In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, Anita Karwal, a 1988 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, has been appointed as chairperson of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Karwal, who is currently Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resources Development, replaced Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer.
Chaturvedi has been appointed as Director General (DG), National Skill Development Authority (NSDA).
Sambalpur: The temporary campus of Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur (IIM-S) will be shifted to Sambalpur University after September this year.
At present, the premier management institute is being run from a private institution, Silicon Institute of Technology (SIT), at Sason in Sambalpur.
Director of IIM-S Mahadeo Jaiswal informed this development and said, the institute will run from the Sambalpur University till permanent campus of IIM-S at Basantpur gets ready. The permanent campus is likely to be ready within next three years while the work on the boundary wall has already started.
Jaiswal said that they will soon sign an MoU with the Sambalpur University in this regard. The State Government has already allotted a portion of university campus to run the IIM-S.
As per the industry norms and academic contexts, an elite B-school runs for 24 hours, the Director said. But they face problems in taking class during evening hours as the SIT is located in an isolated place. The faculty members of IIM-S could take classes in evening hours after shifting of the temporary campus to Sambalpur University. Moreover, permanent faculty members are being recruited.
The B-school requires modern classrooms for the students. However, IIM-S cannot upgrade the classrooms on temporary campus as the Government does not allow upgrading infrastructure in a private building. However, they can upgrade classrooms at the university, Jaiswal said.
News Credit: Biswajit Sahoo
Bhubaneswar: All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) is set to introduce a six-month training programme for engineering teachers to understand new age training techniques.
The refresher course will cover five lakh technical faculties and will be launched from next year onwards.
Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Anil D Sahasrabudhe shared this plan of AICTE in Bhubaneswar during an industry workshop. He said that the Council is devising a six-month pedagogical training module for the faculty members which will be made compulsory for faculty members from next year.
He said, these days, students have short attention span which is why they are unable to focus during the regular training camps where the teachers just talk and give notes.
“The faculty members will be educated on ways to engage the students through videos and discussions. They must understand to solve the problems of the students,” said Sahasrabudhe. He added that all existing faculty members will have to undergo the training to get a promotion.
The AICTE Chairman further added that all the technical universities in the State have been directed to revise the curriculum every year. Around 80 per cent of the curriculum can be in terms with AICTE and the rest can be in accordance with the local needs.
The AICTE Chairman urged students to use the Council’s Swayam portal that offers 700 engineering courses which are being provided by best faculty members of elite engineering institutions and IITs.
News Credit: Biswajit Sahoo
Amity University Online (AUO) has announced to launch its online German certification programme on Renewable Energy (Wind & Photovoltaic) in India.
AUO has partnered with The Renewables Academy (RENAC), Berlin, Germany, for the 3 month online certification course. The programme will be rendered by RENAC for Indian aspirants to equip them with the skills required to understand the different aspects of renewable energy such as solar energy, photovoltaic (Solar PV) systems, wind energy etc.
Solar power is one of the fastest growing industries in India. The Indian Government, In January 2015, has planned the investment of $ 100 billion in this sector and to increase the solar capacity upto 100 GW by 2022. It will also help in creating around 6.7 lakh jobs in India in coming 10 years. In tandem with PM Narendra Modi’s vision of becoming a solar power rich country, AUO is offering this international online programme to Indian students to make them industry-ready and reap the benefits of this fast growing sector.
Speaking on the partnership, Amity University Online Vice Chairman Ajit K Chauhan said, “We foresee enormous career prospect in the field of renewable industry thus, skill enrichment will play an integral role in the enhancement in this sector. Amity University Online’s exclusive program aims at making students industry ready and nurture India’s dream to be a power rich nation.”
“Amity University and RENAC formed a strong team to offer online trainings in India. It is a great opportunity for us to contribute to the growing Indian Renewable Energy sector, by offering our unique experience from Germany. We are looking forward to welcoming the first group of motivated students to RENAC online and are hoping to expand this promising collaboration,” he added.
The programme encourages students as well as working professionals to seek a career in the field of renewable and solar energy which can be useful in sectors like real estate, design, construction, engineering, environmental science etc.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is soon going to include various initiatives of present Central Government such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Digital India and Demonetisation, in the syllabus.
The NCERT is in the final lap of identifying the changes to its textbooks on different subjects which are based on the suggestions from school teachers (221) on its portal and another 1,113 received from other sources. Out of NCERT’s 182 textbooks, the most number of changes have been made to science (573) followed by social science (316) and Sanskrit (136) textbooks for Classes VI-XII.
In addition to this, images of currency notes launched after demonetisation, will also be updated in the NCERT’s mathematics textbook for primary classes. Demonetisation, the move towards a cashless economy and the Goods and Service Tax will be included in the Class X economics textbook, titled Understanding Economic Development.
According to sources from NCERT textbooks, Central Government’s thrust on road safety will also be introduced in the Class VIII social science textbook titled Social and Political Life-III, in addition to existing references.
After receiving complaints from a section of teachers about being uncomfortable in explaining the role of prostitute mentioned in the Sanskrit play Bhagvadajjukam of Class VIII Sanskrit textbook, the NCERT has agreed to drop it. Bhagvadajjukam is the story of a priest and his students who think only of worldly pleasures. It is believed, Bhagvadajjukam have been written by Bodhayana.
A chapter on constitutional rights is also going to be introduced in the Class XII political science textbook — Indian Constitution at Work. The new political map of India will also be updated in Class VI social science textbooks to reflect Telangana created in 2014. The timeline of European integration in the Class XII political science textbook will extended up to 2016 to mention Brexit.
It is expected that the NCERT will finalise all changes and place orders for revised textbooks next month, said the sources. After setting up of National Curriculum Framework, one comprehensive review of NCERT was conducted in 2005 and another revision is overdue which is expected to be conducted after unveiling new education policy by the Union government.
Twitter has launched a new media agency programme – “#TweetToTheTop”, dedicated to young media executives.
The programme launched earlier this week in participation with 11 global media agencies and advertising network including Dentsu, GroupM, IPG and Omnicom. The agencies would participate for conducting the programme in five nations of Asia Pacific that includes India, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Australia.
According to a worldwide report by eMarketer, over 60 per cent of agency leads still have challenges measuring ROI (Return On Investment) on social media marketing and over 35 per cent are challenged on tying social to business goals, says an worldwide report.
Rapidly growing integration of social media into everyday lives of people in Asia Pacific led the Twitter towards launching the first digital education programme. The objective of the programme is to help media agency professionals navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex landscape.
“#TweetToTheTop aims” to is an attempt of the social media organisation to showcase the best work of young media planners and executives from the five markets using Twitter solutions.
This collaboration between Twitter and media agencies will provide media professionals not only in Asia Pacific but also to the world with their exclusive access to Twitter’s arsenal of solutions and global advertising tech leaders.
The top 25 among them will compete to have their work entered into “The Cannes Festival of Creativity” in July 2018.
In a bid to deal with the issues concerning education in the government schools of Baran district of Rajasthan, the top officials have circulated their mobile numbers to track activities which otherwise can not be done officially. These activities involve skipping classes by teachers apart from students’ contributed actions.
In a recent case, a student anonymously raised a concern when the school in Parnia village was struggling for getting drinking water to the premises due to technical issues with water dispensing machine. The District Educational Officer (DEO) immediately made the possible arrangements to deal with the situation when informed.
The department officials told that his contact number is distributed among students within 270 schools and six model schools and the same is also put on school walls. He also informed that the region wise contacts of block education officials (BEO) are also listed along with his which has helped them in resolving several matters immediately.
“By giving my number to the students, I want to be in touch with them always. Whenever they face any issue in schools, they can reach out to me. Several times I have received calls from students who, on the condition of anonymity, told me the issues which have been sorted out promptly,” said Saini.
District education officer (secondary) Panchuram Saini has asked to write his mobile number on the walls of 270 schools across the district. It is to inform the students, that they can reach out to him in case they come across any issue concerning education.
Saini’s divergent thinking ideas do not require revenue expenditure and are gaining popularity among the parents as well. As they can inform the authorities and get their matters addressed in case the school staffers are not addressing their concerns.
Niti Aayog’s has suggested to hand over the non-performing government to private players under public- private partnership (PPP) model.
The Aayog, in the recent “Three-year action agenda”, has recommended the private sector to embrace publicly financed government schools on per child basis. The Aayog also recommended, “A working committee should be set up with states’ participation to take into consideration other such efforts through the states interested in this such as the distribution of education vouchers and purchasing of schools by local government.
These attempts may provide a realistic solution to the state run schools that have been hollowed owing to their non-performance over a period of time and are incurring massive expenditures, the Niti Aayog recommended.
With the rise in the number of government schools over the years, the student enrollment numbers have dropped drastically. In 2010-2014, the number of public schools increased by around 13,500 in number however enrollment dropped by 1.13 crore.
Alongside, the number of student enrollment in private schools has gone up contributing to non-performance of state-run schools.The private school enrollment rose by 1.85 crore.
The high rate of absenteeism of teachers, lack of focus on education in classrooms and poor quality education etc, all contribute to the low enrollment rate.
Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia has said to give another chance to over 55,000 students of the State who have failed their Class 10th board exam by getting them enrolled under the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
“There will be more centres for girls so they do not have to travel too far from home. There is no rule that a student who fails twice in Class X will not be given admission; most of them drop out. This is prevalent in both private and government schools,” Sisodia said.
According to the government, the easier curriculum of NIOS will help in fulfilling the objective of reducing the dropout rate. According to NIOS rules, a student needs to pass in three subjects out of the five they study.
Explaining about the State government’s expansion plans for its “Education Loan Guarantee Scheme” for Delhi students studying outside the capital, Sisodia said, “Delhi students who later enroll in colleges and universities outside Delhi will also be eligible for the loan guarantee scheme and can take loans up to Rs 10 lakh.”
N R Narayana Murthy has suggested to make educational institutes in India autonomous to allow students to think “independently”.
While speaking at the first Professor MGK Menon Memorial Lecture, the Infosys co-founder said that to discover scientific solutions to the country’s problems at hand, children should be enabled and encouraged to think and contribute towards it. He also highlighted that Indian citizens face more problems than any other country in the world.
According to him, its a challenge for a large population base in the country to provide their children with basic amenities like education, healthcare, nutrition, and shelter. Citing an example to prove his point, he said, that on the Human Development Index (HDI), India has been ranked (around 130 among 193 nations) lower than the most South Asian and African countries in public health for the last five years.
“I believe that we can find appropriate solutions to our problems if we educate our children and youth to think independently to find scientific and technological solutions to our problems,” Murthy said.
He also said that to materialise this the bureaucracy will need to be more responsive and school and college systems too need to be made completely autonomous.
Explaining about the necessity of a precise assessment system, Murthy said that the current education system does not have the tendency to assess if a student passing out has attained the necessary skills and an independent thought process to identify problems and solve them on a “proactive basis”.
Murthy emphasises that the role of teachers is very important to implement these steps effectively and they also need to be trained on various subjects.
