Professional English course for UG students may be scrapped

Professional English course for UG students may be scrapped

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:23.09.2021

The Professional English course introduced last year for undergraduate first year students of non-autonomous arts and science colleges in the state is likely to be scrapped from the next academic year.

The course was introduced to familiarize students with vocabulary related to their subjects and taught by subject teachers concerned.

Initiated by former higher education secretary S Apoorva, it was introduced as an additional 1 hour per day add-on subject on par with core subjects. While it came into effect from the 2020-21 academic year, it drew flak as core subject teachers with no English literature background were asked to handle the subject. Further, it was also made mandatory for students to clear the paper to get their degrees.

However, the move received good support from private colleges as they claimed it helped core subject teachers to have better interaction with students.

But, Tamil, Mathematics and teachers of other subjects found it unfair to be asked to teach a professional English subject.

“It was also a learning experience for core subject teachers to teach English who were oriented through a few workshops on handling the subject,” a staff from a private arts and science college in Coimbatore said.

But there was poor response from students for the course. Professional English course was introduced with an objective of helping students of government arts colleges with rural background to become proficient in English speaking, reading and writing.

Students from rural areas pass their degrees but most of them don’t have language proficiency to express themselves and lose out when it comes to better jobs, a senior official from the higher education department, who was part of the project, said.

“Discussions on scrapping the Professional English course are on. It may not be part of the syllabus from next academic year. An official announcement is expected soon,” a senior official from the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) said.

Last year, Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva took up the matter with the University Grants Commission (UGC), which had asked the state government to address the issue appropriately.

Siva told TOI that making the subject mandatory for students to clear it to get their degrees was a bit harsh when offline classes were not possible due to the pandemic. “If the higher education department feels the subject is essential and it would make students proficient in English, let them introduce it after the pandemic. But non-English literature teachers being forced to handle a professional English paper will not fetch the desired result,” he said.

Secretary of the Joint Action Council of College Teachers of Tamil Nadu M Krishnaraj said that the TANSCHE had assured the scrap the course.

TNSTC fined ₹3k for ignoring RTI queries

TNSTC fined ₹3k for ignoring RTI queries

Madurai:23.09.2021

The state information commission (SIC) has directed the Madurai division of the TNSTC to pay ₹3,000 to a commuter for failure to provide information to his repeated RTI pleas for more than two years. The commission also directed the TNSTC to provide the information in a week’s time.

G Jayaprakash, the commuter from Kovilpatti, Tuticorin, took a TNSTC bus from Madurai to Kovilpatti on December 22, 2018. He gave the conductor ₹500 for a ticket that cost ₹98, when he said the staff treated him very badly and humiliated him in front of many other passengers. The conductor also tried to make him get down in a dark place about 7km away from the city. There was no response to his complaints and RTI pleas to TNSTC. The TNSTC return the ₹402 balance as a cheque to Jayaprakash in August. TNN

Vaccine shortage in TN for third day in a row

Vaccine shortage in TN for third day in a row

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:23.09.2021

For the third day in a row, several vaccine centres across the state, including Chennai, were closed and special outreach camps were stalled, as the state did not have adequate vaccines. On Wednesday, the state vaccinated 66,214 people.

After vaccinating more than 16 lakh people during the mega camp on Sunday, the state did not hold any camp on Monday due to a shortage of vaccines. On Tuesday, it vaccinated 44,559 people. Between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, Tamil Nadu received about 4 lakh doses of Covishield and 1 lakh dose of Covaxin.

“Many centres did not have vaccines on Wednesday because they are still in transit,” said director of public health Dr TS Selva Vinayagam. The average vaccinations a day was around 2.9lakh a day in August and 2.1 lakh in July. “We are holding mega camps every week to increase coverage. The two mega camps have pushed our daily average to more than 5 lakh vaccines a day,” he said.

Until Tuesday, nearly 56% of the 6 crore adults have received one dose of the vaccine and 17% have received two doses. While more than 75% of people in Coimbatore and Kancheepuram have taken one dose , 73% of people in Nilgiris and 70% in Tiruppur have taken one dose. In Chennai, 67% of people have taken at least one dose. However, in several districts, less than half the populace has got first dose. “We plan to continue mega camps without compromising on daily vaccinations. For this we have asked the Centre to increase our dosage to 50 lakh a week,” he said.

The state is expecting at least 50,000 doses of Covaxin and 2 lakh doses of Covishield by 7.15 am. The centre has promised to send another batch of 5.45 lakh doses of the vaccine by noon, he said.

Covid-19 victims’ kin to get ₹50k ex gratia

Covid-19 victims’ kin to get ₹50k ex gratia

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:23.09.2021

Months after states took the lead in announcing financial assistance for the families of Covid victims, and after being prodded by the Supreme Court, the Centre on Wednesday informed the SC that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has fixed an ex gratia of ₹50,000 to be paid by the states from the State Disaster Response Fund.

On June 30, the SC had ruled that the Centre cannot shy away from its responsibility under the Disaster Management Act to fix a compensation amount payable to the kin of those who succumbed to Covid.

TN providing ₹5L ex gratia to Covid-orphaned children

Covid was declared a national disaster under the Act. While rejecting petitioners’ demand for ₹4 lakh ex gratia, it had asked the NDMA to determine the quantum within six weeks and said that the amounts to be paid from the national disaster response fund (NDRF) and SDRF would be over and above the ex gratia paid by states.

The six-week deadline got extended to months and after seeking time several times, the Centre on Wednesday informed that the NDMA has fixed ₹50,000 ex gratia. Claimants have to submit an application to receive the relief, it said, adding that those eligible would get the amount through the district disaster management authority (DDMA). With the country recording nearly 4.5 lakh Covid deaths, the financial burden of this will add up to ₹2,250 crore for states, though funds for the SDRF are largely released by the Centre.

The top 10 states reporting the most Covid deaths are Maharashtra (1.38 lakh), Karnataka (37,000), Tamil Nadu (35,000), Delhi (25,000), UP (23,000), Kerala (22,500), West Bengal (19,000), Punjab (16,000), Andhra Pradesh (14,000) and Chhattisgarh (13,500).

Those providing ex gratia are Andhra Pradesh (₹10 lakh to orphaned children, ₹5 lakh in case of death of one parent), Bihar (₹4 lakh), Haryana (₹2 lakh only to BPL families), Karnataka and Assam (₹1 lakh), Tamil Nadu (₹5 lakh to orphaned children and ₹3 lakh in case of death of single parent), Tripura (₹10 lakh in three instalments) and Nagaland (₹10 lakh only to the kin of working journalists).

NMC says no plan to allow MBBS course in Hindi, regional language

NMC says no plan to allow MBBS course in Hindi, regional language

The medical education regulator clarified that there is no plan to amend norms to allow medicine courses in languages other than English.

Published: 21st September 2021 07:45 AM 

By Sumi Sukanya Dutta

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Amid a major announcement by the Madhya Pradesh government to offer MBBS courses in Hindi and an intent declared by neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to do the same, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has said that it will not recognise it under the rules.The medical education regulator clarified that there is no plan to amend norms to allow medicine courses in languages other than English.

On the occasion of Hindi Diwas on September 14, MP’s medical education minister Vishwas Sarang had said a committee was being formed to decide on how to introduce MBBS courses, apart from paramedical courses, in Hindi in the state. In UP, too, a proposal to introduce the medicine course in Hindi is actively being considered.

Talking to this newspaper, Aruna V Vanikar, president of the undergraduate medical education board at NMC, said no state government had so far approached the commission with such a proposal, neither was that feasible.“The rules do not approve teaching-learning MBBS in any other language other than English and there is no plan to change the existing norms,” she said. “If any state government goes ahead and introduces such a course, it will not be recognised by the NMC.”

Sources in Union education ministry, meanwhile, pointed out that the National Education Policy adopted by the Centre last year had a component of promoting technical education — including medicine, law and engineering courses — in mother tongue. A high-level committee under higher education secretary Amit Khare was set up last year to make suggestions and subsequently 14 engineering institutions, beginning this year, started offering the BTech course in 5 regional languages.

Experts, however, said offering medicine in mother tongue might be trickier and the experiment is unlikely to work. In 2016, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University in MP had announced engineering and medical education in Hindi. But it could never start the MBBS course in Hindi as it didn’t get the permission from the Medical Council of India, the medical education regulator then.

Rtd bank manager loses ₹5.8 L to cyber fraud

Rtd bank manager loses ₹5.8 L to cyber fraud

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:22.09.2021

Cyber fraudsters have duped a 79-yearold retired bank employee of ₹5.8 lakh by posing as customer service executives.

Two days ago, Shiva Rama Krishna Sastri of Saidabad, a retired SBI manager, had received an SMS on his phone stating that the electricity bill was not paid.

Shiva ignored the message as the bill had already been paid.

A few minuter after the SMS, unknown offenders, posing as customer care executives of Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd (TSSPDCL) called the victim saying that the paid bill amount was not updated in the database. The fraudsters asked Shiva to install TSSPDCL app and also TeamViewer QuickSupport app to remotely access the phone, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Cyber Crime, KVM Prasad said.

“After the apps were installed, the accused made the victim enter his debit card details in TSSPDCL app to make a small payment. They noticed all the details of the card and within a span of few minutes, siphoned off ₹5.8 lakh from the victim’s bank account through multiple transactions as they can see OTPs delivered to the mobile phone,” the ACP said.

On Monday, the victim lodged a police complaint and a case was registered under the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Two days ago, Shiva Rama Krishna Sastri of Saidabad, a retired SBI manager, had received an SMS on his phone stating that the electricity bill was not paid

Click To Submit PhD Thesis As DU Makes Process Online

Click To Submit PhD Thesis As DU Makes Process Online

Faculty To Give List Of Examiners Before Or On Submission Day

Shinjini.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:22.09.2021

To smoothen the PhD thesis submission and the evaluation process that follows, Delhi University aims to go fully online. The online portal, which is likely to be launched within the next two months, will contain details of each student enrolled for doctorate courses, including the six-month progress reports of each scholar.

DU has also amended an existing ordinance by which faculty members or supervisors will be required to submit the list of viva-voce examiners before or on the day of the thesis submission. According to senior university officials, this change will come into effect from next week.

Under current norms, the examiners’ list for the viva process can be submitted within a month of the thesis submission. In several instances, this has led to delays and increased pendency of the results, DU officials said. D S Rawat, DU’s dean of examination, told TOI, “While the viva examiners’ list is expected to be submitted within a month of students submitting their thesis, what often happens is that the lists are not sent to the examination branch. The process of getting the examiners’ list cleared is also a lengthy one. If the names are not sent in time, then it becomes difficult to follow up the long-pending cases and students are left in a lurch about when their vivas will be conducted.”

Rawat added, “The new PhD thesis submission form will have space for the examiners’ list and it means that the examination branch will be able to forward the thesis as soon as it is submitted because the examiners’ list will have to be submitted at the same time. Once the online portal is launched, the scholars will also be able to track the progressive stages of their course work.”

Officials also pointed out that the entire exercise would be made paperless, which would greatly reduce the cost incurred by students for printing copies of their thesis at the time of submission. Providing an estimate of the volume of printing that is involved, Garvit Rai of Daljeet Photocopy Service in North Campus revealed for TOI, “For each student, we usually print eight or nine copies of their thesis. Each copy has a minimum of 300 pages and sometimes even 500 pages.”

Once the online portal is implemented, progress reports and recommendations given by the advisory committees to students will also be available on the platform. “Everything will be automated and human intervention will come down,” claimed Rawat. “Once the final examiners’ list is approved by the vice-chancellor, the panel will receive emails, to which they have to respond within nine days, failing which new mails will be sent to the standby examiners.”

THE GREEN WAY: Thesis submission will also be paperless, greatly reducing the cost incurred by students for printing its copies

0 9  COPIES OF THESIS PRINTED FOR EACH STUDENT