‘Teachers need to be innovative in class’

BENGALURU: The Teacher Awards for Innovative Teaching (TAFIT) celebrated 16 teachers and their innovative teaching practices. The felicitation ceremony at Christ (deemed to be university) was held here on Monday by the Times Foundation, in collaboration with the institution and supported by Edvantagepoint. The event also felicitated 13 teachers who did a six-month course on Teaching an Inclusive Class (TAIC) by Samam Vidya.

Bore Gowda, a government school teacher in Mandya, not only brought innovation in teaching mathematics to the classroom and school but also inspired many more in his locality. "We use raw material like sticks, pebbles and paper to understand concepts in mathematics," he said.

Shalini Rajneesh, principal secretary, primary and secondary education, said, "Teachers need to be innovative in classrooms. Applying the 80:20 principle, we must look at 20% students who find difficulties in learning and strengthen their knowledge with the belief that every child is gifted." Prof Victor Paul, sociology and social work department, Christ, said the curriculum, methodology and enabling a learning environment are three pillars of education. Padma Shastry, director, Samam Vidya, said, "Innovative methods will make the child fall in love with subjects."

"Children are always in need of that special teacher who makes learning a life-long process," added P Seliha Muvva, founder and CEO, Edvantagepoint.

Top 10 Architecture institutes in India

For decades now, studying and practicing architecture has achieved great reputation and is counted among the most influential professions all over the world. The growing popularity of this field is directly related to the rise in commercialization and global economy, which emphasizes on the need for designing infrastructure, be it in terms of offices, houses, hospitals, schools airports, shopping centers and so on.

Architecture is a professional course that teaches you to design and plan great structures. The job prospect of an architect has many specializations, such as landscape architecture, town planning, industrial design, urban design, environmental planning and so on.

For those of you wish to take up a course in architecture, here is a list of 10 best architecture institutes, colleges and universities of India.

1. School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi
2. IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur
3. Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
4. Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
5. Jadavpur University, Kolkata
6. Chandigarh College of Architecture, Chandigarh
7. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
8. Department of Architecture, NIT Tiruchirappalli
9. Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University, Ahmedabad
10. Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal

Persons with disability to get free coaching for banking and competitive exams

Minati Singha| TNN | Jan 28, 2018, 20:16 IST
BHUBANESWAR: Encouraged by the success of physically challenged students in Odisha Teachers' Eligibility Test (OTET) who had undertaken free coaching by Odisha government, the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) will provide free coaching to disabled students for banking and other competitive examinations.

Be passionate about teaching or face replacement: HRD ministry

NEW DELHI: Teaching is an art and teachers cannot afford to be impassive purveyors of knowledge at the cost of students' interest, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.
Speaking here at the launch of the "Model curriculum for technology and management courses", the minister said pedagogy was a matter of science and stated that many teachers he came across during his assessment on several platforms -- whether in person or during their rendition of online classes, he found them robotic and impersonal.



"Teachers should have a passion for teaching. He or she must have a dream in his eyes of producing good students," Javadekar said, adding that those who did not do so should be ready to be replaced as "the competition is intense".

The minister said the quality of education in the country was not up to the mark and away from reality -- the reason "a washing machine mechanic manages to earn more than a degree-holding engineer".

Govt announces 4 new schemes to promote young scientists

NEW DELHI: The government today announced four new schemes to promote youngscientists and researchers in the country.
Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said the Teacher Associateship for Research Excellence (TARE) Scheme will connect the educators to leading public funded institutions like IIT, IISc or national institutions like CSIR to pursue research.

Students to get free WiFi in college, university campuses

BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has asked all universities and colleges of the state to make their campus digital by providing internet services for free and install WiFi facilities. Authorities of the educational institutions have been asked to complete the process of WiFi campus by August 2018.
"The creation of digital campus would require a large national effort involving both private and public players. Some telecom service providers have already evinced interest in participating in this effort," read the letter from Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).

Higher education council to change vacation schedule?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state higher education council has decided to explore the feasibility of replacing the existing two-month summer vacation in colleges with a split vacation.
The governing council of the higher education council on Tuesday decided to set up a committee of university pro-vice chancellors to study the feasibility of the proposed change. It is recommended that instead of the two-month vacation in April and May, the vacation may be split so that it is given in November and May.

Scheme of fee reimbursement for SC/ST students for January 2018 admission cycle

AICTE revamps curriculum for engineering, technical courses: Find out what's changed

PTI | Updated: Jan 25, 2018, 01:15 IST

NEW DELHI: Curriculum for engineering and technical courses across the country has been revamped by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to meet the demands of the industry.
Under the revised curriculum, the number of credits required for theory has been reduced to 160 from 220. It has also been made mandatory that 14 out of 160 credits will be for summer internship.

According to a senior official, the new curriculum focuses more on practical by engaging students with laboratory assignments rather than on theory.

The new curriculum was launched by Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar today.

'Education needs to keep pace with changing times'

NN | Updated: Jan 25, 2018, 08:36 IST

CHANDIGARH: There is a need for educational institutions to update their curriculum regularly, feel industry experts who were here for the HR meet on industry expectations in Panjab University. The meet was organized by the Central Placement Cell, Panjab University and Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) on Wednesday.

"There is a big gap between what the market needs and what Indian education equips future employees with. Despite exponential changes in science and technology around the world, the curriculum is hardly updated," said Dinesh Dua, CEO of a private pharmaceutical company.

Seven Day Training Programme on Employablity Enhancement and Life Skills

MCI bars NIOS students from attending NEET 2018; HRD ministry reverts order

NEW DELHI: The Medical Council of India (MCI) had made an announcement to debar candidates who completed their Class 12 through open and distance mode from attending National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET 2018).


The MCI, in a letter sent to the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), said that NIOS students would not be on a par with those from the regular mode and they would be ineligible for NEET.



The NIOS approached the HRD ministry to intervene and prevent thousands of capable students from missing the opportunity to make a career in medical field.
The HRD minister Mr. Prakash Javadekar held an important meeting on the issue on Wednesday, January 18. After the meeting, the Centre decided to revert the MCI's order to prevent NIOS students from appearing in the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) this year.

As per sources, the HRD ministry has taken the decision in favour of the students and opposed the MCI's move.

However, the official notification has not been released yet.

Every year, more than 2.5 lakh students register for NIOS. In the year 2017, nearly 3,000 students from NIOS appeared for the medical entance exam, out of which 864 even qualified the exam successfully.

NET-JRF age limit increased by two years

AURANGABAD: In a major decision, the authorities have increased the upper age limit for junior research fellowship ( JRF) offered through the National Eligibility Test (NET) 2018 by two years, making it 30 years. Also, number of papers in the examination has been reduced to two from earlier three, which is also considered as a key change.

While the stakeholders have welcomed the relaxation in upper age limit, aspirants and facilities chose to be cautious while reacting on the changed pattern of examination.

As per the latest official notification, registration for the NET would start from March 6 and the examination is scheduled on July 8.

According to the notification, Paper I of the test will be of 100 marks and will contain 50 questions of two marks each. It will evaluate general aptitude and teaching skills and will be of one-hour duration.

NET July 2018 exam notification released; UGC makes drastic changes in exam pattern

NAGPUR: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has notified the UGC-NET 2018 for Junior Research Fellowship & Eligibility for Assistant Professor with some drastic changes. While the age limit for JRF has been increased from 28 to 30 years, the third paper has been scrapped bring the duration of exam down by 2 hours.
For reserved categories, the new age limit is now 35 years.



The online applications would start from March 6 and the exam would be held on July 8. The last date to fill up the form is April 5, 2018.



Teaching community has welcomed the move and at the same time demanded that negative marking too should be introduced in the National Eligibility Test. The National Forum for Quality Education Mumbai said that it would request the HRD ministry and UGC to include negative marking like CAT, CSIR-NET, and GATE.



Earlier, the NET consisted Paper I (100marks), Paper II (100) and Paper III (150). Now, aspirants would have to appear for only Paper I (100marks) and Paper II (200 marks). The first will be of one-hour duration while the second would be two hours. All multiple choice questions would be compulsory. The exam will be organized into two sessions as per the earlier examination with the new changes mentioned in the notification.

"Negative marking should be there to increase the credibility of the test," said associate professor Dipendra Bendre, who is the member of the forum.

Kushal Mude, Ramesh Zade, and Subhash Khakse of the forum said this is a welcome move by the UGC.

"But, there is a need for transparency in the recruitment procedure. Nowadays even after clearing the NET, candidates have to shell out Rs 30 lakh for the assistant professorship. It is a distant dream for poor students who aspire to become teachers," they said.
The added that they expect the recruitment for lecturer should be done through central recruitment exam like Teacher Aptitude and Intelligence Test (TAIT) held in Maharashtra for the recruitment of Primary, Secondary and Junior College Teacher.

The detailed notification of NET would be available on http://cbsenet.nic.in from February 1, 2018

IGNOU M.Phil, Ph.D. entrance exam dates announced

NEW DELHI: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) declared the entrance examination dates of Ph.D. and M.Phil programmes for July 2018 session in regular mode.
IGNOU will conduct a national-level entrance exam on March 4 in selected examination centers across the country to select the candidates for Ph.D. and M.Phil programmes.

The candidates who wish to appear for the examination can submit their application on or before February 16, 2018. The online application process for admission to the programmes opened yesterday, January 23, 2018.

The entrance exams are being held for - M.Phil in Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Geography, Translation Studies, Social Work, Commerce, Chemistry, and Distance education.

The IGNOU is offering PhD programmes in - Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Library and Information Science, Political Science, Public Administration, History, Gender and Development Studies, Women's Studies, Geography, Translation Studies, Statistics, Food & Nutritional Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geology, Management, Life Sciences, Commerce, Hindi, Distance Education, Nursing, Social Work, Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry.

As per the information available, the Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Physics, and Life Sciences disciplines would not have the entrance exam and would be based on eligibility criteria available on the university's website.

The IGNOU also clarified that candidates applying for M.Phil in Economics need not take the entrance exam but have to be eligible as per the criteria.

Will global online higher education ever take off?

Will global online higher education ever take off? Christopher Ziguras19 January 2018 Issue No:489

Twenty years ago, at the beginning of the dot.com bubble, it seemed as though the advent of the internet would quickly lead to the rise of unstoppable new global online education providers, able to enrol hundreds of thousands of students in courses led by the biggest names in each discipline. 

We saw another wave of hysteria around 2012 – the year of the MOOC or massive open online course – with more dire warnings that universities as we know them were on borrowed time.

Back in the late 1990s the Australian and British governments funded major research projects on the rise of ‘borderless’ education, as it came to be known. It would use technology to transcend national boundaries, bridge the gulf between industry and academia and integrate the public and private sectors. 

In 2001, the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, or OBHE, was founded in London to study disruptive innovations worldwide, but on 11-12 December 2017 the Observatory’s Global Forum in London pondered the question ‘Whatever happened to the promise of global online learning?’

SBI Clerk Recruitment for 9633 vacancies now open: Know all about the process

NEW DELHI: The State Bank of India has released the notification for one of the much-awaited bank recruitment processes of this year.
The SBI's Central Recruitment & Promotion Department in a notification released on the official website has stated that the recruitment of Junior Associates (Customer Support and Sales) or Clerks in the bank is now open.

The SBI has opened a total of 9366 vacancies to fill the regular and backlog vacancies.

Registration Process

As per the information available, the online registration of application and payment of fees for SBI clerk recruitment will start from January 20, 2018. The last date to apply is February 10, 2018.

The SBI clerk preliminary examination is likely to be conducted in the month of March or April 2018. The SBI Clerk main examination will be conducted tentatively on May 12, 2018.

The candidates who wish to apply for SBI Clerk Recruitment process are advised to check SBI's official website bank.sbi/careers or sbi.co.in/careers to get more clarification and update.

Important Dates

• SBI clerk recruitment application starts on January 20, 2018
• SBI clerk recruitment application the last date is February 10, 2018
• Call letter for preliminary exams (tentative) March 1, 2018
• SBI clerk recruitment prelims exam (tentative) March/April 2018
• Call letter for main exams releases (tentative) April 26, 2018
• SBI clerk recruitment main exam (tentative) May 12, 2018

Eligibility

• Candidate allowed to apply for vacancies in one State only
• Candidate allowed to appear only once under this recruitment project
• Candidate should be proficient in reading, writing, speaking and understanding the specified opted local language of that State

Maulana Azad University students protest against fee hike

HYDERABAD: Students of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) protested and boycotted classes against fee hike for diploma, undergraduate and post-graduate courses for the ensuing academic year on Friday. The protest organised by the MANUU Students Union saw participation from hundreds of students from various departments.


Students raised slogans in front of the administration building with posters stating 'Say no to fee hike' and 'rollback fee hike' in their hands. Few students sat on hunger strike as they demanded the administration to roll back the fee hike. "The fee structure for all the courses has been enhancing by 20-30 percent. We condemn this attitude as the university administration doubled the fee structure during the academic year 2017-18. Several students will not be able to afford education if they increase the fee structure," said Tajamul Islam, a student and former president of the MANUU Students Union.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was established in 1985 by an Act of Parliament with the dual responsibilities of (i) enhancing access and equity to higher education through distance mode and (ii) promoting, coordinating and determining standards in open learning and distance education systems. Since then, the IGNOU has undergone rapid expansion and emerged as an international institution in the field of Open and Distance Learning. As per the provisions of the IGNOU Act, the University is to:

• offer of degree, diploma and certificate programmes related to the needs of employment as necessary for building the economy of the country;
• provide opportunities for higher education to a large cross-section of people, in particular the disadvantaged segments of society;
• promote acquisition and up-gradation of knowledge and offer opportunities for training retraining in the contests of innovation and research;
• encourage an innovative system of university level education, flexible and open with regard to methods and pace of learning, combination of courses, eligibility for enrolment, age of entry, conduct of examination and delivery of the programmes to encourage excellence; and
• coordinate, promote, assess and accredit institutions and programmes offered by open and distance learning system as also to prevent through such measures as are considered appropriate, institutions from offering sub-standard courses and programmes.

Department of Higher Education

Overview

The Department of Higher Education, MHRD, is responsible for the overall development of the basic infrastructure of Higher Education sector, both in terms of policy and planning. Under a planned development process, the Department looks after expansion of access and qualitative improvement in the Higher Education, through world class Universities, Colleges and other Institutions. The Vision, Mission, Objectives and Functions of the Department are as under:-

Higher education access rising but challenges lie ahead

Higher education access rising but challenges lie ahead

Shuriah Niazi13 January 2018 Issue No:488

The proportion of young people in higher education in India has risen to 25.2%, up from under 20% in 2010-11, with the country setting an ambitious goal of attaining a gross enrolment ratio, or GER, of 30% by 2020. 

There was a marginal increase of 0.7% in higher education participation in the past year, up from a GER of 24.5% in 2015-16, according to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education, or AISHE, for the year 2016-17 released by the government on 5 January.

The GER is the ratio of enrolment in higher education compared to the population of the eligible age group (18-23 years).

Total enrolment in 2016-17 is 35.7 million compared to 32.3 million in 2014-15 – an increase of 3.4 million students, making India’s higher education system among the largest in the world.

Students - (The Stake Holders) should be consulted before making the policy decisions

The students are real stake holders and are most affected due to change in the policies  in the education. The future policy decisions should be made in consultation with the real stake holders (The Students)  if we want to have in inclusive and democratic system that takes into the account specific needs, especially of vulnerable and marginalized group. 

Ruling cracks down on rogue distance or open courses

Ruling cracks down on rogue distance or open courses
Shuriah Niazi11 November 2017 Issue No:482

The Supreme Court of India has dealt a serious blow to deemed universities granting degrees that are delivered by distance or correspondence learning without first obtaining mandatory permission from the statutory bodies.

In a judgment on 3 November, the apex court judged that the institutions “flagrantly violated and entered into areas where they had no experience and started conducting courses through distance education systems illegally”.

The court suspended the engineering degrees awarded to students on distance courses between 2001 and 2005 by three deemed universities; and annulled degrees granted by those institutions after 2005.

It also issued a blanket restraint on all deemed universities obliging them not to carry on any course from the academic year 2018-19 “unless and until it is permissible to conduct such courses and specific permissions are granted by the concerned statutory authorities and the university campuses are individually inspected and found adequate by them”. 

Over 100 HE institutions bid for ‘world-class’ upgrade

Over 100 HE institutions bid for ‘world-class’ upgrade
Shuriah Niazi14 December 2017 Issue No:487


A total of 100 of India’s top universities and colleges are vying to be named 'institutions of eminence’ as part of the country’s higher education reforms to upgrade around 20 institutions into ‘world-class’ universities within the next 10 years. 

Seven Indian Institutes of Technology or IITs, Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Punjab University, the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, Jadavpur University in Kolkata, Goa University and Mangalore University, along with some of the Indian Institutes of Management and many central and state universities have joined the race for the 'institution of eminence’ tag, which will bring them greater financial and academic autonomy, according to a statement last week from the Human Resource Development Ministry.

OP Jindal Global University, Ashoka University, Manipal University and Amity University have applied from the private sector, out of six private institutions that applied by the 12 December deadline set by the ministry. 

The selected 20 institutions – 10 public and 10 private – likely to be finalised by March 2018 on the advice of an 'empowered expert committee', will have administrative, academic and financial freedom to decide their own fees structure and start new courses without the normal University Grants Commission or UGC controls, to match international standards of higher education.