Geospatial Tech to be part of CBSE curriculum

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January 16, 2013

The CBSE has decided to introduce the subject , currently in pilot stage, across the country from session 2013-14 as an elective subject

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) is mulling expansion of Geo-spatial Technologies (GST) course with the aim to expand the course’s reach across the nation with effect from session 2013-14.

The course till now was launched on pilot basis in a few schools effective from the academic session 2010-11.

Teachers would be trained. This course will train the students on the basics of geospatial technology. This curriculum would endow skill development in students for further studies and thereby help them contribute towards the country’s economic growth.

Offered as single vocational elective in class XI and XII, the course on Geospatial Technology will be introduced by CBSE in collaboration with Geospatial Solutions Company Rolta India Limited.

The students can choose this subject as an elective with other combination of subjects at senior secondary level. CBSE, with inputs from Rolta India Limited and other relevant organisations has prepared the text books and practical manuals for the course.

Rs 500 cr fund this fiscal to boost higher education

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 16, 2013

The fund will be allotted to The Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) to set up community colleges, research parks and innovation centres

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) aimed to increase the enrollment across higher education institutes might get Rs 500 crore for financial year 2013-14.

The allotment is also aimed at setting up of 200 community colleges in the country. It would also be utilised for setting up of research parks and innovation centres.

HRD Ministry officials is looking at a substantial five per cent hike in the budget for the Ministry. The idea is to facilitate enhancement of quality of the teacher training programmes and improve the skill development initiatives.

The HRD Ministry is also planning to propose replacement of ‘norm-based’ funds in place of capital grants to central universities so as to take care of the customised needs of the institutions rather than overall capital grants.

The budget would also lay special focus on state universities, and student financial aid programmes.

The higher education sector had got Rs 15,458 crore and the school education was allocated Rs 45,969 crore in 2012-13 financial year budget.

RTE quota admissions in Maharashtra to be delayed

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January 16, 2013

The admission processes for admission in this category will begin only after the government resolution on the issue is released

Mumbai: The schedule for school admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) quota in the state will be revised, the State Education Department announced.

The Education Department will announce new admission schedule for schools after the government resolution on the RTE reservation clause is released, the Deputy Director of Schools has said in a statement.

Schools, which were supposed to start distributing admission forms from January 10, have been held back for at least a week.

The Education Inspectors of the state have also made it a point to explain about RTE and clear doubts of all the school principals related to the same.

During the past week, the school principals attended sessions on conducting admissions under the 25% RTE quota .

According to feedback from different schools, the admission forms have already been prepared and they will be released following government’s declaration of the new schedule.

The provision of RTE demands that “every child of the age of six to fourteen years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary education.”

IIT-D launches online certificate course in management

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 14, 2013

This is the first of its kind online course offered through WizIQ, a virtual classroom platform

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi has launched a six-month online Certificate Course in Business Management. This is the first of its kind online course offered through WizIQ, a virtual classroom platform.

With this step, IIT Delhi joins the league of other premier institutes offering online courses.Altogether 102 students enrolled to earn certification in this course.

The course, which started on January 7 is being conducted in a blended mode with a combination of contact and online classes. The online classes are being conducted on WizIQ. The enrollment fee for the complete course is Rs 75,000

The course is divided in three phases. The first phase, which started on January 7, 2013, is being held on the IIT-Delhi campus. The second phase, which covers a significant part of the course, will be conducted online on WizIQ and the last phase will comprise regular classes on the IIT-Delhi campus.

On a special request by some students, the phase-1 of the course is being conducted in the hybrid mode, that is, on campus and online, simultaneously.

A total of 92 students are attending on-campus sessions at IIT-Delhi and the others joined online.

The classes are offline and online students together. For all students, the recordings of the classes will be kept viewable for revisions. The study material for the respective course is also kept viewable and downloadable on WizIQ.

“We are really excited to get such a good response from the students,” said one of the course coordinators, Ankur Saini. He mentioned that renowned faculty from IIT-Delhi and experts from pioneer institutes and industry will conduct the course.

The students who complete this course successfully will be awarded a Certificate in Business Management by the Continuing Education Programme and the Department of Management Studies, IIT-Delhi.

Tougher UK visa rules hit Indian students

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 14, 2013

There were less than 30,000 Indian students enrolled in 2011-12 compared to around 40,000 last year

New Delhi: Britain’s stringent visa policies for non-EU students have led to a 24 percent decline in the number of Indian students in higher education last year.

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the number of Chinese students at British higher education institutes continued to grow during the academic year. There were less than 30,000 Indian students enrolled in 2011-12 compared to around 40,000 last year.

New restrictions on student visas have been much in the news since the Cameron government came to power, particularly its closure of the post-study work visa, which was popular among Indian students who used it to recover some of the cost of studying in Britain.

The government, keen to reduce immigration from non-EU countries, clamped down on universities such as the London Metropolitan University, whose license to recruit Indian and other non-EU students got cancelled recently.

Jo Beall, British Council Director of Education and Society, said the Indian and Pakistani falls were very alarming.

“Not only are these countries with large numbers of ambitious students aspiring to study overseas, but also those with which we have historically been actively engaged in the areas of higher education and research,” she added.

Amendments to the post-study work visa also prohibit most foreign students to stay and work for two years in the country after completing their studies. Now, the students can stay in the UK for three years after completing their studies only if they get a graduate level job with salary of BP 20,000 or more.

Besides this, the country’s government is also taking measures to prevent any bogus applicants from studying in the country.

Britain has an excellent reputation around the world for its high quality education system, therefore, the government needs to ensure that the HEIs get all the support they need to attract international students who make a huge academic, cultural and economic contribution to the country, said Beall.

Figures released by the HESA also show a 13.4 percent in the number of students from Pakistan coming to the UK to study year-on-year.

The total number of non-EU students coming to the UK for pursuing post graduation has fallen for the first time in 16 years. Overall, the number of non-EU students studying at British higher education institutions rose by 1.5 per cent in 2011-12, according to the agency.

UGC accreditation mandatory for technical institutions

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 12, 2013

Now, in addition to AICTE, all higher and technical education institutes will have to get an accreditation from the UGC

New Delhi: In view of the failure of technical and management education institutions to meet the current market expectations, University Grants Commission (UGC) takes a strong step.

Now, in addition to AICTE, all higher and technical education institutes need to get an accreditation from the UGC too.

Till day, AICTE is the single regulatory authority for technical education providers in the country. This decision came after the HRD Ministry ordered the UGC to set regulations in tandem with the AICTE.

According to a feedback study by Union HRD Ministry, 53 per cent technical graduates do not meet the standards of the industry; only 13 per cent of the technical graduates were industry-ready while 17 per cent worth trainable.

The regulations are expected to be notified by February 2013 so as to bring the rule into effect from the next academic session.

The HRD Ministry has also directed the State Governments to create agencies for accreditation for systematic regulation of the technical and management institutions in the states.

UGC is the regulatory authority for the general academic programmes across the country. It also regulates the entry of foreign educational institutions in India.

Uniform class 12th question papers pan-India from 2014

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 12, 2013

The move is aimed at bringing in uniformity in the education and evaluation process across all the boards in the country

New Delhi: The Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE)— a common platform for all educational boards in the country—is planning a common syllabus and common question papers for Science and Mathematics exam papers for class 12 across all educational Boards from the academic year 2014-15.

As part of the move, COBSE has instituted a sub-committee comprising of State Board members from Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar, Kerala and Rajasthan to work on it.

The common exam paper design will be pilot- tested in five states—Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Kerala— for class XI. Based on the experience, and in case there is any need for improvement, finally it will be introduced in class XII from 2014.

The common design of the exam papers will ensure that the difficulty levels as well as the marking systems will be even across all the boards, thus bringing in uniformity in the education and evaluation process.

There has always existed dissatisfaction among students from different board on being compared on their board exam performance in various competitive exams. With the introduction of 40% of board result in IIT JEE, the rift got aggravated.

This uniformity would offer equal opportunities for all students when appearing for centralized entrance examinations like the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

The JEE entrance exam will consider the Class 12 board exam marks by giving 40% weightage to it for their merit list from this year onwards.

Goa mulls new plan to bring orphans under SSA

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 12, 2013

Under the plan,it will fund NGOs, already working in the field of education, for providing shelter to children in distress to receive education

Panaji: The Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is planning to collaborate with NGOs to set up residential services for ‘children in difficult situations’, with special emphasis on orphans and street children, to provide them a safe shelter to receive education.

The process has looped in Registered NGOs with reliable track record of working with children in distress share their level of interest in setting up residential facilities and to apply under the scheme before January 15, 2013.

The department has said that it will provide a one-time non-recurring grant to selective NGOs towards the purchase of furniture, kitchen equipment, teaching learning material, library books and bedding.

NGOs already working in the field of education and with the capacity to accommodate at least 30 students initially will be given preference. The students will also be given vocational and skills training to make them independent.

Rs. 900 will be provided as Recurring grants per child towards maintenance. A stipend of 50 per month per child will be given to the NGOs. Grants will also be provided towards submission of examination fees, for salaries of staff employed at the residential facility, for supplementary teaching material and to cover water and electricity charges of the hostel.

In addition to this amount, Rs. 750 per child will be paid to the NGOs to fulfil medical expenses of the children and other emergency.

Tibetan schools to be managed by Govt-in-exile now

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 12, 2013

The Centre has decided to hand over the administration of these schools to the Tibetan government-in exile to focus specific educational needs of the students

New Delhi: India run Tibetan schools will soon be handed over to Tibet’s exile administration. However, the Centre will continue to fund the schools.

According to the decision, the 71 schools run by the Central Tibetan Schools Administration (CTSA) will be transferred to the Department of Education (DoE) of the Dharamshala-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) or the Tibetan government-in-exile over a three-year period. The aim is to improve focus on the educational needs of the students.

The Indian teaching and non-teaching staff of CTSA would be given an option to join the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, the Central Board of Secondary Education, or the demonstration schools of the National Council of Educational Research and Training once the schools get transferred.

The CTA would be provided funds of Rs 43 crore per annum plus an annual increment of five percent. The transfer would benefit 2,220 residential students and 6,455 day scholars through better focus on their educational needs.

There would be a potential saving of Rs 69.29 crore for the Government of India over a five-year period.

CTSA was established as a society in 1961 with the objective of establishing, managing and running schools for educating the children of Tibetan refugees who migrated to India while preserving Tibetan culture and heritage and promoting the Tibetan language.

Ahmedabad Design Institute to get national status soon

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digitalLEARNING Network

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January 11, 2013

The step would fulfill the need to professionalise, standardise and internationally benchmark professional design education in India

New Delhi: The National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, would soon be declared as an institution of national importance, thus enabling it to award degrees to its students.

At a meeting chairmed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Union Cabinet approved the declaration of NID by the Parliament as an ‘Institution of National Importance’, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

This, in turn, would prove beneficial to our students who want to pursue post-graduation after graduating from the institute, said an official release. A legislation in this regard will also be introduced in the next session of the Parliament.

Chidambaram also said that the step would fulfill the need to professionalise, standardise and internationally benchmark professional design education in India.

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