All educational institutes closed in Himachal till April 4 following spike in Covid cases

All educational institutes in Himachal - universities, colleges, technical institutes and schools - except for the classes having their examination will remain closed up to April 4 following a spike in Covid cases.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here on Friday, which took stock of the situation and expressed concern over the surge in Covid cases in the state.

However, the schools having residential facilities can keep their hostels open in strict compliance with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to keep these residential areas isolated and appoint compliance officer for implementation of the orders.

The teachers and other school and college staff will continue to attend the institutes; nursing and medical institutes will continue to function as usual.

Thakur said no social and cultural events would be organised in the state by the government and gatherings would be restricted to a maximum of 200 for indoor and 50 per cent of the venue capacity for outdoor events. He said congregations and ‘langars’ inside the temples would also be banned but ‘darshan’ would be allowed.

The Chief Minister said April 3 would also be holiday for all offices in the state and there would be no public celebration of Holi. He urged the people to celebrate Holi at home with their families only. Three-to-five-day Holi festivals are held in Palampur, Hamirpur and Rampur every year, but this year there will be no such public functions.

He said all frontline workers would be sensitized to get themselves vaccinated at the earliest completing their second dose as per schedule. It was also decided in the meeting that district administrations would take a judicious call on more restrictions keeping in view positivity and fatality rate in their respective districts.

CBSE class 12 Commerce exam 2021: Best tips to ace Business Studies

 Commerce is second to science when it comes to popularity among students seeking admission in senior secondary schools. The wide-ranging career opportunities offered by this stream justifies the choice for sure. However, scoring high in CBSE class 12 commerce isn’t an easy task. The compulsory papers of this course—Accountancy, Business studies and Economics—can be challenging for students, thanks to the vastness of the course and complexity of the theories. Additionally, students pursuing commerce face difficulty in understanding unfamiliar business jargons which makes it tough for them to score well in class 12 CBSE commerce exams.

The board exam date for Business Studies (BS) is 12th May. Ms. Sangeeta Gupta, PGT, Commerce, Apeejay School, Pitampura shares essential study tips that will make your life a little easier during this crucial preparatory stage and boost your score in the subject as well.

Focus on important topics

Selective study isn’t advisable for an important board exam like CBSE. However, during the last few months, you should divide your preparation time smartly so that there is always additional time left for the topics that are relative more important. “Marketing Management and Financial Management have a weightage of 30 marks (15 marks each) in the Business Studies paper of CBSE class 12 exam. Pay more attention to these. These two topics are related to practical applications like stock exchange and methods of rotation in the market. So, it is essential for students to go through newspapers to score well in them. It’s always good to supplement your answers with related keywords that you find in the newspapers,” says Gupta.

According to her, the next in the order of importance include Staffing, Directing and Controlling (20 marks) and Planning and Organizing (14 marks). Also, there has been a new addition to the Business Studies paper in 2021. “This year, there will be two source-based questions, 4 marks each. Students must practise these as well,” she adds.

Refer to the right books

NCERT textbooks are the bible for Business Studies board exams. “Students should go through them thoroughly. The board marking systems are synchronised with these books,” says Gupta. Alongside these, students can refer to a few other books too. “I find Mrs. Alka Dhwan’s book on Business Studies, Class XII to be a good option. It will strengthen their grasp over case study- based questions, a crucial element of BS question papers,” says Gupta.

Be a master of case studies

Students mostly get stuck with the case study part of BS. “But these are not as tough as they are made out to be,” says Gupta. In case studies, questions mostly revolve around concepts. “So, students have to understand the concepts as well as the chapters well,” suggests Gupta. “While answering these questions, students should first go through the questions and then read the questions. This will help them connect with the case study better. After finishing the answer, read the questions again to ensure that you have completed your answer,” she says. Gupta also suggests that students should try and find out the keywords while reading a case study.

Think of smart memorising tricks

For your CBSE class 12 Business Studies exam, you need to remember a lot of jargons and difficult concepts. Rely on mnemonics or acronyms for a better recall. “Acronyms make it very easy for students to remember concepts. For example, USP is the acronym for Universal Validity, Systemic Body of Knowledge and Principles Based on Experimentation. While preparing for BS, create a list of acronyms and keep it handy for your revisions,” says Gupta. She also suggests having a mind map before appearing for any paper in CBSE class 12 exams. “Mind maps are the summary of a chapter in small pointers. If students make a summary for every chapter in the form of small flow charts, they will be able to remember the whole of it after a glance through the mind map. These maps can save a lot of your revision time while helping you memorise better,” she adds.

Focus on sample question papers and mock tests

Both are essential for scoring high in CBSE class 12 exams. “Practise solving sample question papers at home in 2 and a half hours, not three hours,” recommends Gupta. She also suggests that students create an exam hall-like atmosphere at home. “Set the clock, have a bottle of water and sit for the test. Schedule your mock test at 10:30, the same time as the CBSE exam. Get your body clock adjusted to the timing of the board exam. From now on, take two mock tests per subject a week,” she says. According to Gupta, one should solve at least 10 sample papers for each subject before the final exam.

Smart tips for answering BS questions

Follow these smart answering strategies shared by Gupta to ace your CBSE class 12 Business Studies exam.

• Write answers in points instead of the paragraph format. This will save time too.

• Underline the important parts and heading of the answers.

• While answering questions on differences, start with the basics like meanings, and scope. This way, at the first glance, your examiner will get figure out that you know the answer.

• For 6-mark questions, six relevant points with two to three lines of brief explanation are good enough. There is no need for elaboration. Support your answers with diagrams, and charts and examples.

• Do not leave any question unanswered. It’s always good to write something. If you have forgotten the answer to something, move on to the ones you are well-prepared for. Come back to it at the end and write the key points only. This will also fetch you some marks.

TRS has totally ignored education, charges Union Minister

Union Minister for Education Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Tuesday lambasted the TRS government for “ignoring” education sector and observed that the government was no different from that of the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal and hence, it was time for “people to throw them out”.

“I am shocked at the neglect of the education sector and the fact that thousands of teacher and lecturer posts have not been filled in the last six years. How can you ignore education which is the basic tenet of the young? What is happening here? Teachers are the biggest assets of the country and worshipped in our culture,” he said.

The Minister was speaking on ‘Fast tracking change towards a resurgent India: Role of intellectuals’ organised by the ‘Forum for Nationalistic Thinkers’ in support of BJP MLC candidate N. Ramchander Rao. Stating that he did not want to dwell much on a government which “anyway is on its way out”, Mr. Pokhriyal however charged that crores of rupees released by the Centre under various schemes have not been reaching the common people in the State.

Development and jobs in Telangana have been “confined to a single family and their kith and kin but nothing for the people”, he said. The Minister also explained about the new education policy and how it could turn the students into new generation entrepreneurs as the government has also enhanced the funds allocation for research and development.

He also took a swipe against the critics of BJP claiming that “talking about secularism has become a fashion and those professing it don't even know what they are talking about”. The Indian culture and ethos find more echo in nations like Indonesia and Mauritius than our own country, he said.

The Minister hailed the candidature of Mr. Ramchander Rao and was confident of he winning the support of the educated voters. Earlier, former AP Chief Secretary L.V. Subrahmanyam, BJP vice president Vivek Venkatswamy and others also spoke.

National Education Policy 2020: Context And Perspectives

Background

Higher education is the fulcrum to build a sustainable nation. For nations in emerging markets like India, investments in Higher education is crucial to stay competitive and exploit business opportunities. It is India’s demographic dividend, workforce skill and intellectual capital that would benefit the nation taking leverage from the current global scenario. At the outset, the present global markets feature two idiosyncratic transitions. The first is the pandemic crisis and the response strategies. Pandemic steered business disruptions and posed new challenges to organizations. It resulted in urgent interventions by the Governments and Organizations to overcome the devastative economic, financial and emotional costs emerging from the business environment. It accelerated Industries in shifting of doing business in a contactless mode. Disruptive technologies became the aid to numerous responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in emerging markets. The second feature is survival in the Post-COVID era and facing the realities of Industry 4.0 by quickly adopting new technologies than ever before. Industry 4.0 features utilization of exponential technologies such as IoT, AI, Robotics, Business Analytics, Machine learning and so on. Organizations have experienced that the adoption of technologies helped their businesses keep going and thriving. These response strategies have triggered organizations to rethink and restructure their existing Business strategies for both short as well as long-term goals that shall be capable to create stability for organizations. The future of the market is going to be dependent on technology. Therefore, it becomes demanding to create and align the Nation’s talent entering the labour market with skills to match the needs and momentum of Industrialization with Education 4.0. At this juncture and context, National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) was introduced. The present article aims in providing a broad overview on NEP 2020 and builds perspectives for implementation as part of the future article series on Improving Access, Equity and Affordability for Inclusiveness in Higher Education, Designing Holistic and Multi-Disciplinary Higher Education, Effective Governance and Leadership for Higher Education Institutions and Digital Transformation in Higher Education and Research for Growth and Sustainability.

Historical antecedents

India with its Education System had always retorted to the societal needs. Tracing the timeline, education 1.0 featured the world’s leading ancient universities the Takshila and Nalanda in India, contributing to knowledge, values and education by the Indian scholars. The nation has witnessed a great ordeal of colonial system nevertheless the country’s education system moved on from its 100 thousand years of traditional rich knowledge system to education 2.0 competing in Industrialization era, learning from the west. But we never stopped to transform steadily to the Internet era with our response to implement education 3.0. Realizing the world trends and business opportunities, the Indian Government in 2016 launched its initiatives such as Start-up India, Make in India, Digital India to promote an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and culture. In just about three decades now, the Nation is all set to align its talent for Education 4.0 with its comprehensive educational reforms and NEP 2020.

The new initiative

The NEP 2020 policy document envisions two distinctive points towards Higher Education. One holds that education is a right for all. The Government and Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) have an obligation to ensure access to education insisting on Equity, Equality and Inclusiveness. It clearly mentions the prerequisites for increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to build a pluralist society. This policy document attempts to move beyond the altruistic definitions of education by observing the major challenges in the existing education system. Some of them include fragmentation in the educational ecosystem, rigid separation of disciplines, limited teacher and institutional autonomy, economical-social-digital-regional language divide, lack of research funding, ineffective regulatory mechanisms, suboptimal governance and leadership. The other contends the importance of developing the skills and competencies of learners by designing and delivering a holistic multidisciplinary education and emphasis on promoting values-based education that shall enable learners to appreciate the Indian heritage of rich intellectual frameworks of Philosophy, Scientific Knowledge, Values, Traditions and cultural perspectives of education. It aims that HEIs must not only ensure to attract students but, the paramount focus shall be to motivate and aspire young learners for gaining knowledge, grow intellectually curious, become socially conscious, ethical, and skilled. NEP 2020 stresses accelerating a learning journey for students that shall help them engage in innovation. This helps the nation to become self-reliant to solve its own problems with robust solutions and for the individual to become economically independent.

The NEP 2020 has given the destination to reach through its initiatives and educational reforms. This policy document integrates all essential targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and sets the direction for HEIs to restructure, reconfigure and transform themselves as vibrant multidisciplinary institutions that support and foster learning. It has provided new guided educational frameworks and monitoring mechanisms to improve the delivery of quality education with salient features and clear objectives. It is now for HEIs to deliver the expectations of the NEP 2020 by reinventing its structure, policies and implementation process.

The future

Eventually, this calls for educational innovation that aims for contemporary educational models addressing the key perspectives evolved in the NEP 2020. The foremost perspective is delivering a Holistic and Multi-Disciplinary Higher Education. It aims to develop all-round capacities of the learner through an integrated education; a student of arts and humanities shall aim to learn science, engage in vocational subjects, give in more efforts to develop personal and professional skills. The entire Indian Industry across sectors feels NEP 2020 as a very impressive forthcoming policy as it has brought Vocational Education to the mainstream of education. The country will benefit from exploiting the fruits of its demographic dividend. This shall converge in improving individual capacities in critical thinking, soft skills, problem-solving abilities, creativity etc. There is an emphasis for the wide implementation of the Choice Based Credit System which allows flexibility in education that system to benefit students. The idea of the Academic Bank of credits (ABCs) is all set to attract more life-long learners to skill and upskill. It helps a student to become all-round individual with holistic development and become more Industry ready. However, the need of the hour is to examine how HEIs can build their resources and create an optimal learning environment to promote a flexible and innovative curriculum. The effectiveness of high-quality learning is an outcome of the learner characteristics, self-directed learning, teacher, high-quality teaching pedagogy practices, assessment methods, availability of learning resources including digital resources and technology-enabled learning environment. The vital strategy for fruitful implementation would be investing aggressively in Teachers' capabilities and promoting a culture of academic research work in inter-discipline and multi-discipline. Hence, it is the responsibility of the HEI’s to set up seed funding to promote and pursue the best scientific research within the Nation while they shall benefit from National Research Foundation (NRF). The growing concern for high-quality education has made NEP 2020 also set up four independent verticals through the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) to carry on the task of regulation, accreditation, managing funding and financing, and framing the expected learning outcomes for higher educational programmes.

With the effect of the pandemic crisis on the global economy, an indication has occurred that India will emerge as a cost-effective knowledge hub. The country shall attract an increased number of foreign students and researchers. India has responded to the Internationalization of Higher Education in its NEP 2020. The concept of educational hubs is enticing but the milieu of HEIs should intensively work to provide quality assurance and sustainability. There are some agendas that are yet to be addressed which include regulatory, policy and operational questions.

Another important aspect is the necessity for Good governance and leadership for improving the quality of Higher education. Without the governing bodies and the leaders, the vision of the NEP framework will become unattainable. NEP provides a strategic direction to governing board that makes it possible for efficient utilization of resources, fund management, self-disclosures, implementation of transparency & accountability and encourages participation of all stakeholders in decision making. The NEP aims to create more independent self-governing institutions ensuing innovation and excellence.

To conclude, HEIs must build a sustainable education strategy for implementation of the NEP that aims to ensure equity and inclusion in and through education by addressing all forms of exclusion and marginalization, disparity, vulnerability and inequality in education access, participation, retention and completion and in learning outcomes. HEIs must strike a balance between increasing the enrollment rates and pledging to deliver the best class holistic and multidisciplinary education to the learners for exploiting the opportunities in the flight of Industry 4.0, Pandemic times and beyond.

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No classroom is monolingual. Our education policies must reflect this

One should not be surprised that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 uses terms such as home language, mother tongue, local language, regional language with slashes and succumbs to hedges such as “preferably” or “wherever possible” in the context of using it. Not that the previous policy documents have done any better in this respect. It is a persistent refusal to confront reality, outline clear objectives and propose appropriate curricular and pedagogical hints that we falter again and again on the language front — therefore in education in general. As policy makers, we delight in wearing “fly-masks” with slogans of “mother tongue” on one side and the “three language formula” on the other. They sound good and please people. But nothing worthwhile has been achieved in the past 50 years since the Kothari Commission — nothing worthwhile is likely to happen in the next 100 years if we persist with such recommendations.

You don’t need to quote UNESCO’s 1953 declaration on the use of mother tongue for the conceptual clarity and cognitive growth of students, it’s a matter of common sense. If you use the languages of learners, they would indeed learn better. But the issue is that we are not dealing with “a language” in any context.

One should not be surprised that all committees and commissions since the colonial times, including the often critiqued Elphinstone’s Minute of 1824, Macaulay’s Minute of 1835 and Wood’s Despatch of 1854 recognised the importance of using the mother tongue in education, always noting though that there was no way they could dream of teaching a nation as big as India in English. However, they did misunderstand and minimise the importance of “vernaculars” and laid the foundations of English medium western education for the elite. Our own documents, including say NEP 1986 along with plan of action 1992, NCF 2005, RTE 2009 and the draft NEP 2020 reiterated the significance of mother tongue education without making any dent in the gulf that separates the elite English-medium schools from the non-English medium schools meant for the masses.

We have consistently failed to recognise two facts: One, no classroom is monolingual and two, people learn only those languages they need to learn for instrumental or integrative reasons. The three language formula, born out of a consensus among chief ministers of different states, has been a failure because it does not pay any attention to the second fact. Many people from south India do learn Hindi when they see jobs or increments coming their way. Students in North India invariably choose Sanskrit as the third language — it ensures high marks without much work. There will be very few school graduates in North India who can use Sanskrit with any significant level of proficiency.

All classrooms are multilingual in the sense that children arrive in schools not with “a language” but with a “verbal repertoire”. Students in any class will have overlapping verbal repertoire, but each has some distinct properties. It is this phenomenon that constitutes the theoretical foundations of construing language as multilinguality that forms the essence of being human. One is often told that this may be true of urban metropolises like Delhi or Kolkata but not of small towns or remote villages. But Udaipur, for example, a small town, in addition to having Hindi has Mewari, Marwari, Wagdi, Gujarati and there is constant inter-language fluidity among others. What some call egg-plant or aubergine, others may call here baingan or ringnaa; pumpkin may be called with equal felicity kadduu or kolaa and bottle gourd’ could be laukii or aal. And note that variability is not just lexical; the Mewari “l” is closer to that of Gujarati and Marathi than to Hindi. In spite of all the Indian languages involved being verb-final, there may be variations of style, idiom and folk songs and stories that are often socio-culturally rooted.

We may go still further into a remote village of the tribal region in Rajasthan. Tidi is a small village in the Girwa Tehsil of Udaipur. It has a population of 2,400. In the government girls school, there are 94 students in Class 10. The languages that are used among them include at least Wagdi, Mewari, Hindi, some words and expressions of English, all often with a tinge of Gujarati. Languages travel freely across each other — fluid multilinguality is the language of these students.

The true performative nature of language is multilinguality however homogeneous and rule-governed it may be towards its universal grammar or towards the idealised chunk a linguist explores to write grammars. We need to recognise that multilinguality constitutes the backbone of what we call “mother tongue” and the education enterprise cannot be successful unless we allow the voice of every child to find a space in classroom processes. Fortunately, today in the theory and practice of multilinguality, we do have options that deserve a fair chance of being tried out. We do need to walk out of the nearly frozen paradigm of “a teacher, a class, a textbook and a language” where the voice of the teacher reigns supreme with an occasional question from the front benchers. Multilinguality can also be used as a classroom resource to invite students to engage in scientific inquiry.

Consider the example of a five-year old playing antakshari with his mother. Mother says: Kabutar and the son says “rat”; and the dialogue between the two goes on: Tamatar (tomato), “run”; nal (tap), ladki (girl); kiil (nail), “late”;the son is not sure which “late” he is suggesting. So, he says, ‘Mamaa, there are two “lates”. One when I get late to the school and the other when I lie down.’

In the new classroom where pedagogy is rooted in multilinguality, the teacher steps back and the textbook is replaced by the multiplicity of voices of the learners.

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News from the world of education

IT consultancy and service organisation Xebia recently hosted the XGRAD 2021 Higher Education Summit online on the theme Industry and Academic Partnerships: A key to innovation and Growth. Dr Anil Sahsrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, spoke about the importance of multidisciplinary education and lifelong learning. The colloquium discussed how industry and academic partnerships affect students; how technological advancement can ensure efficiency among students; and how real-world experiences and classroom learning can marry to produce students with excellent skill-set.

Thought Leadership’ session

Addressing the graduating class of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, virtually, Shiv Shivakumar, Group Executive President at Aditya Birla Group, spoke about seven career dilemmas that most people face. He also touched upon the importance of money in one’s career, skill sets required for the future, how difficult it is to start something of your own, and the importance of managing one’s career and highlighted ways to excel in various stages of one’s professional life.

Living allowance programme

The Masai School recently announced the launch of Glide Programme, an initiative that recognises top performing students of its full-time seven-month programmes. These students will be eligible for a monthly living allowance of ₹ 15,000 for the duration of the course. Aspirants will be able to focus on the programme without worrying about financial support and have the financial means to buy a laptop or subscribe for a data package.

Scholarships for aspiring engineers

Chennai-based start-up Skill-Lync recently announced 200 scholarships for students to take up job-aligned career programmes. Successful candidates will get a fee waiver of up to ₹1,00,000. The selection process involves an aptitude test where students will be assessed on the basis of quick problem-solving and reasoning. To apply, visit: bit.ly/skill-lync-scholarship.

New Courses launched

World University of Design recently announced new courses in Management, Architecture, Design and Performing Arts for Design School students.

Management (Three-year BBA and Two-year MBA): Design Strategy & Innovation and Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence & Design Thinking (DA.AI.DT), and Service Design.

Architecture (Two-year M.Arch): Sustainable Architecture and Digital Architecture

Design (Four-year B.Des and Two-year M.Des): Computer Science and Design, and User Experience & Interaction Design

Performing Arts (BPA/Integrated MPA/MPA – Music/ Dance/ Theatre): Dance (Classical /contemporary) or Music Studies (Classical /modern) or Theatre Arts (Classical and experimental).

For more information, visit, www.worlduniversityofdesign.ac.in

Case Research Centre launched

The recently launched Universal Case Research Centre, a not-for-profit initiative of Universal Business School, India, will provide an opportunity to shape research, case writing, industry-academia collaboration and teaching methods in business education. It will focus on Indian and Asian case studies in areas such as business, operations, innovation, finance, marketing, organisation culture, ethics, family owned business, social enterprises, corporate governance, and e-commerce.

Industry report

A recent 2021 joint industry report titled ‘Future of jobs in design, fashion and contemporary media’ by KPMG India, Pearl Academy, FICCI and FDCI, recently analysed 160 job profiles and shares recommendations to help higher education institutions in developing the right talent for India Inc. It also provided recommendations for higher education institutions (HEIs) such as promoting innovation, entrepreneurial abilities, and global exposure, how HEIs should play a role in empowering and training rural workforce to support demand for local products, among others.

Cultural fest

The 12th edition of Xenia, the annual cultural festival of the Indian School of Business & Finance, Delhi, was hosted virtually this year and saw more than 800 students from about 600 institutions across the globe participate. The festival, spearheaded by ISBF’s Student Societies and the Student Relations department, had 16 competitions — with over ₹2 lakh of prize money — designed to bring out the diverse talents and skill sets of participating students. Art, storytelling, creativity, debating, general knowledge, music and dance, analytical and decision-making skills were some of the competitions.

Distinguished Thought Leadership Series

Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys, participated in the Great Lakes Institute of Management’s (Chennai) virtual fire-chat session and addressed an audience of 750+ participants. He touched upon some key topics, including defining an entrepreneur, and explained that entrepreneurs must come with bright and powerful ideas. He also highlighted skills that an individual should possess to become an entrepreneur.

India Skills Report 2021

According to the India Skills Report 2021 by Wheebox, in partnership with Taggd, CII, AICTE, AIU and UNDP, Delhi-NCR, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have the highest pool of employable talent in the country. The study also found out that Mumbai is the most highly employable resources with 70% of the test takers scoring above 60%, followed by Hyderabad. Gender gap in employability was found to have improved with the digital revolution. One structural change was that women’s participation was higher than the last five year — 36% of the workforce, while men comprise 64%

Free pre-exam training

Online learning platform Oliveboard recently partnered with the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) body and offered a pre-exam training (PET) for marginalised aspirants for the ECGC PO exam scheduled for March 14. It targeted students from SC/ST backgrounds and gave them a basic grounding in the study material for ECGC PO prior to the exam.

Galgotias University to open new centres

Galgotias University is all set to open Deendayal Upadhyaya Higher Quality Centre for students from weaker sections. University CEO Dhruv Galgotia also said the university will soon start the process to obtain accreditation for Open Distance Learning and Online Programmes. He further said that the university will soon start a four-year undergraduate course as per new education policy. He also announced the establishment an adult education centre in Uttarakhand and the Galgotias Vivekananda Research Centre.

AMBA re-accreditation

Sheffield University Management School recently received re-accreditation from the Association of MBAs (AMBA). This offers a chance to all current MBA/MBM students and recent alumni of the Sheffield University Management School to join AMBA’s global member community of more than 56,000 students and alumni, in more than 150 countries, on a free basis, for networking, thought leadership, career development, and a variety of benefits.

Create with Math curriculum launched

WhiteHat Jr recently launched the ‘Create with Math’ curriculum, the first of multiple new subjects that the company will launch over the next few months. The curriculum aims to empower children to be math-confident for life. Anchored on US Common Core Math Standards, it will cater to children from classes I to VIII in India.

SP Jain Global’s Class of 2020 goes global

SP Jain School of Global Management (SP Jain Global), recently completed the successful campus placements for its flagship Global MBA (GMBA) and Master of Global Business (MGB) programmes. Over 56% of students from the class of 2020 bagged international offers from Singapore, Dubai, Qatar and Malaysia, among others. Top recruiters included Aramex, Bayer, Cedar Consulting, Cognizant, Dabur, Danzas, E&Y, Emerson, Frost & Sullivan, Genpact, Grant Thornton, Henkel, and more.

Padmanabha Ramanujam joins IFIM Law School

IFIM Law School recently appointed Prof. Padmanabha Ramanujam as the Dean of the institute. Prof. Ramanujam joined the Centre for Development and Education (CDE) at IFIM as the Director of Legal Education, this January and has taken up the responsibilities of mentoring the faculty and strengthening the department. He will also be a Member of the Governing Council for the School of Law, Vijaybhoomi University, Karjat, Greater Mumbai.

Basic Nutrition and Fitness course launched

INFS recently launched a free Basic Nutrition and Fitness Course to familiarise people with the science behind fitness and health in a simple manner. Students will not only learn the fundamentals of nutrition, diet, and exercise, but also be able to design their own diet and activity plans. INFS scholars will have access to experienced faculty members to whom they can reach out through the planned tutorial sessions or through the Discussion Forums. For details, visit, https://infs.co.in/

Edtech for exam prep

A survey by Brainly found that Indian students were beginning to use edtech platform for their preparations. Based on a sample size of 9,029 respondents from across the country, the survey found that 23% students were taking help from their peers, while 17.5% were being coached by tutors or coaching experts and 15.2% by parents, 10.9% said that they used edtech rms to solve their queries, while 33.3% went with all the available options.

App development course

Ap building platform Appy Pie recently introduced a no-code app development course for K-12 students who have no knowledge of coding but have an entrepreneurial bent. Students will start with an introduction to app development, creating a demo mobile app equipped with basic and premium features. They also learn to publish their apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. To enrol, visit, https://academy.appypie.com/no-code-developer-course-for-students

Simplilearn and AICTE join forces

Simplilearn recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for a Ministry of Education initiative National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT 2.0). This will see a collaboration in upskilling higher education students from Indian engineering and technical institutes. As part of the MoU, Simplilearn will offer six programmes in Data Science, DevOps Engineering, Business Analysis, Big Data Engineering, Big Data Hadoop and Spark Development and AWS Big Data Certification Training on the NEAT 2.0 platform. Through this collaboration, NEAT will use key e-learning content from Simplilearn’s programmes and live learning platform to provide the students with a quality learning experience in digital skills and technologies.

Global School Play Day

Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA) recently celebrated ‘Global School Play Day’ — a day dedicated to being free and do nothing but play. The idea was to highlight the importance of unstructured play. For ABWA students, a ‘Homeroom time’ was scheduled where a list of activities was planned with students. Through this initiative, the school focused on highlighting the importance of unstructured play through the campaign #PlugOffPlayOn.

Freshers, welcome aboard

TeamLease EdTech recently launched its latest report ‘Career Outlook Report Feb-Apr 21’, an analysis of the hiring intent of employers, job profiles in demand, skills that fit the job roles and courses that can help fresh job seekers. According to the report, India Inc is keen to hire fresh skilled talents. In fact, more than 15% of the corporates have expressed an intent to hire freshers, with Informational Technology, Telecommunications, E-commerce and start-ups being the leaders.

Massive funds raised

Edtech start-upWizKlub, recently raised funding of ₹ 6 crore with participation from existing investor Incubate Fund India, bringing the total funds raised to ₹ 15 crore, so far. The company plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate growth and run rate. WizKlub helps build skills in children through its HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) and SmartTech programmes

Unacademy acquires TapChief

Unacademy recently announced the acquisition of TapChief, a professional networking and future-of-work platform. TapChief leverages a host of technology solutions to empower professionals to interact and learn from experts, work with businesses from across the world, and aggregate their personal brand online. It has 1,50,000+ registered professionals, who use the platform to collaborate with a host of experts from their chosen domains and take up short-term professional projects.

Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

Ambula Gopi Raja from Vijayawada recently won the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) 2021 India Finals, and has been awarded a cash prize of ₹ 1 lakh and the opportunity to represent India at the global finals of GSEA 2021, where he will compete against participants from 30 countries, including , Canada, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain and the U.S., for a cash prize of $25,000.

Sustainable Mobility Research

Michelin India Technology Centre, Pune, and IIT Bombay-Monash Research Academy recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), designed to be an umbrella agreement between the two organisations for next generation sustainable mobility research. This partnership will be a five-year tenure with several projects envisaged for development in the mobility space in India. It will bring Michelin’s global Research and Development DNA and involve doctoral students (PhD) from IIT Bombay-Monash Research Academy encompassing a wide range of themes such as advanced computational engineering, materials, simulation and manufacture, Infrastructure engineering, clean energy water, nanotechnology, biotechnology and stem cell research.

Mpower Cell at B. K. Birla College inaugurated

Neerja Birla, Founder & Chairperson, Mpower, recently inaugurated Mpower Cell at B. K. Birla College, (Autonomous) Kalyan, which will cater to the needs of 11,000+ students, 300+ faculty members and staff of B. K. Birla College and their families and to 4,000 students and 250 teachers, staff and their families of B. K. Birla Public School. Mpower Cell services will also be extended to Century Rayon, Century Rayon High School and Century Rayon Hospital. This initiative is a drive to deliver quality mental healthcare and make it easily accessible to more than 75,000 persons aroundKalyan.

Master’s in Deep Learning and AI launched

REVA University invites applications for a two-year Master of Science in Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence, in association with CloudxLab. This UGC-approved degree is a globally-valid, WES-recognised master’s course. The first batch is scheduled to start on May 1. This course is primarily targeted at professionals and executives with at least two years’ of relevant work experience. Candidates, with a basic understanding of programming, can apply. Admission is subject to the performance in a written test and a personal interview. Visit https://bit.ly/37ZsfZz for more.

GLIM’s virtual TEDx Conference

Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai (GLIM) recently hosted its first virtual TEDxGLIM Chennai, on ‘Shed the Layers’, which illustrated that there is power in vulnerability and being yourself. Speakers including Sarah Kashyap (Cross-country motorcycle rally racer), Deane De Menzes (Founder of Red is the New Green and NGO activist), Vikram Poddar (India’s first Corporate stand-up comedian and founder of Boredroom Comedy) and Garima Avtar (Extreme Rally Driver).

Women in Law

LSAC Global recently hosted a webinar featuring top Indian and international legal leaders who offered valuable perspectives on The Female lead: Impact of Women in Law. The conversation revolved around women’s contribution to legal education, as well as how to encourage young women to discover and enter the field of law. The webinar also delved into the skills that a student would learn in law school.

B.Tech. degree programme admissions

Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, Mahindra University (MU), Hyderabad, recently announced admissions to its four-year B.Tech. programme. About 660 seats are on offer in seven specialisations. Those who have a 10+2 or equivalent qualification from any statutory board with 60% aggregate marks in all subjects or equivalent grade for the students from IB or other approved Boards are eligible to apply. Admissions will be granted on the basis of either JEE Mains (Qualify in JEE Main examination, and be eligible to write the JEE Advance 2021 exam) or valid SAT subject test scores with a minimum of 1800, which should include Maths, Physics and Chemistry. For NRI/PIO category students, general SAT scores are also accepted. The last date to apply for the first round of counselling through JEE Mains score is May 31 and the last date to receive applications is July 10. The application form is available online at www.mahindrauniversity.edu.in

BML Munjal University report

BML Munjal University recently unveiled a report on Embracing the shift in healthcare at its second AI industry conclave on, organised virtually. The report summarises the opportunities and challenges that AI presents for India’s healthcare sector, factors driving its adoption, practical insights into its functioning in the Indian context gathered through a primary survey with C-suite executives in healthcare organisations and recommendations for its future prospects. The report was released by Vishal Talwar, Dean, School of Management, BML Munjal University. Expert speakers from Invento Robotics, Qure.AI, Microsoft, University of Warwick, Oxford University and McKinsey shared their insights.

Virtual HR Conclave

Institute of Management Studies (IMS) Noida and ICT Academy recently organised a virtual HR Conclave on the theme Future skill. The speakers were Vinay Agarwal from Tech Mahindra Global Head Business; Vijayan KA, Head Academic Operation from ICT Academy; Pankaj Kakkar, Principal Technical Analyst from West Management; Dr. Kulneet Suri, Senior Director; and Prof. Dr. Manju Gupta from IMS Noida.

TechnoStructAcademy Signs MoU with JC Bose University

TechnoStruct Academy, an educational enterprise of the American company BIM Firm TechnoStruct, LLC, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with J.C. Bose University of Science & Technology, YMCA, Faridabad, to provide hands-on experience to the students on Building Information Modeling (BIM) Technology. It also intends to offer ‘TechnoStruct Training and Development Programme’ to students of the university which include free internship, hands-on exposure to international projects and placement assistance for three years.

Electric Two-Wheeler launched

IIT Madras-incubated start-up Pi Beam recently launched an electric two-wheeler that can charge faster than a smartphone and comes with a range of 50 km. Called ‘PiMo’, this sustainable and affordable e-bike is targeted towards personal and commercial needs. It does not require license or registration, and offers green and easy mobility on Indian roads. Around 90% of its product components, including the crucial batteries and controllers, are manufactured in India. It aims to sell 10,000 vehicles by the end of the next financial year.

Industry-academia collaboration

Whistling Woods International (WWI) and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) recently signed a MOU for industry-academia collaboration to further the cause of Emerging Media Content and Cinematic Virtual Reality (VR). WWI will work with MMRC to produce approximately a dozen short videos in 360 Virtual Reality documenting the Making of Mumbai Metro.

Ravinder Pal Singh at Rishihood University

Rishihood University (RU) welcomes Ravinder Pal Singh as its Professor of Practice for Leadership, Innovation and Design. He will also be the university’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer and will closely work to incubate a culture of innovation and incubate future entrepreneurs. He is an award-winning technologist and angel investor, with several hundred global recognitions and patents.

Education Leaders’ Programme for Teachers and Educators

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta recently selected Hughes Global Education, to offer its new leadership programme, EdLEAP, for teachers and educators. The Post Graduate Certification programme has been designed for aspiring school leaders, academicians, and entrepreneurs to help build and strengthen leadership across schools. Curated by the IIM-C faculty, the new courses will be delivered to learners across India over the Hughes interactive onsite learning platform in direct-to-device mode (D2D). For details, visit, https://www.iimcal.ac.in/ldp/edleap

Inaugural Professor Ambassador Class

Qlik recently announced its first Academic Programme Professor Ambassador Class, a select network of academics from the Qlik Academic Programme who have leveraged Qlik to drive data literacy with analytics in the classroom and prepare students for the data-driven economy. This is an extension of the Qlik Academic Programme, which helps universities improve the value of their offerings by teaching marketable data skills, while helping students advance their analytical and data literacy proficiency within every academic discipline. Professors selected for ambassador status join a network of like-minded peers from across the world and gain exclusive access to additional Qlik resources.

AESL’s instant Admission-Cum-Scholarship Test

Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) recently launched a unique instant scholarship — the instant Admission Cum Scholarship Test Exam (iACST), which enables talented and deserving students from classes VII-XI gain up to 90% scholarship online, and enables students from different social and financial backgrounds take advantage of quality teaching. Students can take the exam online and will be provided with details of the scholarship earned immediately. The scholarship will be for admission to Medical, Engineering and Foundation Courses for both the classroom and hybrid learning programmes. Class XII passed students can opt for Special Repeater Courses. For more information, log on to https://iacst.aakash.ac.in/iacstexam.

New medical college and hospital

The Indira Group recently launched the Indira Medical College and Hospitals (IMCH) with an intake capacity of 75 boys and 68 girls this year. IMCH aims to serve people living around Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur region and is affiliated to Tamil Nadu Dr.M.G.R. R Medical University, Guindy, Chennai, and has been approved by the National Medical Commission, New Delhi.

An online gathering for digital education

Edtech platform Educlouds was recently listed in the World Book Of Records-Gold Edition for hosting the World’s Largest Gathering of Digital Education. Over 100 organisations, educators, parents and iconic think tanks from 35 countries came together virtually. Connecting educators, parents and students with the future of education, Educlouds also launched Educlouds App, a tech-enabled holistic ecosystem of modern education to usher a new era of online education in India and across the globe.

Newton School shines

Bengaluru-based ed-tech startup, Newton School, recently raised $5M in the Series A round of financing led by RTP Global. The funding round saw participation from existing investors. Nexus Venture Partners, Prophetic Ventures and Unacademy co-founders Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini and Hemesh Singh. Flipkart’s CEO Kalyan Krishnamoorthy, CRED’s Kunal Shah, Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham, Udaan’s Sujeet Kumar and Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur & Shashank Kumar, along with a slew of angels also participated in the round.

Edtech network beyond boundaries

Integrated marketplace Skill Monks recently added seven leading Edtech companies — IMARTICIUS, Testbook, Edureka, Endeavor, CAREERERA, Great Learning and Digital Vidya — to its skilling platform. It offers high-quality programmes that will enable exam preparation through online learning solutions for students as well as upskilling programmes in the IT domain for industry professionals through relevant certifications and executive programmes. For more information, visit, www.skillmonks.com

Scholarship for women

GreyCampus recently announced 100 scholarships for women to take up job-aligned career programmes in data science and full stack development. The programme, structured by industry experts, has a six-month rigorous curriculum where students will be prepared for career opportunities through live instructor-led classes, assignments, quizzes, online labs, industry projects and mentorship. The admission process involves application, followed by an aptitude test and an interview. Successful candidates will get a 100% fee waiver. Interested women can apply here https://bit.ly/2MBmw4A

Smart hand sanitisers

Smart hand sanitisers, that can provide data on workplace hand hygiene, are on trial across the country, as part of research by the Universities of Sheffield and Leeds into how best to engage people with the latest COVID-19 workplace hand hygiene guidance. The new technology can grab the attention of the users with integrated video screens to display the latest workplace hand hygiene guidance and provide valuable real-time data for employers to use in their fight against COVID-19. Developed by hand hygiene technology company Savortex, they can monitor in real-time, how often, or not, they are used.

School shut, digital divide: How Covid upended education

 As schools started reopening in several states in a staggered manner after 10-11 months, stakeholders including principals, teachers, students and parents said that the education system has been changed “forever”.

Rohan Sharma, a Class 9 student, has returned to his school in east Delhi after 11 months. The 13-year-old has been witnessing several changes in the way his school used to operate in the pre-Covid times. Sharma is among hundreds of thousands of students who were forced to attend online classes ever since the education institutions were forced to shut across the country in view of the Covid-enforced lockdown, and are now struggling to adjust back to face-to-face classes.

As schools started reopening in several states in a staggered manner after 10-11 months, stakeholders including principals, teachers, students and parents said that the education system has been changed “forever”.

“It feels so different to be in school now. I used to attend online classes sitting in my room with no one around for the last 10 months. Now, I am not feeling as confident as I would earlier during classes. Besides, I completely lost my writing practice after using the keyboard for so long. I don’t think we will completely resume the traditional classroom set-up now. Many students, like me, have now started feeling more comfortable in online classes,” he said.

Officials at several schools said that the ripple effect of the pandemic on the education sector is likely to be felt for years. Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal of Springdales School, Pusa Road, said: “Learning turned 360 degrees on its head in the last few months. The only way to reach children was through technology. But now as the schools resume offline classes, the biggest challenge is to bring back children to schools. Once they are back, the next task will be to take efforts to make them understand the humanising element of learning. If we just call them back to school and start teaching on smart boards the way we were doing while they were sitting at home… In the last year, the cognitive development of the way of using pen or pencil has gone. It’s become a task to make them sit down and write.”

RP Singh, principal of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) in Surajmal Vihar, said, “Technology will now become an integral part of the education system now. But, at the same time, there is a major negative change we are witnessing. Both students and their parents have started thinking that schools are there for only academic transactions. This will affect the social and emotional well-being of students.”

A recent study released by the Azim Premji University revealed that 92% of primary school children have suffered from the learning loss of at least one specific language ability during the lockdown. The study also found that 82% of children have lost at least one specific mathematics ability, including the ability to identify single and two-digit numbers, use basic arithmetic operations for solving problems, describing two-dimensional or three-dimensional shapes, and drawing inferences from data.

Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School, said that schools will now have to overhaul their academic calendars. “Now our challenges will be different from usual years and that’s why we will have to prepare our academic calendars differently. Now children are coming back to schools after a year with so many requirements and schools will have to fill in their emotional and social needs through interventions,” she said.

In the last year, the education sector has seen a complete upheaval. As soon as the classrooms turned virtual, a Pandora’s Box of challenges opened. Both private schools and education departments across states started training their teachers for the new task at hand. The teachers were not only trained in using technology but also learned to develop online study material. For the first time ever, a new academic session began virtually.

After waiting for over three months, many states and national education boards, including CBSE, cancelled the exams and promoted students using different methods of evaluation. The prolonged closure of schools was a double whammy for children from weaker backgrounds, who lost access to assured meals, free textbooks, and other facilities.

At the same time, the closure of educational institutions cracked open the already existing inequalities and digital divide in society. According to an Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released in October, only one-third of India’s schoolchildren pursued online education and a smaller cohort of this 32.5% attended live online classes at a time when their schools remained physically closed.

Devendra, principal of Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Rouse Avenue, said: “Many students who don’t have smartphones and Internet connectivity could not attend online classes or access digital study material in the last 10 months, and are now lagging. It has become a task for teachers to bring all kids to one level of education now when physical classes have resumed. It will be even more challenging when all the students will return to school.”

Teachers at government schools also raised concerns over students who have been out of touch since March last year.

In February, HT reported that around 31,000 students enrolled in 1,030 state government schools (from kindergarten to Class 10) remain untraceable. Nearly 24 million children globally are at risk of not returning to school next year, estimated UNICEF in August.

Officials at higher education institutions said that there is a lot of “uncertainty” among students, especially final-year students and PhD scholars in terminal semesters. “Things have become very complicated for research scholars with campuses and libraries being closed for over 10 months. One can’t complete the research work sitting at home and it’s creating stress and anxiety among students. They are worried about their future since they won’t get jobs for another few months or years since their PhDs are pending,” said Moushumi Basu, an associate professor at JNU.

“Besides, for first-year students it has been a very isolated kind of situation. They have not met their teachers and classmates as of now. It will be a challenge for them to adjust once they return to the campus,” she added.

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