Doctors and Professors Galore

Dr.? Can I See Proof of That?

An interesting post from Saudi Arabia, where like anywhere else title of Dr gets an additional dose of prestige.

Is there a lesson for India where every alternate charlatan, palmist by the roadside, politician and quack calls himself a Doctor or a Professor?

Arab News

JEDDAH, 1 June 2008 — Titles are important in Saudi Arabia. It seems that in many cases to be taken seriously, one’s name must be precluded with “Dr.” or “Eng.” So it’s no surprise that some people in the Kingdom might be taking liberties with their academic backgrounds in order to get ahead professionally.

Al-Watan newspaper reported recently that the Ministry of Education has issued a circular warning ministry employees not to use professional titles unless they have been earned — and by “earned” the ministry doesn’t mean buying a diploma from some sketchy, unaccredited institution.

The circular was issued after the ministry found that four directors, six department heads and 50 educational supervisors were claiming the “Dr.” title unjustifiably. People who use titles they didn’t earn are an insult to those who actually worked hard for their diplomas.

Certainly those that spent years in college studying hard would like to see all government departments cracking down on the use of the title “Dr.” by frauds.

Until then, the next time somebody tells you he (or she) is a “Dr.”, perhaps you should ask to see a copy of his or her Ph.D.

NRI:Bangalore girl Neela is pride of NASA

Prashanth G N | TNN

 

Bangalore: Yet another Bangalorean at NASA has done the city proud. Neela Iyengar, alumna of Mount Carmel College (MCC), won a NASA award for her contribution to flight safety and success of two US missions to the International Space Station (ISS). 
 

       Iyengar was presented the Space Flight Awareness (SFA) Program award for resolving technical incompatibilities in flight missions STS-122 and STS-123 prior to flight to the ISS. An electrical engineer with Lockheed Martin at Johnson Space Center, Texas, Iyengar was instrumental in resolving technical problems with flight support equipment hardware used to launch, land and stow critical space station programs. 
  

       On STS-122, Iyengar “resolved an issue with interchangeability between the Columbus adapter and the flight releaseable electrical connectors” and on STS-123, she “identified a wiring incompatibility between an adapter plate assembly and a flight mechanism on the Columbus module”.

       Her work was crucial in securing the safety of astronauts as much depends on engineers to ensure perfection in operation of sub-systems on flights to the space station.

Neela dedicated worker: NASA

     Bangalore: Neela Iyengar, who has won a NASA award, works with the the agency’s Space Flight Awareness program, which is primarily oriented to enhance mutual dependence of astronauts and engineers. 
        

       NASA puts SFA and Iyengar’s role in perspective: “Everyone associated with the human space program is party to an unwritten contract with our astraunauts. The purpose of SFA is to formalise the unwritten contract. SFA exists for one reason — to guarantee that we shall never forget that flight crews depend on each of us to be the best we can be. Our astraunauts ask no more and we can give nothing less.”
         NASA said: “Neela is a dedicated and hardworking individual who is eager and willing to do whatever is required to ensure the success of each mission she has worked for.” 
  

      Neela Iyengar is the daughter of well-known econometrician late Prof N S Iyengar. 
  

      NASA’s vision on SFA underlines the importance of her work. “Space Flight Awareness embraces all of human space flight, no one is exempt. If you work on a human space program, whatever your job, your performance is important to crew safety and mission success.”

 

 

 

 

 

Karnataka: 3000 Schools closed down on language issue

LANGUAGE ISSUE

 

Derecognition has schools fuming

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

 

 

     Bangalore: School managements are raising a hue and cry, thanks to the education department’s move of derecognizing more than 3,000 schools across the state for academic year 2008-09.
   

     Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA) held a meeting on Saturday headed by association president G S Sharma. More than 100 members participated.
   

     On the education department announcing names of hundreds of primary schools, alleging that they violated the medium of instruction norms, the association observed that many of these schools have gone to the high court questioning the validity of this order and have obtained a stay. “The recognition of these schools was restored and the question of fines deferred,” Sharma said.
 

       It was also decided at the meeting to make a strong representation to the commissioner of public instruction, drawing his attention to the ‘pinpricks and harassment experienced by the managements of primary schools started after the enforcement of 1994 language policy, at the hands of the education department officials’. Moreover, they have also declined to consider proposals sent by school managements to start Classes 6 and 7, though higher primary classes have nothing to do with language policy.
  

      The meeting also unanimously decided to introduce bilingual medium for Classes 1 and 2 in 2008-09, teaching all subjects in Kannada/mother tongue. In addition to this, the schools will teach English as a language during regular school hours, to comply fully with the undertaking given to the high court.
  

      It was also decided to hold special classes for an hour on in environmental science and mathematics in English medium, outside regular school hours, to meet parents’ expectations. Added to this, English will be the medium for Classes 3 to 5.
   

     Members also pointed out that primary schools started after the 1994 language policy have sworn affidavits in the high court that they will switch over to Kannada/mother tongue medium in a phased manner for Classes 1 and 2. But parents prefer English medium for their wards from Class 1 itself.
  

 Further, he said that schools were asked to submit affidavits, which they promptly did. “The department has ignored the court order and they have not
visited the schools.

 

      They have simply gone ahead and derecognized schools and published their names in newspapers. This has damaged our reputation and created needless confusion among parents,” he said, adding, “It is resolved to file a defamation suit in the high court against education department officials for defaming names of the institutions.”
 

       Members pointed out that they had to bribe education department officials during their visit to the schools. “We had to support corruption, we bribed them. Otherwise they would not have allowed us to run the school for such a long time,” a member said. To this G S Sharma said: “Corruption is everywhere but we should not allow it. If we are following the rules, there is no need to bribe the officials.”
   toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com