The thrill of the morning paper

For almost a month now, and perhaps for 13 months in 2012-13 and 12 months 1989-90, I have had a blissful experience of the morning paper, literally in my hands.

When I shifted to Bhilai in 1990, it would be The Times of India, Delhi edition being delivered in the evening. The newspaper would come by air to Raipur and would be delivered in the evening. So the year long luxury of fresh newsprint while I was in Delhi, came to an end. Logistics issues meant there would be no regularity of the TOI being delivered on time. Though it scares me now, but I must confess that for almost two years I had no morning newspaper to read. Gradually I shifted to Teh Hitavada and The Indian Express - Nagpur editions. When The Hindustan Times was launched from Raipur, I shifted to that as well. But my discomfort continued, so to speak. Even prior to 1990, I missed the morning 'national' newspaper having lived in smaller towns like Ranchi, Obra, and Muzaffarpur.

It was only in 2007, during a visit to Chennai that I came across The Hindu again after a gap of 17 years, having last read it while in Delhi. On my return to Bhilai, I immediately asked the newspaper vendor to start delivering The Hindu. First it was the Delhi edition, then Kolkata and finally Vizag or Hyderabad. But each time it would be a day or two late. But that chain was broken in December 2017 when I latched on to the 10-year special subscription offer and decided to subscribe to the digital edition.

So now I open my laptop at anytime I get up, which is usually around 4.00-4.30 am, which in a way coincides with the availability of the digital edition online, and sift through the 'pages', a cup of coffee or tea in hand. Till say around 6.00 am this liaison continues which gets extended if there s more material to read on Sundays and specific days, often at the cost of my morning walk. The smell from the newsprint is missing but the thrill of the morning news is fresh. And shall remain for another 10 years, at least.

Education and Learning

That we had to bring in a law (the RTE Act, 2010) to make education a right six decades after independence itself speaks of how two of our basic rights - healthcare and education were denied to the masses. In the backdrop of huge investment - public as well as private - in the two areas notwithstanding, should have been taken as an indictment of India's failure to fulfill the basic needs of its citizens. 

The ASER 2017 report by Pratham (http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER%202017/aser2017fullreport.pdf) has only confirmed our worst fears. The teenagers (14-18 years) are badly disabled, so to speak when it comes to basic skills. Let us not forget that these are amongst those who suddenly, from an exam-based evaluation system, which was in vogue till 2010, had to shift to no exams at all for the last seven years. The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), in the absence of proper teacher training and ineffective implementation, resulted in schools pushing children up the ladder under the guise of no-detention. What RTE Act meant by no-detention was that teachers should have brought the weak students at par and not detain them for failing an exam. What actually happened was that the weakest students got promoted without acquiring adequate learning.

That those in classes 9 to 12 are so poor in basic skills should come as no surprise. The RTE Act has ensured compulsory enrollment of out-of-school children. But are they learning? How are Class 9 and 10 students going to cope with annual exams this year? 

So it would be alright to extend the provisions of the RTE Act to those aged 14 to 18 years, our learning from the actual reality of its implementation for the 6-14 age-group should be first looked into. There is a humongous shortage of teachersrs in our schools. Teachers need to be trained as well and assimilate the tenets of continuous learning and evaluation of students. The availability of free books and uniform is also a problem, particularly for those from the disadvantaged sections of society. The present reimbursement model gets stuck up in bureaucracy and poor parents often do not get their due on time.

If ASER 2017 report is not a wake-up call, then perhaps nothing else shall be.

Otimising the School Academic Calendar

Arriving at an optimum examination schedule keeping in  mind the holidays, festivals and elections (at times), is a challenge. Last year the Class-X and XII Board examinations conducted by the CBSE started late on account of elections in U.P. Otherwise March 1 has been the traditional start date for the start of the examinations, year after year.

The CBSE Class-XII Examination Schedule for 2018 is badly skewed against the interests of science students. There is absolutely no gap between Mathematics (on 21st March) and Engineering Graphics (22nd March). It is a given that all the Engineering Graphics students study Mathematics. 

Stung by delays and inaccuracies in evaluation last year, the CBSE had earlier talked of advancing the start of the board examinations to February. However it did not find favour with schools as it would have affected course completion as well the schedule of the school-level examinations for other classes which are held simultaneously with the board examinations. 

For the first time in many years the Class-X examinations have spilled over to April. With both Class-X and XII examinations running into April, the new academic session that starts on 1st of April gets affected. Schools have to suspend classes on examination days as most of them are examination centers as well. Another critical issue is availability of teachers for classroom teaching as they are away on evaluation duty for at least 7 to 10 days. With summer attaining scorching heights by mid-April in most parts of India, the local administration steps in with either suspension of classes or truncation of schools' working hours. Would it not be a good idea to revert to the earlier practice of holding examinations in April (in the morning hours, say from 7 am to 10 am or 8 am to 11 am) and starting the new academic session from July? The six-week summer vacations in May-June can then be utilised for evaluation. The problem is going to be acute for schools in 2018-19 with a plethora of state elections as well the general elections coming up as teachers have also a big role to play in conducting them.

What ill-prepared and frustrated managers do - on a cricket field, and other things

The abject surrender by the numero uno Test team's famed batting line-up - not once but twice at Newlands, Cape Town in the first Test of the ongoing series - is not unexpected.

The Indian team landed in South Africa without any preparation at all. Only a few days back they were playing Sri Lanka at home and decimating them. But even against one of the weakest teams today, the Indian batting line-up struggled in the Kolkata Test due to seaming conditions. In fact, India surrendered to Lakmal and co. at Dharamshala in the first ODI. In 2016, India had lost to Sri Lanka in a T20I at Pune on a grassy 'English' pitch. So against the weakest team if we had demonstrated again and again that our world-record beating batsmen cannot stand muster on seaming pitches with grass, was there any doubt that we will not surrender in South Africa, or for that matter England and Australia later on in 2018?

Not that this issue wasn't raised? Skipper Kohli himself raised the issue and when no one listened in the BCCI, he chose to take a break for personal reasons like all frustrated managers do in any organisation when the bosses aren't listening. In response to Suresh Menon's column - Between The Wickets - Another Tough Tour Without Enough Preparation Time (The Hindu, Dec 19, 2017), this reader had suggested (vide letter dated 22 December 2017 to the editor of The Hindu) that instead of a meaningless series of matches against Sri Lanka, the top-22 players of India could have played a couple of three-day games at Dharamshala in conditions similar to South Africa. It was also suggested that India should have played at least three warm-up matches in South Africa against any opposition to get used to the conditions. What the Indian team management chose to do, in their frustration at the upcoming improbable challenge, was to scrap a two-day tour game to give the overworked players a rest! 

So if anything hasn't changed, it is the same dismal start to an overseas tour. Losing inside, effectively three days, is definitely better than what Zimbabwe had to suffer in a Test match recently - losing in two days. The Indian bowlers gave the South African batsmen a virtual scare, not once but twice in the match. But the batsmen failed to answer the call of duty.

Team selection was the starting point of it all. Why drop K L Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane in preference to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, who are flat-track limited-overs bullies at home? Pujara's failure and also Kohli's and Vijay's raises deep concerns. But these three are sure to figure out what went wrong. India may also have to think of playing four fast bowlers and forego the spin option altogether if conditions are similar in the remaining two Tests.

The numero uno lesson for the numero uno Test team - prepare properly.