Page 350 - Education

HC notice to UGC on amendment in norms for universities to run distance education courses

The Madras High Court today granted an interim six-week stay against an amendment in the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations regarding the fixing of the minimum Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) and the consequent rejection of recognition of educational institutes. The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice PT Asha, passed the order on a petition filed by the Annamalai University, Chidambaram, challenging the amended regulation, fixing the CGPA as 3.26 on a four-point scale awarded by the National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC) to run distance education courses. As a prima facie case was made out, the interim stay was granted for a period of six weeks, the bench said, while issuing notice to the UGC to reply within three weeks. According to the petitioner university, it was allowed to impart open and distance learning education till academic session 2019-20 as per the 'A' Grade accreditation awarded to it by NAAC for scoring 3.09 out .

College sex scandal case: HC allows CB-CID plea for teacher's voice test

The Madras High Court bench here today gave permission to the CB-CID to take a woman professor, arrested on charges of trying to lure students to extend sexual favours to "some officials" in return for higher marks, to Chennai for conducting a voice test. Justice D Krishnakumar sent assistant professor Nirmala Devi, who was in judicial remand, to a three-day CB-CID custody from June 27 for the purpose of taking her to Chennai and conducting the test. The CB-CID, probing the sensational case, had moved the court, submitting that Nirmala Devi's voice samples were required to be taken to verify the voice in the audio clip, purportedly containing her conversation with the students. It had said the testing facilities were not available here and wanted the court's permission to take her to Chennai. The woman was arrested on April 16, a day after an audio clip in which she purportedly told some girl students "to adjust with some officials" for higher marks and money went viral on the social .

Council polls; Nashik Teachers' constituency tops in turnout

Moderate to very high voter turnout was recorded today in the polling for four seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Three of the seats saw a fight between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, who are ruling allies in Maharashtra and also at the Centre. Polling was by and large peaceful and no untoward incident was reported during the voting for the Mumbai Graduates, Mumbai Teachers, Konkan Graduates and Nashik Teachers' constituencies of the Upper House, which was falling vacant next month, said Election Commission officials. The Nashik Teachers' constituency recorded the highest voter turnout of 92.30 per cent followed by the Mumbai Teachers' constituency (83.26 per cent) and the Konkan Graduates' constituency (73.89 per cent), they said. The Mumbai Graduates constituency recorded the lowest voter turnout among all the seats at 53.23 per cent, the officials said. Such constituencies came into existence after the formation of Maharashtra in 1960 when literacy rate was low

Satya Pal Singh asks IIT-G to also work on ancient technologies

Union Minister Satya Pal Singh today asked teachers and professors of the Indian Institute of Technology here to work on ancient technologies along with modern innovations, as he exhorted Indians to work towards winning top global awards in science, technology or applied science. Singh, the union minister of state for HRD in charge of higher education, told the 20th Convocation of IIT-Guwahati here that the professors should explore ancient technology and work on it to provide a judicious balance between modern and older technologies. "I would like to tell that India as a whole is doing quite well but as far as innovation and research is concerned, much more is required to be done. Stating that simply publishing papers in journals would not help, he said:"We have to find out how many journals, how many papers are ultimately ending in patents; any start-ups, or helping some entrepreneurs and starting some industry." Stressing that a "holistic mindset" was crucial, he said the aim was

India's biotech queen Shaw tells IISc to inspire society

India's biotechnology queen and Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday told the students of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here to step out of the laboratories and inspire society.

TiE Hyderabad team wins second prize in global competition

TiE Hyderabad team Pop&Lick has won the grand second prize at the TiE-TYE (The Young Entrepreneurs) annual competition in the US.

June 25 a black day for Indian democracy: HRD MoS

Addressing IIT-Guwahati's convocation, Union Minister of State for HRD Satya Pal Singh today said it may be a special day for students but is a black day for Indian democracy as emergency was imposed on this day by Indira Gandhi in 1975. The Union minister was addressing the IIT-Guwahati's convocation as its chief guest. Starting his speech with a Sanksrit sloka, Singh said it is a special day for both the IIT-Guwahati students and the Indian democracy as a whole. "It is a very special day. Not only for the IIT-Guwahati, but (also) for the Indian democracy, (and) we call it a black day. About 43 years back on this day - 25 June 1975, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed Emergency in the country. That is why I call it a black day for Indian democracy. "I am sure all the graduating students will remember this day when they are getting their degrees. For them it is the brightest day, but for the Indian democracy it was a black day," said Singh, who looks after Higher ...

Adityanath demands reservation for Dalits in AMU, Jamia

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that Dalits should also get reservation in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia University.Adityanath was in Kannuaj on Sunday to pay tribute to former Uttar Pradesh minister Ram Prakash Tripathi on his 10th death anniversary.Addressing a gathering here, he asked the pro- Dalit activists to raise the issue of Dalit reservation in AMU and Jamia Millia University."Those who are saying that Dalits are being discriminated against must be asked when will they raise the issue of reservation for Dalits in Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia University? When BHU can provide reservation for Dalits and backward students, why not AMU?"The issue of reservation has been a matter of debate in both AMU and Jamia for quite some time.Both AMU and Jamia are backed by the Central Government and were declared as minority institutes by the former UPA government.Last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had raised the issue of ...

Delhi University admissions: Second cut-off to be released on June 25

According to an official, over 15,000 applications were approved by colleges affiliated to the university within three days

Maha Legislative Council polls: Voting underway in four seats

Voting was underway today for the biennial elections to four seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Elections were being held today for the Mumbai Graduates', Mumbai Teachers', Konkan Graduates' and Nashik Teachers' constituencies of the Legislature's Upper House. The terms of sitting members - Deepak Sawant (of Shiv Sena - Mumbai Graduates), Kapil Patil (of Lok Bharati party - Mumbai Teachers), Niranjan Davkhare (who switched over from NCP to BJP - Konkan Graduates) and Apoorva Hire (an independent - Nashik Teachers) - are expiring on July 7. The ruling alliance partners in Maharashtra, the BJP and the Shiv Sena, are clashing in the Mumbai Graduates', Konkan Graduates' and Mumbai Teachers' constituencies. Besides, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) and the Lok Bharti Party are also in fray in the four seats, making it a tough contest for all candidates. In the Mumbai Graduates' seat, Amit Mehta of the BJP is pitted against .

Bridegroom receives 1001 saplings as wedding gift

A 33-year-old school teacher refused dowry and instead received 1001 saplings as wedding gift with the brides parents agreeing to the unusual pre-condition set by the man in Odisha's Kendrapara district. The bridegroom Saroj Kanta Biswal said from his childhood days he was a nature lover. "I was opposed to dowry system in marriage. Besides I am a nature lover right from my childhood days. Thats why I had insisted on receiving 1001 saplings of fruit-bearing trees. Accordingly, the wedding took place on Saturday," Biswal said. The marriage was solemnised in an austere manner and there was no band party or fire cracker show, said Ranjan Pradhan, a resident of bride's village in Adampur under Marshaghai tehsil of the district. The most absorbing aspect the unique marriage was that the bridegroom was gifted with 1001 saplings as desired by him during marriage negotiation, said Pradhan. "My spouse Rashmirekha Paitala is also a school teacher and she is quite happy over my ...

One year of school ups kids' IQ: Study

A year of schooling leaves students with new knowledge, and it also equates with a small but noticeable increase to students' IQ, a study has found. Scientists have long shown that years of education and intelligence are correlated but it has been unclear whether this is because education boosts intelligence or because individuals who start off with higher IQ scores are likely to stay in school for longer. "Our analyses provide the strongest evidence yet that education raises intelligence test scores," said Stuart J Ritchie of the University of Edinburgh in the UK. "We looked at 42 datasets using several different research designs and found that, overall, adding an extra year of schooling in this way improved people's IQ scores by between 1 and 5 points," said Ritchie. The researchers looked at three particular types of quasi-experimental studies from a variety of sources, including published articles, books, preprint articles, working papers, dissertations, and theses. The first type

No second cut-off for several courses in DU colleges including LSR, SRCC, Hindu

Many prominent Delhi University colleges, including the LSR, SRCC and Hindu, did not announce their second cut-off for several courses today as their seats were filled post the announcement of the first cut-off on June 19. Over 15,000 admissions took place in the three days after the first cut-offs were announced. Today, the second cut-offs were announced but many colleges did not need to do it for several courses. The Lady Shri Ram College has closed admissions for BA (Hons.) Economics, BA (Hons.) Political Science, BA (Hons.) History, BA (Hons.) Psychology,BA (Hons.) Sociology and B.Com (Hons.). The LSR had announced a cut-off of 98.75 per cent for the BA programme in the first list which came down to 97.75 per cent in the second. In the Kirori Mal College, admissions have been closed for BA (Hons.) Urdu, BA (Hons) Sanskrit, and B.Sc. (Physical Sciences) with computer science optional for general category candidates. The SRCC has closed admissions for SC candidates for its B.A. ...

An extra year of education can make you smarter

An extra year of schooling may leave students with new knowledge and may lead to a small but noticeable increase to students' IQ, a new study suggests.

Pay Rs 20L penalty to each of 19 students for denying admission: SC to medical college

The Supreme Court has directed a Maharashtra-based medical college to pay Rs 20 lakh as penalty to each of the 19 meritorious students who were "illegally" and "wrongly" denied admission by it six years ago. The top court asked the college to deposit the money in three months with the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti (PNS), a body constituted by the state government to oversee and regulate admissions in medical colleges. The 19 students were "illegally" and "wrongly" denied admissions to MBBS and BDS courses in the 2012-13 academic year. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit spared the Dr. Ulhas Patil Medical College and Hospital, Jalgaon, in Maharashtra from de-recognition and set aside the direction of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court as the institution agreed to pay the penalty to the students. "As the college has shown the gesture of making payment of penalty to the 19 students, who were deprived of admission, considering the fact that several years have passed and a .

47 new colleges in West Bengal since 2011: Partha Chatterjee

Forty-seven new colleges have come up in West Bengal during the Trinamool Congress rule, West Bengal Education minister Partha Chatterjee has said. "47 new colleges (state-aided) have come up in the past seven years," Chatterjee said at a felicitation programme for meritorious students in secondary (class ten board), higher secondary (class 12 board) examinations, 2018, at Behala in South Kolkata yesterday. He said 40 colleges have recently got the permission to start post-graduate courses as part of the state's initiative to reach higher education to different sections of people. English medium schools were also being set up at the primary level in different districts, he said. He, however, did not specify the exact number of the schools. "A few of the school buildings have already been built near Kolkata and now we are deciding on the procedures to recuit teachers for these english medium schools," Chatterjee said. "Our children can not lag behind," he said ...

'Missing' Bihar Class 10 board answer sheets sold as scrap

The answer sheets of Class 10th Bihar board exams, which went missing from a Bihar College, were sold to a scrap vendor for Rs 8,500.Around 42,000 answer scripts which were missing from Gopalganj's SS Inter College, were sold to the scrap vendor, Pappu Kumar Gupta.The scrap vendor and an auto driver, who transported the copies in his auto, have been arrested."They regularly buy books and other scraps from the college (SS Inter College). It is fine if they bought it with the same purpose, but we are investigating if they had any other intention," said Gopalganj SP, Rashid Zaman.216 bundles, amounting to approximately 42,000 answer sheets, went missing a day before the board results.The information about the disappearance of the answer sheets surfaced when the Bihar School Examination Board sought to examine the answer sheets of some students.

Imparting values, and a language, in the US through ancient texts (Diaspora Feature)

On a Sunday afternoon in Naperville, a Chicago suburb, 30 Indian American students pay close attention while the teacher explains the battle on the tenth day of the Kurukshetra war - in the ancient epic tale of the Mahabharata -- in which Bhismapitamaha is grievously wounded by Arjuna's arrows.

An equal-opportunity school sets a sterling example in social integration (IANS Special Series)

Much before the Indian parliament promulgated the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2009 that guaranteed education to all a committed local teacher had already pioneered the idea of making school access a reality for hundreds of underprivileged children, irrespective of their social status or economic background.

Bag with table attached eases burden of school - and backaches

Shruti, a Class 2 student in a Kanpur government school with few desks and chairs, no longer has to sit on the floor, her back bent as she pores over her books. Her lightweight schoolbag, with a detachable table attached to it, has helped ease the burden of school and backaches at just seven. Shruti is not alone. Like her, thousands of children across the country going to schools that lack basic infrastructure have benefited from DESKIT, an innovative project developed by an Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur graduate. A brainchild of innovator Eshan Sadasivan, the bag, weighing one kg, is helping students write comfortably and maintain proper body posture. The Rs 400 bag has a detachable plywood study table with foldable legs made of mild steel (MS) tubes, weighing only 680 grams. The table is attached to the front flap of the bag, which is made of high quality waterproof fabric, to avoid contact with the student's back, Sadasivan explained. Giving details of how DESKIT was born,