College life can be overwhelming. Students are often moving away from home for the first time, trying to make sense of a new place and find their way into higher education. College is a big step up. And at first, it can seem like there’s so much to learn. Not only do student have to adapt to new living conditions, but also learning standards and specific requirements of new teachers. Piles of homework add to students’ confusion. Unable to deal with urgent assignments themselves, many students call on professional services rendered by PapersOwl.com, a tried and trusted custom essay writing company. We’ll bet you’re also struggling to manage your workload and dreaming of becoming a more efficient writer. Indeed, knowing how to effectively find, develop, and express ideas is a key to success in higher education. In our article, we’ll offer some strategies to improve your writing and research skills and thus boost your academic performance. 

In the first class of many college courses, you’ll receive a syllabus, or a schedule of readings, activities, and assignments. This will help you budget your time and understand what you have to do. It’s especially important with writing assignments to get started on them as soon as possible. But how to get started? Once you’re sure you understand the assignment, here are some general steps to improve your writing. 

# 1 Brainstorm 

You may be given a topic or you may be given the freedom to choose. In either case, you must be clear what the assignment is asking you to do. Jot down everything you know about the topic. Think about what ideas interest you. Choose the strongest one. Then narrow your topic to a clear focus. Once you come up with a narrow and specific topic, you can proceed to do some general research. A good place to start looking for general information is on the library website. 

# 2 Outline 

Try to group related ideas into paragraphs. Think of what ideas, facts, arguments, and evidence should be mentioned in your outline. Done? Now you have a clear idea of what your paper is about.  

# 3 Research 

Now you’re ready to search for books, journal articles, and other publications. Once again you can rely on your college library. Go to the library page and type in your keywords. You’ll be provided on the list of publications that match your keywords or topic. Some will be books in the library. And you can check if they are available. Also, you can request a hard copy, if the source you need isn’t in the library. Other books are e-book which can be accessed anytime by simply clicking on them. You can save time by reading a journal article’s abstract or summary. Periodicals, such as magazines and newspapers also may come in handy in your research. Remember to save the sources of information or references that you collect. It will save you a lot of time later when you cite your sources in the text or your bibliography. Also, it will help you avoid plagiarism. 

# 4 First Draft 

You’re now ready to pull it together. Looking back to your outline and the information you’ve collected, get your ideas down and see how it all fits together. You may decide to alter your outline or go back to do more research. 

Still need help? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. If you’re not sure if your topic is on track, speak to your instructor. If you can’t find the necessary source, you can go to the library help desk. Still, if something goes wrong with your assignment, don’t hesitate to seek help from time-tested writing services. Don’t know which one to choose. The professional PapersOwl review will clear up your doubts and help you make the right choice.    

# 5 Revision 

Here is where you aim for greater clarity. Verify supporting ideas, evidence, examples, and expert research to strengthen your paper. 

# 6 Editing and Proofreading 

 When your ideas are clear, it’s time to switch over to the technical side of writing. Edit and proofread. Look at your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Also, it’s a good idea to exchange papers with your friend and do peer editing. Examine every sentence. Read your paper aloud. Check for repetition and a variety of sentence styles. Editing well can be the difference between an average and a better grade. 

Congratulations! You’ve done it. Improving your academic writing skills will help you through all your studies and beyond.  

The article provided courtesy of PapersOwl.com

Schools, colleges and universities play very crucial role in national building. They play the vital role in preparing our next generations and bring out professionals who are responsible to drive the nation and its economy in later stage of their lives. They breed new ideas, innovations in the minds of the students and also create awareness amongst the people to make them responsible citizens. A nation and its future depend on imbibing proper education to the young minds of its children and the educational institutions play a role to play in this noble direction. Ever since the educational system came into being, it has been very difficult to find its consistency. Through continuous research and up gradation, exposure and elevation in the field of education, new ideas and concepts came into being in the quest of the feasible manner of imparting education and studies. Innumerable reforms took place to form a sustainable development in the educational system leading to greater results to have a comprehensive approach to education. As a result of these investigations based on research and policies the semester system of education has been introduced in place of annual system. Both semester and the annual system have merits and demerits. SGPA to CGPA – is Semester End Grade Point Average into Cumulative Grade Point Average.

Educational institutions or universities have different systems of imparting education to the youths of the country. Mainly there are two systems working and adopted in the many universities, annual based system and semester based educational system. In the annual based system, examinations are conducted after one academic year while in the semester based system, examinations are conducted in every five or six months. And naturally there are plenty of differences in annual based system of education or semester based system of education. But our main focus is about advantages or disadvantages of semester system.

Advantages of semester system

• In the semester system, the students have option to study subjects according to their choices as the syllabus given is flexible,

• In the semester based system the children are allowed to take assignment which ultimately help them to broaden their knowledge other than the defined syllabus,

• In the semester system education children are allowed to study different subjects,

• In the semester based educational system the students are allowed to synchronies their undergraduate studies and post graduate studies,

• Course contents are decided by the teaches but these are decided only by seeing and reviewing the interest of the children

• The interaction between teachers and students increases and the teachers have more information about the students

• In the semester based educational system credit hours are defined and the students are allowed to study according to the defined credit hours. 

• In the semester system students get more leaves and vacations as they get a semester break and after the final examination of every semester. 

Disadvantages of semester system 

• Due to short time, teachers cannot complete or finish teaching the whole subject to the students.

• In the semester based educational system the students have to complete the syllabus in a short period of time

• Due to shorter format of semester based examination sometimes students do not get sufficient time to study extra and as a result they just do not have more than the basic knowledge of their subject of studies.

• The student in the semester based educational system do not get enough opportunity to carry research work

• As the scheduled time of the semester passes quickly the students do not have enough time to complete their course of studies and naturally they do not have complete knowledge about their subjects.

• In the semester based educational system students do not get chance to re-evaluate their papers and therefore they have to be very cautious to manage and maintain their grade.

Now by and large the advantage and disadvantage are more or less same and it is very difficult for us to decide which system is good and it is up to the students to decide which system of education they want to follow. But the present trend of students’ choice goes in favour of the semester system over the annual system of education

A mentor might be the most important person in the life of a mentee. From everyday study discussion to some very important career decisions are taken mostly with the help of a mentor. This mentor does not necessarily needs to be your teacher, he might be a friend, a family member or anyone else who can help and teach you some valuable insights of life. The relationship between the mentor and the mentee should be an open one. Such that the mentee does not hesitates to ask anything and also the mentor should give a mature solution to the mentee’s problems. Getting a good LOR would also be easy. You can check for some LOR samples online.

It is said that lucky are those people who get their boss as their mentors. Finding a good mentor is not easy but maintaining a life-long relationship with him is even more difficult. Building a stable and strong relationship with mentor requires patience, focus and efforts, just like finding your dream job. After all, this is equally important. Finding a good mentor can change your life for good and you would be blessed to find one such person at every aspect of your life when you need to take a tough decision. Building a strong relationship with the mentor depends on several factors. Let us discuss them one by one below:

The goal of the mentee should be clear and focused:

The mentee should know that what is his objective or goal. Finding the mentor who would guide you towards your goal is very important. One should also keep in mind whether they can freely interact with the person or not. If the mentee can’t interact openly with the mentor, the relationship won’t build strong. The work of a mentor is that to guide the mentee and help him achieve his goal, this can be done only by a person who has similar interest and urge towards the goal. The field of interest should be same of the mentee and the mentor otherwise it won’t be as helpful for the mentee and interesting for the mentor. Hence, the very first and foremost step is to have a goal and find a mentor accordingly.

Know more to learn more:

Like every other relationship, the key to make this relationship strong is getting to know each other. The more you know about your mentor, the more you would be able to interact with him and interacting more is the keey to build a strong relationship. Learning about his past experiences and work life challenges would be helpful for you and also would open up the mentor towards you. He would see that you are interested in his life, want to know about his struggles and learn more from them. He would open up to you more, help and guide you with whole heart.

Regular check-ins are important:

There is no better way of interacting and building strong relationship other than meeting up. In this modern day technology can work and you can drop in a text or make a phone call whenever required but it is always better if you can plan and arrange a meet up. Physical presence and face to face meetings are never out of fashion when it comes to make strong relationships. This fact remains true for all.

Sound prepared:

The key to achieve the mentor’s trust is to show him that you really want to succeed. Nothing, other than a serious and active mentee, attracts a mentor. Be prepared with your topic of discussion for the day, do your homework and be eager to learn. People who are eager to learn about new things, interested about happenings around them and come prepared are the one’s who get the best out of their mentors. Set your objectives for the day ready. Make every session productive for you as well as your mentor. This will want your mentor to give you more time and help you more.

Saying thank you is important:

Always be thankful to your mentor for the precious time he is devoting to you. It should be always remembered that a note of thanks goes a long way and you might again need your mentor’s assistance. Let your mentor know how much you value his advice and look upon him.

Since quality education is expensive and time-consuming, not all students have equal opportunities to deepen their knowledge and improve their academic skills. Moreover, the academic achievements of the students largely depend on teachers, their personalities, and the ability to communicate complex information in simple ways so that all students could comprehend that. As a result, we need tutors who would help us to study and prepare for exams. 

source:https://unsplash.com/photos/02z1I7gv4ao

If you do not know how to find tutors, here are six websites that may help you:

1. Savvy – Find the Right Teacher of… Anything

Regardless of your current educational needs, you can find any tutor on this website. Experienced musicians, analytics, managers, public speakers, writers, sales associates, scientists, mathematicians, IT specialists, and designers can share their knowledge with you online through a one-to-one video. In other words, Savvy connects you with the practitioners who not only know the theory, but also practical aspects of a profession and, thus, can help you to master it as well. You can choose a tutor that you want, book a lesson, confirm the time, and wait until the assigned time. Generally, the process of selecting the right instructor takes between 5 to 15 minutes.

2. GPAlabs – The Best Experts From All Around the World

There is no doubt that education is not limited to one or several specific countries and universities. Both international students and teachers contribute to the overall development of science, economics, arts, and other academic spheres. That is the reason why the best websites for finding tutors should include qualified specialists from various parts of the world in order to meet the needs of the students. GPAlabs works with experts from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Most of the instructors either have or pursue a Ph.D. degree, which makes an academic report writing help more successful and unique in comparison to other online services for students. The website guarantees quality, originality, qualification, and commitment, which are essential parts of education.

3. UrbanPRO – Tutoring for Life in the Globalized Society

Urbanization and globalization pose challenges for the outdated educational systems that were focused primarily on the local needs of the students. In fact, the rapid development of the world suggests that students should know more than one foreign language, be competent in Information Technology, and preserve the individuality within a diverse society. That is why UrbanPRO works in three major directions, namely, IT courses, languages, and hobby classes. The website also has such options as exam coaching and subject tuition, but the main emphasis has been made on those three major categories. Thus, for example, if you need help in studying programming languages or Indian languages (Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu), you should consider visiting UrbanPRO.

4. The Tuition Teacher – From Pre-Nursery to Postgraduate

Unfortunately, many tutors work exclusively with adult students or postgraduates but do not provide services for younger categories of learners. That is why The Tuition Teacher allows you to select classes beginning from kindergarten to university diploma degree and postgraduate studies. Moreover, if you do not want to study online and would prefer to meet with an instructor in real life, you can select a city where you live (however, the list of available cities is relatively short: Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Kanpur, and Lucknow). The most important aspect of the website is that you can select any subject according to your class, age, and learning abilities. Even if you do not know the curricular plans of your institution, tutors will help you to find all the needed materials. The reason why one should not be concerned about the quality of the website’s service is that all hired tutors must provide diplomas, and only an experienced educator can become a part of the Tuition Teacher team.

5. Vidyalai – International, Interactive, and Individual

The website is one of the largest networks that include teachers from all around the world; those are the graduates of top universities, such as the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Instituto Cervantes, University of Picardie Jules Verne, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science. You may choose courses that comply with the US curriculum, Australian Curriculum, SAT, and A-Level courses. Vidyalai is the guarantee that all students will be mentored by one tutor during the whole course in order to personalize the learning experience and create a sense of continuity of the learning process.

6. Embrace Tutoring – For Groups and Individual Students

The website connects you with the Embrace Tutoring and Educational Services in New Jersey or New York City. Imagine that you and your friends want to study math together to prepare for the forthcoming exam. You do not want to study individually, and you decide to book a group lesson where each member of the group will be able to communicate with the same tutor at the same time. Group tutoring is significantly cheaper than private tutoring, and, what is also significant, that may help you and your friends to be on the same level of knowledge.

Vishnuteerth Agnihotri from GenWise very kindly shared some of the suggestions sent by GenWise.in, in response to the NEP Draft of 2019. 

Response to the Draft NEP 2019 from GenWise

GenWise is a group of accomplished mentors (25+), with an excellent blend of corporate, academic, local and international perspectives. We see our role as supporting schools and parents, by bringing in contemporary knowledge and ways of thinking of researchers, experts and practitioners to young students, and we have been doing this through residential summer programs, experiential programs as well as in-school day scholar programs. Our key strength is enabling students to truly experience deep learning on contemporary themes. 

We congratulate the NEP Panel on working on this very difficult task and bringing out the Draft NEP which has several excellent recommendations. In the spirit of constructive and productive engagement in the transformation of our education system, we also present a critique of some of the proposed elements. Our response focuses on the School Education section of the Draft NEP, and has 3 parts-

• Overall Observations- our comments on the overall direction and focus of the Draft NEP

• Specific Observations- our comments on specific sections and paras of the Draft NEP which could be considered while finalizing the NEP

• Specific Recommendations- Specific implementable actions that we believe are ‘high leverage’ in achieving the goals of the NEP

For clarifications on our response to the Draft NEP below, please write to [email protected].

Overall Observations

1. The Draft NEP lays out the vision for the education system in India to be one that will  “ensure that it touches the life of each and every citizen, consistent with their ability to contribute to many growing developmental imperatives of this country on the one hand, and towards creating a just and equitable society on the other.”. This vision appears to see the individual only from the dimension of her/his contribution to the country and not as a being whose human personality can be developed and enriched through learning. Enriched individuals will naturally make strong contributions to the country.

2. The Draft NEP proposes major revamps in several areas while talking very little about lessons learned from the past- why certain initiatives worked or did not work. India has extensive historical experience in education. It is crucial for the development of an effective and impactful education policy to be informed and shaped by the learnings from this experience and institutional memory.  

3. The Draft NEP makes several excellent points that have the potential to bring huge improvements to the system. However, there are too many proposals with no prioritization. A more focused NEP will provide a clearer direction to implementing bodies. 

4. The Draft NEP ignores the huge challenge of ‘mindset change’ among parents, teachers and educational leaders/ administrators that would be needed to promote critical thinking in democratic classrooms. It assumes that the educational leadership believes in ‘questioning, critical thinking, and teacher empowerment’ as crucially important. However, past actions of educational leaders indicate that such a belief is rare among educational leaders, and a mindset change is needed even among leaders.

For example, when one educational program is replaced by another, we rarely see an analysis of learning from the past effort and how it is informing the new one (e.g. shift in the ABL models in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu- see pages 67, 68 and 70 of https://uni.cf/2ypO0j3 ). What message does this send to the system on how important we consider ‘critical thinking and questioning’? Teacher involvement in important decisions about teaching-learning models and other things that affect them, is typically quite low; what does this tell teachers about our belief in ‘teacher empowerment’? (see pages 66 and 67 of https://uni.cf/2ypO0j3) . Even the extent of input of the best teachers in our country to this Draft NEP seems unclear.

5. Another aspect of mindset change is to recognize that learning happens not just in school but also at home and in the larger community we are part of. Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish Educator, believes that the excellent performance of Finland in PISA is influenced by the opportunity available to Finnish children to engage in productive activities outside of school- whether reading because of the ‘dense library system’ or immersion in sports, arts and culture through one of the many ‘NGO clubs’. Closer to home, experts believe that the relatively higher levels of literacy and reading ability in Kerala was influenced by the availability of reading material at low cost and the availability of reading rooms or ‘vayanashalas’ across towns. Thus the NEP should look at ways of nurturing informal networks and communities that support the work of schools in helping all children to succeed.

6. Apart from initiatives to bring ‘mindset change’, significant capacity building is needed to equip key players in the education system to play their role effectively. While the Draft NEP does talk about measures needed for capacity building of teachers, it does not talk about capacity building measures for educational administrators. Capacity Building refers to-

1. Teacher Education- This is the rate limiting factor (to use an enzyme kinetics analogy) in the creation of a meaningful education system. The NEP articulates, fairly strongly, about the urgent need to overhaul teacher education, hiring and deployment and the overall teaching and learning culture. It also provides an extremely ambitious programme towards this but the implementation roadmap (Addendum 2) provided does not reflect this urgency. The priority as laid out in the roadmap continues to be on infrastructure and administrative arrangements.

2. Building a Body of Knowledge on Learning and Implementing Educational Programs- A research-based body of knowledge that is robust and easily accessible is necessary. This should be built upon the knowledge of both teachers and experts. To use the medical analogy, the teacher is a practitioner analogous to a doctor, who is in the best position to help the learner learn. Just like the doctor though, the teacher too needs to refer to research journals or speak with academic experts in the area of medicine to hone her understanding and knowledge, while also contributing to this knowledge, through her on-field experience. A similar case can be made for building a body of knowledge relevant to educational administrators and leaders on areas like ‘how to build a vibrant community of teachers’.

3. Training of Educational Leaders- This involves providing leaders with an understanding of the context of the education system, what a ‘system’ is and principles that are important in bringing about systemic improvement. For example, all educational leaders should be familiarized with the work of Donella Meadows, that points out how changes in social structures (like allowing teachers to self-organize) can be far more powerful that changes in physical inputs. See http://bit.ly/2Ytpecn -an article by Donella Meadows on 12 Leverage Points (or places to intervene) in a system. The recommendation on creating vibrant teacher communities, later in this document, is based on Leverage Point no. 4 in Meadows’ list- ‘The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure’. In simple words, communities of teachers who evolve teaching practices on their own (and are thus ‘self-organizing’), are far more powerful and resilient than teachers working independently relying only on ‘top-down’ inputs.

In our opinion, a more focused NEP would have Capacity Building and Mindset Change as the areas of focus in School Education. Further, the many contradictions in the Draft NEP proposals (whether real or apparent) should be addressed and clarified. 

7. Some examples of the contradictions are shared below.

1. importance of instruction in mother tongue vs learning to read in 3 scripts by Grade 2

2. reduce curricular load by focusing on essentials vs proliferation in the number of subjects

8. When there are contradictions in the policy or across educational programs, the goal and approach to be adopted are unclear and leads to low adoption (see pages 67 and 68 of https://uni.cf/2ypO0j3 ). Therefore communicating a single clear goal can be very powerful. For example, to achieve Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, it would be good to give a single goal along the lines of “By Grade 5, a child should be able to read an ‘unseen passage’ in her mother tongue, write a page expressing her own ideas, do simple arithmetic involved in a real-life transaction. Nothing else is more important till 2023 by when this goal should be achieved”.

9. Lasting change is difficult, requires time, and moving away from entrenched paradigms. In other words, the desired outcomes- like children reading, doing arithmetic, knowing 3 languages etc. will take time (a 2-3 year process which may be achieved between age 6-7 to 10-11).  Because of the time lag involved in this change, such outcomes can be termed as ‘lagging indicators’.If the system is looking only at ‘lagging indicators’, the assessments will get dumbed down to ‘show’ that these goals have been achieved. This has been seen on numerous occasions when large scale assessments are done. One striking example one of our team members saw in an evaluation study, is a child reciting a story in English confidently, but being unable to explain the story in her mother tongue! This problem is exacerbated if there is an insistence that certain goals are achieved every 3 or 6 months. This issue can be addressed by having ‘leading indicators’ of change that provide confidence that we are on the right track (for example the ‘number of pushups done daily’ is a leading indicator of increased muscle strength that may take some months to develop). Possible ‘leading indicators’ would be children speaking up freely in their mother tongue, taking part in language/ arithmetic games, sharing stories, teachers being aware of what students can/ cannot do at any given point of time. In other words, the system should be clear and confident about the ‘process’ to be employed and results will come in due time.

Assessment of learning outcomes is of course important but these should be done along with the assessment of 'leading process indicators', in a low stakes manner and perhaps less frequently (say once in 2-3 years, at least in the beginning, until significant improvements are made).

Specific Observations

1. Leveraging Peer Learning- P 2.5 talks of ‘best performers’ in each school being selected for the National Tutors Programme, and being selected for the NTP will be considered a ‘prestigious position’ - the spirit of such language if it seeps in is likely to create unnecessary competition and a superior/ inferior mindset among students. It would be more inclusive and effective to foster an informal culture of peers helping each other learn.

2. Instructional Aides from the Community- P 2.6 talks of recruiting Instructional Aides , especially women, from local communities for remedial teaching during and after school hours. While the idea of community involvement and remediation is good, one needs to take care that this does not end up like the ‘para-teacher’ scheme with core teaching activities being done by these aides.

3. Ethical and Moral Reasoning- Ethical and moral reasoning is rightly identified as a very important goal. Values of empathy and compassion must be nurtured which will build values of acceptance, tolerance and fraternity.  Empathy, compassion, acceptance will also allow children from a very young age to value diversity – cultural and social. This is critical in the context of the deeply entrenched caste differences prevalent even today in India. Such value systems are essential for the development of a just society as envisaged in the Draft NEP's vision. However, the NEP should recognize the conflict between its goal of ‘critical thinking and questioning’ and ‘getting students to adopt certain values’. For example, the value of ‘sacrifice’ could result in gender, ethnicity, class and caste inequalities remaining unchallenged and the value of ‘patriotism’ could lead to unquestioning nationalism. We believe that it is possible to manage this conflict by recognizing values development as a process that can be nurtured and facilitated through critical engagement with issues pertaining to personal and social values and behaviour, as well as ‘modeling’ of behaviour. The most important values, in any case, cannot be ‘transmitted’ through moralizing and laying down a code of conduct. Appropriate teacher education is crucial to ensure that these values are nurtured in a sensitive and thoughtful manner rather than ‘handed down’ in a moralistic or dogmatic fashion. 

How teachers and school staff engage with students in day to day interactions is extremely important in nurturing values- as it has been said, values are ‘caught’, not ‘taught’. For example, impartiality and fairness in and outside class, how teachers encourage children, how they provide feedback, whether they listen to them, how they interact with their parents, how adults in school resolve interpersonal conflicts- all of these influence values development in students more strongly than lessons on ethical and moral reasoning.

4. Sex Education- In the context of sex education [Section 4.6.8.5] it is important to begin this process from the Middle Stage (11-14 years) to coincide with and provide emotional support at the onset of puberty.  An important objective of sex education should be to inculcate a healthy relationship and understanding of gender and sexuality.

5. Gender Equality- In the list of inspiring leaders [P.4.6.8.7] provided, women scientists and leaders are conspicuous by their absence (M.S. Subbalakshmi is the only woman mentioned). Such an inherent gender bias in a policy document must be immediately corrected. This is in contradiction to the proposals referred to elsewhere in the policy to promote education for girls. It is also counter to the Government's push towards ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’.

6. Knowledge of India- In Section 4.6.9 where integration of Knowledge of India into the education system is discussed, the NEP talks about inclusion of local and tribal knowledge into the curriculum and textbooks. Does the policy propose region specific text books to be written? As indicated in 4.8.2 and 4.8.3, SCERTs will be tasked to produce State specific sections in textbooks. Does this include integration into Science textbooks? For instance inclusion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (recognised today as a distinct stream of study globally) and its relevance to taxonomy, understanding of ecological systems and adaptation to climate change.
   
   

7. Integration of Subjects- New subjects like 'Critical Issues' and 'Indian Knowledge Systems' are being introduced while talking simultaneously about 'reducing curricular load to essential ideas to permit nuanced discussion and understanding'. The objectives of the Draft NEP can be met much better by integration of the proposed 'courses/ subjects' with existing subjects. For example, there is plenty of scope to integrate Language with Social Studies/ EVS at the primary level, and important content and ideas of 'Critical Issues', ‘Current Affairs’ and 'Indian Knowledge Systems' can be integrated into Social Studies at the Middle and Secondary levels.

8. Critical Issues Course- It is appreciated that an effort towards creating greater awareness is proposed among children starting with Grades 7 and 8. However it seems rather strange to see a Government programme (Swacch Bharat) listed among issues such as climate change, water, sanitation etc. among the list of critical issues [P4.6.10.1].  Students should be exposed to various approaches / responses to managing water sustainably rather than specifically a programme. 

9. Experiential Learning- The NEP mentions experiential learning at various points in the context of curriculum and pedagogy. Conspicuous by its absence is any reference to engagement with nature across all stages of learning. Innumerable studies from across the world have shown that the increased alienation of children from their natural surroundings has impacted physical, mental and emotional growth. Nature Deficit Disorder / Syndrome is being recognised as a legitimate problem. Together with reading and numeracy it is critical that the policy emphasize experiential learning through active and hands-on engagement with nature in the surrounding environment (e.g., learning through the senses, working with soil, creating with natural material, observing changes in the immediate natural environment around us etc.). This is essential not only for intellectual and emotional development of the child but also for developing motor skills, dexterity, observation and other sensory skills. At each learning level described in the NEP, suitable curriculum will need to be developed to deepen the engagement, exploration and learning. This is not something to be included merely as a part of Biology in the STEM curricula but as an essential component of experiential learning. See http://bit.ly/2ylRx1V .

10. Centralization of Development of Learning Material- P 4.8.2 mentions NCERT’s primary role in developing textbooks. While it is useful to have textbooks from NCERT given their expertise, there needs to be capacity at the state and local level to build good quality learning material including textbooks, given the wide diversity of contexts across the country. There is a wide diversity of contexts even within a state.

11. College-readiness by the end of Grade 12- Students should have depth of knowledge in at least one stream by the end of Grade 12, if they are to be college ready. Given the clubbing of Grades 9-12 under one ‘secondary umbrella’, a wider variety of subjects and the proposed semester based assessment system across 4 years, depth of learning in one stream may get compromised. In 4.9 it is proposed that between Grade 9 and 12, there will be 40 ‘subjects’ across all semesters, 24 of which will be assessed by board exams, of which 2 are Math, 2 science, one each in Indian and world history, one in economics, commerce etc. and other 15 + left to school assessment. Perhaps it would be better to focus on the ‘breadth’ goal till Grade 10 and focus more on ‘depth’ in Grades 11-12 (maintaining some degree of ‘depth’).

12. Lack of Clarity on Assessment System – P 4.9 talks about various points– Assessment of higher order thinking skills, Easier board exams, Repeated taking of board exams with two or more attempts to improve scores, Board exams every semester replacing end of year school assessments, assessments through open book exams for secondary school students and so on. There is no clarity on what exactly the assessment system will be, and some of the suggestions are not aligned with the others.

13. College Admission Testing- If the ‘board exams’ are being reformed is there a need for another testing agency for admissions to universities. Multiple high-stakes exams will increase stress. The school leaving exams and the college admission exams need to be thought through carefully and rationalized.

Specific Recommendations

Mindset change and capacity building are closely interlinked- changing mindsets itself requires capacity building, and building capacity requires changing mindsets. Still we have shared our recommendations under separate heads to emphasize the importance of each.

Mindset Change

1. Public Education Campaigns on a Massive Scale- Important messages that are well designed (remember the wide appeal of ‘3 Idiots’) should be disseminated through TV/ Radio/ Social Media/ Hoardings. These should be on different relevant themes. Popular national figures like Virat Kohli and Amir Khan or local figures can be used in the campaigns. Some important themes are-

1. The value of critical thinking and questioning- interesting questions can be used in the campaign (represent all numbers up to 1023 using 10 digits of our hands). Perhaps a mascot can be created (like Boojho/ Paheli in the NCERT textbooks) who signifies critical thinking and questioning and stories involving this mascot can be created to spread awareness of the importance of such thinking.

2. English medium is not equal to good education- by highlighting success stories of non-English medium learners and highlighting world-class regional language schools (see point no. 2)

3. Negatives of competitive pressure- highlighting the success/ well-being of students and schools which do not adopt a competitive spirit 

4. Value of learning outside of school- The value of non-curricular learning (and the linkages between the curriculum and real life) can be highlighted using real-life case studies (the community learning hubs proposed below can be a source for such case studies). There are many children with significant knowledge, talent and skills who lose confidence in their abilities because of the excessive focus on theoretical learning and exams.

2. World Class Schools in Regional Languages- Highlight existing high quality schools in regional languages and have a goal of 10 world class schools in regional languages for all regional languages (say in 3 years). Make films on these schools and use in teacher training and in mass public campaigns for people to start believing in high quality education in the mother tongue.

3. Define and promote practices that lead to an organic shift in mindsets- Changes in mindset cannot be forced from the outside. However, mindsets can shift based on new experiences and how these are processed. Seemingly simple and specific practices have the power to bring about big change. For example, getting teachers to do regular home visits and discussing these in monthly CRC meetings could go a long way in creating a collaborative and inclusive school culture. Note that the teacher is not being told to be ‘inclusive’ but by helping her to experience the child’s home environment, we increase the likelihood of her taking a sensitive approach. Another example could be getting visitors to the school to wait in the school library to promote a culture of reading. The compendium, Eklavya Sari (http://www.eklavya.org/Eklavyasari.html) shares such culture building practices of one school. The ‘Centre of Evidence Based Practice’ proposed below could take the responsibility for compiling, evaluating and disseminating knowledge of such practices.

4. Contests and Events that promote Real Learning- TV shows like ‘India’s got Talent’ and ‘Indian Idol’ have played a big role in inspiring talent in music, dance and performing arts. Shows like ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, ‘India Child Genius’ and ‘Mastermind’ have encouraged general awareness and knowledge. Well designed contests or shows that promote application of knowledge in different contexts, creativity, design thinking, tinkering etc. have the potential to inspire a generation of learners as well as teachers to learn joyously and focus on what’s important in learning. For example, a seemingly simple activity of making a paper column with half an A4 sheet that can support the maximum weight without collapsing offers deep richness of learning while being open-ended and can easily go on for 2-3 episodes, also allowing all viewers to participate in the experience because of the ease of availability of material. Viewers could also send in the problems they need solved to the ‘contesting group of inventors’. These contests could have close linkages to the Community Learning Hubs proposed below.

Capacity Building

1. Community Learning Hubs- These will be high-quality learning spaces, with a library, ‘maker-space’, craft material, computers with internet etc. co-located in the same facility with adequate staffing. A lot can be done with simple tools and modest budgets, as long as there is a resourceful facilitator. The initial target could be to have several such centres at district/ block level and ultimately one per school-complex. The centre should be open to all children in the community (even if not enrolled in the school), and be open beyond school hours also. Local ‘vocational experts’ can operate in this facility; local craftsmen, electricians, plumbers etc. should play as important a role as facilitators in this space as scientists, engineers, doctors etc. This space should be used for local contests, study circles, community dialogues and celebrating festivals, and become the ‘learning hub’ for the community. Some of the best work and learning in colleges in the country is happening in such informal clubs and groups and the presence of a vibrant learning hub in each community could create a huge transformation.

This initiative is related to the School Complexes proposed in Chapter 7 of the Draft NEP. However, the Community Learning Hubs will be most powerful when the community takes ownership of this space, and the kind of energy of informal collaborations that is seen in a community during festivals, gets transferred to learning (learning here is defined in the broadest sense as any activity that does not involve ‘passive consumption’). School Complexes must look at their role as enabling the community to run a vibrant learning hub, rather than seeing this as hub as an extension of the formal schooling system.

2. Nurturing Vibrant Communities of Practice of Teachers- In Point 6b of ‘Overall Observations’, we pointed out that the importance of the teacher as a ‘professional practitioner’. All thriving professions require vibrant communities of practice. The school complexes proposed in the Draft NEP probably provide an opportunity to nurture such communities of practice. Vibrant communities of practice have always existed in our country. Some of these have also been nurtured consciously by educational leaders e.g. In Gujarat, during the early years of implementing ‘Pragya’, master resource persons from SCERT would visit schools in a block, capturing snippets of lessons on video, and these would be discussed by teachers across schools in the block after a couple of days, leading to a rich exchange and motivating teachers.

However, much more can be done to consciously nurture teacher-led communities of practice. The challenge of ‘scaling’ should be looked at as proliferating such networks of practice with ‘top-down’ initiatives nurturing ‘bottom-up’ communities and ideas. The Berkana Institute’s framework of Name-Connect-Nourish-Illuminate offers a different paradigm to look at scaling (see http://bit.ly/2ZtDuDr ). The work of Wenger-Trayner on communities of practice also offers relevant insights. The power of building a vibrant community of teacher practice is that it is a self-organizing system (see point 6c of ‘Overall Observations’ and pages 14-16 of http://bit.ly/2Ytpecn)

A powerful example of a self-organizing community of teacher practice is the practice of ‘Lesson Study’ in Japan, that has been in existence for one hundred and thirty years. Lesson Study involves teachers working together to design, test, and improve lesson sequences, with multiple teachers observing the session, reviewing the sessions jointly and other teachers reteaching the revised lesson plans. This practice introduces teachers to the power of collaborative inquiry and the important role observation plays in opening our eyes to alternative practice. Many good ideas come from the teachers’ own experiences, increasing their confidence in practising the craft of teaching. This practice gained international attention after publication of results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) video study.

3. Educational Leaders with strong context of teaching-learning- Given the complexity in education, it is important to ensure in some way that Educational Leaders and Administrators have at least 10 years of teaching experience or strong context about education. A ‘governance paradigm’ without an understanding of how learning happens is not sufficient to be an effective educational leader. A career path should be available for teachers to grow into the highest roles in educational leadership. Lateral entry could also be allowed to exceptional individuals with a proven track record. IAS officers who come into education roles should be identified at least 2 years in advance of their actual posting and should undergo a rigorous orientation of at least 15 days and be certified by a committee before their appointment in an educational leadership role. Perhaps it is time to create an ‘Indian Education Service’ under the Civil Services.

4. Centre for Evidence Based Practice- Constitute a ‘Centre for Evidence Based Practice’ at the central level (with representation from states), staffed with high quality researchers and teachers. This can include fellows who are part of the centre for a few months to a couple of years. This centre should collate existing evidence and do new/ further research in important areas of curriculum and pedagogy, teacher development, how to bring systemic change etc. The members from this centre should be part of committees (state and central) that define and deploy educational programs. The centre should network with educators around the country and around the world. The centre should have a high quality website of resources, start its own journal and publish high-quality research (the What Works Clearinghouse initiative in the US could guide the design of this repository- see https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ ). This centre could be responsible for training and certifying educational leaders, including those who make a lateral entry into the government education system.

5. Repository of good questions and projects- No effort to change the education system will work unless the ‘goal posts’ are changed. In this light, the Draft NEP rightly speaks about reforming the board examinations to assess the ability of students to think critically and reason on their own. However, such learning can happen only when teachers frame discerning questions and learning tasks and engage students in working on these. (Often it appears that there is agreement on the kind of learning that is being targeted, but on seeing the actual questions, differences in opinion surface). Initially it is difficult for teachers to differentiate between such questions and other questions, or even if they can, there is a fear that discerning questions will be too tough for students. An easily accessible repository of good questions, projects and learning tasks will go a long way towards demonstrating the kind of learning we are targeting, and catalyzing the process. Teachers and even students should be allowed to add questions and projectives to this repository with incentives for quality submissions. 

6. Video Repository of good teaching practices- The good learning tasks repository suggested above provides teachers with engaging learning tasks that promote critical thinking and real learning. However, without specific guidance on how these should be facilitated (at least in the initial years), there is a danger that students will be taught the answers to good questions, by rote.  Providing teachers with an easily accessible collection of teaching videos will help in promoting best practices in teaching-learning. Teachers can be encouraged to submit their own videos to this repository (though these will need to be curated). Examples of such videos are shared here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9VAM8yv2Ng (a lesson historical methods) https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/65013 (a lesson on getting students to think about odd and even numbers)

7. Lateral Induction of Teachers, Facilitators and other Education Professionals- There are several people in the country with strong capabilities in different areas of education (sometimes without formal qualifications)- teaching, teacher training, assessment, e-learning and so on. There are very few avenues for these people to be recruited into the government system at the central or state level; where these people are retained, they are hired as consultants. Given the urgent need for capacity building in the country, teachers and other professionals should be inducted at all levels, irrespective of formal qualifications, as long as they can demonstrate expertise. Independent identification of good teachers and master-teachers can be done through a process of exam + demo class + interview. Some of these people may also be used to staff the community learning hubs mentioned above.

Curriculum

1. Contemporary and Relevant Subject Content- The Draft NEP has already suggested new subjects/ topics like ‘Critical Issues’, ‘Current Affairs’ etc. Given the changing state of the world, some more topics should be included mandatory or optional. For example, a mandatory component should be Media Literacy and differentiating between fake news and authentic/verified news and information. Given the push for technology in education and the access that children have to the internet and other media in the NEP [P4.10.5] this should be a critical component of the learning process from an early age. Other important topics that can be offered are shared below. These could be offered as optional subjects or key ideas integrated with other subjects, or even as 2-3 days modules.

1. The Psychology of individuals and groups

2. Design Thinking and Hands-on Making

3. Systems Thinking

4. Methods of bringing social change

5. Cognitive Science

2. Linkages between higher education institutions and schools- To enable schools to help students understand the deeper ideas in their subjects and the latest happenings in the domain, a closer linkage between faculty of higher education institutions and schools should be created. Interes

3. Interested faculty of higher education institutions could be released for 2-3 weeks a year to work with students, train teachers and develop learning material that can be used in schools.

Gifted Students- Identification and Programs to Nurture

It is heartening to note the proposed initiatives mentioned in 4.10 on the support of students with singular talents and interests. While the goal should be to support all students’ interests and dispositions helping them to enrich themselves and fulfil their potential, identifying and nurturing gifted students has a particular relevance in nation/ world building. As Dr. Lubinski, an expert in the psychology of gifted children from Vanderbilt University says, “When you look at the issues facing society now — whether it's health care, climate change, terrorism, energy — these are the kids who have the most potential to solve these problems. These are the kids we'd do well to bet on.” We have the following recommendations in this area.

1. Identification of Gifted Students- Psychologists generally agree that aptitudes (or innate talent) concretize by the age of 14. This means that we are unlikely to spot new aptitudes in children after the age of 14-15. Recognizing these aptitudes early is important; if an aptitude is not recognized early enough, it will not be nurtured sufficiently. Some aptitudes may go completely unrecognized as children may have no opportunities at school or home to engage in these areas (e.g. design, playing a musical instrument).

Identification of gifted students should start by age 10 (or even earlier in some cases). Existing instruments for identification of giftedness on different dimensions (nationally and internationally) should be evaluated and a battery of quality instruments (paper-pencil tests as well as observed tasks) should be made available easily and at affordable costs (free for students of government schools). At least 10-20 master resource persons should be trained on using these instruments effectively with children. A National Gifted Talent Search Test from Grades 5-9 should be conducted annually. The test should include as many abilities that can be tested using automated scoring as possible. The existing NTSE does not test for some kinds of abilities and in any case is only available in Grade 9.

2. Interventions to Support Gifted Students- 4.10 mentions ‘study circles’ and ‘residential summer programs’- these are welcome initiatives and will make a difference. We have also noted through media articles that a gifted school along the lines of the ‘Sirius Educational Centre’ in Russia is being considered. Additionally, other initiatives should be explored for providing gifted students the support they need. Some suggestions are shared below-

1. Online mentoring- Both MOOCs and tutor-based programs can be used to provide challenging material and mentoring support to gifted students. Schools, School Complexes and the proposed Community Learning Hubs can provide the needed infrastructure.

2. Acceleration- Students identified as gifted in a particular subject could attend classes in that subject with students of a higher grade. Schools have been doing this informally in rare cases. A more systematic and well-defined approach will help schools to implement this more effectively.

3. Shorter day-scholar/ residential programs through the year- These could be 1-5 day programs during holidays, apart from longer programs in Summer. Kerala SCERT has already been conducting summer residential programs. The experience of organizations like Kerala SCERT, GenWise, NIAS etc. in India and the likes of Johns Hopkins CTY, Duke TIP and Northwestern CTD in the US would provide valuable inputs to this exercise.

4. Training teachers on giftedness- Gifted students can have difficulty in fitting in with their peer group, impulse control and in other areas, leading them being labelled as ‘disruptive’ or in social isolation. Many teachers are not even aware of these aspects of giftedness. Training them to do a first-level intervention will be very helpful to gifted students. Teachers should also be provided with a support system whom they can rely on for such cases. In our work at GenWise, we often come across children who have been pulled out of school at a young age because schools are unable to handle them along with the rest of the children.

This article, based on a 45 year study which tracked gifted children, is a good primer on issues related to gifted education- https://go.nature.com/332qTsU

3. National Level Conference on Gifted Education- An annual national level conference with experts and practitioners from around the world, will go a long way towards creating a knowledge base and awareness about gifted education. The National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) in the US is holding its 66th convention in 2019- see http://www.nagc.org/. NAGC is a major influencer of government policy and plays a key role in creating awareness about gifted education.