Howrah News Service - Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World

Hotel Management institutes to open in 30 WB towns

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:25:00 -0400

Kalyani: To materialize the dream of students belonging to middle class families, a society of entrepreneurs involved in hotel and hospitality industry has come up to set up Hotel Management institutes in small townships of West Bengal. With the aim to impart trainings on Hotel Management at affordable cost, the Futuristic Group would soon set up Hotel Management institutes in at least 30 small towns in West Bengal.

To begin with, the group on Sunday announced opening of the project, "Futuristic Institute of Hotel Management (FIHM)" starting with institutes at Bandel and Naihati where students would be charged fees as low as Rs 7,500.

Revealing the details, Abhijit Bhattacharjee, brain behind the project and head of the Aquatic chain of hotels in Eastern India said, "Most of the Hotel Management institutes are located in big cities and it is naturally very difficult for students from small towns to purse the course."

"The FIHM would also provide scholarship to poor meritorious students and also give special industrial and job training, apart from a definite placement support," added Bhattacharjee.

Jharkhand govt to give its students a haircut

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:17:00 -0400

Ranchi: The Jharkhand government is going to give haircuts to students in state-run schools. The state's human resource development minister Bandhu Tirkey said,"School principals have been directed to hire part-time barbers to give the students haircuts in the schools. There are many poor students with long hair as their parents are unable to take them to barbers.

He said,"The barbers will be available in school for at least three days every week." To implement the decision, 30,000 - 40,000 barbers will be needed as there are over 16,000 primary, middle and high schools in the state. The barbers are happy with the decision. Barber Gyan Thakur said,"We welcome the decision. It will give employment to barbers and at the same time help the poor children of the state."

The state's HRD department is introducing several schemes to check school dropouts. Earlier, Tirkey had announced poor students would have their birthdays celebrated in school.

"We have to make education attractive for the students and reduce the burden of the parents. Jharkhand is one of the backward states of the country and we need to improve literacy rate. Caring for poor students can help in improving the literacy rate," he added.

In Jharkhand, the literacy rate is 54 per cent, compared to the national average of 65 per cent. (IANS)

IIT in Andhra Pradesh to begin classes this year

Mon, 05 May 2008 15:55:00 -0400

Hyderabad: The new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Andhra Pradesh will commence classes from this academic year (2008-09) at a makeshift campus in Medak district, the state government announced on Monday.

The decision was taken after a high-level meeting of officials from the departments of higher and technical education that was presided over by Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Classes will be held at the makeshift campus at the Ordnance factory at Eddumailaram in Medak until the permanent one comes at Kandi in the same district.

The government decided to release Rs 190 million for the acquisition of over 500 acres of land for the permanent campus. The meeting also decided to set up a world-class university in Kadapa, the home district of the Chief Minister, for which the government will allot 700 acres of land.
Officials in the council for higher education said the IIT would initially have five disciplines with 40 students each. The first batch is likely to start in July. The central government had in 2007 decided to set up two new IITs in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

The state government in December selected Medak district as the location for the IIT in view of its proximity to the state capital. The previous government had suggested the temple town of Basara in Adilabad district as the location for the proposed institute.
The IIT in Medak will be the eighth in the country. Seven IITs are already functioning in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati, Kanpur and Chennai.

Meanwhile, Japan has evinced interest in collaborating with IIT-Medak. It is also keen to extend financial aid of Rs 40 million to the new institute.
A three-member delegation from Japan visited Medak on Friday and inspected Kandi and the Ordnance factory. The delegation that included Ryuji Sakaue, head of South Asian division in Japan's ministry of foreign affairs, and Rites Megan, vice-president, International University of Japan, also held talks with state government officials. (IANS)

Arjun Singh assures education bill in monsoon session

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:06:00 -0400

New Delhi: Union Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh Saturday assured a delegation led by Shanta Sinha, chairperson National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) that the right to education bill will be passed in the monsoon session.

According to the bill, every child between 6 to 14 years of age will have the right to free and compulsory education. Ashok Agarwal, who was member of the delegation said,“We have approached the minister for tabling the right to education bill in parliament soon.

“The bill is important because it is the first step in the direction of the government's active role in ensuring implementation of the constitutional amendment,” he added.

And he assured us that the bill will be tabled in the coming monsoon session.” The delegation included Mridula Mukherjee, director of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, and Amarjeet Kaur from the All India Trade Union Congress.

According to the bill, government schools shall provide free education to all children and private schools will admit at least 25 per cent children in their schools without any fee.(IANS)

WB Board for early summer vacation

Thu, 01 May 2008 03:38:00 -0400

The rising mercury level and humidity, coupled with acute water crisis in the state, has forced the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to decide on closing schools for summer holidays from May 9. It will be almost a week ahead of the date decided earlier.

The decision comes a day before the schools begin their new session. "This is actually a good decision taken by the board. With the rising temperature, it is gradually becoming difficult for students to attend classes. We have also received reports of students falling ill on their way to school under the scorching sun," said Deepak Das, secretary of Government Teachers’ Association.

Earlier, the schools had decided to close down for the holidays around mid May. The decision of the board will prepone the vacations in schools by a week. "The decision might give temporary respite to the students, but it will probably serve no purpose. As per the rules of the board, all schools can give only 65 holidays in a year. So, in most years, the summer vacations never exceed 20 or 25 days. This means the schools will re-open by end-May or the first week of June. Will the temperature be any lower then?" asked Das.

At Hindu School, headmaster Shyam Narayan Bandopadhyay had earlier issued a notice that summer holidays would begin from May 24. "Now we will have to start the vacation earlier. However, the number of holidays will remain unchanged. Apart from the circular issued by the board, we also need a recommendation from the director of school education," he said.

"We have been forced to take a decision since the temperature is rising every day and there is an acute water crisis in some regions of the state," said a senior board official.

Presidency scraps entrance exam

Thu, 01 May 2008 03:35:00 -0400

After missing the autonomous status, Presidency College has now decided to scrap entrance tests for at least six subjects including Bengali, Mathematics, Statistics, Philosophy, Sociology and Geology this year. Scrapping entrance test for other subjects is also being considered.

Presidency College was the first college to conduct an entrance test for admission into English department in 1964. Later, entrance test was introduced for students who desired to take admission in the Economics department and finally in 1971, the college made it mandatory for students to sit the entrance test in order to take admission in any department. The marks attained in the entrance test along with the Higher Secondary marks were taken into account before granting admission to students.

This year, the college authorities have decided to grant admission to candidates only on the basis of marks obtained in Higher Secondary. However, this will be done on an experimental basis only this year. “If we feel that the concept is working then, we will do away with entrance test altogether for all the subjects,” a college official said.
Some teachers feel that this will bring down the academic standard of the college and students with inferior academic credentials, might get an easy entry into the college. Some teachers said that this was done to let SFI gain ground at the college.

The college authorities however, refuted the charges. “We found that entrance test was not much effective in assessing the credentials of students. It was felt that the Board results of students, qualifying from any Board is sufficient to help them seek a berth in the college,” added a senior teacher.

According to sources, the proposal to do away with entrance tests had been long pending and the former principal, Mamata Ray, had even rejected it once.

Asean students pick Singapore as top place to work

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:13:00 -0400

Singapore, April 30 (DPA) Singapore emerged as the top place to work and play among university students in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) grouping, a survey said Wednesday.

More than half of the 2,170 undergraduates polled, or 54.3 percent, said they would "most like to work" in Singapore among the 10 Asean nations.

Malaysia was a distant second with 11.2 percent, followed by Brunei at 8.3 percent, Thailand at 7.1 percent, Vietnam at 4.7 percent and Indonesia at 2.5 percent, according to findings published in The Straits Times.

The Philippines was in seventh place at 2.1 percent. Laos garnered only 1.1 percent, followed by Myanmar at 0.7 percent and Cambodia at 0.4 percent.

The region-wide survey, supported by the Asean Foundation, also found Singapore as the top choice for holidays, picked by 35 percent of respondents.

Thailand was a second at 20.9 percent, and Malaysia followed with 13.9 percent.

The study's co-authors, Assistant Professor Eric Thompson of the National University of Singapore and Chulanee Thianthai of Chulalongkorn University, said that destinations picked by students are different from those preferred by international tourists.

While tourists prefer Cambodia's Angkor Wat and Indonesia's Borobudur, Thompson told The Straits Times that Asean students "want to see modernity" more than ancient ruins.

IIMA: no rollback in fees; OBC quota in two weeks

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:31:00 -0400

Ahmedabad, April 26 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) has decided to implement the Other Backward Classes quota from this academic year onwards and there would be no rollback on the hiked fee structure announced, Samir Barua, director of the institute, said Saturday.

Speaking to the media here after the IIMA board meeting, Barua said there was no change in fee structure or any rollback. The IIMA board had hiked fees in March-end for the first year to Rs.550,000 and for the second year to Rs.600,000 for the batch joining in June 2008.

The average fees for the OBC students in the "non-creamy" layer would come down due to the graded fee structure which has been introduced only by the IIMA, he said.

On admissions in the general quota, Barua said it was expected to begin from May 1, and added that it would take at least two weeks to implement the OBC quota.

IIMA is providing a graded fee structure keeping in mind poorer students and loans would be made available through the institute, Barua said. "We have held talks with four public sector banks and one private bank, and all have agreed to give the entire fee amount as loan with a moratorium that the fee repayment will begin at a later stage. There will be no margins and the loans come with an attractive rate of interest," he said.

"The problem for those parents whose annual income is less that Rs.250,000 has been taken care of since education loans have been arranged. One problem parents faced was on bringing a guarantor. Even this has been taken care. A student can now stand guarantor for another," Barua said.

For the first year (2008 batch) six percent seats would be added in the OBC quota and a similar number also added in the general quota as per the court order. Six percent of the total 280 seats works out to 17. So in the first year, IIMA will have an extra 34 seats, Barua said. There would therefore be 314 seats for the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) and PGP Agri-business management(PGP-ABM) courses, he said.

The second year would see 6-15 percent hike in seats. The third year it would be 27 percent, Barua said.

Apart from hiking fees, the IIMA board had also decided to triple the annual family income limit from Rs.200,000 to Rs.600,000 for a student to be eligible for financial support. Graded need-based financial aid was also announced for eligible students who qualify for financial support.

Barua said that earlier the IIMA had visualised that the fee waiver scheme would cost the institute Rs.85 million per year. "Now it will go further up," he said.

To a question on why IIMA raised its fee more than other institutes, Barua said that each institute had its own requirements and had to maintain its own corpus of funds. "In '92-93 we had a corpus of Rs.135 crores (Rs.1.35 billion) which was all spent on infrastructure development like adding classrooms, dormitories etc."

Asked if the ministry of human resource development would be happy with the IIMA decision, he said "only time will tell".

"We have acted well within our powers," Barua said.

Universities should not be mere teaching shops: PM

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:06:00 -0400

Katra (J&K): Expressing concern over many universities in the country turning into "teaching shops", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday sought reversal of this trend and more focus on research-cum-teaching in the university system. "It is a matter of some concern that over the years many universities have become teaching shops and degree-giving authorities. We must reverse this trend and revive the tradition of teaching and research in our university system," he said at the first convocation of Sri Mata Vaidhnodevi University in Katra.

Emphasising the need to revive the tradition of doing good research along with good teaching in universities, Singh said he was saying this as someone who has been a teacher.

"I have often said hat I have strayed into politics by accident but my preferred career was teaching," he said recalling that in the days he used to be a student and teacher, universities placed great emphasis on doing research along with teaching.

It was on this solid foundation of research-oriented teaching in universities that the country created the edifice of higher education in post-independent India, he said.

Noting that the government has given the highest priority to a quantum leap in higher education, he said there has been an unprecedented expansion in higher education in the UPA government's tenure. (PTI)

Canada moves in to lure Indian students

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:24:00 -0400

New Delhi: Canada has rolled out a new open work permit scheme to attract foreign students - a move that may lure away Indian students from their favourite destinations like the US, Britain and Australia. Under the new scheme, announced by the Canadian government on Thursday, foreign students going to Canada will now be able to get an open work permit under a post-graduate programme, with virtually no restrictions on the type of employment and no requirement of a job offer. Previously, international students were allowed to work for one or two years, depending on location.

The duration of the work permit has been increased to three years to ensure easier employment opportunities to target foreign students in an increasingly competitive global education market. "The government of Canada wants more foreign students to choose Canada," Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Diane Finley said in a statement, released by the Canadian High Commission in the city. "Open and longer work permits provide international students with more opportunities for Canadian work experience. This will help make Canada a destination of choice, and help us keep international students already studying in Canada," the minister added.

Canada is not a preferred destination for Indian students, but the last decade has seen a spurt in interest in Canadian universities. A total of 5,700 Indian students were studying in Canada in 2007 while 2,531 study permits were issued to Indians that year. This was a big jump from 339 Indian students who went to Canada in 1997. Over 80,000 Indian students study in the US, forming the largest number of foreign students in that country. Around 19,000 Indian students went to Britain in 2007.

India has emerged as a battleground for foreign universities looking for bright students. British universities rolling out their education roadshows for Indian students and the US easing visa procedures to sustain the flow of the "best and brightest" shows that none of these countries want to lose out in the race.

Canada has crafted this new scheme to address severe shortage of skilled personnel that is affecting the global competitiveness of its economy. "As we move toward the implementation of the Canadian Experience Class, these changes will help create a pool of individuals who, with work experience, will find it easier to apply to immigrate to Canada," said the Canadian Minister.

"Our ability to retain international graduates with Canadian qualifications, work experience and familiarity with Canadian society, will help increase our competitiveness and benefit Canada as a whole," said the Minister. (IANS)