Sports made must for all students in government schools

Every student attending a government school will have to participate in at least one sport. The directorate of education also requires every school to form teams for at least two sports, participate in zonal tournaments and promote "laughter therapy... during intervening periods." DoE wants sports to become an integral part of school-life and has announced a number of measures to make that happen. At the same time, taking a lesson from the October 2013 accident -an 11-year-old boy was killed by a javelin on school premises-the education department has reworked its policies on sports and formulated a comprehensive set of safety guidelines.

Education has to go beyond textbooks, experts say

What is written in textbooks can only lend to bookish knowledge. For holistic learning and sensitisation at an early age, educational institutions should go beyond classrooms, experts say. 

In a panel discussion here Thursday on "Education: What's Going on in the Classroom (or not)?", experts from diverse fields deliberated on the need to engage students in healthy debates and discussions on varied topics ranging from sex education, sexual violence and emotional quotient. 

Need to upgrade university curriculum: UPSC chief

The curriculum of universities in the country needs to be updated regularly, UPSC chairman D P Agrawal on Saturday said, noting that they have not been revised for more than a decade. 

Pointing out that the curriculum in many universities have not been revised in a decade or two, Agrawal said these should be fine tuned with the changing times. 

Plea for IT solution to higher education infrastructre issues

Stating that digital technology advancements could provide a solution to the infrastructure and logistics challenges facing the higher education sector in India, experts have said the need of the hour was to use information technology (IT) so as to reach out to maximum number of youth.

India-specific Times Higher Education indicators soon

The Times Higher Education Ranking Agency of the UK, which grades higher educational institutions globally, has agreed to draw up an India specific indicator that would help global education stakeholders and international students to judge Indian educational institutions. 

Perfect present-ing! (Times Education Series)

A presentation is a 'present' you give your audience, consisting of your ideas and thoughts. Put conviction and passion into a presentation to connect with people and make your 'present' truly memorable.

Here are five ways to ensure a presentation becomes a real gift:

* Converse, don't lecture: Don't get caught in complicated content and talk at your audience. Instead, think you're having a conversation with many individuals, rather than delivering a lecture to a crowd.

Industry, higher education can collaborate'

The British Council's study commissioned through the Economist Intelligence Unit on 'high university enrolment, low graduate employment' was presented as part of the three-report series on South Asia, at the global education dialogue here on Monday.

All higher education institutions details on single web portal

The process is being undertaken by the Higher Education Department to register details of all universities and higher education institutions under various departments on a single portal. Web portal aishe.gov.in has been prepared for year 2011-12 and 2012-13 by Union human resources ministry for All-India Survey on Higher Education.

IGNOU Nagpur triples enrolment over last year

The Nagpur regional centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has tripled its enrollment compared to last year due to its expanding study centres and course innovations. From just over 700 students in the last academic session, IGNOU's ranks have now swelled to 2,012 students. The open university will hold its 27th convocation on April 16.

Indians No 2 users of MIT-Harvard e-courses

 Over 2.5 lakh Indians have registered for courses on edX, the massive open online course (Mooc) platform founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in May 2012 to host online university-level courses.

This makes Indians the second largest community, after Americans, to register for these courses, said edX president Anant Agarwal, an Indian American who grew up in Mangalore and who has been teaching the circuits & electronics course in MIT for 26 years.

Integrity policy

Tracey Bretag, programme director, University of South Australia Business school, speaks on academic dishonesty 

Academic integrity is an umbrella term for shared values of honesty, trust, respect, fairness and responsibility in all educational endeavours. Recently, the International Bench of Academic Integrity added the quality of courage to enact those values. To enact those values in education, courage is what is required because this isn't just a student issue. This issue affects every stakeholder at the university who is responsible - from agents to administrators, professional staff, vice chancellors, researchers, reviewers, editors, teachers, writers and students. Every stakeholder in the university has a responsibility to uphold these fundamental values and have the courage to enact them. 

Ready for college

Clay Hensley, director, international strategy and relationships, College Board, talks to Poonam Jain on the redesigned SAT.

What is the reason behind redesigning SAT?

SAT has been redesigned to focus on the few things that, evidence shows, matter most for college and career readiness. The redesigned SAT aims to be more relevant in changing times. It builds on the remarkable care and expertise statisticians have used to make the exam valid and predictive, while becoming more focused, useful, clear and open than ever before. Each change in the redesigned SAT focuses on the knowledge and skills that are most essential for college readiness and success. The exam is also modelled on the work students do in high school. 

Education system in India restricts innovation: Educationist

Finding faults with the education system in India, an educationist with a New York-based university on Monday advocated the need for a change to allow freedom of creativity to promote innovation. 

Noting that India ranks 66 out of 140 countries on terms of local dynamics of innovation as per the UNDP, Soumitra Dutta, Dean of Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, blamed the education system for it. 

"Restricting freedom at early age in schools by expecting children to write exactly as written in text books reflects later in industry, which leaves less scope for innovation due to lack of creativity," he said. 

BJP vows to scrap Delhi University's 4-year undergraduate programme

BJP has promised to scrap the four-year undergraduate programme in DU in its Delhi manifesto released on Wednesday. Party leaders said the implementation of FYUP was "unnecessary" and wasted a precious year of study.

IIM Calcutta may open campuses in Dubai and Malaysia

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) may explore the possibility of opening campuses on foreign shores soon. And the destinations could be Dubai and Malaysia. 

The proposal, which was discussed with several of the Board of Governors (BoG) members, is waiting for nod from the highest decision-making body of the institute. If a go-ahead is given, IIM-C will join the league of IIM-Indore, IMT-Ghaziabad and SP Jain Institute of Management Research that already run campuses in Dubai. IIM-Indore has recently decided to shift from Ras Al Khaimah to the commercial hub of Middle East. 

Courses on hold, Ignou students stare at bleak fate

The court case that led to violence at the Maidan Garhi campus of Indira Gandhi National Open University on Wednesday has also left hundreds of students in a fix. They are caught between the two parties — Ignou and the trust —that signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU), recently declared illegal by the high court.

For a year, no new technical institutes

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to suspend for a year guidelines issued just a few days ago for approval and regulation of new technical institutes. 

In effect, no new technical institutes will come up across the country and there will be no increase in the intake numbers in existing institutes in the academic year 2014-15.