D. Raja (CPI national secretary and MP) lists out core labour issues that need immediate attention of government

Q. With power comes its misuse. Do you see this as a probable reason why management is not sensitive to the needs of its labour force?

A. Certainly, labour unions are a collective bargaining force and there is nothing wrong in that. Workers form a collective category and advance their common demand. Trade unions have their own democratic functioning; the members meet, discuss and share their experiences and formulate their demands accordingly. Fighting absenteeism, watching workers putting their optimum efforts during work hours is also their work.

Even the International Labour Organization (ILO) has a worker-education programme that aims to make workers more aware of their rights, duties and work culture.

Q. Why do we often find management against these unions?

A. No management has the power to hire and fire during such a period. Disciplinary actions are taken and disputes can be taken to labour ministry and commissioners. However, no government or management can have the power to hire and fire at its whim and this is exactly what the management demands. Management cannot accuse trade unions and workers for not giving their full cooperation in the production, for trade unions themselves talk about a new work culture.

Q. Is there lack of awareness amongst the labour class when it comes to workplace rights?

A. I do not think so because nowadays trade unions are quite active. For instance, Tamil Nadu recently organised an awareness campaign that explained labour problems; what are the present struggle, what are the demands.

Moreover, many agricultural workers unions are demanding central legislation for workers. Political parties too take up these issues. There are independent trade unions and people go to judiciary too when their rights are denied. Click here to read more...

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Business and Economy

The Sunday Indian

Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri

4ps Business and Marketing

The Human Factor

IIPM-The Indian Institute of Planning and Management

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Thatcherism and decline in Trade Unions power and strength

Margaret Thatcher, who became the first woman prime minister of Britain in 1979, continued the policy of reducing the power of the trade unions. Sympathy strikes and closing shops were banned. Union leaders had to ballot members on strike action and unions were responsible for the actions of its members. 

Her government pledged to check and reverse Britain’s economic decline. In the short-term, painful measures were required.

Although direct taxes were cut to restore incentives, the budget had to be balanced, and so indirect taxes were increased. The economy was already entering a recession, but inflation was rising and interest rates had to be raised to control it. By the end of Thatcher’s first term (1979-83), unemployment in Britain was more than three million and it began to fall only in 1986. A large section of Britain’s inefficient manufacturing industry closed down. No one had predicted how severe the downturn would be.

Thatcher’s second term (1983-1987) opened with almost as many difficulties as the first. The government took a firm stand against industrial disputes and the miners’ strike that began in 1984 and lasted for 12 months without success under militant leadership.

The miners’ strike was one of the most violent and long-lasting one in British history. The outcome was uncertain, but after many twists, the union was defeated. This proved a crucial development because it ensured that the Thatcher reforms would work. In the years that followed, the Labour opposition quietly accepted the popularity and success of the trade union legislation and pledged not to reverse its key components.Click here to read more...

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Business and Economy

The Sunday Indian

Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri

4ps Business and Marketing

The Human Factor

IIPM Publications-The education sector today needs a concerted push so that best teachers are recruited for the greater good of the nation

In another study on evaluating teaching performance, Professor Michael B. Paulsen of the University of Iowa, says that the careful consideration of the qualities of effective teaching is an important task. “No universally accepted definition of effective college teaching exists even though countless attempts have been made to identify the characteristics of effective teaching using a variety of theoretical perspectives and a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches.”

In OECD’s three-yearly PISA test of the abilities of 15-year old secondary-school students, Finland has established its reputation as one of the world’s leaders in the academic performance of its secondary school students. The OECD 2010 report focuses on salient characteristics of Finland’s education system that makes it different from other OECD countries. It talks about the incredible Finnish success in education by excluding the factors that are almost common in all the OECD countries.

The full-service schools that provide health and dental services, offer guidance and psychological counselling, and access to a broader array of mental health and other services for students and families in need, are becoming increasingly common in western countries, including Finland. Teachers there enjoy a relatively high degree of freedom. They are expected to assess students on an ongoing basis, using the assessment guidelines in the national core curriculum and textbook. Students, on the other hand, are expected to work collaboratively on projects.

India’s National Curriculum Framework (NCF) proposes five guiding principles for curriculum development. ‘Connecting knowledge to life outside the school, ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods, enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks, making examinations more flexible and ­integrating them with classroom life and nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country.’ These guidelines are largely in sync with the practices of the top performing countries.

According to the NCF 2005, the fact that knowledge is constructed by the child implies that curricula, syllabi and textbooks should enable the teacher in organising classroom experiences in consonance with the child’s nature and environment, and thus providing opportunities for all children. “Teaching should aim at enhancing children’s natural desire and strategies to learn. Knowledge needs to be distinguished from information, and teaching needs to be seen as a professional activity, not as coaching for memorisation or as transmission of facts.” Read full article

IIPM, MBA, BBA, Professor Arindam Chaudhuri, 4ps Business and Marketing, Business and Economy

Q. Enrolment in government-run schools has decreased in the last decade. There is a trend in both urban and rural areas to opt for private education. How can this gap be bridged?

A. Government pumping in more money to build schools and hire teachers as government employees is not really going to be a viable solution, as that is going to cost a lot, will take a long time and will have all kinds of implementation problems. A solution that is actually working in the United States and the United Kingdom is for the government to give vouchers to parents, which can be used by parents to send children to private schools. There can always be an equal distribution of vouchers, so that education is subsidised and children from poor families are not deprived of education.

The private schools would then compete to attract children and that would obviously go a long way towards improving the quality and efficiency of the schools. Of course it requires a big policy-level rethinking but it can be one effective solution, provided the distribution of these vouchers is made fairly effectual and efficient.

Q. Many of the government initiatives to improve internal efficiency and quality of secondary education have not really clicked. What are the probable reasons for it?

A. Improving the internal efficiency of existing government schools is an extremely challenging task everywhere in the world and it is so because reforms cannot be implemented unless teachers want to change. Teachers tend to have their own set ways of behaving and if they do not change, it would not make much of a difference.

Q. With over 350 universities and 17,000 colleges, India boasts of having the third largest number of graduates after the United States and China. But we still lag behind on the education front. Why so?

A. Firstly, I would not necessarily say that we are behind China because overall the quality of education there is not very impressive. The scenario is quite similar in both India and China. In the last ten years, the number of students graduating in both nations has multiplied several folds. Click here to read more..

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It’s beyond weeding out non-performers

Marc S. Tucker (President & CEO, National Center on Education and the Economy)

Q. How would you describe the education scenario in the United States? What changes have you witnessed in the recent times?
A. We have a decentralised system of education in the United States. The jurisdiction of the national department of education is limited. The ability to make substantial changes in the education system is restricted because authority for decision-making is widely dispersed.

The fiscal crisis that shook the world recently had a significant impact in the United States. with the crash of the housing market. About half of the funding for the schools in the United States is raised by taxing the values of local real estate.

The dominant view of school reform in the country today is framed by the idea that the poor performance of the United States compared to that of the best performing nations is a result of the grip of the bureaucracy and teacher unions on schools. However, there has been a concerted push in recent years to develop and adopt national standards for student performance in English and mathematics. This solution has taken the form of the new Common Core State Standards initiative by the organisation of the executives of the state education systems, working together with the organisation of the governors of the American states.

Last year, they issued a draft set of standards that were subsequently adopted by more than 40 of the 50 states. The federal government, which has no jurisdiction in these matters, has nevertheless offered a substantial amount of money to the states to help them develop tests to match the top standards. Almost 20-25 years ago, the United States had the highest proportion of people in the workforce with a high school diploma, and the highest proportion with a four-year college degree. We are number 12 on both league tables now.

As recently as the 1980s, most people believed that schools in the United States were amongst the best performing ones. But now we are low in the OECD rankings. At the same time, according to OECD, the United States spends more per capita on school education than any other industrialised country in the world except Luxembourg. Click here to read full interview......

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Defining roles and responsibilities

Next steps for addressing these issues include:

• Developing position descriptions for all staff members that clearly explain the requirements and expectations for those positions

• Implementing recruitment and selection processes in order to hire the best staff

• Implementing policies and processes to address staff performance and behaviour

(performance and conduct policies)

Rather than pointing fingers, an investigation should take place to establish the facts and then, appropriate corrective action should be taken. Gaurav and Goldy should consider conducting 360 evaluations for the entire leadership team, including themselves. This would be a way to evaluate the strengths and skills as they craft a new organisational structure. It would also be an excellent way to develop the management skills of the entire team. Another consideration is to engage an executive coach who can work with the three senior managers and Goldy, whose background is child psychology. The advantage of executive coaching for all would be to sharpen their skills, increase effectiveness, capitalise on each of their strengths, help make better decisions with challenging issues and resolve the existing tension. Read more...

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