A changing syllabus for changing times

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Not so long ago, ICSE and ISC schools were among the city’s most elite of the elite, with the who’s who of Mumbai opting for them. But with international boards making in-roads into the education market, ICSE schools are now reinventing themselves as affordable options for an English-speaking middle-class that wants quality education.

English happens to be the ICSE board’s forte. Not only is the level of English high at ICSE schools, but ICSE is the only national board that certifies only English-medium schools.

The ICSE board insists that it in no way feels threatened by international boards. “How can a regular Indian family afford a school that charges Rs 1 lakh a year?’’ asked Gerry Arathoon, additional chief secretary and officiating chief executive of the ICSE board, when talking of fees at international schools.

Arathoon pointed out that of the 52 ICSE schools in and around Mumbai, only seven have opted for the IGCSE (Cambridge examination) and three for the International Baccalaureate (IB) alongside the ICSE course.

The ICSE board regularly revamps its curriculum. Four months ago it announced plans to revamp the ISC syllabus. The new syllabus will be tested in the 2010 board examination. Most of the changes are in physics, chemistry and mathematics.

While the old syllabus gave students a choice between JAVA and C++, the revised syllabus will only offer JAVA. In ISC chemistry, the board has reduced the portion that deals with rote learning. The board has also done away with business maths as it overlaps with a section of the regular math. In economics, there will be more focus on the international arena.

The changes are aimed at preparing students for competitive exams to courses like medicine and engineering. “Several students from our board have topped the list in a number of competitive exams, including the IIT-JEE,’’ said Arathoon.

While principals say that a number of students from elite ICSE schools are opting for international boards, the ICSE board has not run out of takers.

ICSE GETS JUNIOR COLLEGE BOOST

With Results Being Announced Today, A Look At How A Growing Number Of Schools Are Offering The ISC Curriculum

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: While the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) exam is widely known across the country for Class X, the Indian School Certificate (ISC) for Class XII, which is conducted by the same board, is not so well known but rapidly gaining steam. In the last six months alone, 50 schools have introduced the ISC.
Of the 1,600-odd ICSE schools in India, Dubai, Sharjah, Singapore and Indonesia, 800 now offer the ISC for students in classes XI and XII. While 97,303 students appeared for the ICSE in 2007, there were 45,293 who took the ISCs. The board is
expected to announce the number of
2008 candidates on Tuesday when it
releases the ICSE and ISC results.
In Mumbai, though, the number of ISC schools is minuscule. Only seven out of the 52 ICSE schools in and around the city offer the ISC. “We hope that, eventually, all ICSE schools offer the ISC as well,’’ said Gerry Arathoon, additional chief secretary and officiating chief executive of the ICSE board.
And here’s some good news for students from other boards. A student who has cleared Class X from any board—including the SSC, CBSE or IGCSE—is eligible for the ISC and can switch boards. This means that an SSC student from Mumbai need not simply apply to a junior college that offers the HSC, but can also give the ISC a shot as well.
“We have had a few SSC and CBSE students joining our ISC course for classes XI and XII,’’ said Meera Isaacs, principal of Cathedral and John Connon School, Fort. “Though they were very bright, some found it tough to cope with the curriculum, especially in science and English literature,’’ she added.
Another ISC school, Lilavati Podar School at Santa Cruz, also takes in students from other boards for its ISC course.
“ISC is the natural progression from the ICSE board. But for those who switch over from other boards, we provide counselling to help them choose their stream,’’ said Norina Fernandes, principal of Lilavati Podar.
The admissions procedure for the ISC is decided by the schools and not the board. While there are five ISC schools in Mumbai city, there’s one in Thane and one in Navi Mumbai.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, which conducts the ICSE and ISC exams, is the only national board that has only English-medium schools as affilites.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

KNOW YOUR SCORE The ICSE and ISC results are expected to be out by 3pm today. They can be accessed via the internet as well as through SMS.

IIT wants 10 great ideas to change world...

GOLDEN JUBILEE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: “All advancement and progress come through ideas, not through physical force or mechanical force,’’ Emerson had said. So when an institution like the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) celebrates 50 years of its existence, what message does it like to pass on to its students and faculty? To think harder.
On Friday, IIT-B unveiled its golden jubilee celebration plan to invite ideas that have the capability of changing the way the world lives. The IIT is seeking ‘10 great ideas to change the world in the next 50 years’ and has called for applications from students, alumni, faculty, present and retired staff members.

As IIT-B director Ashok Misra explained: “It will require research, innovation and creativity for any university to surge ahead in the 21st century.’’

Ideas can be in the area of information technology or social work, in agriculture or health engineering, but they must transform the way people get on from one day to another. Chairman of Godrej Group, Adi Godrej, said that if India has to achieve 10% growth rate and come up with solutions to the problems of poverty, education and health, and if societal transformation has to take place in the real sense, people need to come up with “out-of-the-box ideas’’. He added, “World growth for the last few years has been the highest ever in history because production has been high, caused by technological changes.

Those associated with IIT and interested in participating in the ‘10-great-ideas’ competition can send in their ideas by October 30, 2008. A website http://10greatideas.iitb.ac.in has also been created. Entries will be judged by an international panel of ideators, including principal scientific advisor to the government R Chidambaram, head of nanoscience at Cambridge University Mark Welland, chief mentor of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy, Naushad Forbes, director Forbes Marshall India and Ajay Piramal, among others. The panel will be chaired by former president A P J Abdul Kalam.

IIT-B expects at least 100 entries. Selection of the 10 greatest ideas will be completed by February 28, 2009. Those whose ideas are selected will be invited to present a white paper at a round table summit in March 2009.

IITs need to adopt engineering colleges...

NKC Says Move Will Help Raise Edu Standards

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Concerned over the “glaring regional imbalance’’ in engineering education, the National Knowledge Commission has suggested that the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology should adopt some lesser known engineering colleges to raise their standard.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, NKC chairperson Sam Pitroda has also suggested integration of science and engineering education. Pitroda pointed out that two-thirds of the engineering institutions were located in the four southern states and Maharashtra. Therefore, he said, a framework of public-private partnership was needed to establish new quality institutions. Therefore, the IITs should “mentor’’ new institutions to raise their standards, he said.
“Mentoring by its definition is a voluntary activity, but if we can create an atmosphere where institutions of distinction feel a sense of calling in the interest of the larger national good, it would transform our education,’’ Pitroda said. Therefore, institutions like IITs should bear some additional responsibilities. “In particular, the existing IITs could mentor the new ones being established. The latter, in due course, could play a similar role vis-a-vis others,’’ he said.
As for integration of science and engineering education, Pitroda said, “We have entered a period in history where the distinction between sciences and engineering has all but disappeared.’’ In order to reduce the perceived gap between sciences and engineering, there was a need to create mechanisms that allowed mobility between the two streams, he said.
In this regard, Pitroda said that one option could be to start four-year undergraduate programmes in sciences, initially in institutes of excellence where facilities for such courses already exist. It would enable pursuing doctoral programmes in science and technology, without a master’s degree.
Pitroda also said that several initiatives were necessary to promote research in engineering. Vibrant and well-funded PhD programmes with opportunities for international exposure should be provided to attract students who currently go abroad for doctoral degrees, he said. Also, the new academic and research institutions being established should be so located that they could optimise mutual collaboration.
Means-cum-merit scholarship
The Cabinet has approved a “means-cum-merit scholarship” of Rs 6,000 per year to prevent economically weak but meritorious students from dropping out of school.
IIM-A director explains fee hike
The director of the IIM-A, Samir Barua, has written letters to the institute’s alumni, explaining why the recent fee hike was necessary. The fee hike proposed by the IIM-A has created enough resentment from various quarters. In his email to alumni, though, Barua seems to be in an explaining mode.
In his letter, Barua explains why the fee hike of 300% was proposed for the June 2008 batch. The letter specifies the objectives of the fee hike as: providing relief to students who come from lower income families, continuing to significantly subsidise the PGP from the surplus generated from other activities of the Institute. TNN

...sickening

61% kids work 17 hrs/day

Rahul Mangaonkar | TNN

Ahmedabad: The state government may have dedicated this year to the ‘nirogi balak’ and may also plan to open a children’s university. But a large number of children from outside the state earn a living in Gujarat as labourers. If that is a measure of the state’s prosperity, surveys have also indicated that several children from Gujarat too are employed as household helps or in tea kitlis, when they are very young.
A report published by the Union Women and Child Development Ministry—‘Study on Child Abuse in India: 2007’ shows at least 60.98 % of children in Gujarat between 5 and 12 years of age work seven days a week. The report also states 56.14% of girls in the state work seven days a week.
The study reveals that one of every two children across all age groups in the country has worked seven days. Most children working as domestic help covered under the study woke up for work between 5 and 6 am and slept only between 9 and 11 pm.
This path-breaking report on the basis of a national study raises the point as to whether children below 18 should be employed at all. Under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, engagement of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations has been declared illegal. The Union ministry of labour and employment has declared domestic work, working in restaurants, tea stalls and dhabas as hazardous. Around 56.38% children are working in illegal and hazardous occupations such as domestic work, roadside restaurants and dhabas, construction work, bidi rolling, lock making, embroidery and zari and others.
Even in those occupations where the law allows children to be employed, the conditions under which these children work and the hours that they are made to work are exploitative and often inhuman. Children who work as domestic helps are the most vulnerable and exploited lot because of confinement in other people’s homes. They begin work at an early age, shoulder excessive responsibilities such as handling fuel, stoves, sharp tools, working for long hours with no rest and little or no remuneration. Working at the mercy of the employer they frequently suffer from gender and sexual violence.
They are deprived of access to schooling, play,the affection of their family and friends. As per the study across all age groups,58.79% of working children reported physical abuse, of which 47.3% were girls.
WHERE CHILDREN ARE TOILING IN GUJARAT
Hotels, chai-kitlis, lari-gallas: Local children, kids from Rajasthan Bt-cotton fields: Mainly north Gujarat, including Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Mehsana Textile markets in Surat Embroidery units in Gomtipur, Dani Limda and Amraiwadi in Ahmedabad: children mainly from Bihar Gold and silver jewellery melting and making units in Ratan Pol, Ahmedabad: Children from West Bengal

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD

GUJARAT’S THROBBING INDUSTRY MAKES IT THE WORST OFFENDER WHEN IT COMES TO CHILD LABOUR

Radha Sharma | TNN

Ahmedabad: This is a number one position which the state would rather not acknowledge! Gujarat tops the country with the highest number of children working, according to the National Family Health Survey - Phase III (NFHS-3).
The survey has revealed that 31.6% children in Gujarat were engaged in some or other kind of labour as compared to 9% children in Maharashtra which is economically and industrially progressive. Of the 31.6 % children working, 19.5%were involved in unpaid labour while 5.5% earned a wage.
“In Gujarat, every third child is engaged in labour. One in 18 children are paid workers while every fifth child is engaged in unpaid work for someone who is not a member of the household,” says MD Irfan Khan, professor and head research at Taleem Research Foundation, who was the project director for carrying out research for NFHS-3 in the state. Gujarat is followed by Arunachal Pradesh where 20.1% were involved in labour and Rajasthan wherein 19.6% children were found engaged in labour. Nearly 3,400 households were covered in Gujarat in the survey.
A child worker, as defined by UNICEF, is a child between 5-11 years, who in the seven days preceding the survey, worked for someone who is not a member of the household, with or without pay, or did household chores for 28 or more hours, or engaged in any family business. It also includes any child between 12-14 years. “In Gujarat, maximum children are employed in hotel, chai-kitlis, laari-gallas and entertainment sector. The second biggest sector employing children is domestic which has now been accepted as hazardous for girl children,” says child-rights activist Sukhdev Patel.
Meanwhile, Campaign Against Child Labour and Child Line has planned a rally where participants will wear extra-huge glasses to seek child-labour.

Anganwadis..

REPORT BY PLAN PANEL MEMBER

Anganwadis: State does well, but more needs to be done

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha I TNN

Mumbai: In Rajasthan, there was a carcass rotting outside an anganwadi and no women or children were in sight. A childcare centre in Chhattisgarh was closed at 1 pm, though the official timings were from 10 am to 2 pm.
In Andhra Pradesh, anganwadis were either missing or not functioning properly. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, though, presented a more hopeful picture with their “bright and cheerful children’’.
These were some of the observations of Planning Commission member Dr Sayeeda Hameed, who visited 48 anganwadis across 17 states over the last three years and recently sent an “eyewitness account’’ to the Maharashtra government.
Anganwadis are childcare centres in urban, rural and tribal districts, which provide supplementary nutrition to children below six years and are monitored under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
“The picture that emerges is a grim one,’’ is Dr Hameed’s hard-hitting observation, as her report goes on to detail how anganwadis in most parts are run from ‘kachcha’ premises with no space for children to spend the entire four hours and how personal hygiene is ignored. She
estimates that there are toilets in less than 25% of the centres and referral health services are seriously wanting.
Maharashtra, with its startling malnutrition rates, presented a comparatively encouraging picture in her report. Take the instance of the Abadimandi centre in Aurangabad, which the team visited in May 2007 and found “uniformed children sitting in neat rows’’.
The centre boasted of a child-friendly toilet, a tap for drinking water and was stocked with educational kits, a first-aid toolbox, a mirror and combs. “We learnt that children are given six different recipes in a week and the cooked food is given in take-home-rations to children below three,’’ the report states.
The observations have predictably pleased state officials. “Generally, we receive a lot of criticism. Her account came as a surprise even to us. We have started a lot of new activities under the Integrated Child Development Services and are glad that the efforts are showing,’’ says Dr Vijay Satbir Singh, secretary, women and child development department.
A centre in the Kagazipur area of Aurangabad district was, in fact, cited as a model in “personal hygiene’’ practices. “We were pleasantly surprised to see that all the children got up and went outside to wash their hands. They then dried them and sat down to eat,’’ says the report, adding that the children seemed comfortable with this routine and it didn’t seem like an act for the visitors.
Some of the other centres, however, received brickbats for the shortage of IFA (folic acid) tablets and the lack of drinking water facilities, which highlighted the poor coordination of Integrated Child Development Services with other departments. State officials say more projects are in the pipeline. “We recently sanctioned Rs 38 crore (for this year) for the construction of new buildings for anganwadis,’’ says Dr Singh.
But activists aren’t satisfied with Maharashtra’s high scores. “The observations for a few centres cannot be generalised when it comes to the implementation of Integrated Child Development Services across the state. In Aurangabad itself, there are many tribal and slum pockets, which still do not have Integrated Child Development Services centres,’’ says Amulya Nidhi from Bal Hakk Abhiyaan. He says malnutrition in the state has seen a huge public outcry in the last two years, be it in the heart of Mumbai or the tribal belts of Melghat.
While government records show that 80,00,000 children benefit from Integrated Child Development Services, the malnutrition-related infant deaths (which stand at more than 7,500 annually) suggest that Maharashtra though ahead of other states still needs a lot more to be done.
Apex court order
brings smiles
Demand an anganwadi and get one within three months? A little-known Supreme Court verdict of 2006 has brought a smile to several slumdwellers in Mumbai. The court had ruled that any community with more than 40 children below six years could petition the ICDS authorities for an anganwadi and get it within three months. Voluntary organisations Shahar Vikas Manch (SVM) and YUVA did precisely that.
“The verdict was delivered while hearing a petition, which questioned why government godowns were overflowing with rotting food, while children remained malnourished. We have been holding meetings with the slumdwellers and mobilising women’s groups in slums around Malad,’’ said Mohan Chavan of SVM. Their awareness drives saw 42 new anganwadi centres being inaugurated in P-ward (Malad-Malvani) on Saturday. TNN

HEALING TOUCH: A file picture of a doctor examining a child at an anganwadi