Re-examination for '08-09 B Ed students

The department of higher education (DHE) is mulling to conduct examination for the B Ed students of session 2008 and 2009 whose admission process had come under dispute due to recognition status of colleges. Only those students, who were allotted counselling date and time, will be allowed to take the exam.

The decision was made in a meeting of DHE officials with the registrars in the state capital on Tuesday. "We had a meeting and we have decided to conduct examination for candidates who were called for counselling. Dates will be announced once we get a written consent from the government," R D Musalgaonkar, registrar, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, said.

The admission process had run into dispute when DHE had stopped the process due to controversies related to recognition of B Ed colleges. Following the DHE action, the colleges had moved court for its opinion as they had started taking admission in colleges. The court had constituted a team to find out the status of counselling in colleges. The team had found that few colleges had started taking admission. The court had then directed to conduct re-examination of the aspirants and declare the results. Relating to it a meeting was held on Tuesday, which decided to conduct examination for those students who had been called for counselling.

Panel against replicating US model for proposed 200 community colleges

Committee of state education ministers has recommended that proposed 200 community colleges should be called by a different name. Though highly successful in the US, the committee has said, not all its features can be imported to India due to socio-economic and socio-cultural differences between the nations.

The committee — headed by Archana Chitnis, minister of school education, Madhya Pradesh — has said these colleges, with equal emphasis on enhancing vocational and educational ability of students be given a "suitable indigenous name, which meets the character of these colleges aptly and meets the contemporary needs of the society and nation".

The committee that also visited the US to study community colleges has said in India these colleges should offer courses that are a mix of knowledge and skill components. Three year honours degree course could be broken into modules/credits specifying the total number of credits required for acquiring a degree. The skill component of the curriculum should be separately drawn.

It has been recommended that these colleges should specify the credit requirements for awarding other qualifications like certificate, diploma, advanced diploma so that those who join after class XII and want to leave should have some qualification. These colleges have also been asked to offer short-term courses of various durations to the learners in areas where no formal qualification would be needed.

Committee has said a student of community college will have the option to exit after completing certain credit points of a course and rejoin the course at h/his convenience later with full protection of credit already earned. Since these colleges are meant to serve the need of the community, local students would be given suitable weightage in registration. Central and state governments have been asked to lend support. States would set up State Level Steering Committee under chief secretary and representation from all stakeholders and the Centre would form a National Level Monitoring Committee. Cost of establishing these colleges would be shared by the Centre and states.

Learning English to top job interviews

Amid growing concerns over the lack of English communication skills of engineering students in Kerala, engineering colleges are working on improving their communication skills from the first semester itself.

"We intend to start orientation and soft skills development courses that will include effective communication in English and group discussion from the first semester. Special classes will be conducted on a regular basis till the final semester," said Cochin University of science and technology registrar Dr A Ramachandran.

At present, engineering colleges conduct orientation and skill development courses for a week during the final semester, just before the campus recruitment. But that is set to change. A recent survey conducted by an employability measurement company, Aspiring Minds, revealed that four out of 10 engineers were lacking in proper English communication skills.

"Improving the communicative skills of a student is not enough, as 90% of the words they will use later are technical in nature. We are now making an effort to familiarize students with the language of the industry, as it is the 'technician's language' that will help them succeed," said vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University Rajan Gurukkal.

Explaining the problem, Bhuvna Anil Kumar, head of the department of IIT/JEE coaching from, Kochi said: "Basic English communication at the school-level is fine. The problem arises when children go to engineering colleges. During the campus recruitment training, we found that the general language of communication in campuses is Malayalam."

Tandem Network's A U Prasad said: "More engineering aspirants are taking the language test at our institute. Based on the results, we work on areas that they need to improve."

In a test conducted at P C Thomas's institute in Thrissur, it was found that while students of the state board could correctly pronounce only 100 English words in a minute, CBSE students managed to pronounce 300 words. "We have asked students to study five new English words a day. This will improve their vocabulary," said Thomas, director of the institute.

Class 12 boards to have questions on values in 2013

Don't be surprised next year if during your Class XI final and XII board exams you find a question which does not strictly adhere to the subject. The Central Board of Secondary Education has decided to introduce 'value-based questions' of three to five marks in all the major subjects. Value-based questions will be introduced in 15 subjects.

'Aditya participated in a group discussion in his school on the ill effects of tobacco on human health. In the evening he goes with his family for dinner and insists on sitting in the 'non-smoking area' to which his father (who is a heavy smoker) objects . In this situation, who wins your support — Aditya's concern for health and environment, or his father's objection? Justify giving two reasons. Also, suggest any three effective propaganda campaigns for anti-tobacco awareness' . The aforementioned lines is actually a question sample that a biology student of Class XII can expect next year.

The chairman of CBSE, Vineet Joshi, said, "CBSE has decided to follow an interdisciplinary approach in value education where values are intermingled with the content of all the major subjects in Classes XI and XII . The Board has also decided to add 5% weightage in the major subjects (English, Hindi, mathematics, biology , physics, chemistry, accountancy , history, geography , business studies, entrepreneurship and economics ) in Classes XI and XII through questions which will be integrated with the content of the subject and analysed on the basis of the values it reflects."

The questions will be for five marks in a paper of 100 marks and three to four marks in a question paper of 70-90 marks, which will "come into effect from next year" .

According to the document announcing the introduction of the value-based questions, it has been widely felt that the existing educational ecosystem needs to be further strengthened to deliver values enshrined in the Constitution of India. The curricula cutting across all subjects need to articulate values in explicit terms and the assessment schemes, but at the same time must reciprocate by assigning weightage to value-based items.

Posts for SC and STs lie vacant in central universities

Even as the government is pushing for affirmative action for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the field of education, most of the posts reserved for teachers from these categories are lying vacant in 40 central universities across the country.

Figures from the ministry of human resource development (HRD) show that less than a third (29 per cent) of the total sanctioned posts for SCs have been filled in 40 central universities. Of the total of 2,521 sanctioned SC posts, only 742 have been filled. For STs, out of 1,265 sanctioned posts, only 331 (26 per cent) have been filled.

Take the case of Delhi University. It has 255 posts for SCs and 128 for STs, but appointments have been made for only 44 SC and 14 ST seats.

In Jawaharlal Nehru University, 109 posts have been sanctioned for SCs and 62 for STs. The university has, however, hired only 24 SC and 46 ST teachers for these posts.

In Jamia Millia Islamia, only 58 of the 124 sanctioned posts for SCs have been filled. For STs, the university has 62 sanctioned posts, of which only 17 have been filled.

The situation is worse in the Aligarh Muslim University. It has only one SC teacher, and not a single ST teacher - against the sanctioned number of 283 for SC and 142 for STs.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University has filled up only 28 of the 67 sanctioned posts for SCs and 13 of the 33 posts for STs.

The situation is however better in the central universities in Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, with the institutions filling up more than 90 percent of the vacancies for SCs and STs.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes says the issue has been taken up several times, but nothing has happened so far.

"We have taken up this issue, but so far nothing has happened," T. Theethan, joint secretary of the commission, told IANS.

"The SCs and other such groups can be empowered only through education, but they are being discriminated against in this very field," he said.

Theethan added that a committee was being formed to fill up the vacant posts in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

"We have formed a committee. First we will look into the vacant posts in the BHU, and then we will look at other central as well as other universities," he said.

The HRD ministry however says sanctioning of new posts has added to the numbers.

"In view of the expansion in the 11th plan period and increase in the intake capacity of students, central universities have been sanctioned additional teaching posts," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

A ministry official said it had written to the central universities to launch a special drive to fill the vacancies for SCs and STs.

"The HRD minister has written to the UGC (University Grants Commission) chairman to ensure filling up of the backlog vacancies," the official said.

The official said the UGC, while approving the budget for central universities for 2011-12, had directed the universities to fill up the vacant posts. This was followed by communications in January and March.

A Delhi University professor, not wanting to be named, told IANS that the posts were not getting filled because there were not enough qualified candidates.

"There are some basic qualification requirements, which we need to maintain for quality in the central universities," the professor said.

Asked if the seats could be converted to general, the HRD ministry official says "there have been such proposals, but there is a big question mark on the constitutionality of such a step. We have not taken any decision on it".

Actuarial sciences

Hindu College, Delhi University , is introducing an addon course in actuarial sciences from the current academic year. A certificate course, it is aimed at enhancing the employability of students in the insurance sector by equipping them with extra skills.

Actuarial sciences involve financial and risk management in the insurance sector, including areas like banking, investment , healthcare, etc. To practice as an actuarial scientist in India, one has to be a member of the Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) and qualify for the various academic programmes.

"The idea behind introducing the programme is to enhance skills and increase employability of students in the insurance sector, which is an emerging industry in India. The industry is growing at present, with a lot of opportunities for aspiring students ," says Pradumn kumar, acting principal, Hindu College. The college has collaborated with MetLife Insurance India Ltd to offer the course, which will train students during the internship period. The course has 12 papers including financial economics, statistical methods, financial mathematics, business economics, business awareness models, etc.

"The course prepares students to qualify for the exams conducted by IAI. An actuary is a professional who is right behind the financial strength of an insurance company. The programme will open up a number of employment avenues for students. Also, the qualification for becoming actuaries is the same in India and abroad, which will be an added advantage as aspirants will have options to practice anywhere in the world," says Rajesh Relan, managing director, MetLife India.

However, with a total number of 30 seats in each batch, students can enroll in two batches — the first, which started August 16 onwards, the other, which is scheduled to start in January 2013 (last date for registration is December 31).

Eligibility
The course is open to students across universities. Eligible candidates should have cleared +2 with at least 85% in mathematics/statistics . Graduates and postgraduates must have a minimum aggregate of 55% in mathematics or statistics, mathematical statistics, econometrics , computer sciences, etc.

Course Duration
There is no fixed duration for completion of the course. Students have to clear all the papers before being awarded the certificate. At the end of each semester, the college will conduct its own exam.

Record number of students take govt quota engineering seats in Tamil Nadu

Academics have predicted that at least 50,000 engineering seats in the government quota are likely to go vacant in 2012. They will probably be spot on, but more students are opting for government quota seats this year than ever before.

Officials in charge of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions said that they expect 1.25 lakh seats to be filled through the single window counselling system this year, the most since the process was introduced in 1997.

Till Friday, 1,17,507 candidates were allotted seats through the government quota, compared to 1.04 lakh students in 2011 and 1.1 lakh students in 2010.

Higher education experts said the large number was not a pointer to a sudden surge in demand for engineering seats. "It is just that more students have more confidence in single window counselling. There is greater awareness of the benefits of securing admission through the system," said professor Rhymend Uthariaraj, secretary of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA).

Many students opted for admission through single window counselling because the tuition fee for those opting for management seats was much higher than the fee that students have to pay if they take government quota seats. The tuition fee students who take a non-accredited BE or BTech government quota seat is set at 40,000, while an accredited course costs 45,000 under the government quota. The tuition fee of a management course has been set at 70,000.

Another reason why students are choosing government quota seats is that banks are refusing to offer education loans to students for management seats. Students said from this year banks have started to demand proof that the student has opted for a government quota seat.

Many students hope to be able to pay for their course through an education loan, said education consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. "They have been forced to opt for a government quota seat even if the college is not their first choice," he said. But students still have a choice of colleges.

"Many groups have three or five colleges and between 500 and 1,500 vacant seats," Gandhi said. "Quality matters and students are making more informed choices."

More than 50% of the students who applied to take part in the single window counselling system were first generation graduates, for whom the government had ordered full tuition fee waiver.

Academics expect 1.25 lakh seats to be filled by August 22, when the month-long engineering counselling ends on Saturday. After that the TNEA will conduct phase 2 of the vocational counselling on August 19 and 20. This will be followed by supplementary counselling on August 21 for candidates who failed the Class 12 exam, wrote the supplementary exam and are eligible to take part in the counselling process. The counselling will close on August 22 when SC students will be allowed to take up unfilled seats reserved for SC Arunthathiar students.

Wonders of science

Prof Bikash Sinha, Homi Bhaba Professor, VECC, Department of Atomic Energy, government of India, talks about the experiments at CERN and the discovery of the Higgs Boson like particle, while delivering a talk "Chasing the Missing link at CERN-Higgs Boson" at the auditorium of the Heritage Institute of Technology.


Could you tell us a bit about the motivation behind the experiment at CERN?
See, right from the ancient age man has always felt this intense desire to go for the pursuit of the fundamental. This has been observed in the ancient texts like the Vedas. Man realized that to find the fundamental he needs to develop methods to probe into the greater mysteries of Nature. This yearning to go to the roots still continues within man. Peter Higgs, a theoretical physicist during the 1960s, once theoretically suggested the possible existence of a fundamental particle which is responsible for giving mass to others. This sparked off the experiments at CERN. Such intense is this desire that the scientists built the Large Hadron Collider, which I believe is the most technologically advanced piece ever created by man till date. The LHC is a miracle machine.

What has been India's contribution in the experiments at CERN?
First and foremost it was a joint effort by all. Almost 3381 scientists and around 173 institutes from over the world participated in the CMS experiment. Tremendous effort was given by the scientists from the SINP, Kolkata, who were members of the core team at the CMS experiment. The Muon Spectrometer was developed by the efforts of these scientists from India. India played a significant role in the ALICE experiments with the contribution of the MANAS chip which was initially being developed by SINP, Kolkata. However, these contributions from one particular country should not dilute the fact that it was at the end of the day a combined attempt.

What do you have to say about calling the Higgs Boson - the God particle?
Calling the Higgs Boson the God particle is a complete misconception. Nothing can be further away from the truth because it has nothing to do with God! You cannot say that you have discovered God! Millions of dollars were spent and hundreds of people were giving so much effort for this experiment since Peter Higgs's suggestion in 1964 that the name - God "damn" particle emerged simply out of a colloquial American slang. This however was hyped by people who do not care for anything else expect God damn money and popularized a fact which is far away from the truth, which resulted in all this confusion.

What would you like to say to the budding scientists of India?
In spite of being a theoretician myself I would like more and more youngsters from India to participate in frontier and practical research oriented aspects of Physics. We have discovered a Higgs Boson like particle. Thus the experiment at CERN will go on for another 15-20 years roughly. I would really like to encourage them to go there and do some practical work.

Walking along for a cause

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Bengaluru along with the citizens of Koramangala, Bengaluru has taken the initiative in creating awareness about 'Freedom from Child Labour'. Towards that purpose, they are organizing an awareness walk, Walk-a-thon on August 12 in Koramangala in collaboration with CHILDLINE India Foundation, a pan-India organisation dedicated towards fighting the malaise of child labour rampant in our society. HONDA, which has been at the forefront of the fight against child labour, has lent its support to the initiative.

The event will commence at 4.30 pm from NMIMS Institute and the procession would then traverse through Koramangala, via Sony World and Sukh Sagar towards Raheja Arcade for the closing ceremony. The awareness walk will be flagged off by Dr Suresh Mony, director NMIMS, Bengaluru. The closing ceremony will include a street play organised by the students of NMIMS, which would endeavor to highlight the various aspects of child exploitation indulged in by sections of our society, and central to this would be the issue of child labour and the apathetic attitude our society displays towards it.

Children from various affiliate NGOs working with Childline India Foundation will be participating in the walk. Also participating are the students, faculty and administrative employees from the institute, along with the citizens of Koramangala. A column of HONDA motorcycles will be taking the initiative in heading the procession.

All proceeds from the event would be pledged in the name of NMIMS, Bengaluru and HONDA towards CHILDLINE India Foundation, as a symbol of their support for the initiative undertaken by CHILDLINE. Contributions from every section of society would provide an indelible encouragement in the fight against child labour. For more on CHILDLINE's operational policies and contribution procedures, kindly visit www.childlineindia.org.in/1098/donations.htm

A "Freelance Photography Contest" will be conducted during the walk, wherein amateur photography enthusiasts are required to cover the event and send their entries to the institute, which would in turn ensure its appropriate propagation through various media channels .Interested participants can cover the event and add a tagline which relates to "Freedom from Child Labour".

Happy Independence Day!

Shortage of teachers hits Std X students

Governmental mismanagement has yet again taken a crippling toll on schools in Maharashtra, reports Hemali Chhapia. Many state-aided institutions are grappling with teaching vacancies, forcing them to fall behind schedule. The disarray has affected all students but particularly of class X, who are gearing up for their first external examination.

The crisis has roots in a student census the state conducted last October in which it found lakhs of "bogus" pupils on schools' rolls. P 4

Reasoning that the survey showed many schools had surplus teachers, it stopped new appointments. Fresh hirings are used every year to fill 10,000 vacancies left behind by schoolteachers exiting the system. At the same time, it decided to take stock of additional teachers and move them to schools with a shortage. The process is a work in progress.

With no new appointments, many state-aided schools have been forced to use their existing staff to take additional lectures for no extra pay. In some schools, teachers have been urged to handle extra subjects. The worst affected have been students from higher classes.

State-wide, schools schedule their class X timetable in such a way that the syllabus gets completed by December or January, thereby giving students enough time to prepare for the board examinations. "But with insufficient teachers, the schedule is difficult to keep up with," confessed a principal of a Mumbai school.

School education director Sridhar Salunkhe insisted the state will "soon start the process of transferring surplus teachers to the schools that need them". The process was stayed because of a petition filed before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court. Earlier this week, the court directed the state to present its plan of action within a month.

For schools wrestling with staff crunch, testing times may not end very soon. "The state will have to first draw up a list of surplus teachers and then assign them to the schools that need them based on qualifications. This is going to take a couple of months," admitted an official.

Aruna Galgali, principal of Poorna Pragnya High School, said the institution has been forced to cancel several classes because of lack of teachers. "I am facing a dharam sankat (moral dilemma). I feel guilty because we are not doing justice to the children. A few new teachers who have been appointed are working without a salary."

Sanjay Patil, treasurer of headmasters' association, too said several schools have cancelled classes or have asked teachers to shoulder additional workload. "I wish the government had managed this situation differently," he said.

P M Raut, president of the Mahamumbai School Teachers' Association, concluded, "Although the government wants quality education, it is not filling up teaching vacancies. How then do we provide good education?"

Haryana to provide self-defence training to school girls

Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, will provide training in self-defence and other martial arts to girl students studying at elementary level during 2012-13. Under this scheme, training would be provided in five schools of each block and for this trainers would be appointed for a duration of three months, an official spokesman said.

He said that under the scheme, there was a provision for a budget of Rs 4,500 per month per trainer. In Mahendragarh district, the programme would be organised in 20 schools where a batch of minimum 50 students would be chosen at the district-level, the spokesman said.

For the appointment of trainers, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of additional deputy commissioner with district project coordinator, assistant project coordinator and elementary education officers of the concerned block as members.

This year, 131 cases flood anti-ragging national helpline

In 2011, Anna University suspended a group of second and third year students for ragging first-year students. This year, a leading college on the city's outskirts had to take disciplinary action against 10 seniors for harassing a first-year student. Both cases were not brought to the notice of police, but academic authorities did initiate action against the offenders.

Today, the menace of ragging is being fought through a two-pronged approach. Government has created a reporting mechanism to ensure that educational institutions do not brush incidents under the carpet and secondly, serious cases are dealt with in a legal manner. The HRD ministry has received 67 complaints from first-year students in colleges across the country since the start of the academic year. The ministry has closed 16 cases. Inquiries are being conducted on the remaining, but only a few have been brought to the notice of the police.

In all, the figures suggest reporting of ragging on the national helpline has been on the rise since the mechanism was introduced in 2009. In most cases, educational authorities have acted on their own without involving the police.

"We show no leniency in dealing with the problem, but we do not take every issue to police because we will lose the confidence of students. The situation will become too complicated and the informant or complainant will be under too much pressure," said a professor, who declined to be named.

TN was one of the first states to make ragging a cognizable offence. The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Ragging Act 1997 was enacted after a medical student at Annamalai University, was murdered by his senior. But, over the years academicians have begun to feel that the offence needs to be decriminalized and discussed in the open so awareness is created about how it affects students rather than treat them like criminals.

D Purandeswari, minister of state for human resource development, voiced similar reservations about the Prohibition and Eradication of Ragging Bill 2011 when it was being debated in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The bill seeks to debar the convicted student from continuing studies in any school or college for three years.

"We cannot eradicate ragging by bringing in yet another legislation . We are seeing a decline in number of cases though more students are coming forward to report instances of ragging. The issue should be addressed holistically rather than as a law and order problem," she had said.

A professor, who declined to be named, also blamed students' ignorance as the cause of the menace. "Many cases of ragging occur because of the ignorance of a student. We are of the opinion that a momentary act of indiscretion should not be allowed to spoil the student's future."

Right to Education helplines ringing off the hook

Several students from economically underprivileged backgrounds have been dialling the Right to Education (RTE) Act helpline numbers, wanting to know how they could get into good private schools. According to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which came into force from April 1, 2010, 25% seats are reserved for underprivileged sections in all private unaided schools.

Several private schools in the city have not implemented the provision and many people have called the helpline numbers with complaints.

The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) created the RTE helpline numbers (044-28278742, 28211391) to help implement the legislation and give needy students access to private schools. Delhi-based NGO Social Jurist has also started national helplines (09868529459, 08826456565) for free legal assistance under the RTE Act to students from poor backgrounds.

"We have received several calls from various parts of the state," said SCERT joint director (schemes) M Palanisamy We are taking steps to address the complaints. We are also conducting various awareness programs for both parents and teachers."

Officials of SCERT said several callers ask for documents required for admission under the RTE Act. Many students and parents also want to know the nodal officers they should contact for admissions and the process of reimbursement of school fees.

"Most people are still unaware of the legislation. Many private schools claim that the RTE quota is not applicable to minority-administered schools," said a senior SCERT official. "We are also getting complaints that some private schools are not allowing admission under the RTE Act. We will take every step to ensure that the RTE Act is a success in the state."

Ashok Aggarwal, advisor of Social Jurist and national president of the parent's association, said the national helpline has received several calls from Tamil Nadu. "We are providing legal help to needy students seeking admission under the legislation," he said. "Some callers have complained of arbitrary hikes in the school fees without any notice."

Students Federation of India (SFI) is planning to organise campaigns across the state to promote awareness on the Act. The federation's state president, K S Kanagaraj, said many private schools are flouting the RTE Act. "We have been conducting various campaigns and seminars demanding effective implementation of the law," he said.

Indians are No. 2 online searchers for education

A recent study by Google has found that Indians are second in the world, behind only the Americans, when it comes to searching online about educational institutions and courses. According to the survey, the details of which were released by the online search giant on Wednesday, over 60% Indian students use the internet to research on education.

The study, covering the period from January 2011 to June 2012 and titled Students on the Web, revealed that education-related queries from India were growing at over 46% year-on-year and of the total questions asked online, 40% were for higher education courses. The use of mobiles to send queries has grown by 135% year on year, accounting for 22% of the total education-related searches.

Rajan Anandan, VP and managing director of Google India, said, "With over 60 million internet users in India being in the 18-35 age group, education-related search queries are exploding on Google. Our core objective behind compiling the study was to understand the impact internet is having on this young population with regard to education-related decision-making."

Despite an array of courses available, Indian students seem to stick to the tried and tested ones, with IT/vocational (44%) courses inviting the maximum hits, followed by engineering (40%) and management (16%).

"Students opt for whatever assures them a good job. Engineering and IT are still the favourites as students start opting for bifocal subjects like computer science in junior college itself," said Suhas Pednekar, principal of Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga. According to him, most students now go for a management course after graduation. "Since our graduation courses are majorly theoretical with very little of skill-based subjects, students prefer doing an MBA after graduation," Pednekar explained.

The study was compiled by combining Google search query patterns and an offline research by TNS Australia. According to the offline survey which was conducted in seven cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Ahmedabad, 56% students said job placement was the most important criteria while researching/selecting institutes/courses. Faculty (49%), course content (48%), reputation of the institute (43%) and fees (41%) followed behind. The study also found that students research for 5-6 months on an average before zeroing in on a course and an institute.

Secondary Education Board of Assam revamps exam, result pattern

In the lines of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Board of Secondary Examination, Assam (SEBA) has also decided to change the evaluation pattern and for that, special workshop will be conducted by the officials of SEBA and CBSE soon.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said SEBA officials will have to undertake a special training on evaluation in the CBSE pattern.

"It is always said that the evaluation pattern of CBSE is better, so from now on, we will hold a special workshop for the officials of both SEBA and CBSE so that the officials can learn the evaluation pattern," he said.

Besides that, two different sets of question papers will be set for each subject so that if there is an emergency situation, the second set of question paper can be issued. "This time, we faced a situation where the question paper had to be changed and so it took a lot of time to bring out a fresh set of question papers. So, we will have two sets of question papers from now on so that emergency situations can be taken care of without any hiccups," he said.

The minister said there will also be a change in the result pattern. From this time, the results will be declared on the website and will also be available on SMS.

"The results will be declared on the website and on the day the results are out, the SEBA chairman will name a list of students who secure a good position in the exam in a special press meet," he said.

The minister also stated that NCERT prescribed books will be followed for science and maths in class 9 from now on. Close circuit TV cameras (CCTV) are likely to be installed in the examination centres to ensure that cheating and other malpractices are curbed during the examination.

"We will either install CCTV camera or do a video recording in all the examination centres like we did for the Combined Entrance Examination (CEE) this time to curb cheating and other malpractices," he said.

Students surrender seats over high fees

The dreams of four students were shattered on Monday when they surrendered their seats after CET counselling because they couldn't pay the fees. Interestingly , the government is receiving reports of private professional colleges harassing students for additional money to join the course.
Even though the state government has decided the quantum of fees colleges can charge, most institutions are charging extra for offering "other facilities" . Around 10 students surrendered their seats on Monday . Of these, four mentioned financial burden as the reason. A student, who got admission to Dayanand Sagar College, decided to go ahead with his BSc course instead of BE.

Complaints flood KEA
Financial burden is taking a heavy toll on students ' dream. Quoting high fees, four students decided to surrender their seats post-CET counseling.
"The Karnataka Examination Authority may be able to settle the issue this year. But next year, the college will ask us for more fees," said a helpless father who preferred anonymity . The student was asked to pay a fee over and above what was paid at the KEA helpline centre during counselling.

Another student, who was asked for Rs 37,000 by Bangalore Institute of Dental Sciences , surrendered the seat for the same reason, after having already paid Rs 35,000 after document verification. Financially strapped students who got admission to Alpha College of Engineering, Bangalore and C Byregowda Institute of Technology, Kolar also gave up their seats. These students typically would have paid up to Rs 41,590 after counselling.

KEA has been flooded with complaints on colleges demanding extra fees. On Monday, the government met private colleges ' association. Officials at the meeting told TOI that private colleges have agreed not to charge extra fees and not to send back students. They won't charge fees for supernumery quota. The department has assured students can contact KEA with complaints.