Freeships for students: Govt fails to pay even after HC order

Mumbai: Bombay High Court issued a show-cause notice to the Principal Secretary of Social Justice and School Education Departments of the state government, seeking explanation as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated for not complying with an order.

The High Court, in April last year, had directed the government to release the funds towards freeships for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe students.

The direction came on a public interest litigation filed by Naresh Gosavi, which said that government had not disbursed the grants to private schools under the free education scheme, and as a result, students covered by the scheme were not being allowed to attend the schools.

Advocate Gayatri Singh, petitioner's lawyer, today informed that though the court had ordered that funds be released within four weeks, government had not acted on it.

The state government was to release over Rs 200 crore. The division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice R V More today ordered that secretaries of the concerned departments should remain present at the next hearing in April, and file reply as to why they failed to comply with the order.

However, if the last year's order was complied with before the next hearing, the two secretaries need not remain present, judges said.

Many issues raised in State Education Ministers Conference

New Delhi: A Conference of State & UT Education Ministers’ was held here on Wednesday headed by Union minister for Human Resource Development, Communications and IT, Mr.Kapil Sibal.

Dr. D. Purandeswari, Minister of State for HRD, 23 Ministers of Education representing State Governments and Union Territories, Smt. Anshu Vaish, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Smt. Vibha Puri Das, Secretary, Higher Education, Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director, IIT-Kanpur and senior officials of the Central and State Governments were present.

A presentation on the reforms proposed in the entrance examinations for admission to engineering institutions was made by Dr Ramasami and Prof Dhande.

In a detailed press release, Ministry of Human Resource Development said:

States felt that there is a need to limit the multiplicity of entrance examinations thereby reducing stress on students and parents. It was clarified to States that the reform would not, in any way, affect reservations followed by States and the Centre. It was also clarified to North-Eastern States that the special pool made available by the Ministry of Human Resource Development would not be affected.

It was clarified to that the States could adopt their own weightages for State Board marks and the National examinations for admission to State-level institutions.

Accordingly, States could adopt 100% weightage for State Board results as in the State of Tamil Nadu which would not be disturbed by the proposed arrangement. It was informed that the academic component of the Main and Advanced examinations would be handled by IITs whereas the management and conduct of the examination would be done by CBSE in collaboration with State Boards.

It was informed that the IITs and other Central Educational Institutions were proposing to adopt a weightage of 40% for State Board marks.

Certain States raised the issue of conduct of examination in regional languages. It was clarified that the  examinations would be conducted in English and Hindi and where States intend to use the same examination for admission to State engineering institutions, the examination could be conducted in the regional language of the State too. Issues on validity of scores for two years, involvement of the private engineering institutions and revenue sharing with States were also raised.

After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common national examination with effect from 2013 with weightage to State Board results, normalized on the basis of percentiles formula, was endorsed “in principle” by States. The States of Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more time to study the proposal in detail.

The States may decide on adopting the same pattern for admission to State-level engineering institutions with appropriate weightages as States may think fit. It was decided that the details for the common examination process would be finalized in the next two months in consultation with States.

Presentations were made by the Ministry of HRD and AICTE on the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) and concept on Community Colleges. While welcoming the development of NVEQF, the State Education Ministers felt that NVEQF will be an important landmark in improving the skills and employability of the youth of this country.

The report of State Education Ministers headed by the Honble Education Minister of Bihar on NVEQF was unanimously accepted. After deliberations, NVEQF and the concept on community colleges was unanimously endorsed by States. The need to have a dialogue at the State level with School Boards, Boards of Technical Education and universities to provide a seamless pathway for vocational students was stressed.

It was decided to start 100 Community Colleges on a pilot basis in 2012-13 and then scale up gradually. The States were requested to identify local skill requirements linked to local needs which could form the basis of opening community colleges and forward proposals to the Central Government. It was decided to constitute a Committee of State Education Ministers headed by Smt Archana Chitnis, Honble Minister of School Education of Madhya Pradesh, to finalise the scheme of community colleges.

Presentations were made on the quality of Elementary Education as also on Grievance Redressal under the RTE Act. The State Education Ministers agreed that the issue of quality of Elementary Education is a matter of deep concern. While many States have developed state vision of quality and also initiated some curricular reform, but a lot of age-inappropriate material continues to form part of the textbooks and teaching learning material used in classrooms.

States were requested to initiate steps to formulate age-appropriate curricula and syllabi in keeping with the principles of section 29 of the RTE Act and NCF-2005. States were also requested to institute CCE from the childs perspective to show progress that the child has made with respect to his or her performance. State Governments were also requested to put in place the Grievance Redressal and appellate mechanism taking into account the guidelines prescribed under the RTE Act.

AP students face hardship over delay in post-matric grants

Hyderabad: An inordinate delay on part of the Andhra Pradesh government in releasing scholarships has forced thousands of post-matric students staying at Departmental Hostels to go without two square meals a day.

The state has not released Rs 2,000 crore towards the post-matric scholarships for intermediate, degree and post- graduate students living in student-managed hostels (now re-christened Departmental Hostels) under the social welfare department, sources said.

On an average, there are four Departmental Hostels in each of the 23 districts in the state with student strength ranging from 70-100 in each of them.

Besides incurring expenses on their food bill, the students are also required to cough money from their scholarship for paying salaries to cooks, watchmen and other staff of the hostels as the government pays only the building rent.

Though the government released about Rs 1,800 crore in the third quarter of this financial year, it was sufficient only to clear dues pertaining to the previous financial year, highly-placed government sources said.

With the current financial year coming to close and eight months already been passed in the ongoing academic year, the government is yet to release the scholarships, they said.

Along with 70 other students, Pragna (name changed on request) a second year degree student staying in a Departmental Hostel at Sangareddy, about 60 km from Hyderabad is making do with a single meal a day for the last couple of months.

"How can we buy rice, provisions and vegetables without money? We are pooling in what little money we are able to get from our parents and ensuring that we have at least one meal a day," she said, adding that not all students were lucky to draw money from their homes as they came from impoverished families.

There are three student-managed hostels in Medak, the home district of Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha and two of his ministerial colleagues, with a total strength of about 250.

Students in Krishna district are slightly better off as compared to their counterparts in Medak.

On learning about the hardship faced by the students due to non-payment of scholarships, Krishna district Collector S A M Rizvi directed the Social Welfare Department officials to take rice "as loan" from regular hostels (managed by the government) and supply it to student-managed hostels.

The Collector also arranged for supply of provisions and other essentials on credit from Vijayakrishna Super Bazaar, run by the Co-operative Department.

As and when the state government releases the scholarship arrears, the credit will be cleared, officials said. Meanwhile, officials in the Social Welfare Department here admitted that there has been a "problem" in releasing the scholarship amount.

"We have made all transactions online this year to ensure transparency. Online applications were received till December while the 'verification' process was completed only at the end of January. Hence the delay in payment," a top social welfare department official said, adding that the funds might be released in the next few days to clear all dues.

Assam wants to enter PPP mode in a big way

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said that his government would like to enter into partnership under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode in education, health, industry, agriculture and allied sectors in a big way.

Speaking on the occasion of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Gauhati University and Axis Bank here last night, the chief minister said the banking sector has tremendous scope for growth  in the region and has a major role to play in the economic development of the entire region.

He urged banks to reach out to more people by providing access to loan and other facilities. The MoU was signed between Gauhati University and Axis Bank on co-certification course in banking for MBA students in the presence of Gogoi at his official residence.

The Chief Minister underscored the need for introduction of new courses in educational institutions that are much in demand and steps should be taken to rope in reputed universities for introduction of new courses. 

"Right type of education and training is of paramount importance and the universities of the state must take the lead," Gogoi said.

Pics of classroom on facebook college does not like it

Harda (MP): A local college here suspended four girl students for allegedly uploading pictures of a classroom, clicked through mobile phones, on their facebook accounts.

As if to rub it in, the college authorities announced the suspension and imposition of a fine (Rs 200 each) on the facebook `walls' of the girls.

Anybody in the friend-list of a person on the facebook can post messages on his/her `wall', which may be read by all others in the list.

"There is a ban on using mobile phones in the college, despite that these four girls have taken pictures of the classroom and uploaded them on the site," said Rajiv Khare, Director, Lal Bahadur Professional Studies College.

Khare said some other students commented in a bad taste on the uploaded pictures, and they too were facing action.

The director added that college was thinking of organising a workshop for students on how to handle the social networking sites.

UK visa applications to be made online

Applicants and their dependants who are applying for a UK visa will need to make their applications online from March 5. The UK Border Agency will no longer accept manually completed application forms from that date onwards.

The URL for applying for visas online is - https://apply.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/iapply.portal

Applicants will then need to print off a hard copy of their application form and make an online appointment to attend their nearest visa application centre (VAC). They should bring the application form printout to their appointment at the VAC, along with the necessary supporting documentation. Applicants will need to give their biometrics (finger scans and digital photograph) at the VAC in line with current practice.   

Thomas Greig, Regional Director, UK Border Agency (UKBA) said, “We have been introducing the use of online applications gradually so that customers are able to get used to the process. Customers already need to make online applications for visas under the points based system. We are now extending the requirement to all categories of UK visa applications.”
 
Applicants can refer to http://www.vfs-uk-in.com/additionalservice.html for further guidance.

Prepare for GATE online

Times News Network
GATEFORUM announced the launch of eGATE for the benefit of students preparing for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).

GATE is an all India examination conducted by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, on behalf of the National Coordination Board — GATE and the department of higher education, ministry of human resource development (MHRD), government of India. It is the second largest qualifying exam in the technical side after AIEEE. It is also the qualifying examination for admission to ME/ MTech/ MS courses in various institutes in India like the IISc, IITs, NITs, government engineering colleges and a number of private engineering colleges.

GATE has a vast but highly fragmented market in the country. Unlike the CAT, where the bulk of the aspirants come from the metros and tier-I cities, GATE aspirants come from a wide variety of small and big towns.

The eGATE will have live classes via the internet, with two-way interaction between the faculty and students. The faculty will conduct the lectures from GATEFORUM studios in Hyderabad and an aspirant can access them via the internet or at a GATEFORUM centre and view them on a large screen. It will benefit students in far flung areas and also those in the larger towns who find urban commuting stressful and inconvenient.

Abhijit Chaudhari, Director GATEFORUM said, “We feel that with the introduction of eGATE, which is essentially live classes through the internet, it would be easier for the aspirants to avail the technical training from their respective cities.”
(www.gateforum.com)

CET for Central engineering institutions from 2013

Students aspiring to join the central engineering institutions will have to write a common national examination from next year. Weightage will also be given to State Education Board results in this examination.

The State governments and private institutions can, however, decide whether or not to join the common entrance test regime.

In simple terms, the government has decided to merge the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) and the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), and hold a common test in which the best scoring students can choose an institution of their choice. It will cover admissions to 15 IITs, 30 National Institutes of Technology and four Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

While Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh have already decided to join this system, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and West Bengal sought more time to study the proposal in detail. All universities and institutions offering engineering courses will now use the all-India merit list for admissions.

“After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common national examination, with effect from 2013, with weightage to the State Board results, normalised on the basis of percentile formula, was endorsed “in principle” by the States,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told journalists on Wednesday at the end of a meeting of the State Education Ministers.

The proposal will now have to be taken to the Central Advisory Board of Education for final endorsement.

The final merit list will be prepared, with a 40 per cent weightage for the State Board examination results and 60 per cent for the entrance test marks.

The test would have two parts: main and advanced, to test the general aptitude and specific knowledge in the subject. The formula for equivalence across boards, derived by the Indian Statistical Institute, has taken into account the results of the last five years. 

Four Indian B-schools in Asia Pacific top 10 list

New Delhi: Indian business schools have strengthened their standing among international employers as four Indian institutions have made it to the list of top-10 B-schools in the Asia Pacific region, says a survey.

According to the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report, Indian business schools have improved in international employer opinion considerably this year, moving up in both the Asia-Pacific rating, and almost all of the specialisation.

Among the top 36 business schools in the Asia Pacific region, Australia boasts of 11 premier schools, but India is among the biggest improvers as the country has six schools on the list, including four in the top-10.

The four Indian B-schools that have made it to the top 10 among Asia Pacific region are the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (2nd), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (5th), Indian School of Business (7th) and the Indian Institute of Management Kolkata (8th).

Other two business schools that got featured in the list include S P Jain Institute of Management and Research at 16th rank and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade which made the cut this year for the first time at 21st place.

The report noted that business schools in India continue to climb up the ratings.

"In an economy that is rapidly growing in global importance, the rise in employer opinion of MBA graduates is extremely promising in ensuring the development of future business leaders to sustain the fast-paced economic growth," the report said.

Overall, INSEAD - Singapore is the preferred choice among employers, retaining its position in the top spot of the Asia-Pacific rating for three years running.

The schools that have shown the biggest improvements in employer opinion this year are two Indian schools, both jumped four places up the ratings: Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Year-on-year, business schools in the Asia-Pacific region have strengthened their role in the global MBA education scene as well.

The number of Asian and Australian schools featured in the QS Global 200 Business Schools Report has increased from 10 in 2004 to 36 this year.

"Economic growth in some Asian countries, particularly in China and India has heightened the demand for more accredited business schools in the region in order to train the next generation of successful business leaders," the report said.

The major players in the region's education sector are Australia, Singapore and India, the report said adding that the rapid rise in the number of schools highlights the fact that across Asia, and especially so in India and China, employers are embracing MBAs.

Other premier B-Schools in the Asia Pacific region include Melbourne Business School, The University of Melbourne at the 3rd place, followed by NUS Business School, National University of Singapore (4th), University of South Wales (6th), China Europe International Business School (9th), the HKUST Business School at (10th).

11 media officers sent to UK for social media training

New Delhi: Realising the importance of social media, the Union Information and Broadcasting ministry has sent a batch of eleven officers to the United Kingdom for training on using this communication tool as part of government's media policy, Official sources said that apart from Indian Information Service(IIS) officers,  some officials of the I and B ministry have gone to the Thomson Foundation in England for a two-week media training course.

The government was considering ways on how to use the social media for some time, esepcially against the backdrop of strong protests triggered by Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement.

Senior I and B ministry officials said the trip to the UK was  part of regular training for which Plan funds were sanctioned and that the present course in England has not been shaped by the events that occurred during the Hazare episode.

"The course at the Thomson Foundation is part of the government's overall policy to impart skills to its officials and has the sanction of the Expenditure Finance Commission (EFC) from the year 2007," said a senior official.

"The I and B ministry has been regularly sending officers to undergo media training courses much earlier and since 2007 at least seven batches of officers have undergone this training," the official said.

Officials said that nearly 60 officers had undergone training at Thomson Foundation and two batches had been sent to undergo the training last year.

"While a preference is given to Indian Information Service officials, ministry of I and B officials are also sent," the official said.

Officials said that besides Thomson University, the Australian National University, Canberra also imparted similar courses for which government officials have undergone training.

NMDC begins survey at school premises for treasure trove

Hyderabad: The experts of PSU major National Mineral Development Corporation(NMDC) today began a preliminary survey in the premises of a school here where some people recently reported about possible existence of a tunnel leading to a 'treasure trove'.

The area is being mapped and preliminary work may go on for two or three days, an official of NMDC said.

The State Archaeology Department sought the help of NMDC after excavations conducted by it failed to yield any result.

The excavations were conducted in the premises of the school located close to the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat and in the foothills of famous Birla temple in central part of Hyderabad.

The digging was taken up after some persons reported that they had seen something which could be a storage facility or tunnel, possibly leading to a 'treasure trove'.

State Archaeology Department Director P Chenna Reddy said that the department sought the help of NMDC to find out if there is anything that has archaeological value.

Meanwhile, the school authorities objected to the excavation being carried out in the school premises which disturbed the academic activity.

Military education need of the hour

Nashik: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has stressed the need for imparting military education to students, citing "rising" threat to internal security.

"Even 64 years after Independence, India is being threatened by China and Pakistan....with rising concern over internal security, we should give top priority to military education to students to make India strong," Bhagwat said.

He was addressing the platinum jubilee function of Bhonsala Military School here last evening. "Current education system is business-oriented.. foreigners have adopted our education system and our police-makers are imitating theirs..This should  be rectified," Bhagwat said.

Bhonsala Military School was founded in 1937 by the staunch Hindu leader Dr B S Moonje, who also played a role in mentoring Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) founder K B Hedgewar.

"Bhonsala Military School was founded by Moonje with a view to protect the nation and has been acting as a feeder institute to fulfil backlog of military officials," the RSS chief said.

Senior RSS functionary Prakash Pathak informed that BMS was going to start a similar facility exclusively for girls in Nashik.

BMS, run by the Central Hindu Military Education Society (CHMES), is also mulling to set up a flying club and a pilot training institute, besides a centre for service preparation and aeronautic engineering education.

"We are receiving proposals from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand for setting up military schools there and will soon take a call on them," Pathak said.

QES exposes crucial facts on Indian Education System

Chennai: In an effort to deliberate on the recent findings of the detailed study carried out by Wipro, Wipro-EI Quality Education Study 2011 with the teachers and principals, a special event was held at Chennai, on Feb 18.

Nearly, 80 teachers and principals from schools across the city of Chennai participated in the one-day event.

Panelists of the event were S S Nathan, Bala Vidya Mandir and   Vish, CEO, Karadi Tales. Guest speakers included Vyjayanthi Sankar, Vice President, Educational Initiatives, Sreekanth Sreedharan, Manager, Wipro Applying Thought in Schools

In the in-depth study covering 89 of Indias “best” schools, mostly in the 5 metros, 23,000 students and 800 teachers conducted recently by Wipro and Educational Initiatives covering elite schools in India extended to scholastic performance, student attitudes and values and various aspects of the school learning environment like leadership, teachers role, classroom practices, co-scholastic areas like art, music, sports etc.

Key findings were that best schools in India focused more on rote learning rather than understanding the concepts making them perform below global students. It revealed, a downward trend in schools and education segment since 2006. Students also revealed biased opinions that would grow into prejudices on issues such as gender equality, acceptance of cultural and religious diversity, civic, citizenship and ecological responsibilities.

Also, the study divulged, students performed better in schools where the Principals were found to have a higher instructional leadership (going beyond administrative tasks into academic aspects also). 

Furthermore, it also disclosed that out of the surveyed 30-40% of Principals and Teachers believed that strict discipline is necessary for proper teaching, while the same study also unveiled that negative disciplining correlated with student performance.

Most of the principals think that co-scholastic areas are relevant for building students self-confidence, self-control, sportsmanship, solidarity, teamwork, competitiveness and health. Data reflects that there is no major emphasis in the school curriculum on these areas. Among co-scholastic areas, sports, art and craft are given higher emphasis than music, dance drama and debates.

Some important questions cropped up through QES on school education and societal issues are:

• What do we want our children to learn and how? Do we want them to memorize facts and reproduce them in exams or learn by understanding?
• Some people say that there is an “India” and “Bharat” in the making. If the students in these schools belong to “India”  How do they view the other India and what do we make of it?
• Do we discipline students or provide friendlier classrooms?
• What are the big changes within elite schools in the last couple of decades?
• Schools shape the thinking and life of our future citizens to a significant extent. What is the vision of a good society coming out of our constitution and how do we view these trends in the light of that?
• Why do we have elite and non-elite institutions even for children? Is this “right” to begin with? Our schools have challenged the 25% clause that Right to Education is mandating...
• What do these things mean for an India that is finding its place in a globalized world order?

QES also has provided six recommendations for better and quality education such as large scale awareness campaign among schools on notions of quality; wide ranging debate on alternative models that question widely held beliefs on learning environments (structure, decision making, processes etc) and emphasizes learning in co-scholastic areas; student interviews on different social and ecological issues, periodic benchmarking on all aspects of educational quality; providing effective teacher support and studies to further unpack the notions of quality.  

HC refuses to scrap PG medical entrance exam

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has refused to scrap the common entrance test for post-graduate medical courses in wake of allegations of copying at some centres.

Justice Hima Kohli dismissed the pleas, made by some candidates, to quash the All-India Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examination (AIPGMEE), held on January 8 at 156 centres across the country, saying that they were "premature" and based on "surmises" and "conjectures".

"Merely an apprehension expressed by the petitioners that they would suffer irreparable loss and injury in the event of a scam, which is under investigation by the Crime Branch, Delhi Police, cannot be considered as sufficient ground for quashing the AIPGMEE-2012 held on January 8, 2012 for 69,069 candidates all over the country, said Justice Kohli.

"When the magnitude of the aforesaid incident is still unknown and the investigations are on, the present petition can only be termed as one based on surmises and conjectures... the petition is dismissed along with the pending application, as being premature and without any basis," she added.

The petitions filed by five candidates had mentioned reports of copying from various centres including Noida saying that it was a part of a widespread scam.

Pvt engineering college Principal, staff locked for 6 hrs

Howrah (WB): Students of a private engineering institute yesterday night locked the lady Principal and seven other members of teaching faculty at Chatterjeehat in Howrah district for about six hours protesting against lack of facilities.

The students, comprising girls and boys, laid a siege outside the chamber of Principal Lahari Ghosh and seven of her colleagues demanding Dalalpukur Enginnering Institute immediately provide better drinking water facilities and other basic amenities to the students.

Institute sources said the blockade was lifted when the authorities promised to sit with the students very soon to solve all the outstanding issues.

Ghosh said she was ailing and told the students of her physical condition and the blockade was lifted a little before 9 pm, less than six hours after the demonstration began.

Police said its team went to the spot but waited outside the premises and did not interfere as the two sides sorted the issue.

India's first symposium on Fluorine Chemistry begins

New Delhi: The country's first International Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry commenced here on Monday with over 50 scientists from across the world deliberating on applications of fluorine in various fields like pharma.

Speaking on the inaugural session Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director General Samir K Brahmachari highlighted the use of fluorine in the pharmaceutical industry.

"Today, out of seven top medicines, at least four are made of fluorines and the number is bound to increase in future," he said.

He also emphasised upon the need to develop more sophisticated mechanisms to remove fluoride from the drinking water, especially from open wells in the rural India.

Brahmachari assured that CSIR will provide the required funds to Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) if they take up relevant research on fluorine that impacts the quality of human lives.

Leading tyre cord maker SRF has jointly organised the programme with IICT. In the recent years, fluorine has become the area of great significance due to its distinct role in highly diverse technological fields like in refrigeration, nuclear extraction of metals, electronic products, batteries and pharmaceuticals.

Dearth of PhDs: Mumbai university to focus more on research

MUMBAI: In order to boost research activities in the varsity and affiliated colleges, Mumbai University is trying out several measures. The commerce facility, in particular, has been clearing pending research proposals and conducting workshops to encourage teachers to take up guideship in their respective fields of specialization.

The research and recognition committee (RRC) for commerce has been clearing proposals. "There were pending proposals for more than a year on research topics. Now, we have been clearing at least 10-15 proposals in every meeting," said Madhu Nair, dean of commerce, MU.

The university is also working on the supply and demand aspect. "There is a dearth of PhD guides in the university. Commerce has around 44 guides, exclusive of management guides. We are now holding workshops to explain to teachers the procedure to get their papers published. We are also training them in writing papers. A PhD holder is given guideship on basis of the number of papers they have published in their names," said Nair.

He added that the commerce department is attempting to increase the number of guides to 100 soon.

CBSE students in Nashik prefer board exams over internal tests

NASHIK: The purpose of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)'s plan to make board exams optional in class X seems to be defeated in Nashik.

While in the last year, a big chunk of students from class X opted out of board exams, this year the numbers are reduced to single digits in most city schools. Worried about closing down their options instate  institutions, most students have opted for board exams.

Some of the schools have even asked students to appear for the board exams only. The plan was introduced in the academic session in 2010-11 to reduce unnecessary stress caused due to the boards. Last year, Kendriya Vidyalaya 1 in Deolali had only 17 students opting for the board exams. The rest of them preferred the school based assessment, where schools conducted an internal test.

"After the results were out, our students had to run around to get multiple approvals. Students who were interested in taking up admissions to state's junior colleges managed to get seats which were left after the mainstream admissions were over. Even after the admissions were given, they did not have the board certificate which was mandatory for their admissions in junior colleges," said Shiny George, the principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya 1 in Deolali. 

She added that students interested in polytechnic courses offered by the state were disappointed after they learnt that the school assessment results will not get them admissions.

"Polytechnic courses ensure a lateral entry in to engineering courses in the second year. Many students aspire to get into engineering courses via this channel," added George.

In another Kendriya Vidyalaya in Nashik city, only 25% students had opted for the board exams last year. This year, however, the school asked all its students to appear for the board exams.

The vice-principal said that most students, who are interested in the state level entrance exams, prefer moving to the state board colleges post class X. "However, with a centralised test for medical and engineering admissions, there should not be any problem in future," added the principal.

Vice principal M Sawhney, from Army Public School in Deolali, said that last year they had maximum number of students appearing for the school based-exam, however, those the numbers have drastically come down this year. "This year more than 60% of students are appearing for the board exams as they wish to move out of CBS board," said Sawhney.

Tamil Nadu setting high standards

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is aiming at securing 100% pass rate in government schools across the state, on par with private unaided schools in the state. To achieve this target department officials should not take leave till the exams are over, school education minister N R Sivapathy said. 

Giving district education officers in the state a pep talk during a review meeting in the run up to the exams, minister Sivapathy said, "A private matriculation school starts in a small way, and soon grows so big that it draws the best students from the area. When the government spends so much on education why can't we do better or as well as matriculation schools," he asked. He asked the DEOs to find out how many  schools secured centum pass results in the board exams last year, and set personal targets to see that they exceeded that number this year. 

He said that it was the responsibility of the DEOs to ensure the smooth conduct of the exams and to see that nobody indulges in malpractices during the exams inside the exam hall or outside. Conduct meetings with the school heads regularly to check whether teachers have completed the syllabus and are revising the portions, and visit schools often, minister Sivapathy told the officials. Incentives and awards await best performing officials, the minister said. 

Speaking about the arrangements made for the conduct of the board exams in Tamil Nadu, minister Sivapathy asked the officials to ensure that no school makes children take the board exam seated on the ground or elsewhere on campus. Schools where a large number of children are set to take the exam must have enough furniture to seat all the children. He asked the DEOs to ensure that they have enough scribes in hand to assist children with disabilities to take the exam. 

He said that during the Budget session the Tamil Nadu government had announced that 710 middle schools in Tamil Nadu would be upgraded to high schools and 100 high schools to higher secondary schools. He asked the DEOs to check how many have been upgraded and to allot candidates to fill teaching and non-teaching post vacancies in the schools. 

"Some school heads are just looking to see when the school day will end so they can go home. Some teachers also run businesses on the side. DEOs must visit the school often and ensure that such things don't happen," Sivapathy said. He asked them to ensure that DEOs run a background check on the character of part time teachers on consolidated pay drawn from the Parent Teacher Association."Because they work part time and don't know which school they would be put in next they do not take care to behave  properly with the students. Give preference to married people and not bachelors while allotting work," the minister said. 

Haryana private schools to observe strike on Feb 24

HISAR: Around 10,000 private schools of Haryana will remain closed on February 24 in protest against the state government's directive to impart free education to 25% below poverty line (BPL) students.

"The government's order is impractical, illogical and unjustifiable. Why should the other 75% bear the burden of 25%?" Haryana Private Schools Association president Jitendar Singh Lathar said on Monday.

He said that to bear the expenses, the schools would have to increase their fees which would be too exorbitant to be afforded by the parents.

Lathar said the government should find some solution to resolve the issue and pay the fee of 25% from the state exchequer.

"Instead of providing assistance to the private schools, the government is burdening them to the extent that many of them shall have to face closure," he said. PTI

Elite school students urge to promote Punjabi

JALANDHAR: Hundreds of students of elite schools, where they face virtual ban on speaking in their mother tongue, Punjabi, raised slogans and carried placards to promote Punjabi here on the occasion ofInternational Mother Language Day on Tuesday.

Still the bigger development which seemed like reversing history was that around half-a-dozen colleges and schools controlled by Arya Samaj - which was in the forefront of campaign against Punjabi as their mother tongue during census of 1951, also participated in this procession, organized by the Punjab Jagriti Manch, telling people to feel proud about their mother tongue, Punjabi.

The prominent English medium schools, which participated in the procession included Swami Sant Dass Public School, Cambridge International School, ApeeJay School which don't allow their students to converse in Punjabi in their schools.

"At schools we are told to speak in English or Hindi and we are discouraged from speaking in Punjabi," said a student of Cambridge school.

Arya Samaj institutions, students of which were raising loud slogans for Punjabi and were carrying placards asking people to speak in Punjabi ,included HMV College, KMV College, Doaba College, DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, BD Arya College, Mehar Chand Polytechnic.

During the census of 1951 Arya Samaj had spearheaded campaign asking Hindus of Punjab to register their mother tongue as Hindi disowning Punjabi.

The political atmosphere and factors at that time were different and different communities had their own insecurities and this divide on language issue created communal rift.

Noted Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans, who addressed a function at the end of the procession at Desh Bhagat Yaadgaar Hall, urged the teachers and managements of these schools not to admonish the students from speaking in Punjabi.

His appeal received a thunderous applaud from thousands of students present there. Punjab Jagriti Manch general secretary Satnam Singh Manak, while reading out resolutions at the end of the function said there should be no restrictions on speaking in Punjabi in schools or colleges.

Another popular Punjabi singer Manmohan Waris apart from presenting his song on Punjabi language also emphasized that language should remain above communal considerations. "What we are seeing today is heartening as all sections of the society have participated," he said.

The state which witnessed communal divide on language issue some 61 years ago found Trinity College, Swami Ramdev's Patanjali Yog Peeth, and Muslim colony residents also participated apart from several members of Valimiki community.

TN uneasy over scrapping JEE

Education ministers and officials from various States will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday to decide whether to adopt the common aptitude-cum-advanced knowledge test proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development for admission to engineering institutions in their respective States.

The test proposes to replace the IIT Joint Entrance Examination and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination and other entrance tests of engineering institutions affiliated to the Central Government, in 2013.

Currently, various state boards and institutions, including the IITs, conduct at least 150 entrance exams every year. As per the proposal, 40 percent weightage during the admission process will be based on the student's ‘percentile rank' in Class XII examination and 60 percent on the score in the test that will most likely have questions on aptitude, logical and critical reasoning, English, and science subjects.

“Directors of all 42 school boards have agreed to comply by this test, which would require them to release results in the computerised format by June every year. This would not only reduce the dependence of students on coaching classes but also encourage them to focus more on Class XI and Class XII syllabus in schools,” says former Anna University vice-chancellor M. Anandakrishnan, now the chairman of IIT-Kanpur and part of the IIT governing council.

He says a tested and verified formula designed by Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata will be applied to school board results to normalise the evaluation which will convert his percentage of marks into a percentile.

But Tamil Nadu, say sources, is unlikely to agree to the test, for it was just six years ago that it scrapped the entrance exam to professional courses to enable more students from rural background join engineering education. But the move has not only created apprehensions among students who have already started their JEE preparations a year ago, but also among coaching institutes who think they will have to revamp their course structures now.

K. Ravi, a city-based JEE trainer, says: “The normalisation will only take care of the ranks, but on which board syllabus will the questions be based? If they are too easy, it will be a cakewalk for CBSE students,  and if they are very tough, again, the CBSE students would benefit.”

This seeming paradox is not all, says Jayaprakash Gandhi, an education consultant: “We had nearly 3,000 students from the State Board getting full marks in maths last year, and 160 scoring full marks in science subjects. The board exams need to be revamped to test the subject knowledge of the student and not just his memory skills."

“While students with good marks in board exams will still have to do well in the test to get into IIT and a branch of their choice, the ones with relatively less marks in school can still make it to the IITs by focusing on the test,” says R. Prabhu, professor, Anna University. The test, he says, will help improve results of first year engineering students: as of now, only 40 percent of them clear all papers.

But the emphasis on aptitude questions, as proposed in the test, may restrict the need to delve further into the subject, say some teachers. Gita Prabhu of AIMS Education feels that not every one who undergoes JEE coaching actually does so rigorously.

“Many go for foundation courses to get the approach to problem-solving right. Teachers in many State Board schools cannot manage without ‘worked out' solutions, and the students have no choice but to depend on coaching classes,” she said. 

Madras University to curb plagiarism in research papers

Chennai: In an effort to curb plagiarism in research papers, the Madras University plans to purchase a specialized software that would detect copied thesis papers. 

While speaking at an International Conference on Innovations in Contemporary IT research organized by Quaid-e-Millath College for Women recently, G Thiruvasagam, Vice-chancellor of Madras University, said that the varsity has been receiving several complaints on plagiarized research papers. Soon, the university would purchase a specialized software, Turnitin to track copied research papers after the approval of senate on Feb 21. 

Briefing about the functioning of the software, Thiruvasagam said that research papers submitted by scholars will be stored in a database. When a new research paper or thesis is submitted, the software scans the database for content that may have been copied from an earlier scholar's paper. Plagiarism has affected the quality of research papers, he said.

PM conferred on doctorate degree by IARI

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was conferred on the doctorate degree by the country's premier agriculture research body Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in recognition of his contributions to the development of the farm sector.
     
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar presented the 'Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa)' to the Prime Minister at 50th Convocation of IARI here. 
     
Being the country's premier national institute for agricultural research, education and extension, it is said that the "Green Revolution" was born in the fields of IARI. 
     
The citation recognises the Prime Minister's illustrious academic career and his contributions to development of the farm sector in the country.
     
"In his political and professional career, Manmohan Singh has always worked for the welfare of Indian farming community," the citation said.
     
Policy interventions to increase the farmers's access to institutional credit, promotion of agricultural investment and technology, strategic partnership in research and development with the developed countries, trade reforms and special packages for agriculture have all directly benefitted Indian farmers and promoted inclusive growth, it added.
     
"His seminal contributions to the country's economy have enabled India to emerge as a global leader," it said.
     
Singh, who has been recipient of many awards and honours, was elected fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1999.