Chandigarh, April 29. Two women hostel wardens and two security guards of the privately-run co-educational Akal University in Punjab’s Bathinda district have been suspended on charges of ‘dereliction of duty’ for strip searching several women students after a soiled sanitary napkin blocked the hostel toilet. Suspension orders were issued in response to a public protest staged by over 500 women students of the university. They alleged that proper disposal bins had not been provided by the university management. A similar incident was reported last November, when 15 schoolgirls in Punjab’s Fazilka village were allegedly strip searched by women teachers after a soiled sanitary napkin was discovered in the school toilet. Bihar Improved matric results Patna, April 6. Of the 1.6 million students who wrote the Bihar Matriculation (class X) examination conducted during February 21-28 this year, 80.73 percent passed, announced R.K. Mahajan, additional chief secretary of the state’s education ministry to the media. “The pass percentage this year is significantly higher than 68.89 percent of the previous year (2018),” said Anand Kishore, chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB). Of the 1.3 million class X students who passed the matriculation examination, 683,990 were boys and 636,046 girls. Sawan Raj Bharti of Simultala Awasiya Vidyalaya, Jamui topped the examination with an aggregate score of 486 out of a maximum 500 marks, he added. Although state government officials have discerned improved learning outcomes in Bihar’s primary-secondary schools, the Pratham Education Foundation’s ASER 2018 indicates that 65 percent of class V students in rural government schools cannot read class II textbooks. Moreover 76 percent of class V children are unable to solve simple division sums. Assam Election code violation notices Hailakandi, April 11. District Election Officer of Hailakandi, Keerthi Jalli, issued showcause notices to five government primary-secondary schools for violating the Election Commission’s model code of conduct (MCC) by sending students to attend a political rally addressed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Taking exception to the presence of a large number of students in uniform at the Congress rally in Panchgram, Jalli’s notice to the schools said: “You have insulted your position as an educator, the noblest of professions.” She also questioned the headmasters as to why immediate action including cancellation of certification and licences of the schools should not be initiated for violation of MCC and Representation of People’s Act, 1951. The headmasters of Adarsha Vidyalaya, Panchgram Quomi Madrassa, Moulana Abdul Ali Memorial Jaliliya Madrassa, Oxford High School and Cambridge High School — all sited in Panchgram — were issued notices, a government official confirmed. Delhi Jamia Millia’s new VC New Delhi, April 11. Prof. Najma Akhtar is the newly appointed first woman vice chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI, estb.1988), Delhi. An alumna of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Warwick and Nottingham (UK) universities, Akhtar has four decades of rich experience including service as controller of examinations and director of AMU. “In exercise of powers conferred under statutes of Jamia Millia Islamia Act, 1988, the President of India, in his…
