IIT-Bombay begins Lectures in Bengali

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September 23, 2014

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay has introduced computer program lectures in Bengali for first year B Tech students who are mainly from the interiors of West Bengal and lack English proficiency.

After Hindi and Marathi, this is the third vernacular being used for special instruction, albeit informal, at the institute. The idea of Hindi and Marathi lectures was started a few years ago by professor D B Phatak of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Bengali was included in the informal initiative this year after professor Supratik Chakraborty of the same department offered to teach students in the language.

Initially, 60-70 students from a batch of 570 signed up for the extra coaching in regional languages. “After a couple of sessions, more students are showing interest,” said Chakraborty.

Rajasthan eyes major changes to RTE Act

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September 23, 2014

The Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in Rajasthan is in plans to bring two major amendments to the Right To Education (RTE) Act. These changes include reintroducing exams in at least three classes from Class I to VIII, and giving more importance to “learning outcomes” than to physical infrastructure of schools while deciding on their recognition or registration.

Parents are learnt to have suggested that a complete ban on exams till class VIII was not in the best interest of the child. Accordingly, the state is considering evaluations in classes III, V and VIII.

The second significant change stresses on giving more weightage to “learning outcomes” of schools than on hardware such as school buildings, playgrounds etc. Here, the Rajasthan government has taken note of the closure of a large number of private schools in several other states because they could not manage the RTE-mandated physical infrastructure requirement.

The Centre for Civil Society estimates that at least 34.94 lakh children have been affected with 19,414 schools across 17 states having been closed or issued notice for closure for not fulfilling the norms related to infrastructure and teacher salaries. The state is now in plans to restrict the weightage on infrastructure and other inputs to 30 per cent or less, and instead focus on absolute, relative (compared with previous year) and scholastic learning outcomes.

UGC recommends blacklisting 7 Deemed Universities, 34 get clean chit

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September 23, 2014

The UGC committee set up to review 41 ‘C’ category deemed universities has recommended the disqualification of seven of them. The committee set up under UGC vice-chairman H Devraj has, however, given a clean chit to the remaining 37 deemed universities that were blacklisted by a government report in 2009.

The report of the committee was accepted by the UGC full commission at a meeting held in New Delhi on Monday. According to the report, only 7 of the entire list of deemed varsities originally blacklisted have been found inadequate on specified standards. Accordingly, the union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry may serve them a show cause notice before denotification, the report recommended.

The names of the universities placed in the ‘C’ category, however, have not been disclosed and the report has also not been shown to UGC members. Vice-chairperson H Devaraj only read out the operative portion, leading to protest by one member who asked how the commission could claim that the report had been accepted when not all members had even seen it.

The committee was set up under the orders of the Supreme Court which had asked it to examine three earlier reports on deemed universities. The Tandon Committee in 2009 had categorised them into three and 41 were found unfit to continue as deemed universities.

The report will now be sent to the HRD ministry which is expected to submit it to the SC on September 30, 2014 when the issue comes up for hearing.

Easier Eligibility Norms for IIT Admissions

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September 23, 2014

Starting 2015, students scoring 75 per cent marks in their class XII examinations will also be eligible for admissions to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, provided they clear the JEE (Advanced). In a move that is set to have a positive impact on several aspirants to the much sought after IITs, the IIT Council has decided to relax the eligibility criteria for admissions to its institutes.

Under the rules set in the last two years, eligibility for admissions was limited to students falling in the top 20 percentile of their higher secondary boards. The decision was arrived at unanimously in a meeting of the council at IIT Madras on Tuesday.

According to council member Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay, “Students can either score above 75 per cent or be in the top 20 percentile of their boards to be eligible. We wanted to give all students a definite target of 75 per cent.”

The proposal to the IIT council to relax the norms had been mooted by the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC), the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs. The move will benefit students from boards that follow a liberal marking system as well as students from the CBSE and ISC board, which had higher cut-offs for the top 20 percentile.

Guidelines for Guest Speak

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September 22, 2014

Guest Speak is a column focussed on bringing out the voices of persons involved in the field of education. It is not a page to promote a product or an institution.
Articles published in Guest Speak are voluntary contributions from the writers. digitalLearning does not pay renumeration of any kind for them.
Articles submitted for consideration should be related to education, technology in education, policy in education. They should provide a perspective about the education sector in India.
Articles should be appropriate for publication regarding grammar, tone, and writing style
The maximum word limit of an article submitted for consideration should not exceed more than 1000 words.
All submissions must be accompanied with a photo of the author. No other images shall be entertained.
Editorial decision regarding publication shall lie with digitalLearning magazine and will be final.

NPTEL, Autodesk sign MoU to bring engineering software to students

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September 22, 2014

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) has signed a MoU with design software maker Autodesk for developing a course thorough which they will provide access to high-end design software free of cost for students.

According to the MoU, the companies will jointly structure a course for civil and mechanical engineering students, which will give technical support and industry-relevant educational programmes and certification.

Speaking on the collaboration, Professor Mangala Sunder Krishnan, NPTEL Coordinator, IIT Chennai, said; “Partnership with Autodesk enables NPTEL to offer access to professional 3D design tools, industry-relevant curricula, multimedia and Web technology to create more skilled graduates in all areas of science, engineering, humanities, arts, social sciences, law, agriculture and management via ICT tools”

This collaboration builds on the free access that all secondary and post-secondary academic institutions in India have to professional 3D design software from Autodesk via the Autodesk Academic Resource Center including Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, AutodeskAutoCAD, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Autodesk Maya.

National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Surathkal, SASTRA University in Thanjavur and PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore will also be working closely with this initiative.

Autodesk and NPTEL have a shared commitment to train and equip an industry-ready workforce, and our Computer Aided Design tools and expertise combined with NPTEL’s Computer Aided Instruction platform will see us delivering the highest quality of engineering education to all schools and institutions nationwide,” said Tom Joseph, Senior Director of Education, Autodesk.

Modi stresses on girl child education to foster women empowerment

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September 22, 2014

Stressing on girl child education, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was the key to women empowerment.

In a television interview, Modi condemned the anti-rape statements given by several political leaders and said,”More damage is done by statements made by the politicians. The dignity of a woman is our collective responsibility. The main issue is the education of the girl child. By doing so, the possibility of empowerment of women will increase.”

In a speech on Independence Day Modi had said,”Parents ask their daughters hundreds of questions, but have any parents ever dared to ask their son as to where he is going, why he is going out, who his friends are. After all, a rapist is also somebody`s son. He also has parents. As parents, have we ever asked our son as to what he is doing and where he is going. If every parent decides to impose as many restrictions on the sons as have been imposed on our daughters, try to do this with your sons, try to ask such questions of them”.

HRD Minister stresses on education that promotes culture

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September 22, 2014

HRD Minister Smriti Irani, while participating in a joint meeting of Sadharan Sabha and working committee of Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan of Vidya Bharti, said efforts were being made to impart education that promotes Indian culture.

“Efforts are on to impart education that promotes Indian culture and paves the way for development,” Irani said.

Smriti Irani said, “For centuries Indian education system has been instrumental in guiding the world. We lagged behind due to the changes forced into our education system when India was not free.

“Now, this would not be allowed to continue as country is committed to develop under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she added.

SBI to offer credit cards with education loans

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September 22, 2014

India’s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), is offering credit cards to students who avail of education loans with them. The move is to gauge the students’ cradit history and keep bad loans down.

SBI hopes that the credit card useage will give it a glimpse into the user’s spending habits, thus giving it a clue about the borrower’s spending habits. This, in turn, will help it identify potential bad loans.

SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said, “We were having a lot of non-performing assets (NPAs) in education loans. So, now we have created a credit card along with the education loans.”

The credit card has a credit limit of Rs 5,000, guaranteed by the parent.

“Now what happens is the child starts using the credit card. He learns to use the credit card and repay the loan. And also, through the credit card we remain connected with him,” said Bhattacharya.

She pointed out that earlier once the bank gave the education loan it was no longer in the scene and the student forgot all about the bank. “But if there is a credit card, there is a monthly bill, so we remain connected with that person,” said the SBI chief.

And even when the student-borrower completes his education and takes up a job, the bank hopes that he/she will continue to use the card. “So, we can continue to track him. And in the meanwhile, he is building up a credit history which will enable use to give credit once he goes into a job,” said Bhattacharya.

As at June-end 2014, SBI had an education loan portfolio of Rs 14,945 crore, up 7.21 per cent year-on-year.

RBI Governor against subsidising education loans under priority lending

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September 22, 2014

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan asked for a re-thinking on easy credit for education loans, saying banks were subsidising them under the priority sector lending (PSL) segment.

Addressing bankers at an industry summit, he said, “We actually subsidise, in the priority sector, student loans to study abroad. Are students studying abroad the most needy in the country or is it the most important?”

“This is something people have got used to. I am not saying it is bad, but it is something you should ask questions about. We have to keep asking ourselves, why should some sectors get more easy credit than others,” he said.

Under priority sector lending norms, banks are mandated to lend up to 40 per cent of their overall credit to marginalised sectors like agriculture, housing, small businesses and education.

Banks lend to such identified sectors as per their base rates and the shortfalls of the targets have to go to the low-yielding Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

Most banks, especially in the private sector and overseas banks generally fail to meet these targets. Even some state-run banks fail to meet this target due to lower number of branches.

Under the present norm, a loan of under Rs 20 lakh taken by an individual for studying abroad qualifies as priority sector lending.

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