Government working on aptitude test for school students

The HRD ministry is developing an aptitude test which will help school students assess their areas of interest so that they can choose and pursue the right courses.

The ministry has formed a task force comprising officials of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and psychometric experts for developing a "prototype" of this proposed assessment test, official sources told PTI.

Delhi University among world's elite, again

It may have dropped one notch from last year, but Delhi University again ranks among the world's top 20 institutions for development studies.

Don't be deterred by failures, Smriti Irani tells students

Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, on Saturday, asked the students not to be deterred by failures, but move ahead in life irrespective of the challenges.

Students should not be deterred by failure "but go ahead in life irrespective of failures", Irani said while delivering the fifth convocation address of Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak, here.

The Union HRD minister called upon the students to take inspiration from American information technology entrepreneur and inventor Steve Job's life.

Panel approves threefold hike in IIT annual fees

A proposal for a threefold hike in annual fees of IITs from the present Rs 90,000 was today approved by an IIT panel though a final decision would require the nod of HRD minister Smriti Irani.

Another key recommendation the standing committee of IIT council (SCIC) made was that the proposed new entrance examination designed to test the aptitude, conducted by National Authority of Test (NAT), would be held from 2017 onwards.

Soon, free online lessons from IIT professors

Now, poor students aspiring to join the IITs will get free online lessons from the prestigious institutes' professors.

The IITs have agreed to a government proposal for professor-assisted learning, which will be called IITPAL.

"We want to break the stranglehold of coaching centres," a senior government official said.
Former IIT Bombay director Ashok Misra has been put in charge of creating the IITPAL portal.

The interactive portal will have uploaded lectures by IIT professors on physics, chemistry and mathematics. Questions and answers from the IITs' Joint Entrance Examination of the past 50 years will also be uploaded 

Re-Registration now Online -IGNOU

Dear Learners,

Now re-registration process is available online too at http://ignou.ac.in/

or visit the following link 

https://onlineadmission.ignou.ac.in/onlinerr/

IGNOU placement drive on March 22 -THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The campus placement cell of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), in association with the varsity’s regional centre, is organising a campus placement drive for students of the regional centre at Vivanta by Taj, Thycaud, here on March 22.

A press note here on Wednesday said IGNOU had tie-up with a leading airline company to recruit 200 cabin crew/air hostess. Only female undergraduate students of the BA, B.Com., B.Sc., BSW, BTS, BCA and postgraduate students of the M.Com., MTM, MSW, MEG, and MSCDFSM course have been invited for the placement drive. Women aged between 18 and 27 with minimum height of 155 cm and weight according to BMIcan walk-in by 12 noon on March 22. All candidates are required to carry resume, a passport size photo and identity proof. Visitwww.rctrivandrum.

UGC writes to varsities to introduce anti-corruption related topics in the curriculum

The students across colleges and universities will soon study anti-corruption in their curriculum, as the University Grants Commission (UGC) has advised vice-chancellors of all universities and even to colleges to add topics related to the same to enable students to get an overview of concepts and framework of anti-corruption progressively.



In a letter undersigned by UGC secretary Jaspal S Sandhu to vice-chancellors of all varsities, they have been advised to add anti-corruption related topics in the curriculum.

UGC sets up committee to look into off-campus centres

The UGC has set up a committee to look into all aspects of off-campus centres established by some institutions deemed to be universities without its prior approval or that of the HRD ministry.

The committee would comprise UGC members Prof H Devaraj, Prof Mohammad Miyan, Prof Sanjay Govind Dhande and Dr KN Shanti apart from a member convener, as per the minutes of a meeting held last month.

Several leading institutions, which are deemed universities had set up off campus centres without prior approvals, for which they have been issued notices by the UGC.

New-age IT skills can double your pay

If you have some of the new-age tech skills, not only are you likely to be hired much faster, you could also earn far better salaries.

Terms like R, Julia, Hadoop, Scrum Master and DevOps may sound alien to most people, but these are some of the hot skills that companies are looking for. A youngster who has just started out and has learnt R, a popular programing language used for statistical computing to derive insights from data, gets an average salary of Rs 8 lakh a year, according to data from Simplilearn, an online education provider of professional certification training. In comparison, the average salary for a regular fresher in an IT company is Rs 3.5 lakh.

IGNOU hikes exam fee after almost seven years

IGNOU hikes exam fee after almost seven years

Inflation is finally catching up with India's only central government owned open university as it increased its exam fee after almost seven years. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has revised its exam fee to 120 up from 60. IGNOU's regional director P Sivaswaroop, said, "The fee was revised this month and it has been done after a very long time."

Even after this hike, IGNOU is extremely economical in terms of examination fee. IGNOU offers a wide variety of courses with the regional centre at Nagpur focusing on specialized vocation-oriented courses too.

For Gadchiroli district, IGNOU has started courses in nursing day care so that students can get jobs in hospitals or even take care of patients at their homes. There are courses related to agriculture and dairy sector which again try to help students from Vidarbha get a perfect mix of theory and practical knowledge.

Sivaswaroop has also started working programmes which can benefit people from the Melghat region as well. IGNOU has been constantly expanding its footprint in the region by way of tying up with colleges to open centres as well as start programmes that are job oriented.

Important Information on 29th Convocation -IGNOU

1. 29th Convocation of the University will be held in April, 2016. Exact date of the Convocation and other details in this regard will be informed shortly. 

2. The students who have completed their Programme in December- 2014/June-2015 Term-end Examination will be awarded the Certificate in this Convocation. 

3. The students of all the Master Degree, Bachelor Degree, Post Graduate Diploma, Advanced Diploma and Diploma Programme may register for the Convocation by submitting the prescribed application form along with the requisite fee at their Regional Centre. Regional Centres are in process of sending the letter and the prescribed application form to the eligible students under their region.

4. On line registration for the students of the above Programmes will be made available soon. 

5. Students of Post Graduate Certificate/Certificate Programmes are not required to register, their certificate will be sent to them after the Convocation.

'India among countries using innovative teaching techniques'

India is among the countries in the developing world that are successfully experimenting with innovative teaching techniques in an effort to spread learning across the nation, according to a new report.



The Washington DC-based Brookings Institution used areas in rural India covered by education charity 'Pratham' as part of its research for the 'Millions Learning: Scaling Up Quality Education in Developing Countries' report, unveiled at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) here this weekend.

Tentative examination centre for June 2016 for Delhi RC-1

1	PSC-0750P	Pioneer Institute of Education and Computer Studies, F 322/A, Adarsh House, Lado Sarai, New Delhi-110030
2	0755D	S.S. Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Near Gurudwara, Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar-IV, New Delhi-110024
3	SC-0789	Akshya Prtishthan D-III, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070
4.	SC-07102	Vocational Training College Old Institute of Home Economics Building, J Block, Opposite J -33, South Extension Part 1 , New Delhi-110049
5	07103D	Bal Vikas Vidyalaya Near Jain Dada Badi Mandir Behind NDSE Part II, Opposite Ansal Plaza, New Delhi-110049
6	SSC-07161	Ghalib Academy 168/1, Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin New Delhi-110013
7	PSC-07162	Mohyal Education and Research Institute of Technology (MERIT) A-9, Qutab Institutional Area, USO Road, Near JNU, New Delhi-110067
8	SC-07177	Kautilya Institute of Tech. Education, C/o Cosmos Public School, Tajpur, Molarband Extn. Badarpur, New Delhi-110044
9	SC-1007	Pt. JLN Govt. College, Faridabad
10	PSC-1015	JLJ  Financial & Management Consultant, Sector-16A, Faridabad
11	07170	Vision Inst of Applied Studies, Sector-20B, Faridabad

Revision of Examination fees

The Finance Committee at its 87th Meeting held on 27.11.2015 vide item no. 87.8.2 recommended for the revision of term end examination fee from Rs. 60/- to Rs. 120/- per course w.e. f. term end examination June 2016, which has duly been approved by the Board of Management at its 124th meeting held on 23.01.2016 vide item no. 124.4.3. Accordingly, the examination fees are to be obtained from the students @ Rs. 120/- per course for TEE June 2016 instead of Rs. 60/-, for which the submission of examination forms commences tomorrow i.e. 1.3.2016.