Telangana state schools maybe reopen in first week of September 2020

 Hyderabad: Telangana Chief minister Mr K Chandrasekhar Rao has called the cabinet meeting on August 5 in which possibilities to reopen schools from first week of September are likely to be explored.

On July 17, Chief Minister had announced that engineering colleges will begin from august 17.
Centre’s Unlock 3 guidelines

However, the Centre in its Unlock 3 guidelines has announced that the educational institutions will remain closed till August 31.

Private schools seek financial aid

Meanwhile, private schools in Telangana which are closed due to the coronavirus situation in the state have appealed for financial support from the government.

Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association President Yadgiri Sekhar Rao has shot a letter to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in this connection in which he has appealed for financial aid to private schools.

Online classes

Keeping in view the loss of learning in case of extended school closures, some private schools of the state have already started taking online classes. However, following concerns raised by parents about increased children’s screen time, Human Resource Development Ministry (HRD Ministry) framed guidelines recommending that the duration for online classes for pre-primary student should not be for than 30 minutes. For classes 1 to 8 two online sessions of up to 45 minutes each while for classes to 9 to 12, four sessions of 30-45 minutes duration have been recommended.

Closure of schools

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of schools. Following Centre’s announcement of a countrywide classroom shutdown as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak,  Universities and schools across the country have been shut since March 16. Later, a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24 coming into effect from the next day. According to MHRD, closure of schools due to Coronavirus pandemic has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools.

https://www.siasat.com/telangana-schools-likely-to-reopen-in-first-week-of-september-1936628/

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JEE Mains to be postponed, due to COVID-19

This is part of the instructions issued by National Testing Agency, which conducts JEE-Main & NEET. JEE is scheduled in September first week, while NEET will be held on 13th.

New Delhi: with the Supreme Court Monday rejecting a plea demanding a further postponement of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main and National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts these exams, has come up with instructions to be followed by candidates when they write their papers.

According to the instructions, those appearing for JEE-Main, scheduled in the first week of September, will have to submit a self-declaration form along with a photograph, saying they have not tested positive for Covid-19 and have not had any symptoms like fever, dry cough or difficulty in breathing in the recent days.

This form will have to be submitted at the examination centre after it is verified by an exam centre officer and signed by the candidate on the spot.

The NTA uploaded these instructions on their official website late Monday evening and all candidates appearing for the exam have to follow the guidelines mandatorily.

“The candidates are advised to follow the instructions and the advisory in letter and spirit,” the NTA instructions said.

A similar set of instructions is also likely to be issued for the NEET candidates soon.

The NTA stated that the admit card will be of four pages this time, with one page dedicated to the undertaking form.

“On the day of the examination, the candidate has to also bring to the exam centre, the undertaking given on the Admit Card at Page-1 (duly filled in, except his/her signature which he/she will be required to do in the presence of Invigilator). This Undertaking is in addition to the one filled online at the time of downloading the Admit Card,” the notice on the NTA’s website read.

“Considering the prevailing Covid-19 condition, the NTA has made all efforts for smooth conduct of the examination. The students as well as their parents/guardians are also requested to cooperate with NTA for successful conduct of the examination in a safe and healthy environment by sincerely following the instructions and advisories,” the notice further read, urging people to be cautious.

https://theprint.in/india/education/jee-aspirants-have-to-sign-covid-undertaking-to-write-tests-as-sc-refuses-to-postpone-exam/484092/

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Indian Online Education Market Worth INR 360 Billion by 2024

With the increasing adoption of the Internet and rise in awareness about e-learning, the online education industry is expected to witness promising growth during the forecast period.

The online education market in India was valued at INR 39 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 360.3 billion by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~43.85% during the 2019-2024 period. Ease of learning, flexibility, and a wide range of study materials have influenced the overall growth of the industry.

However, the lack of formal recognition and accreditation, and abundance of freely available content presents a critical threat to the growth of the sector. The industry is moving towards the adoption of innovative technologies like Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Big Data Analytics, Blockchain and others to improve the learning experience.

Segment Insights

The online education market is segmented into primary and secondary supplemental education, test preparation, reskilling and certification, higher education language, and casual learning. The online primary and secondary supplemental education segment was valued at INR 11.99 Bn in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 123.65 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~46.48% during the 2019-2024 period. The change in consumer behavior towards detailed learning and surge in demand from tier II and tier III cities are driving the growth of this segment.

The online test preparation market is expected to reach INR 94.75 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~50.84% during the 2019-2024 period. This segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the online education market, owing to growth in career-focused population, enhanced Internet infrastructure and increased penetration of digital payment methods.

The online reskilling and certification market is expected to reach INR 93.81 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~36.95% during the 2019-2024 period. The growing business landscape has widened the skill gap among employees, which is why the demand for reskilling courses is picking up.

The online higher education market was valued at INR 5.01 Bn in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 40.63 Bn by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of ~40.74% during the 2019-2024 period. The conventional education system is insufficient for the growing population, and therefore students are switching to online higher education courses.

Key Market Trends

Gamification is one of the most prevalent trends among online education providers to encourage learning through immersive experiences. Simulation of concepts, level advancement badges and incentive-based learning are driving user engagement on online education platforms. Online learning players, nowadays, are continuously competing to offer differentiated products to the target audience, mostly by offering value-added services with regular courses. Value-added services like internships, live projects, group discussions, and career counselling sessions, offered along with regular courses enhance users' experiences.

Competition Analysis
The Indian online education market is highly fragmented with around 3,500 edtech start-ups operating in the country. Many foreign players are entering the Indian online education industry. BYJU's, Udemy, Coursera and Duolingo are a few prominent players in the industry, catering to the requirements of different target audiences.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200417005258/en/Online-Education-Market-India-Worth-INR-360

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Indian Educational institutions are introducing online courses and some education technology startups

Schools around the world have closed their doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving more than 1.5 billion children stuck at home. While it's a great inconvenience for many, it has created a spike in demand for online learning.

Educational institutions are introducing online courses and some education technology startups are temporarily offering free classes to help offset the impact of school closures.

Take Byju's, an India-based education startup named after its founder, Byju Raveendran. In early March, it announced it would give children free access to its learning app, which it says had more than 40 million users at the end of last year. Around 3 million of those paid between $150 and $200 for an annual subscription.

Since the announcement, the company says it has experienced a 60% surge in students using its products, which range from interactive video lessons and live classes, to quizzes and exam preparation.
A nationwide lockdown, ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in late March, means that India's school-age population of around 300 million is suddenly having to home educate.

"The outbreak is clearly increasing the appreciation of online education," Raveendran tells CNN Business. "This could be a turning point for the industry, ushering in an increased usage of this format and changing habits in terms of how kids learn and how teachers teach," he adds.

Other Indian platforms, including Unacademy, Vedantu and Toppr are also offering free classes and content to students.

Google (GOOGL) and KPMG estimated in a 2017 report that India's online education market would be worth around $2 billion in 2021, up from $250 million in 2016, with the number of paying users rising to 9.6 million.
Those numbers may need significant revision. Raveendran thinks that the current school closures will not only boost online learning but will help to reset India's education system, with less emphasis on preparing for exams.
"Students just memorize, replicate and then forget when the exam is over," he says. Online learning would enable personalized lesson formats as well as a more engaging, interactive learning process.

Anantha Duraiappah is director of UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, which has a vision of "transforming education for humanity."
"It [online learning] allows the potential of individualized learning and offers the prospect of radically changing a system that frankly has not changed or evolved over the past 300-odd years," he tells CNN Business.

A tool to democratize education?

Byju's was founded in 2011 and is now reportedly worth $8 billion. When its learning app launched in 2015, only around a quarter of India's population had access to the internet, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Today, more than half does.

That means education apps are no longer restricted to major urban centers or the wealthier members of society. Byju's says that more than 60% of its students are from outside the 10 largest cities in India.
The app is currently only available in Hindi and English, but Raveendran says Byju's is in the process of adding more regional languages.

Still, millions of children are unable to access online learning through a laptop or cell phone.
Raveendran accepts there is a long way to go. "If you look at the total number of school students in India, our penetration is still a very small percentage," he says.

Byju's originally offered the free service until the end of April, but is likely to extend it, says Raveendran. He also hopes to create a free model for disadvantaged students in India for when schools reopen.

Although the free service will mean a short-term hit to revenue, Raveendran expects that in the long run it will be beneficial to the business.

"Once [pupils] start experiencing the advantages of learning online, we expect a lot of them to continue learning that way," he says.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/08/tech/online-education-india-coronavirus-spc/index.html

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Telangana defers reopening of schools on June 12

With heat wave continuing to hit the State, the Telangana Government has decided to defer the reopening of schools to June 12 from June 1.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has asked the Education Department to extend the summer holidays till June 11, when temperatures are expected to fall.

Earlier, he directed the officials to keep the school children away from the State Formation Day celebrations scheduled for June 2, keeping in view the heat wave.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/telangana-defers-reopening-of-schools-to-june-12/

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NCERT Director conferred LPU’s ‘Transforming Education Awards’

Considering School-Principals & Teachers backbone of the nation and society, as they lay everlasting progressive impressions upon their students’ lives; Lovely Professional University organized its 2nd Edition of ‘Transforming Education Awards-2018’ on 18th May 2019 at Shanti Devi Mittal Auditorium of the university. Director, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Dr Hrushikesh Senapaty had been benevolent in bestowing the awards of Rs 22+ Lakh Cash Prizes & ‘Certificates of Excellence’ to selected 60 Schools from across the country. For these awards, 1100+ nominations were received from India’s various government and private schools of 26 States and 3 Union Territories of India. 11 Principals/Teachers from across India are honoured with ‘Winner Awards’ of Rs 85,000 each; 37 with Runner –Up awards of Rs 35,000; and, 12 got Appreciation Awards of Rs 10,000 each.

Addressing the winning teachers as significant contributors to the nation and the society, Dr Hrushikesh Senapaty shared: “I appreciate the unique initiative of LPU for awarding school teachers under special recognition for their contribution.” Interacting with teachers and students, Dr Senapaty shared: “Irrespective of any good or bad infrastructure, only a good teacher can create conducive learning environment in his/her classroom. Instead of preparing and inspiring students to get 100% Marks, teachers should enable students to innovate, create, invent, explore and become autonomous learners. Avoid emphasis on text-books and examinations, instead, enable students to face challenges and become problem solvers. We need good citizens, human beings for the country to compete with and excel other nations. Students must be taught about community development, co-operation, leadership qualities, societal values, working in groups in the interest of the nation”. NCERT Director also invoked teachers to develop competencies of their students and work to bring needed changes in class-room process, examination system and assessment methods and more.

Thanking Dr Senapaty for his generosity in consenting to award the winners, LPU Chancellor Mr Ashok Mittal shared: “We all know through our personal experiences that only a teacher can change the nation and the society. And, this gratitude towards teachers made us took this initiative to honour school teachers countrywide. We also congratulate all the winners, and thank all those students and their parents who spared time to nominate and recognize those bodies which prove special in teaching and student support.”

Mr Mittal also honoured Director Pushkar Raj of Allens Career for bringing illustrious transformation in the realms of competitive studies. On this occasion LPU Pro Chancellor Mrs Rashmi Mittal, Vice Chancellor Dr Ramesh Kanwar, DG Er HR Singla, Executive Deans Dr Sanjay Modi, Dr LR Gupta, Senior Dean Dr Monica Gulati, Dr Rajeev Sobti were also present on the main dais.

Ever remembering its Corporate Social Responsibility, LPU launched “Transforming Education Awards” on 5th September 2017-to commemorate Teachers’ Day. For its first edition, LPU had made an earnest approach to former President of India Dr Pranab Mukherjee, who had been gracious enough to inaugurate the awards’ ceremony organized at his residence in New Delhi.

For 2nd Edition of ‘Awards’, videos for the nominee schools/teachers were shortlisted on the basis of endorsements through voting by more than 7 lakh students, parents and teachers. The shortlisted videos and appraisal forms were evaluated by an eminent Jury of 15 elite members, including Head of Asia, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr Purvi Mehta; Leader CSR, Infosys, Suja Warriar; Director-External Relations, Indian School of Business, Kumara Guru DNV; Vice President-CSR, Vedanta, Neelima Khetan; President and COO, SBI Foundation Nixon Joseph; Actress and Media Entrepreneur Deepa Sahi; Director, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dr A. Senthil Kumar.

Illustrative, LPU also organizes an annual event “Explorica” to explore young talents. Here, a large number of novel projects of students of class 10 to 10+2 from different schools are showcased for all to admire and evaluate. This year 15000+ students from 200 schools visited LPU campus and had first-hand experience of the career options available to them.

http://indiaeducationdiary.in/ncert-director-conferred-lpus-transforming-education-awards-upon-indias-best-schools-teachers/

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India, Australia MoUs between top educational institutions

India and Australia today decided to step up institution partnership, collaboration in school policy, skill development and vocational education at a bilateral meeting, which also witnessed signing of three important MoUs between top educational institutions of the two countries.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said the education dialogue with Australia "reaffirmed the commitment" made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Turnbull Malcolm in April 2017 "to strengthen the education, training and research relationship" between the two nations.

Javadekar is leading a four-member delegation to Australia to participate in the 4th Australia India Education Council (AIEC) meeting which was held at Adelaide today. "At a bilateral meeting in #Adelaide with the Australian Minister of Education & Training, Mr. Simon Birmingham. Emphasis was given to institution partnership, collaboration in school policy, online education, skill development & vocational education & training," the minister tweeted.

He further said his discussion with Birmingham has been "fruitful" and "will take the India, Australia education cooperation to a new level".

During the meeting, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding between Western Sydney University and India's Centurion University, a joint PhD agreement between Curtin University and the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, and a MoU between Deakin University and the Central University of Jammu.

“Australia and India share many values and aspirations, as well as a fundamental commitment to education,” Birmingham said at the AIEC meet.

Noting that the cooperation between the two nations covers research, international education, academic mobility, skills and training and partnerships with industry, he further said, “During my visit to India last year I saw firsthand a number of the close partnerships already underway and the importance of India as a key education partner.''

Aiming at enhancing its footprints in India's booming education market, Australia also announced a fund of five million AUS dollars for the Melbourne-based Australia India Institute (AII) during the bilateral meet.

“AII will be pivotal in building closer cooperation between institutions both here and in India, boosting the mobility of Indian and Australian students and further supporting shared research priorities," Birmingham said.

The AII was established in 2008 and is hosted at the University of Melbourne. The Institute's mandate is to build knowledge about India among Australian government, business and the wider Australian community.

“Our meetings today and the continued work of the Australia India Institute will help further enhance the footprint of Australian universities and vocational education providers in the booming Indian market,'' Birmingham said.

Many more agreements are expected to be signed in the coming weeks, including a Letter of Intent on solar cooperation between the University of New South Wales and The Energy Resources Institute of India.
“With more than 8,000 co-authored academic publications since 2013, more than 400 research partnerships already in place and over 70 000 Indian students currently studying in Australia, the partnership between Australian and India will continue to go from strength to strength,” Birmingham said.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/current-affairs-trends/india-australia-agree-to-step-up-education-cooperation-2652921.html

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Govt to Dissclose UGC, Wants Your Suggestions For Future of Education System in India

In a potentially game-changing move, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is looking to dismantle the University Grants Commission, the statutory body overseeing higher education in India, and replace it with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI).

The first order of business for the Centre is to repeal the UGC Act of 1956 and replace it with the ‘Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of UGC Act), 2018—a new law that will usher in the HECI.

On Wednesday, the government opened the draft law for public consultations, and one can send their feedback until July 7. Unlike the UGC, the government’s new proposed higher education regulator, the HECI, will perform a diminished role. Among other facets, for example, the HECI will give up its grant-giving function to the Central ministry.

According to The Indian Express (TIE), the mandate for the HECI is to set, maintain and improve academic standards in universities.

“Just like how the ministry funds all technical institutes like the IITs, NITs and IISERs and the AICTE focuses on maintaining standards, the government can easily take over funding of central universities. We want to downsize the regulator’s role. There won’t be any interference in the management issues of educational institutions,” said a ministry official to TIE.

Comprising of 12 members appointed by the Central Government, apart from the chairperson and vice-chairperson, here are some of the functions of the proposed HECI:

1) Evaluate yearly academic performance by institutions and mentor those not maintaining required standards.
2) Specify learning outcomes for courses of study in higher education.
3) Establish an accreditation system for evaluation of academic outcomes by various universities.
4) Teacher training.
5) Promote greater use of technology in the classroom.
6) Set the standards for opening and closing institutions of higher education.
7) Set the standards for appointing heads of universities, including those in exalted positions.
8) Institutions approved by UGC will now have to endure another screen test with the HECI and show they are complying with their academic standards.
9) The education ministry will order the closure of ‘sub-standard institutions’ who do not comply within three years after Parliament passes the new law.

“The chief executive and other members of management of such institutions who do not comply with the penalty imposed by the Commission shall be liable for prosecution as per procedure laid down under the Criminal Procedure Code and may be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to three years,” states the draft.

Reports indicate that the idea for reshaping the UGC came from a meeting between Education Minister Prakash Javadekar and ministry officials, where they discussed the possibility of merging the UGC and AICTE. After some internal revolt on the merge, they decided to go ahead with the HECI.

The reaction to this proposed reform has been mixed. The government is naturally backing this move, arguing that the UGC has lost focus on monitoring various facets of regulating universities, reducing itself to just granting funds for educational institutions.

However, academics and concerned citizens are worried about the lack of autonomy, and the potential for greater government interference in higher education.

Instead of HECI with 12 central government appointees, which include among others secretaries from various ministries, decisions pertaining to universities should be left to a transparent and accountable body not swayed by political interests. They believe that the proposed move is a comprehensive assault by the government on the autonomy of universities.

https://www.thebetterindia.com/147856/ugc-news-university-prakash-javadekar/

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Could India’s poor school education system really stall its potential economic progress?

Could education be one of the four horsemen of India’s potential economic apocalypse?

In Chapter 5 of this year’s Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian lists four factors that could stall India’s push to catch up with the world’s developed economies. One factor is the creation of human capital, or, in the survey’s definition, people capable of doing the jobs on offer.

Here is how it stands: around 40% of children in Classes 3 to 8 cannot complete a reading or subtraction test prescribed for Class 2, with more children in higher classes capable of doing the test than those in lower classes. This means that children are learning, but they are not learning more as they should moving up the classes. The gap between what they know and what they should know is already wide. With technological advances this gap will widen, leaving them unable to take the jobs that advances in technology bring.

All of this is already well known. No one will contest that India’s school system – public and private – is failing its young. That a solid basic education is a necessary condition for accessing all types of opportunities, and especially higher education, is also uncontested. But there seems to be some demand-supply confusion over education and jobs.

While a great deal is said about the unemployability of Indian school-leavers and even graduates, it really is nothing more than hand-wringing. There is no evidence to suggest that investors have been stymied by the lack of prospective employees.

Remember that engineers and engineering degrees did not precede bridge-building or manufacturing. They followed it. The engineering college boom in India in the last two decades too was driven by a low-value-added computer industry. Higher education produced what industry demanded.

The school education system in India is in dire need of reform. And the question economists should be asking is this: why is it that education reforms have thus far failed to grapple with issues of equity (a corollary of quality) and what economic interests underpin the persistence of educational disparities?

https://scroll.in/article/866851/economic-survey-could-indias-poor-school-education-system-really-stall-its-economic-progress

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India and Oman agreed to cooperate in the tourism and educational sectors

Muscat: India and Oman on Monday agreed to cooperate in the tourism and educational sectors. Both countries agreed to expand the cultural cooperation, including through regular exchange of cultural troupes and holding of cultural festivals. The two sides underlined the importance of cooperation in education, including higher education, and agreed to take initiatives to encourage students from each other's countries to join their higher educational institutions.

Oman sought India's support in encouraging India's engineering, management and Information Technology (IT) institutions to collaborate with Omani educational institutions. The two countries expressed satisfaction at the growing tourism exchanges and welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in Tourism, which will contribute in expanding the cooperation between the two countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the King of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said for ensuring continued welfare of the Indian community. He expressed his appreciation of the Omani Sultanate's policy of allowing Indian community in Oman to practice their faith and celebrate their religious and cultural festivals. The two sides welcomed the signing of an agreement on the mutual exemption of visa requirement for holders of diplomatic, official, special and service passports during the visit. Oman also congratulated Prime Minister Modi's initiative in the declaration of June 21 as International Day of Yoga by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. It also appreciated India's efforts in making yoga popular in the world, which is aimed at creating a healthy and peaceful world.

http://www.sify.com/finance/india-oman-to-cooperate-in-education-tourism-sectors-news-education-scmvaQebfgcgb.html

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