Oration 2018 – Message
Resonance 2017 – Message
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do, than by the ones you did do.”—Mark Twain
These words have shaped my life for the last many years.
The moment I joined the first Toastmasters meeting, I did not have a choice but to improve my communication skills. Thenceforth, when I started meeting people and interacting with them, I realized it is not just about speaking but more about leadership. Leaving away from the safe harbours to explore my dreams was not an easy choice.
LIFE and LEADERSHIP are all about taking big decisions and the journey of Toastmasters helped to make a plethora of such decisions.
This platform has helped me to ameliorate my leadership and speaking skills. It made me take an extra step for my club and I realized when I improved, simultaneously with me, my club, my area, my division, my district and the Toastmasters community was growing. Let us all keep this serene environment of Toastmasters neat and clean, away from negativity and reach out to help millions outside the system to grow. There is nothing greater than the happiness of sharing knowledge and making this world a better place to live. You and I have a role to play, no matter how small or big we are, let us all hold the oar of this boat tight and roe together. Neither the trade winds nor any tempest can stop us from discovering the dreams we are chasing for.
As wise men say, better late than never. Let us all use the opportunities to learn things. I found likeminded people coming together and celebrating together, when I attended my first district conference, and ever since then for the last 4 years I have not missed any.
Resonance 2017 is yet another platform for all of us to witness the awesomeness and learn new things. I am sure this will help me take my clubs and division yet another step forward. I wish Resonance 2017 all the very best.
The credit for my learning and inspiration would be given to hundreds of Toastmasters that I came in touch with. They shaped me as did Mark Twain’s words, so a big THANK YOU to all.
“In this journey of Life, Learning Linguistics and Leadership let us not stop. Let us continue dreaming, driving and discovering.”
The Dead Past – Issac Asimov
Read the story here!
Short story ‘The Dead Past’ by Issac Asimov, introduces three main characters: Araman, who represents the government; Potterly, a professor who is interested to do research on history and gets adapted to rules and regulations of the authorities; and Foster, a physics researcher who is not ready to give up his quest for knowledge. The story goes around the thought “for a greater good”. The authorities restricted Foster from working on his area of interest saying, ‘it may do damage to the nation in future’. The story leaves back a thought in the mind of the readers that, blocking (or controlling) of the researchers, innovators, artists, scientists, writers and people of other similar professions in the banner of greater good a right thing to do?
We live in a free nation where ‘freedom’ and many other slogans of our past (pre independence period) are mere words and not something that we experience even after seven decades of independence. A developing nation like India has a lot many success stories both from the past and the current. The success stories that make each one of us feel proud. However, when it comes to the ground reality, millions are still deprived of the fundamental rights that constitution grants them. Though, we have witnessed various social reformers who struggled a lot to make this society a better one, in the recent days we still learn people walking back to their previous days and old school of thoughts. We are part of the largest democracy and yet, we believe that many of our voices are unheard and are forced to remain silent. Questioning, challenging, expressing your views or dissent is considered to be ‘anti-national’ or a reason for sedition and treason. There were incidents when the government had to take actions against any activity that was not acceptable or matching with their views.
Researchers at times are stopped from expressing their views, artists from painting, writers from publishing, scientists from innovating and many more. When the constitution says ‘Freedom of expression’, it still remains to be something that is controlled by the man in power. The authorities or the ruling majority tries to impose their ideology on top of every single citizen, citing that it is the better for the country and is for a greater good. We believe that we are free from caste, creed, religious and gender discrimination. But, the fact is it still remains in the books and not in action.
We being a social animal and a citizen of such diverse country, holds a collective responsibility. As the world is moving so fast and shrinking with the advancements in technology, we cannot walk or live independent. Sometimes we may define this as someone else’s control over my personal freedom. Neither the extreme right nor the extreme left ideologies can lead the society towards a pragmatic solution to the related issues. By default, it is the choice of the ruling majority. For a man in power, it is easy to control and spy on others. He may quote it with the help of terms like ‘security’, ‘regulation’, and ‘peace’. But, the real question for them is how they decide boundaries between good and bad. Instead of educating people, on how to become wiser, if our authorities spend time on drawing boundaries and putting regulations, then it will do more of bad than of good. For the greater good when people adopted steps like emergency, homicide and wars, the time has proved, that they all went wrong.
Freedom to find solutions to a problem or to express his concerns in the society he/she lives must be granted. Authorities should not force them to abide, but, must win their hearts by debates, discussions and reaching out to them. Our educational system and especially the universities should provide an atmosphere and must be used for holding up of these kinds of activities. For a greater good, we believe certain regulations must happen, but it must be open to criticism. Self-criticism can help any leaders to achieve better heights and for a government, this must be a continuous task so that it wins the heart of all its citizens and not just the interest of the majority.
It is a personal choice to be Potterly or Foster, but, what really matters is for people like Araman to realize, that if not the power has been granted, what must have happened to his choices.
Highlights – Draft National Education Policy (2016)
Draft Policy Details: Click here. I have glanced through the pages and these are some of my quick thoughts. Kindly send suggestions on this draft policy to nep.edu@gov.in by 31st July 2016
Strengths: Many issues in the current system have been identified and a detailed study did happen in the background. Plan to implement the post of IES (Indian Education Service), Mathematics and Science exams as 2 level exams for Class X students, provision for Academic Assistants and Associates in teaching.
Weakness: Unnecessary clauses(and definitions) at certain points including the stress on culture may be termed as ‘saffronization’ agenda. The policy speaks well about language, value, science, mathematics and others but talks less about the safety measures that have to be taken at the institutes (4.2.1). It has also completely ignored the necessity of disaster management as part of the curriculum. I must also say that this policy lack vision in streamlining a proper channel for the fellowship(scholarship/stipend) management and annual renewals.
Things I loved
4.14.4: The State will endeavour to implement the recommendations of earlier policies of 1968 and 1986/92 for the creation of an Indian Education Service (IES), which is reiterated herein too. The IES will be an all India service with HRD as the cadre controlling authority. Till the IES comes into existence, an interim step of a one-time special recruitment by UPSC from among the existing academic and administrative positions in the education sector in various states will be made in concurrence with the states.
4.5.8: High failure rate in class-X examination is attributed to a large extent to poor performance in three subjects: Mathematics, Science and English. In order to reduce the failure rates, class X examination in Mathematics, Science and English will be at two levels: Part-A at a higher level and Part-B at a lower level. Students who intend to join courses/ programmes for which science, mathematics or English is not a prerequisite or wish to shift to vocational stream after class-X will be able to opt for Part-B level
examination.
4.18.1: Selected foreign universities, from the top 200 in the world, will be encouraged to establish their presence in India through collaboration with Indian universities. If required, steps will be taken to put in place an enabling legislation. Rules/ Regulations will be framed so that it is possible for a foreign university to offer its own degree to the Indian students studying in India, such that these degrees will be valid also in the country
of origin.
What could have been done better?
4.2.6: Adolescent Education will be included in pre- and in-service training programmes of secondary school teachers
I believe this must be changed to “secondary school teachers and high school teachers“
4.4.1: Each State will undertake a detailed exercise of school mapping to identify schools with low enrolment and inadequate infrastructure. Wherever possible, efforts will be made to convert existing non-viable schools into composite schools for optimum utilization of human, physical and infrastructural resources, better academic performance and cost effective management. When schools are merged they could be located in a single campus. In consultation with the states, common guidelines for merger and consolidation would be evolved, without diluting the provisions of the RTE Act. The consolidation will enable the country to achieve one class – one teacher norm in a foreseeable future .
Distance and reach factors must be considered before consolidation
4.5.6: Issues of gender, social, cultural and regional disparities, with an emphasis on unity in diversity, will be properly addressed in the curriculum and its transaction. Curriculum will cover the issues of social justice and legal measures in order to avoid social discrimination. It will be ensured by the curriculum and text book development agencies that text books promote harmony and do not contain any discriminating issues/ events/ examples in the context of gender, disability, caste, religion, etc. Citizenship education, peace education, character building, legal and constitutional literacy, financial literacy, environmental sustainability and other common core which will be promoted through all the subject areas.
For me, this creates a feeling like certain things in history must be omitted or rewritten
4.11 The aim of education is to inculcate awareness among learners of India’s rich heritage, glorious past, great traditions and heterogeneous culture.
Well, I don’t understand
4.11.3: Higher Education Institutions, especially technical and professional institutions, will provide opportunities to all students to learn about India’s rich heritage, linguistic and cultural diversity and knowledge systems
Well, I don’t understand. Why special mention to technical and professional institutions?
4.11.4: Keeping in view the special importance of Sanskrit to the growth and development of Indian languages and its unique contribution to the cultural unity of the country, facilities for teaching Sanskrit at the school
and university stages will be offered on a more liberal scale.
Diplomatically handled 😀
4.14.1: An Education Commission comprising of academic experts will be set up, every five years to assist the Ministry of HRD in identifying new knowledge areas/ disciplines/ domains as well as pedagogic, curricular and
assessment reforms at the global level, which will help to keep up with the change in the global scenario and national aspirations.
Isn’t five years too long?
4.14.6: The Government recognises and will encourage the positive role played by students’ unions in furthering the interests of democracy and strengthening the democratic systems, governance and processes as well as debates, discussions and pluralism of thoughts.
Really? Good to see this here.
4.21.4: HEIs funded by governments need to find ways of increasing their revenues through other sources, such as alumni funding, endowment funding, tuition fee enhancement along with fee waiver for disadvantaged
sections, and private investment.
More or less like the privatization of academia. Researches may not help society, but just the markets and our studies may get diverted for personal benefits, ignoring the greater needs of the country. Finally, quality education may not be at the reach of the poor and middle class.
