The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
How did you become interested in the development of low-cost laboratory equipment for universities? Over the last 20 to 30 years, there has been a growing emphasis in both the fields of research and industry on the use of sophisticated instrumentation. Yet there has been hardly any progress in teaching …
Indian industries have begun to step up AIDS-awareness measures for their estimated 60 million strong workforce. A study by the Punjab, Haryana and Delhi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) reveals that only 1 person in 100 among industrial workers are aware of AIDS. Worse, many north Indian workers even …
MODERN-day teaching and learning are complementary processes. And it was to learn and share experiences that people from South Asia involved in literacy met in New Delhi on July 19. Says Cut Srivastava, coordinator, Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE), who organised this meeting: "The workshop produced a …
Nishat Farooq Director State Resources Centre Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi -110025 Om Srivastava 39, Kharol Colony Udaipur Rajasthan Thinlay Wangdi Department of Education Ministry of Health and Education Thimphu Bhutan Habibur Rahman Campaign for Popular Education Gono shakkharata Abhiyan 416, Block-D, Lalmatia Dhaka - 1207 Bangladesh Ms shaheen Ahmed …
conced in a rarified world of lecture rooms and ivory towers, pilloried by their critics as lazy, overpaid and irrelevant, the dons of the academic world were pinned squirming on a wall by a study which was released recently. The study, The Academic Profession: An International Perspective, carried out by …
SCHOOLCHILDREN will have to wait a while before their abominable load is lightened. In a sudden paedophobic turn, the human resources development ministry has rejected the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee (NAC), set up in 1992, to redress the problem of overburdened children. The committee, headed by Yashpal, former …
INDIA has 12 million blind people and about 8 million people who are sightless in one eye. The main causes of this disability are nutritional deficiency and lack of health education -- blindness can be prevented and cured. "Eye diseases associated with malnutrition are more common in the south than …
What is the origin of the Pondicherry Science Forum? Inspired by the experiences of the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishat, we set up PSF in December 1985 for the popularisation of science. We organised quiz contests and various programmes for schoolchildren. We used folk art and culture to discuss a number …
COMMUNICATING with children is no easy task -- writing books for them is even harder. In a conversation with a child, there is scope to answer the hundreds of questions that are asked. But a story book must be able to get its message across clearly. There are no second …
A GROUP of adivasis in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, are confident that they will no longer be cheated by the patwari. Shedding centuries of mathematical ignorance, the tribals have grasped the concepts of the weights and measures, with the help of origami -- traditionally associated with creating beautiful figures by folding …
AS PART of an unique attempt to educate nomads, when the restive Van Gujjars of Uttar Pradesh"s Dehra Dun and Saharanpur districts and Himachal Pradesh"s Sirmaur district move in summer to hill pastures near Shimla with their cattle, their teachers will tag along. Naya Safar (New Journey), a 3-part primer, …
DAY after day last February, scores of students in an Uttar Pradesh village spent hours outside their classrooms. They were not playing truant -- they were in the fields collecting leaves and plants for a biodiversity competition. The contest at the secondary school in Gangagarh village in Bulandshahr district was …
How do you know the uses of these ? Did you take help? I am from this area and know about these plants -- I see them being used everyday. I also asked my father and brothers and the elders in my neighbourhood. Even though my brothers don't go to …
NOT SO long ago you had to run to the local polyglot to get a missive in an unfamiliar language deciphered. Come computers and you can now read that blasted letter without supercilious help. The key to multilingual ability lies in a software called Apex Language Processor (ALP), which transforms …
"THE international mobility of students is a massive phenomenon, " says the World Science Report 1993. Out of a total of 61 million students in the world, about 2 per cent (1.2 million) study in foreign universities. The regions that send the most students abroad are: the Middle and Near …
School kids in rural Tamil Nadu have, computer education rolling their way. A computer-on-wheels programme,. devised by Anna University in Madras, is teaching three computer languages - Basic, D Base3+ and Lotus - to high school children in rural areas of the state. Five computers are taken to each school …
VASANT Yeshwant Gharpure of Pune palms a very unlikely calculator -- one made of cardboard, but capable of addition, subtraction and squaring upto four digits, including decimals. "The principles," says Gharpure, "are very simple and follow those of the well-known slide rule and log tables." The doodad can even handle …
Environment will become a compulsory subject in government schools in Delhi from the next academic season. According to the state education minister Sahi Singh Verma, "The elder citizens of the Union Territory have hitherto displayed a callous disregard for air, land and water. Our only hope is action from the …
JOHN BERGER, American art historian and sociologist, in an essay entitled Why look at animals?, points out that in the 19th century, animal toys such as rocking horses became popular during a societal move away from nature and towards urbanisation, and animals ceased to form a part of the immediate …
THE WORLD Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) gutsily staged a street play in January this year in enemy territory, Delhi's Sadar Bazar -- the core of animal skin trader Sansar Chand's territory. Chand, who masterminded the biggest poaching network in north and east India, was nabbed by Delhi police in …
