Search

Emergency medicine services and training in Emergency Medicine (EM) has developed to a large extent in developed countries but its establishment is far from optimal in developing countries. In India, Medical Council of India (MCI) has taken great steps by notifying EM as a separate specialty and so far 20 medical colleges have already initiated 3-year training program in EM. However, there has been shortage of trained faculty, and ambiguity regarding curriculum, rotation policy, infrastructure, teachers' eligibility qualifications and scheme of examination. Academic College of Emergency Experts in India (ACEE-India) has been a powerful advocate for developing Academic EM in India. The ACEE's Education Development Committee (EDC) was created to chalk out guidelines for staffing, infrastructure, resources, curriculum, and training which may be of help to the MCI and the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to set standards for starting 3-year training program in EM and develop the departments of EM as centers of quality education, research, and treatment across India. This paper has made an attempt to give recommendations so as to provide a uniform framework to the institutions, thus guiding them towards establishing an academic Department of EM for starting the 3-year training program in the specialty of EM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our study was to characterize the cases of unnatural deaths admitted to the Basaveshwara Teaching & General Hospital (BTGH), M. R. Medical College, Kalaburagi. This is prospective study conducted at mortuary of Basaveshwara Teaching and General Hospital, Kalaburagi, Karnataka between November 2013 to August 2015, which included 151 cases of unnatural deaths. Burns (49.01%) constituted the maximum number of cases, followed by RTA (31.79%), poisoning (16.56%), fall from height (1.32%) and bites and stings (1.32%). Out of 151 cases of unnatural deaths, 81 (53.64%) cases were males and 70 (46.36%) cases were females. The largest number of victims was in the age group 21-30 years (29.80%). Maximum numbers of the victims (76.82%) were married. Majority of the victims (31.12%) were house wife, followed by (23.52%) were employed in service. Most of the victims (80.13%) were having low level education. Majority of cases (67.55%) were from rural area. Maximum numbers of victims were Hindu (89.40%). Most of the cases (42.38%) were belongs to class V socioeconomic status followed by (26.49%) were belongs to class IV. Maximum number of cases (36.42%) were reported in summer season followed by (34.44%) in winter seasons. Majority of incidents were occurred in the afternoon hours (35.10%).Maximum numbers of victims (33.77%) were survived for less than 24 hours, followed by (29.14%) victims for 3 days to 1 week. Most of the cases (80.79%) were accidental in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, the study has investigated the changing scenario of gender bias in households' education expenditure and the socioeconomic factors responsible for it. Secondly, the study has estimated the inequality in education expenditure for the male and female students and determined the significance of socioeconomic variables in gender discrimination. Design/methodology/approach: To address the above-mentioned issues, this paper has used the unit-level data of NSSO 52nd, 64th, 71st and 75th rounds from 1995–1996 to 2017–2018. The log linear regression model is applied to estimate factor impending average education expenditure dynamics. The Oaxaca–Blinder Decomposition method has been employed to measure gender discrimination, and the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient are used to assess inequality among girls experiencing prejudice. Findings: The study has discovered an gender bias in education expenditure against females during the study period in India. Further, it has been found that gender discrimination against girl students is decreasing. Moreover, the factors such as age, religion, castes, MPCE (income quantile), type of institution, present enrolment and type of education are responsible for this gender differences. Originality/value: This paper uses 20 years of household-level data for study and suggests that discriminatory behaviour of households and credit constraints of the underdeveloped countries prevent investment in girl's education. Therefore, the state must pay for education of girls by offering scholarships and free or heavily subsidized education. In addition to this, awareness programs for gender equality should also be implemented by the government, especially in rural areas. Peer review: The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2022-0537. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a report on the activities and the proposed action plan of the Education and Public Outreach Working Group (EPO WG) of Square Kilometre Array–India Consortium (SKAIC). Details of a set of flagship programs as well as supporting activities are presented, in consonance with the scale of India's involvement in Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), as well as the educational and science literacy contexts in the country. Ongoing independent EPO activities by some of the member institutions are also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper highlights the issues in the prominent copyright case between some big publishers and a Delhi University photocopy shop. The paper also addresses the question whether the present copyright system in India requires a relook in view of the changing socio-economic conditions of our society and the world at large. Concludes that supporting students and researchers in their study and research are essential and some changes are required in the present copyright toward this end. Open Access (OA) publishing is a step in that direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The paper examines the impact of education on the rate of suicides in India and takes a global outlook on how prevalent is suicide among countries with high education indicators. Methodology. The paper is based on secondary research with data collected from National Databases like NCRB and International databases of WHO and OECD. Data analysis has been performed in MS Excel using statistical techniques such as correlation. Results. The study reveals that in India, the increase in the education levels of people has had a negligible impact on the number of suicides in the country. Across states, the suicide rates and literacy rates have a positive correlation of .35; while correlation does not mean causation and the two are mildly correlated, it does establish the fact that education does not have a direct impact on the suicide rate. The analysis indicates that even though the education levels in the country have risen, subsequently, the educational level among people who committed suicide also increased. Also, it is found that the countries that are ranked higher on PISA ranking and tertiary education attainment have mostly higher rates of suicide. Conclusion. As shown throughout the study, education has not been an effective instrument in equipping people with survival skills. It is as if education is happening in vacuum with no impact on the people committing suicides. Thus, it is important that we question our educational practices, and re-align our goals of education so that they lead to the overall development of an individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"A Nation that has not taken its education into its own hands cannot soon rise in literary, social or political importance" -- LokmanyaTilak LokmanyaTilak was the pioneer in promoting quality education in India. Although India has been on the path of ensuring quality education to all the children, it is the recent COVID pandemic that has derailed this development path. The pandemic has thrown out key loopholes in our educational system where the children from the vulnerable and marginalized sections of the society have been pushed out of the education system. It shows that there is still a long path towards realizing LokmanyaTilak's vision of universal education. It is in this context that a study was undertaken to bring focus on the challenges faced by the vulnerable children in pursuing education in the time of COVID pandemic. Maharashtra has a long history of progressive movements and social work. It was found that the NGOs and social workers played an important role in reaching out to these children even in the Pandemic. Hence, the paper specifically focuses on the role played by these NGOs. A total of nine NGOs participated in this study. Telephone interviews were conducted with the social workers of the NGOs. The study provides an important account of the challenges of the vulnerable children and the methods in which the NGOs attempted to address these challenges. The study shows how the challenges were multidimensional in nature. The education of these children was adversely affected due to highly vulnerable livelihoods of their parents, the digital divide, and also the gender divide. The paper further provides accounts of the innovative methods employed by NGOs to overcome some of the challenges. Finally, the paper provides suggestions towards developing a more resilient educational system for the vulnerable children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelation between two important dimensions of gender segregation: education and occupation. It further investigates the gender wage gap. Design/methodology/approach: The author uses a three-way additive decomposition of the mutual information index – an index based on the concept of entropy. A non-parametric wage decomposition method that uses matching comparisons is used for measuring the wage gap. Findings: The results show that the extent of gender segregation in India is higher in urban areas than that in rural areas. Most of the observed segregation in rural labour markets originates from educational outcomes, whereas in urban markets it is due to occupational profile of individuals. The findings of the wage decomposition analysis suggest that education in rural areas also explains a sizeable part of the gender wage differential. Nevertheless, a large share of the wage gap remains unexplained in both rural and urban areas. Originality/value: While much research has looked at occupational segregation, less attention has been paid to educational segregation. The paper uses a unique approach to understand the joint effect of occupation and education in explaining gender segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on an empirical study of private schools (n=35) and families (n=105) in select localities (n=3), explores how diversified school market(s) operate in Alwar city in Rajasthan in India. It observes that private schools execute a range of strategies, both ethical and unethical, to influence parents and attract admissions. School strategies range from the most modern methods such as advertising through local television channels, WhatsApp, Facebook, roadside billboards, wall-paintings, door-to-door visits, etc., to the invoking of primordial affiliations such as kinship ties, caste, and religious identities to reach out to parents. Schools use promises like offering better English-medium education, ensuring the safety and security of children, strict discipline, and providing coaching to prepare students for admission to prominent government schools and the engineering and medical institutes of the country as marketing strategies to help them flourish in a competitive education market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary Care Doctors (PCDs) are the first contact for majority of patients with psychiatric disorders across the world including India. They often provide symptomatic treatment which is naturally inadequate. Absence or inadequate exposure to psychiatric training during undergraduate medical education is one of the prime reasons. Classroom training (CRT), a standard practice to train PCDs is driven by specialist based psychiatric curriculum and inherently lacks clinical translational value. Aim and Context: The 'Department of Psychiatry' of 'National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences', Bengaluru, India has recently come up with an innovative digitally driven modules of 'Primary Care Psychiatry Program' (PCPP) for practicing PCDs. Goal of this paper is to provide an overview of all these (five) modules with its various stages of implementation. Methods: Authors briefly discuss the current status of primary care psychiatry in India and also narrate the newly designed five modules of PCPP in this paper. Results and Discussion: An adopted psychiatric curriculum is designed in 'Clinical Schedules for Primary Care Psychiatry' (CSP) which is an integral part of PCPP. This is brief clinical schedules contains culturally appropriate screening questionnaire, transdiagnostic classification of 8 core psychiatric disorders, diagnostic, referral and management guidelines. PCPP contains 5 modules named as orientation module, basic module, advanced module [Tele-psychiatric 'On-Consultation Training' (Tele-OCT)], videoconference based continuing skill development module, and collaborative video consultation modules which covers all essential areas of primary care psychiatry for practicing PCDs. Last three modules are fully designed digital modules in hub and spoke model of Tele Medicine. In this designed program, the CSP and Tele-OCT are two path braking innovations having inbuilt higher clinical translation value. The challenges and opportunities that could be faced during its implementation across India are also discussed. Conclusion and Future Directions: Innovative PCPP is pragmatic in nature and has potential for higher clinical translational value. Once validated thoroughly, PCPP has potential for pan-India expansion. There is a need for artificial intelligence-based modules for next phase of PCPP in India considering her population and lesser number of available psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foldscope Instruments, Inc. creates and distributes low-cost, high-quality scientific tools to communities around the world to help advance education, research, and medical diagnostics. The Foldscope—a high-quality microscope created for less than a dollar in parts—was created in 2015. To date, the Foldscope has reached 1.6 million people worldwide in over 160 countries. A few notable uses for the Foldscope include identification of microscopic eggs of agricultural pests in India, creation of a catalog of the biodiversity of soil arthropods in the Amazon, detection of fake currency and medicine, following toxic blooms, detection of bacteria in water samples, and mapping of pollen diversity in a city landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning environments have changed significantly in the past few decades due to the inclusion of emerging Information and Communication Technology (ICT), both in hardware and software, as well as various online media in classrooms. Learners today utilize mobile gadgets and applications as their primary sources of information, knowledge, and social discourse. However, despite these advances in learning all technologies and the way learners have adapted to their changing environments, Technology is often used to supplement, rather than drive, the learning environment. Smart learning involves the emerging notion of smart technology. Incorporating smart learning techniques into classroom teaching seems very interesting and constitutes complete knowledge pack. Further it is interesting to see what is being done, what issues are emerging, and what successes possible in the concerned areas that likely to occur in the next few years. In responding, this conceptual paper seeks to identify learning elements and approaches that might lead to stable, coherent and exhaustive understanding of smart learning environments, thereby providing standards development for learning, education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dalit autobiographies reflect the veracity of Dalits. Valmiki'sJoothan (1997) is a commendable literary work as it vividly depicts the blatant realities of the life of Dalits in India. The Dalit autobiography is a document ofsocial realism. The very title Joothan literally means the scraps of food left on a plate which indicates how Dalits are sidelined and deprived of basic amenities like food, shelter, clothing, educational and medical facilities. They are looked down upon and ill-treated like animals. In the light of the sociological dynamics of caste system in India, the paper studies how the certain privileged sections treat under privileged in the name of religion and institutionalized customs and traditions. The paper alsovividly depicts the negative consequences of the hegemonic nature of caste systemamong human relations in Indian society. The hegemonic nature of caste system in the autobiography is seen in not only in its creation but also in its fortification against Dalits with the help of other communities of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper intends to identify teaching competency of English teachers at secondary level of Tripura Board of Secondary Education (T.B.S.E.). Descriptive method is applied to collect data and stratified random sampling was applied during the 2016-2017 academic year. A standardized tool was administrated to measure teaching competency of English. The present paper intends to test the significant association of English teaching competency with selected variables. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to draw inference on the hypothesis. The major recommendations focused that: English teachers of T.B.S.E. should be given individual attention to each of the learners, English teachers of T.B.S.E. should impart teaching properly without discriminating of gender bias, individual attention must be given to poor performing students in English subject, English teachers of T.B.S.E. must not use too much vernacular (mother tongue) languages in the class while teaching a foreign or second language, English teachers of T.B.S.E. should be more punctual, serious while teaching, The teachers of English belonging from T.B.S.E. should be very conscious at preparation, presentation, closing, evaluation and managerial part of the teaching, and should take care of individual attention to each of the learners. The paper grounded the proposition that English teaching competency can be achieved when the three phases of teaching (preactive phase, inter-active phase and post-active phase) will have their proper coordination in terms of context-specific application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Quebecoise de Droit International is the property of Revue quebecoise de droit international and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With several new innovations in Information and Communication Technology and the increasing interaction of the users with the all-pervasive digital world, the need for a change from conventional textbook learning to multimedia e-learning has increased tremendously. Powerful simulation and web-based experimental opportunities need to be explored to enable learners to acquire new knowledge and skills. This paper aims to explore the advantages of e-learning pedagogy over conventional teaching methods. At the same time, the paper also aims to describe the state-of-art technology used for media education through e-learning in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Developing public health educational programs that provide workers prepared to adequately respond to health system challenges is an historical dilemma. In India, the focus on public health education has been mounting in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic is a harbinger of the increasing complexities surrounding public health challenges and the overdue need to progress public health education around the world. This paper aims to explore strengths and challenges of public health educational institutions in India, and elucidate unique opportunities to emerge as a global leader in reform.Methods: To capture the landscape of public health training in India, we initiated a web-based desk review of available offerings and categorized by key descriptors and program qualities. We then undertook a series of in-depth interviews with representatives from a purposively sample of institutions and performed a qualitative SWOT analysis.Results: We found that public health education exists in many formats in India. Although Master of Public Health (MPH) and similar programs are still the most common type of public health training outside of community medicine programs, other postgraduate pathways exist including diplomas, PhDs, certificates and executive trainings. The strengths of public health education institutions include research capacities, financial accessibility, and innovation, yet there is a need to improve collaborations and harmonize training with well-defined career pathways. Growing attention to the sector, improved technologies and community engagement all hold exciting potential for public health education, while externally held misconceptions can threaten institutional efficacy and potential.Conclusions: The timely need for and attention to public health education in India present a critical juncture for meaningful reform. India may also be well-situated to contextualize and scale the types of trainings needed to address complex challenges and serve as a model for other countries and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper seeks to present the concept for the application of the principle of ‘Caveat Venditor’ or ‘Seller Beware’ in Higher Education and Healthcare sectors in India. Simply, this principle imposes a greater responsibility on the sellers themselves for the goods and services that they sell. This note presents the need for implementing the ‘Caveat Venditor’ principle to the two important service sectors in India, i.e., higher education and healthcare. In terms of cost, there has been a steady and steep rise in cost of both higher education and healthcare in India over the last decade. It is important to note that despite the steep rise in the cost of both higher education and healthcare, there has been no corresponding improvement in the quality of these services. While the ROI (Return on Investment) for students in India continues to be extremely low, quality of healthcare in India is still not up to the mark and lack of accountability from these service providers ensures that this trend continues. In view of the importance and spectacular growth potential of these two service sectors in India, coupled with the non-commensurate improvement in quality/outcomes/accountability of these services, the time is right to examine if the application of the principle of ‘Caveat Venditor’ is the only solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is an important tool for development of an individual, society and for a country. Quality Education plays an important role in Sustainable Development of a country. Over a period of time, India has shown significant progress in increasing the overall literacy level. But, whether India is able to give quality education is a big question. The Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Quality Education” focus on the educational development of the country. To achieve quality education, India has to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4. The Sustainable Development Goal 4 has 10 targets to achieve through various government schemes, New Education Policy (NEP) and with the assessment of NITI Aayog. This paper focuses on the progress and achievements of Quality Education in Indian States and Union Territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient education is an essential component of improving public health as it empowers individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary for making informed decisions about their health and well-being. Primary care physicians play a crucial role in patients' education as they are the first contact between the patients and the healthcare system. However, they may not get adequate time to prepare educational material for their patients. An artificial intelligence-based writer like ChatGPT can help write the material for physicians. Aim: This study aimed to ascertain the capability of ChatGPT for generating patients' educational materials for common public health issues in India. Materials and Methods: This observational study was conducted on the internet using the free research version of ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence that can generate human-like text output. We conversed with the program with the question - "prepare a patients' education material for X in India." In the X, we used the following words or phrases -- "air pollution," "malnutrition," "maternal and child health," "mental health," "noncommunicable diseases," "road traffic accidents," "tuberculosis," and "water-borne diseases." The textual response in the conversation was collected and stored for further analysis. The text was analyzed for readability, grammatical errors, and text similarity. Result: We generated a total of eight educational documents with a median of 26 (Q1-Q3: 21.5-34) sentences with a median of 349 (Q1-Q3: 329-450.5) words. The median Flesch Reading Ease Score was 48.2 (Q1-Q3: 39-50.65). It indicates that the text can be understood by a college student. The text was grammatically correct with very few (seven errors in 3415 words) errors. The text was very clear in the majority (8 out of 9) of documents with a median score of 85 (Q1-Q3: 82.5-85) in 100. The overall text similarity index was 18% (Q1-Q3: 7.5-26). Conclusion: The research version of the ChatGPT (January 30, 2023 version) is capable of generating patients' educational materials for common public health issues in India with a difficulty level ideal for college students with high grammatical accuracy. However, the text similarity should be checked before using it. Primary care physicians can take the help of ChatGPT for generating text for materials used for patients' education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes and compares the doctoral research trend in the University of Burdwan's Botany and Zoology department in India from 1950-2000. It discovers the yearly publication productivity, the authorship collaboration pattern and the most prolific authors of the department. It determines researchers' journal preference in which they have communicated the results of their research. One thesis illustrates the contribution of the authorship pattern regarding the practice of multi-authored papers and the Indian and foreign theses.

This paper focuses on the children from low-income families in India who are susceptible to child labour. They are constantly included in various manifestations of works and, as a result, stay out of school during their valuable junior years. The future of such children is jeopardized. The main cause of child labour is the widespread unemployment and underemployment among the adult impoverished strata of the population, which is exacerbated by population expansion. Large families with poor money, a lack of educational facilities, illiteracy, and parental ignorance about the importance of education are highly susceptible to child labour cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfinance has been recognized globally as a poverty alleviating strategy and particularly as a gender equality enhancing approach. There have been immense, intense and nuanced debates in the field of international development, feminist studies and comparative social policy regarding the role of microfinance in addressing gendered poverty. This paper provides an account of these debates and the conceptual and theoretical perspectives underpinning them. These debates are used as a way to frame the dominant understandings of the relationship between gendered poverty and education in the context of microfinance policies and practices. These global discourses are interrogated against particular representations of the same by consumers of microfinance. In other words, employing narratives of 27 in-depth interviews with consumers of microfinance and their kin from India and Australia, the paper highlights how global discourses are contested in the local everyday lives of poor women and men. By doing so, the paper calls for re-casting educational goals, in poverty alleviation and gender equality strategies, as moving beyond access for women to expanding freedoms of women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching English in India successfully is still a burning issue. After learning English for more than ten years or so, the under graduating populace cannot communicate in English either in the classroom or in real-life contexts. Therefore, students' proficiency in English has been the constant thought of teachers, teacher trainers, ELT experts, and linguists over all these years. We, as teachers, are always conscious of how we can make our students learn English, how they would become fluent in English. We do some experiments with pedagogical devices in the classroom. This paper is an attempt to find out how do role plays help in developing speaking skills. This paper is also an attempt to find out whether role plays help in developing students' communicative competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. Caste studies conducted among Muslims in India generally focus on establishing the existence of a caste system among Muslims, but they seldom talk about different types of oppression and inequalities faced by Muslim women. This empirical study explores how gender and caste identities and their mutual intersectionality impact education, occupation, income choices and the actual attainments of Muslim women. Methods. This study is part of a larger study conducted among Muslims of Kashmir in India. Primary data was collected from 704 eligible respondents (392 male, 312 female) using mixed methods. Three layers of 'caste-like' and 'caste' groups existing in the research area are identified and gender situation within these groups are comparatively examined. Results and conclusion. Each of the 'caste-like' and 'caste' groups has patriarchal caste capital. Higher professions within the government and private services are largely acquired by upper caste male Muslims. There is a preponderance of lower caste male Muslims in low income self-employment, but lower caste Muslim females seldom find employment in family-based businesses and are compelled to take low-paid private jobs. Not all women face inequality in the same way: while upper caste Muslim women often witness benevolent restriction of choices, lower caste women are the most excluded section of the society. They face double discrimination due to patriarchy and interwoven caste positions, which severely impacts their educational and employment choices. Originality. This is an original research paper based on the findings of the doctoral work conducted by the first author and supervised by the second author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education has always been regarded as the foundation on which the human resource potential can be fully utilized for productive purposes. Access to quality education is the best gift which can be given to the youth of any nation. In India, the National Education Policy 2020 (henceforth NEP) was introduced on July 20, 2020. It also marked a renaming of the Ministry of Human Resource Development as Ministry of Education. With the aim of transforming the nation into a vibrant knowledge hub, the NEP has many challenges and possibilities ahead and the present paper is a survey of the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a male dominant country where male recognizes as more capable than woman. From the very beginning men are considered as bread winners and women are expected to take care of the house and raise children. This paper throws light on the role played by gender discrimination in the forms of various socio-economic tradition, mythology and in the epic and literature about women's position degradation, gender discrimination in various field like, education, decision making power, experience of domestic violence and various schemes under state government for empowering women are discussed on special reference to Assam using secondary data obtained from various sources. The study reveals that development process in the state is not gender neutral, women enjoy quite inferior status to men. In comparison to other prevailing social problems in India, gender discrimination is not considered to be a very serious problem especially in Assam. But it has weakened the strength of the female community of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the apparent internal coherence of a programme of agrarian development in India and the distortions and contradictions arising out of its practical implementation. Our object is to examine official policy with regard to tribal residential schools in India, known as ashram shalas. These schools represent an innovation and are different from the general type of day primary schools seen in rural India. In ashram schools, tribal pupils are provided free boarding facilities, together with free school uniforms, text books and other learning materials. These schools are expected to impart elementary education in areas which are remote and sparsely populated and where, on account of the geographic spread of the numerous hamlets, single teacher schools cannot be established. Our study is aimed at understanding official policy in the context of ashram schools, and at providing an arena for bringing to the surface the fundamental contradictions played out in areas of the school situation, specifically relating to: (a) the school organizational structure; (b) the teaching practice; (c) dropout; (d) school-community relations; and (e) area development. The paper is presented in two major parts: (a) the first section will try to relate the functioning of the ashram schools to how the state plans and administers schools with respect to access to them; (b) the second section examines the ashram school as a locus of a wider and general social problem of relating education to social economic and developmental purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Empirical evidence has shown that returns to English language ability are substantial in India. Research has also focused on the impact of private tutoring in the context of developing economies to find evidence that remedial teaching leads to better student achievement and higher test scores. In this paper I analyze whether private tutoring helps in developing English language ability. Simple OLS estimates suggest statistically significant effects but estimated coefficients are rather small at 0.2 percentage points. Presence of confounders and selection bias may potentially understate the true effects of private tutoring on English language ability. To address this issue, I exploit a unique policy experiment in India in a regression discontinuity framework to identify cohorts eligible for private tutoring and compare their outcomes to the ineligible. I use this potentially exogenous policy variation as an instrument for private tutoring and find significant increases in English language ability estimated at 16 percentage points which is much larger than the simple OLS effects. Since standard academic curriculum is not directed towards improving foreign language ability, private tutoring as an input in the education production function seems to offer high marginal returns. From a policy perspective, this implies that private tutoring should be encouraged for enhancing English ability even though there are concerns that this provides disincentives for teachers to teach in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption of energy is a determinant of the socioeconomic status of many citizens across the globe. The majority of rural households in India are dependent on biomass fuels. Existing data on the factors affecting fuel switching in rural India are insufficient to analyze a behavioral change among families. This paper evaluates the influence of four variables income, education, cost of fuel, and clean fuel supply on fuel adoption decisions. To understand the study population's behavioral change, a Household Survey is conducted in 20 villages (in India's rural district). Along with field observation, data are also collected on energy usage at the household level using a formal questionnaire. Binary logistic regression is applied to establish a link between the variables. Both biomass fuels and Liquefied Petroleum Gas are used mostly for cooking. The prevalence of energy stacking behavior is observed even among middle and upper‐income families. Modest evidence for the "energy ladder" hypothesis is seen, however, a "switch over" to cleaner fuels is not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 have put a great impact not only on the national and international economies but also greatly affected the education sector of the world particularly underdeveloped and developing countries. It is producing a negative impact on students mentally, professionally and academically. Before Covid-19 very few people in India were using virtual learning platforms for various projects, trainings, and delivery of other add on courses. But because of the present COVID situation across the world it has become inevitable demand of our society that we should use online mode of learning to fulfill our educational requirements. In this paper a comparative study is done on online versus offline mode of learning in India using different platforms. This study is done to understand the people perception on the most effective way of propagating knowledge to younger generations in India and presenting a clear picture to the world, that which mode, online or offline is more effective and more relevant, during these hard time. The online teaching is very fruitful for a distant learner, but at the same time classroom mode of teaching is beneficial for an average child. Strength of online classes is temporal and spatial flexibility. A learner can access the lecture at anytime and anywhere provided digital technology gadgets such as a laptop, a desktop or a smart mobile phone with internet facilities is available to them. This digitally driven learning also comes with certain health related issues such as eye irritation, anxiety, dullness, headache, sleep disorders, mood swings, restlessness, obesity and many more but Online propagation of education has become a virtue out of necessity in this pandemic even in India. But sometimes poor band width and unstable internet connectivity creates problems, as more than 85% people experienced that this is a major problem during the classes, meetings or attending seminars and webinars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to take a close look at factors that influence the choice and quality of healthcare received by ailing and elderly people in rural north India. The author is primarily interested in seeing what role is played by the presence of sons in the family, particularly co-residence with sons. In the absence of some broad-based social security arrangement in countries like India, older adults traditionally turn to living arrangement where the older adults are supported by their children or extended family. In a patriarchal society as India, such responsibility lies with the sons if one has son/s. Such dependence on sons explains preferential treatment towards younger sons as a justification for the care parents receive from sons in their advanced years. This culture of son preference behavior provides the context for this paper. Design/methodology/approach -- The empirical model is based on testing three inter-related research questions. First, the author asks whether having grown sons or living with son/s leads to up-front better quality of healthcare for parents. If the empirical analysis does not show support for this research question, the author broadens the research question to ask whether those with grown son/s or those that live with their son/s have a higher probability of seeing a trained medical professional as compared to some traditional healer. If the empirical analysis does not support the second question, the author further broadens the research question and asks whether those elderly who are sick are more likely to receive any healthcare (medical or traditional) if they have grown son/s or live with their son/s. Findings -- The results show that co-residence with a son does not have a statistically significant impact on the quality of healthcare received by the elderly individual. Additionally, not having a son also does not have a statistically significant impact on quality of healthcare received. Research limitations/implications -- For the purpose of the empirical analysis, the author utilizes World Bank's Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) data collected from rural villages in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India in 1997-1998. The dataset may be somewhat dated, but it provides relevant information which transcends time. Additionally, with economic growth and modernization, more and more young people in India have migrated away from rural areas in the recent decade. Thus, surveys carried out in the last decade by the National Family Health Surveys in India show very little evidence of elderly parent in rural areas living with their adult children. This practice seemed to be much more prevalent at the time of the LSMS survey of 1997-1998. Practical implications -- Contrary to popular expectation, the results show that co-residing with a son has no statistically significant impact on healthcare received by parents. Additionally, not having sons does not matter either. Originality/value -- The author finds relatively fewer studies done on factors that determine the choice of healthcare for the elderly, particularly relating to those that are ailing (for reasons other than simply aging) and with reference to their living arrangement. The present paper addresses this void in the literature and is expected to make a meaningful contribution in bridging this gap in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying artificial intelligence in education is relevant to addressing the current educational crises. Many available solutions apply Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to help improve educational outcomes. Therefore, a series of works have been developed integrating techniques in different educational contexts, for instance, in online teaching practices. Given the various studies and the relevance of CNNs for educational applications, this paper presents a systematic literature review to discuss the state-of-the-art. We reviewed 133 papers from the IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Scopus databases. Based on our revision, we discuss characteristics of studies such as publication venues, educational context, datasets, types of CNNs models, and performance of models. We evidence that the literature regarding CNNs still misses more studies discussing educational problems faced by Global South students, considering both teaching and learning perspectives. Such a population cannot be neglected during experiments due to specific educational weaknesses (for example, basic skills) demanding personalized solutions. • A systematic literature review of 133 published papers. • China covered most publications, followed by India. • There is a research gap regarding using CNNs in some regions of the Global South. • The main educational context with CNN applications is students' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the careers of skilled migrants from Indian Punjab. This study complicates the normalization of skilled migration as a "win-win" situation by examining the career trajectories of skilled migrants from the Indian Punjab who are trying to establish themselves in Britain. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines 20 life history interviews undertaken with skilled migrants from the Indian Punjab to Britain, in IT, media, law and hospitality industries, health and welfare professionals, and student migrants. Findings – Skilled migrants were able to migrate on their own auspices through migration economies in Punjab. Once in Britain, however, they were directed to universities and labour markets in which they were not able to use their skills. They experienced under-employment, devaluation of their qualifications and downward mobility, which forced them into ethnic and gendered markets within their home networks and created ambivalence about migrant success and issues of return. Research limitations/implications – The study emphasizes the need to take a transnational lens when looking at skilled migration, address how migrants' career trajectories are limited by racism, anti-immigration sentiment and gender inequality, and consider temporality and uncertainty. Originality/value – The paper raises questions concerning the ways in which rapidly changing "managed migration" policies in Britain have burdened individual migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Himachal Pradesh is well known in all over the country for taking new steps regarding quality education at school level. The State has implemented various schemes for providing quality education to all students. This paper deals with the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in school education system. The hilly State has implemented the ICT @ School Scheme in 2010 - 11 in 628 schools. ICT is a global phenomenon, and children who are computer literate at an early stage of their lives might deal better with the modern world. A sound knowledge of ICT makes it much easier for growing students to find and organize information. Many schools have dynamic and vibrant virtual learning methods which gives students access to study materials, skills questions, sample papers and assignments. Some schools even have smart interactive white boards for teaching. Children find it more interesting and become more adept in multimedia presentations when engaging with them in their assignments. The researcher discussed ICT @ School Scheme with respect to schools undertaken in the scheme; selections of subjects, topics included and even the number of hard spots in the subjects concerned. The main challenges related to finance, teachers' competency, administrative and social are being discussed in the thematic paper. The requirement of the trained staff, efficient equipments and need of motivation for using ICT in teaching - learning process are properly highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student loans are increasingly viewed as an important method of financing higher education in both industrialized and developing countries. The pattern in the methods and practices of student loans in about more than 50 student loan programs is examined by considering the major parameters in the design and operation of student loans. While doing this, the paper builds up hypothetical scenarios on hidden grant versus full loan. Based on the world experience, the paper further elucidates the implications for the current student loan program of India, which was introduced in 2001. The Indian student loan programme is insensitive to the needs of the weaker sections. Hence, an alternative loan programme must be evolved and flexible enough to suit their requirements. Such an alternative loan scheme needs to encourage equal access and participation of the weaker sections. However, considering the generous hidden grant, higher cost of administration of such a loan programme besides low recovery rates, means-tested grants / scholarships are recommended to be in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For much of their pre-independence history, India and Singapore maintained close relations. As a trading post established by the British East India Company in 1819, Singapore was directly administered by British India, and official linkages continued to exist even after Singapore was put under the purview of the British Colonial Office in 1876. The colonial period also saw significant immigration from British India into Singapore. However, in the post-independence phase, relations between the two states generally cooled in the context of the Cold War. Nevertheless, over the past fifteen years, bilateral relations have experienced an upswing, characterized by collaboration across a range of areas. This paper examines recent trends in the India-Singapore relationship, looking at both "traditional" issue areas like economic and defence-strategic ties, as well as "non-traditional" issue areas like education-knowledge transfer and building societal-level links between the two countries. The paper also explores future possibilities and potential pitfalls in bilateral ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to study the relation between the employment of mothers and the activities of children with the aim of contributing to the understanding of child work in India. Design/methodology/approach -- Multinomial logit specifications of children's activities and mothers' employment are estimated on survey data drawn from the National Family Health Survey 1998-1999 for all India. The joint specification combines four states of children aged 6-14 (studying, working in the market, working for the family or being inactive) with the employed/not employed status of mothers. Findings -- The results show that the mother's preferred choice is not working and sending children to school. This is especially true for more educated mothers. Also the father's education is positively (negatively) related to child schooling (work), but the effect is smaller as compared to that of mothers. All specifications yield the result that the probability of children working increases if their mothers work. Higher levels of household wealth play a fundamental role in lowering the risk of child work. Research limitations/implications -- This empirical model does not take into account the unobserved heterogeneity of two types -- namely, the residual correlation among the outcomes of mothers and children, and the residual correlation among children of the same mother. Practical implications -- The evidence that children of employed mothers have a higher risk of working suggests that the problem may be related to the low quality and pay of jobs accessible to women in India, especially in rural areas. The policy indication would then be to improve the condition of women in the labour market and also to improve the welfare of their children. Originality/value -- While women's and children's time allocation has been studied in separate settings, in this paper these two aspects are analysed together for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of school education in India. First, it places India's educational achievements in international perspective, particularly against countries with which it is now increasingly compared, especially China. Second, the paper examines schooling access in terms of enrollment and school attendance rates, and schooling quality in terms of literacy rates, learning achievement levels, school resources, and teacher inputs. Third, the paper investigates the role of private schooling in India, examining the extent of growth of private schooling and surveying evidence on the relative effectiveness and unit costs of private and public schools. Last, the paper discusses some major public education initiatives. The concluding section suggests a future research agenda and appeals for rigorous evaluation of the impacts and costs of the numerous existing educational interventions, in order to learn about their relative cost-effectiveness for evidence-based policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Baiga are a small tribe inhabiting the forested regions of Central India. They are known for their extensive knowledge of forests and healing. A local pedagogic tradition supports the transmission of this knowledge from expert practitioner-gurus to their chelas or novices. The knowledge system is local and oral. The pedagogic tradition and socialisation which supports its transmission is marked by these qualities as also the subsistence level of production and the lack of centralised authority in the organisation of the tribe, and in children's lives. This paper explores the disjunction between this and formal schooling whose pedagogic practices and curriculum presume a literate tradition: where knowledge is decontextually presented in texts and children are already socialised to accept pedagogic/adult authority. In the present Indian context where there is a growing emphasis on incorporating indigenous knowledges into the school curriculum, the paper raises questions on the epistemological feasibility of such an inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large classes, i.e. classrooms with a large number of students, are becoming the norm at all levels of education. These classes have often been associated with a variety of problems, and this paper aims to examines the impact of large classrooms on higher education in India. The main purpose of this paper is to understand the current system of education, and suggest measures, if necessary, to maximise students' learning in large classes. A survey was conducted, and questions were posed to teachers and students to understand their thoughts and perceptions regarding large classrooms and to identify gaps which could be filled. While smaller classrooms may be beneficial to aspects like attitude towards learning, active participation, and immediate feedback, with some modification, these could be ensured in larger classes as well. These suggestions would help in enabling students to learn better and harness their skills to the maximum potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations are changing everything from school culture to student assessment. Changing educational needs of the student and advancement in technology has widened the area of responsibilities of teachers. Pre-service and in-service teachers training became crucial in this aspect. However, studies in field of teacher education point towards various lacunas in pre-service as well as in-service teacher education. In a bid to robust education system in national Capital, the Government of Delhi, began reforming school education in Delhi in 2015 by designing and successfully implementing large scale programs. Placement of Teacher Development Coordinator (TDC) in each school is one of such initiative introduced by Delhi Government through SCERT in July, 2017 as part of the flagship programme of Mentor Teachers. The vision of this programme is to create a collaborative network of teacher-educators for professional development of all teachers teaching in DoE (Directorate of Education) schools for creating 'An education system where everyone learns together'. This programme was started with a view to strengthen the culture of sharing teachers' best teaching practice in the school system, and to identify and work on the specific needs of teachers in particular school to further strengthen the learning of all students. This paper presents a comprehensive understanding of Teacher Development Programme- an innovative project stated by Delhi Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper delves into the origins for Linguistic Inequality in India which persists despite various efforts to support multilingualism especially in the context of education. It enquires into the socio-political and theoretical basis for the present situation of language use in educational context. It begins by examining some theories of linguistic analysis with their strengths and shortcomings, and then demonstrates how some of these can assist in understanding the complex linguistic situation and resulting marginalization of languages and associated communities in a multilingual set up such as India. A generalized theory of language synthesizing different perspectives is elusive till now, but appropriating the structure of power hierarchies, derived from the usage of language in social context by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, I've tried to make sense of the issue dominant languages in a multilingual set up and how these interact with the socio-political discourse of power. Analysing the linguistic situation from this socio-linguistic theoretical framework and touching upon the interaction of education and other 'significant domains' through brief outlines from the constituent assembly debates, the constitution itself and subsequent educational policies and their implementation, I've attempted to arrive at a basis for the inequality that we witness today in Indian education in terms of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores equity challenges common to short-term cross-cultural research partnerships. We focus on a project-based activity in which U.S. undergraduate students and college faculty taught middle-school students in Goa, India how to make podcasts about complex environmental problems. Project team members conducted a collaborative auto-ethnography focused on questions of power, leadership, collaboration, and equity, and examined exit- interview photo elicitation data to identify the core challenges of ethical and equitable short-term cross-cultural research and programming. Our use of photographs as conversation prompts helped to highlight contradictions and asymmetries along axes of power, cultural imperialism, knower-knowledge, age, race/ethnicity, social class, and gender. We reflect on possibilities for educational research that rejects a "voluntourism" model and moves, if imperfectly, toward more equitable international collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]