Education and Career

Chennai, August 25: Come September five, a retired teacher will get his ‘Guru Dakshina’ when 500 of his students, whom he taught Tamil over 20 years back, will gift him a newly built two storey house.

Tamil Scholar S V Venkatraman, who retired in 1985 after working for 41 years at a school in Gurusamypalayam in Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal District, had to move out of the town as he was unable to pay his rent.

When news about his plight reached his students, they came together to his rescue.

Srinagar, August 25: Assuring that all colleges in Jammu and Kashmir would be provided adequate infrastructure and teaching staff, minister for higher education Abdul Gani Malik, however, said that areas for new degree and polytechnic colleges are yet to be identified.

The centre has sanctioned 11 degree and 18 polytechnic colleges for the districts which are not covered at present, Mr Malik informed the Legislative Assembly in reply to a clubbed question of Sardar Rafiq Hussain Khan, Syed Bashir Ahmad, Jugal Kishore, Vikar Rasool, Mehbooba Mufti and Mushtaq Ahmad Shah.

Pune, August 24: Most of the educational establishments, malls and theatres in the city reopened after a gap of two weeks today as Pune, considered the epicentre of the swine flu pandemic in the country with 23 victims, struggled to return to normalcy.

Pune district Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar told reporters that the decision to reopen schools and colleges would remain unchanged and requested people to avoid mass gatherings during the 10-day Ganesh festival which commenced yesterday.

New Delhi, August 24:Hundreds of faculty members of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) Bombay and Roorkee went on mass casual leave Monday protesting disparities in pay. IIT Delhi professors will go on leave Tuesday.

“The pay hike given by the government is at least 30 percent less at the lower level (of faculties) and at higher level it is 40 percent less than what we had asked for. It will be difficult for us to attract good faculty members,” Saumya Mukherjee, professor at IIT-Bombay, told reporters.

Chandigarh, August 24: In a bid to improve the student-teacher ratio and to fill the vacant posts in Punjab schools, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has ordered officials to immediately start a recruitment drive and employ 10,810 teachers.

‘Punjab government will employ 10,810 new teachers in secondary schools in the state within the next three months. In addition all posts lying vacant because of a delay in promotion would also be filled in the next three months,’ an official spokesperson of the state government said here Monday.

Srinagar, August 23: Board examinations for Class 3 and 5 students? That’s what the Jammu and Kashmir government is thinking of introducing in order to improve education standards even as the central government has proposed to abolish Class 10 exams conducted by state education boards.

While most teachers are aghast at the suggestion, saying it will increase the burden on little children, the education department believes holding more board examinations will help improve results in government schools and make teachers accountable.

Thrissur, August 22: Students Federation of India (SFI) All-India President P K Biju, MP, today said that a national campaign would be organised soon to protest the ‘anti-people’ education policy of the Centre.

Talking to reporters here, he alleged that the Right to Education Act was not implementing properly by the Centre.

The Act was not sufficient to enforce universal education as 170 million children, in the age group of one to six, were not brought under the purview of the Right to Education Act, he said.

Bhubaneshwar, August 22: The Utkal University campus here was shut following clashes between two groups of students, police said Saturday. The clash was over students union elections, about a month away.
At least two students were injured in the clash that erupted Friday night, forcing authorities to deploy more than 200 policemen in and around the Vani Vihar campus, inspector in charge of the police station J.K. Das told IANS.

Kanpur, August 21: Many countries, including Ethiopia, Vietnam and Brazil, today sought cooperation in the field of science and technology from IIT Kanpur during a function organised here to mark the Golden Jubilee of the premier institute.

Ethiopian Ambassador to India Genet Zewdie requested the professors of IIT Kanpur to teach students in her country through video distance learning education to help them gain expertise in Physics, Chemistry and Maths.

Ghaziabad, August 22: Two 1st year students of a private law college here alleged Friday that they had been thrashed by their seniors after they did not cooperate during a ragging session.

The incident occurred in the Mewar Law College in Ghaziabad Friday afternoon.

“Some of us (1st year students), including three girls, were called by our seniors and asked to give our introductions. Soon however, the questions became personal and we objected. Some other seniors, however, intervened and they let us go,” Keshav, one of the victims, told IANS.

New Delhi, August 21: Literate India — a recast literacy programme under the National Literacy Mission Authority — will be launched next month in 365 districts across the country with a special focus on educating women and improving India’s female literacy level.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the government has decided to “tweak” the NLMA to focus on women and the mission will be launched in these districts where female literacy levels are below 50 per cent.

Lucknow, August 21: The Indian Institute of Management, (IIML) will host around 30 foreign students and send 45 of its own abroad as part of a student exchange programme.

President, Student Exchange Cell, Prof Shailendra Singh said today that the 45 students going abroad will not only act as brand ambassadors of IIM Lucknow but also promote India’s culture, ethos and values.

Varanasi, August 20: A large number of girl students staying in a hostel complex at the Banaras Hindu University today hit the roads protesting the decision of the varsity administration to accommodate more inmates in their rooms.

The agitating students staged a sit-in at the hostel complex and also tried to stage a march towards the office of the Vice Chancellor.

Security personnel at the campus stopped their march midway, the inmates said alleging some of them were roughed up by the guards.

New Delhi, August 20: The country’s premier long distance education varsity, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has collaborated with nearly a dozen universities in as many countries to develop skills among 10 million rural people in the next six years.

“The aim is to make rural people skilled. We will try to bridge the digital divide among people and thus empower them,” IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai told media today.

Chennai, August 20: Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University (TNTEU) website is responsive at this moment. However, B.Ed Degree results link is still taking too much time to open the page.

When you visit the official website of TNTEU http://tnteu.in/, it will open but the new results link http://results.southindia.com/tnteu2009.html is till unresponsive. Earlier, the result link was http://68.164.102.76/tnteu/.

All the best guys!!! We hope university administration will rectify the problem soon

—Agencies

Vellore, August 20: Dr D P Kothari, vice-chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology, has been given an award and a citation by the University Grants Commission in recognition of his scholarly works, according to the VIT.

The award also carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000, it said.

It said Dr Kothari, besides getting 611 research papers published in various scientific journals, had authored books, besides guiding PhD and MTech students.

Hyderabad, August 18: CFBT India in association with University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations will be launching its courses to develop English language skills. Contact 9052618482.

–Agencies

New Delhi, August 16: What is being taught in schools and colleges doesn’t match the skills that businesses are looking for in new recruits in countries like India, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), says a new global study.

It focuses on five of the world’s fastest growing economies – India, China, Brazil, South Africa and the UAE. It was released this month by Edexcel, an arm of the Britain-based Pearson Education which designs vocational modules for schools and universities across the globe.

Dubai, August 16: A charitable trust in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) provides education to four million children in 20 countries as part of its endeavour to remove the obstacles to their progress and to secure their future, WAM news agency reported.

Dubai Cares, launched by UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, provides primary education to children in developing countries and is considered to be the largest NGO in the world dedicated to this cause.

Coimbatore, August 14: Four private college students were arrested here today after a first year student lodged a complaint that they had forced him to remove his moustache and later beat him up when he reported the matter to the principal.

According to the police, Bhasith, a catering course student at the NGP Arts and Science College, was ragged by four seniors in his hostel. The senior students – Manukumar (20), Basith (20) (both from Kerala), Deejith (20) and Sainudheen (20) – who were also enrolled in the same course, told the junior student to remove his mustache during the ragging.

Pune August 13: State education minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said shortage of attendance will not be an issue for those students who cannot attend school owing to swine flu. The education department has also decided to cancel all unit tests that were to be conducted in the first term. The government is also likely to extend holidays for city schools.

Mumbai, August 12: The Centre has only approved an environment impact assessment study for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport but not cleared the project.

“We have given permission only for Terms of References under which an environment impact assessment study has to be carried out,” Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh told reporters here today.

“We have not given clearance to the airport (project),” he said.

Dehradun, August 12: Recognition to 21 private B.Ed colleges of Uttarakhand have been cancelled on charges of violation of norms during admissions.

National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) took this decision after HNB Garhwal University at Srinagar, with which these private colleges were affiliated, conducted investigations into the alleged irregularities in admission process and informed the statutory body, official sources said.

New Delhi, August 12: Putting primary eduction programme on a fast track, the government Tuesday decided to set up 6,000 model schools, including 2,500 under the public- private-partnership (PPP) mode, before the start of the next academic session.

New Delhi, Augusdt 11: The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, has set up a three-member committee to probe into an obscene MMS, alleged to show two of its staff members.

The five-minute video clip shows a 35-plus woman and a man (who are reported to hold clerical posts at the institute) is alleged to have been shot by the man on his mobile phone.

The clip has resulted in anger among the institute’s clerical staff who have demanded stern action against their male colleague for allegedly shooting the video and later circulating it.

—Agencies