India tops with 56,000 migrant doctors in OECD countries

India is the top country of origin of migrant doctors in OECD countries with over 56000 Indian doctors in these countries, which include the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia. India also figures at sixth place in the expatriation of nurses to OECD countries (about 23000). In terms of percentages, however, these figures constitute just 8% and 3% respectively of the doctor and nurse population in India, comfortingly low compared to some of the smaller countries severely affected by emigration of doctors such as Mozambique (75%) and Angola (70%). These numbers, revealed by the recently released World Migration Report 2010, however, do not include the large number of Indian doctors and nurses working in the Gulf.

It is estimated that at any given time there are over 100,000 Indian nurses in the GCC (Gulf Coordination Council) countries. “The poor working conditions in India coupled with low salary and the lack of respect at the work place are the top reasons for nurses migrating abroad,” said Sreelekha Nair, of the Centre for Women’s Development Studies at a recently organized seminar on Indian Nursing in the New Era of Healthcare.

The World Migration Report talks about the problem of medical brain drain, especially in African countries. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of physicians per 100,000 population for India is 70, which is at par with low-income countries, and for the public sector, the figure is a paltry 20. In the European Union (EU), the figure is 310 physicians per 100,000 population and in the US 240 physicians per 100,000. Similarly, the number of nurses per 100,000 population in India is 80, while it is 330 for the world and 160 for low-income countries.

The WHO threshold for a health workforce crisis is 230 health workers per 100,000 population. For example, India, an origin country, with only 190 health workers per 100,000 persons, is in a crisis state. As destination countries, the UK and the US have ratios of 750 and 1250 health workers per 100,000 persons respectively, which are far above the benchmark. However, there is still a demand for doctors and nurses in these countries. This was pointed out in a background paper, “The Future of Health Worker Migration”, by Professor Binod Khadria of the Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies in JNU. In OECD countries, there is an increasing demand for health workers because of rising incomes, new technology, and an aging population.

In terms of nurses, the Philippines is the main country of origin for nurses, with over 110,000 Filipino nurses working in OECD countries, followed by the UK (just under 46000), Germany (under 32000). According to the OECD data of 2007, the top five countries in terms of emigration rates of nurses are all from the Caribbean Haiti leads with an expatriation rate of 94%, followed by Jamaica (87.7%), Grenada (87.6%), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (81.6%) and Guyana (81.1%).

A lot of the data on migrating health workers could be outdated and also fluctuates a lot depending on the demand around the world. But it is a given that there is no stopping the migration of health workers. “Migration for employment abroad is the basic human right of every health worker — or any skilled worker,” said professor Khadria.

Source: The Times of India, December 24, 2010

Soon, virtual varsity to hand out degrees: Online initiative started by IITs & IISc

It’s amongst the most popular educational programmes on the internet, registering more than four million hits across 17 countries, and now poised to turn into a virtual university. The online initiative started by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to enhance engineering education through virtual classrooms will soon be expanded by adding more courses, even physical infrastructure, and by granting degrees and diplomas.

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), which got under way in 2003 with web and video content to support engineering students nationwide, will next year see increase in number of disciplines taught from five to 20, and the number of virtual courses offered will go up from 260 to 1000. With fresh approvals from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the project coordinators soon plan to offer the equivalent of a degree or a diploma to students enrolled in the virtual university.

“Currently we offer 135 video courses and 125 web courses. By the time we launch the Open Virtual University in 2012, we will have around 1000 courses in both undergraduate and postgraduate,” said Usha Nagarajan, Principal Project Officer of NPTEL. Unlike Phase I which offered only undergraduate courses, Phase II will see postgraduate courses being offered in five out of the 20 disciplines.

NPTEL, conceived in 1999 to support technical education in underdeveloped areas, has grown rapidly in popularity. The programme, which includes recordings of lectures by IIT faculty, has a reach that spreads across the north east and central India to institutions in the deep south. IIT Madras Director M.S. Ananth recalled a conversation with a Nagaland university Vice-chancellor, who spoke of how NPTEL had kept academic activity on his campus from being derailed during a staff strike. “What my profs took 15 lectures to teach, you teach in three, was what he said,” Ananth told an alumni gathering recently.

Private engineering colleges with inexperienced staff have been the biggest beneficiaries of the NPTEL programme. The only requirement on their part is to ensure broadband connectivity to each teacher to access the online content. “After its introduction last year, the teaching staff at my college used it to the maximum and the students are now getting its benefit. There is a standing instruction for teachers here to spend at least two hours a day to learn the online courses of NPTEL,” said Dr. S. Subrahmaniyan, Principal of Coimbatore’s Sri Krishna Institute of Engineering and Technology. The college is planning to ensure access for all its engineering students the next academic year onwards.

The IITs are currently in the process of identifying 15 college clusters across India where lab facilities could also be provided to supplement the Virtual University. To ensure that students getting online lessons are not denied practical knowledge, colleges equipped with large labs will be identified. Most colleges do not use their labs in the summer months. Hence, students who are part of the open virtual university will be encouraged to use these labs.

Source: The Times of India, December 24, 2010

Law entrance test targets wider pool

The committee that conducts the admission test for national law schools has made changes to improve the content and the reach of the next edition. Application forms for the Common Law Admission Test, or CLAT, will now be available in more than 300 outlets across the country, said M.P. Singh, Convenor of CLAT and Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata, the university in charge of organizing the 2011 test.

Previously, CLAT distributed forms through two-three banks each in states with metropolitan cities. It has now tied up with the postal service to increase the number of outlets so the forms are available in every state. “We’ve tied up with the post office instead of banks. Therefore, the form would be available more widely,” said Singh. CLAT will be held on 15 May, 2011.

The committee has also introduced changes to the general knowledge and legal reasoning sections of the test, according to the instructions on the test website, http://www.clat.ac.in/. The general knowledge section will have questions based on current affairs between May 2010 to May 2011. “We will try and ask questions on issues that are relevant to the present and the future,” Singh said. He explained that the committee intended “to test general awareness rather than static knowledge”.

A third change is that the test will not expect candidates to know legal terms, sections of law or legal principles. “Candidates will not be tested on any prior knowledge of law or legal concepts. If a technical/legal term is used in the question, that term will be explained in the question itself,” says the website.

“This means students don’t need to study legal principles before they write the exam — only their process of reasoning will be tested,” said Shamnad Basheer, who is on an internal CLAT committee at NUJS. Basheer said he was not a member of the committee that was setting the test paper, since he is pioneering the project to bring students from rural areas into legal education.

Anita T., a graduate of National Law School of India University in Bangalore, who now runs Paradygm Law, a private tutorial for CLAT aspirants, said the changes were welcome from the candidates’ perspective. She said the changes in the general knowledge section “will force students to diligently follow current affairs all the year round rather than memorizing questions from off-the-shelf general knowledge books” and the new legal reasoning will “test them purely on their aptitude and logical thinking when it comes to the law”.

Source: Mint, December 24, 2010