News and views about the Education in India

The week saw major initiatives for improvement of education infrastructure- PM offering to improve science education, the NE getting funding for education improvement, a ‘knowledge city’, a PIO university, more seats at Mumbai university and live telecast of IIT lectures. Jharkhand has interestingly started heritage tours for students and is also giving stipends to stop child marriages.

-Chillibreeze Business Research Team

Dentistry needs more 'teeth' for students
Kerala is facing an unusual crunch. Advances in dental science have reduced tooth extraction and as a result, dentistry students don't have enough 'teeth' for practical experiments!

Hundreds of students are on the waiting lists of dental clinics across the state to 'take possession of extracted teeth' for practical lessons.

Earlier, there was no demand for extracted teeth because the state had just three dental colleges, all managed by the government. But with the professional education sector opening up a few years ago, a dozen private dental colleges have mushroomed in the state now.
As a result, the intake of fresh students has shot up from 120 to nearly 900 every year.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 6, 2008

British NRI pledges Rs.5 mn for Punjab village school
London-based non-resident Indian (NRI) Raj Loomba Saturday announced that he would give a grant of Rs.5 million for the renovation and upkeep of a state-run school in his native village in Punjab. Reacting to his announcement at an NRI conference here, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal promised to give a matching grant of another Rs.5 million for the school in Dhilwan village of Kapurthala district.

Loomba is actively involved in welfare activities for widows and children in India and several other countries through The Loomba Trust. Badal urged NRIs assembled at the conference to contribute to provide better facilities for their own villages and those nearby.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 5, 2008

Everyone in this Kerala village has passed class IV
A Kerala village has become the first in the country where the entire population is educated at least till Class IV.
Nilambur panchayat (village council) in Malappuram district in north Kerala is the first village to have achieved the feat under a Kerala State Literacy Mission programme called Jyothirgamaya, aimed at spreading non-formal education in the state.

In January 2007, the mission conducted a survey and found out that nearly 1,608 people in the village - out of a population of 39,000 - had not passed Class 4. Of these nearly 900 were illiterates. With the Nilambur experiment a success, the mission is planning to replicate it in at least three other Kerala villages.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 5, 2008

Jharkhand students to go on heritage tours
The Jharkhand art and culture department will start heritage tours for schoolchildren to increase their awareness about the state.

The Art Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Department (ACSYAD) will select 60 students, who will be taken to heritage sites across the state. In the first phase, students will be shown sites around state capital

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 5, 2008

AMU cracks down on errant students
For the first time in its history, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has expelled 22 students for varying periods and imposed fine on 10 others, to send a message that there would be no compromise with discipline.

Last year, there were half a dozen incidents including murders, charges of rape, violence and demonstrations, which tarnished the image of the prestigious university. The disciplinary committee set up by the AMU vice chancellor investigated the charges against all the 32 named in various reports and announced the punishment on Thursday. The severity of the action has surprised many and sent shock waves among students groups.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 5, 2008

PIO university awaiting cabinet nod
The ministry of overseas Indian affairs is awaiting the approval of the union cabinet to set up a university for Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).

The ministry had in 2007 asked for trusts or societies to send their expression of interest for setting up the university. A committee made up of a vice-chancellor and secretaries of various ministries went through the 16-odd applicants, before finally forwarding its recommendation to the cabinet.

As per the guidelines framed by the Indian government, half the seats will be reserved for non-resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin. The other half will be for resident Indian students, where the existing government policy on reservation will be applicable.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 4, 2008

MCD school children to get 'robust' form of meal soon
Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) now seems to be conscious about the health of school children. In its recent plan, the MCD decided to revamp the mid-day meal scheme by introducing "robust" form of meal containing iron, protein and other micronutrients.

Source: www.indiaedunews.com
January 4, 2008

Haryana to set up mini 'knowledge city' at Hisar
The Government of Haryana has been continuously trying to upgrade the standard of education in the state. In its endeavour to provide quality technical education to students, the government has decided to set up a mini 'knowledge city' at Hisar.

Chief Minister Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced this while speaking at a meeting to review the progress of various technical and industrial training institutes in the state. Hooda said that the state government has decided to set up the knowledge city in the public-private participation mode. The city would provide professional job-oriented courses on leather technology, sugar technology, aeronautics, aircraft maintenance, metallurgy, paper and pulp technology, animation and graphics design, tourism, management, paramedical, bio technology and other emerging branches of technical education.

Source: www.indiaedunews.com
January 4, 2008

ASI, IIT-Kanpur join hands on scientific applications
To equip itself with scientific methods that can be used in archaeology, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kanpur-based Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Two of the projects for collaboration are terrain mapping and archaeo-scientific investigations of Ahichchhatra in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh in which various scientific applications like GPS, Total Station, GPR, GIS will be put into use.

Seismic retrofitting of ancient monuments is another area where they are working together.The other areas are: database management using various applications and custom-made software, laser scanning of ancient structures, antiquity identification system and analysis of various antiquities using non-destructive methodologies to know about ancient technology.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 4, 2008

India invests $208 million in northeast education infrastructure
The central government has launched an ambitious Rs.8.17-billion ($208 million) scheme to develop educational infrastructure in India's eight northeastern states, according to an official report.

'Of the Rs.8.166 billion, Rs.6.558 billion have been released so far for various educational projects in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura,' said an official report of the central human resource development (HRD) ministry.

The development plans in the northeast are centrally financed on the basis of 90 percent grant and 10 percent loan, the report said. 'In addition to that allocation, Rs.520 million was released to five universities located in the states of Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura for setting up of engineering and management faculties.'

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 4, 2008

With funding, MoUs, Cambridge woos Indian students
For those aspiring to study at Cambridge University, here's some good news. The university is planning to enhance scholarships, said Alison Richard, vice-chancellor of one of the largest universities in Britain.

The university is also signing memoranda of understanding (MoU) with various Indian universities to facilitate more exchange programmes so that more Indian students study at Cambridge, according to Richard. She is the first women vice-chancellor of the one of the oldest seats of learning in the world.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 3, 2008

IIT-Kanpur sets up centre for Environment Research
In a bid to enhance research on environmental pollution and to develop strategies to overcome global warming, the Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur (IIT-K) has established a centre for Environmental Science and Engineering in its campus.

The main objective of the centre is to focus on research on air and water pollution. However, there is a plan of introducing a specialized course in Environmental Science for B. Tech students.

Source: www.indiaedunews.com
January 3, 2008

50 percent more seats at Mumbai University
The varsity, in its recent initiative, has increased the number of seats by nearly 50 percent, thereby benefiting over 2.5 lakh students in all streams of education.

With 226 new institutions receiving affiliation certificates from the varsity, the number of seats on offer for the 2008-09 academic session is likely to go up by nearly 2.5 lakh. Furthermore, the intense competition for securing a seat in the colleges is also likely to diminish

Source: www.indiaedunews.com
January 3, 2008

PM offers help to revolutionise science education
Inaugurating the 95th Indian Science Congress (ISC) at the sprawling Andhra University campus in this coastal city, Singh called upon the academia and the scientific community to make 2008 the year of revitalising science education in India.

"I urge our science community to show us the way ahead. We need a quantum jump in science education and research. This agenda can no longer wait.

"I am aware that we need policy reform, institutional reform, organisational reform and more investment in science education," Singh told about 6,000 delegates from India and abroad participating in the five-day session. Making a personal commitment towards an affirmative action for rejuvenating science education, Singh said the time had come for action, as the nation could not afford to miss the bus or delay matters further.

Source: www.indiaedunews.com
January 3, 2008

Jharkhand giving stipends to prevent child marriage
Alarmed at the high rate of school dropouts by girls due to child marriages, the Jharkhand government plans to give stipends to schoolchildren only if the parents sign an undertaking that they will not marry their daughters off below 18.

According to a survey conducted by the human resources department (HRD), 80 percent of girls in the state are married before they pass the secondary school examination while 70 percent quit school midway.

According to the scheme to be introduced from the next academic year, parents have to sign the undertaking not to marry off their daughters to be eligible for the stipends announced by the state government.

The stipend for schoolgirls will be Rs.150 per month. The state government will open a bank account in the name of the student where the money will be deposited.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 3, 2008

IGNOU call centre proposed
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), one of the largest open universities in the world, is all set to establish its own call centre to answer to the queries of over 1.7 million students seeking courses through correspondence. The varsity's proposed call centre would be outsourced to a private company that would attend calls round the clock.

According to university sources, the call centre would deal with all kinds queries related to study materials, examination, admission and course details etc.

The university has also started an online grievance redressal system for students where they can send their feedback or register their grievances that the university officials address in a maximum period of three days.

Source: www.indiaedunews.com
January 2, 2008

Foundation laid for health institute in Andhra
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

The much-awaited government-run institute is coming up in Srikakulam, 650 km from here, in the backward north coastal Andhra region bordering Orissa.

The institute, which is being built at a cost of Rs.1.19 billion on an area of 36 acres, will have a three-storeyed 500-bed hospital, a medical college offering admission to 100 students and hostel buildings. The premises will also have residential quarters for staff and an auditorium.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 2, 2008

IIT starts live telecast of lectures
In a major initiative, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) Wednesday started telecasting its lectures free of cost to engineering colleges around the country.

'These lectures are being telecast live through EduSat. Students can avail real-time access to IIT-B tutoring and also interact with the resident faculty,.

So far, more than 100 engineering colleges have purchased receivers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to access IIT-B classrooms. On the first day, 34 colleges participated in the interactive sessions. The joint initiative of IIT-B and ISRO includes broadcasting regular lectures in 13 courses, including software engineering, computation fluid dynamics, embedded systems, instrumentation control and fibre optic communication.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
January 2, 2008

Blend east with west in Lucknow's cool Gurukul
A silent revolution is taking place in the heart of this city. A local school has revived the ancient gurukul system to teach students how to be model Indians in a globalised nation at a time when the country's education system is modelling itself on the west.

The Kanchi Kamakoti Shankaracharya Ved Evam Vedic Sanskar Shiksha Kendra, set up barely five years ago on a sprawling area in Indira Nagar here under the aegis of Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, has begun to show the results of the traditional gurukul system.

The first batch of its shishyas (disciples) will pass out and don the mantle of Vedic teachers. Five years of rigorous schedules conforming to the 'guru-shishya' tradition have given a different outlook to the little scholar, who not only recites Sanskrit shlokas from the Vedas, but also speaks fluent English.

Source: www.indiaenews.com
December 31, 2007