Education Community

Punjab will become a global hub of medical education, said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday after inspecting the site of a new medical college in the district. According to an official announcement, he stated that the medical college, which would be built on 20 acres of land at a cost of 428.69 crore, will be named after Guru Nanak Dev. The design has been finalised, and work on this huge project will begin soon, according to the chief minister. He stated that since a large number of students from various states will attend this college, a hostel facility as well as a 300-bed hospital will be built. The Punjab government has decided to build 16 medical colleges over the next five years, bringing the total number of such institutions in the state to 25, according to Mann. The foundation stone for the Sant Attar Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences in Sangrur’s Mastuana Sahib had already been set, and work on two medical colleges in Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur will begin soon, he said. Students wishing to continue medical education would no longer have to travel to nations such as Ukraine, according to the Punjab chief minister, because they will receive quality medical education here. He accused previous governments of not paying attention to medical education and claimed that the AAP government’s primary focus areas are health, education, power, and clean water. Mann reiterated that the state government is entirely dedicated to maintaining Punjab’s hard-won peace, and that strenuous measures are being taken to discourage gun culture, and that police personnel have been told not to spare anyone uttering hate speeches. Mann later visited the site of a future medical college in Hoshiarpur, which will be named after martyr Shaheed Udham Singh. He stated that the medical college will be built on around 23 acres of land at a total cost of 418.3 crore.

In a first-of-its-kind project in the country, as many as 240 government schools in Kerala will soon install weather stations, recording daily variations in weather conditions in the state. The project is part of an effort to train the next generation about climate change and how to take the required precautions in the wake of frequent natural disasters such as floods in the southern state. On Friday, General Education Minister V Sivankutty inaugurated the unique project at the district level in Kozhikode at the Kayanna Government Higher Secondary School. During the occasion, he stated that the General Education Department has already begun the process of installing weather monitoring stations in 240 schools around the state, which is a first-of-its-kind effort in the country. Students would gain firsthand experience and understanding of what they had learnt in weather textbooks through such centres. “Daily changes in atmospheric conditions will be monitored and recorded through the school weather stations. Thus, every child can be made a weather observer… the data collected will be used for further research,” he said. Each school weather station would include 13 instruments such as a rain gauge, thermometer, and weather data bank. Weather stations are being installed in 18 government higher secondary schools in Kozhikode, where geography is an optional subject. Children would record the amount of rain that fell in the area, the wind speed, and the atmospheric pressure in a special chart. The data gathered from the school weather stations would be recorded by the students themselves in a separate chart. The ministers also stated that special training would be provided to geography students and teachers as a part of the project.

Amazon India announced on Thursday that less than two years after its inception, it would discontinue its online learning platform for students in the country’s high schools starting in August 2023. The Amazon Academy platform was launched in January of last year to assist students in their JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) preparation. Those enrolled in the current academic session will receive a full refund, according to the e-commerce giant. The platform was introduced at a time when virtual learning was experiencing a boom due to the coronavirus pandemic. The JEE exam, which grants admission to the best engineering colleges in India, was one of the competitive exams for which Amazon Academy provided coaching. The largest online retailer in the world announced in a statement that it has determined to stop Amazon Academy “in a phased manner to take care of current customers” based on an assessment. Customers will get access to the entire course material online for an additional period of one year, or until October 2024, according to the company. For those preparing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), the company also partnered with the education group Sri Chaitanya to introduce full syllabus courses. The winding down comes as numerous edtech companies are struggling to keep up with the demand as schools and coaching facilities reopen across India following lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus. Byju’s, a key player in edtech, announced in October that it would layoff 2,500 employees as it works to become profitable. Earlier this year, layoffs were also announced by a number of other players, including Unacademy, Toppr, WhiteHat Jr., and Vedantu.

The All India Council for Technical Education’s new Chairman is T G Sitharam, the director of IIT Guwahati.  He will head AICTE for three years or until he is 65, whichever comes first, according to a government notification dated November 17. Sitharam will succeed UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar, who served as interim AICTE Chairman when Anil Sahasrabuddhe was released from his duties on September 1, 2021, after reaching the age of 65. His appointment coincides with the Ministry of Education wrapping up a Bill that aims to merge the AICTE and the University Grants Commission into a super regulator known as the Higher Education Commission of India. IIT Guwahati now has a vacancy as a result of Sitharam’s appointment because his term as Director was only supposed to end in July 2024. He was a Professor in the department of civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, prior to assuming the position of Director of IIT Guwahati. He has previously served as the chair professor for the IISc’s Department of Energy and Mechanical Sciences. His areas of interest in research include earth dams and tailing ponds, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and rock mechanics and engineering.

To advance innovation programmes for startups, Maruti Suzuki India and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay teamed together on Thursday. To broaden the scope of its innovation programmes for startups, the auto major said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay. According to the statement, SINE will assist in the outreach and incubation of potential startups that could participate in Maruti Suzuki’s innovation programmes as part of the three-year MoU. Maruti Suzuki and SINE will jointly shortlist startups for some of the challenging business issues the company has highlighted as part of the effort. Together, they will review applications and plan workshops with investors, mentors, and business leaders. “Our efforts to engage startups aligns with Prime Minister’s mantra of ‘Sabka Prayas’ to make India a global manufacturing hub. Our tie-up with IIT Bombay is an effort in this direction,” said Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India. SINE CEO Poyni Bhatt highlighted that Maruti Suzuki began its journey with a single vehicle, the Maruti 800, forty years ago, and that the company has since transformed the automotive industry. “As the industry is set to further grow, it brings many opportunities for budding startups. We are excited to partner with Maruti Suzuki and by leveraging our combined strengths, we are set to enable startups with innovative solutions to scale to the next level,” she added. Source: PTI

A year-long computer application training for underprivileged students in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban district has begun with up to 20 girls, according to an official on Tuesday. The course was launched by the Army. The project was envisioned in line with the government’s Skill India and Digital India campaign. It is a package that includes numerous computer skills and fundamental computer knowledge, including Windows operating system, MS Office, and Internet, the official added. The students taking the year-long “advance diploma in computer application” course, designed to empower women, will, according to him, have both practical and theoretical understanding of computers. According to the official, all successful students will receive the accreditation of “Advance Diploma in Computer Application.” The Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Banihal, Zaheer Abass Bhat, who interacted with the trainees alongside army officials, praised the Army’s efforts and asserted that computer education will provide the girls opportunities to become self-reliant. The completion of this course will provide students with options in both the sphere of further education and employment, according to Bhat. Source: PTI

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking for 2023 is now inviting applications, according to the Ministry of Education. On the official website, nirfindia.org, higher education institutions (HEIs) can register for the Indian rankings. Institutions can register for these rankings up to November 18 at 5 pm. Agriculture and Allied Sectors is the one new discipline that NIRF has included this year. The discipline of architecture has also been renamed to Architecture and Planning. There were just four categories last year: Overall, Colleges, Universities, and Research Institutions, along with seven topic areas: engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, and dental. IISc Bangalore placed top among all institutions in the research and institution category of the NIRF 2022 rankings, but second overall. The top spot in the overall ranking category was secured by IIT Madras. The National Law School of India University got first place in the law category. IIM Ahmedabad was recognised as the best management college at the time. A total of 670 institutions participated in the rankings last year, of which 387 had no published research. The institutes were graded using several criteria across various disciplines. Research and professional practise, graduation results, outreach, and inclusion are just a few of the criteria.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduates (NEET-PG), which is slated for April to May of 2023, may be the last of its kind because, according to officials, final-year MBBS students will now be admitted to PG medical programmes based on the results of the National Exit Test. The National Medical Commission (NMC) is believed to have informed the Union Health Ministry in a high-level meeting held on Monday that it aims to hold the National Exit Test (NExT) in December 2023, official sources stated on Wednesday. MBBS students from the 2019–2020 batch will be required to take the test if it’s held in December 2023. According to them, the exam’s results would also be used to determine admission for students in the 2024–2025 batch to postgraduate medical programmes. The NMC Act states that NExT will function as a common final-year MBBS qualifying exam, a licentiate exam for the practise of contemporary medicine, a merit-based admissions exam for postgraduate courses, and a screening exam for foreign medical graduates who wish to practise in India. The administration extended the deadline for conducting NExT until September 2024 by invoking the pertinent NMC Act provisions in September. Within three years of it going into effect, the commission was required by law to perform a common undergraduate final-year medical examination, known as NExT.  In September 2020, the Act became effective. The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences may conduct the test in place of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, according to the sources, although no decision has been made in this regard. Officials stated that in order to conduct NExT, preparations must be made, including developing the modalities, curriculum, type, and pattern of the exam. They also added that students must be given enough time to prepare. Before the main test, practise exams would need to be administered. According to officials, NExT is significant because it will be the same for everyone, regardless of where they received their training—in India or elsewhere in the world—and will thereby address the issue of mutual recognition for foreign medical graduates. Source: PTI

In order to maintain student interest in the school and ensure attendance, a government-run primary school in a village in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra has developed creative strategies. There are only 50 students and two teachers enrolled in the zilla parishad-run primary school in the Babuwadi-Chartha village. Nearly 45 kilometres separate the village’s location on a hill from the district office. The school, which serves students up to Class 5, has adopted a number of unique initiatives over the years to inculcate social responsibility in children, ensure that they take care of the school’s surroundings, and encourage them to do well in their studies. Children have grown to appreciate the school due of its initiatives, whether it is helping their teachers clean the school every morning, planting saplings, or enjoying “no bag” days. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted students’ study habits, according to the school’s headmaster Sudhir Tupe, who was speaking about the most recent “smile badge” initiative. To encourage children to complete their homework, the smile badge was launched. He added that a committee of students has been formed to examine the homework each day. Children who complete their homework win the badge and wear it during class. Every day at 9.30 am, school starts. To help teachers clean the premises, however, children arrive a half-hour early, according to Tupe, who spoke to PTI. ‘No bag’ days have been observed for the past four to five years in an effort to keep students interested in attending class. “On no-bag days, we do some gardening, yoga and other fun activities. This has helped improve attendance and children love to come to school because of it,” he said. According to Tupe, the school has also started a plantation programme to keep the area around the school green. Since 2013, we have planted over 60 saplings on the school grounds. Every day, students water the trees on their walk home after saving some water in their water bottles, according to Tupe. On the academic front, he said that 15 students have received scholarships since 2017, and three students from the school have been admitted to Navodaya Vidyalayas. The school’s initiatives, according to Zilla Parishad education officer Jayashree Chavan, were distinctive, and some of them were adopted by other schools in the district. Source: PTI

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s broader higher education policies are reflected in the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) today’s announcement of revised regulations for institutions that are deemed to be universities. Multidisciplinary institutions with at least five departments (either UG/ PG/ integrated/ research or a combination of these) or a cluster of institutions with at least five departments that are all located in the same city or town will be eligible to apply for Deemed University status under the revised regulations. The NAAC “A” grade with at least a 3.01 CGPA for three consecutive cycles, NBA accreditation for two-thirds of eligible programmes for three consecutive cycles, ranking in the top 50 of any given NIRF category for the previous three years continuously, or ranking in the top 100 of the overall NIRF ranking for the previous three years continuously, are additional requirements for eligibility. The “De Novo” category has been replaced with the “distinct institution” category, which exempts any institutes that qualify as “distinct” from having to adhere to NAAC requirements. In accordance with the new regulations, UGC, not the Ministry of Education (MoE), will henceforth approve any off-campus center(s). Deemed universities will now be able to create their own off-shore campus center(s), as long as they comply with UGC rules. It has been made clear, nonetheless, that admissions will be based on performance in the government-conducted entrance exam, and the fees will be set transparently while considering non-profit/non-commercial features. For any violations, a system of graded penalties has now been implemented. These include a public warning, a prohibition on expansion, and the shutdown of programmes, departments, or off-campus(es) locations. The status of considered university will be revoked in the event of continued violations.