Gujarat Preschools upgradation drive The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is all set to revamp 65 balwadis (preschools) of VMC-run primary schools in the city in a phased manner. The objective of the upgradation drive is to provide the 4,160 children enrolled in them with facilities on a par with the best private preschools. Five balwadis have been chosen for a pilot project at a cost of Rs.12 lakh. “We have made provisions in the VMC budget to upgrade our balwadis. Work tenders for five preschools have already been approved,” Keyur Rokadiya, chairman of VMC’s education committee, informed media personnel on February 13. According to Rokadiya, VMC has drawn up a blueprint to equip its balwadis with contemporary teaching-learning materials. Every year, five preschools will be shortlisted for the “facelift” exercise, he said. Jammu & Kashmir DCP demands teachers audit The deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of Udhampur district has recommended an education audit of all government schools statewide after 17 “highly qualified teachers” of two government schools failed to answer curriculum-related questions posed by him. “I asked students of the Government City High School to define ‘fossil fuels’. When they failed to answer, I posed the same question to their teacher who has a Masters degree in science and education. He answered that fossil fuel is the waste material we throw out of our homes,” DCP Shahid Iqbal Choudhary informed media personnel in Jammu on February 8. “Later I asked another science teacher who teaches biology to class X students to name parts of the digestive system, but she couldn’t name even one,” he added. Likewise, 17 teachers of two schools failed to give “satisfactory” answers to questions posed by him. Disturbed over teachers’ lack of basic subject knowledge, Choudhary has asked the chief education officer to conduct an education audit and initiate stringent action against teachers who fail it. Haryana Girl child celebration In a first-of-its-kind initiative to increase awareness about rights of girl children and promote gender sensitivity, the state government of Haryana (which has the country’s lowest sex ratio) has announced plans to observe kanya janamdin utsav, a special monthly programme to celebrate the birthdays of girl students, in all government schools statewide. An education ministry spokesperson announced this in Chandigarh on February 7. The birthdays of girl students falling in the same month will be celebrated as an utsav (festival) every second Tuesday of the month, the spokesperson said. The celebrations will be staged during the mid-day meal break. During the morning assembly, the school headmaster will announce the names of the girls and greet them individually in the presence of village panchayat members and the girls’ parents. Telangana IIT-H-McMaster partnership The Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (estb. 2008) has signed a research partnership agreement with the Ontario (Canada)-based McMaster University — a public research university ranked #94 in THE’s World University Rankings (2015-16) — to promote innovation, intellectual property creation and commercialise research and development (R&D) projects. The agreement is among seven MoUs signed between Ontario…
