CBSE compartment exams from Sept 22 -

CBSE compartment exams from Sept 22 -

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:21.09.2020

Compartment examinations for classes X and XII of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will be held from September 22 to 30 at 247 exam centres in Delhi. The board has issued a set of guidelines that schools and students need to follow as precaution against the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the notice, the board said that “due to the unprecedented situation created by Covid-19, CBSE has taken measures to ensure a safe and conducive environment to hold the examinations.” The heads of the schools have been directed to comply with the direction issued by CBSE for the compartment examinations. Schools have been told to ensure smooth movement of students and teachers on exam days, use police support to prevent crowds outside exam centres and ensure water and electricity supply during the exams. Also, provide health support if required.

The board has increased the number of examination centres from 500 to 1,268 this year, all over India, to maintain social distancing and also provide centres near the students’ residences. Class X students will appear in maximum two subjects and Class XII students in one subject.

Banks cannot deny copy of statements to borrowers’

 Banks cannot deny copy of statements to borrowers’

22/09/2020

 Special Correspondent CHENNAI

The Debts Recovery Tribunal, Chennai, has ruled that banks cannot deny copy of account statements to customers even in cases where the borrower has discharged the debt or defaulted.

“Every customer of a bank is entitled to have copies of their statement of account(s) from the banker and the bank is under contractual obligation to furnish it. Maybe the bank is entitled to charge for the copies but it cannot deny the right to have a copy by virtue of the contract of lending entered between the bank and the customer,” said N.V. Badarinath, presiding officer, Debts Recovery Tribunal-I, Chennai, in his order.

The verdict was in the case of NPT Offset Press Pvt. Ltd., an MSME, and the State Bank of India.

As per court records, the Debts Recovery Tribunal had directed NPT Offset to pay ₹16.35 crore due to SBI. Later, both the parties agreed for a one-time settlement for about ₹2.62 crore. NPT Offset had then moved the tribunal, seeking to acquire its bank statements.

The tribunal rejected the bank’s plea that the firm was precluded from demanding copies of its account statements having accepted the one-time settlement.

When a borrower had accepted and complied with the one-time settlement scheme promoted by the bank, it could not be said that the borrower was debarred from asking for their account statements, it said.

Notice to State, UGC, MKU

 Notice to State, UGC, MKU

22/09/2020

Staff Reporter Madurai

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to the State government, UGC and Madurai Kamaraj University in a PIL petition that challenged the conduct of final semester examinations.

A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam ordered notices in the PIL petition filed by R. Murali, former Principal of Madura College, who also served as the Academic Council, Senate and Syndicate member of the university. He challenged the mode of conduct of the examinations.

The petitioner said the State had passed an order to conduct final semester examinations to various colleges through online, offline or by blending both online and offline modes. Permission was granted to the university to conduct the exam only through online mode. Under these circumstances, the university issued a notification for the conduct of the examination by adopting the online mode. The students after writing the test in an A4 size paper were asked to take a photo of the same and send it to the university through WhatsApp. This was not online mode and credibility of the exam was at stake. Parents were asked by the university to act as supervisors. This was a mockery of the system.

The case was adjourned to October 15.

UGC approves academic calendar guidelines for first-year UG and PG

UGC approves academic calendar guidelines for first-year UG and PG

As per the guidelines, academic session 2020-21 may commence from November1 for first year students.

Published: 22nd September 2020 04:55 AM 

 By Pearl Maria Dsouza

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The University Grants Commission on Monday approved the academic calendar guidelines for first year undergraduate (UG) and post graduate (PG) students for the academic session 2020-21, in view of the pandemic. Based on the recommendation of the expert committee, the officials have come out with an academic calendar for admissions and examinations for the first year PG and UG students.

As per the guidelines, academic session 2020-21 may commence from November1 for first year students. However, if there is a delay in the declaration of results in the qualifying examination, the universities may plan and start the academic session by November 18, the commission said.There is no hard and fast rule on holding online and offline classes, Bhushan Patwardhan, vice president of UGC, told The New Indian Express.

Merit or entrance-based admissions for these students should complete by October end and the remaining vacant seats should be filled up by November 30, the UGC has suggested. “Institutes that complete their admission process sooner can start their academic year earlier and need not have to wait until November 18. The leeway was given considering the situation in Maharashtra, where examinations will end by October,” Patwardhan said.

The commission said that a full refund will be made on account 

of cancellation of admissions/ migration of students up to November 30. This means that the entire fees including all charges will be refunded to the students (Zero cancellation charge). Thereafter, on cancellation or withdrawal of admissions up to December 31, the deduction of not more than Rs 1,000 can be made as processing fee.Universities have been advised to curtail their vacations for the timely awarding of degrees to the students.

SSLC supplementary exams start with maths 

The SSLC board on Monday started the supplementary examinations for more than 2.1 lakh students across the state. The exam began with the Mathematics paper. Students, who are Covid-19 positive, are being allocated room in the Covid Care Centre. However, the board did not give out any figures of number of students who attended the exam on Monday.

Teachers oppose English in UG courses

 Teachers oppose English in UG courses

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.09.2020

The joint action council of college teachers (JAC) of Tamil Nadu has opposed the move to introduce professional English, a specialised course to improve command over the language, across all undergraduate degrees from 2020-21.

“It is surprising that the higher education   department wants to teach professional English with subject teachers instead of language teachers. Only language teachers can improve the command over the language,” M Krishnaraj, convener of JAC, said in a release. The JAC criticized the vice-chancellors of state universities for not properly advising the government on standard procedures for introducing a course. The move is facing much criticism as subject teachers have been asked to teach professional English and allotment of academic hours is becoming difficult as universities have to remove a core subject that would alter the course combination.

Int’l flights on but response remains sluggish -

Int’l flights on but response remains sluggish -

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

International flights may have resumed under the ‘air bubble’ concept early this month but passenger response is sluggish. Most of the flights have hardly 100 passengers or less as only those who have emergencies or those who are returning to rejoin families are flying.

On Sunday and Monday, the airport handled only 1,500 passengers including arrivals and departures though there were 16 flights. Most of the flights are to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

An airport official said, “Passenger numbers are erratic. Some of the flights have good load factor while others have only around 100 passengers which is quite low for international flights. We expect the passenger numbers to pick up gradually.”

Quarantine restrictions is a major stumbling block, he added. Though rules have been relaxed in such a way that people who have a Covid-19 negative test certificate can get exemption from a full institutional quarantine, people hesitate.

“It is not easy to get a test done abroad and the tests are expensive too. So many people are deferring their trip till rules will be relaxed further. More people will travel if the need for quarantine is scrapped,” he added.

Many flights from Europe and the US are allowed under the ‘air bubble’ scheme via Delhi but in spite of the demand for people to return to Chennai only 40 to 50 passengers are there on a flight from the US to Chennai via Delhi. A majority of the passengers on these flights get down in Delhi.

Nevertheless, airlines have approached the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to start more services under the ‘air bubble’ concept.

An official said that more airlines are eager to resume international operations. “British Airways has already started their service from Heathrow while Lufthansa is waiting to resume services to Frankfurt these are the two popular European destinations the airport used to have in the pre-shutdown days.” However, frequency is less. This is also considered as a factor that has impacted the passenger flow.

Basheer Ahmed of Metro Travels said, “Students have started to travel to Europe and the UK. We have bookings to Dublin while many people have started to fly to Dubai and Muscat to join duty and also to rejoin families. Air fares are competitive in private airlines which is supposed to encourage more travellers. But still the passenger numbers are not that high.”

More international flights may start in October or November. Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore, Colombo and Dubai were some of the popular routes from Chennai in the pre-shutdown days.

Airline officials hope that IPL may trigger the habit of leisure travel.

Server error forces students to courier answer sheets -

Server error forces students to courier answer sheets -

The Times Of India

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.09.2020

A majority of students who took the online exam conducted by the University of Madras on Monday struggled to download question papers and upload answer scripts due to server-related problems.

Many post offices in and around the city were crowded with students sending answer sheets to their colleges by speed post. Some students also rushed to the colleges to submit answer scripts.

As per guidelines, students have to download the question paper using a login id and password, and upload written answer scripts.

B Siva, a final year BCom student, said he wrote the advanced cost and accounting exam on Monday. “But I was not able to download the question paper. With the help from our department, we got the question paper.I was also not able to upload the answer scripts and couriered those to my college,” he said.

Dinesh, a final year student from the visual communication department of a city college, said he went to his college to submit answer scripts.

A professor from a city college said they have formed WhatsApp groups for final year students to distribute question papers. “Out of 100 students, around 20 were able to upload answer scripts,” he said.

There were crowds outside college campuses as students gathered to submit answer scripts. “Students had to post their answer scripts within three hours. There were huge crowds at post offices. Fearing they may not be able to send their answer scripts and acknowledgement on time, many went to the colleges,” principal of a city college said.

A University of Madras official said students were not able to upload answer scripts due to lack of bandwidth at their homes. “The university allowed the students to courier their answer scripts to their colleges or submit in person wherever possible. Server issues were addressed by a team of experts,” he said.