Cheating cases in the ongoing Intermediate public exams are multiplying by the day across the state. The number of cheating cases booked against students was in two-digits during the language papers earlier, but it suddenly increased to 114 once the science papers began on March 14.
Officials said this was due to the 25 per cent weightage for marks secured in science subjects while determining the rank in Eamcet.
Over 18 lakh students are appearing for Inter exams in about 2,400 centres across the state that began on March 10.
On the first day, 15 cheating cases were booked against students who sat for the first year second language papers. It came down to 14 for the second year second language paper and increased to 39 each for both first and second year English papers.
From March 15, the mathematics paper for MPC students and botany paper for BiPC students, who constitute 80 per cent of the total 18 lakh students, commenced.
Cheating cases suddenly increased to 114 on March 15 during the first year exams for maths and botany. It touched almost 100 on March 17 for the same papers for second year students.
Officials said they have alerted invigilators, sitting and flying squads across the state, to be more vigilant till the papers for science subjects are over.
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Slogans not our cup of T, warns BIE
The Board of Intermediate Education has warned students that they would be debarred and their results would be withheld if they penned slogans such as “Jai Telangana”, “Jai Samaikyandhra”, or “Jai Andhra” on the intermediate answer scripts.
Students booked under malpractice can be debarred from appearing for Inter exams from one year to eight years.
“Writing anything other than answers amounts to communicating with the examiners directly or indirectly which is a punishable offence,” said the BIE secretary, Mr G. Balaramaiah. “Exams are not the means to express demands or wishes.”
The board has come out with this stern warning in the context of emotions running high among students over the bifurcation of the state.
“Students should focus on exams and should not participate in agitation,” said Mr Balaramaiah. “Their elders will take care of bifurcation issues. My appeal to students is focus on their future.” Answer scripts with such political graffiti would be referred to the malpractice review committee that will take a final call on the action to be initiated. The committee will examine such scripts to ascertain whether students were awarded more or less marks by evaluators. Action will be taken against evaluators if any regional partiality is discerned. Mr Balaramaiah said the board used the bar-coding method to keep the identity of the student confidential.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
No T-evaluators for T-students
The state government has rejected the demand of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) that the Intermediate exam answer sheets of students from the Telangana region should only be evaluated by evaluators hailing from the T-region.
It has been a regular practice for the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) to send answer scripts of a particular district to spot valuation centres in other districts.
However, the TJAC has demanded a “region-wise” evaluation this time, arguing that evaluators from Andhra may award less marks to T-students in the present political conditions.
The TJAC convener, Prof. Kodandaram, met the BIE secretary, Mr G. Balaramaiah, twice to put forth the demand. Several Congress, Telugu Desam and Telangana Rashtra Samiti politicians from the T-region also made representations to the Board as did student unions who demonstrated in front of the BIE office.
The Board referred the matter to the government to take a final call. The government has rejected the demand saying that there are already enough precautionary measures in place to ensure “fair valuation”.
“Our intermediate education has a good reputation nationally as a major chunk of seats in national-level competitive exams like IITJEE, AIEEE, AFMC, etc., are bagged by our students every year,” said the minister for secondary education, Mr D. Manikya Vara Prasada Rao.
“If we alter the system for petty politics, it will do more harm than good,” he added.
He also said that there were enough provisions in the existing evaluation system to protect the identity of students.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Big Budget for higher studies
The state Budget presented by the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, on Saturday, his 16th, has some good news for students who opt for higher and professional education courses this year.
The government has allotted a substantial amount of funds to pay the entire tuition fee and scholarships for students belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Classes, Economically Backward Classes. minorities and physically challenged students, this year. Students whose annual family income is less than Rs 1 lakh can claim these benefits.
The schemes are applicable to both freshers as well as senior students who are pursuing various higher and professional education courses. The government has sanctioned Rs 1,032 crore for BCs, Rs 300 crore for EBCs, Rs 536 crore for SCs, Rs 193 crore for STs, Rs 210 cr for minorities and Rs 7 crore for physically challenged students, towards total fee reimbursement and scholarships.
The move is expected to benefit nearly 80 per cent of the total number of students who opt for professional courses. Further, the Budget allocation for higher education and school education departments went up to Rs 2,830 crore and Rs 9,824 crore respectively.
“The allocations for new universities were raised from Rs 1.5 crore last year to Rs 4 crore this year. The funds were also allotted to implement the revised scales for teachers by the University Grants Commission,” said the chairman, of the Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education, Prof. K.C. Reddy.
The government has announced the setting up of eight new study circles for BCs to provide coaching to BC students who are appearing for competitive exams such as UPSC, APPSC, police and banking recruitment. These students will be provided free accommodation and mess facilities.
However, the Budget came as a disappointment for the school education department.
Though it was raised to Rs 9,824 crore from Rs 8,500 crore, nearly Rs 7,000 crore will be utilised for payment of salaries of teachers and other employees leaving the department with meagre funds to take up development activities.
Grant of Rs 250 crore for a mid-day meal scheme for Class IX, X students was ignored.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Weaving stories into lessons
Shikari Shambu, Rhino and other characters from V. Adithya’s collection of books get new twists and turns when he narrates stories to his parents. The Standard III student of Kola Perumal Chetty Vaishnav Senior Secondary School creates characters to make his imagination go wild.
“I see his concentration, imagination and comprehension skills have really improved. The story origami workshop especially makes him invent a narrative for every fold,” says Geetha, his mother, who attended one such workshop out of curiosity.
Storytelling workshops have found a new place for parents and children who want to see better academic performance. Teachers too are taking up a lesson or two from these sessions to make the classrooms livelier. Storytellers also are exploring. Besides improving public speaking skills and sparking the child’s imagination, many are applying them to teach subjects like mathematics and languages.
Storyteller Latha Subramaniam combines origami (the art of paper folding) and story to make a session both activity-oriented as well as engaging. Through the process, children also learn about different angles in geometry, symmetry in folds, logical and analytical skills, she says.
“Storytelling cannot hold concentration for a long time, so I couple it with activity and interactivity,” she adds. Besides children, teachers and special educators attend Ms. Subramaniam’s workshops. “I also had enquiries from a few schools who wanted me to hold story-origami sessions from the coming academic year,” she says.
In the West, storytelling is an important method integrated with most subjects to make teaching more engaging and effective.
However, teachers and storytellers say it is yet to pick up in India. A majority of schools still look at storytelling sessions only to improve communication skills. “Many schools are into technology-based teaching. Storytelling is an old but a rich and powerful medium where the involvement is high,” says V. Deivanai, Principal, Chettinad Hari Shree Vidyalayam.
According to storyteller Jeeva Raghunath, integrating stories and lessons is a different genre not all specialise in. “One of the biggest challenges in schools is constraint of time and not everybody would want to be adventurous. Storytelling, especially in teaching history and geography, is a beautiful way to register and understand lessons,” says Ms. Raghunath.
Kathalaya, a storytelling academy, claims its expertise lies in training teachers. “There is resistance from teachers initially, but once you convince them they get creative,” says Deeptha Vivekanand, centre head, Kathalaya. Today, storytelling in the classroom is predominantly used for primary classes in languages, social sciences and mathematics. The bar has to rise, but then if the foundation is strong and one has captivated the child’s interest higher classes are going to be easy, she adds.
“I see his concentration, imagination and comprehension skills have really improved. The story origami workshop especially makes him invent a narrative for every fold,” says Geetha, his mother, who attended one such workshop out of curiosity.
Storytelling workshops have found a new place for parents and children who want to see better academic performance. Teachers too are taking up a lesson or two from these sessions to make the classrooms livelier. Storytellers also are exploring. Besides improving public speaking skills and sparking the child’s imagination, many are applying them to teach subjects like mathematics and languages.
Storyteller Latha Subramaniam combines origami (the art of paper folding) and story to make a session both activity-oriented as well as engaging. Through the process, children also learn about different angles in geometry, symmetry in folds, logical and analytical skills, she says.
“Storytelling cannot hold concentration for a long time, so I couple it with activity and interactivity,” she adds. Besides children, teachers and special educators attend Ms. Subramaniam’s workshops. “I also had enquiries from a few schools who wanted me to hold story-origami sessions from the coming academic year,” she says.
In the West, storytelling is an important method integrated with most subjects to make teaching more engaging and effective.
However, teachers and storytellers say it is yet to pick up in India. A majority of schools still look at storytelling sessions only to improve communication skills. “Many schools are into technology-based teaching. Storytelling is an old but a rich and powerful medium where the involvement is high,” says V. Deivanai, Principal, Chettinad Hari Shree Vidyalayam.
According to storyteller Jeeva Raghunath, integrating stories and lessons is a different genre not all specialise in. “One of the biggest challenges in schools is constraint of time and not everybody would want to be adventurous. Storytelling, especially in teaching history and geography, is a beautiful way to register and understand lessons,” says Ms. Raghunath.
Kathalaya, a storytelling academy, claims its expertise lies in training teachers. “There is resistance from teachers initially, but once you convince them they get creative,” says Deeptha Vivekanand, centre head, Kathalaya. Today, storytelling in the classroom is predominantly used for primary classes in languages, social sciences and mathematics. The bar has to rise, but then if the foundation is strong and one has captivated the child’s interest higher classes are going to be easy, she adds.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Violence rocks Osmania University campus again
Violence erupted on the Osmania University campus again on Monday morning with police resorting to lathicharge and lobbing of tear gas shells to quell agitated students who hurled stones on them.
Scores of students including at least five journalists covering the developments were injured in unbridled use of force by the policemen who appeared to have decided to selectively target the media persons.
Tear gas shells were being lobbed at the University College of Arts, the epicentre of the Telangana agitation and situation was very volatile.
The University campus saw a brutal backlash launched by the police on Sunday night in which 30 students, policemen and journalists were injured. The severity with which the police reacted to the developments on the campus attracted all round criticism and the Commissioner of Police, A.K. Khan had offered an unconditional apology to the media personnel who were injured in the lathicharges.
The Home Minister, P. Sabitha Indra Reddy who called on the injured in different hospitals too ordered a high-level inquiry into Sunday night incidents, but the police did not appear to be in a relenting mood, as they went berserk on Monday morning at slightest provocation.
The students were agitated over the refusal of legislators hailing from Telangana to resign from the Assembly.
On Monday morning, students gathered at Hostel ‘B’ which police stormed last night and beat up students. As the number of agitators swelled, police tried to disperse them and this launched another series of confrontations between police forces and students. As students replied with a hail of stones, police lathicharge several times and chased away the students.
Anti-maoist strategy on students:
Caught in the see-saw battles was the media. The Grey Hounds personnel, trained in jungle warfare to fight the Maoists, drafted for duty on the campus put to use the counterinsurgency tactic of making other uninvolved persons as shields. As stone-hurling intensified, the policemen in battle fatigues caught hold of a vernacular TV reporter who was going on a motorcycle and threatened the agitators that they would beat him up if stone pelting was not stopped.
With the agitators continuing to hurl stones, the policemen in full riot-gear thrashed the journalist mercilessly, despite he showing his identity card and pleading them with folded hands. The other journalists who were at a distance could reach the police only after sometime to save him.
Police drafted nearly two battalions of police force (over 2000 personnel) for security on the University campus which was sealed off. The police had put restrictions on movement of media and banned the entry of outdoor broadcast vans of TV channels into the campus already.
Scores of students including at least five journalists covering the developments were injured in unbridled use of force by the policemen who appeared to have decided to selectively target the media persons.
Tear gas shells were being lobbed at the University College of Arts, the epicentre of the Telangana agitation and situation was very volatile.
The University campus saw a brutal backlash launched by the police on Sunday night in which 30 students, policemen and journalists were injured. The severity with which the police reacted to the developments on the campus attracted all round criticism and the Commissioner of Police, A.K. Khan had offered an unconditional apology to the media personnel who were injured in the lathicharges.
The Home Minister, P. Sabitha Indra Reddy who called on the injured in different hospitals too ordered a high-level inquiry into Sunday night incidents, but the police did not appear to be in a relenting mood, as they went berserk on Monday morning at slightest provocation.
The students were agitated over the refusal of legislators hailing from Telangana to resign from the Assembly.
On Monday morning, students gathered at Hostel ‘B’ which police stormed last night and beat up students. As the number of agitators swelled, police tried to disperse them and this launched another series of confrontations between police forces and students. As students replied with a hail of stones, police lathicharge several times and chased away the students.
Anti-maoist strategy on students:
Caught in the see-saw battles was the media. The Grey Hounds personnel, trained in jungle warfare to fight the Maoists, drafted for duty on the campus put to use the counterinsurgency tactic of making other uninvolved persons as shields. As stone-hurling intensified, the policemen in battle fatigues caught hold of a vernacular TV reporter who was going on a motorcycle and threatened the agitators that they would beat him up if stone pelting was not stopped.
With the agitators continuing to hurl stones, the policemen in full riot-gear thrashed the journalist mercilessly, despite he showing his identity card and pleading them with folded hands. The other journalists who were at a distance could reach the police only after sometime to save him.
Police drafted nearly two battalions of police force (over 2000 personnel) for security on the University campus which was sealed off. The police had put restrictions on movement of media and banned the entry of outdoor broadcast vans of TV channels into the campus already.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
1,135 students got jobs in Maharashtra using fake marksheets
A total of 1,135 students have secured jobs submitting fake marksheets after passing out from various universities in Maharashtra, according to a report prepared by the CBI.
The fake marksheet scam came to fore after an investigation by the CBI on the direction of the Bombay High Court on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in 2007.
The PIL had alleged that many of the employees working in government and private sectors had got the job after submitting bogus documents, and sought a probe.
After hearing the PIL, the High Court directed the CBI to investigate the matter. The CBI, on December 26, 2009, wrote to all the Universities in Maharashtra asking for verification of the marksheets.
Verification revealed that 1,135 students from six universities had landed jobs using fake marksheets (obtained between 2001 and 2007), police sources said, quoting the CBI report.
The maximum 729 cases of fake marksheets were identified at Pune University, followed by Mumbai (237), Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj University, Nagpur (92), Shivaji University, Kolhapur (42), Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar University, Aurangabad (18) and Sant Gadgebaba University, Amravati (17).
The CBI will now be submitting the report to the High Court and may seek direction to take action against these students, the sources said.
The fake marksheet scam came to fore after an investigation by the CBI on the direction of the Bombay High Court on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in 2007.
The PIL had alleged that many of the employees working in government and private sectors had got the job after submitting bogus documents, and sought a probe.
After hearing the PIL, the High Court directed the CBI to investigate the matter. The CBI, on December 26, 2009, wrote to all the Universities in Maharashtra asking for verification of the marksheets.
Verification revealed that 1,135 students from six universities had landed jobs using fake marksheets (obtained between 2001 and 2007), police sources said, quoting the CBI report.
The maximum 729 cases of fake marksheets were identified at Pune University, followed by Mumbai (237), Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj University, Nagpur (92), Shivaji University, Kolhapur (42), Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar University, Aurangabad (18) and Sant Gadgebaba University, Amravati (17).
The CBI will now be submitting the report to the High Court and may seek direction to take action against these students, the sources said.
