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EDITORIAL
TEAM
Chief Editor
SHARADA NAYAK
Editor
DR.S. SRINIVASA RAO
Zakir Husain Centre
for Educational Studies, JNU, New Delhi
Consulting Editor
K. P RAJENDRAN ORBIS international,
New Delhi
Editorial Advisory Board
Prof. UDAI PAREEK
Chairman
Indian Institute of Health Management and Research, Jaipur
Prof. JASBIR JAIN
Former Director Academic Staff College, Rajastban University, Jaipur
Prof. SUMA CHITNIS
Former Vice-Chancellor SNDT University,
Mumbai
Dr. KRISHEN KAK, IAS Director,
Gayatri Trust New Delhi
Prof. RATNA NAIDU
Former Vice-Chancellor Sri Padmavathi Mahila University, Tirupati
Prof. NARAYANI GUPTA
Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi
Dr. JAYA INDIRESAN
Former Senior Fellow, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi
ERC Staff
Dr. SRILEKHA MAJUMDAR
Dr. S. VINU
MS.JAYA BALAKRISHNAN
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From the Press
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FOCUS ON MANAGING DIVERSITY
The Hindu - January 27, 2001
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI. JAN. 26.
Diversity initiative is a new concept that is fast picking up particularly in complex societies like India where geographicafly separated people of different languages, cultures, castes and faiths live. Problems do arise from this diversity that persists in Indian society which possess roots of confrontation and division.
To find an answer to these set of problems, a symposium on "Diversity Concerns in Higher Education: India and the U.S." was organised by the Educational Resources Centre Trust here on Thursday.
"Caste and religious conflicts are mere symptoms of wider so- cial concerns and it is these wider concerns that education must address", said Ms. Sharada Nayak, the Managing Trustee of the Trust, who feels that it is through campuses that these problems can be more effectively and directly addressed.
Expressing concern, Ms. Nayak said colleges and universities in India were ill prepared to cope with such a role. Higher education should be capable of recognising and addressing the roots of the problem and direct its efforts at building confidence and raising self-esteem among future citizens, she exhorted.
Sharing his experience about how these diversity concerns in a similar complex society - though different in historic and cultural context - like America are successfully met, Dr. Edgar Beckham, Senior Fellow in the American Association of Colleges and Universities, Washington, said diversity was made the central mission in the educational system.
"Language is a great leveler. In American universities, English has played a great role in bridging the gaps among people of different nations coming to the U.S.," he added.
Participants present at the symposium felt that these concerns can be more effectively dealt with "if more attention is paid to colleges which are not elite and students not well off' as it is these types of societies where problems arise more.
Diversity is not actually a problem rather could be turned into an asset if coupled with equality the gathering felt.
A Jawaharlal Nehru University professor, Prof Karuna
Chanana, said students from different part of the country come to the University to face the problem of diversity where they are confronted by issues related to caste, language and culture. It is where parochial tendency emerges strongly, she said, while stressing at the need of some posiive steps in this direction. |
"Beyond The Margins" wishes to publish the coverage of events organised by ERC and its partners and also the thematic clippings from the national and local press from lime to lime. We request you to send the press clippings promptly to ER( to enable us to disseminate the information to a wider network. li case the press coverage is in the vernoculor languages, we request you to send the clippings along with the translation. - Editor
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UGC asked to include CDI in collegiate education UGC asked to include CDI in collegiate education
THE HINDU,
Saturday, June 2, 2001
By Our Staff Reporter
SHIMOGA, JUNE 1. The Managing Trustee of the Educational Resources Centre Trust, New Delhi, Ms. Sharada Nayak, said today that a proposal had been submitted to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to make, the Campus Diversity Initiative (CDI), a voluntary, cultural and educational program aimed at promoting comniunal harmony, a permanent institutional feature of the collegiate education without depending on any outside funding agency.
Speaking to presspersons here, Ms. Nayak said the UGC had responded favourably to the proposal, and had appreciated the positive gains made so far through the CDI on college campuses all over the country. The UGC was likely to incorporate the proposal in the 10th plan period.
She said the proposal had also been submitted to the Human Resources Development (HRD). Ministry urging it to make the CDI a permanent feature of higher education. Tracing the origin of the CDI, Ms. Nayak said it was started by a few U.S.-based colleges with financical assistance from the Ford Foundation in 1992 to address some of the common problems noticed on their campuses. Impressed by the impact of the CDI in the U.S. a few educationists approached the foundation for grants for campus diversity activities in the colleges in the country though there was no similarity between what they proposed and what was being done by the U.S.-based colleges.
She said the foundation agreed to offer Rs. 15 lakhs to each participatory college in 1994 to take up the CDI program for three years. A high power committee, headed by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Bhagawati, asked the Indian universities to nominate two to three colleges affiliated to them to participate in the program.
Accordingly, 107 colleges were recommended, of which 25 were selected. The Sahyadri Science College of Shimoga, affiliated to the Kuvempu University, was one of colleges selected for the program. Incidentally, it was the only college in the State selected in the first phase of the program, she added.
Ms. Nayak said some of the colleges were apprehensive about the impact of the programme as it was being funded by the foundation. Though the foundation was extending financial assistance, it never interfered in the implementation of the program. Each participatory college could implement it depending on the nature of problems on its campus.
Ms. Nayak said she had been visiting the Sabyadri Science College for the past four years and was satisfied with the progress achieved by it with regard to the implementation of the programme.
She pointed out that the programme had helped in restoring normality in Shimoga town, which was hit by communal violence, soon after its implementation. Students and teachers of the college had invited members of all communities to participate in the CDI programme aimed at fostering conununal harmony. The college achieved uniform progress during the first three years, and it falsified the impression that the CDI was being implemented well only in private colleges, she added.
She said the CDI programme was extended to the college for three more-years by providing a grant of Rs.12lakhs. Three colleges from Tirthahalli, Sringeri and Chitradurga were involved in the programme with a view to popularising it. The college had published a book, "Samanvaya", on communal harmony.
She said the main problem noticed during the first phase of the programme was the lack of rapport between students and teachers. It was tackled by organising special programmes under the guidance of eyperts. The programmes helped students to develop self-confidence and teachers to attend to the problems faced by students.
The Principal of the college, Ms. Leela C.Bennur, said the college had organised three national-level integration camps and published "Samanvaya" under the CDI programme. The college had distributed the copies of the book free of cost to first grade colleges and public libraries. It had also organised awareness programmes on community development and communal harmony. More than, 35 teachers of the college had been trained under the programme.
Ms. Srilekha Majumdar, Consultant of the Educational Resources Centre Trust, spoke about the CDI project at the national level. |
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