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Regulate boards, ensure uniformity
Despots and academia: more scandals likely Campus Notes
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Regulate boards, ensure uniformity
UNIFORMITY in education may be considered as the symbol of planned education. The two major components of the education system—imparting knowledge and skills and performance evaluation—must be properly analysed to take appropriate corrective action for improvement in the existing system. In the course of development of the education system, several education boards have evolved as regulatory bodies. Presently, there are more than 30 recognised education boards functioning at the state and national levels. These boards follow varying approaches towards imparting knowledge and skills, and performance evaluation. This leads to a significant qualitative diversity among the students opting for different boards of education. Therefore, to reduce disparity and diversity and evolve a feeling of unity and integrity and nationalism among students and teachers, a single all-India education board is necessary. However, in a vast country like ours involving a huge political diversity, establishing such a board to bring the uniformity in education is a great challenge. As the proposal could not receive political support, the HRD Ministry has rightly planned to bring the uniformity in the education system by implementing the common curriculum for a few subjects for Classes XI and XII. In fact, the importance of uniformity in education across the country had been realised in the past as well. Earlier, in 2002, efforts were made for a single admission test for admission to institutions offering engineering courses. Since then, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has conducted the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). In 2010, the HRD Ministry once again geared up to take up the matter at the curriculum level for Classes XI and XII. Uniformity in education is necessary because it will help provide equal opportunity to the students appearing in regular examinations, admission tests for higher education module, and eligibility assessment for jobs, etc. In addition, it will help inculcate feeling of unity, integrity and nationalism. Uniformity in the education system can be evolved by appropriately addressing the following issues: A systematic formulation of teaching scheme involving core subjects, elective subjects, additional subjects (optional) and curricular activities (sports/games/hobbies/NCC/NSS), etc., so as to evolve a foundation for multidimensional personality. For the subject “language”, it must be noted that knowledge of all three—mother tongue, Hindi and English—is very important and, therefore, the three-language formula must be sincerely implemented. While designing the teaching scheme, a serious thought must be given to workload on students, financial conditions of the rural poor, non-availability or poor supply of electricity, and other miscellaneous issues. Once the teaching scheme is finalised, a proper syllabus for all the subjects must be compiled. Frequent revision with addition of more topics copying from higher module and deleting a few existing ones may always not be a correct approach. In fact, this may destabilise the education system and weaken the academic foundation of students on the one hand, and add to burden on students on the other without yielding any useful outcome. The matter of uniform syllabus for science and maths subjects for Classes XI and XII has been taken up the HRD Ministry. The CBSE successfully brought about consensus among education boards for adopting common core curriculum. Several boards have also agreed to adopt the common contents in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology subjects. The CBSE incorporated the contents from the syllabi received from 20 different education boards engaged in conducting the Class XI and XII examinations to bring out common core curriculum and uniform syllabus. The same may be implemented from the academic session 2011. In another development, the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) has decided to work on a common curriculum for commerce as well. The same may be implemented in all the senior secondary schools from the academic session 2012. The process of bringing up uniformity in the syllabi of the core subjects, science, mathematics and commerce is just the beginning of reforms. Presently, the concept of uniformity has been proposed in physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology subjects since the academic session 2011, and in the commerce stream since the academic session 2012 for Classes XI and XII. To bring about more uniformity, the concept should also be extended to humanities and social sciences streams. To further strengthen the concept, the approach should be extended to Classes IX and X as well. The uniformity in education at a young age right from matriculation will be more effective in properly orienting the attitude of students. However, to make such a major alteration in a vast and diversified country like ours is a major challenge, and it should be implemented only in steps. Any haste in implementation may lead to chaos and will not be in the interest of students. Once the policy of uniform syllabi is implemented, the syllabus for the qualifying examination must be adopted as such for the competitive examinations conducted at an appropriate level. This is based on the principle that the students should be evaluated for what they have been taught, and not for what they have not been taught. Therefore, the syllabus for physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology subjects for entrance examination(s) for admission to degree programmes in engineering/medical science must be exactly the same as adopted by the education boards for Classes XI and XII across the country. This policy can be implemented to a large number of competitive examinations conducted in different disciplines at various levels of eligibility. This will simplify the preparation for competitive examinations and help reduce the tuition/coaching burden. The writer is Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sant
Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal
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Despots and academia: more scandals likely
THE London School of Economics, which is trying to repair the damage done to its reputation by its links with the Gaddafi regime in Libya, is not the only UK university that has accepted money from repressive governments. Saudi Arabia has been a much more lavish investor in British higher education than Libya. China and Iran have also put money into universities here. And despite the humiliation of the LSE, the practise of accepting money from abroad could spread because of government pressure on universities to find sources of funds other than the British taxpayer. Robin Simcox, a researcher at the Centre for Social Cohesion, said the political furore that had led to the resignation of Howard Davies, the LSE’s director, was “inevitable” given the willingness of universities to accept fund from dictatorships. He warned something similar could happen again. Several of the most prestigious universities in the country, including Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Durham, have risked placing themselves in a similar predicament to the LSE. The Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which is described as an “independent centre” at Oxford University was given £20m by the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in 2008. A motion on the Commons order paper by Tory MP Robert Halfon claims the centre has had £75m in total from 12 Middle Eastern rulers. Cambridge University received £8m from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia in 2008 towards a new research centre for Islamic studies. Edinburgh University also received £8m from Prince Alwaleed in the same year. Durham University’s Centre for Iranian Studies has been embroiled in controversy several times. Last year, the centre hosted a seminar funded by a £5,000 grant from Iran, held, coincidentally, on the day the Tehran government announced the executions of two young men involved in protests against the regime. Two academics who were due to speak pulled out, but the seminar heard from the cultural attaché from the Iranian embassy in London, a hardline supporter of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Liverpool John Moores University has had contracts with Libya totalling £1.27m, which the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Brown, has vigorously defended. He told the Liverpool Daily Post: “We have nothing to be embarrassed of whatsoever. Our work in Libya was about improving medical facilities, which are woeful.” In 2003, Exeter University signed an agreement in Tripoli to teach English to students in Libya. After the deal was signed, Colonel Gaddafi addressed a conference organised by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies in Exeter, by video link. Simcox also believes that Confucius Centres at universities such as Manchester and Edinburgh, which teach Mandarin and Chinese culture, serve Beijing’s propaganda aims. “These are all countries that we know repress their own people. If we assume things are going to carry on benignly over the next few years, I think we’re being naive,” he warned. — The Independent ADMISSION DEADLINE From now, more information on Admission Deadline will be available online. Please visit The Tribune website at: www.tribuneindia.com and click on “Education” in the “Weekly Specials” section to get details. — Pervin Malhotra, www.careerguidanceindia.com
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Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar GURU Nanak Dev University honoured its 125 sportspersons with cash prizes worth Rs 25 lakh at its annual sports prize distribution function held here recently. Besides cash prizes, commendation certificates, trophies, blazers, tracksuits, and university colours were also presented to the players. Professor A.S. Brar, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, presided over the function and gave away prizes to the sportspersons. Harnek Singh, Deepak Kumar, Satish Kumar, Sandeep Kaur and Sukhwinder Kaur (softball); Ravneet Singh, Narinder Singh, Amandeep Singh, Ramandeep Kaur, Bhupinder Singh and Navdeep Kaur (rowing); Ravneet Singh, Narinder Singh, Jaipreet Singh, Ratandeep Singh, Jeetinder Singh (water polo); Amandeep Singh and Bhupinder Singh (canoeing); Anjali Kumari (archery); and Suman (cycling) were honoured for securing the first position in the National and All-India Inter-University championships. Similarly, Surbhi Pathania (korfball and netball); Gurjeet Kaur, Savita Kumari and Ravneet Kaur (rowing); Sandeep (judo); Sartaj Singh (netball); Rupali (artistic gymnastic); and Manvir Kaur and Rajbir Kaur (archery) were honoured for getting second and third positions in the National and All India Inter-University championships. UGC research projects
Two teachers of the Department of Commerce and Business Management of the university have been granted research projects by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Dr B.S. Mann, Reader, who has 15 years of experience in the area of marketing and strategic management, got a project worth Rs 6 lakh to carry out research on the topic "Understanding the Influence of Culture on Brand Buying Behaviour — an Empirical Investigation". Similarly, Dr Rishi Raj Sharma, Senior Assistant Professor, got a project worth Rs 3,57,000 for research in the area of knowledge management. He would work on how knowledge management practises mediate in organisational ethos and hence achieve organisational effectiveness in the Indian service sector. Dr Sharma is also acting in charge of the Department of Commerce and Business Management at university's Regional Campus, Gurdaspur.
Refresher course in commerce
A three-week "Refresher Course in Commerce and Management", being organised by the Department of Commerce and Business Management of the university under the aegis of the Academic Staff College, was inaugurated on the university campus recently. As many as 35 teachers from various universities are participating in the course. While expressing his views on shifting paradigm in commerce and management, Sanjeev Gupta, chairman, Amritsar Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, said commerce and business management had undergone fundamental change in approach and philosophy. He said managements had been changing their strategies from file, paper and face-to-face meetings, etc., to networking, paperless office, teleconferencing, etc. Therefore, excellence, innovation and anticipation, the three characteristics in modern business and trade, which are far more globalised than before, are essential for total quality management, he
said. — Contributed by P. K. Jaiswar
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