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The Pune Zilla Parishad in a first of-its-kind initiative has put a pro- posal before the central government to roll out the `Computers on wheels' project in the state. Having received the `in principle' approval, they are waiting for a formal approval now.

ZP CEO Sanjiv Kumar said that `Computers on wheels' will hire a bus with 16 computers and trainers and travel to schools in rural areas. "The children who have been deprived of computer learning will have access to computers through this medium," he said. With a budget demand of Rs 60 lakh, ZP wants to roll out the pro- ject in Purandar taluka before spreading out to the entire district and later state.

This initiative will help 32 children access computers at one time. "With the help of trainers, the students can get proper training," said Kumar.

The plan is to buy five old buses and modify it with necessary equipment. "We plan to get the buses from the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd," he said.

The proposal has been designed on the lines of Vidya Pratishthan's computer on wheels wherein they have an air conditioned mobile van that functions as a mobile classroom.

"The teachers travel in the van to different areas and impart knowledge to children. Basics of computers are also taught," said a primary teacher from Baramati. The mobile van from the Vidya Pratisthan also work for child nutrition.

"We have a fairly large number of colleges which have defaulted on the deadlines that were twice revised from the original December 31, 2009, to January 31 and February 28," said the samiti's office secretary P E Gaikwad while speaking to TOI on Friday.

"We are updating the list of such defaulting colleges and will forward the same to the competent authorities and the universities after taking the samiti's approval in a day or two," he added.

The academic year 2009-10 is nearing to an end and admissions that were effected at the beginning of the year are subject to approval by the Supreme Court mandated admissions regulatory committee, which is a quasi-judicial body headed by a retired high court justice. The approval is critical for the admitted students to move to their next year of studies besides to ensure that all colleges have followed the laid down procedures while effecting these admissions.

The decision to involve the competent authorities and the state universities was taken at the samiti's meeting held on February 24. It has since posted a notice on its official website. An elaborate list of approval status of admission proposals at the time of the samiti's meeting has also been posted on this website.

Source: Times Of India By Vishwas Kothari Panel seeks action against defaulting colleges

A statement issued by the board here said that this permission has been given as per a directive of the High Court.

The board has said that the calculators should be brought by the candidates. Mobile phone will not be allowed as a calculator, the statement said.

To begin with, scores of all the students will be released by Thursday. But each IIM will shortlist candidates and invite them for group discussion and personal interview only by the end of the month.

So, for thousands of top-scoring candidates looking to join the IIMs, the wait just got longer. As a faculty member at IIM-Ahmedabad said, "If a candidate is only looking at joining an IIM, s/he is not going to know which of the IIMs are going to give him/her a call immediately. The IIMs have decided to release the scores so that the admission process in other B-schools around the country can start." Close to 80 management institutes select students based on their performance in the CAT.

According to the previously announced schedule, the IIMs were to release the results in the third week of February. But that got pushed to the end of February. Management aspirants and other business schools have questioned the "inordinate" delay.

This year's CAT, which went online for the first time, was marred by several glitches and authorities were forced to take a retest a few days ago. So the delay in publication of results has come as a final indictment of the new system for a lot of candidates. Close to 2.41 lakh students took the entrance test this year.

Source: Times Of India By Hemali Chhapia IIMs revamp their selection process

Last year, the campus placements were hit due to the global meltdown and even some of the students who were selected were given joining letters very late as things were hard for the companies.
Director (industry academia collaboration) of MIT Engineering College, P Subrahmanyam said, "We have all the best possible companies recruiting students from our college and nearly 80% of the placements are done."

According to him, last year the college had registered a dip of about five to 10% in the companies visiting the college for the placements. "But this year things have changed. In fact, the students have the option of choosing companies that wish to join," he added.

Dean of Sinhgad Institute Jayprakash Pitambare said, "So far we have 75% of the placements in IT companies. In the placements for the core engineering branches, 20% of the students got good placements within the first few days. The bio-tech engineering course was started first in our college and this year we had companies scouting the campus for placements," he said.

Source: dnaindia.com Campus placements return to engg colleges

Both parents and students were confused about the online process last year and the online server could not bear the load of inquiries. The department is now planning to train school teachers in counselling students and parents and conduct the admissions through the governmentrun MKCL. Minister for School Education Balasaheb Thorat said students would be called for counselling once the secondary school examinations were over. "We have learnt lessons and made the necessary improve- ments. The MKCL, which had han- dled the admission process last year, will be handling the process this year also. They have increased their capa- bilities."

Last year, the colleges were allocated as per the subject and colleges chosen by students online. The department had claimed that the process meant less cost and travel for students, besides streamlining the process.

Students with any exam and curriculum-related difficulties can call on these helpline numbers. Those interested may call on the following numbers between 10 am and 6 pm for counselling during the exam period, said a press note.

• SS Shimpi, Fergusson College: 9404235141
  
• BD Garud, Abasaheb Garware College: 9404235142
  
• Ram Gaikwad, Nowrosjee Wadia College: 9404235143
  
• VP Jade, S P College: 9404235144
  
• Pandhare S, St Mira College: 9404235145 .

According to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), which con- ducts the examination, 7,54,929 boys and 5,45,620 girls would appear for the examina- tions at 1,946 examina- tion centres.

The board said in a press release that the max- imum number of students would appear for examinations in the art stream (5,36,034), followed by the science (3,68,361) and commerce (3,33,893) streams. As many as 62,261 students will appear in the minimum competency-based voca- tional courses (MCVC) category.

There will be multiple sets of question papers for English. For Environment Science, 40 marks will be allotted for project and 60 for the written exam. Students will have to score 14 marks in practicals and 21 marks in the written exam to pass in the sub- ject.

Students with dyslexia, dyscalculia and dys- graphia will be allowed to use calculator for subjects such as mathematics, book keeping and accounts. However, they will not be allowed to use calculators in mobile phones.

The board has formed 245 flying squads ¿ seven per district. The board members and government officials will pay surprise visits to the examination centres. Video shooting will also be initiated.

The Information Technology examination will be conducted online, for which 64,109 students have registered. The board has also come up with helplines for students. The helpline for Pune division is 020-2553 6712.

This will be the first NLS in the state against nine across the country. The university management council on Monday passed the draft of ordinance to start the NLS on its campus.

The school was scheduled to commence its courses from the last academic year. However, it didn't materialise due to technical reasons. Acting Vice-Chancellor Arun Adsool confirmed that the ordinance was passed and the school could start courses from the coming academic year.

The university had first initiated the plan to set up the NLS in 2006-07.

Budgetary provision of Rs 10 crore was made for construction of the building the same year. "An additional amount of Rs 2 crore has been allocated for the NLS in the budget of 2010-11 to be presented before the senate on March 25," he said. "The ordinance will be sent to the Governor for ratification and Bar Council of India for permission," he added.

According to dean of Law stream Suresh chandra Bhosale, the varsity is now planning to conduct a common law admission test. "We will have to plan it in March or April to match with the dates of the other nine law schools across the country. From next year there may be a common test for all the 10 institutes," he said. "It will be the responsibility of the estate department of the UoP to complete the interior of the building in next two months so that we can start conducting classes from June," he said.

Source: The Indian Express By Siddharth Kelkar National Law School looks likely this year

This year's CAT, which went online for the first time, was marked by several glitches and authorities were forced to take a retest a few days back. So the delay in publication of results has come as a final indictment of the new system for a lot of candidates. Close to 2.41 lakh students have taken the test that is a gateway to not just the IIMs but close to 80 other B-schools that select candidates on the basis of scores in this entrance test. ``Technology is supposed to fasten processes, not beat them down slow,'' said a student from Podar College who took the test this year.

The 33-year procedure of conducting the paper-pencil CAT was done away with this time and an online exam was held from November 27 to December 7. Several candidates had a harrowing time, with servers not being able to shoulder the large number of students who were logging in and computer screens going blank.

The IIMs later had to schedule a retest on January 30 and 31 for about 11,000 candidates who faced problems when the original exam was conducted.

After the state government gave the go ahead for implementing the policy, the Board had decided to pursue it for SSC students seeking admissions to junior colleges.

The Board had however given only a week's time to the public to register their suggestions and objections. The decision to extend the deadline follows demands by students' unions and parents.

As per the `best of five scheme', a student's top five scores will be considered while giving admission to junior colleges. The subject in which the student has scored the lowest will be ignored. "It is however mandatory for students to appear for all subjects and also score the minimum marks for passing in all subjects to avail the benefit of the scheme," the Board said in a statement.

Chief minister Ashok Chavan had given the go ahead for implementing the scheme on February 8.

Suggestions and objections in this regard can be sent by parents, students, educationists, teacher's associations and other segments of the society, the Board said in the statement. They can be e-mailed to best5@msbshse.ac.in or sent by post to the Secretary, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, S. no 832/A, Next to Balchitravani, Shivajinagar, Pune - 411004.

Around 1,500 teachers of various colleges affiliated to the University of Pune (UoP) who have not yet cleared the National or State Eligibility Test (NET/SET) will lose their jobs if they don't clear one of them before December 31, 2011. In other words, these teachers will have to clear either of these examinations within four bids to save their jobs.

The university had, last week, sent a letter to the principals of 600 affiliated colleges, asking them to remind the teachers working in their respective colleges to comply with the NET/SET eligibility norm. The letter has been sent against the backdrop of a government resolution (GR) on January 30.

The GR says that it is mandatory for college teachers to clear NET/SET in four attempts in two years, ending December 31, 2011. It refers to the letter written by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in July 2009 to all vice-chancellors regarding compliance of NET/SET by college teachers who are serving on an ad hoc basis. It also mentions that the move forms part of efforts to increase the quality of higher education.

The college teachers, on the other hand, are confused as the GR does not mention anything about pursuing PhD as per the UGC's new guidelines, which will exempt them from the NET/SET clause.

Source: The Indian Express By Siddharth Kelkar Eligibility exams or PhD? College teachers confused

Higher education director RV Kirdak told DNA that the universities in Maharashtra have been asked to update their syllabi and course contents, which have not been changed in the past 15 years.

"The universities used to make changes in one or two topics in the form of addition and deletion of topics to update the syllabus," he said.

This time, the directorate has asked universities to study the changes occurred in teaching methods and the developments in world education and research, especially in the past 10 to 15 years to update the syllabus and course contents, Kirdak said.

The universities have been ordered to form study groups of teachers or professors to study subjects being taught at the university level. "These study groups must sit together and examine the syllabus suggested by the University Grants' Commission (UGC) and syllabi of national universities in India. The study group must note down the syllabus and the changes in the contents of last 10 years," he said.

"We do not want an addition or a deletion of a few chapters from the existing syllabus but an entirely new syllabus," he said, adding that the universities have been asked to find out lacunae in the existing set of syllabi of various subjects and faculties.

The syllabus should be student-oriented. "The state government took the initiative and change in the syllabus is compulsory for the development of the students," he said. Kirdak added that no time frame has been set. The universities have been asked to execute the findings of the study as early as possible.

According to Milind Wagh of Forum Against Commercialisation of Education, the state government was supposed to come up with a final decision by January 25 on implementation of recommendations of Kumud Bansal Committee appointed to advise the government on a policy for regulating school fees.

"It was binding on the government as the High Court had set the deadline. The Bansal Committee had submitted the report in October last year and suggestions were invited till December 24," he said.

Jayant Jain of Forum for Fairness in Education alleged that the government was not serious on the issue. "There is a possibility that the government is protecting the interests of the school managements by not coming up with any decision," he said.

Wagh said the government was also supposed to talk to parents' bodies that had given suggestions on the Bansal Committee report, but has not yet invited anybody.

It may be recalled that the issue of incessant fee hike came to the fore last year when a reputed private English medium school in the city hiked its fees from Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 per annum. The 19-member Bansal Committee was appointed after this incident.

School Education Minister Balasaheb Thorat and director of secondary education Bhalchandra Desle were not available for comments.

Speaking to TOI, Hemant Darbari, programme co-ordinator, Advanced computing training school (ACTS), CDAC, said, "After a year-long recession, blue chip companies are once again back to recruitment. It's a positive sign and a sort of an assurance for students passing out from C-DAC."

The ACTS trains students in postgraduate diploma courses in Advanced computing, VLSI design, embedded systems (DESD), System software design (DSSD), Geoinformatics, Wireless and mobile computing, health informatics, and Information system and cyber security.

Darbari said over 500 students, from across 50 authorised training centres, including C-DAC's own centres at 10 locations, have enrolled for placements. "The companies have promised to recruit over 300 students passing out from C-DAC. The best part is that most of the leading companies will be participating in this year's recruitment process," Darbari said.

Source: Times Of India By Swati Shinde C-DAC sees revival of campus recruitment