When teachers are learners too

The influence of a good teacher cannot be erased. We bring you an essay on what makes a good teacher.

When I was a student, I used to hear the statement “Teaching is a noble profession”, uttered by people from different walks of life. Many anecdotes narrated by them inspired me to choose teaching as a profession. One of the definitions of the word ‘noble’ is “possessing outstanding qualities” which, I am sure, include honesty, magnanimity, patience, intellectual courage and humility, a positive attitude towards teaching and care and concern for students. I have been fortunate to have been taught by teachers who possess many of these qualities.

Of late, I hear many teachers and those in other professions argue that “Teaching is no more a noble profession.” Is it true? Recently, I initiated a discussion on social media on the topic. It attracted views from teachers across the country. One of them commented, “The question is better answered when teachers ask their students if they want to become teachers. Only a few may be interested in choosing it as a career. This gives us an idea of how the profession is perceived.”

Fr. Devadhas Muthiah, who has been a teacher for over three decades, had said, “Teaching definitely is a noble profession. If I can make my students socially conscious and helps make them lead a just and others-centred life, then, I can call myself a good (noble) teacher.”

September 5 is a special day for teachers in India — many educational institutions organise programmes to felicitate the teaching community. On this day, everyone remembers teachers who touched and inspired them and says a few words of praise and gratitude. Teacher’s Day is an occasion for teachers to renew their commitment to the profession.

What makes a good teacher? Over a period of two decades, I have interacted with hundreds of teachers in India and abroad. Based on my interactions, here is a list of nine ‘Es’ which a good teacher demonstrates:

Enjoy

Good teachers enjoy their teaching and proudly proclaim that they are teachers. It is their passion for it that makes them great teachers. As Robert Meehan says, “Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning.”

Endear

Students learn better when they experience their teachers’ love, care and concern. Kind teachers have the power of touching their students’ lives.

Empathise

Good teachers don’t neglect any student by labelling them a ‘slow learner’ or ‘dull student’. They understand their students’ problems, listen to them, know their aspirations, remove their despair and instil confidence in them. They treat students’ challenges as opportunities and not as problems.

Encourage

Encouragement is the best medicine students can get from teachers for their poor performance and academic failures. As Anatole France says, “nine-tenths of education is encouragement.”

Enliven

Good teachers brighten dull moments and make students fall in love with the course. Good teachers know that their smiles do wonders in the classroom.

Empower

Good teachers prepare students to face challenges. They share their knowledge and expertise with students and enable them to become resourceful people. They are enablers. They help students grow from a dependent stage to the independent stage and then to the interdependent stage.

Energise

Good teachers energise themselves by updating their knowledge and acquiring new skills. It is said that in-service training is more important than pre-service training and good teachers constantly update themselves and give importance to their professional development.

Educate

Good educators are committed to their profession. As the Latin word ‘educare’ means “to draw out”, good educators’ mission is to draw out the best from learners.

Edify

The word ‘edification’, in the context of teacher-student rapport, is used to mean “to build characters”. Good teachers are not mere instructors but builders of characters. By being intellectually and morally sound, they lead others by example.

The writer is professor of English and Head, Higher Education, KCG College of Technology, Chennai.

Source: The Hindu, 7-09-2016

Computers to curriculum, India needs to redesign its education system

The new global “revolution”--Artificial Intelligence, robots, knowledge centric economies, Uber-isation--threatens to make “industrial” policy models obsolete. Like earlier industrial “revolutions”, this will have winners and losers amongst people, communities and countries.

The government’s strategy of multi-pronged initiatives--skills, start-up, digitalisation and Make in India--is the right one to make India one of the winners. The strategy’s success relies on having a “right designed” education system--dynamic, future-anticipating, performance-driven and available to all citizens. No surprise that education is one of 9 pillars listed by FM Arun Jaitley in his budget speech.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar’s challenge is providing this--by reshaping curriculum and institutions to reflect the needs of the new world. Three “themes” need attention--technology readiness, access and performance.

Technology ready: Recent technological advances have broken the “ratchet” productivity improvements and disrupted established processes across world economy. The target for our education is now to make each student capable of “using” technology to identify and create utility. Different from “programming”, it needs deeper understanding of technology’s potential and a “comfort” in using it in ways that ignore established continuums and processes. By making access to knowledge virtually independent of classrooms, the internet provides a “free” platform to provide this. Hence, each child must have and be able to use the internet.

The first requirement is getting computers in each child’s hands. We need a national drive – developing cheaper laptops, “recycling” old ones, a laptop and PC donation movement and “use” Cloud and improved connectivity to build inexpensive machines that work off of “remote” common platforms.

We also need to change our curricula. Every stream must include technology as an integral part. This will incorporate the “use” of technology within each area of work and make students less at risk of becoming redundant through technological advances. Simultaneously, we have to “broaden” our youth’s knowledge spectrum. The last half century saw more rigid streaming – to encourage specialisation. Today, IT has made basic information easily available and increased interconnectivity between various subjects, work streams. Courses, especially undergrad need to build in both availability of information – so less rote focussed performance measurement, and interdisciplinary dependence through multi-subject courses and well designed project work.

TCS effect on under-privileged students: 70 years after independence, “access” to education for the underprivileged – women, poor and SC/STs has improved. Now access needs to be supplemented by a “pull” factor that provides a road map to success – choosing the right education, upgrading performance and creating leaders. TCS’s success inspired the success of other IT companies. Let’s create similar beacons of achievement from the weaker sections of society. Identify top 1000 students from underprivileged sections of society and give them the opportunity to attend the world’s best universities with the proviso of having to then work in India for 5 years. Such aspirational rewards with continuous performance monitoring will incentivise better performance. More important is the motivation successes provide. Imagine the impact when a rural dalit woman goes to Harvard and makes it to the top of a global business. Thousands of other girls will try to follow. Access gets reinforced by performance motivation and direction.

Making performance and excellence a priority: 2016 budget allocated 72394 crores to education, with a substantial portion for higher education. Given our limited resources, we cannot afford to let institutions churn out graduates with too little emphasis on excellence. This needs change in teachers, students and the “culture”. To start, we have to treat teachers with more respect. Simultaneously, especially in institutions of higher learning, we must hold teachers to robust performance standards – publishing record, “new” research, number and quality of lectures, student performance on standardised testing are some metrics.

While we have to stress access in school, student performance especially at the postgraduate stage needs tighter monitoring. Too often, MPhil and PHD students are there for a hostel, preparing for civil services or pursuing politics. To “push” performance we can limit years of hostel use, establish ongoing annual appraisals for study grants and an automatic “exit” with need to re-apply if particular stages of a degree are not completed within a prescribed period

Lastly “culture”. Given taxpayer money spent on universities, one shudders hearing “culture of politics” trotted out as an excuse for disrupting education through competitive dharnas. What we need is a “culture of learning” – research, growing knowledge, path-breaking academic work. Ofcourse, political awareness and activity are necessary ingredients of education but they cannot dominate the education process. Political apprenticeships cannot be subsidised by the taxpayer, even as hundreds of willing “real” students can’t get admission.

“Right” education access, curriculum and performance are critical to India benefitting from the demographic dividend, developing and remaining competitive. Our scarce resources must be prioritised for the underprivileged, must aim to make our youth future-ready and cannot be wasted through lack of focus on performance.

(The writer is a banker based in Singapore. The views expressed are personal.)

Source: Hindustan Times, 7-09-2016

IISc Bangalore remains India's top varsity

LONDON IANS





Even as the Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore remains the country's top university, its global ranking has dropped few notches to 152 in the latest QS World University Rankings 2016-17 released on Tuesday. Founded in 1909 as a result of the joint efforts of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Indian government and the Maharaja of Mysore, IISc's global ranking last year was 147 ­ also just within the top 150 universities in the world. All the other Indian universities that make the cut within the top 400 on the list are the coveted Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) ­ Delhi (185), Bombay (219), Madras (249), Kanpur (302), Kharagpur (313) and Roorkee (399).“This year's rankings imply that levels of investment are determining who progresses and who regresses,“ said Ben Sowter, head of research at QS.
“Institutions in countries that provide high levels of targeted funding, whether from endowments or from the public purse, are rising. On the other hand, some Western European nations making or proposing cuts to public research spending are losing ground to their US and Asian counterparts.“
TOP INDIAN INSTITUTES
In the latest QS World University Rankings, the Indian Institute of Sciences stands at 152nd position.The other institutes that make the cut within top 400 are IIT-Delhi (185), IIT-B (219), Madras (249), Kanpur (302), Kharagpur (313) and Roorkee (399)

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 7-09-2016

Why Gyaan Became A Bad Word

By Shephali Bhatt





From being something sought after to something dispensed freely, but absorbed grudgingly, we trace the journey of gyaan

Teacher's Day almost invari ably makes you think about your favourite mentor-pro tege duo. The one teachertaught relationship I've always admired and somewhat aspired for, is that of Keshav (Lord Krishna) and his Parth (Arjun). As a child, I would religiously watch BR Chopra's Mahabharat and Ramanand Sagar's Shri Krishna every Sunday. In both the series, the segment where Arjun seeks Krishna's guidance to get him on the path of duty, used to be my favourite part.W hen I was in 8th stand a rd, my S a n sk r it te acher pushed me to participate in an annual Gita Shlokochaaran P rat iy og it a (Git a verse recitation competition). I had the most unique version of Gita in town, she'd tell me: a Sanskrit to English translation. That book taught me a lot of new wor d s a nd their essence, and some of life's important lessons.
My most memorable takeaway from the Gita however, was the ethereal visual of Arjun bowing down to Krishna with folded hands, revering him for the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that Krishna imparted to his disciple. And now when I think about that visual visa-vis the times we are in, I thank the lords I haven't seen any troll memes based on it, dissing the concept of giving or receiving gyaan.
Before we conveniently blame the GenY, let's take a moment to fathom just how and why gyaan, that was held sacred once, attained a negative connotation. How did words like `sermon' and `lecture' become weapons of sarcasm? Why did any attempt at giving someone sagely advice start getting rewarded with getting rewarded with “dimaag ka dahi mat kar,“ “pakaa mat,“ and suchlike?
Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik has an explanation: “Knowledge is never given but taken.The student has to actively search for it.“ That makes sense if we were to apply it to KrishnaArjun. The latter sought his gyaan, asked for help so he can do right by his people and principles. But it's not the same with our social-media generation which is exposed to unsolicited advice from know-it-alls everywhere. So, are the self-proclaimed Gurus to be blamed then? Perhaps they have devalued gyaan by freely dispensing it. But Kunal Shah, founder of Freecharge, who is often seen sharing pearls of wisdom on his social media account, offers an interesting view on them: “If self-proclaimed gurus don't engage in participative discussions, if they curtail counter views, they will become extinct soon. There is a reason I have never blocked a single person on my social media: I believe knowledge is participative and flour ishes in an environment that encour ages discussion.“ And as Pattanaik highlights, no one knows who really is `qualified' to be called a Guru. “We assume there is an ideal teacher out there,“ he says.
Students face advice overload.
They don't see relevance of knowl edge. Botany is taught without even looking at the tree next to the class room. Is Google the culprit then?
We don't think so. Google is for information. And he himself says that knowledge is not the same as information. “We can share infor mation but knowledge emerges from experience,“ Pattanaik adds. Which is why t here a re sti l l people who look up to others to benefit from their wea lt h of ex perience.Anaggh Desai, founder of AD Consulting, still reaches out to his former col leag ues K i ra n Khalap and Anand Halve for gyaan, he says. And there's not a huge age-gap between them. He just respects their knowledge in certain fields. Interestingly, Desai is a popular Twitterati (@Anaggh) who used to give gyaan to other people as and when they sought it from him, he tells us. Soon, he realised some of the seek ers were just looking for validation, or hoping he would open doors for them using his network. In time, he also saw a lot of people, in an attempt to become the next Suhel Seth, had started spouting oft-repeated things in one panel discussion after anoth er. He has now decided he'd rather retain his gyaan with him than give it away for free, especially in a gyaan cluttered environment.
So, if it's not the Gurus, or Google, then how on earth did the gyaandownfall happen in our minds? Let's just say both of them contributed significantly but didn't cause it all by themselves.
Anand Halve, Desai's mentor and the co-founder of chlorophyll brand consultancy, adds two more to the list of causes: Fundamentally, the teacher used to be a respected entity back in the day. People like Dr S Radhakrishnan (whose birth anniversary is celebrated as Teacher's Day in India and many other countries) was someone people looked up to. “Now teachers have become service providers. Parents gang up against them should they so much as rebuke their wards.“ There also seems to be a belief that what's being taught to them is adding no value, the teaching is actually of no use. “My generation just studied geography, for example. We never questioned why, what for.“
Is this another one of those millennial generation issues then? Desai agrees. But there's Shah who's 37 (so he doesn't fall into the millennials bracket). He says, “I had no regard for gyaan ever, as even Laws of Physics may get questioned in the future with new learnings. I am very comfortable with the idea of not being sure of several things and not seeking comforting answers for the sake of it.“ Yet, he feels that gyaan, if approached through a participative manner to ignite thought process or give a contrarian point-of-view, will be appreciated in the years to come. At least he's a lot more hopeful compared to some gyaanis we spoke to, who think the only way you can restore gyaan's sanctity is if you believe in the `saviour complex'! Don't know what that means? Google or ask a gyaani baba. Take your pick, help determine the verdict.
shephali.bhatt@timesgroup.com

Source: Economic Times, 7-09-2016

Prejudice & Hindu Texts

ASHOK VOHRA





Is there a philosophical justification in the tradition followed by some Hindu temples of banning the entry of women and those belonging to religions other than Hinduism? In Hinduism, as in other religions, it is important to talk of scriptural sanction because even the Gita says that “scripture is your authority as regards the determination of what is to be done and what is not to be done“.Vedic literature comprising Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas forms the source of Hindu philosophy and religion. In the texts, the question “Is spirituality the prerogative of a few, gifted individuals, or is it for everyone?“ is raised and discussed time and again. They univocally declare that all -regardless of gender, caste or origin -have the right to liberation.
The Mahabharata recommends obedience to parents, preceptors, kings and hermits; performance of Vedic rites; digging wells; making of presents to the dvijas; abstention from violence; absence of wrath; truthfulness, adhering to purity and peacefulness; maintenance of family; and performance of sacrifices in honour of pitras, or ancestors; and performance of paka yajnas.
All Hindu scriptures state that ahamkara is the chief obstacle in the path leading to attainment of moksha. For an atman to become Brahmn, it has to discard ahamkara and treat everyone as equal, as an extension of oneself. There is no place for xenophobia in Hinduism. The word atman as used in the metaphysical sense does not denote number or gender. Atman is neutral.

India will have seven mega cities by 2030

Subodh Varma





Delhi Will Continue To Be 2nd Most Populous City

At present, India is home to five mega ci ties, with over 10 million population, but by 2030 this number will go up to seven. Delhi will continue to be the second most populous city in the world till 2030, adding a staggering 9.6 million people to its population ­­ the most in any mega city .The facts have been re vealed in the 2016 World Cities Report issued by the UN's department of economic and social affairs.
The report has not relied on the administrative boundaries of cities but has, instead, preferred to use the concept of “urban agglomer ation“ which is the “the contiguous urban area, or builtup area“. For example, in the case of Delhi urban agglomeration, the satellite cities of Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon are included. Such inclusion makes sense as people in these contiguous areas are economically and socially integrated with the main city .
Around the world, about 500 million people live in 31 such mega cities. That's about 6.8% of the world's population or 12% of the world's urban population.The report calculates that by 2030, the number of mega cities will increase to 41 and their population to about 730 million or 8.7% of the world's population. Other Indian cities figurg in 2016's mega cities list ing in 2016's mega cities list are Mumbai, Kolkata, Ben galuru and Chennai. By 2030, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will join them, as their re spective populations would cross 10 million.
The UN report shows that only a minority of urban dwellers actually live in mega cities. Nearly 21% of the world's population stays in cities of population between 500,000 to 10 million, while an even bigger share of 26.8% resides in smaller cities and towns with a population of less than 500,000.
By 2030, the world's population will decisively shift to urban living with 60% of the estimated population living in cities, big or small. Currently , about 54% of the world's population is urban.
Most of the urban growth is happening in de veloping countries in Asia and Africa. By 2030, as many as 33 of the 41 mega cities will be from the third world.
Of the 47 cities that grew by over 6% every year be tween 2000 and 2016, six were in Africa, 40 in Asia (including 20 in China) and just one in North America.
Interestingly , not all cities are growing. Out of the 1,063 cities with a population over 500,000, as many as 55 have shown a decline since 2000. Most of these cities are located in Europe and some in Japan. Their decline is mostly due to falling fertility levels, although some have shown a dip in population due to natural calamities like New Orleans (due to hurricane Katrina) and Sendai in Japan (tsunami).

Source: Times of India, 7-09-2016

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