Delhi University (DU) colleges have started conducting sports trials from today, right after the fitness test results came out. College authorities promised to help out the students in the few cases where there are clashes. Most colleges will be completing their sports trials by June-end.

However, many students who appeared for trials were of the view the fitness test is a futile exercise. According to them, trials were testing their strength and endurance anyway.

Meanwhile, DU decided that there will be no penalty of 2.5 percentage points for legal studies and mass media for aspirants of BA political science (honours) and BA journalism (honours), respectively. Furthermore, the admission to the undergraduate courses under Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL) is delayed as the university is waiting for the UGC’s go-ahead for launching the process.

While DU has already completed the registrations for the 54,000 regular UG seats in its colleges, the admissions to SOL, which enrolls over 1.4 lakh students, faced the delay for the second consecutive year.

 The verdict on a complaint against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani for allegedly giving false information about her educational qualifications in affidavits filed with the Election Commission (EC) is likely to pronounced today.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain had on June 1 reserved the order on the plea after hearing arguments on the aspect of limitation and whether cognizance can be taken or not.  Freelance writer Ahmer Khan, who had filed the complaint, had said that there were several discrepancies in Irani’s affidavits filed before the EC.

In the affidavit filed for nomination of April 16, 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Irani said she had completed Bachelor of Commerce first year from School of Open Learning, DU. The complaint also said that Irani not only lied on oath about her educational qualifications but also lied about other facts such as her assets when she filed her nomination papers for contesting elections.

It may be mentioned that after the raging controversy over her educational degree, Irani has also made an assertion that she has a degree from the prestigious Yale University in the US.

The educational qualification of ministers has been a matter of controversy for the past some time. Former Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar has been sent to Tihar jail after a Delhi court refused him bail in connection with the fake degree case. Tomar was arrested on June 9 on charges of fabricating documents and submitting fake degrees while filing nomination for the Delhi Assembly polls held in February this year. He will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate on Monday for a hearing on his bail application.

 Japan will soon start helping India to improve the quality of mathematics and science education in the country. The training will be held in Japan and with the aim of enabling participants to learn skills to formulate lesson plans that stimulate students’ learning and thus contribute to improving the quality of maths and science education.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will train bureaucrats from the HRD ministry, experts from schools boards and primary school teachers of these subjects.

The department of personnel and training has invited applications from organizations to nominate educational administrators responsible for improving school education or senior teachers of primary school or teachers at teacher training institutions with five years of experience in teaching science and maths. The training duration will be from September 30 to November 14. The last date for submitting applications is July 20. The training will be conducted under the JICA Knowledge Co-Creation Programme as part of the Official Development Assistance of the Government of Japan based on a bilateral agreement between the governments.

In addition to opportunities to identify approaches and strategies to construct lesson plans about maths and science through lectures, practices and observations, the participants shall also propose an action plan describing what they are expected to do after returning.

This initiative comes in a backdrop where a number of surveys have highlighted the need to improve maths and science performances at the school level in India.

It may be mentioned that India and Japan have for the past some time been working to advance bilateral academic cooperation. Two Letters of Intent towards establishing academic cooperation between the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) with the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) have been signed for the advancement of academic cooperation in humanities and social sciences between Indian and Japanese researchers. The letters were signed last year during a meeting between HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Hakubun Shimomura, Japan’s minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology.

 In what is bad news for students who seek admission to Delhi University’s (DU) Hindu college through Extra Curricular Activities (ECA), the administration has decided not to enroll any student through ECA quota. DU reserves 5 per cent seats in all its colleges under the sports and extra-curricular activities quota. However, this year the college has decided to enroll students only through the sports quota.

Last year, the college had scrapped the admissions through these quotas following complaints of alleged irregularities in the selection process. However, the college has not decided whether it will admit students under the quota next year onwards.

The first cut-off list of DU will come out on June 25.

It may be mentioned that DU has this year revamped its policy for sports quota admissions. While the preliminary fitness test has been centralised, the varsity is conducting videography of the entire process and has set up a three-tier grievance committee to deal with complaints, if any. But, the admissions through ECA quota across other DU colleges are being conducted on the previous pattern.

 Introduction of yoga as a subject in schools from classes VI to X for central government run school has been proposed by Minister for Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani. This recommendation has found support from the Delhi Government.

Irani said that schools boards can work towards opting yoga as a subject with 80 percentage practicals during which students have to perform various asanas. She was inaugurating the first yoga conference organised by the Central Board of Secondary Education and releasing the NCERT prepared syllabus and course material for students.

Over a 1,000 people attended the conference, including teachers, students, participants and other guests. As per the MHRD’s proposal, which according to Irani, has to be worked by the education boards like CBSE, all central government run schools like Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas can introduce yoga as a subject from classes VI to X.

Over a 1,000 people attended the conference, including teachers, students, participants and other guests. As per the MHRD’s proposal, which according to Irani, has to be worked by the education boards like CBSE, all central government run schools like Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas can introduce yoga as a subject from classes VI to X.

The minister also informed that a training module on yoga would be established for teacher education programme as well. The aim is to produce a pool of trained teachers in yoga to meet the growing demand for them, she said, adding that a syllabus has been prepared for teachers -diploma, bachelors and masters in yoga education. Irani also said that a mobile app will be launched on July 17 where NCERT books from class I to XII can be downloaded free.

It may be mentioned that Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had already introduced Yoga in their schools from this academic year.

 Maharashtra’s directorate of technical education (DTE) has decided to give class XII students from the science stream, who did not opt for mathematics at the 10+2 level, direct admission to engineering and technology courses in polytechnic institutes in the state. The move is expected to benefit a large number of HSC students who earlier had to give up their plans of pursuing diploma courses only because they had not taken maths at the junior college level.

The sale of the application kit for the direct second-year admissions for around 390 diploma courses in the state begins today.

Maharashtra has around 390 polytechnic institutes with an intake capacity of nearly 1.8 lakh students. Twenty per cent of these seats, which makes for nearly 36,000 seats, are open for direct second-year admissions. The DTE has kept a 25% quota for lateral entry from each of the four designated categories – HSC (science), HSC (bifocal), HSC (MCVC) and ITI.

Several SSC pass-outs have been making a beeline for polytechnic courses in Mumbai colleges to avoid the intensely competitive national-level entrance exams such as JEE (Main). The ever-increasing popularity of these courses saw cut-offs in sought-after colleges soar above 90 per cent last year. The three-year, post-SSC diploma courses allow a lateral entry into second-year engineering programmes—even in top-rung institutes.