Need mindset change & better school budget to improve govt schools: Expert

In 2009, Urmila Chowdhury, then vice principal at Delhi's Shriram school, decided to leave the private school system and turn her attention to government schools. Six years later, she joined the UK-headquartered international charity Ark International's India operations.

In 2015, Ark started working in partnership with government schools. In the beginning, one school in Lajpat Nagar-3 was taken up and within three years, students enrollment at the school went up from to nine to 428. Learning outcomes improved dramatically. Two more schools were added in 2017.

As education director (now with Peepul, an Ark venture), Chowdhury, 55, led the change at the first school and now the three academic coordinators at the three schools report to her. Excerpts from her chat with Anjuli Bhargava:

Harvard biased against Indians, Asians? US to probe complaint

US President Donald Trump's administration is preparing to probe a complaint by four Indian-American organisations and other Asian groups that Harvard University discriminates against students from the communities in its admission process.

Justice Department Spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said on Wednesday the department wants to investigate the "administrative complaint filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American associations in May 2015 that the prior Administration left unresolved".

Flores said: "The complaint alleges racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in a university's admission policy and practices."

The Global Organisation of Persons of Indian Origin (Gopio), National Federation of Indian-American Associations, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, and BITS Sindri Alumni Association of North India were among the 64 Asian groups that jointly filed the federal complaint.

The complaint said: "Many Asian-American students who have almost perfect SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores, top one per cent GPAs (Grade Point Average), plus significant awards or leadership positions in various extracurricular activities have been rejected by Harvard University and other Ivy League Colleges while similarly situated applicants of other races have been admitted."
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Budget 2017 wish list: Young India expects lower fees, cheaper gadgets

Latest News - Curtailment of education fees, cheaper electronic gadgets and more focus on jobs are some of the expectations Young India has from the Budget for fiscal 2017-18 that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will table in Parliament on Wednesday.

Many students and professionals who spoke said they wanted a youth-oriented budget that will help underprivileged students pursue higher studies and cheaper electronic gadgets to make the government's Digital India initiative a success in a country where almost 47.8 per cent of population is currently aged below 29.

With India set to account for 20 per cent of the world's workforce in the next three years, many young men and women wanted the government to largely focus its resources on how to (Read More)

Budget 2017: Crisis and opportunities in education sector

Latest News - The 2017-18 budget is an opportunity for the government to concentrate on improving school education for over 260.5 million children who enrolled in elementary and secondary school in 2015-16–children who will form the core of India’s working-age population, one billion by 2030, the largest in the world.

“Business as usual” will not solve the problem, submitted Pratham, an education nonprofit, in a pre-budget consultation with India’s finance ministry. “Unless major shifts are undertaken on an urgent basis to build children’s foundational skills, we are losing huge opportunities each year for improving the life chances of an entire generation of children and youth in this country,” the consultation note added.

IndiaSpend reached out to the education ministry for a comment on the 2017-18 budget, but we had not received a response at the time of publishing. (This story will be updated if and when the ministry responds.)

Higher education dominated last year’s education budget (with an increase of 13% over the 2015-16 budget) and the conversation about (Read More)