B Ed Duration To Be Increased

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Students aspiring to select teaching as their career would now have to spend an extra year mastering the advanced techniques of this unique profession as the duration of the Bachelor of Education (B Ed) course is all set to be raised by one year from the 2015-16 academic year. National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is all set to make some sweeping changes by increasing the duration of BEd from one year to two years, apart from initiating some major changes to the curriculum. 

The proposals are aimed at improving the quality of teacher education. As part of the proposed reforms in the entire higher education system in the country, the central government has already proposed several changes in teacher education. The eligibility to apply for B Ed would remain the same wherein a candidate needs to complete a three-year undergraduate course. With this, one has to study for five years to become a teacher (3 years of graduation and 2 years of B Ed). Experts feel that a change in the duration of the course and curriculum would give professional edge to aspirants, similar to other professional courses like BE (four years), MBBS (five-and-a-half years) and CA (five- years).

This change also comes with some strict norms wherein students would have to complete BEd within three years from the date of admission and also have an attendance of 80%. The proposal was put forth earlier during a meeting of vice-chancellors conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). It was also communicated to the universities that a framework to formulate the syllabus would be sent to them very soon. The reforms would include strict norms for colleges providing teacher education studies. Only those colleges having required infrastructure and facilities would be permitted to increase the intake of students.

In the first phase, these changes would be adopted by a few universities from the next academic year and later other varsities would implement it from 2016-17. The framework of syllabus would be decided after convening a meeting with eminent educationists to discuss the current curriculum and possibilities of bringing changes on a par with international standards.

TSPSC To Have a Completely New Orientation

The Telangana Public Service Commission will have a new orientation, with reference to Telangana and to the decades long movement for separate state. It is also aiming at hassle free recruitment procedure unlike in the past. 

The new approach would include changes in recruitment procedure, examination pattern and more importantly in the syllabus. These changes are contemplated to make the commission compatible to face the needs of Telangana state. The first notification by the newly constituted body would be released by the January end next year.

"The new syllabus will have all the elements pertaining to Telangana because once a person is recruited through TSPSC he would remain in government services for 30 years in Telangana,
The newly appointed members of Telangana State Public Service Commission, including chairman Ghanta Chakrapani, with Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan in the city on Saturday."

The syllabus would be changed for all the categories including Group 1, 2, 3 and 4 accordingly after discussing it with experts’ panel. The panel of educationists and experts would suggest the needed changes.
TSPSC chairman Ghanta Chakrapani said, “We cannot continue with the present syllabus since it did not have any relation with Telangana’s culture and history and the recruited have to work in Telangana and need to know them.”

The new syllabus will have all the elements pertaining to Telangana because once a person is recruited through TSPSC he would remain in government services for 30 years in Telangana, he added.

However he hoped that the first notification of recruitment would be released by the end of January next year. The other changes would be in the procedure of selection and examination pattern.An advisory committee would be formed with the permission of government to prepare a framework to look after the papers and their secrecy. “We would definitely see that confidentiality is maintained,” he said.

Policy decisions regarding the age limit, number of attempts and other matters would be taken by the state government. He said that the commission would work as a transparent recruiting agency for the government.

Chairman however warned, “We don’t want any private party to exploit the situation by announcing syllabus changes but the commission itself would announce it officially.” Member of the commission C Vithal said that if needed they would form an academic cell as per the provisions of Re Organization Act in the future. He said that the functioning of TSPSC would not be same like erstwhile APPSC’s.

He said, “Unlike APPSC the Telangana commission would release the notification in a phased manner and section wise to facilitate the students to choose the exams properly.”

Hyderabad Pays Tribute to the Martyrs of Peshawar

Schools across Telangana paid tributes to the children killed in the terrorist attack in Pakistan’s Peshawar city. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call, students in government-run and private schools in both the Telugu-speaking States observed two-minute silence in memory of the children killed at an army-run school. On Wednesday, students of All Saint’s High School in Gunfoudry and Safdaria Government School in Mehdipatnam prayed for the massacred students and observed two-minute silence, while other schools like Amma Concept School and Lotus Lap School took rallies condemning the attack. 

Police commissioner M Mahender Reddy said the force would draw up guidelines for security of city schools in the wake of the massacre in Peshawar

Students raised slogans against the barbaric act of the terrorists. Hundreds of children from other schools too organised peace programmes against the attack. They said that there was a need for collective effort to save children and to put an end to terrorism. Sharing their sorrow, employees in some government offices also observed silence and prayed for the victims. Offering condolences to the families of victims, student groups ABVP, SFI, PDSU, SIO and NSUI condemned the killing of innocent school students. They said that the attack was like attacking the whole humanity and wanted zero tolerance against such armed groups in any country.

The attack left over 148 dead, including 139 school children, and several badly injured. The barbaric act of terrorists has left the Indian subcontinent completely shocked. Meanwhile, police commissioner M Mahender Reddy said it had plans to draw up guidelines on the safety and security of city school students in the wake of the massacre in Peshawar. “We will come up with certain protocols through the education department and definitely look at the safety and security of students,” he said. When told that parents and managements of some schools are keen to see police imparting security tips to children as a precautionary measure, he said, “...Definitely we will think about it.”

On reported terror alert for Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit next month, Reddy said, “It is a general alert and not a specific alert issued by the central security agencies to Hyderabad.” “We are taking all possible precautionary measures. We are confident that we would be able to ensure the safety and security of citizens,” he added.

Telangana Students On FAST !

While the state government is busy finalizing modalities for financial assistance to students of Telangana (FAST), the High Court’s directive asking it to spell out the sanctity of its proposal for making 1956 as the cut-off year for considering nativity, has left students confused. The confusion over the smooth implementation of FAST scheme has again prevailed among the students and parents after the fresh development. 

The Telangana government has introduced this scheme with an intention to assist students belonging to the state financially, but the proposed criterion has left several students unhappy. The High Court has asked the State government to file its reply within three weeks. One of the proposed conditions was that students needed to present proof of their parents’ origin in Telangana region before 1956. This proposal drew flak from several quarters of society, including students and political leaders. 

A under graduate student Syed Jaffer said that he was expecting this scheme to be less complicated and easy, but it proved out to be confusing. He said, “I am not sure whether I can be benefit from this scheme.” This has created a lot of confusion among the student community and most of the poor students were continuing their studies without any financial assistance from state government, he added. Another student K Satyanaryana whose father was from Rayalaseema region said that it would deprive students like him for no reason, though born and brought up in Telangana. 

He said, “I was born in Telangana and will remain local as per the constitutional provisions and cannot be considered non-local just because my parents don’t belong to Telangana.” Interestingly, this directive of the Court could possibly worry the state government more than any one. Any change in the proposed 1956 benchmark would change the shape of the whole scheme as TS government wanted to filter out families that moved in to Telangana, especially Hyderabad from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. 

Sources in the government revealed that a meeting could be conducted with the Education Minister, Chief Secretary and other officials concerned soon to take a final call on the issue. It is to be remembered that some education experts from Telangana had suggested putting 1975 as the benchmark, instead of 1956. They opined that 1975 could be more reasonable and rational for any such scheme from the state government.

KG to PG Education Plan Ready

Giving impetus to education in the state, the Telangana government has decided to establish ‘KG-to-PG Free Education Institutions’ in all 119 Assembly constituencies in the state. The government has readied its plan to start implementation of this scheme by next year in a phased manner. The preliminary proposal for this popular scheme includes 15 acre of land for each campus, encompassing hostels and other facilities. According to the proposals, each Assembly constituency would have a similar kind of institution across the state.

Officials said that school dropouts will be given preference in the initial stages of admissions

Government sources said that as per the plan 1st to 5th standards will have two sections and 6th to 10th classes would have three sections each. Each section will have 40 students. However, the proposals cannot be considered as final as experts are still suggesting several other patterns. By 2015-16, the government is keen to establish 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th classes and the remaining classes by year 2016-17.

According to the proposals made by academics to the government, these institutions would have Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus. Teaching would be imparted in mother tongue from the Class 1st to 5th and it would be in English medium thereafter,” the sources said. Department of Education officials said that school dropouts will be given preference in the initial stages of admissions. The respective district collectors would look after the land acquisition and disbursement of funds meant for such institutions, added the sources.

AP, TS students hopeful of cracking UPSC Mains

Mohammed Younus / Hyderabad : Students and educationists/trainers from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are expecting more number of candidates to get through the Union Public Service Commission’s Mains exam, the second stage of the privileged competitive examination. The Mains examination was held on December 14 and about 16,000 candidates appeared for the across the country. Among them are 530 students from AP and Telangana.

The qualified candidates of AP and Telangana are hoping to grab a considerable number of seats in the second stage (Mains). The number of students who qualified despite the illogical CSAT pattern only shows the strength of Telugu students, said an aspirant

This year, the civil services examination is being conducted for 1,298 vacant posts and for which 4.5 lakh candidates have appeared in the first stage - preliminary examination. After the first stage examination, the competition ratio for each post is 1:12 and the same would decrease to 1:3 after Mains examination. The qualified candidates of AP and Telangana are hoping to grab a considerable number of seats in the second stage. 

Ever since the notification for UPSC was released, this year, students/trainers/educationists have been registering their protest against reforms in the examination pattern and also held it responsible for the bleak performance of the students here. An aspirant M Rajendra Kumar from Nalgonda, who have successfully crossed the first barrier, is hoping to reach to the final stage. He said, “It is sad that out of 29,000 candidates who appeared from the twin Telugu States, only 530 qualified. I am confident that most of the qualified students would definitely crack the Mains examination.” 

The number of students qualified despite the illogical CSAT pattern only shows the strength of Telugu students, he added. On the other hand, trainers while criticising the pattern also appreciated the hard work of the qualified students. Laxmaiah IAS academy director K Laxmaiah said that though the number of students qualified from the State was very little, it would not stop the competent students to clear the Mains examination. He said, “The diminishing graph of the students was only because of the unscientific CSAT pattern. I am expecting 20 students from my academy to clear the Mains examination.” 

He said that the UPSC authorities attempted to exclude south Indian candidates by putting CSAT but in the Mains our students would perform well. Interestingly, about 143 students from the State cleared the Mains examination for which almost 1,200 had appeared in the previous year. This year the percentage of students possibly cracking the Mains could be either same or more. R C Reddy IAS academy director R C Reddy said that students from the State were performing better for last one decade when it comes to the UPSC examinations. 

He said that students from other States were wary of competent and updated education system in the State. “Possibly 25 per cent students appearing from my academy could clear the second stage of the UPSC examination,” he added.

UPSC Examination Previous Statistics
Year 2014
-About 4.5 lakh appeared in preliminary examination
-As many as 16,000 qualified across the nation
-Almost 29,000 appeared from AP and TS
-Only 535 qualified in preliminary
-Examination held for 1,298 posts approximately this year
-The post and student ratio after preliminary examination is 1:12
-After Mains examination it would be 1:2 or 1:2.5

Year 2013
-Around 1,200 students from state qualified in preliminary examination
-Almost 143 qualified the Mains examination

Conversion Confusion

This has become the hot topic of politicians from Delhi to Dehradun and Mumbai to Chennai or Kanyakumari. Every politician is opining on this issue. Moreover some religious leaders (actual, factual, self styled, self imposed upon people) are also in the fray, striving to be heard, shown and published.

For me the Agra incident of ‘conversion’ seems to be the part of a larger conspiracy to bring an act in the parliament against conversions after heating this issue to the maximum level.

But the question is why some people want to stop conversions. Let us firs understand what the conversion is. If a person practicing a particular religion changes his/her religion after probably being impressed or inspired by the other one, it can be called as conversion.

The person may do this either by affection towards the other religion or for the hate or dislike for his own religion or practice. Constitution of India has also given this basic right to all of its citizens. A person can practice or follow any religion of his/her choice.

Then what was the difficulty? Who is actually much worried for this provision. I think the people who think that their practice was vulnerable to be shaken by this provision would possibly raise their voice against any such rational provision in the Constitution.

Now they wanted to bring amendment in these provisions. Now coming to the Agra, some ‘intellectuals’ arranged a havan or some kind of ritual to change the religion of some Muslims (Who were wearing skull caps at that time).

Reportedly, they have offered these underprivileged people a ration card, money and other sops if they consent to change their religion. Later on this event was publicized much through ‘responsible’ media. To some extent it was good to see this news in all kind of media. But later the actual agenda of the people behind this whole episode came to light.

They termed all the conversions in the past, dating back to 11^th century, forced conversions and hence called all the Muslims, Christians and Budhists to get back to their ‘own religion’.

How funny! But I don’t think that people of India are fools any more. India is a mature democracy today. Amateur religious leaders cannot run their show like this. Though they have planned it well but this gimmick is not going to work.

Demanding to ban conversion or freedom to follow any religion would be like challenging the very basics of this country. Even if they succeed in this task, it would become very difficult for them to hold several ‘uninterested religion mates’ in the future and then they themselves would be under pressure.

As far as conversion is concerned, forceful conversion either by muscle power or by monetary power should not be accepted. It should be up to a person as to which religion he/she wanted to follow.