NCERT set to review its school textbooks

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April 24, 2017

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is set to undertake a comprehensive review of all its school textbooks.

The exercise will be conducted by the Council’s Department of Curriculum Studies, headed by Prof Ranjana Arora, according to the sources.

The Council’s school textbooks underwent a major makeover after the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) was framed in 2005 by setting up 21 expert committees. However, this was put on the backburner once the NDA came to power. “Over the last 10 years, the textbooks have been tweaked, but the changes were primarily based on complaints and feedback. A comprehensive review and update has been overdue for almost two years,” said a source, on the condition of anonymity.

It will take almost a year to complete the exercise. “The country’s economic conditions have changed over a decade. The passage of GST, for instance, is a landmark shift in the country’s economic policy. The textbooks have to be updated to reflect the changes that have taken place,” the source added.

The last major change made by NCERT in books was in 2012 when six ‘offensive’ cartoons were dropped from four books of political science for Classes IX, X, XI and XII following protests in Parliament.

MHRD may implement “common Hindi teaching scheme” for varsities

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Akash

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April 24, 2017

Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) may soon formulate a “common Hindi teaching scheme” for universities and higher education institutions across the country.

“The HRD Ministry should work out an action plan for implementing Hindi teaching scheme in all universities/higher educational institutes and initiate the process of implementing a common law and table it before both the Houses of Parliament,” a presidential order in this regard said.

The new teaching scheme will be implemented as per the recommendations of a parliamentary panel in this regard after getting the President of India’s nod.

Universities without Hindi department may be asked to establish one and all educational institutions may also be asked to fix a minimum level of Hindi education. However, students studying in varsities and institutions in non-Hindi states will have the option of appearing in exams or interviews in their mother language. The MHRD has also been asked to list out the universities and higher educational institutes without Hindi departments.

“To give autonomy in the field of higher studies some laws have been framed by the Central government and state governments under which in some universities and higher educational institutions, English is the only medium of instruction,” the presidential order said.

A uniform policy should be followed in all parts of the country in this regard, it added.

“It should encourage them to establish Hindi Departments so that they can extend help in imparting education through Hindi medium,” the order said, adding, minimum level of Hindi education must also be fixed in all educational institutions.

India’s first financial journalism programme co-launched by Bloomberg and ACJ

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

India’s first co-branded financial journalism postgraduate programme has jointly been launched by Bloomberg News and the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ).

Together, we are bringing the future of financial journalism to India, helping students thrive in today’s fast-moving news environment,” John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg, said.

The course will equip students with the skills needed in a contemporary global newsroom. It will cover writing, editing, digital and multimedia reporting, ethics, investigative reporting, fundamentals of finance and government reporting.

Some of the country’s renowned financial journalists and business leaders will lead the course.

“We’re extremely proud to be partnering with Bloomberg News to develop what we feel is now the very best financial journalism program in India and this part of the world,” said Sashi Kumar, Chairman of ACJ.

“We are offering students knowledge and access to some of the most experienced leaders in journalism and finance. In today’s competitive news environment, this comprehensive course will help aspiring journalists get a head start in the industry,” he added.

Finding trained talent from media industry perspective as one of the biggest challenges, said Parry Ravindranathan, Managing Director- International, Bloomberg Media Group. He added, “A lot of time goes into training people. This course will provide resources with international editorial standards. This increases the quality of the talent pool. I am sure all the media companies who hire from there (ACJ) will feel the same.”

Open universities’ online exam not valid

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

India’s higher education regulators said that the open or distance learning degrees obtained through online examinations will not be considered valid. According to regulators, rules don’t allow such tests.

The University Grants Commission’s (UGC) distance education bureau has found several distance learning institutions and universities approved by the regulator are breaching rules by offering online examinations.

A commission’s letter to all open universities revealed that these institutions had agreed to conditions such as “no online programme leading to award of degree/certification … until a policy is framed and approved by the UGC.”

UGC doesn’t approve online examinations as it involves complexities like conducting the exam for large group with a foolproof system and a reliable network, connecting the exam centres, preparing question banks etc.

“UGC has not laid down any standard parameters,” the letters says, barring universities from conducting online examinations.

Over 95% engineers in India not fit for coding jobs

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

A survey, revealing acute shortage of skilled professional in IT and data science ecosystem of India, claimed that 95% of engineers in the country are not fit for software development jobs.

Aspiring Minds an employability assessment company conducted a study that revealed, only 4.77% candidates can write the correct logic for a software programme.

The study was conducted among over 36,000 engineering students form IT related branches of over 500 colleges. During the study, a machine learning-based assessment of software development skills was conducted and over two-thirds could not even write code that compiles.

The study further said that while more than 60% candidates cannot even write code that compiles, only 1.4% can write functionally correct and efficient code.

“Lack of programming skills is adversely impacting the IT and data science ecosystem in India… India needs to catch up,” said Varun Aggarwal, CTO and Co-Founder, Aspiring Minds.

Explaining the reason behind such employability gap, the study said rote learning based approaches rather than actually writing programmes on a computer for different problems is attributed to such problems. Also, the lack of good teachers for programming is another reason as most of them offered good salaries in the industry.

“69% of candidates from top 100 colleges are able to write a compilable code versus rest of the colleges where only 31% are able to write a compilable code,” the report said.

Bharathiar University inks MoU with University Of Johannesburg for academic cooperation

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

Coimbatore based Bharathiar University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Johannesburg to provide cooperation in academic activities.

With the help of the MoU, both the universities will work for the fine blend of academic learning and to get hands on experience in research for the student communities, repots NDTV.

The MoU’s scope include exchange of students and teachers for the purpose of research, teaching and engaging of special courses in their fields of specialisation, student exchange and study abroad programmes.

A press release in this regard by Bharatiar University revealed that the MoU was signed by Prof B Vanitha, Registrar-In-Charge, Bharathiar University and Prof Swart, Dean, Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Bharathiar University was established at Coimbatore by the Government of Tamilnadu in February, 1982 under the provision of the Bharathiar University Act, 1981 (Act 1 of 1982). University of Johannesburg (UJ) is the first and only African university admitted to the highly respected consortium of 28 research-intensive universities in the world, Universitas 21 – an important endorsement of the growing international stature of UJ.

IIIT-Hyderabad sets up seed fund network

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)-Hyderabad has announced a seed fund network to invest in technology startups in its incubator and elsewhere.

“The venture capitalists who are senior industry leaders with extensive domain knowledge and peer networks will assist in creating a structure to support the start-ups and further enhance IIIT-H’s startup ecosystem,” an official release in this regard said.

Without unveiling the fund size, IIIT-Hyderabad said in a statement, the fund will be created with the help of a network of investors comprising of technology professionals and entrepreneurs.

Using the fund, IIIT will invest in early stage tech startups involved in technologies like machine learning, computer vision, robotics, AR/VR, natural language processing and other sub-domains of artificial intelligence among others, the statement revealed.

Various accelerator programmes conducted at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIIT-Hyderabad will act as the primary source of startups. The fund will also be used for the domain specific startups and seeding initiatives that will be taken up by the centre.

The seed fund is being started in conjunction with five leading investors including Viiveck Verma, Vikrant Varshney, Ajay Jain, Anurag Garg and V V S N Raju. The investors will help structure and govern the fund, the official release said.

British Council and UCL jointly developed an online course for teachers

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

The British Council India and UCL Institute of Education, UK, have developed an online course to enhance the skills and knowledge of Indian teachers.

The free online course will help teachers in developing their reflective skills and improving their practise in the classroom, said the programme description.

“We are launching our first free, online course designed to help teachers in India continue their professional development. We’re bringing the best of UK expertise through our partner UCL Institute of Education together to provide a learning experience for thousands across the country who may not otherwise have access to this type of content,” said Alan Gemmell, Director, British Council India.

“Keeping up professional development as a teacher can be hard to fit into a busy timetable. It doesn’t need to be. This online course, broken into simple steps, will help you develop your reflective skills and improve your practice in the classroom”, added the programme description.

The course has been designed according to the needs of Indian teachers, particularly those teaching in English or who teach English as a subject. However, it is also relevant for teachers around the world including those from other low-resource contexts.

The British Council has its reach in over 100 countries connecting the best of UK culture with a global audience and providing high-quality English language courses.

UCL Institute of Education (UCLIOE) was founded in 1902, as a teacher training college in London; the IOE is now a world-class research and teaching institution.

World Bank president suggests to accelerate investment in child welfare and education

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Akash

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April 21, 2017

News - 1 — World Bank President Jim Yong Kim Press Conference at the 2012 Tokyo IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings. Photo by Ryan Rayburn/World Bank

In order to curb “very high” child stunting rate, it is “extremely important” for India to invest more significantly in child welfare and their education, said JIM Yong Kim, President, World Bank.

Applauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for demonetisation and Swachh Bharat mission, Jim suggests to accelerate things quickly in order to achieve the desired educational outcomes in India and the country keeps marching on its fast paced growth path competing in the “economy of future”

“I think it is extremely important for India to increase and accelerate its investment in children and education,” Kim told reporters at a news conference at the start of the annual Spring Meeting of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

“There are so many great things that Prime Minister Modi is already doing. But it is very difficult to see how with such high child stunting rate the economy evolves, become much more digitally demanding that those children would be able to compete,” Kim, said.

“India has a very high 38 per cent childhood stunting rate, and has much better nutritional status than many countries that have a lower childhood stunting rate and a big part of it is sanitation,” he said.

According to him, the World Bank supports the Swachh Bharat Mission as the programme revolves around sanitation, which is very important.

“We are so impressed by so many things that are happening. For example the digital money, the way that the demonetisation programme was very difficult, yet moving the system and providing finance to the poor people has gone digital has saved billions and billions of dollars,” he said.

“We think that his approach to the goods and services taxes, so many things that he has done is great. My advice would be in addition to spread things that India Prime Minister Modi has a very strong commitment to this but I would say that he needs to accelerate quickly things like educational outcomes that India can compete in the economy of future,” Kim said in response to a question.

ASU with two other universities launches prize for innovation in education and research

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Akash

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April 20, 2017

Arizona State University (ASU) along with two international universities has launched “PluS Alliance Prize” to recognise innovation in education and research field.

AUS has launched “PLuS Alliance” with Kings College, London and University of New South Wales, Sydney a year ago.

The award will be given under two categories: PLus Alliance Prize for Research Innovation and the PLuS Alliance Prize for Education Innovation. Students, staff and alumni of ASU and its partner institutions can nominate potential recipients from within as well as outside the ASU community for either of the two categories.

Awardees of either prize will receive recognition for their leadership and the US dollar 25,000 as award money. Along with this, award winner will be allowed to attend the Times Higher Education Summit in London, an opportunity to deliver a lecture at one of the three universities and networking opportunities with PLuS Alliance fellows of the three partner universities.

The PLuS Alliance Prize supports the alliance’s mission to develop sustainable solutions to society’s global challenges through education and research. PLuS Alliance Prize awardees will be determined by a judging panel including the presidents of the PLuS Alliance member universities and external experts in innovation.

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