Madhi is the Tamil word for ‘knowledge’. In 2015, Merlia Shaukath started a non-profit in Chennai, naming it ‘Madhi Foundation’.

Currently, Madhi focuses on training teachers and student learning outcomes in classrooms- mobilised with the help of technology, with an acute awareness of all the constraints that exist in under-resourced schools.

“I think the inspiration [for Madhi] was my time with Teach For India, and being in classrooms and seeing how children’s lives were being impacted. I wanted to bring the same impact in non-TFI classrooms as well,” says Merlia.

This year, Madhi will impact 150 schools.

She spent two and a half years at Teach For India, first as an operations associate, and then as a government relations manager. These roles gave her a rare opportunity: “It took me to classrooms, but it also gave me the chance to interact with people within the system. A lot of my skills today were honed during that time,” she says.

Already armed with a masters degree in governance and public policy, Merlia then joined Athena Infonomics as a policy consultant. She wanted to focus on the implementation aspect of policy and wanted to figure out how to make systemic impact possible.

“It gave me the perspective I needed to take both into consideration – how policy can trickle down to the grassroots and how ground realities can impact policy,” she explains.

Merlia combined her understanding of policy formulation and implementation, and experience in the education sector to start the Madhi Foundation.

This process was not without its fair share of challenges. Getting people to have faith in a startup non-profit is not easy, but as Merlia states, “Trust can only be gained with time.”

“If we continue doing the work we do, consistently and with an unflinching commitment to the cause we believe in, people will eventually start trusting us,” she says. “The way we see Madhi is that it’ll implement different programs addressing different pieces of the education sector puzzle. Right now we’re working with teacher capacity-building and creating content for students. In the future, we’re looking at school leadership, and capacity-building of trainers for teachers employed by the government,” she says, commenting on Madhi’s goals.

Madhi’s work is tied to interaction with the government systems currently in place.

“Working with the government is exciting, but it’s also challenging because it requires a certain temperament. There are uncertainties and ambiguities, but the government is the only machinery that you can work with if you want to create scalable impact,” says Merlia.

In one of her blog posts, she talks about the difficulty of settling on one system of education that is ‘the best’.

“At Madhi, we do not believe there ever can be one ‘best way to teach’ children. We work with the core belief that children are unique, their learning needs different and their socio-cultural backgrounds diverse,” she writes.

They work with the system that is currently in existence, slowly trying to “chip away a few rough edges at a time.”

With this goal in mind, Madhi launched the ‘Transformational Academic Program’ (TAP) in June 2015. After conducting surveys and data analysis, they identified the practical problems teachers were facing in classrooms every day and sought to develop solutions.

“The Transformational Academic Programme is the result of a lot of learning, listening and empathising with what our teachers and children had to say,” writes Merlia. TAP provides teachers with bilingual lesson-plans, a toolkit with all requirements, and simple technological assistance.

TAP was implemented across 15 primary schools under the Corporation of Chennai’s Department of Education – reaching 1600 students and 42 teachers!

“Working to change the system is frustrating and exhausting, but it’s worth it, and with the kind of dedicated and passionate team that Madhi has, it’s an exciting journey despite all the challenges” says Merlia of her long journey.”

It’s people and organisations like these, relentlessly pursuing equity, that will convert it from vision to reality.

Written by Ananya Damodaran – Communications at Teach For India.

Applications for the 2018-2020 Teach For India Fellowship program are now open. Please visit here to submit your application by October 29th, 2017.

To learn more about Teach For India, visit www.teachforindia.org.

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At Tedx Hyderabad 2017, he was introduced as the Academic Soldier, and the label fits Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah like a glove.

Born on 15 August 1948 in Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh, India, he spent the first five years in the company of his grandfather, from whom he learnt horse riding.

He studied in a Madarsa where they wrote on flat wooden boards that had a thin layer of limestone/ Multani mitti with bamboo pens.

“Writing on the takhti teaches you to avoid making mistakes and excellent penmanship,” he reminisces.

The young Zameer Uddin was soon moved to St. Joseph’s college, Nainital, as his father believed that ‘a good education made for a good foundation’.

“The dedication of the Irish brothers who ran the school towards the students was remarkable, and I carry the influence till date,” he says.

Life as a soldier

Coming from a family with a 200-year history of serving in the defence forces, he joined the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakvasla, Pune. Following this, he trained in the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun and was commissioned on 9 June 1968 into 185 Light Regiment (Camel Pack).

“I was a horseman, and the Army in all its wisdom commissioned me to a camel regiment,” he jests. “It took us nine days to get from Bikaner to Jaisalmer. It worked out well as it gave us the time to learn the terrain,” he adds.

He was part of the 1971 operations at Longewala (Jaisalmer Sector). He later went on to command 170 Field Regiment where subsequently, his son also held a commission, thus keeping the family tradition going.

Over a career spanning 40 years, Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah served in many parts of the country including Ladakh and the North Eastern states.

He was sent on a diplomatic assignment as Defence Attache in Saudi Arabia from 1994-1997. “My knowledge of Arabic came in handy there. When you know the language, things become a little simpler,” he explains.

He held the position of Deputy Chief of Army Staff (P&S) and was responsible for modernisation of the Army plus the management and control of the Army budget.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t do much here. The Defence scientists need to wake up to the fact that delivering on time is of utmost importance. Thankfully, things are looking up now,” he feels.

In June 2009, Lt. Gen. Shah was elevated to the Armed Forces Tribunal, Principal Bench, Delhi. This appointment is on par with that of a High Court Judge.

“Throughout my time in the Army, I have been blessed to be surrounded by people who supported and elevated me. I have had the fortune to serve under some fine leaders including Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. In the Army, we are all one irrespective of religion, caste and class, and that, is our biggest strength,” he adds.

He resigned from the Armed Forces Tribunal to assume the appointment of Vice-Chancellor Aligarh Muslim University.

He is a recipient of the highest peacetime award of Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), Sena Meda and Vishist Seva Medal (VSM).

Life as an academic

Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Higher Command Course at Army War College and National Defence College and holds a Master Degree in Defence Studies and Management from Madras University (1980) and M Phil from Indore University (1993).

“At the age of 24, I was sent as an instructor to the Officer’s Training Academy, Chennai to help train college students to earn a commission in the Army. Several students were older than me. But the Army trains you to be instructors. You keep upgrading, and you keep growing,” he says.

When he was approached by the Aligarh Muslim University delegates, he stood for the election and was elected by the AMU court. Initially, he faced some resistance from a section of students and teachers. There were rampant discipline issues. A student union President was rusticated, and that set things rolling.

“I always said, your freedom ends where my nose begins. Discipline is of utmost importance, and anti-national activities are intolerable,” he says.

During his time in AMU, he observed the gap between children who came from Madarsas. They created bridge courses where the children were taught English, computers and more. The success rate of this bridge course has been 100% with the children, both boys and girls going on to take competitive exams, law courses etc. Moreover, it was seen that these children became the agents of change.

“Theology is important, but it is also important to move along with modern times,” he believes.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2018 has picked the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as India’s best.

The Lt. Gen. stepped down as the Vice Chancellor of AMU in May 2017. He plans to work as an academic, bringing education to children, especially in Muslim dominated areas. The academic soldier will continue to do what he does best.

He believes that the only way to a happier existence is by surrounding oneself with positive people. “Cut out the negative vibes, counsel when you can, distance when you cannot,” he concludes.

To read more about Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah, see: http://www.zoomshah.in

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How would you keep the memory alive of a martyr who sacrificed his life for the country during the Kargil War?

Erect a statue and forget all about it later?

The village of Ghudani Kalan in Payal Tehsil, Punjab had immortalised its martyred son, Sepoy Sukhchain Deep Singh by naming the government senior secondary school after him.

But being a government school, there were neither proper infrastructure for the children to study nor technologically advanced amenities that could enable better methods of education.

To help revamp the school, Jasvir Singh Kukku, a village resident reached out to an NRI association, which has been working to change the fate of government schools, especially those in a shabby condition since 2006.

15 students from Young Sikh Association Singapore (YSAS) headed to Ghudani Kalan in 2015 and invested close to ₹15 lakh to change the face of the school.

“Satwant Singh, the leader of YSAS, is my friend, so for long, I had been requesting him to spend some money and time for the Shaheed Sukhchain Deep Singh Government Senior Secondary School. Along with 15 students, he came to our village in 2015 and stayed at my place for around 20 days, and brought about a transformation of the school,” Jasvir told Times of India.

From getting the school painted to installing a 10KV sound proof generator, the group also furnished the school with racks and 3, 200 books, two RO machines, water coolers, computers, printer and scanner, 15 chairs and tables.

Another thoughtful change that the group made was to fill the school ground with 200 trolleys to tackle the crisis of water-logging, which used to be a constant concern, especially during the rainy season.

Things don’t end at the refurbishment. Jasvir makes it a point to keep the facilitators in the picture as a follow-up and regularly sends pictures of infrastructure to YSAS. He proudly states that the school post its transformation is being considered by many to be a notch above the private schools.

You may also like: 2 NRI Teens Gift Kerala Govt School Students With a New Library of Over 5,000 Books!

According to the school’s principal Surinder Kaur, following the face-lift, the school was awarded Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar in 2016 with 85 per cent rating and 93.33 per cent greenery rating by the Ministry of Human Resources Development.

You can reach out to the folks behind YSAS on Facebook.

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The role of education in an individual’s life can never be undermined. That is not a topic of contention. But how one must attain that education remains in contention.

The question of education places many dilemmas for policymakers and those who have to follow those policy decisions. Questions like which institution (government or private); formal or informal (including vocational); free education or school vouchers; subjects and the content of syllabus; teacher training and placements etc.

A recent proposed policy also brings up another dilemma- whether or not to fail students during elementary education years.

What is No-Detention Policy and how is it being reconsidered

In India, every child between 6-14 years of age is entitled to free and compulsory education under the Right to Education Act, 2009, as guaranteed by Article 21-A of The Constitution.

Therefore, to ensure universal enrolment and compulsory education to all for eight formative years, the Act does away with the detention of students till VIIIth standard – more popularly called the No-Detention Policy (NDP).

It was felt that compelling a child to repeat a class was both discouraging and demotivating.

The Act further adopted a Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) method, instead of year-end examinations, to evaluate the performance of children.

However, this procedure might be dismantled by the Right to Education (2^nd Amendment) Bill, 2017, as introduced in the Lok Sabha recently.

The Bill seeks to do the following:-

• Amending Section 16 to re-instate regular year-end examinations for the students of fifth and eighth classes, in which they can be failed for poor performance.
• A re-examination is to be conducted for failed students, after additional instructions, within two months of the declaration of results.
• On subsequent failure in a re-examination, such students may be allowed to repeat the class by ‘appropriate government’ – indicating that governments at the Centre, State and Union Territories can come out with their own policies in this regard which may differ from each other.
• In no case are the students to be expelled till the completion of elementary education.

The Bill brings the formal “pass-fail” system back to the students at an early stage.

Apparently, the objective is to improve upon their learning abilities by ensuring a certain level of performance in exams for promotion to the next class.

In this two-part series, an attempt will be made to present arguments for and against NDP, especially on the basis of the stand taken by various state governments in this regard.

Opposition to the No-Detention Policy

Indeed, this graph shows that there is a considerable difference in transition rate of students from elementary to secondary education and then from secondary to senior secondary education, though it is arguable whether the difference can be attributed solely to NDP.

NDP aims at providing a stress-free learning environment to young students without any fear of failing in the exams.

But some states like the State of Delhi have argued that in due course, students tend to become disinterested in studies in the absence of any motivation to learn and perform better than others. It can further lead to prolonged absenteeism and dropouts. The State of West Bengal also argues that adequate safeguards need to be built into NDP so that

The State of West Bengal also argues that adequate safeguards need to be built into NDP so that dropouts do not increase.

Delhi government has argued that NDP results in unreasonable and undisciplined behaviour of students or their dropping out of schools.

It is interesting to note that though at the national level, dropout rates increase in Xth standard as compared to IXth standard and fall again in XIth standard (West Bengal also follows this trend), Delhi shows a reverse trend – drop-out rates fall considerably in Xth standard before rising again in XIth standard.

With such variations in drop-out rates across secondary and higher secondary classes and across states, can NDP be blamed for it?

It has also been argued that the parents in this set-up may lose sight of actual abilities of their children and the required contribution from them may not be secured in the learning process of their children. The State of Haryana holds NDP responsible for deteriorating quality of education due to decreased commitment levels of stakeholders. It is also interesting to note that the State of Kerala, despite performing better in education as compared to many other states, opposes NDP to encourage competition and objectivity in assessing learning levels.

The state of Kerala prefers weak students to repeat the class to promoting them to higher class in an unbaked condition.

The State of Punjab has gone to the extent of suggesting that board exams be conducted in classes 5^th and 8^th and has even passed a resolution to this effect in its Assembly.

Several questions arise in the face of this analysis.

[You can provide your inputs on these questions by filling this QUESTIONNAIRE so they can be shared with policy makers]:-

• Is NDP the reason for the poor academic performance of students in higher classes and could detaining students improve their performance?
• Has NDP led to constant ignorance of teachers and parents towards children?
• Is it fair to have a policy of failing students so that teacher performance may improve?
• Can NDP be the reason for children dropping out in higher classes?

In the second part of this series, arguments in favour of retaining NDP will be presented.

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In this era of overt commercialisation and apathy towards education, Jacob and Susan – a young couple from Kerala – are running an education initiative that could be an example for the entire country.

“The Learning Village”, run in Rural Bihar for the NGO Empower India Alliance (EIA), there is nothing is like traditional schools – no certificates, no teaching and rote learning.

Here kids are taught a model of education more holistic and in-tune with the lessons from Mother Nature. Of course, they do spend some time in the ‘one-size fits all’ curriculum, since that is needed in the material world.

“But educating young minds about love, compassion, empathy, humanity, equality and the diverse cultures is the need of the hour. That is what we have placed the onus on,” says Jacob.

The Genesis

The journey started out as a voluntary effort, rather than a pre-conceived plan, 18 months ago in 2016. The program began as a simple request from one of the students in the village.

But thanks to a fantastic reception from the community, with more and more children reaching out every day, the program took a life of its own before anyone realised it.

After the surprise success, a few months later, EIA sat down and began to consider where they wanted the initiative to go.

India has approximately 250 million children going to about 1 million schools. Just under one-quarter of the students in grade 5 could solve a two-digit subtraction such as 46 – 17 in rural India.

“The sub-standard quality of education in over 70% of our schools and colleges, especially in rural belts, have resulted in making many of our degrees virtually valueless”, says Jacob.

“For the vast majority (over 90%) of students who cannot attend elite schools, concepts like soft skills, social abilities, interpersonal skills, communication and personality development have become alien concepts. Even now, many schools focus on end-of-year exams, which continue to remain the main criterion for children to inch to the next grade,”

EIA felt this method of education not enough. Soon The Learning Village Program (LVP) was envisaged as a centre that would create safe spaces for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to broaden their horizons.

In LVP, kids can get educational and emotional support unshackled from the economic status of their families.

The new model is mainly about providing choices while keeping the creative, cognitive, social and emotional development of children as its focal interest.

The Approach / The Learning Village

The new model promoted a personalised model of after-school education, one that is adjusted to the needs of the village and each of the beneficiaries. The need of the hour is understanding that education can’t be based on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula. Instead, it has to be a format tailored to the need of each child.

“We focused on building relationships rooted in the main cause: Why are we really teaching? How can we keep the child at the centre of what we do?” Jacob reflects.

Rather than the answers, LVP concentrates on the questions – since it believes that asking the right questions and letting the students figure out the answers is crucial. A basic feature of the program is the inclusion of the community in the decision-making process.

LVP’s interventions are simple and specific, with specific objectives and separate programs for younger children and older children.

The syllabus tilts more towards creativity and the development of motor skills with the younger ones, and personality and formal education components for older students.

How all of this is done

Tools employed for this include painting sessions, crafts, gardening, dance, drama workshops and yoga sessions. There is also career guidance sessions and disaster risk education for elder students.

All of this is taught through local volunteers, visits by outside volunteers, audio-visual aids and, most recently, video conferencing with children and like-minded people elsewhere.

With a firm belief that any change should come from within, LVP kept children as the centre of all interventions.

“We started a leadership program for students. Any and all programs in the centre was led by the ‘Little Leaders’. We have a student parliament for student affairs and coordination, and we have a computer centre to open the outside world to the children,” Jacob says.

Equally important are the home visits and community walks. The volunteering team travels from village to village, promoting peace, need for education and more importantly how to support children regardless of their abilities.

“Our search for a ‘quick fix’ is the fundamental problem behind the challenges faced by our education sector. We have made progress in bringing students to schools, but very little has been done to ensure they receive a quality education. In addition to outdated content and methods of teaching, there is a severe deficit of good teachers, especially in schools for the underprivileged,” Jacob says.

He does acknowledge ground realities though. “If we are to work on this, we should be ready to work for a long time. This is going to be a long-term project. So we always kept a low-cost model among the priorities,” explains Jacob.

Masarhi and Beyond

While the new model was gradually tested in Masarhi as a part-time pilot, gradually “Learning Village” came into its own. Today around 350 children make use of the LVP’s regular after-school support program.

Another 3500 children are reached through school-level interventions. Today, the team has programs working in Patna, Nalanda and Saharsa District of Bihar, all tailor-made to local requirements.

Many of the children in the program don’t even go to school every day since they work.

“They can’t afford to miss a day’s work. While there is much you can say about child labour, no child deserves to grow-up like this. The most realistic solution sometimes is to help these children get educated in their spare time. This way their children don’t have to work to survive. You have to make them interested, then keep them interested in education. These children need our support,” says Susan.

Today the LVP runs a holistic range of interventions including academic support, life skills and looking after the emotional health of the children. Now with plans to reach out to create its first urban centre in NCR Delhi, the program is in limited expansion mode.

“Through our program we are encouraging these children to open their minds, education is not just about being literate, it is about playing a crucial role in moulding our countries future”

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Over the last couple of years, the government’s focus has been towards utilising the vast workforce India is copiously producing. This has been reflected in its policies. For example, changes in the child labour law now permit children as young as 14 years of age to be employed in their family trades. Another policy, the skill India mission, focused on building vocational and trade skills etc, though it wasn’t matched by sufficient employment opportunities.

Another policy change has been the recent move to reconsider the compulsory ‘No-detention policy’ (NDP). In combination, all of these changes may have the unintended effect of pushing even more children out of school. [The Bill can be read here.]

Under the Right to Education Act, 2009, every child was guaranteed free and compulsory education till VIIIth standard without the fear of failure. The law also moved the focus from year-end competitive exams to a year-round review of a child’s performance through continuous and comprehensive evaluation.

As per the government’s new policy, students may be failed in exams and made to repeat a class on subsequent failure.

In the first post of this two-part series, we listed arguments advanced against NDP. In the second post of this series, we look at arguments for retaining NDP.

Need for NDP – and why it may be retained

As stated earlier, the NDP seeks to achieve universal enrolment in elementary education. It is obligatory on the state to ensure that a child gets an education for eight years, which is a fundamental right. Thus, it is necessary to prevent dropouts because of failing examinations.

Especially in rural areas, due to socio-economic factors, dropping out is preferred to repeating a class. In case of girls, failing an exam may be seen as an end to their education given the prevalent gender bias. Thus, NDP serves as an assurance of elementary education to children from marginalised sections of society.

State of Maharashtra favours the policy as it has helped reduced drop-out rates and build self-esteem.

As highlighted in the first part of our analysis, a few states turned this argument around and cited high drop-out rates as a consequence of NDP.

A look at the following figure, however, seems to reveal a trend of low drop-out rates among states favouring NDP [marked with an ‘S’] and high drop-outs among states opposing NDP [marked with an ‘O’].

In such a scenario, it is tempting to make the argument that while multiple factors may be responsible for high or low drop-outs in a particular state, in absence of clear research, it is misleading to attribute it to NDP and consequently ask for a reconsideration of the policy.

Drop-Out Rates across several states [as taken from State Report Cards 2015-16]

Further justifications for the policy are based on the observations of “Learning without Burden” Report, 1993 and National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005.

These documents raised genuine concerns about the quality of the learning environment under the regular examination system and its impact on the children. The primary issues identified were:

• Focus of teaching-learning process is always upon the child’s ability to reproduce the memorised information
• Too much emphasis on getting good marks
• Examination process becomes more important than the learning process itself

Thus, the need to have a conducive learning environment, which has a scope of discovery, exploring and activity-based learning was emphasised by the NCF. It is crucial for honing the skills of those students who are otherwise capable, but somehow fail to perform in exams.

It must be pointed out that in the first part of our series, we had highlighted that a number of states believed that examinations breed a culture of competition which is likely to encourage students and teachers to perform better.

In this context, it is important to note that there is no research evidence anywhere in the world to show that repeating a class improves learning (as admitted by Bhukkal Sub-Committee Report, 2014).

The State of Andhra Pradesh worries about detention being a de-motivating factor for students, as it leads to rote learning, suppressing their creative thinking, analytical ability, exploration and experimentation skills. Besides, undue fear of exams encourages malpractices.

There is also a misapprehension that ‘no detention’ means ‘no assessment’. The CCE method for assessment is developed to implement NDP and assesses ‘learning’ through various formative and summative tests with reduced syllabus throughout the year.

It also focuses on the role of teachers. Thus, it shifts the burden of performance from the children to teachers. In this sense, it strives to improve quality teaching.

This also directly contradicts the argument explored in our first article in which several states asked for withdrawing NDP in the hope that the possibility of children failing would encourage teachers to perform better. But poor implementation of CCE and low levels of learning outcomes should not necessarily result in condemning NDP.

The figure below indicates that learning outcomes in rural India have declined at an all India level pointing to a systemic failure.

Learning levels outcome in Rural India at All India level [as taken from ASER report 2011 and 2016]

Thus, NDP in itself is a much-needed reform of our education system, which attempts to release a child from the stigma of failure at an early stage of life and calls for teacher accountability.

State of Telangana favours the retention of NDP to enable a child to learn better without fear of failure, detention and stigma.

However, if the policy has failed at the level of implementation, then the following reasons can be attributed for the same:

• Lack of understanding and motivation in teachers to adapt to CCE methods, due to inadequate training. This makes their work tedious and time-consuming.
• Continuing poor pupil-teacher ratio
• Lack of familiarity of CCE to parents

Therefore, the states supporting NDP called for strengthening measures for CCE methods, instead of scrapping it altogether.

Ensuring regular and effective evaluation of learning levels remains the core of the suggestions.

It is interesting to note that even the State of Haryana (opposing state) concedes that NDP can succeed through effective implementation of CCE methods, compulsory attendance and optimum Pupil-Teacher Ratio.

In light of this discussion, several questions arise:-

[You can provide your inputs on these questions by filling this QUESTIONNAIRE which will be shared with Members of Parliament as they discuss this Bill]

• Is the fear of failing likely to lead to better learning outcomes?
• Are more children likely to drop out instead of repeating the class if they fail?
• Is it likely that withdrawing NDP will lead to better implementation of CCE?
• Is it NDP or improper implementation of CCE which is responsible for poor performance of students in higher classes?
• Is it teacher training or withdrawal of NDP that is likely to improve teacher performance?

In the upcoming winter session of Parliament, the Bill is likely to be discussed and it will be interesting to see what arguments find favour with the lawmakers. The future of our children rests on their decision.

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From facing issues in presenting themselves with confidence to handling communication in a second language with ease, British Council myEnglish students share the secrets of their success.

We’re in conversation with Bhavana, Nupur, Sayed, Ashvina, Siddhant, Saba, Priyanka, Ramchandra and Ritesh who want to share their experience of taking the online myEnglish course, and how to make the most of it.   

1. Know your motivations

Communication, career and confidence are the common threads that motivated our interviewees to learn.

Bhavana, a homemaker, shares a common problem: “There are times when I have to respond to queries or write a small note, and I find it hard to express myself. I find I can do it in Hindi but not in English – if I can feel a little more comfortable with English it will be a big help”.

Nupur, an artist, agrees: “I used to think people will make fun of me if I did not speak properly”.

Ramchandra, an engineer, Siddhant, a content writer and Ashvina, an assistant professor wanted to improve communication skills for their career. Sayed, who works in IT, says, “I could read and write well, but speaking was a major impediment”. As Priyanka, an entrepreneur, says, “I have to deal with a lot of delegates from all over the world on a daily basis and speaking English was my biggest hurdle”.

Saba, a post-graduate in English literature explains: “[English] is how you communicate. Therefore I developed an interest in learning the language”. Ritesh, a chartered accountant, says “I love reading books, travelling across the world to understand varied cultures and it’s been quite some time since I wanted to improve my language”.

All of them decided to take an online English course. This may seem unusual, but Siddhant says: “Initially I was a bit hesitant choosing this course as it’s online, but I went on to enrol on myEnglish after examining the pros of having an online class – like avoiding travel and saving time”. 

2. Communication is the key

Develop communication skills by practising with others as much as possible.

Bhavana says “I could use the course to interact with my fellow students in English and not feel bad about it. For me, this was of great help because it showed me a good way of expressing myself in day-to-day situations. The other big merit is the chance to interact with fellow students who have the same problems”.

Saba agrees: “You learn to take turns, talk, have a discussion. Now, wherever I go for interviews, maybe I’m sitting in a team, discussing anything in a cafeteria, it helps me with the pattern that should be followed. This is not just about formal conversations; it is also about informal chat and everything else”.

3. Course design is crucial 

Look for progressive structure and useful content. Having fun also helps!

Ashvina tells us: “Grammar topics were covered really well during our virtual sessions. These helped me in the successful completion of weekly activities. My writing skills improved significantly as well”. Ramchandra adds “The course is a nice combination of traditional and modern methods. Apart from language learning, it develops the skills of interaction, presentation and study with ethics”.

Saba says “I enjoyed the different types of topics taught to us via the language. I learned a bit about crime and law, health, sports, and media. The topics were unique, the way it was taught was unique”.

This impacts learning even after the course: “I have stopped reading books on grammar, even after all the hard work it’s difficult to grasp many rules. Instead, I visit the web portals advised of and do exercises with more comfort and enjoyment” says Sayed.

4. The teacher is a facilitator

A good course is not a one-way experience.

Sayed explains “It was not a ‘learn by rote’ methodology. I learnt many valuable things with fun, and I have always felt motivated as the teachers never dented my morale”.

Nupur adds: “My tutor has been friendly, helpful and effective in her teaching”. Ashvina agrees: “Our instructors were always ready to support us. They gave timely suggestions and feedback”.

5. Don’t be afraid to step into the unknown

Take risks and accept challenges when you are learning – embrace new ways of doing things.

“I was hesitant to join the course when I came to know that it’s online learning” admits Saba. “Obviously, the fun is about taking up challenges. I talked to many people from British Council, and they always maintained ‘It’s easy, you can do it’. There was a lot of support”.

Siddhant adds, “Virtual classes were something I was most hesitant about, but that ended up becoming the best part of the course. It was as good as a face-to-face class in the comfort of my house”.

“I got handy with the tools and technology” continues Saba. “That is one of the things which is much needed in whatever areas you want to apply them in, regarding your job or maybe even in your everyday life.”

6. Hard work pays off!

Taking a course makes a difference and effort yields results.

Saba notes “Now, if I go for an interview, I’m quite confident. The interviewer sees my CV, and the first question would be about ‘Oh! Have you done the British Council course?’ So it adds a lot of weight to my bio-data”.

Ashvina says “The results are amazing. I can read, write and converse in English with better fluency and confidence”.

7. The self-motivation factor

You get out of a course what you put in, and being independent and motivated is a success factor.

Bhavana warns “There is a lot of work to be done by the students on their own and there are no shortcuts”. Ramchandra counsels “Choose suitable resources, be honest to the trainer and work hard. It definitely leads to success”.

Ritesh echoes that: “Show perseverance. Complete the course with dedication, and you will soon see the difference”. 

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Imagine a Mathematics lesson. Fractions, trigonometry, permutations, numbers, decimal points, square roots – an endless list.

If you are someone who was, or still is, put off by the subject, you might be thinking about how numbers and symbols can be best kept at a distance.

Math is a scary subject for many. And this fear is so real that there is an actual phobia associated with it, called the Math Phobia, or Math Anxiety that stops a person from efficiently tackling mathematical problems.

This exactly is the fear that Kannan and Bharathy Bhardwaj, a couple currently living in Vadodara, are trying to solve.

With a passion for using technology and computers to simplifying education, they founded Math Buddy in 2010, with the vision to develop hands-on and interactive activity-based learning products. It is a complete package for teachers, students, and parents, with both offline and online solutions, and a full-fledged curriculum that helps make math engaging and fun.

“Many children develop a fear of mathematics when their concepts are not clear. Our main objective behind Math Buddy is that this fear should not develop at all. Students should understand the very basics and truly enjoy solving problems and sums,” says Kannan.

The Beginning: “How Do I Help My Child”

The couple comes from a technology background and has spent nearly 15 years outside India. In addition to their BTech degrees from IIT Madras and Madras Institute Of Technology respectively, both Kannan and Bharathy finished their Masters in the US, after which Kannan spent most of his career in the automobile industry. They witnessed technological tools being used effectively in other countries, along with activity-based learning techniques.

“We wanted to use our background to create tools that could help teachers teach better and for students to practice mathematics while having fun,” says Kannan.

When the duo moved to India in 2005, their son was in senior kindergarten. In the few months of his education in the US, Bharathy observed her son learning efficiently with the help of the Montessori method of learning. This works on the pattern of “learning by doing”, instead of procedure-based learning.

The Montessori method involves self-directed activities, hands-on learning and collaborative play. It gives children the freedom to use their creative choices while the teacher offers age-appropriate activities to guide the process. Discovered by Dr Maria Montessori, this method leads to a deeper understanding of language, mathematics, science, music, and beyond.

“When we moved to India I found that schools here focussed more on learning from books and homework; there was nothing beyond that. And having seen the Montessori way of learning, I wanted my son to learn in the same way. But I couldn’t find any great options, and that motivated me to create something on my own,” says Bharathy.

Around the same time, Kannan was also thinking about doing something that would help contribute to the society. He wanted children to experience Math and interact with it the way he did when he was a student.

So he decided to give up his corporate life and join hands with Bharathy to work on Math Buddy.

They worked with multiple experts over time to understand how people teach Math around the world. “We didn’t want to limit ourselves to one method. Many teachers from across the world helped our team understand how they teach different topics. The team did their research on the methodologies, chose the best approach and created the product,” says Kannan.

They have a team of 20 people, and the entire curriculum is aligned with NCERT standards. Being a cloud-based application, users can access Math Buddy anywhere, anytime.

How does Math Buddy work:

The company operates in two ways –

Online approach: Parents or students have to go to the website and create their accounts. While the fees for one child’s account is Rs. 2,000 per annum, it’s free for parents.

The website has over 1,300 interactive activities and simulations for classes 1 to 10. Students are advised to practice on the website for 20-30 minutes every day.

Usually, on other such websites, only children are given their accounts on which they just start working on assignments that come their way without much supervision.. In comparison, an additional advantage with Math Buddy is that parents can assign work to their children from their own accounts.

Parents also have a separate dashboard to log in and track their child’s performance. “This helps those parents who are more involved and keen to work with their children. So, suppose a parent feels that the assignments for second grade are too easy for their child, they have the freedom to assign work from the third grade,” says Kannan.

Math Buddy’s USP is the interactive website which allows students to play along with the activity instead of just looking at a video and trying to understand the subject. This gamification helps keep the child alert during the lesson. Additionally, the activities are colourful, and there is the option for children to gain points from the activities. A leaderboard on the website showcases the names of students with the maximum score.

The platform also offers many worksheets and assessments for children to prepare for exams.

Additionally, the company conducts ‘Mathlathons’ – that are like online olympiads – for children of class 4 and above. Mathlathons are conducted three times a year, and students from around the world participate in it.

The classroom approach: Math Buddy also develops interactive instruments and tools that are sent to schools along with offline software installed in classrooms. Once the portal is set up, teachers can use it to help students easily understand concepts.

In a Math Buddy classroom, students work in groups of five or six doing activities on instruments like fraction circles, cubes, geometrical objects, etc, without any ‘mathematical’ equations. Teachers then use a virtual platform to illustrate the concepts that the students have worked on. Later they assign work for students to practice one-on-one in a math lab or from home using the platform. Math Buddy also offers training sessions for teachers to understand the instruments and software better and teachers can use the lesson planning feature on the website to create their lessons.

Impact and the journey so far:

“Parents and teachers have told us that students love to go to the Math class, and that’s the kind of feedback that keeps us going,” says Kannan.

“It’s been a fascinating journey with several challenges, but what we are doing is extremely meaningful. It’s basically something that we enjoy doing on a day in and out basis,” he says.

While the company was bootstrapped till October last year, it recently received funding from a social impact investment fund. Today, Math Buddy is present in 250 schools, and about 2 lakh students are using it.

And as is the case for all startups, being change-ready is absolutely imperative. Recently, with the changes in taxation norms in the country, the company also worked on becoming GST compliant. When asked how they handled migrating to GST, Kannan says, “There are quite a few advantages of GST. When we had to ship the products to states like Uttar Pradesh earlier, it used to be a nightmare because we had to get the school to go to the local sales tax office and get some forms which had to be signed, sealed and sent to us before we could ship the products.”

Many schools never wanted to take this extra step, and now with the advent of GST, they don’t have to do these things. “It is much easier as long as we are keeping our paperwork correctly. So we don’t have to depend on any external factors. We don’t have to worry about shipping to any part of the world. There are also some disadvantages regarding the amount of paperwork involved, which has increased. But otherwise, life has become easier.”

“It is our love for technology and how we use it in the best way for students, that drives us forward. There is the need for us to adapt ourselves to the changing times which means that there is an everyday excitement of working on something new. There are still many schools without any tech infrastructure. So we want to take Math Buddy to every corner of the country,” the couple concludes.

Find more about Math Buddy here and get in touch with the team here.

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For the nomadic community of Narikuravars in Tamil Nadu, the only mode of livelihood comes from selling beads on streets or worse, begging.

Amidst the various ostracised communities in the state, Narikuravars are a marginalised group who continue to be shunned from mainstream society and have no access to primary opportunities like that of education and employment.

However, one young boy’s perseverance in making the world a better place for his community has not just earned him the tag of being the flag bearer of the Narikuravars, but also the nomination for this year’s International Peace Prize for Children.

He has achieved this by convincing about 25 other children to follow the path of education to change the fate of their community.

One cannot entirely claim that the children in the community have no access to schools or education. In fact, many had been inducted in local government schools by their parents. But they eventually dropped out following repeated abuse and ill-treatment from the staff owing to their nomadic lineage.

One amongst five children, Sakthi Ramesh, had also been a victim of similar treatment in various government schools that he had been admitted to. He was only eight when he decided that he could not take the denigration anymore and left school.

Failed by society, he could only envision a life doing nothing but sell beads—just the way his community had been doing, generation after generation. But life had something else in store for the 12-year-old.

In 2014, when the opportunity came knocking in the form of an intervention by a non-profit organisation, little did Sakthi know that soon he would end up playing a catalytic role towards the betterment of his community.

Hand in Hand India, which works towards eradicating poverty through education, job creation and integrated community development, has a dedicated programme under its wing where dropouts and child labourers are identified and motivated enough to continue their education through residential special training centres (RSTC).

Approaching the Narikuravars with the aim of inducting dropped out children in the programme, the organisation was met with a lukewarm response. Only a few families volunteered to send their children, including Sakthi’s.

Still scarred by the ill-treatment that he had been subjected during the initial days of schooling, Sakthi was quite apprehensive about the programme initially.

“However, the academic regime brought about a drastic behavioural change in Sakthi. The positive learning behaviour exhibited by him at the RSTC paved the way for him to embrace school with open arms,” says Deepa, a member at Hand in Hand India.

Sakthi soon realised that only with education, would there be an end to their community’s adverse living conditions.

And thus, he took charge and began advocating the importance of schooling to every other child in his community along with their parents.

“I would make a point to personally meet the elders and stress on the need to evolve with the world and that their children would not want to burn their heels in the hot sun and spend their nights on the pavements in future,” says Sakthi.

He would further motivate the folks by narrating his experience at RSTC if that could influence the parents to send the kids to the institute, where they were entitled to provisions like new clothes, soap and water to bathe and four square meals a day.

You may also like: 10 Inspiring Young Indians Nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize

“Every time I used to visit my native place, I would ask my community people to recount the changes that they saw in me, and some would reply, ‘you look clean and well-dressed’,” he remembers.

Though he tried coercing many of his friends to resume studies, Sakthi would more often find dissent.

“I had even gone to the extent of forcing them to join the institute. Instead, they would ask me to come back and resume selling fancy wares on the streets for they believed that studies and school were of no use and only tact and trade was required to eke out a living,” he sadly states.

However, his persistence did not go entirely wasted.

Motivated by the visible change in Sakthi’s visage and mannerism, many parents began to acknowledge the importance of education and wanted their children to have the same benefits and privileges too.

Today 25 students from Narikuravar community are turning a new page in their lives, thanks to the unfaltering resolve in Sakthi. Understanding the gravity of his achievement, given the difficulties that the volunteers face while convincing the families, Hand in Hand took the step forward and nominated his name for the international award.

As of being nominated for such a prestigious award, Sakthi, who is the youngest amongst all 169 nominees, does not seek any recognition for his efforts and is solely motivated by the goodness of his heart. For him, the goal is to uplift his entire community towards a better life.

Having achieved this, Sakthi does not intend to wind up his mission anytime soon.

He aspires to the day when every Narikuravar child would have access to education and can pursue it without any obstacles on the way.

“Just the way I was able to convince these children, I’m sure that each one of them would convince relatives and friends in their own hometowns. Just because it takes time doesn’t mean it is impossible. From no kids from our community to 25 today, tomorrow it could become 50 as well,” the young role model hopes.

Sakthi aims of becoming a software engineer when he grows up and works hard for his family. “I don’t want to see them suffer any more for a livelihood. When I grow up, I want to be successful enough to be able to provide for my parents,” he adds earnestly.

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With more than 1.5 million schools, 260 million enrolments and 12 million teachers, India has the largest, most diverse and complicated learning systems in the world.

While access to education has been an enormous success story and is now nearly universal, children are not learning well, and the trend has been worrying — 52.2% of students in Class 5 cannot read a Class 2 level text, and 74.1% cannot solve a division problem.

In the process of researching the gaps in education, solutions, and funding landscape with AVPN, Sattva discovered many exciting and innovative solutions that address unmet needs and work with multiple stakeholders across the ecosystem — be it students, teachers, schools or the broader community — that focus on ‘outcomes’ for learning.

Here are ten ways in which the education space is being transformed today through simple and effective solutions:

1. Teachers as agents of change: STIR Education

STIR uses peer-to-peer learning to motivate and re-inspire teachers, by building localised teacher networks that enable them to become a solution to the learning crisis.

These networks support the practice of classroom improvement principles and techniques, as well as ensure a support system that aids teachers in seeing themselves as agents of change in classrooms.

2. Storytelling to build student entrepreneurs: Going to School

Going to School celebrates the intrinsic value of story-telling through graphic novels, games, apps, movies, digital games and television shows.  A team of writers, teachers and artists governed by design-thinking, Going to School works with government school systems to impart critical entrepreneurial skills.

They also run a news service run by children for children called ‘Scrappy News’, which has filmed 30 episodes for national television!

3. Children as agents of change: Bharti Foundation

Source: Max Pixel

A philanthropic endeavour of Bharti Enterprises Group, Bharti Foundation works on improving the quality of education in rural India by nurturing children to be agents of change and focussing on holistic development.

While the efforts of the foundation have resulted in an improvement in academic performance, the more significant impact has been in the initiatives they take in their communities for transformation.

4. A bridge between education and employability: Salaam Bombay Foundation

Most children drop out at secondary education level, and the Salaam Bombay Foundation is working to correct that and set children on the right course.

Working within the existing infrastructure of municipal secondary schools, they interact with children who risk losing their childhood to substance abuse and child labour, conducting leadership and life-skill programmes.

Salaam Bombay Foundation’s vocational education programme takes an experiential approach to skilling teenagers in professions such as umpiring, sports coaching or dancing while imparting life skills to them.

5. ‘Bal Sabhas’ to inculcate better student citizenship: Kaivalya Education Foundation

Source: Pixabay

KEF works with government schools on transforming student learning outcomes through school leaders, by providing leadership training to school principals through their three–year School Leadership Development Programme.

The programme covers on-site coaching and field support, activity-based workshops to internalise newly learnt techniques, as well as a peer network to reflect on sessions and discuss problems together.

KEF also uses peer-to-peer learning during Bal Sabhas, or assemblies for children, which offer a healthy environment to interact with peers, while introducing complex ideas through interactive mediums like debates and skits.

6. Encouraging budget private schools: SEED schools

SEED stands for Standard of Excellence in Education Development, a social enterprise that dedicates funds to increase the quality of education in affordable private schools that otherwise attract limited funding due to their splintered nature.

SEED focuses on infusing the curriculum with technological innovations and developing creative lessons.

7. Tech for visually impaired: Innovision

28% of children with special needs in India do not go to school. A large share that does, drops out quickly, as they are unable to fit in.

Innovision is taking a simple tech approach towards solving this problem and has created a low-cost smart Braille assistant, ‘BrailleMe’, to improve digital access to those with visual impediments.

Using a screen that is perceptible to touch, the device can be used as standalone and also as an assistant to other digital devices, like the computer or laptop. This enables children with disabilities to access the system, one where they are otherwise ignored.

8. Giving migrant children a chance to learn: Mobile Creches

Estimates place the number of urban migrant children at about 15 million, 90% of whom are excluded from accessing education. Mobile Creches recognises the malnutrition and neglect of children living in spaces that double as residential areas – construction sites, street pavements and slums.

With parents working towards daily wages and without access to childcare or schools, Mobile Creches ensures that the overlapping concerns of women, children and workers are met by establishing creches and Balwadis within brick walls and tin roofs.

Older children attend NFE (non-formal education) classes, where they learn basic arithmetic and language, while toddlers engage in activities that stimulate their cognitive development.

9. Getting the first steps right: Akshara Foundation

Source: Facebook

24% of Indian children between 3-5 years of age do not have any access to early childhood education (ECE), though the early years of a child’s life last a lifetime in learning terms.

Akshara addresses this issue through ‘joyful learning’ facilitated by their ‘Prepare not Repair’ programme, aimed at pre-schoolers. They train teachers to follow a research-based, structured pre-school curriculum that will support development across several spheres of cognitive and emotional growth during early childhood.

The best part is the community members, who run Balwadis from the confines of their own homes, making it easy for children to attend and experience simple activities.

10. Bringing lessons to life: Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement

India so far has seen a poor uptake of the Apprenticeship Act, a transformational idea instituted by the government to develop skilled youth by offered them on-the-job training.

With one million joining the workforce in India every month, and yet only 400,000 apprentices participating to date, there is hugely underutilised potential. Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM), an organisation focused on realising human potential, has a unique Viveka Scholar programme which tries to match skilled, meritorious youth with internship opportunities.

While not a comprehensive list, these organisations reflect the range and sheer scale of innovation and creativity emerging from those who are passionate about creating sustainable models of education in India.

For more information about the recent developments, gaps and funding in education, have a look at AVPN-Sattva’s report: ‘Funding Education with Impact’.

(Written by Sattva)

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Did you know about the existence of worms who are capable of eating plastic 1400 times faster than other organisms? Or water hyacinths that are capable of purifying sewage water?

For the longest time, vermiculture has been underrated and thought of as useful only for agriculture.

But as the world today struggles to find significant solutions to the environmental adversities of water pollution, sewage treatment, waste management and toxic pesticide infested food, some experts are proving the unique role these tiny agents of nature can play to ease its environmental woes.

These experts are making heads turn with their unconventional methods of using vermiculture to harness the potential of eco-warrior worms.

Here’s a list of five such eco-warrior worms that experts are studying and breeding, the ‘environment-saving’ potential of which, will blow your mind!

1. Mealworms:

These tiny worms, which are basically the larvae form of the darkling beetle, can feed and survive on a diet of Styrofoam and other forms of polystyrene. In fact, microorganisms present in the mealworm’s guts biodegrade the plastic, which could be the potential solution to the plastic problem.

These mealworms on a steady diet of Styrofoam were just as healthy as others on a normal diet. During lab experiments over 100 mealworms ate between 34 and 39 milligrams of Styrofoam – about the weight of a small pill – per day and converted half of the Styrofoam into carbon dioxide. A bulk of the remaining plastic in their bodies is excreted as biodegraded fragments that look similar to tiny rabbit droppings within 24 hours. These droppings are safe to use as soil for crops too.

(The research first came to the forefront due to two studies co-authored by a senior research engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, Wei-Min Wu published in Environmental Science and Technology.)

2. Waxworms:

These worms are commonly found in beehives and also used as fishing bait. Research proves that the waxworm could eat its way through polyethene, used to make plastic bags and water bottles, 1,400 times faster than other organisms.

The discovery of the waxworm’s power was somewhat an accident. When biologist and amateur beekeeper Federica Bertocchini was cleaning her hives, she found these worms inside and decided to keep them separately in a plastic bag. She was shocked to observe sometime later that the plastic bag was full of holes. Unsure if the worms caused the plastic to degrade, she consulted other researchers who in turn repeated the exercise in a lab setting, letting waxworms feed on polyethene bags. It was a success.

3. Mycelium

Mycelium, which basically refers to mushroom roots, can successfully break down biodegradable waste to produce net-like white threads. A New York-based company, Ecovative, is using this material for packaging, as an alternative to plastic.

The material is not only light-weight but fireproof too. The process the company follows includes receiving agricultural waste purchased from regional farmers, cleaning it out and introducing it to mycelium. This mixture is then placed in bags, where mycelium is allowed to grow for a few days.

In the process, the mycelium digests the agricultural waste and forms a matrix of white fibers along the way. Each particle is then coated in mycelium and broken into loose particles again. Loose particles are placed in a mould for 3–5 days to grow into a durable material that is later used for packaging.

Read more: Learn About Birds, Bees & Trees From Kusum Tai’s 2,000 Varieties of Medicinal Plants & Herb Saplings

4. Black Soldier Fly:

Black Soldier Flies can successfully reduce organic waste by 90 per cent of its volume. These insects can later also be harvested as fish bait and to feed poultry.

The Jakkur campus of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) already practices BSF-led composting, reports Bangalore Mirror.

A senior fellow at the Biodiversity and Conservation Center at ATREE, Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, spoke to the publication,

“The insects can take care of organic waste, so the government must make a plan to break down other forms of waste. We are planning to set up an insect farm. Edible insects are the future source of protein, as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation predicted (in 2013). They are not only high on nutrition, but insect farming also produces greenhouse gases lesser than rearing livestock.”

These BSFs can eat over 15 kg of food waste per day.

5. Water hyacinth

Water hyacinth, in addition to purifying sewage water, when harvested, can produce biogas.

While it has a bad reputation as the world’s worst aquatic weed, capable of starving a lake of sunlight, oxygen, fish and submerged plants, its power to purify wastewater can be harnessed under controlled conditions.

A hybrid plant from the Pontederiaceae family, when planted in a wastewater pond, it grows rapidly. While its roots grow 10-30 cm below the water surface, its stem and leaves rise and cover the water body’s surface. This plant grows by feeding on nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen from the wastewater.

Its fine roots successfully trap suspended solids, and also help the growth of microorganisms that feed off the organic materials present in the wastewater, turning them into a simple inorganic material.

This results in the purification of water which can be released directly into rivers or even used for drinking or domestic purposes after additional disinfection processes.

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Sipping a cup of tea at his Goregaon home, Sandeep Desai chuckles as he recalls the first day he boarded a local train with an agenda in mind and a transparent acrylic box in his bag almost seven years ago.

His friend and co-trustee of his non-profit organisation, Shloka Missionaries, Prof. Nurool Islam, Emeritus Professor of Symbiosis, boarded the train as well but stood at the end of the compartment to observe how people reacted to Desai. Islam had warned Desai that if something went wrong, he would not help him out. The train continued to speed from Goregaon to Vile Parle, and Desai could not get himself to reveal the box.

Then suddenly, Desai decided it was time. “I told myself, it’s now or never,” he says. He took a deep breath and yelled —

Vidyaa Daanam – Shreshtha Daanam
Gramin shetron mein hum angrezi maadhyam ki nishulk schoolein chalate hain.
Agar aap kisi bhukein koi khaana khilaate hai uska palan aap sirf ek samay karte hai
Agar aap usi ko shiksha dete hai toh usko aap zindagi bhar aone pairon par khada kar dete hai,” says Desai.

(Education is the best gift you can give every child.
We run free English medium schools in rural India.
If you feed the hungry, you just feed them once, but when you fund a child’s education, you make him independent forever.)

While nobody dared to give him a single currency note back in the day, he made Rs 700 in coins of different denominations on day one. And since then, there was no turning back.

Sandeep Desai, a former marine engineer and academician, is a resident of Goregaon and the famous Mumbai man who begged on local trains to start rural English medium schools across villages in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Bihar.

The earliest inspiration in the life of this man who imbibed the value of charity in education, were his parents. While his mother was alive, Shloka Missionaries Trust bought an entire floor of a SRA building under construction to start an English medium school for children living in the slums. They used the funds they collected under their own Shloka Missionaries trust, for this purpose. The school, named The Shloka Missionaries Public School, worked from the same building until end of academic year 2013-14, where over 800 students studied in two shifts, up till 8th grade.

When the Right to Education Act was passed in 2009, the Supreme Court, after much debate mandated, that all private schools provide free & compulsory education to at least 25% students of their new admissions. Desai then decided to shut down the Goregaon school and set up English medium schools in rural areas, that typically do not have access to good education, and very few English medium schools. Yavatmal, a drought-hit district in Maharashtra, was a natural choice.

However, the road to raising funds was not easy.

For the longest time, the funding came from the workshops Desai and Islam conducted on creativity, advertising, and communication skills. But it wasn’t really charity because they earned those funds as fees for workshops, which were used to run the school.

But now, they were looking at a model where people would contribute without expecting a service in return. This need to raise funds let to Desai begging on local trains.

Read more: Once a Child Labourer, This Bengaluru Girl Will Now Speak About Child Rights in Parliament

“We raised Rs. 65 lakhs in 2004-5 for Trust to purchase property in a building under construction in Goregaon under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA),” he says.

In a matter of 5 years, he raised over one crore for the construction of 2 schools in villages of Yavatmal and Udaipur districts. From Sept 2010, when he started collecting funds, they were able to set up 4 schools.

Another school, which is being funded by former students of Desai’s alma mater MERI (Marine Engineering and Research Institute) is under construction in the Dharharwa village of Sitamarhi district of Bihar.

Desai lets out a hearty laugh going down the memory lane when he and Islam were brainstorming ways to raise funds. While Islam was convinced all  of Sandeep’s ideas would lead to a disastrous end, Desai was convinced there was only one space where he could attract and hold the attention of people off guard — the local trains.

“In local trains, people are seated in such a way where they are looking at you and some are facing back. You just have to do something, interesting enough to make their heads turn. The worst that could happen was them asking me to get off the train,” he says.

He does not blame the people in Mumbai who looked at him with scepticism because he had a clear conscience. “I aimed to find people who would genuinely feel for the cause, and ensure that I do not offend anybody with anything I spoke, even if they were difficult to me.”

He recalls several instances where he had to face insults, verbal abuse and open hostility from passengers. There were times he cried tears of humiliation, but got right back up and continued his work. However, he also remembers incidents where people would go out of their way to help him out, and some of them even got him gifts!

In 2015, when there was a crackdown on fake trusts collecting money in the trains, Desai was taken by RPF to Railway Court along with other hawkers and agents hired by fake trusts.

“I was told that as per the Railway act, I could not collect funds, but when I responded by saying that, ‘I do not plead guilty!’ the judge looked up and recognised me. I told them that I am not a beggar. By definition, a beggar begs for himself, but I am begging for charity, so I will not plead guilty for doing my bit for the sake of education of underprivileged students who deserve it,” says Desai.

The case continues to be on record with hearing dates getting delayed for over 2.5 years now. The Railways Act is in contradiction of the Bombay Public Trust Act which states that a Registered Charitable Trust can collect funds anywhere.

“Today most parents in rural India know that their children will not be able to turn their lives around without English medium education. The sad truth is that none of the smaller English medium schools, including mine, are at equipped to teach English,” he says.

But they have been working hard to train their staff enough to help these children learn, understand and write the language. They continue to move one class up and transform the lives of these rural kids.

“Through all the journeys I have ever taken, there are several people who walk up to me saying when these kids do not speak in Marathi and Hindi why are you teaching them English? I think these are double standards. How many of these people send their kids to regional medium schools?

“If they cannot treat them as their children, the least they can do is treat them on par with them. Why are we blatantly denying equal opportunities to children based on the background he/she comes from? If they want them to have the same opportunities to work at the state, national or international level, they should get the same kind of education. It does not matter whether they work on a farm or an MNC, education is their basic right, and we are bound to help them access it,” he says.

If Prof Sandeep Desai’s story inspired you, get in touch with him at shlokaabc@rediffmail.com, or WhatsApp him at 7045526636 or call him on 09167587739. Support the cause by donating at:
Name of Trust: Shloka Missionaries
Bank: Bank of India
Branch: Goregaon (W), Mumbai
A/c. No.: 002210100040149
IFSC Code : BKID0000022

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One of the major reasons why so many children drop out even before they reach secondary school is the idea that the time invested in education could be better utilised by doing labour that would offer a respite to families in the form of monetary support.

According to a 2016 report by UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Global Education Monitoring, India has the highest number of adolescents dropping out of schools in the world at a staggering 47 million.

Sadly, a large percentage of this number comes from the rural side of the country, where more than 50 per cent of children drop out of schools before reaching the age of 13.

While poverty and a pinched financial state are significant factors leading children to take up chores and help increase household income, other reasons like common indifference and lack of awareness revolving around the need for education is usually why children continue to drop out of schools.

Another important factor is the way our education system is structured which solely adheres to a curriculum-completion target — which hardly contributes to the holistic development of young and curious minds.

In order to help such children get a second shot at education with a sustainable model of growth and learning, Chennai-based Ashok Leyland launched the ‘Road to School’ project in 2015.

You may also like: How a 12-Year-Old Opened the Gates for Education for Kids in His Community

Focussing on ‘late bloomers’, the initiative works in close collaboration with local government schools and incorporates various unconventional teaching methodologies to push even the late learners into the mainstream.

With classrooms titled ‘learning centres’ where every child gets individual focused attention and carefully curated child-friendly learning modules, Road to School aims to guide the learning process and as a result, paving the path for a brighter future.

Starting in Anchetty and Shoolagiri beside the Hosur plant, the initiative has now expanded its reach to regions like Minjur, Puzhal and Namakkal, impacting the lives of 19,700 students across 153 schools.

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The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of former human resource development secretary and retired IAS officer B.S. Baswan to review the scheme of civil service examination in August 2015.

The others on this committee constituted of – R.K. Barik (Professor, IIPA), Akber Ali (research Officer, IIPA), and Pankaj Kumar Singh (Research Officer, IIPA).

The committee had submitted its report to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on 9 August 2016.

“The Baswan Committee’s report along with UPSC’s recommendations on it has been received on 20 March 2017, and the same is under examination,” the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said in response to an RTI query filed by a PTI correspondent.

While this has not been approved yet, some of the key changes that are likely to be brought in are:

1. The optional paper that the aspirants have to appear for may be completely done away with. This is being touted as a huge reform.

2. The committee is understood to have recommended a reduction in upper age limit of 32 years to appear in the civil service exam.

3. The UPSC has fixed a seven-day time frame for candidates to report mistakes or discrepancies in questions asked in the various examinations conducted by it.

Most aspirants feel it would be a game-changer as there is a huge difference in the award of marks in the optionals, while some subjects have innate advantages.

“The availability of coaching and study material, and the scheme of awarding marks make some subjects more popular,” agrees Vikas, an aspirant in a report to The Hindu.

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Education is the greatest gift you can give anyone. In a country like ours where rural societies are still marred by the social issues of poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and caste-based discrimination, this very access to affordable and good quality education is a far cry.

But some good samaritans in Coimbatore are helping hundreds of meritorious and deserving underprivileged students, take one step closer to their dreams.

Edudharma is a community initiative by a Coimbatore-based volunteer team. While the team first stepped into community-based service to fight ‘No Food Waste’ and resolve hunger needs, it is now crossing another milestone by exploring the education sector.

Edudharma just like the name says, the duty of education, is supporting deserving students financially through a crowdfunding platform.

The team first identifies a deserving candidate and creates an online account on their crowdfunding website. The idea is to maintain 100% transparency. Deemed India’s first education crowdfunding platform, Edudharma prides itself on its unique feature that gives donors access to the students’ achievements, current and past academic records, so the donors are convinced, their money is reaching the right beneficiary.

They also help the students themselves to track the donation they receive in their name. Once the funding campaign hits the required amount, the money is then deposited to the respective account.

While Edudharma through its earlier initiative No Food Waste has been successfully feeding over 3 lakh people, the two-year-old organisation has transformed the lives of over 350 students through its educational platform. They have also partnered with over 110 colleges across India and have a 76.8% success rate.

Read more: IIT Student Comes up with a Plate-Shaped Device to Treat TB Patients with a Twist!

One of their beneficiaries is India’s No 1 Para-Badminton player and world No 27 Abbas Sugil. This Coimbatore-based athlete has one dream – to represent India at the 2020 Paralympics.But to stay in the league, he has to sustain himself within 30 ranks and play many more international matches. But the money is tight.

Speaking to EdexLive, he shares that he came across Edudharma a year ago. The platform has been helping him financially to participate in international tournaments ever since.

“As per the Paralympics rules, a player should hold a consistent rank for which the player should have participated in international tournaments every year. This year, my rank came down from 21 to 27 because I couldn’t participate in the international matches because I didn’t have enough money to travel,” he says.

Despite having won over 35 medals in different tournaments, he is still short of 14 more international tournaments to qualify for the Paralympics this year.

Edudharma started a sports campaign to raise 18 lakh for him, which still hasn’t reached its target. They are looking for more national and global donors to help Sugil, attain his dream. Another health campaign has been kickstarted for his electric elbow prosthesis.

Edudharma’s Android and iOS mobile application were recently launched by Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, Government of India.

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On 26/11, Chief Ticket Inspector SK Sharma was one of the many people who lost his life in the Mumbai terror attacks. Sharma was rushing home that night to spend his son, Aditya’s birthday with him. Unfortunately, he got shot and succumbed to his injuries.

A month after this gruesome act, the Sharma family founded an organisation, Shaheed Sushil Kumar Sharma Foundation, in their hometown, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, in his memory. The chief aim of this organisation is to support the education and empowerment of Adivasi girl children. It now offers free education to girls belonging to weak socio-economic backgrounds, alongside a handful of courses in painting and self-defence, among others.

Aditya was a student of Class 7 when he lost his father. Speaking to The Better India, he talks about the organisation and his journey.

“I wasn’t sure of what was happening and fell asleep after waiting for him to return home. I woke up at 4 a.m. and heard my mother and some other relatives crying. Even then the magnitude of what had happened did not strike me,” he says.

When asked why the foundation came into being, he says,

“The one thing that we, the family, were sure of was that his memory must be kept alive by doing something that he would have liked and supported.”

“Creating a foundation and helping others was how we thought that could be achieved and that is why we started the organisation within a month of his death.”

Speaking about the beginning, he says, “Initially the contributors were just the immediate family members. I remember we started the foundation with three children. Today, we are supporting over 350 children.”

Each girl child at the foundation is taught self-defence techniques and also given adequate training in all the necessary life skills.

“We periodically hold various competitions to encourage the girls to do better. We want to equip them with all the necessary skills,” he said.

Aditya’s mother, Ragini Sharma, has personally adopted five girl children from the school and will be sponsoring their education until the very end. “One of the reasons that we adopted these girls was because of their enthusiasm and zest for life. While most other girls were shy and took time to open up, the five girls we sponsor were full of life and wanted to engage with us. Despite not having access to the best education and infrastructure, these five girls scored above 90% in their examinations. We certainly feel that they deserve to be encouraged and pushed forward,” he says.

While the family has undoubtedly faced some painful and challenging times, what has kept them going is the strong bond they share with each other.

If you wish to find out more about the foundation, click here.

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Seventy years of our Independence and we have reached a stage where there is no more force, coercion or awareness needed in the field of education.

Today almost every parent, be they from rural or urban areas, rich or poor, wish to educate their child. Even daily wage earners, who aren’t too sure about getting paid the next day, want children to go to school.

The new anthem is “We don’t want our children to suffer as we did. We want them to get at least basic education’’.

According to a recent report by both government and private organisations, today in rural areas there is more than 96.5% enrollment in primary schools, and all over the country, it’s around 88%.

According to a 2013 report, there were more than 22.9 crore children enrolled from class I to class XII, which was an increase of more than 2.3 crore students from a report of 2002.

And till this year the number of new enrollments has certainly increased by many more thousands. So going to a school is no more a taboo or a chore. The children are mostly loving it.

But initial years, many children, especially girl students, drop out of schools. Also though the quantity has increased many folds in the last 70 years, the quality certainly hasn’t.

As a sample of this dip in quality, here are some numbers from the ASER reports from 2010 to 2016. Only 25 per cent of Std III children could do a 2-digit subtraction Only 68 per cent of Std VIII students could correctly do a 3-digit by 1-digit division problem was 68.4% in 2010.

(ASER stands for Annual Status of Education Report. This is an annual survey that aims to provide reliable annual estimates of children’s schooling status and basic learning levels for each state and rural district in India.)

Even good intentions do not always translate into good work. Take for example the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The Act states that there would be a free education in all government-funded schools and free distribution of mid-day meals.

It also states that no child should be held back, expelled or required to pass a board examination until he or she completes elementary (8th grade), education. Special training for school dropouts too would be held to bring them up to par with their age group children.

The Act itself isn’t faulty, but the execution is. As there is a provision of no holding back children in any class till 8th class, scant attention is paid to proper teachings or learning.

‘Proper learning’ is the key here. Are children, who have been admitted to schools in droves, learning properly?

Today all over the world people have understood that education doesn’t mean getting enrolled in a school. Education has to be sustainable, and this is the reason for UNESCO coming up with Educational Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.

This stresses that quality education has to be there to sustain it. By 2030 all countries should ensure a child completes both primary and secondary education without dropping out and every child has access to quality technical and vocational education.

“It’s not as though the teachers in the Government-run schools aren’t qualified. They are highly qualified to teach and are also paid a good salary. The problem is that they are overburdened,’’ says city coordinator Hemalata Sasane, who is working with Pratham, a path-breaking NGO that has been working in the field of education in the rural and financially weaker section of the society for 25 years now.

Farida Lambay, the co-founder of Pratham says, “While working in the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work in Mumbai (as the vice-principal), I felt that though policies were good and the funding too wasn’t bad, education needed a different approach. Especially in the rural and economically backward areas, where children didn’t have access to information and parents themselves were illiterate, there was a tremendous need to help these children gain knowledge.’’

So Pratham and NGOs like Teach For India, MAD (Make a difference), CRY (Child’s right and you), Barefoot College-India, Smile Foundation and many others voluntarily stepped in the field of school education to help the underprivileged children get a better education.

At Pratham, the emphasis is on family participation and outside support to students.

For example, Hemalata and her team of eight trainers, along with 70 support teachers, are handling 5,000 children from the biggest slum in Thane – located in Kalwa – comprising of more than 1,500 families.

They handle children in the age group of 3- to 14-years-old, who, under the RTE (Right to Education) Policy of 2009, get free education in government-run schools.

These trainer monitors approach every family urging them to send their children to the Pratham office after school hours instead of tuition classes.

Naturally, such requests often fall on deaf ears. In India, no solution is simple, and thus every idea must be allowed to grow till the desired effect is achieved.

Pratham wanted children to learn better. They needed to convince parents. So they chose to use every tactic available to them.

To woo the parents, they help them get their Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards. In case they have a disabled child, volunteers get a disability privilege card to help the child get all benefits.

They even hold meetings with expectant mothers to teach them how to take care of their child after birth.

Explaining their work, Hemalatha, along with trainer monitor Deepika Thakur, says, “All these activities are undertaken so that children can get a better education. We ask parents to come and see the progress once every month. After a month or so when they see that their child who couldn’t read a single sentence can now not only read but also write a short essay, they feel satisfied. And we don’t take any fees!’’

“The moment we talk about vocational training, the general misconception is that it’s meant only for the poor and for the lesser IQ students. Parents fail to understand that without technical or vocational training no degree can prepare a child to succeed,’” comments Lambay.

And that is the crux of SDG 4.The flagship scheme of the government for SDG 4 is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The aim is to achieve the SDG making universal quality education available to all Indians.

One hopes that they, and the efforts of NGOs like Pratham, succeed so India’s children may truly have a better future.

All pictures credit: Pratham

This article is a part of The Better India’s attempt to drive conversation around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where India stands with regards to meeting these goals. Many organisations across the country are helping India proceed towards the fulfilment of these goals and this series is dedicated to recognising their efforts and the kind of impact they have created so far.

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Brijesh Saroj is the son of a daily wage worker in Uttar Pradesh and is determined to repay the society which helped him during a difficult period.

Despite being academically brilliant — he and his brother Raju secured rank 167 and 410 on the JEE merit list respectively — the brothers faced the tough task of putting together  ₹ 1 lakh, which was the amount they needed to pay to attend IIT.

An article about the brothers appeared in the Times of India, following which, help from good samaritans poured in from all around the world. A fee waiver from the Union Human Resource Development Ministry helped, and the IIT dream for the boys came true. Brijesh got admitted to IIT-Bombay, and his brother at IIT-Kharagpur.

It was during his stint in Mumbai that Brijesh, with the help of a few friends, founded the Samdarshi Foundation. An NGO, it helps students from slums secure admission in schools, teaches them their rights, and mentors them to ensure that they pursue their academic dreams. “We have a classroom and a dedicated teacher in Kalyan where students, who cannot afford tuition, can receive personal attention. We are currently tutoring 15 students, but want to improve our base as much as possible.” Brijesh told the Times of India.

When he was in 5th standard, Badra Sen Negi ran away from his home in a small village in Himachal’s Kinnaur district. Later, when he came under the aegis of an initiative run by an NGO, he hesitantly told them about his dream of becoming an engineer.

Badra now works in a one of the most reputed technology companies in California’s Silicon Valley. Furthermore, humbled and inspired by the changes education brought in his life, he has decided to pay it forward. He provides scholarships for children from his home town to attend schools run by the NGO that helped him – VIDYA, and for those who cannot attend school for some reason, he has built a school in his village.

Is this not what the education scene should ideally be in India? Giving every child, no matter what the background, the freedom to dream? And letting those who have taken flight, help others fly in turn?

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Although India’s education sector has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few decades, many of its children still fail to receive a quality education.

While some just do not have access to a school, others are hindered by socio-economic reasons. Those fortunate enough to enrol in classes, often drop out owing to poor infrastructure, absent teachers and lack of relevant curriculum.

In fact, the recently published census data by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) revealed two alarming facts — 32 million Indian children (aged between 6 and 13 years) have never attended any educational institution while nearly 78 lakh children are forced to earn a livelihood even as they attend schools.

The urgency of the situation is compounded by the fact that a majority of out-of-school-children (OOSC) do not actually need to work to aid their family. This supports the NSSO’s finding that education being viewed as ‘unnecessary’ is a significant reason for school drop-outs!

It has been observed that girls, children belonging to marginalised groups (such as the very poor and the disabled) or children in far-flung rural communities, are usually the ones who are left behind.

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This makes an equitable, inclusive and robust education system the bare minimum that India should strive to provide to its population.

Which means more investment in teacher awareness on equity, intervention programmes in mother tongues, disabled-friendly infrastructure and other initiatives needed to level the playing field.

Also, equity should not be just about access but also the quality i.e. using targeted strategies to ensure that the best quality of education is not restricted just well-developed zones.

And how can this be achieved? Sometimes it begins with the right intentions. Rashmi Misra founded VIDYA nearly 30 years ago and is an excellent example of such intentions.

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A Delhi-based German language teacher, Misra would often visit her husband at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) where he worked as a professor. One day, while walking to the institute’s campus, she came across a stream of flowing sewage with little girls playing in it.

When she asked them why they weren’t in school, the response she got was, “Only boys go to school.” Having grown up in the poverty-stricken environment of slums, the girls considered going to school to be an unattainable privilege that could only be bestowed on boys!

It was at this heartbreaking moment that Misra knew that she had to do something to change this status quo. She opened her home to the five eager-to-learn girls she had met and began teaching them English, math and music. In no time, the small group had grown into a gathering of 20.

And it is a model that works and can be replicated across the country. Such organisations are usually run entirely by volunteers and use a multitude of integrative development initiatives to educate and empower women and children, who in turn, become leaders of social change within their communities.

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This is crucial. Most schools in India happily train students to do rote learning just to pass an exam. But is that the kind of education that we are looking for? No – we are looking for holistic development, the need of the hour in India’s education system.

A well-rounded system of education doesn’t measure a student’s merit just by academic results. Instead, it identifies the unique gifts, interests and aspirations of every student and helps them develop his or her strengths, pursue positive passions and serve worthy causes.

In short, it understands that there is more to education than just academic knowledge; that while grades do have an impact on students’ job prospects, there are several other learnings during school that can have an equal; or even greater impact on their lives.

This is why using creative methods in classrooms exposes students to ideas that make them think about the world around them.

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In our interviews with such organisations, it was repeatedly stressed that schools should ensure that students are taught not just academic subjects, but also the right attitude and values that many people don’t learn until much later in life.

Not only does this help them become confident, creative and well-balanced citizens who contribute to the society, but also helps them aspire to their goals.

But there is an important caveat to this. While schools do go a long way towards supplementing, enhancing and reinforcing life skills, it is at home where education actually begins. Thus, parents play a critical role in their children’s education.

In most underprivileged communities, the mother, wife or eldest girl is typically the primary caretaker of the family, and they are also the most marginalised. This means that educating and empowering women can be a powerful way of ensuring that their children receive schooling.

Studies have shown that children — especially daughters — of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and to have higher levels of educational attainment.

This can provide that crucial start to an upward spiral which leads women and their families out of poverty.

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Along with the kids, programmes must help disadvantaged women become more confident and economically independent.

Here is a heart-warming story shared by VIDYA that perfectly backs up this claim –

Neelam was a mother of three children when she lost her husband. Using her determination and the initiative’s resources (basic education, skill training and a microcredit loan of ₹ 3000), she started her own business of selling Madhubani artwork.

Today, she has sent all her kids to college and employed 35 women, and plans to hire more!

Neelam’s story is just one among countless others. Thousands of young men and women have been able to let go of their poverty-stricken backgrounds, build a better life for themselves and transform into stronger individuals ready to face all challenges.

All thanks to the transformative power of education!

Today, India is home to nearly 300 million young people under the age of 15, more than in any country on Earth.

This future workforce, combined with the country’s current tech boom, has the potential to inject new dynamism into India’s growing economy and help overall development.

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As such, India’s chances of emerging as a global superpower squarely rest on how well it responds to the challenges plaguing its education system. Though the road to reform will be fraught with challenges, the cost of inaction will be much higher.

That’s why it’s important to utilise the examples set by bottom-up, gender-focused and all-inclusive initiatives.

After all, as John F Kennedy famously said, “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”

This article is a part of The Better India’s attempt to drive conversation around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and where India stands with regards to meeting these goals. Many organisations across the country are helping India proceed towards fulfilment of these goals and this series is dedicated to recognising their efforts and the kind of impact they have created so far.

Also Read: How the Simple Act of Eating Together Is Tackling Malnutrition in Rural India

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Social and economic progress in any developing nation is based on its ability to leverage human capital. In the past few years, a lot of the public discourse has revolved around the distinct demographic dividend that India possesses.

As per data from a 2015 sample registration survey of India (SRS) statistical report, approximately 64% of India’s total population lie between the ages of 15 and 59 in 2015.

Of greater significance is the fact that nearly 28% of the population consists of children between the ages of 0-14, making up the future demographic dividend.

Observers contend that this dividend will only begin to bear fruit if the requisite policies and structural mechanisms are put in place.

With over one million young people entering the workforce each month, this could either hamper or improve India’s growth prospects.

Among other factors, better prospects for skill development is a crucial component of leveraging the demographic dividend.

In India, there exists a glaring gap in what students are taught versus industry requirements. This skill gap is why a significant section of our population remains unemployable or unemployed.

In this context, access to quality higher education for a vast section of the population is critical.

Quality is definitely an issue that policymakers need to contend with on a war-footing, but what if higher education becomes unaffordable for vast segments of our populace?

This is what certain educationists fear after news surfaced that from July 1, 2017, onwards, auxiliary services like hostels, catering, security, transportation, and even admission related services availed by institutions of higher education (both public and private) would attract a goods and service tax (GST) of 18%.

It is well known that many institutions of higher learning source these services from third parties since their focus primarily revolves around imparting education.

Many educationists argue that an 18% GST will only compel such academic institutions to pass on the burden of that additional tax to their students.

“As institutions do not have any GST on income to adjust its input tax credit, the increased cost is ultimately borne by the students,” says a recent media campaign run by Career360, an education portal.

The Education Promotion Society of India, a not-for-profit organization which represents over 300 private universities and 3,000 colleges, petitioned the government to scrap GST for higher education institutions earlier this month.

“Since these services are currently paid by users directly to vendors, GST levy will create a financial burden on them and also lead to an escalation of the cost of higher education,” said EPSI.

“HEIs (higher education institutions) will be forced to stop outsourcing and do it in-house. The management of universities and colleges will unnecessarily be bogged down in managing these services which do not come into their core competencies viz. higher education,” it added.

T.V. Mohandas Pai, the chairman of Manipal Global Education, argued that the government must maintain its position that it will not drag the education and health sector into the tax-net.

“It is high time that the government realise that educational institutions, be it schools or HEIs come under the same social sector and is not a business. When schools were considered and exempted, the government had to give the same consideration to HEIs as well, which would have avoided such a situation,” he said to the Deccan Chronicle. This is precisely the gist of the problem.

If the government wants educational institutions to function as ‘not for profit’ endeavours, then this tax becomes an unnecessary burden. On the flip side, critics argue that many private institutions anyway charge exorbitant fees, and they need to be taxed.

But why should all institutions of higher learning pay for the transgressions of a certain few?

For these institutions, the services provided to its students, faculty and staff were earlier exempt from any sort of service tax. That changed in July 2014 when the government restricted this exemption to six categories, namely transportation of students and faculty, catering, security, house-keeping, cleaning services and admission-related concerns or conduct of examinations.

HEIs are no longer exempt. Thankfully, primary and higher secondary schools continue to enjoy some of these exemptions.

As per the notification issued earlier this year: “Provided that nothing contained in clause (b) of this entry shall apply to an educational institution other than an institution providing services by way of pre-school education and education up to higher secondary school or equivalent.”

In other words, all institutions of higher education are now under the tax net.

Read also: GST Is Down but Prices Unchanged? Govt to Step in After Outrage

“And the result of this change is burdening the student. It is to pursue higher education that students go out, stay in hostels, eat at a mess, travel by bus. And all these are now charged at 18 percent GST if such services are from outsourced companies,” said Peri Maheshwar, chairman and CEO of Career360, in a recent column on Firstpost.

Slapping 18% GST on higher education only creates more hurdles for young Indians seeking to access quality higher education, thus affecting India’s ability to reap its demographic dividend. The GST Council could consider re-examining the issue for the benefit of its young populace.

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