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.