Indian Education on Pitara Kids Network

Learning Creatively

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:00:46 +0000

Gijubhai Badheka was deeply influenced by ancient Indian methods of teaching and opposed the conventional schooling system. He speaks of his views on improving the education system in his books ‘Divaswapna’ or daydreaming, and ‘Education in Primary Schools’.

Gijubhai used story telling as a means to attract children to learning and listening in class.

Learning Creatively

Using story sessions as rewards and not punishment, a crowd of unruly children can be made to settle down and gradually learn to behave themselves.

No Begging for Merit

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:11:52 +0000

May 25: When Nagarathna, a beggar girl from Mysore, was preparing for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (Class X) examinations, she had to beg to buy books and study under street lights. She passed the exams with flying colours and the Indian Express newspaper published her success story.

After the story appeared in the paper, Nagarathna has been receiving innumerable offers from people who are keen to fund her education. A non-resident Indian, a retired statesman, actress-turned politicians, the list is endless.

No marks for mother tongue

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 02:39:34 +0000

August 18: What’s the most difficult subject for students in Uttar Pradesh? Is it Maths, English or Science. Surprisingly, it’s none of these, it’s Hindi! According to a Press Trust of India report, it’s Hindi that lets them down when it comes to examinations.

Nearly 50 per cent of the class X students failed in Hindi in the UP Secondary School Board Examinations. And Hindi is the language they speak – for most people in the state it is their mother tongue. In the intermediate (intermediate refers to the to years after Class X and in some states these two classes are part of college) examination, the failure rate was 21 per cent and in elementary school 91 per cent of the children failed.

Illiterate Americans

Sat, 30 Nov 2002 18:36:45 +0000

October 6: Last week we had written about Ganga, a teenaged girl who taught the women in her slum how to read and write. These women are not an isolated case. A very large percentage of the Indian population does not know how to read and write. In fact, the mass illiteracy of its citizens is one of the biggest problems staring the Indian government in its face today.

Illiterate Americans [Illustration by Anup Singh]

Now there’s news that the richest country in the world, the United States of America, is struggling to cope with ‘illiteracy’ too. As many as 50 million American adults are in danger of becoming ‘functionally illiterate’, reports the news agency Reuters in ‘The Asian Age’. But it’s not as if these people don’t know how to read and write. What they don’t know is how to use the computer.

Supreme Court gets Tough After Ragging Death and Torture

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:08:52 +0000

Where: New Delhi, India

March 16, 2009 : Ragging was at one time considered to be a fun way for seniors to interact with freshers in college. It has now become nothing less than systematic torture by bullying groups of seniors.

Three shocking ragging incidents occurred in the past week. Aman Kachroo, a student of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, died of head injuries on March 8, 2009. He had complained to the authorities earlier that he was being assaulted by a group of seniors from the time he joined college. Their last attack took his life. Four students were arrested. A Bench comprising two Justices of the Supreme Court issued notices to the college Principal and Registrar.