March 29, 2012

How is this 8th Std. I.T. question paper?

This question paper is Information Technology Kerala Syllabus Final exam in 8th Std. in a very reputed private unaided school in Kozhikode.. What is your opinion about the IT education in Kerala based on this question paper??

See Q.6..India is connected to the Internet on.......
What a fantastic information that a child of 8th Std. must learn!!
Then we have good questions like "What is code?", "............. is the father of the Internet" etc...


March 28, 2012

അധ്യാപകരുടെ അധ്യാപകര്‍ ചൂഷിതര്‍: വിദ്യാഭ്യാസം എങ്ങിനെ മെച്ചപ്പെടും?

സര്‍വകലാശാല കോണ്ട്രാക്റ്റ് അടിസ്ഥാനത്തില്‍ അധ്യാപകരെ വച്ച് വിദ്യാഭ്യാസകച്ചവടം നടത്തുന്നു. യു.ജി.സി. നെറ്റ് ഉണ്ടെങ്കില്‍ കിട്ടുന്നത് വെറും രൂപ പന്ത്രണ്ടായിരം. എപ്പോ വേണമെങ്കിലും പിരിച്ചു വിടാം.ഒരു ആനുകൂല്യവും ഇല്ല. മെഡിക്കല്‍, പെന്‍ഷന്‍, maternity ഒന്നും കൊടുക്കേണ്ട. ഇതാണ് UGC കാരുടെ സ്ഥിതി..



March 21, 2012

Problems in teacher recruitment

Teachers can get appointment in government schools through a cumbersome route..

Government schools: Graduation ---> B.Ed---> TET ----> PSC test
(appointment occurs once in a decade or two..large interval between PSC tests)

Aided schools: Graduation ---> B.Ed---> TET ----> interview
(donation, influence, caste/community factors taken into account)


Unaided Schools: Graduation ---> B.Ed---> TET (?!!) ----> Interview
(very poor salary and service conditions)

The pre-service training, that is, B.Ed course is not just sufficient to become teacher. One has to pass teacher eligibility test.

The TET may impact B.Ed course. Teacher trainees may be busy preparing for TET while doing B.Ed. It is likely that the B.Ed colleges turn into TET coaching centers.


March 10, 2012

No more theory paper in ICT in schools ...great step

Teacher Education In India blog has brought up the poor teaching methodology adopted in schools to the notice of the authorities.
The response of the authorities was very positive and progressive.

SUMMING UP
In response to the blogpost on wrong way of teaching IT at school, the IT Executive Director Sri. Anvar Sadat said that "


"What you have shown is the way in which a teacher or student is NOT supposed to go through..".
He told that the wrong methodology is followed in unaided schools only and lakhs of school teachers have been trained on ICT already..
"We have started ICT Enabled education in 2009-10 in 8th standard. ( pl see the Text book at Revised ICT textbook for standard 8 - Malayalam - English and a report in The Hindu athttps://www.itschool.gov.in/innewsImages/172_vvqicuc.jpg )
We have given clear instructions and detailed training to teachers on how to teach this text book. As per the circular from DPI, a teacher who hasn't got this training was/is not supposed to teach this text book. i am happy to inform you that we were able to train 25000 + teachers for Class 8 so far.. "

IT Director has assured to take steps to improve the curriculum of ICT in schools in unaided schools also.

It was heartening to note that the authorities have accepted that the methodology of teaching IT raised in the previous blog as defective and was not the intended methodology. In this regard the IT secretary replied as follows:

"We never envisages / disseminated the sort of 'What is a computer Monitor', 'How to open a document file' etc etc and consider such activities that are happening in all most all other streams as 'cyber crime'. Pl see the report about ICT intervention in Primary levels athttps://www.itschool.gov.in/innewsImages/222_ppabtmm.jpg and I am sure that you'll appreciate the text books we have prepared for the same."
Besides, the IT Director also assured that " that from the coming year onwards no students in the state stream need have to appear for written examination in ICT"

I appreciate the officers concerned for prompt responses to the issues raised and observing the seriousness of the issue and also positively responding to the matter.

SCERT has not been advertising posts.. Is there irregularities in recruitment? letter to SCERT Director


To
The Director
SCERT, Thiruvananthapuram

Sir,

Someone close to me has been working in B.Ed training colleges since last 15 yrs. She has good career record with M.Sc, M.Ed, UGC (NET) and Ph.D (Edu). She has been waiting for an opportunity to enter into teaching career in Education but could not find one till now.

She had applied for recruitment in SCERT around 1999-2001 when vacancies were advertised but even qualified candidates were not called for interview. Was there any appointment to those posts?? Why SCERT is not making appointment through PSC?
Out of the 220 plus B.Ed colleges, all except 17 aided colleges and 4 government colleges are in the private sector and self financing sector run directly by universities. They employ teacher on contract basis and pay small salaries only. There is no job security, no allowances, no pension or not even medical allowances. One can get job in one of the 17 aided colleges only by influencing, or money power or caste power.
PSC conducted recruitment to the Government training colleges but the priority was given to 'by transfer' candidates who are already employed in the government institutions. 

The SCERT, as I know, have not advertised any vacancy since last 15 years even though it is involved deeply in the field of teacher training and research. It is also heard that you had appointed faculty by giving permanent employment to those who were working on contract basis there. If it is so, it is plain corruption, and challenging the democratic system of the country and the recruitment system through the public service commission. I would like to know more about this.

The SCERT website does not reveal any job opportunities there. Most of the links in that website lead nowhere. A section on "announcement" too has broken links. It is teasing the public, such an important organisation with important activities functioning without transparency to the public. 

Why SCERT is avoiding those who have high qualifications on UGC NET on Education and also PhD in Education etc. and recruit through internal arrangements to the plum posts of lecturers and other positions there?

I am interested to know more about the functioning of SCERT with respect to recruitment policy, whether it has been fairly recruiting faculty and other officers to various positions, why it is avoiding the qualified teacher educators working in the private and self financing sector who have UGC NET and PhD in Education, in its training activities.

Is there corruption in the organisation with respect to appointments?


Yours truly

Sreekumar B


copy submitted to 
Secretary, General education

March 09, 2012

TET for teachers of unaided must follow regulations to ensure remuneration at par with govt/aided teachers






I searched for the Government Order for TET and found it HERE.

The teachers in the Government institutions are right now selected based on PSC tests. So TET is set as part of minimum qualifications to attend for the PSC test, I think. That is good.


I agree with the Government stance that -"Government have the academic responsibility to ensure that a teacher appointed should possess the minimum qualification  for teacher"

The appointments to aided institutions at present is based on the amount of money that the candidate pays as "donation" (a veiled bribe in broad daylight -selling government post by managements to make money..daylight robbery). At least I believe that TET will ensure that the ones appointed as teachers will be having minimum eligibility and capacity to occupy the post.

But what about the teachers of the unaided institutions. The government has not been considering them as part of the education system; They are paid only a pittance of what the government and aided school teachers get. So burdening them with TET and other qualifications without ensuring that they are paid like human beings at par with the former guys is inhuman and the Government have the responsibility to ensure their remuneration at par with the aided and government institutions.

March 07, 2012

Government ignoring unaided/self financing institutions

The government officials on the top fail to recognise that unaided and self financing institutions are also important part of the education in the State.
Please visit the web portal of Directorate of Collegiate Education named The Scholar.
at http://www.thescholar.kerala.gov.in/thescholar/main/teacher_tabpane_2.php

If a college 'teacher' (not even called lecturer) from unaided college or self financing institution tries to register there is no provision for registration. The options given are:
Engineering Colleges
Freelance
Government/aided colleges
Medical Colleges
University departments
Veterinary colleges
No Unaided/ Self-Financing Institution Option

The education department bosses do not recognise that unaided/self financing colleges are part of the education system. In most areas the government/aided institutions constitute only a minor portion of the whole. The majority of the public is catered by unaided/self financing institutions.
In teacher education government and aided colleges constitute only less than10% of the colleges. The rest 90% of the unaided/self financing colleges are catering to the educational needs of the State. Yet this sector is neglected. The States resources are shared among the few government and aided colleges and the rest 90% are not even considered as colleges and the faculty members working in these institutions are not given any privileges at all.
The officials are cleverly closing their eyes towards the existence of unaided/ self financing institutions and pretend that it is not their responsibility... They fail to see that their duty is governance and the whole education system comes under governance of the State. The State cannot ignore the majority sector and leave it to the private players. The teachers and human resources in these colleges are also important part of the system

March 06, 2012

SCERT website is not updated. Links leading nowhere

Websites are important communication links in the modern times. Government websites need to be updated to enable public to get information and transact important details with the Government.

I visited SCERT (State Council of Educational Research and Training) website (http://www.scert.kerala.gov.in/) and went to important Links page. I found that most of the links are not working or are leading to irrelevant sites.
I have taken pains to test the links of the websites given and the results I found are given below. The red highlighted links do not work at all. And please click the link of NIEPA (an important institution in Delhi); it takes you to some private website; and so does the link of NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education)
Please click the links listed in the webpage below and see..
(http://www.scert.kerala.gov.in/links.htm)




A website reveals a lot about the organisation


Development of skills at school level essential



March 04, 2012

IT curriculum of Kerala - has to improve


The following are the images from the notebook of a 8th Std student studying in Kerala syllabus school. . This curriculum creates aversion towards computers and is boring and adding unnecessary intellectual load and emotional stress in children. In this the children has to cram up operating menus in steps like 'click' and then reproduce in the exams... 

(Respected IT Executive Director accepted that the issues raised here as genuine and has stated that by next academic year no student has to write a written exam on IT and the assessment will be based on practical tests only. He has also said that no student has to learn ICT as 'what is computer' etc way and will definitely look into it. That is a great help to lakhs of school children as the new system might reduce their learning burden)



March 03, 2012

Our educational administrators are too busy!!

Our educational administrators in India are too busy. They don't have time to even read their websites or update them.

I went to CIET website at http://www.ciet.nic.in/ and from their I tried to open SIET Kerala website. I got the following home page for SIET website.












The page asked 'did you mean sietkerala.org. I clicked the link. then I got the following page





Then I clicked the link for SIET Gujarat website. I got this home page


When I clicked the SIET webpage link of Orissa, Andhra, Pune I got similar results as Kerala SIET. The UP SIET website was more funny
http://www.india9.com/i9show/State-Institute-of-Educational--Technology-(SIET)-47896.htm










March 02, 2012

Teacher Education Standards?? Read TOI article on corporal punishments to children in India



"Shockingly, the study found that the practice of giving electric shocks was also being followed in some schools" Barbaric school system in India.. Poor state of affairs of Teacher education..


The poor standards and insensitivity of school teachers is due to poor teacher education. In India teacher education in neglected and made a commodity for education merchants.