In the wake of Corona pandemic, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has postponed the entrance examinations for the July-August 2020 Academic Session. The entrance examinations scheduled to be conducted on June 5, 2020, have been postponed to be conducted on July 11, 2020, according to the notification.
AIIMS conducts entrance examinations for the AIIMS Fellowship Programme; DM, MCh and MD (hospital administration); BSc (post-basic); MSc (nursing) and MD, MS, DM (6 years), MCh (6 years) and MDS programmes.
The official notification of the revised examination schedule is available on the official website – aiimsexams.org.
The admit card for the AIIMS Entrance Examination will be available on the official website for download from June 3, 2020. Candidates will be able to download the AIIMS entrance admit card by entering the login details in the admit card link.
According to the details mentioned on the official notification the examination cities will be allotted to the candidates based on the choice and the availability of the centre. The institution has also mentioned that the advisories or guidelines of the government with regard to social distancing and sanitization will be followed at all the AIIMS examination centres.
In the wake of novel Coronavirus pandemic, the UP government has cancelled the bidding of procurement of 1.6 lakh tablet computers and 1.60 cr school bags which were supposed to be distributed among the school children in primary and upper primary schools.
The tablet computers were for principals of various schools, to keep tap on attendance of students, teachers, mid-meal meal scheme and other government schemes.
The e-bid for tablets closed on May 28 as only one company bid for it. Around Rs 150 cr were allocated for purchase of 1.6 lakh tablets by the UP govt.
However, the UP govt has said re-bidding will be done for tablets as major firms were unable to bid due to the lockdown.
The e-bidding of school bags cancelled as the govt was not ready to compromise on quality of bags provided to students.
According to reports, without providing specifications of bags to bidders, the govt opened the tender which left bidders confused.
The govt will again open the bidding for schools bags very soon.
Around the world, schools in over 190 countries are closed to protect against the spread of Coronavirus, affecting the education of nearly 1.5 billion children.
With the imposition of lockdown, normal life has been thrown out of gear, affecting school-going children and their schedules. While virtual classrooms and online classes are back in focus, another non-traditional method, Home Schooling is being discussed vigorously, especially when homes have become learning centres.
In some parts of the world, it will be down to parents to keep their child’s education going as best they can. But digital technologies are increasingly being used to deliver lessons to children at home.
In this crisis, the government has come up with e-learning program. Many ed-tech firms have tried to leverage the occasion by offering free online classes or attractive discounts on e-learning modules. These measures have been met with overwhelming response by students with some startups witnessing as high as 25% uptick in e-learning. Remote learning seems a viable solution to students during this time as they offer convenient, on -the- go and affordable access to lessons. E-learning also comes as an interesting and interactive alternative as compared to classroom teaching.
Elets Technomedia and digitalLEARNING Magazine organized a webinar on “Crisis Management in the times of Covid 19 – Initiatives by Haryana to make students study at home” with Amneet P Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Director General Secondary education, Government of Haryana. She shared her views over the steps Haryana govt is taking to ensure education for students.
During the webinar Amneet P Kumar said “We have around 20 lakh students in Haryana. Around 8 lakh books have been issued to students from the books bank. We also make sure that all these students up to 8th standard are being given mid-day meal. All the services provided to schools will be continuously provided to students even if they are at home.”
She emphasized on the usage of technology in admission and said Haryana is trying for 100 percent admissions through online this year.
Over digital education, she said “We have linked our lectures and classes with DD, D2H for students. There is a timetable for all the students. Once in a week, the timetable is shared and three times a day the sessions are being conducted on TV so that students can attend the class at the time convenient to them. The govt is trying to rope in other OTT platforms to provide study materials to students.”
For midday meal – Firstly, ration money for the students calculated and ration is being delivered to students. Secondly, the cooking money was calculated and distribution is being done to every child’s Aadhar based accounts. Dry ration is also being supplied to families of govt school students. The ration is being delivered at their homes, she added.
We understand that many govt students do not have access to the internet, laptops, smartphones, YouTube or such platforms to receive content. Therefore TV was one medium which we used to reach all the students. Now lakhs of students in the state are receiving online lectures three times a day, she added.
She also added, Earlier, children were wasting time watching other content on TV but now they are watching online lectures and coping up with their studies. This is the common feedback we got from parents since the lockdown started.
She hailed the role of technology in the education sector. A lot of credit goes to the Ministry of Broadcasting and Additional Chief Secretary Mahaveer Singh for broadcasting Education content on Doordarshan so that students can be connected through TV, she said.
There is an organization Pratham, they work with us extensively. We have a call centre and we take regular feedback from parents about their children. Teacher was nowhere in picture as all the content streaming on TV was prepared for students. So we asked teachers to contact students through WhatsApp to take feedback from them about the content. So now at the end of the day, we have a map of Haryana marked with colour codes displaying how many students attended the programme, she said.
We have been also monitoring, WhatsApp groups and call centres, so that quality of content must be given to students. Our teachers contributed around Rs 50 cr from their salaries for COVID relief fund, she added.
After waiting for many days, students can finally check their Jharkhand 9th result 2020. The Jharkhand Academic Council has released the JAC Class 9 result 2020. Students can check their results on official site jacresults.com/jac.jharkhand.gov.in. The marksheets and certificates of JAC 9th result 2020 will be made available later.
Around 97% of students who appeared for the Class 9 Exam have passed the examination with flying colours in the JAC 9th Result 2020. The total number of students who had appeared of the exam was 4,17,030 of which 4,06,293 students have cleared the JAC 9th Class Exam taking the overall pass percentage to 97.42%.
JAC also plans to announce Jharkhand 8th Class Result 2020 and JAC 11th Class Result 2020 as well by next week.
In the view of the Coronavirus pandemic and the risk of infection for students, if they venture out of their homes to check Jharkhand 9th Result 2020 online; the board will be declaring the results only via website.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has launched a first of its kind E-Learning platform, “KIDGLOVE”- a new Portal to empower students to be digitally safe.
The project, initiated by Kerala Police in association with ISRA and the eSafety Commissioner, Australian Government, is a unique step to educate students, teachers and parents on cyber security.
Loknath Behera, State Police Chief and Manoj Abraham, ADGP have attended the function.
The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also launched an initiative named ‘First Bell’. Kerala has begun its academic year with online classes for school students.
The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has released the timetable for the classes that will be carried out through KITE Victors Channel, and they will be also available on YouTube.
Vijayan said that the government has opted for online classes as students cannot reach schools due to COVID-19, during the launch of the initiative.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has also added 24 new courses on the SWAYAM Portal making the total number of courses 45 including some independent courses from verified fields and subjects such as Agriculture, Sustainability Science, Library and Information Science, Sociology, Law, Tourism, Languages, Information Technology, Event Management and Visual Art.
Candidates interested to apply for the online courses offered by IGNOU can visit the official website of IGNOU to register.
Candidates interested to register for the online programmes can also complete the registration process through the IGNOU Online Portal or through the Samarth Portal.
While sharing the details of the new online programmes launched, professor Nageshwar Rao, Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU in a Facebook Live session conducted said that the new courses launched is in continuation to the university’s efforts towards the MHRDs initiative ‘Bharat Padhe Online’
Earlier on, the MHRD Minister had launched IGNOUs MA Hindi, MA Gandhi and Peace Studies and other online programmes last month which gave a boost to the online education culture amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic across the country.
The University Vice-Chancellor also gave the details of the programmes being offered by the different schools of IGNOU online along with appreciating the faculty members for making all this happen in such a short period of time.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to resume the tele-counselling services for the students. The councelling will be conducted ahead of remaining class 10 and 12 exams.
The CBSE is scheduled to conduct the remaining Class 10 and 12 board examinations for the Northeast Delhi students from July 1 to 15, 2020. The tele-counselling services will be conducted from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM for seven days in a week from July 1 to 15, 2020.
The Psychological Helpline of the CBSE will have the IVRS and Live Counselling which will be available on a toll-free number 1800-11-8004.
The general queries will be answered by the tele operators while 73 counselors and principals will be available for the live psychological counselling for the students in the country.
The board will also continue to provide the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) facility as it has the advantages of accessing the pre-recorded information anytime.
The students and parents can also get the required information on the board exams along with tips for better exam preparation, managing exam anxiety and time, contact details of the CBSE offices, FAQ’s etc.
The statement released by the CBSE also states that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone and has also prompted the board to provide help for the mental well being of the students and parents amidst the cancellation of the examinations, disruption of the regular schooling and the compulsory lockdown imposed.
To improve the health facilities in the country, the Centre is working on establishing a medical college in every district. While speaking at the silver jubilee celebration of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) Bengaluru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the government is working on ensuring one medical college or post-graduate medical institute in every district.
PM Modi also said the country has seen rapid progress in setting up 22 more AIIMS in the country. PM Modi said that over the last five years, the country has added over 30,000 seats in MBBS and 15,000 seats in post-graduation programmes.
“A nation like ours has to have the proper medical infrastructure and medical education infrastructure. During the last six years, we in India have given top-most priority to reforms in health and medical education. We are broadly working on four pillars,” PM Modi said.
The prime minister inaugurated the one year-long silver jubilee celebration of RGUHS through video conferencing. While inaugurating the celebration he said: “In normal times, the celebrations would have surely been bigger. Had it not been for the global pandemic, I would have loved to be with you all in Bengaluru to mark this special day.”
Talking about the university he said that 25 years means this University is in the prime of its youth. This is the age to think even bigger and do even better. “I am confident that the University will continue to scale new heights of excellence in the times to come,” PM Modi said.
With passing time, the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry readies for consultations on the reopening of institutions. Teachers, students and parents, higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission (UGC), has drawn up an initial list of do’s and don’ts for campuses.
Universities may first invite only research scholars back to the campus and gradually open their doors for other students, when they open their campuses after the COVID-19 lockdown.
All higher education institutions will also need to form strategic tie-ups with medical facilities and put protocols in place to deal with students who are unwell.
While the final standard operating procedures ( SOPs) for schools and colleges will be published by the government after discussions between the health, HRD and other ministries, the UGC’s draft norms were part of the agenda at a meeting on the subject.
The health ministry may issue a protocol for educational institutions after discussions with the other ministries.
In the draft prepared by the UGC, it was suggested that the process of admissions be conducted online to avoid visits by students to the campus.
Students and faculty with a history of ailments like heart disease or diabetes would be told to prefer the online mode. For international students, too, the focus would be on promoting the online mode of learning.
Institutions would be advised to stay in touch with health facilities and put in place a mechanism for quarantine; contact tracing would be followed in case a Covid-19 case emerges. Hygiene in common facilities like kitchens and libraries are among the issues raised.
Regular screening of faculty and students and awareness drives are also part of the plan. In higher educational institutions, regular visits by counsellors to help stressed students are also planned.
Another suggestion, especially for teaching of subjects that have a practical component, is to teach half the students in the classroom and engage the rest in laboratories. Even in common facilities like labs, it will have to be ensured that equipment is not widely shared.
Varsities and colleges will also require to have plans in place to regulate the movement of outsiders.
