Foriegn Institutes setting shop in India

After ISB, Maha loses Georgia Tech to Andhra

Neelima Mahajan-Bansal | TNN

New Delhi: Once again, Andhra Pradesh has pipped Maharashtra as the choice destination for prestigious academic institutions. The US-based Georgia Institute of Technology has signed up with the southern state to set up two campuses at an estimated investment of $100 million over the next few years.
A decade ago, Mumbai lost is chance to play host to ISB, now an acclaimed business school in Asia, after politicians demanded quotas for locals. Now, despite a personal invitation from CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, the state could not find enough land quickly to accommodate Georgia Tech. Deshmukh had invited the university during a state visit to the US in 2005.
Georgia Tech will set up a campus in Hyderabad and later at Visakhapatnam by 2009-’10 on land purchased from the AP government. The institute will initially start with a faculty of 10 and 200 doctoral students. There are further plans to set up an SEZ that will ensure industry-university interaction. Experiences elsewhere, like Harvard and Wales in the UK, suggest that such an interaction acts as a catalyst for research, economic development and technology commercialization.
Says Vijay Madisetti, executive director of Georgia Tech’s India initiative and professor in its School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, “The campus is expected to grow over 10 years to about 100 faculty and 2,000 students co-located with a universityindustry research park. We expect to work with private donors and the US and Indian industry to raise the necessary funding (approximately $100 million).’’ Indians to get degrees given to US students
New Delhi: Georgia Tech, which has signed up with Andhra Pradesh to set up campuses at Hyderabad and Vizakhapatanam, will offer degrees recognized in the US, identical to those offered by its US collegiate counterparts.
This will make Georgia Tech the first global university to do so in India.
The initial set of master’s and doctoral programmes will be in the areas of information technology and hardware systems; biotechnology and healthcare; infrastructure research; and energy systems.
Says Madisetti, “The degree programmes will be taught by tenure-track and tenured Georgia Tech faculty, who are expected to possess the advantage of having study and research time spent on both US and Indian campuses.’’
While most students are expected to come from India, some will be from the US as well. Just as in the US, most students are likely to support through graduate research assistantships, bringing the cost of education down.

What is wrong with Education...why do they wield weapon instead of pen...

SCHOOL SLAYINGS

AROUND THE WORLD

The shooting at a university in Illinois was the latest in a series of deadly attacks across the world. A list of such attacks in recent years...

MARCH 1996 | Britain (18) Sixteen children and their teacher are shot dead by a gunman in Dunblane, Scotland. The assailant then kills himself APRIL 1996 | China (7) A man stabs to death seven children in two schools in Meitian, China’s Hunan province MARCH 1997 | Yemen (6) A Yemeni veteran of Afghan war opens fire in two schools in Sanaa. He kills six, including four students MARCH 1998 | United States (5) Two boys aged 13 and 11 shoot dead four girls and a teacher at a school in Arkansas APRIL 1999 | United States (15) Two armed youths kill 12 fellow students and a teacher at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado. They then commit suicide JUNE 2001 | Japan (8) A deranged man stabs to death eight small children at an elementary school in Tokyo APRIL 2002 | Germany (16) A student angry at being expelled from school guns down 16 people on the campus, including 12 teachers and two students NOV 2004 | China (8) A 21-year-old man enters a school in Hunan and opens fire in a dorm, killing eight MARCH 2005 | United States (10) A 16-year-old boy kills two people at his home in Minnesota, then goes to his school where he kills five fellow students, a teacher and a security guard and then himself OCT 2006 | United States (6) A man enters a school of the Amish community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and shoots 11 girls, killing five, before turning the weapon on himself APRIL 2007 | United States (33) A heavily armed South Korean student kills a total of 32 people on his campus at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He then shoots himself NOV 2007 | Finland (9) An 18-year-old pupil opens fire in a school in Finland killing five boys, two girls and the headmistress before comiting suicide FEB 8, 2008 | United States (3) A female student shoots two other women before turning the gun on herself at a Baton Rouge college in Louisiana FEB 14, 2008 | United States (6) Seven people including the shooter are left dead after a gun rampage at Northern Illinois University near Chicago
*Toll in brackets

Another ‘solar system’ found - TOI Article...

Astronomers Discover A Scaled-Down Version Of Our Planet System

Washington: Astronomers and amateur stargazers have used an unusual technique to find a solar system that closely resembles our own and say it may be a new and more productive way to scour the universe for planets — and life.
They said technique, called microlensing, shows promise for finding many more stars, perhaps with Earthlike planets orbiting them. “We found a solar system that looks like a scaled-down analog of our solar system,” Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University, who led the study, told reporters.
The new solar system, described in Friday’s issue of the journal Science, has two planets of similar size and orbit to Jupiter and Saturn. It is the first time microlensing has been used to find two planets orbiting a single star.
The star is smaller, dimmer and fainter than our Sun and the two planets are less massive than Jupiter and Saturn, but orbit at distances similar to the distances that Jupiter and Saturn orbit our own Sun. “So it looks like a scale model of our solar system,” Gaudi said.
The planets were detected orbiting a star, called OGLE-2006-BLG-109L, 5,000 light-years away from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.
The team of astronomers from 11 countries used microlensing to spot the planets. “Microlensing works by using the gravity of the star and the planet to bend and focus light rays from a star behind it,” Gaudi said. “If you are looking at one star and another passes in the foreground (gravity from the front star) will focus and bend light rays. That causes the background star to be magnified,” he added.
Any planets orbiting the star cause “a little bump” in this magnification effect, Gaudi said. In this case, the light from the more distant star was magnified 500 times. Most of the other 250 or so extrasolar planets that have been seen have been detected using radio velocity — tiny shifts in radiation, including light, that are caused by the Doppler effect. Most planets detected this way are super-large, super gassy and orbit very close to their suns.
“Microlensing is more sensitive to these cold, distant planets than the radiovelocity method,” Gaudi said. The discovery suggests these planets are common, the researchers said. “Is there an Earth there in this system? For all we know there could be rocky planets in there but we couldn’t find them,” Gaudi said. “This could be a true solar system analog. REUTERS

CELESTIAL CLONE? Artist’s rendition of a distant solar system shows two newly discovered planets — one resembling Jupiter (middle) and one resembling Saturn (middle right). Both planets orbit a star that is about half the size of our Sun

Is Higher Education Elsewhere Worth It?

llinois univ has tie-up to draw Indian students

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Eeshan Shrimali landed on the Northern Illinois University (NIU) campus a year back under a new programme that allowed him to complete his course in computer science engineering after studying for it for two years at the Manipal University in Karnataka.
One of the most popular varsities among engineering students in India, NIU has an arrangement with the southbased deemed varsity to allow students to get a foreign degree by studying a few years in India before moving to the American campus for graduation.
It is arrangements such as these which have boosted the international student population on US campuses in recent years. Apart from hefty support in terms of scholarships and grants, leading US colleges have forged twinning programmes or signed MoUs with several Indian institutions to draw their students.
Today, while 91% of students at NIU come from the state of Illinois, the foreign student population at the Chicago-based university stands at 862 — and they hail from 88 different countries.
Incidentally, the US attracts the largest number of international students among all nations, with Indians accounting for the biggest chunk. According to a 2007 report by the US-based Open Doors agency, the total international students in the US stood at 5,82,984. Of these the largest chunk was in California.
Sonal Parekh, managing director of EduWorld, a consulting firm which helps students wanting to study abroad, said: “The US gives the maximum scholarships in terms of assistanceship, tution waiver and research fellowships. The flexibility in curriculum, quality teaching and worldclass infrastructure see thousands going there every year.’’
A senior faculty member at the IIT-Bombay Kannan Moudgalya who did his PhD from the Rice University in chemical engineering pointed out that the American higher education system had perfected a system which draws students. “The infrastructure , the emphasis on high end research, merit in case of admission and fear of non-delivery in case of faculty members,’’ Moudgalya says, bringing out the best in the system.

SHOCKED: An officer escorts a student after the shootout at Illinois university on Thursday

Security - the new factor in Education?

STUDENTS SUBJECT TO CAMPUS FEAR

Security Is Emerging As A Factor In Choosing A Foreign University For Further Studies

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: About five years
ago, students looking to go overseas for an international degree had few options - it was US, US or US. Like a student of the Indian Institute of Technology said, “US was the constant; one had to then choose among MIT, Stanford or Georgia Tech.’’
Today, the spectre of insecurity on American campuses hangs over a student’s decision-making; for an MBA aspirant like Colaba-based Alexander Kuruvilla, heading out to a US university seems to make little sense anymore. He has instead shortlisted universities in Singapore if he does not get a seat in the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business. “Security is one reason, but it is coupled with others like the economy not doing too well as also the cost factor,’’ said Kuruvilla, who currently works with a foreign bank in the city.
American universities are currently combating the twin challenges of campus violence and competition. Increasingly, for a variety of non-technical courses, the student population is looking at destinations cheaper or closer home. According to a report by the US-based agency, Open Doors, the annual enrolment rates of Indian students on Australian campuses has significantly outpaced those of American universities, clocking a growth of almost 30% to 40%.
Several parents, say consultants, are picking Singapore or Australia over the US. Harikrishnan Murugan (23), currently doing apparel design and merchandising at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, reasons the choice of his destination to the “peaceful and safe’’ environs of that city.
That said, deaths on US campuses have by themselves not dissuaded any of the hundreds of Indian engineers who fly to the US annually for a master’s programme. Jai Nithani, third-year mechanical engineering student from IIT-Bombay, says he intends on going to America after his BTech from the Powai college. The recurrence of violent incidents is not going to deter him. “You can get killed right here in Mumbai too. Look at what is happening in the city,’’ said Nithani.
If it’s any consolation for those keen on pursuing higher education in the US, American institutions have in recent years covered themselves with a blanket of security in order to tackle terror attacks and random shootings.Police blotters, security and alarm systems, emergency corridor phones, they are all part of the current set-up in most colleges.
Take the latest incident at the Northern Illinois University; the campus police arrived in a flat two minutes after the shooting which killed seven and left 14 others wounded.
Prashant Jain who is at Georgia Tech doing a PhD pointed out that his campus neighbourhood in Atlanta is not very safe. “A few months ago my room mate, an Indian student pursuing his master’s programme, was robbed at gunpoint. Break-ins into residential areas are getting more and more common. But the university is taking steps to clean up the area,’’ he pointed out. Escort services are offered from 6 pm to 2.30 am and emergency phones have been installed all over the campus.
After 32 students were gunned down on Virginia Tech University in April last year, Georgia Tech started a service called Emergency Notification - which sends out SMSes to students to evacuate the campus in
case of an emergency. “Students are being appraised about every incident big or small so that we can plan our activities. Campus police patrolling has been intensified,’’ said Jain.
As for Virginia Tech, the April massacre forced the varsity to start an e-mail alert service. “Every incident is informed to the students and patrolling guards move around the campus and hallway on mechanical scooters,’’ said Shyam Chaure, a student who was recently in the city on a holiday. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Feb 14, ‘08: A gunman opens fire at the Northern Illinois University, killing four and wounding many others. The shooter burst into an auditorium with more than 100 students inside and began firing before killing himself. May 7, ‘07: Texas A&M University-Kingsville Bodies of Pravesh Kumar and Vijay Mahadevan were found in a swimming pool in an apartment building on campus. Police said it was an accident, but suspicions linger Jan 16, ‘02: Graduate student Peter Odighizuwa, 42, recently dismissed from Virginia’s Appalachian School of Law, returns to campus and kills the dean, a professor and a student before being tackled by students. The attack also wounds three female students.
Aug 28, ‘00: James Easton Kelly, 36, a University of Arkansas graduate student recently dropped from a doctoral program after a decade of study and John Locke, 67, the English professor overseeing his coursework, are shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide.

Jan 18, ‘08: 29-year-old Abhijit Mahato was found inside his Anderson Street apartment in North Carolina’s Duke University. Mahato’s apartment was some distance from the university campus.

Dec 13, ‘07: Louisiana State University’s Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma (31) and Kiran Kumar Allam (33), two PhD students from Hyderabad, were found murdered at the latter’s apartment on campus. The varsity said the duo could have been killed in a home invasion, but cops did not find a clear motive.

April 16, ‘07: Virginia Tech University first-year architecture student from Mumbai, Minal Panchal, and Prof G V Loganathan from Chennai were among the 32 people gunned down by a Korean student in the worst campus massacre in US history

The History of Goof-Ups in Education - TOI article - 16/02/2008

The SSC board has a history of goof-ups

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: For many schools across the state, which received a flurry of circulars from the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Education on clarifications for class-X textbooks, it was a case of deja vu. For, this was just one in a long line of goof-ups committed by the board, teachers said.
A goof-up in the SSC mathematics paper last year resulted in class-X students receiving 30 “free’’ marks. The goof-up was that 30 per cent of the questions in one set of papers was a lot tougher than questions in the rest of the sets; the board set multiple question papers for algebra and geometry to curb cheating. But the hue and cry that followed forced the board to give all students 30 marks for the contentious section. This, not surprisingly, pushed up the pass percentage all over the state.
That’s not all. The new set of class-X textbooks, which were released in the market for the revised SSC curriculum last year, were not only delayed by a month but were also riddled with errors. The recent circulars were the last in a long series that were issued to schools with corrections that should have been incorporated in the textbooks. “We have received corrections for textbooks in practically all the subjects,’’ a school principal said. She, however, added that most of the circulars were sent out by the board by August last year. Principals and teachers also recalled how some of the examination centres last year did not resemble school buildings at all. One of the centres was actually under construction, with iron rods sticking out of the building, and another resembled a slum with tiny classrooms and an asbestos sheet on the roof.
toireporter@timesgroup.com

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: A maths paper error in 2007 forced the board to give students 30 grace marks

Right changes in textbooks...too early or too late?

Students in a fix over algebra errors

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: SSC students who spent the year studying income-tax — a chapter in the algebra textbook — were in for a shock after the state education board issued clarifications on the subject, detailing a method of calculating income-tax that was completely different from the one in the textbook. The clarifications also mentioned an important change in the way binary numbers were written.
Many schools received the corrections only last week. Some have not received them at all.
Teachers are upset that they are unable to teach students the new methods of solving algebraic problems because the latter are on study leave. “We photocopied the circular for all children and handed them out on open day. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t teach my students the new methods of calculation,’’ Holy Family High School (Andheri) mathematics teacher Susan Babu said. The income-tax differs for various tax slabs (like for senior citizens, men and women) and the clarifications have outlined a method of calculating tax that’s completely at variance from the textbook.
“The textbooks were written before the budget speech last year so they mentioned the old method of calculating income-tax. However, the clarifications are based on the new method outlined in last year’s budget,’’ a board official explained. He added that students who did not receive the circular and computed tax according to the textbook would not lose out on marks.
The algebra textbook isn’t the only one that’s riddled with errors. Geometry, history, civics, geography and economics texts also had many mistakes. Many of them, though, were minor errors in spelling and syntax. One of the textbooks, for instance, mentioned Soviet Russia but the clarification mentioned the full form of the USSR.
THEIR SAY
THE EXPERTS
We have not received any circular from the board on corrections in class-X textbooks. But we have heard about the issue from other schoolteachers. I am not overly worried about this; I’m sure that a teacher who has knowledge of the subject will spot the errors and teach the subject correctly. But that does not mean there is no problem; children often rely solely on textbooks.
Yasmeen Chhagla | PRINCIPAL, CUMBALLA HILL HIGH SCHOOL, NAPEAN SEA ROAD
The new curriculum has been introduced in class X for the first time this academic year, resulting in practical difficulties for the board. I feel that the board is doing its best. Textbooks were delayed by a month last year and arrived in July. We received corrections throughout the year from the board for textbooks in almost every subject. But, at this time of the year when children are busy focusing on examinations, any correction in textbooks will disturb them.
Fr Francis Swamy | PRINCIPAL, HOLY FAMILY HIGH SCHOOL, ANDHERI
Ithink it’s too too late for corrections in textbooks. Students have stopped coming to school and are on study leave. It’s difficult to get across several pages of corrections to students. Students are upset at getting so many corrections before the board examinations. Even teachers are confused.
Najma Kazi | PRINCIPAL, ANJUMAN-I-ISLAM’S SAIF TYABJEE GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL
THE BOARD
Care will be taken to ensure that students are not affected and do not lose out on marks in the class-X examinations.
Vinay Dakshindas | MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF SECONDARY AND HIGHER SECONDARY EDUCATION SECRETARY

More goof ups by the managers of education...

CARELESS MISTAKES

Board Emends SSC Texts A Month Before Exam, Says Marks Won’t Be Deducted If Students Don’t Follow The Corrections

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: Rattled parents and jittery teenagers faced with a few hundred corrections in class-X textbooks a month before the SSC exam can breathe a little easy. The SSC board, after sending out circulars with detailed corrections for several subjects to schools at the eleventh hour, has said it will ensure that students do not lose out on marks even if they answer questions without incorporating the corrections.
The SSC board released a series of circulars with corrections in history, civics, geography, economics and mathematics texts between January 8 and 21. Many schools received circulars only in February but there are others that have not got them at all.
“Care will be taken to ensure that students are not affected and do not lose out on marks in the class-X examinations,’’ Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education secretary Vinay Dakshindas said.
Schools that received the emended texts last week were left wondering how to get them across to students on a study break. “We photocopied the circulars for the maths textbooks and gave them to each student on Friday. But it was possible because they were in school for open day,’’ Holy Family School (Andheri) principal Fr Francis Swamy said.
Teachers are afraid that the whole list of emendments will unnerve students. “They are already tense about exams,’’ Anjuman-I-Islam’s Saif Tyabjee Girl’s High School principal Najma Kazi said, adding that it was not easy to distribute several pages of corrections for a school with a few hundred students in class X.
But SSC officials assured that students’ performance would not be affected by the corrections. “Students’ marks will not be affected even if they do not follow the correction sheet,’’ a board official said.
The current batch of class-X students is the first to have studied the new SSC syllabus. The new textbooks were delayed by over a month and, throughout the academic year, schools received corrections in texts for almost all subjects.
“There is a board of studies for all subjects that scrutinises textbooks for mistakes. The moment errors were spotted in the texts, we sent out circulars to schools,’’ the board official added. There were rules whereby action could be taken against textbook committees for goofing up, he said. “Minor mistakes may be overlooked but those who developed the texts will be held responsible for some of the more serious errors,’’ he added.
IT’S NOT DONE
THE CHANGES
The state board updates the SSC syllabus once every 10 years.
The process for this phase of updating started a couple of years back.
2008 is the first year that students are going to be tested on the basis of the new syllabus; so there will be two sets of question papers for all subjects (one set for repeaters and the other for fresh candidates).
New textbooks came in at the beginning of the academic session.
THE GOOF-UP
Officials now say there are lots of mistakes in the new texts.
An estimate puts the number of errors at a few hundred.
THE RESULT
Emended texts have started going to schools.
But several schools have not got the corrections; this, say teachers, may lead to a lot of confusion especially as most schools have already sent their students on study leave to prepare for the examination.
THE BUCK STOPS HERE
The textbook committee for each subject and, ultimately, the board must share the blame.

Sci Tech .....

ROBO RODENT

An international team of researchers is taking inspiration from rats’ whiskers to develop sensor technology that will help robots in tactile navigation

MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU

Researchers at England’s University of Sheffield, Germany’s Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – along with others – are using the animal kingdom to help develop sophisticated touch technology for use in intelligent machines, such as robots.
The new 7.3 million euro ‘BIOTACT’ project brings together nine research groups from seven countries – including Israel and the US – to develop innovative artificial touch technologies, including a “whiskered” robotic rat.
This new technology could have a number of possible applications in modern-day society from search and rescue robots that could pick their way through rubble and debris to mineclearing machines to planetary rovers in space.
The technology could also be used closer to home in domestic products; for example vacuum cleaners that could sense textures for optimal cleaning.
While vision supplies information about distant objects, touch is invaluable in sensing the nearby environment. However, in designing intelligent, life-like machines, the use of touch has been largely overlooked, until now.
Led by Professor Tony Prescott of Sheffield’s Department of Psychology, the international team will develop new technologies inspired by the use of touch in the animal kingdom.
In nocturnal creatures, or those that inhabit poorly-lit places, this physical sense is widely preferred to vision as a primary means of discovering the world.
The Norwegian rat and the Etruscan shrew, for example, use their whiskers to make sense of their environment. The mammals sweep their whiskers back and forth at high speeds in a controlled manner, allowing them to use touch signals alone to recognise familiar items, determine the shape and surface of objects, and track and capture prey.
The research team at the BCCN – led by Professor Michael Brecht of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – will focus on the Etruscan shrew, the smallest mammal.
This animal hunts prey of almost the same size as itself. Guided by vibrissal touch, this animal places breath-takingly fast and precise attacks on its insect prey.
“The sensory-motor performance of this animal is astonishing. Using novel microscopy techniques will offer unique insights about the mammalian brain function,” Brecht says.
Using their understanding of the animal kingdom, the team will develop two machines endowed with similar sensing capabilities, including a whiskered robot that can seek-out, identify and track fast-moving target objects.
“Overall, our project will bring about a step-change in the understanding of active touch sensing and in the use of whisker-like sensors in intelligent machines,” Prescott said.
“Today’s life-like machines, such as robots, don’t make effective use of touch. By learning from nature and developing technologies that do use this physical sense, our researchers will be able to enhance the capabilities of the machines of the future.”

TOP: One of the first whiskered robot prototypes to be designed and built as part of the project. ABOVE: An example of what the final ‘robot rat’ will look like, that can seek-out, identify and track fastmoving target objects

Handy booklets for students...

Schools to get booklets for emergencies

BMC plans to distribute booklets containing information on all sorts of natural and man-made disasters for students

SUDHIR SURYAWANSHI

After the incident in which a van carrying schoolchildren to a Jogeshwari school killed five children, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing a disaster management booklet for each and every school in the city. At present, BMC is making the booklet for its 1,200 BMC-run schools across the city and later on private schools too will prepare such booklets.
The disaster management booklet for the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg Municipal School at Mulund is now ready and will serve to be a model for schools across the city. The elaborate disaster management booklet can be used during emergencies like floods, building collapses or fires. It will contain details about emergency exits, evacuation routes, places where they can take shelter, layout of the school building, contact numbers of nearest hospitals, police stations, fire brigades, school authorities, etc. Moreover, information about earthquakes, landslides, industrial and chemical accidents, cyclones too will be given.
S S Shinde, deputy municipal commissioner (education) said that students are a vulnerable group during natural and man-made disasters and need special attention. “In emergencies, this disaster management training will help students save themselves. It will also create awareness among them. Through training and this special booklet, the response time of students in such situations will be reduced,” he added.
“Once the BMC prepares the booklets, we will also ask private schools to make such disaster management booklets part of their curriculum and distribute them to students,” said Madhukar Sanap, the district project manager of BMC.
To implement this plan effectively, the BMC has decided to give disaster management training to BMC and private school principals. A two-day workshop addressed by experts on the topic will be attended by 1,000 principals in the city. Subsequently, the sub-committees will be formed to look after implementation of the plan. “The workshop will be divided into five sessions and take place in the first week of May. Each session will be attended by 200 principals from both private as well as BMC schools. We also plan to tie up with citybased NGOs and the Maharashtra Education Technical department,” said Shinde.

The disaster management booklet can be used during emergencies like floods, building collapses or fires

New Discovery...

Youngest ever galaxy discovered

A1689-zD1 Formed 700 Million Years After Our Universe Began, Say Astronomers

New York: Astronomers have discovered a galaxy which they claim is one of the youngest and brightest ever seen right after the cosmic “dark ages”, just 700 million years after the beginning of our Universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the image of the infant galaxy with a redshift significantly above 7, using a natural zoom lens, the Nasa said.
In fact, the image reveals the galaxy, dubbed A1689-zD1, undergoing a firestorm of star birth as it comes out of the “dark ages”, a time shortly after the Big Bang, but before the first stars completed reheating of the Universe. “This galaxy presumably is one of the many galaxies that helped end the dark ages,” said lead astronomer Larry Bradley of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Added fellow researcher Garth Illingworth of the California University, “We’re certainly surprised to find such a bright young galaxy 13 billion years in the past. This is the most detailed look to date at an object so far.”
According to the astronomers, the measurements are “highly reliable”. “This object is the strongest candidate for the most distant galaxy so far,” said team member Piero Rosati from ESO in Germany. They hope that new images will offer insights into the formative years of galaxy birth and evolution and yield information on the types of objects that may have contributed to ending the dark ages.
In fact, the galaxy is so far away it did not appear in visible light images taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, because its light is stretched to infrared wavelengths by the Universe’s expansion. It took Hubble’s NICMOS, Spitzer and a trick of nature called gravitational lensing to see the faraway galaxy.
The astronomers used a relatively nearby massive cluster of galaxies known as Abell 1689, roughly 2.2 billion light-years away, to magnify the light from the more distant galaxy directly behind it. This natural telescope is actually gravitational lens. “The Hubble images yield insight into the galaxy’s structure that we cannot get with any other telescope,” said Rychard Bouwens of the University of California, and one of the co-discoverers of the galaxy. PTI

SHINING STARLETS: The Hubble Space telescope image of the infant galaxy A1689-zD1

A Teacher's Role...

Kalam underlines teacher’s role in student life

Ansy Austin | NiE

Mumbai: “It’s the first seven years that matter the most in the life of a child. Teachers need to concentrate on grooming every student in school during those crucial years and those who can manage this will surely have left a lasting impression on the mind and personality of the child,” said Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the St Francis D’assisi School and Orphanage in Borivli on Wednesday.
He was speaking during the inaugural function of the school’s four-day programme ‘Synergy’, organised to celebrate 100 years of the institution. Heads of various St Francis’ group of educational institutions were present on the occasion. The school ground was flooded with students, parents and locals, who were eager to catch a glimpse of the former president of India. “Dr Kalam is a role model for students. His words were indeed inspiring,” said brother Aloysius J Kettidathil, secretary of the Franciscan Brothers.
“For the platinum jubilee of the school we had the then president to grace the occasion. This time we thought Kalam, who is an inspiration for our students, would be the ideal person," said Brother Jesudass, principal of the school. Kalam, who has a way with kids, this time made the students repeat after him: “Knowledge is equal to creativity, courage and dominant spirit.”
(NiE is the student edition of The Times of India.)

SPREADING THE LIGHT: Former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam inaugurates ‘Synergy’, a programme organised to celebrate 100 years of St Francis D’assisi School and Orphanage in Borivli, on Wednesday

And there no money for educating the poor?

STATUS QUO

Rs 4L spent on entertaining academicians

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: Ice-creams from Gelato Italiano, US Pizza on the Pune Express Highway and meals at Cream Centre and Legacy of China—these are just a few of a long list of hospitality bills at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Contemporary Studies in Mumbai University that ran into over Rs 1.5 lakh and were footed by the University Grants Commission.
A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Madhu Paranjape, a senior teacher at Kirti College, showed that from March 2006 to December 2007, the hospitality and travel expenses of the centre crossed Rs 4 lakh.
The bulk of the hospitality expenses were on some of the city’s poshest restaurants including Bombay Blue at Khar and Copper Chimney at Bandra where guest speakers as well as visitors were entertained. The travel expenses included thousands spent on taxi rides to meet the Vice-Chancellor, air fare to Delhi and private car rides in Mumbai and Delhi. This even includes the expenses incurred on a private car during the Vice-Chancellor’s conference in Delhi.
“I travelled a lot in Delhi on work related to the Rajiv Gandhi Centre. I have generated crores for the university’’ says B Venkatesh Kumar, the in-charge director of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre, who defends the expenses. As for the huge hospitality bills, he says the guest speakers were of a high calibre and merited fivestar treatment. Speakers included HRD minister Arjun Singh, leader of the Lok Satta movement Jayprakash Narayan and professor Kaushik Basu from Cornell University.
“Every department at the university has guest speakers travelling to the university from across the country. But such lavish spending for hospitality is unheard of. These are funds meant for academics,’’ says Paranjape.
“Official meetings should be held at the university and not at restaurants,’’ she adds. “Lavish spending to this degree is very unusual. In our department, we struggle for funds. Spending on posh restaurants has never been a priority for us,’’ says a senior teacher from a humanities department at Mumbai University.
Mumbai University Vice-Chancellor Vijay Khole, however, said that when a Nobel Laureate or a central minister comes to visit the university, it’s obvious that he would receive five-star treatment. As for holding meetings and taking visitors to posh restaurants, he said this was proof of how vibrant the centre was. Travel expenses in Delhi, said Khole, were meant to generate funds for the Rajiv Gandhi centre and it was impossible to travel by public transport within the city.
Incidentally, the information that Paranjape received from the university’s accounts department shows that the travel expenses for the Rajiv Gandhi Centre from March 2006 to December 2007, were over Rs 2.54 lakh while Venkatesh Kumar has said, in the reply to another RTI filed by Anjali Kanitkar, a senior teacher at Nirmala Niketan, that the travel expenses from March 2006 till date are a little over Rs 1 lakh.
“The annual travel budget for the centre is Rs 1 lakh. I had to travel a lot in order to organise public lecturers for the centre. These bills are included in the budget for seminars and conferences,’’ says Venkatesh Kumar.
The Rajiv Gandhi chairs have been set up across the country to promote academic research and create a thinktank on various areas of contemporary study. The chair in Mumbai is concerned with globalisation, democracy and development, higher education, corporate social responsibility and empowerment of women.
The RTI file by Kanitkar shows that the bulk of the academic activities comprise public lectures by guest speakers.
While the UGC has specified that each Rajiv Gandhi chair should be occupied by a professor, Venkatesh Kumar, is not a professor but a reader.
“This is a blatant violation of UGC norms. How can a man who is not qualified to hold the chair be in charge of the functioning of the centre and allocate such large sums of money, meant for the purpose of strengthening higher education, on entertaining guests at expensive restaurants,’’ says Paranjape. Kumar refused to comment on the issue.
“A search committee was sent out to find suitable professors for the chair. Though they provided us a list of seven such candidates, none of them accepted the chair. I had to appoint an in-charge director for the centre to run,’’ says Vice Chancellor Vijay Khole.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

Education Mismanaged...

TEACHERS TO PROTEST

Andheri colleges trust fires faculty, students worried

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: The spotlight is again on the two colleges that stirred up a controversy at the start of this academic year. Laxmi Education Society, which runs two suburban junior colleges—MVLU College and Chinai College—has terminated the services of all its faculty members. This has left the current Std XI batches high and dry, as there will be no faculty member to teach them when students enter Std XII.
So far, the management has terminated the services of 42 teachers, who were a part of the arts, commerce and science streams. The college had
served a notice to 27 faculty members in June 2007. And more recently, on January 31, 2008, the remaining 15 teachers were given the pink slip, said A J Singh, president of the Mumbai Junior College Teachers’ Union. These teachers are currently serving their three-month notice period. The ousted faculty have threatened to stage a protest on February 18 in front of the college.
However, according to state rules, services of these professors cannot be terminated unless they are accommodated in other institutions. “So several teachers whose services were terminated in June continued to keep coming to college, but the management served them trespassing notices,’’ added Singh. Now, with the remaining 15 teachers also gone, students and teachers are in a quandary.
The junior colleges have a combined intake of 1,560 students. But merely 40 students in science and 67 in commerce were admitted in 2007. This, after the Bombay high court ruled that the management cannot shut down the colleges.
It was in June when the trust had informed the students of its decision to shut down the institutions by October. Following this, petitions had been filed by teachers and a social worker, opposing it. The government, too, has challenged the decision and alleged that the management was planning to open a mall. Now, the teachers are demanding that the state appoint an administrator for this academic year’s admission in both colleges. The Gujarati linguistic minority colleges attract a large number of students from as far away as Vasai and Virar.
Despite repeated attempts, TOI was unable to contact Hemant Vissanji, secretary of Laxmi Education Trust.
Students are now worried. “We took admission here because the state government had ordered against the shutting down of the college. But now if there are no teachers next year, who will teach us?’’ asked a science student. The trust has been trying to shut down the colleges since some years. It has been reducing the number of total seats each year, and the state alleges the trust is keen on setting up a mall on this land in Andheri (east).
hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com

School Blues Part 2...

Parents stage protest outside Dadar school

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Hundreds of students at the English-medium section of Dadar’s Balmohan Vidyamandir stayed away from school while their parents carried out a peaceful protest outside the school for nearly three hours on Wednesday morning.
Parents were upset that they were not informed that Stds V to VII at the school were not recognised by the state government. “For the last three years, we were not aware that our children were studying at an unrecognised school,’’ a parent said. “Now it’ll be hard to shift our children to another school, too,’’ she added.
Parents were also upset over the quality of education at Balmohan. “There’s a frequent change of teachers, which disrupts the pace at which our children are studying,’’ said another parent. Despite being an English medium school, parents felt that a number of teachers could not speak proper English, a parent said.
After they stood outside the school for over two hours, the school management held a meeting with the parents. “The school’s managing trustee, Bapusaheb Rege, assured us that the school would soon get recognition,’’ said a parent.
Parents also asked the school to give children the option of studying Sanskrit and French for the SSC exam instead of a full paper in Hindi. The school, however, refused to do so.

SEEKING RECOGNITION: Parents stood outside Dadar’s Balmohan Vidyamandir for nearly three hours on Wednesday morning

Whats in the name...

Is ‘Indian’ a monopoly of the govt?

SC Stays AICTE Ban On Pvt Colleges Using Such Words

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN

New Delhi: Does the government hold absolute copyright over appellations “Indian” and “national” when it comes to using them for educational institutions?
The issue has been thrown up by a fiat of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), the apex regulatory body for engineering and technical education, prohibiting private institutions from using the words. Many institutions, fearing derecognition, fell in line. But Selvam Educational and Charitable Trust decided to contest the move.
Opposing the 2002 decision of the AICTE, the trust tossed a question to the Supreme Court bench asking if there could be a state monopoly over the words “Indian” and “national”. Arguing for the trust, advocate Arun Jaitley said the order marked a major anomaly where all kinds of commercial establishments were free to use “Indian” or “national” but a private engineering or technical institution couldn’t.
The trust, through advocate G Balaji, put forward another poser. Did the AICTE’s decision not come in conflict with the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act that does not prohibit the use of the word “Indian” by any firm or company.
While issuing a notice to the AICTE, the bench stayed its controversial notification of 2002 till further orders, clearing the way for private institutions to use the appellations in dispute.
The Selvam Trust had set up The Indian Engineering College in 1984, which was recognised by the TN government. When the notification prohibiting the use of the words “Indian”, “national”, “All India”, etc was put in place, the trust was forced to change the name of the institute to escape derecognition. The Selvam Trust then approached the Madras HC, but it rejected its protest. The AICTE justified its decision saying it was meant to protect students from being duped by unscrupulous operators who have crowded the private sector in education.
Times View
The notion that the state should have the exclusive rights to use the word ‘Indian’ when it comes to naming educational institutions betrays a deeper malaise—the mindset that confuses the state with the nation. It would be an unacceptable reduction that the word ‘Indian’ refers to things that are owned by the government. The AICTE seems to believe that students might be fooled into believing that an educational institution is state-owned or state-run if it has the word Indian in its name. This is an insult to the intelligence of those who are seeking professional education in India. It should, even at this stage, recognize the error in its mindset and acknowledge that the word Indian belongs to all Indians, individually and collectively.

School Blues....TOI article

NON-RECOGNITION OF STD V TO VII

Dadar school students to skip classes today

Parents Will Stage Silent Protest

Mumbai: Hundreds of children will bunk classes en masse at Balmohan Vidyamandir in Shivaji Park while their parents stage a silent protest outside the school on Wednesday over issues plaguing the school.
The prime reason behind the protest is that Standards V to VII at the English-medium section of the school are not recognised by the government. TOI had reported the matter last month.
Incidentally, parents had received a circular from the school informing them that recognition for the school was in progress. “For the last three years, we were not aware that our children were studying in a school that did not have government recognition. At least we could have been informed of the matter,’’ says a Std VII parent.
That’s not all. Parents say that teaching standards have dropped at the school. A number of teachers have left the school and replacements made hurriedly. This caused disruption during the first two months of studies in Std VII, because of which the syllabus could not be completed on time and had to be
hurriedly finished off. Hence, most of the class took tuitions.
“We are paying Rs 14,000 a year. But we are getting much value for the money,’’ said a parent. According to parents, teachers at the English-medium section are not competent and do not speak good English. TNN

And the battle goes on....

Girls outshine boys this yr

Bag 40 Of The 71 Gold Medals At Varsity Convocation

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Girls outshone boys at this year’s convocation at the University of Mumbai, by grabbing 40 of the 71 gold medals. Even the prestigious President of India Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma gold medal was bagged by Taskeen Ameer Nadkar from the Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering for her academic achievements, extra-curricular activities and her performance at the interview level.
In his convocation address on Tuesday, Chief Justice of Bombay high court Swatanter Kumar pointed out that this was “a wake-up call for boys’’. Speaking about the education system, Kumar said that “undue stress on employment-oriented studies and result-oriented examination had its adverse effects on the overall quality of education’’.
He noted that “assessment of teachers on the basis of passing percentage of their students compels a teacher to be exam-oriented, resulting in mass production of mediocres’’.
Advising students not to be materialistic, the chief justice said that “computer and profits’’ must not be considered as the sole aim in life. Lastly, he said that any technology has to touch people’s lives.
Stating how the use of nano-technology could purify contaminated water, Kumar said that interdisciplinary research can be applied to refine “a social system and supply fountain of constitutional rights in its pure state to the underprivileged’’.
Earlier, University of Mumbai pro-vice chancellor A D Sawant presented the annual report of the varsity and the various activities conducted during the sesquicentenary celebrations.
During the year, both the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation and Thane Municipal Corporation have allotted plots to the university to set up sub-centres.
Sawant said the Institute of Distance Education had started its single window admission process from this year and enrollment had touched a whopping 65,000. But he promised that “online admission process along with manual subscription is likely to take off from the next academic year’’.
Setting up a virtual classroom studio is also in the pipeline, Sawant added.
toireporter@timesgroup.com

LEADING THE WAY: Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar, varsity vice-chancellor Vijay Khole and pro vicechancellor A D Sawant at the Mumbai University’s annual convocation ceremony on Tuesday

We need Professionals as Teachers not Teachers as Professionals...

Teachers change course for better pay

They Are Leaving Schools To Join Corporates, Banks, BPOs and Coaching Classes

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: There was a time when the average schoolteacher’s careerscape consisted of several decades in one school. Today, the attrition rate in academic jobs almost rivals that of the corporate world.
Teachers, even from the city’s top schools, are leaving in droves to join the host of so-called international schools that have entered the education market as well as corporates, banks, BPOs and coaching classes. “We have lost five teachers in the last year alone,’’ says Mona Seervai, principal of Bombay International School, an ICSE school at Babulnath. According to her, it is impossible to match the salaries international schools pay their teachers. “After all, our fees don’t run into lakhs,’’ she says.
ICSE schools often recruit freshly-minted graduates straight out of teacher training colleges, but most international schools prefer experienced teachers and hire them from ICSE institutes. “We’ve now become a training ground for international schools,’’ says Paul Machado, principal of Campion School in Cooperage, sardonically.
While most well-known ICSE schools have managed to replace the teachers who have left them, some have floundered. A year ago, scores of parents pulled their children out of Ryan International School in Malad because they alleged that the attrition rate among teachers was phenomenally high, with the result that students learnt little in the classroom.
A lucrative salary isn’t the only thing that pulls teachers out of ICSE schools and into the corporate sector or institutions run by the corporate sector. Teachers say that though coaching classes and international schools often require longer working hours, at the end of the day, the job satisfaction is a lot higher.
A hunger to “do his own thing in life’’ drove R Singh, a former teacher at Ryan International School (Malad) to quit the institution and set up his own coaching class.
For some, teaching in an international school happened by chance. After teaching the ICSE and ISC syllabus for 23 years, both in Mumbai and Kolkata, Sudeshna Sengupta quit her job at a south Mumbai ICSE school when she shifted to a home in the suburbs. She now teaches at Ecole Mondiale World School, an International Baccalaureate School in Juhu, where she loves her job. “The IB system is flexible and creative and teachers are not bound to the syllabus,’’ she says.
“Till Grade 8, teachers are allowed to choose the kind of textbooks they want to use. The subjects, too, are vastly different from what’s offered at regular schools. For instance, I’m currently teaching a subject called the ‘Theory of Knowledge’, where students question everything that they have learned and there are no wrong answers,’’ adds Sengupta.
Low salaries, high stress levels and little recognition for their worth are also driving teachers out of the profession altogether. For instance, Sandhya Shignan, a PT teacher at a well-known suburban ICSE school, is all set to quit teaching for a job as an advisor to ICICI. “I enjoy speaking to people, so the new job will definitely suit my personality,’’ she says. “Besides, teaching involves a great deal of stress.’’
Shignan isn’t the only one. With several teachers quitting the profession for a corporate job, schools are now witnessing an exodus.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

The IB system - as published in TOI - 10th Feb 2008

‘Most IB schools offer free education’

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: Despite the hype about International Baccalaureate schools, little is known about their curriculum and such schools function abroad. Indian businessmen have been quick to cash in on the IB tag by setting up expensive schools, but are students getting their money’s worth? TOI put these questions to International Baccalaureate Organisation director-general Jeffrey Beard in a telephone interview.
Q: IB schools in India are perceived as very costly and elitist. Do you have any plans to reduce the fee?
A: We don’t own or run schools, we authorise them to offer our programmes and they pay us a yearly fee, which is a very small part of their overall budget. A school is free to set their own fees. Our primary role is to ensure schools meet our criteria for authorisation, and we also train their teachers. We then monitor and periodically evaluate the school to ensure they are delivering the curriculum according to our standards.
Q: Some IB schools in Mumbai have either broken the law or provide poor infrastructure. Won’t such schools give IB a bad name? One in Mazgaon, for instance, runs out of premises meant for a municipal school. The municipality shut down a civic school, left the children high and dry and rented 16 rooms and a hall to an NGO that carried out illegal structural changes in the building and converted it into an IB school.
A: This, if true, is unfortunate. However, keep in mind that we do not run schools, we only authorise them to run our programmes. Ultimately, a school that does not uphold our ethical standards and aligns itself with our mission may end up being de-authorised. We do monitor each school and evaluate them every five years or so. We evaluate the standard of teaching in the schools and check whether they have incorporated the IB philosophy. Though we may not immediately be able to take action against a school, incidents such as this eventually catch up with a school.
Q: There’s another school at Kemps Corner that operates out of a few floors on top of a row of shops on the main road. There’s no playground. Some classes have only two or three children.
A: We have no knowledge of this and cannot comment. We authorise each school on the basis that they can meet our standards over time, which are principally aimed at what goes on in the classroom. Some schools start off with only a few IB students and more limited facilities. However, they grow and improve over time. Q: Are IB schools across the world generally very expensive and elite?
A: No, over half of the 2,200 IB schools in the world are state-run schools and not private schools. This means the school budget is funded by the
government and students avail of an IB education free of cost. Ninety-two per cent of IB schools in the United States are public (or state) schools, and 60% of IB schools in the United Kingdom are state-run. Q: Any idea why the IB in India is solely offered by elite private schools?
A: In the 1960s and 1970s, when the IB curriculum was first offered in the US and Europe, it was only in elite private schools. However, gradually,
as the movement spread and the schools grew in number, governments, too, felt it was a good curriculum and began supporting its offering in public schools. This helped universalise IB and increased the access to an IB education for those who could not afford a private school. In India, the government has not yet realised these benefits. However, about 40% of the Indian market comprises private schools that are very much interested in our programmes. Currently, there are around 40 IB schools in India. They compete for the best teachers and this has affected salary levels of these teachers which, perhaps, is a factor in the fee they charge. As more schools become IB-authorised, it should help cut the tuition fee these schools charge and make them more affordable. Remember, the fee a school pays to the IB is not at all related to the tuition fee they charge publicly. Q: Currently, schools in India say they charge a high fee for IB as it is a costly programme. Teachers have to fly overseas for training. Is there any way to cut the costs?
A: As more schools introduce the IB curriculum in India, we can expand our resources in the country and be able to offer more localised training for teachers. This will help bring down the costs. We’re also in the process of introducing online workshops to train teachers so they won’t need to travel. We also plan to allow universities that already offer a college degree for teachers to be authorised to do IB teacher-training. This will allow teachers to be directly employed in any IB School in the world instead of having to take additional workshops. We hope varsities like Mumbai University and Delhi University will be interested in this programme.
Q: How rapidly is IB growing in India?
A: In 2002, there were only seven schools in India. The number rose to 37 in 2007. In 2008, we expect to authorise even more so that there will be 61 by the year-end.
Q: The IB diploma is now recognised as the equivalent of the HSC (Std XII) by Mumbai University. But in the IB system, students are graded and not marked. So how can a college in India compare HSC marks and the IB grade? A: For India, we offer an additional service and convert the grades into equivalent marks for the universities’ benefit. Q: IB does not have a public examination till Std XII. Does India recognise a Middle Years Programme (MYP) certificate as the equivalent of Std X? A: No, India does not recognise the MYP as the Std-X equivalent. As IB gains in popularity, we want more people to be convinced about the MYP’s effectiveness and convince the Indian government to formally recognise it.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com