Education and Career

Shimla, February 26: In a bid to check school dropouts, the Himachal Pradesh government Thursday decided to set up school management committees to ensure involvement of parents and teachers to motivate more children to join schools.

“The state cabinet this (Thursday) evening decided to set up school management committees to ensure involvement of parents and teachers in the school functioning and motivate children to join schools,” an official statement after a meeting of the cabinet said.

New Delhi,February 25: CBSE is planning to launch academic as well as vocational courses on a number of new and unconventional subjects like Food and Beverage Services, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development D Purandeswari in a written reply said the Central Board of Secondary Education has planned to launch an academic course as well as vocational courses on Food and Beverage Services, Food Production, Media Studies and Appreciation.

New Delhi, February 24: The human resource development (HRD) ministry appointed expert committee has found that some of the deemed universities likely to face blacklisting are like family-run institutions, the Lok Sabha was informed Wednesday.

“In respect of these 44 deemed institutions, the review committee had found family controlled management architecture, unrelated academic programmes and deviation from the original mandate of grant of deemed to be university status,” HRD minister Kapil Sibal said in a written reply.

Bhubaneswar, February 24: The Orissa government Tuesday sought Rs.16,000 crore from the central government to implement Right to Education (RTE) Act in the state from April.

The government said the state is not in a position to implement the RTE due to paucity of funds.

“We require about Rs.16,000 crore to implement the RTE. We have already communicated the state’s demand to the centre,” Orissa’s Mass Education Minister Pratap Jena said.

New Delhi, February 24: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Tuesday said it is striving to make learning a seamless process through digital libraries.

“With open and distance learning increasingly becoming popular, we are trying to bring in a set of recommendations by experts from across the world to make learning a smooth process,” Sudhir Arora, chief librarian of IGNOU, said after the inauguration of an international conference.

Howrah, February 23: Where there is a will, there is a way — this adage was proved right once again today by a 16- year-old girl handicap girl here.

Subhadro Bhowmick, a student of PNS High School in Bagnan area, wrote her class X board exams using her feet in Howrah district, school headmaster Sanjit Sengupta said.

“Special arrangements have been made for her during the exams. Her writing speed is comparable to other students,” Sengupta said.

About 9,47,495 students are appearing for the Madhyamik examination which began today.

New Delhi, February 23: Avoid nagging and criticising your child. This piece of advice comes from experts who know that with the board examinations round the corner, parents tend to worry too much, often pressurising their children to excel in their exams.

The helpline run by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been flooded with phone calls from not only anxious students but their parents as well, seeking ways to deal with stress.

Hyderabad, February 23: The concept of Muslim appeasement in India is nothing but a “myth”, a leading sociologist said today.

“In contemporary Indian society there is an attempt to regard the Muslims as cultural outsiders. There is a sort of exclusion while dealing with issue of reservation for minorities, particularly Muslims,” Prof T K Oommen, who was a member of the Sachar Committee, said here.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a three-day conference on “Exclusionary Perspectives for Muslims & Marginalised Groups” organised at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University.

New Delhi, February 22: One in ten young men and one in four young women in the country have never attended school, a new study has revealed.

The findings of the ‘Youth In India’ survey show that young women in rural areas and married young women were particularly disadvantaged, one-third of rural young women and almost two-fifths of married young women had never been to school.

New Delhi, February 22: A law to make education a fundamental right of every child in the age group of six to 14 years has been notified and will be effective from April one, President Pratibha Patil today said.

In her address to the joint sitting of Parliament, she said the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act has been notified.

Jaipur, February 22: In yet another case of real life imitating reel life, 20 dummy candidates were successful in 2009 Rajasthan Pre-Medical Test (RPMT) and were among the 54 fraudulent admissions to different medical colleges in the state.

Bangalore, February 22: W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller (Life Sciences and Human Resource), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been chosen for the DRDO’s Technology Leadership Award for 2008 instituted by the DRDO.

Dr. Selvamurthy will receive this award for his contribution to biomedical sciences, leading to the development of various life-support technologies that culminated in increasing the fighting efficiency of the armed forces at high altitudes such as Siachen.

New Delhi, February 22: The second cluster of the cohort-based placements at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) attracted some of the regulars including Deloitte, TAS and Feedback Ventures offering consulting and general management roles to the students of the post-graduate programme (PGP) at the institute.

Deloitte made 10 offers for consulting roles that included lateral offers as well, while TAS and Feedback Ventures made six offers each and all of them were accepted by the students.

Pune, February 22: With the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations set to commence from February 23 and March 4 respectively, Pune division of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has launched a counselling facility for students appearing for these exams and their parents. Students with any exam and curriculum-related difficulties can call on these helpline numbers.

Those interested may call on the following numbers between 10 am and 6 pm for counselling during the exam period, said a press note.

Kolkata, February 22: Carrying posters and placards condemning terrorism, several hundred students and alumni of different schools and colleges of the city Sunday took out a rally demanding peace and security for people all over India.

The rally, organised by current and former students of various schools and colleges here, walked along various streets of south Kolkata after starting from the Park Circus five-point crossing and terminated the procession at Golpark.

Hyderabad, February 21: Human resource (HR) departments in various organisations need to recognise and reward the potential of employees besides giving performance-based benefits, Dean of Kolkata-based Unitedworld Business School (UBS), Anamitra Chatterjee said today.

“HR heads need to treat non-performers with respect. HR personnel should assess the potential of employees, give challenging assignments and if they falter, they need to be supported,” he said.

New Delhi, February 21: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has decided to set up a campus in Nagaland in collaboration with the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram.

“The proposed campus, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education and Development (MGIDE), will consist of schools of social work, agricultural development, teachers training, community college …,” IGNOU said in a release.

The school for social work within the MGIDE campus will be called Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Social work, it said, adding that the course would be launched from July this year.

–Agencies

Bhuwaneshwar, February 21: When 10-year-old Bikash Moharana deposed before a local court here as witness in connection with the murder of his father, little did he know that his educational backwardness would be exposed in public.

Though he was a class V student of Khalibagicha government UP School in this district headquarter town in Orissa, Bikash could not write his name when asked to do so by the court on Wednesday last and had to instead put his LTI (left thumb impression).

Ahmedabad, February 20: Adding to the inconvenience of 2.15 lakh students across the country, who appeared for CAT-2009, the results have been postponed to February end.

The above information is released in an official statement from from convenor of CAT-2009 at Indian official statement Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Earlier the results were supposed to be declared by this week but due to certain reasons, now the results have been postponed.

New Delhi, February 19: The idea of starting second shifts in existing universities and colleges is doing the rounds in government circles.

A roundtable on higher education, set up by HRD Ministry, today discussed about such a measure which is aimed at utilising fully the facilities that remain unused after the class hours.

The committee, chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, explored the possibilities whether facilities could be used for second shifts in the existing institutions.

Mumbai, February 19: To understand the process of teaching and learning in Indian schools, teachers from the Specialists’ Schools Association in the UK are in the city visiting Podar International School at Santacruz.

The 10 primary and secondary teachers have been observing classroom teaching from classes 1 to 12. “They have come here to understand our innovative teaching techniques, how we teach reading and our system of inquiry-based learning,” said Vandana Lulla, principal.

—-Agencies

Mumbai, February 19: Shortage of teachers continues to be a serious concern in government medical colleges. The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had directed the state government to fill all vacant posts by May 2009. But 184 of the 1,173 posts of lecturers in the 14 state-run medical colleges-cum-hospitals in state are still vacant.

New Delhi, February 19: “No shoes, socks, belts or modern wristwatches” besides a ban on mobile phones, calculators and scraps of paper can be carried by students while appearing for school examinations in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu that is scheduled to begin next month.

This directive has been given to invigilators by the state Directorate of Government Examinations to curb malpractices and cheating.

Kochi, February 18: Online tutoring seems to have caught the fancy of many in Kerala with many enthusiasts from unemployed educated housewives to even 13-year-olds doubling up as teachers.

Akshay Kumar PG, aged 13 years is a sixth standard student of Green Valley Public school at Kothamangalam in Ernakulam district while Amal Mariyadas, another a sixth grader is a student at Bishop Moore Vidyapeeth in Alapuzha district.

Agra, February 17: Wrapping up a convocation address in three minutes might be unheard of, but it was what Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental did today.

The audience were left flabbergasted as the VC took less three minutes to finish his speech at the 75th convocation of the Agra University, now Dr B R Ambedkar University.

By the time, the distinguished gathering comprising award winners, doctorate holders and their proud family members got attuned to the address, which included mention of thanks for inviting him and congratulations to the awardees, it was all over.