Thursday, July 21, 2016

How reservations help disadvantaged-caste students get higher education

As many as 26% male and 35% female students from India’s most disadvantaged castes and tribes in 245 engineering colleges would not be there without reservation, according to a new study that says affirmative action policy in higher education works largely as intended.

However, reservations do place those who do not qualify for affirmative action at a disadvantage, said the study of 53,374 scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST), other backward caste (OBC) and general students by researchers from the US’ Carnegie Mellon University, published in the American Economic Review.

In this, the first part of a three-part IndiaSpend series exploring disadvantaged Indian communities in higher education, a review of education data confirmed a growing tide of SC/ST students in higher education, but their numbers still lag their proportion in the general population.

The second part will explain why the government must consider restructuring OBC reservation to benefit OBC students from deprived backgrounds, as the Supreme Court has advised, with their proportion in higher-education institutes nearing their proportion in the general population. The third part will explain how Muslims lag every disadvantaged group in higher education, even SCs and STs.

Naveen Gurappu’s story: From diffidence to confidence

Naveen Gurappu, 25, an electrical engineer and doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, is an embodiment of India’s 34-year-old system of reservation for the most disadvantaged groups.

“I would never have come so far if it had not been for the scheduled caste quota and my dad,” said Gurappu, a native of Hyderabad, son of a bank clerk who himself got his job through reservation.

“My dad enrolled me in St Martin’s High School in Hyderabad, a good school, because he wanted me to study well,” said Gurappu, from a scheduled caste called the Malas. “SBI (State Bank of India) pitched in with a yearly fellowship of Rs 500 for stationary, etc. We could not afford extra tuition or the internet at home, even though I badly needed help. Dad paid for my college, coaching and books, he treated me to my first movie—I was in class 11.” The family took a bank loan, which they are repaying, to finance Gurappu’s studies at IIT, which charges SC/ST students about Rs 60,000 per annum for the engineering programme and PhD.

Naveen Gurappu, 25, electrical engineer and doctoral student at IIT Bombay, would not have made it to the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, for a graduate engineering degree had it not been for affirmative action. As many as 26% male and 35% female scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward caste students in 245 engineering colleges benefited from reservation in higher education, according to a new study of 53,374 students. (Special arrangement)

In his first year at IIT, Gurappu struggled to grasp lessons, unlike his upper-caste peers. “Still, I was better off than other disadvantaged caste students because I came from a city,” he said.

Reservation helps and motivates the disadvantaged

Affirmative action spurred students from disadvantaged castes–who still lagged upper castes–to perform better in college than in school, said the Carnegie Mellon study which compared the first-year college scores of 42,914 students with their high-school scores.

Gurappu–who struggled to cope initially at IIT Gandhinagar, where he pursued a graduate degree–agreed with that assessment. “In time, I adjusted to the IIT system and standards, and even caught up with toppers in some subjects,” he said. “With the right mindset and opportunity, any socially disadvantaged student can excel in higher education.”

Disadvantaged-caste students were more likely to choose competitive majors, such as electronics, communication and computer science, than other students.

Reservation is an equaliser, but it does not get enough SC/ST/OBC students into higher education.

“Even with the attendance gains from affirmative action, the most disadvantaged castes still attend in smaller proportions than their population shares,” Dennis Epple, co-author of the American Economic Review study and Thomas Lord University Professor of Economics at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, told IndiaSpend.

“Our work also indicates why affirmative action policies generate debate,” said Epple. “We find that improved educational outcomes for disadvantaged students come at a cost to those who do not receive affirmative action.”

The bottom line: SCs/STs/OBCs benefit from reservation in higher education, but affirmative action should be carefully implemented, periodically reviewed and adjusted to deliver the best outcomes.

IndiaSpend dissected higher-education enrolment data to determine what reservation is still justified in India.

Reservation and higher education expansion boost SC, ST enrolments, but not enough

India introduced 15% and 7.5% reservations for SC and ST candidates respectively in government-aided educational institutions in 1982. Some states tweaked those percentages to factor in local demographics, which the Constitution allows. So in Tamil Nadu, 18% of higher-education is reserved for SCs, 1% for STs. In some central universities in the tribal-dominated northeast, 60% of seats are reserved for ST students.

Between 2000 and 2014, the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) of SCs–a measure of the percentage of actual enrolments in higher education, regardless of age, in a given academic year, to the 18- to 23-year-old population eligible for higher education in that year–more than doubled while that of STs doubled.

Reservation and higher education expansion boost SC, ST enrolments, but not enough

Reservations have had a domino effect, spurring new generations to educate themselves.

“Reservations in past decades have increased the numbers of SC/ST families with highly-educated members, who can encourage–and provide support for–younger family members to continue their education,” said professor emeritus of economics at the University of Michigan, Thomas E Weisskopf, who has argued in favour of reservations for marginalised Indian social groups in higher education.

If parity existed between the share of SCs and STs in the general population and participation in higher education, SCs would occupy a third more seats than they do now, while STs would occupy close to double the seats.

5 ways to increase SC, ST higher-education enrolments

1. Create more infrastructure: Investing in higher education by creating more colleges and universities would help drive SC and ST enrolments, said Sachidanand Sinha of the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

SC and ST higher-education enrolments were higher in districts with a higher College-Population Index (C-PI), a measure of the number of colleges in a district for every 100,000 people aged 18 to 23, according to Identification of Educationally Backward Districts, a 2007 study Sinha led for the University Grants Commission.

“Since disadvantaged youth tend to gravitate to government-run and missionary/CSR (corporate social responsibility)-driven institutes, India needs more of those,” he said.

Although the number of colleges and universities has expanded 248% since 2000, from11,146 to 38,813, most new institutes are privately run, which means they are not obliged to reserve seats for SC and ST candidates.

2. Extend affirmative action to private-sector institutions: To drive SC and ST enrolments in private sector institutes, they could be asked to reserve seats for applicants from economically disadvantaged families and offer scholarships, said Bhushan Patwardhan, former vice chancellor, Symbiosis International University, and professor at the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule University in Pune.

3. Support students at the intermediate level: “ST and SC candidates need more support at the intermediate level. Scholarships exist for study up to class X and for graduate study but financial assistance for the intermediary expensive preparatory time is missing,” said Gurrapu.

Post-matriculation scholarships start after higher-education admission, pointed out Yagati Chinna Rao, chairperson of the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. “Between school-leaving and admission, students are on their own. Accommodation expenses, travel to a preparatory centre, etc. fall on the family, which most can ill afford. This is when most dalit children who manage to complete school drop out.”

4. Counsel students about opportunities: Most children from SC and ST families are unaware of many higher-education opportunities, especially where there is no one who has acquired a graduate degree or more, said Rao.

So, students need counselling to understand it benefits them to study instead of working as soon as possible and to learn about opportunities, said Gurrapu. “Students in cities hear about competitive exams very early, but those from rural backgrounds often get to know about competitive exams only when they are in +2 (10th and 11th standard, or pre-university), when it is too late to start preparing,” he said.

5. Encourage CSR initiatives in education for disadvantaged students: “Primary education for all is an objective of many NGOs, higher education for the disadvantaged is not, whereas the latter would help boost primary education too when its beneficiaries raise the next generation,” said Gurappu.

Certainly, education begets education, said Sheldon Danziger of the University of Michigan and Jane Waldfogel of the London School of Economics in Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College.

“Those who complete more education initially are more likely to seek additional education and additional training,” wrote Danziger and Waldfogel. “Education begins at home; the educational level of a child’s parents is a primary determinant of how much education that child will get and how well she and he will do in school.”

This is the first of a three-part series. Next: 1931 Data Muddies Issue Of Backward-Caste Higher-Education Quotas

(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)

IndiaSpend welcomes feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. They reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.

Source: Hindustan Times, 20-07-2016

Correct treatment: How India can be a world leader in medical education

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed two bills aimed at putting in place a single common examination for medical and dental courses that will bring even private colleges under its ambit.

“The bill will give statutory status to the NEET. This will make the examination system fair and transparent and students won’t face multiplicity of exams. It will also stop the exploitation of students in the name of capitation fees,” health minister JP Nadda said while replying to the debate.

The National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) was brought in for the first time by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in 2012 to hold a centralised examination for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in medicine. This would ensure merit-based admissions in a transparent manner and check the irregular admission processes prevalent in some of the private medical colleges.

However, NEET was set aside by the Supreme Court on petitions filed by private medical colleges. While the decision of the apex court was a setback, the court agreed to reconsider its split-decision. A few weeks ago, the court recalled its order of 2013, by which NEET had been set aside, and directed that NEET be conducted for the year 2016.

This was a welcome step. For an equal representation from states, the Government of India decided to promulgate an Ordinance, allowing the states to conduct their own medical entrance examination for the undergraduate course for this year. The Ordinance does not allow private colleges to conduct their own examinations.

NEET is urgently required in India as it will foster a sense of confidence in the admission process, and help in attracting the brightest talent to the medical profession. Moreover, students will be relieved of the burden of appearing in and paying for a number of entrance tests. However, there is criticism of NEET due to the divergence in its course content and standards. The syllabus for NEET was first based on the 10+2 level CBSE and other state boards’ course content. Issues from various quarters were examined by an expert group before finalising the course content and separate merit lists for each state were contemplated. Thus students from a particular state would compete with peers from their own state with no question of any urban-rural divide.

The ordinance does not affect NEET for postgraduate courses, which will be held in December this year. Of course, the timing of the exam could be revisited. Currently, the NEET for postgraduate courses is held at the end of the internship period. This results in students preparing for an entrance test during their internship, thereby compromising on the clinical training period. This adversely impacts the training of graduate doctors. In my view, the internship period should be properly utilised and the entrance process for postgraduate courses should include testing the students’ clinical skills.

Therefore, NEET is only the beginning. The next step should be to have a common exit examination, to ensure uniform standard of evaluation across the country. Presently the deemed or private universities conduct their own exit examinations. There have been murmurs regarding irregularities and the unfair means used in these exit examinations.

Other reform measures can include an increase in the number of postgraduate seats, adoption of a new undergraduate curriculum and adjunct faculty from basic science institutes and eminent clinicians from private hospitals. It is also necessary to review the minimum requirements required for setting up medical colleges. This would incentivise entrepreneurs whose prime interest is to create institutions of excellence providing quality education and training. Such reforms when met with the wealth of clinical material available can make India a world leader in medical education and healthcare.

KK Talwar is chairman, Department of Cardiology, Max Healthcare Institute Ltd, New Delhi and former chairman, Board of Governors, MCI

Source: Hindustan Times, 21-07-2016

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 51, Issue No. 29, 16 Jul, 2016

Editorials

'Mockery' of Democratic Process

Washington's 'Major Defence Partner'

J&K's Agonising Wait for a Democratic Solution

50 Years of EPW

50 Years of EPW : ‘First World’ Records

H T Parekh Finance Column

Is Brexit Moment a Lehman Moment?

T Sabri Öncü

Commentary

Book Reviews

Compelling Anatomy of Communalism and Power

Harsh Mander

Lean and Mean China

Annavajhula J C B

Perspectives

A Hard Look at National Security

Gautam Navlakha

25 Years Of Economic Liberalisation

Looking Back and Looking Ahead at the Liberalisation Process

The 1991 Reforms

Montek S Ahluwalia

Economic Liberalisation and the Working Poor

Prabhat Patnaik

Making Reforms Work for the Common People

Rajiv Kumar

Politics of Growth

Atul Sood

Indian Economy in Transition

Anjan Chakrabarti

TINA, India and Economic Liberalisation

T Sabri Öncü

Can We Afford Build-up of External Liabilities?

A V Rajwade

A-Meri-India

Aseem Shrivastava

Discussion

Teaching-Learning Process

Sayantan Mandal

Current Statistics

Postscript

A Muslim Feminist Looks at Sex

Wajiha Mehdi

Their God Died Young

Nirupam Hazra

Shakespeare Lives!

N S Gundur

Last Lines

My Khasi Home

P S Leela

Letters

Anatomy of State's Terrorism

K Sheshu Babu

A Relatively Fair Party?

Sanjit Chatterjee

Grief and Rage in Kashmir

Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Association

Punishing G N Saibaba

G Hargopal, Hany Babu M T

Appointments/Programmes/Announcements

Web Exclusives

Chilcot Report and How Democracy Actually Works in the West

Radha D'Souza

What Should be the Criteria for Choosing RBI Governor?

Vivek Moorthy

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana gets Cabinet approval to train 60 lakh youth

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) scheme has come by the central or union government. Under this scheme, various types of courses are present for all candidates and the institution owners also. This scheme is released by the P.M Narendra Modi. PKMVY 2016 Scheme Training is released for the poor candidates. The main motive to start the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 2016 provides the education for all youth, medium category candidates.

The Scheme, completely aligned to the Common Norms as notified earlier, would move to a grant based model where the training and assessment cost would be directly reimbursed to training providers and assessment bodies in accordance with the Common Norms.

Financial support to trainees will be given in the form of travel allowance, boarding and lodging costs. Post placement support would be given directly to the beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Disbursement of training cost to training partners will be linked to Aadhaar and biometrics for better transparency and targeting. Skill training would be done based on industry led standards aligned to the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).

In view of the recommendations of the sub group of Chief Ministers on Skill Development regarding the need to address the unique skill requirements of different States, State Governments would be involved through a project based approach under the PMKVY 2016-20 with 25% of the total training targets, both financial and physical, being allocated under this stream of the Scheme. The financial amount/budget for achieving 25% of the total training targets of next phase of PMKVY would be directly allocated to the States.

Mobilisation, monitoring and post training placement of trainees will be done through Rozgar Melas (placement camps) and Kaushal Shivirs (mobilization camps). There will be special focus on placement of trainees with incentives/disincentives linked to placement as envisaged in the Common Norms. A project based approach for Non formal training for traditional jobs is also proposed. PMKVY will, in addition to catering to domestic skill needs, also focus on skill training aligned to international standards for overseas employment in Gulf countries, Europe and other overseas destinations. There will be scholarship for student undergoing training in high end job roles under the Scheme.

Source: Digital Learning

WHO report sounds alarm on ‘doctors’ in India

More than half of them don’t have any medical qualification, and in rural areas, just 18.8 per cent of allopathic doctors are qualified.

Almost one-third (31 per cent) of those who claimed to be allopathic doctors in 2001 were educated only up to the secondary school level and 57 per cent did not have any medical qualification, a recent WHO report found, ringing the alarm bells on India’s healthcare workforce.

The situation was far worse in rural India, where just 18.8 per cent of allopathic doctors had a medical qualification, the study titled ‘The Health Workforce in India’, published in June 2016, revealed.

Speaking to The Hindu, Dr. Reena Nayyar, Secretary of the Medical Council of India (MCI), said, “I don’t think this report has officially come to the MCI yet. But in general, any person practising allopathic medicine who does not have a registered medical qualification comes under quackery.”

Interestingly, female healthcare workers – 38 per cent of the total – were found to be more educated and medically qualified than their male counterparts.

For instance, among allopathic doctors, 67 per cent of females had a medical qualification compared to 38 per cent of males.

The data for each district in the country from the 2001 census were specially extracted for this study, which provided a comprehensive picture of health workers in each district.

Researchers hoped that a similar study was repeated with data from Census 2011, which was not yet available.

The study revealed that the density of all doctors — allopathic, ayurvedic, homoeopathic and unani — at the national level was 80 doctors per lakh population compared to 130 in China.

Ignoring those who don’t have a medical qualification, the number for India fell to 36 doctors per lakh population. As for nurses and midwives, India had 61 workers per lakh population compared to 96 in China. The number reduced tenfold to 6 per lakh population, if only those with a medical qualification were considered.

Health workers

The study found substantial variation in the density of health workers across States and districts. For instance, Kerala had 38.4 per cent of the country’s medically qualified nurses but constituted only 3.1 per cent of the total population. Similarly, West Bengal had 30.6 per cent of all homoeopathic doctors in the country but only 7.8% of the population. Better-off States seemed to afford more doctors plus nurses per capita, the study noted.

District-wise, the inequalities were massive. The density of allopathic doctors with any level of education in the lowest 30 districts — half of which were in north-eastern States and the other in central States — was a little over 9.4 per lakh of the population whereas, in the highest 30 districts, it was 159 per lakh of population, it said.

In the case of dentists, the situation was even worse. The national density of dentists was extremely low at 2.4 per lakh population, with 58 (of the total 593) districts having no dentists at all in 2001. In fact, 175 districts (30 per cent) had no dentists with a medical qualification.

“The proposed study would provide an extremely valuable benchmark even if only for 2001,” Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog) noted in the preface to the report. While presenting this study to the then PM Manmohan Singh, he mentioned that all doctors did not need to have an MBBS degree.

“In the period between 2005 and 2009, there was a major expansion of both public education in medical, nursing and allied schools in most States, by as much as 500 per cent in some cases. So the situation would have changed dramatically. There was also a private expansion,” said T. Sundararaman, Dean of the School of Health Systems at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Tackling quacks

There have been no attempts on the part of the government to curb quackery, said Dr. A.V. Jayakrishnan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Anti-Quackery set up by the Indian Medical Association.

“It is a well-known fact that in many States, quacks are operating in large numbers. Laws are so weak that even if the frauds are caught, they get bail on the following day and start practising again,” he toldThe Hindu.

Keywords: doctors, WHO report, Medical Council of India

Source: The Hindu, 18-07-2016

IBPS PO 2016 recruitment notification (CWE PO/MT-VI) issued, check it here

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) on Saturday issued a notification (CWE PO/MT-VI) for the recruitment of Probationary Officers (PO)/management trainees in various public sector banks and other participating organisations.

The notification can be viewed on official website of IBPS .

Interested candidates would need to go through a selection process which includes a preliminary and main examination followed by an interview.

The online registration process will begin on July 26. A candidate should be a graduate in any discipline from a university recognised by the Government of India or have any equivalent qualification recognised as such by the central government. He should be aged between 20 and 30 years (i.e. the person must not have been born earlier than 02.07.1986 and not later than 01.07.1996 – both dates inclusive).

The first stage of recruitment or the online preliminary examination will be held on October 16, 22 and 23. The results of the preliminary examination will be declared in November. The online main exam will be held on November 20 and its result will be declared in December. The interview will be held in January/February 2017, and the provisional allotment to the selected candidates will take place in April 2017.

The details about participating organisations, tentative schedule, eligibility criteria and much more can be found on the official website. You can also check it at the bottom of the text here.

Note: Candidates are advised to regularly keep in touch with the official IBPS website for details and updates.

Source: Hindustan Times, 20-07-2016

Trump Campaign Dismisses Speech Plagiarism Claims

The Trump campaign on Tuesday dismissed criticism that Melania Trump directly lifted two passages nearly word-for-word from the speech that first lady Michelle Obama delivered in 2008 at t he D emo cratic Nation a l Convention, calling the complaints “just absurd“.“ T here's no cr ibbi n g of Michelle Obama's speech,“ said Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager. “Certainly, there's no feeling on her part that she did it,“ he said. “What she did was use words that are c o m m o n words.“
M r s T r u mp's star turn at the Republican Convention night captivated a GOP crowd that had rarely heard from the wife of Donald Trump. The passages in question focused on lessons that Trump's wife says she learned from her parents.
Manafort said Mrs Trump was aware of “how her speech was going to be scrutinised“ and said any notion that she picked up portions of Mrs Obama's convention talk was “just absurd“.
Reuters

Source: Economic Times, 20-07-2016

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