Page 321 - Education
Ering urges Centre to give importance to NE universities
Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal Pradesh Ninong Ering has urged the Centre to give due importance to the universities of Northeast while selecting institutions of eminence. "The concept of balanced regional development has been ignored in the IOE selection process, and such discrimination will result in chaotic downfall of education standard in the region," Ering said in a letter to Union, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday. "The Northeastern region has a number of universities which are doing well, and they need to be given greater impetus to promote education," Ering said. Giving NE universities the IOE status would have encouraged industrialists and foreign educational institutions to come to this region and set up vocational/technical universities, he said. This could have provided necessary skills, improved the education quality, and possibly reversed the brain drain from the region, he said.
JNU to introduce time-table to enable students to opt for multiple courses
Starting from August, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will introduce a common time-table which would enable students to determine additional courses that they can opt for besides the regular course they are pursuing, Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said. Kumar also said the JNU will hold its second convocation on August 8, after a gap of 46 years, and will be starting a school of management and entrepreneurship from next year. The time-table will further promote multidisciplinary studies by students by enabling them to opt for multiple courses at a time, in a way that the classes and exams do not clash, Kumar said. This will give them (students) the freedom and opportunity to choose and mix a combination of courses, he said. The JNU also signed an agreement with PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today. We have just signed an MoU and we are going to work out the plan for the next one year which will involve our students visiting the industries and experts from the ...
UK peer calls for action to prevent fall in Indian student numbers
The UK is being outstripped by countries like Australia and Canada in attracting Indian students to their universities and action must be taken to prevent the falling numbers, a senior peer and academic has told the House of Lords. Lord Philip Norton, chair of the UK's Higher Education Commission, raised the issue in Parliament yesterday as he warned that the country's higher education export success story was under threat. An increase in enrolment by Chinese students has masked a fall in students coming from other nations, not least India. Since 2006-07, there has been a 45 per cent fall in enrolment by Indian studentsunless action is taken, we will see our competitors further outstrip us, said the Conservative party peer and professor of government at the University of Hull. Norton also warned that the UK's heavy dependence on Chinese students was not sustainable as the population of 18 to 22-year-olds in China is set to decline. He pointed to the inclusion of students in the ...
HRD Ministry may relax norms for teachers' recruitment in Tripura
The Central government has assured Tripura that the state is likely to be granted one-time relaxation in qualifying marks and professional qualification for recruiting teachers to overcome the huge shortage of teachers, an official said here on Friday.
Number of girls in IITs distressingly low, this needs to rise: President
President Ram Nath Kovind today said girls often outscore boys in board examinations, colleges and universities, but their number is "distressingly low" in the IITs and it has to increase. In 2017, of the 1,60,000 candidates who appeared for the IIT joint entrance examination, only 30,000 were girls. Of the 10,878 students who had been admitted to under graduate classes of the IITs in the same year, only 995 were girls, he said while delivering the 64th Convocation address of IIT Kharagpur. "This issue continues to puzzle me.... This cannot go on, we need to do something about these numbers," Kovind said. "When one considers board exams, girls do very well. They often outscore boys. In colleges and universities I visit across country, I find girl students tend to win more medals than their male counterparts. (But in the IITs), the intake of girl students is distressingly low," he said. Of the 11,653 students enrolled in IIT Kharagpur, only 1,925 are girls, a little over 16 per cent, ..
SC stays Madras HC order awarding grace marks to NEET students
The Supreme Court today stayed an order of the Madurai bench of Madras High Court awarding 196 grace marks to NEET students who had opted to write the examination in Tamil language on account of error in translation. A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao stayed the order and issued notice on a plea of the CBSE challenging the high court order. The bench posted the matter for hearing after two weeks and asked the parties to come out with a solution to deal with the situation, saying, "We cannot dole out marks in this fashion". The bench observed that it appears that after the judgment, the students who opted for the Tamil language are in the advantageous position over others. The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had on July 10 ordered the CBSE to grant 196 marks -- 4 marks each for 49 erroneously translated questions -- in the Tamil version of this year's National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) to the students who took the exam in the regional language. Passing .
Fake mark sheet, degree gang busted in UP
Police here have busted a gang which used to provide fake mark sheets of class 10, 12, B.A, B.Tech, Pharmacy and MBA, officials said on Friday.
UP: School shuts down after taking fees
A school owner in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad has shut down the school after allegedly taking fees.Locals alleged, "Session was supposed to start from July 2 but when children came here the school was locked. The fee was deposited in May."The police said that investigation has been launched into the matter after a complaint was filed.Police said, "We have received the complaint and are investigating the matter.
Teachers in Iran protest over low wages
Teachers in Iran are venting their anger against their government's latest policy to hike the salaries of the teachers from six percent to ten percent for the academic year 2018-19.Disappointed by the Ministry of Education's announcement, the teachers and educators have recently launched a protest campaign, where they could be seen holding banners of "No! to Payslips and Salaries". The demonstration has been gaining momentum in the last few days.The teachers could be seen tearing up their payslips to show solidarity in the demonstration, as per video footage and photographs, which has gone viral on social media.This decision came after a long delay and concerns from teacher's trade union activists, who believe that the increase in salaries does not match the current inflation rate, which is currently rising high due to Iran's unstable economy, according to local media reports.Ja'afar Ebrahimi, the Inspector of Coordination Council of Teachers' trade unions across Iran, was quoted by ..
Student beaten to death in Delhi school
A 17-year-old student of a government school here died after he was allegedly beaten up by a group of students in the school compound, police said on Thursday.
Online goof-up: HC comes to aid of medical aspirant
The Bombay High Court has come to the aid of a girl who was disqualified from an online selection process after she committed an error while filling a form for a MBBS course. Observing that a meritorious student should not be punished due to a mistake, a division bench of justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre recently directed the Commissioner of Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell to allow the student, Shashi Saraswat, to participate in the second round of admission. The bench was hearing a petition filed by Saraswat after she was disqualified from the online selection process, after she committed a mistake while filling the forms. According to the petition, Saraswat had appeared for the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) and secured All India Rank of 3178. She then registered herself online for the Health Science course under the Defence 3 quota within the prescribed time limit and was provided a login password for further process. Saraswat was held eligible in the ...
Strike called by students' union paralyses life in Manipur
Normal life was paralysed in Manipur for the second day today due to a 48-hour general strike called by the Manipur University Students' Union, demanding the removal of the university vice-chancellor. Manipur Chief minister N Biren Singh said the state government fully empathised with the students and teachers of the university and the issues they had brought up. Educational institutes, shops, markets and government offices were closed and vehicular movement remained suspended due to the strike, the police said. The protesters blocked roads in various localities, including at Kongpal and Wangkhei in Imphal East district, Wangjing and Thoubal Bazaar in Thoubal district and Thangmeiband in Imphal West district. They burnt tyres and put up barricades in the middle of the road at some places, the police said. Heavy security was deployed in the vicinity of the chief minister's bungalow, Raj Bhavan and the surrounding areas of the high-security zone, they added. The security was beefed up ..
75-year-old tutor held for raping minor student
A 75-year-old man hired to give tuition to a minor girl was arrested on the charge of raping the child at her house in the district, police said today. The accused was caught red-handed by the girl's mother who rushed into the room hearing screams of the girl, a student of class V. He then fled after threatening the family members that he would kill them if they raised an alarm, SHO Dilip Kumar Pathak of Hayaghat police station said. The incident occurred at Bilaspur village on Tuesday night and after the girl's parents lodged a complaint, the accused was arrested yesterday night. Pathak said the accused runs a small madrasa at the village and he had been giving tuitions to the girl for some time following a request from her parents.
Talks fail, fast by CMCH students enters 10th day
Talks between authorities of the state-run Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) and senior students over hostel facilities did not yield any result today, even as the indefinite hunger strike by six students entered the 10th day today. Acting Principal R Sinha told representatives of the agitating students that he was in no position to accept their demand for allowing senior students to stay at a new hostel building, a hospital spokesman said. The students of second, third and fourth year were on hunger strike outside the principal's chamber to press for their demand for accommodation in the new hostel which is allotted only for first year students. Sayantan Mukhuti, one of the agitating seniors, said, "With the failure in today's dialogue, we have no other option but to continue the fast." The senior students are demanding accommodation in the new hostel saying the condition of their old hostel building was very poor. Sinha, the head of the ENT department and ...
UK students boycott Rudyard Kipling over anti-India views
A poem by renowned English writer Rudyard Kipling has been scrubbed off the walls of the Manchester University by students as a boycott against his racist views that legitimised the British Empire in India. Kipling's famous poem If', which was written in the late 19th century, had been painted on a wall of the university's newly-refurbished Students' Union. But students decided to paint over the verses to replace them with a 1978 poem Still I Rise' by US poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. "It's important for us to represent the voices of black and brown students, which is why we felt Rudyard Kipling's poem was completely inappropriate," said Riddi Viswanathan, an Indian-origin Student Union Diversity Officer at the university. She said that elected members representing students felt any work associated with Kipling, who was born in Mumbai during the Raj in 1865, was "not in line with our values". Well known as author of the racist poem The White Man's Burden', and a ...
Offences being committed by juveniles is becoming more serious, heinous in nature: NCPCR chief
The nature of offences being committed by juveniles is becoming more serious and heinous, NCPCR chairperson Stuti Kacker said today, in the backdrop of the killing of a student by his senior in a Gurgaon school last year. The National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson also called for "firmer control of private schools". "Crimes against children and crimes being committed by children are increasing. Getting a child out of crime is a difficult task. The nature of crimes by juveniles is becoming more serious and heinous in nature," Kacker said. It is crucial to prioritise safe and supportive environments for children as they grow up so that they can become productive members of an inclusive society, she said. "We had recently put up a regulatory framework for private schools. When the Ryan school (Gurgaon) incident happened (last year), in which a boy was allegedly killed by an older boy, our members ensured that the FIR was registered against the school's ...
IITs to jointly scout for faculty: Javadekar
The IITs have been asked to collectively bargain for faculty hiring from Indians abroad to abridge the teachers' shortage, Parliament was told on Thursday.
France closes in on phone ban in schools from September
French lawmakers have secured a deal on a bill that would outlaw the use of mobiles phones in schools starting in September, one of Emmanuel Macron's pledges during last year's presidential campaign. Senators and National Assembly deputies reached the agreement late Wednesday on the ban for all three tiers of French education (primary, middle and high school), except for educational purposes. Students will now have "the right to disconnect," Cathy Racon Bouzon, a deputy in Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party, tweeted today. Teachers have been calling for the ban to curtail a growing distraction in classrooms, with nearly nine out of ten French teens aged 12 to 17 now owning a smartphone. Besides cutting down on screen time, the bill also aims to protect children from dangerous online content such as violence or pornography, as well as cyberbullying. It also makes it easier for teachers to confiscate phones if necessary. Each school will decide how to apply the ban, for example
Harvard signs MoU with Jindal university
Harvard University and O P Jindal Global University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand their collaboration in research and educational activities in the field of human rights, development and public health. The two universities have agreed for a student engagement through an annual teaching session at Harvard for Jindal students. C Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor of Jindal Global University (JGU), in a statement, said that the varsities will also conduct joint conferences on themes of interest to both the institutions. "This collaboration has taken the form of an annual study abroad programme conducted at Harvard University for nearly 30 students from JGU. At the successful completion of the programme, the Jindal students will earn academic credits and the course will be reflected in the transcript," Kumar said. He also said that future conferences that are being considered under the MoU, include issues that are at the intersection of human rights, development, law, ..
Two Manipur policemen suspended for using excessive force
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said on Thursday that two policemen have been suspended for using excessive force on students who had tried to storm the BJP office here on Monday.
