India Education

10-30-2006, 06:45 PM

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--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> E-learning comes of age in India with 'Sakshat'
Akshaya Mukul
[ 30 Oct, 2006 0146hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

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With content developed by UGC, AICTE, IGNOU, NCERT, KVS, NVS, CBSE, IITs and IISc, 'Sakshat' will provide links to vast knowledge resources, educational news, examination alerts, sample papers and other useful links available on the web.

It has an in-built repository of educational resources and online testing facility. The portal has five functional modules. One, educational resources consisting of e-books, e-journals, digital repository and digital library.

Two, scholarship which is specially meant for scholarship holders at national and state levels to keep track of their progress and keep them informed about other scholarship opportunities. Three, testing to enable learners to test and upgrade their skills and knowledge through online exams. Four, superachiever for those aspiring for excellence.

Links to various Olympiads would be provided. Five, interaction. This would help students to interact with their teachers or mentors in real time through e-mail, weblogging, webcasting, online chat and discussion forum. Apart from all these, the portal will also have an in-built virtual class system.
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10-31-2006, 09:31 AM

QUOTE(Capt Manmohan Kumar @ Oct 30 2006, 06:45 PM)<!--emo& Smile

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> E-learning comes of age in India with 'Sakshat'
Akshaya Mukul
[ 30 Oct, 2006 0146hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
With content developed by UGC, AICTE, IGNOU, NCERT, KVS, NVS, CBSE, IITs and IISc, 'Sakshat' will provide links to vast knowledge resources, educational news, examination alerts, sample papers and other useful links available on the web.
........................ have an in-built virtual class system.
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lots of such initiatives have been taken before as well. but none of them has worked. very little percentage of students have regular access to internet even in urban areas, best way forward is to open school in remotest of areas , govt should concentrate more on that.

11-01-2006, 01:32 AM

QUOTESibal hopes to counter fanatical Arjun 
Pioneer.com
Santanu Banerjee | New Delhi
GoM may relax norms for foreign varsities
The hurdles on the issue of implementing reservations in foreign universities willing to invest in Indian aren't over yet for HRD Minister Arjun Singh.

The Group of Ministers looking into the formulation of the Bill is going to discuss the possibility of relaxing Government regulations for the big brand names this week again. Sources in the Government said that the GoM headed by Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal to move an amendment to this effect.
Â
It is learnt that Sibal strongly pleaded for relaxation of Government regulations for big brand foreign universities, which are ready to have a majority stake in any joint education ventures in India.

According to sources, Sibal has also suggested that the big stakeholders in any joint venture should be given a greater status than deemed universities contrary to the HRD's present Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill. The HRD Bill is expected to suggest according the status of deemed universities on foreign institutions.

Sibal's suggestion is an obvious attempt to smoothen the entry of foreign universities in India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appointed National Knowledge Commission has been arguing for greater private and foreign investment in the education sector.

Policy planners have argued that foreign investment in education sector would help improve quality and bring down the share of State spending in higher education so that the funds could be effectively diverted to primary and school levels.
Â
Sources point out that the Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill will pave the way for a comprehensive law not only for foreign universities willing to enter India but also for a sustainable FDI policy in higher education.

Sources said that when the GoM meets this week, it would examine Sibal's suggestions and try to deflect the pressure which has been built by Arjun Singh both on quotas and tightening of laws for foreign universities.

But, even if Sibal's suggestion is endorsed by the GoM, the pro-FDI lobby in higher education sector would have to negotiate with the Left which has opposed the move for any relaxation of Government rules and regulations. Instead it has asked the Government to follow the Chinese example.Â


Atleast now upper caste can get education from foreign university. It will create Upper caste elite society partly brainwashed by Western system, who will think superior based on education. It will create future rift.
But now this is Third step towards state sponsored discrimination.

No reservation in Education is must for "Idea India".

12-21-2006, 02:10 AM

forwarded email..
QUOTEhttp://www.petitiononline.com/vidya/petition.html

I request you to please forward this link to your friends for consideration and signature.

12-21-2006, 02:39 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /> I am writing this in spirit of constructive criticism.
Petition is not set all that well.
It's title does not match content.
Moreover, signing it was not that easy.
Not many people take this patiently.
Thanx anyway for allowing me to participate in it.

12-31-2006, 02:43 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /> Want a PhD? Mop the lab, work for your guide
Paul John
[ 30 Dec, 2006 2349hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/In...345,curpg-1.cms
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

Patel claims in his application that he was asked by Jain to do odd jobs like repairing his scooter's flat tyre and deposit cheques. Patel has submitted a copy of the log book.

An entry in Patel's log sheet on October 16, 2005, which carries Jain's signatures states, "Went to BSNL office, creation for printer work, post office, watch shop for repairing, complex preparation of dyes and computer work."

Another entry of September 19, 2005 reads, "printer repair, mouse change and searched for 'jhaadu' (broom)." Similar entries practically appear every day till September this year on Patel's log sheet. "No one would believe that I did a complex research after if one goes through my daily log sheet.

I filed the RTI application to bring to the university's notice the harassment we face from some guides. It is time students came out in the open," said Patel.

"Students resist protesting against errant teachers fearing that it may ruin their academic career as the guide may refuse to give a recommendation.

But, these issues should need to be brought out in public and authorities held responsible," says sociologist Gaurang Jani. Patel has also sought bills of electrical appliances and extra computers installed in Jain's room as he feels he is not entitled to these.
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01-04-2007, 09:31 PM

More Muslim literate than Hindus
QUOTEThe literacy rate among Muslim males was high - above 80 per cent - in Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to a new book 'Population of India in the New Millennium: Census 2001' by noted researcher and demographer Mahendra K. Premi.



QUOTEIn communally-sensitive Gujarat, Muslim men fared better than Hindus with an 82.9 per cent literacy level compared to the majority community's 79.1 per cent literacy rate.

Gujarat!! Oh my sweet loving secular Lord!!!! What will the Gujarat bashers do now?

03-01-2007, 07:33 AM

QUOTEFresh cess gets cursed 
Durgesh Nandan Jha | New Delhi
Even as the Government has failed to curb the high dropout rate in the primary segment, it has gone ahead and levied an additional education cess of one per cent apparently to concentrate on secondary and higher education.

Experts have dismissed this as mere populism and said that unless it is supplemented with pragmatic execution, mere imposition of cess would not serve any purpose.

Announcing the cess in the 2007-08 Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the increased cess would also be utilised for expansion of the capacity by 54 per cent for reservation for socially and educationally backward classes.

Educationists and economists have termed this as an eyewash. According to experts, just adding cess will not serve the purpose and this requires the Government to be more accountable. It should first clear up the areas where money is being spent and gauge their effects.

"According to a recent economic survey, there has been a decline in the investment in higher education since the NDA regime. This is despite the two per cent additional cess levied in the 2004-05 Budget," said Professor Anand Kumar who teaches sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"Rajiv Gandhi had once said that if Rs 100 is allocated only Rs 70 is properly utilised. At first, this difference of Rs 30 should be decreased," said DPS Verma, former Professor of the Delhi School of Economics.

"The Government had started mid-day meal scheme few years back to promote education in rural areas but the result is opposite. Children are of course enjoying the khichdi and khir but educational level is still more or less the same," said Verma.

Presenting the Union Budget 2007-08 in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Chidambaram himself observed that while the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan improved the enrolment ratio in schools to 96 per cent, the dropout ratio continues to be high. This year, Rs 23,142 crore has been allocated for education as against Rs 17, 133 crore in 2006-07. Out of this, Rs10,671 crore will be provided to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

"I have no faith in the Government and its Budget. All these funds are spent in the security arrangements and different perks of politicians. The status of education is dismal. Moreover, the Government is sucking the common man to oblige its political partners by bringing OBC reservation and other minority appeasement policies," said Ghanshyam Bihari, a doctor at Safdarjung Hospital.

03-03-2007, 09:26 PM

In the rural areas, the drop out rate will continue to be high till such time that there is acute poverty and hunger. The mid day meal programe needs to be vigorously implemented and at the same time some more rural employment schemes are required to be implemented. This would increase the earnings of the parents who will than allow the children to study for longer duration in the schools. It will be a gradual process and the situation is unlikely to change overnight.
At the same time, the service condition of the school teacher in the village schools and the facilities at the schools need to be improved. On the health front, the Government should target the rural schools for regular health check up of the students by the doctors and there should be some provision for free medicines.
Lastly, the actual implementation os these schemes should not be in the hands of the civil servants stationed in the big cities, as they do not have any first hand knowledge of the actual ground realities and problems in the rural areas.

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 04-10-2007, 08:47 AM by Bodhi.)

06-13-2007, 08:52 PM

F#, Indian math education, and good programming

QUOTEIt reminded me very much of a conversation that I had a few months ago. The person I was speaking with was a programmer visiting the U.S. from India. This gentleman and I had gotten to know each other fairly well, and he has been programming for quite some time, probably around as long as I have. He and I got onto the topic of education. It is a well-known fact that India, China, and a number of other countries are beating the U.S. in math scores. So I asked him how they teach math in India. He was almost baffled by the question, as if there was more than one way to learn math and this was the first time someone had let him know. âFrom a book, with examples on the blackboard, how else?â I queried him about the use of calculators and computers, two tools quite common in U.S. math education. He explained to me that calculators are forbidden in their version of high school and that, in colleges, the calculators allowed are basic models (think add, subtract, multiply, divide, exponents, square root, log 10, and natural log), and their usage even then is frowned upon to the point where using a calculator will be the cause of ridicule and humiliation. This sure sounded like a far cry from the educational environment in the U.S., where 7th grade students are now being required to own TI-85âs, a calculator thatâs probably more powerful than the guidance system on a cruise missile.

QUOTEThis is why the conversation with my Indian friend has me so worried. It seems to me that the schools in India, China, and many other countries are laying extremely high quality general education foundations for their students. I look at the âmathâ that my brother and sister learned (I am much older than they are), and I do not want to subject my child to the same kind of disastrous âeducationâ (I am officially not a parent yet, but he is on his way in a few more days or weeks!). I love to see the best brought out in people. A mathematical foundation built upon computers and advanced calculators simply does not provide the basis to build a good programmer on.

Added: If you read the thread, you will gather how people are perceiving India as a country and its recent growth and rise. Interesting, as fear, hatred, appreciation all need to be factored while considering the future.

07-18-2007, 09:26 AM

Keep off sex education, teachers toldQUOTEThe controversy on sex education for school children has taken a new turn. The Siksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has warned teachers that they may be violating the law if they take sex to the classroom.

In a letter to teachers across the country, they have noted that teachers can be charged under Section 354 of the IPC for outraging modesty of a woman, if they follow the exercises prescribed in the UNICEF training manual on sex education in their classrooms.

Among the exercises is one in which a girl and a boy are asked to shut their eyes and touch each otherâs private parts. It is apparently an attempt to help students understand biological differences between men and women. âThe teacher may plead that he has sought volunteers, but in matters of sex and touching/fondling with private parts, the consent of a minor in the eyes of law is no consent,â the letter said. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' />

Dinanath Batra, the samitiâs national convenor, said teachers choosing to impart sex education do so at their own peril.

Amber G. · 07-20-2007, 09:26 AM

11-03-2007, 01:15 AM

QUOTEDU students indiscipline touches new heights 
Pioneer.com
Durgesh Nandan Jha | New Delhi
ARSD students go on strike as teacher didn't vacate room on time
Student discipline at the Delhi University has gone from bad to worse. On Friday, the students of Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) College went on strike demanding an apology from a teacher for not vacating the seminar room on time. The teacher was taking a class in the seminar room while the students wanted to decorate it for a freshers' party. The office bearers of the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) led the strike. The students did not allow the teachers to hold any classes in the College on Friday.

This is not for the first time that DU students have created such problems in the campus. A week back, some DU students accompanied by the DUSU leaders vandalised the Hindi department. In the last two years, there have been numerous such cases of indiscipline like the ransacking of principal's office at Hansraj College in 2005, beating up of the teachers of the Hindi and the Mathematics department in 2005 and the murder of a student at Aurbindo College in September 2005. University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental has, however, failed to check such incidents. "No action was taken against the students who vandalised the Hindi department last week," said a teacher.

According to students protesting at the college, Computer Science teacher Pankaj Narang was taking class in the seminar room since 12 pm. "At around 1 pm, Niti, a third year English (Honours) student, asked the teacher to vacate the seminar room as they had to organise a fresher party, the teacher scolded her saying: Get out of the class or I would take punitive actions and then you will have to bring your father to the college. He forced her to get out of the room," said Vivek Agrawal, president, ARSD College Students' Union. Agarwal and his other friends then called the DUSU leader and started protesting against the teacher. DUSU president Amrita Bahari and vice president Devraj Tehlan met the students and made sure that no classes were held at the college. "How can the teacher behave in such a rude manner? He must apologise," said Tehlan. The teacher, on the other hand, refused to show up or apologise.

"These students have crossed all limits of discipline. They disturbed the teacher while he was taking class and now they want him to apologise for not leaving the room on time. Also, the DUSU leaders shamelessly supported them and participated in the strike," said a teacher.

11-24-2007, 01:31 AM

Govt may renege on Right to Education promise

Santanu Banerjee | New Delhi

High-level HRD meeting advises Govt not to fix timeframe

The Right to Education Bill -- one of the key planks of the ruling UPA's Common Minimum Programme -- may prove to be a non-starter.

The Government has developed cold feet in pushing the legislation because it would shift the entire financial burden for ensuring free and compulsory education on the Centre, highly placed sources said.

"With the State Governments dithering on sharing the financial burden, the Bill mooted in 2005 has suffered a setback," said an official.

The issue cropped up during a recent high-level meeting in the HRD Ministry last week.

The consensus at the meeting was that "without concomitant commitment by the States" it would not be possible for the Centre to go ahead with the implementation of the UPA's flagship scheme.

The assessment document prepared by the HRD during the meeting said: "One reason for the reluctance to enact the Central legislation is the apprehension that it may shift the major responsibility for ensuring free and compulsory education on the Centre, without concomitant commitment by the States."

The document says that "this apprehension stems from the estimation of financial resources prepared by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) that the Kapil Sibal Committee had relied on".

The committee relied on the estimation of funds needed over a six-year period from 2006-07 to 2011-12.

It was presented with four alternative scenarios -- the lowest estimated at Rs 3,21,196 crore and the highest at Rs 4,36,459 crores.

The HRD Ministry's note said the State Governments were unwilling to increase their share to Sarva Siksha Abhyjan (SSA).

The Centre is sharing 75 per cent of the burden on SSA. It was only after prolonged discussions that the Planning Commission could fix the Centre-State share at 65:35.

The Ministry officials contended that the report of the Kapil Sibal Committee need to be revised as the Census of India had projected a reverse demographic trend for the child population in 6-13 age group, official sources confirmed.

"The revised population projections have significant implications for the financial estimates under the Central Legislation for Right to Education,'" the document said.

During the meeting, it was pointed out that before pushing the legislation, the Government should take into account the funds already allocated for primary and secondary education since 2005-06 -- especially under several ongoing schemes like, SSA.

The meeting also raised the issue of new schools opened at the primary and upper primary levels and appointment of teachers during 2006-07.

Once the Right to Education Bill comes into force, all these ongoing schemes would have to be merged.

The meeting concluded that it would be realistic to increase the time-frame of the legislation's implementation and revise the estimates before the Centre pushes it in Parliament.

11-24-2007, 02:37 AM

QUOTEThe Right to Education Bill -- one of the key planks of the ruling UPA's Common Minimum Programme -- may prove to be a non-starter.

The Government has developed cold feet in pushing the legislation because it would shift the entire financial burden for ensuring free and compulsory education on the Centre, highly placed sources said.

"With the State Governments dithering on sharing the financial burden, the Bill mooted in 2005 has suffered a setback," said an official.

Now they can fund education only to Muslims.

12-01-2007, 02:21 AM

QUOTEArjun Singh's gift 
The Pioneer Edit Desk
India slips in school education index
UNESCO's sixth edition of the Education for All Monitoring Report indicates uneven progress with regard to education in the last one year. What is positive is that more and more children have enrolled in the world's primary schools since 2000. Thus, many more of them will now receive the benefits of school education. Also, some gender biases witnessed in school admissions seem to have diminished, with many more girls now enrolling than ever before. That progress has been made is indicated by factors such as the increase in global spending and that in the aid for education. On the downside, far too many schools are of poor quality, which nullifies the value of the instruction provided in them. The result of this varying quality is that many leave the education system without drawing much benefit from it and, hence, lack basic literacy and mathematical skills. This renders the system highly unequal by making quality education accessibly only to a few. That is why there is high adult illiteracy. It's a sorry state of affairs that despite the growth of schools and the rise in the numbers of teachers and students, education remains out of the reach of many. As the report points out, a reason for this is that there is a high cost to schooling. Public funds are often insufficient to meet all the costs and private education remains expensive. What is not good news is that India has slipped five ranks down to 105 since last year with regard to various global education parameters. This lack of performance in the education sector may compromise the country's ability to meet the UN's Education for All goals set for 2015. The contrast with strides made elsewhere in the world is much more striking when it comes to gender disparity.

Sadly, as much as 66 per cent of children who are not in school in India are girls. The overall dropout rate in India is also not as good, with up to 14.4 per cent not attending class after the first grade. Unfortunately, the Government has not been successful in implementing its programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has resulted in this poor performance. Unfortunately, these programmes have been treated more for employment generation, to the neglect of their basis function. Despite the pessimism of the report, the Government remains optimistic about doing better in future, with Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh hopeful of achieving up to 85 per cent literacy by 2012. He has reiterated the Government's resolve to put every child in school in the next five years. Hopefully, the Government will be able to live up to its promise.

01-01-2008, 11:55 PM

Guj govt looks for knowledge partners to develop skillsQUOTENew Delhi, January 1: The BJP-led Gujarat government has started looking for private sector partners to create pool of skilled manpower in the state.
The Gujarat Knowledge Corporation (GKC), a society which was launched by Chief Minister Narendra Modi in October 2007, today invited bids from various agencies to set up training institutes and conduct programmes across the state.

"The GKC expects the partner agencies to open training centres widely spread all over Gujarat," the corporation said while inviting expression of interest (EoI) from prospective knowledge partners.

The corproation would partner with the agencies to develop new competencies in skills for increasing employment opportunities for younger population of the state.

The partner agency would be expected to conduct online and offline programmes and assess the performance of students, besides conducting training of world class repute
.............
This is very good effort by Gujarat government. Other states should follow Modi, if they want to uplift youth.

01-02-2008, 05:43 PM

Losing an Edge, Japanese Envy Indiaâs Schools

The New York Times
January 2, 2008

By MARTIN FACKLER

MITAKA, Japan â Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. But even in this fad-obsessed nation, one result was never expected: a growing craze for Indian education.

Despite an improved economy, many Japanese are feeling a sense of insecurity about the nationâs schools, which once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. That is no longer true, which is why many people here are looking for lessons from India, the country the Japanese see as the worldâs ascendant education superpower.

Bookstores are filled with titles like âExtreme Indian Arithmetic Drillsâ and âThe Unknown Secrets of the Indians.â Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, the standard for young elementary students in Japan.

And Japanâs few Indian international schools are reporting a surge in applications from Japanese families.

At the Little Angels English Academy & International Kindergarten, the textbooks are from India, most of the teachers are South Asian, and classroom posters depict animals out of Indian tales. The kindergarten students even color maps of India in the green and saffron of its flag.

Little Angels is located in this Tokyo suburb, where only one of its 45 students is Indian. Most are Japanese.

Viewing another Asian country as a model in education, or almost anything else, would have been unheard-of just a few years ago, say education experts and historians.

Much of Japan has long looked down on the rest of Asia, priding itself on being the regionâs most advanced nation. Indeed, Japan has dominated the continent for more than a century, first as an imperial power and more recently as the first Asian economy to achieve Western levels of economic development.

But in the last few years, Japan has grown increasingly insecure, gripped by fear that it is being overshadowed by India and China, which are rapidly gaining in economic weight and sophistication. The government here has tried to preserve Japanâs technological lead and strengthen its military. But the Japanese have been forced to shed their traditional indifference to the region.

Grudgingly, Japan is starting to respect its neighbors.

âUntil now, Japanese saw China and India as backwards and poor,â said Yoshinori Murai, a professor of Asian cultures at Sophia University in Tokyo. âAs Japan loses confidence in itself, its attitudes toward Asia are changing. It has started seeing India and China as nations with something to offer.â

Last month, a national cry of alarm greeted the announcement by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that in a survey of math skills, Japan had fallen from first place in 2000 to 10th place, behind Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. From second in science in 2000, Japan dropped to sixth place.

While China has stirred more concern here as a political and economic challenger, India has emerged as the country to beat in a more benign rivalry over education. In part, this reflects Chinaâs image in Japan as a cheap manufacturer and technological imitator. But Indiaâs success in software development, Internet businesses and knowledge-intensive industries in which Japan has failed to make inroads has set off more than a tinge of envy.

Most annoying for many Japanese is that the aspects of Indian education they now praise are similar to those that once made Japan famous for its work ethic and discipline: learning more at an earlier age, an emphasis on memorization and cramming, and a focus on the basics, particularly in math and science.

Indiaâs more demanding education standards are apparent at the Little Angels Kindergarten, and are its main selling point. Its 2-year-old pupils are taught to count to 20, 3-year-olds are introduced to computers, and 5-year-olds learn to multiply, solve math word problems and write one-page essays in English, tasks most Japanese schools do not teach until at least second grade.

Indeed, Japanâs anxieties about its declining competitiveness echo the angst of another nation two decades ago, when Japan was the economic upstart.

âJapanâs interest in learning from Indian education is a lot like Americaâs interest in learning from Japanese education,â said Kaoru Okamoto, a professor specializing in education policy at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

As with many new things here, the interest in Indian-style education quickly became a fad.

Indian education is a frequent topic in forums like talk shows. Popular books claim to reveal the Indian secrets for multiplying and dividing multiple-digit numbers. Even Japanâs conservative education ministry has begun discussing Indian methods, said Jun Takai of the ministryâs international affairs division.

Eager parents try to send their children to Japanâs roughly half dozen Indian schools, hoping for an edge on the competitive college entrance exams.

In Tokyo, the two largest Indian schools, which teach kindergarten through junior high, mainly to Indian expatriates, received a sudden increase in inquiries from Japanese parents starting last year.

The Global Indian International School says that 20 of its some 200 students are now Japanese, with demand so high from Indian and Japanese parents that it is building a second campus in the neighboring city of Yokohama.

The other, the India International School in Japan, just expanded to 170 students last year, including 10 Japanese. It already has plans to expand again.

Japanese parents have expressed âvery, very high interestâ in Indian schools, said Nirmal Jain, principal of the India International School.

The boom has had the side effect of making many Japanese a little more tolerant toward other Asians.

The founder of the Little Angels school, Jeevarani Angelina â a former oil company executive from Chennai, India, who accompanied her husband, Saraph Chandar Rao Sanku, to Japan in 1990 â said she initially had difficulty persuading landlords to rent space to an Indian woman to start a school. But now, the fact that she and three of her four full-time teachers are non-Japanese Asians is a selling point.

âWhen I started, it was a first to have an English-language school taught by Asians, not Caucasians,â she said, referring to the long presence here of American and European international schools.

Unlike other Indian schools, Ms. Angelina said, Little Angels was intended primarily for Japanese children, to meet the need she had found when she sent her sons to Japanese kindergarten.

âI was lucky because I started when the Indian-education boom started,â said Ms. Angelina, 50, who goes by the name Rani Sanku here because it is easier for Japanese to pronounce. (Sanku is her husbandâs family name.)

Ms. Angelina has adapted the curriculum to Japan with more group activities, less memorization and no Indian history. Encouraged by the kindergartenâs success, she said, she plans to open an Indian-style elementary school this year.

Parents are enthusiastic about the schoolâs rigorous standards.

âMy sonâs level is higher than those of other Japanese children the same age,â said Eiko Kikutake, whose son Hayato, 5, attends Little Angels. âIndian education is really amazing! This wouldnât have been possible at a Japanese kindergarten.â

01-26-2008, 11:34 PM

Kalam's call to IIT alumni
Jan 26 2008

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam today urged IIT alumni to adopt clusters of villages in the country under Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas (PURA), especially in backward regions, including Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

''India cannot become a developed country without the development of these regions,'' he said while launching an entrepenuership programme of the TIE, Hyderabad and Pan IIT Alumni Association on the occasion of Republic Day.

''The nine per cent GDP growth rate is only an urban visibility.

It has to reach the rural areas also and PURA is the solution,'' he asserted. His address was webcast in 16 cities simultaneously.

''We need to maintain a growth rate of ten per cent for a decade to lift the 220 million people living below the poverty line'', he said, adding along with economic development, ''value system'' should be inculcated in the youth.

''A lot of opportunities are there in six lakh villages across the country. If you are a good entreprenuer, you should go in for development of one innovative product in each village,'' he told the IITians.

Referring to PURA initiative in an engineering college in Vallam in Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu, he said it has successfully provided physical, electronic and knowledge connectivity, resulting in economic development.

''We need to develop at least 7,000 PURA clusters across the country,'' he said setting a target for IITians of achieving at least 100 PURA clusters by 2009.

Pointing out that ten million people would enter the job market every year, he said ''IITians should not be job seekers but job providers.'' India would be a nation having demographic dividend till 2050, he said, calling for channelising the energies of youth and equipping them with employable skills.

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