Thread:A co-operative to create a Board for alternative education (1)

Note: This is an initial template with just the mission/vision statements shared, work on this is still to begin. If you like it then feel free to join in.

Mission statement:

 * 1) The British education system established in India prepared clerks and slaves to serve the British Raj. Post-independence, the staff recruited by the British administration needed to be de-recognised. The continuity of the British system has left the country divided with corrupt individuals. It is the need of the hour to allow individuals with integrity, honesty, compassion and intellect to prosper and pull the country out of the abyss, hence the need for an alternative education system and a Board for Certification that supports and empowers such gifted individuals to educate themselves with our help, and then with their merit help the good and the righteous.
 * 2) The Board must also be dissolved when it has served its social responsibilities. The social responsibilities are in line to the Mission Statements enshrined in the Free Software Foundation(FSF), Free and Open Source System(FOSS) and Wikipedia. Also, if the Board becomes corrupt, or is usurped by vested interests, the Board must be dissolved and a new Board created. Power must remain in the hands of majority through online referendum on important issues.
 * 3) The representatives, who make themselves available to be chosen by the people to look after the Board's administration should make themselves available for public scrutiny of their personal life, sources of finances, values and intents, if necessary, to the representative of the public, preferably, a board comprising of renowned psychiatrists, judges, scientists (having cited papers in prestigious peer-reviewed journals) and social leaders, aided with the latest technologies like polygraphy, speech analysis and Brain mapping.
 * 4) A learner-centric, need-based, micro-credits system with credits transfer system is proposed, so that an individual could study as many sub-subjects that individual would want to, and reject those that the individual does not like, and still pass. The economics of demand and supply would gradually introduce those courses that could address the immediate market needs.
 * 5) Establishing a Board for planning, changing and updating syllabi and planning examination and evaluation can the alternative education system be improved. And mind you, no run-off the mill examination, but a micro-credits system, an on-demand, choice-based syllabus, self-motivated, socially responsible teachers and a credits transfer system with application based, open-book system, different from other exams, discouraging rote-learning and making it extremely difficult for the rote-learners to pass.

Vision Statement:

 * 1) We first create a Wiki page (if there is something better and free to use, we use that), and ask people, who are new, to register themselves with valid proofs, like their photos, ID.cards, mobile numbers, physical addresses, etc., so that we could verify their identities, if required. We could invite our personal acquaintances ourselves. We shall move collaboratively from the beginning.
 * 2) Then we begin to post our ideas on to the pages, section by section.
 * 3) Some will participate as moderators of the pages (please refer to the Debian Forum Bulletin Board for an idea about how the forum is moderated), some, that of the syllabi, some who will help with finances and accounting ideas, some will provide services for legally creating the cooperative, some will name the board, and so on...
 * 4) As we go on adding, the skeleton will give rise to muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and so on. And within no time the board will be ready.
 * 5) It is our board, so we will give the inputs - it will help if people refer the GNU and FOSS pages to see the concept.
 * 6) Not many rules, just limited, dynamic and imaginative rules that serves to augment rather than limit, so that our rules can be modified real time to meet real time needs.
 * 7) NO AGE BAR!
 * 8) Then, we form a co-operative physically and legally, because there are constitutional benefits of forming a co-operative.
 * 9) Then we ask competent and concerned people to design dynamic courses and syllabi that would contain only the quintessential portions of a field, have as many fields as possible, very limited bookish learning, and mostly hands on learning, tie up with manufacturing units so that one could see and feel things.
 * 10) We cover courses that aren't there in CBSC, ICSE, NIOS, and other boards.
 * 11) There aren't schools that run only the NIOS syllabi, NIOS books and syllabi are deficient - too much tedious learning it involves.
 * 12) We would not print textbooks. We would use the best reference- and text- books from the market, and use only portions of them, as much as the students require, say five chapters, following them word for word, line for line, solve problems in groups, post unsolved questions in the net and find answers, and discuss exhaustively about further reading and prospects.
 * 13) If we are learning religion, we criticise without holding ourselves back, no idle philosophies, no procrastinations, just results. If someone wants to meet God, bring in a saint who says he knows God and can help you find Him. Ask him to prove himself. If the saint only talks hocus-pocus, send him off the hard way.
 * 14) Let the students and parents decide how much and which chapters to learn, Micro-credits system, that is. Jump off to something else, finish part of that, come back, do some more of the earlier leftovers, hop to something else, ... just imitate life! Teach girls maths the girls way, like the girls like to learn it, if someone wants to have a feel of medicine in class 10 let him or her have it, No dissection, but a little of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, clinical;... it is way better than rote-learning malvaceae, solanaceae, and other seemingly mindless nomenclature for those who are not interested... an example only, to let people have a hang of the idea.
 * 15) We must remember that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, not too much power vested to anyone, at least, not without exhaustive scrutiny using methods stated in the mission statement.
 * 16) If someone raises an objection to something, let him suggest alternatives, do not shut him out. The Board must always be collaborative.
 * 17) If the board representatives act in such a way that the system gets away from our ideals we quickly can create another and disengage from this one.
 * 18) Only when exams simulate real life situations will our kids lose their fears for examination.
 * 19) One major component for qualifying exams would be to contribute and/or major-edit articles, sections and books to the Wikipedia to make them more user-friendly.
 * 20) No quota system - financial help to be decided on merit and socioeconomic status only. Anyone talking about quota will have to prove his intention by proving that the one has individually borne, for at least ten years, the financial burden of one or more representatives from underpriviledged socio-economic background. One must not pass the burden off on to the collective.
 * 21) The concepts of democracy that the world follows has evolved from Socrates, Plato's Republic and the Social Contract of Locke, Descartes, Rousseau, and other western philosophers. The word 'secularism' actually means seperation of the church (i.e., institutions of religious activities) from the state (i.e., administration). Hence, no religious activities like prayers to be promoted. Anyone willing to indulge in such activities would have to gather seperately in a room and offer silent prayers.
 * 22) Political correctness must always be discouraged.

Interested Individuals
Please add your name and contact to this list if you're interested in this.
 * Nikhil Sheth, Pune, Maharashtra. nikhil.js (at)gmail.com, http://www.facebook.com/nikjs
 * Rajib Kumar Bandopadhyay, Kolkata, bkpsusmitaa(at)gmail.com

Interested Organisations
Please add your organisation's name and contact to this list if you're interested in this.