Seminar on National Education Policy 2016

Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) of Government of India has published in their site the draft copy of National Educational Policy 2016 prepared by them.  They have requested all the stakeholders to debate and submit their recommendations and suggestins to MHRD.

The eMagazine PreSense (published by Prime Point Foundation) and Sansad Ratna Awards Committee  organised a seminar at Dr MGR Janaki College of Arts and Science for Women, Chennai on Saturday the 3rd Sep 2016.  Susan Koshy, Editor of PreSense welcomed the audience and explained the purpose of the seminar.  Sivakeerthi, education consultant coordinated the programme.

The programme had two panel discussions.  The first one on 'School Education' and the second one was on 'Higher Education, Research and Governance'.  R Nurullah, senior journalist moderated the panelists.

P Ravi (Regional Director of National Institute of Open Schooling), Dr Jahitha Begum (HOD, Department of Education, Gandhigram Rural University) and Lakshmi Radhakrishnan (Former Chairperson of Madras Dyslexia Association) were the panelists for 'School Education'.

In the second panel, Dr A Kalanidhi (Former Vice Chancellor of Anna University), Dr Sudarsan Padmanabhan (Associate Professor of IIT Madras), Dr R Jagannathan (Former Vice Chancellor of Middle East University, UAE) and Harish Metha (Secretary, SS Jain Education Society) shared their views on higher education.

The participants also shared their suggestions for incorporation in the recommendations.  A Sub Committee headed by Ramesh Sethuraman is preparing the recommendations for submission to MHRD.

Bhawanesh Deora, Secretary of Sansad Ratna Awards Committee proposed vote of thanks.

  

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Seminar on National Education Policy 2016 (NEP2016) at Chennai

&
Sansad Ratna Awards Committee

Cordially invite you to a Seminar on

‘National Education Policy 2016’

at

Dr MGR Janaki College of Arts & Science for Women,

Chennai 600028

(Formerly known as Sathya Studios – Near Adyar bridge)

on

Saturday, 3^rd September 2016 at 10 am

10.00 am to 11.30 am - Panel discussion I – School Education

·         Dr Santhosh Babu IAS (CMD, Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd - He brought back to School more than 12000  'out of school children' in Krishnagiri district as District Collector - Appreciated by Dr Abdul Kalam).

·         Dr Jahitha Begum (Head of the Department of Education, Gandhigram Rural University - She has done extensive research on education)

·         Mrs. R.  Malathy (Senior Consultant, TN State SSA – 40 years of experience in Corporation Schools at Chennai- Retired as Supervisor of Schools in Zone 5 – National Award winner 1998)

·         Mrs Lakshmi Radhakrishnan (35 years of experience, of which 25 years in mainstreaming special children -  Former Chairperson of  Madras Dyslexia Association)

11.45 am to 1.15 pm - Panel Discussion II - Higher Education, Research and Governance

·         Dr A Kalanidhi (Former Vice Chancellor, Anna University)

·         Dr R Jagannathan (Former Vice Chancellor of Middle East University, UAE  - Visiting professor for International Universities)

·         Dr Sudarshan Padmanathan (Associate Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras - IITM)

·         Shri Harish Metha (Secretary, SS Jain Educational Society)

Moderator : Shri R Nurullah, Senior Journalist

No Registration fee – Tea / Lunch will be provided – Registration needed

RSVP:  only SMS or WhatsApp - with name, email id & profession

Mr Sivakeerthi, Programme Co-ordinator - 9043211200

Dr Bhawanesh Deora, Secretary, Sansad Ratna Award Committee – 9385363537

Ms Susan Koshy, Editor, PreSense – email editor@corpezine.com

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Internet and Social Media for education purposes - Presentation by Prime Point Srinivasan

Participants from Bangladesh at NITTTR, Chennai

National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chennai (Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India) has organised a four week programme to the engineering faculty members and civil service officials of Bangladesh Government. 

Prime Point Srinivasan addressed the participants on how to leverage internet and social media for education purposes.  He shared as to how Wikipedia, Blogs and Podcasts can be of great use for education purposes. He also suggested them to start their own blogs and share their thoughts.  

NITTTR had provided laptop and internet connectivity to all the participants.  Dr. Brazendranath Sarkar, one of the participants created a blog on the spot for himself.  Some of them expressed their eagerness to create podcasts.  

The programmed is organised with the help of External Affairs Ministry.   The participants expressed their happiness about the stay at Chennai and the friendly attitude of people here.  

Dr Malliga is coordinating this programme.  NITTTR is a specialised Institution under HRD Ministry to train the Technical Teachers across the nation.  They also train the professionals from foreign countries.  

The presentation

Internet and Social Meida - presentation by Prime Point Srinivasan at NITTTR on 2nd June 2016 from Prime Point Foundation, Chennai

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Retired Police Officers publish ezine to share their investigation experiences

(Mr Anoop Jaiswal IPS, Director General of Police (third from right) 

releasing the print edition of the ezine 'Kakkiyin Pakkam')

The retired Police Officers of 1976 (Direct Sub Inspectors) batch in Tamil Nadu have formed an association by name 'Former Police Officers 1976 Chennai (FoPs76Chennai)  recently.  All the professionals from various organistions, when they retired, they form an association only to keep their contact in tact.  These retired Police Officers decided to document their investigation experiences and case studies for the benefit of their juniors and publish every quarter an ezine (emagazine).  They also named this ezine as 'Kakkiyin Pakkam' (Pages of Police). They will be sharing this ezine through email with all the Police Officers and Police Stations in Tamil Nadu.  In order to make this ezine more meaningful, they have decided to publish in local language Tamil, so that even the constables can avail the advantange.

The print edition of this ezine was launched by Mr Anoop Jaiswal IPS, Director General of Police, USRB, Tamil Nadu in the presence of a galaxy of present and past police officers.  While appreciating the efforts of the retired Police Officers, he also appealed to them to write freely all their experiences, so that the juniors could get the benefit of their wisdom.  Shri Rajendran, Addl DGP and Dr Vanagamudi, Vice Chancellor of Ambekar Law University also felicitated the new initiative.

Prime Point Srinivasan provided the technical support to their Editorial team to bring out this ezine.  He was also honoured by the Director General of Police.

The Associations of retired officers from other organisations like Banks, bureaucracy, etc. can also emulate the example of these Police officers, by documenting their experiences for the benefit of their junior colleagues. 

Congratulations FoPs76Chennai Team! 

The ezine can be downloaded from the link (11 mb in pdf format)

http://goo.gl/8inXxS

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Workshop on Presentation Skills at TNSC Bank

In the last October, 2009, I wrote about the Staff Training College of Tamilnadu State Apex Cop. Bank, who are training the officials of all District and State level Cooperative Banks.  Unlike  the 'robotic' approach of all training institutes of  so called 'professional' Corporate Houses, TNSC Bank Training centre thought 'out of the box' and planed to train their officials on 'Presentation Skills'.  I was invited again on 3rd Feb 2010 to conduct half-day session on Presentation Skills.

After one hour of introductory presentation by myself aboit the concept, the participants were asked to make a presentation for 5 minutes each about anything ranging from their own products to the latest movie.  Ultimately, the participants should market with the audience about the product or movie.  The presentations were videographed and immediately played back for review by audience.

The main hurdle for any person to attempt a presentation is only an ' assumed fear'.  When I asked the participants, to volunteer for presentation and video-graphing at the beginning, there was a reluctance on their part, due to fear.    Two persons were forced to make presentation.  Then, after 10 minutes, nobody wanted to leave the chance.  Everybody started coming up to the stage for testing their ability.

Almost all of them had the capability to make a good presentation.  Unfortunately, lack of self confidence and fear prevent them from making public presentation.  At the end of the day, every one realised their 'hidden' potential.

Though, we all assume that cooperative bodies are unprofessional, i personally feel they are more professional than the so called professional institutions.  Three cheers to Mr Manohar, Principal and his team!

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Presentation and Public speaking skills - Workshop

Normally, whenever, we think of Co-operative Banks, we assume to be old dilapidated buildings with improper maintenance. But, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Agricultural Co-operative Staff Training Institute (ACSTI) at Madhavaram, in the outskirts of Chennai. I had the opportunity of visiting the Institute on 6th October 2009 to conduct half-a-day workshop on "Presentation and Public speaking skills" for their trainees.

This Institute is managed and run by Tamilnadu State Apex Co-operative Bank Limited. The Institute situated in 5 acre natural green environment provides a conducive atmosphere for training. The dining hall, hostel rooms, class rooms and conference halls fitted with modern gadgets, library, etc. give the look of corporate training centre. They provide all types of training from freshers to senior level management executives on banking. Very unfortunately, they are not known outside.

I wondered when I was invited by Mr Manohar, Principal of the Institute to conduct a half-a-day workshop on 'Presentation and Public speaking skills' for their trainees. Probably this is the first time, this Institute had thought of inclusion of this workshop in the regular training schedule. Even when the Nationalised Public Sector Banks and Corporate giants have not thought of exposing heir employees for the much needed presentation skills, this Institute had pro-actively planned to prepare their trainees to face the competition from the public and private sector banks.

Around 50 trainees participated in this workshop. The purpose of this workshop was to create confidence amongst the trainees for presentation skills. After 45 minutes of introductory session, I asked a few participants to talk on theme of their choice for 5 minutes. Some people were asked to speak extempore. All the speeches of the participants were recorded in video and later played and reviewed. Surprisingly, many of the trainees, who had expressed 'stage fear', 'lack of fluency'. 'lack of confidence', etc. have all done well, belying their own apprehensions. Ultimately, this exercise has proved that people had only false fear or apprehension about themselves without any base and when they were given an opportunity they performed better.

Public Sector and Private Sector organisations should take cue from this little known 'Co-operative Training Institute' to train their own employees.

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Hindu Business Line collaborates with Educational Institutions

The Hindu Business line, one of the leading Business dailies of India has been organising 'Hindu Business Line Club" in various Universities/ Colleges. In Chennai Region alone, 125 Educational Institutions covering around 15,000 students are part of this Club. Since Business Line has wide contacts with senior level Corporate Managers and Management experts, they organise lectures in all the Institutions for the benefit of the students, involving them. Otherwise, it would be difficult for the Colleges to get such experts to talk to their students.

Since I am also in their panel of resource persons, I had the opportunity of participating in their grand get-together on 12th April 2008. Representatives from more than 100 educational institutions and senior level corporate managers / experts particpated. Mr T V Mohandas Pai, Director of Infosys Group was the Chief Guest. He shared his views on the HR Challenges facing the country.

While welcoming the audience, Mr N Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu Group of Publications expressed his concern over the declining reach in the traditinal media, due to the internet growth. He said that due to the enormous growth of new media, people are not willing to pay for news. He expressed that no rigourous survey had been done in India on the use of new media.

Mr T V Mohandas Pai said that India was growing at fast rate and India would be touching the GDP of US $ 2.5 trillion within 10 years from the present level of $1.25 trillion. That would open up a large job market for skilled persons. He insisted on the creation of large institutions with in-take of more number of students and to provide quality higher education. There should be more of partnership between industry and educational institutions.

During the interaction session, Mr N Ram was sharing his concern about the lack of soft skills amongst the students. He said, neglect of soft skills start from communicatin and leads to unemployment.

Please read the full stories in the following links:

http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/13/stories/2008041353660500.htm

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/04/13/stories/2008041351290500.htm

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