Jammu & Kashmir
Special winter season for schools
The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to keep schools open in winter for the benefit of students who lost three crucial months of education when violent protests overwhelmed the Kashmir Valley during summer.
“We have resolved to keep high and higher secondary schools open for a part of the winter holidays to compen-sate the loss of education to students in the valley during the agitation,” state education minister Peerzada Moham-mad Sayeed informed the media in Jammu on November 22. “Students of classes IX-XII will be taught the portions they missed during the three-month long agitation,” he said. “Nearly Rs.6 crore will be spent on providing heating in these schools. A proposal seeking special funding has been sent to the chief minister,” he said.
According to Sayeed, the decision to make up for lessons lost in summer has the full support of students and parents. “Reopening schools is a setback to elements opposed to peace and progr-ess in Kashmir. Parents, students and the common man in the valley feel suffocated by the agitation. I thank parents and students for their courage to help us save this academic session,” he said.
Orissa
New unitary universities
The orissa state government has conferred university status upon the Khallikote Autonomous College, Behrampur and Gangadhar Meher College, Sambalpur. A government appointed task force on higher education reform had recommended elevation of these premier autonomous colleges to university status. “We will transform these premier higher education institutes into unitary universities,” Orissa’s higher education minister Debi Prasad Mishra informed students of Khallikote College on November 19.
Mishra however, stressed that upgradation of infrastructure of the second oldest college of the state is a prerequisite of unitary university status. Although 50 acres are required for the purpose, Khallikote College currently has only 16.74 acres of land in its possession. “There is a proposal to get another 2.50 acres of land from the transport department’s garage adjoining the college,” he said. “Local MLAs have been asked to identify another 50 acres of land in town.”
Responding to students queries, the minister assured them that 50 vacant faculty positions in the 132-year-old college, which has 3,600 students on its muster rolls, will be filled “very soon”.
Himachal Pradesh
Private Universities Bill
The Himachal Pradesh cabinet approved an amendment to the Private Universities (Regulation and Establishment) Bill on November 18 to bring uniformity in the regulatory provisions of all private universities established in the state. These include Chitkara University, Eternal University, Baddi University of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Manav University, Arni University and Indus International University.
The cabinet also approved an amendment relating to the HP Land Preservation rules, 1983 and HP Forest Produce Transit (Land Routes) Rules, 1978, to remove restrictions on the harvesting of bamboo grown on private land. It approved a proposal to regulate bamboo felling according to a three-year felling programme formulated by the conservator of forests.
The cabinet also approved filling of 746 posts in the state government’s health and family welfare department on a contract basis, to strengthen the health services and medical education network. The posts included 416 female health workers, 53 trained midwives, 21 radiologists and 256 nurses.
Kerala
Grass sculpture pruning probe
The Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) ordered an official probe into “disfigurement” of the famous grass mermaid on its campus on November 27. University vice chan-cellor Dr. Ramachandran Thekkedath informed news personnel that he has ordered an enquiry into the incident in which some anti-socials pruned the “breasts” of the sculpture on the CUSAT campus. The report of pro vice chancellor Godfrey Louis, will be submitted in early December, he said.
The vice chancellor was out of station when the grass sculpture ‘Sagara Kanyaka’, a highlight of the garden frontage of the campus, was pruned unauthorisedly. The sculpture was vandalised after some members of the Cochin University Women’s Association complained to varsity authorities that it was “vulgar”. Women employees had also cited a Supreme Court order on display of vulgarity in workplaces.
The incident has sparked strong reaction in cultural circles in Kerala, with many describing the act as “moral policing”. State education minister M.A. Baby has also ordered a probe into the matter after Kanhai Kunhiraman, who sculpted the famous statue of ‘Yakshi’ at Malampuzha, criticised the vandalism.
Arunachal Pradesh
Education streamlining strategy
The Arunachal Pradesh government has appealed to the Centre to establish a State Council of Educational Research and Training to upgrade K-12 education in the state.
Education minister Bosiram Siram met with Union human resource develop-ment minister Kapil Sibal in New Delhi on November 26, and requested an autonomous body entrusted with planning, implementation and evaluation of all academic programmes, to give new direction to school education in the state. Siram also sought a “special package” to train untrained teachers.
“Frequent changes in NCERT text-books cause lot of hardship to stud-ents,” Siram said while addressing the 48th General Council Meeting of NCERT in New Delhi.
He also outlined strategies adopted to streamline the state’s education sector by enactment of the Arunachal Pradesh Education Act, construction of teach-ers’ residences, recruitment of senior and junior teachers through the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission, and by constituting a monitoring mechanism under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which came into effect on April 1.