IIM-A students opt for Chinese

Future managers at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) are working hard to master one of world's most difficult languages — Mandarin. About 70 out of 380 second-year students have opted to learn Chinese as a foreign language this year to improve their job prospects. More students are opting for the language as an elective than other languages like French and German, which were considered 'cool' on the campus for long. The 25-session course had to be divided into two classes this year to accommodate students for the elective. The response to the course, which was formally introduced in 2009 with a class of 45 students, has been so overwhelming that the institute is now planning to roll out a course on 'Doing Business with China'. Sunil Chhipa, a student who enrolled himself for Business Chinese, said, "China is the second best option to work for me after India. I took up the elective based on student feedback from previous years. The course has been designed to give us a brief idea on the language, cultural differences, norms and business environment in China." "China is the big elephant and people have realized that they will have to deal with China now. So they want to equip themselves," said IIM-A communications professor MM Monippally. The institute has also roped in a professor from China's Tianjin University of Finance and Economics as visiting faculty. Liyan Zhang, who has just wrapped up her session for the year, said, "China's growth is one of the biggest global trends and the students will come across some aspect of the Chinese culture wherever they travel today. We offer a lot of information on how to do business with China through the elective." IIM-A introduces, continues or drops a course based on the demand for a particular elective and the changing business environment. The institute gives 50% weightage on grasping the language and the remaining weightage is for understanding the cultural differences.

IIT cut-off shoots up this year

The merit list cut-off mark for this year’s counselling to Indian Institute of Technology has increased drastically from last year’s 190 to 229 for the general category.

Prof V. Kamakoti, chairman, joint entrance examination (JEE) 2011 in IIT Madras, told Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday that as the number of negative markings in this year’s JEE was less and the questions were tougher than last year’s, the cut-off mark increased.

“Of the 4,68,240 students who appeared for JEE this year, 13,602 cleared the examination for 9,618 seats of which 2,195 students (about 23 per cent of the total number) were from the Madras zone consisting of Tamil Nadu, Puducher-ry, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This year, other backward caste (OBC) and scheduled caste students performed well,” he said.

This year, there is no SC preparatory list as the number of successful SC candidates is more than the available SC seats.

A press release from IIT Kanpur, the organising IIT for JEE this year, said 4,332 students in the open category, 2,545 students belonging to OBC, 1,950 from SC, 645 ST and 146 physically challenged students passed the exam.

24,000 Eamcet rankers fail Inter

As many as 24,000 students who qualified in Eamcet this year have become ineligible for admission into engineering and medical courses after they failed in Intermediate exams (plus two).

The 25 per cent weight given for Intermediate marks to determine ranks in Eamcet also changed the prospects of several toppers. Some of them slid down the rank list while others went missing from the Top 10 chart when JNTU-Hyderabad on Wednesday released Eamcet ranks.

However, Mohammed Gouse Jani, son of an auto driver in Vizag, who created a sensation by securing 159 out of 160 in Eamcet engineering stream retained his “state topper” status even after the Intermediate marks were given their due weight.

A student of Narayana Group, Gouse Jani secured “state first rank” by scoring 100 per cent marks in Maths, Physics and Chemistry in Intermediate.

Ravinuthala Lalitha, a student of Sri Chaitanya, secured “state first rank” in medical stream.

While students from Narayana Group secured nine out of top10 ranks in engineering stream and three out of the top 10 in medical stream, students from Sri Chaitanya Group secured six ranks out of the top 10 in medical stream and one rank in engineering stream.

In engineering stream, the Narayana students who figured in the top 10 include Mohammed Gouse Jani (first rank), Boyapati Pallavi (third), Satyavolu Sai Nitish (fourth), Yangala Lakshmipathi (fifth), B.Sai Krishna (sixth), Koneru Kiran Babu (seventh), Malde Nishit Ketan (eighth), Ayesha Yasmeen (ninth) and Buddi Ramchandran (tenth rank).

Likewise, in the medical stream, Narayana students Challa Madhuri got fifth rank, Dushyant Ramkrishnan seventh rank and K. Amulya Reddy ninth rank.

Of the 10 toppers in the medical stream, six were from Sri Chaitanya Group. While Ravinuthala Lalitha got first rank, Narapaneni Kiranmayee came second, M. Rahul third, Sri Lakshmi Thota fourth, Muddala Durga Prasad sixth, V. Sai Kiran eighth and Syed Khalid Hashmi tenth.

A. Janardhan Reddy, a student of Sri Chaitanya, secured second rank in engineering stream. However, he took admission in IIT-Madras recently as he secured seventh rank in the OC category in IITJEE this year.

Of the failed candidates, 20,031 students had qualified in Eamcet engineering stream and 3,066 in medical stream. Apart from this, another 896 students who qualified in engineering stream and 452 students who qualified in medical stream have not submitted their mark memos to Eamcet officials resulting in non-allotment of ranks.

The 25 per cent weight has also reshuffled the top 10 ranks. In engineering stream, Boyapati Pallavi, who stood at the top along with Gouse Jani by securing 159 marks, got third rank.

A. Janardhan Reddy went up to second rank from third rank while Satyavolu Sai Nitish retained his fourth position. Koneru Kiran Babu went down from fifth to seventh place and Yangala Lakshmi Pathi improved his position from sixth to fifth place. B. Sai Krishna went up to sixth place from seventh. Buddi Ramcharan’s place came down to tenth from eight.

Sridhar Kandimalla and M.V.S. Raghavendra who stood at ninth and tenth places respectively earlier failed to make it to the Top 10 list. Their places were occupied by Malde Nishit Ketan (eighth rank) and Ayesha Yasmeen (ninth rank).

In medical stream, M. Rahul, who stood at first place earlier, went down to third rank. Ravinuthala Lalitha jumped from second to first place and Narapaneni Kiranmayee improved her position from third to second.

Sri Lakshmi Atthota retained her fourth position while V. Saikiran came down to eighth place from fifth. Muddala Durga Prasad retained his sixth position and Challa Madhuri improved her place from seventh to fifth while Dushyant Ramakrishnan jumped from eighth to seventh.

At the same time, Jakkala Sri Lakshmi Durga Tejaswani and Pilla Rakesh who stood at eighth and ninth place earlier failed to make it to the Top 10 list. They were replaced by A. Amulya Reddy (ninth rank) and Syed Khalid Hashmi (10th rank).

Disabled students to get extra time in board exams

With an aim to help blind, physically challenged, spastic, dyslexic, autistic and students with other disabilities attend all questions in class X and XII board examinations, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has ordered all schools to provide one hour extra time for three-hour examinations.
Highly-placed sources in CBSE told Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday that the board had sent a circular to all schools with amendments in exam rules for centre superintendents.
“Blind, physically challenged, spastic, dyslexic, autistic and students with other disabilities shall have the facility of having additional time beyond the maximum time provided to answer the question paper. For a three-hour exam, the student would be given one hour extra, for 2.5 hour – 50 minutes additional time, for two-hour exam – 40 minutes more and for 1.5-hour exam, the student would be allowed to take 30 minutes extra,” the sources said.
The board has also advised schools to provide seats on the ground floor for students with disability.
CBSE had implemented several changes helping the physically challenged pursue education at their own pace, like exemption from studying third language up to class VIII, permission to use an amanuensis. Blind, physically challenged and spastic students are provided amanuensis (person skilled in transcription of speech) free of cost.
Alternative type questions are provided in lieu of questions having visual inputs for blind candidates in English communicative and social science for class X, and history, geography and economics for class XII.
Separate question papers with enlarged font are
provided for mathematics and science subjects in class X.

Private schools free to fix their own fees, says Sibal

In what comes as a blow to the efforts of city parents' associations which have been campaigning for reining in school fees, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday that the fees of private schools cannot be regulated and that each school had the right to fix the salaries of its teachers.

Sibal's claims contradict provisions in the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, which stipulate that remuneration of teachers in private schools cannot be less than their counterparts in government schools. The minister said this contradiction will go away once the Right to Education Act is implemented from April 1 this year ^ implying that the central Act will override the state law.

``There is no such provision in RTE,'' Sibal said about the salaries of teachers while addressing principals at the 37th annual meet of National Progressive Schools' Conference -- a group of nearly 110 private unaided schools in the city.

``The salaries of teachers in private schools do not have to be according to the government. They will decide to pay what they want to pay,'' he declared, while countering a speaker at the meet who had earlier said that small schools, which are now mushrooming in the city, did not have quality teachers because they could not afford to pay good salaries.

While all schools were not required to pay Rs 22,000 (the minimum basic salaray as per the Sixth Pay Commission) to their teachers, there should be no compromise on the qualification of teachers, he added.

The minister's new announcement indicates that private schools in the city may finally get a free hand in deciding teachers' salaries and consequently the fees, much to the dismay of parents. There have been many protests against schools hiking their fees last year. After the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented in the second half of 2008, schools sought to hike their fee to generate revenue to pay the teachers more.

Delhi government then formed the Bansal Committee to decide how much fee a school could be allowed to increase and issued a notification in this regard on February 11 last year.

According to section 9 of chapter IV of the Delhi School Education Act 1973, private schools need to pay salaries at a par with government schools. ``The scales of pay and allowances, medical facilities, pension, gratuity, provident fund and other prescribed benefits of the employees of a recognized private school shall not be less than those of the employees of the corresponding status in schools run by the appropriate authority.''

However, according to Sibal, this act will be rendered ineffective from April 1. ``Once the Right to Education (RTE) is implemented, the Delhi School Education Act will not apply.'' RTE Act has already been notified.

On regulation of fees, Sibal referred to the T M Pai case saying, ``The Supreme Court has also said that fees of private schools cannot be regulated and yet some state governments have passed such acts,'' he told the teachers present.

The minister said he has also moved a malpractices bill under which all schools will have to give details of their infrastructure, number of students, salaries of teachers etc on their website. If the online information is found to be false, the school can be prosecuted.

As per the provisions of RTE, all unaided private schools operating in a city should be recognized. Sibal said that the bill did not aim at shutting down unrecognized schools. ``Our purpose is to enhance infrastructure and quality of private unaided schools,'' he said.

IIT-D engineers way to harvest organs

For patients with severely dysfunctional organs, transplant becomes the last option but finding a compatible donor to replace the organ is an uphill task. However, such patients won't have to lose sleep looking for donors and compatibility, if biodegradable scaffolds, developed by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), turn into a reality.

In collaboration with AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh, the institute has created scaffolds on which stem cells can be grown into tissues, which then develop into a full organ. The organ thus developed can be used for transplantation. At present, these scaffolds — made of biodegradable polymers — are being used for animal testing in Paris.

Explaining that this marvel of tissue engineering has an edge over the traditional donor system of organ transplantation, professor Bhuvanesh Gupta from the bioengineering group, textile department, IITD, said: "Since a new organ can be developed on the scaffolds using patient's own cells, there will be no need of finding a donor. There will be no chances of rejection either like in a normal organ transplant."

The technology requires making a scaffold which is like a mould using a biodegradable polymer. It is developed by knitting the polymer for an organ like a bladder, which needs expansion. For tubular structures like a blood vessel, it's braided. Once a scaffold is ready within a week, it is coated with protein so that it becomes bio-receptive allowing cells to grow easily.

"A very small amount of native cells can be taken from the healthy part of a patient's dysfunctional organ through biopsy. The cells are then seeded on the scaffold to form a tissue patch. Developing a scaffold that favours cells' growth is crucial," explained Professor Gupta. The new organ thus formed on the scaffold can be transplanted in the body. "The scaffold degrades in the body within a few months leaving behind a well-functioning organ. It's like harvesting your own organ," Gupta added.

Stem cells can also be used in place of native cells. Stem cells can be used to form the tissue of any organ while native cells can only form the organ from which they are extracted.

The scaffolds are the result of a 10-year-long research by Professor Gupta and Professor Alok Ray from IITD's centre for Biomedical Engineering. The IIT team, which includes four students, has worked with Professor J Hilborn from University of Uppsala in Sweden, Professor Didier Letourneur from Bichat Hospital and Professor Joelle Amedee from University of Bordeaux in France in this research. The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and also the European Union are funding the project.

"We have developed biodegradable scaffolds based on polylactic acid copolymers in the form of tubular as well as knitted structures for the blood vessel and urinary bladder reconstruction. Seeding the cells on these scaffolds is done by AIIMS and PGI Chandigarh group," Professor Gupta said. Cells grow beautifully on these scaffolds. If successful, the process can be used for treating ailments of the bone by developing cartilage and for treating burn injuries by developing skin tissues. The scaffolds will be especially useful for cardiac patients as they can avoid by-pass surgery and also be used for developing liver if the original one fails due to Hepatitis. "We have to go a long way to make the scaffold technology useful for humans. But the work is on," Gupta said.

Students roar for Telangana

The Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee on Sunday asked students of educational institutions in Telangana to adopt a “Gujjar style” in their agitation for statehood.

The JAC, which conducted its Vidyarthi Garjana at Arts College on the OU campus, spelt out details of the agitation which includes plans to block railway tracks and highways on January 5, when the Centre will hold its all-party meet on Telangana statehood.

The campus and surrounding areas echoed with ‘Jai Telangana’ slogans as lakhs of students converged on the campus. The meeting went off peacefully though there were occasional provocative remarks made by some JAC leaders.

The JAC passed several resolutions demanding introduction of the Telangana statehood Bill directly in Parliament as per Article 3 of the Constitution, without waiting for an Assembly resolution as the Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram had set out in the T-plan.

The JAC demanded payment of Rs 10 lakh ex gratia to the students who died in the pro-statehood agitations, apart from giving a government job to a member of the victim’s family.

The JAC resolved that Hyderabad is an integral part of Telangana and that Andhra and Rayalaseema have no right on it. They criticised the Telangana ministers for taking back their resignations even before the Centre made a clear statement on T-state.

During the course of the meeting, JAC leaders made calls to violence. One said, “We will attack Gandhi Bhavan and NTR Bhavan (party headquarters of the Congress and the Telugu Desam) if they try to obstruct formation of Telangana state.” Another said, “We will not allow people from Andhra to return (to the city) after their Sankranti vacation.”

“We will not allow those who speak against Telangana to live in Hyderabad,” another leader said, while one more added: “No Telangana student will appear for exams till the bifurcation process is initiated,”

A student leader, “We will not allow buses and trains from Andhra to Telangana on January 5,” and asked the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu to break his silence on Telangana. They also warned the Lok Satta chief, Mr Jayaprakash Narayan, to stop lobbying against Telangana in New Delhi.

Telangana statehood,Trs news, hyderabad hot news, hyderabad city, hyderabad news,Telugu News,Telugu,andhra,telangana,

2 lakh students take to streets for T

On the call given by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of private educational institutions, over two lakh students in the city and elsewhere in the district, took to the streets from 10 am to 12 noon, raising pro-Telangana slogans on Tuesday. On NH 202, students also took out pro-Telangana rallies at different places, blocking traffic from Warangal to Eturanagaram.

At Kakatiya University (KU) where nine KU JAC members are on a fast-unto-death since Monday, people from all walks of life including students and local politicians thronged the hunger strike site at SDLCE, KU to extend moral support.

The KUJAC, which is part of the Telangana Students’ JAC consisting of all six universities in the T-region, has banned the use of party flags in the varsity.

“Those who come to express solidarity with the agitating students have been requested not to carry any party flag to the hunger strike site as the T-agitation should not be given a political colour,” said Mr K. Vasudeva Reddy, KUJAC Warangal district convenor.

Rallies by Intermediate, degree, PG, engineering, pharmacy, BEd and other professional courses students’ kept arriving in the campus. Those visiting the hunger strike site have pro-mised to sponsor all needs of the students including food, tents, water, placards, loudspeakers and others.

“The KU employees JAC has promised to provide us with food,” said Mr Vasudeva Reddy. On Tuesday, Mr Puli Ravi, Telangana NRIs’ JAC representative donated Rs 25,000 to the KUJAC.

Similarly, Mr ‘Karate’ Prabhakar, Praja Telangana (urban) president donated Rs 1.30 lakh to the KUJAC on Monday as ex-gratia for all T-victims in the district.

When TD politburo member Mr K. Srihari came to the KU, students demanded resignations of all Telangana TD politicians from their party. Assuaging their feelings, Mr Srihari said, “Telangana state is more important than the TD. If TD chief Mr N. Chandrab-abu Naidu says no to Telangana, we will be with you.”

Meanwhile, KUJAC me-mbers demanded immediate medical support for Kaviraj, an OU student, whose kidneys had failed during participation in the T-agitation.

Students may lose an academic year

Even as student union leaders and political parties are agitating for a separate Telangana state, forcing the city’s universities to stay shut for over a month, thousands of students studying in these universities and their affiliated colleges stand a risk of losing an academic year. JNTU and OU officials admit that if the current situation continues for another 15 days, nothing can be done to salvage the year. If the exams are not held soon, city professors fear the students will have to forego a whole year as they will be behind schedule.

What’s worse is the fact that agitating students are ready to “forego” this academic year for separate statehood and are calling it the “Telangana sadhana year.”

“We have been requesting the students to conduct their protests and attend classes simultaneously. If classes don’t start in the next couple of days, thousands of students might not get their degrees on time this year,” says Prof Sudarshan Rao, Principal, OU Arts college.

Caught in this crossfire are students of 300 engineering colleges and 98 MBA institutions affiliated to JNTU. The university which should have commenced its second semester by now, hasn’t yet completed its first semester exams. Prof. Lal Kishore, rector of JNTU says the chances of salvaging this academic year are slim. “We have lost 40 working days. This will adversely affect the prospects of final year students looking for jobs.”

Students who had plans to go abroad or appear for competitive examinations are also in panic mode. Y. Kiranmayee, an engineering student of OU College of Technology, says, “From this year onwards, they have permitted third year students to apply for GATE. The exam will have questions from the final year syllabus too. We haven’t even started our second semester classes yet. The political issue that is being debated on is important, but not at the cost of our careers.”

Srinisha Reddy, a final year M.Sc student couldn’t agree more. “After my final year, I plan to take up research. The last semester needs about four months of classes and laboratory work. If we don’t get our degrees on time, our career goals will take a beating.”

B. Ashok, student of VNR College of Engineering says, “To study abroad, we need recommendation letters and graduation certificates. We’ll lose six months if we can’t apply for the current intake.”

Prof Sudharshan Rao, adds, “We don’t mind working overtime to conduct classes in the two weeks of preparatory holidays and summer vacations. But the agitating students should cooperate.”

IAS clone for education sector soon

The Union human resources development ministry is contemplating setting up of an Indian Education Services (IES) for education administrators on the lines of other specialised civil services.

At a round table on teachers’ education held on Monday, the HRD minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, directed a group of experts to study and suggest how to start the proposed IES. The former education secretary, Mr Anil Bordia, will head the group which will submit its recommendation on how to establish the IES.

The proposal was put forth by the ministry as it hopes that such a dedicated service for education will help improve administration in the education sector which needs the officers to be well-versed with the subject. The idea to establish IES was planned in 1980s’ when P. V. Narasimha Rao was HRD minister.

Scholarships to all by Jan. 15

Post-matric scholarships to eligible students from all categories including economically backward classes will be sanctioned by January 15.

Addressing a media conference here on Thursday, V. Nagireddy, Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, said that this year about 26 to 27 lakh students from SC, ST, BC, EBC categories would be given scholarships worth Rs. 3,000 crore. All the welfare departments were provided with adequate budget and funds would not be an issue, he said.

He also indicated that government was thinking of enacting a legislation to prevent managements from demanding fee in advance from students eligible for scholarships. Out of the total applications, 10.62 lakh were renewal cases and 70 per cent of these students were already sanctioned scholarships and remaining would be covered by December 25, he said.
Sudden crisis

Admitting that there was some delay in disbursement due to sudden crisis in the State, he said with online processing extended even for renewal cases along with fresh applications for scholarships, the process was being expedited. The last date for submitting fresh applications for scholarships was December 31, he added.

A. Vidyasagar, Principal Secretary, BC Welfare said bulk of 26 lakh applications belonged to BCs.

Of about 15 lakh applications, 6.76 lakh applications for renewals were received so far and amount was released to 3.2 lakh students and others would get by December 25.

The amount for 6.8 lakh fresh applications would be released by January 15.

IGNOU admissions

Andhra Mahila Sabha’s College of Fine Arts and Media Education invites applications for admission into the following courses of IGNOU being offered at the college. The courses are B.C.A, PG Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication, Diploma in Tourism Studies, six-month certificate in Teaching of Primary School Mathematics, certificate course in Nutrition and Child Care and Certificate course in Business Skills. The last date for registration is December 24. For details contact 9396993646 and 040-27070052.

Students fall for the consultancy trap

Students fall for the consultancy trap

If the daunting economics of studying abroad is a dampner to your dreams of earning a foreign degree, a trip to the nearest foreign education consultancy will perk you up instantly. The promises made by them seem too good to be true. And that often is the case.

Students who rush in with last-minute application forms for the January 2010 intake don’t just secure admissions, but also get a twisted picture of student life abroad. Agencies conjure up an irresistible mirage for hopeful students — lower-than-expected living expenses, easy availability of part-time jobs, affordable accommodation etc., — leaving them ill prepared for rude reality.

A casual trip to a couple of educational consultancies will give different versions of the same story. When asked about the average student budget, Jaikrishna, director, Envoy Overseas Educational Consultants reassures, “A student’s expenditure can be anything between £250 to £300 per month, but with a part time job he can earn £8 per hour, which is the minimum wage in the UK.”

Shanti, from Impel Overseas Consultants Limited, however, quotes the minimum wage in UK for students as “£12 - £15”. Vasavi, at First Academy consultancy waves off the grim effects of recession, claiming, “Part time jobs are very easy to find. Almost every student who has gone abroad is earning enough to get by.”

Incidentally, the British government’s Direct.gov.uk clearly states that as of October 2009, the minimum wage is only £5.80!

For students, the benefits of a foreign education go hand in hand with immersing themselves in a new culture. But inadequate pre-planning and misinformation can lead to awkward, stressful economic problems. Karan G., a business entrepreneur who studied in the UK says, “The amount the counsellors quoted was what I took to the UK, but once I reached there I realised how expensive it actually was.” Some students wisely cast their research net wider and don’t rely only on the advice of a consultancy. Ankit Sondhi, restaurateur says, “A few of my relatives studied at the same university as I was planning to go to, so I knew what the living expenditure would be like. The amount that the consultancy agency had quoted was too little. I multiplied it twice and considered that as the right amount.”

Pranav M., Uni of Exeter alum, UK
Getting a part time job in the UK is not easy and with recession it is even more difficult. I used to be paid £5.53.

Yash Agarwal, Cornell alum, US
In the US, you’ll need at least $1,500 as living expenses per month. part time jobs pay minimum $10 per hour.”

Rashida Burani, Uni Sydney Australia
Set aside $1,200 for monthly expenses in Australia. jobs are hard to come by and you can’t be picky.

IIMs mull over holding another CAT in paper-pencil format

Are IIMs mulling over holding another CAT for admissions 2010? Stung by nationwide criticism on CAT bungling, the IIMs want to put the mouse away and go in for the paper-pencil format. It is learnt that those within the IIMs have suggested to the directors to consider holding another test before the HRD ministry thrusts it on them. The big question: will the ten-day exercise (computerised CAT) that concluded on Tuesday be declared null and void?

At a meeting of the IIMs of Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta last week, there were clear indications that the B-schools may have no choice but to conduct another test in the interest of thousands of IIM aspirants.

"Our main interest is in ensuring that we give each candidate a fair chance to write the test and the test at the end is a fair one. We always have an option of holding another one. The CAT committee has already prepared additional tests," sources said.

Education, IIMs News,IIMs Result

HRD minister Kapil Sibal too is unhappy. "He has cited the example of his predecessor M M Joshi who cancelled the test five years ago after a question paper leakage. The directors may well take a decision before the ministry directs them to do so. That will be embarrassing for the premier IIMs."

The IIMs have privately admitted that they could not conduct the computerised CAT 2009 in a foolproof manner as desired. The test was organised in 32 cities, 106 centres and 361 laboratories.

T-protest delays exams schedule

The volatile situation in the Telangana region has forced the state government to delay the announcement of the schedule for Eamcet, Icet, Edcet and other common entrance tests.

“We cannot announce the schedule for CETs at this moment. The situation is tense in Telangana region due to student agitations. Unless the situation improves, we cannot think of coming out with the schedule for CETs,” said Prof K.C. Reddy, the chairman of the AP State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE).

Normally, the APSCHE announces the schedule for CETs in November every year. It entrusts the responsibility to conduct each CET to various universities.

Though there will be no change in giving the responsibility of conducting the Eamcet to JNTU-Kukatpally, which has been conducting the exam for over a decade, there will be modifications in conducting

the other CETs such as Icet for MBA, MCA admissions and Edcet for B.Ed admissions.

The universities are concerned with the delay as they need to plan their semester exams based on the schedule announced for common entrance tests (CETs).

Once the job of conducting a particular CET is entrusted, the university concerned needs to make arrangements a few months in advance.

Most of the faculty is engaged in the process, from inviting applications, processing, hall tickets, preparation of question papers, identifying exam centres, valuation of answer scripts and announcement of results.

Education, trs, Trs news, hyderabad city, hyderabad hot news, emcet results in hyderabad,

CAT extended by a day

The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 for the management courses has been extended by a day to enable all the candidates, who could not take test due to technical glitches, to take the exam within this year’s testing period.

Now the CAT will conclude on December 8 instead of earlier schedule from November 28 to December 7.

On December 8, the tests will be held only in the morning sessions in 20 cities, including Bangalore, said a joint press release issued by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Prometric, which is conducting the computer-based test.

“We understand and regret the additional stress and inconvenience caused to the candidates who have not been able to take the test on their scheduled day due to technical difficulties,” said Ramesh Nava, vice-president and general manager, Prometric (Asia Pacific, Japan and Africa), in a statement.

“We are working with the IIMs to add an additional session on December 8 to accommodate all the candidates within the city they were originally scheduled,” he added.

While maintaining that the technical glitches were a result of virus and malware, Prometric stated that majority of these issues have been identified and eradicated. However, in case of any difficulty in conducting the test at the designated labs, the candidates will be informed via SMS a day before the test, the release added. As many as 1.12 lakh candidates have completed the test as on December 3.

Meanwhile, many affected candidates have received rescheduled test date.

Also, Prometric, based on feedback from candidates, has extended the hours of CAT Candidate Care contact 1800 103 9293.

Now candidates can contact the helpline from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. without having to wait much as Prometric has said that it has deployed more telephone lines and agents to respond to the queries.

Bangalore City, bangalore hot news, bangalore news, Education,

Firm conducting CAT leaked data?

Prometric, the company conducting the online Common Admission Test (CAT) to the IIMs, has been at the receiving end for the chaos and
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technological breakdowns plaguing the test this year. Now there are allegations that Prometric leaked the list of candidates registered for CAT to an online coaching portal.

Soon after registering for CAT, MBA aspirants from several parts of India received e-mails from the portal, offering to help them crack CAT in seven days. The portal has an alliance with a well-known CAT coaching class to share question banks for CAT preparation.

Both Prometric and the educational portal, however, denied any wrongdoing. An e-mail from Prometric quoted Ramesh Nava, its Asia-Pacific, Japan & Africa vice-president and general manager, as saying that the ‘‘security and integrity of the testing process, including the protection of candidate information are essential elements of Prometric’s global business’’. ‘‘We take this responsibility very seriously. Prometric maintains a sophisticated level of network security protocols that provide multi-layered protection of all data that comes into, or out of, our organisation. All data is encrypted during all phases of transmission to and from public and private networks,’’ the mail added.

It also said there were ‘‘any number of locations besides Prometric where general information regarding candidates’’ could be found and which could generate a soliciting of candidates and students. ‘‘None the less, Prometric constantly reviews all security processes and will diligently enact all adequate safeguards for the data that will be generated for the test taken by the candidates,’’ the e-mail said.

The education portal’s marketing head said the organisation had ‘‘strong work ethics’’. ‘‘We have used standard marketing tools to reach out to candidates. We have sent out e-mails to a huge number of people, whose details we have accessed from a variety of sources,’’ she added.

But the details in the e-mails received by CAT aspirants indicate otherwise. One of them went to Arks Srinivas, director of another CAT coaching class, who signed up for the CAT exam this year. ‘‘Even the names of candidates mentioned in the e-mail are in the same form that was used for CAT registration,’’ Srinivas said. ‘‘This has taken place on such a large scale that I do not think it could have been a coincidence. This leads me to believe that data on candidates was leaked. No other source would have such precise information on the CAT database.’’

T-stir may hit Inter calender

Many educationists want the Intermediate public exams, slated to begin on March 3, to be postponed after the government declared a two-week holiday for junior colleges and universities in the Telangana region.

Not even half of the syllabus has been covered yet in 900 government junior colleges.

However, the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) is averse to postponing the exams as it will affect the schedule of other exams including the Eamcet.

“A major portion of the syllabus in government junior colleges is yet to be completed. We are looking at all options before taking a final decision on postponing the exams,” said a senior official of BIE.

“If the Inter exams are postponed, it will lead to a delay in the announcement of results. This will impact the conduct of advanced supplementary exams. With the 25 per cent weightage of Intermediate marks in Eamcet being in force, it will impact the conduct of Eamcet as well. All this will hamper the admissions process for higher education courses and affect the academic year,” he added.

The decision has upset the academic calendar of many universities too. Semester examinations have been postponed twice this week.

With the 15-day christmas vacation beginning soon after, the varsities said this will affect the timing of final examinations.

JNTU-Hyderabad officials said they will have to reschedule the academic calendar to ensure the that this loss doesn’t affect the final examinations.

The government lecturers have termed the decision to declare holidays in junior colleges as ‘hasty’, saying that there is no justification in announcing holidays for junior colleges on the pretext of a “volatile situation” in universities.

The lecturers are worried about the ‘practical exams’ that would begin from February 3.

Many colleges lack laboratories and the officials were arranging for temporary laboratories and conducting practicals. These holidays have come as a setback for them.

Education, trs, Trs news, ap hot news,

In 3 yrs, English rises to No. 2 medium

While the Marathi manoos and various others fight over the supremacy of languages, English has quietly marched on and become the second largest primary schools, after Hindi.
In 2006, English as a medium of instruction was fourth -- behind Hindi, Bengali and Marathi in that order -- but by 2007 it had climbed to second place and grew even further in 2008, beginning to eat into the Hindi numbers too (see detailed report in the latest edition of TOI-Crest).

Regional language medium schools have witnessed steady erosion in their share over the years, and in some cases even in the absolute numbers, as parents seem to have decided that English is the passport to a bright future for their children.

Data collected by the National University for Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) as a part of DISE, the monitoring system developed for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, shows that the number of those opting for English medium from class I-VIII has grown by 150% between 2003 and 2008, while the number of students opting for Hindi grew by just 32%.

The count for 2008 is more robust than in previous years, says NUEPA. Of the total number of students surveyed by DISE, about 18.8 crore, data on the medium of instruction was available for over 92%. "The quality of data and its collection has vastly improved. However, the data pertains only to recognized schools. In most states, there are thousands of unrecognized schools, most of which are English-medium schools. Hence, the number of those studying in English-medium schools could actually be even higher," says Prof Arun Mehta of NUEPA.

The states with the highest number of students in English-medium schools have remained unchanged from 2004 till 2008 -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In the two top states, almost a fifth of all enrolled students are studying in English-medium schools. The top three are followed by Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka and Kerala in that order. Madhya Pradesh is the lone Hindi-speaking state in the list of the top 10 states in terms of enrolment in English medium.

The highest jump in the number of English-medium students between 2004 and 2008 was in Maharashtra, about 11 lakh, followed by Andhra Pradesh (9.7 lakh), Tamil Nadu (9.6 lakh), Delhi (5.5 lakh) and Jammu and Kashmir about 5 lakh.

Earlier, in 2006, most of the growth in English was in the southern states, barring Punjab and Gujarat, which also showed a jump in numbers. However, by 2008, many of the northern states too have joined the rush for English schooling. For instance, Haryana has recorded the highest growth, with the number of children in English-medium schools going up more than seven times between 2004 and 2008, from over 20,000 to 1.6 lakh.

Similarly, in Rajasthan, students opting for English schooling increased more than three times, from over 60,000 in 2004 to nearly 2.2 lakh by 2008. The growth between 2007 and 2008 alone was 130%.

Again, in Madhya Pradesh, the number of students opting for English schooling almost trebled from 1.6 lakh to 4.8 lakh. In Delhi, well over a third (37%) of all enrolled children are in English-medium schools while the proportion of those in Hindi medium has fallen from 76% to 61% between 2004 and 2008. As before, Punjab and Gujarat show substantial growth in English schooling with the number doubling in Punjab and going up more than three times in Gujarat.

IIM-A names 2 viruses that caused CAT chaos

The trouble with the computer-aided CAT exam was diagnosed as ‘Conflicer’ and ‘W32 Nimda’, the two viruses that attacked the system display of the test, causing it to slow it down.

Efforts are now on to quarantine the systems from these viruses to ensure smooth conduct in the remaining days. Tests at 47 labs were called off on the first two days and 33 labs on Monday, on account of this problem affecting nearly 8,000 aspirants who will be rescheduled.

Samir Barua, director of IIM-A, which is the nodal agency for conducting CAT in the country, told reporters on Monday, ‘‘Though there were precautions taken, with so much of technology involved, it is hard to keep the system foolproof. The 47 centres which reported problems on Day one, were kept shut on Day 2 so that they could be checked. On Day 3, 33 were shut, which include some new centres also,’’ said Barua.

‘‘All efforts are right now diverted to further isolate and quarantine the individual servers, increase virus protection and control accessibility so that the test can be conducted smoothly on the remaining days. These security measures are being taken not only in the centres that have experienced problems but all the others that were operating smoothly,’’ added Barua.

Charles Karnan, COO, Prometric, the US agency given the contract for CAT 2009 along with NIIT, said, ‘‘All the students who have suffered any difficulty in the taking the test will be accommodated, as all the centres were asked to keep a buffer in case of any such problem, right in the beginning. Of the 8,000 odd candidates that have faced problem, 62% have been rescheduled’’. ‘‘This is the biggest test we have conducted. Usually these many students take tests like GRE, GMAT or Toefl across the year, but here we had to complete the process in 10 days’’, he said.

Students facing problems at individual levels, have been asked to report to the Candidates Care Service at each centre. “Once their credentials are confirmed, they will be given a new test date and slot when they can appear for the test,’’ Satish Deodhar, Convenor, CAT Centre said. Asked how the three centres at Ahmedabad were glitch-free, Prof Satish Deodhar, convenor of CAT Centre said, ‘‘The centres here were able to keep their servers quarantined better.’’

Virus claim may trigger litigation
MUMBAI: With the online CAT to the IIMs turning chaotic — admission tests were cancelled at nearly 14% centres across the country owing to technical glitches — cyber experts say pinning of the blame on a virus attack may have worsened things for applicants.

Cyber guru Vijay Mukhi said the official explanation of a virus would open the doors for students to question the exams and approach courts to have it cancelled. ‘‘It could set a dangerous precedent if anyone goes to the court and court grants a stay,’’ he told, even as he questioned the virus claim. Cyber law advocates said a technical glitch is one thing, but admitting to a virus attack shows the online system may be tough to handle for authorities. Rajiv Kumar, a well-know lawyer, said the cancelled exams would give rise not only to question of inequality, but also denial of equal opportunity.