New Delhi, Nov 16: Over 2.4 lakh aspirants will vie for entry to the prestigious IIMs, the Common Admission Test (CAT) for which will be computer-based for the first time this year. The test, which goes paperless from this year, is scheduled between November 28 and December seven, and will be conducted at 105 centres in 32 cities across the country.
Thiruvananthapuram, November 15: The Kerala Public Education Department will completely switch over to free software from the next academic year to become the first Indian state to end dependence on licensed software in a government wing.
A recent meeting of the curriculum committee for Higher Secondary Studies decided to extend use of free software for studies in plus-one and plus-two classes as well. Free software is already in use for IT-related studies up to the 10th standard, an official press release said today.
Thiruvananthapuram, November 15: The Kerala government has adopted free and open source software (FOSS) for the state education department and for e-governance.
The curriculum department on Saturday has also recommended extension of FOSS to higher secondary schools.
The implementation of this has been entrusted to the IT@school Project, a mission mode agency under the state’s general education department.
Information Technology was made a part of high school curriculum in Kerala in 2003 when IT was made a compulsory subject for Class 8.
Mumbai, November 15: A woman, who spent seven years in jail for murder, has got a job soon after stepping out of the prison walls, courtesy an initiative by the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU).
When Sandhya Jadhav, convicted for killing a man who tried to rape her, stepped out of Nagpur’s central jail on Friday, she had an Arts degree and also a Rs 7,000-per month job, due to the efforts taken by the new Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr Sudhir Gavhane.
Bhopal, November 14: At least three students of a girl’s college in Indore were arrested on Friday for misbehaving with their principal who fainted and had to be hospitalised, police said.
The girls belong to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP – the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing) to which those accused in the Professor Sabharwal murder case of Ujjain belonged.
Ahmedabad, Nov 14: A bill most likely to be passed by the Australian Parliament this December is expected to have wide ramifications for Indians wishing to migrate Down Under for studies.
“The Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Re-Registration of Providers and Other Measures) Bill 2009” — passed by the Australian House of Representatives — is presently awaiting Senate ratification.
It targets Australia’s little-regulated private education providers, which by some estimates make up roughly 70 percent of the education system.
New Delhi, November 13: As the government wants to make accreditation mandatory for all institutions, the IITs have said they would like to be accredited by a statutory body and not by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).
The IIT directors have told the government that they have no objection to accreditation of the institutes, but insisted that the accreditation agency should be a statutory and autonomous organisation.
Ahmedabad, Nov 13: A day after the state government announced to implement the UGC pay scales as per the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, the agitating teachers, unsatisfied with the new Government Resolution held an emergency meeting on Thursday.
At the meeting, the Gujarat State Federation of University and College Teachers Association decided to intensify its agitation programmes (currently on hold) from Nov 18.
New Delhi, Nov 13: The projects are submitted by 4.4 lakh final year engineering students from 500 colleges
An online database of engineering projects developed by an IIM-A professor, engineering students and a non-government organization has grown to over one lakh projects in just six months.
Mumbai, Nov 13: The state government has made the MNS student wing pay for the damage its activists caused at the Mumbai University registrar’s office in January. The government told the High Court today that it has recovered Rs 57,000 from 10 activists of the MNVS.
It is the first such recovery since the Bombay Police Act was amended last year. The Act provides for recovery of damages from persons or political parties responsible for destruction of public property in political agitations, a provision rarely enforced.
Ludhiana, Nov 12: The Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation system started by the CBSE from Class I onwards has made the teachers much more accountable than ever. But there will be discrepancies at the teachers’ end.
This is what the school principals of different schools affiliated to CBSE foresee ash they discussed the CBSE examination reforms and continuous comprehensive evaluation at BCM School, Chandigarh Road.
Ludhiana, Nov 12: Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union ( PCCTU ) today intensified its agitation against the anti-teacher attitude of the managements of the privately-managed aided and unaided colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh.
The managements have refused to implement the new pay scales for the teachers of these colleges inspite of the fact that the Punjab government issued notification in this regard on September 2, 2009 which the UGC and MHRD has already approved by its notification of December 31, 2008.
Aligarh, November 11: Aligarh Muslim University, which was closed sine die last month following protests over the murder of a student, is likely to reopen in a phased manner from the first week of December.
A decision to this effect was taken yesterday at the meeting of senior officials, according to an official release.
The decision, however, comes with a rider.
Bhopal, November 11: The Aligarh Muslim University, (AMU), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU), with the INHolland University of Amsterdam for the exchange of students and academic staff between the two Universities along with joint activities in the area of course development, student internships and higher research.
New Delhi, November 09: Doctor of Letters to Meira Kumar (B) Varanasi: Goldie Hawn meditates in a boat, purchasing
Banarasi silk products (B) Bangalore: B S Yeduyurappa greets Jagadish Shettar (B) Mumbai: India’s first permanent bar made of ice, “21
Fahrenheit” (B) Tokyo: Defence Minister A. K.
–Agencies
New Delhi, November 09:Infosys BPO Ltd, the business processing outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of software major Infosys Technologies, is looking at fresh acquisitions and hiring people.
Speaking to reporters here Monday, Infosys BPO managing director and chief executive Amitabh Chaudhary said his company was “looking at acquisitions in the range of $80-200 million”.
“We will hire 2,000-2,500 people in four months,” he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit.
— Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, Nov 09 : Bills to introduce reforms in the education sector, including setting up an independent accrediting body, will be introduced in the next two sessions of parliament, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said here Monday.
“We are going to have a separate overarching agency and an accreditation system. We don’t call it (the overarching agency) a regulator, that is an erroneous phrase,” Sibal told reporters at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum.
Shimla, Nov 09: Colleges across Himachal Pradesh were closed Monday following a one-day strike call by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) youth wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Over 100,000 students in 150 colleges have been affected by the shutdown.
ABVP’s national secretary Umesh Dutt said the education shutdown was being observed private and government colleges across the state.
“The call for the shutdown was given following the failure of the government to take action against the deputy commissioner of Mandi,” Mr. Dutt told.
Washington, Nov 09: A prominent US university has approved a new course under which students would examine the rise of Hinduism from colonial period to the present day.
The new course called “Modern Hinduism” was approved by the faculty of the DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana — a private, national liberal arts college.
Founded in 1837, the university has Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University — named after Francis Asbury, the first American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Kolkata, Nov 09: Both the warring student factions at Presidency College, Kolkata, have never seen eye-to-eye on any issue. But things seem to be different when it comes to their demand to grant the college the university status.
The Students Federation of India (SFI), which is representing the students’ body and the Independent’s Consolidation (IC), the Opposition, is pressing together for the university status.
According to Richa Chowdhury, the general secretary of the College students union, it is necessary for the college to be upgraded to a university.
Mumbai, Nov 09: The State on Sunday got its first dedicated college for students with disabilities. The Sanskardham Academy Junior College in Goregaon has been set up especially for students with impaired hearing.
It will offer arts and commerce courses for Classes XI and XII under the HSC board.
Mumbai has 18 municipal schools and around 143 private schools for physically and mentally disabled children but does not have a college specifically for the disabled.
Pune, Nov 09: The 100th batch of the Basic Engineering Course (BEC) passed out from the Naval Engineering College at the Lonavala-based INS Shivaji on Saturday.
“It is a significant milestone for the college. The batch had 23 graduating officers, including five officers from the Sri Lankan Navy and three from the Maldives National Security Service,” said Commander R Ravi Shanker, senior education officer for Commanding Office.
Agra, November 08: Hundreds of students of the Dr. B.R.Ambedkar University took to the streets on Saturday afternoon forcibly closing down all colleges, to protest the assault on students, including on girls, on Friday by varsity employees.
The agitating students want assistant registrar Balaji Yadav sacked for allegedly instigating the employees to beat up the students, who had come to demand redressal of their grievances.
Agra, November 08: Hundreds of students of the Dr. B.R.Ambedkar University took to the streets Saturday afternoon forcibly closing down all colleges, to protest the assault on students, including on girls, Friday by varsity employees.
The agitating students want assistant registrar Balaji Yadav sacked for allegedly instigating the employees to beat up the students, who had come to demand redressal of their grievances.
New Delhi, November 07: Starting this Children’s Day Nov 14, child rights NGO CRY will start a nationwide campaign asking the government to amend the Right to Education Act 2009.
Listing out a three-point agenda, members of the NGO said that amendment in the act is necessary in order to make education accessible to all.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, in the present form, talks about compulsory education to children in the age group of six to 14.