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Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged society on Thursday to treat sons and daughters equally and to treat them as equals, claiming that if a society fails to recognise girls’ skills, it will never grow. PM Modi made these statements while responding to a question during a “Pariksha Pe Charcha” interaction with students, noting that things have evolved since a time when prejudice between males and girls was evident. In terms of new students, girls are expected to outnumber boys, he said, adding that every Indian may now be proud of the spirit and aspirations of girls. “Now, girls have become a big asset and strength for every family. The more this change occurs, the better it is,” he said. He noted that there was a time when many parents believed that their limited resources should be spent on sons so that they can take care of them later because they expected their daughters to not work and instead settle down in their in-laws’ house, but that while such a mindset still exists in some places, things have largely changed. In society, sons and daughters should be treated equally. “It’s a requirement of this era.” It is a requirement of every era,” the prime minister added, citing prominent female figures such as Ahilya Bai and Lakshmi Bai for their contributions to respective areas. He believes that equal opportunities for girls should be institutionalised, noting that they thrive in a variety of professions, from sports to science. He says that there are more women in parliament now than ever before, and that their numbers are growing in the police and security forces. He also says that girls consistently outperform boys in board exams. While women hold half of the elected panchayat seats in Gujarat, they have also been winning general seats, demonstrating society’s faith in their talents, he said. Modi also mentioned the enormous number of women working in the nursing and teaching areas, and joked that males might stage a rally demanding that their quotas be fixed. “If boys and girls are given an equal opportunity, then the latter may do better,” he said. According to the prime minister, he has witnessed daughters who do not marry in order to care for their parents, as well as parents who live in old age homes despite their sons leading a wonderful life away from them. Source: PTI

The Gujarat government notified the Gujarat Assembly on Monday that over 13,000 state-run primary schools lack computer laboratories. In response to a question from Congress MLA Ashvin Kotwal, state Education Minister Jitu Vaghani claimed in a written response that 13,818 elementary schools do not have computer labs. According to Vaghani’s data, the tribal-dominated Dahod district contains 1,024 such primary schools, followed by Mehsana (991), and Chhotaudepur (928). Patan 786, Kutch 739 and Mahisagar with 642. In reply, Vaghani stated that, rather than computer laboratories, the state government has decided to establish “smart classrooms” in schools as part of its “Gyankunj Project” to provide education using the latest technology. Source: PTI

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has urged public universities, colleges, and private universities to use the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) to enroll candidates to undergraduate programmes from the 2022-23 academic session onwards. Rajnish Jain, the UGC secretary, has written to all university and college vice-chancellors, directors, and principals, urging them to adopt CUET, for which the application window will be available from April 2 to April 30. For the time being, CUET has been mandated for the 45 central universities beginning in the upcoming academic year. Students will not have to take multiple admission tests if all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), regardless of affiliation, adopt the CUET, Jain stated in the letter. It will also provide students from other boards an equal chance, he noted. “Many state universities, deemed to be universities, private universities, and other Higher Education Institutions in the country also use either marks of 12th board or conduct entrance test for admission in UG programmes. To save students from appearing in multiple entrance examinations, conducted in different dates, sometimes coinciding with each other, and to also provide equal opportunity to all students from different boards, UGC invites and encourages all state universities, deemed to be universities, private universities and other HEIs to adopt and use CUET score from 2022-23 onwards for admissions of students in their UG programs,” mentions the UGC letter. Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which will conduct the CUET, published the broad instructions for the test on its website nta.ac.in on Sunday. The test is expected to take place in the first week of July. The test will be broken into four components based on the NCERT class 12 syllabus. Applicants in Sections I A and I B will be required to take language exams. Each segment will include 50 questions, with the candidate having to answer 40 of them. Section II will assess a candidate’s knowledge of core courses that they want to study in college. In the Section II paper, which will also be 45 minutes long, a candidate will have to answer 40 out of 50 questions. Section III of the CUET will be a general test for any undergraduate programme or programmes offered by universities that use a General Test for admission rather than accepting students based on their domain subject scores.