Fee hike row: Noida DM urges CBSE to intervene

Following in the footsteps of Delhi government, the Noida district administration has taken serious note of allegations levied by the parents of school-going children regarding arbitrary increase of fees by some schools in the city.

Steps taken by the administration:

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been asked to intervene in the matter

The setting up of a committee has been suggested in order to look into the allegations

An audit of the schools being named was asked to be conducted

A fee regulatory commission was also asked to be formed, so that the transparency regarding the same is maintained

To look into the demands of the parents, the district magistrate had even formed a five member committee, which is headed by the city Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar.

In its letter to CBSE, the following findings of the committee have been mentioned:

"During fact finding, it was found that certain schools indulged in very high and unwarranted hike of fee last year," the letter read, according to TOI

It further stated that the schools were charging money on different accounts including annual charge, development fee, scholarship fund, etc, apart from the fee according to the state government's standards

It also questioned the developmental fund being charged and said that it did not seem justified and said the parents are not being informed the basis on which the same was being charged.

Commenting further on the issue, the letter stated that charging the same amount as development fund from all the students but providing facilities to a selected few was not justified

The letter also highlighted the blind eye the schools have turned towards the provisions for EWS category under the Right To Education Act, 2009

"There is a provision to reserve 25 percent seats under EWS category. But, majority of the schools are showing neglect towards this provision. On enquiring about this, the schools merely said that despite their best efforts, they could not find adequate number of students in relation to the seats. However, they did not provide any proof for the said attempts being made," the letter said

Further, according to the rules, at least 10 percent of seats have to be reserved for bright students of the scheduled caste and tribes and the fee charged to them should not be more than what is decided for them by the Uttar Pradesh Education Board. However, most of the schools were happily violating this rule.

On the issue of books and uniforms being sold in the school premises, the DM suggested the following:

NCERT should ensure that before a session commences, they have enough printed books and students do not face a shortage of the same

Standard norms should also be in place for selling uniforms.

Source:-  Indiatoday

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KV students to learn new subject compassion towards animals

                                          http://educationvijay.com/newsshow.aspx?newsid=7075

In order to inculcate compassion in children towards animals Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country will now be including "Compassionate Citizen" as part of their curriculum.

What is Compassionate Citizen?

• Compassionate Citizen is a humane education programme that has been designed specifically to teach children to be kind to animals.
• The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan on Tuesday, May 10, issued a notification to all its schools, asking them to integrate the programme, into the official curriculum via languages, science, social studies, environmental, and value education curricula.
• The course has been prepared by animal rights advocacy group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
• The course has been designed to teach 8 to 12-year-old children to be kind to animals and has been endorsed by the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Important points of the notification:

• "The programme offers tools and lesson plans to teach children to view animals as feeling, sensitive beings. It consists of a teacher's guide, reproducible activity sheets, a reading unit and a 28-minute video - all devised to help students use their reading and reasoning skills to examine the complex lives of animals, how our relationship with them has changed over time and how to respond when animals are in trouble," an official statement said.
• "The programme has to be included in the monthly curriculum as an extra-curricular day activity or a one-day workshop. The course has been divided into four different sections -- The amazing world of animals, Animals and their feelings, Changing time and changing minds and Making humane choices," it added.

The notification came after a meeting between representatives from PETA and KVS officials.

"PETA has distributed the educational resource materials in English and Hindi to all Kendriya Vidyalaya schools. The programme is available in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Telugu and can be made available in other languages, if needed," Poorva Joshipura, PETA India CEO,said.

Source:-  Indiatoday

                                        

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NEET 2016: Supreme Court gives go ahead to two-phase entrance exam

Finally the confusion of students, who wish to take admission into various medical colleges, cleared as the Supreme Court on Thursday, April 28, gave a nod to the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) schedule for organizing the entrance examination in two phases this year.

Earlier in the day, the apex court had reserved its order on whether the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) would be conducted from this academic year or would be held from next year onwards.

The CBSE had proposed to hold NEET in two phases. According to the board's proposal phase 1 of the examination was to be held on May 1, 2016 and phase 2 was to be conducted on July 24.

The board was originally scheduled to conduct the All India Pre-medical/Pre-dental Entrance Test (AIPMT) on May 1 for which 6,67,637 candidates are scheduled to appear from 1,040 centres in 52 cities, including abroad.

The results of both the phases of examination will be combined and declared on August 17.

Many states and private medical colleges had opposed holding the NEET exam for this year and requested that they be heard in detail before any final order is taken in this regard.

On April 12, the SC had quashed its earlier controversial judgement scrapping single common entrance test (NEET) for admission to MBBS, BDS and PG courses in all medical colleges.

Source: Indiatoday

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