As of March 2020, the outbreak of Corona virus disease (COVID 19) has been declared as Public Health Emergency, the entire world globally started taking measures to prevent to prevent the transmission, reduce the impacts and support the control measures.
As concerned about the health, in the same way necessary measures are being continuously taken in the journey of education. Education is the only passport that can encourage students to become advocates for prevention of disease, prevention and control at home, in school and in their community.
Maintaining safe school operations or reopening schools after closure requires many considerations. The risk control decisions have led then into ‘Home Schooling’ situation. With volume of inconvenience, it also prompted and has set new example in educational innovation.
As of the top graded schools in the metropolitan city, we the ones who are in the remote regions is also trying to follow the trends that could hint the future transformation.
1. Education pushed to change which lead to surprising innovation: The sudden change in academics is taken over from centuries old lecture based approaches to teachings, out mode and boring classroom has been taken over by more creative through asynchronous online learning tools that were augmented with synchronous face to face video instructions.
Students and teachers began leveraging online learning even for subjects like Sports, Physical Education, Athletic Training, Music, posting Homeworks!!and also pushing students to learn new digital skills. Students are even learning, shooting, editing and sending videos in the right format to their respective teachers.
2. Private Educational Partnership : As in the past few weeks, we are witnessing coalitions taking place with diverse stakeholders viz. Publishers, Educational Professionals, Technology Providers Network operators, all coming together to utilise digital platform to beat the temporary crisis and becoming a consequential trend to future education.
3. The wide digital divide: As of our school, we know every school is beating hard finding a stop gap solutions to continue teaching. The less affluent and non digital savy individuals are no more left behind.
The Pandemic is also an opportunity to remind ourselves of the skills, students need in this unpredictable world such as informed decision making, creating creative minds and above all adaptibility. To ensure those skills remain a priority for all students, resilience must be built-into our educational forums as well.
In the wake of COVID-19 spread, the NTA has further expanded the scope of making corrections in the NEET 2020 Application Form. The scope now also includes changes in the choice of cities for centre opted by the candidates for the entrance test.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is the gateway for admissions to medical (MBBS), dental (BDS), and AYUSH courses in the country.
The test will be conducted as per regulations of the Indian Medical Council Act-1956 and the Dentists Act-1948, and as amended from time to time.
It is again brought to the notice of all the candidates of NEET(UG)-2020 that the facility for correction in the particulars including choice of cities for the centre in the Online Application Form is operational now on the website ntaneet.nic.in and the same will be available upto 14/04/2020*, the notice read.
Correction in the particulars in the Online Application Forms shall be accepted upto 05.00 PM and submission of fee upto 11.50 PM of 14/04/2020.
The candidates are advised to visit the website and verify their particulars and make necessary corrections wherever required.
In the view of extension of lockdown, National Testing Agency (NTA) may again postpone JEE Main and NEET exams. As per reports, the admission process as for now has been shifted beyond July-August 2020, that too if the lockdown is lifted in May.
However, no official statement has been issued over the issue.
As per the notice released, JEE Main that was scheduled to conducted on April 5, 7, 9 and 11, 2020 will now be conducted in the last week of May 2020. IIT has also postponed JEE Advanced that was scheduled to be conducted on May 17, 2020.
NEET 2020 was scheduled to be conducted on May 3, 2020, remains postponed till May end.
As for now, no new date on these entrance or competitive examinations has been released yet.
COVID19 outbreak in India has affected more than 10,000 people.
The covid-19 has created a lot of hassle around the world. The only way to deal with is social distancing- the lockdown. In this period, all are advised to be safely at their homes and make sure not to spread the virus. Education sector is one of the most affected, during this lockdown, as no real classroom activities are possible. This has built up unnecessary anxiety among all the stakeholders- students, their parents, teachers, institutes, managements, policymakers and of course the job providers.
In this regard, we at Jayaprakash Narayan College Of Engineering, Mahabubnagar, have adapted a solution to the emergency situation. Let me brief the activities at JPNCE:
• Years back, accounts on social media like WhatsApp, Facebook were created for each class, wherein each student of the class was added, under the direction of class in-charge. All the teachers of this class, along with some alumni and invitees, will be the members of the group. These accounts were used to forward the lecture notes, after or before the lecture. Teachers and students share the ideas unheard during the lecture. The students were encouraged to ask doubts on this platform and teachers and students interact and clarify. The members of the group would share links of any relevant material- audio, video, text, presentations and animations, found on the net and initiate discussions. The assignments were forwarded to the students and are asked to submit the scanned copy of the assignment through emails to avoid plagiarism. Q&A schedules were announced well in advance by the teachers and all are encouraged to participate to enrich their knowledge.
• Now during this pandemic situation, the class room lecture part is replaced by electronics. Due to sudden lockdown, the participants are away from the efficient resources needed to continue with the activities. As blessings in disguise, Cell phones, faster internet connectivity and the Apps come to our rescue. Handwritten notes for each lecture, close to a class room lecture, are supplied to the students through the groups. To make the learning easier, links to animations, presentations, are provided. Several tasks are assigned to the student batches relevant to the current lecture as projects and all are encouraged to participate and submit the reports through the emails.
• Students and teachers are encouraged to use MOOCs such as NPTEL, SWAYAM, Coursera, and such, making top-ranked lectures worldwide available at their doorsteps and to use lockdown as an opportunity to learn. Student registration is made compulsory and the teachers are advised to use these results while evaluating the internal marks.
• Online video tools like ZOOM are used to deliver interactive sessions online. Time-table are scheduled with sufficient time-gaps to workout assignments.
• Thanks to the industries for testing the competence of our students through online tests and interviews for recruitment.
Friends let’s find Opportunity in this Challenge and make our education system a WINNER through this pandemic situation.
Amid COVID-19 lockdown, the Maharshtra State Common Entrance Test Cell (CET) is all set to release on April 14, 2020 NEET PG 2020 Common Merit List.
The result will be declared on its official website www.mahacet.org. The result for NEET PG 2020 Common Merit List will be released by 4 pm today.
Along with the NEET PG 2020 Common Merit List, the Maharashtra CET Cell will also publish NEET PG 2020 Seat Matrix.
The Maharashtra CET Cell had earlier suspended the NEET PG 2020 counselling because of the lockdown.
“In view of All India Quota first round being declared by MCC and as per the MCI gazette and Supreme Court guidelines the State Councelling process for 1st round should follow after All India Quota 1st round. It has been decided to continue the admission process for State Quota seats in Govt/Govt aided and all seats in Private/Minority Colleges of Maharashtra”, the CET Cell said.
Amid Coronavirus lockdown in the country, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is coming up with new exam dates for class 10 and 12 very soon. According to reports, CBSE will release the board exam dates 10 days before conducting the exams for class 10 and 12.
The Board has asked students to keep a regular check on the CBSE website—cbse.nic.in for all the latest updates.
From the next examinations, CBSE is going to have changes in the examination pattern also. The board will release the notification about the change in paper pattern i.e. 20% objective type questions. This will be the new assessment pattern for CBSE exams.
According to a circular released by the Board in March-mid this year, will be a 20 per cent of questions in theory papers of objective type questions including multiple choice questions (MCQs).
Also, there are some presumptions going on for the next year’s change in CBSE paper pattern. Till now, the CBSE has not officially come up with the major changes but if the board wants to add some additional changes then it will address all students, teachers and parents soon.
To provide relief to parents amid the lockdown over COVID-19, the Gujarat government has asked school managements not to raise fees for the next academic year.
The school managements have been asked to allow staggered payment of fees for the months of March, April, and May during the June to November period.
Secretary to chief minister Ashwini Kumar said, “There is a relief for parents in the state. In a meeting held by education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma with the representatives of “Shala sanchalak mandal” (school management association), it has been decided that no school will increase its fees in the upcoming academic year”.
The order regarding the fees will be binding on all schools in the state including private and self-financed ones, he added.
Apart from this, Kumar also announced that the central evaluation process of answer sheets of classes 10 and 12 of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board will commence from April 16.
Education industry has taken a hit in the current global scenario. But the sector has bounced back, thanks to the digital era. The current situation has led to the closing down of schools, universities, institutions following the spread of the Covid-19. This has further affected the students and aspirants preparing for their future. But as the educationists’ believe that learning should not stop, hence physical education has moved to the virtual world. While most of the schools and universities across India and globe are offering online classes, on the other hand there are ed-tech platforms are offering online education.
A webinar was organized by Elets Technomedia in association with digitalLearning Magazine on “Intervention of technology in higher education amid the Corona crisis- Are we future ready”. The panel discussed over the issue extensively. The webinar was supported by Association of Indian Universities, Adobe being its digital partner and Coursera was its online learning partner.
Speaking over the issue, Dr SS Mantha, former Chairman AICTE and currently KL University Chancellor said “Covid-19 has interrupted the academics and we are heading toward an uncertain future. It will have an impact on placements also. The students exchange program will be badly affected. We need to find solutions for 35 million students.”
He also said “it’s very necessary to collaborate with online educators for future. The end semester exam must be cancelled for this year. Everyone can use online content for their curriculum. We need to find out long-term solution to tackle the Covid-10 effect.”
Another panelist, Dr (Mrs) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association Of Indian Universities, said “Teachers and students are not prepared for such a situation. We know our teachers are not prepared for online teaching. Firstly, we have started proving training to our teachers, secondly we have tied up with National Digital Library for any resources. We held a meeting with placement officers over the cancellation of job offers. The admission will get hugely impacted, and we have asked universities to register and provide the details on our portal.”
She even went on to say they are trying help students, teachers and universities during the pandemic and not only students but teachers have adopted online teaching.
Dr Madhu Chitkara, Pro-Chancellor, Chitkara University said “Five years back we tried to bring in online courses in our university. We have started online assessment, teaching to develop new things within our faculty members and students. All the students are using e-learning platforms during this crisis. The attendance has seen huge surge during these e-classes.”
Dr Chitkara also said “everything cannot be done online but we are trying to provide every possible help for our students. With all the e-learning classes we are trying to make our students comfortable.”
Supreeth Nagaraju, Head – Education, Digital Media Adobe India & South Asia asked all Universities to build business continuity plan. He also said “We can empower the educationists during this hour and we need to bring social angle in our studies. We need to encourage students to showcase their talents. There is a new class room mode which can be delivered to millions of students. We need to find out what’s working and what’s not with the students during virtual classes.”
Prof Partha P Chakrabarti, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur said “Our education culture is in disarray due to COVID-19. Conducting online exams is our bigger challenge in this hour. We are now evolving immediately to tackle this crisis. We have started multiple layer methodology for our students. We are trying to collaborate with intuitions as they are adopting e-learning. We have asked them to contribute to National Digital Library so that everyone will be benefited. We are building online platforms, so that students from across the globe will get help in this pandemic.”
Another panelist, Rajita Kulkarni, President, Sri Sri University said, ”It gave us good amount of time to prepare for the lockdown. Now we have become 100 percent virtual and conducted some exams online. We are also helping other institutions in Odisha. Nobody knows what will be the future post this pandemic. Not only teaching, but we are also doing concerts, life skill activities and many things for students. We are reaching out to parents also as they are worried about the future of their children. We are trying to prepare ourselves for any financial problems post-Covid-19 crisis.
Raghav Gupta, MD, India & Apac, Coursera, said “The focus must be to transform education online. We need major four things in this crisis, firstly, real-time communication, secondly, some kind of e- platform, thirdly learning management system and fourthly online assessment system. Universities must start a blended learning system. We must be ready for both physical and virtual classes for universities post Covid-19.
He also said “Online content creating is important in this hour. Institutions must have digital officers so that they can bring all things under one roof which will be helpful for students.
Over 45 million students are getting benefits from Coursera as it is one of the largest online teaching platforms in the globe.
Amidst Coronavirus lockdown, GNA University has offered admission for B.Tech courses in both online and offline mode. All of the candidates have to submit the application form and no application fee has to be paid by them.
Selected candidates will be called in for an interview process. Currently, GNA University offers 11 B.Tech specializations.
There are certain criteria that the candidates will have to fulfil to be eligible for B.Tech admissions into GNA University. If the criteria specified by the authorities are not met, then the candidates will be disqualified from the admission process.
According to the site, candidates should have completed 10+2 (or equivalent) qualifying examinations from a recognized institute and be from a non-medical background.
The application form for GNA University is available in both online and offline mode. Candidates will have to fill out the application and submit it to participate in the admission process. While filling out the application process, the candidates will have to submit their personal, contact and academic details. No application fee has to be paid.
In the view of COVID-19 spread, the Rajasthan Government has decided to postpone the university exams indefinitely.
Rajasthan’s higher education department has declared summer vacations for all affiliated colleges of Rajasthan University from April 16 to May 30, 2020.
Higher education minister, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, said the authorities are exploring possibility of holding final-year exams in June. Admissions will similarly take place after June 15.
“A committee has been formed under the Rajasthan University VC R K Kothari to review the situation and prepare a report on how to conduct exams when the situation will become normal,” said Bhati in the statement.
The examination for final-year students of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes will take place in the first week of June. The semester or yearly exam for first-year and second-year UG students and semester and annual exam of PG students will take place after June 15.
