CLAT 2020 now in September, check new dates

 The Consortium of National Law Universities will hold the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 on September 7. It was scheduled to be conducted in May and has been postponed several times since then due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the CLAT was held on May 26 and the result was announced in June.

Recently, it was scheduled to be held in August and last week the same was postponed till further notice. As per the latest notice by the authorities, the exam will now be held on September 7.

CLAT is an entrance-level exam for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate law courses. It is a national level exam and also a gateway to National Law Universities (NLUs). Every year, thousands of students appear for the exam. The NLUs were also mulling the option of holding the exam from home in a proctor-based mode, however, no final decision on it is out yet. The case was in court.

Other undergraduate-level law entrance exams include the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET), LSAT India, ULSAT by UPES and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) conducts UET. Due to the pandemic, the LSAT India has been moved online.

CLAT is a two-hour exam where candidates are to solve 150 questions. Those who score at least 40 per cent marks are considered to be pass in the exam and eligible for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate level courses. For reserved category candidates, the cut-off is 35 per cent, as per rules.

The pandemic has shifted the entire academic cycle. While classes for schools are being held digitally the new session for colleges is yet to begin. Admissions and entrance -exams across streams are put at a halt due to the pandemic.

Delhi Govt Schools Will Have Freedom to Choose CBSE, ICSE Boards, Says Manish Sisodia

Following the recommendations of the National Education Policy, recently released by the education ministry, Delhi school education is up for big changes, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said. By next year, Delhi will get its own education board, the minister said. However, the Board will not be an imposition on government schools. 

Giving details of plans for setting up the state education board, Sisodia said the board will be in sync with the reforms proposed in the new National Education Policy (NEP) and the focus will be on continuous evaluation and not year-end exams. Also Read - 'His Decision Against Govt's Guidelines', Sisodia Writes to HM After L-G Turns Down AAP's Unlock 3 Move

“We have recently set up two committees for working on the proposed board as well as curriculum reforms. An ideal situation would be that we make it operational by next year. Initially, around 40 schools will be affiliated to the board, which could be either government or private,” Sisodia told PTI in an interview. 

“What happens in other state boards is that the private schools are free to make their choice whether they want to opt for CBSE, ICSE or state board, while government schools follow the state board. We will have no imposition. It will be optional for both government and private schools. We want to make the board so enriching and useful, that there is a demand for it,” he added.

The Delhi government had last month constituted two committees to prepare the scheme and framework for the formation of the state education Board and curriculum reforms.

The AAP dispensation had announced the plan to set up a separate board of education for the national capital in its annual budget in March.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s Education Minister, said his government is studying the recently announced new education policy in detail.

“We are studying the policy in detail. We have already been working on some of the reforms proposed in it. There are a few anomalies but there are a few good things too. I have told the two committees that our board will be in sync with the NEP because as a nation we are together but the focus will not be on evaluating students once a year and encouraging rote learning in the process,” he said.

(With PTI Inputs)

Will schools, educational institutions reopen in India from September 1? Here's the latest update

 

A phase-wise plan to reopen schools and educational institutes across the country, between September 1 and November 14, is expected to be unveiled by the central government later this month as part of final Unlock guidelines. 

The schools and educational institutes across the country are closed since March 23, when the first lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic was put in-place. Ever since, the teaching and learning activities are relying on online modes, whose success has been limited because of the uneven availability of smart-devices, specifically in the country’s hinterland.

According to a report in Economic Times, the specifics of the plan have been formulated by the group of secretaries associated with the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 management, which is being headed by Health Minister and Member of Parliament from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, Dr Harsh Vardhan.

The report quoting its sources said that central government will simply issue Broad Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) as for the opening of schools and educational institutions, with the final decision left to the respective state governments so as to decide when and how to restart the classroom teaching.

What does the Centre’s formulation of opening schools and educational institutes say?

It suggests that for the first fifteen days of the opening of schools, Class 10 and Class 12 students will be asked and guided to attend the school. Afterwards, the students of Class 6 to 9 will be brought back to the classrooms with restricted hours.

However, all sections of one class will not attend the school on the same day. Different sections of a class will have specific days assigned as for attending the schools.

The emphasis on the sanitisation of the classrooms remains the biggest highlight of the Centre’s formulation. Schools will be told to work in shifts – 8 to 11 AM and 12 to 3 PM – with an hour left for the sanitisation. So far there is no plan to bring the primary and pre-primary students back to the classrooms, and they will continue to be taught via online modes, The Economic Times reported.

The government officials have studied the countries such as Switzerland have brought back the students to classrooms, and the formulation has been designed on similar lines as for the classroom teaching of Indian students.

Meet former Miss India finalist who cracked UPSC Civil Services, CAT 2017

Twenty-three-year-old Aishwarya Sheoran has cracked the prestigious Civil Services examination 2019 in her first attempt. While she got rank 93, what sets her apart from the rest of the UPSC candidates is her brief stint in the modelling world. At 18, she was a Femina Miss India 2016 finalist and an alumnus of country’s top college Sri Ram College of Commerce. Not just aspirants but many IAS officers are lauding her for breaking the ‘stereotype against beautiful women’.

“I always wanted to be a civil servant. I did modelling as a hobby. At that age, I wanted to explore so many things. I was the head girl in my school and, in college too, I was an active member of the debate society and participated in the social service, et al. In the beauty contest, I was noticed by prominent designers like Manish Malhotra who encouraged me to participate in fashion shows. Once I returned to Delhi, I was flooded with offers. The thrill of walking on the ramp kept me going for over a year-and-half. However, as I am a nerd, I wanted to return to my first love — academics,” remarked Sheoran.

Hailing from Rajasthan, Sheoran was always concerned about women’s education and safety. Since her mother is from Haryana, questions on Khap panchayat, women issues were asked during the personality round. “The panel basically tests your perspective, knowledge and the kind of person you are. At that particular day, Donald Trump had arrived in India. So they asked about US-India relations and trade deal, on national infrastructure pipeline etc. They asked what will be my focus while designing a policy,” she informed.

Daughter of a colonel, Sheoran has travelled across northern India and believes that women empowerment is the need of the hour. She was a bright student and scored 97.5 in her CBSE class 12 exam. She had also cracked the Common Admission Test (CAT) in 2017 and got a seat in IIM-Indore. However, she did not join the institute as studying management was not part of her plans.

Twenty-three-year-old Aishwarya Sheoran has cracked the prestigious Civil Services examination 2019 in her first attempt. While she got rank 93, what sets her apart from the rest of the UPSC candidates is her brief stint in the modelling world. Graphics: Designed by Gargi Singh 

If she had not cracked CSE in her maiden attempt, she would have appeared for it this year. Her mantra is to “stay focused and don’t give up easily”.

To prepare for her exam, she had switched off her social media accounts. This, however, has not stopped her from being the talk of Twitter since the announcement of the result. “I realised that I cannot focus until and unless I keep my phone away.”

Unlike many aspirants, Sheoran did not join any coaching institute. She pursued the science stream with economics in class 12 and has always trusted self-studies. “I religiously followed online study material from two-three websites and participated in their mock series. The thumb rule was one topic for one book. While many think that the syllabus is wide, I believe CSE is not tough if you narrow down your books. Like for polity, it was Laxmikant that I followed on. Besides for current affairs, I relied on three ed-tech websites and newspapers,” she said.

Sheoran has picked her home cadre and is hoping to work for women safety and education.

Will migrant children get their due in education after the pandemic subsides?

Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future
- Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician and educator

COVID–19 has led to some collateral changes in the way we function like working-from-home and online teaching and learning. It brought into focus migrant labourers and by extension, the children of migrants and their education. Following the results of various exams conducted recently, the media was continuously covering stories about underprivileged children shining in the exams. So, shining in the educational field is not the birthright of the elite and given the right opportunities, the children of the poor can also shine. It is against this background that the advocacy of migrant children comes into focus. But first, the facts:
Recently, I had highlighted in this column comprehensive educational reform proposals articulated by Sarah Iype, who specialises in education policy at NITI Aayog. Now she, jointly with Sanjana Raiamohan, Education Researcher, has made a comprehensive case for ‘Ensuring Education for Migrant Children’, published in The New Indian Express (22/7/20). I am only quoting one critical aspect here:
"… like the One India One Ration Card or the inter-operable Transport Card, there is tremendous potential to launch a One India One Student Card — a single transferable identity that serves as a storehouse of critical information throughout a child’s life cycle in education, from preschool till work…”
"A digital repository of a child’s schooling/learning information may be consistently captured and maintained. This will prove especially useful for the ICDS centres at arrival points as well as schools and local governments in destination areas, serving as a gateway for requisite inter-state and inter-departmental (education, health, welfare, police, labour, etc) collaboration.  Further, it can facilitate effective profiling to understand the nature of migration and tailor suitable solutions. In fact, this measure will help augment efforts such as Karnataka’s ‘Migrated Children and Children of Migrated Daily Wagers Right for Free and Compulsory Education Policy 2019’, which focuses on a student-achievement tracking system."
The idea is pregnant with possibilities. Also relevant, positive and welcome are governments getting into pre-primary education, as in Andhra Pradesh, where on July 20, the Minister for Human Resource Development had announced the commencement of LKG and UKG classes in all government schools from the coming academic year. This would be a great boon for migrant children to start from the bottom. This may also give them the shot that they possibly never had to get a uniform education wherever they go. The question remains: Is it feasible?