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Reflecting social mix in schools
Making kids independent thinkers
Campus Notes
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Reflecting social mix in schools TOP comprehensive schools are more socially exclusive than selective grammar schools, according to a major study out today. It found that they were far less likely to take their fair share of youngsters from disadvantaged homes than the 164 remaining grammar schools.
In fact, a list of the 100 most socially selective schools in the country included 91 comprehensives, eight grammar schools and even one secondary modern schools. The report, by Alan Smithers and Pamela Robinson of the University of Buckingham’s Centre for Education and Employment Research, said the 164 top performing comprehensives—on average—took in only 9.2 per cent of children from deprived income homes compared with 13.5 per cent for the grammar schools. In both cases, the schools would have had to take in 20 per cent to reflect the social mix in the area. In addition, it found that the leading comprehensives were also less likely to take in pupils from ethnic minority groups. The report, commissioned by the Sutton Trust—the education charity set up by millionaire philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl—queries whether Labour’s strict code on admissions—which outlaws interviewing parents seeking a place—has had any impact in solving the problem of back-door selection. “There is still wriggle room for schools that want to ensure a favourable intake to enable them to show up well in the league tables,” the authors argue. The report recommends that schools should look to introducing ballots to ensure a fairer method of admitting pupils. The procedure, introduced in Brighton and used by a handful of academies, has faced criticism by politicians for turning the whole process into a lottery, on the basis that “no child’s education should be decided by the roll of a dice”. However, Sir Peter, in a foreword to the report, argues: “There has to be some way of choosing which pupils are admitted and ballots offer the same chances to all children irrespective of their background.” The report argues there are still methods through which comprehensive schools can use covert selection. “Schools with a religious affiliation can give preference to people of the faith,” it says. Some comprehensive schools have retained the right from when they were grammar schools to select a proportion of their intakes by ability and some specialist schools are able to select up to 10 per cent by aptitude. Schools can use distance from the school as a criterion and this may ten to exclude low-income homes if it sits in a prosperous area. On the question of grammar schools admitting more pupils from ethnic minority groups, the report says: “When they have the choice, it seems that parents tend to seek out schools which take children similar to their own.” This is said to be the reason for the one secondary modern school being on the list of the 100 most socially exclusive. It serves a leafy county area of the country with a largely white British intake in an area which is still selective. The figures show that—whereas 18 grammar schools have fewer than 50 per cent white British entrants—only one comparable comprehensive does. “A high proportion of ethnic minority sub-groups were admitted to the grammars but particularly those from Indian and Chinese backgrounds,” it says. The Liberal Democrats would argue that their top education priority to introduce a £ 2,500 “pupil premium” for every youngster enrolled from a disadvantaged home would address the problem. However, the report wonders whether this would be enough to defeat the pressure schools face from securing a good position in exam league tables. The Conservatives aim to create “more good schools” by allowing parents to set them up themselves which, the report argues, “is a difficult case to make given the financial state of the country”. On Labour’s policy of cracking down on covert selection with a mandatory admissions code banning interviews, the report says its impact is “arguable”. —
by arrangement with The Independent
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Making kids independent thinkers THE need to make education interesting, engaging and meaningful has been felt for a long time in India. The recent reforms initiated by Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal are a step in this direction. Despite the fact that our country has huge diversity in terms of regional divides and cultural conditioning, one must be optimistic that these reforms will bring about a positive change in the education system. Adopting the similar line, Vivek High School, Chandigarh, has introduced a new teaching methodology for its educators—‘Critical Thinking’. The methodology has met with great success—thanks to the commitment of the school and its teachers. Critical thinking, in a very broad term, means that a child is taught to think independently by carefully weighing the options before him to address issues in an open-minded and fair manner. Critical thinking has nothing to do with being “critical” or negative, as the term may suggest. In fact, it is a life skill or a way of life to help children deliberate and reach a reasoned judgement. It does not mean that the children do more work but just that they work differently. This programme is part of the institution’s endeavour to impart a global dimension to the teaching-learning process. It is also necessitated by the paradigm shift in the Indian education system from rote learning and factual knowledge (board examinations) to hands-on training and skill-based education (continuous and comprehensive evaluation). The school has invited Vancouver-based education professionals who have trained thousands of teachers in North America, Europe and Asia to train their teachers in making critical thinking a pedagogical practice and a life skill. The three facilitators from Canada, Dr Roland Case, Dr Philip Balcaen and Mary Abbott, are members of the TC2, a well-known non-profit association of education practitioners who are devoted to promoting critical thinking skills in children in all subjects through primary and secondary classes. Sharanjot Chahal, a social sciences teacher and a participant at the workshop, says: “Critical thinking has enhanced the quality of teaching as classrooms have become more interactive with lots of discussions, brainstorming sessions and inputs from children instead of just textual knowledge and rote memorising. It has also led to a better understanding of textual matter.” Rajbir Sandhu, a teacher, feels that this methodology of teaching has given the children a global dimension by bringing out the best in them as they now look at the larger picture rather than focus on the narrow confines of books. Tara Sandhu, a Vivekite who passed out in 2006 and is now majoring in Economics at Cambridge University, England, feels that critical thinking broke the walls of her preconditioned mind and enhanced her confidence to think rationally. Canadian facilitators Dr Philip and Mary Abbott say that Indian teachers are willing and enthusiastic in their participation in the workshop and have come up with some good ideas to make children independent thinkers.
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Campus Notes A two-day seminar organised by the Department of Environmental Science concluded here recently with experts calling for effective policy intervention and concerted community efforts to arrest environmental degradation. Prof. R.P. Singh (BBA Central University, Lucknow), Prof. N. R. Bhardwaj (University of Rajasthan), Prof. V. S. Beniwal (CCSHAU, Hisar) and Prof. Arvind Kalia (HPU, Shimla) spoke on different aspects of environmental challenges and ecological issues. The seminar was sponsored by the Directorate of Higher Education of Haryana. Meanwhile, a three-day national workshop on "Applicable Statistics" was also held on the campus. Prof. P. K. Kapoor (University of Delhi) was the chief guest. Around 110 delegates took part in the workshop which focused on various areas of applied statistics. In another similar event, eminent neuro-scientist Prof. Shobhini L. Rao (NIMHANS, Bangalore) while speaking at a seminar on " Positive Psychology and Health: Interventions and Strategies", organised by the Department of Psychology of the university, observed that psychology should incorporate social and cultural ethos of the country to make an effective intervention. She called for connecting positive psychology, health psychology and neurosciences to develop a unique model relevant to India in the realm of health and psychology. Psychologist Prof. Girishwar Mishra (University of Delhi) claimed that a meaningful life was the road towards a happy life and the policy planners should not confine themselves to economic development but also include the well-being of people in its developmental agenda. He urged the psychologists to create positive emotions in society for the well-being of masses. He emphasised on relational orientation of psychological intervention for good health.
Admission date extended
The Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) has extended the last date for admission to IT and management courses for the 2010 session. According to the DDE director, the last date for submission of admission forms without late fee will be April 15. Thereafter, admission forms can be submitted from April 16 to April 30 with a late fee of Rs 500 and from May 1 to May 31, with a late fee of Rs 1,000. The courses include BCA, APGDCA, M.Sc (computer science), MCA, BBA and MBA. The university has also notified the last date for submission of Registration Returns, etc., of the Diploma in Education (D.Ed) course for the session 2009-2010. The last date for the D.Ed course will be April 16. Any delay in submission of Registration Returns will invite fine as per rules, it is stated.
Conference on medical biotechnology
The Centre for Biotechnology of MDU will organise a national conference on “Medical Biotechnology-Vision 2020” from April 16 to April 18 . The Director, CBT, Prof. S.K. Gakhar, said the conference would primarily focus on the latest developments and trends in the field of medical biotechnology. Among the areas to be covered in this meet include genomics, proteomics, vaccine, drug designing, stem cells, infectious diseases, non-infectious diseases, bioinformatics and human genome. The scientific programme during the conference will include a keynote address, special lectures and contributory papers. There would be a poster presentation paper too, said the organisers.
Pt. B. D. Sharma Health University, Rohtak Against an average annual demand of about 30,000 units of blood in the PGIMS, Rohtak, only 15,000 units were received through blood donation camps and voluntary donations in a year. This was revealed at the annual blood donors' function organised by the Department of Blood Transfusion of the PGIMS here recently. The function was inaugurated by Asha Hooda, vice-president, Bal Kalyan Parishad, Haryana. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. S.S. Sangwan, described the occasion as a positive development and said blood donation was a premier social service which helped in rescuing the life of others. Throwing light on the need of blood donation, he said modern blood transfusion basically dealt with the optimal use of one unit of blood by separating it into different components making it available to different patients according to their requirements. Dr P.K. Sehgal of the PGIMS said any person between the age of 18 to 60 years with minimum body weight of 45 kg could donate one unit of blood every three months. Those facilitated included 22 donor families, 41 best motivators, 117 organisers and 62 persons who have donated blood more than 50 times . — Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat
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