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Thanks Ajoy Vargis and Gopalkrishna Vishwanath sir for the questionWhat could be the reason for the Travancore Devaswom Board in Kerala appointing teachers for the Arabic language in the schools it manages?I am really fed up with the way which these fundamentalists operate. Why should they try the same formulae they use in UP or Gujarat in a South Indian state like Kerala which is culturally different and has no resemblances to any Hindi heartland cultural stigmas or attitudes? Ideally VHP or Vishwa Hindu Parishad the brand should be GoPradesh Hindu Parishad rather than Vishwa (Global) as they have no idea of any other cultures beyond their cowbelt whims and fancies.This answer is NOT for those Bhakts as it makes no difference. My answer is for others who seriously want to know the background storiesTravancore Devaswom Board is the statutory Temple authority board that manages almost all the temples in South Kerala that once defined the Kingdom of Travancore. Travancore Devaswom Board and Cochin Devaswom Boards are two semi-constitutional authorities established under the authority of Indian Constitution (due to the unique history of listing the erstwhile Devaswom authorities of two Kingdoms as state devaswoms as a precondition for Travancore-Cochin for its accession to Indian Union on July 1st 1949).Due to this unique position, TDB and CDB are established by provisions of an legal act and its members are appointed by the Kerala Niyamasabha (the State Legislature) where the Hindu MLAs of the House select and ratify the appointment at the floor of the house (and hence the nominees of ruling party always wins). TDB and CDB are quasi Judicial bodies too, as they are supervised and regulated by Devaswom Bench of Hon. Kerala High court and their activities are monitored by the court.I explained those things in detail in another posts. Kindly read to know the operational procedures and history of these organizationsArun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to Is it true that the Kerala Devaswom board is used by the government for other purposes?Arun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to How did the temples of Kerala come under the state government of the Devaswom board administration?Arun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to What is the reason behind Government not offering to dissolve Devaswam Board and relieve from related responsibilities especially when many Hindu groups are demanding for it?Arun Mohan (അരുൺ മോഹൻ)'s answer to Why does the Kerala government, which claims to be secular, have a Devaswom ministry? Does it not know that secularism mean separation of state and religion?Coming to the question,When this question came to me, I was wondering how come I didn’t knew about it. I am a person who reads 2 Malayalam newspapers, so as watches almost all the Malayalam news channels (barring those party propaganda ones like Kairali or Janam or Jaihind etc). I haven’t seen or heard any news like this.So I had to do a google search and interestingly I saw a bunch of Non Malayalam news channels and media talking about it. I was surprised to see even some popular Non-BJP national channels like The Print etc talking about it. Generally The Print and its editor Shekhar Gupta speaks very little about Kerala as generally its not his domain area and their focus is mostly Hindi Heartland news + North East; rarely Kerala and TN comes to their radar. Others are mostly Pro-Right channels, many usual suspects'Not Indian language' — VHP tells Travancore Devaswom Board not to appoint Arabic teachersKerala govt’s gift to Hindu Temples: Arabic learning in schools managed by Devaswom BoardTDB should appoint Sanskrit teachers, not Arabic: VHPTDB should appoint Sanskrit teachers, not Arabic: VHP | India News - Times of IndiaBut when I was cross checking the news again and again with Malayalam media (by even doing a google search in Malayalam), I found that this was actually an old news that happened in Nov 2019. Even that time, it was rarely featured in any Malayalam channels or News papers, rather mostly in social media and some online Malayalam channels.Screenshot of the news that was reported on Asianet News Web edition in Nov 2019This news happened in 30th Oct 2019 when Travancore Devaswom Board published a notice inviting High school teachers for various subjects in the schools run by them. They were looking for High school teachers (HST) for subjects like Malayalam, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Natural Science, Music, Classical Dance, Hindi (Part-time) and Arabic (Part time).After seeing this notice ad, Mr. TP Senkumar, former DGP of Kerala Police who became a full time RSS/Hindutva worker, who notoriously makes inflammatory tweets, posted a tweet questioning Devaswom for hiring an Arabic teacherHis tweet is much inflammatory in nature as he was saying “Looks like one has to learn Arabic to get a job in temple, not Sanskrit”Generally his posts and tweets are ignored by most of Newspapers and Media in Kerala as its mostly these kind of poisonous tweets aimed for communalization and polarization agenda for his party’s electoral gains. But that time, it has kicked up a small online fight with few intellectuals and strictly remained as an online debate. It went for few weeks and died when other topics came up.Perhaps no one remembers that discussion today nor anything to do currently. Neither Devaswom cancelled the appointment nor anyone made any public protests in Kerala.So, indeed its surprising to see a debate today, which is mostly fueled by Non Malayalam media. Does it need any guess work? Its definitely creating narratives and topics for election rallies which will soon start as State elections will come in 10 months of time. BJP National leadership has no other topic to discuss, so need to rehash their usual communal topics. After all, no one can talk about economy or Vikas or employment etc. Then 56 inch chest size and Balakot or Pakistan makes no cut in Kerala electoral narratives. So these discussions are nothing but rehash of old news meant for upcoming elections, which can be royally ignored.Now why TDB needs to appoint Arabic teachers?Okay- TDB is running few schools in Southern Kerala districts. At the moment, Devaswom runs 12 schools, mostly called DB Central Schools or DB Higher Secondary Schools.All these schools are Kerala Govt aided PUBLIC SCHOOLS. You need to note the highlighted portions. They are not any religious schools or vedapadanashalas (Vedic schools) or any sort of religious institutions, rather purely PUBLIC SCHOOLS, fully aided by Kerala Taxpayer’s money.Kerala has this concept of aided schools historically (Many Indian states do have).In Kerala’s public education, we have two kinds of schools- Aided and Unaided. Unaided schools means purely private schools where students have to pay fees to study. Most of the unaided schools are CBSE/ICSE/International syllabus schools and they are independent from Govt.Aided schools are of two types- Govt Schools and Govt Aided schools. Govt schools means the school established by the Govt in Govt land and all the properties/assets are owned by Govt. These schools are run by Local Governments on behalf of Department of Education- Kerala State.Govt Aided schools are those schools owned by communities and public organizations. They could be owned by religious trusts, religious institutions, social organizations, community organization or even private individuals/family trusts etc. The physical assets for the school, such as bldg, land and all movable assets must be arranged by the school owner, while the teachers’s salary (which constitute the biggest expense for running a school) is paid by the govt. Since the govt pays the salary, these teachers working in such schools are part of Govt Service rules and regulations, treated at par with any government employee. In short, these teachers are essentially Govt servants with all usual Govt perks and benefits along with retirement benefits (except that they can be retrenched or dismissed at the will of the management, not purely by govt proceedings). This arrangement is bit unique as their hiring is not done by the govt (not thro’ PSC), rather by the school’s management in their usual process, but once appointed, they become govt servants.So you have N number of convent schools all in aided category, so many Muslim Management schools with govt teachers, so many Hindu community Management schools in same concept (NSS Schools, SNDP schools etc). Devaswom Board schools also come in the same category. They appoint teachers, but salary paid by the govt.DB school is slightly more unique. Devaswom Boards are part of Govt system, even though they are autonomous. All Devaswom employees are Government servants in a different cadre (Devaswom Cadre). This includes Priests, temple staff, security staff, establishment staff etc. So when Devaswom starts its own schools, their employees are also part of the same Devaswom cadre, thus they are defacto Govt servants. DB schools are also seen at par with any Govt school too.Remember, all aided schools are PUBLIC SCHOOLS. They are not part of any religious establishment. No one can teach religious stuff in these schools as they have to follow state govt prescribed syllabus and the same format. You cannot teach Bible class in an aided Convent school. You cannot have Quran class in a Muslim Management school. Same way you cannot have Gita or Vedas in a DB school or NSS school.All Govt aided schools operate under strict Govt supervision. Aided schools like any other Govt schools comes under the direct control of Directorate of General Education- DGE and supervised by District Education Office (DEO). If you have seen some older Malayalam movies, we always see how AEO (Asst. Education Officer) visits Govt aided schools as part of surprise visit and catch teachers or management violating State Educational laws.So all DB schools operate under Govt system. I would also clarify, none of the DB schools operate inside a temple. In Kerala, temples cannot be used for any other purpose other than temple rites, rituals and pooja purposes. You cannot run a school or a drill camp or any sort of training inside a temple premises, which is illegal even under Tantric law apart from the State laws. So all the DB schools are outside temple premises and independent from temple concept.As Devaswom is a defacto Govt institution, Govt exchequers support many DB school facilities directly. Many DB School extensions and new bldgs are constructed using Govt grants issued on time-to-time basis. For all other expenses, DB schools used consolidated Devaswom Fund as TDB is a corporate devaswom, so it has a consolidated fund.Coming specific to the language part, Kerala Public education rules stipulate 3 Language formulae upto 10th and 2 language formulae upto 12th. Schools using state syllabus can choose either English or Malayalam as first language (which forms the medium of instruction), a second language (which will be either Malayalam or English, which isn’t taken as first language) and a third language which can be either Hindi or Sanskrit or Arabic or French (in official curriculum, even options for Spanish, Russian are also listed which only 2 aided schools have taken so far, so as there are options for Tamil, Kannada, mostly for border schools)Generally upto 10th standard, its mostly English, Malayalam and Hindi by convention (though in some rare cases, Arabic or Sanskrit or French can be offered instead of Hindi), while the choice of language options actually comes in Higher secondary, ie 11th and 12th grades. In this case, its Higher secondary, ie 11th and 12th grades where second language is a choice of students and many schools offer some other languages (French, Arabic, Russian, Tamil, Kannada, Sanskrit, Special English etc) other than usual Malayalam or Hindi.This is how public schools in Kerala works. DB is a public school and in normal convention, they have one school where Hindi is not popular and popular demand is Arabic. If my knowledge is right, this is for Higher secondary where your can choose any language of choice, not rigid unlike upto 10th.Screenshot of the allegations made by VHP, which highlights the level of ignorance they have about Kerala and its education system as well as Devaswom systemI don’t understand why Arabic can’t be taught in a Devaswom school?Devaswom school is a public school, not Vedapadanashala. And the syllabus is also public one. Secondly its not only Hindu students studying in a DB school, rather students of all religions and atheists too. And this been happening for decades.Why this hullabaloo over Sanskrit? How many Poojaris who do actual poojas knows Sanskrit? Call the Sabarimala Tantri or even Guruvayur Tantri and ask them to speak in Sanskrit for 10 mins. One will understand their level of Sanskrit learning. Poojaris or priests are supposed to know Sanskrit as all pooja mantras are in Sanskrit. But majority of Nampoothiris hardly know Sanskrit, rather learn Mantras and Tantric concepts in Malayalam and study Sanskrit slokhas/mantras by-heart without knowing its meanings. This is why, even in Tantric rites teaching places, Poojaris learns pooja techniques from Kuzhikkattu Pacha the Malayalam hymn book that translates all the tantric rites in Malayalam from the original Tantrasamuchayam, which is the most holiest book that defines all Tantric rites and laws for Kerala Pooja technique, but is written in Sanskrit which hardly any priests can read.This is the condition of priests. So why do you expect ordinary students who write SSLC to learn Sanskrit, just because they study in DB school? For what purpose?Arabic or Sanskrit, taught in State syllabus is all about grammar and prose primarily with some limited literature reviews. There is nothing religious being taught in both languages. So how come Arabic being associated with Islam and Sanskrit with Hinduism?That shows the hollowness of these Hindutvadis who have no idea what a language is all about. They see everything in prism of religion. Language is all about communication and ability for other person to understand and decipher whats said. We humans use languages to communicate with fellow humans, not with Gods. No one learns Arabic to communicate with Allah… No one uses Sanskrit to communicate with Shiva. Or Aramaic or Latin to communicate with Christ or Hebrew with Mosses.Sanskrit like Latin is a dead language. Being dead doesn’t mean extinct. It simply means its no more used in public sphere. Rather its more of liturgical languages used for rites and reading religious literature. Arabic on other hand is an active language, widely spoken in large parts of the world. Many students prefer learning Arabic as it increases their scope to migrate and live in Arabic speaking countries and gain more powerful positions, not for speaking to Allah. Infact, the biggest joke is that, majority of Muslims in Kerala hardly know how to speak Arabic properly as they use only to read Quran, that too learning byheart. In many cases, its being translated into Malayalam to read easily, just like how Malayalee Hindus uses Sanskrit hymns in Malayalam script.And likewise, it is TAXPAYER of Kerala paying for the teachers in Devaswom school apart from other expenditure, not any Hindu deity.So indeed the hullabaloo over Arabic is nothing but, rise of fanatical mindset of associating languages with religion, which we Malayalees scoffs off and ignore.This reminds me a famous scene in a Malayalam movie - Naaraayam which was also dealing similar topic, where actress Urvasi plays a character of Nampoothiri lady who learnt Arabic and got a govt job in a school as Arabic teacher, only to be opposed by Muslim clerics for having a Nampoothiri lady to teach Arabic, so as Hindu orthodoxy who stops her visiting temple citing that Nampoothiri learning Arabic is Melchha (outcaste)And in one such scene when she was stopped visiting the temple, actor Murali who does role a social worker gives a strong face slapping reply. That reply is essentially what any average Malayalee has to say to these fanatics (sorry, no subtitles exist)I won’t have answered to this question normally, but answered just to counter the rising fanaticism that gets injected with normal ordinary people as innocent question thro’ false narratives and half baked truths.

Thanks Mayuruii for the questionWhy is Kerala always number one in literacy? Why can’t other states with more development achieve this?Kerala as of today ranks top in literacy rate with 96.2%. Well, I would like to make something very clear as majority associate Literacy with education. Literacy is ability to read, write and speak home language or mother language, not education as such. In this context, 96.2% of Malayalees or Keralites can read, write and speak Malayalam, the mother tongue of Malayalees. In Kerala context, we consider someone as literate only if he/she completes Grade 4 of School education or its equivalence examinations. This means every literate person mandatory required the primary ability to read Malayalam as well as English, the two official languages of Kerala state. Fluency is not a critiea, rather ability to understand. Now a days, computer literacy is also a parameter to judge public literarcy, but made as a different section altogether.Why Kerala able to maintain high literacyHistorical factorsKerala had a clear headstart in terms of literacy. Even at the time of independence in 1947 and formation of Republic of India, Kerala was the most literate state in India. In the Census report of 1961, the first census after formation of United State of Kerala, we recorded a high figure of 55.08, whereas even in 2020 Andhra Pradesh as only 64%Kerala’s literacy rates as per decadal census reportsSo you can see the difference here. Kerala has so many historical reasons why originally there was a headstart.The main reason, Kerala was the ancient gateway of Spice trade and heavily dependent on international mercantilism. Foreign traders come to Kerala to get goods from locals and this sort of trade relations forms the primary livelhood of majority of people. Unlike domestic trade where lot of things happens over verbal assurances and trust factor, trading with foreigners and outsiders needs lot of documentation and legal proofs. This lead to the culture of recording each and everything on palm leaves manuscripts or copper plates or engravings in rocks etc. When you start documenting each and everything, automatically it becomes your culture. This is one key reason, Kerala is heavily documented state and has so much past written documents even from lower part of society. This also explains why even today, written communication is most common and preferred form of communication in the state. If you write something, you need to read it, so literacy automatically comes up.Second was presence of Buddhists and many similar communities whose cultural elements got infused into Brahminical cultures later. In Buddhist, Jainist, Ajivika cultures, they believed lot in public education and group education, unlike traditional Brahminical education where few castes were allowed to educate as part of original Jati system (not due to today’s concept of casteism, rather original part of division of work). Buddhists always had mass education facilities within their monasteries and imbibed education to all, which is one of their key religious concept. This was absorbed into later Brahminical cultures (Kerala experienced Brahminical Hinduism much later, only after 8th century etc), so the concept of public education wasn’t discouraged at any point. And ofcourse, the church missionaries took to next level as it was their primary goal to spread education. This is why, Kerala always had the concept of public schools known as Ezhutharas and later as Pallikoodams with its own independent community called Ezhuthachans (a caste as such) as public teachers, where primary education is available to all irrespective of caste/creed etc.Third- Travancore Kingdom was very much enlightened state who believed in highly progressive values which many Kingdoms never paid attention primarily. For example in 1817, Travancore Queen- H.H Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bai issued a royal proclamation announcing universal primary education to all citizens of Travancore as matter of public order and state responsibility. It is indeed landmark as even in Europe, there was no concept of Universal education under state’s responsibility in early 1800s (such a concept came in Europe only 1892) , whereas Travancore took an extraordinary approaching making it the goal and responsibility of the state almost 70 years ahead. Travancore’s action also pushed Cochin to replicate the same and both the Kingdoms rapidly encouraged Missionaries groups and other private groups to expand public schooling in a mass level which expanded even to Malabar region. So as later Swati Thirunal Maharaja introduced India’s first English Medium Free School (Today’s University College Trivandrum) for public to learn English without any caste or creed. Kochi Kings introduced the concept of free Sanskrit schools opposing orthodoxy traditions of limiting Sanskrit knowledge to certain castes. So these moves pushed people to learning.So historically Kerala had a huge head-start of literacy.2. Literacy ProgramsPost independence, almost all states embarked on literacy promotion. Crores of Rs were spent on literacy campaigns and all states tried various means to promote literacy rates. Ofcourse its improving, but at slower pace.What made Kerala to increase so rapidly? Decentralized approachesIf anyone has to take the credit of massive literacy spread, its not purely the govt, rather its social movements of 60s and 70s. The govt can be applauded for effectively patronizing, but the real action on ground was done by various social groups.In 1960s, there were many couple of social movements to push concept’s people’s science, people’s education, Progressive cultural values, reformation etc. It was seen as second phase of the Kerala renaissance which radically altered the society by 40s, now with rise of a new society inclined on Left values and ideals, these social groups focused heavily on pushing literacy movement. Many social groups, party groups started working to form neighbourhood groups to teach reading, writing etc to those illiterates in the community and thus effectively pushed the literarcy rate to higher scales.One of the agendas of Communist party for the spread literacy and they effectively used literacy missions to spread their ideals and values. By 1970s, Communist parties used to have study classes (mainly to propagate Communist values and literature) which doubled as Malayalam teaching classes for illiterates too. For example- Deshabhimani (the official Party Newspaper) still has Deshabhimani Study Class committees in all districts where the volunteers identifies illiterates and bring them to study classes in evenings and promote both literacy and literary activities together.https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516305Majority of these social organizations were heavily linked to communist parties and by 1980s, they started forming their own independent identities outside the party circles etc. This lead to formation of pan Kerala organizations like Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) which soon became one of the key nodal agencies for Total Literacy movement as well as Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham (PUKASA) and similar like that, which all involved in massive Kerala literacy movement.These organizations directly spreading literacy programs with or without Govt support. Infact from Govt side, the real push came only after 1986 in form of govt sponsored program- TOTAL LITERACY MISSION. But prior to that, the literarcy movement was going in full swing using these independent groups, heavily supported by political parties.The govt sponsored Literacy Mission was also heavily decentralized with mostly these kind of NGOs doing the job thro’ neighbourhood groups and social community groups. And I feel, this is where Kerala differs from other states rapidly.In many other states, literacy movements are still centralized system with govt trying to spread literacy programs thro’ govt teachers and schools which sometimes work and may not work all the time. Most of the NGO groups were left dry without much resources to do such programs.3. Effects of renaissance and land reforms.The Kerala renaissance that started mostly by end of 1880s and went till 1940s was aimed to break the feudal order, casteism and orthdoxy system. That was heavily successful with massive reformation in Hinduism and other religions in Kerala. The evils of casteism, denial of social rights and privileges to majority of commoners, untouchability and denial of social dignity etc all started reducing in the society and much more egalitarian system was emerging in the state. One of the major themes of renaissance was asking public to read and learn, seek knowledge and understand scriptures to break orthodoxy.Sree Narayana Guru, one of the most tallest figures of Kerala Renaissance often campaigned for education, literacy and ability to read and understand for social progress.And the land reforms was the biggest blow to feudal order. With land reforms, majority of so-called lower castes got access to land ownership and those higher castes lost their land and wealth. This radically started changing the society in a big way.For lower castes who now got plots of lands, agriculture as done in old system became no longer feasible and profitable. Since they owned some land, they can now mortgage it or sell it to educate themself and get into some job. So a good percentage of erstwhile lower caste members started going to schools, colleges etc.For higher castes, they no longer can remain idle enjoying the pleasures of household and lead a luxury life. They need to work to earn a living as their lands and wealth were lost. So those who didn’t go to schools or studied formally, started doing so, to equip themselves with formal education and earn a job. So effectively everyone started going to school or learn things as old system never worked for anyone.4. Effects of Newspapers and publishing housesMost of the people do ignore this, but I feel this is one key reason that pushed Kerala’s literacy rates. Kerala has highest media exposure in India with 98% of its population having access to newspapers or news channels, thus quite aware of social contextsIndian states ranking by media exposure - WikipediaKerala based Manorama newspaper ranks 3rd most read newspaper when comes to circulation. That Malayalam newspaper alone boast nearly 1.78 crore readership, whereas the entire Kerala population is only 3.3 crore.With 1.78 crore readers, Manorama leaves competitors way behindKerala newspapers have a serious disadvantage. They can sell their newspaper only among Malayalees, being an independent language. They cannot sell the newspaper to a Telugu or Tamilian. So this means, the maximum of entire market is this 3.3 crore Malayalees. Whereas a TN newspapers has a total Tamil speaking community of approx 6.8 crore or Telegu newspapers has a market of approx 7 crore.The market size of Malayalam newspapers is small (almost at par with Odiya or Kannada). So any grab of business pie has to happen within this max limit of 3.3 crore users.So the highly ambitious newspaper companies took all pains to ensure most of them can read or else they can’t sell their papers. One good example was Mathrubhumi. They started in 1930s in Kozhikode when Malabar district was having just 20% literacy. They realized that, they has a smaller readership, mostly youngsters who were part of the freedom movement then. But that wasn’t enough for Mathrubhumi to grow and break-even. So they invested in literacy campaign in Malabar which was part of ongoing renaissance movement. For example, when Yogakshema Sabha (the reformist organization among Nampoothiris then) were campaign to break Nampoothiri Orthodoxy, Mathrubhumi took part in it by teaching young Nampoothiri girls with Malayalam alphabets which was a joint goal of Yogakshema Sabha. So what happened? These young girls of extreme orthodox houses started questioning back the evils of older system as they started knowing whats happening around the world. One more subscribers started coming in. The same happened with NSS movements in South Kerala (which is one key reason Mathrubhumi is heavily read by Nair community in Kerala).Poster how literacy helped female liberation and progress as part of Kerala Renaissance MovementThis similar strategy was used by Manorama too. Unlike Mathrubhumi which took their literacy campaign as part of social renaissance (primarily out of their committement to social reforms) more than business reasons alone, Manorama saw a huge business opportunity first. They realized the market limitations and potential if more and more people knew how to read. Ofcourse Manorama’s base was in Travancore and Cochin Kingdoms which were much ahead in literacy than Mathrubhumi’s turf- Malabar. But Manorama tied up its growth with literacy mission, so they heavily started funding NGOs, missionaries, volunteer groups etc to spread literacy. One method was sending Newspapers to these literacy classes and people started reading it. This became a sort of custom.By 1940s, most of the organizations used newspapers to spread their ideals and heavily linked to literacy. More people able to read paper, more business. This is one key reason even in 1960s and 70s, most of the literacy mission NGOs were heavily funded by Newspaper companies. It really workedThe-Then Vice President of India Hamid Ansari opening E-Literacy campaign of Kerala Govt, sponsored by Malayala Manorama groupFor example, even those young girls who were not into higher education or drop-outs generally won’t have interest in newspaper reading, but because they were literate, they will definitely subscribe weekly novels filled with romantic love-stories etc. This was another business line for these newspaper companies. So as middle class of 70s and 80s were aspirational, for lifestyle magazines came up, mostly for household ladies who otherwise won’t be much into newspaper consumption.All newspaper companies invested hugely in literacy campaign to ensure more people able to read and purchase their stuff. In this process, even book publishers joined. The best example- DC Books. They were sponsoring so many literacy camps even today. DC Books even sponsor Malayalam learning programs for NRK kids and many other young Malayalees who otherwise won’t have access to learn Malayalam, so as to sell books to themThis is one area where I see much difference, as I don’t see Tamil or Telugu or Hindi publishers or newspapers investing huge sums for literacy missions because for them, even 1/4th of their population should be much greater market.5. Aspirational culture of LettersOne key feature of Kerala culture is its reverence to letters or writing script. Letters as such is seen holy and widely revered. Its part of the culture. Thats one reason, we do even celebrate Navaratri as festival of letters and worship of Knowledge, not just Goddess worship. For Malayalees (Tulus also), Navaratri means Saraswati Pooja where we basically worship letters. The biggest Navaratri day is Vidyarambham (holy day of initiation of letters) where we all worship the phrases and letters by writing on the sand or on the rice “Harishri Ganapathiyate Namaha” which on prima facia may look a religious slogan, but in reality its an abbreviation of Hariganam (Vowels), Sreeganam (consonants). In reality this holy phrase which Malayalees use actually mean - Salutations of the Master of Vowels and Consonants, in short the ability to form phrases and words.The holy phrase which Malayalees use before initiation into world of letters and alphabets- Harishree Ganapathaye Namah!!!Shashi Tharoor helping a kid to initiate writing the holy phrase for the first timeVidyarambham is both religious and secular event in Kerala, with almost all publication houses in the state sponsoring public Vidyarambham to initiate first timers and toddlers into world of letters.One of the best images of public Vidyarambham where a Muslim kid being initiated into world of Letters by a Christian priest during a Hindu festivalIn olden days, this Vidyarambham was mostly reserved for upper caste Hindus and rarely followed by lower castes. But the way upper castes used to celebrate it, it created a huge aspiration for lower castes to do the same. So when renaissance came, everyone jumped for it as they already have aspiration for celebration of letters. This aspiration factor played a key role in pushing literacy.6. Kerala Govt pushKerala govt heavily invests in pushing social literacy. This has been a policy of Travancore-Cochin Kingdoms and when Kerala state was formed, it became the first policy of the state. Since 1957, Kerala govt has committed heavily to primary education. Kerala consistently spents approx 10–15% of its GDP for education, which is highest the country. Untill recently, most of the states used to spent only 2 to 3% of GDP in education. Its only in last one decade, many states started spending more than 10% on GDP. The huge amount Kerala spends annually for Education since 1957, helped Kerala to achieve a higher literacy rateIn last budget alone, Kerala spent 16% on education, which approx means 19130 crores (approx 3 Billion USD) alone for public education.Kerala govt historically focused on creating universal free public education, so most of Malayalees do have access to free schools. In last few years, most of the public schools were converted into Hitech smart school facility incorporating all latest facilities. Due to all these factors, its very rare for children not attending school in Kerala. Its seen as a matter of public shame and extreme social disguist if someone doesn’t go to school or drop out. Due to this reason, literarcy rates are higher.Kerala Govt Schools Undergo Massive Transformation, Give Private Schools Tough CompetitionKerala to be first with 100% hi-tech schools | Kochi News - Times of India'Hi-Tech School' Project: Over 40,000 School Classrooms Go Digital In KeralaOver 40,000 school classrooms turn hi-tech in KeralaKerala govt since 1980s, systematically invests huge sum of money in its flagship Total Literacy Program. The Kerala Saksharatha Mission (Literacy Mission) works to ensure Kerala’s literarcy rate doesn’t come down at any point. Typical to any organization in Kerala, its heavily decentralized and district Missions have so many volunteers to hunt for illiterate and bring them to nearest literacy training camps where they are taught. Many people of older generation were systematically identified and taught. The mission’s certificate programs do have class 4 and Class 10 equivalence by govt order. So these programs help to push literacy.Two elderly women from Kerala to receive 'Nari Shakti Puraskar'Bhageerathi Amma, The 105-Year-Old Woman Who Gave Her Grade Four Examination Last Year, Will Be Honoured With The Nari Shakti Puraskar. We Are So Inspired. | HauterflyKSLM made huge record when two grannies able to score very high score for Class 4 Equivalence certificate as part of literacy campaignKSLM found that rising influx of workers from North/North East India into Kerala (immigrant workers) might push down the literacy rates as majority were illiterate. So now a days, they heavily into training migrant workers to push Malayalam literacy and has instituted many schemes and programs that help Non Malayalees to become Malayalees and integrate with the society. Many of North Indian Migrants slowly became Malayalees due to constant efforts of these campaigns and programsKerala Literacy Mission’s flagship program- Changathi; that focus on making Migrant workers from North/East India into Malayalam literates for their easy integration with KeralaHamari Malayalam- the flagship Malayalam textbook to help Non Malayalees to learn Malayalam thro Hindi and become Malayalees'My success belongs to Kerala': Migrant worker's daughter on securing first rank in MG varsity examRecently Payal Kumari, daughter of a Bihari Migrant in Kerala became University topper in BA History (Kerala History) and won praise and special medal of Kerala CMDilshad Bhutto- son of a Bihari Migrant also became SSLC Topper from a Malayalam medium schoolMeet the son of illiterate Bihar migrant who topped Kerala board exam in Malayalam mediumSo as Romiya, another Bihari migrant broke record achieving full marks in Malayalam literacy examinations and won Govt’s appreciationBihari migrant woman emerges topper in Malayalam literacy exam in KeralaSo as Kerala heavily invest in digital literacy programs and this also helped Kerala becoming India’s most digital literate state. When you invest in digital literarcy, automatically you able to churn out a society that is English literate. By this, I don’t mean Malayalees speak fluent English. Infact they don’t. Even those who complete higher education in English Medium still find hard to speak because rarely we speak English commonly in the society, so there is no fluency even among them. But the ability to understand elementary English, ability to read English words and sentences, makes a good percentage English literate.The-then PM of India Manmohan Singh inagurating the ambitious project of Total E-Literacy Program of Kerala2006 India Govt report how Malappuram aims to become India’s first fully e-literate districtKerala Achieves 100% Mobile Density, 75% E-Literacy; Declared As India’s First Digital StateKerala takes literacy a step further, 'Vision 2020' aims to make it India's first digitally literate stateKerala to launch digital literacy drive "I am also digital"https://www.iimk.ac.in/websiteadmin/FacultyPublications/Cases/41abs.pdfThese are some factors that helps Kerala to achieve higher literacy rates.Further readingHow almost everyone in Kerala learned to readhttps://www.quora.com/Why-does-Kerala-welcome-migrants-in-Hindi-while-Karnataka-and-Tamil-Nadu-stick-to-Kannada-and-Tamil-respectively/answer/Arun-Mohan-%E0%B4%85%E0%B4%B0%E0%B5%81%E0%B5%BA-%E0%B4%AE%E0%B5%8B%E0%B4%B9%E0%B5%BBhttps://www.quora.com/How-can-I-learn-Malayalam-as-I-am-relocating-to-Trivandrum-soon/answer/Arun-Mohan-%E0%B4%85%E0%B4%B0%E0%B5%81%E0%B5%BA-%E0%B4%AE%E0%B5%8B%E0%B4%B9%E0%B5%BB

11th Five Year Plan India’s Education Plan!Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has termed the 11th five year plan as “India’s educational plan”. The 11th Plan, approved at the meeting of the National Development Council in December 2007, places the highest priority on education as a centred instrument for achieving rapid and inclusive growth. At INR 2.70 lakh crore, it constitutes 20% of the Plan, representing a credible progress towards the target of 6% of GDP. The 11th Five Year Plan presents a comprehensive strategy for strengthening the education sector covering all segments of the education pyramid. It is through universal literacy, access to education and knowledge-based industrial development that India will believably march ahead to join the front ranks of the great nations of the world overcoming the challenges of ensuring that everyone has an access to education and skill building in their activity.The wish list: The 11th Plan Approach PaperThe approach paper mentions that the 11th Plan should ensure, we move towards raising public spending in education to 6% of GDP. It must fulfill the Constitutional obligation of providing free and compulsory elementary education of good quality to all children up to the age of 14. It must ensure both access and good quality and standards in respect of curriculum, pedagogy, and infrastructure irrespective of the parents’ ability to pay.Elementary EducationUnder the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), dropout rates for both boys and girls of all social groups must be reduced sharply, if not eliminated altogether. This was around 31% in 2003-04 and was much higher in many states.With the Employment Guarantee Scheme adding to family income, the pressures are expected to somewhat reduce. Opening of crèches for children at the work site will reduce the incidence of girls dropping out to take care of younger siblings. SHGs formed by mothers should be given the task of preparing mid-day meals. A set of national testing standards will be created and a chain of institutions that test and evaluate children according to set norms will be established. Making available ICT solutions, shared management personnel, and management skills with the school committees will be crucial.Secondary EducationA major initiative for expanding secondary education up to class X, must be initiated in the 11th Plan and should include access to organised sports and games. The required expansion of secondary education calls for both public and private effort. At present, private aided and unaided schools account for 58% of the total number of secondary schools and 25% of the student population. The 11th Plan will have to find sufficient resources to evolve strategies to significantly expand the number of places in secondary schools, including expansion of intake by private schools wherever this can complement the public effort.The present trend of combining upper primary with secondary school education may need to be strengthened.Technical/Vocational EducationThe NSS data shows that only 3% of the rural youth (15-29 years) and 6 % of the urban youth have gone through any kind of vocational training. There is need to expand vocational training from the present capacity of a mere 2-3 million to at least 15 million new entrants to the labour force. While we have 5,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) (under the Ministry of Labour) and 7,000 Vocational Schools (under the Ministry of HRD), China has about 5,00,000 Secondary Vocational Schools. The 11th Plan must pay special attention to devising innovative ways of modernising the ITIs and increasing their number substantially. ITIs in India typically cater to around 40 skills compared with 4,000 in China.Vocational training for both men and women should be accorded top priority in the 11th Plan. An initiative at block level for vocational training (VET) should be taken. VET will be given priority at par with secondary education in allocating public sector financial and physical resources – land and other supportive services.Higher and Technical EducationOnly about 10% of the relevant age group in India go to universities whereas in many developing countries, the figure is between 20 and 25%. The 11th Plan must undertake a major effort to expand and improve the quality of our higher education system.The NASSCOM-McKinsey Report 2005 projections indicate that these will fall short by about 5,00,000 suitable professionals (representing an opportunity cost of USD 10 billion) by the end of the decade and in the absence of corrective action, this gap will continue to grow. However, if current trends are maintained, the IT-ITES sector will need an additional 1 million plus qualified people in the next 5 years and will generate exports of USD 86 billion in FY 2012.The 11th Plan must address these, new colleges and universities must be set up, to provide easier access to students in educationally backward districts. A specific plan for upgrading a few existing select universities with a ‘potential for excellence’ must be formulated, laying down specific parameters which are in tune with global standards. One university in each state should be made a model university through all round upgradation during the 11th Plan. Select state universities should be upgraded to the level of central universities.NKC Recommendations Translated to 11th Plan ActionMajor components of the 11th Plan relate to some of the recommendations made by National Knowledge Commission.School EducationReorient Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan bringing in a strong rights focus to make Right to Education a reality: ensure basic learning conditions, special focus on Maths, Science & English, common syllabi, curriculum and pedagogy.Gradually reduce Central Government’s funding over the Plan period rather than move immediately to 50:50.Ensure minimum standards and norms for public and private schools and address systemic issues of accountability and decentralisation of decision making, teacher recruitment, teacher training, learning outcome measurement, teacher motivation.Recognise and encourage the role of private providers.Special focus on disadvantaged groups and educationally backward areas.Scheme for universal access and quality at the secondary stage; set up 6,000 model schools one in each Block, upgrade 15,000 primary schools to secondary level, additional infrastructure and additional teachers, hundred percent trained teachers.Use ICT-based pedagogy and learning aids, provide broadband connectivity to all the Government and Government-aided secondary schools.Strengthen teacher training and professional development.Vocational Training & Skill DevelopmentLaunch a National Skill Development Mission with an outlay of INR 31,200 crore to increase capacity from 2.5 million to 10 million per annum. The National Skill Development Mission would:Modernise existing public sector infrastructure to get into PPP mode with functional and governance autonomy, establish a credible accreditation system and a guidance framework for all accrediting agencies, encourage agencies to rate institutions on standardized outcomes, and establish a National Skill Inventory and a National Database for Skill Deficiency Mapping on a national web portal.Set up a National Qualifications Frame-work, which establishes equivalence and provides horizontal mobility between various vocational, technical and academic streams at more than one career points and a Trainee Placement and Tracking System for effective evaluation and future policy planning.Enlarge the coverage of skill spectrum to 1,000 trades with relevance to our emerging needs, while making a distinction between structural, interventional and last mile unemployability, and correspondingly set up programmes for 24 months, 12 months and 6 months duration. Finishing Schools will be encouraged to take care of last mile unemployability.Create a National Skill Development Fund imposing a universal skill development obligation on industry to invest in skill development of SCs/ STs/OBCs/Minorities/others candidates from BPL families – as their contribution to affirmative action combined with matching Government contribution.Enlarge the 50,000 Skill Development Centres programme eventually into a Virtual Skill Development Resource Network for web based learning.InnovationPut in place a National Innovation Policy which encourages competition among enterprises, greater diffusion of knowledge and increased support to early stage technology development initiatives and grassroots level innovators.Foster increased collaboration among the R&D institutes, Universities and private sector enterprises and leverage upon their cumulative strengths in designing and implementing various innovation programmes.Higher and Technical EducationImprove quality: work on a detailed reforms agenda including: a) admission, curriculum and assessment; b) accreditation & ratings; c) teachers competence and motivation; and d) restructure affiliated colleges and research for policy formulation.An apex independent regulatory mechanismaccompanied by greater autonomy and internal accountability; establish a high level committee to suggest specific reforms.Reduce disparities based on gender, caste, region, etc. through differential support.Establish 30 new Central Universities, 16 in States where they do not exist and 14 as World Class Universities (all India admissions, course credits, regular syllabi revision, incentives for faculty, strong linkage with industry and research institutions, no affiliated colleges, outsource non teaching functions).Establish a National Science and Engineering Research Board for rejuvenation of research in Universities.Launch a national Mission in education through ICT coverage in all the Universities and colleges; broadband connectivity through National Knowledge Network and requisite nodes within institutions; to be implemented through an empowered committee.Revitalise and reform polytechnics through industry linkage and teacher development, establish 210 community colleges and 700 polytechnics.Strengthen open universities and reform statutory bodies, scale up Sakshat as the education portal for 50 crore people.The 11th Plan must simultaneously address the problems of varying standards, outdated syllabi and also inadequate facilities.The National Merit Scholarship Scheme needs to be expanded to cover at least the top 2% of the student population in fields of education and skill training.Initiatives for inclusive developmentThe open schooling programme should be strengthened and expanded. In case of subjects that do not require laboratory work, it will be helpful for students to access prerecorded selection of lectures, tutorials, and standardised tests available at Internet kiosks.Testing and examination centres where students can take standardised examinations in parts can reduce the pressure. The 11th plan should pay attention to creation of electronically available content and testing mechanisms so hat the pressure on infrastructure can be eased.Adult Literacy ProgrammesAim is to increase adult literacy to 85% by the end of the 11th Plan period. Of the 30 crore adult illiterates in our country, a significant proportion is not covered under any adult education programme. A programme using the new computer based self-learning system will be framed for the 35+ age group. Currently, literacy programmes cover 598 out of 600 districts in the country.A computer based functional literacy tool developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has the capacity to make an adult illiterate read a newspaper in 8-10 weeks. This seems as a potential tool, if deployed nationally as a mission, India can become 100% literatewithin 5 years.The Check List-11th PlanElementary education and basic literacyThe 11th Plan needs to be seen both in the national and internationalcontext. As an economic powerhouse in the context of a globalising economy, universalisation of elementary education with quality is a must which only can lead to universalisation of secondary education.The National Policy of Education (NPE), as revised in 1992, had indicated three thrust areas in elementary education:Universal access enrolmentUniversal retention of children up to 14 years of ageA substantial improvement in the quality of education to enable all children to achieve essential levels of learningIn respect of Elementary Education, the objective of the NPE has been addressed in 11th Five Year Plan mainly through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the two flagship programmes of the Government, and through Teacher Education schemes.Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: Strategies and Fact FileThere has been a reduction in the number of out of school children, decline in gender and social gaps and a decline in drop out rates.The number of teachers and number of schools have increased substantially.Surveys show that 90% of rural population was served by primary schools in 2002-03 whereas some gaps have been noticed at upper-primary level. Infrastructure facilities have improved but backlog still exists.The existing challenges are bringing the 6-7% children under the ‘hard to reach’ category into the fold of education, issues pertaining to quality improvement, bridging social gaps and reducing inter-State, inter-district and inter-block disparities.The goal of universalisation of elementary education includes education for children with special needs (CWSN).Quality of education in terms of better educational attainment levels are a thrust area for the next phase of SSA.Special emphasis needs to be made on education of girls to launch a frontal attack on gender gap with a focus on ‘inclusion’ and ‘quality’ and keeping in view the forward as well as backward linkages. Girls education schemes could also offer opportunities for public-private partnership to augment the resources required for creating/up-gradation of girls schools at the upper-primary and secondary levels to improve infrastructure and facilities (library, lab and sports).Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan seeks to provide elementary education to all children in the 6-14 years age group by 2010 and 2% education cess has been levied on all taxes and earmarked to fund this programme. There is a need of more upper primary schools. At all India level, there was one upper primary school for 2.8 primary schools in 2004-05. In 2005-06 this ratio of number of primary to upper primary schools was 2.5:1. To bring the ratio of primary upper primary school to 2:1 (SSA norm), the additional need for upper primary schools works out to 1,40,000.98% of the rural population has been served by primary schools in 2002-03. In terms of habitations, 87% were served and only 13% were yet to be provided with primary schooling facilities within one km from these habitations. During the 11th Plan period 1,32,623 primary schools have been sanctioned and it is estimated that more than 96% of habitations now have a primary school within 1 km.Access facilities in the upper primary schooling is, however, still an issue as, only 78% of the habitations had such facilities within a radius of 3 km. in 2002-03.There has been significant growth in school infrastructure under the SSA. However, the huge infrastructure gaps and slower capacity to implement large civil works programmes in some States, has led to low completion rates. This means that allocations for civil works will need to be maintained for select districts in the 11th Plan period as well.One of the outcome indicators for reporting of SSA progress in the outcome budget is reduction of dropout rates by 5 percentage points each year. It is expected that the dropout rates of children for the elementary cycle would be reduced from 50.39% in 2004-05 to less than 20% by 2011-12, during the 11th Plan period, even in a conservative scenario.Financial Progress of SSA: GOI Releases and ExpendituresNew Thrust AreasNeed to work towards and enhancing quality of an integrated system of teacher educationLinking teacher education with institutions of research and higher educationContinued professional development of teachers and teacher educatorsEstablishing linkages between CRCs-BRCs-DIETs-SCERTs-Universities/Apex AgenciesICT in EducationInformation and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be used in schools for a variety of purposes to improve the effectiveness of the classroomtransaction. The technologies that can be used include computers for computer-aided instruction and computer-aided learning, satellite based programmes on television, radio programmes, etc. Several attempts have been made in the past 5 years to evolve an ICT strategy for government schools, both by the Ministry of HRD and the Department of Information Technology (DIT). However, a concrete strategy for a phased coverage of schools has not yet been finalised. The latest effort is report of the Committee on Technology in Education (with representation from MHRD and DIT) finalised in 2005. This Committee made the following recommendation – out of total no. of 10,00,000 schools in the country, the programme ‘Technology in Education’ will cover 6,42,600 schools, which include 4,22,400 primary schools, 1,61,700 upper primary schools and 58,500 secondary schools. Every school will have server, five PCs, printer, Internet connectivity of 256 kbps plus other consumables, etc. The total cost for implementation of ‘Technology in Education’ in 6,42,600 schools is estimated to be 2,7631.8 crores. The entire programme is to be implemented in 3 years starting from 2006. Under SSA the focus has been on implementation of computer-aided learning (CAL) at the upper primary stage. About 10,000 schools in the country have implemented this strategy by providing 4-6 computers in an upper primary school. Various models of procurement of hardware and maintenance as well as development of multimedia content have been used by different States and UTs. Corporate foundations and several private sector organisations have been actively involved in this work. In a few States, like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttaranchal, programmes for interactive radio instruction (IRI) are being implemented with the support from some resource organisations.However there is still not adequate clarity about the objective for introduction of ICTs in schools and appropriate strategies for thispurpose. Existing provisions for CAL are restrictive. Most States are not in a position to expand the coverage of schools, since this activity is presently funded only under the innovation component that provides INR 15 lakhs each year, per district. The followingare the recommendations for this component: (a) Several technologies or applications of technologies should be encouraged. These include:Computer Aided Learning (CAL): The children (group of 4) interact with the multimedia content and teachers act as facilitator.Computer Aided Instruction (CAI): The teacher centric instructional content is displayed by using large screen TV. Instead of regular CRT monitor, the CPU can be connected with TV with the help of Video Tuner card.Satellite based education: The satellite receiving terminal, digital receiver and set top box could be placed at Audio visual classrooms. The TV used for CAI can be used for this program as well by plugging the satellite signal.Radio Programs: Radio programmes are being used in some States for literacy, orienting teachers and even for students, during or after school. IRI is being implemented in a few States.Such a diversified use of technologies is more appropriate than using only computers.(b) There is an urgent need for national and State level policies on the use of technologies in education. Such policies should address aspects like – educational objectives for introducing ICTs; nature of technologies, equipment; procedures for procurement and maintenance; phasing of implementation in schools; setting of standards for content; evaluation/cost – benefit analysis etc. Such policies should form the basis for an expansion of the use of ICTs in schools.(c) ICTs are most effective at the secondary and upper primary stages. Therefore only upper primary schools need to be included in the initial stage.(d) ICTs could be used effectively for training and capacity building of teachers, resource persons at cluster and block and DIET personnel. Once ICTs are available at school level, they can be easily used for the purpose of transfer of information for MIS.(e) Internet connectivity needs to be considered vis-à-vis the costs and the likely educational benefits.(f) The programme for introduction of ICTs should not neglect the aspect of maintenance of equipment and the payment of recurring costs of electricity, consumables and internet connectivity.(g) In all cases, cost-sharing and revenue earning models should be factored in while planning for use of ICTs in schools.It is recommended that ICTs in education should not be included under the district level innovation component, but should become a part of the State level plan. Allocations should be approved for this component only if a State/UT has developed a clear ‘technologies in education’ policy that has articulated the aspects mentioned in (b) above.The implementation of this component should cover the dimensions of appropriate identification of schools, infrastructure and equipment, teacher training, appropriate software and multimedia content that is informed by an approach to the teaching learning process, utilisation of the infrastructure for adult literacy and training of youth, research and evaluation component.It is important to develop standards, and if necessary, a clearing-house mechanism to review the content developed for use of ICTs. At present there is a wide variability as well as duplication of efforts across the country for content development.An allocation of INR 5,000 cr. may be provided for the 11th Plan period at the initial stage for supporting programmes for use of technologies in education. Decisions on state-wise allocations could be taken by an empowered resource group or task force at the national level based on appraisal of policies and implementation plans prepared by States and UTs. Statesand UTs would also need to constitute task forces or resource groups tofinalise their strategies for this component. While this allocation may not be adequate to achieve coverage of all schools, it is more than 50 times the current annual allocations under SSA.Secondary EducationThere were 1,01,777 high schools and 50,272 higher secondary schools/institutions in the country as on 30 September 2004. Out of this 41.05 % belong to government and local bodies, 29.35 % are private schools receiver government aid and 29.60 % are private unaided. There are 41 examination boards out of which only two are of All India character i.e. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) with 8,300 (approx.) and 1,500 (approx) number of schools affiliated tothem respectively.The VisionTo move towards Universalisation of Secondary Education: the target during the 11th Five Year Plan is to provide a secondary school within 5 kilometers of any habitation and to provide a higher secondary school within a distance of 7-8 kilometers of any habitation. This will be part of the vision to ensure universal secondary education by 2017, i.e. the end of the 12th Five Year Plan, whereas the target for GER by the end of the 11th Plan could be fixed at 75% for secondary stage.To ensure 100% enrolment and retention up to Higher Secondary stage by 2020: Secondary education should be universal but not compulsory. The State has to take up the responsibility for providing access to secondary education. Not only universal enrolment, but universal retention and satisfactory quality of learning should also be a priority.StrategiesThere is a need for paradigms sift in the conceptual design of secondary education, the guiding principles in this regard are universal access, equality and social justice, relevance and development, and curricular and structural aspects.ICT @ Schools: The main objective of the scheme is to establish an enablingenvironment to promote the usage of ICT, especially, in Secondary and Higher Secondary Government and Government–aided schools in the rural areas. The present scheme has essentially four components. The first one is the partnership with the State governments and union territories for providing computer education and computer-aided education to Secondary & Higher Secondary Government and Government aided Schools. The second is the establishment of SMART schools, which shall be the technology demonstrators. Universalisation of Computer Literacy through the networking of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas with neighboring schools is the third component. The fourth component relates to the activities of State Institutes of Educational Training (SIETs) which are mandated to produce educational content in the form of films, videos, audios, etc. It is suggested that during the 11th Plan, the scope of the present scheme should be enlarged to target all the Government and Government-aided schools for providing ICT infrastructure. Further, special emphasis has to be given to incorporate teaching-learning methodologies for computer literacy.Universalisation of access and improvement of qualityIn the context of Universalisation of Secondary Education (USE), large scale inputs in terms of additional schools and teachers are to be provided to meet the challenge of numbers, credibility and quality. For assessment/provision of educational needs, physical infrastructure, human resource, academic inputs and effective monitoring of implementation of the programmes, following steps are required to be taken:Mapping of secondary schooling provisions (course mapping and curriculum)Assessment of enrolment and physical infrastructureRequirement of schooling facilities and learning resourcesTraining of in-service teachersLearning Resources (ICT, Library, EDUSAT)Investment in this regard is requiredfor improving school libraries, laboratories and workshops to promote experimental culture while reducing the importance of external examinations. There is also need to have Computer–interfaced experiments and projects utilising database from public domain. In view of the above, a science laboratory and an art and crafts laboratory need to be set up in each secondary school.In conformity with the advocacy in the National Curriculum Framework(NCF- 2005) about curriculum enrichment for overall development of children rather than remaining textbook centric and ensuring that learning isshifted from rote memorisation, the secondary schools should beequipped with a Learning Resource Centre (LRC) with following inputs:Library and Separate Room:It is suggested that ICT Resource Room and Library of the school may be housed in one big room (minimum size- 10mx7.5m), or these may be housed in two adjacent rooms. Library shall be looked by a separate teacher.Provision for ICT Support: the tentative budget estimates for providing ICT facilities in all 1,81,520 schools is INR 24,160 Crore. The items of expenditure include: ICT infrastructure and maintenance, Librarian cum ICT coordinator’s salary, Infrastructure for pre- service teacher’s training, Training of ICT coordinators, In service teacher’s training in the use of ICT in the schools, Digital content procurement/development and distribution, Establishment of resources in schools by state governments, Establishment of resources in schools by KVS/NVS, Monitoring, evaluation, research. Innovation, etc.Such facilities can also be procured on BOOT basis through private sector which can provide maintenance and other support.Link with EDUSAT: EDUSAT can be used for conventional radio and TV Broadcast, interactive radio and television, exchange of data, video/teleconferencing and web-based education.Capacity BuildingOrientation of Secondary School Teachers: An Orientation Programmes for the Teachers teaching the Secondary Classes needs to planned and operationalised through NCERT.Orientation of Educational Planners and Administrators: To cover all the Headmasters of 1,81,520 schools during the eleventh plan, National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) needs to collaborate with and make a network of institutions like IASEs, CTEs, University Departments of Education, Management Schools, Regional Institutes of Education, (NCERT), Indian Institutes of Management, etc.Public Private Partnership57.04% of high schools and 62.83% higher secondary schools are run by private sector. Out of these 28.52% of high schools and 31.79% higher secondary schools are classified as private unaided schools.Private sector can be encouraged to invest part of its profit towards philanthropic activities in the education sector by adopting Government schools for improvement of infrastructure and resources like, library, science lab., audio-visual and ICT infrastructure, art workshops, sports facilities, drinking water and toilet facilities, etcSeveral functions of the government school can be outsourced through private sector involvementFor example, entire computer education can be outsourced from private sector who can provide computer and computer teachers for a fee. Similarly transport arrangements for students particularly for girls can be outsourced.Private sector should also be involved in designing curriculum and in designing a testing and certification system so that the demand for appropriate skill by the industry can be metOpen schooling systemIt is necessary to design, create and establish alternative Educational provisions for some prospective learners who will not be able to take advantage of formal schooling during stipulated school hours. The open schooling programmes up to pre-degree level are being offered by the National institute of open schooling (nios) and 10 State open schools (soss). The States that have set up soss are West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir. The open schools network when fully developed should be able to cater to at least 15% students in secondary education. the openschooling network needs to be expanded to ensure that every state providesopen schooling facility through its regional language.Higher EducationAn exciting time has come for higher education in the country. The 11th Five Year Plan document proposes an almost 10-fold increase in outlay for higher and technical education. The planners have set ambitious targets to attract 15% students passing out of class XII (from the current 10%) into higher education by 2012 and 22% by 2017.In the new Plan, there’s more of everything – 30 new central universities are to be set up, seven IITs and IIMs, 10 National Institute of Technology, five research institutes to be called Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, 20 IIITs, two schools of architecture and 330 colleges in educationally backward districts.Infrastructure in existing universities and institutions is also in for major upgradation. Among the big beneficiaries of these special grants will be 17 yet-to-identified central universities which will get INR 3,298 crore. Besides, 39 engineering institutes will receive a whopping INR 6,749 crore, again for ramping up infrastructure. A good dose of funds has also been set aside for upgrading agriculture, management andmedical institutions. The document envisions wide-ranging reforms in the way higher education isimparted and much of the fund allocation has been tied up to the beneficiary institute carrying out structural changes.Analysis of the past Five YearPlans indicates that, there have been continuous efforts to strengthen the base by developing infrastructure, improving the quality throughseveral programs and schemes, introducing reforms in content and evaluation and encouraging generation of knowledge through research. The focus of fifth five-year plan was on infrastructure development, the sixth plan onwards the focus shifted to consolidation and quality improvement. The Seventh Plan laid emphasis on research and academic developments. It was from this plan onward that the development centers of excellence and area study programs got special attention. From the Eighth Plan onward, the need for differential funding was recognized. Under this plan, it was envisaged that the developing departments would be provided necessary funds to bring up their facilities and activities to an optimum level for their teaching and general research pregrammes. The Ninth Plan aimed at gearing the system of higher education to meet the challenges arising out of the major social, economic and technological changes. The focus of Tenth Plan was aimed at quality and relevance of higher education, research and development, management in financing and the use of the new information and communication technologies. The Tenth Plan provided the basis for higher education in the 21st century.Use of ict in Higher EducationDuring the 11th Plan period, it is proposed to spread the coverage of ICT to all the 360 Universities and 17,625 Colleges in a phased manner. The benefits yielded by the Programmes during 10th Five Year Plan would be continued and harvested for revitalising and empowering intellectual hubs (Universities and Colleges) of thesociety through network, e-Resources, online learning, access to globalresources, archiving of contents and e-Learning management techniques so that these reforms contribute immensely to enhance the access parameters ingeneral and in particular to various Social Groups, Minorities, Women, Backward and remote areas.In the first phase, it is proposed to cover 200 Universities and 5,000 Collegesacross the country for achieving the desired objectives by using Broadband,Wireless, DSL, Leased line/TDM/FTDMA VSAT/SCPC/DAMA/Radio Frequency link, for establishing connectivity depending upon the geographical location in phased manner: This will include the following provisions:Access to global resources including multimedia based educational content through networking of colleges and universities.Platform for collaboration among teachers and students using Communication Networks.Better access to e-Contents (e-Journals and e-books).Digitising of Indian intellectual Content (Ph.D. Theses/Dissertations)Development and Maintenance of Union Catalogue (Books, Serials, secondary serial, current holdings etc. and others non book materials for Universities and Colleges).Audio/Video conferencing system at Universities.Manpower Training.Total Estimated Expenditure : inr 1750 crAt nios level : inr 300 croreAt soss level : inr 1450 crore (29 soss)Open & Distance LearningEnrollment target– The ODL System, in the scenario of a growth rate of 20% in the student enrollment, is likely toaccount for about 30% of overall enrollment in higher education in thecountry. This will result in significant increase in the enrollment at the end ofthe 11th Plan, the ODL System should account for an enrollment of around 7million students.Development of New Programmes and Courses – A national qualityframework for such competency and skills would have to be a priority during the 11th Plan. The 11th Plan proposals for the ODL system require a special thrust on development of vocational programmes. As a policy measure, at least 10 % of credits being developed in each school should be devoted to vocational, employment oriented programmes targeted at enabling self-employment or increase in employability of people.Media Infrastructure-Gyan Darshan, Gyan Vani and EdusatDuring the 11th Plan, the efforts would be to develop complete audio visual curriculum based content on a course-to-course basis as well as on creating integrated media learning packages course-wise, which would be available both as CDs and as software on IGNOU’s e-Gyankosh, the national repository on open learning material and integrated with One Stop Portal Sakshat of MHRD for use nationwide.While one channel of Gyan Darshan (GD-I) was put on Direct-to-Home(DTH) access through the Doordarshan DTH platform, in the 11th Planthrust will be to provide the interactive curriculum based channel (GD-II)through the DTH platform so that a large number of learners are able tointeract through toll-free numbers directly from there own homes.Funds would also be required to develop large educational software in all regional languages for the 50 plus Gyan Vani Radio Stations that could be in existence during the 11th Plan.Over the next five years, anaugmentation of about 40 positions, including the teaching positions for theRegional Centres is proposed. 30 positions proposed for the headquartersinclude production, staff, transmission staff,staff for the Edusat relatedactivities and technical staff, at various levels.EdusatWhile an impressive setup of up to 131 Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs)is in place, another fifty are being installed. It is proposed to enlarge thisnetwork to about 500 SITs to extend the access to the disadvantaged and those in marginalised areas. It has also been decided to mobilise 10 teaching ends in the Edusat Network in addition to the teaching hub at IGNOU Hqs.Current Quality Status of Universities in India (as in 2007)Total Number of University Level Institutions (367)Total Number of Universities under UGC Purview (317)Number of Universities actually funded by the UGC (164)Number of Universities accredited by the NAAC (128)Number of Universities accredited by the NAAC and scoring above 60% (128)Current Quality Status in Colleges of Higher Education in India(As on March 31, 2005)Total Number of Colleges 17,625Number of Colleges under UGC purview 14,000Number of Colleges recognised under Section 2(f) of UGC Act 5,589 (40%)Number of Colleges recognised under Section 12(B) of UGC Act 5,273 (38%)Number of Colleges actually funded by the UGC 4,870 (35%)Number of Colleges accredited by the NAAC 2,780 (20%)Number of Colleges accredited by the NAAC and scoring above 60% 2,506 (17.9)There’s no denying the fact that there always are and will be plans. It is hoped that this plan will factor in overlaps, intersections and converging agendas while minimising wastage without loosing out on quality education. There is also no denying the pace of change in a socio-cultural context, as well as in the technological context. Technology and the needs of society arechanging even as we plan, so to speak. While it is true that all plans arehope, this plan will have to think-on-its-feet, sustain itself and even evolve as the very scenario it is to operate within changes.The World Bank supports the GoI’s education strategy as expressed in the 11th Plan Document. It reflects a realisation that education and skills development are at the core of the country’s effort to generate inclusive growth, rather than just growth which benefits a few but eludes many. And it reflects GoI’s commitment to address human capital shortages as quickly as possible, with significant increases in funding to be made available to the states. If anything, the concern is the capacity of the States to absorb and make the best use of those funds.Based on my own limited view and experience in India, it would appear that the poor quality and limited capacity of the India educational system may already be holding India back, but this government’s commitment to address these issues must be recognised and congratulated. The 11th Plan calls for a four-fold increase in educational investment over the 10th Plan, with large allocations for all education levels.It is interesting to see that there is more focus on the higher education. The only thing I want to comment on the plan is there is no exquisite mention on rolling more faculties. Suddenly there is such a huge increase in the number of universities. And if you start forcing the faculties currently available for the purpose, that would not help much. And preparing the faculties would be a mammoth task. Training teachers would take at least 10 years. Rolling more faculties should be considered.As before the focus has been on outlays, not on outcomes, the 11th five year plan brings a larger picture in comparison to the previous plans, looking at the allocations to education as opposed to thinking about improving the delivery of education services.Today, the situation in India is not lack of finances, but lack of proper delivery of education tools, which is of more value for students. So the focus should be on the learning outcomes, which refers to the accountability to the system, and this should be seen through teacher absentees, community control over schools, decentralisation of curricula, text books, exams, and use of school vouchers as way to deliver quality education.ePals in eLearning Agreements with National Geographic, IntelePals Inc., an Internet learning community, and National Geographic Ventures, which creates and distributes digital content for the National Geographic Society, have announced a partnership that will enhance the ePals site with National Geographic content to create unique learning experiences for classrooms, students and families around the globe.As part of the agreement, National Geographic has made a strategic investment in ePals. A representative of National Geographic Ventures and ePals will join the boards of the other, and the organizations have entered into a multi-year alliance and content agreement. Designed to enhance the way the Internet is used to foster safe and effective multicultural learning exchanges across media platforms, the first focus is to thread high-quality digital content from National Geographic: Stories of Animals, Nature, and Culture throughout http://ePals.com to create unique learning experiences.Initial topic areas of focus for the new alliance include maps and geography, habitats, global warming, natural disasters, people and culture, great leaders, water and weather. In each area, classrooms and teachers will be able to choose among projects that emphasize collaboration, 21st-century skill building and the use of school-safe communication tools to seamlessly work with learners around the world or down the block.Users will be encouraged to get into the act by building and sharing their own projects for use broadly within the community. ePals will also enable users in teacher and student forums, blogs and other community areas to 'Explore More,' delivering quality information in highly contextual.After All, It Is Difficult To Teach A Teacher : Mamta Sharma, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JN V) MungeshpurNavodaya Vidyalaya Samiti is an autonomous body that was set up to establish and manage fully residential co-educational schools (one in each district in the country) known as Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV). Education in JNVs is free for all enrolled students, including lodging, boarding, textbooks, uniforms, etc.One of the first to integrate technology, NVS has actual grassroots experience in the integration of technology in education. In 1999, NVS and Intel started a joint initiative launched by the Department of Education, Ministry of HRD, Government of India. Since then, Intel has three ongoing programmes running, the Intel Teach curriculum, the Intel Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) and the Intel Learn curriculum. Digital Learning spoke to Mamta Sharma, the Vice Principal of JNV, Mungeshpur, who talks above the Intel-NVS collaboration and the digital opportunities in the school.How do you view the changes in the integration of ICT in school education?Officers came, the entire vision changed, the priorities change. Every person has their own vision and mission. ICT, once meant just the procurement of computers, now changed to not just the presense of computers, but also how much you are able to use these computers – ‘usage’ model. NVS believes that ICT integration means how you can most effectively use computers, how to effectively utilise the resources that we have, and how to benefit the community around! NVS has changed the definition of ICT integration with changes in the overall scenario. Writing a speech or presentation is not an end. Delivering it is an end, reaching out to the needy ones is another end to which the presentation itself is justa ‘means.’We also have project-based learning, where we have moved out of the textbooks, towards inquiry and how to search for solutions to a problem, making connections to real life. Real life connections would really mean, design activities in such a manner that meet the learning needs of the students, connect to the world outside of the classroom, and include meaningful tasks or projects that inHow do you integrate the given curriculum with ICT?The steps to integrate technology into the curriculum starts right from the day our teachers get training on professional development curriculum of Intel. They learn to use technology into their curriculum, practice student-centric approaches. These teachers then train other colleagues on the same curriculum. The teachers then plan multi-disciplinary lesson plans that not only promote judicious use of teachnology but also engae students into meaningful and authentic real life activities.How the scope of ICT in education changed?Earlier the teachers who would go for training on ICT integration were usually Maths or Science teachers. Now the perspective has become larger with Art teachers and Language teachers. So there is a lot of scaling-up that has happened since. I’ll give you an example, earlier when it came to teaching the science curricula, topics such as ‘the universe’ and ‘pollution’ were always there. Today, there are more sensitive issues that have been included. ‘Women empowerment’ using examples of women in different careers, etc, was a nice project that was done earlier. So teachers are also looking beyond the textbook.How do you evaluate teacher training?We don’t really evaluate teachers, but it is the programme that is evaluated in terms of how far we have reached? The issues faced by teachers are usually similar, just their proficiency levels in terms of ICT varies and they usually need brushing up of their technical skills. Regarding pedagogy, most teachers are good in NVS and now thankfully, most of them are also on par with technology. The training has components to gauge teacher ability in a peer-based evaluative environment, called ‘Showcasing.’After Showcasing, teachers get time to revisit their projects and make changes and that is the necessary feedback in terms of evaluation. After all, it is difficult to teach a teacher. But we still have to evaluate the teachers, which we do through showcasing and areas of improvement are suggested. So there are two aspects to teachers’ training. Firstly, as a teacher, they plan the lesson involving project based learning and integrating technology judiciously. Secondly, as student, they make student samples that highlight the higher order thinking skills imbibed by students while doing projects.What is the community involvement of your school?The Intel Learn programme has a component called ‘Pacesetting’ of MHRD under which we provide opportunity to children of neighbouring schools that might not have computers or infrastructure. In addition to developing IT skills in the laerners, the Intel Learn Programme inculcates necessary skills for the 21st century like collaboration skills and problem solving abilities. The curriculum is especially designed to also develop presentation and communication skills, basic skills which repair students for the workplaces of tomorrow.These students come to the Vidyalaya for a 15-day programme as they learn a curriculum called Technology. Using a project based approach, the curriculum activities and projects, demonstrate to learners how technology can contribute to and help improve their communities and variety of jobs respectively.Learners not only develop new technology skills and learn about their communities and various professions, the develop critical thinking skills as they collaborate to collect information, analyse that information, and finally, present it to their fellow students, teachers and other special guest from or outside their schools.How is the ICT component built into the syllabus?About 20% of the CBSE syllabus has to be taught through ICT wherein they have to bring projects connecting to real-life scenarios, catering to problem-solving skills, developing critical thinking and how to take typical topics and explain those which are difficult to explain in class, such as photosynthesis (Biology), chemical-bonding (Chemistry), etc, these can be easily explained using computers. The students are also motivated by the audio-visual aspect of the lesson. The student can actually see things that would not be possible to be observed otherwise. Using a computer-made presentation, such abstract concepts can be easily taught.What other challenges did you face in integrating ICT?Like I mentioned earlier, 20% of the syllabus in all subjects and all classes has to be taught using ICT, except for third language. According to the demand from students and their teachers, I feel we need more periods.I also feel that we need to have computers in every classroom. Currently we do loose a little time when students move to the Smart classrooms or the computer room. We also need to increase our infrastructure in terms of addinLeaderWhat forms the compelling basis on which Hey Math! solutions are based on?Every child, irrespective of whether they go to school system in any part of the world, we feel that they should get quality education. It is a well known and accepted fact that there is a fundamental teacher shortage. Because of that there is a subjective discontentment amongst the students and every one on the teaching quality of the subject teachers.This concern comes from the parents as well and they try to supplement with tutorials. They, out of desperation, send their children to the tutors. Again, tutors are also less in number; there is a fundamental shortage in the whole system. There is also no more one to one tutoring, and the students end up going from one set to another set of class rooms and end up doing additional work. The desired solid foundation of a given subject is not built up. When the students go back to the school, they find themselves in great trouble, as the teaching method in the school is very different from the tutorial teaching set up.Through our Hey Math! curriculum, we want to provide students access to the best teaching methodology by collaborating with high performing Mathematics system. We try to tap on the experts on Maths across the world to contribute to our contents. We understand the effective ways of digitising those and making available for students.Could you tell us about the adoption rate of Hey Math! programme, who needs it, where does it goIndian Government focuses on higher and technical educationTo promote the education in the country, the Union Government of India has cleared that the government will focus on higher and technical education in its 11th plan. This is the first time, the economic survey has equally devoted its attention to primary, secondary and higher education sector by highlighting initiatives in these sectors, which will further expand in the course of the 11 th Plan.However, it is also surprising that the survey is silent on the manpower crisis in higher education. Promoting and expanding higher education without making teacher's job attractive can result in a big crisis. The government has also committed to provide good quality elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years. In this regard, the achievement by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal Scheme and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya are noteworthy. According to the survey, SSA has already constructed 1.70 million schools, 7.13 additional classrooms, 1.72 million drinking water facilities, 2.18 toilets and free supply to 6.64 billion textbooks, while MDM provides free food to 9.7 billion children. In the 11th Plan, MDM will be extended to upper primary level that would result in inclusion of 1.7 billion additional children of classes VI to VIII. SSA is expecting to allocate more than INR 13000 billion and MDM will allocate approximately INR 10,000 billion. There are other two highlights; universalisation of secondary education and expansion of higher education institutes. The scheme – Universalisation of Access to Secondary Education (SUCCESS) envisages mandatory secondary education to children in the age group of 15-16 years by 2015 and universal retention by 2020. This includes work on eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 10 new NITs, three Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, 20 IIITs and two new SPAs. Then, there is the plan for 14 world class universities, 16 central universities and 370 new degree colleges.WorldUK University dropout steady at 22%An drive to reduce the number of university dropouts has had no effect, according to a report from a committee of MPs. The proportion of students who fail to complete their degree has remained at 22% for five years.Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the committee, said, “Five years from our last report on student retention the percentage of students dropping out has not budged from 22%. This is despite some £800m being paid to universities over the same period to help retain students most likely to withdraw from courses early.”Poorer students, older students, disabled students and those with families – non-traditional students the government is keen to attract – are more likely to drop out. In 2005, St George’s hospital medical school, Oxford University, the Royal Veterinary College, Warwick and Bristol universities had below 3% drop out rates.‘For universities with consistently low retention rates the funding council’s regional teams should agree specific improvement plans,’ the committee’s report says, citing personal difficulties, dissatisfaction with courses and financial pressure as reasons why students drop out.A third of teachers ‘struggle with technology’: studyA third of teachers struggle to use the technology schools are equipped with and want more support and training, according to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), U.K. NFER’s first Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey (TVOS), which was completed by about 1,000 teachers, including heads and newly qualified classroom teachers, shows widespread use of information technology in schools 80% said it had made a difference to the way they teach.But a ‘sizeable minority’ (33%) felt they lacked the necessary skills to exploit the technology available to them and needed more support and information to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in lessons, NFER found.However, NFER said when compared to research conducted in 2004, the findings suggest that teacher competence in using ICT has improved overall. Two thirds (67%) said they had the ICT skills to exploit the technology available to them and 62% said ICT helps to raise pupil attainment. Teachers also said ICT leadership in schools could be improved. Just 27% of respondents felt that the leadership of ICT pedagogy in their school was inspirational and only 44% said that their school is innovative in its use of ICT.Czech science award for school studentsThe Czech company Ceska Hlava, in collaboration with the Czech Senate and the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, has launched a competition for secondary school students. Entitled ‘Innovating Minds – Czech Awards for Young Europeans’, the natural sciences and technology competition is open to all European students up to 19 years of age.The prize will be awarded in five categories: information and communication technology (ICT), health and quality of life, environment, product and technology innovations and design and architecture. Applicants must submit their project synopsis online, including an independent expert’s review provided, for instance, by a science teacher. The applications for the Innovating Minds Award 2008 have to be submitted before 10 September. The award ceremony will then be held in October 2008 in Prague. An international jury will select the winners in each category. The jury is made up of scientists, politicians and experts from industry