Government Notifies CSR Rules - more resources for education

Much-awaited rules for the new 'corporate social responsibility' regime were notified today, under which companies with sizable businesses would need to spend minimum 2 per cent of net profit for benefit of society.
The CSR activities will have to be within India, and the new rules will also apply to foreign companies registered here. However, funds given to political parties and the money spent for the benefit of the company's own employees (and their families) will not count as CSR.

Listing out the permitted CSR activities, the government said that they need to be undertaken as per approval of the company's board in accordance with its CSR Policy and the decision of its CSR Committee. The CSR rules will take effect from April 1, as part of the new Companies Act. They will apply to the companies with at least Rs 5 crore net profit, or Rs 1,000 crore turnover or Rs 500 crore net worth. Such companies will need to spend 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit on CSR activities in each financial year, beginning the next fiscal, 2014-15.

For the purpose of deciding the CSR spending eligibility of a company, profit from overseas branches and dividend received from other companies in India will be excluded from the net profit criteria. Besides, contributions made "directly or indirectly" to any political party have been excluded from CSR ambit.

The CSR policy of a company should also specify that "surplus arising out of the CSR projects or programmes or activities shall not form part of the business profit of a company". A company can also carry out CSR works through a registered trust or society or a separate company. As per the rules, a company may also collaborate with other companies for CSR activities, provided they have to separately report about spending on such projects programmes.

"The CSR activities shall be undertaken by the company, as per its stated CSR policy, as projects or programmes or activities (either new or ongoing), excluding activities undertaken in pursuance of its normal course of business", as per the notification by the Corporate Affairs Ministry. In an official release, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot said the rules have been finalised after extensive consultations with all stakeholders.

"The rules provide for the manner in which CSR Committee shall formulate and monitor the CSR Policy, manner of undertaking CSR activities, role of the board of directors therein and format of disclosure of such activities in the board's report," Pilot said.

A wide range of activities including livelihood enhancement projects and steps for the benefit of armed forces veterans have been brought under the CSR ambit.

When it comes to having manpower for CSR works, the government has said that companies can spend only up to 5 per cent of total CSR expenditure for them in a single financial year. This would be applicable for own personnel as well as those of their implementing agencies.

To ensure transparency, companies carrying out CSR activities have to display works on their respective websites. Among other activities, livelihood enhancement and rural development projects, promoting preventive health care and sanitation as well as making safe drinking water available would be considered as CSR activities.

Working towards protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance and works of art, setting up public libraries, promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts would also come under CSR ambit. Various activities aimed at reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups have been included.

FILED ON: FEB 27, 2014 19:21 IST Outlook 

Schools can Change

Schools can change, this is only possible when we look beyond the hardware or the infrastructure. The quality of education does not depend on plain simple academic scores and has a lot to do with the culture of the institution. Lick, Clauset and Murphy have addressed the challenges in The Change Creation System, and show there is the need for the empowerment of professional educators who want to meet the learning needs of their students and inform their own practice. Their view is that we need to work with Collegiality, experimentation and reaching out to the knowledge base. Schools can change, only when we work with a clear mission and ensure due regard for:-

1. Collegiality
2. Experimentation
3. High expectations
4. Trust and confidence
5. Tangible support
6. Reaching out to the knowledge base
7. Appreciation
8. Caring, celebration and humour
9. Involvement in decision making
10. Protection of what is important
11. Traditions
12.  Honest, open communications

"This is such a good creed for all of us at the school and beyond to live by. I will support the entire school community to help achieve these goals. Thank you for creating this." 
~ William N Bissell (MD Fabindia and Co Founder The Fabindia Schools)

Best we understand the role of all the elements that help schools change:

1. Collegiality
Collegiality is the relationship between colleagues. Colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose and respecting each other's abilities to work toward that purpose. A colleague is an associate in a profession or in a civil or ecclesiastical office. Thus, the word collegiality can connote respect for another's commitment to the common purpose and ability to work toward it. In a narrower sense, members of the faculty of a university or college are each other's colleagues; very often the word is taken to mean that. (Wikipedia)

2. Experimentation
Learning itself is an experiment, and way beyond simple trial and error. Education must develop with experimentation, what we also call experiential learning. Experimentation - the testing of an idea; "it was an experiment in living"; "not all experimentation is done in laboratories". Experiment, inquiry, research, enquiry - a search for knowledge; "their pottery deserves more research than it has received". Experimentation - the act of conducting a controlled test or investigation is indeed to only way we can bring about a culture for learning.

3. High expectations
There must be the inherent spirit to go beyond, rise and shine and compete not only against others but compete with ones own expectations. The higher the bar, the more the possibility you will make the effort to vault over it. If you set you goals at an achievable level you will not go beyond mediocrity. An athlete in motion, a marathon runner and even a toddler all have to make an effort and live up to the high expectations, and this is a very important element to bring about a change in the culture.

4. Trust and confidence
"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." - Ernest Hemingway 
Schools can only change when they start trusting the students, teachers, parents and the full community. Confidence will only grow with trust, we must trust and be trusted. There is the need for the 'benefit of doubt' to help people with a free mind and a spirit to soar.

5. Tangible support
Counselling and training will not help alone, there is the need to provide tangible support. Tangible support is the easiest type of support to recognise, as it involves the provision of goods or services to a focal individual. Examples of tangible support include financial help, providing housing and other demonstrated welfare actions. In a health context, tangible support acts directly on something that is causing stress for the individual who is ill, while informational and emotional support can be offered for a larger range of health-related stressors (Wills, 1985). This means that tangible support acts directly on stress; because of this, it is generally only applicable in a buffering context. (Source K8Lin.Com) However, tangible support is not highly correlated with emotional or informational support, while the two are highly correlated with each other, suggesting that it is more easily separated from the other two common types of support (Schaefer et al., 1981).

Teachers and Technology

The One Activity I Recommend for Every Teacher

 - Richard Byrne
The only technology-related activity that I recommend to every teacher is blogging. A blog can be used for a lot of things in your classroom and outside of your classroom. I have three general categories for blogging activities; distribution of information, discussion of information, or demonstration of knowledge. 

Distribution: this is the most basic use of a blog. As the teacher you can use your blog to post assignments, reminders, and general information about what is happening in your classroom and school. Think of this as a digital replacement for a classroom newsletter. If you don't think that you can post updates daily, start out with a schedule of posting updates on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. That schedule will allow you to start the week with a look-ahead and end the week with a review. 

Discussion: this is when you post information that you want your students to respond to. You could post a "question of the week" or post an interesting article you've recently read. My favorite discussion activity asks students to write their own posts to reflect on what they've learned and ask questions that they have about the recent lessons. 

Demonstration: this is when you have students create their own blogs to use as digital portfolios to showcase what they've learned and what've created. 

To help teachers get started on the road to blogging I created a free 90 page guide to using Blogger in school. The guide is embedded below. You can also find it here (clicking the link with initiate a PDF download).

This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers .

Why good education means a good society |

Why good education means a good society |: "The world’s largest democracy is ailing. The economy has failed to respond to the government’s various stimulus plans, most politicians meant to serve this democracy are a little too busy serving themselves generously, and social issues plague India a well. This seemingly diverse pool of problems has one shockingly simple solution: education. A majority of the Indian polity is under the age of 25. In the next two decades, these citizens will walk into different spheres of life in different capacities, shaping the new India. I believe education can play the key catalyst in this positive transformation. Currently, our nation’s public schools are undervalued, overexploited and considered a means to an end. There are a limited number of career prospects after studies, and the exchange of knowledge is executed in an extremely utilitarian manner. Words and numbers are ingested the night before and vomited out on exam day. Even in St. Stephens and the other bigwig colleges, the situation is dire. Having spoken to some alumni from these institutions I can confidently say that we have a long way to go."

Read more

http://thecitizen.in/city/why-good-education-means-a-good-society/

Madhav Dutt is the resident cartoonist for The Young Citizen. Madhav has always been intrigued by journalism and reportage. He believes that the ability to convey your views on issues of global importance is unparalleled, be it through the written word or the illustrated figure. As the erstwhile editor of his school’s newspaper, Madhav enjoyed drawing and writing on a wide range of global events. As an editorial cartoonist, his goal is not just to trivialise, but to sensitise!