Dear Rockstar Campus Ambassadors,

Hope you have all gone through the Teach For India website FAQs page at  http://www.teachforindia.org/tfi_faq.php . In addition, here is a series of FAQs and some answers in detail in order to enable you to inform people about Teach For India and inspire potential candidates to apply by giving them a depth of knowledge about the organization and the movement. Please find below the second question:
Question of the Day 02:
What is the achievement gap? Why does it exist? How is it eradicated? If not, what is the result?

a.     What: The achievement gap is the difference in the grade level and skill level of the student. There are rigorous ways to measure the level of a student in both Language and Math. It has been observed that students in underprivileged schools are at an average between 1 and 4 grade levels behind their actual grade level. For example, in a 4^th standard class, the students may be reading at an average 2^nd grade level, which is an achievement gap of 2 years.

b.   Why: It exists for a number of reasons: absence of English-language abilities among English-medium teachers, rote-learning as the only way of imbibing knowledge, corporal punishment and intergenerational illiteracy. The 1999 nationally representative PROBE survey conducted all over India found that over 90% of poor urban and rural parents value education and think of it as a tool for economic emancipation. What they don’t have is faith in the government system of education.  Anyway, main point is that many times parents want to educate their children, but they themselves are uneducated and hence cannot understand a)whether the child is learning in school and b) help the child after school lack of proper nutrition or exercise, bad living conditions, social apathy and antipathy, lack of role models. Even those who do manage to complete higher grades, for example standard 10, are so severely under-skilled that they cannot find any jobs commensurate with their education and have to rely on menial work for their living.

c.   How: The achievement gap is eradicated by increasing the level of the student by a minimum of 1.5 years in an academic year. If the student’s level is improved by only a year, the gap will remain the same. Hence Teach For India tries to remain with the same pupils for 6 years, in order to make sure that every last child has been able to remove this gap and is at grade level.

d.    If not:  If this gap is not removed, like a stretched rubber-band that finally snaps, the student is completely unable to cope with the class-work and drops out of school. Social pressures, e.g. Marriage for girls and economic responsibilities for boys exacerbate the situation.

Teach for India---1

1.       How does Teach For India believe in solving the problem of educational inequity?

 Teach For India has a two-step approach to solving this problem:

•  Short term and immediate intervention: by providing underprivileged children with committed and talented Fellows as teachers, TFI aims to ensure that students achieve grade appropriate learning levels in two years. TFI Fellows also work with the community to bring about change on a deeper level be it through changing the community’s attitude and approach towards education or by solving an actual education related problem in the community. At a systemic level, it creates a culture of giving back through education in a very direct way.

• Long term change: Teach For India hopes to build a movement of leaders that will champion the cause of educational equity in India. Currently, the education sector remains crippled due to massive lack of political will. India currently spends about than 3% of its GDP on education which is less than what even Kenya (7%), Vietnam (5.3%) and Nepal (4.6%) spend [source: CIA world factbook]. By bringing talented and promising individuals into the Fellowship program, Teach For India hopes to create a future pipeline of leaders in multiple sectors who will be connected with the education cause in direct and indirect ways. In addition, Teach For India also aspires to build thought partnerships. The long-term change also includes platform creation. Through efforts like the InspirEd conference (an annual education conference bringing together organizations and schools throughout the education field – InspirEd (innovations in teaching; 2^nd-4^th September 2012) and Headmasters Forum during MCGM project, Teach For India seeks to proactively participate in the creation of platforms where our countries educators and policy-makers can come together, share from each other, learn best practices and ultimately solve the problem. In a way we care piecing together a puzzle: we address some aspects of the problem. Teach For India has an open information-sharing policy throughout the organization. We also have knowledge-sharing sessions throughout the year with a variety of groups (e.g.: Pratham and Umeed).

Engineering in India

I wrote this article to be published in RENESA. Some how to the guy who was to select this said it was a "CRIBATHON". This can be expected in India. So finally  i am posting it on my blog.

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Consider these facts

India produces the largest number of engineers in the world.

 and

India is the largest arms importer.

Whom would you blame for this? The government, the Institutes or engineers like you and me or our inefficient growing population?

Now have a look at another piece of information which I have taken from my elective book of Personnel Management.

“According to Asia-Pacific head of Kelly Services, the world’s fourth largest recruitment company, people efficiency in India in 2007 was barely 50-60% against a global average of 80-90%. Only one fifth of 2 million graduates churned out by Indian universities every year are employable. Of these only 30% of IT graduates, 25% of engineering graduates, 15% finance and accounting professionals and 10% of other professionals are suitable to be employed in multinational companies. This they say is knowledge and skill set gaps.”

Some how all this points to our educational system and the amount of instability that we face. In this country with 1.4 billion population we desire for a well settled job as quickly as possible and that inhibits many talented people from going into research. But the root of the problem is much as a result of our past. Even after having high educational standards prior to the British advent we raced for western education. Western education became important as it provided good job and a secure future in those vulnerable times. What is insightful is that it was not aimed at producing great innovators or thinkers but clerks who could faithfully reproduce without questioning and the education system was designed and oriented keeping this in mind by the Britishers. This is possibly one of the reasons why we haven’t seen adequate number of Nobel laureates from our country that constitutes one fifth of the world’s population. We do not have a single institute that has a policy on plagiarism in India. Research may be a big word but practically it means copying from many resources.

Engineering designs are not prepared in India. For example Maruti Suzuki cars are not designed in India. They are designed in Japan and finally the design is sent to India for mass production. That’s the same that happens with the reactors that are made in L&T plant in Hazira for nuclear reactors in America. We just make lakhs and lakhs of copies of it and export it and say that are economy is growing  at 10% p.a.

It is understandable that labour has to be cheap but that should not label as just manufacturers. We should as engineers not let our country down. Our farmers helped attain self-reliance for India in terms of grain production. It’s time that we take responsibility and make our country self-reliant in its efforts towards having a secure place to live and if possible attain the status of being a superpower.

My Grandfather's Father

We all called him Baba. I had been with him for a few days during my sojourn in the village. Though I don’t remember how he looked like but I remember playing in the room where he used to lie down quietly, lifeless, ostracised. He used to stare at me whenever I was close to him. I could never know what he thought, perhaps lost in the memories of his young days or maybe he was reflecting on the cycle of life and how one confronts the departing phase of life. His voice was always low as far as I can remember, urging the other person to lower his ears close to his mouth to understand him. He was weak both physically and mentally (defeated by time) and needed assistance for every movement that his body made. Life was no more congenial to him. Each day passed to worsen his health.

Nobody gratified his wishes (although few) except for his son who was mostly away from home. Some despised him and treated him with derision because he was like a nuisance for them. But as my father told me once; Baba was the lifeline of the family for the most part of his life. It was during the British rule, conditions were difficult and education was hard to get. It was a fight which he courageously led for his big family. He used to travel more than thirty kilometres a day on his bicycle with rice bags hung by its side to the nearby city to sell it to dealers there and then return by evening. Before returning home he bought bread and bakery to sell back home. As my father remembers Baba always brought something for the children ranging from a candy to ladoo in his tattered handkerchief made from an old loin cloth. As my father along with other children saw him approach the gate, they ran up to him and he was ready with whatever he had brought for them. That was the best time of the day for the children. Somehow bearing all the hardships of village life he managed to give my grandfather the best education that was possible. He had taken a loan from a Zamindar, so big that he could not give it back in his lifetime. It passed onto my grandfather who returned it back with the required interest rate. But Baba had laid the foundation stone for the growth of the family, an educated family. The generations that would follow would know the importance of education and their accomplishments would surpass the ones of the former, only to make them feel proud.

I feel so proud of him, for I know that it is because of him that I am what I am.

Adieu Baba! Hope I am able to stand up to your expectations.

                               

The State of Affairs

                                                                                The State of Affairs

Recently I was going through an article on “Census of India 2011” and I came across an information that was a pleasant shock to me. It said “In the last Census, over 6000 languages and dialects were recorded in India, PG Stalin,a grade-1 stastical investigator with the Census Department ,tells us with considerable excitement” and for a moment I questioned myself as to how many people would share the same excitement as the statistical investigator. This lead me to a more deeper question of “Indianness that we share” and the answer was not affirmative. I was predictably drawn to the Telangana issue,the  Bihari  Mumbaikar clash and then finally to the association system that is prevalent in our college.

State wise associations, as all my fellow mates shall concede, play a significant  role in the events going around in the college. They share influence in the daily lives of students, cultural activities and most shockingly technical events where regionalism has got nothing to do with knowledge and management abilities. I sometimes try to figure out how the association thing might have started and following points rush into my mind-

-Elections for the different posts?

-Feeling of insecurity in a new place?

-Requirement of enough people to pay enough money to go and enjoy in a     luxury hotel and restaurant.

There is not a single reason that can be pointed out. It can be a cumulative effect of these and many more reasons.

When the first yearites come they are forcefully or under the pretension that they shall be helped in many ways are made to join one of the associations based on their state affiliation only to limit them to a group of 30 students from their own state. The seniors say “we are giving you a group to enjoy and share problems with” but it seems they don’t realize that its good to allow a person to select 10 good apples from a group of 50 rather than randomly select 40 and give it to him and say ”njoy”.

The result is that we start seeing different states of people sitting together in separate groups in the mess, going out in separate groups, organizing events in separate groups. People tend to adjust themselves with this way of living and rest of the college life is spent among  a selected group of people of their own state. So finally a Bihari is limited to Bihar, Rajasthani to Rajasthan and a Tamilian to Tamilnadu and with this the whole point of studying in an institute of national importance is gone.

But all would agree  that even after all this we have students forming groups with other students sharing same notions, beliefs and thinking irrespective of the state they belong to-the trademark of an intellectual society.

Associations just divide the exuberant youngsters and are a barrier in promoting multiculturalism. They don’t help in bringing Indianness nor are they successful in creating  love for their own state because they enforce it. Do you think we need associations for people to realize and value the fact that  a few of their college mates belong to the same state. The idea of Bihar,Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh or any state for that matter is not so parochial. Even if we don’t have these associations, students from  a particular state are bound to share a special relation which will be more meaningful when not enforced and helpful in the long run.

So associations in the most pragmatic way are a system that is redundant and must be done away with. They run because of a few selected  people who behave as either guardians of the state only to diddle away some money for their personal use ( Just like the politicians do)  or feel uncomfortable among students of other states because of inferiority complex issues.

 It is rather an irony that we have divided ourselves on the basis of different states when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel himself devoted his life for the unification of different Indian states after India’s independence.

So guys and girls, break the shackles of these associations. Your statehood and the love for it is intact even if you are not a member of such associations. Just go and look out of your state. There is so much to experience and learn in these four years of stay at SVNIT. India and the world has so much to teach you!

The " M "class

I was bemused about my next blog topic when it hit upon me to write about something that the whole world is watching and commenting. So, I opened YouTube and had a glance at the most watched videos. But still nothing amused me so much except for that regular guy who makes funny videos on Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black and so I reverted to some less popular ones and suddenly “Anna Hazare” came to my mind.

This man has gained so much importance in the past few days. He is there on Facebook, twitter and all the news channels are recording every act of his. All young people are joining hands asking each other to forward his message and so the internet factor is working for him. I even received an email from a website that guides IAS aspirants about his earlier achievements and his new plan about the Lok pal bill and related specificities. Daily newspapers are full of editorials expressing their take on the kind of protest that he is leading.

Well I am not here to give my views on his way of protest, to which some feel offended apart from the politicians. What vexes me is the behaviour of the people. We all must accept that we suffer from the NIMBY syndrome (NOT IN MY BACKYARD) and for us especially the middle class it’s a clichéd topic. We prefer to bribe the traffic police than to pay him the exact penalty. Middle class people like you and me vote the least. I am 20 and I am still to vote.

To tell you the fact at one level or the other we are all corrupt. Its only when the world presents itself in a more corrupt way that we start shouting and abusing the system, calling for a reform. So the sudden outpouring in a way suggests that the level of corruption has increased much beyond what is being done by the middle class. So what happens when things get back to normal and we don’t come across any big scandal???Yes you are right we will become calm and this whole Lokpal bill will become a trash. I am not being pessimistic, I am just trying to analyse the issue based on previous response( the JP movement in 1970 and the V.P singh movement in 1980).

Things have worked like RTI but you see the MP’s have stopped giving funds to such schemes as it acts against their position and I am sure they are going to make it(Lokpal bill) impossible to pass. Hope the middle class shows the same amount of enthusiasm at that time.

World of negativity

With all that reading for these many days I have come across as many words that hold a negative sense as there are trees in this campus. But not as many good ones. Words like sue, scathing, uncouth, vandalism, vitriol and many more like that. They are so common apart from the college parlance that of course is the trademark of this place. But its not something very particular or can be attributed specially to this campus but to any campus on  earth. Its something that is the manifestation of what we learn here if I am not scathing(u see I learnt one and this is truly negative).

Its morally incorrect. To blame something so prestigious(I consider it so) requires courage, courage to do wrong and then it is fashion to express it as if it were an every day affair. But its not taught. Its something that you learn by virtue of being here and it has nothing to do with books but more with the external world that somehow drives you to learn it and we do it as part of our reaction to that force. Imbibe it, embrace it so deep that it is no more kind of a force but something to be acknowledged silently and then allowed to grow as if  now we are the clandestine ambassadors of it. We pursue it all through our life and hence this world is moving towards negativity just like entropy’s increasing and exergy’s decreasing. Goodness is there but few are in search for it.

All looking for faults, after all, that’s the easiest thing to do and then this thing keeps adding if not multiplying when it hits back on the face( You can question how but I have deliberately omitted it).

What I have written is universal. You can connect it to your lives but if you have an affirmative answer you are someone who has to learn to be a bit more positive and without exception I say everyone requires changing.

                                                                                AT 20

Numerically it’s just one more than nineteen but it also means that “I am out of the teen club”. So, what’s special, nothing’s changed. Everything is same as it was, the day before when I was nineteen. I still prattle a lot to which my pompous friends show sullen looks but most of the time I am able to gather a lot of attention. I still change my beard style every month or so from goatee to balbo to nothing at all. I still follow the popular routine of waking through the night watching inexorably long English episodes and having my forty winks that I had eluded next day in the classroom. I still move out with my friends to malls, restaurants and while returning we sing popular Hindi songs in unison which in the future would be reminiscent of my adolescence. The only change I see, though very rare is that now I write twenty as my age in application forms and that my parents behave a bit differently now.

But they say it holds something more important, as if something is hidden within it and they say it is a sign of getting close to the real world, of reducing time, of closing opportunities.

But hey! Is it not right that life is rife with opportunities and you can get it whenever you feel like you are in search for it and if not available you can create it for yourself? So why be alarmed?

After having thought in such a rational way I assured myself that I had pontificated correctly and was contended until a senior got very particular and asked me as to what would I do to create an opportunity for myself? I had no answer. How could I have one at this point of time? It was like one of those questions that my father used to vex me with before I came to this opportune place.

Although it was not expected of me I tried to give it another thought this time with more rational attitude only to find myself heading towards a wall so high that if I didn’t prepare myself to jump over it I would be stopped by it forever, My next thoughts were that I was standing before this wall watching it, waiting for it to collapse while other guys went past it quickly and I wished if I could trace some steps back in the past to get prepared. But to what past? How far back? And then inadvertently I say 20 would be the right time for me.