Education Franchise - Foreign Educational Institution Bill

What did McDonald, KFC, Subway and the like bring to India? Well, a lot of good food, business for the local businessmen, work for the local lads, money for the Indian economy. The franchise model of business has worked wonders in the food sector in India. Relatively easy to set up, an instant brand recognition and invaluable assistance in terms of knowledge makes it an instant hit in booming economies like ours. Many other sectors have tried the franchise model as well - the hospitality industry for example.
If everything goes right in the next few months in the Parliament we may see the same franchise business model in the education sector as well. "The Foreign Educational Institution (Regulation of entry and operation) Bill" is all set to be tabled in the parliament for discussion soon. The cabinet has cleared it and Kapil Sibal is confident that though parties like BSP, RJD and SP would oppose it, the bill would get acceptance in BJP and other sorted out parties and should get cleared without much ado. The Left is expected to rattle a little but they have been disarmed in the recent times by the UPA government's massive numbers.
The bill, when passed, would be a big boost to the education system in India. If Universities like the Harward, Oxford, Stanford and the like start to show interest in Indian education market we may soon move towards a standardization in the education sector which is the need of the hour. The education system in India in present times is raked by malpractices across all fields of study. Unification of education metrics has been echoed a number of times by the education minister and few other government bodies and this bill can do just that in an indirect fashion. A number of universities have had similar successful experiments in countries like Singapore specially in fields of technology, fashion and other contemporary fast paced cources.
Education franchising would bring better education to the people of India, more robust education system may evolve and more than anything else it would create a respect for Indian education scenario in the rest of the world. According to the current trends the Indian student is in high demand in the global market but the Indian education is looked down upon, this Bill may change the attitude of the world.

A bank run by kids, for kids in Bihar - Should we be happy?

As an employed Indian, sitting in an air conditioned office in the IT hub of India, I don't know how to react to this news I read on IBN LIVE just now - Few kids in Muzzafarpur, Bihar, have launched a Cooperative bank which aims to help small children who are employed/self-employed in 'professions' like 'rag picking', 'domestic help', etc. to save and even gives out soft loans to those in need!
A brave move, innovative and something that should be touted as an incident which speaks volumes about the way the children in India are evolving to face the challenges in their lives. I mean, a story about a girl who takes a loan from a bank run by children like her to revive her father's shop is inspirational, if anything! The reason behind my confusion is simple, I don't know if I should be happy about this news. I'm proud of these small kids beyond doubt (they are responsible not just for their lives but the lives and the livelihood of their families!) But, I'm not happy with the state of affairs in my country!
The question I want to ask everyone is,

Why are these kids working in the first place?

Are we going to marvel at such initiatives or are we going to take steps to provide these kids with education and a plethora of other things that a child requires to develop into a worthy citizen of a country that promises to be the future of the world!
The centre is yet to decide on the Right To Education act as of today, reason - lack of funds! The fundamental right to education is yet to bless millions of kids of India. Now, more than ever, we are raising questions about the education scenario in India after the release of Three Idiots (based on Chetan Bhagat's best selling book, Five Point Someone) but these 'discussions' are mostly confined to the higher echelons of the society - most emphasis being on the way we provide higher education in India and how we measure its worth! Very less is being done as far as providing basic education is concerned.
We need to act fast, before these small, enthusiastic and brilliant kids grow up and become the ignorant mass that we largly are!

Indian Education System needs a rethink - BIG TIME!

The root cause of almost all problems in India is the absence of a dependable education system. The presence of State boards is a damper to a dream of imparting quality education. The whole idea of State boards is to decentralize the mighty task of providing good education. But, the purpose is totally defeated when the quality of education is deplorable. Another impossible task is finding a way to align all these different standards into a common framework so that a comparative analysis can be done which is used in centralized examinations, etc.
Like most Indian firms, the focus of all the Governments in India (be it state or the centre) has been to highlight the achievements. The targets have to be met and in the process of meeting the targets the whole idea behind that target is forgotten. Take for instance the Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna (PMRY), under the PMRY scheme all educated unemployed youth are eligible for a loan amount of upto 1 lakh rupees. This is to help them become self employed and join the economy bandwagon. Like almost all policies the PMRY's focus is to be able to have numbers in the end of the year (rather 5 years) to show. The result of this number game is that the taxpayer's money is spent like water, there is no proper recovery mechanism followed in almost all states and no risk analysis is done whatsoever on the money given. Half the money given goes back to the babu's pockets and the rest in buying booze, paying debts incurred while gambling, marring off a sister or (in very rare cases) starting a business which has guaranteed no returns! Instead of just giving a loan the government needs to set up counselling board which can guide an individual on starting a small business which is honest, humble, manageable by the individual, realistic and at the same time adds value to the surroundings of the person applying for a loan (an example would be starting up as a guide if you are in a place like Nagaland - a state which has beautiful places to visit and one of the least recovery rates for PMRY loans!)

Currently, the focus of the government is to increase the number of 'educated' people across the country and trying to create jobs for them (one classic way of doing it has been sighted by CSR - create a new state by disrupting the Universities, promise government jobs to these 'educated' men and women!). The right thing to do perhaps would be to create a sense of purpose in the minds and hearts of these young people and give them pride in what they really want to do and are blessed to do! Even simple things like being a Librarian or something out of the box like a Stunt director, a Radio Jockey, etc. should be projected as viable career options and the education in the case of the student should then be focussed in this direction.
And above all the way the country works, how the various departments operate/function, how the state and the centre collaborate and yet have a separate identity should be 'taught' to each individual of the county. I would like to see this kind of an education being imparted in schools being run in slums, etc. instead of trying to feed the young minds some gibberish in a language their tongues can't pronounce and their eyes are not comfortable reading (mind you, I'm not against teaching English or any other language in particular - there are places in India where Hindi is taught (though completely unnecessary!) when the kids are more comfortable with English as a script!)