ASSETScope January 2009

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

High-school students in Finland, rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honour societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don’t start school until age 7.

Finland’s students are the brightest in the world, according to an international test. Teachers say extra playtime is one reason for the students’ success.

The academic prowess of Finland’s students has lured educators from more than 50 countries in recent years to learn the country’s secret, including an official from the U.S. Department of Education. What they find is simple but not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on, kids do a lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their students. Teachers and students address each other by first names. About the only classroom rules are no cell phones, no iPods and no hats.

The Norssi School in Jyvaskyla is run like a teaching hospital, with about 800 teacher trainees each year. Graduate students work with kids while instructors evaluate from the sidelines. Teachers must hold master’s degrees, and the profession is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single job. Their salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally have more freedom.

Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards.One explanation for the Finns’ success is their love of reading. Parents of newborns receive a government-paid gift pack that includes a picture book. Some libraries are attached to shopping malls, and a book bus travels to more remote neighbourhoods like a Good Humor truck.

Taking away the competition of getting into the “right schools” allows Finnish children to
enjoy a less-pressured childhood. While many U.S. parents worry about enrolling their toddlers in academically oriented preschools, the Finns don’t begin school until age 7, a year later than most U.S. first-graders.

Once school starts, the Finns are more self-reliant. While some U.S. parents fuss over
accompanying their children to and from school, and arrange every play date and outing,
young Finns do much more on their own. At the Ymmersta School in a nearby Helsinki suburb, some first-grade students trudge to school through a stand of evergreens in near darkness. At lunch, they pick out their own meals, which all schools give free, and carry the trays to lunch tables. There is no Internet filter in the school library. They can walk in their socks during class, but at home even the very young are expected to lace up their own skates or put on their own skis.

During a recent afternoon in one of his school’s advanced math courses, a high-school boy fell asleep at his desk. The teacher didn’t disturb him, instead calling on others. While napping in class isn’t condoned, authorities say, “We just have to accept the fact that they’re kids and they’re learning how to live.”

Source:http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120425355065601997-7Bp8YFw7Yy1n9bdKtVyP7KBAcJA_20080330.html-(modified)

News Bite

• Malnutrition Impairing Learning
• Microsoft Unveils DreamSpark for Students in India
• International Children’s Digital Library on Apple iPhone
• India Behind Emerging Economies in Quality Education – Survey
  
• India Destined to Become the World’s Knowledge Park: PM

Malnutrition Impairing Learning

Although India is three notches up on the global education index this year, 46 percent of Indian children are malnourished, which has severely affected their learning ability in schools, according to a UN education watchdog report. Malnutrition impaired brain development of about 40 percent of children in south Asia, including India. The report also said 45 percent of the children in Std III could not read a test designed for students of Std I and only 50 percent could read a simple text. About 42 percent were not able to do simple subtractions or divisions.

Microsoft Unveils DreamSpark for Students in India

In order to provide students access to technical software, Microsoft unveiled ‘DreamSpark,’ a software giveaway for over 10 million qualified students in the country. DreamSpark will give students access to the latest Microsoft developer and designer tools at no charge to ‘unlock’ their creative potential. Chairman Bill Gates said, ‘We want to do everything we can to equip the new generation of technology leaders with the knowledge and tools they need, to harness the magic of software to improve lives, solve problems and catalyse economic growth.

International Children’s Digital Library on Apple iPhone

The International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL), which is the world’s largest collection of children’s literature available freely on the Internet, announced the release of the ICDL for iPhone application. The ICDL for iPhone application allows users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch user interface to read a selection of books from the ICDL’s master collection of thousands of children’s stories from 60 countries.

India Behind Emerging Economies in Quality Education – Survey

While Russia has emerged as the frontrunner in the quality of education parameters, India has been lagging behind in the race as it ranks 6th among the seven largest emerging economies of the World. These are the findings of a survey conducted recently by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).The analysis was carried out on the basis of 20 parameters relating to primary, secondary, tertiary education, higher education and demography. Data provided by UNESCO, IMF, WEF and Financial Times was used for the study purpose.

India Destined to Become the World’s Knowledge Park: PM

India is destined to become the knowledge park of the world and the Indian government is geared to make this destiny a reality, declared Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. “The government is setting up several higher education institutes towards this mission”, said Manmohan Singh. “At the grass roots level, a series of school scholarship schemes have been launched by the government to provide access to quality education for under-privileged sections of the society,” the Prime Minister said.

Teacher’s Bite

Ms. Vasanthi Thiagarajan,
Principal,
Sishya School, Hosur

Innovative idea/teaching methodology I use
As a teacher, I am currently trying out Differentiated Instructional strategies (challenge the gifted/ address the average/motivate the weak students) – a program I had done with Harvard University and I find this extremely rewarding. One particular strategy I would like to share is the use of the Jigsaw Strategy-that involves dividing a project into smaller parts that each group will use-research upon-meet other groups to exchange information and finally merge with their original group. I find this gives students a feeling of self-esteem as contributors in a group project. More details are available on the website which one could get from a search engine.

Importance of teacher education and development in educating students
These are the core components of teacher readiness and are critical to successful classroom interactions.

While training could be induction training for new teachers to understand the ethos-work demands and styles of functioning of the new school, In-service training serves to hone teacher competencies further.

I feel effective training empowers the teachers and instils confidence in their approach and engenders creative, experimental practices. Hence, training should be an ongoing process.
As far as the development of teachers is concerned, schools must pay attention to the physical, mental and spiritual needs of the teachers besides the focus on the intellectual capacities, Teachers must have recourse to counselling support that helps them unwind.

ASSET:
ASSET is indeed an invaluable evaluation process that every school should take. The system of evaluation is exemplary and the feedback to schools with a detailed profile of performances is commendable. If used as a springboard for student development, schools can certainly deliver quality in classrooms.

97 percent Indian kids will go to School by 2015 – UNESCO

India is on track to achieve Net Enrolment Rate (NER) of more than 97 percent by 2015, the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report of the UNESCO released said.

“Of the 17 countries, only Bangladesh, Brazil and India - are on track to achieve NER in excess of 97 percent by 2015,” the report said.

The enrolment in secondary education in India has increased from 39 percent in 1999 to 43 percent in 2006.In terms of absolute numbers, 80 percent of adult illiterates worldwide live only in 20 countries - 50 percent of them live in India, China and Bangladesh.

In South Asia, Bangladesh devotes 2.6 percent of national income to education, Pakistan 2.7 percent and 3.3 percent of India’s national income goes to education. The good news is that - India, along with Bhutan and Nepal, has achieved gender parity in primary education.

Award Ceremony for ASSET QMC 2008 - National Question-Making Competition

To promote good question-making practices among teachers, Educational Initiatives conducted a national question-making competition for teachers, called the ASSET Question-Making Competition (QMC)from September 5 – December 25, 2008. Multiple-choice questions were invited from teachers teaching in classes 3-9 in 5 subjects. More than 2,400 teachers from 600 schools participated in this competition nationally and more than 1 3,000 questions were received.

A panel consisting of internal and external judges evaluated the subject related questions
and identified the winning schools and teachers.

Seated: Chief Guest Dr. Tom V. Kunnunkal (third from left) with competition judges (from left) Mrs. Smita Bhattacharya, Prof. H.S.Srivastava and Dr. Neelam Saxena
First row standing - all award winners (from left): Mr. Pranavan, Mr. Suryanaranarao, Mrs. Sheela Venkataraman, Mrs. Sujatha Mohandas, Mrs. Lipika Banerjee, Mrs. Arunima Dasgupta, Mrs. Rama Devi, Ms. Meenakshi Sharma with Ms. Gayatri Pasricha of EI
Second row standing: Mr. Arun Pawar (award winner, second from left) with Mr. Sridhar Rajagopalan and Mr. Sandeep Saha of EI

To felicitate the winners, EI had arranged an award ceremony in Delhi on Friday, December 5th in the India Habitat Centre. Around 15 principals and teachers from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi NCR and other cities at t ended t he ceremony, including award winners. Also present were some of the judges who evaluated and rated the entries of the competition.

After the attendees and award winners were welcomed, Sridhar Rajagopalan, Managing Director, EI, started the keynote spoke about how EI’s research based on questions revealed patterns of misconceptions among students; Mr. Sandeep Saha, Vice President – Marketing, shared his views on the importance of such competitions and announced that the warm response has encouraged EI to conduct this every year.

Dr. T. V. Kunnunkal, former Charirman – CBSE, the chief guest for the event, in his address to the attendees, said that question-making is not a matter of examination itself but is also an integral part of learning.

Mrs. Sujatha Mohandas, Principal of Shishu Griha, Bangalore and the national school winner of the competition, shared that over the years, the school has made concerted efforts to educate the parents on learning through application-oriented questions, like those available in ASSET. Mrs. C. Rama Devi, Principal of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School, another school winner, opined that schools like hers have made positive changes in the teaching methods, and such recognition acts as an encouragement to teachers and the school management.

Humour

Teacher : If you had one rupee and you asked your father for another, how many rupees would you have?
Student : One rupee.
Teacher: You don’t know your Arithmetic.
Student: You don’t know my father!