shared by the exam authority, NEET 2020 Result will be declared for nearly 14 lakh medical aspirants who have appeared for the entrance exam held on 13th Sept 2020. Apart from this, the exam authority also held re-exam for COVID positive students who couldn’t appear for the earlier exam on 14th October. Today i.e. on 16th October, the National Testing Agency will formally declare the NEET 2020 Results online for all these candidates on its official website ntaneet.nic.in. Once available on the official website, candidates will be able to check their individual NEET 2020 Results online via the direct link provided below:
Latest CBSE Update: The Central Board of Secondary Education has extended the last date for the payment of the class 10 and 12 board examination fee. According to the extended schedule, The last date for submitting the exam fee and the last date for schools to submit the List of Candidates is October 31, 2020. The board had earlier mentioned the last date for students to complete the registrations was October 15, 2020, for the 2021 Class 10 and 12 board examinations.
For more information click the link below:
Registration with late fee until November 7
As per reports, the board will receive the list of candidates for the class 10 and 12 board exams with an additional late fee from November 1 and 7, 2020. The decision to extend the deadline for the exam fee submission of class 10 and 12 board examinations keeping in mind the problems faced by the students and parents due to the pandemic.
According to the notification provided a late fee of Rs. 300/- will be applicable for the students submitting the registrations between November 1 and 7,2020.
The criterion to score 100 per cent to enter a top DU college was coming for some time. That doesn’t make it less ridiculous
The French term, fait accompli, means that things have already been decided in a certain way before those affected hear about it. You can use it to talk about many issues in today’s world. It could be used to describe the conditions for Tibetans and Uighurs in China, or explain why a certain case had been decided in a certain manner. But right now, we are using it to describe the cut-offs for admission in Lady Shriram College (LSR) in Delhi University (DU). It is not necessarily the most correct usage of the term but any student who has ever attended DU could see this coming for years now. In that sense, it is fait accompli. To the casual outside observer, who has never needed to worry about college admissions in DU, this might seem ridiculous and indeed it is. So what do the cut-offs really say? For one, absolute perfection in examinations should not be possible in non-mathematical and scientific subjects. But students are now scoring cent per cent in English and Hindi and grade inflation is to blame. Partially this is because certain State boards are giving illogical marks to their students so that they can corner all the seats as was seen in a top college for the last couple of years.
The solution clearly lies in a more realistic evaluation mechanism in our school system. So, is it time to have a singular nationwide school-leaving examination on the lines of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical seats, the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) for engineering and the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) for business schools? It is hard to see why not because the senior secondary board examination system is broken beyond repair and that has allowed several international examination systems to make inroads into India. While that should be welcomed at a level, Indian educators must draw a line in the sand. And this is exactly what the new National Education Policy (NEP) proposes, a single exam that will allow grades to be better calibrated across the nation. The problem is that certain States are opposing the NEP for the sake of opposing any idea by this Government. But these cut-offs should be a wake-up call because no one really knows what is next. And a single national school-leaving exam like most other nations has to become the norm quickly. The Supreme Court has decided once and for all in favour of NEET and the JEE, the NEP should make this law fast.
Update ICAI CA November 2020 Exams Postponed: As per the latest update, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India – ICAI has postponed the CA Exams 2020 for all three courses i.e. final, intermediate and foundation programmes. Students can check out the revised ICAI CA November 2020 Datesheet by logging onto institute’s Official website. To help candidates get more information about the postponement of the ICAI CA Exam 2020, a direct link to the official notification is provided below as well:
Update: NTA is likely to declare NEET 2020 Result for the recently concluded medical entrance exam today i.e. on 12th October 2020. Although NTA has not confirmed that it will be declaring the NEET Result 2020 today, several media agencies have reported that the medical entrance test result is likely to be published today. Along with NEET 2020 result, the apex testing agency will also publish the final answer key for the examination and make the NEET Scorecard 2020 available to all the candidates online on the exam portal ntaneet.nic.in. After the official declaration, the below-given link to check and access the NEET 2020 Result will be activated. Candidates will be able to download NEET Result Scorecard easily by clicking on the link provided below:
The new policy should be incisively scrutinised for how far it would link Indians to their roots and to what extent it would give young minds the freedom to choose
India enters the implementation phase of its new National Education Policy — NEP 2020 — that envisions “an education system rooted in Indian ethos that could transform India, that is Bharat, into an equitable, sustainable and vibrant knowledge society, by providing high-quality education to all and thereby making India a global superpower.” It is, indeed, a tall order but a critical necessity to let the benefits of education reach the “last man in the line,” waiting for generations to get the basic human amenities, human dignity and opportunity to make his contribution to the process of national growth and development.
Finalised after over four years and an extensive and intensive nation-wide consultation process, the policy expects the curricula and pedagogy to be radically transformed to instill a “deep sense of respect towards the fundamental duties and constitutional values, bonding with one’s country and conscious awareness of one’s roles and responsibilities in a changing world”. The bonding with the country and an inherent sense of pride in its people is doubly emphasised, not limiting it to only in thought, but extending it to “spirit, intellect and deeds, as well as to develop knowledge, skills, values, and dispositions that support responsible commitment to human rights, sustainable development and living, and global well-being, thereby reflecting a truly global citizen”.
Revert to what Mahatma Gandhi wrote in the Harijan of May 8, 1937: “Man is neither mere intellect, nor the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious combination of all the three is required for the whole man and constitutes the true economics of education”. Essentially, the emphasis from Buniyadi Talim to NEP 2020 remains on transforming the learner into a personality, a person of strong character. In other words it must be “man-making education”. Gandhi put it like this: “By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man — body, mind and spirit”.
Based upon his experiences and experiments in education, Gandhi finally proposed the idea of Buniyadi Talim, basic education, at the Wardha Conference in the year 1937. Even earlier, he devoted time and energy to envision the shape of education in the post-independence period in India. He wanted art, craft, health and education to be integrated into the process of teaching and learning. Nai Talim, to him, was a beautiful blend of all the four. He found it consistent with the environment in India, which is predominantly made up of villages. Further, he wrote, “it believes in establishing equilibrium between the body, the mind and the spirit of which man is made. It is unlike the Western type which is predominantly militarist, in which the mind and the body are the primary care of education to the subordination of the spirit. This is best done when education is given through handicraft.” He could propose this because of his deep understanding of Indian mind, needs and aspirations on the one hand, and experiences gained through his personal experiments in education at his ashrams.
Gandhi’s historic speech made at the Royal Institute of International affairs at Chatham House, London, on October 20, 1931, articulates the decline of Indian education after the arrival of the British: “ I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished.”
Sir Philip Hartog challenged Gandhi, who remained steadfast in his conviction. Subsequently, eminent thinker and researcher Dharampal established that Gandhi was correct based on factual documentary evidence extracted from the records created by the British officers. The most important strategic intervention in sustaining the British hold over India was through education: destroy the age-old edifice of knowledge creation, transfer the new model to the generation ahead and ensure its application in the welfare not only of the individual but of the people. In the process, the imperialists succeeded in “delinking Indians from their history, culture and heritage.” They attacked the roots of that beautiful tree, and it dried up. The policy succeeded beyond expectations for the alien rulers, as Indians grabbed the bait of Western knowledge, culture, language and its “superiority.” It has not yet been erased.
The NEP 2020 must be incisively scrutinised for how far it would link Indians to India and to what extent it would give young Indians not only degrees and certificates but also the knowledge, skills and a personality to move ahead in life with self-assurance, dignity and spirit of adventure. Let the implementers remember the defects Gandhi had identified in a long article in the Young India of August 1, 1921, just hundred years ago. Declaring the then system as defective, apart from its association with an utterly unjust Government, he points out three of them: “First, it is based on foreign culture to the almost entire exclusion of indigenous culture. Second, it ignores the culture of the heart and the hand, and confines itself simply to the head. Third, real education is impossible through a foreign medium.”
The earlier national policies on education of 1968, 1986 and 1992 made sincere attempts to bring in reforms in curricula, pedagogy and the system of assessment and examination but the craze for more marks and English medium schools shrugged off all such efforts.
Gandhi’s understanding of India and the mind of its people was unparalleled. He knew the necessity of acquiring skills, working with hands, health, nutrition and acquisition of character coupled with the internalisation of moral, ethical, humanistic and constitutional values.
And this would be achieved only when the goal of education is man-making, character development and ensuring a full-blossomed personality. This is the eternal challenge before education and the NEP 2020 accepts it. The implementers of the NEP 2020 must seriously examine the continuity of the epistemological basis and practical realities, right from Buniyadi Talim to the challenges before them. They have before them a policy that is “rooted to culture and committed to progress.” It is easy to locate elements in this policy that could lead to the Sarvodaya that Gandhi had learnt while in South Africa after reading John Ruskin’s book Unto This Last: “First, the good of the individual is contained in the good of all.
Second, a lawyer’s work has the same value as the barber’s, in as much as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work. Third, the life of a labour, that is, the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life worth living”. The NEP 2020 prominently highlights equity, equality, working with hand and value nurturance, right from the beginning in schooling.
Once the curriculum designers, textbook writers and textual material developers are well-versed in the philosophy behind the formulation of the Buniyadi Talim and its relevance to India and its people, they would really be able to create a generation proud of its history, culture and heritage. All of it appears very prominently in the policy that “envisions an education system rooted to Indian ethos that contributes directly to transforming India.”
Universal education was considered a ray of hope for one and all. The NEP 2020 endorses it as the “basic right of every child.” It must be correctly interpreted as the right of the child to get support in drawing out the best out of body, mind and spirit. It is his right to make choices of learning areas according to his likings and interests. It would be interference in his personal territory if subjected to a regimen that impedes his “power of ideas and imagination.” This is what the present examination system has exactly been reduced to; the policy envisages drastic transformation in this crucial area. The recommendations on holistic and multi-disciplinary education would permit free flow of fresh air in schools and higher education institutions. It could lead to a surge of curiosity and creativity amongst young minds. That is the need of the current time and of the future. Now onwards, in knowledge societies, progress would depend on the quality of manpower, the measure of entrepreneurial skills and the level of innovative contributions.
(The writer works in education and social cohesion)
The poor have found innovative ways of helping themselves and visionary leaders from among these communities are nurturing a growing industry of good quality private schools
The state of India’s school education continues to be abysmal despite so many high-sounding policy prescriptions being tossed around. There are, however, islands of excellence and even in this bleak landscape there are shoots of green. While Government schools are the mainstay of school education for the poor, some exceptional private schools are affordable even to the extremely marginalised. The accepted wisdom is that private schools serve the privileged; everyone else, especially the underprivileged, requires public schools. This logic is grounded on the assumption that the poor need Government assistance if they are to get a good education. Which helps explain why many school choice enthusiasts believe that the only way the poor can get the education they deserve is through Government schools.
But if we reflect on some of the underprivileged communities, we find these assumptions lacking. The poor have found remarkably innovative ways of helping themselves educationally and visionary leaders from among these communities are nurturing a large and growing industry of good quality private schools. Tikiapara, a sprawling slum in Howrah, is a witness and a willing participant in a quiet revolution led by Mamoon Akhtar that has the potential to turn around the lives of its residents, especially of its children. Mamoon was forced to drop out of middle school because his parents couldn’t afford to educate him further. Three decades later, he is the driving force two schools in Tikiapara with 3,000 students, most of them children of unlettered parents. Mamoon’s extraordinary journey from a victim to champion of the underprivileged started the day he decided that just because his family couldn’t pay for his schooling, he wouldn’t forego education. Mamoon’s passion helped him overcome his deprivation.
His father was keen that his son get a good education. So he put him in one of the area’s leading schools, St Thomas. After his father died, the teenager had to give up his studies and took up a librarian’s job at a private school in Tikiapara, supplementing his income by giving private tuitions. Life would have gone on as usual but Mamoon couldn’t get over the tragedy he suffered on being forced to lose out on education. The young idealist believed in giving direction to the fire within, not in extinguishing it.
In 1991, he started an informal “school”, teaching five to six children in his own house in the Tikiapara slum. Thus began his lifetime romance with education. As the residents of the area became aware of this “school”, more and more children started coming and soon there was no place to seat them. The enterprising Mamoon constructed a room on his own 600 square foot plot of land. In that one room, the Samaritan Help Mission School was born with 25 young and eager children flocking to it daily. The good Samaritan stretched his every rupee and canvassed from door to door to raise Rs 28,000 per annum (in addition to his own contribution of Rs 10,000). The organisation has continued to steadily grow through the years. The catchment area of the school can break the determination of even the greatest optimist but Mamoon is alive and equal to the challenge. The parents come from very poor backgrounds, some are rickshaw-pullers, drug peddlers and daily labourers. But with Mamoon’s effort, their dreams of educating their children in an English-medium school has become a reality.
Social responsibility: As an educationist, Mamoon is also sharply aware of his role of a social reformer. Most children come from families afflicted with social maladies, with a large number of them being children of drug peddlers. Mamoon believes that schools should have the right to exclude pupils only as a last resort and that too, to protect the other children in the class as well as teachers. The excluded children, he avers, can be affected by anxiety, depression and loss of self-worth. There is a decline in their mental health and children become very reclusive. The stress of the exclusion takes its toll on parents, too.
Mamoon knows the pain of deprivation only too well. At a time when there is a widespread practice of pupils being shunted off a school’s rolls in order to manipulate its exam results or rankings in league tables — he is doing his every bit to ensure that children remain at school during the day. There are hundreds of pupils who joined his school after being booted out of another one. Taking in as many vulnerable pupils as possible is the core of this teacher’s mission. His school is single-handedly ensuring pupils remain on the rolls. There are a number of youngsters who wouldn’t be getting an education were it not for the Samaritan Help Mission School. In a world where schools are clearly pushing vulnerable pupils out through the back door with little thought to their next steps and best interests, he is embracing them with a cheerful heart.
With a little help from friends: When he canvassed for help from the community around him, Mamoon reaped a bonus — a strong connect with the community. In 2007, the Samaritan Help Mission School became accredited and recognised by the West Bengal Government. Today, it is a co-educational English-medium school, affiliated to the State Board of Secondary Education, with an enrolment of 1,300. The big thing is that with the school being an English medium one, it makes a major difference to the future prospects of the kids once they go out into the world. However, the odds are stacked against the children of this locality given the inter-generational nature of poverty and the poor developmental outcomes that families face. This impacts the children in many ways. They battle poor academic achievement, inferiority complex, maladjustment, lack of initiative and an underdeveloped personality. Disheartened and discouraged by financial stress and their own inadequacy, parents are ill-equipped to adequately support their children. Sadly, parents in Tikiapara have little motivation to invest in their children’s education. Fortunately, Mamoon’s conviction and commitment are unflagging and his enthusiasm is contagious, sending hope in the community.
Some of the students are orphans; some have run away from home; all are underprivileged. The Samaritan Help Mission School charges them a measly Rs 5 a year, and that too because the teacher believes that people will not value anything that is free. Funds to run the school come from Mamoon’s savings and private donors whose motivation is inspired by the good Samaritan’s devotion. This led to an addition to the original school on Mamoon’s plot, the IR Belilious Institution on Belilious Road, covering two acres of land bequeathed by a Jewish couple, Rebecca and Isaac Raphael Belilious. The school today has a football field, basketball court, a water body, a two-storeyed school building and a bigger one coming up close by. As a child Mamoon swam there, to later see the water body turn into a municipal garbage dump and the Government school that used to run there become virtually defunct, the whole space go derelict and transform into a den of drug pushers. The land on which the second Samaritan Help Mission School stands had thus been a garbage dump for years until Howrah City Police and the Howrah Municipal Corporation got together to create a conducive atmosphere for Mamoon to expand his initiative. The police helped them (Mamoon and his staff) build a wall, remove encroachments and start a school there.
Creating safe spaces for children at risk: Many children studying in the two schools attest to the fact that they have a fun-filled, interactive and encouraging atmosphere and that the teachers are extremely supportive. Children are engaged in creative activities like sports, quiz competitions, picnics and recreational programmes in the local parks. Regular cleaning campaigns in Tikiapara are organised in which students, teachers and other volunteers take an active part. Mamoon has also introduced a paramedic course for senior students. His policy of inclusive education has ensured that the constitutional right to primary education is a reality in this slum. There are schools which identify parents who are not well-educated and living in the slum. They are approached informally and told that it “will be difficult for your child to stay” in the hope that the parents agree to move out or home-school their child. But Mamoon’s schools are a safe learning haven where no one is shunned — either because of creed, low academic scores or poverty.
Innovative approaches: Mamoon says that the process of teaching and learning is an intimate act that neither computers nor markets can hope to replicate. It is a small wonder then that the technology-centric corporate business model has not worked in reforming the school system as there is simply no substitute for the personal element. There is no substitute for a good teacher and nothing more valuable than quality classroom instruction. But we also need more involved parents to make leaning more effective.
The core objective of a school is to provide high-quality instruction: Fostering both excellent teaching and a learning environment in which students can thrive. These schools don’t develop randomly on their own; an essential ingredient behind each of these success stories is transformational leadership.
A lot of good programmes got their start when one individual looked at a familiar landscape in a fresh way. What they did was to simply change the fundamental approach to solving problems, and the outcomes have been truly revolutionary. Thus, people only need to summon their will power the way game-changers like Mamoon are doing to bring about change.
(The writer is a well known development professional)
Competition in education and research brought through the evaluation system may drive all in the same direction at the cost of diversity
Feedback is a very important tool to nudge people and organisations to adopt desirable behaviour. Nobel laureate Richard H Thaler and his co-author Cass R Sunstein, in their international bestseller Nudge, suggest feedback as one of the strategies to motivate agents to adopt responsive behaviour. It is against the idea of command and control policies of governments or paternalism of any institution. Nudging human behaviour in a desirable direction without any command and control is what they call “libertarian paternalism.” A nudge in the right direction may be as simple as the laptop warning the users to plug in the charger when the battery is about to die out, or the display screen of a car suggesting that the driver change gears when the gear applied and the speed of the car mismatch. These feedback mechanisms are alarms which nudge people to take corrective measures.
Education, being delivered by organisations, Government or private, benefits from feedback to spearhead in the intended direction. It may be feedback on the course, faculty or educational institute. It helps enhance performance and improve the delivery of education service through the voluntary adoption of corrective measures. In higher academics, the ranking of journals, again based on the feedback on the quality of research work published, is an important mechanism to improve research and publication. Feedback, when made public, increases competition among peers. Then comment works as a mechanism to remove the asymmetry of information in the market. The potential customers or beneficiaries become aware of the quality of goods or services offered. Different agents or stakeholders give comments for all elements of education and research. On the course and faculty, it is students who provide the feedback. It is meant to improve the course content and delivery of the faculty. Educational institutes are given ratings by different agencies, including the Government, national and international bodies and media about their infrastructure, processes and quality of education. The assessment of research journals is obtained by the number of citations of research articles published in them over a stipulated period. In all this, the moot question is how far does the feedback mechanism serve the purpose of delivery of education services in the desired direction?
If we consider that the feedback on the course and faculty is given by the students, then it may be counterproductive. The desired pattern of delivery may not be best determined by students as they are not competent enough to assess. Nevertheless, many renowned educational institutes use their feedback to evaluate faculty performance. It is even considered for promotions. However, there are exceptions. Harvard Business School does not take student response on any course or faculty. When asked about it, one tenured professor replied that “we do not take feedback from amateurs.” If they have to assess a course or faculty, some experts of the area attend the class and appraise the course delivery.
Research is an extremely complicated output which is determined by the methodology, results and overall interest on a particular topic. The citation of the articles may depend on all these factors. The journals in the area of social sciences and management at times may prefer publishing certain types of results. Journals may aim at increasing citation and hence prefer the articles which deal with subjects that are likely to have enough research funding in future. New ideas or results which contradict some existing dominant idea may not receive enough funding and attention. Thus, it creates an endogenous system which encourages a dominant idea and is detrimental to newer, provocative ideas.
This problem is more severe for lesser-known institutes from developing countries. Each research article goes through a peer-review process conducted by the journals. The editors take a decision on publication after taking into account the reviewers’ comments. Nevertheless, the reviewers’ performance is not predictable. In a 2007 study on 306 experienced reviewers, published in PLOS Medicine, researchers found that there is no scientifically-established predictor of reviewer performance. Hence it is not possible to systematically improve the selection of reviewers and implement a routine review rating system.
Sadly, journals do take reviewer ratings from the editors. Furthermore, journal editors may find articles with a very new or provocative idea or result contrary to dominant ideas unacceptable, more so when the researchers are affiliated to renowned institutes, or they themselves are well-known. Hence, the feedback process in research may not always encourage path-breaking discoveries, especially for developing nations.
Ranking or rating of educational institutions is considered as a way of giving feedback on the performance of the institute on certain predetermined indicators. Over the years, ranking and accreditation have gained strength and momentum globally, including in India. Ranking is perceived as an indicator of quality of services offered by educational institutions. There seems to a be growing consensus that ranking influences the perception of stakeholders (students, recruiters and investors) about the prospect of educational institutions. While there is no denying that ranking has made institutes look at the quality of services, it also introduced new practices within the sector. From the viewpoint of organisational research, ranking has offered a new template to educational institutions and codified them in different categories. Post the ranking announcement of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), it has been observed that many of the educational institutes have showcased their positions on their websites to demonstrate their skills, achievements and desirability to stakeholders.
The organisational template propagated through ranking carries its own characteristics. For example, under the NIRF, the template is assessed through five parameters focussing on teaching, publications, consultancy, employability and overall perception. Institutes are measured along these parameters to identify the “best” ones scoring the highest marks/points across these parameters. Going forward, these institutes would become a role model and irrespective of their individual values, purpose and origin, all would be in a race to adopt a codified organisational template. This would have a detrimental impact on institutions striving to pursue a niche domain. The codified organisational template would often fail to recognise the unique features of educational institutions by virtue of their values and origin. As a result, such institutes would often fall behind in the so-called performance indicators, creating a poor impression about the quality of education imparted by them. This, in turn, would have a detrimental impact on their ability to attract resources and eventually lead to quivering of the very existence of individuality among organisations.
As the ranking is made public, this feedback mechanism ignites fierce competition among the educational institutes. The urgency to perform well in the ranking exercise has resulted in many adopting the recommended organisational template in a hurried manner. The high-speed diffusion of the template is often facilitated by a new breed of “institutional intermediaries” i.e. entities helping organisations to build capacity so as to adopt the new template. In recent years, the ranking industry in higher education has been populated by intermediaries certifying institutions through their own ranking exercises. Their role was primarily limited to assessment of quality on indicators. We should now expect to see more intermediaries who would be helping the educational institutions to build their capacity to perform well in rankings and adopt a standardised template.
The feedback mechanism should nudge desirable behaviour, but it may be counterproductive to education and research when that feedback is made public. Then it becomes a means of increasing competition in a particular direction. Two major problems in the evaluation mechanism in education have been identified. One, when feedback is taken from those whose expertise, capability or eligibility to provide an assessment is questionable. A difficult subject would be eventually dropped from the curriculum or a strict instructor would be penalised. Bias in the assessment of a new idea or contradictory results in research may throttle publication in journals. Second, when assessment is based on a standard set of criteria and is made public, then it nullifies the emergence and growth of educational organisations with diverse ideas and objectives. Competition brought through the feedback system may drive all in the same direction at the cost of diversity.
(De is Associate Professor and Sarma is Assistant Professor, Institute of Rural Management, Anand. Views expressed here are personal)
The NEP expects every teacher to develop a comprehensive perspective on life and living and follow an application-based module
For over six decades, one has never witnessed such a strong projection of the national resolve to implement a policy. This rare privilege goes to the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. The President of India addresses the nation, the Prime Minister addresses twice within a week, the Union Education Minister and his team seem busy 24X7, conducting and guiding national-level webinars on specific topics that would require new initiatives and action at the implementation stage. It’s evident that the nation has realised that for equitable growth, progress and development, it has to be “education, education, and education.” India is now determined to create a pool of teachers who would not only be degree-holders but possess “personalities.” These would be people imbued with a comprehensive multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional perspective.
In fact, the new approach to teacher preparation would expect every instructor to develop a comprehensive perspective on life and living. They would internalise the higher goals of education. The focus, henceforth, would be on them believing in Sarva Bhut Hite Ratah. And as was the ancient tradition, they would be life-long learners, yavadjeevait adhiyate viprah. It is, in a sense, a revolutionary recommendation that by 2030 all teachers would be prepared in multi-faculty colleges and universities through four-year integrated programmes. As one goes through the various sections of the NEP, this expectation becomes evident to everyone.
The objective of achieving scharyatwa would require a strong support system that must emerge from the establishment and society. There are clear indications to ensure that: “In order to improve and reach the levels of integrity and credibility required to restore the prestige of the teaching profession, the regulatory system shall be empowered to take stringent action against sub-standard and dysfunctional Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) that do not meet the basic educational criterion, after giving one year for the remedy of breaches. By 2030, only educationally sound, multi-disciplinary and integrated teacher education programmes shall be in force.” This objective of restoring the credibility of TEIs is achievable. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) had, during 1998-99, successfully exercised this authority, and certain well-known but sub-standard teacher preparation programmes were closed down. Once teacher educators accept this responsibility, they could transform the entire system. Let them never forget that the recommendations on teacher education arise from the expectations and aspirations of the young. But somewhere besides these is also the hidden pain and anguish which was recorded – with a heavy heart – by late Justice JS Verma: “A majority of stand-alone TEIs – over 10,000 in number – are not even attempting serious teacher education but are essentially selling degrees for a price.” One could mention it only with immense pain, as the first chairperson of the NCTE said, that all these 10,000 institutions selling degrees were certified by senior teachers, teacher educators, professors and other academics. The policy has done its part, no more stand-alone colleges. Now it is the responsibility of teachers, teacher educators and professionals in the field to ensure that in future regulatory mechanisms are not trivialised.
This policy suggests alternative regulatory structures, which would transform the manner in which future multi-disciplinary teacher preparations institutions and universities would emerge. The responsibility of teachers at every stage would grow multi-fold as autonomy would be the in-thing. When one goes through the various general recommendations in the policy, one finds serious concern for drastic change in teacher education in content and pedagogy, and the need to achieve an attitudinal transformation among aspiring teachers. It is now learning, learning and more learning. Examinations shall no more be days of nation-wide anxiety and widespread tension. The focus of assessment in schools shifts to application of knowledge gained and internalised.
The present pattern of examinations was transplanted in this country by alien rulers. It had been discarded in Britain much earlier but we still adhere to it in India. Teachers, and teacher educators, have a tremendous task ahead in implementing curriculum load reduction, to ensure that textbooks and textual materials are neither deficient on new knowledge nor too overloaded with obsolesce content. Teaching and learning shall become more interactive, and much would transpire outside the closed classroom. Skill development and bringing in vocational education elements early in schools would require TEIs absorbing them in their own curricula. Those who know the story of Richard Feynman would find it much easier to visualise its great transformative and inspiring impact on the system as a whole. It would be possible only when the promises to ensure the assured recruitment process are put to practice, and the assurances on the professionally acceptable teacher-student ratio is implemented without any aberrations. One must not ignore considerable dilution in the quality of education and decline in the acceptability and credibility of schools funded by the public. The policy realises this.
The ancient Indian tradition of knowledge quest spreads over four stages: adhyayan, manan, chintan and upayog. And its relevance is eternal. It is the essence of the process of transfer of knowledge to generations ahead. Every teacher, henceforth, would be expected to comprehend the essence of Indian philosophy of education that finds reflection throughout this policy. Let me recall three sentences of Sri Aurobindo; first being that the process must begin with “from near, to far”; and hence the mother tongue medium and other aspects. His second principle was that “nothing can be taught.” Every active, alert and vibrant teacher shall have to grasp its essence. It is “learning the treasure within.” It is the perfection within that the child is discovering, and teachers are assisting, supporting, guiding, and much more.
When Sri Aurobindo states that the “mind must be consulted in its growth,” he is emphasising how pertinent it is to “know the child.” It is the comprehension of these basic principles that has led to the restricting of the school education system to 5+3+3+4. The most significant is the addition of initial three years, after the age of 3. India would need very specialised teachers for this age group.
A couple of years ago, India had anticipated the importance of open and distance learning. That experience comes very handy as the global attention diverts to online learning. Creation of digital platforms and e-content had already begun in full swing and has come handy during the corona crisis, as children are confined to their homes. The pedagogy is undergoing unprecedented change, teachers associated with schools will have to gear up to learn new skills. While tools and techniques shall change – sometimes beyond recognition – the pedagogical principles would remain the same.
(The writer works in education and social cohesion)
The curriculum has been responsible for developing much-needed agricultural skills and encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset
The New Education Policy (NEP) focusses on re-orientation of school and higher education in India and inculcation of research-based studies and innovation in our education. However, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has already been doing this on the ground for years and hence is in tune with the objectives of the NEP. As part of its focus on innovation and research-based learning, the ICAR-Agricultural University (AU) system, through its network of 74 universities, offers degree courses at the undergraduate level in 11 disciplines with emphasis on learning through hands-on-practice sessions and field experience training.
As desired by the NEP, the postgraduate programmes in 96 disciplines and Ph.D. programmes in 73 disciplines make it multi-disciplinary. The AU system has generated the much-needed scientists, technologists, teachers, researchers, technologies and technology transfer systems to transform India from a “ship-to-mouth” nation to a “right-to-food” one. Much in line with the aspirations of the NEP, the curricula has been responsible for developing much-needed agricultural skills and encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset among the students. They are being inspired to take up self-employment, to sustainably enhance rural livelihood security, and to propel agricultural transformation through science-based policy-options and actions.
The Student READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana) programme ensures hands-on experience and practical training, as does the Entrepreneurship Development and Business Management course. Rigorous implementation of the revised curricula has over the years been benefitting local communities, and promoting technology incubation and dissemination, which is one of the objectives of the NEP. Many new courses have been already introduced by the AUs in emerging fields like Precision Farming, Hi-tech Cultivation, Artificial Intelligence, Mechatronics, Nanotechnology, Food Storage Engineering, Emerging Food Processing Technologies and so on which align perfectly with the recommendations of the NEP. The AUs have developed more than 400 virtual classrooms and e-courses for their undergraduate programmes and are being supported through a centralised Academic Management System and shall be further supported for online classes through the recently-launched “Krishi Megh.” The post-graduate courses, too, are being converted into e-courses in all the streams of agriculture education.
Multidisciplinary universities: The AUs in India are modelled on the US land grant university pattern with integration of education, research and extension and have contributed a great deal to propelling agricultural growth in the country. Agriculture is a multidisciplinary science and AUs are based on the philosophy that the farmers need holistic solutions for their problems. However, in recent years, several domain-specific universities in horticulture, veterinary science and fisheries sciences have been established in various States, which may need to be re-oriented to make them multidisciplinary as per the NEP.
The NEP suggests a four-year Bachelor’s programme with multi-disciplinary education as a preferred option. In the AUs, the curriculum of undergraduates has been designed as a four-year residential programme with more than 15 disciplines. This includes both theory and practical classes. The contents of several courses are designed in such a way that practical classes can be simultaneously conducted matching with the topics of the theory classes.
Attracting talent to agriculture education: About 4,500 scholarships are annually granted by the ICAR to meritorious students selected through its All India Entrance Examination for Admission conducted through the National Testing Agency. The National Scholarship Portal proposed under the NEP shall afford students more such opportunities for stipends, boarding and lodging, and not just waiver of tuition fees. In particular, talented students from rural India, who have been exposed to agriculture during their early years and who have deep interest in farm education, will be further encouraged to build their career in the field of agriculture and allied sectors.
Internationalisation: The ICAR facilitates annual admission of over 250 foreign students from more than 20 countries to various degree programmes. To support their higher studies in India, several programmes/fellowships have been initiated like the Netaji Subhas-ICAR International Fellowship, India-Africa Fellowship and India-Afghanistan Fellowship. The campuses of the existing system of AUs shall immensely benefit from various provisions in the NEP to promote HEIs as global study destination hubs and restore India’s role as a Viswa Guru. Continuous professional development: Teachers will be given constant opportunities for self-improvement and to learn the latest innovations and advances in their profession as per the NEP. This fits in well with the ICAR’s schemes through which about 3,500 faculty from AUs are trained every year for their professional development.
The future: AUs have sufficient land available for experimentation, demonstration of various trials to farmers and training. AUs must develop schemes for adequate resource generation and convert themselves into self-governing institutions, which is reflected in the NEP. The AUs need to attain the highest global standards in quality agriculture education through linkages with global universities and provide platforms for research and innovation in frontier areas of research, greater industry-academic linkages and interdisciplinary research, including humanities and social sciences. The universities also need to make provisions of multiple entry and exit systems in their undergraduate programmes. These reforms shall help in meeting the challenges of Global Green Economy, Knowledge Economy, Global Zero Hunger Challenge, Sustainable Development Goals, 2030, and International Agriculture and Development Challenge, 2050.
(Mohapatra is Director-General and Agrawal Deputy Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
Apart from conventional teachers we have some unorthodox ones amid us now who must get recognition and appreciation
We have different categories of teachers, depending upon the stages in our lives and the vocations we pursue. So, we have school teachers, lecturers, professors, research guides, trainers, instructors, tutors, coaches, mentors and so on. However, we have another set of teachers who don’t qualify in the strict sense, yet impart valuable lessons. The most important among them are parents. The foundations of intellectual, emotional and ethical grooming in a child are laid at home by the parents. In a joint family even grandparents play a positive roles as guides.
Again, at workplaces, bosses, seniors, corporate leaders are another set of educators. Equipped with knowledge, skills, expertise and experience, they often act as advisors, counsellors or mentors and help their juniors and colleagues progress in their careers.
Then, we have religious and spiritual gurus who preach from the scriptures and holy texts and offer guidance to their disciples and others on how to lead life well. However, apart from these obvious ones, we have some unorthodox and unconventional teachers amid us now who must get recognition and appreciation.
Children: In the digital age, it is important to be familiar with new age systems, processes and apps. Be it the smartphone, internet, video-conferencing/chatting, video games and other modern gadgets, we need to learn their operations to use them. These learnings help in vital activities like money transfer, booking tickets, ordering food or non-food items, or viewing streaming channels, all of which are now increasingly done online. In adaptation to new learnings, age being a factor, children have a distinct edge. They quickly adapt and learn. Their aptitude, familiarity and knowledge of the digital and online platforms are now much in demand at home, all the more during the lockdown. As digital tutors, they offer lessons to their grandparents, parents and senior citizens to make them digital savvy. Indeed, without their hand-holding, many of the older generation find themselves handicapped in adjusting to the virtual space.
Social media: We have been used to learning the dos and don’ts from the traditional set of teachers, professional or otherwise. Now WhatsApp, Facebook and so on are potent learning platforms where we get free advice on topics ranging from money, health, nutrition, fitness, to culinary arts, home décor, farming to even immunity boosting during the pandemic. The medium being popular, all these tips and learnings are widely read, shared and followed. The social media platform, as a teacher, is helping us to learn and share information. The only caveat is the tips or instructions need to be followed by us with fact-checks, particularly in the matter of health.
Siri and Alexa: Digital Voice Assistants like Siri and Alexa are the new teachers in the digital sphere. Like a friend, kids can unhesitatingly ask anything they want to know from Siri and Alexa. Not surprising, devices with Digital Voice Assistants are being installed even in remote tribal areas to infuse fun and excitement in learning and improve school enrolments. In smart classrooms, the Digital Voice Assistants act as the teacher. In the future, such devices and AI-assisted humanoid robots, as smart, interesting and trendy teachers, are likely to gain more popularity among children and schools.
Nature: Mother Nature has always been part of our existence. But we have forgotten to look at nature as a “healer” and “teacher” up until recently. Now, with the adverse effects of climate change ravaging us, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, we are realising the hard way the critical importance of nature as our sustainer, healer and teacher. In the collective confinement, we found to our great relief how nature is our constant friend and can lift our hearts and give us so much joy. It would indeed have been much tougher to deal with the pandemic, hadn’t nature been around us.
Nature teaches us the rhythms and cycles of life, selfless giving, continuous growth and generation, and the essence of sustainability, harmony and oneness. It also teaches us to consume wisely and responsibly. Now in close communion with nature, thankfully, we have discovered a friend, philosopher and guide.
Pandemic: Life itself is a teacher and we always knew that. But now, a catastrophe unleashed by the Coronavirus is teaching us novel lessons in life. Starting from coping with crippled businesses, loss of livelihood to handling enforced loneliness, an emotional see-saw, topsy-turvy routines, we are learning unique lessons and reinventing ourselves. The crisis has taught us to appreciate nature, create new networks, leverage the virtual world, look for new engagements, explore new hobbies, pursue passions, experiment with new ways and ideas, act collectively for the common good, and, last but not the least, to have a better world view and perspective. Welcome to all these unconventional teachers.
(The writer is former General Manager, Bank of India, Learning and Development and an author)
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