CBSE course in hospitality, tourism soon

LUCKNOW: India is witnessing a burgeoning growth in tourism and hospitality industry.

In a bid to tap its growing potential, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to introduce five skill-based courses in tourism and hospitality from the academic session 2013-14.

Recent statistics (as mentioned in the CBSE letter) say over 50 lakh foreign tourists come to India every year.

In comparison to this, domestic tourism is significantly greater.

In the upcoming years, India is likely to see an increase in strength of domestic as well as international tourists. Going by this, the annual demand for trained manpower in hotels and restaurants is approximately 2.03 lakh per year.

In view of the acute shortage of trained professionals, CBSE has introduced two vocational packages under the hospitality and tourism sectors.

The courses will be taught to students of classes XI and XII. The courses include food production, food and beverage services, front office management, bakery and confectionery, and travel and tourism. The initiative has been taken after the Central government's constant emphasis on development of employability skills.

For the new vocational subjects meant for classes XI and XII, students will be able to opt for one language and two academic subjects related to the field as per their interests.

Appreciating the move, CBSE coordinator in Lucknow Jawaid Alam Khan said, "The new courses will help students who want to foray beyond engineering, medical and other conventional fields and are inclined towards tourism and hospitality industry. But the board and the schools should pursue it strongly.''

Citing an example, Khan said sometime back the board had introduced a course in financial marketing management in schools but it failed. "Students who passed with the subject faced umpteen problems getting admission at higher levels. Thus, it was more of a deterrent rather than of help to the child. Universities and colleges should be prepared to take in such students," said Khan.

CBSE will also facilitate support to its allied schools offering Food Production and Food & Beverage Services courses by arranging mentor institutes like Institutes of Hotel Management (IHM) that are under the National Council of Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT). These schools can also seek financial support from the Ministry of Tourism for successful implementation of courses.

The NCHMCT, which is the specialised body for joint certification, is exploring possibilities for providing students passing the course with an additional weightage in entrance examination for graduate courses in Hotel Management in the IHMs across the country.

Get ready for the new JEE

Thoroughly revise CBSE syllabus and treat all topics as important

One thing that remains unchanged in the new Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is that an aspirant needs to have indepth knowledge of all subjects. That is the key to success. By now, you would need to cover the full syllabus and get into revision mode by solving a lot of practice tests. You should prepare small notes related to important formulae and results.

Since Paper 1 of JEE Main is likely to be objective-type, the level of questions asked in physics, chemistry and mathematics is not likely to be very high. The emphasis will now be on what you have studied in school because the syllabus for paper 1 of the new JEE will be based on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum. The responsibility of setting questions will be on experts from the CBSE, though the team will also have professors from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Knowing the IITs, however, one can expect brain-teasers, which will require you to get your concepts clear for different subjects. The papers will test not only your knowledge, but your aptitude, speed as well as accuracy. So, for excellence, a good command over subjects will be necessary.

Ensure that you revise the chapters given in the NCERT books first to be able to get your concepts clear. With school board marks also getting weightage, school teaching can really help. Regular practice of single-choice questions asked in previous examinations really helps. Make sure you understand what you are doing. Mere ticking of options may not be the right way. Attempting single-choice questions from previous years’ IIT-JEE will also help you crack paper 1.

Your focus should always be on getting your concepts clear and understanding the topics well. There are times when students try to be thorough only with important topics from the point of view of the JEE, but that is not the right way. Total focus on a particular topic can be problematic, as you never know which topic will have more questions. The best way is to give equal importance to all topics. For instance, a student who decides to skip probability and gives more importance to quadratic equation, can repent later. In the new JEE, it is difficult to ascertain what trend will be set.

Finally, confidence holds the key. And for building confidence, regular practice is the only way. Still, if you come across difficult questions while writing the exam, there is no need to get nervous. There may be a few questions that will be difficult for most candidates. Keep your confidence high, for cut-off in the JEE can really fluctuate.

CBSE exams from March 1

The Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced the timetable for its standard X and XII exams. According to a press release by CBSE PRO Rama Sharma, both exams will commence from March 1 at 10.30am.

The standard X exam will begin with the painting subject and continue till March 15, when the last paper scheduled is home science. The paper of mathematics is on March 2 and Hindi on March 4.

The standard XII exam will start with a paper of English (Elective, Core and Functional) followed by history on March 4 and physics the next day. It will end on March 17 with a paper of Punjabi. The CBSE has directed all schools to conduct School Based Assessment (Scheme 1) between March 16 and 31.

Class XII Board exams to begin on Mar 1, date sheet out

The 2013 board exams by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will start on March 1. The board announced the datesheet for the exams on Monday. While a majority of Class X students will sit for the school-based exams based on Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, over 8 lakh students are going to appear for the senior secondary exams.

For Class XII, the exams will start on March 1 with english core, elective and functional. For commerce stream candidates, the next subject will be business studies on March 6, while humanities students will sit for their history exam on March 4. The science subjects will start from March 5 with physics. Mathematics is being scheduled for March 20. The Class XII exams will end on
April 17.

Class X boards will commence with painting, followed by mathematics on March 2 and end on March 15 with home science.

According to CBSE sources, the results for Class XII boards are likely to be declared earlier this year and also re-evaluation of answer sheets for the Class XII science students will be done on priority and those results too would be declared by June 30, 2013. This has been done so as to facilitate smooth conduct of the Joint Engineering Examination as well as the counselling, because only the top 20 percentile scorers their respective Class XII boards or other qualifying examination and those who have appeared in JEE (advanced) are eligible for admission to the Indian Institute of Technologies. Also the merit list of the JEE (main), which is for admission to National Institutes of Technology and other central government funded technical institutions, will give 40% weightage to class XII board results.

Last date for JEE forms extended to Dec 24

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has extended the last date for submitting the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Main application form. Students aspiring for admission to IITs, NITs and other centrally-funded technical institutions can now fill online forms and submit the same till December 24. Earlier, the last date was December 15. The JEE main will be held on April 7.

The CBSE has updated this information on its website.

The CBSE administration decided to extend the date of form submission keeping in view large number of applications received from the students. To facilitate further all students who could not fill the online form due to various reasons and to accommodate more, the CBSE administration took this decision.

In view of it being the first examination for JEE-Main to be held in 2013, the last date for submitting online application form has been extended up to December 24. The CBSE has further notified that the date for filling up of application for JEE (Main)-2013 will not be extended any further.

AIEEE is now known as JEE (Main) and IIT-JEE as JEE (Advanced).

The admission to Undergraduate Engineering Programs at NITs, IIITs, other centrally-funded Technical Institutions, Institutions funded by several participating State Governments, and several other Institutions shall include the performance in the Joint Entrance Examination, JEE (Main).

It will also be an eligibility test for the JEE (Advanced), which the candidate has to take if aspiring for admission to the undergraduate programmes offered by IITs.

For admission to NITs, Centrally-Funded Technical Institutions like IIITs etc and other participating institutions, the merit/rank list shall be prepared based on 40% weightage to school Boards marks in class XII or equivalent examination and 60% weightage to JEE(Main). The weightage to school Board/Equivalent examination marks shall be considered only after normalisation.The JEE Advanced will be organised by the IITs including Kanpur, Delhi, Mumbai, Roorkee, Guhawati, Kharagpur, Khozikode on June 2.

You can Submit NEET-UG forms Online

The online window for submission of application forms for the maiden national eligibility cum entrance test for undergraduate (NEET-UG) medical and dental courses is now open. Students can submit their forms by accessing the website - www.cbseneet.nic.in - for the single entrance test, which is to be held on May 5, 2013.

The Maharashtra government has already conveyed to the central government its commitment to be a part of the NEET-UG scheme from 2013 onwards. Consequently, the Maharashtra Health and Technology Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET), which was the combined entrance exam for admissions to the health sciences, engineering and pharmacy degree courses in the state, has been scrapped. The exam has since been renamed MT-CET for the engineering and pharmacy courses.

The state directorate of medical education and research (DMER) has posted a detailed notification related to the NEET-UG, which will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The Union government had published the NEET-UG 2013 exam plan for medical and dental admissions in the official gazette on February 15, while the Medical Council of India issued a notification on April 26 declaring that there will be a single national eligibility cum entrance test.

In Maharashtra, the NEET-UG will also be mandatory for admissions to the other health science degree courses such as ayurveda (BAMS), homeopathy ( BHMS), unani (BUMS), physiotheraphy (BPTh), occupational therapy (BOTh), prosthetics and orthotics (BP&O), audiology and speech, language pathology (BASLP), BSc nursing and paramedical technology (BPMT), the DMER notification states.

The DMER has cautioned all candidates aspiring for a seat in health science courses other than medical and dental, to ensure that they appear in the NEET-UG 2013 to qualify for admissions to the other courses. "The state government will not be responsible if such desirous candidates fail to apply for NEET-UG 2013," the notification states.

The NEET 2013 will be conducted in 16 cities in the state. In Pune, the DAV Public School on the DP Road, Aundh has been designated as the facilitation centre for the candidates from the city.

An admission notice issued by the CBSE states that the NEET-UG shall consist of one paper containing 180 objective type questions, ie, each question carrying four options with single correct answer, from physics, chemistry and biology (botany and zoology). The duration of the paper would be three hours.NEET-UG important dates.

Odisha Joint Entrance Examination on May 12

The Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) for admission into various undergraduate and postgraduate professional courses in the state will be held on May 12.

The state policy planning board, the apex body to take decision on admission matters in technical institutions, decided the date on Saturday. "Except for medical courses, the entrance test will be held as usual for other professional courses," OJEE secretary Priybrata Sahu told reporters. The OJEE was held on May 6 last year.

The entrance will screen students for admission into engineering, pharmacy, MBA, MCA, among other streams. Sahu said the details of application procedures and dates of application, fees, centres, examination pattern and syllabi will be notified shortly.

"We would like to start application procedures early so that maximum students from the state and outside are able to apply," Sahu said. The government is trying to attract maximum students for the entrance as thousands of engineering seats have been falling vacant for past three to four years. There was no admission for around 26,000 engineering seats in 2011.

It will be for the first time that medical entrance will not be part of OJEE as seats in state medical colleges will be filled through the maiden national eligibility cum entrance test (NEET 2013), the over-arching pre-medical entrance replacing state level examinations.

The OJEE authorities' announcement comes on the same day as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declaration to hold NEET on May 5 across the country. Application process for NEET started on Saturday.

Odisha Private Engineering College Association has welcomed the early announcement of OJEE date. In previous years, government used to announce OJEE dates in January-February by when dates of similar entrance tests in neighbouring states were already out. This reduced prospective candidates for Odisha test in absence of enough time to publicize. Because of early announcement, we hope for a very good response this year, said OPECA honorary secretary Binod Dash.

The OJEE authorities had started selling forms for last year entrance from February 10. This year, the same is likely to start in early January. Entrance fee is likely to remain unchanged at Rs 550.