Gujarat
IGNOU inclusion initiatives
The Delhi-based Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is set to roll out educational programmes for sex workers and their children in Gujarat in July. “The idea is to bring them into the mainstream with the help of education,’’ IGNOU’s regional director Dr. Sujit K. Ghosh announced in Ahmedabad on February 11. “We are in the process of identifying a suitable learning centre for the programme,’’ he added.
According to Ghosh, IGNOU promoted its first learning centre for sex workers in Kolkata in 2008, which has since educated over 300 women and children with some of them enroling for degree programmes. Moreover, IGNOU which has been offering bachelors and degree programmes to jail inmates in Gujarat is set to offer them Ph D programmes as well.
Odisha
Exam strike averted
Over 500,000 students across Odisha (formerly Orissa) who wrote the Matriculation examinations free of disruption in late February, had a close shave when the standoff between the state’s Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Orissa Secondary School Teachers’ Association (OSSTA) over education reforms, was resolved on February 18 following intervention of the state government. Simultaneously a relay hunger strike called by OSSTA before the BSE office the same morning, was called off in the evening.
“We will cooperate with BSE autho-rities during the conduct of examinations from February 25-March 9. We will also participate in evaluation of answer sheets subsequently,” confirmed OSSTA president Indumadhav Mohanty speaking to media personnel in Cuttack a day after the resolution.
Mohanty said a delegation of OSSTA office-bearers under his leadership met Odisha’s school and mass education minister Rabinarayan Nanda in Bhub-aneswar on February 19 together with BSE officials. “The minister assured us that instead of college teachers, retired school teachers will be deputed as members of special squads to ensure smooth conduct of school exami-nations,” he said.
Kerala
EDU City taking shape
Addressing newsmen in Thrissur on February 6, T. Balakrishnan, executive director of INKEL (Infrastructure Kerala Ltd), said “20 concrete proposals’’ for providing national and international education services in EDU City have been received.
Initially promoted as INKEL-KSIDC Projects Ltd, an education hub on 168 acres in Malappuram district, 25 km from Calicut International Airport, but now known as EDU City, Balakrishnan said the response from local investors in Thrissur, Palakkad, Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts is encou-raging.
According to him, the EDU City project will be completed in five years with an aggregate investment of Rs.2,000 crore. Related projects cleared include an international school, institutes of technical education, engineering and technology, schools of science, comm-erce, law and media, and an international B-school.
Arunachal Pradesh
Higher ed development grant plea
The government of Arunachal Pradesh has applied to the Centre for a one-time grant of Rs.281.17 crore for infrastructure development in all higher education institutions in the state. In a memo-randum to Union human resource development minister M.M. Pallam Raju, chief minister Nabam Tuki cited a resource crunch for the state govern-ment’s inability to provide basic infrastructure to 12 government degree colleges and three universities in Arunachal Pradesh.
“The funds provided are meagre and sufficient only for temporary buildings which are unsuitable for running degree colleges. In some of the colleges the existing capacity is for 1,500-2,000 students, but due to heavy rush for admissions the number of students is more than 4,000,” Tuki told media personnel in Itanagar on February 10.
In the memorandum, Tuki also highlighted that under the present scheme for promotion of model colleges, construction costs are shared by the Central and state governments in the ratio 50:50. “However, considering the resource crunch in most north-eastern states, it’s requested that full support may be provided to the scheme from the Centre or at best, the state’s share should be limited to 10 percent,” said Tuki.
Till such time the state has a medical college and a couple of more engin-eering degree colleges, the seats allocated by the Centre to Arunachal Pradesh in medical and engineering colleges outside the state may also be increased, the memorandum added. “Currently the Centre allots Arunachal Pradesh 24 seats in medical colleges outside the state, plus 150 engineering seats every year, which is too meagre. Therefore, medical seats may be increased to at least 50 and engineering to 300 for Arunachal Pradesh,’’ the chief minister said.
Haryana
School Nurture Policy
To create a pool of partners committed to strengthening the education sector, the Haryana education department intends to implement its School Nurture Policy, said education minister Geeta Bhukkal addressing a media conference in Chandigarh, on February 10.
According to Bhukkal, Haryana hosts 16,000 government primary and secondary schools catering to the educational needs of 2.6 million children mostly from low and middle income households. The state government is committed to providing free, compulsory quality education for all these children, she affirmed.
Outlining the salient features of the policy, Bhukkal said a nurturer needs to choose a school from a government list. “To adopt a school for all-round development or for any specific capacity building or training intervention, nurturers have to sign a memorandum of understanding with the education ministry. Quality education is the deciding factor in all aspects of this programme. However, as an entry point, the department has listed various possible interventions like capacity building and training, teaching-learning activities and support by way of construction of classrooms, drinking water, sanitation and playground facilities, apart from vocational and science education,” she said.
Swati Roy with bureau inputs