“I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.”
‐ Aristotle
“मैंने दार्शनिकता से सीखा है कि मैं वह सब कुछ बिना आदेश के करता हूं जो आम लोग कानून के डर से करते हैं।”
‐ अरस्तू
Tuesday, September 08, 2020
Quote of the Day September 8, 2020
What is La Nina – how it impacts India’s monsoon?
These deviations from the normal surface temperatures in Pacific Ocean can potentially have a large-scale impact on the global weather conditions, and the monsoon climate of the Indian subcontinent also gets affected with these temperature fluctuations.
Literally translated as ‘the boy’ and ‘the girl’ in the Spanish language, El Nino and La Nina are the exact opposite phases of a climatic phenomenon called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, which takes place in the Pacific Ocean. It involves temperature changes in the waters of the Eastern and Central Pacific Ocean. It got the Spanish name after the phenomenon was first identified by Latin American fishermen in the early 17th century.
It is a recurring phenomenon and the change in temperature is accompanied by changes in the patterns of upper and lower level winds, sea level pressure, and tropical rainfall across the Pacific Basin.
El Nino is typically known as the warm phase and La Nina is identified as the cold phase of ENSO. These deviations from the normal surface temperatures can potentially have a large-scale impact on the global weather conditions, and the monsoon climate of the Indian subcontinent also gets affected with these temperature fluctuations in the Pacific.
What is La Nina?
Also known as ‘El Viejo’ or cold event, El Nina is observed when the water temperature in the Eastern Pacific gets comparatively colder than normal, as a consequence of which, there is a strong high pressure over the eastern equatorial Pacific. The difference in pressure between Eastern Pacific and Western Pacific/Asia causes a moisture-laden wind movement from East to West Pacific and Asia.
As a result, La Nina causes drought in the South American countries of Peru and Ecuador, heavy floods in Australia, high temperatures in Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, off the Somalian coast and a comparatively better monsoon rains in India. Generally, El Nino and La Nina occur every 4 -5 years. El Nino is more frequent than La Nina.
Source: Indian Express, 7/09/20
Mass movement for literacy
COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted perils of illiteracy. Government’s Padhna Likhna Abhiyan aims to mobilise people to make the country totally literate by 2030
Literacy is the beginning of lifelong learning, a prerequisite for accessing other human rights. It has the power to change the lives of millions of people who have received adequate formal education. But, mere attainment of literacy skills is not enough — such skills should be functional so that the youth and adults can use their ability to read and write to actively participate in the dynamic digitised world. Also, literacy should help in active participation in political, social, cultural, and economic activities.
Though we have witnessed steady progress in the attainment of literacy, the COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the need for revamping the teaching process. We must make adult literacy an integral part of our COVID-19 recovery plan.
This year’s International Day of Literacy has the theme “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond”. The crisis has made us realise the catalytic role of the educator with technology as a facilitator — enabling them to use the transformative power of literacy for youth and adults alike. In the post-COVID-19 era, we must reconfirm our commitment to wipe out illiteracy from India.
Literacy promotion played a key part in the endeavours of illustrious leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who created a conducive atmosphere for the development of the mass literacy movement in India. The country has made earnest efforts to impart functional literacy and numeracy to adults in the age group of 15 years and above in both rural and urban areas through projects and programmes such as the Farmer’s Functional Literacy Project (FFLP), Functional Literacy for Adult Women (FLAW), National Adult Education Programme (NAEP), Rural Functional Literacy Project (RFLP), Mass Programme of Functional Literacy (MPFL) and National Literacy Mission (NLM).
The Saakshar Bharat project ran across 404 districts in 26 states and one Union Territory, covering 1.64 lakh gram panchayats. More than 10 crore learners appeared for the Basic literacy Assessment Tests conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling from August 2010 to March 2018. A massive 7.64 crore learners (5.38 crore female, 2.26 crore males) passed the assessment tests and were certified as literate. But, still, India has a sizeable number of illiterates, which means the target of achieving 100 per cent literacy by 2030 remains a challenging one.
The COVID-19 crisis challenges the achievement of Target 4.6 of SDG by 2030 – “ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy”. The pandemic has underlined the importance of literacy — low literacy levels may cause deep distress to the nation.
To tackle the literacy-related challenges in the post-COVID-19 world, the ministry of education, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is about to launch a new scheme for adult education, the Padhna Likhna Abhiyan. The focus of the scheme will be on the Basic Literacy component in a four months cycle — priority will be given to the 112 Aspirational Districts identified by the NITI Aayog. The scheme shall have a flexible approach and will involve innovative methodologies such as involving school and college students and other volunteers such as those from the NSS and NYKS, for imparting basic literacy. Massive literacy drives/projects will be implemented in tribal and forest areas, slums, minority pockets/villages/blocks, prisons, etc. The potential of digital technology will be harnessed for improving access and quality through the creation of digital e-material, mobile apps etc.
The Padhna Likhna Abhiyan envisions a giant leap towards achieving the goal of Total Literacy by 2030. To ensure the full outreach of the Padhna Likhna Abhiyan, efforts will be made to converge the programme with existing programmes of Rural Development, Health, Social Justice, Tribal Development, Women and Child Development, Panchayati Raj Institutions, NGOs, and Corporate Social Responsibility.
I appeal to retired government persons such as teachers and other employees, homemakers, and others to participate in our efforts to build a literate India by coming forward to teach adult illiterates. I will ensure that all the teaching-learning material will be made available free of cost in the public domain with instructions/guidelines for the teacher and learning material for the adult learners so that we are all on the same page.
The SDG target 4.6 can only be achieved if we all work together. Let us come together to develop a fully literate society — Saakshar Bharat-Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
The writer is Union Education Minister
Source: Indian Express, 7/09/20
Delhi ranked 2nd best in literacy rate, Sisodia praises his education team
According to the study, after Kerala, Delhi has the best literacy rate at 88.7 per cent, followed by Uttarkhand’s 87.6 per cent, Himachal Pradesh’s 86.6 per cent and Assam’s at 85.9 per cent.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia congratulated the education team of his government on Monday after Delhi was ranked the second best in the country in literacy rate.
“Delhi ranks 2nd best in country in literacy rate. Congrats #TeamEducation Delhi. We will keep striving to reach 100%. Reducing stress should be highest priority. A suicide every hour is unacceptable! Initiatives like @HappinessDelhi are need of the hour & must b adopted widely,” Sisodia said in a tweet, which was retweeted by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The report on ‘Household Social Consumption: Education in India as part of 75th round of National Sample Survey - from July 2017 to June 2018’ provides for state-wise detail of literacy rate among the persons aged seven years and above.
According to the study, after Kerala, Delhi has the best literacy rate at 88.7 per cent, followed by Uttarkhand’s 87.6 per cent, Himachal Pradesh’s 86.6 per cent and Assam’s at 85.9 per cent.
With 96.2 per cent literacy, Kerala has once again emerged as the most literate state in the country, while Andhra Pradesh featured at the bottom with a rate of 66.4 per cent, showed a report based on National Statistical Office (NSO) survey.
On the other hand, Rajasthan is the second worst performer with the literacy rate of 69.7 per cent. Bihar has a literacy rate of 70.9 per cent, Telangana 72.8 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 73 per cent and Madhya Pradesh 73.7 per cent.
The study has pegged the overall literacy rate in the country at 77.7 per cent. In rural areas, the literacy rate is 73.5 per cent compared to 87.7 per cent in urban areas.
Source: Hindustan Times, 8/09/20
Friday, September 04, 2020
Quote of the Day September 4, 2020
“It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.”
‐ Cesare Beccaria, philosopher and politician (1738-1794)
“अपराध को होने ही न देना उसके लिए सज़ा देने से बेहतर है।”
‐ सीज़र बेकारिया, दार्शनिक व राजनेता (1728-1794)
NEP’s vision for drawing foreign universities to India requires fine-tuning
The ideas outlined in the NEP require fine-tuning. The first challenge will be to widen the scope of internationalisation.
The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP), announced by the government in the last week of July, is a product of prolonged consultations and deliberations. The debates and discussions on the policy are likely to be much richer. In the coming weeks and months, the section on the internationalisation of higher education in India could be the focus of much scholarly attention. For good reasons. With more than 1.5 million schools, over 40,000 colleges and close to 720 universities, India has the second-largest education system in the world after China. India has entered into the stage of massification of higher education with a gross enrollment ratio of 26.3 per cent, which is fast increasing. This could make it a lucrative destination for foreign universities.
The idea of internationalisation of higher education is based on the mobility of students, faculty members, programmes, and institutions across countries. Before the NEP, two types of mobility were in vogue, that of faculty members and students. This movement of students and faculty has informed the NEP’s section on internationalisation. The attempt to attract foreign universities can also be seen in the context of earlier collaborations with institutions outside the country. In 2015, the Ministry of Human Resource Development implemented the Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN) to enable the country’s higher education institutions to invite world-class scholars, scientists and researchers. More than 1,500 courses have been completed at Indian higher education institutions in collaboration with international faculty members. In 2018, the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration was launched to promote joint research and collaboration with top 500 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) ranking institutions. The same year, the Study in India programme identified 30 Asian and African countries (now 42) from where meritorious students would be drawn to study in top 100 NIRF ranked institutions.
The NEP aims to attract top 100 QS World Ranking universities to open offshore campuses in India. The foreign universities would bring in programme and institution mobility. There are two views on opening foreign campuses in India. Those in favour argue that first, it would reduce the migration of Indian students and give those who cannot afford to go abroad an opportunity to study in foreign universities at home. Second, foreign campuses would bring knowledge, technology and innovative pedagogy to the country and set new standards in higher education, spurring Indian institutions to improve. Those cautious about the move argue that it would increase the cost of education and widen the already existing disparities in matters of accessing quality and affordable higher education. This, in turn, could accentuate the existing hierarchies in the country, and have a bearing on the diversity on campuses. There could be a scramble for meritorious students with the lion’s share going to foreign campuses.
There is, however, a need to look beyond these binaries. There is no doubt that the increase in the gross enrolment ratio in higher education institutions calls for more such institutions. The invitation to foreign universities in the top 100 QS world rankings could ensure the entry of quality institutions to meet this demand. The collaboration between Indian and foreign higher educational institutions would enhance India’s exposure to global intellectual resources. Nearly 30 years after the move to open up the economy, a policy to attract foreign universities in the country was, perhaps, inevitable. Moreover, some Indian higher education institutions do have offshore campuses in places such as Dubai
However, the ideas outlined in the NEP require fine-tuning. The first challenge will be to widen the scope of internationalisation. Several world-class institutions such as the Max Planck Institute could fall through the policy’s cracks because they do not participate in any world rankings, let alone the QS World Ranking. Second, there is a growing body of literature critiquing the world rankings. Third, STEM and professional courses have greater market value compared to social sciences and humanities. There is thus a possibility of foreign campuses turning their back on disciplines in these streams.
Fourth, vocational and skill education — on which the NEP lays much importance — cannot be internationalised in the same manner as academic education. Finally, we do not know if the foreign varsities actually agree with the overall vision of NEP.
This article appeared in the print edition on September 4, 2020 under the title ‘Open campus challenge’. The writer is Deputy Adviser, Unit for International Cooperation, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, Delhi. Views are personal.
Source: Indian Express, 3/09/20
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