DL_JUNE_2018_Magazine

06

Cover Story

Special Features Chhattisgarh: Laying Foundation of Futuristic Education System

E D U C AT I O N

27

2018

Bihar Set to Regain Ancient Glory in Education Sector

JUNE

CONCLAVE

C H H AT T I S G A R H | RA I PU R

FEATURED INSIDE Conference Report ‘Education Conclave - Uttar Pradesh 2018’

CONTENTS JUNE 2018 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 06

COVER STORY

08

REFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH DIGITISATION HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

SPECIAL FEATURE 24

32 DR K V L RAJU Principal, MVGR Engineering College

36 SUDHAKAR RAO

16 BIHAR SET TO REGAIN ANCIENT GLORY IN EDUCATION SECTOR

EDU-TECH PERSPECTIVE

Director, Branding, ICFAI Group

26 LINDA LIU

SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

Vice President, International, The College Board

28 HARSHIL GALA Director, eSense Learning

34 ONKAR PRASAD

52 R K TRIVEDI Dean, O P Jindal Group of Schools

52

20 CHHATTISGARH: LAYING FOUNDATION OF FUTURISTIC EDUCATION SYSTEM

CONFERENCE REPORT

Founder-Director, Promorph Solutions

43

Editor-in-Chief Dr Ravi Gupta

HYDERABAD BUREAU Assistant Editor: Sudheer Goutham B

Editorial Team - Delhi/NCR Senior Assistant Editors: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Sandeep Datta Assistant Editors: Priyanka Sharma, Gopi Krishna Arora, Poulami Chakraborty, Mukul Kumar Mishra Senior Correspondents: Akash Tomer, Rashi Aditi Ghosh Correspondent: Ritika Srivastava

AHMEDABAD BUREAU Assistant Editor: Hemangini S Rajput

LUCKNOW BUREAU Assistant Editor: Arpit Gupta MUMBAI BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma Senior Correspondents: Harshal Yashwant Desai, Rakesh Kumar Roy JAIPUR BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma

BHOPAL BUREAU Senior Correspondent: Divakar Mukherjee Sales & Marketing : digitalLearning Senior Manager: Kumar Chandan Anand Subscription & Circulation Team +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in Design Team Creative Head: Anjan Dey Deputy Art Directors: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur, Shyam Kishore, Raja Das, Pulak Paul Director, Administration Archana Jaiswal

CHANDIGARH BUREAU Assistant Editor: Priya Yadav

Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLEARNING – Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd: Stellar IT Park Office No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Tower-2, Annexe Building, C-25, Sector-62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600, Fax: +91-120-4812660, Email: info@elets.in digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd Owner, Publisher, Printer - Dr Ravi Gupta Printed at First Impression Corporate Services Pvt Ltd, E-114, Sector-63, Noida, Uttar Pradesh

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EDITORIAL Bihar, Chhattisgarh Revolutionising Horizon of Education With the country undergoing a digital transformation in almost every sphere of life, education could not be an exception. Bihar and Chhattisgarh, two vibrant and progressive States of the country, are prominent examples as they focus on its education sector in a remarkable way. digitalLEARNING magazine’s latest cover story — Reforming Education Through Digitisation — highlights the education sector’s growing inclination towards latest technologies and the best digital practices. It explores Government and private sector’s initiatives to introduce innovation and modern concepts in the country’s educational ecosystem.

As Elets organises Education Conclave Bihar in Patna on June 22 and Education Conclave Chhattisgarh in Raipur on June 27, with Microsoft as a presenting partner for both the summits, the special features of the magazine are focused on overall education scenario in the two States.

The special feature – Bihar Set to Regain Ancient Glory in Education Sector -- showcases the efforts by State Government, public sector and private sector organisations to establish Bihar as educational hub for eastern and north-eastern States of India.

Another special feature – Chhattisgarh: Laying Foundation of Futuristic Education System -- on the similar lines showcases the efforts by the State’s education sector likely to be developed as most preferred education destination for Central States of India.

The issue also covers the thoughts of top leaders of School, Higher Education and Edu-tech corporate who have tried to explore and implement inspirational initiatives to transform the States’ and country’s education sector.

Our latest issue also carries the conference report of Education Conclave Uttar Pradesh 2018, showcasing efforts of Uttar Pradesh to provide education to all and ensuring opportunities to learn skills in this tech-driven world.

Hoping the latest bouquet of special features, interviews, articles and industry perspectives will evoke deep interest in the education system of Bihar and Chhattisgarh, we look forward to our esteemed readers’ invaluable feedback.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief digitalLEARNING magazine and CEO Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

COVER STORY

REFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH DIGITISATION With the advent of technology and its surging acceptability in society at large, there is a huge scope to take education to the remotest part of the country, for enhancing awareness and improving understanding. But, the education field in India is mired in tradition, ideology and incumbent interests, writes Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

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COVER STORY

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India’s education sector is witnessing the increased use of technology such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in day-to-day practices related to education sector.

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“T

he use of technology coupled with bold decisions can help India leapfrog into inclusive growth and improve the quality of health and education.”

– Bill Gates The statement by the founder of one of the world’s largest technology companies indicates that the use of technology may help India to get placed among top countries of the world in terms of education.

India’s education sector is witnessing the increased use of technology such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in day-to-day practices related to education sector. The Government is also focusing on greater use of technology as it looks to implement largescale reforms such as Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) scheme.

While technology-enabled initiatives or platforms in line with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) such as Swayam (for teachers’ training) have seen use of technologies, the Government is also emphasising on boosting the use of tools such as virtual lab, virtual reality (VR)-enabled

classrooms or curated online content for both students and teachers.

Swayam, an online life-long training platform developed with the help of Microsoft, or Diksha, a platform that aids teachers with digital and techbased teaching solutions, are “prominent efforts” in revamping the education infrastructure.

“Digitising education has been an imperative keeping in mind the affordability, accessibility, inclusiveness of the large trainable youth population. Technology may be used to reach the diverse population at the remotest corners.

MOOC platforms, NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) are already in use for promotion of higher technical education. They may be used for reaching out to school children as well,” said Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director, IIIT, Kharagpur.

He added that IITs across locations are working on “digital convergence” and “development of innovative infrastructure for education” which could result in increased use of new-age technologies.

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COVER STORY Education system in future The series of education provisions in the 2016-17 Budget provides an exact picture about the present Government’s future plans for education.

The Government is planning to establish a new agency -- Higher Education Financing Agency to oversee the infrastructural developments in Higher Education. At the same time, owing to standardisation of training, a new regulatory body’s establishment has also been on the agenda.

In addition to supporting online courses, the next step of the Government in the direction of digitalisation is the creation of an online register for report cards and degrees.

Concerning State investments, the higher education continues to enjoy priority, but public education, particularly technical training, will also benefit, as the allocation of financial sources makes clear.

Other than the Government, various private organisations are also supporting India’s digital initiatives for education. Software major Microsoft, working with Atal Tinkering Labs across 25 schools in the country to empower students and teachers with technology skills, is also pushing for the use of cloud computing for creating an efficient digital lab experience.

Pratik Mehta, Director Sales at Microsoft India, said technologies are fast finding ways into the

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“

Digitising education has been imperative keeping in mind the affordability, accessibility, inclusiveness of the large trainable youth population.

Technology may be used to reach the diverse population at the remotest corners.

”

classrooms in multiple ways such as mobile devices giving students “access to the latest teacher curated content”, VR-enabled classrooms offering students “an enhanced learning experience”.

Apart from the Rs 1 lakh crore expenditure estimate for RISE spread over four years, the Government has increased the overall expenditure estimate for education by 4 per cent and it grew by more than 11 per cent in 2017-18. Despite a growth in budgetary expenditure allocation, many projects have seen delayed implementation and use of funds. Going forward, analysts said, technology will play a key role to speed up implementation of education reforms.

India as a nation is on a growth path in education sector and digitisation is supporting the collective efforts of public and private sector to realise the dream of becoming the education hub of the world. Along with other States of India, educationally backward States are also focusing on improving the education scenario.

The two States – Bihar and Chhattisgarh are adopting the digital educational practices rapidly. Bihar which may be considered as the educational hub for Eastern and North-Eastern India, Chhattisgarh is gradually gaining popularity as the educational destination for Central India. Educationists opine that the two States are leveraging the technology to

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COVER STORY

improve the education sector from primary to higher level.

Digital Education in Bihar – Educationists’ view: “Information technology has reformed each sector it has grasped and it is currently in the promising phases of altering academia. In the coming decades, Information Technology is likely to change the education sector hopefully more constructive to the people than it is today. Digitisation in education industry has totally changed the learning and also the teaching process to a great extent.” - Prof S B LAL of Patna University.

“Digitalisation really helps to read many books and gather more information easily. Students of Bihar benefitted a lot through digital education.

Many schools are adopting virtual class room, flipped class room, e-text books, adaptive learning and on-line learning etc. Class room technologies are enhancing day-by-day, to make the teaching process more comfortable and interactive.” Dr Sanjoy Kumar Parida, Dean - Academic, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna.

Digital Education in Chhattisgarh – Educationists’ View “We have taken giant leaps with the help and guidelines of Ministry of higher education, Chhattisgarh towards promoting digitally enabled and strengthened higher education programmes.

Whole hearted participation of universities and colleges of the state in MOOC through SWAYAM and SWAYAM PRABHA programmes of MHRD

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“

Software major Microsoft, which is working with Atal Tinkering Labs across 25 schools in the country to empower students and teachers with technology skills, is also pushing for the use of cloud computing for creating an efficient digital lab experience.

”

will bring in qualitative changes in standards of higher education and provide equal opportunities of education to every child male/ female, adults, senior citizens even at the remotest corners of the state,” said Dr Sanjay Kumar, Vice Chancellor, ITM University.

“Universities have launched massive drives towards digitising libraries, records, rules, regulations, certificates, study materials etc and they have become members of National Digital Library, National Academy Depository schemes.

Campuses are made smart, digitally enabled , clean, green and conducive. Participative & demonstrative teaching and learning processes have made education in the state interesting, entertaining and creative. Surrounding villages of the university campuses are adopted to transfer the much needed knowledge to each villager to ease out problems faced by them. In the state, students are bright and very receptive. Free laptops, mobile and tabs are given to each student to promote higher education,” he added.

Some may doubt that the digital reforms may live up to their promises or not but, they certainly prove that India and its States have recognised the challenges of the 21st century, the power of knowledge, information, and innovation, and accordingly radical reforms are taking place in the country.

The successful creation of knowledge-based society would carry great opportunities for India, while its failure could push the nation towards not just an economic but a political crisis as well.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

BIHAR SET TO REGAIN ANCIENT GLORY IN EDUCATION SECTOR The State of Bihar, which was known as Magadh in the ancient times, has been a major centre of learning. Today, to achieve the goal of 100% literacy and Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE), various initiatives have been taken by the State Government and private players, observes Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

“

The present Government has opened a national law university – Chanakya National Law University and a B-school – Chandragupt Institute of Management to improve the conditions of higher education in the State.

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B

ihar has also been home to globally renowned universities such as Nalanda, one of the earliest universities of India in 5th century, and Vikramashila.

During British rule, Bihar witnessed boost to the education sector with the setting up of a University at Patna along with other centres of high learning, namely, Science College, Patna, Prince of Wales Medical College (now Patna Medical College and Hospital), and Bihar Engineering College (now National Institute of Technology, Patna).

In the 1960s, major educational reforms were implemented to streamline the education structure of state by the then education minister and educationist late Satender Narain Sinha.

In spite of the inadequate investment on education in Bihar, compared to other poorer Indian states, the students have done well.

The National Institutes of Learning such as IIT, IIM and AIIMS, IISER, NISER have had a good representation from Bihar. A survey by Pratham rated the absorption of their teaching by the Bihar children better than those in other States.

School Education From the British times, Bihar has had a system of district schools (called Zila schools), located at the headquarters of the older districts of Bihar.

In addition to Zila schools, there were private and semi Government aided schools which were run and administered by local village communities many of which were famous to impart good quality education.

After the liberalisation, the number of missionary as well as Madrasa schools has increased. The chains of Christian Missionary Schools are among the best schools of Bihar. Apart from the types of schools mentioned earlier, the different kinds of schools in the State are as follows: l Play Schools l Montessori Schools l Kids Schools l Nursery Schools l Anglo Indian Schools l Matriculation Schools l Boarding Schools l Urban Schools l Rural Schools Like the other States in India, the Central

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Government runs a number of Kendriya Vidyalayas (Central Schools) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya for rural students of Bihar. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya was started by the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to provide quality education to the weaker sections of the society.

Most of the State-run schools in Bihar are affiliated to the Bihar School Examination Board, while the Kendriya Vidyalaya and other private schools including the Christian Missionary Schools are affiliated either to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE).

Bihar Government has also implemented a series of reforms to boost State’s Primary Education including mandatory digitisation of all state-run schools. With the implementation of The Right of Children To Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right To Education Act (RTE), the Department of Education aims to ensure free and quality primary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years in the State and has initiated several innovative schemes like Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Mukhyamantri Balak & Balika Cycle Yojana, Mukhyamantri Paribhraman Yojana, Mukhyamantri Poshak Yojana, Mukhyamantri Smagra Vidyalaya Vikas Yojana, Mukhyamantri Protsahan Yojana.

Some of the prominent schools of Patna include St Joseph’s Convent, St Michael’s High School and St Xavier’s School among others.

Higher Education Patna is gradually emerging as one of the major centres of learning in India especially for Eastern and North Eastern States. Higher Education institutes in Patna impart education in every stream including technology, medicine, management, law and fashion etc.

The Government has opened institutions of national importance in Patna to offer better higher learning opportunities to the State’s youths.

Colleges such as Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Birla Institute of Technology Patna and National Institute of Technology Patna are the prominent engineering colleges in the State Capital.

Colleges other than engineering stream include the recently established National Institute of Fashion Technology Patna and medical schools such as Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna Medical College and Hospital, and Nalanda Medical College and Hospital.

Anugrah Narayan College and B N College are

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“

With the implementation of The Right of Children To Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right To Education Act (RTE), the Department of Education aims to ensure free and quality primary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

”

among the best known colleges for commerce and humanities besides for a range of PG courses.

Modern Bihar has an inadequate educational infrastructure creating a huge mismatch between demand and supply. This problem is further compounded by increases in population. The craving for higher education among the general population of Bihar has led to a migration of the student community from the state.

This has led to a “flooding” of students to seek educational opportunities in other states, such as New Delhi and Karnataka, even for graduation level college education. Researchers found out that 37.8% of Bihar’s teachers could not be found during unannounced visits to schools, the worst teacher absence rate in India and one of the worst in the world.

The present Government has opened a national law university – Chanakya National Law University and a B-school – Chandragupt Institute of Management to improve the conditions of higher education in the State.

Both these institutes have attracted students from not just within Bihar but also from far flung States of the country.

A N Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute, Bihar Research Institute are the research institutes in Patna.

The Patna University, the first university in Bihar, was established in 1917, and is the 7th oldest university of the Indian subcontinent. Patna also houses one of India’s world-renowned libraries, the Khuda Baksh Oriental Library and the Sinha Library, which are one of the largest in the region.

Along with engineering studies, the study of medical science has also received a boom with the introduction of latest technologies and courses.

Presently, a large number of students are opting for medical studies. The urge for studying medical science has given birth to a number of institutions and courses regarding medical science in Bihar Medical Colleges. Students from different states shift their base to Bihar every year to pursue their studies in Bihar Medical Colleges.

It can be observed that Bihar is emerging as a hub of education for Eastern and North Eastern States.

The State is functioning hard with the ultimate goals to regain its past glory in the field of education so that the state can retain the meaning of Bihar, i.e. walk ahead with confidence and prosperity spreading the light of education as used to be in Buddha’s era.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

CHHATTISGARH: LAYING

FOUNDATION OF FUTURISTIC EDUCATION SYSTEM From infrastructure to Information Communication Technology (ICT), the Chhattisgarh Government is trying to revamp the higher education landscape of the State in every aspect, observes Elets News Network (ENN).

“

The Government is also trying to enhance the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in education.

It is made compulsory to provide leased lines to the leading colleges at district level.

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S

ince being recognised as a State in 2000, Chhattisgarh seems to be on a growth trajectory in every sector including the education.

Even though the education scenario in Chhattisgarh is not so remarkable due to lack of proper educational infrastructure, the Government as well as the private players appear to have joined hands to develop good educational opportunities in the State.

The State Government has launched several programmes for enhancing the academic scenario of Chhattisgarh.

Persistent efforts of the State Government have led to Chhattisgarh witnessing an overall growth in the literacy rate.

According to the 2011 census report, Chhattisgarh had a literacy rate of 70.28 per cent. The male literacy rate in the State is 80.28 per cent and that of female is 60.24 per cent.

Special importance is given to the education of women and students belonging to the underprivileged section of the society to improve their literacy rate.

Like other states of India the education

scenario of Chhattisgarh is also divided into two segments: School Education and Higher Education. Preschool education is part of School Education in the State.

School Education Most of the children in the State usually attend three years of Montessori Education before joining 1st standard in a school. Like other States and Union Territories (UT) of India, the schools in Chhattisgarh follow the same 10+2 pattern of education pedagogy. One can come across both private and state-run schools in Chhattisgarh.

The Government-run schools are mostly affiliated to the Chhattisgarh Board of Secondary Education. Students can also join schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) or International Baccalaureate (IB) schools.

The state-run schools have adopted Hindi as the medium of instruction while English is preferred by most of the private schools. New Life English School Janakpur, Jain International School, Adarsh Vidya Mandir, Gyanganga Educational

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Academy, Delhi Public School, Kaanger Valley Academy, Bhartiya Sanskriti Higher Secondary School and Salem English School are some of the popular schools in Chhattisgarh.

To improve the quality of education in Chhattisgarh, the 15th Joint Review Mission Report of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan also praised the State for setting up primary schools within a radius of every one km and middle schools within every three km.

Challenges Despite the Government’s continuous efforts, Chhattisgarh ranked among the 10 lowest positioned states for primary (I-V classes) and middle schools (VI-VIII) with 28th position on a list of 35 on the Education Development Index (EDI).

While there is a host of factors discouraging children to attend schools, Naxalism is the root cause for putting off young ones from going to schools.

The State is placed higher than bigger states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on EDI but it is found that Chhattisgarh has fallen behind in most of the 24 performance indicators for education sector that were broadly grouped under four segments -- access, teachers, outcome and infrastructure.

Higher and Technical Education in Chhattisgarh Like school education, the Government and various private players have invested to improve the Higher Education in Chhattisgarh.

There are 206 government colleges and seven universities including private universities.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the State is around 13 per cent, far behind the national average of GER which is around 22 but certain measures have been taken by the Chhattisgarh Government to equate the GER of the State with that of the national average.

The most important of those measures is the implementation of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). RUSA is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), launched in 2013, with an aim to provide strategic funding to eligible higher educational institutions of different states. The scheme focuses on three major aspects: Access to education, equity among children and providing quality education.

For easy access of higher education to youth

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“

Chhattisgarh has seen an overall growth in the literacy rate possible due to the persistent efforts of the State Government.

According to the 2011 census report, Chhattisgarh had a literacy rate of 70.28 per cent.

”

of the State, The government is coming up with four new universities at Jagdalpur, Bilaspur, Durg and Ambikapur. Under RUSA, grant of Rs 20 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of each new university.

Apart from this, grant of Rs 2 crore for constructing eight classrooms and two toilets has been sanctioned for each of the 54 colleges in the State. It would help the colleges to increase overall intake of students by around 50,000 annually. It will directly lead to the increase in the GER and to provide easy access of education to the students.

The Government is also trying to enhance the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in education. It is made compulsory to provide leased lines to the leading colleges at district level.

Last year, Wi-Fi Networks have been provided to around 50 colleges. Few colleges have their own network that has been provided under the scheme of UGC. The Government is also focusing on providing smart classrooms and virtual classrooms to the colleges as well.

According to Bhuvanesh Yadav, Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education and Additional Charge of Mission Director, RUSA, “We are actually stressing on modifying the curriculum as it is outdated. We have formed a community of vice chancellors to improve the curriculum in accordance with the new scenario and this is in the process.

We also want to improve employability amongst the students by introducing certain vocational courses.

Chhattisgarh is one of the first States which have started vocational courses.”

Modern Approach to Impart Education To improve the education standards of the State and to provide good quality education to youth, the Government is promoting and installing virtual classrooms, smart classrooms and smart libraries in educational institutes across the State.

It contains pre-recorded lectures of important topics from various eminent professors to help students learn effectively.

To provide them with extra input, it is being tried to focus that every college has a Wi-Fi so that they can search more things about their subjects. We are also planning to distribute them Tablets pre-loaded with the content of certain important topics of the subjects. Other than that the government is also planning to distribute tablets pre-loaded with the content of certain important topics of the subjects.

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ADVERTORIAL

IFIM Business School’s Microsoft Journey

R

ecognising the transformation of higher education by the digital revolution and the change it has brought to the education landscape, IFIM Business School became an early adopter of technology.

Introducing avant-garde technologies to improve learning experience, smoother administrative processes and improve internal collaboration, IFIM ended stacking up numerous applications, with unforeseen challenges. Realising the need to address these challenges, IFIM went on a hunt for the best solutions in the market - a search that ended with Microsoft Azure and Office 365. Let us take a peek into the journey!

Business Needs IFIM Business School was quickly understood the importance of technology in streamlining the education processes.

The B-school also recognized technology’s

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efficiency in enhancing educational and extracurricular activities. In this regard, IFIM had deployed multiple applications to cater for various activities across the campus. Security was one of the primary challenges that the B-school needed resolution for. They had to ensure that the users only had access to the relevant application. Access control protocols were introduced to keep this in check.

It effectively addressed the issue, but inadvertently gave rise to a totally different challenge.

The users needed multiple login ids and passwords, one for each of the applications, that they were using. This complicated the process and hundreds of password-reset requests started piling up daily at IFIM. This meant, substantially increased workload for the IT support team and a decreased overall productivity as the users could not access the relevant applications on time.

Another big issue was data storage.

Most of the staff, especially teaching staff, used personal devices for official work. They saved all their relevant documents and files on their personal devices for convenience as there was a lack of clear protocol on data storage.

This led to lack of information sharing, data mismanagement, and loss. In the absence of an established protocol in this regard, it was almost impossible to manage this issue.

There was also the challenge of subpar user collaboration. The internal systems were not developed keeping the needs of internal collaboration in sight. This made collaboration between the faculty members, staff, and students a challenge.

IFIM considered internal collaboration as an integral part of their ethos and wanted to ensure that their IT infrastructure complimented this.

IFIM management understood the

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gravity of these situations and started looking for solutions that led them to Microsoft.

Solution

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ERP for Administration requirements, D2L Brightspace for academic delivery, @Workplace for Social, and Office 365 for collaboration. “We wanted a seamless platform for delivering and managing learning. The Microsoft platform helped us to achieve seamless interoperability between disparate applications and services sourced from different vendors,” adds Sanjay Padode. The migration to Azure was also advantageous for data storage, as all the data is now being stored in one place - the cloud. This enables seamless data sharing and mobility.

Moreover, it also nullifies the fear of data loss as Azure complies with the best of compliance standards and security protocols.

Office 365 Single Sign-On (SSO) feature ensured that the users no longer had to have multiple sign-in credentials.

By signing into their O365 account they could now access all their applications.

This meant that the IT support staff is no longer strained with password reset requests. Additionally, the IT administrator now has better control on access, i.e. once users log in to the platform, their personalized platform will only have those applications that are relevant to them. “With SSO implemented, we could get in more users on Keep Learning Platform. In the last 6 months, we have moved from approximately 20 transactions per day to about 2000 transactions per day. There is still a lot

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of scope to improve. We aim to achieve 5000 transactions per day in the next six months,” says Anandarup Kar, Head – Technology & eLearning.

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Microsoft Azure and Office 365 are the two products that IFIM adopted from Microsoft to address all their challenges. The migration process was handled by IFIM’s internal team with a comprehensive documentation on the same provided by Microsoft.

“The Microsoft Office Suite dominates the business landscape for document exchange and the recruiting companies always demand that our students are proficient in the use of these tools. We have been a beneficiary of the campus license agreement for the last decade and this long relationship gave us the confidence to zero in on Microsoft to help us with a solution,” says Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Center for Developmental Education. Furthermore, the ease of integration with the existing products and the fact that they come as managed services also acted in the favor of Microsoft when IFIM was deciding on the right solutions partner.

IFIM started with the Azure cloud.

On Azure, they developed the Keep Learning Platform. Keep Learning Platform was built to be the umbrella under which all the various platforms that IFIM was using assimilated. This meant that they no longer remained as disparate systems, but as one unified platform. The applications that the B-school now uses include CampusLabs

Benefits The benefits to IFIM, post the adoption of Azure and O365 are as follows: Seamless Access Management: O365 SSO ensured that the users would be able to use a single credential to access all their applications. It also ensured that the IT administrator will have better control on who accesses what.

Less Hardware Dependence: File storing and sharing are now happening on the cloud and this ensures that the dependence on localized hardware is much lower.

Better Security Protocols: Azure comes with state of the art security features, consistently safeguarding IFIM data.

Better Collaboration: The collaboration tools of Office 365, with its user-friendly interface, is now popular among faculty, staff and students, and is widely used.

Having solved all its challenges, IFIM is now looking to upgrade. For now, the organization remains to be predominantly paper based. The plan forward is to ensure that the institute becomes as paperless as possible, in the process cut through all the red tapes as well. Transparency is the key mantra that IFIM is toying with.

With the help of Microsoft, the B-school is hoping to attain these objectives in the near future.

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COLLEGE BOARD:

CONNECTING STUDENTS TO COLLEGES DIGITALLY Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education.

Today, the membership association is made up of over 6,000 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education, says Linda Liu, Vice President, International, The College Board, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the aim of India Global Higher Education Alliance?

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All Indian Alliance member universities will be accepting the SAT as an admissions examination.

This will greatly simplify the application process and expand opportunities for many students.

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The India Global Higher Education Alliance is a platform for driving collaboration between the College Board and participating universities in India and abroad to achieve three primary goals. First is to build a community of innovative secondary and higher education leaders who will work to improve the transition for students to higher education in India. Second is to establish a forum for sharing of global best practices to learn from what is working in admissions around the world. Third is to take concrete actions to help ensure that all students in India, regardless of income, geography or social class, can access excellent higher education

How do you think this alliance will bring about a change in the education scenario in India?

There are a few ways that Indian students will benefit. All Indian Alliance member universities will be accepting the SAT as an admissions examination.

This will greatly simplify the application process and expand opportunities for many students. Students in India can now use one test to apply to the Indian member universities, or universities around the world. Students in India will also have four opportunities each year to take the SAT. Students who opt to take the SAT can also practice using the Official SAT Practice from Khan Academy (satpractice.org). This world-class resource was developed in partnership with Khan Academy and provides free, personalised practice to all students.

Indian students who qualify for fee reductions

will be able to take the SAT at a reduced rate. The SAT fee reductions for Indian students will be scaled according to family income. Based on current prices, this would be: For students from families making less than four lakh annual rupees income, they will be charged 10 per cent of the US fee. That’s roughly Rs 600-700 for students from families in the 4-6 lakh annual rupee income range, they will receive a 50 per cent reduction in the fee around Rs 3,000 – 3,500. The current price of the SAT in India is: $95 without Essay, and $109 with Essay.

Through the College Board India Scholars Programme, qualified low-income, high-achieving students in India will be eligible to receive full scholarships to Indian member universities. The Alliance will also allow member Indian universities

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Which universities are part of the Alliance?

Founding Alliance members from India include: Ahmedabad University, Ashoka University, Azim Premji University, Bennett University, BML Munjal University, FLAME University, Manav Rachna University, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, NMIMS and SRM Institute of Science and Technology.

Affiliate members from around the world include: Columbia University (US), MIT (US), Pomona College (US), Purdue University (US), McGill University (Canada), University of Cambridge (UK) and University of Hong Kong (HK).

The Indian education system requires changes. What according to you are or should be the key focus areas?

The objective of the Alliance is to provide a platform where stakeholders on both the higher education and secondary education side can work collaboratively to streamline the transition from secondary to higher education and ensure that all students in India, regardless of income, geography or social class, can access excellent higher education. The Alliance is not intended to be an endpoint for changes that need to be made now, but rather a consistent platform that empowers secondary schools and higher education institutions to continuously focus on innovations that expand opportunities for students.

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The College Board and member universities from India will co-fund tuition support for qualified College Board India Scholars. Tuition can only be used at participating Alliance member universities in India.

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Can you elaborate on the India Scholars initiative?

The Alliance recently launched the College Board India Scholars Programme whereby we will partner

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with NGOs and Alliance members in India to helplow income students in India get ready for the SAT, access fee reductions to offset the cost of the SAT and earn full scholarships that will be co-funded by the College Board and Indian Alliance member universities.

Students in India who achieve a designated score on the SAT will be designated as top performers and students who come from low income backgrounds will also qualify to apply for a co-funded scholarship.

The College Board and member universities from India will co-fund tuition support for qualified College Board India Scholars. Tuition can only be used at participating Alliance member universities in India. Over time, we hope that philanthropic organisations in India and elsewhere would consider contributing funding to this initiative so that it may benefit more students.

Are you looking at expanding the alliance? What is the aim for The College Board in the long run?

EDU-TECH PERSPECTIVE

to learn from best practices in university admissions from institutions around the world that are part of the Alliance. This includes innovative practices used by Indian and non-Indian member universities.

A key belief underlying these best practices is that admissions and enrolment processes remain focused on supporting and expanding opportunities for students to demonstrate their merit. Learning about these practices will allow member universities to adapt them to their own context and improve the experience for students who would be applying to those institutions.

By also including the perspective of secondary schools, member universities can work collaboratively with school leaders to ensure that the transition from secondary to higher education is seamless for the student.

Over the next year, we hope to add another 10-15 India Global Alliance member institutions. We are working with our founding members to refine the membership criteria right now.

Regardless of whether institutions are members of the Alliance, they are always welcome to use our programs such as SAT and Advanced Placement and many do. For example, many universities participating in the Study in India initiative use the SAT as an admissions and scholarship credential.

Furthermore, through the DASA program, the NITs use the SAT Subject Tests as admissions credentials for Non-Resident Indians. In the long run, we hope to see the transition from secondary to higher education become more seamless and streamlined for all students. Furthermore, that all students in India, regardless of income, geography or social class, can access excellent higher education.

What is The College Board all about?

The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization (NGO) that connects students to undergraduate university success and opportunity.

Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. The original members of the College Board were universities and secondary schools seeking to simplify the university application process. This is also one of the key goals of the India Global Higher Education Alliance.

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EDU-TECH PERSPECTIVE

eSENSE: ENRICHING TEACHING-LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY eSense is precisely an attempt to contribute to the process of learning by making it effective and engaging in innovative ways, says Harshil Gala, Director, eSense Learning, in an interview with Harshal Desai of Elets News Network (ENN).

Please apprise us of the solutions you are providing to students and schools.

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We have been fortunate to receive excellent response from schools. We are currently present in over 3,000 schools across Maharashtra and Gujarat.

TOPScorer is already being used by more than 1,00,000 users across the country.

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TOP Class is our flagship product which has helped us to add value in education processes to a great extent. The product converts a whole textbook into 2D and 3D animations. Students along with studying text also go through the animations with voice-over. The product has been widely appreciated by schools in Maharashtra and Gujarat. We have also converted textbooks into animations for CBSE as well.

We keep upgrading the software in order to meet the expectations of teachers and students. For example, we have recently added a good number of questions and answers after considering books from various publications to help students in getting ample problems and techniques to solve them.

Besides, TOPScorer is another one of the major products we offer to students. It helps students studying on thier own and estimates their weaknesses. It is a complete package of audiovisual content allowing students to weigh up their growth with detailed analytical reports.

How has been the response towards these products?

We have been fortunate to receive excellent response from schools. We are currently present in over 3,000 schools across Maharashtra and Gujarat. TOPScorer is already being used by more than 1,00,000 users across the country. Our software solutions are very easy to use and that, I believe, is helping us grow at a phenomenon speed.

We tie up with State Government and also to the authorities at local levels like Zila Parishad and District Administration, and help schools to use our products. Moreover, we also tie up with corporates which are willing to contribute through CSR activities, guide them and provide them with complete digital assistance.

How do you rate the Edu-tech sector in the country?

It is still at the nascent stage. Real movements have started a couple of years ago. It is really good that Government has started paying attention to the sector and helping administration to make most of the technologies available in schools. We have to have smart classrooms, smart content and smart audio-visual means of studying. Further, student

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EDU-TECH PERSPECTIVE

should have access all these smart elements on internet 24/7. Edu-tech is still just about Rs 100 crore industry.

There are many great innovators in the market and also, few disruptors. I am sure in near future we will be at a good position by providing several innovative solutions leading to improvement in the school education sector.

How do you ensure meeting the expectations of your customers and design products which are easy to use yet effective?

We constantly monitor the development stage of any technology irrespective of if it is related to our domain or not. We keep evaluating if a particular technology can be applied in upgrading our software. We have developed every product so far keeping in mind the requirements of students, teachers, schools and parents. As we state, “eSense is precisely an attempt to contribute to the process of learning by making it effective and engaging in innovative ways. At eSense, we engineer solutions that enrich teaching and learning experience. The emphasis here is to go beyond the chalk & talk method and stimulate the learning environment. Our focus is to integrate technology with learning.

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“

We constantly monitor the development stage of any technology irrespective of it is related to our domain or not. We keep evaluating if a particular technology can be applied in upgrading our software.

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Which are the areas where Edu-tech companies have scope to grow?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the areas which will change the education technology sector dramatically. It will help students to analyse their weaknesses and thus allow them to prepare for future. A student attempts hundreds of exams and test in a year. AI can help monitor the growth of students subject wise and do proper assessment for them highlighting thier positive and negative areas.

What challenges do you face while selling products?

We wish, we have a detailed policy of digital learning as it will help the Indian schools to become really smart and thus allow the industry to grow as well. The awareness on the advantages of smart classes needs to be conveyed to schools – even in rural areas.

What are your plans for future?

We will continue to spread our presence in Maharashtra and Gujarat. We will continue to understand the requirements of schools and students and develop products which make a difference.

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PHILANTHROPIC PERSPECTIVE

VGCF: TRANSFORMING

LIVES THROUGH SKILL-BASED EDUCATION Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation (VGCF) is an amalgam of devoted hands and strong minds for imparting outstanding quality of education to the next generation, says A D Sharma, Chairman, VGCF, in conversation with Harshal Desai of Elets News Network (ENN).

VGCF has planned a Science Centre at Rampur, when the centre is likely to be ready for students and what Facilities would be available for them at the centre?

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Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation started Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic in year 2000 to empower women through vocational education and skill development.

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The New Science Centre is planned to be completed in the year 2020. In the upcoming Science Centre, we are planning to provide modern facilities by creating more space, by providing additional Class Rooms, Large Laboratories for Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Science. This will give the desired impetus to further strengthen student education in the region and benefit Rampur and adjoining areas like Saharanpur, Shamli and Deoband. The Science Centre shall comprise of two Computer Labs, one Maths and Language Lab, besides Physics, Chemistry and Biology Labs and 14 Class Rooms. It shall also have Student’s Recreation Room, Teacher’s Room and a Reception. The new Science Centre has been designed by well known architects from Delhi.

In its nearly two decade long journey, how VGCF has transformed villager’s lives and what evolutions were made through the REC’s initiatives?

Vinod Gupta Charitable Foundation started Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic in year 2000 to empower women through vocational education and skill development. The polytechnic runs courses helping women to be self-employed in fields like Fashion Designing, Textile Designing, Beauty Care, Secretarial

Practice and Computer Science. The foundation seeing the need and demand started the Bill Clinton School and Hillary Clinton Nursing School to provide high quality education helping students to get better jobs in healthcare sector.

Today the foundation has the trust and positive outlook of locals. Parents are keen to see their children educated. They are appreciative of the work being done for their children such as providing free Meals - twice a week to students and staff, along with free Bi-Cycles to girls for commuting to the school.

What Challenges VGCF has faced?

VGCF is an amalgam of devoted hands and strong minds for providing outstanding quality

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The Foundation has made all its investment in Uttar Pradesh.

Please describe about it in brief Vinod Gupta was born in 1945 at Rampur Maniharan, located 100 miles (160 km) north of New Delhi, a small town (village) near Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). After igher secondary education, Gupta was admitted into the IIT Kharagpur, majoring in agricultural engineering. VGCF was started with the aim of providing quality education to girl child living in rural areas. VGCF’s mission is to empower women of marginalised groups through sustainable initiatives in the field of education, which will enable them to be economically independent and socially secure. However, it was started as a society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1960 in Delhi on 4th July, 1997. The vision (Learn, Earn and Return) was given by Dr G L Gupta, father of Vinod Gupta, Founder, VGCF. He recognised the value of education and how it has changed his life.

He decided to give all his wealth to charity.

As a result, he made education a primary beneficiary for his charitable contributions.

Through his foundation, VGCF has helped in advance education across fields including: business, science, information technology, communications, law, and wildlife preservation.

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Which are the other countries where the foundation is active or planning to start its operations?

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The local administrative team faced challenges with village residents where bringing the girl child on campus is a major challenge.

The team visited village to village doing campaigning and creating awareness to send their girls to Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic.

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The foundation is only active in India and is not planning to start its operations in other countries. The foundation also contributed to the survival of tigers at Ranthambhor by not only showing solidarity, but also by providing equipments, provisions and vehicles in coordination with the ‘Project Tiger’ of the government of Rajasthan.

In America, Gupta has donated $2 million to establish a curriculum for small business management at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He has also donated an additional $500,000 to the university to set up a scholarship fund for minority students who want to enter its science or engineering schools. He gave another million to the Clinton Presidential Library.

Which are the institutes foundation has tied up collaborated in India?

PHILANTHROPIC PERSPECTIVE

education to the next generation. There were no challenges as such which we had faced in terms of money as we were self-funded and never looked for financial help from the Government or from anywhere else.

The local administrative team faced challenges with village residents n bringing the girl child on campus. The team visited village to village doing campaigning and creating awareness to send their girls to Ramrati Gupta Women’s Polytechnic. The foundation had to work hard to win the trust of the locals and create a safe learning environment for the girl child. The meaning of women empowerment through education was a major hurdle as local residents were not prepared to send their daughters for skills oriented education.

Transportation of students from villages was yet another hurdle as only local means of transport such as bullock carts were available.

The school provided buses for commuting to overcome it.

the or

As far as other institutes are concerned, VGCF started its first project in India by building the Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSoM) at IIT Kharagpur. Today, VGSoM is amongst the top 5 Business Schools in India, run by IIT Kharagpur.

Similarly, VGCF Constructed the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law at IIT Kharagpur. Today, it is the Top Law School in India run by IIT Kharagpur We have constructed buildings for two institutions namely Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma Institute of Democracy and Dr Giri Lal Gupta Institute of Public Health in the campus of Lucknow University. As and when there is any requirement from the institutes, we fulfill.

We have given lab equipments worth Rs 14 Lakh to Dr Giri Lal Gupta Institute of Public Health University Lucknow.

Recently VGCF has spent over Rs 40 lakhs for upgrading students’ hostel, kitchen, Mess, common room, providing state-of-the-art equipment and electronic systems for students welfare, New play grounds/sports equipment and other amenities from time to time. Over and above all, we have also provided various cresting new facilities and maintaining and upgrading existing ones at VGSoM/RGSoIPL on regular basis.

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HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

MVGR: Empowering Society Through Engineering Education MVGR College of Engineering strives to become a center par excellence for technical education where aspiring students can be transformed into skilled and well-rounded professionals with strong understanding of fundamentals, says Dr K V L Raju, Principal, MVGR Engineering College, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What are the innovative ways adopted by MVGR College of Engineering to improve the teachinglearning processes?

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Education in the Western developed countries are meant for empowerment not for the employment alone. But in case of India, the situation is totally different as the focus is on employment.

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The teaching-learning processes have changed a lot from traditional methods. The methodologies are now inclined more towards using the Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Being an autonomous college, we have the liberty to adopt project based learning which is one of the major differences we are offering. Nowadays, the learning is no more teacher-centric, it is more student-centred. It is so because whatever we are teaching in the classroom is already available to students in the form of Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) or other resources on Internet.

We are encouraging students to use these resources as it helps in making the classroom environment more engaging and students are also enjoy such type of learning.

How the teachers are encouraged to get trained in latest technologies and to adopt the latest practices?

It is important for students to be skilled as per the industry requirements, how MVGR helps its students in acquiring industry relevant skills?

It is very important for teachers to be equipped with the latest technologies and practices as only then they can encourage students for the same.

To remain updated with the latest technologies, we have made policy for teachers 2-3 years back under which they have to do training under a professor of a national or international institute of global repute. Teachers are encouraged to take MOOCs so that later they can encourage their students for the same. Teachers in our institute also undergo industry internship to make the classroom learning more meaningful and industry relevant.

Along with industry visits and internships, we have a strong base of alumni working in various parts of the country and abroad. The alumni are having enriched experience of their respective fields and we help students to see the world through the eyes of our previous students. We leverage the experience of our alumni in getting students hands-on experience in latest technology and tools. We encourage them to adopt the best industry experience. Other than that we have collaborated with various industries for students’ training. Siemens is providing the training to our students in electrical machines. We have

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What methodologies are adopted in your college for better placement of students and to encourage them for entrepreneurship?

The institution believes in holistic development of students. We have sports clubs, cultural clubs, NCC and NSS to encourage students to participate in various activities other than the studies. These co-curricular activities make them more employable. Co-curricular activities which are complimentary to academic learning like workshops, conferences and symposiums shape the students well and encourage them to showcase their classroom learning to the outside world. Each of the department in the institute has a professional club which helps its students to bridge the industry-academia gap. These clubs identify the gap areas among students and suggest measures to bridge them. We conduct classes for aptitude, language and communication for students and also provide them platforms to self assess and later engage themselves in the activities for a better personality.

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We have four to five industry ready laboratories not the academic laboratories.

The institute is also among the 20 member institutions under Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) for skill training of students.

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In last three years, there is a buzz for innovation and start-up and it is good as it will help in generating wealth and employment opportunities to the students. We have an incubation centre which is recognised by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). People from ministries, leading corporate and banks are available for students to support and guide them in their initiatives. Around 90 per cent of the children are interested for jobs but to the rest 10 per cent who are interested for start-up, we guide them and support them in their ventures.

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

collaborated with organisations like Microsoft, TCS etc. Every department has collaborated with respective industries to skill students as per the industry requirements. Industry collaborations are also helping us to conduct various skill based certification programmes other than the academic programmes.

We have four to five industry ready laboratories not the academic laboratories. The institute is also among the 20 member institutions under Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) for skill training of students.

With such a large number of institutions in India, very few are able to make it to the top list of global institutions, what are the improvement areas we need to focus on?

Education in the Western developed countries are meant for empowerment not for the employment alone. But in case of India, the situation is totally different as the focus is on employment. Around two decades ago, the number of institutions India having, was lesser than the demand. But suddenly there is mushrooming of institutions which are affecting the quality of higher education. The situation may stabilise in coming years but currently it is far worse than that of developed countries.

Another reason of degraded higher education quality in India is that the institution and industries work in isolation. Until and unless the two will work together to bridge the gap, it is difficult to bring the education standards at par with the global standards.

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EmpowerU: REAL-TIME

MONITORING AND EVALUATION SOLUTION EmpowerU applies innovative analytical solutions and a 360-degree approach to improve the standards of the education system, says Onkar Prasad, Founder-Director, Promorph Solutions, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the Genesis behind establishing EmpowerU?

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EmpowerU is currently implemented in 5,500 schools of Giridih and Kandhamal Districts resulting into improving the attendance of teachers from around 58 per cent to more than 90 per cent.

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Promorph solutions, incubated at SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur, came into existence in 2015. The start-up is funded and backed by VILLGRO Innovations Foundation in association with Technology Development Board (TDB), Government of India and Department for International Development (DFID), UK. Promorph solutions developed an application integrated with data to offer real-time analysis. In the beginning, it was a web-based model that gave the comprehensive and real-time view of sessions in the classrooms.

For the first time, a customised information management application – EmpowerU was introduced at UIET, CSJM University Kanpur. it improved quality standards, transparency, and accountability in education delivery at the institute.

Then, we realised that the model can also be used in the government schools benefitting lakhs of students. It affected many stakeholders in the education system positively and improved the standards of government schools with the help of real-time monitoring and evaluation, SMART and Intelligence Systems, and Analytical solutions.

Please describe about the solutions developed by EmpowerU to redefine the ways educational institutions are managed.

EmpowerU facilitates real-time monitoring, and analysis of multiple operations in Government schools. It is a one-stop shop that integrates Mobile App for Ground Level Monitoring and Analytics

for Data-Driven Decision Making. The mobile application works online and offline as well. The holistic, intelligent, and SMART solutions that unfold from the platform are: Mid Day Meal (MDM) Monitoring: It allows better transparency in fund management, fund analysis, ensures fund availability and helps in pictorial and real-time MDM monitoring and analysis.

Teacher and Student Attendance Tracking: Online and Offline attendance marking with the help of GPS tracking generates weekly, monthly, and yearly reports.

Monitoring Learning and Infrastructural Status: Real-time and pictorial monitoring to ensure the availability of resources in the schools and also

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How the organisation help the institutions in addressing bottlenecks to impart quality education to its students?

EmpowerU provides various solutions that assist institutions in addressing complex issues with real-time analysis and evaluation to impart quality education. It is developed and implemented on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) framework after a thorough research on users from ground level to top-level decision makers. It helps in addressing real-time challenges in government schools of India.

It performs real-time Monitoring and Evaluation of each of the thousands of schools in a State using mobile application enabled with Geofencing which works even in rural schools lacking internet connectivity.

The Analytical Web Dashboard provides instant Analysis and Data-Driven Decision Making through Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

EmpowerU is currently implemented in 5,500 schools of Giridih and Kandhamal Districts resulting into improving the attendance of teachers from around 58 per cent to more than 90 per cent. Mid Day Meal (MDM) serving also improved from around 75 per cent to more than 90 per cent. Around 6,000 teachers and approximately 1,20,000 students are monitored every day.

Most of your clients are government institutions, what are the major challenges in dealing with them?

Despite several schemes to improve technology

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How are the challenges addressed by EmpowerU?

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Promorph solutions developed an application integrated with data to offer realtime analysis. In the beginning, it was a webbased model that gave the comprehensive and real-time view of sessions in the classrooms.

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EmpowerU aims to redefine the ways educational institutes are managed. The solution facilitates monitoring and analysis of different facets of institutes’ operations. The analytical capabilities generate insights and supports Data Driven Decision Making for achieving Good Governance, Quality Education, Cost Effective Operations, Efficient Time Utilisation and Revenue Generation.

It also provides inbuilt intelligence system that automatically detects issues and takes smart action.

The contemporary products in education domain especially automation solutions failed to address above mentioned issues critical to an educational institute.

EDU-TECH PERPSECTIVE

usage in the country, the idea of using technology and analytics to solve societal problems is not acceptable to everyone. Official and administrators tend to address complex challenges through human intervention, organising trainings and making strict laws. But, such steps are not effective. Successful execution of schemes and policies requires proper monitoring at ground level which can be easily done through technology.

Another challenge that we come across is not getting the correct data for projects we intend to do.

The major reason behind this can be the traditional practices of data collection. As data plays a critical role for any project, we do baseline surveys on our own.

timely syllabus completion.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation: Conducts student learning level assessment and progress analysis to improve the learning outcomes.

SMART Action Response system (SARS): SARS automatically addresses large-scale issues and notifies malpractices to the headmasters and teachers.

Leave Management: Facilities leave application for various stakeholders through the web and mobile applications.

Grievance Redressal System: Enables an interface between various stakeholders to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability of the system.

Notification and Messaging System: Facilities mobile app-based notifications and SMS alerts to all stakeholders.

Please describe about the vision and mission of EmpowerU for upcoming years.

The Vision of EmpowerU is to expand the solutions to all the government schools in the districts of various States like Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Orissa. We are also looking forward to expand across India impacting millions of students. EmpowerU is looking forward to harnessing new age technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics for creating data architecture, predictive models, and algorithms for educational data mining (EDM). It will help improving the efficiency of education and teaching methodologies. Also, similar technology can be used to address the challenges of other domains like Healthcare & Nutrition, Anganwadi etc. The mission of EmpowerU is to drive social change and aims to impact lives of two million students by 2020.

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HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

ICFAI: EMPOWERING

CITIZENS THROUGH WORLD CLASS EDUCATION The ICFAI Group’s culture of teaching and learning supports and fosters intellectual and personality development among its graduating students. We carry an attitude of ownership of our work, says Sudhakar Rao, Director, Branding, ICFAI Group, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

How the innovation in programmes is helping the ICFAI to be among the top ranked B-Schools of India?

“

The Case Research Center (CRC) is a centre of excellence of ICFAI Group developing high quality internationally benchmarked case studies.

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The ICFAI Business School (IBS) is known for excellence in management education. The B-School nurtures the resources with the right set of knowledge, skills and attitude to meet the requirements of corporate world.

IBS has distinguished itself from other B-Schools in India by focusing on action-based learning and close involvement with the industry. The curriculum of IBS is industry-orientated with case pedagogy comparable to the best across the globe ensuring good return on knowledge. As a result of richness in curriculum, case pedagogy, industry recognition and accreditation at both national and international levels, IBS has attracted collaborations with the best foreign business schools.

ICFAI has introduced Case Study methodology. Please share about it and the Case Research Center of ICFAI. Case study method is the key component of the academic programmes at IBS. ICFAI is one of the few institutions in India that have made case-based learning a critical component of pedagogy. Almost all the courses in ICFAI are taught through case studies. The case studies are being tailor-made to the requirements of different subjects and topics.

Student evaluation is based on class participation and reports submitted by them. Students are encouraged to analyse the issues by gathering supportive information either through published sources or by directly interacting with the companies involved.

The Case Research Center (CRC) is a entre

of excellence of ICFAI Group developing high quality internationally benchmarked case studies.

A dedicated and dynamic team works toward fulfilling the institution’s mission of developing high quality case studies, for its constituents as well as contributing cases to B-schools and organisations through The Case Centre, UK.

Outstanding Achievements by the Case Research Centre l ICFAI is the third largest contributor of cases,

next only to Harvard and INSEAD B-Schools. l In 2015, 7% of The Case Centre’s 150 Best

Selling Cases were from ICFAI. l ICFAI Cases were taught in more than 870

B-Schools across 75 countries in the world.

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The soft-skills training also enable students to judge their communication abilities. There is also a focus on improving the EQ of our future leaders so that they are able to deal with the human element while running any organisation.

of the total The Case Centre’s sales. l ICFAI currently contributes 6,000 cases to The Case Centre, UK.

Nurturing employable youth is one of the missions of every higher educational institute, what practices are followed at ICFAI to bridge the industry-academia gap?

Action-oriented teaching coupled with hands-on managerial experience in the summer internship programme and real time problem solving assignments from the corporate help the students to be industry ready. Continuous interaction with industry, experts talk and feedback forms the base for upgradation of curriculum which differentiates ICFAI from others. Corporate Relations Cell, Alumni Network, Management Development Programmes and Mentoring have enhanced the skills of students required to get better placements.

Along with studies, it is important to develop a globally competitive personality of students, what steps have been undertaken by ICFAI in this regard?

Student Clubs have been formed in ICFAI institutions to help students to get exposure to both curricular and extracurricular activities. Students participate actively in these clubs. These clubs help students understand the nuances related to managing people, behaviour of people, leadership skills and working in teams, which is the key to become successful managers.

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The soft-skills training also enable students to judge their communication abilities. There is also a focus on improving the EQ of our future leaders so that they are able to deal with the human element while running any organisation.

”

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HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

l In 2015, the sales of ICFAI cases made up 7.5%

How are you placed in the market?

What are your vision and mission for expansion in education sector?

Our vision is Merit with Ethics. Our mission is to offer world class, innovative, career-oriented professional post graduate and undergraduate programs through inclusive technology-aided pedagogies to equip students with the requisite professional and life skills as well as social sensitivity and high sense of ethics.

Our model is unique and the continuous placement results year after year is a testimony to our credibility in market.

What are the initiatives taken by you to support ICFAI in achieving its present brand value?

The initiatives taken by the university are: l Engaging inspiring leaders l Two way relationship building with Top Corporate Executives l Pursuing ethical business practices l Mentoring the students to focus on productivity and good work ethic l Learning – Teaching based on making industry efficient by producing competitive human resources l Focus on Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurial Mindset.

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SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

Life Skills Key FOR PREPARING YOUTH FOR FUTURE A student will grow into a responsible citizen of tomorrow with decision-making and problem-solving skills that will prepare them for every situation in life, says Sharmila Chatterjee, Principal - Billabong High International School, Noida, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you perceive the prevailing education system?

“

The policymakers and the new education policy in the making should focus on skill development and vocationalisation.

”

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The current education system in India may be classified as one of the most robust, structured yet complex system in the world with a large scope of further enhancements and progress.

India is a diverse nation. Its complexity arises from the scope of its length and breadth of the country with varied languages, culture, literature and innovations. India has more than a million schools with state boards, CBSE, ICSE and international boards. Several Government initiatives have helped India provide sustainable basic education. Universal Primary education, Sarva Shishka Abhiyan and above all the RTE 2009 make schooling free and compulsory till grade eight and has seen phenomenal progress in educational performance in the country.

But the challenges are manifold with dropout rate increasing after elementary level, the economically weaker sections are impacted adversely as getting education is not their prime need, and most importantly we are struggling with poor-level of student learning outcomes in both scholastic and co-scholastic results.

The policymakers and the new education policy in the making should focus on skill development and vocationalisation with emphasis on integrating the curriculum with latest developments in information and technology and 21st century skills for learners. We should aim on creating holistic learning and education systems.

How significant is holistic learning in the present times?

Being in the field of education for two-and-ahalf decades, I have come to increasingly believe that schools should focus on holistic education, as it encompasses the development of both academic and non-academic skills comprising the learner’s intellectual, socio-emotional, kinesthetic or physical, creative, artistic or aesthetics and spiritual domains of learning.

Holistic learning will provide real life experiences which may have success and deterrents or roadblocks. The learner will use problem solving and decision making skills in the process of learning or solving a given situation.

The learner will also show resilience, healthy social and emotional behaviour, which is the real purpose of holistic learning. Schools that believe

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Considering the steadily changing scenario, what vision should drive the educationists?

Educationists should encourage emotional and mental wellness along with physical and kinesthetic development in students. The vision of the educational leaders should be to encourage innovation as well as autonomy to learners and mentors. Imparting life skills and values among the young learners should be of primary focus for the educationists. Students should be inculcated with respect to nature and flora-fauna. This will nurture the learners to be global citizens and respect diversity.

Are there any special initiatives being undertaken to enhance the learning or teaching experience at your school?

Billabong High International Noida (BHIS), a CBSE affiliated school is one of the best international schools in Noida that envisions to create an educational system of ‘individualised learning’ that brings out the human excellence in every child. We take pride in being a sensitive school.

We have a distinct centre for children with special needs named “Sanchetna” -- centre for children with special needs. It is our endeavour to reach out to the children who have specific learning or multiple disabilities by providing them inclusive education with support of specialised therapists.

‘Educate, Engage and Inspire’ is what the teachers practice in the classrooms of BHIS, Noida. The educators here equip the learners with the knowledge and life skills that will enable them to face the future with confidence and responsibility.

The goals of the BHIS curriculum lie in developing the cognitive, creative, aesthetic, language and social-emotional skills. The mentors at Billabong High International School, Noida transact

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It is imperative for schools to trend with modern technologies by incorporating them with regular teaching-learning in the classrooms.

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the curriculum keeping in mind the following parameters: Bloom’s Taxonomy & The Multiple Intelligence theory - The different learning style, Neuroscience & Brain Research Theory, Digital Age & Globalisation and Theme based learning till middle school.

We follow an integrated curriculum wherein all the disciplines and subjects are interwoven and every concept reflects upon all the areas of the curriculum. The learning tasks are designed in a way that the learners move from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills.

Billabong High International School encourages students from a young age to take the initiative and go where no man has gone before. Their leadership qualities are nurtured through participation in a competitive house system and student prefect ship. School Life skills Programme – BHIS, Noida is the regional center for Excellence for Imparting Life skills and training Adolescents Peer Educators for Life Skills. The well-being of students is taken care of by the school counsellors through life skill sessions by creating awareness among them and being available for the students in dealing with their academic, emotional and social issues.

SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

in imparting holistic learning will foster a culture of continuous learning and will create life-long learners.

In today’s time the parents are looking towards the school for providing their children with all life skills and integrated learning for a better prepared youth in future. Therefor it becomes imperative on the part of the schools to create and impart holistic education to the learners, as today’s learner is tomorrow’s citizen of the nation.

What modern technologies are being used in your school?

Besides focusing on life skills development of the learners, it is imperative for schools to trend with modern technologies by incorporating them with regular teaching-learning in the classrooms. At BHIS, Noida, we integrate our curriculum with ICT at all application levels. ICT modules are integral part of lesson plans be it in introducing topics – during the content delivery or plenary sessions and even assessments.

The school campus is Wi-Fi enabled, and has two well-equipped computer labs ensuring each child has one system to work on, along with state-of-the-art audio-visual rooms separate for preschool, primary and senior school learners.

The teachers are provided with work stations fully equipped with ICT provisions.

The school has a dynamic website and is interacting with parents through digital mediums like Facebook, twitter etc. As the curriculum is multi-disciplinary in nature, ICT enables both the learner and the mentor/facilitator to enhance learning, imbibing problem solving and critical thinking skills.

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SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

‘TEACHERS PLAYING FACILITATOR’S ROLE IN

CLASSROOMS’

It is the teacher who guides students and filters information. They are facilitators and not information providers, says Sudha Acharya, Principal, ITL Public School, Dwarka, New Delhi, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

learner to learner. Hence, the teacher stands as a lifelong learner; as a facilitator who guides the student and filters information. The ever compelling addicts to all kind of information play havoc to young mind. It is precisely at this crucial juncture that the facilitators guide through a series of age appropriate informal for intellectual growth.

“

When a child has holistic development, the child develops social intelligence, emotional intelligence and can give back to the society.

”

What initiatives are being taken in your school for the overall development of students?

How do you perceive the current education scenario?

ITL School is completely inclusive school. There are more than 50 children with special needs in our school. We take good care of them. Currently, we have five children with special needs in Class 10, one of them has scored 78% with music and home science. We give them a platform by modifying the curriculum, including the games wherein 100% participation is a must. There is no

For me, education means preparing a child for life. Education does not mean only a curriculum, or how to score good marks. Education means when a child has holistic development – inclusive of education, appropriate skills, values and attitude so that the child develops social and emotional intelligence and can give back to the society. Our motive is to globalise Indian thought.

What role does a teacher play in a classroom?

There has been a paradigm shift in the current teaching scenario – from expert to novice to

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SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

competition. Learning is a priority as competition is never in picture. The playground is a life learning platform which exemplifies caring and sharing.

Which are the top technologies that you have incorporated in the school?

Our school is a smart school; all the classrooms have smart boards. We have a well equipped Language Lab, Maths Lab and 3D Technology too.

Foreign Exchange programme are yet another forum where cross culture learning takes place.

Recently, our exchange with Egypt has not only made students culturally aware but augmented learning through exchange of best practice.

“

Our students will never feel helpless, they will employ themselves and they can give employment to others, this is our purpose of education.

”

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We adopt innovative pedagogical practice of recording audios of classroom lecture for hearing impaired student and video for students with low vision. Such reinforcement makes our students confident and better learners.

How do you encourage creativity and innovation among students?

Students of our school have taken a great project in their account under Start Up India Project.

The Chemistry and Biology department came up with the school with an idea to manufacture in house Ayurvedic produce in school. School’s herbal garden – Sanjeevani Vatika became the crucial hub for herbal sources. The Chemistry & Biology department initiated the idea to develop HERBAL based Mosquito Repellent, Floor Cleaner, Hand Sanitizer, Facial Moisturisers, Lip Balm and Organic Hair Oil. Subsequently the products were sent to FICCI for authentication.

This was followed by the commerce department where in pricing, branding, tagging, sales promotion and packaging was done. This was culminated with Skill Bazar, where students sell and market all the handmade products.

Amount secured & raised through Skill Bazar Venture was reinvested & the surplus amount was donated to orphanage. Venture like these are experiential learning which is the purpose of education.

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Contact:

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Conference Report

CONFERENCE REPORT

(From L-R): Kumar Chandan Anand, digitalLEARNING magazine; Ramesh Mishra, Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Sanyukta Bhatia, Mayor, Lucknow; Dr Jagdish Gandhi, Founder-Manager, City Montessori School, Lucknow; Dr Bharti Gandhi, Founder-Director, City Montessori School

Education Conclave Uttar Pradesh 2018: Making Educational Innovations Scalable With Government of Uttar Pradesh as Supporting State Partner and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as Supporting Partners, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, the premier technology and media research organisation, organised Education Conclave Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow in May. The day-long Elets’ Education Conclave was inaugurated by Lucknow Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia. Eminent guests including Ramesh Mishra, Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Dr Hari Om, Secretary, General Administration Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Selva Kumari J, District Magistrate, Etawah, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Sanjay K Diwakar, Deputy Director (Policy & Planning), Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Sarvadanand, Zila Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh and many others deliberated on innovation and the best practices of education sector.

During the conclave, various panel discussions were conducted on topics like Blended Learning: Exploring Transformative Potential in Higher Education, Importance of Social-Emotional Learning in School Education and Realising Role of Modern Teachers in a Digital World.

A roundtable was held on the subject of Beyond 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic), the new skills global education landscape eyeing on to succeed in 21st century was also held at the event.

During the conclave, top universities, B-schools and engineering colleges and schools ranked by digitalLEARNING magazine were also felicitated.

The industry presentations during the summit highlighted the scope of technology and its comprehensive effect on the education Adigitallearningonline few glimpses of @dl_magazine the summit: digitalLEARNING JUNE 2018 Connect with sector. us on

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CONFERENCE REPORT

KEY SPEAKERS

Sanyukta Bhatia

“Working hard is the responsibility of students whereas guiding them is the responsibility of guardians and teachers.

Teachers and students skilled with latest technologies such as Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, will get better results.

Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has started preparing for the launch of Smart Classes Concept in its schools and training of teachers for the same… Along with this, the fund allocated for smart city projects and other schemes can also be used if needed to improve the education sector. Our effort is to ensure that Smart Classes are being implemented in the Corporation Schools as soon as possible.”

Mayor, Lucknow

Education needs reformation and private institutions should find platforms which will enable them to work for students. There were dropouts from schools, we arranged women teachers for the girl students which encouraged them to attend schools.

Blended Learning defines the importance of coordination between various aspects important for imparting quality education to youth. Such an education will not only help the youth to build a better future but also help the nation to develop.

RAMESH MISHRA

Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh

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“To improve the quality of education we have started smart classes in the government schools. Projectors have been installed in 200 schools recently. Good quality furniture has also been made available for the students. School infrastructure has been improved, every school has toilets with running water supply and drinking water.”

Selva Kumari J

District Magistrate, Etawah, Government of Uttar Pradesh

“Education is a continuous and creative process. Its aim is to develop the capacities which are latent in human nature leading to enrichment and progress of a society. A child has three classrooms: first is the home, second is the school and the third is the society. A school is the lighthouse of the society to provide meaningful education, spiritual direction, guidance and leadership to students, parents and the society in general.”

Dr Jagdish Gandhi

Founder-Manager, City Montessori School, Lucknow

“A teacher is like a father who imparts wisdom to the ignorant. A teacher should be given respect equivalent to a father. We teach our children in our schools that everything can be achieved by knowledge only. We believe that among the greatest services that can possibly rendered by a man to the almighty God is the education of children.”

S P Singh

Former Member of the Legislative Council, Uttar Pradesh & Founder Manager, Lucknow Public Schools and Colleges, Lucknow

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CONFERENCE REPORT

INDUSTRY PRESENTATIONS

Amitava Sen

Daniel Yang

Saif Khan

Sanjiv Mehta

Srinivas Reddy Lonka

Vandana Varanjani

Gurmeet Singh

Hari Singh

AVP and Head - Digital Sales (South Asia) Indiannica Learning Pvt Ltd

Zonal Manager Vawsum Schools Pvt Ltd

Director Havik Software Technologiesv

Director Tailor Smiths

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Sales Manager Eink Holdings

Country Manager HP Inc.

Product Manager The Ultimate Knowledge

Business development Manager CloudWalker

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PANEL DISSCUSSION: Blended Learning Exploring Transformative Potential in Higher Education

CONFERENCE REPORT

(From L-R): Prof Gurulingappa M Patil, Principal, JSS Academy of Technical Education, Noida; Ramesh Mishra, Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Dr Kavita Pathak, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow; Dr Sunil Kumar Pandey, Director-IT, Institute Of Technology and Science, Ghaziabad; Prof P K Iyer, Professor In-charge, IIT Guwahati; Sanjay K Diwakar, Deputy Director (Policy & Planning), Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, Government of Uttar Pradesh

PANEL DISSCUSSION: Importance of Social-Emotional Learning in School Education

(From L-R): Sarvadanand, Zila Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh; Hema Kalakoti, Principal, APS Academy, Lucknow; Selva Kumari J, District Magistrate, Etawah, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Sunita Gandhi, Founder Director, City International School, Lucknow; Vijay Shukla, Director, Indus World Schools; Kanak Gupta, Vice President, Seth MR Jaipuria Schools

PANEL DISSCUSSION: Realising Role of Modern Teachers in a Digital World

(From L-R): Prof Prabin Jha, Director, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana; Arunabh Singh, Director, Nehru World School, Ghaziabad; Dr Hari Om, Secretary, General Administration Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Dr Ajay Ruhela, Director, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad

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JUNE 2018

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CONFERENCE REPORT

FELICITATION - SCHOOLS

FELICITATION - HIGHER EDUCATION

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EXPO

CONFERENCE REPORT

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CONFERENCE REPORT

MEDIA COVERAGE

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SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

SCULPTING CHARACTERS THROUGH

QUALITY EDUCATION

We believe in imparting quality education to the students so that they develop intellectual capacity, skills, right attitude in addition to humane and cognitive abilities, says R K Trivedi, Dean, O P Jindal Group of Schools, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How do you perceive the current technology-driven education scenario?

“

In order to develop the diverse co-scholastic skills of our talented students the school conducts special evening coaching for sports, visual and performing arts.

�

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The learners of present time are digital citizens and a technology-driven education environment is well suited to their adaptive needs. Today, innovative and creative blending of traditional pedagogical approaches with digital contents and technology is transforming the learning experiences and outcomes. Digitalisation of records and opening of high-tech communication channels between various stakeholders of education has led to their integration and empowerment. Conversely, preserving and guarding digital data is now a new imperative for schools. Educators must now demonstrate to their students how to use technology as a tool to gather correct knowledge and reject forged knowledge acquired through a process of copying and pasting without understanding. Schools also need to take up the challenge of maintaining a balance between the goals of education and excessive dependence on technology.

What are the innovative methods you have introduced in your school?

We constantly challenge ourselves in order to bring the best possible solutions to cater to the needs of our students who come from diverse socio-economic and cultural strata. A judicious blend of traditional and technology-based method is implemented for the Pre-Primary Section. Writing Slate boards promoting ease of writing, storytelling method; simulated learning environment for integrated learning has been implemented alongside diagnostic Assessment

Sheets for personalised learning. Life Skills are emphasised in the school calendar, right from the junior most class.

Our school promotes the competitive spirit in academic excellence by conducting Competency tests in core subjects from Primary Section onwards. CMP committee monitors CMP or Common Minimum Programme. A theme-based Science Park for experimenting with science apparatus is aimed to stimulate scientific enquiry of learners of all ages.

In order to develop the diverse co-scholastic skills of our talented students, the school conducts special evening coaching for sports, visual and performing arts.

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What initiatives are being taken in your institution?

How do you ensure holistic development of students?

We are focused on accomplishing our school mission and vision in complete letter and spirit.

We endeavour to sculpt and integrate the varied aspects of each student’s character and personality

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Freedom to express is promoted and guaranteed to teachers and students alike.

Several social services are designed and executed by and for the students, giving them opportunities to think, act and proudly exhibit their works throughout the year.

” @dl_magazine

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and groom him/her as a life-long learner, responsible citizen and above all a good human being. This is secured through a child-centric pedagogy oriented in activity-based learning.

An emphasis on Yoga helps students to connect their mind and body as well as reach out to the roots of our ancient heritage. We promote sports with a conviction in its far-reaching impact on not only physical and motor development, but also team spirit. The annual calendar of school activities is carefully planned and executed for a balanced learning in a technology driven environment.

SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE

Our institution pursues a nationalistic philosophy and our nation’s agenda is our agenda. We are dedicated and committed to bringing transformations in the ecology and demographics in and around the periphery of our school.

A large-scale and sustained tree plantation programme as a community participation project helped our teachers and students to plant around 6,000 trees. In second stage of plantation project, we have set the target of planting 10,000 trees by 2020.

Initiative of imparting Digital and Financial Literacy to the students of schools in our periphery, 20 schools have already been provided 100 % Digital Literacy.

An inclusive education is part of our school’s corporate responsibility that is actively implemented in our school catering to the students of 32 peripheral villages.

Various activity clubs and International associations/collaborations like the British Council, IAYP, UNESCO, USO, SpicMacay activities help our children to carve an edge to their personalities. We believe in the benefits of developing competency in area-multilingualism. Our students learn not only the prescribed languages but also regional languages and international languages like German. Blended learning activities on language development in school assembly are one of our child-centric learning initiatives in this area.

Our strive for excellence extends to CPD of our teaching staff. Frequent in-house, interactive training sessions are organised by, and for the teachers where they share, brainstorm, and standardize the best teaching practices to be adopted by the school.

Our school functioning is being monitored, recorded, evaluated on a day-to-day basis through the software & systems developed and maintained by in-house, full time tech-professionals.

We comply and abide by all the ethical and mandatory CBSE and Government of India norms and the agenda of the nation.

What methods have you introduced to encourage creative bent of mind?

A proximity to nature, with trees peeping inside classrooms provides an apt ambience to the mind with a creative bent. While designing and executing their lessons, our teachers who hail from diverse cultures and demography bring the desired creative thinking prompts to their students. This exposure stimulates students to tap into their own creativity by blending inputs from our rich heritage and their own rich experiences. Students are engaged in myriad activities to stimulate their creative thinking in visual arts, performing arts, languages and other core subjects.

Freedom to express is promoted and guaranteed to teachers and students alike.

Several social services are designed and executed by and for the students giving them opportunities to think, act and proudly exhibit their works throughout the year.

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ADVERTORIAL

DEGREES WITH SKILLS IS THE NEED OF HOUR!

W

hile we come across so many reports about the employability issues amongst the youth and graduates in India, we keep missing the basic problem in our education system and that is the skill education. It is very essential to integrate existing higher education with skilling for every programme and in every subject.

“Aspiring graduates should ask for the education that will provide them not only degrees but degrees with skills that make them industry ready right from day one of the graduation,” says Dr Swati Mujumdar, Pro-Chancellor, Symbiosis Skills Universities and a thought leader in skill education in India.

She headed the research committees at Maharashtra State and Central level that studied various university and education systems in the developed countries. The outcome of the study was the education model that not only integrated skill education into the higher education but also customised it for India.

Symbiosis is a top name in the higher education sector for past five decades. It was but natural for them to foray into this new model of higher education as pioneers. Today, it has Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences Indore and Symbiosis Skills and Open University Pune as two pioneering skill

development universities. While they offer degree programmes in management, engineering, technology, architecture, banking and beauty wellness, the biggest differentiator in all programmes is its pedagogy that focuses on 70% learning through hands-on teaching. Both universities are equipped with industry machinery, learning facilities, skill centres and workshops that are unmatched and can be found only in the industry!

“Our pedagogy involves working on machines that are the most contemporary machines one will find in the sector.

Hence our graduates get the industry skills during their stay at Symbiosis Skills Universities and become productive right from day one,” Dr Mujumdar explains the university model further. “Another important feature of our universities is the meaningful collaboration with our industry partners. Unlike conventional universities or institutions, our industry partners not only set up workshops and skill centres for our students but also participate in the academics by training our teachers,

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Dr Swati Mujumdar, Pro-Chancellor, Symbiosis Skills Universities conducting joint training programmes for their own staff as well as helping us enhance our curricula to align with industry needs. Placements and internships just happen on their own!”

Programmes offered by the two universities also consist of short term certificate and re-skilling programmes for the working professionals. Its Skills Finishing School is a great source for recent graduates to acquire employability skills including technical and soft skills. Symbiosis Skills Universities’ degree and other programmes are modular in nature, making them most flexible for aspiring learners. Learners can bank their credits with the university and rejoin to complete the programme.

“Our vision is to create graduates that are not only industry ready professionals but also leaders who will shape the future of the country. Hence we have included interdisciplinary courses in every programme for the all-round development of students.”

School of Interdisciplinary Sciences at both universities offer courses in soft skills, work life balance skills, writing and business communication, skill courses in technologies like Blockchain and Data Sciences, foreign languages etc. to all students of degree and certificate programmes.

Symbiosis Skills Universities are on a mission to skill India and build it through its innovative education system and programmes.

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ADVERTORIAL

SSTC: Instilling Human Values through Education

S

hri Shankaracharya Technical Campus (SSTC) with its proficiency and excellence in higher education for over 19 years was established in 1999 with its main campus equipped with world class infrastructure , including state of art research facilities and modren library setup in Junwani Bhilai –CG. The esteemed members of the society comprises of eminent personalities from industry , academia and business besides the contemporary social activities .

Shri Shankarcharya Technical Campus is the first engineering college in the India to be named after Adi Shri Shankaracharya and blessed by the all _present jagatguru . This college is

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commissioned during the session 19992000, accredited by NBA-AICTE, New Delhi with the goal of providing under graduate education in engineering and technology with a close interaction with industry and a strong emphasis on research and Innovation.

SSTC comprises of three engineering college along with Management and Computer Application and Pharmacy in to Shri Shankaracharya Technical Campus that is SSGI, SSEC, SSITM all having

various branches like Computer Science Engineering, Information Technology, Electronics and Telecommunication, Electrical Engineering, Electrical and Electronics, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and also having Specialized Mtech courses in various streams like (CTA, CSE, IT, Power System Engineering, Power Electronics, Power systems, thermal, Design, Production Structural Transportation, Communication,Instrumentation) as well as one Pharmacy college (SSIPS ), MBA(Specializaion Marketing ,Finance, System and HR), MCA come under SSTC and also we r having research centre with full equipped with modern amenities and experience faculties.

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