No detention of students till Class VIII

This is a Tamil Nadu GO. The Right To Education Act that came into force on 1 April 2010 already prohibits such detention as stated in the article.

India ranks 86th in Education

In a report called the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, India is ranked 86th while in terms of overall prosperity, the ranking is a much better 45 which is better than Russia and China. Now, if we set ourselves the task of improving the education ranking.....

More on this report can be found at:
http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx

Competitions on Primary Education Postponed

Due to examinations for most students in professional colleges, the competitions have been postponed to 19th December 2009.

Websites for Vizag schools

After a lot of searching, the website for government schools in Vizag was located. Although incomplete, the website is at:
http://schools.conedtec.com/gvmc/SchoolsList/tabid/1843/Default.aspx

Competitions on Primary Education

Prof. Somaraju has decided that instead of just a poster competition, we should hold competitions in three areas of creativity - posters, songs/poems and skits. The competitions details are:


Theme of the Competitions: Primary Education - Existing & Future

Rules of the Competitions:

1. Open to anyone below 24 years of age.
2. Posters need to be on A0-A3 size paper.
3. Every poster should have a title.
4. Poster competitions will start at 2 PM and go on till 5PM.
5. Prize money for posters: 1st prize = Rs.500 ; two 2nd prizes = Rs. 250 each; three 3rd prizes = Rs. 100 each.
6. Length of each song or poem should be a maximum of 2 minutes.
7. Songs and poetry competitions will begin at 5 PM and go on until 7 PM.
8. Song lyrics and poems should be sent to studentsforeffectiveeducation[at]yahoo.in BEFORE 10th Nov 2009.(replace [at] with @).
9. Prize money for songs/poems: 1st prize = Rs.500 ; 2nd prize = Rs. 250; 3rd prize = Rs. 100.
10. Length of each skit should be a maximum of 4 minutes.
11. Skit competitions will begin at 5 PM and go on until 7 PM.
12. Draft skits should be sent to studentsforeffectiveeducation[at]yahoo.in BEFORE 10th Nov 2009.(replace [at] with @).
13. Prize money for songs/poems: 1st prize = Rs.500 ; 2nd prize = Rs. 250; 3rd prize = Rs. 100.
14. All entries will be judged on originality, clarity and presentation.
15. Judges decisions will be final.
16. Prize distribution will begin at 7 PM.
17. Downloaded or otherwise copied entries can be and shall be disqualified at any time. No movie songs.
18. Entry fee of Rs. 10 per student per competition. No refunds under any circumstances.
19. All entries shall become the property of Students for Effective Education (SEE).
20. Register online at: http://tinyurl.com/ygjqqgs
21. Sponsors: BCT, Conduira and GVP

The theme of the entries should be:
Primary Education in India - Existing & Future.

New people, New ideas and School visits

We had a couple of new people come in - Mrs. Hattangadi and Mr. Abdullah. They had new ideas and new contributions. Some of the students, like Prasanna, Srujana and Saranya are following up on Mr. Abdullah's idea of conducting a poster competition on Primary Education. The idea is to gain publicity, make more people think about the issue, come up with posters that are creative and maybe even bring out new things that we are not aware of.

Some of the students have been encouraged by Prof. Somaraju to print out the slides from the presentation and place them in front of the college or in the college buses. Srujana and Prasanna are following up on this.

Accepting the invitation by Ms. Jaganmohini, 6 of the students will be visiting MLBT school and Visakha Seva Sadan school on Friday between 10 AM and 12 noon.

ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair bemoans poor quality higher education

Business Standard carried this news article by PTI:
ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair, who is to retire by this month-end after an illustrious career at the space agency, bemoans that the country's higher education system is not up to the mark, churning out graduates only for routine jobs.
...
Nair said if the quality level is not up to the mark, then one would only get people for clerical or routine jobs.

For reading the full article, please click here.

Mr. Nair is talking about the quality of the 12.4% who are going to college. To quote Mr. Mohandas Pai's (Member of the Board, Infosys) article in The Business Line, "greatest human tragedy in this planet is being played out in India".

How can we make everyone realize the urgency of this matter?

What can we do to prevent this tragedy?