Karnataka

Azim Premji University Bill passed

With the Karnataka legislative council passing the Azim Premji University Bill, 2010 on April 18, the state’s first private university is all set to assume shape and form. The Bill, which was passed a week earlier by the state legislative assembly, clears the decks for promotion of the Azim Premji University (APU) in Bangalore by the Azim Premji Found-ation, a charity founded in 2001 by  Premji, the promoter-chairman of Wipro Corporation (annual sales revenue: Rs.10,600 crore).

According to Aravind Limbavalli, the state’s higher education minister, APU will be the 43rd private university in the country and will focus on training teachers for primary and secondary schools, in addition to offering diploma and degree programmes in education management, education policy, elemen-tary education, teacher and technology education. The estimated investment in the varsity is expected to be Rs.200 crore, including an endowment fund of Rs.25 crore.

Dileep Ranjekar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation, says that APU is committed towards creating a just, equitable, sustainable and humane society through systemic reforms in education. “We have not yet decided on the fee structure, but the guiding principle will be to encourage students from all socio-economic classes,” says Ranjekar.

Haryana

Polytechnic exam results stayed

The Haryana government has withheld the exam results of several polytechnics in the state, and constituted an expert panel to examine student complaints attributing poor results to faculty negligence. The results of these polytechnics, where exams were held on December 9 and January 10, were declared a few weeks ago. However the results were protested by students who claimed that they were inaccurate and fudged. In Ambala some girl students of a polytechnic ransacked the principal’s office.

Addressing the media on March 22, M.P. Gupta, secretary, Haryana State Board of Technical Education and director of Haryana technical education department, said a committee under the chairmanship of an additional secretary of the board had been constituted to analyse the results, examine student complaints and suggest remedial measures. According to Gupta, the results will be re-declared after the expert committee submits its report.

Madhya Pradesh

Student union elections demand

The Bhopal police fired teargas and cane-charged agitating ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) activists, demanding student union elections in colleges and opposing commercial-isation of education in Madhya Pradesh. ABVP activists led by its national president V. D. Sharma, staged a demonstration in Bhopal on March 23 to protest the state government’s decision to suspend students’ union polls in higher education institutions in MP. The protestors were marching towards the state assembly when they were confronted by the police.

Subsequently 2,000 student activists of the BJP-affiliated ABVP courted arrest in protest against the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh.

Bihar

Caste particulars demand row

The Bihar state government has described media reports about a government circular which makes it mandatory for students writing annual exams in government schools to declare their castes in answer papers as “misleading and concocted”. “We have asked students to specify the social categories they belong to, such as general, SC, ST, OBCs in their answer papers. Reports alleging that the circular has asked students to detail their caste are misleading,” Rajesh Bhushan, director of the Bihar Education Project (BEP) told the media in Patna on March 25.

However Bhushan admitted that a general circular dated March 11 was issued by BEP programme coordinator-cum-district education superintendent Arun Kumar, and primary informal education coordinator Shankar Kumar to class I-VIII students in state-run primary and high schools. “This practice dates back to 2001,” clarified Bhushan.

Kerala

Pay bonanza for teachers

College teachers in Kerala will receive their pay as per new UGC scales with retrospective effect from January 2006, chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan told mediapersons in Thiruvananthapuram on March 25. This award will impose an additional burden of Rs.400 crore on the state government. “The January 2006-10 arrears will be paid to teachers as soon as the 80 percent grant from the Central government is made available to the state. Teachers will receive the new salary from April this year,” he said.

The state cabinet also approved the madrassa teachers’ pension scheme as recommended by the Paloli Mohammed Kutty committee, which will  be implemented with the help of the postal department and Kozhikode district co-operative bank. A sum of Rs.6 crore has been allotted by the state government for the scheme.

Goa

Mobile phones ban request denied

The Goa state government has declined to ban the use of mobile phones in primary and higher secondary schools, education minister Atanasio Monse-rratte told reporters in Panjim on March 26. According to Monserratte, institutional managements are responsible for curbing the misuse of mobiles phones on their campuses.

Earlier BJP legislator Damodar Naik had moved a resolution in the state legislative assembly directing the government to ban mobile telephony in primary and higher secondary schools.

Responding, Monserratte said that banning mobile phones in primary and higher secondary schools would draw opposition from the parents’ community. “We can’t ban the use of mobile phones; we can only ban the misuse of mobiles in education institutions. All complaints relating to misuse of mobile phones should be sternly dealt with by heads of academic institutions,” he said.