Education Archive

New Delhi, Nov 3 – A hostel for northeastern students will be set up in south Delhi, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Tuesday said and assured the students from the region of full security in the national capital.

‘No Delhiite should have any feeling of insecurity. We are here to integrate everyone, not to isolate anyone,’ she said after a meeting with the office bearers of North Eastern Students Union (NESU).

The NESU office bearers along with three member of parliament – Oscar Fernandes, Takom Sanjoy and Thokchom Meniya – met Dikshit at the Delhi secretariat here.

Last week, the students from the northeastern states held a protest against the rising crime against their community in Delhi. While there have been several cases of molestation and crimes against the community members, the angry protests were triggered by the murder of a Naga girl a few days ago.

Ramchanphy Hongray, 19, was strangulated by her neighbour Pushpum Sinha, a PhD scholar of IIT, in her Munirka home in south Delhi.

That time, Dikshit had promised them immediate action to ensure their safety and assured them that the government will ‘do its best’ to check crime against the community.

In the meeting , the northeastern students stated that they expect that all Delhiites must continue to behave in good sense with them.

Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Kashyap, who was also present at the meeting, said four officers of assistant commissioners of police (ACP) level have been deployed to take care of issues related to northeastern students.

‘Four round-the-clock toll free numbers are also functional to provide the facility to the students to inform any untoward incidence, if any, immediately. It has also been decided to intensify patrolling of PCR vans to instill confidence in students,’ he said.

The chief minister said her government will make all efforts to promote cultural heritage and cultural activities of northeastern states.

‘In fact, cultural items based on NE folk dances have also been included in extravaganza to be presented during the 2010 Commonwealth Games,’ she said.

Dikshit exhorted NESU office bearers to avail of great opportunities being provided by her government under different cultural schemes.

New Delhi, Nov 3 – Community colleges which are making their advent in the country need strong government funding, experts said at an interactive meeting Tuesday at the Indira Gandhi National Open University.

‘IGNOU has tried to expand the scope of community colleges in the country. This is an alternative system of education which aims to empower individuals through appropriate skill development leading to gainful employment in collaboration with the local industry and community,’ IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajashekharan Pillai said.

‘Unlike in other countries where the colleges are supported largely by the government, in India funding is still from private sector,’ he said.

There are 47 functional community colleges under IGNOU at present. IGNOU is the largest distance education learning university in the country.

Pillai was speaking at a meeting organised by the university in collaboration with US-India Education Foundation (USIEF) to assess the challenges and scope of community colleges which unlike regular university-run colleges offer the advantage of tailoring programmes to local needs and state-based requirements.

IGNOU officials said that community colleges generally have a two-year curriculum that either leads to an associate degree for transfer to an undergraduate college or to the students’ direct entry into any occupation or trade.

Pillai mentioned that the planning commission had, in principle, approved government funding of community college initiatives.

‘The human resource development ministry had given a proposal to the planning commission for establishing one college in each district of India. This would roughly cost Rs.1 million for each college. They have agreed in principle,’ Pillai told IANS on the sidelines of the event.

Talking about the success of community colleges in achieving an increase in gross enrolment ratio in United States, Judith Irwin of the American Association of Community Colleges and the USIEF representative, said that the colleges would be effective especially for less privileged students.

‘Like in America students have the option of transferring credits. They do two years at community college and two years at university. This is reversible. And students really prefer that option because it coast 50 percent less,’ Irwin told IANS.

In US, the community colleges are provided money by the state governments, something that many community college representatives said would be appreciated in India.

India has a total number of 330 universities and 16,885 colleges with a gross enrolment ratio of about 11 percent as opposed to US’ 85 percent.

‘The rationale behind community colleges is enhancing the skilled labour force. There 2.5 million seats for vocational learning as opposed to 12.8 million entering the labour market each year. So such associate degrees could help bridge that gap,’ said Latha Pillai, IGNOU’s pro-vice chancellor.

New Delhi, Nov 3 – The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Tuesday said it will conduct an entrance test for engineering courses again in next 10 days, after its online test system collapsed Saturday.

The IGNOU Engineering Aptitude Test (IGNEAT) is the university’s first foray into online testing. The test determines entry into B. Tech and diploma programmes in engineering and technology. IGNOU is the country’s largest distance education university.

On Saturday, when around 9,800 aspirants sat for the test, the IGNOU server failed and the test could not be conducted.

‘The IGNEAT will be conducted within 10 days. We are still trying to ascertain the cause of server failure. We have roped in the cyber security cell (Delhi Police) to investigate the matter and have asked our technicians for a report which we would get in a week,’ IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V. Rajashekharan Pillai told IANS.

The test was earlier to be conducted in five sessions – two on Oct 31 and three on Nov 1. But when the aspirants sat for the test Saturday, only two questions popped up on the screen.

IGNOU was using the Yahoo server for conducting the test.

Pillai ruled out the possibility of a major security breach. ‘I don’t think it is hacking, it was a server failure – and could have been due to load and congestion. We have thought of using our own server.’

New Delhi, Nov 3 – Offering an opportunity to poor Indian students to study in Cambridge University, Britain, the British Council has announced the Dr. Manmohan Singh scholarships for 2010-12.

Instituted in 2007, the scholarships were launched by St. John’s college, Cambridge University, in honour of the Indian prime minister, who is a graduate and an honorary fellow of the college.

The three scholarships, exclusively for Indians, are worth around 35,000 pounds each and are for students aspiring to do their PhD or M.Phil in science and technology, economics and social sciences.

Vishu Sharma, who handles scholarships at the British Council here said: ‘These scholarships are fully funded and cover academic fee, international air fare, monthly stipend to cover living expenses and the visa costs.

‘Although it works out to approximately 35,000 pounds, whatever maybe the total cost it will be fully funded by the scholarship,’ Sharma told IANS.

The last date for application is Dec 15.

‘Our prime minister graduated in economics from St. John’s college in the late 1950s and was a very bright student. Therefore in honour of him this scholarship was instituted only for Indian students back in 2007,’ Sharma added.

Amongst those who have got the scholarship till now are Aquila Mukund Mavalankar, a student of the University of Pune, and Shruti Badhwar from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore.