Singapore to replace the ranking system from the school report cards

Singapore to replace the ranking system from the school report cards

In an attempt to make education free of competition, the Education Minister of Singapore Ong Ye Kung has proposed the stop the ranking system in the exams. He said that no one should know who stood first or last in the class. For this a new report card format has been proposed which will include a lot of other things such as: Class and level meanMinimum and maximum marksUnderlining and/or colouring of failing marksPass/fail for the end-of-year resultMean subject gradesOverall total marksL1R5 (English plus five relevant subjects), L1R4 , EMB3 (English, maths, best three subjects) and EMB1 for lower secondary levels Purpose The main purpose of the changes is to shift the focus of the students from competition to learning. The education minister believes that there is no point in comparing oneself with the other. How will the assessment take place in the class? Apart form holistic discussions in the class there will be quizzes and homework to measure the performance of the students In place of grades, ‘qualitative descriptors’ will be used to evaluate the childrenMarks will be presented without the use of decimal points which will reduce the focus on the marksReport cards will be given to the parents during the parent-teacher meetings. In an address to some 1,700 school leaders earlier this week, Mr Ong said: "I know that 'coming in first or second', in class or level, has traditionally been a proud recognition of a student's achievement. But removing these indicators is for a good reason, so that the child understands from young that learning is not a competition, but a self-discipline they need to master for life. Notwithstanding, the report book should still contain some form of yardstick and information to allow students to judge their relative performance, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.”

Andhra University declared the results for the UG and PG exams 2019

Andhra University declared the results for the UG and PG exams 2019

The results of the undergraduate and postgraduate exams have been released by the Andhra University. Students who had appeared for the exams can now visit the official website of the university -- andrauniversity.edu.in and check their results. To check the results, students will require their roll numbers which they can find on their admit cards. The results for the M.tech and B.Ed. have been declared today while the results for the LLB were declared last night. The results for the MS, MA history, MA ancient history and others were declared earlier this week. Steps to check the Andhra University UG and PG results Visit the official website of the universityOn the homepage, click on the exam tabYou will be redirected to a new pageClick on the ‘results’ tabClick on the course you appeared for in the examLog-in using the numberYour result will appear on the screenDownload the result and take the print out of the same

CBSE to release re-evaluation result before June 14

CBSE to release re-evaluation result before June 14

It is expected that the CBSE will release the result of the re-evaluation of class 12 by the first week of June. The move may come in-line with the last year’s HC order which asked CBSE to declare the class 12 results early so that students have enough time to apply for the admissions. An official from the council of University of Delhi (DU) said, “CBSE re-evaluation result will be announced in the first week of June and students will have the time to update their marks in the application form based on their improved score.” As reported by the Indianexpress, CBSE spokesperson, Rama Sharma said, “We cannot give an exact date for result yet but the re-evaluation process is as per the schedule and in line with the letter we have written to the DU.” However’ she affirmed that the results of the class 12th will be declared before class 10th results keeping college admissions in mind. Earlier, in a letter to DU CBSE had asked the university to keep the admission dates such that CBSE re-evaluation results date fall before the admission deadline. Officials from the DU said “Students need to remember to save their admission forms and submit only after updating their re-evaluation result. The provision will be available till June 14 which is the last date to submit forms at DU.” The DU official also informed, “Students will have one time opportunity to edit their application form after being submitted by paying a fee of Rs 100. But since the window can only be opened once, it is advisable that students read and re-read the form and make note of changes and implement all at once. There is no need to rush.”

Online registration window for the DU’s Open School is now open

Online registration window for the DU’s Open School is now open

The link to register online for the admission to Delhi University’s Open School is now open. Students who wish to learn from the Delhi University in a distance education mode can apply for the same by visiting the official website -- sol.du.ac.in. The forms are available for admissions to BA program, B.Com, B.Com (honors), BA (honors) English and BA (Honors) Political Science and the last date to apply for the admissions is July 31, 2019. The prospectus is available online in both Hindi and English language. Steps to apply for the DU’s SOL 2019 admissions Visit the official website as mentioned aboveClick on the link for the ‘UG admissions 2019’ on the homepage of the websiteClick on ‘for new UG admissions, click here’Fill the form and upload the documentsMake the paymentPrint the fee receipt and the ID card Admission fee Candidates will have to pay INR 500 as the application fee. In case, a student decides to change the course later he/she will to pay an additional fee of INR 100. A subject fee of INR 50 is applicable per subject. The last date to apply for the admissions is July 31. The applications will also be accepted from August 1 to August 31 but during this time students will have to pay an additional fee of INR 200 as a penalty. If students have any query/ies they can call on the helpline number 011-27008300 and 27008301 from 9 am to 7 pm.

Draft of the National Education Policy submitted to MHRD

Draft of the National Education Policy submitted to MHRD

The draft of the National Education Policy 2019 was released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD). The draft was submitted to the HRD Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal by the drafting committee which was led by the Chairman and former ISRO Chief K Kasturirangan. In the draft, the committee had proposed to rename the HRD ministry as Ministry of Education. School Education The committee has proposed major changes in school education and suggested that Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) be made an integral part of the school education . It also suggested reconfiguring curricular and pedagogical structure. Another recommendation is to increase the extension of the Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children from ages 3 to 18. Apart from restructuring the school curriculum in 5+3+3+4 design which is 5 years of foundational stage (pre-primary school, grade 1 and grade 2), 3 years of preparatory (grade 3, grade 4 and grade 5), 3 years of middle stage (grade 6, grade 7 and grade 8) and 4 years of high stage (grade 9, grade 10, grade 11 and grade 12) it suggested the content load in the schools be reduced. One of the major objectives of the policy is to achieve the foundational literacy in grade 5th and by 2025. “… we are in a severe learning crisis with respect to these most basic skills: a large proportion of students currently in elementary school - perhaps over 5 crores in number - have not attained foundational literacy and numeracy," it says. Teachers’ Education To enhance the quality of teachers’ education it is suggested that all the sub-standard teacher education centers be shut down and all teachers preparation programs be moved to large multidisciplinary universities and colleges. As mentioned in the draft, a minimum 4-year B.Ed. program will be a minimum requirement to be appointed as a teacher. Higher education In the domain of higher education, restructuring of higher education has been proposed. It has been proposed that higher education institutes be proposed into three types: Focused on world-class research and high-quality TeachingFocused on high-quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to researchHigh-quality teaching focused on undergraduate education Setting up of Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog, a new apex body, has been proposed which will ensure holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and improved coordination between the Center and state. The committee also suggested the formation of National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) as the sole regulator of the higher education and transforming UGC to Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for the proper and timely disbursement of the development grants and fellowships.

3 centers for the Entrepreneurship and Skill development set up by the Jammu University

3 centers for the Entrepreneurship and Skill development set up by the Jammu University

Jammu University has established 3 centers for entrepreneurship and skill development. The university has been selected for funding worth 100-crores under the Center's Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA). "One of the focus of RUSA grant will be entrepreneurship and skill development sector. we have set up three such centers," Vice Chancellor of Jammu University Manoj Dhar said. He said that these are business incubation and innovation centre, entrepreneurship and skill development centre, and industry, academia interface center. "We will focus on entrepreneurship and skill development. We want to make job creators rather than job seekers," Mr Dhar said. The main aim of the RUSA is to improve the overall quality of education by improving teaching, research, skill and entrepreneurship and developing skills among the youth. Another main aim is to upgrade and mentor the institutions. Around the nation, 10 universities including Jammu University have been selected for the funding worth 1000 crore under the RUSA mission. Mr. Dhar added that children work hard to get the jobs but there is a shortage of jobs. "We want to train such a human resource which will not only create economic opportunities and jobs for self but also create and offer jobs to others," he added.

Technical glitches hindered the online registration process for the DU admissions

Technical glitches hindered the online registration process for the DU admissions

As students proceeded to perform the online registration on DU’s online portal they faced several technical glitches such as delay in receiving the OTP (one-time password), non-functioning online calculator etc. The online registration process was commenced by the DU on Thursday. On the first day, many parents and students had complained that the online calculator was not functioning properly. The online calculator is a new feature on the DU’s admission portal. "After logging in and keying in my child's marks, I chose the suggestive online calculator to calculate the best of four aggregate, but it picked up random marks and gave a wrong percentage," said a parent. An admission official said that the feature is not yet functional and will be made functional once the cut-offs are released by the university. Initially, the university officials had admitted that there were issues with the functioning of the online calculator. One of the parents has alleged that these are mere tactics by the university to cause delay and the university could have said that the calculator will become only after the cut-offs are announced. Another problem was the delay in receiving the OTP on time to complete the registration process. "I had registered on the DU portal on Thursday night but did not get the OTP during the 15-minute mandatory time. Now, I am worried whether I will be able to register again on the website with the same email ID I used or not," said S K Vijay, a parent, from Saket. Another parent said, "I had registered on the Delhi University admission portal at 9.30 pm on Thursday and after filling in the details, I was informed that the OTP will be sent to my phone within 15 minutes. I received the OTP at 4.38 am on Friday." The officials from the university had admitted that due to heavy traffic on the website, there was a delay in sending the OTPs to the registered users. Vinod Tiwari, who had come from Lucknow, said, "My daughter had filled in the marks for all the subjects but after we got a printout, her marks for Biology were missing from the printout. We informed about this to the officials and even wrote an email to DU Registrar about it. They said the marks are there in the database and we should not be worried." The officials claimed that this year the portal is mobile-friendly and will work perfectly even on 2G network.