Sans teaching faculty, colleges reduce, even skip classes

Sans teaching faculty, colleges reduce, even skip classes

It's hardly been almost three weeks since colleges reopened but several subjects are being skipped, class hours reduced and online classes cut.

Published: 22nd September 2021 10:24 AM 

Image used for representational purpose only. (File photo | EPS)

By Aadhithya MS

Express News Service

TIRUCHY: It's hardly been almost three weeks since colleges reopened but several subjects are being skipped, class hours reduced and online classes cut. The reason? A shortage of staff from termination or resignation during the pandemic, citing salary issues. Many self-financing colleges saw teaching staff fired and strength reducing by half, while some managed to buck the trend and retain.

A senior lecturer from a self-financing college said, "The college management was unable to collect full fees for the last two years and hence did not pay the teachers properly. Also, this year, there was a 10 per cent drop in admissions."

A commerce teacher told TNIE, "Many of the teachers were fired and some quit after their salary was halved. They were paid only `5,000 and told it would not be increased anytime soon. We do not have teachers to handle few subjects and hence do not conduct online classes for those subjects."

A senior lecturer from another college said, "As much as 35 per cent of the college staff were sent off. We are not taking classes for first-year students yet, but will start to do so soon. Finding teachers to handle subjects like commerce, computer science and applications is easy compared to finding for science courses. We are not conducting online classes because of this."

The colleges have reduced the timing of physical classes to around 20 hours a week.

A second-year student of a self-financing college in Tiruchy said that the second- and third-year students have classes on alternate weeks. On days without physical class, their WhatsApp group remains silent.

This was, however, not the case with some popular self-financing colleges, as well as government and aided colleges as they had retained enough teachers.

Rajan Committee report lopsided, charges ex Anna University V-C

Rajan Committee report lopsided, charges ex Anna University V-C

Balagurusamy says the report was made to suit whims of DMK

Published: 23rd September 2021 06:54 AM 

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: After the AK Rajan Committee report was made public, the buzz regarding NEET refuses to die down. Now, former vice-chancellor of Anna University, E Balagurusamy, has objected to it.

He alleged that the report is based on skewed statistics and scripted in order to suit the whims and fancies of the ruling party. Balagurusamy believes even getting the President’s assent for the bill that was recently passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly, seeking exemption from NEET, will not be easy.

He said, “It is really unfortunate that Tamil Nadu government has passed the anti-NEET bill based on this squinted report. The report is lopsided. It seems the committee wrote recommendations first and then drafted contents to support it.”

Balagurusamy further said the national-level test gives an opportunity to the students of the state to get admission into Central institutions, Central universities, all deemed universities, as well as 15% in all other medical colleges in India. “These seats are much more than the seats available in TN medical colleges. Also, NEET scores will help students in securing admissions abroad,” he added.

Balagurusamy pointed out that in July, an announcement was made by Centre of 27% reservation for OBC and 10% EWS in All India Quota, which will benefit a large number of poor and rural students get seats in medical colleges, but the AK Rajan Committee has not mentioned anything about it in its report.

The committee has mentioned that NEET is not ideal for the state and has recommended banning it in TN.

A retired professor of University of Madras, on condition of anonymity, has expressed concerns over the committee’s recommendation that admission into medical colleges should be solely done on basis of Class 12 scores. “The committee says the move will ensure equality in opportunity to students from different boards of education, but it is not correct.

Allotting medical seats on the basis of Class 12 marks is not wise as all top scorers don’t qualify to become good doctors. We need to have an entrance test to check the aptitude, intellect of the students and filter out the right candidates from the top scorer lot,” he said.

On the basis of the AK Rajan committee report, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on September 13 passed a bill seeking exemption from the centralised exam, and making Class 12 exam marks the basis for medical admissions for undergraduate medical and dental courses.

Can’t assume act forced: HC clears man of ‘raping’ his 17-year-old lover

Can’t assume act forced: HC clears man of ‘raping’ his 17-year-old lover

Subrata Chattoraj TNN

Kolkata:23.09.2021

The Calcutta high court on Tuesday acquitted a man convicted and jailed for raping a 17-year-old girl he had had a relationship with on the ground that the accused being a male wasn’t “enough to presume that sex between two sufficiently mature persons was forced and not consensual”.

The legal definition of rape or sexual abuse of children “has to be construed as a unilateral act on the part of the accused”, Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya said.

He observed that rather than automatically charging the accused under Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act), it was essential to ascertain “whether the act was unilateral or participatory, along with the level of maturity and psyche of the victim as well as the accused, before convicting the accused under such serious allegations of rape and penetrative sexual assault, which might ruin an otherwise bright career at the bud”.

In November 2015, the accused had been accused of rape by the girl he had been in a relationship with for two-and-a-half years. The girl alleged that the man cajoled her into a sexual relationship by promising marriage. Since the girl was underage when the alleged incident took place, the police slapped both charges under Pocso on the accused. In 2017, a trial court convicted the youth and sent him to prison.

College students race against time to get mandatory shots

College students race against time to get mandatory shots

Ramendra.Singh@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:23.09.2021

After the higher education department has made it compulsory to submit the vaccination certificate to gain entry to the campus, students above 18 years of age are rushing to vaccination centres to get their jabs.

First year classes is to start from October 1. The higher education department has issued guidelines to colleges and universities across the state to ensure that students with first dose of vaccination attend the offline classes. Students and college staff have been asked to submit their certificates of first dose of vaccination without which they will not be able to continue their offline classes.

“I have been sitting home and depending on online classes for almost two years now. I do not want to miss my actual classes on any condition now,” said Sujoy Gupta, a first-year student adding that he is waiting for the second dose date for his second shot. There were even students who took both doses to avoid any problem in attending classes. “I was little casual after first dose of vaccination. However, I have now completed both doses as in its absence it won’t be possible for me to enter the campus,” said second year student Vineet Sharma.

Students even hailed the decision of taking vaccination certificates by the colleges. “It is a good initiative. Even those students who were avoiding vaccination will also have to take it,” said a student Anant Shastri.

Higher education minister Mohan Yadav said that the academic activities of all the universities and colleges of the state have started from September 15, 2021 with physical presence of the students.

“Classes are being conducted with 50% attendance of students,” he said. Yadav added that it will be mandatory for the academic and non-educational staff and students of the college to submit the certificate of first dose vaccination of Covid-19.

A college student gets her Covid-19 vaccine at Katju Hospital in Bhopal

4 convicted in Vyapam police entry scam

4 convicted in Vyapam police entry scam

Bhopal:23.09.2021

A special CBI court on Wednesday convicted four persons in a Vyapam-related case, and sentenced them to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment.

Those convicted have been identified as Pushpendra Singh Jadon, O K Yadav, Manoj Singh Kushwaha and impersonator Shrinivas Singhal. CBI had registered the case on August 5, 2015, in compliance with an SC order after taking over the Vyapam probe from MP STF.

It was alleged that selection of police constables in the 2012 recruitment test, conducted by Vyapam, was done through unfair means. CBI filed the chargesheet on July 28, 2018, in the court of ninth additional sessions judge, CBI Vyapam cases. Those accused included candidates who had allegedly managed their selection in the recruitment test through unfair means and by using impersonators. The court found them guilty and sentenced them. TNN

After two days, daily cases in India cross 30,000 again

After two days, daily cases in India cross 30,000 again

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

23.09.2021

After remaining below 30,000 for the first two days of the week, cases again crossed that mark on Wednesday. Despite this expected increase in cases that happens in the middle of the week, India’s Covid situation has remained quite stable in the past week.

The seven-day average of cases has remained stable for the country as well as for the worst-affected states. Overall, compared to September 15, the average saw a 2.4% increase on Wednesday. From 29,575 cases last Wednesday, the average marginally increased to 30,289.

Kerala saw its seven-day average dip by 3.6% while the decline was 21.6% for Maharashtra. Last Wednesday, the average was 20,079 for Kerala, which reduced to 19,365 this week. The corresponding figures were 3,589 and 2,814 for Maharashtra.

The state that saw the highest spike in the average is Mizoram. From last Wednesday’s 1,023 cases, the average spiked to 1,250 cases – an increase of 22.2%. India reported 31,995 fresh infections and 281 deaths on Wednesday.

CoWin vax certificate foolproof, has all details, say govt officials

CoWin vax certificate foolproof, has all details, say govt officials

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:23.09.2021

The Covid vaccination certificate generated through CoWin is “foolproof ” and linked to the level of the vaccination centre with information validated on the system, top government officials said. Responding to reports that the UK has raised doubts over vaccination certificates, even as it reviewed its order not to recognise Covishieldvaccinated persons, officials said India's digital platform has proved itself. In a recent press conference, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said the Centre and states have "line data" on those vaccinated, down to names, telephone numbers and addresses.

While reports on the UK's alleged misgivings did the rounds, National Health Authority chief executive R S Sharma, who also heads the CoWin team, said he was unaware of any queries over data. “I am not aware of any concern being raised by any of their (UK) officials over Covid vaccine certificate generated by CoWin. It is an absolutely foolproof certificate with each and every information validated on the system,” Sharma told TOI.

The UK on Wednesday added Covishield to its list of approved Covid jabs for travel to the country. However, confusion persisted as despite recognising Covishield – which accounts for around 88% of the total immunisation in India -- it is not yet on the approved list of 17 countries.

The CoWin system captures the batch number of the vaccine administered to any particular individual, name of the vaccinator, date and time of vaccination along with recipients details. "Few countries have this kind of a robust system," said another senior government official.

In its revised guidelines, UK said formulations of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, including Covishield, would qualify as approved vaccines. It said a traveller must have had a complete course of the approved vaccine at least 14 days before arriving.

The development comes days after India raised strong objections to the non-recognition of Covishield, manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India, by the UK. India called it a “discriminatory policy” that impacted Indian citizens wishing to travel to the UK.

Beneficiaries wait to receive vaccine dose in Patna on Wednesday