Education and Career

Bhubaneswar, September 01: The Orissa government has linked 40 schools in the state to the Edusat network with an aim to modernising the school education.

‘We have connected 40 schools on an experimental basis. I am sure it will be successful and expanded to many other schools in Orissa,’ Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Monday.

The network provides two-way video and audio communications between teachers at the studio here and students in the remote schools thus making the class interactive.

New Delhi, August 31: Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal is likely to announce the new grading system for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class 10 after the meeting with state education ministers on Monday.

The meeting between Sibal and state ministers has been called by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).

At the meet, a string of education reforms, as well as the implementation of Right to Education is likely to be discussed with state governments.

New Delhi, August 31: Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal is likely to announce the new grading system for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) class 10 after the meeting with state education ministers today.

The meeting between the HRD minister and state ministers has been called by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).

Education reforms, as well as the implementation of Right to Education may be discussed at the meet.

This system is likely to be introduced in CBSE schools from the next academic year with no pass or fail category.

Chandigarh, August 31: Poll fervour is gripping the Panjab University (PU) campus, as student elections draw near. Political parties are throwing the rule book out of the window as they splurge to woo young voters.

The elections to the Panjab University Students’ Council will be held Sep 4. To get maximum support, especially from freshers, student outfits are arranging frequent trips to the hills, movie shows, expensive hotel meals and more.

New Delhi, August 30:Contrary to perceptions that Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are not doing enough research, IIT-Delhi has earned over Rs.102 crore (Rs.1.2 billion) in a year from research projects — more than what the government gives it as annual grant.

Sponsored research saw a major growth in the number of projects as well as in revenue earning during 2008-09.

New Delhi, August 30:An exaggerated importance to brands, pressure to perform and peer pressure have pushed up suicide rate amongst adolescents today – a case in point being the 19-year-old student who killed herself apparently after not getting admission to a prestigious Delhi college, say psychologists and parents.

Kritika Khanna, a bright student who scored 92 percent in her Class 12 board exams, did not get admission to the sought after Lady Shri Ram college and instead had to take admission in Jesus and Mary college under Delhi University. She was apparently depressed about it.

Hyderabad, August 29: A set of programmes intended to boost the scientific spirit among schoolchildren was held at the National Geophysical Research Institute on Friday.

The highlight of the day-long set of events was the ‘meet the scientists’ programme where the children, drawn from 25 schools interacted with three scientists, one each from National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).

Bangalore, August 29: Most swine flu deaths in Karnataka – where the casualty figures are second only to that of Maharashtra – have taken place in Bangalore, and experts say one reason could be the number of visitors the city gets from other parts of the country and abroad as an IT hub.

With three more fresh cases of deaths due to Influenza A (H1N1) reported Friday – two of them in Bangalore – Karnataka’s toll has risen to 23 while the Maharashtra figure stands at 48.

New Delhi, August 29: They spend their lives shaping young minds and spreading knowledge, but teachers are an unappreciated lot. Now they can sit back and enjoy some good music as a musical tour paying them a special tribute gets going across India.

The Kolkata-based band Dhwani will start its tour on Sep 1 in its home city and go on to Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Indore on Sep 2, 9, 10 and 20 respectively.

Kolkata, August 29: Former Knowledge Commission chief Sam Pitroda today said he is in favour of greater autonomy for universities.

“We have said in our report of National Knowledge Commission’s recommendations that there has to be autonomy.

The key is more autonomy to the universities to be able to function,” he said.

He also questioned the system of Chief Ministers selecting vice-chancellors of universities.

Kolkata, August 29: Professional education institution WLC College India (WLCI) has announced special scholarships for defence personnel, their families and ex-service men.

“These scholarships will be offered for professional courses in business economics, fashion technology, advertising and graphic design, visual communications and mass communications,” WLC College India Chief Executive Officer Malobika Sengupta told IANS.

Bhubaneswar, August 28: Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said Friday that the setting up of new IIMs won’t dilute the brand image of these prestigious business schools.

Speaking to reporters in Bhubaneswar, the minister said that the seven new IIMs won’t affect the existing institutions.

“The new IIMs would be of the same standard. The infrastructure and faculties would be of same standard in the new ones,” Sibal said.

The union government Thursday approved the setting up of seven IIMs to boost higher education in the country.

New Delhi, August 27: Aimed at creating awareness about the Right to Information (RTI) among citizens and government officers, the central government is starting a 15-day online certificate course on the RTI Act on a pilot project basis.
The course by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions will start next month.

New York, August 27: US graduate school admissions offers to foreign students fell off a cliff this year, with student enrolment from India seeing a 16% decline, according to a report compiled this month by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), which represents 500 US colleges.
Historically, US grad schools have drawn waves of Indian students.

But this year the students did a double-think about being saddled with loans in a troubled job market. Typically, most US B-schools have a class composition which is white, male and Asian.

Mumbai, August 27: Classes can resume in universities and colleges across the state after a gap of 44 days, with more than 30,000 teachers calling off their strike.

The Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations (MFUCTO), which began its strike on July 14, called off the agitation after signing an agreement with the government late on Wednesday. The decision was jointly announced by the higher and technical education minister Rajesh Tope and MFUCTO.

Lucknow, August 27: Teachers of Sanskrit are soon going to put online a module of courses that will enable anyone to log on to the internet and learn Sanskrit, the mother of most Indian languages.

“In its attempt to develop, propagate and encourage Sanskrit learning, the varsity and its various campuses have undertaken the e-tutorial project for learning Sanskrit online,” Sarvnarayan Jha, principal of the Lucknow campus of deemed university Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, told IANS in an interview.

New Delhi, August 27: From the coming academic year (2010-11), the Class X board exams will become optional in all CBSE schools. The board will make a formal announcement to this effect probably by Friday, once the blueprint of the new system to replace the board exams is frozen.

Sources in CBSE said board chairman Vineet Joshi will, on Thursday, hold the last presentation and consultation session in Madhya Pradesh on the changes being brought about before the draft is finalized and made public.

Mumbai, August 26: The 42-day old strike by college teachers in Maharashtra was called off tonight as the state government agreed to give them higher pay under the Sixth Pay panel as per UGC recommendations.

The decision to call off the strike was announced by the teachers’ associations following a four-hour meeting with Higher and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Tope here.

The revised salaries to the teachers would cost the state government around Rs 600 crore, an official said.

—Agencies

Chandigarh, August 26: A delegation from a West African university met the officials of the Panjab University (PU) here Wednesday with a proposal to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
A high-level delegation from the University of the Gambia, the Republic of Gambia, met Vice-Chancellor R.C. Sobti, deans and other senators of the Panjab University Wednesday.

The delegation was headed by Abdoulie M. Sallah, secretary general and head of civil services, Republic of Gambia.

Guwahati, August 26: Two premier student bodies of Assam have come together to “cleanse” the educational system for the betterment of students.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) today decided to work closely to “correct the evils” in the educational system of the state.

AASU adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya and ABSU president Promod Boro told reporters here that they would launch a state-wide movement to put pressure on the government to improve the education sector for the benefit of the students.

Amritsar, August 26: Arena Animation, a animation and multimedia training institute has announced the launch a new state-of-the-art Centre in Amritsar.

The Amritsar centre is Arena’s fifth Centre in Punjab is well equipped with digital labs, drawing studios and seminar room.

The centre was inaugurated by Gurtaj Singh Mangat – Zonal Head, North and East, Arena Animation.

Chennai, August 26: The British Council in partnership with the Centre for Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, will organise a two-day seminar on Bio-Technology here next month, where experts from India and Britain are scheduled to deliver talks on current trends in the field.

A British Council press release said that the purpose of the seminar, titled “Biotechnology: UK and Indian Perspectives” was to familiarise students and faculty of Biotechnology on current trends in biotechnology.

New Delhi, August 26: To regularise and improve standards, the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has derecognised 400 teacher-training institutions across the country.

The Council has also refused fresh applications from 12 states in India, where teacher-training institutes of low quality have mushroomed.

The move comes after the Council launched a national demand-supply study in each state to gauge the existing training institutes and look at the demand and supply situation in the next 10 years.

New Delhi, August 26: In a decision that is likely to revolutionise the school education system, the Council of Boards of School Education in India (Cobse) has decided in principle to make the standard X board examinations optional. The alternative it has suggested is a grading system to evaluate students. The move, along with Cobse’s suggestion of a uniform curriculum for mathematics and science, is meant to prevent students from dropping out and reduce stress on them.

Chennai, August 25: Three students of the IIT, Madras, here have been expelled from the hostel for a year and barred from contesting in students’ council elections for alleged misbehaviour with their juniors.

The action last week followed an inquiry by the authorities found the complaint of misbehaviour to be true, college authorities said.

The three were asked to leave the hostel for one year and find accommodation outside the campus; the sources said adding the hostel authorities had been asked not to allow them inside the hostel during this period.