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Making Sense of Education in High Himalayas... and the World

Making Sense of Education in High Himalayas... and the World

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Making Sense of Education in High Himalayas... and the World
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<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> Seminar Notice <strong>Dr. Sonam Wangchuk</strong> (Founder, SECMOL (Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) a talk on <strong>Making Sense of Education in High Himalayas... and the World</strong> Date : <strong>March 13, 2015</strong> <strong>Bio-Data:</strong> Sonam Wangchuk was born in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh in India. Though a Mechanical Engineer by education, he has been mostly working in the field of education reform for the last 25 years. In 1988, he founded SECMOL (Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) www.secmol.org, which aimed to reform the government school system in Ladakh. In 1994 he was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope, a triangular collaboration of the government, village communities and the civil society to reform the government schools. The programme involved formation of Village Education Committees, training of teachers and publishing of localised text books for Ladakh. Sonam has been on the National Governing Council of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All) in India and has also supported the Hill Council Government in Ladakh as an advisor for education. As an engineer Sonam has been designing and building solar heated/powered school buildings in cold places and naturally cooled schools in hot places. In recent years he has been sharing his experience in other Himalayan countries like Nepal and Bhutan as an advisor. Of late he has been engaged in helping farmer's Himalayan mountain regions adapt to climate change by designing and executing Ice Stupa form of artificial glaciers. Sonam was granted several awards and titles, such as: Game Changers' award by Human Resource Club of India, UNESCOo Chair for Earthen Architecture, 'Real Heroes' Award by CNN IBN Channel, 'Green Teacher' Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine, Ashoka Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, 'Man of the Year' by The Week magazine in India and the Governors Medal by the J&amp;K State Government

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.