Notes on Education

  I t goes without saying that a school that is running for profit will admit even a two month old baby to school as long as it makes a profit unless the government stops that. If not two month old children as young as two are being admitted to preschools across India. It goes without saying that the children get damaged psychologically simply because a school environment where a group of children have to be managed can not provide the love and care a child of less than five requires for an all around development. However, if that was not enough something far worse is happening. Children as young as three are being sexually molested in these schools as one was yesterday in Bangalore and more earlier damaging the child for life. The government must step in and ban any sort of school for children under age four. Just one year of preschool or kindergarten is enough before entering class one at age five or six. Parents need to be educated that very early school damages the...

Graduate of UBC An Open Letter to The Right Honorable Smriti Z. Irani, Minister for HRD Government of India Dear Minister, Please accept my congratulations at your new appointment. Many highly educated Indians and academics including myself are highly excited and pleased in finally seeing an energetic and capable young Minister for education in India. Unfortunately it has not always been so in India and as a result, standards of education have suffered. It may be mentioned that this letter comes to you from a person who has attained the highest levels of formal education, from the finest of universities as available in our world. These include the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi for a bachelors plus masters degree (with distinction and top rank) and doctor’s degree from the University of British Columbia in Canada on a doctoral fellowship of the university. Later, there was good fortune to serve on the faculty of these esteemed unive...

W ith progress of science and knowledge one would have expected that standard of basic arithmetic of school children too would have improved. However, surprisingly, this is one area where instead of improvement deterioration appears to have taken place in recent decades. Several surveys carried out in different parts of the world indicate that while children are becoming better at electronic things like computers, their most basic arithmetic skills are deteriorating. Even fourth or fifth graders are lagging behind in basic skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of numbers. A review of the scenario by this author seems to indicate that a primary reason for this is the fact that curriculums have been expanded much too rapidly with the consequence that far too much knowledge is being thrust upon youngest of children leaving them disinterested in the subject. Attempts have been made to include algebra at elementary school level as well as concepts from s...

  A trend has been noted in arithmetic education of children across many countries around the world. It has been noted that while several fifth and six graders are unable to carry out simple addition and subtraction exercises, leave alone multiplication and divisions, there is a tendency to rush children even as young as three with too much learning by their respective school boards or private managements The need of the day is to slow down the pace at which education is thrust upon children while ensuring that whatever is taught is done so firmly. It goes without saying that the process of learning must be made enjoyable to engage a child. While many schools begin nursery education at three and include pre-primary grades such as lower KG and upper KG, the view of this author as well as several educators around the world is that preschool education must not begin under the age of four under any circumstances. A child under four is best at home under the care of a lov...

Preschool Arithmetic Experts differ as to their opinion on what the correct age is to begin formal education starting at class one of a primary school for children. Some suggest an age of five and others seven but all agree hat it should be for children five years or older. Below the age of five a child may remain entirely out of school as this author did or he may spend a few hours a day at a play school that includes nursery and kindergarten. The latter should include mainly play activities. A preschool may be considered at age four or more only if one can be found where loving care is guaranteed and if a  secure way to take the child to that play school and bring him back home in two or three hours can be organized.. Imposing any additional learning at this tender age at home or preschool can stunt a child’s mind. It must be allowed to develop at its own pace under loving care. If a local preschool tells you differently and wishes to admit a child at three please do ...

The idea for the Froebel Education Trust was launched by this blogger around three years ago, soon after his retirement from full time work. The hope was to make a contribution towards improving education at all levels in India as and when time permitted even in the retirement years, since this blogger has been involved with education at an International level throughout his career. However, soon after that some unexpected situations developed and it was not possible for this blogger to devote time to the activity nor find others who may come forward and participate as a trustee. Only one eminent scholar from Japan - Ms. Keiko Amano - agreed to be one. Therefore, the trust has not really taken off actively. Perhaps the only slight contribution it might have made is through the articles of this blog, some of which add to the pool of useful information on the topic. However, it is not as if this blogger has not made some contributions in other directions. An earlier book on universities ...

T he latest edition of my  book - How to create excellent Universities - is now published and available at Amazon.com. Check out the book at Amazon about the book. They have done a much better job of describing it than I can do here. The book is a necessary manual for any one involved in the creation of a new university. Without it they will miss out on all the important information that has been gathered by the author from universities all over the world and is not documented elsewhere.   The book begins with a history of universities and compares the two types of institutions where higher education leading to university degrees is offered. The remaining book is divided in six chapters that cover the need for universities, courses, infrastructure, layout, faculty and governance. All through the author takes pains to outline the factors that lead to excellence and those that lead to deviation from it.   It is essential study matter for those planning to creat...

Credit System of Education Human knowledge has grown exponentially over the last century. The traditional system of education in which students earned a degree after completing a prescribed number of courses over a certain number of years is inadequate to cope with the growth of knowledge and activity of the modern world. As a measure to cope with this increase of knowledge and a diversity of requirements, the credit system of education was invented more than a century ago. In this system each individual course is assigned a certain number of credits based on the workload. Approximately a course consisting of one hour per week of lecture load spread over a semester is a one-credit course. A degree is earned when a students completes a certain number of credits. Certain courses are prescribed as core or compulsory courses (about half the courses for some degrees) whereas the student is free to select the other courses depending upon his interests and aptitude subject to the approval...

Fixing Schedules  Author with H S Gill designing an IIT class reunion schedule If a prize has to be given to a nation for maximum variability then India might win it. It appears that in India a great many things that can do without change are changed continuously. An example is the design of our coins. It has changed so rapidly over the years that it is sometimes difficult to recognize which is which especially for older persons who wear reading glasses and are not wearing them at the time of handling coins. Compare this to the design of coins in USA or Canada. They have coins in distinct sizes, colors and designs for 1cent, 5cent, 10 cent, and 25 cents. Even a blind person can make out which coin is which on feeling their weight or size. These designs have not changed for over a century. As a result many efficient coin operated or coin-handling machines can be designed in those countries. Undoubtedly fixing the design of coins will render some die makers and coin designers...

Faculty Subsequent to permitting private players to enter the higher educational arena, over the last decade there has been a proliferation of educational institutions in India. It is a profitable business and many an enterprising shopkeeper, hotel owner, primary or high school owner, politician etc. has jumped into the business. It may be imagined the resulting quality of such private education cannot be of a very high quality. Hopefully this is only a preliminary situation and the scenario will improve in future. Innovative regulation would be required to improve quality. This is what the present series of notes is about. The arenas of education that private players have entered are the most profitable ones such as engineering and management education. With the increase of educational institutions a serious shortage of qualified faculty has emerged in areas such as engineering. This has led the regulating authorities to lower the required qualifications of faculty to an insidiously l...