Archive for October 5th, 2011
Lack of funds hampers social science research in India
The poor state of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), the leading body that funds and promotes social science research in the country, brought out by the review committee recently has resulted in Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) setting up a separate sub-group to decide on 12th Five Year Plan funding. It could, for the first time, begin targeted funding for ICSSR and social science research in the next plan.
ICSSR Chairperson Sukhdeo Thorat’s recent presentation to HRD minister Kapil Sibal on the roadmap for social science research in general and ICSSR in particular brings out the yawning gap between the minister’s aspiration to step up research and the ground situation. “Even if emergency measures are taken, it would take at least another ten years for social science research in India to make an international presence,” a senior ICSSR official said.
More than the review committee, ICSSR’s own study brings out the real picture. Take the case of research projects. During the 11th Plan, ICSSR could sanction only 30% of research proposals. Out of the sanctioned ones, 12% required less than Rs. 200,000 and 65% between Rs. 200,000 to 500,000. ICSSR admits that low funding affected quality. ICSSR pointed out that out of 250,000 teachers in social sciences, on an average 8,333 teachers require research grants. But it is so far being given to only 693 teachers leaving a deficit of 7,640.
ICSSR also found that half the teachers in social sciences were without M.Phil. and Ph.D., making it necessary that they be given fellowships. The picture is again very dismal. Against the current annual requirement of fellowship to 9,500 teachers, only 666 teachers are being supported. It needs to be pointed out that the bulk (661) of 666 fellowships comes from UGC (University Grants Commission) and only five per year from ICSSR.
A bigger deficit between demand and supply is seen in case of fellowship to students for M.Phil./Ph/D. While the requirement is for 10,000 fellowships, only 2,055 is given out annually. Again the bulk of fellowships (2,000) is from UGC and only 55 from ICSSR.
Then there is the story of lack of international collaborations between Indian and foreign scholars and ICSSR failing to meet all demands from its meagre resources. The overall story is that China has overtaken India in social science research. Considering that it is a late entrant, even Brazil is faring better in many respects.
A recent study showed that India is on 13th rank among 26 countries with China placed on seventh rank and Brazil 21. Between 1997 and 2007, China’s share grew from .85% to 3.63% and India from .91% to 1.01%. India fell behind in terms of co-authored papers, the ration being 27.75% for Brazil, 15.18% for China and 14.96% for India. The most productive institutions in terms of scholarly work is from China and Brazil. From India only two universities – Delhi University and JNU – figure in the list.
Source: The Times of India, October 5, 2011
Plan panel mulls 2 nurses for every doctor
India plans to fix the acute shortage of nurse by 2025. The Planning Commission’s high-level expert group on health has set a target to have a minimum of two nurses and one auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) for every available allopathic doctor.
It is estimated that there are 651,000 nurses and 296,000 ANMs – a combined nurse and ANM ratio of one per 1,277 population. This is in comparison to one per 2,250 population as estimated by the National Task Force for Nursing for the 11th Five Year Plan.
Existing nursing schools churn out 115,000 additional nurses annually. This included nursing schools for the General Nursing and Midwifery diploma and nursing colleges for the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) degree. However, the figure is skewed across states.
“Despite these efforts, we have fallen short of requirements, to the extent that the National Rural Health Mission has had to appoint far fewer nurses than required due to their non-availability in many states. In 2010, only 57,450 of the required 276,000 required nurses were employed at primary and community health care centres,” it added.
Implementation of the group’s recommendations will make available an additional 780,000 nurses and ANMs by 2017. During the 13th plan, more nursing schools and colleges will be opened, adding 1.01 million nurses and ANMs from 2017 to 2022.
The need for specialized nurses has been felt in multiple clinical areas, including operation theatres, chronic care, midwifery, ophthalmology, ICUs, cardio-thoracic, and neurosurgery. The group expects the target to be achieved in four phases – 98 nursing schools and 15 nursing colleges in Phase A by 2015; 93 nursing schools and 14 nursing colleges in Phase B by 2017 and another 191 nursing schools and 29 nursing colleges in Phase C and D.
Source: The Times of India, October 5, 2011
Murthy sparks debate on IIT student quality
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and IIT-JEE coaching institutes have not taken kindly to Infosys Technologies founder, N.R. Narayana Murthy’s comment that questioned the quality of students at these institutions. A couple of days earlier, Murthy said during his keynote address at the Pan IIT Summit in New York: “Thanks to coaching classes, the quality of students entering IITs has gone lower and lower. Save the top 20 per cent who crack the tough IIT entrance exam and can stand among the best anywhere in the world, the quality of the remaining 80 per cent of students leaves much to be desired.”
Responded the Director of an IIT, who did not wish to be named: “This is not a scientific way of pronouncing judgments. There may be deficiencies in our system. Over the years, IITs have adopted objective-type questions in the paper, and there is some visible effect of that. But to comment that 80 per cent of students lack quality is not called for without doing optimum research. Specially with personalities like Narayana Murthy whose words count a lot, it should be based on thorough research.” Said a professor from IIT, Delhi: “People are shooting missiles on IITs. We are too much into the public gaze and it’s high time we are given some benign neglect, so that we can concentrate on our jobs.”
Nor did Murthy’s comments go gone down well with IIT entrance coaching classes. “I disagree with Mr. Murthy. If any deterioration has happened, blame it on the examination system. What it used to be in the 1980s and 1990s has changed. Now they have begun asking objective-type questions, which anyone can solve. It gives a chance to more students to clear the tests. If they talk about quality, they should restore the earlier examination pattern,” said Pramod Maheshwari, Director and CEO of Career Point Infosystems, a Kota-based IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) training institute.
Earlier, said Maheshwari, only 2,000 students used to go to IITs in a year; today around 10,000 seats available in the IIT system. Around 450,000 students take the IIT-JEE. Of these, around 13,000 are shortlisted. “What Mr. Murthy is comparing needs to be understood from a data point of view. Coaching institutes are giving students exposure to a set of questions in the IIT-JEE. Coaching institutes teach physics, chemistry and maths to students, explaining fundamentals to them which students use in the examination to solve questions. Mr Murthy’s comments are not true,” added Maheshwari.
C.V. Kalyan Kumar, Director at FIIT-JEE, said the need of the hour is to standardise the education system, so that what is taught at schools is at par with what is asked in the IIT entrance tests. “Students today go to coaching centres to bridge this gap and help themselves prepare for the tests. The same is the case for civil services aspirants. The poor quality of education in India in the primary, secondary and higher levels and the poor quality of faculties in universities and colleges in the country cannot help produce good students,” said Kumar.
Source: Business Standard, October 5, 2011
IIT exam panel behind poor student quality: Super 30 founder
Anand Kumar, who founded Super 30, Bihar’s widely acclaimed free coaching centre for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) aspirants, has blamed the institutes’ entrance exam panel for the poor quality of students making the cut, a concern voiced by Infosys Chairman Emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Anand Kumar said if poor quality students, as felt by Narayan Murthy, were able to get into the IITs, it was the responsibility of the joint entrance examination (JEE) committee. He said that students went to private coaching institutes simply because they don’t find the school education system up to the mark for the JEE.
“The IITs should frame questions in such a manner that the real talent reaches there. The IITs should try to bring in greater transparency and have a proper examination pattern,” Kumar told IANS. “It is because of the lack of knowledge about the IITs’ pattern that the students have to run around the coaching institutes to acquire that little bit extra, which makes the ultimate difference,” he said.
Anand Kumar, who welcomed the reforms announced by the IITs for the JEE, said that the students needed to be applauded, rather than criticised. It is their hard work that makes them crack arguably the toughest competition. “Once the students reach the IITs, it is the job of the teachers there to provide the environment where they grow.
Addressing a gathering of hundreds of former IITians at a ‘Pan IIT’ summit in New York, Murthy said the quality of students entering IITs had deteriorated over the years due to the “coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants”.
Anand Kumar’s Super 30 has helped many poor students from Bihar to enter the prestigious IITs. He had set up Super 30 to prepare 30 students for the IIT-JEE in 2002, providing free boarding, lodging and coaching to the selected aspirants. In the last nine years, 236 students from Super 30 have made it to the IIT-JEE. Most of the successful candidates have been from the less privileged sections of society.
Anand Kumar, who could not go to Cambridge University in the UK for higher studies due to extreme financial constraint after the death of his father, started the Ramanujam School of Mathematics in 1992 and founded the Super 30 a decade later.
Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), October 5, 2011
Indo-US coop in education field poised for major expansion
India-US cooperation in the field of education is poised for major expansion, Indian envoy to the US said ahead of the next week’s major summit between the two countries on the issue. “India-US cooperation in the field of education is today poised for major expansion,” Nirupama Rao, Indian Ambassador to the US said while addressing at the Yale University on “Future Direction in India-US relations”.
“We in India see education as critical for achieving its goals to have inclusive growth and to realise the potential for taking the Indian economy to even higher growth trajectory,” she said. The Ambassador said that India has announced major initiatives for massive expansion and upgradation of the education infrastructure, both in the primary education sector and also in the higher education.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and India’s Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal would attend the India-US Higher Education Summit on October 13. “The Summit will bring together not just government officials but also academics and entrepreneurs who are engaged in this area and will provide a platform to develop a blueprint for furthering our horizons in this area,” Rao said.
Yale, she said, has had a historical connection with India that goes back more than three centuries beginning with Eliahu Yale and his days in Madras (now Chennai). Yale has been a pioneer among the US universities when it comes to the study of India – its languages, literature, religions, history, and its politics, economics and society.
“I understand Yale was the first US University to start teaching Sanskrit. Many eminent Indians and Indian-Americans have passed through its portals. Yale is today not only continuing its tradition of engagement but has strengthened it and extensively broadened it through the Yale India Initiative that was launched in 2008,” she said.
India-US relationship she said is a partnership that seeks to meet common aspirations for mutual prosperity and for peace and security.
Source: The Times of India (Online Edition), October 5, 2011
Narayana Murthy’s IIT comment stirs up debate among academicians
Are coaching institutes to blame for poor quality of IIT students? Somewhat, says the industry, but blames other factors, like education system, too. An entry into the coveted Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) got a snub on Monday from the Infosys Chairman Emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy. He said at a ‘Pan IIT’ summit in New York that the quality of students entering IITs has deteriorated over the years due to coaching classes that prepare engineering aspirants.
The quality of students and their employability has been a cause of concern for the industry. “There has not been any change in the quality of students either for the better or worse. The same hiring and selection process is applied for all engineering colleges and the IIT students do not need any lesser time for training compared to a non-IITian and after training productivity is same as others,” says Manjunath SR, Senior Director, Human Resources, NetApp India, The company takes 50-60 students from IITs every year and has been doing this for the past four years.
Ganesh Shermon, People Practice Head for KPMG, has seen a drop in the quality because now students are tested for admissions only on 2-3 subjects and on questions that can be cracked through sheer practice. Som Mittal, an IITian and Nasscom President, says, “Murthy’s issue is perhaps about expectations. Even today IITs will probably be producing best in class, but are they at the same level as earlier?” Over the years both in terms of size and volume, IITs have expanded. The standards at IITs are very high. JEE was a great filter, but is today dominated by the coaching classes. “This is not criticism, but a time to look at what we need to do to maintain the standards in the future,” Mittal adds.
Some like Dhananjay Bansod, chief people officer of Deloitte, blame the education system. “I empathise with Murthy on the coaching bit, but the fault lies with the entire education system. Our education system is far slower to change compared to changing industry needs,” says Bansod. Deloitte visits all top IITs including Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay and Madras for campus recruitment. The fault, according to him, lies in the selection process that tests quantitative skills. “You need both quantitative and qualitative skills to make it work at the workplace,” he says. Every year more than half-a-million students sit for joint entrance examination for admission to IITs and only 10,000 get into IITs.
IIT Kanpur Director Sanjay Dhande agrees things are amiss. “The IIT education model has to get more liberalised and the curriculum needs to get revised but in education the changes are slow. The core courses have to be far more liberal than what we are doing right now and it has to be more broadbased like a major and a minor subject all together,” he says.
The need to overhaul the admission process has already been announced and there is a task force a that will be looking to include the consistency in school boards examinations and have an aptitude test as well, says IIT Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi. There has been a tendancy to ignore school board results that includes languages which will be changed.
S. Sadagopan, founder Director of IIIT, Bangalore, vouches for lack of enthusiasm among the students. “Coaching starts when students are in class 9. By the time students make it to the IIT, their enthusiasm goes down. There has to be more imaginative scheme for admission than just a score.”
Coaching institutes, for their part, are upset with Murthy’s statement. Says Satya Narayanan R., founder chairman of Delhi-based coaching institute Career Launcher, “I find the statement a little disappointing. Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy is simplifying the problem of employability. Coaching institutes are doing their job. If someone wants to get into an IIT, somebody has to train them.”
According to him, the problem is multifarious. “We need to make the education system more student-centric. The school is focused on finishing the curriculum,” he says. Defending coaching methods, Pramod Kumar Bansal, CEO of Bansal Classes, says: “We teach the students keeping in mind the vast IIT syllabus. Coaching centres help students understand the routine and give them a systematic approach to crack the exams.” The institute is training 14,000 students for JEE in Kota and Jaipur.
Anand Kumar, Founder member of Super 30, an institute in Bihar that has had a success rate of 80% to 100% in terms of its students clearing the exam, blames professors. “Our students are capable enough. Those who set the questions should be questioned as to why they did not set a paper that will bring in the best. IIT professors should then be blamed and not coaching institutes,” says Kumar.
Source: The Economic Times, October 5, 2011
Fading interest in engineering, entrance test blamed for IIT slide
A day after Infosys Ltd.’s Chairman Emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy rued the quality of students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), experts and IIT officials said coaching centres that help students enter these elite engineering colleges are only partly to blame. The entrance examination, inadequate training in high schools and falling interest among students to pursue careers in engineering must also share the blame, they said.
Addressing a global IIT alumni meet in New York, Murthy said on Monday that most IIT students now fare poorly in jobs and global institutions of higher education. Test preparation centres, he said, are to be blamed for creating a pool of rote learners who enter the IITs. “Thanks to the coaching classes today, the quality of students entering IITs has gone lower and lower,” Murthy said, advocating a change in selection criteria, as reported by PTI.
The IIT-joint entrance examination (JEE) is one of the most competitive in the country, with just about two out of every 100 candidates finding a seat at one of the 15 IITs. In the last academic year, 475,000 students took the test, vying for around 10,000 seats. Many successful candidates rely on private coaching centres to perform well at the examination. Students at these centres are trained through a combination of rote-learning and calculated guess work to score the maximum in a limited time.
For the last eight years, the IITs have chosen a multiple-choice format for the JEE, compared with an earlier version which tested students’ indepth subject knowledge. “The drop in quality intake at the IITs can be attributed to its selection process,” said C.V. Kalyan Kumar, Director of FIIT-JEE Ltd., a prominent chain of tutorials. “Earlier, the selection process was subjective, but in the last eight years, it has gone completely objective.” One correct answer, according to Kumar, fetches three mark, while a wrong answer leads to one negative mark. “This means students don’t hesitate to guess answers. By guessing, you can get 25% right answers,” he said.
The need of coaching centres arises mainly due to poor schooling, but the “government is not strengthening that because it is difficult. If you select students based only on school boards, then the quality will go down further as some boards grant marks without judging the (student’s) calibre,” Kumar said.
Vishal Chandra, an IIT-Delhi graduate who heads a start-up, said the current examination only required students to have a limited understanding of physics, chemistry and mathematics. “You don’t need to understand these subjects in great depth. Tutorials prepare you to tackle these formats.” He, however, added that the IIT-JEE tutorial he attended taught him science better than his school.
Rajiv Kumar, a professor at IIT-Kharagpur, said he agreed with Murthy. “But you cannot only blame coaching centres for the mess. IITs have to put their house in order first before blaming anybody else. The exam is yours and the selection process is yours too,” said Kumar, who was suspended five months ago for criticizing the IIT system by using the Right to Information Act. He has filed a public interest litigation asking for reform in the IIT system.
Gautam Barua, Director of IIT-Guwahati, said Murthy was only partly right on the quality of students. “It’s a concern that at least 50% of the students are not interested in pursuing a career in engineering courses offered by IITs. They are good students interested in some other fields. They come to IITs for a good brand name, great peers and it helps them crack exams like CAT (common admission test for the Indian Institutes of Management).” The 2010-12 batch of IIM-Bangalore’s flagship postgraduate programme has 375 students, of which 20% are IIT graduates.
But Ashok Gupta, Dean of Alumni Affairs and International Programme at IIT-Delhi, said neither the IIT brand name nor the quality of its students has gone down. “People should check ground realities,” he said. Gupta said it has always been true that the top 20% of students are excellent, 60% are very good and the rest are average. “India’s market situation has changed,” he added. “Earlier, the top 15-20% IIT pass-outs used to go out to the US and other countries, either for jobs or further studies. Now they get quality local jobs. So those who are going abroad may be average students.” Gupta also said students cannot be blamed for choosing careers in management if they pay better.
But Murthy is not the first to criticise the IITs or the impact of coaching centres. On 14 September, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the IIT Council said in a note that they were considering reforms in the entrance exam and that coaching centres were playing havoc with the quality of student intake.
Source: Mint, October 5, 2011
Higher Education News and Views 