Schools told to gear up for next academic year

Schools told to gear up for next academic year

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:12.06.2021

The school education department has directed principals and administrative staff of government and government-aided schools to start preparatory works to commence the next academic year by visiting their schools from Monday.

A source from the department said, “as the state government has cancelled the Class XII public examination in the view of covid-19 pandemic, several procedures like calculating and preparing the certificates that are required to pursue higher education and related works need to be carried out.” “As admission for the next academic year is about to commence, school managements need to carry out the admission process and distribute notebooks and other government welfare schemes to the students. School campuses and classrooms need to be cleaned,” the source added.

Principals and administrative staff of all state-run and aided schools have been directed to visit their schools, following Covid-19 safety protocols, from next week to carry out these works, said the source.

“From next week, we will also start admitting students for Class XI as their classes are likely to commence from the third week of June based on government guidelines,” said M Ramakrishnan, chief educational officer.

A circular from the department said that if a school receives more applications for a particular group than the permitted class strength, then the school is allowed to increase the cap limit by 10-15% and students should be admitted in the group of their choice. If the number of applications for a particular group exceeds the additional 15% strength, then the student should be selected based on his/ her Class IX marks, the circular added.

“Earlier, the department had asked the school management to conduct an entrance examination if the number of applications exceeds the additional 15% strength and directed teachers to prepare a question paper with 30 questions. After objections raised from multiple corners, they had cancelled the entrance examination and asked the schools to admit based on Class IX marks,” said T Arulanantham, state auditor of Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary School Graduate Teachers’ Association.

PhD enrollment in TN went up 19% in 2019-20, says survey

PhD enrollment in TN went up 19% in 2019-20, says survey

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:12.06.2021

Enrollment for PhD in Tamil Nadu increased 19% in 2019-20 compared to the year before, data from the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) released on Thursday showed. The enrollment for MPhil programmes declined by 20% in the state during the same period.

“From Tamil Nadu, 30,600 students (15,828 men and 14,832 women) enrolled for PhD in 2019-20 while 25,820 students registered in 2018-19,” the survey stated. While 9,144 chose to pursue MPhil in 2018-19, the number fell to 7,133 in 2019-20.

Educationists opined that the increase may have been due to PhD being made a minimum qualification for entry-level assistant professor posts in universities that year. Rankings such as NIRF also give more weightage to those with PhDs.

“Statutory bodies such as University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have prescribed PhD as a minimum qualification for the post of assistant professor in universities. If they want to enter state-funded universities, they need a PhD. This may have been the reason for the spike in PhD enrollment while that for MPhil dipped,” said S P Thyagarajan, former vicechancellor of Madras University. “UGC has also advised all universities not to offer MPhil programmes from 2021,” he said.

Thyagarajan called for improving existing benchmarks for PhD to produce better researchers and teachers.

“State Eligibility Test (SET) was not conducted in the past few years. That could have been a reason for high enrollment in PhDs,” said P Duraisamy, former vice-chancellor of University of Madras, adding that the university has made publishing of two research papers before thesis submission mandatory.

“More students are joining PhD programmes due to increase in government colleges and availability of scholarships,” said S Swaminathan, advisor of NET/SLET association. He added that the government should focus on improving infrastructure to improve the quality of PhDs.

Stanley med college holds probe into illegal collection of money

Stanley med college holds probe into illegal collection of money

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.06.2021

Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has temporarily suspended faculty in four departments of Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital from a panel of examiners after a man complained that his daughter failed in one of the clinical papers in her final year as she did not pay ₹10,000 demanded from students.

In his complaint, the parent said final year students received messages demanding ₹10,000 each “to arrange accommodation and food” for external examiners and “to show gratefulness to the department” as per “regular practice”. His daughter (name withheld) who did not pay the money failed the test held in May by 7 marks.

Following the parent’s allegation, a 10-member panel of professors from the college management conducted an inquiry on Friday. “Five members looked into why the student failed her medicine paper and others investigated why money was collected from students,” said dean Dr P Balaji. Preliminary inquiry showed that 223 out 246 students who wrote the exam had paid at least ₹10,000 each. Committee estimates that funds collected by student representatives ran into more than ₹22lakh.

After talking to student, examiners and looking into the answer sheets, the committee found the student had failed the clinical exam in medicine because of poor performance. “She is otherwise a bright student but in clinicals everything depends on how you interpret the given case on that day. She did not do it well,” said college vice principal Dr A Jamila, who chaired the inquiry panel.

But the panel did not rule out malpractices on campus.

Meanwhile, Dr Balaji said he will issue orders to stop collection of money on campus without approval from the dean or vice-principal.

No e- registration is needed to travel from home to Railway station

 

Lockdown extended by a week, Tasmac & salons to open in city

Lockdown extended by a week, Tasmac & salons to open in city

No Relief For 11 TN Dists With High Caseload

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.06.2021 

Tamil Nadu government on Friday extended the statewide Covid-19 lockdown by another week till June 21 and introduced further relaxations in 27 districts including Chennai where the caseload is showing a decline.

The new relaxations include permission for schools, colleges and universities to commence administrative work relating to admissions and nod for Tasmac outlets to operate from 10am to 5pm. Beauty parlours and salons will be allowed with 50% customers between 9am and 5pm.

Chief minister M K Stalin said the additional relaxations are not applicable to Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Karur, Namakkal, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts where Covid-19 cases are high. The new relaxations would take effect on June14.

TTV slams govt for opening Tasmac shops

Export and vendor units can c ontinue functioning with 50% workforce, following SOPs. The rest of the industries will also be allowed with 33% workforce.

Workers have already been allowed to travel in four-wheelers. Hereafter, they will be allowed to travel on two-wheelers, provided they take e-registration for the vehicles and carry identity cards, Stalin said. IT/ITES offices have been directed to work with only 20% workforce or with a maximum of 10 employees. Housing finance companies, non-banking financial companies and all insurance corporations are allowed to function with 33% workforce.

Stalin said all shops permitted to operate should adhere to standard operating procedures. Providing hand sanitizer with dispenser and thermal screening are mandatory. The managements should ensure that the staff and customers wear masks. “All shops should function with no air-conditioning and not let in many people. Marks should be drawn for people to maintain physical distance when they queue up before shops,” the CM said.

The state government also extended certain relaxations in the 11 districts where case load is still high. Export units and vendor units can operate there with 25% workforce, following standard operating procedures. Private security services, agencies for maintenance and upkeep of office, and housekeeping in residential complexes are permitted with e-registration. Passengers with e-registration will be permitted in rental vehicles, taxis and autos.

Self-employed electricians, plumbers, motor mechanics and carpenters can work between 6am and 5pm with e-registration. But shops in these categories will not be permitted to open. Cycle and twowheeler repair shops, those selling agriculture equipment, pump set repair shops, optical shops and service centres shall operate from 9am to 2pm. Pottery and handicraft shops can function from 6am to 5pm.

Meanwhile, condemning the state’s decision to open the Tasmac outlets, AMMK leader T T V Dhinakaran urged the government to rollback the decision immediately since the outlets could become a possible Covid-19 spreader. In a series of tweets, hours after the government’s announcement, Dhinakaran said the move was against the state’s intention to save the people from the pandemic. “It is worse that the government, like the previous regime, does not care about the lives of the people but seeks to fill the treasury,” he said. Dhinakaran accused the government of offering Covid relief on one hand and snatching it through the Tasmac outlets.

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