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I'm a New Health Crusader

I remember a debate in a staff room over colas, ice-cream and other 'junk' like pizzas and cheese sandwiches and whether we should allow them in the canteen.

Colas were definitely out at that time due to the raging controversy over pesticide content. The fate of the others hung in the balance and hence remained on the menu.

I'm a recent convert to the ranks of those who value fitness and health. Just finished reading a book called "Eat, Drink and be Healthy" by Walter Willett, professor at Harvard. If you're interested in kids and nutrition at school or just plain interested in learning more about health eating for yourself and your family, you just Have to get this book.

For those who, like me, didn't know about their carbohydrates from their proteins, its a great start. I wish I had this book in that staff room that day. I don't know whether it would have pruned our menu a little more, but it definitely would have made the teachers more aware.

The Right Way

The lot of cricket has fallen in India since we were unceremoniously booted from the World Cup in the Windies having lost to Bangladesh. I however, remain a loyalist and every time there is a match on, dutifully keep a tab on the score.

India was to play Pakistan in Glasgow today. The match was rained out. Instead, I watched some old footage of batting greats like Tendulkar, Ponting, Dravid, the Waugh Brothers, KP and Ganguly go about their craft.

I noticed none of them stood the same way while taking guard (which was glaring apparent), nor did they have a similar grip or even follow-through. All these batsmen have test averages over 50. Which means every time they have gone out to bat, they've hit 50 runs, a substantial score in the game.

I thought back to my days as a school-boy and the harangue I got for not holding the bat 'the right way'. Our coach, an ex-services man insisted that we'd come to naught, if we didn't get the grip correct. Some of us did come to naught in cricketing terms, but messers Tendulkar at al definitely didn't.

In fact, Ganguly would be a whipping boy for many coaches, bowling as he does with his right arm and batting with his left.

For those of us who teach and 'coach' teaching - maybe its better to say 'This may be a good grip for you" as opposed to "This is the right grip."

I'm Back!

How many blogs have you seen where the author, taken in by all the wonderful, independent, exciting writing on the net decided to start his own blog, found it high maintenance and dropped it?

This was one such.

To be fair, lots been going on. I went and got married! That can be a roller-coaster of an experience- most of you who've attended the "Great Indian Ones" know that for sure.

I left work as Principal of a CBSE School in Punjab; started looking after Marketing over at the GEMS Office in Delhi and got a new school off the ground in Jaipur.

Now I'm doing what I most like to: thinking, reading and writing. So I thought I could give it a fair go for a few week since Graduate Studies at Harvard (where I am a Fulbright Scholar) aren't starting till the fall.

So, expect some writing. Hopefully you will chime in.

Biscuits, Fruits and More!

The success of many a school programme in this country has hinged on the Mid-Day Meal. The government and NGOs (CARE India started this practice) together offer meals to students as a carrot to attend school. This defrays the cost of living for families operating at the subsistence level.

Two news stories, from two different worlds, the USA and Afghanistan shows that this is true around the world.

Read more via these links:

Providing free fruit in schools may boost intake: Reuters New York.
Biscuits instrumental in increasing enrollment: Reuters Afghanistan.

What is interesting is that the students in the American schools were not from low-income families. The study also showed that providing free fruit increased fruit intake outside school through increased sampling of a variety of fruits and a peer recognition for fruit earlier thought of as 'uncool'

Will Reliance see this as a business opportunity with its new Farm Produce division?

A conversation with Amrita Dass

I was in Lucknow recently and had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Amrita Dass and her charming family. Dr. Dass comes from a family of Educators- her Grandmother, educated at Columbia in the 1940s, was the first Indian Principal of the famous Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow. Her mother taught for several years and her brother, Ranjit, is Principal at the Nath Valley School in Aurangabad that is rapidly gaining popularity as a 'school of the future'

Dr. Dass runs the Institute for Career Studies and has over the last few decades guided a number of students to their preferred careers in India and abroad. In addition to whole-school and individual counselling, the institute also does some fantastic workshops for in-service teacher development. Dr. Dass believes, and this is prominently displayed on her organisation stationery, "There are no Ideal Careers, only Ideal Choices."

I spoke to Dr. Dass on range of issues regarding Education in this country with a focus on Youth Development and found her disarming, witty, thoughtful and well-read. The succulent soya kebabs she serves at her residence added much flavour to the conversation.

I am including extracts centered around the theme of 'the main differences between career inclinations and choices a couple of decades ago and today.' The 'I' in the next few paragraphs all defer to Dr. Dass.

(1) Previously, there were fewer educational and career choices. Also, there was the pressure of competing for the limited seats available in professional courses like Engineering, Medicine, Architecture, Management etc. Moreover, there were hardly any professional or vocational degree courses after Plus Two. Today there are infinite academic and career choices. Owing to the privatisation of higher education, for most of the professional courses, there are more seats than students! Thus, whereas earlier there was pressure of competition, today there is confusion of choice!

(2) Though stereotypes and mindsets about courses and careers are still prevalent, earlier most persons got into a career by chance. Today many more are in a position to choose a career based on their aptitudes and interests. Also there is much more awareness about courses, campuses and careers.

(3) Another recent trend is that large numbers of students are eager to pursue their studies abroad. Bank loans have made access to foreign education much easier.

(4) A decade ago, students preferred to opt for jobs with hefty pay packets, regardless of whether it engaged their inherent talents and interests or not. There is a definite shift today towards jobs that would provide satisfaction and opportunities for self actualisation.

(5) I am not surprised that Howard Gardner has added "existentialist" intelligence to his list of multiple intelligences. I have seen more evidence of this in students of junior classes! For example, when asked by me to respond to the question, "Who am I", one grade 8 student wrote "This question has been bothering me for sometime. When I search my inner universe, I reach the stars". His mother thought that his writings were "weird"! This reinforces the observation made by Peter Senge that today's new age student is being reared largely by "industrial age" parents and taught largely by "industrial age teachers".

(6) One of the most exciting developments today is that many more parents are encouraging their daughters to pursue higher studies and careers of their choice. Previously a majority insisted on their daughters completing their graduation in the shortest possible time because early marriage was their topmost priority.

(7) What still needs to change is the "fixation" on the Science and Commerce streams, which has driven out the Humanities stream as an option from most schools. Can you imagine the plight of students who excel in Social Studies in class 10, want to continue with it in Plus Two but are compelled to either take up Science or Commerce subjects?

(8) In this technology oriented knowledge age, what most organisations look for is a "smart" mind and a "smart" personality. Thus, most careers can be accessed from any subject stream or combination. Moreover, I find that there is increasingly little correlation between the education students are reciving and the careers they are choosing to pursue. If more students are encouraged to opt for subjects that "gel" with them, they will develop a creative mind along with cognitive skills. In fact, the more interdisciplinary the combination of subjects, the better! I have come across large numbers of students who would have relished combinations like Physics & Maths with History and Economics or Geography & Psychology with Biology and Maths. While the CBSE and ISC Boards permit such combinations and some schools have introduced more flexible choices, a majority of schools face limitations and constraints in terms of the low number of students who would opt for such combinations. This will only happen once educators, employers, parents and students realise the overall merits of an interdisciplinary approach to academics and the value of knowledge per se.

(9) Another malaise that remains to be addressed is the enormous pressure and tension students are subjected to in order to secure high marks in their Board examinations and at the same time get coached for the various entrance exams after Plus Two. This takes a heavy toll in terms of their overall sense of well being, self-esteem and all round development as extra curricular activities are virtually taboo. A systemic change is essential wherein the admission criteria for colleges and professional institutions should include academic performance, participation in sports and other extra curricular activities as well as aptitude assessments for the particular field where necessary.

(10) An issue that must be addressed is that the huge potential of our rural youth is not being tapped because of poor access to vocational guidance and training. Some sincere efforts have been made by NGOs and individuals but this remains a much neglected sector. A concerted, planned, sincere and dynamic effort by Government agencies (like the almost defunct employment directorates, employment exchanges), NGOs and the private sector (industrial and business houses, Banks, CII, FICCI, PHD Chambers of Commerce etc) is urgently required. I have conducted our career counselling and guidance programmes in rural areas and found the rural youth eager, enthusiastic and keen to go places!

A few of her ideas resonated strongly with me. The first was about harnessing the potentional of rural youth. A friend of mine, Akhil Krishna, is fired up about this idea and we often discuss the potention of bi-lingual (Vernacular Instruction for the first half of a 2-4 year course with intensive English Language Training, and English Instruction for the second half) colleges and universities.

Another idea, simplistic yet powerful, was suggested by him. He stated that most software programming languages have few keywords that are used in the coding syntax. If these keywords could be translated with Vernacular equivalents and coding could be done by non-English speaking programmers with basic computing skills, we would be reducing the cost of programming and providing employment at the same time.

The second was the issue of admission to colleges and universities in the country that demanded high marks - requiring students to study long hours at the cost of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that provide a very useful education to students. Until this is resolved, many of the evils of the schooling system in India will persist.

What are your thoughts on Dr. Dass' points? Write in and we'll get her to respond!

Should we have uniforms?

NDTV carried this news article recently

India is proud of its liberal education but Amity University is doing away with all that tradition and cracking down on students in a narrow minded interpretation of what's right to wear.

Amity is imposing a strict dress code on its college students ordering no jeans, no short sleeves.

In fact when NDTV asked students for their views on Monday, the Amity PRO first warned that action would be taken against any student who talks to NDTV.

The students want to know if you can't wear jeans and T-shirts as a college student when can you. It's being called the Talibanisation of Amity.

This didn't surprise me. Amity seems like an institute desperate to project an image of serious, no-nonsense study to counter the image it has (and many other private colleges have) of being a good way to make quick bucks for its promoters. Making uniforms compulsory just is another way to achieve this.

I got thinking, however, on an issue closer home. The issue of uniforms at university is very different from that at school, and here I'd like to discuss it in the school context.

Just last month, I had led a debate in our School Improvement Workshop between members of staff on whether we should have uniforms or not. Most staff members were of the opinion that we should. Their arguments were as under:

1. Uniforms lead to, well, uniformity. Wearing the school uniform is like wearing an honour code that makes you aware of and respect the rules the school lays down.

2. There is less likely to be trouble when one wears the school uniform for that makes one easily identifiable. So the risk of fights while cycling back home, for example, can be reduced significantly with the introduction of the uniform.

We thought of some more together. My own submissions, for and against.

Against

1. Uniforms cost money. At some government schools I know off students spend more on uniform then they spend of tuition the entire year! At our school, our tuition fee is approximately Rs.850 (USD 18) a month. Uniform (different for summer and winter) can cost upto Rs. 3000 (USD 66) for a one-time purchase, and kids are always growing out of and losing/tearing their uniforms. This money could easily be used to provide better educational inputs.

2. Uniforms are constant hand-me-downs and often many children, wearing old, worn out uniforms look very 'un-uniform' in comparison to others- and there is precious little the school can do to make the parents buy new sets.

3. Uniform, as pointed out earlier, IS uniform. Another example of school creating a divide between the real world and itself. I would like to know what research says about uniforms and such motif deadening creativity in students- I wouldn't be surprised to find a positive correlation.


For

1. Research is showing that "What to Wear" can be a difficult and nerve-racking experience in the teenage years. Uniform takes the stress of this decision making away!

2. Uniforms weed out one very important display of wealth. When I was a schoolboy we were supplied uniforms tailored by the school and weren't allowed a single item of clothing/accessories from home. This was regimented strongly, often with corporal punishment. While some of the checks may have been misguided, the premise of equality was sound.

The Staff Improvement Meeting finally decided that we would continue with uniforms. Sadly I think, because we were afraid to bite the bullet and open ourselves to criticism for parents who may not have understood our intentions, costing us students and revenue.

I thought that a simple uniform policy (and not uniforms) that mentioned what was permissible and what was not - with enough room for expression and creativity - would have worked just fine.

What do you think?

1/2 = 2 !! The Great Indian Rope Trick

The Great Indian Roope Trick just made its way to Education. This morning I was reading the funniest piece I have read in a long time.

Picture this: The Government (read a Babu) wants to give a favour to a friend or a relative who is a teacher/administrator. He finds that there is no school that needs a Head or a Teacher. What does he do? He just splits the school in two. So the ABCD School is now the ABCD Boys' School and the ABCD Girls' School.

2 Schools housed in the same building. On Different floors. Each with its Own Principal.

Apparently this isn't a one-off occurrance. It happens regularly. Read all about it here

The Economic Times on Education

Just the other day I was trawling through some World Bank data that mentioned that we spend less, by a factor of 100, than what the US does on Education. The amount of money that the government spends on education is hotly debated- with most people contesting (supported by data) that we spend about half of what countries like Korea, China and Japan do on educating their citizens.

I was interested then when the Eco Times carried some data on government spend. This is an exceprt from the Report Card that you can read here.

The total governmental expenditure (both central and state) on elementary education (classes 1 through 8) is about Rs 21,850 crore per annum. Over 95% of this money is used for teachers’ salaries.

The estimated cost of additional financial resources needed for universalisation of elementary education is Rs 140,000 crore over the next 10 years.

Each year of extra schooling enhances men’s productivity by 8% and women’s productivity by 10%

The direct economic returns to society from investment in primary education in India are estimated to be above 20%

The same article carries many articles on Education, edited by Azim Pemji who runs a Foundation that is doing good work that and that also carries his name. Read Premji's, rather disappointing editorial here, and read ahead for the other articles.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, political scientist and commentator writes Educate them to be accountable:

There are two major revolutions underway in education. First, the demand for education is not simply a policy objective; it is precipitously asserting itself at all levels of society. It is manifest in the actions of the poorest who are sending their children, even to private schools at inordinate costs, and in the demands of the privileged who are seeking the best education they can find.

Second, there is, in principle no longer a resource crunch.

Professor C.N.R. Rao, Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Reserach (JNASCR) writes on Education: There's a need to raise the bar.

We can write essays analysing the innumerable difficulties, problems and failures and come with a long list of suggestions. The purpose of this note is not to do so and to point out only those few changes that would definitely bring out a sea change in the higher education scenario.

Universities should only cater to higher education, in particular, post-graduate programmes and research, and should not have innumerable affiliated colleges.

Distinguished writer and scholar U.R. Ananthamurthy writes of his India of the Rich & Bharat of the poor:

I grew up in a village in the Sahyadri mountain region and went to a government school. My father, a self-taught man, knew Sanskrit and English and read Gandhiji’s Harijan, translating it to Kannada for his village friends. I knew my Mahabharata and Ramayana — not by reading — but seeing Yakshagana performances and Harikatha narration.

These days, in expensive private schools, rich children don’t have the opportunity to enrich their experience by studying the life and culture of the poor. This divide will create two countries — the India of the rich and Bharat of the poor. I want common schools for the rich and poor so that all children have the opportunity to share their joy of learning together.

Krishna Kumar (Director, NCERT) writes on The Twain shall meet (this is a piece everyone should read simply because of the vantage point Dr. KK enjoys)

People who say that government schools don’t function are perhaps aware that they are making a sweeping judgement on a vast and varied system. Also, schools run by the government cannot be judged as an isolated example of state-run institutions.

The correct thing to do would be to compare schools with dispensaries and hospitals, police stations, income-tax offices, and bus stands. Inefficiency, lack of accountability and professionalism, and an ethos of relentless cynicism are common to all government services. Those who argue that we should encourage privatisation — and withdrawal of the state from its educational responsibility — should perhaps plead for abolishing the government itself.

Shyam Benegal, filmmaker writes an interesting piece on Not forgetting the oral test.

Non-literate forms of learning are either rejected or neglected as soon as literacy begins. There are several reasons for this. Non-literate learning tends to be limited by the environment it inhabits and is most useful in traditional agrarian and stable societies. It is considered unsuited to the urban landscape, where literacy is the key to capability.

When literacy begins, however, the oral means of learning shuts almost like a one-way valve allowing only one form of learning. Yet oral forms of learning are enriching in ways that literacy learning cannot always ensure. Children coming from a non-literate background and are the first generation to take up literacy have a hugely uphill task. They have no reference points when it comes to reading.

Rahul Dravid, Indian cricket Captain, writes in with Provide avenues for different opportunities:

I was lucky to go study in institutions that gave equal emphasis to studies, co-curricular activities and sports. I think good schools and colleges must focus on the all round development of an individual.

Today we have a very competitive environment and hence what really matters is the marks one scores. It puts lot of pressure on students to score a high percentage and makes them give up every other activity they would otherwise like to pursue. This leads to one-dimensional growth which is not an ideal situation. Schools must provide avenues for students to explore different opportunities.

The most interesting article is a 3-person commentary that explores an old idea that is gaining currency again: Neighbourhood Schools.

Virtually no country in the world has common schooling as an absolute system with no alternative schools. That said, should India have a predominantly common schooling system based on attendance at neighbourhood schools? Is this a recipe for equality or a recipe for disaster?

The above quote is by Kanti Bajpai, who heads my Alma Mater, The Doon School, and has contributed to this piece. The other contributors are Sam Pitroda and Anil Sadgopal (Former Dean, Delhi University)

Teacher Salaries in India

Quoted from the NY Times:

According to the American Federation of Teachers, the state with the highest average pay for teachers in 2003-04 was Connecticut, at $56,516; the lowest was South Dakota, at $33,236.

Or look at it this way: Pick a corporate chieftain — say, Jeffrey R. Immelt of General Electric. He earns $15.4 million a year. Every single day — including Thanksgiving and Christmas — he makes almost what the average teacher does for a year of taming wild children, staying up nights planning lessons, and, really, helping to shape a generation.

I read about this up at multiple blogs including AssortedStuff, Think:Lab and Education Wonks and it got me thinking. The Purchasing Power Parity Index (enonomic theory that tries to equate how much it would cost to buy similar things or live a similar quality of life in two places) between India and the US is between 6-8. So a dollar in the the US would get you about the same that Rs. 6 - 8 would get you in India, across a basket of commodities and services. This seems to me a rather conservative estimate, but we will play along with this.

The average teacher salary for Connecticut (state with highest salary) was $56,516, for South Dakota (state with lowest salary) it was $33,236. Taking a simple average of these two for convenience, one may estimate that the average salary for the US as a whole was 44,876. In PPP terms this equates to a salary, given similar educational qualifications, to a number between Rs. 269,256 and Rs. 359,008 per year or roughly between Rs. 22438 and Rs 29997.

According to the 5th Pay Commission that dictate salaries to Central Schools like those run by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, teachers salaries in India should be between 8000 (Kindergarten level) to 17500 (Post Graduate Teacher level). Many State Boards have salaries that are much lower. Many private schools employ teacher at a fourth of these rates- from my own experience in Punjab, teachers are paid between Rs. 3000-6000 at schools (leaving the premium schools aside) in several cities. If anyone has access to researches data on teacher salaries in India, I would love to have a look at it.

This analysis estimates that teachers in India may earn upto 5-6 times lower than their counterparts in America, despite having possibly better qualifications on paper (most applicants for teaching jobs at my school have a master's degree and two bachelor's degrees and earn around Rs. 4000 at their current jobs).

This throws up many interesting questions with some comments as answers:

1. Why would a person choose to become a teacher? A BPO job pays twice as much. Even tutoring would probably earn a teacher in multiples of this amount.

- Presumably for the love of teaching itself or for, in smaller cities, the lack of other options. Most probably though, because as pointed out in an earlier post, "Teaching is a noble profession for Women" - the sort of job that gives respectability, time-bound working hours and a regular , stable salary.

- Lack of other options: Several families do not allow their daughters-in-law to take on other jobs/assignments- teaching is passable because of the respectability factor above.

- Teaching is stable. You would probably earn that amount (with an annual increment) as long as you didn't do something terribly stupid. Most schools are so hard up on good quality staff that they would do anything to retain even an errant teacher with the slightest possibility of being reformed. The downside of course, by the same logic, is that growth in teaching jobs (and associated pay rises) is limited: at best one may become an academic co-ordinator or head of department/primary school before one occupies the dark leather seat as Principal.

2. I say that Tutoring pays many times that much. Why then do teachers teach in Schools?

- Because they get a school-name-brand attached to them and, possibly more importantly, they don't have much teaching to do in the morning as kids from all the schools are at school. Working in a school them gives them an acceptability and elevates their status as a recognised teacher - bringing in more business. I often wonder - if schools had the policy of disallowing teachers from tutoring on the side, would the applicant pool for jobs at that school take a nosedive?

3. Is this a fair salary to pay teachers? An addendum to the NY Times.

- I don't want to go into the socio-economic stratifications of Indian Society but keep this response germane to the debate raised by the NY times. It asks whether our teachers who educate the nation should be paid so little when their products are paid in several multiples. It points out that corporate bosses With Indians going abroad and occupying top jobs- it would seem that soon corporate bosses will earn more in an hour than what their teachers in India did in a Year.

For those of you interested in further reading on this- look at this Economic Times article that looks at the huge differences in the salaries of teachers at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and that earned by grads straight out of campus. And continuing with the Jeff Immelt example, here is an article on CEO salaries in India!

Interviews!

Interviewing teachers is not a regular part of my job. Its something I do multiple times a week. I have found some interesting threads common to teachers in Punjab.

1. Shakespeare seems to be the author of choice in Punjab. He is the one that the ladies seem to read before they sleep at night or whenever they have free time: in the bus, in their cars..wherever. Or that's what they claim. In must have asked the question "Amongst writers of English, who would you favour for easy reading?" The response always favours the Bard. Not only do they show a preference for Willy, they are unconditional in their love for hem, eschewing all other authors. Having read most of what Shakespeare wrote, I am surprised when anyone mentioned Shakespeare as their favourite author. Maybe his being the ghostwriter for Maqbool and Omkara has something to do with it.

2. Geography is no longer taught in Punjab Universities: Three advertisements and many referrals later, I am yet to find a Geography teacher to teach at my school. With the imbroglio surrounding Pluto, this is when we need them the most!

3. Teaching is a female preserve. Sample this excerpt from an interview a few days ago.

My Colleague (one of a panel of 3 male interviewers): "Why do you want to be a teacher?"
Prospective Teacher: "It is a noble profession for women."
MC(Ignoring the platitude about 'nobility'): "You mention women. Are you saying its not a noble profession for men."
PT (rolling her eyes): "No way. Men should be doing better work."

Give it to the lady for her frankness. But not the smartest of things to say to a panel of 3 men! But here's the kicker. Owing to the aforementioned deficiency of Geography Teachers, this lady got the job!

Initiatives in Education

One of the most exciting organizations working in the area of Education in India is the Ahmedabad based Educational Initiatives (EI).

I have had the pleasure to meeting and discussing education with two of its three founders Sridhar Rajagopalan and Sudhir Ghodke who (along with Venkat Krishan) left MNC jobs to work in the area of Education. before EI three co-founded, with Sunil Handa, entrepreneur and popular speaker on management and education, the Eklavya School in Ahmedabad. This school set in 22 acres in the outskirts of Ahmedabad is interesting in many ways: it is one of the few schools that has fields and open spaces commensurate with the number of children being schooled, makes effective use of the research thrown up by Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and has a good Teacher Education programme on its premises.

Sridhar and Sudhir are both bright and passionate about Education. Its difficult not to come away inspired from a conversation with them.

Their organization, Educational Initiatives, runs India’s leading standardized testing service, ASSET. I have seen several standardized tests; the other leading test provider in India is Macmillan (in association with the University of NSW) but the ASSET rest is remarkably superior. It is authentic – contextualized to the lives of Indian students, clear in its questioning and responses expected, inexpensive, and throws up fantastic action-oriented data for teachers and administrators.

In the past few years, EI has quietly been doing a host of other good work. There is work with the government of Andhra Pradhesh and Harvard Universtiy, Teacher Training, School Camps and a new offering called Mindspark, an after-school prgramme that teaches kids Math and Science. What I like is that the team seems to be getting a balance correct- doing great work on its flagship offering (ASSET), doing good and meaningful research and still capitalizing on opportunities like the After-School space through programmes like Mindspark.

I caught up with Sudhir Ghodke and Sridhar Rajagopalan for a candid chat.

EI now spans a gamut of spaces: teacher development, curriculum development, Science & Math Training through franchisees, Test Administration and of-course ASSET. What would you say is your core competency and going forward, what would your company like to be known as? In terms of 'product mix' how different in would EI be 5 years from now?

Sudhir Ghodke (SG): : EI's core competency is understanding learning in the context of a school and using assessment as a tool for improving learning. EI would like to be recognised as an organisation that contributed significantly in improving the quality of school education in "school-going" children in India. In 5 years EI should consolidate its expertise in Assessment and use it leadership position to impact decisions that eventually impact learning in schools. In terms of its product mix it would aim to bring ASSET and Assessment at the center of all its activities and work on other spaces by leveraging the insights received from Assessments.

Sridhar Ragagopalan (SRR): It is important to realize that EI’s various gamuts are built around the common theme of improving student learning. So while it is true that we do teacher development, the way it is done and the types of teacher development are focused towards those aspects that will help students learn better. A second common criterion is the clarity that we do not want to simply be a me-too player, rather we want to solve real problems innovatively and share those solutions with the larger system. We hope that these would continue to be the core theme of EI’s work always.

How many "unique children" (i.e. counting multiple papers per child as one) take the ASSET every year? I believe you do pro-bono work with an equal number of government schoolchildren. Is that corrrect?

SG: Around 125,000 children will take ASSET this year (2006). This is being done across 650 schools in India, Middle East and Nepal. The schools are from different boards - CBSE, ICSE, State and other International Boards too. The fundamental value proposition is a clear benchmark of student learning with respect to concepts underlying all the above curricula. We also are involved in large scale assessment studies as the primary agency responsible for design and implementation of the testing tools. This is done through various agencies like the World Bank, Azim Premji Foundation, Naandi Foundation and Unicef to name a few.

SRR: The costs of doing the work with government kids is almost the same as with the private kids - what is not spent in marketing is spent in access, translations, specialized research and analysis (since these papers are not multiple-choice). So the work is not pro-bono, but supported by different types of organisations as mentioned above.

You are at a vantage point for assessing learning outcome across the country through data from ASSET. Give us a sense of some of the regional differences you found? Are you planning to relase a Nation-wide, ASER type report based on your findings?

SG: Currently the population sizes in ASSET are not representative enough to bring out regional or board wise differences. But we did conduct a Metro-Study of Learning levels in leading schools across the country. The data emerging from this study is very interesting. It will be published shortly in a leading publication.

SRR: Yes, we will gradually start using both our reach and our data to push for positive change. It will be through a combination of scientific studies and surveys, possibly services for parents as well as information that will be shared freely through the website.

Math is traditionally seen as a bugbear with both a loss of interest and loss of understanding as a student moves froma lower grade to a higher grade. What does your reserach throw up on this? What do you prescribe as solutions?

SG: Math is traditionally taught as an subject focussing primarily of "procedural fluency" with less emphasis given on the other strands of Maths such as conceptual understanding and adaptive reasoning. As the content strands are clearly linked to each other a weakness in a strand like say "Number Sense" would make it difficult for a student to grasp the essense of arithmetic operations, fractions, decimals at a later stage creating a phobia for the subject as a whole. Early identification of some skills that are problem areas and addressing them early on is one of the ways that can prevent the student from abhoring the whole subject. Other suggestions are to encourage and value different solution paths. Linking learning with real world experiences also is useful.

SRR: Yes. In two words - bad teaching. Bad teaching is culturally built into us and *very* (emphasis of the interviewee) difficult to change. Yet some countries - China, to some extent - have done this. It will not be an easy task and it will require a concerted effort, but the cost of not doing it will be more. The NCERT and many educational thinkers realize this and we think some steps are being taken in the current direction. The potential of organisations like EI and others to help in this process is also very high.

I believe that English, unfortunately, is tied to social mobility in this country. How far do you think we are from Universal Access & Learning in English based on your findings. ASER says that almost 60% of children between 7-14 can’t read at Grade 2 difficulty. Your comment?

SRR: The question is mixing 2 aspects - English and language learning. ASER does not (correctly and fortunately) deal with the issue of English - it is referring to learning in the mother tongue. That children are not learning properly even in their mother tongue is purely a reflection on poor quality schooling.

The question of English is more disturbing. All research, unequivocally shows that:

1. Early learning should be in the language the child is most familiar with - mostly the mother tongue, sometimes the state language, in rare cases, if this language is English, only then English-medium education is okay at the primary level.

2. Multilingualism is the way to go in tomorrow’s world. Multilingualism is positively correlated to cognitive learning and scholastic achievement.

While our policy documents reflect this, few seem to seriously believe this. Just because most schools opening up are English medium, just because virtually everybody chooses to go to an English-medium school, it is assumed that the theory must be in some way, incorrect, and English medium is the right thing to do. Our research indicates clearly that students in top English schools are learning poorly and we believe that one reason could be in our universal acceptance of English as the learning medium even in the primary classes.

We believe this has to and will change, though this is only one part of the problem.

SG: We have recently done a project for a regional language school which wanted to explore the possibility of converting to an English medium school. Preliminary findings show that children taught at the early levels (pre primary and primary) in their mother tongue would be more equipped to acquire English rather than their counterparts who are exposed to English as the primary medium of instruction right from the beginning. This is in context of homes that are primarily regional language focussed - the first and second language is NOT English.

We have seen that the scores for skills such as grammar are higher than skills of comprehension and analysis. Again reinforcing the fact that memorisation is the primary mode of learning even in language learning.

Without naming the big boys: Doon, Sanawar, Mayo, Dhirubhai Ambani, Cathedral, DPS RKP- do you see achievement levels in these school substantially higher than in other schools? I have a hunch that they outperform the national average on English and take a beating on the other subjects. Would this be correct?

SRR: Our sense is that some big name schools outperform the national average in all subjects. Some do it only in some subjects and a few don’t even fare that well. Schools that do the right things turn in great performances (just like people and companies, one may add) In some cases, the reputation outlives the actual quality being produced. I do not think there is a pattern that big name schools outperform in English but not, say, Maths-Science. We have a little more specific data on this, but will not be able to share it, for obvious reasons.

SG: The big name schools as compared to the other schools does not show a clear pattern today because some of the big name schools do not make it compulsory for their students to participate in ASSET. The data therefore for a school with its "top" students might be compared to another school with "all" its students. If we compare the data for statistically significant schools as the population the pattern is not completely clear that all classes of leading schools are performing better than national average. The variation across subjects does not show that these schools are doing "better" in English but they would be doing well in areas which they claim expertise - like cracking questions which test rote memory!!

Your reports are action-oriented. Do you see many schools using this data constructively, as evinced maybe from a subsequent year's performance?

SG: As on date 20 - 30% of schools use the data for focussing on specific areas emerging as concern areas from the analysis. We are aiming to increase this number by proactively engaging with more schools and helping the teacher take the analysis right down to the classroom level and use it.

SRR: Also we probably need more time (more years) to be able to clearly see such patterns if they exist. ASSET is actually a great tool to get teachers and school leaders to start thinking about things in a different way - that is its greatest value.

What are the differences in achievement levels across English and Math between Private, Aided, Government Schools?

SRR: The data is too little to say for sure but our hunch is something like this:

	Mechanical Learning	Learning with understanding
Private	7/10	4/10
Aided	6/10	3/10
Government	2/10	1/10

Note that the good or bad scores themselves are as much due to the parental and family background as what the school does. If we transferred all the teachers of a private school to a rural school and they were somehow equipped with all the language skills, their performance will drop much closer to the current government school levels. So the little good learning that is happening is due to some concerned, enlightened principals and many more concerned, enlightened parents. Many, many (maybe 80%) of teachers and parents - we estimate - feel, ‘rote learning is fine’ and that is the crux of the problem.

SG: Today the test items that we run through these three sets of populations are different - primarily because they are indexed on the level of difficulty of the average student in each of the three groups. Therefore an absolute comparison is not possible. We wish ASSET were taken by all students in the country - today it is primarily the Private schools that take ASSET. In a research study we did compare the performance of Private Urban Schools with Government and Aided Rural schools. The data was quite amazing with children on rural schools scoring higher than students of private urban schools on some items (where they had a better contextual familiarity).

What are the 3 top changes you'd like to see the the government making. Are you in favour of vouchers?

SRR: Frankly, much more soft than hard measures are needed from the government - except for the one hard measure - more funds! The soft measures are:

1. Public education - a much more active effort to explain to parents and teachers why education, what type of education, why, for example, mother tongue education is good; why tests - in a limited way - are good, etc. etc.

2. The second is greater commitment to high quality research. Today government makes policies - whether it is a decision to start a chain of Navodaya Vidyalayas or to reserve seats in higher education - without systematic (time-bound) research. This culture must change and can easilty be changed. We believe that NCERT was at one time a high quality organization, but will have to work hard to reclaim that title today.

3. Transparency in many forms. For example, we would recommend a national assessment test and the results to be freely available with only *student* (not school) personal identifiers removed - on the net in multiple languages. The text of textbooks will be available on the net and experts and teachers can both comment and edit them. We see the underlying process here as one of bringing in more transparency driven by the belief that when the problem is clearly understood and recognized, more minds will work (sometimes partly independently) to solve them.

SG: 1. Increasing accountability of teachers and schools - output based incentives (we are running a study which is researching if this works - currently underway in AP)

2. Having higher levels of transparency in the use of funds allocated for Education - and tracking the return on investment through regular studies which are published in the public domain - something akin to the RTI.

3. Reforming Board Exams - to reduce the component of rote and rote related skills in the curriculum and increasing understanding and application oriented skills.

Do you have a pet project in Education (even one you may not have started) that really gets you excited? Who are the few people (in Government or Private institutions) who are doing good work in Education?

SRR: One is to digitize regional language textbooks. Another is to develop scientifically-developed reading and writing tests in regional languages. A third is a digital, assessment self-learning programme, there are many.

SG: Some organisations who are doing good work are (in no particular order) HBCSE (Homi Bhabha Center, Mumbai), Prof Arvind Gupta, Pune, Azim Premji Foundation, Eklavya Bhopal, Rohit Dhankar - Digantar, Prof Jose Paul, Delhi, iDiscoveri, Delhi and many others

Tell me more about the motivation to start yet another After-school programme. Cashing in on the boom? :)

SG: Not really - aiming to get a clearer understanding of the teaching - learning process which fundamentally focusses on concept clarification and internalisation as a goal. The program is our own proof of concept that it is possible to really improve learning through a structured approach delivered through high quality people and a well designed curriculum. The objective is to remove the obstacles that decelerate the progress of a formal schooling system and systematically identify and support those systems that foster self learning and enquiry.

SRR: Yes. Just our way of saying - ‘we’re sure things can be taught better to ensure better learning - okay we’ll try and demonstrate what we mean.”

Sudhir, Shridhar and I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment or send me an e-mail and we'll get them to respond. Next week we have a talk with two leading career consultants: Usha Albuquerque and Dr. Amrita Dass who answer questions on a range of macro issues regarding manpower quality in India.

More on Teachers and Teaching!

I am often reminded, when I read about good teachers, of Gibran. In the Prophet (which is a fantasic little posse of thoughts to provoke your mind), he writes:

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

Read the entire piece here.

Will Richardson carries a wonderful post on Teachers as Learners, syndicated by Christian Long, over at Thinklab. Andrew Pass, himself an avid blogger, puts in the following comment in response to the Thinklab piece:

In Hebrew a scholar is called a Talmid Chacham. The word Talmid means student. The word Chacham means wise. Translated together the phrase means "wise student." Hence, a scholar is truly a wise student. If teachers are supposed to be scholars than perhaps what they are really supposed to be are wise students. Just a thought.

Incidentally the company that Andrew blogs (and works?) for is Teachers Pay Teachers - a nifty little idea where Ebay meets the knowledge economy. Teachers post their lesson plans and worksheets, share them with the world, and pick up a little money when someone buys it off them. A great idea. My English Lesson-Plans are going up soon!

Also, a beta version of the model I propose for teacher collaboration in government schools in my previous post?

Teaching In India 2006: A Bland Odyssey?

I was at a meeting yesterday morning. A meeting attended by some of the brightest minds around. There was a Director from the Prime Minister's Office, A Director at the US Embassy in New Delhi and the Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of HRD and a mix of other individuals with
loads of experience in development and education.

The conversation was around Teacher Quality in India and the first generation learner.

Some statistics first:

"The alarming findings relate to reading and arithmetic. ASER did not test children or age or grade specific competency. It tested the ability of children to read (a simple paragraph or story pitched at grade 2 level). Close to 35% of children in the 7-14 age group could not read a simple paragraph (grade 1 level difficulty) and almost 60% of children could not read a simple story (grade 2 level difficulty). The huge surprise is
that the situation in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat (where the schools function and where all provision related indicators are good) are far worse than Bihar, and Chhattisgarh (where indicators like teacher-pupil ratio, drop out rates and schooling facilities are abysmal). The percentage point difference between government and private schools is approximately 10. Which means that almost 30% of children in private schools cannot read grade one level paragraphs."

This extract is from the preface to the ASER study conducted by Pratham across India to measure achievement levels in Education. It looked at various other elements and found, alarmingly, that 9% of schools had NO teachers on the day they visited.

Coming back to our debate yesterday morning: ideas were being bandied around about the the first generation learner and what the government could (and should) do ensure learning outcomes are met.

I think there was consensus on accessibility being a key issue. Taking the school closer to the child, providing schooling in multiple shifts, education of parents and provision of vocational study were all accepted as necessary.

The one element on which there was a departure of views, was on the role of the teacher in the classroom.

If children in government (and private) schools around the country are being inadequately prepared (as evidenced by the yawning gaps in achievement levels) by the teachers this could before multiple reasons. Lack of resources and infrastructure, poor quality of teaching or some would say, poor quality of children (whatever that means!)

My money is on the poor quality of teaching.

I think the role of the teacher in the classroom has been sanctified as the scholar on the pulpit in whose every word is wisdom. In several schools, and this is possibly true of both urban and non-urban contexts, there are teachers who lack both the will, the imagination and crucially the time to lead the child to the threshold of his mind.

This is where a large part of the the role of the teacher should be taken away and the government should step in.

I am in favour of prescription where every little detail of 'classroom preparation' that requires imagination and an insightful understanding of the teaching-learning process is pre-planned and delivered to the teacher. So, the government prepares, in addition to the textbook, a teaching guide with detailed lesson plans, worksheets, assessments and activities that take off the pressure off the teacher. The teacher uses these materials to facilitate discussion in the classroom and an inspector of the teaching-learning process (mandated by the government) conducts occasional visits and examinations to measure the achievement levels and guide the teacher.

This point of view disturbs many progressive teachers, and I admit it pre-supposes a rather bleak opinion on teacher quality.

Sure there are brilliant teachers in smaller poorly-funded schools. I have come across some wonderfully imaginative in small towns like Mithapur (Gujarat) and Hardoi (UP), but anyone who has visited a number of such schools will agree that on average, the quality of teaching leaves much to be desired. In fact, these imaginative teachers will, under the proposed scheme, get a fillip. They can share their lesson plans and worksheets with their peers, creating a government-run knowledge community.

I wonder if there has been research or pilot programmes around this 'method.' I surely am not the first one to look the system and wonder if this is an obvious solution. Please do post in your thoughts and comments - I would love to hear from you!