Bihar Examination reform plans THE BIHAR SCHOOL Examination Board (BSEB) will conduct its matriculation (class X) examinations for every subject in two shifts. The state’s education minister P.K. Shahi informed the media in Patna on January 9, that this initiative has become necessary as the number of examinees is set to rise to 1.4 million this year. “This decision to conduct board examinations in two shifts per day for every subject will also help check cheating and other examination malpractices,” said Rajmani Prasad Sinha, chairman of BSEB. Meanwhile, reiterating the state government’s commitment to improve quality of education in Bihar, the education minister said the outlay for education in the state government’s 2013-14 budget was hiked by 25 percent, and “effective steps” have been taken by the JD(U) government to improve primary and secondary education. Tamil Nadu Redirected research plea DELIVERING THE FIRST Celebration of Science lecture at IIT-Madras on January 22, Bharat Ratna-designate and eminent scientist Dr. C.N.R. Rao called upon India’s premier education research institutions to focus on basic problems confronting the citizenry. “IITs and top-ranked institutions are insufficiently researching our greatest problems such as water, energy, etc. The national interest demands concerted action on hydrogen fuel cells and solar batteries,” said Rao, who added that he’s currently researching water splitting, and semiconductor nanostructures. “Nuclear energy which is being heavily researched doesn’t contribute more than 5-8 percent of the country’s energy output. Water will be the coal of the future,” he predicted. Assam Major education push A major push to education is in the offing for Assam “in the near future”. This was disclosed to the public by the state’s governor Janaki Ballav Patnaik at the Republic Day ceremony in Guwahati on January 26. According to Patnaik, while a plan to establish 21 new polytechnics in 21 districts under a Centrally-sponsored scheme has been finalised, construction work for the Assam Hills Medical College and Research Institute at Diphu has begun, and land acquisition proceedings have begun for medical colleges in Dhubri, Lakhimpur and Kokrajhar. “Moreover the government has signed an agreement with Narayana Hrudalaya to set up a super speciality hospital under the public-private-partnership mode, while construction work for a 200-bed cancer hospital at Guwahati Medical College Hospital is in progress,” he said. On the subject of skills development, Patnaik said: “The government plans to establish one Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in each unserviced block and 15 new ITIs are under construction.” Meghalaya ADB skills development loan The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has committed a US$ 100 million (Rs.625 crore) loan for vocational education and training in Meghalaya. The loan is for “enhancing the employability of the state’s youth through improvements in secondary education and vocational skills training programmes,” says an ADB statement issued in Delhi on January 24. “The project — Supporting Human Capital Development in Meghalaya — is ADB’s first loan for boosting education and skills,” says an ADB spokesperson. Moreover a technical assistance grant of an additional US$ 2 million (Rs.12.5 crore) by the Japan…
