300 more MBBS seats to be added at 6 new AIIMS

The Union health ministry has sanctioned an additional 300 MBBS seats for the six newly setup AIIMS like institutes in the country. With this decision the number of seats in each of the AIIMS like institutes, including the one coming up in Raipur, would go up to 100 from the next academic session.

This was confirmed by the director AIIMS, Raipur, Dr Nitin Nagarkar, who revealed that besides the MBBS seats, the health ministry had also approved 60 new seats for nursing students in all the new insitutes. As of now, 50 MBBS seats are available in each of the new AIIMS at Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Rishikesh, Raipur and Bhopal. 

Each of these institutes were allowed to admit 50 students in the first academic year of 2012, as infrastructure was no complete on them. From the next academic session, the total number of MBBS seats in the new AIIMS would go up to 600, providing an opportunity to an additional 300 MBBS aspirants. 

Dr Nagarkar said that construction work at the AIIMS site was in full swing and by the time new session starts, nursing college building and hostel would also be functional. The additional seats would in a way help to correct the existing imbalance in the availability of public health resources. 

With these new additions, the overall availability of MBBS seats in India would rise to 42,169 in the next academic year from the existing 41,569 in 335 medical colleges and 300 in AIIMS like institutes across the country. The health ministry is striving to achieve the target doctor-patient ratio of 1:1000 by 2021, which at present is 1:2000. The government plans to take the overall availability of MBBS seats to 80,000 from the present 41,569 and of PG seats to 45,000 from the current 22,194 by 2021. The aim is to tide over the shortage of doctors, which is currently pegged at around 8 lakhs.

Applications for RTE seats to be issued from 7 JAN 2013

 The first phase of RTE admission, application forms for the admission in private schools under the quota for underprivileged children will be issued from Monday.

The application forms can be obtained from respective block education officers or downloaded from the website of the Department of Public Instruction.

Download application forms

People can also download applications from the website of the Department of Public Instruction (www.schooleducation.kar.nic.in)

For help, call

RTE helpline: 1800-42534567.

RTE Calendar

Issuing of application forms for admission and submission of duly filled in applications to schools: January 7 to February 5.

Scrutiny of applications and selection of candidates by schools: February 16

Approval of the list of candidates selected by BEOs: February 28

Admission process commences: March 1

CBSE's heritage quiz to be telecast on History channel

KOCHI: CBSE's twelfth All India Heritage quiz will be telecast on History channel.

The quiz is being organised on the occasion of the World Heritage Day being celebrated by CBSE and 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekanand. The quiz will telecast on January 12.

Around 2500 children representing all the eight regions of CBSE participated in the initial round. 16 teams reached the semi-final round and four have qualified for the finals.

Emphasizing on the importance of the quiz, the Board in its circular to school principals had said, "It is important for learners to know about the heritage which enables them to understand the beliefs, values, history and socio-cultural context of their country. This helps them to accept and respect the cultural differences given in the diversity and leads to developing critical skills".

The CBSE Heritage India Quiz, initiated in 2001, is an Inter School Quiz which has been conceptualized by the Board with the objective of creating awareness and appreciation in the student community towards the rich cultural heritage and diversity of our country.

This year the quiz will be conducted in multiple phases. The participation was open to the students of classes IX to XII studying in CBSE affiliated schools.

Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University conducts first online engineering examination

AURANGABAD: The Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (BAMU) conducted its first online examination for first-year engineering students on Saturday.

The 40-mark examination was conducted for the subject 'Elements of Civil Engineering' of Unit I.

"More than 5,000 students appeared for the online examination that was conducted in around 20 colleges," said Sanjay Shinde, public relation officer at the university. Shinde said that the examination was conducted on experimental basis and plans are on to conduct similar online examinations for other subjects faculty as well.

The examination was conducted under the directions given by the Information and Technology department of the state government under the university examination reforms.

Governor K Sankaranarayanan had called a meeting on November 3 last year, of the vice-chancellors of all the 14 conventional state universities to discuss this and a slew of other technology-driven exam reforms recommended by an 18-member high-powered committee under state IT Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal.

A question bank containing 1,000 questions has been created from which the question paper is generated in the system. Another examination on Electronic and Computer Engineering (EECE) would also be conducted on the same lines.

The online examination has been implemented for the courses to avoid paper leaks and discrepancies found during exams as suggested during the meeting by the senate members. A mock examination had also been held to familiarise students with the paper pattern and the software.

The invigilators said that such examinations will help students be more comfortable with the format which is also used in competitive exams.

HS, Inter exams of UP Board from March 12

ALLAHABAD: A total of 62,08,229 students have been registered for this year's high school and Intermediate examinations of the UP Board slated to start from March 12.The HS examinations would be conducted on 14 working days from March 12 to April 3. On the other hand, intermediate examinations would be conducted on 25 working days, from March 12 to April 18, informed the director, Secondary Education, Basudeo Yadav, on Saturday.

As compared to last year, the total number of candidates who have registered for the examination is around 5.37 more lakh than the previous year, as the total number of candidates for the 2013 exam stands at 62,08,229 compared to 56,70,535 in 2012.

This year a total of 37,09,877 students would appear in High School examination and 24,98,352 in Intermediate exams that would be conducted at 10,000 centres in the state.

In 2012, a total of 3,60,3857 candidates appeared in HS examinations while 20,56,678 appeared in the Intermediate examinations.

A notable feature of this year's examination would be that the Board has allotted 15 minutes extra time to candidates, which means that the total duration of the examination would be 3 hours 15 minutes. Similarly, 20 minutes per hour additional time would be given to handicapped and blind examinees, which means that the total time allotted to them would be four hours.

To check the malpractices prevalent during examination where 'B' answer books are often changed by unscrupulous elements, the board has decided to use only numbered answer sheets in Intermediate examinations.

Likewise, in High school examinations, the board has decided to issue coded answer sheets in some of the sensitive districts including Aligarh, Hathras, Etah, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Ghazipur, Mau, Ballia, Deoria and Azamgarh.

There is good news for girl examinees from urban areas this year as the Board has provided them the facility of self-centres by appearing in the examination from the school from where they have filled up the examination form. Earlier, the facility was only extended to girl candidates appearing in board examination from rural areas.

In view of the introduction of the policy of Comprehensive and Continued Evaluation, High School examinees, the total marks awarded in theory examination would be 70 and the remaining 30 marks would be awarded by the school through internal assessment of the candidates.

Altogether 65% of the work related to printing of answer sheets by the Government Printing Press has already been completed and the Board has started the process of sending them to different districts.

Practical examinations of High School and Intermediate examinees would be conducted in two phases from January 21 to February 5 this year in the first phase. Likewise, the second phase of practical examinations would be conducted from February 5 to February 20 this year.

Blacklisted centres which facilitated copying and other malpractices during examination have not been appointed as examination centre in this year's examination.

Odisha Teachers' Eligibility Test results out, better than CTET

CUTTACK: In comparison to Central Teachers' Eligibility Test (CTET), results of Odisha Teachers' Eligibility Test (OTET) were found encouraging. The OTET results were made public on Friday. 

While only eight per cent Certificate Teacher (CT) students were found eligible to become teachers in primary schools, little over 10 per cent B.Ed students of the State have shown that they have it in them to become teachers in High schools. 

This was much better than CTET results in which only less than one per cent students were found eligible to become school teachers, official sources said on Saturday. 

Under the Sarva Sikhsya Abhijan and as per the norms of National Council for Teachers' Education, the OTET was conducted in the State for the first time and after some initial hiccups, the test was conducted by the State Board of Secondary Education ( BSE) here last month. 

Sources said a total of 86,926 CT candidates had taken the Test of which only 6765 (7.7 per cent) were found eligible to become teachers in primary schools. Similarly, a total of 43,738 B. Ed students had appeared the OTET and only 4446 (10.16 per cent) of them were found eligible to become teachers in High Schools. 

They said results of at least 39 CT and 17 B.Ed students were kept withheld for several reasons, which would be published after verification.

MCom aspirants can take Common Entrance Test

KOLKATA: Commerce graduates will not be exempted from appearing in the Common Entrance Test (CET). Postgraduate students will have to take the commerce examination for gaining admission to the government colleges - affiliated to any of the state universities - offering MCom courses.

"We have kept commerce as one of the subjects in the admission test. Though a BCom graduate may have completed honours in accountancy or finance, he will have to take the examination under one generic syllabus which will combine all aspects of commerce. We have already selected 44 honours subjects in which CET will be held," said a member of the CET committee that is giving final shape to the exam structure. is preparing recommendations to give final shape to the examination structure.

"A postgraduate aspirant will be allowed to appear only in the honours or major subject in which he or she has graduated. If they prefer to alter their subject at the postgraduate level or take up a multidisciplinary course, it will have to be done in the university only after securing a CET score," he added.

The CET committee has decided to structure the examination on the lines of GATE - the entrance test for MTech programmes in the country. "At present, we are preparing the syllabus for each subject. In all likelihood, the examination will only consist of have multiple-choice questions (MCQs) with some exceptions in the language section. A Weimer sheet will be provided to the candidates to take back home so that they know their mistakes and can compare the answers," said a university official who is also on the CET committee said.

Phalguni Mukherjee, the convener of CET committee and secretary of West Bengal State Council of Higher Education, said, "We are in the process of developing the examination framework which may include commerce among the 44 honours subjects. A final shape will be given during the next meeting at the end of this month."

It has, however, not yet been decided if the model answers will be uploaded on the website. "We will have to take a call," added the official.

Several state universities are, however, skeptical about the proposed examination. In Jadavpur University, a committee has already submitted its report after talking to all stakeholders. The report will be discussed by the executive council - the university's highest decision-making body. A senior JU teacher argued, "Most departments in JU do not agree with the concept of CET."

Partha Pratim Biswas, EC member and secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA), said, "There is something unique about each university which may be harmed if CET is introduced. There is no common syllabus.

If students from various backgrounds are tested on a common syllabus, their aptitude will not be tested. Their knowledge may not be compatible with JU's academic requirement. Each university has a different characteristic and frames its syllabus depending on its strength and weakness. CET will actually kill the uniqueness of the state universities."

He added, "Outside students should be given a fair opportunity to study in JU. But an acceptable criteria should be in place for admission. Through debates and discussions, a common platform has to be reached on the percentage of reservations for home students in the PG courses."