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.”
Each day is a great day to learn something new. The training and learning of students based on this thought, in their developing years, plays a vital role in dictating how they will deal with their adulthood. This sudden change from the traditional classroom to virtual classes has the potential to impact the young minds immensely due to varied factors.
Physical confinement is one of the exterior outlooks to this situation; their growing mind needs experiences and exposure for a productive development which has been limited in the current situation. In such circumstances, it is not only important to make up for those lost experiences and interactions but also understand how their cognitive abilities are helping them drive through this change.
Students and teachers are left with no other option other than relying on digital learning. This change of pattern in studying, getting accustomed to virtual classes and online interactions with teachers, and limited options of spending time outdoors can elicit irritability and anger. The situation can get even more challenging if students don’t have the awareness and guidance on how to deal with it. Social and physical distancing leading to emotional stress in children must be addressed.
Anger Management sessions; therefore, have become crucial in helping the child get comfortable with the new normal. Most of the children display two tendencies of behaviours when they don’t know how to cope up with the situation – they are in anger or become extremely quiet. As a parent or teacher, we must look for these signs and gently address them without causing stress to the child.
Sessions on helping them cope up with conflicting behaviour will not only help them in recognizing and dealing with the situation but will also give them a better understanding of self. These sessions also act as a bridge between the parents and children. Anger management counsellors and experts also make sure that the child can face further obstacles and stressful situations in life rationally and without getting anxious. Habit cultivation is easier in budding children; these sessions help them build it for their future. Resultantly, individuals who can make peace with their emotions upon introspection can tackle challenging situations far better than others.
The West Bengal government announced that students will not be charged for applying to state-run colleges and universities for admission in undergraduate courses. No money can be charged from students for providing application forms or prospectus for admission.
State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said “Let me assert in unambiguous terms, colleges should not take a single rupee under any head from the candidates during admission.”
“The colleges can’t even charge money for buying prospectus or in any other category. Those universities, which directly offer undergraduate courses, cannot similarly charge anything from the candidates,” he added.
Chatterjee said students should not be put under any economic stress as they are already faced with the hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the minister’s statement, the Higher Education Department issued a notification regarding this. “No charges shall be taken from the students for scanning/uploading of documents for online admission in UG level courses, for providing the application form/prospectus of admission in UG level courses,” it said.
Admission to the colleges and varsities in the state is being conducted online this year in the wake of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Most of the institutes began the process on August 10. West Bengal became the second state to announce free online admission in state government aided colleges and universities.
In a recent list released by the Ministry of Education, Jamia Milia Islamia has been ranked as India’s best central university. The varsity secured a 90 percent score.
The Ministry of Education grades/scores performances of central universities based on parameters fixed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2019-20.
In the recently published ranking list, Jamia secured top rank with a score of 90 percent, Rajiv Gandhi University of Arunachal Pradesh was ranked the second best with a score of 83 percent, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was ranked third with a score of 82 percent, followed by Aligarh Muslim University with a score of 78 percent.
Jamia was also listed among the top ten institutes under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2020, which was released earlier this year. It had secured 12th position in last year’s ranking and jumped two places this year to be listed among the top ten.
Moreover, Jamia has also secured the 16th position in the overall NIRF ranking, improving from last year’s 19th position. Meanwhile, Jamia’s Faculty of Law has been ranked the 9th best law college and their Faculty of Architecture and Ekistics has been ranked the 10th best in Architecture.
Notably, Jamia offers over 20 undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programmes. The institute also offers diploma, certificate and PG diploma, and advanced diploma programmes in Engineering, Law, Journalism, Pharmacy, etc.
Free coaching for meritorious students under a Delhi government scheme has hit COVID-19 roadblock, but efforts are on to resume the classes soon, Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said. Coaching classes under the ‘Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojna’ for this session had started in March. “But the pandemic disrupted the classes,” he said.
The minister said over 15,000 seats have been reserved in 46 reputed coaching institutions under the scheme this year.
Online classes could not be started as it is difficult to monitor how many students are taking them. Also, many students don’t have a laptop or mobile phone. So, this them at a disadvantage, Gautam said.
The Delhi government had last year expanded the scheme to include all children who have passed Class X and XII from the national capital and whose annual family income is less than Rs 8 lakh.
Earlier, the scheme was only for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes category.
The maximum financial assistance a student can avail under it was also increased from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
Students can avail the scheme to prepare for examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board, Staff Selection Commission, Railway Recruitment Board, banks and insurance companies and to prepare for medical and engineering pre-examinations.
Last year, 4,953 students got free coaching under the scheme.
