Inter-school science exhibition held at Mumbai suburban school

To commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Vissanji Academy, Andheri (E), in association with Nehru Science Centre held an Inter-school science exhibition 'EXPISCOR 2012' at their sprawling school campus on Friday, 30th November and Saturday, 1st December 2012.

On November 30, the exhibition was inaugurated by Mr.Umesh Kumar Rustogi , curator of Nehru Science centre along with the trustee of the school, Mrs. Arati Vissanji.

The teachers of the participating schools, who attended a one-day work shop at Nehru Science Centre had an enriching experience to guide the students.

Budding scientists from 25 ICSE schools from Nerul to Colaba participated and presented many creative ideas and exhibits.

The enthusiasm and skill clubbed with in-depth knowledge of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at school and junior college level was commendable.

The results obtained in the research projects spread the spell of seeing the future generation Faradays, Newtons, Edisons and Einsteins among them.

The exhibits included still models, working models and research base projects which were very innovative and relevant to today's times.

The exhibits, to name a few, included research projects on electromagnets, sensors in cars, mineralogy and many more.

The projects were judged by ten distinguished professionals from Research and Development Institutes headed by Mr. Arnav Bhattacharya from TIFR who captivated the audience with his oratory skills.

The exhibits were visited by various schools. "It was a pleasure to see the BMC and other school students interact and gain knowledge through the various projects.

Students had a rare opportunity to interact on Skype with Ms.Anupa Bajwa an ex-vissanjiaite, currently working with NASA, who sparked off the charisma of space and space technology through her personal experience. "The students were fascinated watching her and listening to her live via skype," said Shahnaz Chauhan, principal of the school.

On December 1, Prof. M N Vahia from the department of astronomy and astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research delivered an interesting lecture on "Power of 10" which mesmerized the audience.

Dr.Indrani Gupta, Principal & Scientist at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute appreciated the research done and projects exhibited on such a mega scale.

The first prize in Group A (Std.VIII to Std.X) was bagged by Podar International School, Nerul.

The research project was based on "Oil spill clean-up". In Group B (Std.XI and Std.XII) the first prize was bagged by St. Gregorious High School. Their project was based on research on "Effect of oil spill in ocean/seas". The winners were given cash prizes and a trophy. All the participants were presented with memento and the participating certificates.

Gujarat University to offer aviation course

If you are a commerce or arts student, and still aspire to fly an airplane, your dream may take wings soon. Gujarat University (GU) plans to collaborate with an aviation university to allow interested students - irrespective of the streams, to pursue their dream career.
GU is all set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Electrotherm's Indus University - so far the only university in the state offering courses in commercial pilot license and aviation maintenance. The MoU will be signed during Vibrant Gujarat 2013.

The MoU will also mark GU's launch of the 'multivarsity' concept, where students will be able to pursue multidisciplinary courses from various colleges at the same time. The concept is based on the virtual university model, which will make higher education accessible in remote villages.

Arvind Bhandari, registrar, Gujarat University, said, "We are considering the proposal of students being offered aviation as a part of their curriculum. It will be a multidisciplinary course on the choice-based credit system. The MoU will be signed during Vibrant Gujarat.

" As part of the MoU, students from non-science streams will be offered a bridge course before pursuing the aviation program.

D P Giridhar, vice-chancellor, Indus University, said, "Students of Gujarat University will get a chance to expand their opportunities through our course. We have submitted an expression of interest and are in the initial stages of discussions." The universities are likely to issue joint degrees for the course.

Jagat Shah, advisor to Udisha project of commissioner of higher education, department of education, Government of Gujarat, is coordinating the MoU. "The MoU will be signed in front of an actual aircraft out on display at the education hall during Vibrant Gujarat," he said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Government of India's requirement is a science background in order to pursue a career in aviation but with this course, students from other streams can pursue a career in flying. The initiative of launching the multivarsity is expected to boost employment and focus on skill-based courses from the next academic year. The multivarsity model will be an open higher education model that will have a virtual entity with a complete back office. It

will be linked to the National Knowledge Network associated with seven national programmes of education. Halls of Culture and Training (HCT) will also be set up across the state.

Knowledge-hungry Gujarat to join hands with 77 varsities

Close to 77 universities from 25 countries will visit Gujarat to forge strategic partnerships with universities in the state. The universities will meet at the International Conference for Academic Institutions 2013, as part of the Vibrant Gujarat Investors' Summit, to promote research activities, faculty and student exchange, knowledge exchange and capacity building of the universities.
Home to globally-renowned educational institutes like Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology and National Institute of Design, Gujarat will draw global universities in January.

University of London, Harvard Kennedy School, University of South Australia, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, Association of African Universities, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University of Glasgow, University of Houston, University of South Carolina, George Washington University, University of Wollongong, University of Liverpool, Royal University of Bhutan, among others will visit the state for various initiatives.

Dr Vedant Pandya, director (research and innovation), Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat, said, "Besides exchange of knowledge, the conference will focus on making graduates in Gujarat job eligible and employable in the industry. The interaction with foreign universities will open up doors of skill development, internships, exchange of teaching and learning material and research among other possibilities."

The Gujarat government has put preparation for the upcoming business summit on a fast track. The conference will be held on January 9 and 10, 2013.

According to officials, the conference will focus more on sharing of ideas, promotion of innovation and research as compared to earlier summits, which focused on generating investments.

About 50 educational collaborations were announced during the Vibrant Gujarat summit held in 2011. The state government, along with Tata Motors, identified and trained around 1,000 youngsters for the company's Nano car plant in Sanand.

Universities like Stanford had signed collaborations with Ahmedabad University for faculty exchange.

Maharashtra bill seeks to bring new KGs, nurseries under government control

The legislative council on Tuesday passed a bill that will bring pre-primary education under its control. After the Maharashtra Self-Financed School Bill becomes a law any institution or person desirous of opening a nursery or KG will have to seek permission from school education department. More importantly, permission will be granted only if the applicant is ready to provide primary education too. This bill will not effect the existing nurseries and kindergartens.

The bill comes up for discussion in the legislative assembly on Wednesday and will be likely passed in this session. The provisions will come into effect from next academic session.

School education minister Rajendra Darda told the council that new pre-primary schools were being regulated to ensure that the 25% quota for poor under RTE was provided by private schools. "Many schools only admit their kindergarten II students to standard I. So if there is no control over pre-primary education then the schools will not implement the 25% quota in nursery and kindergarten and will finally say that they have no vacancies left in standard I."

The decision to regulate pre-primary education has not gone down well with the education fraternity. A KG principal, said, "It is unfair for the state government to start meddling in our affairs.

Basically we (pre-primary institutes) do not receive even a single dime in grants or favours, so on what basis is the government trying to dictate terms to us. Our industry survives solely due to quality and competitive fee."

Merry Christmas

EduTalkIndia Team Wishes everyone Merry Christmas!

Gujarat Board Class 12th Results out today

Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) will declare the results of the first semester exams of class XI (science) today.

Officials said that nearly 1.70 lakh students have appeared in the first semester exam which comprised objective-type questions. This is the highest number of students appearing in the science board exam this year.

These papers were corrected by Optical Mark Reader (OMR). The results will be sent to school principals and will be declared to students on the same day. The result is expected to be around 90 per cent since the students tend to score better in OMR papers.

Recently, the third semester results of HSC (science) students was declared, and they were in the 90 per cent region. The final fourth semester exam for the students will be held in March.

Accreditation of all higher education institutes to be made mandatory from 2013

Accreditation for all higher educational institutions will be made mandatory from next year. With the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority (NARA) bill hanging fire for the last two years, the human resource development (HRD) ministry is planning to make accreditation mandatory for public and private institutions through executive order to continue with the reform process.

Accreditation of educational institutions will help students assess the quality of programmes and courses, physical infrastructure and faculty. At present, only a fraction -- about 15% institutions -- are accredited.

HRD minister M M Pallam Raju said both Universities Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have been tasked with preparing benchmarks for the accreditation process. In fact, the ministry will be writing to state governments to establish accreditation agencies that will inspect institutions on these regulatory benchmarks.

AICTE has also been asked to set up another accreditation agency — Indian Board of Accreditation — that will assist the existing National Board of Accreditation in inspections of institutions. "There was need felt for a new accreditation body and AICTE will set up the IBA by February," Raju said.

AICTE has under it 3,800 technical institutions, 3,700 management institutions, 3,500 polytechnics, 240 hotel management institutions and 60 applied art institutions. These institutions approach AICTE every year for either renewal of their accreditation or for introduction of new disciplines or other expansion plans. There are 60,000 programmes that are accredited under AICTE at present.

"There is a long pendency already and once the process is made mandatory, the waiting period will only increase. We have to build our capacity before that," AICTE chairman Prof S S Mantha said.

Under the NARA bill, existing universities will be given six years to complete the accreditation process while new universities will be allowed to complete teaching two batches of students. However, it remains unclear how the government will succeed in enforcing the accreditation process through rules.

HRD ministry officials said that under the UGC Act, the commission was empowered to shut down a department if there was non-compliance. However, that has not been done so far.

Private varsities bill gets nod despite opposition

Punjab assembly passed two controversial bills on Friday, paving the way for two private universities to come up in the state even as the treasury benches ridiculed private varsities terming them as teaching shops set up to mint money.

Even as the opposition boycotted the session and did not debate the bills, the treasury benches seemed to have taken over the opposition's role as several legislators of the ruling SAD-BJP alliance slammed the private universities and raised apprehension that these would not be in the interest of the students. Despite this, the Desh Bhagat University Bill and the DAV University Bill were okayed.

SAD MLA Som Prakash said, "Lovely Professional University was set up in 2005 and has more than 25,000 students from 26 nations. But... the standard of education needs to be monitored. In a survey done by metro man E Sreedharan, it was found that only 21% of MBA students are capable of jobs, only 12% of engineers can be recruited directly and the rest need training and 36% of students passing out of private universities are not qualified for jobs despite training."

Nirmal Singh, another SAD MLA, said, "Private institutions have no seats for the poor. Even at places where they have taken panchayat land from villages on discounted prices they have not bothered to give concession to village children. Government must ensure that they follow norms."

Indian Red Cross Society organized 3 days training program for Youth Red Cross Counselors

Youth Red Cross wing of Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch (IRCS-OSB) has organized a 03 (three) days State level training program for untrained Youth Red Cross Counselors’ from 12.12.12 to 14.12.12 at Red Cross Bhavan, Bhubaneswar.
The objective of this three days program was to acquaint the counselors with various activities and objectives of Youth Red Cross with the view to strengthen YRC movement in our State.

The program was inaugurated on 12.12.12 by the Srijukta Amar Prasad Satpathy, M.L.A & Former Minister, Govt of Odisha along with Director Higher Education Prof.(Dr.) Satyakam Mishra and Honorary Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch (IRCS-OSB) Dr.Mangala Prasad Mohanty.

In this program around 50 Youth Red Cross Counselors from 17 districts across Odisha have participated.

During these three days training camp the counselors were imparted training on Disaster Preparedness and Disaster Risk Reduction, First Aid, Road safety, Blood Science, Motivation for organizing blood grouping and blood donation, HIV/AIDS, Youth leadership Volunteerism along with the history of Red Cross Movement, Development, Fundamental Principles of Youth Red Cross, etc.
The Valedictory function of the training program was organized on 14.12.12. at 3.30 P.M. at Red Cross Bhavan, Bhubaneswar, S.L.O.-cum-Deputy Secretary to Govt. Department , Department of Higher Education, Govt.of Odisha , Dr.U.N.Sahoo, noted Journalist Mr.Prasanta Pattnaik had joined as Guests of Honor along with an Honorary Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch (IRCS-OSB) Dr.Mangala Prasad Mohanty.

Dr.M.P.Mohanty, Honorary Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch (IRCS-OSB) extended a warm welcome to all the guest & participants. He highlighted on the vital role played by YRC Counselors’ on grooming the volunteers as good human beings. Dr.U.N.Sahoo, S.L.O-cum-Deputy Secretary to Govt., Department of Higher Education, and Govt.of Odisha stressed on the importance of volunteerism in the current society. Noted Journalist Mr.Prasanta Pattnaik, appreciated the activities of Youth Red Cross and advised the Counselors to motivate the volunteers to be dedicated & determined to serve the nation.

Dr.Sarita Supkar Youth Red Cross Officer coordinated the 03(three) days’ training program & offered a vote of thanks to the guests & participates.

Revolutionising trends in Indian system of education

The coming decade will see a 'phenomenal evolution in the school education landscape', say experts. While some opine that higher education needs to be defined by quality, others say that technology will further percolate into classrooms.

Syed Sultan Ahmed, Managing Director of Edumedia India Pvt Ltd, said, "One clear area of evolution I see for schools will be a shift of focus from 'marks based' academic curriculum to 'life based' overall development. Schools talk a lot about it these days but do very little. In the coming years, colleges and universities will start enrolling students on the basis of their overall development and not just grades. This will change the obsession of schools towards exams and marks".

Ahmed opined that, schools in general care very little about standards and quality. "In the coming years, with increasing competition and expectations from parents, they will be forced to deliver better quality education at competitive fees," he added.

Ahmed also observed that, at present there is a huge disconnect between what children study and what the industry and the world require from them. "In the future, there will be a larger say of the industry in the curriculum that schools teach. Several skill based learning modules will be introduced by schools, making education a lot more relevant to the world. Creativity and innovation will be one of the most priced qualities in the future, and schools will have to gear up to create thinking individuals with a capacity to make sense of the abundant information that they are exposed to," he said.

The biggest educational challenge in India, is the failure of the government to provide good quality primary and secondary education through government schools, he said. "Privatization of government schools through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, seems like a possibility in the coming years. India’s dream of becoming a developed nation, depends a lot on its school education," he said.

He added that another trend that seems like a real possibility, is personalised distance learning, enabled by technology and home schooling.

According to K S Badarinarayan, principal of MVJ College of Engineering, the education sector is something that is constantly evolving. By 2020, education will be more or less virtual in nature. "What we have right now, is a classroom culture. But, the growing presence of internet means that students in Bangalore will be able to choose subjects and courses from across the world. Imagine being able to take one course from America and another from Europe," he said.

However, the decline of classroom culture can also have its set of disadvantages. Nevertheless, if employed the right way, expertise from across the world can be mobilised. "I also think that, the future will have students being more competitive and creative. The education sector should also ensure that students are industry ready. Right now, only 25% of all students graduating from engineering colleges are really employable. What happens to the rest? By 2020, hopefully colleges will be able to provide multi-skill development for its students, like technical skills and soft skills put together," he said.

Anitha Kurup, a professor at School of Social Sciences and anchor of the education programme at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), felt that the primary education in the country has grown tremendously in the past decade, which means the higher education has to grow to meet the needs of the primary education. "What the higher education needs to do in the next few years, is to define itself by quality. We need to look at the kind of skills that need to be developed, and the kind of courses you provide to the students. We also need to learn from other countries that have expanded their higher education and gain lessons from their experiences," she said.

There is a need for giving importance to basic sciences, socials science and humanities. In her opinion, the reason these fields are suffering right now as opposed to engineering and professional courses, is because these courses are not linked to the kind of job options people are looking for. "Ultimately, private players will be have a big role in the growth of higher education.

We need to work out models that are feasible. The government should find a way to engage with the private players, without completely withdrawing, to realise the kind of growth we are looking for," she added.

Ragpickers on the road to education

Collaboration, key to change

Strong collaborations are often the source of best ideas, but can they actually inspire effective and long-term innovations in education ? With this in mind, the fourth edition of the World Innovation Summit for Education 2012 (WISE) brought together more than 1,000 academic , corporate, political and social leaders from over 100 countries at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha to explore the theme, 'Collaborating for Change.'

How can the world, through newage education, address the complexities and interrelated challenges facing the world today? What are the creative solutions to access, financing and teaching? How do we improve strategies to share success and enhance institutional processes? These and several other questions were discussed and deliberated upon by participants during the three-day summit (November 13-15).

His Excellency Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani , chairman of WISE, in his welcome address said, "WISE is an ideal platform for multi-sectoral collaboration in building the future of education . We have to consider how education can be re-shaped to meet the major challenges of modern life, against the backdrop of globalisation, and despite stark inequalities among and within societies."

According to Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson, Qatar Foundation, organisers of the summit , WISE, it is through education that a collective mind of communities is formed that helps in building a future , which is innovative.

The summit offered interactive discussions with speakers, experts and members from the WISE community. Attendees got an opportunity to collaborate , interact and share best practices during the several plenary sessions and debates. Also, some of the other sessions focused on innovations and projects, along with workshops to facilitate collaboration on specific issues.

Institutes can deny admission on disciplinary grounds: HC

An educational institute is "well within" its right to deny admission to a successful candidate if his presence adversely affects discipline, the Delhi high court has ruled.

"The right of an educational institution to either admit or deny admission is beyond dispute and no student has got a right to compel an institution that he should be admitted," a bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice R S Endlaw noted while dismissing a plea by a former Jamia Millia Islamia student against denial of admission.

The bench also said a selected student is entitled to admission, but "equally, it is the solemn responsibility on the part of the university to consider the past conduct of the student even if such student was ranked for the admission.

"If admission of the appellant is not conducive for good administration of the university and if it affects the discipline among other students, it would be well within its right to refuse admission," it said, pointing out that "responsibility" of an institute is to not only impart education but also to "inculcate" discipline.

Hamidur Rehman had filed a plea in HC that he was "arbitrarily" denied admission in M A (Persian) by JMI for academic session 2012-14, because he wanted to restore democracy in the form of student elections. Rehman said he ranked 21 in the test, held for admission for total 30 seats, but the university admitted only 20 students to deny him admission.

But the HC dismissed the appeal giving credence to reports from "heads of each of the departments, which stated that the appellant was offensive and aggressive against the university".

While an educational institution can't deny admission to such of those students who would be entitled to be admitted on the basis of ranking, the court said, but added that "equally, we are also not oblivious of the importance of discipline among students. Universities today have striven to ensure principled conduct for admission of students and the transition to higher education. The code of conduct is amongst the necessary elements which are known today for admission of any student in schools or universities".

IP University to setup a design institute

The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (popularly known IP University), Delhi is setting up an Institute of design at its East campus which will be Asia's biggest centre of its kind said Dr A K Walia, minister for higher education, government of NCT of Delhi.

Walia was addressing the ninth convocation of the University at its Dwarka campus on Monday, he also said that at a time public private partnership(PPP) model is not working so well is other countries, IP University has set an example of success of this model of governance.

In his address Lt Governor of Delhi and chancellor of the University, Tejendra Khanna said that academic ambiance plays vital role in the growth of any academic institution besides good teachers, receptive students and state-of-the-art infrastructure. "Domain knowledge combined with human values is need of hours. Learning is a life long process," he said.

Delivering the convocation address, chairman of Tata Communication Limited, Subodh Bhargava said "As far as learning process is concerned, we will always be a student through out our life. We can learn many things from our life and experiences. Values are those boundaries within which we think and ponder. Some values do not change even with time like honesty, empathy for others, compassion etc. We should be realistic as well optimistic for our growth."

Vice chancellor of IP University, D K Bandyopadhyay, informed on the occasion that the University is planning to start three new centres of studies in the University- Centre of Study of Indigenous Literature, Centre for Film and Culture Studies and Centre for Development and Planning. "There are three types of skills that are needed in this century- cognitive skills such as analytical and critical thinking, non-cognitive skills such as attitude like honesty, team work, leadership etc, technical skills such as accountancy, tourism, IT, management, construction among others."

In all 15,945 students of the university were awarded degree on the occasion and 67 students were conferred with Gold Medals(including Essar Power Gold Medal). 15 students were awarded with plaque/citation for their exemplary performance(for obtaining 90% and more marks) in studies. Moreover, 21 students of the University were conferred with PhD degree on the occasion.

Do you have an entrepreneur in you?

What does it take to start a company of your own? Is it money, vision, belief, courage? Any entrepreneur would tell you it is all this and more! The way there is a method to madness, similarly there is a method to becoming an entrepreneur.

Many college goers don’t harp on corporate dreams anymore, thanks to the entrepreneurial vibes in the air. Most college students are attracted by the prospects of making an idea the central point of their life and experiencing the obsession of starting a venture.

Meet Hullas Arora, a final-year student of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (CBS), University of Delhi who is burning the midnight oil preparing for his semester exams. Though he has a placement offer from a leading MNC, Arora is contemplating if he wants to take up the job or pursue his dreams.

Says he, “I happened to visit the corridors of a leading MNC and was shocked to see the fate of the employees. Everyone was glued to their computer screens and didn’t budge even for a second. The atmosphere was eerie and reminded me of a mortuary. I can’t imagine myself to be sitting like this someday.”

Chances are that Arora would not even need to cross the corporate corridors if things materialise as per plan. “I have so many ideas, and plan to start various ventures,” he says. However, at present, Fabrica (a venture started by him and his friends) is his motivation. “Fabrica India is a business organisation that deals in corporate merchandising and has developed a reputation for providing quality apparel, corporate gifts and promotional products at competitive prices. We have made a strong footing in the industry and want to take it further,” he adds.

The inception of Fabrica India goes back to close to a year. Recalls Pulkit Bakshi, co-founder Fabrica, “I had a marketing company and was finding various associates for it including apparel partner and associate too. Meanwhile Varsha Chaudhary, (Business Development Head, Fabrica India) who was then the vice president of Gargi College, wanted to get some T-Shirts made for her college. So we set out together looking for quality suppliers who would give us good stuff at reasonable prices. Luckily, we were unable to find anyone and Varsha sensed some scope here. She had an interest in fashion, and this industry offered abundant scope for her. So one of those days we spent a lot of time talking about this. One thing led to another and finally we decided to open our own company. We ransacked all our contacts and exploited our entire network for finding and organising the best suppliers, distributor’s, designers, delivery guys, etc.”

After a year, Fabrica is a brand many reckon with. But was the start as smooth? “From starting with only two people referred to as T-Shirt vendors by the people, Fabrica India today has eight core employees, numerous sub-employees and interns. From just being a startup to a registered legal entity, and from a facebook page to having a full-fledged website, we have come a long way. We worked towards market capitalisation for eight straight months after which we decided to get our company registered, get it a website, hire employees and expand it to other corporate and institutional sectors. We used all our earnings from Fabrica to get all these things done and organised a team of efficient committed and talented people to help Fabrica achieve its potential. Today, we are as a registered organisation called The Fab Enterprises, carrying the Brand Fabrica India,” prides Pulkit.

Ask him what next about Fabrica and him and he says, “We today are one of the largest and fastest growing merchandising brands of the country and plan to come up with our stores soon which shall mark every prominent street of the country in no time. We have become synonymous to quality, client delight and punctuality and we wish to now become a synonym to merchandise.”

With like-minded friends, Hullas plans to strengthen his entrepreneurial roots. “The future plan is to float a few ventures and work on taking them to a certain level. I have come to realise that closed door jobs are not my cup of tea.”

Software to help rural students access lectures

Karnataka State Law University is using the help of technology to help law students in the state, especially in rural parts of the state, benefit from seminars, lectures and conferences held in the university. With the help of A-View (online) software, KSLU is ensuring students in other parts of the state are able to access its events.

Not all colleges can afford to have legal luminaries and other distinguished guests deliver lectures and attend seminars in their colleges. In such cases, KSLU facilitated video recordings of its lectures and educative seminars. But the new software will make things only easier.

In case a guest is invited to the university or particular college, he can directly deliver his lecture with the help of online software A-View. Students of all law colleges can watch it live, sitting in their colleges and also interact with the guest online.

In the first phase, KSLU has begun beaming live seminars and special lectures using the online software. So far it has provided the login ID and password to 30 principals of law colleges in the state. More colleges are expected to come under the ambit.

Around 92 law colleges come under KSLU's jurisdiction. Karnataka State Law University VC J S Patil told TOI, "Already we have finished first phase of work. More colleges will be provided login ID and passwords in coming days."

This initiative will enhance the law knowledge of the students studying in rural law colleges in the state and bridge the divide in learning between urban and rural students. Students can watch live the guest lecture and seminar by sitting in their colleges and interact with the speakers online, the vice-chancellor added.

Jamia's annual convocation to be streamed online

For the first time, Jamia Millia Islamia will be streaming a video of its annual convocation on the university website, www.jmi.ac.in. Jamia shall be holding its Annual Convocation on November 22, 2012 at 3 pm in the Lawns of Dr MA Ansari Auditorium on the university campus. .

The press statement released by the university says that on this occasion, the University will confer the Degree of 'Doctor of Letters' (Honoris Causa) on cardiologist, Dr. Ashok Seth.

"Dr Ashok Seth's pursuit of excellence in the field of cardiology has been instrumental in putting Indian medical science on the world map. He has contributed to the growth, development and scientific progress of interventional cardiology. Dr Ashok Seth has performed one of the highest numbers of angiographies and angioplasties in the world, which has been acknowledged by the Limca Book of Records,"" says the statement.

Lt. Gen. (Retd.) M A Zaki, Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia will preside over the annual convocation. On the day, a total of 4179 Degrees/Diplomas shall be awarded to students who have successfully completed post-graduation, graduation and diploma from different faculties, departments and centres of the university in the academic session 2010-11.

The university will also hand out 147 gold gedals to the toppers of different courses as also award 204 PhD degrees to research scholars.

Inconsistent attendance policy troubles DU students

Delhi University students writing the semester exams are now subject to a hopelessly inconsistent attendance policy across colleges. While some colleges are yet to compute attendance and are allowing everyone to write exams, another set has set the minimum attendance mark lower than the university-stipulated 66.6%. A third set of colleges say that as instructions giving principals power to decide have not been issued in writing, they will be following the 66.6% norm.

Kamala Nehru College brought the number of detainees down from 253 to 80 by lowering the minimum attendance mark to 50%. "Since the university has given principals the power to take decisions on their own, we decided, judiciously, to reduce it to 50% to accommodate as many as possible. The decision has been supported by the staff council and attendance committee," says Geetesh Nirban, spokesperson, KNC.

Its neighbour, Gargi College, is allowing everyone for now. But whether the set of students writing the exams now will be allowed to take the second or fourth semester exams will depend on their attendance. "The science practicals start very early. We are going to calculate it yearly and draw up the list of those short of attendance in March or April," says Gargi principal, Meera Ramachandran.

The situation is the same at Dyal Singh College. They will be sticking to 66.6% but are yet to compile the data. "Unless we get something in writing, I have no powers to alter things. We are now letting students write the exams and are simultaneously compiling the list. If we find students have fallen short we will have to stop them," says principal I S Bakshi.

In North Campus, Ramjas College has lowered the minimum attendance to 22%. "We wanted to allow as many students as possible," says principal, Rajendra Prasad. Khalsa College, too, is allowing all students to write. "We got the parents to submit undertakings and warned them that this concession will not be available from next time," says principal Jaswinder Singh.

The question teachers are asking is what will happen to the students who are detained. "Abroad, if you are detained for one semester, you write the exam in the next. What we have here is neither annual nor semester and in this hybrid system you waste a year. But next year there will be a four-year system in place," observes Sanam Khanna who teaches English at KNC.

Moreover, the new exam policies have, apparently, left students "frazzled". "The first page, where the students are required to fill in details, has changed a lot. They have introduced many more parameters and new roll-number formats. Students were frazzled as they weren't informed in advance and were filling it wrong. It's a good system but they sent three-four page instructions for invigilators on the morning of the exam. The adhocism is monumentally foolish," says a teacher.

Bharathidasan University goofs up question paper, exam cancelled

The mycology and virology exam scheduled for second year microbiology students in Bharathidasan University (BDU) had to be cancelled in several affiliated colleges as the question papers were wrongly set.

The controller of examinations of BDU, A Selvam, told TOI that about 800 students in over 25 colleges were affected and could not sit for their exam. "Though the subject code and the title of the subject remained the same, the questions were totally irrelevant to the subject. Even the chairman of the examinations endorsed the question papers," he said. In fact, two sets of question papers are prepared for each subject, and should there be aberrations in one set, the second would be opened. To make matters worse, the second set of question papers too was out of the syllabus.

Since the regular exam schedule of the third semester runs up to December 21, Tuesday's exam is now scheduled for December 22, Selvam said. "It is a serious blunder on the part of the setter and endorsing the same by the chairman of exams is even more serious. Appropriate disciplinary action would be taken against them," he said.

Half-hour more for science papers in ICSE

Those set to appear for ICSE examinations in 2014 have a reason to cheer. They will get more time for science papers than their peers did.

The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), on Tuesday, announced the decision to increase the durations of Physics, Chemistry and Biology papers from one-and-a-half hours to two hours.

The duration of Mathematics paper will, however, remain unchanged at two-and-a-half hours.

"We have revised the time schedule for science papers following students' demand. We expect it to reduce stress among the examinees," said Gerry Arathoon, chief executive and secretary of the council.

It has also been decided that the environment science paper of the ICSE exams, that was scheduled on February 15, will be shifted to a new date as Saraswati Puja falls on that day.

In place of manual registration, the council has also proposed to start e-registration and e-affiliation from next year. Students of classes IX and XI can individually e-register with council for taking the examination through schools. Similarly, schools can seek affiliation online. "This will make the system more efficient," said another council official.

The council has also decided to upgrade some ICSE schools to ISC and award them provisional affiliation even if they have still not received the permanent no-objection-certificates (NOC) from the state government. "Till now, only those schools that could produce a permanent NOC from the state government were upgraded. Now, they will be upgraded to plus two (ISC) with only a provisional one. They have to procure a permanent NOC in due course and submit the same to the council. Then we shall grant permanent affiliation to the school for ISC," Arathoon added.

"The council has decided that the land required should not be binding for permanent affiliation and introduction of ISC XII. Schools, who were granted provisional affiliation prior to the implementation of the guidelines of affiliations in May 2006, can be inspected when they apply for permanent affiliation or introduction of ISC class XII," said Arathoon.

English syllabus will undergo a sea change from 2015 onwards, "We have decided to reduce the syllabus. The number of prose has been cut short from 15 to 10 and poems too have been reduced from 15 to 10. The same is with the ISC syllabus in English. The syllabus of other subjects has been revised in keeping with the modern day demand."

The city is set to host the annual conference of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate, 2012, in the Science City from November 21 to 23.

Pursuing two regular degrees together – an offense?

by Aneeket Barua

Pursuing two regular degrees together might not fetch you an offer letter from a multinational company, but a show cause notice from the Court of law for sure!

Recently while enjoying a cup of coffee with an old friend, we started a discussion over a concern which eventually led to an argument. And when it comes to an argument with a practicing lawyer, it’s a wise decision to back pedal.

The discussion took off from a question posted by a student on Shiksha Café on whether one can pursue two regular degrees at the same time or not. A question which seemed simple yet interesting! The student had asked – “Can I pursue BCA and B.Sc Computer science together?”

For me the answer was a simple “Yes” as there is no harm in possessing extra knowledge and a proof of it. However, the case was not the same as I thought. To my surprise I was informed that pursuing two regular degrees is legally not acceptable.

Firstly, let’s understand what is a "Professional Degree”?

A professional degree is basically a college degree that allows you to be engaged in a business entity/ profession. In certain kind of professions, like in the case of advocates, doctors or Chartered Accountants (CA), you cannot be engaged in any professional enterprise unless you hold the required qualification and therefore, professional degree requires extensive education and hard work.

Manisha Parmar, a practising lawyer at the Delhi High court, cleared all my myths about holding two professional degrees in India.

She informed, “Pursuing two regular/full time degrees is not allowed. However, one can study two courses separately. One of the courses which you wish to pursue can be done from a regular college, but the other one must not be a full time course. You can do diploma courses instead”.

Two regular degrees cannot be obtained simultaneously, she asserted.

Towards the end of our conversation, she brought into picture an incident where, the Bar Association of Delhi (regulatory body for advocates) issued a Show Cause Notice to a noted advocate of Delhi, for "Professional Misconduct".

He was charged with violating the law which prohibits a practicing advocate from indulging in two active professions, in his case – Advocate and CA. He owned both the degrees, and therefore was slapped with a show cause notice.

This year, highest no of CAT takers from Maharashtra

Maharashtra has the highest number of CAT (Common Admission Test) takers this year. As many as 31,040 candidates appearing for the ongoing CAT for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) reside in the state, followed by Uttar Pradesh with nearly 25,270 candidates, and Delhi with 21,507.

Of the 2.14 lakh applicants this year, the top five cities of New Delhi (21,224), Bangalore (19,553), Mumbai (16,895), Hyderabad (16,138) and Pune (13,368) constitute around 40.7% of the total registrations. Data released by IIM-Kozhikode, which is organizing the CAT 2012, states an overall increase in numbers across the categories. There is a 4.2% increase in the total number of registrations this year. The IIMs also witnessed around 8.6% growth in the number of girls registering for CAT in 2012. The number of boys taking CAT has gone up by 2.6%.

This year, there was an increase in number of candidates having two-three years of experience. As compared to last year, there is a 43% rise in the number of candidates having more work experience. The number of candidates from the non-creamy OBC, SC and ST categories has gone up too. The NC-OBC category saw a growth of 13.3%. "The shift in candidate pool in terms of gender and social balance, as well as work experience, is a positive indication that our society is becoming more aware of the opportunities available," said SSS Kumar, CAT 2012 convenor from IIM-Kozhikode.

Candidates from engineering stream, nearly 67.6% form the largest pool of CAT takers, this year too. Around 67.6% students are from the engineering stream.

Prometric, the firm that conducts the computer-based CAT, said 9,805 candidates candidates took the test on Monday. Both sessions have concluded and all candidates who started their tests have completed successfully.

Allahabad University declares CRET-12 results

The authorities of Allahabad University have declared the results of the written tests of its Combined Research Entrance Test (CRET)-2012 for most of the subjects. The announcement of result paves way for admission to its DPhil programmes to finally start for the year.

Out of the 46 subjects for which the varsity had conducted the entrance test, it has declared the results for 34 subjects and also made them available online on its official website-http://cret2012.com. The results of a dozen subjects including Ancient History, Anthropology, Bio-informatics, Biotechnology, Computer Science, Defence and Strategic Studies, Economics, Medieval and Modern History, Business Administration, Computer Applications, Zoology and Sociology are however still awaited.

Director, Admission Cell, AU Prof BN Singh informed that the results declared are of candidates found eligible to participate in Level-3 of the CRET-2012 to be held at respective departments. Prof Singh said that no candidate has been found eligible for Level-3 for some subjects including Geology/ Applied Geology/ Geophysics, Nutritional Science and Food Technology.

"Qualified candidates are required to produce all the original documents, marksheets, caste certificates and the other documents required by the respective departments at the time of Level-3 tests for verification," he added.

As per the results, a maximum 97 candidates have been declared eligible for Level-3 in Hindi, 82 in Political Science, 50 in Sanskrit, 42 in Geography, 36 in Education, 31 in Chemistry, 25 in Botany, 23 each in Commerce and Music, 22 each in English and Philosophy, 21 each in Environmental Science and Urdu, 12 in Home Science, 11 in Psychology, 7 each in Mathematics and Physics, 5 in Law, 4 in Statistics, 3 each in Arabic, Biochemistry, as well as 2 each in Agriculture Botany, Agriculture Chemistry, Painting, Material Science, Globalization and Development Studies, Atmosphere and Ocean Studies as well as Behavioral and Cognitive Science besides 1 in Persian.

The varsity had conducted the Leverl-1 and Level-2 tests of CRET-2012 on September 9, 2012.

In the city the entrance was held in four centers- KP Inter College, Allahabad Degree College, Ewing Christian College (ECC) Higher Secondary School and Maharishi Patanjali Vidya Mandir- along with at one centre each in New Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Out of the registered 1958 candidates of Level-1 exam, in which UGC NET qualified students were exempted, a total of 1803 candidates had appeared while in Level-2 test, which had 2357 candidates registered has seen 2119 appearing in it.

Osmania University debars 30, 000 students from writing exams

A staggering 30,000 students have been barred from sitting in the annual undergraduate examination under Osmania University in a massive crackdown to improve extremely poor attendance across colleges in the city and send a strong message to students bunking classes, authorities said on Thursday.

About 70,000 students out of 1 lakh registered students are now sitting for the examinations which began last week and will continue till the end of November, senior officials said.

"As per strict instructions of Osmania University (OU) about 30,000 students were detained due to lack of attendance from across all under graduate colleges which are affiliated to the university," G Biskshmaiah, Controller of Examination at OU, told TOI.

"The university cannot be lenient with candidates who have just about 20% attendance," he added.

Authorities cracked the whip to bring some discipline back into the system after they found thousands of students had zero-20 % attendance throughout the academic year and did not take steps to improve their attendance.

Officials admit that it was needless to say that regular strikes at the university demanding separate state of Telangana also had a toll on attendance.

Two days of strike last week following suicide by D Santosh Kumar, a PhD aspirant in the university campus was an example of how crucial working days are lost.

Authorities also barred several student union leaders with poor attendance from sitting in the examination. Some of them spearheaded the T-issue demonstration and prevented other students from entering classes.

Several student leaders of Telangana agitation from OU's constituent colleges figured from Secunderabad PG College and Nizam College.

"We have missed classes for a political cause. The state government should intervene and allow students who were part of the agitation to appear for the examination," said S Prashant, student leader of Nizam College in Basheerbagh.

The academic year itself was short this time and the Telangana strikes made it worse by causing disruption of classes for at least 15 days.

Debarred students plan protests

Managements of top city colleges said as per the instructions of the university, they had kept a strict online log of attendance and hence the crackdown was easier as identifying the erring students was not difficult.

Students who were denied a chance to write the examination which started last week are planning to protest. About 135 students who were detained in Loyola Degree College, Alwal had submitted a memorandum to the college authorities asking them to write off their attendance shortage.

In Villa Marie College for Women, Somajiguda, 30 students who were detained have also staged a protest. The students who miss the examination this November will have to forego an academic year to clear the papers.

The management representatives said most students who were detained due to attendance shortage are those who have been bunking college regularly for personal reasons.

Right to Education Theme Song

Right to Education Theme Song by Unicef

CAT 2012 ends

Nearly 3,000 students from city appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2012 which came to an end on Tuesday. The examination was held at a single centre and was conducted within a window period of 21 days. The results are likely to be declared in the month of January.

According to experts, the paper was easy in initial slots of the CAT and it got tougher as it came to conclusion. The paper of data interpretation and quantitative aptitude section was tough as compared to that of logical reasoning, one of them added.

According to the organizing body Prometric, there has been a rise of five per cent in the number of candidates registering for the examination this year.

Reform in education will be back on agenda: Shashi

Observing that India's education policy has remained out of sync with the time, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor Monday called for reforms in the sector, critical to the country's growth needs. 

"We will work towards putting our reform agenda back on track," Tharoor told a higher education summit here, adding that as India aims to grow at 8.2 to 8.5 percent, the country needs to invest in education and help improve the quality of education. 

The minister said there has been no significant improvement in terms of quality education delivery. The issues of "skill gaps, skill shortages and unemployable graduates still persist". 

Referring to IITs and IIMs, he said: "These are still islands in a sea of mediocrity." 

Also, even though India with 621 universities and 33,500 colleges has one of the largest network of higher education institutes across the world and second in terms of student enrolment, its gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 18.8 per cent in 2011 is still less than the world average of 26 per cent. 

Global experiences indicate a positive correlation between GER and economic growth in the country and point to the need for a minimum of 30 percent to sustain economic growth. 

Tharoor said that while countries in the Middle East and China are wooing foreign universities to set up campuses in their countries, "India turned away many academic suitors who have come calling in recent years". 

Bills relating to higher education reforms such as the Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011 and the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 are awaiting Parliament's nod. 

The minister said companies are entering the higher education space in the "guise of training". 

"Our University system simply is not producing well educated graduates to meet the needs of Indian companies today." 

He said there has to be a sharp improvement in the quality and quantity of institutions of higher education to match global standards. 

There is a proposal to establish 50 centres for research in frontier areas of science, design innovation centres, innovation centres in different universities and also research parts of the IITs and other technical institutions. 

"If finally established, it would transform the research environment in our country," he added. 

Tharoor also stressed the need for public-private partnership to meet the deficiency in public funding. 

India spends 1.1 percent of its gross domestic product, while South Korea spends 2.4 percent and the US 3.1 percent. 

IIM-A summer placement process starts from today

The premier B-school is all geared up for summer placements for its 2012-14 PGP batch. The cohort-based placement process will begin at Indian Institute Of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Wednesday.

Despite the fears of an uncertain economic environment, students are expecting a rise in stipends by 15 to 20 per cent this year. The expectations for IIM-A students come following continued interests of leading companies, who made attractive offers during final placements in March this year.

The placement this year, like last year, will take place in four clusters beginning November 17. The second cluster start on November 9, third on November 16 and the process will conclude on November 17. Members of the student placement committee opined that given the economic scenario, consulting, ecommerce and technology companies will have more to offer than the banks and other financial firms.

In the summer placements last year, out of 379 students, who took part in the summer placement process, only 42 students got overseas opportunities. In 2011, student's top preference continued to be banking, financial services and insurance ( BFSI) sector, with 112 students accepting offers in this area. The other sectors that attracted students in high numbers included consulting which had 81 students accepting offers, FMCG with 45 students and IT with 31 accepted offers.

Education must be more goal-oriented

What do Indian parents want? Indian parents want their children to get a ‘good’ education. Given their resources and their understanding of education, they look for the best school their money can buy. They send their children to tuition or coaching classes and they buy other school materials.

The assumption is that ‘more is better’ — more years of schooling, more supplemental inputs into schooling and more expenditure. For most parents, whether rural or urban, high income or low income, ‘success’ means doing well in exams. Exam performance is the only way to get to the next stage, whether it is to further education or into the workplace.

What does the government want? The Right to Education law requires government to ensure that every school in the country has a specified set of inputs and processes.

Here the belief is that once these are in place, ‘education’ will be guaranteed. Underlying the government’s push to provide inputs is the assumption that more is better but appropriate number of qualified teachers, classrooms, days of teaching are needed. Going by what is stated in the RTE document, ‘success’ means that all schools have all the mandated inputs and processes, all children in India in the age group 6 to 14 are enrolled in school and all children complete eight years of schooling.

What does the evidence say? Data from all sources in India point to enrollment levels that are well above 96%. Putting both centre and state together, expenditures on elementary education in India have risen from Rs. 62,000 crores in 2006-7 to an estimated figure of Rs. 112,000 crores in 2010-11.

While there are still input gaps, the number of teachers and basic facilities is rising consistently each year.

What is stuck is what children are learning in school. Regardless of what you feel about learning outcome measurements done by Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER) or by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the evidence points to the fact that the value added for every year spent in school in India, is low and unchanging.

ASER uses basic reading and arithmetic tasks for assessment; the same set of tasks are given to all surveyed children from age 5 to 16. The exercise is carried out in every rural district in India every year.

While there could be discussion on the measures and methods, the fact remains that without basic reading, and arithmetic skills, children will not go far in school or in life. PISA is a more sophisticated international effort which measures what 15 year-olds can do. Again, there can be debate on how or what PISA does but the message from both exercises (as well as from any recent empirical evidence on student outcomes in India) is clear.

There is a crisis. The crisis is about the capabilities that every child in India should have by the time she or he finishes each stage of schooling. This crisis cannot be tackled simply by believing that more is better or proceeding as if it is business as usual. Concrete, clear, new pathways connecting inputs and processes to outcomes have to be built.

These pathways must be understood and must be implementable by schools, parents and teachers.

Clarity is key
Both in policy and in practice, our education system needs at least three fundamental and urgent shifts. First, capabilities and learning goals need to be articulated for each stage of the education system. These goals need to be clearly stated and be understood by ordinary people. Goals need to be such that most children can achieve them at each stage.

Clear articulation of goals will help everyone to understand that simply knowing textbook content or doing well in exams is not the objective of the education system. Parents and communities must understand what the school system is supposed to achieve. This understanding can lead to local accountability and also to support for schools.

Second, all elements in the school system need to be aligned in both design and implementation to maximise the possibility of reaching the goals.

These elements include appropriate allocation of funds, teacher preparation, curriculum, textbooks, methods of teaching, materials, organisation of schools and monitoring. A continuous system of field support and review will allow refinements and changes to be made to figure out what works.

Third, in a country with a weak culture and appetite for measurement, simple methods have to be used on scale to gauge the progress being made every year. Such measurements need to be carried out by both the government and citizens.

The measurements should help school systems internally to refine and review their procedures and enable parents to pressurise schools to do better.

Measurement also means engagement — in understanding the situation and figuring out what to do next.

India has almost reached universal enrollment. This is an impressive achievement. This happened because everyone understood the goal. Policymakers, planners, practitioners and parents all understood what had to be done: get every child in school. To have every child in school and learning well, we need a similar clarity, priority and alignment for a new set of goals and figure out new effective pathways for achieving them soon.

Schools told to upload RTE info by Dec 31

Ironically, most of the violators (schools) are situated in areas either surrounded by middle class localities or slum areas. "Certainly, it's a serious issue. The department is looking into all possibilities to provide remedies and to take punitive action against them," said Sharma. The Act does allow them to serve notices, he added but it will be of no use as the session has crossed midway.

The State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) expressed shock over how 40% of the schools grossly violated RTE Act-2009. "The commission will look into the matter," said SCPCR member Vishamber. The department has refused to divulge the names of any school till they submit the final report.

Many violator schools claimed that they were not against admitting EWS students as the government reimbursement was higher than their own annual fees. "The government is expected to give around Rs 8,000 per child annually, which is more than the annual fees charged by many schools," reads one reply sent by a school.

To nail these violators, the education department has directed all schools to upload RTE information - number of seats and date of admission on their website by December 31. The circular reads: "Schools should compulsory publish material relating to RTE to help create awareness on this Act. They should also set up helpline kiosks during admissions to render all possible help to the beneficiaries."

Proposed amendments to Maharashtra Universities Act

The committee of technology-based examination reforms in state universities has suggested amendments to the existing Maharashtra Universities (MU) Act, 1994, to enable the use and integration of technology in the examination processes. Some of the key suggestions are:
There is a need to modify clause 32 (5e) of the MU Act to allow question bank or question paper bank systems. As of now, the clause states that: "The (exam) committee should obtain three sets of question papers in sealed covers in the respective subject. Chairman of the committee should draw at random one of such sealed covers containing question papers. The selected cover with seals intact should then be sent to the (printing) press."

Different universities such as the Maharashtra Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Science University ( MAFSU); Babasaheb Ambedkar Technical University ( BATU) and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) have variations to the above mentioned clause in their corresponding acts, but to the similar effect. The clauses are needed to be modified to allow usage of IT in setting question papers with built in security measures.

Separate clause be inserted fixing responsibility on the pro-VC, dean or director of evaluation for imparting training to teachers and administrative staff on usage of technology, new trends in the assessment processes such as cognitive and summative assessment, creation and use of repository of questions, use of technology in paper setting and conduct of examination.

Changes needed to ensure that the controller of examination (CoE) or director of evaluation are part of the decision-making process instead of the prevailing system of being invitees on university committees. This will remove difficulties faced in recruitment of staff or availing of finances related to examination section.

Financial Requirement

For financing the information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in state universities, the reforms panel has suggested that the larger universities, with surplus amount left from exam related revenue, may utilize the same for implementing IT initiatives.

Smaller universities may collaborate with the larger universities and enter into an agreement with service providers jointly. Due to a large number of students of both the universities combined and economies of the scale, the cost per student of the IT solution should be reduced in comparison to purchase of IT solution by smaller university on its own.

Smaller universities can share the infrastructure such as data centre, etc, of the larger universities and use in-house developed softwares of larger universities.

The universities may opt for either Capex-Opex or transaction-based fee models for funding IT initiatives. In the first model, the universities invest upfront in the capital expenditure (Capex) of deploying hardware and software solutions. In the following years, the expenditure is then limited to operational expenditure (Opex). In the second model, the universities employ services of a service provider whom they pay per use on number of transactions. The fee per transaction is fixed slab.

The committee has recommended that examination-related revenue should not be used as general revenue by the universities. It should be used only for examination related expenditure.

Draft of ECCE policy gives primacy to early childhood learning

The Centre has batted for evolving a national policy aimed at promoting optimal development and active learning capacity of all children below the age of six years in the country.

The draft of the proposed Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy came up for discussion here at a gathering of eminent child experts, policy makers, senior government officials from Child Development and Education departments and representatives from non-government sector.

Addressing the gathering, Woman and Child Development minister Krishna Tirath said the major planks of the draft policy are universal access, equity and quality and strengthening capacity building.

She emphasised that the provisions of the policy will be governed by a strong quality framework.

The policy seeks to universalise the provisions of ECCE for all children mainly through Integrated Child Development Services, which has a network in all nooks and corners of the country.

Special plans will be developed for the most marginalised and vulnerable groups besides repositioning of anganwadi centre (AWC) as a vibrant child-friendly centre with adequate infrastructure, financial and human resources.

The recommendations of the day-long consultation included creation of a conducive environment for private sector involvement to achieve access, quality and equity, espousing an approach of convergence between policy, curriculum, training and other relevant standards and strengthening of institutional capacity building.

It also called for closely working with the Human Resource Development Ministry to address the specific problems of the disabled and linking of early childhood education with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Mumbai students forced to pick centres in Haryana, Assam

Chaos reigned on the first day of the registration process for the first ever National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for post-graduate medical aspirants. After the website meant for online registrations crashed several times on Thursday, city students were forced to pick centres in Uttarakhand, Ranchi and Haryana because centres in Mumbai and Maharashtra had filled up fast.

Around 8,000 medical students from the state usually take the PG entrance test. The state test was scrapped and NEET introduced this year. The website mentioned that centres would be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis. As there were only seven centres in the state and four in Mumbai, students rushed to book their seats online. Students reached the bank from where they were supposed to collect vouchers as early as 4.30 am and waited till 9.30 am for the bank to open.

Since the online test is between November 23 and December 6, students were hoping to get a slot towards the last few days. A student said, "The server crashed at least three or four times while I tried to register. We continued trying to register for three to four hours, but with no luck. It is a three-stage form filling process and the server crashed erratically at any point. When I finally managed to complete the process, city and Pune centres were full."

Another student said, "By 10 pm, most places across the country were filling up fast. With no centres in Gujarat and Rajasthan, I was forced to choose Uttarakhand."

Some students who logged in early on October 5 easily managed to get seats in Mumbai centres. A student said, "Some of my friends who filled the form around 3 am, did get a seat allocation in Mumbai. We have been told that the process was much easier on Friday and students managed to fill up the forms in 15 minutes. Now as per the rule, slots and centres once chosen cannot be rescheduled or cancelled. Why then should the authorities claim that the system worked on first-come-first-serve basis?"

Most of the students who filled it up on Thursday to be on the safe side have ended up with centres in Ranchi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Assam, etc.

Officials from Prometric (who are conducting the online exam for National Board of Examination) remained unavailable for comment. According to a release issued by the Prometric, around 38,000 candidates registered for the test within 24 hours.

Prometric India MD Soumitra Roy said, "Scheduling instructions have been shared by NBE before the start of the registration window, and candidates were reminded at the time of online scheduling. Prometric continues to increase available seating for current test dates to address heavy registration demand. As a result of demand in individual areas, not all sessions may be available and candidates should select another session if their first choice is not available."

Jharkhand Academic Council asks schools to create e-mail ID for benefit of Inter students

The Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) has directed all government schools which will conduct secondary examinations in 2012-13 to create an e-mail ID and submit it to the council as soon as possible. In a letter issued to all secondary schools, the JAC said the schools must immediately submit their e-mail IDs so that the registration procedure for the secondary examinations can be completed on time.

JAC chairperson Laxmi Singh said there was a provision for students to improve their mistakes in the registration forms for secondary examination filled by them. "As they (students) are unable to see the original form submitted by them, so they do not know their mistakes. We have planned to put up all the forms that will be filled manually by students on the JAC website so that the students can check them and re-fill the form correctly. The corrected form will be submitted in the schools and the principals will send those forms to JAC in bulk. We will accept the corrected forms only from the IDs provided to us." Singh said.

The new JAC proposal will definitely help those students who are unsure about the form they filled and unable to see the copy even after visiting their school several times.

Manoj Kumar, a student of matriculation at Zila School, said: "It is a very good idea adopted by the JAC and if it is implemented properly we can be assured that we can correct the form if necessary it and resend it."

The principals of the schools have also appreciate the step taken by JAC. They, however, feel the option of submitting the refilled forms only once may create problems.

NG High School principal Tej Narayan Yadav said, "It is a very good proposal. But as we are supposed to send all the corrected forms only once, the students who had made any mistake while in filling the form a second time will not be able to correct it."

Singh says this was just the beginning of computerization. "In future all communications with the respective schools will be through the e-mail ID provided by them and all the information related to examinations will be given to the schools on the same ID, thereby, making the work easier and expeditious," she said.

B-Schools hike stipends by 20% despite meltdown

Despite fears of an uncertain economic environment, students of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) expect a rise in stipends by 15-20 per cent during summer placements this year.

With leading companies showing a continued interest in hiring interns in spite of a meltdown, students are optimistic of drawing attractive offers. Nitin KV, recruitment coordinator with IIM Lucknow, said, "Besides long time recruiters, there are a lot of first timers as well. We expect that the stipends, particularly in consulting, marketing and general management sectors, will increase by 15-20 per cent this year."

IIM Ahmedabad is also looking forward to a robust summer placement season. "Students are looking forward to a good summer placement as we had attractive offers during final placements in March," a member of the student placement committee, said. Students are also looking forward to winding up the placement season early this year by considering domestic companies over their international counterparts. "Diversity of Indian companies offering internships has increased. Students are quite inclined towards domestic companies, which offer better roles," said professor Kulbhushan Balooni, chairperson-placements at IIM Kozhikode.

Of late, business schools have also seen a spike in students opting for startups over leading brands.

"Students are not tempted by salary packages now. A large chunk wants to join startups, which offer them varied, larger roles and allow them to contribute more to the growth of the organization as compared to traditional roles offered by established companies," said Balooni.

Demand for startups is also an indication that students are keen on taking up entrepreneurship amid slowdown. About 75 per cent students at IIM Kozhikode have expressed interest in interning at startups. In order to attract more startups, IIM Kozhikode is not charging placement fees from these ventures.

"Students are aware of the expected low hiring in multinationals and are keen on broader roles in startups. We have been trying to reach out to several alumni who are running their own start-ups for guidance," said Vibhu Kapoor, coordinator, placement committee at IIM Indore.

Nessa Illumination Technologies, an Ahmedabad-based startup, which hired two students from IIM Ahmedabad for business development activities, is also in talks with IIM Kozhikode. "A lot of systems are not in place in a startup and these students can help us with marketing, an area where they can impress the clients very well," said Akshat Khare, founder, Nessa.

The summer placement process at institutes begins in the first week of November. Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur has also seen a spurt in new sectors like ecommerce and technology this year. However, XLRI is expecting only a single digit percentage rise in stipends this year.

"Companies are a bit reserved in terms of hiring and we are not aiming at the stars this year. We do not see companies in finance sector making many offers," said placement coordinator at XLRI.

Govt working on guarantee scheme for educational loans: RBI

In a bid to remove problems faced by students in obtaining education loans, government was working on a scheme under which it would extend guarantee for advances upto Rs 7.5 lakhs, Reserve Bank of India governor D.Subba Rao said on Wednesday.

"There are grievances of students not getting loans or encountering problems...Understanding that there is a problem, the government is now working on a guarantee scheme," he told students here at an interactive programme organised by RBI and ABP News.

He said for loans upto Rs 7.5 lakhs where there was no third party guarantee or collateral security there would be guarantee given by the government.

"It is yet to be launched. Hopefully it would come and resolve some of these issues," he said replying to a question on the woes of students in getting educational loans.

On paper for loans upto Rs 4 lakhs there should be no collateral security or guarantee. "For good students and good institutions it is easier to get loans than for students not so good or institutions not rated so high," he said.

"But our endeavour is irrespective of level of achievements of institutions, they must have access to education loan upto Rs 4 lakhs," he said.

On inflation, he said "our endeavour, effort and expectation is that inflation will come down and will remain steady" so that it accelerate growth.

He also said RBI wanted to deepen penetration of banks either through bank branches or Business Correspondents since more than 50 per cent of the households in the country did not have bank accounts.

Noting that RBI and the government had initiated several steps towards financial inclusion with a view to ensuring that every household had bank accounts, he said it would become successful only when banks see it as a business opportunity.

Replying to another student, the RBI governor said the apex bank was playing a development role and had implemented steps for rural development including priority sector lending.

On security and safety of electronic transactions, he said "Securing security is shared responsibility. It is not the exclusive concern of RBI alone. It is responsibility of commercial banks and of the customers."

All the three should share the responsibility and work together to ensure that banking transactions especially electronic and mobile transactions were safe, he added.

Medical PG entrance aspirants sweat it out for forms

Applicants to post graduate courses in medicine and surgery had a tough time on Thursday as they queued up for procuring application forms for the entrance examinations. There was chaos and confusion as the mode of conduct of examination had been changed from this year with the National Board of Examinations entrusted with the task to conduct the tests. The entrance examinations for various MD and MS courses as well as post graduate diplomas are scheduled to be conducted between November-end and December. The applications forms for the diploma courses began to be distributed from Wednesday while forms for MD and MS entrance tests started to be issued from Thursday.

Hundreds of MBBS graduates and their parents waited for hours in front of the Axis Bank branch near the Lakshmi Mills junction in the city, which was the only centre from where students could get tokens on payment of fees. They had to upload a secret number then on the internet. Students complained that the bank did not have necessary facilities to cater to such a large crowd.

Dr N Sakthivel, who is taking entrance tests for both PG degree and diploma courses, said they had to wait for almost six hours to get tokens. "We were waiting from around 6am on both days," he said. Though the applications will be available for the next two weeks, students had come in large number on the first day itself as the number of centres in south India was limited, he said.

Dr H V Manjari, who waited till 12pm to get the application forms, complained that the entire process was disorganised. "There is only one centre in the city to issues applications. There are only few centres in south India which have been filled up in the early hours. Now the centres vacant are in Assam, Kashmir and other distant places," she said. Till the last year, the All India institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) used to conduct the entrance examinations. "They used to conduct it in a commendable manner," said Dr Vyshali Mohan another aspirant.

The number of centres for the examinations must be increased from the present 30. Around 2 lakh students appear for the examinations and there ought to be more centres, students point out.

However, bank officials blamed server problems for the chaos. "Extra counters were arranged, but the server got jammed. Similar problems were reported from other parts of the country also," a bank official said.

JEE Main Online application forms from Nov 1

The newly introduced Joint Entrance Examination (Main) for admission to various engineering colleges across the country will be conducted in April 2013 for the first time. The examination will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) which released a detailed document on examination earlier this month. The application forms for the JEE (Main) 2013 will be available online from Thursday, November 01, 2012. There will be no sale of paper application forms.

The CBSE has set up facilitation centers across the country which will help candidates complete their online application forms. 43 centers have been announced and more are expected to be added over the next few weeks. The services at these centers will be available free of cost.

The document with the details of the examination which was released recently confirmed that the offline mode of the examination will be held on April 07, 2013 and the online mode will be conducted between April 8 and 25, 2013. The document further stated that the blind candidates will be given an extra hour to complete the exam along with the help of writers. The document also revealed that a candidate will be allowed three consecutive attempts for the JEE (Main) examination.

Top 10 IT Certifications for 2012

Global Knowledge, a US-based IT and business skills training company, releases an annual IT Skills and Salary report. Based on their latest release, they have come up with Top paying IT certifications that open up several job opportunities for certified professionals.

Certain certifications like CCIE (Cisco Certified Internet-working Expert) and VCDX (VMware Certified Design Expert) have not been included in the report because of their exclusivity.

Top 10 IT Certifications for 2012 are as follows:
1. PMP (Project Management Professional): Project Management is meant to complete a complex project in a cost-effective manner and on time. From planning to hiring resources to delegating tasks and delivering the final product, project managers have to handle multiple tasks. In this field, the certifications offered by Project Management Institute (PMI) certifications are widely respected worldwide. See details

2. CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional): If you have at least five years of experience in the field of Information Security and want to be a globally recognised expert in the field, opt for CISSP. CISSP professionals define and implement the architecture, design and management of the security of business environments. See details

3. CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate): CCDA is a CISCO certification for network professionals who have verifiable skills needed to design routed and switched network infrastructures and services involving LAN, WAN, and broadband access for businesses and organizations. Valid for three years, the CCDA certification curriculum encompasses designing basic campus, data center, security, voice, and wireless networks. See details

4. ITIL v3 Foundation (Information Technology Infrastructure Library): ITIL certification denotes Best Practice in IT Service Management. It covers documented, proven processes to cover the entire Service Lifecycle of the quality IT services, which makes it easy for organisations to learn, modify, and implement it to suit their corporate aims. See details

5. MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer): The MCSE is the most recognized industry certification in the world. It helps professionals expand their skills both on-premise and in the cloud. Constantly in touch with the latest industry trends, MCSE professionals are thought to be forward-thinking industry leaders in IT certifications. See details

6. VCP (VMware Certified Professional): Certifying IT professionals for their skills in datacenter virtualization, VCP certification is recognised by the industry. It signifies completion of a VMware-authorized training course and at least six months of hands-on experience with VMware technologies that teaches professionals to successfully install, deploy, scale and manage VMware vSphere environments. See details

7. CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional): CCNP Certification is for those who have at least one year of networking experience and would learn the necessary skills to work on complex network solutions. This IPv6 Forum Gold Education Certification validates the professional's ability to plan, implement, verify and troubleshoot local and wide-area enterprise networks. They are apt for enterprise roles such as network technician, support engineer, systems engineer or network engineer. See details

8. CompTIA Server+: CompTIA Server+ certification is a vendor neutral certification for professionals that have at least 18 to 24 months of experience in the Information Technology field. It validates knowledge of server hardware and software. The certified professionals possess skills and knowledge in the field of server issues and technology, including disaster recovery and troubleshooting. See details

9. MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional): MCITP certification assesses the individual's skills for a particular job role in IT, such as database administrator or enterprise messaging administrator. The certifications are not updated for future versions of Microsoft products. However, MCITPs are eligible for special upgrade paths to new Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) certifications, which access an experienced professional’s ability to design and build technology solutions in the cloud and on premise. See details

10. CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate): Validating the professional's ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-sized route and switched networks, CCNA curriculum includes implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN, basic mitigation of security threats, introduction to wireless networking concepts and terminology, and performance-based skills. It also includes various protocols like IP, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Serial Line Interface Protocol Frame Relay, Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2), VLANs, Ethernet, and access control lists (ACLs). See details

Expert Advice
Rutul Naik from Jetking Infotrain Ltd points out, "CCNA, CCNP, MCSE, MCITP, and RHCE are some certifications which are most popular among Indian students who wish to pursue a successful career in IT. The first four are there in this list too. Students who wish to make a career in Networking can get Cisco certifications (CCNA or CCNP) and students who wish to make a career in server on Windows platform, can go for Microsoft certifications (MCSE or MCITP)."

At Jetking, top companies have approached the institute to specifically ask for CCNA certified students even at fresher levels. Naik says, "Recruiters always prefer someone who is certified. Advanced Certifications are quite helpful in career progression too."