Organisations creating awareness & disseminating information on educating India.

Which are the organisations that are working to create awareness and disseminate information, amongst not just educationists and policy makers, but also employees working in the education sector, consumers of education as well as the public at large, on the issues and challenges that we need to confront and address to ensure we provide a quality education for all Indians?

The focus of this post is on organisations that are active in education journalism, communication and outreach like magazines with a focus on covering the Education Sector in India and organisations and think tanks researching education in the Indian context and disseminating information widely. I have not included organisations that are doing other very important things like running educational institutions, training teachers, providing services to institutions or other functional activities.

Here is a list in alphabetical order. This list is by no means comprehensive - I am sure there are many more organisations that I am unaware of. If you happen to know of any others, please do mention it in the comments.

Magazines covering the education sector in India

• EDU - a magazine launched in 2009 and published by 9.9 Media. Here's how they describe themselves.
  

  [EDU is] a platform that helps decision makers at higher education institutions govern their institutions smartly. With its strong connections and a nationwide reach, EDU creates a channel for enterprises to develop business opportunities in the education sector. We are currently a growing community of 5000 decision makers across engineering, management and medical institutions, with the purpose of connecting leaders and decision makers in higher education in order to raise the level of debate in India. The content mix of the magazine includes sections such as Strategy, Academics, Administration, Technology, Profile, Updates from the sector and columns by well known academicians and visionaries.

• Education World - a magazine launched in 1999 and published by DT Media & Entertainment Pvt.Ltd. Here's how they describe themselves.
  

  [Education World was] promoted with objective of informing the growing middle-class on the subject of education through its content, which it will disseminate through all means/channels of communication, viz Press, TV, Radio and the Internet. [Our mission is] to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the No.1 item on the national agenda. The promoters of this company genuinely share the sentiment expressed by a former US President (Lyndon Johnson): “The answer for all our national problems comes in a single word. The word is education.”

• Mentor - a magazine launched in 2008 and published by EduMedia. Here's how they describe themselves.
  

  Mentor is India’s first print magazine that is focussed on the school principal and educators, it is the new voice for education in India. Mentor is a platform for principals, school heads, teachers, educators, society leaders and government to come together, voice their opinion, share and learn from one another, thereby bringing a positive change in the educational system.

• Teacher Plus - a magazine launched in 1989. Here's how they describe themselves.
  

  Teacher Plus is a magazine aimed primarily at the schoolteacher. It is a forum within which teachers can raise their concerns, discuss ideas, and share and update their knowledge. Teacher Plus discusses alternative ways of thinking and doing within the context of the Indian classroom, while recognizing the constraints that most teachers face, day to day. In addition, its aim is to foster a sense of community among teachers, of being a part of an important group of change agents.
  

  
  

  Teacher Plus is not a scholarly journal. It is a magazine for the practicing teacher who wants to keep up with trends in education and find ways to energise her classroom with new ideas and approaches.

Other organisations and Think Tanks with a focus on promoting and disseminating information on education in India

• Apeejay Stya Education Research Foundation (ASERF) set up by the Apeejay Stya Group. Here's how they describe their objectives.

• Serve as a "think-tank" to deliberate on all aspects of school, higher and professional education;
• Undertake, aid, promote and coordinate research in areas related to school and higher education;
• Work as a support mechanism for policy formulation, review and analysis;
• Link policymakers, key administrators, and the research community in a creative dialogue on the central issues facing contemporary education;
• Address pertinent issues and challenges facing education (internal and external) and to propagate measures needed for meeting these challenges; and
• Offer fellowships, scholarships and academic awards.

• Azim Premji Foundation (APF) - set up in 2001 by Azim Premji to address the challenges we face in educating all Indians, children in particular. Here's how they describe themselves.
  

  VISION - To facilitate a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society
  ENABLERS - Work in education and related development areas for both direct impact and a large positive multiplier
  STRATEGY - “Operating Organization” for deep, at-scale and institutionalized impact on the quality of education in India

• Centre for Civil Society (CCS) - set up in 1997 is a liberal think tank and education is one of its focus areas. Here's how they describe their focus on education.

  VISION: To create an education system in India where all children receive quality education of their choice.
  MISSION:
  

  • To make policymakers aware of the power of incentives to reform that education system
  • To create awareness and generate public debate about how education is funded in India
  • To demonstrate the power of choice by running pilot projects show casing education vouchers
  • To encourage entrepreneurship in education especially in its provision to the poor by advocating regulatory reform and the use of micro credit
  • To advocate the use of independent evaluation using international comparable standardized tests to assess the performance of government and private schools in India

  
  

  CCS's flagship project, the School Choice Campaign (SCC) was launched in 2007 and is a campaign to bring about the much-needed reforms in the system of school education in India today using the three pronged approach of Education Vouchers, Regulatory Reforms and Encouraging "Edupreneurs".
  

• Education Promotion Society of India - set up in 2005 with a very broad scope and objective of promoting expanding and developing the education sector in India. They describe their vision, objectives and activities on their site. Their focus seems to be more on the higher education sector rather than the school education sector.


• Pratham - set up in 1994, with an exclusive focus on school education. They put out the influential Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) every year. Here's how they describe themselves.
  

  Their programs are designed to ensure that:
  
  

  1. Enrollment in schools increases.
  2. Learning in schools and communities increases.
  3. The education net reaches children who are unable to attend school.
  4. Models are replicated and scaled up to serve large numbers of children to achieve a large scale impact.

Extracted from a post of Mr. Satya in Education Reform, Policies & Regulations | Permalink

Education and India – And miles to go before we sleep …

Education in India

Education in India is provided by the public sector as well as the private sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. The Nalanda University was the oldest university-system of education in the world. Western education became ingrained into Indian society with the establishment of the British Raj.

Education in India falls under the control of both the Union Government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the Union and the states having autonomy for others. The various articles of the Indian Constitution provide for education as a fundamental right. Most universities in India are controlled by the Union or the State Government.

India has made progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India. Much of the progress especially in Higher education, Scientific research has been credited to various public institutions. The private education market in India is merely 5% although in terms of value is estimated to be worth $40 billion in 2008 and will increase to $68 billion by 2012.

However, India continues to face stern challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 25% of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7%, of the 15% who make it to high school, graduate. As of 2008, India's post-secondary institutions offer only enough seats for 7% of India's college-age population, 25% of teaching positions nationwide are vacant, and 57% of college professors lack either a master's or PhD degree.

As of 2011, there are 1522 degree-granting engineering colleges in India with an annual student intake of 582,000, plus 1,244 polytechnics with an annual intake of 265,000. However, these institutions face shortage of faculty and concerns have been raised over the quality of education.

Higher education

India's higher education system is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States. The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission (India), which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state. Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 12 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission.

As of 2009, India has 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 33 institutes which are of national importance. Other institutions include 16000 colleges, including 1800 exclusive women's colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions. The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology. Indian educational institutions by 2004 consisted of a large number of technology institutes. Distance learning is also a feature of the Indian higher education system.

Government of India is aware of the plight of higher education sector and has been trying to bring reforms, however, 15 bills are still awaiting discussion and approval in the Parliament. One of the most talked about bill is Foreign Universities Bill, which is supposed to facilitate entry of foreign universities to establish campuses in India. The bill is still under discussion and even if it gets passed, its feasibility and effectiveness is questionable as it misses the context, diversity and segment of international foreign institutions interested in India. One of the approaches to make internationalization of Indian higher education effective is to develop a coherent and comprehensive policy which aims at infusing excellence, bringing institutional diversity and aids in capacity building.

Three Indian universities were listed in the Times Higher Education list of the world’s top 200 universities — Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2005 and 2006. Six Indian Institutes of Technology and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science – Pilani were listed among the top 20 science and technology schools in Asia by Asiaweek. The Indian School of Business situated in Hyderabad was ranked number 12 in global MBA rankings by the Financial Times of London in 2010 while the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has been recognized as a global leader in medical research and treatment.

Literacy

According to the Census of 2011, "every person above the age of 7 years who can read and write in any language is said to be literate". According to this criterion, the 2011 survey holds the National Literacy Rate to be around 74.07%. Government statistics of 2001 also hold that the rate of increase in literacy is more in rural areas than in urban areas. Female literacy was at a national average of 65% whereas the male literacy was 82%. Within the Indian states, Kerala has shown the highest literacy rates of 93% whereas Bihar averaged 63.8% literacy. The 2001 statistics also indicated that the total number of 'absolute non-literates' in the country was 304 million.

Curriculum issue

Modern education in India is often criticized for being based on rote learning rather than problem solving. BusinessWeek criticizes the Indian curriculum, saying it revolves around rote learning and ExpressIndia suggests that students are focused on cramming.

Central Government Involvement

Budget

As a part of the tenth Five year Plan (2002–2007), the central government of India outlined an expenditure of 65.6% of its total education budget of INR 438.25 billion (US$9.64 billion) i.e. INR 287.5 billion (US$6.33 billion) on elementary education; 9.9% i.e. INR43.25 billion (US$951.5 million) on secondary education; 2.9% i.e. INR12.5 billion (US$275 million) on adult education; 9.5% i.e. INR41.765 billion (US$918.83 million) on higher education; 10.7% i.e. INR 47 billion (US$1.03 billion) on technical education; and the remaining 1.4% i.e. INR6.235 billion (US$137.17 million) on miscellaneous education schemes.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), India has the lowest public expenditure on higher education per student in the world.

However, even after five years of implementation of NCMP, not much progress has been seen on this front. Although the country targeted towards devoting 6% share of the GDP towards the educational sector, the performance has definitely fallen short of expectations. Expenditure on education has steadily risen from 0.64% of GDP in 1951-52 to 2.31% in 1970-71 and thereafter reached the peak of 4.26% in 2000-01. However, it declined to 3.49% in 2004-05. There is a definite need to step up again. As a proportion of total government expenditure, it has declined from around 11.1 per cent in 2000–2001 to around 9.98 per cent during UPA rule, even though ideally it should be around 20% of the total budget. A policy brief issued by [Network for Social Accountability (NSA)] titled “[NSA Response to Education Sector Interventions in Union Budget: UPA Rule and the Education Sector]” provides significant revelation to this fact. Due to a declining priority of education in the public policy paradigm in India, there has been an exponential growth in the private expenditure on education also. As per the available information, the private out of pocket expenditure by the working class population for the education of their children in India has increased by around 1150 percent or around 12.5 times over the last decade.

Information extracted from Wikipedia and Ministry of Education (India)

Benefits of Project Management Skills

When you show off a certificate proving you have completed a Project Management Training you prove several things and all of these confirm your credibility and worthiness to take on difficult projects for your company or small business.

Qualities Honed By Project Management Training

Everybody can be a manager, but not all managers have a certificate to show that they have completed a Project Management Training. If you are handling small projects for your boss, no matter how small or big it is, you are showing you manager potential. This potential goes to waste when the boss decides to choose a manager because the boss will get someone with formal training credentials as a guarantee of ability.

But if you have the certification even if you did not get a degree on management, your boss will gladly promote you to a supervisory level. Essentially, you already have the basic qualities of a smart manager; you are observant, analytical, creative, think quick on your feet, and you can get people moving as a team and most significant of all, you have the certificate of training.

A certificate on Project Management Training assures your employer that you have:

• enhanced your risk management
• improved written and verbal communication skills
• the skill to effectively manage project timeline within cost
• improved procurement skills
• improved monitoring and documentation skills
• learned the legal aspects affecting project implementation

However, the training is available only for those who have five years of work related experience. Knowing this, you should keep track of your experiences and have a logbook of your projects if you are eyeing a Project Management Training in the future.

Training Courses

Companies that have the funds to send their employees to boot camp can request for a training program tailor-fitted to the company's profile and requirements. If the training is an individual effort, training will involve self-assessment tests to figure out how and where the training should start. The company's profile will be a useful input for the training to help the individual achieve project managerial skills when working on:

• Project scope
• Project budget
• Project timeline
• Project resources

There are several courses offered and the lessons vary little from one institution to another. A reputable online provider for Project Management Training will provide a user manual, a training manual for each knowledge area, audio and video learning aids, crib sheets explaining examination questions, provide practice tests and an exam that "duplicates" the real examination. Online support and support for the examination application should be part of the package deal.

 

Time of Reckoning

Passing the exam is the biggest and last hurdle. But once accomplished, you have an edge over others who have yet to take the training and pass the test. Once a full-pledge passer, you can expect better compensation. Project managers are well-compensated for their responsibilities. They receive an average pay of an annual $70,000 to $80,000 in the United States.

Apart from the compensation, project managers have the opportunities and perks accorded to supervisors and the possible upward career move. If you work towards professional management training, this will take time but eventually you will be receiving better pay and projects that are more challenging. That's the biggest advantage you have with a Project Management Training.

Industry Example: Grant Thornton's research on importance of soft skills for finance professionals ...

Grant Thornton LLP, one of the six global accounting organizations, released a new report titled The Evolving Accounting Talent profile: CFO strategies for attracting, training and retaining experienced accounting and finance professionals.  

While you might expect that a dynamic regulatory framework and international standards might present the biggest challenge for today’s CFOs, soft-skills deficiency was identified as a more pressing issue.The study involved surveying more than 500 finance executives and holding one-on-one discussions with 32 CFOs representing a range of industries and company sizes. It’s also important to note that the study highlights “seasoned professionals” – those with at least a BS degree and 10 years of experience.

Challenges in Recruiting Qualified Talent

Talent recruitment in any domain is a challenge.  Here is how the CFOs saw the difficulties that they face in recruiting experienced accounting talent:

It should be noted that the study does identify a difference in responses between public and private firms.  The private firms rated workload/lifestyle at their foremost concern.

The Soft Skills

It’s not surprising that dynamic workplace needs are driving the demand for these skills. Open-ended responses uncovered the following needs:

  

Some interesting quotes from study participants:

“Our people can’t just focus on accounting principles. They need to broaden their experience and background knowledge to understand the business application of these principles. Many times, you need critical thinking and business judgment in order to translate data and effectively communicate it.” CFO, public media company, $5B revenues

“People in marketing and production are more persuasive than those in accounting – they manage more staff and deal with management more frequently.  With less exposure, you don’t have the same opportunity to develop communication skills, and if you aren’t persuasive, you can’t convince management to take up your recommendations based on your review of financials.” CFO, public commercial service company, $100M-$500M revenues

“It is easy to find someone who can do something that you have asked him or her to do. But it is difficult to find someone with a long-term vision – someone with an awareness of the big picture who sees the issues strategically.” CFO, public industrials company, $5B+ revenues

How to Address Training

The economy continues to challenge training budgets at firms as they continue to slash or eliminate them entirely.  With reduced staff and increased workloads, the Grant Thorton study highlights the difficulty CFOs face in creating training opportunities for their staff across all areas of development.  Once again, soft skills present the biggest challenge.

One-on-one interactions and mentoring (as opposed to classroom training) were often identified as efforts undertaken by the CFOs to bridge the soft-skills gap.   In addition, external programs such as Censeo Corporation’s TalentSIM leadership development tool are frequently utilized as a cost-effective alternative to more costly assessment centers.

Turnover?

Most will agree that as the economy improves, voluntary turnover will increase. Some surveys indicate as many as 23% of accounting professionals plan to look for new opportunities…CFOs better have good retention strategies in place. While the survey cited training and development as the third-most important turnover driver (poor work/life balance and limited potential for advancement were number one and two) , CFOs recommend the need to engage employees in individual discussions and to create development plans based on career aspirations.

“One-on-one meetings have been the most successful method to close skill gaps – these meetings allow us to explore an employee’s needs and gain a clear vision of his or her workplace issues. With this information, we can formulate a development plan and implement it successfully.” – CFO, private technology services company, $100M revenues

Resources

• Business Finance, “The Leadership Skill Continuum,” Jeffrey C. Thomson, November 30, 2009:

• Access the complete report by Grant Thornton for free here.

Harvard University research on soft skills

Harvard University research

Harvard University research shows that the most successful people in the world attribute 87.5 % of their success to their SOFT SKILLS and only 12.5 % of their success to their HARD SKILLS(Domain Skills like Engineering, Medicine, Science and all of other traditional education we spend `decades in acquiring!)

Career in Software Testing!

Dear readers!

The given information throws light to what Software Testing is all about and career in the field.

Meaning:
 
Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product and it’s functioning. Test techniques include the process of executing a programme or application with the intent of finding software bugs. From mobile phones to cameras, software testers examine a range of digital products for bugs and design flaws. They swing into action after the software is designed or coded.

TESTING TIMES
 
Cloud-based applications are becoming the trend of the software market. As a result, the testing market is also cloud-based. Companies such as IBM, CSS Corp, etc. have started cloud-based testing, which is likely to reduce the cost and timing of testing the application. Further, companies are investing significantly in building competence in various specialised testing services such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) testing, web-based application testing, service oriented architectures (SOA) testing, software-as-a-service (SAAS) testing, wireless and mobile technologies testing etc. “As the domain of software application development is increasing significantly, so is the need for testing specialised applications,” says the report.

POSITIVE INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
 
“Indian companies aim for quality rather than quantity which attracts other countries to outsource major amount of work to the Indian IT sector,” says Manoj Nair, principal software engineer at TESCO HSC in Bangalore. With companies on a cost-cut drive globally, the scenario is likely to be favourable for testers in India. “This is because they do not want to spend much on testing and India offers them the opportunity to recruit testers in bulk at very low prices compared to what it would have been abroad,” says Sahil Ahuja, a software developer who has worked in a renowned investment bank and is presently doing his MBA at the IIMC.

“With more intricate programming languages and coding schemes, software testing is becoming more critical. A large number of IT companies have dedicated approximately 20 per cent of their total workforce to software testing and larger companies plan to increase their software testing workforce even further. Indian companies are getting outsourced software testing assignments,” says career counsellor Jayanti Ghose.
 
JOBS AT HAND
 
Companies that recruit testers would include IT companies apart from investment banks, consultancy firms, retailers, airlines and networking sites among others. “Testing is now seen as an excellent corporate job with a well-defined career path. For example, if one is a test analyst, he or she could easily move up to become a QA team lead, senior test engineer, and eventually test manager. The options currently available are many,” feels Nilanjan Basu an ME who works with a leading IT M NC.

BASIC REQUISITES
 

“A BE/ B Tech CS/ IT or any stream, or M CA would be advisable. Indian Testing Board (ITB), approved by the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) also conducts ISTQB- certified tester examinations (www.istqb.in),” says Ghose. A BSc with more than 60 per cent aggregate can also apply.

“In testing, we've Manual and Automation testing. People are mainly recruited for manual testing, for which the company will look for good analytical skills, basic programming knowledge, problem solving skills and good communication skills. But for automation, people need a good knowledge of the platforms they are going to work with. Platforms in the sense software languages like C, JAVA, C#, VB etc,” says Vijaya Kumar, Engineer- QC, NDS Services Pay-TV Technology Pvt Ltd, Bangalore

NICHE SKILL SETS
 

There is an increasing demand for niche testing skills. There is currently a general lack of skills in the area of test automation and scripting. Also on demand are highly technical skill sets, such as the ability to review and manage automation tools, produce test automation frameworks and figure out how to leverage reusable on-demand components. Similarly, there is and always will be a consistent demand for good performance testers who are able to analyse test performance results, offer tuning suggestion techniques, and determine bottlenecks. “Persons with skill sets, including HP QuickTest Professional, IBM Rational Functional Tester, Rational robot, HP WinRunner and as well as tools like Microsoft Application Center Test (ACT) and HP LoadRunner are in great demand,” adds Basu.

 
REMUNERATION
 
“Freshers could earn anything between Rs 3.5 lakh - Rs 11 lakh per annum depending upon the company (a core technology company pays higher) and also the college one has graduated from,” adds Ahuja. The starting salary depends on many factors, like company, city, educational qualifications etc. An experienced tester could earn upto Rs 15 lakh per annum

Reference: The Economic Times