MoE’s major move; Board exams to be conducted twice a year

Schools News

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August 24, 2023

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has stated that Board examinations would be held twice a year, and students will have the option of keeping their top score, moving toward a more inclusive and easily accessible educational system. With its innovative National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for School Education 2023, the Ministry hopes to reduce the immense pressure that is typically associated with taking one exam every year.

“To provide students the time and opportunity to prepare adequately, board exams should be given at least twice a year. The NCF document, which was made public on August 23, 2023, states that students can thereafter show up for a Board examination in topics they have finished and feel prepared for. The goal is to provide students with plenty of time and opportunities to succeed. This way, students can opt to take board exams in subjects they have covered and feel prepared for, fostering a more favorable learning environment.

NCF states that Class 11 and 12 students will need to learn two languages, at least one of which must be an Indian language. According to the new framework, students in grades 6 through 10 should study at least two Indian languages, while those in grades 11 and 12 should study at least one. According to the NCF, learning different languages will “broaden students’ horizons” and aid in forging closer ties to the nation.

The NCF also suggests doing away with strict divisions between the arts and sciences, curricular and extracurricular activities, and career and academic pathways. It also suggests that classes 11 and 12 students be given the ability to choose any subject they like, rather than being limited to options in the arts, sciences, or commerce. “School boards must eventually build the capacity to provide ‘on demand’ tests. Before beginning this task, test developers and assessors will also need to complete university-certified courses, it stated.

The decision to abandon the tradition of “covering” textbooks in class has been made clear in the new framework. The Ministry also underlined the need to minimis textbook costs in order to maintain universal access to high-quality education.

UGC introduces Life Skill courses aligned with NEP for undergraduates

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 23, 2023

As part of its Quality Mandate, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has made Life Skills courses available to undergraduate students enrolled in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The goal is to give students the necessary soft skills that improve self-esteem and employability. Communication, interpersonal relationships, time management, teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making, leadership skills, and universal values are all included in this list of skills.

Both students and staff are encouraged to actively participate in the program. The courses include exercises like oral presentations, discussions, team-building activities, projects, and psychometric analysis. The program’s goals include developing emotional intelligence, leadership qualities, stress and time management skills, and human values.

In addition to Communication Skills, Professional Skills, Leadership and Management Skills, and Universal Human Values, the Life Skills curriculum provides a number of other courses. Together, these courses seek to improve students’ overall growth as well as their emotional, intellectual, professional, social, and self-competency.

Students who enroll in the ‘Communication Skills’ course explore a variety of aspects of effective communication, including nonverbal communication, digital literacy, social media use, digital ethics, and writing in many modes. This 30-hour, 2-credit course equips students with a broad range of communication skills necessary for both personal and professional development.

The ‘Professional Skills’ course is broken down into two sections: ‘Career Skills’ and ‘Team Skills,’ each of which is worth two credits and takes up a total of 30 hours. The course “Career Skills” focuses on developing resumes, interviewing skills, participating effectively in group discussions, and researching career options. ‘Team abilities’ explores both cognitive and non-cognitive abilities such as presenting proficiency, trust-building, teamwork, effective listening, brainstorming, and social and cultural etiquette.

Also Read:- UGC releases guidelines to recognise foreign degrees

The two credit hour ‘Leadership and Management Skills’ course covers leadership, managerial skills, entrepreneurial skills, innovative leadership, design thinking, ethics, integrity, and managing personal finances. Students are given the necessary tools by this extensive curriculum to lead and manage effectively in a variety of situations.

The NEP 2020’s emphasis on well-rounded learning experiences and the UGC’s dedication to holistic education are both supported by these Life Skills courses. They encourage students to improve personally, professionally, and socially by giving them the confidence to face problems in life.

AICTE partners with Jio Institute to launch an innovative faculty development programme centered around AI

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 22, 2023

The purpose of this strategic alliance is to provide academic administrators and academics with in-depth knowledge of these cutting-edge technologies. This immersive five-day residential faculty development event will be hosted by Jio Institute, which is famous for its groundbreaking AI and Data Science efforts.

An important step has been taken toward promoting excellence in the area of AI education with this collaboration. A comprehensive faculty development program that offers a thorough understanding of AI and data science will be introduced as a result of the combined effort.

The curriculum intends to convey thorough knowledge and understanding of AI’s applications and ethical implications, according to TG Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE who officially launched the program.

The faculty development program aims to involve 40 chosen individuals from AICTE, including academics. This comprehensive training course will cover a wide range of crucial subjects, including Data Visualisation, Natural Language Processing, Time Series Analysis, Optimisation, and the ground-breaking ideas of Large Language Models and Generative AI.

The curriculum will examine the profound impact of AI and data sciences across various industries, such as science, engineering, healthcare, and the liberal arts, with a focus on transdisciplinary impacts. The curriculum will delve into new prospects inside the fast changing technology world in addition to exploring established applications.

This partnership between AICTE and Jio Institute establishes a transformational precedent in providing educators with the knowledge and resources necessary to support innovation and growth in AI and Data Science education as industries continue to be altered by AI and data-driven solutions.

Delhi to get new model schools with advanced facilities; 20 crores allocated for renovation of schools

Schools News

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August 21, 2023

MCD intends to establish a concept for model schools with a variety of cutting-edge amenities. The Delhi Municipal Corporation has set aside 20 crores for school renovations. Schools like Moldband Okhla Urdu Jaitpur Ali Gaon Sangam Vihar Ji Block in Central Zone are among the ones that require extensive repairs. The “schools of specialised excellence” established by the Delhi government will be followed in the construction of these schools, according to senior officials in the MCD’s education department. The corporation currently runs two types of schools: conventional schools and Nigam Pratibha Vidyalayas.

Additionally, it is necessary to increase the available resources. The Delhi Government needs to provide a 200 crore rupee money, according to the Education Department. The organization will begin the process of constructing these schools as soon as it receives the necessary funding. The engineering department is now building nine new schools, according to an MCD official, while spending about Rs 4 crore on minor repairs to 191 existing schools. Additionally, Rs 24 crore has been allocated for significant repairs, which the department is also carrying out.

The brand-new network of these concept schools will feature cutting-edge teaching methods, smart boards, sizable playgrounds, and sporting facilities. According to a senior official in charge of the initiative, the curriculum will be modified, and teachers will receive training from recognized universities. The next month, the regulations for the new model schools would be written.

Separate building blocks for each of the two specialities, each of which will have 240 classrooms, will be prepared in this school hub, which will be constructed with STEM and Humanities specializations in mind. All of these classrooms will be furnished with the most up-to-date teaching tools. The government claims that these schools have high admittance rates. In the 1,535 primary schools run by MCD over 12 administrative zones, there are more than 800,000 pupils registered in classes up to the fifth grade, taught by 18,158 teachers.

According to the first official, the civic body has already begun skill-upgradation training at the IIMs to create mentor instructors. The official went on to say, “A second batch of 50 teachers will depart for IIM Kozhikode on August 21, and more batches are in the works.” According to MCD’s education department, 198 structures will need minor repairs in 2022 (16.7%), while 368 locations will need severe repairs (31.05%). The state government and MCD have also begun collaborating in an effort to close the teacher shortage for municipal primary schools.

UGC releases guidelines to recognise foreign degrees

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 18, 2023

The UGC has released draft rules to determine the validity of foreign degrees. However, it does not include degrees obtained through remote learning or online courses.

Notably, these rules do not apply to professional degrees from foreign educational institutions in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, law, and architecture. The UGC also specified how to accept credentials from offshore campuses and boards in other countries.

This growth coincides with the progress made by foreign colleges in establishing campuses in Gujarat’s GIFT City. Similar to this, Indian universities are aggressively collaborating with foreign universities to offer dual or joint degree programs.

The UGC stipulates that a foreign higher education degree shall be recognized and equivalent if the student enrolls in a reputable institution back home.

Additionally, the program’s entrance standards should be on par with those of a comparable program in India.

Next Education partners with Life Vitae and Hikvision to elevate education offerings with advanced technology

Corporate Updates

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 17, 2023

Next Education, an Indian Ed-tech business serving the K–12 education market has joined forces with Life Vitae, an AI-driven career guidance company, and Hikvision, a global leader in machine perception, artificial intelligence, and big data technologies. By working together, Next Education hopes to incorporate cutting-edge technology into its educational programs and better educate students for the changing demands of the modern workforce.

The collaboration with Life Vitae is evidence of Next Education’s unwavering commitment to utilising technological innovations to enhance the educational experience of its students. The platform from Life Vitae is recognized for leveraging AI to assist students in identifying their talents and selecting their career pathways. Next Education offers a comprehensive educational experience that goes beyond the realm of traditional academics by incorporating this AI-driven career advising tool into the Next Learning Platform.

“We are thrilled to announce these ground-breaking partnerships that will revolutionize learning solutions for our students,” stated Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO of Next Education. By utilising both our extensive educational resources and Life Vitae’s AI-driven career assistance, students are better equipped to plan their futures. By partnering with Hikvision, Next Education is making a significant advancement toward building a safer, smarter, and more individualized learning environment.

According to Priya Sengupta, CEO, Life Vitae, “We are excited to deliver our AI-driven career advise to students, helping them to uncover their actual potential and make educated decisions about their future careers, as we embark on this ground-breaking cooperation with Next Education. We’ll make sure the students at Next Education are well-equipped to handle the difficulties of the contemporary world in both their career and personal life.

The cornerstone of our aim has always been to better prepare the future workforce, according to Richard Ni, Director of Academics at Hikvision. The big data tools from Hikvision can help Next Education discover important things about the behavior, performance, and learning patterns of its students. This data can be used to improve education generally, personalise the learning experience for each student, and customise resources to match their needs.

Unacademy promotes Sumit Jain to Co-Founder status

Corporate Updates

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2023

Sumit Jain, the head of Unacademy’s Graphy section, has been promoted to partner, which is “like a cofounder who joined at a later stage,” according to Gaurav Munjal, Group Chief Executive, who made the announcement.

In April 2020, Jain joined Unacademy and helped create the Graphy division, which enables creators and educators to start their own online courses. Prior to this, in 2007, Jain co-founded CommonFloor, a real estate website that let users purchase, sell, and rent homes. He served as the company’s CEO. In 2016, Quikr, a classifieds website, acquired CommonFloor.

“Gaurav, I appreciate your confidence in me so much. The journey with Unacademy Group has been an up-and-down experience filled with obstacles and lessons. I wouldn’t accept anything less, either. I’m incredibly thrilled to join the Unacademy Group, Jain tweeted.

For Indian edtech experts, the last two years have been a trying time as the ecosystem struggles with slowing growth, declining pandemic-led tailwinds, a protracted funding winter, and global macroeconomic headwinds.

To increase their cash runway and save costs, players including Unacademy, Byju’s, and Vedantu have implemented layoffs across numerous tranches. Munjal claimed earlier this year that Unacademy had decreased its monthly cash burn to Rs 1.9 crore and had generated Rs 130 crore in revenue in May.

NCERT forms two committees to develop new school curriculum

Schools News

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2023

NCERT has notified two committees to create new textbooks and school curriculam under the National Education Policy 2020. These committees are comprised of specialists in a variety of disciplines in addition to academia. Members of the core group come from a variety of professions, including philanthropy, athletics, music, the business world, government, higher education, and policy-making.

The 19-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) includes Sudha Murthy, chair of the Infosys Foundation, Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the economic advisory council to the prime minister, Bibek Debroy, chairman of the economic advisory council to the prime minister, music legend – Shankar Mahadevan, U Vimal Kumar, a former Indian badminton player, Sujatha Ramdorai, professor at Canada’s University of British Columbia, and Surina Rajan (retired IAS).

The National Curriculum Frameworks Oversight Committee (NOC), which is made up of Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University, Anurag Behar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation, and Indian billionaire businessman Sridhar Vembu, will provide assistance for the committee. M C Pant, Chancellor of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, and Professor Manjul Bhargava share leadership of the NSTC. The committee has also been given the authority “to appropriately revise the existing textbooks of classes I and II to ensure smooth transition from classes II to III”.

The textbooks and other materials will cover all curricular areas and the subjects contained within that are a component of the NCF-SE (National Curriculum Framework – School Education), as well as its accompanying materials such teacher handbooks, according to the terms of reference for NSTC.

Curricular area groups (CAGs) will work with the committee to create textbooks and other teaching resources for each subject. Additionally, the committee is “free to invite other experts for advice…”

The Central University of Punjab’s Jagbir Singh serves as the NOC’s chair, and its mandate is to assure “complete alignment of the curriculum, textbooks, and other teaching and learning materials to NCF-SE 2023. The NSTC has been handed to the NOC with various forms of support and facilitation.

NITIE to be renamed as IIM Mumbai

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 11, 2023

The National Institute of Industrial Engineering, or NITIE, will soon be renamed as the Indian Institute of Management Mumbai (IIM-Mumbai). The decision was made after the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Bill 2023 received approval from both Houses of Parliament during the current monsoon session.

IIM Mumbai will now rank second in Maharashtra after IIM Nagpur as the country’s twenty-first IIM. This news coincides with the institute’s Diamond Jubilee Year celebrations.

‘The bill will make NITIE join the illustrious family of globally renowned IIMs. India’s established 21st Indian Institute of Management (IIM) established in 1963, the 21st IIM has been synonymous with exceptional management education,” as per official tweet.

The IIM recognition is a source of great pride for NITIE and Mumbai, according to Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chairman of the Society and Board of Governors at NITIE and Chairman and Founder of Allcargo Group. In the areas of industrial engineering, engineering management, and management sciences, NITIE is renowned for providing high-quality instruction. We shall be further inspired to continue our path of academic excellence by fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation to develop tomorrow’s leaders thanks to the inclusion of NITIE in the IIM Act, 2017’.

The President of India will be the Visitor of each institute, according the IIM (Amendment) Bill 2023. The President will have the authority to oversee their operations, launch investigations, and nominate and remove directors.

Notably, the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), founded in Mumbai in 1963 by the Indian government, consistently ranks among the best business schools in India. The institution is listed seventh among India’s management institutes in the National Institutional Ranking Framework NIRF rankings for 2023. NITIE has a campus that is spread out over 63 acres of forested hilltop in Mumbai’s Powai neighborhood, on the shores of Vihar Lake.

With numerous partner universities in North America, South America, Europe, and South-East Asia, NITIE also runs a thriving student exchange program.

Pedagogies Addressing the Country’s Literacy and Numeracy Crisis: Abhishek Goel, SAAR Education (I) Pvt Ltd

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August 11, 2023

The inclusion of Social Emotional Learning in schools can solve most of the problems of society, shared Abhishek Goel, Co-Founder, SAAR Education (I) Pvt Ltd in an exclusive conversation with Sheeba Chauhan of Elets News Network. Edited excerpts:

SAAR believes that the world has changed phenomenally in the past few decades but the educational methodologies unfortunately haven’t. What are the practices and methodologies that still need a revamp?

Education is meant to provide enlightening experiences to individuals. The dictionary meaning of education is ‘the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life’. If all educators align their school functioning to the defined meaning of education, it will help each one of us identify the gaps in systems.

NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 provides a clear picture of the gaps that are deeply rooted and surfacing as unemployability in our country. Many publishers and curriculum developers by large have not yet been able to develop products according to the required pedagogical approaches. This has led to wrong teaching methods in school education, thus leading to rote learning rather than skill development. Every subject has a specific way of transferring knowledge and developing skills and it is our duty as providers of educational resources to take ownership of this corrective measure. It is high time that we all look at NEP 2020 and NCF (National Curriculum Framework) 2022 documents as guiding lights and involve methods that are researched, tried, and tested.

Practices and methodologies that need a revamp in education include adopting student-centric approaches, implementing inquiry-based learning, integrating technology effectively, promoting collaborative and project-based learning, emphasising life skills education, incorporating cultural relevance and global perspectives, and providing continuous professional development for educators.

We at SAAR are very proud of being the pioneers of creating and providing educational resources based on researched pedagogies and methodologies in India and training lacs of teachers to implement them successfully in their classrooms. Our resources are completely aligned with NEP 2020; as a result, we are looked at by our customer schools as ‘Partners of Change’.

You have collaborated with brands like Evan Moor, Fitzroy, MyOn, and more. How have these collaborations escalated the success of SAAR?

Brian O’Leary in one of his articles titled ‘From Competitors to Collaborators’ calls out publishers to build “an architecture of collaboration”. SAAR too believes that we must not waste time reinventing the wheel. Our collaborations are with organisations that are pioneers in their areas of education. The education transformation can be brought in by looking at the innovators as our allies who are supporting us in our vision to bring education revolution.

Collaborating with brands like Jolly Phonics (UK), Fitzroy Programs (Australia), Evan Moor (USA), BSD (Singapore), MyOn (USA), Renaissance (USA), Pratham Books (India) and many others has significantly contributed to the success of SAAR. These collaborations have facilitated the expansion of our resources, expertise, and reach, enabling us to provide a more comprehensive and diverse educational experience to our users.

On a deeper level, our collaborations also helped us establish the fact that children across the world have to be oriented towards skill development and not syllabus completion and that some of the problems we are facing in the Indian education system are also prevalent in countries like the United Kingdom and United States of America.

According to a recent survey, over 300 million students are homeschooled worldwide. How is SAAR helping students to be homeschooled?

In India, the homeschooling market is yet to open up, but we understand the increasing need for it. We launched our homeschooling kit at the time of the Covid crisis.

SAAR provides valuable support to homeschooled students through its comprehensive educational resources, personalised learning experiences, and interactive online platform. It offers a wide range of subjects, curriculum materials, and tools that can be tailored to the specific needs and preferences of homeschooled students, helping them receive quality education in a flexible and accessible manner. As mentioned before, we are looking at skills and not syllabi and all our products are pivoted around specific skills. The homeschooling kit works around 4C skills. Parents can even take advantage of our self-paced coding platform with BSD and personalised digital library MyOn for enhancing literacy.

What are the unique practices SAAR includes under SEL (Social Emotional Learning)?

The inclusion of Social Emotional Learning in schools can solve most of the problems of society.

SAAR’s SEL curriculum ‘Learning Skills for Life’ uses the CASEL model. The five broad, interrelated areas of competence according to this model are: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

Some of the unique practices of SAAR’s SEL curriculum can be listed as making and keeping friends, learning from mistakes and becoming resilient, being open to others’ views and expressing opinions, acting towards the safe and unsafe touch, respecting all types of families, identifying and managing all emotions, handling bullying and developing coping skills.

The world needs individuals that have resilience and compassion to make a better society and we at SAAR have created provision for a solution for school leaders to work on it from a very early age through our story-based SEL curriculum. Education is the means to bring the big change and we at SAAR are committed to this cause.

The World Education Summit has been igniting transformation in the education industry since its initial edition. What are your thoughts on being a part of the 26th edition of this global platform on 4-5 July in New Delhi?

Being a part of the 26th edition of the World Education Summit in New Delhi on 4-5 July is an exciting opportunity for SAAR.

We view it as a valuable platform to contribute to engage with global discussions on educational transformation. We look forward to sharing our insights, learning from industry leaders, and collaborating towards the advancement of education on a global scale.

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