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Puducherry schools will reopen from July 16

Puducherry schools

Puducherry is ready to reopen schools from July 16 onwards. The COVID 19 cases are taking a downward graph after the governments have made follow strict covid protocols.

Puducherry schools will reopen from Friday after a long break of over nine months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Directorate of School Education has released a statement of reopening schools, including privately managed institutions on Monday.

Also read: Puducherry starts free breakfast scheme for school students

The classes from 9 to 12 standards are expected to be opened in the union territory. The Chief Minister of the Union Territory, N Rangaswamy made the announcement on Sunday. The schools will have to follow strict Covid protocols to keep things at order.

Edtech company WhiteHat Jr Announces ‘CreatorSpace: Mission Mars’ for young learners

Edtech company WhiteHat Jr

Leading EdTech company WhiteHat Jr announced the launch of an exciting virtual event ‘CreatorSpace: Mission Mars’, the third such event in the series on Open Learning Events – Global Experts for Young Learners.

The event offers students a rare opportunity to engage and learn about outer space directly from an astrophysicist.

The ‘CreatorSpace: Mission Mars’ will be held on 10 July 2021 at 7:30 pm IST / 10:00 am EDT. It will be open to all young learners between 6-18 years of age. Trupti Mukker, Head of Customer Experience, WhiteHat Jr said, “Outer space has always inspired a sense of wonder amongst children and we want to feed this curiosity further by helping them understand various aspects of space. CreatorSpace: Mission Mars is an incredible opportunity for children and parents to meet and interact with key experts who can help them understand the infinite beyond a little better.”

‘CreatorSpace: Mission Mars’ is a part of WhiteHat Jr’s flagship virtual interactive learning series titled CreatorSpace which addresses an exciting new topic each month with the help of world-renowned experts. Earlier editions of the event have seen students engaging with global STEM leaders in the areas of Math, Coding, Satellite and Gaming. ‘CreatorSpace: Mission Mars’ is the third such event in the series, the earlier two editions of which saw participation from 50,000 and 60,000 students, parents and teachers respectively.

The CreatorSpace: Mission Mars event will feature interactive sessions by:

An astrophysicist, a NASA Living With a Star – Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellow, working to demystify the sun and solar system and a Professor of Astronomy working with the Institute of Astronomy and National Astronomical Observatory at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He will be conducting a hands-on session with access to streaming of an exclusive video showcasing various space missions undertaken to explore the infinite beyond.

VP Coding and New Initiatives at WhiteHat Jr, will host a session focusing on tips and tricks required to succeed in the Mission Mars Coding Hackathon.

Bihar Board reopens registration window for Class 10 and 12 exams

Bihar Board reopens registration window

The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has reopened the registration process for Class 10 and Class 12 exams for 2022. The board said the students who were unable to submit applications for the exams, may now submit the exam forms between July 9 and 15.

The form can be submitted online and other details are available on the official website of the board. The application window is activated now.The Matric exam registration fee for regular students is Rs 220 and the fee for regular Inter students is Rs 370.

The deadline for submitting applications for Class 11 has also been extended. Applications through the Online Facilitation System for Students (OFSS) will now end on July 18.

OFSS is a centralised registration portal for admission to intermediate Class 11 and degree programs in Bihar. This is the second time that the Bihar board has extended the application deadline.

However, the schools and colleges in Bihar are expected to reopen with 50% attendance.

Announcing the reopening of educational institutions, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said special arrangements will be made for vaccinating adult students, teachers and staff of educational institutions.

Gujarat to Reopen Schools for Class 12 and Colleges in July

Gujarat to Reopen Schools

After reviewing the COVID scenario in the state of Gujarat, the government is planning to reopen schools and colleges from July 15 onwards. Schools will resume Class 12 regular schooling and colleges are expected to start classes for undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Only 50 per cent of students will be allowed to attend campuses. Students can attend physical classes on a voluntary basis. Attendance will not be mandatory, as per guidelines.

“We have decided to reopen the education institutions from July 15 in a phased manner with 50% strength initially. All COVID-19 norms will be enforced by the schools and colleges who reopen their classes,” a state government release said.

Also read: Gujarat passes bill sanctioning 7 new private universities

Schools and colleges will have to follow strict COVID-19 guidelines and follow the standard operating principles including mandatory masks, social distancing, sanitization among others.

PM Modi interacts virtually with tech institute heads on Friday

PM Modi interacts virtually

On Friday, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, interacted with 106 centrally-funded technical institutions (CFTIs) including 23 IITs, 31 NITs, and 25 IIITs.In the virtual meeting, Modi emphasized the importance of offering technical education in other vernacular languages.

The interaction focused and addressed the challenges that occurred due to COVID pandemic. It also laid emphasis on research and development (R&D) carried out by the CFTIs in the last two years for the country’s development and growth.

Dharmendra Pradhan, the new Union Education Minister, started his first day in the education ministry by talking to the tech institute heads. He later tweeted that his ministry was “committed to making students and youth the primary stakeholders in propelling India towards an equitable knowledge society.”

The new education minister will now focus on the National Education Policy (NEP)and time-bound implementation of it.Taking charge with his ministry, Pradhan along with his three junior ministers, Annapurna Devi, Subhas Sarkar and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh reviewed the NEP.

Pradhan also holds a portfolio of skill development and entrepreneurship.

Edtech startup Teachmint raises $20 million capital for growth

Teachmint raises $20 million

Bengaluru-based e-learning platform, Teachmint, raised $20 million in a Pre-Series B round led by Learn Capital with participation from CM Ventures on Thursday. The company has already raised a capital of $16 million in May, which was its Series A funding round from Learn Capital, CM Ventures, Light Speed, and Better Capital.

Speaking on the new development, Mihir Gupta, Co-founder and CEO at Teachmint said, “It has been truly humbling to see the widespread adoption of Teachmint by teachers and students across India. With our platform usage growing 25x over the last quarter, we are becoming the default teaching application in India and the largest live teaching platform globally, outside China.”

The company stated that this round of funding will go towards development of live teaching technology and the enhancement of its product. The funding will also fuel Teachmint’s expansion into newer markets and the hiring of skilled talent.

Also read: Ed Tech startup SpEd@home raises $300K initial funding

Teachmint is a mobile and video-first teaching platform built exclusively to help teachers digitise their classrooms.

Edtech company SkillEnable nurtures Data Scientists

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To bridge the demand-supply gap of industry-ready candidates with relevant skill sets in the Data Science industry, SkillEnable, an employability-based edtech company, has adopted a uniquely helpful fee payment structure that helps the students to pursue the course they’re interested in, without worrying about paying the fees upfront.

SkillEnable charges fees via ISA (Income Sharing Agreement), which provides a solution to the huge upfront fee risk/stress that students usually face. The organization believes in investing in its candidates and charges them only if they get placed after completing the course. The fee is charged as a certain percentage of the salary only after the candidates get placed and start earning a sustainable amount of income.

According to MarketsAndMarkets.com, the Data Science market, which stood at USD 37.9 billion in 2019 is estimated to reach USD 140.9 billion by 2024, at a robust CAGR of 30.0%.

Besides ISA, SkillEnable boasts some other extraordinary features that have been put in place to find, select, and nurture the best data scientists in the country.

Also read: Edtech firm upGrad to spend $250 million on mergers and acquisitions

For instance, the organization offers tailor-made courses structured to meet specific industry needs, and unlike many institutions that focus on providing a degree only, SkillEnable focuses on enhancing the employability of the candidates to ensure that they hit the ground running when they enter the job market.

Speaking about the organization’s journey so far, Mr. Nirpeksh Kumbhat, Founder and CEO, SkillEnable said, “When I studied the state of the Indian higher education sector, I noticed that there was a massive gap in what was being taught in colleges and what the employers were looking for. Moreover, there was a severe lack of awareness among the students. They didn’t know of any opportunities out there. They didn’t know which course or stream they should opt for. Even if they did, they faced limited access to quality education, and financial issues held them back from progressing in their career. So in a nutshell, even though the job openings were available, the candidates were not skilled enough to fill those positions. Thus, in a bid to address all these issues collectively and give our young generation a better future, SkillEnable was born.”

“So far, we’re only providing Data Science courses but we’ll soon be incorporating more courses in its portfolio, and expanding to different domains that have asymmetric demand and supply,” he further added.

SkillEnable provides 100% live online courses, which facilitate instant doubt resolution, which is not possible in pre-recorded classes. It adopts a student-centric approach where learning is personalized, engaging, competency-based, and not restricted to the classroom.

Samsung grants scholarships to 544 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya students

Samsung grants scholarships

Samsung India has given scholarships to 544 meritorious students from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya schools who have qualified for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Technology (NIT).

“This year the programme has granted 150 scholarships to new applicants from JNVs, of which 87 will begin their journey across different IITs and 63 at different NITs across India this year. In addition, scholarships have been renewed for the next year for 394 existing students. Recipients of renewed scholarships include 139 second-year students, 171 third-year students, 82 fourth-year students, and two fifth-year students,” the company said in a statement.

The company offers a scholarship of up to 2 lakh as part of its Samsung Star Scholar programme for expenses related to tuition, examination, hostel, and mess for one academic year and it can be renewed every year for up to 5 years.

In its sixth year, Samsung claims that its Star Scholar programme has so far benefitted 800 JNV students.

The selection of first-year applicants is based on their All India Rank (AIR) in JEE Main, however, to get renewal students are required to maintain a Semester Grade Point Average (SGPA) or Cumulative Grade Point Average (CPGA) rating of 5 or above.

“Samsung is adding smart classes to 80 new JNV schools, taking the total number of JNV schools in which Samsung has set up smart classes to 625, impacting close to 500,000 students. So far, over 8,000 teachers have also been trained on how to use interactive technology to teach effectively, improving the quality of teaching and building capacity at JNV schools,” the statement said.

AAS Vidyalaya, an affordable edtech school incorporates Hindi content in their curriculum

AAS Vidyalaya

AAS Vidyalaya, one of India’s leading affordable edtech schools incorporates their content in Hindi for students from class 6-10 from UP, Bihar, MP and Rajasthan state boards into its platform.

The syllabus includes a full school curriculum for all subjects viz English, Hindi, Maths, Science, Social Science, Sanskrit and Computers.

Major portion of the Indian population still lives in rural areas of UP, MP, Rajasthan, and Bihar to name a few. Due to lack of infrastructure and other educational facilities the students from these states were unable to get the basic education.

Additionally, due to nationwide lockdown in March 2020 many students from vernacular medium in rural areas neither were able to go to the school nor study online due to language restrictions. These challenges made the brand launch their content in Hindi for these state Boards. This will help a student to study online anytime, anywhere at a convenient pace.

Also read: Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Selection Test 2021 has been postponed

Commenting on the launch Mr. Vikas Kakwani, Founder AAS Vidyalaya said, “Our school was established with the aim to educate every student. Keeping in mind the same thought and given the current scenario it was important to get the schooling at their doorstep especially for the students who study in vernacular medium.”

The main goal of the organisation is to take schooling to 8.5 cr students who are not able to go to school for various reasons. The vision is ‘To make every Indian 10th Pass’. It also plans to have more than 1 lac users in the coming year and 10 lakhs in the next 2 years.

Ed Tech startup SpEd@home raises $300K initial funding

SpEd@home funding

Edtech startup SpEd@home has raised a $300K initial funding led by financial experts and advisors, from a venture capital company based in Singapore and other high net worth individuals.

“We are currently running our pilot with children from the lower socio economic strata i.e. those with a family income of less than 8 lakh annually. The results of our ongoing pilots have been very promising and are helping us take our conviction to the second round.” Said Dr. Dhaval Mody, Founder & CEO of SpEd@home.

“We are sure our solution will change the way special education is delivered to children with differential needs,” he added.

Also read: LearnVern raises over $1 million in fresh funding

The startup used the raised funds to build a basic web-based product to test out the hypothesis that children with differential needs can benefit from a customized online program.

It will further use the funds to complete the pilot phase, develop a mobile app, improve their web solutions, and build a product team, sales team and an SME team.

SpEd@home is an edtech solution that augments learning for children with differential needs like Learning Disability, ADHD and Autism.

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