Hi, I am planning to conduct a research study (my first) by a sample survey of NRIs regarding their satisfaction level with school education for their children. Most seem dissatisfied with school edu but satisfied with college education --vis-a-vis their own in India. Some in US might be interested in my research --though most stick up their nose at Indian school edu. Any pointers in sample selection etc Umesh PS: Quite a change of focus from when I wrote this for Harvard admission essay while in India: Statement of Purpose Sharma Umesh Research Aim To compare the US and the Indian school educational systems and identify suitable methods for improvement in the following areas: 1. Government schools in US are doing well, not so in India, why? 2. In private schools especially, how to improve the performance of the laggards as well as the gifted students? 3. How to facilitate the students from financially weak backgrounds? 4. How to wean away the students from wealthy backgrounds from distractions and a feeling of satiety? 5. How to motivate children of educationally backward parents to excel in studies? 6. How to ensure that the teachers take pains with the students studies? 7. How to select and retain exceptional staff and students? After checking the HGSE faculty profile I feel that the following staff members are doing research in my area of interest (as mentioned above) : 1. Fernando Reimers 2. David Perkins 3. Suzanne Grant Lewis Reason Primary school education is the key to India's economic prosperity - as the Nobel Laureate welfare economist, Amartya K. Sen says. The background At the private school where I work, we have regular reviews of teaching practices and have continuously adopted improved techniques in teaching and educational administration. For this, we discuss each others techniques and those being practiced elsewhere by referring to books and magazines. The TIME magazine, Asian edition, to which our school subscribes - routinely carries features on educational practices in schools across the world. It has cited USA, Hong Kong and Singapore among others, which have continuously searched for and adopted better teaching techniques on a national scale, that have kept their school standards at the highest levels. The government schools of my country are far poorly run compared to the private ones, but I read that in USA, the public schools produce results comparable to those of private ones. Perhaps I could draw useful lessons from my US experience, which might help improve the vast number of government schools in my country. Preparing for an educational revolution When I had joined the schooling profession I had set a time frame - of 5 years - to imbibe the current teaching and administrative practices in the school and its surrounding educational environment and then act towards creating a quantum change in the current educational scenario in the country. After 4 years of school work at Jaipur, where I have worked in diverse capacities including teaching English and Math to classes 1 & 2 , Math to class 9, practical science to various classes and handling educational administration (the details are in my resume) - I felt that a few vital areas need improvement - to revolutionize Indian school education which I have mentioned as the object of my proposed research. Our schools has adopted many of my suggestions towards career counseling, motivation and use of teaching aids to excite the students towards school-going and towards the subjects taught but a lot more can be done.
Umesh Sharma 5121 Lackawanna ST College Park, (Washington D.C. Metro Region) MD 20740 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
