Educational Development of North East Region Unit (EDNERU) -IGNOU

The Educational Development of North East Region Unit (EDNERU) , erstwhile North East Project (NEP), initially sanctioned in 2000 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development out of the Prime Minister’s non-lapsable funds, is established with the objective to create educational access and to equalize the opportunities of education and vocational training to the hitherto ‘unreached’ in the North East Region cutting across physical and geographical barriers.

Education not commodity, student not consumer: Consumer forum

NEW DELHI: A youth's plea against an institute for allegedly not providing him with an internship or job as promised at the time of admission, has been rejected by a consumer forum here which observed that "education is not a commodity".

A Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (West) rejected the plea of the youth who sought refund of the Rs 3.52 lakh fee paid by him to pursue PG Diploma in Event Management and Public Relations at a private institute here.

The complainant, a Noida resident, had also sought compensation of Rs 40,000 on account of mental pain and agony and deficiency in service from the institute and its Executive Director.

"The complainant took admission with the opposite party, an education institution for pursuing PG Diploma in event management and Public Relations on payment of requisite fee.

"The opposite parties (institute and Executive Director) are imparting education. Therefore as held by Supreme Court, National Commission and State Commission of Chandigarh consistently, education is not a commodity and they are not service providers and the complainant is not a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act," a forum bench headed by Presiding Officer R S Bagri said.
The forum accepted the assertion of the institute and its executive director that the complaint was not maintainable as the complainant "does not fall within the definition of consumer as provided under the Consumer Protection Act."

It observed that "education is not a commodity".

The bench, while deciding the matter, considered various verdicts of the Supreme Court, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission and a state commission, all of which had held that students are not consumers.

The youth had approached the consumer forum after he was refused a refund from the institute, which denied the allegations of any unfair trade practice.

Online training, summer camp part of Delhi govt's education action plan

Government school teachers will get an online "individualized learning platform" and during the vacations, sixth-grade students will attend summer camps run by willing school management committees this year. A mobile application for SMCs to report school issues on and training of nearly every group involved in the schooling process -- from administrators to local community -- are also in Delhi Government's action plan for education in 2016-17.

Over 25k British students to study in India: British Council director

Nagpur : In a refreshing change from the phenomenon of Indian students going abroad to pursue higher education, many overseas students expressing interest in coming to India for higher learning. According to British Council director for West Asia Sharon Memis, about 25,000 UK students would be coming for pursuing higher education in India in the coming years. "As per a pact inked between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and British PM David Cameron, there would be exchange of students and faculties. Moreover, over 1,000 UK graduates would provide training by India's leading infotech company TCS where they will sharpen their digital skills," she told media.

Memis was in the city in connection with an exhibition showcasing leading UK universities and offering their courses to local students. This year, about 18 universities are participating in the exhibition as compared to 12 of last year. These include Sussex, Middlesex, Leeds, Birmingham, Plymouth and others.

Praising Nagpur, the director said it was one of the fastest emerging cities in the country with vast number of students opting for higher education abroad. "This is the third year in a row that we're organizing the exhibition and response has been tremendous. Today, over 300 students visited our stalls where they were provided entire information along with other details like Visa. The city has high quality graduates with good command over English."

She added that the UK government spends a huge amount on education and offers about 130 scholarships worth 2.6 million GBP. "We're in talks with engineering colleges like Ramdeobaba, Raisoni and KITS Ramtek for a tie-up. We also have started UK-India Research Initiative and Newton Bhabha funds in the country. We will organize our second career summit in Mumbai on January 25, Delhi on January 30 and Bangalore on February 26. In this event, we invite multinationals and Indian companies to recruit Indian youths who pursued education from British universities," she said.

British Council announces scholarship for Indian students

The British Council has announced educational scholarships worth Rs 40 crore for Indian students who want to study in the UK.

The scholarships will cover a range of subjects from engineering, law, art and design to Information technology across more than 40 institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
An Education UK exhibition held at the Taj Coromandel here from 2 pm to 7 pm on February 6.

Apart from getting their queries addresses, students can also avail information regarding visas and scholarships and also take up aptitude tests and attend career seminars on different themes.
As many as 12,000 visas were issued for students last year.

The council said the quality of students had gone up in the last few years.

All universities must have grades, semesters, orders UGC

In a move that will benefit lakhs of students and impact over 400 universities across the country, the University Grants Commission has mandated the introduction of grading system from 2015-16. It has directed universities to standardize their examinations and follow a semester pattern in curriculum.

Currently, many universities follow the numerical marking system. The new move will provide wider options for students to learn and ensure their seamless mobility across institutions. The move comes following a meeting last week between state education ministers and HRD minister Smriti Irani.

Innovation in Education (Meeta Sengupta )

Many of our schools and colleges are still stuck in the industrial age – assembly line methods inform our pedagogy. Schools evolved from a need to feed the factories, bureaucracies and armies with people who could follow instructions and sustain repetitive processes. What was needed was a reliable part that would keep the machinery of the state or organization running smoothly. Schools responded to the needs of the employers of the day and trained students in performing task based activities, in stamina and in discipline. They learnt to respect hierarchies – which represented both power and aspiration.

UGC member protests against Commission’s 'misleading’ notice

NEW DELHI: University Grants Commission (UGC) member M M Ansari has protested against the Commission's public notice on courses offered by off campuses of universities as well as jurisdiction of varsities on the ground that its contents are "incorrect and misleading and therefore devoid of the spirit with which the UGC functions." 

130 MBA, MCA colleges surrender their quotas- TOI

Following a dull response from students, over 80 self-financed institutes offering MBA courses and 50 MCA colleges have surrendered their quotas to the Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC). ACPC has also received a proposal to close down a self-financed college offering MCA courses in north Gujarat.
For full report log on to : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/130-MBA-MCA-colleges-surrender-their-quotas/articleshow/21078439.cms

Comments by Author :

The Main Reason behind all this is  unplanned increase in seats without proper infrastructure and most important the trained faculty, due to lack of trained and good faculty we are not able to provide quality education to learners thus, the pass-outs of these courses does'not have market acceptability making courses are no attractive and viable. We must create good teachers and provide quality education to make these courses industry oriented

Distance Education Council

Distance Education Council shall provide academic guidelines to promote excellence,
encourage use of innovative technologies and approaches, enable convergence of all systems and sharing of resources through collaborative networking for access to sustainable
education, skill up gradation and training to all.

NOTICE REGARDING FAKE WEBSITES USING NAME OF IGNOU

It has come to notice that some mischievous persons are using fake websites in the name of IGNOU or are using IGNOU’s domain name in a misleading way to cheat the public/students by giving false and misleading information. Some of the websites, unauthorizedly, may even promise online admission to IGNOU programmes. One of the newspapers has also highlighted this issue for the knowledge and awareness of the public at large.

In view of the above, this is for the information of general public and one and all that the IGNOU maintains only one main Official Website under the URL Address: http://www.ignou.ac.in. Apart from this, all the Regional Centres across the country also maintain regional websites, URLs of which are available at the respective Contact Details under Regional Centres link on Home Page of above main IGNOU website. In case of any information, please contact the nearest Regional Centre of IGNOU.

IGNOU will not be responsible for any incident of cheating by any unscrupulous person or website.

New Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU

The President of India in his capacity as the visitor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has been pleased to appoint Prof. Mohd Aslam, Prof. School of Continuing Education, IGNOU as the Vice-Chancellor for the period of five years.

Prof. Aslam functioned as Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU from October, 2011 to July, 2012. Earlier he was Director, SOCE, at IGNOU since January, 2009. He is Professor of Rural Development, School of Continuing Education (SOCE), IGNOU since May, 1992 and served as Director , National Centre for Innovations in Distance Education, IGNOU from Dec, 2006-Feb., 2009 and also earlier as Director, SOCE, IGNOU from May 1998-May,2001.. He served as Director (Trg) at the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia & the Pacific based in Dhaka for 8 years.

About IGNOU Study Centre 0742 D

AL-Ameen is IGNOU Special Study Centre (Code -0742-D) since 1999 and is activated for the MCA, BCA, CIC, BDP, BPP, DAFE, CAFÉ and PGCCP Programme.

Centre is actively involved in promoting the IGNOU courses via local advertisement through hand Bills, Banners and Posters.

Apart from selling the Prospectus of IGNOU study centre also accepts the admission forms and later forwards them to regional centre on regular basis.

Study centre staff is fully trained to guide and assist the students in filling the admission and examination forms.

Centre also offers and encourage learners to fill the examination forms online in study centre itself.

Exhaustive internal assignments has been prepared for all practical subjects and a list of practical which the students are supposed to do in the labs is distributed to the students and also all the assignments are displayed Computer labs.

Students are strictly asked to follow the internal assignments and the teacher is asked to evaluate the assignments after the student shows