Monday, September 09, 2013

Work for money is no child’s play - IIPM Editorial

Mohan alias Chotu, a 15-year-old boy leaves home every morning like any other child of his age. He carries a lunch box and is rushing to make it in time; he fears punishment. Slightly less than 5 ft, Chotu in his half-pants and a pale sleeveless shirt – which fails to hide his malnourished structure – pauses before a school and then restarts for his destination, a bangle factory.
The rest stays inside the tall doors. Time and again, experts have debated the ‘key focus areas’ in order to eradicate child labour. Many state that poor economic conditions have led to a rational family strategy to send children to work and as their income increased, child labour decreased. But a contrasting explanation comes from Myron Weiner. He figures out in his study, ‘The Child and the State in India: Child Labor and Education Policy in Comparative Perspective’, that the answer lies in making primary education compulsory.

However, the unpleasant truth in India and many parts of the globe is that poverty, economic backwardness and illiteracy have robbed millions of children of their ‘basic rights’ that includes the right to education. India, though, has implemented the Right to Education Act, which provides for free and compulsory education, the bigger challenge remains to motivate children – who are already contributing to their family’s income – to pursue studies and excel. Thus, child labour negatively impacts their learning and future prospects. Besides, such children are frequent victims of maltreatment, physical and psychological abuse by their supervisors and even their family members.

Traditionally increase in child labour has been attributed to industrialisation, but this adverse practice has been there during pre-indutrialisation period too. However, it was only much later that it began to be linked with exploitation. Click here to read more...

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Friday, July 26, 2013

The history of industrial relations in India dates back to pre independence and since then, it has gone through stages of evolution, both good and bad

The formation of the Bombay Mill Hands Association in 1890 can be called the starting point of the Indian labour movement, though it was not a trade union per se. The association aimed at bringing to the notice of government the grievances of the textile workers in Bombay. Taking a cue from this, a series of strikes followed all over India in the next few years:
? A strike by workers, anticipating wage cut, in three mills owned by K. M. Heeramaneck & Co.
? The first officially recorded strike in Ahmedabad took place in 1895 where workers of Ahmedabad Mill Owners’ Association protested against the introduction of fortnightly payment of wages instead of weekly wages.
? Budge Budge jute mills near Calcutta was closed for six weeks in 1895 and then for eight days in June 1896, though unsuccessful both times.
? Weavers in Bombay went on a strike in 1897 over discontinuance of daily payment of wages and reversion of old system of monthly wages.
? Signalling staff of GIP railways (central railways) went on a strike on May 6, 1899 demanding duty hours to be changed, increase in wages and non-discrimination between Indian and European employees.
? With introduction of electric light and proposition of extended working hours, there were strikes in 1905 in textile mills of Bombay.
? In August 1906, workers of British Clive Jute Mills went on a strike demanding better working conditions and protesting against humiliating behaviour of the management.
? The workers of Jacob Sasson Mills refused to report to work in February 1908, asking for increase in wages.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

It is imperative for teachers to be trained explicitly in the areas of moral development and value education

In another study on teacher training, teacher quality and student achievement, Douglas N. Harris (University of Misconsin-Madison) and Tim R. Sass (Florida State University) try to understand ways in which training affects the ability of teachers to promote student learning. Their findings suggest that experience greatly enhances the productivity of elementary- and middle- school teachers, and that advanced degrees are uncorrelated with the productivity of elementary schools teachers.

The use and application of technology is critical for success of teacher T&D programmes. It is important to introduce technology into schools to improve teaching and learning. And it is believed that failure to invest sufficient resources in teacher training will result in failure of school-based technology initiatives. At a time when conventional teacher-training programmes are not finding many takers, online training programmes are mushrooming.

WAC University, an online institution, has recently announced a new training programmes specifically designed for its online instructors, which will be delivered through webinars. WAC University will not only train its own faculty members through these webinars but training will also be offered to aspirants around the world. A study by Eduventures, a consulting firm in January 2012 that has studied online teacher training programs, found that principals are just as willing to hire from online programmes as from traditional ones. Click here to read more...

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Thursday, February 07, 2013

The missing backbone of innovation

Q. Indian universities do not have a prominent presence on the global scale. What is lacking and what can be done?
A. What is lacking is quality research. Indian universities have a long way to go in terms of quality research. In the United States and Europe, a large number of universities have acquired stature and recognition, as they have produced Nobel laureates through years of research. Indian universities too need to deploy meaningful resources in quality research for global recognition.

Q. In India, the focus is more on placements and less on innovation in education. What reasons do you attribute to it?
A. Yes, in India the orientation is to go for well-paying jobs. Research and innovation needs a State support system that is unfortunately lacking. The population is large and stipend for research and innovation is either not there or is woefully inadequate than what a job could get.

Q. What are the areas where university and industry can interface for the benefit of students?
A. Both complement each other. Training and research at the universities in India help the industry grow and the practical experiences gained in the corporate sector help in fine-tuning the courses at the institutes. The areas of interface therefore straddle all the functions.

Q. How do you attract the best talent in academia and encourage teachers to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship?
A. At our institution, the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is highly valued. Our faculty is involved in several innovative projects. They are part of National Entrepreneurship Network and have also initiated the activities with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and CSBE (Council for Small Business & Entrepreneurship).

Further, we are doing a major project in collaboration with the University of Wales. This project has been funded by the British Council and is aimed at driving innovation in the SMEs; our faculty is attempting path-breaking work on enhancing their productivity. Click here to read more...

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Monday, January 14, 2013

The factors keep changing at different levels of education.

Prof. Parvin Sinclair (Director, NCERT) says if one aspires to be a school teacher, one needs to empathise with children
 
Q. What will be the teacher-development methods?
A. National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) has formed National Council For Teacher Education (NCTE). It is a regulatory body that has created a set of norms in accordance to which it regulates and advises. It has also developed a curriculum framework for teachers, which is slowly being put in place. We have developed a BEd programme and offer a two-year internship, which is well-monitored without being intrusive. We are also starting an online teacher training programme.

As there are many untrained teachers – recruited to fill vacant posts – in-service education training has been in focus. Every state government is trying to deal with the demand of in-service teacher training.

We also find there are different people with different calibre in different states. Hence, teacher eligibility test (TET) was brought in; central teacher eligibility test (CTET) is for the central level and state-level teacher eligibility test (STET). Surprisingly, most people failed it. But, hopefully something better will come out of the experiments that have been frequently done over the years.

Q. What is the difference between India and the top-performing nations in the education sector ?
A. There can be no comparison with any country that has a population 1/100th of of India, spread out differently and has huge monetary resources. We cannot simply implement their best practices because the economical, social and geographic conditions are different. Instead, we can only try to customise and adapt those practices according to our requirements.

National Human Resource Developement (NHRD) has formed a national advisory committee council that has groups looking into curriculum in context of the RTE Act and how to get them in place with the states. The prime minister has his own advisory council that has a constant focus on education. Along with the SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan) is also being developed. Click here to read more...

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