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Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Award, Dr. Pritam Singh Best Teacher Award granted to outstanding faculty members, Chhatra Vishwakarma Award to innovative students and Clean and Smart Campus Award to sustainable, eco friendly AICTE approved Institutions. Awards conferred on outstanding faculty members and innovative students by Union Minister of Education. New Delhi 05 Sep 2021. AICTE has instituted Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Award, Dr. Pritam Singh Best Teacher Award, Chhatra Vishwakarma Award and Clean and Smart Campus Award. These awards have been introduced by AICTE to identify and felicitate extraordinary teachers, recognize their excellence, best practices, innovativeness and creativity among students and environmental sensitivity among institutions. Union Minister of Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan along with Minister of State for Education, Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh conferred AICTE- Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Award to 17 faculty members in Engineering and Technology whereas 3 faculty members were awarded the AICTE-Dr. Pritam Singh Best Teacher Award in Management Education. The Minister interacted with all the awardees and appreciated their contribution to the society. While visiting the displayed projects of students, he admired the innovativeness and efforts of winning teams of Chhatra Vishwakarma Award and expressed confidence in India’s bright future. Highlighting the AICTE’s Visvesvaraya Best Teacher Award and Dr. Pritam Singh Award 2021, the Minister said that the aim is to honour meritorious faculties and encourage them to update themselves to the ever changing needs of higher education at global level and thereby becoming an effective contributor to the knowledge society. Dr. Pritam Singh Best Teacher Award introduced this year only; is conferred on the faculty members for demonstrating teaching excellence and institutional leadership in management education. He said, “For centuries our destiny was not in our hands. But as we complete 75 Years of Independence, the citizens finally have the will to shape India. The new National Education Policy is expected to revolutionize the educational sector in India and lay the path for the next 25 years as per the Vision 2047 of Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji. The education has to make each one of us more responsible and become Global Citizen. For this I would like to congratulate AICTE for instituting these 4 awards. Apart from recognizing the efforts of the Teachers, these awards have also brought the spark for innovation. The Minister also acknowledged Council’s innovative schemes for students, faculty members and infrastructure development in institutions, such as ATAL, NITTT, IDEA Lab, PRAGATI Scholarship Scheme for girl students, SAKSHAM Scholarship scheme for Specially-Abled students, SANATH schemes for empowering students such as Orphan, Either or both parents died due to Covid-19, Wards of Armed Forces and Central Paramilitary Forces martyred in action; CAFES scheme for construction of Hostel for students and MODROB schemes for modernization of Laboratories. Schemes like PMSSS reach out to students in Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh. Innovation Ambassador Programme’ will lay the seeds of innovations in young minds. He congratulated AICTE for providing engineering courses in 11 regional languages, technical book writing in regional languages, pioneering ATAL academy and more than 6 lakh internships to students through its portal. AICTE is taking various steps to support entrepreneurship and a burgeoning culture of innovation. AICTE- Chhatra Vishwakarma Award is one such initiative. These Awards are inspired by the spirit of engineering and creation patronized by Lord Vishwakarma, the ruling deity of construction practices in India. The awards are thus a means to provide a platform for our students to look at the societal challenges, with an aim to provide innovative and low-cost solutions. This year again, the council announced the Chhatra Vishwakarma Award 2020, with the theme of “INDIA’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY POST COVID: Reverse migration and rehabilitation plan to support “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. 24 teams of students have been awarded and their prize winning models were exhibited in AICTE. Students have developed very useful and creative solutions for various socio-economic issues.  The zeal, enthusiasm, innovativeness and hard work of these students will make India a focal point to generate innovative ideas in the near future. Clean and Smart Campus Award, 2020 has also been conferred to selected technical institutes. The award aims to seek engagement with all stakeholders, primarily the student community, to draw their attention towards the immense scope and potential that the technology offers on abstract objectives such as cleanliness, sustainability and environment etc. in line with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Winning institutions have displayed great concern and commitment for the environment. All institutions must align their activities with sustainable, clean, and green environmental Policy. Huge response was received for all the awards. The proposals were shortlisted on rigorous, holistic evaluation criteria by a constituted committee of distinguished academicians/experts who evaluated the participants on various parameters of teaching effectiveness, innovativeness & research, academic leadership and community outreach. Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Education, Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh motivated the students & all other stakeholders. He said “I hope this kind of encouragement will impact the different teaching communities in the group, which will motivate them to impart impeccable education to students.” Shri Amit Khare, Secretary, Ministry of Education said, “On this teacher’s day, I hereby convey my wishes to the entire teaching community in India on behalf of myself and the Ministry of Education. Even though we remember our teachers for our whole life, today is a special day as it is the birthdate of our Honorable Former President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.” Chairman, AICTE, Prof. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Vice Chairman, AICTE, Prof. MP Poonia and Member Secretary, AICTE Prof. Rajive Kumar also complimented the awardees during the event and highlighted the importance of teachers in nation building.

On one side where after a huge gap and concern, many states have decided to reopen their school with maximum precautions, the Maharashtra government is far away from taking such a step. Providing more details regarding the reopening of schools in Maharashtra, Varsha Gaikwad said new SOPs and school reopening guidelines are yet to be discussed. She further added that an expert panel which was set up by the government to advise on the reopening of schools has suggested some more changes. As of now, the Maharashtra government has no such plans of reopening the schools in urban areas. This announcement related to postponing the reopening of schools in Maharashtra came after meeting with the pediatric task force to discuss the matter of reopening of schools. The state education minister said, there will be one more meeting held on this matter and then the proposal will be sent to CM. The final decision regarding the reopening of schools will be made by CM. The decision not opening schools in Maharashtra is due to the fear of the Covid-19 third wave. Maharashtra was one of the worst-hit states in the first as well as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The government does not wish to take any casual steps to make the situation more critical. Source: India.com

Thiruvananthapuram: Amid rising new cases, adding to the total cases of COVID-19 in India, most of the cases are pouring in from Kerala. In a meeting called by CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday, many international experts in the meeting were of the opinion that schools must reopen, especially primary schools in the state. Speaking to IANS, veteran virologist T. Jacob John who took part in the meeting said that most of the international experts in the meeting from different parts of the world proposed reopening of schools. “The general opinion was, it is time that the primary schools are opened because there is no major issue if a 15-year-old child misses an year of school, but it’s not the same if a toddler who gets ready to begin his education, as any impediment in the cognitive development in the first part of a child’s education career can cause trouble,” said John, a winner of the prestigious Dr B.C. Roy award. “Moreover today kids and children are presently locked up in homes and while at home none wears a mask, but when in school or outside, all wear masks. Risk is the lowest at primary schools,” added John. On Thursday, State Education Minister V. Sivankutty said opening up of the education sector is being planned. “We will soon appoint an expert committee to study various aspects of it and then a final decision will be taken by the Chief Minister,” said Sivankutty.Source: IANS, Times of India, Deccan Herald