The initiative was launched in Delhi's Tihar Jail in 1994, but as a special gesture, the university has given the project a major impetus by declaring that the education it offers to jail inmates will, henceforth, be free.

"All jail inmates in the country will now be able to access free education as per their choice," the university informed in a statement. Students do not even have to pay examination or late fees.

"They can enrol themselves any time of the year, appear when they are ready to take their examinations and get certificates which will ensure them vocational advantage as well as access to quality life," the statement said.

Source: The Tribune IGNOU offers free education to jail inmates

The foreign locations include Dubai, Indonesia, Sharjah and Singapore. ICSE has 1,573 senior secondary and 733 secondary schools affiliated to it. In Delhi, however, only 221 students from two schools will appear for ICSE exams while 130 students are expected to take the class XII exam. Of all states, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of candidates -- 25,203 in class X and 18, 350 in class XII -- taking the exam under this Board. While class X exams would conclude on April 6, all papers of class XII will be over by April 8.

For class X, the exam starts at 11am, except for the four art papers which would start at 9am. Students would get the question paper 15 minutes prior to the start of the exam for understanding the questions.

After getting quality accreditation for five of its 11 Navyug Schools, NDMC is planning to open new branches of these schools with an aim to provide educational facilities on par with private schools.

``We must now increase the number of Navyug Schools in the area to cater to the rising demand. We will request L&DO to give us land to build new schools. If that doesn't happen, we will upgrade our existing NDMC schools,'' said NDMC chairperson Parimal Rai on Wednesday.

That's not all. The quality accreditation has certainly boosted the morale of NDMC's education department. As a result, the civic body is ready with different schemes for the direct benefit of students studying in NDMC and Navyug schools. After spending Rs 9.20 lakh for scholarships to the girl child last year, NDMC is now extending the benefit to all students. A scholarship of Rs 100 per month will be started for students of classes VI to XII if they secure 60% or above.

Source: Times Of India Scholarships for students scoring 60% or above

It would also suggest that pre-schools should not be allowed to `prepare' the students for formal schooling (Class 1 and above) and any educational institution imparting formal education should be given a three-year timeframe to ensure its pre-school is "away from its main school".

"No child should be less than four years, as on March 31 of a year, for being admitted to nursery. For kindergarten (KG) it should be five years and for Class I six years. There should not be any formal education in pre-school," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said after his meeting with a cross-section of school principals besides parents of Delhi over the issue.

He said a "consensus" has been evolved over the issue and he will write to Sheila Dikshit seeking its implementation. "I have already spoken to her and I will be writing a formal letter to her. There's need for a policy on the matter. There should not be any formal education in nursery and KG," Sibal said.

Source: The Pioneer Centre fixes 4+ for nursery admissions

The UK today partially lifted a ban on accepting visa applications from students in north India for higher studies, a move that will benefit thousands of aspirants to study in that country.

The UK Border Agency had imposed the temporary suspension from February 1 in north India after it received unprecedented rise in the number of applications.

"The suspension was taken in response to a huge surge in applications over a very short period of time. I am delighted to be able to announce today that, from March 1, this suspension will be lifted for all students wanting to study higher education courses, whether foundation degrees, undergraduate or postgraduate," McFadden, who is visiting India, said here.

However, the temporary suspension remains in place for all those wanting to study at lower levels.

"But we will continue to keep this under review and will lift it as soon as we can, and once the new 'highly trusted sponsor' system for colleges and other educational establishments across the UK is in place," he said.

In a statement, Johnson said Britain will continue to welcome genuine foreign students, but will come down heavily on those who use student visas to come to Britain mainly to work and abuse the system. He said: "We remain open to those foreign students who want to come to the UK for legitimate study. But those who are not seriously interested in coming here to study but primarily to work -- they should be in no doubt that we will come down hard on them."

Under the new measures, successful applicants from India and other countries outside the European Union will have to meet a higher bar on English language requirement, and students taking courses below degree level will be allowed to work for 10 hours a week, instead of 20 as at present. Those in courses which last under six months will not be allowed to bring dependants into the country, while the dependants of students on courses below degree level will not be allowed to work.

According to the report on the District Information System for Education website prepared by the HRD Ministry the upper primary schools suffered because of poor infrastructure and were ranked 20, 15 notches down from the position in 2007-08.

Delhi Education officials, meanwhile, attribute the slip in ratings to the fact that all schools unaided, private, those under the civic agencies and those run by the state are all clubbed together for the report and this year's parameters were different from the past.

They also claim the survey confused the staff and data was wrongly computed and compiled.

Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said: "We are studying the report. Somewhere some mistake has been committed, either on our part or theirs. How is it possible that the number of toilets have decreased from last year when we have opened new schools and when we are a step ahead and have separate toilets for girls?"

"We should be compared to other urban metro cities and judged on that basis. Our PTR (pupil-teacher ratio) is 1:38 and that's a good ratio. We are trying to figure out where the mistakes occurred in the report so that we can rectify those," the minister added.

Source: The Indian Express Education dept to challenge survey

And since Sibal also wants schools to churn out students with good spoken English skills, he wants the Universities to come forward with specialised modules to train school teachers.

New educational reforms plan

• Extension of grading system, which starts this year in Class 10 CBSE board exams, to Plus Two level

• Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation, which started in Class 9 last year, to be extended to Classes 11-12

• Improvement in teachers' pre-service training

• Induction of post-graduates as teachers of higher secondary classes and deputing them for training subsequently

• A national level entrance test, like Scholastic Aptitude Test, with national percentile score in

• A core curriculum at Higher Secondary level for Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Economics, Accountancy, Commerce, IT `to provide equal opportunity to all students'

• Universities asked to be flexible on admitting students who opt for a combination of subjects from Science, Humanities, Commerce or Vocational at higher secondary level

• Suitability and desirability of integrated bachelor's degree to be reviewed

DEGREE OF REVERSAL - Foreign PhDs stay in the US

Newly released data revealed that 62% of foreigners holding temporary visas who earned PhDs in science and engineering at US universities in 2002 were still in the US in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available. Of those who graduated in 1997, 60% were still in the US in 2007, according to the data compiled by the US energy department's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the National Science Foundation. Foreigners account for about 40% of all science and engineering PhD holders working in the US, and a larger fraction in engineering, math and computer fields. "Our ability to continue to attract and keep foreign scientists and engineers is critical to...increase investment in science and technology," Oak Ridge analyst Michael Finn said.

"Data for all available cohorts indicate that `stay rates' of foreign science and engineering doctorate recipients in 2007 are slightly higher than they have been in recent years," Finn said. His findings, which use tax data to track graduates over time, cover the years before the US plunged into a recession that damped job prospects in many US industries and universities.

Other analysts see signs that recent foreign graduates are increasingly likely to return home, particularly in today's weak job market. "I have no doubt that the 2009 data will show a dramatic shift," said Vivek Wadwha, executive in residence at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, who has been warning loudly about the threat that trend would pose to innovation in the US. In October 2008, Wadwha and others used Facebook to question 1,224 foreigners studying at US institutions at all levels. More than half the Indians and 40% of the Chinese said they hoped to return home within five years.

Source: Live Mint BY David Wessel,The Wall Street Journal DEGREE OF REVERSAL - Foreign PhDs stay in the US

"According to the District Information on School Education (DISE) report 2008-09, Delhi stood at a much better position," said Singh, and clarified that, "There ought to be some mistakes with the details provided to the officer concerned."

According to him, Delhi fulfills all the five parameters set for ranking a state - pupil-teacher ratio (PTR), female teacher ratio, girls' toilet, common toilet and drinking water facility.

Government's norms direct 1:40 as the appropriate teacher student ratio in the 1,100 public schools in Delhi.

Earlier almost 25 per cent schools had one teacher for more than 40 students, which has now reduced by 7 per cent. The female teacher's percentage has seen a rise from 68 earlier to 71 now.

There has been a considerable decline in common toilets in government schools as now, most of them have a separate toilet and offer adequate drinking facilities.

A report of HRD ministry said that Delhi had lost its rank in the top five states on the national Education Development Index (EDI).

Delhi government's mobile education initiative is set to get more wheels.

"The number of construction workers in the Capital has increased because of the Commonwealth Games. Their children, mostly, are not enrolled in schools," Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said."The new mobile schools are mainly for their benefit."

The Chalta Phirta Schools project was launched in 2008 with two buses, equipped with the basic infrastructure of a classroom under the government's flagship programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

In the Chalta Phirta Schools, children in the age group of 6 to 14 years are taught a bridge course so that they can join a proper school and class.

So far, the pilot project has helped enroll almost 200 kids into proper schools in the last two years.

Source: Hindustan Times The Wheels Of Education - Bus-Class Schools

Forty four educational institutions with close to two lakh students on their rolls are likely to lose their deemed to be universities status, but the government said it will protect the interests of students who may be affected.

In an alarming report, a review committee constituted by the human resource development ( HRD) ministry found that only 38 of the 126 institutions it scrutinised could justify their continuation as deemed universities.

The committee recommended revocation of the deemed university status granted to 44 institutions and a three year timeframe to 44 others to work on certain deficiencies to preserve theirs.

Derecognised 44 Deemed Universities (Image From Indian Express)

The list includes three governmentrun deemed universities Nava Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda in Bihar, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Youth Development at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu and the National Museum Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology in New Delhi.

On Monday, the HRD ministry informed the Supreme Court that it had accepted the review committee's recommendations. The interest of students, however, would be protected, the ministry claimed. It said it had constituted a task force to prepare a plan to safeguard the interests of students enrolled in these institutions.

The task force report said defaulting institutions would have to seek affiliation from state universities to help students get degrees from the affiliating university. If an institution failed to get affiliation, the management would have to bear the entire cost of migration and rehabilitation of students, the ministry said in an affidavit before the court.

The affidavit was filed in response to an order by the court directing the government to update it on the steps taken to preserve the quality of deemed universities.

Source: Mail Today By Gyanant Singh LAKHS TO BE HIT AS 44 UNIVS FACE DERECOGNITION

Meanwhile, a few colleges like Miranda House, Ramjas, Hansraj and Maitreyi, among others, are continuing with the exams as scheduled. Principal of Miranda House, Pratibha Jolly, said: ``There will be no disruption in exams in our college.''

The Federation of Central Universities Teachers' Association (FEDCUTA) has called a nationwide strike protesting against the University Grants Commission's (UGC) proposed service conditions of university and college teachers scheduled to be adopted in the council meeting on January 16.

The teachers allege that if adopted, the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for teachers, as proposed by the UGC Committee, would force teachers to pay more attention to other activities rather than concentrate on quality in teaching the primary responsibility of any teacher. The promotion modalities have been so devised that it would deflect teachers' attention from their primary responsibility, they allege.

Moreover, the UGC Committee has given weightage to activities such as campus development, institutional governance, consultancy projects, etc, which are not under control of teachers and solely depend upon administrator's discretion. According to them, such approach would lead to sycophancy in universities and colleges.

"As the cost of everything is increasing, there will be a hike. It may be less or more than 10%," said L V Sehgal, principal, Bal Bharti Public School, Ganga Ram Hospital Marg, who is also the vice-president of National Progressive Schools' Conference (NPSC) a body of at least 110 schools. The schools had earlier raised fees after the Sixth Pay Commision was implemented in September 2008.

The directorate of education (DoE) accepted the recommendations of the Bansal Committee formed in October 2008 by Delhi government to look into the matter of a fee hike. As per DoE directions issued on February 11, 2009, parents had to pay upto Rs 500 as the hike in tuition fees besides a maximum of Rs 4,500 as arrears in twothree instalments though the matter is now subjudice. "There hasn't been a hike in the last session. But there will be an escalation this year. We will look into our annual budget and decide upon a justified hike," said Bharti Sharma, principal, Amity International School, Saket.

D K Bedi, principal, Apeejay School, Pitampura, said, "There are three months to go before the hike is introduced. It will be reasonable and will bedecided in consultation with government representatives. There are two nominees each from the government and the DoE on the management board."

Parents are worried. Said advocate Ashok Aggarwal, who runs a civil rights group called Social Jurist, "Schools hike fees by 10% to 30% every year. As per court directions, they can increase or decrease the fee according to their expenditure and projections. But schools assume that they can only hike the fee." He added, "Any increase so close to last year's hike may force more children to drop out of private schools."

As per the new `loadshedding' policy laid down for 981 Kendriya Vidyalayas across India, schoolbags for classes I and II should not weigh more than 2kg. For classes III and IV, the bag weight should be less than 3kg, and those studying in classes V to VIII shouldn't carry bags more than 4kg. The upper limit for senior classes IX to XII has been set at 6kg. More than a million children study in KVs.

The formula was stated in a circular from the KVS headquarters to the principals. It called for a phased implementation of the guidelines, starting with the primary classes.

In a bid totackle problem of heavy schoolbags, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has come up with a graded formula that prescribes weight limits on schoolbags of its students.

KVS officials said the weight limits were an interim measure  the goal was to eventually move to a system where no child carried a bag load of more than 1kg. ``It is a pure violation of a child's right to place a burden on his back disproportionate to his age and health. The school system can be charged with cruelty to the child,'' the circular stated.

Source: Times Of India KV formula: Weight limits for schoolbags