India’s Education Minister Chastised by Parliamentary Committee

August 24, 2011, 10:21 am

A parliamentary committee has criticized India’s education minister, Kapil Sibal, for not doing enough to consult with government and private officials about proposed changes to India’s higher-education system, The Economic Times reports. Such consultations—with state governments, education regulators, academics, and other parties—“remained the least priority issue” for the ministry, the parliamentary standing committee on human-resource development says in a report. The committee says it will now solicit outside input on the reform proposals.

The criticism is the latest in a series of political setbacks for Mr. Sibal’s much-vaunted higher-education-reform efforts.

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proftucker

I had an “epic” fail my first day of teaching ever. Not a fail like Heather described, but multiple technology failures. Circa 1999. This was a laptop-based Systems Analysis program — all of the students and myself had been issued laptops from the school. The students were arranged in “puddle” tables with Ethernet ports and power outlets. Brand new state-of-the-art classroom. When I got to class with my whiz-bang PowerPoint all loaded on my laptop and duly rehearsed, I discovered that the data projector was not installed yet — just cables dangling out of the roof. Plan “B” — whiteboard. Alas, no whiteboard markers to be found anywhere. I wandered the halls looking for an administrative office or anyone that could spot me a dry erase marker. I muddled through my first lecture knowing I’d have to make a good second impression later.

Now I show up in class with a toolbox in hand. I use it as a metaphor — this class is a “tools” class to help you in your future career — and I keep it stocked with extra whiteboard markers, VGA and audio extension cords, and assorted pens & Post-Its and so on. The ol’ Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” at work!
vandoesborgh

I taught a class in a room in a music building that served many purposes: a lecture room, a rehearsal space for choirs and small music ensembles and as the meeting space for the audition days. Because of this, things got moved around a lot. After a weekend where the space was used for auditions and parent meetings, I taught in the room. It was as clean and tidy as I’d ever seen it, however, I was counting on the portable chalkboard being in the room – It was always there and there was no where else to store it, or so I thought. I walked into the class and noticed the chalkboard was not in its usual place on the side of the room, so I began looking behind the curtains that hid some of the chairs, music stands, and instruments for the ensemble rehearsals. Nothing! I looked in the hall and in a nearby storage space. Again, nothing. I started to panic because my class relied on what I was going to write on the board. By this time, I was about 5 minutes into the class. I then had what I thought was a brilliant thought: we were piloting the use of some SmartBoard products, one was a wireless entry pad that should enable me to connect to the computer in the room and “write” on the screen. I ran to my office down the hall and got one of the wireless pads. Back in the room, I couldn’t get the Bluetooth to connect. So I ran back to my office and got the second unit thinking there may be something wrong with the first. Same problem. So I was dead in the water… Low tech and high tech had both failed me. After 15 or 20 futile minutes trying to make something work, I decided to just try my best to explain the topic that day without a board. I think I would have done better just releasing the students and trying again later. It was my worse day and I think the students didn’t get anything out of the class.

Immediately after the class was over, I went and asked around in the department office where the chalkboard was. Someone who had set up for the weekend events overheard and said, “oh, it’s in the closet in that room;” a place I never thought anyone would try to put it, so I didn’t look! From then on, I showed up a little earlier and always checked the room for the chalkboard. At least I’d know where to look now if it wasn’t in plain sight.
ajgulyas

I’ve had several fails in my years of teaching– sometimes technological (the DVD has a scratch and just won’t play; network congestion scuttles the YouTube clip that was just perfect), but often they were the mental blocks that Heather describes. The more I teach, the less concerned about these mistakes I get. I’ve become comfortable enough in front of students to admit occasional fallibility. And, as Heather points out, it creates great opportunities for sharing the real-life side of learning.
alexwmerritt

I’m not in academia, but am a recent graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, and I remember when a professor failed. The professor was Boone Turchi, one of the best professors at UNC (he’s also one of the most feared — he is a fierce critic of grade inflation, and grades are low in his economics classes). The class was statistics for economics majors. As we were going through the lecture, a girl in the class pointed out that the formula he was using was wrong. He looked at it, opened the textbook, wrote something down, went through his slides. Students did too, and began to agree that there was an inconsistency. Turchi looked at the class, took a deep breath, and said, “I have totally screwed this up. Thank you very much for telling me. I have section two of this class in two hours. You are all dismissed today while I make corrections for the next class.” By the time I got back to my dormitory, I had an email in my inbox with the corrected slides, another apology, and an explanation of why his original slides were wrong, and why the new ones were correct. It was the only time in college I can recall a professor admitting he or she was wrong. The fail was a teachable moment — admit your mistakes and move on. I respect Professor Turchi immensely (even though I got a B- in the class), and learned a great deal from him not only about statistics, but about gracefully admitting that you are wrong.
http://twitter.com/ilfess suzanne

I think all educators at some point can identify with this. It should be viewed as a learning experience. I always feel incompetent when delivering training in different settings for the first time and the main contributor is using one style of teaching. By applying different methods of teaching on a regular basis will help the educator to adapt to any situation at short notice.