Maharashtra
Emerging education hub
With the newly constituted Gondwana University — sited in the heart of the Naxal insurgency affected Gadchiroli district — having admitted its first batch of students in August, the demand for a separate divisional office of the Maharashtra Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (MSHSEB) located here, is gaining ground. “Curr-ently, all education-related matters have to be approved by the Nagpur divisi-onal board, which is a drain on resour-ces and time,” said Bhaurao Patre, a senior office-bearer of Shikshak Bharti teachers organisation, while addressing the media in Gadchiroli on September 26.
According to Patre, the number of colleges affiliated with the university is 177. Moreover there are 217 high schools and over 100 junior colleges in the district, with the number increasing to 816 high schools and 579 junior colleges if institutions in the neigh-bouring Chandrapur district are taken into consideration. “These figures make a strong case for setting up a divisional office of MSHSEB in this district,’’ he said.
Jharkhand
Green light for higher education
By an order issued on September 11, the Jharkhand high court directed the state government to initiate steps towards setting up educational infra-structure on government-acquired land at Nagari, situated on the outskirts of the state’s capital Ranchi. While issuing its directive, the bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Chandra Tatia and Justice Jaya Roy observed that land acquisition was not dependent on the will of the people, and the state government should proceed to implement the project.
The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by two students on behalf of the National Law Unive-rsity, Ranchi, and Bar Association of the Jharkhand high court. The petitioners prayed for implementation of a project to establish a National Law University, Indian Institute of Management-Ranchi, and Indian Institute of Information Technology. They contended that the acquired land at Nagari was not fertile as contended by respondents to the petition.
Earlier on July 16, the high court had ruled out return of land acquired by the state government in Nagari way back in 1957-58. Following the court’s order, respondents who have been resisting the acquisition had pulled down a boundary wall at the site.
Kerala
State board approves LearnNext
The hyderabad-based Next Education India has customised its self-learning bestseller e-learning product LearnNext, for the Kerala State Examination Board. Thus far the company has customised LearnNext for 20 state boards countrywide for several subjects including maths, physics, chemistry and biology for classes VI-X, says a statement issued by Next Education.
“LearnNext content includes life-like animation to explain complex topics with practice tests for students to improve their comprehension of subjects. It also generates performance and comparative analysis reports based on the performance of all students who have taken online tests,’’ says a company spokesperson.
According to company sources, with an annual revenue of over Rs.100 crore Next Education is growing at 100 percent year-on-year, has over 800,000 registered customers including more than 50,000 students countrywide.
Haryana
NVEQF pilot project launched
A pilot project of the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) was launched in 40 secondary and higher secondary schools in Haryana on September 3, by Union minister of human resource development Kapil Sibal.
The centrally sponsored NVEQF provides financial support for infra-structure and capacity building in schools for introducing vocational courses, recruiting trained teachers and partnering with local enterprises for providing apprenticeships. “The frame-work is designed to enhance the employability of students in the job market and is based on a competency-based modular approach with provision for credit accumulation and transfer. NVEQF also provides for multiple entry and exit points at different stages within vocational education and maintains a link with mainstream education,’’ said Sibal, adding that one of the features of the programme is to provide locally relevant education leading to skills development, employability enhance-ment, and arresting dropout rates by bringing school dropouts back into the fold of formal and/or informal education systems.
Delhi
Assocham highlights capacity constraints
Over 600,000 indian students are forced to go abroad to pursue higher education at an aggregate price of Rs.95,000 crore annually, because of capacity constraints in quality education institutions in India, says the Delhi-based industry representative organi-sation Assocham. “Most students go abroad as they can’t get admission into quality institutions within the country. India has a huge capacity constraint when it comes to quality higher education. The answer is to establish high-standard institutions on the public-private-partnership (PPP) model,” says an Assocham study.
“Higher education in India is subsidised in the government sector. An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) student pays an average $150 (Rs.8,250) per month for tuition, while students opting for education in Australia and the US are forced to shell out $1,500-4,000 (Rs.82,500-220,000) per month as fees,” says Assocham secretary general D. S. Rawat.
The study also suggests that premier foreign universities should be encou-raged to start campuses in India, especially in tier-II cities such as Agra, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Nagpur. “Setting up more higher education institutions will create 30-40 million additional jobs in the education sector,” says Rawat. Increasing comp-etition with cut-offs in some universities rising to as high as 100 percent, forces students to search for alternatives abroad, he added.