Page 385 - Education

New Commonwealth initiative to boost digital education skills

To create an enabling environment and culture of lifelong learning, an intergovernmental organisation created by the Commonwealth Heads of Government has launched an online platform that can help both teachers and students to improve their digital education skills.

Open schools' students eligible for NEET examination: HC

The Delhi High Court on Friday ruled that students of open schools are eligible to appear in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) but dismissed the pleas challenging a CBSE notification on age restrictions for medical aspirants.

Over 27,000 students flunk Punjabi exam in PSEB results

Just when the Punjab government was contemplating of introducing the Chinese language Mandarin in state schools, over 27,000 students of Class 10 of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) flunked in Punjabi paper.Being the mother tongue of the residents of Punjab, is a compulsory subject up to Class 10 being the official language of the state.In the budget session of the state assembly in March this year, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had announced that Mandarin would now be introduced as an optional subject in government schools at the senior secondary level.According to the educationists and experts of Punjabi language, the condition of Punjabi as a subject is deplorable in rural as well as urban areas.Educationists feel the state does not seem too serious about the survival of Punjabi language.They stated that the government has standardised the syllabus, but failed to standardise the teaching. The language has to be viewed as a subject not as a mother tongue because the common .

HC upholds CBSE's upper age limit of 25 years for NEET

The Delhi High Court today dismissed pleas challenging the CBSE's notification laying down the upper age limit of 25 and 30 years for general and reserved categories respectively to apply for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-UG, a pre-qualification for pursuing MBBS course. The high court, however, struck down a clause in the notification which bars students from open schools or those who have studied privately from appearing in the test. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar said that the proviso to the clause of the CBSE's January 22 notification prescribing upper age limit of 25 years in case of general category candidates and 30 years in case of reserved category candidates is "legal and valid". "To this extent, the writ petitions challenging vires of proviso to clause 4 of the Regulations are dismissed," the bench said. The court also said that the proviso to a clause of the regulations disqualifying recognised open school board candidates is "struck .

IIT-Roorke ranked 4th among IITs in Times Emerging Economies University Rankings 2018

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, has been ranked 4thamong the IITs in the 2018 Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies Universities Rankings, one of the world's influential university rankings. IIT-Roorkee has also been ranked 5th among all national universities/institutes, coming next only to Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur, an IIT-R press release said here. The overall ranking of IIT Roorkee has improved to 56th position from last year's 62nd, it said. Speaking about the performance of IIT Roorkee in the rankings, its Director Ajit K Chaturvedi said he was happy that the work of his colleagues and students was getting recognized globally.

JK govt to accredit schools on performance, infrastructure

The Jammu and Kashmir government is planning to accredit state-run educational institutions on the basis of their performance and available infrastructure. School Education, Haj and Auqaf and Tribal Affairs Minister Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said the step was being taken to earmark appropriate funding for developing the requisite infrastructure for the students. "Authorities have been directed to constitute a high-level committee to assess and accredit government education institutions in the state on the basis of available infrastructure, logistics as well as their performance," he said during his visit to a school here. "The state government also contemplates to earmark the institutions according to the academic streams so that they emerge as seats of excellence in that particular stream and students get advanced learning," he said. The minister directed the authorities to ensure that bio-metric attendance of students and staff was maintained and connected to main server of the ...

JK govt removes Kathua CEO for transferring teachers despite ban

The Jammu and Kashmir government has removed and attached a chief education officer (CEO) to the Kathua DC office for allegedly transferring teachers despite a ban on such transfers, an official said today. Transfer and posting of teachers was banned by the state government through an order issued by the state education department on April 4, an official spokesman said. On the directions of the School Education Minister, the CEO was removed from his post and attached to the office of the deputy commissioner (DC) with immediate effect yesterday, he said. The charge of CEO has been assigned to the district education and planning officer, till suitable arrangements are made, he said. Taking serious note of reported transfer, posting and attachments made by the CEO in the mid-session despite a ban on such transfers, DC Rohit Khajuria yesterday inspected the CEO office, the spokesman said. The DC found that that the working of the CEO was not in conformity with procedures, he said. "All ...

Manipal ProLearn partners with Data Science Society for Datathon 2018

Manipal ProLearn, the professional learning unit of the Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE), has partnered with the Data Science Society (DSS) for Academia Datathon 2018.DSS is a not-for-profit data-driven community (based out of Sofia, Bulgaria) which aims to promote the field of quantitative research and accelerate ethical and open innovation in data science domain through better collaboration between science, education, and business.The weekend-long competition held online, was conducted during 27 - 29th April, 2018.It involved experimenting with cryptocurrency data and finding ways to hack the virtual exchange system through machine learning algorithms.The goal was to create, in less than 48 hours, an accurate prediction model of the major cryptocurrencies' prices, and layer it with an autonomous Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) for successful decision-making in investing/trading.The event's aim was to make the domain a more applied subject and more accessible by solving real ..

Indian students were largest group authorised to work in US under OPT: Pew

Indians were the largest group among the nearly 1.5 million foreign graduate students of the US colleges and universities who got authorisation to remain and work in America between 2004 and 2016, according to a study of government figures by the Pew Research Centre. Chinese students were the second largest group followed by the South Koreans. "Graduates from India made up the largest share of those authorised to work under the OPT (optional training program) programme during this period, with 441,400 (30 per cent of the total)," Pew Research Center said in a report based on the analysis of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which it obtained through a Freedom and Information Act request. More than half (around 56 per cent) of foreign graduates who participated in the OPT between 2004 and 2016 obtained their degree from a public college or university. Students from China came second at 313,500 (21 per cent), followed by South Koreans at 90,800 (six per cent). Four-in-ten (41 .

Delhi University announces admissions for 2018-19 academic session

Delhi University today announced admissions to Ph.D, M.Phil, postgraduate and undergraduate courses for 2018-19 academic session, and registration process for all categories and quotas will be online. Registration for undergraduate programmes will commence on May 15, postgraduate programmes and postgraduate diploma in cyber security and law on May 18, for Ph.D and M.Phil programmes it will commence on May 20, according to a statement issued by the varsity. Aiming to educate students and parents about the admission process, the varsity will hold 'Open Day' sessions between May 21 and May 29 (except Sunday) at Conference Centre near Gate number 4 in North Campus. "Open Days will have two sessions - 10 am to 11.30 am and 12 pm to 1.30 pm. On these days, information about registration, admission process, schedule and other related information would be provided," the statement said. After a short presentation, expert comments of panellists representing various departments of the varsity ...

DU to begin admission registration from May 15

Delhi University on Thursday announced its admission season will begin from May 15 for the various courses for 2018-19 session.

G D Birla, South Point schools reach semis of regatta

G.D. Birla "A" along with South Point High School and Ballygunge Siksha Sadan moved into the semi-finals of the senior girls division of the 46th All India Invitation School regatta rowing meet here on Thursday.

Protest outside St Stephen's College against visit of UGC team on grant of autonomous status

A section of St. Stephen's College teachers and members of the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) staged a demonstration outside the college today to protest against a UGC team's visit over grant of autonomous status. The teachers alleged that the move would lead to self-financing courses, fee hike, "autocratic managements", "precarious service conditions of employees and decline in academic standards". "The committee set up to examine applications from colleges for grant of autonomous status visited today. The principal tried to keep many of the senior teachers away from meeting the committee today. A similar ploy was adopted for students as well as staffers," DUTA president Rajib Ray and St. Stephen's College Staff Association president Nandita Narain said in a joint statement. St. Stephen's College principal John Verghese confirmed to PTI about the visit by UGC team, but refused to comment further. Ray said a delegation of teachers, staffers and students of the college, ..

Delhi University teachers appeal to voters in Karnataka to defeat BJP

A section of Delhi University teachers today appealed to Dalit and minority voters in Karnataka to defeat the BJP in the May 12 assembly election, alleging the government led by the party at the Centre took steps to end reservations in appointments of faculties, privatise education and make the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act toothless. In a press conference, Delhi University Forum for Social Justice Convener Suraj Mandal said, "There is an atmosphere of hatred in the country and the Modi government has stopped all the means of employment, pushing the youth towards the path of religious frenzy and caste prejudice. In the garb of a court order, the Modi government on the one hand has turned the SC/ST Act toothless and disabled its spirit and on the other reservation in appointments of the faculty positions has been done away with in all the universities of the country." Delhi University teachers have been fighting against a circular of the University Grants Commission (UGC), dated

Australia's Monash College, TimesPro come together for undergrad biz programme

Australia-based Monash College and TimesPro today inked a pact to launch a programme for students planning to pursue undergraduate studies. TimesPro, part of Times Professional Learning (TPL), offers courses in various sectors, including banking, management and analytics. Under the new programme, students would study for eight months in India and rest of the course can be pursued at Monash University in Australia or Malaysia. Students admitted to Monash College International Pathways programme would be able to pursue part of their course overseas based on a grading system, according to a joint statement. Jo Mithen, board member and CEO of Monash College Pty Ltd, said it is proud to partner with TimesPro in the quest to impart quality education to Indian students. Times Professional Learning (TPL) President Anish Srikrishna said the pathway programme offers parents and students quality guidance to make their international education dreams come true.

5,000 Atal Tinkering labs to be set up by March 2019

To promote innovation among students, the NITI Aayog will set up 5,000 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) by March 2019 covering all districts in the country, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Thursday.

UGC's visit to St. Stephen's College opposed by teachers

The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) on Thursday protested against the UGC team's visit to St. Stephen's College to assess the latter's bid for autonomy status, calling it a violation of the law under which the university was established.

Chinese Consul General for increase in Indian students in

Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu today said the number of Indians studying in China and vice-versa still remained smaller as compared to students from other countries on study trip to China, and called for a rise in the numbers. Zhanwu was addressing the Higher Education Expo, organised by the Chinese Consulate in cooperation with the School of Chinese Language here. "Around 5.5 lakh students from China go abroad every year for study. And on the other hand, 4.5 lakh foreign students visit China every year to study in our institutions," he said. In this backdrop, 18,000 Indians study in educational institutions in China while 2,000 Chinese students study in India in a year, Zhanwu said. "So these figures of Indian and Chinese students visiting countries of each other are not enough and we need to work on it. Hope this expo will be successful in providing the right information about the education opportunities in China and lead to rise in numbers," he said. The

Bureaucrat reunites with classmate while meeting foreign team

For Maharashtra Chief Secretary D K Jain, it was a routine official meeting, till a member of the visiting Bangladeshi delegation jogged his memory: They were classmates in a Rajasthan school in the early 1970s. The chance meeting of the two school buddies, after over four decades, took place last evening at Mantralaya, the state secretariat building in south Mumbai, an official said. The meeting was part of efforts to strengthen mutual ties between the two countries, the official said. Soon after the meeting began, Altamas Kabir, editor of Dainik Sangbad, who was a part of the delegation, went up to Jain and told him that they were classmates from class 6th to 11th during 1971-76 at the Mayo Secondary School at Ajmer. Sangbad is a Bengali language daily newspaper, founded in 1951 and published from Dhaka. "Hello friend, I am Altamas Kabir. We are childhood friends. We were not only in the same school but in the same class," Kabir told Jain, a 1983-batch Indian ...

NEET: Girl student files police complaint against observer's

A girl student, who had to remove her innerwear to appear for NEET here on May 6, has filed a police complaint alleging that an external observer had stared at her 'inappropriately.' Based on her complaint, a case was registered under IPC sect 509 (eveteasing by word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and investigations have begun, police said. The student who appeared for the National Eligiblity-cum-Entrance Test conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at the Lion's school at Koppa here, had to remove her brassieres along with some other girls as it contained metal hook before writing the test. According to the complainant, she was not comfortable writing the examination as a male external observer kept staring at her 'inappropriately.' "The invigilator came and stood before her several times. He did not look at her face.. but at her chest. she tried to cover herself with the question paper," her sister told television ...