Starting with a tiny school and an enrollment of seven primary students in suburban Mumbai in 1963, it’s been a journey of achievements for Dr. R. Varadarajan promoter-chairman of National Education Society (NES) and Saraswathi Vidya Bhavan trusts. On April 14, the NES and SVB trusts celebrated the promotion and operationalisation of 43 of their education institutions ranging from primary to postgrad at a star-studded 43rd anniversary function presided by Pradip Madhavji, former chairman of Thomas Cook (India) and currently consul general of New Zealand in Mumbai.

Currently education institutions promoted by the two trusts aggregate a student strength of 28,000 instructed by a faculty of 750, spread over four education complexes and five suburbs in Mumbai. “Since inception, all institutions under the NES and SVB banners have achieved 100 percent results and produced merit rankers in school board and university examinations,” says Varadarajan, a history and political science graduate of Mumbai University. A trained and experienced education administrator, Varadarajan also has a Ph D in educational services from Dyanora University, Italy.

In his four decades of service to Indian education, Varadarajan has received many accolades and golden opinions. Among them: Best Teacher award from the President of India (1994); Best Principal award from the President (1995); Netaji Centenary award for best educationist (1997) and the Centenary Award of the Planning Commission (2004). Moreover in 2002, all education institutions under the NES and SVB umbrella were awarded the ISO 9001 seal of approval, and recently the NES Ratnam College of Arts, Science and Commerce (estb:1983) was granted an ‘A’ rating by NAAC (National Assessment & Accreditation Council).

“The future of India is dependent upon the quality of education we provide the nation’s children. Therefore we have to continuously upgrade our systems, syllabuses and curriculums. To this end we promoted the NES Teachers Training Institute in 2003 and the NES National Centre for Research & Development in Education, Science and Technology — the first and only such NGO in the country,” says Varadarajan.

Committed to making provision for the marginalised and underprivileged in his scheme of things, Varadarajan who under the aegis of the SVB Trust already runs the U.M. Thevar (K-X) High School with an enrollment of 459 students in Dharavi (reportedly Asia’s largest and most industrially productive slum habitation), plans to establish a vocational institute offering a variety of training programmes there. “There are a large number of enterprising youth in Dharavi, who given a modicum of formal training can become successful entrepreneurs. I intend to illustrate this by setting up a vocational college there,” says Varadarajan, whose future plans include promoting a private university.

May your tribe increase!

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Advantageous tie-up

With the Delhi-based All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body monitoring technical and higher education in the country, reluctant to permit foreign universities from setting up their own campuses in India, and tuition fees in US and European universities spiralling, a growing number of varsities abroad are beginning to discern the advantages of twinning agreements with education institutions in India. Under these agreements foreign varsities offer their study programmes in partner Indian institutions at a fraction of the original cost. Currently an estimated 22 twinning agreements have been signed between US, UK, Australia and New Zealand universities and local education establishments. To this number add one more, inked on May 3 between Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand (estd. 1895) and Institute of Financial and International Management (IFIM), Bangalore (estd. 1995).

Under the ambit of the agreement AUT will offer its 18-month, international MBA programme at the Bangalore campus of IFIM for mid-career professionals who have at least three years of work experience. Under the arrangement, Indian students will have access to AUT’s online library and faculty support, and IFIM faculty will be trained in Auckland to deliver AUT’s international MBA programme.

“Representatives from AUT including myself who have been visiting India during the past several years for student recruitment often marvelled about the vast pool of highly talented, English-speaking students, who can’t travel abroad for paucity of finance. Therefore we decided to bring our MBA programme to them. Bangalore was the obvious choice of location because the city is known worldwide as the IT capital of India and has a high concentration of multi-national companies. IFIM’s excellent student placement record and the enthusiasm and commitment of its faculty and management were the decisive factors behind partnering with it,” says Des Graydon, pro vice- chancellor (international programmes) of AUT who led a high power delegation which included New Zealand’s minister for economic development, Trevor Mallard and AUT vice-chancellor Derek McCormack to formalise the collaboration with IFIM.

According to Graydon, there are several advantages for Indian students who sign up for the 18-month AUT-IFIM study programme which culminates in an AUT international business management degree. The tuition fee for the AUT MBA programme at IFIM, Bangalore is NZ$ 20,000 (Rs.6.3 lakh), while the same programme is priced at NZ $31,500 (Rs.10.08 lakh) in Auckland. Moreover travel and residence costs aggregating NZ$ 20,000 (Rs.6.3 lakh) will be saved. Students have the option to complete part of the 18-month programme in Auckland.

“Preparing students to excel in the global marketplace is the most important objective of AUT’s MBA curriculum. We believe that students learn best in work situations. Hence our curriculum is hands-on and project oriented. Moreover it’s designed to develop the skills of team building, communication, initiative, creativity, and personal responsibility,” says Graydon.

The first batch of 30 students for the inaugural AUT-IFIM international MBA programme will begin classes on August 1.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)

Biodiversity missionary

In 1990, during a deliberative session on Delhi’s Master Plan 2020, by a stroke of good luck V.G. Gogate, a bureaucrat in the Union ministry of environment & forests mustered courage to respond to the then Lt Governor Vijaya Kapur’s criticism of the scientific community for listing problems rather than solutions, with the brilliant idea of establishing a biodiversity park in the national capital. As a consequence, contemporary Delhi has two flourishing biodiversity zones adjoining its two major ecosystems — the Yamuna river basin and the Aravalli hill trail (ridge). Once ready, they will showcase the riches of fauna and flora, provide much-needed oxygen and feature an open air research lab.

“The credit for India’s first biodiversity revival and conservation initiative goes to Vijaya Kapur for backing it tirelessly against stiff resistance from bureaucracy (read officials of the DDA),” says Prof. Gogate, who may well be given a place of honour when the next history of Delhi is written.

Gogate’s achievements are especially commendable, given that he is not even a university graduate. Yet he taught science postgrads in reputed universities including Delhi University, AMU, M.S. University, Baroda and the Forest Research Institute. From 1991 to 2001, Gogate was a visiting lecturer of biology at Delhi University, where he developed his biodiversity vision with C.R. Babu, professor emeritus and a botanist, who heads the biodiversity project started in 2002.

A brilliant student of the Central Leather Institute, Madras who couldn’t find employment as the leather industry was going through a bad patch in the early 1960s, Gogate began his career as a taxidermist. Knowledge of taxidermy landed him a job with the Zoological Survey of India in Calcutta (1962-67). In 1967 he packed his bags for Iraq where he served as curator in the bird and mammals division of Baghdad’s Natural History Museum. After his return in 1978, he was appointed a scientist in the natural history museum of the ministry of environment, where he served till 1998. Post retirement he was a consultant with WWF, and in 2002 he mooted his idea of ecodiversity zones in Delhi.

An excellent raconteur and writer, Gogate has employed his long association with natural history and conservation to pen down 100 animal and tree stories for children. “There are conservation myths and legends shrouded in mystery and superstition. We can demystify them by uncovering the scientific truth and reiterating the important message that without the living world in its entirety, i.e biodiversity, human beings won’t survive for long,” he says.

Autar Nehru (Delhi) 

 

Mistress of puppets

A puppeteer par excellence and founder trustee of the Pavai Centre for Puppetry, Chennai, R. Bhanumathi has been using puppets as a medium of education, entertain-ment and therapy for children for over two decades. “Most children relate very well to puppets as they see them as entertaining, non-threatening and empowering,” says Bhanumathi, an M.Sc in community resource management from Delhi University’s Lady Irwin College. Interacting with puppets can also be cathartic, according to Bhanumathi, who has conducted puppetry workshops for corporates.

As a learning innovation, this highly qualified and talented artiste has synergised puppetry with drama, story telling, ventriloquism, classical and contemporary dance, folk forms and language teaching. Cheerful puppets also serve a therapeutic purpose, and work well with introverted and shy children and those suffering from speech disorders and mental depression, says Bhanumathi.

Developing the emotional intelligence of children and youth is another sphere where she has employed her craft to good effect. “Since puppetry is a highly interactive medium, I use it to teach children good manners and social norms to help nurture relationships and build lasting friendships,” says this ingenious educator, who has a Ph D in puppetry from the Gandhigram Rural University, Madurai.

In 1999 Bhanumathi was given an assignment by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to employ her puppetry skills to create awareness about wildlife conser-vation, ecology, animal welfare, air/ soil/ water conservation, endangered animals and biodiversity. There’s been no looking back since.

The Pavai Centre — a trust registered by Bhanumathi, has designed learning projects for schools, colleges, NGOs and corporates, utilising puppetry. Likewise a Chennai-based NGO sponsored an ecology awareness programme using puppetry as a medium, for which more than 15 schools across the city have signed up.

A complex genre, puppetry fuses diverse arts and crafts — drawing, painting, colouring, needlework, costume design, carpentry, story writing, music, dance, sound, stage craft, lighting — to great effect. “Apart from entertainment, puppetry can be creatively employed to wean kids away from the pervasive onslaught of the electronic medium,” says Bhanumathi, who is keenly reviving this endangered craft.

Neeta Lal (Delhi)