In the movie Swades Shah Rukh Khan says when asked about whether India is the best country in this world compared to others ,” I dont think that India is the best country in this world, but we have the ability, we have the resources” and for that to happen each and every person has [...]
Archive for the 'Education' Category
Demystifying India….
Published by December 30th, 2009 in Caste, Children, Corruption, Culture, Development, Education, Gender & Sexuality and Government. 0 CommentsRecessions and B-school placements
Published by December 23rd, 2009 in Economy and Education. 0 CommentsPartha gives a very personal first-hand account of what he went through in trying to get placed from campus at the business school he studied in:
There was one time though, when I was scared. That was when I was sitting in the waiting room for my day to start on the day I got placed. [...]
Crying children at the gates
Published by December 22nd, 2009 in Children, Culture and Education. 1 CommentMany of us share memories of family members embarrassing us when they remind us of our behavior on the first day at school. We have thrown tantrums or witnessed the same from our children….
Pasungilidakshina tries to imagine a child’s first day at school :
There was crying from every corner. In one large classroom, there were [...]
English speaking and elitist ….
Published by December 17th, 2009 in Culture, Education and Language. 1 Comment6 AM Pacific cites Chetan Bhagat who in a recent speech to the British Council has classified people into two groups :
One, which he calls E1, is proficient in English and gets all the good jobs. The other, E2, is familiar with the language but is not proficient. E2 is ten times the size of [...]
Hades on why Indians prefer to ‘make’ their own history:
Nehru was of course human. But India’s first Prime Minister wasn’t human—he wouldn’t be allowed to be anything of that sort, really. The thing is, every nation needs its heroes and villains to exist. It needs a narrative. And so does India. [...]
Pick up a regular [...]
South Asia’s children…
Published by November 6th, 2009 in Children, Education, Food and Health. 0 CommentsRakesh Mani thinks that there has to be something wrong with Indian society for it to allow its children to be among the most deprived and malnourished in the world. Across castes and social classes, there is so little attention given to the inalienable right of a child to enjoy a childhood of good health, [...]
Heading west
Published by October 15th, 2009 in Education, Government, Indiaspora and Science & Technology. 0 CommentsAmid all the hoopla over Dr. Ramakrishnan being the new “Indian” Nobel laureate, read Mohan Sinha’s very interesting and thought-provoking article about the false pride we take over people who win awards abroad and we sing and dance that they have an Indian gene somewhere:
And look at the way the Bongs and the Tams fighting [...]
‘Quality’ and Inclusion
Published by October 12th, 2009 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Education, Politics, Prejudice and Theory. 0 CommentsRama ponders on ‘Quality’ and its western / imperial / colonial, or Brahminical / Manuvadi biases. Very interesting post.
The sociologist, Andre Beteille, delivered a lecture in Calcutta in March which I attended.
He touched upon academic quality versus inclusion (e.g. through reservation or affirmative action), and said quality need not be compromised. At the end of [...]
India and HDI ranking
Published by October 8th, 2009 in Democracy, Development, Economy, Education, Health, Human Rights and India. 4 CommentsLekhni is ‘rapidly coming to the conclusion that 15 minutes of fame’ is all the UNDP’s Human Development Index list deserves:
But the last part is the best – the report says they take an average of life expectancy and literacy and GDP, and compute the average HDI for that country.
This means that if you have, [...]
Anoop Kumarat Insight Young Voices Blog, my new favourite blog, rips into Ramachandra Guha.
He writes, “India has some of the oldest universities outside of the Western world. There were no Chinese or African universities when the universities of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras were established in 1857. Where, for much of their history, European universities were [...]
IISc and the Slow Death of Innovation
Published by August 23rd, 2009 in Development, Education, India, Internet and Policy. 0 CommentsPrithwiraj is upset with IISc’s plans to restrict internet access to it’s denizens. An interesting read.
In the recent past there has been a flurry of articles (press releases?) in various sections of the media, hailing J.N. Tata’s gift to India on its centennial year, and the high quality of academic research being performed by the [...]
Different schools for different classes
Published by June 26th, 2009 in Business, Children, Education, Policy and Politics. 0 CommentsAvinash thinks Kapil Sibal is progressive:
Kapil Sibal, the new HRD minister of India, seems to have taken a stand completely contrary to that taken by his predecessor, Mr. Arjun Singh – he seems to actually be interested in the development of the human resources in India… ;) I am impressed by the reforms Mr. Sibal [...]
Abi reacts to Kapil Sibal’s plans to make school level Board exams ‘optional’:
Thus, Sibal’s plan, even if it becomes a reality, is likely to benefit only a small number of students who get guaranteed seats in Class XI in their current schools. The alleged benefit of removal of exam-related stress is thus available, ironically, only [...]
Child labour- a timeline
Published by June 22nd, 2009 in Children, Education, Human Rights, Policy and Poverty. 0 CommentsKeshaw Bhardwaj has jotted down some interesting notes on child labour in India.
Insight Young Voices is a bimonthly Dalit magazine.
The latest issue carries an interesting article, by Anoop Kumar, on the evolution of Dalit student politics in JNU:
The reasons may be varied – the predominance of students from a particular segment of the society or the ‘party line’ with which the student activists are ideologically committed, or [...]
Instinct control?
Published by June 15th, 2009 in Children, Education, Gender & Sexuality, Media and Women. 0 CommentsThe young can’t be taught ‘dignity of restraint’ when the media doesn’t show any according to Amodini Sharma, who advocates earlier sex education in schools.
Watch Indian TV nowadays, and if it isn’t Ekta Kapoor’s sindoor-anointed, scheming pativrata naris in backless cholis, it’s pretty young things in short-short skirts swinging to some very suggestive lyrics. Sexy [...]
‘New Governance’
Published by June 12th, 2009 in Development, Education, Government, Health and Policy. 0 CommentsVikranth thinks the government’s agenda of inclusive growth would be meaningless if it isn’t backed up by reforms in governance:
In a recent survey conducted by an Hong-Kong based consultancy ranked Indian bureaucracy as least efficient in Asia and termed as “slow and painful and a power center in their own right”. After the economic reforms [...]
Illusion of Democracy
Published by June 9th, 2009 in Democracy, Education, Government, Human Rights and India. 0 CommentsDr.T.Prasad opines that democracy in India is an illusion:
Moreover, the instrument of governance used by such a ‘democratic government’ for delivering the services to the people remained the same which was designed and used for systematically exploiting a colony and is thus totally anachronistic and unsuitable for democratic governance. This renders the constitutional declaration of [...]
‘Council of Sons-in-law and Relatives’ and other dream teams
Published by June 3rd, 2009 in Corruption, Education, Environment, Government, Media, NDTV, Policy and Science & Technology. 1 CommentAnu fisks an NDTV article that sees bright days ahead for India science because a ‘dream team’ has now assumed office at the top of the ministry:
If there is to be team that dares to dream science for India, it will first question the way we raise our children, the way families answer their questions, [...]
More on attacks in Australia
Published by May 31st, 2009 in Education, India, Indiaspora, Prejudice, Racism, Violence and World. 2 CommentsRashmi Bansal offers some insights:
Actually, back in March, the Economic Times had reported on this issue as follows:
The growing number of attacks on Indian students in Australia has become a big cause for concern at the Indian High Commission in Canberra. A senior diplomat at the High Commission told ET that in the last six [...]
Attacks on Indian students in Australia
Published by May 30th, 2009 in Caste, Education, Indiaspora, Prejudice, Racism, Violence and World. 173 CommentsSome bloggers seem to think they’re racially motivated.
Sanjeev Sabhlok, in a long detailed post, disagrees:
I agree that more can be done to ensure the safety of Indian students. But I am personally outraged at the unsolicited allegation being made about Australian racism by the Indian Foreign Minister (and India’s High Commissioner as well). This amounts [...]
‘The Mind is not a vessel..’
Published by May 27th, 2009 in Books, Children and Education. 0 CommentsAG feels ‘the best mathematics books in terms of developing a student’s liking and insight into the subject’ are never used in our schools and colleges:
But if you ask me, the other perspective, the way mathematics is taught in most Indian pre-college institutions can never make it a likable subject. Most of you must have [...]
Yet another farce?
Published by May 24th, 2009 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Democracy, Education, General Elections 2009, Health and Politics. 0 CommentsKarthik RM asks questions that weren’t raised in the recent polls:
For the poor, however, the polling booth is one place – in my opinion, the only place where democracy functions. This again, when you exclude cases of booth capturing or rigging. Democracy, otherwise, doesn’t exist for the underprivileged in India. The country’s healthcare sector is [...]
Wish List
Published by May 19th, 2009 in Business, Caste, Education, Government, Health, Human Rights and Policy. 0 CommentsHarini writes a letter to the new Government, listing out a few basic expectations:
a) Education – If you haven’t noticed – there is a caste system been created in education. The way the system is moving there are one set of institutes for the middle class and one set for the poor. The former delivers [...]
Do the poor matter?
Published by May 13th, 2009 in Democracy, Development, Economy, Education, Food, General Elections 2009, Health, Human Rights, India, Politics and Poverty. 1 CommentAdnan talks to Panditji and Aslam:
Aslam has also his share of problems. “If I manage to sell groundnut worth Rs 150, then I save Rs 40-60 per day but that’s not enough to meet my expenses”. On bad days he makes Rs 30.
He has a wife and a young kid. Wife makes carry bags out [...]
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