CREDIT BASED EDUCATION-A timely good step

        

            Credit based education is an alternate means of education to the conventional system of education which follows examination with pass-fail syndrome. Unlike the conventional system where the student has to clear a particular course by attending classes throughout the particular course duration, in a credit based system choice lies with the student to select a course and his own pace of completing the course. In addition the student gets the mobility option to change the institution once or twice, may it be inside the country or at a foreign Institute while pursuing the course and also the flexibility to complete the course while he may like to be in a job and matching his time availability. The institution also facilitates the mobility and flexibility of the student in such a credit based system of education.

            A credit or more specifically a credit - hour refers to one hour class time per week per semester. Similarly a two hour class time per week per semester refers to two credit points. A student can go on building credit points to his/her account by way of attending classes, completing the practical and project report tasks in accordance with the course design. For example an associate degree in an American university require 60 to 64 credit points , while a Bachelor degree require 120 to 128 credit and a subsequent Masters degree requires 30 to 37 credit points. The most important aspect of the credit based education is this system shifts the focus from the conventional teacher-centric to student-centric education. All the activities of the student in the process of learning including the time spent in attending classes, preparation of reports into digital form according to a formulated principle and credit points are awarded. If a student changes the institute or the university and get admitted to another institute then his/her credit points are automatically transferred to the new course coordinator for facilitating continuance of the course. Hence the system has to respect the learner’s autonomy in changing the place of learning and their pace of learning requirements.

               In allocating credit points different universities follow their own grading systems. In a pre designed course module according to their performances the learners are placed in their ability band based on their scores earned in periodic tests. The course coordinator thereby identifies the lacunae if any and takes necessary remedial measures by framing the teaching strategy and the pedagogy. Although the initial course design is an additional burden on the course coordinator, this system overcomes the conventional time consuming examination system. The system moves from quantity to the quality. The problem of lecture attendance becomes a non-issue. The continuous grading system suo-mottu improves student attendance The Deans have to supervise if the things are on right track. The positive point in this way of learning is that; the student can on-line peruse the course requirements, accreditations, the teaching system, the availability of technical support, course fees and the credit transfer system before he chose the course and the institute. Again this system provides job based learning solutions and can extend to the work-place skill development of the learner to improve his intellectual excellence  which may boost up employer’s perspective .Such type of teaching system integrates the learning, teaching research and the third-stand agendas. Therefore the higher education institutes (HEI) get scope to extend their activities in imparting work-based education to reskil employees of the enterprises and increase their respective market share. Evidences show that work-based education is always cost and time effective and provides facility to the learner who desires to learn while at a job. As Professor M.S.Ananth The Director of Indian Institute of Technology. Madras commented on this issue in a 2003 seminar that this concept of higher education helps the students to cope with the changing market requirements and the use of these new tools for changing applications so that they can turn into wealth creators. In a credit concept

-       good students opt to go for maximum credit points,

-       students interested in research  related activities may opt for lesser credit points

-       students can translate their innate capabilities to score credits

-       students get the opportunity for pursuing more than one discipline to increase

their horizons by getting flexibility to choose.

With all its good nesses credit based education has been gaining momentum round the globe. In European countries this system is called European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) .in Australia it is National Qualification Framework (NQF) while in UK they call it Credit Accumulation and Transfer system (CATS) .In Japan and China this Pan-American protocol is widely followed. In India a National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been in operation with a target to link 31000 colleges and Universities around the world through a system called National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and to offer 1100 type of course modules supported with UGC approval.

                 In the post globalization scenario the completion among the business enterprises has been so stiff that they have to work against all odds from social, environmental and in-house labour related problems. The work can not stop for anybody. Total Quality Management (TQM) policy is being followed every where for uninterrupted production. The TQM in one sentence is “no one is indispensable for any work”. Hence the enterprises demand for professionals who beside his/her basic education and training shall have domain knowledge in social, environmental and labour issues. It will be no astonishing if a Computer engineer will be required to design the architecture of a network in a large enterprise or is required to solve a complex real life situation. For the success of the entrepreneurial activities the workers need be good managers having required communication skills and ability to work in cross cultural teams. This multifaceted training for its employees is what the enterprise can expect from this credit based learning concepts. Job after education is becoming an old concept rather education after the job should be the new mantra.

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DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND- How much India getting the advantage

           Demographic dividend is a subject of population of a country and its effect is a complex socio-economic issue. The developmental planning of the country must consider the population growth rate to garner the positive effects in all possible means. According to the economic theory where the market is strong the currency of that country stands harder. But peculiarly the geographical region covering China, India and Pakistan which contribute to one-third of the world population and have strong captive market and the global business community making bee-line to establish their presence are suffering the impact of Euro-debt crisis which has resulted in continuous nose dive of the Indian currency since  a year or more. The sultans in the Government are only promising green to its citizens and passing the buck to the Reserve Bank of India to take some fire fighting measures. This raises question, whether there is any policy or only politics in the Government

                   The present trend of one or two child concept in Indian families has resulted in social, cultural and economic changes in the society , which must be utilized to get the best out of that. There has been increase in the number of smaller families. In many families there have been more earning members. The dependency ratio in families is decreasing and the youth dependency rate drastically reduced. According to the I.L.O concept the children up to 15 years of age and the persons who have completed 64 years of age are considered dependant to a family while the persons in the age group of 16 to 64 are considered earning and self dependant members in a family. Therefore the Total Dependency Ratio (TDR) can be mathematically derived as:

             Children up to 15 years of age+ Persons above 64 years of age

 TDR = ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X 100

                   Persons in between the age group of 16 and 64 years

Higher the TDR value higher will be the economic pressure on the net earning of the family and vice versa. In the Indian context there is un-employment problem But the equation remain true. According to the Indian census data taking 1961 as the base year, by 2001 the percentage change in various age group are:

Year of            Population change rate within the age group of

Census             under 14 years          15 to 34 years        16 to59 years     above 60 years

1961                     41.0                            34.43                       53.30                    1.80

2001                     35,3                            31.79                        56.90                   7..4

 

  This shows there has been increase in the earning group and the ageing group where there has been a diminishing trend in the child population (0 to 14 years) and in the reproductive group (15 to 34 years.) Hence there has been a diminishing TDR .This indicates:

-       more earning members in the family means entry of more persons in the labour force,

-       more family income means better nutrition, better education to the children, better

health care and better living condition are available to the families and there is more saving to the family purse.

-       Cultural change in the family institution resulting in smaller families ,increase in one

person family ,postponement marriage, rise in divorce rate among the newly weds, decline in fertility rate among women.

-       More and more women folk join employment to feel at par with the other earning

members in the family.

   

  More earning member indicates inflow of more labour force to the market. This will require proper planning for the use of this intellectual property which should cover planning to give them proper education and training suit themselves to the market requirements so also generation of suitable employment for them inside the country, else they will be encouraged to leave the country in search of suitable employment.

  

    More family income beside its positive aspects of comfortable living conditions enhances more savings, means increase in the number of small investors to the capital market and country’s domestic savings and increase in the purchasing capacity of the individuals. Better nutrition and better health care will lead to decrease in mortality rate. This will affect population ageing; means there will be more elderly persons in the families.

Postponement of marriage, combined with decline in fertility rate among women folk indicate availability of healthier women in the families and also in the service sector which has its special impact on the society as a whole. In Japan, Europe and North America each family having fewer children or no child at all has shown a disproportionate number of older people in the families. Soon East Asia will suffer this syndrome. This negative effect will increase pressure on the state exchequer for the payment of pension to the senior citizen In China the one child policy over the past several decades has resulted in increased population ageing. At present 38% of the population in China comprises of children below 15 years and ageing persons above 64 years of age. The U.N report on population in India also predicted that the present trend of decreasing youth population (15 to 34 years of age) will further taper off by 2030.

     According to an Indian labour report about 30 million youth will enter into the labour force by 2030 only India. It will then be a gigantic task for the country to handle that huge human intellectual capital. A two day long “One Globe-2012” conference was recently organized in New Delhi to brain-storm on this issue where in many speakers stressed on how to prepare those youths with necessary professional training and education such that the nation could churn out best of them to garner the fruit of demographic dividend. The union minister in charge of HR and CIT Mr.Kapil Sibal who spoke in that conference stressed on private participation in such skill development programs since the government alone will be unable to handle the huge task. He also suggested for widening the credit based education system through which both the regular and working class people could be benefited He informed that a National Knowledge Network (NKN) has started in our Country which is at work to link about 31000 educational institutions around the world and to offer 1100 open courses for need based skill development. It is also a fact that literacy and skill development of the country’s working class plays a vital roll in productivity.

      Whether India is prepared to garner the fruits of this demographic dividend? After 64 years of getting independence India is at the 67^th position at the poverty index, that is much below some poverty stricken South African countries. The national literacy rate is hovering around 63%. Many government managed schools are of poor quality, lack infrastructure, even with no sitting arrangement for the students. Many schools in rural India run with less or no teacher out of whom many are not even fit for their job. There  are reports that many school premises  due to their continuous non-use has turned into camps of the security personals or naxal teaching seminaries. The schools in cities are also not in good shape as seen from the results they have been showing. There are some counted highly regarded state owned institutions like the IITs, IIMs, IRMA, IIFM, AIIMS, and IISc. which are producing counted number of graduates, majority of whom are opting to leave this country in the pursuit of higher education or better employment after passing out Some high-tech organizations have set up their own academies to prepare their selected personnel while many meritorious youth are a strayed due to non- availability of required opportunities.

      Another lacuna with Indian government is, there exists more politics than policies .India’s much hyped protective discrimination policy that reserves close to half of the openings in the professional fields for the members of the indigenous tribes, dis-advantageous castes and other minority and unprivileged groups which has resulted in shortage of top quality teaching staffs in the premiere institutions in this country.

           On quantitative aspects in India only 10 percent of the youths get higher education. A growing number of students are now entering into the mushrooming low quality colleges which are no better than teaching shops and degree mills. According to a NASSCOM release only one in every four engineering graduates have employability in private sectors. As per the government report only 3.6% of the national GDP was spent in education sector in the 2007-08 financial years. This shows the poor state of affairs in our policy planning. While delivering a lecture on this issue Professor Philip.G.Altbatch, Director of CIIE Boston

and Professor N.Jairam of Tata Institute of Social Science they commented that the promise of demographic dividend may not last long if India would not reap its advantages within a couple of decades .Commenting on the infrastructural lacunae in the education system in India a Swiss Professor Carl Gustove said “the wines of youth is not clear and it grows turbid”. Some critics even says that the: demographic dividend that has come to fore has its origin in the catastrophic policy error of the Government In Prime Minister Indera Gandhi’s ministry where the cultural revolution pushed the population control through the programs of forcible sterilization of women in rural India.

     The 2008 global financial melt down scenario had also pushed back the Indian economy due its faulty economic system. The presence of less policy and more politics syndrome in government has caused to see smart and educated youths at the streets and voicing their anger against corruption. It is no astonishing if more Anna Hazares or Ramdevs would emerge to sympathize with the frustrations of the youths.

      

                    LOKPAL INSTITUTION IN INDIA   -  A myth or reality

    In the year 1809 to register a small man’s battle against administrative apathy and injustice an institution of Ombudsman was created in Sweden first against the monarchy and later against the administration. Due to the people responsiveness of the institution it was later followed by Norway and New Zealand. In 1962 New Zealand enacted the provision and notified the Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman) Act-1962 to investigate complaints on any administrative irregularities and injustice affecting a common man. The success of this institution of Ombudsman had its repercussions in other countries England created the institution of Ombudsman in the name of Parliamentary Commissioner and notified their Parliamentary Commissioner Act in 1967.

    The government of India  under the Ministry of Home affairs notified the first Administrative Reforms Commission under the chairmanship of Morarji R. Desai on 5^th January 1966 with a mandate to review the public administration system in the country for ensuring the highest standards of integrity efficiency and people responsiveness in the public administration system in the country and submit its recommendations to bring in more accountability, sustainability and proactive ness in public administration machinery. The Commission was empowered to review functioning of all government departments except those of Defence, Railways, External Affairs and Security & Intelligence wing and submit its report to the Parliament. In its interim report the Commission recommended for formation of the LOKAPAL (protector of people) institution with adequate power to keep the administration on the right track. The idea was highly applauded and a draft bill thereof was introduced in the Loksabha in November 1968.Although passed in the Lower House the bill could not reach the Upper House due to dissolution of the fourth Lokasabha. There after the said bill in the name and style of Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill has been reintroduced for eight times ( in 1971 , 1977 , 1985 , 1989 , 1996 , 1998 , 2001 , and 2008 ) i.e  over a span of four decades , but could not made through the Lower House in seven cases  while in one case rejected by the Upper House

      .In the mean time, majority states except states like West Bengal Tamilnadu, Manipur,Nagaland,Sikkim,Mizoram,Tripura etc.got their Lokayukta Bill enacted in their states  In the 9^th attempt the UPA government introduced the Lokapal and Lokayukta Bill-2010 in the Loka Sabha in the winter session of the Parliament with a mandate to tackle political corruption in the country with only recommendatory powers. Bureaucrats were excluded from its purview. There was strong opposition to that bill and the same was rejected due to its weak provisions. People branded the bill as tooth less and then started the anticorruption crusade lead by the octogenarian Gandhi an Leader Sri Anna Hazare supported by the members of the Civil Society which included the famous Lawyerex Union Law Minister of Morarji Desai Cbinet Sri Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant Bhushan and ex- bureaucrats Kiran Bedi Arvind Kejariwal etc.That movement got world-wide applaud and the youths in India came to the streets to show their solidarity to the movement.

        Finally the UPA government bowed down before the public demand and notified a Joint Committee on 10^th April 2011 under the Chairmanship of the then Finance Minister Sri Pranob Mukherjee including four other senior ministers from the cabinet and other five members from the Civil Society including Anna Hazare. A moratorium was fixed to submit their considered views by 30^th June 2011. The government side prepared the report in the name of Lokapal Bill-2011 while the team-Anna prepared a parallel bill in the name of Jan Lokapal –Bill .Both the team convened acrimonious draft meets for nine times in the North Block but failed to reach a consensus and ended with “agreed to disagree” syndrome. The team-Anna came out with resentment that the government do not want the bill to come, while the Union Law Minister Sri Veerappa Moily said that the mandate of the Committee was not to rewrite the  Indian Constitution Political parties like BJP ,BJD , JDU ,TDP , SP, RJD and the left wing parties had objected the bill with various criss-cross views for not to include activities of the MPs in the Parliament, PM`s Office, the Speaker of the Lokasabha and the lower bureaucracy,

     In an open letter to the leaders of the nation a group of 14 eminent personalities (G-14) like Ajim Premji of Wipro Group , Deepak Parekh of HDFC Bank, V.Vaghul of ICICI Bank, A.Vaidyanathan ex RBI Governor and financial advisor to the PMO etc. expressed their concern for the need of an urgent passage of a well crafted ombudsman bill reinforcing the inviolable primacy of the Indian constitution to reflect the sense of the House. From the government side they proposed several critical powers to the Lokpal including (i) conferring quasi-judicial status (ii)like those of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission  the Lokpal institution to be supervised by the cabinet to make that free from any type of political influences (iii) the Lokpal shall have power to investigate any public office., office of a Judge or a politician (iv) power to impose penalty and attach properties of an erring person and provision that the losses to the Government to be recovered from the convict at the time of conviction (v)Investigation of each complaint to be completed within 365 days from the receipt of a complaint and to complete the resultant judicial process within next 365 days, (vi) the existing anticorruption wing like the CVC,CBI and the Lokapal shall be under one umbrella (vii) The Lokpal to be selected from among the Judges, Civil servants, Constitutional authorities, Eminent citizens  all having clear past records,(viii)the whistle Blowers who have alerted the agency about any potential corruption to be provided with protection,(ix)provision for reservation  for the sits of Lokapal from the indigenous communities , members from the unprivileged class ,minority community and OBC communities.

          The government moved its version of the bill in the name of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill-2011on 4^th August 2011 by Sri V.Narayanswamy a minister of state on behalf of the Prime Minister and the bill was passed on voice vote after a brief discussion in the House .The then  FM Sri Pranob Mukherjee termed the ascent of the House as the “sense of the House” The opposition bench expressed their discontentment over the various weaknesses in the bill and its legal infirmity since the bill was passed under the Article-252 of the Constitution instead of the Article-253 as the law pertains to public service, and the Lokpal will have no authority on the states. Later it was rejected by the Upper House and again reintroduced on21-05-2012.The bill has been referred to a select committee for consideration. The Union Law Secretary was summoned before that committee to submit their considered view about this anti graft Ombudsman institution latest by 4^th July 2012. But what it is being perceived the bill is not likely to be tabled in the Upper House in the monsoon session of the Parliament in2012.

        Corruption is a sensitive issue in India which has earned the fame of the largest democracy in the world with a population of more than 1.2 billion while in the Corruption Index notified by the Transparency International this country is ranked at the 95^th position. The higher the index the more is the severity of corruption. Incidentally after the notification of the Right to Information Act-2005 at least 12 whistle blowers have been killed and more than 44 have been seriously assaulted under mysterious circumstances after seeking information under that Act. According to a report released by Washington based Global Financial Integrity India has lost 462 billion $ in illicit financial flow due to tax evasion, crime & corruption in post independence era  Such illegal money stashing has been threatening the economic growth of the country.

         The issue is the administration used to enjoy vast discretionary power in all democratic countries. There will be every possibility of misuse of the authority. Once the honey of power is tasted by a human being, he would not like to install a stop valve in the pipe line to restrict its flow. There is a Sanskrit version that “;youbana,dhana sampada,prabhutwa,abibekata , Ekeikam anartham chaiba kim yatra chatustayam” .Means the Greed of the youth, Wealth ,Power and Lack of Morality are each a cause of disaster. When all the four characteristics are present what to tell? According to the views of the French Sociologist and columnist Raymond Aron in India there is less policy and more Politics .If his remark holds good then the so called policy makers will never let the bill pass as desired by the Civil society activists and the idea of Lokpal may remain in myth with myriads of sensitive issues.