Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu directed all IITs and higher educational institutions (HEIs) to do research on societies and provide solutions to the problems faced by it. Naidu said Indian institutions will be counted among the world’s best only when they start impacting the societies around them by developing optimal and sustainable solutions to the problems faced by the nation.
He also asked the IITs to prepare for future pandemics like the current COVID-19 outbreak that has pushed classes and all celebrations online.
Naidu also added that this situation has to change and there has to be a concerted and collective action from all the stakeholders—governments, universities, educationists and the private sector to bring about a radical improvement in the standards and quality of education of our institutes of higher learning.
Congratulating IIT Delhi for emerging as a leader in the entrepreneurship space, the Vice President said “It is good to note that institutions such as IIT Delhi are producing job providers rather than job seekers and becoming trendsetters for other institutions in the country”.
Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Director of IIT Delhi were also present on the occasion.
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has defended the UGC in making the final year/ semester examinations compulsory for the students stating that it was done so that the students do not face any difficulty in the future. The meeting was held in the Association of Indian Universities’ Annual Conference of Vice-Chancellors meeting has stated that the decision regarding conducting the final year examinations by the UGC has been taken keeping in mind the future of the students.
The UGC has decided to conduct the final semester examination in the online or offline mode or in both. During the meeting conducted the union minister stated that some of the universities have conducted the exams or are going to during the pandemic situations keeping in mind the future of the children.
The universities have been given the option of conducting the examination in online, offline or blended mode. He said during his interaction with different universities that some of the universities have already conducted the examination or is doing it, or is doing good work during the COVID-19 pandemic as the future of children is equally important. He was addressing the Association of Indian Universities annual vice-chancellors meet, through webinar.
He also said “We have always been in favour of giving autonomy to universities, in the phased manner we are looking at how to improve the 45,000 degree colleges and give them autonomy. Right now only 8000 colleges have the autonomy, but in the phased manner this will be increased.”
NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission in collaboration with NASSCOM launched the ‘ATL AI Step Up Module’ for students. The move is to drive AI education and innovation to the next level in schools across the country.
After a successful launch of a unique initiative to take Artificial Intelligence (AI) to schools through ‘ATL AI Modules’ in February this year, this module is the next step in bringing AI to Indian classrooms. The module will provide a comprehensive set of learning it yourself Advanced modules to those who wish to expand their knowledge base after becoming familiar with the basics of the AI discipline through the AI base module.
With this new launch, through hands-on projects and activities, the step-up module encourages a deeper understanding of AI which can be applied in the real world. The module is designed in an attractive graphical manner that is comprehensible for all students belonging to rural and urban areas.
CEO NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant said the AI step-up module is the future of this country as it targets the youth which in itself is path-breaking. AI is really the future for our children and it is the truly unique endeavor by AIM and NASSCOM.
Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, R Ramanan said “that this first-ever Industry government academia initiative has received a huge response from students by the introduction of a base module and now AIM, NITI Aayog and NASSCOM is proud to launch its step-up module. Inputs from leading academic institutions including IITs have contributed to the development of these modules”.
The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea seeking postponement of NEET 2020 and JEE Main, scheduled in September. The apex court said the NEET medical entrance exam and the JEE for admission into the IITs will be held as per schedule.
“The careers of students cannot put under jeopardy,” the top court said as it dismissed a petition by 11 students to defer the exams due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The two exams are scheduled to be conducted in September. “Life cannot be stopped. We have to move ahead with all safeguards and all… Are students ready to waste one whole year? Education should be opened up. Covid may continue for a year more. Are you going to wait another year? Do you know what the loss to the country and peril to the students is?,” Justice Arun Mishra, who headed a three-judge bench of the top court said.
The 11 students from 11 states, who filed the plea, had wanted the authorities be asked to conduct the exams only after the normalcy is restored.
Nearly 25 lakh students have registered to appear for the national level engineering and medical entrance examinations scheduled to be held in September.
In the light of Coronavirus epidemic, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that schools across the national capital would be reopened only after thorough review of the situation. He also added that the state government won’t reopen schools in Delhi until it is convinced about significant improvement in the Corona case numbers.
Delhi CM reassured parents and students, who have all been worried about the rumours and speculative reports about reopening of schools.
Kejriwal said that the situation around the pandemic has seen a lot of improvement over the last few months with number of COVDI-19 active cases coming down drastically. He also added that situation in the city is quite under control as compared to what it was two months back and thanked all the corona warriors and all stakeholders including the Central Government of their assistance in handling the situation.
The CM also said the safety and the health of schoolchildren are very important to the government. “I meet people and get messages from them asking not to open schools. I want to assure them that we care about their children as much as they do. Unless fully convinced, we are not going to open the schools,” he added.
The Supreme Court has adjourned hearings in the University Grants Commission (UGC) final-year exam matter until August 18.
The pleas challenged the UGC’s exam-related guidelines issued on July 6 that made final-year or final-semester university exams compulsory despite the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier during its hearing on August 10, the court postponed the matter to August 14, and asked the UGC and the solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, to file their replies in three days. In its affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs reportedly stated that universities can conduct final year examination in August and September, as per the UGC guidelines.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, lead counsel, in the case argued: “The UGC guidelines now is a ‘one size fits all’ method and does not consider the issues of transport and accessibility.” Singhvi further added that nobody is against the exams in regular times.
“We are against the exams in pandemic time,” he argued. Singhvi also argued that the guidelines violate Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before law, says the report. Senior counsel Shyam Divan, while arguing against the UGC guidelines said that the UGC guidelines state that they are advisory and that universities are free to chart out their own plan accordingly.
Earlier, On July 6, the UGC issued exam-related guidelines asking universities to complete the final year, final semester examination by September end in offline, online or blended mode.
With the COVID pandemic, technology is being integrated into education. Despite the fact that many educational institutions are privileged to have ready access to technology, trained teachers, and a favourable policy environment, the use of technology in the classroom was low before the pandemic. The COVID accelerated the use of technology in education.
With that said, the potential of technology to enhance learning cannot be overemphasized. By integrating technology into education, educators aim to engender pedagogical change and address fundamental issues. Technology can, therefore, be seen as both a tool and a catalyst for change. With the incorporation of technology into education, the main purpose is to change how teachers and students gather, access, analyse, present and transmit information.
digitalLEARNING Magazine and Adobe India organized a webinar on “Essential Education for Accelerating Creative Career “ with some eminent speakers from the industry stakeholders. Dr Ravi Gupta, CEO and Editor-in-chief of Elets Technomedia welcomed the speakers.
Prof. Sandeep Sancheti, VC, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai said “The NEP is a strong vehicle to grow the education sector. Digital is at the way to go in the coming days. Digital is omnipresent and will be there forever. With technology, lots of freedom can be provided to students.”
He also said “Everyone in the system will learn new things due to the surge of technology. The world will learn new things with the usage of technology in the education sector. Technology cannot go away. The online skilling can be done through. “
Over the use of technology, he said “Digital technology is available as it makes possible for anything, anywhere and anyone. Teaching, lab and exams can be done effective with new innovation. Open book refers to applying my knowledge. It will offer new kind of education.”
He also said group exams can be allowed and must be student centric.
Dr Venkatesh A. Raikar, Vice Chancellor, Sanjay Ghodawat University, Maharashtra said “The National Education Policy is focusing on trans-disciplinary subjects. We need to more focus on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. All the HEIs must focus on various things.”
Emphasizing on learning, he said “Everyone is bombarding with e-content and no one is watching learning is going or not. We must try to start personalize learning. We must pass on the knowledge. Knowledge, skill and attitude is very important for students”.
Over skills education, he said “The enhancement of skill is very important. The Skill is to be good in coming days. The project based learning must be focused. The education 4.0 will be very important.”
Dr Mahendra Sharma, Pro chancellor, Ganpat University – GUNI, Gujarat said “Due to the pandemic, students have adapted the online classes. We must focus how to use technology to its best for the overall growth of students. The impact has taken hands on learning. The automobile industry is growing and their requirements are huge.”
“The full curriculum is under transformation and universities are working to inculcate digital skills within students. The HEIs are trying to train students to cope with the industry requirements”, he added.
Over technology, he said “The digitization has given access to lot to open book learning and teachers. It has given opportunity for quality content for students. There will be new methodology evolving. The technology will help the students.”
“The teaching pedagogy to remain and things will more evolve. We need to learn, evolve in this process. Indian universities must evolve”, he added.
Dr Anand A Samuel, Vice Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore said “Now the students wanted to adapt the digital mode. The pandemic has accelerated the usage of technology. The world is moving towards the digital era and now we must think about 100 pc digital universities.”
“Time has come, we must focus beyond knowledge. We are training our teachers to teach new things to students. We must bring analyzing, creative skills to the classroom”, he added.
“In online mode, the ways are different and we must adapt the new ways. Students must be more creative”, he added.
Prof Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor, World University of Design WUD, Haryana said “Earlier, technology and designing were two different aspects. The Corona has changed the entire sector and technology has accelerated a lot. Our teachers adapted online classes seamlessly. Smartphone emerged as lifesavers during the pandemic.”
“In the last four months, design and technology can come together. We bring in AI to our university last year, which helped us a lot in this pandemic. The future is certainly going to be blended”, he added.
“The curation of content has been a problem. The creative world is very diverse. To curate talent is very challenging”, he added.
Dr. Aditya Malik, Vice Chancellor, K.R. Mangalam University, Haryana said “There are certain dimensions in technology which are still unknown. There are certain kinds of skills students, need in this era. The NEP has highlighted these usages of skills for students. Communication is very powerful to resolve issues and it can give access to improve performance.”
“This pandemic may not the last one. We must prepare ourselves and students to tackle such crisis in the near future. We must think new degree programmes and faculty members need to retrained”, he added.
Dr Harsh Sadawarti, Vice Chancellor, CT University, Punjab said “With the pandemic, all the Higher Educational Institutions have developed their own LMS. All the information is available is just a click away due to technology. We are talking about student-centric approach. Technology has changed the dynamics of the education system.”
Over the use of technology, he said “The technology has changed the role of teachers in the classroom. We can use technology as an enabler. It’s a very powerful tool to make the education sector very interesting. Technology can make education effective for all.”
“Problem-solving techniques must be taught to students. We must consider how and how much must be taught during online classes. The training of teachers is most effective. Innovation and inventions must be started from first semester”, he added.
Dr Sayalee Gankar, Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil International University, Akurdi, Pune said “We must make our classrooms more powerful. The disruption has made life easier. We have all the digital infra in our campus. We quickly shifted from offline to online mode. The govt has created many platforms for learning through online mode. The faculty members were trained to use the online mode. We started to work on our classroom management.”
“Colleges must focus on student engagement. We need to have less lectures and more collaboration. Discussion and demonstrations must be done. We need to focus on content delivery to context learning. The model is going to be changed, “ she said.
“We must focus on critical and creative thinking, communication and collaboration. The contribution of the industry will change with time. We must start re-design the education model and focus on platform learning. Communication is going to make huge change,” she added.
Over policy, she said “NEP has given us lot of freedom to the students and teachers. We need to revamp the education sector.”
Dr Ravindra Bhardwaj, Vice Chancellor, Sage University Indore said “We must not be degree awarding institutions. We must produce people who are more employable. Faculty members must start new things. Education must be participative. Education must empower students. “
“The students have to be more observant. The health sector is going to improve in the coming days. The curriculum must develop to focus on creative thing. We must re-start and revisit things”, he added.
Dr Bhardwaj said “Over collaborations, he said “Industry and learners can come together. The GER is purposed from 26 to 50, the burden will be large. Greater collaboration is required to tackle the crisis. We must consider the value system of people. The lockdown condition was a blessing in disguise.”
Dr Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhya, Vice Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata said “We have incorporated many new things for online learning. We have our LMS for students. Earlier, the faculty and students were reluctant to use technology. With no option left during the pandemic, all have shifted to online mode. The new normal has made it clear, we must start adopting blended learning.”
He also said “People from industry can deliver the lectures, which can be helpful for students.
The ways of assessments need to be changed as things will be changing rapidly in the coming days, he added.
Supreeth Nagaraju, Head – Education, Digital Media Adobe India & South Asia said “Need is the mother of all Gods. We must focus, what is the demand of the industry. We must focus on the up-skill and re-skill of students. Students know what they want in this crisis. Students are asking how good the institution is. The act of collaboration is much needed in this hour. Learning by experiencing will be the new thing.”
“Collaboration with industry is very important. We need to bring skill education. We must focus on providing next-gen curriculum including AI, AR, VR subjects,” he added.
“Knowledge transform required for students. Job readiness is must required. We are looking at different aspects of education”, he added.
The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) said queries on equivalence or relevance of nomenclatures for different engineering and technology branches for recruiting faculty should be resolved at the state or the university level.
AICTE said engineering institutions should take an appropriate decision on relevant qualifying degrees for recruitment for teaching positions especially keeping in view the interdisciplinary nature of emerging technologies.
“The council keeps on receiving a large number of representations or grievances, not only from faculty members of AICTE-approved institutions but also from the faculty members graduated from various IITs, NITs, university departments and deemed universities pertaining to their eligibility, suitability and promotions to employ as assistant professors, associate professors or professors for different departments due to the deviations in the nomenclature of their qualifying degree at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels,” AICTE Member Secretary Rajive Kumar said.
“The list comprises all the nomenclatures which AICTE had approved for their institutions to run. However, it is beyond the scope of AICTE to include and update from time to time the nomenclatures offered by various IITs, NITs, universities as these institutions are empowered to start courses with the approval of their board of governors or an academic council without the knowledge of AICTE”, said Kumar.
In a major move, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has released an official notification which says that Class 12 optional examination will be held in September 2020. The Board has informed that the regular students need to apply for the optional/improvement exam through their respective schools. The schools will send the List of Candidates (LOC) to CBSE.
The private students will be able to appear for the optional examination by applying through the official website of CBSE. Students who were marked on the basis of the assessment scheme in the subjects whose exam was scheduled from July 1 to 15, 2020, will be able to appear for the optional exams to improve their marks. CBSE further said that the marks scored in the optional examination will be considered as final. The schools will be intimated about the date of the downloading of the admit card.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) has informed the Supreme Court that it would not be able to hold the Medical Entrance Exams at exam centres located outside India. NTA filed an affidavit in the apex court confirming that it would not be possible to conduct NEET 2020 examination oversees.
In order to ensure fairness and transparency in the testing process, the NEET 2020 exam is to be held on the same day and in a single shift across all the exam centres. This is done to ensure uniformity in testing matrices and complete fairness when it comes to evaluation of students’ abilities.
NTA has also consulted Medical Council of India (MCI) to explore the feasibility of holding the exam online for students from outside India. However, MCI has said that NEET 2020 exam is to be conducted through Multiple Choice Questions in paper book format given to all candidates and, uniformity has to be maintained for all candidates.
The National Test Agency has also cited logistical challenges that may hamper holding of NEET 2020 exam at overseas exam centres. In the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, NTA has stated that “Further, the question papers and other exam materials are to be transported from NTA headquarters to a large number of examination centres in various cities, which would require meticulous planning for safe and secure delivery of the same at the examination centres on time.”
