Educations In Bihar

The committee said a hike was necessary for IITs to cope with the rising cost of education and running the Institutes, a view also shared by the ministry.

Sources said the new fees structure would be effective from the new academic session. The new fee structure would be applicable to all IITs, including the three new one being set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

The last fee hike in IITs was effected in 1998 and since the cost of education on account of infrastructure and faculties has gone up, the ministry accepted the fee hike proposal, they said.

The institute, which has recently shifted from the A N Sinha Institute campus to Hindi Bhawan at Chajjubagh, is busy screening the applications received from the aspirants from different parts of the country. Call letters for group discussion (GD) and interview of the short-listed candidates are likely to be dispatched soon. Candidates securing a minimum score of CAT/GMAT examination would be short-listed for GD and Interview.

Institute director V Mukundadas said 50 per cent of the total 60 seats are reserved for students belonging to Bihar. Besides, 50 per cent seats are reserved for SC, ST and OBC category students. The institute has also plans to provide special training to SC/ST category students and secure easy study loan to poor students.

The recruitment of full-time faculty members is in progress. Two faculty members, namely, Maitreyi Kollegal and Amitabh Desmukh, have been appointed by a recruitment committee consisting of three senior faculty members from IIM . While Kollegal, a doctorate from IIM, Ahmedabad has served Swashakti Project, Drinking Water Mission in Gujarat and Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore, Desmukh, an MBA from Stockholm University, has served as the chief manager of State Bank.

Both the new faculty members said they have accepted the present assignment as a challenge and would utilise their experiences in building the institute as a centre of excellence. They would not make any compromise with the quality of education and would work for the development of the state.

In fact, guardians have been forced to purchase these textbooks at much higher rates than the price tag in order to ensure that studies of their children are not affected.

Siddharth, a student of Class VIII of KV (Bailey Road), said: "We have been asked to download the relevant chapters from the Internet. In addition, I've have to spend an extra amount of money at the cyber cafe everyday for this."

Ipshita has a similar tale to tell. She said it was only after a frantic search that her father managed to procure the social science and Sanskrit textbooks from a Kazanchi Road bookstore. "And he had to pay a much higher than the printed price," the Class V student of KV said.

Pinak Chaudhary, a student of Class VIII of DPS, said: "Most students in my school are yet to get their textbooks. We also bank on the Internet to download chapters."

Professor A Nath was the contact scientist of the programme. She is at present the head of research centre of Sansthan.

Science and technology minister Sahid Ali Khan, speaking on the occasion, stressed on the need to impart science education to students of rural schools. He said the government of Bihar has sanctioned funds for science laboratory of all Plus Two schools. He said the students, who attended the motivation programme, were budding scientists of Bihar who in the future can explore the world through their knowledge. The minister said he would help the Sansthan in the coming months in organising more such programmes.

Cabinet secretary Girish Shankar, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said it was his privilege to interact with the students of motivation programme for the last seven years.

He said science was growing fast and there was need of motivating science students of rural schools and colleges. Sansthan secretary Jiya Lal Arya expressed hope that the programme would help the students to develop their talent.

The students also burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for 'playing politics with the future of Patna University' while also failing to protect the teachers and students who were peacefully demonstrating near the Income Tax roundabout.

Members of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) barged into each class and forced the students to leave with a nudge-nudge, wink-wink from the teachers as well who are supporting the demand for the status of Central University for Patna University.

Prof. Randhir Kumar Singh said that Nitish Kumar should take initiative for central status for Patna University.

"When universities like Goa University, Ghasiram University, and Sagar University can be granted central status without any precondition then why such discrimination with Patna University?" Singh asked adding the Chief Minister should put pressure on the UPA government for central status for Patna University.

"Even after the recent appointment of around two lakh new teachers, the state government proposed to appoint 90,000 more teachers to maintain the basic teacher-student ratio," Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.

"Our priorities continue to be key sectors like health, education, road construction, industry and infrastructure for which we have evolved mechanisms to ensure achievement of the 2008-09 target," he said.

The state government has also decided to construct 3,450 km roads under the state plan and 800 km of state highway along with 399 bridges under the Chief Minister Bridge Construction Scheme.

He said that the government also proposed to repair 3,244 km roads and construct 1,008 km of rural connectivity roads under the Chief Minister Rural Area Connectivity Scheme.

"We will construct 5,000 new houses for urban poor in 20 cities in the state, overhaul the drainages, sewerages and develop other infrastructure facilities in Patna and Bodh Gaya under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission," the Deputy Chief Minister said.

On the health sector, Modi said that three medical colleges would be set up at Pawapuri, Bettiah and Madhepura and 15 sub-divisional hospitals would be constructed on a priority basis.

According to industry insiders, this is also likely to mean that MBA aspirants now have to fork out more for their coaching as well. That's because the coaching centres have to incur a significant investment towards infrastructure , HR and intellectual bandwidth to adapt to the changing trend. And the costs involved in the exercise are likely to be passed on to students.

And there are plenty of them! For the number of CAT students has been growing steadily. In 2006, it was 1.8 lakh-plus and for CAT 2007, it crossed the 2.3 lakh mark. In 2008, the figure may cross 3 lakh. And it's estimated about 50% of them take coaching at various institutes. All the more reason, why coaching institutes need to step up to the challenge. However, the lack of clarity on the modalities of the online exam is proving to be an impediment.

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Japan, which was slated to collaborate with the new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to come up in Bihar, is now not keen on doing so. Instead, the Japanese are putting their pie on the IIT that is to be set up in Andhra Pradesh.

Besides Japan, the UK and the US are also looking at joining hands with one of the three IITs to be established in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in phase I of the plan to increase the number of IITs.

Last year, the Indian government had approached Japan with the idea of tying up with the IIT slated to come up in Bihar. A concept note to that effect was also handed over to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his visit to India in August last year.

However, when the two countries talked the deal out across the table, Japan expressed its reservations about supporting the IIT-Bihar initiative. An Indian delegation had recently visited Japan to spell out the details of the collaboration and introduce the Japanese to the functioning of the IIT system.

Members who were part of the team said the Centre had tried to push the Buddha connection, but the Japanese weren't convinced. Sanjeev Sinha, director (new business group), UBS Investment Bank, and the mediator between the Indian and Japanese governments, told TOI from Tokyo, "The law and order problem in Bihar makes it our last choice. But between Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, there is a high inclination to associate with the IIT to come up in Hyderabad. Not only is international access better there, we believe that it is also progressing the best in terms of time."

The Japanese government is likely to send its confirmation on Hyderabad later this month. A Japanese delegation will visit New Delhi on April 30, added Sinha, also the president of the IIT Alumni Association in Japan.

Earlier, the Japanese were keen on supporting the IIT that is likely to come up in Rajasthan.

"The college has now been entitled to admit 100 students in UG course,” he said. The NMC at present has 50 seats for the UG courses.

Rai said the government was also trying to introduce post-graduate (PG) courses in the college. He also announced that funds would soon be provided for construction of an auditorium in the college.

Addressing the function, state human resources development (HRD) minister Brishen Patel underlined the need to start a welfare scheme for the doctors and urged them to make efforts in this direction.

The inaugural session was preceded by the scientific session during which Dr Madhusudan Das and Dr V N Singh memorial lectures were delivered.

Delivering Dr Madhusudan Das memorial lecture, noted physician Dr S N Arya spoke at length about hypertension and obesity and underlined the need of lifestyle correction to manage these two ailments.

Delivering Dr V N Singh memorial lecture, urologist Dr Akhileshwar Kumar Sinha spoke at length about appendixetomy and recalled the contribution of Dr Singh in introducing button hole surgery for appendicitis.

Terming the Wednesday's function as a memorable one, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) principal Dr C B Chaudhary thanked the participants for sparing time from their busy schedule to take part in the function.

A large number of NMC Alumni Association members, including its treasurer Dr Harihar Dixit, were also present on the occasion.

Bihar government has from time to time taken positive decisions for improvement of education and literacy in the state but in spite of all the Herculean efforts made by the state government, the state has consistently been reported very poor. The National University of Educational Planning and Administration, according to its latest statistics on `Elementary Education in India', has reported Bihar at 35th position.

One would feel I am writing an advertorial for the Bihar government but there is another aspect to the coin. The decision of unaided education policy was taken long back to fight with the lack of funds to create infrastructure and also due to the state's inability to create new teaching posts and pay for the same. Initially, it seemed to be working but as everybody knows, in a state like Bihar where most of the poor people preferred sending their children to factories and mines than to government schools providing free of cost education, it was indeed very difficult for such institutions to get financially strong students capable of paying enough fees for running such educational institutions.

The most glorified slogan that teaching is not a profession but a mission actually proved to be a cliché because of the simple fact stating that a person whenever joins a job, he or she does so to earn something to support the family.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, while making this announcement on Monday in both the Houses of the state legislature separately, said that the grants would be directly linked to the performance of students of such institutions in examinations. The condition is aimed at improving the quality of education in the state.

The amount would be given to managing committees of these unaided institutions instead of its faculty members. The state government would have an additional financial burden of nearly Rs 150-200 crore per year, said HRD principal secretary Anjani K Singh. The exact amount would be worked out later, Singh told TOI.

The chief minister, amid applause from members in both the Houses, said that unaided degree colleges and schools would be given grants on the basis of the performance of their students in various examinations every year. The institutions would be put in three categories. A sum of Rs 5,500 would be given to degree colleges for every first division while for second divisions they would get grants at the rate of Rs 5,000. For third divisions, the amount would come down to Rs 4,500 per year per student. For girls, an additional Rs 300 would be given for every first division, Rs 200 each for second and third divisions.

Similarly, in higher secondary schools, the amount would be Rs 4,500 for every first division, Rs 4,000 for second and Rs 3,500 for third. For girls, an additional Rs 200 would be given in all the three categories.

Secondary schools would be getting a sum of Rs 3,500 for every first division, Rs 3,000 for second and Rs 2500 for third. For girls, an additional Rs 200 would be given in all the three categories, said Nitish.

Even as the Union cabinet decision to set up a world class university in Patna has been welcomed by the academics in general, the teachers and students of 90-year-old PU still remain an unhappy lot. Their long pending demand for conversion of PU into a Central university has been ignored by the Centre.

Private unaided schools, that is schools that don't receive funds from the government, will not lose out financially. The government will foot the bill for the disadvantaged students on the basis of what it sets aside per child in government-run schools. The government spends roughly Rs 1,700 per child as against an average of Rs 1,100 by a private school.

However, if the school has received concessions, such as cheaper land, in lieu of a promise to provide for disadvantaged children, then there will be no payment involved, as is the case in many of Delhi's private schools.

TIME TO BRIDGE THE DIVIDE
Private Unaided schools will not lose out financially. The government will foot the bill for the disadvantaged students on the basis of what it sets aside per child in government-run schools.
If The school has received concessions, such as cheaper land, in lieu of a promise to provide for disadvantaged children, then there will be no payment involved, as is the case in many of Delhi's private schools.
The Other category of schools -- private aided, that is schools that receive substantial grants, more than 51%, from the government -- would have to provide for children from the neighbourhood, to the limit of the concession if need be to full capacity.

The other category of schools -- private aided, that is schools that receive substantial grants, more than 51%, from the government -- would have to provide for children from the neighbourhood, to the limit of the concession if need be to full capacity. These aided school system has a strong presence in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In Kerala, this sector accounts for 60% of elementary schools and 20% in Tamil Nadu.

The decision is significant considering that it will benefit thousands of students who take CAT each year. 2,30,000 students appeared for CAT last year and the numbers are expected to increase to more than 3,00,000 in 2008. According to sources close to the development, the IIMs are contemplating, that instead of a single day, CAT will be conducted online for almost 15 days, during which the students will have the choice to take the exam. Initially, though, the IIMs were contemplating a time period of 30 days.

"The initiative will be rolled out in 2009. The idea is to provide a time window, whereby students can take the examination within the stipulated period," said IIM Lucknow director Dr Devi Singh. The last forum of IIM directors' was held at IIM Lucknow on February 21. An additional reason, though, to take the CAT online is to reduce the time spent on administration and evaluation process. However, when ET contacted IIMAhmedabad director Prof Samir Barua, he said, he has "no comments to offer on the recent development."

The decision comes after a long wait. According to sources, the first directors' forum was held in July 2007 where Prometric, one of the leading testing and assessment services firm, made a presentation to the directors of all seven IIMs. The pre-qualification bid document states that the service provider will undertake tasks right from application processing, test construction, test delivery, result processing to score reporting. Prometric, Attest Testing Services (a wholly owned subsidiary of Aptech) among various other testing and assessment services firms are expected to bid for the contract.

The JEE is arguably one of the toughest entrance examinations in the world, with 60-70 students vying for the 5,000-odd seats on offer. The competition is so intense that many coaching institutes, and indeed entire towns like Kota, specialise in training people to pass this test. This is a trend that clearly worried the wise old men at IIT. "We are looking for innate analytical abilities rather than people who have access to, or the money for, an intensive system," says an IIT director.

Three regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Distance Education Council (DEC), have jointly decided to allow all educational institutions to offer distance education courses subject to approval by a joint committee formed by them.

The UGC, earlier this month, approved an agreement with the AICTE and DEC, for setting up the joint panel, which will act as a "single window" approval mechanism for distance education. "It is a big leap for high quality distance education," said a UGC member.

This would mean that institutions would not have to run from one regulatory body to another to get approval for starting distance education courses. "The mechanism would be in place in a few months," an official said.

The AICTE has been entrusted with the job of monitoring distance education courses offered by technical education institutions while UGC will do the job in case of universities including deemed universities. The DEC will be the overall regulatory body for open education.

The panel will evolve a mechanism to monitor the institutions conducting courses or programmes in distance or mixed mode - distance plus institutional education. It will identify thrust areas and develop curriculum and learning methods to bring in uniformity in open education. The panel will also come out with guidelines to ensure quality in different programmes offered by the institutions.

With more than 7 lakh candidates appearing in matriculation tests in Bihar, the first day of the exams by and large remained peaceful with Section 144 imposed around all test centers under close vigil of senior police officials.

Students engaged in cheating were expelled in Madhepura (31), Arwal (22), Lakhisarai and Saharsa (17), Rohtas (16), Jehanabad (14), Gaya (13), and in Patna (10).

At Sri Daroga Prasad Rai High School in Chitkohra in Patna, students had to sit outside the school building to take test after a fear of chicken pox spread in the school. Several students were seen taking exams with their face covered with towels and handkerchiefs.

Students with physical disabilities, in a display of grit and determination to move forward in this extremely competitive world, were also seen taking exams at various centers.

About 769,000 students took the high school examination, which will continue till April 1.

"The first day's examination passed off peacefully and without any trouble as per information received till Tuesday afternoon," Anup Kumar Sinha, BSEB secretary told IANS on telephone.

BSEB has taken extensive measures to curb cheating for which the state has been quite notorious in the past, said Sinha.

"The examinations are being conducted at 1,094 centres with unprecedented measures put in place to curb cheating," he added.

The officials of the BSEB identified 200 centres as sensitive.

The BSEB has already ordered videography at all the centres to minimise cheating and set up a control room with telephone for round the clock vigil on the examination process.

"Special anti-copying squads have been deployed at the district level to keep strict vigil at each centre," said Sinha.

In Bihar, cheating in examination is rampant and any action to stop it has often led to violent protests.

The chairman clearly instructed the school authorities that students below the age of 4+ years must not be admitted in the pre-primary sections while 5+ years should be the ideal age for admission in the primary section, that is, Class 1.

In recent times, there has been lot of debate regarding use of radiation to enhance the color of gemstones, specially Topaz .

In U.S.A, all irradiation facilities and the import & export of radioactive material is regulated by  the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) (www.nrc.gov).

The USNRC has control over reactor-irradiated radioactive gems imported into USA and import of any such gemstone requires a license from USNRC.