Child Rights and You (CRY) is organising six-week internships for students and working professionals in the coming summer vacations.

"An internship with CRY will enable interns to continue to participate in the struggle for the rights for children beyond the course of the internship. Students can intern across a range of verticals, from legal research, conceptualising campaigns, managing volunteer/intern events, creating content and creative campaigns on child rights issues, to conducting surveys, writing reports, data collation and analysis , to filing RTIs, networking, running online campaigns and petitions, depending on their skill-sets and interest areas," says Leena Prasad, volunteer action, North, CRY.

Talking about the activities planned for interns during the internship, Prasad says, "The first step is an induction, where an intern is briefed about the organisation , the internship norms and processes, and an udate on children's rights in India.

Following this, there is a plan of action and mandate to be developed by the intern in consultation with the assigned mentor. The intern is meant to adhere to the mandate drawn up."

The applicant has to be enrolled in an academic institute and the number of seats is pre-determined by every region in the beginning of the year. Students in a college can apply directly or through their college placement cells.

"The student needs to follow a set of pre-internship process such as sending the CV, statement of purpose (SoP) and an essay, and fill a few standard forms/questionnaires . After this, there is an interview followed by the final selection process. On successful completion, a certificate is given to the intern," explains Prasad.

Currently, internships are available in Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi. Resumes with statement of purpose and a brief note on any one child rights issue can be sent by email to rajakumari.michael@crymail .org

Source: TOI

Even though Plus II results are yet to be announced, around 2,000 students have secured 90% or above marks in the examination, sources said. Three subject experts will scrutinize their answer sheets, which were segregated from the rest, before results are published tentatively towards May-end.

The examination committee will very soon decide on how to go about these answer books," council chairman Nihar Ranjan Patnaik told Source on Tuesday.

Council sources said the subject experts concerned will re-confirm that the valuation has been done without any bias towards or against any student. But as such they will not award marks on their own. Majority of the high scorers are from science stream, though there are some from arts and commerce streams as well.

In case the subject experts raise doubts about favours being shown to certain students, their papers will go to a higher level committee for further authentication. "The idea is to remove any doubt about fairness in the evaluation process and to eliminate all chances of manipulation," another senior council officer said.

CHSE controller of examinations (CoE) Jasobanta Behera said, "The entire process of authentication will be completed within the next one week to 10 days to publish the results on time." He, however, declined to elaborate how the "scrutiny" is going to be done.

The CHSE had segregated the answer sheets of those getting 90% or above. During the evaluation of answers in April, CoE in a letter had asked the valuation zone supervisors to make subject-wise packets of all such answer books. The supervisors were told to hand over these packets to officers authorized by the controller to receive mark foils, where marks of each student of a particular evaluation centre is entered.

After the CHSE move, some examiners were wary of awarding high marks to students to avoid the hassle of re-evaluation, sources said.

Though the CoE letter had not mentioned its intention behind the move, sources said the higher education department had asked the council to separate the high scorers' answer papers suspecting that some self-financed colleges may be influencing the results. In 2011, majority of the top 10 positions in Plus II science stream were shared by two comparatively new self-financed colleges.

Exam facts

Results expected: May last week

Students appeared: 2.79 lakh, including 1.75 lakh in arts stream, 70,000 in science and 25,000 in commerce

Valuation done: By 5,000 examiners in 46 valuation zones

Examination held: In 1,065 centres from March 2 to April 2

Source: TOI

The State government's approval for an increase in fees has set the ball rolling for a “hassle-free” admission process for the engineering programmes offered by professional colleges in the State in 2012.

The Kerala Self-financing Engineering College Managements' Association, which represents 93 private engineering colleges, and the Kerala Christian Catholic Engineering College Managements' Association (12 affiliated colleges) have agreed to earmark 50 per cent of the seats under the government quota in the new academic year.

The consensus was evolved based on the talks held with the government over seat-sharing and fee structure. Senior government officials associated with the talks told The Hindu-EducationPlus that an agreement on the admission process could be arrived early, as the government accepted the managements' demand for an increase in fees.

The Kerala Christian Catholic Engineering College Managements' Association agreed to provide 50 per cent of the seats to the government after its demand for a uniform fee in all seats was accepted.

The managements will soon sign an agreement with the government, T.A. Vijayan, secretary of the Kerala Self-financing Engineering College Managements' Association, told Source.

He said the government had agreed to fix Rs. 40,000 as the annual fee for half the students admitted under the government quota in self-financing colleges, while the fee for the remaining seats will be Rs. 65,000. The corresponding fee in these two categories last year was Rs. 35,000 and Rs. 60,000.

Mr. Vijayan said the maximum fee for 50 per cent of the management seats would be Rs. 99,000. Students seeking admission under this category would have to pay an additional fee of Rs. 25,000. For seats under the NRI quota, the annual fee would be Rs. 1.5 lakh. Students admitted under this category would have to pay a Rs. 1.5 lakh refundable deposit and a Rs. 25,000 special fee. The total intake in colleges affiliated to the association was 36,000.

Pointing out that the association had sought the cooperation of the government in ensuring the timely completion of the admission process before June 30, Mr. Vijayan said the managements had requested the authorities to remit the fees for candidates admitted under the government quota at the colleges where they were admitted.

The fee was remitted in banks as directed by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations for those who got enrolled last year. The government is yet to pay the fee collected from students admitted under the government quota last year to nearly 75 self-financing colleges.

The managements' association has requested the government to include a clause in the agreement that the admission process will be completed before June 30. Recalling that 8,000 seats had remained vacant in colleges affiliated to the association last year, Mr. Vijayan said that several students who initially got admitted into the management seats exercised the higher option facility and shifted to the government seats. This resulted in many management seats remaining vacant last year, he said.

There is good news for candidates looking out for a seat under the government quota this year, as the intake will go up following the decision made by the Kerala Christian Catholic Engineering College Managements Association to earmark 50 per cent of the seats in its affiliated colleges as government quota. But they will have to pay a fee of Rs. 75,000 for a seat earmarked under the government quota.

The 12 engineering colleges under the association have nearly 4,800 seats. Fifty per cent of the total seats will be available under the allotment pool of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations this time.

Source: The Hindu

Patna University (PU) is all set to become a Wi-Fi campus in the next academic session commencing in July. All its constituent colleges and postgraduate (PG) departments are being provided with Internet connectivity so that they may get closely linked with each other and also with outside institutions.

PU computer centre in-charge K P Singh said that as part of the National Knowledge Network Mission, the much-acclaimed project of the Union ministry of human resource development department, all colleges under the PU would be connected online with the university. A comprehensive survey of the proposed networking in all the postgraduate departments located at Patna College, Patna Science College and Darbhanga House complex has already been completed and report submitted to the state higher education department. The survey report has reportedly been sent to the state information technology department for verification.

Singh said as soon as the verification work is completed, the work of laying optical fibre cables in and around the PU campus would be started by the BSNL, the government-authorized agency for laying the cable and providing Internet connectivity. The entire work is likely to be completed in a couple of months, he said.

Once the process of networking is completed, PU would also think of introducing virtual classes. A student of B N College or Magadh Mahila College can attend the lecture delivered by a teacher of Patna Science College through networking.

The postgraduate departments of PU would be provided 400 nodes (Internet connections). The cost incurred on networking would be borne by the central government (75%) and the state government (25%). The state government has also been approached for providing sufficient number of computers to the university for ensuring optimum utilization of networking.

Meanwhile, the work for computerized evaluation of answer-books of degree examinations and preparation of examination results is also in progress. PU has already signed an MoU with a Bangalore-based firm for the purpose. The company would install large scanners and sufficient number of computers to facilitate scanning and evaluation of answer-books, said Singh.

Source: TOI

Assam's higher secondary curriculum is set for a change with the state government planning to introduce subjects that will increase the employability of the students.

It has already formed a committee of present and former university vice chancellors and educationists and sent them on a tour of the US, Britain and China to study educational institutions and curricula.

"On their return, the experts will review the syllabus and advise on the changes required," said a senior official of the state's education department, who did want to be named.

The government also planned to introduce new subjects such as applied chemistry, physics and psychology, he said.

The official said the objective was to increase the employ ability of the students from Assam and help compete with students from other parts of the world.

"The government has also given priority to foreign languages and computer courses, which will increase the employ ability of the students from Assam even abroad," he said.

"We must change our conventional sets of curriculum, which have been continuing for ages. Like any other parts of the world, we must know how to change with time. Then only will the students of the state benefit in the real sense of the term," he said.

The government was also planning to transform all college into skill development centres, where the students would be trained in vocational skills along with the academic courses, said the official.

The government had already taken steps to increase computer literacy by conferring the Anundoram Borooah Award to students who secure first division in their Class X exams.

The award, named after the first Assamese and the fifth Indian to join the India Civil Service, includes the gift of a personal computer.

Source: TOI