UGC directs varsities to recognize CBSE's new subjects for admission

PUNE: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed all universities to take appropriate steps to recognize 13 new subjects introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at Stds XI and XII level for admissions to undergraduate courses.

"The CBSE has introduced various academic subjects at the senior secondary level. It is imperative that these subjects find a reflection in the subjects already being offered at the graduate level in various educational institutes," UGC deputy secretary Shakeel Ahmed stated in a letter sent to vice-chancellors of all universities on April 22.

Ahmed added, "It is important that appropriate consideration may be accorded while admitting students to the undergraduate courses at the college/university level."

A senior official at the University of Pune said, "The UGC's letter will be put up for consideration before the appropriate bodies, including the academic council, for a decision regarding implementation."

Sadhana Parashar, director of CBSE's academics, research and innovation wing, had earlier written to the UGC secretary that the 13 new subjects have been introduced as elective/optional subjects at the senior secondary level (Stds XI and XII).

"The scheme of studies for these new subjects is rigorous in nature and designed specially with the industry and employability avenues in mind," Parashar stated. For instance, the subjects can provide avenues in the legal profession, mass media, entrepreneurship, graphic design, creative writing and translation, theatre studies and biotechnology, among others.

While some of these subjects were introduced two to three years ago, others have been introduced at the Std XI level this year and will be a part of the Std XII board exam for the first time in 2015.

Parashar had stressed the need for these subjects to find a reflection in the courses offered at the undergraduate level in various departments, colleges, institutes and universities.

"This may be brought to the notice of all concerned institutes so that students face no difficulty when they pass out from Std XII. The information brochures, prospectuses, websites or any other form of communication may accommodate the names of these new academic subjects, so that students may be treated as eligible for admission to higher education as per their preferences," she stated.

The Subjects

* Knowledge tradition and practices of India

* Legal studies

* Human rights and gender studies

* National Cadet Corps

* Heritage crafts

* Graphic design

* Creative writing and translation studies

* Functional English

* Entrepreneurship

* Biotechnology

* Fashion Studies

* Mass media studies

Mumbai University papers clash after rejig of exam schedule for Lok Sabha polls

MUMBAI: The traumatic exam season for students of the University of Mumbai this year is far from over. With several exam dates rescheduled owing to the Lok Sabha election, the new dates are now clashing with other exams for the same set of students.

While the university is regularly making changes to the schedule and uploading it on its website, several students tend to not log on to the website during exams.

The latest victims of the series of rescheduling done by the university are the TYBA students pursuing psychology. TYBA students who will be appearing for the semester VI exams under the credit-based grading system have their abnormal psychology paper on the same day, April 22, as their semester V counselling paper for repeater students.

"There is complete chaos," a student from SIES College said. "The exams have been rescheduled already and the new dates released by the university clash with our ATKT paper. We have written to the university through our college. But the university is yet to clarify."

Adding to students' woes, the university website server was down on Thursday evening for a long time.

Controller of exams Padma Deshmukh said that she had received the complaint from a couple of individuals on Thursday. "If the dates are clashing, we will reschedule soon," Deshmukh said.

Several arts and science exams are overlapping with each other. With exams on election dates and training days affecting six exams, the university had to reschedule several exams. After rescheduling the exams, the new dates were clashing with other exams for students from the same course. Such exam dates were revised again. On Saturday, some of the TYBA regular students who are giving the exam under the credit-based grading system did not appear for the exam in the remote areas under the university's jurisdiction. "The university had rescheduled the dates for TYBA students under old course, but many regular students believed that their exam was rescheduled," a teacher said.

New IIT-Bhubaneswar director may be hired after poll results

BHUBANESWAR: An acting director is likely to be appointed for IIT Bhubaneswar (IITBBS) as a stop-gap arrangement after incumbent Madhusudan Chakraborty completes his five-year tenure on May 18, government sources said.

An officer in the Union ministry of human resources development (MHRD) said that since the model code of conduct is in force, the government would not go for appointment of another director at this juncture and in all probability wait for the new government to decide on the matter. "It is most likely that an acting director would be appointed. Either that, or Chakraborty will get an extension for a month or so," he said.

Even if the government publishes an advertisement now, aspirants will have 45 days to apply, far more time than the less than one month that Chakraborty has as director.

Sources said a five-member team comprising IITBBS former chairman and vice-chairman of Tata Steel B Muthuraman, IITBBS chairman and MD Vedanta Aluminum S S Roongta, chairman of the IIT council standing committee M M Sharma, MHRD additional secretary Amita Sharma and IIT Bombay former director Ashok Mishra had recently reviewed the performance of IITBBS and submitted a report to the ministry. They had not given a favourable report, the sources said.

Though the government is considering an extension for IIT Hyderabad director U B Desai, IIT Ropar director M K Surappa and IIT Gandhinagar director S K Jain, it is averse to giving a second term to IIT Patna director Anil Bhoumick (who is facing a vigilance case) and Chakraborty, the sources added.

The Union government is not considering another term to Chakraborty because it is not happy with the slow pace of work for the permanent campus of the institute at Aragul village on the outskirts of the city, sources said.

The campus is coming up on a 950-acre plot and had original an commissioning deadline of 2013. During his foundation day lecture on February 12, the IITBBS director had said that the institute would move to its new campus by July this year. While civil works for the hostels are complete, work for water, power supply and peripheral development are yet to be done.

Education has to go beyond textbooks, experts say

NEW DELHI: 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. 

Referring to a recent incident in the capital where a class 6 student was bullied by a group of schoolmates, Manika Sharma emphasised on the need to aim at holistic learning for overall development of a child. 

"As a teacher community, we always wonder what is plaguing the society. This is why we believe education has to go beyond schools and not restrict itself to reading," Sharma, director of the Shri Ram School, said at the conference "The Catalyst Conference: Igniting Leadership to End Sexual Violence". 

"We (our school) has been addressing this issue for many years because we believe society can better when educational institutes contribute. 

"We show movies, documentaries, have discussions and sessions with counsellors for our students," she said, adding these methods contribute in the overall development of a child. 

While many private institutions have adapted these new ways of teaching, Rukmini Banerji, director of Pratham - an NGO working towards providing quality education to the underprivileged children said 85 per cent of the children in India still go to government schools. 

"Government schools are not dealing with these subjects that can educate children about sex education, gender equality and leadership. Hence, we are not tackling the issue," Banerji said. 

"These teachers may be willing to touch upon these topics and discuss them with children, but at the policy level these school teachers are not given the opportunity," she added. 

Banerji also felt the need to take parents along with children on this ride. 

"We have realised that for most of these children studying in government schools, their parents have never been to school themselves. So, to empower children, we need to create a balance by educating parents as well," she said.

IAM to start MBA programme in fashion business

GURGAON: The Institute of Apparel Management (IAM) in Gurgaon is set to launch a new course, MBA in fashion business, on Friday. Prominent fashion designers, Rohit Bal and Ritu Beri, are expected to attend the event.

The institute is supported by the ministry of textiles and trains candidates apart from giving them hands-on experience in the apparel industry,

Directors of the institute say that the course is different from the fashion marketing and management courses taught in NIFT and other management institutes. The two-year MBA programme is a blend of both creative elements of fashion designing and those of business management required exclusively to run fashion industries.

Sumesh Singh, joint director of IAM, said, "The course aims to provide adequate thrust on design management to manage creative businesses, fashion marketing to build ability to market luxury products, and innovation and entrepreneurship to encourage new ideas and industries that can shape the growth and development of the fashion industry."

The course will also have specialized semesters, and during the programme, two meritorious students will be selected to get hands-on training from top designers in the industry.

The course fee for the entire course is Rs 6.5 lakh and the number of seats is 30.

Citing that the lifestyle industry across the globe has touched $4.3 trillion, Darlie O Koshy, director of the IAM and former director of National Institute of Design (NID), said, "Fashion has become the fastest growing industry in last few years. The fashion and textiles business has grown at the rate of 10-12% per annum with the exports sector doing extremely well of late."

"Sensing the growth of this industry, we realize that the apparel industry needs more than just general management graduates from IIMs and the likes. Having an understanding of the changing trends and to be able to scrutinize the history of the fashion industry in India and in the world at large is important to successfully manage a fashion brand. The IAM has therefore conceived an MBA programme in fashion business," said Koshy.

Gujarat Technological University tightens its exam norms

AHMEDABAD: Worried by the incidents of paper leak, the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) has put in place a set of stricter guidelines for the conduct of the examination beginning May 19. 

As part of this, it has decided to ban centres which do not have CCTV cameras installed. GTU has said that no college can be a centre where CCTV cameras are not there. 

It has also decided that the downloading and printing of the question papers will have to be done in the presence of senior staff members of the college concerned. The password for opening the question paper will be sent to the coordinator on his/her mobile and the same will have to be opened and then printed in the presence of several senior staff members. GTU officials said that the entire process should be videographed. 

Apart from the coordinator, no other staff member will be allowed to carry the mobile phone. The supervisor and the invigilator will not be allowed to carry their phones. 

The university has also made it compulsory that any student who gets out of the examination hall will have to mention his seat number, the time he leaves and the time he returns in the logbook. 

The university does not want to leave any chance where the question paper can be circulated on the social media.

Banaras Hindu University hosts meet on climate change

VARANASI: A two-day workshop on "Simulation modelling and climate change: Issues and challenges" organized by Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) began on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, RD Singh, director, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee said that adaptation to the climate change is really a big issue. Change of climate cannot be stopped. However, its impact can be minimised. "So adaptation to this change is required and we should do work in this regard," he said.

SK Das from IIT-Delhi explaining the necessity of water resource management said that increase in urbanization would lead to decrease in water recharge. The government should promote water recharge and monitor groundwater to avoid an extreme adverse situation.

Earler, institute director AS Raghuvanshi welcomed the participants. A panel discussion was also held.

Education New Zealand announces 15 scholarships for Indian students

Education New Zealand (ENZ) has announced 15 exclusive scholarships for students from India, who may apply by May 16. The Christchurch Educated Skills Scholarship programme, worth more than Rs 75 lakh, is targeted at Indian graduates wishing to study at postgraduate level in Christchurch in specific disciplines which are aligned to clearly identified skill shortage areas associated with the rebuild programme such as construction, engineering, ICT and science. 

In 2010, the Canterbury region was struck by a high-magnitude earthquake . Aftershocks continued into 2012 causing widespread damage particularly in Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city. The New Zealand government has invested more than Rs 200,000 crore to rebuild the city, which opens a range of education and employment opportunities in the region. 

The scholarships would be awarded in early June. The study period starts in August 2014 or March 2015. The initiative is a partnership between ENZ, Christchurch Educated and the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC). 

Ziena Jalil, regional director — South Asia, ENZ, said, "The scholarship will not only provide skill specific education to students but will also give them an opportunity to work on completion of their studies ." While David Shearer, workforce manager, CDC, said, "Due to the Canterbury rebuild programme, skilled people with appropriate qualifications will find exciting career prospects in the region." 

For further details, visit www.christchurcheducated .co.nz/learn/schoolscholarships /christchurcheducated-skills-scholarship-india-2014

'Going Global' conference in Miami to focus on higher education in large system countries

CHENNAI: Higher education policy makers from India will share the stage with renowned Swedish statistician Hans Rosling at a global roundtable conference in Miami, South Florida, this month.

The conference, to be held from April 29 to May 1, will be conducted by the British Council in collaboration with the planning commission of Miami city.

The annual conference -- 'Going Global' --- will discuss higher education in large system countries. More than 70 countries, including India, the UK, the US and China, will participate at the event.

The three-day conference aims at enhancing cooperation among countries to improve higher education.

It will help countries share experiences and strategies reforms in higher education.

Education secretary of the Union ministry of HRD Ashok Thakur, vice-chancellor of Delhi University Dinesh Singh, Planning Commission secretary Sindhushree Khullar and advisor for higher education at the Planning Commission Pawan Agarwal will represent India at the event.

95.47 pass percentage for SSLC in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A total of 4,42,678 students qualified for the higher studies in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination held in the state for the academic year 2013-14 in March. 

Out of the total 4,42,678 students who qualified for higher studies, 2,22,868 were boys, state education minister PK Abdu Rabb told reporters while announcing the result here on Wednesday. 

Total pass percentage stood at 95.47 per cent, registering an increase of 1.3 per cent than last 

New courses for retiring defence personnel's second career

KOLKATA: New courses including management programmes to assist defence personnel adopt a second career after retirement have been started by the directorate general of resettlement (DGR).

Maj Gen Amrik Singh, director general (resettlement) told senior army officials here today that a few new courses giving wider choice have been added this year with higher potential of employability including a 24-week management programme for officers. 

Singh said the best training courses commensurate with the demands of the growing corporate sector have been selected. 

DGR is a tri-service organisation that oversees and assists retiring servicemen adopt a second career with approximately 60,000 service personnel retiring every year at a comparatively young age. 

A majority of the retiring personnel are at an age where they had numerous unfinished domestic responsibilities necessitating a second career. 

"Based on the interface with the industry, demands of Service HQs, student feedback, DRZs and local inspecting units, we have taken a fresh look at our resettlement training programme and reviewed them to make it more environment and user-friendly," Maj Gen Singh said. 

During his visit to the city, he also interacted with nearly 50 armed forces personnel who are on the verge of retirement and currently undergoing professional training courses in areas such as mobile repairing, IT-enabled services and other entrepreneurial courses.

Private institutions welcome UGC order on new engineering colleges

COIMBATORE: Private engineering colleges have welcomed the direction of the University Grants Commission (UGC) which says that no new engineering colleges will be allowed to start in the coming academic year. With no more new seats and colleges to be permitted, existing institutions feel that they have a better chance to fill their seats. City colleges continue to struggle to fill seats forcing many such institutions to surrender their seats to the university.

College owners say that indiscriminate granting of permissions to start new institutions and increase seats in existing ones has caused this problem. When existing institutions were allowed to increase their intake, the leading institutions became the first choice for students, which left those with questionable reputation struggling to fill seats. The announcement of UGC has brought cheer among the institutions facing tough times.

T D Eswaramoorthy, the joint secretary of the Engineering Colleges affiliated to Anna University in Coimbatore says that for a while now, many colleges have been unable to fill seats. "Many institutions with 180 seats have surrendered 60 of them," he said. This is because having more seats is a financial strain on the college, especially if they are unable to get students. For every 15 students, there is supposed to be one teacher. Therefore, the teachers required for the excess students can be cut-down. Other expenses including laboratory facilities can also be minimized.

One college owner says that the existing trend is not encouraging for all. "Though we expect better times than the previous year, not many students are seeking admissions in the management stream," says the owner of a private college. The coming months will be crucial for them.

Over 49,000 clear state management CET exam

PUNE: As many as 49,252 candidates have cleared the state government's 'MBA/MMS CET 2014' - the qualifying examination for admissions to management degree courses in the state. The directorate of technical education (DTE) declared the results of the exam recently.

The DTE, who is the competent authority for the test, had initially scheduled the CET results for April 21, but released them on its website on April 8. "There is no change in the rest of the MBA/MMS admissions programme that has been posted on the DTE website: www.dtemaharashtra.gov.in/mba2014," S P Yavalkar, deputy director at the DTE Mumbai office, told TOI on Friday.

Northwestern, Bridge School join hands to offer certificate programme

NEW DELHI: Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies has entered into a joint venture with Bridge School of Management to offer blended online and in-person professional certificate programme in India. The first programme, in Predictive Business Analytics, will be launched this summer. Bridge School of Management is part of the group that publishes Hindustan Times and Mint newspapers. 

"At a time the Indian education marketplace is in great need of high-quality professional education programmes, the Northwestern and Bridge School initiative will combine online content developed and taught by Northwestern faculty with weekly in-person sessions led by local specialist faculty," a joint statement said.

Admission Committee for Professional Courses plans checks on management quota in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: In order to regulate the capitation fee in the management quota, the Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC) has decided to give management quota preference to all students in the state. The ACPC has decided that there would be an option in the form where the students can give preference for management quota at the time of applying.

This list will then be forwarded to the college managements to fill up their management quota. An ACPC official said that the having the option of management quota in the form will also give the local ACPC a clearer idea about the number of students wanting to take admission under management quota. The official said that the colleges will decide on the admission under the management quota but the selection of the student will be from the list which is sent to the colleges by the ACPC.

In the state about 75 per cent of the seat in the self-finance colleges are filled up by the admission through the ACPC while the remaining 25 per cent are filled directly by the management. These 25 per cent seats give colleges chance to charge capitation fee and even other forms of donation.

The college management are up in arms against the move and have in the meeting with the ACPC made it clear that the admission to the management quota is the right of the college management and the committee has not power to interfere.

No new engineering colleges this year, says UGC

CHENNAI: There will be no new engineering college or increase in seats in the existing engineering colleges in the coming academic year. The University Grants Commission made the decision this week, following its meeting in the last week of March. 

"AICTE reports showed that several seats were going vacant in engineering colleges, and the notification for the UGC (Affiliation of Colleges offering Technical Education by Universities) Regulations 2014 has not yet come, whereas according to a Supreme Court judgment, approvals have to be finalised by the end of April. So, there won't be enough time," said UGC vice-chairperson H Devaraj. He said as it is a new process universities and colleges may need some time to get familiar with it. 

UGC officials also said that they did not get too many inquiries for starting new colleges. "Colleges are seeing that many of their students are unemployed, so not many are expressing interest in starting new colleges. But a lot of people want to start new arts and science courses," Devaraj added. 

Earlier this month, Anna University officials said they expected a maximum of 10 new colleges to apply for approval this year, of which four or five were last year's applicants who did not meet some of the requirements in 2012. For these colleges it is a blow, as they will be letting their infrastructure lie unused for the second year now. 

The moratorium is good news for some relatively new colleges that did not see many students enrolling in their courses in the past few years, as existing tier 1 engineering colleges may not be able to accommodate more students this year. But some colleges that want to expand were disappointed with the move. 

"We applied for two new courses - mechatronics and biomedical engineering. Officials from Anna University had conducted the inspection, but our request has been stalled for a year," said Agni College of Technology principal S R R Senthilkumar. The college now has six courses. 

The Tamil Nadu government wrote to AICTE to stop issuing approvals to new colleges in the state in 2010, but the council turned down the request quoting the country's commitment to increasing the gross enrolment ratio. 

More than a lakh seats went vacant in 2013 in TN, and the situation was not much different in engineering colleges in many other parts of the country. Some academics said that at least 100 colleges were up for sale in Tamil Nadu, for want of students. Academics lauded UGC's move saying this would give colleges the much required breather to work on the quality of their courses and attract students.

For 100% result and reputation, many schools ask ‘weak’ students to leave

CHENNAI: To what extent would schools go to secure 100% results in the board examinations? 

Some institutions provide extra coaching for students and others conduct a series of practice tests. There are schools that provide special classes for stragglers to get them up to speed. 

But several schools — and this is no secret, even though they go out of their way to be discreet about the practice — make a list of students in Class 9 and Class 11 that they think could fail if allowed to take the board examinations the next year. The schools simply ask these students to leave immediately and join another school. 

A majority of these schools ask students who perform poorly in Class 9 and Class 11 to choose between repeating the class or leaving and joining another school with a pass certificate. 

A popular matriculation school in Adyar recently gave more than 10 students of Class 9 a choice: Repeat the class or leave with a 'pass certificate'. "Four of 14 students passed a retest but the others were given the option," a student of the class said. "It was sad to see some of my friends face such a tough situation." 

The school principal, however, denied detaining the students or asking them to leave. "We never fail students. We hold a retest for the poor performers and allow them to continue, even if they've only scored 20%," he said. 

Experts and academicians say more schools than ever before are now sending out poor performers a year before the board examinations, absolving themselves of their responsibility for the students as soon as they walk out of the school. School heads, like K Vasudevan, principal of Prince Matriculation Higher Secondary School, said the institution detains Class 9 students who fail in important subjects like mathematics, physics and chemistry. "It becomes very difficult for them to perform in Class 10," he said. 

According to education department rules, students cannot be detained till Class 8 or sent out while studying in Class 10 or Class 12, matriculation schools director R Pitchai said. However, Class 9 students don't have the privilege. It is close to impossible for parents to secure a Class 10 or Class 12 seat in a good private school, so the children end up in government or governmentaided schools. 

Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Graduate Teachers' Association state vice-president K G Baskaran, who is a teacher at a government-aided school in Kancheepuram, says as many as 20 of the 50 Class 10 students in our school have been cast away by private schools. He said schools do not show any compunction about asking children to leave in Class 9 even if they were students of the school since Class 1. 

"It would be better for schools to take action at an early stage and help poor performers improve or counsel parents and change schools well before the end of Class 9," Baskaran said.

UP Technical University finds unique a way to check impersonation

LUCKNOW: Learning lessons from last year's large-scale impersonation, UP Technical University (UPTU) has introduced some changes in the state entrance examination-2014 for admissions to technical colleges. Candidates appearing for the exam will have to write two to three sentences in their own handwriting on the first page of the question paper booklet. Since exam is objective type, there was no proof of whether the applicant and the examinee were the same. 

Another major change is in the admit cards. Officials said this year, admit card will have two columns for candidate's signature and their thumb impression. All candidates can download their admit card. 

In one column, candidates signature and thumb impression will be scanned from their application forms. In the second column, candidates will have to fill in signature and thumb impression in front of the invigilator while taking the exam. 

There will be two columns for the candidate's photograph. While one column will have a scanned copy, the candidate will have to put a colour photograph to be attested by a gazetted officer or the head of the institution last attended by the candidate. 

The admit card will also have a barcode printed on it to ensure no proxy candidate takes the exam.

New PhD programme

A PhD programme to boost quality research was launched last week. The Intel PhD sponsorship programme is being supported by the government of India. 

"There is a need to shift the focus to innovation and IT creation. This programme encourages research, which is the need of the hour both for Intel and India" says Kumud Srinivasan, president , Intel India. 

The programme will provide research opportunities for students in cutting-edge technology as well as provide a platform for sharing industry knowledge and mentoring from senior technology leaders at Intel through industry fellowships, research travel grants and contingency grants to the selected students. 

"We have identified different areas of research — parallel computing , architecture, graphics, sensing, validation , power management , perceptual computing , communication — and the applications will be evaluated on these areas. Professors will nominate students. As of now, we have targeted 20 institutes which can participate in the programme. The idea is to accelerate the rate of innovation in these institutes that we have chosen," she said.

Lucknow University to begin its admission process in mid-May

LUCKNOW: Lucknow University will begin its admission process for undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD simultaneously in the middle of May.

All admissions will be closed by July 15 for UG courses while PG and PhD admissions will end by July 31. In associated colleges, UG admissions will close by August 31 and last date for PG admissions is September 30.

The application process for UG will begin 15 days after the declaration of class XII results. For PG, admissions will begin 15 days after UG results are out. The admission coordinator for UG is Praveen Naggar whereas PG admissions will be convened by Kamaluddin. PhD admissions will be supervised by Amita Bajpai.

For admission to both the university and colleges, a combined form for admission, enrollment and examination will have to be filled up. "We will strive to get information from colleges online," said SB Nimse, the university's vice-chancellor.

No direct admission for JRF candidates

The admission committee on Friday ended the option of direct admission for candidates with junior research fellowships (JRF) to PhD. Both JRF and non-JRF students will now have to appear for tests. Admissions will be on merit only. Earlier, JRF candidates were exempted from taking the test and given preference in admissions. The remaining seats would be open to non-JRF candidates.

VIT to open new university near Bangalore in 2015

CHENNAI: VIT University will soon open a private university near Bangalore in Karnataka. The new university, which will initially offer BTech courses, will start functioning in the academic year 2015-16. 

"The state has passed legislation required and we are now constructing the university. We are confident of setting up the facilities in a year," university chancellor G Viswanathan told reporters on Thursday. 

Around 1.94 lakh candidates from across the country and overseas have registered for the VIT Engineering Entrance Exam this year. They will be competing for 4,100 BTech seats. Close to 1.66 lakh students took the test last year. 

The candidates will take the exam at 137 centres in 112 Indian cities and in Kuwait and Dubai. Andhra Pradesh accounts for the most candidates, with 37,298. It is followed by Uttar Pradesh (28,337), Bihar (18,861), Maharashtra (14,801) and Rajasthan (12,839). In Tamil Nadu, 12,555 students have applied to take the exam . 

"TN students are apprehensive about taking competitive entrance exams. Fewer students from here take the exam than from other states. The candidates from TN are mostly CBSE students and most are from Chennai," Viswanathan said. The computer-based test will be held from April 9 to 20, and the results will be announced on or before April 28 on various websites, including www.vit.ac.in. Counselling will begin from May 19 to 22. 

The university offers 100% fee waiver for central and state board toppers. The top 50 in VITEEE will receive a 75% fee waiver, and the next 50 will get a 50% waiver. The university will offer a 25% waiver for those placed between 101 and 1,000 in the exam. 

Under the Support The Advancement of Rural Students programme, the university will offer a 100% fee waiver to government school Class 12 toppers from rural areas in each TN district who do the best in the entrance test.

Maulana Azad National Urdu University mulls centre for religious studies

HYDERABAD: The Maulana Azad National Urdu University (Manuu) is planning to set up a Deeni Taleemi Markaz or the Centre for Religious Studies in the city with a view to developing "moderate and balanced" leadership among students in various fields.

The central varsity, which has developed a concept note on the project, held a workshop on its campus on Wednesday which saw the participation of noted educationist P A Inamdar. "Given the deterioration in the traditional value system I am confident that the University Grants Commission would endorse the idea of the centre," vice-chancellor Mohammed Miyan told the participants at the workshop.

The concept note pointed out that due to the tremendous decline in the fundamental human values in modern times, the deprived and vulnerable sections such as women, senior citizens and children are being subjected to violence and exploitation.

Against this background a Supreme Court judgment of 2002 had asked for the inclusion of teachings from religions and basic human values in the education system, the note explained.

The mission of the new centre will be to remove lacunae in the education system and curricula and help in creating a social order with high human values. The tradition of peaceful co-existence and communal harmony should be inculcated in students and help them take up leadership in religion, education and society in general.

The objectives of the centre include strengthening and promoting the composite culture of India and help students from religious schools and other non-traditional institutions to join the national mainstream.

Ahmedullah Khan, former dean of School of Law, Osmania University, spoke about the 2002 SC verdict and said that it provided a good base on which the centre could be started. Khaja Shahed, pro-VC of Manuu, said with suggestions from experts and support from the government the university will be able to open the centre soon.

Singapore's methods inspire Maharashtra education board

PUNE: Arithmetic, in most state board schools, is taught by the paper-and-pen method. However, the scene may change as the board is contemplating a move to adopt some of Singapore's teaching and learning methods.

Primary school children in the island nation solve mathematical problems in a concrete, pictorial and abstract process. First, they get hands-on training with chips and dice, then they move to a pictorial representation of mathematical concepts and in the third step to numbers and symbols for solving problems.

Minister of state for education Fauzia Khan and other officials of the state education department were in Singapore recently to study the country's education system.

Khan told TOI, "Their education system lays emphasis on building and strengthening the fundamentals of mathematics and language at the primary level. They make sure that students learn through experience. The stress is on creativity and physical education."

So impressed was the team that the state education department issued a government resolution on March 5, stating that 20 officials will be sent to Singapore in two batches to see how primary education is imparted there.

Khan said 40-minute physical education sessions are planned minute-by-minute. "Here, physical education often means taking students to the playground. I was impressed with the teacher recruitment process too. They recruit candidates and train them to teach. We have teachers with degrees who are recruited to teach in schools," she added.

She said adopting some techniques may not even need policy decisions. "The structure of a physical education class can be replicated and may not need any permission from the government. However, decisions like teachers' training and creativity classes, will need government intervention," Khan said.

School education secretary Ashwini Bhide said, "Government officials who go to Singapore will see one of the best education systems. As of now, the emphasis is not on adopt a particular education system, but to expose them to other systems." Bhide said the state government may consider a similar study tour of Israel

Education experts said a conducive environment in consultation with principals and teachers was necessary for any change.