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BSEB Bihar board Class 10 result 2022 to be announced today

BSEB Bihar board Class 10

Patna, Bihar:

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) will release the matric (class 10) board exam results 2022 today i.e. on March 31 at 3 pm. The result will be announced by the state Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary. Students can check the result at official website — biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in.

BSEB matric exams were held from February 17 – 24, 2022 and nearly 17 lakh students in the state had registered for the exam. The exams were held in two shifts, the first from 9.30 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. and the second from 1.45 pm to 5 pm.

It may be recalled that the BSEB class 10 exams faced hiccups this year as the mathematics exam had to be cancelled and rescheduled to March 24, between 9:30 and 12:45 pm, after several students and others alleged that the question paper for mathematics was leaked prior to the exam.

“There is a need to update our curriculums & empower educators”

Ashish Jhalani

Ashish Jhalani is the President (International Markets) Square Panda Inc & Managing Director of Square Panda India. He spoke to the Digital Learning Magazine.

Tell us about your brand, like its inception, founders and more.

When Andy Butler, our CEO & Co-Founder, discovered his daughter was dyslexic, he was committed to finding the right learning resources for her. This led to him exploring expert literature on the neurology of reading, early learning, and language skill acquisition. He reached out to Andre Agassi (Chairman of the Board, Square Panda), who piloted early literacy tool in his own schools so that he could see its efficacy first-hand. When he saw just how much faster kids could learn when given access to early reading tools, he knew just how much this can shape an entire generation of learners. We are on a mission to create a more equitable, accessible, and inclusive education ecosystem, helping each stakeholder of the Education System – educators, students, and the Government – reach their learning and developmental goals.

It is said that online mediums have the power to meet policy parameters of NEP – Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability. Your views.

The education ecosystem is always evolving, and over time technology has come to be a key pillar of it. The innovative deployment of edtech can be an incredible game changer for India’s education system, helping to not just revolutionise the way we approach foundational literacy and numeracy, but also empowering and informing educators and leaders as they guide students along their learning journeys.

There is a dire need to not just update our curriculum and contextualise it for diverse Indian needs and languages, but also empower educators by equipping them with the key skills or knowledge needed to create systemic impact. As education experts and innovators, we have devised an array of comprehensive products and programs that aim to improve learning outcomes from pre-primary through secondary grades. This includes creating bespoke content services, educational infrastructure, and innovations such as vocational labs, language laboratories, hanging libraries, and much more.

What do you think would be the key factors for the growth of EdTech post pandemic?

In order for India’s education system to realise its full potential, we need to take a ‘whole system’ approach in order to impact each pillar of the ecosystem. We believe that contextual evidence- based interventions centred on curriculum and content, capacity building, technology awareness, creating enabling infrastructure, and personalised assessments are the need of the hour.

Our team of experts have put in years of research in early childhood learning, leveraging technology and data to create replicable and scalable models of intervention that have been deployed across India. We believe that our integrated and comprehensive approach can create a long-term impact across India’s grassroots and narrow long-standing education gaps. This philosophy is embodied by our flagship initiative, ‘Aarambh’, which aims to catalyse the education ecosystem in every state, thereby positively impacting Anganwadi workers, ECCE educators, parents, administrators, and children themselves.

What is the biggest strength of the EdTech industry in making a paradigm shift in the education ecosystem?

The rapid transition towards a more digital world order that we have witnessed over the last 2 years has given us an opportunity to modernise learning for a new world order. It has led to classrooms and learning environments becoming decentralised and democratised, and we’re seeing the benefit of this in adaptive curriculum and learning platforms, personalised learning pathways, real-time assessment, and so much more. Edtech holds the potential to wholly transform the way we approach learning, and we believe the industry will scale greater heights in years to come.

EdTech sector hopeful that budget 2022 will support the sector in a big way

budget 2022

As the union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman presented the Union Budget on February 1 recently, India’s education sector looked at her with hopeful eyes. The pandemic has strongly affected the education sector and people from the sector are hoping that the budget will give that much needed boost to the industry. Swar Makhija of Elets News Network takes a look at the views of Edtech companies on the budget 2022-23.

The Union Budget was presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2022.

The education sector saw more indulgence and push in technology and e-learning. EdTech sector, which has seen tremendous growth during the pandemic, has a very strong opinion on the budget. Swapnil Dharmadhikari, the Director and Founder of Splashgain Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. said, “FM Nirmala Sitharaman has mentioned a digital university being developed to provide students with world-class quality education with ISTE Standards.” He further added that this will help students to learn by being in the comfort of their homes, from anywhere. “Expanding the PM eVidya scheme from 12 to 200 channels will bring in a regional inclusion for students across the country, and the move is applaud-worthy.”

Commenting on the budget offerings in the education sector, Managing Director and CEO, Schoolnet India Ltd. RCM Reddy, said, “I welcome the announcements for the education sector. The focus on digital learning, as well as the provision of enhanced learning aids through the PM e-Vidya scheme will give a new impetus to strengthening the school education system.”

Sriram Subramanian, Co-founder and CEO of Clever Harvey felt that the capping of long term capital gain surcharge will surely go a long way. Clever Harvey is an ed-tech platform and they recently raised funds for the expansion of Edtech in India. “ The government’s move to cap the long- term capital gains surcharge at 15%. It will go a long way towards ensuring investor confidence not just in startups but in equity generally.” He was happy with the offerings in the vocational field. He said, “We appreciate the special focus on creative vocational fields like animation, graphics, and game design in this year’s budget.” He further mentioned that one area where the budget fell short of expectations is the ongoing disparity in GST rates applied to physical and digital learning materials.

We asked the CEO and President of Infinity Learn, Ujjwal Singh, on how this budget is better than last year. He said, “The Budget 2022-23 has an inclusive approach. We are pleased that the government has recognized the importance of digital learning provided by the EdTech companies in India. The extension of the PM eVIDYA initiative 12 to 200 TV channels will give the segment the requisite boost.” He added, “Education specifically has taken a new direction that has made technology- based learning, whether online or blended, indispensable for our education systems.”

CEO of Globus Infocom Ltd. Kiran Dham, said, “The government’s budget 2022 announcement included steps to push online education via having digital universities with 200 channels and providing education in multiple regional languages which will facilitate supplementary learning and help the education ecosystem to deliver world-class education to learners.” She added that the expansion of “One Class One TV Channel” will help in tackling the continued learning even in a pandemic. We, being a part of this industry, do look forward to the positive impact this will make.

Jai Decosta, Founder and CEO of K12 Techno Services Pvt. Ltd. said, “ The FM and the Central government have given more emphasis on digital education. The acknowledgment of the loss of formal education of the students especially from the government schools due to the pandemic induced lockdown and infusion of the expertise of foreign universities to strengthen the fintech and mathematics education in the Indian education system is a good proposition.”

He further added, “Aggressive initiatives to promote and collaborate with private players might help the government to reduce further education loss for the students from economically challenged backgrounds.” Decosta feels that the overall budget failed to provide direction to private education players especially in the K12 segment. ”The budget doesn’t offer GST exemption or special provisions for Private schools to borrow funds from banks at concessional rates. Since this was highly required and expected from this budget, therefore it was a bit disappointing to notice the FM did not factor these in her Budget planning.”

Raj Mruthyunjayappa, President- India, Anthology Inc. stated “The Centre’s proposal to set up a Digital University to develop and provide access to digital education tools for the masses is a big win for the sector. The fact that the Digital University will have programmes in different Indian languages is highly encouraging. To be built on a hub and spoke model, by stitching collaborations with some of the best institutions in the country, the University looks designed to meet modern-day requirements.”

Pandemic has acted as a catalyst to digitize education : Basil Ali

Basil Ali is the Co-founder & COO of Edumpus. He spoke to Digital Learning about the growth of digital education.

Tell us about your brand.

Established in 2019, Edumpus is a social communication platform designed to simplify communication between educational universities, students and consultants. It aspires to emerge as a connecting bridge between institutions and students from across the globe and create a truly global outreach that shall not only help the students in making well-informed decisions that are best for their academic careers but also provide an efficient way for institutions to leverage their resources to pursue good students without making it an exhaustive process.

The tech-enabled SaaS platform provides a multilateral user- generated communication channel between educational institutions, students, and other key stakeholders. It is increasingly clear that there is a need for Artificial-Intelligence technology in the student recruitment process – given the fact that it is a data-rich environment but highly unorganised, which is where Edumpus comes in. It uses Artificial Intelligence to understand the student preferences and then suggest courses and colleges based on the responses. The company currently has a huge portfolio of 500+ institutions, 50,000+ programs from more than 15 countries across the globe and a strong educational consultant network of 1000+ from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, South Asia & MENA region. Edumpus’ mission is to harness technology and artificial intelligence to create products and services that are gold standard, eventually enabling the global educational community to cut down on information overload and simplify each and every educational transaction.

Do you think the digitalization of education has helped in the globalization of education and shrinking the borders?

The pandemic has acted as a catalyst to digitize education and take it global. The digitalization of education has provided opportunities to people sitting in any corner of the world to access quality learning experiences from colleges and universities in US, UK, Canada, etc. Digital learning has boosted the demand for international studies considering the convenience and accessibility that comes with online education. This revolution in the education space has opened multiple avenues for the students to explore growth in different countries without crossing borders. Exposure to different cultures, people, learning styles, opportunities enriches the academic experience of a student from the comfort of his/her home.

What do you think would be the key factors for the growth of EdTech post-pandemic?

The EdTech sector is about to witness exponential growth for mainly two reasons – Affordability and Convenience. Major EdTech companies have witnessed more than 100% growth due to the growing demand for online courses and counseling services. In my opinion, the growing dependency of students on EdTech platforms for the convenience they provide to the students by being a one- stop-shop for all their academic needs at very affordable costs will provide the impetus for growth of Edtech platforms.

Do online mentorship programs have the potential to provide the best to everyone and hence bridge the socio-economic gap?

While the internet is the solution to all problems, it also creates confusion with the overload of information that it provides. Mentors help sort this information and provide guidance to find the best solution for the students’ academic dreams. Such programs help students make decisions based on their academic performance, interests and financial situation. The end goal is to get the best quality education with manageable or no financial burden. This will open diverse opportunities for students to boost their career growth and become financially independent.

IIT Guwahati researchers to develop speech technology tools for northeastern languages

IIT Guwahati

Guwahati, Assam 

The Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Guwahati is developing ‘Speech Technologies for North Eastern Languages’ to develop Speech Technology Tools for Healthcare Information Dissemination. This new technology tool will enable retrieval of healthcare related information with the help of spoken keyword spotting (KWS) in seven North East Indian languages.

As part of the project, a database of health-related information in seven languages spoken in North East India will also be created. This project is expected to facilitate the access of healthcare related information by people in the far flung areas of North East India in their own native languages.

Talking about the project, Director IIT Guwahati Professor TG Sitharam, said, “This work embodies IIT Guwahati’s commitment to work for the local languages and ethnicities of North East India. The interdisciplinary nature of the project and the focus on local languages reflect the spirit envisaged in the National Education Policy, 2020.”

The interdisciplinary team of CLST team comprises Professor Rohit Sinha, Professor Priyankoo Sarmah, Sanasam Ranbir Singh and Ashish Anand from CLST, IIT Guwahati. This project is part of a larger consortium project titled Speech Technologies for Indian Languages, led by IIT Madras as the consortium leader.

Banaras Hindu University launches ‘Teach for BHU’ scheme to motivate PhD students to teach

Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has launched a special scheme titled “Teach for BHU” for its PhD students to help them nurture their skills. The scheme aims at training BHU PhD scholars about the best practices of teaching and prepare them for an outstanding academic career.

According to senior BHU officials, the idea behind launching the scheme is to provide an opportunity to interested and shortlisted PhD scholars, who wish to make best use of their time after submission of their thesis. The “Teach for BHU Fellowship” will be for twelve months and students who have submitted or are expected to submit their thesis within 6 years of the date of admission, not from the registration date will be eligible to apply for the scheme.

A student may apply six month before the expected date of submission of the thesis. Those selected for the fellowship will be involved in teaching in the University, its associated colleges and schools including nearby under-privileged schools. A candidate selected under the TFB will receive a Fellowship of Rs. 40,000 per month and Rs 6,000 HRA over the 12 month period of engagement.

A three member committee under the convenership of Prof. S. K. Singh of Faculty of Education, has been constituted to implement the scheme. The other two members of the committee include Prof. A. K. Singh, Department of Geography, Mahila Mahavidyalaya, BHU, and Prof. Satyapal Sharma, Department of Hindi, Faculty of Arts.

PM Modi thanks students, parents for enthusiasm towards ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’

pm modi ji

New Delhi

With just a few days left for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Pariksha pe charcha” programme, the PM has thanked all students and parents for their enthusiasm towards the event and called it “phenomenal” This year, Pariksha Pe Charcha (PPC) is scheduled to take place on April 1 at the Talkatora Stadium in the national capital.

The Prime Minister took to Twitter to share his thoughts about his upcoming session. “The enthusiasm towards this year’s Pariksha Pe Charcha has been phenomenal. Lakhs of people have shared their valuable insights and experiences. I thank all those students, parents and teachers who have contributed,” he tweeted. “Looking forward to the programme on 1st April.”

It may be recalled that the final date for this year’s PPC was announced a few days ago by the Ministry of Education. “The wait is now over! The 5th edition of PPC2022 is going to be held on 1st April, 2022 at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi will interact with students and share his insights on how to beat exam stress. Stay Tuned!,” a tweet from the official Twitter account of Ministry of Education had stated

PM Modi will interact with students about staying calm and relaxed during the upcoming exam season, and share insights about how to ace the exams with a calm mind. While the interaction is usually limited to students, this year he will also interact with parents and teachers.

As per a government press release, around 15.7 lakh participants registered for this year’s creative writing competition, which took place from December 28, 2021 to February 3, 2022 through MyGov platform.

Meanwhile, the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said “PPC is becoming a formal institution through which the Prime Minister interacts directly with the students”.

Education gets the “Big digital push” with Union Budget FY-23

Budget fy

The Union Budget for FY23 gave a big push for the digital education ecosystem. Post the pandemic, digital education became a key component for continuing education in the times of lockdown and this push has only accelerated the significance of digital education. Tarannum Manjul of Elets News Network takes a look at what the union budget offers for the EdTech sector.

As the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman opened her laptop to read out the Union Budget FY23, the Education technology, or EdTech sector looked at her with bated breath. The Union Budget FY23 has allocated Rs 1,04,278 crore for the education sector , which was an increase of 11.86% compared to the revised 2021-22 gross allocation of Rs 93,223 crore. While it is still lower than the NEP- recommended 6% of GDP, it surely turned out to be a positive sign. If we look at the Budget from a sub-sector perspective, it is interesting to see the allocation and hence the trend.

Let’s have a look at some “gifts” that were doled out for the education sector. In school education, acknowledging learning losses due to closure of schools, the ‘one class-one TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will help state governments to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12. As we look at this move, It can be a big step in providing high-quality e-content in all spoken languages for delivery via the Internet, mobile phones, TV and radio through digital teachers. A competitive mechanism for development of quality e-content by teachers has been mentioned here.

The allocation for Samagra Shiksha went up to Rs 37,383 crore in 2022-23, from Rs 29,999 crore in 2021-22. Similarly, the allocation for Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) went up from Rs 340 crore to Rs 550 crore. Thrust is given on programmes such as Accelerating State Education Program to Improve Results (ASPIRE) and Exemplar Schools through an allocation of Rs 600 crore and Rs 1,800 crore, respectively, for 2022-23. These initiatives will put states at the forefront of improving learning outcomes.

Now let’s look at the Higher Education Ecosystem and the gifts to HEI. On the higher education front, there is an announcement of a digital university, which will be established to provide access to students, across the country, world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and information and communication technology (ICT) formats. The university will be built on a networked hub- spoke model, with the hub building cutting-edge ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes. It’s a forward-looking move. KPMG had suggested a blueprint for a similar digital university for skill development: the ‘Skill-Tech Varsity’. It is heartening to see the Budget having a clear focus on leveraging digital technologies.

Five academic institutions on urban planning are to be made centres of excellence under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The institutions will get endowment of Rs 250 crore each. Apart from this, agricultural universities will be funded to revise syllabi to meet the needs of modern-day farming.

World Class Institutions have been allocated Rs 1,700 crore for 2022-23—an increase from Rs 1,200 crore in 2021-22. This could be effectively used for bringing our education in select areas such as financial services and technology to compete with best-in-class globally. The Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan has been allocated Rs 2,042 crore for 2022-23, up from Rs 793 crore in 2021-22. Also, the National Mission on Education through ICT has been allocated Rs 400 crore and the Programme for Apprentice Training Rs 500 crore for 2022-23.

In skilling and vocational education, the Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (the DESH- Stack e-portal) will be launched with an aim to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through online training. It will also provide API-based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. To promote critical thinking skills and to give space for creativity, 750 virtual labs in science and mathematics, and 75 skilling e-labs for simulated learning environment, will be set up in 2022-23. The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) has been allocated Rs 170 crore in 2022-23 as against no allocation in the last Budget. The budget for Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) has gone up from Rs 193.47 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 300 crore in 2022-23.

“Due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools, our children, particularly in the rural areas, and those from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and other weaker sections, have lost almost two years of formal education,” Sitharaman said. “We recognise the need to impart supplementary teaching and to build a resilient mechanism for education delivery.

The expanded One Class One TV Channel initiative “will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1-12,” she said.

The government will also establish a digital university “to provide access to students across the country to world-class quality universal education, with personalised learning experience,” the finance minister said.

Allocation under the digital India e-learning programme, which includes the PM e-Vidya scheme, was lowered to Rs 421.01 crore for 2022-23 from Rs 645.61 crore in the last financial year . The revised estimate of the programme in 2021-22 was pegged at Rs 367.51 crore, lower than initially allocated.

The Budget set aside Rs 1.04 lakh crore for education, an increase of around Rs 11,000 crore, or 11.86%, from what was pegged in 2021-22. While the 2021-22 budget estimate allocated Rs 93,224.31 crore for the sector, the revised estimates curtailed it to Rs 88,00.52 crore.

Of the total outlay, Rs 63,449.37 crore has been allocated for schools, and Rs 40,828.35 crore for higher education. Last year, the financial allocation for the school and higher education departments was kept at Rs 54,873.66 crore and Rs 38,350.65 crore, respectively.

A bulk of the outlay for schools (Rs 37,383.36) will be spent on the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the central government’s flagship programme for universal education. Last year, Rs 31,050.16 crore was allocated for the scheme.

The midday meal scheme, renamed as PM Poshan last year, saw a drop in allocation, to Rs 10,233.75 crore in 2022-23 from ₹11,500 crore last year. The revised allocation for 2021-22 was Rs 10,233 crore, the budget document showed.

Allocation for central schools such as Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas increased by Rs 850 crore and Rs 315 crore, respectively. The budget allocation for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was increased by Rs 10 crore from last year.

Budgetary allocation for teacher training and adult education was drastically reduced from Rs 250 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 127 crore in 2022-23. The revised allocation for 2021-22 teacher training and adult education dropped to Rs 2.75 crore, indicating that the funds earmarked for the scheme could not be spent.

In higher education, the allocation of grants to central universities has risen to Rs 9,420.00 crore from Rs 7,643.26 crore last year. Monetary support to the Indian Institutes of Technology has increased by Rs 658.9 crore and to Indian Institutes of Managements by Rs 177.9 crore in 2022-23, in comparison to last year.

The outlay for research and innovation has been pegged at Rs 218.66 crore in 2022-23 in comparison to Rs 237.40 crore last year. The revised allocation decreased to Rs 144.41 crore in 2021-22.

The allocation for Higher Education Funding Agency has been drastically trimmed to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 1 crore in 2021-22. The revised allocation for 2021-22 was also Rs 1 lakh. HEFA offers 10- year loans to higher education institutions for infrastructure development.

Besides these, the government has allotted Rs 1,800 crore for the exemplar scheme, which aims to prepare more than 15,000 schools of excellence to help showcase the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020.

The finance minister also laid focus on mental health, skilling and training of teachers citing the pandemic and prolonged closure of schools. The union budget has ushered in positive measures in the field of education which will give a boost to the sector especially in the context of the pandemic. The finance minister stressed upon imparting education in regional languages which is being appreciated by the educators.

Shahan Sud, an investment professional at Indian Angel Network and a trend analyst, opines “by giving digital education the push it needed to make it inclusive for India, the Finance Minister has tried to encapsulate the agility and asynchronous nature of learning and how it has transformed ever since the first IIM was established in 1961 or more so in the last 3 years. Furthermore, the push towards EdTech is forward looking as we are staring at a fourth covid wave (of Omicron subvariant), wherein EdTech tools will help in ensuring the continuity of learning and EdTech services are well placed to benefit from startup based exports from India.

IISc Bangalore launches new BTech course, admissions to be done through JEE Advanced

IISc Bangalore

Bengaluru

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, has launched a new bachelor’s programme BTech in Mathematics in Computing. Admissions to the programme will be done through the scores of JEE Advanced. The complete course structure and eligibility details are available on the official website at iisc.ac.in.

The institute has so far not released any timeline for admission to the programme and the deadlines will soon be posted on the IISc website. There would be a total of 52 seats, including 8 supernumerary seats for female candidates and 4 for foreign nations/NRI/OCI. Students can also obtain an MTech degree by taking an additional year of the course and project credits.

To be eligible to apply, the student must have cleared class 12 or equivalent from a recognised board with the following subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, a language, and any subject other than the above four. The details of the counselling process for admission to the BTech programme have not been finalised yet.

“We have approached the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) of the IITs to join with them. If successful, the application and counselling will be conducted by the JoSAA as per JoSAA business rules. Else it will take place via the IISc admissions portal,” the official website read.

The core of the program spread over four semesters includes six courses each in mathematics and computing areas apart from courses in the sciences, humanities, and other engineering disciplines.

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