Can Hindi Speaking TGTs teach non Hindi Media students?

Interviews are being conducted for the post of TGT Hindi, English, Maths, Social Science and Science. A cursory look at the list of shortlisted candidates is enough to tell us that the number of shortlisted from non Hindi speaking areas seems to be far less. Samiti has previous instances of posting South India TGTs in Hindi Areas and vice verse.  But those cases were rare and exceptional.For Hindi and English its reasonable. Maths, Science and Social Science are tought in Local Languages up to class VII. That is the USP of Navodaya System as it accommodates the rural children form local media to gradually adopt to English medium. Else the  drop outs would sky rocket!!

As the qualification prescribed was Central Teacher Eligibility Test, one can easily assume, candidates from Hindi Speaking areas will only be applying. Candidates who have qualified in State Level Teacher Eligibility Test should have also been allowed to apply so that they could have been shortlisted to the interview in a proper ratio to the extent of availability of vacancies in a specific state/medium.

Sponsering Syndrome in Navodayas - Highlighted by the Indian Express

Everyone of us is aware how every other day an email is sent from either Regional Offices or Head Quarters eulogizing the virtues of an educational institute or a software program. The Principals, who are always ready to please their bosses, kiss those programs without giving an ounce of thought about the utility aspect. . Public Money is wasted. More than that it is an ethical issue.Indian Express highlighted only one instance. There are plenty of such sponsorship instances in Navodayas.

Are the Old Times Back?

Recently Samiti has been issuing circular after circular asking the staff to work 24/7. No problem, We all choose to serve in Navodaya. We need to keep residential nature in mind and work accordingly. What is irritating is the tone of those circulars. There seems to be a deliberate attempt to bring back the 'officergiri'
When we look at the way our Principals work, anybody with a little understanding or experience  of school administration in other organizations, can understand how poorly our Principals are groomed for this job. Their personalities withered  as they worked as PGTs under the same officergiri era. Now they fail to administer the schools sensibly because they were groomed to take orders but not to give orders. Work was ordered and it was not delegated. If officergiri era is brought back, there would be no hope left for Samiti in terms of availability of leadership material among the PGT Cadre. 

Light at the end of the Tunnel - NPS Implementation is being Streamlined in Samiti

Please click here to read my blog dated 28th January 2011 where it is explained how delay in implementation of NPS in Samiti is resulting in notional losses to the tune of nine to twenty five lakhs of rupees in the retirement corpus of new employees. You can read here how the contributions of new employees until now are not eligible for tax treatment from a legal perspective. Almost an year after I pointed out the huge notional loss (which means the notional losses are even more higher than previously estimated), Samiti seems to be getting its act together. Already employees of HQ and ROs were issued PRANs (PERMANENT RETIREMENT ACCOUNT NUMBER). Now the efforts are on to roll in the staff from Vidyalaya Units. Its going to be a daunting task in view of the lack of basic understanding of NPS among the employees. Samiti needs to take an initiative to educate the employees about the nuts and bolts of the scheme. This blog has also posted a back of the envelope calculation on NPS corpus that can be accumulated. Please click here to read it ,

In the wake of recent judgment of High Court, it makes sense for post 2001 employees who are  two three decades away from retirement to enroll into NPS. Samiti should think of seeking the option once again from those employees who are appointed prior to 2008. Those who are appointed between 2004 and 2008 should enroll themselves into NPS without any hesitation. Its the best option for them.

Simpathies have no place in a Society governed by the Rule of Law- Navodaya Pension Case is Dismissed by Jharkhand High Court

The hopes had been proved false. The judgement has revealed the shallowness of our arguments. High Court dismissed the case for want of merit. The salient points from the judgement are:

•  Navodaya Vidalaya Samiti was constituted and registered under Society Registration Act, 1860 in
  the month of February, 1986.The demands of the employees for introduction of pension were considered by the government from time to time but could not be agreed to since as per the decision taken by the Government of India on the recommendations of Fourth Pay Commission, all the C.P.F beneficiaries in service as on 1st January, 1986 had been given an option to switch over to Pension / G.P.F/ Scheme. (Stand of the Ministry and Samiti- Is this pro employee stand as claimed by our union leaders?)
• Even the petitioner admits that the benefits of pensionery scheme were not available to the employees of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti till the notification of the said scheme in the year 2008 giving option to the existing employees to join the new pension scheme, 2004 or to continue with the existing C.P.F. Scheme.
• It appears that based upon the said recommendations( read recommendations of various committees) itself the Government of India finally decided to come out with a notification in the year 2008 whereby the employees of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti were allowed to join the New Pension Scheme,
  2004 or to continue with the existing C.P.F. Scheme.
• It is a settled principle of law that cut of date of notification of pensionary scheme is within domain of the employer and is not subject to interference ordinarily unless it is arbitrary and unreasonable and some gross case of violation of Article 14 is made out.
• The differential treatment of two sets of officers appointed prior to the notified date would not offend Article 14 of the Constitution. The cut-off date may be justified on the ground that additional outlay as involved or the fact that under the terms of appointment, the employee was not entitled to the benefit of pension or retirement. (quoted from Supreme Court Judgment)
• The underlying principle is that when the State decides to revise and liberalise an existing
  pension scheme with a view to augmenting the social security cover granted to pensioners, it cannot ordinarilygrant the benefit to a section of the pensioners and deny the same to others by drwing an artificial cut-off line which cannot be justified on rational grounds and is wholly unconnected with the object intended to be achieved. But when an employer introduces an entirely new scheme which has no connection with the existing scheme, different considerations enter the decision making process. One such consideration may be the financial implications of the scheme and the extent of capacity of the employer to bear the burden. Keeping in view its capacity to absorb the financial burden that the scheme would throw, the employer would have to decide upon the extent of applicability of the scheme.
• The new pension scheme has come into force w.e.f. 1.1.2004 upon a conscious decision of the employers i.e Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti on approval of the Government of India in the year 2008. The petitioner has not been able to show any grounds for treating the said cut of date as arbitrary,unreasonable and irrational or in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The mere fact that other institutions had been governed by different pensionary schemes since earlier point of time will not entitle the petitioner to claim that the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti is legally obliged to follow the same as it is an autonomous body, admittedly framed under the Societies Registration Act. As such even the employees in service prior to 1.1.2004 have been granted benefits to switch over to the new scheme as per the provisions of the scheme. Sympathies have no place in a society governed by
  the Rule of law as been eminently observed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court

What we need to do? We need to discuss the merits and demerits of our points without emotions blinding our judgement and we should concentrate on the means to prove the shallowness of Samiti's arguments. Before an appeal is filed, hope wisdom would dawn upon us and we will go for a united legal battle!

Stardization in Menus and Scale of Ration in Navodayas is a Welcome Step

It was an area which was left to the Principal's discretion so far. Samiti used to fix an amount as  yearly expenditure per student for provision of food and  left every thing else to the Principals. In the absence of standards, the provision of food largely depended on the whims and fancies of the Principal and the staff of the Vidyalayas. You can read about the stance taken by this blog regarding such whimsical way of provision of food in a previous post published on word press: "Do We Care About the Students' Physical Growth?". 

Now things seem to be moving in right direction. There has been regular enhancement of food expenditure and  such enhancement seems to be inflation linked and rational.  Samiti came out with a scale of ration and suggested menu. It's going to bring about a reasonable change in the way our children are going to eat and  in turn in their growth and development. Kudos!!

NPS contribuitons in Samiit- Not Eligible for Tax Deductions?

Samiti has notified NPS for new employees and accordingly made deductions from March 2010 from their salaries and has been depositing in an NPS Fund Account in the absence of a dedicated fund manager and record keeping agency.  This causes a huge financial loss to the new employees (to know more please read my previous post "Delay in implementation of NPS costs each employee Nine to Twenty Five Lakh rupees") 
Besides the financial loss, there is a tax angle which is blatantly ignored in Samiti. As per section 80CCD of Income Tax Act the contributions of both the employees and employers are exempted (with a cap of 10 per cent in case of employer) if such amounts are paid  "in his account under a pension scheme notified or as may be notified by the Central Government".  As the NPS is notified under relevant finance bills, the contributions are allowed as deductions under section 80CCD. What about the NPS Fund Account of the Samiti? Which financial bill notified it for exemption? Isn't allowing the contributions as deductions a clear violation of the law of the land? The onus of TDS lies with the Principals and in the absence of individual income tax return filing, responsibility of the Principals has become more crucial.

Whatever may be the outcome, the losers are employees. The policy to implement NPS in Samiti  is a classic case study  of improperly thought out and hastily effected policy of governance.

Revised RFQ makes PPP less dangerous!!

Please refer to the post where this Blog described the development of 3 Navodayas under PPP mode as an initial step for wholesale privatization and strongly objected to the clause "Hierarchy of Use of the Facilities" as it is nothing but an attempt for Real Estate Business in the disguise of PPP. Thankfully that clause is removed through an addendum. This blogger feels vindicated.

PPP or Real Estate Business?!

The proposal for Privatization (PPP is an euphemism for Privatization) of three upcoming Navodayas (Dahod and Narmada districts in Gujarat; and Nandurbar district of Maharastra)  is another example of how NVS has become am easy pray for improperly planned experiments. The Project Information Memorandum speaks of eventual privatization:

Presently in this project it is limited to "Limited Education Services". So start with three and end with all the Vidyalayas, we can't rule out that prospect!! So be ready to work under private managements in the future whose sole criteria is money making!

Another important aspect is the proposed " Hierarchy of Use of the Facilities" which allows the private players "right to utilize the facilities created during off hours of the school for commercial purposes;
it is also mentioned that it would be ensured, that the created facilities are available for minimum number hours of commercial use to ensure that the private sector is able to market the facilities" Isn't it real estate business?!


Another interesting and confusing aspect: "The second right would be of the community residing in the campus followed by any third party use such as commercial renting of the space. The community would be expected to pay the same price as may be received from the third party use". Is the Govt expecting us to turn entrepreneur in our rest hours? What else does the community residing in the campus would refer to? Is that word used in view of the eventuality of wholesale privatization?


Putting aside the project details for a while let us deal with more challenging questions to this whole idea of Public Private Partnership. Why the Big Bosses love PPP more than the pure Govt?! Is there any empirical evidence to prove that PPP would be more efficient than the present system? Why stake holders such as Parents and Teacher Unions are never consulted about such proposals? Why such 'limited services' are not experimented with the existing schools as there would be comparable data to measure the effectiveness of such services?


We live in the largest democracy in the world where stakeholders are never consulted, forget about their say in decision making!! So NVS is no exception!!

HOW WE USE TECHNOLOGY- SAVING PAPER OR WASTING PAPER!!

Navodayas have abundant examples, if we care to look for, of how technology has resulted in more wastage. Due to lack of understanding of modern processes and procedures, Navodayas establish such practices which result in wastage. A classic case is how e-mail is utilized in our system. Before we adapted to  e-mails, we used to receive cyclostiled communications on recycled paper. In a way it was greener. Now a days many regional offices, with an exception of one or two, send e-mails which the schools would promptly download and print. The story should end there in ideal conditions. But we are different and our administrators are even more different!! Vidyalayas would receive the same communications in snail mail too in a week or two. We can't be certain that the same happens to the communications ROs receive from Vidyalayas. But odds are in favour of that probability.

If a Principal claims that they have no internet  access nothing more would be dishonest than that, as we are aware that almost all of India is covered by at least 2G connectivity if not 3G. GPRS and EDGE are enough for e-mail communications. Even printing of e-mails can be avoided by taking a soft backup of such e-mails either day wise or topic wise. If you are worried about the safety of the documents, take the back up in more than one place!! Of course our mail boxes already leave no scope for such kind of data loss and back up is no longer inevitable.Back up may be justified from the point of view of immediate access and organization of data for easy access.

Why Can't We Have Wi-Fi Hotspots In Our Campuses?

In half of the schools,communications within the school can be electronic as they are well located. As our campuses are not huge, we can create our own vidyalaya WI-Fi networks. Sounding far fetched then read this. How much of brand image we can cultivate if we can boast of a couple of hundred Wi-Fi hotspots!

Hope somebody is there listening!

Sakshat should be provided to Navodaya Students

Lack of Access to latest news and trends is one of the gray areas of Navodaya Education System. Our Students are handicapped due to this isolation. Remoteness of locations and lack of time or infrastructure for TV and INTERNET access contribute a situation where students can not update themselves with the latest of the world. When the prototype of 35 dollar tablet was unveiled, this blog hoped that our Samiti would take the initiative to make Navodayas as one of the first organizations to lay their hands on Sakshat. Now it is clear that Sakshat would be shipped to IIT Rajasthan by june end. Many were spectical about the capabilities of Shakshat! Here is a demo which clearly shows that Shakshat is suitable for the needs of our students and can bring a revolution in the way they learn. The suitability of the device for large scale release can be checked better if it is provided to Navodaya Students. Our officers should have  taken the initiative with Ministry of HRD.

JNVST 2011 on 10th July 2011

This time it is official. JNVST 2011 will be held on 10th July 2011.

AINVSA website goes Live !!

Until now we needed to depend on the mercy of Principals to know about our union activities as the mails  are sent to school mailboxes. With the launch of  AINVSA website (Click here to go to the site), we all can have a direct source of information. I would like to request all the friends not to miss the details of the court case filed by Shri Mishra on behalf of AINVSA  in the new site.

JNVST on 26th June 2011?

There is no official word on that date. Everybody and his uncle is saying that JNVST will be held on 26th June 2011. It would be prudent to conduct it on 3rd July. Unless an amendment is made to RTE or a notification is issued, Samiti can't go ahead with JNVST.! It seems that the bets are on Monsoon Session of the Parliament!!!

Random Selection instead of JNVST 2011?

Umpteen news reports are found across the nation, both in vernacular and national dailies, about the postponement of JNVST and the anxiety of parents. Everybody is worried as many of these parents have invested lot of their energies for getting their children to prepare for JNVST and they are not ready to loose an academic year for the sake of admission in JNVs.  Lack of  reason for the postponement of JNVST  in the public notice issued by Samiti has lent the situation into a kind of mystery. Nothing seems to be moving in the direction of either notification or an amendment for RTE.
Samiti is left with only one option-going ahead with random selection. Recently Welfare School Organizations in Andhra Pradesh have decided to go ahead with the lottery system of selection. District Collectors are assigned the task of supervising such selection. CBSE, the agency which conducts JNVST, has asked the Vidyalayas to clarify anomalies in the list of candidates forwarded by the JNVs. Once the anomalies are corrected, NVS may go for lottery System. If any such decision is taken, NVS faces a gigantic task of managing its public image. Lottery System, which is legal, may not go down well with the parents. Parents,majority of whom are from rural areas, will not understand the nuances of RTE. They may think that the decision is a way of opening back door entry to non-eligible candidates and circumventing merit selection. It would dent the image of Navodayas which was hard earned by NVS with its credible and impartial selection history.

Online Payment of Salaries from NVS Head Quarters!

Many of us are yet to get salaries of March. Salary payment on time depends on the work culture of our office staff in our Vidyalayas. Some Vidyalayas even get salaries in the second week of the month as a routine. But the shopkeepers and milkwalas will not wait for second week! Samiti has evolved a strategy to overcome this administrative handicap. Union Bank of India and Samiti have joined hands to pay salaries of all the employees of NVS at one go through UBI Portal. Training program for vidyalaya staff is chalked out and intimated to ROs. If everything goes as planned, our past financial predicaments would become past from April 2011.