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Government launches Rs 600 Cr scheme to up Muslim literacy

The Government of India recently launched a new programme called ‘Maulana Azad Taleem-e-Balighan’ for educating adult Muslims, targeting over one crore of them.

The programme was launched by Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor. It aims at imparting functional literacy, vocational skill development and continuing education to one crore Muslim adults with an outlay of Rs 600 crore. Besides that, the programme also promises to offer opportunities for up-scaling basic education to around 2.5 lakh adults and skill development training to around 3 lakh people.

The government issued a statement saying that 410 Sakshar Bharat Districts would be covered with a financial outlay of Rs 600 crore during the current Plan Period.

In the statement, the government also claimed that the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language is undertaking many activities to promote, develop and propagate the language in the country. The affirmative interventions made under various schemes for promotion of education of the minorities has shown encouraging results.

It further claimed that enrollment of Muslim children at primary level as percentage of total enrollment has increased from 9.4 per cent in 2006-07 to 14.2 per cent in 2012-13, and at the upper primary level, from 7.2 per cent to 12.1 per cent during the same period.

IIT Madras connects with German Varsity to offer joint PhD

From the new academic year, IIT Madras (IIT M) will offer a joint doctoral degree programme in collaboration with the University of Passau, Germany. The two institutions will jointly train doctoral researchers who will be awarded two doctoral degrees- a PhD from IIT M and a doctorate from the University of Passau.
Students admitted to the PhD programme will have an opportunity to visit Germany twice for a 6 month periods while scholars from the University of Passau will have similar stints at IIT M. Faculty exchange will also be facilitated in this programme that can admit upto 15 students in the first year.
Indian students will receive scholarships from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) that cover their travel and living expenses, including insurance. Incoming German students will in-turn be supported by IIT M. The doctoral scholars will receive a tuition waiver.

Finance Minister attracts students for education loans

Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram announced a moratorium period for all education loans taken up to March 31, 2009, and outstandings as of March 31, 2013 while presenting the interim budget for 2014-15 in Lok Sabha. He further said that the government will take over the liability for outstanding interest as Dec 31, 2013, but the borrower would have to pay interest for the period after April 1, 2014.
Nearly 900,000 student-borrowers would benefit to the tune of around Rs 2,600 crore. The minister said that Rs 2,600 crore will be transferred to Canara Bank, the nodal bank managing the interest subsidy scheme on educational loans. He added that the interest subsidy scheme was introduced in 2009-10 for education loans disbursed after April 1, 2009, while students who had borrowed prior to that date deserve some relief. The education loan portfolio of nationalised banks as Dec 31, 2013, stands around Rs 57,700 crore in 2,570,254 accounts.
The DMK also tried to attract around 25 lakh educational loan borrowers by demanding writing off of educational loans. With the educational loan portfolio growing and bank officials not managing the scheme as per the guidelines, students are put to great difficulty in getting the loans, interest subsidy among other things.

Optional board exam for Class 8th introduced by Rajasthan government

Rajasthan government has announced the formation of an education board for Class 8th. The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting in Bharatpur. The cabinet also decided to introduce the option of exams for class 8th students in government schools.
Talking about the decision by the cabinet, Minister Rajendra Rathore said that following the implementation of RTE (Right to Education), no exams are being held for students up to Class 8th. However, this has brought down the standard of education. Hence a proposal has been made to hold the optional exams. The final decision would be taken by students or their parents.
During the cabinet meeting, the ministers also cleared the proposal for a medical college in Bharatpur, which would be set up at an expense of Rs 189 crore.

Mood at IIM Bangalore upbeat as global job offers double

It’s celebration time for the 2012-14 batch at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The final placement process saw a total of 425 job offers being bagged by 388 students of the sought-after Post Graduate Programme (PGP). Compared to last year, international placements offered to the students doubled, from 20 to 41.

The average salary received by the students this year is Rs 19.5 lakh per year, a 13 % increase from last year’s average of Rs 17.2 lakh.

The average work experience of the batch was 22.3 to 24 months. The average salary for students with no prior work experience is Rs 17.4 lakh.

The final tally of 425 offers includes 117 pre-placement offers (for those who were offered jobs in companies where they interned) and 127 lateral placement offers (for candidates with more than 22 months of work experience).

Break-up of the offers:

Top sectors 

  • Consulting 27%
  • Banking & finance 19%
  • IT & technology 17%
  • General management 14%

Key recruiters 

  • Amazon
  • Samsung
  • IBM
  • Coca-Cola
  • PepsiCo
  • Reliance Industries Ltd
  • Flipkart

LinkedIn, Akshaya Patra Foundation and 39 other companies visited IIM-B this year as first-time recruiters.

Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to head IIM-Bangalore

Forbes listed her as one of the world’s 100 most powerful women. India’s Biotechnology queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is all set to head the Board of Governors at IIM-Bangalore.

The country’s biotech pioneer, 60-year old Shaw is a chairperson of Biocon Ltd, an integrated healthcare firm, delivering bio-pharmaceutical solutions.

Kiran will take over from Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh D Ambani, who has stepped down. She was appointed by the Human Resources Development Ministry.

The ministry appointed Ambani to the board eight years ago.

Educomp’s Little Millennium launches “Kickers Club” for Preschool Children

Little Millennium, a part of Educomp Solutions Ltd. which is a network of preschools in India, launched ‘Little Millennium Kickers Club’ for preschool children in Bangalore in the age group of 3-6 years.

An initiative of Educomp Child Care Pvt. Ltd., Little Millennium Kickers Club is a soccer training camp designed to provide professional training to the preschoolers and lead up to a soccer league finale. Little Millennium Kickers Club revolves around a uniquely designed sports curriculum that focuses on nurturing motor skills like eye-feet co-ordination, flexibility and body balance, developing leg strength, and building teamwork. It also focuses on building football skills like dribbling, dodging, passing and kicking the ball. The vision of the programme is to enable, energise and enhance childhood by fostering growth of mind, body and spirit, leading students to become lifelong learners. The mission is to nurture young minds in a culturally sound environment and provide opportunities that will help them realise their true potential.
The Little Millennium Kickers Club has started out with six teams- Leaping Lions, Flying Tigers, Pally Penguins, Zesty Zebras, Mighty Pandas and Panthers United. Speaking about the programme, Raman Bajaj, Managing Director, Educomp Child Care Pvt. Ltd., said, “We are extremely delighted to launch the Little Millennium Kickers Club which aims to inculcate the love for sports in children and provide fundamental soccer skills to the kids. This is a significant initiative from Little Millennium which not only infuses important child development aspects but also integrates important life skills like team building, physical strength and agility among children”.

School Educators – V Krishna, Principal, Indus World School, Raipur


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V Krishna, PrincipalIndus World School, RaipurImplementin
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ICT has completely changed the scenario in our school in terms of better assessment and recognizing areas of improvements timely.

Pedagogy – We have specifically made efforts to develop creative skills of students at the initial (Ananda) level. We have encouraged ‘Art and Craft’ like working on live sketches, pottery making, working with beads and paper, artworks on cloth and other materials. This has helped lot of students to develop problem solving and creative skills. Also, learning of classical music and dance has taken a centre stage.
Infrastructure – Infrastructure in terms of composite labs with additional Learning aids has been developed.
Teachers’ Training – Teacher’s training forms an integral part of our academic schedule. Training is done via Video Conference and in person on weekly basis. Sharing of new initiatives with teachers of different Indus campuses happen frequently. Monthly tests of mentors on subjects and topics like “Child Psychology and Pedagogy” are conducted and assessments shared with them.
Technology – Implementation of tabs, in particular has helped students to take up “Diagnostic Tests” from Class 4 onwards and various other assessments through “Compassbox.com” online.
Sports – We have worked extensively on our sports infrastructure like readying and focusing on Tennis, cricket and athletics facilities. Indoor sports like chess, carrom, table tennis and basketball have also been promoted.

School Educators – Rupa Chakravarty, Principal Suncity School, Gurgaon

There is an Einstein, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Mother Teresa in each one of us.

Pedagogy– We have Academic excellence promoted through work assignments that cater to differential learning is called CRAB assignments. CRAB is the acronym for C- Challenging, R – Recap, Aadvanced B- Basic

Infrastructure – We have computer labs along with eight different laboratories – The Logical Lab, The Innovative/Art & Craft Labs, The Linguistic Lab, Lyrical/Gayan, Nritya Labs and The Spa Block which covers the mathematical and logical intelligences, spatial intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence, musical intelligence and bodilykinesthetic intelligence respectively.

Technology – We are using technology as a tool to keep a tab on the performance curve of the students for different topics/ subjects and use this to enhance the performance too.

Teachers’ Training – Upgradation of teachers’ skills across the board is done through various workshops and In house training.

School Educators – Dhriti Malhotra, Principal, Manav Rachna International School, Gurgaon

dlDhriti Malhotra, Principal
Manav Rachna International School, Gurgaon
Education has now moved from a content driven system to a concept and skills driven one, thus there is need of consistent pedagogical changes

Pedagogy – We ensure that imparting knowledge is interdisciplinary, practical and technology integrated enabling the child to correlate classroom teaching practices with everyday life. Focus is on catering to multiple intelligences that are there in the class and teach them through their way of learning.
Infrastructure – We extensively use technology in our classrooms. We boast of a futuristic Robotics lab, fine arts studio, special education needs room, resource room and open air theatre among others.
Teachers’ Training – Apart from regular CBSE workshops, we conduct professional development courses on innovative and effective teaching strategies, using multiple intelligences, interactive board, dealing with special problems and special children.
Technology – We have smart classrooms with interactive boards and plasma. The Robotics curriculum too is STEM based. We are working toward becoming a paperless school by creating a public portal.
Sports – Our sports academy offers indoor sports like shooting, chess, carom, gymnastics, table tennis and outdoor sports like swimming, horse riding, taekwondo, skating, football, tennis and basketball. We also provide specialised coaching in cricket, table tennis and shooting.

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