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The Supreme Court has stayed a plan proposed by the central government to keep some seats reserved for the backward-category students for a period of three years in the higher educational establishments across various states in the country. The SC bench dismissed the plea which wanted that the seats reserved for candidates of the OBC category, if left vacant, shouldn’t be allocated to the general category, GC students.

On behalf of the government, the plea was brought forward by solicitor Goolam Vahanvati. He gave the example of JNU where the government had to allow the vacant seats of the OBC category to be filled by the candidates of the general category. This was argued as a contradiction to the recent educational reservations made for the OBC students. The SC bench, however, rejected this proposal and adjudicated that this was a waste of national resources. The SC has fixed another future hearing in this case.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has decided to set up centres of Gandhi Institution of Information Technology or the GIIT at Guwahati and Jorhat in Assam and other regional centres in Kohima, Agartala, Shillong and Gangtok. BVB already boasts of 30 GIITs all over the country and has become a recognised brand in the field of affordable IT education with its centres spread in Asia and even Europe.

This is being done as a part of an initiative to provide subsidised or free IT education to the students of north-eastern parts of India. These centres aim to provide three months of free IT education to the local youth in these regions in the beginning. The institutes are being funded by the Prime Minister’s Special Fund.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University, IGNOU has once again pioneered the cause of making education more accessible and has launched an online diploma programme in the study of Acupuncture. This is perhaps the first time that a medical diploma is being offered online. However, the students would be assisted with contact classes for practical training purposes.

The course is due to commence from November, 2008. The programme would have to be completed in a minimum period of 1 year and a maximum period of 3 years. The curriculum has been set up in collaboration with the Institute of Acupuncture & Natural Medicines, IANM, New Delhi. The programme would be available to medical graduates from various streams including those from allopathy, ayurveda and homeopathy. This initiative from IGNOU makes sense as the requirement for professional acupuncturists is growing by the day.

The finance students of Delhi University, DU are on the verge of gaining from an exceptional training programme. These students would get the opportunity of trading in commodities before they pass out from the University. This development comes about due to the collaboration between the Department of Financial Studies, DFS and National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited or NCDEX. However, the students aren’t going to incur any losses for the traders as they would be allowed to indulge in mock trading only.

To take this initiative further, the DFS has gone a step ahead and offered two non-credit courses to the students of M.Sc. (Mathematics) and that too absolutely free-of-cost. A new syllabus for the Master of Finance & Control Programme has also been developed. The revised curriculum will be implemented from the next academic session.

Many Tibetan children, studying in India, are being harassed by the Chinese authorities. This problem arose as an ultimatum issued by the Communist Party of China expired. The students and their families are facing stiff punishments imposed by the Chinese government for enrolling in schools in India which were run by the Tibetan government. Most of these schools were headed by the Tibetan spiritual leader — the Dalai Lama.

However, this problem isn’t something new to the Tibetan refugees spread across the north-eastern boundaries of India. It is a common practice for Tibetan children to escape from Tibet and illegally seek shelter in Dharamsala, north India. This place is home to the Dalai Lama. The children seek Tibetan religious education and a better way of life, once settled here. On the contrary, the Chinese government has alleged that the Dalai Lama and his group of supporters were enticing young children from Tibet and Nepal and forcing them in following the Dalai Lama’s beliefs.

A survey report was published today that revealed India’s best performing colleges for year 2008. Marketwatch a well known research agency published a detailed report about the annual survey reportedly conducted by AC Nielsen-ORG-MARG. India Today was said to have commissioned the research agency for conducting the survey.

The survey was done for 1400 colleges and in 12 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune. The report also said that about 800 experts were contacted and inputs taken.

The best colleges for 2008 in the categories of Arts, Commerce, Science, Law , Medicine and Enginnering are:

Arts: Loyola College, Chennai

Commerce: Delhi’s Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC)

Science: Loyola College

Law: NALSAR

Medicine: AIIMS

Engineering: IIT Kanpur

Abhinav Bindra doesn’t seem satisfied with being India’s first-ever individual gold medallist at the Olympics held at Beijing. He now plans to open a chain of more than 500 schools across the nation. The Bindra family plans to directly monitor the schools that would be operational in Punjab, but the schools in other states would be run on a franchise basis.

AS Bindra, father of Abhinav Bindra and the patriarch of the Bindra business empire, stated that the schools would be built and run on international standards and would have a special emphasis on sports facilities. In all probability, the schools would be named as Abhinav Bindra Ace Public School (ABAPS).

The presence of so many branches in the country would mean that a child shifting from one city to another would find it relatively easier to gain admission in a branch of ABAPS. The motto of the proposed schools, as announced by Abhinav, sounds like his mantra in life — ‘Fortune favours the brave’.

Government of India has reportedly deployed Starbak V3 as part of its exercise to aid the teachers in providing quality education. Starbak V3 is a popular service provider of video networks. The service provider has successfully aid different public service agencies like Health Care agencies, Corporations, Education agencies, etc. 

National institute of teacher technical Trainings aims to promote excellence in teaching with the aid of Starbak V3 services.  Starbak V3 service providers will provide live and on-demand video communications to assist and hook-up the teachers spread over an extended geographical territory.

Using video as a teaching tool is indeed a new proposition and the government is yet to see its effectiveness. Educationists have welcome the initiative and expressed their contention for looking for innovate and modern solutions to tackle the problems in education field. 

One of the oldest women colleges in India is facing a severe shortage of funds and has reached near closure. St.Bede’s College in Himachal Pradesh is on the verge of closedown due to shortage of funds. The College Prinicpal, Molly Abraham, while speaking to a new agency (IANS) said that it was difficult to run the college any longer.

St. Bede’s College is a renowned institute and has been delivering services since 1904. The college principal was reported as having said that the government agencies did not cooperate and had reduced the grants to half. The college is one of the institutions that has been accredited as A+ by the popular accreditation agency NAAC.

On one hand, the government is trying to pour more funds in the primary and secondary education and on the other hand grants for higher studies are falling short. The college administration has strongly criticized the government for providing minimal support. Some well known public figures who have graduated from St.Bede’s have expressed deep concern for the current situation and the expected closure of the institution.  

The Indian government’s 11th Five Year Plan had insisted upon setting up new IITs to broaden the horizon for graduate and post-graduate education. The HRD Ministry had asked the various IITs if they could accommodate extra students. This initiative was further undertaken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had appealed to the IITs having extra land and the potential to expand.

IIT Guwahati has a major advantage in this regards and nearly 550 acres of its campus would now be used for expansion. The establishment is planning to increase its student intake by nearly three-folds. IIT Guwahati has proposed to enhance its present infrastructure to double its student capacity by the year 2012. The increase in student numbers would mean nearly a 54 per cent rise in the available seats.

According to a popular news agency, thousands of Tibetan Children who had enrolled in Indian schools are receiving strict punishment from the Chinese government. As per the reports the Tibetan children have been asked to confess about their teachings in the Indian schools, some of which are headed by the spiritual leader Dalai Lama.

There have been cases reported about children ebing smuggled in the adjacent regions, as religious teachings have been heavily dealt by the Chinese government. Young students are even said to cross the border, while trekking over mountains to receive the teachings in the Dharamsalas, located outside Tibet.

Various education societies and human rights groups have condemned the atrocities on the poor students, who have a right to receive religious education. Though the concerns have been subdues and do not pose a serious threat for harming any International relations, however, various authorities have warned the Chinese government to deal properly with the students. 

The number of Indians having migrated to or studying in Australia has nearly doubled in the last decade. Now, the Indian segment of the population is demanding more recognition and respect for their native language — Hindi. Indian students at the High School Certificate or the HSC level have developed an inclination towards learning the language and want to pursue it as a mainstream subject. However, a minuscule number of universities and schools offer Hindi and that too as an option.

Many Indians working as teachers in Australian schools and universities want to see Hindi being introduced in the school curriculum at par with other European languages. They feel that with the growing number of Hindi-speaking population in Australia and the increasing volume of trade relations between Australia and India, learning the language makes absolute sense. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Sydney has made a significant contribution towards this cause and it organises special Sunday Hindi classes for those wishing to learn Hindi.

The National Law School (NLS) was inaugurated by the Indian Presidnt, Pratibha Patil and Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit. National Law School is established in Sector 14, Dwarka, in West Delhi region.  As per reports the government had sanctioned Rs 110 crores to set up the law school, judicial academy and a National Centre for Mediation over sprawling 13 acres of land.

National Law School Bill was passed towards the end of the December, 2007. The university for NLS is a deemed univerity and is to have its own Vice-Chancellor.

National Law School offers an integrated B.A. L.L.B (Honors) Degree programme. for students who have qualified their senior secondary exams and are below 21 years of age. A total of 80 seats are available, in which 10 seats are reserved for foreign nationals. The fee structure is fixed at 35,000 INR per semester.

Eight students have set a precedent for contesting and claiming one’s right to education by winning a legal battle against government schools that had denied them admission. Vipin Chandra Pal Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Babarpur had denied admission to two girl students. Naazneen and Nasara were told that they were over 18 years of age and hence, couldn’t seek admission into the school.

The students’ petition was filed at the Delhi High Court and their case was argued by Ashok Aggarwal. He argued the case on the basis of the fact that the right to education is mentioned as an Indian citizen’s fundamental right and it couldn’t be declined due to the consideration of their age. Six other students had sought admission to various government schools in Delhi but were denied on some whimsical pretexts.

One of these six students, Kiran was seeking admission to Class 7 but was denied on the basis that she had completed her earlier education in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh and her transfer certificate wasn’t countersigned by the concerned authorities. However, the Court ruled that a student’s education couldn’t be compromised due to the sluggishness of the bureaucratic system. The other five students have also been granted admission into various government schools.

According to a report published by the popular news daily, TOI, Singapore is much more than a second home for Indian students. This place offers inexpensive education and better learning enivronment than India itself. The expenses on education are one-third of that in US or UK.

What is amazing about this place is that seventy five percent of the students are foreigners. This small island country in the South Asia has become the favoured destination for the students all over the world. There are four state universities in Singapore, The National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and SIM. Besides these universities there are many vocational training institutes, management institutes and campuses of many foreign institutes.

Already, the economic experts have reiterated to start looking in the East, instead of West. With good education opportunities and schools in the East, students may be happy considering Singapore and therefore reinforce the idea.

Indian students studying in Singapore have expressed their contention for selecting this destination for continuing their education. Students have been reportedly said that the place is secure and freedom that supports the growth is adequate. All this puts Singapore in the most favoured tourist places for students.