TISS to recruit faculty on contractual basis

Performance indicators and pink slips are no longer the domain of grueling corporate jobs. Something fundamental is changing in public universities of India that have always provided their teachers job security and the comfort of fixed work hours.

The government funded Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) plans to recruit faculty on their Hyderabad campus on a contractual basis. It is only after a regular annual assessment, which includes students’ evaluation, will their term be extended.

The new campus which saw initial financial support from the Azim Premji Foundation, will conduct several interdisciplinary courses, essentially requiring more than just teaching from a text. The decision on recruitment rules was taken as it was felt faculty sign up with a lot of enthusiasm but, as years roll by, the “promise of pension” turn many to deadwood, said sources.

“We are looking for the best teachers who can liven up our classroom. We are keen on appointing individuals who bring strong inter-disciplinary research experience and also are good teachers. We want individuals who will join a new institute and grow with it,” said Lakshmi Lingam, deputy director of the Hyderabad campus. But what about senior academics who may look the other way, discouraged by the recruitment policy and not make the switch?

To attract marquee names, the institute will also have some permanent positions, the ones that will be supported by the University Grants Commission (UGC). “Also, if we find a good track record of a contractual faculty, they will find their way on the permanent rolls,” added Lingam. Mindful of the fact that emoluments need to be competitive, TISS has decided to not differentiate between the contractual and the permanent teachers on campus would be offered the Sixth Pay Commission salary scale.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), July 11, 2011

>Azim Premji pledges Rs. 100 billion for schools project

>Wipro’s Azim Premji is set to give some competition to two of the world’s most richest and most active philanthropists – Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The Azim Premji Foundation will spend Rs. 10,000 crore (Rs. 100 billion) for setting up schools and educational institutes across the country, the foundation’s CEO, Dilip Ranjekar, announced in Latur on Wednesday.

He said that two model schools would be built in each district, including Latur. “We aim to churn out good teachers, who will nurture best students in the country. We are investing our money in the field of education as the present system focuses on only marks and not ability of students,” he said, adding that merit would be the sole criteria for admissions to institutes built by the foundation.

Ranjekar said that Buffett and Gates had pledged a staggering amount of money for the improvement of the education sector worldwide, and the Azim Premji Foundation would seek to do the same. Some of the institutes that the organisation plans to set up will offer post-graduate courses, including management.

While discussing the needs of an efficient educational system, Ranjekar pointed out the diminishing gaps between two generations. “Time is changing so fast that the generation gap, which was once considered a good 30 years, is now just three years. If we don’t understand the needs of today’s youth, we will face huge problems in future,” he said. He also stressed on the urgency to understand the interaction among the youth.

Ranjekar feels “injustice, inequality and discordance” are the three major issues the world faces. He said that only 1 per cent of the world’s population had 40 per cent of the wealth. “In our country, we get shoes in an AC showroom and vegetables on roadsides near drains,” he said, adding that the youth was indifferent and self-centered.

He revealed that in India, there are 1.3 million schools, 250 million students and 6 million teachers. “One teacher has to teach many subjects, which dissolves the interest of the students as well as the teacher. We need to build a system that will churn out teachers,” he said.

Last year, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced a campaign to get other American billionaires to give at least 50 per cent of their wealth to charity. More than 50 Americans, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, have signed up for the campaign, called ‘The Giving Pledge’.

Gates and Buffett — with an estimated net worth of US$ 56 billion and $ 50 billion, respectively — have extended the initiative to India and China. Last month, the two met Indian industrialists and tycoons and urged them to take the pledge. Gates has been active in philanthropy through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2006, Buffett announced that he would spend 99 per cent of his wealth on philanthropy.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), April 28, 2011

>Premji Foundation to set up institute

>The Azim Premji Foundation, the eponymous non-profit education arm run by the chairman of Wipro Ltd., has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), to set up the Azim Premji School of Education (APSE) in Hyderabad. The school will offer degrees and conduct research in education. The Foundation will make an investment of Rs. 40 crore (Rs. 400 million) over the next five years in the school.

“The Tata Institute of Social Sciences will bring a deeper understanding of social sciences and the developmental sector, while we bring our on-field understanding of education and our relationships with the state governments,” said Dileep Ranjekar, Chief Executive of the Azim Premji Foundation, in a phone interview. The Foundation and TISS will jointly develop the curriculum, and share faculty and student services. Ranjekar also said that the APSE will help TISS take on more students at the Hyderabad campus and offer financial assistance to those who wish to pursue education or research. “In principle, APSE will be very similar to the Azim Premji university, although initially it may have a more academic orientation, while the university has a field orientation,” he said.

APSE will be headed by Lakshmi Lingam who is currently Dean, Research and Development, at TISS in Mumbai. The school will begin its programmes in August this year with about 150 students. The hiring of faculty is complete with some of them shifting from the TISS Mumbai campus. It will operate on the campus of a state government educational institution this year but will later be shifted to the TISS campus in Hyderabad which is currently being set up.

The decade-old Azim Premji Foundation, which received a grant of Wipro shares worth Rs. 8,846 crore (Rs. 88.46 billion) from Premji in December last year, works primarily to improve the quality of education in India. Premji had transferred 213 million of his shares in Wipro, equivalent to an 8.7% stake, to fund the development activities of the Foundation.

The Foundation collaborates with various state governments and has an outreach of over 20,000 schools and 2.5 million children. Last year, the Foundation established the Azim Premji University (APU) in Karnataka, which will launch masters programmes in education, development and teacher education in July this year. It will start with about 200 students, and aims to reach about 3,500 by 2016.

Source: Mint, April 8, 2011