Centre for Research in Schemes & Policies (CRISP)

CRISP’s project for transformation of higher education by professionalising general education and thereby improving employability has been given grant funding by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The project will substantially increase employability for 1+ lakh BA/BSc/BCom students in 1500 colleges in 10 States. The project works with Industry associations and Sector Skill Councils covering Logistics, Retail Management, BFSI, Healthcare, Pharma, Media & Entertainment, Gaming, Electronics etc. CRISP, working with SSCs, could create curriculum for 20 AEDP degree programmes which consist of skill education, general education, soft skills and one year apprenticeship as part of 3 year course.

NEET crisis calls for a systemic solution, as the problem is in the current exam system. In today’s Indian Express, we propose a 40:40:20 solution which can strengthen the schools, deescalate stakes n a single exam, and bring reliability and credibility. It is possible to reform the school based assessments to make them robust. Some of them can be: manditory use of a standardised question bank built by NCERT, using AI-proctored online testing and testing on concepts etc.

The May 2024 edition of MAASAM, the monthly newsletter is out now, highlights of which are summaries of two lectures delivered by Founding Members of CRISP SM Vijayanand and Sitaram Kunte in the Orientation programme of the CRISP Fellows, and an insightful analysis of the higher education in UP State by Divya Malakar. See it here: https://lnkd.in/gsANt9R9 The list of all the Newsletters is here: https://lnkd.in/gvtmAdpc  

Based on invitation of Syed Akbaruddin, a celebrated diplomat of India and now Dean Kautilya School of Public Policy, CRISP team has conducted a 3-credit core course named "Public Policy in practice in India" for the Master of Public Policy students of Kautilya School of Public Policy. The course was divided into 4 modules – (1) Rural Development (2) Education (3) Health and (4) Skill development, and involved 24 lectures (30 hours of teaching), by Members and team of CRISP, using original case studies prepared by CRISP Members. We were impressed with the leadership and the quality of students, and wish them well.

Recently Centre for Research in Schemes & Policies (CRISP) and Government of Maharashtra (GoM) (Higher and Technical Education Department) signed an MOU for promoting ‘Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programs’ in the state as a part of the implementation of National Education Policy. We are grateful to Vikas Rastogi, Principal Secretary and Hon Minister Chandrakant Patil ji for taking this initiative. We are also grateful to Subba Rao VLVSS for his expert advice. After signing the MOU I along with R SUBRAHMANYAM went to Sydenham College at Mumbai to address the Principals of Autonomous Colleges and appraised them about the MOU and the next steps for the success of this endeavour.

CRISP has analysed the Public Exams Prevention of Unfair Means Act 2024 and find that though of a clean intent, there are many steps to be taken for assuring a clean exam system, which includes reducing the importance of the examination itself. Can we have qualification exams than selection exams? Today, in Editorial page of Indian Express.

CRISP has today signed a MoU with Bodoland Territorial Region set up under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This makes it the 9th State in which CRISP is functioning. The association involves supporting Bodoland Territorial Council in improving governance systems, including Participatory Planning, bringing in Administrative Accountability, designing systems for monitoring of schemes at the office of the Chief Executive Member, Establishing systems for social accountability using social audits, Strengthening the grassroots governance by building the capacities of the Village Council Development Committees (VCDCs), Streamlining the governmental processes for more citizen-centric administration, Development of manuals for capacity building of Govt personnel, Designing Mission-mode projects with functional and financial autonomy within the Council for crucial schemes. Apart from this, CRISP will advise on specific issues referred to by the BTR Govt. and facilitate its implementation. We propose implementing these projects in close convergence with CEGIS which has already set up a fabulous team in Bodoland. 

CRISP, along with GoAP and Azim Premji univ, developed Lesson Plans using structured pedagogy of CSF, for all CBSE 10th class books. Released yesterday by Hon Education Minister Sri B Satyanarayana. Thanks to Sandhya Kanneganti and team who worked in close coordination with Govt, SCERT and Azim Premji Univ for this pathbreaking work. . The lesson plans were meticulously crafted for 10th class of CBSE . These plans are intricately designed, drawing upon structural pedagogy principles to effectively operationalize the visionary National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020. They seamlessly integrate the curricular objectives, competencies, and learning outcomes outlined in the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) of 2023.

CRISP has started the campaign for skill integrated higher education in Rajasthan. CRISP team led by RS Julania and Khemraj Choudhary have worked out modalities with State Govt which is reported widely. CRISP has worked with Sector Skill Councils (Industry Associations) to develop curriculum that provides one-year apprenticeship in a 3- yr degree programme, apart from providing global class skills. The sectors are: Logistics, Gaming, AI, ITeS, Retail management, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Electronics, Fashion designing, Media/communications and Tourism. Looking forward to a transformatory impact on the employability and quality of education.

Happy to announce that CRISP has today signed an MoU with Govt of Madhya Pradesh for promoting excellence in higher education and skills. MP is the 8th State in which CRISP works with State Govts in social sector. The CRISP team led by Sri RS Julania and R Subrahmanyam had detailed discussions with Sri KC Gupta, Spl CS Higher Education, Nishant Warwade, Commissioner and the senior official team. The team met Mr Inder Singh Parmar, Hon Minister Higher Education and committed CRISP support for excellence in Higher Education.