HRD Minister Clarifies Controversy Over ‘Guru Utsav’

By

-

September 2, 2014

Months after a controversy over a central order on the use of Hindi in social media posts and official communication, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has found itself in the middle of a fresh controversy over politicisation of education.

The fresh incident relates to a recent central government circular on Teachers’ Day celebrations that saw southern parties, including the ruling party’s own allies, suspecting it as a bid to rename the day to “Guru Utsav”. Moreover, participation was being perceived as being made mandatory for schools.

Calling the criticism ‘politically motivated’, HRD minister Smriti Irani clarified that Guru Utsav was the name of an essay competition and claimed that over 1.3 lakh students have already taken part in the contest. She further explained that participation was “voluntary” and that September 5, the birth anniversary of former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, will continue to be celebrated as ‘Teachers’ Day’. “This particular activity is voluntary in nature. If it is being politicised, then I would say it is regrettable,” Irani said.

Calling it a ‘political propaganda’, Congress party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: “It has never happened … what sense can a Class 1 student make of the PM’s speech? Can such propaganda be done with state machinery? What is the net result besides propaganda and drama? It is time the government introspected.” The scheduled timing of the PM’s speech —from 3 to 4.45pm — have also been attacked.

The HRD Minister had responded strongly, saying: “If the Prime Minister of a free India does not have the freedom to interact with students, then it is ridiculous.”

Modi will be interacting with around 1,000 selected students at the Manekshaw Auditorium and take questions via video conferencing facility, which will be beamed live to over 18 lakh schools through Doordarshan and education channels.

New Era for Nalanda University

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 2, 2014

The glory of the Nalanda University (NU) is back after 800 years. On September 1, 2014, NU began its session with an inaugural class.

The first batch of students has been named ‘Nalanda Pioneers’ by the administration. Out of the seven schools planned, currently NU has started with two schools – School of Ecology and Environment Studies and School of Historical Studies with students and professors hailing from India and foreign nations.

Countries like China, Myanmar, Laos, Australia, Singapore and 10 others have extended financial aid to NU for infrastructure projects. The Japanese government will also help in the construction of Gaya –Rajgir NH-82 in a mark of help to the university.

Tamil Nadu Top Spender in Higher Education

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 2, 2014

Tamil Nadu has topped the list of states in terms of government spending on higher education. The total expenditure on higher education by the state government stands at 1.5 per cent of its gross state domestic product (GSDP), HRD minister Smriti Irani informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

“The Centre expects the same from other states as it provides equal fund as grant under the Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme. Every state should spend at least 1.5 per cent of its GSDP for higher education,” said Prof S P Thyagarajan, former VC of Madras University.

“The investment of TN in higher education has been broad-based covering school, vocational, technical, professional and non-professional courses,” said Prof S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Dean, Sastra University.

Seventh Edition of Bangalore India plans ‘Nano for the young’

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 1, 2014

The seventh edition of Bangalore India Nano will witness a special programme “Nano for the Young” where participation of students from various streams like engineering, medical and biotech colleges from the state will be given opportunity to learn about the latest trends in nanotechnology.

It is a two day event which is scheduled on 5^th and 6^th December. It will feature many relevant sessions which include International conference, product and technology exhibitions, pre conference tutorials, research industry collaboration hub (RICH), keynote talks, Nano for the young programmes among others. The main area of focus of this event are advanced materials, energy, food, healthcare and medicine, nano fabrication and some new areas like oil & gas, devices and sensors, scanning probe microscopy, surface treatments and coatings among others.

The presence of eminent personalities like, chief science officers, fellow, advisors and leaders and directors of institutions will be seen in the event.

A digital cloud of your own

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 1, 2014

We all have at some point of time carried bundles of certificates and their attested photo-copies to our various visits to government offices. No longer. Under the instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, the information and technology department is working on creating a ‘digital cloud’ for every Indian wherein, all the certificates issued by the government — education, residential, medical records, birth certificates etc — are to be stored in individual ‘digital lockers’ and a communication protocol established for government departments to access them without physically having to see the hard copy.

This way, a student applying for a government college after having studied in a government school will have all his details such as birth certificate, identity details and educational certificates, school-leaving details et al, already available with the college authorities.

The idea will be floated on MyGov.in portal where suggestions will be sought for working out a “communication protocol” or what is called an applications programming interface ( API) will be solicited.

The portal has already proved to be a big hit. As of now, more than 2 lakh people have registered on it. Ideas for Digital India have received the maximum number of suggestions, followed by Clean India and job creation on the website

Modi to go live on Teacher’s Day

Schools News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 1, 2014

Come September 5 and the annual Teacher’s Day celebrations will carry a different hue this time with Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting over 1,000 school children in New Delhi. The event will be beamed live across the country through TV, radio and the Internet. Teacher’s Day has also been rebranded as ‘Guru Utsav’.

Officials in the HRD ministry say around 14.5 lakh government schools and 4 lakh private schools; including every Jan Shikshan Sansthan, panchayat ghar, adult and informal education centre, and State Resource Centre, would be able to see and listen the PM’s interaction with the school children.

Modi will meet the students, drawn from all classes from 1 to 12 from across the country, at the Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment between 3 pm and 4.45 pm. He will make an opening speech, after which students will ask him some questions.

52 news channels, radio and FM channels would broadcast the programme. The EDUSAT system will also be utilised. Websites of the HRD Ministry and all state governments’ education departments will stream the programme live.

Modi wants e-learning of Japanese in India

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 1, 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants Japan government to take up steps to introduce online learning of Japanese language in the country.

Modi proposed that online and audio-video courses could be started by Japan and exams could be held here, saying it would find many takers among the Indian students. Such a mechanism could be put in place about Indian languages too, he said.

Currently on a five-day state-visit to Japan, Modi told Japanese Deputy Minister for Education, Culture, Sports,Science and Technology during a visit to 136-year-old Taimei Elementary School that though India had introduced Japanese as a language option in its schools, there was a paucity of teachers to teach the language.

PM Modi said that the world accepts 21^st century as the Asian century and for that to happen, countries of the region need to learn each others’ languages. A presentation was also made to Modi on Japan’s elementary and secondary education system.

An official statement added that from his visit to the school, Modi also understood the methods of evaluation and examination and how parents are kept involved with the child’s education, and how the school syllabus is prepared.

Irani asks IIMs to create knowledge consortium

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

September 1, 2014

Calling for the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) to bring their management expertise in national development goals, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani has set out a 13-point agenda for them.

Addressing the IIMs’ Conclave with Chairpersons and Directors of 13 IIMs in Bengaluru, Irani asked them to come up with strategies for making the country both manpower ready and teacher ready. She said that along with IITs, IIITs and Central Universities, the IIMs should create a mechanism for a ‘Global Talent Pool’ of eminent persons, who could then contribute their expertise not only to IIMs but to other institutions in the country as well.

“IIMs needed to create a knowledge consortium, based on efforts by IIM Ahmedabad, by bringing together various institutions so as to make possible ideas like credit transfer and twinning programmes,” she said.

Irani said IIMs needed to work with local industries and local communities with a view to enhance their management capacity. She also asked IIMs to contribute their management expertise to such national projects as development of Smart Cities and Green Cities.

The interaction focused on issues related to national development goals, admission process in IIMs, review of the institutes, National Ranking Framework for the management institutions, ICT and other pedagogical innovations and initiatives to scale up research in IIMs, especially the socially relevant research as also to have greater impact on national policy implementation.

Benefits of RGNF Scheme Elude SC, ST Students

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

August 28, 2014

Thousands of students from the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) are yet to reap the benefits of the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF) scheme. More than 2,500 SC and ST students from the 2013-14 batch are still waiting for the monetary assistance that was promised under the scheme offered by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Under RGNF, students who belong to SC and ST group are provided financial assistance to pursue regular and full time MPhil and PhD degrees in science, humanities, social science and engineering and technology. Eligible students are entitled to a financial assistance of Rs 16,000 per month.

Alleging high-handedness on part of the University Grants Commission (UGC), students say that repeated attempts to get in touch with the officials have gone unheard. UGC, the apex body for higher education in India, is responsible for the disbursal of funds under this scheme.

Ministry officials too say that they have been unable to release the required funds because the UGC is yet to provide them with the utilisation certificates of the previous batch for RGNF. On the other hand, UGC says that RGNF being a government scholarship, the ministry should not break the continuity.

As per the scheme, 2,000 slots for SC candidates and 667 slots for ST candidates are available every year.

IISc gets UGC nod for FYUP

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

August 28, 2014

After having objected to the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) being run by three institutions a few months ago, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is understood to have permitted the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore to continue with the four-year programme.

The move followed a detailed clarification from the IISc seeking review of the UGC decision. Students pursuing FYUP get their degrees at the end of three years, while in the fourth year they pursue research work, IISc told the regulator.

The UGC’s green signal comes after it reviewed the detailed clarification given by IISc.

HRD minister Smriti Irani had earlier told the parliament that three institutes – IISc Bangalore, Shiv Nadar Noida and Symboisis Pune – were offering four year BA and B.Sc programmes and the UGC had directed them to discontinue with it.

LATEST NEWS

Top Trending News

Top Trending Categories