Mumbai to rope in Pvt players to improve school functioning

Mumbai: In a bid to impart quality education in the civic-body run schools, BMC has decided to appoint private players from the field of education to manage the school functioning.
 
"We will be appointing private players having expertise in the field of education. To improve and maintain the standard of education, teachers from these schools will also be given special training by private experts," Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale said here.
 
He said the civic-body will retain its old teaching staff. "Only the management would be handed over to the private players who would take charge of the laboratories, library and computer labs to impart better training to the students," Shewale said.
 
He clarified they would only be appointing private organisations for improving the functioning of schools and would not completely hand  over the educational institutions to them.
 
"BMC will be having control over the schools, as it has now," Shewale said. 

HC refuses to give relief to Engineering student for cancelling seat

Mumbai: The Bombay High court has refused to grant relief to a student who had sought refund of fees amounting to Rs 92,000, along with interest, from K C College of Engineering in nearby Thane district, for cancellation of his seat in Computer Engineering degree course in 2010.
 
Amit Vaidya had cancelled his seat in the college as he secured admission elsewhere in his preferred college. As he was denied refund of fees, he moved the High Court.
  
"In this case, as a result of withdrawal by petitioner from the admission allotted, the seat would remain vacant for a period of four years. Hence, no case for interference is made out and the petition is hereby  dismissed," Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice R D Dhanuka observed recently.
  
The judges noted that the rules which have been framed by Directorate of Technical Education provide for a refund of tuition fees in certain eventualities. 
   
"Insofar as is material, the rules stipulate that no refund of fees except for security of deposit can be granted where a request for cancellation of admission is received before or after the start of academic session and the seat cannot be filled by the institute," the judges said.
 
In the present case, the college filed an affidavit stating that the seat which is allotted to the petitioner could not be filled upon after he vacated the seat. 
  
"The petitioner, as the facts will show, withdrew from the seat at 3.40 PM on the cut off date which was September 15, 2010. Since the seat has remained vacant, a refund of fees is not envisaged under the rules," the judges ruled. 
 
The college stated that during a hearing before All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), when the grievance of the petitioner was taken up, it had offered on humanitarian grounds a refund of 25 per cent fees which the student refused to accept.
 
"Be that as it may, having regard to clear provisions which have been made in the rules, no case for the  grant of a refund has been made out. The rules seek to balance on one hand the refund of tuition fees to students who obtain more preferential allotments with the rights of managements," the judges observed.
 
The student had sought admission in the college for a degree course in Computer Engineering. The course commenced on August 25, 2010. The third round of centralised admission process took place on September 2, 2010, during the course of which the petitioner was allotted a seat in the College. He paid Rs 92,000 as fees.
   
On September 13, 2010, the college intimated 9 vacancies during the centralised admissions process. Two days later, in the course of the fourth round, an allotment towards the 9 vacancies came to be made to the college.
 
On September 15, 2010, however, at 3.40 PM, the petitioner cancelled his admission with the college since he was allotted the choice of a preferred college other than the respondent. Having taken admission elsewhere, the petitioner sought a refund of fees paid to the respondent college.
 
The judges, however, held that under the stipulated rules the student was not entitled to any refund as the seat had remained vacant. 

Chavan defers decision on income limit for fee waiver

Mumbai: Under pressure from Congress, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan deferred his Cabinet's decision on changing the income limit for higher education fee waivers.
     
The Maharashtra unit of Congress had demanded scrapping of the Cabinet's decision to fix upper income limit of Rs 2 lakh per annum for scholarships and fee concessions to backward class students.
     
A delegation headed by state unit president Manikrao Thakre met Chavan last night and the issue was discussed in the pre-Cabinet meeting of the Congress ministers this morning, sources said.
     
Congress ministers wanted that the Government Resolution (GR) of 2006, which did not have income limit for SC and ST students and a limit of Rs 4.5 lakh for nomadic tribe students, Special Backward Classes and OBCs, be retained.
     
Ministers Nitin Raut and Narayan Rane told the Chief Minister that considering the possible political implications, the Cabinet's decision should be reviewed, sources added.
     
After Chavan said that the decision on the issue would be deferred, there was no further discussion, sources said.
     
As per the 2006 GR, SC and ST students with an annual family income above Rs two lakh were given 100 per cent exam fee reimbursement while students with lesser family income could avail scholarships as per the central government scheme.
     
Last week, the Cabinet decided to discontinue with the 100 per cent fee waiver. The upper income limit for tuition and exam fee reimbursement for nomadic tribes, Special Backward Class and OBCs was reduced from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Higher and Technical Education Department (a portfolio held by NCP) had put up this proposal. 
 
Meanwhile, activists of RPI (Athavale) group shouted slogans against the government outside the sixth floor chamber of the Chief Minister at Mantralaya here, protesting the scrapping of 'freeships' in education for backward class students and the delay in handing over Indu Mill land for a memorial of B R Ambedkar.
     
In another development, a proposal of the Urban Development Department to grant financial powers to Mayors and appoint them as ex-officio chairman of the standing committee was put on the back-burner in today's Cabinet meeting, with Narayan Rane (Congress) and Jayant Patil (NCP) questioning the need for the step.
     
Both Ministers said detailed and comprehensive study was required for making such a drastic amendment.

Jet woos students seeking admission abroad with freebies

Mumbai: In a move to woo students aspiring for admissions in Western educational institutes, private carrier Jet Airways announced a special baggage scheme, which allows an additional baggage of 23 kgs besides numerous other benefits.
 
Students flying out of India to select destinations across UK and Europe on the airline network and its code share partners can avail this scheme, a Jet Airways release said.
 
The offer includes an attractive EduJetter kit bundled with benefits such as excess baggage allowances between 30-69 kgs, depending on the destination they fly to, it added.
 
Besides, the scheme also offers 1,000 bonus Jet Privilege miles and up to Rs 2,500 worth of international talk time and data plans free from Matrix Communications as also a discount of 20 percent percent on Samsonite travel gear, it said.
 
With this offer, students may enjoy special foreign exchange rates with ICICI travel card an offer from ICICI Lombard's Overseas Student Travel Insurance priced at a third of the cost of similar insurance plans overseas, the company said.
 
"This initiative is a way of encouraging every young student from India travelling abroad, with assured benefits, tailored to suit their specific needs," Jet Airways, Chief Commercial Officer, Sudheer Ragahvan said.
 
The offer can be availed on presentation of student visa and Jet Airways ticket, the release said. 

Too late to give grace marks under sports quota: HC

Mumbai: Refusing to grant relief to over 800 students seeking 25 grace marks in their SSC exams under sports quota, the Bombay High Court today said it was too late to accept their plea and it would affect other students also.
 
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice N M Jamdar was hearing a petition filed by Maharashtra Karate Association challenging the decision taken by the state government to not give 25 grace marks to the 853 SSC students who participated in the State Karate Championship tournament last November.
 
The government had refused to give additional marks as the petitioner association was not registered with the National Karate Association.
 
"You (petitioner) were informed in March 2011 that there were certain shortcomings due to non-registration with the national association. The tournament was held in November last. Why the delay in approaching court," Chief Justice Shah asked.
 
The bench further observed that giving away 25 marks to 853 students at this stage would affect the other students. "It is difficult. Not possible to grant you any relief now. You (petitioner) should have made efforts to get the association registered," the court said.
 
The court was also informed by the state government that it would be scrapping the policy of granting additional marks under sports quota from next year.
 
"There have been instances of the policy being misused by schools who seek the grace marks just for participation in a sports tournament. From next year, only five marks will be given to those students who win in a sports tournament," the government pleader said.
 
While dismissing the petition, the court said the students were free to approach the Director of Sports department. The court has directed the sports department to decide on the students' representation expeditiously. 

Caste certi. to be given in schools of Maharashtra

Mumbai: Maharashtra revenue department will make available all the requisite certificates such as domicile, income, caste etc to 9th Std students in the school itself. The project will begin in government-run schools and will eventually be extended to private schools as well, said Swadhin Kshatriya, principal secretary, revenue. 

Students start applying for these certificates after SSC examinations. There is a time frame mandated by the government for certificates to be provided once an application is made. Till now parents and students have to unnecessarily go to court. It will prevent frauds as teachers and principals know their students.

Certificates such as domicile, income, caste etc are necessary to avail of reserved seats,  scholarships etc when children seek admission for higher education. The competition for seats in colleges and for professional courses makes it necessary for parents to keep these documents well in advance. 

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind awards scholarships to Mumbai students

Mumbai: Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, an NGO which is known for extending legal aid to Muslim youths arrested on terrorism-related charges, today awarded scholarships of over Rs 17 lakh to students from various communities, including some Hindus.
     
The beneficiaries are students from class 7th to class 12th, studying in Mumbai schools.
     
The scholarships were given away at the hands of Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Naseem Khan, the NGO said in a press release here. MLA Amin Patel was also present. 
     
"We do not distinguish between communities when we do social work," said JUEH's all-India President Arshad Madani.

CS exam cancelled after paper leak in Faridabad

MUMBAI: Tuesday's foundation course exam for company secretariat (CS) was cancelled after the paper leaked a day before at a centre in Faridabad. Close to 40,000 students have registered for this exam across India.

'Elements of Business Law and Management' was last of the four papers that students had to take for the exam that started on June 2. In a notice to students, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India that conducts this licentiate programme said the exam had been cancelled "due to administrative reasons beyond our control".

This professional programme draws the largest number of commerce students after chartered accountancy; each year, close to 1.33 lakh candidates sign up for the course at various levels.

Nesar Ahmad, president of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, said the superintendent at a school in the Faridabad-NCR region, inadvertently opened Tuesday's question paper packet on Monday and distributed the paper to about 250 students in that exam centre.

"A few minutes later, students in that exam centre alerted the supervisors about the wrong question paper that had been handed out to them. Following that, the school's head informed us about the error that had occurred at the distribution stage," said Ahmad. While the school was asked to take back the question papers and give out the correct question paper, the institute decided to cancel Tuesday's exam as it felt that some students could have a privilege over several others. "This was a human error and we were forced to cancel the exam."

The exam is being held at 117 exam centres and it was difficult for the institute to deliver new question papers within a few hours. Delhi has the largest pool of exam-takers at 4,524 students, followed by Kolkata where the exam was being taken by 2,504 students; Mumbai has 1,976 students who had signed up for the foundation course. "We will announce the new date for the exam in a day or two," Ahmad said.

Polytechnics can provide skilled workforce: Sibal

Mumbai: The Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal stressed the need to improve quality of education in polytechnics for generating a skilled workforce.

Speaking at the second national convention of State Boards of Technical Education on `Polytechnic Education and Achievements and Challenges Ahead' here, Sibal said polytechnics should form tie-ups with the industry to upgrade the syllabus.
    
"We can get skilled workforce from polytechnic institutes as they are the future of our country," the Minister said.
    
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were doing well with regard to polytechnic education, he said.
    
"In Bihar, there are 12 government polytechnics and seven unaided institutions. Whereas in Uttar Pradesh, there are 17 government and 186 unaided polytechnics. Compared to the population of these two states, the number is much low," he said.
    
The students who had had their schooling in mediums other than English should be given study material in their own language, he said.

Surprise: Central Board of Secondary Education results out

MUMBAI: In a surprise move, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday evening declared the Class X results for the Chennai region-which includes Maharashtra-on its website without any prior announcement. Schools as well as students, who were shocked at the sudden announcement, claimed that the board had never before declared results on an unannounced date. 

"For years the CBSE board has been trying to minimise the hype around the Class X board exams, and by  declaring the results like this it is attempting to send out a message to students that the exam is not the be all and end all of their academic life," said Avnita Bir, principal of Ramniranjan Podar School, Santacruz. Bir added that this was also the first time the board had announced results so discreetly, sending each school its results via email rather than announcing them on its website. Students, however, will have to log on the website for their grades; the schools have their numerical scores. 

The success rate of the Chennai region stands at 99.49 per cent, up from last year's 98.92 per cent. 

RTE will be implemented from this year in Maharashtra: Chavan

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that Right to Education Act would be implemented in the state from this academic year.

Talking to reporters here, Chavan said the process of formulating rules for adopting the law by the state is on. He said discussions were on to finalise the income cap for weaker sections. "In the first year, the Act will be implemented for Class I," he said.

Chavan said creamy layer provisions would not be applicable for SC/ST/VJNT students. The Act will be implemented in all schools, excluding the unaided institutions for minorities. There is also a proposal to set up a tribunal for monitoring the implementation of the Act.

Core Committee to submit report on Maharashtra education by May end

Mumbai: A core committee is all set to submit its report on three separate vision documents on upgrading and modernising higher education in Maharashtra to the state government by the month end.
 
Higher and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Tope told reporters that Anil Kakodkar, Ram Takawale and Arun Nigvekar, who prepared three separate vision documents made a presentation on their recommendations at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
 
"The chief minister was appreciative of the suggestions made and said that the core committee headed by Kumud Bansal which is in the process of finalising the priority list of the recommendations made to the government should submit its report by this month end," Tope said after the meeting.
 
He said the amendment to the Maharashtra Universities Act, which is being proposed in one of the vision documents, will be examined by the Law department before being forwarded to Cabinet for deliberations.
 
Chavan said at the meeting that the growing number of colleges affiliated to one university was a reason for declining standards of higher education.
 
The vision document prepared by the Kakodkar committee has focussed on suggesting policies and programmes for improving the quality of higher education, while Nigvekar committee worked on preparing the draft for amending the Maharashtra Universities Act. The Ram Takawale committee deliberated on whether to create new campuses for existing universities and has also discussed setting up of new committees or creating a separate board for conducting examinations for undergraduate students and leaving the
research and postgraduate work to universities. 
 
"The need of the hour was to ensure that universities are completely equipped with necessary infrastructure for imparting different curricula," Kakodkar said, adding nearly five lakh students are affiliated to Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur universities hence these institutions are overburdened. 
 
He suggested that all universities be brought under the control of the proposed Maharashtra Academics and Development Council (MAHED).
 
Kakodkar further said skills development should be encouraged and all colleges and universities should be made autonomous, while Takawale observed that all universities and students be inter-linked. 

BSE Institute, Singapore mgmt varsity tie-up for training courses

Mumbai: BSE Institute said it has signed an MOU with the Singapore Management University to conduct training programmes and research on Asia's financial and capital markets.
 
The partnership is formed against the backdrop of closer links between the financial markets of Singapore and India in recent years, BSE Institute said in a statement. 
 
The wholly-owned subsidiary of the stock exchange, BSE said the MoU will enable the two institutes to jointly design and launch management development programmes, besides offering postgraduate certificate programmes in areas related to financial markets, such as risk management, SMEs and family-owned businesses and executive leadership.
 
The two institutes will also conduct joint research, student exchanges and internship. 

Mumbai: Summer schools offer students additional life skills

MUMBAI: Summer, for the long holidays and the scorching heat it brings along, is often compared to a vacuum: hours evaporating as adult-teens laze around with little to do. Besides hobbies, there is little to keep them occupied, unlike the suite of summer schools in the West on several subjects, some providing advanced knowledge and others a primer on hot topics that the world is brooding over. 

Finally, the penny's dropped here. This year, the lights at HR College didn't go off during the holidays. All through April, King's College, London, hosted intensive courses at the HR College campus on topics like international marketing, quantitative methods and statistics and international political economy. Close by, St Xavier's College ran a week-long school called 'Land and Natural resources: Justice Issues'. At NM College, courses on insurance and international financial reporting standards were houseful. 

Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a lecturer at the department of European and international studies at King's College, put together a fat pack of courseware for his summer school students at HR College. In 10 days, he sought to explain the interplay of politics and economics at the global level, starting with international relations and globalization to trade policies and financial regulations to FDI with a focus on Asia. "Most students had done their reading, they were tracking news and global development very closely," said Pardo. 

In another class, Michael Bedward, an enterprise management lecturer and a business consultant, taught different models of business to budding entrepreneurs in a course called 'The Entrepreneur: Skills and Smart Thinking'. "Students are not sceptical about entrepreneurship and they have some fascinating business ideas," said Bedward, who became very popular for handing over a lemon to shy participants who never spoke in class. 

Unlike the older generations who had little to do between college years, summer school holidays for young adults are proving to be grounds for arming oneself with additional life skills or honing talents at intensive camps. Tanmaya Kale of Jai Hind, who paid Rs 30,000 to attend summer school at HR College, said, "Here, I got an insight into so many topics that are globally so crucial. I wasn't spoon-fed; communication wasn't one-way and the course was on real issues." 

For summer school participants at St Xavier's College, the experience was like opening the window and taking in some reality - at times ugly, at times surprisingly assuring. Agnelo Menezes from the department of economics said teaching through the year is mostly restricted to the text books. "Summer school allowed us to synchronize reality with theory." For Rs 500, students could listen to top bankers, sociologists, advocates and activists who spoke on various topics for close to ten days. "There was an overflow of students wanting to attend these lectures," said Menezes. The lecture series, which was not open to outsiders, included a documentary and field trips. 

Maharashtra cabinet approves masterplan for sanctioning new schools

Mumbai: Maharashtra cabinet today approved a masterplan to sanction 2,372 new primary and secondary Marathi medium schools in rural areas. 
     
As per the plan, the schools will start in the academic year 2012-13 and 2013-14.
     
The decision to prepare a master plan for sanctioning new schools was taken in 2009. Accordingly, mapping of existing schools using geographical information system (GIS) was done, and the areas where there was no school infrastructure in the radius of one, three and five km were identified.
     
The criterion for opening a new primary school is minimum population of 200, while that for the secondary school is population of 2,000. 

Mumbai based institution to offer Masters programmes

Mumbai: Mumbai based education institution, B-Fazlani Altius Business School (FABS) announced the launch two unique Masters programme. 

FABS will commence its academic year with two specialized post-graduate programs namely the Masters in Applied Human Resource Management and the Masters in Sales & Marketing Management. The launch, attended by key management personnel from companies such as Accenture, Monsanto, Cox & Kings, Marina Gulf, Financial Technologies, Parle Agro, etc., was also a colloquium to jump-start the program.

FAB's Masters in Applied Human Resource Management program will be offered in collaboration with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and offers specialization in contemporary electives such as HR Analytics while their Masters in Sales & Marketing Management offers simultaneous selection where students receive a Letter of Intent from leading corporates along with their program admission letter.

Speaking on the launch, Chairman Dr. A.K Fazlani said “It is great to see HR Leaders and CEOs of so many corporates come and support us in this endeavor of creating a truly Industry Academia Partnership. We at Fazlani group have worked with some of the best minds from the corporate and academic worlds and visualized a need for talent in the emerging Indian economy and are very proud that we are able to launch our unique business school today”.

“What makes the programs offered by FABS unique is the holistic way of providing education, to state an example, our philosophy in education is based on the following five perspectives of education namely: Educationists view, Originators view, Practitioners view, Critiques view and Collaborative view” said Ashfaq Ahad, Co-Founder & Member of Board - FABS.

Fazlani Altius Business School will begin its first academic year in July 2012 at three campuses in Mumbai (Powai), Bhubaneshwar and NCR (Gurgaon) with expansion plans slated in 20 other Tier 2 and Tier 3 city locations in 2013.

Microsoft voted 'most attractive employer' in India

Mumbai: Microsoft India bagged the Randstad Award 2012 for the 'most attractive employer' in the country for the second consecutive year followed by Oracle India and Tata Consultancy Services.
 
The Randstad Award 2012 was also given to Volkswagen India and Nokia India as special recognition in the auto and consumer durables industry sector, respectively.
 
The award, instituted globally by leading HR services provider Randstad, aims to encourage best practices and to identify the best 'employer brand' in the country.
 
Global research agency ICMA International surveyed 8,500 respondents from over 150 big companies in the country to find the most attractive employer.
 
"With more and more global companies entering India, we see a healthy competition not only in establishing brands but also in attracting the best skills to work for them," Randstad India Managing Director and CEO E Balaji said at the award function here.
 
The findings clearly suggest that the uncertainty in the market still has an impact on the industry, due to which, financially healthy companies, long-term job security and competitive salary seem to be the top priority factors for the Indian workforce while choosing an employer, he added. 

Indians prefer long-term job security over salary: Survey

Mumbai: With the market uncertainty, Indian employees are preferring financially healthy companies and long-term job security over salary, a survey says. 
 
Long-term job security and financial health of the company are the most-often selected factors by 64 per cent employees, followed by career progression opportunities (50 per cent), says staffing and HR services company Randstad India in a report.
 
Salary and employee benefits, which topped the chart in 2011, has dropped to the third position, it adds.
 
Long-term job security seems to be the top preference in the telecom sector, but not in the automotive sector.
 
Competitive salary and employee benefits were rated as top factors by employees of the transport and logistics sector, while the same were rated lowest by those in the travel and tourism sector.
 
International career opportunities was rated the top factor by the energy sector employees, according to the survey.
 
The survey also showed that men tend to prefer innovative companies that are financially healthy and offer quality products and services, good training and career prospects, whereas women look for factors like easy  accessibility, flexible work arrangements, pleasant atmosphere.
 
While older respondents had greater concern for strong management, values and image, quality products and good work atmosphere, the younger workforce look for technological innovativeness, flexible working arrangements and global career opportunities.
 
Unmarried employees look for higher salary, career prospects.
 
The survey was conducted amongst 8,500 respondents from over 150 biggest employers. The research was conducted by the global research agency, ICMA International. 

TCS to hire 50,000 people in FY'13

Mumbai: Buoyed by good momentum, IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today said it will hire 50,000 people in FY'13.

"TCS is well prepared to achieve balanced growth across the industries and markets it operates in FY'13. In view of good momentum, we are targeting to hire 50,000 people this year," TCS CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran told reporters here.

In view of excellent growth in North American and UK markets, TCS continues to hire in overseas markets, he added.

"With business demand continuing to be robust, we have made 43,600 offers on campuses for trainees to join us from the second quarter of this fiscal year," TCS Executive Vice President, Head, Global Human Resources, Ajoy Mukherjee said.

During the fourth quarter, TCS added 19,156 professionals (gross) and 11,832 employees (net) to take its total headcount to 2.38 lakh.

In FY'12, the company added 70,400 employees (gross), which is the largest ever hiring effort in its history. The net addition during the fiscal stood at 39,969 people.  

Commenting on wage hike, Chandrasekaran said employees will get wage hike of eight per cent on average depending on their grades.

He added that though there is a dip in volume growth in Europe, it is expected to pick up in the next quarter.

The company dismissed concerns that US visa rejections to Indian employees would lead to increased hiring in India.

"We are hiring employees in the US, including trainees. We will be visiting campuses in the US during the fall semester," Mukherjee said.

On attrition, Mukherjee said, "Our efforts to increase retention by engaging with our employees and offering them a progressive career path are paying dividends with attrition rates falling further to 12.2 per cent."  

The overall attrition rate was lower at 12.2 per cent with IT attrition at a low of 11.05 per cent and BPO attrition at 21.6 percent on a last twelve month (LTM) basis.

Mukherjee said the average age of a TCS employee is 28 years and 62.4 per cent of the workforce has more than three years experience, while 31.6 per cent of the workforce comprised of women.

TCS has maintained high utilisation rates in the fourth quarter at 80.6 per cent (excluding trainees), while that including trainees stood at 71.3 per cent. 

University of Mumbai puts off 29 examinations

MUMBAI: Over two dozen examinations of the University of Mumbai to be held on May 9 and 10 have been postponed. The examinations clashed with the state's Common Entrance Test (CET) for engineering aspirants on May 10.

The university issued a circular on April 20 announcing the rescheduled time-table for the exams for undergraduate and postgraduate courses for 29 papers to dates between May 11 and June 2.

Rescheduled papers include those for law students, third year bachelor of arts students and masters of education students. "Many will also appear for CET so we wanted to ensure that there was no clash," said a university official. 

"University exam and CET centres were also the same so we wanted to make sure there was no overlap." All rescheduled papers will take place a day after the last exam paper in the original schedule for each affected courses. The venue and timing of all postponed papers will remain the same.