Your fight is against corruption and your solution to eradicating all corruption related problems is The Lokpal Bill. I am sure you are aware that we passed a historic Right to Education Bill almost 2 years ago nothing has changed on the ground. Are you serious that you want me to believe that by passing the Lokpal bill all my corruption related problems will be solved?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

We have innumerable laws and several bodies like the police, cvc, cbi etc. that are meant to keep the society in check. These agencies and existing laws have not worked well, is it the problem with the law or its implementation? Comman sense tells me that implementation and effectiveness needs to improve. But you are telling me that we should create another body and a new law?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

You keep telling me that all politicians are corrupt, all government servants are corrupt. Agreed our society is corrupt. Then where on earth are you going to land up getting thousands of spotless people to be the ‘Lokpals’ and if I may ask what will happen if the Lokpals themselves are corrupt?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

I live in Karnataka and my state is struggling to find its Lokayukta. Do you have anyone in mind who has such a spotless character that can be the next Lokayukta, or do you suggest we get someone imported? Finding one in a state with several crores is a challenge where will we find thousands to fulfill the Lokpal requirement?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

I always thought your fight was against corruption, then why does it sound like your fight is against Congress. I am a citizen of UP, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, I have to caste my vote next month. You tell me not to vote Congress, can you please enlighten me as to who I should caste my vote? Or you are telling me that all parties excluding Congress are not corrupt? I am confused kindly clarify?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

You have been telling the world that you are the voice of the people of India? I am an Indian citizen, I do not remember giving you my voice, then how come you are claiming you are my voice? You are representing me without my permission and you are fighting what? Oh yes corruption… Kindly clarify?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

Whenever I watch you on TV you keep telling me that you know the solutions to my problem of corruption. You sound too over confident, actually I think the right word is arrogant, not sure…
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

Whenever I watch you making your demands you sound like a five year old kid that threatens to cry if he does not get his candy. I know you are quite old, but when will you grow up?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

My value education book told me that education is the solution to all the ailments of society. I was wondering why you have not been telling people to give the right values to children at home and in schools. Why is education not a part of your agenda?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

According to the Lokpal Bill all the corrupt will be punished. Let me share a secret of my school days, whenever my teacher punished me I did not stop what I wanted to do, I just found another way to do the same thing. You want me to believe that punishment and fear will stop corruption, when that does not even work in schools?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

We have over 2 million NGO’s in India, yet we still have millions of problems in India. We all know how corrupt NGO’s and corporates can be, how come you do not want them to be covered under the Lokpal?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

I watched you on TV when you said that you will be the first one to take a gun and fight against Pakistan. Can you please enlighten me as to which problem of this world was solved by war? And by the way you have been compared to the Mahatma Gandhi, you call your movement non-violent, and you nurture thoughts like these?
Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

I believe that corruption is not the biggest problem, it is the manner in which we have educated our children over the years that is the key issue. The most corrupt people in our country are the educated ones that went to school and studied maths and science but their schools and teachers did not teach them the right values. Parents told them to grow up get a good job and a good life, but forgot to tell them the importance of virtues and values. It is EDUCATION Dear Anna and not LEGISLATION that can rid societies of corruption…     Yet I would like to believe that you are a reasonable man!

- Syed Sultan Ahmed

As an educator I was immensely satisfied with what I got in those 3 days and I walked away enriched from the conclave. If I were a principal of a school I would have made note of 3 key learnings:-

-        The present system is not churning out good quality teachers who are ready to impact students lives. Schools cannot hire teachers and expect them to teach the next day or the even the next month, they should take on the onus of training/coaching them for several months before they are put on the job. In addition consistent and constant coaching is a must.

-        Parents have to be brought into the learning fold, schools must invest time and energy to ensure that ‘Parenting Skills Education’ is an integral part of the school system. If you cannot teach parents you cannot do much with children these days.

-        Gone are the days when education imparted information, in this ‘google era’ information is available to all. People don’t goto get information, information comes to us! Tomorrow If children don’t come to schools, can schools go to children? How? This maybe the direction to think as the society gets increasingly disillusioned with education.

The overall response from the participants and the enthusiasm that was witnessed at the conclave is rarely seen in educational events. As a host of the event I learned that there is a great need for educators in India to come together in an atmosphere of ‘Meaningful Dialogue’ to learn, share and grow as individuals, thereby enhancing the quality of education.

In the early part of November I had an opportunity to participate at the World Innovation Summit – WISE Doha 2011, organized by the Qatar Foundation. I must admit that it was a great experience rubbing shoulders with over 1000 educators and innovators from over 130 countries. What came out clearly from the discussions and presentations is that across the globe people are struggling with the same issue – changing society and children. Keeping pace with the change is the biggest challenge for all educational systems. Everyone is in agreement that the future is very uncertain and the way we are educating today will no longer hold good tomorrow. How will we educate in future only time will tell. But my guess is that as long as ‘humanity’ remains we will always look up to another ‘human’ to teach us. The biggest challenge according to me will be able to ensure that schools in future enable generations who can still remain ‘humane’.

The Manipal Life Skills program is a CSR initiative of EduMedia and it aims at equipping high school students from government schools with skills that will enable them to handle the demands and challenges they will face in life better. The program is sponsored by the Manipal Foundation and is designed and executed by EduMedia’s research and training division Activity. The program is presently adding value to over 40,000 students in Doda (Jammu), Nathdwara (Rajasthan), Gulbarga & Mangalore (Karnataka)

A day before the launch the Bhaderwah tehsil of Doda district was under curfew due to communal unrest. I was hoping everything went well, thankfully it did but during the course of launch I came face to face with a stark reality of Indian education.

The program was launched by Mr. Farooq Ahmad the District Collector of Doda in the presence of principals, head teachers, education officers and the media. During his speech Mr. Farooq touched upon a very real problem with education today. The pride of Doda district is its tehsil named Bhaderwah, which according to statistics has almost 100% literacy. But Bhaderwah is notoriously famous for its communal discord and there are riots and violence at the drop of a hat. Almost every qualified professional had only one dream to get a job and leave the district for better opportunities.

Sighting his own example Mr. Farooq said that he never remembered his mother telling him to grow up to take care of people around him or being human was more important that making money. It was the fault of the entire society – parents, schools, teachers and the system, everyone wanted to create professionals. None focused on making children ‘sensitive’ to the world and people around them or teaching them to be ‘human’. In the mad rush to become ‘professional’ they had all grown up to be insensitive and selfish. Every single ‘rioter’ during participating in the recent riots of Bhaderwah was an educated youth, so much for our focus on ensuring 100% literacy!

This is a real issue; we are already seeing telling signs of it in our society, if we do not buck up quickly to address the most important aspect of education ‘creating humans’ we could be in for some very difficult times ahead.

The focus of the first Excellence in School Education Conclave being organized by Mentor in November is to create schools that live & enable values for generations to come. I look forward to interacting with you during the conclave.

In response she sends another derogatory emailer this time marked several governmental organisations, NGO’s and accusing me and my organization of playing with the future generation of India. After 3 email interactions, I had decided it was enough. I spoke to the school authorities who were very upset with the parent and felt sorry for the entire episode as they had officially participated in the event and they had no objection to the judgement criteria or the way the event was organized.

I had to take a stand as I had done nothing wrong, we could not allow one parent to spoil the good work done over years for millions of children. A quote from the holy Quran states ‘Oppressing others is a sin, bearing oppression is a bigger sin’. I decided that I had to lodge a formal protest against the false allegations and acquisitions; I filed a defamation case against that parent in the court of law.

Right through this entire episode two issues kept coming to my mind – What is the kind of impact an obsessed parent like that has on her child & How are schools handling such parents. I am sure many educators out there felt very strongly about certain issues where they were on the receiving end with no fault of yours. Not many people will take the stand as I did in this incident, but are you as Principals & teachers aware of the rights you have? Do you know what amounts to infringing your constitutional right and legal rights? I think it is time for you to have a conversation with a legal expert and find out. Most contracts that schools sign with parents and other stake holders are half baked and have a lot of loop holes, please relook at that. Recently my company EduMedia underwent a Legal Audit, where a legal expert reviewed our entire documentation, records, contracts and everything that we did as an organization. A legal audit is a must for all schools!

My team is all geared up to receive you at the Excellence in School Education Conclave to be held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore from 11^th to 13^th November. The line-up of speakers and the overall program is very exciting and I am eagerly looking forward to the conclave.

It is said that the true meaning of education is to ‘transform an empty mind, into an open mind’. It is quite ironic that we as a society are always hell bent upon filling up the minds of children with as much information as possible without the child having any clue when and where he would use it. This irony also reminds me of the impression that most people have about school principals – they are rigid, think that they know everything and it is very difficult for them to adapt to new ideas and change the way things work at school. Having worked with a lot of very sensitive and progressive educators over the years I do believe that this description of principals is not entirely true, but I have to admit that the majority of school heads out there are too full of themselves and find it too difficult to leave their ‘comfort zones’ and venture out to experiment with ‘their new learnings’. Unless a concentrated effort is made by the individual to learn, unlearn and relearn it is next to impossible to keep abreast with the changes that are taking place in children and in the educational arena around us.

We at Mentor have constantly strived add value to the educational space, I am glad to announce that in continuance of its efforts Mentor Magazine in association with IIT-Delhi, Eduexcellence and The Teachers Foundation will be organizing a very large conclave for principals, teachers, educators and anyone working in the educational arena. The Conclave is titled ‘Excellence in School Education’ and will be held at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore between 11^th to 13^th November. This conclave is the 3^rd in a series of conferences organized by the faculty of IIT-Delhi.

Some very eminent national and international speakers and educators will be presenting their papers and leading workshops. The conclave will feature some very interesting topics like

In a day an age where a frail old 74 year old who answers to the call of ‘Anna’ can herald a path-breaking systemic change in our society. I am would like to see educators wage their own little battles to bring about a change in the way we run our schools and bring up our children. Equipping ourselves with new learning and interacting with educators from across the country and the globe would be a great way to equip ourselves for the battles ahead.

Normally the second term of the school is comparatively a lot more relaxed for educators and they have time to renew their knowledge, refresh their learning’s and recharge their souls. I urge the school leaders and teachers to spend quality time participating in learning programs and join us at the Excellence in Education Conclave.

-          The Rise & Rise of girl power: Yes this is not a trend it is a phenomenon according to me. 12 years ago when I visited Hyderabad I found a big difference in the standard of girls and boys. The girls were far more smarter, intelligent, well spoken and overall better than boys in Hyderabad. I found that strange as in cities like Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai etc. you found the standard to be quite equal, not a stark difference. Over the last 10 years many things have changed in our society, but if I have to pick up one that stands out for me it is the fact that girls are far more smarter than boys these days. This trend I notice not only in Hyderabad but in cities across India, Pakistan, Nepal & Sri Lanka. This phenomenon will have great implications as we move forward. So if I were to put on a soothsayers hat I would comment ‘brace yourself for a world led by and ruled by women in a couple of decades to come’

-          I need to necessarily follow this up with my assessment of boys these days. They are either becoming too feminine and soft or they are becoming too aggressive and violent. In the words of Naina my colleague ‘there are not normal boys these days, either they are sissies or they are mad-caps’

-          If I have to pick up one area where there has been a remarkable improvement in our children it has to be their overall confidence. Every kid seems to be supremely confident of everything they do, but do they have the necessary depth to back up their confidence? Now that is a completely different story all together and in my opinion ‘NO’

-          There are two kinds of kids who take part in competitions like Horlicks Wizkids; one kind who love to be there and the other kind who were told to go there by their parents. Infact I notice a very strong urge in parents to push children to do things which they never got an opportunity to do. This is irrespective of the fact that the child is interested in it or not. This phenomenon creates another challenge for event organisers like me – Every School Wants to Win in All Competitions!

Well these are some of the noticeable findings of mine as I am travelling across doing what I do best, providing the young talent in India to express themselves.

Over the past decade I have made a conscious effort to live the life of the students and see the world from their eyes. I must admit that their world is quite an exciting space and with loads of technology thrown in these days it is a very entertaining and connected world.

Horlicks Wizkids the very popular inter-school literary and cultural festival is back again and this year the event will take place in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and we  add Bangladesh too this year. The event will reach over 3 million children and will attract a participation of over 200,000 students. I urge you all to make sure that you encourage your students to participate in this amazing event that has impacted the lives of over a million children in the past decade.

For details Log onto www.krayonevents.com/horlicks

My facebook account has more than 2000 student friends from across South Asia. This space gives me an opportunity to follow their trends, their behaviour, likes, dislikes and a lot of sharing too.   I find this sort of an interaction with students to be far more insightful than conducting big surveys to understand them. I have always propagated the fact that if you have not jumped in the water you will never learn, similarly if we have to work with students we must figure out a way to live in their world.

September 5^th will be celebrated as Teachers Day across the country and a distinct memory is that of a few teachers putting up an entertainment programme and the school giving out a samosa and laddoo to the students. I am told 2 decades later too things have not changed much and even today teachers are only getting ‘samosas and laddoos’. I think it is high time managements started looking at better incentives for their most valuable asset ‘Teachers’. Consider giving Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Family Insurance, PF, Gratuity, Holiday Packages, Money Incentives and other innovative perks. Go beyond the mundane gifts and surprise them, they deserve it. Make this Teachers Day special for the teachers; they are the only ones who can make your school special for your children.

Next month also has Independence Day heralding a new era for the country. This Independence day make it special for the children too. Do ensure that they go beyond just the hoisting of the flag and revive the sensitivity amongst children and get them to think of the future ahead.

. I was a witness to a very thought provoking session titled ‘Principals as Career Visionaries’ led by a dear friend Sandeep Srivastava who raised some very pertinent issues. I take this opportunity to share what I gathered from his session.

The meaning of the word ‘professional’ has changed dramatically over the past decade. An individual who got a degree in engineering or medicine or science or commerce was termed a ‘professional’. But today ‘professional’ means an individual, who has the right attitude towards work, is reliable and their value system is in place. The question we need to ask is what kind of professionals are schools of today aspiring to create, professionals who existed a decade ago or the professionals who are required by the industry in future?

A recent survey on professions indicates that the most aspired jobs of today did not exist 10 years ago or were not heard of – Social Media Marketing, Nano technology, Retail Marketing, Online Travel Industry,  Digital Secretaries, IT consulting are just a few that come to my mind. Industries of the future will worry about a triple bottom line unlike the traditional ones who looked at only one bottom line ‘Revenues’. The industries of the future will also look at ‘Social Impact’ and ‘Environmental Impact’.

The future will be predominantly multidisciplinary – nano-manufacturing, bio-math, neuro-physics, bio-maths and God knows what all.

We will increasingly live in a connected world and information will be available for everyone to see. It is common practice for companies to see the social profiles of future employees on facebook or linkedin before hiring them. Imagine a student 10 years down the line who has been on facebook, the employers or college management can actually track their entire history from school days before hiring them or giving them admissions. So your facebook profile is not just to have fun and connect with people it can actually be a source of information to the world in future.

We are increasingly seeing the impact of globalization in our world. Take Bangalore for instance, on the city streets you will find people speaking English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, in addition to which we now hear Oriya, Bengali, Khasi and many other Indian languages. If that is not surprising it is very common to find French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic, spoken on its streets.  Very often we have debates over which language should children study; I believe that we should bring up children who know upwards to 6 or 7 languages if they have to excel in the world tomorrow.

Children who join and go through the schools systems are the ones who will shoulder the responsibility of the industry 2 decades from now. The education and skills that we are giving them now will enable them to live a life tomorrow?

It can be very safely suggested that parents have a tremendous impact on how children learn and grow. Educational philosophers of all eras have propagated the fact that most of what children need to learn to live life is learned before they are 7 years old. This is the age when the role of the parent becomes very critical. Precious little is done by schools to bring parents into the learning fold. In fact the good old Parent Teachers Associations that existed in most of the schools across the country are a thing of the past. Most schools believe that parents are a ‘pain’ or ‘necessary evil’ that they have to deal with and they keep a safe distance from the parents. On the other hand the parents believe that the more money they pay the school the lesser responsibility they have in bringing up the children. The attendance of parents in any learning session is dismal, on an average no more than 15% parents attend any programme in school on their own, unless it is made compulsory and linked to their children’s progress report.

A school is incomplete if it does not involve parents. There are several new age tools available to schools to bridge the gap between them and parents. Internet or mobile based technology is in abundance at hardly any cost these days and they can be of great help. Creating a curriculum to engage the parents and equip them with an understanding of children and their needs would be a great idea in the coming year. For starters you can source out some interesting material from the internet, take inputs from your teachers and counselors and your content is ready. Make an effort to reach out to the parents, very few will respond in the beginning, but it will be an important beginning. Home schooling as a concept is catching on very rapidly in the west and of late I have heard of a few people who have chosen to keep their children at home and teach themselves. Personally I believe that if a parent can dedicate that much time and efforts to the upbringing of the children it is tremendous.  It also calls for a lot of sacrifice and dedication. Not many have woken up to this concept, but when a concept like this takes root how would you as a school react? Think about it! I definitely see merit in a blend of conventional learning and home schooling as a way forward in the years to come.

He instructed the care takers to ensure that one of the babies is treated as normally as any mother would treat whereas no one was to touch the other baby.  That baby would get everything but not the touch of a human. Even if they had to feed the baby or clean the baby it had to be done with gloves on. Over the next 2 months inspite of giving all the care and attention the baby who did not receive the human touch fell very ill within days and died in a couple of months.

This may be just a story but it very effectively communicates a very basic need of all humans to survive – the human touch.

I was in Birmingham attending The Education Show and realized that things are just the same and there is not a lot of innovation or excitement that is coming into the educational space in the UK. But a couple of things did catch my attention:

-          The return to the basics: yes a majority of the show was dedicated to very simple tools and props that teachers could use to make the classroom more exciting. It was a revelation to me as most of the schools in the UK boast of an IT based curriculum with interactive classrooms. The focus was now on bringing the small little things into the classroom and a personal touch to education being given by the teachers. Loads of stickers, charts, display boards, colourful props, toys all creating the real feel in the classrooms.

-          The amount of time, energy and efforts the teachers were taking to make their sessions more exciting. Teachers were buying loads of teaching aids with their own money. Now that was very heartening for me as in India I am told that even if a teacher sends an official sms they seek a refund.

We have always looked at the west and believed that they have an excellent educational system.  It is true on many counts, but they have their own share of problems that they are facing. Amidst all this it was heartening to note that The Education Show this year focused more on real and simple tools and ideas that teachers could use to make learning more fun. If we look into the way schools are going ballistic about infrastructure and technology these days the thing that is missing the most is the ‘Human Touch’. Let us look at the coming academic year as a step in the direction to create schools that are more real and ‘old school’