Education System Reforms

The HRD minister of India, Kapil Sibal, has put forward his agenda for the first 100 days. It gives me great joy and satisfaction that the new government is enthusiastic to bring about reforms. Let us try to put a thought over the proposals.

The most revolutionary idea of all is to scrap the class 10 board exam. I guess the word scrap is wrongly used here. Mr. Kapil Sibal has proposed to make the board exam OPTIONAL and not scrap it. The students who do not want to make a shift to other schools, may choose internal assessment and not appear for the board exam. This is done to reduce the trauma students have to go through who slog over the year to put in their best. There are many who are unable to perform to the expected levels and resort to suicide.

In my opinion, most of the Indian parents are obsessed with their kid’s performance and want them to excel. This obsession comes from their knowledge of the competition which awaits the kid after school. So, most of them (urban middle class) would want their kid to appear for the exam and try to get into a better school. The exam would be compulsory for the students (mostly in rural India) who want to pursue vocational courses or a diploma certification. So, it would be a small population who may opt out of the exam.

Another proposal is about implementation of grading system in class 9^th and 10^th. This would decrease the pressure to get more and more percentages in the two classes. When I tried to find information about the grading system, I found that most of the countries follow grading system except a few like India. Refer the following article for information about grading system in different countries of the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(education)

About India, the article quotes: “In India, marks are generally given in percentages to encourage perfection and good presentation, despite the extra pressure on the students. But schools often give grades too in lower classes in primary school. But in higher classes, percentage differences up to two decimals is taken into consideration for ranking. The Board exams given by students all over India in Class 10 and 12,also present the marks obtained in each subject in the report card. In colleges, a percentage or GPA system is optionally followed by various institutes.

But mostly, percentages are used. A high percentage above 90% is supposed to indicate the excellent quality of a student.Students 'burn many a midnight lamp' to achieve the 90% benchmark.”

So the grading system may bring relief for many. But the proposal says it may be a grading system or percentile system. I believe the percentile system would not be able to correctly reflect the performance of the student. For one studying in a school with thousand pupils it would very tough to get a high percentile than one studying in a less populated school.

Both the proposals are revolutionary in their nature as they attempt to change age old pedagogy. These would apply only to CBSE as a pilot. Let us hope it could have the positive effects it is intended for.

After the first steps detailed above there is a lot more to do. With 20 different boards in India it is difficult to get a standard and uniform measure for all students in class 12. It is well known that state boards in the southern region of our country are very generous in awarding marks. This creates problems for students in other boards to get admission into under-graduate and graduate colleges as class 12 results are considered in all admissions. Also, there is a big difference in the curriculum of different boards which creates problems for some while appearing in the competitive entrance examinations. There is a need for a single standard board across India to obviate these issues. Also, Indian education system emphasizes on academic performance and does not promote extra-curricular activities which may help students to search their area of interest. We need to introduce innovative ways to help students realize their interest and should have a system to promote non-conventional studies.

Also, we need to focus on increasing the number of higher education institutions which provide quality education. The number of applicants is increasing manifolds with the number of seats remaining the same. This demand–supply gap creates higher and higher levels of competition.

Other steps taken by the minister include pushing the bill for Right of children to compulsory and free education for children till the age of 14 should have far reaching effects. Besides increasing the penetration of education in the poor, it will also make education compulsory for girls in the rural India.

Proposal to set up an All India Madrassa board to impart secular education along with the regular teachings of a madrassa is also included in the agenda. It would make the students at the madrassas eligible for higher education institutions. But, wouldn’t this promote the existence of madrassa where primary education is about the religion?

Commenting on the issue of reservation, the minister said he wants to build a consensus before he takes any action. He said steps would be taken only after the current implementation is completed and after the private institutions have the infrastructure to provide reservation. I guess he made an equivocal statement just to be away from any controversy at least as of now.

An anti-ragging helpline would be setup for students across the country. Anybody can call on the helpline number and process to assist him would start within 15 minutes.

The enthusiastic movement by the education ministry leaves a positive impression of the new government. These are few steps towards reforms and there is a lot more to be done. Let us hope the enthusiasm doesn’t die down and it is realized in time.

Don’t be irreplaceable

In the time of recession, with a season of job cuts, each and every employee in the corporate world is building strategies to make him more valuable and irreplaceable. Nobody would want to lose the job and any strategy to save it is a fair strategy.

Being irreplaceable – Some people have the tendency to do tasks independently and not share any knowledge about it with the team. This they do, to always be an important member of the team without whose presence, the team cannot complete work. This would force the employer to retain him even in hard hit times.

But is this a prudent choice to make out of other wiser options available?

I believe the best strategy to avoid being below the hammer of a job cut would be to be the best and not be the only one. All employers are in a constant search of competitive, faithful and flexible employees. If you fit the criteria, you should be least likely to be fired. By making the first choice (being irreplaceable), one saves the job for some time, but would be the first one to be fired once the company doesn’t need his support. So why keep our hopes on something which is so short lasting. Instead, we should work to attain perfection in whatever we do and the rest is all done by itself. But having said that, I would also want to emphasize that one’s perfection should be visible (or MADE visible) to the right set of people. Without the visibility, perfection cannot take us the places we are worth of.

Also, if one possesses a skill which makes him irreplaceable, it also makes him less likely to get better roles. The company would not offer him better roles or positions as he is required to work for his possessed skill. And it is perfectly said:

“Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.”

Moreover, this is a scenario dependant situation. The above may not be working in a scenario and being irreplaceable may be the best choice available. Luck plays an important role in determining one’s future. So one should work the best in the available resources and leave the rest to luck.

Election Card

I am in Bangalore. But I have an election card from Delhi. This means I cannot vote in the current general elections. Why do we have this limitation? Till the time we are in our own country, we should be able to exercise our right.

 

The ballot system in the Indian elections has changed over the period of time. We have moved forward from the paper ballot system to electronic voting machines which have many advantages over the previous system. Now it is time to modernize other infrastructure related to the ballot system.

 

We have to device such a system where we can cast our vote from anywhere in the country. This would require modernizing the election cards and availability of an infrastructure which would allow crosschecking of voter details from a central database rather than manual paper lists.

 

Biometric cards are already becoming famous. These cards have 16 to 32 GB memory to store various details of the card holder. It can store the thumb impression and retina scan of a person. The card will be validated only when the card holder’s thumb impression matches the one in the card. This would be just like an ATM card with the pin as your thumb impression.

 

A biometric card would check bogus voting to a large extent. We should have such technology implemented where no two cards can have the same thumb impression. This would mean no bogus election cards. Also, we can centralize all our identification systems into this card. It can act as our driving licence, our PAN card, etc. If we implement a system where one can have his bank accounts linked to this card, it will also act as our plastic money. In future we may also make it mandatory to make all high value transactions through this card. It would help us check tax evasion to a large extent.

 

Coming back to the topic, we should make use of this kind of cards to modernize our ballot system. With the use of a biometric card we would not need to have our names in the paper lists. We should be allowed to go in to any polling station and cast vote for the constituency we belong to. This would happen if we have centralized vote recording systems. I can cast vote from Bangalore for West Delhi constituency. Further, there are instances when the voters know well in advance that they would not be in the country on the day of election. In such cases, we should have an option to cast our vote before the actual polling date from specified centres.

 

I believe India has the capability to implement all of the above at such a large scale. It would be expensive, but it would check some of the biggest problems of the country (Bogus voting, tax evasion, etc). It took 30 years to implement electronic voting after its first use in 1980. I hope this takes less time with better administration and less corrupt leaders in the future. 

Whistle Blowers are the guardians of a Democracy

What is Democracy?

Wikipedia says, “Democracy is a form of government in which power is held indirectly by the citizens in a free electoral system.” Taking a 20000 feet view, it is the rule by the people themselves through a few elected representatives. But how would one ensure that the decisions taken by these elected representatives are for the benefit of the masses? Here comes the role of the guardians of a democracy.

 

In the phrase “Whistle blowers are the guardians of a democracy”, whistle blowers may take many roles. The roles may range from political opposition party to media to the judicial system. Let us examine the role of each of these as the guardians of a democracy.

 

The political parties which are not in majority in the parliament of a country are the opposition parties. As the word itself is descriptive, the role of these parties is to oppose the government’s decisions. These parties may be opposing to gain publicity by taking a more popular stand. But this allows a critical review of the bills proposed in the parliament and makes people aware of all the pros and cons of it. Also, the opposition is always on a hunt of facts and figures which may prove the government inefficient. These facts are useful for the public to get an indicative performance of the government. Recently we witnessed the debate on Nuclear deal in the Indian and US parliaments. These intense debates could unfold all the consequences of the deal before going ahead with it. Also, the US involvement in Iraq was debated in their parliaments and had major political consequences. So for all the above roles, the political opposition parties may be seen as the whistle blowers who guard a democracy.

 

The media may also be seen as a whistle blower. With the advent of technology and satellite communication, media has taken more and more responsibility to bring truth to the people. Now people have become more aware of the happening around them. It helps to incite a widespread debate amongst the people on many issues. After the terrorist attack on Mumbai, increased number of discussions through the media resulted in more protests from the people which forced the government to take a strong stand against Pakistan in the global society. Media has also been fruitful in assuring justice to the victims of cases like Jessica Lal murder case, BMW hit and run case, etc.

 

Another whistle blower who guards our democracy is the judicial system. Through provisions like public interest litigations, courts make sure that the constitution is preserved impartially. The police, who are the whistle blowers in a true sense, also contribute to guard the democracy. Maintaining the law and order of the states, both courts and the police make sure people are able to exercise their fundamental rights as per the law.

 

The army may not be a whistle blower, but is definitely the guardian of any democracy. These are the people who guard a democratic nation against any foreign invasion.

 

The United Nations also plays an important role in preserving the democracy of many countries. It makes the governments answerable in the international arena. It preserves the global laws through International court of Justice and ensures rights to be implemented through organisations like the UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, etc. 

 

A democracy would be “rule by the people” in a true sense only with all the above and many more whistle blowers which will continue to guard it.