Author name: admin

On April 22, 2022, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) will hold the national launch of the Dr. Ambedkar Centre of Excellence. Virendra Kumar, India’s Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, will inaugurate the centre. The centres are being opened to provide coaching to students from the scheduled caste (SC) for the Union Public Service Commission’s civil service examination (UPSC). The proposed centre will be established in 31 central universities across the country, including Banaras Hindu University. The launch ceremony will be held at the Shatabdi Krishi Prekshagrih, Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Vice-chancellors from all of the other universities where the centre will be established will also be present. The Dr Ambedkar Foundation and implementing universities will also sign two MoUs to establish the centres and Dr Ambedkar Chairs. Each centre will have 100 seats, with over 33% of the total sanctioned seats going to eligible female candidates from the scheduled caste (SC) category. In each centre, up to three faculty members will be appointed. Separate classrooms, a library, high-speed WiFi connectivity, and other necessary infrastructure are recommended for the centres’ smooth operation. Candidates must pass an entrance exam in order to be admitted to the centre and get coaching.

Skill-Lync, an engineering edtech startup, announced on Tuesday that it has built an in-house electric vehicle to help its students gain insights into the automotive industry’s future. The vehicle was created by a team of six in-house experts at Skill-Lync in collaboration with professionals from the country’s leading OEMs. The EV, which would be built over the course of nine months at a cost of approximately Rs 5 lakh, would provide students with practical knowledge of what goes into building an EV. The EV currently has a top speed of 45 kilometres per hour and a range of 40 kilometres. It has a five-person carrying capacity and can accelerate from zero to top speed in six seconds. “The automotive industry is undergoing significant change, which is being driven by sustainability and an increasing base of conscious consumers.” “Skill-Lync cofounder SuryaNarayanan PaneerSelvam said in a statement. “In addition to our coursework, we offer first-hand experience building an EV from the scratch, providing a holistic view of the automotive industry’s future.” The company stated that it intends to release a series of masterclass videos that will visually depict the EV building process, and that it aims to build more such EV prototypes.  “EVs are a major part of the global sustainable journey and there is a pronounced need for a new crop of automotive engineers that can design, develop, and test these vehicles that are built on newage, sophisticated systems,” Sarangarajan V Iyengar, cofounder, Skill-Lync, said.

According to Ministry of Education sources, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to return to the pre-pandemic single-exam format beginning with the next academic year, which means that the Class X and XII board exams will not be divided into two parts. For the 2021-22 academic year, the CBSE has instituted a bifurcated format with two terms: the Term-I board exams were held in November-December last year, while the Term-II exams will begin on April 26. It has been learned that the Term II exams will be weighted more heavily. Following the cancellation of board exams for the 2020-21 academic year due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the decision was made. Previous exam results, practical exams, and internal assessments were used to grade students. According to a senior official, the board decided to reinstate the single-exam pattern after hearing from schools. “The CBSE has never stated that the two-term exam format will be continued in the future.” It was a one-time formula. Now that schools are fully operational, the decision has been made to stick to the one-time exam format for the time being,” said the official. However, in terms of syllabus rationalisation, CBSE will stick to the policy it implemented over the last two years, which saw the syllabus reduced by 30%. “The NCERT will send us the rationalisation details, upon which an announcement will be made.” “The existing books can be used to teach the reduced syllabus in schools,” said the official. To “eliminate the high stakes aspect of board exams,” the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes allowing all students to take the board exams up to two times in an academic year — “one main examination and one for improvement.” “While Grades X and XII board exams will be continued, the current system of board and entrance examinations will be reformed to eliminate the need for coaching classes.” According to the NEP, board exams will be redesigned to encourage holistic development in order to reverse the harmful effects of the current assessment system.

On Tuesday, the University Grants Commission (UGC) announced that students will now be able to pursue two full-time academic programmes in physical mode. The commission has developed a set of guidelines in this regard, which are now available on the official website, ugc.ac.in. Previously, UGC regulations prohibited students from pursuing two full-time programmes, and they could only pursue one full-time degree in addition to online/short-term/diploma courses. The guidelines will apply to all programmes offered throughout the country. Students can select between a diploma programme and an undergraduate (UG) degree, two master’s programmes, or two bachelor’s programmes. If a student is eligible to pursue a postgraduate (PG) degree and also wishes to enrol in a bachelor’s degree in a different domain, he or she will be able to do so. The class times for both programmes must not overlap. “It was decided at the last commission meeting on March 31 to issue guidelines that will enable students to pursue two academic programmes simultaneously because the NEP 2020 emphasises the need to facilitate multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal education forms, in the sense that a combination of the physical model, as well as the online form, should be used to provide more freedom to the students to acquire multiple skills,” UGC chairman, Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said. Students will be able to pursue two degree programmes across domains such as sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and a wide range of disciplines under the new guidelines. Adopting these guidelines is optional for universities, and they can only be implemented with the approval of the universities’ governing bodies. The eligibility criteria for each programme will remain unchanged, and admissions will be made in accordance with current UGC and university norms. “A student can pursue two full-time academic programmes in the physical mode provided that in such cases, class timings for one programme do not overlap with the class timings of the other programme. Universities will have the flexibility to decide if they want to offer such a scheme of programmes or not. The guidelines will only be applicable to lecture-based courses, including undergraduate, postgraduate, and diploma programmes. MPhil and PhD programmes will not fall under the same scheme,” Kumar added. The change allows a student to enrol in not only two physical programmes at the same time, but also two academic programmes, one in full-time physical mode and the other in open and distance learning mode. They can also enrol in a physical programme at a university in addition to an online programme. Students can also pursue two online degrees simultaneously as a third option. Universities will have to develop attendance criteria for these courses because all academic programmes have minimum attendance requirements for students to be able to take exams. “UGC does not mandate any attendance requirements, and these are university policies,” Kumar added. “With the rapid increase in demand for high-quality higher education and the limitation of only enrolling about 3% of students on physical campuses, many developments in the fields of open and distance learning, as well as online education, have occurred.” Many universities now offer both offline and online programmes,” Kumar said, adding that the UGC will release revised regulations for online education in a few weeks, after which many top-tier institutes in India will begin offering online degrees.