by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Delhi chapter of the Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMUOBA) on Monday demanded a “time-bound” judicial probe into the incidents that happened on the varsity campus on May 2 and action against the policemen who were allegedly “complicit” in the “politically motivated attack on the university”.
The body demanded “immediate arrest” of those who tried to attack former Vice President Hamid Ansari and barged into the campus “brandishing weapons and shouting provocative slogans, thereby leading to an extremely volatile situation”.
Ansari, who is also a former Vice-Chancellor of AMU, was visiting the varsity when the incident happened.
“The AMUOBA strongly condemns the attempt to disturb peace in AMU campus on May 2 by armed miscreants who also tried to attack former Vice President Hamid Ansari. The miscreants were allegedly members of right-wing Hindu outfit,” the university alumni body said in a statement.
“A time-bound judicial enquiry is also among the foremost demands. AMUOBA also demands action against the policemen who were complicit in what appears to be a coordinated and politically motivated attack on the university. In addition, the cases against AMU students must be withdrawn,” it added.
The association said it was deeply aggrieved by the “partisan role played by the Aligarh police and the brutal lathicharge on AMU students who were protesting the police inaction”.
The association issued the statement after a resolution was passed in its meeting on Sunday here. The resolution will be submitted to the President, it said.
“Since the incident involves breach of security with regard to one of the highest dignitaries of the country, we demand a time-bound judicial inquiry into the events on AMU campus on and after “May 2,” the resolution said.
The association appreciated the support extended by several university students and teachers’ bodies and associations including Benaras Hindu University, Hyderabad University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Jadavpur University, Kolkata University and others.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Representational image
Chandigarh : The Central government has acceded to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s request not to cap the educational concession provided to children of armed forces’ personnel, a state government official said here on Wednesday.
“Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has written to the Chief Minister to convey the Union Government’s decision to continue the said concession without capping it at Rs 10,000 per month,” a spokesman of the Chief Minister said here on Wednesday.
Welcoming the decision, the Chief Minister said it would go a long way towards boosting the morale of the armed forces and their families, particularly the children of martyrs and disabled soldiers.
“The Defence Minister’s communication is in response to Captain Amarinder’s letter dated December 1, 2017, urging her to revoke the decision to put a cap of Rs 10,000 per month on the combined amount of tuition fee and hostel charges under the scheme of educational concession to such children.
“Expressing serious concern about the proposed move of the Defence Ministry, the Chief Minister had then said it would make a mockery of the objective behind the scheme which was announced in the Lok Sabha in 1971,” the spokesman said.
Amarinder Singh felt that the move would “undermine the sacrifice of the defence personnel, and amounted to a shameful disregard for the contribution of the armed personnel to the country and its citizens”.
He was of the opinion that the “fee being paid to the children of martyrs and disabled soldiers was a small price in exchange for what they had given, and continued to give, to the nation”.
The educational concession was initially being given to the children of armed forces personnel killed/missing or permanently disabled in 1962, 1965, 1971 wars, Operation Pawan and Operation Meghdoot.
In August 2003, the Defence Ministry extended the concession to the children of armed forces personnel who were killed/declared missing or permanently disabled during all post Meghdoot operations in India and abroad, including counter insurgency operations.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
By Maeeshat Desk,
Patna: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) published the results of the national competitive examination known as the Joint Entrance Examination for candidate selection to the engineering institutes on the 30th April 2018. 137 students of Rahmani Program of Excellence were successful this year where more than one million students participated in the JEE. Now, these 137 students will prepare for the coveted IIT seat via the competitive exam known as JEE-Advanced.
Rahmani students were able to achieve All India Ranks (AIR) of General 430/OBC-36, General 602/OBC-65, General 3271, 2690, 2742, 3779, 4902, 3276 among others, whereas state rank is expected to be number 3rd. Among the total appearing 182 students, 137 were successful with an overall success rate of 75%. 23 out of 23 (100%) students from Rahmani30 center, Patna were successful whereas 114 out of 159 were successful from its other batches. It is noteworthy that in 2017, 120 out of 144 Rahmani students were successful at this examination and 75 successfully qualified the coveted JEE Advanced examination.
Interestingly, 18 students of Rahmani30 Medical batch also attempted the exam and out of these 12 were successful. This is an unprecedented success and paints a very flattering story for Rahmani Program of Excellence and its learning methodology. These students will be aptly suited for fields that crosses medicine, surgery and engineering.
Rahmani Program of Excellence under Rahmani Foundation has been successfully replacing educational hopelessness in the community with the courage to dream big all the while demonstrating its proven method of success. Hazrat Ameer-e-shariat Maulana Mohammad Wali Rahmani, who is the founder of this nation-wide program stated that this is a result of consistent guidance and untiring effort of Shri. Abhayanand Ji (Ex. DGP Bihar), and sincere and continuous efforts of center leadership that comprises of the faculty, management and staff. He further mentioned that this result could not have been realized had the students and their parents not partnered with us, especially given our different model of education and training that seeks to convert students into learners.
Center Performance:
| Units |
Total Students |
Mains Qualified |
Percent |
| R30 Batch-1 |
23 |
23 |
100% |
| Senior Batch |
24 |
23 |
96% |
| MSAR30 |
44 |
38 |
86% |
| Wave-Medical |
18 |
12 |
67% |
| Fazlani-R30 |
28 |
17 |
61% |
| R30 Batch-2 |
27 |
16 |
59% |
| R30 Batch-3 |
18 |
8 |
44% |
| Total |
182 |
137 |
75% |
| NOTE: Wave-Medical will not appear for JEE-Advance. |
Student List:
| Aamir Sohail |
Md Imran Ahmad |
Muneeb Abduraheem |
| Aatif Mohsin |
Md Meraj Alam |
Muntaha Kamal |
| Abdul Muqutadir |
Md Misbah Ibrahim |
Mustafa Raza |
| Abdul Wahidur Rahman |
Md Monib |
Nafis Hassan |
| Abdullah |
Md Nadir Moiz |
Np Shammas |
| Abdullah Akram |
Md Osama Ansari |
Oqais Tanvir |
| Abdur Rasheed |
Md Rehan |
Osama Mohd Abdul Fattah |
| Abish Aziz |
Md Rizwan Hussain |
Raheeb Sadique |
| Abu Bakar Siddique |
Md Saad Zemam |
Rehan Ahmad |
| Adil Kazim |
Md Samar Siddiqui |
S M Shakir Hood Ahmad |
| Adnan Sami |
Md Shahnawaz |
Salman Ul Hasan |
| Adnan Shahid |
Md Shamshad Shams |
Saqlain Mokhtar |
| Afzal Khan |
Md Simdani |
Saquib Ahmad |
| Ahmed Abdul Rahman |
Md Touseef Raza |
Saquib Taj |
| Altamash Rahman |
Md Zaki Afaque Akhtar |
Sarfaraz Ahmad |
| Amdad Muhammed P.V |
Md Zeeshan Alam |
Sayed Uzair Ahmed |
| Ansari Abdullah Mossaddique |
Md. Abdullah |
Shabab Anwar |
| Arbab Karim |
Md. Abu Zaid |
Shadan Reyaz |
| Arshad Warsi |
Md. Adnan Ansari |
Shaharyar Sahil |
| Asad Maqbool |
Md. Afridi |
Shahid Siddiqui |
| Ashif Nawaz Akhtar |
Md. Atif Hussain |
Shahnawaz Ahmad |
| Ashraf Nawaz |
Md. Hanzala Sabir |
Shahper Zia |
| Atif Rabbani |
Md. Kasaf |
Shahroor Yezdani |
| Atiqur Rahman |
Md. Mohsin Kaleem |
Shahzadah Talib |
| Bagwan Ammar Javed |
Md. Mudassir Alam |
Shaik Siraj |
| Choudhary Mohammad Adil |
Md. Rabbani |
Shaikh Izhar Ashfaque |
| Enautullah Shamim Sayed |
Md. Safi Ur Rahman |
Shaikh Mohd Faizan Mohd Azad |
| Fahad Khan |
Md. Saquib Kamal |
Sibtain Raza |
| Faisal Ata |
Md. Shahid Ali Khan |
Sohaib Anwer |
| Fardeen Nayeem |
Md. Shahrukh Alam |
Suhail Akther. M.I. |
| Hadiq Rafjith Pv |
Md. Waquar Wasif |
Syed Adnan |
| Hafidh Farhan, S. |
Mirza Hamid Raza Mirza Khalid Raza |
Syed Kamran Ahmed |
| Ibrarul Haque |
Mohammad Abdul Hadi |
Syed Khurram Ather |
| Imbesat Ahmad |
Mohammed Abdul Muhaymin |
Syed Quayam Asdaque |
| Jairumi Mohammad Rashid |
Mohammed Abdullah Omer |
Syed Rayan Zaki |
| Kamran Razi |
Mohammed Adnan |
Syed Sufiyan Ali Yusuf Ali |
| Mahammed Fazal Khattal |
Mohammed Furqhan Ahmed |
Tarique Ahmed |
| Majhar Hussain |
Mohammed Ibrahim Ali |
Wajeehul Kalam |
| Md Aariz Mozammil |
Mohammed Masihuddin |
Waquar Haseeb |
| Md Adil Ahmad |
Mohammed Nadir |
Waship Rahuman |
| Md Ahzam |
Mohd Bilal Ahmed |
Wasim Anwar |
| Md Akhlaque |
Mohsin Ansari |
Yamir Ahsan |
| Md Ashhar Rahman |
Muhammad Adil. Ct |
Yaseen Ahmed |
| Md Dilshad Ansari |
Muhammad Kamram Khan |
Zeyaur Rahman |
| Md Enamul Ghani |
Muhammad Tahseen Raza |
Zia Ashraf |
| Md Faisal |
Muhammed Sinan K |
Rahmani Program of Excellence has gone global this year. For the first time entrance examination were conducted in the United Arab Emirates. This is a great opportunity for these students to prepare for universities of national importance and seek their higher education in one of the top ranked universities in India.
This year Rahmani30 has launched Mentor30 program as it’s initiative to extend its reach. Under this program 30 graduates will be selected from across India and will be trained on Rahmani30 process of teaching & learning and will be on job with Rahmani Program of Excellence.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News
By Vishal Narayan,
New Delhi : Thanks to the Right to Education Act (RTE) of 2009, India has been able to achieve near universal enrolment of children in schools at the primary and upper primary levels — but the quality of what is being taught has been severely impacted by the lack of benchmarks, says a senior official, as also a recent survey.
“This is a serious problem we are facing. Ever since the RTE, the assumption was that learning outcomes will improve. All the investments were made with that assumption. RTE’s success in getting the child to the school was all right, but there are serious concerns about the quality of education reflected in the learning outcomes,” Anil Swarup, Secretary, School Education and Literacy, in the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), told IANS in an interview, blaming the poor performance on the absence of standardisation of benchmarks, questionable competence of teachers and other administrative issues.
Due to the lack of benchmarks and obscurity in what one was trying to achieve, the education standards were never mapped while the government kept increasing the budget with no clear objective in mind, he said, adding that things are now on track.
“How do you benchmark? For benchmarking, you have to make an assessment; for making an assessment, you have to define the learning outcomes, then carry out a National Achievement Survey (NAS) so that you understand where you were. This was undertaken last year. Now we at least have a benchmark. We can plan interventions. There are some other surveys which are not very comprehensive in nature, which do indicate that learning outcomes have become worse than earlier,” Swarup said.
The National Achievement Survey (NAS) published earlier this year by the MHRD, reveals a pattern of decline in the quality of education — measured as a “learning outcome” — as a student progresses to higher classes. Nationally, just over 40 per cent of school children in class eight were able to answer their grade questions correctly, with the situation is worse in junior classes. The figure even for the national capital hovered around 30 per cent.
Aiming to set things right, the government has brought an amendment in the RTE Act, extending the deadline till 2019 for teachers to get trained. This was to have happened around 2014. However, Swarup was not hedging his bets entirely on the outcome of this training.
“I do not like to conjecture on what is going to happen. Our job is to understand the problem and take specific measures. One of the problems we face is the competence of the teachers. I can only say that they would certainly be better than untrained teachers. But what would the extent of impact be, only time will tell,” he said.
Relying on the NAS to gauge the performance of the teachers, Swarup said that, by March next year, when “the assumption is most of them would be trained”, the government will be in a position to assess the work of the teachers and hold them accountable.
The impact of worsening standards in government schools can be felt by the parents’ increasing preference for private sector schools — even as the government pumped in more and more money into its huge school infrastructure.
About 16 million students enrolled in private schools between 2010-11 and 2014-15, while government schools during the same period saw a decline of 11 million as is manifest in the government’s District Information System for Education (DISE) data, cited by Oxford economist Geeta Gandhi Kingdon in her research paper, “The Private Schooling Phenomenon in India”.
Faced with such overbearing figures, Swarup cited the example of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka where, he said, government schools are witnessing a “reverse migration” and asked: “Why would anyone pay in private schools when one can have quality education in government schools (in these states)?”.
As one who found himself in the eye of the storm during the CBSE’s paper leak, Swarup maintained that the board was not to be blamed, but conceded that the episode was a “wake-up call”.
“This is a wake-up call… it makes us think if we can further improve the system, so that even this doesn’t happen. We are looking into how technology can be used to avoid even this much of human intervention. Even though CBSE is not responsible, we are intensively looking at how technology can be used to prevent that. We should be able to do that by next year, and all exams will be through technology,” he pointed out.
On the NCERT’s decision to curtail the syllabus so that students were not “unnecessarily burdened”, he said this had been done to weed out redundancies in the curriculum.
“Children should not be unnecessarily saddled with something which is not of relevance to them. For example, I have been informed that there’s a chapter on history of cricket in some class. Now, is there a need to have that chapter? There has to be a debate on the redundancy of some of these chapters that are there. The ultimate aim is to reduce the child’s burden,” Swarup contended.
(Vishal Narayan can be contacted at vishal.n@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Opinions
By Sanjiv Kataria,
It’s April and a time to celebrate for millions of young Indians who have just finished their school-leaving class XII examinations. The days that follow help them unwind after months of exam preparation. The celebrations, however, are short-lived. The next many weeks and months are consumed preparing for admission tests for entry into a wide variety of disciplines.
It’s a tough time as they evaluate options that further their individual interests and make deliberate decisions that will determine what lies ahead of them — perhaps for the rest of their lives.
For young Indians, making it to any of the country’s 40,000 colleges — or getting a subject of their choice — is not easy. It is a pity that even though the number of colleges in the country has tripled in the last 17 years, the shortage of seats drives students to choose programmes that do not necessarily fit their aptitude. The marks they get in their school-leaving examination, conducted by the Central or the State Exam Boards or the International Baccalaureate, will determine their choice of subjects.
Just like the students, it is a busy time as well for career counsellors invited by schools and colleges to advise on great careers in demand, worthy institutions to study in, and the best ways to get into a specific programme. Many help students choose between great destinations to study abroad. Should it be Singapore, nearer home, or one of the Ivy League institutions in the US? Or the UK or Australia? Should it be a full-fee programme in a university — say, in safe and student-friendly Sydney — or a fully-paid scholarship in an unheard of university in an East European nation?
When I get pulled into advising young nephews and nieces based on the experience of helping our own young ones make their choices, I refer them to career option books by widely travelled counsellors to help them choose between engineering and biotechnology, architecture and law, medicine and pharma, liberal arts, social sciences or business management, journalism and computer science. And the list goes on.
For tough situations like convincing friends to let their loved ones choose streams beyond medicine or engineering, I encourage them to go to a professional career counsellor and careers columnists like Pervin Malhotra, who guided our son and daughter many years ago. These counsellors put the children through an aptitude test, discuss their strengths and suggest a set of options over a series of sessions.
An opportunity to sit through a fireside chat between Indian school students and Blair Slater, a career counsellor at the Sydney-based University of New South Wales (UNSW) recently, was an eye-opener. Blair, a former Hollywood star and now a full-time career counsellor for international students of over 100 nationalities, had an interesting take on careers.
He predicted that in the next 5 to 10 years, there will be plenty of jobs that don’t even exist today. In an ever-evolving job market, his advice to students was to prepare for a career by following their passion, pursuing what’s important to them while building a strong academic foundation. Problem-solving and adaptability, Blair said, should be the key leitmotifs in their toolkit of skills that will help them shine in a world of fast-changing jobs.
Universities are using innovative social media like Facebook’s live discussions with experts to reach wider audiences. A “Study in America” Facebook session by the US embassy in New Delhi last month helped demolish myths associated with admissions and job opportunities in America.
When looking for opportunities to study abroad, students will do well to consider the QS ranking that ranks higher educational institutes globally. The reputed British agency compares top universities in the world based on six performance parameters across sectors like Research, Teaching, Employability and Internationalisation, and the institute’s stature.
The best advice on making career choices comes from successful professionals in the field of the student’s interest. Insights from alumni shed light on the best practices followed by institutions, especially addressing their quest for knowledge, placement track record and reputation with employers.
Institutions that will flourish in the future will adapt their curriculum to the needs of the fast-changing world with speed, lay emphasis on original research to solve burning issues facing the world, and focus on life-long employability of their alumni.
(The author, who served NIIT as a brand custodian for two decades, is a communications counsel. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at sanjiv.kataria@gmail.com )
—IANS
