Guwahati, October 1. The Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for inducting higher-secondary school-leavers of the newly promulgated Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir as interns. The objective of the MoU is to expose Kashmiri youth to the high-quality education and research facilities of IIT-G.

Under the agreement, IIT-G will enroll 100 meritorious J&K students in batches of 25, for on-campus internships from May 1–30, 2020. These internships will primarily be in the field of research under the supervision of senior IIT-G faculty. The MoU was signed at an IIT Council meeting in Guwahati by IIT-G director, Prof. T.G. Sitharam and AICTE chairman, Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, in the presence of Union HRD minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal.

Tripura
Schools merger programme

Agartala, October 25. The Tripura state government is all set to merge 961 state-run and aided schools with neighbouring schools in a phased programme.

“Of the 4,398 government and government-aided schools in Tripura, 915 primary schools and 46 upper primaries have less than 25 students. Students are deprived of proper learning environments in such under-populated schools. Therefore, we have decided to merge these 961 schools with neighbouring schools,” said education minister Ratan Lal Nath, addressing a press conference. According to Nath, Jharkhand recently merged 6,446 schools, and Odisha 4,200 schools with “positive results”.

Kerala
Literacy mission initiative

Thiruvananthapuram, October 2. The Kerala State Literacy Mission is set to enroll 100,000 members — mostly school dropouts, currently under the care of Kudumbashree, the country’s largest women’s empowerment project. These youth will be admitted into the state’s government schools to qualify them to write the class X and Plus Two board exams, from the next academic year.

The state’s literacy mission will begin classes in January 2020 in 1,000 local government schools. “There are over 48 lakh Kudumbashree members in the state. Many of them are school dropouts. Kudumbashree has collected all their details,” says a state literacy mission communique.

Currently, covering over 50 percent of households in the state, Kudumbashree was launched in 1998 as a joint initiative of the state government and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). Mission: to alleviate rural poverty through community service under the leadership of local self-governing bodies.

Goa
School children safety

Panaji, October 3. A directive issued by the Union HRD ministry has instructed all school managements in Goa to arrange for police verification of transport staff, including drivers and helpers who operate school buses, said Vandana Rao, director of the state’s education ministry, addressing the media. This directive is the outcome of a series of child sexual abuse cases in which drivers and attendants of school buses have been found to be involved.
Moreover, transport staff will need to renew their verification once every two years. According to the HRD ministry, with passage of time a person may develop behavioural problems which calls for periodic scrutiny, added Rao.

Delhi
China links notice

New Delhi, October 3. The Delhi-based University Grants Commission has directed all educational institutions to seek the approval of the home and external affairs ministries before signing MoUs with Chinese universities for student and faculty exchange programmes or starting Chinese language centres.

“All universities, including private institutions that have signed MoUs with Chinese universities must seek clearance from these ministries prior to implementing partnership agreements,” said a UGC official, who added that letters to this effect have been dispatched to vice chancellors of all universities countrywide.

Bihar
Numbers problem

Patna, October 28. Students of Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav College (estb.1975) – an affiliate of the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur – in Bihar’s West Champaran district, were forced to write their exams in college corridors and open grounds due to lack of accommodation in examination halls. This facilitated mass cheating, said examinations-in-charge Rajeshwar, speaking to the media after a video-recording of the students writing exams on open grounds went viral on social media.

“The college hall has the capacity to accommodate only 2,000 students, but the number of examinees was over 5,000. Despite contacting all authorities concerned, no exam hall has thus far been constructed,” says Rajeshwar.

Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs