Notes on Education

For decades a common sight in towns and cities across India has been school children, even five and six year olds, carrying enormously huge school bags likes beasts of burden. It saddens any compassionate adult to see this sight. Many have voiced concern over the matter. Not only is this a daily burden, medical practitioners have stated this can lead to permanent physical damage and deformities to a child, but yet the practice went on and on. Perhaps no practical thumb rule was suggested by anyone to control the practice. On the part of schools, perhaps the greed of commissions that accrue from sales of books have been paramount. Moved by the plight of these children, some months ago this author tweeted to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Honorable Minister of Human Resources Shri Prakash Javedkar ji suggesting the sort of rule that might be imposed on schools, To this author’s delight, this author read in the morning newspapers today,   “Center fix

  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mt._Nanda_Devi.jpg This note comments on a new higher education initiative in India, Pradhan Mantri Research Fellowships, which will be administered at IITs and other excellent institutes of higher Education in India as reported in the daily newspaper Times of India today.   As a deep IITian this author is certain that students will not call it by that name or PMRF and make up their own friendlier nick name for it. May I propose one here, Namo Prakash Fellowships since this proposal appears to be result of the Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and his brilliant education minister the Right Honourable Shri Prakash Javedkar. At the route of success of nations through human history has been the existence of higher education institutions of excellence. Thus while it were the Buddhist Universities led by Nalanda in India during its golden age, it has been Universities of Oxford and Cambridge during the British Empire an

  W hile modern children have become wizards at electronic devices with even three year olds using a smart phone like a professional, they are not as good at basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic. Some of the modern methods of teaching these subjects at school is not helping much either. These are essential skills that a human needs not just through all of their education but also to navigate successfully through life. For my own grandchildren, I had to go back to reviewing what I had learned in primary school and develop teaching material in the simplest possible way to teach them some more arithmetic at home besides what they learned at school. I have to admit that the task was just as challenging as advanced mathematics I used in my career as a scientist and professor of engineering. However, the end result of the effort was completely satisfactory. Realizing it would be useful for other parents as well the material has been compiled in a set of colorful b