Odisha HRD

Naveen asks for a regional center of IGNTU in Kandhamal and more

Update: Pioneer reported on this; Expressbuzz.com reported on this; Zee news reported on this.

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in Hindu:

Orissa government has asked the Centre to adopt a long term plan for Kandhamal, prone to ethno-communal violence instead of seeking any quick solution, official sources said on Tuesday.

Orissa’s suggestion came after the high-level central team headed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, which visited Kandhamal today, sought to know what assistance was needed in mitigating the problems there.

"The Centre wants to support Orissa in building confidence among all sections of the people in Kandhamal," Pawar told reporters after the team arrived here yesterday.

Identifying backwardness in education, lack of connectivity and poor livelihood means as the cause behind the ethno-communal violence in Kandhamal, Orissa government asked the Centre to set up a campus of the National Tribal University, Amarkantak at Phulbani, the district headquarter town.

"As scheduled tribes constitute 52 per cent of Kandhamal’s population, it is proposed to have one Ekalavya model residential school (EMRS) in each block to cater to the needs of tribal children," …

This apart, the state government also asked for at least six schedule caste hostels to cater the children of SCs who comprise 17 per cent of the total population in the district . ..

Following is from a report in tathya.in.

Naveen Patnaik has demanded for a Regional Centre of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) in Kandhamal. 

Presenting the memorandum to the Central Ministerial Team headed by Sharad Pawar, the Chief Minister pleaded for the Centre of Higher Learning in the riot –hit tribal zone.

… He said it will go a long way to provide education to the tribal youth, who are in difficult situation.

Following is from Sambada. It mentions the demand for an ICAR lab.

November 18th, 2008

Setting up of 6,000 Model Schools at Block level gets union cabinet’s nod: PIB

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=44613.

The 123 educationally backward blocks in Orissa are (See also http://education.nic.in/mdm/EEBs.pdf for a bigger list):

November 7th, 2008

Children Education Assistance and Reimbursement of tution fee

Following is based on recommendation of the 6th pay commission; see http://india.gov.in/govt/paycommission.php. Its effective 1st Sept 2008. As per a report in Dharitri the Orissa government is also planning to implementing it for its state employees.

The above numbers can serve as a benchmark for the state and the country to aim to provide for similar amount for every child’s K-12 education. They can start with kids with BPL parents, making it part of R & R, requiring every organization with more than 20(?) employees to provide to all their employees’ children, etc.

1 comment November 3rd, 2008

Math olympiad examination 2008

October 20th, 2008

Scheme for Girls’ Hostel for students of secondary and higher secondary schools

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=43337.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its approval for a revised centrally sponsored scheme for construction and running of girls’ hostels for students of secondary and higher secondary schools in each of the educationally backward block during the 11th Five year Plan. The CCEA also gave its approval to incur and expenditure of Rs.2000 crore as Central share with a sharing pattern of 90:10 between the Centre and the States. The revised scheme provides for construction of 3500 hostels through State Governments in all the educationally backward blocks in the country in addition to recurring grant to meet the need of inmates.

October 3rd, 2008

Vocational Education in Orissa

Following links are from http://www.orissa.gov.in/highereducation/vocational.htm.

1.VOCATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN ORISSA : A BRIEF HISTORY

2.LIST OF  231 Government vocational Junior colleges (GVJCs)

3.ENROLMENT & SUCCESS IN VOCATIONAL  HIGHER SECONDARY EDUCATION (1988-89 TO 2007-08)

4.PROSPECTUS FOR ADMISSION  IN GOVERNMENT VOCATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGES (GVJCs)  IN ORISSA DURING THE SESSION 2008-2009

5.   APPLICATION FORM  

6. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, THE CANDIDATE MAY CONTACT

There are 231 govt. vocational junior colleges in Orissa offering at least 2 of twenty different vocational programs. In 2007-08 3111 students passed from these junior colleges.

7 comments September 11th, 2008

Model Schools (one each in each block) will be better than Kendriya Vidyalayas

Following is from a report in Hindustan Times.

The proposed 6,000 model schools, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Independence Day speech last year, will have better infrastructure and teachers’ strength than the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs).

The blueprint prepared by the Human Resource Development Ministry for these schools, which will come up at each block headquarters in the country, says that there will be one teacher for 25 students in these institutions while the ratio in KVs is one teacher to 40 students.

“Not only teacher strength, these institutions will get all advanced facilities, including ICT equipment, facilities for sports, games, music and art and laboratory for mathematics, science and languages,” sources said.

These schools will give equal importance to curricular and extra-curricular activities, including games, music, dance and art. Of the 6,000 schools, 2,500 will be set up on public- private partnership basis while the rest would be established by the government.

The government will provide some grants for these 2,500 schools, while private companies will make contributions. The government is in the process of finalising the modalities for setting up of these schools on PPP mode.

For the rest of the 3,500 schools, the Centre will bear 75 per cent of the establishment cost and state government will provide 25 per cent of the cost. The establishment cost for a school is about Rs 3 crore.

The process of setting up these institutions will start this year while the admission will start from the next session.

September 11th, 2008

3314 Merit-cum-Means national scholarships for Odisha high schoolers: Samaja

The following Samaja article details the procedure of how these scholarship awardees will be selected in Orissa.

1 comment August 30th, 2008

Residential school in each district for child labourers

Following is  from a report in Pragativadi.

In a bid to curb the unethical practice of child labour, the state government has decided to open more residential schools for child labourers. As per the decision, the residential schools will be opened in each district. 
In the first phase, 10 students will be accommodated in each school. The state government will also take the help of NGOs in establishing the schools. This apart, the state government has also decided to give Rs 400 as food allowance of each inmate of the hostel. The state government has already decided that a contractor will have to give one per cent cess form a work order of Rs 33 lakh towards labour welfare. Earlier, the slab was limited to Rs 10 lakh.

August 10th, 2008

13813 villages in Orissa do not have any schools: Samaja

July 15th, 2008

2500-5000 new model schools: 1-2 in each block of the country

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindustan Times.

India will set up 2,500 new model schools designed after the existing state-run Kendriya Vidyalayas to provide quality education to students in "every block of the country".

"We are rolling out these 2,500 schools from August," said Arun K Rath, secretary in the human resource development (HRD) ministry.

"They will be quality schools like the existing Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs). Our ministry wants that all blocks across the country must have at least one model school," Rath told IANS.

…

"Every school will need an investment of Rs 30 million. While the central government will bear 75 per cent of the cost, the state governments’ share would be 25 per cent," the secretary said.

Rath said KVs are known for quality education and discipline. They have been doing well in both the Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations. "We have modelled these new schools after KVs to keep the education record high."

…

He said all these would be co-educational schools and set up over a period of three years. "The selection of students will be taken care of by the state governments."

"We want to make sure that all deserving students have access to some good schools," he said.

Rath said apart from these 2,500 model schools, the HRD ministry was in talks with private parties to set up 2,500 additional model schools on a public-private participation (PPP) model.

July 3rd, 2008

Assocham observations of money spent in IIT coaching and Indians going abroad for their studies

Following are some excerpts from a report in thaiindian.com.

Private academies that train students for entrance exams of the Indian Institutes of Technology and other prestigious engineering colleges mint Rs.100 billion ($2.30 billion) a year – an amount that can fund 30 to 40 new IITs, shows a study by an industry body. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) study, released Wednesday, said private academies who train 600,000 students every year for these exams make Rs.100 billion a year.
…

Talking about another anomaly in higher education, the body said that 80,000-90,000 students go abroad for higher studies, leading to a high foreign exchange outflow.

“If quality institutions are provided, a large number of students will stay back and contribute to the nation,” said Assocham.

The chamber asserted that more institutions of excellence should come up and suggested that private players and big industrial groups should be encouraged in higher education.

According to Assocham, India has over 12 million students in higher education but fewer than 350,000 faculty members.

1 comment July 2nd, 2008

Top 20 ranked students in Plus two arts in 2008

June 14th, 2008

DAV Chandrasekharpur students do well

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

… students of Chandrasekharpur DAV Public School have shown remarkable excellence and brought glory to the school and also to the State. The State’s topper of Standard XII CBSE examination, Soumyashant Nayak, snatched the All India topper position in the examination conducted by Indian Statistical Institute. He has the credit of being the first student from the State to get such honour. This year, 23 students from the country and three from the State have qualified for the same. Ten students of the school, who have qualified in the IIT examination, are Aditya Acharya, Sovam Nayak, KV Suddodhan, Soumyashant Nayak, Sanjay Nanda, Ranjan Bhuyan, Sumeet Dandapat, Pankaj More, Padmaja Thatoi and Sonali Patnaik. Keeping pace with the tough competitions, 11 students of the school have placed themselves in the top 100 students of the State in the AIEEE-2008.

June 6th, 2008

Plus two toppers (top twenty ranks) of Orissa board in 2008: Samaja

2 comments May 30th, 2008

Vedanta does the right thing: free schooling for kids of displaced families in DAV School

Following is from a report in the Pioneer.

Provision of admission to the Puri DAV School by Anil Agarwal Foundation’s Vedanta University project for the children of displaced families has drawn an enthusiastic response from the villagers. As per the arrangement, 500 children from the land losing and displaced families will be admitted to the school.

By May 10, as many as 618 applications were received from children of the target families for admission in the DAV School. The children will get free education and the Foundation will provide uniforms, transport facilities, books and also mid-day snacks.

Despite discouragement and threats from vested interests opposed to the university project, the villagers and their children are very enthusiastic about the whole arrangement as they are serious about good education and a better future. After selection and admission, the classes are scheduled to start from July 1, according to a company release.

Following are excerpts from a report in the Statesman.

As a part of its CSR mission to facilitate quality school education for the upcoming generation of the project affected families, Anil Agarwal Foundation has partnered with the DAV School, Puri.

During the entrance tests, children came accompanied by parents and fellow villagers who were very keen for the admission of their wards, claimed a release issued by the foundation while noting that this was despite threats from vested interests who are opposed to the University project.

The CSR activities of Vedanta group of industries run by Mr Anil Agarwal focuses on health, education, livelihood and peripheral development, noted the release.

The educational initiative, in partnership with the DAV School, is expected to allay the fear of the local community that the world class University will be of no benefit to them. The students inducted to the DAV School now, will , in future find their rightful place in the Vedanta University.

May 15th, 2008