Uttarakhand
Conditional land grants
The state government will provide land on lease to reputed private educational institutions to promote schools in the state’s hilly areas which lack educational facilities. This government resolution was confirmed by an official communique issued by chief minister Harish Rawat in Dehradun on October 20.
However, educational institutions willing to start campuses in hilly areas are required to fulfill several conditions to become eligible for land lease grants. First, new campuses will be obliged to reserve 30 percent seats for children of state government employees and local residents. Secondly, the state government will determine the tuition fees payable for children admitted under the reserved category. Moreover, the schools must hire local residents for clerical and class IV jobs.
Haryana
Great LEP forward
A learning enhancement programme (LEP) specially developed to improve education quality in government-run schools, is set to become operational in the state’s 3,222 primary schools.
Under this state government initiative designed in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (USA), 18,000 primary school teachers have been trained over the past month. The programme will be gradually rolled out to all 3,222 government schools statewide and will benefit more than 600,000 students, a Haryana government spokesperson informed media personnel in Chandigarh on October 11.
Under the programme, the first school hour of all 3,222 schools will be observed as ‘LEP hour’ during which teachers, assisted by specially trained NGO volunteers, will use textbooks specially curated by the State Council of Educational Research and Training for the programme.
“The goal of this programme is to ensure all students acquire the competence levels of previous classes. This is an urgent need,” says Haryana’s secretary of school education, T.C. Gupta.
Rajasthan
Caste discrimination arrest
In a shocking reminder that caste-based discrimination is pervasive across large swathes of rural India, Hemaram, a government secondary school teacher in a village near Jodhpur, was arrested for allegedly beating an 11-year-old Dalit student for “touching the plates kept for non-Dalit students”.
According to the boy’s father Malaram, who filed a police complaint, the incident came to light when the child was found crying after returning from school. When Malaram personally met the teacher to protest, he was subjected to casteist abuse.
“We visited the spot and recorded the statements of students and teachers after which we arrested Hemaram,” a senior police official informed media personnel in Jodhpur on October 4.
Meanwhile, the state’s education ministry has suspended the accused teacher and ordered a departmental enquiry. Nutan Bala, deputy director (secondary education), confirmed Hemaram’s suspension, and said he has been ordered to report to the Jodhpur office of the ministry.
Gujarat
GFSU-CIT concordat
The Gujarat Forensic Science University (GFSU) and Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a students, teachers and technology exchange programme. The MoU was signed by GFSU representatives and Australia’s education minister Joy Burch and trade commissioner Tom Calder.
“The two institutions have agreed to establish a friendly inter-college relationship and promote personnel exchanges, mutual understanding and develop academic exchanges between students and faculty members. The two institutions will carry out bilateral academic exchanges in forensic science, which includes cyber security, digital forensics and biometrics,” says an official communique issued in Ahmedabad on October 2.
Himachal Pradesh
Poor facilities for challenged students
Umesh Lubana (22) is the first visually challenged student from Himachal Pradesh to pass the University Grants Commission (UGC)-conducted Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) test — the first step towards admission into a Ph D/research programme.
Currently a political science postgraduate student at Himachal Pradesh University, Lubana passed the test in the general category. Late last year, he also cleared the UGC-conducted NET (National Eligibility Test) — the qualifying exam for entry level appointment as assistant professor in Central government universities.
Addressing media personnel in Shimla on October 2, Umesh called for greater institutional support for challenged students.
“There are hardly any facilities for blind students in schools, colleges and universities of Himachal Pradesh. We need computers with voice software in libraries plus digital books and other assistive devices. But no college or university in the state subscribes to e-journals for the visually challenged,” he lamented.