Thursday, June 8, 2017

Reform the reformers in our academic system

Reform the reformers in our academic system

Abolition of the ranking system and introducing Board exams for Class XI are fine. But our academic system is crying for more reforms

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. — John Keats

We have heard some sweet melodies from Tamil Nadu’s School Education Minister K.A.Sengottaiyan, who recently announced the abolition of the ranking system, introduction of Board examinations for Class XI students and revision of the school syllabus. These announcements were hailed by the media and certain sections of the academia as major education reforms. Are they really major reforms?

In the article ‘Do laurels always work?’ published by The Hindu Edge dated March 25, 2017, I argued against ranking students based on their marks in examinations and rewarding them for their academic achievements. I do welcome the government’s decision mainly for the reasons stated below. Not all top rankers are smart students with good subject knowledge and adequate skills, and not all gifted students always secure top ranks. So, ranking students based on their marks is meaningless. The ranking system helps only unscrupulous edupreneurs who run educational institutions with a narrow vision. With the sole aim of producing results and securing ranks, and thus making more money and increasing their revenue, many private schools in Tamil Nadu pressurise students turn them into marks-producing machines. The ranking system has had a negative impact on students by making a majority of them think that they are inferior to those who have scored better marks. It has been proved that such an education system has failed to produce students who will be able to think critically and face challenges confidently.

A positive step

Looking at the government’s decision critically, one can say that it abolished the ranking system just because it did not want to face further embarrassment and negative criticism that the top rankers are not able to crack NEET and IIT-JEE and other competitive exams, and the education system in Tamil Nadu is not good. Whatever be the intent of the government, the decision is a positive step and a slap on the face of those unscrupulous edupreneurs who defined education in their own way. The government should warn school authorities against displaying students’ marks publicly and publishing adverts that give details of ranks.

Is the introduction of Board examinations for Class XI students really a reform? The answer to the question should be based on the current scenario. For years, many private schools and government-aided schools did not teach Class XI subjects properly and taught Class XII subjects for two years. As a result, students studying in such schools were denied the opportunity to have a firm grounding in the fundamentals. The school education department miserably failed to take action against such schools which focused only on producing results and securing ranks. It is believed that the introduction of Board exams will make school authorities do justice to students by teaching them Class XI subjects. This, in turn, will help students learn the basics properly.

Will this not overburden students? The burden and stress will definitely increase if the school education department fails to do its duty of monitoring and taking action against those who violate rules. Some serious measures should be taken. The education department should warn school authorities against conducting coaching classes on Sundays and public holidays. Schools should not be allowed to conduct coaching classes beyond school hours, or after 6 p.m. It is not good for fifteen-year-old students to be treated like machines that can be put to work 16-18 hours a day.

Upgradation

Syllabus revision is a much-needed reform for Tamil Nadu school education. It has been neglected for many years due to various political reasons. Currently, the education department seems to have a very narrow vision and the focus is on NEET and IIT-JEE. One wonders why everyone is obsessed with medicine and engineering when there are numerous career options. What is the percentage of students who can clear NEET and IIT-JEE? The syllabus should be upgraded but it need not be modeled on the CBSE syllabus. It could be even better than that. The need of the hour is to form a committee of experts from various disciplines and to take some concrete steps to review and revise the syllabus so that the students can take any competitive examination without shuttling between schools and coaching centres.

The education system in Tamil Nadu is badly in need of major reforms in many other areas. We would like to hear those unheard melodies that could be sweeter.

Schools have become commercial centres or shops which sell books, uniforms, shoes, socks, belts, stationery along with education. Why do they do so? A simple answer is that these commercial activities bring them money and more money. It is a bad system because the focus is shifted. Commerce takes the driver’s seat and education takes a back seat. Here is an example. Publishing companies sell books at an exorbitant rate and give considerable amount of money (up to 30-35%) to school authorities in the name of discount. The beneficiaries are school owners and the victims are students and their parents. As long as this practice of commercialisation is allowed to continue, efforts to improve the quality of education will not yield positive results.

Many schools have bid goodbye to teaching and embraced coaching. It is a fact that many schools invite training companies to conduct NEET and IIT-JEE coaching on their campuses. This is another money spinner. The training companies charge around ₹2 lakh for NEET / IIT-JEE coaching. The understanding is that companies get 60% of the fees and schools get 40%. Even students who are not interested in medicine and engineering are persuaded to join the courses run by the school. Schools create an impression among students that only medicine and engineering are the best career options. Schools kill students’ free thinking and nurture their herd mentality.

What ails the education system in the country is government’s control over it. Political interference in education will lead to disaster. What is needed is the autonomy of school and higher education.

Albert P?Rayan

The author is an academic, columnist and freelance writer.

rayanal@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks to : The Hindu - 04.06.2017

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Wear Your Attitude

Wear Your Attitude

We may not be responsible for how others read us. But appearances do matter.

You may have heard about the person who appeared for an interview via video conference suitably attired, in a smart jacket and tie that looked perfect on screen. It’s a good thing he wasn’t asked to stand — because he was wearing shorts!

I’m told that interviewers sometimes ask candidates to get up and fetch something just so they can check that they are dressed (what’s considered) right, from top to toe!

May be this is just the stuff of modern recruitment legend, but it points to something important. Dressing carefully for an interview says something about how we regard the job, and how seriously we take the interaction itself.

We dress in certain ways for specific occasions, and, over time, develop a sense of what is appropriate or suitable for different contexts — work, play, partying, cultural events, and so on. These days, of course, there is much more flexibility in attire and a greater acceptance of diverse clothing styles; but within the corporate and business world there are still norms of attire that one might be expected to follow.

Still, I certainly don’t subscribe fully to the idea that “clothes make the person.” Clothing is only one of the many norms and expectations that govern social life, and only one of several things that people use to make judgments — often wrongly — about who we are and how (and what) we think.

Impressions

There are hundreds of other signals we send out — intentionally and unintentionally — that work to build that impression. Sociologists and psychologists have studied what is called “the presentation of the self” in everyday life, and I am not about to go into a detailed academic discussion on that here. I’m also not advocating that we get into full-fledged impression management.

But it may be useful for us to pause and think about how we might be coming across to others and the consequences (for ourselves) of creating a certain impression, because sometimes the attitudes we wear (beyond the clothes) can have subtle effects on our immediate environment — group of friends, study group, class.

This becomes clearer when you think about how you are affected by others in your peer group — those who come late, those who constantly interrupt, shift in their chairs, fall asleep or fidget with their phones, who chatter with each other or share personal jokes while the class is in session… you get the picture. Now, to be fair, none of these may be done with an intent to communicate a lack of interest in the class or to suggest disrespect.

But too often, that is how these behaviors are read, not only by the rest of the peer group, but also by the instructor or facilitator. At minimum, these behaviors are minor and temporary distractions for all those concerned. But when repeated over time, they can have one of two effects: we get used to them and write them off as chronic and unimportant, or two, they can spread like a meme to the rest of the group and even demotivate the teacher and, by extension, everyone else.

However much we may subscribe to the idea that outward appearances are not important, we can’t get away from the fact that we do operate on the basis of those appearances.

So, there’s something to be said for the visible attitude one should wear to class, or to work. Being on time, sitting up straight (or at least not lounging), visibly paying attention to others when they are speaking, putting your cellphone away or face down, having a notebook and pen handy… these are the some of the ways in which an attitude of interest is displayed. And believe me, an attitude of interest can be infectious.

For sure, we can’t be completely responsible for how others read us. But we do know how we read others, and a simple exercise in reflection can give us clues about how our “performed” attitudes might affect other people.

The author teaches at the University of Hyderabad and edits Teacher Plus.

usha.bpgll@gmail.com

Usha Raman

Thanks to : THE HINDU – 02.04.2017

Top 10 Colleges in our India

Top 10 Colleges in our India

Here are the lists of the top educational institutions in the country as announced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) on Monday. The HRD has adopted the National Institutional Ranking Framework, which ranks the best colleges and universities in India.

Top 10 educational institutions overall

1. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore

2. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras

3. IIT Bombay

4. IIT Kharagpur

5. IIT Delhi

6. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

7. IIT Kanpur

8. IIT Guwahati

9. IIT Roorkee

10. Banaras Hindu University

Top 10 universities

1. IISc, Bangalore

2. Jawaharlal Nehru College, New Delhi

3. Banaras Hindu University

4. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

5. Jadavpur university

6. Anna University

7. University of Hyderabad

8. University of Delhi

9. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

10. Savitribai Phule Pune University

Top 10 colleges in India

1. Miranda House, New Delhi

2. Loyola College, Chennai

3. Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi

4. Bishop Heber College, Tiruchi

5. Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, New Delhi

6. St. Xavier's College, Kolkata

7. Lady Shri Ram College of Women, New Delhi

8. Dayal Singh College, New Delhi

9. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, New Delhi

10. The Women's Christian College, Chennai

Top 10 management institutions

1 Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

2 Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

3. Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

4. Indian Institute of Management Lucknow

5. Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode

6. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

7. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

8. Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

9. Xavier Labour Relations Institute

10. Indian Institute of Management Indore

Top 10 engineering colleges

1. IIT Madras

2. IIT Bombay

3. IIT Kharagpur

4. IIT Delhi

5. IIT Kanpur

6. IIT Roorkee

7. IIT Guwahati

8. Anna University

9. Jadavpur university

10. IIT Hyderabad

Internet Desk

Thanks to : THE HINDU – 03.04.2017

Monday, April 3, 2017

Dilemma of choice

Dilemma of choice

Dilemma of choice

How do you choose your engineering stream? Picking the major and the minor that most interests you is the way to go.

It is that time of the year when seventeen-year-olds finishing their Class XII board exams will have one question in their minds — “What next?” Career decisions will be made in the coming months, and engineering might be one of the most popular choices. But which stream to pick is the dilemma you will find yourself in.

An easy way to choose is to take a look at the constantly changing world around us.

The next decade seems like it will be dominated by driverless electric cars, smart watches that act as phones, fitness monitors, drones that deliver your Amazon purchases, smart home speakers that interact with you, and the list goes on. The question you need to ask now is, how are you going to be part of developing this future?

Well, the obvious answer is “pick what is interesting to you and pursue it.” But in reality, everything looks interesting to us; this makes picking a particular field difficult, and thus, we pick the most popular option due to peer pressure.

Plethora of choices

What if I said, there is another way to decide? Yes, rather than picking a field, pick a product/service that you would like to be a part of developing, and find the aspects that interest you.

For example, I am fascinated by self-driving electric cars, and particularly interested in the locomotion part of the car and its ability to self-drive. Now, the locomotion part comes under mechanical engineering, whereas the ability to understand the road, navigate by itself and be aware of the surrounding traffic comes under the ambit of computer science (machine learning).

I have now narrowed down my field of interest to mechanical and computer science engineering. but we might not find a specialised engineering degree that provides both these aspects in equal measure. So here is an alternative: of the two fields, I pick the one that is more interesting. For me it is the “locomotion part of the car” and I would label it as my “major interest/specialisation”, and the self-driving part will be my “minor interest/specialisation.”

All I need to do now is pick mechanical engineering as my major in my undergrad, and focus my extracurricular activities towards learning computer science-related stuff. Sounds easy, right?

Well, like everything else, unless I put all these things into practice I am not going to be able to be a part of developing a self-driving car. So how do I put everything into practice? The simple answer is “projects”.

Projects give you an opportunity to integrate your curricular and extracurricular activities; all you need to do is start small and build upon it.

The idea of picking a major and a minor early on, during undergraduate studies, gives you clarity in thought and helps you focus on the right things. Not only that, this approach makes you an “inter-disciplinary” person.

There is a distinct advantage of being an inter-disciplinary individual, especially in the coming years.

The reason being, a common theme that wraps around most of the products being developed now is the integration of multiple services into one product. Being inter-disciplinary helps you drive this integration.

Companies making these products acknowledge it as well. In the last couple of years, recruiting has moved from hiring specialists to hiring inter-disciplinary individuals. The main reason is their ability to understand the product, integrate the right services and find solutions faster. Specialising in a particular topic is still valuable, but as an engineer, being inter-disciplinary helps you understand the product and communicate cross-functionally in an organisation.

Pick your major and minor subjects and work on projects that allow you to integrate them. So, what are your major and minor subjects?

Quick Review

Confused which field of engineering to take after Class XII? Here are five ways to go about it.

Take a look at the products of the future and decide the product you would like to be a part of creating.

Narrow it down to two features you would like to create in that product.

Now see which field you need to specialise in, in order to build these features.

The field that interests you the most among the two fields will be your major (the specialisation you will be picking in your undergrad).

The next best field will be your minor (the field that you will concentrate your extracurricular activities on).

Work on projects to integrate major and minor fields.

The writer is co-founder, EdXengine. surya@edxengine.com

Surya Paneerselvam

Thanks to : THE HINDU - 02.04.2017

Sunday, March 19, 2017

18 Flowers that Look Unbelievably Similar to Something Else

We at Bright Side spent a few very entertaining minutes guessing what the flowers below remind us of. It’s even better than cloud watching!

Monkey orchid or the Monkey-Like Dracula (Dracula Simia)

Moth orchid (Phalaenopsis)

Naked Man orchid (Orchis Italica)

Hooker’s Lips (Psychotria Elata)

Dancing Girls (Impatiens Bequaertii)

Laughing Bumble Bee orchid (Ophrys bomybliflora)

Swaddled Babies orchid (Anguloa Uniflora)

Parrot flower (Impatiens Psittacina)

Snapdragon (Antirrhinum)

Flying Duck orchid (Caleana Major)

The orchid that looks like a tiger

Happy Alien (Calceolaria Uniflora)

Angel orchid (Habenaria Grandifloriformis)

Dove orchid or Holy Ghost orchid (Peristeria Elata)

The orchid that looks like a ballet dancer

White Egret orchid (Habenaria Radiata)

Darth Vader orchid (Aristolochia Salvadorensis)

And the last one: these are just wheat heads

Thanks to : https://brightside.me/

There are Only Four Passport Colors in the World

There are Only Four Passport Colors in the World

There are Only Four Passport Colors in the World, and This is the Reason Why?

It turns out that there are only four primary passport colors in the world, and each country has its own reasons for choosing one of these colors for the cover.

Bright Side decided to find out what this choice depends on and to share the information with you. If long lines at the airport makes you feel bored, just remember this post.

Red

This is the most common color. Passports with a red cover are often chosen by countries with a historical or current communist system.

Citizens of Slovenia, China, Serbia, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Poland, and Georgia have red passports. Member countries of the European Union, except Croatia, also use passports of burgundy and other shades of red. Countries interested in joining the EU, such as Turkey, Macedonia, and Albania, changed the color of their passports to red a few years ago. The Andean Community of Nations — Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru — also has burgundy passports.

Blue

This is the next most common color. The blue cover symbolizes the "new world".

15 Caribbean countries have blue passports. Within the block of South American countries the blue passport cover symbolizes the connection with Mercosur — a trade union. This includes Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Venezuela is the exception here: it also belongs to the union, but its citizens have red passports. The passports of US citizens were changed to blue only in 1976.

Green

Most Muslim countries have green passports. Examples include Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Green is considered to be the favorite color of the Prophet Muhammad, and is a symbol of nature and life. The citizens of several West African countries — for example, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, the Ivory Coast, and Senegal — also have travel documents that are various shades of green. In their case, the color indicates that they belong to ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States).

Black

The rarest passports are those with black covers.

These can be found among the citizens of some African countries — Botswana, Zambia, Burundi, Gabon, Angola, Chad, Congo, Malawi and others. Citizens of New Zealand also have black passport covers, because black is the country’s national color.

The map below is painted according to the color of each country’s passport.

From : https://brightside.me/

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH

KNOW YOUR ENGLISH

How much rabbit food is too much?

“What are you doing here at this time of day? Isn’t it hot? Don’t you...”

“What a silly question! You know that we’ve been having a really bad weather the past...”

“We don’t usually say ‘a really bad weather’. The word ‘weather’ is not preceded by ‘a’. For example, we’ve had really good weather the past few weeks.”

“Do you really think so? They’ve been having terrible weather down in Australia.”

“Yes, they’ve been having miserable weather. Tell me, how did...”

“No, you tell me. Do you have any of the goodies you bought yesterday?”

“I’m afraid not. Ganesh came by this morning and finished off most of the things. He...”

“That doesn’t sound like Ganesh. He doesn’t usually eat between...”

“Apparently, his wife has been starving him. The poor chap’s diet mainly consists of rabbit food. You know that he....”

“Rabbit? I was under the impression that Ganesh was a vegetarian. Guess I was...”

“He is a vegetarian. When you say that someone has been eating rabbit food, it means he’s been eating raw vegetables.”

“You mean something like a salad?”

“That’s right! People who don’t like eating salad or raw vegetables usually refer to them as ‘rabbit food’. It shows their contempt.”

“It’s their way of suggesting that these things are meant for rabbits. Not for human beings!”

“Exactly! Usha is fond of rabbit food. Says she can live on salads for days together.”

“Well, Ganesh is not Usha. He sees raw vegetables as nothing more than rabbit food.”

“Good example! Some of my colleagues have rabbit food for lunch.”

“I don’t mind rabbit food, actually. I nibble on raw carrots every now and then. I see that you’re still going through the same document that you were...”

“It’s a copy of the contract our company will be signing in a week’s time. My boss wants me to go through it with a fine toothcomb to make sure...”

“With a fine tooth comb? What are you talking about?”

“When you go through something with a fine tooth comb, you study it very carefully. You examine it in great detail.”

“How about this example? When her earrings went missing, Hema went through her cupboard with a fine tooth comb. She managed to find them.”

“That’s a good example. The police realise that it’s an important case. They’ve been going through the evidence with a fine tooth comb.”

“What do you plan to do once you’ve finished going through the contract with a fine tooth comb? Do you want to go somewhere?”

“I can’t. I have to discuss the contract with my boss. Tell me, what are you doing here at this time of the day? Aren’t you supposed to be in college?”

“Our college timings have changed. So, I...”

“We Indians are fond of the word ‘timings’. But do you know that native speakers of English don’t use the word? Many dictionaries don’t even list ‘timings’. Those that do, say that it’s Indian English.”

“Really! What do native speakers say instead of...”

“They usually talk about ‘office hours’ and ‘working hours’. My office hours are between 9:30 and 7:00.”

“Those are my sleeping hours!”

* * *

“It’s so dry, the trees are bribing the dogs.” Charles Martin

S. Upendran

The author teaches at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. upendrankye@gmail.com

Thanks to : THE HINDU - 12.03.2017