Education

It is that time of the year again when students of grade 10 are scrambling to secure admissions in junior colleges. The application process is in full swing, and they're eager to move onto the 11th grade. There is a large number of students, who are not at all bothered to apply to junior colleges. Instead, they are trying to secure a place in the top coaching institutes for JEE and NEET training. This is what is widely known as the 'integrated coaching' structure. In a practice that has been going on for years, students who want to appear for…

Every year the new academic year begins June and July for most colleges. However, this year, it's not the usual reopening of institutes. Students, parents as well as educators are busy understanding the possible implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) in Mumbai. Much of this uncertainty and confusion is expected to clear up in the coming weeks. As per the NEP 2020, schools must implement 5+3+3+4 years of education system. However, the Maharashtra State Board, announced that the 10th and 12th standard board exams i.e. the (10+2) system will continue till the academic year 2024-2025. This rules out any…

There has been a spate of suicides by students in Chennai's colleges in recent months. Four students have died by suicide in a span of three months at IIT-Madras this year. The 2021 NCRB report states that one died by suicide every 42 minutes in India. Tamil Nadu had the third-highest number of instances of student suicide, which is 9.5% of total student suicides across India. Mental health support for students has been sorely lacking in institutions of higher education. Without adequate support and mechanisms to address grievances on college campuses, students are left to lonely and uphill battles by…

OpenCity.in, on April 1st 2023, organised a datajam at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore to analyse data of various sectors-education, civic participation, and mobility-for all the 28 Bengaluru Assembly constituencies. The event brought together participants from diverse backgrounds, including urban designers, policy wonks, GIS experts, developers, data scientists, and more. This article highlights the team's findings in education. Problem statement How many students are there per constituency population? Are there enough staff and facilities in the schools to serve these students? Background We started out by asking basic questions on what constitutes education and the basic infrastructure needed…

The allegations of multiple instances of sexual harassment and abuse in Chennai's famed Kalakshetra highlights the need to look into mechanisms in place at educational institutions in Chennai to aid survivors and prevent the recurrence of such incidents. At present, the University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of sexual harassment of women employees and Students in higher educational institutions) Regulations, 2015. mandate every educational institution to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to deal with the cases of sexual harassment of all women inside the campus. Unfortunately, many colleges in Chennai do not have a functioning ICC or take…

Can you plan a trip to Iceland for me? Can you plan a vegetarian meal for a dinner party at my house tonight? How can I productively engage my six-year-old who likes art and craft. Can you explain to me Einstein’s theory of relativity? In the real world, no one person can answer such a diverse set of questions? But in the cyberworld, there is a new entity which can. It goes by the unusual name of Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer or ChatGPT with its unique ability to generate human like responses in record time. This new entity, unveiled in…

Efforts have been made to create a positive perception of schools run by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) with the aim of making the prospect of studying in these schools attractive. There has been an increase in enrollment in GCC-run schools in Chennai on the back of these moves and largely driven by the economic toll of COVID-19. While there is a clamour for smart classrooms and the creation of model schools in the city, many GCC-run schools continue to function without basic infrastructure such as an adequate number of classrooms, working toilets and usable and safe playgrounds. Teachers in…

On December 15th, 2022, around 15 students at the Banegar English High School in Mira Road were in for a rude shock. Denied permission to attend class as on a normal day, they were made to sit apart in a spare classroom with broken desks and benches. The reason: their parents had been unable to pay their school fees, and this was their punishment. "They switched off the fan and made them sit in the storeroom for the entire day. No teacher came to check on them, nor were they let out at recess," says Swaleha, mother to seventh grader…

When someone sees him for the first time, the most striking feature will have to be his quirky spectacle frame – square on his left eye, and round on the other. Narresh is the co-founder and creative director of Shivan & Narresh, India's first luxury holiday brand that was launched in Cannes with 100% stitch-free swim line. He has been featured in every major luxury fashion magazine and portal. Whether this was a future he had envisioned years back, when he was preparing for his final school board examinations, is difficult to say. But in a way the genesis of…

Swahlaya Sufi, 13, an eighth grade student at Elite English High School, Neelasandra, dreams of becoming a doctor. Unlike most of her classmates, who were revising for their class quiz, Swahlaya, who stays with her parents in the city but originally hails from Odisha, was calm and well prepared when I met her. Sakline Abbas, Secretary of Elite English High School, a low cost private school that aims to provide quality education to children from economically weak backgrounds, is impressed with Swahlaya's calibre. Abbas, had started the school with his wife Sakhina, the current Principal, in 2000. Read more: Students…