Page 99 - Education

Judge OKs USD 60M settlement in Haiti sex abuse case

A federal judge in Connecticut has approved a USD 60 million legal settlement involving as many as 170 people who say they were sexually abused as children at a now-defunct charity school in Haiti. That's according to lawyers who filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of poor and often homeless boys who attended the Project Pierre Toussaint School over a period of more than a decade beginning in the late 1990s. A founder of the school, Fairfield University graduate Douglas Perlitz, is serving a nearly 20-year prison sentence for sexual abuse. The defendants included the university and religious organisations which financially supported the Haiti school. The lawsuit alleged they were negligent in supervising Perlitz and failed to prevent the abuse. Fairfield said in an earlier statement it played no role in running the Haiti school.

Over 2.58 lakh students register on DU's website for admissions till now

Over 2.58 lakh students registered on the Delhi University's website for admission to undergraduate courses till Friday, the varsity said. The university started registrations on May 30 for undergraduate courses and the admission process will end on June 14. The first cut-off list is likely to be released on June 20, second on June 25 and the third to be released on June 29. The fourth and fifth cut-off lists will be out on July 4 and July 9 respectively. Till now, 2,58,296 students have registered and 1,51,722 made payments, the varsity said. Out of the total number of registrations, 94,776 aspirants are from the unreserved category, 27,751 other backward classes, 21,550 scheduled castes, 4410 scheduled tribes and 3235 from the economically weaker section (EWS), it said. On Friday, the Delhi University organised its open day sessions at Zakir Husain College near Ajmeri Gate and Rajdhani College in Raja Garden. This year, the varsity has effected a 10 per cent increase in seats for ...

MCI approves admission in 4 Odisha Medical colleges

The Medical Council of India (MCI) Friday accorded approval for admission to MBBS course in four different government medical colleges in Odisha during the academic session 2019-2020, official sources said. Odisha Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das said admissions have been allowed for 100 seats each in Fakir Mohan Medical College & Hospital in Balasore and for Bhima Bhoi Medical College & Hospital in Balangir. The MCI has also allowed admission for 100 seats each for Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College & Hospital in Mayurbhanj district and Saheed Laxman Naik Medical College & Hospital in Koraput district. The permissions are valid for one year and next batch of students will be admitted in the colleges after renewal of permissions by the MCI, the minister said.

Sajid Javid pledges better post-study work options for foreign students

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has set out his stall in the race to Downing Street with a pledge to reverse Theresa May's stringent visa norms that restricted overseas students from countries like India from staying on to work for a few years at the end of their university degree. The senior Pakistani-origin minister, who is among 10 other contenders to succeed May as Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister after she formally resigned on Friday, has stated that he believes it makes no sense for overseas students to not be able to work after they complete their course at a UK university. It makes no sense to send some of the brightest and most enterprising people in the world straight home after their time here, Javid said in a column for The Financial Times' on Friday. At an event organised by think tank British Future in London on Thursday, the minister had stressed on a similar commitment to encourage international students to both study in the UK and stay on and work ...

NEET against social justice, equality, says DMK

Seeking the NEET's scrapping, DMK president M K Stalin Friday alleged that the test was against social justice and equality and claimed it was destroying the medical education dreams of students. The DMK reaffirming its demand for scrapping it comes in the wake of three girls committing suicide allegedly over failing to clear the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, which has led to an outrage across the state. "NEET, which is destroying students' medical dreams and creates inequality, should be scrapped without further delay," Stalin said in a statement. The NEET was against social justice and equality, Stalin said and wanted Education to be moved to the State list. Earlier too, some women students, including S Anitha of Ariyalur in 2017, had ended their lives after failing in NEET. "The NEET results this year prove that it creates severe mental stress for the students and their parents and has become a weapon that is destroying social justice," he said. Stalin, ...

Admission to PG medical courses in Maharashtra: SC to hear fresh applications on June 10

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on June 10 two fresh applications seeking modification of its recent directions passed in a matter related to admissions to post graduate (PG) medical and dental courses in the 2019-20 academic year in Maharashtra. One of the applications sought modification of direction passed by the apex court in its June 4 order by which it had said that no further petition on admissions to PG medical and dental courses in 2019-20 academic year in the state would be entertained by any court. The other application sought changes in the direction by which the court had said that no student shall be permitted to change his or her preference for allotment of seat given by them at the time of making their application on March 5, 2019. Both the applications were mentioned for urgent listing before a vacation bench comprising justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi. Senior counsel Sanjay Hegde and advocate Govind Jee mentioned the applications before the bench .

PG medical students move SC seeking fresh choices in admissions

General category MBBS students on Friday moved the Supreme Court with a fresh plea seeking modification of its order, which restrained students from registering fresh choice during allotment of PG medical and dental seats in Maharashtra.

HC scraps 9 PG distance education medical courses of state-run varsity in TN

The Madras High Court on Friday declared nine post graduate distance education courses offered by the Tamil Nadu Dr M G R Medical University as "illegal and ultra vires" as they did not have the approval of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the central government. Justice S S Sundar of the Madurai bench also asked the state-run university to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh to the secretary of the education department, who was directed to use the money for improving the infrastructure in government schools. The court allowed a petition by secretary of the Doctors Welfare Association of Tamilnadu Dr K Srinivasan against the courses, including post graduate diploma in Palliative Medicine and MD Family Medicine. The judge said the high court and also the Supreme Court had already unambiguously held that the state government or the university cannot offer parallel courses without permission from the MCI and the Centre. The apex court had ruled that the regulations of the council were binding .

DU's Academic, Executive councils write to VC, say changes in eligibility criteria 'arbitrary'

Members of the Academic and Executive councils of the Delhi University have written to the vice-chancellor to reverse the changes brought in the eligibility criteria for various courses, describing them as "arbitrary" and "unwarranted". Students have been caught unaware as the eligibility criteria for some courses have been changed. Many aspirants have queried about the changed eligibility criteria for BA (Honours) Economics course. Till the last year, if a student had 50 per cent in Mathematics, he or she could apply for BA (Hons) in Economics, but this year the subject has been made mandatory for 'Best of Four', which means Maths has to be part of the top four subjects, aggregate of which will be considered for the admission. Similarly, BCom (Honours) required a student to have passed Mathematics/Business Mathematics with an aggregate of 45 per cent marks as a mandatory requirement. This year, the criteria has been tweaked which mandates that a student should have 50 per cent or ...

Confusion over separate cut-offs for EWS category at 'Open Day'

Confusion prevailed among students at the 'Open Day' organised at Delhi University's Rajdhani College on Friday as a professor announced that there will be no separate cut-offs for candidates belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). The professor's remark came a few days after the varsity had said there will be separate cut-offs for the category. This year, the varsity has effected a 10 per cent increase in seats for the EWS and maintained that there will be a rise of close to 6,000 seats, taking the total number of seats for undergraduate courses to 62,000. On the day the admissions were announced, Rajeev Gupta, dean, Students' Welfare had said there will be separate cut-offs for the category. However, on Friday, at the Open Day at Rajdhani College, Dr Sangeeta D Gadre, a professor at Kirori Mal College said, "There will not be separate cut-offs for EWS students and they will have the same eligibility criteria as students from the unreserved category." She also cited the .

CBSE allows tribal residential schools to apply for affiliation till June 30

With Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) for tribal students facing issues in applying for CBSE affiliation, the board has extended the deadline for such institutes till June 30, saying this is a "special case". Under Secretary in the Tribal Affairs Ministry P K Sahoo told PTI that EMRSs are facing issues while applying for CBSE affiliation and the matter has been taken up with the board. The board in a letter to Sahoo said the EMRSs are required to apply for affiliation under the "regular" category instead of the "independent private school" category. "The board has granted regular affiliation to schools managed by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and run by state governments as Eklavya Model Residential Schools. Therefore, it is once again clarified that these schools are not required to apply under the independent private school category," the letter read. "EMRSs are required to apply for affiliation in prescribed format with fee and other requirements as applicable for regular

SC to hear on June 10 pleas challenging its order on Mahrashtra EWS quota row

The Supreme Court will hear on June 10 a batch of petitions seeking a modification of its order restricting students from changing their original options for admission in post-graduate medical and dental courses in Maharashtra and directing the state to conduct fresh counselling this year.A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi said on Friday that it would take up the plea filed by a group of medical students on June 10.The apex court had on Tuesday asked the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell to conduct one round of counselling by physical verification of the students this year.On May 31, the court had directed the state government to complete the counselling process and come up with a revised merit list for admission in the postgraduate medical courses after removing seats allotted under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota to 25 students.A bench headed by Justice MR Shah had asked the state government to complete the counseling process by June 4.The court

Texas governor signs bill allowing more armed teachers

Texas will allow more teachers to have guns in school and will increase mental health services for students under bills that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Thursday as major parts of the state's response to a 2018 mass shooting at a high school near Houston. School districts will be allowed to place as many armed teachers or school personnel on campus as they see fit. The new laws also are designed to put more mental health counselors on campus, train teachers to recognize mental health problems and create "threat assessment teams" to help identify potentially dangerous students. "We are proud to have responded to one of the most horrific days in the state of Texas," the Republican governor said of the shooting at Santa Fe High School in which eight students and two teachers were killed. "We can never erase the pain that this tragedy caused, but we can act to make our schools safer." Lawmakers also approved separate measures to "harden" campuses with metal detectors, vehicle ...

Gujarat's student startup initiative to back 500 projects

The Gujarat Government, through its Student Start-up and Innovation Policy (SSIP) programme, has lent support to as many as 4,000 innovative projects, while it braces for harnessing and upscaling 500 students' startups in the next five years.

Walt Disney, Byju's jointly roll out a new learning app for children

Disney.BYJU'S Early Learn app will have animated courses featuring Disney cartoon characters

Student body calls 24-hour general strike in Manipur

The Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) has called a 24-hour general strike in Manipur starting Thursday midnight to protest the arrest of 10 of its senior leaders in connection with the arson in a school last month. The KSO's Gunpi block branch demanded unconditional release of the 10 who are executive members of the organisation. The 10 were apprehended at different times during the course of investigation into the arson case of the St Joseph School at Sugnu on April 25. The Tengnoupal branch of the KSO and another body, the Zomi Student's Organisation, appealed to the people to make the general strike a success. However, another students' organisation Siamsinpawlpi General Headquarters expressed "shock" over the proposed bandh and said "alternative means of democratic agitation" should be found out. Police earlier said KSO leaders were suspected as they had threatened to shut down the school if suspension order to six students was not lifted. The six had been placed ...

Union HRD minister's first meeting with state edu ministers on June 22

The National Education Policy and filling up of vacancies in educational institutions will be on the agenda when HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' holds his first meeting with state education ministers on June 22, officials said Thursday. Pokhriyal assumed charge of the ministry on May 31. Officials said the central minister will be holding the meeting with state education ministers to discuss the education policy, which will be finalised after a discussion with the state governments, officials said. The draft of the new National Education Policy (NEP), formulated by a panel led by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan, was handed over to the HRD Minister after he took charge. The draft policy submitted by the committee has been placed for views of the general public. After getting feedback from the people and the state governments, the National Education Policy will be finalised, officials said. The filling up of close to three lakh vacancies in higher educational institutions ...

Learn Marathi voluntarily, Fadnavis tells students

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis Thursday said Marathi is a rich language and students should learn it voluntarily. He stressed on the importance of imparting value education in schools along with regular syllabus. Fadnavis was speaking after inaugurating a new school here. In his speech, he asked students to learn Marathi voluntarily rather than out of compulsion. "Marathi is an ancient language which is rich like other ancient languages," the chief minister said. Fadnavis said his government aims to provide international standard education in schools affiliated to the state and its affiliated bodies. The state has already started imparting digital education in Zilla Parishad schools, he said. State ministers Vinod Tawde and Subhash Desai were also present on the occasion.

Bring credibility to open universities' degree: HRD Minister

Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Thursday stressed on the need to improve the credibility of the degree provided by open universities in the country.

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal stresses on increasing credibility of open varsities' degrees

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' Thursday stressed on increasing the credibility of degrees provided by open universities, the ministry said. The Human Resources Development Minister also asked the officers to prepare an action plan to fill vacant seats at every level in educational institutions across the country. The Minister also stressed on the mandatory training of teachers in all educational institutions. He held a third consecutive review meeting of the schemes and programmes of the ministry with senior officials where they gave presentations on Open Distance learning, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and Digital initiatives of the ministry. During the review meeting, he advised the officers to focus on effective implementation of schemes at the grassroots level. For distance learning, we should improve quality of education and increase the credibility of the degrees provided by the open universities, the minister added. He emphasised on bringing dropouts into .