Govt. scraps honorarium

Govt. scraps honorarium

11/07/2020

The State government has decided not to pay honorarium to serving government employees nominated to various Committees/Boards/Panels/Commissions, as it was noticed several claims for honorariums were being made even though they were attending panel meetings only in official capacities.

Government servants, who were nominated to various panels “by virtue of their official capacity”, were granted an honorarium when the Tamil Nadu Fundamental Rules 46 (b) clearly provided for granting honorarium to them as remuneration for work performed, which was “occasional or intermittent in character and either so laborious or of such special merit” as to justify a special reward, a G.O. issued in this regard on July 8 stated. The practice is not in consonance with the provisions of fundamental rules, it pointed out. “In view of the FR 46(b) and the financial crisis arising out of COVID-19, honorarium should not be paid to serving government employees nominated to various Committees/Boards/Panels/Commissions, etc.,” it stated.

The payment of honorarium already made need not be recovered wherever it was paid under a valid G.O., it added. When contacted, a senior official told The Hindu, “It is not part of the austerity measures but more of a matter of propriety.”

Do not conduct PG medical exam, assn requests V-C

Do not conduct PG medical exam, assn requests V-C

The Association in its letter said, “The University has announced tentative exam dates on August. We feel this is an extraordinary situation to conduct the exams.

Published: 11th July 2020 06:46 AM 

For representational purposes

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Government Service Doctors and Postgraduates Association (SDPGA) wrote a letter to the vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr M.G.R Medical University, requesting him not to conduct examination for post graduate medical students, scheduled in August and to award marks based on their internal assessments.

The Association in its letter said, “The University has announced tentative exam dates on August. We feel this is an extraordinary situation to conduct the exams. All medical colleges have been converted as Covid hospitals and the faculties are posted in Covid wards. So, it will be difficult to engage them as examiners and invigilators.

Moreover, all the post graduate students have been posted in Covid duty since March, it will be unfair to make them appear for exams without giving adequate time to prepare.” The SDPGA further said that it will be difficult to get clinical materials for practical examinations. “ SDPGA demands the government not to conduct university exams both theory and practicals and award marks based on internal assessments,” the letter added.

Final-yr PG med exams to start on August 25: MUHS

Final-yr PG med exams to start on August 25: MUHS

Yogita Rao & Ranjan Dasgupta TNN

Mumbai:  11.07.2020

The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences on Friday released the much-awaited exam schedule for final-year postgraduate (allopathy) medical students. Exams for MS, MD, microbiology, biochemistry, and PG diploma in different courses are now scheduled to start from August 25.

The PG exams were earlier scheduled in May and were deferred twice due to the coronavirus pandemic. While the university had already announced the dates for undergraduate and postgraduate exams for medical and other health science courses for 70,000 students in August and September, allopathy students were concerned about the uncertainty over their exams and pursuit of super-specialty courses. Around 2,300 such students are in the frontline of the Covid battle, of which 950 are in Mumbai alone.

The controller of examinations for MUHS, Ajit Pathak, said the university had promised to give students at least 45 days of preparation time before the exams. “The PG allopathy students and their examiners were both on Covid duty since the beginning of the pandemic...Now, as the first-year students have started joining their respective colleges, senior students can be relieved. We have also given them a day’s break between exams,” said Pathak.

Resident doctors, however, are worried that the hospitals may not relieve them of Covid duty with immediate effect. Some of them are already in the duty chart prepared for the coming week.

The university had to announce the exam dates soon as several MD/MS students seek admissions to super-specialty courses and fellowships to pursue higher studies. NEET for superspecialty courses is scheduled in September.

Also, a PG student from KEM Hospital and GS Medical College had moved court seeking directions to MUHS to declare the dates and hold the exams. The student had secured admission for superspecialty course in a Chandigarh college and completion of the PG course was important for admissions. The state had assured the court that they will work out a policy for announcing the exam dates.

K’taka govt says exams only for final year of UG and PG

K’taka govt says exams only for final year of UG and PG

Others Will Be Rated On Last Year’s Marks, IA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru: 11.07.2020

The Karnataka government has decided to conduct exams only for the final year or semester of graduation, post-graduation and diploma courses before September-end, and promote all students of junior years and earlier semesters based on their internal assessment and marks of the previous semester/year exam.

The decision of the higher education department is applicable to all courses, including engineering and diploma for the 2019-20 academic year but not medical courses like MBBS and BDS which come under a separate department. The state government’s order does not apply to deemed universities which come under Union ministry of human resources.

Students of non-final year/semester, or of intermediate year/semester as the government order describes them, will be assessed based on a comprehensive evaluation scheme — taking into account internal assessment and marks of previous year/ semester exam in a 50:50 ratio. Students in their first semester/year will be evaluated entirely on the basis of internal assessment.

“If students want to improve their scores, provision will be made for them to appear for examinations during the next semester and students who fail to succeed in the comprehensive evaluation process shall face examinations for respective subjects in the next semester. Backlog subjects can be carried over as well,” higher education minister CN Ashwath Narayan said on Friday.

99.3% students clear ICSE, 96.8% pass ISC

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination on Friday declared results for Class 10 (ICSE) and Class 12 (ISC) for 2020. While the pass percentage of Class 10 is 99.3%, the pass percentage of Class 12 is 96.8%. “Given the present circumstances, this year CISCE will not be publishing a merit list,” CICSE chief executive Gerry Arathoon said. P 3

Practical exams can be held via apps

The scheme of carry-forward for subjects in which the student has failed will be allowed for the current academic year and every student will be promoted to the next semester. However, they should clear the exam whenever it is held next.

The exam for final-year students can be online/offline or in a blended mode. Conducting classes before the exams to cover the remaining syllabus is optional. Final-year students with backlog should be compulsorily evaluated by conducting exams (online/offline/blended) as per feasibility and suitability, the order says.

In case a final semester student is unable to attend the exam for whatever reason, s/he will be allowed to appear in the next exam, which will be held at a feasible time. For considering the minimum percentage of attendance, the lockdown period will be treated as “deemed to be attended”.

Universities can conduct practical exams and vivas through Skype or other meeting apps. In case of intermediate semesters, practical exams can be conducted during the ensuing semesters. The institutes can adopt appropriate strategies for projects and dissertations. Reviewbased/secondary data based projects or software-driven projects can replace laboratory-based experiments and field survey based assignments.

The government has taken this decision after consulting educationists and university VCs and taking into consideration students’ health, wellbeing and future, the minister said.

RGUHS PG exams to begin on Tuesday

RGUHS will hold finalyear PG exams for medical, dental and Ayush courses from July 14. “Arrangements have been made. Students have been called back, their quarantine period is over. First-year paper in MDS is optional...MBBS exams have been tentatively scheduled for August 25. It depends on the situation as the number of students is huge,” said RGUHS VC Dr Sachidanand.

GU’s final year MBBS exams likely from Aug 6

GU’s final year MBBS exams likely from Aug 6

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  11.07.2020

The theory exams for final year MBBS students in Gujarat University affiliated colleges are likely to be held from August 6 to 13. This was decided at the meeting of deans of various GU affiliated colleges that met on Friday at the NHL Municipal Medical College.

These dates are tentative and a final decision on it is expected to be taken after some directive from the state government, said sources.

The practical exams for final year 1& 2 and second year MBBS students is likely to be held from August 15, sources added.

In the case of PG Medical courses, the exams are likely to be conducted after August  17.

While the dates for the terminal year exams for undergraduate students have been fixed tentatively, there is no clarity for intermediate year students for medical, dental and paramedical courses.

Many students are of the view that medical and dental courses are regulated by Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dental Council of India (DCI) and hence the recent guidelines of University Grants Commission do not apply to them. So, they are waiting for directives from the state education department, said sources. As per the UGC guidelines undergraduate students who are not in their final semester or terminal year are to be graded based on their internal marks and previous annual exam scores.

Gujarat University had already begun conducting exams for some final year paramedical courses which has been temporarily deferred. The varsity is yet to fix a new date for them, said sources.

I quit: PhD scholar hangs herself at IIT-Gn

I quit: PhD scholar hangs herself at IIT-Gn

Officials Remain Tight-Lipped

Ashish.Chauhan & Parth.Shastri TNN

Ahmedabad:11.07.2020

The suicide of a 32-year-old research scholar at the IIT Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) campus on July 6 sent a shockwave through the education corridors of the state capital. The victim, Piue Ghosh, who was from of West Bengal, left a moving ‘I Quit’ on the wall of her residence. Gandhinagar police are yet to ascertain the reason behind her extreme step.

IIT-Gn officials remained tight-lipped about the incident and attempts to reach Prof Sudhir Jain, the institute director, through phone and email yielded no results. A statement from the IIT-Gn public relations team read, “The incident is currently under investigation by police and the institute is committed to fully cooperating with them. We are unable to release any information or comment while the investigation is under way.”

The response identified Ghosh as a PhD scholar at the electric engineering department of the institute.

M H Solanki, the sub-inspector with Chiloda police station who is investigating the case, told TOI that Ghosh had hanged herself at her quarters on the campus.

“She had written ‘I quit’ and a few more lines on a wall, directing that her belongings be given to the needy and her organs donated,” he said. “Apart from this writing on the wall, no note on paper in digital format has been found that could be considered a suicide note,” he added.

Solanki said the statements of her family and faculty members are yet to be recorded. “Her parents are based in West Bengal and her husband is in the US,” he said.

Sources privy to the developments said Ghosh had returned to the campus from her parents’ home only recently. Due to the lockdown and subsequent online classes, only a few students are living on the campus. They added that her postmortem report is yet to arrive through which the precise time of death could be known.

“It is possible that her suicide occurred a couple of days before the body was found,” a police source said.

Ghosh’s profile on the IITGn website identifies her as doctoral student writing her thesis on the subject ‘Synthesis of gold nanorods with tunable surface plasmon resonance for the development of a bio-chemical sensing platform’ under Prof Arup Lal Chakraborty.

Her project aimed at designing a biomolecular sensor for simultaneous detection of multiple biomolecules. She had completed her BTech and MTech from Calcutta University before taking admission in IIT-Gn for its doctoral programme in 2015. Posts on IIT-Gn’s social media pages announced several of her academic achievements.

In letter to UGC, teachers pen shock over exam norms

In letter to UGC, teachers pen shock over exam norms

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  07.11.2020

The Federation of Central Universities Teachers Association (FEDCUTA) has written to UGC chairperson D P Singh, stating that the new revised academic guidelines do not take into consideration the present condition in the country.

In its letter, the teachers’ body expressed “shock and disappointment” at the revised guidelines on examinations and academic calendar for universities issued by University Grants Commission in view of Covid-19 pandemic. It demanded immediate withdrawal of the revised norms. “The guidelines reflect a complete betrayal of its responsibilities towards the interests of students, faculty, and society at large,” FEDCUTA wrote, asking for fresh guidelines to enable closure of the courses for finalyear/semester students through the safest methods.

The letter added that the UGC guidelines had presented universities with a conundrum. “Even if that option is available on paper, conducting regular examinations in offline (pen & paper) mode by the end of September would be impossible for most universities. As per current government guidelines, it is not safe to reopen universities and colleges… UGC’s insistence... is aimed at promoting online examinations.”

The letter reiterated that for final-year students pursuing any bachelor’s or master’s degree, completion of the year had a greater urgency than their intermediate year counterparts as they needed to get their degrees and move on to further studies or employment.

“They are also the students who have already been through several rounds of formal evaluation and assessments. Only a small part of the total evaluation, was pending when colleges and Universities were shut down... Yet, UGC’s revised guidelines have mandated that examinations must be held for the final-year students,” the letter said.