Right to Education - my thoughts

Education for all is a noble idea. There is merit in giving every child the right to demand free education so that he can become Human capital for the country. In this post, I’ll concentrate on the contentious aspect of 25% reservation in all schools including Private unaided schools. This I think is misdirected and not well thought through. The reason why 18 crore children of school going age are out of school has to do with both supply side and demand side economics.

· On the demand side, economically disadvantaged sections have more imminent needs (food, clothing & shelter) to worry about education. Reservation is not going to fix that part of the problem. We need separate poverty alleviation and vocational education programs for this end.

· On the supply side, there are close to 10.75 lakh schools in India (1 million Government schools, about 30 thousand private aided schools and 45 thousand private unaided schools). But most of the Government schools are just primary schools and majority are in bad shape without roofs and toilets. India needs about 25 crore seats for children between classes 1 to 8^th. But our capacity is not more than 19 crore seats. We need to focus on increasing capacity, not on shifting the occupancy in the existing schools by reserving seats for some. Where will the existing children go?

What’s more, there are critical implementation questions for the 25% reservation :

1. First, Who are the economically weaker sections? In a country where the Black economy is as big if not bigger than the formal economy, is there a proven way of identifying who is economically weak? When all our reservations are based on caste (principle of affirmative action), wouldn’t having this bill implemented on the basis of economic status cause a problem?

2. The 2^nd question is what right does the Government have to mandate 25% reservation in schools which are private and unaided. This is akin to forcing reservation in the private sector. The Government can drive reservation in Govt and Private aided schools but the risk is that it will tamper with the only part of schooling in this country where there is some quality existing – the private unaided schools.

3. The 3^rd one is who will compensate the Private Unaided schools for reserving 25% of their seats as free and how will this compensation be arrived at? Will the Government re-imburse the school on fee lost or just cover the expenses incurred on the 25% students? Will schools pass on the higher cost of operations to the remaining 75% thereby escalating already high fees?

Lastly, there is the question of assimilation. Mixing children from economically backward sections with those from richer families might cause inferiority complex or even resentment. Private unaided schools have various ‘opt-in’ programs such as study tours, sports, classes for extra-curriculars which economically backward section students will not be able to afford. Even simple things such as the quality of uniform, the difference in pencil boxes, bags and notebooks will unnecessarily affect the tender psyche of a young 7 year old child. There are enough studies I have come across which detail the impact of assimilation of a wide spectrum of economic backgrounds at a very early age. We need to tread carefully here, lest we harm more than we help.

I hope the Government focuses on investing the funds in building capacity to provide Access to Quality Education to everyone. This can be done through Public Private partnership but for that we’ll have to lose the moralistic, ‘not-for-profit’ expectation from the Private sector.

why can't cricket go the soccer way?

English Football has 5 leagues starting from Premier League to Championship, League 1, 2 and Conference. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Holland - all have leagues too, where different clubs compete. For the better part of the year, clubs compete in their respective leagues for the honor of being the League winner. The League winner (or Top 3 depending on the country you compete in) goes on to the Champions League. Players belong to clubs and are paid massive salaries by their clubs. These clubs have physical presence and very loyal city based following. Sometimes, the following of clubs such as ManU, Real Madrin, Barcelona and Milan transcend their cities or countries.

Players also turn up to play for their country. These occasions are few and far between. Every 2 years, there is a big tournament - either a World Cup or a Continental Cup (European Championship, Copa America etc). Once or twice a year, countries play an International game and sometimes they play friendlies as practice matches for these big tournaments.

Why can't Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, NSW, Bushrangers, Trinidad & Tobago become the equivalent of ManU, Real Madrid and Barca? They can have teams for the Test, One Day and T20 formats.

Why can't there be a Premier League in each country a la EPL, Serie A, Primera Liga & Bundesliga? Why can't there be other secondary league with a very clear ascendancy mechanism for clubs to higher leagues?

Why can't the primary support and following be for the club? Why can't countries play less no. of times among each other? Maybe even restrict this to a World Test Cup, World 50 over Cup and World T20 Cup?

Why does IPL need to have a window? Infact, international matches and World Cups (or Continental Cups such as Asia Cup, Commonwealth Cup etc) should have a window! Every 4 years.

Wouldn't having these clubs as the primary building block of cricket facilitate talent development better? Wouldn't it force all these clubs to become more rooted in the cities they claim to represent? In fact they could then invest in stadiums, training facilities, academies, scouts, trainers etc and become real clubs then the once-a-year 60 day circus they currently are.

Why can't cricket be more like soccer?

Leadership

Leadership is a funny thing. There are tons of books written on the topic and still it remains an enigma. I'm trying my hand at making sense of the beast.

In very simple terms, a Leader is responsible for developing a vision of what's possible, gathering a bunch of people towards realising that vision, keeping them motivated through the journey, making course corrections wherever necessary and watching the progress till the vision is achieved. In fact, the vision is rarely achieved because it is a moving target, but more on that later!

In theory this sounds simple. However, there are differences in how people do each of the above, thereby creating different Leadership styles. I feel it is as important to understand why these differences arise as it is to categorize the differences themselves.

In my pov, there are three main factors that determine a person's Leadership style - Character, Situation, People.

Character is the intrinsic core of a person. It is an amalgamation of a person's ego, his self-perception, his degree of security, esteem and assurance. It directly manifests in a person's behavior. Some Leaders are therefore very authoritarian, others are more receptive. Some think position grants them the right to violate others' dignity, others steer from making this assumption. Some like a following, others a healthy debate. Some like to talk, others like to listen. But character only dictates the starting point. And often Leaders veer far away from the starting point depending on the situation and people involved.

Some situations lend themselves to more Transformative behaviors. Others need more transactional stuff. A crisis, for example, would need all hands on the deck. A steady state business on the other hand, would mean the Leader can 'let go' and focus elsewhere.

Ditto for people. Some people inspire confidence in a Leader to 'let go'. Others send signals that spark panic. Leaders respond differently to different people. If they know what to expect, they don't typically ask. If they know that promises made are usually kept, they won't peer over your shoulder. If they know that they'll get the bad news as fast as the good news, they won't second guess. In that sense, a Leader is as good as the person or team he is leading.

All being said, Leadership is a contract between the Leader and the Led. This contract depends to a larget extent on the kind of person that the Leader is (therefore pray that you are not stuck with an insecure person who derives his self-worth through others' affirmation). However, it also varies with the situation and can be influenced by the person who is being led.

This thought is very empowering. It transfers the Locus of Control to the 'Led'. It says that while you can't choose your Leader, you can choose his Leadership style for him!

The Problem with autonomy

Recently, I have met a fair amount of people who want 'autonomy' in their work. I don't understand it. Autonomy, I believe has to be commanded, not demanded.

Whoever you are......you're answerable to someone. If no one else, at least your wife!

Rather than asking someone to leave you alone, isn't it better to make a follow-up unnecessary?! If you don't want to have someone give advice to you, ask for suggestions ahead of time. If you don't want people interfering, give them a heads up.

The best way I have found of keeping your managers from interfering in your business is to set the right expectations and exceed those expectations. That's not all, continuously keep them informed of the progress because some managers are impatient and they assume the worst if they are not told otherwise. And in case you realise that you are going to miss the commitment made, it is better to share the bad news early than your manager hearing it from someone else.

Lastly, having a reason for your failure is not as important as having a Plan B. The reason will get you past a tough discussion but the alternative plan will get you the results. Where you focus, pretty much determines how far you'll go.

The Right kind of questions

I keep hearing people continuously complain about the culture of rote learning pervading our country. Everyone has a point of view on education in India but one thing most agree upon is that we create generations of rote learners through our schooling system.

As economists have laid out amply, human beings respond to incentives. There is also this other tendency among human beings that we can't manage what we can't measure. Put the 2 together and you have the root cause of the 'rote learning' problem.

Parents, Community leaders, educators and administrators all want to know whether learning is being achieved in schools or not. They also want to check this in an objective manner. (Whether the latter is a noble aim is questionable, but we'll come to that). So we need to create questions which have 'unambiguous' standardized answers. Most of such questions start with 'Who', 'What', 'Where' and 'When'.

Creativity is by definition indeterminate. You cannot predict what will happen if you ask a student to create. However, creativity is the highest form of understanding for only when you've comprehended, analyzed and evaluated can you create.

This raises the peculiar problem that you can't measure what you know is right, so you manage with what you can measure.

The other issue is that of incentives. Teachers are not really measured for performance in our country, and when they are, its for the wrong thing. If you have not finished the syllabus before the exams and a question comes from the 'uncovered' portion, you'll have parents come in the PTM and shout at you. And you are lauded if your class is in distinction (in an exam designed for memory). So what do teachers do in such a scenario. Without even reading Freakonomics, you could predict that they would complete the syllabus, teach for rote and test for rote and be hailed as a good teacher!

Students too are rewarded for scoring high in exams designed for memory. So they mug up the answers to the questions they expect for the exam, regurgitate during the exam and promptly forget afterwards.

What is the incentive for teaching for understanding? What is the incentive for learning for understanding? How do we measure whether understanding has been achieved when different learners manifest their understanding differently - making it hard for 'objective' scoring?

I don't have the solution for this . But I have some ideas :
1. Assessing a student's understanding through a portfolio that she makes and maintains through a year might spur application and creativity. A portfolio also allows students with intelligences different from the traditional 'linguistic - logical' to express their understanding in the way they prefer. It also ensure all emphasis is not on a year end examination.

2. This portfolio can be judged not just by a teacher but the community. Portfolios can be exhibited or published and readers or visitors can rate the portfolios. If an auction system can be worked out, students can actually see the market value of their portfolios - something far more concrete than marks!

3. Teachers can be rated on the total market value or rating that their class generates. This will incentivize teaching for understanding and not for rote

4. Teachers need to be trained to be constructivists and not instructionists.

5. At the higher secondary level, there could be standardized tests for each vocation or stream and students could take those to ascertain their proficiency for those fields. Such tests exist (JEE, CBSE Medical etc) but we can create a common test with special subject tests if required. This will facilitate entry into professional or graduate streams.

6. Any other idea that promotes 'real understanding'.

Why women wearing pants didn't need to be that way

AWL County has an interesting employment system for stay at home moms. Realizing that the first 6 years of life witness the highest brain development activity, that Quality Early Childhood Care & Education directly impact an individual's later ability and that women with their nurturing, mothering talent are best placed to nurture the children's potential, AWL County pays the women to stay home and take care of their children. It has a salary structure that varies with the education and health of the mother and an incentive system that rewards initiative and patient behavior. Women in AWL County don't try to compete with the men in Corporate Jobs. Instead, they compete with themselves to be the best mother they can and thereby earn handsome salaries. Given that children exposed to Quality Early Childhood Care & Education turn out to be smart and productive citizens, the county more than recovers its investment in the stay-at-home moms' salaries. Women have dignity because they are being recognised for the work they are doing. Every year, innovative parenting practices that raise happy and inquisitive kids win rewards, thereby creating community heroes out of the mothers. Women are highly satisfied and motivated because they are doing what they are inherently good at and not trying to compete with men in jobs where they have an inherent disadvantage.

Further in AWL County, women also carry the portfolio of Home Ministers. Each Home Minister prepares an annual budget and have annual productivity targets. They work with their suppliers to drive down costs, innovate constantly to drive down operating costs and maintain quality and customer satisfaction at home through on time delivery and excellent culinary products. Again, they are recognized for best practices and those who achieve their profitability targets get to invest their profits in pursuits of their liking. Every year their, the top 5 Home Ministers are fetted and their name put on a roll of honor. Past winners come to felicitate that year's winners and the whole community applauds successful Home Ministers.

Ofcourse, AWL County does not exist but my guess is that if ever it did, it would not have seen the advent of the Women Liberation Movement. The reasons why women left their homes and their children to compete with men to gain respect, dignity and an affirmation of their value would not have existed in the first place.

AWL County also affords some ideas on how the idea of Dignity for Women could have been achieved at a lesser cost to families, children and women's happiness. Fact is that women are good in some areas - really good. And men suck in those faculties. Exceptions, of course exist everywhere. Similarly, men are good in some areas and womnen suck in those.......Ever been stuck behind a woman driver in Mumbai?

If we had just recognized each others strengths and done what we are best at, maybe we would have had a much better world. Now we just have them working harder and harder to prove to themselves that they are as good.........when they could have been great mothers, teachers and home makers and be recognized, valued and cherished for it!

Desperate Networks - a racy read

If you are a TV junkie and love Friends, Desperate Housewives, Tonight Show and Lost...read this book.

On the sidelines, you'll realize how the best series on TV come to the audience because of random events. Some executive, somewhere, talking to someone comes across a script or idea he likes and one thing leads to another. To think that Desperate Housewives or Lost could never have been made, that Joey could have been thrown out of Friends, that Conan O'Brien had to wait 5 years before taking Jay Leno's seat...makes you wonder whether process is really bigger than people.

In the end, this is a story of the people behind the scenes who bring entertainment to our TV every night. Their whims and fancies guide which channel we switch to at 9pm. Supersize egos and edgy talent - this book covers a whole lot of ground in the US TV industry.

A switch in times......

I recently switched from Times of India to Hindustan Times. Trust me, the changeover has not been easy. Having woken up with the TOI masthead for close to my whole living adult memory (except when TOI was Strait Times in Singapore), it was a bit disorienting to see a different bluish band on top of the daily awakener.

But once you get past the facade, a sense of pleasure has come back into reading. Times of India, I felt had become too commercial. On top of that, some of their journalism was becoming plain ignorant. I read some of their education reports for example with some horror, where facts were presented without any investigation and analysis to construe that International Schools in Mumbai were in fact more in number than either CBSE schools or ICSE schools. Also, sometimes I wasn't sure whether I was reading news or a paid placement.

Hindustan Times has been a refreshing change - more content, less ads. HT Cafe is the same - its thinner but that's because it is not filled with senseless paid Page 3 material. Their sports coverage is far superior to TOI - and I'm loving it!

Pati, Patni aur Woh

What makes parents put their children through an experience such as PPW is beyond my comprehension. Is it money? Is it fame? I think it is just another example of the Indian 'Chalta hai' attitude.

Too often, I have come across people who don't say it in words, but still express eloquently how they think we are paranoid and OC parents. The two most frequent quotes I have heard are, " Hamare zamaane mein to itna nahi karte the.....phir bhi hum theek thaak hi nikal aaye hain!" or "Kuch nahi hota.....bachche apne aap barhe ho jaate hain".

I think people who have volunteered their babies for the show are well-meaning, loving parents. They don't really think they are doing anything untoward to the baby by putting her through the ordeal that is PPW. They would have been taken in by the assurances of the channel, the availability of doctors & nurses, the free flow of coke and pizza and the air conditioning. What can go wrong? 'Hum wahin pe the.....barhe achhe se khayal rakha ji unho ne bachchon ka' - they would say. 'Ek din mein kya ho jana hai......different experience ho gaya!' - would be the other response.

I don't really think the question is whether the experience (or nightmare) of spending 24 hours with strangers is detrimental to the child or not. The question is how far can parents take their natural right to decide what is right or wrong for the child till he is old enough to decide for himself. Where does one draw the line between eager and irresponsible parenting? Shouldn't we see the child's protests and cries as adequate evidence of his disagreement and accord it the respect it deserves? Or should parents conclude that they know what is best for their child and go with what suits their fancy?

PPW sickens me but this whole tamasha raises important questions on what is Good Parenting. The least we can do is NOT watch the show - else this TRP race will have cripples flying down ramps to see who falls the farthest!

something is not always better than nothing

One of the comments to my previous post on the Education Policy being misdirected was that even though it impacts a miniscule part of the population, it at least does some good to some people. This falls under the traditional argument applied to a lot of our policy conundrums - Something is better than nothing.

Only in this case something is not really better than nothing. Let's investigate the reasons behind the decision to abolish CBSE class X exams. The decision purports to lower the stress faced by students in preparing for the exams.

But it forgets that the stress exists because a low score in Class X means not getting the Junior College or stream that the student wants. Since people wanting to change schools post X still have to take the Class X exam and nothing has been done to increase the availability of quality colleges.......how will the stress go away?

Classic case of taking symptomatic treatment without treating the underlying cause - it might have a placebo effect of garnering short term pubilicity and press induced fawning but in the long term nothing changes.

Unless we increase the quality of Junior College education and increase the availability of seats in 'in-demand' streams........Class X stress will remain - exams or no exams.

There's something wrong

As I read the various papers and websites writing ad-nauseum on the current education initiatives being taken by Mr. Kapil Sibal and I hear the minister himself hogging limelight on the 'only-too-eager' TV channels, I get the feeling that there is something deeply wrong about the whole situation. Let me explain why -

In matters of public policy, priority should be given to address the most important issues that impact the maximum number of people. This needs no further emphasis. If you disagree, proceed no further and advise me why this is wrong.

If we agree with the 'Most important impacting Most people' criteria and apply it to Education in India then the announcements and initiatives in the last 100 odd days not only seem mis-directed, they also seem diversionary.

The most important issue facing Indian Education today is 'Access to Quality School Education for All'. There are 3 key concepts here - Access, Quality School Education and For All. The problem is that quality school education is accessible to only a very very minuscule portion of population. Out of 361 million children of school going age in India, my estimate is that the no. of school going children getting quality education is not more than 1 million.

Why is this important? Brain science says that more than 90% of your brain patterns are formed by the age of 12 – the age when the child is in school. So if we don’t fix it there, we are only going to be able to make cosmetic improvements to the human capital of our country. Also, consider this. If we don’t fix school education now, we are condemned till 2021 for that’s when students entering schools today will enter the workforce! (assuming 12 years of school education).

Why is it a problem? Quality of School Education is being provided at various levels today. See the graphic below :

Out of 361 million children of school going age, 219million are actually in school. Among them, most of the 20 million in Govt Schools in Rural India would fall in level 1 or 2 of the above graphic where either they appear as enrolled without any teacher or with high teacher absenteeism or without a school building or just about manage some schooling with a 10th pass person taking them through the motions of chanting tables and alphabets 100 times a day. Most of the remaining children going to Govt Schools (38+71 million) would fall in level 3.

The situation for the 90 million in Private Schools is slightly better in that almost all are atleast at level 3. A few thousand schools would fall in level 4 and 5 where there is learning beyond the classroom but rote learning and rote testing still prevails. And the school is still an assembly line of numbing every student into conformity.

A couple of hundred would fall in level 6 & 7 – the levels that can actually claim to be providing quality education. And taking 1000-2000 as average enrolments for these level 6 & 7 schools, not more than half a million children have access to quality education today in India!!!!

Ironical isn’t it for we are talking about abolishing class X exams in CBSE!! Let’s see how many does this impact. There are about 8 lakh children who pass out of CBSE Xth every year. Out of them, a large percentage opt for a Junior College or Vocational Stream (diploma) – people who would still need to take an exam. Even if 2/3rd stay in the same school, that still means only 0.5 million children.

So we are ignoring the need of 360 million children to solve the problem of 0.5 million children! Doesn’t it sound absurd to say the least??

The problem of Access to Quality Education for All runs at 2 levels.

First, Lack of access to Quality education is creating a huge demographic divide where the rich with access to better education are becoming better and the poor with either no access or access to poor education are becoming more disadvantaged.

While the logic of ‘you get what you pay for’ can apply to normal products or services, Education is a life skill. If you give poor life skills to a poor person, you’re preparing him to remain mired in the cesspool of few opportunities. This has to change.

Second, those who think they are getting Quality education by sending their children to so called ‘good schools’ are actually sending their children to education factories where they are numbed into conformity. Granted, these children are better off than their poorer counterparts (who don’t even get access to the information and knowledge that richer children can) but they are reaching nowhere near their true potential.

Any policy initiative in India has to target this fundamental issue of giving Access of Quality Education to All.

Quality should be uniformly defined. Let an independent, constitutionally formed body lead this. Availability should be left to the private sector. They can run and manage schools better than the government. Access should be enabled by putting money in the hands of the disadvantaged or poor, possibly through a coupon system, so that everyone can afford good quality education. The government can channel the money it currently spends on teacher salaries and a leaky school system towards this and manage its disbursement when the UID program is ready.

When everyone has access to an education that enables them to achieve their unique, true potential, half the problems we currently see will disappear. So isn’t it better to focus on the most important issue that impacts the most than applying band-aids to an ailing system?

Why the scare : the H1N1 virus

Is H1N1 the biggest threat to life today? No. There's traffic, Mumbai locals, AIDS, measles, cancer, stress and myriad other reasons why India's death rate is what it is. Then why is there such panic around H1N1?

I believe it is the simple fear of the unknown. People do not know enough about the disease. What causes it? How do we recognize it? What to do if we are in the care of someone with H1N1? In the absence of knowledge, people clam-up. They become scared and fear has strange ways of ruling our responses.

The other unknown in H1N1 is the treatment & screening option available. If you get H1N1, you'll be made to experience something even worse - a Govt. Hospital! For those of us who have never visited a Govt. hospital in our life (these are exactly the people who are running scared shit), let me just say that they breed disease more than they treat it. We hear horror stories about staff apathy, vermin laced wards, spit covered walls and a general lack of hygiene and care.

Now, if the only screening and treatment option available for H1N1 is a Govt hospital, you'll pray to your Almighty that you never ever have anything to do with the flu!


Traffic, Mumbai locals, AIDS, cancer, measles, stress are knowns. You know what to do to prevent them (thought in the case of cancer that's less certain) and if you get hit by a car or a local (God forbid!) or come down with measles, cancer, AIDS (again double forbid!) you can go to your GP, nearby clinic or plush private hospital to get treated. Medicines are freely available at your nearby chemist and the whole thing seems to be under control.

For H1N1, it is a Govt hospital, it is bureaucracy, medicines are rationed - you'll only get them if they THINK you have the flu. So the risk and cost of getting the flu just spiral up.

In this situation it is better to be safe - stay indoors, don't go to school, don't visit malls, don't talk, don't breathe. Because the alternative, however improbable, is unpalatable - a rendezvouz with the opaque, kafkasque Govt machinary! You don't know what'll happen to you if you're in the care of the Govt.

Why the Maha GR for non SSC schools is exactly what should NOT be done

I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall when the Maharashtra Government was deciding its latest resolution for non-SSC schools. It would at least help me understand the thought (if there was any!) behind this misdirected move.



Maybe it was another attempt to appeal to the Maharashtrian voter



Or was it an attempt to get back at the Central Board schools for blocking the 90% reservation GR earlier this year?



Or are they genuinely concerned about the SSC students but unable to improve their standard; are now trying to level the playing field by bringing down that of other boards?



Or is it the misguided fervor of linguistic fanatics who believe their mother tongue should be accorded the same respect by everyone else.



Or is it just a group of people without an education bone in their body, trying to formulate education policies for the state.



Whatever be the reason, the decision smells of a basic lack of awareness of ground issues.



1. You cannot force everyone to follow the same standard. Where are we living? A autocracy? Asking non SSC board schools to follow the SSC English syllabus till V is like asking the middle class to live in slums because we can't provide affordable housing for the poor.



2. Why should everyone learn Marathi? If I don't know which part of the country or world I'll be tomorrow, why would you force me to acquire a language that I have little use for?



3. Why should state dictate fees for a private unaided school? You have done nothing to bring up the institute and now you want to control it? Isn't it akin to price control of essential commodities - the bad effects of which is not lost on anyone, least on the Oil PSUs! When you control price, you are removing an incentive to maintain quality. How will schools hire good teachers? How will they upgrade the infrastructure required to improve delivery of education? How will they create forums and opportunities for students to go beyond books?



Economics teaches us a very simple principle. When supply is far lesser than demand, prices go up. Now, for the Govt to control prices, it has to do something much simpler - spur supply. Instead, it is choosing to subvert basic economics through the use of a fiat. But we know that permits and government interference do not work. They will spawn another era of corruption where schools are forced to grease the palms of education officers to increase fees. Politicians will become all important because their word will be needed for schools to implement changes they need. Ultimately, the child will suffer.



The Government has done such a pathetic job in state run schools. Why transfer that same adhocism, corruption, nepotism and anarchy to private schools? Why screw up something that's working instead of fixing what's broken?



If the Maharashtra Government is serious about making meaningful difference in educating the majority SSC students, they need to first significantly improve the quality of current SSC Schools and then open more of a higher level.

Let's start with school infrastructure. We need to upgrade the infrastructure of state run schools to bring them at par with private schools. A good school building, clean & well-lit classrooms, multi-media and well-tended grounds - all go a long way in making learning meaningful and joyful.

They say that the quality of education in a school cannot supass the quality of teachers. We need to bring in a significant step change in the quality of teachers. To attract the right talent to teaching, salaries need to go up. The BEd program needs to undergo a paradigm shift to improve the skills of teachers in today's world. Lastly, continuous training is important to keep these skills updated in this rapidly evolving world.

Maharashtra Government should focus on these 2 critical pillars if they are serious about improving the prospects of SSC students. Bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator is not at all the right way to go!

An idea for change

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been itching to do something. This is an itch I share with at least million other Indians ever since 10 terrorists (their no. is still being debated) killed hundreds and deflated the spirit of a billion. Different people have been doing different things. Candle-light walks, gatherings, black ribbons, passionate interviews on TV, postings on facebook or orkut, donations - each Indian has reacted in the manner he thought best.



There are also murmurings about not paying taxes till something is done, not allowing Taj to be rebuilt till something is done, not voting as a protest and a lot of other 'nots'.



There is also the fear that slowly the city is limping back to normalcy. I woke up today without the question of 'What is happening about the Mumbai attacks?" on my mind. The media is now talking about the new Maharashtra CM, the disgruntled Rane, the new economic package and the results of recent state elections.



I've myself been vacillating between taking part in protests and showing my anger to the Politicians to jumping right in and creating a political movement. I have been bouncing off some of these ideas with like-minded people and want to share these in this forum for your inputs.



My reading of the root cause is that India today has a weak and immoral Leadership. Or as someone said, "It is a great country, ruled by small people'. The leadership we had at the time of independence was driven by idealism and purpose. They wanted to prove to the world that they were worthy of the independence they had fought for. Some of their initiatives might have been mis-directed but they didn't have mal-intent. From those heights, where political debate was on ideology and policy, we have plunged to the current depth where small minded people decide each step with an eye on their micro vote-bank. Political debate is about seat manipulation, horse trading, scams. Leadership is infested with the criminal, the unread and the old.



It is to this state of affairs that we need a response - A cleansing from within. Because to expect the people who are both a product and a creator of the current system to change and suddenly become visionary, accountable and professional is delusional to say the least.



One of the reasons why politics is so dirty today is because it is funded via dubious means. It costs close to 3-4 crores to get elected as an MLA or MP in this country. And the elected representative has 5 years (sometimes less, in this age of coalition politics!) to recover it and make some ROI. Corruption and nepotism is an automatic by-product. The consequent pollution that gets established then keeps well-meaning individuals out of this politician-criminal-industrialist nexus. What we get eventually is incompetent, self-serving, small-minded people standing for election. Voters end up either choosing the least unattractive option, or choosing on the basis of dubious criteria or worse, not choosing at all. How do we expect people who come through such backgrounds and means to be able to lead this country into the Superpower status we already believe is legitimately ours?! Haven't we heard of GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out?!



Here's a proposal then to address this problem:



Create a professionally run Public Party.



Purpose : To provide Transparent Governance, Inclusive Development and Proactive Security.



Values : This party will live by : Integrity, Respect for the Individual, Respect for Diversity, Accountability and Innovation.



Membership norms : Any Indian can be a member of this party.



Structure : The structure can be similar to a listed company. It will have members (instead of shareholders) who elect a Board. The party will be managed by a CEO and the leadership team.

Funding : The party will create an endowment fund to run its operations and pay its employees. The endowment fund will be invest its money responsibly to get a return enough to cover its expenses.

Roles & Responsibilities : Employees of the party will be responsible for whetting suitable candidates, recruiting and training and campaigning for them in elections. In case required, employees can also put themselves up for election. Their salaries will be paid from the income from the endowment fund.

The point of difference of this party will be :

1. Its Purpose - It aims for the Big 3 - Governance, Development and Security
2. Its values of integrity (honesty, truth) and accountability (promises made, promises kept)
3. It will take away the incentive for corruption by making politics a clean, well paying profession. Also campaign money will be funded by the members, not the candidates.
4. It will follow a tough selection process to get capable candidates
5. It will raise the quality of public discourse by focusing on issues that effect the nation, and not indulge in caste, religion, region and other divisive issues.

What is needed:

Like any start-up venture, it needs 2-3 committed people to start the party like a company. These people should raise seed funding to create awareness and an identity for this party. A collection drive to raise the endowment fund will take place and at the same time applications will be invited from candidates who can run for election. The party will sift through the applicants and then select candidates for the next election. It will prepare each candidates KRA and ensure that it links with the overall purpose and manifesto of the party. It will take care of all the procedures required to register the candidates, campaign for them and get them elected.

The performance of the party will be measured by :

1. the no. of candidates it will get elected
2. the delivery of the elected candidates against their KRAs.

I'm looking for people who can start this party up. And I welcome any suggestion or input to improve upon this idea.

Revelations from 26/11

It's been 10 days since 10 terrorists entered Mumbai from the seas and violated the whole country's consciousness. 200 odd dead, 300 odd injured and a billion psyches raped - the toll is unimaginable. In terms of its effect on Indians, it comes second only to the Chinese aggression of 1962. Then, as now, we felt completely overrun by an enemy who was vastly better prepared and better equipped. Then, as now, the death toll on the Indian side was far higher than that on the enemy side. Then, as now, we felt naked, assaulted and helpless.



That war resulted in Nehru's slow death, Shastri's short stint and eventually the mutilation of India's institutions by Indira Gandhi. India hurtled towards corruption, nepotism and narrow-minded politics from that point; resulting in today's sorry state of affairs. Last week's aggression portends seismic changes of similar proportions but hopefully opposite polarity.



Three facets of last week's attacks have singed our sensitivity :

Frailty of our borders : When we go to sleep at night, we want to feel secure that our house is secure from intruders. That's why bolts and locks were invented. Likewise for our country. We should be able to sleep soundly at night, secure in the thought that unwelcome and nefarious intruders are not sneaking in from all sides. Over the last week, different people have offered different reasons why our borders can't be leak-proof. A former Navy commander said that even the US sea border were porous. A IIM-A batchmate said that having an enemy neighbour makes it impossible to ward off intruders. I say all that is bull. If we make this priority No. 1, it can be done.

It will take money - that means we have to pay our taxes.

It will take political will - that means that before we fund pilgrimages, statues and other political gimmicks; we fund fencing of our land borders in the North and East, training of our security personnel and patrolling of our coast.

It will take accountability - that means that 100% of the money goes into fence wires, boats and signalling equipment; not into constructing politicians farm houses or their imported cars.

Securing our borders has to be taken up with the utmost urgency so we prevent outsiders from coming in and spreading havoc. This is true for Kashmir, for West Bengal, Assam & North East and for the long coast-line.

The second aspect of this problem is to account for those who are already in. Sadly, today we have no single way of determining if the person behind you in the ticket queue is a real Indian or a Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Nepali masquerading as one. We share the same ethnicity. It is not as simple as White Austalia where a Chinese or a Lebanese can be identified just by looking at one. If the US and Singapore can have a citizen ID card, why can't India have one? This should be a basic mandatory for every citizen. You shouldn't be able to admit your child to a school, open a bank account, get a job, get a gas cylinder or kerosene, buy a vehicle - in short any transaction - without your citizen ID no. Profiling concerns be damned.

I know there are some real practical issues to be solved before we get there. Things like who to count as citizen? The millions who entered India during the 1971 war from Bangladesh? The lakhs who entered India during the Maoist insurgency in Nepal? The thousands who have come from Sri Lanka during the Tamil-Sinhalese war? Should we decide a year after which everyone is considered an immigrant? How would we decide who came when? These are hard questions but their intractability should not be an excuse for inaction. We've had Ration cards, PAN cards or Voter's I-cards but none of them have been able to solve this vexed question. A good starting point would be to take anyone who has either of the above 3 as a citizen and address the remaining on a case to case basis.

Inadequacy of our response system - I was embarrassed and frustrated in equal measure at the complete disarray of our response system. Consider this - 10 terrorist enter India. Have food in some place, open fire at Cafe Leopold. Some of them walk to the Taj Hotel. A couple go to CST and another couple to Hotel Trident.

At CST, they open fire, killing 57 people. Our security people run - not towards the oncoming terrorists in a well practised counter attack, but away from them - sometimes outsprinting the rushing passengers! And they are not really to be blamed. Their rusted rifles and blunted lathis were no match for the AK 47s of the terrorists. The terrorists then calmly walk out of the station, enter Cama Hospital, fire rounds, walk out, gun down 3 celebrated police officers - Karkare, Salaskar & Kamte, pull their bodies out of the Toyota Qualis, escape in the same vehicle, stop when they realise that it has a flat tyre, snatched a Skoda of another guy near the Trident and run away. This whole episode must have taken at least an hour to 45 minutes. And we didn't have a command and control system to blockade the area and arrest these terrorists to get intell on the broader plot????? If that doesn't make you fearful and angry, what else will?!

Now see what happened at the Taj and Trident. Terrorist enter the hotels, fire indiscriminately at patrons in their restaurants, take hostages, establish command centres in guest rooms, lob grenades to create destruction and panic. And what are our forces doing? First, a posse of ill-equipped policemen come and quickly realize that they are no match for the well-planned attackers. What happens after this is hushed up. But information coming out in bits & pieces reveals that our response was stunted due to bureaucracy and rank callousness. The Naval command centre that is less than 20 minutes from the site of the attacks wanted a written request from no less than the Cabinet Secretary (maybe in triplicate!) before they could send the Marine Commandoes. The National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan was at a party and which he finished at 11.30, a full 2 hours after news channels started relaying news of terrorist strikes. Eventually, at 2 am, the NSG commandoes were despatched from their headquarters in Manesar (where?). They boarded a rickety bus to get to New Delhi, took a slow Russian plane that got them to Mumbai in 3 hours and then a BEST bus without any steering vehicles navigated the traffic to get them to the attack site at 5 am. It had been 7 hours 30 minutes since terrorists had fired their first bullet!!

What does this tell you? Do you think that if tomorrow you are held hostage by a group of terrorist in your home, there will be policemen or commandoes to save you? No! Files have to be pushed, committee members have to be located, they have to debate the plan of action, buses have to be found, they have to be in working condition and all this is still hostage to the distance between your home and the NSG headquarters. Multiply all this and the possibility of you surviving is zero!!


Callousness of media - India has 120 news channels of various languages, scope and slants. Most of them have come up in the last 5-10 years, some in the last year itself. Most of them are managed by news-anchors who cut their teeth in Doordarshan news. Almost none of them seem to understand restraint and responsibility. What began on our television screens from Wednesday 9.30pm and continues unabated should never have been. Consider this -

I'm one of the terrorists in the Taj, sitting in one of the guest rooms. I switch on the TV to watch the news channel. The reporter tells me that Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief has come to the site. They show him without a bullet proof vest. I now know that it's the police that I'm up against. Ok, they are ill-equipped, I don't have to worry. At 2am, the channel tells me that the Home Minister has announced that the NSG commandoes will be despatched to Mumbai. Cool, I have another 3 hours before they can dream of landing here. Let me kill, maim and burn with impunity. Oh! another channel just mentioned that guests have gathered in the Chamber room. And there are about 150 of them. Thank you, let me go there and kill them. And who are they showing by the window. 201, 202...that's room no. 205 - there seem to be 3 guests there. I can go there and take them hostage.

Imagine another scenario. I'm holed up in Nariman House with the 5 Jew members already killed. The television channel is showing that a helicopter has been pressed into service. Hmmm, so they'll come from the roof. Let me strengthen on that front. Oh, they are showing commandoes come down the helicopter. How many are there? One, Two, three...ok, 8 of them. One of us can take the left door from the roof for providing cover and I can take them all.

What complete stupidity!! How can there be no information dissemination system to take over in such situation of national security? How can our media in their attempt to provide exclusives and boost their TRPs become unwitting pawns in the hands of the terrorists?!

In addition to the security issue, is the insensitivity of it all. There was a news channel shoving the mic in the face of a bawling father who had just lost his son. Camera-men rushed to click a man who had just been shot and was being dragged to a waiting ambulance. Wailing mothers, injured guests, rescued hostages - no one was spared. There is no respect for dignity of life, no regard for human loss - just a naked pursuit of TRPs.

If we are serious about our response to these terror attacks, we have to work on these 3 aspects - the frailty of our borders, the inadequacy of response system and the irresponsibility of our media. Who can do this is another question, left for another posting on this blog.

India's highways to future

If you want to feel optimistic about India's future, drive down from Karol Bagh to Gurgaon via Ridge Road and NH8. The latter is truly worldclass. Smooth, wide, well-marked with proper exits and entry lanes, it's a pleasure to drive on. True, traffic is fast catching up to make it congested, but let's not quibble over details.

If you want re-assurance that this development is also touching small town India, check out NH1 from Pathankot to Damtal. The former is a small town in North Punjab with a population of 250K, the latter is a tiny hamlet with population in single digit thousands. NH1 between these two towns passes through hilly terrain and the awe that a wide, 6 lane road inspires over mountains is difficult to put in words.

I happened to travel on the above two stretches over this weekend and felt better with the experience.

But if you want to be reminded that in India, the more things change, the more they remain the same, you should exit NH8 and enter Gurgaon. The pothole mosaic that passes off as road is pathetic. Vehicles regularly scream in agony as they navigate the crests and troughs and often break down.

In the same vein, once you pass Damtal on NH1 towards Jalandhar, the road disappears. The potholes here are even more vicious. One vehicle had its axle broken into two on hitting one such death trap. Apparently, contracts have been issued for 4 laning of the road but the contractor is waiting for monsoons to get over. People, meanwhile, are paying the price for the 'soft launch'.

Here's hoping that NH8 transcends to the last mile and NH1 completes its majestic sweep beyond Damtal all the way to Jalandhar. That's when we can truly feel proud.

the right metaphor - clay vs. seed

A couple of years ago, after a highly successful and deeply satisfying summer camp with school children in Dalhousie, I wrote a blog titled 'working with clay'. Having spent the last 9 months in Education in India, I feel the metaphor of children being clay might have been a bit misguided and erroneous.



The notion of a teacher as this all important agent who moulds destinies is misplaced. A human brain is not an empty jug in which you fill knowledge, nor is it an amorphous entity to which you give form.


The idea of a seed comes close to describing a human brain at birth. It carries its code inside - whether it'll be an oak or a grass. A teacher can give it the nutrition or environment to make it the best oak or the best grass it can be. But it is tough for a teacher to turn an oak into grass - if at all she is successful, it will be a very gnarled piece of grass!


This understanding has led me to redefine the role of education. Every child is unique, like a seed that carries its future within. The role of education is to enable the fruition of this potential, not guide a child to the norm of an 'ideal child'.


Now if every child is unique, how can an assembly line methodology work? How will one way of teaching work for everyone? Shouldn't education cater to the unique learning style of each student?


This is not a trivial challenge because school education is driven by syllabus targets and high teacher-student ratio. The focus is on finishing the prescribed teaching modules, testing it by rote based exams and moving the batch forward, to make way for the next one.


We can definitely do better. Technology can play a role. Teacher training will definitely play a role. But most important is to educate parents. To give them the knowledge that their child is unique and they are doing a disservice to her uniqueness if they benchmark her growth by uni-dimensional exam scores.


Over the next few posts, I'll share my experiences of developing an education pedagogy that caters to the needs of the learner, not of the teacher or administrator.

The Power of 10

I've realized that it's extremely difficult to bring culture change in an organization. The best a leader can do is NOT underestimate the effort required. That's where the Power of 10 comes in.

Any message, for it to be absorbed and internalized, needs to be repeated at least 10 times. Any lesser and it can easily run off the thick oily layer of habit that most employees carry.

The power of 10 runs against the natural inclination to say something new & different each time you meet your people. Repetition seems boring in a culture of 'what's new?' But habit is the biggest enemy of change and the power of 10 breaks it in small but sure steps.

Beginning of a storm

The New Year incident of a crowd molesting 2 women on Juhu Tara Road hit me like a rock. While the incident itself was enough to cause indignation, what really jolted me was the deeper issue it symptomized.

Over the last few years, I have been reading and hearing about the increasing divide between the haves and the have nots in India. And I have heard people worry that this will cause social unrest and upheaval. But, I have always felt that these concerns were overblown or shallow. There were bigger & deeper issues to deal with such as Infrastructure, Health and Education, which if done well, should take care of these symptoms. And in any case, any mass upheaval was still some decades away, was how I reacted.

Over the past few months however, I'm beginning to see patterns that indicate that the unrest and upheaval is not far. In Mumbai, the great immigrant magnet, you see this more than anywhere else.


The situation is still at a simmering stage but as these two incidents show, it doesn't take much for the lava to burst out:

A college student is driving his Maruti Swift on SV Road, when he accidentally hits a pedestrian who, in typical Mumbai style, is walking through peak traffic using his hand both as a shield and a traffic signal. Where the fault lay was debatable but the response from the crowd was bordering on the maniacal. They pulled out the youngster and proceeded to take out all the frustrations of their unfulfilled life on him.

2 NRI couples make plans to go to J W Marriot for New Year night reveleries which included a performance from Bipasha Basu. Clearly, there are more people who can't get in (the entry ticket was Rs. 11,500) than who could. When the 2 couples leave Marriot and are walking towards Hote Royal, the crowds from Juhu Beach (where else do you get free open space in Mumbai?) start to rile them with lewd comments. In a pure reflex action, one of the lady abuses the crowd. And the 'have-nots' who were smarting from being excluded from the 'high-life' take out their frustration at the women by tearing their clothes & molesting them.

These incidents are repeated in different forms and facets all over Mumbai everyday. Whether it is the laborer peeing at the outer wall of a Bungalow, pedestrians scratching cars while passing them by or the blank stares of a beggar at a traffic junction, deprived India snarls at rich India every second.

And where the underlying frustration doesnt find vent, it simmers as apathy or antipathy. Everyday, poor immigrants disembark from Patna express at VT and start their battle for survival. Everyday, a rich spoilt kid leaves his half-finished breakfast, goes down the lift and orders his driver to take him to a Multiplex in his Toyota. And the poor Bihari and the rich Marwari share the same road and air. If the Bihari's dreams are not realized, the situation is ripe for a nightmare on our streets.

Every Child is Unique

Taare Zameen Par is a much needed breath of fresh air for the effete and constrained school environment in India. Although it might pass off as the story of a dyslexic child gaining recognition for his unique talent, the story is a commentary on us as parents, teachers and school administrators


Parents
I'm increasingly getting convinced that what India needs the most to improve its Human Capital is not better schools, or more universities but Parent Counseling. We, as parents operate from centuries old myths, stereotypes and misinformation. And the root cause seems to be the quest for the 'Ideal Child'. And the Ideal Child is defined primarily in terms of Verbal and Logic/Math capability. Guests check whether the child can count or read the alphabet. Parents want to teach their children the 'a,b,c' and the '1,2,3'. Schools test for 'A for apple' and 'count till 20'.


There is a need to redefine the 'Ideal Child'. Better still, we need to shed the notion of the 'Ideal Child'. Each child is unique. Some can read well. Some can count well. Some can draw well. Some can relate well. Some can imagine well. Some can model well. Some can sing well. Howard Gardner calls them Multiple Intelligences. And there are 7 of them. Each child has a grain of these intelligences but is overdeveloped on some and underdeveloped on others. Society needs each intelligence but parents tend to over-value language and maths acquisition more than other intelligences. This needs to change and Parent Counseling can play a massive role in this area.


I feel that embracing the philosophy of Multiple Intelligences will allow parents to respect their child's capability in whichever sphere it exists. It'll save children from the pressure and stress of being judged on limited and misplaced criteria


Teachers
Teaching in India is crying for Talent. Teaching is the last resort of the failed, clueless or in the case of women, the married. There are umpteenth reasons for it. Low salaries are the primary quoted reason. The absence of role models and their celebration is another big one in my pov. In a world, where a Mittal, a Modi, a Bedi, a Dhoni or a Khan are touted as 'Indian of the Year', where will young impressionable minds get the inspiration to become great teachers??


Even those who join the profession with the right intent are benumbed by the old and defunct 'BEd' course. Here, the vicious cycle of bad teachers creating worse ones manifests itself with age old paradigms on Human Development, Child Psychology and Cognition getting perpetuated and new research and learning remaining in Research Labs and books.


Once these teachers enter schools, they start the process of dousing any ambers of curiosity in the child with their inane, 'fingers on your lips', 'get out of the class' and 'Amit, you read the first paragraph and others repeat' routines. Teaching is one profession where there is little to no refreshing of skills and knowledge. Teachers use methodologies that existed when they went to school and sadly, all the modern developments and learnings on human cognition by-pass them.


I haven't yet touched the plight of government schools where teacher absenteeism exacerbates all the above issues (Although you can argue that a bad teacher can do more harm than no teacher at all!!)


I feel that New Age Schools run by the Private Sector can play a role in attracting talent to this profession. The Private Sector can also contribute in the area of teacher training if the right incentives for skill upgradation are provided. Technology can play a big part in this area by carrying centralized content to far off areas. If the Govt. pitches in by revoking the senseless Not for Profit Trust requirement for schools and Media plays its part in celebrating Teaching as a profession of nation builders, much can be achieved.


School Administrators
School administrators play a huge role in the area of teacher-student ratio, teacher recruitment & training. I'm a big supporter of inclusive education - every child has the right to learn. And every child can learn, as long as schools accept this as their responsibility and make provisions for the different intelligences exhibited by different students. If students learn in different ways, schools have to make the extra effort and investment in teaching in different ways.


This is possible only if the right teacher student ratio is maintained to allow individual differences in intelligences to be identified. Classroom design will need to follow to enable child centric methodologies vs. creating pulpits for sermons.

Taare Zameen Par touches on all of these in subtle ways. Whether it is the father who misses his child's uniqueness in his pursuit for the 'Ideal Child' or the teachers who perpetuate rote learning or the school principal who struggles with the dilemma of efficiency of administration vs. focus on each child - the movie portrays issues dogging education today.

Credit should go to the scriptwriter for a great story. Darshil has performed his role with amazing finesse for his age. And Aamir, the director, has resisted the usual producer-actor-director urge to focus on himself, thus allowing the movie to focus on the theme vs. the star.