A sign of getting older is that I am now unable to pipette out 25 mL each into 15 standard flasks at a time,  for the lab exam.... Something I did every year for batches of students, twice a year. I now use a burette or a pipette pump making the process a lot slower and tedious.
With a lot of effort, we organise a pre-final practical examination for our students -- exactly like the final practical examination in order to familiarise our students with the exam pattern and point out their mistakes. The students however, do not study for it and simply cheat, copy each other's titre values and ask each other how to calculate the result. Why do they not understand the purpose of a pre final exam? what purpose does the copying achieve?
I had organised a short course in bioinformatics, taught by one of our guest faculty. We asked for a feedback. I got the papers back today and the students have copied the response from one another. Why?
If I ask them to write an answer to "which flavour ice cream do you like?", they may need to look at their neighbour's paper and copy the answer....

Learning outcome

Every year, Pratham conducts a survey of the learning outcomes of children in schools in rural India.
Surprisngly, this year there has been a decline in the learning outcomes as compared to the years preceding 2010, where the learning outcomes had been showing a small, but regular improvement.
The test is to see if a V class child can read a II class textbook and subtract 2 digit numbers.
Only 47% children have achieved this level of reading ability.
However, the enrollment in schools is quite high-- about 96%.
Pratham feels this drop in learning outcomes is due to the continuous evaluation system introduced with the RTE.
I think it is the lack of training for teachers that is to blame. Exam or no exam, if a teacher is trained in pedagogy, most children can be taught to read. However, the empirical evidence points to Pratham's conclusion. Since the RTE was introduced, the learning outcome has dropped from around 53% to about 47%.

Our policies in education are all geared towards quantity not quality.
In primary education, it does make sense to say 'at least get them to school, we will talk about quality later', but this argument is very dangerous when it is applied to higher education.
The policy of most states is to produce more and more  graduates and post-graduates.
The large number of uninterested students enrolling for an MSc or MA,  protest if they are not passed. (they even assaulted a prof for not being admitted to a PhD program.)
To enable them to pass, the syllabi and examinations are 'dumbed down' considerably.
This may make short term political sense, but should they not stop to think what these hordes of unemployable people with big degree will do later on?   

car headlights

As I get older, it is becoming more and more difficult to drive at night. The bright, high-beam headlights of the oncoming cars are totally blinding and force me to practically stop till the car passes me.
Is there no way to design cars that do not blind the drivers of cars in the opposite lane?
Cars are getting fancier headlamps that are more blinding than the ones before. These high intensity headlamps are deadly, since the blinding effect continues after the car has passed by.
No one seems to be bothered by this. Am I the only one affected by this? Or are others used to driving blind?
It looks like people in other countries are at least aware this problem.
http://www.racq.com.au/motoring/cars/car_advice/car_fact_sheets/headlights
and
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=215906&dfpPParams=industry_auto,aid_215906&dfpLayout=article

How ironic that the police has come out in force to fight back the protestors at India gate but din't do anything to the criminals. 

private universities

I was looking at the list of private universities in India. Out of 113, only 45 have been inspected by the UGC, according to Wikipedia. It does not say what the inspection resulted in. Of these less than half are general universities. others are for special subjects....one is for Homeopathy and another for Yoga. One university is for energy and oil..
Surely you don't have universities for one subject!!   It's one thing to get an illness treated as per homeopathy or to practise yoga, but a university???
I think a university should have various disciplines..sciences, social sciences, mathematics, management, arts, fine arts.......all taught together in one campus, or in linked campuses. In fact, if possible, law, engineering and medicine should also be taught in the university along with the above.
It is also the drawback of the IIT system  that they do not have enough diversity. The really good students are deprived of the enrichment this exposure to diversity can bring. The mediocre students may or may not benefit from the diversity, but one odd from them may realise he is great at  say- music appreciation. 

the energy of the young

I recently learnt about the dropbox feature and am trying to use it to access  my files - background notes for lectures, interesting articles-I-meant-to-read- but-never-did  etc from my college computer. But I am slow at getting technology, so it is taking time to figure out the most efficient way to do this.
This is the beginning of my winding up process since I retire in three months.
Retirement after almost 20 years is scary. For all my annoyance at my students, I will deeply miss being surrounded by young people. Their physical exuberance rubs off on one and one does not feel ones age. I sometimes get annoyed or exasperated at, and sometimes enjoy the silly things students do. But mostly I will miss their  energy- it pervades the place.  

Eucalyptus in Hyderabad

The Nilgiris have large tracts of eucalyptus plantations. Around Coonoor, Ketti, and Ooty, we see a lot of these trees. Below these trees, there is a carpet of fallen leavesand not a single plant grows beneath these trees. The local people collect the fallen leaves. Amidst the trees, one suddenly sees a hut of sorts . Its roof is covered with dried eucalyptus leaves. Inside the hut there is a steam distillation unit. The unit consists of a drum, with compartments  atop a hearth. A pipe runs out and the distillate is collected in a pot. The unit is managed by a man.  He runs the unit and collects the oil from the leaves.The exhausted leaves are spread on top of the hut and when dry, used as fuel for the steam distillation unit.
All this is very well, but the trees are tall and not quite rooted deep enough for their heights. Hence, we often come across fallen trees after a storm. One evening, just about 200 metres short of our house, a tree had fallen, and we had to turn back, and take a detour through the forests. Three villages and 10 km later,  we reached home.
Eucalyptus trees  use up ground water. They deplete the already precarious water balance in the Nilgiris.
In fact eucalyptus is good for dehydrating swamps. The army housing areas usually  have eucalyptus trees planted around the colony septic tanks.
Plantations in the Nilgiris were done in the 19th century by the British who probably did not realise its impact, or even if they did, would not have cared much. But  the Hyderabad urban forestry division in its wisdom decides to "green" wastelands by planting rows and rows of eucalyptus.
Any primer in biology would tell you that monoculture does not make a good forest. Forest health depends on its biodiversity, yet the forest department insists on planting rows and rows of the same species ......... including the eucalyptus. The semi arid region of Hyderabad is already in drought condition, on top of that to deplete ground water by planting eucalyptus is terrible. Does not the forest department have anyone who understands forests?